The lawsuit against Airbnb’s de-listing of Israeli settlement properties sounds pretty flimsy: religious discrimination (illegal settlements are by definition all-Jewish); failure to provide equal access (Palestinians are barred completely – and it’s their land); Airbnb is siding with Palestinians against the occupation (everything about the occupation and settlements is illegal, so, yeah).
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.
Congress is about to legislate the largest military aid package to a foreign country in U.S. history, but U.S. media aren’t telling the American public. Israelis know about the money, and Israel partisans are pressuring the one lone Senator opposing it, but apparently U.S. news organizations don’t think the general public need to know…
A United Nations committee is directed to facilitate self-determination among colonized and suppressed people groups. The committee is poised to pass 9 resolutions against Israel. Predictably, the charge of anti-Semitism arises.
It is not hard to dismantle the accusation – using context, fact-checking, and a bit of logic.
In an aggressive campaign against a billboard company and its staff, Israel supporters threatened boycott and used the label “anti-Semitism” as a weapon to shut down a positive ad celebrating first responders in Gaza. The ad did not mention Israel. No dialogue, no explanation, just suppression of free speech.
The past week has seen the promise of peace shattered, first by an Israeli incursion into Gaza (7 Palestinian, 1 Israeli dead), then Gaza’s rocket retaliation (1 Israeli Palestinian dead), then Israel’s retaliation (7 Palestinians dead). Israel’s defense minister has resigned, and a new, fragile ceasefire is in effect.
Investigations reveal a pattern of Israeli officials stone-walling efforts to stop the perpetrators of massive financial swindles in various countries, from Europe to the US to the Philippines. While some Israeli reporters work to expose the scams, a new one is already underway…
After Israel has demonstrated for months that borders are sacred, its military has once again crossed into Gaza. In what it characterizes as an intelligence gathering operation that “encountered a very complex reality,” 1 Israeli soldier and 7 Palestinians were killed.
3 Israelis and at least 210 Palestinians have been killed in the latest asymmetrical confrontations.
At the November 1st “Friends of the IDF” Hollywood gala, $60 million was raised in one night for Israel’s army. This is on top of $10 million a day in US military aid to Israel. Palestinians are outraged that American artists are supporting a regime that kills innocents and colonizes land.
As Israel considers adopting the death sentence for Palestinians, it is worth recalling that under occupation, Palestinians already face harsh injustice and that such a law would be illegal according to international law. The examples of Elor Azaria’s 9-month prison term for killing an unarmed, injured Palestinian at point-blank range, and Ahed Tamimi’s 8-month sentence for slapping an IDF soldier, indicate that the Israeli “justice” system is already severely lopsided.