US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that the Trump administration will be renewing peace efforts in Israel and Palestine following the upcoming Israeli elections in April. Pompeo went on to say that “we’ve begun to share elements of this across the region,” and that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, and special representative Jason Greenblatt had been leading the development of the peace plan.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, over 350 scholars of the Civil Rights and Black Freedom Movements, and veterans of these historic struggles, along with educators and human rights advocates, issued the following statement in support of Palestinian human rights, and in defense of, Angela Y. Davis, who was publicly dishonored three weeks ago by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute when it abruptly reversed its decision to recognize her with its annual award because of her stand on Palestinian rights.
Michelle Alexander’s excellent New York Times column on speaking out on Palestine is getting huge attention is already clearly a watershed moment, but why has Alexander prompted such a huge reaction? James North has some tentative explanations.
Former Israeli Chief of Staff Benjamin (‘Benny’) Gantz has launched his campaign to challenge Netanayhu from the ‘left’, with an incredibly bellicose series of videos. His slogan is “Israel before everything”. Gantz brags in campaign videos of his responsibility for Gaza onslaughts in 2012 and 2014.
In the splintering of the movement around the Women’s March, Alice Rothchild writes, “Today, the angry chorus of accusations are coming from white Jews who are accustomed to the privileging of their victimhood and the power of their class. The voices of Jews of color have been largely sidelined from this conversation.”
Much has been made of a recent New York Times piece about Rouzan al-Najjar, the Palestinian volunteer nurse who was killed while treating injured protesters at the Great March of Return. While many saw the reporting as a sympathetic portrayal of Palestinians, Eric Maddox writes, there are still shortcomings.
When Israel’s new Route 4370 opened, stark images of the eight meter wall running through the middle of the highway made international headlines. But as the international media buzzed about the new “Apartheid Road”, one reality of the highway’s inauguration was noticeably absent. In the days leading up to the opening of the highway, Israeli authorities delivered over 20 demolition notices to homes in the West Bank town of Anata located along the route. In addition, any families from Anata who own land within 300 meters of either side of the road are now be unable to cultivate or work on their lands, as per Israeli orders. “It is plain and simple, they are using this road as a means of further land confiscation in Anata,” Mohammed Salameh tells Mondoweiss. “Just as they have done in our town for decades.”
Last week, lawyers for Professor Rabab Abdulhadi filed suit in US District Court against San Francisco State University and top administrators including President Leslie Wong, seeking a permanent court judgment to protect the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas program, and protect the civil rights and freedom of speech of AMED director Professor Rabab Abdulhadi PhD and her students.
Nada Elia says there is no need to rewrite history where Martin Luther King Jr. is involved, as we have ample documentation of the direction the civil rights leader was heading: one opposed to militarism and fascism globally, along with his unflinching commitment to end segregation and apartheid–two evils that have become the hallmark of modern-day Israel.
Perceiving Michelle Alexander’s opinion piece on Palestine and Martin Luther King in the New York Times as a huge blow to Israel’s reputation among elites, and to the traditional alliance of blacks and Jews, Israel’s cheerleaders leaped to denounce Alexander. Michael Oren says the article is a “strategic threat” to Israel, David Harris says MLK would be “appalled” that Alexander “hijacked” his legacy!