Israel uses Palestinian land to illegally dump toxic waste | The Electronic Intifada
Category: Israel
“What we have experienced in South Africa is a fraction of what the Palestinians are experiencing,” Mandela told Royal News English. “We were oppressed in order to serve the white minority. The Palestinians are being eliminated off their land and brought out of their territories, and this is a total human rights violation. I think it is a total disgrace that the world is able to sit back while such atrocities are being carried out by apartheid Israel.”
Israel and US Hide Names of Companies Supporting Israeli Settlements
Israel considers the city its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city’s eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move never recognised internationally.
Trump names Jerusalem as capital, critics brand it a ‘declaration of war’
Children in the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, near the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, attend their first day of school in August 2017. US Senators are urging Israel not to demolish the village.
APA images
Even worse, the senators express concern that the Israeli government’s actions “endanger Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy.” This coded language effectively endorses the common liberal Zionist view that Palestinians are a “demographic threat” who must be corralled into their own bantustan – a Palestinian state in name only – to head off demands for equal civil and political rights with Israeli Jews in a single state.
A “Jewish democracy” by definition excludes and necessitates violating the rights of millions of Palestinians.
Discriminatory laws and policies aimed at ensuring that Israel remains a “Jewish state” have relegated Palestinians within Israel to second-class status and worse for 70 years, and within the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip for the past 50 years.
Imagine a letter from US senators in the era of South African apartheid that raised concerns about the policies of the white-supremacist government, but did not dare to situate these within the unacceptable context of apartheid. This is what the senators did in failing to name the realit US senators cautiously challenge ethnic cleansing by Israel | The Electronic Intifada
Israel conquered most of Jerusalem and its hinterlands in 1967. It then annexed these regions in a quite illegal move. Occupying powers are not allowed to annex occupied territory, by the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions (which were enacted to discourage people from acting like Nazis). The disposition of Jerusalem in the law should depend on final status negotiations between Israel and the state of Palestin Another way Trump will get us Killed: to move US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem | Informed Comment
Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is mostly a symbolic act, aimed at the Israeli public and its supporters in the U.S. (Trump will speak at 8 p.m. Jerusalem time, Israeli prime time, when local politicians usually choose to make special announcements. Somebody must have advised him how to maximize the political effect.) But much about Jerusalem and the peace process was always about symbolism, and this act is a big win for Netanyahu: it will remove one of the only incentives Israel ever had to negotiate with the Palestinians. The Trump administration will therefore be undermining its own goal of reviving the peace process, which seems more and more like lip service to the Saudis and the Egyptians than a serious effort aimed at reaching an agreement.
via On Jerusalem, Trump is proving that the Israeli right was right all along | +972 Magazine
His biggest campaign contributor, billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, is showing growing impatience with Trump’s slowness in moving the embassy, which would be a provocation to Palestinians who claim Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. For this reason, past presidents have refused to move the embassy on grounds that it would upset potential talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Is Sheldon Adelson behind Trump’s decision on Jerusalem? | +972 Magazine
An Israeli raid on Al-Aqsa compound earlier this year turned violent when hundreds of Palestinian worshippers were beaten, arrested, and marched barefoot through the streets of Jerusalem. Now two young men describe the brutality they faced that night, and the humiliation they encountered while in custody.
via ‘I tried not to scream, I was afraid they’d hit me even harder’ | +972 Magazine
Australian businessman James Packers has confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded gifts for himself and his wife in return for advancing Packer’s business interests, according to the Times of Israel.
Israel Police were said to be pleased with Packer’s testimony, as it further cements the accusations against Netanyahu and his wife that the gifts were not given freely by friends, as the couple have alleged during questioning.
Australian billionaire implicates Israel’s Netanyahu in alleged corruption scandal
The government’s dreadful treatment of one of society’s most vulnerable groups will remain a stain on our collective memory and a mark of disgrace.
The Holot detention facility was a moral failure from day one | +972 Magazine
This is certainly not the first time Israel Hayom has targeted people, and government employees in particular, for being insufficiently Zionist, for being too left-wing, or for being Palestinian. Netanyahu’s confidants as well as his supporters are busy the cleansing civil service of those whose views do not match the prime minister’s. This is especially true for teachers who dare to express opinions seen as left wing, and that do not conform to the idea that militaristic education and violence are morally justifiable. Employees in the Education Ministry are legally allowed to express political opinions. However, as the list of persecuted teachers grows longer, the message is clear: some opinions are legitimate, others aren’t — and you better think twice before writing words like “peace” on your Facebook page.
Israel Hayom’s new target: Conscientious objector’s mother | +972 Magazine
political language is meant for Jews alone. Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the country, are left on the sidelines until the Jews decide who is a real Jew, who is left and who is right, and what the difference between the two actually is.
via Israel’s ‘Jewish values’ will forever leave Palestinians on the sidelines | +972 Magazine
So far this year, the IDF has demolished 349 structures, displacing 542 people and 302 children. Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem warned in August that the expulsions would constitute a war crime.
via Israeli army to evict 300 Palestinians from Jordan Valley | +972 Magazine
Lord Balfour, for one, sharply rejected the Wilsonian approach. “In Palestine,” he declared, “we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country, though the American commission has. [. . .] Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is…of far profounder import than the desire and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”
In the end, Lord Balfour had his way. Instead of independence, boundaries were drawn, dismembering the Arab East and creating British and French spheres of influence over the newly created states of Lebanon and Syria (France) and trans-Jordan and Iraq (Britain) as well as Palestine (also to the British, with the understanding that it would become the “Jewish Homeland”).
And so, the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration is not cause for celebration. Rather it should prompt us to recall the grave injustice that imperial acquisitiveness and racist insensitivity have done to an innocent Arab nation. Their rights and opinions were ignored and as a result the last 100 years have been marked by unceasing conflict and suffering. This is the shame of Balfour.
via The danger of ignoring Arab opinion: 100 years since Balfour | +972 Magazine
Underreported, but well-documented, the Israeli army occupying the Golan Heights uses its field hospitals to treat anti-government fighters involved in the war in Syria – including members of factions linked to al-Qaida.
UK minister Priti Patel secretly urged aid for al-Qaida via Israel | The Electronic Intifada
Damascus (Syria News) Israeli warplanes carried out air strikes, on Monday, on the headquarters of the Syrian army, east of Damascus, sources told Qasioun News.
The sources informed that Israeli warplanes conducted air strikes, targeting anti-warplanes weapons and rockets launchers belonging to the Syrian army near Ramadan army’s headquarters, located 50 kilometers east of Damascus.
Israeli warplanes conduct airstrikes on Syrian army headquarters near Damascus – Iraqi News
The majority of settler attacks committed against Palestinians are met with impunity, with Israelis rarely facing consequences for such attacks.Only 1.9 percent of complaints submitted by Palestinians against Israeli settler attacks result in a conviction,
Source: Israeli settlers attack Palestinians picking olives near Nablus: Caught on Film | Informed Comment
Ofir Averbukh has served more than 150 days in Israeli military prison for his refusal to be conscripted into the army. In the following interview, Ofir explains why he is only going public about his refusal now, and why Israeli youth should view choosing to be conscripted, not just refusing, as a decision of significant moral weight.
Source: After 5 months in jail, it’s time to talk about why I refuse to serve | +972 Magazine
Is it possible to discuss the sources of Israeli disunity without addressing the country’s military regime in the West Bank and siege on Gaza? Can Israelis ever accept Palestinians as part of that conversation? The plight, let alone the very existence of millions of disenfranchised people living under Israeli military rule, was nowhere to be found at the ADL’s first-ever Summit on Social Cohesion in Israel Tuesday. Actually, that’s not entirely correct. [tmwinpost] “We are no longer the occupiers, we have become the occupied,” former Defense Minister and erstwhile Labor Party leader Amir Peretz declared ironically to the hundreds of…
Source: What’s dividing Israeli society? Just don’t mention the occupation | +972 Magazine
Breaking the Silence, an organization made up of former Israeli soldiers that collects and publishes testimonies of IDF transgressions in the occupied territories, called the bill an attempt by Netanyahu to distract the public from numerous corruption investigations that threaten to topple his rule.
Source: In the crosshairs: Israel’s war of attrition on political dissent | +972 Magazine
Pro-Israel mega-donor tweets anti-Semitic image.
Source: Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer says he turns to Israel “for guidance” | The Electronic Intifada
UK will unapologetically celebrate 100 years since the Balfour Declaration — in which it began stealing away the Palestinian homeland.
Source: Nothing learnt: Balfour and Britain’s generosity with other people’s lands
Economic sanctions were lifted but an arms embargo remains. What good is an arms embargo if Washington and Brussels allow their ally Israel, along with world powers like China, to keep selling arms to Burma? By Eitay Mack In light of the atrocities being perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Burma, many in the European Union and in the U.S. have denounced Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, expressing deep disappointment with her conduct. In fact, their denunciations and disappointment should be addressed to themselves. As in other parts of the world, Europe and the U.S. have…
Source: Why do the U.S. and EU still let Israel sell arms to Burma? | +972 Magazine
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit last week on behalf of a Kansas public school teacher who, as a condition for taking her job, was required under a new state law to declare that she would not engage in boycotts of Israel. The law is just one in a growing list of measures in recent years aiming to counter the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the United States.
Source: ‘A legal shield for the Palestine movement in the U.S.’ | +972 Magazine
Man posed no credible threat when he was wounded.
Source: Video: Soldiers shoot Palestinian running across a road | The Electronic Intifada
Austria’s ambassador in Tel Aviv sees nothing wrong with Arab parties being excluded from Israel’s government.As his own country looks set to put neo-Nazis in power in Vienna, this is yet another remarkable demonstration of the racist values shared by European and Israeli elites.Just as in Germany, there are clear indications of ties between Austria’s neo-Nazi far right and Israel’s right wing
Source: Austria’s neo-Nazis find friends in Israel | The Electronic Intifada
The aim — and the result — has been to portray of human and civil rights as subversive ideas being used by foreign, presumably anti-Semitic powers to undermine the State of Israel itself. That last feat is accomplished by conflating the State of Israel with its occupation of the Palestinian territories, and the right-wing ideology that demands its transformation into an immutable reality.
Source: Netanyahu compares human rights groups to Russian election interference | +972 Magazine
Spokesperson of the Israeli occupation army has recently said that the last three years have witnessed an increase in the number of suicide cases among the Israeli soldiers.
Source: » Eight Israeli Soldiers Commit Suicide Within 3 Months– IMEMC News
A statement from Al Jazeera said that the Qatar-based broadcaster feels “vindicated by the rulings and ever more committed to exposing human rights violations by anyone – regardless of geography, religion or the power of their lobbies.”
Source: Vindicated in UK, Al Jazeera to reveal secrets of US Israel lobby | The Electronic Intifada
TeleSur | – – The move would hurt Palestine’s aspirations of statehood. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed legislation …
Source: Israel to uproot 100k Palestinians by Annexing their Land | Informed Comment
Third attackIn the most recent attack, on 20 September, vandals shattered a statue of the Virgin Mary, broke stained glass and destroyed a cross in St. Stephen’s Church in the Beit Jamal Salesian Monastery west of Jerusalem.“I was shocked,” the church’s caretaker Father Antonio Scudu told the Catholic News Service. “I didn’t expect to see something like this. The church is always open. If you see what happened, you feel they did it with hate. They smashed everything.”
Source: Israel doing nothing to stop attacks on churches and mosques | The Electronic Intifada
Israel’s anti-Muslim supporters back far-right Alternative for Germany.
“Israel could be a role model for Germany,” von Storch told The Jerusalem Report. “Israel is a democracy that has a free and pluralistic society. Israel also makes efforts to preserve its unique culture and traditions. The same should be possible for Germany and any other nation.”
Von Storch’s identification with Israel echoes that of US Nazi demagogue Richard Spencer, who has described his vision of an Aryan “ethno-state” as “white Zionism.”
AfD chair Frauke Petry has also expressed support for Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. In February, she told the right-wing Jewish publication Tablet that her only visit to Israel gave her a positive view of the country.
“Suddenly the picture you get is somewhat different than what you got when you live far away,” she said.
These views, again, echo those of Anders Breivik. He was a strong admirer of Zionism, and advocated an alliance with Israel to fight against Muslims and their “culturalMarxists/multiculturalists” supporters.
Source: Germany’s new Nazis see Israel as role model | The Electronic Intifada
The central problem at the heart of Israel’s half-century old military court system is clear: these courts will never reflect the interests of the defendants, but rather that of the regime of occupation. By Sarit Michaeli Israeli occupation apologists masquerading as protectors of Palestinian children in military detention? Few displays of alternative facts should shock us these days, but somehow an upcoming event by the Israeli right-wing group NGO Monitor’s at the UN Palais De Nations in Geneva comes close. Under the Orwellian title “Protecting Children: The realities of Israeli Military Juvenile Justice in a Terror Environment,” the event planned for…
Source: There’s no beautifying Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children | +972 Magazine
– Essentially an offer that says ‘Get Out or We Will Make Your Life a Living Hell, or Worse.’The Platform Provides 3 Choices for Palestinians: Accept Ethnic Cleansing, Bend the Knee to Apartheid or Expect Even More Violence
Source: Israeli Right Wing Faction Announces a Plan for Ethnic Cleansing | Informed Comment
HeidelbergCement tries to present illegal exploitation of land and labor as positive.
Question: Isn’t this what Genie Oil is doing in Syria’s Golan Heights an alleged Rupert Murdoch investment?
Source: German firm whitewashes its plunder of Palestinian resources | The Electronic Intifada
At least 2,600 Bedouins have been made stateless, according to official data.
Source: How Israel robs Palestinians of citizenship | The Electronic Intifada
While Israel proceeds along its merry way, each day building more settlements and demolishing more Palestinian homes, it is far from being the secure and stable dream Netanyahu envisioned. By James J. Zogby For half of the past two decades Benjamin Netanyahu has served as prime minister of Israel. Whatever his ultimate fate (given the ongoing criminal investigations he is currently facing), it is clear that he has had a profound impact on Israel, the Palestinians, and the entire region. [tmwinpost] There are those who have doubted that Netanyahu had any core beliefs, other than the desire to retain power.…
Source: Netanyahu’s Israel is a cauldron waiting for the next explosion | +972 Magazine
Israel has been systematically revoking citizenship from its Bedouin citizens without as much as telling them. Is this a harbinger of things to come? In Israel’s relentless war against its Arab citizens, there are few things that can still leave us surprised. Jack Khoury’s article in Haaretz a few weeks ago, however, did just that. Khoury revealed how the Interior Ministry has been revoking citizenship from hundreds of Bedouin in the Negev. Bedouin citizens would arrive at the Ministry to take care of some bureaucratic procedure — such as to apply for a new passport — and would leave with a new status: a non-citizen…
Source: Is Israel turning its Bedouin citizens into a stateless people? | +972 Magazine
Perhaps the good judges did not review the results of a 2016 public opinion survey, by +972 Magazine’s own Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, which found that only 45 percent of Jewish Israelis had a favorable opinion of “human rights.” Asked specifically about human rights “organizations,” those favorability numbers dropped to 31 percent — a marked deterioration from a similar survey conducted five years earlier.
By approving the decision to deport African asylum seekers to Rwanda and Uganda, Israel has granted legitimacy to two of the most brutal dictators on the continent. By Eitay Mack (translated by Ofer Neiman) The Israeli Supreme Court approved the decision to deport African asylum seekers from Israel. These agreements had previously been made between Israel and states whose identity seemingly remains confidential. But in fact, their identity is known to all: Rwanda and Uganda. The Court’s ruling has given a stamp of approval to two authoritarian regimes and their legal systems, by stipulating that they are capable of upholding the rights of those…
Source: Israel’s top court sanctions support for Africa’s dictators | +972 Magazine
What the hell is going on? The Daily Stormer, an American white supremacist and neo-Nazi website dedicated its homepage banner on Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair. [tmwinpost] The banner shows a photo of a joint-smoking Yair Netanyahu photoshopped on top of the West Bank separation wall, along with a sniper rifle pointed directly at a racist caricature of a Jewish man. The banner was posted just days after the prime minister’s son published an anti-Semitic cartoon on his personal Facebook page Saturday, which he took down a day later following widespread criticism. The cartoon showed Manny Naftali, the former superintendent of the Prime Minister’s…
Source: ‘Daily Stormer’ dedicates banner to Netanyahu’s son | +972 Magazine
Ein al-Beida is one of only a few Palestinian villages in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank that are even connected to the water grid. Photos and text by Ahmad Al-Bazz / Activestills.org Some 50 Palestinians from the northern West Bank village of Ein al-Beida staged a protest last week against an Israeli decision to cut off the water supply to their village for over a week. The protest, which ended with no violence or arrests, was held by mostly local farmers. Mustafa Foqaha, head of the village council, said the amount of water the Israeli water company,…
Source: Israel cuts off water to Palestinian village for a week | +972 Magazine
Young Palestinians are mourning the loss of two young artists from Gaza, a writer and an illustrator, both of whom represent Gaza’s lost generation, trapped by the hopelessness of Israel’s siege. By Qamar Taha Tragic news spread among youth in Gaza last week: Mohanned Younis, a young writer, just 22 years old, took his own life. Younis, who had graduated from a pharmacology program, wrote short stories. Some of his stories won prizes, and one was most recently nominated for the A.M. Qattan Foundation literary prize. He had tried on numerous occasions to leave the Gaza Strip in order to…
Source: Suicide and a lost generation: Gaza youth are dying before they can live | +972 Magazine
Whenever members of the Israeli government make outrageous statements or accusations against the Arab or Palestinian population, they are rarely challenged by the press that broadcasts those allegations into homes. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, recently held a conference on the media’s role in perpetuating incitement against Arabs in the country.
Source: The media’s role in shaping Jewish-Israeli attitudes toward Arabs? | +972 Magazine
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