Last Thursday Rabbi Shalom Lewis of Congregation Etz Chaim outside Atlanta gave what can only be understood as a call to genocide in his Rosh Hashanah sermon to welcome in the Jewish new year. The sermon calls for a war on Islam and Muslims worldwide. Lewis says a “holy crusade” against Islam is needed to”exterminate it utterly and absolutely.” Lewis is no fringe figure. He has served this popular suburban congregation for nearly 40 years and was given a commendation by the US Congress.
Rabbis Susan Talve and Randy Fleisher pray for justice in the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Mo., but support AIPAC when Israel is involved. Racial justice at home, apartheid over there.
Ilan Pappé’s latest book tells the story of the rise and fall of the intellectual and cultural movement in Israel that came to be known as “post-Zionism” – a story in which he himself played one of the most prominent roles.
Did Chuck Schumer just say, ‘My opinions on Palestine are evolving’? That is the aim of a new campaign aimed at the senator’s assertion that he is Israel’s guardian in the U.S. It’s time to talk about Israeli human rights violations. Demo on Monday at his NY office.
Two days ago I noted the intense backlash from Israeli leaders toward Mairav Zonszein’s op-ed…
Netanyahu has great timing. Israel announced another 2500 settlement units in East Jerusalem even as the PM had a seemingly friendly 12th meeting with Obama, the most Obama has had with any leader. The State Department said that the settlements will distance Israel from its “closest allies,” and dim the hopes for a Palestinian state.
In his new book, Israel: Is It Good for the Jews? Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, no stranger to racial controversy, says that the Palestinians caused their own expulsion from their lands in 1948 by resisting Zionist immigration. “They simply had to be pushed out… the enemy had to go.”
More than 250 anthropologists have signed a statement endorsing the burgeoning movement to boycott Israeli academic institutions in protest of Israel’s systematic human rights violations against the Palestinian people.
Tamara Ben-Halim writes about her experience with Cycling4Gaza, a group of 40 people who cycled from from Philadelphia to Washington DC to raise awareness and funds for Gaza. One of those 40 was a 16 year old boy from Gaza, Ahmed Abunammous. Ahmed was shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper last year, at the age of 15. His leg had to be amputated, and Ahmed was lucky enough to be treated by the tireless PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief) who flew him out to the US soon after to be operated on and fitted with a prosthetic leg. Ben-Halim, writes, “A year later, this time last week, Ahmed was cycling with us across the east coast, working his one leg nearly twice as hard as the rest of us.”
Ma’an reports, “Israeli settlers early Tuesday occupied 23 houses in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan south of the Old City of Jerusalem, a local information center said.”