Friday, December 26, 2014
Here are the last minutes of Q&A and concluding statement from
Tel-Aviv University's event on "The Case Against Academic Boycotts of
Israel":
http://www.inss.org.il/index.aspx?id=...
The panel in support of the Crime of Apartheid includes:
Amos Yadlin, Pnina Sharvit Baruch, Galia Golan, David Denker, Ilan Troen.
Is Israel Unfairly Held to a Higher Standard? Norman Finkelstein on Reality Asserts Itself (1/5)
Norman Finkelstein and Paul Jay discuss a full page ad in the NYT that
says Israel is condemned by liberals for human rights violations while
it defends gay rights, and less is said about the persecution of gays by
Iran, Hamas and ISIS
says Israel is condemned by liberals for human rights violations while
it defends gay rights, and less is said about the persecution of gays by
Iran, Hamas and ISIS
More than three months have passed since "Operation Protective Edge" and tens of thousands of families in the Gaza Strip have no house to live in. According to data published by the United Nations in October, during "Operation Protective Edge" destroyed the homes of 20,000 families and homes of 80,000 families are damaged. Khuza'a which lies to the east of Khan Yunis, near the Israeli border, were destroyed and damaged hundreds of homes. The Al -kra extended family lived until last summer five apartments in the building, which was completely destroyed during the fighting. today the family is living in two tents next to the ruins.
With tensions rising in Jerusalem, hate crimes against Palestinians have
increased in recent months. Mohammed lost his cousin to one such
incident a while ago, and now he is one of the newest victims. Like
others, he fears for his life. This is the story of Palestinians living
in East Jerusalem and negotiating their security each day.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Mohammad
Saleh, a sixty-six-year-old Palestinian resident of Tel Rumeida,
al-Khalil (Hebron), waited with his mule outside Shuhada checkpoint for
nine hours over the course of two days. He spent four hours waiting
before being allowed through on Monday (15/12/14) evening.
He
then spent five hours Tuesday (16/12/14), which is what this video
shows, attempting to cross in the opposite direction before eventually
turning back, after being denied repeatedly by Israeli forces claiming
that donkeys, mules, horses, and carts are not permitted to pass through
the checkpoint.
Identity and Collective Denial - Lia Tarachansky on Reality Asserts Itself
Paul Jay of The Real News interviews Lia Tarachansky on her personal history.
http://youtu.be/SLu-7p9I8KY
http://youtu.be/3kaEeLi1GPk
The military blocked the main entrance to a Hebron neighborhood for 3
weeks because of a torched checkpoint, punishing hundreds for a deed by
individuals. The checkpoint serves no security purpose and is part of
Israel’s separation policy in Hebron. The military must remove this and
other unnecessary checkpoints in Hebron. As long as the checkpoint
remains, the military must enable regular passage and avoid collective
punishment.
A Palestinian official says Ziad Abu Ein's autopsy proves the minister
died of a violent act, while Israeli officials cite heart failure.
Thousands of Palestinians attended his funeral on Dec. 11 in Ramallah.
Calls grew for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to suspend security
coordination with Israel.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Illegal Israeli settlements continue to grow in the occupied West Bank
and East Jerusalem, and people like Canadian-Israeli Miriam Schwab are
moving into predominantly Palestinian areas. Many Palestinian families
worry they will be forced out of the city where they've lived for
generations. In 2009, Israel evicted the Hanoun family from the home
they had lived in since 1956. Sherihan Hanoun says no one has the right
to take away the home where she was born and has a history.
Early Elections Could Result in Most Right-Wing Coalition in Israel's History
Journalist Max Blumenthal says centrist parties have no other political purpose besides promoting the image of Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East
http://youtu.be/-83Z_Z7sdps
Outside parliament on Monday, a small group of Israeli activists and
African asylum seekers released approximately 2,000 balloons into the
air, symbolising the 2,000 asylum seekers currently jailed at the Holot
detention centre.
Sigal Avivi, an Israeli activist from Tel Aviv, told MEE that the
group was there to protest the law "in the name of the people jailed in
Holot that could not come".
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-knesset-passes-new-version-anti-infiltration-bill-2060230141
Roughly 2,000 people — students, teachers and parents from “Hand inhttp://972mag.com/following-arson-thousands-march-to-support-integrated-school-in-jlem/99604/
“Hand” schools from across Israel — marched through the streets of
Jerusalem Friday morning to the Max Rayne bilingual school, which was
the target of an arson attack last weekend.
Many others joined the march in support the school and to speak out
against racism, including activists and at least one member of Knesset,
Jamal Zahalka of Balad.
Friday, December 5, 2014
11 Palestinian demonstrators were wounded at the Kufr Qaddum protest on
28th November 2014. 18-year-old Sami Jumma was shot twice with live
ammunition, once in the hand and once in the chest. He required surgery
and is now in a stable condition. The remaining 10 injured protesters
were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets and four required hospital
treatment. One of whom was a 10-year-old child, although all four were
later discharged.
An Italian ISM activist was also shot in the chest with live ammunition, the full article can be read here: http://palsolidarity.org/2014/11/18-y...
The Chief Rabbi of the ITF (aka IDF) explains to students why Muslims
have no right to al-Aqsa mosque. His video was originally published on
28 Nov 2014: http://news.walla.co.il/item/2805832
Ultra
Orthodox Jews, however, almost in their entirety, think the exact
opposite as this ITF Rabbi and see such self-proclaimed Jews as being
Zionist and anti-Jewish!
See the poster at min: 01:00 of the video!
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has argued for keeping Palestinian
workers off of public Israeli buses. Yaalon says the laborers are
dangerous and harass Israeli women. AJ+ caught a ride on one of the
buses to hear from a Palestinian about it. Raji Abdallah Saleh Ahmed
explains that sharing a bus is about much more than sharing a ride: "It
helps build peace."
As Juan Cole notes on his site, anti-ISIL Arabs are fighting back with satire & ridicule, including Palestinians (Don't give money to MEMRI. They are Islamophobes.)
Friday, November 28, 2014
Sukars live exposed to elements in house shelled in Protective Edge, November 2014
Operation
Protective Edge ended in late August 2014, but most residents of the
Gaza Strip are still suffering its consequences. The video shows the
apartment of the Sukar family in a-Shuja’iyeh neighborhood in Gaza City,
which was heavily shelled in the operation. The parents and their five
children now live in an apartment that does not provide them shelter
from the cold and rain: “This apartment had been hit by shells and parts
of it were destroyed. Whenever it rains, the house is flooded. The
children get sick with colds. I hope we’ll be able to go back to our
apartment, with all our belongings and furniture, especially the washing
machine… This war set us forty years back…"
A Zio-fascist settler in the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo (regarded
as a neighborhood of Jerusalem whose residents haven't the slightest
clue they're on occupied land), tries to "counter" the Muezzin calls for
prayer from the neighboring village of Beit Jala.
Early in the
morning he plays aloud the Jewish Sh'ma Yisrael prayer, but unlike the
Muezzin call, he's not doing so for the sake of prayer or for religious
reasons but rather for ultra-nationalistic ones.
Originally aired on Israeli Channel 1.
On November 23 and 25 Israeli settlers from Havat Ma’on hammered in the
ground three meters high iron pylons at the edge of the wood inside of
which the illegal Israeli outpost is located, keeping on the ongoing
expansion.
Some days before, on November 13, the same settlers
(equipped with a white jeep carrying an electricity generator, a drill
and cement) had already dug 10 cm diameter holes in the surrounding
boundary.
In both occasions South Hebron Hills Popular Committee
members and B’tselem operators called the DCO to denounce the illegal
works, but Israeli forces didn’t show up.
During the last month
in the South Hebron Hills area, Israeli forces carried out several
demolitions in the Palestinian village of Um Al Kher and seized
materials in the Palestinian village of Susiya. In the meanwhile they
have not taken any measure to stop an illegal expansion of an illegal
Israeli outpost.
Nevertheless the Palestinian communities of the
South Hebron Hills area are still strongly committed to nonviolent
popular resistance against the Israeli occupation.
There are countless examples of Hebrew University complicity in
occupation and apartheid. Here is one such reason as explained by Eran,
Hebrew U graduate, while standing in the village of Issawiya which is
being controlled and whose land is being stolen from under their feet,
with the help of Hebrew U and the Jerusalem Municipality.
If you wonder why tensions are rising in Jerusalem, one reason is that settlers have been posting things like this. Hat tip to Richard Silverstein,
Friday, November 21, 2014
This past weekend was a Jewish holiday commemorating the purchase of
Hebron by Abraham for the burial of Sarah. Yesterday, for several hours,
hundreds of illegal settlers, national-religious Jews and a large
accompanying Israeli military force passed through the Old City of
Hebron. As a result many shops had to close early and the freedom of
movement for Palestinians was restricted. As the groups passed through
the Old City, many shouted profanity at Palestinians, yelled chants,
draped Israeli flags over their backs and threatened to hit a volunteer
from the organization Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). A star of David
was also spray-painted on the ground of the Old City.
Ta'ayush Activists accompanied land owners from 'Sa'ir and 'Shioch to
work on their land located between the settlements 'Asfer' and 'Mezad.
Activists and Palestinian landowners violently attacked by settlers that threw stones at them.
The
settlers attacked with stones, one of them had a brass knuckle on his
hand, they tried to snatch cameras and beat Palestinians and activists.
All that time soldiers who were present prevented the attacks, and did not stop and detain none of the criminals.
After
more than an hour of attacks, the soldiers allowed the Palestinians to
continue the work started, on their own private land.
This is video of two non-violent direct actions that were part of a
campaign entitled #On2Jerusalem organized by local Palestinian popular
resistance committees to show solidarity with the people of Jerusalem.
During
the first action Palestinian and international activists crossed the
apartheid wall and cut a barbed-wire fence directly behind it to pass
from the West Bank into Northern Jerusalem.
The second action involved activists attempting to cross into Jerusalem from Hizme checkpoint.
Months before the #toilettengate affair and ahead of Dr. Gregor Gysi's
visit to Israel/Palestine in an attempt to legitimize the illegitimate,
Boycott from Within had published a letter calling on Gysi and Die Linke
to reconsider their support of apartheid. This call also applies to the
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
The letter was handed to Gysi in
person at a Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung event in apartheid Tel-Aviv, on June
12th 2014. He refused to comment on the letter or to respond to our
question from the audience.
Friday, November 14, 2014
Top German lawmaker Gregor Gysi endorsed a public campaign accusing Max
Blumenthal and I of anti-Semitism and demanded we be banned from the
Bundestag. After we spoke in the German parliament over his objections,
we requested a meeting with him at his office. He refused, so we
confronted him and demanded answers.
30/10/14: Due to a teachers strike in solidarity with underpaid public workers, school in Hebron finished at 10:00
in the morning. Several young boys threw stones towards the military,
armed at Salaymeh checkpoint, and the soldiers then fired three
canisters of tear gas.
The children threw more stones, and the
soldiers fired approximately ten more tear gas grenades in several
rounds. This continued until 11:00
when an army vehicle drove up from a side street at a high speed. Three
soldiers jumped outside one of the school buildings, before running
into a school yard and arrested the 14-year-old boy.
Israeli police shoot in the back Arab Israeli citizen Khairuddin Hamdan in Nazareth after he attacks their vehicle then flees. More by Richard Silverstein here.
Friday, November 7, 2014
Unremarkable Tweets and Donor Pressure Cost Me My Job
After the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaigne rescinded Steven
Salaita's job over tweets condemning Israel's war on Gaza this summer,
Salaita says he is waiting for a ruling on his case for reinstatement
After the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaigne rescinded Steven
Salaita's job over tweets condemning Israel's war on Gaza this summer,
Salaita says he is waiting for a ruling on his case for reinstatement
Saturday, November 1, 2014
This talk was delivered by Richard Silverstein, author of the Tikun Olam
blog, on October 23, 2014 at Unitarian Universalist Church in Seattle.
He spoke to the group, Unitarian Universalist Humanists. The talk,
Fear, Loathing and Terror in Israel-Palestine, addresses the recent
failures of U.S. brokered peace talks, and the rise in terror on both
sides of the Israel-Palestine divide. It notes the most recent terror
attack by an East Jerusalem Palestinian on the Jerusalem light rail line
in which two Israeli Jews were killed, the settler attempts to pray at
Muslim holy sites, and Israeli police invasions of the mosques on the
Temple Mount. In spite of the bleak outlook, Silverstein outlines a
possible compromise that could resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Silverstein’s
blog exposes the excesses of the Israeli national security state and
tosses a life preserver to the last remaining remnants of Israeli
democracy. It is at http://www.richardsiverstein.com.
A Third Intifada on the Horizon?
Journalist Max Blumenthal discusses the situation in Jerusalem and the reconstruction plans for Gaza
http://youtu.be/PnDuk83fCIo
Journalist Max Blumenthal discusses the situation in Jerusalem and the reconstruction plans for Gaza
http://youtu.be/PnDuk83fCIo
Jerusalem and the Fate of Palestinians
Israeli activist Jeff Halper says the recent tension and violence in Jerusalem is a product of defeated Palestinian political resistance and Israel's policy of Judaization
http://youtu.be/VebUtMsf3x0
Friday, October 24, 2014
Israel/Palestine News
Palestinians & Israeli police clash in Issawiya, a Palestinian village in East Jerusalem.
Tel Rumeida, yesterday. A settler named Bleicher tries to cross the Palestinian-owned land,. The path is used by the military as a way to safety, but not allowed for use by settlers. Bleicher gets angry and starts to cut the fence. The army declared the area closed to Israelis. Bleicher will not leave until the soldiers would open a way for his vehicle to pass Again we realize that we are all working for the settlers.
Yesterday, soldiers briefly detained a developmentally disabled
Palestinian boy, who is under the age of criminal responsibility, on
suspicion that he had thrown stones. The boy, A. a-Rajbi, (full name
withheld in interest of privacy) who will be 12 in a month, was detained
after Palestinian children threw stones at soldiers on the main road of
the Jabel Johar neighborhood in Hebron, close to the settlement of
Kiryat Arba. A-Rajbi was handcuffed, blindfolded, and held on the floor
of an army jeep for some 15 minutes until his father arrived and
convinced the soldiers to release his son, who is mentally disabled and
cannot speak.
In the video footage, filmed by B’Tselem volunteer
Samih Da’na from his window, soldiers are seen holding the boy,
handcuffing him, blindfolding him and closing him in the jeep, despite
cries by Palestinian residents that the boy is mentally disabled. The
footage also shows settlers from Kiryat Arba, watching the incident from
behind the settlement’s fence. Some are seen calling out encouragement
to the soldiers, including several racist remarks.
Around 30 settlers came this Saturday morning in the land
of Abu
Imad Knebi in Tel Rumeda, Hebron, to destroy the fence that he is
building. This fence is supposed to protect his land and his olives
trees from settlers attacks. It took him 5 years to get the permit from
Israel Civil Administration to build the fence. Now, he has the
authorization but since he started the works few weeks ago he suffered
repeatedly from new settlers attacks. It happened under the eyes of the
police and the soldiers, who neither this morning prevented the settlers
to damage Abu Imad Knebi fence
Friday, October 17, 2014
3 o’clock in the morning two jeeps invaded in #Bilin throwing many
sound bombs and tear gas to the houses and beating a old man with a gun
asked him to show them his neighbor home. The soldiers collected all of
the canisters before they leave, and also not allowed me to film and
they shot to me sound bombs and tear gas.
Bilin - Palestine 15.10.2014
Saturday, 11.10.2014, South Hebron hills, while Ta'ayush activists
accompany Awad and Jabareen families to their land near the out post of
Mitspe Yair. the attacks occur in front of IDF soldiers which like usual
didn't do any thing against the attackers and chose to detain the
victims (the activists)
Friday, October 10, 2014
Friday, October 3, 2014
Israel/Palestine News
David Sheen on racist incitement in Israel; Max Blumenthal on war carimes in Gaza; Netanyahu, Abbas speak at UN.
This morning (1/10/14) at Salaymeh checkpoint in Hebron, Israeli border
police fired excessive amounts of tear gas at schoolchildren. ISM
activists present counted at least 24 canisters fired. Several young
Palestinian children threw stones towards the checkpoint, and one border
police officer ran out of the checkpoint twice, so he could fire the
tear gas closer to the school. ISM volunteers also observed how one
border police officer aimed the tear gas canisters directly at one boy,
making him jump to avoid them.
Mohammad Sadiq Knebi owns a pieces of land with olive trees in Tel
Rumeida, Hebron. For years the settlers tried to damage his land burning
the thousand-years old olive trees.
More than 5 years ago he decided
to apply for a permit through the Israel Civil Administration to fence
the area. Finally, few weeks ago they authorized him, and yesterday he
started to built the fence but the settlers tried to prevent him hardly.
This morning young settlers uprooted some poles and another group tried to disturb the work.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Israel/Palestine News
Hamas, Fatah form national unity government in Gaza; IDF to kids: no ball for you!; Trouble at Al Aqsa mosque.
Today (23/9/14) at Salaymeh checkpoint in Hebron, Israeli forces fired
29 rounds of tear gas and 5 stun grenades at children going to school.
The morning started off peaceful as children passed through the
checkpoint but as word spread that two Palestinians had been murdered by
the Israeli army the night before, tensions began to rise quickly.
Israeli forces had a clear presence at the checkpoint from the start. A
few small stones were thrown by a small number of young boys, but landed
nowhere near the checkpoint.
Qeitun checkpoint, Hebron (23/9/14): clashes had erupted and were
underway between unarmed Palestinian youth and Israeli forces. An
excessive amount of tear gas was used in addition to rubber coated steel
bullets and stun grenades.
A small group of older boys were
throwing stones but they did not manage to reach the Israeli forces.
However, the commander insisted on firing despite the presence of the
many young children, some as young as 8 years old, in front of them
attempting to get to school.
Later on the Israeli forces threw
stun grenades and brutally grabbed and arrested two young Palestinian
boys between the ages of 14 and 15 years old. One of the boys whilst in a
headlock and handcuffed was punched several times in the side.
From May:
Police fail to protect the girls from settler violence but finds the
resources to vigorously enforce the law on children for minor
suspicions. On Tues. May 27, the police detained four Palestinian girls
after a Ma'on settler accused them of picking cherries from his grove.
The police took them to the station without adult accompaniment,
interrogated two of them and, after four hours, handed them over to the
Palestinian Police. They were released only in the evening.
From Wikipedia:
Esh Kodesh (Hebrew: אֵשׁ קֹדֶשׁ, lit. Sacred Fire) is an Israeli outpost in the West Bank near Shilo. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.[2] The population in 2005 was under 12 families.[3]
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Israel/Palestine News
Unit 8200 Refuseniks; 12,000 Bedouins to be evicted; Schools open in Gaza while schoolkids dodge teargas in Hebron.
Settler leader Avidan Ofir (of Wild West Hebron fame) harasses Palestinian farmers & Israeli activists in the South Hebron Hills.
Friday, September 12, 2014
This is a hit in Israel.
More from Richard Silverstein
BERLIN
Why stay here
Everybody’s asking
When you can catch a plane and begin to breath.
Even the newly Orthodox are leaving
And getting far away from me
How long can family be an excuse?
The neighbor’s lived in LA for 15 years already
She says we need to shut that watchful eye,
And everyone who comes back from abroad
Tells me how good it is there.
Berlin, Berlin
Even if I forget my right hand
You’ll wait forever
For us to return to you.
Reichstag of Peace
And of the Euro and of light
For all your songs
I don’t have a passport.
Let’s be honest.
Grandpa and Grandma didn’t come here [Israel] because of Zionism,
They fled because they didn’t want to die.
And now they understand that here there’s no life [possible],
They’d rather we be far away than poor.
No, it’s not a fleeing for convenience’s sake
It’s fleeing flat out
To keep your head above the water.
Even our forefather Jacob went down [emigrated] to Egypt
Because rent there was a third
And salaries double.
Understand:
The whole world migrates everywhere
Only here is it considered betrayal of the [Jewish] people
By leaders who want us to remain alone
To remain afraid
Because everybody hates Jews.
And every time they open their mouths
They pin the yellow star on me again
Like a medal of honor
Like it’s a boutonniere.
They degrade all of us
Without a scrap of pride.
Liberate the Ghetto already
Let us live like a normal people.
I don’t really want anywhere else.
It’s cold there
Strange there
And Hebrew is the only language I love speaking.
Give me a bit of the Kinneret
If there’s any left, I’ll be happy.
But how long can we ignore tomorrow?
How can I raise kids in a place that
Chased away Dudu Zar ?
Friday, September 5, 2014
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