Journalist Ben White gave a speech last week about the meaning of Israel’s new Nation State of the Jewish People law. It can only be understood as a pushback against efforts over the last two decades by Palestinian citizens of Israel to challenge Zionism, assert their national identity, mobilise against discrimination, and, critically, to demand a state of all its citizens.
Israeli hasbarists are exploiting the death of settler Ari Fuld for propaganda value as they admonish people for being insensitive, or even complicit, if they do not mourn. At the same time, it is forbidden to note that Palestinians are systematically being dehumanized to death by the very ideology that Ari Fuld was championing and is being openly remembered for.
In an effort to legalize thousands of settler homes in West Bank, the Israeli government audaciously claims that it can “legislate anywhere in the world”, that it is “entitled to violate the sovereignty of foreign countries”, and that “is allowed to ignore the directives of international law in any field it desires”.
Frank Sinatra got $2 million in 1981 to defy boycott calls and play South African apartheid venue Sun City. Lana Del Rey just heeded boycott calls, giving up a $700,000 appearance fee, nearly 10 times her usual reported fee, and canceled Israel’s “escapist” Meteor festival. See the parallel?
Itay Tiran, a top Israeli actor who is leaving for Germany, gives an interview to Haaretz where he endorses BDS and says that Zionism equals racism. He sounds free as a bird, and the interview is liberating for others.
Your country for a country club! Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Galant inaugurated a swimming pool and country club in the Bedouin town of Rahat and made clear that the gift has a political price, accepting the Jewish nation state law and the higher value it gives to Jewish settlement of the land.
Norwegian activist Kristin Foss was again shot with a rubber bullet by an Israeli soldier in the occupied Palestinian Kafr Qaddum on Friday, for the second time in a week. And the Israeli commander said, “we don’t shoot women” and the Israeli ambassador says there must be a reason.
Norwegian activist Kristin Foss was shot and badly bruised on Saturday in the occupied West Bank by a rubber bullet fired by an Israeli soldier, while posing no danger. The Norwegian media has noticed – will the government do anything about it?
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak loved Donald Trump’s warning that in a one-state solution, the Israeli Prime Minister would be named Mohammed. It goes to show that liberal Zionists are just as racist when it comes to Palestinian rights as rightwing Zionists are.
Jonathan Ofir writes that Reza Aslan’s decision to speak out about the abuse he received trying to enter Israel after Peter Beinart made his story public reminds him of the momentum and grass roots power of the MeToo movement: “There is this element of a critical mass, where people actually start to listen. It’s no longer a lone voice here, a single story there – it becomes a movement.”