Category: Israel

What can Palestinians expect from the ICC? | ICC | Al Jazeera

The Dome of the Rock is seen in the background as a Palestinian woman prays on the second Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Jerusalem's Old City, May 25, 2018 [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

What can Palestinians expect from the ICC? | ICC | Al Jazeera

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How Israeli banks finance theft of Palestinian land | The Electronic Intifada

Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, “businesses are expected to undertake human rights due diligence to identify and mitigate contributions to human rights violations of not only their own activities but also activities to which they are directly linked by their business relationships,” Human Rights Watch notes.

“None of the seven Israeli banks contacted responded to questions regarding any steps they have taken to implement” the UN Guiding Principles, according to Human Rights Watch.

But there is no way to limit the harm that comes from doing any business related to Israel’s colonies.

“Settlements inherently contribute to serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” Human Rights Watch states. “Companies, including banks, that conduct business in or with settlements cannot mitigate or avoid contributing to these abuses, because the activities they conduct take place on unlawfully seized land, under conditions of discrimination, and through a serious violation of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power.”

The group urges banks to completely “cease doing business in or with Israeli settlements” because “in Human Rights Watch’s view, these activities inherently contribute to serious abuses.”

This report builds on one Human Rights Watch published last September debunking claims by Israeli banks that Israeli law requires them to provide services that aid the theft and colonization of Palestinian land.

via How Israeli banks finance theft of Palestinian land | The Electronic Intifada

Israel lobby group spreads hoaxes to whitewash Gaza massacre | The Electronic Intifada

Israel lobby group spreads hoaxes to whitewash Gaza massacre | The Electronic Intifada

Gaza: Operation Slingshot

By 15 May, more than 3,500 Palestinians had been shot in the legs, compared with 563 in the head and neck (surely an intention to kill). That is a very high casualty count in one part of the anatomy.

‘Medics on the ground say Israeli forces are shooting at demonstrators with a new type of round — never seen before — known as the “butterfly bullet”, which explodes upon impact, pulverising tissue, arteries and bone, while causing severe internal injuries.’

Given this, why has Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop failed to censure Israel in the United Nations? Why can’t she show a tiny fraction of the courage of the Palestinians under fire during the Great March of Return?

Meanwhile, Britain’s Labour Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry told the House of Commons:

“And if we are in any doubt, Mr Speaker, about the lethal incident of Israeli snipers working on the border, I’m afraid we only have to look at the  wounds suffered by their victims.”

via Gaza: Operation Slingshot

Jews News, a site that pushes fake news, is run by a man who defended the KKK following the Charlottesville protest

The site, called Jews News, was founded and is run by a man named Eliyokim Cohen, who grew up in Boston, MA, before moving to Israel. In a 2017 interview, he claimed that his site is “an aggregator” of “conservative news” that takes “snippets of articles from all over the world” to “inundate people’s [Facebook] walls with the truth” and to give those linked sites “free traffic,” adding that the media are “about as unreliable as you can get now.” The site has a large following on Facebook, with nearly 1.5 million followers, and calls itself “the world’s largest and most active Jewish Facebook page.”

 

via Jews News, a site that pushes fake news, is run by a man who defended the KKK following the Charlottesville protest

When does propaganda go too far? | +972 Magazine

A still frame from the IDF Spokesperson's video.

In a statement issued by the Israeli army, as well as in the Hebrew-language captions the IDF put on the video, the Palestinian detainee is referred to as a “terrorist”. In the English version of the video, embedded above, the IDF refers to him simply as a “rioter.”

The army spokesperson refused to say whether the detainee was armed when he was captured or if he showed any intent to commit a violent act. The army refused to answer whether the man, who it described as “trying to infiltrate Israeli territory,” was captured on the Israeli side or on the Gaza side of the separation fence, or, perhaps, while trying to climb the fence.

The army refused to answer where the kite decorated with swastikas came from, and whether it was at all connected to the suspect or if the army just put it behind him as a backdrop for dramatic effect.

The army also refused to answer whether the man depicted in the video was released back to Gaza or brought before an Israeli military judge and imprisoned.

When does propaganda go too far? | +972 Magazine

The persecution of Ezra Nawi | +972 Magazine

Ezra Nawi before entering prison for resisting the demolition of a Palestinian village in the South Hebron Hills, 2010. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

When the Israel Right attack their own Jewish citizens.

On the personal level, the continued abuse has taken a significant mental and physical toll on Nawi, who is 63. Those who knew Nawi before the ordeal know that he is not the same man. The charismatic activist with a sense of humor, who devoted years of his life to defending the most defenseless of Palestinians in the occupied territories, has, since the case against him began, suffered a stroke. His health is in worrying decline. His financial assets, meager to begin with, have dwindled further.

via The persecution of Ezra Nawi | +972 Magazine

Israel’s High Court just made an ICC investigation more likely | +972 Magazine

Palestinian protesters evacuate a fellow demonstrator who was shot by an Israeli sniper during the Great Return March protest, east of Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, April 6, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)

Greg Sheridan of News Corp argued on Q&A that Israel was “highly capable” of investigating itself in any investigation of the massacre of unarmed protesters in Gaza (ODT)

The court’s rejection of a lawsuit challenging the shooting of protesters in Gaza is a reminder that the Israeli legal system simply isn’t set up to investigate the policy makers and policies that result in alleged war crimes.

via Israel’s High Court just made an ICC investigation more likely | +972 Magazine

Why the Youth of Gaza Protest: It is their Squalid Open Air Prison, not Hamas

 

From March 30 to May 15, Israeli security forces killed over 100 Palestinians and wounded more than 10,000, according to the Palestinian health officials. No Israeli soldiers were killed or even seriously injured during this same period.

Palestinians organized the “Great March of Return,” to protest the Israeli military blockade of Gaza. Israeli soldiers control all food, medicine, building supplies, and other goods that enter or exit Gaza. The Israeli military frequently holds up essential goods to pressure Hamas, the ruling party of the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli authorities claimed they were protecting their border from hordes of Palestinians, some armed, intent on crashing through the fence. In reality, no one got though the double fence or the large “no man’s land” buffer zone created by Israel. The soldiers shot civilians to intimidate them—not out of self-defense.

But these tactics backfired. Palestinians won the political battle by gaining renewed sympathy for their struggle around the world.

via Why the Youth of Gaza Protest: It is their Squalid Open Air Prison, not Hamas

The British Jewish community won’t silence our solidarity with Gaza | +972 Magazine

Left-wing Jews hold a protest in solidarity with Gaza, Parliament Square, London, May 16, 2018.

Young British Jews are facing a torrent of hatred from their own community for expressing solidarity with Gaza. And yet, more British Jews are struggling to see the values they hold reflected in the Israeli government.

via The British Jewish community won’t silence our solidarity with Gaza | +972 Magazine

Israel’s Massive PR can’t obscure its Sordid Occupation, dumping of Peace Process

The Israeli attacks on Gaza protesters and the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem last week were also met by a chorus of concerns and criticisms from the Jewish-American community, many of whom identify as “pro-Israel”, including US Senator Bernie Sanders.

Israel quickly deployed its PR efforts to carefully manage its response to the international condemnation.

However, research in international conflict resolution shows how stands by cultural figures like Lorde and Portman can make important contributions to reducing violence and driving peace efforts. Evidence from fields as diverse as terrorism studies, peace building, and international conflict resolution demonstrates that an imbalance of power and associated human rights abuses are major blocks to achieving peace through dialogue.

The ConversationIsrael clearly maintains a significant power imbalance over the Palestinians. By refusing invitations to Israel to be potential PR instruments, these artists are refusing to contribute to this power imbalance that is a such heavy obstacle to peace.

via Israel’s Massive PR can’t obscure its Sordid Occupation, dumping of Peace Process

Video: Israel targets journalists in Gaza | The Electronic Intifada

“The occupation directly targets journalists because it finds that the truth is bitter,” photojournalist Ibrahim Zanoun told The Electronic Intifada. Israeli snipers shot Zanoun in the arm while he was covering the march.

“Those who carry cameras with long-focus lenses are especially targeted,” said photojournalist Abdulrahman al-Kahlout, who was shot in the foot with live ammunition. “So that what’s happening on the ground remains hidden.”

via Video: Israel targets journalists in Gaza | The Electronic Intifada

» PCHR Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (10 – 16 May 2018)– IMEMC News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

» PCHR Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (10 – 16 May 2018)– IMEMC News

PCHR Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (17 – 23 May 2018)

PCHR Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (03 – 09 May 2018)

Health Ministry: “Israeli Army Killed 112 Palestinians, Injured 13190 Since March 30th”

 

 

 

21 May
5:34

Gaza strip: Israeli air strikes target moored boat

“Justice is the cornerstone of peace,” he said. “As such we view this step as advancing the prospects of peace.”

The United States disagreed.

“We have made clear that we oppose actions against Israel at the ICC as counterproductive to the cause of peace,” said Edgar Vasquez, spokesman for the US State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

via Gaza strip: Israeli air strikes target moored boat

Palestine takes Israel to Int’l Criminal Court at Hague over Gaza Massacre

 

Palestine has submitted a formal referral to the International Criminal Court in the Hague over Israeli sniping with live fire at peaceful Gaza protesters this spring, which killed some 60 persons and literally wounded thousands.

Palestine, which is a cautious and timid government, had earlier declined to go to the ICC, in hopes instead of reaching a negotiated settlement. The Trump decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, however, forestalled a negotiated settlement on that issue. Israel’s illegal flooding of its citizens onto Palestinian property in the West Bank and refusal to negotiate any freeze in squatter settlements has also convinced Palestine that the US-Israeli “peace process” is a cover for slow genocide. Ironically, it was Trump’s lack of diplomatic grace that in large part impelled this step.

via Palestine takes Israel to Int’l Criminal Court at Hague over Gaza Massacre

Australia’s Shameful Complicity With Israeli Atrocities, And The Media’s Determination To Cover It Up – New Matilda

Move along, nothing to see here… except for more than 100 unarmed protestors shot dead by Israeli snipers and thousands more injured Palestinians, including over 700 children. Michael Brull reviews Australia’s political and media response to Israel’s latest atrocity.

via Australia’s Shameful Complicity With Israeli Atrocities, And The Media’s Determination To Cover It Up – New Matilda

U.S. Embassy opening: A who’s who of the Israeli arms trade | +972 Magazine

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the official opening ceremony of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Only around 30 countries took part in the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem last week. Not coincidentally, Israel’s ties with most of them are based on arms sales used to carry out gross human rights violations.

via U.S. Embassy opening: A who’s who of the Israeli arms trade | +972 Magazine

Israel turns 70 as Palestine bleeds and grieves

While Palestinians were being slaughtered, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was declaring this a most glorious day.

via Israel turns 70 as Palestine bleeds and grieves

Israelis are doing to Palestinians what Nazis did to Jews during WWII – Erdogan — RT World News

Israelis are doing to Palestinians what Nazis did to Jews during WWII – Erdogan

Israeli actions in Gaza are similar to those perpetrated against Jewish people during Nazi persecution, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Days earlier, he called Israel a “terrorist” and “apartheid” state.

“There is no difference between the atrocity faced by the Jewish people in Europe 75 years ago and the brutality that our Gaza brothers are subjected to,” Turkish President Erdogan said on Friday, as cited by AFP.

READ MORE: Turkey vows to bring Israel to ICC over Gaza carnage, Tel Aviv says Ankara will be there first

“The children of those being subject to all sorts of torture in concentration camps during World War II are now attacking Palestinians with methods that would put Nazis to shame,” Erdogan reiterated.

via Israelis are doing to Palestinians what Nazis did to Jews during WWII – Erdogan — RT World News

Counting the hidden cost of Israel’s freedom after 70 years

The Palestinian story of 1948 is an untold history in Israel. By erasing the Palestinian narrative, we have written history to suit our needs – this is not unique to Israel, but a facet of every colonising state.

Indeed, in Australia, we are still coming to terms with the suffering inflicted on our First Nations. In May we hold Sorry Day, when Australia remembers its mistreatment of the country’s Indigenous peoples. National Sorry Day dates back only to 1998 – centuries after the first fleets. Granted, some might take issue with this comparison and argue that Jews are indigenous to Israel, but I think that the answer isn’t so simple – both Jews and Palestinians have equal right to sovereignty in their homeland.

I don’t remember the second time I heard about the Nakba, but I can see its traces every day.

I see it when my friends are separated from their families and arbitrarily denied movement on their own land.

I see it when soldiers enter private homes in the middle of the night just because they can, terrorising children.

I see it when hundreds of Palestinians – many of them minors – are held in custody for years without trial.

via Counting the hidden cost of Israel’s freedom after 70 years

How do Israeli journalists report on a place they can’t reach? | +972 Magazine

For the past 11 years, Israeli journalists have been forbidden from entering Gaza. This has affected not only their reporting, but also the way fellow Israelis understand what is happening there.

via How do Israeli journalists report on a place they can’t reach? | +972 Magazine

Gaza is Israel’s Soweto | Al Nakba | Al Jazeera

Palestinian demonstrators are seen during a protest marking the 70th anniversary of Nakba in the southern Gaza Strip May 15, 2018 [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

Police or soldiers fire live ammunition at unarmed protesters demanding equal rights, killing or seriously injuring many: Sharpeville, South Africa, 21 March 1960; Soweto, South Africa, 16 June 1976; Gaza, Israeli-controlled Palestinian Territory, 14 May 2018.

Similar violence, similar system?

via Gaza is Israel’s Soweto | Al Nakba | Al Jazeera

UN rights chief backs calls for inquiry over Gaza killings | News | Al Jazeera

 

The largest demonstrations coincided with the move of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem on Monday, which saw Israeli forces kill at least 60 Palestinians [AFP]

The UN human rights chief has slammed Israel’s deadly reaction to protests along the Gaza border as “wholly disproportionate”, backing calls for an international investigation.

Opening a special session of the UN Human Rights Council that could set up a commission of inquiry into recent Israeli violence that has resulted in deaths of more than 100 Palestinians in six weeks, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned that “killing resulting from the unlawful use of force by an occupying power may also constitute wilful killings, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

He went on to say that Israel has systematically deprived Palestinians of their human rights, with 1.9 million in Gaza “caged in a toxic slum from birth to death”.

via UN rights chief backs calls for inquiry over Gaza killings | News | Al Jazeera

Passive media whitewash Israel’s massacre in Gaza | The Electronic Intifada

As Israel slaughtered dozens of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza this week, prominent media outlets employed innocuous headlines to obscure the horrific reality.

In the video above, RT correspondent Anya Parampil points to some examples of what she calls “an almost across the board obfuscation of Israel’s responsibility for the violence.”

A BBC headline read for instance, “Gaza’s deadliest day of violence in years,” while The Guardian ran with “Fatal clashes in Gaza after opening of US embassy.”

The word “clashes,” Parampil observes, “would lead you to believe there are casualties or injuries on the Israeli side.”

In fact after seven weeks in which Israel has killed some 100 Palestinians and injured 12,600 others, Israel has reported one minor injury to a soldier.

via Passive media whitewash Israel’s massacre in Gaza | The Electronic Intifada

What Palestinians?

As soon as the state of Israel was officially born in 1948, the Israelis drove three-quarters of the Palestinians (over 750,000 people) out of Palestine, leaving them to fester in ghastly refugee camps until this day.

In 1967, Israel beat the Palestinians in a rather nasty war that resulted in Israel expanding its territory to cover 78% of Palestine, leaving the Palestinians with 22% (the West Bank and Gaza).

Ever since 1967 right up to the present day, Israel has never ceased grabbing more and more of the choice bits of the West Bank of Palestine for its “settlers,” until only about 40% of the West Bank remains to the Palestinians. In very round numbers this means that the Palestinians’ 22% of their former homeland is now reduced to only 40% of that 22%, i.e. 8.8%. (Some “Two-State Solution” someone will have to dream up with one of these states having 91.2% of the former Palestine and the other 8.8%). And even this measly bit of Palestine being chopped up into tiny isolated fragments of the worst land in the West Bank, where the Palestinians are barely surviving in some of the most appalling conditions anywhere on the planet.

via What Palestinians?

The architects behind the ethnic cleansing of Palestine- Slide show

 

via The architects behind the ethnic cleansing of Palestine

Time’s Up for Israel’s Impunity

Could cracks finally be appearing in the armor of Israel’s impunity? For decades, American shade excused Israel’s criminal behavior: its theft of lands by hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers; its imprisonment of thousands of young men and children without charge; its military occupation without end; its ongoing siege of Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison. Even during the 2014 Gaza War, in which Israeli explosive power outnumbered that of Hamas by 1,500 to 1 and American-made Israeli rockets and bombs killed more than 500 children (compared with one Israeli child killed by a Hamas rocket), American politicians and punditry convinced the masses that “Israel has a right to defend itself.”

But now, before the images of thousands of defenseless Gazans being shot down by one of the world’s most powerful armies, the impunity may be crumbling. Perhaps it is the sickening juxtaposition itself—the raw imagery of carnage alongside the imperious celebrations of the callous elite—that is finally too graphic to ignore.

via Time’s Up for Israel’s Impunity

Israeli army shoots dead dozens in Gaza in bloodiest day since 2014 | +972 Magazine

Palestinians hold a funeral for a Palestinian shot dead by Israeli snipers during the 'Great Return March' protest on the Gaza border, May 14, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)

Israeli military kills over 50 Palestinians and wounds more than 12,000 others in Gaza. Palestinians and Israelis across the West Bank protest in solidarity with Gaza and against the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem.

via Israeli army shoots dead dozens in Gaza in bloodiest day since 2014 | +972 Magazine

A grotesque spectacle and a Trump Square in Jerusalem

The event was grotesque. It was a consummation of the cynical alliance between hawkish Jews and Zionist evangelicals who believe that the return of Jews to Israel will usher in the apocalypse and the return of Christ, after which Jews who don’t convert will burn forever.

Religions like “Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism” lead people “to an eternity of separation from God in Hell,” Robert Jeffress, a Dallas megachurch pastor, once said. He was chosen to give the opening prayer at the embassy ceremony. John Hagee, one of America’s most prominent end-times preachers, once said that Hitler was sent by God to drive the Jews to their ancestral homeland. He gave the closing benediction.

This spectacle, geared toward Donald Trump’s Christian American base, coincided with a massacre about 80 kilometres away. Since March 30, there have been mass protests at the fence separating Gaza and Israel. Gazans, facing an escalating humanitarian crisis due in large part to an Israeli blockade, are demanding the right to return to homes in Israel that their families were forced from at Israeli’s founding. The demonstrators have been mostly but not entirely peaceful; Gazans have thrown rocks at Israeli soldiers and tried to fly flaming kites into Israel. The Israeli military has responded with live gunfire as well as rubber bullets and tear gas. In clashes Monday, dozens of Palestinians were killed and thousands wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

via A grotesque spectacle and a Trump Square in Jerusalem

Deadly Gaza protests cloud Israel’s US embassy opening in Jerusalem

Palestinian Health Ministry officials said 55 protesters were killed and 2700 injured either by live gunfire, tear gas or other means.

Gaza City, Gaza Strip: In a jarring contrast, Israeli forces shot and killed at least 55 Palestinians and wounded more than 1200 during mass protests Monday along the Gaza border, while just a few kilometres away Israel and the US held a festive inauguration ceremony for the new American Embassy in contested Jerusalem.

Deadly Gaza protests cloud Israel’s US embassy opening in Jerusalem

The future of the Nakba | The Electronic Intifada

the Nakba’s most salient features are the theft of Palestinian land and the expulsion of the Palestinians from their land, and subjecting the lands that could not be stolen and the people who could not be expelled to systematic control and oppression, then, and as I argued a decade ago, it would be most inaccurate to consider the Nakba as a discrete event that refers to the war of 1948 and its immediate aftermath. Rather, it should be historicized as a process which spanned the last 140 years, beginning with the arrival of the first Zionist conquerors to colonize the land in the early 1880s.

via The future of the Nakba | The Electronic Intifada

Still refugees, wherever we are | The Electronic Intifada

 

 

I grew up with snippets of my family history told in short, evocative sentences.

“We had the largest field of figs in the village,” or, “Your grandfather loved horses and he used to own several.”

Most heard, however, was: “We lost everything during the Nakba.”

via Still refugees, wherever we are | The Electronic Intifada

The Half-Millennium When Rome excluded Jews from Jerusalem and how Iran and Muslims Saved Them

 

But even the UNGA partition did not award Jerusalem to the 500,000 European Zionist settlers brought into Palestine by the British colonial authorities as part of their long-term plan to divide and rule the Middle East. (In 1799 General Bonaparte invaded Ottoman Palestine and only found about 3,000 Jews there. After the Crusades, there is no evidence for a significant Jewish presence there for some 800 years).

The 1948 war that broke out as the British began leaving ended with the Jewish forces in control of West Jerusalem. Jordan had the eastern part of the city, religiously significant for both Jews and Muslims. Israel launched the 1967 war of conquest in a bid to add the West Bank of the Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Syrian Golan Heights to Israeli territory (yes, Israel fired the first shot in that war, taking advantage of unrealistic bombast from Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, whose best troops were tied down in the Yemen War). The scheme succeeded wildly, giving the expansionist hawks more territory and all of Jerusalem but also making Israel an Apartheid binational state with a Palestinian Bantustan under the Israeli jackboot in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israelis illegally detached part of the West Bank and added it to their province of Jerusalem. They have ever since been using a combination of force, squatter settlement construction, and shyster legal ploys to kick Palestinians out of East Jerusalem.

via The Half-Millennium When Rome excluded Jews from Jerusalem and how Iran and Muslims Saved Them

We are all accomplices to Israel’s massacre in Gaza | +972 Magazine

A wounded Palestinian is brought into al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after being shot by Israeli snipers during a protest on the Gaza-Israel border, May 14, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)

Since March 30, when the Gaza protests began, 101 Palestinians have been killed and well over 10,000 wounded, many maimed for life. Not a single Israeli injury and not a single rocket fired at Israel, even as Israel has bombed Gaza several times in recent weeks.

via We are all accomplices to Israel’s massacre in Gaza | +972 Magazine

Who is the Vassal? Israel, the US and Iran

If you are living in Israel, these days, you get the impression that the huge State of Israel is dictating to its American vassal what to do about Iran.

President Donald Trump listens and complies. Bibi the Great tells him to tear up the Iranian deal for no obvious reason, and he obeys. He has no choice, poor man

via Who is the Vassal? Israel, the US and Iran

For Palestinians, US embassy move cements occupation status quo | Israel News | Al Jazeera

Israeli forces heavily restricted Palestinians' access to Jerusalem's Old City [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

Occupied East Jerusalem – Tens of thousands of Jewish settlers, surrounded by police protection, have marched around the Old City, celebrating Jerusalem Day on the eve of the US embassy move from Tel Aviv.

The annual event, which commemorates the Israeli annexation of occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, is regarded by the city’s Palestinian population as a deliberate provocation.

Past events have seen Palestinian-owned stores smashed up and Palestinian counter-protests being viciously suppressed by Israeli police.

via For Palestinians, US embassy move cements occupation status quo | Israel News | Al Jazeera

Trump, Iran and the ‘I.S.R.A.E.L’ doctrine | USA | Al Jazeera

US President Donald Trump announces his intention to withdraw from the JCPOA agreement during a statement at the White House in Washington, US May 8, 2018 [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

“Obama might’ve embraced the so-called offshore balancing between Middle East powers with the US watching from a distance, but the Trump doctrine is leading to offshore blasting that could draw the US into direct confrontation with Iran.”

 The real reasons behind Trump withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and its implications for the greater Middle East.

via Trump, Iran and the ‘I.S.R.A.E.L’ doctrine | USA | Al Jazeera

Gaza protests: All the latest updates | Palestine News | Al Jazeera

UN rights chief decries Israel’s excessive use of force in Gaza

Since the protests began on March 30, Israeli forces have killed at least 49 Palestinians in the coastal enclave and wounded more than 8,500.

Marchers are demanding the right to return to their homes seized by Israel in 1948.

Here are all the latest updates as of Saturday, May 12:

 

via Gaza protests: All the latest updates | Palestine News | Al Jazeera

Israel amassing its forces ahead of Nakba protests | The Electronic Intifada

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian protester and injured hundreds more during the seventh consecutive Friday of the Great March of Return demonstrations along Gaza’s eastern perimeter.

Jaber Salem Abu Mustafa, 38, died after he was shot in the chest east of Khan Younis. Forty-one Palestinians have been fatally injured during the protests that were launched on 30 March.

During that same period, Israeli forces killed 13 additional Palestinians in Gaza who were not participating in the protests when they were fatally wounded.

Nearly 200 people were injured by live fire on Friday. Ten persons were said to be critically wounded.

Three medics and six journalists were also reported injured.

Reporter Motasem Ahmed Dalloul was hit by live fire to the stomach, the Committee to Protect Journalists

via Israel amassing its forces ahead of Nakba protests | The Electronic Intifada

IDF updates old anti-Semitic trope – now the Iranians are evil puppet masters? — RT World News

If the Jewish state’s military actually meant that the sneaky Persians are secretly controlling people’s lives, it would only be right to ask how they managed to come up with such an airtight world view. A quick internet search may reveal their initial inspiration:

 

The IDF’s attempt at memes comes as Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on Syria to “throw out” the Iranian forces helping Damascus in the fight against Islamist militants.

“Throw the Iranians, Qassem Soleimani and the Quds forces out of your country! They are not acting in your interest, they are only hurting you. Their whole presence only brings problems and destruction,” Lieberman said during a Friday visit to the occupied Golan Heights, the site of the alleged Iranian May 8 missile attack. He failed to mention that the Israeli strikes are actually responsible for some of the “problems and destruction” faced by Syria.

While the IDF seems to be deeply concerned that Tehran has usurped Syria’s sovereignty, Syria’s own president said this week that Iran, along with Russia, was one of the few nations that actually respected Syria’s territorial integrity.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!

via IDF updates old anti-Semitic trope – now the Iranians are evil puppet masters? — RT World News

The Dark Side of Israeli Independence

On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence. Each May 15, Palestinians solemnly commemorate Nakba Day. Nakba means catastrophe, and that’s precisely what Israel’s independence has been for the more than 700,000 Arabs and their five million refugee descendants forced from their homes and into exile, often by horrific violence, to make way for the Jewish state.

via The Dark Side of Israeli Independence

Largest Israeli raids on Syria in Years hit ‘Iranian’ Targets after Rocket Fire

Those illegally occupied territories are ours says ISRAEL loudly for domestic  politipopularity (ODT)

Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

via Largest Israeli raids on Syria in Years hit ‘Iranian’ Targets after Rocket Fire

At 70, as Apartheid Sets in, Israel faces a new Threat: Itself

Arab Israelis, who make up some 17.5 percent of the population and largely sympathise with the Palestinians, have also become more politically active.

Looming over the debate is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

An increasing number of Israeli right-wing politicians openly oppose a two-state solution and talk of wanting to annex most of the West Bank.

There are warnings that will lead to “apartheid” since, under those scenarios, Palestinians would presumably not be granted equal rights.

One of Israel’s leading authors, David Grossman, argued in a recent speech that an “apartheid reality” had already been created through the occupation.

“Israel was established so that the Jewish people, who have nearly never felt at home in the world, would finally have a home,” Grossman said.

“And now, 70 years later, strong Israel may be a fortress, but it is not yet a home.”

via At 70, as Apartheid Sets in, Israel faces a new Threat: Itself

A victim is the suspect at the trial of the soldiers who killed him | +972 Magazine

Samir Awad is evacuated for medical treatment after being shot in the back of the neck by Israeli soldiers, January 13, 2013. (Nader Morar/B’Tselem). Awad later died from his wounds.

Samir Awad was unarmed when he was shot in the back eight times by soldiers. During his killers’ trial, the judge and defense treated the dead boy as if he was the one being charged with a crime.

via A victim is the suspect at the trial of the soldiers who killed him | +972 Magazine

How Britain enabled the ethnic cleansing of Palestine | The Electronic Intifada

Supporters of Israel among Britain’s ruling elite tend to recite mantras about the two nations sharing the same values.

If theft and plunder were regarded as values, the mantras would have a ring of truth to them.

Expecting full honesty and transparency from Theresa May’s government would, however, not be realistic. So it comes as little surprise that one of her cabinet colleagues has wished Israel a happy 70th birthday, while trumpeting its commitment to “justice, compassion, tolerance.”

The greeting – from Gavin Williamson, Britain’s defense secretary – was delivered at a time when unarmed protesters were being massacred in Gaza.

Britain’s ruling elites have never atoned for their role in enabling the 1948 dispossession of Palestinians. Rather, they have prolonged and exacerbated the suffering of Palestinians, while pretending to believe in justice.

via How Britain enabled the ethnic cleansing of Palestine | The Electronic Intifada

Elor Azaria: Israeli soldier who was filmed killing wounded Palestinian is freed | The Independent

16 year old girl Palestinian girl and Poet jailed for firing insults at Israel (ODT)

via Elor Azaria: Israeli soldier who was filmed killing wounded Palestinian is freed | The Independent

Lost in the debate on Iran: Israel’s Nukes and the Vanunu Case

 

“Kudos to @ChrisCuomo for pressing Netanyahu on that little uncomfortable fact that is typically ignored: the only country in the Middle East with a proven, clandestine nuclear weapons stockpile is . . . Israel. And the rogue state refuses to join the NPT.”

While the Trump Administration professes possible progress toward “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” and worries about purported Iranian violation of its anti nuclear deal, virtually no one in government or the media is paying attention to the multiple megaton elephant in the room. That is the Israeli nuclear weapons program, estimated as the 6th largest in the world, after the US, Russia, China, England, and France. As with the US, the development of an aggressive, expanding nuclear program is an expression of and contributes to a repressive and ever more militarized society.

via Lost in the debate on Iran: Israel’s Nukes and the Vanunu Case

The Latest Act in Israel’s Iran Nuclear Disinformation Campaign | The Smirking Chimp

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim in his theatrical 20-minute presentationof an Israeli physical seizure of Iran’s “atomic archive” in Tehran would certainly have been the “great intelligence achievement” he boasted if it had actually happened. But the claim does not hold up under careful scrutiny, and his assertion that Israel now possesses a vast documentary record of a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program is certainly fraudulent.

Netanyahu’s slide show revealed more than just his over-the-top style of persuasion on the subject of Iran. It provided further evidence that the claims that had successfully swayed the U.S. and Israeli allies to join in punishing Iran for having had a nuclear weapons program were based on fabricated documents that originated in the state that had the strongest motive to make that case – Israel.

 

via The Latest Act in Israel’s Iran Nuclear Disinformation Campaign | The Smirking Chimp

Gaza: Where the memory of 6 million Jews goes to die | The Smirking Chimp

Image result for Images of Gaza and the demonstrations

Shame on you, Israel.

These Israeli snipers appear to be deliberately aiming at Palestinians’ elbows and knees. They know that there are very few doctors, hospitals and blood banks left in Gaza. They know that they have just crippled over 4000 Gazans for life. They plan it that way. Creating instant piles of Palestinian corpses just isn’t as much fun.

And yet these same brutal Israeli neo-con villains then have the audacity to tell us that they are committing these vile atrocities in the name of the six million Jews who were murdered by Nazi thugs.

via Gaza: Where the memory of 6 million Jews goes to die | The Smirking Chimp

Israeli army opens fire on Gaza protesters sixth week in a row | +972 Magazine

Smoke billows from the Gaza side of the Gaza-Israel border during the Great Return March demonstrations, May 4, 2018. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Over 7,000 Palestinians took part in Friday’s demonstrations in five different locations along the Gaza-Israel border. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, over 43 protesters were wounded, including three critically, in the clashes with Israeli forces. A total of 45 Palestinians have been killed on the border since the march began.

via Israeli army opens fire on Gaza protesters sixth week in a row | +972 Magazine