progressiveissuesblog

Cease Fire Permanent

Updated 2024-08-24

Jewish Voice for Peace    We’re demanding a permanent ceasefire — and working towards lasting peace.       https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/11/30/media-roundup-manhattan-bridge/  

 JVP – Permanent ceasefire now. A pause is not enough.     The Israeli military has killed over 15,000 Palestinians in Gaza in just over 50 days. Over 6,000 of them were children — that’s as many as the total number of children killed in armed conflicts around the world during 2021 and 2022 combined.     On Monday, a four-day “ceasefire” was extended for two days. The pause and its extension were no doubt the result of the extraordinary pressure being exerted by the movement for Palestinian liberation.    But the temporary ceasefire will end tonight. There can be no business as usual as long as the genocide being carried out against Palestinians in Gaza remains merely “on pause.”    That’s why on Sunday, 1,500 people led by JVP-NYC shut down New York City’s Manhattan Bridge on the busiest travel day of the year.    https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/11/29/wire-permanent-ceasefire-now/

2024-06-03 Will Israel Agree to “Israeli” Ceasefire Proposal? Confusion Reigns After Biden Presents New Plan     U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday outlined what he described as an Israeli ceasefire proposal to end the war in Gaza, nearly eight months after Israel began its invasion in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas. Biden described three phases to release captives held by both sides, allow residents to return to the north of the Gaza Strip and begin reconstruction of the devastated territory after the full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Hamas said it looked positively on the proposal and previously accepted similar terms, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to agree to it publicly amid pressure from far-right members of his governing coalition to continue the war indefinitely. Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy says Biden may have employed “constructive ambiguity” about Israel’s position in order to bring the two sides closer to a deal, but that the most important goal is to end the “horrors” in Gaza with a permanent ceasefire. “What are the maximal guarantees that can be given that this is not just a 42-day hiatus followed by yet further death, killing, destruction that we still now see every day?” asks Levy, who is now president of the U.S./Middle East Project.   Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv74Gwin0DM

2024-06-10 ‘Glimmer of Hope’ as UN Security Council Approves Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution   In a move that boosts the three-phase plan announced by President Joe Biden late last month, the United Nations Security Council on Monday voted 14-0—with permanent member Russia abstaining—in favor of a U.S.-sponsored resolution for a cease-fire in Gaza.   Russia chose not to exercise its power to veto the resolution, which urges Israel and Hamas to “fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”

Responding to the vote, Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement that “although the Biden administration should have allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a permanent cease-fire resolution many months and many slaughtered Palestinians ago, we welcome today’s development as a positive and long overdue step toward ending the genocide.”

“The Biden administration must now use American leverage to force [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to agree to a permanent cease-fire so that the massacres of Palestinian civilians can end, all hostages and political prisoners can safely go free, international tribunals can begin holding those responsible for war crimes accountable, and the world can finally begin pursuing a credible end to the illegal occupation of Palestine that has fomented decades of injustice and oppression.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/cease-fire-resolution-passes

2024-04-13 There is ‘no advantage’ to continuing Israel’s military campaign: Ehud Olmert    Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert joins ‘Cavuto Live’ to weigh in on the latest news emerging from the war as Israel braces for a potential attack by Iran. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/there-is-no-advantage-to-continuing-israel-s-military-campaign-ehud-olmert/vi-BB1lz2Zm?ocid=socialshare

2024-03-22 In 24-1 Vote, Hawaii State Senate Demands Permanent Cease-Fire in Gaza    In a near-unanimous vote, Hawaii’s Senate on Thursday became the first state legislative body in the U.S. to endorse a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, adding to the mounting domestic pressure on President Joe Biden to force an end to Israel’s monthslong assault.

The Hawaii Senate, which is dominated by Democrats, voted 24-1 to approve a resolution urging U.S. President Joe Biden and members of the state’s congressional delegation to “publicly call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza and continue negotiations for lasting peace.”  https://www.commondreams.org/news/hawaii-senate-cease-fire

2023-12-05 Most US Voters Support Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza, New Polling Finds       An overwhelming majority of voters favor the U.S. taking a diplomatic or humanitarian response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza rather than sending more unconditional aid to Israel’s far right government and military, new polling finds.   According to Data for Progress polling of likely U.S. voters conducted in the days surrounding the start of the pause in the bombardment of Gaza in November, 61 percent of voters support de-escalation and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, including 76 percent of Democrats, 57 percent of independents and 49 percent of Republicans, a plurality.

When asked what path they think U.S. officials should take in response to the assault, choosing all options that applied, voters strongly supported either using diplomacy to encourage Israel to begin a ceasefire in order to pursue the release of hostages, at 49 percent, and/or sending humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, at 31 percent.

Even though Biden administration officials and members of Congress have been insistent upon sending billions of dollars to Israel in military and logistical assistance, the polling finds that voters do not favor this idea. Only 24 percent of respondents said that they think sending additional aid to Israel should be a priority. Meanwhile, if the U.S. does choose to send assistance, the poll found that most voters say it should come with conditions in order to ensure that the aid isn’t being used to commit crimes against humanity. Sixty-three percent of voters said they agreed that the U.S. should only provide Israel with military aid “if they meet our standard for human rights,” including 76 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of independents and 49 percent of Republicans, again a plurality.   https://truthout.org/articles/most-u-s-voters-support-permanent-ceasefire-in-gaza-new-polling-finds/

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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

African National Congress

Updated 2023-12-08

2023-12-06 Unpack the past: Mandela, the keffiyeh and South Africa’s Palestine embrace         Mandela felt a special bond with the Palestinian people. In 1997, while still president of South Africa, he said the ANC’s struggle was ongoing. “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

“The ANC’s support networks in exile crossed the Cold War divide,” he explained. “The party was very good at talking to anybody and everybody. They had an office in London but were also talking to Gaddafi and Castro and the like.”   But, Graham stressed, “Their real support came from the Eastern bloc. This meant it developed really close relations at the very top of the ANC, which persisted well into the post-apartheid era.” Mandela’s inauguration in 1994, for instance, saw Arafat and Castro sitting a discreet distance away from US Vice President Al Gore and First Lady Hilary Clinton at a time when Washington treated the PLO and Cuba’s communist government as pariahs.   

Despite having now been in power for almost 30 years, the ANC still sees itself as a liberation movement whose project is incomplete, Graham said.   “The ANC tailored its foreign policy after 1990 on the basis of its experience in the liberation struggle. They view themselves as pushing for a new international order, and the Palestinian struggle as an extension of the ANC struggle.” There is, he adds, “no strictly economic rationale in supporting Cuba, or Palestine … or Russia. It’s more of an affinity, part of a worldview that looks on these as being separate fronts in a shared global struggle.”  

The ANC’s affinity with Palestine is also not surprising given the close ties between Israel and the apartheid government. In the 1930s, the National Party membership card featured the Swastika, and during World War II, BJ Vorster, who went on to serve as South Africa’s prime minister from 1966 to 1978, was jailed for his involvement in the paramilitary wing of the anti-British, pro-Nazi Ossewabrandwag.   

In 1993, Mandela said the ANC had been “extremely unhappy” with Israel’s collaboration with the apartheid government. The ANC’s senior leadership has not forgotten that many of the weapons the apartheid government used to kill their people were bought from Israel. It has since emerged that Israel even went so far as to offer nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime.  

On December 16, 1961, handbills were scattered in the townships of Port Elizabeth and pasted on lamp posts in Johannesburg: “The people’s patience is not endless. The time comes in the life of any nation where there remain only two choices: submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means within our power in defence of our people, our future and our freedom.”

That context is vital to understanding comments made by Mandela during a state visit to Palestine in 1999: “Choose peace rather than confrontation. Except in cases where we cannot get, where we cannot proceed, or we cannot move forward. Then if the only alternative is violence, we will use violence.”  That alternative of violence was one that Mandela used sparingly. Under Mandela, MK only carried out sabotage strikes on state infrastructure and military installations, going to great lengths to prevent civilian loss of life.

A decade after his passing, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is killing thousands of civilians. The death toll is close to 16,000 Palestinians, including more than 6,000 children. To Mandela, it would surely have felt personal. As he said during his 1999 visit to Gaza, he felt “at home among compatriots”.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/unpack-the-past-mandela-the-keffiyeh-and-south-africa-s-palestine-embrace/ar-AA1l2b04

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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

Absentees’ Property Law (see Israel Absentees’ Property Law)

Updated 2023-12-08

Absentees’ Property Law – Israel    The Absentees’ Property Law was enacted in 1950 by the Knesset, shortly after the establishment of the state of Israel in May 19481234. The law retroactively legalizes all actions taken under the emergency regulations by treating them as if they had been taken on the basis of the 1950 law. The law declares that any property situated within the post-war boundaries of Israel and owned by an Arab who had left the country between November 29, 1947 and May 19, 1948, or by a Palestinian who went abroad or to an area of Palestine held by hostile forces up to September 1, 1948, lost all rights to that property. The Absentees’ Property Law was the main legal instrument used by Israel to take possession of the land belonging to the internal and external Palestinian refugees, and Muslim Waqf properties across the state.     https://www.bing.com/search?q=Israeli+Absentee+Property+Law&form=ANNTH1&refig=068a9f43fa3e4c5faa5e64375edc3f69

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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

Media – Progressive

Updated 2024-01-06

Against the Currant   Israel-Palestine

American Prospect    https://prospect.org/api/search.html?q=Israel&sa=

Black Agenda Report      Israel-Palestine 

Common Dreams    https://www.commondreams.org/search/?q=Israel+Palestine

Consortium News   Israel-Palestine

Counter Punch     Israel- Palestine   

Covert Action   https://covertactionmagazine.com/?s=Israel+Palestine

Democratic Underground   Israel-Palestine

Democracy Now   https://www.democracynow.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Israel+Palestine

Dissent Magazine     https://www.dissentmagazine.org/search/?q=Israel+Palestine 

Electronic Intifada   https://electronicintifada.net/search/node/Israel%20Palestine

Fair  https://fair.org/?s=Israel+Palestine

Foreign Policy      https://foreignpolicy.com/?s=Israel+Palestine#sort=-1

Global Research     https://www.globalresearch.ca/?s=Israel+Palestine&x=10&y=7

Gray Zone    https://thegrayzone.com/?s=Israel+Palestine

In These Times   https://inthesetimes.com/

Jacobin       https://jacobin.com/search?query=Israel+Palestine

KPFA   https://kpfa.org/?s=Palestine

Liberation News    https://www.liberationnews.org/?s=Israel+Palestine

Mint Press   https://www.mintpressnews.com/?s=Israel+Palestine

Mother Jones   https://www.motherjones.com/?s=Israel+Palestine

MultiNational Monitor   Israel-Palestine

Nation   https://www.thenation.com/?s=Israel+Palestine

New Republic   https://newrepublic.com/search?search=Israel%20Palestine

Oakland Socialist   https://oaklandsocialist.com/?s=Israel+Palestine

People’s Dispatch   https://peoplesdispatch.org/?s=Israel+Palestine

People’s Tribune   https://peoplestribune.org/?s=Israel+Palestine

Palestinian Chronicles https://www.palestinechronicle.com/

Political Affairs     Israel-Palestine   

Portside   https://portside.org/search?q=Israel%20Palestine

Progressive Magazine    https://progressive.org/api/search.html?q=Israel+Palestine&sa=

Progressive Populist   Israel-Palestine

Project Censored    https://www.projectcensored.org/?s=Israel+Palestine

Quaker Action     https://afsc.org/search/content?keys=Israel+Palestine

Reader Supported News   https://www.rsn.org/search?q=Israel+Palestine

Real News    https://therealnews.com/?s=Israel%20Palestine

Rising Up   https://risingupwithsonali.com/tag/palestine-and-israel/

Roots Action   Israel-Palestine

RT   https://www.rt.com/search?q=Israel+Palestine

Salon    https://www.salon.com/search/Israel%20Palestine

Socialist Action    https://socialistaction.org/?s=Israel+Palestine

Socialist Viewpoint     http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/search.html

The Cradle      Israel-Palestine

Tom Dispatch   https://tomdispatch.com/?s=Israel+Palestine

Truthout    https://truthout.org/?s=Israel+Palestine&post_type=all

Unheard    https://unherd.com/?s=Israel+Palestine

Utne     https://www.utne.com/search/Israel+Palestine

Wahington Monthly    https://washingtonmonthly.com/?s=Israel%20Palestine

Washington Report     https://www.wrmea.org/search.html?searchphrase=all&searchword=Israel%20Palestine

Yes Magazine   https://www.yesmagazine.org/?s=Israel+Palestine

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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

Press Releases from Congress concerning Israel/Palestine

Updated 2023-12-03

2023-11-22 Senator Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) Statement on Hostage Release in Gaza      https://www.butler.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-butler-statement-on-hostage-release-in-gaza/

2023-10-18 Senator Alex Padilla D-CA, Colleagues Call for Providing Humanitarian Aid to Address Emergency Needs in Gaza       https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-colleagues-call-for-providing-humanitarian-aid-to-address-emergency-needs-in-gaza/

2023-10-10 Senator Alex Padilla D-CA Statement Following Biden Administration Briefing on Terrorist Attacks Against Israel       https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-following-biden-administration-briefing-on-terrorist-attacks-against-israel/

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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

Water Shutoff

Updated 2024-08-29

2024-07-25 The Politics of Water Under Occupation: Israel in Palestine      The International Court of Justice released its historic advisory opinion on 19 July 2024 just as I was finishing my essay on Israel’s theft and abuse of the water resources of Palestine.

The 80-page opinion, “Legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” unequivocally states that “the State of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful” and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible.”

The “Exploitation of natural resources” section (V/B.4, 124-133) was of particular interest to me. In it, the Court confirmed what I had set out to disclose, that Israel has used, misused and abused its illegal control over the water resources of Palestine to gain a permanent hold over all of the land.    https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/07/25/the-politics-of-water-under-occupation-israel-in-palestine/

2024-07-22 Oxfam: Israel Has Reduced Water Access in Gaza by 94 Percent Since October    Oxfam has warned that Israel’s longstanding policy of using water as a weapon against Palestinians has reached its peak amid Israel’s genocide, with water access for Palestinians in Gaza now at a small fraction of pre-genocide levels as Palestinians die of dehydration, starvation and disease.

According to a report on Israel’s water deprivation policies by Oxfam, Israel has reduced water access in Gaza by a whopping 94 percent since October. This means Palestinians only have access to an average of roughly 4.7 liters of water per person per day, or only about 1.2 gallons a day.

In the supposed “humanitarian safe zone” in al-Mawasi — which Israeli forces have attacked relentlessly — Palestinians only have access to an average of 2.5 liters per day, the report said.  https://truthout.org/articles/oxfam-israel-has-reduced-water-access-in-gaza-by-94-percent-since-october/

2024-04-05 How Israel Weaponizes Water     Even before Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza, 97 percent of the water in the sole coastal aquifer of Gaza was already unsafe for human consumption, writes Vijay Prashad.

By November 2023, it was already clear that the Israeli government had begun to deny Palestinians in Gaza access to water. “Every hour that passes with Israel preventing the provision of safe drinking water in the Gaza strip, in brazen breach of international law, puts Gazans at risk of dying of thirst and diseases related to the lack of safe drinking water’, said Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.

“Israel,” he noted, “must stop using water as a weapon of war.”   Before Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza, 97 percent of the water in Gaza’s only coastal aquifer was already unsafe for human consumption based on World Health Organisation standards. Over the course of its many attacks, Israel has all but destroyed Gaza’s water purification system and prevented the entry of materials and chemicals needed for repair.

In early October 2023, Israeli officials indicated that they would use their control over Gaza’s water systems as a means to perpetrate a genocide. As Israeli Major General Ghassan Alian, the head of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said on 10 October, “Human beasts are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza. No electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2024/04/05/how-israel-weaponizes-water/

2023-11-12 Palestinians in Gaza say finding clean drinking water is like “prospecting for gold”     I’m a Jewish American who mentors young adult Gazan writers through a program called We Are Not Numbers (WANN). Or, at least, I did before October 7. Since Israel started bombing the territory and cut off most communications, I can only regularly reach one, A. (I’m using initials because Gazans are concerned about being targeted for retaliation if they criticize Israel).

We don’t discuss A.’s writing anymore. Instead, he sends me messages about how many hours he stands in line for bread each day without getting any (the record, so far, is 8). He sleeps with 50 other people on the floor of a hall with no working bathrooms, no electricity, and minimal food—as of a few days ago, his family was eating chocolate and chips as meals because it was all they could find on the emptying store shelves. But none of this is as pressing as the daily search for water.

There’s no running water in most of the city, because Israel shut off the pipes leading into Gaza and won’t allow any fuel in to power its desalination plants. 

“people are drinking from municipality water (which is for washing/cleaning and not for drinking) due to the severe lack of water. Some people use a filter to purify either that water or water from the sea! Some people have wells beneath their homes but they don’t have electricity to pump it. Some Mosques donated water for people. They have to be in a loooong queue to fill a bottle of water. Some people are lucky and the rest are not.”  https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/palestinians-in-gaza-say-finding-clean-drinking-water-is-like-prospecting-for-gold/

 2023-11-09 Infectious Diseases Surging in Gaza Amid Israeli Siege, Healthcare System Collapse       “The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has already reached catastrophic levels, and it’s set to get worse unless something changes immediately,” said one human rights official.   The infectious disease outbreaks that doctors on the ground, public health officials, and humanitarian groups have been warning about for weeks in Gaza appear to be in full force, the World Health Organization said Thursday as it reiterated its call for a cease-fire to save lives.

The global public health organization said authorities have reported a surge in cases of diarrhea, with more than half of those affected children under the age of 5, as Israel’s decision to cut off fuel access in the blockaded enclave has shut down water desalination plants and disrupted waste collection. The circumstances have created “an environment conducive to the rapid and widespread proliferation of insects, rodents that can carry and transit diseases.”

By Thursday, said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, all of Gaza’s 120 municipal water wells were expected to be depleted.

Health officials in the blockaded enclave, where nearly 11,000 civilians have now been killed, are also reporting nearly 9,000 cases of scabies and lice; 12,600 cases of skin rashes; more than 1,000 reports of chickenpox; and nearly 55,000 cases of upper respiratory infections as roughly 1.5 million displaced people crowd into hospitals, churches, schools, and shelters in search of safety from Israel’s relentless bombardment.    https://www.commondreams.org/news/infectious-diseases-gaza

2023-05-17 A precious resource: how Israel uses water to control the West Bank      In occupied West Bank villages, Israeli-owned farms are flourishing, while Palestinians often do not have enough water to drink.   “It’s easy to see where the settlers are. Look at the olive grove below the cypress,” Haj Mohammed said, as a herd of goats passed by. “That is our land, but we are not farming it. See how close together the trees are? That’s because the settlers have access to the water supply and proper irrigation. Compare it to our trees, the ones that are spaced out more, and not in neat rows.”    Israel is the world leader in water management and technology: last year, a first-of-its-kind project began pumping desalinated seawater from the Mediterranean northwards, to replenish the shrinking Sea of Galilee.

Yet rights groups contend that these successes are to the detriment of Palestinians; Israel controls about 80% of water reserves in the West Bank, but both the West Bank and Gaza Strip face severe water stress and drought.   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/17/how-israel-uses-water-to-control-west-bank-palestine?

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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

United States Economics

Updated 2023-12-02

2023-11-27 Raucous ‘pro-Palestine’ protests are killing NYC’s recovery   As the tourist-dependent holiday season gets under way, New York is ill-prepared for a repeat of George Floyd summer, winter edition.    Agitated bands of people, having failed to radicalize the common man via the political process, are determined to crash our parades, shopping excursions and sightseeing through not-so-peaceful “peaceful protest.”    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/raucous-pro-palestine-protests-are-killing-nyc-s-recovery/ar-AA1kzlti

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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

Spain

Updated 2023-12-02

2023-11-27 Israel has summoned the ambassadors for Belgium and Spain     Meanwhile, Israel has summoned the ambassadors for Belgium and Spain after their countries’ leaders spoke at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza Friday condemning Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians. This is Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez: “It is absolutely necessary to establish a lasting humanitarian ceasefire to reverse the catastrophic situation that the people of the strip are going through.”    https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/27/headlines/bbc_censors_bafta_acceptance_speeches_expressing_solidarity_with_palestine

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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

Silver, Vivian – Canadian Israeli Peace Activist

Updated 2023-12-02

2023-11-20 Palestinian Activist Remembers Vivian Silver, Israeli Canadian Peace Activist Killed in Hamas Attack    Israeli and Palestinian peace activists are mourning 74-year-old Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver after she was confirmed killed on October 7 during the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. She was previously thought to be held hostage. Silver co-founded the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, sat on the board for the human rights group B’Tselem and was an active member of Women Wage Peace. Silver’s friend and colleague Samah Salaime, a Palestinian feminist activist, says Silver would have pushed for dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. “This was her legacy, and this is what we have to march for and fight for after her death.”    https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/20/vivian_silver

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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

Republicans (also see GOP Israel Support)

Updated 2024-08-29

2024-08-13 Shootdown of Hijacked Airplanes on 9/11—But Only After Three Planes Had Already Crashed     ouse Republicans asked two top Biden administration officials on Tuesday to provide more information about the three suspected Palestinian terrorists who were apprehended crossing the US-Mexico border illegally last month.

The letter, addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray, comes after Border Patrol agents detained the Palestinian nationals and one migrant from Turkey also suspected of having ties to terror groups along the San Diego sector of the border. The incident is being investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/house-republicans-demand-answers-from-biden-administration-after-palestinian-terror-suspects-nabbed-at-border-systemic-problem/ar-AA1oKPGn?

2024-04-23 House GOP Plays Politics With Campus Antisemitism While Enabling Islamophobia      The House education committee has not made any efforts to investigate the targeting of Muslim and Palestinian students despite the fact that it keeps happening with sometimes violent consequences. 

The spirit of Joseph McCarthy is alive and well in the halls of Congress. For proof, look no further than the Republican-controlled House education committee’s latest hearing focused on investigating allegations of antisemitism at American colleges and universities.

During this week’s widely covered hearing, many committee members followed a predictable playbook: mischaracterize any pro-Palestinian student activism as antisemitic, ask incendiary “gotcha” questions about imaginary incidents of antisemitism, and then pressure college leaders to silence young people who advocate for Palestinian human rights.

House committee members like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) have mastered this artform, which gives them an opportunity to go viral in right-wing media, smear pro-Palestinian students, and virtue signal that they oppose any form of bigotry even as their political party enables nearly every form of bigotry.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/house-gop-campus-antisemitism

2023-11-16 Republicans blast pro-Palestinian protests at DNC: ‘Nation’s capital is under siege’     Republicans shared their thoughts on the violent protests outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Wednesday night that saw U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officers pepper sprayed by protesters. 

“I am on Capitol Hill right now and it’s on lockdown,” Florida Rep. Kat Cammack wrote. “No getting in or out of our offices.”   “We have officers that were pepper sprayed by pro-Hamas protestors with a lot of people attempting to break into the Democratic HQ,” she continued. “Anyone else notice how violent the so-called ‘ceasefire’ crowd is? 

Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican, posted that the “nation’s capital is under siege.”  “Last week, it was the White House,” Biggs wrote. “This week, it’s the DNC.”   “These left-wing lunatics have to be held accountable,” he added.

“Thank you [USCP] for keeping Democrats safe from their own terrorist loving supporters,” Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., posted. “Stay safe out there.” 

National Republican Congressional Committee communications director Jack Pandol said in a statement that sometimes “saying nothing says everything.”  “Multiple officers injured in the line of duty and Democrats can’t even offer a simple thank you – let alone condemn the antisemitic riot,” Pandol said.   “The glaring truth is, these pro-Hamas rioters represent Democrats’ base of support and they are terrified to offend them,” he continued.

“Last night our team was quick, decisive, courageous and in control,” the Capitol Police wrote.   “When demonstrations cross the line into illegal activity it is our responsibility to maintain order and ensure people’s safety,” they concluded.   https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-blast-pro-palestinian-protests-dnc-nations-capital-under-siege

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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