vjp-global

http://972mag.com/what-neoconservatives-get-wrong-about-u-s-jews-relationship-with-israel/119642/ Neoconservative pundit Elliott Abrams  reviewed  two new books that document this phenomenon and try to explain it.  Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel  by Dov Waxman of Northeastern University and  The Star and the Stripes: A History of the Foreign Policies of American Jews  by Michael Barnett of George Washington University both look at shifts in Israeli policy over the years and examine the effects of those policy shifts on Jews in the United States. Abrams sees both books as blaming Israel for the growing divide with the U.S. Jewish community, and he feels compelled to respond by laying the blame instead on Jews in the United States. [but] The longer the occupation continues, the less support it will find among Jews in the United States. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771646 Israeli prison authorities transferred detained prominent Palestinian parliament member Marwan Barghouti from Israel's Ramon prison to an unidentified location on Thursday, according to Palestinian sources. Barghouti, a member of Fatah's central committee, was transferred to Israel's Ramon prison five days before the most recent transfer to an undisclosed location, according to a statement by the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners' Affairs…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771670     Sixteen organizations from around the world denounced travel restrictions on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) co-founder Omar Barghouti. In a public letter to their respective foreign ministers on Sunday , international academic boycott organizations publicly condemned Israel's refusal to renew Barghouti's travel documents. .. Organizations from the American, Asian, and European countries demanded freedom for Barghouti to travel and for their ministers "to impress on the Israeli government the absolute necessity of ceasing its repressive measures against Palestine's civil leaders."…     Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.progressive.org/news/2016/05/188749/defending-israel%E2%80%99s-attacks-civilians%E2%80%94-harbinger-clinton%E2%80%99s-presidency   A fight is brewing as Democrats prepare to debate U.S. policy on Israel at their national convention in July. Bernie Sanders' appointees to the platform committee Cornel West and James Zogby plan to challenge the party establishment's uncritical support for an increasingly aggressive, right wing Israeli government… Having called for an escalated U.S. military response to ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Clinton as President might use a similar rationale to order massive U.S. air strikes on Mosul, Raqaa, and other Islamic State-controlled cities, regardless of civilian casualties. That prospect is far more worrisome than a divisive platform fight over Israel at the Democratic convention in July.     Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

5-20-2015 I Was There: Uri Avnery on Israel's new "Defense" Minister Avigdor Lieberman - Uri Avnery Tikkun http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/on-lieberman   Editor's note: Lieberman has made so many demeaning statements against Palestinians that most Israeli peace movement people see him as an overt racist and hater whose stated goal is to rid the Land of Israel of Palestinians. Uri Avnery is chair of the Israeli Peace Movement Gush Shalom in Tel Aviv]   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/israel-palestine-occupation-50-years-public-campaign-terror.html# June 5, 2017, will mark 50 years since the Six Day War — half a century of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The Palestinian public is very mindful and conscious of this date. Fifty years after the occupation, the leadership in Ramallah is well aware that time is running out on the patience of their people to give diplomacy a chance. .. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

This was submitted by new AIME participant Kathy Huffstetler. Thanks Kathy.   "Here is the article written by one of the participants, John Buttrick, who attended the second Faith in the Face of Empire Conference this spring.  They returned just a few weeks ago.  I think it's excellent, and I noticed he got some very positive comments from his fellow travelers.  We did some of the same things during the first conference (some differences tho), but we received the very same message which he so accurately and thoughtfully expressed." https://onthefringe2015.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/nonviolent-resistance-in-palestine/ Submitted by Kathy Huffstetler. Posted by Sam Bryan,

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/05/when-knesset-comes/   Do not come to our small southern town and be rude and expect us to take it lightly. This lesson was made clear recently when four Israeli Knesset members –Meirav Ben-Ari (Kulanu),  Sharren Haskel (Likud), Amir Ohana (Likud), and Itzik Shmuly (Zionist Union) — were guests at an April 11 town council meeting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina as part of a U.S. State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://972mag.com/israel-puts-travel-ban-on-bds-campaigner-omar-barghouti/119218/ Officials have indicated for months they are considering bureaucratic measures to punish the BDS movement co-founder. The de facto travel ban is part of a possible revocation of his residency status; Barghouti has lived in Israel for 22 years… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://972mag.com/gag-orders-in-israel-have-tripled-over-last-15-years/119196/ As the Military Censor has become more liberal, authorities have turned to gag orders as a convenient alternative for controling the dissemination of information… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20160505_settlers_assault_palestinian_photographer Yesterday, 4 May 2016, at around 5:00 PM, Raed Abu a-Rmeileh, 42, Saher Jaber, 23 and Abd a-Razeq a-Salaymeh, 48, were making their way home after having closed their stalls in the Hebron market. According to the testimony Saher Jaber gave to B'Tselem, after the three men had crossed the al-Mahkameh checkpoint and were on their way to the 'Abed checkpoint, near al-Haram al-Ibrahimi (the Tomb of the Patriarchs), they came across three settlers who had a dog with them, and used it to scare two Palestinian girls who were walking on the street. Raed Abu a-Rmeileh, a former volunteer with B'Tselem's camera project, lifted his camera to document the settlers' actions. In response, the settlers attacked him and his friend even before he began filming. One of the settlers hit Abu a-Rmeileh hard on the head with an unopened drink can. He fell to the ground…[videos]

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/05/advocates-shareholder-settlements/   Human rights advocates were present both inside and outside of RE/MAX's annual shareholder meeting in Denver, Colorado last Thursday. Driving into the entrance of the Marriott Tech Center Hotel, RE/MAX board members and shareholders were greeted by around 30 protesters from CODEPINK, Jewish Voice for Peace, Friends of Sabeel – North America, and Coloradans for Justice in Palestine. ..Inside the meeting, Sam Jones of the Heartland Institute, presented his organization's shareholder resolution calling for RE/MAX to establish an ad-hoc committee to investigate RE/MAX's role in Israeli violations of international law…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

Mondoweisshttp:// mondoweiss.net/2016/05/imprisoned-palestinian-astrophysicist/ Palestinian astrophysicist Imad Barghouthi, a professor at Al-Quds University, is currently being held in Israeli administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial. His three-month sentence is indefinitely renewable on the basis of "secret evidence" to which he and his lawyer are denied access... …[His daughter] Duha noted that her father firmly adheres to the principles of the academic boycott of Israel , and has rejected multiple offers for joint scientific projects with Israeli institutions. "He totally rejects scientific normalization.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

AP reports: "Each day, millions of gallons of raw sewage pour into the Gaza Strip's Mediterranean beachfront, spewing out of a metal pipe and turning miles of once-scenic coastline into a stagnant dead zone. The sewage has damaged Gaza's limited fresh water supplies, decimated fishing zones, and after years of neglect, is now floating northward and affecting Israel as well, where a nearby desalination plant was forced to shut down, apparently due to pollution."… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/05/mainstream-civilians-retaliatory/ After 21 months of a one-way ceasefire, Israel is once again escalating attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPhFLOsEIM0&feature=youtu.be Using largely volunteer efforts and local donations, Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and its Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) of Bethlehem University have a mission focused on research, education, and conservation of our natural world, culture and heritage and use knowledge to promote responsible empowered human interactions with all components of our environment... Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member