A day after the New Orleans City Council unanimously approved a resolution to add a human rights standard into the review process for city contracts, which would include companies profiting off of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, city officials have started to distance themselves from the politics behind the legislation. The statements come after backlash from the outgoing mayor’s office, and years of local leaders receiving donations and backing from major pro-Israel organizations who lobby against the law.

This February, Canada’s New Democratic Party will debate a resolution calling for the use of diplomatic and economic pressure to end Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories. Yazan Khader says Palestine solidarity activists must make use of this opportunity by attending the convention: “In the end, the proposal’s success will depend on the number of people in the room raising their hands to vote for it. So I invite you. In February, join us and raise your hand for Palestine.”

A month after she slapped a soldier in occupied Nabi Saleh, 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi faces a final bail hearing today at court. She has been imprisoned since December 19. Professor Asa Kasher, author of the IDF ‘ethics code, opines that Ahed Tamimi is dangerous, because she may slap again.

Vic Mensa bears witness to Israeli “oppression and abuse” in an essay in Time. He saw elderly women being “punched in the face” by Israeli soldiers, and children being harassed and detained. He was enraged by fetid water tank for refugees alongside a swimming pool for Israeli settlers. Yet Time obviously forced him to begin his article by swearing that he is “not anti-Semitic” and his words are not an attack on those “of the Jewish faith.”

At a settlers’ winery in an illegal settlement outside Hebron, boxes are labeled “Made in Israel,” and a bottle of Riesling says “Jerusalem Winery, Israel” — false labels to get around EU restrictions on the sale of settlement goods. Two European visitors get photographic proof.

James Klutznick, chairman of Americans for Peace Now, dismissed the idea that Palestinians are now seeking equal rights in one democratic state by saying, that Israeli Jews will never allow there “to be civil rights for everybody and an equal vote.” So maybe Peace Now is advocating for the wrong side?

The Palestinian Health Ministry says a three-year-old child was shot in the head during an Israeli live-fire military training exercise near Tubas, in the northeastern West Bank. The child is currently in stable condition in an Intensive Care Unit. The Israeli military frequently conducts training in Palestinian communities throughout the West Bank.

The city council of New Orleans unanimously passed a resolution which calls on the city to review and divest from companies that perpetrate human rights violations anywhere in the world. It was proposed by local Palestine solidarity activists who support the BDS movement for Palestinian human rights. “It’s not very different from the stance that a number of entities took when apartheid was commonplace in South Africa,” Councilmember-at-large and cosponsor Jason Williams said in adopting the resolution.

NYT columnist Roger Cohen justifies Israel’s human rights violations by saying,”If I, as a Jew, have lived a privileged life in the diaspora, it is in part because of the pride and strength that the new Jew of Israel forged.”He’s wrong. The era of Jewish exceptionalism is over.