The progressive organization Moveon is featuring Ben & Jerry’s in its latest action alert, even though the ice cream company is being boycotted by three different social justice campaigns for its unethical practices in the Palestinian territories and its treatment of workers & the environment in Vermont.
Instead of commemorating a tragic death with legislation that will cut off funding to Palestinians and create more misery and, most likely, violence, Congress should enact a Rachel Corrie Act, a Brian Avery Act, an Emily Henoschowitz Act, a Tristan Anderson Act, a Tariq Abukhdeir Act, and an Orwah Hammad Act. See details of what they would contain…
Grant Smith of IRMEP reports that a poll reveals the disconnect between the American public and Congress on the issue of Israel. Both major US political parties are overwhelmingly Zionist, while their constituents, according to the poll, are only 24.9% Zionist.
UC Irvine’s Students for Justice in Palestine group were harassed and intimidated during their anti-Zionism week events by Israel supporters. The campus has been a focal point for Israel advocacy groups seeking to conflate Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism.
Electronic Intifada reports: Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan demanded that Corbyn cut ties with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Ryan threatened to revive the anti-Semitism witch hunt that engulfed Labour last year; Ryan herself had been caught personally engaging in concocting false anti-Semitism charges against a member of her own party…
Both AIPAC and J Street lauded the passage, by 98-2, of a Senate bill to impose new sanctions on Iran. Voting against it were Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders… all the others did what the Israel lobby told them to do.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s statement that an antisemitism envoy may be unnecessary are challenged by representatives of the Israel lobby, quoted at length by Newsweek reporter Stav Ziv, whose family is from Israel.
JTA reports that Michael Steinhardt, billionaire founder of Birthright Israel (a free, ten-day trip to Israel that is enjoyed by a large percentage of Jewish young adults) considers the state of Israel “the Jewish miracle of the 20th century.” Now he is creating public schools that teach about Israel…
June 1 – June 7, 2017: Israeli soldiers killed a teenage Palestinian girl as well as a young father in Gaza. Israeli forces demolished five Palestinian coal production plants. Jewish settlers confiscated Palestinian land to create a new outpost.
JTA reports that the US Senate has approved a “non-binding resolution marking the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.” The bill was passed on Thursday, June 1st, the anniversary of Israel’s takeover of East Jerusalem in 1967. Most of the world rejects the label of “reunification,” rejecting Israel’s claim of sovereignty over the captured territories.