vjp-global

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/al-jazeera-once-again-removes-joseph-massad-article-palestine         Al Jazeera English has once again removed an article by Columbia University professor Joseph Massad hours after publishing it. The article, “The Dahlan Factor,” appeared for several hours on the Qatar-based broadcaster’s website this morning at this link , but was later removed without explanation (the full article is republished [on Electronic Intifada—see link above ]. [These are the last two paragraphs of Massad’s article] “The future of the Palestinian people is in danger and the enemies of the Palestinians surround them inside and outside Palestine. The Obama-Israeli-Egyptian-Gulf plans for liquidating their cause and their rights continue afoot. However, just like past corrupt Palestinian leaders were unsuccessful in liquidating the rights of the Palestinians a

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4503742,00.html     For over 20 years, Israel and Palestinians struggle to imagine how peace would look like. A group of researches made it their project to paint an accurate picture of life after a peace deal, and discovered: Peace is good business for Israel, PA and Jordan Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.582178   The 24 infrastructure projects include new roads between settlements, the beginning of a West Bank train system, and a Jordan Valley pedestrian bridge for Palestinians.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/03/24/1-2-3-disband-the-paplo/   With no hopes in sight for ending the Israeli Occupation, let alone ending the ever-expanding settlements, certainly for a “two states solution” time for Mahmoud Abbas to keep his often-stated promise (last one on December 28, 2012) to disband the PA/PLO and hand over the Keys to Bibi Netanyahu, Barack Obama and John Kerry. The PLO leadership (Arafat & Co) having failed at liberation and having looted tens of billions of dollars, facing a matter of life and death and survival of a corrupt incompetent decadent organization, decided to enter into secrete negotiations with Israel leading to the Oslo Accord under which the PLO leadership and Fatah came back to manage the Israeli military and settlers Occupation and to “repackage” the Israeli Occupation and worst to pay for it….   Contrary to the claims of many senior members of the PLO/Fatah of “mutual recogn

http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinians-must-resist-israels-efforts-foment-sectarianism/13269   On 24 February, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset , approved a controversial law aimed at de-Arabizing Palestinian Christians . The new law identifies them as a non-Arab minority group. The initiative is led by the extreme right-wing member of the Knesset (MK) Yariv Levin from the governing Likud party. Some consider this to be only a small symbolic action but we in Baladna , the Association for Arab Youth, and in wider Palestinian civil society see this action as linked to a much larger and systematic process of “divide and conquer” as well as to attempts to destroy Palestinian identity among Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel .   The legislation is part of a larger policy to fragment Palestinian identity….   All Palestinians want the full realization of their rights. However, this system in which margi

https://portside.org/2014-03-25/bds-non-violent-resistance-israeli-occupation The BDS movement is spreading throughout the world. European pension funds are divesting from banks and companies that operate in settlements, and European markets are labeling Israeli goods made in the West Bank. Special UN Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, called on the international community to comprehensively investigate the business activities of companies and financial institutions which profit from the settlements in Israel…. Thanks to Scarlett Johansson, the American Studies Association (ASA), and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has entered our national discourse….   Resistance to the banning of student groups that criticize Israeli policies should cite the well-established Supreme Court precedents protecting academic freedom of speech, including *H

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/20/israel-architecture-association-ban-international-forum-palestinian-settlements Britain's leading architectural association has called for its Israeli counterpart to be excluded from the International Union of Architects in protest at Israel's occupation of Palestine, in a further indication of the growing momentum of the boycott movement. The Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) has demanded the suspension of the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) from the international body, saying it is complicit in the construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and other violations of international law. Riba's president, Angela Brady, told a meeting of the its council on Wednesday that failure to back the motion "would send a clear message to the world that we as an institution turn a blind eye or by inaction support what's going o

http://prospect.org/article/moment-creation Do America’s current challenges in the Middle East trace back to Harry Truman’s 1948 missteps?   ...John Judis’s Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict , shows that the question of whether U.S. policy toward Israel is captive to a special-interest group has existed even longer than Israel has. The densely researched core of the book follows Truman’s decisions at the moment of creation—of Israel and of U.S. involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Judis shows how American Zionist leaders and sympathetic officials swayed the president to support partition of Palestine and establishment of Israel, against his preference for a single political entity for Arabs and Jews. The author thus proves his explicit thesis: The lobbying efforts of American Zionists tilted American policy, to the detriment of Palestine’s Arabs. Yet the story also has additional, half

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/arts/music/zubin-mehta-of-the-israel-philharmonic-on-that-nations-affairs.html?hpw&rref=arts&_r=0   “I have such a love for this country, Israel, that I see it as a tragedy what’s going on,” the Mumbai-born Mr. Mehta, now 77, said recently…. “I speak openly about a country that I see, from my private musician’s perspective, as going in the wrong direction, as far as the settlements, as far as internal economic policies.”   … The Israel Philharmonic was founded on the eve of World War II… as the Palestine Orchestra in 1936 [with successive waves of musicians, Europeans Jews fleeing Nazism, Russians, and now sabras.] But there are as yet no Arab Israeli members of the orchestra, and Mr. Mehthas thrown his weight behind an educational project run by members of the Israel Philharmonic that fosters talent in the predominantly Arab towns of Nazareth and Shfaram.... “So one of these days we

http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/threatens-israel-democracy   “At the heart of this system of exclusion and racial subordination is Israel’s peculiar distinction between citizenship and nationality. In every other democratic state, to be a national is pretty much synonymous with being a citizen, regardless of one’s ethnicity, national origin, or religion. In Israel, the distinction between citizenship ( ezrahut ) and nationality ( le’om ) is fundamental and consequential: from this distinction stems a whole series of differential and discriminatory laws and practices that privilege Jewish “nationals” at the expense of Palestinians. The distinction, which the Israeli Supreme Court upheld as recently as 2013, is justified as a means to preserve “the country’s Jewish character” and is the very core of Israel’s polity. But it means that not only is Israel not a “state of all its people,” it is also a state that explicitly and deliberately e

https://lareviewofbooks.org/academic-activism/#   Jonathan Hahn, Executive Editor, Los Angeles Review of Books:  "There are several questions at the heart of this debate: What role, if any, does the academy have in matters of political and international affairs? Is endorsing a movement — such as the movement to boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) Israel — in the great tradition of academic freedom and discourse, or an example of its degradation? Does an academic boycott of Israel advance, or damage, the cause for peace and human rights in the Middle East?"   David N. Myers , " Why I Oppose a Boycott, Mostly " Judea Pearl ,   " BDS, Racism and the New McCarthyism "   Russell A. Berman ,
" The Goal of the Boycott "   Colin Dayan , " The Boycott Effect " 
 
 David Palumbo-Liu , " Why an Academic Boycott? "   Cary Nelson ,
 " Th

http://themacweekly.com/2014/03/debate-over-israeli-boycott-comes-to-mac/ Over 80 Macalester community members attended a panel on the American Studies Association (ASA) boycott of Israeli academic institutions last Tuesday. The crowd overflowed Carnegie 06A, which seats 60. “It’s evident that people will turn up when there’s debate and dialogue,” panelist Noah Westreich ’15 said. Members of J Street U and Mac Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) organized the panel to discuss the ASA boycott of Israeli academic institutions as part of a broader Palestinian civil society movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israeli institutions and businesses. This Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement aims to pressure the Israeli government and society to end occupation of the Palestinian-claimed West Bank and Gaza Strip.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.579818   U.S. secretary of state says its a 'mistake' for issue to be raised again and again, adding that it was already resolved in 1947, when UN Resolution 181 divided Palestine into two states… Kerry added that the issue was resolved in 1947, referring to UN Resolution 181 that divided Palestine into two states, one for Jews and one for Arabs, and reminded of former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's recognition of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state in 1988.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/03/northeastern-university-interrogation.html On March 7, members of Northeastern University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) were informed by the school’s Center for Student Involvement that their chapter had been suspended for at least a year. …the school’s Director of the Center for Student Involvement, Jason Campbell-Foster, offered a litany of charges against the students. At the top of the list was the SJP’s February 24 distribution of notices across Northeastern campuses that mocked the sort of eviction notices slapped on Palestinian homes slated for Israeli demolition – an awareness-raising tactic increasing in popularity among SJP chapters nationwide… On July 5, 2013, Northeastern University President Joseph Aoun received a breathless twelve-page letter from the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) demanding an investigation of three professors – Dennis Sullivan, Berna Turam, and M. Shah

http://972mag.com/photos-israeli-women-who-have-stood-up-to-the-occupation-for-26-years/88005/   In honor of International Women’s Day, Activestills pays tribute to more than a quarter century of anti-occupation activism by the ‘Women in Black’ group in Israel. Every Friday since 1988, the women have stood in the main squares of cities or at highway junctions with signs calling to end the Israeli occupation. Often spat at, cursed or violently harassed by passersby, they have become, for us, a symbol of persistence. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://972mag.com/women-behind-the-lens-palestinians-filming-the-occupation/88026/   For the past several years, Palestinian women from all walks of life have been taking part in a video project to document human rights violations under occupation. In honor of International Women’s Day, one of them tells her story.  My name is Manal Ja’bri, I am 38-years-old and I have seven children, between the ages of 9 and 18, and I am the sole breadwinner in my family.…One of the problems in Palestinian society is that people don’t differentiate between Israelis, Jews and settlers – they are all settlers to us. I used to think the same way, but over the years I learned to tell the difference. Three years ago, I read a wanted ad in the newspaper for field researchers for B’Tselem, an Israeli organization dedicated to documenting human rights violations in the occupied territories. B’Tselem trains Palestinians in specific locations in the Wes

http://972mag.com/palestinian-and-proud-celebrating-international-womens-day-in-gaza/88217/ In honor of International Women’s Day, Abeer Ayyoub pays respect to her mother, who taught her that being a woman in Gaza is as much about liberation as it is about survival.  [Her mother protected and encouraged her through two intifadas and two Israeli military incursions, contending as well with economic difficulties.   But..] I graduated from the English literature department, learned how to edit news, got my own bylines in some of the most renowned international newspapers, and am now working on my second university degree, this time in Hebrew. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/03/apartheid-highlight-occupation.html#comments   Tufts University Students for Justice in Palestine organized a very creative campus-wide action to introduce the concept of occupation... As the central action during Tufts SJP’s Israeli Apartheid Week 2014, the campus awoke to a mock “Uphill” settlement constructed on the patio of the campus center situated “Downhill” between dorms and classrooms. Uphill versus Downhill: this meaningless geographic distinction and rivalry on Tufts University’s campus was transformed into a metaphor for the violent asymmetry of occupation and colonization in Israel/Palestine…. We erected a border wall, covered with graffiti slogans—“This Wall Will Fall!”—and evicted  downhill residents from the lower patio, blind-folding and detaining them on the steps. The previous night, mock demolition notices were slipped under each downhill dorm door informing students that their d

Annual report of the Jewish Peace Lobby http://www.peacelobby.org/JPL_2013_Annual.pdf During the past year, JPL continued our core mission: to develop new and promising approaches to ending the conflict and to communicate those ideas to relevant parties (e.g. Palestinian, Israeli, U.S. officials). We are working on three of the most basic questions: - How can we solve the Palestinian refugee issue? - Is there a way to address the question of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif that would be in line with the religious needs of both peoples? - Where do we go if bilateral negotiations reach a dead-end? Submitted by Judith Ferster, posted by Sam Bryan  

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/03/delivers-strategic-partner.html The House of Representatives passed the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act by a 410-1 vote today. The legislation, a major priority for the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), designates Israel as a “major strategic partner”–a first for any U.S. ally. AIPAC members lobbied Congress to approve the bill on Tuesday…. Only Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted against the bill [ a libertarian ally of Senator Rand Paul ].   The liberal Zionist lobby group J Street  applauded the bill’s passage. ...   The legislation had languished in Congress for a year.  While it was a priority for AIPAC at last year’s conference, it was held up because of concerns that it would codify Israel’s discrimination against activists and Arab- and Palestinian-American travelers.  Those concerns, pushed to the forefront by a coalition of groups, led to the stripping out of langu

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/03/settlement-construction-already.html Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing   Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics revealed earlier this week that 2013 was a record year in settlement construction, while 2014 has seen the beginning of construction of 2,534 housing projects  - a rise of 123 percent from 2013…And while there is no earlier data on construction in the occupied territories, it is worth noting that during the Oslo process (from the signing of the first agreement in 1993 to the Taba summit in 2001) the number of settlers almost doubled – from 116,300 to 208,300, not including the Jewish neighborhoods in annexed East Jerusalem.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/13/the-tide-turns-against-israel/   Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rarely been so politically embattled. His travails indicate the Israeli right’s inability to respond to a shifting political landscape, both in the region and globally….   Moreover, powerful elements within the security establishment are financially as well as ideologically invested in the occupation…. There are also vast business profits in the status quo, from hi-tech to resource-grabbing industries. Indications of what is at stake were illuminated recently with the announcement that the Palestinians will have to buy from Israel at great cost two key natural resources – gas and water – they should have in plentiful supply were it not for the occupation. With these interest groups at his back, a defiant Netanyahu can probably face off the US diplomatic assault this time. But Kerry is not wrong to warn th

http://972mag.com/special/prawer-plan-to-displace-bedouin/ Tens of thousands of Bedouin citizens of Israel live in “unrecognized” villages…. [and thus] do not receive basic services such as connections to water lines and the power grid. According to the plan…nearly all residents in the unrecognized villages will be evicted and forcibly relocated to planned communities. ..Many of the “unrecognized” villages predate the state, while others are populated with internally displaced peoples from other parts of the Negev from 1948. The Bedouin, Palestinian-Israeli political and civic groups and the Israeli Right oppose the plan. Community leaders are vowing to resist its implementation, which would be the largest displacement of a Palestinian population by Israel in decades.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://adalah.org/upfiles/Christian%20Aid%20Report%20December%202010%20FINAL(1).pdf   This report focuses on inequalities between Jewish citizens of Israel—the majority—and Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, a national, non-immigrant minority living in its historical homeland.1 Also see 10-29-2013 Niv Elis Flug: Israel must deal with discrimination against Arabs or suffer economic consequences   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/03/02/is-a-settlement-boycott-best-for-israel?utm_source=Is+a+Settlement+Boycott+Good+for+Israel%3F+%28NYTimes%29&utm_campaign=Is+a+settlement+boycott+good+for+Israel%3F&utm_medium=email   Gordis:   Israelis already overwhelmingly favor making a deal if the Palestinians meet them midway. A poll last week indicated that approximately 75 percent would vote for a deal that gave up most of the West Bank, and even split Jerusalem, in return for a genuine peace. Such a population does not need to be boycotted; in fact, boycotting would backfire. If and when Israel eventually elects a hard-right leader, wholly uninterested in a deal, it will be in large measure because Israelis became convinced that there was no way to get a fair hearing in the court of international opinion, even when they were willing to make the deal. The West will then have failed once again, and the boycotts will have wroug

http://prospect.org/article/israel-palestine-peace-hostage-history   One of Benjamin Netanyahu's best known preconditions for a two-state peace accord is that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish nation-state. That's actually the short version of the Israeli prime minister's demand, it turns out. The long version, as he laid out last week before the most amenable audience he could find, is that the Palestinians must sign off on the entire Jewish narrative of the history of the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan….   The easiest guess about Netanyahu's motivation is that he has raised the demand precisely to foil an agreement. Perhaps. …   Overtly, though, he has made hopes for the future hostage to history. A workable peace accord must be written so as to avoid direct denial of either side's narrative. But it cannot be conditioned on an agreed-upon account of the past….   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member