Category: News

Fading hope for an end to Israeli military rule compelled HRW to raise the political price for Israel to maintain the status quo of oppression and discrimination.

By Eric Goldstein | Forward | Apr 27, 2021

But hopes for a breakthrough in the peace process obscured the repressive status quo, and the increasingly clear intention of Israeli authorities to perpetuate a system designed to enable the flourishing of Jewish Israelis at the expense of Palestinians — that is, one of domination.

When I arrived in Jerusalem in 1989 as Human Rights Watch’s first Israel-Palestine researcher, I did not imagine the word “apartheid” applying to the Israeli and Palestinian context. But this week, HRW published a report that I edited, as the organization’s acting Middle East director, finding that Israeli officials are committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution — crimes against humanity.

I knew 30 years ago that apartheid had legal meaning beyond its origins in South Africa. For more than a decade there had been an international convention that defined apartheid as a crime committed when officials systematically oppress one group in the territory under their control, and subject it to inhumane acts, with the intent to maintain the domination over that group for the benefit of another group.

Continue reading “Say Israel is committing apartheid? It’s not a decision we reached lightly”

Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan but Palestinians have been left behind.  Can  the Biden administration make any progress?

By John Brennan  | The New York Times | Apr 27, 2021

Despite sharply reduced tensions between Israel and the Arab world, the Palestinian people themselves have seen no appreciable progress in their quest to live in their own sovereign state.

On a recent evening I watched “The Present,” a short film by Farah Nabulsi, a Palestinian filmmaker, which was nominated for an Academy Award for live-action short film. (The winner in the category was “Two Distant Strangers.”) Ms. Nabulsi’s 25-minute film is a powerful, heartbreaking account of the travails of Yusuf, a Palestinian man, and Yasmine, his young daughter, as they traverse an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank twice in a single day.

“The Present” establishes its context quickly, opening with images of Palestinian men making their way through a narrow passageway at one of the numerous checkpoints that dot the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinians going to work, visiting family or shopping on the opposite side of a security barrier have to bear this humiliating procedure every day.

Continue reading “Why Biden must watch this Palestinian movie”

We cannot support the products bearing our name when its parent company is benefiting from Israel’s war crimes.

By Charlie Pillsbury | Star Tribune |  Apr 28, 2021

We take pride in seeing our family name associated with products sold around the world. But in these times we no longer can in good conscience buy products bearing our name.
— Charlie Pillsbury

When our ancestor Charles A. Pillsbury founded the Pillsbury Company over 150 years ago, he could not have imagined that his products would one day reach every corner of the world. What started with the purchase of one flour mill on the west bank of the Mississippi River in 1869 became a household brand, which is now owned by General Mills.

We take pride in seeing our family name associated with products sold around the world. But in these times we no longer can in good conscience buy products bearing our name.

Continue reading “Why we must boycott Pillsbury”

Now that the bill is introduced it’s time to think about how to engage your representative about H.R. 2590.

By Defense for Children International Palestine | Apr 16, 2021

“Palestinian youth have had their futures stifled and suppressed by systemic discrimination, constant settlement expansion, and an Israeli military occupation with no end in sight,”
— Brad Parker, Senior Adviser, Policy and Advocacy at DCIP

Ramallah, April 16, 2021—U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) introduced historic legislation yesterday that seeks to promote justice, equality, and human rights for Palestinian children and families by prohibiting Israeli authorities from using U.S. taxpayer funds to commit human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank.

The Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act, or H.R. 2590, provides that no U.S. funds to the Israeli government may be used to support the military detention or ill-treatment of Palestinian children; the seizure, appropriation, or destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the occupied West Bank; or to facilitate further unilateral annexation of Palestinian land by the Israeli government in violation of international humanitarian law.
Continue reading “Rep. McCollum introduces historic bill supporting Palestinian human rights”

A new report by Human Rights Watch slams Israel as an apartheid state. What now?

By Sam Bahour | Le Monde diplomatique | Apr 27, 2021

‘The finding is based on an overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem.’
— Human Rights Watch report

One of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights, Human Rights Watch (HRW), today issued a 213-page report entitled ‘A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution’. The report examines Israel’s treatment of all Palestinians, regardless of where they may reside between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and beyond.

For such a mainstream organization, it minces no words. The report starts by noting that ‘Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.’ In a press release announcing the report, HRW said, ‘The finding is based on an overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem.’

Continue reading “Israel called to account”

A report from B’tselem, the respected Israeli Human Rights NGO, calls Israel an apartheid state.

By Israel-Palestine News | Jan 13, 2021

The geographic space, which is contiguous for Jews, is a fragmented mosaic for Palestinians

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories believes that the accumulation of policies and laws in Israel are devised to entrench control over Palestinians, and together define Israel as an apartheid regime:

• Israel’s efforts to Judaize the entire region (land as a resource chiefly meant to benefit the Jewish population)
• Jews living anywhere in the world are entitled to Israeli citizenship (while Palestinians are removed by any means possible)
• Israeli citizens enjoy freedom of movement throughout the region – except for the Gaza Strip (Palestinian movement is severely limited)
• Jewish political participation is ubiquitous, while Palestinians are either sidelined or disenfranchised

Read the full article here →

A parliamentary petition calling for an investigation into IDF recruitment has quickly surpassed the number of signatures required to be presented in the House of Commons.

By Yves Engler  | Palestine Chronicle | Apr 23, 2021

“in my view no one who is a Canadian should be able to enlist in some other country’s military and keep his Canadian citizenship.”
—  Jack Granatstein, military historian

The campaign to oppose illegal Israeli military recruitment in Canada has received a significant boost. A parliamentary petition calling for an investigation into IDF recruitment has quickly surpassed the number of signatures required to be presented in the House of Commons.

Submitted by Rabbi David Mivasair and sponsored by NDP MP Matthew Green, the petition “calls upon the Minister of Justice to undertake a thorough investigation of those who have recruited or facilitated recruiting for the Israel Defense Forces, and if warranted lay charges against those involved in recruiting and encouraging recruiting for the IDF.”

In 48 hours over 1,000 individuals have signed the petition, which is twice what’s required for it to be read in Parliament. The government then has to respond.

Continue reading “Campaign to 0ppose Israeli military recruitment in Canada receives boost”

Our two nations are headed for doom, driven by the power of the Zionist right and a conviction we can do no wrong.

By Doug Neiss | Salon |  Apr 17, 2021

American exceptionalism and Israeli exceptionalism go hand in hand. One hand washes the other.

As bad as Republican bloc voting is on domestic issues, what may be even worse are the near-unanimous bipartisan votes on military spending and unconditional support for Israel. It goes without saying that does not reflect the diversity of opinion among American Jews, Israeli Jews or the American public at large, although the pretense that unqualified support for Israel is the dominant view among Jewish Americans — and among Americans in general — is strictly maintained.

This cannot be justified by straightforward concern for Israel’s survival — Israel has long since assured its own survival with nuclear weapons, an open secret for decades — nor by the supposedly all-powerful Israel lobby. Invoking the “power of the Israel lobby” protects the myth of American innocence at the risk of perpetuating the myth of Jewish evil: Innocent, trusting America, no match for those crafty, scheming Jews!

Continue reading “What ties the U.S. and Israel together? Our arrogant, doomed mythology of exceptionalism”

AnyVision system touted as improving security and preventing crime, but social rights activists say practice infringes on privacy, could hurt marginalized groups

By TOI staff | Times of Israel | Apr 21, 2021

“Private use of facial recognition by corporations, institutions and even individuals poses just as much of a threat to marginalized communities as government use,”
—  open letter from 25 social justice groups calling on governments to ban corporate use of facial recognition.

An Israeli company that makes facial recognition technology has gained several big-name clients in the US, even as rights groups increasingly raise concerns over the use of such surveillance methods, Reuters reported Wednesday.

AnyVision, a Holon-based startup founded in 2015 by Neil Robertson and Eylon Ethstein, uses artificial intelligence technology to recognize faces, bodies and objects for security, medical and business purposes, among others.

Facial recognition technology as a whole has come under fire by civil liberties activists who say the tools are biased against people of color and infringe upon citizens’ privacy.

Continue reading “US firms said using Israeli tech for controversial facial recognition”