vjp-global

http://mondoweiss.net/2017/07/shockwaves-progressive-community/?mc_cid=16bd88bf98&mc_eid=c9acac3cf3   [There is] new legislation in the Congress that would criminalize support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)...The bill is such a crude example of overreach by the Israel lobby that it is sure to backfire on its supporters as Greenwald and Grim's report ricochets around the Democratic Party:   But now, a group of 43 senators — 29 Republicans and 14 Democrats — wants to implement a law that would make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel, which was launched in protest of that country's decades-old occupation of Palestine…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://t-j.org.il/LatestDevelopments/tabid/1370/articleID/842/currentpage/1/Default.aspx ...Netanyahu's decision to leave the metal detectors in place demonstrates that he is in defiant mode. This is nothing new, but it is getting worse (e.g., Netanyahu's fight with Germany over Breaking the Silence; his effort to return focus to Iran; his bullying of UNESCO; this week's hot mic incident ). In recent years, Netanyahu's policies towards the Palestinians in East Jerusalem has consistently been to try to break their will (often by means of frequent collective punishment), while at no time reaching out to them or engaging them on the issues that concern them. In this current crisis, he has doubled down on these policies even in defiance of the advice of his own security establishment. In addition there are those who speculate that this phenomenon is related to Netanyahu's increasing political vulnerability and legal difficulties. Whatever the case, all s...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/07/20/jerusalem-is-especially-volatile-right-now-this-is-why/?utm_term=.011d1bb0519b   … In a 2016 poll , more than half of Palestinians expressed fear that Israel intends to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Another 2016 poll shows that Jerusalemite Palestinians are deeply concerned with Jewish ascension to the Noble Sanctuary and archaeological excavations in the area…On Friday, Israel will make a seemingly banal security decision — to keep or remove the metal detectors at the gates of the Temple Mount. The significance of that decision cannot be overstated. In the immediate term, it will determine whether the week of civil disobedience erupts into something much larger across the region. But it might also signal whether the Temple Mount's delicate status quo has finally unraveled. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.  On Jul 17, 2017 11:49 PM, "Judith Ferster" < jferster@ncsu.edu > wrote: https://972mag.com/gaza-will- be-unlivable-next-year-not- 2020-as-the-un-says/128598/ +972 Magazine talks to Khalil Shaheen, a Gaza resident and expert on the impact of Israeli, Palestinian Authority, and Hamas policies in the besieged coastal strip, to get a picture of what life is like in Gaza, and why it's probably going to get unfathomably worse. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/gaza-will-be-unlivable-next-year-not-2020-as-the-un-says/128598/ +972 Magazine talks to Khalil Shaheen, a Gaza resident and expert on the impact of Israeli, Palestinian Authority, and Hamas policies in the besieged coastal strip, to get a picture of what life is like in Gaza, and why it's probably going to get unfathomably worse. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/anc-decides-south-africa-should-downgrade-ties-israel   South Africa's ruling party wants to sharply downgrade ties with Israel.   At its national policy conference on Tuesday, the African National Congress adopted a recommendation "to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel to a liaison office in a bid to reduce diplomatic ties," the Mail & Guardian newspaper reported …South Africa has gone further than many countries by explicitly discouraging its citizens from traveling to present-day Israel because of the mistreatment of Palestinians… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-break-silence-gaza-people-power After 10 years of Israeli siege, the United Nations says Gaza is effectively unlivable.   Israel has consigned the people of Gaza to "living in abject poverty under practically inhuman conditions unparalleled in the modern world," the human rights group B'Tselem said last month. In recent weeks the situation has deteriorated even further, as Israel has sharply cut the electricity supply, bringing available energy in Gaza to the lowest level ever .   Health, water and sewage treatment systems are breaking down, making life unbearable…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member