Michael Bueckert has been tracking Israel’s anti-BDS app for two years. Mondoweiss spoke to him about the app, its use during the recent attacks on Gaza, and where it is having an impact.
In August, a group of GOP lawmakers quietly went on a tour of West Bank settlements sponsored by a right-wing Evangelical organization. Following the tour they spoke on the floor of the House about why they now oppose the two-state solution.
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.”
80 percent of Jewish college students think Netanyahu is a ‘terrible human being,’ says Andrew Getraer, Hillel director at Rutgers. While Leonard Saxe of Brandeis says that Peter Beinart and Dov Waxman are critical of Israel because they come from South African families and see Israel thru an “apartheid” filter.
The buzz surrounding President Trump’s “deal of the century” is reaching a fever pitch. With countless speculations as to what the plan will include and very little confirmation from the administration, not much is actually known about the elusive plan. What we do know, is Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a staunch supporter of Israel and the Netanyahu government, plans to emphasize Israeli “security” and “economic opportunities” for Palestinians. With no mention so far of Palestinian sovereignty and statehood, we asked Palestinians in the West Bank what they think of the peace proposal and its impending release.
See what it is like to take a trip down the new four-lane highway West Bank locals and activists have dubbed the ‘Apartheid Road’. It features two separate roads divided by a concrete wall – one for Israeli settlers and the other for Palestinians. Despite Israeli claims that the road “eases traffic congestion” for both Palestinians and Israelis, locals maintain that it is just another step by authorities to further divide the occupied Palestinian territory.
On December 22, 2018, the 39th week of the Great March of Return, anti-Zionist Israeli activists joined Palestinian protestors at Khuza’a Return protest camp from the east side of the fence. Soldiers shot live rounds to prevent the activists from reaching the fence. Despite the military’s aggression, a phone conversation was held with Sabrine al-Najjar, the mother of Razan al-Najjar. She recognized the BDS movement as a positive factor in ending the occupation and contributing to the Palestinian cause of freedom and equality.
Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL, who has been everywhere in the media explaining Pittsburgh, has a history of accusing leftwing critics of Zionism of anti-semitism as “damaging” as white nationalism. Last January he accused IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace of taking extreme views on Israel in reaction to Trump, and he said his former boss President Obama had made a “series of missteps” on Middle East policy.
Malika Qafisha, 38, a mother of six, lives near the Ibrahami mosque in Hebron, which is holy for Jews and Muslims. Jewish settlers have occupied many Palestinian homes, and Qafisha and her family face daily harassment, in which settlers are backed by Israeli armed forces who shoot at Palestinian homes.
Earlier this month, Israeli police forces dressed in civilian clothes broke into the Palestinian al-Mujahidin cemetery and destroyed the tombstones of seven Palestinians killed by Israel.