Search Results for: school

Opinion: Birthrighters can handle the truth. Show them the occupation.

A former Birthright trip coordinator and leader’s bold opinion: young Jews on Birthright trips are aware of world events, and shouldn’t have to feel like they’re engaging with a sanitized and whitewashed version of Israel. When tour organizers don’t show them realities like the occupation, they are painting an incomplete and dishonest picture of what’s happening on the ground. Showing and telling the truth will make birthrighters more likely to engage and take action.

Texas: she didn’t sign the “Israel Oath,” so she got fired

A children’s speech pathologist refuses to sign a will-not-boycott-Israel oath: she loses her job, an unknown number of children lose her advocacy. She notes how outlandish it is that she is not required to uphold the interests of the United States, or Texas, or children, but a foreign country.
As The Intercept has repeatedly documented, the most frequent victims of official campus censorship are not conservative polemicists but pro-Palestinian activists, and the greatest and most severe threat posed to free speech throughout the west is aimed at Israel critics.

Truth is stranger than fiction: 3 days in the West Bank

Elderly women, families, children, and of course young men in the occupied Palestinian territories are regularly treated with brutality by Israeli forces. International laws are in place to protect vulnerable populations, but Israel ignores such laws – and gets away with it. Simple, common decency ought to elicit restraint on the part of the occupier, but does not.

These very brief stories are snapshots of Israeli cruelty between December 15 and 17, 3 days out of the 50+ years of violent occupation which the United States endorses and supports to the tune of over $10 million a day.

AIPAC takes newly elected Congress members, CNN’s Setmayer on propaganda trips to Israel

The Israel lobby is taking newly elected Congressional representatives, CNN-ABC commentator Tara Setmayer, & California “progressive leaders” on propaganda trips to Israel. AIPAC IS using a loophole that violates the spirit of the law… and seems to be functioning as a foreign agent…

Three Palestinians and three Israelis killed in spate of deadly incidents

The Israeli military has recently been conducting aggressive operations inside the occupied Palestinian West Bank, including in Area A, where the Palestinian Authority is supposed to be in full control. 
Israel continues to prolong and entrench the now 50+-year occupation, citing the need for security; in reality the occupation and its injustice are the cause of Palestinian resistance, not the result of Palestinian violence.

Israel propaganda trips target ‘Pacific Progressive Leaders’ – no one will say who’s going

An $85 million Israel advocacy organization is taking local American officials identified as “progressive” on propaganda trips to Israel. While no one will divulge the rosters, we have a few names of California participants in these extravagant, influence peddling affairs… and ideas about what to do about them

CNN has fired commentator Marc Lamont Hill for a speech that he gave at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People at the UN on Wednesday. Pro-Israel groups and individuals immediately criticized Hill, and CNN quickly fired him. See the speech…

Palestinian village denied basic human rights, now faces imminent demolition

Residents of Khan al-Ahmar have been fighting for their existence since 1951, seeking nothing more than basic human rights. Israeli authorities say the village was illegally constructed; the Israeli Supreme Court in May rejected a final appeal against its demolition. Activists are concerned continued Israeli settlement construction in the area could effectively divide the northern and southern West Bank.

Ecumenical Statement on Current U.S. Policy and Israel/Palestine

Global Ministries and UCC and Disciples leaders were co-signatories in an ecumenical statement sent today to all members of Congress and the Senate, as well as to the White House.  The statement focuses on the shifts in US policy and approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The full statement is published here, in its entirety.