Israel may have revised its West Bank entry rules in hopes of obtaining a U.S. visa waiver, but they’re still designed to isolate Palestinian society. “Allowing Israel into the U.S. Visa Waiver program in spite of this mistreatment would amount to an endorsement by the Biden administration of this discrimination,” says Americans for Justice in Palestine Action Advocacy Director Ayah Ziyadeh.
The Israeli settler attack on Hafez Huraini resonates with stories of human rights abuses throughout history.
Amena al-Ashkar avoided writing about the Sabra and Shatilla massacre even though she grew up a kilometer away. On the massacre’s 40th anniversary, she finally made the painful pilgrimage. “We have talked about this for so long now, but nobody cares that we were slaughtered like chickens…I am not going to do this right now, or ever again,” a Palestinian woman who survived the Sabra and Shatilla massacre tells her.
Israel controls by detention and drone, a colonial inheritance passed down from Britain. Today, Palestine Action is committed to shutting it down by taking on Elbit Systems in the UK as Israel’s largest private weapons manufacturer.
Mohammad al-Shaham, 21, was awoken to the commotion of Israeli forces breaking down the door of his family’s home in Kafr Aqab in the middle of the night on August 15th. He was shot and killed on the spot, and his family says Israel is trying to cover up the crime.
The small town of Mazraa Qabaliya in the northern West Bank is fighting the Israeli military and armed settlers for control of a resource that is both revered and essential to their community — Naalan mountain. “We all take turns making sure there is electricity extended and that the lights on this mountain are on at all times, to make sure there is a sign of life here” Ahmad Obeid, tells Mondoweiss. “We must keep the light on here on the mountain at all times. Once it’s off, know that something is wrong, that there is an attack.”
“There has been no independent, credible investigation,” VT Senator Patrick Leahy said yesterday of Israel’s killing of Shireen Abu Akleh May 11. “To say that fatally shooting an unarmed person, and in this case one with PRESS written in bold letters on her clothing, was not intentional, without providing any evidence to support that conclusion, calls into question the State Department’s commitment to an independent, credible investigation and to ‘follow the facts.'”
Mohammad Huraini was with his father, Hafez, when he was attacked by Israeli settlers as he attempted to work his land. Now, as Hafez sits in an Israeli prison, Mohammad writes about what happened that day and what it means for the ongoing struggle in Masafar Yatta. “Every day, we face this injustice and apartheid not only from the settlers, soldiers, or police, but from the entire system that uses violence to hurt us, steal our land and imprison us,” he writes. “We cannot stay silent, and we must let the world know what is happening.”
An Israeli official admits that designating six Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist groups” has hurt the country’s standing in the United States, particularly within the Democratic party as multiple lawmakers have condemned the move. So it seems like Israel is now scrambling to do some more damage control.
Two Israeli writers explain the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh as the price of Israel’s clamping down on terrorism originating in the West Bank, with no consideration of the Palestinian experience under an apartheid army. Yet these talking points are echoed by Biden administration officials. Even as the Lapid government moves forward on more Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands, colonies that the Netanyahu government didn’t approve.