Palestinian flutist, composer & singer: I shall go on resisting Israel’s racism and apartheid with my music, and one day I may make a difference in my people’s struggle for liberation. The airport guard, however, will continue to search Palestinians’ underwear, to lie about our laptops, and to be an insignificant tool of a system of racist oppression…
A new year brings Palestinians more injustice and tragedy, as Israeli soldiers shoot and tear gas unarmed protesters in Gaza, and shoot alleged attackers with liberality.
Operation Cast Lead (winter 2008-9) is emblematic of everything that is wrong with Israel’s approach to Gaza. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a political conflict to which there is no military solution. Yet Israel persists in shunning diplomacy and relying on brute military force – and not as a last resort but as a first resort.
Operation Cast Lead, the first of several incursions by Israel, killed 1,417 Palestinians and just 13 Israelis. Chillingly, the generals call their repeated bombardments ‘mowing the lawn’
The new congresswoman from Michigan wore a thobe, a traditional Palestinian dress with elaborate embroidery, to her swearing-in, and her supporters posted photos of themselves in their own.
Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has announced plans to “worsen” conditions for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including rationing water supplies and reducing the number of family visits.
Giraldi: The U.S. press, in its war against Trump, is pushing an illegal and unconstitutional invasion of Syria whose stated primary objective is to remove a terrorist organization which is already mostly gone – and a less frequently acknowledged goal of regime change for the legitimate government in Damascus and the expulsion of that government’s principal allies… there is no way to “win” and no exit strategy. That anyone would regard Boot and Nuland as objective authorities on the Middle East given their ultimate and prevailing loyalty to Israel has to be wondered at…
Today we remember the 2008-9 Israeli incursion into Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, which was launched exactly 10 years ago. 1400 Palestinians – including 344 minors – and 9 Israelis were killed in the hostilities.
A UN report found that Israel’s military operation “destroyed a substantial part of the Gaza Strip’s economic infrastructure and its capacity to support decent livelihoods for families.” A decade later, little progress has been made in rebuilding, thanks in part to Israel’s 2 subsequent attacks on Gaza.
The International Middle East Media Center reports on the ongoing acts of Israeli injustice and violence that most other media don’t bother with. Not a day goes by – including holidays – without abductions, settler brutality, shootings, and often even deaths.
For the 11th year, Gaza’s Christian minority celebrates Christmas under Israeli siege, unable to join family in West Bank. Travel requests are mostly denied or ignored from an occupying country that claims to promote freedom of religion and worship.
The coldness of Israel and its soldiers is incomprehensible – shooting a Palestinian minor in the back, shooting at the neighbor who tried to help, threatening to shoot the ambulance driver, while the youth bled to death. This has become a common occurrence, with at least 52 Palestinian children killed in 2018.