As Israeli mobs roam the streets attacking Palestinians, and Israeli war planes drop bombs on Gaza, it’s essential to understand how we arrived at this moment – and to recognize the opportunity at hand.
Israeli warplanes continue to pummel Gaza, Health Ministry now reporting a death toll of 87 Palestinians – 18 of them children – and 530 wounded. Israeli casualties largely unchanged: 7 deaths, several dozen injuries. Biden administration blocks UN statement aimed at reducing violence. Journalism groups condemn Israel’s targeting of journalists.
In a week that has already seen dozens of funerals, another is being planned for a 16-year-old boy after he threw stones at heavily armed Israeli soldiers invading his village. The soldiers then shot him in the neck and chest. See a list of Palestinians killed since Monday…
Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza on are the worst the enclave has seen since 2014, when Israeli forces killed 2,200 Palestinians, and Palestinian resistance fighters killed 72 Israelis. One recent Israeli strike alone made about 80 families homeless. As the deaths, injuries, and damage climb, Palestinian resistance groups launch rockets into Israel.
The history & context of the current escalation in the conflict – Israel might be able to kill, maim, and suppress Palestinians, but it can’t sustain apartheid forever.
The Israeli military continued its aggression toward Palestinians in Jerusalem by invading the Al-Aqsa Mosque, shooting and beating worshipers, blocking medics who tried to assist the injured, and causing damage to the Muslim holy site – all so that Israeli settlers could enter the area.
Tensions have been running especially high in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories, as Israel violently clamps down on Palestinian protests against occupation and land confiscation and other human rights violations. Read these short reports, all from Friday, May 6th.
The situation in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem, continues to be unstable as Palestinians protest the imminent forced eviction of multiple families so that illegal Jewish settlers can take over their homes. The world barely notices as news media either ignore it or cover it poorly…
On May 2, 2003 Israeli forces “consciously and deliberately targeted” James Miller and his crew while they were in Gaza making a documentary for HBO. See this British TV report from the time: “Dispatches: The Killing Zone.”
Just a few months after Israeli human rights org B’Tselem released its bombshell report calling Israel an apartheid state, another major group reaches the same conclusion – adding “persecution” to the charge of apartheid. A 200+ page report details Human Rights Watch’s findings.