vjp-global

http://mondoweiss.net/2018/06/targeting-vulnerable-detention/   ...there is much we can learn from research in the US and from the Israeli experience with regard to children and prisons... One group is suffering from gangs, poverty, drugs, repression, and violent societies while the other is suffering from a brutal military occupation, recurrent IDF incursions, soldier and settler violence, home demolitions, and poverty. Under these circumstances, taking dangerous desert journeys at the hands of coyotes or heaving a stone at a jeep spewing teargas is an understandable response. Imprisoning either group is a political and racialized decision that creates deep and long-lasting trauma in the children and their families...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd2j5wywz9A&feature=youtu.be One hour interview with JOHN GOOD IRON & MARY MASSEY in Washington DC.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://uscpr.org/2018-presbyterian-wins/ Late on the night of Friday, June 22, 2018, the Presbyterian Church (USA), which represents nearly 1.5 million Americans, voted overwhelmingly in support of justice for Palestinians through resolutions on everything from opposing legislation challenging boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaigns to defending the right to call Israel a colonial state…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/article213340459.html   Recently this paper ran an opinion piece signed by approximately a dozen active or retired rabbis criticizing the new Durham City Council policy opposing international exchanges with any country, including Israel, in which Durham police officers receive military-style training. ..The rabbis' critique is founded on three serious misconceptions.    First, it fails to appreciate why Israel's style of policing should be a matter of grave concern to cities like Durham…Second, the rabbis have misunderstood why it is entirely appropriate to mention Israel specifically in the new Durham policy…Finally, the rabbis' have misconstrued the contents of the petition that Council received on this issue… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/06/18/donald-trumps-new-world-order   …The Palestinians seem to be the likely losers in the new New Middle East. As a senior Arab official said of the strategic alliance, "With or without a peace plan, it's happening." A senior Trump adviser said, " Iran is the reason why this is all happening.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member  

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2018/0607/The-riddle-of-Hamas-s-new-Gaza-leader-extremist-or-pragmatist   Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas in Gaza and a founder of its military wing, has long been considered a hard-liner. For many, he's a puzzle. Like the Hamas charter, he maintains that Israel must one day be eradicated. But analysts and those who know him say he seems practical enough to realize Israel won't be defeated militarily anytime soon. In 2011 Mr. Sinwar emerged from 22 years in Israeli prison still committed to Hamas and its cause. He was convicted, Israeli officials say, of "terror activities" including the "killing of Palestinian collaborators." Recently, Sinwar threw his support behind the protests along the border with Israel. "He saw a new way of putting pressure on Israel since the armed struggle has become difficult and expensive," says Adnan Abu Amr, a political science professor in Gaza. Visits to th...

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article212246614.html     …I have family who left Gaza because their children were traumatized by the 2014 bombings. Other family members left because of deteriorating health and inadequate medical care for chronic illness. They are considered very lucky that they escaped with their lives and avoided permanent disability. Many of those still in Gaza want to leave but can't or have no place to go. Golda Meir, the first prime minister of Israel, once said "we Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go." Palestinians in Gaza, even if they could leave, also have nowhere else to live. The blockade on Gaza has to be lifted. The constant incursions, bombings and executions of civilians should stop and international observers and humanitarian aid workers should be granted immediate entry into the area. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2018/05/friedmans-advice-palestinians/?mc_cid=2cbc6938e2&mc_eid=c9acac3cf3   …But liberal Zionist thinking needs to remain limited, finite, and constrained. And those who keep going down its path of control and restraint, like Friedman, will continue to completely erase Palestinian history and experience.  They will not have to look at the Great Return March as anything except a failure of Hamas's imagination. They will not, under any circumstances, pause to honor those who gave their lives to expose the fact that Israel has no desire to respond to Palestinian demands for freedom and sovereignty. And  The New York Times  will keep publishing their op-ed pieces.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/02/world/middleeast/gaza-paramedic-killed.html   Israeli soldiers fired two or three bullets from across the fence, according to a witness, hitting Ms. Najjar in the upper body. She was pronounced dead soon after.Ms. Najjar was the 119th Palestinian killed since the protests began in March, according to Gaza health officials. Hers was the only fatality registered on Friday.   [Earlier] she had said: "We have one goal," she said, "to save lives and evacuate people. And to send a message to the world: Without weapons, we can do anything...."   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/05/israel-palestinians-idf-gaza-west-bank-oslo-accords.html   Israel finds many aspects of the interim agreement convenient, but permits itself to act on the ground as if the agreement doesn't exist, making it impossible for the security establishment to return security responsibility to the PA …Former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told me that the "two bones in the Palestinian throat" are the continued construction in the settlements and the nightly incursions of the IDF into Palestinian cities…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/afp/2018/05/israel-palestinians-conflict-gaza-redcross-aid.html The Red Cross warned Thursday that Gaza was facing an "epic" crisis, after weeks of violence has left more than 13,000 Palestinians wounded, overwhelming an already disastrously weak health system. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was stepping up its assistance in the beleaguered Palestinian enclave, and was sending in two surgical teams, additional medical specialists and supplies to help face the crisis… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/how-gazas-return-march-can-elevate-the-one-state-movement/135870/ The Great Return March has the potential to lend its momentum to grassroots and popular struggles beyond Gaza's fence, in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and inside Israel... Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member