Category: News

Israel has ignored warnings by the United Nations that Gaza is about to become uninhabitable, acting as if Palestinians there can be caged, starved and abused indefinitely.

By Jonathan Cook | Americans for Middle East Understanding | Sept/Oct 2019

‘Without urgent, vigorous action, plagues and infections will break out that could cost a great many lives, both in Israel and in Gaza, and no fence or Iron Dome [Israel’s missile interception system] can thwart them.’
— Gideon Bromberg, the Israeli director of EcoPeace Middle East

The only way Israelis can be made to sit up and take note of the disaster unfolding next door in Gaza, it seems, is when they fear the fallout may spill out of the tiny coastal enclave and engulf them too. Environmental experts from two Israeli universities issued a report in June warning that the imminent collapse of Gaza’s water, sewage and electricity infrastructure would soon rebound on Israel.

Gideon Bromberg, the Israeli director of EcoPeace Middle East, which commissioned the report, told journalists: “Without urgent, vigorous action, plagues and infections will break out that could cost a great many lives, both in Israel and in Gaza, and no fence or Iron Dome [Israel’s missile interception system] can thwart them.” Israel’s liberal Haaretz newspaper paraphrased another of Bromberg’s comments: “If something isn’t done, the upshot could be political horror in the form of hundreds of thousands of Gazans fleeing for their lives toward Israel – for fear of catching disease.”

Continue reading “Uninhabitable: Gaza faces the moment of truth”

A bit of truth amidst a history of occupation.

By Yumna Patel |  Mondoweiss  | Oct 17, 2019

‘Having seen the experience of the evacuation of Gaza, I don’t believe that there is a realistic plan that can be implemented that will require anyone, Jew or Arab, to be forced to leave their home.’
— David Friedman, US Ambassador to Israel

The US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Israeli news website Arutz Sheva on Thursday that he believed the US Embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “promoted peace” and that “uprooting” Jews or Arabs in the event of a US peace plan in the region would be “inhumane.”

In an extensive interview with the news site, which covered topics from the 1967 war to Iran, Friedman was asked about President Donald Trump’s elusive peace plan, and the future status of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Continue reading “US ambassador says evacuating West Bank settlements ‘would be a recipe for disaster’”

New legislation introduced in Congress would potentially destroy the ability of the Palestinian leadership to engage in diplomatic and legal channels to support Palestinian national aspirations.

By Kathryn Shihadah | If Americans Knew  |  Sept 25, 2019

H.R.1837 (and its twin S.2132) is written in such a way that undermines ‘the ability of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to engage diplomatic and legal channels to support Palestinian national aspirations and to seek accountability through international mechanisms.’
— Zaha Hassan,  human rights attorney

In addition to the roughly two dozen Israel-related bills in various stages currently before Congress, new legislation would open the Palestinian Authority (PA) to disastrous lawsuits and quash any hopes of a negotiated settlement with Israel. The PA has its share of corruption, as it attempts the impossible task of ruling while under the thumb of Israeli occupation. Nevertheless, analysts say that a dissolution of the Palestinian government through U.S. legislation could be catastrophic.

Current legislation promoted by segments of the Israel lobby would do just that.

The latest bipartisan legislation would enable American victims of political violence in Israel to work through the American court system to collect damages from the Palestinian government. (Notably, it would not afford American victims of Israeli violence, such as this 16-year-old, the same opportunity.)

Continue reading “New Legislation in Congress Puts Palestinians in a Catch-22”

The following remarks are from presentation by Rev. Alex Awad at conference “A Response to Christian Zionism” held in Seattle WA Oct 5, 2019. These reflections are his experiences as a Palestinian meeting people who are Christian Zionists.

By Rev. Alex Awad | Kairos Puget Sound Coalition | Oct 5, 2019

The passion of Christian Zionists to bring Jews to the Holy Land and create a Jewish state and their success in achieving their goal was accomplished through piling layer upon layer of wars, massacres, bloodshed, ethnic cleansing, political manipulations and pain.

I am here participating in this symposium because millions of people have been severely and negatively impacted as a result of the political thrust of Christian Zionism. The passion of Christian Zionists to bring Jews to the Holy Land and create a Jewish state and their success in achieving their goal was accomplished through piling layer upon layer of wars, massacres, bloodshed, ethnic cleansing, political manipulations and pain. Millions of Palestinians, Jordanians, Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqis, Egyptians and Jews have suffered death and destruction. This has been in large part due to the theological convictions and political activities of Christian Zionist leaders combined with the political might of secular Zionists and the religious zeal of Jewish settlers. Were Christian Zionism confined to theology and theological assumptions alone, I wouldn’t be so concerned about it and I wouldn’t be as driven as I am in exposing the harmful consequences of its teachings.

Continue reading “A response to Christian Zionism”

Around the world, rich and poor countries alike are pulling up their drawbridges, slashing the number of refugees they are willing to accept, and denying asylum to those who might have been admitted in the past.

By Nanjala Nyabola | Foreign Affairs | Oct 10, 2019

Derived from the ancient Greek asulos, which roughly translates to ‘inviolable,’ the word ‘asylum’ first entered the English lexicon in the late Middle Ages, when it was understood to mean ‘an inviolable shelter or protection from pursuit or arrest.’ By definition, an asylum seeker was a person who sought a form of protection that could never be violated, broken, or infringed upon.

A small tent city is taking shape in Tapachula, on the Mexican-Guatemalan border, and its inhabitants are living proof of the systematic erosion of one of the foundational principles of the post–World War II international order. The residents are primarily refugees and migrants from African countries who fled political persecution, social upheaval, and economic uncertainty, taking one of the longest and most perilous migration routes in the world in the hope of reaching the United States.

Until recently, most would have been granted a 21-day grace period to either normalize their residency status in Mexico or continue on to the U.S. border. But since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that the administration of President Donald Trump can deny asylum to anyone who has crossed a third country en route to the U.S. border, Mexico has started denying Africans free passage through its territory. And so the migrants arriving in Tapachula have nowhere to go. They are trapped between hard-line U.S. asylum policies, Mexico’s acquiescence to those policies, and a growing global backlash against anyone seeking asylum.

Continue reading “The end of asylum”

Portland Trailblazers respond to protestor demands to drop relationship with sponsor selling rifle scopes to Israeli military.

By Michael Arria | Mondoweiss | Oct 1, 2019

I think it’s terrible that Leupold & Stevens actively profits from war crimes, as many IDF have been spotted using their scopes in ‘combat’ zones against Palestinian protesters.
— Josuee Hernandez, US Marine

Portland Trail Blazers president and CEO Chris McGowan has announced that the National Basketball Association (NBA) team will no longer partner with a rifle scope manufacturer that has a contract with Israeli military. The move comes after a year-long campaign by local activists to pressure the Blazers to drop the sponsor.

Continue reading “Portland Trail Blazers sever ties with company that supplies IDF with rifle scopes after campaign by activists”

The intersection of Israel’s election, US impeachment efforts and the resignation of  US Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt create many roadblocks to what is already a failed peace proposal.

By Adnan Abu Amer  | IMEMC News | Oct 9, 2019

With Trump’s constitutional crisis to consider, as well as Greenblatt’s resignation and the political deadlock in Israel, Palestinians and Israelis are adopting contrasting positions regarding the deal and its announcement.

Palestinians and Israelis are following the ongoing constitutional measures to impeach US President Donald Trump with great interest. They want to know what the implications will be for the so-called deal of the century; will, for example, its formal announcement have to be postponed due to Trump being otherwise engaged? There is also a nagging fear that the US President will be impeached, and that it will have negative consequences for Washington’s already waning involvement in what passes for a peace process.

The Palestinians welcome the legal and constitutional procedures against Trump, not least because he has put them under great pressure to accept the deal. Moreover, the so-called US peace envoys have stopped visiting the region, and Jason Greenblatt has announced his resignation. This coincided with Israel’s General Election and the political deadlock that has resulted.

Continue reading “The impact on The ‘Deal Of The Century’ by the measures to impeach Trump”

More than 100 Jewish academics sign open letter demanding the Trump administration stop exploiting anti-Semitism in order to quash criticism of Israel on college campuses.

By Joshua Leifer | +972  | Oct 6, 2019

‘We have the Department of Education leveraging an attack on a conference related to Gaza to have a chilling effect on free speech overall on campuses.’
— Lara Friedman, president of Foundation for Middle East Peace

Jewish academics are fighting back against the Trump administration’s attempts to silence criticism of Israel on college campuses. More than 100 Jewish scholars have signed an open letter to the U.S. Department of Education in response to its demand that the Duke-University of North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies modify its curricular programming or face defunding.

The open letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose signatories include renowned scholar Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, and artist Molly Crabapple, condemns the Education Department’s recent investigation of the consortium and subsequent ultimatum as “an unfounded and anti-democratic campaign of intimidation” and charges the Education Department with “exploiting fears of anti-Semitism” and “using Jews and our concerns over anti-Semitism to try and justify repressive policies.”

Continue reading “Over 100 Jewish scholars condemn Trump admin for exploiting anti-Semitism”

Four years ago, a Palestinian citizen of Israel was arrested because the security services decided a poem she wrote and published on her personal Facebook page was ‘incitement.’

By Oren Ziv  |  +972  |  Oct 3, 2019

The efforts to taint her poetry as a criminal act were now at an end.
— Attorney Gaby Lasky

Dareen Tatour, the Palestinian poet arrested in 2015 over a poem she published on Facebook, is finally free. After years of house arrest, months in prison, and dogged efforts by the government to secure the maximum conviction possible, the Supreme Court last week rejected the state’s petition to restore her overturned conviction for incitement to violence. With that, Tatour’s legal ordeal came to an end, more than four years after it began.

Continue reading “Top court puts end to Palestinian poet’s four-year legal saga”

A complex and paradoxical mix of polarization and integration in the Middle East creates uncertainties and potential for all-out war.

By Robert Malley | Foreign Affairs | November/December 2019

When it comes to the Middle East, Tip O’Neill, the storied Democratic politician, had it backward: all politics—especially local politics—is international.

The war that now looms largest is a war nobody apparently wants. During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump railed against the United States’ entanglement in Middle Eastern wars, and since assuming office, he has not changed his tune. Iran has no interest in a wide-ranging conflict that it knows it could not win. Israel is satisfied with calibrated operations in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza but fears a larger confrontation that could expose it to thousands of rockets. Saudi Arabia is determined to push back against Iran, but without confronting it militarily. Yet the conditions for an all-out war in the Middle East are riper than at any time in recent memory.

Continue reading “The Unwanted Wars – Why the Middle East is more combustible than ever”