The racist policies Trump recommends are already in practice in Israel. Even the State Department has blasted Israel for denying “entry or exit without explanation”– notably to “those whom Israeli authorities suspect of being of Arab, Middle Eastern, or Muslim origin.”
Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler writes, “Who, when and how were Syed Farook and Tasheen Malik and the countless others radicalized? The answer to this question is found in a world that has been ravished by war and greed; in the conditions of despair that has been created; in the powerless feeling pushed around by the powerful; and it is there in refugee camps and at funerals from drone strikes that we will find the agents of anger that breeds radicalization that we claim we do not understand.”
Trump declares war on Muslims. ISIS challenges the West. Obama threatens to invade Syria while France considers shutting down mosques. The news is grim, but not everyone is despairing.
Jim Crow rules for the Brooking Institution’s three-day conference on US-Israel relations: no Palestinian speakers were on the agenda, though Palestinians make up 20 percent of Israeli population and the conference claimed to focus on “future for Israelis and Palestinians”
The Gaith-Sub Laban family is facing an imminent unlawful forced eviction from their home in the Muslim Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem at the hands of Israeli authorities and settler organizations. Four generations of the Gaith-Sub Laban family have lived in their home since 1953, for 62 years, and they have been targeted for eviction by Israeli occupation authorities and settlers for 40 of those years. Palestinian grandmother Nora Gaith-Sub Laban, 59, who was born in her home and grew up there, lives with her family of 8, including two of her grandchildren Mustafa, 9 and Kanaan, 3. They are being evicted because of their ethnicity, in order to be replaced by Jewish settlers.
Secretary of State John Kerry angered Israelis by saying that unending Israeli settlement construction and occupation are dashing Palestinian hopes for a state and fostering violence. And the “Arab street” won’t let this stand either, he warned
Khaled Al-Ostath is an avid reader, but because he lives in Gaza he is not able to find books to read. He writes, “I yearn to have a decent library in Gaza and for a good environment in which to read. Is this too much to hope?”
Marc Ellis says, “I am a political moderate with radical questions.” A supporter of “two real states” in Israel and Palestine, he tells Robert Cohen, “Israel has foreclosed this possibility.”
Now’s the time for good people to reject Trump’s hateful demagoguery and put on the yellow star: say Muslims are our brothers and sisters
Revenue from a Tiffany’s supplier, the Beny Steinmetz Group Resources company, is channelled via the Steinmetz Foundation to the Israeli military which stands accused of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by the UN Human Rights Council. Sean Clinton writes, “While Tiffany & Co’s efforts to promote ‘responsible mining’ and prevent ‘conflict diamonds’ from entering their supply chain are laudable, the failure to fully secure their supply chain means that diamonds linked to gross human rights violations in Palestine can still infiltrate their supply.”