The new “Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism” offers a needed alternative to the fraudulent IHRA definition of antisemitism, but it sill contains crucial flaws.
A group of over 200 Jewish scholars have released a definition of antisemitism in a direct response to the contentious International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which included some criticisms of Israel. While many Palestine activists are applauding the new Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism for taking on the IHRA, they’re also pointing to problems with its framing and voicing concerns over its potential impact.
Adalah Justice Project’s Sumaya Awad interviews Manal Shqair on the role of the Palestinian labor organizing in the liberation movement. “Dismantling of the Israeli settlement enterprise means that we Palestinians will be able to reclaim our land and natural resources. This, of course, will put an end to the exploitation of Palestinian workers by their Israeli employers,” Shqair explains.
This weekend, Iran and China signed a 25-year cooperation agreement which will cover economic, political, and cultural relations. Juan Cole writes that China’s entry into Iran is the most consequential change in the geopolitics of the Middle East since the the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Ruger is getting unwelcome publicity because its gun was used in Colorado massacre last week. A new campaign calls on the company to stop selling weapons to Israel, which has used them to kill or injure hundreds in Palestine, including the killing of Ali Abu Alia, 15, in December, when he was protesting settlers taking his village lands in the occupied West Bank.
B’Tselem researcher Nasr Nawaja’a tells Mondoweiss that intimidation from Israeli settlers and the Shin Bet has increased since a video he recorded showing the arrest of Palestinian children made international headlines. In fact, just a few days after the video of the boys’ detention was published, Nawaja’a says he was summoned for interrogation by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence agency, and was warned to “not make any more trouble for the army.”
Too often Palestine solidarity organizations expect the expertise of Palestinian women for free, while paying Nice Guys handsome amounts of money, for being “decent.”
The news from Israel’s four elections is that there is little ideological debate in Israel. Israeli Jewish voters are overwhelmingly rightwing. They are deeply divided over Netanyahu, but nearly 80 of the 120 members in the new parliament are rightwingers, dedicated to keeping the entire “land of Israel,” and Palestinians be damned.
It’s one week into vaccination campaigns in the West Bank and Gaza, and while the rates of spread from the third wave of the virus have finally decreased, hospitalizations and deaths have stayed high.
Use of the term “Israel Palestine conflict” may fall short of “settler colonialism” and “sociocide,” but it can open the door to the very conversation we need to have with people new to the issue. Asking “Who are the sides” allows us to talk about the context and intent of Zionism, and the way it disregarded the rights of Palestinian communities residing in the lands it craved. It also allows us to talk about the sadly neglected topic of Palestinian resistance and steadfastness, or sumud.