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Scottish Friends of Palestine
Briefing Paper
October 2021
Undercover soldiers kill four youths in Jenin IMEMC 16/08/2021
Media sources in Jenin said the killing of the Palestinians took place when undercover Israeli soldiers infiltrated into Jenin refugee camp using a civilian car before the soldiers stormed an under-construction residential building and secretly occupied its rooftop.
They added that many Israeli army jeeps then invaded the refugee camp and exchanged fire with Palestinian resistance fighters who were unaware of the undercover soldiers occupying the building and were killed by their gunfire. Read more: https://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-kill-four-palestinians-in-jenin/
Israel undercuts Palestinian agriculture Amany Mahmoud al Monitor 03/08/2021
“When Palestinian citizens go to the markets, they see large quantities of Israeli vegetables and fruits at prices that compete with the local product. In some cases, Israeli products are cheaper than Palestinian ones. Even if the quality is worse, citizens often end up buying the cheap Israeli products.”
Abu Wadi added, “Despite the heavy losses we endure, we as farmers will continue to cultivate our lands so that they are not confiscated and Israel achieves its goals.” He accused Israel of putting more restrictions on Palestinian farmers, as it recently started closing agricultural roads leading to the vineyards in Hebron, in the southern West Bank, which led to the isolation of 5,000 acres of land, most of which are planted with grapes. Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/08/israel-undercuts-palestinian-agriculture-cheap-produce#ixzz734B0Eo6e
Human Rights Watch favours Israel Maureen Clare Murphy EI 04/08/2021
Given the scope of the crimes it has documented, it is baffling why Human Rights Watch would not just call for an arms embargo on Israel. It has done so for other countries including Ethiopia, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. In its Gaza report, Human Rights Watch does not call for targeted sanctions on Israel as it has in many of the aforementioned cases. However, the group also recently called for targeted sanctions against Lebanese authorities responsible for the Beirut port explosion last August that killed 218 people. In a new report on the explosion, Lama Fakih, a program director with the rights group, states that “Despite the devastation wrought by the blast, Lebanese officials continue to choose the path of evasion and impunity over truth and justice.” Certainly, the same can be said for Israel, where B’Tselem, a leading human rights group in the country, has called its military’s self-investigation mechanism a “fig leaf” for the occupation. Read more: How Human Rights Watch favors Israel | The Electronic Intifada
Palestinian scepticism Ahmad Melhem al Monitor 18/08/21
Palestinians perceive the Israeli decision to allow them to build 1,000 residential units in Area C with skepticism, as they believe it is designed to mislead the public so as to construct new settlement projects in the West Bank. . . . . . Meanwhile, Israel continues to demolish Palestinian facilities and houses in Area C under the pretext that they were constructed without a permit. This is while Israeli authorities often refuse to grant building permits to Palestinians in a bid to impose a fait accompli and push the residents to leave. Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/08/israeli-decision-allow-palestinians-build-area-c-spurs-skepticism#ixzz73vPWW5x0
Occupied land ‘handed’ to Israel Michael F Brown EI 17/08/2021
(Ed note: the substance of this article was also to be found in BBC reporting of the events) There are lies, damn lies, and statistics … and then there is Shebaa Farms.
Recently, the US State Department and news media both misrepresented Shebaa Farms by indicating it is part of northern Israel. In fact, it is occupied territory. According to the United Nations it is occupied Syrian territory, while according to Lebanon and even to Syria it’s occupied Lebanese territory. Read more: Biden administration and media hand occupied land to Israel | The Electronic Intifada
Journalist Anne Applebaum’s support for violence against Palestinian journalists John Mitchell Mondoweiss 18/08/2021 The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) recently presented the award-winning historian and journalist, Anne Applebaum, with a fellowship. This prestigious accolade places her among the most honored figures in history for their outstanding contribution to literature. But does Applebaum deserve to be a member of this pantheon? Read more: Royal Society of Literature ignores Anne Applebaum’s support for violence against Palestinian journalists – Mondoweiss
Manchester University humiliated
Stuart Littlewood Redress Information & Analysis 20/08/2021
In an appalling display of cowardice Manchester University caved in to pressure from pro-Israel propagandists and closed an exhibition called “Cloud Studies” at the Whitworth Gallery (which is part of the university). The art show by the research agency Forensic Architecture formed part of the Manchester International Festival and brought together nine investigations into how states and corporations weaponise the air we breathe to suppress civilian protest and maintain and defend border regimes. Read more: UK’s Manchester University humiliated by pro-Israel bullies – Redress Information & Analysis (redressonline.com)
Chocolate being used to fund Hamas claim Entsar Abu Jahal al Monitor 24/08/2021
Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/08/israel-seizes-tons-chocolate-it-claims-being-used-fund-hamas#ixzz74aTnbm8J
Mouin Rajab, a professor of economic sciences at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, “This Israeli policy is completely unjustified and negatively affects the economic situation in Gaza. It directly affects importers who will now endure huge losses and will cause a large deficit in the markets.” He added, “The turmoil caused by this policy makes importers anxious, as they fear that their other goods will be confiscated in the future.” Rajab explained that this policy is a blow to the import process and Palestinian trade, stressing that it increases the suffering of the Gazan consumer and increases the prices of similar goods due to the scarcity of supplies, in addition to having many other negative economic repercussions .Read more: Israel seizes tons of chocolate it claims is being used to fund Hamas - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Snipers attack Gaza children + Qatari cash Tamara Nassar EI 22/08/2021
Israeli occupation forces injured more than 40 Palestinians, including at least 24 children, during protests in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.One of the injured is photojournalist Asem Muhammad Shehade, who was wounded in the face by shrapnel from a live bullet. Another is a 13-year-old boy reportedly in critical condition. Israeli snipers deployed on the Israel-Gaza boundary fired machine guns, live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters at Palestinian civilians who were peacefully gathered near the eastern fence. . . . . This comes as Qatar nears an agreement with the United Nations to transfer cash to families in Gaza impoverished by Israel’s siege and regular military attacks. Read more: Israeli snipers attack Gaza children | The Electronic Intifada
13 year old Gazan boy shot dead by sniper Tamara Nassar EI 30/08/2021
The lethal attack on 13-year-old Omar Hasan Abu al-Nil occurred during a protest on 21 August east of Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood, near the boundary fence with Israel.
Omar was observing the demonstrations 70 to 100 meters from the fence when an Israeli sniper fired a live round at him, according to a field investigation by Defense for Children International Palestine. . . .Omar was one of 24 children injured by Israeli occupation forces on that day. At least three other children were shot with live ammunition in their lower limbs. Read more: Gaza child shot in neck by Israeli sniper dies | The Electronic Intifada
Israel’s war on children in Gaza Justina Poskeviciute Mondoweiss 27/08/21
Almost a quarter of a million children in need of psychosocial support, and 53.5% of children suffering from PTSD. That is how dire the situation was in 2020, at the time this report was published. In other words, this was before May 2021.
This May, any children of Gaza born before 2008 would witness the fourth war in their lifetime. Israeli forces had been storming Al-Aqsa daily, and in response, Hamas issued an ultimatum asking for violence at Al-Aqsa and the neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah to stop. When these conditions weren’t met, they started launching rockets towards Israel.
It was with Hamas’ rockets that the mainstream media picked up the narrative, portraying the conflict as one in which Israel was the victim. But Israel’s ensuing bombings of Gaza destroyed this narrative. Videos of civilian homes being bombed appeared on the news, stories of parents stuck under the rubble, not being able to help their dying children – and vice versa – flooded social media. Read more: Israel’s war on children in Gaza – Mondoweiss
Tour group assaulted by Israeli onlookers while visiting depopulated Palestinian village of Lifta Zochrot 30/08/21
Several dozens of Israelis, Palestinians and internationals took part in the tour, including Lifta refugees who fascinated the participants with important stories about the village’s history – memories that are still alive and form a clear statement about the refusal to forget the Nakba and the eternal desire to return home. Upon our arrival at the village spring, we were received with racist and homophobic slurs by about ten men and a woman, and when we refused to leave the place and continued with the tour as planned, the verbal violence became physical. One of the assailants declared that he trains his dog “to bite Arabs”. Another one claimed that we were disturbing him at “his own home” where he has been living for 15 years. The tour proceeded as planned among the remains of the village, but upon our return to the parking lot, we found that several vehicles of the tour participants had been vandalized. Read more: Tour group assaulted by Israeli onlookers while visiting depopulated Palestinian village of Lifta – Mondoweiss
Israel offers Palestinians their own money back as a 'loan', in display of 'goodwill' Jonathan Ofir al Monitor 31/08/2021
How does the money go around here? Israel withholds taxes paid by Palestinians – that is, for their government – in order to penalize the Palestinian Authority for providing financial aid to families where a member has either been extrajudicially executed (as often happens with Palestinian suspects) or has been jailed as a “security prisoner”, often without charge, often for mere political protest. Sometimes when Israel penalizes a whole family in collective punishment by demolishing its home etc., in contravention of international law, the Palestinian Authority seeks to alleviate this collective suffering.
And yet, the propaganda of “stipends paid to terrorists”, which the Times of Israel spouts, has become a hallmark of Israel apologia.
Let us look at a Brookings analysis of the Palestinian payments by Shibley Telhami:
Read more: Israel offers Palestinians their own money back as a ‘loan’, in display of ‘goodwill’ – Mondoweiss
Shin Bet to target Arab-Israeli society Afif Abu Much al Monitor 02/09/2021
In contrast, there are those concerned about the implications of such a move. Attorney Reda Jaber, director of Aman: The Arab Center for a Secure Society, expressed his reservations to Al-Monitor, saying, “A national minority — whose relationship with the state representing the majority — would never agree or demand that the majority’s intelligence services operate within that minority. This is especially true of the Shin Bet. Activating them in the Arab society would be disastrous. Introducing the Shin Bet into the Arab society means determining that the Arab community as a whole poses a security threat. This would lead to infringements of their rights and freedoms, and turn their citizenship into collateral for certain security approaches, while eliminating certain rights, which Arabs currently enjoy. The boundaries of civic rights should be sharp and clear, even when combatting crime. Crossing that boundary would be irreversible.” Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/09/undercover-police-unit-target-crime-arab-israeli-society#ixzz75KxxAnr5
Border violence Rina Bassist al monitor 03/09/2021
Israeli press reports said that the two Israeli officials asked their Egyptian interlocutors to pressure Hamas to stop the ongoing nightly demonstrations at the Gaza border. For the past few days, Gazans have been gathering near the security fence, burning tires and hurling explosives at Israeli troops stationed along the border. The escalation was apparently prompted by frustration in Hamas over the deadlock in the Egypt-mediated talks with Israel for a long-term arrangement. Gaza health authorities reported that one Palestinian man died and four were injured by live fire in violent clashes last night. Hamas sources said the Israel Defense Forces used sniper fire at specific targets and a drone that dropped tear-gas grenades on the rioters as means to disperse the demonstrations.Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/09/israel-asks-egypt-pressure-hamas-end-border-violence#ixzz75zBVOXvG
Palestinian Great Escape Tamara Nassar EI 08/09/2021
Israeli authorities have grown increasingly frustrated, embarrassed and perplexed in the days since six Palestinians escaped from one of Israel’s most fortified prisons.
Amid speculation that the men might be hiding out in the West Bank, or could have crossed the border to Jordan, Palestinians are praying for their safety and hailing them as heroes.
Their escape is a huge morale boost for Palestinians, as it once again shatters Israel’s image of strength and invincibility in the face of an occupied people struggling for its freedom.From the bathroom of their cell in Gilboa prison in northern Israel, the jailed Palestinians dug a 20-meter underground tunnel that emerged just outside the prison walls under a watchtower. Read more: Israel seeks revenge after Palestinian Great Escape | The Electronic Intifada
Could ICC try Palestinians while Israel gets away with murder? Maureen Clare Murphy EI 10/09/2021 Human Rights Watch probed several deadly attacks on Israeli civilians and a Palestinian rocket strike that misfired above Jabaliya, northern Gaza, killing seven Palestinian civilians. “Palestinian armed groups during the May fighting flagrantly violated the laws-of-war prohibition on indiscriminate attacks by launching thousands of unguided rockets towards Israeli cities,” Eric Goldstein, a project director at Human Rights Watch, is quoted as saying in the report.
In an earlier report examining Israel’s targeting of residential towers in May, which massacred families in their homes, Human Rights Watch employed qualifying language. It said these attacks, as well as those waged by armed groups, “violated the laws of war and amount to apparent war crimes” (emphasis added). By contrast, in its follow-up investigation of Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza, Human Rights Watch unequivocally states that such activities “violated the laws of war and amount to war crimes.” Read more: Could ICC try Palestinians while Israel gets away with murder? | The Electronic Intifada
Arab-Israeli soccer player booed by Jewish fans al monitor 13/09/2021
Feelings are mixed among the fans and players. Dabbur had only recently resumed playing and during the home game against Austria on Sept. 4, he was subjected to booing and insults not from the opposing side but from the Israeli fans.
Dabbur had been invited to play for the Israeli team in matches against the Faroe Islands, Austria and Denmark for the first time since the May Instagram affair. During the riots that erupted in Israel’s mixed cities and Jerusalem, while the Israel Defense Forces was conducting its Gaza Guardian of the Walls operation, Dabour posted an image of Al-Aqsa with a Quranic verse: “Don’t think that God will ignore the acts of evil men. He will only delay their judgement until the day the gaze is frozen.” Read more: Arab-Israeli soccer player booed by Jewish soccer fans - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Israel captures last two escaped Palestinians Tamara Nassar EI 20/09/2021 In an interview with local media, Kamamji’s father said his son called him in the early hours of Sunday and explained that he had decided to turn himself in to protect the residents of the building. It is not unreasonable, given Israel has regularly used the so-called pressure cooker procedure to compel wanted Palestinians to surrender from a building in which they are hiding, or else be extrajudicially executed. Israeli forces do this by using construction machines as weapons, along with firearms and explosives, to gradually destroy the building on top of those hiding inside if they refuse to surrender. Read more: Israel captures last two escaped Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada
Israel prepares for possible escalation Ahmad Melhem almonitor 21/09/2021
In the city of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, dozens of shootings targeted al-Jalama checkpoint, homemade bombs were thrown, and bullets targeted an Israeli military camp in Mount Gerizim in Nablus. Also, dozens of clashes involving stones and Molotov cocktails took place in different parts of the West Bank. Anger mounted in the Palestinian street after Israel captured and allegedly tortured four of the jailbreakers, specially Zakaria Zubeidi, the former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The Palestinian factions praised the escalated confrontations in Jerusalem and the West Bank, considering them as the only option to force Israel to end its violations against the Palestinians and prisoners. Following the second stabbing attack in Jerusalem on Sept. 13, the chief of the Israeli police said that he fears new operations, and noted that the Israeli police decided to deploy an additional 2,000 policemen in the city of Jerusalem. Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/09/west-bank-city-jenin-roils-israel-prepares-possible-escalation#ixzz7787MeUQP
EU forced to admit it can block trade with Israeli colonies Ali Abunimah EI 23/09/2021 The European Union has been forced this month to register a European Citizens’ Initiative that seeks to block trade with settlements in occupied territories.
The measure could potentially close off the lucrative access to EU markets enjoyed by businesses operating in Israeli colonial settlements built on Palestinian land in violation of international law. This comes after the Commission – the EU’s executive body – suffered a legal defeat earlier this year. European Citizens’ Initiatives are supposed to provide a mechanism for ordinary people to influence the policy and legislative agenda of the notoriously undemocratic and opaque Brussels bureaucracy.
In 2019, seven nationals of EU states filed an initiative seeking to stop settlement trade which helps fuel Israeli colonization and contributes to massive violations of Palestinian human rights. But the Commission rejected the initiative, claiming that it did not have authority to consider what would amount to imposing sanctions. It argued that only member governments could decide on sanctions.Read more: EU forced to admit it can block trade with Israeli colonies | The Electronic Intifada
Students return to Gaza classrooms Tareq Hajjaj Mondoweiss 27/09/2021
Her son Moaaz, who is in the seventh grade, chimed in, “The moment I entered the school and saw the damages on the walls, I remembered the sound of bombs.”
Other students are returning to school for the first time after sustaining injuries last May. Saleh Hamed, a third-grader from the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in eastern Gaza, insisted on using crutches instead of his wheelchair, which he uses after his foot was amputated following a shrapnel injury. During the fighting with Israel, he was walking by a cemetery that was hit in an airstrike, along with his father and brother. In the blast, his hand was also damaged and he now has a metal implant. Read more: Students return to Gaza classrooms, but many schools are still damaged from Israeli attacks – Mondoweiss
Israel kills six Palestinians in 48 hours Tamara Nassar EI 28/09/2021
Israeli occupation forces ran over a Palestinian child with a military vehicle after shooting him, a human rights group stated on Monday. Yousef Muhammad Odeh, 15, was among six Palestinians killed in multiple areas in the West Bank in recent days. All but one were killed by Israeli forces during a major arrest operation in different areas of the occupied West Bank on Sunday. The military targeted Hamas “military infrastructure” in the Ramallah and Jenin areas “after intelligence showed the group was planning to carry out attacks in Israel,” according to the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz.
The operation involved two death squads: Duvdevan, an elite Israeli military unit whose members often disguise themselves as Palestinians in order to carry out extrajudicial executions, and Yamam, a unit of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police whose members shot and killed two Palestinian police officers in Jenin earlier this year Read more: Israel kills six Palestinians in 48 hours | The Electronic Intifada
Professor fired after Israel lobby smear campaign Asa Winstanley EI 01/10/2021 More than 300 academics and public intellectuals pushed back, signing an open letter to the university in support of Miller and his work Signatories included Noam Chomsky, Palestinian scholar and activist Sami al-Arian, dissident Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, filmmaker Ken Loach and comedian Alexi Sayle.“We feel duty-bound to express our solidarity with Professor Miller and to oppose such efforts to crush academic freedom,” the letter stated. It says that Miller is the target of “well-orchestrated efforts” to misrepresent his views “as evidence of anti-Semitism.” In February, Miller wrote in a piece for The Electronic Intifada that “Britain is in the grip of an assault on its public sphere by the state of Israel and its advocates.” “Meaningful conversations about anti-Black racism and Islamophobia have been drowned out by a concerted lobbying campaign targeting universities, political parties, the equalities regulator and public institutions all over the country.” Read more: Professor David Miller fired after Israel lobby smear campaign | The Electronic Intifada
Arab-Israelis split on Shin Bet's role Afif Abu Much almonitor 06/10/21
Shin Bet activity in Arab-Israeli towns could feed the perception that the police work on behalf of Jews, while the Shin Bet focuses on Arabs. Those who object to the move argue that only the police should deal with civilian matters. Many of them ask why the police can rein in crime and violence in the Jewish sector, but fails when it comes to the Arab society. Also, Arab-Israelis fear that the recent decision will formally turn them into a “security threat” in the eyes of the state and the Jewish society. It brands the entire Arab population as an enemy, to be handled by official bodies like the IDF and the Shin Bet. Those who object argue that only the police should deal with civilian matters. Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/10/arab-israelis-split-shin-bets-role-fighting-surging-violence#ixzz78cvDke1F
Sweden moves to criminalize support for Palestine Ali Abunimah EI 13/10/21
“Organized racism and support for organized racism will be criminalized,” the Swedish government asserts.What should raise particular alarm about these pledges is that Sweden’s approach to anti-Semitism will be based on the IHRA definition – opening the way to criminalization of support for Palestinian rights by falsely defining it as “hate.”
While that may sound extreme, dozens of international anti-Semitism scholars, many of them Jewish or Israeli, have issued what they call a “stark warning against the political instrumentalization of the fight against anti-Semitism.” “We notice coordination with and reliance on lobby organizations shielding the Israeli government,” the scholars state.
Their statement has been published in Swedish and other European media.
The scholars say that the IHRA definition is being “weaponized against human rights organizations and solidarity activists who denounce Israel’s occupation and human rights violations” and is used to “legitimize wrongful accusations of anti-Semitism.”
. . . . . . The scholars are particularly scathing about recent moves by the European Union, including its recently issued “handbook” for applying the IHRA definition and its new “strategy” to combat anti-Semitism. Read more: Sweden moves to criminalize support for Palestine | The Electronic Intifada
Israel tries to whitewash its bloody legacy in Lebanon Tamara Nassar EI 7/7/21
Israel is once again trying to whitewash its crimes against Lebanon by offering the country “humanitarian aid.” Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz said Israel was “ready to act” and that he made his offer via UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, through Israeli army liaisons. . . . . . “My heart aches seeing the images of people going hungry on the streets of Lebanon,” Gantz tweeted on Tuesday.
He added that he had made similar comments at a Sunday ceremony honoring former members of the South Lebanon Army.The SLA was a collaborator militia that aided Israel during its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon.That occupation ended in 2000 when Lebanese resistance fighters led by Hizballah drove Israeli forces out of the country. Many of the SLA members then fled to Israel.
The hypocrisy in Gantz’s offer is breathtaking.
Despite its withdrawal, Israel still violates Lebanese airspace and sovereignty almost daily, flying unmanned aircraft and fighter jets over the country. But it was only last month that Gantz was directing threats at Lebanon. “Lebanon needs to know that what Gaza experienced a few weeks ago is only the tip of the iceberg,” Gantz said in June. Read more: Israel tries to whitewash its bloody legacy in Lebanon | The Electronic Intifada
Religious MK regrets Ben-Gurion didn’t “finish the job” Michael Brown EI 15/10/2021 “You’re here by mistake, it’s a mistake that Ben-Gurion didn’t finish the job and didn’t throw you out in 1948,” Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionist Party, yelled at Palestinian members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament on Wednesday. . . . . . . In 2015, he claimed God commanded Jews not to sell homes to Arabs. . . . . Three years later, Smotrich called for young Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi to be shot or at least kneecapped. Read more Israeli lawmaker regrets Ben-Gurion didn't "finish the job" | The Electronic Intifada
Netflix’s launch of Palestinian movies Micharl Arria Mondoweiss 18/10/2021
“The diversification of our content sits close to my heart as Netflix works to become the home of Arabic Cinema, a place where anyone in the world can access great Arab stories,” said Director of Content Acquisitions for Netflix MENAT Nuha El Tayeb in a statement on the company’s website. “We believe that great stories travel beyond their place of origin, are told in different languages and enjoyed by people from all walks of life and, with the Palestinian Stories collection, we hope to amplify these beautiful stories to a global audience. While these stories are distinctly and authentically Arab, the themes are quintessentially human, and will resonate with audiences across the world. That is the true beauty of storytelling.” Read more: Netflix launches a new collection of Palestinian movies – Mondoweiss
Palestinian rights groups designated as “terrorists” Ali Abunimah and Maureen Clare Murphy EI 22/10/2021 Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz declared six prominent Palestinian human rights groups to be “terrorist organizations” on Friday. The defense ministry order accuses the groups of serving “as an arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,” a leftist political party banned by Israel, the US and the European Union due to its opposition to normalization with Israel. Some of the six targeted groups – Al-Haq, Addameer, Defense for Children International Palestine, the Union of Palestinian Women Committees, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Bisan Center for Research and Development – have cooperated closely with the International Criminal Court in its war crimes probe in the West Bank and Gaza.
Gantz’s conduct may come under ICC scrutiny as he twice perpetrated major massacres of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as army chief of staff in 2014, and as defense minister earlier this year, when he vowed that “no person, area or neighborhood in Gaza is immune. The targeted groups include “key partners” of the UN Human Rights Office in the West Bank and Gaza. Read more: Israel declares war on Palestinian rights groups | The Electronic Intifada
Why Israel calls human rights ‘Terrorism’ Raja Shehadeh The New York Review 27/10/2021 In a widely condemned move, the Israeli government has banned the group I founded. This is how it enforces impunity for its illegal policies of occupation. . . . . “My Ramallah world, with its proximity to the hills, was being transformed inexorably in a manner that mystified and frightened me,” he said. “The changes taking place through the Israeli army’s takeover of the land using various spurious legal ploys and replacing the names of the various land features, towns, and villages with Hebrew names, as well as the changes in the narrative that accompanied the process, were all preceded by the alterations that were taking place in the local laws. . . . The literal meaning is clear: All resistance to the occupation is terror. Israel is undermining the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate struggle. Read more: Why Israel Calls Human Rights ‘Terrorism’ | by Raja Shehadeh | The New York Review of Books (nybooks.com)
Palestinian educational equity in Israeli schools – the case of Nazareth
Dr Reem Khamis-Dakwar Mondoweiss 27/10/2021
I cannot help but wonder whether municipality leaders and administrators have failed to act on these concerning statistics because they reflect their ideal vision for Nof Hagalil; one devoid of an Arab population whatsoever. After all, their name change and rebranding efforts were aimed at directly disassociating from the Arab Nazareth down below. How better to achieve that goal than to systemically remind Arab children that these are not their streets? What more effective tactic is there to erase Palestinians’ language from a community than to assure that their children are unable to learn there or develop using it? Read more: The long and winding road for Palestinian educational equity in Israeli schools – Mondoweiss
Party Updates
Labour intensifies purge Asa Winstanley EI 19/08/2021
Two of the most high-profile targets came in recent days with the expulsion of veteran socialist filmmaker Ken Loach and a threat to expel Jewish anti-Zionist Graham Bash.
Left-wing group Jewish Voice for Labour says many of its leaders and members are being kicked out and as a result, “Labour is purging Jews from the party.”
Award-winning director Ken Loach announced on Saturday that he had been expelled.
Read more: Labour intensifies purge of socialists, dissenting Jews | The Electronic Intifada
A small price to pay for smearing Corbyn and the left Jonathan Cook RI&A 02/09/2021
It culminated in the McCarthyite claim – now being enforced by Corbyn’s successor as Labour leader, Keir Starmer – that to deny Labour has some especial antisemitism problem, separate from that found more generally in British society, is itself proof of antisemitism. Once accused of antisemitism, as the Labour left endlessly is, one is guilty by definition – the choice is either to confess to antisemitism or be proven an antisemite by denying the accusation. Like a victim caught in quicksand, the more vigorously the Labour left has rejected claims that the party is riddled with antisemitism the more it has sunk into the mire created by the Jewish Chronicle and others.
Ban on PSC speaker reversed Asa Winstanley EI 03/09/2021
Labour has apologized for telling its youth wing that it could not speak alongside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) at the UK party’s annual conference later this month.
Young Labour had been told by a party official “that they could not invite PSC to address one of their events at conference,” the campaign said in a statement on Thursday.
“When pressed for a reason, they were informed that PSC’s positions were ‘controversial,’” the campaign explained. After discussions with party officials on Wednesday night, PSC and Young Labour were informed there “had been a mistake” and that PSC could be invited after all, “and an apology was given.” Read more: Labour reverses ban on Palestine Solidarity Campaign speaker | The Electronic Intifada
Spectacular defeat for Israel lobby Ali Abunimah EI 27/09/2021
“We welcome this important and historic motion which represents a significant step for the Labour Party in acknowledging the reality of the system of apartheid imposed by Israel on Palestinians,” said Kamel Hawwash, chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
“Despite huge pressure imposed on Labour to reverse policy commitments made at conference in 2018 and 2019, this demonstrates the strength of solidarity with the Palestinian people amongst Labour’s grassroots members and within the trade union movement,” Hawwash added. “It is time impunity ended and accountability started.”
The resolution backs the International Criminal Court investigation into war crimes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.It endorses other “effective measures” as “called for by Palestinian civil society” – an affirmation of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that aims to end Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights and international law.
It also explicitly affirms “the right of Palestinian people, as enshrined in international law, to return to their homes.” Read more: Spectacular defeat for Israel lobby at Labour Party conference | The Electronic Intifada
Jackson Carlaw – the Green Party and the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism Stuart Littlewood RI&A 23/09/2021
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon admitted she hadn’t raised the issue with her new junior ministers. Carlaw had written to Sturgeon after Jewish groups expressed their concerns that the Scottish Green Party refuses to endorse the IHRA definition and had voted in favour of a motion describing Israel as a “racist state“ based on “Jewish supremacy” and calling Zionism a “racist endeavour”.
“If the Green Party won’t sign up to a globally recognised position on anti-Semitism, backed by every other party in Scotland,” said Carlaw, “they’re not fit to serve in the Scottish government. The Greens, especially their government ministers, must endorse this mainstream position or be removed from office. Their views are beyond radical. They are downright dangerous. Nicola Sturgeon cannot turn a blind eye to this extreme view held by her new coalition partners.Read more: https://www.redressonline.com/2021/09/scottish-conservative-big-shot-tells-green-party-ministers-if-you-refuse-to-sign-up-to-the-zionist-definition-of-anti-semitism-you-are-not-fit-to-serve-in-government/
Hugh Humphries
Secretary
Scottish Friends of Palestine 0141 637 8046 info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org
