Jimmy Wales the founder of Wikipedia has disappointed a lot of folks in the last day by siding with Israel over the latest exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza, and by essentially accusing British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of anti-semitism.
Just a few weeks ago, Mondoweiss launched a $60,000 summer fund drive to prepare for the upcoming challenges facing accurate, responsible journalism about Palestine and the movement for its liberation. Thanks to hundreds of generous supporters, we have met and surpassed our goal for this campaign. As we enter our new fiscal year September 1, we have enough resources to tackle the mission that drives us: reporting the truth from Palestine and Israel with as much detail, scope and context as possible to as many people as possible around the world.
We seem to be hearing a lot these days about an “antisemitism problem” on the Left – and accusations of “antisemitism” are almost sure to arise whenever Israel is criticized. Peter Cohen writes that what we really should be concerned about is racism in all of its forms – including, but by no means limited to – anti-Jewish racism. “Keeping our focus on racism rather than only antisemitism also makes it easier to see the shocking prevalence of racism in the discourse of Zionists themselves,” Cohen says.
Israel is seeking to remove the Bedouin village of Jabal al-Baba from the E-1 corridor connecting Jerusalem to West Bank Jewish settlements, using expulsion orders and raids that have destroyed community buildings. The village is resisting by building a school on Vatican-owned land, hoping to gain the Pope’s protection.
On Thursday evening, 12 successive explosions were heard as Israeli warplanes flew over Gaza City, destroying the popular Said al-Mishal Foundation for Culture and Science cultural center, one of the very few cultural outlets left for Gaza’s youth in the besieged enclave. “Israel is trying to deliver its message that massive war is not just against humanity or our existence; it is a war against every part of Palestinian identity including music, culture or even Dabkeh dance,” said Nidal Eissa, Deputy Director of the Foundation, which was inaugurated in 2004.
Kim Jensen writes, “Everything about the trial of Dareen Tatour was like fiction. Everything required the willing suspension of disbelief. From the opening pages, it was impossible to digest the premise that an unknown young poet from a small town in the Galilee would be hauled off by Israeli police and border guards for a smattering of posts on the internet. To get the truth, sometimes you have to quit and start from scratch. Everything about the story of Dareen Tatour is the story of Falasteen.”
Amira Hass reports: “The state is willing to allow six women cancer patients to leave the Gaza Strip for the West Bank for treatment that is not available in the West Bank, or to go abroad for treatment they cannot afford. However, it will not allow the women, who are severely ill, to go to either of two Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem which can treat them.”
On Democracy Now! released Palestinian prisoner Ahed Tamimi says the occupation and checkpoints and conflict are a product of Zionism, which is not Judaism. ‘Liberal-Zionists’ are going to have a hard time with this one. They have been insisting that the 1967 occupation can be reversed without addressing Zionism. In fact, they believe that reversing it is essential to maintaining the Zionist Jewish State.
Three Palestinians were killed during pre dawn Israeli airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip Thursday. Among the dead were a woman, who was nine months pregnant, and her 18-month-old daughter. Thursday’s events are the latest in a series of severe flare ups over the past few months in Gaza, leading many local and international officials to speculate that another large-scale Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory could be imminent.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage in NY has an overpowering exhibit of photographs of the Lodz ghetto in Poland taken by Henryk Ross. Among the most disturbing pictures are those of happy Jewish policemen who collaborated with the Nazis, evidence of the socialized acceptance that any people will have of injustice.