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Showing posts from March, 2019

3-22-2019 3-22-2019 As Gaza’s Great March of Return approaches one-year, protest founder Ahmed Abu Artema discusses building a non-violent movement - Allison Deger Mondoweiss

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/03/approaches-discusses-movement/   …A majority of the demonstrators have abided by the insistence for peaceful protests, yet many have thrown rocks, lobbed burning tires or released incendiary kites that have burned acres of Israeli farmland. Israeli forces have shot at demonstrators with live-fire and tear gas, the kites are now being intercepted by drones. … The UN says  Israeli forces have killed 260 Palestinians in the demonstrations that began last March, and have injured more than 26,000, nearly 7,000 of whom were struck with live bullets. Palestinians have killed two Israeli soldiers, and injured four during protests by the fence… "Our demands were simple and honorable, we want to return, we want a dignified life. Even those engaged in armed resistance started to understand how effective peaceful nonviolence can be," he said. "But I would like to raise all of these disagreement

3-20-2019 Hectored by Netanyahu, Israeli Arabs Could Have the Final Say - David M. Halbfinger New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/world/middleeast/netanyahu-arabs-election.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FIsrael&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection .   With three weeks to go, the Israeli election is so close that Arab voters, who make up only a fifth of the population, could help bring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long career to an abrupt end.   Mr. Netanyahu has been fanning the flames of anti-Arab sentiment almost daily.   He has warned Israelis that his main challenger, the retired army chief Benny Gantz, would " hand over parts of the homeland to the Arabs " and that he would make alliances with Arab parties that " want to destroy " Israel. Mr. Netanyahu has also joined forces with a racist faction whose leaders support expelling Arab citizens and call them "the enemy.

3-21-2019 Why were rockets fired toward Tel Aviv? - Entsar Abu Jahal Al-Monitor

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/03/gaza-interior-ministry-warn-operatives-rockets-fired-israel.html   The Gaza Strip Interior Ministry said in its March 14 statement that the movement is following up on the Gaza rockets that were fired in defiance of a national consensus against them, and stressed that measures will be taken against the violators. For the first time since 2014, two rockets were fired toward Tel Aviv on March 14, despite the Egypt-brokered truce agreements between Hamas and Israel. Although the military wings of both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad denied responsibility  for the rockets fired, Israel shelled dozens  of military targets belonging to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip without causing casualties.   This is the rst time that the Interior Ministry explicitly declared that rocket operatives, in a time of truce, will be prosecuted. .. Hassan Abdo, a political analyst close to th

3-22-2019 You have the power to stop apartheid: An open letter to AIPAC - Marzuq al-Halabi

https://972mag.com/you-have-the-power-to-stop-apartheid-an-open-letter-to-aipac/140666/ American Jews, who play such a central role in what happens in Israel, can put an end to the oppression of Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line. But only if they tell Israelis that enough is enough… The fading relevance of the Green Line is creating a demographic balance between Jews and Palestinians between the river and the sea. To deal with this fact, the government will try to deepen its control over six million Palestinians. Oppression will lead to a cycle of resistance, subsequent greater oppression, followed by a popular uprising. More power will lead to expulsions, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. American Jews could end up paying the price for Israel's actions, and the world may no longer be able to look you in the eyes...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

3-13-2019 Gaza the crucible - Helena Cobban Mondoweiss

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/03/gaza-the-crucible/   …Last year, the organizers of the Great March decided to launch it on March 30, a date that for Palestinians everywhere is "Land Day", a date to reaffirm their attachment to the actual soil of their homeland. This year, March 30 will also see the first anniversary of the Great March of Return. Will this movement—which is backed by Hamas, Fateh, and all the political and social organizations in Gaza—go down in Palestinian history as the third great political movement to be born in Gaza? We shall see.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

3-12-2019 Palestinians will suffer the impacts of climate change more severely than Israelis due to the occupation - Zena Agha Mondoweiss https://mondoweiss.net/2019/03/palestinians-severely-occupation/

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/03/palestinians-severely-occupation/ Despite Palestinians and Israelis inhabiting the same physical terrain, Palestinians under occupation will suffer the effects of climate change more severely…The single greatest non-environmental risk facing Palestinians in the West Bank remains the ongoing Israeli occupation, an occupation so pervasive that the United Nations Development Program  considers it an environmental "risk"  in its own right. Now in its 52nd year, the occupation prevents Palestinians from accessing and managing their land and resources, particularly water… Recommendations 1.  The environmental arrangements of the Oslo II Accords, especially as concern water rights, should be recognized as having expired, and Palestinians should regain full and uncompromising access to aquifers and the Jordan River. 2.  The PA and Palestinian civil society organizations should expand an awareness-raising campaign to inform Pales

3-12-2019 You can't fix Israel's economy without ending the occupation - Dr. Shlomo Swirski +972

https://972mag.com/you-cant-fix-israels-economy-without-ending-the-occupation/140526/   Israel's massive income inequality can't be solved without addressing one of the country's biggest expenses: decades of military rule over millions of Palestinians… Israel's self-imposed austerity policy was adopted partly due to the heavy cost of maintaining the occupation… Addressing imbalanced development requires heavy government involvement. Heavy government involvement requires larger budgets. Larger budgets mean either a political settlement with the Palestinians, which will allow lower military budgets, or increased tax revenues, which can only come from the hen that lays the golden hi-tech eggs, i.e., the upper income deciles. Those are the ones who have benefited from Netanyahu's low tax regime, and at the same time appear now to favor the new Blue and White party. For both Netanyahu and the three generals, raising taxes is left-wing. Posted

3-9-2019 Ex-Mossad agents harass US students, BDS activists- Kristian Davis Bailey Electronic Intifada

https://electronicintifada.net/content/ex-mossad-agents-harass-us-students-bds-activists/26846   In September 2017, Palestine Legal attorneys received nearly 30 emails from students, teachers and even librarians who were justifiably concerned about an anonymous message they had received. The emails contained threats from outlawbds.com that recipients had been "marked" and "identified as a BDS promoter" and had a "limited window of opportunity to cease and desist or face the consequences of your actions in legal proceedings."   The origin of the attack was a mystery.Thanks to February exposés in The New Yorker , however, we now know the origin – Psy-Group, a defunct Israeli private intelligence firm.   The organization responsible compiled dossiers on activists and published a Canary Mission -like blacklist site, as well as defamatory sites that attempted to discredit Muslim activists, among

2-28-2019 Feminist Palestinian lawmaker free after 20 months in prison without trial - +972

https://972mag.com/israeli-frees-feminist-palestinian-lawmaker-after-20-months-without-trial/140355/ Palestinian parliament member Khalida Jarrar was released Thursday morning after nearly two years in Israeli administrative detention. This is not the first time Israel has put Jarrar under  administrative detention , a practice in which detainees are held without charge or trial.   Jarrar was first arrested in April 2015 and  placed under administrative detention  for six months, after she refused to comply with a military expulsion order. The Israeli army had ordered her at the time to leave her home in Ramallah within 24 hours and move to Jericho for a period of 1.5 years. Israeli military authorities accused her of being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a party she represents in the Palestinian Legislative Council, but which is outlawed by Israel… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member