The fifth day of the Palestinian prisoners’ escape from an Israeli prison has sparked joy, pride and resistance in Palestinians. Israelis have cracked down on the protests even as they pour troops into the West Bank to try to find the six escapees. A Palestinian doctor was killed near Al-Aqsa mosque today.
After 9/11 U.S. lawmakers frequently said that bin Laden had underestimated America. That ended up being very true, just not in the way they thought.
When it rains, it pours—inside Zoher Alsayd’s living room, kitchen and bedroom to be exact. Like many Palestinians, the former house painter’s home was wrecked by airstrikes during the latest escalation between Israel and Hamas earlier this year in May. And this was not the first time his roof was destroyed. Alsayd belongs to a growing group of Palestinians whose homes were damaged to the point of becoming uninhabitable, not once, but multiple times over the course of these four conflicts with Israel over the last 13 years.
For the last few weeks people who have been wrong about virtually everything for two decades got trotted out to make the case for perpetual war yet again. However, I’ve been struck that one name hasn’t come up more: Osama bin Laden.
After two and a half years of living abroad, Abdelrahman Abuabed decided it was time to visit his family. He arrived in Gaza days before the May escalation between Hamas and Israel. “A terror-stricken burden of waiting for the next massacre looms over every house in Gaza and an insane feeling of wishing it will be far away from you and from anyone you know.”
At a time when some American Jewish congregations are avoiding the Israel subject as divisive, the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York has doubled down on its support for the “Jewish state,” and that support was rewarded during its Rosh Hashanah service with a video speech from Israel’s Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, who told the congregation that Israel loves American Jews and is waiting for them to come to Israel.
Michael Arria and Dave Reed speak with Michael Bueckert of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East about the upcoming Canadian election.
Israel has been humiliated by the escape of 6 Palestinian prisoners Monday. Israelis describe the escapees as “terrorists,” and an anchor on i24 News said they are “dangerous people on the run.” Alon Eviatar, a former intelligence officer, told the channel that Israel has two choices, to capture the escaped prisoners or kill them. While Samer Sinijlawi, chair of the Jerusalem Development Fund, warned that if any prisoner is assassinated, it would be a “serious mistake” on Israel’s part and possibly result in an intifada, or uprising.
Mohammed El-Kurd shares his lessons from engaging with the Western press, and how Palestinians can most effectively tell their story: “Our mission in the coming period should not only be legitimizing the Palestinian right to resist, but also legitimizing his or her right to feel anger when our land and rights are violated.”
The failure by the World Medical Association to act on Israeli torture despite a 12-year-long, evidence-based appeal by 725 doctors from 43 countries regarding accountability for doctors complicit with Israeli torture practices shows there is not even-handed regulation of doctors worldwide regarding complicity with torture. “Publications deemed critical of Israel often evoke vitriolic and ad hominem attacks upon writer and medical journal – and little engagement with the cited evidence.”