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Our newly elected leaders need to take such constructive steps if we are ever truly going to find lasting peace.

By Elizabeth A. Eaton, Mae Elise Cannon  |  Religion News Service  | Jan 4, 2021

The recent agreements between Israel and Arab states benefit these countries’ respective economies, but little or no consultation took place with the Palestinians, and the agreements did little to help end the conflict.

(RNS) — Last year, Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and its blockade of Gaza brought increased misery and property violations to the Palestinians: home demolitions, expansion of settlements, detention of Palestinian children, continued restrictions on movement and access and (particularly in Gaza) fears of annexation.

All this took place while the occupied territories were suffering the same scourge of COVID-19 as the rest of us.

The recent agreements between Israel and Arab states benefit these countries’ respective economies, but little or no consultation took place with the Palestinians, and the agreements did little to help end the conflict.

Continue reading “The US can help Israel and Palestinians reach a just peace”

New report by rights group B’Tselem will make it harder to smear Israel’s critics as antisemites for arguing that Israel is a racist state.

By Jonathan Cook |   Middle East Eye |  Jan 14, 2021

B’Tselem has abandoned the pretense that apartheid can be limited to the occupied territories, as though Israel – the state that rules Palestinians – is somehow exempt from being classified as integral to the apartheid enterprise it institutes and oversees.

For more than a decade, a handful of former Israeli politicians and US diplomats identified with what might be termed the “peace process industry” have intermittently warned that, without a two-state solution, Israel is in danger of becoming an “apartheid state”.

The most notable among them include Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, two former Israeli prime ministers, and John Kerry, who served as former US President Barack Obama’s secretary of state. Time is rapidly running out, they have all declared in the past.

Continue reading “Israel is losing the fight to obscure its apartheid character”

The systematic promotion of the supremacy of one group of people over another is deeply immoral and must end.

By Hagai El-Ad | The Guardian  | Jan 12, 2021

Although there is demographic parity between the two peoples living here, life is managed so that only one half enjoy the vast majority of political power, land resources, rights, freedoms and protections.

One cannot live a single day in Israel-Palestine without the sense that this place is constantly being engineered to privilege one people, and one people only: the Jewish people. Yet half of those living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea are Palestinian. The chasm between these lived realities fills the air, bleeds, is everywhere on this land.

I am not simply referring to official statements spelling this out – and there are plenty, such as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion in 2019 that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens”, or the “nation state” basic law enshrining “the development of Jewish settlement as a national value”. What I am trying to get at is a deeper sense of people as desirable or undesirable, and an understanding about my country that I have been gradually exposed to since the day I was born in Haifa. Now, it is a realization that can no longer be avoided.

Continue reading “We are Israel’s largest human rights group – and we are calling this apartheid”

David Friedman, President Trump’s bankruptcy lawyer-turned-ambassador, leaves his post having radically overhauled policy toward Israel and the Palestinians.

By David M. Halbfinger  |  The New York Times  |  Jan 10, 2021

Far from enhancing American influence on the conflict… Mr. Friedman had reduced it nearly to nil, all but destroying hopes for a two-state solution.
— Husam Zomlot, who headed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington until it was closed

JERUSALEM — Love him or hate him, and most people who have paid attention fall into one camp or the other, Ambassador David M. Friedman will complete his tour of duty in Israel this month having etched his name in history as one of America’s most influential envoys.

It was Mr. Friedman, 62, who drove the radical overhaul of White House policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, dreaming up the seemingly endless list of political giveaways that President Trump bestowed upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters on the Israeli right.

Continue reading “Strong views and ‘Close to the Boss’: How U.S. Envoy reshaped a conflict”

The Israeli military court found Palestinian Issa Amro guilty in what human rights advocates have called a “campaign of persecution” against a nonviolent community organizer.

By Kathryn Shihadah |  IMEMC News  |  Jan 8, 2021

“Today Israel announced that Palestinians are not allowed to peacefully protest the Israeli occupation without a permit from the occupier…”
— Issa Amro

On Wednesday morning, an Israeli military court handed Palestinian human rights activist Issa Amro a guilty verdict on 6 of 16 counts. Charges are related to his nonviolent protests and organizing against the Israeli occupation.

Middle East Eye reports that Amro, who was recognized by the United Nations as “Human Rights Defender of the Year” in 2010, was convicted on 3 counts of “participating in a rally without a permit,” 2 counts of “obstructing a soldier,” and 1 count of “assault.”

Amnesty International has characterized the charges as “baseless,” and part of a “campaign of persecution” against Amro.

Continue reading ““Palestinian Gandhi” Issa Amro convicted in Israel”

Below the headlines celebrating Israel’s vaccination rates lies a far darker story about health inequality.

By Ariel Gold  | Mondoweiss  |  Jan 6, 2021

Perhaps Israel’s most flagrant demonstration of having two sets of laws for two groups of people is its court system in the West Bank.

The media is abuzz these days with headlines such as “How Israel Became a World Leader in Vaccinating Against Covid-19.” While the U.S. has so far vaccinated only 1.3% of its population against COVID-19, Israel has already given the vaccine to over 14% of its citizens. In explaining this, the media cites Israel’s socialized medicine, the fact that the country is small but wealthy (allowing Israel to pay $62 a dose, compared to the $19.50 the U.S. is paying), and the heavily digitized nature of Israel’s health care system. But below the headlines celebrating Israel’s vaccination rates lies a far darker story about health inequality.

Israel has a population of around nine million. 20% of Israel’s population are Palestinian citizens of Israel. These people can vote in elections, have representation in the Knesset, and are being vaccinated against COVID-19. But, there are another around five million Palestinians who live under Israeli rule, without rights, and like the rest of the world, are suffering from the pandemic.

Since 1967, Israel’s settler population has ballooned to close to 500,000, with Israeli settler regional councils controlling 40% of West Bank land. Despite the U.S.-facilitated normalization deals with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco that occurred during the latter half of the year, that were supposed to have halted Israel’s annexing of the West Bank, 2020 has seen the largest number of settlement unit approvals since the watchdog group Peace Now began tracking in 2012.

Read the full article here →

NGO Development Center was behind ‘Palestinian NGO Code of Conduct’ document, which ruled out any collaboration with the Jewish state.

By Cnaan Liphshiz   | The Times of Israel |  Jan 4, 2021

The French Development Agency, or AFD, which focuses on “on climate, biodiversity, peace, education, urban development, health and governance,” last year gave an 8 million euro ($9.8 million) grant to the NGO Development Center, or NDC, a Palestinian group that says it promotes good government practices in the West Bank. 

The French government has allocated about $10 million to a Palestinian organization that is a leading promoter of the boycott Israel movement.

Promoting that boycott has been found illegal in France in several high-profile cases.

The French Development Agency, or AFD, which focuses on “on climate, biodiversity, peace, education, urban development, health and governance,” last year gave an 8 million euro ($9.8 million) grant to the NGO Development Center, or NDC, a Palestinian group that says it promotes good government practices in the West Bank. It was behind the 2008 “Palestinian NGO Code of Conduct,” a document includes a rejection of “any normalization activities with the occupier [Israel], neither at the political-security nor the cultural or developmental levels.”

Continue reading “France grants $10 million to Palestinian group promoting Israel boycott”

Quds News Network slammed the move by the social media giant as politically motivated.

By MEE staff | Middle East Eye  | Jan 2, 2021

“For years, American apps, including Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, have been deleting and deactivating the accounts of Palestinians in coordination with the Israeli government and security agencies, on the pretext of preventing Palestinian ‘incitement and hate speech'”
— Quds News Network (QNN)

A popular Palestinian news platform said that it was removed from popular social media app TikTok without any notice, in a move it claimed to be connected to news content it published.

Quds News Network’s (QNN) website and social media accounts frequently publish videos on Palestinian news that quickly go viral, including 1,200 videos on TikTok, before it was banned.

QNN’s director Ahmad Jarrar accused TikTok of being in “partnership with the occupation”.

Continue reading “Palestinian news platform QNN banned by TikTok”