When it learned President Obama intended to allow a UN Security Council resolution condemning settlements to go through yesterday, Israel called on Donald Trump to intervene, and he called Egyptian president al-Sisi, and Egypt withdrew the resolution. And you thought we had one president at a time!
Every year, Palestinians in Gaza march to protest the Israeli shooting of Mohammed al-Dura which marked the beginning of the second intifada in the Gaza Strip on September 29, 2000. At the end of September photographer Mohammed Asad documented young protesters as they entered the buffer zone with Israel near al-Bureij refugee camp to challenge the Israeli military. “We came here to prove to the Israeli occupying forces that the memory of the uprising is unforgettable,” said demonstrator Abu Falasteen.
James Zogby writes: “Since the 1970s, I’ve been involved with advocacy for Palestinian human rights and have sought to inform the discourse in the United States about Palestinians and other Arab concerns. So I know what it takes for Mondoweiss to persist in publishing ground-breaking analysis and corrective journalism in the face of hatred, scorn and discrediting. I appreciate Mondoweiss as a vital source of truth, and I have contributed to sustain and grow the site’s valuable work. I’m writing now to urge all of you to join me in keeping Mondoweiss on the job.”
David Friedman, Donald Trump’s nominee as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, may be controversial in the United States, but Israelis see him as a “warm Jew” who will restore amity between the countries’ governments. Both Friedman and Trump have been big supporters of Beit El, a settlement just north of Ramallah, and Shay Alon, the mayor of Beit El, says Trump made “an excellent choice”: “Friedman is a warm Jew who identifies with the roots of the state of Israel and Judaism. He is in the know of all things that have to do with our hold on the settlements, on Israel, and Judea and Samaria in particular.”
The Obama administration was going to abstain from a UN Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements today, according to reports; but Egyptians withdrew the measure at the last minute under international pressure from Israel and Donald Trump.
If a newspaper had produced the documentation of political corruption that Wikileaks provided in the last year, it would be up for a Pulitzer Prize. The media should stop demonizing Wikileaks and the Russians and focus on what we learned from the records.
The Brandeis Center has sent a letter to the Modern Language Association threatening a lawsuit if the Association passes the resolution to endorse the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The threatened lawsuit would be frivolous and unlikely to pass muster, but the threat itself is hardly a surprise. On the contrary, it is an index of the growing success of the boycott movement in changing public understanding of Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and human rights.
Two IDF soldiers shot Palestinian teenage Samir Awad from behind eight times in January 2013, killing him. Nearly four years and a string of investigative failures later, it looks unlikely that either of the accused will go to jail.
Inspired by Palestinian people’s own rich history in the literary and visual arts, a children’s author and a socially conscious illustrator have teamed up to create “P is for Palestine” a picture book that tells the story of Palestine as simply as ABC…in an educational, colorful, empowering way that showcases the beauty and strength of Palestinian culture.
I looked into her eyes / Smiled / And I said / We are free. “Faith,” a poem by Rawan Yaghi.