vjp-global

https://972mag.com/support-for-two-states-drops-below-50-among-israelis-palestinians-alike/132682/   …For the first time in recent years, fewer than half of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians support a two-state solution, according to a public opinion poll published Thursday. One of the two populations maintained at least a small majority of support for two states in polls conducted over the past couple of years; the latest poll marked the first time both populations' support dropped below 50 percent… The study is full of fascinating statistics, examining the positions of respondents vis-a-vis a number of solutions to the conflict — from a one-state solution to a confederation to apartheid and even population transfer. The most interesting part, however, is the way each side view themselves and the other... Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-south-africa-condemn-israel-human-rights-record-un-826726973   Over 100 countries shed light on Israeli violations against Palestinians during periodic review…A fiery exchange between Iran and Israel broke out at the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday, while South Africa labelled Israel an "apartheid state" over its treatment of Palestinians.…The exchange came during a major review of Israel's human rights record by more than 100 country delegates, including the 47-strong United Nations Human Rights Council which spearheaded the session…"Israel is the only state in the world that can be called an apartheid state," the South African delegate said. "We remain deeply concerned at the denial of the right of self-determination to the Palestinian people, in the absence of which no other human right can be exercised or enjoyed."   The Israeli delegation fired back…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIM...

  http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-south-africa-condemn-israel-human-rights-record-un-826726973   Over 100 countries shed light on Israeli violations against Palestinians during periodic review…A fiery exchange between Iran and Israel broke out at the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday, while South Africa labelled Israel an "apartheid state" over its treatment of Palestinians. The exchange came during a major review of Israel's human rights record by more than 100 country delegates, including the 47-strong United Nations Human Rights Council which spearheaded the session…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://imemc.org/article/us-bipartisan-support-for-israel-over-palestinians-is-breaking-down-new-study-shows/   Pew polling reveals Israel has become a right-wing issue, with 79% of Republicans supporting it, compared to just 27% of Democrats... This study does show a major shift in popular views among Americans, but politicians are still far from responding to those popular views...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://imemc.org/article/palestine-authority-appeals-to-icc-over-detained-children/     …In a statement released on Saturday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki called on ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to "exercise her legal authority without delay, to prevent the continuation of crimes being committed against the Palestinian people."…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.jpost.com/printarticle.aspx?id=513467   The times are changing in the Middle East as alien nations find common ground in a bid to avert Iran supremacy within the region... The opening of the dialogue between Israel and Saudi Arabia is perhaps the most significant shift in the region. There have been no diplomatic ties between the two nations, with Saudi Arabia has been a supporter of Palestinian sovereign rights...     Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://israelpalestinenews.org/challenge-childhood-occupation/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=9a2c667e-3f61-4682-a5d8-07d2935d49b6   Israeli violence is a daily occurrence for Palestinians, and children are not exempt. Israeli soldiers and settlers alike are to be feared. Here are two short stories from a typical day…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://imemc.org/article/settlers-break-into-bethlehem-district-school/ Israeli settlers, on Wednesday, broke into a school in the village of Beit Ta'mir, east of Bethlehem, and damaged some of its content, said local government sources.   WAFA reported that, according to Hasan Briejeh, representative of the wall and settlements committee, Israeli settlers broke into the Challenge 5 School, breaking a door and tearing a tent inside the school.   He said the families prevented the settlers from inflicting more damage to the school, and chased them away… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://israelpalestinenews.org/israel-effectively-colonized-united-states/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=9a2c667e-3f61-4682-a5d8-07d2935d49b6 Israel may be small, but so was Britain when it controlled India. Israel doesn't need to control everything in the US, just the important things: AIPAC (with the help of Christian Zionists) controls Middle East policy and keeps aid money flowing by controlling all branches of government; the label "anti-Semite" is used as a weapon; media is kept from any meaningful criticism of Israel; and "exceptionalism" allows the Jewish State to waive rules that every other country on the planet must obey.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://imemc.org/article/israeli-forces-kill-palestinian-civilian-and-demolish-3-houses-in-wide-scale-military-operation-in-jenin/   The Palestinian Center for Human Rights issued a statement Thursday condemning the disproportionate force used by the Israeli military on Thursday morning, 18 January 2018, when Israeli forces conducted a wide-scale military operation in Jenin and its suburbs targeting Ahmed Nasser Khalid Jarrar (22). Ahmed survived, but the Israeli forces killed his cousin, and demolished 3 houses belonging to Jarrar family. .. PCHR also reiterates its call upon the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under Article 1; i.e., to respect and ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances and their obligations under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.   These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Conven...

https://electronicintifada.net/content/video-building-theater-audience-gaza/22956 Palestine's Theater was founded in 2011 by director Edrees Taleb in Gaza City. The troupe brings together 25 actors from all over the Strip, to rehearse and perform plays for the public. There is no dedicated playhouse in Gaza, so the troupe rehearses and performs at the Said al-Mishal Establishment for Culture and Sciences in Gaza City. The troupe faced obstacles in starting the group and generating interest in their plays. Actress Hanan Madi said that not all families are encouraging, "but once they understand it and realize it's reasonable, they no longer object."… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/why-has-israel-banned-jewish-leftists-but-not-members-of-nazi-linked-groups/132268/ Israel has banned leaders and key activists from Jewish Voice for Peace, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, among other groups that support BDS, from entering the country. So why doesn't it extend the same restrictions to members of Nazi-affiliated groups?... But while Jews who support the boycott movement are now barred from visiting the country, members of Nazi-allied organizations and anti-Semitic political parties continue to be allowed into Israel — including at the invitation of government officials.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/abbas-is-right-why-does-israel-keep-saying-he-s-wrong-1.5744750 Abbas speaks the truth. Israel's comments against him aren't about reality— they're just nationalistic snarls Abbas Is Right. Why Does Israel Keep Saying He's Wrong? - Gideon Levy Ha'aretz https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/abbas-is-right-why-does-israel-keep-saying-he-s-wrong-1.5744750 Abbas speaks the truth. Israel's comments against him aren't about reality— they're just nationalistic snarls ... The Balfour Declaration cannot be read differently. And what is more proper than to ask the British to apologize for it and now stand beside the Palestinians after all the years of being evicted and dispossessed, beginning with Balfour and continuing to this day?...The current government and its supporters objected to Oslo, so now they're offended when Abbas says it's over? Abbas told the truth…Abbas is far from being the perfect statesm...

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/like-anne-frank-rabbis-plan-to-hide-asylum-seekers-in-israeli-homes-1.5743500   A group of Israeli rabbis, including the sister of comedian Sarah Silverman, launched Tuesday an Anne Frank-inspired activist program calling on Israelis to hide African asylum seekers facing forced expulsion from Israel in their homes...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-army-considering-taking-control-of-palestinian-areas-in-e-jerusalem-1.5742550   …"Netanyahu's settler government is continuing to take extreme steps aimed at preventing any possibility of a future peace plan, along with causing critical damage to the daily life of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem," says MK Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint List. "This is a move designed to uproot 100,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem and to shatter East Jerusalem into small entities comprised of separate villages and neighborhoods."…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/a-death-sentence-palestinians-slam-us-decision-to-cut-aid-as-un-pleads-for-new-donors/2018/01/17/f687d456-fb8f-11e7-9b5d-bbf0da31214d_story.html?utm_term=.f4b1961cf0a8   …Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian delegation to the United States, said that "taking away food and education from vulnerable refugees does not bring a lasting and comprehensive peace."   "The access of Palestinian refugees and children to basic humanitarian services such as food, health care and education should not be a bargaining chip, but a U.S. and international obligation," he said.    Zomlot said that by first taking Jerusalem off the table and then attempting to remove the Palestinian refugee issue by dismantling UNRWA, "Trump was heeding Netanyahu."… Israel has long said that rather than solving the Palestinian refugee problem, UNRWA perpetuates it, prolonging conflict and making peace illusory... Posted ...

  http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/17/middleeast/un-palestinian-aid-agency-funding-cuts-intl/index.html   … The US is UNRWA's single largest donor -- it donated $368 million to the agency in 2016 alone. The US says it is cutting the agency's funding because it wants to see reforms and for other countries to contribute more. Alexander De Croo, Belgium's deputy prime minister, announced Wednesday the country will distribute $23 million to UNRWA to cover a portion of the funding withheld by the United States. The contribution covers about 35% of what the US withheld… More than 5 million registered Palestinian refugees benefit from UNRWA's educational, health and social services. The agency's operations span the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. It educates about 500,000 children in nearly 700 schools and UNRWA doctors see more than 9 million patients in nearly 150 primary health clinics every year…     Posted by Judith Ferst...

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/historian-who-correctly-predicted-every-presidential-win-reagan-believes-trump?akid=16629.956666.rFMHhs&rd=1&src=newsletter1087721&t=36   I support nonviolent boycott, divestment and sanctions; the move to ban me and others will backfire… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/us/politics/us-palestinian-aid-refugee-un.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0 The Trump administration is withholding more than half the funding that the United States generally has provided to a United Nations agency that aids Palestinian refugees, officials said Tuesday.   Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, said the United States would provide $60 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency but would withhold $65 million "for future consideration."Ms. Nauert said that the decision was intended to encourage other countries to increase aid, as well as to promote reform at the relief agency — and that it was not intended to be a punitive move against Palestinians. But she refused to comment when asked if the funding shortfall was linked ...

https://forward.com/opinion/392156/trump-has-handed-the-israel-lobby-to-evangelicals-thats-terrifying/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_MainList_Title_Position-1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20-%20M-Th%202018-01-17&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20Monday-Friday   …Pence and other deeply conservative white Christian evangelicals now driving American policy toward Israel and the Palestinians are playing a very long game that extends far beyond one news cycle.   They are turning public support for Israel — which largely had been bipartisan and religiously pluralistic — into an effort propelled by members of one political party and one religious worldview.   Their belief that Jews, and only Jews, must rule over Jerusalem to herald the return of Jesus Christ influenced President Trump's decision last December to reverse nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital… Posted ...

https://972mag.com/banning-the-quakers-wont-stop-our-struggle-for-justice-in-israel-palestine/132375/ Israel  revealed this week a list of 20 groups from around the world it was banning from the country, due to their support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement...The American Friends Service Committee once saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, now we are being banned from entering Israel due to our support for a nonviolent struggle for equality… I have long  been dismayed  at the hypocrisy of those who applaud the Quakers' work on behalf of Jewish refugees, yet bitterly criticize them for applying the very same values and efforts on behalf of Palestinian refugees. ..   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/world/europe/germany-immigrants-anti-semitism.html?emc=edit_nn_20180111&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=84316160&te=1 Alarmed by displays of anti-Semitism among new immigrants to Germany, a German politician has offered a novel idea that appears to be gaining traction: required visits to Nazi concentration camp memorials.   The idea, proposed by Sawsan Chebli, a Berlin state legislator of Palestinian heritage, received a significant boost on Wednesday when the leaders of Germany's Central Council of Jews and the far larger World Jewish Congress agreed with her.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/these-are-palestinianchildren-israel-killed-2017   …Fourteen Palestinian boys and girls under the age of 18 were shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the year. There were 21 fewer children killed than in 2016, which was the deadliest year for Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in the past decade . In addition to those 14 shot and killed during 2017, a child died of wounds sustained in an Israeli drone strike years earlier…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

Hi Judith - I deleted the 2 unintended posts. If you Sent an email to aimeproject2.emia@blogger.com and to Peggy R and she did a Reply All, that would account for the ensuing emails going to the blog. Stuff happens. - Sam On 1/6/2018 12:02 AM, Judith Ferster wrote: Somehow the article from  1/1/18 on the Likud steering committee's vote to annex the settlements got posted several times and included Peggy Rafferty's complaint about a Zionist phrase and my defensive response.  I don't know if Peggy did that but do you want such discussion up there?  I didn't think so but if you want to clean it up, please do. Happy New Year. Judith                                                                                                                                                         ...

http://imemc.org/article/netanyahu-supports-gradual-cutback-of-unrwa-funding-by-us/   Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has expressed support for a gradual cutback of US funding to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees, according to Israeli reports.   Haaretz said, according to the PNN, that Netanyahu's bureau said, over the weekend, that the prime minister "supports a critical approach by President Trump and believes that practical steps must be taken to change the situation in which UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem instead of resolving it."… UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness [said that] "What perpetuates the refugee crisis is the failure of the parties to deal with the issue. This needs to be resolved by the parties to the conflict in the context of peace talks, based on UN resolutions and international law, and requires the active engagement by the international community… Posted by...

https://israelpalestinenews.org/netanyahu-assembles-team-address-u-s-tax-reform/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=215a03cb-2e4e-4215-ad57-e7a3921a507a The reform poses challenges for Israel regarding both U.S.-based corporations and Israeli companies that operate in the U.S. It creates negative incentives for operating businesses outside the U.S. While Israel's 2016 corporate tax and intellectual tax property reform increased Israel's competitiveness compared to the U.S., now that competitiveness has been impacted… The reform may have significant implications for Israel's economy, and specifically for the country's burgeoning innovation industry. According to Aviram Zolti, head of the operational division of Israel's government innovation investment arm, the reform is expected to drive up the costs of operating Israeli research and development, like the ones created by hundreds of multinational corporations, many of which are U.S.-based. Posted by...

https://israelpalestinenews.org/time-church-act/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=215a03cb-2e4e-4215-ad57-e7a3921a507a Churches in the United States need to add their voices to the calls coming from the heads of Palestinian churches in the Holy Land who are urging the global Christian community to stand with international legitimacy and justice…I f there is a time when the church leaders and men and women of conscience should be prophetic and take a stand against government deception and unfair pressure from the US president and his enablers, the time is now.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.833502     Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry had for months refused to divulge which organizations are on the list. Israel published on Sunday the full list of organizations whose activists will be barred from entering the country. The so-called BDS blacklist was released by the Strategic Affairs Ministry.   Members of the 20 organizations on the list will not be allowed to enter the country due to their support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.   The list primarily includes European and American organizations as well as groups from Latin America, a group from South Africa and an international umbrella organization. On Saturday it was revealed that the left-wing organization Jewish Voice for Peace was on the list…

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/01/18/palestine-this-land-is-our-land/ [Review: Enclosure: Enclosure: Palestinian Landscapes in a Historical Mirror by Gary Fields]…Over the past two decades, most of the land used for Jewish settlements in the West Bank has been acquired on the grounds that it belongs to the state. This tactic has enabled Israeli leaders to maintain that the state of Israel does not confiscate land from Palestinians to build settlements. The state only began to use this legal ploy in earnest after 1982. Until then, the authorities acquired land for settlement primarily by requisitioning it for military purposes. A smaller percentage of land had been acquired by declaring it absentee land or territory formerly held by the Jordanian government. By 1979, when I cofounded the organization Al-Haq with several other lawyers to bring legal challenges against the Israeli occupation, Israel had gained control of roughly 30 percent of the land in the West Ba...

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/01/18/palestine-this-land-is-our-land/   …Although Fields's book provides convincing evidence that what took place in Palestine/Israel shares a common lineage with what took place in England and North America over the past three centuries, it must be pointed out that most of the land in Israel was taken after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. In the West Bank it was only after the Oslo Accords of 1993–1995 that Jewish settlements tripled in number. Only then did the Israeli public come to believe that the more than 60 percent of the West Bank classified as Area C—under sole Israeli control—would eventually be annexed to Israel… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-state.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member   …"At least 30 percent of Palestinians support one-state when no one is talking about it," said Hamada Jaber, an organizer of a group called the One State Foundation . "If there's at least one political party on each side that will talk about it and adapt this strategy, the support will grow." The idea has stronger support among the young, said Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian pollster, particularly students and professionals who have clamored for a change in strategy since the Arab spring in 2011…If and when a more liberal Israeli government is elected, it could also revive a two-state peace process…But the costs and political difficulty of withdrawing Israelis from the West Bank grow with every settler family that moves in… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/world/middleeast/egypt-jerusalem-talk-shows.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0   As President Trump moved last month to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel , an Egyptian intelligence officer quietly placed phone calls to the hosts of several influential talk shows in Egypt…But strife with Israel was not in Egypt's national interest, Captain Kholi said. He told the hosts that instead of condemning the decision, they should persuade their viewers to accept it. Palestinians, he suggested, should content themselves with the dreary West Bank town that currently houses the Palestinian Authority, Ramallah.   "How is Jerusalem different from Ramallah, really?" Captain Kholi asked repeatedly in four audio recordings of his telephone calls obtained by The New York Times… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIM...

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/article192778529.html   …I visited multiple refugee camps in the West Bank. The Dheisha camp is less than 15 miles from Jerusalem yet many people living there cannot enter the city. For those that get permits, they must spend hours waiting in line at a checkpoint. This is especially insulting given that many families living in Dheisha come from Jerusalem and the surrounding area that is now controlled by Israel. These are not people who hate Israelis because they are Jewish. These are people who simply want to return to the homes and land their families lived on for hundreds of years. Despite not being able to even temporarily visit their ancestral lands, the Israeli military can enter Palestinian territory at any time to arrest people or demolish homes based upon their own discretion….I urge us all to take a moment to consider how we would react if we were living in this situation… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member ...

https://972mag.com/bannon-adelson-drove-jerusalem-embassy-move/132181/ An excerpt from a new book on the Trump presidency confirms: the right-wing billionaire and Netanyahu backer has been a driving force behind the administration's foreign policy decisions... Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/ahed-tamimis-lawyer-her-case-is-making-people-see-the-occupation-again/132189/   Gaby Lasky, the human rights attorney representing Ahed Tamimi and her mother Nariman, talks to +972 about what it means for a Palestinian to be put on trial in the occupier's military courts, and some of the dangerous precedents being set….What   What   [ media] images often fail to properly convey is that Ahed is being detained in a military prison and being tried in a military court, and how that differs from the way a minor would be treated in an Israeli civilian court…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/us/politics/trump-clinton-huma-abedin.html?_r=0   …Experts on the region have long expressed concern that allowing economic and social conditions in the West Bank to worsen by cutting off aid would encourage violence. In saying that he has "taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table," Mr. Trump has made it harder, not easier, for the Palestinians to bargain. To them, he seems to have pre-emptively ruled out one of their most important conditions for a final peace deal before negotiations even begin, that East Jerusalem would be their capital alongside the Israeli capital in West Jerusalem….   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/what-were-top-bds-victories-2017   …Early on in the year, key Israel lobby groups admitted in a secret report – obtained and published in full by The Electronic Intifada – that they had failed to counter the Palestine solidarity movement, despite vastly increasing their spending.   The report outlined Israel's failure to stem the "impressive growth" and "significant successes" of the BDS movement and set out strategies, endorsed by the Israeli government,aimed at reversing the deterioration in Israel's position.   Similarly, in March, Israel's top anti-BDS strategist conceded that the boycott Israel movement is winning – despite the Israeli government's allocation of tens of millions of dollars and the formation of an entire governmental ministry whose sole focus is to combat BDS… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/160930a87cc6dbd8?compose=new   The ruling Likud Party's central committee has unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for the annexation of Israeli West Bank settlements... Several leading politicians, including lawmakers and Cabinet ministers, joined Sunday night's vote to "impose Israeli law on all liberated areas of settlement in Judea and Samaria…" Most of the international community considers Israel's West Bank settlements, built on land captured in the 1967 Mideast war, illegal. The Palestinians called the vote "an outrageous violation" of international resolutions. The vote followed President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.... Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member