Samer al-Arbeed was arrested by Israel’s special security forces on Wednesday, September 25. By Friday the 27, he was unconscious in the hospital with kidney failure, broken ribs, and marks all over his body.
Benny Gantz is “bad,” but Netanyahu is “the worst,” says Ayman Odeh of the Palestinian Joint List in Israel. But Odeh told Time magazine that 10 Palestinian legislators endorsed Gantz because they want to stop Trump’s deal of the century and the annexation by Israel of West Bank lands.
Canadian governments have a woeful record at supporting the rights of Palestinian refugees and the current government is no different. With the right of return under renewed attack from Trump’s “Deal of the Century” it is essential that activists make clear Palestinian rights are not for sale.
Naim Mousa writes, “There are two candidates for prime minister, one incites violence against Arabs and constantly carries out racist policies, and the other does the exact same but is called Gantz.” Yet Palestinian voters have shown their growing power through the Joint List’s endorsement of Gantz to lead the government.
Devyn Springer reflects that as a Black person in the United States, Palestinian cynicism towards Israeli elections feels all too familiar. “So-called important national elections seem to always be at the expense of my community’s existing oppression,” Springer writes.
What’s clear from Israel’s election is that the country has moved so far right, no one should expect any change in Israeli policy toward the occupation or Palestinian human rights, no matter who wins. And because Israeli policy is driving the U.S.’s deep partisan divide toward Israel, that will only deepen, James Zogby writes.
Gazans do not approve of Joint List leader Ayman Odeh’s endorsement of Benny Gantz in the Israeli election because Gantz led attacks on Gaza. No one here, says Ayman Moin, “can easily forget a beloved who has been killed, or jailed for years, nor a house demolished by the same perpetrator.”
At the Gaza border in Rafah yesterday hundreds of protesters gathered for speeches and folk songs. Dozens approached the fence and threw stones and Molotov Cocktails, and Israeli soldiers responded with live fire, killing Saher ‘Awadallah Jaber ‘Othman (20).
Francine Klagsbrun writes in the New York Times that the Palestinian refugee problem was created by Palestinians who decided to leave “of their own accord” in 1948. This is Nakba denial. With the choice of rightwing Zionists Klagsbrun and Hillel Halkin to review books on Israel lately, the New York Times is demonstrating its commitment to support Israel in ideological battle.
Friends of the IDF event raises $37 million in New York City