As violence rises in the occupied West Bank, the New York Times struggles to frame the news.
In a highwater mark of mainstream opposition to the unending Israeli occupation, 50 members of Congress have signed a letter to Secretary of State Blinken urging him to try to stop Israel’s demolition of 38 Palestinian houses in al-Walaja, a village in the occupied West Bank, because the demolitions will undermine “Palestinian dignity” and “long-term Israeli security.” The demolitions are also an issue in a Michigan congressional race between two Democrats, with Rep. Andy Levin calling them “unjust.”
Former Israeli High Court of Justice Justice Menachem Mazuz says he left the Court last year because he could no longer lend legitimacy to Palestinian house demolitions, which he said reflect the barbaric principle of an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
Israeli leftist David Grossman laments that Israel is not “home” for Jews. “It was meant to be the place in which you felt secure, in which your standing and your relations with your neighbors was never in doubt, in which there was no disagreement with anyone about whose home it was. It’s painful for me that still, after almost 73 years of sovereignty, and of war, we still haven’t arrived at a place in which we feel that real sense of comfort, that real sense of serenity and ease you’re meant to feel at home.”
Slate reports on top-editor media bias during Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza: “when a statement came from the Israel Defense Forces, senior editors at the paper treated it as fact. When [reporter] Omar recorded a statement from an eyewitness on the ground that contradicted the Israeli military’s account, he said the top editors called it unreliable.”
As Israel continues to deny responsibility for inoculating the Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territory, the government has carried on with its demolition campaign against Palestinian homes and structures.
Israel’s shooting of a 24-year-old Palestinian who was trying to hold on to a generator used in construction in occupied territories has been viewed globally. It increases pressure on Americans to shut off the spigot of aid. One thing will stop Israel from ethnic cleansing of West Bank that requires shooting Palestinians: US pressure. But US press and liberal Zionists come up short.
A small town theater company’s presentation in New York of “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” 17 years after her death, shows the impact her writings continue to have. As four young women voice her idealism.
Israel has demolished a record number of homes in occupied East Jerusalem in 2019, the most in the past 15 years, Israeli rights group B’Tselem reported on Thursday. More than 140 Palestinian homes were demolished, resulting in the displacement of 238 Palestinians.
Filmmaker Yuval Abraham was an eyewitness to the Israeli home demolitions in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher: “I can’t take it anymore. I’m suffocating from all this violence and the lives being destroyed. And everyone [in Israel] is oblivious, blathering about a Jewish state, don’t know Arabic and utterly blind to those other people. Everyone who keeps silent is complicit with this filth. They destroyed Ismail’s life tonight.”