Israeli forces raided the offices of seven Palestinian civil society organizations, confiscated their equipment and materials, and shuttered their offices, claiming they were “unlawful”. The raids are the latest escalation since Israel arbitrarily designated six of the organizations as “terror groups” last year. Defense for Children International – Palestine director Khaled Quzmar tells Mondoweiss the message is clear: “We are under imminent risk now.”
Israel’s openly-fascistic move of shutting down seven Palestinian human rights groups in occupied territory was widely condemned by American progressives who demanded that the Biden administration take action against Israel. But rightwing Israel lobby groups were silent on the crackdown, J Street expressed “deep concern,” not condemnation. Though Americans for Peace now denounced the “persecution” of the Palestinian groups.
Wasim Abu Khalifa, 19, was killed by Israeli forces in Nablus on Thursday as hundreds of settlers descended on the city under military protection to make a provocative visit to Joseph’s Tomb.
Let’s take a look at the wild Democratic primary happening in New York’s 10th district
Palestinians suffer from the effects of Israel’s nuclear-weapons blackmail every day of their lives. In today’s world, nuclear weapons are an essential pillar of imperial control. If imperial control is to be dismantled, then so too must the nuclear arsenals that protect it.
Israel has admitted to conducting the airstrike that killed five Palestinian children in Gaza after initially blaming their deaths on a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket. The strike targeted the al-Faluja cemetery in the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, and struck five children, four of whom were from the same family, while they were visiting the grave of their grandfather. The youngest victim of the strike was just three-years-old.
On Tuesday, an Israeli District court extended the solitary confinement of 20-year-old Palestinian detainee, Ahmad Manasra, for an additional six months. Israeli Prison Services and authorities attempt to justify Manasra’s isolation by claiming that he poses a threat to his own life, but Manasra’s lead defense lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, told Amnesty that “the repeated extensions of his solitary confinement are destroying him.”
In the West Bank there is “apartheid by design,” two laws for two peoples, as the Amnesty report says. But inside Israel the situation is more complex, where Palestinians participate in non-segregated institutions, Tony Klug argues. “The Amnesty report calls for an end to apartheid, but absurdly does not call for an end to occupation. Yet the paramount need now is for a worldwide campaign to end the occupation.”
Israeli wars of aggression have become so common in Gaza they’re the new normal.
Anti-Palestinian racism remains the norm in the Israel lobby and in Washington too. The Israel Policy Forum aired an hour-long assessment of Israel’s attacks on Gaza this month and repeatedly praised the operation for leaving no Israelis dead, and never mentioned the scores of Palestinian civilians killed and injured. In his one indirect reference to the Palestinian deaths, Amos Harel of Haaretz said that Israel had demonstrated that it was “very good” at avoiding killing Palestinian civilians.