NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that he “will use his influence inside the Democratic Party to make sure” the party does not turn against Israel, according to Israeli ambassador Dani Dayan.
Rabbi John Rosove says that Trump’s choice for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is a “pzatza,” which is Hebrew slang for a bomb, due to his intemperate language and absence of diplomatic skills.
On March 8, three anti-BDS bills were fast-tracked out of committee and passed without debate by the New York State Senate. Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights oppose the move saying: “These bills are blatantly unconstitutional attacks on First Amendment rights to protest and dissent. They resurrect widely-condemned tactics used to undermine democracy: creating McCarthyite blacklists, punishing dissent, attacking academic freedom, and cracking down on student organizing.”
On his second long-term hunger strike in the past year, Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qiq’s health is deteriorating faster than anyone expected, leaving his family to plea for support before it is too late. “If Mohammed were to quit his hunger strike now, the first one that almost killed him would be for nothing, so he feels he must continue his strike—not just for himself, but for all the other Palestinian prisoners on strike against their administrative detention as well — they must stay strong together,” Fayha Salash, Mohammed’s wife, tells Mondoweiss.
Donna Baranski-Walker calls on the U.S. State Department– and ambassador-nominee David Friedman– to prevent the imminent Israeli demolition of a West Bank Palestinian school and village, Khan al Ahmar, which is alongside the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.
A new Israeli law bars entry to those involved in boycotting Israel and criminalizes even those who have supported a ‘partial’ boycott targeting settlements. Activists and organizations, even the liberal Zionist ones who have supported boycott of settlements, now have to ask themselves: If Israel does not differentiate between itself and its occupied territories, if Israel bars entry to any foreigner who boycotts (even if they are Zionist), why should the boycotters make the differentiation between Israel and its settlements?
“Shadi was arrested on December 30, 2015. He was just 12 years old. The news took my breath away; the whole family was in a state of shock. For a long time, none of us could eat or sleep properly. When I closed my eyes, all I could see was my little boy, scared and alone, in a freezing cold prison cell. I later learned that they had forced him to stand in there naked, at one point.” On International Women’s Day, Farihan Daraghmeh Farah tells the harrowing story of her son Shadi and how her family has struggled to free him from Israeli occupation prisons.
In likening Trump’s planned border wall to Israel’s separation wall, the Center for Investigative Reporting offers disturbing parallels and twisted facts that omit human rights violations.
The American Jewish community is today roiled by divisions over Israel. These divisions are manifest in countless synagogues around the country, but are largely silent– because Israel-critics are still muzzling themselves. Rabbis are in a difficult position. They want the conversation to happen, but big donors threaten to leave the congregations if there is criticism of Israel. Yet the rabbis say there will be no choice but to have the conversation: because young Jews are abandoning the synagogues, and the community needs the next generation more than it needs money.
‘Fake News’ isn’t news, and it isn’t new either. When considering the Trump administration’s efforts at media manipulation it would be helpful to remember the path that led the United States to war in Iraq.