The Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick of Che Guevara black and red portrait fame has done it again: He has painted a minimalist poster of the Palestinian resister Ahed Tamimi, in jail for 2 months for slapping a soldier. And the world should pay attention, because Ahed Tamimi’s life is at risk, with Israelis calling for crimes against her person.
Violence / Detentions — West Bank / Jerusalem Nine Palestinians injured on 11th Friday of…
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons under administrative detention — Israel’s widely condemned policy of detention without charge or trial — launched an open-ended boycott of Israeli courts on Thursday. The 450 administrative detainees released a joint statement announcing the boycott, saying “the core of resisting administrative detention policy comes from boycotting this Israeli legal system.”
On the February 5th, the Israeli High Court of Justice decided that seven structures in the village of Susiya, in the south Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank, could be demolished by Israel without delay. These seven structures are home to 42 residents of the village, of which half are children. Susiya has become an international symbol of Palestinian villages resistance against displacement, and the villagers say more international solidarity is needed to prevent these demolitions.
The International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP), had made a plan to hold its 2019 international conference in Israel. Led by psychiatrists in East Jerusalem and the USA-Palestine Mental Health Network, an international effort is demanding the organization reconsider the site for this conference. Palestinian mental health workers who are citizens of Israel have just issued a statement in support of the protest, saying: “we were surprised to discover that IARPP chose to hold its international conference in Israel, despite its longstanding history of human rights abuses, notably the violent occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza. In our minds, not taking these ongoing assaults on Palestinian lives and human rights into account when choosing the conference location could be translated as their quiet acceptance by IARPP.”
Devyn Springer reflects on the legacy of Black activists in the South organizing in solidarity with Palestinians: “No, solidarity organizing for Palestinians is not contained to the South. In fact, this organizing likely occurs across the country at varying rates probably higher in other places. However, the South has a legacy that cannot be ignored in this fight; one that is being reckoned with, actualized, and drawn upon as political and emotional spectacle to form its new movement for Palestine.”
“Their ultimate goal is no conspiracy theory,” reports Mersiha Gadzo on the growing movement to destroy the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, in order to build a Third Temple: “One of the leading Temple movement organizations is the Temple Institute, which has had a blueprint ready for the temple’s construction since 2011. In 2014 they crowdfunded over $100,000 on Indiegogo to prepare architectural plans for their Third Temple.”
Former MLA President Margaret Ferguson has resigned from the organization following passage of a resolution banning further debate over the academic boycott of Israel. Ferguson writes, “My experience in Israel-Palestine is one of the many reasons I am giving up my membership in an organization I have participated in and learned from for over 40 years—long enough to acquire the privileges of “life membership.” Those privileges are now a burden to me.”
Early plans for UNRWA showed an unquestionably strong American influence. They also reveal the dissonance of US policy in the Middle East.
The latest study of U.S. Jewish attitudes towards Israel only confirms the trend– growing indifference to the idea of a Jewish state among younger, unaffiliated Jews. When 18-34 year-old Bay Area Californians are asked if they’re “very attached” to Israel, only 11 percent say yes, compared to 25 percent of those 50 and older. Is a Jewish state very important? 37 percent of the young say yes. Only 40 percent of the young are comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state.