progressiveissuesblog

Progressive Group Statements

Updated 2024-04-06

Standing Together   Our message is simple: There is another way. We have seen our country launch countless wars and military operations only to end up in the same position. Israel’s policy of attempting to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities every few years has only led to Hamas getting stronger. No military operation has ever produced lasting safety and security for Israelis – let alone for Palestinians. The occupation of the West Bank and the blockade on Gaza must end – not only because it is brutal and oppressive for Palestinians – but also because it does not guarantee any long-term safety for Israelis. We know that a negotiated peace agreement is the only way to ensure freedom, equality, and safety for both peoples. As a progressive grassroots movement, we are focused on building the political will in Israeli society to reach a political solution by building a mass movement of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel who truly believe that such a shared future is possible. We call for an urgent ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, to bring back the hostages and save the lives of innocent people in Gaza.    https://www.standing-together.org/2023war  

2023-10-31 ‘No Military Solution’: Carter Center Joins Call for Gaza Cease-Fire, Diplomatic Talks     The Carter Center, founded by the only U.S. president to identify Israel’s violent policies in Palestine as apartheid, on Tuesday joined international calls for a cease-fire in Gaza as the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 reached at least 8,525.

The organization, which former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter established to fight for human rights worldwide, quoted the Democratic politician and humanitarian in its statement: “We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.” 

“We urge all parties to agree to a cease-fire,” said the Carter Center. “We ask for the opening of humanitarian corridors into Gaza and the reinstatement of essential services to the area. We urge the immediate, safe return of all hostages, and we call on both sides to abide by international law.”   The call for a cease-fire came as one United Nations official warned that the blockaded enclave of Gaza has devolved into a “graveyard” for children since Israel shut off access to fuel, electricity, water, and food and began launching repeated airstrikes in retaliation of Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7.

“Collective punishment is contrary to international law,” the organization continued. “So is the murder of civilians.” 

Hamas on Saturday called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to an exchange of the Israeli civilians taken hostage by the group when it launched its surprise attack, and the Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons; the family members of some Israeli hostages have also called for an “all for all” prisoner exchange.

But bolstered by the Biden administration and U.S. politicians including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Netanyahu has rejected calls for a cease-fire, which UNICEF on Tuesday said could save the lives of 1,000 children in Gaza in just 72 hours.

“The violence must stop now,” said the Carter Center. “There is no military solution to this crisis, only a political one that acknowledges the common humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians, respects the human rights of all, and creates a path for both societies to live side by side in peace.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/ceasefire

2023-10-09 Statement by United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)   Free Palestine!  Resistance is justified when people are occupied!

The United National Antiwar Coalition stands firmly behind the people of Palestine as they resist over 75 years of brutal and illegal occupation by the Israelis. We call on people and organizations across the United States to take to the streets to support the cause of a free Palestine and to demand an end to all US military and economic aid to Israel.

While the mainstream media will tell people this war began with rockets from Hamas on October 7, 2023, we know that the Palestinian people have been living in a constant state of war since the Israeli state was conceived in 1948 when historic Palestine was divided to create the current Zionist, Apartheid state and hundreds of thousands of dispossessed Palestinians were driven off their lands into internal and external exile. Violence against Palestinians by Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) and settlers has increased under the new Netanyahu government. This constant violence and oppression against a people and the failure of nonviolent methods of holding the Israeli state accountable lead to one, logical outcome: resistance.

For over seven decades, the Palestinian people have been subjugated to not only theft and occupation of their land, but constant violence, arbitrary detention and dehumanization. In the West Bank, multiple checkpoints restrict their movements and access to medical resources. Palestinians are denied basic necessities such as clean water, and the people face violent raids by the Israeli Occupying Force and murderous Israeli settlers, who constantly encroach on Palestinian land.

Thousands of men, women, and children are locked inside of Israeli jails for years without charges or trials, Palestinians face legalized discrimination, and for two years in a row, the IOF and right-wing Israeli nationalists have attacked Palestinians worshiping at the Al Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian deaths.

The people of Gaza, in particular, have been subject to some of the worst living conditions and indiscriminate Israeli bombings. Within the 140 square mile Gaza Strip, the largest open-air prison in the world, two million people live trapped and vulnerable to unannounced Israeli strikes.Their human rights to water, food, electricity and movement are violated. According to the Euro-Med Monitor report, Pulling the Trigger is the First Resort, there was a “dramatic surge” in the number of Palestinians murdered in 2022 and more than 60% of those killed by the IOF were civilians who were not involved in any sort of conflict.

All of this violence perpetrated by the Israeli State is only possible with the political, financial, and military backing of the United States. Every year, the United States sends $3 billion in military aid to Israel, which is used to fund the occupation and constant bombardments of Palestinian territories. With that money, Israel also purchases equipment and technology from US weapons manufacturers. Israel is the largest recipient of US aid globally.

UNAC condemns US wars for occupation, greed and resources. We recognize that under international law, Palestinians have the legal right to resist the Israeli occupation. The present violence between Palestinians and Israelis represents a decades-long struggle by an oppressed people for liberation. UNAC’s second point of unity states:

“We support the right of all oppressed peoples, including colonized and formerly colonized countries, to determine their own road to liberation… We do not have to agree with a targeted country’s leaders in order to oppose U.S. aggression against that country. As political activists in the heart of the Empire, we have a responsibility to oppose U.S. imperialism. In the particular case of Palestine, we support the right of the Palestinian people to determine their own future and we oppose any U.S. aid to the colonial apartheid state of Israel.”

The Palestinian people demand and deserve freedom from Israeli apartheid, settler colonialism, and genocidal tactics. How they go about achieving victory in their struggle for liberation is for them to determine.

UNAC demands an end to all US military and economic aid to Israel. We call on all members to express their support for a free Palestine through solidarity actions. Please send us any pictures and descriptions of actions in your city, so that we may circulate them.  Free Palestine!

UNACpeace.org  https://socialistaction.org/2023/10/10/free-free-palestine-from-the-river-to-the-sea/

2023-10-08 A Statement from RootsAction on the Gaza-Israel War   We condemn the attacks by Hamas deliberately targeting Israeli civilians for killing and kidnapping. And we condemn Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza, which is again killing large numbers of Palestinian civilians. We grieve for all the lives lost and for all those injured and traumatized.

The root of today’s violence is the oppression and abuses suffered daily by Palestinian people as a whole under decades of cruel Israeli occupation and expansionism. Leading human rights groups — from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch to Israel’s B’Tselem — have concluded that Israel’s occupation policies amount to a form of apartheid.  Until Israel’s military occupation is ended, these cycles of terror and war and trauma will repeat.

A huge obstacle to bringing an end to the Israeli occupation is the U.S. government. Under Democratic and Republican administrations, it has steadfastly made excuses for Israel as ever more Palestinian homes and villages have been destroyed or seized by right-wing settlers, as settlements have expanded, as Israeli soldiers have stormed Muslim holy sites, as Palestinian children have been militarily detained. And the violence from soldiers and extremist settlers toward Palestinians has worsened in the West Bank and East Jerusalem with the rise of the most openly racist, far-right government in Israel’s history.

We agree with Jewish Voice for Peace when it traces today’s bloodshed to U.S. complicity with Israel’s never-ending occupation: “The U.S. government consistently enables Israeli violence and bears blame for this moment. The unchecked military funding, diplomatic cover, and billions of dollars of private money flowing from the U.S. enables and empowers Israel’s apartheid regime. Those who continue calling for ‘ironclad’ U.S. support for the Israeli military are only paving the path to more violence.”    https://rootsaction.org/news-a-views/3209–a-statement-from-rootsaction-on-the-gazaisrael-war

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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

Paul, Josh State Dept Official

Updated 2024-08-28

2024-08-15 “Incomprehensible”: U.S. Approves $20 Billion in New Arms for Israel as Gaza Death Toll Tops 40,000   Health officials in Gaza said Thursday that the official death toll from Israel’s 10-month war has topped 40,000, though that is believed to be a vast undercount of the true figure. The grim milestone was reached just days after the Biden administration greenlit $20 billion in additional weapons sales to Israel, including 50 F-15 fighter jets, tank ammunition, mortar rounds, tactical vehicles and advanced air-to-air missiles. The U.S. approved the sales despite growing calls for an arms embargo on Israel. “This is just a continuation of a policy that has been going on now for 10 months of the U.S. providing to Israel all the arms that it requests,” says Josh Paul, a veteran State Department official who worked on arms deals and resigned in protest over Gaza policy in October. “It is a dark day for American foreign policy.” We also speak with Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who says it’s “incomprehensible” that the U.S. keeps supplying Israel with weapons. “There should be no more arms going into that place before there is a ceasefire.”   Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCtywovwpx8

2023-12-11 State Dept. Whistleblower Blasts Blinken for Bypassing Congress to Send 14K Tank Munitions to Israel   The Biden administration has bypassed Congress to approve an “emergency” sale of over $100 million of tank ammunition to Israel. Congress was notified just hours after the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire. We get response from Josh Paul, former director of congressional and public affairs for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which oversees arms transfers to Israel and other nations. Paul resigned from the State Department in October to protest the Biden administration’s push to increase arms sales to Israel amid its ongoing siege on Gaza.     https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/11/state_department_arms_israel

2023-11-23 State Department Official Resigns, Says Israel Is Using U.S. Arms to Massacre Civilians in Gaza     We speak with Josh Paul, a former State Department official, about his decision to resign from his position in protest of U.S. arms sales to Israel amid its recent bombardment of Gaza. Paul tells Democracy Now!, “I decided to resign for three reasons, the first and most pressing of which is the very, I believe, uncontroversial fact that U.S.-provided arms should not be used to massacre civilians, should not be used to result in massive civilian casualties.” https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/23/dissenters_2

2023-11-09 Former State Dept. official who resigned over U.S. arming Israel: ‘Ceasefire is number one priority’    The former State Department official who resigned over the U.S. arming Israel speaks to Joy Reid. Josh Paul, former director of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs tells Joy: “When Russia bombs hospitals, we condemn it as a war crime. When Russia takes out the power grid of a country, we condemn it as a war crime. But, when Israel does it, we provide the bombs.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpehb1IsdLg&list=RDNSDQH8HYIkCwU&index=4

2023-11-03 State Department Official Resigns, Says Israel Is Using U.S. Arms to Massacre Civilians in Gaza      We speak with Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned last month to protest continued arms sales to Israel amid its bombardment of Gaza, writing in a viral letter that one-sided U.S. support for Israel is “shortsighted,” “destructive” and “contradictory.” Media reports say many others inside the State Department are equally frustrated with the U.S. role in the conflict. Paul tells Democracy Now! he tried to raise his concerns with his superiors but found “no appetite for that discussion” and that unlike all other U.S. arms sales that take humanitarian concerns into account, Israel gets a blank check. Paul says the overall message inside the Biden administration is: “Don’t question the policy because it’s coming from the top.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w9fAgaUBrw 2023-10-19 State Department Official Quits to Protest Biden Administration’s “Blind Support” of Israel    A high-ranking State Department official has resigned in protest of the Biden administration’s policies on Israel and Palestine. For 11 years, Josh Paul oversaw arms transfers to U.S. allies while serving as the congressional and public affairs director of the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. In a letter explaining his resignation, Paul condemned what he called U.S. “blind support” for Israel as “an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia.” Paul wrote that his greatest desire was to see both Israelis and Palestinians flourish, adding, “Collective punishment is an enemy to that desire, whether it involves demolishing one home, or one thousand; as too is ethnic cleansing; as too is occupation; as too is apartheid.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/19/headlines/gaza_death_toll_nears_3_800_as_israels_siege_and_bombardment_enters_13th_day

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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

Palestinian Christians

Updated 2024-07-30

The Stones Cry Out – Documentary   Voices of the Palestinian Christians.   The Stones Cry OutIn 1948 the history of Palestine changed forever, but little is ever said about the upheaval faced by its Christian minority. Christians have lived side by side with Muslims and Jews for almost two thousand years. An integral part of Palestinian society, they have shared in the events of recent history, yet their voices are seldom heard and worse: their existence often ignored.   https://www.journeyman.tv/film/8576

2024-03-18 Palestinian Christians Suffer—and Many American Churches Don’t Care   We share the beliefs and traditions of Christians everywhere. Why do so many Western churches ignore us?   while various opinions exist in most American and Western churches, a significant group either remains indifferent or unconditionally supports the modern state of Israel and many of its dehumanizing policies.

Adding insult to injury, certain Christian evangelical leaders have employed the Bible to justify and rationalize the war in Gaza, as if it were a conflict between biblical Israel and God’s enemies. Some leaders have gone so far as to promote political ideologies and disguise them in biblical language. Furthermore, some have even outright dismissed and discredited the voices of Christian Palestinians.

Indifference is not an option. As Christians, we cannot afford to remain silent in the face of any injustice. Our silence will be perceived as complicity, particularly by those we aim to reach with the love and hope of Jesus Christ.  https://newrepublic.com/article/179758/palestinian-christians-suffer-american-churches-dont-care

2023-10-09 Full Film: What Happened to the Christians in Palestine/Israel? (Stones Cry Out)     Born in Palestine to a humble beginning, Christianity took root in Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Did Christians in Palestine ever try to fight for “No Taxation Without Representation” and lose? Find out.   Recent actions in the middle east has renewed global propaganda dividing people into camps, forcing us to choose a side for something virtually nobody understands. The modern, never-ending, Israel vs. Palestine debate. This full documentary is meant to give a completely different side that the global media does not discuss.  What happened to the Christians in Palestine? “The Stones Cry Out”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl5QidXyYNY

2023-05-31 Israel systematically targets and harasses Palestinian Christians    Israel unleashes its rabid settlers to torch and damage Christian property in occupied Palestine.   Anti-Christian graffiti is a radical Israeli habit especially in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.   Jesus Christ is a favorite topic. Spitting on Christians is normal practice.  Palestinian Christians have always complained of Israeli attacks and harassment.   Since 1948, Israel has carried out attacks against 100+ churches and cemeteries in occupied Palestine.  Christian leaders refuse to be singled out and refuse Israeli attacks against Muslims and Christians.   Muslims always rise to defend Christian holy sites against Israeli attacks.  The number of Christians in Jerusalem and Bethlehem has dwindled due to Israeli occupation’s practices.  Israeli settlers block and assault Arab Christians celebrating Holy Saturday in Jerusalem.    Israel usually prevents Gaza Christians from reaching Bethlehem and Jerusalem.   Whether you are Muslim or Christian, you’ll not be safe from Israeli terror. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gAcS1SVXHk,  https://english.palinfo.com/video_articles/Israel-systematically-targets-and-harasses-Palestinian-Christians/

2019-03-04 Bethlehem | Walking with Palestinian Christians | short film documentary | The Living Stones     So often, Christian pilgrims travel to the holy land to experience where Jesus lived, walked and performed miracles. Churches have been built over ancient stones that represent locations of stories in the Bible. The tours come and the tours go… but most of the pilgrims (tourists) miss the most important encounter: an encounter with the RISEN Christ. All around the world, the resurrected Christ roots his presence among the poor and marginalized. The Palestinian people, especially Palestinian Christians, have been oppressed and marginalized by the Israeli Occupation. However, Israel is not the enemy. “Enemies are friends in waiting”. Peacemaking is at the core of a Palestinian Christian’s life. Following Jesus means loving our enemy. There in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, in the middle of it all, experience the Holy Land through the eyes of “the living stones,” Palestinian Christians who descend from the disciples. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnVxykNxxiU

2015-02-15 Munther Isaac: Palestinian Christian Response to Christian Zionism     Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD0FPD8-XoA

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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

Mokhiber, Craig UN Official

Updated 2023-12-02

2023-11-23 “Text-Book Case of Genocide”: Top U.N. Official Craig Mokhiber Resigns, Denounces Israeli Assault on Gaza   Hear from Craig Mokhiber, a longtime international human rights lawyer, who previously served as director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on why he left his post while decrying U.N. inaction over what he calls a “text-book case of genocide” unfolding in Gaza. Mokhiber’s letter of resignation went viral last month. He spoke to Democracy Now! shortly after.  https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/23/dissenters

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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

Khaddura, Ayat Palestinian Journalist

Updated 2023-12-02

2023-11-24 When the First Casualty of War Is Truth, Journalists Are the Second    No amount of censorship or attacks on reporters will be able to suppress the reality of chaos and carnage that Israelis have unleashed in Gaza.    Truth – and journalists – are the first casualties of the war on Gaza.

“We’ve never seen anything like this. It’s unprecedented,” Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “For journalists in Gaza specifically, the exponential risk is possibly the most dangerous we have seen.”

One of those killed was Ayat Khaddura, a 27-year-old independent journalist and podcast creator. She and her family were killed by an Israeli airstrike this week, at home in northern Gaza.

“This may be the last video for me,” Ayat said in Arabic, in a video she posted. “Today, the occupation dropped phosphorus bombs on the Beit Lahia project area and scary sound bombs and threw evacuation notices in the area. Almost the entire area has been evacuated. Everyone started running madly in the streets. No one knows where they’re going to or coming from. We’re separated…The situation is very terrifying. What is happening is very difficult. May God have mercy on us.”    Holding back tears, Ayat Khaddura ended what would be her last video.       https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/journalists-killed-in-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’s Lies

Updated 2024-04-03

2024-03-19 Israel’s Pathological Lies & How Gaza Changed the World, w/ Ali Abunimah     Rania Khalek hosts a special live episode of Dispatches w/ Ali Abunimah, executive director of the Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP7fukEV0HI

2024-03-17 Van Hollen Says Netanyahu Spreading ‘Flat Out Lies’ About UNRWA     U.S. Senator for Maryland Chris Van Hollen continued his defense of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and its work in Gaza in an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“The claim that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and others are making that somehow UNRWA is a proxy for Hamas are just flat out lies, that’s a flat out lie,” he told journalist Margaret Brennan. 

The U.S. was one of many Western countries that paused funding for UNRWA after the agency announced in January that it had fired 12 staffers over Israeli allegations that they had been involved in Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. However, some countries including Canada, Sweden, the European Union, and Australia have since restored funding. A report has also emerged that Israel tortured UNRWA staffers into falsely confessing to involvement in the Hamas attack.  https://www.commondreams.org/news/van-hollen-netanyahu-lies-unrwa

2024-03-02 BBC investigation reveals IOF edited aerial footage of flour massacre     Following the Flour Massacre, the Israeli occupation released aerial footage alleging that Palestinians were martyred due to a “stampede” during aid collection.  

A BBC investigation uncovered that the footage was edited and not presented as a continuous sequence, raising suspicions that the IOF might have concealed the part where they opened fire on the people gathered at the Nabulsi Roundabout.   BBC Verify has reviewed social media videos, satellite imagery, and IOF drone footage to assemble a “comprehensive understanding” of the information regarding the massacre.

It is worth noting that Mahmoud Awadeyah, a journalist who was at the scene, told the BBC that Israeli vehicles began firing at people upon the arrival of the aid trucks. “Israelis purposefully fired at the men… they were trying to get near the trucks that had the flour,” he said. “They were fired at directly and prevented people to come near those killed.”  https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/bbc-investigation-reveals-iof-edited-aerial-footage-of-flour

2024-01-03 Debunking Israel’s Gross Response to Genocide Case       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSXSGLGAzwo

2023-12-07 Israeli activists say world has ignored Oct. 7 sexual violence against women     [MEK Note: They have no proof of any of this outrageous circus of lies.  All the mutilated & burned bodies were killed by indiscriminate IDF fire from helicopters and tanks.  Hamas is a well-trained and disciplined resistance movement.  Under attack by the IDF right from the beginning they certainly had no time to be sexually assaulting women. The women who were tied to a bed and burned to death were collected hostages killed by IDF tank fire. Hamas mission was to take hostages back to Gaza.  Unlike Israel which can propagandize fake public support and sympathy, Hamas has to earn world sympathy and support by its behavior and not engage in any of the war crimes they have been accused of on October 7 or since!  Most of the civilians on October 7th were killed by the IDF and blamed on Hamas!  Any Hamas militant would probably be severely punished for such sexual acts.  Nearly 100 women released in hostage exchange have made no such complaints during 2 months captivity.  Yet you want to believe during a very hectic October 7^th & 8th, Hamas took time to commit atrocities that they never did to women they held in captivity!  If you believe this propaganda, you are either brain dead or a true Zionist believer!]

A United Nations commission is investigating potential war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas war. But the UN agency dedicated to gender equality has been sharply criticized for waiting until this month to express alarm over sexual violence perpetrated during the October 7 Hamas attacks. Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen reports. A warning: The accounts in this story are disturbing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDg15fUws3E

2023-11-27 Report: Israel Knew Real Hamas HQ; Lies Enabled “War of Obliteration of the Population     “Although corporate news media have made it clear they don’t buy the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claim that al-Shifa Hospital has been a cover for a Hamas command and control center and weapons armory, Western media have failed to report a much bigger story.

“The IDF and the Israeli government already knew when they launched their propaganda campaign about al-Shifa that Hamas had no military command and control facility hidden there because it had already found the complex kilometers away.” Porter gives details about the actual Hamas HQ, citing a leak to the Jerusalem Post.

“The real story of the Israeli effort to sell its argument that Hamas took over al-Shifa and other hospitals to coordinate attacks is the massive deception aimed at U.S. media and public opinion in order to justify Israel’s war of obliteration of the population of Gaza. “That campaign of deceit has had the full-throated support of the Biden administration, which stands equally guilty of misleading the American people in its support for an illicit Israeli war.”  https://accuracy.org/release/report-israel-knew-real-hamas-hq-lies-enabled-war-of-obliteration-of-the-population/?

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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 Public Opinion

Updated 2024-02-25

2023-12-20 YOU CAN HELP THE ISRAELI WAR RESISTANCE MOVEMENT AT THIS CRITICAL TIME     To an outside observer, Israeli public debate appears solid. There seems to be an overwhelming consensus supporting an open-ended war on the Palestinians of Gaza in revenge for the horrors of October 7. The reality is different. Many Israelis, including some directly impacted by the Hamas attack, believe that there is no military solution and that the only way out of this terrible situation is an immediate ceasefire followed by prisoner exchange. They want to speak out, but are hard pressed to find a stage. That’s why we established Voices Against War, which we told you about in our last update.

Since the outbreak of the war, an active anti war movement has come together in Israel, composed of a variety of  individuals and groups. Our Israeli partners in the struggle against the occupation are central to this movement, and all of them have intensified their war resistance actions. Organizing these activities is harder now than ever: A crackdown on dissent is in progress, and arrests of nonviolent protesters are a daily occurrence.

Now, more than two months since the outbreak of the war, there appears to be no end in sight. Repression of dissent has only increased. More than ever, Israelis working to end the war need your support.  https://www.refuser.org/refuser-updates 2023-11-28 Israeli public opinion and the war on Gaza I Sidebar     Veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy explains how Israeli public opinion has been conditioned to view Palestinian lives as less valuable, and how this has resulted in the lack of internal criticism towards Israeli war crimes. Levy also talks about the role of Israeli media and other things in this episode of Sidebar with Jamal Elshayyal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZJ_Uw_Yu0w

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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 Prisoner Releases

Updated 2024-07-25

2024-07-15 Freed by Hamas from Israel’s jails – The Grayzone reports   ournalist Jeremy Loffredo travels to the Dheishe Refugee Camp in the occupied Palestinian West Bank to meet Rawda Abu Ajamieh, a woman who was jailed for her activism, and released in exchange for Israeli captives as part of the December 2023 prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel. Ajamieh describes the harrowing conditions prisoners experienced after October 7, when their Israeli jailers embarked on a revenge spree of beatings and sadistic punishments, and the jubilation of experiencing freedom.

Loffredo also speaks to Tala Nasser of the Addameer Prisoner Support NGO, which has been blacklisted by the Israeli government as a “terrorist organization.” Nasser details testimony collected by Addameer of horrific abuses, including sexual assault, by Israeli prison authorities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZu18Vvwy2g

2023-11-27 Updates from Electronic Intifada   33 Palestinians – 30 children and three women – were released by the Israel Prison Service and an additional 200 trucks have delivered aid to Gaza, as per the agreement signed between Hamas and Israel. According to Haaretz, “Israel police warned the families of Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails as part of the exchange deal with Hamas not to celebrate the return of their loved ones.” The families of the released Palestinian children were summoned by police to issue the warning, Haaretz added.    https://electronicintifada.net/updates               

2023-11-27 Police warn families of freed Palestinians not to celebrate their release     The Israel police has warned the families of Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails as part of the exchange deal with Hamas not to celebrate the return of their loved ones. Ahead of the release, police summoned the families of prisoners to issue the warning.

In addition, police prevented journalists from approaching the Sheikh Jarrah home of Nafuz Jad Araf Hamad, who is among those Palestinians expected to be released, and is preventing the media from covering her arrival.

[MEK Note: This has been contested by Palestinian Sources] Hamad was jailed after stabbing and seriously wounding an Israeli woman who was walking in the street with her five children in December 2021. Hamad was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier this month.   https://archive.vn/ZY7IH#selection-467.0-469.68

2023-11-27 CNN Correspondent Reveals Truth About Israel    Treatment of Prisoners being released by Israel involves censorship, threats against celebration and Isolation .    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t3NkiV7JwA

2023-11-27 Israel Releases Palestinian Child Prisoners!     As part of the recent hostage swap with Hamas, Israeli authorities released dozens of prisoners, many of whom are or were children at the time of their arrest. Unbeknownst to most westerners, Israel routinely arrests Palestinian children and then subjects them to solitary confinement, physical and sexual abuse and other deprivations — this according to Save the Children.

Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger, along with Due Dissidence’s Keaton Weiss, discuss Israeli propaganda about its treatment of Palestinians and how long American politicians can continue to spread these lies.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfRVPZ9Cics

2023-11-26    78 children and women prisoners embrace freedom amid extremely difficult detention conditions     Since Friday evening, Israeli occupation authorities have released 78 child prisoners and detainees who have spent varying periods within the occupation’s prisons. This came after a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas in Gaza as part of a truce agreement. It is expected that the occupation authorities will gradually release a total of 150 male and female prisoners from the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem during the days of the truce, in exchange for the release of several Israeli prisoners in Gaza. In the past few days, 30 female prisoners have been released, including four administrative detainees, and 14 prisoners serving varied sentences, the highest is the released prisoner Shorouq Dwayyat, sentenced to 16 years. Among those released were also several injured prisoners, including Israa al-Ja’abees, who suffers severe burns, and Fatima Shaheen, who lost the ability to walk after being shot by the occupation forces.

Regarding children, the occupation authorities released 48 child prisoners in the past two days, among them the injured child prisoner Wisam Tamimi, who had been shot in the head few days before his arrest. The Israeli prison service (IPS) has practiced deliberate medical neglect and assaulted him during detention, and he is still under trial. Additionally, seven children under arbitrary administrative detention were released, and it is also expected to release the child Mohammad Abu Qutaish, who is serving a 15-year sentence, which is the highest sentence among the children, in the coming days.

The Israeli forces deliberately assaulted the prisoners and their families during the prisoner release operations. They delayed the release of prisoners until late at night, and they released the child prisoners wearing clothes that did are too big for their size, and some of them were barefoot. Additionally, the clothes did not provide adequate protection from the cold weather. The forces also used sound bombs, gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition in front of Ofer Prison while families were gathered, awaiting the release of their loved ones.

Moreover, the Israeli forces raided the homes of the prisoners before their release in occupied Jerusalem, preventing them from any signs of celebration upon reuniting with their sons and daughters. The families were summoned to the Mascobiyyeh interrogation center and subjected to arbitrary conditions that prohibited gatherings, banned marches and fireworks, and prevented chanting slogans. The Israeli forces also assaulted journalists who were present at the homes of the detainees in Jerusalem, by physically assaulting and expelling them, prohibiting them from media coverage.      https://addameer.org/news/5232

2023-11-26 Updates from Electronic Intifada   39 Palestinians – women and children – have been released from Israeli prison each of the first three days in accordance with the prisoner exchange agreement. The 117 are mostly children, part of a cohort that totals some 250 children and women imprisoned in Israel, more than 80 percent of whom are being held without formal charges against them, held in what Israel calls administrative detention. There are more than 7,000 political prisoners held in Israeli jails and prisons, according to Addameer, the Palestinian prisoners rights group.  https://electronicintifada.net/updates                 

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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

Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts (see Peaceful Solutions)

Updated 2024-07-25

The Forever War – Documentary    Is there a way out of the Israel-Palestine war?   This war will be etched in the memories of generations to come: the brutality of Hamas’s October 7 attack, and the ferocity of Israel’s retaliation. In this Four Corners, ABC’s Global Affairs Editor John Lyons asks the tough questions; challenging some of Israel’s most powerful political and military voices about the country’s strategy and intentions.   https://www.journeyman.tv/features

Book Recommendations:

The Peace Puzzle (https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/…) by Daniel C. Kurtzer, Scott B. Lasensky, William B. Quandt, Steven L. Spiegel and Shibley Telhami

Arabs and Israelis (https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/arabs-a…) by Abdel Monem Said Aly, Shai Feldman and Khalil Shikaki

The Missing Peace (https://us.macmillan.com/books/978037…) by Dennis Ross

2023-11-21 The Best Primer I’ve Heard on Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts      t is too early to talk about a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. With the trauma of Oct. 7 still fresh for the Israeli public and with the ongoing devastation in Gaza, any talk of conflict-ending solutions is cruel fantasy.   But it wasn’t always. Peace efforts in the Middle East have been tried over and over again. It is not a history without breakthroughs. There was a time when a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt would have been unthinkable. But that agreement lives alongside a long list of collapsed negotiations. Why?

I wanted to have someone on the show who could help me read this checkered history. Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of “The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo… Few people have been as intimately involved in the many Middle East peace processes as Miller. He’s a decades-long veteran of the State Department who has touched peace negotiations under the Reagan, the Clinton and both Bush administrations. His book is the best I’ve read on the peace processes and what went wrong.

In this conversation, we explore the frustrating, uneven history of Arab-Israeli peace efforts, Miller’s hard-won insights about the reality of peace negotiations and the idiosyncratic personalities who have most influenced the prospects for peace in the Middle East. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8eeZO_x6PI

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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 Assassination Program (see Assassination Factory)

Updated 2024-08-26

2024-08-01 Netanyhu Assassination Spree Could Set Middle East on Fire   Netanyahu’s lifelong belief that he will lead his nation to victory by crushing the Palestinian national cause and preventing a state from ever seeing the light of day can never be discounted.   Today, he might think he is on the cusp of his ultimate political achievement as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, by dragging the U.S. and Britain into war with Iran.

Netanyahu sent other messages, too, in killing Haniyeh, who had no involvement in the Hamas attack on 7 October, and whose bureau was in charge of negotiations with mediators Qatar and Egypt.   Netanyahu has torn up negotiations and any thought of getting the hostages back alive. This should already have been obvious from the latest round of talks in Rome, where the Israeli side multiplied its conditions around phase one of the deal.  It was evident, too, from Netanyahu’s last visit to Rafah, where he vowed Israel would retain indefinite control of the Philadelphi corridor.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has asked how negotiations can proceed when Israel has killed its negotiating counterpart.  In killing a mild man like Haniyeh, who did not hide underground but lived out in the open, and who dedicated his career to negotiations and engagement with the Islamic world in Qatar, Turkey and Iran, Israel has killed a leader it could one day need to negotiate a hudna, or long-term ceasefire. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/haniyeh-assassination-regional-war

2024-08-00  Analysist Rami Khouri  on Israel killing Machine   https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XMHq6JprrJc

2024-07-31 From Paris to Beirut: Israel’s Long Record of Assassinating Palestinians    Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran also follows a long pattern of assassinations of Palestinian leaders, from Rome to Paris, Beirut to Athens, and from Gaza to Tunis. Israel has rarely claimed responsibility for the killings—though it usually also does not deny its role. And analysts are convinced that these assassinations bear Israel’s stamp, stretching over more than half a century.  Here are other leaders killed over the decades:   https://www.wrmea.org/web-exclusives/from-paris-to-beirut-israels-long-record-of-assassinating-palestinians.html

2024-07-31 Netanyahu’s end game: Why Israel killed Hamas chief in Iran | Gideon Levy | The Big Picture S5E1    Two assassinations. Two capital cities. Less than 24 hours.   One struck an apartment in downtown Beirut, killing a woman and two children – targeting a Hezbollah senior commander.Then just hours later, a strike in the heart of Tehran, assassinating Hamas’ most high profile figure, and its political chief – Ismail Hanieyah.

Israel has claimed the first attack, though not the second – at least not yet – but the reverberations are already starting to be felt – as are fears that we’re barreling towards an inevitable regional war – one that could spiral quickly out of control.

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with award-winning Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy about the significance, and wisdom, of the two high profile assassinations.  

Hanieyah’s killing in particular threatens to derail the already fragile ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, which have so far failed to put an end to a horrific 10-month war that killed more than 39,000 Palestinians and 1200 Israelis.  It also pushes the United States deeper into a corner. The Biden Administration has failed to pull Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the brink, but continues to supply him with weapons used against a civilian population in Gaza, while undermining attempts to hold Israel to account internationally.

Now less than 100 days before an election that could return Trump to the White House – can the US really afford to follow Israel into a war with Hezbollah – and possibly – a war with Iran? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9JB8jMu3lk

2024-02-03 No Palestinians Will Be Killed in Malaysia – Prime Minister    Commenting on Yemen’s Ansarallah Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Ibrahim added in statements to Al Jazeera that the problem did not begin with the operations launched by the Yemeni group but rather with the Israeli aggression against Gaza.

The Malaysian official affirmed that the security services in his country are at the highest level of caution in anticipation of any assassination operations of Palestinians, emphasizing that his country will not tolerate any attempt to kill Palestinians on its territory.   https://www.palestinechronicle.com/no-palestinians-will-be-killed-in-malaysia-prime-minister/

2023-12-07 ‘Huge Loss’ as Gaza Luminary Refaat Alareer ‘Assassinated’ by Israel      Human rights defenders around the world expressed anguish and outrage Thursday after Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian professor who was one of Gaza’s most prominent writers and activists, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Shejaiya that also killed his brother, sister, and her four children.   Alareer, 44, was “a beloved professor of world literature, comparative literature, Shakespeare, and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he taught since 2007,” noted Literary Hub.

He was the co-editor of Gaza Unsilenced (2015) and the editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine (2014). Dr. Alareer was also one of the founders of We Are Not Numbers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating “a new generation of Palestinian writers and thinkers who can bring together a profound change to the Palestinian cause.”

The Chicago-based website The Electronic Intifadasaid on social media it is “devastated by Israel’s murder of our dear colleague, friend, and mentor.”   “Throughout this genocide, Refaat never stopped writing, supporting his students, and bringing Gaza’s voice to the world,” the site added. “We will make sure it continues to be heard.”  https://www.commondreams.org/news/refaat-alareer

2023-12-06 Israel vows to pursue Hamas globally, Turkey reacts  Turkey has warned Israel of “serious consequences” should it attempt to pursue members of Hamas living abroad, including those residing in Turkey, conveyed a representative from Turkish intelligence on Monday.    Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet, previously announced Israel’s commitment to eliminating Hamas globally, even if it requires several years.

“We have been mandated by the government to eliminate Hamas. This is our Munich. We will do it everywhere, in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Turkey, and Qatar. It may take a few years, but we are committed to seeing it through,” Bar emphasized in a recording broadcast on Sunday by Israeli public broadcaster Kan.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-vows-to-pursue-hamas-globally-turkey-reacts/ar-AA1l29hO  

2023-12-01 Israel’s AI-Aided Targeting Creates Massacre ‘Factory’ in Gaza  “This is the first AI-facilitated genocide in history,” said one observer.   As Israel on Friday resumed bombarding Gaza following a weeklong pause, a joint investigation by a pair of progressive Israeli media outlets sheds new light on the Israel Defense Forces’ use of artificial intelligence to select targets, essentially creating what one former Israeli officer called a “mass assassination factory.”

The Israeli sites +972 Magazine and Local Call interviewed seven current and former Israeli intelligence officials including participants in the current war on Gaza, who spoke under condition of anonymity. Their testimonies—as well as official statements by Israeli officials, interviews with Palestinians, documentation from the besieged strip, and data—show how Israeli leaders know roughly how many Palestinian civilians are likely to be killed in each of its attacks, and how the use of AI-based systems is accelerating a noncombatant casualty rate that more resembles the indiscriminate bombing of World War II than the modern era of codified civilian protection under international humanitarian law.

“Nothing happens by accident,” another source stressed. “When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed—that it was a price worth paying in order to hit [another] target.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-civilian-casualties-2666414736

2023-12-01 “Mass Assassination Factory”: Israel Using AI to Generate Targets in Gaza, Increasing Civilian Toll     We look at a new report that reveals how Israel is using artificial intelligence to draw up targets in its military assault of Gaza. The report’s author, journalist Yuval Abraham, has found that the IDF’s increasing use of AI is partly a response to previous operations in Gaza when Israel quickly ran out of military targets, causing it to loosen its constraints on attacks that could kill civilians. In other words, the “civilian devastation that is happening right now in Gaza” is the result of a “war policy that has a very loose interpretation of what a military target is.” This targeting of private homes and residences to kill alleged combatants means that “when a child is killed in Gaza, it’s because somebody made a decision it was worth it.” It has turned the Israeli military into a “mass assassination factory,” with a “total disregard for Palestinian civil life,” continues Abraham, who also notes that, as an Israeli journalist, his reporting is still subject to military censors. We also discuss another recent report revealing that Israel may have received intelligence about Hamas’s planned attack more than a year in advance of October 7, but ignored it. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/1/israel_gaza_war_gospel_artificial_intelligence

2023-11-30 ‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza     The Israeli army’s expanded authorization for bombing non-military targets, the loosening of constraints regarding expected civilian casualties, and the use of an artificial intelligence system to generate more potential targets than ever before, appear to have contributed to the destructive nature of the initial stages of Israel’s current war on the Gaza Strip, an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals. These factors, as described by current and former Israeli intelligence members, have likely played a role in producing what has been one of the deadliest military campaigns against Palestinians since the Nakba of 1948.  https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/

2023-10-31 THE LABYRINTH WAR   More than 8,000 residents of the Gaza Strip have been killed so far, forty percent of them children, according to the international aid group Defense for Children, in retaliation for Hamas’s terrorist attack on an all-night Israeli dance party, kibbutzim, and small farming villages in the south of Israel on October 7. Hamas still holds more than 230 Israeli hostages it seized on that murderous Saturday, when scarcely any Israeli forces appeared on the scene for as long as ten hours.

The Israeli death count for the Hamas attack of October 7 now stands at 1,400 and includes 317 members of the Israeli military—some of those victims may be military contractors—and 58 policemen. At least thirty Americans, according to the State Department, many of them working for NGOs, were also killed, and thirteen Americans are still unaccounted for. Dozens of those captured by Hamas—among them the very young and the very old—never made it to its tunnel system because they fell or, more likely, were flung off the bicycles or motorcycles that were carrying them and were immediately executed. 

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-labyrinth-war

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World