NEWS: News Updates

Palestinian students protest in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on 14 October. The involvement of young women has been one of the features of this intifada. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib /APA images

  

This week’s postings at JfJfP.com

Posted on October 18, 2015 by sarahbenton

Inevitably many of the postings this last week, 12-18 October, are concerned with what has been dubbed the ‘knife intifada’ or the ‘lone wolf’ intifada. Nothing like it has been seen before – despite arguments that knife stabbings have always been a Palestinian weapon. Despite the misgivings expressed by many (in the postings the previous […]

Posted in News

An uprising that follows no model

Posted on October 18, 2015 by sarahbenton

Nothing the Palestinians in Israel and the oPt have done since the 2nd intifada has frightened the Israelis as much as the indiscriminate use of knives and cars as weapons against civilians. Dr. Nadia Naser-Najjab, looking at theories of resistance, is impressed by how the young have created their own form of fight-back.

Posted in News Tagged colonialism, franz fanon, generation gap, we are the leaders

Mammoth bureaucracy that defines Palestinian life

Posted on October 18, 2015 by sarahbenton

The life of Palestinians in the occupied territories is minutely regulated by a huge bureaucracy of permits which they have to acquire for every movement. Where there is a mammoth bureaucracy there is corruption. Dr. Yael Berda explains how it works.

Posted in News Tagged bureaucracy, collaborators, freedom of movement, permits

The knife intifada

Posted on October 18, 2015 by sarahbenton

A tipping point in how much anger and humiliation can be contained, the use of social media, a new young generation which is educated and internet savvy and has little respect for any existing political faction, the desire to be a martyr. Peter Beaumont examines the character of this ‘lone wolf’ uprising.

Posted in News Tagged knife intifada, lone wolf, martyrs, stabbings

IDF punish families of attackers by destroying their homes

Posted on October 17, 2015 by sarahbenton

The ‘most moral army in the world’ resumed the demolition of Palestinian homes as a punishment in September 2014. This is quite clearly illegal on several counts – though the Supreme Court has left it to the Commanding Officer to decide as Charlotte SIlver, Electronic Intifada, and B’Tselem explain.

Posted in News Tagged home demolition, Supreme Court

Netanyahu declares war against enemy Palestinians

Posted on October 16, 2015 by sarahbenton

PM Netanyahu does not give interviews. He cannot be questioned about his decisions or policies or ideas – or his war-like rhetoric. So Akiva Eldar uses his column – the sharpest yet – to ask him some leading questions.

Posted in News Tagged israel state discrimination, judge yuval shadmi, netanyahu decisions

Terror in Jerusalem

Posted on October 16, 2015 by sarahbenton

Two reports (Canadian Globe and Mail and BBC) focus on the extreme fear felt by Israelis in Jerusalem and one on the shock felt by new French immigrants that they do not feel the promised security. Whether Palestinians have similar fear we don’t know, though they are far more likely to be killed (latest figures given). And we get a new euphemism from Jeremy Bowen: what is going on in Jerusalem is a sincere effort to ‘unify’ all the people in one city.

Posted in News Tagged graph stabbings, israeli fear, Jerusalem, shmuel eliyahu

Netanyahu accuses Abbas of incitement and ‘causing acts of terror’

Posted on October 15, 2015 by sarahbenton

Netanyahu’s determination to lay the blame for the current wave of violence on Pres. Abbas makes no sense – unless his primary aim is to find a reason not to engage in negotiations. Articles on Abbas’ position from Ma’an, MEE, Times of Israel

Posted in News Tagged Abbas, incitements, tanzin

A spectacle of violence

Posted on October 15, 2015 by sarahbenton

Media coverage of the current conflict in Palestine/Israel has been extensive but have media used this opportunity to deepen understanding of why there is a conflict? Most commentators think not. The only message is of violence, usually by Palestinians. Settler and right-wing incitements to violence are barely mentioned.

Posted in News Tagged media coverage

Israeli right calls for military government

Posted on October 15, 2015 by sarahbenton

Road blocks and new checkpoints; cars driven by Palestinians stopped and the drivers frisked, sometimes stripped; streets pounded by border police. Jerusalem is now under siege. “No terrorist should come out of an attack alive” insists Avigdor Lieberman. Ynet and Ma’an report.

Posted in News Tagged al-issiwaya, e. jerusalem siege, roadblocks

Hot words online, desolation on the ground

Posted on October 14, 2015 by sarahbenton

The several articles here from Palestinian sources look at the gulf between the agitational words on Facebook and Twitter – and the relative lack of mass action on the ground. This aspect creates a new opening for Palestinian women – but, like the Arab spring, this change of thinking may not lead to a responsive form of governance.

Posted in News Tagged home demolition, idf kills, jerusalem stabbings, muhannad halabi

Tories urge breaking law to punish ‘Hard Left’

Posted on October 14, 2015 by sarahbenton

In the party of law and order, the Cabinet Office and department for local government are raring to punish any local government which votes not to deal with settlements that have been declared illegal (Geneva Convention, clause on treatment of civilians). Thus our UK gov’t is happy to flout the law if it allows it to punish ‘The Hard Left’ and recruit the Jewish establishment. LPHR + Tory party press releases.

Posted in News Tagged BDS, conservative party, hard left, local councils

No-one is born with a knife in his hand and hate in her heart

Posted on October 14, 2015 by sarahbenton

In a powerful and dignified speech Yigal Elhanan tells a rally of Bereaved Families for Peace that the readiness to kill comes from humiliation, racism and despair. And to raise their voices against these hurts because ‘revenge blooms in silence’..

Posted in News Tagged bereaved families for peace, hatred, revenge

Deafened by his splatter-gun attack on ‘the left’

Posted on October 14, 2015 by sarahbenton

One-time leftie Alan Johnson, now at BICOM, fired loudly in the general direction of the left, critics of Israel, those wanting to destroy Israel, supporters of BDS, antisemites and anti-Zionists – indistinguishable it seems to him and the Jewish Chronicle which published it. Richard Kuper wrote a calm piece in response – which the JC has refused to publish – eventually saying that was for lack of space. Richard tells the tale of those who can’t hear what critics are saying for their own noisy attacks.

Posted in News Tagged anti-Zionism, antisemitism, Jewish Chronicle, JfJfP

Call for general strike by Israeli Palestinians

Posted on October 13, 2015 by sarahbenton

A general strike by Palestinian Israelis for this Tuesday was called a few days ago by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel. This will not affect West Bank Palestinians coming into Israel but is expected to close shops and business owned by Palestinians in Israel. Although this seems a welcome move into civil disobedience, Palestinians have renamed it a ‘Day of Rage’ and the right wing is threatening retribution for anyone who responds to the call.

Posted in News Tagged general strike, is it a third intifada

Stop the killings. Join the protest.

Posted on October 12, 2015 by sarahbenton

According to the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the principal targets and victims of the current wave of unrest in the West Bank are, of course, Jews. There is no occupation. There is no IDF or police force who are responsible for most of the deaths. There are no settlers urging the government to ever more harsh measures. Come and (counter-) demonstrate the truth of the matter on Tuesday outside the Palestinian Mission (Embassy), Hammersmith.