A natural gas pipeline from the sea through Jordan is Israel’s latest effort to normalize relations with its Arab neighbors. But Palestinians resist. In Amman, Alice Rothchild visits an exhibit of remarkable friezes by Palestinian artist, Abdul Hay Mosallam. “They killed me and my killer denied me while turning cold in my grave,” are the words on the Gaza piece.
Low birth weight and birth defects increased significantly since 2011 in Gaza. The evident cause is two military attacks in 2012 and 2014 that introduced novel risk factors, contamination by heavy metals weapon-remnants, ongoing impoverishment, and impaired waste management, says Reproductive Toxicology journal.
“Israeli forces have escalated their attacks against the medical personnel in the field, wounding 4 members of them” Friday, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza. On the 56th Friday of the Great March of Return, Israeli forces injured 110 civilians.
After a months long battle, a Texas school teacher was told she could return back to work after a federal court blocked an anti-BDS law in the state on the grounds that it was “likely unconstitutional.”
“Their plan is to put us in a desert and offer us some drops of water so we are forced to accept it,” Palestinian leader Mohammed al-Masri says of the rumored content of Trump’s peace deal. “No power, no borders, and just give us some economic freedom.” Such a proposal will be dead on arrival, Palestinians say.
UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy has urged organizers of a campus forum about efforts to shut down pro-Palestinian voices, featuring Roger Waters and Linda Sarsour, to include “differing points of view” in the panel so that there will be “dialogue” between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian advocates.
Pandering to two pro-Israel groups, Nikki Haley calls Sheldon and Miriam Adelson “national treasures.” She says the Obama administration “led” the UN Security Council resolution against settlements in 2016, pressuring other countries that did not want to vote for it, and making other ambassadors “uncomfortable.”
As Notre Dame burned, Ramzy Baroud thought of Gaza’s Great Mosque. While the fire at the French cathedral was likely accidental, destroyed Palestinian houses of worship were intentionally targeted.
Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump administration was focused on Russian interference in U.S. politics, but his findings highlight some highly questionable contacts that people close to Trump’s transition team had with representatives of another government that has intervened massively in U.S. policymaking in recent years: the United Arab Emirates.
Nada Elia disagrees with those who say it was good Benjamin Netanyahu won the recent Israeli elections because it will help reveal the nature of Israeli society to the world. “Did anyone who is in any way genuinely interested in politics still believe, up till Netanyahu’s fifth reelection, that the two-state solution is a valid option that simply requires the right Israeli prime minister?” she asks.