vjp-global

http://fmep.org/blog/2015/07/matthew-duss-congressional-testimony-on-impact-of-bds/ To the extent that one sees BDS actions as part of an effort to "de-legitimize" Israel, they should certainly be addressed, but not through legislation. Israel has the protection it needs and deserves under existing U.S. law. .. I would also suggest that it is a mistake to focus on the BDS movement while ignoring the main reason for its continued growth, which is the failure to end the occupation that began in 1967 and achieve Palestinian national liberation and sovereignty. .. Moreover, it would be hugely counterproductive to give BDS an unearned win by cooperating in any way with the conflation of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. … Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://blackfriday.amnesty.org/   Executive Summary There is overwhelming evidence that Israeli forces committed disproportionate, or otherwise indiscriminate, attacks which killed scores of civilians in their homes, on the streets and in vehicles and injured many more. This includes repeatedly firing artillery and other imprecise explosive weapons in densely populated civilian areas during the attacks on Rafah between 1 and 4 August. In some cases, there are indications that they directly fired at and killed civilians, including people fleeing. ..   The events need to be independently and impartially investigated. Amnesty International's view is that no official body capable of conducting such investigations currently exists in Israel. It is therefore calling on the Israeli authorities to: co-operate fully with the ongoing preliminary examination by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court into the situation in the Occupied Pa

http://972mag.com/no-jesus-would-not-be-a-settler-hed-practice-solidarity/109338/ Former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren says Jesus would be considered a settler if he lived in Bethlehem today. Such talk obscures the nature of the settlement enterprise and slanders Jesus. .. He was and would be a Jewish Palestinian, a Palestinian Jew. That's how the Roman occupiers saw him: A Jewish troublemaker from the province of Palestine. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.timesofisrael.com/mk-moots-peace-plan-that-lets-settlers-stay-in-palestinian-state/ … Bar, a deputy Knesset speaker and second-term lawmaker from the Labor party, presented his blueprint of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a lengthy event in the Knesset. His initiative was welcomed by opposition leader and Labor chairman Isaac Herzog and the list's number two, former peace negotiator Tzipi Livni… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/opinion/israel-dont-level-my-village.html?ref=opinion&_r=0 ...Qaryatayn was destroyed, along with about 400 other Palestinian villages that were razed between 1948 and the mid-1950s. My family rebuilt their lives in Susiya, across the 1949 armistice line in the West Bank … The situation in Susiya is only one of many such situations in Area C of the West Bank. Several villages near ours have pending demolition orders as well. If Susiya is destroyed and its residents expelled, it will serve as a precedent for further demolitions and expulsions through the South Hebron Hills and Area C of the West Bank. This must not be allowed to happen. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/317799/diaspora-jews-increasingly-critical-of-israel-study-finds/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Main   Diaspora Jewry is increasingly critical of Israel and young Diaspora Jews are growing more alienated from the Jewish state, a new study found. The study, released this week by the Jewish People Policy Institute, an influential think tank based in Jerusalem, comes a year after Israel's war in Gaza. Titled "Jewish Values and Israel's Use of Force in Armed Conflict: Perspectives from World Jewry," the report looks at how non-Israeli Jews view Israeli military actions and how Diaspora Jews should respond… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

  https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/impact-of-the-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-movement/   PURPOSE:   To better understand the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, and review the economic impact of the Movement on American and Israeli businesses.  To review how the goals of BDS may or may not be affected by International Trade Law, U.S. federal law, and state law.  To seek to establish the formal position of the Administration with regard to BDS. To review potential actions by the Department of State to maintain free and open trade among the U.S., Europe, and Israel. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/mapping-occupied-jerusalem   While Israel seeks to brand Jerusalem as its eternal and undivided capital, the existence of 300,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites lays bare the apartheid reality of the self-proclaimed Jewish State's claim. For Israeli military and security firms, occupied East Jerusalem's unique situation presents unique opportunities to develop new methods of enforcing occupation… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

7-16-2015 Amjad Iraqi Will the UN Gaza report finally push Europe to confront Israel? - Amjad Iraqi +972 Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000225 EndHTML:0000004931 StartFragment:0000003613 EndFragment:0000004895 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/jferster/My%20Documents/Peace%20Israel%20Palestine/%20%20%20%20%20%20AIMEblog%207.doc   7-16-2015 Will the UN Gaza report finally push Europe to confront Israel? - Amjad Iraqi +972   http://972mag.com/will-the-un-gaza-report-finally-push-europe-to-confront-israel/108926/ The UN's Commission of Inquiry report on the 2014 Gaza war has been able to achieve what the Goldstone report could not in 2009: a new gateway for confronting the EU to demand accountability for the devastation of the war. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member The UN's Commission of Inquiry report on the 2014 Gaza war has been able to achieve what the Goldstone report could not in 2009: a n

http://972mag.com/the-idf-is-monitoring-what-israeli-citizens-say-on-facebook/108904/ Did you post the word 'demonstration' in Hebrew on Facebook? The army is keeping an eye on you. Did you use the word 'Al Quds' in Arabic in a WhatsApp conversation? You may have just been flagged as a terrorist. How the IDF contracts private tech companies to monitor Israeli citizens on social media. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

Full text: http://fpif.org/the-troubling-implications-of-hillarys-anti-bds-letter/ Snippet: On July 2, former secretary of state and frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to Israeli-American  billionaire Haim Saban, a strong supporter of the right-wing Netanyahu government, denouncing human rights activists who support boycott/divestment/sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli occupation. In the letter, made public a few days later, Clinton made a number of statements which are not only demonstrably false but raise serious concerns regarding what kind of policies she would pursue as president. Posted by Sam Bryan, AIME Member