After 21 months of a one-way ceasefire, Israel is once again escalating attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip. Yesterday, Israeli shelling killed Zaina Attia al-Amour, a 54-year-old grandmother and two days before, airstrikes on Gaza City injured three children and 65-year-old Hassan Hassanien. Outside of Gaza, media outlets have finally broken a de facto vow of silence on Israeli attacks on the besieged enclave, however, they have been framed as retaliatory. The Associated Press wire story was picked up by numerous mainstream media outlets. Here’s the headline: Israel Retaliates to Gaza Fire With Strikes on Hamas Targets.

At a time when even a top Israeli general warns about fascist trends in Israel, NPR runs a piece by Emily Harris on teaching Israeli children about the Holocaust in which the Israeli army is praised

Pew Research Center released a new survey of American attitudes toward the world yesterday, and…

What seems to unite all Trump supporters, terrifyingly enough, is their shared fear of Muslim infiltration into American life. Trump has proposed measures that include the tracking and surveillance of American Muslims, and has received standing ovations for it. In the coming weeks Trump will attempt to suture together his party with Islamophobia and Wilson Dizard says we should expect Trump to push anti-Muslim rhetoric very hard, knowing that it is central to uniting disparate communities in his campaign.

Students at San Francisco State University explain why they protested Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat: “As students, we are deeply disturbed that our University, which claims to advocate for social justice, is actively involved in creating safe spaces for hate speech and the promotion of international law violations by offering a stage for Barkat. It is our responsibility as student leaders for equality to act ethically and stand up against oppression wherever it may occur, including in Palestine.”

As American and Russian negotiators discuss a cease fire in Syria, both countries are supporting forces carrying out atrocities in the county.

An Israeli investigation has revealed a 23-year old Palestinian woman and her 16-year old brother were killed last week at an army checkpoint in Jerusalem by civilian security contractors, not soldiers. The shooter, whose identity was not disclosed, is likely employed by the $180 million Israeli security conglomerate Modi’in Ezrachi.

Vacy Vlazna writes, “The spirit of Dr Abu Sitta’s ‘Mapping My Return: A Palestinian Memoir’ mirrors precisely the dynamic quintessence and will of it’s creator – in a word- sumoud – a compelling steadfastness to his homeland Palestine and to the right of return of every Palestinian.”

When it comes to the Israel/Palestine subject, the elephant in the room is that the only form of bigotry that is ever noticed is antisemitism. No other human rights movement– besides Palestinian solidarity– is automatically accused of being racist. The underlying assumption is that Palestinians just don’t matter that much, so anyone who expresses moral outrage or uses the normal tools of protest, like boycotts, can’t possibly be motivated by human rights concerns.

AP reports: “Each day, millions of gallons of raw sewage pour into the Gaza Strip’s Mediterranean beachfront, spewing out of a metal pipe and turning miles of once-scenic coastline into a stagnant dead zone. The sewage has damaged Gaza’s limited fresh water supplies, decimated fishing zones, and after years of neglect, is now floating northward and affecting Israel as well, where a nearby desalination plant was forced to shut down, apparently due to pollution.”