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Does a Palestinian not bleed? Occupation Magazine December 17, and articles of earlier days
| | Palestinians plan legal steps to stop new Hebron settlement
Ahmad Melhem - Al Monitor - Palestinians in the southern West Bank staged a general strike Dec. 9 to protest Israeli authorities’ intention to build a settlement neighborhood in the old market of Hebron. The settlement is to replace the huge wholesale vegetable market that the Israeli military closed in 1994 after the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre when settler Baruch Goldstein stormed the mosque and shot dead 29 Palestinians and wounded 150. Israel has enforced the closure for 25 years, preventing merchants from returning. Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett approved the new settlement project on Shuhada Road at the center of the city. The Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank on Dec. 1 informed the Hebron municipality of authorities’ plan to raze the market and build new shops and other facilities for settlers. City officials were given one month to respond to the notice. [bz]
| | Born Without Civil Rights
Human Rights Watch - The Israeli army has deprived generations of Palestinians in the West Bank of their basic civil rights, including the rights to free assembly, association and expression, regularly drawing on military orders issued in the first days of the occupation. Even if such restrictions could have been justified then to preserve public order and safety, the suspension of core rights more than half a century later with no end in sight violates Israel’s core responsibilities under the law of occupation. The responsibilities of an occupying power toward the rights of the occupied population increase with the duration of the occupation. (...) It is long past time for Israel to fully respect the human rights of Palestinians, using as a benchmark the rights it grants Israeli citizens, an obligation that exists regardless of the political arrangement in the Occupied Palestinian Territory now or in the future [bz]
| | Congress rejects request for $175m to support Trump`s `Deal of the Century`
Amir Tibon - Ha`aretz - In March, the White House asked Congress for $175 million in a “Diplomatic Progress Fund”, so as to "provide flexibility” in the administration’s Middle East policy. Specifically, in the (unlikely) case of the Palestinians agreeing to Trump`s "Deal of the Century", they would get this money, replacing part of the American aid which Trump had cut off in the past two years. Alternately, the money could used to reward other Middle East states which might support the plan while the Palestinians reject it. However, Congress specifically refused to grant this money - since, in any case, the Trump Plan isn’t likely to be released anytime soon, due to the ongoing political crisis in Israel. "No one thinks this peace plan is coming out any time soon, so why devote money to it?” a Congressional source said. [ak]
| | Austrian Parliament sets stage for overwhelming condemnation of BDS
Raphael Ahren - Times of Israel - The Austrain Parliament seems set to emulate the German Budestag and adopt a resolition condemning the BDS movement. A resolution co-sponsored by all five parties represented and likely to pass unanmpously or by an pverwhelming majority would emphatically condemns all kinds of anti-Semitism, including Israel-related anti-Semitism". The latter is defined as "demonizing Israel, applying a double standard to it, blaming Austrian Jews for Israel`s policies" and also "questioning Israel’s right to exist by demanding a right of return for Palestinian refugees and all their descendants". However, “factual criticism of individual measures by the Israel government must of course be admissible.” The distinction between "demonizing Israel" and “factual criticism" might be difficult to define. [ak]
| | Unconfirmed report: Trump plan sees 3-way peace deal between Israel, PLO, Hamas
Times of Israel - #The settlement blocs in the West Bank would be annexed into Israel, along with isolated settlements. The Jordan Valley would remain under Israeli control. #The Palestinian territories would be made contiguous through a 30 meters above ground highway linking the West Bank and Gaza to be built by a Chinese company. Israel would oversee its construction. #The peace deal demands the full and immediate demilitarization of the Palestinian forces, including Hamas’s terror forces. The Palestinian state would be banned from having an army. [bz]
| | 3750 Jerusalemites, including 1070 children, arrested since Trump declared city Israel’s capital
Mondoweiss - "According to the PCBS, 1070 children, under 18, have been detained, in addition to 171 women and girls, including minors, wounded women, mothers, and women who have been staging a sit-in in Al-Aqsa Mosque" [ry]
| | Don’t let the smears that sank Corbyn tank Bernie Sanders
Asa Winstanley - EI - “But Labour’s worst performance since 1983 carries an important lesson for the grassroots left-wing campaign in the United States to elect Bernie Sanders as president: You must defeat false anti-Semitism smears at all costs. Do not indulge, entertain or appease them” [ry]
| | Jewishness Is Not a Nationality
Sheldon Richman - AntiWar - “The administration was hoping that Congress would pass a definition of anti-Semitism that would shoehorn Jewishness into the Civil Rights Act clause and force schools to crack down on support for, say, the BDS movement […]. But Congress hasn’t passed the so-called Anti- Semitism Awareness Act. So here is the new tack: define Jewishness as a nationality or race. Voila! Problem solved” [ry]
| | Israel’s Haaretz: 256 Cases of Israeli Settlers’ Violence Towards Palestinians
IMEMC & Agencies - “Israeli security sources warned that the increase in settler violence during the last two weeks, and the increase in the destruction of Palestinian properties, must remind us of the incidents that preceded the arson attack against the Palestinian Dawabshe family in Douma village in 2015” [ry]
| | Trump/Netanyahu: Israel, America and the rise of authoritarianism-lite
Lloyd Green - The Guardian - Two recent biographies of ‘Bibi’ pose fascinating questions regarding attitudes to Israel among American Jews [ry]
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Jewish Letter denounces smears of Anti-Semitism against Labour and Corbyn
A celebrated attack on Corbyn by Chief Rabbi Mirvis was devoid of facts and instead complained of the Labour Party “culture”. (...) A detailed examination of all the anti-Semitism accusations against Labour done by a group of UK Jews supporting Labour found the charges were “smoke without fire”. As for what Jeremy Corbyn has done (as opposed to words taken out of context) his record is sterling, going back to the time he organized the defense of Jewish-populated Wood Green from a National Front rally. John Bercow, the Jewish former Conservative MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, testifies that, having known Corbyn over two decades, he has ‘never detected a whiff of antisemitism’ about him. This is a political fight, not a matter of a racist attack on religion or ethnicity. Right-wing Jews who hate Corbyn for his support for Palestinian rights and Right-wing non-Jews who hate Corbyn for his proposed social reforms are united in spreading the “Labour anti-Semitism” slander. If false charges of anti-Semitism are used by the Right in successfully destroying a candidacy in the UK, they’ll do it again and again worldwide. [bz]
| | What should Israel be after Netanyahu?
Nadav Eyal - Ynetnews "Any eulogy for Netanyahu would be premature before he himself says "I resign." ca
| | The thin line between ‘activist’ and ‘ticking time bomb’ for an Amnesty employee
Amir Ben-David - Times of Israel "Amnesty activist Laith Abu Zeyad woke up one day to find that he was a virtual prisoner in the West Bank due to a ruling by the Shin Bet, which claims he poses a ‘serious threat’" ca
| | ‘Palestine Needs Jeremy’: Palestinians Tweet in Support of Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn
The Palestine Chronicle - "Most of the Corbyn anti-Semite accusations are usually from right wing sources, who have taken his actions out of context. The main scrutinisation is his support for Palestine, however he supports the end of the ethnic genocide within Palestine that is caused by Israeli rule.— Asad Mahmood (@Asad667) December 12, 2019" ca
| | Israel Bars Gaza’s Christians From Visiting Bethlehem And Jerusalem At Christmas.
JERUSALEM/PNN/ "Israel tightly restricts movements out of the Gaza Strip, territory controlled by Hamas, an Islamist group that it considers a terrorist organization.The spokeswoman said that following “security orders”, Gazans would be allowed to travel abroad via Israel’s Allenby Bridge border crossing with Jordan but not to visit cities in Israel or the West Bank.This year’s decision is a break with usual policy. Last year, Israel granted permits for close to 700 Gazan Christians to travel to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and other holy cities that draw thousands of pilgrims each holiday season...Gisha, an Israeli rights group, said the ban points “to the intensifying of access restrictions between the two parts of the Palestinian territory,” calling it “a deepening of Israel’s separation policy” for the West Bank and Gaza." ca
| | Education, poverty underlie challenges for vulnerable girls in Kingdom — report
Jordan Times - "There are significant differences between girls who are in school and those who are not, with the former group faring much better than the latter, said a report released as part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence by the Information and Research Centre — King Hussein Foundation, according to a statement from the foundation.The report, titled “From Vulnerable Girls to Empowered Women”, is part of a five-year project implemented with IM Swedish Development Partner that aims to enhance the social protection of some of Jordan’s most vulnerable young women by conducting research and advocacy in cooperation with the civil society organisations (CSOs) that support them." ca
| | GOP lawmaker tries to get Georgetown fundingpulled over alleged ‘anti-Israel,pro-Islamist’ bias
Michael Arria - Information Clearing House "On December 11, President Trump signed an executive order thateffectively weaponizes antisemitism as acudgel to beat back BDS activities oncollege campuses. The order threatens towithhold federal funding from universitiesif the government determines that they’ve failed to prohibit discrimination.Trump’s move was barely announced beforea member of congress attempted to use thenew playbook. Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA)has sent a letter to Secretary of EducationBetsy DeVos asking for Georgetown Universityto be investigated over its alleged anti-Israel bias. The news was reported onTwitter by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Washington bureau chief Ron Kampeas." ca
| | Intel: Lebanon aid wrangling exposes divide in Trump administration
Bryant Harris - Al-Monitor "The on-again-off-again aid holds are sending mixed messages to Beirut amid the country’s worst economic crisis since the civil war. Lebanese protesters continue to demand that the country’s political old guard step down, including Hezbollah and its allies.While today’s sanctions and Pompeo’s stated support for the protesters indicate that the United States is still committed to squeezing Hezbollah financially, the aid meddling sheds light on the divide within the Trump administration between hard-liners and those who believe that the assistance bolsters Lebanese institutions against the Shiite paramilitary group’s influence." ca
| | If you believe Zionism is racism– get ready for your close up!
Philip Weiss - Mondoweiss "I say now and have said before, I would likely have been a Zionist 100 years ago in Europe. I would have been caught up in the movement given my ethnocentrism, my sense of being an outsider and my compassion for people being persecuted. But Zionism has failed utterly and completely. It is subjugating non-Jews in Palestine and pushing them out of their homes.The last thing the Zionists want is for you to look into what is actually happening in Gaza or the West Bank. They want you to notice what some one may have said to a Zionist student advocate on the way to Economics 101 class...This is the struggle we always wanted. Are you ready for it or not?" ca
| | Why are foreign lawmakers aiding Israel’s attacks on Palestinian rights?
Amjad Iraqi - +972 "An executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, which effectively allows Palestine activism to be targeted as discriminatory toward Jews under the Civil Rights Act, alarmed many observers for its potential to threaten free speech around Israel. Yet the order is only the latest legal development this month to threaten the rights of Palestinians and their allies abroad." ca
| | ICC prosecutor acts as Israel’s defense lawyer
Ali Abunimah - Electronic Intifada "The International Criminal Court prosecutor is again giving Israel a pass for its deadly raid on a flotilla to Gaza a decade ago." ca |
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Ramzy Baroud - The Palestine Chronicle - Nothing seems to be working for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has tried every trick in the book to save his political career and avoid a possible prison sentence. Nevertheless, for Israel’s longest-serving leader, the end is almost certainly nigh. Netanyahu described his indictment on charges of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust by Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on November 21, as an “attempted coup”. His loyalists agree. On November 26, a few thousand Likud party supporters gathered in Tel Aviv, under the banner “Stop the coup” to express their anger at what they see as a massive conspiracy involving Mandelblit, the media, various state institutions and “disloyal” Likud members. The Prime Minister’s main Likud rival, Gideon Sa’ar, received much of the verbal abuse that was going. Sa’ar, who almost faded into oblivion after leaving the Knesset in 2014, emerged once more on Israel’s political scene following the inconclusive General Election in April this year. Netanyahu’s failure to form a government then was compounded by a similar failure to cobble up a government coalition after the second General Election held in September. (rh)...
Afif Abu Much - Al-Monitor - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been waging a campaign against the formation of a minority government headed by the Blue and White party with support of the Arab Joint List from outside the coalition, calling such a government “an existential threat to the State of Israel” on Nov. 17. And as one could expect, this campaign had an effect on the field. On Nov. 30, Joint List Knesset member Ahmad Tibi arrived at a cultural event in Ramat Hasharon, and discovered that right-wing activists were “waiting for him” at the entrance. They tried to prevent his entry, yelled “murderer, terrorist, glorifier of martyrs” at him, and even tried to physically hurt him.(rh) ..
ROBERT MALLEY and AARON DAVID MILLER - POLITICO - When he departs, a lot will change right away: Netanyahu’s cult-like figure will have left the stage, and his corrupt practices will be over. The state’s illiberal drift might well be halted and respect for the rule of law, the judiciary and democratic norms enhanced; and the fanning of hate and fearmongering toward Israel’s Arab minority potentially could abate. But as for significant changes to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process—the one issue that seems to retain the bulk of the world’s interest? Not so much. And that will be the case regardless of what government replaces Netanyahu`s. In fact, paradoxically, Netanyahu’s replacement by a less contentious and more reasonable prime minister may well ensure that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process remains more about managing a process than securing a peace. (rh)
Why are Netanyahu’s associates indicted in submarine scandal, but not the PM? Ben Caspit - Al-Monitor - They point to the close ties between Netanyahu and another cousin, American industrialist Nathan Milikowsky and his links with Thyssenkrupp as proof that the whole affair is tainted by deep systemic corruption. Milikowsky has been supporting Netanyahu with large sums of money for years. A business relationship between them reportedly netted Netanyahu a massive profit of tens of millions of dollars, even as Milikowsky served as a raw material supplier for Thyssenkrupp. Is there a connection between the fortune that Milikowsky lavished on his cousin and his financial interest in Thyssenkrupp, on the one hand, and the fact that Netanyahu was aggressively pushing billions of dollars in deals with that same Thyssenkrupp? All these matters have not been investigated yet, and these two issues — the Egypt submarine sale and the Netanyahu-Milikowsky connection — are at the center of a demand by Blue and White for the formation of an official commission of inquiry to provide the Israeli public with the requisite answers.(rh)
EU`s new chief diplomat urged to consider Palestine statehoodAljazeera - The European Union`s new foreign policy chief has been urged to lead a debate on recognising Palestinian statehood. Josep Borrell took office last week as Brussels` chief diplomat and on Monday chaired his first EU foreign ministers` meeting, where Luxembourg`s veteran foreign minister made a written appeal for such a discussion. (rh)
Jamie Stern-Weiner and Alan Maddison - Mondoweiss - It has been prominently and persistently asserted that there is a “crisis” of antisemitism in the Labour Party. The charge-sheet comprises three main allegations: that antisemitism in Labour is widespread, that it has become institutionalized, and that elected party leader Jeremy Corbyn is himself an antisemite. (rh)
Robert Fisk - Information Clearing House - I’ve always wanted to find out where the guns came from. Who were the ‘willing accomplices’ to the wars I witnessed? In 1996, I traced to its Boeing makers in the deep south of the US a missile fired by the Israelis at a Lebanese ambulance. It killed two women and four children. I even went to Georgia and met the developers of the rocket that killed them. And in Syria, deep in the basement of a bombed Nusra-al-Qaeda headquarters in Aleppo, I found hundreds of mortars – along with their shipment documents and factory instructions. They were to be used against the Assad regime. But who had supplied them? They had been made in Novi Travnik in Bosnia, a town I knew well because I had covered the Bosnian war. One of the shipment papers carried the dispatcher’s name: Ifet Krnjic. I felt – I absolutely believed — I could find this man. A hunch? No. I set off to Novi Tavnik with the conviction that this man was there and would talk to me. And we found him, mowing his lawn on a Sunday afternoon in a neighbouring village.(rh)
Ahmad Kabariti - Mondoweiss - The short phone call that Hamouda Abu Amra received from a professed Israeli security officer at 11:15 p.m on November 13 was the fourth catastrophic change to happen in his rural life in Gaza. The call still echoes in Abu Amra’s ears. “A heavy load is coming to your shoulders soon, uncle!” the officer whispered. “Evacuate your family in two minutes and don’t switch off your phone”.(rh)
Netanyahu: Time to Apply Israel’s Sovereignty over Jordan Valley, Annex West Bank
The Palestine Chronicle - Israel’s PM Netanyahu on Sunday touted his plan to annex a swathe of the occupied West Bank and Israeli settlements in a last-ditch effort to prevent another general election. “It is time to apply Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and legalize all the Judea and Samaria [West Bank] settlements, those that are in settlement blocs and those outside of them,” he said during a conference organized by the right-wing newspaper Makor Rishon.(rh)
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Hebron Palestinians go on strike, clash with troops to protest settlement plan
ADAM RASGON - The Times of Israel - Shops, schools and offices were shuttered in Hebron, and young men clashed with troops in the city center as Palestinians protested a plan to expand Jewish settlement activity in the flashpoint city Tuesday. Pictures posted on social media platforms showed stores and schools closed and streets with few passersby. Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called for the strike on Saturday.(rh) |
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