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June 2022

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The New England Conference of the United Methodist Church condemned Israel’s apartheid system June 11 by an 88 percent to 12 percent vote. The move comes at a key moment in the movement by Christian churches to attack by name the apartheid treatment of Palestinians. The Presbyterian Church will vote on their apartheid “overtures” in the first week in July, while the Episcopal Church is expected to vote on apartheid the following week.

An image from the Mapping Project showing the connections between the Anti-Defamation League and law enforcement infrastructure in the Boston area.

After the Mapping Project published a study of links between establishment institutions responsible for the colonization of Palestine, and the economy of imperialism and war, and policing and gentrification, critics landed on it as a supposed antisemitic hitlist. We honor the Mapping Project’s work in a tradition of activist journalism; and recognize a familiar pattern: Whenever Israel lobby organizations in the Jewish community are held to account for their power over the discourse and U.S. policy, those same organizations seek to stifle the criticism by alleging antisemitism.

Mohammed al-Halabi's family inside their home in Gaza City on April 22, 2021. (Photo by Mahmoud Ajjour/APA Images)

In the years I’ve been covering Israel’s occupation of Palestine, it’s an issue that arises time and time again. Palestinians are criminalized and imprisoned, and their lives destroyed all because of a weapon that Israel can yield, without any question or consequence: secret evidence.

The PBS News Hour host rightly grilled Antony Blinken about why Joe Biden is meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince next month despite the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But Woodruff cannot bring herself to mention Biden’s visit to Israel weeks after its killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, which it has yet to account for.

FIFA says it wants to make football “accessible and inclusive.” But Israel is criminally denying Palestine access to the sport. FIFA should follow the anti-Israel-apartheid petition launched by the Canadian group Just Peace Advocates and affirm: Countries that systemically violate human rights are not allowed to play in FIFA matches. Respecting that means honoring Palestinians’ right to live, play and enjoy soccer free from Israeli oppression.

Protesters call on General Mills to stop manufacturing Pillsbury products on an illegal settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory in September 2020. The demonstration took place at the corporation's Minneapolis headquarters on the eve of its annual board meeting. (Photo: Emma Leigh Sron / AFSC)

On May 31, General Mills announced that it had divested from its business in Israel and would stop making Pillsbury products in an illegal West Bank settlement. The move came after a two-year campaign by the American Friends Service Committee, which called on consumers to boycott Pillsbury products until they stopped manufacturing on stolen land. Michael Arria speaks with the AFSC’s Economic Activism Director Dov Baum about the successful boycott campaign, and what comes next.