OMNI

ISRAEL-PALESTINE ANTHOLOGIES #18

9-18-24

COMPILED BY DICK BENNETT FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY

https://omnicenter.org/donate

CONTENTS ISRAEL-PALESTINE #18

In Chronological Order 2016 to 2024

What’s at Stake:  Keeping Hope Alive in the Midst of Genocide.

2016
Apcon and Young.  Documentary Film on Peacemakers.
2018
Freedom Flotilla Poetry Award to Local Poet Gerry Sloan.

Heather Gray on Peace-making Peled Family.

Balousha and Holmes.  Killed and Wounded in Gaza.

Holmes. Israeli Sniper Shoots A Man while Onlookers Cheer.

“Israelis Gather by Gaza Border.”

2024
Shalom Center. Rabbi Waskow:  Leahy Act.

Coralie Koonce. Against Either-Or, Black-White Untruths.

Judy Haiven.  Student Protests in Canada.

War on the West Bank: Three Articles.

Contents Israel/Palestine Anthology #7

TEXTS

(These writings cover the years 2016-2024.  –D)

2016

DOCUMENTARY FILM ON ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS

Hope in Dialog 8 Years Ago. There Is Another Way.

“Disturbing the Peace.”  Dir. Stephen Apkon and Andrew Young.  Bullfrog Films, 2016.  Rev., Peace and Change (July 2018), 379-81.  
Directors’ description:   “…Israelis and Palestinians who reject engaging in violence against the enemy after years of participating in it.”  https://www.disturbingthepeacefilm.com/

IN A WORLD TORN BY CONFLICT—IN A PLACE WHERE THE IDEA OF PEACE HAS BEEN ABANDONED—AN ENERGY OF DETERMINED OPTIMISM EMERGES. WHEN SOMEONE IS WILLING TO DISTURB THE STATUS QUO AND STAND FOR THE DREAM OF A FREE AND SECURE WORLD, WHO  WILL STAND WITH THEM?

DISTURBING THE PEACE IS ABOUT PEOPLE BORN INTO CONFLICT, SWORN TO BE ENEMIES, WHO CHALLENGED THEIR FATE. THE FILM FOLLOWS EVERYDAY PEOPLE WHO TOOK EXTRAORDINARY ACTIONS BY STANDING FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE IN, JUST LIKE THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE THEM – MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., ROSA PARKS, GANDHI, NELSON MANDELA AND MANY OTHERS WHOSE NAMES WE DON’T KNOW. THE MOVIE CHALLENGES ALL OF US – TO UNDERSTAND THE NARRATIVES WE LIVE WITHIN, TO LOOK AT OUR CURRENT ROLES IN OUR SOCIETIES, AND TO DECIDE WHAT ROLE WE ARE GOING TO PLAY IN CREATING A MORE HUMANE WORLD, FOR ALL. AND IT STARTS WITH OUR WILLINGNESS TO DISTURB THE PEACE.

2018
[I am placing peace-oriented essays at the beginning of each year.]

Gerry Sloan Awarded Poetry Prize

20[Gaza] Roger Waters in Barcelona, on Palestine; FFC Literary Contest results; Statement on #GreatMarchOfReturn.   CanadaBoat Gaza gaza@lists.riseup.net  

Freedom Flotilla Coalition literary contest results.
https://sgf.freedomflotilla.org/news/winners-of-the-literary-contest-keys-to-the-future-of-palestine
After reviewing 29 English entries, our jurors selected a winner and a runner up in the categories of short story and poetry.   The winners are, for short story:  Mikayla Boorany (South Africa), Dan Lieberman (USA), and for poetry: Gerry Sloan (USA) and Anna Dora Antonsdottir (Iceland). Their submissions have begun appearing on our website www.sgf.freedomflotilla.org, and will continue to be published, along with winning texts in Spanish and Arabic. See our full announcement for more, including a link a collection of submissions from school-children in South Africa: sgf.freedomflotilla.org/news/winners-of-the-literary-contest-keys-to-the-future-of-palestine.

Our literary contest results announcement coincided with the Palestinian Land Day protests and Great March of Return, marking 70 years of the Nakba (Catastrophe). See the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s statement about the killing of civilian protestors: Massacre at Gaza’s Borders: We Will Not Be Silent – End Israeli Impunity. We will be continuing to follow these protests supporting the Palestinian Right of Return over the coming weeks. Our next flotilla, sailing for a Just Future for Palestine, will leave mid-May from Copenhagen and will make many port stops along the way before departing for Gaza mid-July from the western Mediterranean.  Please help spread the word by sharing our messages, and please follow our mission as we make our way towards ending the illegal blockade of Gaza, .

In solidarity,
The Canadian Boat to Gaza, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition
www.freedomflotilla.org
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FreedomFlotillaCoalition
Twitter https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla
Instagram instagram.com/gazafreedomflotilla

“Peled: ‘Israel should be called Palestine’” By Heather Gray.  April 7, 2018.
Justice Initiative International.
Preface 
I wrote the first version of the article below regarding a Palestinian “sense of place” for

Counterpunch in 2006 and sent it out also in a 2016 Justice Initiative posting. Yet, given the intensity of struggles and the ongoing Israeli violence against the Palestinians, I am sending out an edited version. Land and the struggles for indigenous integrity are hugely important all over the world. Those of us of European descent (which includes many Israelis) have much to atone for over the centuries regarding grabbing land from others as well as grabbing people to enslave them and the struggles and reverberations of it all are on-going. The impact of abusive and arrogant behavior is seemingly endless particularly when the efforts for reconciliation, reparations,  justice and peace are not taken seriously. 

. . .Contemporary Israeli/Palestinian Conflict and some solutions by the Peled family 
Now the contemporary impact of this is becoming all the more intense in the Middle East given the increased Israeli and American arrogance - as with Trump’s outrageous plans to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, and the recent and on-going killings by Israelis of Palestinians and all this is coupled with the huge US military support of Israel. 

The Israelis might grab the Palestinian land and claim it as their own but they are wrong in assuming that it will be “their” land. It is not theirs and it never will be. It’s way past time for peace, justice and reconciliation. As Miko Peled, a former member of the Israeli military, has recently stated - “Israel is an illegitimate state and the area should be called Palestine!” Below is his quote in a recent interview:  
The United States is a top supporter of the occupation through funding of the Israeli military and providing cover for Israeli violations of international law in the United Nations. Peled emphasizes that activists in the US have a responsibility to take action to end the occupation of Palestine and outlines many ways to do this, including an aggressive BDS campaign and support for legislation in Congress. Peled says “Israel” is an illegitimate state and the area should be called Palestine. 
(Miko Peled - Popular Resistance - March 30, 2018) 

Over the years I have been fortunate to interview both the father and son - Matti and Miko Peled.   Once retired from the Israeli military in 1969 as a Major General,  Matti Peled (1923-1995) received his PhD in Arabic literature from the University of California and he then went back to Israel to, in fact, teach Arabic literature.   In 1992, I interviewed the Matti Peled who was visiting the United States to encourage a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. Click here for the PDF of the transcribed interview with him, entitled “Predictions of the Present Day Turmoil in the Middle East.”   Below is a summary of some of Matti Peled’s comments:
                 He describes the corrupting influence of the U.S. government giving huge amounts of aid to Israel.

·      He comments about the Israeli period prior to the 1967 “Six Day War” of which he is proud and how ashamed he is of Israel in its present state.

·      He refers consistently to the oppression of the Palestinians by the Israelis.

·      He predicts the circumstances of today in the Middle East of excessive violence and conflict because of the increased arms sales in the area after 1967, primarily from the U.S.

·      He states that there are virtually no concrete peace negotiations and that Israel seems incapable of producing a plan.

·      He stresses that the United Nations is the only vehicle that can effectively resolve the problems and bring peace to the Middle East.

As it can be noted, much of what Matti Peled stated in 1992 is still, unfortunately, relevant to today’s situation in the Middle East.  As mentioned, I was also fortunate to interview Matti Peled’s son, Miko Peled, who was visiting Atlanta in 2014. Clickhere for the link to his 2014 Atlanta speech. .  . . 
A Palestinian “Sense of Place” . . . .   MORE

“UNRWA seeks funding boost to keep Palestinian schools, hospitals open.”    Channel NewsAsia (Singapore)/Agence France-Presse (3/14) .  UN news wire 3-14-18.  The US withdrew its funding from the UNRWA,  UN’s Relief and Works Agency.

 “

In a Major Free Speech Victory, a Federal Court Strikes Down a Law that Punishes Supporters of Israel Boycott.”  Glenn Greenwald.  The Intercept January 31 2018.

The greatest free speech threat in the West — attempts to outlaw activism against Israeli occupation — may have just suffered a fatal blow.
 

Americans for Peace Now, 12-21-17

Dear Dick,

My husband Rob Eshman will be receiving the Press for Peace Award at the Americans for Peace Now “Vision of Peace Celebration” on January 29, 2018, which I am honored to Co-Chair. You may not know him, but allow me to say a few words - objectively, of course - as to why he is so deserving of this honor, and why I encourage you to support the event and the organization that is sponsoring it, even if you are unable to attend.

In addition to my personal affection for Rob, I have immense respect for his vision and courage. He was the long-time editor of The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, and the accompanying website jewishjournal.com, which under his leadership became the most visited Jewish news website outside of Israel. Beyond the numbers, however, he has provided the local and international Jewish community and other interested readers, with what too often is lacking -- thoughtful, honest, comprehensive, and varied opinions and perspectives on Israel and Jewish affairs. He has not shied away from taking public stands himself, most often expressed via his weekly columns, which while controversial for some, have always been motivated by his love and deep connection to the Jewish people and to Israel. I believe that through his writing, leadership, and courage, he has significantly impacted the discourse on these important issues.

I am proud that Americans for Peace Now has chosen to honor Rob with its Press for Peace Award in recognition of his unique contributions. It is also very exciting for me, and humbling to him, that he will be honored alongside David Broza, the Israeli music icon and peace activist.

For the vast majority of you who will not be able to attend the Vision of Peace Celebration in Los Angeles, I encourage you to participate with us by donating to Americans for Peace Now. You will be supporting the work of the organization here in the US, and ofShalom Achshav (Peace Now), its partner in Israel. Your donation will provide an opportunity to include a Vision of Peace Tribute Message – whether specifically to David Broza, Rob, or the cause of peace for Israel – and I am flattered to say that Americans for Peace Now is also offering my newest book “Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul” for a donation of $100 or more (indicate ”Einstein” in the comments box).

In Peace,  Rabbi Naomi Levy

in recognition of the impact she has made, the Jewish Forward identified Rabbi Levy as one of the nation’s 50 most influential Jewish leaders and Newsweek included Rabbi Levy in its list of “Top 50 Rabbis in America.”                                                                                                                                                                            

Does the U.S. Support an Apartheid State?”

2018 MAY\

https://www.wrmea.org/018-may/does-the-u.s.-support-an-apartheid-state.html
[This closely argued essay on Israel as an apartheid regime by Dr. Virginia Tilley was too long for inclusion in this anthology, but its conclusion advocating the “One-State Solution” to the Israel/Palestine conflict ought to be known to all.  Find time to read it from the beginning.  –Dick]

. . . [If Palestine were recognized as an Apartheid regime] Palestine would stop being a foggy mandate reference or a dreamy future, but it would be one state that belongs to all who live in it. It would not be the exclusive geographic heritage of any one part of the population. It would not require the departure or exclusion of anybody—which is tough for people who have lost a great deal to it. Jewish has to be re-conceived as an ethnic group with full civil, social, and cultural rights. Not a people with superior rights to the land. Not as a nation with rights to self-determination.

“Palestinian”—this is the toughest thing for me to say as a non-Palestinian—but returning to the idea that it is a multi-sectarian identity, it still is actually embracing everyone in the mandate territory. Not Arab in any sense that would exclude non-Arabs. This is one of the problems, that “Palestinian” became “Palestinian Arab state.” Under conditions of settler colonialism, you can’t do that without excluding non-Arabs. Therefore, unfortunately, that has to be re-thought deeply, not the racial ethnic construction affirmed by Zionism and imposed by apartheid.

So that’s why the apartheid finding recasts everything, that’s why so many people don’t want to tackle it. I think it is crucial. I think it illuminates where we are and what is going on. The more I look at it, the more powerful an analysis I think it is. I do hope you will consider it seriously as a model for rethinking the conflict. Thank you very much.

Janet McMahon: Thank you so much, Dr. Tilley. 

Michael Sfard.  The Wall and the Gate:  Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights.  Macmillan, 2018.  528pp.
Publisher’s description

From renowned human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, an unprecedented exploration of the struggle for human rights in Israel's courts
A farmer from a village in the occupied West Bank, cut off from his olive groves by the construction of Israel’s controversial separation wall, asked Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard to petition the courts to allow a gate to be built in the wall. While the gate would provide immediate relief for the farmer, would it not also confer legitimacy on the wall and on the court that deems it legal? The defense of human rights is often marked by such ethical dilemmas, which are especially acute in Israel, where lawyers have for decades sought redress for the abuse of Palestinian rights in the country’s High Court—that is, in the court of the abuser.

In The Wall and the Gate, Michael Sfard chronicles this struggle—a story that has never before been fully told— and in the process engages the core principles of human rights legal ethics. Sfard recounts the unfolding of key cases and issues, ranging from confiscation of land, deportations, the creation of settlements, punitive home demolitions, torture, and targeted killings—all actions considered violations of international law. In the process, he lays bare the reality of the occupation and the lives of the people who must contend with that reality. He also exposes the surreal legal structures that have been erected to put a stamp of lawfulness on an extensive program of dispossession. Finally, he weighs the success of the legal effort, reaching conclusions that are no less paradoxical than the fight itself.

Writing with emotional force, vivid storytelling, and penetrating analysis, Michael Sfard offers a radically new perspective on a much-covered conflict and a subtle, painful reckoning with the moral ambiguities inherent in the pursuit of justice. The Wall and the Gate is a signal contribution to everyone concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and human rights everywhere.

 “Why Israel Was Never a Democracy.”  Justice Initiative via uark.onmicrosoft.com 

“Jewish Nation-State Law:  Why Israel Was Never a Democracy.”  ‘The Jewish Nations-state bill is the officiation of Apartheid in Israel.’

By Ramzy Baroud, The Palestine Chronicle, July 25, 2018.   [This essay is learned and comprehensive yet, condensed, making a case for a One-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   –D]

 The head of the Arab Joint List Alliance at the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), Aymen Odeh, described the passing of the racist Jewish Nation-state Law as “the death of our democracy.” 

Did Odeh truly believe that, prior to this law, he had lived in a true democracy? 70 years of Israeli Jewish supremacy, genocide, ethnic cleansing, wars, sieges, mass incarceration, numerous discriminatory laws, all aimed at the very destruction of the Palestinian people should have given enough clues that Israel was never a democracy, to begin with.

The Jewish Nation-state Law is merely the icing on the cake. It simply gave those who argued, all along, that Israel’s attempt at combining democracy with ethnic supremacy was racism masquerading as democracy, the munition they needed to further illustrate the point.  There is no escaping the moral imperative now. Those who insist on supporting Israel must know that they are supporting an unabashed Apartheid regime.  The new law, which was passed after some wrangling on January 19, has divorced Israel from any claim, however untrue, to being a democratic state.

In fact, the law does not mention the word ‘democracy’ in its wording, not even once. Reference to the Jewish identity of the state, however, are ample and dominant, with the clear exclusion of the Palestinian people from their rights in their historic homeland:

▪   ”The state of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people ...

▪   ”The actualization of the right of national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.

▪   ”The state will labor to ensure the safety of sons of the Jewish people ...

▪  

“The state will act to preserve the cultural, historical and religious legacy of the Jewish people among the Jewish diaspora,” and so on.   

But most dangerous of all is the stipulation that “the state views Jewish settlement as a national value and will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development.”   

True, illegal Jewish settlements already dot the Palestinian land in the West Bank and Jerusalem; and a de facto segregation already exists in Israel itself. In fact, segregation is so deep and entrenched, even maternity wards in Israeli hospitals separate between mothers, based on their race. 

The above stipulation, however, will further accelerate segregation and cement Apartheid, making the harm not merely intellectual and political, but physical as well. . . .  MORE

  - Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His forthcoming book is‘The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story’ (Pluto Press, London). Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

Protests in Gaza, Massacre in Gaza
Rick Wayman.  “Tell Your Members of Congress to Speak Out Against Gaza Massacre.” Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 5-14-18.

The death toll continues to rise from today’s massacre of unarmed Palestinian protestors by the Israeli military. We urge you to take action by contacting your members of Congress and demanding significant changes to U.S. policy in the region.

Just days after announcing his administration’s intention to violate the nuclear deal with Iran, President Trump went ahead with the provocative move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  [37 unarmed, non-violent Palestinian demonstrators murdered & 1000+ wounded during demonstrators against Trump’s decision to move US’s Israeli embassy to Jerusalem today.

Watch the coverage today at - https://www.democracynow.org/].

For decades, the U.S. government has supported Israel’s development and possession of a substantial nuclear arsenal while going to war against other nations over non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

While Israeli snipers were shooting unarmed Palestinians, including children, from long range, President Trump was hard at work on Twitter. This morning, he tweeted, “Big day for Israel. Congratulations!”. . . .  MORE

“One Palestinian killed and hundreds injured in Gaza protests.”  More than 360 wounded by bullets and tear gas, in the third week of demonstrations

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/13/one-palestinian-killed-and-hundreds-injured-in-gaza-clashes.   Hazem Balousha in Gaza City and Oliver Holmes in Nahal Oz, Israel.

Fri 13 Apr 2018 14.24 EDTLast modified on Fri 13 Apr 2018 14.50 EDT

Israeli forces stationed on the Gaza frontier have killed one person and wounded hundreds of Palestinians, who were demonstrating for the third week in a row.  Health officials in Gaza said 363 people were injured by live ammunition and tear gas inhalation, although they did not provide a breakdown. They said a Gazan journalist was in a serious condition after being shot in the abdomen. The Palestine Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organisation, has said one of its medics was shot in the knee.  Rights groups accuse Israel of wanton use of live fire. Israel says the protests are a cynical ploy by Gaza’s rulers Hamas to stage attacks, including using explosives, or to breach the border.  Close to 30 Palestinians – including Hamas militants, civilians and a video reporter – have been killed during the rallies, which started on 30 March.  . . . .

The protests began as a plan to peacefully gather near the border, an idea that has since been supported by Hamas and other political parties. Thousands have called for the “right of return” for refugees and their descendants to ancestral homes in Israel. . . .  MORE

“Video emerges of cheering as Israeli sniper shoots Palestinian.”

Israel’s military says incident in Gaza Strip will be ‘thoroughly investigated.’

Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem

Tue 10 Apr 2018 10.24 EDTFirst published on Tue 10 Apr 2018 05.58 EDT  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/10/video-appears-show-cheers-israeli-sniper-shoots-palestinian

Footage has emerged of an Israeli sniper shooting a seemingly unarmed and motionless Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip, followed by exuberant whooping from an onlooker.

Israel’s military said an initial inquiry found the shooting had taken place on 22 December, when one of its soldiers injured the man in his leg during what it called violent riots.

The grainy video comes after almost two weeks of daily protests by Palestinianson the Israel-Gaza border in which the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have fatally shot more than two dozen people and wounded hundreds more, according to Gazan health officials.

”. . . .   MORE

Robert Mackey.  “Israel Opens Fire on Palestinian Protesters in Gaza, Trump Envoy Blames ‘Hostile March’” and injured hundreds more with live fire, as up to 50,000 residents of the besieged enclave answered an activist’s call to embrace civil disobedience by demonstrating close to the border fence, an area defined by the Israeli Defense Forces as a closed military zone.

Video of Israeli marksmen shooting unarmed protesters, including at least one young man who was engaged in prayer at the time, appalled observers from both communities.   Unarmed , no stones , no aggressive move , but still he was shot by an #Israeli army sniper in #Gaza today . #GreatReturnMarch.   5:04 PM - Mar 30, 2018.   Twitter Ads info and privacy.   The IDF’s gonna have a hard time saying this guy fell off his bike… pic.twitter.com/BCkC5KrOWi.   — Jacob Magid (@JacobMagid) March 30, 2018.    The fatal shooting of one victim, a boy in a black shirt who was identified later as Abdul Fattah Abdul Nabi, 19, stirred particular outrage, because video recorded from three different camera angles showed that he was clearly unarmed and moving away from the border fence when he was gunned down.   Disgusting and awful..
Moments of killing a Palestinian young man in cold blood by an Israeli Zionists snipers at #Gaza strip borders during the peaceful protests of #GreatReturnMarch , i was there we were protesting peacefully and Israeli were shooting directly toward us !!   11:10 AM - Mar 30, 2018.   The unarmed protesters had rallied to demand an end to Israel’s decade-long blockade of the Palestinian territory, as well as the recognition of the right of refugees who fled there in 1948 to return, with their children and grandchildren, to their homes inside what is now the Jewish state. . . .

Israel defends firing at protesters
Official rejects calls for inquiry into violence at Gaza border
By COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF WIRE REPORTS.   This article was originally published April 2, 2018 at 2:33 a.m. Updated April 2, 2018 at 2:33 a.m.    http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/apr/02/israel-defends-firing-at-protesters-201/

JERUSALEM -- Israel’s defense minister on Sunday rejected international calls for an investigation into deadly violence along Gaza’s border with Israel, saying troops acted appropriately and fired only at Palestinian protesters who posed a threat.

Fifteen Palestinians were killed and more than 700 wounded in Friday’s violence near the Israeli border, according to Palestinian health officials. It was the area’s deadliest violence since a war four years ago.

Human-rights groups have accused the army of using excessive force, and both the U.N. secretary-general and the European Union’s foreign policy chief have urged an investigation.

In an interview, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel would not cooperate with a U.N. inquiry if there were one. . . .    A Section on 04/02/2018

2021

Join the BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS campaign to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation’s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.

DON’T BUY PRODUCTS WHOSE BARCODE STARTS WITH 729, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!   7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE! People of Conscience: Palestinians Ask You to Boycott Israel

TRANSCEND.org    https://www.transcend.org › tms › 2021/05 › people-of-c...

May 24, 2021 — 7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE! Share this article: email mastodon ... Anti-Zionist Rabbi Calls for Continued Boycott of Companies Backing Israel.

Pages: 440

The Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated places in the world. More than two-thirds of its inhabitants are refugees, and more than half are under eighteen years of age. Since 2004, Israel has launched eight devastating “operations” against Gaza’s largely defenseless population. Thousands have perished, and tens of thousands have been left homeless. In the meantime, Israel has subjected Gaza to a merciless illegal blockade.
 
What has befallen Gaza is a man-made humanitarian disaster.
 
Based on scores of human rights reports, Norman G. Finkelstein's new book presents a meticulously researched inquest into Gaza’s martyrdom. He shows that although Israel has justified its assaults in the name of self-defense, in fact these actions constituted flagrant violations of international law.
 
But Finkelstein also documents that the guardians of international law—from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to the UN Human Rights Council—ultimately failed Gaza. One of his most disturbing conclusions is that, after Judge Richard Goldstone's humiliating retraction of his UN report, human rights organizations succumbed to the Israeli juggernaut.

Finkelstein’s magnum opus is both a monument to Gaza’s martyrs and an act of resistance against the forgetfulness of history.

Norman G. Finkelstein received his doctorate from the Princeton University Department of Politics. His many books have been translated into some fifty foreign editions. He is a frequent lecturer and commentator on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

2024

The Shalom Report   8-23-24

“Yom Kippur as Active Peace-Pursuing Day For the Jewish People This Year.”  The Shalom Center.  [Edited for direct political action.  –D]
Dear companions in the pursuit of peace and justice. . . .
2. My second heart-flash from the night was that immediately after the last shofar-blast of Yom Kippur returns us from our interior self-healings to our work in the world, we write, sign, and prepare to mail letters to our Senators of all political parties.

The letters would urge each Senator to insist on applying the well-established Leahy Act to units of the Israeli armed forces as the Leahy Act has been to the forces of other states for the past decade. The law requires suspending US arms aid to any unit of a foreign armed force that has used US arms to violate human rights.

Congress passed the law in 1997, and it has been applied to many states — including US allies — but not to Israel.  Given the publicly known massacres of noncombatant Palestinian women and children in Gaza, it is time to apply universally this universal law. . . .
Blessings of shalom, salaam, peace, in your own lives to all who pursue peace in the world.    — Arthur   

theshalomcenter.org/donate

CORALIE KOONCE.   “Terrible twoness:  Binary arguments ignore nuance”

by Coralie Koonce Special to the Democrat-Gazette 5/18/2024. 

. . .It's easier to be binary. The simplest and most energy-conserving response possible is either/or. You only need two sides for politics and wars, including culture wars. It's all about Americans versus foreigners. Town versus country. Heartland versus coasts. Good versus evil. Us versus them.

Capitalism versus socialism assumes these are exact opposites, although all economies are mixed private/public. Twoness ignores the cooperative economy, which accounts for nearly a quarter of India's GDP and a fifth of New Zealand's.

It seems like only yesterday when people were saying ho-hum to politics: "The parties are just alike. Tweedledee and Tweedledum." Now, all of a sudden, one party is supposed to be evil incarnate. People seem to be itching for a fight about anything and everything. Social media only makes it worse.

The Terrible Twoness is applied to the world's wars and conflicts where Americans pick sides that they know nothing about. Learning history wouldn't be any fun, would it? Whatever the issue, you must take a side.

But what if you don't like either side? For instance, the Israel/Hamas War.

I don't like Hamas for three reasons. First, the barbarities of Oct. 7, and the war crime of taking hostages. Secondly, in service of their ideology, Hamas has continually put the people of Gaza in harm's way. Hamas was not elected on a platform of shooting rockets into Israel. And every time they do, Israel retaliates by bombing Gaza. This pointless, lethal exchange has happened over and over. Third, Hamas has stifled democratic government in Gaza. They were elected 17 years ago by a 44 percent plurality, not a majority--hardly a mandate. Then Hamas violently threw out the other major party, Fatah, and took over the place.

They never allowed another election.

But neither do I support Israel's current far-right government, or their conduct of the war in Gaza. Israel has killed at least 30 times more civilians than those that Hamas murdered on Oct. 7. People are just as dead whether it is from starvation or from Hamas atrocities. (President Joe Biden recently stopped sending Israel the 2,000-pound bombs that kill so many civilians and that most countries have stopped using for urban warfare.)

You hear all kinds of ingenious justifications from posters online. They say Israel is good to civilians, and drops leaflets with instructions. That Hamas is responsible for all civilian deaths. Or that everybody in Gaza supports Hamas. I don't buy most of it. These are folks who think history began on Oct. 7, and they wallow in demonization and collective punishment.

Nobody has yet explained to me the military necessity of imposing a food and water siege on the entire civilian population from Day One.

Another mystery nobody addresses: Israel has the capability to go into a foreign country and kill diplomats from still a third country--and yet they don't know where Hamas leaders are hiding, and must reduce the place to rubble and starve the people in order to defeat an enemy with a fourth or less of Israel's manpower and weaponry?

Last fall a number of genocide scholars warned of the potential for genocide in Gaza, and one of them, Israeli Jew Raz Segal, has called it "a textbook case." (jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide)

The conflicts of Gaza (and West Bank, where last year Israeli forces killed 492 Palestinians, including 120 children) have now arrived on American college campuses. What most student protesters are asking for is a ceasefire and divestment of college endowment funds from military companies profiting from this war. They aren't pro-Hamas, and many of the protesters are Jewish. . . .

Coralie Koonce is a writer living in Fayetteville, and the author of "Little Handbook of Arguments." She recently published "War and Words: The Israel/Gaza Conflict."

Killing, Destruction, Student Protests, Canadian Media, Genocide
Judy Haiven.  “Israel: State of denial.”
Editor.  mronline.org.   Originally published: The Bullet  on May 15, 2024 by Judy Haiven (more by The Bullet) (Posted May 17, 2024).   Empire, Inequality, Strategy, WarIsrael, Middle EastNewswire
The lies. The packs of lies—deliberate, filthy, and deadly. And they keep going. As if the world owes Israel and its “most moral army in the world” something—after it massacred more than 35,000 Palestinians in six months.  Israel and Jews who support Israel, plus the powerful pro-Israel lobby in our country and in the U.S. (and that includes millions of Christian Zionists) will not admit to any of the following:
                  Bombing to rubble or imploding all 12 universities in Gaza; killing 90 professors,Destroying all 370 schools in Gaza, including the UN schools,Killing 4300 students, 230 teachers,Leaving women, children, babies, and men to be treated on the blood-soaked floors of the parts of Gaza’s hospitals still standing,Stopping virtually all medications from entering Gaza, including antibiotics, painkillers, and sedatives so operations such as the 1,000 plus amputations or “clean ups” after the amputations are performed without anaesthetic,Carrying out 400 plus attacks on healthcare facilities and staff—all war crimes,Killing more than 496 healthcare workers, wounding 1500 and detaining more than 390. . . .
Instead of acknowledging these crimes, the problem for the pro-Israel lobby is to silence students on university campuses who support a ceasefire.

Is Criticism of Israel Worse than it Killing 35,000?
The students and their friends set up encampments to expose what Israel has done and continues to do. The students and their allies demand an end to universities’ connections to Israeli research centres, cultural exhibits, and sports exchanges, and an end to the special treatment Israeli academics receive from almost all research universities in Canada. The students are demanding their universities divest from Israeli-linked investments. For this, the students are tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, attacked by police, roughed up, and arrested.

The students and their friends set up encampments which are peaceful. They denounce the murders and destruction of Gaza. . . .

The Media—Stenographers to Power

And the Canadian media plays right along. Blithely, they go along, “stenographers to power,” as Amy Goodman (host of broadcast Democracy Now!) famously said—despite the fact that more than 97 Palestinian journalists have lost their lives thanks to Israeli snipers (remember Shireen Abu Akleh?) and missiles. The media here has all but ignored the fact that most of the 97 dead Palestinians journalists have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israel. Only when there’s a police attack—or a bid for an injunction to shut down the encampment—do Canada’s finest reporters wade into the encampments. I’ve rarely heard one interview—just a sound byte here and there—highlighting why the students are there. Why are the students willing to give up their studies, their apartments, their jobs—and be in the line of fire of the police for a cause that others call intractable and “too complicated.”

Does Perceived Antisemitism Justify Genocide? . . . .
As U.S. former secretary of labour, Robert Reich, who is Jewish, recently wrote,Once we start conflating antisemitism with protests against mass brutality, such as the slaughter in Gaza, we invite blindness to injustices in which America is complicit.

I’d say Canada is complicit as well.

Judy Haiven is a retired management professor at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, NS. She is a member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada.

Israel-PalestineThe Silent War on the West Bank Has Become Deafening

Wednesday, 18 September 2024

Israel-PalestineFor 11 Months, Israel’s Boot Has Mercilessly Pressed Down on West Bank’s Neck

Tuesday, 17 September 2024

Israel-PalestineThe West Bank Too is Under Attack: What I Saw

Monday, 16 September 2024

CONTENTS #17

Rabbi Arthur Waskow.  “…One More Murder.”  An important “Hamas” distinction; three tasks.
Julia Frankel.  The Unprecedented Death Toll.

George Yancy.  Reporting Judith Butler’s Call for Ceasefire.

Ahmad Abuznaid, USCPR.   Cease Fire!
LTE on Fida Jiivis’ Stranger in My Own Land.
As’ad AbuKhalil.  Rev. of Rashid Khalidi’s book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine.

You Tube.  Speech in Irish Parliament.

Three Views of Oslo Accords from WRMEA.

Seven Views of Breakout from WRMEA.

Philip Weiss.  American Anthropological Assoc. Votes to Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions.

Ramzy Baroud.  Murdered Palestinian Children.

Nada Al Kahlout.  Death of a Palestinian Child.

Palestine Chronicles.  “Save the Children” Report.

Musafa Sheta. “Assault on Jenin.”

Chris Hedges and Asa Wistanley on Weaponizing Anti-Semitism v. Jeremy Corbin.

Jeremy Kuzmarov.  Israeli Attack on US Ship Remembered.

People’s Dispatch.  Nakba Is Every Day.

 END ISRAEL-PALESTINE ANTHOLOGY #18