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2024-01-10 Israeli Journalist SLAMS Netanyahu’s Brutal Assault On Gaza Israeli Journalist Gideon Levy spoke with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about Israel’s brutal bombing on Gaza. Ana Kasparian discusses on The Young Turks. “During an interview with CNN International’s Christiane Amanpour Tuesday, Israeli Journalist Gideon Levy slammed the Netanyahu government for setting no limits to the bombing campaign in Gaza, and for now simply “killing for the purpose of killing.” Levy writes a weekly column for Haaretz a liberal Israeli newspaper and he has won human rights awards for reporting on Palestinian suffering.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSqYjOFGNgE

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Journalists

Posted on November 16, 2023 by mekorganic

Journalists

Updated 2024-08-27

2024-08-21 Emmy Committee Stands Firm on Gaza Journalist’s Nomination The head of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which nominated Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda for an Emmy Award for her documentary on life under Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, rebuffed a demand on Tuesday from more than 150 actors, producers, and other industry leaders who wanted the nomination revoked.

Signing a letter released by the pro-Israel group Creative Community for Peace (CCP), which campaigns against cultural boycotts targeting Israel, actors including Debra Messing and Selma Blair were among those who accused Owda of being affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States.

The signatories said Owda has “repeatedly participated in PFLP rallies” and accused her of “routinely” spreading antisemitism—an accusation that has been directed at many groups and people who have condemned Israel’s assault on Gaza that began last October in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. The letter did not provide examples of antisemitic statements Owda has allegedly made.

Owda was nominated in the News and Documentary Emmys category of Outstanding Hard News Feature Story Short Form, for It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive—an eight-minute video report about her family’s forced evacuation of their home in Beit Hanoun as the Israel Defense Forces bombarded Gaza.https://www.commondreams.org/news/bisan-gaza

2024-08-09 CN Condemns FBI Raid on CN Columnist’s Home Consortium News strongly condemns the raid on the home of its columnist Scott Ritter by the F.B.l. on Thursday as a serious threat to press freedom.

In a video posted to his Substack page, Ritter said that normally in alleged FARA violation cases the authorities send a letter to the subject of the inquiry informing them of the investigation. They do not send numerous F.B.I. agents to the door with a warrant to search and remove potential evidence.

The warrant, a copy of which Ritter posted, only called for electronic devices to be removed, but the agents, whom Ritter said acted professionally, also removed boxes of paper United Nations files from his days as a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s. As Ritter says in the video, U.N. documents are never classified and could have nothing to do with the alleged FARA case against him.

“So the idea that, this is normal procedure is absurd in the extreme. I’m not a foreign agent. What I am is a journalist. And this is how we need to couch this entire thing. What the F.B.I. did yesterday, what the United States government did yesterday, was a frontal assault not only on free speech, but a free press,” Ritter said in the video.

Ritter says he’s being targeted because of his freelance work for Russian media. In the wake of Russiagate, the U.S. Department of Justice in 2017 forced Russian-government financed media companies to register as foreign agents. But only the principal executives of RT and Sputnik need to register, not employees or freelancers such as Ritter.

“They are seeking to intimidate a journalist with a long record of journalism, to intimidate this journalist, me, from engaging in activities such as the research and publication of articles and materials critical of U.S. policy in Ukraine, supportive of Russian objectives,” he said.

“Just a quick reminder. The U.S. courts have determined that under FARA, coincidence of ideas between an individual such as myself and a foreign government, Russia, does not weigh in on FARA,” Ritter said. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/09/cn-condemns-fbi-raid-on-cn-columnists-home/

2024-08-09 US Rights Group Urges Media to Condemn Israel’s Killing of Journalists in Gaza “The only thing that can explain the shocking silence of American and international media professionals about the mass killing of their Palestinian colleagues is the decadeslong and systematic dehumanization of the Palestinian people.” The largest U.S. Muslim advocacy group on Friday implored American and international media outlets to speak out against Israel’s killing of more than 100 journalists, almost all of them Palestinians, during the ongoing assault on Gaza.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) renewed its plea following Israeli airstrikes on the homes of Palestine TV journalist Tamim Ma’mmar and Al-Aqsa TV’s Abdullah Al-Sousi. Ma’mmar was killed along with his wife and two of their children, while the other attack killed Al-Sousi and two of his nephews, according toQuds News Network. https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-killing-journalists

2024-07-31 Israel Kills Al Jazeera Journalists Ismail Al-Ghoul and Rami Al-Rifi in Gaza Israel killed Palestinian Al Jazeera journalists Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi in Gaza on Wednesday, in what Al Jazeera Media Network called a “targeted assassination” of the two journalists known for their prolific coverage of the genocide as they, themselves, faced relentless persecution from Israeli forces. Correspondent al-Ghoul and cameraman al-Rifi were killed by an Israeli strike as they were working from al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza on Wednesday, reporting on the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran hours before.

Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemned the attack. “The Israeli occupation forces targeted the vehicle in which Ismail and Rami were targeted with a missile, resulting in cold-blooded assassination,” the network wrote in a statement. https://truthout.org/articles/israel-kills-al-jazeera-journalists-ismail-al-ghoul-and-rami-al-rifi-in-gaza/

2024-07-14 Israel Faces No Apparent Red Line, But Pro-Palestinian Media Workers Do A study released in May by the U.S.-based National Writers Union (NWU) demonstrates that there is a clear pattern of reprisal against Western media workers who oppose the ongoing Israeli genocide that has killed nearly 40,000 Gazans during the last nine months. The report documents 44 cases of workplace recrimination between October 7, 2023, and February 1, 2024, in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, with the majority of dismissals, suspensions, speech cancellations and censorship impacting workers of color (76 percent), Muslims (38 percent) and those from the Middle East. (This, of course, pales in comparison to what is happening in the Middle East: According to Al Jazeera, 158 journalists and media workers were killed between October 2023 and July 7, 2024 — the majority of them Palestinian; an additional 32 were injured.)

“Since Hamas’s attack on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza, leaders of Western media companies and cultural institutions have acted to suppress the speech of media workers who seek to elevate Palestinian voices or express concern over Israel’s human rights violations,” according to the report. https://truthout.org/articles/israel-faces-no-apparent-red-line-but-pro-palestinian-media-workers-do/

2024-05-26 Remembering Palestinian journalist Amna Homaid Israeli Channel 14 aired her photo, claiming she was a ‘terrorist’. A few weeks later an Israeli missile killed her and her son. On April 24, Amna Homaid’s torn body lay in the rubble of a house in Shati camp, in the Western part of Gaza city, as rescuers tried to find survivors. An Israeli attack had struck the building, killing her and her eldest son Mahdi. Her brother and her other five children were injured but survived.

Her death was added to the dark statistic of more than 140 journalists and medical workers murdered in Gaza by Israel’s genocidal onslaught, per the count maintained by the Gaza Media Office. This year – like last – more journalists have been killed from Palestine than from any other nation.https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/5/26/remembering-palestinian-journalist-amna-homaid

2024-04-16 “I’m Jewish, and I’ve Covered Wars. I Know War Crimes When I See Them”: Reporter Peter Maass on Gaza We speak with veteran journalist Peter Maass about the Israeli war on Gaza and his new opinion piece for The Washington Post headlined “I’m Jewish, and I’ve covered wars. I know war crimes when I see them.” Maass, who was a senior editor at The Intercept until earlier this year, has spent decades covering wars, including the Bosnian genocide in the 1990s that killed about 100,000 people over nearly four years. He says many of the same war crimes he reported then are part of Israel’s current assault, including sniper attacks on civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, attacks on bread lines and besieging whole populations by preventing food and other aid from entering. “What seems to be unfolding in Gaza is even worse than what I saw in Bosnia,” says Maass. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQV6s0tASGI

2024-03-01 Global News Leaders Voice Solidarity With Gaza Journalists Under Israeli Attack As Palestinian journalists brave Israeli bombs and bullets to show the world the Gaza genocide, leaders of three dozen prominent international media outlets on Thursday signed an open letter voicing solidarity with Palestinian media professionals “in their call for safety, protection, and the freedom to report.”

“For nearly five months, journalists and media workers in Gaza—overwhelmingly, the sole source of on-the-ground reporting from within the Palestinian territory—have been working in unprecedented conditions: At least 89 have been killed in the war… more journalists than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year,” states the letter, which was coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) with the support of the World Association of News Publishers. https://www.commondreams.org/news/journalists-killed-in-gaza-2667408264

2024-02-06 From ‘Jihadist’ Dearborn to Middle East’s ‘Insects’ Editorials and op-eds often have a greater influence on public consciousness than news articles because they can express authoritative opinion, provide in-depth analysis and advocate for specific viewpoints. Emotional appeals and rhetoric have the potential to engage readers on a deeper level and to shape public opinion more effectively. When irresponsibly written, however, echoing government propaganda or lacking a basis in fact, opinion pieces can turn from a public service to a detriment to democracy.

On Feb. 2, The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece by Steven Stalinsky, titled “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital.” The headline sums up Stalinsky’s intent to portray Dearborn, Michigan, as a hotbed of terrorism.

Also on Feb. 2, The New York Times published opinion writer Thomas L. Friedman’s “Understanding the Middle East through the Animal Kingdom.” In his imaginings, the Middle East is a “jungle.” He likens Iran to a “parasitoid wasp,” Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq are “caterpillars,” Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas are “eggs that hatch inside the host,” but Hamas is also equated to a “trap-door spider.” https://consortiumnews.com/2024/02/06/from-jihadist-dearborn-to-middle-easts-insects/

2024-02-06 ACTION ALERT: Friedman’s Vermin Analogies Echo Ugly Pro-Genocide Propaganda Friedman’s piece compared the nation of Iran to “a recently discovered species of parasitoid wasp,” which (according to Science Daily) “injects its eggs into live caterpillars, and the baby wasp larvae slowly eat the caterpillar from the inside out, bursting out once they have eaten their fill.” Friedman asks:

Is there a better description of Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq today? They are the caterpillars. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is the wasp. The Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas and Kataib Hezbollah are the eggs that hatch inside the host—Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq—and eat it from the inside out.

The comparison of official enemies to vermin is a hallmark of propaganda in defense of genocide. The group Genocide Watch lists “dehumanization” as the fourth of ten stages of genocide, in which members of a targeted group “are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases” in a process that “overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder.” “It’s very difficult, psychologically, to kill another human being,” David Livingstone Smith, author of a book on dehumanization called Less Than Human, told NPR (3/29/11). “When people dehumanize others, they actually conceive of them as subhuman creatures,” Smith said, allowing would-be genocidaires to “exclude the target of aggression from the moral community.” https://fair.org/home/action-alert-friedmans-vermin-analogies-echo-ugly-pro-genocide-propaganda/

2023-12-29 The Impossibility of Reporting the Story of Gaza Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has now killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, journalists have been on the front lines, both as witnesses and victims. For more than two months, as Israel has rained bombs on Gaza, they have rushed from refugee camps to hospitals, and from hospitals to schools and back, trying to stay safe while covering what they describe as their own genocide. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 68 journalists have been killed in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon since October 7, making this the deadliest conflict since CPJ began tallying press fatalities. The International Federation of Journalists estimates that at least 66 journalists have been killed in Gaza alone. Many have also lost their families. On October 26, Ahmed Abu Artema, a contributor to The Nation as well as a poet and activist, was seriously injured and lost his young son when Israel bombed his father’s house.

“What is happening now is unprecedented,” said Sherif Mansour, the Middle East and North Africa program coordinator at CPJ. In 2022, CPJ reported that a total of 68 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide; Gaza reached that number in just over two months.

Journalists, said Mansour, “are the ones on the frontlines and they are the ones we need the most, but they are also the most vulnerable.” It’s hard to overestimate the importance of the Palestinian journalists in Gaza right now. They, after all, are the only ones who have been reporting from the Strip since Israel instituted a total siege on October 9 and banned foreign press from entering. Their work has been essential and their commitment unceasing; yet, as the weeks have passed, the mounting challenges of reporting have meant that the world outside of Gaza is getting only a fraction of the story. Even social media has offered only a partial solution as many of the platforms regularly censor Palestinian voices. By far, the biggest challenge for journalists is simply staying alive. The struggle to survive while reporting is an all-consuming endeavor. But this struggle has been seriously compounded both by the conditions of war and the shattering effects of Israel’s total siege of the Strip. Food and water are scarce, fuel is dwindling, electricity inconsistent, and cell service undependable; many journalists no longer even have homes to return to. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-impossibility-of-reporting-the-story-of-gaza/ar-AA1mctHH

2023-12-22 Israel’s Killing of Journalists in Gaza ‘Unparalleled,’ Says Watchdog Journalists are being slain during Israel’s current assault on Gaza at a rate unseen in modern history—with more killed in the last 10 weeks alone than have been killed in any country in any whole year since records began, the Committee to Protect Journalists revealed on Thursday. CPJ said that at least 68 media professionals—61 Palestinians, four Israelis, and three Lebanese—have been killed since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the Israeli military’s retaliatory obliteration of the Gaza Strip.

Of particular concern to CPJ is Israel’s “apparent pattern of targeting journalists and their families.” “In at least one case, a journalist was killed while clearly wearing press insignia in a location where no fighting was taking place,” the group said. “In at least two other cases, journalists reported receiving threats from Israeli officials and IDF officers before their family members were killed.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/journalists-killed-in-gaza-2666788920

2023-12-15 NYT Misrepresents Zionism’s Opponents as Anti-Jewish Bigots “Is Anti-Zionism Always Antisemitic?” a New York Times article (12/10/23) by Jonathan Weisman asked. Trying to pinpoint the moment when “anti-Zionism crosses from political belief to bigotry,” Weisman suggested there were different kinds of anti-Zionism based on different visions of what Zionism means. But his effort to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable critics of Israel painted principled supporters of equal rights as antisemitic bigots.

Weisman offered one definition of Zionism—the way it was “once clearly understood”—as “the belief that Jews, who have endured persecution for millenniums, needed refuge and self-determination in the land of their ancestors.” To oppose this kind of Zionism “suggests the elimination of Israel as the sovereign homeland of the Jews”—which he said to many Jews “is indistinguishable from hatred of Jews generally, or antisemitism.”

To call Zionism a belief in Jewish “self-determination,” however, perverts the concept to include moving to a geographic region and forcibly expelling many of the people who already live there, in order to create a situation where members of your group can have a “sovereign homeland” where they “are assured of governing themselves.” Ensuring the dominance of a particular ethnic group through forced migration is not usually called “self-determination,” but rather “ethnic cleansing.” This is the older version of Zionism that Weisman seems to suggest can only be opposed by antisemites. https://fair.org/home/action-alert-nyt-misrepresents-zionisms-opponents-as-anti-jewish-bigots/

2023-12-05 U.S. Journalists THREATENED By Attorneys General For Covering Hamas News organizations like New York Times and Reuters received an ominous letter from attorney generals about their coverage of Hamas. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. “FIRST ON FOX: More than a dozen state attorneys general signed a letter to media outlets such as the New York Times and Reuters, putting them “on notice” that providing material support to terrorist organizations such as Hamas is illegal, Fox News Digital exclusively learned.

“We will continue to follow your reporting to ensure that your organizations do not violate any federal or State laws by giving material support to terrorists abroad. Now your organizations are on notice. Follow the law,” 14 state attorneys general stated in a letter to the chiefs of CNN, The New York Times, Reuters and The Associated Press on Monday afternoon.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCnTtNDqko0

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. As Israel’s 7-week bombardment of the Gaza Strip has killed over 14,000 Palestinians, 5,000 of whom were children, courageous Palestinian journalists, working in Gaza under unbelievably difficult and dangerous circumstances, are being killed, one by one. This week, a grim milestone was reached, as the number of journalists killed in the conflict surpassed 50. While a negotiated pause gives civilians in Gaza a brief respite, and 50 Israeli hostages held in Gaza will be released, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised the violence will continue immediately afterwards.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 53 journalists and media workers have been killed in what the organization calls “the deadliest month for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.” To date, 46 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese reporters have been killed. Eleven have been injured, three remain missing, and 18 Palestinian journalists have been arrested by Israel.

“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.”https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/journalists-killed-in-gaza

2023-11-22 Truth – and Journalists – Are the First Casualties of the War on Gaza. Truth – and journalists – are the first casualties of the war on Gaza. As Israel’s 7-week bombardment of the Gaza Strip has killed over 14,000 Palestinians, 5,000 of whom were children, courageous Palestinian journalists, working in Gaza under unbelievably difficult and dangerous circumstances, are being killed, one by one. This week, a grim milestone was reached, as the number of journalists killed in the conflict surpassed 50. While a negotiated pause gives civilians in Gaza a brief respite, and 50 Israeli hostages held in Gaza will be released, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised the violence will continue immediately afterwards.

2023-11-21 A Grim Milestone: Journalist Death Toll Tops 53 as Israel Kills More Reporters in Gaza and Lebanon The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that at least 50 journalists and media workers have been killed in Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. Forty-five of the slain journalists have been Palestinian. Others have been arrested or injured. According to CPJ, this has been the deadliest period for journalists covering conflict since the media group began tracking deaths over 30 years ago. Meanwhile, journalists in Israel and the West Bank have been confronted with cyberattacks, physical assault and other forms of censorship for allegedly “harming national morale and harming national security” while reporting on Israel. It’s a “news blackout,” says CPJ’s program coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Sherif Mansour, under which the Israeli government is blocking “essential media coverage” and withholding “lifesaving information” from Gaza in order to win its Western propaganda war. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/21/gaza_israel_committee_to_protect_journalists

2023-11-14 We Are Not Numbers: Palestinian Journalist Ahmed Alnaouq Mourns 21 Family Members Killed by Israel One-and-a-half million residents of Gaza have been displaced by Israeli bombing and siege since October 7 in what many Palestinians are calling a second Nakba, or catastrophe, referencing the 1948 expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians to create the state of Israel. “It’s what has been going on for the past 75 years,” says Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq, who describes how 21 members of his family were killed in Gaza, including his father and several siblings. Alnaouq had not been able to visit his family for four years prior to their deaths, due to restrictions upon entry into Gaza. He joins us from London, where historic protests calling for a ceasefire were deemed “hate marches” by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who was fired shortly thereafter. Alnaouq speaks about global support for Palestinians and responds to U.S. President Joe Biden’s latest comments on Israel’s targeting of hospitals in Gaza. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-1dmng0TCk

2023-11-14 NY Times Writers Jazmine Hughes & Jamie Keiles Resign, Join Letter Against Israeli War on Gaza Democracy Now! speaks to award-winning writers Jazmine Hughes and Jamie Lauren Keiles in their first broadcast interview since being forced out of The New York Times Magazine for signing an open letter condemning Israel’s siege on Gaza. The magazine’s editor Jake Silverstein said the letter violated the outlet’s policy on public protest, but Keiles says there are no clear guidelines, especially for contributing writers. He explains he signed on to the letter due to his disappointment in the journalistic standards missing from mainstream coverage of the war in Gaza, saying “this is an industrywide question.” Both writers say their former institution’s scrutiny of pro-Palestinian activism is a double standard that indicates tacit support for Israel. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRk-iR6gGoU

2023-11-14 ‘The fear is everywhere’: Israel’s fascist internal crackdown | The Marc Steiner Show Al Aqsa Flood and its consequences are shaking Israeli society from within. While Netanyahu’s government continues a brutal campaign of collective punishment against Gaza, some Israelis are questioning why their government is more committed to massacring Palestinians than effectively securing the swift release of hostages. As dissent spreads, the government is turning to fascist methods to repress those who speak out, effectively eliminating freedom of speech and arresting those who defy them. Israeli photojournalist Oren Ziv joins The Marc Steiner Show for a special discussion co-hosted with Israeli filmmaker Lia Tarachansky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o10D7WBdNS0

2023-11-11 Why are Western media accused of bias on Israel-Palestine? | Inside Story A letter signed by hundreds of international journalists says Western media coverage of the Gaza war has been biased in favour of Israel and against Palestine. Newsrooms are accused of dehumanising Palestinians. Are the allegations fair? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtFocW6gi5c

2023-11-10 750+ Journalists to Colleagues: ‘Tell the Full Truth’ About Israeli Atrocities in Gaza Hundreds of international media professionals have signed on to an open letter published Thursday demanding an end to Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza and urging Western newsrooms to call Israeli crimes—including “apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide”—by their names. “The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated,” the journalists wrote. “It is imperative that we change course.”

Citing the Committee to Protect Journalists—which says at least 34 Palestinian media professionals have been killed during Israel’s monthlong assault on Gaza—the letter states that “as reporters, editors, photographers, producers, and other workers in newsrooms around the world, we are appalled at the slaughter of our colleagues and their families by the Israeli military and government.”

“An investigation from Reporters Without Borders also shows deliberate targeting of journalists during two October 13 Israeli strikes in south Lebanon, which killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists,” the signers said. https://www.commondreams.org/news/journalist-gaza

2023-10-27 Israeli targets journalists, kills their families as Big Tech & Biden admin silence Palestinians With Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killing at least twenty Palestinian journalists—and the Biden administration working to muzzle others—Big Tech is quietly coordinating with Tel Aviv to muzzle Palestinian media outfits.

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinian journalists on October 25 in one of the deadliest days for local reporters since the military’s bombing campaign began nearly three weeks before. As the hours passed, footage appeared showing the moment Ramallah-based journalist Mohammed Farra learned that his wife and children were all killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza’s Khan Younes neighborhood. Similarly heart-rending scenes would play out more than once over the course of the day. Elsewhere in the besieged coastal enclave, an Israeli airstrike killed the wife, son, daughter and infant grandson of Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh.

Suspicions that Israeli forces deliberately targeted Dahdouh’s family were quickly bolstered by comments from News 13 journalist Zvi Yehezkeli. “Generally we know the target,” Yehezkeli told audiences within hours of the strike, adding, “for example, today there was a target: the family of an Al Jazeera reporter.”

If true, it wouldn’t be the first time the Dahdouh’s outlet found itself in Israeli crosshairs. In 2021, the Israeli military leveled the Gaza tower that housed the officers of both the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. The following year, Israeli forces assassinated renowned Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, a veteran Jerusalem-based correspondent for Al Jazeera, in a shooting that drew international condemnation but was largely ignored by the US government, which echoes the Israeli government’s position that her killing was “unintentional.” Under Blinken, the State Department has distanced itself from its initial expressions of outrage and no longer calls for either an independent investigation or criminal charges for the perpetrators.

Big Tech censorship has proven indispensable to Israel’s propaganda war. In the aftermath of October 7, multiple social media platforms have suspended or deactivated profiles belonging to numerous prominent journalists, human rights advocates, and Palestinian activists. The crackdown follows years of complaints alleging double standards when it comes to anti-Zionist content on social media.

Despite Meta’s denial, it is worth recalling the company’s record of complying with Israeli government censorship requests. Following the approval of a so-called “Facebook Bill” aimed at clamping down on digital “incitement” in 2016, fanatical former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked bragged that Facebook, Twitter and Google were complying with 70 percent of their takedown orders. https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israeli-assassinates-journalists-big-tech-biden-palestinians/

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Gaza’s Liquefied Natural Gas

Posted on November 16, 2023 by mekorganic

Gaza’s Liquefied Natural Gas

Updated 2023-11-16

2023-11-15 Guess What The Israel-Palestine War Is REALLY About! You probably don’t know that off the coast of Gaza sits $453 billion in liquefied natural gas. But you probably CAN guess why many observers who do know about these LNG deposits are suggesting that Israel’s interest in driving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip may have more to do with money than religion or terrorism. Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss why no one else in the media is discussing this highly germane aspect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_ojjTGJz7w

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Gaza – Why Settlers Left

Posted on November 16, 2023 by mekorganic

Gaza – Why Settlers Left

Updated 2023-11-16

2023-11-08 Hillary Clinton: Israel, Palestinians Need New Leadership for Peace “I think there needs to be new leadership of the Israelis and the Palestinians in order to have any chance at some kind of peace deal, especially a two-state solution.” Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks about the Israel-Hamas war. She speaks with John Micklethwait via video conference for the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore. (Excerpt)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iorNGSeazk

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Gaza – Weapons Testing Grounds

Posted on November 16, 2023 by mekorganic

Gaza – Weapons Testing Grounds

Updated 2024-01-04

2023-12-10 Gaza is a weapons lab for the arms industry w/Antony Loewenstein | The Chris Hedges Report Whether it’s drone technology or the infamous Pegasus spy software, Israel has long developed and refined repressive technologies used by governments around the world by testing them on Palestinians. Antony Loewenstein, journalist and author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World, joins The Chris Hedges Report for a deep dive into the disturbing links between Israeli Apartheid, the arms industry, and global repression of civilian populations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PEWDLunejA

2023-11-14 Antony Loewenstein: Israel Is Testing New Weapons on Gaza as Arms Dealers Profit from Gaza War Worldwide protests calling for a ceasefire are drawing attention to the role of weapons manufacturers and distributors supplying machinery to Israel’s assault on Gaza, with demonstrators blocking shipping tankers and entrances to weapons factories, and unionized workers refusing to handle military materiel over the war in Gaza. There is “a growing public awareness and anger” about the global connection between Western powers and the Israeli military industry, says Antony Loewenstein, who has investigated how Israeli weaponry and surveillance technology are used on Palestinians and exported around the world. “Israel is already, as we speak … live-testing new weapons in Gaza,” says Loewenstein. He also discusses what he characterizes as the “intelligence” and “political” failures of the October 7 Hamas incursion. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGUoYnlboZk

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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From River to Sea

Posted on November 16, 2023 by mekorganic

From River to Sea

Updated 2024-04-01

2023-12-17 The NYT Is Fanning the Flames of a Fake Outrage When covering right-wing claims of antisemitism on campus, reporters for an ostensibly liberal paper should be looking at what is actually being said and what is actually happening. University presidents are under fire from politicians and the media over what is being framed as their waffling over allowing antisemitic speech on their campuses. But it is a concocted outrage that has nothing to do with safeguarding Jewish students, and The New York Times is going along for the ride.

As a subsequent Timesreport explained (12/7/23), Stefanik repeatedly tried and failed to get them to agree with her that calls for “intifada” and use of slogans such as “from the river to the sea” were appeals for genocide against Jews that should not be tolerated on campuses.

First, let’s be clear: Calls for “intifada” or a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” are not the same as calls for genocide. Merriam-Websterdefines the Arabic word “intifada” in the context of Palestine to mean “an armed uprising of Palestinians against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a slogan that’s long been used by Palestinians to “represent the vision of a secular democratic state with equality for all,” as University of Arizona Mideast studies professor Maha Nassar (Conversation, 11/16/23) noted.

The American Jewish Committee describes the phase as “a rallying cry for terrorist groups and their sympathizers,” saying it calls for the “establishment of a state of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, erasing the state of Israel and its people.” But as Nimer Sultany of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies told Al Jazeera (11/2/23), the word “free” in the slogan refers to “the need for equality for all inhabitants of historic Palestine.” So much for right-wing opposition to “cancel culture.”

As U.S. corporate media outlets seldom remind their audiences, Israel is currently deemed an apartheid state by leading human rights groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Israel’s B’Tselem https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/nyt-fake-outrage-campus-antisemitism

2023-11-16 “From the river to the sea”: Palestinian historian on the meaning and intent of scrutinized slogan hat does the call “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” mean to Palestinians who say it? And why do they keep using the slogan despite the controversy that surrounds its use?

As both a scholar of Palestinian history and someone from the Palestinian diaspora, I have observed the decades-old phrase gain new life – and scrutiny – in the massive pro-Palestinian marches in the U.S. and around the world that have occurred during the Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Pro-Israel groups, including the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League, have labeled the phrase “antisemitic.” It has even led to a rare censure of House Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, for using the phrase.

But to Tlaib, and countless others, the phrase isn’t antisemitic at all. Rather, it is, in Tlaib’s words, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence.” I cannot speak to what is in the heart of every person who uses the phrase. But I can speak to what the phrase has meant to various groups of Palestinians throughout history, and the intent behind most people who use it today. Simply put, the majority of Palestinians who use this phrase do so because they believe that, in 10 short words, it sums up their personal ties, their national rights and their vision for the land they call Palestine. https://www.salon.com/2023/11/16/from-the-river-to-the-sea-palestinian-historian-on-the-meaning-and-intent-of-scrutinized-slogan_partner/

2023-12-12 Pro-Palestinian commentator urges allies to stop with ‘from the river to the sea’ chant: ‘Incredibly hurtful’ [MEK Note: What’s wrong with you, Turk. Stop letting Zionists to control the any narrative!] “The Young Turks” show host and announced 2024 Democratic Party presidential candidate Cenk Uygur turned heads on social media this week after asking his fellow critics of Israel to stop using the “From the River to the Sea” chant, calling it “hurtful” to the Jewish people. Uygur, who maintains that Israel is committing “war crimes” in Gaza with its response to Hamas’ massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, added that the chant is “counterproductive” to the Palestinian cause. On his X account Monday, Cenk asked, “Can everyone please stop the dumb ‘from the river to the sea’ chant? It is incredibly hurtful to our Jewish brothers and sisters.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/pro-palestinian-commentator-urges-allies-to-stop-with-from-the-river-to-the-sea-chant-incredibly-hurtful/ar-AA1loIfI

2023-11-18 What ‘From the River to the Sea’ Really Means What does the call “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” mean to Palestinians who say it? And why do they keep using the slogan despite the controversy that surrounds its use?

But to Tlaib, and countless others, the phrase isn’t antisemitic at all. Rather, it is, in Tlaib’s words, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” Simply put, the majority of Palestinians who use this phrase do so because they believe that, in 10 short words, it sums up their personal ties, their national rights, and their vision for the land they call Palestine.

One reason for the phrase’s appeal is that it speaks to Palestinians’ deep personal ties to the land. They have long identified themselves—and one another—by the town or village in Palestine from which they came. And those places stretched across the land, from Jericho and Safed near the Jordan River in the east, to Jaffa and Haifa on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the west. These deeply personal ties were passed down over generations through clothing, cuisine, and subtle differences in Arabic dialects that are specific to locations within Palestine. And those ties continue today. Children and grandchildren of Palestinian refugees often feel a personal connection to the specific places their ancestors hailed from.

But the phrase is not simply a reference to geography. It’s political. “From the river to the sea” also seeks to reaffirm Palestinians’ national rights over their homeland and a desire for a unified Palestine to form the basis of an independent state. When Palestine was under British colonial rule from 1917 to 1948, its Arab inhabitants objected strongly to partition proposals advocated by British and Zionist interests. That’s because, buried deep in the proposals, were stipulations that would have forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs off their ancestral lands.

And while attempts to police the slogan’s use may come from a place of genuine concern, there is a risk that tarring the slogan as antisemitic—and therefore beyond the pale—taps into a longer history of attempts to silence Palestinian voices. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/from-the-river-to-the-sea-meaning, https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-the-river-to-the-sea-a-palestinian-historian-explores-the-meaning-and-intent-of-a-scrutinized-slogan/

2023-11-10 “From the River to the Sea”: Omer Bartov on Contested Slogan & Why Two-State Solution Is Not Viable Israeli American scholar Omer Bartov says the two-state solution is dead after decades of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, making the creation of an independent Palestinian state all but impossible. He says a one-state solution — a single democratic state for all Jewish Israelis and Palestinians — is also unlikely to work given the competing national visions of the two communities. “The only solution is a confederation,” says Bartov, describing a scenario in which two states would be closely intertwined and interdependent. He also discusses the phrase “from the river to the sea,” used by both Israelis and Palestinians to refer to the land. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBaf3LpNJeQ

2023-11-10 ‘From the river to the sea’: Why these 6 words spark fury and passion over the Israel-Hamas war The Jordan River is a winding, 200-plus-mile run on the eastern flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank. The sea is the glittering Mediterranean to its west. But a phrase about the space in between, “from the river to the sea,” has become a battle cry with new power to roil Jews and pro-Palestinian activists in the aftermath of Hamas’ deadly rampage across southern Israel Oct. 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” pro-Palestinian activists from London to Rome and Washington chanted in the volatile aftermath of Israel’s bloodiest day. Adopting or defending it can be costly for public figures, such as U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was censured by the House on Tuesday.

Many Palestinian activists say it’s a call for peace and equality after 75 years of Israeli statehood and decades-long, open-ended Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians. Jews hear a clear demand for Israel’s destruction. “From the river to the sea” echoes through pro-Palestinian rallies across campuses and cities, adopted by some as a call for a single state on the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. “From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” Tlaib tweeted, cautioning that conflating anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism “silence(s) diverse voices speaking up for human rights.” Tweeted Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program and a senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington: “There isn’t a square inch of the land between the river and the sea where Palestinians have freedom, justice and equality, and it has never been more important to emphasize this than right now.”

Ask Jewish people in London what’s so chilled them about the current spike in antisemitism, and many will cite what seems like the ubiquity of the slogan. It is a sign, they suggest, that there’s much to fear. “Have no doubt that Hamas is cheering those ‘from the river to the sea’ chants, because a Palestine between the river to the sea leaves not a single inch for Israel,” read an open letter signed by 30 Jewish news outlets around the world and released on Wednesday. https://apnews.com/article/river-sea-israel-gaza-hamas-protests-d7abbd756f481fe50b6fa5c0b907cd49

2024-07-26 US Doctors Back From Gaza Push Kamala Harris, Joe and Jill Biden for a Ceasefire We speak to two doctors who are part of a group of 45 U.S. doctors, surgeons and nurses who have volunteered in Gaza since October 7 and wrote an open letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, demanding an immediate ceasefire and an international arms embargo of Israel.

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Doctors

Posted on November 15, 2023 by mekorganic

Doctors (also see Lancet Report)

Updated 2024-08-27

2024-08-22 “So Horrific”: Doctor Recounts Treating Patients in Gaza Injured in Massacres Enabled by U.S. Bombs Tanya Haj-Hassan is a pediatric intensive care physician who has volunteered in Gaza multiple times over the past 10 months. She joins us to recount what she witnessed there and to explain why she is calling for an end to U.S. support for the Israeli military and the resumption of comprehensive humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Over the course of Israel’s assault, Haj-Hassan has treated victims of “massacre after massacre,” with injuries and casualties “enabled by American bombs.” She joins demands for Palestinian voices to be allowed to address the convention onstage and argues that Democratic Party leadership’s refusal is part of a systematic “process of dehumanization” targeting Palestinians. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsmOCcyl8Gs

2024-08-21 What I Saw Was “Unfathomable”: Doctor Who Worked in Gaza Speaks Out Against U.S. Arming of Israel A group of American doctors who treated patients in Gaza held a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday to describe the suffering they saw among Palestinians injured and killed in Israel’s war on the territory. The press conference, taking place during the Democratic National Convention, was organized by the Uncommitted National Movement, which is pressuring Democrats for an end to blanket U.S. support for Israel. Among those who spoke was Dr. Ahmed Yousaf, who returned from Gaza just weeks earlier. “When we got to the hospital, everything I saw on TikTok and Instagram and all the television, all the stuff that we had in alternative media … it was 100 times worse than I could have ever imagined,” he said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tywixc3GLDk

2024-08-20 ‘History Is Watching’: Gaza Doctors Urge Harris to Back Israel Arms Embargo at Democratic Convention As humanitarians opposed to the U.S. government’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza continued to protest during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Tuesday, American doctors who recently volunteered in the besieged enclave implored the party’s presidential nominee Kamala Harris—based on the carnage and heartache they have witnessed—to embrace an arms embargo on Israel and an immediate cease-fire.

during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the Uncommitted National Movement held a Tuesday press conference at which American doctors who volunteered in Gaza implored Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, to embrace an arms embargo on Israel and an immediate cease-fire. https://www.commondreams.org/news/uncommitted-dnc

The group includes evidence of a much higher death toll than is usually cited: more than 92,000 people, which represents over 4% of Gaza’s population. The doctors write, “With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both. Israel’s continued, repeated displacement of the malnourished and sick population of Gaza, half of whom are children, to areas with no running water or even toilets available is absolutely shocking.”

The conditions in Gaza are “unacceptable,” and “people know this is wrong but no one is speaking up,” says Dr. Thalia Pachiyannakis, an obstetrician and gynecologist who volunteered at the Nasser Medical Complex. “We all saw evidence of a death toll that is certainly much higher than what is reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health,” adds Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who volunteered at the European Hospital. https://truthout.org/video/us-doctors-back-from-gaza-push-kamala-harris-joe-and-jill-biden-for-a-ceasefire/

2024-07-24 Bay Area ER Doc Returns from Gaza; Netanyahu Faces Genocide Complaint to DOJ as Protests Mar his DC Visit Well over nine months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, many of the Palestinians throughout the area who survive Israel’s attacks have been disabled by either direct blasts or by the fallout from crumbling buildings. Meanwhile, access to medical care is severely limited, and over the weekend reports came out that polio had made its return to Gaza, where vaccines are generally inaccessible except to Israeli soldiers. Our guest in this segment is a Bay Area emergency doctor who just returned from his second trip to Gaza since October, providing emergency medical care amid the ongoing genocide. Dr Mohammad Subeh is a Palestinian American ER doctor who normally works at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. https://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder-july-24-2024/

2024-07-05 Palestine Post: Latest News and Developments This week marks 9 full months of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. As we’ve done just about every Monday since October, we’ll turn back today to our recurring segment – The Palestine Post, talking about the latest news from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the efforts that people are taking from across the world to stop it. We spend an extended hour (far too long to air on our slot on KPFA’s radio airwaves) in conversation with Nora Barrows-Friedman, a staff writer and editor at The Electronic Intifada, and also a former KPFA host and producer.

We’ll discuss a new report by the Lancet on the projected direct and indirect death toll in Gaza to be in the area of 170,000. Then we’ll talk about Haaretz’ report that Israel used the ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7th, which the Electronic Intifada previously reported just a few days after the Al Aqsa Flood and were lambasted for their coverage by mainstream media. We close with a discussion on the potential for ceasefire talks as representatives for Hamas and Israel meet in Cairo and Doha as well as a new commitment from the Presbyterian Church to divest from Israel bonds. To read the Lancet report: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext https://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder-july-8-2024/

2024-06-24 Palestine Post: Doctors Without Borders Doc Returns from Gaza; CAIR Demands Condemnation of Israeli Treatment of Palestinian Detainees On this week’s Palestine Post, we speak with James Smith who recently returned to London following two months of performing emergency medical care in Gaza. We speak with him alongside Zahra Billoo, the Executive Director of the Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

CAIR Press release calling on Biden Admin to condemn torture of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces: https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-calls-on-biden-admin-to-condemn-torture-of-palestinian-detainees-by-israeli-forces/ https://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder-june-24-2024/

2024-06-24 Remember the Palestinian Doctors Killed by Israel In the first week of June 2024, the Palestine office of the World Health Organization (WHO) released figures about the atrocious attacks on health care facilities and workers in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Thus far, according to the WHO, the Israelis have attacked 464 health care facilities, killed 727 health care workers, injured 933 health care workers, and damaged or destroyed 113 ambulances. “Health care,” the WHO’s Palestine office argues, “is not a target.” And yet, during the past seven months, health care workers have faced relentless attacks by the Israeli military. Each of the stories about the deaths is heartbreaking, the names of the dead are too long to list in any article (although a group called Healthcare Workers for Palestine did read the names of their dead colleagues as a protest against this war).

But some of the stories are worth reflecting on because they tell us about the commitment of the workers and the great loss to humanity from their murder. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/24/remember-the-palestinian-doctors-killed-by-israel/

2023-11-13 “Beacon of Light”: Fellow Doctors Recall Dr. Hammam Alloh, Gaza Doctor Killed by Israeli Airstrike We speak with two physicians who knew Dr. Hammam Alloh, a Palestinian nephrologist at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital who was killed Saturday in an Israeli airstrike. They recall him as a “committed physician, wonderful father” and “beacon of light.” He had refused to heed Israeli directives to evacuate in order to continue providing care to his patients. “He spent a decade learning how to serve his people,” says Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan with Doctors Without Borders. “He wanted his children to be able to see a day when they had a free, just, durable, free life in Palestine, without occupation,” says Dr. Ben Thomson, a fellow nephrologist who worked with Dr. Alloh. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hourhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvLS_zbVwGM

2023-11-13 ‘WE ARE BEING KILLED HERE, PLEASE DO SOMETHING’: NURSES AND DOCTORS PLEAD FOR GAZA CEASE-FIRE Doctors and nurses in the Gaza Strip issued urgent pleas for a cease-fire as Israeli forces encircled and attacked the territory’s largest hospital, trapping thousands of displaced people and threatening the lives of medical workers and patients. One Doctors Without Borders nurse texted his colleagues from the basement of al-Shifa Hospital early Saturday, writing that “four or five families”—including his own—were sheltering there amid heavy bombardment and fighting around the facility. “We are being killed here, please do something,” the nurse wrote. “The shelling is so close, my kids are crying and screaming in fear.” https://therealnews.com/we-are-being-killed-here-please-do-something-nurses-and-doctors-plead-for-gaza-cease-fire

2023-11-09 “Unspeakable”: Dr. Fady Joudah Grieves 50+ Family Members Killed in Gaza & Slams U.S. Media Coverage Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians, including dozens of family members of award-winning Palestinian American writer, poet and physician Dr. Fady Joudah. “It is really beyond words to describe what it means to be a Palestinian in this moment,” says Joudah, who calls for the humanization of the people of Gaza and allowing more Palestinian voices into the public spotlight. “Palestinians in the West are only alive when they are dying, and that is abhorrent and unacceptable.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf_R6xxebfI

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Christian Zionists

Posted on November 15, 2023 by mekorganic

Christian Zionists

Updated 2024-08-24

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 downside of racism felt toward, and oppressive policies applied against, the Palestinians were realities they chose not to deal with. Even today, in the midst of overwhelming evidence of Israel’s failure to preserve either Jewish lives or Jewish ethics, most synagogues will not allow anti-Zionists to speak, even if they are Jewish.

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/

2023-13-26 Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes: ‘Occult element’ among Jews must be executed [MEK Note: Fuentes is a perfect example of right wing Christians who support Israel while hating Jewish people. They believe that Israel needs to be whole to fulfil the 2^nd coming that will forsake all including Jewish believers but bring everlasting life to true Christians.]

The white supremacist figure Nick Fuentes said earlier this month that “there is an occult element at the high levels of society, and specifically among the Jews,” and that “when we take power, they need to be given the death penalty.” Fuentes, 25, who denies the Holocaust, came to prominence with an online far-right broadcast called “America First,” drawing its name from the 2016 campaign slogan of former president Donald Trump. It was on this show, banned from most major platforms, that Fuentes made these most recent statements on December 8. “I’m far more concerned,” Fuentes said, about “these people that are communing with demons and engaging in this sort of witchcraft and stuff” than “I am [concerned about] even non-white people or mass migration.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/neo-nazi-nick-fuentes-occult-element-among-jews-must-be-executed/ar-AA1m3K6A

2023-11-09 Is Christian Zionism Blasphemy? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7YXe1Fs8mc

2023-11-07 America’s Christian Zionists: Israel’s strategic weapon? Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a recent speech that the “prophecy of Isaiah ” would be fulfilled. This is a reference to a Christian evangelical belief in the second coming of the Messiah, which opposes the mainstream Christian belief that the Messiah was Jesus himself. So why do Christian evangelicals — who constitute a significant voter bloc in the US Republican Party — support Israel? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bprofax5SPk

2022-12-12 How Evangelicals Betray Christians In The Holy Land [Pt. 2] For millions of American evangelical Christians, supporting Israel is a core part of their faith. They believe Israel needs to exist so that the “end times” prophecies and return of Jesus Christ are guaranteed. But what does that support mean for people who share their religion but live under Israeli occupation? Dena talks to Palestinian Christians about the evangelical Christian Zionist movement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHT-SjIM0tA

2022-03-05 Don Wagner: Christian Zionism and growing backlash inside American churches 2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club.

Rev. Dr. Don Wagner recently retired as national program director of Friends of Sabeel-North America. Prior to that he was a professor of Middle East studies at North Park University, where he was also the director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. During the 1980s he was the national director of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rev. Wagner has served churches in New Jersey and Evanston, IL. He is the author or co-author of five books dealing with Palestinian human rights, Christian Zionism, a theological critique of Zionism and a history of Christianity in Palestine-Israel. These include Anxious for Armageddon: A Call to Partnership for Middle Eastern and Western Christians (1995) , Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land (2014) and Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000 (2003).

The history and theology of Christian Zionism is a central topic of the book he is currently writing. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApbD9-fJFHk

2021-06-21 What is Christian Zionism and why does it matter?? (Understanding the End Times) JM’s debate with Dr. Michael Brown that was mentioned in this video, as well as additional resources for understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be found at: www.discipledojo.org/blog/israel-palestine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT1Wv6Vqw8U

2021-02-11 Confronting Christian Zionism Webinar (2/11/2021) The Working Group on the Middle East of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod presents “Confronting Christian Zionism as Faithful Witness.” The event was held on February 11, 2021, and featured the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel and the Rev. Dr. Robert O. Smith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRdgTlfn73A

2020-04-26 With God on Our Side (2010) | Full Movie | Evan Albertyn | Gary Burge | Ron Dart With God On Our Side takes a look at the theology of Christian Zionism, which teaches that because the Jews are God’s chosen people, they have a divine right to the land of Israel. Aspects of this belief system lead some Christians in the West to give uncritical support to Israeli government policies, even those that privilege Jews at the expense of Palestinians, leading to great suffering among Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike and threatening Israel’s security as a whole. Is there a Biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel? A way that doesn’t favor one people group over another but instead promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians?

Director: Porter Speakman Jr., Writers: Stephanie Hicks, Kevin Miller, Starring: Evan Albertyn, Gary Burge, Ron Dart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NahTjAsDThs

2018-03-10 Christian Zionism part 2: Why Christian Zionism Is a Problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5DpLMS8rn0

2018-03-09 Christian Zionism part 1: Tracing the Lines of a Warmongering Heresy A history of Christian Zionism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlRjFBSNy1M

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Al Shifa Hospital – Israel Narrative

Posted on November 15, 2023 by mekorganic

Al Shifa Hospital – Israel Narrative

Updated 2023-11-15

2023-11-15 BREAKING: IDF TARGETING Hamas Inside Al-Shifa Hospital, INTERCEPTS Houthi Missile | TBN Israel TBN Israel’s Yair Pinto reports from the frontlines of the Israel-Gaza War while on active duty with the IDF. Pinto reports that the IDF has initiated its operation targeting Hamas locations inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital while also delivering humanitarian aid and supplies to the hospital. Israeli forces continue to make progress in the Al-Shati refugee camp by eliminating access to Hamas terror tunnels. In the south, a ballistic missile attack launched from Yemen was intercepted by Israel’s Arrow Missile Defense System. Stay up-to-date with the latest developments here on TBN Israel. Please join us in praying for the peace of Israel and Jerusalem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsxlyZaxNaM

2023-11-15 IDF Publishes Evidence of Weapons found inside Gaza’s Shifa Hospital’s MRI Center The Israel Defense Forces releases evidence of Hamas weapons found inside Shifa Hospital during a raid in the medical center today. It says members of the elite Shaldag unit and other forces of the 36th Division found the weapons inside Shifa’s MRI center. Troops had battled Hamas gunmen outside the hospital, killing five.

“During searches inside one of the hospital’s wards, the troops located a room containing unique technological means, combat equipment, and military equipment used by the Hamas terrorist organization,” the IDF says. It publishes images and videos showing several assault rifles, grenades, and other military equipment. It says that in another ward, it found a Hamas operational headquarters and “technological means” which it says indicates Hamas’s use of the facility for terror IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, in an evening press conference, says troops found Hamas uniforms “that were thrown on the hospital floor so that the terrorists could escape in civilian guise.” “These findings unequivocally prove that the hospital was used for terror, in complete violation of international law,” he says. The IDF says it will continue to operate in Shifa Hospital, under which Hamas is believed to have its main command center, in order to find intelligence information and Hamas assets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQDawQ4IR2o

2023-11-15 Israel army claims it found Hamas items at Al Shifa Israel’s army claims its troops have located a small number of items belonging to Hamas inside Al Shifa Hospital. Weapons and some gear were shown in video provided by the Israeli military. The claims cannot be independently verified. Hamas denies using the hospital as a base. The troops are seen searching the MRI building of the Al Shifa hospital complex. Mustafa Barghouti, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, joins Al Jazeera live from Ramallah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qs829DDrSo

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/what-israel-s-video-of-hamas-tunnel-under-al-shifa-tells-us/ar-AA1keSDk

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Al Shifa Hospital

Posted on November 15, 2023 by mekorganic

Al Shifa Hospital

Updated 2023-12-01

2023-11-28 Jeremy Scahill: Israel’s “Lethal Lie” About Al-Shifa Hospital as Hamas Base Was Co-Signed by Biden The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill deconstructs Israel’s narrative around Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, including unsubstantiated allegations Hamas uses tunnels under the hospital as its command center — tunnels that Israel itself built. “We were told that this was like a Hamas Pentagon,” says Scahill, who describes how the Israeli military’s own evidence disproves its allegations that the hospital was dangerous enough to justify its siege and bombardment. The World Health Organization says Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, “is no longer functioning.” The Israeli disinformation campaign against it was a “lethal lie,” says Scahill. We also discuss the status of Palestinian prisoners who are now candidates for release in Israel and Hamas’s ongoing hostage exchange. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Tfkz33-sE

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/?

2023-11-21 CNN Host STUNNED By Israeli Admission Tunnels under hospital built by Israel engineers in 1983. No conclusive evidence Hamas has command center there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTF1zLzrpw8

2023-11-21 Israel Built Bunker Under Shifa Hospital, Ex-Israeli PM Say Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said bunkers underneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza had been built by Israeli engineers decades ago and were later used by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have targeted Gaza’s biggest medical facility which it said was the site of a Hamas command center, a charge denied by the group.

On Sunday, the IDF and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency released footage it said showed the site was a Hamas command center, with a clip of a tunnel shaft and a winding staircase which descends for 20 feet until it reaches a tunnel.

Amid widespread condemnation about Israel’s targeting of the hospital, CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour asked Barak if the IDF and the Israeli government had done a “good enough job of proving their claim” that there was a “major” Hamas command center and bunker under Shifa.

Barak replied “It’s already been known for many years that they have a bunker that originally was built by Israeli constructors underneath Shifa,” which was used as a “command post” for Hamas and as a “junction of several tunnels”

“I don’t know to say to what extent it is a ‘major.’ It’s probably not the only…command post. Several others are under hospitals or in other sensitive places.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-built-bunker-under-shifa-hospital-ex-israeli-pm-says/ar-AA1ki5ib

2023-11-20 What Israel’s video of ‘Hamas tunnel’ under al-Shifa tells us The Israeli military also released a video that was recorded using two separate cameras on November 17. Spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters the entrance was uncovered when a military bulldozer knocked down the outside wall of the hospital, revealing a metallic spiral staircase that descended 10m (32ft) and led to a blast door, which is typically a metallic door with strong closures and hinges, designed to resist explosions. Such doors are usually found on facilities such as bomb shelters.

But military analyst Zoran Kusovac quoted a civil engineer from Gaza who suggested that the video is actually clips of two different tunnels spliced together. The first section of the video shows the vertical shaft that goes down. It shows features such as load-bearing concrete columns. They seem to be built with regular civil engineering techniques, which would have required large and loud machines such as concrete mixers. Such a construction could not have been done in secret, the way Hamas tunnels are usually built. The purpose of this construction remains unknown.

The second part of the clip shows the horizontal tunnel. This displays features characteristic of Hamas tunnels — pre-fabricated pieces connected together section by section. A control centre has not been found so far. Israeli troops have not yet tried to open the blast door at the end of the tunnel that they claim was under al-Shifa, fearing it could be booby-trapped, said Hagari.

Al-Shifa is not the only hospital that Israel has alleged is used by Hamas as a military base. On November 8, Al Jazeera’s verification unit Sanad disproved Israel’s claim that there was a Hamas tunnel under the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics, commonly known as the Qatari Hospital.

Satellite images and archival photos showed that the hatch that Israel claimed was the tunnel entrance was actually part of a water reservoir system that was used to fill therapeutic pools for amputees, water the grounds, and also was an emergency water source.

2023-11-19 ‘It’s basically hell on earth’: Gaza City left totally bereft of healthcare In the early hours of Saturday morning, over piles of concrete and rubble, crowds of doctors and patients walked miles through the destroyed streets of Gaza City, forced to evacuate on foot from what remained of its hospitals. Medics said they feared leaving critically ill patients behind in a city now largely reduced to rubble and overtaken by Israeli forces, where hospitals had been operating without power, fuel, water or food.

“It’s basically hell on earth,” said William Schomburg, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, describing what remained of life inside the city.

For weeks, tens of thousands of people had hoped that taking refuge in Gaza City’s hospitals would provide the closest thing to safety as the enclave endured intensifying bombardments. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/19/its-basically-hell-on-earth-gaza-city-left-totally-bereft-of-healthcare

2023-11-17 Majority of ICU patients at Gaza’s largest hospital have died, Al-Shifa doctor says Most of the intensive care unit patients, who were on ventilators due to the lack of fuel and oxygen at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, have died, the doctor who leads the burns department at the hospital told Al-Jazeera over the phone from inside the facility on Friday.

Dr. Ahmad Mofeed Al-Mokhalalati noted a significant decrease in the number of premature babies in their care, with little hope for the survival of the remaining infants under the current conditions.

The hospital, which is Gaza’s largest, is grappling with a severe shortage of basic necessities — no water and no electricity in the main buildings of the compound, the doctor said. As a result, surgical operations have come to a halt due to the lack of electricity. This has led to an increase in suffering, especially among children who are now facing severe intestinal infections, a direct consequence of the unavailability of clean water, Al-Mokhalalati added. And although he noted that Israeli forces promised to provide food, the supply delivered was grossly insufficient, catering to for only 40% of those inside the hospital, he said. The situation escalated when the Israeli forces stormed two buildings within the medical compound, with tanks still present in the area, the doctor said. Snipers have been deployed around the hospital, adding a layer of fear and uncertainty according to Al-Mokhalalati. https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-11-17-23/h_97fe902b6b49d81f27362059314b87e9

2023-11-15 IDF “Stripping” People At Al-Shifa | Israel A “Terror State”, Hamas A “Political Entity”: Erdogan Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel a “terror state” that is committing war crimes and violating international law in Gaza. Speaking to lawmakers in parliament, Erdogan repeated his view that Hamas is not a “terrorist organisation” but a political entity elected by the Palestinian people. The Turkish leader also called on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to announce whether Israel has nuclear weapons. An Al-Shifa Hospital official said the Israeli army was “blindfolding, stripping and taking displaced people sheltering to an unknown destination”. A video released by Gaza’s Ministry of Health shows medics at the Al-Shifa Hospital were hit by a shell while attempting to evacuate patients. Watch this video to know what’s latest in the Israel-Hamas conflict.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jln4HDJkiwo

202311-15 Hamas blames US for giving Israel ‘green light’ to raid al-Shifa Hospital US President Joe Biden is “wholly responsible” for the Israeli assault on Gaza’s largest hospital, said Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the enclave. The accusation came in a statement on Wednesday, a day after the White House said US intelligence sources corroborated Israel’s claims that Hamas has buried an operational centre under the hospital. Al Jazeera’s White House correspondent, Kimberly Halkett , joins live from Washington, D.C. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UOx_sgeKP8

2023-11-15 Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza raided while families of Hamas hostages march | DW News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuTUeoxRxKA

2023-11-15 ‘Time of truth’ on Israeli ‘command centre’: Analysis Andreas Krieg, a professor of security studies at King’s College London, says Israel’s allegations of al-Shifa Hospital being a Hamas command centre have been “going around for a decade”. “Israel has always pushed that narrative and now it’s the time of truth. They have boots on the ground and now they have to come up with evidence that this is actually true,” Krieg told Al Jazeera. “Evidence presented over the last couple days from other hospitals has not only been inconclusive but to a great deal has been inconsistent and showed a lot of flaws and misinformation, which also makes it difficult to trust their word. “From an intelligence point of view, I’d say the Americans are just copying the Israelis instead of actually presenting their own evidence. So there isn’t a lot out there.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaN_x05_NCc

2023-11-15 Worse Than Hell: Dr. Mads Gilbert Decries Israeli Military Raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza The Israel military raid on Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering, is an “unprecedented attack on civilian society” in the “darkest time in modern history,” that is being justified in the West by “a deep-rooted and frightening racism,” says Dr. Mads Gilbert, who worked at Al-Shifa. “You don’t do these things to people you consider equal.” Dr. Gilbert is a Norwegian physician who just spent weeks in Cairo trying to enter Gaza to help his colleagues and has worked extensively in Palestine since 1981. “The civilian population of Gaza [have] done nothing wrong other than being born Palestinians in Gaza,” he says. “Israeli impunity has reached a new level, and we are all sinking into that abyss of disregard for human life.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4U-g9JIoQA

2023-10-25 Gaza’s Al-Shifa: A hospital on the brink On the verge of collapse, Gaza’s biggest hospital faces darkness as fuel, water and medicine are running out. Gaza’s main hospital is overflowing with both the living and the dead. The morgues are at capacity, and the bodies spill onto the street outside Al-Shifa Hospital.

Inside, hundreds of seriously injured people fill the hallways as the doctors decide which lives they can save. Men, women and children are among the wounded, and doctors work under immense pressure, knowing all services will soon grind to a halt when the backup generators stop working.

Israel’s siege on Gaza has meant no food, no water, no electricity and no fuel. As these necessities deplete faster than the hospital can cope, Al-Shifa is on the brink on catastrophe. While the hospital struggles to cope with arrivals of the injured, its staff also worries for other patients – 70 people on ventilators, hundreds receiving dialysis and 118 babies in incubators. Without electricity, they will die. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called the escalation of the conflict “abhorrent”.

“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement.

We visit Al-Shifa’s neonatal intensive care unit. Most of the babies in incubators there are connected to mechanical ventilation. As the generators fall silent, the incubators will stop working, and most of these babies will die. Dialysis patients face the same fate. The dialysis department at Al-Shifa treats 1,800 patients who receive dialysis three times a week. We meet some of these patients whose lives are not only threatened by the bombardments but who are also vulnerable if they are unable to receive this life-saving treatment.

The hospitals of Gaza have also become a shelter to many Palestinians, and Al-Shifa is no different. It is now home to hundreds of displaced people with nowhere else to go. With basic services and necessities no longer available, we hear from several who had no choice but to come to the hospital for refuge. With so many dead, the morgues are overwhelmed. Undertakers struggle to identify and bury the deceased. When the generators stop working, the morgues will no longer be able to function.

No one knows the reality of what is happening in Al-Shifa better than the medics. They may be doctors or nurses, but they are also residents of Gaza. We meet these medical teams who tell us about the daily horrors they have witnessed since Israel’s latest assault began. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2023/10/25/gazas-al-shifa-a-hospital-on-the-brink

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict