Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager says the “hand of the Kremlin” has been working in US elections, but no one talks about the hand of Israel, which is on everything from pushing the Iraq war to censoring any reference to the “occupation” in the Democratic Party platform. The system is rigged by the Israel lobby, and everyone knows it, even if they can’t talk about it.
The defiant display of Palestinian flags in Glasgow last week by Scottish fans of the Celtic soccer team has roused over £100,000 (just over $130,000) in donations online, all marked for helping Palestinians. As the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is mulling what consequences Celtic fans should face for showing solidarity with the “illicit banner,” the Green Brigade, the hardcore cadre of Celtic fans who raised the Palestinian flag, responded to the threat of sanction with a call for donations for Palestinian medical aid and a refugee camp.
During the same week that African-American swimmer Simone Manuel scored a historic victory at the Olympics, an Israeli Regional Council leader called for segregated swimming pools for Israeli Jews and Palestinians while three French towns banned burkinis from public beaches. These stories all remind us that racism and sexism still permeate the very same societies often touted as progressive, democratic, pluralistic, and post-racial.
“The number of administrative detainees is at an eight-year high. I reiterate the United Nations’ long-standing position that all administrative detainees — Palestinian or Israeli — should be charged or released without delay,” Robert Piper, the UN coordinator for the occupied territories, said, as detained journalist Omar Nazzal has joined a hunger strike to protest detention.
Gawker, the legendary blog that is shutting down today after nearly 14 years, was better known for covering New York’s power elite than for posts about Israel and Palestine. But the site, published some memorable, even brave, items about the Middle East.
“I have no problem with Jewish people or any other religion or different beliefs. But for personal reasons, you can’t ask me to shake the hand of anyone from this state, especially in front of the whole world.” These words, spoken by an individual who has just engaged in a gesture of support for the Palestinian people, are a standard response to the accusation of anti-Semitism which is routinely hurled at pro-justice activists. Yet as Egyptian judoka Islam El-Shehaby uttered them last week in Brazil, they signified a new milestone: the sports boycott had arrived at the 2016 Olympic Games.
After Palestinian Ahmed Abu Ghosh won Jordan’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in Rio on Friday for the men’s 68-kg Taekwondo event, claims that the athlete’s roots in the Jerusalem area are “Israeli,” and that his family “relocated” or “moved” to Jordan decades ago have followed.
Despite media assertions Russia is behind DNC hack, US government says, “There’s a host of usual suspects out there that engage in this sort of activity.” But Clintonite foreign policy establishment-in-waiting wants to blame Russia, so facts aren’t necessary.
Alan Dershowitz is “quick talking, New Yorkish, loud– of course a liberal– and he can mimic Trump pretty well,” says Mark Green on WNYC in a report saying that Dershowitz will play Trump for Hillary Clinton’s debate prep. First debate, Sept. 26.
In the village of Bil‘in in Ramallah, Israeli forces suppressed a weekly protest held in solidarity with hunger-striking prisoners. The protest was suppressed; but weekly protests in Bil’in have now been going on for 11 consecutive years.