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A video chat, intended to build bridges between Israeli and Palestinian strangers, led some in Gaza to label the conversation itself an act of treason.

By David M. Halbfinger / Iyad Abuheweila | The New York Times | Apr 10, 2020

‘Let’s create a new kind of Netanyahu, a new kind of Abu Mazen,’
— Rami Aman, Gaza Youth Committee leader

For five years, a small but feisty group of Palestinian peace activists in the blockaded Gaza Strip has been organizing small-scale video chats with Israelis under a bridge-building initiative it calls “Skype With Your Enemy.”

On Monday, the group, the Gaza Youth Committee, drew one of its biggest crowds yet — more than 200 participants — this time on Zoom, the newly popular teleconferencing platform.

But other Palestinians in Gaza, who took umbrage at the idea of befriending Israelis, were also listening in. And the resulting public uproar prompted Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, to arrest the youth committee’s leader and several other participants.

Continue reading “Zoom call with Israelis lands a Gaza peace activist in jail”

A snapshot of a weeks time in Palestine and the many violations of human rights that occur.

By Kate | Mondoweiss | Apr 11, 2020

Israeli gunboats stationed northwest of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip chased Palestinian fishing boats sailing within the allowed fishing area (3 nautical miles) and opened fire at a fishing boat.

PCHR: In new Israeli violation, Israeli naval forces wound 2 fishermen in northern Gaza sea

BEIT LAHIA 9 Apr — Israeli naval forces continue their attacks against Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Sea preventing them from sailing and fishing freely, accessing the zones rich in fish, despite the fact that fishermen posed no threat to the lives of Israeli naval forces deployed in Gaza waters … According to the investigations of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 07:50 on Thursday, 09 April 2020, Israeli gunboats stationed northwest of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip chased Palestinian fishing boats sailing within the allowed fishing area (3 nautical miles) and opened fire at a fishing boat. As a result, two fishermen, Obai ‘Adel Mohamed Jarbou‘ (21) and Ahmed ‘Abed al-Fattah Ahmed al-Sharfi (23), were shot and injured with rubber-coated steel bullets. The young men, from al-Shati’ [‘Beach’] camp in Gaza City, were taken to the Indonesian Hospital, where their injuries were classified as minor. It should be noted that Israeli gunboats conduct daily chases of Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip, and open fire at them in order to terrify them and prevent them from sailing and accessing the zones rich in fish.

Continue reading “Despite pandemic, Israeli forces drop herbicide on Gaza and shoot at fishermen”

Does the current moment necessitate the consideration of civil disobedience and a mass nonviolent movement in the near future across the occupied Palestinian territories?

By Yaser Alashqar ] |  Mondoweiss |  Apr 8, 2020

Reaffirming international law and human rights for Palestinian people under occupation, the World Health Organization has emphasized that ‘Israel, as occupying power, retains the primary responsibility to respect, protect and fulfill the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health in the occupied Palestinian territory.’

As of April 5th, the occupied Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem, have registered 228 cases of Covid 19 (Coronavirus) and one death. While Covid 19 represents a difficult challenge to advanced nations and their strong healthcare systems, it poses a more complex and dangerous challenge to conflict zones and occupied territories, such as Palestine. Decades of displacement, dispossession, conflict, military occupation and blockade have weakened existing medical services and systemically disregarded Palestinian rights to life and health.

The Israeli occupation regime, including the checkpoints and permits system, has fragmented Palestinian towns and villages and impeded their access to healthcare. Palestinian communities in Area C, which comprises approximately 60% of the West Bank and includes the majority of Israeli settlements, suffer from deeper isolation and marginalization. They lack access and connection to the rest of the West Bank and they, unlike the Israeli residents of the nearby settlements, do not enjoy protection and healthcare support from the Israeli government.

Continue reading “From Covid-19 to the ‘Deal of the Century’ — Palestine and international law”

A public records request provides a look into the FBI’s use of intelligence and national security powers to track domestic dissent.

By Chip Gibbons | The Intercept | Apr 5, 2020

‘These cases demonstrate the FBI’s unwillingness to distinguish non-violent civil disobedience protesting government policy from terrorism,’
— Michael German, former FBI agent

In 2006, ST. Louis-based activist and academic Mark Chmiel received a message on his answering machine from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI wanted to talk to Chmiel about trip three years ago that he and other St. Louis activists took with the International Solidarity Movement to the West Bank, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. When Chmiel’s attorney reached out to the FBI, they did not respond.

Chmiel later wrote that he was motivated to travel to the West Bank by Palestinians’ calls for volunteers, international organizations’ inability to deal with the occupation, and his own country’s complicity in Israel’s actions. The International Solidarity Movement, or ISM, which would be Chmiel’s vehicle, encourages international volunteers to come to the occupied territories and engage in nonviolent direct action against the occupation. During the delegation Chmiel was on, Israel soldiers opened fire on a Palestinian protest and injured one of the St. Louis activists. An aging Holocaust survivor who was also part of the delegation was subjected to a humiliating and invasive search when departing from Israel.

Continue reading “FBI opened terrorism investigations into nonviolent Palestinian solidarity group, documents reveal”

Some 12 cases have been confirmed in Gaza, as well as hundreds in the occupied West Bank and thousands in Israel.

By Fedaa al-Qedra | Aljazeera | Apr 5, 2020

The factory also has to contend with frequent power outages that are commonplace in Gaza and last for eight hours a day, a result of the blockade and tensions between Hamas and the PA in the occupied West Bank.

Gaza City, Gaza – The Unipal garment factory in the besieged Gaza Strip has not operated at full speed for more than a decade, but on a recent morning hundreds of workers hunched over rows of sewing machines here, making medical masks and surgical gowns.

As the rapid global spread of the coronavirus pandemic triggered a surge in demand for these items last month, the factory located in an industrial zone east of Gaza City changed its business from producing clothing to sought-after medical items.

Continue reading “Gaza garment factory shifts production to masks amid coronavirus”

An Easter reflection and resources for churches, organizations and faith-based communities – local, regional, national and global – committed to the justice movement for Israel/Palestine.

By Palestine Portal | April 2020

‘The current worldwide lockdowns – even if vastly different – are a moment for all of us to reflect on our lives and the lives of others.’
— Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer

In this issue of Palestine Portal:

• Reports and reflections from Palestine in lockdown
• Advocacy by faith leaders in response to the emergency facing Gaza and child prisoners in the West Bank
• Two powerful Lenten reflections
• An extraordinary Easter Alert from Kairos Palestine
• Links for action, including a matching challenge for UNRWA

Continue reading “Approaching Easter in the midst of a global crisis, there is much to cover”

Many bookstores are closed, but you may have one of these books on your bookshelf ready to read.

By Michael Arria |Mondoweiss | Apr 3, 2020

If you’re using your social distancing time to catch up on classics you never got around to, this book by the late, great Edward Said is a good place to start. The ‘Question of Palestine’ is nearly 30 years old now, but it’s as relevant as ever before.

Many people throughout the world are presumably catching up on their reading during this time of social distancing and self-isolation. Last week The Guardian reported that online sales at United Kingdom book chain Waterstones have risen by 400% since it closed the doors of its physical stores. Below is a list of books Israel/Palestine that we recommend.

Continue reading “Here’s 10 books on Palestine to read while social distancing”

An updated report examining the groundbreaking 1998 work by Richard Curtiss, ‘The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers,’  published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

By  Pamela Olson and If Americans Knew Analysts | If Americans Knew  | Apr 1, 2020

 The US has, in fact, given more aid to Israel than it has to all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean combined—which have a total population of over a billion people.
— Richard Curtiss, retired Foreign Service Officer

The U.S. gives Israel over $10 million per day of Americans’ tax money, approximately $7,000 per minute. On average, the US has given Israelis over 7,000 times more than to other people around the world. And on top of this, the US gives Egypt and Jordan large aid packages on behalf of Israel. And there is more…

Continue reading “The staggering cost of Israel to Americans: The facts”

Home demolitions, attacks and harassment by Israeli military continues during the paralyzing healthcare crisis.

By Yumna Patel |Mondoweiss | Apr 1, 2020

 …the ’real weakness’ in the Palestinian’s efforts to fight the spread of the coronavirus is the Israeli occupation.
—Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, who has taken the lead role in Palestine’s fight against COVID-19

When the Palestinian Authority (PA) first announced a state of emergency over the coronavirus in early March, an initial panic swept over the occupied territory, as checkpoints and borders with Israel were closed, and entire cities were shut down.

In the early days of the outbreak, which was initially contained to the city of Bethlehem, there was a joke going around between Palestinians that, perhaps, a global pandemic could offer a temporary respite from the terrors of the Israeli occupation.

But even as most aspects of everyday life have been turned upside down in Israel, Palestine, and the rest of the world, the one thing that has remained steady in the lives of Palestinians, is the presence of the occupation.

Continue reading “In the midst of global pandemic, Israeli occupation thrives”

A plea for action to help Palestinians in Gaza by lifting the blockade and immediately delivering medical supplies.

By IfNotNow | The Action Network |  March 2020

… 1.8 million people only have access to enough COVID-19 test kits for 190 people, meaning only 1 in every 9,473 Palestinians there can be tested.

In response to the Coronavirus global pandemic, governments across the world are enacting emergency measures in order to protect the health of their citizens and stabilize their economies. However, 1.8 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip appear to be on the precipice of catastrophe — and the Israeli government, which controls what goes in and out of Gaza, has a responsibility to act now.

Palestinians in Gaza must now weather the Coronavirus in addition to the punishing, 15-year-long Israeli blockade of the coastal enclave. The international community must do everything it can to protect everyone in the world from this pandemic — and this must include the stateless Palestinians in Gaza, whose lives are controlled by the Israeli military.

Continue reading “Demand Israel protect Palestinians in Gaza”