progressiveissuesblog

Judaism

Updated 2024-07-25

Judaism – Wikipedia   Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people, having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age.  Contemporary Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the cultic religious movement of ancient Israel and Judah, around the 6th/5th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which was established between God and the Israelites, their ancestors.  Along with Samaritanism, to which it is closely related, Judaism is one of the two oldest Abrahamic religions.

Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Among Judaism’s core texts is the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures. The Tanakh, known in English as the Hebrew Bible, is also referred to as the “Old Testament” in Christianity. In addition to the original written scripture, the supplemental Oral Torah is represented by later texts, such as the Midrash and the Talmud. The Hebrew-language word torah can mean “teaching”, “law”, or “instruction”, although “Torah” can also be used as a general term that refers to any Jewish text that expands or elaborates on the original Five Books of Moses.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism

Israel versus Judaism      https://www.israelversusjudaism.org/?

2024-06-12 ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ may be many Americans’ image of Judaism – but American Jews’ heritage is stunningly diverse     “Tradition!” rings out the opening line of “Fiddler on the Roof,” the Broadway play that brought Jewish life to stages around the world. The 1964 musical gives audiences a window into Yiddish-speaking, rural Jewish life in 19th-century Europe.

For many people, this image represents Jewish history as a whole. When most Americans think of Jews, they think of Ashkenazi Jews: a term that refers to people of eastern and northern European Jewish culture. In American culture, Ashkenazi Jews are represented by cultural icons ranging from Tevye the dairyman and Yente the matchmaker in “Fiddler” to comedians Woody Allen and Sarah Silverman and author Philip Roth. 

While Ashkenazi Jews do make up the majority of American Jews, the Jewish world is much more diverse that this picture suggests – including in the United States. The diversity of American Jews is a major focus of my own research: both through my current project, Jews of Color: Histories and Futures, and in my book about interfaith families, “Beyond Chrismukkah.”  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fiddler-on-the-roof-may-be-many-americans-image-of-judaism-but-american-jews-heritage-is-stunningly-diverse/ar-BB1obQFZ?

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Jewish Claims to Palestine

Updated 2024-04-03

[MEK Note: Zionists justify that Israelites are the native people of Palestine because they were there some 2000 years ago and have had some representative presence there since.   Jewish people are not the only people who have been displaced or marginalized in past 2000 years.   It was quite common as changing empires and wars have had tremendous effects on all people of the world.   Zionists want us to believe that their claims to land supersede all other people’s interests and heritages. 

Islam accepts Judaism and Christianity as part of Islam religion thus those who are Muslim have roots as far back as any Jewish people in the land of Palistine/Israel.]

Pre-State Israel: Jewish Claim To The Land Of Israel   A common misperception is that the Jews were forced into the diaspora by the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D. and then, 1,800 years later, suddenly returned to Palestine demanding their country back. In reality, the Jewish people have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than 3,700 years. A national language and a distinct civilization have been maintained.

The Jewish people base their claim to the land of Israel on at least four premises: 1) God promised the land to the patriarch Abraham; 2) the Jewish people settled and developed the land; 3) the international community granted political sovereignty in Palestine to the Jewish people and 4) the territory was captured in defensive wars.

The term “Palestine” is believed to be derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who, in the 12th Century B.C., settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain of what is now Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the second century A.D., after crushing the last Jewish revolt, the Romans first applied the name Palaestina to Judea (the southern portion of what is now called the West Bank) in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel. The Arabic word “Filastin” is derived from this Latin name.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel formed the first constitutional monarchy in Palestine about 1000 B.C. The second king, David, first made Jerusalem the nation’s capital. Although eventually Palestine was split into two separate kingdoms, Jewish independence there lasted for 212 years. This is almost as long as Americans have enjoyed independence in what has become known as the United States.

Even after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the beginning of the exile, Jewish life in Palestine continued and often flourished. Large communities were reestablished in Jerusalem and Tiberias by the ninth century. In the 11th century, Jewish communities grew in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea.

Many Jews were massacred by the Crusaders during the 12th century, but the community rebounded in the next two centuries as large numbers of rabbis and Jewish pilgrims immigrated to Jerusalem and the Galilee. Prominent rabbis established communities in Safed, Jerusalem and elsewhere during the next 300 years. By the early 19th century-years before the birth of the modern Zionist movement-more than 10,000 Jews lived throughout what is today Israel.

When Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in large numbers in 1882, fewer than 250,000 Arabs lived there, and the majority of them had arrived in recent decades. Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country, although Arabic gradually became the language of most the population after the Muslim invasions of the seventh century. No independent Arab or Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine. When the distinguished Arab-American historian, Princeton University Prof. Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said: “There is no such thing as ‘Palestine’ in history, absolutely not.” In fact, Palestine is never explicitly mentioned in the Koran, rather it is called “the holy land” (al-Arad al-Muqaddash).    https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-claim-to-the-land-of-israel

2024-02-11 The ‘settler colonialists’ of Palestine   The anti-Israel epithet is a misdiagnosis that inverts the truth: It was the Jews who were exiled from their native land.   

In the case of these other countries, there is actually some historical basis for this finger-pointing. What can be done practically to remedy the situation today is, of course, less clear. But only Israel is expected to reverse its supposed status as a settler colonialist state basically by disappearing.

Clearly, the negative impact of settler colonialism on indigenous native populations can be real, but in the case of Israel, this is a gross misdiagnosis. An honest analysis of the history of Israel/Palestine actually points to the conclusion that it is the Jews who are the true native indigenous population of the region and who have been forcibly exiled for more than 2,000 years. 

An unbiased analysis of history will indeed accept the description of genuine settler colonialism in the Middle East but with a serious misidentification of the true victim of this injustice. The Jewish People have the longest consistent history as the legitimate native indigenous nation in the territory under question. The Jews began their romance with this land several hundred years BCE, even before they built the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Since then Jews have, on numerous occasions, been subject to military assault, eviction and banishment from their homeland. 

The Zionists returning to Israel did not come to replace native indigenous populations. They themselves were the real natives and the indigenous population of the land of Israel. Let us bury once and for all the slanderous charges against the State of Israel as representing the colonial part of the phrase “settler colonialism”.

Had the Arab inhabitants of Palestine welcomed the Zionist immigrants instead of attacking them, the Middle East country would really have become a Garden of Eden instead of a recurrent battlefield. It is never too late to begin.   https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/who-were-the-settler-colonialists-of-palestine/

2024-02-06 Jewish Roots in the Land of Israel/Palestine      https://www.hoover.org/research/jewish-roots-land-israelpalestine

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Jewish People

Updated 2024-04-03

History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel – Wikipedia      The term “Jews” originates from the Biblical Hebrew word Yehudi, and in its original meaning refers to the people of the Tribe of Judah or the people of the Kingdom of Judah. The name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob.  Originally, the Hebrew term Yehudi referred only to members of the tribe of Judah. Later, after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), the term “Yehudi” was applied to anyone from the Kingdom of Judah, including the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, as well as scattered settlements from other tribes.

The Land of Israel, which is considered by Jews to be the Promised Land, was the place where Jewish identity was formed, although this identity was formed gradually reaching much of its current form in the Exilic and post-Exilic period. By the Hellenistic period (after 332 BCE) the Jews had become a self-consciously separate community based in Jerusalem.   

According to the Book of Genesis, Judah (יְהוּדָה‎, Yehudah) was the name of the fourth son of the patriarch Jacob. During the Exodus, the name was given to the Tribe of Judah, descended from the patriarch Judah. After the conquest and settlement of the land of Canaan, Judah also referred to the territory allocated to the tribe. After the splitting of the united Kingdom of Israel, the name was used for the southern kingdom of Judah. The kingdom now encompassed the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Simeon, along with some of the cities of the Levites. With the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria), the kingdom of Judah became the sole Jewish state and the term y’hudi (יהודי‎) was applied to all Israelites.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_and_Judaism_in_the_Land_of_Israel#Early_Israelites

Types of Jews    For good and for bad, Jews tend to be thought of as a single homogenous group. But the Jewish people have always had internal distinctions, and over the years have developed diverse ethnic and religious identities.

Since the biblical period, Jews have been divided into three religious groups:

Kohanim (Priests)  The descendants of the sons of Aaron who served as priests in the Temple in Jerusalem;

Levites   The descendants of the tribe of Levi, who also worked in the Temple as musicians, singers, guards, and gatekeepers; and

Israelites (Yisraelim)   Those from the other 11 tribes.     https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/types-of-jews/

Conversion to Judaism – Wikipedia  Conversion to Judaism is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization.  The procedure and requirements for conversion depend on the sponsoring denomination. Furthermore, a conversion done in accordance with one Jewish denomination is not a guarantee of recognition by another denomination.  Normally, though not always, the conversions performed by more stringent denominations are recognized by less stringent ones, but not the other way around. A formal conversion is also sometimes undertaken by individuals whose Jewish ancestry is questioned or uncertain, even if they were raised Jewish, but may not actually be considered Jews according to traditional Jewish law.

There are some groups that have adopted Jewish customs and practices. For example, in Russia the Subbotniks have adopted most aspects of Judaism without formal conversion to Judaism.  However, if Subbotniks, or anyone without a formal conversion, wish to marry into a traditional Jewish community or immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, they must have a formal conversion.

According to Israel Bartal, then dean of the humanities faculty of the Hebrew University, “conversions to Judaism had a major impact on Jewish history in the ancient period and in the early Middle Ages”   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_to_Judaism

Jewish principles of faith      Judaism does not centralize authority in any single individual or group. The formulation of principles of faith that are universally recognized by all branches of Judaism remains undefined. There is no central authority in Judaism in existence today – although the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish religious court, would fulfill this role if it were re-established. Instead, Judaism’s principles of faith remains debated by the rabbis based on their understanding of the sacred writings, laws, and traditions, which collectively shape its theological and ethical framework. The most accepted version in extent is the opinion of Maimonides

Judaism affirms the existence and uniqueness of God, and stresses performance of deeds or commandments alongside adherence to a strict belief system. In contrast to religions such as Christianity which demand a more explicit identification of God, faith in Judaism requires one to honour God through adherence to God’s instructions (Torah) and the practice of all of the mitzvot. 

Most Jews believe that God is creator of the universe. Different sects of Jews view this in different ways. For example, some ultra-Orthodox groups reject the concept of evolution and believe the earth to be only a few thousands years old. Other groups of Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews do not believe in a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative, and according to that view, Judaism is not in contradiction to the scientific model that states that the age of the universe is around 13.77 billion years old.[6] Norbert M. Samuelson writes the “question of dating the universe has never been a problem of Jewish philosophy, ultimately because that philosophy has never taken the literal meaning of the Bible to be its revealed, true meaning”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_principles_of_faith

2016-04-13 Can a Person Convert to Judaism?     In short, the answer is: “No”.   There is no such thing as conversion to Judaism in the written Torah, it is something the rabbis invented (i.e. Their predecessors: The Pharisees).

First of all, if you make an application for Israeli citizenship, the first question they ask you is: Was your mother Jewish? If your mother is Jewish, they could not care less which synagogue you attended; who your rabbi is, what yeshiva you studied in, etc, etc, etc….   In fact, even if you were a Christian, but your mother was Jewish, you would STILL be granted Israeli citizenship…..IMMEDIATELY…..no questions asked…well, maybe they would ask a few questions, but you would get your citizenship.

The point is: A Jew is a member of the people formerly known as either Hebrews or Israelites. Judaism is the religion practiced by those people.  The written Torah is quite clear: The answer is: “No”.  A stranger may live amongst the Israelites and, if he agrees to follow all their laws, he will share in their bounties, but that does not make him an Israelite.

Regardless, the point is that a Jew is a member of a people, just like a Japanese person is a member of a people. I can study Japanese culture; pray to Shinto gods; eat sushi from dawn to dusk; etc, etc, etc, but that does not make me Japanese.  https://www.jpost.com/Blogs/Torah-Commentaries/Can-a-Person-Convert-to-Judaism-409549  

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Jesus

Updated 2024-04-03

2023-12-17 Jesus: The Man, The Myth, The Messiah    Jesus is one of the most influential and controversial figures in human history. He is revered by billions of Christians as the Son of God and the Savior of the world, but he is also questioned by many others who doubt his divinity and his historical existence. Who was Jesus, really? What do we know about his life, his teachings, and his death? And what does his name mean?    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/jesus-the-man-the-myth-the-messiah/ar-AA1lEqLu?

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Israel’s Gaza Responsibility

Updated 2024-04-03

The Gaza Strip (A Great deal of information available here)

Israel contends that its role as occupying power in the Gaza Strip ended in September 2005, when it dismantled all settlements there, withdrew its military forces and declared the end of the military government. Further to this position, Israel contends that it no longer has any obligations or responsibilities toward Gaza residents, other than minimal humanitarian duties designed to prevent a serious crisis in the Gaza Strip.

This position is entirely baseless. In the early years following the implementation of Israel’s Disengagement Plan, there was some vagueness regarding Israel’s legal obligations toward Gaza. However, since then, the conception of degree of responsibility as commensurate with degree of control has taken root. Though Israel is clearly no longer responsible for keeping the peace inside Gaza, and is not generally obliged to see to the welfare of its residents under the laws of occupation, it is still the power that shapes the daily lives of Gaza residents, and as such, also bears responsibility towards them.

Although Israel declared an end to its military administration in Gaza, it continues to control critical aspects of life there. It controls all border crossings by land, apart from Rafah, as well as Gaza’s sea and air space. This control allows Israel to exclusively monitor the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, which it regulates according to Israeli interests. This holds true even when Gaza residents wish only to transit through Israel in order to reach the West Bank or other countries.   https://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Israel versus Judaism

Updated 2024-08-26

Israel versus Judaism      https://www.israelversusjudaism.org/?

2024-08-14 Opinion: Listen to the modern-day Jeremiahs denouncing Israel’s war in Gaza     Two-and-a-half millennia ago, the prophet Jeremiah berated the people of Israel and the political leadership of the kingdom of Judah. 

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jeremiah denounced “faithless Israel” for corruption, societal injustice, brutality and general moral decay. He was called a traitor for appearing to support the Babylonian Empire, the kingdom’s eastern enemy. His preaching earned him beatings, death threats, imprisonment from the religious and political establishment and ultimately exile.   

Today, there is evidence of the equally corrosive effect recent hostilities have had on the modern Jewish State’s populace. The Guardian sees a “‘deep moral deterioration’ being normalized in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Civilians are being slaughtered in Gaza, and in the West Bank, face-to-face killing, vandalism and land and agricultural theft abound. Looking to a prophet like Jeremiah seems appropriate.   By his standards, and from this retrospective view, Israelis — especially the government — might have more to fear from the wrath of God than the International Criminal Court.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/opinion-listen-to-the-modern-day-jeremiahs-denouncing-israel-s-war-in-gaza/ar-AA1oOphK?

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Israel Terrorism

Updated 2024-04-03

2024-03-18 Israel’s Right-Wing Wants All the Palestinian Land—and This Explains Its State Terrorism      When it comes to “terrorism,”— defined as violence against civilians for political purposes—Palestinians have lost over 400 times more innocent lives than have innocent Israelis over the decades.

The Israeli government’s “solution” to the Palestinian problem – eviction or destruction and colonization of what’s left of Palestinian land – did not begin after the October 7th Hamas raid.   For many decades Israeli politicians have been working toward the goal of establishing what they call “Eretz Israel” or “The Greater Land of Israel” – a greater Israel composed of all of the Palestine mandate “from the Sea to the River Jordan” (their words). After the partition of Palestine under UN auspices in 1948, Israel has expanded its territory, by military and non-military means, and now comprises 78% of what was once Palestine, plus Syria’s Golan Heights.   https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-state-terrorism-gaza

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Israel Society

Updated 2024-07-25

2024-05-26 Palestine Talks | In conversation with Max Blumenthal (Part 2)     In the second of this two-part interview, investigative journalist at The Grayzone and author Max Blumenthal speaks candidly about his own past experience in Palestine and how that allowed him to anticipate the unprecedented Israeli assault on Gaza today. He also shines a light on the extent to which Israeli society reflects the militarised Israeli state, reinforced by “systems of indoctrination” that promote “fear and loathing of Palestinians.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuo4JU-qncM

2024-05-25 Israel a society of human shields  By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

The Zionists kill Palestinian children claiming terrorists attack from behind civilians

yet they created Israel use it as a whole society of human shields a nation of settlers

where Jewish identity is used with impunity to wield violence genocide

ethnic cleansing occupation of a true Semitic people the Palestinian nation 

(read more of this dynamic poem below)

2024-03-08 We Jews have imagination. But we have always failed to recognize danger.  Many Israelis, as well as countless lovers of Israel overseas, have been living a continuous nightmare these past eight months. They feel the country they’ve known could disappear, and that very thought makes their hearts skip a beat. A world without a democratic Israel is one that none of us wants or can even imagine. A person is the sum of all their experiences, and our experiences in Israel – despite the challenges – are, on the whole, good ones. We love Israel, Israeliness, and our culture and language. So, what, all this will just end? Ever since Abraham, we’ve known how to shape a vision that seemed far-fetched and put it into practice, but we’ve often missed darkening clouds. Is Israel as we know it going to disappear?   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/we-jews-have-imagination-but-we-have-always-failed-to-recognize-danger/ar-AA1gxFtn?

2023-12-14 Fundraising special: problems of philanthropy, and what in Israel is producing the carnage in Gaza? – KPFA Behind the News      Amy Schiller, author of The Price of Humanity, on what’s wrong with philanthropy and how to fix it • Joel Schalit, editor of The Battleground, on what it is in Israeli politics and society that’s behind the carnage in Gaza.  https://kpfa.org/episode/behind-the-news-december-14-2023/

2023-11-16 Profile of an “ecoterrorist” • What makes Israel do the things it does – KPFA Behind the News    Christopher Ketcham, author of this article, looks inside the mind of an “ecoterrorist” • Neve Gordon on what in Israeli society leads to bombing hospitals.  https://kpfa.org/episode/behind-the-news-november-16-2023/

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Israel Settlements (see also West Bank)

Updated 2024-07-25

2024-03-08 Israeli settlements expand by record amount, UN rights chief says  Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded by a record amount and risk eliminating any practical possibly of a Palestinian state, the U.N. human rights chief said on Friday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that the growth of Israeli settlements amounted to the transfer by Israel of its own population, which he reiterated was a war crime. The U.S. Biden administration said last month the settlements were “inconsistent” with international law after Israel announced new housing plans in the occupied West Bank.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-settlements-expand-by-record-amount-un-rights-chief-says/ar-BB1jzP9Y? 

2024-03-05 Settlers Israeli settlers stormed an Israeli military checkpoint into northern Gaza, where they stole food and built an outpost. Soldiers reportedly did not detain them.     https://www.tiktok.com/@ajplus/video/7342952818170449183

2022-05-06 Israeli Settlements | IMEU Policy Backgrounder    Since 1967, Israel has been establishing illegal Jewish-only colonies on stolen land in the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in the Syrian Golan Heights. According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, Israel had authorized 12 settlements in East Jerusalem and 138 settlements in other parts of the West Bank. In addition, there are an estimated 150 settlement outposts which have received Israeli government support but not official authorization. According to the settler lobby Yesha Council, there were approximately 674,000 Israelis living in these settlements as of 2020. In addition, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, there were 24,000 Israeli settlers in the Golan Heights as of 2020 living in 33 settlements, according to the Golan Regional Council. The expansion of Israeli settlements has gotten a big boost from the current Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a former head of the primary settler’s organization. 

All Israeli settlements–whether located in East Jerusalem or other parts of the West Bank, or whether officially sanctioned by the government or not authorized–are illegal under international law.

Israeli settlements are the primary driver of and pretext for Israel’s dispossessing Palestinians from their land, demolishing Palestinian homes, fragmenting Palestinian space, and appropriating Palestinian natural resources.

Israeli settlers, often backed by the army and state, frequently engage in violence against Palestinians by injuring and killing them, destroying their houses and uprooting their trees, and in general threatening and harassing them.   

An official US legal opinion written by the State Department confirms the illegality of Israeli settlements.

Precedent in US law exists for ensuring that US funding does not benefit illegal Israeli settlements. 

Current legislation in the 117th Congress would strengthen reporting requirements on the impact of Israeli settlements.  https://imeu.org/article/israeli-settlements-imeu-policy-backgrounder

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Israel Self Destruct

Updated 2024-04-03

2024-02-22 Hamas Has Destroyed Israel (But Not How You Think) Israel is going down a dangerous road in Gaza. Their stated goal is to eliminate Hamas but in reality there is no way they can achieve this goal. Hamas does not pose a long term threat to Israel, it never has and it never will. October 7th was the result of a failure in Israeli defense, not an advancement of Hamas military capability. The reality is Israel wants to take over the entire Gaza region and these horrific actions against the people in Gaza are the biggest threat to the long term security of Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKM3pV2RH4A

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World