The western leaders who praise Desmond Tutu are ignoring a central legacy. His brief tours of Palestinian communities aching under the weight of Israeli tyranny quickly led him to condemn Israeli apartheid. His understanding of the essence of the Christian message as one that actively sides with the downtrodden drove him to support the Palestinian boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.
The British actress Emma Watson dares to celebrate solidarity with Palestinians under military assault to her 64 million twitter followers and Israeli officials land on her, with the U.N. ambassador lecturing her about Palestinian terror and another ambassador calling her an antisemite.
In November, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney delivered a city proclamation in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Michael Arria speaks with Jude Husein, one of the local organizers who helped make it happen.
Though the timing of the Israeli military decision to amend its open-fire policy may appear sudden and without much context, the decision is still ominous, nonetheless. When a country’s military decides that shooting a child in the back without any proof that the alleged ‘criminal’ posed any danger whatsoever is a legal act, the international community must take notice.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid says that in 2022 the debate over Israeli apartheid will be “unprecedented in its venom and in its radioactivity,” and Israeli journalists repeat the claim without reviewing the facts.
Palestinian prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash entered his 140th day on hunger strike on Monday, and according to his family is in such critical condition that he could “die at any moment.”
Let’s hope 2022 is the year that the grassroots break down the firewall in Washington on the death of the two-state solution. Liberal Zionists are the gatekeepers, and are preventing the discourse of apartheid and a struggle for human rights of replacing the political mantra of a secure homeland for the Jewish people.