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.
In the course of just 4 days, Israeli soldiers managed to attack and traumatize scores of school children, as well as adults who were there to serve the children. Mainstream media does not report on these incidents because they don’t match the narrative of benign occupation and Palestinians as terrorists.
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.
Israeli settler violence – with IDF complicity – is becoming more and more commonplace, even targeting elementary schools. The government has also approved extensive Israeli settlement expansions and Jewish-only roads to be built on Palestinian land, which will result in isolation of Palestinian communities and loss of olive trees.
In addition, Jerusalem has seen an increase in extremist Jewish visits to the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Last weekend saw an escalation of violence that started when Israeli military infiltrated Gaza, initiated a firefight, and retreated under cover of shelling. One Israeli and 7 Palestinians were killed, and Hamas responded with rockets. Today, factions in the besieged Gaza Strip say they have agreed to an Egypt-brokered ceasefire. “The resistance will respect this declaration as long as the Zionist enemy respects it.”
Khalida Jarrar is a lawyer, politician, human rights activist – and administrative detainee. The harassment began when she led an effort to take Israel to the ICC. She has been relocated, imprisoned, released, and imprisoned again, where she remains. Her transgression? Being a strong, relentless, and articulate messenger of the injustices that Israel imposes on the Palestinian people. Khalida Jarrar exposes the truth.
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.
Recently released Israeli documents show that Israel secretly funded an insurance company for settlers, in addition to planning for 20,000 new units in Ma’ale Adumim worth 3 billion shekels (over $800 million), an East Jerusalem settlement built on confiscated Palestinian land.
In addition, settlement activity in Hebron continues, and Israel is trying to have international human rights observers removed.
Other troubling new governmental actions and policies have also been adopted.
Fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden, speaking via video link to a group in Tel Aviv, lambasted Israel’s cyber-surveillance industry for the creation of “digital burglary tools that are being actively currently used to violate the human rights of dissidents, opposition figures, and activists,” possibly including Jamal Khashoggi. Ram Ben-Barak, former deputy director of the Mossad who now works in the surveillance industry, then justified the development of such software because Israel uses it to thwart “40 terror attacks a month” in Palestine/Israel.
Israeli soldiers and settlers terrorize Palestinians every day. Stories from November 4-5 (that won’t appear in mainstream media) include 2 Palestinian deaths, at least 14 abductions – some of them children, a settler free-for-all in Hebron, and an injured infant.