vjp-global

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinians-be-sacrificed-israel-gulf-marriage   As Trump and his allies escalate their assault on Iran, they are also planning to launch the economic component of his administration's so-called Deal of the Century between Israel and the Palestinians at a conference in the Bahraini capital Manama on 25 and 26 June…The Trump administration is evidently trying to co-opt individual Palestinians into the normalization effort…Palestinian businessman Abed Alkarim Ashour said on Facebook that he received an invitation from "the Americans and our brothers in Bahrain" who "seek to sell Palestine for a few dollars."…Opposition is also coming from within the host state…The Bahraini Society Against Normalization with the Zionist Enemy asserted its rejection of the Manama meeting and called "on the Bahraini government to cancel this workshop, whose objectives ...

https://truthout.org/articles/anti-occupation-coalition-grows-stronger-despite-israeli-military-violence/ …When Jews living in the diaspora and those living in Israel come together, we make a formidable force. When groups like All That's Left, the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, and other groups from abroad work in collaboration with each other, both our Judaism and our activism are strengthened. And when we work under the guidance of our Palestinian partners — with whom we have been able to cultivate longstanding relationships — we forge a more powerful and just movement…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

Judith, Thanks for sending this along. Really good to see what the Israeli left is doing within Israel to challenge Israeli whitewashing and insist it can't be business as usual for an occupying power. Mark On Sun, May 26, 2019, 1:38 PM Judith Ferster < jferster@ncsu.edu > wrote: https://972mag.com/israel-occupation-eurovision/141569 Israel had hoped to use the Eurovision Song Contest to bolster its international image. We were there to remind the world that there is no business as usual with an occupying state…. The largest media outlets in the world reported not only on Eurovision, they also paid attention to our demonstrations. It was a week that proved that in our current reality, an international event of this size in Israel will bring about resistance to the occupation. We showed that even without the enormous budgets of the Foreign Ministry, the Tourism Ministry, or the Tel Aviv municipality, we can reach millions of viewers, readers, and tourists.   ...

https://972mag.com/israel-occupation-eurovision/141569 Israel had hoped to use the Eurovision Song Contest to bolster its international image. We were there to remind the world that there is no business as usual with an occupying state…. The largest media outlets in the world reported not only on Eurovision, they also paid attention to our demonstrations. It was a week that proved that in our current reality, an international event of this size in Israel will bring about resistance to the occupation. We showed that even without the enormous budgets of the Foreign Ministry, the Tourism Ministry, or the Tel Aviv municipality, we can reach millions of viewers, readers, and tourists.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://ifamericaknew.org/cur_sit/view-the-frontline-documentary-on-gaza-that-pbs-pulled.html   PBS stations around the U.S. were scheduled to show a riveting new Frontline documentary, "One Day in Gaza," but at the last minute PBS pulled it.    The film is missing important context about the issue, but it includes footage that Americans, as Israel's top funders, should see – including a young, unarmed teen being shot in her head… The film also fails to inform American viewers of our connection to Israeli actions – that the U.S. gives Israel over $10 million per day. (The U.S. has given Israel on average 7,000 times more per capita than it has given other people around the world.) .. BBC, the coproducer of the film, broadcast it to British viewers. We are posting it below so that Americans can also view it… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://forward.com/opinion/424591/its-time-to-end-americas-blank-check-military-aid-to-israel/   Last month, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared that American aid to Israel is "something that can be discussed" in Washington. Her comments made news precisely because America's policy of giving Israel billions in aid without expecting any policy changes in return hasn't actually been discussed — or at least questioned — in either party in more than a quarter-century. That needs to change…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/court-overturns-palestinians-incitement-conviction-over-poem/141486/ Dareen Tatour sat in prison and was put under house arrest for a poem she published on Facebook. Now an Israeli court has decide[d] to partially overturn her conviction ."… The court accepted that the poem, "Resist My People, Resist Them," which she published on her personal Facebook page, did not constitute incitement, despite the discomfort it might cause the public... The judges added that it is hard to find similar cases to that of Tatour. "We emphasize that freedom of expression is even more pronounced when it comes to artistic freedom. True, this does not provide legitimacy to cross the bounds of the law, but it certainly has to bend the line to protect the right of freedom to create."   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/eurovision-israel-palestine-dreams/141358/   This year's Eurovision slogan is 'Dare to Dream.' Activestills asked Palestinians what their dreams are. Israel will be hosting the Eurovision Song Contest this year, with some  200 million  people expected to watch from around the world. The event, which will take place from May 14 to May 18 in Tel Aviv, falls around  Nakba Day , during which Palestinians remember the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were expelled and fled, and over 500 villages that were destroyed, in the 1948 war. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/author/orlyn/     Israel might have the power to tell itself and the rest of the world a story of victimhood. In reality, it has been abusing two million besieged Gazans for over a decade...   I propose we draw a different lesson from the horrific violence that, as of this time, has already taken the life of 16 Palestinians and four Israelis: we Israelis need to learn Arabic....   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/music-rubble-palestinians-stage-defiant-concert-gaza-ahead-eurovision As Israel rolls out red carpets for the Eurovision music contest it's hosting this week, Palestinian musicians in Gaza have taken to a much different stage.In the rubble of an eight-storey residential building  destroyed in recent Israeli air strikes , the performers on Tuesday inaugurated Gazavision, an event they say aims to present a defiant and peaceful critique of Israeli policies - through song. The venue was not chosen by accident… For the event's organisers - a group called Jusour (Arabic for "bridges") - the decision to hold the performance where the Abu Qamar building once stood was symbolic.  "We want to send a message to the Israeli occupation that Gaza will not surrender. Like the phoenix when it is turned to ashes, Gaza will rise again," 22-year-old Salem Harara, one of the organisers, told Middle East Eye… Kamel Musallam,...

And one way to reclaim our voices is to litigate and have a federal judge declare these laws unconstitutional, as happened this spring overturning an anti-BDS Texas law. Thus revealing that those who wish to silence legitimate criticism and political pressure against Israel's oppressive policies and practices have no respect for constitutional rights.  On Wed, May 8, 2019, 10:29 PM Judith Ferster < jferster@ncsu.edu > wrote: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/05/01/statehouse-model-bills-bds-protest-bans/3575083002/   …A rapid succession of states – 27 in four years – adopted measures to curb the initiative known as BDS. These new laws and executive orders were crafted by activists, then copied from one state to the next and adopted with virtually identical language. Most require tens of thousands of state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel or lose their government funding. Other efforts require state pension boards to divest from ...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/05/01/statehouse-model-bills-bds-protest-bans/3575083002/   …A rapid succession of states – 27 in four years – adopted measures to curb the initiative known as BDS. These new laws and executive orders were crafted by activists, then copied from one state to the next and adopted with virtually identical language. Most require tens of thousands of state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel or lose their government funding. Other efforts require state pension boards to divest from companies that boycott Israel. .. As part of a two-year investigation into copycat legislation in statehouses, the  Center for Public Integrity  and   USA TODAY  examined dozens of anti-boycott bills and executive orders and then traced the communication between pro-Israel lobbyists and lawmakers who supported their efforts…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member