This week, 21st-27th September 2015 Don’t forget:
Rabbis speak out – IJV meeting in London
on 1st October. Independent Jewish Voices has organised a meeting at which four
rabbis, from the Reform, Liberal and Mazorti traditions of Judaism, are
speaking out on social justice in Israel/Palestine. Another week, another
series of injustices. In Lest […]
Posted in News
Posted on September 26, 2015 by Richard Kuper
Crazy Country is Adam Keller’s blog from Israel
in which he regularly takes stock. As he shows here, a week can be an even
longer time in Israeli politics than usual. His report ranges from the Israeli
reaction to Reykjavik’s call for a boycott of Israeli goods, to a delegation of
former Israeli diplomats calling on the Brazilian embassy not to recognise the
appointment of settler leader Danny Dayan as the new Israeli ambassador to
Brazil, from the simmering fires on the ground as daily incidents –
confrontations, shooting and the hurling of stones and Molotov cocktails –
continue under occupation, to Netanyahu’s proposals to deal with the discontent
by shooting stone throwers and fining their parents…
Crazy country, indeed…
Posted in commentary, News Tagged BDS, occupation, stone-throwing
Posted on September 26, 2015 by Richard Kuper
The Palestinian
Center for Policy and
Survey Research is the premier opinion polling organisation in the Palestinian
territories. It has just published the results of a new poll showing a shift in
Palestinian opionion: a (bare) majority no longer supports a two-state
solution.
We carry Ali Sawafta’s report in Haaretz, and full
details of the extensive survey itself.
Posted in Analysis, commentary Tagged Palestinian opinion, two states
Posted on September 26, 2015 by Richard Kuper
We reprint this article not because there is anything
particularly new in it, nor because we agree with all its protagonist says. But
for a mass circulation Israeli newspaper/website, Yedioth Ahronoth/Ynetnews, to
devote over 4 thousand words to a broadly sympathetic portrait of a BDS
activist is an extraordinary event.
Perhaps something is stirring in the Israeli
conscience?
Posted in Campaigns, News Tagged BDS, cultural boycott, Netherlands
Posted on September 26, 2015 by Richard Kuper
Dror Etkes has been monitoring the settlements for
nearly 20 years through a series of roles – initially in Peace Now, then in
other organisations. His new detailed report, “Walled Garden – Declaration of
Closed Areas in the West Bank” concludes: “The State of Israel is making
sweeping use of closure orders in the West Bank for varied purposes, first of
all closing off areas for military training maneuvers. Research shows that the
continued closure of the vast majority of the training zones does not answer to
any military need…”
Posted in Analysis Tagged closed military zone, IDF, land grab, occupation
Posted on September 25, 2015 by Richard Kuper
Come and hear four rabbis, from the Reform, Liberal
and Mazorti traditions of Judaiasm, speaking out on social justice in
Israel/Palestine.
Chaired by Rev Giles Fraser.
Don’t miss it!
Posted in Campaigns
Posted on September 25, 2015 by Richard Kuper
We reported a few days ago about the brutal shooting
at Checkpoint 18 in Hebron
in Lest
we forget the price of occupation.
B’tselem has investigated the incident and in
measured, cautious language says that “the soldiers at the checkpoint acted
disproportionately. They did not try to subdue al-Hashlamun and take her into
custody without resorting to live fire. The claim that al-Hashlamun tried to
stab soldiers, repeated by the media, cannot be reconciled with the fact that
there was a metal barrier between her and the soldiers at the time of the
shooting. Furthermore, the soldier who opened fire continued shooting after she
had been hit in the legs and no longer posed a danger.”
We call it murder.
Posted in News Tagged hebron, impunity, occupation
Posted on September 25, 2015 by Richard Kuper
We often hear Palestinian textbooks being accused of
teaching hatred. As we reported back in 2013 in Israeli
textbooks also obliterate ‘the other’, Israeli textbooks can be pretty
shabby. Now, from the Yesha Council comes Occupation Shmuccupation a pure
“hasbara booklet for kids” designed to incite hatred, not just of “Arabs” but
of Israeli “left-wing organisations” as well.
Story by Ben Norton on Mondoweiss.
Posted in News Tagged education, hasbara, settlements, textbooks
Posted on September 25, 2015 by Richard Kuper
UK registered charity, Toremet, is run by Jonny Cline
who previously stood on Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home list in Israel’s 2013
municipal elections. A study by Ben White reveals that Toremet is acting as a
conduit for donations to Israeli settlements in the West
Bank. Since settlements are illegal under international law, Chris
Doyle, Director of Caabu (Council for Arab-British Understanding), said
“charities have a duty not to assist in the violation of such laws”, and urged
the Charity Commission to “take immediate action.”
Posted in News Tagged charity law, funding, settlements
Posted on September 25, 2015 by Richard Kuper
A week ago, the Guardian published a piece that
unquestioningly reproduced demands from so-called leaders of the Jewish
community that Jeremy Corbyn clarify claims that originated with a
self-confessed Holocaust denier. Corbyn has answered these allegations numerous
times but that didn’t stop them being simply regurgitated yet again. Jews for
Jeremy sent an immediate response but, sad to say, the Guardian has chosen not
to publish it. We reproduce it here.
Posted in Campaigns, News Tagged antisemitism uk, Guardian, Jeremy Corbyn
Posted on September 23, 2015 by Richard Kuper
Robert Cohen gives us an opportunity to replay PM
Netanyahu’s recent visit to London
where a petition for his arrest to be tried for war crimes was – unfortunately
but not unsurprisingly – turned down by HM Government. Cohen reflects wryly on
aspects of the visit.
Posted in Analysis Tagged arrest netanyahu, British Jews, Chief Rabbi
Posted on September 23, 2015 by Richard Kuper
An International Solidarity Movement report from Shuhada Street
checkpoint 56 in Hebron.
Short and anguished. Cold-blooded murder. Impunity in
action. We wait to see someone held to account, but not with bated breath…
Update: supplemented by a report by Philip Weiss,
with video evidence
Posted in News Tagged hebron, impunity, occupation
Posted on September 22, 2015 by Richard Kuper
Amjad Iraqi argues that “the only permanent cure to Jerusalem’s sickness lies
not just in ending the occupation (the foremost and most urgent step), but in
ending the nationalist-religious mantras of ownership of the city in both
Israeli and Palestinian social and political thought.”
Posted in Analysis, history Tagged Jerusalem, religion, religious fundamentalism
Posted on September 22, 2015 by Richard Kuper
A few days ago the Jerusalem
city council approved thirty
Hebrew street names for roads in East
Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighborhoods. The slow strangulation of
Palestinian identity continues, symbolised in this small-minded, grubby
decision.
Posted in News Tagged East Jerusalem, Palestinian identity
Posted on September 21, 2015 by Richard Kuper
Deborah Lipstadt, renowned Professor of Modern Jewish
History and Holocaust Studies, helps but agonises over helping the Syrian
refugees. In particular she “almost” agrees with Netanyahu’s decision not to
accept any refugees. Lisa Goldman responds differently: ” I don’t think anyone
would retroactively ask for nuance in judging those who once turned away
desperate Jews during the Holocaust, consigning them to genocide, because they
were not Christian and might not fit in.”
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