Category: News

 

A plea from a Palestinian Christian to other evangelicals to heed the words of the prophet Micah.

By Rev. Alex Awad  | Come and See | June 24, 2020

…evangelicals should end our affair with the State of Israel because Israel is behaving illegally, immorally and recklessly and these are not evangelical values.

For Years, I, a Palestinian and evangelical, have watched with pain the unholy alliance of evangelicals and the State of Israel. Evangelical infatuation with Israel began before there was a Jewish state in the Holy Land. British evangelicals, some of whom were Christian Zionists, helped bring the Jewish state into existence. This fixation kept deepening in the last seven decades. We used the Bible, our pulpits, publications, politics, finances, and our radio and TV stations to expand the territory and power of a Zionist state in Palestine. The average evangelical in the U.S. does not realize the volume of hurt and harm that the political might of evangelical leaders has wrought on the people of the Middle East and especially on Palestinians.

Continue reading “Should evangelicals terminate their affair with the State of Israel?”

Lack of reporting by the New York Times on upcoming annexation is a glaring lack of coverage for a major news media source.

By James North | Mondoweiss | June 23, 2020

Annexation is prompting division and anxiety among the U.S. pro-Israel lobby, and in the U.S. Congress, but so far the Times’s army of correspondents in the nation’s capital have not reported on any of it.

Annexation in West Bank Palestine, which Israel may decree only a week from now, could trigger the biggest upheaval in the area in more than a decade — but the New York Times is mostly missing in action. Editorial page columnists Thomas Friedman and Bret Stephens, both of whom have extensive experience in the region, have not said a word so far. Annexation is prompting division and anxiety among the U.S. pro-Israel lobby, and in the U.S. Congress, but so far the Times’s army of correspondents in the nation’s capital have not reported on any of it.

Continue reading “Israel may start annexing Palestine in just a week — but the ‘NY Times’ is barely reporting the story”

Israel subjugates its Palestinian citizens while being too eager to showcase their successes in order to portray itself as a western-style democracy.

By Jonathan Cook  | The National  | June 22, 2020

An assault by Israeli security officials on a diplomat sounds like an aberration – a peculiar case of mistaken identity…But that impression would be wrong.

An Israeli diplomat filed a complaint last week with police after he was pulled to the ground in Jerusalem by four security guards, who knelt on his neck for five minutes as he cried out: “I can’t breathe.”

There are obvious echoes of the treatment of George Floyd, an African-American killed by police in Minneapolis last month. His death triggered mass protests against police brutality and reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement. The incident in Jerusalem, by contrast, attracted only minor attention – even in Israel.

An assault by Israeli security officials on a diplomat sounds like an aberration – a peculiar case of mistaken identity – quite unlike an established pattern of police violence against poor black communities in the US. But that impression would be wrong.

Continue reading “Why an Arab-Israeli diplomat’s assault is no surprise”

There is concern that peace plan is really moving  things closer to an apartheid system.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss  | June 19, 2020

‘The most dangerous figure pushing for this annexation is the American ambassador… Friedman…’
—Ahmad Tibi, Palestinian member of Knesset

Ahmad Tibi, Palestinian member of Knesset, spoke with J Street yesterday about the annexation plans for the West Bank that the Israeli government is set to begin in July. He said that annexation could bring “violence and deterioration” on the ground, because Palestinians are primed to react to the landgrab.

Tibi:

“The Trump plan is the worst American plan ever. It is not a peace plan. It’s a dictation. It’s a way to deepen the occupation. It’s unilateral. It’s a way to say there is no Palestinian nation, no Palestinian people. Strengthening the settlements. And with the annexation element, it is not only annexation, it should be called apartheid. When you are annexing these lands, you are creating more and more apartheid, more and more occupation. Netanyahu is willing to have this article alone from the Trump plan, which is a very bad plan, in order to keep his right base, he is thinking about the next election and that base….

Continue reading “Palestinians may react with violence if annexation/apartheid goes forward — Tibi”

A challenge to evangelical pastors and leaders in the United States to listen to Palestinians just as they are listening now to their African American brothers and sisters.

By Wissam Al-Saliby | Arab Baptist Theological Seminary | June 18, 2020

‘Symbolically, we relate to [George Floyd’s] experience because we also ‘cannot breathe.’ The wall, the [Israeli] colonies and checkpoints suffocate us.’
—Munther Isaac, Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College

Amid the protests to the killing of George Floyd, many Evangelical pastors and leaders are speaking up and supporting racial justice, reconciliation, and public institution reform in the United States through Sunday sermons, peaceful protests, and social media.

I would like to challenge these pastors and leaders to weave the injustices in the Holy Land into their narrative for the following reasons.

Reason 1: There’s police and military brutality in the Holy Land.

Continue reading “From George Floyd to Iyad al-Hallaq: Can the American church also engage with the Palestinian?”

As July 1st deadline approaches, 30 of the 47 Democrats in the Senate are warning Israel against annexation.

By Ron Kampeas  | Jewish Telegraph Agency | June 19, 2020

‘I understand that the Israeli coalition agreement stipulates that annexation will only proceed under ‘full agreement with the United States’ and, in my capacity as a U.S. senator, wanted to notify you that I must withhold my agreement at this time,’
—Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York

Three of Israel’s most stalwart boosters among Democrats in Congress are warning the country against annexing parts of the West Bank.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, and Sens. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Robert Menendez of New Jersey released a statement Friday saying they were “compelled to express opposition to the proposed unilateral annexation of territory in the West Bank.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to launch the process to annex parts of the West Bank on July 1.

Continue reading “Chuck Schumer and 2 other key pro-Israel Democrats warn Israel against annexation”

Voices in the American evangelical community are seeing the reality of occupation and offering alternative theologies of the land and preaching Christian solidarity over Christian Zionism.

By Arianna Skibell | Jewish Currents | June 17, 2020

‘I literally thought Palestine was just a map in the back of the Bible…I knew nothing about the contemporary geopolitics.’
—Reverend Mae Elise Cannon

In 2009, Reverend Mae Elise Cannon, on her first trip to the Holy Land, stood on the Allenby Bridge waiting to cross into Jericho from Jordan, where she and her church group had just explored Petra. The evangelical pastor approached the Israeli border patrol agent, who asked if she intended to travel into the West Bank. Cannon was flummoxed. She knew she was headed to Bethlehem, where Jesus lived and ministered. But the West Bank?

“I said ‘no,’ because I didn’t even know what it was,” Cannon recalled.

Continue reading “Questioning the Covenant”

Annexation divides Democrats, providing Trump with a wedge issue.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss | June 16, 2020

‘…it’s not so much a mobilization tool but a hard political tool to use against Democrats in a very tight election.’
— Neri Zilber, Israeli journalist

Israeli journalist Neri Zilber was on a J Street zoom session today and said that Donald Trump is pushing Israeli annexation of the West Bank to have a tool to divide the Democratic Party ahead of the election and paint the party as anti-Israel.

Continue reading “Trump is pushing annexation as political tool to cast Dems as anti-Israel, says J Street expert”

There are several steps lawmakers can do to send a signal that they will stand by their values.

By Gil Kulick | The Jewish Week | May 26, 2020

It is urgent that responsible, pro-Israel lawmakers make clear that annexation would be a reckless step that would have damaging long-term ramifications for the region and for the U.S.-Israel relationship.

The stated intention of the far-right government of Israel to move forward with annexation of large portions of the West Bank has come as a shock to some — but it’s a step that has deep roots and is the virtually inevitable culmination of a process that began five decades ago and has advanced unimpeded by any effective opposition.

It began within a few months of Israel’s stunning victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, when several groups of young Israeli “pioneers” set up small agricultural outposts in the lightly populated Jordan Valley. Averring that these were temporary paramilitary installations that could be readily removed, they elicited little international attention.

Continue reading “Congress must take a stand against annexation”

The latest demonstrations in the U.S. highlight the influence of Israeli police training on U.S. City police forces.  Israel has been training law enforcement officers around the U.S. for many years and the following articles highlight how this contributes to the excessive force and racist approach often used by police.

By Alison Weir | Israel-Palestine News | June 2, 2020

The militarization of American law enforcement has been in a sense institutionalized through programs set up by the federal government and the states to train with Israeli police, a mentoring relationship established by Michael Chertoff when he was Secretary of Homeland Security.
—Philip Giraldii, excerpted from Unz Review

Over 100 Minnesota law enforcement officers attended a 2012 conference organized by the Israeli consulate in which Israeli police trained them. Israeli forces often use the knee-on-neck restraint on Palestinians…Israel has been training law enforcement officers around the US for many years, despite the fact that Israeli forces have a long record of human rights violations…

The neck technique taught by Israeli trainers was in the Minneapolis police manual…

Groups organizing Israeli trainings of US police are the ADL, Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs (JINSA), and the American Jewish Committee (AJC)…

Continue reading “Minnesota cops trained by Israeli police, who often use knee-on-neck restraint”