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By Courtney Grogan | Catholic News Agency | Sep 10, 2018

I am reminded of the teachings of the great popes of our time who have pleaded that the voice of the Palestinian people be heard. Without hearing that voice, the dream of justice and peace for Israel, for Palestine and for the Middle East will remain impossible. Closing the Embassy is an attempt to silence that voice.
— Father David Neuhaus, a Jerusalem-based priest

The U.S. State Department announced Monday it will close the Palestinian Liberation Organization office in Washington because it says Palestine has failed to take “steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.”

The Palestinian Liberation Organization, or PLO, is recognized by the United Nations as “the representative of the Palestinian people” and has diplomatic relationship with over 100 states, including the Holy See. . . .

In 1948, Pope Pius XII wrote in an encyclical on Palestine, “Even before the armed conflict began . . . We manifested our lifelong solicitude for peace in Palestine, and, condemning any recourse to violence, We declared that peace could only be realized in truth and justice.”

Continue reading “Catholics urge that Palestinian voices be heard in peace process”

Washington defunding the Palestinian refugee agency is not merely an attack on UNRWA, as serious as that may be. It is an attempt to destroy the Palestinian national movement.

By Mitchell Plitnick | +972 Magazine | Sep 9, 2018

Trump has steered his policy on Israel-Palestine down a clear path. He is motivated by the right-wing belief, undoubtedly held by Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt, and his ambassador to Israel, David Friedman — Trump’s “Mideast peace team” — that contrary to conventional wisdom, the Palestinians can be pounded into submission.

Late last month, the State Department announced it would end all funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency that provides many essential services for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The reaction to this decision has been mostly negative.

Some have objected to the Trump administration’s decision because it runs counter to U.S. interests. Some have objected because it jeopardizes Israel’s security. Others talk about the staggering humanitarian consequences for the millions of refugees UNRWA serves.

These are all important concerns. But none of them hits the mark of what the Trump administration — apparently at the urging of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, without any consultation with anyone else in the Israeli government or defense establishment — is doing. This is not merely an attack on UNRWA, as serious as that may be. This is an attempt to destroy the Palestinian national movement.

Continue reading “Trump’s endgame in Palestine”

The rise in recent attacks involving cooperation between settlers and IDF soldiers seems to be a prelude to Israel’s efforts to formally annex the entire West Bank.

By Whitney Webb | MPN News | Sep 10, 2018

Settler violence — especially when directly supported by the Israeli military — erects “invisible walls” that pave the way for the annexation of Palestinian land. Indeed, such attacks often force Palestinians to abandon or neglect properties . . . . This abandoned land is then taken over by Israel, whence it then becomes “state land” that is then often given to the very settlements responsible for the initial attacks.

Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has provided evidence showing Israeli soldiers joining settlers in a series of attacks targeting the Palestinian village of ‘Urif, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The village, home to around 3,600 Palestinians, has been a target of extremist settlers for years given its close proximity to the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, notorious even among the Israeli security establishment for its repeated attacks on Palestinians and arson of nearby Palestinian property. Such attacks have historically taken place on farmland bordering the village, as well as near the village’s water tower.

Yet, while the Israeli government has long dismissed Yitzhar attacks on Palestinians as the work of a handful of settler youth “activists,” B’Tselem has now revealed that many of these attacks are conducted along with the active participation of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, resulting in IDF-settler “joint assaults” on Palestinian civilians that rob Palestinians of “not only their land but also their livelihood.”

B’Tselem detailed several different attacks that have taken place in recent months, in which settlers have exacted damage on Palestinian property, many with direct assistance from IDF soldiers. The first two that involved IDF-settler cooperation took place in March and early June.

Continue reading “Israeli settlers and IDF soldiers conducting “joint assaults” on Palestinian villages”