People are getting arrested at a factory in the U.K. belonging to Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer for doing nothing but exercising the democratic right to protest.
Source: Craig Murray: Extreme Policing
Category: Israel
Tlaib’s resolution commemorates 75 years since Palestinians were violently expelled from their homes.
Source: Rep. Rashida Tlaib Asks Congress to Condemn “Israel’s Ongoing Nakba” Against Palestine
![Israel kills Palestinian civilians in Gaza air strikes on May 9, 2023 [Mohammed Asad/MEMO]](https://olddogthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/whatsapp-image-2023-05-09-at-11.04.42-2.jpeg?w=929&h=619 "Israel kills Palestinian civilians in Gaza air strikes on May 9, 2023 [Mohammed Asad/MEMO]")
– Israel has killed at least 13 Palestinians in its latest air strikes against the besieged Gaza Strip, including civilians, four women and four children, local medical sources have confirmed. The air strikes were carried out simultaneously in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and the centre of Gaza city at about 2:30 am today. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 20 people were wounded in the air strikes, including three children and seven women. Some of the wounded are in a serious condition.
Source: Israel recklessly kills 13 Palestinian civilians in Gaza Air Strikes
Le Monde reports that a European Union diplomatic delegation to Tel Aviv announced Monday that it was canceling the diplomatic reception for Europe Day there because the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had selected far-right extremist Jewish Power leader Itamar Ben-Gvir to represent it.
The death in custody on May 2 of Khader Adnan, the first Palestinian to die of a hunger strike for more than 30 years, sparked mass protests in Gaza and an exchange of fire between Israel and armed Palestinian groups. It was later announced that a ceasefire had been agreed, but the situation remains febrile.
The Israeli protests against its new right-wing government have now touched on Israel’s nuclear weapons. To underline what is at stake, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak cast aside Israeli ambiguity over whether it possesses nuclear weapons to warn his compatriots that Western diplomats are worried that a Jewish messianic dictatorship could gain control over Israel’s nuclear weapons.
The Modern State of Gattaca If you’re not Jewish you’re not a true Israeli but a 2nd rate citizen.
Gattaca: a warning against the societal acceptance of genetic perfectionism and genetic discrimination.
Amnesty International also recommends that Israel end the system of apartheid and cease the deployment of facial recognition technologies, mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance. In addition, it recommends that Israel end the regime of closures and other restrictions on freedom of movement that result in collective punishment. And the report says that Israel should immediately cease all settlement activity as a first step to dismantling all Israeli settlements.
Source: Israel Is Using a Vast Network of Biometric Cameras to Terrorize Palestinians | The Smirking Chimp
Science disproves Jewish folklore that they were there before the Palestinian Arabs. DNA testing proves they both are descendants of the Canaanites.
What we now call Palestinians are for the most part descendants of groups who have been in the Near East for four thousand years, at least. A branch of the Canaanites became Jews, while others became Nabataeans and Phoenicians.
A succession of events starting in Barcelona, Spain, in February, and followed in Liège, Belgium, and Oslo, Norway, in April sent a strong message to Israel: The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is alive and well.
Israeli occupation authorities have started plans to confiscate 70 Palestinian homes in the Old City of the southern occupied West Bank governorate of Hebron.
Source: Israeli Occupation seizes 70 Palestinian Homes in Hebron, will Turn them over to Israeli Squatters
Republicans chasing money go to Israel
What does it mean to say that there “has never been a Palestinian state” in the Holy Land? This is one of the allegations Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made on his trip to Israel, where he fell all over himself taking far right wing colonialist stances. DeSantis actually did a history degree at Yale University and his professors must spit up a little bit when they hear him talking like that. Or just hear him talking.
Source: Yes, Mr. DeSantis, there is a Palestinian People that has exercised Power in Historical Palestine
Indeed, the Nakba is an all-encompassing Palestinian story of the past, present but also the future. It is not only a story of victimization, but also of Palestinian sumud – steadfastness – and resistance. It is the single most unifying platform that brings all Palestinians together, beyond the restrictions of factions, politics or geography.
For Palestinians, the Nakba is not a single date. It is the whole story, the conclusion of which will be written, this time, by the Palestinians themselves.
Source: Why the Nakba Has Come to Define Palestinian Identity | The Smirking Chimp
As my birthday approaches, I grow more and more anxious because a professional organization of trained terrorists that calls itself an army wants me to be one of them. And if I say no, a prison sentence will be the result. Fred Hidvegi Apr 27, 2023 Common Dreams
Source: Opinion | Why I’m Saying No to the IDF as a 17-Year-Old | Common Dreams
When Jews become what they accuse others of being one wonders if it’s just politics being played out in Israel
The Jewish far right has been calling Palestinians ‘Nazis’ for almost 80 years, casting them as an irredeemable enemy in an eternal war.
Source: The Israeli right’s most dangerous anti-Palestinian smear
To counter American Jews turning their backs on Israel Netanyahu sends them a messenger.
“From her affection for violent anti-Arab radicals to her hatred of feminists to her racist and Islamophobic treatment of African asylum-seekers, Golan’s politics could not be further from that of most Jewish New Yorkers,” said one U.S. rabbi.
Source: Netanyahu Picks Self-Described ‘Racist’ May Golan as Top Israeli Diplomat in NY
The question needs asking given Israeli’s are persecuting Christians in Israel
Why are tens of millions of Christians supporting the expansion of Israel and the oppression of the Palestinians? It’s an important question because the answer has serious consequences for the stability of the Middle East.
Source: “It’s armageddon, but not as we know it” – Pearls and Irritations
The Arabic press is reporting violent assaults Saturday evening by Israeli police against Palestinian Christian worshipers in Jerusalem attempting to make their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for the “Saturday of Light” commemoration. The police attacks took place at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in response to Christians objecting to the barriers the police had erected to keep crowds away.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who is appointed by the Vatican, told AP this week that the far, far right government has emboldened Jewish extremists to attack clergymen and commit vandalism against churches at an unprecedented rate. He said that the extremists now feel that they have government protection, adding, “The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new.”
Jerusalem – Nothing about the attack or what happened since surprised Miran Krikorian. The Armenian owner of Taboon and Wine Bar in the Old City of Jerusalem was not surprised to receive a call the night of January 26 that a mob of Israeli settlers was attacking his bar in the Christian Quarter and shouting “Death to Arabs … Death to Christians.”
Source: ‘Death to Christians’: Violence steps up under new Israeli gov’t | Religion | Al Jazeera
“Each year, the U.S. funnels billions of tax dollars to the Israeli government, funding obscene human rights violations,” said Rep. Cori Bush, who signed the letter. “We must stop funding Israeli apartheid.”
Source: US Lawmakers Call on Biden to End US Taxpayer Support of Israeli Human Rights Violations
Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, is a scourge and Australia has not been immune to it. Traditional antisemitism is not hard to identify or call out whether it is in graffiti, slogans or slurs. However, when it comes to debate over Israel and Palestine, what is or is not antisemitic is a highly political issue.
The Executive Council of Australia Jewry, the Zionist Federation of Australia, and the private Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council act as a lobby and take an aggressive, if not belligerent, stance against strong criticism of Israel or Zionism, claiming that it is by and large antisemitic except when conducted within very narrow parameters (theirs). Anything supporting the rights of Palestinians is usually condemned. They largely echo the Israeli government. However they cannot claim to speak for all Jews, nor should they seek to police debate about Israel and Palestine in Australia.
Source: A fizzled campaign to muzzle free speech – Pearls and Irritations
The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Monday about 17,000 Israeli squatters marched through the Palestinian West Bank to the shuttered illegal squatter-settlement of Evyatar on Mount Sabih near the hamlet of Beita in the vicinity of Nablus, demanding its revival. Some 27 Palestinian counter-protesters suffered injuries from rubber-tipped metal bullets, and another hundred suffered ill effects from inhalation of military-grade tear gas. They were shot by Israeli troops that provided security to the far-right march.
The ministry said 15-year-old Mohammad Balhan sustained gunshot wounds to his head, chest and abdomen.
In a separate part of the West Bank, thousands of Israelis, including government ministers, marched towards the evacuated outpost of Evyatar in support of settlement expansion.
Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital – territories Israel captured in a 1967 war.
US-sponsored statehood talks have been stalled since 2014 while Jewish settlements have expanded, developments which Palestinians say have undermined the chances of a viable state being established.
Source: Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen in West Bank raid
The Middle East retaliates and the world protests against Israel’s terrorist attacks against Palestinians during the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan.
Key points:
- Israel responds to rocket attacks from Syria with artillery fire early on Sunday, with its fighter jets attacking Syrian army sites later in the day
- Syria’s state news agency, citing unidentified military sources, says the country’s air defences shot down some of the Israeli missiles
- The attacks come after days of escalating violence over tensions in Jerusalem and an Israeli police raid on the city’s most sensitive holy site
Israel fires rockets at Syria in retaliation for strikes against the Israeli-controlled territory, the military says, as tension along Israel’s northern border remains high following a cross-border exchange of fire.
Successive Israeli governments have pretended to engage in a ‘peace process’, but in reality they have continued to consolidate and expand the occupation. While our unelected representatives pontificate they, the Israelis consolidate.
Source: For Palestine, “peace processes” have meant expansion of Israeli occupation – Pearls and Irritations
Ben-Gvir and the other extremists in government are Netanyahu’s only chance to stay in power and avoid going to jail for corruption. They know that, and are taking advantage of the situation to support with all means possible the violence Jewish settlers have unleashed onto Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and to continue eroding the status quo at the holy sites with the aim to establish new facts on the ground – ie, full Israeli control.
Netanyahu does not necessarily mind. For him, the violence is a useful distraction from the anti-government protests which have plagued his sixth term in office.
Source: Israel is creating an explosive situation in Al-Aqsa | Al-Aqsa Mosque | Al Jazeera
Two British-Israeli sisters have been killed in an Israel gun attack on their car in the West Bank.
The attack, which also injured their mother, took place near an Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley and the girls’ father witnessed the incident from a separate car following behind, local officials said.
Fake News: The true meaning of ‘fake news’ is brought into relief by the Western mainstream media. The use of words like ‘clashes’ fails in the true reporting of the bloodthirsty massacres of Palestinians by Israeli,IDF, Police and extremist Jewish citizens.
Al Jazeera is one of the few media outlets that report and describe the total mayhem, imbalance and bias found in media reporting of Israel’s war crimes that now shames Jews globally.
It is difficult, of course, to find any linguistic or moral equivalent to the media obsession with reporting Israeli savagery as “clashes”. One would not perceive an elk as “clashing” with a hunter’s rifle, just as one would not perceive a “clash” between a human neck and a guillotine.
The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that both on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, Israeli security forces invaded the al-Aqsa Mosque complex, the third holiest shrine in the Muslim world and expelled Palestinians who had been conducting an all-night retreat (i`tikaf) there for the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Video emerged from the Wednesday assault showing troops viciously assaulting worshipers. The BBC and other Western press actually called these barbaric beatings by armed occupation troops “clashes,” and said they were over a “disputed” religious site. But there is no dispute in international law about al-Aqsa Mosque. It is governed by an endowment deed that is overseen by the Jordanian government. No responsible person in a position of power disputes this.
Israel bombs Gaza during Ramadan and then displays a list of fake excuses
The Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed Islamic organisation that manages the complex, considered the third holiest site in the Muslim world, described the police actions as a “flagrant assault on the identity and the function of the mosque as a place of worship for Muslims alone”.
Source: Rockets fired from Gaza after Israeli raid on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque | The New Daily
To be a Jewish State that confers by its own Basic Law of 2018 an exclusive right of self-determination exclusively on the Jewish people and asserts supremacy at the expense of the Palestinian minority of more than 1.7 million persons undermines Israel’s claim to be a democracy, at least with reference to the citizenry as a whole. As well, Palestinians have long endured discriminatory laws and practices on fundamental issues that over time have come to have its government process widely identified as an apartheid regime that is operative in both the Occupied Palestine Territories and Israel itself. If language is stretched to its limits, it is possible to regard Israel as an ethnic-democracy or theocratic democracy, but such terms are vivid illustrations of political oxymorons.
Source: More than ‘Democracy’ is at Stake in Israeli Protests – CounterPunch.org
The main Israeli lobby operating under the name of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), a well-financed private group, is worried.
Given the AIJAC, the Australian Zionist Federation (AZF), which is a branch of the World Zionist Organisation (WZO) headquartered in Israel, and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), admit their lobby activities on behalf of a foreign government, people are asking, shouldn’t the Australian authority be concerned of the strong relations of this lobby with the Israeli government, the powerful influence it developed through its political donations and free trips to Israel? Isn’t it in Australia’s national interest to see such organisations registered under “The Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme”, and why are they not?
We all know if there were such groups and organisations with a strong connection to China, Russia or any other country, working on their behalf, how the government and media would have reacted, so why are Israel and its lobby exceptional? Is it because they became so powerful that they are so intimidated?
Source: Exposing Israel’s violations upset the Israeli lobby – Pearls and Irritations
Meanwhile the Australian Government stays silent as does the mainstream media while roiling against Russia
Some 450,000 Israeli protesters massed again this weekend against Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s efforts to disempower the Israeli judiciary, so he can pick the judges for his own corruption trials, declining to be mollified by his promises to find a compromise. Netanyahu’s attack on the judges is also too much for the US government and American Jewish communities to bear. Netanyahu’s move to undermine the Israeli judiciary and empower extreme Right elements has alienated most Democrats. In response, President Joe Biden has shown courage not seen since President Barack Obama left office, pointedly rebuking the prime minister and declining to give him the seal of approval that comes with a White House invitation. Finally, an American president said “no,” after Trump, the Bushes and Reagan had all empowered the worst elements of Israel’s far right-wing and enabled the current crisis.
They are not interested in security which can only be achieved through trust and respect, not armaments. The sacking of the defence minister is evidence of this. They have not been interested in the international rule of law for some time, otherwise they would not be building illegal settlements on the West Bank, evicting Palestinians from East Jerusalem or caging 2 million Palestinians in Gaza. Now they are apparently not interested in the domestic rule of law built on the separation of powers either. At least they are consistent.
Source: Netanyahu’s nakedness: democracy – whose democracy? – Pearls and Irritations
As Israelis Protest Mounting Authoritarianism, Apartheid Regime Over Palestinians Goes Unchallenged
Source: Israelis Protest Authoritarianism but Apartheid Is Unchallenged
Protesters are hailing Israeli courts as the last bulwark of democracy, but democracy for whom? Hagar KotefMerav Amir Hagar Kotef, Merav Amir March 30 2023, 8:20 a.m.
Source: Protect Israel’s Judiciary — but Don’t Let It Launder War Crimes
Jews United not in Netanyahu’s Undemocratic State of Israel. The Saudis have turned to Iran. Is it any wonder?Will The IDF use their snipers as they did on Palestinians?
Sam Sokol, Aaron Rabinowitz, Bar Peleg and Josh Breiner at Haaretz quoted one far-right Israeli counter-protester as calling for running over protesters with cars. Another said, “We should go to the [Supreme] Court with gasoline, the Nazis here. Gasoline, explosives, tractors, guns, knives. From today, everything is kosher.”
Since late January, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been loudly protesting an impending judicial overhaul by the nation’s new right-wing government. The most controversial part of the proposal gives the Knesset, Israeli’s parliament, the power to overrule supreme court decisions with a simple majority vote, which means the nation’s top court would be unable to strike down objectionable laws. It would effectively, as one Israeli news report put it, “neuter” the court.
Opponents say the changes, if allowed, will “endanger the entire legal system” and cement the power grip of the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a corruption charge. (The Knesset already has approved another rule stating that a prime minister may only be removed from office for physical or mental unfitness.) Since the changes were proposed, Israelis have taken to the streets en masse to register their displeasure.
Source: 20 Striking Images of Protest Against Israeli Democracy Under Siege – Mother Jones
Share to WhatsApp (JTA) — Asaf Zamir, Israel’s consul general to New York, resigned within hours of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firing his defense minister, the latest salvo in the political crisis besetting Israel over Netanyahu’s planned radical changes to the judiciary.
When Netanyahu proposed a reform to allow parliament to overturn Israel’s Supreme Court, liberals feared it would lead to the end of the rule of law in Israel. But Israel has never respected the rule of law, and liberals within the country ensured this.
Source: Israel’s Violations of International Law Are Bigger Than Netanyahu
The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reported her as writing, “You have contravened the Supreme Court’s decision, according to which, as a prime minister charged with criminal offenses, you must refrain from taking steps that raise a reasonable suspicion of a conflict of interest. Amending the law on removal does not relieve you of this obligation.”
She added, “The judicial situation is clear, and you should refrain from any dealings with initiatives to make changes in the judiciary, including the composition of the Committee for the Appointment of Judges, because dealing with them is an act that involves a conflict of interests.”
As it now stands, there are two nations on the soil of geographic Palestine, an Israeli one and a Palestinian one. The Palestinian nation, however, is prevented from having a national government. Palestinians are stateless, they are a homeless nation. They are kept stateless, and therefore without basic human rights, by the much stronger Israelis, who get billions and sophisticated weaponry from the United States annually.
That disparity between a full Israeli nation and the stateless, rights-less Palestinians, has driven the conflict and ensured that Israel comes out on top.
Bezalel Smotrich, the ultra-far-right Israeli finance minister, declared in Paris on Sunday that Palestinians do not exist.
Source: Smotrich unmasks Israel’s truly genocidal face | The Electronic Intifada
Although Palestinian human rights organizations are upset that the ICC indicted Putin relatively quickly, while Israel’s crimes in the Palestinian West Bank have gone on with impunity, the rapidity with which Mr. Khan has moved on Russian crimes is a sign that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may well be next.
Seventy-seven Palestinian-owned buildings have been destroyed since the extreme far-right government led by Benjamin Netanyahu took office, according to UN figures. The figure is nearly double the number of demolitions imposed by Israel during the same period last year. Ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich publicly advocate for the expulsion of Palestinians and the demolition of their homes.
Source: Number of demolitions by Israel of Palestinian property doubles
In a sign of a major shift in U.S. public perception that’s largely generational, U.S. Democrats favor Palestinians by an 11-point margin. A decade ago, the gap was 36% in favor of Israelis.
Source: For First Time, US Democratic Voters Sympathize More With Palestinians Than Israelis: Poll
All of a sudden, civil war is on the minds of prominent Israeli politicians, who warn that if the current impasse between the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Israeli people is not resolved, it could come to that.
Source: Israeli President cautions against Complacency and Warns of Real Possibility of Civil War
Jews Against Netanyahu’s Israel
The Times of Israel reports that 255 American Jewish businessmen, who have billions of dollars invested in the country, have warned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that they will cease investing in Israel if he goes forward with his plans to gut the Israeli judiciary.
A monthly roundup of photographs documenting Palestine, Palestinian life, politics and culture, and international solidarity with Palestine.
Source: Palestine in Pictures: February 2023 | The Electronic Intifada
Yes, Israel should be sanctioned, not because of Netanyahu’s attempt at co-opting the judiciary, but because the system of apartheid and regime of military occupation constitute complete disregard and utter violation of international law. Whether Israelis like it or not, international law is the only law that matters to an occupied and oppressed nation.
Source: Mass Protests and False Hope: Israel’s Supreme Court is no Friend of the Palestinian People
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