OMNI
ISRAEL-PALESTINE ANTHOLOGIES #18
9-18-24
COMPILED BY DICK BENNETT FOR A
CULTURE OF PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY
CONTENTS ISRAEL-PALESTINE #18
In Chronological Order 2016 to 2024
What’s at Stake: Keeping Hope Alive in the Midst of Genocide.
2016
Apcon and Young. Documentary Film on
Peacemakers.
2018
Freedom Flotilla
Poetry Award to Local Poet Gerry Sloan.
Heather Gray on Peace-making Peled Family.
UNRWA Seeks Funding
Glenn Greenwald. Court Rules Boycotting
Constitutional Free Speech.
Rabbi Naomi Levy. Rob Eshman
Receives Press for Peace Award.
Dr. Virginia Tilley Interviewed regarding Israel as an Apartheid Regime and the One-State
Solution to the Conflict.
Michael
Sfard. (Book). The Wall and the Gate and the Palestinian struggle for human rights in Israel's courts.
Ramzy Baroud. Israeli Nation State Law Makes Apartheid
Official.
Massacre in Gaza. Five Articles
Rick Wayman.
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. “Speak Out Against Gaza Massacre.”
Balousha and Holmes. Killed and
Wounded in Gaza.
Holmes. Israeli Sniper Shoots A Man while Onlookers Cheer.
“Israelis Gather by Gaza Border.”
2021
BDS: Boycott,
Divestment, Sanctions Campaign.
Norman
Finkelstein. Gaza:
An
Inquest into Its Martyrdom. 2021.
2024
Shalom Center.
Rabbi Waskow: Leahy Act.
Coralie Koonce. Against Either-Or, Black-White Untruths.
Judy Haiven. Student Protests in
Canada.
War on the West Bank: Three Articles.
Contents Israel/Palestine Anthology #7
TEXTS
(These writings cover the years 2016-2024. –D)
2016
DOCUMENTARY FILM ON ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS
Hope in Dialog 8 Years Ago. There Is Another Way.
“Disturbing
the Peace.” Dir. Stephen Apkon and Andrew Young. Bullfrog Films, 2016. Rev., Peace
and Change (July 2018), 379-81.
Directors’ description: “…Israelis and
Palestinians who reject engaging in violence against the enemy after years of
participating in it.” https://www.disturbingthepeacefilm.com/
IN A WORLD TORN BY CONFLICT—IN A PLACE WHERE
THE IDEA OF PEACE HAS BEEN ABANDONED—AN ENERGY OF DETERMINED OPTIMISM EMERGES.
WHEN SOMEONE IS WILLING TO DISTURB THE STATUS QUO AND STAND FOR THE DREAM OF A
FREE AND SECURE WORLD, WHO WILL STAND
WITH THEM?
DISTURBING THE PEACE IS ABOUT PEOPLE BORN INTO CONFLICT,
SWORN TO BE ENEMIES, WHO CHALLENGED THEIR FATE. THE FILM FOLLOWS EVERYDAY
PEOPLE WHO TOOK EXTRAORDINARY ACTIONS BY STANDING FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE IN,
JUST LIKE THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE THEM – MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., ROSA PARKS,
GANDHI, NELSON MANDELA AND MANY OTHERS WHOSE NAMES WE DON’T KNOW. THE MOVIE
CHALLENGES ALL OF US – TO UNDERSTAND THE NARRATIVES WE LIVE WITHIN, TO LOOK AT
OUR CURRENT ROLES IN OUR SOCIETIES, AND TO DECIDE WHAT ROLE WE ARE GOING TO
PLAY IN CREATING A MORE HUMANE WORLD, FOR ALL. AND IT STARTS WITH OUR
WILLINGNESS TO DISTURB THE PEACE.
2018
[I am placing peace-oriented
essays at the beginning of each year.]
Gerry Sloan Awarded Poetry Prize
20[Gaza] Roger Waters in
Barcelona, on Palestine; FFC Literary Contest results; Statement on
#GreatMarchOfReturn. CanadaBoat Gaza gaza@lists.riseup.net
Freedom Flotilla Coalition literary contest results.
https://sgf.freedomflotilla.org/news/winners-of-the-literary-contest-keys-to-the-future-of-palestine
After reviewing 29 English entries, our jurors selected a winner and a runner
up in the categories of short story and poetry. The winners are, for
short story: Mikayla Boorany (South Africa), Dan Lieberman (USA), and for
poetry: Gerry Sloan (USA) and Anna Dora Antonsdottir
(Iceland). Their submissions have begun appearing on our website www.sgf.freedomflotilla.org,
and will continue to be published, along with winning texts in Spanish and
Arabic. See our full announcement for more, including a link a collection of
submissions from school-children in South Africa: sgf.freedomflotilla.org/news/winners-of-the-literary-contest-keys-to-the-future-of-palestine.
Our literary contest results announcement coincided with the
Palestinian Land Day protests and Great March of Return, marking 70 years of
the Nakba (Catastrophe). See the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s statement
about the killing of civilian protestors: Massacre
at Gaza’s Borders: We Will Not Be Silent – End Israeli Impunity. We
will be continuing to follow these protests supporting the Palestinian Right of
Return over the coming weeks. Our next flotilla, sailing for a Just Future for
Palestine, will leave mid-May from Copenhagen and will make many port stops
along the way before departing for Gaza mid-July from the western
Mediterranean. Please help spread the word by sharing our messages, and
please follow our mission as we make our way towards ending the illegal
blockade of Gaza, .
In solidarity,
The Canadian Boat to Gaza, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition
www.freedomflotilla.org
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FreedomFlotillaCoalition
Twitter https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla
Instagram instagram.com/gazafreedomflotilla
“Peled: ‘Israel
should be called Palestine’” By Heather Gray.
April 7, 2018.
Justice
Initiative International.
Preface
I wrote the first version of the article below
regarding a Palestinian “sense of place” for
Counterpunch in
2006 and sent it out also in a 2016 Justice Initiative posting. Yet, given the
intensity of struggles and the ongoing Israeli violence against the
Palestinians, I am sending out an edited version. Land and the struggles for
indigenous integrity are hugely important all over the world. Those of us of
European descent (which includes many Israelis) have much to atone for over the
centuries regarding grabbing land from others as well as grabbing people to
enslave them and the struggles and reverberations of it all are on-going. The
impact of abusive and arrogant behavior is seemingly endless particularly when
the efforts for reconciliation, reparations, justice and peace are not
taken seriously.
. . .Contemporary
Israeli/Palestinian Conflict and some solutions by the Peled family
Now the contemporary impact of this is becoming all the more
intense in the Middle East given the increased Israeli and American arrogance -
as with Trump’s outrageous plans to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, and the
recent and on-going killings by Israelis of Palestinians and all this is
coupled with the huge US military support of Israel.
The
Israelis might grab the Palestinian land and claim it as their own but they are
wrong in assuming that it will be “their” land. It is not theirs and it never
will be. It’s way past time for peace, justice and reconciliation. As Miko
Peled, a former member of the Israeli military, has recently stated - “Israel is an illegitimate state and the
area should be called Palestine!” Below is his quote in a recent
interview:
The United States is a top
supporter of the occupation through funding of the Israeli military and
providing cover for Israeli violations of international law in the United
Nations. Peled emphasizes that activists in the US have a responsibility to
take action to end the occupation of Palestine and outlines many ways to do
this, including an aggressive BDS campaign and support for legislation in
Congress. Peled says “Israel” is an illegitimate state and the area should be
called Palestine.
(Miko
Peled - Popular Resistance -
March 30, 2018)
Over the
years I have been fortunate to interview both the father and son - Matti and
Miko Peled. Once retired from the
Israeli military in 1969 as a Major General, Matti
Peled (1923-1995) received his PhD in Arabic literature from the
University of California and he then went back to Israel to, in fact, teach
Arabic literature. In 1992, I
interviewed the Matti Peled who was visiting the United States to encourage a
peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. Click here for the PDF of the transcribed interview
with him, entitled “Predictions
of the Present Day Turmoil in the Middle East.” Below is a summary of some of Matti Peled’s
comments:
He describes the corrupting
influence of the U.S. government giving huge amounts of aid to Israel.
·
He comments about the Israeli period prior to the 1967 “Six Day
War” of which he is proud and how ashamed he is of Israel in its present state.
·
He refers consistently to the oppression of the Palestinians by
the Israelis.
·
He predicts the circumstances of today in the Middle East of
excessive violence and conflict because of the increased arms sales in the area
after 1967, primarily from the U.S.
·
He states that there are virtually no concrete peace negotiations
and that Israel seems incapable of producing a plan.
·
He stresses that the United Nations is the only vehicle that can
effectively resolve the problems and bring peace to the Middle East.
As it can
be noted, much of what Matti Peled stated in 1992 is still, unfortunately,
relevant to today’s situation in the Middle East. As mentioned, I was
also fortunate to interview Matti Peled’s son, Miko Peled, who was visiting
Atlanta in 2014. Clickhere
for the link to his 2014 Atlanta speech. . . .
A Palestinian “Sense of Place” . . . . MORE
“UNRWA seeks funding
boost to keep Palestinian schools, hospitals open.” Channel
NewsAsia (Singapore)/Agence France-Presse (3/14) . UN news wire 3-14-18. The US withdrew its funding from the UNRWA, UN’s Relief and Works Agency.
“
In a Major Free Speech Victory, a
Federal Court Strikes Down a Law that Punishes Supporters of Israel Boycott.” Glenn Greenwald.
The Intercept January 31 2018.
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that a Kansas law
designed to punish people who boycott Israel is an unconstitutional denial
of free speech. The ruling is a significant victory for free speech rights
because the global campaign to criminalize, or otherwise legally outlaw, the
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement has been spreading rapidly in
numerous political and academic centers in the U.S. This judicial decision definitively
declares those efforts — when they manifest in the U.S. — to be a direct
infringement of basic First Amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S.
Constitution. . . .MORE
The greatest free speech
threat in the West — attempts to outlaw activism against Israeli occupation —
may have just suffered a fatal blow.
Americans
for Peace Now, 12-21-17
Dear Dick,
My husband Rob Eshman will be
receiving the Press for Peace Award at the Americans for Peace Now “Vision of Peace Celebration” on January
29, 2018, which I am honored to Co-Chair. You may not know him, but allow me to say a few words -
objectively, of course - as to why he is so deserving of this honor, and why I
encourage you to support the event and the organization that is sponsoring it,
even if you are unable to attend.
In addition to my personal
affection for Rob, I have immense respect for his vision and courage. He was the long-time editor of The Jewish
Journal of Greater Los Angeles, and the accompanying website jewishjournal.com,
which under his leadership became the most visited Jewish news website outside
of Israel. Beyond the numbers, however, he has provided the local and
international Jewish community and other interested readers, with what too
often is lacking -- thoughtful, honest, comprehensive, and varied opinions and
perspectives on Israel and Jewish affairs. He has not shied away from taking
public stands himself, most often expressed via his weekly columns, which while
controversial for some, have always been motivated by his love and deep
connection to the Jewish people and to Israel. I believe that through his
writing, leadership, and courage, he has significantly impacted the discourse
on these important issues.
I am proud that Americans for Peace Now has chosen to
honor Rob with its Press for Peace Award in recognition of his unique
contributions. It is also very exciting for me, and humbling to him,
that he will be honored alongside David Broza, the Israeli music icon and peace
activist.
For the vast majority of you
who will not be able to attend the Vision of Peace Celebration in Los Angeles,
I encourage you to participate with us by donating to Americans for Peace
Now. You will be supporting the
work of the organization here in the US, and ofShalom Achshav (Peace
Now), its partner in Israel. Your donation will provide an opportunity to
include a Vision of Peace Tribute Message – whether specifically to David
Broza, Rob, or the cause of peace for Israel – and I am flattered to say that
Americans for Peace Now is also offering my newest book “Einstein and the
Rabbi: Searching for the Soul” for a donation of $100 or
more (indicate ”Einstein” in the comments box).
In Peace, Rabbi Naomi Levy
in
recognition of the impact she has made, the Jewish Forward identified
Rabbi Levy as one of the nation’s 50 most influential Jewish leaders and Newsweek
included Rabbi Levy in its list of “Top 50 Rabbis in America.”
Does the U.S. Support an Apartheid
State?”
https://www.wrmea.org/018-may/does-the-u.s.-support-an-apartheid-state.html
[This closely argued essay on Israel as an
apartheid regime by Dr. Virginia Tilley was too long for inclusion
in this anthology, but its conclusion advocating the “One-State Solution” to
the Israel/Palestine conflict ought to be known to all. Find time to read it from the beginning. –Dick]
. . . [If Palestine were recognized as an Apartheid regime] Palestine
would stop being a foggy mandate reference or a dreamy future, but it would
be one state that belongs to
all who live in it. It would not be the exclusive geographic
heritage of any one part of the population. It would not require the departure
or exclusion of anybody—which is tough for people who have lost a great deal to
it. Jewish has to be re-conceived as an ethnic group with full civil, social,
and cultural rights. Not a people with superior rights to the land. Not as a
nation with rights to self-determination.
“Palestinian”—this is the toughest thing for me to say as a
non-Palestinian—but returning to the idea that it is a multi-sectarian
identity, it still is actually embracing everyone in the mandate territory. Not
Arab in any sense that would exclude non-Arabs. This is one of the problems,
that “Palestinian” became “Palestinian Arab state.” Under conditions of settler
colonialism, you can’t do that without excluding non-Arabs. Therefore,
unfortunately, that has to be re-thought deeply, not the racial ethnic construction
affirmed by Zionism and imposed by apartheid.
So that’s why the apartheid finding recasts everything,
that’s why so many people don’t want to tackle it. I think it is crucial. I
think it illuminates where we are and what is going on. The more I look at it,
the more powerful an analysis I think it is. I do hope you will consider it
seriously as a model for rethinking the conflict. Thank you very much.
Janet McMahon: Thank you so much, Dr.
Tilley.
Michael Sfard. The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights. Macmillan, 2018. 528pp.
Publisher’s description
From
renowned human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, an unprecedented exploration of the
struggle for human rights in Israel's courts
A farmer from a village in the occupied West Bank, cut off from his olive
groves by the construction of Israel’s controversial separation wall, asked
Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard to petition the courts to allow a
gate to be built in the wall. While the gate would provide immediate relief for
the farmer, would it not also confer legitimacy on the wall and on the court
that deems it legal? The defense of human rights is often marked by such
ethical dilemmas, which are especially acute in Israel, where lawyers have for
decades sought redress for the abuse of Palestinian rights in the country’s
High Court—that is, in the court of the abuser.
In The
Wall and the Gate, Michael Sfard chronicles this struggle—a story
that has never before been fully told— and in the process engages the core
principles of human rights legal ethics. Sfard recounts the unfolding of
key cases and issues, ranging from confiscation of land, deportations, the
creation of settlements, punitive home demolitions, torture, and targeted
killings—all actions considered violations of international law. In the
process, he lays bare the reality of the occupation and the lives of the people
who must contend with that reality. He also exposes the surreal legal
structures that have been erected to put a stamp of lawfulness on an extensive
program of dispossession. Finally, he weighs the success of the legal effort,
reaching conclusions that are no less paradoxical than the fight itself.
Writing with emotional force, vivid storytelling, and penetrating analysis,
Michael Sfard offers a radically new perspective on a much-covered conflict and
a subtle, painful reckoning with the moral ambiguities inherent in the pursuit
of justice. The Wall and the Gate is a signal contribution to
everyone concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and human rights
everywhere.
“Why Israel Was Never a Democracy.” Justice
Initiative via uark.onmicrosoft.com
“Jewish Nation-State Law: Why Israel Was Never a Democracy.” ‘The Jewish Nations-state bill is the officiation of
Apartheid in Israel.’
By Ramzy Baroud, The Palestine Chronicle,
July 25, 2018. [This essay is learned and comprehensive yet,
condensed, making a case for a One-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. –D]
The head of the Arab
Joint List Alliance at the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), Aymen Odeh, described the
passing of the racist Jewish Nation-state Law as “the death of our democracy.”
Did Odeh truly believe that,
prior to this law, he had lived in a true democracy?
70 years of Israeli Jewish supremacy, genocide, ethnic cleansing, wars, sieges,
mass incarceration, numerous discriminatory laws, all aimed at the very
destruction of the Palestinian people should have given enough clues that
Israel was never a democracy, to begin with.
The Jewish Nation-state Law
is merely the icing on the cake. It simply gave those who argued, all along,
that Israel’s attempt at combining democracy with ethnic supremacy was racism
masquerading as democracy, the munition they needed to further illustrate the
point. There is no escaping the moral
imperative now. Those who insist on supporting Israel must know that they are
supporting an unabashed Apartheid regime. The new law, which was passed after some
wrangling on January 19, has divorced Israel from any claim, however
untrue, to being a democratic state.
In fact, the law does not
mention the word ‘democracy’ in its wording, not even once. Reference to the
Jewish identity of the state, however, are ample and dominant,
with the clear exclusion of the Palestinian people from their rights in
their historic homeland:
▪ ”The
state of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people ...
▪ ”The
actualization of the right of national self-determination in the state of
Israel is unique to the Jewish people.
▪ ”The
state will labor to ensure the safety of sons of the Jewish people ...
▪
“The state will act to
preserve the cultural, historical and religious legacy of the Jewish people
among the Jewish diaspora,” and so on.
But most dangerous of all is
the stipulation that “the state views Jewish settlement as a national
value and will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and
development.”
True, illegal Jewish
settlements already dot the Palestinian land in the West Bank and Jerusalem;
and a de facto segregation already exists in Israel itself. In fact,
segregation is so deep and entrenched, even maternity wards in
Israeli hospitals separate between mothers, based on their race.
The above stipulation,
however, will further accelerate segregation and cement Apartheid, making the
harm not merely intellectual and political, but physical as well. . . . MORE
- Ramzy Baroud is
a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His forthcoming
book is ‘The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story’ (Pluto Press, London). Baroud
has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a
Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies,
University of California Santa Barbara. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
Protests
in Gaza, Massacre in Gaza
Rick Wayman. “Tell Your Members of Congress to Speak Out Against Gaza Massacre.” Nuclear
Age Peace Foundation, 5-14-18.
The death toll continues to rise from today’s massacre
of unarmed Palestinian protestors by the Israeli military. We urge you to take action by
contacting your members of Congress and demanding significant changes to U.S.
policy in the region.
Just days after announcing his
administration’s intention to violate the nuclear deal with Iran, President
Trump went ahead with the provocative move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem. [37 unarmed, non-violent Palestinian demonstrators murdered & 1000+
wounded during demonstrators against Trump’s decision to move US’s Israeli
embassy to Jerusalem today.
Watch
the coverage today at - https://www.democracynow.org/].
For decades, the U.S. government has supported
Israel’s development and possession of a substantial nuclear arsenal while
going to war against other nations over non-existent weapons of mass
destruction.
While Israeli snipers were shooting unarmed
Palestinians, including children, from long range, President Trump was hard at
work on Twitter. This morning, he tweeted, “Big day for Israel.
Congratulations!”. . . . MORE
“One
Palestinian killed and hundreds injured in Gaza protests.” More than 360 wounded by bullets and tear
gas, in the third week of demonstrations
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/13/one-palestinian-killed-and-hundreds-injured-in-gaza-clashes. Hazem Balousha in Gaza City and Oliver Holmes in Nahal Oz, Israel.
Fri 13 Apr 2018 14.24 EDTLast
modified on Fri 13 Apr 2018 14.50 EDT
Israeli forces stationed on the Gaza frontier have killed one person and
wounded hundreds of Palestinians, who were demonstrating for the third week in
a row. Health officials in Gaza said 363
people were injured by live ammunition and tear gas inhalation, although they
did not provide a breakdown. They said a Gazan journalist was in a serious
condition after being shot in the abdomen. The Palestine Red Crescent Society,
a humanitarian organisation, has said one of its medics was shot in the knee. Rights groups accuse Israel of wanton use of
live fire. Israel says
the protests are a cynical ploy by Gaza’s rulers Hamas to stage attacks,
including using explosives, or to breach the border. Close to 30 Palestinians – including Hamas
militants, civilians and a video reporter –
have been killed during the rallies, which started on 30 March. . . . .
The protests began as a plan to peacefully gather near the
border, an idea that has since been supported by Hamas and other
political parties. Thousands have called for the “right of return” for refugees
and their descendants to ancestral homes in Israel. . .
. MORE
“Video emerges of cheering
as Israeli sniper shoots Palestinian.”
Israel’s military says incident in Gaza Strip will be
‘thoroughly investigated.’
Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem
Tue 10 Apr 2018 10.24 EDTFirst
published on Tue 10 Apr 2018 05.58 EDT https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/10/video-appears-show-cheers-israeli-sniper-shoots-palestinian
Footage has
emerged of an Israeli sniper shooting a seemingly unarmed and motionless
Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip, followed by exuberant whooping from an
onlooker.
Israel’s military said an initial inquiry found the shooting had
taken place on 22 December, when one of its soldiers injured the man in his leg
during what it called violent riots.
The grainy video comes after almost two weeks of daily
protests by Palestinianson the Israel-Gaza border in which the
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have fatally shot more than two dozen people and
wounded hundreds more, according to Gazan health officials.
”. . . . MORE
Robert Mackey.
“Israel Opens Fire on Palestinian Protesters in Gaza, Trump Envoy Blames ‘Hostile March’” and injured hundreds more
with live fire, as up to 50,000 residents of the besieged
enclave answered an activist’s call to embrace civil disobedience by
demonstrating close to the border fence, an area defined by the Israeli Defense
Forces as a closed military zone.
Video of Israeli marksmen shooting unarmed protesters, including at least
one young man who was engaged in prayer at the time, appalled observers from
both communities. Unarmed
, no stones , no aggressive move , but still he was shot by an #Israeli
army sniper in #Gaza
today . #GreatReturnMarch. 5:04 PM - Mar 30, 2018. Twitter Ads info
and privacy. The IDF’s gonna have a hard time saying this guy
fell off his bike… pic.twitter.com/BCkC5KrOWi. — Jacob Magid (@JacobMagid) March 30, 2018. The fatal shooting of one victim, a boy in a black shirt who
was identified later as Abdul Fattah Abdul Nabi,
19, stirred particular outrage, because video recorded from three different camera
angles showed that he was clearly unarmed and moving away from the border fence
when he was gunned down. Disgusting and awful..
Moments of killing a Palestinian young man in cold blood by an Israeli Zionists
snipers at #Gaza
strip borders during the peaceful protests of #GreatReturnMarch
, i was there we were protesting peacefully and Israeli were shooting directly
toward us !! 11:10 AM - Mar 30, 2018. The unarmed protesters had rallied to demand
an end to Israel’s decade-long blockade of the Palestinian
territory, as well as the recognition of the right of refugees who
fled there in 1948 to return, with their children and grandchildren, to their
homes inside what is now the Jewish state. . . .
Israel defends firing at protesters
Official
rejects calls for inquiry into violence at Gaza border
By COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF WIRE REPORTS. This article was originally
published April 2, 2018 at 2:33 a.m. Updated April 2, 2018 at 2:33 a.m. http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/apr/02/israel-defends-firing-at-protesters-201/
JERUSALEM -- Israel’s defense minister on Sunday rejected
international calls for an investigation into deadly violence along Gaza’s
border with Israel, saying troops acted appropriately and fired only at
Palestinian protesters who posed a threat.
Fifteen Palestinians were killed and more than 700 wounded in
Friday’s violence near the Israeli border, according to Palestinian health
officials. It was the area’s deadliest violence since a war four years ago.
Human-rights groups have accused the army of using excessive
force, and both the U.N. secretary-general and the European Union’s foreign
policy chief have urged an investigation.
In an interview, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel
would not cooperate with a U.N. inquiry if there were one. . . . A
Section on 04/02/2018
2021
Join the BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS campaign to protest the
Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation’s
territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the
Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and
children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.
DON’T BUY PRODUCTS WHOSE BARCODE STARTS WITH 729, which indicates that it
is produced in Israel. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE! 7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE! People of Conscience: Palestinians Ask
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May 24, 2021 — 7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE! Share this article:
email mastodon ... Anti-Zionist Rabbi Calls for Continued Boycott of Companies
Backing Israel.
Gaza: An Inquest into Its
Martyrdom by Norman
Finkelstein. U of California P, 2021.
Pages: 440
About the Book
"In its comprehensive sweep, deep
probing and acute critical analysis, Finkelstein's study stands
alone."—Noam Chomsky
"No one who ventures an opinion on Gaza . . . is entitled to
do so without taking into account the evidence in this book." —The Intercept
The
Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated places in the world. More than
two-thirds of its inhabitants are refugees, and more than half are under
eighteen years of age. Since 2004, Israel has launched eight devastating
“operations” against Gaza’s largely defenseless population. Thousands have
perished, and tens of thousands have been left homeless. In the meantime,
Israel has subjected Gaza to a merciless illegal blockade.
What has befallen Gaza is a man-made humanitarian disaster.
Based on scores of human rights reports, Norman G. Finkelstein's new
book presents a meticulously researched inquest into Gaza’s martyrdom. He
shows that although Israel has justified its assaults in the name of
self-defense, in fact these actions constituted flagrant violations of
international law.
But Finkelstein also documents that the guardians of international law—from
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to the UN Human Rights
Council—ultimately failed Gaza. One of his most disturbing conclusions is that, after
Judge Richard Goldstone's humiliating retraction of his UN report, human
rights organizations succumbed to the Israeli juggernaut.
Finkelstein’s magnum opus is both a monument to Gaza’s martyrs and an act of
resistance against the forgetfulness of history.
Norman G. Finkelstein received his doctorate from the Princeton
University Department of Politics. His many books have been translated into
some fifty foreign editions. He is a frequent lecturer and commentator on the
Israel-Palestine conflict.
2024
The
Shalom Report 8-23-24
“Yom Kippur as
Active Peace-Pursuing Day For the Jewish People This Year.” The Shalom Center. [Edited for direct political action.
–D]
Dear companions in the pursuit of peace and justice. . . .
2. My second heart-flash from the night was that
immediately after the last shofar-blast of Yom Kippur returns us from our
interior self-healings to our work in the world, we write, sign, and prepare to
mail letters to our Senators of all political parties.
The letters would urge each Senator to insist on
applying the well-established Leahy Act to units of the Israeli armed
forces as the Leahy Act has been to the forces of other states for the
past decade. The law requires suspending US arms aid to any unit of a
foreign armed force that has used US arms to violate human rights.
Congress passed the law in 1997, and it has been applied to many states —
including US allies — but not to Israel.
Given the publicly known massacres of noncombatant Palestinian women
and children in Gaza, it is time to apply universally this universal law. . . .
Blessings of shalom, salaam, peace, in your own lives to all who pursue peace
in the world. — Arthur
CORALIE
KOONCE. “Terrible twoness: Binary
arguments ignore nuance”
by Coralie Koonce Special to
the Democrat-Gazette 5/18/2024.
. . .It's easier to be binary. The simplest and most
energy-conserving response possible is either/or. You only need two sides for
politics and wars, including culture wars. It's all about Americans versus
foreigners. Town versus country. Heartland versus coasts. Good versus evil. Us
versus them.
Capitalism versus socialism assumes these are exact
opposites, although all economies are mixed private/public. Twoness ignores the
cooperative economy, which accounts for nearly a quarter of India's GDP and a
fifth of New Zealand's.
It seems like only yesterday when people were saying
ho-hum to politics: "The parties are just alike. Tweedledee and
Tweedledum." Now, all of a sudden, one party is supposed to be evil
incarnate. People seem to be itching for a fight about anything and everything.
Social media only makes it worse.
The Terrible Twoness is applied to
the world's wars and conflicts where Americans pick sides that they know
nothing about. Learning history wouldn't be any fun, would it? Whatever the
issue, you must take a side.
But what if you don't like either side? For instance, the
Israel/Hamas War.
I don't like Hamas for three reasons. First, the
barbarities of Oct. 7, and the war crime of taking hostages. Secondly, in
service of their ideology, Hamas has continually put the people of Gaza in
harm's way. Hamas was not elected on a platform of shooting rockets into
Israel. And every time they do, Israel retaliates by bombing Gaza. This
pointless, lethal exchange has happened over and over. Third, Hamas has stifled
democratic government in Gaza. They were elected 17 years ago by a 44 percent
plurality, not a majority--hardly a mandate. Then Hamas violently threw out the
other major party, Fatah, and took over the place.
They never allowed another election.
But neither do I support Israel's current far-right
government, or their conduct of the war in Gaza. Israel has killed at least 30
times more civilians than those that Hamas murdered on Oct. 7. People are just
as dead whether it is from starvation or from Hamas atrocities. (President Joe
Biden recently stopped sending Israel the 2,000-pound bombs that kill so many
civilians and that most countries have stopped using for urban warfare.)
You hear all kinds of ingenious justifications from
posters online. They say Israel is good to civilians, and drops leaflets with
instructions. That Hamas is responsible for all civilian deaths. Or that
everybody in Gaza supports Hamas. I don't buy most of it. These are folks who
think history began on Oct. 7, and they wallow in demonization and collective
punishment.
Nobody has yet explained to me the military necessity of
imposing a food and water siege on the entire civilian population from Day One.
Another mystery nobody addresses: Israel has the
capability to go into a foreign country and kill diplomats from still a third
country--and yet they don't know where Hamas leaders are hiding, and must
reduce the place to rubble and starve the people in order to defeat an enemy
with a fourth or less of Israel's manpower and weaponry?
Last fall a number of genocide scholars warned of the
potential for genocide in Gaza, and one of them, Israeli Jew Raz Segal, has
called it "a textbook case." (jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide)
The conflicts of Gaza (and West Bank, where last year
Israeli forces killed 492 Palestinians, including 120 children) have now
arrived on American college campuses. What most student protesters are asking
for is a ceasefire and divestment of college endowment funds from military
companies profiting from this war. They aren't pro-Hamas, and many of the
protesters are Jewish. . . .
Coralie Koonce is a writer living in Fayetteville, and
the author of "Little Handbook of Arguments." She recently published
"War and Words: The Israel/Gaza Conflict."
Killing, Destruction, Student Protests, Canadian Media, Genocide
Judy
Haiven. “Israel: State of denial.”
Editor. mronline.org. Originally published: The Bullet on May 15, 2024 by Judy Haiven (more
by The Bullet)
(Posted May 17, 2024). Empire, Inequality, Strategy, WarIsrael, Middle EastNewswire
The lies. The packs of lies—deliberate, filthy, and deadly. And
they keep going. As if the world owes Israel and its “most moral army in the
world” something—after it massacred more than 35,000 Palestinians in six
months. Israel and Jews who support
Israel, plus the powerful pro-Israel lobby in our country and in the
U.S. (and that includes millions of Christian Zionists) will not admit
to any of the following:
Bombing to rubble or
imploding all 12 universities in Gaza; killing 90 professors,Destroying
all 370 schools in Gaza, including the UN schools,Killing 4300 students, 230 teachers,Leaving women, children, babies,
and men to be treated on the blood-soaked floors of the parts of Gaza’s hospitals
still standing,Stopping virtually all medications from entering Gaza, including
antibiotics, painkillers, and sedatives so operations such as the 1,000 plus
amputations or “clean ups” after the amputations are performed without anaesthetic,Carrying out 400 plus attacks on
healthcare facilities and staff—all war crimes,Killing more than 496 healthcare workers, wounding 1500 and detaining more than
390. . . .
Instead of acknowledging these crimes, the problem for the pro-Israel lobby is
to silence students on university campuses who support a ceasefire.
Is Criticism of Israel Worse
than it Killing 35,000?
The students and their friends set up encampments to
expose what Israel has done and continues to do. The students and their allies
demand an end to universities’ connections to Israeli research centres,
cultural exhibits, and sports exchanges, and an end to the special treatment
Israeli academics receive from almost all research universities in Canada. The
students are demanding their universities divest from Israeli-linked
investments. For this, the students are tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, attacked
by police, roughed up, and arrested.
The
students and their friends set up encampments which are peaceful. They denounce
the murders and destruction of Gaza. . . .
The Media—Stenographers
to Power
And the
Canadian media plays right along. Blithely, they go along, “stenographers to power,” as Amy Goodman (host of
broadcast Democracy Now!) famously
said—despite the fact that more than 97 Palestinian journalists have lost their lives thanks
to Israeli snipers (remember Shireen Abu Akleh?) and missiles. The media here has all but
ignored the fact that most of the 97 dead Palestinians journalists have been
deliberately targeted and killed by Israel. Only when there’s a police
attack—or a bid for an injunction to shut down the encampment—do Canada’s
finest reporters wade into the encampments. I’ve rarely heard one
interview—just a sound byte here and there—highlighting why the students are
there. Why are the students willing to give up their studies, their apartments,
their jobs—and be in the line of fire of the police for a cause that others
call intractable and “too complicated.”
Does Perceived Antisemitism
Justify Genocide? . . . .
As U.S. former secretary of labour, Robert Reich, who is
Jewish, recently wrote, Once
we start conflating antisemitism with protests against mass brutality, such as
the slaughter in Gaza, we invite blindness to injustices in which America is
complicit.
I’d
say Canada is complicit as well.
Judy
Haiven is a retired management professor at Saint Mary’s University in
Halifax, NS. She is a member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada.
Israel-Palestine The Silent
War on the West Bank Has Become Deafening
Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Israel-Palestine For 11
Months, Israel’s Boot Has Mercilessly Pressed Down on West Bank’s Neck
Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Israel-Palestine The West
Bank Too is Under Attack: What I Saw
Monday, 16 September 2024
CONTENTS #17
Rabbi
Arthur Waskow. “…One More Murder.” An important “Hamas” distinction; three
tasks.
Julia Frankel. The Unprecedented Death
Toll.
George
Yancy. Reporting Judith Butler’s Call
for Ceasefire.
Ahmad
Abuznaid, USCPR. Cease Fire!
LTE on Fida Jiivis’ Stranger in My Own Land.
As’ad AbuKhalil. Rev. of Rashid
Khalidi’s book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine.
You
Tube. Speech in Irish Parliament.
Three Views
of Oslo Accords from WRMEA.
Seven Views
of Breakout from WRMEA.
Philip
Weiss. American Anthropological Assoc.
Votes to Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions.
Ramzy
Baroud. Murdered Palestinian Children.
Nada Al
Kahlout. Death of a Palestinian Child.
Palestine
Chronicles. “Save the Children” Report.
Musafa
Sheta. “Assault on Jenin.”
Chris
Hedges and Asa Wistanley on Weaponizing Anti-Semitism v. Jeremy Corbin.
Jeremy
Kuzmarov. Israeli Attack on US Ship
Remembered.
People’s
Dispatch. Nakba Is Every Day.
END ISRAEL-PALESTINE ANTHOLOGY #18
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