Palestine

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Re: Palestine

Postby Belligerent Savant » Thu May 24, 2018 1:13 am

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https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/05/ ... a-massacre



PROPAGANDA 101: HOW TO DEFEND A MASSACRE

An introductory course in massaging your crimes and dehumanizing your enemies…

If you are a human being, as you probably are, you might think it would be difficult to explain away the massacre of several dozen people. And you might think that it would be difficult to get justifications for mass murder printed in one of the world’s leading newspapers. You would, however, be mistaken. Propaganda defending murder is both simple to produce and alarmingly common in major media outlets.

In order to understand how people can defend acts that should shock the conscience, today we’re going to examine and dissect a particularly galling example. Last week, 60 Palestinians were killed, and 1700 wounded (including being permanently disabled) by the Israeli military during the Nakba protest, when Palestinians attempted to breach the fortified wall surrounding Gaza. Much of the news coverage in the New York Times was already disturbingly one-sided, and the paper ran a front-page story on how Palestinians’ deaths made Israelis feel (they “hoped every bullet was justified”) while suggesting that Gazans exploit their own suffering for “political” ends (it’s a place “where private pain is often paraded for political causes”). But yesterday, the paper topped itself, running an op-ed from Jewish Journal editor Shmuel Rosner entitled “Israel Needs to Protect Its Borders. By Whatever Means Necessary.”

Rosner fully justifies the massacre, with no apologies, regret, or second thoughts. He believes the killing of these Palestinians was correct, and that they deserved to die. Now you might, as I do, think this attitude is so self-evidently barbaric that even to debate it is to surrender a little bit of one’s humanity. But Rosner’s position is not a fringe one, and the good liberals at the New York Times consider it within the boundaries of reasonable discourse, so unfortunately we have not yet achieved the kind of world in which such thinking is “self-evidently” immoral. (This reflects very badly on all of us.)
I’d like, then, to go through Rosner’s argument paragraph by paragraph, to show how he constructs his defense of murder, why it might be persuasive to people, and why it fails and should horrify everyone.

Let’s begin:

ROSNER: It is customary to adopt an apologetic tone when scores of people have been killed, as they were this week in Gaza. But I will avoid this sanctimonious instinct and declare coldly: Israel had a clear objective when it was shooting, sometimes to kill, well-organized “demonstrators” near the border. Israel was determined to prevent these people — some of whom are believed to have been armed, most apparently encouraged by their radical government — from crossing the fence separating Israel from Gaza. That objective was achieved.

A few notes about what Rosner does here. First, he says that while it would be “customary” to sound apologetic about a massacre, he will avoid the “instinct” to be “sanctimonious” and admit that Israel had a “clear objective,” which it “achieved.” I put these words in quotes because each serves a particular function: “customary” makes it sound as if regret over deaths is mere arbitrary tradition rather than a humane reaction to suffering, “instinct” suggests that being saddened by suffering is irrational sentimentality, to be contrasted with cool reason. “Sanctimonious” suggests that feeling bad when your country murders people is mere self-interested virtue-signaling instead of the basic response of a moral human being. “Achieving objectives” is bureaucratic language, business language, a softer way to describe Israel’s actions that sounds rational (far more so than “shooting people through the neck,” which is what actually happened). We see, then, that in propaganda, as many words as possible should be carefully shaded in order to leave the impression that one is simply being reasonable and cool-headed, as opposed to the touchy-feely saps who cry when they see people being shot.

Propaganda Suggestion #1: You are not ideological, you are just following Reason where it leads you. Those who disagree with you are soft, irrational, emotional, feminine.

Elsewhere, we see other manipulative rhetorical tactics: “demonstrators” in quotes, and phrases like “believed to have been armed” and “apparently encouraged by their radical government.” “Apparently” and “believed to” are good ways to avoid having to present actual evidence; it doesn’t matter whether something was true if it was “believed to have been true.” “Radical” is another good propaganda word: You don’t actually have to analyze whether the other party has sound claims under moral principle and international law. It’s enough to say that they are “radical.” It’s an empty term, though: Radical just means “far away from mainstream orthodoxy.” If mainstream orthodoxy turns out to be horrendous, the radicals are correct. (The Radical Republicans, for instance, were vindicated by history.)

Propaganda Suggestion #2: You are being undermined and assaulted by radicals. It is said that the radicals are violent. It is believed that they are deranged and must be stopped.

ROSNER: Of course, the death of humans is never a happy occasion. Still, I feel no need to engage in ingénue mourning. Guarding the border was more important than avoiding killing, and guarding the border is what Israel did successfully.

“Ingénue”: grief is weakness, femininity, naïveté. Grief makes you a little French girl. Notice that the effects here are not achieved through arguments, but through subtle subconscious word association. Then, a false dichotomy: Either you believe in guarding the border, or you believe in “avoiding killing.” But there is no actual explanation of why those who crossed the border couldn’t have been arrested. Imagine if our own Border Patrol simply started shooting everyone in the head the moment they crossed into the United States. I dearly hope we would instantly recognize that “Well, guarding the border was more important than avoiding killing” would be no defense at all. In fact, Rosner’s op-ed is terrifying because the New York Times is presenting as reasonable an argument that, if accepted, could easily be used to justify the mass killing of undocumented people trying to cross into the United States. “Security” is so powerful and vague an idea that it can be used to justify absolutely anything.

ROSNER: Why so many thousands of Gazans decided to approach that fence, even though they were warned that such acts would be lethal, is beyond comprehension. Excuses and explanations are many: The event was declared a “march of return,” supposedly an attempt by Palestinian refugees to return to their places of origin within Israel; it was tied in many news reports to the opening of the American embassy in Jerusalem; it was explained by referring to undesirable living conditions in Gaza and the lack of prospects for improvement; it was explained as related to intra-Palestinian political conflict and to the need of Hamas, the terrorist group that runs Gaza, to divert the attention from its many failures. All of those things may have some degree of validity, but they don’t explain why people joined these demonstrations.

Gazans’ actions are apparently “beyond comprehension.” This single phrase is worth dwelling on. One step in dehumanizing people is setting them beyond our capacity to empathize with, whether it’s “animal” gang members or those with a “disease of the Arab mind.” Once people are placed “beyond reason,” then violence against them is easier to justify, because it’s The Only Language They Can Possibly Understand. This is constantly happening with Palestinians and Arabs generally: They are treated as unfathomable and fanatical, irrational monomaniacs without human complexity. Notably, Rosner sees his lack of comprehension as a sign of Gazans’ failure to be comprehensible rather than his own failure to comprehend them. Usually, motives are not totally inscrutable when we exercise empathy, as everyone is human, but propaganda is constantly attempting to portray the Enemy as fundamentally different from us, unreasoning brutes and barbarians who do not have sophisticated reasons for what they do.

Propaganda Suggestion #3: The enemy is not reasonable like you. They cannot be understood, for their motives are not rational. They are dark, violent, terrifying, deranged, You only have two options: Kill or be killed. Any killing you do is therefore necessary by definition.

We can also note, in this paragraph, a bit of nakedly fallacious reasoning: From the fact that there were several causes of the Palestinian protests, Rosner concludes that they are inexplicable and that the proffered causes must be “excuses.” Then there’s his statement that none of the listed factors “explain why people joined these demonstrations.” Unlivable conditions in Gaza combined with the anniversary of Palestinians’ expulsion from their ancestral land certainly seems enough to me, but those things make Palestinians sound quite rational so naturally they can’t be accepted as explanations.


More at link.
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Re: Palestine

Postby Elvis » Mon Jul 09, 2018 6:15 am

Related:

In the past I've been very critical of BBC "Hard Talk" interviewer Stephen Sackur, but credit due here, where he really gets after the super-slippery mayor of Jerusalem and doesn't let up. I heard it on radio, now interesting to see the video; Barkat has some odd tics, which may or may not be body language 'tells.'


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtYWnAD4CIU

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswj43

Mayor of Jerusalem - Nir Barkat
HARDtalk

HARDTalk is in Jerusalem, an ancient city which arguably stirs more passion, argument and hostility than any other. Israel claims all of it as its eternal, undivided capital - a claim at odds with international law and much world opinion, but boosted by President Trump's decision to move the US embassy there. Stephen Sackur talks to Jerusalem's two term mayor Nir Barkat. Can Israel conclusively win the struggle for Jerusalem?


I think the main thing with these BBC interviewers is a good story, and they want to be seen as tough on their subjects. Not to discount their considerable biases and frequent stretching & twisting of the facts, which goes deeper than just generating a story to hold people's attention. Sometimes the "toughness" is really a softball; you can tell when it evaporates after the expected answer.
“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” ― Joan Robinson
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Re: Palestine

Postby Belligerent Savant » Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:05 pm

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Re: Palestine

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Sep 09, 2018 9:27 am

Trump axes $25m in aid for Palestinians in East Jerusalem hospitals

Reuters in Washington
Sat 8 Sep 2018 13.40 EDT

Palestinian foreign ministry protests act of ‘direct aggression’

Cut is latest to US aid following series of pro-Israel moves

Donald Trump has ordered that $25m earmarked for the care of Palestinians in East Jerusalem hospitals be directed elsewhere as part of a review of American aid, a US state department official said on Saturday.

A statement from the Palestinian foreign ministry said the cut was part of a US attempt “to liquidate the Palestinian cause” and said it would threaten the lives of thousands of Palestinians and the livelihoods of thousands of hospital employees.

“This dangerous and unjustified American escalation has crossed all red lines and is considered a direct aggression against the Palestinian people,” it said.

Trump called for a review of US assistance to the Palestinians earlier this year, saying it was meant to ensure the funds were being spent in accordance with US national interests and were providing value to taxpayers.

“As a result of that review, at the direction of the president, we will be redirecting approximately $25m originally planned for the East Jerusalem hospital network,” the state department official said on Saturday. “Those funds will go to high-priority projects elsewhere.“

The hospitals cut is the latest action by the Trump administration to have alienated Palestinians, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city. That was a reversal of longtime US policy and led Palestinian leadership to boycott peace efforts led by Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law.

Last month, the Trump administration said it would redirect $200m in Palestinian economic support funds for programs in the West Bank and Gaza.

At the end of August, the Trump administration halted all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Palestinian refugees reacted with dismay, warning the cuts will lead to more poverty, anger and instability in the Middle East.

Washington said UNRWA needed to make unspecified reforms and called on the Palestinians to renew peace talks with Israel. The last US-brokered talks collapsed in 2014.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... -hospitals


Trump Cuts $25 mn in Aid to Hospitals serving Palestinians in E. Jerusalem

AFP 09/09/2018

Washington (AFP) – The United States plans to cut $25 million in aid to six hospitals primarily serving Palestinians in Jerusalem, a State Department official confirmed Saturday.

The official said the decision followed a President Donald Trump-directed review of assistance to the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank and Gaza “to ensure these funds were being spent in accordance with US national interests and were providing value to the US taxpayer.”

“As a result of that review, at the direction of the president, we will be redirecting approximately $25 million originally planned for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network. Those funds will go to high-priority projects elsewhere.”

Palestinians reacted angrily.

“This is not a formula of peacebuilding, this is a complete inhuman and immoral action that adopts the Israeli right-wing narrative to target and punish Palestinian citizens to compromise their rights to independence,” said Ahmad Shami, a spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

“Such an act of political blackmail goes against the norms of human decency and morality,” added Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee.

In the past, the US funds made it possible for many Palestinians to seek specialized treatment — such as cardiac surgery, neonatal intensive care or children’s dialysis — unavailable in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.

Palestinian officials vociferously protested US President Donald Trump’s December 2017 decision to recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. They accuse him of using aid as a coarse lever to force them back to peace negotiations with Israel.

The Trump administration this year cut funds to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and scrapped around $200 million in payments by USAID to the Palestinians.

Trump made it clear Thursday he was working to force the Palestinians to negotiate.

“You’ll get money, but we’re not paying you until we make a deal,” he said in Washington. “If we don’t make a deal, we’re not paying.”

Instead, Palestinians say his position has weakened moderates and encouraged radicals across the Middle East.

https://www.juancole.com/2018/09/hospit ... salem.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Palestine

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:24 am

Palestinians slam U.S. ‘vicious blackmail’ as their Washington office is closed down
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mi ... 6fe394c382
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Palestine

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Oct 18, 2018 9:10 pm

U.S. merges consulate in Jerusalem with embassy, in a blow to Palestinians

By ALENA SADIQ10/18/2018 05:30 PM EDT

U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Thursday that the U.S. Consulate General office in Jerusalem is being merged into the new embassy in the city. | Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images
The Trump administration is merging the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem into the new U.S. Embassy there, a move critics say is the latest U.S. slap at the Palestinians and one that could further undermine hopes for a two-state solution.

The U.S. Consulate General effectively functioned as a direct point of contact for the Palestinians, whose leadership did not want to go through the U.S. Embassy in Israel. Much of its work is expected to be handled by a Palestinian Affairs Unit.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in announcing the change Thursday, said the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, would guide the merger. A former Trump administration official had told POLITICO that Friedman was pushing for unifying the two missions.

Pompeo implied that the move was a cost-saving measure and insisted it had no bearing on U.S. policy.

“This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations,” he said. “It does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.”

But former officials and analysts disagreed with that assessment.

Dan Shapiro, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration, argued that the decision downgrades diplomatic relations with the Palestinians.

“It is not consistent with the goal of achieving a two-state solution, and that is how it will be understood by both sides,” he said in a statement. “It is very unlikely that the Palestinian Authority will engage the U.S. government through the embassy to Israel.”

Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, said in a statement that the Trump administration was working with the Israeli government to create “Greater Israel.”

He noted that President Donald Trump had made other moves that appear to undermine the Palestinians, including recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, not doing enough to stop Israeli settlement construction in land claimed by Palestinians, and cutting funding for Palestinian refugees.

“The U.S. administration has fully endorsed the Israeli narrative, including on Jerusalem, refugees and settlements,” Erekat said.

Others saw it as a welcome break from long-standing U.S. policy.

Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, wrote on Twitter that the announcement “ends the last vestige of American support for the city’s division.”

“Israel is deeply grateful,” he added.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee also tweeted support, saying the move “treats Israel like every other country, and corrects an historic anomaly.”

Pompeo stressed in his statement that the U.S. was not taking any position on the issue of final borders of two potential future states, including who controls what in Jerusalem.

“The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties,” he said.

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/ ... lem-913240
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Palestine

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Dec 13, 2018 9:08 am

Palestine in Pictures: November 2018

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https://electronicintifada.net/sites/de ... epherd.jpg
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https://electronicintifada.net/content/ ... 2018/26131


US tries to stop Ireland banning imports from Israel’s settlements

Ciaran Tierney The Electronic Intifada 4 December 2018


Veteran US lawmaker Peter King has lobbied against an Irish attempt to ban goods from Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Bill Clark CQ Roll Call Photos/Newscom
A prominent US politician has lobbied Irish lawmakers to reject a proposed ban on imports from Israel’s illegal settlements.

Peter King, a member of Congress for New York, is among those who have opposed a bill being debated in Dublin.

Although the bill – aimed at forbidding goods from Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank – seeks to uphold international law, King has depicted it as subversive.

King has tried to convince Fianna Fáil, one of Ireland’s largest parties, to withdraw its support for the proposed ban.

“It is critical that countries and leaders interested in facilitating a lasting peace amongst Israelis and Palestinians not serve to empower the most radical, who have no interest in seeking peace,” King stated in an email message addressed to Fianna Fáil’s team in the Oireachtas, Ireland’s national parliament.

He argued that the proposed ban on settlement goods “does just that by undercutting Palestinians truly interested in peace and empowering Hamas terrorists and recalcitrant Palestinians who refuse even to approach negotiations.”

King’s appeal was made in July and has not been previously reported.

Despite his strong connections with Ireland’s politicians, King could not persuade Fianna Fáil to change its stance. The party’s lawmakers have twice voted in favor of the Occupied Territories Bill, as the proposed ban on settlement goods is known.

Niall Collins, Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson on foreign affairs, confirmed that King had been in contact with the party. Collins added that staff from the US embassy in Dublin had visited him “a couple of times,” urging him to oppose the bill.

“Huge issue”

During a trip to the West Bank in the summer, Collins was taken aback by the scale of Israel’s settlement activities.

“I struggle to see how a two-state solution can ever be achieved because of the whole proliferation of the settlements,” Collins told The Electronic Intifada. “The whole West Bank now is so fragmented that I struggle to see how that pipe dream can occur.”

The position taken by Fianna Fáil has proven vital towards having the bill approved by the Seanad, the upper house in the Oireachtas. Nominally in opposition, Fianna Fáil is enabling the work of a minority government led by its rival Fine Gael through a “confidence and supply” arrangement.

Whereas Fine Gael has tried to torpedo the Occupied Territories Bill, Fianna Fáil has backed it.

Fianna Fáil has previously proven accommodating to the US elite. While in government, it allowed the US to refuel military planes in Shannon Airport at the time of the 2003 war against Iraq.

But on the issue of Israel’s settlement goods, Fianna Fáil has listened to public opinion.

Collins acknowledged that he was unaware of the depth of Irish empathy for the Palestinians until he became his party’s foreign affairs spokesperson earlier this year.

“I was very surprised at the time,” he said. “But I understand now that Palestine is a huge issue for people in Ireland.”

Reactionary

The arguments made by Peter King smack of double standards. His use of the term “terrorists” to describe Palestinian resistance fighters is at odds with how he has previously defended Irish republicans involved in an armed struggle.

Although he suggests that Hamas should be isolated, King encouraged dialogue with Irish republicans at a time when the British government was refusing to deal with them. He has taken credit for persuading Bill Clinton, then US president, to issue a visa for Gerry Adams, then leader of the political party Sinn Féin, in 1994.

Adams’ visit to New York is widely recognized as having helped to advance the Irish peace process.

Equally, King is wrong to assert that a ban on settlement goods would undercut Palestinians “truly interested in peace.” His argument overlooks how Israel’s apartheid system – including its relentless colonization of the West Bank – is the primary obstacle to peace and justice.

The ban being considered in Ireland aims to make Israel pay a price for its settlement activities. Under the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention, building settlements in a territory acquired by force is a war crime.

In the recent past, King has proven to be an especially reactionary member of Congress. He has, for example, supported President Donald Trump’s attempts to prevent residents of seven largely Muslim countries from entering the US.

King did not respond to a request for comment.

Inspired by a strike

Advocates of the ban on settlement goods have drawn inspiration from a strike by staff of the Irish retailer Dunnes Stores in the 1980s. By refusing to handle South African goods, the Dublin strikers made a significant contribution to an international campaign that would ultimately result in sanctions being imposed on Pretoria’s apartheid government.

“We are being watched from all over the world,” said Frances Black, the Irish senator who formally proposed the Occupied Territories Bill. “If this legislation gets through here in Ireland, I have no doubt that other countries will follow suit – just like what happened with the Dunnes Stores workers in Dublin.”

Black, also a well-known singer, has been touring Ireland over the past few months to promote a ban on Israeli settlement goods.

She has been critical of the uncooperative response from Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister and a leading figure in the Fine Gael party.

Coveney’s claims that – as a European Union member – Ireland may not unilaterally ban Israel’s settlement goods have been disputed by a number of lawyers. The lawyers insist that individual countries are entitled to restrict trade for reasons of public policy.

“I think the Irish government is probably fearful of Ireland leading on this,” said Black. “They are fearful of what the European Union and the United States might say. They said the same thing with the Dunnes Stores workers – that we couldn’t lead on this – but I’m saying that we can lead on this and that the people of Ireland want this.”

Ciaran Tierney is a journalist based in Galway, Ireland. Website:
https://electronicintifada.net/content/ ... ents/26161
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Palestine

Postby Grizzly » Fri Dec 14, 2018 12:03 am

“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

― Joseph mengele
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Re: Palestine

Postby Belligerent Savant » Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:23 am

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A rare sight at NY Times....

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/19/opin ... srael.html


Time to Break the Silence on Palestine

Martin Luther King Jr. courageously spoke out about the Vietnam War. We must do the same when it comes to this grave injustice of our time.

By Michelle Alexander

Opinion Columnist

Jan. 19, 2019


On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped up to the lectern at the Riverside Church in Manhattan. The United States had been in active combat in Vietnam for two years and tens of thousands of people had been killed, including some 10,000 American troops. The political establishment — from left to right — backed the war, and more than 400,000 American service members were in Vietnam, their lives on the line.

Many of King’s strongest allies urged him to remain silent about the war or at least to soft-pedal any criticism. They knew that if he told the whole truth about the unjust and disastrous war he would be falsely labeled a Communist, suffer retaliation and severe backlash, alienate supporters and threaten the fragile progress of the civil rights movement.

King rejected all the well-meaning advice and said, “I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice.” Quoting a statement by the Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, he said, “A time comes when silence is betrayal” and added, “that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.”

It was a lonely, moral stance. And it cost him. But it set an example of what is required of us if we are to honor our deepest values in times of crisis, even when silence would better serve our personal interests or the communities and causes we hold most dear. It’s what I think about when I go over the excuses and rationalizations that have kept me largely silent on one of the great moral challenges of our time: the crisis in Israel-Palestine.

I have not been alone. Until very recently, the entire Congress has remained mostly silent on the human rights nightmare that has unfolded in the occupied territories. Our elected representatives, who operate in a political environment where Israel's political lobby holds well-documented power, have consistently minimized and deflected criticism of the State of Israel, even as it has grown more emboldened in its occupation of Palestinian territory and adopted some practices reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the United States.

Many civil rights activists and organizations have remained silent as well, not because they lack concern or sympathy for the Palestinian people, but because they fear loss of funding from foundations, and false charges of anti-Semitism. They worry, as I once did, that their important social justice work will be compromised or discredited by smear campaigns.


Similarly, many students are fearful of expressing support for Palestinian rights because of the McCarthyite tactics of secret organizations like Canary Mission, which blacklists those who publicly dare to support boycotts against Israel, jeopardizing their employment prospects and future careers.

Reading King’s speech at Riverside more than 50 years later, I am left with little doubt that his teachings and message require us to speak out passionately against the human rights crisis in Israel-Palestine, despite the risks and despite the complexity of the issues. King argued, when speaking of Vietnam, that even “when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict,” we must not be mesmerized by uncertainty. “We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.”

And so, if we are to honor King’s message and not merely the man, we must condemn Israel’s actions: unrelenting violations of international law, continued occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, home demolitions and land confiscations. We must cry out at the treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, the routine searches of their homes and restrictions on their movements, and the severely limited access to decent housing, schools, food, hospitals and water that many of them face.

We must not tolerate Israel’s refusal even to discuss the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, as prescribed by United Nations resolutions, and we ought to question the U.S. government funds that have supported multiple hostilities and thousands of civilian casualties in Gaza, as well as the $38 billion the U.S. government has pledged in military support to Israel.

And finally, we must, with as much courage and conviction as we can muster, speak out against the system of legal discrimination that exists inside Israel, a system complete with, according to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, more than 50 laws that discriminate against Palestinians — such as the new nation-state law that says explicitly that only Jewish Israelis have the right of self-determination in Israel, ignoring the rights of the Arab minority that makes up 21 percent of the population.

Of course, there will be those who say that we can’t know for sure what King would do or think regarding Israel-Palestine today. That is true. The evidence regarding King’s views on Israel is complicated and contradictory.

Although the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee denounced Israel’s actions against Palestinians, King found himself conflicted. Like many black leaders of the time, he recognized European Jewry as a persecuted, oppressed and homeless people striving to build a nation of their own, and he wanted to show solidarity with the Jewish community, which had been a critically important ally in the civil rights movement.

Ultimately, King canceled a pilgrimage to Israel in 1967 after Israel captured the West Bank. During a phone call about the visit with his advisers, he said, “I just think that if I go, the Arab world, and of course Africa and Asia for that matter, would interpret this as endorsing everything that Israel has done, and I do have questions of doubt.”

He continued to support Israel’s right to exist but also said on national television that it would be necessary for Israel to return parts of its conquered territory to achieve true peace and security and to avoid exacerbating the conflict. There was no way King could publicly reconcile his commitment to nonviolence and justice for all people, everywhere, with what had transpired after the 1967 war.

Today, we can only speculate about where King would stand. Yet I find myself in agreement with the historian Robin D.G. Kelley, who concluded that, if King had the opportunity to study the current situation in the same way he had studied Vietnam, “his unequivocal opposition to violence, colonialism, racism and militarism would have made him an incisive critic of Israel’s current policies.”

Indeed, King’s views may have evolved alongside many other spiritually grounded thinkers, like Rabbi Brian Walt, who has spoken publicly about the reasons that he abandoned his faith in what he viewed as political Zionism. To him, he recently explained to me, liberal Zionism meant that he believed in the creation of a Jewish state that would be a desperately needed safe haven and cultural center for Jewish people around the world, "a state that would reflect as well as honor the highest ideals of the Jewish tradition.” He said he grew up in South Africa in a family that shared those views and identified as a liberal Zionist, until his experiences in the occupied territories forever changed him.

During more than 20 visits to the West Bank and Gaza, he saw horrific human rights abuses, including Palestinian homes being bulldozed while people cried — children's toys strewn over one demolished site — and saw Palestinian lands being confiscated to make way for new illegal settlements subsidized by the Israeli government. He was forced to reckon with the reality that these demolitions, settlements and acts of violent dispossession were not rogue moves, but fully supported and enabled by the Israeli military. For him, the turning point was witnessing legalized discrimination against Palestinians — including streets for Jews only — which, he said, was worse in some ways than what he had witnessed as a boy in South Africa.

Not so long ago, it was fairly rare to hear this perspective. That is no longer the case.

Jewish Voice for Peace, for example, aims to educate the American public about “the forced displacement of approximately 750,000 Palestinians that began with Israel’s establishment and that continues to this day.” Growing numbers of people of all faiths and backgrounds have spoken out with more boldness and courage. American organizations such as If Not Now support young American Jews as they struggle to break the deadly silence that still exists among too many people regarding the occupation, and hundreds of secular and faith-based groups have joined the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

In view of these developments, it seems the days when critiques of Zionism and the actions of the State of Israel can be written off as anti-Semitism are coming to an end. There seems to be increased understanding that criticism of the policies and practices of the Israeli government is not, in itself, anti-Semitic.

This is not to say that anti-Semitism is not real. Neo-Nazism is resurging in Germany within a growing anti-immigrant movement. Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose 57 percent in 2017, and many of us are still mourning what is believed to be the deadliest attack on Jewish people in American history. We must be mindful in this climate that, while criticism of Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic, it can slide there.

Fortunately, people like the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II are leading by example, pledging allegiance to the fight against anti-Semitism while also demonstrating unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people struggling to survive under Israeli occupation.

He declared in a riveting speech last year that we cannot talk about justice without addressing the displacement of native peoples, the systemic racism of colonialism and the injustice of government repression. In the same breath he said: “I want to say, as clearly as I know how, that the humanity and the dignity of any person or people cannot in any way diminish the humanity and dignity of another person or another people. To hold fast to the image of God in every person is to insist that the Palestinian child is as precious as the Jewish child.”

None of this is to say that the tide has turned entirely or that retaliation has ceased against those who express strong support for Palestinian rights. To the contrary, just as King received fierce, overwhelming criticism for his speech condemning the Vietnam War — 168 major newspapers, including The Times, denounced the address the following day — those who speak publicly in support of the liberation of the Palestinian people still risk condemnation and backlash.

Bahia Amawi, an American speech pathologist of Palestinian descent, was recently terminated for refusing to sign a contract that contains an anti-boycott pledge stating that she does not, and will not, participate in boycotting the State of Israel. In November, Marc Lamont Hill was fired from CNN for giving a speech in support of Palestinian rights that was grossly misinterpreted as expressing support for violence. Canary Mission continues to pose a serious threat to student activists.

And just over a week ago, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama, apparently under pressure mainly from segments of the Jewish community and others, rescinded an honor it bestowed upon the civil rights icon Angela Davis, who has been a vocal critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and supports B.D.S.

But that attack backfired.
Within 48 hours, academics and activists had mobilized in response. The mayor of Birmingham, Randall Woodfin, as well as the Birmingham School Board and the City Council, expressed outrage at the institute’s decision. The council unanimously passed a resolution in Davis’ honor, and an alternative event is being organized to celebrate her decades-long commitment to liberation for all.

I cannot say for certain that King would applaud Birmingham for its zealous defense of Angela Davis’s solidarity with Palestinian people. But I do. In this new year, I aim to speak with greater courage and conviction about injustices beyond our borders, particularly those that are funded by our government, and stand in solidarity with struggles for democracy and freedom. My conscience leaves me no other choice.

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Re: Palestine

Postby Grizzly » Tue Jan 22, 2019 4:07 pm

My conscience leaves me no other choice.


hahahaha.....
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

― Joseph mengele
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Re: Palestine

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Aug 02, 2019 8:23 pm

EX-ISRAELI PM Ehud Olmert cancels Swiss trip, fearing arrest
Jul 25, 2019 - 16:54
ehud olmert
Olmert, Israeli PM from 2006-2009, pictured here in 2015.
(Keystone / Debbie Hill)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has cancelled a planned visit to Switzerland, citing fears of arrest on charges of war crimes.

Olmert, prime minister of Israel between 2006 and 2009, claimed on Thursday he had information that Swiss authorities wanted to “question and eventually arrest him”.

The charges, the 73-year-old said, related to his role in the “Operation Cast Lead” offensive launched in Gaza in 2008-2009, which claimed over 1,400 Palestinian and 13 Israeli lives.

The Swiss ministry of foreign affairs deferred questions to the Attorney General’s Office. The latter said it was currently not conducting any criminal proceedings against Olmert.

As for the Federal Office for Justice, it told the Keystone-SDA news agency that it had received no extradition or legal cooperation requests. Even if it had, Keystone pointed out, such requests are kept secret.

It’s not the first time a former Israeli leader has faced questioning or the threat of arrest in Europe. In 2016, British police summoned Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni for questioning about possible war crimes in Gaza.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/ex-israeli ... -/45121622
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Re: Palestine

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Oct 10, 2019 9:37 am


Publish Date: 2019/10/10
Japan funds six grassroots human security projects in Palestine


RAMALLAH, Thursday, October 10, 2019 (WAFA) - Grant contracts for six grassroots human security projects (GGP) were signed today by Masayuki Magoshi, Ambassador for the Palestinian Affairs and Representative of Japan to Palestine, and the representatives of Joint Service Council for Solid Waste Management - North and North West of Jerusalem, Agricultural Society for the Wall Affected, Palestinian Youth Union/ PYU, Jericho Women Charitable Society, Beit Sahour Cooperative Society, and Gruppo di Volontariato Civile at the Representative Office of Japan to Palestine in Ramallah for a total amount of $534,410.

Joint Service Council for Solid Waste Management will use a fund of $90,180 for the installation of 540 waste containers. This project aims at improving the solid waste management and ensuring safe environment and public health for 16 communities in north and northwest Jerusalem.

The Agricultural Society for the Wall Affected will use a fund of $90,000 for installing solar panel system in Alwalaydeh Bedouin community. This project aims at improving the access to electricity, so that farmers will be able to use the electricity in producing dairy products as a source of income.

Palestinian Youth Union/ PYU will use a fund of $89,971 for the installation and the rehabilitation of 11 schools for students with disabilities. The construction under this project will provide 16 wheel chair slopes, 113 toilets (7 multipurpose toilets), and 7 water drinking places.

Jericho Women Charitable Society will use a fund of $90,279 for installing solar panel system at the society school with the aim of providing sufficient power for the operation of air conditioning systems in the classrooms as well as improving the educational environments for the students in the Jericho Women Charitable Society.

Beit Sahour Cooperative Society for Health Welfare will use a fund of $89,500 for providing the hospital with Endoscopy unit. It aims at improving the medical services of the Shepherd’s Field Hospital, so it will no longer refer patients to other medical centers.

Gruppo di Volontariato Civile will use a fund of $84,480 to improve the access to water resources in three areas located in Tubas and Qalqilya governorates. This will be achieved through the construction and the rehabilitation of 15 water cisterns in Khirbet Yarza and Al Aqaba in Tubas Governorate as well as the extension of 1.2 km main irrigation pipeline and the installation of five water tanks in Azzoun in Qalqilya Governorate.

Magoshi congratulated the recipients of the grants and wished them success in their projects. He emphasized Japan’s firm commitment of supporting Palestinian people from human security perspective as well as the importance of implementing social and economic development projects needed for Palestinian communities.

Since 1993 the Government of Japan has extended its official development assistance amounting to approximately $1.9 billion to the Palestinians. GGP projects have been formulated in collaboration with the Palestinian Authority through Ministry of Finance and Planning since 2010.

M.K.
http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=tzZ ... 452atzZYrj


Hacker found guilty of “terror and intimidation” against Palestine activists
Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 9 October 2019

A French court has confirmed the conviction of a Jewish extremist for hacking the computers of Palestine solidarity activists.

CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, the group targeted by the hacker, said that the court of appeal in Paris last week sentenced “Jonathan B.,” to eight months in prison with suspension and $26,000 in damages and fines.

The perpetrator, who has been previously named as Jonathan Bouaziz, is a member of the Brigade Juive, or Jewish Brigade, a pro-Israel extremist group.

In April 2016, Bouaziz hacked into the computers of two activists, Olivia Zémor and Nicolas Shahshahani, and stole their data and mailing lists.

The following June, many Palestine solidarity activists received death threats signed by Brigade Juive, threatening to “scalp you one by one.”

In 2017, a criminal court in Paris convicted Bouaziz for the hacking.

That court fined him and sentenced him to six months of confinement that would be served via electronic monitoring.

“Terror and intimidation”

The trial court ruled that the crimes committed by Bouaziz amounted to “a direct and determined attack on freedom of opinion by terror and intimidation against those who did not share his opinion,” according to the publication Le Courrier de l’Atlas.

CAPJPO-EuroPalestine says a suspected accomplice of Bouaziz escaped French justice by absconding to Israel.

Israel generally refuses to extradite Jewish suspects and thus serves as a refuge for several fugitives.

One of the most high profile is Grégory Chelli, also known as Ulcan.

Chelli is a pro-Israel extremist who is facing trial in France in connection with the death of the father of a journalist who published reports critical of Chelli’s hacking attacks on Palestine solidarity groups.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/al ... -activists
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Re: Palestine

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Oct 19, 2019 10:25 am

Palestine in Pictures: September 2019
The Electronic Intifada 30 September 2019
Image

Israeli forces detain Palestinian protesters prior to the arrival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a state memorial ceremony at the Ibrahimi mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron on 4 September. Netanyahu gave a speech on the 90th anniversary of the killing 67 Jews in the city, becoming the first Israeli premier to deliver such an address and the first to visit since Ariel Sharon in 2002.
Mosab Shawer APA images
Israeli occupation forces killed four Palestinians during September.

Two were children shot while participating in Great March of Return protests along the Gaza-Israel boundary fence on 6 September.

Ali Sami Ali al-Ashqar, 17, was hit in the chest with a live bullet that exited through his neck, according to Defense for Children International Palestine.

Khalid Abu Bakr al-Rabai, 14, was hit by a live bullet in his right side.

A third Palestinian, Saher Awadallah Jeer Othman, 20, was killed when he was shot in the chest by an Israeli army sniper while participating in the protests on 27 September.

More than 210 Palestinians, including 46 children, have been killed during Great March of Return protests since their launch in early 2018. Some 9,200 others have been wounded by live fire, including 1,900 children.

At least 1,200 of those injured will require limb reconstruction, according to the World Health Organization.

The fourth Palestinian killed during the month was a woman shot by guards at Qalandiya checkpoint, located between Jerusalem and Ramallah in the West Bank.

Video shows the woman being shot at close range while she appears to pose no immediate threat to anyone’s life.

Israel claimed that the woman, who they said was not carrying an ID when she was killed, was holding a knife.

Also during September, Bassam al-Sayih, 46, died during his fourth year of imprisonment by Israel.

Al-Sayih’s health deteriorated “due to torture, medical negligence, and stalling in giving him the medical care he needed,” the prisoner rights group Addameer stated.

An Israeli woman, Nina Gnisednova, 74, died from injuries sustained after a rocket fired from Gaza hit her home in Ashkelon on November 2018. A Palestinian from the West Bank living in Ashkelon was killed in the same strike.

Ten Israelis have died so far this year as a result of occupation-related violence. Ninety Palestinians died during the same period.

Image
Palestinians in Gaza City protest violence against women on 2 September following the August murder of Israa Gharib. Three of the 21-year-old West Bank woman’s relatives were charged with beating her to death.
Image
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images
Image
The families of Palestinians slain by Israel take part in a Gaza City protest to demand their rights and stipends on 3 September.
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images
Image
A wounded Palestinian protester is evacuated during Great March of Return protests east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 6 September.
Ashraf Amra APA images
Image
Relatives mourn over the body of Khalid al-Rabai, 14, shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces along Gaza’s eastern boundary the previous day, during his Gaza City funeral on 7 September.
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images
Image
Relatives mourn over the body of Ali Sami al-Ashqar, 17, shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces along Gaza’s eastern boundary the previous day, during his funeral in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, on 7 September.
Ashraf Amra APA images
Image
Palestinians protest against the confiscation of their land for Jewish settlements near Beit Jala, West Bank, on 8 September.
Mosab Shawer APA images
https://electronicintifada.net/sites/de ... -sayih.jpg
Palestinians demonstrate outside the Red Cross offices in Gaza City to protest against the death of Bassam al-Sayih in Israeli detention, 9 September.
Ashraf Amra APA images
Image
Islamic Jihad supporters hold a mock funeral with a coffin labeled “World Conscience” during a Gaza City protest in solidarity with prisoners held in Israeli jails on 10 September.
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images
Image
Israeli occupation forces seal shut a Palestinian home on Shuhada Street in the West Bank City of Hebron on 12 September. Shuhada Street, formerly the center of commerce in Hebron, has been almost entirely off-limits to Palestinians ever since an American settler massacred Palestinian worshippers in the nearby Ibrahimi mosque in February 1994.
Mosab Shawer APA images
Image
Protesters throw stones towards Israeli occupation forces during confrontations following a weekly demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near the West Bank city of Nablus, on 13 September.
Shadi Jarar’ah APA images
Image
Palestinian students rally in front of the Gaza City headquarters of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, on 17 September. The agency has faced a financial crisis after the US — formerly its largest single donor — stopped funding it last year.
Ashraf Amra APA images
Image

Relatives of Nassim Abu Rumi, 14, shot dead by Israeli police during a stabbing attack in Jerusalem, mourn during his 21 September funeral in the West Bank village of al-Eizariya. Israel had held the boy’s body since he was killed during the 15 August incident. Another boy was seriously injured and detained and after he and Abu Rumi lunged at police officers with knives.
Mosab Shawer APA images
Image
Palestinian farmers harvest dates in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on 24 September.
Ashraf Amra APA images
Image
Waleed Khudair, 69, makes wooden shoes at his workshop in the West Bank city of Nablus on 25 September.
Shadi Jarar’ah APA images
Image
A man sells guava in Gaza City on 25 September.
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images
Image
Israeli forces demolish a Palestinian building on the pretext that it was built without a permit on the outskirts of Dura village near the West Bank city of Hebron on 25 September.
Mosab Shawer APA images
Image
Palestinians take part in the “Running for Water Cross-country Run” in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on 26 September.
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images
Image
Palestinians queue to receive financial aid from Qatar outside the Gaza City post office on 26 September.
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images
Image
Palestinians mourn over the body of Saher Othman, fatally wounded during Great March of Return protests the previous day, during the 20-year-old’s funeral in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on 28 September.
Ashraf Amra APA images
Image
Palestinians protest in front of the Red Cross offices in Gaza City in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails, 30 September.
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images
month in pictures
https://electronicintifada.net/content/ ... 2019/28556
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Re: Palestine

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Oct 20, 2019 1:44 pm

PA accuses U.S., Israel of trafficking Palestinian organs
A 10-acre, 500-bed hospital being built in northern Gaza was donated by the US nonprofit organization Friendship and is partially funded by Qatar.

3d
October 17, 2019 14:12

2 minute read.

PA accuses U.S., Israel of trafficking Palestinian organs
A Palestinian baby receives treatment at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan.. (photo credit: Courtesy)
The Palestinian Authority is carrying out a libel campaign against the United States and Israel, claiming that a new field hospital in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip will “serve the US as an early warning, monitoring and espionage station.”

The 10-acre, 500-bed hospital being built in northern Gaza was donated by the US nonprofit organization Friendship and is partially funded by Qatar.

In an op-ed published on October 2 in the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and translated by Palestinian Media Watch, columnist Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul writes that the hospital will “carry out experiments on sick Palestinians, and not treat them and care for their health… and it is possible that the hospital will be a partner in the trafficking of human organs.”


The writer goes on to explain that the hospital is run “by the CIA” and is part of “a humiliating agreement between the Hamas movement and the Israeli colonialism state… It is a tool to destroy the health of the Palestinian people.”


Hamas said the construction of the hospital is in the context of the ceasefire understandings reached with Israel last April, under the auspices of Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.

Al-Ghoul, a regular columnist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, called US special advisor Jason Greenblatt a mongoloid in a piece he wrote in March. The paper cited "democracy and free speech" as the reasons why it would not apologize for publishing the column.
In a separate article also published in the PA paper, it was reported that the PA Ministry of Health said another one of the project’s goals is to prevent sick Palestinians from entering West Bank and East Jerusalem hospitals to receive treatment.


In March, the Palestinian Authority announced it would stop providing its citizens with medical treatment in Israel. This was its reaction to the Israeli decision to withhold $138 million in tax money from the PA, which is the implementation of the Jewish state’s “Pay-for-Slay” law that instructs it to deduct and freeze the amount of money the authority pays in salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of “martyrs” from the tax money Israel collects for it.


The law was passed in July 2018 and was approved for implementation by Israel’s security cabinet this year.

Latest articles from Jpost

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“It is already preventing dozens of civilians from their right to treatment now,” the September 27 article claimed, “which has caused the death of many sick people as they await the required permits to enter the hospitals.”


However, Dr. Raz Somech, director of general pediatrics at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, told The Jerusalem Post in August that “There are no new Palestinian patients.”


Until then, Sheba had treated 150,000 West Bank and Gazan Palestinians since the Six Day War, a spokesperson for the hospital said.


PMW has in the past exposed similar PA libels, such as that Israel does medical experiments on prisoners and steals organs from dead terrorists.

https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conf ... ans-604918
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Re: Palestine

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Oct 28, 2019 1:43 pm

NEWS/PALESTINE

Ban on Palestinian websites challenged in West Bank
About 50 Palestinian websites banned, as critics fear clampdown on press freedom.
25 Oct 2019
The Palestinian Authority has blocked access to dozens of news websites accused of violating a cybercrimes law in the occupied West Bank. They were allegedly critical of President Mahmoud Abbas and his leadership.

But the constitutional court is considering whether to lift that ban.

Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim reports from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 27017.html



Rights group: Record number of home demolitions in East Jerusalem
B'Tselem says the demolition of 140 housing units this year has left 238 Palestinians, including 127 minors, homeless.

24 Oct 2019
Rights group figures refer to homes demolished because they were built without proper government permits [File: Mahmoud Illean/AP]

Israeli authorities have demolished at least 140 Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem this year, an Israeli rights group has said, the highest annual number since it began keeping records in 2004.

B'Tselem said on Thursday that 238 Palestinians have lost their homes to demolitions this year, including 127 minors. The second-highest number of demolitions on record was in 2016, when 92 homes were demolished, according to the group.


The B'Tselem figures refer to homes demolished because they were built without proper government permits. But critics have charged that discriminatory permitting by the Israeli government has forced a vast number of Palestinians to build illegally.

The uptick also comes amid a major increase in Jewish settlement activity both in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank since US President Donald Trump took office.

Shortly after capturing East Jerusalem during the six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967, Israel expanded the municipal boundaries of the city to take in large areas of land on which it later constructed Jewish settlements.

At the same time, it sharply limited the expansion of Palestinian neighbourhoods, forcing many in the increasingly crowded areas to build illegally.

Israel has occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza since the war.

Palestinians want the territories to comprise their future state, with East Jerusalem as its future capital, while Israel considers the entire city of Jerusalem to be its capital.

Evidence of systemic discrimination

Last month, another Israeli rights group, Peace Now, obtained official figures on building permits in East Jerusalem going back to 1991 that provided strong evidence of systematic discrimination against Palestinian residents, who make up more than 60 percent of the population of East Jerusalem, but have received just 30 percent of permits to build homes.

Peace Now estimates that, as a result, half of the 40,000 housing units built in Palestinian neighbourhoods since 1967 lack permits, placing them at constant risk of demolition.

Owners sometimes choose to demolish their own homes to avoid the high fees charged by Israeli authorities. Of the 140 units demolished this year, 31 were dismantled by their owners, B'Tselem said.

The group said commercial structures are also being demolished at the highest rate on record, with 76 dismantled so far this year, compared with 70 in all of 2018.

The B'Tselem demolition figures only include homes demolished because they were built illegally. They do not include those destroyed as part of an Israeli practice of demolishing the family homes of alleged perpetrators following attacks in which Israelis are injured or killed.

Israel has said the act deters violence, while Palestinians see it as a form of collective punishment.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said that it demolished a partially-built structure in a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah overnight, saying the structure was being built on the site of the family home of a Palestinian who had killed an Israeli officer during an operation in May 2018.

The original residence had been demolished in December of that year, but troops returned after they noticed that new construction was under way.

The military said dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks and firebombs at the Israeli troops during the demolition and that soldiers responded with "riot dispersal means".

It reported no injuries among the soldiers.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 40128.html
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