Alawneh was was shot in the abdomen and hand, and was pronounced dead on Sunday afternoon,  making him the 78th Palestinian killed by Israeli forces this year, and the 16th Palestinian child killed by Israel since the start of 2022. 

After the State Department tries to sweep journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing under the rug ahead of Biden’s visit to Israel by saying it can tell nothing from the bullet, her family dismisses the statement as “CSI-style forensics” designed to reach the “political” conclusion that an Israeli soldier did not intentionally target her, but was going after terrorists. Meanwhile the Israelis refuse to release evidence and demand a complete whitewash.

I am such an optimist: for the last year I have been saying that Unilever won’t dare overrule the decision by its subsidiary, Ben & Jerry’s, to stop selling ice cream in the occupied territories. No, progressives are winning this debate. And boy was I wrong!

Even a scholar who opposes the label says, “Israel does not have a case against apartheid.” That is the power of the apartheid framing. The label for Israel has gained broad acceptance because of the widening awareness of the death of the Two State Solution — that Israel never really wanted a legitimate, contiguous Palestinian state. Because of American support for Israeli impunity, it may take years for the apartheid name and frame to achieve the result we are hoping for. But at least we now have a tool for organizing and persuasion of great potential potency, if we bang the apartheid drum often and loudly. 

We are determined to keep talking about Palestine in the United States. Talking about Shireen Abu Akleh, Yasser Murtaja, and many other less prominent people who are killed or see their homes destroyed. And talking about the American foreign policy that is colluding with the Israelis to cover up Shireen’s killing.

The reason I won’t join up  with J Street is that it cannot face two fundamental truths: There will never be a two state solution. There is apartheid in the occupied territories and that extends to Israel. J Street is incapable of acknowledging these realities because it is sworn to the idea of a Jewish state, and these realities obliterate that fantasy. Countless human rights organizations and people of conscience have said it’s apartheid– the humiliation and brutalization of people based on non-Jewish ethnicity. J Street’s leadership is D.C. establishment, but its rank and file know this.