Ban on sexual violence would dampen military’s spirits, according to a prominent Israeli religious figure.
Source: Rabbi who urged Gaza genocide excused rape by soldiers | The Electronic Intifada
Category: Israel
An Israeli company has developed new technology to help identify terrorists according to their facial characteristics. By Merav Amir An Israeli start-up company recently made international news when it announced a new product that can identify terrorists simply by analyzing facial characteristics. Called Faception, the company offers its product to security agencies worldwide. This is not a purely theoretical initiative; according to its developers, Faception’s technology has already been purchased by several leading global security agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies. [tmwinpost] This initiative rests on a whole list of dubious assumptions concerning human nature and the…
Source: Do I look like a terrorist? The dangers of facial profiling | +972 Magazine
Muhammad Abu Sakha, who teaches children with special needs at a circus school in the West Bank, is released after spending two years in Israeli prison. He was never once charged or brought to trial. By Yael Marom A moment before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Israel decided to release Muhammad Abu Saha, a Palestinian clown and educator, from administrative detention. In the blink of an eye, after two years of imprisonment with no trial, he is no longer a threat. [tmwinpost] Abu Sakha, 26, joined the Palestinian Circus School as a student at age 14. Over the past years…
Source: Israel releases Palestinian clown after two years without trial | +972 Magazine
The everyday violence of Israeli occupation that makes life intolerable.
Source: Video: “Only Jews here. Only Jews.” | The Electronic Intifada
Settlers in Hebron use loudspeaker to disparage Islam and sexually harass a Palestinian woman in the middle of the night. The settlers of Hebron have never been known for their manners. This time, however, it seems that they have sunk to a new low — even by their standards. [tmwinpost] Last Thursday night, settlers from the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba approached the neighborhood of al-Hariqah and used a PA system to curse Islam as well as the local Palestinian population, in both Arabic and Hebrew. A Palestinian volunteer for Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem documented parts of the incident…
Source: WATCH: Settlers sexually harass Palestinian woman, soldiers stand by | +972 Magazine
Netanyahu’s silence in the face of the White House’s anti-Semitism should surprise no one. From Argentina to Rwanda, Israel has a sordid history of providing weapons and support to murderous dictatorships. By Eitay Mack (translated by Ofer Neiman) The Netanyahu government was silent in January when the Trump Administration omitted any reference to Jewish victims from its official statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Netanyahu government was silent in July when Trump chose to be the first U.S. president since the fall of the Communist regime in Poland, to forgo a visit to the monument commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In…
Source: Forget Trump: Israel’s sordid history of supporting dictatorships | +972 Magazine
Hundreds if not thousands of Bedouin are having their citizenship revoked seemingly for no reason, according to ‘Haaretz.’ Shocking as it may be, it’s not surprising. Citizenship has never provided non-Jewish Israelis with the same security it gives their Jewish compatriots. Imagine going to renew your passport or change your official address and after a few minutes of pattering on a keyboard without looking up to see the human being in front of him or her, a government clerk informs you that you are no longer a citizen of the only country you have ever known. The country of your…
Source: Israel is systematically revoking Arabs’ citizenship. Don’t act surprised | +972 Magazine
An interfaith group was stopped from boarding their flight in the US as Israel enforces ban on foreign BDS supporters.
Source: Israel challenges BDS at home and beyond | US & Canada | Al Jazeera
The prominent white supremacist is given a platform on Israel’s top-rated news show, and the host doesn’t once challenge his anti-Semitism or hateful views. By +972 Magazine Staff Israel’s most popular prime-time television news show gave white supremacist Richard Spencer a platform to try and convince Jewish Israelis that White Nationalism is analogous to Zionism, adding that Israelis should relate to him and his ilk. [If the video below doesn’t play, watch here or here] “As an Israeli citizen, as someone who understands your identity, who has a sense of nationhood and peoplehood, and history and the experience of the…
Source: Richard Spencer tells Israelis ‘White Nationalism’ is akin to Zionism | +972 Magazine
I’m no supporter of Sheikh Raed Salah, but as Jewish Israelis we have an enormous responsibility to state loudly and clearly that which our privilege still permits us. That means opposing political persecution when we see it. Two years ago Israel outlawed one of the largest popular associations in the country, the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement. In the days that followed, authorities quickly moved to shut down dozens of affiliated charitable organizations, women’s organizations, media outlets, and educational and childcare programs. Hardly a word of protest was uttered by the Jewish population in Israel. [tmwinpost] Sheikh Raed Salah,…
Source: Why Jewish Israelis should stand with the head of Israel’s Islamic Movement | +972 Magazine
Human rights activists are challenging Israeli blacklists of supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights, or BDS.Lawyer Eitay Mack and several other Israeli activists last week filed a freedom of information petition with the Jerusalem district court demanding that two government departments disclose how they create the blacklists.The lists are used to prevent overseas BDS activists from entering territories controlled by Israel, including the occupied West Bank.The court action comes after a freedom of information request, filed by Mack last month, was rebuffed by the ministries.Astonishingly, they justified the refusal based on the “privacy” of the BDS activists. In an email sent to The Electronic Intifada, Mack called this “a new world record in cynicism and hypocrisy.”
Source: How is Israel compiling its BDS blacklists? | The Electronic Intifada
Progressive American senators are having a hard time explaining their support for a law that would criminalize support for the Palestinian boycott movement, BDS. By James J. Zogby It is fascinating to watch some U.S. senators tripping over themselves as they attempt to defend their support for or opposition to proposed legislation that would make it a federal crime to support the international campaign to Boycott, Divest, or Sanction (BDS) Israel for its continued occupation of Palestinian lands. What ties these officials up in knots are their efforts to square the circle of their “love of Israel,” their opposition to…
Source: Criminalizing support for Palestinian human rights | +972 Magazine
Israeli authorities have promised the courts that the displaced Bedouin residents would have an opportunity to live in the new community. New documents show that is far from the case. Despite assurances made to Israel’s High Court of Justice, a new town being built on the ruins of a Bedouin village in southern Israel is intended for Jews only, according to the bylaws of the future town’s cooperative association. Israel first notified the residents of Umm al-Hiran, Bedouin citizens of Israel, that it plans to demolish their entire village and build another community in its place 15 years ago. A…
Source: Israel is razing a Bedouin village to build a Jewish-only town on its ruins | +972 Magazine
Israel’s minister of strategic affairs is gathering intelligence and compiling blacklists on Israeli citizens who support the boycott movement. By Amnon Portugaly These days Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of public security and strategic affairs, is promoting a new law that would exclude his ministry from governmental oversight. This is a step meant to help fight the BDS movement, while also granting legitimacy to gathering intelligence on Israeli citizens who are involved in the movement to boycott Israel. [tmwinpost] In June, Haaretz reported that the Strategic Affairs Ministry, which Erdan heads, would essentially be shielded from certain provisions in the Freedom of Information…
From outlawing foreign funding for human rights NGOs to reviving the death penalty (for Palestinians), to population transfer and more, Benjamin Netanyahu is going a little wild. It probably isn’t unrelated to the multiple police investigations into him and his friends. Benjamin Netanyahu has a few things in common with Donald Trump. The two men are known to obsess over loyalty, which invariably leads to nepotism and empowering immediate family members. They both are convinced there is constantly some sort of media conspiracy to topple them from their positions of power — and that they deserve that power. And the more…
Source: The craziest things Netanyahu has said this summer, so far | +972 Magazine
John Lyons says he was put under constant pressure when covering the Middle East for the Australian, and so were ABC reporters Sophie McNeill and Peter Cave
Source: Pro-Israel advocates in Australia targeted three journalists, new book claims | Media | The Guardian
Media continue to paint Israel, which occupies millions of Palestinians, as the victim.
Source: New York Times ignores Israeli calls for ethnic cleansing | The Electronic Intifada
Israel’s “right to exist as a Jewish state” is a demand to forever violate Palestinian rights.
Source: New Netanyahu “peace” plan is straight out of apartheid South Africa | The Electronic Intifada
Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Almost one week after dozens of extremist Israeli settlers raided and …
Source: Extremist Israeli Squatters literally kick Palestinians out of Home, Move In | Informed Comment
Netanyahu’s proposal to revoke citizenship from tens of thousands of Arab citizens is yet another calculated move meant to absolve Israel of responsibility for the fate of its native population. By Marzuq Al-Halabi The idea of territorial or population swaps as part of a final-status agreement with the Palestinians is not new. Many have previously propounded it, whether as part of an honest effort at resolving the conflict, or as a way to whitewash population transfer. A new proposal put forth by Prime Minister Netanyahu would transfer the Arab villages of Wadi Ara — adjacent to the northern West Bank — to…
Source: Netanyahu’s new plan: Getting rid of Israel’s Palestinians | +972 Magazine
Protest of measures at al-Aqsa is ongoing, and so is repression against it.
Source: Video: Israel attacks Jerusalem worshippers | The Electronic Intifada
Despite assurances to the contrary, Israel has always been involved in the Syria conflict. Israel’s repeated claims that “it maintains a policy of non-intervention in Syria’s civil war,” only fools US mainstream media.Not only was Israel involved in the war, it also played no role in the aid efforts, nor did it ever extend a helping hand to Syrian refugees.Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have perished in the merciless war; many cities and villages were totally destroyed and millions of Syrians become refugees.While tiny and poor Lebanon has hosted over a million Syrian refugees, every country in the region and many nations around the world have hosted Syrian refugees, as well. Except Israel.
Source: Fear and Trepidation in Tel Aviv: Is Israel Losing the Syrian War?
The Arab League has warned Israel about crossing “a red line” in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the sacred city of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, an Israeli minister said the metal detectors that triggered the violence will remain.
Source: ‘Israel is playing with fire’: Arab League chief warns amid Jerusalem tensions — RT News
Forty-nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and armed civilians so far this year, 13 during the month of July alone. Thirteen Israelis and a British national were killed by Palestinians in 2017.
Source: Six killed as Netanyahu throws match onto Jerusalem powder keg | The Electronic Intifada
A pair of laws currently making their way through the United States Congress would impose criminal sanctions on Americans who support an economic boycott of Israel or its illegal West Bank settlements. The bill follows in the footsteps of, and in some was surpasses the dozens of American states that have passed their own anti-boycott laws in recent years.
Source: America’s BDS law is an attack on far more than free speech | +972 Magazine
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted that Israel carried out dozens of attacks against Hezbollah arms convoys in Syria, oblivious to the fact that his remarks were being picked up by a live mic and relayed to reporters, Haaretz reported.
Source: Mic blunder: Netanyahu ‘admits Israel carried out dozens of strikes on Hezbollah convoys’ — RT News
Leading “defense analyst” Amos Harel is a stooge to an apartheid state.
Source: When Haaretz explains Israel’s crimes | The Electronic Intifada
The Israeli government is pushing a law that would force judges to prioritize Israel’s Jewish character over democratic principles. But that has always been the case. The “Jewish Nation-State Law,” which is currently making its way through the Knesset as a proposed Basic Law – the closest thing Israel has to a constitutional amendment – would require the High Court to prioritize Israel’s Jewish nature over democratic principles in its rulings, according to Haaretz. [tmwinpost] The bill asserts that the justices of the highest court in the land must interpret Israeli law with the understanding that the right to self-determination in Israel…
Source: The redundancy of Israel’s ‘Jewish Nation-State Law’ | +972 Magazine
Some 55 percent of Jewish Israelis would like a review of the longstanding policy that sees Judaism and the state fused to a great extent, a new poll shows. The same percentage of respondents believe the current policy reflects an ultra-Orthodox view.
Source: Over half of Israel’s Jews would prefer lesser role for religion in state – poll — RT News
Israel’s most widely-circulated newspaper outs Ariel Gold, just months after the Knesset passes law to ban entry to anyone who encourages boycotting Israel. By Yael Marom Under the headline “BDS activist tricks authorities, enters Israel against protocol,” Israel Hayom, the country’s most widely-circulated daily newspaper, published an article last Thursday that outed Jewish American activist Ariel Gold over her support for boycotting Israel. The article, written by Shimon Yaish and Yair Altman, provided a golden opportunity to make sure the interior minister was made aware of the situation, after the Knesset passed legislation earlier this year banning foreign nationals who support the boycott of the country from…
Source: ‘Israel Hayom’ outs prominent Jewish American BDS activist | +972 Magazine
Court rejects petition filed by family of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, claiming too much time passed since his murder and the filing of the petition. By +972 Magazine Staff Israel’s High Court of Justice on Tuesday ruled that the families of three Israelis who were convicted of kidnapping and murdering Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian who was burned alive in 2014, won’t have their homes demolished. Israel regularly demolishes the family homes of Palestinians who commit acts of violence against Israelis. [tmwinpost] Supreme Court Vice President Elyakim Rubinstein explained in the judgment that the court was rejecting the petition to demolish the homes…
Source: High Court: Israel won’t demolish homes of Palestinian teen’s killers | +972 Magazine
Since 1967, the Israeli media has hid the ugly, everyday reality in the occupied territories. But even if they really knew, would Israelis still choose to end 50 years of military rule over the Palestinians? By Yizhar Be’er According to the democratic-liberal-utopian model, let us assume for a moment that every citizens has access to all the information about the reality that surrounds us. In this world, Israelis would know everything about what is being done in their names in the territories occupied in 1967. And what would happen then? [tmwinpost] Over the past few months I have been producing a radiophonic project…
Source: The Israeli media has kept us in the dark for 50 years | +972 Magazine
The Dutch government-donated electrification project in the southern Bethlehem region cost about 500,000 euros, 350,00 euros of which went to Jubbet al-Dhib, according to the report.The Dutch Foreign Ministry has requested Israel return the equipment and is “currently assessing what next steps can be taken,” the ministry’s statement to Haaretz said.However, according to Haaretz, “A source close to Dutch diplomats in the West Bank told Haaretz that these softly worded statements cover the anger brewing in the government of the Netherlands, a close friend of Israel’s, at the damage to the humanitarian project.”
Source: Dutch Furious as Israel seizes Solar Panels donated to Palestinians | Informed Comment
Increasingly hawkish rhetoric directed at Hezbollah, along with providing humanitarian aid to Syrian rebels, may lead Israel into a war no one wants. Israel’s interest is a stable Middle East, but it won’t happen without an end to the occupation. By Asher Kaufman At the annual Herzliya Conference last week, the head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Herzi Levi, told the crowd that “Iran, the Assad regime, and Hezbollah — these are the main threats in the region… and a major threat to the State of Israel.” Levi added that “one can clearly see Hezbollah building a military industry with…
Source: Israel inching closer to a war nobody wants | +972 Magazine
The decision by Israel to respond militarily every time there is spillover from fighting between Syria pro-government forces and the terrorists cannot lead to anything good, John Bosnitch, political commentator, told RT.
Source: ‘Israeli attacks on Syrian forces embolden terrorists to draw more fire’ — RT Op-Edge
I grew up believing the Arabs wanted to throw us into the sea. Then I met a Palestinian from Gaza, and started to question everything I was ever taught. By Osnat Ita Skoblinski As a young girl I believed that Arabs were evil. My belief wasn’t based on personal experience — it was just common knowledge. As befits a coastal country, Israelis would often talk about “throwing people into the sea” — either the evil Arabs throwing us into the sea, or us throwing them in first as a preventive measure. [tmwinpost] I spent first grade studying in a bomb shelter because…
Source: I was taught to hate Palestinians — until I met one | +972 Magazine
Israel’s justice minister demanded an investigation of an anti-occupation activist after he admitted to beating a Palestinian during his army service. Now other former soldiers are stepping up to show solidarity. Dozens of Israelis demonstrated outside Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s home in north Tel Aviv Sunday night, after she called to investigate the spokesperson of anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence. [tmwinpost] Breaking the Silence Spokesperson Dean Issacharof was summoned for interrogation last week by Israeli police at the behest of Shaked, over a testimony he gave to the organization in which he admitted to beating a Palestinian man during his service. In response,…
Source: Former soldiers to Israeli gov’t: Investigate us for occupation abuses | +972 Magazine
Group promoting “accountability” paints misleading picture of its work.
Source: Pro-Israel group NGO Monitor teams up with Europe’s far-right | The Electronic Intifada
Sewage has left half of Gaza’s beaches unfit for swimming.
A selection of articles and stories about asylum seekers and refugees in Israel on the occasion of World Refugee Day. (Full disclosure, I couldn’t include just 10) It has been more than a decade since refugees from Darfur first began making the dangerous journey across the Sinai desert in order to seek asylum in Israel. Since those early years, Israeli society and successive Israeli governments have become increasingly hostile toward the asylum seekers from Sudan, Eritrea and elsewhere who sought safety and dignity in the country. On the occasion of World Refugee Day, here is a selection of articles about…
Source: 10 must-read articles for World Refugee Day | +972 Magazine
Some soldiers were disguised as Palestinians, in latest in pattern of harassment at California university.
Source: Israeli soldiers harass students on US campus | The Electronic Intifada
The sins of the 1967 War are still with us. Not only in the continuing crime of the occupation and the new victims it takes, but also in the unanswered questions and the still unaccounted for victims.
Source: What we choose to ignore about the 1967 War | +972 Magazine
The indictment, which was approved by Israel’s attorney general, was the result of a years-long petition demanding the state take action. Israel’s quasi-constitution has no explicit protection of free speech. A extremist Israeli settler rabbi who has published articles and books on the permissibility of killing non-Jews was indicted for incitement to violence on Tuesday, years after penning his most notorious work, “Torat Halmelech.” [tmwinpost] The indictment of Rabbi Yosef Elitzur was the result of a petition filed two years ago by the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), and Tag Meir, demanding that the state take criminal action against him.…
Source: Extremist rabbi indicted for incitement against Palestinians | +972 Magazine
If Israel is not willing to relinquish military control over the West Bank, then it is saying that there can be no two-state solution. Benjamin Netanyahu last week promised that Israel will never relinquish security control over the West Bank, even as part of a two-state peace deal, which is to say that the Israeli army will occupy the Palestinian territory forever. [tmwinpost] “[I]n any agreement, and even without an agreement, we will maintain security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River,” the prime minister said at an event marking 50 years since Israel conquered the West…
Source: Netanyahu vows to occupy the West Bank forever | +972 Magazine
Israel has greenlighted plans for over 8,000 new homes in the West Bank, with over a third for “immediate” construction, the defense minister revealed on Sunday, making it the largest expansion of Jewish settlements in the area in 25 years.
Source: Israel approves largest West Bank settlement construction in 25 years — RT News
after 50 years of unrelenting repression and settlement the occupation itself rather than its specific manifestations has become illegal. While more and more Palestinians and even some Israelis maintain that the correct term to describe the situation is no longer occupation. It is apartheid.
Source: Accepting the apartheid label will normalise Israel | War & Conflict | Al Jazeera
More than 90 percent of the entire country’s Palestinians have been confined to just 12 percent of the land, even though they represent close to half the population. Greater Israel is a reality, an irreversible reality, undeniably a single apartheid state.
Source: Fifty years on, it’s time for a conflict resolution in Palestine-Israel | +972 Magazine
Lecturers at Israeli academic institutions will be barred from discussing political issues with their students, after the education minister introduced a new “ethical code.” Breaking it could mean a reprimand or disciplinary action.
Source: Israel bans university lecturers from discussing politics in class — RT News
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