Rashid Khalidi’s great great great uncle tried to tell Herzl not to colonize Palestine in 1899 but Herzl assured him that Zionists would bring Jewish acumen to the country and improve everyone’s lives. Yet after 100 years of settler colonialism, aided by superpowers, Palestinians remain undefeated. An interview with Khalidi about his new book.
The Netanyahu-Gantz coalition government will be sworn in this week and Netanyahu has made it clear that he intends to move forward with annexation plans this summer. Almost every Democrat opposes the move, but virtually none of them want to even suggest doing anything about it.
Israeli forces raided the northern West Bank village of Kobar before dawn on Monday and destroyed the family home of Palestinian prisoner Qassam al-Barghouti, sparking widespread clashes in the village between armed Israeli soldiers and local youth.
“I am proud to support Vice President Biden, and that’s in large part because I know that he stands where I stand on the importance of strengthening the US Israel relationship,” Rep. Ted Deutch tells the American Jewish Committee. But he didn’t mention Israel when he endorsed Biden in March. He knows that’s a special interest.
Some 377 scholars and artists from more than 30 countries have signed a pledge opposing litmus tests and political interference by institutions, municipalities, and public officials in Germany aimed at silencing advocates for Palestinian rights under international law. The campaign began due to official efforts to rebuke writers Achille Mbembe and Kamila Shamsie for their advocacy.
Palestinian memory of the Nakba is even more crucial in the time of the coronavirus when usual forms of resistance have been made impossible. Palestinian literature has been one way memory of the Nakba has been shared.
Ambassador David Friedman’s racist advice to Israeli — “you don’t have to live with [a] Palestinian state, you have to live with the Palestinian state when the Palestinians become Canadians,” is a perfect echo of Dov Weissglas saying Palestinians could have a state when they became Finns. And it reveals the bad faith in Trump’s deal of the century.
Daniel Pipes’s op-ed in the NYT opposing annexation of the West Bank because it would increase number of Palestinians –without any concern about how annexation will affect Palestinian human rights — confirms critique that Zionism is racist. But op-ed editor Bari Weiss will do anything to try to maintain Israel’s hold on elite opinion.
The UK Supreme Court delivered the Palestine Solidarity Campaign a major victory last month, after it reversed a ban that prohibited local governments from supporting the BDS movement.
Mike Flynn lied to the FBI about trying to undermine then-President Obama’s decision to rebuke Israeli settlements at the UN. The press typically leaves out this angle in covering the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case 3 years later. Another case of Russian interference!