Category: News

Members of the Israeli Parliament advance bill to ban waving the Palestinian flag at state-funded institutions.

The Times of Israel | June 6, 2022

“The Palestinian flag reminds Israelis that there is another nation here and some people don’t want to see another nation here,”
— Jafar Farah, who heads Mossawa, an advocacy group promoting greater rights for Arab citizens of Israel who identify as Palestinian

It’s not a bomb or a gun or a rocket. The latest threat identified by Israel is the Palestinian flag.

Recent weeks have seen a furor by nationalists over the waving of the red, white, green and black flag by Palestinians across Israel.

Yet the fracas over the flag tells a broader story about how much hopes for peace with the Palestinians have diminished and about the stature of the 20 percent of Israelis who identify as Arab or Palestinian.

Continue reading “Palestinian flag emerges as flashpoint as tensions simmer across Israel”

This powerful book is a series of themed essays and interviews with knowledgeable thinkers and doers.

By Gary Anderson | Palestine Chronicle | May 19, 2022

“Liberators do not exist. It is the peoples who liberate themselves”.

(Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out, Ramzy Baroud and Ilan Pappé, Clarity Press, 2022)

While only a few are (or have been) elected officials, all are engaged in the newest era of evolution of liberation for all of Palestine, whether in West Bank / Gaza, Israel, or the Diaspora. These voices speak of despair and betrayal when considering their Arab neighbor nations, the actions of their nominal government (Palestine Authority), their representation in the Israeli Knesset, or protection by the United Nations or the international community.

They have learned that the only thing they can count on is themselves, that is the steadfastness (sumud) of the people, not those who purport to be their leadership. The preface begins with a quotation: “Liberators do not exist. It is the peoples who liberate themselves”

So, with that beginning, Ramzy Baroud and Ilan Pappé proceed to illuminate the new era, the Unity Intifada, that was triggered by a concatenation of Israeli actions in the Spring of 2021. In early May 2021, the Israeli Supreme Court was seen as ready to approve the eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. That same week, Israeli police stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque. Confrontations between Israelis (militant civilians and police) vs. Palestinians led to more than 600 injured persons, mostly Palestinians. Thus far, not much of this was unprecedented.

Read the full article here →

This collection of articles highlights the ongoing work churches are doing to tip the scale for justice for Palestinians.

By Palestine Portal | June 1, 2022

“The urgent call for change from our Palestinian partners compels us to witness in a way that acknowledges new realities and asserts a vision consistent with our long record of engagement in struggles for justice for all people.”
— Reverend Jeff Wright, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

On May 5 an article appeared in Sightings, the twice-weekly publication of the University of Chicago Divinity School, a respected mainline seminary. Titled “Is Israel Practicing Apartheid? American Churches Join the Conversation,” it likely raised some eyebrows. “The issue is on the table for the church in a way it has not been previously,” writes the author, Rev. Jeff Wright. The article, still featured on the homepage, is evidence of another taboo broken — the “A” word and “Israel” appearing in the same sentence.

In this issue of Celebrating Our Global Community we bring you stories from the UK, Africa and the United States further documenting what we named in the October 2021 issue as a “Tipping Point” in the global church movement for Palestine.
Continue reading “Stories of church struggle”

Israeli Zionists have used the genocide for propagandistic purposes in asserting their ‘right’ to historic Palestine.

By Joseph Massad | Middle East Eye | May 29, 2022

Palestinians and other Arabs were called upon to accept the linkage between the Holocaust and Israel’s “right to exist as a Jewish state” as a package deal.

The joint Israeli-Gulf NGO Sharaka recently boasted of organizing an Arab delegation to Auschwitz to commemorate the Holocaust. It included activists, politicians and media “influencers” from Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, occupied East Jerusalem, the UAE and Bahrain.

Founded in late 2020 after the signing of the Abraham Accords, Sharaka aims “to build bonds between young Israeli and Gulf leaders”. Around 100 Palestinian citizens of Israel also participated in the Holocaust commemoration. While the Arab delegates who spoke to the media failed to mention Israel’s ongoing colonial oppression of the Palestinian people, they did speak about how in commemorating the Holocaust, they aimed to strengthen Arab-Israeli relations and see “Arabs coming together with Israelis voluntarily”.

Continue reading “Why Israel refused Palestinian solidarity with Holocaust victims”

Political movements and media benefactors are amplifiers working to institutionalize intolerance.

By David Rothkopf | Washington Report on Middle East Affairs | May 30, 2022

The racism and hatemongering of right-wing media in both countries is linked directly to political parties in the U.S. and Israel who have tapped into race hatred and fears to fuel their popularity…

An 18-year old walks into a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and opens fire, killing ten. On the barrel of his gun is written a racist epithet so offensive that most media simply refer to it as the “n-word.”

Israeli police brutally assault mourners at the funeral of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. They rip the Palestinian flag off the hearse carrying Abu Akleh’s coffin.

Two events, worlds apart. What could they possibly have in common?

Continue reading “What binds American white supremacists and Israel’s brutal assault on Palestinians”

On both sides of the Green Line, Israel’s escalating attacks against the very sight of Palestinian flags betrays the insecurity of its colonial project.

By Orly Noy | +972 | May 26, 2022

What explains the violent Israeli reaction to the sight of the Palestinian flag in the hands of a Palestinian boy in Sheikh Jarrah, or carried by mourners in a funeral procession, or hoisted by students on Nakba Day, or hung on a streetlamp in Huwara?

One of the more absurd moments I have witnessed in my many years of participating in the weekly protests in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah occurred several years ago. A young Palestinian boy, who was holding a small Palestinian flag, was being chased by five Israeli police officers armed to the teeth. One of the officers even climbed on an electricity pole to try and catch the boy, all while the protesters and onlookers laughed out loud.

As I watched this strange scene unfold before me, I asked myself what on earth could cause police officers to debase themselves to the point that they chase after a child, especially after an Israeli court ruled that it was perfectly legal to wave the Palestinian flag. What is it about this flag that drives Israelis out of their minds?

Continue reading “What’s behind Israel’s intensifying war on the Palestinian flag?”

The answer to improving the well-being of Palestinians rests not with individualized solutions from the Global North, but with ending settler colonialism.

By Layth Hanbali | Huck Magazine | May 26, 2022

…many symptoms of mental ill-health “are a normal reaction to a pathogenic context”. Colonial violence – killing, maiming, incarcerating, and dispossessing Palestinians – is the disease.
— Dr. Samah Jabr, chair of the mental health unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health

Last May, Israel launched a 15-day assault on the Gaza Strip, killing 256 Palestinians, injuring 2,000, and bombing 232 high-rise buildings, forcing over 70,000 to flee their homes. Since then, Israeli violence against Palestinians has not relented. Continuous deterioration in infrastructure due to a blockade by Israel, in place since 2007, has rendered 97 per cent of Gaza’s water undrinkable. Palestinians in Gaza get 12 to 13 hours a day of electricity. 53 per cent of Gazans live under the poverty line. Meanwhile, Israel presses forward with plans to dispossess Palestinians of their homes and land across colonized Palestine, including in the Jordan Valley, Beita, Jerusalem, Masafer Yatta, and the Naqab. Israeli settlers in the West Bank are attacking Palestinians with increasing intensity, with the complete complicity of the Israeli state.

Continue reading ” Israeli violence is central to Palestine’s mental health crisis”

Pressure is building on the Biden administration from Congress and the media to investigate the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

By Mitchell Plitnick  | Mondoweiss | May 26, 2022

The case against Israel in Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing is strong.

More than two weeks have passed since Israeli soldiers shot and killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh and, much to Israel’s chagrin, the issue is not fading into the background, as it usually does when Palestinians die at Israel’s hands.

Had Shireen been killed by the military of any other country, a thorough, transparent, and honest investigation would be virtually automatic. She was a Palestinian citizen of the United States. Yet, as we have seen in the past, the odds are against the U.S. undertaking an investigation let alone carrying one out that is independent and impartial.

Continue reading “Pressure builds on Biden to investigate Israel over Abu Akleh killing”

A continuing Catch-22 situation for Palestinians.

By Steve Hendrix and Shira Rubin | Washington Post | May 22, 2022

“There is the law that works for the Jews, but for us it is nonexistent,”
— Nidal Younes, head of the Masafer Yatta village council,

AL-MARKAZ VILLAGE, West Bank — The Najjar family knew what to expect on the morning of May 11 when a neighbor called: “The bulldozer is coming.” For the second time in five months, the Israeli military had come to knock down their house.

But this time there was reason to fear that the house would be gone for good. After decades of demolition, rebuilding and a more than 20-year legal battle, Israel’s highest court this month gave the military permission to permanently evict more than 1,000 Palestinians here and repurpose the land for an army firing range.

Continue reading “Ahead of Biden visit, Israel launches biggest eviction of Palestinians in decades”