Samantha Power showed leadership on Ebola by traveling thru Africa. She capitulates to rightwing Israel lobby by backing Boteach event on ‘never ending genocide’ of the Jews.
Jerusalem at a boiling point: The “Zionist endeavor” is “the strengthening of the Jewish presence.” And clashes with Palestinian demonstrators have injured 28 over the weekend
As tensions rise in Jerusalem right-wing Israelis are demanding that police increase the already brutal level of state violence inflicted exclusively against Palestinians. Numerous Israelis Dan Cohen has spoken to demanded police implement shoot-to-kill tactics in East Jerusalem on any Palestinian who throws a rock — which would effectively expand the tactics used against Palestinians living on the other side of Israel’s separation wall in the occupied West Bank. But, contrary to popular sentiment, police repression against Palestinians in East Jerusalem has been anything but soft. As police operate with total impunity, a climate of fear exists that has led some Palestinians to avoid publicizing information about other beatings due to fear of police reprisals like the punishment the Abu Khdeir family received this summer.
The ancient city of Jerusalem is at the core of this conflict. And so it seems there is only one road to peace and it lies through Jerusalem. Here is my proposal: move the formal headquarters of the United Nations from New York to Jerusalem.
In a bold action, Block the Boat activists from Tampa delayed the unloading of a ZIM boat for more than 5 hours Saturday morning.Chaining themselves by the neck to a parked car in front of Tampa’s port entrance, Block the Boat activists prevented the police from dispersing them for several hours after the break of dawn. Eventually, according to Ahmad Saadaldin, “the boat unloaded unfortunately, but there was a MAJOR delay. Port of Tampa has never seen anything like this before. It was an apocalyptic traffic jam. It’s all inspired by Block the Boat Oakland.”
For the next three months Israeli Knesset member Haneen Zoabi (Balad) will not be allowed to speak on the parliament floor or introduce committee discussions. Though she will be allowed to put on a suit, enter the building of Israel’s Knesset in Jerusalem, and sit quietly. On Wednesday in an appeal vote her peers confirmed her suspension from office, the longest in Israel’s history.
It is nearly unheard of for Israeli police to block Jewish worshipers from reaching the Western Wall. But yesterday afternoon border authorities cinched back a hard plastic retracting wall of a Jerusalem checkpoint to reach the holy structures and for the first time in 14 years they also closed all access to al-Aqsa Mosque compound, preventing prayer in a campaign to stifle unrest smothering Jerusalem.
Solidarity’s deadend: Those who have the power to change Palestinian reality, the United States and Europe, aren’t going to push the Jewish/Israeli empire too far, if at all. Their strategic interests are at play. The history of Jews in Europe and the importance of the Jewish vote and influence in the United States casts a huge political shadow. Outside efforts by “friends” of the Palestinians have been piecemeal; and they appeal to the powers that be.
SodaStream stock is still in free fall and the company announced yesterday that it is dumping its apartheid digs in the occupied West Bank. SodaStream says it plans to move to the heavily subsidized Idan HaNegev Industrial Park /Lehavim Industrial zone, 1,100-acre “development zone” in the Negev desert where Palestinian Bedouins are being forcibly removed by the Israeli government. Although the move from the occupied territories is certainly a victory, it’s not enough for boycott activists.
When Times columnist David Brooks revealed that his son was in the Israeli army in Aspen on July 1, folks gasped, but no journalist picked up on it. That’s how the establishment works.