vjp-global

Dozens of American Jews arrested protesting Gaza violence https://972mag.com/32-american-jews-arrested-across-u-s-for-protesting-gaza-violence/134693/ From Boston to San Francisco, young activists from IfNotNow demonstrate outside the offices of prominent Jewish institutions and senators, demanding they condemn Israel's violence against Gaza protesters...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/youre-far-more-likely-to-be-killed-protesting-in-gaza-than-firing-a-rocket/134952/ Not a single rocket has been fired into Israel from Gaza in over two months, yet since March 30 Israel has killed more Palestinians in Gaza than it did in the previous 16 months, during which time militants launched over 60 rockets and mortars… Another conclusion might be that Israeli decision-makers, whether in the political or military echelon, see no negative consequences for shooting unarmed protesters that might deter them from continuing to deploy snipers along the borders week after week. Engaging Gaza's militant groups with deadly force in response to rocket fire, on the other hand, runs the risk of escalating into full-fledged armed conflict that would bring with it far greater consequences for Israel militarily, diplomatically, and geopolitically.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/are-israeli-jews-beginning-to-accept-the-right-of-return/134788/   A number of new surveys shows that at least a fifth of Israel's Jewish citizens are open to the idea of Palestinian refugees returning to their homes. So how do we reconcile this with the violence being meted out to Palestinians on the Gaza border? .. There is no point in arguing about "their rights" as opposed to "our rights." This kind of argument only emboldens fences, and gives justification to open fire at anyone who approaches them. We must practice a new language that includes all the inhabitants of the country and its refugees. This will be the beginning of a process aimed at ceasing to be settlers and occupiers, in order to live here together — alongside all its residents and refugees. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki1qal9MGL4   [Interview on the Gaza March of Return] …They don't like one of the issues of this protest campaign and that is the issue of return…This is a civil society initiatives…Hamas is protecting Israel        by stopping people from shooting rockers.   Focus on the use of snipers shooting people at a distance…There is a policy of targeted assassination…They are killing Palestinian leaders…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/13/world/middleeast/gaza-fence-aerial.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news   The image above [and excellent photos and video below] show how each side is arrayed in Khan Younis, one of five demonstration sites where 34 Palestinians have been killed since the protests began nearly three weeks ago.   The protests resumed on Friday, and the Palestinians plan to keep the weekly protests going with large turnouts until May 15, when many plan to try to cross the fence en masse. The Gazans are protesting Israel's blockade, which has been choking off the impoverished coastal strip for more than 10 years. They also want to reassert the rights of refugees and their descendants to reclaim their ancestral lands in Israel, 70 years after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced…   Posted by Judith Fers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqhi16iikxk&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=cfb22afb-0866-4b01-97c6-fb5ce121f3cb   We've just created a revealing 5-minute  video about how Israel and its partisans work to control and censor what people see on the Internet. This contains detailed information about Israeli projects to infiltrate wikipedia; utilize Israeli soldiers, students, American teens and others to carry out social media missions assigned from Israel; and more...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article207967584.html The Durham City Council went on record Thursday opposing military-style training by foreign governments for local police. "The council opposes international exchanges with any country in which Durham officers receive military-style training since such exchanges do not support the kind of policing we want here in the City of Durham," according to the statement released at Thursday's council work session. The statement came in response to a petition calling on the city to cut any police ties with Israel . Council members will discuss it at their next regular meeting, Monday, April 16, when Mayor Steve Schewel, who wrote it, said that the public can comment on… Seven Triangle rabbis signed a letter urging the Durham City Council to reject the petition... Read more here: http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article207967584.html#storylink=cpy Posted by Ju

https://portside.org/2018-04-05/usisraelisaudi-alliance-future-middle-east-careening-toward-war-iran   [This piece was originally written for Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in early February 2018 before the appointments of Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State and John Bolton as National Security Advisor. These appointments render an already alarming situation even worse.] … As matters stand, the US/Israeli strategy is to isolate the Palestinians, leaving them no option—not even the pretense of negotiations—to accept, at best, permanent Balkanization under the direct control of the Israelis.  Minimally, we must continue to assert the human rights of Palestinians and to expose the strategy as unsustainable injustice leading to more violence and instability.  Trump, for better and worse, has exposed the patent hypocrisy of US policy toward Palestinians.  We can connect the dangers of the overall Trump trajectory to the particulars of his Middle East plans…   Pos

https://972mag.com/under-the-cover-of-smoke-thousands-take-part-in-gaza-return-march/134438/ Israeli snipers kill at least seven Palestinians, wound over 300 others during the eighth day of the 'Gaza Return March.'  Protesters attempt to block soldiers' line of sight by burning tires.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://israelpalestinenews.org/gideon-levy-the-israel-massacre-forces/ Israeli military snipers fired at hundreds of civilians, hitting over 750 and killing 15, but two Palestinians who dared return fire at the soldiers who were massacring them are "terrorists," their actions labeled "terror attacks" and their sentence – death…The shooting on the Gaza border shows once again that the killing of Palestinians is accepted in Israel more lightly than the killing of mosquitoes… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://israelpalestinenews.org/opinion-debunking-israels-talking-points-on-deadly-gaza-protests/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=27c9ea23-350c-47b5-8a91-a5f0854cd8f4   Even before the protest began, Israeli spokespeople framed it preemptively as a Hamas production, even though it was supported by Gaza civil society organizations and all political parties. Civilian Gazans' willingness to walk to that fence measures their yearning to express themselves as humans and claim their freedom, even at immediate risk.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

  https://972mag.com/under-the-cover-of-smoke-thousands-take-part-in-gaza-return-march/134438/ Israeli snipers kill at least six Palestinians, wound over 300 others during the eighth day of the 'Gaza Return March.'  Protesters attempt to block soldiers' line of sight by burning tires…. Speaking to +972 Magazine before the first day of protest last month, one of the 'Great Return March' organizers, Hasan al-Kurd, explained that the plan was to set up camps between between 700-1000 meters from Israel's border fence, outside the Israeli army's unilaterally imposed buffer zone. In the weeks leading up to Nakba Day, there will be marches and bicycle races and other events every week, aiming to draw more attendees along the way. By mid-May, they hope hundreds of thousands will join. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member