Israel’s latest targets include children, hospital patients, journalists – Day 384

West Bank: Dozens of new (illegal) settler outposts funded by Israeli government

In a new report, Peace Now, an Israeli NGO, reported that 43 new settlement outposts, primarily farm outposts, have been established in the West Bank since October 2023, compared with an annual average of seven outposts in the nearly three decades prior.

While settlement outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law, Peace Now highlighted that the Israeli government financed settlement outposts with NIS28 million (US$7.5 million) in 2023 and allocated to them NIS75 million (US$20 million) in 2024.

In addition to authorizing funding for 70 settlement outposts, Israeli authorities have retroactively “legalized” eight settlement outposts (five of which will be established as new settlements) and allocated NIS7 billion (US$1.9 billion) for road infrastructure serving settlements, the NGO added.

All Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including outposts) are illegal under International Humanitarian Law.

They also deepen humanitarian needs by affecting Palestinian livelihoods, food security, and access to essential services.

Netanyahu’s allies demand ‘military pressure’ over revival of Gaza truce talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition allies in the National Security and Finance Ministries continue to obstruct ceasefire and exchange negotiations, as a new round of talks is expected to take place in the coming days.

“The formation of the negotiating delegation was not in accordance with the opinion of the members of the Israeli government. The minister opposed sending any delegation on the basis that at the current stage, pressure must be continued on Hamas, especially after the assassination of Sinwar,” Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on 24 October.

“It is forbidden to give Hamas oxygen,” he added. “[Israel must] continue working against it. This is the safe and correct path that will lead to victory and the return of the kidnapped to their homes, not the path of deals that will allow Hamas to reorganize its forces.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also strongly denounced the initiative to revive the negotiations: “Negotiations alone will not return the kidnapped soldiers, and continued military pressure on Hamas is the best option, just as our soldiers are doing now in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Senate Republicans threaten UN funding if global body sidelines Israel

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and 27 other Republican senators introduced legislation on Tuesday that would cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations and its subsidiary agencies if they downgrade Israel’s status.

“Reports indicate that the Palestinian Authority will attempt to downgrade Israel’s status at the United Nations” following a U.N. General Assembly vote in May, the 28 senators wrote. That vote saw Palestinians gain new rights within their existing non-member “permanent observer” status, which is short of full U.N. membership.

“Any attempt to alter Israel’s status at the United Nations is clearly antisemitic,” Risch stated. “That said, if the U.N. member states allow the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization to downgrade Israel’s status at the U.N., the U.S. must stop supporting the U.N. system, as it would clearly be beyond repair.”

Risch added that he is “disgusted that this outrageous idea has even been discussed and will do all we can to ensure any changes to Israel’s status will come with consequences.”

NOTE: Actual antisemitism is not as prevalent as Israel partisans would like us to think. A large portion of what they call antisemitism is simply criticism of Israel, the self-proclaimed “Jewish State.”

Most of the animosity Israel experiences is opposition to Zionism. Zionism is not a benign philosophy, but a supremacist ideology – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people and exiled them to Gaza and other locations. The so-called “demonization” of Israel is in most cases a legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies of occupation, apartheid, and genocide, and other illegal practices.

The reality of Israel’s brutal siege of Gaza and the West Bank has also forced many Jews in the diaspora to recognize that Israel has not been their defender. To the contrary, the mixing of Judaism with Zionism—religion and bellicose nationalism—has fueled antisemitism.

Here is another example of false antisemitism – which has as its objective the silencing of pro-Palestine voices: Literary Institutions Are Pressuring Authors to Remain Silent About Gaza

Interns at esteemed magazine The Nation talk back – about Gaza

In  an article entitled, “Kamala Harris Does Not Deserve The Nation’s Endorsement,” the fall 2024 intern cohort disputes the magazine’s endorsement of Kamala Harris, stating, The Biden administration’s action, and inaction, in Gaza—and her support for those policies—should have been enough to disqualify her.”

An excerpt of that article follows.

On September 23, The Nation endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. “Of course we endorse Harris over Trump,” the unsigned editorial reads. “But we also endorse Harris in her own right, as an experienced and capable leader with a vision for America’s future…that represents a clear advance on Democratic nominees of the past half century.” The endorsement goes on to cite the magazine’s abolitionist founders—“both visionary radicals and deeply practical politicians”—as touchstones for the decision to support Harris.

We, The Nation’s current interns, find this endorsement unearned and disappointing. We have a different interpretation of the magazine’s abolitionist legacy, one that says a publication committed to justice must refrain from endorsing a person signing off on genocide. We do not support Donald Trump, but to champion Harris at this moment is to ignore the atrocities that are being carried out with weapons supplied by the Biden-Harris administration.

We have watched this abdication of moral responsibility by the Democratic nominee with a growing sense of dismay. As young journalists, we think of our colleagues in Gaza. Israel has killed more than 175 journalists in Gaza since last October—and right now, with US support and the Western media’s indifference, Israel is effectively issuing hit lists of reporters in Gaza.

During the last year, The Nation has published dispatches from Palestinian journalists, from 14-year-old Lujayn to the journalist Mohammed Mhawish, both of whom have survived air strikes, most likely from US-made weapons. We cannot advocate for a person who is complicit in the murders of fellow journalists and the bombing of colleagues whose pieces we have fact-checked.

(Read the full article here.)

Without explanation, Netflix wiped most of Its “Palestinian Stories” collection

In 2021, Netflix moved to create a new movie collection for its viewers.

“Netflix will launch the Palestinian Stories collection, showcasing films from some of the Arab world’s finest filmmakers,” said an announcement of the new grouping. “[T]he collection is a tribute to the creativity and passion of the Arab film industry as Netflix continues to invest in stories from the Arab world.”

Thirty-two films were slated for inclusion, with more additions planned.

Now, however, following a purge of at least 24 films from Netflix’s library, the landing page for the collection contains just a single film for streamers in the United States: Lina Al Abed’s 2019 documentary “Ibrahim: A Fate to Define” — and that’s just if you access it from the U.S. In Israel and some other countries, the page no longer exists.

The list of disappeared films (which the Intercept article provides, but does not make copiable) includes:

3 Logical Exits, 3000 Nights, A Drowning Man, A Man Returned, A World Not Ours, Ave Maria, Bonbone, Children of Shatila, Chronicle of a Disappearance, Condom Lead, Divine Intervention, Frontiers of Dreams and Fears, Ghost Hunting, Giraffada, Habibi, In Vitro, Like Twenty Impossibles, Maradona’s Legs, Mars at Sunrise, Omar, Salt of this Sea, Samouni Road, The Crossing, and Xenos.

A group of organizations has sent an open letter to Netflix, demanding to know why these films were removed and why Netflix has ignored thousands of customers’ complaints. The letter also demands that the films be reinstated.

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