The hashtag #COVID1948 seeks to equate the current devastation resulting from the coronavirus with the catastrophe that occurred to the Palestinian people in 1948 at the hands of the Israelis. It is reportedly trending on social media and is in one sense an eloquent reminder of the wrongs committed against an entire people, to include a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing that bore fruit in 1948-9.
Marc Lamont Hill, in Nazareth 2014. screenshot from Vimeo video. As is often the case with proponents of justice for Palestinians, Marc Lamont Hill was watched closely by Israel partisans as he spoke before the UN last week. They took a phrase – one phrase – from the speech and threw the rest aside, hoping…
Israel’s takeover of Arab East Jerusalem has continued unabated since the 1967 war, but has grown more brazen since US President Trump’s decision to move the embassy. Evictions of Palestinians and appropriation of their homes by Israeli settlers is more frequent; Israeli police presence has grown more pervasive; Israel’s parliament is devising more new policies – and its supreme court is upholding them – to dispossess Palestinians. Meanwhile the PA is powerless to respond. It all adds up to ethnic cleansing.
The Forward courageously reminds American Jews of the Nakba, the slogans & symbols of the Jewish project that enabled mass expulsion & ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people – & the policies that enable it today. Their hope (and IAK’s) is that pro-Israel communities will honestly confront the facts & seek justice.
A new ADL campus initiative conflates criticism of Israel with “anti-Semitism,” tells students how to block events that support Palestinian rights, & recommends joining student governments to block “anti-Israel” activism. Its head endorses legislation that would make supporting boycotts of Israel punishable by a million dollar fine and 20 years in prison…