vjp-global

https://forward.com/opinion/426481/trumps-deal-of-the-century-is-destroying-israel/   To some, this [moving the capital, annexing the Golan Heights, offering Palestinians an economic deal before a political one, accepting settlements and the Gaza blockade] may sound "pro-Israel" in that it is green-lighting another campaign promise of Netanyahu's, and giving Israel cover to pursue annexation. But the truth is, this kind of talk places Israel at an existential risk. An Israel that annexes the West Bank is either not a democracy – if it ratifies its rule over millions of Palestinians who don't have the right to vote – or not a "Jewish state" – if it grants those Palestinians equal rights, for soon we will be the majority "between the river and the sea."   Put simply, Trump's dealmakers, like his deal, are undermining the ability for Israel to exist.   It's not lost on the younger generat...

https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-soldiers-invade-orphanage-school-stop-peace-poetry-festival/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily+Updates   On Friday evening, Israeli soldiers, including undercover officers, invaded the Islamic Industrial School for Orphans, in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, and stopped an educational activity held by the General Union of Palestinians Writers.   Media sources said the school was about to hold a poetry festival, dubbed as "Yes To Peace, No To War," and shut it down….The activity was organized by several Palestinian poets in occupied Jerusalem, and was meant to encourage the students to read and write, and to help them realize their potentials and talents...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article231643588.html ? …The U.S. Department of Education will investigate a Middle East conference co-sponsored by Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill to see if the schools' consortium violated the terms and conditions of its federal grant.   In April, Rep. George Holding, a Raleigh Republican, asked the department to investigate the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies ' event for its " Conflict Over Gaza: People, Politics, and Possibilities" conference that was held in late March at UNC. Holding said he'd seen "reports of severe anti-Israeli bias and anti-Semitic rhetoric at the taxpayer-funded conference…." Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/annexation-how-israel-already-controls-more-half-west-bank Annexation would only formalise a situation in which almost two-thirds of Palestinian territory is controlled by Israel and settlers live as Israeli citizens   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/us/israel-birthright-jews-protests.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share   …Over nearly two decades, a nonprofit organization called Birthright Israel has given nearly 700,000 young Jews an all-expense-paid trip to Israel, an effort to bolster a distinct Jewish identity and forge an emotional connection to Israel. The trips, which are partly funded by the Israeli government, have become a rite of passage for American Jews. Nearly 33,000 are set to travel this summer.   But over the past year, some Jewish activists have protested Birthright, saying the trips erase the experiences of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank. Activists have circulated petitions , staged sit-ins at Hillels on college campuses and blocked Birthright's headquarters in New York. But no protests have generated more publicity and outrage than the walk-offs from a handful of Birthright trips…Just 6 percent ...

https://www.timesofisrael.com/when-an-ex-fatah-palestinian-neighbor-took-up-a-zionist-authors-challenge/ Yossi Klei Halevi wrote a book of 'Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.' Here's what happened when Mohammed Dajani, a hardliner who later took his students to Auschwitz, wrote back...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.thenation.com/article/amy-kaplan-our-american-israel-book-review/   [Review of Amy Kaplan's Our American Israel: The Story of an Entangled Alliance] …The title of Kaplan's book is extremely telling: This is a story of how a national and colonial settler project in a distant and seemingly exotic part of the world was normalized and Americanized to the point that, in the American imagination, Israelis are seen as close kin. In a certain sense, for many Americans, Israel is a part of us…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member