Category: Israeli governmental policies

Tuesday was a very bad day for Palestinians, but so is every other day

The events of December 4, 2018 in the occupied Palestinian territories would startle most of the world, but US mainstream US media won’t report them: a grieving father is unable to get Israel to take responsibility for just 4 of the 1,400 deaths from Operation Cast Lead; an Israeli arms testing facility is about to move in on Bedouin land; a mentally disabled man is killed; 24 Palestinians are abducted; and 5 buildings (and livelihoods of 5 families) are demolished.

How Palestinians in Jerusalem are being targeted in a campaign of ethnic cleansing

Israel’s takeover of Arab East Jerusalem has continued unabated since the 1967 war, but has grown more brazen since US President Trump’s decision to move the embassy. Evictions of Palestinians and appropriation of their homes by Israeli settlers is more frequent; Israeli police presence has grown more pervasive; Israel’s parliament is devising more new policies – and its supreme court is upholding them – to dispossess Palestinians. Meanwhile the PA is powerless to respond. It all adds up to ethnic cleansing.

MSF: 1,000 Gazans shot by Israel at risk of fatal infection

Palestinians in Gaza are dealing with more fallout from the blockade – and their protest against it. Now in addition to thousands of gunshot wounds from Israeli snipers, and their accompanying disabilities and amputations, many are at risk of infection. The healthcare sector is lacking in supplies thanks to import restrictions; patients can not go abroad for treatment thanks to visa restrictions.

One Israeli human rights org reports over 180 Palestinians killed (31 of them minors) and 21,000 injured.

New Israel Supreme Court ruling gives further backing to use of torture

Israeli security agency Shin Bet admitted to the use of torture on Palestinian prisoner Fares Tbeish, but claimed the actions were necessary; Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the “enhanced interrogation” methods were acceptable. This is the second such ruling in the last 12 months. A number of human rights groups have documented “routine use of torture” by Israeli forces, although the practice is against international law.

Palestinian village denied basic human rights, now faces imminent demolition

Residents of Khan al-Ahmar have been fighting for their existence since 1951, seeking nothing more than basic human rights. Israeli authorities say the village was illegally constructed; the Israeli Supreme Court in May rejected a final appeal against its demolition. Activists are concerned continued Israeli settlement construction in the area could effectively divide the northern and southern West Bank.

Troves of looted Palestinian books, documents, photographs and films from as early as the 1930s are sealed in Israel’s archives and libraries. Palestinians see the censorship as part of a wider trend of physical and cultural erasure continues to this day. Concealing the archival record denies Palestinians the tools to communicate their own history.

UN Special Rapporteurs to Israel: 60 days to respond to ‘deep concerns’ re Jewish Nation-State Law

Four Special Rapporteurs express ‘deep concern’ that Nation-State Law is ‘discriminatory in nature and in practice against non-Jewish citizens and other minorities and does not apply the principle of equality between citizens, which is one of the key principles for democratic political systems,’ and gives Israel 60 days to explain itself.

Naftali Bennett: “the state of Israel stopped winning”

Two right-wing ministers criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not “acting like a real right-wing government” by being too soft on Gaza, Hamas, and Khan al-Ahmar; but they vow to stay in power rather than resigning as Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman did last week.

Goliath lives: Palestinian children at risk in school

In the course of just 4 days, Israeli soldiers managed to attack and traumatize scores of school children, as well as adults who were there to serve the children. Mainstream media does not report on these incidents because they don’t match the narrative of benign occupation and Palestinians as terrorists.