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Scottish Friends of Palestine
Briefing Paper
January 2023
‘Operation Breaking Dawn’ killed 49 Palestinians Tareq Hajjaj Mondoweiss 01/09/2022 While Israeli airstrikes were still ongoing in Gaza, moving from place to place became a deadly mission, and even venturing outside of your home could expose you to deliberate and indiscriminate Israeli bombing. The Israeli military regarded anything that moved on the ground to be a legitimate target, and many of the deaths reported during this invasion were of people sitting in front of their homes — most of them non-combatants, according to Mondoweiss’s documentation.
This latest round has led many in Gaza to conclude that “there is no such thing as security when you’re living under occupation in Gaza,” according to Saleh Tahrawi, the father of a 30-year-old martyr killed in the recent airstrikes. “Whether you’re sheltering in your home hoping to survive the war, or fighting Israel on the front lines, you’re going to be killed either way. Homes in Gaza are more dangerous than battlefields.” Tahrawi lost his daughter while she was sheltering in place in her home. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/09/israels-operation-breaking-dawn-killed-49-palestinians-these-are-their stories/?ml_recipient=65137636937828078&ml_link=65137562009732373&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-09-25&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
12 years in prison for Gazan aid worker Jeff Wright Mondoweiss 31/08/2022
During the past six years of his detention, Halabi has refuted all charges against him, several times passing on offers to plead guilty on lesser charges. As is often the case when Palestinians appear in Israeli courts, Halabi’s verdict and sentence were based on a secret file that his attorney was not allowed to see. World Vision described the ruling as “deeply disappointing and in sharp contrast to the evidence and facts of the case, “and affirmed its support for Halabi’s intent to appeal the verdict and call for a fair and transparent appeal process “based on the facts of the case.” Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/08/israeli-court-sentences-gaza-humanitarian-aid-worker-mohammed-el-halabi-to-12-years-in-prison/?ml_recipient=65047019330209500&ml_link=65046959073789797&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-09-25&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
EU double standards admitted Ali Abunimah EI 02/09/2022
“We have a positive agenda: we do not aim to criticize; we want to help,” he adds, as if talking to a stubborn teenager, and not the cold-hearted war-criminal leaders of a brutal settler-colonial regime. There is the very slightest hint that something is troubling the EU’s love affair with Tel Aviv: “Yet the Israeli-Arab conflict and the occupation of Palestinian land still limit our potential,” Koopmans admits. “The EU wants to help lift that burden. So we have to face some concrete questions.”The “burden” he wants to lift is not so much from the necks of Palestinians, but from Israel and the EU. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/top-eu-diplomat-admits-double-standards-palestine
Zionist archaeology erases the Palestinians Salman Abu Sitta Mondoweiss03/09/22
To the authors of “An Archaeological Survey of the Arab Village of Bureir: Perspectives on the Late Ottoman and British Mandate Period in Southern Israel”: Your paper described your work as an “Archaeological Survey,” implying it is about a search for the obscure and ancient history of Burayr. This is fraud. Burayr is very much present history and geography.
Burayr is the site of a terrible massacre, in which about 125 farmers and their families were killed by hand grenades thrown at them in their homes . . . Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/09/the-zionist-archeology-that-erases-the-palestinians-of-burayr/?ml_recipient=65318817001113468&ml_link=65318749211723337&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-09-25&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Settler archaeology displaces Palestinians from their land Jeff Wright Mondoweiss 04/09/2022 Emek Shaveh is an Israeli non-government agency working “to defend cultural heritage rights and to protect ancient sites as public assets that belong to members of all communities, faiths and peoples.” On its website, the NGO charges that “the ruins of the past have become a political tool in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… [we] work to challenge those who use archaeological sites to dispossess disenfranchised communities.”
West Bank travel still require visitors to report relationships with Palestinians Yumna Patel Mondoweiss 05/09/2022
The new rules are set to take effect on October 20th, and, following reported pressure from US officials, will undergo a two year “pilot period” during which changes can still be made to the regulations. Hamoked, the Israeli group that’s been petitioning the rules in court, said the new revisions mostly amounted to “cosmetic changes.” “It removed some of the most outrageous elements of the Procedure, but the basic problem remains,” Hamoked said on Twitter. “Israel will prevent thousands of families from living together for blatantly political reasons; The Israeli military takes the prerogative of micromanaging Palestinian society – including interfering with academic freedom of Palestinian universities,” the group said, adding that it will continue its legal challenge the procedures. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/09/amended-israeli-restrictions-on-west-bank-travel-still-require-visitors-to-report-relationships-with-palestinians/?ml_recipient=65500051566233202&ml_link=65499943896352685&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-09 25&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Only “severe sanctions” will bring about change – Miko Peled RI & A 08/09/2022 With rampant racism characterising most Israelis’ attitudes towards the Palestinian people, he says Israeli recognition of the need for justice for the Palestinians can be brought about only “by bringing Israeli society to their knees, like was done with white South African society… through severe sanctions, closure of all diplomatic missions, ending all trade and all commerce”, and making sure that Israel does not participate in any international sports, academic or cultural events. Read more: https://www.redressonline.com/2022/09/listen-israel-only-severe-sanctions-will-bring-about-change-miko-peled/
UN denounces Israel’s “illegal and unacceptable” war on Palestinian civil society David Kattenburg Mondoweiss 14/09/2022 Defending human rights and rights defenders in occupied Palestine is a challenging task. Israel doesn’t cooperate with UN Special Rapporteurs or other Independent Experts. It doesn’t answer their letters and it doesn’t let them enter the effectively annexed Palestinian territories. And the Israel government is currently refusing to renew the visas of international staff at the Palestine office of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/09/un-officials-denounce-israels-illegal-and-unacceptable-war-on-palestinian-civil-society/?ml_recipient=66315589179672113&ml_link=66315316801570739&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-09-25&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Israel deliberately targeted Shireen Abu Akleh David Kattenburg Mondoweiss 20/09/2022 The Israeli sniper assault involved “three distinct rounds of shooting, totaling sixteen individual shots at Shireen, her colleagues and a civilian trying to provide medical aid,” the Forensic Architecture-Al Haq Investigate Unit (FAI) revealed.
“All shots were fired above the shoulders and intended to kill.”
Forensic Architecture, based at Goldsmiths University of London, specializes in “spatial reconstruction of sites and scenes of state violence.” Their analysis of Abu Akleh’s death — described as a “targeted killing” — is based on multiple videos recorded by Palestinians, along with other evidence. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/09/new-evidence-emerges-showing-israel-deliberately-targeted-shireen-abu-akleh-as-family-files-icc-complaint/?ml_recipient=66859040930531243&ml_link=66858926661960922&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-09-25&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Protest at PA collaboration with Israel Tamara Nassar EI 20/09/2022
The PA seems determined to demonstrate its utility to Israel amid growing fears that its power is waning in key areas of the West Bank. Israeli leaders have expressed alarm that the Palestinian Authority is losing control over the pockets of the West Bank where Israel allows it to operate.The PA’s overnight attack may be an effort to reassert control in the northern West Bank amid a resurgence of Palestinian armed resistance in Nablus and Jenin. It is also notable that US and European Union funding for PA forces has generally been contingent on them helping Israel quell Palestinian resistance. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinians-protest-pa-collaboration-israel
Proxy warfare in Nablus Mariam Barghouti Mondoweiss 28/09/2022
Al-Koni is among a rising number of resistance fighters being targeted and killed by Israel as part of its on-going large-scale military operation, “Break the Wave.” The military operation, in coordination with Israeli intelligence, has resulted in the killing of more than 153 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in the span of nine months. The Israeli military continues to escalate its targeting of Palestinian resistance fighters in the West Bank after its large-scale military aggression on Gaza dubbed, “Operation Breaking Dawn,” which resulted in the killing of more than 49 Palestinians, including the extra-judicial assassination of some Palestinian Islamic Jihad senior leaders.
The Palestinian population is largely a non-combatant population. However, the criminalization of Palestinian guerilla combatants is also in contradiction to their rights under international law. As an occupied people, Palestinians have the right to resist occupation in armed combat, and the civilian population is under no obligation to owe allegiance to its occupying power. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/09/israels-assassination-campaign-continues-among-signs-of-proxy-warfare-in-nablus/?ml_recipient=67583764590495251&ml_link=67583673791153211&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-10-01&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Israeli government discrimination in education Jack Dodson Mondoweiss 28/09/22 Systemic discrimination In April, Adalah, a legal NGO in Haifa focused on Palestinian rights in the region, filed a petition in an Israeli court against a policy that banned schools and third-party contractors from acknowledging the Nakba. In early September, residents in Jaffa joined to protest the closure of kindergartens, while teachers last week in East Jerusalem observed a strike against the Israeli municipality’s attempts to censor their textbooks. The Israeli government has a history of undermining Palestinian education. Whether it’s refusing to provide buses for Bedouin children in the Naqab or failing to provide matriculation exams in Arabic until 2019 legal organizations have routinely had to fight for full rights within schools. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/09/palestinians-push-back-against-israeli-government-discrimination-in-education/?ml_recipient=67583764590495251&ml_link=67583673822610496&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-10-01&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Israel kills four in Jenin raid Maureen Clare Murphy EI 28/09/2022
Citing the military, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported that in addition to shooting at two people inside the home, “soldiers fired an anti-tank missile towards the house, causing a fire.” The newspaper later removed this from its report without explanation.
Israel’s use of a missile against the house suggests the Israeli attack may have been an application of the so-called “pressure cooker procedure,” a form of extrajudicial execution.
As part of this procedure, occupation forces fire progressively more powerful weapons at the house in an effort to force those inside to surrender. If they refuse to do so, the occupation forces demolish the house, killing all those inside. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-kills-four-jenin-raid
7-year-old Palestinian boy dies of fear Yumna Patel Mondoweiss 30/09/2022
Rayan Yasser Suleiman, 7, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at the Beit Jala Governmental Hospital, shortly after he fell unconscious near his home in the town of Tuqu’ in the southern occupied West Bank. Rayan’s family says that his heart stopped and he collapsed to the ground after he ran in fear from Israeli army soldiers who were raiding his home in search of alleged “stone-throwers” in the town. . . . “Israeli forces know no bounds as they attempt to control an incredibly young occupied Palestinian population through intimidation, threats, nighttime incursions, collective punishment, and by instilling fear. International child rights norms and Israel’s own laws prohibit a seven-year-old child from being arrested and prosecuted, yet heavily-armed Israeli soldiers flagrantly ignore this reality, routinely chasing and detaining young Palestinian children, striking fear into them and ensuring they have no safe spaces to develop and thrive,” Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/09/us-calls-for-investigation-into-7-year-old-palestinian-boys-death-in-occupied-west-bank/?ml_recipient=67765119439865295&ml_link=67764872662746805&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-10-01&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Palestinians killed in escalation of violence Maureen Clare Murphy EI 05/10/2022
A United Nations human rights expert said on Thursday that she was “extremely alarmed by the escalation of violence” in the West Bank, where Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians since the beginning of October. . . . . Settlers blocked roads and threw stones at Palestinian drivers attempting to drive in and out of Nablus and Ramallah, major West Bank cities under nominal Palestinian Authority control, in the lead-up to Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday. . . Both Nablus and Jenin, another city in the northern West Bank, have re-emerged as centers of armed resistance to the Israeli military occupation. In recent months, Israel and the Palestinian Authority have stepped up their attacks in these areas amid concerns among Israeli leaders that they are slipping out of the occupation’s control. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/palestinians-killed-escalation-west-bank-violence
Gaza’s looming mental health crisis Sewar Elejla Mondoweiss 06/10/2022
Some Gazans may — I repeat, may — get used to losing their houses, struggling for food and clean water, and dealing with all the bitterness that comes from living under siege for 15 years. But one thing they can’t get used to is losing their loved ones. They cannot tolerate seeing their kids killed in the blink of an eye, or suffer from injuries, permanent disability, and constant psychological trauma. Since the Second Intifada of 2000, at least 2,200 Palestinian children were killed by the Israeli military, of whom around 83 were killed in the last two years in the Gaza Strip. During the May 2014 war, according to UNICEF, 444 children were injured and 30,000 were displaced. This war alone created more than 1,500 new orphans. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/10/inside-gazas-looming-mental-health-crisis/?ml_recipient=68308659047761882&ml_link=68308459160864040&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-10-11&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
ICC asked to take action Maureen Clare Murphy EI 07/10/2022
A prominent Israeli human rights group is calling on Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to urgently intervene to prevent the expulsion of Palestinians from a rural area of the West Bank. In a letter delivered on Monday, B’Tselem requested Khan’s “urgent intervention to prevent Israel from continuing to carry out this policy” and to clarify that forcible transfer constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court. . . . Ariel Sharon, then Israel’s agriculture minister, admitted in 1981 that the area was declared a firing zone for the purpose of displacing Palestinians from their land so it may be seized by Israel. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/end-masafer-yatta-nightmare-rights-group-tells-icc
Israeli wave of extra-judicial assassinations – 3 minors shot dead
Mariam Barghouti Mondoweiss 09/10/2022 On October 7, Israeli military forces shot and killed 16-year-old Adel Ibrahim Daoud in the city of Qalqilya, north of Ramallah. Hours later, the military invaded al-Gharbiyya 11 km northwest of Ramallah, killing 17-year-old Mahdi Ladadweh. . . In a coordinated military invasion, Jenin refugee camp was assaulted under the pretext of arresting a wanted Palestinian resistance fighter, Mohammad Abu Zeina. The invasion resulted in the killing of Mohammad El-Sous, 18, and Ahmad Daraghmeh, 16. Eleven others were injured, including 3 in critical condition, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/10/four-youth-killed-in-the-last-24-hours-amidst-ongoing-israeli-wave-of-extra-judicial-assassinations/?ml_recipient=68580310658319615&ml_link=68580240371221730&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-10-10&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Fathi Khazem - a symbol of Palestinian resistance Ahmed Abu Artema Mondoweiss 10/10/2022 On September 28, a unit of the Israeli army’s special forces murdered Abdul Rahman Khazem, the son of a prominent Palestinian man who is wanted by the Israelis, Fathi Khazem. The murder of Abdul Rahman in Jenin refugee camp appears to be a revenge operation against his father, who has been pursued by the occupation forces since April 2022. Fathi Khazem’s name emerged in April after his son Raad carried out an operation in Tel Aviv that resulted in the killing and injury of a number of Israelis.
In the few hours that followed the killing of his son Raad, Fathi “Abu Raad” Khazem went out to receive the crowds of mourners, addressing them loudly and in defiance of the Israeli occupation, declaring his determination to continue resisting Israel until the liberation of Palestine. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/10/why-israel-fears-fathi-khazem-the-latest-symbol-of-palestinian-resistance/?ml_recipient=68671009745536246&ml_link=68670841195332913&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-10-11&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Jaffa the next Sheikh Jarrah Jessica Buxbaum Mondoweiss 13/10/2022
The historic Ajami neighborhood in Jaffa has become a battleground between the Israel Lands Authority (ILA) and the area’s veteran Palestinian residents. About 1,400 families have been served eviction orders from Amidar, a public housing company which in the past has said it’s simply doing ILA’s bidding.
About 120,000 Palestinians lived in Jaffa before the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948. Roughly 3,200 Palestinians remain in Jaffa’s Ajami district today as a result of the Nakba. Under Israeli law, the properties left behind by Palestinians fleeing the Nakba are considered absentee or abandoned and fell under ILA ownership. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/10/jaffa-may-become-the-next-sheikh-jarrah-as-palestinians-are-pushed-out/?ml_recipient=68942773441529753&ml_link=68942631126697337&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-10-30&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
12-year-old Palestinian succumbs to wounds Yumna Patel Mondoweiss 12/10/22
Mahmoud Mohammad Khalil Samoudi, 12, was shot in the abdomen on September 28th during an Israeli army incursion on the Jenin Refugee Camp. According to Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP), at around 10am on September 28th, Samoudi joined a group of boys and youth who were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli army vehicles in the al-Zahra neighborhood next to the camp. . . . He was the 44th Palestinian child to be killed this year according to DCIP, 27 of whom were killed by Israeli military ans settler violence in the West Bank. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/10/12-year-old-palestinian-boy-succumbs-to-wounds-two-weeks-after-being-shot-by-israeli-army/?ml_recipient=68852110844757580&ml_link=68852031605965989&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-10-30&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
’24 hours of hell’ Yumna Patel Mondoweiss 14/10/2022
Huwwara has been under near constant attack since Thursday afternoon, when groups of armed settlers began attacking several points in the town, primarily on the main road, vandalizing dozens of storefronts and vehicles. The settlers also burned olive trees, and attacked several homes, a local amusement park, and cafe on the outskirts of the town. “What’s happening right now in Huwwara is terrifying, and it’s a sign of what’s to come in the rest of the West Bank as the settlers continue Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/10/24-hours-of-hell-israeli-settler-gangs-terrorize-palestinian-town-under-army-protection/?ml_recipient=69033265023944365&ml_link=69033227146233369&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-10-30&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
A full-scale revolt? Ali Abunimah & MC Murphy EI 14/10/2022
Events in the occupied West Bank over the past week indicate that the Palestinian liberation struggle, and Israel’s efforts to repress it with with brutal violence, have entered a new phase.
In this looming scenario, the formerly extremist fringe settlers see themselves represented at the top levels of Israeli government, emboldened and beyond the restraint of the army.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is proving increasingly ineffective at quelling armed resistance and teetering on what some Israeli analysts fear is the verge of collapse.
The PA exists to serve as an enforcement arm of the Israeli occupation and its presence would not be missed by many Palestinians except for those who are currently on its payroll. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-brink-full-scale-revolt/36501
Restrictions on foreign travel into West Bank Y Patel + M Arria Mondoweiss 20/10/2022 A draconian set of rules and restrictions on the entry of foreigners into the occupied West Bank are set to go into effect today, despite months of condemnations by rights groups and legal efforts to stop the restrictions from being enforced.
Entitled the “Procedure for entry and residence of foreigners in the Judea and Samaria area,” the 90-pages of restrictions engineered by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), seeks to severely restrict the ability of foreigners, including those of Palestinian origin living abroad, to enter the West Bank for the purpose of business, education, humanitarian work, and even visiting family. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/10/israeli-restrictions-on-foreign-travel-into-occupied-west-bank-take-effect-despite-criticisms/?ml_recipient=69576977453941954&ml_link=69576809416492609&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-11-01&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Two sides of the same coin Jonathan Ofir Mondoweiss 26/10/2022
A drama over the far-right Jewish Power Israeli politician Itamar Ben Gvir has been unfolding in the past few days in Israel, and it involves clothes. The local franchisee of the Zara fashion brand, Joey Schwebel, hosted Ben Gvir for an election campaign event, and Palestinian citizens of Israel were enraged. Many, including the mayor of the southern Bedouin town of Rahat, filmed themselves burning Zara clothes and called for a boycott of Zara due to its connection to fascists. . . . the bottom line is, that Israel is what is known in political science as “racial democracy”, securing a master-race majority demographic engineering. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/10/merav-michaeli-and-itamar-ben-gvir-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/?ml_recipient=70120454271010132&ml_link=70120394568238903&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-11-02&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Dispossessed before the Nakba Marc M Junyent Mweiss 07/11/22
Was the right of return for Palestinians born with the Nakba in 1948, or is it actually older? These are some of the crucial questions Nadim Bawalsa addresses in his recently published work, Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return Before 1948. Bawalsa, a historian by training, is currently the editor of the Palestinian Policy Network, Al-Shabaka, and has written a book about the Palestinians’ right of return. This is atypical in at least two significant dimensions: its geographical focus — Latin America — and the historical period it covers — the 1920s and 1930s. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/11/the-palestinians-of-latin-america-were-dispossessed-before-the-nakba/?ml_recipient=71211594259891639&ml_link=71211328109283227&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-11-23&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
First the drones. Then the bombs Abdallah al-Naami EI 10/11/2022
On 3 November, around 10 at night, we were all gathered in the living room talking about how the Israeli drones were flying especially low and loud. Though drones are a cursed part of every Palestinian’s life in Gaza, I’ve never gotten used to them. The buzzing makes it difficult to study and work, and I have to sleep with a fan on, even in winter, to block out the noise. More than an annoyance, though, the drones are a deadly threat. A reminder that the Israeli occupation is always watching us from above, ready to kill at any moment. The discussion was interrupted when my sister asked who wanted to feed Yahya. I gave him a bottle of milk and rocked him to sleep, singing a song to him to obscure the buzz of the drones, even just a little bit. Read more https://electronicintifada.net/content/first-drones-then-bombs/36666
The new kingmakers of Israeli politics Jonathan Ofir Mweiss 11/11/2022
The racist, homophobic, ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism list was the big winner in Israel's most recent election. It is also a perfect reflection of where Israel is heading. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/11/meet-the-new-kingmakers-of-israeli-politics/?ml_recipient=71574384640263660&ml_link=71573720541431344&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-12-10&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Girl killed by Israel a day before turning 15 Mariam Barghouti Mweiss 15/11/2022
“They didn’t stop at killing her,” Bakr Armoush, 35, told Mondoweiss. “They took her corpse and dragged it around, only to throw her in the back of the military jeep with six other soldiers and the driver, who was also injured and bleeding,” he said. . . . “I told him, I’ll kiss your hand, your feet…just please stop beating my son.” Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/11/palestinian-girl-killed-by-israeli-soldiers-a-day-before-turning-16/?ml_recipient=71936678914164226&ml_link=71936106078144258&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-12-10&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Killed by Israel on the way to school Mariam Barghouti Mweiss 22/11/2022
On Monday, November 21, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian high school student from Jenin refugee camp, and injured three others, during a military operation in the city of Jenin, 98 km northwest of Jerusalem. Mahmoud Al-Saadi, 17, was on his way to Farhat Shihad Boys’ School in Jenin when Israeli forces shot him in the abdomen. Almost an hour later, Al-Saadi succumbed to his wounds at the Ibn Sina public hospital Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/11/student-in-jenin-killed-by-israeli-army-on-the-way-to-school/?ml_recipient=72571400389396431&ml_link=72570296028104176&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-12-10&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Executed at point-blank range Yumna Patel Mweiss 02/12/2022
A Palestinian man was shot and killed by an Israeli border police officer at point blank range on Friday evening in the northern occupied West Bank town of Huwwara in what is being described as an “execution” on social media. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/12/palestinian-executed-at-point-blank-range-by-israeli-border-police/?ml_recipient=73476796634367066&ml_link=73476255364679218&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-12-10&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Gaza’s firefighters badly equipped Ghada Al-Haddad EI 06/12/2022
In all, according to al-Khatib, Gaza has between 450 and 500 emergency responders, including firefighters. First responders are supposed to be protected under the Geneva Conventions. However, according to al-Khatib, 34 have been killed during Israel’s aggressions against Gaza since 2008. “We have been targeted multiple times even though we always wear our uniforms. Our cars are known to the Israeli side,” said al-Khatib. But, “we cannot trust the Israeli soldiers. We fear the treachery of the occupation forces.” Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/blockade-leaves-gazas-firefighters-badly-equipped/36761
UK related articles
Israel lobby fury Asa Winstanley EI 02/09/2022
Britain’s Israel lobby reacted with fury on Thursday night as left-wing Jewish activist Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi was elected to the Labour Party’s ruling body.A veteran Palestine solidarity activist, Wimborne-Idrissi won a seat on the National Executive Committee (NEC) which sets internal rules governing the UK opposition party, including disciplinary matters. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-lobby-fury-jewish-leftist-elected-labours-ruling-body
Israel’s war industry “on trial” Kit Klarenberg EI 30/11/2022
The Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems is effectively being put on trial by the group Palestine Action. By intentionally damaging property that Elbit owns or rents in Britain and getting arrested as a result, Palestine Action’s campaigners have been able to present courts with evidence against the arms maker. In a recent hearing, one activist spoke of how she had witnessed Israel’s brutality in the occupied West Bank. The activist recalled how in Nablus, an Israeli soldier shot a 10-year-old boy eating ice cream. “His blood was running down the village,” the activist said, adding that the image was “something I’ll never get out of my head.” . . . All five were acquitted by a London court in November this year. It was the first time that a case involving Palestine Action has gone before a jury. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-action-puts-israels-war-industry-trial/36736
Exposure - Israel lobby role in UK Labour Party Asa Winstanley EI 22/09/2022
A new cache of leaked Labour documents shows how Israel lobby operatives worked against former leader Jeremy Corbyn from within the UK’s main opposition party.
Israel lobbyist Luke Akehurst intervened to help save suspended right-wing Labour activist Luke Stanger from expulsion – despite a series of complaints of harassment and intimidation.
The leaked files also detail how Palestine solidarity activists and left-wingers were investigated, suspended and expelled from the party, while right-wing pro-Israel members were protected by senior party figures. The documents were revealed on Thursday in the first episode of The Labour Files, a new three-part series by Al Jazeera’s investigative unit – the same team behind the 2017 series The Lobby and the censored 2018 series The Lobby – USA.
Also by Asa Winstanley https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/labour-officials-laughed-death-member-accused-anti-semitism
British Quakers capitulate to Israel lobby Ali Abunimah EI 30/09/2022
The religious organization Quakers in Britain is standing by its cancellation of a booking for an event on Palestine at one of its meeting houses in Scotland earlier this week. The decision came after a smear campaign against the main speaker David Miller, falsely accusing him of anti-Jewish bigotry. This capitulation is a slap in the face to Palestinians and to the long tradition of Quaker solidarity and support for Palestinian rights. It is also being criticized by another major Quaker group.
Campaign Against Antisemitism, a right-wing Israel lobby group whose head of “political investigations” took credit for the political destruction of Jeremy Corbyn – boasting that the former Labour Party leader had been “slaughtered” – applauded the blatant act of censorship against Miller. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/british-quakers-capitulate-israel-lobby-lies
Israel lobby’s dominance of Labour Asa Winstanley EI 31/10/2022
Secret minutes obtained by The Electronic Intifada show just how strongly the UK’s main opposition party has been captured by the pro-Israel lobby. Shadow minister Steve Reed gave a series of extraordinary pledges during a 2 December 2020 meeting with prominent Israel lobby donor Trevor Chinn. Chinn and five other Israel lobby representatives took part in the secret meeting, along with Reed and two of his staff. The minutes conclude that the lobbyists had established “a regular channel of communication” with Reed and his office.
The minutes were written by Reed’s aide Owain Mumford, who emailed them to Ellie Robinson, an aide to Labour leader Keir Starmer, as well as to senior party officials Andrew Whyte and Alex Barros-Curtis. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/secret-document-reveals-israel-lobbys-dominance-labour/36591
Scottish government is silencing Palestinians Yvonne Ridley ME Monitor 24/05/2022"The Scottish Government's adoption of the problematic IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of anti-Semitism limits that freedom by protecting the state of Israel from democratic critiques of its widely recognised apartheid structures.
"Responding in part to the question of the IHRA definition, Lord Bracadale's 2018 Review of Hate Crime Legislation accepted the case put forward by Palestinians and others that legislation should not protect 'political entities' since that could lead to the 'curtailment of freedom of expression and freedom of political debate'." In their letter, the signatories demand that the Scottish Government should act on the findings of Lord Bracadale's hate crime review which it commissioned. Read more: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220524-the-scottish-government-is-silencing-palestinians/
NUS sacking of student union president condemned Asa Winstanley EI 4/11/22 The firing will “contribute to anti-Palestinian racism and the silencing of legitimate advocacy for Palestine,” the groups said in a statement released by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on Wednesday. The groups also criticized what they said was the “disproportionate involvement” in the process of the Union of Jewish Students, a pro-Israel lobby group with close ties to the Israeli government. The groups condemned “the role the UJS has played in the conflation of anti-Semitism [with] legitimate critique of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.” Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/british-palestinians-condemn-sacking-student-union-president
An Edinburgh address to Balfour Salman Abu Sitta Mweiss 30/11/2022
On November 8, 2022 Dr. Salman Abu Sitta spoke at the University of Edinburgh to commemorate the centenary of the British Mandate in Palestine. In his speech he addresses the disgraced British colonial servant Lord Arthur Balfour, and issues a call for repair and justice to the British government today. Read on: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/11/a-palestinian-address-to-balfour-in-honor-of-truth-memory-and-justice/?ml_recipient=73295589955077157&ml_link=73295073545029444&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-12-10&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines
Lobby admits to lying about Palestinian rights group Maureen Clare Murphy EI 13 /12/22 Some 200 organizations based in Palestine and around the globe have urged Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, to condemn Israel’s designations against Al-Haq and two other Palestinian groups providing evidence and representing victims at the court. Al-Haq, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights convened during the assembly of state parties to highlight Khan’s stonewalling of the Palestine investigation opened by his predecessor early last year. Apparent double standards in the generous allocation of court resources for the investigation in Ukraine while starving the Palestine probe has further undermined the credibility of the ICC, critics say.
If the ICC fails to act on Palestine, it will be dismissed as a cudgel serving the interests of powerful Western states, leaving Palestinians to take the law into their own hands, human rights advocates said during the event at The Hague. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-lobby-admits-lying-about-palestinian-rights-group
Hugh Humphries
Secretary
Scottish Friends of Palestine 0141 637 8046 info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org
