Black Palestine Solidarity The brutal response of the state to protesters was familiar to Palestinians. Palestinian American activist Bassem Masri, who was very involved in the Ferguson protests, wrote in his piece In Ferguson, I am reminded of Palestine: “On those terrible nights in Ferguson when the police were attacking peaceful civilians with tear gas, Palestinians under Israeli occupation offered advice on how to deal with the effects of the gas. Facing violence from an occupying force, whether in Palestine or Ferguson, forges a mindset that demands resistance and standing up for one’s community. When the police used military tanks and checkpoints to imprison the residents of Ferguson, I was reminded of life in the West Bank where I saw the Israeli military use the same tactics of repression.”
In 2015 over 1,100 Black activists, artists, scholars, students and organizations signed a solidarity statement with Palestine: Israel’s widespread use of detention and imprisonment against Palestinians evokes the mass incarceration of Black people in the US, including the political imprisonment of our own revolutionaries. Soldiers, police, and courts justify lethal force against us and our children who pose no imminent threat. And while the US and Israel would continue to oppress us without collaborating with each other, we have witnessed police and soldiers from the two countries train side-by-side. US and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray violence against us as “isolated incidents,” and call our resistance “illegitimate” or “terrorism.” These narratives ignore decades and centuries of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence that have always been at the core of Israel and the US.” https://uscpr.org/activist-resource/grassroots-advocacy-toolkit/black-palestine-solidarity/
2024-06-24 ‘Faith in Dialogue’ Won’t Stop Zionist Violence I spoke at academic institutions, civic organizations, and to religious groups. However there were always two groups which kept me away from their members:
Most synagogues — It was easy enough to explain this. Most organized Jewish institutions are partisan. They were and mostly still are, dedicated to the dream of a Jewish state functioning as a safe haven in an anti-Semitic world.
The other group, Black churches, was at first harder to comprehend. During the struggle for racial justice in the U.S., culminating with the civil rights legislation of 1964-1965, there was an alliance between American Jewish and Black organizations.
That alliance was not as smooth and solid as it is popularly believed, but it was real in the sense that you had two groups who saw something to be gained by supporting each other. Black American success in the mid 1960s actually loosened the alliance because it created the space for a Black reassessment of Zionism.
However, that reassessment did not reach those Black Americans who were religiously motivated to identify with a biblically imagined picture of Jewish history. Or, as the authors we are about to analyze put it, “our shared history of slavery and oppression and our common biblical commitment to the prophetic traditions of justice and equality.” https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/24/faith-in-dialogue-wont-stop-zionist-violence/
2023-11-08 Why Black Americans Are in Solidarity With Palestinians FEATURING KHURY PETERSEN-SMITH – There was a mass mobilization on Saturday November 4th in Washington D.C. and cities around the U.S. and world to demand an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza that has killed an estimated 10,000 people and counting. As opponents of the war grow in number, more than 5,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students and over 150 organizations have signed a statement of Black Solidarity with Gaza. They include such luminaries as Angela Davis, Indya Moore, Marc Lamont Hill, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Robin D.G. Kelley and more. https://risingupwithsonali.com/why-black-americans-are-in-solidarity-with-palestinians/
2014-10-28 In Ferguson, I am reminded of Palestine Bassem Masri was a Palestinian activist who was very engaged in protests in St. Louis after Mike Brown was murdered. He live streamed many events around the Ferguson uprising and himself was arrested and interrogated during the protests. AFSC is sad to hear that he died this week, one of five Ferguson activists that have died since 2014. We send condolences to his family and loved ones. We honor his memory by sharing this piece he wrote for us in the summer of 2014.
As the son of immigrant small business owners from Palestine, I was taught to believe in the American dream of freedom, liberty and the white picket fence. This past summer has shattered this belief. The dream doesn’t apply to certain people in our society. When Mike Brown was murdered in Ferguson my people in Gaza were being slaughtered by Israel in Operation Protective Edge. The timing of the two events woke up a lot of people. When Mike was killed, much of the media started demonizing him and the protestors, often the same sources that blamed Palestinians for their own deaths in Gaza. People naturally saw the connections. https://afsc.org/news/ferguson-i-am-reminded-palestine
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
2024-06-13 Amid Cease-Fire Talk, Israel’s Siege Still Causing Child Starvation in Gaza “Blocking humanitarian aid and creating the conditions for famine is not only an act of extreme cruelty—using starvation as an act of war,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said. “It is a war crime.”
The United Nations relief agency for Palestinians said Thursday that Israeli authorities continue to hinder aid efforts by failing to approve requests for delivery and permits, as two other U.N. agencies separately issued dire warnings about large-scale starvation in Gaza this week.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Israel has frequently denied the agency’s aid-related requests, The Guardian reported. The World Health Organization said Thursday that there have been 32 cases of deaths from malnutrition in Gaza—mostly of children below five years old—since October 7 and warned of the “catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions” faced by a significant proportion of Gazans.
The WHO statement followed a U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warning that humanitarian access in southern Gaza had “declined dramatically” and that 3,000 malnourished children there are “at risk of death,” having been cut off from life-saving care due to the Israeli military offensive in Rafah. Many international agencies and humanitarian groups have gone further in their condemnation of Israeli’s aid policy, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is using starvation as a weapon of war https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-blocks-aid-gaza
2024-05-06 Sanders Says US Must ‘End All Offensive Military Aid’ as Israel Targets Rafah As Israel rejected a cease-fire deal that Hamas had accepted Monday, dashing the hopes of civilianstrapped in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that an invasion could be averted, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders called on the Biden administration to stop the looming attack that humanitarian and rights organizations have been warning against for months.
The Vermont independent senator said President Joe Biden must follow through on his call for Israel to protect civilian lives by forgoing a ground invasion of Rafah. In March Biden said the attack would be a “red line” unless Israel developed a credible plan to evacuate civilians, who include an estimated 600,000 children in the city.
To stop Israel from killing potentially hundreds of thousands of people in the city, where 1.4 million people are sheltering following Israel’s obliteration of cities across Gaza, the U.S. must “end all offensive military aid” to the country, Sanders said Monday. https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-2668176062
2024-03-11 Support for Gaza War Must End, Says Sanders, But Biden-Trump Choice Is ‘Day and Night’ Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that the contrast between President Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump could not be more stark even as the Vermont senator offered a sharp criticism of the incumbent’s support for Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, which is now in its sixth month with no end in sight.
Asked about the backing that “uncommitted” campaigns have gained across multiple states—a sign of the broad unpopularity of Biden’s approach to the war—Sanders told “Face the Nation” that “the fight continues to change Biden’s policy in Gaza,” where children are dying of starvation as the U.S.-armed Israeli military attacks and impedes aid deliveries.
“But the contrast between Biden and Trump is day and night,” the Independent senator added, pointing to differences between the two candidates on climate, abortion rights, voting rights, and other issues. “The election of Trump would be a disaster for this country and, in my view, the world. We’ve got to come together, reelect Biden. But, at the same time, we have to demand that we have a progressive agenda, where we have an economy that works for all, not just a few.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-gaza-trump
2024-02-05 As Senators Unveil Aid Bill, Sanders Says Stop Fueling the ‘Netanyahu War Machine’ Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that the U.S. must stop fueling the Netanyahu government’s assault on the Gaza Strip as senators unveiled legislation that would provide more than $14 billion in aid to Israel, which has waged its monthslong war on the Palestinian territory with massive American-made bombs, artillery shells, and other destructive munitions.
“This is not JUST about 27,000 Palestinians killed and 67,000 wounded—two-thirds of whom are women and children,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. “This is not JUST about 70% of the housing units in Gaza being destroyed or damaged. This is not JUST about 1.7 million people driven from their homes. This is not JUST about hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children starving to death. “
“This is also about our credibility in the international community and what this country stands for,” the senator continued. “If we continue to fund [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s indiscriminate war, how can we, with a straight face, criticize [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine as a war crime? How can we criticize China, Saudi Arabia, and other countries for their many violations of human rights? Who in the world will not see through the hypocrisy?” https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-netanyahu-israel
2024-01-14 Bernie Sanders urges Biden to revoke unconstrained financial support for Israel: ‘Killing children is not the solution’ “The president has got to change course. He has been very clear. He has expressed his concern about ‘indiscriminate bombing.’ He has asked Netanyahu over and over again to change course,” Sanders told CNN on Sunday. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not changed course. On the 100th day of fighting in Gaza, Netanyahu defiantly issued a statement saying, “Nobody will stop us — not The Hague, not the axis of evil, and not anybody else.” On CNN, Sanders called it “unacceptable.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/bernie-sanders-urges-biden-to-revoke-unconstrained-financial-support-for-israel-killing-children-is-not-the-solution/ar-AA1mXjGV
2024-01-14 Sanders says Gaza ‘is worse than’ what happened in Dresden during WWII “If I use the word Dresden Germany to you, you think about the horrific destruction during World War II of that city. What is going on in Gaza now in three months, is worse than what took place in Dresden over a two year period. This is a catastrophe,” Sanders said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Sanders was referring to the 1945 bombings of Dresden led by U.S. and British forces at the time that left about 25,000 people dead. The Vermont senator has been very outspoken about the situation in Gaza, reiterating Sunday that Israel does not have a right to kill civilians in its war against militant group Hamas.
“So my view has been from the beginning Israel has a right to respond to this horrific terrorist attack from come up. But you do not have a right to go to war against an entire people, women and children and the United States Congress has got to act because a lot of this destruction is being done with military weapons supplied by the United States of America,” Sanders said.
Sanders plans to bring a resolution to the Senate floor this week underneath the Foreign Assistance Act, which would direct the State Department to look into potential human rights violations caused by Israel in Gaza. “It says that if an American military assistance is given to any country, Saudi Arabia, Israel, any other country, it has got to be used consistent with human rights, international human rights standards and American law,” Sanders said about the Foreign Assistance Act. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sanders-says-gaza-is-worse-than-what-happened-in-dresden-during-wwii/ar-AA1mXavx
2023-12-13 Sanders Urges President Biden to Withdraw Support for $10.1 Billion in Military Aid to Israel and Support UN Efforts for a Humanitarian Ceasefire Sanders lays out the devastation in Gaza, now equivalent to that of Dresden after two years of bombing during World War II, and emphasizes it is being carried out with bombs produced and provided by the United States.
In a letter sent to President Biden on Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged the president to make two critical policy changes in his approach to Israel and Gaza. First, that the president withdraw his support for the $10.1 billion for offensive weaponry for Netanyahu’s right-wing government contained in the proposed supplemental foreign aid package requested from Congress. And second, for the president to support the recent UN resolution that demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and full humanitarian access – a resolution which was vetoed by the United States. https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-urges-president-biden-to-withdraw-support-for-10-1-billion-in-military-aid-to-israel-and-support-un-efforts-for-a-humanitarian-ceasefire/
2023-12-05 Bernie Sanders Rejects $10B in Military Aid for “Extremist Netanyahu Government” The Vermont senator described Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip as unlawful and “immoral.” S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Monday that he opposes sending billions of dollars in additional military assistance to the Israeli government as it continues to wage a catastrophic war on the Gaza Strip, an assault that the Vermont senator described as unlawful and “immoral.” “I do not believe we should be appropriating over $10 billion for the right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military approach,” Sanders, who has faced backlash from progressives and some of his former campaign staffers for refusing to support a permanent cease-fire, said in remarks on the Senate floor.
Sanders’ speech came as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) set the stage for a procedural vote on a $106 billion supplemental package that includes military assistance for Israel and Ukraine. The vote is expected to fail as Republicans push for the inclusion of asylum restrictions that progressive Democrats have condemned as draconian.https://truthout.org/articles/bernie-sanders-rejects-10b-in-military-aid-for-extremist-netanyahu-government/
2023-11-30 I am LIVE on the floor of the U.S. Senate Bernie Sanders to discuss the situation in Gaza. [MEK Note: Bernie it was a great speech, but if you then again endorse “Genocide “Joe without the implementation of your significant demands made, you will be just a Democrat hypocrite. As for me, Bernie please get October 7th facts straight! According to Israel media, interviews and facts, of the 1400 civilians killed (original story), 200 were Hamas fighters and 400 were IDF +Police +Settler security. Finally, the IDF apparently might have killed more than half of the remaining 800 using Apache helicopter gunships at the music festival and tanks firing at homes in many of the high casualty Kibbutzs. Hamas ran a military operation, which Mossad had to have known in advance, Israel earlier pulled a lot of its security from the area to protect a West Bank settler invasion of a Palestinian area! Meanwhile, the IDF was directly involved in the blood bath clearly following its “secret” Hannibal Directive. Israel, White House & corporate Media continue to lie about it to create October 7 into a Hamas terrorist act rather than a resistance movement fighting back against 75 years of oppression, 50 years of occupation and 17 years of blockade and Apartheid as is its right according to UN Charter. International Law does not give Israel a right to defend itself as an occupying] oppressive nation to use acts of genocide against innocent civilian Palestinians! Israel does not want it and facts on the ground mean a two state solution is dead in the water.]
Well now finally the word ‘ceasefire’ has come from the Senator’s lips. Thrilled to hear Bernie addressing the violence + atrocities of the IDF + of the settler movement in the West Bank. now we’re getting somewhere! Calling for conditions on US funding of Israel’s war machine is definitely a #1 priority. Thank you Bernie and don’t stop speaking up for Gaza + Palestinian sovereignty + against hate crimes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWVSdJJ4vr8
2023-11-27 Bernie Sanders discusses Vermont shooting, Israel-Hamas war The man accused of shooting three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder Monday. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders joins “America Decides” to discuss the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia amid the Israel-Hamas war, and the funding battle on Capitol Hill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRsL_nyZobU
2023-11-10 Bernie Sanders Disappoints With Cease-Fire Refusal Given the makeup of the US Senate, one would assume that the senator who would go out on a limb and become the first, and still the only one, to call for a ceasefire would be progressive firebrand Bernie Sanders. But it wasn’t. Instead, it was Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Durbin is known as a relatively liberal senator, but he’s never been a leader on the issue of Palestine. Sanders, on the other hand, has been the most outspoken member of the Senate on Palestine, although that is a pretty low bar. Still, in the past, he has been willing to speak out.
During his 2016 presidential run, Sanders offered some mild criticism of Israeli policies, but did so in Brooklyn, New York, defying fears that this would cause his Jewish supporters to bolt. But nothing of the kind happened. Sanders has also spoken about enforcing US law on arms sales to Israel, a subject so controversial in Washington that it is seen as politically toxic. He has repeatedly criticised Israel’s policies; but on Gaza, he has absolutely refused to call for a ceasefire.
When asked, Sanders supported the Israeli view that military action must continue until Hamas is destroyed. “I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire, with an organisation like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the State of Israel,” Sanders told CNN. “I think what the Arab countries in the region understand is that Hamas has got to go.”
Ignoring demands. Two weeks ago, more than 300 former Sanders staffers and campaign workers published an open letter calling on him to support a ceasefire, an end to the blockade of Gaza and “US military funding for war crimes against the Palestinian people, the expansion of settlements, and the occupation of Palestinian lands.” https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/bernie-sanders-gaza-cease-fire
2023-11-05 Sanders Blasts AIPAC After Group Thanks Him for Not Demanding Cease-Fire in Gaza After the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Sunday publicly thanked U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders for declining to join global calls for a cease-fire in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, the Vermont Independent rebuffed the lobbying group.
The senator—under progressive pressure to change his position on Israel’s war—noted that AIPAC “has supported dozens of GOP extremists who are undermining our democracy” and is “now working hard to defeat progressive members of Congress.”
“AIPAC endorsed scores of January 6th insurrectionists. They are no friend to American democracy. They are one of the more racist and bigoted PACs in Congress as well, who disproportionately target members of color. They are an extremist organization that destabilizes U.S. democracy.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/aipac-bernie-sanders
2023-10-28 Tell Senator Bernie Sanders: Ceasefire Now -Petition As American Jews and allies, many of us have looked to Bernie Sanders for years as the political leader who best embodies our values.
Right now, many of us are also grieving Israeli and Palestinian loved ones who have been murdered in recent weeks. Over 1400 Israelis and over 5700 Palestinians are already dead, with more Palestinians killed by bombs that rain on Gaza by the hour, and over 200 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. This genocidal violence cannot be allowed to escalate or continue.
2023-10-25 More Than 300 Former Sanders Staffers Urge Him to Lead Cease-Fire Resolution in Senate “Your voice is needed now more than ever, because cooler heads must prevail and prevent further suffering and bloodshed.”
More than 300 former staffers from Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns released an open letter Tuesday urging the Vermont Independent to sponsor a cease-fire resolution in the U.S. Senate as Israel’s bombing campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip continues unabated.
Sanders said last week that “the bombs and missiles from both sides must end” and has accused Israel of violating international law with its blockade on Gaza, but he has yet to express support for the cease-fire resolution led by progressive Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in the House.
The senator’s former campaign staffers want him to spearhead a similar cease-fire effort in the Senate, where the Democratic leadership has thus far been in lockstep with the Biden administration’s unwavering support for Israel’s attack on Gaza. https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-cease-fire-resolution
2023-10-17 Sanders Statement on Horrific Violence in Israel and Gaza WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today on the horrific violence in Israel and Gaza: The slaughter of over a thousand Israelis by Hamas in a terrorist attack is an unspeakable crime. The bombing of a Palestinian hospital is an unspeakable crime, as is the displacement of a million people without water, food, and medicine. These unspeakable crimes must stop now. The bombs and missiles from both sides must end, massive humanitarian aid must be rushed to Gaza, and the hostages must be returned to their families. https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-statement-on-horrific-violence-in-israel-and-gaza/
2024-03-06 Watch: Protesters Lay Some Truth on Jared Kushner During ADL Speech Donald Trump’s son-in-law was reminded of his own fascist history while accepting an award from the Anti-Defamation League. As Kushner was accepting his award for his “vital and deeply impactful work on the Abraham Accords,” he was jeered and heckled by protesters in the audience, who attacked his record and also called for a cease-fire in Israel’s war on Gaza.
The Anti-Defamation League has been criticized in recent years for ignoring the threat of white nationalism and instead focusing on anti-Zionist activist groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, even admitting that it considers that activism as antisemitism. https://newrepublic.com/post/179616/jared-kushner-protesters-adl-speech
2023-11-22 THE ADL IS MAKING IT LESS SAFE TO BE A PROGRESSIVE JEW Groups like the ADL are using fear of antisemitism as a political weapon in order to repress the movement for Palestinian rights– and helping foment Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bigotry in the process. https://therealnews.com/the-adl-is-making-it-less-safe-to-be-a-progressive-jew
2023-11-10 CONGRESS WON’T DEMAND A CEASEFIRE IN GAZA, SO ACTIVISTS ARE FIGHTING TO FORCE THEIR HAND Israel’s devastating campaign of collective punishment against the people of Gaza has aroused international condemnation and popular mobilization in support of a ceasefire and an end to Israeli Apartheid. This movement has also spread to the US, where hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Washington D.C. on Nov. 4 for the largest pro-Palestine march in US history. Support for a ceasefire in Gaza is widespread among the US public—with more than half of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike in favor of such a measure, according to Data for Progress. Yet the federal government continues to largely ignore calls for a ceasefire and an end to US aid to Israel, with only a minority of House Democrats willing to back a resolution for a ceasefire. Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, a key organization in the current Palestine solidarity movement, joins The Chris Hedges Report to explain what the movement is demanding from leaders in Washington to stop Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. https://therealnews.com/congress-wont-demand-a-ceasefire-in-gaza-so-activists-are-fighting-to-force-their-hand
2023-11-17 MEET THE ACTIVISTS FIGHTING ZIONISM WITH DIRECT ACTION As leaders in the West continue to stand by Israel’s outrageous crimes, activists and people of conscience around the world are using direct action to take matters into their own hands and disrupt the war machine themselves. Palestine Action, an affinity network with chapters in the US and UK, is waging an international campaign against Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest drone supplier—and they want you to get involved. https://therealnews.com/meet-the-activists-fighting-zionism-with-direct-action
2023-10-23 What the Abraham Accords Got Wrong The Palestinian issue could not simply be wished away, and the signing of the pacts created a set of contradictions that fueled the tensions that erupted October 7. Trump’s DHS didn’t claim it was because, in President Joe Biden words, of “sheer evil” from those who exist only “to kill Jews.” Rather, it pointed to the Abraham Accords: the U.S.-led effort to normalize relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, which Trump claimed would shift the course of Middle Eastern history from “decades of division and conflict” and which the Biden administration claimed would make the region “safer and more prosperous.” So how did we end up with the exact opposite?
For decades, the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, meaning the provision of an independent state for the Palestinian people and the end of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, was central to the task of engineering peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. This was a problem, since between successive Israeli governments steadily chipping away at the possibility of a two-state solution to the conflict and dwindling U.S. interest in pressuring the Israeli state to follow through on the commitment, that resolution started to look increasingly impossible.
But over time, the priorities of the Arab states shifted away from the Palestinians, too. Their largely authoritarian leadership became more preoccupied with matters like maintaining political control in the wake of the Arab Spring protests—for which support from an advanced military power like Israel might prove useful—and an increasingly assertive Iran, which then-newly appointed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman called a “much more urgent and more important” issue.
This shift dovetailed with the Trump administration’s ultra-Israel-friendly stance and its own goal of further isolating Iran in the region. The resulting Abraham Accords were, at least in the neoconservative world, considered a stroke of “genius.” Rather than finding a solution to the seemingly intractable question of Palestinian statehood, it simply sidelined it. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/what-abraham-accords-got-wrong
Evidence is now emerging that up to half the Israelis killed were combatants; that Israeli forces were responsible for some of their own civilian deaths; and that Tel Aviv disseminated false ‘Hamas atrocities’ stories to justify its devastating air assault on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Two weeks after the Hamas breakout assault on Israel on 7 October, a clearer picture of what happened – who died, and who killed – is now beginning to emerge.
Instead of the wholescale massacre of civilians claimed by Israel, incomplete figures published by the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz show that almost half the Israelis killed that day were in fact combatants – soldiers or police.
In the interim, two weeks of blanket western media reporting that Hamas allegedly killed around 1,400 Israeli civilians during its 7 October military attack has served to inflame emotions and create the climate for Israel’s unconstrained destruction of the Gaza Strip and its civilian population.
Accounts of the Israeli death toll have been filtered and shaped to suggest that a wholesale civilian massacre occurred that day, with babies, children, and women the main targets of a terror attack.
Now, detailed statistics on the casualties released by the Israeli daily Haaretz paint a starkly different picture. As of 23 October, the news outlet has released information on 683 Israelis killed during the Hamas-led offensive, including their names and locations of their deaths on 7 October.
Of these, 331 casualties – or 48.4 percent – have been confirmed to be soldiers and police officers, many of them female. Another 13 are described as rescue service members, and the remaining 339 are ostensibly considered to be civilians.
While this list is not comprehensive and only accounts for roughly half of Israel’s stated death toll, almost half of those killed in the melee are clearly identified as Israeli combatants.
There are also so far no recorded deaths of children under the age of three, which throws into question the Israeli narrative that babies were targeted by Palestinian resistance fighters. Of the 683 total casualties reported thus far, seven were between the ages of 4 and 7, and nine between the ages of 10 and 17. The remaining 667 casualties appear to be adults.
Age distribution of the Israelis killed during Hamas’ October 7 operation (as of 23 October).
The numbers and proportion of Palestinian civilians and children among those killed by Israeli bombardment over the past two weeks – over 5,791 killed, including 2,360 children and 1,292 women, and more than 18,000 injured – are far higher than any of these Israeli figures from the events of 7 October.
Revisiting the scene
The daring Hamas-led military operation, codenamed Al-Aqsa Flood, unfolded with a dramatic dawn raid at approximately 6:30 AM (Palestine time) on 7 October. This was accompanied by a cacophony of sirens breaking the silence of occupied Jerusalem, signaling the start of what became an extraordinary event in the occupation state’s 75-year history.
As per the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, around 1,500 Palestinian fighters crossed the formidable Gaza-Israel separation barrier.
However, this breakout was not limited to Hamas forces alone; numerous armed fighters belonging to other factions such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) later breached the armistice line, along with some Palestinians unaffiliated with any organized militia.
As it became apparent this was no ordinary resistance operation, hundreds of videos quickly flooded social media, most of which have been viewed by The Cradle, depicting dead Israeli troops and settlers, fierce gunfire battles between various parties, and Israelis being taken captive into Gaza.
These videos were either taken on the phones of Israelis, or were released by Palestinian fighters filming their own operation. It wasn’t until hours later that more gruesome and downright dubious allegations began to surface.
She posted this on X at 9:18 PM (Palestine time), on 7 October, although an op-ed Klompa published with Newsweek at 12:28 AM (Palestine time), on 8 October, made no mention of any sexual violence.
Klompas is also the co-founder of Boundless Israel, a “think-action tank” that works “to revitalize Israel education and take bold collective action to combat Jew-hatred.” An “unapologetically Zionist” charitable group that works to promote Israeli narratives on social media.
The one case touted as proof of rape was that of a young German-Israeli woman named Shani Louk, who was filmed face down in the back of a pickup truck and was widely assumed dead.
It was unclear whether the fighters filmed with Louk in the Gaza-bound vehicle were members of Hamas, as they do not sport the uniforms or insignia of the Al-Qassam troops identifiable in other Hamas videos – some even wore casual civilian clothing and sandals.
Later, her mother claimed to have evidence that her daughter was still alive, but had suffered a severe head wound. This rings true with information released by Hamas that indicated Louk was being treated for her injuries at an unspecified Gaza hospital.
Complicating matters further, on the day these rape allegations arose, Israelis would not have had access to this information. Their armed forces had not yet entered many, if not most, of the areas liberated by the resistance and were still engaged in armed clashes with them on multiple fronts.
Nevertheless, these rape claims took on a life of their own, with even US President Joe Biden alleging, during a speech days later, that Israeli women were “raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies” by Hamas fighters. It is important to note that The Forward’s article on 11 October reported that the Israeli military acknowledged they had no evidence of such allegations at that point.
When the army later made its own allegations of decapitations, foot amputations, and rape, Reuters pointed out that “the military personnel overseeing the identification process didn’t present any forensic evidence in the form of pictures or medical records.” To date, there is no credible evidence of these atrocities that has been presented.
Other outrageous allegations, such as the story of Hamas “beheading 40 babies‘ made headlines and the front pages of countless western news outlets. Even Biden claimed to have seen “confirmed photos of terrorists beheading babies.” The claims trace back to Israeli reserve settler and soldier David Ben Zion, who has previously incited violent riots against Palestinians and called for the West Bank town of Huwara to be wiped out. No evidence was ever produced to support these claims and the White House itself confirmed later that Joe Biden had never seen such photos.
The Hamas plan
There is little to no credible evidence that Palestinian fighters had a plan to – or deliberately sought to – kill or harm unarmed Israeli civilians on 7 October. From the available footage, we witness them engaging primarily with armed Israeli forces, accounting for the deaths of hundreds of occupation soldiers. As Qassam Brigades’ Spokesman Abu Obeida made clear on 12 October:
“Al-Aqsa Flood operation aimed to destroy the Gaza Division (an Israeli army unit on Gaza’s borders) which was attacked at 15 points, followed by attacking 10 further military intervention points. We attacked the Zikim site and several other settlements outside the Gaza Division headquarters.”
Abu Obeida and other resistance officials claims that the other key objective of their operation was to take Israeli prisoners that they could exchange for the approximately 5,300 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli detention centers, many of whom are women and children.
Hamas Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Saleh Al-Arouri, in an interview after the operation, stressed: “We have a large and qualitative number and senior officers. All we can say now is that the freedom of our prisoners is at the doorstep.”
Both sides play this game: Since the start of its military assault on Gaza, Israel has rounded up and imprisoned more than 1,200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. To date there have been 38 prisoner exchange deals between the resistance factions and Tel Aviv – deals that Israelis often resist to the very last minute.
While these kinds of testimonies trickle out, reports are emerging that Israeli authorities have dialed up the mistreatment, torture, and even killing of Palestinian prisoners in their custody – a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which ironically, a non-state actor like Hamas appears to have followed to the letter.
In relation to the events of 7 October, there are certainly some videos depicting possibly unarmed Israelis, killed in their vehicles or at entrances to facilities, so that Palestinian troops could gain access.
There are also videos which show the fighters engaging in shootouts with armed Israeli forces, where there were unarmed Israelis taking cover in between, in addition to videos of fighters shooting toward houses and throwing grenades into fortified areas. Eyewitness testimony also suggests grenades were thrown into bomb shelters, though by whom is unclear.
Even at the Israeli “peace rave”, which has been cited as the single deadliest attack committed by Palestinian fighters during their operation, videos emerged that appeared to show Israeli forces opening fire through a crowd of unarmed civilians, toward targets they believed to be Hamas members. ABC News also reported that an Israeli tank had headed to the site of the festival.
An Israeli massacre in Kibbutz Be’eri?
In its report on the events at Be’eri Kibbutz, ABC News photographed artillery pieces resembling Israeli munitions outside a bombed-out home. The reporter, David Muir, mentioned that Hamas fighters, covered in plastic bags, were found in the aftermath.
Additionally, videos of the scene show homes that appear to have been struck by munitions that Hamas fighters did not possess. Muir reported that about 14 people were held hostage in a building by Palestinian fighters.
A Hebrew-language Haaretz article published on 20 October, which only appears in English in a must-read Mondoweiss article, paints a very different story of what went down in Be’eri that day. A Kibbutz resident who had been away from his home – whose partner was killed in the melee – reveals stunning new details:
“His voice trembles when his partner, who was besieged in her home shelter at the time, comes to mind. According to him, only on Monday night (9 October) and only after the commanders in the field made difficult decisions — including shelling houses with all their occupants inside in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages — did the IDF complete the takeover of the kibbutz. The price was terrible: at least 112 Be’eri people were killed. Others were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble.”
Aftermath or Be’eri Kibbutz after the fire power of the two sides ceased
Photo evidence of the destruction in Be’eri corroborates his account. Only the heavy munitions of the Israeli army could have destroyed residential homes in this manner.
Hamas behaviors: Evidence vs allegations
Yasmin Porat, a survivor from Kibbutz Be’eri, said in an interview for an Israeli radio-show, hosted by state-broadcaster Kan, that Israeli forces “eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” going on to state that “there was very, very heavy crossfire” and even noted tank shelling.
Porat had attended the Nova rave and testified to the humane treatment throughout different interviews she conducted with Israeli media. She explained that when she was held prisoner, the Hamas fighters “guarded us”, telling her in Hebrew to “Look at me well, we’re not going to kill you. We want to take you to Gaza. We are not going to kill you. So be calm, you’re not going to die.” She also added the following:
“They give us something to drink here and there. When they see we are nervous they calm us down. It was very frightening but no one treated us violently. Luckily nothing happened to me like what I heard in the media.”
Increasingly, and to the horror of some Israeli officials and news outlets, Israeli eyewitnesses and survivors of the bloodshed are testifying that they were treated well by Palestinian fighters. On 24 October, Israeli state broadcaster Kanbemoaned the fact that prisoner Yocheved Lifshitz, released by Hamas the day before, was allowed to make statements live on air.
As she was handed over to Red Cross intermediaries, the elderly Israeli female captive was caught on camera turning back to squeeze the hand of her Hamas captor in her last goodbyes. Lifshitz’s live broadcast, in which she spoke about her two-week ordeal, “humanized” her Hamas captors even further as she recounted her daily life with the fighters:
“They were very friendly toward us. They took care of us. We were given medicine and were treated. One of the men with us was badly injured in a motorbike accident. Their (Hamas) paramedics looked after his wounds, he was given medicine and antibiotics. The people were friendly. They kept the place very clean. They were very concerned about us.”
Following her release from Gaza by Hamas, 85 year old Yosheved Lifshitz is interviewed about her experience in captivity. pic.twitter.com/MOTEJ82BmB
It is essential to recognize that in many reports by western journalists on the ground, the majority of information regarding the actions of Hamas fighters comes from the Israeli army – an active participant in the conflict.
Emerging evidence now indicates that there is a high probability, especially due to the scale of the infrastructural damage, that Israeli military forces could have deliberately killed captives, fired on incorrect targets, or mistaken Israelis for Palestinians in their firefights. If the only source of information for a serious claim made is the Israeli army, then it has to be taken into account that they have reason to conceal cases of friendly fire.
Israeli friendly fire was rampant, even in the days that followed, from an army with very little actual combat experience. In the city of Ashkelon (Askalan) on 8 October, Israeli soldiers shot dead and shouted insults at the body of a man they believed to have been a Hamas fighter, yet later realized they had executed a fellow Israeli. This is just one of three such examples of friendly fire in one day, resulting in the killing of Israelis by their own troops.
Amid the fog of war, parties to the conflict have different perspectives on what occurred during the initial raid and its aftermath. It’s not disputed that Palestinian armed groups inflicted significant losses on the Israeli military, but there will be plenty of ongoing debate regarding everything else in the weeks and months to come.
An independent, impartial, international investigation is urgently needed, one that has access to information from all sides involved in the conflict. Neither the Israelis nor the Americans will agree to this, which itself suggests that Tel Aviv has much to conceal.
In the meantime, Palestinian civilians in Gaza endure ongoing, indiscriminate attacks with the most sophisticated heavy weapons in existence, living under the persistent threat of forced and potentially irreversible displacement. This Israeli air blitz was made possible only by the flood of unsubstantiated ‘Hamas atrocities’ stories that media began to circulate on and after 7 October.
Washington, DC – Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries released the following statement marking one month since the horrific events of October 7th:
On October 7, exactly one month ago today, Hamas committed horrific atrocities and acts of terrorism against Israel, murdering more than 1,400 people in what amounted to the largest loss of Jewish life in one day since the Holocaust. People of goodwill should unequivocally condemn this vile terrorism, as well as the deeply disturbing rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia in America. We must also respect the right of a sovereign country like Israel to defend its citizens while making clear that the international rules of war related to Palestinian civilians in Gaza should be meticulously followed.
Israel has an absolute right to exist as a Jewish, Democratic state and the ancestral homeland for the Jewish people who have faced pogroms, persecution and antisemitism for centuries. The State of Israel, a safe haven for Jews, was viciously attacked on October 7. Echoing slogans that are widely understood as calling for the complete destruction of Israel – such as from the River to the Sea – does not advance progress toward a two-state solution. Instead, it unacceptably risks further polarization, division and incitement to violence. There are millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who legitimately aspire to peaceful self-determination and economic dignity. The continued presence of Hamas undermines that cause, further making clear that the ongoing effort to decisively defeat this brutal terrorist regime must succeed.
The Biden administration is also working on a humanitarian pause to surge food, water, medical supplies and other forms of relief to Palestinian civilians who are in harm’s way through no fault of their own. This is an important step in the midst of the fog of war, where thousands of civilians have tragically been killed and hundreds of hostages remain in peril. Congress must now do its part by passing emergency legislation that provides support for Israel and Ukraine as well as the resources needed to deliver humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians.
As public officials serving in Congress, the words we choose matter. It is my strong belief that we must all take care to respect each other personally, even when strongly disagreeing on matters of policy or legislation. We should be able to agree to disagree on domestic or foreign policy issues, without being disagreeable with each other or the President of the United States. If the end goal following the defeat of Hamas and safe return of all hostages is a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people, as I believe it should be, ad hominem attacks against colleagues will never accomplish that objective.
2023-10-25 LEADER JEFFRIES: “OUR COMMITMENT TO ISRAEL’S SECURITY IS IRONCLAD”
PRESS RELEASE
Washington, DC – In his remarks upon the election of the Speaker of the House, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries reiterated his commitment to the special relationship between the United States and Israel and highlighted the need to continue to stand with Israel as it defends itself and defeats Hamas.
“We must also continue to stand by President Biden as he works to bring American hostages and Israeli hostages held by Hamas back home. American hostages and Israeli hostages and international hostages back home. We must also stand by our friends on the international stage. And we have no better friend in the Middle East than the State of Israel.
Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish and Democratic state. The special relationship between the United States and Israel is unbreakable. Our commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad. And Israel has a right to defend itself under the international rules of war against the brutal terror unleashed on its citizens by Hamas.
Our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and the effort to defeat Hamas is not inconsistent with the goal of achieving a lasting and just peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. In many ways, it is a necessary ingredient, because Hamas is not good for Israel, Hamas is not good for America, Hamas is not good for the Free World, Hamas is not good for the democratic aspirations of the Palestinian people.” A video of these remarks is available here. https://democraticleader.house.gov/media/press-releases/leader-jeffries-our-commitment-israels-security-ironclad-0
2023-10-19 LEADER JEFFRIES STATEMENT ON EXPLOSION AT AL AHLI HOSPITAL
Washington, DC – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries released the following statement: Earlier today, I received a high-level briefing about the catastrophic explosion at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza. Based on the information that I have reviewed, it is apparent that the hospital explosion was not caused by a missile fired by Israel. Rather, the explosion was likely the result of an errant Islamic Jihad rocket. The misinformation propagated by Hamas is recklessly exacerbating unrest in the region and throughout the world. It is important that the dissemination of misinformation cease and desist during this extremely volatile time. https://democraticleader.house.gov/media/press-releases/leader-jeffries-statement-explosion-al-ahli-hospital
2023-10-16 LEADER JEFFRIES STATEMENT ON THE MURDER OF WADEA AL-FAYOUME
PRESS RELEASE Brooklyn, NY — Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries released the following statement on the murder of Palestinian-American child Wadea Al-Fayoume:
Deeply saddened to learn of the brutal murder of six-year-old Palestinian-American Wadea Al-Fayoume. Islamophobia has no place in America and the violent, hate-filled targeting of Wadea or anyone else based on ethnicity or religious affiliation is unconscionable and should be unequivocally condemned by everyone. The murder of Wadea must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and my prayers are with his mother for a full recovery in the midst of unspeakable tragedy. We can never allow hatred to win. https://democraticleader.house.gov/media/press-releases/leader-jeffries-statement-murder-wadea-al-fayoume
2023-10-08 LEADER JEFFRIES: “OUR COMMITMENT TO ISRAEL’S SECURITY IS IRONCLAD”
PRESS RELEASE
CINCINNATI, OHIO – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union where he emphasized that the United States will continue to stand with the people of Israel in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks. He also highlighted that House Democrats remain ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward so that the Congress can get back to the business of the people.
DANA BASH: Joining me now is Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, the Democratic Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. Thank you so much for joining me this morning, sir. First question is what you have been told, your information. I know you were briefed about the situation going on in Israel.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well it’s a very heartbreaking situation, a tragic situation. We mourn for the loss of life that has taken place and for those Israelis who are currently being held hostage either in southern Israel or in Gaza. I had a conversation with the White House as well as the National Security Council yesterday. The most important thing that needs to be said is that the United States will continue to stand strongly behind Israel. America’s bond with Israel is unshakeable and unbreakable. We have stood strongly behind Israel during its first 75 years. We will stand strongly behind Israel for the next 75 years and beyond. https://democraticleader.house.gov/media/press-releases/leader-jeffries-our-commitment-israels-security-ironclad
2023-10-07 LEADER JEFFRIES STATEMENT ON DESPICABLE TERRORIST ATTACK AGAINST ISRAEL
PRESS RELEASE
Brooklyn, NY — Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries released the following statement after Israel and her citizens were viciously targeted in a deadly attack on Israeli sovereignty by Hamas:
I strongly condemn the violent and ghastly attack by the terrorist organization Hamas on the Jewish people and the State of Israel. The loss of life in Israel as a result of the violent, calculated and unprovoked attack by Hamas is heartbreaking.
America stands firmly and unequivocally with Israel. We will strongly support Israel’s right to defend herself from this despicable attack that targeted civilians, including Israeli children, with rockets, gunfire and violent kidnappings. The Congress must stand with Israel until the invasion by Hamas has been crushed and security in Southern Israel and throughout the country has been permanently restored. https://democraticleader.house.gov/media/press-releases/leader-jeffries-statement-despicable-terrorist-attack-against-israel
2024-02-14 AS’AD AbuKHALIL: Arabs Divided on ICJ Ruling The liberal Arab camp thinks the ICJ ruling will lead to a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question, while the popular camp has lost faith in international organizations, including the ICJ. Israel will forever be stained with the label of genocide and its supporters will always be accused of supporting genocide after the International Court of Justice ruled last month that there was prima facie evidence to put Israel on trial for genocide. Even powerful foreign lobbies will find it difficult to remove the stigma. This is not lost on U.S. citizens who have spent untold millions of dollars and have heard too many lies to continue supporting an image of moral superiority.
If an Arab country rather than South Africa had brought the charge of genocide, the U.S., and other Israel supporters would have easily dismissed it, pointing to a sordid record of human rights violations and repression by that government. But this was South Africa which, given its own record of human rights adherence since the end of apartheid, and high standards of democracy and equality embedded in the South African constitution, has emerged as a moral leader not only of developing countries but of the world. South Africa is a moral superpower, while the U.S. has been reduced to a mere bully. South Africa now leads the “Free World” and not the U.S., NATO and its coalition of former colonial powers. South Africa is the new superpower, without nuclear weapons. Its soft power is not the same as America’s, which camouflages naked aggression and the subjugation of other countries.
There are two camps on ICJ ruling in the Arab world. The liberal intellectuals who are funded by Gulf despots and/or NATO governments/Soros insist that Arabs should never abandon their belief in the “international community” (a code word for the genocide axis of NATO) and in international law and human rights.
The other camp, which speaks more for free Arab public opinion, regard the notion of international law and human rights as tools and even Western government tricks to solidify their domination over people of the South. They want to tranquilize and delude them into thinking justice can be restored through international fora. The fact that a month after the ICJ ruling, Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, and Western governments continue to endorse and sponsor it is testimony to the limitations and even the impotence of international organizations. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/02/14/asad-abukhhalil-arabs-divided-on-icj-ruling/
2024-02-13 South Africa Calls on ICJ to Stop Israel’s Rafah Assault Israel’s bombardment of Rafah in southern Gaza and its stated plan to expand its attack with a ground assault puts the country in breach of a clear directive from the International Court of Justice, said South African officials on Tuesday, less than three weeks after the court ordered Israel to do everything in its power to prevent genocidal violence in Gaza.
2024-01-15 South Africa to sue US, UK for complicity in Gaza genocide Nearly 50 South African lawyers, led by attorney Wikus Van Rensburg, are gearing up to file a lawsuit against the United States and the United Kingdom, asserting their complicity in Israeli forces’ war crimes in Palestine, Anadolu Agency reports. This initiative follows South Africa’s filing of a genocide case against “Israel” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Rensburg, the driving force behind the legal action, aims to prosecute those complicit in the crimes through civilian courts, collaborating with legal professionals in the US and UK. In an interview with Anadolu, Rensburg emphasized the need to hold the US accountable for its actions and highlighted the forthcoming legal proceedings against Washington and London.https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/south-africa-to-sue-us–uk-for-complicity-in-gaza-genocide
2024-01-11 At first ICJ hearing, South Africa provides evidence of ‘genocide’ South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a lawsuit to oblige “Israel” to immediately stop its military operation in the Gaza Strip, a representative of the South African delegation, lawyer Vaughan Lowe, said on Thursday.
South Africa’s legal team stated, in its opening statement at The Hague, that South Africa has recognized the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people through “Israel’s” colonization since 1948, “which has systematically and forcibly dispossessed, displaced and fragmented the Palestinian people, deliberately denying them the internationally recognised inalienable right to self determination and their internationally recognised rights of return as refugees to their towns and villages in what is now the state of Israel.” https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/at-first-icj-hearing–south-africa-provides–genocide–evide
2023-11-24 U.S. Marine Makes Undeniable Case For Hamas! Former United States Marine Kenneth O’Keefe has become an outspoken critic of Israeli policy toward Palestine, announcing that if he were Palestinian he would likely fight back against the occupation by any means necessary. In a clip dating from more than 10 years ago O’Keefe even compares Hamas to the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela. Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss efforts by certain non-profit groups to label O’Keefe an anti-semite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kuRZ2FcRaU
2023-11-22 South African Parliament votes to close the Israeli embassy and suspend diplomatic relations. 248-91 Full resolution proposed by EFF and amended by ANC: That the House –
(1) notes the latest developments in the Israel-Palestine conflict;
(2) further notes the continuing building of settler houses in the land of Palestinian people and further land encroachment that is against numerous United Nations resolutions;
(3) realises that the Apartheid-Israel government is in a perpetual breach of international law against annexation and, as a result, the Israeli government aggression gives rise to violent resistance;
(4) understands that the expansionist policy and further construction of settler houses in the Palestinian land is an impediment to the peaceful resolution of the century old Israel and Palestine conflict;
(5) further understands that the annexation of Palestinian land and killing of Palestinian children is a violent act which itself promotes a violent reaction, and that land dispossession is a violent exercise that undermines the very humanity of the Palestinian people;
(6) recognises that peace in the Middle East will never prevail for as long as the land of the Palestinians is occupied, and more of the little remaining land is annexed;
(7) condemns the killing of defenceless children and women in Gaza, including the bombing of hospitals; (calls on all freedom loving people of the world to support the Palestinian campaign to take back their land in all of its manifestations;
(9) calls upon the government to close the Israel Embassy in South Africa and suspend all diplomatic relations with Israel until a ceasefire is agreed to by Israel and Israel commits to binding United Nations facilitated negotiations whose outcome must be a just, sustainable and lasting peace; and
2023-11-21 South African Lawmakers Vote to Cut Diplomatic Ties With Israel South Africa’s Parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly for a suspension of diplomatic ties with Israel over what numerous lawmakers called its “genocidal” war on Gaza, a move that came a day after the country’s government urged the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lawmakers voted 248-91 for the resolution calling on South Africa to cut ties with Israel until it agrees to a cease-fire in Gaza, where authorities say that 46 days of relentless bombardment by air, land, and sea has left more than 14,000 Palestinians—including more than 3,900 women and 5,800 children— dead, with tens of thousands more wounded, thousands missing beneath the rubble, and nearly 1.7 million people, or about 70% of the population, forcibly displaced. https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-south-africa-2666327494
Antisemitism – Wikipedia From the outset the term “anti-Semitism” bore special racial connotations and meant specifically prejudice against Jews The term is confusing, for in modern usage ‘Semitic’ designates a language group, not a race. In this sense, the term is a misnomer, since there are many speakers of Semitic languages (e.g., Arabs, Ethiopians, and Arameans) who are not the objects of antisemitic prejudices, while there are many Jews who do not speak Hebrew, a Semitic language. Though ‘antisemitism’ could be construed as prejudice against people who speak other Semitic languages, this is not how the term is commonly used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism
2017-09-29 Who Are the Semitic People? Semitic people occupy a relatively small portion of the world geographically, but they have held significant historic, cultural and religious importance. The diverse cultures and ethnicities classified as Semitic share commonalities in language. Originating in Arabia and Ethiopia, Semites share a large portion of their history and background but have found little peace amongst each other.
Semitic people can find their roots in Biblical history. According to the Genesis account, Noah and his family survived a global flood by living in an ark. Semites can trace their heritage back to Shem, one of Noah’s sons. In ancient history the term “Semite” included Arabs, Assyrians, the Akkadians of Babylonia, the Canaanites, Aramean tribes, certain groups in Ethiopia and the Hebrew tribes. Most Semitic groups were nomadic and traveled throughout the Arabic peninsula. By 2,500 BC they had migrated as far as Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Mediterranean coastline. Contemporary Semitic people are primarily Hebrews and Arabs.
The term Semitic is often mistakenly used to describe attributes pertaining to Hebrew or Jewish culture. The Hebrew people claim their genealogy back to Heber, a great-grandson of Shem. They were an ancient nomadic people in the Middle East who people referred to by their religious affiliation, the Jews. When they conquered the land of Canaan they embraced a national identity with the term Israelites. The term Semitic also refers to Jewish people living outside the Middle East region. Jewish tradition is based on the Torah.
Although the term Semite connotes ideas of Jewish or Hebrew people, Arabs are also Semitic people. Arabs consider about 22 countries through the Middle East and Africa home. The Arabic language is the defining feature of an individual Arab. Arabic is a Semite language, similar to Hebrew in grammar and syntax. They are an ethnically diverse populace with different languages and cultures. Arab is a cultural attribute, not a race or nationality. Although Judaism and Christianity can be found in Arab countries, Islam is the dominant religion.
The Amhara, in Ethiopia, are classified as Semitic because of their language and Arabian origins. The Amhara trace their origins to the land that modern-day Yemen now occupies. They are primarily farmers residing in north central areas of Ethiopia. The Amharic language uses similar words and structure to Hebrew and other Semitic languages. https://classroom.synonym.com/who-are-the-semitic-people-12083709.html
2022-11-17 The racial logic of Palestine’s partition The partition of Palestine was first proposed more than eight decades ago. It remains a consensus international approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Why was Palestine the only settler-colonial context outside Europe in which partition became a dominant “solution”? This article argues that the explanation is found in European racial attitudes towards Jews and Arabs in the first half of the twentieth century. British and international policy makers regarded (European) Jews as a non-European, Semitic race. This led them to view Jewish Zionist migrants and native Palestinian Arabs as somewhat comparable groups. Rather than a clash between European settlers and Arab natives, they saw in Palestine a conflict between two nations living side by side. Reading through key documents – the Balfour Declaration, the Palestine Mandate, and the Partition Reports of 1937 and 1947 – I show how this racial logic informed the framework of partition. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2022.2151845
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