Three hospitals in Israel admit that their policy is to separate maternity patients according to ethnicity. Palestinian women have found this practice insulting; some experts call it “apartheid.”
Only a handful of Israelis continue working to oppose Israel’s occupation, and they find no takers in Israel. Just like with South African apartheid, it requires people from abroad to end this injustice. Fortunately, some new voices are already speaking out…
The New York Times – most notably columnist Thomas Friedman – acknowledges that current policies and practices in Israel/Palestine are now and have been for decades a form of apartheid, yet for some unspecified reason, the paper has stated for twenty years merely that the region is “at risk of” becoming an apartheid state. In spite of profuse evidence from experts around the world and from Israel’s own legislation, NYT refuses to state the obvious.
Former President Jimmy Carter encourages the House of Representatives to reject the anti-BDS bill: “Under our Constitution, people and legal entities have the right to express political views without fear of consequences.”
Gideon Levy writes in Ha’aretz: “The apartheid did not start with him and will not end with his departure; it probably won’t even be dented. One of the most racist nations in the world cannot complain about its prime minister’s racism.”
IF AMERICANS KNEW joins CODEPINK in outrage against Candidate Kamala Harris’ co-opting of the Selma to Montgomery march. Let’s tell her this is offensive and unacceptable. See CODEPINK’s action alert….
Belen Fernandez writes in the Jacobin that Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent pact with a far-right, anti-Arab party ahead of April’s elections is in keeping with a state that has racism and exclusion baked into its foundation.
Every day that Netanyahu chooses Trump and fundamentalism over the pro-democracy, pro-equality, pro-pluralism views of diaspora Jews, is a great day for the Palestinian cause.
No Israeli prime minister, no Israeli government and no consortium of allies has done nearly as much – inadvertently, to be sure – to bring the cause and the grievances of the Palestinians front and center.
Author Amira Hass, a Jewish Israeli, pressed the Israeli government for an explanation for the sharp increase in refusals to allow Palestinians access to their land that was cut off by the Separation Wall. The response appears to be little more than a runaround; official reasons given for denial of permits have often been dismissive: the plot of land in question is “too small to cultivate” or the request was “fraudulent.”
Mizrahi academics and activists demand Israel’s High Court strike down the Jewish Nation-State Law, saying it erases their cultural legacy and perpetuates injustices against both them and Palestinian citizens of Israel. As of 2005, 61% of Israeli Jews were of full or partial Mizrahi ancestry.