Category: Israel

Israel offers COVID booster vaccine for ages 12 and above | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/000_9LL4UN.jpg?resize=770%2C513

Morrison is telling us it will be “safe” to open up when fully vaccinated. Israel proves he’s bullshitting and pandering for the next election.

Israel has begun offering a COVID-19 booster to children as young as 12, and its prime minister says a campaign that began a month ago among seniors has slowed a rise in severe illness caused by the Delta variant.

Source: Israel offers COVID booster vaccine for ages 12 and above | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

Bennett’s “Natural Growth” Rhetoric can’t conceal Israel’s colonial Land Grab

LAND GRAB

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is playing with words to advance the colonial state’s de-facto annexation of the occupied West Bank. In an interview with the New York Times, Bennett used spin about compromise which amounted to nothing other than promoting colonial expansion while retreating on formalising another land grab. “This government will neither annex nor form a Palestinian state, everyone gets that,” Bennett said. “I’m prime minister of all Israelis, and what I’m doing now is finding the middle ground – how we can focus on what we agree upon.” While diverging political views among Israelis may have prompted Bennett to shift towards a compromise, particularly as his is a coalition government, the issue at stake is still the colonisation of Palestinian land. Moreover, the Palestinians have been removed from the equation.

Source: Bennett’s “Natural Growth” Rhetoric can’t conceal Israel’s colonial Land Grab

Israel kills 15-year-old in night attack on refugee camp | The Electronic Intifada

A smiling boy wearing a tee and a long necklace

What goes unreported in the West’s Media. Just another Israeli training exercise.

Using live bait to train greyhounds is illegal here. The IDF however trains and bloods it’s recruits using live Palestinians and their children and do it at night in the cover of darkness. If an Israeli was killed which is a very rare occurrence indeed the media noise would thunder around the globe.

A Palestinian child was killed by Israeli forces as he stood on the roof of his home on Tuesday. The noise of gunshots awoke Imad Khaled Hashash, 15, and his brother at 3 am as Israeli forces raided Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus. Israel conducts such night raids into West Bank towns and cities on a daily basis, arresting Palestinians. The brothers went up to the roof of their house to see what was happening, according to a field investigation by Defense for Children International Palestine. As Imad was reaching for his phone to take a picture or a video, Israeli forces shot him in the head with live ammunition. Imad’s brothers couldn’t evacuate him at first because Israeli troops were firing tear gas. A neighbor’s taxi took Imad to Rafidia hospital in Nablus, where he was pronounced dead. Israeli soldiers enjoy near-total impunity for their killing of Palestinian children in their homes “without fear of any consequences,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, DCIP’s accountability program director, said.

Source: Israel kills 15-year-old in night attack on refugee camp | The Electronic Intifada

Even love is forbidden under Israeli apartheid

Clearly and tragically, according to Israel, any foreigner – no matter where they are from – who loves a Palestinian and gets married is making a very grave mistake.

Source: Even love is forbidden under Israeli apartheid

Israeli snipers attack Gaza children | The Electronic Intifada

Paramedic carries wounded boy

When the world’s attention is on other things Israel always reveals itself

Israeli occupation forces injured more than 40 Palestinians, including at least 24 children, during protests in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. One of the injured is photojournalist Asem Muhammad Shehade, who was wounded in the face by shrapnel from a live bullet. Another is a 13-year-old boy reportedly in critical condition. Israeli snipers deployed on the Israel-Gaza boundary fired machine guns, live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters at Palestinian civilians who were peacefully gathered near the eastern fence.

Source: Israeli snipers attack Gaza children | The Electronic Intifada

Want to report settler violence? You may soon be under investigation

“These settlers are doing the dirty work of a racist system,” Sam’s post continued. “As soon as they finished assaulting me, they went to the police and filed a complaint that *I* actually assaulted *them,* and a corrupt police system is in place that allows this to actually yield results. The police officer interrogating me literally invoked antisemetic [sic] conspiracy theories reminiscent of the George Soros obsession. I was the victim of an act of terrorism and *I* was the one who was arrested. These incidents are also exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing.

Source: Want to report settler violence? You may soon be under investigation

Israeli cities impose beach apartheid on Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada

Women and children play on a beach in the sea

Three Israeli coastal cities are being slammed by a civil rights group for effectively banning Palestinians from their beaches. Hadera, Netanya and Akka – known in English as Acre – are guilty of “apartheid initiatives that express a goal of achieving racial segregation,” said a lawyer for the group Adalah. Video shot by journalist Rafat Aker last week shows a busload of Palestinian men on an apparent day trip from the city of Jenin being denied access to the beach by police and local authorities. You can watch the full video in a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew below.

Source: Israeli cities impose beach apartheid on Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada

Israel uses fake photo to justify shooting woman | The Electronic Intifada

A hand holding a chef's knife with brown handle

The Israeli army lied about a weapon it claimed a Palestinian woman tried to use before soldiers shot her on Tuesday. A picture posted on Twitter by the army spokesperson shows a hand holding a chef’s knife with a brown handle. But the photo is more than three years old.

Source: Israel uses fake photo to justify shooting woman | The Electronic Intifada

Living in the Dark: Palestinians in Gaza, besieged by Israel and deprived of Electricity, Can’t even Refrigerate their Food

Under international law, Israel is the Occupying power in Gaza and therefore is responsible for the health and well-being of the civilian population there. Israel is rather falling down on the job. The Red Cross says, “the demand for electricity in the Gaza Strip is estimated at 470 megawatts, of which approximately 45% are currently being met.”

Source: Living in the Dark: Palestinians in Gaza, besieged by Israel and deprived of Electricity, Can’t even Refrigerate their Food

Israel kills child out shopping with his dad | The Electronic Intifada

A boy wearing a coat stands in the snow

An 11-year-old Palestinian child was killed by Israeli occupation forces as he rode in his father’s car on Wednesday. Israeli forces then fatally shot another Palestinian youth during the child’s funeral in the village of Beit Ummar on Thursday. On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers also killed the water engineer for the West Bank village of Beita. The child, Muhammad Muayyad Abu Sara, was running errands with his family near the entrance of Beit Ummar near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. The boy’s father, Muayyad Abu Sara, was in the car with Muhammad and his other children, Anan, 9, and Ahmad, 5, he told media. Six Israeli soldiers reportedly ordered him to stop and opened fire while the car was around 50 meters away. The soldiers fired at least 13 bullets at the vehicle, witnesses told Defense for Children International Palestine. A bullet struck the boy in the chest. He was taken to hospital for surgery, but died hours later. The father told media that as they were driving, Muhammad reminded him that they had forgotten to go to the grocery store. The father said he turned the car around and felt bullets “raining” on them. He told his children to lower their heads. His 5

Source: Israel kills child out shopping with his dad | The Electronic Intifada

Pfizer vaccine: Israel to offer third COVID-19 booster shot to older citizens

An Israeli paramedic prepares to administer a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Jerusalem: Israel’s Prime Minister has announced that the country would offer a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who have already been vaccinated. The announcement by Naftali Bennett makes Israel the first country to offer a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine to its citizens on a wide scale.

Source: Pfizer vaccine: Israel to offer third COVID-19 booster shot to older citizens

Half of Palestinians Killed by Israeli Air Strikes on Gaza in May were Civilians and other War Crimes: HRW

Human Rights Watch conducted a detailed study of military actions by Israel and the Hamas party-militia in Gaza and concluded that both committed war crimes during the Israeli assault on the Palestinian enclave this spring, but that deaths of Palestinians at Israeli hands were 21 times higher than Israeli deaths.Three of the Israeli airstrikes killed 62 Palestinians without any discernible military target in the area, wiping out entire families. HRW concludes that the seriousness of the war crimes justifies referral to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, a step Israel and the United States have resisted. The ICC nevertheless has determined that it has jurisdiction in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Source: Half of Palestinians Killed by Israeli Air Strikes on Gaza in May were Civilians and other War Crimes: HRW

State of Surveillance: if Pegasus can hack Jeff Bezos’ phone, is there anywhere to hide? – Michael West

Pegasus, surveillance capitalism, NSO Group

Israeli firm NSO Group has created spyware which can hack a smartphone, beat encryption and access every bit of our data, live-time, just like reading over somebody’s shoulder. Human rights activist and cyber-security expert Manal al Sharif examines the implications. This is the first exclusive in Manal’s Tech4Evil series of investigations which expose the threat of Big Tech on our minds, our humanity and democracy itself.

Source: State of Surveillance: if Pegasus can hack Jeff Bezos’ phone, is there anywhere to hide? – Michael West

“No ice cream for you” – Ben & Jerry’s ceases distribution to Israeli Squatter-Settlements in Palestinian West Bank

this move was driven by progressive Northeast Jewish Americans. Cohen and Greenfield are big Bernie Sanders supporters. Significant percentages of younger Jewish Americans, especially on the left, are alienated from the Israeli government policy of colonizing the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

Source: “No ice cream for you” – Ben & Jerry’s ceases distribution to Israeli Squatter-Settlements in Palestinian West Bank

A third of young US Jews see Israel as genocidal, poll finds | The Electronic Intifada

Marchers with banner that reads The Jewish future demands Palestinian freedom

Efforts by Israel and its lobby to equate criticism of Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people with anti-Jewish bigotry are in overdrive. Yet a new poll indicates that this campaign has failed even with the vast majority of Jewish American voters. The survey commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a group led by supporters of the Democratic Party, contains several eye-catching findings. A quarter of Jewish American voters agree that Israel is an apartheid state – a number that shoots up to 38 percent among those under age 40. Twenty-two percent of Jewish voters overall agree that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, a figure that rises to an astonishing 33 percent among the younger group. Moreover, Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the US, according to 34 percent of Jewish voters surveyed. That figure exceeds two in five among those aged under 40.

Source: A third of young US Jews see Israel as genocidal, poll finds | The Electronic Intifada

100 Israeli Troops who Served in Occupied West Bank call on Defense Minister Gantz to Halt Settler Violence against Palestinians and against Israeli Police

some 100 Israeli troops who served in the Palestinian West Bank have called on Defense Minister Benny Gantz and on Minister of Public Security Omer Bar-Lev to intervene to halt the violence of Israeli squatter-settlers toward indigenous Palestinians, which they say they saw with their own eyes. The call came in a letter that was sent on Wednesday by troops who had recently completed their military service, according to Israeli Army Radio. The troops said in their letter, “We, the undersigned, call upon you, male and female soldiers who served in the West Bank, to act now firmly against the phenomenon of settler violence.” They underlined that “Settler violence has been raging for years with tacit support” from the Israeli state.

Source: 100 Israeli Troops who Served in Occupied West Bank call on Defense Minister Gantz to Halt Settler Violence against Palestinians and against Israeli Police

Israeli Supreme Court affirms Apartheid law limiting Sovereignty to Jewish Israelis, excluding 20% of Population

Voters wait in line to cast their ballots in the Democratic primary at a polling station in Houston, Texas, last year.

The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports in an article edited by Mahmud Mujadalah that the Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday refused to strike down the basic law passed by the parliament or Knesset in 2018 declaring Israel a Jewish nation such that sovereignty is solely invested in the Jewish population. Over 20 percent of Israel’s population is not Jewish. This would be like a law in the United States declaring that the U.S. is a white nation and that sovereignty and self-determination is solely invested in its white population.

Source: Israeli Supreme Court affirms Apartheid law limiting Sovereignty to Jewish Israelis, excluding 20% of Population

United Nations Accuses Israel of ‘Grave Violations’ against Palestinian Children

This week, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres presented a report to the 75th General Assembly on the “Promotion and protection of the rights of children: promotion and protection of the rights of children: Children and Armed Conflict” It had a damning section on the situation in Israel and Palestine The report notes some violations by the Palestinian Muslim fundamentalist party-militia, Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, but the number is minor compared to the violations charged against Israel. The Guterres’ report begins,

Source: United Nations Accuses Israel of ‘Grave Violations’ against Palestinian Children

Jewish parties ‘compromise’ against Palestinians and call it democracy

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sits with Labor Party head Merav Michaeli in the plenum hall of the Knesset, Jerusalem, June 2, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Negotiations over a settlement outpost and a racist law show that Zionist parties of all stripes will find common ground to deny Palestinian rights.

Source: Jewish parties ‘compromise’ against Palestinians and call it democracy

Netanyahu Is Out But Nothing Has Changed for Palestinians | The Smirking Chimp

The bottom line: Netanyahu may be out, but creeping annexation and oppression continue. For Palestinians, nothing has changed.

Source: Netanyahu Is Out But Nothing Has Changed for Palestinians | The Smirking Chimp

73 Dems in Congress demand Biden Brand Israeli Squatter-Settlements in Palestine “Illegal,” Dump Trump’s “Deal of the Century”

73 Democratic Congressional representatives wrote a letter to President Biden on Friday urging him formally to withdraw from Trump’s so-called “deal of the century,” which actually authorized Israel unilaterally to steal large swathes of Palestinian land. And these representatives frankly say this. They want an outbreak of frank talk and a reversion to the discourse of international law. The Palestinian Territories are militarily occupied by Israel. Period. The late casino mogul and Likudnik Sheldon Adelson attempted to make calling Palestine “occupied” taboo in US politics, wielding his checkbook in that battle and sidelining Chris Christie when he would not agree. Not only are the Palestinians an occupied population, these representatives say, Israel’s squatter-settlements in Palestine are illegal. They are illegal, by the Fourth Geneva Convention. Except in the anti-Palestinian US, this point of law is disputed nowhere in the world.

Source: 73 Dems in Congress demand Biden Brand Israeli Squatter-Settlements in Palestine “Illegal,” Dump Trump’s “Deal of the Century”

A lesson in collective gaslighting

Israeli police officers during clashes with protesters following a visit of right-wing politician Itamar Ben Gvir at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem Old City, June 10, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Gaslighting describes the practice of making someone question their perception of reality in order to control and abuse them for the perpetrator’s benefit. The term is often talked about in the context of relationships, romantic or other, and usually refers to individual behaviors. But what happens when an entire group acts as gaslighters? Or worse, when an entire society becomes the victim of gaslighting?

Source: A lesson in collective gaslighting

Israel kills teen friends one week apart | The Electronic Intifada

A montage of two pictures of two boys.

Israeli occupation forces killed the fourth Palestinian from the occupied West Bank village of Beita since May as settlers steal nearby Palestinian land. Israeli forces shot 15-year-old Ahmad Zahi Ibrahim Bani-Shamsa with a live bullet to the head on Wednesday afternoon during ongoing confrontations with villagers protesting the Israeli theft of nearby land. Bani-Shamsa and his 16-year-old friend Mahmoud had gone to a hilltop on the outskirts of the village to set some tires on fire, according to a field investigation by Defense for Children International Palestine. Israeli forces were deployed some 300 meters away. The boys approached an Israeli soldier and started chanting on a megaphone about their friend Muhammad Said Hamayel, a 16-year-old boy killed by an Israeli bullet to the chest last week. A soldier then fired a single live bullet, causing the boys to flee for cover. The boys returned to the area shortly after. The same soldier “assumed a kneeling sniping position” and fired approximately 10 bullets at the boys, DCIP said. Bani-Shamsa fell to the ground as a bullet entered one side of his head and exited the other.

Source: Israel kills teen friends one week apart | The Electronic Intifada

Far Right Israeli PM Bennett slams Iran Nuclear Talks for Tehran’s Poor Rights Record (Israel has 200 Nukes and has Killed Thousands of Occupied Palestinians)

New extreme-right Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett came out on Sunday to argue that the election of an extreme-right Iranian cleric (Ebrahim Raisi) as president of that country should cause the Biden administration to back off reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Bennett called Raisi the “hangman of Tehran” and said, “of all the people that (Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei could have chosen, he chose the hangman of Tehran, the man infamous among Iranians and across the world for leading the death committees that executed thousands of innocent Iranian citizens throughout the years.”

Source: Far Right Israeli PM Bennett slams Iran Nuclear Talks for Tehran’s Poor Rights Record (Israel has 200 Nukes and has Killed Thousands of Occupied Palestinians)

Palestinian Authority rejects Israel offer of soon-to-expire vaccines

Is it any wonder Palestinians are reluctant to get vaccinated?

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has cancelled a deal to receive soon-to-expire COVID-19 vaccines from Israel, just hours after the deal was announced on Friday. The initial Israeli shipment showed an expiration date sooner than had been agreed, the PA health minister said. Israel and the PA announced a vaccine swap deal earlier on Friday that would have resulted in Israel sending up to 1.4 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses to the PA in exchange for receiving a reciprocal number of doses from the PA later this year. The doses were due to “expire soon,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said in a statement announcing the deal. The PA said they had been “approved in order to speed up the vaccination process” in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. “They told us the expiration date was in July or August, which would allow lots of time for use,” PA Health Minister Mai Alkaila told reporters later on Friday. “But (the expiration) turned out to be in June. That’s not enough time to use them, so we rejected them,” she said.

Source: Palestinian Authority rejects Israel offer of soon-to-expire vaccines

How Israel tried to put Gaza out of business | The Electronic Intifada

A smashed sewing machine is one of the few things that Muhammad al-Madhoun has been able to retrieve from his workshop.He and his staff used to design and make clothes in the Shorouq tower. The clothes were sold – along with fashion accessories and cosmetics – in a store within the same building.Al-Madhoun had been hoping to do a brisk trade on 12 May.Eid al-Fitr – a holiday when many people don new clothes and give each other gifts – would begin that evening. In his own words, al-Madhoun wanted to “sell like crazy” as business had been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.“But on 12 May, we got a phone call that made us jump out of our skin,” he said. “We were told that a bunch of missiles would be fired at the building in 10 minutes.”Israel bombed and destroyed the Shorouq tower soon after that call.

Source: How Israel tried to put Gaza out of business | The Electronic Intifada

Israeli mob chants for genocide in Jerusalem | The Electronic Intifada

A large group of flag-carrying Israelis gathers outside Damascus gate

Thousands of Israeli Jewish nationalists marched through Jerusalem chanting racist and genocidal slogans against Palestinians on Tuesday. This was part of an annual “March of the Flags” by far-right Israeli Jews to celebrate Israel’s occupation and colonization of East Jerusalem. Like in previous years, the mob waving Israeli flags spewed racist and genocidal slogans against Palestinians and denigrated the Prophet Muhammad.

Source: Israeli mob chants for genocide in Jerusalem | The Electronic Intifada

Israeli police ran a ‘torture room’ in Nazareth, says rights group

An Israeli police officer arrests a Palestinian during confrontations in the city of Lydd, central Israel. (Oren Ziv)

Testimonies collected by Adalah reveal that officers beat detainees and deprived them of medical treatment during police crackdown on Palestinian citizens.

Source: Israeli police ran a ‘torture room’ in Nazareth, says rights group

Israel Launches Airstrikes On Gaza As Cease-Fire Crumbles | HuffPost

The Israeli military confirmed it attacked the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, marking the definitive end of a cease-fire that followed 11 days of violence last month in which over 250 people were killed, most of them Palestinians. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said it had attacked Hamas’ armed compounds in Gaza City in response to the reported launching of incendiary balloons from the territory, which the Israeli fire brigade said caused 20 fires in open fields near the Gaza border but apparently no casualties. HuffPost has not been able to confirm whether Hamas militants were responsible for the balloons. Advertisement The IDF said it was “ready for all scenarios, including renewed fighting in the face of continued terrorist attacks emanating from Gaza.”

Source: Israel Launches Airstrikes On Gaza As Cease-Fire Crumbles | HuffPost

Ceasefire broken as Israel targets Gaza, incendiary balloons launched

The Israel-Palestine ceasefire has broken, with Israel launching air strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military reportedly confirmed hitting several targets it claimed were housing “Hamas operatives”. It came after Israel said incendiary balloons had been launched from Gaza on Wednesday (Australian time). The Israeli fire brigade said the balloons sparked at least 20 blazes in open fields in communities near the divided frontier.

Source: Ceasefire broken as Israel targets Gaza, incendiary balloons launched

Israel’s New Secular Government: Lieberman Crows that he Sidelined Fundamentalist Ultra-Orthodox and, read his lips: “No new taxes”

A lot of attention is focused on Naftali Bennett, the new prime minister of Israel. But it should be remembered that he had been a bit player, and his 7 coalition allies are often headed by much more prominent and powerful figures who are in the coalition precisely in order to carry out their own agendas.

Source: Israel’s New Secular Government: Lieberman Crows that he Sidelined Fundamentalist Ultra-Orthodox and, read his lips: “No new taxes”

The transformative legacy of Mr. Status Quo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a conference organized by the Jewish Agency at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, October 25, 2009. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Early during Netanyahu’s term as prime minister, I argued that his rise signified a strategic choice by Israelis to maintain the so-called “status quo” of control over millions of Palestinians. Almost everything that has happened since has reaffirmed this observation — or more accurately, everything that didn’t happen. The blockade of Gaza was never lifted; the Palestinian Authority remained a subcontractor for Israel in the occupied West Bank rather than a state in the making; settlement activities continued without Israel formally annexing any occupied territory; and the Knesset adopted the Jewish Nation-State Law, designed to prevent challenges to the state’s character by its Palestinian citizens while entrenching the superior status of the Jewish majority.

Source: The transformative legacy of Mr. Status Quo

Palestinian hopes paralysed under new Israeli government

Israel’s new patchwork coalition doesn’t hold much promise for Palestinians, who are fighting for self-determination, writes Dr Ibrahim Natil.

Source: Palestinian hopes paralysed under new Israeli government

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu out after 12 years in office

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s record 12 years in office has come to an end, as the country’s parliament narrowly approved a new coalition government. Naftali Bennett, the head of a small ultra-nationalist party, was sworn in as prime minister on Monday (Australian time) after 60-59 vote in parliament. Mr Netanyahu immediately declared to stay on to fight the new government, and then took to Twitter to tell supporters “do not let your spirit fall. We’ll be back – and faster than you think”.

Source: Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu out after 12 years in office

Like an Arab Dictator faced with Massive Protests, Israel’s Netanyahu offers to Resign if his Likud Party can remain in ruling coalition

Netanyahu sent people from his circle to talk to people in the circle of Benny Gantz, leader of the center-right Blue and White Party, offering to resign “today” as prime minister in favor of Gantz if only the latter would defect from the Change coalition and join his far right likud-led government.

Source: Like an Arab Dictator faced with Massive Protests, Israel’s Netanyahu offers to Resign if his Likud Party can remain in ruling coalition

Israeli Security Forces won’t Vaccinate Occupied Palestinians, Ban Palestinian Health Worker Committees that Do

Israeli forces invaded the headquarters in Ramallah of the Palestinian Health Worker Committees. They stole the computers and memory drives in the office and banned the organization for six months. The HWC has been a key actor in the Palestinian response to the coronavirus pandemic, which is still ongoing in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. Its workers have helped get the word out about the dangers of the virus, have told the public how to avoid it through social distancing and masking, and the HWC hospitals and clinics have treated victims, even sending out mobile clinics to remote communities. Despite being the Occupying power with responsibilities for the health of the occupied population, Israel has refused to vaccinate the Palestinian population, and its attacks on the Palestinian economy have left the Palestine Authority, which only has influence in 40 percent of the West Bank, unable to afford expensive Western vaccines. Only about 6.5 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have had at least one shot, whereas over 80 percent of Israelis are vaccinated.

Source: Israeli Security Forces won’t Vaccinate Occupied Palestinians, Ban Palestinian Health Worker Committees that Do

Another Tinderbox: 1,500 Palestinians in Silwan, East Jerusalem, under threat of Expulsion from Homes by Israeli Authorities

Al-Watan reports that the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality on Tuesday issued a letter to 13 families in Silwan near the Old City of Jerusalem giving them 21 days to get their families and possession out of their homes, after which the homes would be demolished. The homes were built on land owned by the Palestinian residents, but Israel had refused to issue them building permits, so from the point of view of Israeli officials, the buildings were erected illegally. This is typical of the mind games the Israeli government plays with the 370,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem (pop. 900,000). Actually it is Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and part of the West Bank that is illegal in international law.

Source: Another Tinderbox: 1,500 Palestinians in Silwan, East Jerusalem, under threat of Expulsion from Homes by Israeli Authorities

Video: How Israel bombed Gaza’s economy | The Electronic Intifada

Source: Video: How Israel bombed Gaza’s economy | The Electronic Intifada

Netanyahu’s Poison Pill: Militant Squatter-Settler March through Palestinian E Jerusalem set for Tuesday after New Israeli Gov’t is Installed

At the insistence of outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli cabinet authorized the so-called “Flag Day” march of militant Israeli squatter-settlers through Palestinian East Jerusalem for next Tuesday. So reports Mahmoud Mujadala at the Arab 48 Israeli newspaper. Netanyahu denied charges that his fixation with humiliating Palestinians with this march through their neighborhood was intended to cause a social explosion and forestall the formation of a new government, which will be voted on this Sunday, and which will end his 12-year run as prime minister. However, it seems likely that he is hoping that the ensuing tensions with Palestinians and with Israelis of Palestinian heritage (20% of the population of Israel proper) will damage the incoming government.

Source: Netanyahu’s Poison Pill: Militant Squatter-Settler March through Palestinian E Jerusalem set for Tuesday after New Israeli Gov’t is Installed

Settlers shot Palestinian and mutilated his body as he lay dying

Ismail Tubasi (Courtesy of the Tubasi family)

According to two witnesses, settlers shot Tubasi after they began setting fire to Palestinian-owned fields and trees in al-Rihiya. The eyewitnesses said Tubasi and other Palestinians had headed to the fields to try and put out the flames. There, settlers armed with guns, axes, and batons began chasing him, after which the witnesses heard a number of gunshots. Get Our Weekly Newsletter One of the witnesses, Tubasi’s nephew, said that he saw his uncle laying on the ground after being hit by a bullet, yet did not see any wounds on his face. The nephew then fled the scene out of fear that the settlers, who were approaching the wounded Tubasi, would come after him next. When Tubasi was evacuated to a hospital half an hour later, however, his face was bloodied by fresh and deep wounds, which were not there when he was shot. According to the testimony, Tubasi was allegedly attacked by a sharp object while incapacitated.

Source: Settlers shot Palestinian and mutilated his body as he lay dying

Capitol Insurrection in Jerusalem? Netanyahu Calls New Government a “Fraud,” calls for Massive Squatter Protests

The Jerusalem Post reports that Avigdor Lieberman of the “Israel Our Home Party,” who is part of the “Change” coalition, asserted last week that he anticipates that what “everyone saw happen in the Capitol in Washington to happen” in Jerusalem.

Source: Capitol Insurrection in Jerusalem? Netanyahu Calls New Government a “Fraud,” calls for Massive Squatter Protests

Israel, ‘Only Mideast Democracy,’ Criminalizes Journalism, arrests Al Jazeera Reporter for Covering E. Jerusalem; What is being Covered Up?

The Israeli police took another step toward criminalizing journalism on Saturday when they arrested al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent Givara al-Budeiri while she was covering a demonstration in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem marking the anniversary of the Naksa, the Setback. That term is how Palestinians refer to the 1967 Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories. She was clearly wearing a vest marked “Press” when Israeli police assaulted her, shoved her against a wall, kicked her, packed her into a squad car and kicked her some more, then jailed her for seven hours. She complained of pain in her right side.

Source: Israel, ‘Only Mideast Democracy,’ Criminalizes Journalism, arrests Al Jazeera Reporter for Covering E. Jerusalem; What is being Covered Up?

Israel’s Detention of Journalist, Palestinian Activists in Sheikh Jarrah Draws Global Condemnation | Common Dreams News

Sheikh Jarrah

“Israel is on a rampage in Sheikh Jarrah, detaining journalists and prominent Palestinians… all because they won’t shut up about being ethnically cleansed from their homes.”

Source: Israel’s Detention of Journalist, Palestinian Activists in Sheikh Jarrah Draws Global Condemnation | Common Dreams News

Israelis Actively Plotted “indefinite” Occupation of Gaza, West Bank, back in 1960s– the 6 Day War was just a Pretext

Adam Raz, an Israeli researcher at the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, has published in Haaretz about historical documents he found in Israeli archives that blow a hole through the used car narrative so big you could drive a truck through it. The story begins with the 20 percent of the Israeli population after 1948 that was of Palestinian heritage, typically called in the Hebrew press “Israeli Arabs” (terminology that tended to disguise their Palestinian identity, since Zionists have spent a lot of time denying there are any Palestinians, sort of the way Trumpies maintain that Biden is not actually in the White House).

Source: Israelis Actively Plotted “indefinite” Occupation of Gaza, West Bank, back in 1960s– the 6 Day War was just a Pretext

Four Things to Know About Israel’s New ‘Change Coalition’

4. Even if it wins and manages to hold onto power, the “change coalition” will not bring significant improvement in the lives or rights of Palestinians.

Source: Four Things to Know About Israel’s New ‘Change Coalition’

Israel’s Netanyahu pledges to destroy President Biden’s Iran, Settlements Policies if he Can Survive

Outgoing Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu lost his chance to form a government as the deadline ran out on Thursday, but he swung into action in an attempt to stop his rivals from forming one, either. A successful prime minister would have to be able pass a confidence vote in the Israeli parliament or Knesset, requiring a simple majority of 61 yes votes in the 120-member body. Netanyahu’s rivals, the right wing extremist Naftali Bennett of the Yamina Party and the centrist Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid (There is a Future) Party, have lined up exactly 61 votes. The slimness of this majority, however, makes them vulnerable. Netanyahu called on right wing members of the coalition not to vote for it and instead to join him.

Source: Israel’s Netanyahu pledges to destroy President Biden’s Iran, Settlements Policies if he Can Survive

Top Ways Israel’s Netanyahu Torpedoed Mideast Peace and Harmed Israel and America

Ironically, that coalition only reached a majority in parliament by accepting for the first time as a silent partner a small Palestinian-Israeli party that is the equivalent of the Muslim Brotherhood. Netanyahu had regularly run against Israelis of Palestinian heritage as terrorists and disloyal, playing fear politics there the way the odious Trump did in the U.S. Netanyahu denounced the move as a fraud, again, imitating Trump.

Source: Top Ways Israel’s Netanyahu Torpedoed Mideast Peace and Harmed Israel and America

Was Mark Ruffalo wrong to accuse Israel of Genocide?

So, is it bigoted to say that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians? No. Is it inaccurate? That is harder to say.

Source: Was Mark Ruffalo wrong to accuse Israel of Genocide?

Netanyahu Opponents Reach Coalition Deal To Oust Israeli Prime Minister | HuffPost

Under the agreement, Lapid and Bennett will split the job of prime minister in a rotation. Bennett will serve the first two years, while Lapid is to serve the final two years. The historic deal also includes a small Islamist party, the United Arab List, which would make it the first Arab party ever to be part of a governing coalition. The agreement still needs to be approved by the Knesset, or parliament, in a vote that is expected to take place early next week. If it goes through, Lapid and a diverse array of partners that span the Israeli political spectrum will end the record-setting 12-year rule of Netanyahu.

Source: Netanyahu Opponents Reach Coalition Deal To Oust Israeli Prime Minister | HuffPost

The Big Con | The Smirking Chimp

Because Palestinians resisted having their lands and homes stolen by Israelis, its Zionist government inflicted yet another in their series of murderous assaults on that captive, victim people. This barbarity it pretends to justify on grounds of “self defense”.

Source: The Big Con | The Smirking Chimp