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http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/reminded-palestinians-always/   For more than 15 years, the Middle East "peace process" initiated by the Oslo accords has been on life support. Last week, United States president Donald Trump pulled the plug, whether he understood it or not… Settler leader Naftali Bennett will compete with Netanyahu to take credit for speeding up the annexation of ever-greater blocs of West Bank territory while rejecting any compromise on Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Palestinians, particularly the youth, will understand that their struggle is not for illusory borders but for liberation from the Jewish supremacism inherent in mainstream Zionism.   The struggle Trump's equivocation provokes, however, must first play out in the internal politics of Israelis and Palestinians. It is a supremely clarifying moment. Each side must now define what it really wants to fight for: a fortress for their tribe alone, or a shared homeland ensuring rights and di...

  http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/reminded-palestinians-always/   For more than 15 years, the Middle East "peace process" initiated by the Oslo accords has been on life support. Last week, United States president Donald Trump pulled the plug.…Settler leader Naftali Bennett will compete with Netanyahu to take credit for speeding up the annexation of ever-greater blocs of West Bank territory while rejecting any compromise on Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Palestinians, particularly the youth, will understand that their struggle is not for illusory borders but for liberation from the Jewish supremacism inherent in mainstream Zionism.   The struggle Trump's equivocation provokes, however, must first play out in the internal politics of Israelis and Palestinians. It is a supremely clarifying moment. Each side must now define what it really wants to fight for: a fortress for their tribe alone, or a shared homeland ensuring rights and dignity for all.   Post...

Dear Friends of Ending the Occupation with a just peace,        I am pleased to volunteer on a local committee working to bring the Dare to Dream ecumenical conference featuring Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, president and CEO of Bright Stars of Bethlehem      http://brightstarsbethlehem.o rg/ The conference includes four events to be held March 24-26, 2017 in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.   Please see the attached flyers for full details including any registration requirements.   Folks are welcome to attend any or all of the events!        Our committee is seeking donations to support to the Dar Al-Kalima College Scholarship Fund.   Dr. Raheb founded Dar Al-Kalima College in 2006 believing that education and culture are vital for a sound, cohesive community.   The Occupation, lack of freedom of movement and opportunity, pose a terrible hardship to all - especially to the young people who have their whole lives ahead of them.   The college provides hope –   e...

http://www.cbshw.org/news/benjamin-netanyahu-israeli-leader-turned-down-secret-peace-initiative-ex-officials-say/   Israel's prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry , former American officials confirmed Sunday, in apparent contradiction to Benjamin Netanyahu 's stated goal of involving regional Arab powers in resolving Israel's conflict with the Palestinians. Netanyahu rejected the offer, which would have required a significant pullout from occupied land, saying he would not be able to garner enough support for it in his hard-line coalition government… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/palestinians-travel-opening/ Hundreds of Palestinians gathered at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt over the weekend, waiting for their turn to be let through the checkpoint. The three-day opening allowed medical patients, students, and travelers with foreign passports to cross… . Rafah has largely remained closed since the ousting of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. The Rafah crossing opened for only 32 days in 2015 and for 48 days in 2016.   Under the decade-long Israeli-Egyptian siege, movement remains limited for Gaza's population of roughly two million….   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/the-civic-duty-to-oppose-home-demolitions-on-both-sides-of-the-green-line/125211/ The demolitions in Qalansuwa, Umm el-Hiran, and Israel's new 'land grab law' are one and the same. So is the obligation to oppose them… The case of Umm el-Hiran , however, sets a dangerous precedent by legitimizing, for the first time since the Nakba, the eviction of Palestinians and destruction of their communities (within Israel) with the unabashedly declared intention of establishing Jewish communities atop their ruins . ...A genuinely committed, political Arab-Jewish alliance is needed in order to pressure the government to stop its colonial expansion in the West Bank and grant full rights, particularly in areas of land and housing, to Palestinian citizens of Israel. Such an alliance is attainable if Israelis are exposed to the impact of such policies on the ground, policies which can easily lead to a further deterioration in Arab-Jewish relations in ...

https://972mag.com/unpacking-anti-arab-racism-in-israel/125236/   A new law aiming to silence the Muslim call to prayer is just one manifestation of efforts to erase Palestinian culture and identity. But language and heritage aren't so easy to disappear. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://electronicintifada.net/content/learning-line-fire/19476 …Thousands of students remain homeless too, Thabet noted, especially in northern areas near Gaza's boundaries, and all these factors have left the education sector under severe strain… In all, 85 schools are located in or near Gaza's boundary areas, according to Muhammad Nasser, who heads the planning and studies department at the education ministry. Five of these are within 1,000 meters from the boundary and in high-risk areas…All these schools are subject to evacuation procedures, leaving the education of nearly 45,000 students subject to regular disruption. There are no prescribed conditions under which a given school will be closed or evacuated, Nasser told The Electronic Intifada. Decisions are entirely contingent upon any given day's security situation… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member  

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/opinion/can-this-special-relationship-be-saved.html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article ...What will things look like in four to eight years? American support for an increasingly right-wing Israeli policy will mean that Israel will have built more settlements; diplomacy aimed at a two-state solution will be stillborn or abandoned; and violence in the West Bank will require Israel to use force to restore order. Politics in Israel will continue to drift right amid a deepening conviction that it has no Palestinian partner and against the backdrop of an increasingly dangerous region.   If these things come to pass, the erosion of shared values will quicken... Posted by Ferster, AIME member

  http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-say-trump-freezes-obamas-last-minute-221-million-payout/ The Trump administration has informed the Palestinian Authority that it is freezing the transfer of $221 million which was quietly authorized by the Obama administration in its final hours on January 20, a senior Palestinian source has told The Times of Israel. ..US officials conveyed to PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday that the funds were not expected to be handed over in the immediate future, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/slamming-hardhearted-palestinian/   Over the last few days, a great number of Jewish groups have taken righteous stances against Donald Trump's executive order barring immigration from seven mostly-Muslim nations and halting the refugee program. But when it comes to Israel, these same groups support the rejection of Palestinian refugee demands because they would threaten the Jewish nature of the state. The contradiction highlights an uncomfortable truth: the degree to which discriminatory policies of the Jewish state are actually congruent with Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/suspended-perpetual-crisis/   …Hani Mezaini, 38, a curtain maker with a stale in the market has a pessimistic view of the international community and aid groups mentioning his city frequently as a disaster zone. He said it's all a game of "political calculations" intended for the ears of other officials and not to benefit the people living in Gaza."Throughout my life, I have not known anything except conflict, [political] factions and occupation," …     Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/israel-palestine/   ...A military court in Gaza imposed heavy prison sentences on eight Fatah members last week for "harming revolutionary unity" according to the revolutionary criminal law of the PLO. Palestinian human rights organizations condemned sentences as unjust and charges as vague and – and the confessions were made under torture... Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/palestine-philharmonie/   …Efforts to reclaim Palestine's cultural identity and cultural life from the paralysis of displacement, subjugation, and occupation have been under way for years, with myriad local initiatives and the establishment of two major music conservatories: the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music (ESNCM), and Al-Kamandjati. Post-conservatory life, however, has remained Palestine's weak link for musicians. Professional opportunities are limited, stifling community involvement and the larger tradition of concert-going—and resulting in a talent-drain of Palestine's musicians who must look elsewhere for a professional life in music…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/batsheva-complicity-occupation/   … Twenty-one groups from cities on Batsheva's current North American tour have signed onto a January 19   open letter to Batsheva, calling on it to cut its ties with the Israeli government and refuse to participate in Brand Israel The letter states, "If [Batsheva artistic director and choreographer] Ohad Naharin stands against the occupation, as he says he does, we invite him to show this by ending Batsheva's complicity with it. We ask that you disavow your role as Ambassador of the State." Batsheva did not respond to the letter. The New York protest is organized by Adalah-NY: The NY Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, which supports the Palestinian civil society call for people of conscience to use boycott, divestment, and sanctions to pressure Israel to comply with international law. The action is part of Adalah-NY's cultural boycott campaign, which also includes a letter...

https://972mag.com/israels-land-theft-law-is-just-the-tip-of-the-settlement-iceberg/125071/ Anyone who condemns Israel's new law authorizing the theft of private Palestinian land, while forgetting the mass theft engendered by the settlement enterprise as a whole, is doing an injustice to the fight for equality in this land. The fundamental problem with the settlements — what makes the occupation an occupation — is the military regime that implements two separate legal systems for Jews and Palestinians . A shared existence is possible in this land, whether in a single state whose subjects are all citizens with equal rights, or two states that live in peace side by side, or in a federation. The problem is the theft and unilateral policy making which arises from the perception of Jewish supremacy and exclusivity in every area, backed up by military force… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-passes-law-legalize-theft-private-palestinian-land   …Passed by 60-52, the so-called Regularization Bill will legalize around 4,000 settlement homes in so-called unauthorized outposts and settlements.   Human Rights Watch swiftly condemned the vote, noting that the Regularization Bill "undoes years of established Israeli law and, coming just weeks after the [UN] Security Council's unanimous passage of Resolution 2334 on the illegality of settlements, reflects Israel's manifest disregard of international law"… Peace Now has described the law as a "big step towards annexation."..In a surprise move on Friday, the administration of US President Donald Trump issued a public warning to Israel over its accelerating construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/02/israel-opt-flurry-of-settlement-activity-shows-flagrant-disregard-for-international-law/   The Israeli authorities' authorization of the construction of 3,000 further illegal settlement homes in the occupied West Bank today - the fourth such announcement within weeks - highlights their shocking willingness to flout international law, said Amnesty International.    In the weeks prior to this the Israeli authorities announced plans to build 3,219 more homes in the occupied West Bank including 719 homes in East Jerusalem. All the announcements have come since the inauguration of US President Donald J. Trump… Israel's policy of settling Jewish civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories violates international humanitarian law, amounts to war crimes. It is also inherently discriminatory and has resulted in grave human rights violations including the destruction of homes, forced evictions, unlawful killings,...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/world/middleeast/israel-3000-homes-west-bank.html In a major acceleration of new settlement construction plans, Israel has approved thousands more housing units in the occupied West Bank and, for the first time in years, has called for the establishment of an entire new settlement there.   Together, the moves intensified Israel's defiance of international pressure, and opened a forceful new phase of Israeli expansion into land the Palestinians claim for a future state…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/world/middleeast/amona-west-bank-settlers-eviction.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0   After years of court action and contentious debate over the Amona settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank , Israeli security forces operating under a court order forcibly evacuated settlers there on Wednesday.Adding to the chaos, hundreds of young activists barricaded themselves in makeshift buildings at the site… After years of court action and contentious debate over the Amona settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank , Israeli security forces operating under a court order forcibly evacuated settlers there on Wednesday.   Adding to the chaos, hundreds of young activists barricaded themselves in makeshift buildings at the site…. The Palestinians claim the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, as pa...