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2015

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The Israeli government told Abed Qotqot he could not build a structure on his property in the West Bank, so he decided to live in a cave to be able to stay on his land. Samer Jaber writes in memory of his friend, who died at age 54 while remaining steadfast on his land and fighting the Israeli government in court.

Three activists who disrupted a New York City Council meeting to protest an upcoming trip to Israel respond to charges of anti-Semitism: “A few Councilmembers quickly claimed that the protest targeted a resolution memorializing the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp, and many media outlets leapt to suggest that protesters were anti-Semitic. That is a disgraceful diversion. It was a good-faith effort to intervene in a human rights crisis, smeared by those who prefer to paper over Israel’s actions.”

London Palestine Action writes about the British government’s government’s decision to drop a case against nine activist who occupied the roof of a Staffordshire factory that supplied engines to Israeli drones and shut down the factory for two days: “Can you really spend two days on the roof of a drone factory, allegedly cost a company thousands in delayed exports and ‘get away with it’? It seems you can and the message from us is, ‘Up the Ante’, take direct action. Echoing Palestinian civil society groups, the UK government needs to shut UAV Engines and impose a two way military embargo on Israel. There is no place for these companies or any trade with Apartheid Israel whilst it continues to violate international law and human rights on an ever more violent scale.”

The 70th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz and investigation of Israel at the Hague are signs that the Holocaust-Israel axis, so central to Jewish identity over the last decades, is on oxygen support.