Senator Cory Booker and Democratic megadonor Haim Saban may have a marriage made in 2020: Both have slammed President Obama’s decision to allow a UN Security Council resolution against settlements. Booker calls it anti-Israel and joins 11 other Democrats in sponsoring a resolution hammering the UN vote, while Israeli-American Saban says it’s against the “national interest.”
Last summer the first Palestinian Advanced Physics School took place at the Arab American University in Jenin and was a huge success. The organization Scientists for Palestine now intends to make the school a recurring event and are currently organizing a 2017 school to be held at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem but they need your help.
Jews opposed the UN Resolution against settlements by 47-42 percent, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll. But other members of the Democratic Party coalition were for it by large margins, African Americans, Hispanics, and Religious nones. And Republicans are also against the resolution.
One possible consequence of the Azaria verdict is that will help protect Israel from international accountability. Yonah Jeremy Bob writes in the Jerusalem Post: “At the ICC, Hebron shooter Elor Azaria’s manslaughter conviction may affirm the credibility of Israel’s apparatus for prosecuting its own soldiers. This is important because it is the decisive issue affecting whether the ICC will dive deeper into the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.”
The Israeli military court ruling which found Sgt. Elor Azaria guilty of manslaughter in the killing of Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif has revealed long-simmering fissures in Israeli society that, according to experts, point to a growing anti-democratic trend in the country and reinforce the lack of accountability for Palestinians within the Israeli justice system.
Sgt Azaria is convicted of manslaughter in Hebron killing of March 24, 2016. Human rights organization B’Tselem says Palestinians are killed all the time by Israeli security forces and there is no accountability. New York Times and Washington Post leave this angle out.
Norman Finkelstein says the UN resolution against settlements was very strong, making them a war crime, and Obama allowed it to pass, in a major shift from his previous stance, because he wanted a legacy on Israel/Palestine and wanted to turn the tables on Netanyahu. Now the question is what Palestinians will do to enforce the latest in a long line of historical documents damming the settlements.
After 100 years, the Jewish State has come full circle to comprise all of historical Palestine. As John Kerry notes, the choice in such a case is only between Apartheid or democracy, but he thinks there is a tomorrow. His timeline is wrong.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the street in Gaza this December to mark the 29th anniversary of the establishment of Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement that governs the besieged strip. A military parade of Hamas’s armed wing thrilled demonstrators as Hamas leaders delivered speeches affirming the group’s ongoing commitment to military resistance against the Israeli occupation. This year, however, the anniversary came amid mounting challenges facing Hamas on the domestic and international front.
Donald Trump is terrifying but there’s one big upside. Thanks to his extremism, a long-delayed reckoning is coming on Israel/Palestine. Boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) will take off as never before.