Palestinian leadership has been told that the U.S. government is on the verge of decertifying their right to maintain an office in Washington because they had the audacity to complain to the International Criminal Court about Israel’s land theft and settlement activity in the occupied territories. James Zogby writes, “Imagine that you are a victim of a violent crime or theft but are forbidden from reporting it because Congress has passed a law that not only prohibits you from reporting the crime, but threatens punishment if you dare to do it. This is the situation in which the Palestinians find themselves today.”

An event in Washington DC featuring Jerusalem activist Fayrouz Sharqawi, Brookland Manor tenant leader Cheryl Brunson, and community organizer Yasmina Mrabet highlighted the parallels of women fighting to protect their homes and communities in both occupied East Jerusalem and gentrified Washington DC.

Hamza Abu Al-Tarabeesh reports from Gaza: “With most of the fine print incomplete, at the moment reconciliation is in a transitional stage where most of the fallout is occurring inside of Gaza. Merging government ministries between the two geographically separated and occupied Palestinian territories has started, but is far from over.”

David Harris of the American Jewish Committee is pained that young Jews don’t feel “a sense of unbridled joy and pride and thrill” in the creation of Israel, but in fact some feel hostility. “What are we doing wrong in our homes? What are we doing wrong in our schools?” he asked at Temple Shaaray Tefila in Bedford Corners, N.Y.

The residents of Jabal Al-Baba Bedouin community, east of Occupied Jerusalem held a rally a week after receiving an eviction notice from the Israeli authorities. The protest, in cooperation with the Avazz organisation and international activists aimed to send the message they are refusing Israeli orders and are determined to remain on their land.

The BDS Gulf conference, which was welcomed by the speaker of the Kuwaiti parliament and attended by a number of parliamentarians from several GCC countries, called for the adoption of national laws and regulations that would require private entities and public institutions alike to exclude companies complicit in Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid from bids and contracts.

Dean Issacharoff, a former army lieutenant and member of Breaking the Silence, says he beat a Palestinian stone-thrower in the West Bank town of Hebron while trying to handcuff him in 2014. The Israeli Justice Ministry claims the event never happened and that Issacharoff had made a “mendacious claim.” Achiya Schatz, a spokesperson for Breaking the Silence, says. “This was a politicised investigation, made-to-order for the elimination of opposition (voices).”

David Harris of the American Jewish Committee says Israel has greater legitimacy than the United States, because the U.S. doesn’t have the bible or the Balfour Declaration to affirm the connection of Americans to the land. The bible talks about Zion and Jerusalem, not New York and Washington. And Harris praises colonialism in the Americas and Australia/NZ in justifying Zionist claims.

Israel seeks to remove 40,000 African refugees by deportation. How convenient it is for Israel that so many countries in the West are now governed by right-wing, white-supremacist, anti-immigrant and fascist forces. Herzl knew this over a century ago, where he noted, “The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies”. 

The Trump presidency as hateful and unpleasant and regrettable as it has been, has created great openings for the left. We are now living in a radical age, and the left is getting to offer its answers, on such matters as capitalism and the patriarchy. If Clinton had won, the sexual harassment wave wouldn’t have happened.