The US blocked on Wednesday an attempt by United Nations member states to get the UN Security Council to formally condemn Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied East Jeruslaem town of Sur Bahir earlier this week.
Susan Abulhawa reviews Anita Anand’s The Patient Assassin, the dramatic true story of a little known orphan boy who spent his life plotting a revenge that would eventually rattle the British Empire to its core: “This is a book for students of history, for lovers of thriller novels, and for anyone interested in contemporary politics, social movements, liberation struggles, biographies, or just a well-told true drama.”
Yoav Haifawi sends an update on the activities of the One Democratic State campaign, including a day-long conference that was recently held in Haifa that reflected growing interest in the idea of a single democratic state with equal rights for all its citizens.
Steve France says Carolyn L. Karcher’s new book ‘Reclaiming Judaism From Zionism: Stories of Personal Transformation’ opened his eyes to Jewish opposition to Zionism, and says his fellow Christian should take note: “our continued silence is based on the false assumption that Jewish Americans remain virtually unanimous in supporting Israel – or at least not openly criticizing Israel – we non-Jews are actually helping keep Jews silent.”
College senior Rachel Marandett was set to leave New Jersey on an El Al flight to Tel Aviv to carry out research when Israeli security took her aside for interrogation. She was partially strip searched and questioned for an hour and a half about her about her family, her research, and specifically her Arab and Arab-American friends and relationships she made while studying in Morocco. “They were thought policing. They were racially profiling my friends. They were afraid of the fact that I wasn’t afraid of the Middle East and the people who call it home,” Marandett writes.
Yesterday, Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addressed a Congressional briefing organized by American Muslims for Palestine on Israel’s abuse of US citizens. She shared her own family’s story of separate-and-unequal treatment by Israel, and urged the Capitol Hill audience to “push back against these kinds of racist policies.”
Palestinian Authority leaders say they are moving towards cutting ties with Israel over its “war crimes” committed in Sur Bahir on Monday, when Israeli authorities demolished 10 buildings on PA-controlled land. But critics told Mondoweiss they don’t expect much more than “empty threats” from the PA.
A sobering number of progressive individuals, organizations, human resources departments, and media outlets have partnered with the ADL, because they do not know of its history of promoting racist practices. Nada Elia writes, “If there is to be ‘no place for hate’ in our communities, there should be no place for the ADL.”
Notable progressives backed the House resolution condemning BDS, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). Both faced intense criticism on Twitter for their votes. Khanna responded, Lincoln was not an abolitionist “early in his career”. While Pressley said, “Voting yes on this resolution affirmed to my constituents raised in the Jewish faith Israel’s right to exist.”
The grotesque celebration by Israeli soldiers as they destroyed a Palestinian building in East Jerusalem is being treated as an aberration. But in fact there is a long history of Israelis celebrating the destruction of Palestine.