Save the Children says Gaza has become unlivable for its one million children. pic.twitter.com/MvAN4k4Bvo
— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 5, 2017
What is BDS?
BDS is a global non-violent movement using economic pressure to oppose to Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
By Ramzy Baroud / Telesur / Oct 1, 2017
What are the goals of BDS?
- End the military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and other Palestinian lands.
- Allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
- Assure equal rights for all Israeli citizens, regardless of ethnicity or religion.
The BDS Movement was the outcome of several events that shaped the Palestinian national struggle and international solidarity with the Palestinian people.
BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The BDS Movement was the outcome of several events that shaped the Palestinian national struggle and international solidarity with the Palestinian people following the Second Uprising (Intifada) in 2000.
Building on a decades-long tradition of civil disobedience and popular resistance, and invigorated by growing international solidarity with the Palestinian struggle as exhibited in the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001, Palestinians moved into action.
Israeli settlers turn archeological sites into political tools
Every year, some 100,000 women, children and men visit the Biyar Aqueduct, built some 2,000 years ago to supply water to Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple.
By Akiva Eldar / Al-Monitor / Oct 3, 2017
“There is clear evidence at the Biyar Aqueduct — as there is at other sites — of the presence of the sons of the Judean Kingdom or of Jews at various periods. The problem is that these sites are being used as propaganda tools to establish the right of Jews to those lands, and the multicultural aspect of thousands of years of history is sidelined or even wiped out of the whole story.”
— Archaeologist Yonathan Mizrachi
The Israeli left made no bones about its glee over the empty bleachers at the September 27 jubilee celebration of the liberation of Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley and Golan Heights organized by the settlers in the occupied West Bank. The left views the photos of the empty seats as proof of the settlers’ failure to occupy the hearts and minds of the general Israeli public. The leftists argue that not only did the billions poured by successive Israeli governments into the settlements for 50 years lure fewer than 5% of Israelis to live there — about 400,000 according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics — the vast majority avoided the wasteful “liberation festival.”
Yet the pleasure taken by the left in the seeming failure of the settlers and their patrons is somewhat pathetic. Granted, the right-wing concept of a return to the land of the forefathers has not created a major demographic shift of Israelis moving to the settlements. Nonetheless, the notion has ingrained itself in the minds of broad swathes of the Israeli public and of tens of thousands of visitors from around the world. It happens daily in Jerusalem’s Old City and throughout the West Bank.
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Administrative detention “worst of all possible worlds”
Critics blast Israel’s practice of holding Palestinians on secret evidence, without charge or trial.
By Dalia Hatuqa / Al Jazeera / Oct 3, 2017
“For the last 50 years, Israeli authorities have been using administrative detention as a substitute for criminal proceedings in cases where there’s not enough evidence [for formal proceedings].”
— Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa
At first glance, a legislator, a circus performer and an NGO worker might not appear to have much in common. But all three Palestinians are former or current political prisoners who have been subjected to an obscure legal procedure called administrative detention, which allows Israel to imprison people without charge or trial for an indefinite amount of time.
Israeli authorities have been using this procedure for more than half a century, basing it on secret evidence. The Palestinian Prisoners Society, a detainee support group, noted a sharp rise in administrative detentions in August, with more Palestinians held without trial than during any other month this year. The rise, to 84 detentions, came amid increased tensions in the occupied West Bank after the stabbing of three Israeli settlers by a Palestinian on July 21.
As of September, there were 449 administrative detainees being held in prisons inside Israel, almost all of them Palestinian, according to data provided to rights group Hamoked by the Israel Prison Service.
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Majority of Britains think UK should recognize the State of Palestine
A majority of the British public believe the UK should recognize Palestine as a state, according to a recent poll.
By Middle East Monitor / Sep 25, 2017
“I have been here for 11 years and have noticed dramatic changes in the British public’s views on Palestine. That only 14 percent say they wouldn’t want the Palestinian state to receive recognition is an indication of the Palestinian cause worldwide being accepted.”
— Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian ambassador to the UK
A majority of the British public believe the UK should recognize Palestine as a state, according to the results of a new YouGov poll published Monday.
53 percent of respondents said they agree with such a step, as opposed to just 14 percent who disagreed (33 percent said they were “neutral”).
Responding to the poll, Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian ambassador to the UK, said public opinion has been shifting. “I have been here for 11 years and have noticed dramatic changes in the British public’s views on Palestine,” he said.
“That only 14 percent say they wouldn’t want the Palestinian state to receive recognition is an indication of the Palestinian cause worldwide being accepted,” he added.
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Catholic monastery near Jerusalem vandalized
For the third time in four years, the Beit Jimal Monastery has been vandalized in a “price tag” attack.
By Daniel Eisenbud / The Jerusalem Post / Sep 23, 2017
Ed. note: “Price tag” attacks are acts of vandalism by Jewish fundamentalist settler youths aimed Palestinians, Christians, left-wing Israeli Jews, Israeli security forces, and others seen as opposing the settlement enterprise.
According to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, vandals on Wednesday night shattered stained-glass windows depicting passages from Jesus; destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary; and damaged furniture.
Bishop Boulos Marcuzzo, patriarchal vicar in Jerusalem, called for tolerance after deeming the ransacking “not only an act of vandalism, but an action against the sacredness of the holy places and the faith of people.”
“The Holy Land is deep [in] faith and culture,” Marcuzzo said in a Friday statement. “We must live together with the diversity of beliefs. It is absolutely necessary to accept others, to accept each other in our diversity.”
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Holocaust survivor’s speech censored in UK
Manchester University censored the title of a Holocaust survivor’s criticism of Israel and insisted that her campus talk be recorded, after Israeli diplomats said its billing amounted to antisemitic hate speech.
By Damien Gayle / The Guardian / Sep 29, 2017
“These events will cause Jewish students to feel uncomfortable on campus and that they are being targeted and harassed for their identity as a people and connection to the Jewish state of Israel.”
—Michael Freeman, Israeli embassy’s counsellor for civil society affairs“In educational institutions there shouldn’t be any sort of lobbying from foreign governments. You couldn’t imagine [the administration] sitting down with the Saudi embassy for an event about what’s going on in Yemen.”
— Huda Ammori, event organizer
Marika Sherwood, a Jewish survivor of the Budapest ghetto, was due to give a talk in March about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, headlined: “You’re doing to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to me.”
But after a visit by Mark Regev, the Israeli ambassador, and his civil affairs attaché, university officials banned organizers from using the “unduly provocative” title and set out a range of conditions before it could go ahead.
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Event — Peaceworks 2017: From Marches to Movements
Please join our brothers and sisters at the Rachel Corrie Foundation for the 11th Annual Peace Works conference, a day of presentations, workshops and networking opportunities.
| Date: | Saturday, Oct 14, 2017 | ||
| Time: | 9:00 am – 6:00 pm | ||
| Location: | Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for Performing Arts South Puget Sound Community College 2011 Mottman Rd SW Olympia, WAÂ 98512 |
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| Information: | Event website |
Event Details
The last year has seen an alarming rise in armed conflict, social bigotry, and political authoritarianism. At the same time, unprecedented numbers of people around the globe have rallied to resist the politics of hate. Many of us have felt fear and motivation, isolation and empowerment, disillusion and hope. PeaceWorks 2017 asks how we might harness these passionate feelings into effective social movements.
The event will be filled with workshops, panel discussions, presentations, and networking opportunities. People and organizations from Washington and beyond will come together with a goal of developing concrete strategies for justice, peace, and progressive social change.
Event: Reception for liberation theologist Naim Ateek
Naim Ateek is a Palestinian priest in the Anglican Church and founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.
| Date: | Thursday, October 12, 2017 | ||
| Time: | 2:30–4:00 p.m. | ||
| Location: | Episcopal Diocesan House 1551 10th Ave E Seattle, WA 98102 |
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| Information: | Email questions here | ||
| Tickets: | Free |
Event Details
We are pleased to welcome the Reverend Naim Ateek, founder of Sabeel, and Tarek Abuta, Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), to Seattle. Rev. Ateek and Mr. Abuta will be in town to mark the launch of the Bishop Edmund Lee Browning Memorial Fund, honoring the former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Bishop Browning was instrumental in the founding of FOSNA and one of the strongest supporters of Sabeel.
The Fund is being created to support seminarians and seminary faculty who wish to go on witness trips to Palestine.
Bishop Rickel will host a public reception at the Diocesan House, a block north of St. Mark’s Cathedral. All are welcome!
Why young Jews don’t trust what their institutions say about Israel
Growing up, the Conservative movement embraced nuanced approaches to the Torah, yet that critical approach never extended to discussions of Israel. Questioning Zionism was verboten.
By Eliana Fishman / +972 Magazine / Sep 14, 2017
No one within the Conservative movement ever discussed the rabbinic texts that oppose the Jewish people’s return to the Land of Israel. Questioning Zionism was verboten. And no one knew, and still, to this day no one knows what the occupation looks like.
It was the summer before eighth grade at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, a Jewish summer camp affiliated with the Conservative Movement. I was 12 years old. Each camper was handed a copy of Mitchell Bard’s Myths and Facts, long considered a foundational hasbara textbook, and we were told that the author would be coming to speak to us.
Most campers ignored the book and didn’t pay much attention to Bard’s presentation. One particularly precocious camper, who actually read through the book, took the time to highlight misleading arguments and logical inconsistencies, and challenged the author during his lecture. Bard made light of the critiques and brushed them aside, insisting that every accusation against Israel was rooted in anti-Semitism, and that there was no way human rights violations had anything to do with Palestinian discontent.
Continue reading “Why young Jews don’t trust what their institutions say about Israel”
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