progressiveissuesblog

The October 7 Hamas Assault on Israel: The Most Successful Military Raid of this Century

SCOTT RITTER NOV 13, 2023

https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/the-october-7-hamas-assault-on-israel

[MEK Note: I apologize to Scott Ritter for duplicating his entire article here as it is too important at this stage in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians to not be fully available. I hope readers will support and seek out more articles by Scott.]

Hamas paraglider troops cross into Israel, October 7, 2023

There is a truism that I often cite when discussing the various analytical approaches to assessing the wide variety of geopolitical problems facing the world today—you can’t solve a problem unless you first properly define it. The gist of the argument is quite simple—any solution which has nothing to do with the problem involved is, literally, no solution at all.

Israel has characterized the attack carried out by Hamas on the various Israeli military bases and militarized settlements, or Kibbutz, which in their totality comprised an important part of the Gaza barrier system, as a massive act of terrorism, likening it to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks against the United States. Israel supports this characterization by citing the number of persons killed (some 1,200, a downward revision issued by Israel after realizing that 200 of the dead were Palestinian fighters) and detailing a wide variety of atrocities it claims were perpetrated by Hamas, including mass rape, the beheading of children, and the wonton murder of unarmed Israeli civilians.

The problem with the Israeli claims is that they are demonstrably false or misleading. Nearly a third of the Israeli casualties consisted of military, security, and police officers. Moreover, it turns out that the number one killer of Israelis on October 7 wasn’t Hamas or other Palestinian factions, but the Israeli military itself. Recently released video shows Israeli Apache helicopters indiscriminately firing on Israeli civilians trying to flee the Supernova Sukkot Gathering held in the open desert near Kibbutz Re’im, the pilots unable to distinguish between the civilians and the Hamas fighters. Many of the vehicles that the Israeli government has shown as an example of Hamas perfidy were destroyed by the Israeli Apache helicopters.

Likewise, the Israeli government has widely publicized what it is calling the “Re’im massacre,” citing a death toll of some 112 civilians it claims were murdered by Hamas. However, eyewitness accounts from both surviving Israeli civilians and military personnel involved in the fighting show that the vast majority of those killed died from fire from Israeli soldiers and tanks directed at buildings where the civilians were either hiding or being held hostage by Hamas fighters. It took two days for the Israeli military to recapture Re’im. It only did so after tanks fired into the civilian residences, collapsing them onto their occupants, and often setting them ablaze, causing the bodies of those inside to be consumed by fire. The Israeli government has publicized how it has had to make use of the services of forensic archeologists to identify human remains at the Kibbutz, implying that Hamas had burned the occupants’ home. But the fact is it was Israeli tanks that did the destruction and killing.

Footage from Israeli Apache helicopters of attacks on Israeli civilians, October 7, 2023

This scene was repeated in other Kibbutzes along the Gaza barrier system.

The Israeli government treats the Kibbutz as being purely civilian, and yet has publicized how armed security teams of several Kibbutzes—drawn from the so-called “civilian” residents—were able to mobilize in time to successfully repel the Hamas attackers. The reality is that every Kibbutz had to be treated by Hamas as an armed encampment, and as such assaulted as if it were a military objective, for the simple fact that they were—all of them.

Moreover, until Israel relocated several battalions of IDF forces to the West Bank, each Kibbutz had been reinforced by a squad of around 20 IDF soldiers who were billeted in the Kibbutz. Given that Hamas had planned this attack for well over a year, Hamas had to assume that these 20 IDF soldiers were still located in each Kibbutz, and act accordingly.

Scott Ritter will discuss this article on Ep. 114 of Ask the Inspector.

The Israeli government has had to walk back its claims that Hamas beheaded 40 children and has provided no credible evidence that Hamas was involved in the rape or sexual assault of a single Israeli female. Eyewitness accounts describe the Hamas fighters as disciplined, determined, and deadly in the attack, and yet courteous and gentle when dealing with civilian captives.

The question arises as to why the Israeli government would go out of its way to manufacture a narrative designed to support the false and misleading characterization of the October 7 attack by Hamas on the Gaza barrier system as an act of terrorism.

The answer is as disturbing as it is clear—because what happened on October 7 was not a terrorist attack, but a military raid. The difference between the two terms is night and day—by labeling the events of October 7 as acts of terrorism, Israel transfers blame for the huge losses away from its military, security, and intelligence services, and onto Hamas. If Israel were, however, to acknowledge that what Hamas did was in fact a raid—a military operation—then the competency of the Israeli military, security, and intelligence services would be called into question, as would the political leadership responsible for overseeing and directing their operations.

Hamas video still of drone attack on Israeli guard tower, October 7, 2023

And if you’re Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this is the last thing you want.

Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his political life. He was already facing a crisis of his own making, having pushed for legislation which re-wrote Israeli Basic Law in a way which placed the Israeli judiciary under the control of the Knesset, effectively terminating its status as a separate but equal branch of government (so much for Israel being the “greatest democracy in the Middle East”). This act brought Israel on the verge of a civil war, with hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets to denounce Netanyahu. What makes Netanyahu’s actions even more despicable is that it represented little more than a naked power play designed to prevent the Israeli court system from trying him on several credible allegations of corruption which, if Netanyahu were found guilty (a distinct probability), would have put him in jail for many years.

Netanyahu had billed himself as Israel’s top defender, a specialist on the threats facing Israel abroad, and how to best respond to them. He has openly advocated a military confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program. Netanyahu is also a proponent of political Zionism in its most extreme application and has promoted the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which use tactics that forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes and villages, as part of an overall plan to create a “greater Israel” that mirrors that of Biblical times.

Part of Netanyahu’s strategy to accomplish this dream of a “greater Israel” is to weaken the Palestinian people and their government to the point of irrelevancy, thereby preventing them from achieving their dream of obtaining an independent Palestinian state. To facilitate this strategy, Netanyahu has, over the course of the past two decades, promoted the growth of Hamas as a political organization. The purpose of this support is simple—by promoting Hamas, Netanyahu weakens the Palestinian Authority, the governing body of Palestinian people, headed by its President, Mahmoud Abbas.

Mahmoud Abbas, President, Palestinian Authority

Netanyahu’s plan was working—in September 2020 Netanyahu signed the Abaraham Accords, a series of bilateral agreements brokered by the administration of then-President Donald Trump that sought the normalization of relations between Israel and several Gulf Arab States, all at the expense of an independent Palestinian nation. Prior to the Hamas attack on October 7, Israel was on the cusp of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia, an act which would have proven to be the final nail in the coffin of Palestinian statehood.

One of the main reasons for Israel’s progress in this regard was its success in creating a political divide between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

On October 7, however, this success was washed away by the victory that Hamas achieved over the IDF. The precise means by which this victory took place is the subject for another time. But the basic elements of this victory are well-established.

Hamas effectively neutralized Israel’s vaunted intelligence services, blinding them to the possibility of an attack of this scope and scale.

When the attack occurred, Hamas was able to strike with precision the very surveillance and communication nodes the IDF relied upon to mobilize a response in case of an attack.

Captured Israeli Merkhava tank, October 7, 2023

Hamas defeated those Israeli soldiers stationed along the barrier wall in a stand-up fight. Two battalions of the Golani Brigade were routed, as were elements of other vaunted IDF units.

Hamas struck the Headquarters of the Gaza Division, the local intelligence hub, and other major command and control facilities with brutal precision, turning what should have been a five-minute response time into many hours—more than enough time for Hamas to carry out one of its primary objectives—the taking of hostages. This they did with extreme proficiency, returning to Gaza with more than 230 Israeli soldiers and civilians.

The Marine Corps defines a raid as “an operation, usually small scale, involving a swift penetration of hostile territory to secure information, confuse the enemy, or to destroy his installations. It ends with a planned withdrawal upon completion of the assigned mission.”

This is precisely what Hamas did on October 7.

What were the objectives of this raid? According to Hamas, the purpose behind the October 7 raid were threefold.

First, to reassert the right of the Palestinian people to a homeland not defined by the Abaraham Accords.

Second, to release the more than 10,000 Palestinians held prisoner by Israel, most without having been charged with a crime, and none with any notion of due process.

Third, to return the sanctity of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest place, which had been desecrated repeatedly by Israeli security forces over the past years.

Hamas Special Forces

To accomplish these goals, the October 7 raid needed to create the necessary conditions for victory. This was achieved by humiliating Israel sufficiently to provoke a predictable outcome—the implementation of the Dahiya Doctrine of collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza, combined with a ground attack on Gaza that would lure the IDF into what was in effect a Hamas ambush.

The taking of hostages was meant to provide Hamas with negotiating leverage for the release of the 10,000 prisoners held by Israel.

The Israeli bombardment and invasion of Gaza has resulted in international revulsion against Israel as the world recoils from the humanitarian disaster that is unfolding before their very eyes. The streets of major cities around the world are full of angry protestors demonstrating on behalf of the Palestinian people—and Palestinian statehood. The United States is now stating that a two-state solution—something the Abrahams Accord was designed to prevent—is now the only way forward for peace in the Middle East.

The United States would never have said this on October 6.

The fact that the United States has taken this stance is because of the Hamas raid of October 7.

Attendees, Meeting of Islamic States in Saudi Arabia

Israel is in negotiations with the United States and others about a possible prisoner exchange involving the Hamas hostages and certain categories of political prisoners—women and children—held by Israel (yes, you read that right—children. And now you know the wisdom of Hamas’ decision to take Israeli children hostage.)

Such a possibility would never have occurred if it weren’t for the Hamas raid of October 7.

And in Saudi Arabia, the largest gathering of Islamic nations in modern history has convened to discuss the Gaza crisis. One of the top agenda items is the issue of the Al Aqsa Mosque and ending Israeli desecration.

This was a discussion that would never have taken place if it were not for the Hamas raid of October 7.

It goes without saying that the Hamas raid of October 7 unleashed a firestorm of brutal recrimination in the form of bombs, shells, and bullets on the civilian population of Gaza. These are people who, for nearly eight decades, have been denied a homeland of their own by the Israelis, who violently evicted the Palestinians from the land currently called Israel in one of the greatest acts of ethnic cleansing in modern history—the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948.

The destruction of Gaza by Israeli forces, October 2023

These are people who have suffered untold deprivation at the hand of their Israeli occupiers while awaiting the moment they will see their dream of a Palestinian homeland come true. They know that a Palestinian homeland cannot be realized so long as Israel is governed by those who embrace the notion of a Greater (Eretz) Israel, and that the only way to remove such people is by defeating them politically, and the only way to trigger their political defeat is to defeat them militarily.

Hamas is accomplishing this.

But there is a price to pay—a heavy price. The French lost 20,000 civilians killed to achieve the liberation of Normandy in the Summer of 1944.

So far, the Palestinian civilians of Gaza have lost 12,000 civilians killed in the effort led by Hamas to militarily defeat their Israeli occupiers.

That price will go higher in the days and weeks to come.

But it is a price that must be paid if there is to be any chance of a Palestinian homeland.

The sacrifice of the Palestinian people has compelled an Arab and Islamic world which, with few exceptions, has been mute over the depravations carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people. Who did nothing as the cause of Palestinian statehood was mooted by the Abraham Accords.

Only because of the suffering of the Palestinian people is anyone paying attention to the cause of Palestinian statehood today.

Or the welfare of the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Or the sanctity of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

These were all stated objectives of Hamas in launching their attack of October 7.

And all objectives are being accomplished as we speak.

Only because of the actions of Hamas and the sacrifices of the Palestinian people.

Which makes the October 7 assault on Israel by Hamas the most successful military raid of this century.

Hannibal Directive

Updated 2024-07-25

Hannibal Directive Explained     The Hannibal Directive (Hebrew: נוהל חניבעל) (or “Procedure” or “Protocol”) is a controversial procedure that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have used follow to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces.     It was introduced in 1986, after a number abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and the subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of directive has never been published and until 2003 Israeli military censorship even forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times. At one time the formulation was that “the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces.”

The Hannibal directive have, at times, apparently existed in two different versions, one top-secret written version, accessible only to the upper echelon of the IDF, and one “oral law” version for division commanders and lower levels. In the latter versions, “by all means” was often interpreted literally, as in “an IDF soldier was “better dead than abducted”. In 2011, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz stated the directive does not permit killing IDF soldiers.

The Hannibal directive has not prevented the capture of a single Israeli soldier. Among the 11 Israelis involved in the seven reported Hannibal incidents, only one soldier (Gilad Shalit) survived. In his case the declaration of Hannibal occurred too late to have any influence on the cause of events. There is however only one case where Israeli forces have been officially confirmed to be directly responsible for an Israeli death.    https://everything.explained.today/Hannibal_Directive/   

Hannibal Directive – Wikipedia    The Hannibal Directive (Hebrew: נוהל חניבעל; also Hannibal Procedure or Hannibal Protocol) is a controversial procedure used by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces. The directive was revoked in 2016, to be replaced by a new directive of unknown content. It was introduced in 1986, after a number of abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of the directive was not published, and until 2003, Israeli military censorship forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times. At one time, the formulation was that “the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces.”    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Directive

2024-07-07 Israeli Newspaper Confirms IDF Employed ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7      The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday that Israel’s military repeatedly employed a protocol known as the “Hannibal Directive” during the October 7 Hamas-led attack in an attempt to prevent the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers—even if it meant putting the lives of army captives and civilians at risk.

Haaretz found based on documents and interviews with soldiers and senior Israeli officers that Hannibal—an operational order developed in 1986 that “directs the use of force to prevent soldiers being taken into captivity” by enemy militants—was used “at three army facilities infiltrated by Hamas, potentially endangering civilians as well.”

During the first hours of the Hamas-led attack, according to Haaretz, Israeli soldiers were given an order: “Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza.”

“At this point, the IDF was not aware of the extent of kidnapping along the Gaza border, but it did know that many people were involved,” the newspaper continued. “Thus, it was entirely clear what that message meant, and what the fate of some of the kidnapped people would be.”  https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-hannibal-directive

2024-01-17 Briahna Joy Gray: Is Israel KILLING HOSTAGES? Inside the IDF’s Reported Oct 7 ‘Hannibal Directive’    Briahna Joy Gray delivers a radar surrounding media coverage of the Israel-Hamas War.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziC95CJ8lU0

2023-12-13 If Israel Used a Controversial Procedure Against Its Citizens, We Need to Talk About It Now     Did Israel implement the so-called Hannibal Directive – which allows the military to endanger a soldier to prevent them from being kidnapped – at the hostage-taking incident in Be’eri on October 7?

The accounts of the only two survivors of the hostage-taking incident in Be’eri on October 7 give the impression that the Israel Defense Forces employed the so-called Hannibal Directive with the people being held hostage by Hamas inside one of the houses on the kibbutz.  https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-12-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/if-israel-used-a-procedure-against-its-citizens-we-need-to-talk-about-it-now/0000018c-6383-de43-affd-f783212e0000?

2023-11-17 The Chris Hedges Report with reporter Max Blumenthal on how the Israeli military launched a series of attacks on Oct. 7 designed to kill Hamas gunmen along with their Israeli hostages.    There is growing evidence that in the chaotic fighting that took place once Hamas militants entered Israel on October 7, the Israeli military decided to target not only Hamas fighters, but the Israeli captives with them.    Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, told the Israeli press, he set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. Escapa told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that as desperation began to set in, “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.”  The newspaper reported that Israeli commanders were “compelled to request an aerial strike” against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza “in order to repulse the terrorists” who had seized control. That base housed Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers.https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-chris-hedges-report-with-reporter

2023-11-03 What’s Israel’s Hannibal Directive? A former Israeli soldier tells all     Now 41, Shaul is a co-founder of the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, the first such organisation of Israeli military veterans calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.  It was during his time stationed at the border with Lebanon that Shaul was first told about the Hannibal Directive, a former controversial Israeli military policy aimed at preventing the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces – at any cost.

Israel last invoked it in 2014 during the war on Gaza that year, according to leaked military audio recordings, though the army denied it had used the doctrine. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in the Israeli bombardment that followed, sparking accusations of war crimes against the Israeli army.  

The directive, also known as the Hannibal Procedure or Hannibal Protocol, is an Israeli military policy that stipulates the use of maximum force in the event of a soldier being kidnapped, said Shaul.   “You will open fire without constraints, in order to prevent the abduction,” he said, adding that the use of force is carried out even at the risk of killing a captive soldier.   In addition to firing at the abductors, soldiers can fire at junctions, roads, highways and other pathways opponents may take a kidnapped soldier through, Shaul said.

The Israeli military has denied the interpretation of the directive that allows for the killing of their fellow troops, but Israeli soldiers, including Shaul, have understood it as a licence to do just that, as it is preferred to a scenario in which a soldier is taken prisoner.https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/3/whats-the-hannibal-directive-a-former-israeli-soldier-tells-all

2016-10-08 The Hannibal Directive – Featured Documentary   This film, by award-winning director Benny Brunner, explores the secret history of the Hannibal Directive – tracing its origins, its most recent use and how it has been applied   The Hannibal Directive was a top-secret military order used by the Israeli army.  First devised in 1986 by three senior army commanders, it stipulated measures to be taken when an Israeli soldier was captured during combat. Its purpose was to prevent the enemy from escaping with that soldier, even if it meant endangering the soldier’s life and the lives of civilians in the vicinity.

The order was last executed during the 2014 Gaza War – known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. During that conflict, more than 2,000 Palestinians and 72 Israelis were killed.   On Friday August 1, 2014, at Rafah in the south of Gaza, the Israeli Army invoked the Hannibal Directive to try to stop Hamas fighters from fleeing with a captured Israeli officer.   The unprecedented ferocity of the action that followed cost the lives of least 135 civilians – 75 of them children. Amnesty International and other NGOs have described the events of that day, “Black Friday”, as a war crime.

The documentary was made in 2015 amid mounting controversy about the application and morality of the doctrine – a dispute which eventually led to the order being quietly rescinded by the Israeli military in June 2016. It contains interviews with former Israeli soldiers, reservists and civilians who were at the time increasingly divided over whether such a brutal policy, which led to the deaths of so many innocent civilians, could ever be justified.    https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Hannibal%20Directive&mid=FB5F6C127D98E881EFE0FB5F6C127D98E881EFE0&ajaxhist=0     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcShjcjC2no&t=130s     https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2016/10/7/the-hannibal-directive/

2014-08-06 Hadar Goldin and the Hannibal Directive   Just what those circumstances were began to filter out early this week, and they attest to deep contradictions in the Israeli military—and in Israeli culture at large.

A temporary ceasefire went into effect last Friday morning at eight. At nine-fifteen, soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces headed toward a house, in the city of Rafah, that served as an entry point to a tunnel reportedly leading into Israel. As the I.D.F. troops advanced, a Hamas militant emerged from the tunnel and opened fire. Two soldiers were killed. A third, Goldin, was captured—whether dead or alive is unclear—and taken into the tunnel. What is clear is that after Goldin was reported missing, the I.D.F. enacted a highly controversial measure known as the Hannibal Directive, firing at the area where Goldin was last seen in order to stop Hamas from taking him captive. As a result, according to Palestinian sources, seventy Palestinians were killed. By Sunday, Goldin, too, had been declared dead. Opinions differ over how this protocol, which remained a military secret until 2003, came to be known as Hannibal. There are indications that it was named for the Carthaginian general, who chose to poison himself rather than fall captive to the Romans, but I.D.F. officials insist that a computer generated the name at random. Whatever its provenance, the moniker seems chillingly apt. Developed by three senior I.D.F. commanders, in 1986, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, the directive established the steps the military must take in the event of a soldier’s abduction. Its stated goal is to prevent Israeli troops from falling into enemy hands, “even at the cost of hurting or wounding our soldiers.” While normal I.D.F. procedures forbid soldiers from firing in the general direction of their fellow-troops, including attacking a getaway vehicle, such procedures, according to the Hannibal Directive, are to be waived in the case of an abduction: “Everything must be done to stop the vehicle and prevent it from escaping.”    https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/hadar-goldin-hannibal-directive

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Balfour Declaration

Updated 2023-11-14

Balfour Declaration: Text of the Declaration         https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/text-of-the-balfour-declaration

The Balfour Declaration Project     It is no exaggeration that the history of Israel/Palestine for the last hundred years has turned on the seminal Balfour Declaration of November 1917. Loved and loathed in equal measure, this was the letter that changed the future.

The following extract of the Balfour Declaration  from the ‘Companion Guide’ to the Balfour Project film, ‘Britain in Palestine, 1917-1948’ highlights the pivotal event.  Concise, but thoroughly documented, the article explains its origins, and why members of the War Cabinet were predominantly disposed to make a commitment to a ‘Jewish National Home in Palestine’, despite opposition from many Jews. What was the role of Chaim Weizmann? What were the lesser-known ‘safeguarding clauses’ of the declaration, and why were they included?  How did the writers of the declaration view the Arab majority living in the land in question?

Here is one essential first step to comprehending the deep-seated strife between Israelis and Palestinians.   https://balfourproject.org/the-balfour-declaration/

Balfour Declaration – Wikipedia   The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The declaration was contained in a letter dated 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The text of the declaration was published in the press on 9 November 1917.

Immediately following their declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914, the British War Cabinet began to consider the future of Palestine; within two months a memorandum was circulated to the Cabinet by a Zionist Cabinet member, Herbert Samuel, proposing the support of Zionist ambitions in order to enlist the support of Jews in the wider war. 

By late 1917, in the lead-up to the Balfour Declaration, the wider war had reached a stalemate, with two of Britain’s allies not fully engaged: the United States had yet to suffer a casualty, and the Russians were in the midst of a revolution with Bolsheviks taking over the government. A stalemate in southern Palestine was broken by the Battle of Beersheba on 31 October 1917. The release of the final declaration was authorized on 31 October; the preceding Cabinet discussion had referenced perceived propaganda benefits amongst the worldwide Jewish community for the Allied war effort.

The opening words of the declaration represented the first public expression of support for Zionism by a major political power. The term “national home” had no precedent in international law, and was intentionally vague as to whether a Jewish state was contemplated. The intended boundaries of Palestine were not specified, and the British government later confirmed that the words “in Palestine” meant that the Jewish national home was not intended to cover all of Palestine. The second half of the declaration was added to satisfy opponents of the policy, who had claimed that it would otherwise prejudice the position of the local population of Palestine and encourage antisemitism worldwide by “stamping the Jews as strangers in their native lands”. The declaration called for safeguarding the civil and religious rights for the Palestinian Arabs, who composed the vast majority of the local population, and also the rights and political status of the Jewish communities in other countries outside of Palestine. The British government acknowledged in 1939 that the local population’s wishes and interests should have been taken into account and recognized in 2017 that the declaration should have called for the protection of the Palestinian Arabs’ political rights.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration

2023-10-16 The letter that led to the founding of Israel | Balfour: Seeds of Discord      The Balfour Declaration opened the door to the founding of Israel, and its impact is still felt across the Middle East today.

In November 1917, Britain’s Balfour Declaration opened the door to the founding of Israel 30 years later. And it has had a major impact on the Middle East. The British government issued a public statement that contained a letter from Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community. He forwarded it to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. It began, “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and was the first public statement of support for Zionism by a major political power. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2023/10/16/the-letter-that-led-to-the-founding-of-israel-balfour-seeds-of-discord

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Water Shutoff

Updated 2023-11-14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Talk Show Views

Updated 2023-11-14

2023-11-12 Last Week Tonight With John Oliver 11/12/2023 | HBO John Oliver November 12, 2023 FULL 720HD      https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Last%20Week%20Tonight%20With%20John%20Oliver%20Nov%2012,%202023%20&mid=CFC4382F15458517F6C7CFC4382F15458517F6C7&ajaxhist=0

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Schools Attacked (also see Pro-Israel Terrorizing of University & Students)

Updated 2024-08-29

2024-08-12 “Pieces of People”: Israeli Strike on Gaza School Kills 100+, Bodies Destroyed Beyond Recognition     The official death toll in Gaza now stands at just under 40,000, though the true number of casualties is likely far higher with many thousands of the dead unaccounted for. In one of the deadliest attacks of the entire war, Israel on Saturday bombed the al-Tabin school in Gaza City where thousands of Palestinians had sought shelter. Officials in Gaza say over 100 Palestinians were killed in the attack, many of them while they were praying at a mosque inside the school. Many of the dead were dismembered or destroyed beyond recognition, with medics reportedly collecting body parts in plastic bags. CNN has confirmed a U.S.-made GBU-39 small diameter bomb was used in the strike, which resulted in “over 100 pieces of people,” says Palestinian journalist Shrouq Aila in Gaza. “I’m saying ‘pieces’ because nobody was able to recognize the full body of their beloved ones.”   Democracy Now! is an independent global news hourhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGsag3IFDmo

2024-08-05 ‘Beyond Horror’: Israel Kills Mostly Children in Fresh Attacks on Gaza Schools       “Remember that each one of those numbers is one person, a child who has been forever changed by what’s happened.”      Israeli forces killed dozens of displaced Palestinians—mostly children—on Sunday with attacks on a pair of United Nations-run schools in the Gaza Strip as diplomats in the region worked to prevent all-out war from breaking out in the aftermath of Israel’s latest assassination spree.

Al Jazeera reported that 80% of the roughly 30 people killed in the Israeli attacks on two schools in Gaza City were children. The strikes came shortly after Israel’s military bombed a hospital complex in central Gaza, killing at least five people.   “This is beyond horror now,” David Shoebridge, an Australian senator, wrote in response to the attacks on schools-turned-shelters.https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-bombs-gaza-schools

2024-08-02 Israel Has Damaged or Destroyed 85 Percent of Schools in Gaza    n just the last 10 months of its genocide, Israel has damaged or destroyed nearly 9 out of 10 schools in Gaza, the UN has reported.

According to assessments by the UN-backed Global Education Cluster, almost 85 percent of school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged, as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) highlighted on Friday.  “Some of these schools will need full reconstruction. The war is destroying the present and the future of Palestinian children,” the agency wrote, calling for a ceasefire.    https://truthout.org/articles/israel-has-damaged-or-destroyed-85-percent-of-schools-in-gaza/

2024-07-29 Israel Bombs Girls’ School in Gaza, Killing 30 and Wounding Over 100   Israeli forces killed at least 30 people and injured over 100 in an attack on a girls’ school in central Gaza on Saturday, potentially using what one expert said is a U.S. bomb.  The school was sheltering roughly 4,000 Palestinians and was also acting as a field hospital.

The strike on the Khadija School, near Deir al-Balah, killed at least fifteen fifteen children, officials reported. Their bodies were sent to al-Aqsa Hospital nearby, along with people who were injured in the attack. The Associated Press reported seeing a dead toddler loaded into an ambulance after the attack.

The aftermath of the attack was chaos, as those who sheltered at the school scrambled to save injured children and searched the rubble, which was “strewn with pillows and other signs of habitation,” The Associated Press wrote. Al-Aqsa, like the other medical facilities in Gaza, was already at capacity before the attack, and Al Jazeera reported that Palestinians injured in the attack were being treated on the floor.https://truthout.org/articles/israel-bombs-girls-school-in-gaza-killing-30-and-wounding-over-100/

2023-11-20 Palestinian Death Toll in Gaza Tops 13,000 as Israel Repeatedly Strikes U.N. Schools Housing Refugees    Over the weekend, at least 82 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Jabaliya refugee camp, including multiple United Nations schools sheltering Palestinians. At least 85 incidents of Israeli bombing have impacted 67 facilities run by the United Nations relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in the last two months. We speak with Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for UNRWA, about the organization sheltering close to a million Palestinians from Israel’s assault, which has killed 104 of her colleagues since the beginning of the war — the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations. Alrifai says her agency is only getting half of the fuel they need to serve people in Gaza, being forced to choose between clean water, food and transport. “If UNRWA ceases to exist tomorrow, then there is a huge layer of stabilizing and stability that UNRWA usually offers in a very, very volatile area that also collapses.”  https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/20/unrwa

2023-11-20 Israel Repeatedly Strikes U.N. Schools Housing Refugees     Over the weekend, at least 82 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Jabaliya refugee camp, including multiple United Nations schools sheltering Palestinians. At least 85 incidents of Israeli bombing have impacted 67 facilities run by the United Nations relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in the last two months. We speak with Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for UNRWA, about the organization sheltering close to a million Palestinians from Israel’s assault, which has killed 104 of her colleagues since the beginning of the war — the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations. Alrifai says her agency is only getting half of the fuel they need to serve people in Gaza, being forced to choose between clean water, food and transport. “If UNRWA ceases to exist tomorrow, then there is a huge layer of stabilizing and stability that UNRWA usually offers in a very, very volatile area that also collapses.”Democracy Now! is an independent global news hourhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4HRfVdSs38

2023-11-10 Over 50 Bodies Pulled From Rubble of Gaza School Bombed Amid Israeli Assault      Palestinian civil defense officials said Friday that more than 50 bodies were recovered from the rubble of a school in northern Gaza where civilians were sheltering when it was destroyed during overnight Israeli bombardment.

Palestine’s WAFA News Agencyreported civil defense and ambulance rescue teams removed the blasted and crushed remains of victims of Thursday night’s missile and artillery strikes on the al-Buraq School in the al-Nasr neighborhood of Gaza City. The outlet said that most of those killed were women, children, and elders.   https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-bombing-schools-and-hospitals

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Pro-Israel Terrorizing of University & Students

Updated 2024-08-28

2024-08-15 Columbia President Minouche Shafik steps down months after protests over Israel-Hamas war gripped campus     Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is stepping down months after protests over the Israel-Hamas war gripped the campus, Shafik announced in a letter sent Wednesday to the Columbia community.

Shafik — an Egyptian-born economist and former high-ranking official at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Bank of England, and former president of the London School of Economics — has faced pressure for her handling of Columbia campus encampments protesting the war between Israel and Hamas.     https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/columbia-president-minouche-shafik-steps-down-months-after-protests-over-israel-hamas-war-gripped-campus/ar-AA1oOPWQ?

2024-05-14 Greens Take a Stand with #Ceasefire Movement  The Green Party has long stood in solidarity with the struggle for justice and liberation in Palestine. While the arrest of 2024 Green Party Presidential contender Jill Stein has been national news, Greens across the country (including in Illinois) have been joining rallies, marches, teach-ins, and encampments calling for an immediate ceasefire and the end of the current assault on Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands.

On April 27, 2024, 2024, Dr. Jill Stein, who is running for the Green Party US nomination for president, was arrested with others, including members of her campaign staff, at the Gaza Solidarity encampment at Washington University in Missouri, where an encampment had been set up calling on the university to divest from defense contractor Boeing. Dr. Stein was in Missouri to collect ballot access petitions in order to be on the ballot in November and went to the encampment after being invited by the students involved.

As with elsewhere in the country, police violently broke up the peaceful demonstration and arrested protestors. In a Green Party US press release following Dr. Stein’s arrest, Gloria Mattera, co-chair of the Media Committee of the Green Party, said, “The Green Party is appalled at the level of brutality that campus administrators and local police have employed in breaking up peaceful protests by students exercising their First Amendment Rights to protest what they view as genocide by Israel in Gaza. We see yet again that free speech rights are perfectly okay in America, until someone advocates a position that runs afoul of the agenda of the two parties of war and Wall Street. When that happens, the state will respond with illegal violence and unconstitutional repression, and candidates for rival parties will not be spared … [more]. https://www.gp.org/greens_stand_with_ceasefire_movement   

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

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

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

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

2024-04-15 USC Cancels Valedictorian’s Commencement Address Amid Accusations of Antisemitism      University of Southern California canceled the commencement address of valedictorian Asna Tabassum on Monday in the wake of complaints and petitions accusing the biomedical engineering senior of antisemitism.

Provost Andrew T. Guzman announced the school’s decision in a community-wide notice on Monday, writing, “When tensions are running so high across the world, we must prioritize the safety of our community” and that the decision “is consistent with the fundamental legal obligation – including the expectations of federal regulators – that universities act to protect students and keep our campus community safe. 

Guzman said that discussion relating to Tabassum’s social media presence — which in addition to linking to a “Free Palestine” website in her Instagram bio has been accused by USC student group Trojans for Israel of being that of “a student who openly traffics antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric” — has reached “an alarming tenor” on and off campus.

“The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has grown to include many voices outside of USC and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement,” he wrote. “We cannot ignore the fact that similar risks have led to harassment and even violence at other campuses.”  “https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/usc-cancels-valedictorian-s-commencement-address-amid-accusations-of-antisemitism/ar-BB1lGsEx?

2024-03-12 Columbia Sued Over ‘Retaliatory’ Suspension of Pro-Palestine Student Groups     “Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning—not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don’t approve of,” said the head of the NYCLU.     

The New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal on Tuesday filed a lawsuit on behalf of members of two pro-Palestine student groups at Columbia University which avocates say were illegally suspended for engaging in peaceful protests and other events protected under the First Amendment.  https://www.commondreams.org/news/columbia-suspension

2024-03-10 College Antidiscrimination Suits Over Anti-Israel Speech Aren’t Designed to Win But to Intimidate    Israel doesn’t represent all Jews any more than Trump represented all Americans.    Cynicism breeds cynicism. Cry wolf enough times and some people will either stop believing wolves exist or they’ll become indifferent to you being mauled by one. 

What, then, qualifies as an antisemitic view about Israel? According to these lawsuits, “criticism” is ok, but “demonizing,” “delegitimizing,” or “applying a double standard to Israel” crosses the line. If that line seems vague and slippery, that’s the entire point: it’s no coincidence that authoritarian regimes use the same formulation. (In Russia, too, its ok to criticize the armed forces; you only get jailed for “discrediting” them.)

This, however, is the least worrisome feature of these lawsuits. The greatest threat that Jews face isn’t psychic discomfort from anti-Israel speech–it’s that people will conflate Israel and the Jews and displace their rage at the former onto the latter. Conflation and its corollary–collective responsibility–drive the surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes every time the Israeli-Palestinian conflict flares up. Every one of these lawsuits rightfully sounds the alarm about the trope of collective responsibility. And yet, their argument that it’s unavoidably antisemitic to criticize Israel does more to bolster that trope than any vitriol-spewing campus antisemite could.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/college-antisemitism-lawsuits

2024-03-08 Columbia Professor who Spoke Out Against Antisemitism on Campus Now Under Investigation by Administration   Shai Davidai, an associate professor of business at Columbia University who has become a leading voice against antisemitism on college campuses, is the target of a university investigation that he believes is politically motivated, he told National Review Friday. 

Davidai told NR that the university gave him a list of specific social-media posts on specific dates that prompted the investigation, all of which he said were about “student organizations that support Hamas and support the Houthis and that are using antisemitic chants in unauthorized protests.”

He first spoke publicly about the investigation in a Friday morning post on X, writing that it “is a clear act of retaliation and an attempt to silence” him. In the written statement he shared, Davidai wrote that “Jewish students at Columbia have been locking themselves in their dorm rooms to avoid being assaulted.”   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/columbia-professor-who-spoke-out-against-antisemitism-on-campus-now-under-investigation-by-administration/ar-BB1jzZuZ?

2024-01-29 Prevarication on Pro-Palestinian Voices at Indiana University    Indiana University President Whitten and her administration have recently suspended Abdulkader Sinno, the tenured faculty advisor of the Palestine Solidarity Committee student group, and then canceled a long-planned Ezkenazi Museum exhibit featuring the work of acclaimed artist Samia Halaby, a Palestinian intellectual who has been very critical of the current Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

These measures were taken shortly after Rep. Jim Banks’s very public demand that Whitten crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism on campus. It begs credulity to consider this a coincidence.  The administration, to the extent that it has made any effort to explain these measures, insists that they are justified by the university’s obligation to provide “security” and guarantee “public safety” for controversial campus activities, and that pro-Palestinian events, being controversial, require special security measures.

But if “security” is the administration’s concern, a number of questions immediately present themselves.   The most obvious question is the simplest one: if current controversies related to Israel-Palestine are so heated that they place people on campus in jeopardy, why is it only the pro-Palestinian events that require special security attention?  Why haven’t pro-Israeli or even all Jewish events on campus received the same level of attention and scrutiny?   https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/gaza-university-of-indiana-antisemitism

2024-01-22 At Columbia, Student Protesters Say They Were Attacked With Chemicals     Columbia University and the Police Department are investigating reports that pro-Palestinian student demonstrators were sprayed with a foul-smelling chemical during a protest last week, leading the university on Monday to bar the people accused of spraying it from campus.   He called the events at the protest, on the steps of Low Library, “deeply troubling” and added that the university condemned “in the strongest possible terms any threats or acts of violence” directed toward its community members. Some students required medical treatment, the statement said. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/nyregion/palestinian-protest-columbia-university.html

2023-12-29 Student protestors at UMass Amherst barred from studying abroad   MHERST, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) – Over 50 UMass Amherst students were arrested in October at a pro-Palestinian sit-in, where they called for the university to take action in the midst of the Israel-Hamas war. Now, some of those students are facing further punishment.     Western Mass News spoke with the attorney who is representing those students, who are facing consequences for what the university is calling “breaking the code of conduct.” One of those repercussions could cost some of them tens of thousands of dollars and rob them of a once in a lifetime experience to study abroad.   

Attorney Shay Negron shared her reaction to the decision that barred arrested students from studying abroad in the spring, stating, “It’s frustrating. As an attorney, we stand by these judicial procedures and rules and appeal processes.”

She went on to add, “These are students that were peacefully protesting. One of the things they mention in my phone calls with them is ‘we were peaceful, we even cleaned up after ourselves. Like, we were quiet’ and they just wanted to get the attention and response from Chancellor Reyes and UMass.”

One of Negron’s clients who wishes to remain anonymous provided us with a statement that reads:   “I am now at risk of missing an entire semester of studies while also losing over $20,000 because UMass barred me from studying abroad. This decision reflects a pattern of attacks across college campuses targeting students for speaking out against Israel’s brutal genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The UMass international programs office should immediately reverse its decision and grant us permission to study abroad. No student should have to face targeted backlash from their university for speaking out against genocide.”   https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/student-protestors-at-umass-amherst-barred-from-studying-abroad/ar-AA1me0lG

2023-12-28  Ousted UPenn board chair says donors shouldn’t decide policy after contributions pulled over school’s handling of antisemitism          https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ousted-upenn-board-chair-says-donors-shouldn-t-decide-policy-after-contributions-pulled-over-school-s-handling-of-antisemitism/ar-AA1maank?

2023-12-26 Students Fighting Antisemitism Use Legal Tool That Tests Power at US Colleges     University of Pennsylvania senior Eyal Yakoby wasn’t going to sit idly by as antisemitism crept across campus this fall.    The Israeli American wrote to President Elizabeth Magill to warn about the hostile environment for Jews on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Instead of studying for finals, he went to Congress on Dec. 5 for a press conference.

On the day he went to Congress, Yakoby and another student also sued Penn, claiming the school fostered a hostile environment that left them feeling unsafe in class or crossing the campus.  Their lawsuit is one of several filed in recent weeks against universities by students citing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law may become the most powerful legal tool to force universities to change how they balance free speech with the need to protect students from discrimination.   The US Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights oversees enforcement of the law and is using it to impose changes through a less confrontational method. Instead of suing, it typically negotiates with schools as it makes nondiscrimination a condition of receiving federal funding.     https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/students-fighting-antisemitism-use-legal-tool-that-tests-power-at-us-colleges/ar-AA1m2KB1

2023-12-23 Stefanik slams Harvard prof suggesting school doesn’t need to cooperate with congressional probes: ‘Harvard is funded with billions of taxpayer dollars’     The House Education and Workforce Committee has launched a probe into allegations of rampant antisemitism on Harvard’s campus and academic dishonesty on the part of the school’s president, Claudine Gay.   Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy told the New York Times Friday that his support for Gay is “unmoved” despite dozens of instances of alleged plagiarism by Gay uncovered by The Post –— including portions of her 1997 Ph.D. thesis.  Kennedy, 69, also suggested that Harvard leadership could decline to cooperate with the congressional probe if it finds lawmakers’ inquiries to be “bad faith efforts to harass, embarrass and intimidate.”    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/stefanik-slams-harvard-prof-suggesting-school-doesn-t-need-to-cooperate-with-congressional-probes-harvard-is-funded-with-billions-of-taxpayer-dollars/ar-AA1lVcIR

2023-12-22 Ethics charge against Westfield school board member over alleged antisemitism dismissed    The New Jersey School Ethics Commission has dismissed charges that a Westfield school board member violated state ethics rules by posting social media statements that a resident claimed were antisemitic.   The Commission voted Dec. 19 to formalize the dismissal of the complaint made against school board member Sahar Aziz, a professor at Rutgers Law School, initially filed by Stephanie Siegel in February and amended in March.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ethics-charge-against-westfield-school-board-member-over-alleged-antisemitism-dismissed/ar-AA1lU87D

2023-12-20 The Palestine Exception to Campus Free Speech    On Nov. 9, 2023, I and nine of my peers organized and participated in a sit-in at our high school’s annual Veterans Day ceremony to protest Israel’s attack on Gaza, challenge United States military and political funding of the genocide of Palestinians, and show our solidarity with the Palestinian cause. We filled rows of our gym wearing white shirts that read “Stop Israel, Stop Genocide” and held signs reading “We Are the Resistance” and “Free Palestine” during the event.

The aftermath of our disruption was swift and serious. We were humiliated by our administration, removed from leadership positions for not “reflecting school values,” and given referrals from our district for “printing political propaganda.” our school principal told us, “This is already in your permanent record”—and that there was nothing we could do to get it expunged. As seniors applying to colleges, it appeared that the marks on our records were meant to jeopardize our futures.

Schools are also cracking down on what students can discuss inside the classroom. Ali says, “I try to discuss it as much as possible in class, but recently Loudoun County Public Schools have banned a lot of pro-Palestine slogans and symbols, so there are definitely some restrictions from the admin.”    

As I processed my “punishment,” I learned that our situation wasn’t unique. In response to the constant Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip, which, as of this writing, have killed more than 20,000 people—many of whom are children—students in high schools across the country have held pro-Palestine demonstrations, sit-ins, and walkouts, and called for an end to Israel’s violence. 

Despite attempts to censor and intimidate young organizers at U.S. high schools, students, including myself, are determined to organize against the occupation from the “Belly of the Beast,” to quote Che Guevara.   The biggest tool for young Americans is social media, which has been vital not only in educating, but in circulating news from inside Gaza into the heart of the U.S. empire.   https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2023/12/20/campus-speech-palestine-gaza

2023-12-20 The Harvard/Kanye Axis Reveals More Than Antisemitism   After the catastrophic congressional testimony of several prominent university presidents, at which the moral decay of our elite academic institutions was on full display, donors, oversight bodies and others exerted significant pressure to have them removed from their positions. University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill resigned the weekend after the hearing.  Harvard president Claudine Gay and MIT president Sally Kornbluth survive, and Harvard’s board issued a unanimous statement of support for Ms. Gay just last week.     What accounts for the difference? One word: consequences.

Shortly after the congressional hearing, Penn donor Ross Stevens withdrew a $100 million donation in protest of the university’s failure to adhere to its anti-discrimination and anti-harassment requirements. At the same time, the Wharton School board of advisors called for changes in university leadership, expressing concern about a “dangerous and toxic culture” they believed the school had allowed to exist. Both Ms. Magill and Board of Trustees chair Scott Bok resigned on Dec. 9.

At Harvard, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, former university president Larry Summers, and a number of significant donors expressed similar concerns about Ms. Gay. That she remains in her position is evidence that Harvard is largely impervious to outside pressure. With foibles including its dead-last rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) on free expression, the occupation of Widener Library by pro-Palestinian activists, the harassment of Jewish students following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, and a recent Supreme Court decision holding that its race-conscious admissions policies violate the Fourteenth Amendment, why isn’t Harvard held to account by its community and the wider culture?   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-harvard-kanye-axis-reveals-more-than-antisemitism/ar-AA1lMO5n

2023-12-19 Brown University pushes ahead with criminal charges against 41 student protesters      Brown University is moving ahead with trespassing charges against 41 students arrested during a peaceful protest last week.  As of Tuesday, members of the Brown Divest Coalition, which organized the Dec. 11 sit-in at University Hall, were preparing for six court dates stretching over winter break, from Jan. 9-18.   Ouyang said a group called Brown University Alumni for Palestine launched a legal fund to help with students’ legal expenses, and alumni also started an email campaign that has prompted some 3,000 emails to university President Christina Paxson, calling for the charges to be dropped    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/brown-university-pushes-ahead-with-criminal-charges-against-41-student-protesters/ar-AA1lLbFR

2023-12-19 NYC pre-K teacher wasn’t punished for ‘antisemitic’ poster as parents call for probe over ‘campaign against Jews’     Siriana Abboud, a 29-year-old teacher at PS 59, Beekman Hill International School, sparked outrage over the poster, which featured drawings of different noses with the question, “Why do people have different noses?” written on it.   “I think it’s based on your ethnic identity. In art, we learn that you can often tell ethnicity from the bridge of your nose,” a note on the poster signed “Siriana (PreK)” said.   Jewish staffers complained that the display evoked cruel antisemitic stereotypes.    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nyc-pre-k-teacher-wasn-t-punished-for-antisemitic-poster-as-parents-call-for-probe-over-campaign-against-jews/ar-AA1lLdk7?

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.   The uproar concerns an appearance by the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania before the House Education committee, in which Rep. Elise Stefanik (R–N.Y.) grilled them about antisemitism on campus and whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates university codes of conduct.

But there are two big problems with the Times‘ framing: The calls for genocide were imaginary, and the presidents’ answers were not evasive, they were accurate reflections of the constitutional protections of free speech and the scope of university policies on harassment and bullying.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/nyt-fake-outrage-campus-antisemitism

2023-12-15 A Palestinian student was expelled from a Florida high school after his mother made pro-Palestinian posts on social media   The Council on American-Islamic Relations has requested the US Department of Education investigate the expulsion of a Palestinian American high school student over pro-Palestinian content his mother posted on social media.   Jad Abuhamda, 15, was expelled on November 19 from the Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and his mother, Dr. Maha Almasri, was fired from her position as a math tutor at the school after she made posts criticizing Israel’s “collective brutality” against Palestinian civilians and children in Gaza during the ongoing war, CAIR said in a Wednesday news release.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-palestinian-student-was-expelled-from-a-florida-high-school-after-his-mother-made-pro-palestinian-posts-on-social-media/ar-AA1lziOe

2023-12-13 Rutgers University Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine amid DOE Investigation     Rutgers University has suspended its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the youth-led pro-Palestinian group responsible for many recent antisemitic campus protests.   Associate Dean of Students Michelle Jefferson said in a letter that the student group was placed under an interim suspension on Tuesday. It is unclear how long the suspension will last. The New Jersey college joins a host of other universities that have also disbanded their campus SJP chapters, including Columbia University and Brandeis University.    

The group’s Instagram page [MEK Note:  Besides the Rutgers Ban, Instagram has removed the student’s site.  Antisemitism weaponized against pro-semitic Palestinian group] lists many pro-Palestinian protests it has conducted since October 7; a study-in strike in a library, a courtyard demonstration with a sheet that read “Rutgers you have blood on your hands,” a protest of the school’s board of governors meeting, and an event to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. The group’s page also describes a number of ways students can support the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.

On October 10, Rutgers SJP posted its first social-media post since October 7. Students were told to go “all out for Palestine” at an SJP-sponsored teach-in. SJP noted that students should “maintain anonymity: wear masks/sunglasses, do not disclose personal info of yourself or others,” “blur, or avoid posting photos with others’ faces entirely,” and “refrain from speaking to the press/[Rutgers University Police Department].”

“Rutgers Students for Justice in Palestine believes in the power of activism to educate Rutgers University-Newark about the ongoing plight of the Palestinian people as well as their history and cultural heritage,” the group’s still-active university profile says. “Furthermore, RSJP seeks to promote the Palestinian right to education and to foster communication with Palestinian schools and scholars. In the spirit of free expression, RSJP seeks to provide an alternative perspective to existing narratives as well as to engage in constructive dialogue, discussion and coalition building with other Rutgers student organizations.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rutgers-university-suspends-students-for-justice-in-palestine-amid-doe-investigation/ar-AA1lpSKl

2023-12-13 The conversation we can’t avoid about pro-Palestinian campus protests  Wendy Pearlman is a professor of political science and interim director of the Middle East and North Africa Studies Program at Northwestern University.  I’ve been paying close attention to what’s being discussed during this uproar — and what isn’t.   As a graduate student two decades ago, I was president of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Harvard. Our small group sponsored the occasional lecture or film screening, but for the most part we were ignored.  

Last week’s hearing by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce took place amid worldwide outcry about the colossal scale of death and destruction in Gaza. Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, should be denounced and combatted everywhere, without exception.  But the timing of the hearing suggests to me that something else is going on as well. Accusations of antisemitism are being used to silence criticism of the state of Israel. Lawmakers on the committee blurred the line between Jews and Israel and equated antisemitism and pro-Palestinian dissent.

The Anti-Defamation League and Brandeis Center urged administrators to investigate SJP chapters, suggesting that students are “materially supporting” terrorists. Some schools, among them Brandeis, George Washington University and Columbia, banned or suspended their SJP chapters. Columbia also suspended Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish anti-Zionist organization in solidarity with Palestinians’ freedom struggle.   

Meanwhile, there have been alarming reports of nationwide information-gathering operations against pro-Palestinian student activists. Some have been doxed or seen their faces plastered on billboard trucks. Others have seen job offers rescinded or denied. Some have even received death threats.  For weeks, students criticizing Israel’s military actions have spoken about being afraid to show their faces, express themselves on social media, wear keffiyehs or speak Arabic in public. Their fears took on alarming resonance after the shooting in Vermont of three Palestinian undergraduates, which left one paralyzed and is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

University administrators have given far too little attention to dangers faced by students who stand with the Palestinian cause. What they have done is denounce antisemitism.

That has been the focus in Washington as well. Both the Senate and the House have passed resolutions condemning student activities that they labeled as antisemitic and “pro-Hamas.” The Biden administration announced a raft of measures to combat antisemitism at schools and universities. And numerous top law firms sent a joint letter to law school deans across the country last month, threatening not to hire their students unless deans addressed antisemitism on campus.

Why so much attention to universities right now? I would suggest that those who want to preserve US support for Israel view today’s college students as a looming threat. Surveys have shown that young Americans are far more critical of Israel than are older Americans. Gen Z students, coming of age in an era of mass action on Black Lives Matter, climate change and gun safety, are rallying broad coalitions in support of Palestinian freedom.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/opinion-the-conversation-we-can-t-avoid-about-pro-palestinian-campus-protests/ar-AA1ls1Y5

2023-12-13 These 125 Democrats voted against a resolution declaring that the presidents of Harvard and MIT should resign after recent antisemitism testimony    The resolution, which essentially calls for the presidents of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to resign, was ultimately opposed by 125 House Democrats — a strong majority of the caucus.  Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has voted against multiple pro-Israel resolutions in recent weeks, also voted no.   Meanwhile, three House Democrats voted present: Reps. Julia Brownley and Jimmy Gomez of California, and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania.   It’s the latest contentious resolution to hit the House floor since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack, coming in the wake of a resolution affirming support for Israel, a resolution affirming the Jewish state’s right to exist, and a resolution equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/these-125-democrats-voted-against-a-resolution-declaring-that-the-presidents-of-harvard-and-mit-should-resign-after-recent-antisemitism-testimony/ar-AA1lsTam 

2023-12-12 Rabbi David Wolpe slams Harvard’s ‘climate of intimidation’ stemming from antisemitism on campus  https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/rabbi-david-wolpe-slams-harvard-s-climate-of-intimidation-stemming-from-antisemitism-on-campus/vi-AA1lkuwS?ocid=socialshare

2023-12-11 Peter Beinart & Omer Bartov on UPenn President Resignation, Gaza & the Weaponization of Antisemitism   University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill voluntarily resigned her position Saturday after a House Education Committee hearing last Tuesday on how colleges have handled antisemitism. Magill has faced demands to resign since September, when she refused to bow to pressure to cancel the Palestine Writes Literature Festival on campus. More universities face accusations that they have failed to protect Jewish students since the October 7 Hamas incursion into southern Israel amid a broader effort to restrict pro-Palestinian speech on campus. We speak with Peter Beinart, professor of journalism at the City University of New York and the editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, and with Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. “This whole discussion seems to me to be the least important issue,” says Bartov. “What is most important now is that Israel now has been conducting a war for weeks and weeks in which it has killed thousands and thousands   https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/11/campus_antisemitism_and_resignations

2023-12-10 ‘Horrifying Precedent’: Penn President Resigns Amid Right-Wing Campus Speech Uproar   “She was coerced into resigning for defending her students’ right to political free speech,” said one critic.   Professors at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday were joined by rights advocates in condemning the attacks that forced university president Liz Magill to resign days after she testified before the U.S. Congress.

Magill had angered lawmakers from both parties by refusing to say students should be punished for hypothetically “calling for the genocide of Jews.”   Magill announced her resignation Saturday after the university lost a $100 million donation from hedge fund manager Ross Stevens, a Penn alum, due to last Tuesday’s hearing at the House Education and Workforce Committee.  

At the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) demanded to know whether hypothetical calls for committing a genocide against Jewish people would violate the policies of Penn, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stefanik also conflated calls for “intifada”—an uprising against oppression which is not necessarily violent or aimed at eliminating any group of people—with demands for a genocide against Jewish people. Committee members did not point to examples of students actually calling for genocide.  

Magill’s testimony represented Penn’s official rules governing free speech, which state that “universities can invest their efforts and resources in educating their members and in creating spaces and contexts for productive dialogue, but they cannot legitimately punish members—students, staff, and faculty—who choose not to participate in those, or who profess bigoted and other hateful views.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/penn-president-resigns

2023-12-06 Penn Sued by Students Claiming Antisemitism on Campus  The University of Pennsylvania was sued by a pair of students who claim the campus was a hotbed of antisemitism even before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.   Penn became the third major US college, after New York University and the University of California at Berkeley, to face lawsuits in the last month claiming the schools put Jewish students at risk amid campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/penn-sued-by-students-claiming-antisemitism-on-campus/ar-AA1l2OMn 

2023-12-05 Harvard alumni are slashing donations and taking the college out of their wills over its response to the Israel-Hamas war: Bloomberg     Harvard alumni are slashing their donations amid reports of on-campus semitism, per Bloomberg.   The university has found itself in the spotlight over its response to the Israel-Hamas war.   One alumna told Bloomberg that she won’t encourage her classmates to donate this year.   On October 8, a group of Harvard student organizations signed a pro-Hamas letter blaming Israel for the Islamist militant group’s terrorist attacks on Israel the previous day.    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/harvard-alumni-are-slashing-donations-and-taking-the-college-out-of-their-wills-over-its-response-to-the-israel-hamas-war-bloomberg/ar-AA1l0FIt

2023-12-04 Campus antisemitism has become systemic due to ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’     Two major changes in universities have contributed significantly to the dramatic rise of antisemitism on college campuses.   The first is the creation of large bureaucracies whose purpose is to propagandize students in favor of a particular ideology: diversity, equity and inclusion. The second is the formation of special departments and programs designed to promote the ideologies of particular identity groups, such as Blacks, women, gays, Muslims, Native Americans and Jews.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/campus-antisemitism-has-become-systemic-due-to-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/ar-AA1kZlPk

2023-11-12  UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OUTRAGED AT BLATANT ADMINISTRATIVE OVERREACH    Over the past four weeks, National Students for Justice in Palestine has witnessed the most blatant administrative and governmental assault on students’ political speech in recent history. We are deeply concerned with politically-motivated administrative retaliation against individual students and student organizations at universities across North America. This unconstitutional and immoral suppression of our students—students speaking out against the decades-old genocidal depravity of a US vassal state—has cast a dark shadow over our supposedly pluralistic institutions.

American universities pride themselves on providing a diversified, transformative education. Yet, world-renowned institutions, including Columbia University, Brandeis University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, have taken direct action against Palestinian, Jewish, and allied students who have dared to speak out against US participation in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This isn’t just an infringement on Palestinian rights; it’s a signifier of the erosion of US democracy itself.

The administrative surveillance and targeting of individual students sets an extremely concerning precedent. A student at New York University was suspended for one year for simply tearing down a Zionist propaganda poster on campus. Nearly sixty students at UMass Amherst were arrested and now face disciplinary action for their sit-in, a non-violent protest. Harvard University evicted a Black student from student housing for helping marshal a protest. Across the country, students have been notified that university administrators are coordinating with campus police, state police, and even the Department of Homeland Security to suppress pro-Palestine activism.

Our students’ resolve and pursuit of justice remain unmoved by fear of administrative reprisal. As we continue to fight for Palestinian liberation on campus, we call on journalists, reporters, columnists, and academics to use their influential platforms to expose instances of administrative overreach and external pressure. The agendas of political lobbyists and wealthy donors have no place on our university campuses; it’s crucial to hold these institutions and their administrative bodies accountable and protect the voices of students facing unjust McCarthyist targeting.

National Students for Justice in Palestine calls on all journalists of conscience to cover these administrator-led recrimination campaigns and wide-scale violations of student and faculty rights. We commend student organizers for steadfastly upholding their political line despite these attempts to silence our righteous fight for justice.https://nationalsjp.org/university-students-outraged-at-blatant-administrative-overreach

2023-11-29 Harvard, Penn, MIT Presidents Called Before Congress on Antisemitism   The presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be called before Congress next week to address antisemitism on their campuses.   Set to appear Dec. 5 on Capitol Hill are Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Penn’s Liz Magill and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth, according to a statement from the House Education and Workforce Committee.

“Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen countless examples of antisemitic demonstrations on college campuses,” Representative Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina and chair of the committee, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, college administrators have largely stood by, allowing horrific rhetoric to fester and grow.”   Harvard has been chastised by alumni including US Senator Mitt Romney and billionaire investor Bill Ackman for not doing enough to keep Jewish students safe, and donors have announced they would stop supporting the Ivy League university. Ackman has called for Harvard to discipline protesters who violate rules because he said the lack of punishment further emboldens them to take “more aggressive, disruptive and antisemitic actions.”  https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/harvard-penn-mit-presidents-called-before-congress-on-antisemitism/ar-AA1kFxru

2023-11-29 NYC chancellor denies high schoolers who stormed halls demanding Jewish teacher’s ouster are ‘radicalized’  ew York City Schools Chancellor David Banks on Monday staunchly denied allegations that the approximately 400 students who swarmed the halls of Hillcrest High School last week demanding the ouster of a Jewish teacher who supports Israel had been in any way “radicalized.”   “This is a really good school with wonderful young people. And I’m so taken aback by this notion that these kids are terrorists … or radicalized. Even that kind of language is just terrible, and it’s irresponsible,” Banks said at a press conference, confirming that some students had been suspended or faced disciplinary action after the incident. Viral video showed students acting out after the teacher’s social media profile showed she attended an off-campus rally in support of Israel.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nyc-chancellor-denies-high-schoolers-who-stormed-halls-demanding-jewish-teacher-s-ouster-are-radicalized/ar-AA1kFqjr?

2023-11-28 Pro-terrorist cash is funding US higher ed, and taxpayers should be upset about it      Over the last seven weeks, anti-American, anti-Israel and antisemitic activity has consumed higher education. College administrations, flush with foreign cash and taxpayer dollars, continue to give Hamas sympathizers free rein.   In response, many families have begun to reconsider where they should send their donations or even whether they should send their children to such schools.  Professors celebrate the massacre of Jewish civilians and justify terrorism. Universities such as Yale defend such behavior by faculty in the name of free speech, and some even reward it with paid leave, as Cornell has done.

Student groups, particularly Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (don’t let the name fool you), threaten Jews and sow hatred. Columbia stands as one of the few outliers in suspending these two organizations, albeit for just six weeks. Other universities that seek to regain the respect they lost by remaining silent in the face of pro-terrorist campus demonstrations would be wise to follow suit.

But why does higher education protect those who actively threaten both Jews and the U.S.? Everyone knows universities are beholden to their massive endowments. So, follow the money.

A 2020 study by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy reveals a direct correlation between donations to universities by Qatar and other Gulf States and the presence of SJP groups on campus. In the wake of Oct. 7, SJP chapters have organized rallies across college campuses, many of which have glorified Hamas terrorists as “martyrs,” called for a “globalization” of terrorist violence, and demanded the elimination of the Jewish state.   Given that Qatar funds Hamas, and Hamas is closely tied to SJP, it naturally follows that university administrations sitting on cash piles from Qatar would take a hands-off approach to SJP. It should come as no surprise that students who justify terrorism enjoy greater university protection than the students they terrorize.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pro-terrorist-cash-is-funding-us-higher-ed-and-taxpayers-should-be-upset-about-it/ar-AA1kF72Y

2023-11-21 US universities have spent years sowing seeds of today’s antisemitism     American colleges have been hotbeds of racial grievance and enablers of violence since the 1960s.   It should come as no surprise, then, that college students and professors are now celebrating terrorism and threatening Jewish students on their own campuses. Just on Thursday, the Department of Education announced that it is investigating five K-12 and/or universities for antisemitism.    

Some of the most explicit violent threats have materialized at Cornell, my alma mater and one of the schools under investigation. Last month, a 21-year-old student, Patrick Dai, declared his intent to “shoot up” a kosher dining facility on campus. He was quickly apprehended, and it seems that Dai was suicidally depressed and perhaps not of sound mind.    

Cornell president Martha Pollack deserves credit for unequivocally condemning Hamas, antisemitism and those at the university who glorify “the evilness of Hamas terrorism.” Yet, this is the same woman who couldn’t bring herself to denounce the Black Lives Matter (BLM) rioters who burned and terrorized American cities for months after the killing of George Floyd.

 Pollack was far from alone; countless other university presidents bent the knee to BLM. The nation’s top 25 colleges responded by variously condemning alleged institutional and structural racism in America, promising to fight for racial justice, and strengthening or creating DEI initiatives on campus.    None saw fit to extend their moral indignation to the mass riots and chaos perpetrated by self-proclaimed social justice warriors.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-universities-have-spent-years-sowing-seeds-of-today-s-antisemitism/ar-AA1kherB

2023-11-16 The reason university efforts to root out antisemitism will fail   On the morning of Oct. 7, American college students went to class, teachers taught lessons and all seemed well enough on the surface. The following day, after news of Hamas terrorists’ mass murders, rapes, torture and kidnappings spread, those campuses suddenly became hotbeds of terrorist sympathy and overt displays of antisemitism. 

Americans were shocked our college kids could come out on the side of genocide, but we shouldn’t have been…. They’d been primed; taught lies and false narratives, by the universities themselves – and so far, no school has even begun to take the steps necessary to root the hatred out. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-reason-university-efforts-to-root-out-antisemitism-will-fail/ar-AA1k1cFk

2023-11-16 Israeli actress demands FBI probe funding, terror links of college groups ‘brainwashing’ American students   Israeli actress Noa Tishby testified before Congress on Wednesday calling on the FBI to investigate the funding behind pro-Palestinian groups at American college campuses, effectively “brainwashing” and “grooming” students into aligning with “terrorist sympathizers” amid the Jewish state’s war against Hamas.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/israeli-actress-demands-fbi-probe-funding-terror-links-of-college-groups-brainwashing-american-students/ar-AA1k1RuK 

2023-11-13 Harvard faces threat of donation withdrawal from over 1,600 Jewish alumni over antisemitism concerns   Harvard University has been accused of dragging its feet to address antisemitism on campus—and that could end up costing it dearly in terms of alumni support.   An open letter from the Harvard College Jewish Alumni Association (HCJAA) has called the school on the carpet for remaining silent following more than 30 student groups calling the Oct. 7 attacks and murder of over 1,000 Israeli citizens “justified.”     “We never thought that, at Harvard University, we would have to argue the point that terrorism against civilians demands immediate and unequivocal condemnation,” the open letter reads. “We never thought we would have to argue for recognition of our own humanity.”

Claudine Gay, Harvard’s president, in a note to the school’s wider community, reiterated its “absolute commitment to the safety and wellbeing of every member of our community. Harvard has been and is a place of civil behavior and civil discourse. We do not condone—and will not ignore—antisemitism, Islamophobia, acts of harassment or intimidation, or threats of violence.”    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/harvard-faces-threat-of-donation-withdrawal-from-over-1-600-jewish-alumni-over-antisemitism-concerns/ar-AA1jR7ay?

2023-11-10 Columbia University suspends Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace     Columbia University says its suspending two campus Palestine groups.    In a statement posted on the school’s website Senior Executive Vice President of the University and Chair of the Special Committee on Campus Safety Gerald Rosberg said the university is suspending Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) for the remainder of the fall term.    “This decision was made after the two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event Thursday afternoon that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” reads the statement.   https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/columbia-university-suspends-students-for-justice-in-palestine-and-jewish-voice-for-peace/

2023-11-09 Another Billionaire Quits Alma Mater Over ‘Anti-Jewish’ Climate    Billionaire Henry Swieca has quit the board of the Columbia University Business School in protest of what he described as “blatantly anti-Jewish student groups and professors allowed to operate with complete impunity.” Swieca, the investor son of Holocaust survivors, is the latest in a wave of big-dollar donors to slam their alma maters over the response to the Israel-Hamas war. Forbes reports that in his resignation letter, Swieca accused Columbia of “moral cowardice” and said it’s sending a message that Jews are unsafe on campus.    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/another-billionaire-quits-alma-mater-over-anti-jewish-climate/ar-AA1jGz3T

2023-11-09 The Shift: Brandeis becomes first school to ban Students for Justice in Palestine on campus    ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has consistently smeared anti-Zionists as antisemites and has even compared anti-Zionist Jews to white supremacists in recent weeks. The Brandeis Center is a pro-Israel lawfare organization that aims to stifle Palestine activism via an unrelenting bombardment of dubious civil rights lawsuits. The group is run by former Trump official Kenneth Marcus.     Dozens of pro-Israel, Jewish groups also sent their own letters to universities. This one went to 500 schools and called for “moral accountability and official punishment” against SJP for alleged glorification of the Hamas attacks.

Last week, we saw the first private university ban the group on campus. Brandeis University sent a letter to the school’s SJP chapter informing them that the organization had been banned. The students were completely blindsided by the news, as there was no public investigation, and the group was never consulted or informed this could be a possibility.

A copy of the letter was obtained by Jewish Insider. “This decision was not made lightly, as Brandeis is dedicated to upholding free speech principles, which have been codified in Brandeis’ Principles of Free Speech and Free Expression,” it reads. “However, those Principles note that ‘The freedom to debate and discuss ideas does not mean that individuals may say whatever they wish, wherever they wish, or however they wish,’ and that, ‘…the university may restrict expression…that constitutes a genuine threat or harassment..”   https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/the-shift-brandeis-becomes-first-school-to-ban-students-for-justice-in-palestine-on-campus/

2023-11-07 Leak shows ex-Trump ambassador to Israel threatening NYU over Palestine protests    A letter sent to NYU leadership claims the school is “no longer a safe space for Jewish students” while demanding policies that would shatter free speech on campus. The letter was signed by David Friedman, Trump’s rabidly pro-settlement ambassador to Israel, as well as dozens of Jewish American alumni apparently afflicted with a particularly severe version of main character syndrome.  

The letter goes on to demand that NYU disband clubs that “utilize hate speech to promote violence and endorse terrorism” and pursue the criminal prosecution of students who “deface property and/or use hate speech in the name of terrorism.” It offers no definition of hate speech, however. The assumption seems to be that strong language denouncing Israel’s violent assault on Gaza, or supporting the Palestinian armed struggle, should be treated as equivalent to verbal threats, and even physical violence, against Jews.    https://thegrayzone.com/2023/11/07/leak-trump-ambassador-israel-nyu-palestine-protests/

2023-11-07 Israeli President’s letter to US universities    Israel President Herzog pens letter to presidents of American universities and colleges calling for action on antisemitism.  Never, as someone who has always looked up to the standards of the American university, could I have foreseen the images and voices that have reached me since the tragedy of October 7.  Debate is welcome on any topic, including Israel’s actions. This goes without saying. As America has learned in its own wars, the trial of fighting heartless terrorists who hide among civilian is agonizing and offers no easy choices. But the events on campus are not debate but a defilement of the university and its principles. How can anyone endorsing, excusing, or glorifying the Hama atrocities have a place in any college, or in the civilized world? 

Speech promoting violence against individuals or groups and calls for the elimination of a whole country, Israel, are unacceptable on campus and should not be tolerated. Each institution can lead the way in combating the scourge of antisemitism by creating a Task Force that will develop a plan of action for the campus and serve as a beacon for the wider community, as well.     https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/israeli-president-s-letter-to-us-universities-read-here/ar-AA1jyjvM

2023-11-08 Wharton dean aware of University of Pennsylvania’s ‘reputational damage’     The University of Pennsylvania’s endowment ranks as the seventh largest in the U.S. at over $20 billion, as tracked by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and TIAA.    Like many Ivy League schools, Wharton, established in 1881 as the first U.S. business school, boasts high-end donor graduates, including Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, who has been among a group of vocal billionaires condemning antisemitism and the muted response by university leaders.  

Rowan, whose net worth is $5.5 billion, per Forbes, has called for donors to “close their checkbooks.”   In a letter sent to the school’s newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, he called for the resignation of Penn President Liz Magill and Scott Bok, chair of the university’s board of trustees. Rowan is the chairman of the board of advisers to the Wharton School. In 2018, he and his wife gave the business school $50 million.   https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/wharton-dean-aware-university-pennsylvania-reputational-damage

2023-11-02 Antisemitism has billionaires bailing on Ivy League donations     Billionaires are pulling back on donations to leading Ivy League colleges amid allegations of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment that have become more visible in the wake of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.  Some of the elite Ivy League colleges where the controversy was the most intense are among those with the largest endowments of all higher education institutions in the U.S. – which prompted billionaire donors to push back against the antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric by calling for leadership changes and threatening to withhold donations.   https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/antisemitism-billionaires-bailing-ivy-league-donations

2023-11-02 Stuart Varney: Liberal colleges indulging in antisemitism is a ‘disgrace’      Stuart Varney discussed the surge in antisemitism at some American universities, arguing the radicalization of baby boomers in the 60s contributed to the “gross antisemitism” on college campuses today.   Who would have thought that a terror attack overseas would expose the hate at American colleges?   That is exactly what’s happened. Israel is attacked and campuses turn on Jews.   https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/stuart-varney-liberal-colleges-antisemitism-disgrace

2023-10-27 Wall Street CEOs standing up for Israel and against pro-Hamas colleges       Many top U.S. CEOs have been speaking out in support of Israel and against those who have publicly supported Hamas, specifically big money donors to America’s Ivy Leagues.    

Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman, CEO of Omega Advisors, joined his fellow Wall Street titans in denouncing Columbia University for its antisemitism and pro-Hamas support. Now, he will pull his financial backing for the school which has totaled about $50 million over the years.  

Bill Ackman, Pershing Square CEO. The billionaire hedge fund manager was one of the first to speak out in support of Israel, specifically denouncing pro-Hamas Harvard students and demanding the names of these supporters be made public, so companies like his and other businesses leaders could know not to hire these individuals. Ackman is a Harvard MBA graduate and has donated millions to the Ivy League school.   

Marc Rowan, Apollo Management CEO. Rowan, who co-founded Apollo Global Management and received an MBA from the Wharton School, wrote in a letter sent to the school’s newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, to call for the resignation of UPenn President Liz Magill and Scott Bok, chair of the board of trustees. Rowan is the chairman of the board of advisers to the Wharton School, UPenn’s elite college of business, and in 2018 he and his wife gave the business school $50 million.  

Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO.   Fink, who runs the world’s largest asset management firm with nearly $9 trillion in assets, discussed his support for Israel.   Fink added that in his role as a member of the New York University board of trustees, the board and university leadership categorically condemned the attack.   “As a board member at NYU, we were loud and specific and immediate in terms of stopping any of that support of hatred,” Fink said.   

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.  On the Sunday following the attacks, Dimon sent a company-wide memo to employees.   “This past weekend’s attack on Israel and its people and the resulting war and bloodshed are a terrible tragedy,” Dimon said in an internal memo obtained by CNN. “We stand with our employees, their families and the people of Israel during this time of great suffering and loss.”         https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/wall-street-ceos-standing-up-israel

2023-10-26 Billionaire Leon Cooperman pulling Columbia funding amid student protests: These kids have ‘s— for brains’   Columbia University graduate, billionaire investor and Omega Advisors CEO Leon Cooperman had harsh words for Ivy League students who are sharing anti-Israel sentiment on campus.      “These kids at the colleges have s— for brains,” Cooperman told “The Claman Countdown” host Liz Claman on Wednesday. “We have one reliable ally in the Middle East. That’s Israel. We only have one democracy in the Middle East. That’s Israel. And we have one economy tolerant of different people, gays, lesbians, etc. That’s Israel. So they have no idea what these young kids are doing.”   Now, the real shame is, I’ve given to Columbia probably about $50 million over many years,” he continued. “And I’m going to suspend my giving. I’ll give my giving to other organizations.”   https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/billionaire-leon-cooperman-pulling-columbia-funding-student-protests-kids-brains

2023-10-16 CEO defends sharing list of Harvard students who signed pro-Palestine letter: They must ‘pay the price’  After his LinkedIn account was allegedly suspended for criticizing pro-Palestine Harvard students, EasyHealth CEO David Duel explained why this conflict is personal to him, and doubled down on Bill Ackman’s calls not to hire those Ivy League candidates.  “I’m not surprised my account was taken down for sharing a list of students who were advocating for the death and destruction of the Jewish people,” Duel said on “Cavuto: Live” Saturday. “We’re not talking about arguments over a two-state solution or political divisions of land. We’re talking about Hamas. We’re talking about terrorism, whose own charter calls for the extermination of the Jews.”

“I think the hypocrisy and lack of moral clarity on campuses and with administration is conscious or subconscious antisemitism,” he expanded. “And we need to make sure these students pay a price and that their neighbors, friends and employers know that they harbor these beliefs.”   https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/ceo-defends-list-harvard-students-signed-pro-palestine-letter-pay-price

2023-10-16 Stanford suspends lecturer for alleged statements to Jewish students    A lecturer has been suspended from Stanford University for reportedly making offensive statements to Jewish students in class following the start of hostilities between Israel and Hamas. “We have received a report of a class in which a non-faculty instructor is reported to have addressed the Middle East conflict in a manner that called out individual students in class based on their backgrounds and identities,” the university said. “Without prejudging the matter, this report is a cause for serious concern. Academic freedom does not permit the identity-based targeting of students. The instructor in this course is not currently teaching while the university works to ascertain the facts of the situation.”

However, leaders of Stanford’s Israeli Student Association said the discussion went far beyond what is on the syllabus. The Chronicle reported that students claimed the professor called Jews in class “colonizers” while minimizing the Holocaust. Senior Nourya Cohen told the Chronicle she talked to students who were in the class.  “He asked how many Jews died in the Holocaust,” and when students said 6 million, “he said, ‘Yes. Only 6 million,’” she told the paper.

“We have heard from Jewish students, faculty, and staff concerned about rising anti-Semitism,” Stanford said. “We have heard from Palestinian students who have received threatening emails and phone calls. We want to make clear that Stanford stands unequivocally against hatred on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, and other categories.

“The expression of political views, in appropriate times and places, is important. Thoughtful, reasoned discussion of current issues is central to the life of the university. Our commitment to academic freedom means that latitude for expression of controversial and even offensive views is necessary to avoid chilling freedom of thought and ideas. But harassment and abuse have no place here.”   https://scrippsnews.com/stories/stanford-suspends-lecturer-for-alleged-statements-to-jewish-students/

2023-10-10 Billionaire hedge fund manager doesn’t want to hire Harvard students who blamed Israel for Hamas attacks       Bill Ackman said he and other CEOs don’t want to ‘inadvertently hire’ anti-Israel Harvard students.    Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called on Harvard to release the membership lists of more than 30 student groups that signed a letter blaming Hamas’ terror attacks over the weekend solely on Israel.    https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/billionaire-hedge-fund-manager-doesnt-want-hire-harvard-students-blamed-israel-hamas-attacks

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Palestinians under Attack in U.S.

Updated 2024-08-28

2024-06-17 Palestine Post: Mapping Pro-Palestine Repression in the US    First, we speak on the latest news and analysis from Israel’s aggression in Palestine with guest Khury Petersen-Smith, Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he researches U.S. empire, borders, and migration.

Then, a conversation about repression against US-based pro-Palestine demonstrators with guest Dylan Saba, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal and the lead drafter of a new report entitled “Reverberations of October 7” that documents and analyzes the reports of repression against pro-Palestine activism in the US between Oct 7th and Dec 31, 2023, with the high volume of reports continuing into 2024.

Check out the report here: https://palestinelegal.org/news/2024/5/23/new-report-analyzes-crackdown-on-palestine-solidarity-in-the-usnbsp     https://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder-june-17-2024/

2023-11-09 Palestinians in the U.S. are under attack    In the wake of the Hamas’s attack on October 7, Palestinians in the United States are being targeted, whether through limits to their free speech, the loss of their livelihood, or even threats to their lives.   “The wave of anti-Palestinian sentiments that Palestinian-Americans and their supporters have faced is deeply troubling,” Hanna Hanania, a Palestinian American from northern Virginia, tells Mondoweiss. “Media portrayal can indeed influence public perceptions, and it is essential for balanced and fair reporting to replace harmful stereotypes.”   https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/palestinians-in-the-u-s-are-under-attack/

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Palestinian Struggle

Updated 2024-08-28

2024-04-21 From Namibia to Gaza With Love   The Israeli brutality in Gaza, but also the Palestinian sumud, resilience and resistance, are inspiring the Global South to reclaim its centrality in anti-colonial liberation struggles.

The distance between Gaza and Namibia is measured in the thousands of kilometers. But the historical distance is much closer. This is precisely why Namibia was one of the first countries to take a strong stance against the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Namibia was colonized by the Germans in 1884, while the British colonized Palestine in the 1920s, handing the territory to the Zionist colonizers in 1948.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/namibia-gaza-solidarity

2024-01-17 VIDEO: Life in Jerusalem under Israel’s military dictatorship    Journalist Jeremy Loffredo visits the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, a climate of unprecedented repression has descended since October 7. Loffredo documents settler terror attacks on businesses and speaks to local activists who tell him they fear arrest and beatings from Israeli police if they speak out against the assault on Gaza.  https://thegrayzone.com/2024/01/17/jerusalem-israels-military-dictatorship/

2023-12-24 A UN aid worker was killed in Gaza along with 70 members of his family in an Israeli airstrike    A veteran UN aid worker was killed in Gaza along with 70 members of his extended family in an Israeli airstrike, a UN representative said.   Issam Al-Mughrabi, 56, was killed along with his wife and five children in Gaza City on Friday, United Nations Development Programme administrator Achim Steiner said in a statement.  

“The airstrike also reportedly killed more than 70 members of his extended family,” it said.   Al-Mughrabi had worked with UNDP for almost 30 years and was a “beloved member” of the team, Steiner said.   “The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” Steiner said.   “This war must end. No more families should endure the pain and suffering that Issam’s family and countless others are experiencing.”  

Israel’s aerial bombardment campaign of Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks has devastated the enclave, with the Gaza health ministry reporting about 20,000 people have been killed.  UN agencies have said that nearly 70% of those killed in Gaza are estimated to be women and children.    Israel’s use of powerful, heavy bombs on the densely populated enclave has been criticized by war analysts, who say they cause greater damage and civilian casualties.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-un-aid-worker-was-killed-in-gaza-along-with-70-members-of-his-family-in-an-israeli-airstrike/ar-AA1lYmUn

2023-12-23 Palestinians in central Gaza flee along ‘death corridor’ after Israel order   Israel has ordered Palestinians to evacuate from parts of central Gaza, its latest such directive as it pushes more of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million-strong population into a smaller area while widening its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.  The Israeli military on Friday ordered families to flee for their “safety” to shelters in southern Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, from Bureij and areas of Nuseirat in central Gaza.   

This was the case for Walaa al-Nuzeini, who was fleeing Bureij in a wheelchair and for the third time since the beginning of the assault.  Al-Nuzeini lived in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City when an Israeli air strike targeted her home on November 7.    “I lost my daughter, she died in my arms,” al-Nuzeini told Al Jazeera.  “We stayed under the rubble for three hours before they got us out,” she said, adding that the entire area is now “destroyed”.   Al-Nuzeini was badly hurt. She suffers from wounds in her leg, and said the nerve is affected which has been causing her “extreme pain”. She was taken to al-Shifa Hospital for treatment, but three days later Israeli soldiers raided the facility, Gaza’s largest hospital that is now no longer operating. 

“There is no place that’s safe,” Salem al-Sheikh told Al Jazeera.  The elderly man said he was forcibly displaced from his home in Nassr neighbourhood in the west of Gaza City.   “They [the Israeli army] told us to leave, so I fled to al-Shifa Hospital, where I stayed for a month and a half. I then left to Nuseirat,” al-Sheikh said.   He was among the thousands who sought refuge in al-Shifa Hospital before it was attacked by Israeli forces.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/palestinians-in-central-gaza-flee-along-death-corridor-after-israel-order/ar-AA1lVHa5

2023-12-07 “Terrorized”: Gaza Poet Mosab Abu Toha on Being Stripped, Jailed & Beaten by Israeli Forces     We speak with celebrated Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha for his first interview after he was jailed and beaten by Israeli forces, when he was detained at a checkpoint in Gaza while heading to Rafah with his family. He was rounded up with scores of other Palestinians. “I felt humiliated. I felt terrified and terrorized by this army because they were ordering us to do everything at gunpoint,” says Toha, now in Cairo. He calls on Western leaders to stop supporting the violence against Palestinians. “If you can’t stop the war, if you can’t stop the carnage, the genocide, just stop financing it.”   Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSh3pIBdKR4

2023-11-13 ON THE GROUND IN JENIN WITH THE WEST BANK’S RESISTANCE FIGHTERS    ‘They call us terrorists. Who planted terrorism? Wasn’t it they? As long as there is occupation there is no future for the people. There will be no future unless they let us live.’ 

Where there is occupation, there is resistance, and numerous Palestinian resistance groups exist across the Occupied Territories. These groups consist of occupied subjects turned freedom fighters—those who have been directly targeted by Israel, who have witnessed their friends and families die at the hands of occupying forces, and who have been labeled “terrorists” for resisting their slow extermination. In Jenin, a 1km square ghetto-like refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and the target of numerous Israeli incursions, there are many who have chosen the path of armed resistance, and many who felt they had no other choice.  https://therealnews.com/on-the-ground-in-jenin-with-the-west-banks-resistance-fighters

2021-05-17 The Palestinian Resistance & Sheikh Jarrah   Palestinian activist and writer Mohammed el-Kurd talks to us about the current resistance against Israeli ethnic cleansing taking place in Sheikh Jarrah, and Palestinian resistance more broadly.  The entire world has witnessed Israel’s naked colonial violence in Sheikh Jarrah, Palestine, where countless Palestinians have been brutalized and forcefully removed from their homes. Palestinian writer and activist Mohammed el-Kurd joins the show to discuss the latest round of ethnic cleansing in his home neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, the many ways that Palestinians are resisting Israel colonial domination, and why we’re seeing unprecedented resistance from Palestinians.  We also discuss those who only support Palestinians when they appear to be ‘perfect victims’ but are quiet when they are resisting Israeli state violence, and how international media is complicit in ongoing Israeli apartheid.  https://groundings.simplecast.com/episodes/sheikh-jarrah

2019-03-30 No Choice but to Break Free: An Interview with Ahmed Abu Artema      My name is Ahmed Abu Artema, a Palestinian activist from a displaced family, a displaced Palestinian from the Ramla region, we were displaced in 1948 when Israel founded its state. The year after the state was founded, about 700,000 Palestinians were displaced and my family was among them. I was born in the city of Rafah. I am a human rights activist and a journalist.

I was one of the founders of the Great March of Return that represents the claim of Palestinians to their natural right that is understood and guaranteed to them under international law and by UN conventions: that they should be allowed to return to their homes.

LS: You mentioned that you were a journalist and I also know you’re a poet. We know that Palestinians are very engaged and involved in art of all kinds – what’s the role of art and artistic expression in the Great March of Return? What is its importance? Has the March presented new possibilities to use art and performance? https://viewpointmag.com/2019/03/30/ahmed-abu-artema/

2018-01-19 Norman Finkelstein: The “Big Lie” about Gaza Is That The Palestinians Have Been the Aggressors     Extended interview with scholar Norman Finkelstein, author of the new book, “Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom.” The book has just been published as Israel is facing a possible International Criminal Court war crimes probe over its 2014 assault on Gaza, which killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, including over 500 children.  Democracy Now! is an independent global news hourhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZGPZRkqJzY

2017-02-23 Palestinians Living in Graveyards   Whilst Palestine activists raise over $80,000 for damaged head stones to be repaired in a American cemetery…Nearly 100 families live like this in Gaza’s cemetery…I suppose there is no publicity and no media attention for peoples efforts in Gaza…#Priorities! https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1880304802212521&set=pcb.1880304838879184

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World