When it rains, it pours—inside Zoher Alsayd’s living room, kitchen and bedroom to be exact. Like many Palestinians, the former house painter’s home was wrecked by airstrikes during the latest escalation between Israel and Hamas earlier this year in May. And this was not the first time his roof was destroyed. Alsayd belongs to a growing group of Palestinians whose homes were damaged to the point of becoming uninhabitable, not once, but multiple times over the course of these four conflicts with Israel over the last 13 years.
Francesca Albanese and Dr. Lex Takkenberg discuss the origins of the Palestinian refugee crisis, its role within international law, and whether Israel’s actions constitute apartheid.
Palestinians in Gaza who tested positive for COVID-19 during the recent escalation with Israel struggled to care for their health and their families, amid both airstrikes and overwhelmed hospitals.
Reporter Tareq Hajjaj reflects back on the harrowing last few weeks in Gaza where he twice fled his home to escape Israeli attacks, and reveals the trauma of reporters who cover wars that they are also trying to survive.
At least 38,000 Palestinians have fled their homes and sought shelter in schools run by the United Nations as hundreds of houses were completely destroyed in airstrikes since last Monday. Tareq Hajjaj reports from Gaza where Palestinians describe a night of fear, running from their homes barefoot and gripping children in the midst of Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire.
Vegans for BDS, a group of Palestinian and North American vegans and environmentalists, stand in solidarity with the indigenous Palestinian people, recognizing that the Israeli military occupation of Palestine harms the land, people, and animals there every day.
Norman Finkelstein responds to B’Tselem’s designation of Israel as an “apartheid regime” saying that the aspect of Israeli rule that most manifests its Jewish supremacist character is the worthlessness it attaches to Palestinian life. And this is the most effective label– insisting on characterizing Israel as a Jewish supremacist state.
The murder by Israeli soldiers of Ali Abu Alia was the 6th killing of a Palestinian child in the occupied West Bank this year. And though Israeli soldiers have killed 155 children in West Bank in recent years, they have had near complete impunity– a process “unworthy of a country that proclaims it lives by rule of law,” the U.N. says. And liberal Zionist organizations maintain that impunity by insisting Israel keep getting U.S. military aid.
Despite these requirements under international law, human rights organizations report children are poorly treated by the Israeli military justice system, including the use of solitary confinement for minors. This is unacceptable and is one of the key issues we should be focusing on, in holding Israel to account for its human rights violations against the Palestinian people.