Apartheid in South Africa ended in part due to sanctions and pressure from the international community. It is once again on the international community to ensure that international law is upheld and apartheid sees its demise — this time in Palestine.
Over 600 musicians, including Belly, Anwar Hadid, Black Thought and Questlove from The Roots, Cypress Hill, NARCY, NoName, Patti Smith, and Run the Jewels, have signed a statement demanding justice, dignity and the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people, and calls on artists to refuse to perform at Israel’s complicit cultural institutions.
In a unanimous vote, the Irish parliament, the Dáil, passed a motion calling Israel’s ongoing settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territory as “de facto annexation.” Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq praised the motion on Wednesday, saying “Ireland stood up in defense of human rights and became a beacon for the world to follow.”
An outpouring of support in India for Israel’s war on “terrorists” can be explained by: India’s rightward drift under Modi, underpinned by hatred for Muslims, and a sense of identity between Zionism and Hindutva, the political philosophy of the ruling party in India. The close ties are also strategic, relating to India’s tensions with Muslim-majority Pakistan.
In recent weeks Palestinian rights advocates have faced varying forms of censorship across social media while the same heavy-handed regulation has not been enforced for Israeli content, allowing hate speech and incitement against Palestinians to spread unfettered. Former Facebook executive Ashraf Zeitoon tells Mondoweiss, “This is part of a smart system and it is a deliberate, systematic silencing of Palestinian voices due to pressure from the Israeli government…there is no sugar coating it.”
We must not lose sight of what lies behind Israel’s unbridled use of force: American support.
Over 500 members of the CUNY community pledge to initiate BDS campaigns within the New York City public university system.
We can expect an unprecedented surge of COVID-19 in Gaza in the coming weeks and a severely damaged health care system and exhausted health care workers unable to cope adequately. Prior to the bombing, 99% of the COVID-19 virus circulating in Palestine was from the highly contagious British Variant B.1.1.7. An estimated 5% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza had been vaccinated and mask use during Ramadan was lax. The positivity rate for coronavirus in Gaza was around 30% three weeks ago.
A federal judge has ruled that Georgia’s anti-BDS law is unconstitutional. The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit that was filed against the state by journalist Abby Martin.
Israel suffered a P.R. disaster in the last Gaza attack: western media for once openly questioned the reasoning and morality behind yet another murderous onslaught on an imprisoned population, the fifth in the last 12 years. Even the NYT runs an op-ed saying that “legitimate resistance” to violence is a Palestinian right. Pro-Israel voices in the media are pushing back by saying sharp criticism of Israel is antisemitism.