This week a group of Palestine activists gathered in front of Duty Free Americas headquarters in Hollywood, Florida to protest the company’s connection to illegal Israeli settlements.
“As we witness the horrifying violence against the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government and settlers, we demand that Duty Free Americas stop funding Israeli apartheid,” said Jewish Voice for Peace member Martha Schoolman at the protest. “The Palestinian people have the absolute right to live free in their homeland, free of the threat of settler violence, destruction of their homes, and seizure of their land.”
The Duty Free Americas chain is owned by the Falic family. A 2019 AP investigation found that the family had donated $5.6 million to settler groups in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over a ten-year period. The investigation also revealed that they have financially supported ultra-nationalist Jewish groups with racist members and donated more to Benjamin Netanyahu than any other donor.
Speaking on behalf of his family through his attorney, Simon Falic told the AP that Jews should be able to live anywhere they want in the Holy Land.
“Quite simply, our groups are in front of Duty Free America offices today because Israel encourages the construction of illegal settlements, and international philanthropy pays for it,” explained protester Hiba Kakli.
The protestors drew connections to efforts to expel Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem and mimicked the actions of Israeli settlers by putting down boxes outside the headquarters and loudly proclaiming that the Falic family had to move out.
Thomas Kennedy, a community organizer in South Florida, explained, “As we have seen most recently in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, Israeli Jewish settlers are forcibly expelling Palestinians from their homes. We are here to protest the funding that comes from the owners of Duty Free Americas and that supports the construction of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
Organizers with the protest, which brought together activists from a number of our different social justice groups, told Mondoweiss that this is the beginning of an ongoing effort to bring pressure on Duty Free Americas.
“Israel’s settlement enterprise has had a devastating impact on the lives and well being of the indigenous Palestinian population,” said Anas Amireh, who heads the Palestinian organization, Al Awda: The Palestinian Right of Return Coalition, in South Florida. He added, “Palestinians are demanding their freedom, their dignity, and their right to live in their homes and on their land.”
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“From a new statement titled “Israel now holding 13 Palestinian journalists” by Reporters Without Borders: ‘Two Palestinian journalists were arrested by Israeli security forces in Jerusalem yesterday and were placed in administrative detention today, bringing the total now held administratively by the Israelis to 13. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns Israel’s misuse of administrative detention to hound Palestinian reporters.'”
“’Administrative detention’ is one of the many apartheid abuses which Israel has come under criticism for employing, as Israel-based +972 Magazine explained last year: ‘According to human rights group B’Tselem, as of September 2020, Israel is holding 376 Palestinians, including two minors, in administrative detention. Israel uses administrative detention to indefinitely detain Palestinians (and on extremely rare occasions Jewish extremists) without charge or trial. Administrative detention orders, handed down by the IDF commander in charge of the occupied West Bank, are reviewed every six months, but the detainees are not told what crimes they are being accused of, nor shown the evidence against them.’
“According to lawyers who defend Palestinian detainees, administrative detentions are almost always based on ‘confidential material’ handed over ex parte to the courts by the Shin Bet, to which the detainees themselves and their lawyers have no access. As a result, it is virtually impossible to defend oneself against an administrative detention order. Before the Gaza ceasefire last week Israel managed to deliberately blow up over 20 offices for Palestinian media outlets, as well as the tower hosting the international outlets AP and Al Jazeera.
Time for BDS here and abroad. Anyone sending US dollars to illegal settlements, settlers, or settler terrorists, must face protests as a consequence. How else would they get the message?
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Caitlin Johnstone: Israel narrative management is getting incredibly desperate and brazen — RT Op-ed
RT QUESTION MORE, May 29/21, by Caitlan Johnstone
“Caitlin Johnstone, an independent journalist based in Melbourne, Australia. ‘Israel narrative management is getting incredibly desperate and brazen.’
EXCERPT:
“More people are becoming conscious of the Palestine issue and politicians and pundits can no longer get away with painting themselves as progressive-minded humanists without acknowledging the brutal nature of Israeli occupation.
“The National Director Emeritus for the Anti-Defamation League has announced on Twitter that he is cancelling his subscription to The New York Times, claiming that a front-page story featuring the photos of children killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza this month constitutes ‘blood libel’ against Jews.
“’I am cancelling my subscription to NY Times,’ tweeted Abraham Foxman. ‘I grew up in America on the NYT – I delivered the NYT to my classmates – I learned civics – democracy and all the news ‘fit to print’ for 65 years but no more. Today’s blood libel of Israel and the Jewish people on the front page is enough.’
“Foxman’s statement drew criticism from all corners, including from loyal establishment pundits like Jonathan Chait, for his ridiculous assertion that merely humanizing Palestinian children killed by Israel is the same as promoting the ancient antisemitic canard known as blood libel.
“Supporters of Israeli apartheid and mass murder are losing control of the narrative, which has led to redoubled perception-management efforts, ranging from the cringey to the iron-fisted. In the former category we’re seeing them pen entire articles attacking Seth Rogen for tweeting a fart emoji at virulent Israel apologist Eve Barlow and claiming that putting ‘fart’ in Barlow’s name is the same as a literal pogrom. In the latter category they’re blowing up entire press offices and arresting Palestinian journalists. This is narrative management at its least subtle. (cont’d)