Everywhere, COVID-19 has revealed the disproportionate effect of the disease on communities that are already disenfranchised by state-sanctioned violence, including the incarcerated. April 17, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, brings new urgency to calls to free all prisoners in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
A New York Times report on Mossad, the Israeli spy service, that could have been written by the agency’s own publicity department. Ronen Bergman’s article, featured prominently on page 6 of the print edition, contends that Mossad has been indispensable in Israel’s fight against the coronavirus, that it has been “one of the country’s most valuable assets in acquiring medical equipment and manufacturing technology abroad.”
Dr Reem Khamis-Dakwar reflects as a Palestinian from Israel currently living in the United States, that it is startling to realize the many commonalities between our two systems of oppression: limited access to health care for marginalized communities, the stereotyping of people of color as disease-spreaders, and the increased impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these populations.
The corona crisis in Israel has revealed the state’s reliance on secret police, often making errors in identification, and the denial of lifesaving equipment to Palestinians. Here are some heart-breaking examples of what Apartheid looks like at the time of Corona.
A ruling shutting down the densely populated city of Bnei Brak is similar to countless rulings that Israeli High Court judges have written in recent decades on the rights of the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories. This time the Ministry of Health took the role of the military commander in a Palestinian village. The ease with which judges have allowed the government to place a closure on Bnei Brak only proves how weak the Israeli High Court of Justice really is.
The New York Times editorializes against the inhumane sanctions program against Iran during the coronavirus pandemic, but in all its reports it leaves out the chief proponent of this policy, Israel advocates, including the disingenuously-titled Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Human rights groups sent an urgent letter to Israeli authorities yesterday demanding an immediate halt to Israel’s aerial herbicide spraying in the eastern Gaza Strip as Palestinians in Gaza desperately fight to keep coronavirus at bay and prevent its outbreak into the wider population.
[mailpoet_form id=”5″] The Latest: 267 confirmed Palestinian cases of COVID-19; 2 deaths A total of…
Haidar Eid writes, “In Gaza, staying at home leads to some existential questions and deep soul searching. With time to reflect, I am tempted to cross that invisible thin line separating fiction from reality. The real world of occupation, blockade, apartheid, settler-colonialism, and coronavirus on the one hand, and on the other, the imaginary world of my favorite authors.”
Following a contentious third election, Gantz’s betrayal of his allies came as a surprise to many in Israel; but not to the Joint List and Palestinian citizens of Israel, who saw straight through his false image of change and reform. Now, with the complete collapse of Blue and White, and the Jewish centrist bloc, the Joint List stands as the sole voice of progress, equality, and change.