Donald Trump is giving ISIS a recruiting tool by nominating an extremist supporter of settlers as ambassador to Israel in David Friedman. Hatred of the U.S. will increase if the Arab world comes to believe that the U.S. is abandoning the Palestinians.
The Israeli collective psyche is shaped by coercive pressures: It is post-traumatic; it cannot forgive the Jews their victimization in Europe; and so it is intoxicated by power and the use of violence against the weak; and is in a state of denial about its own aggression toward Palestinians. Staying alive by whatever means, the ethos of Netanyahu, has replaced traditional Jewish ethics of loving the neighbor, says psychiatrist Ruchama Marton, founder of Physicians for Human Rights, Israel.
Organizer Laila Abdelaziz writes: As a Palestinian American, I look at the challenges we face as opportunities to organize and to resist. My activism has taken me from my state’s legislature to the White House, from national conferences to small community meetings. And in all these contexts—state, local, national, international—Mondoweiss’s reporting has been essential to connect those of us in the struggle. Please join me in supporting Mondoweiss and the crucial role this space provides for communicating, sharing, and supporting Palestinian rights activism in the United States and beyond.
Richard Edmondson reports on his Fig Tree blog: Ahed Tamimi was slated to be part of the No Child Behind Bars/Living Resistance speaking tour that is to tour the US beginning on January 15, 2017, but according to an email sent out yesterday by the Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), she has been denied a visa to enter the country.
A landmark piece in the New York Times: Omri Boehm of the New School says Trump era will force liberal Zionists to choose Zionism or liberalism, because Zionism is “a political agenda rooted in the denial of liberal politics” and the privileging of one ethnic group over another.
Jewish Federation leader gives a fire-and-brimstone speech against BDS in a NY synagogue, but his organization’s brochure doesn’t mention the issue. Why? Because they know young Jews are not on board.
Ariel Gold and Isso Amro write, “As a Jewish American and a Palestinian human rights activist, we stand united in our opposition to President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of bankruptcy attorney David Friedman to be the next US Ambassador to Israel. Friedman, who has no diplomatic experience, is aligned not with American Jewish positions, but with Israel’s illegal settler movement. He is hostile to the two-state solution and refers to the West Bank as Judea and Sumeria, a biblical name used by settlers and Israel’s extreme right. Friedman’s reference to the West Bank by this name reflects his support for Israeli annexation of the West Bank, which would force the Palestinian population either to leave or be contained in enclaves, not unlike South African apartheid era bantustans”
After author Antony Loewenstein challenged Israeli leader Yair Lapid, suggesting the time will come when “you and other politicians will be treated like South African politicians during Apartheid,” the government press office is threatening not to renew his credentials, forcing him to leave the country.
The historical evidence suggests that none of the Western Wall was ever part of the Jewish Temple complex, and so one of the historical claims characteristic of Zionism is false.
As 2016 draws to an end, here are some of the year’s most remarkable examples of resistance to injustice: key stories and videos you will want to review and share with others. You can make a difference for justice in Palestine today, by supporting Mondoweiss. We need to raise $120,000 in order to fulfill our mission adequately in 2017 and beyond. With your help, reporting is resistance; reporting spreads resistance; reporting advances resistance.