Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may not know enough about Palestine, but she needs to hear from real progressives, not from the various shades of Zionism that have long held the Democratic Party hostage. She needs to understand that whereas Palestine may not be a regular topic of conversation around the kitchen table in a Porto Rican house, it is nevertheless an issue of national import.

The state of Israel has always been an apartheid state. Its founding was based on denying and destroying Palestinian collective life on the land, while encouraging Jewish immigration and participation in a settler-colony, itself based on a classed racial hierarchy among Jews. –International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network response to Israel’s new nation-state of the Jews basic law.

An anti-colonial protest group beamed the phrases, “Fallen heroes” and “Great March of Return” on to high rises across the street from the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC’s office, and an Israeli bank in New York last week– the latest project of the activist-artist collective, Decolonize This Place or the DTP Crew.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s unprecedented victory in a NY congressional district was followed by her endorsement of the two-state solution in Israel and Palestine, generating angry criticism from leftwingers who seek one democratic state. But she is now in a position to give voice to the victims of US foreign policy, not least the Palestinian people. It would verge on criminal to saddle her with a position that dooms her to political irrelevance, writes Jamie Stern-Weiner.

Scenes of chaos erupted in Gaza City on Wednesday, after UNRWA — the UN agency responsible for providing services for Palestinian refugees — announced that it would be laying off hundreds of its employees following massive US budget cuts this year. One Palestinian man, an employee at UNRWA, attempted to set himself on fire.

Alan Dershowitz calls the new Israeli law declaring Israel “the nation state of the Jewish people” a mistake that was unnecessary and that will give ammunition to Israel’s critics and alienate American Jews. Israel lobby groups the ADL and J Street also say the law was unnecessary, and Israel’s Finance Minister calls it a “mistake.”

Sport is inseparable from politics. Despite Trump’s continued rhetoric about how immigration is “ruining Europe”, France won the World Cup by fielding a team made up of players from immigrant backgrounds who did not look like traditional Frenchmen.

Palestinian hip-hop artist Ibrahim Ghunaim, aka MC Gaza, releases a music video filmed during the Great March of Return protests near the fence that divides the Gaza Strip from Israel. He has relocated to Tunisia and seeks help to further his career.

Why do Democrats have to get to Trump’s right on Russia? It used to be that talking to Putin was smart, even if he is a ruthless man, because Democrats like Obama are smart and try to reduce tensions. But now it seems Putin might have stolen emails and run some Facebook ads and Russians are better at using stolen Democratic campaign analytics than the Clinton campaign was, The hypocrisy only exposes the warmongering side of the Democratic establishment.

Last Friday Israeli activists joined Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip when they demonstrated on the Israeli side of the fence.