OMNI
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS NEWSLETTER #14, MAY 16, 2021.
Compiled by Dick Bennett FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE
AND JUSTICE.
#1 Feb. 22, 2011; #2 Feb. 16, 2012; #3 March 1, 2012; #4 May 18, 2012; #5 August 13, 2012; #6 October 29, 2012; #7 Dec. 17, 2012; #8 March 29, 2013; #9 Oct. 21, 2013; #10 April 28, 2014; #11, July 1, 2015; #12, June 21, 2016; #13, August 13, 2016)).
What’s at stake: On Sunday mornings I
watch the pro-Israel Christian Broadcasting Network on ARPBS, think of the
support of Israel by the majority of both Democats and Republicans, cannot
think of any mainstream media offering even close to equal time and sympathy
for the Palestinans, think of the $3.8 billion minimum the US gives Israel annually,
and I think there’s a real need for balance here.
CONTENTS, ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #14, MAY 16, 2021
MAY 12-16, 2021: A Battle Becoming a War
Whitbeck:
Meaning of annual $3.8 Billion to Israel
Consequences
of Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing
A
Palestinian Community Calls for International Help
The
Nakba and Israeli Refusers
Nakba
Day
Senator
Sanders Calls for Peace
Rabbi
Waskow: Muslims and Jews Call for Peace (and you can join them)
LOOKING BACK TO PREPARE THE FUTURE
A. J. Muste
Institute for Nonviolence, and Israel/Palestine
Canada’s
NDP Sanctions Israel
AFSC
Demands Vaccinations for Palestinians
Ilan
Pappe’s Quick History of Israel/Palestine
APN,
Beerman’s Book on Zionism
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: John
Kerry
APN,
2016
TEXTS
MAY 12-MAY 16, 2021, ISRAEL AND PALESTINIANS AT WAR
DIVERSE ASPECTS OF THE APRIL-MAY UNEQUAL WAR BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA,
THE LARGEST REFUGEE CAMP IN THE WORLD
It’s Not
American “Aid” to Israel. It’s Tribute.
BY JOHN WHITBECK. CounterPunch
(MAY 12, 2021).
Photograph Source: jaqian – CC
BY 2.0
In the wake of the recent Human Rights Watch report on Israeli
apartheid and persecution and the ongoing Israeli brutalities in Jerusalem, a
slowly growing handful of brave American politicians is daring to defy
President Biden’s publicly proclaimed assertion that it would be “absolutely outrageous” to ever condition
American “aid” to Israel on any Israeli behavior and to assert that such
“aid” should indeed be conditioned, at least to some degree, on
Israeli violations of human rights, international law and America’s own laws
with respect to the use of American-provided weapons.
While this modest trend in principled support for human rights
and international law by even a mere handful of American politicians must be
viewed as encouraging, the tradition of characterizing the U.S. government’s
payments to Israel — currently a baseline minimum of $3.8 Billion per year,
negotiated and agreed by a departing President Obama for the next ten-year
payment cycle, inevitably supplemented by numerous add-ons — as “aid” should
also be questioned.
Israel is not a poor country. In the latest UN rankings, its
annual per capita GDP of $46,376 ranked it 19th among the UN’s 193 member
states, ahead of Germany (20th), the United Kingdom (24th), France (26th) and
Saudi Arabia (41st).
The guaranteed payments which U.S. governments negotiate with
Israeli governments and commit to pay to Israel are not negotiated and paid
because Israel needs the money.
They are negotiated and paid as public manifestations of
American submission and subservience.
The accurate and proper word for such payments is “tribute”, for
which the dictionary definition is “a payment made periodically by one state or
ruler to another, especially as a sign of dependence.”
Ever since Israel attacked the aptly named USS Liberty in
1967, killing 34 Americans, wounding another 171 and inflicting 821 rocket and
machine-gun holes in the ship, and President Johnson ordered a cover-up which
constituted a virtual surrender, the U.S. government has been taking orders
from and paying tribute to Israel, with consequences for America’s reputation
and its role in the world vastly more costly than mere money.
Indeed, the American relationship with Israel deprives the
United States of any credibility when it accuses countries that it dislikes for
other reasons of violations of human rights or international law.
If popular perceptions and discourse in the United States could
be transformed so as to recognize that the U.S. government’s payment
commitments to Israel constitute tribute to a dominant power rather than “aid”
to a needy nation, there might be some hope for a long overdue American
declaration of independence and a more constructive and honorable American role
in the world.
John V. Whitbeck is an international lawyer
who has advised the Palestinian negotiating team in negotiations with Israel.
Israel’s illusion of normality collapses: May 2021
Eds. mronline.org (5-14-21).
May 2021 has shattered
Israeli illusions that they are immune from the volcano the country has created
through its history of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. May 13, 2021 |
Newswire.
Palestinian community in Lydda calls for
international protection from Israeli state-sanctioned pogroms. Eds. mronline.org (5-15=6-21).
Following a night of
racist attacks by far-right Israeli extremists, Palestinians living in Lydda
(Lod) are calling for immediate international intervention to defend them
before it is too late.
May 15, 2021 | Newswire
Dick, will you travel with us to Palestine/Israel, virtually?
5-5-21 Learn
about Israeli Military Refusal, commemorate the Nakba
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Show
your Solidarity - Join our Virtual Delegations Delegations
During the Next Two Weeks: Our
Virtual Delegations connect you directly with Space is limited - register
today! Learn about Israeli
Military Refusal from Mesarvot - a network of Israeli activists that
supports conscientious objectors in their refusal to become soldiers and take
part in the oppression of the Palestinian people. The tour will accompany refusers on their
enlistment day and join a support protest by the network - standing strong
against backlash from Israeli. Get to know some of the young leaders,
including the Shministim - a group of high school students who refuse
military service publicly for their political beliefs. To commemorate
the Nakba this year, we will be traveling virtually to Lifta. The story
of Lifta is one example of about 600 Palestinian localities that were
captured, and their indigenous residents expelled, during the Nakba in
1948. Lifta was one of the biggest villages in al-Quds (Jerusalem) district
until its occupation in 1948. All of its 3000 residents were forcibly
displaced and, even until today, their ability to return to their houses and
lands to live has been prevented by Israel. Also, check out our next Virtual
Delegation, coming up in late May/early June: And
later this spring: Silwan (East Jerusalem), and
Rafah (Gaza Strip) Sign up
to get Virtual Delegation updates!
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[VFP-all] Nakba Day in New Paltz, NY, 2021
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Photos by Ellen Davidson. I couldn’t make it but the banner we
took to Palestine did. Here’s the link for more pictures:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/igmw3BtMWRXDiWYr5
Speaking of that here’s what Matt Hoh wrote and his article,
recently reposted:
I wrote this several years ago, but am sharing again as it is
relevant today.
Over the last several years, I have thought quite a bit about Palestine
and what I experienced there. I also think quite a bit about Ireland, and my
family’s history that included membership in the IRA during the Irish War for
independence (my grandmother, Mae, was a girl in Tipperary from 1909-1929).
I’ve come to learn the links between the fight for Irish
independence and the fight for Palestinian independence, as well as to
reconcile my own role in imperial occupation, with a purpose and meaning today
I feel agrees more with the values and principles I want to embody from my
ancestors. – Matt
Tarak
Kauff
NYC Veterans For Peace
Peace & Planet News
845 706-0187
“Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not
powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse
to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when
people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the
globe. ”
― Arundhati Roy, Public Power in the Age of Empire
SENATOR SANDERS CALLS FOR PEACE
Sen. Sanders speaks for those with conscience..Palestinian lives
matter
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Date: Fri, May 14, 2021 at 8:46 PM
Subject: Sen.
Sanders speaks for those with
conscience..Palestinian lives matter
To:
The U.S.
Must Stop Being an Apologist for the Netanyahu Government
May 14, 2021By Bernie Sanders
“Israel has the right to defend itself.”
These are the words we hear from both
Democratic and Republican administrations whenever the government of Israel, with its enormous military power, responds to
rocket attacks from Gaza.
Let’s be clear. No one is arguing that
Israel, or any government, does not have the right to self-defense or to
protect its people. So why are these words repeated year after year, war after
war? And why is the question almost never asked: “What are the rights of the
Palestinian people?”
And why do we seem to take notice of the
violence in Israel and Palestine only when rockets are falling on Israel?
In this moment of crisis, the United States should be urging an
immediate cease-fire. We should also understand that, while Hamas firing
rockets into Israeli communities is absolutely unacceptable, today’s conflict
did not begin with those rockets.
Palestinian families in the Jerusalem
neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah have been living under the threat of eviction for
many years, navigating a legal system designed to facilitate their forced
displacement. And over the past weeks, extremist settlers have intensified
their efforts to evict them.
And, tragically, those evictions are just one
part of a broader system of political and economic oppression. For years we
have seen a deepening Israeli occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
and a continuing blockade on Gaza that make life increasingly intolerable for
Palestinians. In Gaza, which has about two million inhabitants, 70 percent of
young people are unemployed and have little hope for the future.
Further, we have seen Benjamin Netanyahu’s
government work to marginalize and demonize Palestinian citizens of Israel,
pursue settlement policies designed to foreclose the possibility of a two-state
solution and pass laws that entrench systemic inequality between Jewish and Palestinian
citizens of Israel.
None of this excuses the attacks by Hamas,
which were an attempt to exploit the unrest in Jerusalem, or the failures of
the corrupt and ineffective Palestinian Authority, which recently postponed
long-overdue elections. But the fact of the matter is that Israel remains the
one sovereign authority in the land of Israel and Palestine, and rather than
preparing for peace and justice, it has been entrenching its unequal and
undemocratic control.
Over more than a decade of his right-wing rule in Israel, Mr.
Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of
racist nationalism. In his frantic effort to stay in power and avoid
prosecution for corruption, Mr. Netanyahu has legitimized these forces,
including Itamar Ben Gvir and his extremist Jewish Power party, by bringing them into the government. It is
shocking and saddening that racist mobs that attack Palestinians on the streets
of Jerusalem now have representation in its Knesset.
These dangerous trends are not unique to Israel. Around the
world, in Europe, in Asia, in South America and here in the United States, we
have seen the rise of similar authoritarian nationalist movements. These
movements exploit ethnic and racial hatreds in order to build power for a
corrupt few rather than prosperity, justice and peace for the many. For the
last four years, these movements had a friend in the White House.
At the same time, we are seeing the rise of a
new generation of activists who want to build societies based on human needs
and political equality. We saw these activists in American streets last summer
in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. We see them in Israel. We see them
in the Palestinian territories.
With a new president, the United States now
has the opportunity to develop a new approach to the world — one based on
justice and democracy. Whether it is helping poor countries get the vaccines
they need, leading the world to combat climate change or fighting for democracy
and human rights around the globe, the United States must lead by promoting
cooperation over conflict.
In the Middle East, where we provide nearly
$4 billion a year in aid to Israel, we can no longer be apologists for the
right-wing Netanyahu government and its undemocratic and racist behavior. We
must change course and adopt an evenhanded approach, one that upholds and
strengthens international law regarding the protection of civilians, as well as
existing U.S. law holding that the provision of U.S. military aid must not
enable human rights abuses.
This approach must recognize that Israel has
the absolute right to live in peace and security, but so do the Palestinians. I
strongly believe that the United States has a major role to play in helping
Israelis and Palestinians to build that future. But if the United States is
going to be a credible voice on human rights on the global stage, we must
uphold international standards of human rights consistently, even when it’s
politically difficult. We must recognize that Palestinian rights matter.
Palestinian lives matter.
MUSLIM-JEWISH CALL FOR PEACE
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The Shalom Report
A MUSLIM AND JEWISH CALL FOR
SHALOM, SALAAM, PEACE IN JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, AND PALESTINE
[Dear friends, In response to a recent Shalom Report of mine,
"The Roots of Turmoil in Jerusalem," Daisy Khan, executive secretary
of Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE), asked
me to join her and Adem Carroll, an active Muslim member of several
interfaith organizations, in working out a shared statement by Muslims and Jews
about the worsening violence that began in Jerusalem and has now spead to all
parts of Israel and Palestine. We did, we invited some leaders of both
communities to sign it, and this is it, below. We invite you to join in
it, and to share it with your friends.
To sign it, please click to --
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=43&reset=1
Since the Call was designed for signature by Muslims and Jews,
we have provideed another link for signatures by allies and supporters from
other spiritual, religious, and ethical communities:
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=44&reset=1
We see this morning that many demonstrations and public
statements yesterday were caught in the binary of either Palestine or Israel.
One must be totally right, the other totally wrong. But that binary is no
more true, and no more peaceful, than any other binary. We are taught,
"Justice, Justice shall you Pursue" to remind us that one side
may have more justice than another, as in this case, but both may have
some. We are also taught "Seek peace and pursue it" to remind
us to pursue peace even when it seems to be running away from us -- like now. This
Call seeks to follow both teachings.
That doesn't mean this Call is perfect, flawless. No doubt in
the current fury of fear and rage some on both sides will condemn this
effort. Why then do this, when Palestinians and Israelis are dying
at each others' hands and what were fragile threads of relationship between
Israelis of Jewish identity and Israelis of Palestinian identity (who had been
mostly disempowered) have been torn apart through violence in the streets
of many Israeli cities? In our view, precisely because life in America, where
there are warm ties of affection with family and friends in Palestine and
Israel but where our ccommunities are not urgently needing to prevent being
killed, offers some hope of a measured intention to seek peace. People who have
sharp and immediate fears of being killed are often not able to turn their
attention to seeking peace, no matter how much they want it.
Furthermore, we hope that a shared statement at such a moment
can bespeak the deep desire for justice and peace of the Muslim Community as a
whole and of the Jewish Community as a whole. The Call, by simply existing, is
already a partical step toward a more just and peaceful world. Additional
signatures, and your efforts to spread the word to friends, officials and
newpapers, social media, etc, will strengthen the bonds. --- AW,
editor]
A MUSLIM AND JEWISH CALL FOR
SHALOM, SALAAM, PEACE
IN JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, AND
PALESTINE
May 14, 2021; 3 Sivan,
5781; 2 Shawwal, 1442
On the occasion of the Islamic Holy Day of Eid and as we
approach the Jewish Holy Day of Shavuot, the Muslim and Jewish communities
must both deplore the violence between Israel and Palestine and note the
disproportionate response of the state of Israel, beginning with the attack on
the Al Aqsa mosque on Laylat al Qadr, one of the holiest nights of the
year.
Some Israeli extremists continue to advocate for Israeli
seizure and destruction of this holy site. Though their numbers are small, it
is as if small numbers of people were known to be planning for destruction on
Easter Sunday of St. Peter’s in Vatican City, or on Yom Kippur of the
Western Wall so sacred to Jews, or on July 4 of the US Capitol
together with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, even if no one
were to be killed – most unlikely in all four cases.
Given the intense devotion to this place, one of the most
important sites in the Muslim world, and given the constant anxiety caused by
the known threats to it, the actual attack was extremely provocative. We must
question the motivation, the timing, and the necessity.
And we mourn the loss of lives, all sacred. We plead with our
co-religionists in Israel and Palestine, and world-wide, to return to the
shared vision of Jerusalem as a Holy City, one that reflects vision, light,
hope, compassion and peace, and reflects the profound dignity and value of all
humans as Images of the Holy One.
We ask both governmental leaders and private citizens, those
with power and those in the street, to do everything in their power to
de-escalate the conflict and further calm, to protect life and limb, restore
the safety of all, and prevent any damage to the sacred sites of all.
Injustices and inequalities feed this conflict. Though we
deplore the rockets from Gaza as we deplore the Israeli bombing, the most
immediate crisis in Jerusalem has its roots in the continuing military
occupation and siege of lands that comprise the necessary aspirations of the
Palestinian people -- East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza – and
the constant forcible pressure to replace Palestinian residents of these lands
with settlers who often act oppressively, with military and police
protection.There may be several different ways to end this unjust occupation
and to protect the safety of all who live in the region. So long as it
continues, crisis after crisis, bloodshed after bloodshed, will be its
consequences.
For there can be no true security without justice. Nor will
there be peace without justice, only pacification based on force. Though
many feel that the US has not maintained its neutrality as an honest broker in
this ongoing conflict, President Biden should far more energetically promote a
peace process both in Israel and Palestine, meanwhile responding to the
concerns of the international community. The US Government has so far
seemed unable or unwilling to confront the settlement movement that has played
such a destabilizing role in Israel as well as Palestine.
Our own spiritual and religious communities throughout the world
are deeply affected by what our communities in Israel and Palestine do. The
vision of the ancient Hebrew Prophets and of the Prophet Muhammed, peace be
upon them all, of a world of peace and justice – and the shape of a Jewish
People and Islam struggling to carry out those visions today – will be deeply
compromised by injustice and violence committed in their names.
Blessed be the peacemakers. On this occasion, we affirm that our
shared religious and moral values require an embrace of peace and justice,
especially when our views and perspectives differ. The other alternative is
oppression and conflict without end.
To sign, please click to --
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=43&reset=1
Signed (Institutions cited for identification only):
Imam Shamsi Ali, Director, Jamaica Muslim Center, NY,
and President, Nusantara Foundation USA
. . . .
Ani Zonneveld, Muslims for Progressive Values
To add your name, please click to --
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=43&reset=1
Since the Call was designed for signature by Muslims and Jews,
we have provideed another link for signatures by allies and supporters
from other spiritual, religious, and ethical communities
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=44&reset=1
If you areunsubscribing or changing your email address, please
check the Footer below my signature and click the relevant item.
To share this essay with your
friends, please click here
The Shalom Center needs your help to keep working with other
groups and spiritual communities in the light of shared Spirit to pursue peace,
Please click the maroon “Contribute” button just below, and make as vigorous
contribution as you can. Thanks!.
Shalom, salaam, paz, peace, namaste! -- Arthur
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web: theshalomcenter.org/
email: office@theshalomcenter.org tel:
(215) 844-8494
THE MISCELLANEOUS PAST FOR PRESENT ACTION
“Despair Is Not
an Option”: grantees speak out on Palestine/Israel
https://ajmuste.org/sites/default/files/muste-notes/mustenoteswinter2016.pdf
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11:21 AM (29 minutes ago) 2-5-16 |
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ajmuste.org - supporting nonviolent action since 1974
JUST LAST MONTH, APRIL 2021, CANADA’s NDP STANDS WITH PALESTINIANS
Canada’s new Democratic Party passes motion to
sanction Israel
Michael Arria. At the New Democratic Party’s (NDP)
convention last week, party members overwhelmingly passed a motion to sanction
Israel. The policy book forthe center-left political party, which has existed
in Canada since 1961, will now include a boycott of goods from illegal
settlements and an arms embargo on the country.
April 14, 2021 |
Newswire.
AFSC
Tell Congress: Demand Israel provide Palestinians with COVID-19 vaccinations and
humanitarian aid
Israel’s inoculation program is moving forward quickly for Israeli
citizens, but Palestinians living
under Israeli control in the West Bank and Gaza are being left
behind. Israel has indicated that it has no intention of facilitating a vaccination
campaign in Gaza and the West Bank.
In
addition, U.S. humanitarian assistance to Palestine that was cut
under the Trump administration is urgently
needed and must be resumed immediately.
o Write to your
Representative today to ask that they sign a new Dear Colleague Letter
initiated by Rep. Pocan and Rep. Carson and calling on Sec. Blinken to
demand that Israel provide Palestinians living under its control
with COVID-19 vaccin DONATE
A THUMBNAIL SKETCH OF PAST FOR PRESENT
If you’re not familiar with Israeli historian Ilan
Pappe, you should be. Here’s an 11 minute interview, several
years old, that provides essential background to what’s happening today.
See you at noon.
Peace, George
https://therealnews.com/how-israels-erasure-of-palestinian-history-perpetuates-occupation
George Paulson 5-14-21
There is no
better legacy than peacemaker: Understanding Zionism
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APN Update -
It's the settlements stupid, APN in 2016, help us do more, and thank you
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Contents Israel-Palestinian Newsletter #13, August
13, 2016
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2016/08/israeli-palestinian-newsletter-13.html
Nuclear Armed Israel: Vanunu Jailed Again
Occupation Conflict Today
Documentary on
Israeli Media Control: The Occupation of the American Mind,
How Israel Occupies the US: Mnar Muhawesh meets Sut Jhally
Dov Waxman,The American Jewish Conflict over Israel,
why Israel has
become such a divisive issue
Resistance
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Divestment
WRL supports Black & Palestinian
solidarity
Congressional
Supporters of Palestinians
Americans for
Peace Now, “Do This Not That”
Bernie Sanders’
Critique of Israel
CodePink BDS
Movement:
Codepink:
RE/MAX stop selling properties in
Israeli settlements built on
occupied Palestinian land
Codepink: Letter to John Kerry on Human Rights in Israel and Palestine
Illegal settlements acquired illegally, and Ban Ki-Moon
“Despair Is Not an Option”: Muste grantees speak out
Sloan, “The Olive Grove”
END ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #14
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