30 nov 2018
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American Cable News Network (CNN) has severed ties with its political contributor Marc Lamont Hill after he recently delivered a speech at the UN accusing Israel of practicing "state violence and ethnic cleansing" against the Palestinians.
A CNN spokesperson said in a brief statement on Thursday that Hill, a professor of media studies at Temple University, was "no longer under contract.” The network did not give a reason, but the move came amid objections to Hill's speech by pro-Israel groups, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is known for its enmity against Arabs and Muslim. Hill, a recurring political commentator on CNN, had called for “free |
Palestine from the river to the sea" in a UN meeting marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Wednesday.
“We have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grass-roots action, local action and international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea,” Hill said in the speech.
ADL claimed the "river to the sea" phrase was a code for the destruction of Israel, adding that the annual UN event promoted "divisiveness and hate.”
“We have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grass-roots action, local action and international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea,” Hill said in the speech.
ADL claimed the "river to the sea" phrase was a code for the destruction of Israel, adding that the annual UN event promoted "divisiveness and hate.”
Hundreds of Palestinians on Friday took part in a mass demonstration in Lod city in the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories against Israel's house demolition policy in the city.
The demonstrators raised banners and chanted slogans condemning Israel's stepped up demolition policy pursued against Palestinian houses in Lod.
The demonstration was organized in the wake of the demolition a three-floor house owned by the Palestinian family of Sha'aban two days ago.
The Israeli authorities usually demolish Palestinian houses and shops in the 1948 occupied Palestine under the pretext of being unlicensed.
The Palestinian citizens have two choices: to demolish their own buildings, or to have their buildings demolished by the Israeli municipality and pay fines amounting to thousands of shekels (one dollar=3.7 shekel).
Approximately one million and a half Palestinians live in the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories and hold Israeli citizenship, constituting 20% of the total population. These Palestinians suffer from discrimination in all fields, especially in the areas of employment and housing.
The demonstrators raised banners and chanted slogans condemning Israel's stepped up demolition policy pursued against Palestinian houses in Lod.
The demonstration was organized in the wake of the demolition a three-floor house owned by the Palestinian family of Sha'aban two days ago.
The Israeli authorities usually demolish Palestinian houses and shops in the 1948 occupied Palestine under the pretext of being unlicensed.
The Palestinian citizens have two choices: to demolish their own buildings, or to have their buildings demolished by the Israeli municipality and pay fines amounting to thousands of shekels (one dollar=3.7 shekel).
Approximately one million and a half Palestinians live in the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories and hold Israeli citizenship, constituting 20% of the total population. These Palestinians suffer from discrimination in all fields, especially in the areas of employment and housing.
“Israel must stop all violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws and adhere to them.” This was the strong message from the African Union (AU) Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, at the United Nations (UN) on Tuesday, while observing International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Mahamat’s message was delivered by Fatima Mohammed, the AU representative to the UN, at a special meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), and emphasized Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause.
“The African Union’s support to the Palestinian cause is intrinsically linked with the Africa-Arab partnership. More fundamentally, it is premised on the values of freedom, justice and humanitarian principles that Africa defends in international fora alongside all those striving to ensure that Palestine regains its right to exist as a key State in a region considered the cradle of humanity, religions and prophets, a region that the world has the obligation to preserve.”
Israel’s continued theft of Palestinian land through the construction of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem was identified as a major obstacle to peace. “The Israeli government continues to violate international norms and standards by increasing the pace of illegal settlements.”
These illegal settlements, Mahamat said, were “one of the core issues in the conflict…and contributes to forced displacement, severely limits Palestinian access to basic resources, including land and water, and perpetuates a system of segregation and structural inequality between Palestinians and Israelis.”
Mahamat also condemned Israel’s blockade and isolation of the Gaza Strip from the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This, he argued, represented a real threat to international peace and security in the region. “The African Union Commission will work tirelessly with the international community to ensure the establishment of an independent Palestinian State on the borders of June 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital,” Mahamat pledged.
Palestinian political movements welcomed the AU message of support.
“Africa’s solidarity is a major pillar in our struggle for liberation against Israeli apartheid and colonialism. African and Palestinian liberation movements have long stood in mutual solidarity for self-determination and freedom. We depend on our African allies to support our resistance against Israeli apartheid,” senior Hamas leader, Mousa Abu Marzouq, told the Afro-Palestine Newswire Service.
“Solidarity is not just an abstract expression of empathy; rather, it is an active, positive and concrete engagement,” said Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee member, Hanan Ashrawi. Global solidarity “should send a strong and important message to both the Palestinian people and to the global community that there is a price to be paid for Israel's persistent violations of international law and conventions. Simultaneously, it would be assuring the Palestinian people of the protection available to them in the international legal and political system.”
The AU’s rebuking of Israel comes just as Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been requesting key African states to lobby the continental union to give Israel an observer seat at the AU to counter Palestine’s influence at the continental body.
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was instituted by the UN in 1977, and is commemorated on 29 November – the day that the UN General Assembly adopted the ill-fated Resolution 181 (the UN Partition Plan for Palestine) despite objections from the Palestinians.
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People was established by the UN General Assembly in 1975, largely through the efforts of African countries. Guinea, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Tunisia serve on the committee. Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, and the AU are observers. Senegal chairs the committee.
Source: Afro-Palestine Newswire Service
Mahamat’s message was delivered by Fatima Mohammed, the AU representative to the UN, at a special meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), and emphasized Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause.
“The African Union’s support to the Palestinian cause is intrinsically linked with the Africa-Arab partnership. More fundamentally, it is premised on the values of freedom, justice and humanitarian principles that Africa defends in international fora alongside all those striving to ensure that Palestine regains its right to exist as a key State in a region considered the cradle of humanity, religions and prophets, a region that the world has the obligation to preserve.”
Israel’s continued theft of Palestinian land through the construction of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem was identified as a major obstacle to peace. “The Israeli government continues to violate international norms and standards by increasing the pace of illegal settlements.”
These illegal settlements, Mahamat said, were “one of the core issues in the conflict…and contributes to forced displacement, severely limits Palestinian access to basic resources, including land and water, and perpetuates a system of segregation and structural inequality between Palestinians and Israelis.”
Mahamat also condemned Israel’s blockade and isolation of the Gaza Strip from the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This, he argued, represented a real threat to international peace and security in the region. “The African Union Commission will work tirelessly with the international community to ensure the establishment of an independent Palestinian State on the borders of June 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital,” Mahamat pledged.
Palestinian political movements welcomed the AU message of support.
“Africa’s solidarity is a major pillar in our struggle for liberation against Israeli apartheid and colonialism. African and Palestinian liberation movements have long stood in mutual solidarity for self-determination and freedom. We depend on our African allies to support our resistance against Israeli apartheid,” senior Hamas leader, Mousa Abu Marzouq, told the Afro-Palestine Newswire Service.
“Solidarity is not just an abstract expression of empathy; rather, it is an active, positive and concrete engagement,” said Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee member, Hanan Ashrawi. Global solidarity “should send a strong and important message to both the Palestinian people and to the global community that there is a price to be paid for Israel's persistent violations of international law and conventions. Simultaneously, it would be assuring the Palestinian people of the protection available to them in the international legal and political system.”
The AU’s rebuking of Israel comes just as Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been requesting key African states to lobby the continental union to give Israel an observer seat at the AU to counter Palestine’s influence at the continental body.
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was instituted by the UN in 1977, and is commemorated on 29 November – the day that the UN General Assembly adopted the ill-fated Resolution 181 (the UN Partition Plan for Palestine) despite objections from the Palestinians.
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People was established by the UN General Assembly in 1975, largely through the efforts of African countries. Guinea, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Tunisia serve on the committee. Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, and the AU are observers. Senegal chairs the committee.
Source: Afro-Palestine Newswire Service
25 nov 2018
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3 years ago
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British state broadcaster's year-long investigation finds Thai workers on Israeli farms are 'overworked and underpaid,' living in unsanitary conditions provided to them by the farmers, and at risk of dying from pesticide-related illnesses.
Thai workers in Israel are reportedly subject to "widespread abuse" and abject neglect, which is the result of an elaborate agricultural scheme between the two governments, a BBC report alleged. The report, titled "Israel's forgotten Thai workers," summarizes a year-long investigation conducted by Thai correspondents working for the British state broadcaster. Throughout the year, the journalists visited 50 farms in Israel and interviewed hundreds of Thai workers there. The report suggests that the workers are subject to unsafe work practices, unsanitary living conditions in filthy and polluted environment, and that many of them are “overworked and underpaid.” The report also highlighted the dozens of unexplained deaths among Thai workers. The correspondents discovered that most of the accomodation the workers were provided by the farmers who employ them were in a horrific state. “The walls are moldy and rotten. There are mice inside. They make a lot of noise at night,” said one worker to a BBC journalist. According to the report, the Israeli and Thai governments signed an agricultural labor agreement back in 2012, which saw 25,000 Thai workers being brought to the country to work on Israeli farms, and although technically the workers are legally protected, their working conditions |
depend on the farmers, who provide them with food and shelter and could terminate their employment at any moment.
Many of the Thai workers are forced to work many hours spraying pesticides without being provided protective equipment, with Israel using more pesticides per agricultural dunam than any other OECD country.
The long-term exposure to active pesticides is believed to be associated with a series of diseases—some of which could be deadly.
“There was something wrong with my body, so I told my employer I wanted to see a doctor, but he didn’t want to take me,” recalled the one worker, emphasizing that many are afraid to complain about their employers to a higher authority out of fear of having their work visas revoked.
According to the BBC investigation, since the agricultural agreement went into effect, at least 172 Thai workers have died in Israel, and since in most cases autopsies weren’t carried out, the causes of death were classified as “undetermined.”
The Ministry of Labor issued an official response to the report, saying hundreds of inspections are carried out annually on farms that employ Thai workers with the help of interpreters.
“More than 1,500 investigations have been opened since 2013—into pay and working hours. We’ve issued 3,000 warnings and 200 fines totalling more than $3.8 million,” the ministry stressed.
Many of the Thai workers are forced to work many hours spraying pesticides without being provided protective equipment, with Israel using more pesticides per agricultural dunam than any other OECD country.
The long-term exposure to active pesticides is believed to be associated with a series of diseases—some of which could be deadly.
“There was something wrong with my body, so I told my employer I wanted to see a doctor, but he didn’t want to take me,” recalled the one worker, emphasizing that many are afraid to complain about their employers to a higher authority out of fear of having their work visas revoked.
According to the BBC investigation, since the agricultural agreement went into effect, at least 172 Thai workers have died in Israel, and since in most cases autopsies weren’t carried out, the causes of death were classified as “undetermined.”
The Ministry of Labor issued an official response to the report, saying hundreds of inspections are carried out annually on farms that employ Thai workers with the help of interpreters.
“More than 1,500 investigations have been opened since 2013—into pay and working hours. We’ve issued 3,000 warnings and 200 fines totalling more than $3.8 million,” the ministry stressed.
Dozens of Israeli young men, students and workers, who live in settlements near the Gaza border participated in a sit-in on Sunday morning to demand the Israeli government to preserve permanent calm on the Gaza front.
According to the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the sit-in was staged at the entrance to Eshkol regional council.
The demonstrators were protesting the volatile security situation on the Israeli-Gaza border and chanted slogans calling on the government to let them live peacefully and quietly.
Gaza has been under inhumane blockade for about 12 years, while Israel commits, every once in a while, systematic crimes against the population.
15 nov 2018 Poll: 64% of Israelis seek to escalate aggressions on Gaza
According to the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the sit-in was staged at the entrance to Eshkol regional council.
The demonstrators were protesting the volatile security situation on the Israeli-Gaza border and chanted slogans calling on the government to let them live peacefully and quietly.
Gaza has been under inhumane blockade for about 12 years, while Israel commits, every once in a while, systematic crimes against the population.
15 nov 2018 Poll: 64% of Israelis seek to escalate aggressions on Gaza
An Israeli military vehicle was shot overnight Saturday by anonymous gunmen on the borders between Egypt and Palestinian territories occupied in 1948.
According to the Hebrew-speaking 0404 new website, gunfire was unleashed toward an Israeli military unit stationed at the borders with Egypt.
No injuries were reported among the Israeli occupation soldiers in the alleged shooting attack.
No details were further unraveled by the Israeli source. An investigation was, meanwhile, launched by the Israeli military to determine the motives behind the shooting attack and the party responsible for it.
According to the Hebrew-speaking 0404 new website, gunfire was unleashed toward an Israeli military unit stationed at the borders with Egypt.
No injuries were reported among the Israeli occupation soldiers in the alleged shooting attack.
No details were further unraveled by the Israeli source. An investigation was, meanwhile, launched by the Israeli military to determine the motives behind the shooting attack and the party responsible for it.
20 nov 2018
The botched Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip on 12 November is delineating Tel Aviv’s failure to utilize its army as a tool to achieve Palestinian political concessions.
Now that Palestinian popular resistance has gone global through the exponential rise and growing success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, the Israeli government is fighting two desperate wars.
Following the Gaza attack, Palestinians responded by showering the southern Israeli border with rockets and carried out a precise operation targeting an Israeli army bus. As Palestinians marched in celebration of pushing the Israeli army out of their besieged enclave, the fragile political order in Israel – long-managed by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – was quickly unraveling.
Two days after the Israeli attack on Gaza, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman quit in protest of Netanyahu’s ‘surrender’ to the Palestinian resistance. Israeli leaders are in a precarious situation. Untamed violence comes at a price of international condemnation and a Palestinian response that is bolder and more strategic every time. However, failing to teach Gaza its proverbial ‘lesson’ is viewed as an act of surrender by opportunistic Israeli politicians.
While Israel is experiencing such limitations on the traditional battlefield, which it once completely dominated, its war against the global BDS movement is surely a lost battle. Israel has a poor track record in confronting civil society-based mobilization. Despite the vulnerability of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, it took the Israeli government and military seven long years to pacify the Intifada, the popular uprising of 1987. Even on this, the jury is still out on what truly ended the popular revolt.
Of course, it should be accepted that a global Intifada is much more difficult to suppress, or even contain. Yet, when Israel began to sense the growing danger of BDS – which was officially launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005 – it responded with the same superfluous and predictable pattern: arrests, violence and a torrent of laws that criminalize dissent at home, while unleashing an international campaign of intimidation and smearing of boycott activists and organisations.
This approach achieved little, aside from garnering BDS more attention and international solidarity. However, Israel’s war on the movement took a serious turn last year when Netanyahu’s government dedicated about $72 million to defeat the civil society-led campaign.
Utilizing the ever-willing US government to boost its anti-BDS tactics, Tel Aviv feels assured that its counter-BDS efforts in the US are off to a promising start. However, it is only recently that Israel has begun to formulate the wider European component of its global strategy.
In a two-day conference in Brussels earlier this month, Israeli officials and their European supporters unleashed their broader European anti-BDS campaign. Organised by the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Europe Israel Public Affairs group (EIPA), the conference was fully supported by the Israeli government and featured right-wing Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin.
Under the usual pretext of addressing the danger of anti-Semitism in Europe, attendees deliberately conflated racism and any criticism of Israel, of its military occupation and colonization of Palestinian land. The EJA Annual Conference has raised Israel’s manipulation of the term ‘anti-Semitism’ to a whole new level, as it drafted a text that will purportedly be presented to prospective members of the European Parliament (MEPs), demanding their signature before running in next May’s elections. Those who decline to sign – or worse, repudiate the Israeli initiative – are likely to find themselves fending off accusations of racism and anti-Semitism.
Yet this was certainly not the first conference of its kind. The anti-BDS euphoria that has swept Israel in recent years yielded several crowded and passionate conferences in luxurious hotels, where Israeli officials openly threatened BDS activists such as Omar Barghouti. Barghouti was warned by a top Israeli official during a 2016 conference in Jerusalem of “civil assassination” for his role in the organisation of the movement.
In March 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed the Anti-BDS Travel Ban, which requires the Interior Minister to deny entry to the country to any foreign national who “knowingly issued a public call to boycott the state of Israel”. Since the ban went into effect, many BDS supporters have been detained, deported and barred from entering the country.
While Israel has demonstrated its ability to galvanize self-serving US and European politicians to support its cause, there is no evidence that the BDS movement is being quelled or weakened in any way. On the contrary, Israel’s strategy has raised the ire of many activists, civil society and civil rights groups who are angered by its attempt at subverting freedom of speech in western countries.
Just recently, the University of Leeds in the UK has joined many other campuses around the world in divesting from Israel. The tide is, indeed, turning.
Decades of Zionist indoctrination failed, not only in reversing the vastly-changing public opinion on the Palestinian struggle for freedom and rights, but even in preserving the once solid pro-Israel sentiment among young Jews, most notably in the US. For BDS supporters, however, every Israeli strategy presents an opportunity to raise awareness of Palestinian rights and to mobilize civil society around the world against Israel’s occupation and racism.
BDS’ success is attributed to the very reason Israel is failing to counter its efforts: it is a disciplined model of popular, civil resistance based on engagement, open debate and democratic choices, while grounded in international and humanitarian law.
Israel’s ‘war-chest’ will run dry in the end, for no amount of money could have saved the racist, Apartheid regime in South Africa when it came tumbling down decades ago. Needless to say, $72 million will not turn the tide in favor of Apartheid Israel, nor will it change the course of history that can only belong to those people who are unrelenting when it comes to achieving their long-coveted freedom.
- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle.
Now that Palestinian popular resistance has gone global through the exponential rise and growing success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, the Israeli government is fighting two desperate wars.
Following the Gaza attack, Palestinians responded by showering the southern Israeli border with rockets and carried out a precise operation targeting an Israeli army bus. As Palestinians marched in celebration of pushing the Israeli army out of their besieged enclave, the fragile political order in Israel – long-managed by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – was quickly unraveling.
Two days after the Israeli attack on Gaza, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman quit in protest of Netanyahu’s ‘surrender’ to the Palestinian resistance. Israeli leaders are in a precarious situation. Untamed violence comes at a price of international condemnation and a Palestinian response that is bolder and more strategic every time. However, failing to teach Gaza its proverbial ‘lesson’ is viewed as an act of surrender by opportunistic Israeli politicians.
While Israel is experiencing such limitations on the traditional battlefield, which it once completely dominated, its war against the global BDS movement is surely a lost battle. Israel has a poor track record in confronting civil society-based mobilization. Despite the vulnerability of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, it took the Israeli government and military seven long years to pacify the Intifada, the popular uprising of 1987. Even on this, the jury is still out on what truly ended the popular revolt.
Of course, it should be accepted that a global Intifada is much more difficult to suppress, or even contain. Yet, when Israel began to sense the growing danger of BDS – which was officially launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005 – it responded with the same superfluous and predictable pattern: arrests, violence and a torrent of laws that criminalize dissent at home, while unleashing an international campaign of intimidation and smearing of boycott activists and organisations.
This approach achieved little, aside from garnering BDS more attention and international solidarity. However, Israel’s war on the movement took a serious turn last year when Netanyahu’s government dedicated about $72 million to defeat the civil society-led campaign.
Utilizing the ever-willing US government to boost its anti-BDS tactics, Tel Aviv feels assured that its counter-BDS efforts in the US are off to a promising start. However, it is only recently that Israel has begun to formulate the wider European component of its global strategy.
In a two-day conference in Brussels earlier this month, Israeli officials and their European supporters unleashed their broader European anti-BDS campaign. Organised by the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Europe Israel Public Affairs group (EIPA), the conference was fully supported by the Israeli government and featured right-wing Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin.
Under the usual pretext of addressing the danger of anti-Semitism in Europe, attendees deliberately conflated racism and any criticism of Israel, of its military occupation and colonization of Palestinian land. The EJA Annual Conference has raised Israel’s manipulation of the term ‘anti-Semitism’ to a whole new level, as it drafted a text that will purportedly be presented to prospective members of the European Parliament (MEPs), demanding their signature before running in next May’s elections. Those who decline to sign – or worse, repudiate the Israeli initiative – are likely to find themselves fending off accusations of racism and anti-Semitism.
Yet this was certainly not the first conference of its kind. The anti-BDS euphoria that has swept Israel in recent years yielded several crowded and passionate conferences in luxurious hotels, where Israeli officials openly threatened BDS activists such as Omar Barghouti. Barghouti was warned by a top Israeli official during a 2016 conference in Jerusalem of “civil assassination” for his role in the organisation of the movement.
In March 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed the Anti-BDS Travel Ban, which requires the Interior Minister to deny entry to the country to any foreign national who “knowingly issued a public call to boycott the state of Israel”. Since the ban went into effect, many BDS supporters have been detained, deported and barred from entering the country.
While Israel has demonstrated its ability to galvanize self-serving US and European politicians to support its cause, there is no evidence that the BDS movement is being quelled or weakened in any way. On the contrary, Israel’s strategy has raised the ire of many activists, civil society and civil rights groups who are angered by its attempt at subverting freedom of speech in western countries.
Just recently, the University of Leeds in the UK has joined many other campuses around the world in divesting from Israel. The tide is, indeed, turning.
Decades of Zionist indoctrination failed, not only in reversing the vastly-changing public opinion on the Palestinian struggle for freedom and rights, but even in preserving the once solid pro-Israel sentiment among young Jews, most notably in the US. For BDS supporters, however, every Israeli strategy presents an opportunity to raise awareness of Palestinian rights and to mobilize civil society around the world against Israel’s occupation and racism.
BDS’ success is attributed to the very reason Israel is failing to counter its efforts: it is a disciplined model of popular, civil resistance based on engagement, open debate and democratic choices, while grounded in international and humanitarian law.
Israel’s ‘war-chest’ will run dry in the end, for no amount of money could have saved the racist, Apartheid regime in South Africa when it came tumbling down decades ago. Needless to say, $72 million will not turn the tide in favor of Apartheid Israel, nor will it change the course of history that can only belong to those people who are unrelenting when it comes to achieving their long-coveted freedom.
- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle.
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