“A Day in the Life Of Abed Salama” tells the story of Israel’s occupation of Palestine through one family’s tragedy.
Many seem to see Netanyahu as an illiberal, corrupt, anti-democratic leader. But we must also see, that he is part of a regime that itself is illiberal, corrupt and anti-democratic. It’s always been the case. Who is the new hope? Gideon Sa’ar who is even to the right of Netanyahu? Naftali Bennett who is even to the right of Sa’ar? Or Yair Lapid, who is to their left, alas with the “principle” which says “maximum Jews on maximum land with maximum security and with minimum Palestinians”?
Nathan Thrall tells the story of the death of Milad Salama in occupied territory in 2012 to illuminate one lesson: Palestinian lives are all but disposable in the Zionist vision of settling the land. The “New York Review of Books” article contrasts Milad’s misfortune to be born in a bantustan to the good luck of Thrall’s own daughter– “a Jewish girl living a life of privilege on the other side of the wall.”
The two elections in Israel and Palestine this spring are meaningless because they only reinforce an unequal structure in which Jewish nationalists contend on one side, Israel, and dictate the terms of the election to the subject population in occupied Palestine. And that’s the news. There’s no news under the burning sun of the Apartheid state.
Now Trump is gone. Liberal Zionists can no longer comfortably argue that injustice in Israel/Palestine is mainly caused by Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish settlers. Nathan Thrall showed calmly and persuasively that the liberal Zionists and the Peace Processors have been running a long con game for decades, insisting that Israel will agree to a 2-state solution only if you don’t criticize and give them whatever they want.
Donald Trump is pushing Israel as a wedge issue with Democrats, and it seems to be working slightly, with Trump’s Jewish support up to 30 percent. But Haim Saban is all-in for Biden, and some Democratic congresspeople in swing districts are running to Trump’s right on Israel.