Today marks the 25th anniversary of Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of 29 Palestinians as they prayed. Israeli soldiers blocked Palestinians who tried to flee and who wanted to enter to help the victims. The repercussions of the attack are still felt by Palestinians in Hebron, who have seen their rights eroded and their formerly bustling city centre turn into a ghost town.
Netanyahu is affiliating with an extremist political party named “Jewish Power” whose leaders were disciples of an FBI-designated terrorist… one JP leader referred to Christians as “bloodsucking vampires,” declared Christmas should be outlawed… another has a police record of assaulting both Palestinians and Israelis… another called for violence & a “religious war” against homosexuals… another’s client list reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of suspects in Jewish terror cases and hate crimes in Israel…
On February 13, 2019, Israeli forces arrived near the village of a-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. The forces used excavating equipment to unearth and destroy a five kilometer stretch of pipe, which was laid just months ago and supplied water to over 1,000 Palestinians. Residents say that without the system, “water has become every family’s largest expense.”
In a unanimous decision, a DC court is allowing Palestinian plaintiffs to sue Sheldon Adelson & others for $1 billion over their support of Israeli settlements & alleged war crimes – including genocide.
As Palestinians in Hebron navigate life without the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) observers, it is worth looking back on how oppressive and violent life was even with outsiders watching. Eric Garner would find the city eerily familiar.
Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier charged with manslaughter after shooting a wounded Palestinian in the head, now has a paid position on the political campaign of an Israeli Prime Minister candidate.
Azaria served 14 months for the killing. He returned to Hebron a folk hero and celebrity.
As Congress tackles urgent issues of reopening government and setting the budget for the country, it takes the time to prioritize a foreign country: H.R.648 contains assurances that Israel will receive $3.8 billion for arms, and funding for refugee resettlement; the bill also includes threats to de-fund the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and any future state of Palestine–if US demands (dictated by the Israel lobby) are not met.
In 2015, billionaire Sheldon Adelson hosted a summit to battle the nonviolent boycott movement for Palestinian rights (BDS). All participants in the event pledged at least $1 million to cover the costs of “demonizing the demonizers…” Participants, true to the maxim that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, declined to discuss any financial pledges….
With a 4% approval rate on building permit applications from Palestinians, and application costs in the tens of thousands of dollars, a large number of Palestinians make the risky decision to build without a permit. When Hassan Othman’s “illegal” home was discovered, he saved part of the $80 thousand demolition fee by hiring equipment to do it himself.
Israel has demolished over 48,000 Palestinian structures since 1967
This 16-year-old child did not grow up or die in a vacuum. We need to examine the reportage, the context of her life, and own our own complicity in her death.