Harry Potter fan Michael Fantauzzo writes J.K. Rowling: “It is commendable you’ve been able to empathize with Palestinians through the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. But empathy is not enough: it needs to lead to action, and BDS is the primary tool supported by the very poets, artists, and cultural workers living under Israeli military occupation.”
A student at UC Santa Barbara was attacked by another student during a pro-Palestine protest this month. Palestine Legal, a group that defends Palestinian rights activists in the U.S., says the UC Santa Barbara incident was part of a larger campaign against student activists.
‘NYT’ mentions Palestinian incitement to murder Jews on Facebook connected with the killing of Richard Lakin, 76, in Jerusalem, but leaves out thousands of Facebook posts by rightwing Israelis celebrating Lakin’s death because he was an activist for co-existence.
Settler terror and the repetition of the two-state mantra when a Palestinian state is impossible have created desperation among Palestinian youth, leading to violence that no older leaders will be able to shut down, says Hanan Ashrawi, the Palestinian legislator
A member of Christian Peacemaker Teams writes to author J.K. Rowling from Hebron: I want to tell you that in the city of Hebron where I have worked for the last twenty years, I have, with my own eyes, seen Palestinian children attacked, beaten, arrested—without any of the due process the civilized world grants minor children—and in general treated with utter contempt by Israeli soldiers and settlers. Ms. Rowling, you do not have to support the Academic and Cultural Boycott, but for the sake of all Palestinian children who love Harry, you do need to say their lives matter.
As Palestine takes center stage and as we continue to gain ground on the international solidarity front, with BDS and by other means, more punitive measures to silence and disrupt the justice for Palestine camp is to be expected. Case in point, is the recent passing of the bipartisan resolution in the House of Foreign Affairs Committee, entitled, “Words Have Consequences: Palestinian Authority Incitement to Violence.” Once again, the US government demonstrates its appalling hypocrisy on Israel/Palestine.
At least 64 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,200 others injured by Israeli forces since the beginning of the unrest in the West Bank and Jerusalem early October 2015, according to official figures released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
For the 30,000 Palestinian residents of Jabel Mukaber the checkpoints—and a new wall that is being constructed in the center of town, cement roadblocks suspending vehicle traffic and a border police force deployed throughout the neighborhood—have made the quiet hilltop town with a view from Tel Aviv to Jordan, a militarized enclave.
Marc Ellis: “In the abyss of Jewish history, Jews must begin again – with Palestinians. This is a sharply-focused way of understanding what I realized many years ago: That the only way to be faithful as a Jew today is to embrace the Jewish covenant, a covenant that has fled from the precincts of Jewish power. That the Jewish covenant, and thus the Jewish prophetic, reside in the Palestinians ghettos Jews have created is difficult for most Jews to contemplate. Perhaps this is why Netanyahu’s “forever” sword signals a fight within and outside Jewish history until the end.”
A day after he gets the Kristol prize at the neocon thinktank American Enterprise Institute on November 9, Israeli PM Netanyahu is to get welcomed at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic Party thinktank with close connections to Hillary Clinton. He’s back in the saddle again!