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Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat will end hopes of a two-state system and probably result in expulsions and violence.

By Ian Black | The Guardian  | June 11, 2020

If annexation of any territory goes ahead it will flagrantly breach international law and countless UN resolutions. It cannot go unanswered. Israel should face sanctions, just as Russia did when it annexed the Crimea from Ukraine.

Unsurprisingly, Benjamin Netanyahu has now made things starkly clear. On 28 May the Israeli prime minister explained that when – not if – his government goes ahead with unilateral annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, thousands of Palestinian residents would be granted neither citizenship nor equal rights.Palestine says it will declare statehood if Israel annexes West Bank

Shortly before that, a group of Israeli settlers posted a photograph of themselves gazing at a map of what they, like Netanyahu, call by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria, prompting comments from Palestinians – and liberal Israelis – that the image captured the institutionalization of a formal apartheid system. It is hard to argue with that conclusion.

Continue reading “Israel’s annexation of the West Bank will be yet another tragedy for Palestinians”

The Law for the Regularization of Settlement in Judea and Samaria has been frozen since its approval in 2017 pending High Court ruling.

By Hagar Shezaf  | Haaretz | June 6, 2020

…the law ‘seeks to retroactively legalize illegal acts perpetrated by a specific population in the region whilst harming the rights of another.’
— Esther Hayut, Israel Supreme Court President

Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered on Tuesday to nullify a law that would legalize the status of settlements partially built on privately owned Palestinian land under the claim that it is “unconstitutional.”

The “Law for the Regularization of Settlement in Judea and Samaria” was approved in February 2017. It was meant to allow the use of privately-owned Palestinian land to build Israeli settlements and to legalize outposts and structures erected on such soil.

The law was frozen shortly after its approval in an agreement between the state and several petitioners against it until the High Court ruled on the matter.

Continue reading “Israel’s High Court strikes down West Bank land-grab law as ‘unconstitutional’”

With no accountability, there is no punishment for Israeli actions; accountability is key and requires that there will be a price to pay.

By Jonathan Ofir | Mondoweiss | June 9, 2020

‘What’s infuriating, is that Palestinians are being chided for not participating in this process, which is akin to a patient who is being forced to undergo, against his will, an amputation, being asked to hold the scalpel while the doctor begins to cut.’
—James Zogby, founder and President of the Arab American Institute

Last Thursday the UN held a video forum on “The Question of Palestine: Threats of Annexation and the Prospects for Peace”, hosted by the UN Palestinian Rights Committee. There were three panelists: Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the PLO Executive Committee and former member of the Palestinian team in the Middle East Peace Process; Yossi Beilin, former Israeli Cabinet Minister and participant in the 1993 Oslo Accord negotiations; and James Zogby, founder and President of the Arab American Institute.

While Ashrawi outlined the injustices against Palestinians, Beilin suggested that Palestinians accept the Trump plan, if only to stall the coming annexation. Zogby, who spoke last, put an “exclamation mark” under Ashrawi’s astute comments, yet had “questions” for Beilin’s pitch. Those questions were more rhetorical and indirect. Zogby’s 10-minute presentation was astounding, crystal clear, cutting through orthodox nonsense and accentuating the colonialist paradigm that all this falls under.

Continue reading “James Zogby: Palestinians are ‘being asked to hold the scalpel’ for their own amputation”

Officials in the West Bank say they are willing to let the Palestinian Authority collapse if Israel applies its sovereignty over occupied territory.

By David M. Halbfinger and Adam Rasgon | The New York Times | June 8, 2020

‘We are pragmatic…We don’t want things to reach a point of no return. Annexation means no return in the relationship with Israel.’
— Hussein al-Sheikh, the Palestinian official in charge of relations with Israel

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Authority says it will cut the salaries of tens of thousands of its own clerks and police officers. It will slash vital funding to the impoverished Gaza Strip. And it will try any Israeli citizens or Arab residents of Jerusalem arrested on the West Bank in Palestinian courts instead of handing them over to Israel.

Desperate to deter Israel from annexing occupied territory, the Palestinians are taking a number of provocative steps to break off cooperation with Israel and force it to shoulder full responsibility, as a military occupier, for the lives of more than two million Palestinians on the West Bank.

Continue reading “The Palestinian plan to stop annexation: Remind Israel what occupation means”

 

A hasbarist argues there’s nothing wrong in the killing of Eyad al-Halaq.

By Yossi Gurvitz  |  Mondoweiss |  June 7, 2020

The comparison between the policeman nonchalantly stepping on a citizen’s neck for nine minutes and one hounding an autistic person into a garbage room is automatic and immediate.

Israeli militants murdered Eyad al-Halaq last Saturday in Jerusalem, and for many Israelis this particular murder– of an autistic person begging for his life in an outdoor garbage room where he vainly sought refuge, with his mentor screaming at the militants that he is an invalid, with him crying “I’m with her”– penetrated all their defensive layers. Defensive layers lovingly built by the hasbara apparatus for years, convincing people what they see is not actually what it seems, that what looks like murder is in fact a necessary military action.

Continue reading “The inevitable cruelty of Hasbara”

There is renewed scrutiny over program where thousands of American law enforcement officers have gotten Israeli training which promotes military occupation as a positive model for community policing.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss | June 4, 2020

Thirty Georgia human rights and racial justice organizations last December came out in opposition of a program sponsored by fervent Israel supporters in which state law enforcement agencies send officers to Israel for training.

George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police on May 25 has prompted some to liken American policing methods to Israeli occupation policing, and to point out that many US police officers have gotten training from Israeli officials under the sponsorship of Israel lobby organizations.

For instance, the Morning Star published an article saying that the Minneapolis police force once received training from Israelis. The training was eight years ago and there is no evidence that the officers who killed Floyd got the training.

Continue reading “George Floyd killing highlights issue of US police training in Israel”

A statement from the Palestine Liberation Organization with affirmation to continue to demand and work for justice and accountability because they are the cornerstones of peace.

By Dr. Hanan Ashrawi | The Palestine Liberation Organization | June 5, 2020

The community of nations must choose between the relevance of the international order and the continuation of Israeli exceptionalism.

Fifty-three years ago, Israel usurped control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. This illegal military occupation has defied all legal parameters, with Israel entrenching its colonial control over Palestinian land and rights through a systematic policy of displacement, replacement, and land grab.

For over half a century, Israel has been able to consistently and brazenly defy international law and inalienable Palestinian rights because the international community unduly afforded the occupation exceptional treatment and protection from accountability. Contrary to the legal, political, and moral obligations of states to uphold international law, they persisted in rewarding lawless Israeli behavior while demanding Palestinian acquiescence and docility. The result has been a toxic culture of impunity and the normalization of racial discrimination and brutal oppression.

Continue reading “Accountability and justice are the path to peace”

Many questions arise at the failure of the press to cover the the killing of an unarmed autistic man.

By James North | Mondoweiss | June 2, 2020

Halbfinger’s refusal to say the name of Eyad Al-Halaq even extended to his Twitter feed; not a word.

At a time when headlines are dominated by the protests over the murder of an unarmed black man in the United States, the New York Times is ignoring a similar police killing in Israel. Palestine’s counterpart to George Floyd is Eyad Al-Halaq, the 32-year-old autistic man who Israeli police shot dead on May 30 inside occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City — 3 days ago. His killing is big news in Israel/Palestine, and worldwide. Some of the reports cite the slogan that echoes the nationwide upheaval in America: “Palestinian Lives Matter.”

But the New York Times has not published a single word about him.

Continue reading “Israeli police killing of Eyad Al-Halaq is ignored by the ‘New York Times’”