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ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS NEWSLETTER#14, MAY 16, 2021.
Compiled by Dick Bennett FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE AND JUSTICE.
#1 Feb. 22, 2011; #2 Feb. 16, 2012; #3 March 1, 2012; #4 May 18, 2012; #5 August 13, 2012; #6 October 29, 2012; #7 Dec. 17, 2012; #8 March 29, 2013; #9 Oct. 21, 2013; #10 April 28, 2014; #11, July 1, 2015; #12, June 21, 2016; #13, August 13, 2016)).
What’s at stake: On Sunday mornings I watch the pro-Israel Christian Broadcasting Network on ARPBS, think of the support of Israel by the majority of both Democats and Republicans, cannot think of any mainstream media offering even close to equal time and sympathy for the Palestinans, think of the $3.8 billion minimum the US gives Israel annually, and I think there’s a real need for balance here.
CONTENTS, ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #14, MAY 16, 2021
MAY 12-16, 2021: A Battle Becoming a War
Whitbeck: Meaning of annual $3.8 Billion to Israel
Consequences of Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing
A Palestinian Community Calls for International Help
The Nakba and Israeli Refusers
Nakba Day
Senator Sanders Calls for Peace
Rabbi Waskow: Muslims and Jews Call for Peace (and you can join them)
LOOKING BACK TO PREPARE THE FUTURE
A. J. Muste Institute for Nonviolence, and Israel/Palestine
Canada’s NDP Sanctions Israel
AFSC Demands Vaccinations for Palestinians
Ilan Pappe’s Quick History of Israel/Palestine
APN, Beerman’s Book on Zionism
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: John Kerry
APN, 2016
TEXTS
MAY 12-MAY 16, 2021, ISRAEL AND PALESTINIANS AT WAR
DIVERSE ASPECTS OF THE APRIL-MAY UNEQUAL WAR BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA, THE LARGEST REFUGEE CAMP IN THE WORLD
It’s Not American “Aid” to Israel. It’s Tribute.
BY JOHN WHITBECK. CounterPunch(MAY 12, 2021).
Photograph Source: jaqian – CC BY 2.0
In the wake of the recent Human Rights Watch report on Israeli apartheid and persecution and the ongoing Israeli brutalities in Jerusalem, a slowly growing handful of brave American politicians is daring to defy President Biden’s publicly proclaimed assertion that it would be “absolutely outrageous” to ever condition American “aid” to Israel on any Israeli behavior and to assert that such “aid” should indeed be conditioned, at least to some degree, on Israeli violations of human rights, international law and America’s own laws with respect to the use of American-provided weapons.
While this modest trend in principled support for human rights and international law by even a mere handful of American politicians must be viewed as encouraging, the tradition of characterizing the U.S. government’s payments to Israel — currently a baseline minimum of $3.8 Billion per year, negotiated and agreed by a departing President Obama for the next ten-year payment cycle, inevitably supplemented by numerous add-ons — as “aid” should also be questioned.
Israel is not a poor country. In the latest UN rankings, its annual per capita GDP of $46,376 ranked it 19th among the UN’s 193 member states, ahead of Germany (20th), the United Kingdom (24th), France (26th) and Saudi Arabia (41st).
The guaranteed payments which U.S. governments negotiate with Israeli governments and commit to pay to Israel are not negotiated and paid because Israel needs the money.
They are negotiated and paid as public manifestations of American submission and subservience.
The accurate and proper word for such payments is “tribute”, for which the dictionary definition is “a payment made periodically by one state or ruler to another, especially as a sign of dependence.”
Ever since Israel attacked the aptly named USS Liberty in 1967, killing 34 Americans, wounding another 171 and inflicting 821 rocket and machine-gun holes in the ship, and President Johnson ordered a cover-up which constituted a virtual surrender, the U.S. government has been taking orders from and paying tribute to Israel, with consequences for America’s reputation and its role in the world vastly more costly than mere money.
Indeed, the American relationship with Israel deprives the United States of any credibility when it accuses countries that it dislikes for other reasons of violations of human rights or international law.
If popular perceptions and discourse in the United States could be transformed so as to recognize that the U.S. government’s payment commitments to Israel constitute tribute to a dominant power rather than “aid” to a needy nation, there might be some hope for a long overdue American declaration of independence and a more constructive and honorable American role in the world.
John V. Whitbeck is an international lawyer who has advised the Palestinian negotiating team in negotiations with Israel.
Israel’s illusion of normality collapses: May 2021
Eds. mronline.org (5-14-21).
May 2021 has shattered Israeli illusions that they are immune from the volcano the country has created through its history of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. May 13, 2021 | Newswire.
Palestinian community in Lydda calls for international protection from Israeli state-sanctioned pogroms. Eds. mronline.org (5-15=6-21).
Following a night of racist attacks by far-right Israeli extremists, Palestinians living in Lydda (Lod) are calling for immediate international intervention to defend them before it is too late.
May 15, 2021 | Newswire
Dick, will you travel with us to Palestine/Israel, virtually?
5-5-21 Learn aboutIsraeli Military Refusal, commemorate the Nakba
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Show your Solidarity - Join our Virtual Delegations Delegations During the Next Two Weeks: Our Virtual Delegations connect you directly with Space is limited - register today! Learn aboutIsraeli Military Refusal from Mesarvot - a network of Israeli activists that supports conscientious objectors in their refusal to become soldiers and take part in the oppression of the Palestinian people. The tour will accompany refusers on their enlistment day and join a support protest by the network - standing strong against backlash from Israeli. Get to know some of the young leaders, including the Shministim - a group of high school students who refuse military service publicly for their political beliefs. To commemorate the Nakba this year, we will be traveling virtually to Lifta. The story of Lifta is one example of about 600 Palestinian localities that were captured, and their indigenous residents expelled, during the Nakba in 1948. Lifta was one of the biggest villages in al-Quds (Jerusalem) district until its occupation in 1948. All of its 3000 residents were forcibly displaced and, even until today, their ability to return to their houses and lands to live has been prevented by Israel. Also, check out our next Virtual Delegation, coming up in late May/early June: And later this spring: Silwan (East Jerusalem), and Rafah (Gaza Strip) Sign up to get Virtual Delegation updates! You are receiving this message because you shared your email with Eyewitness Palestine | ||||
[VFP-all] Nakba Day in New Paltz, NY, 2021
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Photos by Ellen Davidson. I couldn’t make it but the banner we took to Palestine did. Here’s the link for more pictures:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/igmw3BtMWRXDiWYr5
Speaking of that here’s what Matt Hoh wrote and his article, recently reposted:
I wrote this several years ago, but am sharing again as it is relevant today.
Over the last several years, I have thought quite a bit about Palestine and what I experienced there. I also think quite a bit about Ireland, and my family’s history that included membership in the IRA during the Irish War for independence (my grandmother, Mae, was a girl in Tipperary from 1909-1929).
I’ve come to learn the links between the fight for Irish independence and the fight for Palestinian independence, as well as to reconcile my own role in imperial occupation, with a purpose and meaning today I feel agrees more with the values and principles I want to embody from my ancestors. – Matt
Tarak Kauff
NYC Veterans For Peace
Peace & Planet News
845 706-0187
“Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe. ”
― Arundhati Roy, Public Power in the Age of Empire
SENATOR SANDERS CALLS FOR PEACE
Sen. Sanders speaks for those with conscience..Palestinian lives matter
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Date: Fri, May 14, 2021 at 8:46 PM
Subject: Sen. Sanders speaks for those with conscience..Palestinian lives matter
To:
The U.S. Must Stop Being an Apologist for the Netanyahu Government
May 14, 2021By Bernie Sanders
“Israel has the right to defend itself.”
These are the words we hear from both Democratic and Republican administrations whenever the government of Israel, with its enormous military power, responds to rocket attacks from Gaza.
Let’s be clear. No one is arguing that Israel, or any government, does not have the right to self-defense or to protect its people. So why are these words repeated year after year, war after war? And why is the question almost never asked: “What are the rights of the Palestinian people?”
And why do we seem to take notice of the violence in Israel and Palestine only when rockets are falling on Israel?
In this moment of crisis, the United States should be urging an immediate cease-fire. We should also understand that, while Hamas firing rockets into Israeli communities is absolutely unacceptable, today’s conflict did not begin with those rockets.
Palestinian families in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah have been living under the threat of eviction for many years, navigating a legal system designed to facilitate their forced displacement. And over the past weeks, extremist settlers have intensified their efforts to evict them.
And, tragically, those evictions are just one part of a broader system of political and economic oppression. For years we have seen a deepening Israeli occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and a continuing blockade on Gaza that make life increasingly intolerable for Palestinians. In Gaza, which has about two million inhabitants, 70 percent of young people are unemployed and have little hope for the future.
Further, we have seen Benjamin Netanyahu’s government work to marginalize and demonize Palestinian citizens of Israel, pursue settlement policies designed to foreclose the possibility of a two-state solution and pass laws that entrench systemic inequality between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
None of this excuses the attacks by Hamas, which were an attempt to exploit the unrest in Jerusalem, or the failures of the corrupt and ineffective Palestinian Authority, which recently postponed long-overdue elections. But the fact of the matter is that Israel remains the one sovereign authority in the land of Israel and Palestine, and rather than preparing for peace and justice, it has been entrenching its unequal and undemocratic control.
Over more than a decade of his right-wing rule in Israel, Mr. Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism. In his frantic effort to stay in power and avoid prosecution for corruption, Mr. Netanyahu has legitimized these forces, including Itamar Ben Gvir and his extremist Jewish Power party, by bringing them into the government. It is shocking and saddening that racist mobs that attack Palestinians on the streets of Jerusalem now have representation in its Knesset.
These dangerous trends are not unique to Israel. Around the world, in Europe, in Asia, in South America and here in the United States, we have seen the rise of similar authoritarian nationalist movements. These movements exploit ethnic and racial hatreds in order to build power for a corrupt few rather than prosperity, justice and peace for the many. For the last four years, these movements had a friend in the White House.
At the same time, we are seeing the rise of a new generation of activists who want to build societies based on human needs and political equality. We saw these activists in American streets last summer in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. We see them in Israel. We see them in the Palestinian territories.
With a new president, the United States now has the opportunity to develop a new approach to the world — one based on justice and democracy. Whether it is helping poor countries get the vaccines they need, leading the world to combat climate change or fighting for democracy and human rights around the globe, the United States must lead by promoting cooperation over conflict.
In the Middle East, where we provide nearly $4 billion a year in aid to Israel, we can no longer be apologists for the right-wing Netanyahu government and its undemocratic and racist behavior. We must change course and adopt an evenhanded approach, one that upholds and strengthens international law regarding the protection of civilians, as well as existing U.S. law holding that the provision of U.S. military aid must not enable human rights abuses.
This approach must recognize that Israel has the absolute right to live in peace and security, but so do the Palestinians. I strongly believe that the United States has a major role to play in helping Israelis and Palestinians to build that future. But if the United States is going to be a credible voice on human rights on the global stage, we must uphold international standards of human rights consistently, even when it’s politically difficult. We must recognize that Palestinian rights matter. Palestinian lives matter.
MUSLIM-JEWISH CALL FOR PEACE
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The Shalom Report
A MUSLIM AND JEWISH CALL FOR SHALOM, SALAAM, PEACE IN JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, AND PALESTINE
[Dear friends, In response to a recent Shalom Report of mine, "The Roots of Turmoil in Jerusalem," Daisy Khan, executive secretary of Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE), asked me to join her and Adem Carroll, an active Muslim member of several interfaith organizations, in working out a shared statement by Muslims and Jews about the worsening violence that began in Jerusalem and has now spead to all parts of Israel and Palestine. We did, we invited some leaders of both communities to sign it, and this is it, below. We invite you to join in it, and to share it with your friends.
To sign it, please click to --
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=43&reset=1
Since the Call was designed for signature by Muslims and Jews, we have provideed another link for signatures by allies and supporters from other spiritual, religious, and ethical communities:
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=44&reset=1
We see this morning that many demonstrations and public statements yesterday were caught in the binary of either Palestine or Israel. One must be totally right, the other totally wrong. But that binary is no more true, and no more peaceful, than any other binary. We are taught, "Justice, Justice shall you Pursue" to remind us that one side may have more justice than another, as in this case, but both may have some. We are also taught "Seek peace and pursue it" to remind us to pursue peace even when it seems to be running away from us -- like now. This Call seeks to follow both teachings.
That doesn't mean this Call is perfect, flawless. No doubt in the current fury of fear and rage some on both sides will condemn this effort. Why then do this, when Palestinians and Israelis are dying at each others' hands and what were fragile threads of relationship between Israelis of Jewish identity and Israelis of Palestinian identity (who had been mostly disempowered) have been torn apart through violence in the streets of many Israeli cities? In our view, precisely because life in America, where there are warm ties of affection with family and friends in Palestine and Israel but where our ccommunities are not urgently needing to prevent being killed, offers some hope of a measured intention to seek peace. People who have sharp and immediate fears of being killed are often not able to turn their attention to seeking peace, no matter how much they want it.
Furthermore, we hope that a shared statement at such a moment can bespeak the deep desire for justice and peace of the Muslim Community as a whole and of the Jewish Community as a whole. The Call, by simply existing, is already a partical step toward a more just and peaceful world. Additional signatures, and your efforts to spread the word to friends, officials and newpapers, social media, etc, will strengthen the bonds. --- AW, editor]
A MUSLIM AND JEWISH CALL FOR SHALOM, SALAAM, PEACE
IN JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, AND PALESTINE
May 14, 2021; 3 Sivan, 5781; 2 Shawwal, 1442
On the occasion of the Islamic Holy Day of Eid and as we approach the Jewish Holy Day of Shavuot, the Muslim and Jewish communities must both deplore the violence between Israel and Palestine and note the disproportionate response of the state of Israel, beginning with the attack on the Al Aqsa mosque on Laylat al Qadr, one of the holiest nights of the year.
Some Israeli extremists continue to advocate for Israeli seizure and destruction of this holy site. Though their numbers are small, it is as if small numbers of people were known to be planning for destruction on Easter Sunday of St. Peter’s in Vatican City, or on Yom Kippur of the Western Wall so sacred to Jews, or on July 4 of the US Capitol together with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, even if no one were to be killed – most unlikely in all four cases.
Given the intense devotion to this place, one of the most important sites in the Muslim world, and given the constant anxiety caused by the known threats to it, the actual attack was extremely provocative. We must question the motivation, the timing, and the necessity.
And we mourn the loss of lives, all sacred. We plead with our co-religionists in Israel and Palestine, and world-wide, to return to the shared vision of Jerusalem as a Holy City, one that reflects vision, light, hope, compassion and peace, and reflects the profound dignity and value of all humans as Images of the Holy One.
We ask both governmental leaders and private citizens, those with power and those in the street, to do everything in their power to de-escalate the conflict and further calm, to protect life and limb, restore the safety of all, and prevent any damage to the sacred sites of all.
Injustices and inequalities feed this conflict. Though we deplore the rockets from Gaza as we deplore the Israeli bombing, the most immediate crisis in Jerusalem has its roots in the continuing military occupation and siege of lands that comprise the necessary aspirations of the Palestinian people -- East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza – and the constant forcible pressure to replace Palestinian residents of these lands with settlers who often act oppressively, with military and police protection.There may be several different ways to end this unjust occupation and to protect the safety of all who live in the region. So long as it continues, crisis after crisis, bloodshed after bloodshed, will be its consequences.
For there can be no true security without justice. Nor will there be peace without justice, only pacification based on force. Though many feel that the US has not maintained its neutrality as an honest broker in this ongoing conflict, President Biden should far more energetically promote a peace process both in Israel and Palestine, meanwhile responding to the concerns of the international community. The US Government has so far seemed unable or unwilling to confront the settlement movement that has played such a destabilizing role in Israel as well as Palestine.
Our own spiritual and religious communities throughout the world are deeply affected by what our communities in Israel and Palestine do. The vision of the ancient Hebrew Prophets and of the Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon them all, of a world of peace and justice – and the shape of a Jewish People and Islam struggling to carry out those visions today – will be deeply compromised by injustice and violence committed in their names.
Blessed be the peacemakers. On this occasion, we affirm that our shared religious and moral values require an embrace of peace and justice, especially when our views and perspectives differ. The other alternative is oppression and conflict without end.
To sign, please click to --
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=43&reset=1
Signed (Institutions cited for identification only):
Imam Shamsi Ali, Director, Jamaica Muslim Center, NY, and President, Nusantara Foundation USA
. . . .
Ani Zonneveld, Muslims for Progressive Values
To add your name, please click to --
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=43&reset=1
Since the Call was designed for signature by Muslims and Jews, we have provideed another link for signatures by allies and supporters from other spiritual, religious, and ethical communities
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?id=44&reset=1
If you areunsubscribing or changing your email address, please check the Footer below my signature and click the relevant item.
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The Shalom Center needs your help to keep working with other groups and spiritual communities in the light of shared Spirit to pursue peace, Please click the maroon “Contribute” button just below, and make as vigorous contribution as you can. Thanks!.
Shalom, salaam, paz, peace, namaste! -- Arthur
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THE MISCELLANEOUS PAST FOR PRESENT ACTION
“Despair Is Not an Option”: grantees speak out on Palestine/Israel
https://ajmuste.org/sites/default/files/muste-notes/mustenoteswinter2016.pdf
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ajmuste.org - supporting nonviolent action since 1974
JUST LAST MONTH, APRIL 2021, CANADA’s NDP STANDS WITH PALESTINIANS
Canada’s new Democratic Party passes motion to sanction Israel
Michael Arria. At the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) convention last week, party members overwhelmingly passed a motion to sanction Israel. The policy book forthe center-left political party, which has existed in Canada since 1961, will now include a boycott of goods from illegal settlements and an arms embargo on the country.
April 14, 2021 | Newswire.
AFSC
Tell Congress: Demand Israel provide Palestinians with COVID-19 vaccinations and humanitarian aid
Israel’s inoculation program is moving forward quickly for Israeli citizens, but Palestinians living under Israeli control in the West Bank and Gaza are being left behind. Israel has indicated that it has no intention of facilitating a vaccination campaign in Gaza and the West Bank.
In addition, U.S. humanitarian assistance to Palestine that was cut under the Trump administration is urgently needed and must be resumed immediately.
o Write to your Representative today to ask that they sign a new Dear Colleague Letter initiated by Rep. Pocan and Rep. Carson and calling on Sec. Blinken to demand that Israel provide Palestinians living under its control with COVID-19 vaccin DONATE
A THUMBNAIL SKETCH OF PAST FOR PRESENT
If you’re not familiar with Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, you should be. Here’s an 11 minute interview, several years old, that provides essential background to what’s happening today.
See you at noon.
Peace, George
https://therealnews.com/how-israels-erasure-of-palestinian-history-perpetuates-occupation
George Paulson 5-14-21
There is no better legacy than peacemaker: Understanding Zionism
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APN Update - It's the settlements stupid, APN in 2016, help us do more, and thank you
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Contents Israel-Palestinian Newsletter #13, August 13, 2016
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2016/08/israeli-palestinian-newsletter-13.html
Nuclear Armed Israel: Vanunu Jailed Again
Occupation Conflict Today
Documentary on Israeli Media Control: The Occupation of the American Mind,
How Israel Occupies the US: Mnar Muhawesh meets Sut Jhally
DovWaxman,The American Jewish Conflict over Israel, why Israel has
become such a divisive issue
Resistance
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Divestment
WRL supports Black & Palestinian solidarity
Congressional Supporters of Palestinians
Americans for Peace Now, “Do This Not That”
Bernie Sanders’ Critique of Israel
CodePink BDS Movement:
Codepink: RE/MAX stop selling properties in Israeli settlements built on
occupied Palestinian land
Codepink: Letter to John Kerry on Human Rights in Israel and Palestine
Illegal settlements acquired illegally, and Ban Ki-Moon
“Despair Is Not an Option”: Muste grantees speak out
Sloan, “The Olive Grove”
END ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #14