MadisonRafah.org

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project

Rafah al-Salam neighborhood, November 23, 2023
Rafah al-Salam neighborhood, August 22, 2024

  • Special Back-to-School Appeal: Please support READ PALESTINE!

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    During the past year the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project joined with a group of local book-loving volunteers to create READ PALESTINE! — a project to spread awareness and educate young people about Palestine by offering them Palestinian stories and culture through books.

    We need your help now to expand the reach of this project.

    Here is how it works: We fundraise and purchase books by and about Palestinians for all ages, from tots to high schoolers. We link up with educators, parents and librarians who can opt to receive a bundle of books for their libraries, classrooms or homes.

    We have also started offering community Read Aloud hours, where we team up with local spots for a storytelling session followed by a cool craft.  Think bookstores, libraries, community centers and classrooms with a circle of kids and parents listening to a book being read aloud to them. (If you know of a place that would like us to do a Read Aloud, please get in touch!)

    More recently, we have launched youth Book Clubs. Regardless of the child’s school level – elementary, middle, or high school – we have books they will find engaging and gain valuable insight from. Students can gather (sometimes with students in Palestine via Zoom) for a few sessions of book discussion and learning led by one of our Read Palestine volunteers.

    Our mission for this project is summed up best by this statement from The Madison Reading Project: “We believe wholeheartedly in the importance of children having access to books that reflect their unique identities and open their eyes to other people’s lived experiences.”

    As we approach the fall start of school, we are asking you to please consider a donation to spread the Read Palestine book project even further in the Madison community.

    Donate to purchase a complete Book Package (packages range from $60 to $87) or individual titles on our list. Packages and books are listed below. One hundred percent of your donation will go to purchasing books for the project.

    • Donate securely online through our Square account, or
    • Help us avoid credit card fees and mail a check payable to MRSCP and marked “Book Project” to
      MRSCP
      P.O. Box 5214
      Madison, WI 53705

    As always, we thank you for your support!

    Interested in volunteering with this project?
    Contact RafahSisterCity@yahoo.com

    Read Palestine! Book Packages

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  • HELP REMOVE SABRA HUMMUS FROM WILLY STREET CO-OP

    Sabra is co-owned by the Strauss Group, an Israeli multinational known for its funding and support of Israeli military brigades notorious for human rights violations and war crimes.

    Send a Customer Comment to Willy Street by

    • No Sabra At Willy online form, or
    • Paper form from the owner resources area at one of the stores.

    Make sure you include your Co-op membership number! Willy Street only accepts one form per member number, and your membership must be current with a recent purchase.

    There are about 33,000 active member numbers (individuals or families), and the Co-op requires a 1% response or about 330 member number comments by 6/11/25 to consider the issue.

    179 accepted toward 330 minimum on 9/12/24

    When comments approach the 1% threshold the store alerts all members for a 14-day comment period, followed by a decision from General Manager Anya Firszt and her staff.

    Only the North store is currently stocking Sabra, but members using any store location can vote.

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  • Update from MECA on aid to Gaza

    $20,632 of $20,000 on 9/6/24

    Please give now to allow MECA to provide medical aid, clean water, food, psychological support, and more.

    MECA volunteer fills containers from a water tank in Gaza. DONATE FOR WATER NOW.

    “Death is coming, not just from bombs, death is coming from starvation, from dehydration, and from diseases. Using starvation and thirst as a weapon is hitting hard especially in these hot summer months.” 

    This is what Amal, MECA’s Water Coordinator in Gaza told me on the phone today. 

    With your solidarity and support, MECA is distributing 35,000 gallons a day in many areas of Gaza.

    Please give now

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  • Stop the Massacres!

    MECA

    Eight actions you can take now

    1. Join a local, regional, or national protest. Check with a Palestine solidarity group near you or this list on the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights website. If you are in the Bay Area, check AROC’s list of local events.

    2. Call for a ceasefire and humanitarian access for Gaza now! Contact your US Congresspeople and Senators.

    3. Boycott companies profiting from genocide. See the list of businesses and more on the BDS website. 

    4. Educate yourself and others with basic info, recent analysis, or infographics at Visualizing Palestine. Look for books, articles, videos, and podcasts. If you are a K-12 teacher, check out MECA’s Teach Palestine Project.

    (more…)

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  • We Are Not Numbers

    Stories of people from Gaza

    Numbers are impersonal and often numbing. What they don’t convey are the daily personal struggles and triumphs, the tears and the laughter, and the aspirations that are so universal that if it weren’t for the context, they would immediately resonate with virtually everyone.

    That’s why established and aspiring “word artists” from around the world have joined with youth in Gaza, and now Lebanon, to create We Are Not Numbers. Through this platform, we share and celebrate their stories, with experienced authors mentoring young writers.

    We Are Not Numbers
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  • Madison-Masafer Yatta Olive Grove

    Plant An Olive Tree in the Madison-Masafer Yatta Grove!

    Trees sponsored now will be planted where attacks on villages are happening.
    This is ongoing and a great way to either end or start the year.

    271 of 500 Trees on 12/16/23

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  • ❝Random Quotes❞

    In the case of the girls, we should exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and the cameras. ― Israeli journalist Ben Caspit, referring to retaliation against Palestinian 16-year old Ahed Tamimi and her family

  • Latest Posts

    begin below . . .

  • The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza

    Fault Lines Documentary & Al Jazeera English, YouTube, Jun 21, 2024

    From air strikes to field executions, Fault Lines investigates the killings of civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza and the role of the United States in the war.

    As Israel’s bombing campaign continues in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis deepens to catastrophic levels, the Biden administration has not wavered in its support for Israel. United States weapons transfers – from 2,000-pound bombs to artillery shells and tanks – have been a crucial part of the Israeli military campaign.

    Fault Lines worked with journalists in Gaza to profile three families as they try to survive the war.

    Together with Airwars, Fault Lines also investigated an air strike on December 11 in north Gaza in which more than 100 people from the same family were killed.

    Numerous attacks on civilians – including that on Hind Rajab and her relatives in late January – have raised international concern and questions over continuing US support. Fault Lines partnered with Forensic Architecture and Earshot to investigate that attack.

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  • Opinion | Stop the bloodshed in Gaza; divest now

    By Miriam Hasan et al. | guest column
    The Cap Times, Sep 12, 2024

    A Palestinian man holds the body of a relative killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital in Deir al-Balah on Aug. 22. AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana

    The U.S. was first to recognize the state of Israel when it was created in 1948. Since then, U.S. leaders have treated Israel like a strategic asset needed to advance American interests in the Middle East. Pursuing those interests and protecting this asset has come at a tremendous human cost.

    Nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Israel’s conduct in Gaza has drawn almost universal condemnation from the international community — the U.S. being the major exception, even as tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israel. Nearly half of the known dead are children. Many thousands more are injured or missing under rubble. And even with an immediate cease-fire, thousands will die prematurely of preventable, treatable diseases due to the wholesale destruction of Gaza’s health and sanitation systems.

    Over the last year, we’ve seen Israeli forces massacring Palestinians approaching food aid trucks, learned of countless killings of humanitarian aid workers and journalists, and listened to recordings of Hind Rajab’s heartbreaking pleas for rescue. At 6 years old, Hind was alone, injured by the Israeli fire that killed everyone else in the car with her as they tried to flee to safety. Paramedics trying to rescue her followed a route explicitly approved by Israeli authorities. Nevertheless, Israeli forces blew up their ambulance, leaving the terrified girl to die alone.

    These are but a glimpse of the horrors Palestinians in Gaza endure every day. Our elected leaders acknowledge this suffering, wringing their hands as though they are helpless. At the same time, they escalate weapons transfers to Israel, guaranteeing more suffering.

    More than 40,000 people of conscience in Wisconsin registered their outrage over this contradiction by voting “uninstructed” in the April primary.

    Still, the genocide continues. And if voting alone cannot stop a genocide, it’s our moral duty to find other means. In 2005, a coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations called for people around the world to boycott, divest and pressure states to sanction (BDS) Israel to stop its violations of Palestinian human rights. There’s precedent for this strategy. Boycott and divestment campaigns helped end apartheid in South Africa. In the U.S., they’ve helped secure better pay for farmworkers and defeat Jim Crow laws. Moving our money collectively can be a powerful lever.

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  • The Deadly US Weapons of Civilian Destruction

    By Thalif Deen, IPS-Inter Press Service, Sep 13, 2024

    Much of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed in the conflict. Credit: UNRWA

    UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – As the devastating 11-month-old conflict in Gaza keeps escalating, with over 41,000 mostly civilian killings, and more than 92,000 Palestinians injured –in retaliation for the 1,200 killings inside Israel last October– the Israelis continue to defy the United States which maintains its uninterrupted flow of heavy weapons to Tel Aviv.

    There are two hardcore lessons in this conflict. Perhaps Israel should realize that you cannot continue biting the hand that feeds you while the Biden administration should realize that you cannot continue to feed the mouth that bites you.

    The world’s weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) are categorized mostly as nuclear, chemical, biological and radiological weapons. But the US-supplied missiles and 2,000-pound bombs dropped on Gaza are best described as weapons of civilian destruction (WCDs) which have also reduced cities to rubble.

    On September 11, the New York Times ran a story on the latest killings of civilians, titled “Israel Kills Gazans as its Air Power Hits a Humanitarian Zone”

    The Times quoted Trevor Ball, a former US army explosive ordnance-disposal technician, as identifying a fragment found at the most recent bombing in Gaza as “the tail section of a SPICE-2000 kit, a precision guided kit used with 2,000-pound bombs.

    If Israel is accused of genocide and war crimes, where does the US fit in as the major supplier of arms that are killing all these civilians?

    And, on August 13, as the civilian killings continued unabated, the Biden Administration formally notified Congress of its plan to authorize the sale of a staggering list of arms to Israel including:

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  • Filmmakers Condemn Israeli Films at Venice Festival

    ‘No Artwashing Genocide’

    Although festival head Alberto Barbera spoke out against ongoing war crimes in Gaza, he stated he has no intention of removing the films from this year’s lineup

    The cast and crew of the Tunisian film Aicha made a powerful statement at the Venice Film Festival

    Mehr Jan, American Muslim Today, Sep 10, 2024

    Around 300 filmmakers, including Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad, have voiced their objection to the Venice Film Festival’s decision to screen two Israeli films.  

    In an, the group criticized the festival’s choice, highlighting growing tensions within the global film community. 

    The letter stated, “As art and film workers around the world, we call for effective and ethical measures to hold apartheid Israel to account for its crimes and system of colonial oppression against Palestinians. 

    “We say that it is unacceptable that films made by production companies complicit in a regime engaged in continuous atrocities against the Palestinian people should be shown in Venice. The film festival should not [program] productions complicit in apartheid crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide, regardless who perpetrates them and should refrain from doing so in the future.” 

    The artists concluded by condemning “the artwashing of Israel’s genocide on the international cultural stage” as “deeply immoral. 

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  • Oct 19, 2024: Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha in Madison

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  • New video, witnesses challenge Israel’s account of U.S. activist’s killing

    The IDF said Aysenur Eygi was shot “unintentionally” during a “violent riot.” A Post analysis shows clashes had subsided and protesters had retreated. 
    WaPo Washington Post logo
    Left: In a photo taken on the day of Aysenur Eygi’s death, she poses with fellow activists. Right: A photo captures the presence of Israeli troops near the protest she attended in the hour before she was shot and killed. (Obtained by The Washington Post)

    By Miriam Berger, Loveday Morris, Meg Kelly, Jarrett Ley and Sufian Taha Washington Post, September 11, 2024

    BEITA, West Bank — It was Aysenur Eygi’s first time at a West Bank demonstration, and she was nervous.

    The 26-year-old Turkish American told fellow activists she hoped to be a “protective presence” for Palestinians at a time of spiraling violence across the Israeli-occupied territory.

    “We had both decided we did not want to be near any action at all,” said Helen, a volunteer from Australia in her early 60s who was with Eygi throughout the day.

    Eygi’s caution did not protect her. She was fatally shot in the head on Friday in the village of Beita, near Nablus, following brief clashes after Friday prayers. The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday it was “very likely” she had been hit “unintentionally” by one of its soldiers. “The incident took place during a violent riot,” the statement said, and the fire was aimed at “the key instigator.”

    But a Washington Post investigation has found that Eygi was shot more than a half-hour after the height of confrontations in Beita, and some 20 minutes after protesters had moved down the main road — more than 200 yards away from Israeli forces. A Palestinian teenager, who witnesses say was standing about 20 yards from Eygi, was wounded by Israeli fire; the IDF would not say if he was a target.

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  • Update: Oct 5, 2024: Ilan Pappe on Christian Zionism and the Israel Lobby

    11 am CT
    Online

    Join Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace (PCAP) and Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) for “Christian Zionism and the Israel Lobby: A Conversation with Ilan Pappe.” 

    Dr. Awad Halabi will be interviewing Ilan Pappe over Zoom about his latest book, Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic. Donate $100 or more to PCAP for a free copy of the book. 

    Cosponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace DC-Metro and American Muslims for Palestine.

    REGISTRATION AND MORE INFO HERE.

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  • Oct 2, 2024: Mouin Rabbani on Gaza Apocalypse: Causes and Consequences

    The Havens Wright Center for Social Justice

    Zoom
    12 noon – 1:30 pm CT

    REGISTER

    This event is presented in collaboration with the Institute for International and Regional Studies National Resource Center (IRIS NRC), and the Middle East Studies Program at UW-Madison.

    A man gently smiles as he looks directly into the camera. He is partially bald, and he wears the salt-and-pepper hair on the sides of his head cropped short. His face is clean shaven. He wears a white button-down shirt featuring a subtle window-pane pattern, along with a suit jacket bearing a herringbone weave in a brown/gray tone.

    Mouin Rabbani is a researcher, analyst, and commentator specialising in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He has among other positions previously served as Principal Political Affairs Officer with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Head of Middle East with the Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, Senior Middle East Analyst and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group, and Researcher with Al-Haq, West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists.

    Rabbani is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, where he also hosts the Connections podcast and edits its Quick Thoughts feature, Managing Editor and Associate Editor of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, and a Contributing Editor of Middle East Report. He is Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS), Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), and the Middle East Council on Global Affairs.

    A graduate of Tufts University and Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), Rabbani has published, presented and commented widely on Middle East issues, including for most major print, television and digital media.

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  • Sep 22, 2024: Banners Up for Palestine! at the Willy Street Fair!

    March With Us in the Parade!
    Assemble in the I/O Arcade Bar parking lot, 927 Williamson Street, Madison
    10:30 am – 12 Noon

    You are invited to join the MRSCP contingent in the Willy Street Fair Parade!  Wear your kuffiyehs, bring your family & friends as well as flags, signs or banners calling for an end to the bombing and occupation of Palestine.

    We’ll also be leafletting along the route to invite people to ask Willy Street Co-op to stop selling Sabra Hummus, which profits from war and occupation.

    Assemble in the I/O Arcade Bar parking lot, 927 Williamson Street, Madison before 10:30 am when the parade begins. 

    For updates, check the Facebook page. If you would like to help with the Willy Street Sabra campaign, please email rafahsistercity@yahoo.com.

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  • Sep 21, 2024: Film: “Where Olive Trees Weep”

    International Peace Day Viewing
    Friends Meeting House, 1704 Roberts Court, Madison
    7 pm (social gathering at 6:30; discussion follows film)

    The film Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice.

    The film follows a Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. We witness Dr. Gabor Maté offering trauma-healing work for a group of women who have been tortured in Israeli prisons.

    Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives.

    This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty?

    Film Trailer – No registration is necessary if you come in person.

    If you wish to view the film privately or host the film in your own community on September 21, go to https://kinema.com/events/where-olive-trees-weep-hjpxh and click the “Get Tickets” button to the left to view the film. ALL TICKETS ARE FREE. You will receive a confirmation email along with a reminder 30 minutes prior to the event time with a unique link to join the screening.

    Sponsored by the Interfaith Peace Working Group and Madison Meeting’s Peace Subcommittee

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  • Sep 21, 2024: Saturday Gaza Vigil at the Farmers Market

    Saturdays
    Capitol Square at King St, E Main St and S Pinckney St
    10 am – 12 noon

    We join again the Commemorative Action led by the Interfaith Peace Working Group. The display of shoes and reading of names of children who have been killed are a vivid representation of the Palestinian tragedy.

    With other local peace groups, Madison for a World Beyond War has been vigiling at the farmers market on the Square, reading names of children killed in Gaza and calling for ceasefire and to stop arming Israel.

    Can you help? Send us a note at warabolition@gmail.com to sign up to read names on a future Saturday morning.

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  • Sep 18 – Oct 30, 2024: Andaleeb Cartonera Cardboard Bookmaking Workshop #2

    The Crossing, 1127 University Avenue, UW-Madison Campus
    12 Noon – 1:30 pm
    Repeats weekly

    You are invited to the Andaleeb Cartonera bookmaking workshops on Wednesdays for ceasefire in Palestine and war abolition. Come learn to create a Latin American-style cartonera book. Contribute by painting a cardboard cover for Andaleeb Cartonera’s publications. 

    Andaleeb Cartonera press was established in Madison, WI in August 2024 to “pay tribute to the endurance of the Palestinian people, the spirit of righteous protest and solidarity embodied by the university encampments in Madison and throughout the U.S., and the worldwide movement that has risen in opposition to genocide in Gaza.” 

    Slow Food UW’s lunch will be available downstairs. Sponsored by Andaleeb Cartonera Collective and World Beyond War-Madison.

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  • Sep 18, 2024: Divestment in Wisconsin Law with Rep. Francesca Hong

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  • Sep 17, 2024: Medical Apartheid in Palestine

    Online
    12 noon CT

    REGISTER HERE

    Health care is a human right. But under the Israeli occupation, Palestinians have been deprived of access to even basic medicine, services, and treatment. Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza and the West Bank have deepened the crisis. To learn more about medical apartheid in Palestine, register for this American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Apartheid-Free webinar featuring public health experts and activists Dr. Alice Rothchild and Yazid Barhoush.

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  • Sep 17, 2024: Growing Repression of Dissent on Palestine

    10 am CT
    Online

    Join this online briefing to learn more about growing repression of dissent on Israel-Palestine, a trend that has built over decades and escalated in the past year. From anti-boycott legislation to the recent arrests of student protestors, leading experts will examine how these actions impact American democracy and our right to collectively organize on a range of issues – from Palestinian rights to the environment, racial justice, reproductive rights and beyond – at such a critical juncture. More information and registration here.

    The briefing will feature these speakers: 

    • Fadi Abu Shammalah, Journalist from Gaza and Outreach Associate, Just Vision
    • Sabiya Ahamed , Staff Attorney, Palestine Legal 
    • Lara Friedman, President, Foundation for Middle East Peace 
    • Maria La Hood, Deputy Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights
    • Simone Zimmerman, Director of Strategic Communications & Outreach, Diaspora Alliance and co-founder, IfNotNow
    • Suhad Babaa (Moderator), President and Executive Director, Just Vision 

    Save your spot for this Sept 17 briefing by RSVPing here. A Zoom link will be provided upon registration.

    See for example Northwestern Suspends Journalism Professor after Gaza Protest . Students at UW are also facing disciplinary proceedings this week.

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  • Sep 14, 2024: Commemorative Action for Gaza Ceasefire

    Please join our nextDownload
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  • Sep 12, 2024: U.S. Gaza Doctors Speak Out

    6 pm CENTRAL
    Online

    Vermonters for Justice in Palestine present a virtual talk by two American surgeons who traveled to work at Gaza hospitals about the horrors they witnessed there.

    REGISTER HERE. You will receive a confirmation email with a URL. 
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  • Sep 11, 2024: Support student facing discipline for pro-Palestine actions

    September 11, 2024

    Please consider attending this rally and hearing as requested by UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine. This is part of a disturbing national trend of university administrators, politicians and influential donors spending the summer dreaming up new (and likely unconstitutional) ways to suppress criticism of Israel on US campuses and elsewhere.

    Besides continuing to punish students, faculty and staff for their protests last semester, administrations are prepping for new protests by crafting new rules ranging from the draconian to the petty to the ridiculous … see for example, this article about what is going on at UW-Madison.

    So please attend the hearing on Wednesday and spread the word. And whether or not you can attend, if you are UW faculty, staff, alumni, or a donor and have not already done so, please sign this petition to the UW Administration. 

    From SJP Madison: We invite you to join us in support of our comrade facing student disciplinary charges this Wednesday at 8:30 AM on Gordon Commons! We’ll be packing the hearing room and rallying outside beforehand as a show of solidarity against the absurd charges that UW has enacted on our students. We’d love to see you there!

    You may also want to check out this national online briefing on the growing repression of dissent on Palestine at 10 am CT on Tuesday, Sept. 17. “From anti-boycott legislation to the recent arrests of student protestors, leading experts will examine how these actions impact American democracy and our right to collectively organize on a range of issues – from Palestinian rights to the environment, racial justice, reproductive rights and beyond – at such a critical juncture.” More information and registration here.

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  • Blinken says killing of American woman in West Bank ‘unprovoked and unjustified’

    “No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest”

    The Guardian, September 10, 2024

    The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is in London on a diplomatic visit. He has met with the British foreign secretary, David Lammy. They held a press conference, which you can watch in the video at the top of this blog, early this afternoon.

    Blinken told journalists that the killing of an American citizen during a protest last week in the occupied West Bank was “unprovoked and unjustified” and shows that the Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in their rules of engagement.

    “No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest,” Blinken told the news conference, in what were some of his harshest comments to date against the Israeli military.

    “In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement,” he said.

    Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a graduate of the university of Washington, poses at the university’s 2024 commencement ceremony in Seattle.
    Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a graduate of the university of Washington, poses at the university’s 2024 commencement ceremony in Seattle. Photograph: International Solidarity Movemen/Reuters

    Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old volunteer with the anti-occupation International Solidarity Movement, died in hospital on Friday after being shot in the head in the town of Beita near Nablus during a protest against settler expansion in the occupied West Bank. She was reportedly killed by Israeli forces.

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  • US State Department declines to Condemn Israel for Shooting American Activist in the Head, Killing Her

    JUAN COLE, INFORMED CONSENT, 09/07/2024

    Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Basil Maghrebi at the Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Friday, Israeli troops killed an American observer in the West Bank with a gunshot to her head, as she participated in a procession at Beita south of Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank. Aysenur Eygi, 26, a US citizen, was a recent graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle and was volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Beita residents are constantly harassed by illegal Israeli squatters who have stolen Palestinian land at nearby Eviatar for their squatter-settlement.

    The occupation army said in a statement, “During activity of the security forces near the village of Beita today, the force responded with fire toward a principal instigator who was throwing stones toward the forces and constituted a danger to them. We are undertaking an investigation of reports of the death of a foreign national in the area, and the circumstances and details of her injury.”

    (Cole: I call bullshit on this “statement.” It is illegal to fire live ammunition at unarmed protesters. Protesters do not pose a danger to heavily armed Israeli security forces. Eyewitnesses say that the real reason the Israeli troops opened fire was an attempt to stop the protest march, which of course is a war crime every which way from Sunday, or from Friday as the case may be.

    Fellow protester Jonathan Pollack said, “It was quiet. There was nothing to justify the shot. The shot was taken to kill.”)

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  • Witness: Israeli troops intentionally killed US activist

    Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 7 September 2024

    Ayşenur Eygi, the American activist killed by an Israeli sniper in the West Bank village of Beita, during graduation from the University of Washington in spring 2024. (Image courtesty of the family, via ISM)

    Israeli occupation forces killed both an American woman during a protest in Beita, a village near Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, and a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in a separate but nearby incident on Friday.

    In the latter incident, Bana Amjad Baker (some outlets gave her family name as Laboom) was struck by a bullet in her chest while in her home during confrontations that erupted in Qaryut village, also near Nablus, after settlers raided and attacked the community.

    The girl’s father said that she was shot by Israeli occupation forces while in her room with her sisters, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

    Also on Friday, Israeli troops withdrew from Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank after a 10-day raid in which essential infrastructure was destroyed and at least 21 Palestinians were killed and more than 130 injured.

    Israeli forces have laid siege to several other refugee camps in the northern West Bank since 28 August. At least 39 Palestinians were killed in the territory during that time, including in Jenin.

    Israeli troops desecrate boy’s body

    On Friday, Defense for Children International-Palestine stated that on the previous day, “Israeli forces shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in the northern occupied West Bank then desecrated his body.”

    The teen, Majed Abu Zeina, “was shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier from a distance of 30 meters” in al-Faraa refugee camp south of Tubas.

    “Israeli soldiers approached Majed as he lay injured on the ground and prevented a Palestinian ambulance from reaching him,” according to Defense for Children International-Palestine.

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  • On the murder of Ayşenur Eygi

    Jeff Halper, ICAHD, September 8, 2024

           Yet another courageous person who gave her life for a just cause, Palestinian rights.  Ayşenur Eygi joins two other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM0), Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, killed in actions against Israeli destruction of Palestinian life in its genocidal campaign since 1948 to Judaize Palestine.

    Beita, the town of about 12,000 people near Nablus, has been the target of deadly Israeli attacks for decades, both by the military and by settlers.   In 1988, during the first Intifada, then-Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered the army to “break the bones” of Palestinian protesters. Twenty men from Beita and the vicinity said to have been involved in stone throwing were assembled, bound, and actually had their bones broken by soldiers. They were then abandoned at night in a muddy field.

           A couple months later, a group of Israeli settlers entered Beita in a show of strength “to show them that we are the masters of the country,” led by two heavily-armed settlers with criminal records of attacks on Palestinians. In the ensuing melee, two Palestinians were shot by one of the armed criminals and several wounded. Also killed by the settler’s M-16 was an Israeli girl, though the Palestinians were initially blamed. Prime Minister Shamir attended er funeral where cries of “the village of Beita must be wiped off the face of the earth” were raised.

           In the aftermath, a Palestinian boy was killed, hundreds of the town’s men were forced to stand all night handcuffed, blindfolded and physically attacked, six were deported, and 16 villagers were sentenced to stiff prison terms for “stone throwing.” The IDF then demolished more than 30 homes and bulldozed Beita’s almond groves.

           In 2013, settlers established on Beitar land, on a hill overlooking the town, the illegal “outpost” of Evyatar, intended to isolate Beitar from its surrounding lands and villages. In May 2021, during the Unity Intifada, residents of Beitar and the area began protests over the continued presence of the outpost and especially the government’s construction of infrastructure for it; roads, water lines and electricity. Over the following months, the IDF killed seven Beitar protesters, injured more than a thousand and destroyed $100,000 worth of vegetables and other produce.

           In April, 2023, more than 15,000 settlers, accompanied by 1000 soldiers, marched to the outpost to demand the government make it a legal settlement. They were led by Betzalel Smotrich, a violent settler who was now the minister in Netanyahu’s government responsible for the Civil Administration the military government, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Minister of Internal Security (Police).

           Since the protests began in 2021, ten Palestinians have been killed and some 6,800 injured in defense of their land. Now we add to that tragic toll Ayşenur Eygi. May her memory be blessed. She died much too young but for a noble cause that gives her life and death moral and political significance for all of us fighting against Zionist colonization and for Palestinian rights.  La lucha continua! (The fight continues!)
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  • Israel Has Built an Economy Fueled by Genocide at Home and Abroad

    With the help of the US, Israel exports instruments of oppression abroad, while testing them against Palestinians.

    By Ciudong Ng, TRUTHOUT, September 1, 2024

    A Palestinian man walks on a street torn up by bulldozers during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Palestine, on September 1, 2024.
    A Palestinian man walks on a street torn up by bulldozers during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Palestine, on September 1, 2024.

    As Israel tightens its siege, medical supplies in the Gaza Strip are running out, and doctors confront patients with unimaginable injuries.

    The orthopedist Hani Bseso operated on his niece Ahed’s leg, after a shell plowed through their home. Bleeding profusely, Ahed remained in an agonizing daze, as relatives carried her downstairs. Reaching a hospital was impossible. So Bseso amputated her leg on the kitchen table where her mother had made bread that morning.

    While Gaza’s health system implodes, disease and famine are spreading like wildfire. After 25 years, polio has returned to the strip, and Israeli operations are forcing patients to evacuate Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, one of the last functioning medical facilities. Elsewhere, the scent of uncollected garbage hangs in the air, and water from blasted sewer lines forms pools reflecting the skyline as it turns to rubble. This summer, United Nations experts concluded that Israel’s “intentional and targeted starvation campaign” is “a form of genocidal violence.” Only bombs and bullets enter Gaza in abundance.

    That is no coincidence. Between 2018 and 2022, Israel boasted the world’s second-largest military budget in per capita terms, boosting spending by 24 percent in 2023. The [Israeli] Defense Ministry emphasizes that the security sector plays “a monumental role” in the economy, spurring industrial innovation and representing about 10 percent of national exports. As Gaza burns, arms makers report “growing demand” for Israeli weapons “all around the world.”

    Israel’s war footing reflects an entrenched pattern of militarism. Over the past 50 years, Israeli leaders have exploited the Occupied Territories and U.S. technical assistance to build an imposing military-industrial complex. Palestinian victims like Ahed are part of this broader process, as Israel exports the violent technologies and expertise that it perfects in Gaza to countries across the globe.

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  • Free speech expert, ACLU question new UW-Madison protest policy

    Singing, distributing newspapers and more “expressive activities” could be banned within 25 feet of university buildings under new protest guidelines announced ahead of the fall semester.
    Photo by Mary Bosch | The Daily Cardinal

    By Noe Goldhaber, The Daily Cardinal, August 30, 2024

    The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new protest policy may be unconstitutional, a constitutional law expert and ACLU of Wisconsin lawyer told The Daily Cardinal.

    UW-Madison updated its protest policy Aug. 28 to include restrictions on “expressive activity” within 25 feet of university facility entrances, size limitations for signs in buildings, specific sound amplification restrictions and restrictions on protest activity during select times on campus areas.

    Although the policy isn’t trying to limit “individuals speaking directly to one another” such as conversation, free speech and constitutional law expert Howard Schweber said a conversation between friends, the distribution of newspapers or pamphlets, singing or wearing political merchandise could all be prohibited within 25 feet of UW-Madison facility entrances.

    Schweber said the university limiting “expressive activity” within 25 feet of building entrances is “extremely problematic, clearly unconstitutional” and “begging to invite some judge to strike them down.”

    Tim Muth, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Wisconsin, agreed that the new policy is “vague and ill-defined, and could infringe on perfectly constitutional First Amendment conduct” in a Wednesday statement.

    “The restrictions are unclear, making it difficult to distinguish between what kind of activity is permitted and what is prohibited,” Muth told The Daily Cardinal. “Constitutional protections do not end when approaching a campus building. UW-Madison should be an institution where free expression and an open exchange of ideas are valued and protected.”

    In a statement to the Cardinal, UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas said the university worked with legal counsel to protect free expression and meet legal requirements.

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  • UW-Madison admin, students for Palestine share status of last semester’s agreement

    By Camberyn Kelley, WMTV, Sep. 5, 2024

    MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – UW-Madison students and administration share the status of an agreement created after pro-Palestine protests on campus last spring.

    It’s been four months since students encamped on Library Mall.

    UW Madison student and member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SPJ), Dahlia Saba feels like things are not moving forward with the administration.

    “Since the end of those negotiations which the university themselves initiated; the university has opened student conduct investigations against 30 people,” Saba said.

    In May, members of SPJ and university officials created a two-page agreement that ended the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” The agreement lists two commitments for students including refraining from disrupting any university operation or activity.

    “We expect to see these new rules silence protesters who are in support of Palestinian human rights,” Saba said.

    As a Palestinian-American student, Saba said she still feels unheard.

    “This shows me that the university doesn’t care about my family members because they insist to continue to invest in companies that are profiting off the bombing and genocide Palestinians in Gaza,” she said.

    The document details six commitments for the university to uphold. Item number one explains that administration has limited authority over how endowment is invested and whether the details will be disclosed.

    “I think we have yet to see the university is committed in any way to working with its students, to be responsive to the demands of students, community members and be accountable to its own stated goals,” Saba said.

    UW-Madison offered a statement saying, “Most notably, UW leaders have offered multiple dates in June, July and August for meetings between SJP, the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association and separately, the Universities of Wisconsin leadership. Meetings have not yet taken place due to the schedules of participating students.”

    According to the agreement, as of last month the university posted a position for a student focused staff member in the Division of Student Affairs. The person hired would support students impacted by war, violence and displacement.

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  • Aysenur Eygi’s Family calls for Independent Investigation

    “We welcome the White House’s statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate.”

    —Parents of Murdered Palestinian Rights Activist, Aysenur Eygi

    Screenshot

    Israeli Forces Reportedly Kill US Human Rights Activist With ‘Deliberate Shot to the Head’

    Israeli Forces Reportedly Kill US Human Rights Activist With ‘Deliberate Shot to the Head’

    “A soldier fired directly at the protestors, hitting the American activist in the head from behind,” said one eyewitness.

    JULIA CONLEY, COMMON DREAMS, SEP 06, 2024

    One journalist said that “devastating levels of impunity” were on display in the West Bank on Friday as Israeli forces reportedly shot a 26-year-old American human rights advocate, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, in the head, killing her as she protested the expansion of illegal settlements.

    AJ+, Al Jazeera’s digitial platform, reported that according to eyewitness accounts, Eygi was killed by a “deliberate shot to the head.”

    Eygi, who had dual citizenship in the U.S. and Turkey, was taking part in a campaign to protect Palestinian farmers from violence by Israeli settlers, 700,000 of whom live in illegal settlements erected over the last five decades in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

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  • American Human Rights Activist Murdered in the West Bank

    This is not the first time Israeli forces have murdered American citizens. Israel has a long history of killing Americans and facing no consequences from the United States. In 2003, the Israeli military ran over and crushed Rachel Corrie, an American citizen, with a bulldozer and faced no repercussions. In 2010, a U.N. fact-finding mission determined that Israeli commandos executed U.S. citizen Furkan Dogan during the Gaza flotilla, which was attempting to deliver aid to Gaza. Israel faced no repercussions.

    More recently, Israeli forces murdered Shireen Abu Akleh, shooting her in the head while she was reporting on a raid in Jenin, and killed Omar Assad, a 78-year-old American man, by handcuffing, beating, and leaving him to die.​ Israel faced no repercussions.  

    The United States is failing to protect its citizens—this must end. Our government must prioritize the safety of American lives over the interests of a foreign government. If the most powerful country in the world cannot defend its citizens from being murdered by Israel, it is abdicating its responsibility. This cannot continue! 

    The Biden Administration can stop Israel from massacring Americans at will today if it wants to. However, they’ve proved time and time again that they care less about Americans than they care about the approval of a foreign government. This is not right. President Biden must open an investigation into Eygi’s murder. 

    Email your Members of Congress and President Biden using our action tool and urge your friends and family to do the same. Let them know we will not let out until they PROTECT AMERICANS FROM ISRAEL.

    Thank you for taking action.
    Take Action Here
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  • A Response to the Killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi

    A Response to the Killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi From Cindy and Craig Corrie 

    The Corries are the parents of Rachel Corrie, a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who was killed by the Israeli military on March 16, 2003, as she stood to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza.

    September 6, 2024

    On Friday, a soldier in the Israeli military killed American and Turkish citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. Aysenur was a May graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle, a student of psychology, an activist, and a recent volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank. Our family is saddened and outraged by the heinous act that killed her. We mourn with Aysenur’s family and friends and hold them in our hearts in this most devastating time.

    According to the International Solidarity Movement, Aysenur is the 18th protester killed in the Palestinian village of Beita since 2020. Seventeen Palestinians have been killed while demonstrating against construction of illegal Israeli outposts on the village’s land. While we deplore each of these deaths, Aysenur was the first American killed in Beita, and our government has an obligation to act on her behalf.

    Our country and the international community must ensure that the Government of Israel is held accountable for Aysenur’s killing. In the cases of other Americans killed by the Israeli military, including in our daughter Rachel’s case, the U.S. Government has been unable, or unwilling, to hold those responsible to account. We need to do better this time.

    Many individuals currently in US government were kind, helpful, and supportive of our family’s efforts on behalf of Rachel. Prior to becoming Secretary of State, Antony Blinken was active in seeking accountability for her killing. We understand he was even more involved in the case of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. But years have passed and there has been no accountability for either of these killings. While serving at the Department of State in 2003, Dr. Bill Burns, now Director of the CIA, engaged with Rachel’s case and encouraged our family’s first visit to Gaza. U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Congressman Adam Smith, all from Washington State, worked with our family toward accountability for over a decade. While helpful with private statements and diplomatic communications with the Israeli Government, these individual efforts never had the full force of the U.S. Government behind them. Therefore, the ultimate goals of a credible investigation and accountability were never met. These public officials do have unique experience, influence, and power to hold Israel accountable – if they are willing to use it. 

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  • Satellite Imagery Shows Vast Destruction in Rafah

    Tal as-Sultan was the site of the Rafah Playground project in 2005. It was during the original creation of the “Philadelphi Corridor” along the Egypt border in 2003 that whole neighborhoods were razed and Rachel Corrie was killed. Israel now wants to expand the Corridor by 800 meters, and is destroying more than that.

    Jake Godin, Bellingcat, August 27, 2024

    . . . Israel Defense Forces (IDF) invaded Rafah in May this year in order to establish control over the Gaza-Egypt border – an eight-mile-long strip of land referred to as the “Philadelphi Corridor”. . . Satellite imagery shows that the Israel Defense Forces demolished entire city blocks along this route, including the Brazil Refugee Camp and the Al Salam Neighborhood. . .  

    al-Salam neighborhood, November 23, 2023
    al-Salam neighborhood, August 22, 2024

    . . . Recent imagery provided by Planet Labs PBC showed a large amount of destruction not only along the corridor but in neighbourhoods two kilometres from the border such as eastern [Tal as-Sultan]. . .

    Corridor, eastern Tal as-Sultan, July 17, 2024. The Canada Well and water tank is in the upper left corner.
    Corridor, eastern Tal as-Sultan, July 27, 2024

    . . . Using OpenStreetMap building data, Bellingcat found that out of the roughly 670 buildings in an eastern neighbourhood of [Tal as-Sultan], only 224 remained standing. . .

    . . . A video found on Instagram and shared by Younis Tirawi, a Palestinian open source researcher, showed IDF soldiers demolishing part of a water well facility in an area near the eastern part of [Tal as-Sultan]. While the large water tank appears to still be standing, the most recent satellite imagery shows the smaller buildings in the facility were destroyed in the demolition.

    Before and after satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows the damage at the Canada Well located at 31.311417, 34.247442 in Rafah’s [Tal as-Sultan] neighbourhood after a video shared by an IDF soldier on Instagram showed part of the facility being destroyed in a planned demolition.

    The IDF told Bellingcat the circumstances of the video and demolition were under review and that it “acts to address exceptional incidents that deviate from the orders and expected values of IDF soldiers.” . . .

    . . . Nadia Hardman, the Refugee and Migrant Rights Researcher at Human Rights Watch told Bellingcat that the Israeli military should not be taking actions that render return impossible. 

    “Most Gaza residents have fled – many multiple times – pursuant to Israeli orders, in search of safety. But there’s no safe place to go and no safe way to get there. International humanitarian law prohibits the forced displacement of civilians except temporarily when required for their security or imperative military reasons,” she told Bellingcat.

    “We are seeing mounting evidence that the Israeli authorities may be committing the war crime of forced displacement by turning neighbourhoods into rubble and destroying or damaging the majority of homes and basic infrastructure in Gaza, making large parts of the Strip unliveable for years to come,” Hardman said.

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  • Sep 9, 2024: Infrastructures of Revolt

    Mass Politics and Anti-Colonial Revolutions in the Middle East

    Ingraham 206
    UW-Madison
    12:00 pm – 1:15 pm     

    Neil Ketchley (University of Oxford) re-examines one of the key features of British colonialism – the building of infrastructure – and explores how this shaped the possibilities of anti-colonial revolution. Focusing on the 1919 Revolution in Egypt, he explores how Egyptians creatively repurposed the material circuitries of British colonial rule to launch mass protests calling for national liberation. Ketchley demonstrates how the infrastructure of the colonial state and economy powerfully enabled and delimited the first mass participation revolution in the MENA region’s history.

    Neil Ketchley is Associate Professor in Politics and Fellow of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. His first book, Egypt in a Time of Revolution (CUP 2017), won the Charles Tilly Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award. Results of his research have appeared in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, and Political Analysis. For the current academic year, he is a Mid-Career Fellow of the British Academy and an associate researcher at the Centre d’études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales (CEDEJ) in Cairo, Egypt.

    Cosponsored by European Studies.

    Registration
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  • Freedom Flotilla Initiates Protest to Free Its Ship “Conscience”

    By alex, The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, September 4, 2024

    ** THE FREEDOM WATCH HAS BEGUN!**

    At 6:30pm today, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and its local allies initiated the “Freedom Watch” action to free our boats from Haydarpaşa port in Istanbul so that we can sail to bring desperately needed humanitarian aid and break the genocidal siege on Gaza.

    The Israeli attacks since October 7 have reached the level of genocide, where tens of thousands of civilians have been massacred in Gaza. While all of this is happening before the eyes of the world, people of conscience have reacted to this genocide in the name of humanity. Millions of people with a conscience have protested in the streets to stand against this genocide and make the world aware of the brutality of the occupying state. But what have the authorities, who have the power to stop this genocide, done in response to humanity’s outcry?

    While the many condemnations, suspension of relations with Israel, and restrictions on trade with the occupying power are all significant steps, they have not yet ended the genocide. Israel, which is killing people like a terrorist organization and occupying Palestinian lands, has not taken a single step back from its attacks.

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  • Palestinian Reporters’ Gaza War Coverage Nets 4 Nobel Peace Prize Nominations

    According to statistics, more than 130 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza since October 7 

    Mehr Jan, American Muslim Today, Aug 27, 2024

    In a bold recognition of courage amidst conflict, four Palestinian journalists have been nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. 

    Their fearless reporting throughout the Gaza war has brought global attention to the human stories behind the headlines. 

    Photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, TV reporter Hind Khoudary, journalist and activist Bisan Owda, and veteran reporter Wael Al-Dahdouh have all been honored for their bravery in covering the ongoing conflict. 

    Earlier this month, Owda became the focus of a heated debate when the National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) stood by its decision to nominate her for an Emmy. This followed a of criticism from Creative Community for Peace, a pro-Israel nonprofit group, challenging the nomination. 

    Owda, a 25-year-old journalist from conflict-ridden Gaza, was nominated for her documentary It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive, in the Outstanding Hard News Feature Story category. Her film was selected from over 50 entries in one of the year’s most competitive categories.

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  • Israeli Forces Shot an American in the West Bank

    The U.S. Government Doesn’t Seem to Care

    “The money I pay in my taxes as a teacher probably funded the bullet they have run through me.”

    PREM THAKKER, ZETEO, AUG 31, 2024

    US foreign volunteer Amado Sison receiving treatment after being shot by Israeli forces during a protest in the West Bank. Photo provided by Faz3a

    Three weeks ago, Israeli forces shot an American teacher from New Jersey. In the aftermath, Amado Sison told me that while Palestinians showed him “so much warmth and love,” he has heard little from his own government. This despite President Joe Biden declaring in February that “If you harm an American, we will respond.” 

    Sison, a pseudonym he uses for his safety, was in the occupied West Bank to demonstrate against illegal Israeli settlement activity when he was shot. A State Department spokesperson told me they are aware of “reports involving a US citizen in the West Bank and are in contact with local authorities to gather more information,” adding: “we are greatly concerned when any US citizen is harmed overseas and work to provide consular assistance.” Neither the White House nor any of his home-state lawmakers have reached out. 

    “My trust is in the movement and the people rather than politicians, because we see time and time again what they vote for. But at the same time, as an international volunteer that gets hurt by an ‘allied army,’ I would like for some kind of admission that they condemn it or something, even though nothing else happens,” Sison told me. “The money I pay in my taxes as a teacher probably funded the bullet they have run through me,” he said.

    New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez (who resigned this month), and Gov. Phil Murphy did not respond to my requests for comment. The Kamala Harris campaign and the White House also did not respond to requests for comment.

    Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department last fall in protest of US policy toward Israel’s war on Gaza, told me that such silence from the US would be “highly abnormal” if it was in response to a shooting of an American from any other country’s security forces. 

    “In the case of Israel, we are of course still waiting for a condemnation 2 years after the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, but all we get from the podium is a referral to, and a faith in, Israel’s ‘ongoing investigation,’” said Paul, who is now a senior advisor for Democracy for the Arab World Now. “I don’t think there’s a great mystery here. Just as it is harder in this country to criticize Israel than to criticize America, it is harder for this government to criticize Israel than to stand up for the life of an American.”

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  • Sep 8, 2024: Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb in Madison

    Midvale Community Lutheran Church
    4329 Tokay Blvd, Madison
    7 pm
    Registration

    Greetings friends, 

    On behalf of Bright Stars of Bethlehem, I invite you to join me for an important and timely presentation by the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb. As someone like me, who has a connection with Bright Stars of Bethlehem, you know of the amazing and tireless efforts of Mitri to bring hope in challenging times. You also know that the situation in Palestine today is incredibly dire. 

    I hope you will join me to hear an update from Mitri on the current conditions in Gaza and the West Bank. Mitri will share how he and his staff and students at Dar al-Kalima University are cultivating hope and bringing light to a dark time. Your presence and solidarity mean so much. 

    The presentation is at Midvale Community Lutheran Church, Madison, on Sunday, September 8 at 7pm. Register here for the event. There is no cost for the event.

    Copies of Mitri’s newest book, Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible will be available for purchase at the event, and Mitri will do a book-signing. 

    I welcome you to share this invitation with others who might be interested in attending. If you are unable to attend, and would like to support Mitri and the work of Dar al-Kalima in these critical days, you can make a donation to Bright Stars of Bethlehem here. 

    Thank you for your partnership and faith in creating hope!

    Pastor Blake Rohrer 

    (he/him/his what is this?)
    Midvale Community Lutheran Church – ELCA

    Born and raised in Palestine, Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb is a co-founder of Bright Stars of Bethlehem. He is founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. Previously, he was the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. Described as the most widely published Palestinian theologian, Rev. Raheb is the author and editor of more than forty books.

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  • Sep 8, 2024: Rejecting AIPAC: the Israel Lobby and the Democratic Party

    12 noon CT
    Online

    Hear from Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, Palestinian academic Rami G. Khouri, labor leader and political strategist Harris Gruman, and Massachusetts Peace Action’s Brian Garvey, about AIPAC and the Democratic Party. We will discuss the history of AIPAC, the funding of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, and the power of AIPAC in the Democratic Party and the US Congress. REGISTRATION HERE

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  • Sep 7, 2024: Pro-Palestine Potluck Picnic

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  • Sep 6, 2024: Action Hour for a Ceasefire Now: Education in Gaza

    11 am CT Online

    Learn more about education in Gaza and hear from a former teacher in the region during the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Hour for a Ceasefire Now. Register here. 

    As millions of children in the U.S. return to school, students in Gaza continue to be deprived of this right amid Israel’s ongoing attacks. Most schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Those that remain have become shelters for displaced Palestinians. Recently, AFSC’s Yousef Aljamal interviewed several young students—ages 8 to 12—about their school memories and what they missed most. Read their stories.
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  • Sep 2, 2024: Madison LaborFest

    During the Roll Call at LaborFest, 9/2/24

    Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and Jewish Voice for Peace will be tabling at this Labor Day event for Israeli ceasefires, the Read Palestine! project, and the Madison-Masafer Yatta Olive Grove.

    South Central Federation of Labor
    Madison Labor Temple, 1602 S. Park St.
    12:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

    Join us for food and drink, activities for kids, information tables, a solidarity roll call, plus live music from Cris Plata with Extra Hot and the Chris O’Leary Band.

    SCFL’s Community Services Committee will also be collecting gift cards and personal care items to help students who are experiencing homelessness in the Madison Transition Education Program (TEP). 

    The World Federation of Trade Unions condemns the continued crimes in Palestine

    by Central WFTU, 30 Aug 2024

    The WFTU condemns the continued attacks against the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupation forces. While the genocide is taking place in Gaza, the Israeli occupation is escalating its aggressions in the West Bank against the Palestinians.

    Thousands of Israeli occupation soldiers accompanied by tanks and bulldozers and aerial support launched one of the most aggressive attacks in the West Bank, in the areas of Tulkarm and Jenin, killing at least 18 and injuring tens of Palestinians, at the same time arresting more than 20 Palestinians including children.

    The government of Israel ignores the international laws and treaties and uses them whenever it suits it. Although the United Nations’s General Assembly and its Security Council adopted resolutions regarding the humanitarian crisis that the Palestinian people are facing, the continuation and escalation of attacks shows that Israel and its allies have no intention of de-escalating the situation, proving once again their hypocrisy and carelessness about humanity.

    The WFTU once again calls on its affiliates to intensify their action in solidarity with the Palestinian people, demanding an immediate cease fire and an end to the genocide.

    Israelis protest and workers’ strike is planned after 6 more hostages die in Gaza

    The Associated Press, SEPTEMBER 1, 2024

    Relatives and friends attend the funeral of slain hostage Almog Sarusi, who was killed in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at a cemetery in Ra'anana, Israel, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024.
    Relatives and friends attend the funeral of slain hostage Almog Sarusi, who was killed in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at a cemetery in Ra’anana, Israel, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. Ariel Schalit/AP

    JERUSALEM — Grieving and angry Israelis surged into the streets Sunday night after six more hostages were found dead in Gaza, chanting “Now! Now!” as they demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a cease-fire with Hamas to bring the remaining captives home.

    Israel’s largest trade union, the Histadrut, also pressured the government by calling a general strike for Monday — the first since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the war. The strike aims to shut down or disrupt major sectors of the economy, including banking, health care and the country’s main airport.

    Tens of thousands of Israelis were expected to protest. Many blame Netanyahu for failing to reach a cease-fire during nearly 11 months of war. Negotiations have dragged on for months. Israel’s army has acknowledged the difficulty of rescuing dozens of remaining hostages and said a deal is the only way to bring a large-scale return.

    “I’m crying the cry of humanity,” said one protester who gave his name as Amos as thousands, some of them weeping, gathered outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem.

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  • Netanyahu Prefers Risking a Regional War 

    to a Hostage Deal and an End to the Gaza War

    Joel Beinin, September 1, 2024

    On Sunday, Sept. 1 the Israeli army announced it recovered the bodies of six Israeli civilian hostages aged 23 to 40 in Rafah. The hostages were killed at point blank range a day or two before the army reached the tunnel in which they were found. Taking and murdering civilian hostages are serious war crimes according to International Humanitarian Law. 

    Five of the six, Ori Danin, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Eden Yerushalmi, were seized at the Nova music festival. Carmel Gat was abducted from nearby Kibbutz Be’eri. Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents addressed the Democratic Party’s national convention last month, was a US citizen. Some 100 hostages remain in Gaza. About one-third of them are presumed dead.

    Many sectors of Israeli society erupted in protest upon hearing the news, excoriating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for obstructing a hostage deal that might have brought the six dead hostages home alive. Hundreds of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv and other cities demanding a hostage deal. Demonstrators blocked the main highway in Tel Aviv. Mounted police and water cannons dispersed them.

    The Histadrut labor federation called a general strike for Monday. The municipalities of Tel-Aviv and Givatayim and the Gezer Regional Council are supporting the strike. Several Tel-Aviv restaurants and movie theaters announced they will close early and encouraged their patrons to attend the demonstration planned for Monday evening. A major Tel-Aviv law firm declared it will provide legal aid to any arrested protesters. The Hostages’ Families Forum released a statement supporting the strike and demonstration: “For 11 months, the government of Israel led by Netanyahu failed to do what is expected of a government — to bring its sons and daughters home.”

    In an article headlined, “Israeli Hostages Die So Netanyahu Can Keep His Coalition Alive,” Haaretz military and defense analyst Amos Harel wrote that he suspects that the Israeli army’s recent search operations in Rafah prompted Hamas to execute the six hostages. “The abandonment of the Israelis held in captivity in favor of political considerations and military pressure cement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legacy as an autocrat in the making, who clearly feels no sense of duty towards his citizens,” wrote Harel.

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  • San Francisco State University divests from Israel’s weapons

    Demands were part of nationwide student movement calling on universities to divest from companies involved in Israel’s occupation of Palestine
    San Francisco State University is a public research university in San Francisco, California (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    By Azad Essa, Middle East Eye, 29 August 2024

    California’s San Francisco State University has begun the process of divesting from four weapons manufacturers currently involved in Israel’s war on Gaza, in a move activists are describing as a “major victory” for Palestinian rights advocacy in the United States.

    The announcement by Students for Gaza SFSU comes at a crucial time for the student movement for Palestine, as several universities across the country look to punish and deter students from restarting pro-Palestinian advocacy on campuses, and social media companies like Meta look to censor pro-Palestine activism by student groups on their platforms.

    Earlier this week, New York University (NYU) included criticism of Zionism on its list of hate speech, a move that is expected to have a chilling effect on activism targeting Israel. At the University of Michigan, several students were violently arrested as they conducted a sit-in on campus.

    Activists say the move to divest from Palantir Technologies, a US-based data analysis firm, arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, Leonardo, an Italian multinational defence company, as well as construction equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar – corporations described by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) as “profiting from Gaza the genocide” – came following months of protest and advocacy calling on the university to withdraw investments in portfolios that profit from harming Palestinians.

    The demands were part of a nationwide student movement that called for universities to disclose and divest from companies profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and its current war on Gaza.

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  • Inside Israel’s war

    Four Corners goes face-to-face with Israel’s powerful political and military voices.

    This article is 6 months old

    By John Lyons — with Jonathan Miller, Mayeta Clark and Maddy King
    Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 10 March, 2024

    Ehud Barak says more than two decades ago he was new enough in Israeli politics to tell the truth. He declared then that if he was a Palestinian, he’d probably be a terrorist.

    That comment could have derailed a spectacular military and political career, but the former general chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) went on to become prime minister and defence minister.

    Today, as the world holds its breath in anticipation of a ceasefire in Gaza, the former leader offers a frank assessment of Israeli intelligence.

    He describes Hamas’s violent October 7 attack – in which about 1,200 people were killed and around 240 kidnapped – as “the worst failure of our intelligence and operational forces since the establishment of the state of Israel”.

    But when I ask why the most powerful army in the Middle East has killed so many children in response (with more than 600 dying a week, on average), he replies:

    “I don’t think that anyone made the deliberate decision to kill children.”

    The IDF is known for its targeted assassinations and Barak himself says he previously participated in, and ordered, several killings.

    But, he notes, “I never deluded myself to believe that by killing any individual you solve the problem … it just delayed the real decision.

    “Real decisions … are not about how to kill mosquitoes more effectively. It’s about how to drain the swamp.”

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  • ‘Practically a war of a mighty Israeli army on civilian population’

    Palestinian Mustafa Barghouti on the latest West Bank operation

    Amanpour CNN, 8/30/24

    Christiane Amanpour speaks to Palestinian National Initiative president Mustafa Barghouti about Israel’s operations in the occupied West Bank.

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  • “They Want Palestine Empty”

    Artist in Jenin Blasts U.S. Support for Israel Amid West Bank Assault

    Democracy Now! Aug 29, 2024

    At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 more wounded in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in two decades. Israeli forces have simultaneously raided four cities and refugee camps in the north, with hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Much of the violence has been centered on Jenin, a frequent target of raids by Israeli forces, but this latest military operation is the largest since the Second Intifada.

    Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, says Israel’s tactics are about “punishing the people, punishing the civilians,” with an ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing. “They want Palestine empty from Palestinians.” He also calls on the U.S. public to speak out against continued military support for Israel, saying the killings in both Gaza and the West Bank are only possible because Israel has “the green light from the U.S. government.”

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  • ‘Israel’s Starvation Strategy’: IDF Fires on World Food Program Team

    “This is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP’s team in Gaza.”
    A photo shows a World Food Program vehicle damaged by Israeli gunfire. (Photo: World Food Program)

    JAKE JOHNSON, COMMON DREAMS, AUG 29, 2024

    The World Food Program said Wednesday that it was forced to suspend the movement of its employees in Gaza after the Israeli military fired on one of the United Nations agency’s teams as its clearly marked vehicle advanced toward an Israeli checkpoint in the Palestinian enclave.

    The agency said in a statement that the WFP team was returning from a mission with two armored vehicles “after escorting a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian cargo routed to Gaza’s central area.”

    “Despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach, the vehicle was directly struck by gunfire as it was moving towards an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) checkpoint,” WFP said. “It sustained at least ten bullets: five on the driver’s side, two on the passenger side, and three on other parts of the vehicle. None of the employees onboard were physically harmed.”

    While the WFP’s statement doesn’t explicitly attribute the gunfire to Israeli forces, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday that the food agency’s vehicle was “struck 10 times by IDF gunfire, including with bullets targeting front windows.”

    Cindy McCain, WFP’s executive director, said the attack was “totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP’s team in Gaza.”

    “As last night’s events show, the current deconfliction system is failing and this cannot go on any longer,” said McCain. “I call on the Israeli authorities and all parties to the conflict to act immediately to ensure the safety and security of all aid workers in Gaza.”

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  • Israel kills prominent militant in deadliest West Bank raids since Gaza war began

    Members of Israeli forces patrol a street during a military operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, Tulkarem, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

    BY  MAJDI MOHAMMED AND MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press, August 29, 2024

    TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military said it killed five more militants, including a local commander, early Thursday in the West Bank as it pressed ahead with what appeared to be the deadliest military operation in the occupied territory since the start of the war in Gaza.

    Israel says the simultaneous raids across the northern West Bank — which have killed a total of 16 people, nearly all militants, since late Tuesday — are aimed at preventing attacks. The Palestinians see them as a widening of the Israel-Hamas war aimed at perpetuating Israel’s decades-long military rule over the territory.

    Image
    Mourners take part in a funeral of four Palestinians who died during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Al-Faraa, near Tubas, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

    The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was killed during a raid in the city of Tulkarem. He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier in the year when he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.

    The military said he was killed early Thursday along with four other militants in a shootout with Israeli forces after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more.

    The military said another militant was arrested in the operation in Tulkarem, and that a member of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded.

    Israel launched a large-scale operation in the West Bank overnight into Wednesday. Hamas said 10 of its fighters were killed in different locations, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported an 11th death, without saying whether he was a fighter or a civilian.

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  • “Trying to Repeat the Nakba”

    Israel Launches Largest Military Raids in West Bank in Two Decades

    DEMOCRACY NOW! AUGUST 28, 2024

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    GUESTS

    The Israeli military has launched its biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in close to two decades, with hundreds of troops, backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones, conducting simultaneous raids in the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarm. At least nine Palestinians were killed overnight, with an additional 11 injured. In total, at least 652 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October — nearly 150 of them children — most of them during near-daily raids by the Israeli military. Israeli officials have indicated that the raids are just the first stage of an even larger operation in the West Bank. “They are trying to repeat the Nakba. … They are trying to repeat the same ethnic cleansing, the same genocide that is committed in Gaza,” says Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, who joins us from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. “Their goal is ethnic cleansing. Their goal is annexation of the West Bank.”

    Transcript

    This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

    AMY GOODMAN: At least nine Palestinians have been killed and 11 injured as the Israeli military launches its biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in close to two decades, with hundreds of troops, backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones, launching simultaneous raids on the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarm.

    In Jenin, Israeli forces have surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to hospitals and ripping up infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp. Israeli forces have also been closing down the main roads leading to Tulkarm and other cities. An Israeli military spokesman told a news conference the raids were the first stage of an even larger operation in the West Bank.

    As the raids got underway, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for the mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. He wrote on social media, quote, “We need to deal with the threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed. This is a war for everything and we must win it,” he said.

    Over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October, nearly 150 of them children, most of them during near-daily raids by the Israeli military.

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  • WISCONSIN CEASEFIRE-IN-GAZA ADVOCATES TO DNC: “NO MORE BOMBS”

    Sandra Whitehead, Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Aug 27, 2024

    Wisconsinites joined ceasefire advocates from across the nation last week to protest the Democratic National Convention for failing to call for an arms embargo on weapons to Israel. Photo by Alec Ozawa

    About 150 Wisconsin Ceasefire-in-Gaza advocates joined tens of thousands from around the nation to protest outside the Democratic National Convention last week in Chicago. Protestors also marched in Milwaukee and Madison days before the convention and at the DNC’s rally Tuesday at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

    Ceasefire-in-Gaza protesters demand “action, not lip service” from the Democratic Party, organizers say. They asked the Biden administration and presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris to call for an arms embargo against shipments of U.S. bombs to Israel that are being dropped on Palestinian civilians.

    Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaigns in Gaza have killed more than 40,000 people, mostly civilians, a number widely understood to be incomplete, and forced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes since Oct. 7. The accumulative effects of Israel’s war on Gaza could mean the real death toll will reach more than 186,000 people, according to a July 5 article in The Lancet, a leading medical journal.

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  • Israeli attacks that killed scores of civilians should be investigated as war crimes

    Amnesty International, August 27, 2024

    • New investigation reveals Israeli forces failed to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians in attacks
    • Israeli air strikes on Rafah IDP camp on 26 May used US-made weapons
    • Tank shells fired at IDP camp in “humanitarian zone” killed 23 civilians
    • Civilians endangered by presence of Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders and fighters at camps for internally displaced people

    A new investigation by Amnesty International reveals Israeli forces failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimise harm to civilians sheltering at camps for internally displaced people while carrying out two attacks targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders and fighters in the south of the occupied Gaza Strip in May. These attacks likely were indiscriminate, and one attack likely also disproportionate. Both attacks should be investigated as war crimes.

    On 26 May 2024, two Israeli air strikes on the Kuwaiti Peace Camp, a makeshift camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in Tal al-Sultan in west Rafah, killed at least 36 people – including six children – and injured more than 100. At least four of those killed were fighters. The air strikes, which targeted two Hamas commanders staying amid displaced civilians, consisted of two US-made GBU-39 guided bombs. The use of these munitions, which project deadly fragments over a wide area, in a camp housing civilians in overcrowded temporary shelters likely constituted a disproportionate and indiscriminate attack, and should be investigated as a war crime.

    On 28 May, in the second incident investigated, the Israeli military fired at least three tank shells at a location in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah which was designated by the Israeli military as a “humanitarian zone”. The strikes killed 23 civilians – including 12 children, seven women and four men – and injured many more. Amnesty International’s research found that the apparent targets of the attack were one Hamas and one Islamic Jihad fighter. This strike, which failed to distinguish between civilians and military objectives by using unguided munitions in an area full of civilians sheltering in tents, likely was indiscriminate and should be investigated as a war crime.  

    Once again displaced Palestinian civilians seeking shelter and safety have paid with their lives

    Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns

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  • Palestine Won at the Democratic Convention 

    Dr. James J. Zogby, Arab American Institute, August 26, 2024

    The 2024 Democratic National Convention was an exhausting roller coaster ride for Arab Americans and supporters of Palestinian rights.  It was a messy affair, with highs and lows, some small victories and some setbacks. But on balance, the naysayers are wrong, because Palestine and supporters of Palestinian rights were big winners during the four days in Chicago. 

    We didn’t get language on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict changed in the party platform, nor did we get a Palestinian American speaker in prime time from the convention’s main stage. But the issue of Palestine was front and center from Monday through Thursday, and in the days that followed. They were little wins, to be sure, but they were victories, nonetheless. 
     
    On Monday, the convention agreed to host a panel on Palestinian suffering at an official site. It was co-chaired by Minnesota Attorney General (former Congressman) Keith Ellison and myself. It featured the compelling testimonies of: Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan who told harrowing stories of children and medical workers who were victims of the genocidal war on Gaza; Layla Elabed, a Palestinian American leader of the national Uncommitted Movement that garnered 750,000 voters, protesting the administration’s complicity in the war; former Congressman Andy Levin, who lost his reelection due to AIPAC spending millions to defeat him; and Hala Hijazi, a Palestinian American Democratic Party fundraiser who had lost scores of family members in Gaza. 
     
    There had been over 30 of these official side panels hosted by the campaign. Most had been sparsely attended by delegates and party members; for example, the one on the war in Ukraine had less than one hundred participants. This session on Palestine had well over 300 attendees, with most deeply moved by what they heard. There were many tears shed as well as a number of standing ovations in support of the speakers and issues raised. 
     
    It was understood that securing the official sponsorship for the panel wasn’t the victory we sought. Our goal remains a change in US policy. But recognition of Palestinian suffering and Israel and the US’s responsibility for producing this genocidal war was important and could not be dismissed. 

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  • Palestinian American Lawmaker Gives Speech the DNC Wouldn’t Allow

    Democracy Now!, Aug 23, 2024
    Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday after a four-day convention in Chicago where her campaign refused to allow a Palestinian American to take the stage to address Israel’s war on Gaza. We hear Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, who was among the list of speakers offered by the Uncommitted National Movement that the Harris campaign rejected, reading the speech she would have given on the convention floor had the DNC and the Harris campaign allowed her onstage.

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  • What I Saw Was “Unfathomable”

    Doctor Who Worked in Gaza Speaks Out Against U.S. Arming of Israel


    Democracy Now!, Aug 21, 2024
    A group of American doctors who treated patients in Gaza held a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday to describe the suffering they saw among Palestinians injured and killed in Israel’s war on the territory. The press conference, taking place during the Democratic National Convention, was organized by the Uncommitted National Movement, which is pressuring Democrats for an end to blanket U.S. support for Israel. Among those who spoke was Dr. Ahmed Yousaf, who returned from Gaza just weeks earlier. “When we got to the hospital, everything I saw on TikTok and Instagram and all the television, all the stuff that we had in alternative media … it was 100 times worse than I could have ever imagined,” he said.

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  • Israel Using Ceasefire Talks to Expand Colonization of Palestine

    Israel’s insistence on controlling two key corridors shows its intention to carry out land grabs, the expert said.
    Israeli tanks are seen next to destroyed buildings during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip on July 3, 2024.
    Israeli tanks are seen next to destroyed buildings during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip on July 3, 2024. (OHAD ZWIGENBERG / POOL / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

    By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT, August 22, 2024

    Israeli officials’ ceasefire demands show that they aren’t just using ceasefire negotiations to prolong their genocide of Gaza, but also to secure permission to further deepen their colonization of Palestine, a UN expert has said.

    In the latest ceasefire talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been insistent that Israel be able to maintain a permanent military occupation of Gaza’s border with Egypt and a corridor built by Israeli forces cutting across the middle of the Gaza Strip, which Israelis respectively call the Philadelphi Corridor and Netzarim Corridor.

    Israel’s insistence on maintaining control over these corridors is a clear show of their intention to expand their ethnic cleansing and “eat up” more of Palestine, said Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories.

    “Under the guise of ‘ceasefire negotiations’ Israel is trying to create the conditions for permanent occupation and more land grab. Those familiar with Palestine’s history recognize in what is happening to the Palestinians under Israel’s unlawful occupation, the pattern of settler colonialism,” said Albanese on social media on Thursday.

    Albanese shared an observation from University of Edinburgh international relations professor Nicola Perugini, who noted: “Corridors are key tools of fragmentation, enclavisation and land dispossession in the history of Israel’s colonisation of Palestine. Corridors (Allon Plan, etc.) were key in settling the West Bank.”

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  • Aug 29, 2024: Read “Light in Gaza” with the FCNL

    Friends Committee on National Legislation

    We hope that you can join us for our first virtual FCNL Book Club!

    Our virtual discussion on Light in Gaza will be on Thursday, Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. ET. Written by 11 Palestinian writers and poets, this anthology centers the voices of Palestinians in the conversation about a just future for Gaza.

    Register Now!

    You can purchase or download a (free!) copy of Light in Gaza here.

    It does not matter if you don’t have time to read the entire book. We will provide excerpts to support our discussion.

    If you only have limited time to read the book, please focus on the following chapters: “Introduction” by Jehad Abusalim, “Gaza Asks When Shall This Pass?” by Rafaat Alareer , “Exporting Oranges and Short Stories…” by Mosab Abu Tohab, and “Gaza 2050…” by Basman Aldirawi.

    Date: August 29, 2024
    Time: 6 – 7:30 p.m. ET
    Location: Online via Zoom

    Register here

    We are looking forward to seeing you soon!

    Lauren Brownlee

    In peace,
    Lauren Brownlee
    Deputy General Secretary

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  • DNC Faces Backlash After Organizers Deny Request for Palestinian Speaker

    Elected Officials, celebrities, and community leaders speak out against the DNC’s decision to silence Palestinians

    PREM THAKKER, ZETEO, AUG 23, 2024

    Uncommitted delegates speak to the press during a demonstration outside the DNC venue on Aug. 22, 2024. Photo by Vincent Alban via Reuters

    CHICAGO – The Democratic National Convention is facing a backlash over organizers’ decision late Wednesday not to welcome a single Palestinian voice to the convention stage. In less than 24 hours since the decision was made public, more than a dozen elected officials, at least one family member of Israeli hostages, and even Mark Ruffalo expressed disappointment and called on the party to reconsider. 

    “I have no idea how this process came, but what I do know is that…this is an unforced error…It was stupid. Undo it,” Arab American Institute president James Zogby said at a press conference on Thursday morning. “You will win votes & lose none.”

    The Uncommitted delegation, which represents the hundreds of thousands of Americans who voted “uncommitted” during the presidential primaries in protest of US support for Israel’s war on Gaza, learned of the decision just as Wednesday’s primetime speakers, including Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, took to the DNC stage. 

    DNC organizers didn’t publicly explain their decision. They did not respond to a request for comment. 

    Some within the delegation told Zeteo they felt the party strung Americans and party members concerned with Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza along, perhaps delaying the decision until the last moment, counting on a muted response. 

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  • #LetPalestineSpeak

    #LetPalestineSpeak
    Today, August 22, 2024
    Wisconsin Democratic Party Office
    15 N Pinckney St, by The Old Fashioned
    12 to 2pm

    Madison for World BEYOND War:

    Tonight, after weeks of negotiations, the Harris-Walz campaign refused the simplest of demands: to allow a Palestinian-American to speak from the stage of the Democratic National Convention.

    Here in Madison, we will stand in front of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to demand that Palestinians voices be heard. Join us 12 to 2pm.

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  • CODEPINK Disrupts “Democratic Majority for Israel” DNC Event

    Challenging U.S. Support of Israel 
    The event featured Gov. Tim Walz who is “supposedly” sympathetic to Palestine

    CODEPINK, August 21, 2024

    CHICAGO — CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin and co-director Danaka Katovich joined other pro-Palestine activists in crashing a Democratic Majority for Israel DNC event today delivering the message: “There is no majority for Israel.” 

    The event hosted Gov. Tim Walz as the featured guest. The activists highlighted the growing opposition among Americans to U.S. complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and their illegal occupation of Palestine, emphasizing that despite public sentiment, AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby continue to use their influence to subvert U.S. democracy.

    Their protest draws attention to the $23,734,981 that candidates running for Congress received from the pro-Israel lobby during the 2022 election cycle alone. This substantial financial influence on behalf of a foreign government shapes U.S. legislation in ways that perpetuate the occupation of Palestine and enable Israel’s ongoing violence against Palestinians.

    CODEPINK remains committed to challenging policies that support occupation and violence, advocating instead for justice and peace in the region.

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  • Wisconsin Palestinians have felt isolated from politics.

    The upcoming election has made it worse.

    After watching the U.S. fund Israel’s war on Gaza and not feeling represented by their politicians, Palestinian Americans in Wisconsin are finding ways to register their discontent.

    by Ava Menkes, Wisconsin Watch, August 20th, 2024 

    A woman in a dark short-sleeved shirt and jeans stands in a garden near a white house.
    Miriam Hasan, photographed Aug. 15, 2024, in Madison, Wis., often spends time in her backyard garden, reminding her of her father’s affinity for mint tea. Years after fleeing a small town outside Bethlehem with his family in 1948, Hasan’s father settled in a New Glarus farmhouse, where Miriam grew up. His experience as a Palestinian refugee informs her own political views today. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

    Miriam Hasan, 39, has had a complicated relationship with her Palestinian identity. 

    In 1948, a bombing caused her father Noaman Hasan at two years old and his family to flee a small town outside Bethlehem for a refugee camp. Through adversity, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Egypt before attending the American University in Beirut and eventually finding long-term employment in Wisconsin.

    During his career as a molecular biologist, Hasan’s father experienced discrimination at work. Hasan recalled one story about her father’s co-workers blaming him for a lab accident seemingly for no reason other than his Arab ethnicity. He never spoke Arabic in the house and compartmentalized it all — the dispossession, the experience of leaving home on foot — as part of the Palestinian identity.

    “My dad, I think his early experiences in the United States, just like in the workplace, and maybe socially as well, made him think that the best thing for kids was to make sure they blend in as much as possible,” Hasan told Wisconsin Watch.

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  • Activists force AXA to divest from ALL Israeli banks and largest weapons manufacturer

    Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), August 21, 2024

    This is a major BDS win for Palestinian rights activists, and a win for grassroots and civil society pressure to end the shameful complicity of large financial corporations like AXA in Israel’s 76-year-old regime of settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide.

    In a major BDS win for human rights activists against financial institutions complicit in Israel’s 76-year-old regime of settler colonialism, apartheid and now genocide, French multinational insurer AXA was forced to sell its investments in all major Israeli banks as confirmed by this new report. These banks are considered the backbone of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise on occupied Palestinian stolen lands. 

    The global Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid campaign targeted AXA’s investment in Israeli banks and Elbit Systems for their complicity in Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, which constitute war crimes under international law, and for other grave violations of Palestinian human rights. For years, AXA faced divestment pressure, reputational damage and a consumer boycott campaign. 

    At AXA’s shareholders meeting in April 2024, AXA’s CEO was compelled to announce that AXA has “zero investments in Israeli banks, direct or indirect.”

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  • Wisconsin ‘uninstructed’ voters among DNC protests

    THEY say Vice President Kamala Harris needs to take a more forceful stand to end the war in Gaza
    “nothing short of complete and total liberation of Palestine will get me to vote for the Democratic Party again”

    BY RICH KREMER, WPR, AUGUST 19, 2024

    Protesters gather in Union Park for a pro-Palestinian protest in response to the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago, Ill. Angela Major/WPR

    Wisconsin residents were among those protesting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Monday, saying they hoped to send a message that the party won’t get their votes without an immediate arms embargo of Israel and a ceasefire in its war against Hamas.

    Thousands gathered at Union Park outside of the United Center, where a larger crowd of Democrats gathered Monday for the first day of the DNC. 

    The March on the DNC 2024 is comprised of an amalgam of several activist groups and causes, but on Monday, the overwhelming call was for the liberation of the Palestinian people. Speakers called for an end to what they call Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which they argue is sanctioned by President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. 

    Protesters gather in Union Park for a pro-Palestinian protest in response to the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago, Ill. Angela Major/WPR

    The protests came on the first day of Democrats’ weeklong effort to introduce Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to American voters. 

    Heba Mohammad of Milwaukee told WPR she and around 100 other Wisconsinites traveled to Chicago to let Harris, Walz and the rest of the Democratic establishment “know that their actions on the genocide, and whether or not they choose to end it, are going to make a difference in how many people end up voting for them.”

    Mohammad was one of around 48,000 Wisconsin residents who cast “uninstructed” protest votes in April’s presidential primary election as a warning to Biden that not taking a more forceful approach with Israel could cost him support in swing states like Wisconsin. 

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  • How Israel is Arming Israeli Settlers

    “It is farcical to suggest a distinction between settler and state violence: They are part of the same settler-colonial structure, and not only complement each other but depend on one another.”

    —Fathi Nimer, The West Bank: Settler Colonial Spillover of the Gaza Genocide

    While Israel continues its brutal genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, armed Israeli settlers, backed by the Israeli government, continue to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank. Our new visual captures how the Israeli government has transferred hundreds of thousands of guns and other weapons to Israeli settlers since October 7, as settler violence against Palestinian communities skyrockets with impunity.

    how-israel-is-arming-israeli-settlers-1Download

    On August 15, 2024, the Israeli government approved a new illegal settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Palestinian village of Battir near Bethlehem. On August 16, a mob of armed Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian towns of Jit and Huwara, shooting a resident dead, injuring others, torching cars, and destroying property. In the first six months of 2024, there were an average of four incidents per day of Israeli settlers attacking and terrorizing Palestinians in the West Bank.

    The International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently ordered Israel “to end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” including by immediately ceasing all new settlement activity, evacuating existing settlements, and paying reparations to Palestinians. The ICJ emphasized that “all states are obligated not to recognize as legal the situation arising from Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Furthermore, states must refrain from providing any aid or assistance that would perpetuate this situation.

    The call for a military embargo on Israel addresses both Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its escalating colonial violence in the West Bank, two arenas in one settler colonial project. Help us spread awareness by using this visual to demand accountability for Israel’s continued illegal occupation of the West Bank and the rise of Israeli settler violence.

    In solidarity,
    The VP team

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  • On Drones and Ceasefires

    Sam Wallman, August 1, 2016
    xandrohq, 1/8/2014
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  • Aug 25, 2024: David Rovics in Madison

    Madison Labor Temple lawn
    1602 S Park St, Madison
    6:00 pm

    This is not about Israel’s wars in Gaza. This about the moments in between them, during the closest thing that passes in Gaza for “peace.”

    David Rovics, February 1, 2015

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  • Aug 20 – 23, 2024: Wisconsin Capitol Vigils

    Capitol Rotunda
    Noon to 3 pm

    This week we partner again with Building Unity to create a local space for concerned people to come together. Important meetings, conventions, and decisions are being made elsewhere. Here, we want to remain a constant presence that opposes wars, all wars, as an ideology for conflict resolution.

    Yes, Stop Arming Israel! Ceasefire Now! and Not Another Bomb! are key demands for the end of the Palestinian genocide; we recognize also that the policies at play in the Middle East are the same that produce catastrophes, human and environmental, in many other places. We vigil here to insist that dismantling the culture of war and the introduction of life affirming policies are imperative needs for the future of us all. The path starts here at our local level, in our State Capitol.

    Join us in the Capitol Rotunda; we’ll have signs, we’ll share articles, readings, and poetry, we’ll observe silence, some of us might fast; we’ll engage with people; we’ll be in solidarity with people standing in opposition everywhere.

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  • March on the DNC 2024

    August 19 – 22, 2024

    More information

    There is a bus from Milwaukee, loading 8:15 am, leaving 8:30 am, and returning from Chicago at 3:30 pm. $45 cash or check or whatever you can afford. You must reserve your spot by calling Jim Carpenter (414) 347-0353 or texting him at (414) 491-3338. More details here.

    There is no bus from Madison, but a group of local activists will be taking the 7 am Van Galder bus which arrives in downtown Chicago at 11 am. They will Uber to join the JVP contingent, and then take the 7 pm bus back to Madison. Folks are welcome to join them.

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  • Good Trouble, Holy Trouble in Washington

    at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Annual Summit

     by VJP board member Rev. Dr. Ron Shive

    John Lewis, the U.S. Congressman from Georgia, knew how to get into good trouble. He was a leader of Bloody Sunday – that fateful and tragic day on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965 . On numerous other occasions throughout his life, John Lewis stirred up good trouble. When he returned to the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 1, 2020, just four months before his death, to commemorate the bloody events fifty-five years earlier, he challenged us all with these words, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.” 

    John Lewis’ moral call was heard and answered by Voices for Justice in Palestine and a number of other sponsoring organizations of the Interfaith Action for Palestine (IAP). Over 700 Jews, Muslim, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians gathered in Washington, D.C. July 28-30 to protest the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Annual Summit at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, MD.

    CUFI is the largest Zionist organization in the United States, with over 11 million members—more members than the number of Jews in the United States. “The majority of support in the U.S. (for Israel) doesn’t come from the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Abby Stein, who came from Brooklyn to help lead some of the protests. “I think it’s very important to understand where that power comes from.”

    CUFI was founded in 2006 by John Hagee, the current pastor of Cornestone Church in San Antonio, Texas. For years, CUFI has pressured the United States government to embrace a broad-based unconditional support of Israel and the continual funding of Israel’s deepening occupation and apartheid at the expense of Palestinians and Israelis.

    Our Interfaith Action for Palestine ( IAP) gathering was the largest multi-faith effort yet to disrupt the influence of Christian Zionism on U.S. policy. We gathered to create good trouble, or should I say holy trouble? We gathered to expose Christian Zionism’s role in the genocide, and to pressure national leaders to stop funding this genocidal assault on Gaza.

    Over two days, IAP temporarily shut down CUFI with 10 unique direct actions. While it was impossible for any one person to be involved in all these, I was involved in several of these direct actions. 

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  • US approves $20 billion in weapons sales to Israel amid threat of wider Middle East war

    FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

    BY  TARA COPP, Associated Press, August 13, 2024

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles, the State Department announced Tuesday. 

    Congress was notified of the impending sale, which includes more than 50 F-15 fighter jets, Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs, 120 mm tank ammunition and high explosive mortars and tactical vehicles and comes at a time of intense concern that Israel may become involved in a wider Middle East war. 

    However, the weapons are not expected to get to Israel anytime soon, they are contracts that will take years to fulfill. Much of what is being sold is to help Israel increase its military capability in the long term, the earliest systems being delivered under the contract aren’t expected until the 2026 timeframe. 

    “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives,” the State Department said in a release on the sale. 

    The Biden administration has had to balance its continued support for Israel with a growing number of calls from lawmakers and the U.S. public to curb military support there due to the high number of civilian deaths in Gaza. It has curbed one delivery of 2,000-pound weapons amid continued airstrikes by Israel in densely populated civilian areas in Gaza. 

    The contracts will cover not only the sale of new 50 aircraft to be produced by Boeing. It will also include upgrade kits for Israel to modify its existing fleet of two dozen F-15 fighter jets with new engines and radars, among other upgrades. The jets comprise the biggest portion of the $20 billion in sales with the first deliveries expected in 2029. 

    Image

    TARA COPP
    Copp covers the Pentagon and national security for the Associated Press. She has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
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  • An American was just shot in the West Bank.

    The American press can’t be bothered.
    As waning global attention is on the war in Gaza, an intensifying ethnic cleansing campaign is ramping up in the West Bank.

    RYAN GRIM, DROP SITE, AUG 13, 2024

    With an undeclared war with Hezbollah in the north, the ongoing slaughter in Gaza in the south, and the anticipation of a retaliatory attack from Iran, it’s easy for the accelerating seizure of Palestinian land in the West Bank to be overlooked. Up close, it can’t be missed. The saga of Alice Qaysiya’s family and friends, who are fighting to hold on to their Bethlehem home, is the story of just one family and one property, but it’s also so much more, as you’ll find in this report below by my colleague Murtaza Hussain.

    Israeli Forces Shot an American Activist Defending Palestinian Land From Seizure

    By Murtaza Hussain, Drop Site, Aug 13, 2024

    As the Qaysiya family, friends, and activists walked up to the family land, the IDF created a blockade and ordered them to go back. They refused. The army would not let them pass, declaring it a closed military zone. A standoff ensued. The image on the right is proof of ownership of the property. Photo courtesy of Combatants for Peace and the Qaysiya family.

    Alice Qaysiya’s family property in the West Bank city of Bethlehem once hosted not just their home but a restaurant they had built. That was before settlers vandalized and demolished it. Now it is home to a makeshift campground the family guards fiercely.

    While the world’s attention drifts from the assault on Gaza, the rapidly accelerating seizure of Palestinian land in the West Bank continues in the hidden background, reshaping conditions on the ground and pushing a political settlement to the conflict further away.

    The Qaysiya family isn’t leaving without a fight, and their determined stand has drawn the support of some Israelis and Western activists, who are now putting their bodies on the line to slow the rampage of Israeli settlers.

    The Qaysiya family has gone to court numerous times to try and assert legal protection over the property, only to see those claims ignored on the ground by settler activists guarded by Israeli soldiers. The settlers recently began arriving on her family property with weapons as part of the confiscation effort. Drop Site News put together the following account based on interviews with the Qaysiya family and witnesses to the stand-off, backed up by video of the resulting violence.

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  • Madison Not Another Bomb Rally

    August 17, 2024

    Sign the petition for a U.S. arms embargo

    Register for the Madison Rally!

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  • Israeli rape of detainees is the result of a society that sees Palestinians as ‘human animals’

    Israel has claimed that it is fighting “human animals” in Gaza. But now, Israeli society’s own monstrous sadism, deriving from a deep hate of Palestinians, is on display for the rest of the world to see.
    ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU AND ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER YOAV GALLANT IN THE CITY OF HEBRON IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK ON AUGUST 21, 2023. (PHOTO: AMOS BEN-GERSHOM / GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE)

    BY JONATHAN OFIR, MONDOWEISS, 

    FACEBOOK X WHATSAPP LINKEDIN MASTODON BLUESKY REDDIT EMAIL PRINT 

    On August 3, Shaiel Ben-Ephraim shared an interview on social media with two Israeli security officials involved in the Sde Teiman torture facility, which has become a cause célèbre for right-wing protesters demanding the right of Israelis to gang rape Palestinian prisoners with impunity. Ben-Ephraim is an academic who left UCLA as a post-doctorate following allegations of sexual harassment. He describes himself as “Israel analyst. Fighting for liberal democracy. Fanatic Mets fan. Host of Israel Explained and History of the Land of Israel.”

    Ben-Ephraim describes his two sources, saying that “the IDF source is quite high up. The other source is not but works there every day.”

    The “IDF source” says:

    “The 100 unit has been assigned to guard the prisoners. Their job is supposed to be to intervene when there is disorder. They are rough people. So they are guarding the prisoners. You are letting animals guard animals without supervision and in nightmarish conditions.”

    This is an interesting usage of the idea of “human animals,” a description first uttered during this genocide by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant on October 9, saying “we are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.” 

    The interviewed security personnel provide the emotional rationale for the sadistic torture enacted upon the Palestinians, it is a hate crime geared toward revenge. The “facility source” says: 

    “Everyone who served in Gaza is full of hatred. They have an urge to release the animal in them. Anyone who is put in a room with those who raped their girlfriends or killed their friends without supervision – will get whatever we got.”

    So they believe their girlfriends got raped or killed by Hamas. This doesn’t need any evidence as such, and it doesn’t matter whether those people whom they are torturing are involved in any way: 

    “They all tell us they are innocent. So we don’t believe any of them. But yeah, some probably did nothing wrong.”

    It is at this point worth remembering Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s claim from October 14 that there are simply no “uninvolved civilians” in Gaza.

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  • Chicago: CODEPINK’s “Disrupt the DNC”

    Aug 19 – 22, 2024

    More information

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  • Antiwar Film Series – “Soldiers Without Guns”

    August 20, 2024

    Madison Central Library
    201 W Mifflin St, Room 302
    6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

    The Antiwar Film Series continues in August, with Soldiers Without Guns, a documentary about Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, where a civil war raged for a decade, with locals split over the impact of an Australian-owned copper mine. Watch the trailer here. In 1997 New Zealand was asked to broker a peace deal and the NZ Defence Force tried a new approach: the quota of female soldiers was boosted, and they were armed with Māori culture and music. This feature documentary reveals extraordinary stories of using haka and song to connect with war-ravaged locals, and how the women of this matrilineal society were key to finding peace. 

    Small group discussions following the film. RSVP if you can to warabolition@gmail.com. The Antiwar Film Series is sponsored by the Madison chapters of Veterans for Peace, World BEYOND War, and Jewish Voice for Peace.

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  • Antiwar Film Series – “A Bold Peace”: Costa Rica’s Path of Demilitarization

    Sept 23, 2024

    o, “Una Paz Audaz”
    Madison Central Library
    201 W Mifflin St, Rooms 301 & 302
    6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

    In September, the Antiwar Film Series will show A Bold Peace, a documentary about how Costa Rica abolished its military and the peace dividends that they have reaped. Watch the trailer here. We will show the film in two rooms, so you can watch it in Spanish or English – your choice. 

    About the film: In 1948, Costa Rica dismantled their military and cultivated security relationships with other nations through treaties, international laws, and international organizations. Free from the burden of military spending, they instead invested in the Costa Rican people – creating strong public institutions including public higher education and universal health care.

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  • Eken Park Festival

    August 17, 2024
    Eken Park, 848 North St, Madison
    11 am – 8 pm

    Visit the Palestine Partners booth with Playgrounds for Palestine! More info at Eken Park Fest.

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  • A win for the Palestine protests: UK suspends Israel arms sales

    The government’s suspension of arms sales to Israel, while possibly temporary, shows the impact of the months of protests
    F-35 jets flying over occupied Palestine
    F-35 jets flying over occupied Palestine

    Clementine Russell, Counterfire, 7 August 2024

    Facebook Twitter

    Though it can sometimes be hard to see the policy impact of consistent protesting, the government’s latest decision to suspend arms sales to Israel whilst ministers carry out a policy review is reflective of the pressure that protests have put on the new Labour government.

    Arms sales to Israel have been one of the key factors in the UK’s complicity in genocide. According to Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), UK industry provides 15%, by value, of the US-made F35 stealth combat aircraft that has been used in the bombardment of Gaza. UK industry has profited from Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing with the value of UK parts in F-35s delivered to Israel estimated by CAAT to be at least £336m. Supporters of Palestine have been repeatedly calling for the end of arms exports to Israel since 7 October. After ten months of genocide, the UK has finally listened.

    An individual involved in arms exports to Israel who was seeking permission reportedly received a response that stated, ‘suspended pending policy review’. A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said in a statement: ‘It is vital that we uphold both our domestic and international legal obligations when it comes to arms exports. We are reviewing the advice regarding exports to Israel and no decision has been made.’ Foreign secretary David Lammy has refused to publish the government’s legal advice on arms exports to Israel.

    If, following the policy review, government lawyers find that Israel has engaged in war crimes, all exports would have to cease permanently. Though it’s possible that arms exports could be unrestricted after the review, the abundance of evidence of Israel’s war crimes makes this seem unlikely, though it is still important to take the announcement with a grain of salt.

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  • Nearly 100 killed in Israeli strike on school, Gaza officials say

    WaPo Washington Post logo
    The Israel Defense Forces said Hamas fighters had been operating in the Gaza City school. Eleven children and six women were among those killed, a Gaza official said.
    An Israeli strike on a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least 93 people, including children, according to Palestinian officials. (Video: Agencia EFE, Obtained by Reuters)

    By Missy Ryan, Hajar Harb, Mohamad El Chamaa, Adela Suliman and Kelsey Ables, Washington Post, August 10, 2024

    JERUSALEM — An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least 93 people in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, civil defense authorities said, deepening global scrutiny of Israel’s conduct of the war more than 10 months into its campaign to eliminate Hamas.

    Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said the al-Taba’een school in Gaza City was housing about 6,000 displaced Palestinians when the bombs struck around 4:30 a.m. He said at least 11 children and six women were among those killed, with at least 54 injured and dozens missing.

    Video from the scene showed scores of bodies wrapped in sheets and blankets laid in the schoolyard after the strike, as women crouched over corpses in grief. The strike was one of the single deadliest bombings of the war, and Bassal said the toll was expected to rise. “The recovery operations are indescribable,” he said in an interview.

    The Israel Defense Forces said the strike targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants it claimed were operating a command and control node from within the school, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields.

    An Israeli military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with IDF protocol, said that three precision munitions struck a prayer hall, which he said was used by militants, on the ground floor of the three-story school building. Residents said the facility had been converted into a shelter for Gazans forced to flee their homes.

    The strike, two days after a dozen people were killed in two earlier Israeli strikes on Gaza schools, came at a delicate moment for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is already under pressure to end a conflict that has left tens of thousands of people dead and plunged the Middle East into a period of renewed upheaval and violence.

    In a bid to halt the fighting, the Biden administration has spearheaded an intense diplomatic campaign in recent days to compel the two sides to reach a deal that would stop the war and see Israeli hostages released. U.S. officials have likewise been racing to head off a wider regional conflict, as Iran and Lebanon’s powerful paramilitary force Hezbollah promise to attack Israel over recent strikes on militant leaders.

    The site of Saturday’s bombing in Gaza City, and the scale of the bloodshed, brought a swift international response.

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  • Arab Christians invite Zionist evangelicals to restore ‘one body in Christ’

    The plea finds a ‘discernible missional gap’ between the Western church and the churches of the Middle East
    Palestinians inspect the damage at a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

    By Daoud Kuttab, Religion News Service, August 8, 2024

    (RNS) — Since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza, Arab Christians in the Middle East have complained that Western Christians, particularly white evangelicals, have exhibited a lack of compassion for the Palestinians, nearly 40,000 of whom have died since Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7. The Middle East has long been fodder for apocalyptic preachers aiming to excite their television audiences or megachurch parishioners by using the latest conflict as proof of a dubious prophecy.

    In recent years such Christian Zionism has become common among American politicians as well, reaching an extreme in the current violence with former Vice President Mike Pence approvingly signing Israeli bombs intended for Palestinians and Lebanese targets and Nikki Haley writing on an Israeli bomb destined to kill Arabs, “Finish them.”

    Arab Christians in the Middle East, evangelical and others, have now decided that they can no longer be silent about their co-religionists’ ugly solidarity with what has been called at best an act of revenge and at worst a genocide.

    Besides the tens of thousands of women and children killed, hospitals, houses of worship, ambulances, universities and bakeries have been shelled and a population has been starved. Churches and Christian shelters in Gaza are no longer safe havens. Yet many in the global church are either silent or have approved of the carnage taking place in Gaza and, increasingly, across the region.

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  • Reaction of Jeff Halper to Ismail Haniyeh’s Assassination

    Like apartheid South Africa, it must be replaced by a single democracy offering equal rights to all living between the River and the Sea

    ICAHD Videos, Jul 31, 2024

    Jeff Halper, ICAHD’s Director, posted this introduction to the interview that he did on 31st July 2024 with Salaamedia in South Africa about the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh:

    This was a criminal act perpetuated by what even the international community is considering a criminal state, one being tried for genocide by the ICJ and whose Prime Minister and Defense Minister are awaiting arrest warrants by the ICC. Political assassinations are illegal in international law, as are any kind of extra-judicial killings; they are murder, pure and simple. Israel chooses to kill its political opponents rather than negotiate with them because its goals are not “peace,” but rather transforming all of Palestine into a Jewish state, which it readily admits. Indeed, any prospect of peace or compromise with the Palestinians is seen as an existential threat to the Zionism colonization project. Haniyeh, as a reasonable Palestinian leader willing to deal with Israel (Hamas accepted the two-state solution already back in 2006 in the Prisoners’ Document), poses a greater threat than Yahya Sinwar, whose military resistance can be defeated.

    The assassination of Haniyeh reflects Israel’s strategic decision to reduce the Palestinians’ legitimate and just liberation struggle into mere “terrorism.” By criminalizing all those who resist its colonization, ethnic cleansing, land grabbing, occupation, mass killing and ultimately apartheid, Israel seeks to delegitimize the Palestinian cause and its leaders. It also seeks to generate such hatred between the two peoples that no dialogue will ever be possible. In so doing it knowingly and intentionally forecloses any possibility of a political settlement.

    Since it believes it can defeat an entire people, oppress it forever and get away with apartheid – all dependent, of course, on US military and diplomatic support – it chooses to perpetuate “the conflict,” convinced that it can “win.” The price of “total victory” over an oppressed people and their erasure from the land and history has a name: genocide.

    Israel has lost any legitimacy it had as a state. Like apartheid South Africa, it must be replaced by a single democracy offering equal rights to all living between the River and the Sea (including, of course, returning Palestinian refugees). As an Israeli Jew, it pains me to use this language, but Israel/Zionism has been a criminal regime since the 1948 Nakba, and its criminality has reached new genocidal heights. Only one democratic state is capable of decolonizing Palestine and bringing peace, justice and security to the tortured country’s peoples.

    And so, I remember Ismail Haniyeh and his family, which I can do without supporting Hamas’ religious/political agenda. We must acknowledge yet another Palestinian leader killed in the struggle for liberation.

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  • Welcome to Hell: B’Tselem’s Ignored Abuse Report Shows Israel’s True Face

    In Guantanamo Bay nine prisoners were killed in 20 years; here it’s 60 detainees in 10 months. Need anything more be said?
    “Welcome to Hell” is a B’Tselem report on the abuse and inhuman treatment of Palestinians held in Israeli custody since 7 October 2023. B’Tselem collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians held during that time and released, almost all with no charges. Their testimonies reveal the transformation of more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities, military and civilian, into a network dedicated to the abuse of inmates as a matter of policy.

    Gideon Levy, Haaretz, Aug 8, 2024

    The B’Tselem report published this week, “Welcome to Hell,” isn’t only a report about what’s happening in Israel’s prison facilities; it’s a report about Israel. Anyone who wants to know what Israel is should read this report before any other document about Israeli democracy.

    Anyone who wants to become familiar with the spirit of the times in Israel should note how most of the media outlets ignored the report, which should have caused outrage and shock in Israel. Even the documentation of the gang rape reported this week by Guy Peleg on Channel 12 News didn’t show only the Sde Teiman detention facility. It showed the face of the country.

    If a report like that of B’Tselem was almost totally ignored here, and if even after the evidence shown by Peleg the debate as to whether it’s permitted to detain the despicable soldiers presented in it continues – on the Channel 12 morning program there was a discussion of who’s in favor of rape and who’s opposed – then Peleg’s documentation is documentation of the face of Israel 2024, its spirit and its likeness.

    Unfortunately, even Peleg continued to call the victim of the barbaric rape a “terrorist” (after all, he does work for Channel 12 News), although a moment earlier he revealed that the rape victim wasn’t a member of the Nukhba or a company commander – he was an ordinary policeman in the anti-drug unit in Jabalya. He was also pulled out from among dozens of detainees who were lying handcuffed on the floor, perhaps at random because he was the last one in the row. No violence and no riots, as the suspects’ disingenuous lawyers tried to claim.

    What exactly did that “terrorist” do? And why was he even in prison? Was it because his salary is paid by the government in the Gaza Strip? These are questions that shouldn’t be asked. But the picture of his body that was trembling from the pains of the penetration, which flickered for an instant while the rapists hid behind their defenders, should have tortured every conscience.

    Not the conscience of most Israelis, it turns out. On Tuesday, once again, a High Court of Justice hearing discussing the petition to close the torture facility Sde Teiman was interrupted, due to the shouts of the audience. “The people are sovereign,” shouted the rabble at the High Court justices. Soon to come are the lynchings in the city squares, carried out by the sovereign and supported by the media. On the morning TV programs there will be discussions of the legitimacy of lynching. There will be a speaker in favor and a speaker who is opposed, in our balanced media.

    An abusive husband can be charming, impressive, beloved by everyone who knows him and talented; if he beats his wife or his children – he’s an abusive husband. This definition overshadows all other descriptions of him, his violence defines his identity. 

    All his other characteristics are forgotten due to his violence.

    Sde Teiman also defines Israel, more than its other characteristics. Israel is Sdei Teiman, Sde Teiman is Israel. That’s also how they treated those suspected of sexual harassment in the Israeli #MeToo movement, which destroyed the careers and the lives of men who were only suspects. But the rapists from Sde Teiman? That’s not an issue for #MeToo – they raped a “terrorist.”

    When you read the 94 pages of the B’Tselem report, which causes you to lose sleep, you understand that it wasn’t an exceptional incident, it’s the routine of torture, which has become a policy. As opposed to the torture by the Shin Bet, which presumably had a security-minded purpose – to extract information – here it’s solely to satisfy the darkest and sickest sadistic urges. Look how calmly the soldiers approach to carry out their malevolent intention. There are dozens of other soldiers too, who saw and knew and remained silent. Apparently they also participated in similar orgies, based on the dozens of testimonies cited in the B’Tselem report. That’s the routine.

    The indifference to all these things defines Israel. The public legitimization defines Israel. In the Guantanamo Bay detention camp that was opened by the United States after the 9/11 attacks, nine prisoners were killed in 20 years; here it’s 60 detainees in 10 months. Need anything more be said?

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  • Settler Attack in Tuba

    My friends were attacked this morning in Tuba. They got the sheep back, but have injuries and are at the hospital now.
    — Cassandra Dixon

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  • The West Bank with John Oliver

    Content Warning for expletives and sexual humor, like

    “I know the bar here is incredibly low, but I guess at the very least I just want my government to have the moral backbone that’s been shown by Ben and f*cking Jerry’s.”

    YouTube, Aug 1, 2024
    John Oliver discusses how the West Bank settlements came to be, what their presence means for everyone in the region, and why the weight of the world rests squarely on the shoulders of Ben & Jerry’s.

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  • Backing Israeli Apartheid Isn’t Just Immoral — It’s Illegal

    Last month, the International Court of Justice issued a damning assessment of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and the apartheid system it has built. All states now have a clear obligation to impose sanctions on Israel until the occupation ends.

    A Palestinian protester confronts an Israeli soldier during a demonstration against Israeli forces conducting an exercise in a residential area near the Palestinian village of Naqura in the occupied West Bank, on September 4, 2019. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP via Getty Images)

    INTERVIEW WITH JOHN REYNOLDS BY DANIEL FINN, JACOBIN, 08.04.2024

    Last month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a landmark ruling on the status of Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. The court affirmed that the occupation was unlawful and must be ended “as rapidly as possible,” in a way that “cannot be conditional on the success of negotiations whose outcome will depend on Israel’s approval.”

    Israel is currently facing two other challenges on the international legal front. The South African case at the ICJ accusing it of genocide is proceeding, and the court has ordered Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has also asked for arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant.

    John Reynolds is a professor of law at Maynooth University and the author of Empire, Emergency, and International Law. This is an edited transcript from Jacobin’s Long Reads podcast. You can listen to the interview here.

    DANIEL FINN

    Can you tell us about the background to the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the status of Israel’s occupation? Does this case have any relation to the other ICJ case brought by South Africa, accusing Israel of genocide, and what might the implications of this ruling be?

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  • After 300 days of ‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’

    Nasrallah declares ‘new phase’ of war, vows ‘inevitable’ response to Israeli attack on Beirut

    In a strident speech on August 1, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah said that the fighting with Israel has “entered a new phase” that goes “beyond supporting Gaza,” vowing an “inevitable” response to Israel’s Beirut bombing.

    BY QASSAM MUADDI, MONDOWEISS, 

    XWHATSAPP MASTODON BLUESKY THREADS LINKEDIN FACEBOOK EMAIL PRINT

    HASSAN NASRALLAH DELIVERS ADDRESS FOLLOWING ISRAEL’S ATTACK ON BEIRUT, AUGUST 1, 2024. (PHOTO: SCREENSHOT)

    Casualties 

    • 39,480 + killed* and at least 91,128 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 28,903 Palestinians have been fully identified, and around 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble.*
    • 594+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank including eastern Jerusalem. These include 138 children.**
    • Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
    • 690 Israeli soldiers have been recognized as killed, and 4096 as wounded by the Israeli army since October 7.***

    * Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on July 31, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.

    ** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health on July 30, this is the latest figure.

    *** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000 including at least 8,000 permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7, as of June 18.

    Key Developments 

    • Israel has killed 156 Palestinians and wounded 666 across Gaza since Monday, July 29, raising the death toll since October 7 to 39,480 and the number of wounded to 91,128, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
    • Israel assassinates senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr on Tuesday night in Beirut’s southern Dahiya district.
    • Israel assassinates head of Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday morning in Tehran; Hanieh receives state funeral in Tehran on Thursday, to be buried in Qatar on same day.
    • In televised address on Thursday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah announces “new phase” in fighting with Israel after Beirut bombing and Shukr assassination.
    • Speaker of Iranian parliament says Israel made  “strategic mistake” by killing Haniyeh; Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei and Iranian Revolutionary Guard pledge revenge.
    • Israel claims that Israeli strike on Mawasi last month successfully killed head of Hamas military wing Muhammad al-Deif.
    • Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayyeh says assassination of Ismail Haniyeh provoked anger of all Muslim nations.
    • Blinken says Middle East heading toward more conflict; ceasefire in Gaza can bring calm between Lebanon and Israel.
    • Financial Times quotes unnamed Western diplomat saying several Western countries are pressuring Iran to avoid responding to Haniyeh assassination to prevent regional war; future of Middle East conflict depends more on Iran’s choices than Israel’s.
    • Israeli internal security service, Shin Bet, orders Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister, not to travel or move without authorization.
    • Israel reported to have informed Iran and Hezbollah of its readiness for a war.
    • Iran representative at UN Security Council accuses U.S. of participating in Haniyeh assassination, says Israel could not have done it without U.S. intelligence assistance.
    • Marking 300 days of war, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid says “all the government can offer is one war after the other.”
    • Israeli protesters block main highway in Tel Aviv demanding ceasefire and prisoners’ exchange deal.
    • Two U.S. airliners cancel flights to and from Lebanon.
    • Israel kills Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi in airstrike on Gaza City, raising number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel since October 7 to 165.
    • Palestinians observe general strike in all West Bank cities on Wednesday in mourning over Haniyeh assassination, take part in several marches.
    • One Israeli wounded in stabbing and shooting attack in Hebron in southern West Bank, Wednesday. Israeli army says attacker arrested.

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  • Aug 11, 2024: Banners Up For Palestine! at “Ride the Drive”

    11 am – 1 pm

    Join us for another Banners Up! action at Madison’s Ride the Drive to keep Palestine and Gaza in the public eye. Wear your kuffiyas and bring signs and flags.

    We plan to be at Law Park near the Machinery Row parking lot. Check here for updates and call 608-586-4447 if you can’t find us. 

    If you’re riding and want to decorate your bike for Palestine, we’ll be giving out small Palestine flags and selling kuffiyas!

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  • Aug 10, 2024: Bur Oak Music for Gaza

    6 pm

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  • Aug 9, 2024: Culinary Passport Series features Palestinian Cuisine

    Catholic Multicultural Center
    5256 Verona Road, Fitchburg
    6 pm

    CMC has announced that the next destination in their Culinary Passport Series will celebrate the culture of the Palestinian people with a delicious meal from 3DE Mediterranean Cuisine.

    The event will also feature traditional music and dance, and a panel discussion with neighbors of Palestinian background about their culture, the significance of food and cooking in their lives, as well as personal stories.

    Register soon to secure your place; spots are limited.  This series is a fundraiser to support the work of the CMC.

    Tickets available at Culinary Passport Series – Palestine

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  • Aug 8, 2024: Palestine Partners at Madison Night Market

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  • Israel Has a History of Killing Hamas Leaders Who Are Trying To Secure Ceasefires

    Benjamin Netanyahu’s reckless assassination of Ismail Haniyeh undermines the prospects for a peace deal and the release of the hostages.

    MEHDI HASAN, ZETEO, JUL 31, 2024

    (Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, on March 26, 2024. Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

    “Israel’s leaders killed three birds with one stone,” wrote Reuven Pedatzur, a senior military affairs analyst for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “They assassinated the man who had the power to make a deal with Israel; they took revenge on someone who had caused more than a few Israeli casualties; and they signaled to Hamas that communications with it will be conducted only through military force.”

    Was Pedatzur referring to the Israeli assassination of senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the group’s political bureau, in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday morning?

    No. Pedatzur died in a road traffic accident in 2014. His quote from Haaretz, above, was in response to the Israeli assassination of another senior Hamas commander, Ahmed Jabari, in November 2012, which kicked off the 2012 Gaza war. 

    As my former colleague at The Intercept, Jon Schwarz, documented in great detail last year, “Jabari had come to believe that it was in the best interest of Palestinians for Hamas to negotiate a long-term truce” and had been in communication with the respected Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin. “Just before the assassination, [Baskin] gave Jabari a draft proposal for such a truce to review and approve. The draft was agreed to by Baskin and Hamas’s deputy foreign minister, and Baskin also said he had previously shown it to Ehud Barak, then the Israeli minister of defense.”

    Would Jabari have signed off on a ‘hudna,‘ or long-term truce, between Hamas and Israel? We’ll never know. 

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  • Aug 8, 2024: Mouin Rabbani on WORT

    WORT

    A Public Affair with Allen Ruff
    Noon to 1 pm CT
    Live at 89.9 FM or streaming, and archived

    Ismail Haniyeh, a top political leader of Hamas, was assassinated in Teheran, presumably by Israel, on Wednesday, July 31. The day prior, an Israeli air strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, said to have been Hezbollah’s top military commander. Then, last Thursday, the day after Haniyeh’s death, the Israeli army confirmed that it had killed the commander of Hamas’ military wing Mohammed Deif in an attack in Gaza on July 13. 

    Coming amidst the ongoing Israeli onslaught and deteriorating conditions for the Palestinians of Gaza, these recent developments can only serve to further inflame the region’s conflict. 

    Returning to A Public Affair to share his perspectives and provide some context for these latest events and where things might be headed will be the Palestinian commentator and Middle East observer MOUIN RABBANI. 

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  • ‘Solidarity with Palestine’: Tanzanian divers draw attention to war on Gaza

    Video, which captured the attention of thousands, featured several Tanzanians holding ‘Free Palestine’ placards

    Lulu Angelo Sanga, Anadolu Ajansı, 01.08.2024 

    A photo credits: Jonty King

    ZANZIBAR, Tanzania 

    Jamal Amoul Abdallah, a content creator known for his diving skills and promoting positive messages and peace, has released a compelling video in solidarity with Palestinians.

    Collaborating with a group of fellow divers and South African travel influencer Candice King, they displayed Palestinian flags as they jump into the waters.

    The video, which captured the attention of many, including international media, featured several Tanzanians saying “Free Palestine.”

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  • Break the Siege ship prevented from sailing

    Flotilla still determined to challenge the Blockade

    By David, Freedom Flotilla Coalition, August 1, 2024

    The Freedom Flotilla Coalition believes in fundamental rights for all, including Palestinians. Unfortunately, these values are not shared by many of the world’s governments. Our Break the Siege mission ships and crew in Istanbul have been prepared to sail for some time now, but we have been waiting for a required document from the Turkish Port Authority, granting us permission to depart from Istanbul. Without this document our vessels would be stopped and potentially detained if we attempt to leave port. 

    After weeks of discussions with the Port Authority, it is now clear to us that such permission will not be forthcoming from the Turkish government. We have been given no explanation as to why the Turkish government will not give permission for the departure when the government has been otherwise strongly supporting Palestine. Based on our past experience, we expect that it is owing to intense pressure from the United States, United Kingdom, and perhaps other NATO countries strongly aligned with Israel.

    Our mission has been once again bureaucratically stymied. Our Flotilla ships have met all legal requirements for this voyage, yet we are being blocked by a political decision on the part of the Turkish government. 

    Israel has occupied Palestine for over 76 years, blockaded Gaza for 17 years, and for the last 10 months has been engaged in a genocidal assault on a trapped and beleaguered civilian population, bombing, killing, maiming, torturing and deliberately starving and causing infected over 2 million people. Most of our governments have been and continue to be shamefully complicit. 

    The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and our many supporters have been working to ready this mission for months, and we are all deeply disappointed that, despite its rhetoric, the Turkish government has now joined the ranks of those complicit in maintaining Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza. We continue to call on our governments to follow the clear guidance of the International Court of Justice regarding the illegality of the Israeli occupation in general and in particular the duty to facilitate the unobstructed delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians of Gaza.

    The FFC will continue its efforts to challenge the illegal and inhumane blockade on Gaza, including efforts to have our vessels released so that we can sail. A primary goal of our mission is to raise awareness about the genocide in Gaza in our respective countries. Our boat Handala continues on its For the Children of Gaza mission, now visiting Mediterranean ports and building solidarity as it makes its way towards Gaza. 

    The FFC wants you to know how much we value the fact our supporters have been so patient for so long. We will continue to work tirelessly to attempt to sail but, in the meantime, we need to let everyone know that for the moment, the sailing of Break the Siege must be put on hold, indefinitely. Our respective national campaigns remain active and engaged: please watch for updates about our actions and other Palestine solidarity actions near you.

    In solidarity,

    The Freedom Flotilla Coalition Steering Committee

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  • Everyone knows Israel is committing genocide

    Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, July 28, 2024

    On John Oliver’s late-night show this week, he put it simply to his ten million subscribers: the U.S. must end its support for the Israeli government while it carries out relentless atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. 

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  • Israel’s Olympic Presence Helps Legitimize War Crimes

    Paraguay’s men’s soccer team defeated Israel—but Israel wins just by being allowed to compete.

    DAVE ZIRIN and JULES BOYKOFF, THE NATION, JULY 29, 2024

    Fans hold a banner reading “Genocide Olympics” during the men’s soccer match between Israel and Paraguay at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on July 27, 2024. (Mustafa Yalcin / Anadolu via Getty Images)

    On the same day as the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres issued a video message imploring countries from around the world “to lay down their arms” in the spirit of the Olympic Truce, a UN resolution that emerges with metronomic regularity every two years as the Olympic Games approach. Guterres urged people, “Build bridges. Foster solidarity. And strive for the ultimate goal: peace for all.”

    Less than 24 hours later, the Israel Defense Forces unleashed air strikes on a school near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, killing at least 30 displaced Palestinians seeking shelter, while injuring more than 100.

    That very evening in Olympic Paris, with this horrific war crime fresh in mind, the Israeli men’s soccer team took to the pitch to play Paraguay at Parc des Princes Stadium. The atmosphere before the match was tense, and security was on high alert. Paris already looks and feels like a military convention, but the area around the stadium was especially fortified. Security officials, many carrying high-grade weaponry, formed a double perimeter around the stadium, demanding identifications and checking each person twice, once with—as we can attest—a vigorous frisking.

    Paraguay won the match 4-2, with two electric goals in stoppage time. But Israel had its own victory just by being there in the first place. It is a tremendous propaganda win for Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel is competing at these Games at all. Israel’s attacks against the Palestinian people of Gaza has led to calls from human rights advocates to have them sanctioned or banned from sport. Instead the International Olympic Committee has punted responsibility and spewed platitudes. IOC President Thomas Bach said, “We are not in the political business; we are there to accomplish our mission to get the athletes together.”

    This timidity is striking, especially since the IOC has sanctioned Russia—forcing the dozen or so athletes participating here in Paris to compete as “individual neutral athletes”—and banned many others for having been trained through the Russian military. How is Israel any different?

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  • Al Jazeera journalist, cameraman killed in Israeli attack on Gaza

    Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi killed in Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, in Israeli strike on their vehicle
    Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi
    Video: Al Jazeera journalist, cameraman killed in Israeli attack on Gaza

    “Let me tell you, my friend, that I no longer know the taste of sleep. The bodies of children and the screams of the injured and their blood-soaked images never leave my sight. The cries of mothers and the wailing of men who are missing their loved ones never fade from my hearing.

    I can no longer bear the sound of children’s voices from beneath the rubble, nor can I forget the energy and power that reverberates at every moment, turning into a nightmare. It is no longer easy for me to stand before the rows of coffins, which are locked and extended, or to see the dead people more than the living who are fighting death beneath their homes, not finding a way out to safety and survival.

    I am tired, my friend…”

    Ismail Al-Ghoul, Al Jazeera Correspondent in Gaza

    Al Jazeera, 31 Jul 2024

    Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi have been killed in an Israeli air attack on the Gaza Strip.

    The reporters were killed when their car was hit on Wednesday in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, according to initial information.

    They were in the area to report from near the Gaza house of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday in Iran’s capital, Tehran, in an attack the group has blamed on Israel.

    Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, reporting from Gaza, was at the hospital where the bodies of his two colleagues were brought.

    “Ismail was conveying the suffering of the displaced Palestinians and the suffering of the wounded and the massacres committed by the [Israeli] occupation against the innocent people in Gaza,” he said.

    “The feeling – no words can describe what happened.”

    Ismail and Rami were wearing media vests and there were identifying signs on their car when they were attacked. They had last contacted their news desk 15 minutes before the strike.

    During the call, they had reported a strike on a house near to where they were reporting and were told to leave immediately. They did, and were traveling to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital when they were killed.

    There was no immediate comment by Israel, which has previously denied targeting journalists in its 10-month war on Gaza, which has killed at least 39,445 people, the vast majority of whom were children and women.

    In a statement, Al Jazeera Media Network called the killings a “targeted assassination” by Israeli forces and pledged to “pursue all legal actions to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes”.

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  • Aug 4, 2024: Lanterns for Peace Hiroshima & Nagasaki Commemoration

    TENNEY PARK
    1414 E. Johnson St or 402 N. Thornton Ave, John Wall Family Pavilion
    6:30 pm – Create lanterns
    7:30 pm – Program starts
    7:45 pm – Launch lanterns

    Join us for this family friendly event to commemorate the lives lost in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings 79 years ago and make sure that such nuclear attacks never again take place.

    We remember the past so that we can envision and work for a peaceful, just, and nuclear weapon-free future.

    ☮️ We need volunteers for set-up and take-down. Please drop us a line at warabolition@gmail.com if you can help.

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  • Aug 3, 2024: Read Palestine! High School Book Club

    10 am

    Read Palestine!, a project of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, is hosting a book club for high school students this summer. We will read They Called Me a Lioness by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri.

    Join us in reading They Called Me a Lioness, covering Ahed Tamimi’s childhood and adolescence living under Israeli military occupation in a small village in the West Bank. Ahed’s father Bassem Tamimi was recently released after 8 months in Israeli detention without trial. 

    Sign Up Now!

    You can support local progressive bookstores and buy the book at A Room of One’s Own and Kismet Books.

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  • Jul 31, 2024: Picnic, Music & War Abolition Walk

    Capitol lawn between Pinckney St, N Hamilton St and E Washington St
    6 – 8 pm

    Wed, July 31 we will join CODEPINK Madison to gather at Concerts on the Square, 6 – 8 pm. At 6:30, we’ll do a silent procession with signs as a group. We’re making these signs: 

    “Imagine yourself in Gaza now.”
    “What if bombs rained down on Madison?”
    “Imagine your loved ones under the rubble.”
    “Imagine yourself in a trench in Ukraine.”
    “Imagine a world beyond war.”

    Join us anytime 6 – 8 pm in the quadrant of the Capitol lawn between Pinckney St, N Hamilton St and E Washington St for a potluck picnic – bring food, drink, blankets or chairs. We’ll say thank you and so long to our friend Phil who has been a super media spokesperson, who is leaving Madison. The orchestra will play Rhapsody in Blue.

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  • Israel Just Destroyed a Key Rafah Water Facility Defended by Rachel Corrie

    Younis Tirawi | يونس | @ytirawi
    Rafah’s water reservoir blown up
    Israeli soldier from the combat engineering corps sharing footage on his personal account of blowing up Rafah’s water reservoir in Tel Sultan neighborhood “in honor of Shabbat.”

    By Younis Tirawi, Drop Site News, July 28, 2024

    On Friday, I discovered a video posted on Instagram by an Israeli soldier from the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, showing the calculated demolition of a chief water facility in Rafah. The video, in three parts, shows Israeli soldiers planting explosives inside and around the water pumps of a facility in the occupied city. The video—which is captioned in Hebrew, “Destruction of the Tal Sultan water reservoir in honor of Shabbat”—ends with footage of the water facility being blown up. The soundtrack is a song produced by soldiers of the 51st Golani Brigade with lyrics like, “We will burn Gaza … shake all of Gaza … for every house you destroy we will destroy ten.”

    The water facility, also known as the Canada Well, is situated in Tel Sultan Neighborhood, in the western part of Rafah city. U.S. human rights activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death in 2003 by an Israeli military bulldozer while attempting to prevent demolitions in the city, spent much of her time during the last month of her life helping to protect the municipality workers at the Canada Well. The workers were repairing damage done to the well by Israeli military bulldozers in the area, according to Gordon Murray, one of her fellow activists.

    Rafah Well Site, 2003 (International Solidarity Movement)

    A report Corrie wrote just weeks before her murder lays out the work she and other activists with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)—“human shield work with the Rafah Municipal Water authority,” she described it—were doing with local Palestinian workers to protect the well and local water system. “The workers are currently building a barrier surrounding the Canada Well … in the Canada-Tel El Sultan area of Rafah,” she wrote. “This well along with the El Iskan Well … was destroyed by Israeli bulldozers on 30th January [2003]. On several occasions the internationals have witnessed shooting from military vehicles on the settler road which passes along the northwestern edge of the sand-dunes and agricultural areas on the outskirts of Rafah.” 

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  • 2005 MadisonRafah.org Home Page

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  • Petitions to Stop Arming Israel

    Tell Congress
    Tell Vice President Kamala Harris
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  • ‘Israel always sold the occupation as legal. The ICJ now terrifies them’

    Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu unpacks the ICJ opinion on Israel’s military regime, and the lessons of turning international law into action.

    By Ghousoon Bisharat, +972 Magazine, July 23, 2024

    An Israeli soldier closes an agricultural gate in the West Bank wall after Palestinian farmers crossed through during the olive harvest near the village of ‘Azzun ‘Atma, occupied West Bank, October 19, 2022. (Anne Paq/Activestills)

    On Friday, July 19, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and must cease “as rapidly as possible.” The court stated that Israel is obliged to immediately refrain from all new settlement activity; evacuate all settlers from the occupied territories; and pay reparations to Palestinian for the damage caused by Israel’s 57-year military regime. It also affirmed that some of Israel’s policies in the occupied territories amount to the crime of apartheid.

    The ruling — known as an advisory opinion — stems from a 2022 request by the UN General Assembly, and is non-binding. But it marks the first time that the world’s top court has expressed its view on the legality of Israel’s control over the occupied territories, and constitutes a sharp repudiation of Israel’s long-held legal defenses.

    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the ruling, describing it as “a triumph for justice” and calling on the UN General Assembly and Security Council to explore additional measures to put an end to the occupation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed it as “absurd,” saying: “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], our historical homeland.” The United States responded by affirming only that Israel’s settlements are illegal, and criticized “the breadth of the court’s opinion,” which, it said, “will complicate efforts to resolve the conflict.”

    To understand more about the significance and scope of the ruling, +972 Magazine spoke to Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer based in Haifa who served as legal advisor to the PLO from 2000 to 2005. During that time, she was part of the team that brought a case to the ICJ concerning Israel’s separation wall, whose route the court declared — in another non-binding advisory opinion — to be unlawful. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

    How did you feel as you watched ICJ President Nawaf Salam read out the court’s opinion?

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  • Thousands shut down the Capitol to protest Israel’s genocide

    wire header-draft 1_1e (1)
    July 2024

    Thousands of people of conscience from across the country turned out to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to D.C. this week — including hundreds of American Jews who were arrested while engaged in prayerful civil disobedience, demanding an immediate arms embargo on Israel. 

    If the last two weeks have shown us anything, it is that the political terrain can shift on a dime. President Biden has dropped out of the Presidential election, and it is clear that grassroots pressure against his support for Israel’s genocide played a role.  

    Now is the moment to escalate movement demands for an arms embargo. The U.S. government needs to end its support for this genocide now.

    ‘Jews say stop arming Israel’

    A day before Netanyahu’s address to Congress, hundreds of American Jews occupied the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in prayerful civil disobedience, demanding an immediate arms embargo on Israel. 

    The sit-in, held by Jewish Voice for Peace, came nearly nine months after JVP’s mass protest in the same location, when U.S. Jews gathered in the hundreds, ten days into the genocide, to demand a ceasefire.

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  • What is Christian Zionism?

    Key points in theology, history, and politics

    by Rev. J. Mark Davidson, Executive Director of Voices for Justice in Palestine

    Theology

    • Christian Zionism is the misguided belief that the modern state of Israel is the Israel of the Hebrew Bible.
    • God’s promises to the Israelites thousands of years ago are considered by Christian Zionists to be eternal, and so bear directly on present-day politics.
    • Christian Zionists believe the Jews are “God’s Chosen People.” They have special rights and privileges that others do not have.
    • Historic Palestine is not Palestine, it is what they call “the biblical land of Israel.” It belongs to the Jewish people exclusively. It doesn’t matter that the history of the Palestinians, the indigenous people of Palestine, goes back to the Canaanite times 12,000 B.C. Christian Zionists ignore that Palestinians have the closest documented genetic similarities with the early indigenous Canaanites. Christian Zionists overlook that the Palestinians rightly claim the most long-standing and most recent presence in this land. Christian Zionists cherry-pick a few selected Hebrew scriptures which refer to divine promises of the land, such as Genesis stories about Abraham. And they invest these claims with absolute divine authority for all time.
    • Their method of biblical interpretation rips these ancient writings out of their historical, literary, and cultural context and transposes them straight into contemporary 21 st century politics as unquestionable divine edicts.
    • Christian Zionists are obsessed with end-of-the-world theologies and focus heavily on 2 of the 66 books in the Bible – Daniel in the Hebrew Scriptures and Revelation in the New Testament.
    • They teach the “Rapture”….basically that Christ will “rapture” all the saved Christians from the earth into heaven to spare them from the terrible events that will unfold for 7 years before Christ returns to rule for 1,000 years.
    • They long for the Second Coming of Christ, but believe it can only happen if certain things happen in history first:
    1. All the Jews in the world must be gathered in the Holy Land.
    2. They must build the Third Jewish Temple on “The Temple Mount,” the home of Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, third holiest sites in the religion of Islam.
    3. They must re-establish the cult of animal sacrifice as practiced in the first and second Temples.
    • Then, and only then, Christ will return, and the Jews must convert and accept Christ as the Messiah – or be annihilated if they refuse (it is difficult to imagine a more antisemitic message).
    • Like Jewish Zionists who were not content to “wait for the Messiah,” and took matters into their own hands, Christian Zionists concocted a theology that laid out a plan for “forcing God’s hand,” accelerating the timetable of history according to their own desires.

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  • Pocan to Boycott Netanyahu Congressional Address

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    July 24, 2024
    Contact: Matthew Handverger, (508) 561-5226

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02) released the following statement announcing why he will not be attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Joint Address to Congress: 

    “For nearly 10 months, Netanyahu has waged a deadly and excessive response that has targeted Gazan civilians. It is wildly inappropriate to give the distinct honor of addressing Congress to a man who has violated international human rights law so severely that an arrest warrant for war crimes has been recommended by the International Criminal Court. I regret that one has not been issued yet, as I would have gladly served it to him on the House floor. Additionally, he’s failed to rescue or secure the release of the more than 100 of his citizens who remain hostages of Hamas, while ignoring the pleas of their family members to bring them home. It’s time for Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire now and get the hostages back.” 

    As a member of Congress, Rep. Pocan is entitled to invite a guest to attend the speech. He has chosen Maya Roman, a cousin of Yarden Roman, who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, and released after 54 days. 

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  • It could be Israel, or the United States

    “They’re willing to kill anybody, imprison anybody, and whatever the international community says or the UN says or some human rights organizations say, they’re not bothered by it. And that’s also a new element in the world.”

    — Anne Applebaum, author of Autocracy, Inc. She’s talking about North Korea, but it could be Israel, or the United States.

    From “Rick Wilson’s The Enemies List: Autocracy, Inc. with Anne Applebaum,” Jul 24, 2024

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  • Tell Kamala Harris about Gaza

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  • Israel’s West Bank Assault Sparks 250% Surge in Killings of Palestinian Kids

    “We are seeing frequent allegations of Palestinian children being detained on their way home from school, or shot while walking on the street,” said the U.N. agency. 
    A Palestinian girl carries the representative shroud of a child during a demonstration of children on ‘Palestinian Child’s Day’ in Ramallah, West Bank on April 4, 2024. (Photo: Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

    JULIA CONLEY, COMMON DREAMS, Jul 22, 2024

    Three days after the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is unlawful, the United Nations children’s rights agency said that after decades of being “exposed to horrific violence,” the number of children who have been killed in the West Bank since last October has skyrocketed.

    Since Israel began its bombardment of the Palestinian territories nearly 10 months ago—with Gaza the primary target of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacks, but with West Bank communities also subjected to raids and other violence—143 Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 

    The number represents a 250% increase compared to the nine months preceding the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, after which the IDF began retaliating in the occupied territories. 

    “The situation has deteriorated significantly, coinciding with the escalation of hostilities inside Gaza,” said Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF. “We are seeing frequent allegations of Palestinian children being detained on their way home from school, or shot while walking on the streets. The violence needs to stop now.”

    More than half of the killings have been reported in the cities of Nablus, Tulkarm, and Jenin, the latter of which was the site of a major raid by Israeli forces earlier this month, in which 12 Palestinians were killed. All three cities have seen a rise in “militarized law enforcement operations” over the last two years, said UNICEF, as Israeli soldiers and settlers have stormed parts of the territory ” to scare Palestinians out of” their homes, as the International Crisis Group reported last year. 

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  • Displaced in Gaza

    Gaza Unlocked, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

    Displaced in Gaza is a collection of personal testimonies from Gazans who have been repeatedly displaced within their homeland since October 7, 2023, with these stories being collected in May 2024, commissioned by the Hashim Sani Center for Palestine Studies at Universiti Malaya. Displaced in Gaza aims to raise global awareness about the violent and forcible displacement inflicted upon the Palestinians, and the impact this has had on every aspect of their normal life. Every story is unique, yet the endurance of the Palestinian people remains a common thread, linking each story of hope and loss together.

    Caring for Two Orphaned Children of Gaza

    Aisha Osama Abu Ajwa

    My name is Aisha Osama Abu Ajwa, I am 30 years old. I am from Al-Zaytoun neighborhood. Before the war, I could barely provide for their needs to secure a decent life for my 4 children. Now, the crimes of the occupation added two orphaned children for me to care for and nurture after the occupation killed their parents. I am now a mother of 6 children. 

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  • UN report: Israel has killed 366 UN staff and family

    The confidential report is the first to detail the toll faced by the families of UN workers in Gaza

    RYAN GRIM, DROP SITE, JUL 24, 2024

    Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress on March 3, 2015. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

    Israel’s assault on Gaza had killed at least 172 dependents of United Nations staff by the end of June, according to a confidential UN report obtained by Drop Site, in addition to 195 staff members.

    The previously unreported data reflects the extraordinary toll not just for employees of the United Nations but for their families, and emerges as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to address a joint session of Congress Wednesday. 

    Netanyahu, the subject of a potential arrest warrant from the U.N.’s International Criminal Court, will meet while in the United States with outgoing President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and presidential hopeful/Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris, while meeting with Netanyahu privately, has declined to appear behind him during his address. At least 21 lawmakers, including some establishment figures such as Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., will be boycotting Netanyahu’s address.

    The data put together by the U.N.’s Crisis Coordination Centre also includes a breakdown by agency, finding five U.N. Development Program dependents, four UNICEF dependents, three World Food Program family members, and two World Health Organization dependents have been killed. 158 dependents of staff for UNRWA, or the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, have been killed. 

    In May, the U.N. reported that 188 staff members of UNRWA had been killed by then, but has not previously disclosed the extent of the familial casualties. 

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  • Demonstrators stage mass protest against Netanyahu visit and US military aid to Israel

    Protesters held a demonstration inside the Cannon US Capitol office building on Tuesday, one day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address Congress.

    BY  ASHRAF KHALIL, Associated Press, July 23, 2024

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Protesters against the Gaza war staged a sit-in at a congressional office building Tuesday ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, with Capitol Police making multiple arrests.

    Netanyahu arrived in Washington Monday for a visit that includes meetings with President Joe Biden and a Wednesday speech before a joint session of Congress. Dozens of protesters rallied outside his hotel Monday evening, and on Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators staged a flashmob-style protest in the Cannon Building, which houses offices of House of Representatives members. 

    Organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, protesters wearing red T-shirts that read “Not In Our Name” took over the building’s rotunda, sitting on the floor, unfurling signs and chanting “Let Gaza Live!”

    After about a half-hour of clapping and chanting, officers from the U.S. Capitol Police issued several warnings, then began arresting protesters — binding their hands with zip ties and leading them away one-by-one. 

    “I am the daughter of Holocaust survivors and I know what a Holocaust looks like,” said Jane Hirschmann, a native of Saugerties, New York, who drove down for the protest along with her two daughters — both of whom were arrested. “When we say ‘Never Again,’ we mean never for anybody.”

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  • Jul 24, 2024: #ArrestNetanyahu

    30 W Mifflin St, Madison
    6:30 PM

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  • Jul 23, 2024: Film “Where Olive Trees Weep”

    worldbeyondwar.uw Antiwar Film Series
    Central Library, 201 W Mifflin St, Room 302
    Meet at 6:00 pm, film at 6:30 pm, then discussion
    RSVP if you can to warabolition@gmail.com

    “Where Olive Trees Weep” (2024) offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice. 

    We follow, among others, Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. 

    We witness Dr. Gabor Maté offering trauma-healing work for a group of women who have been tortured in Israeli prisons. Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. 

    Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives. This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty? 

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  • Jul 23, 2024: Press Conference at Tammy Baldwin’s Madison Office

    30 W. Mifflin Street, Madison
    12:30 pm

    World Beyond War and other groups will be holding a press conference outside Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s Madison office in opposition to Netanyahu’s planned address to the US congress the following day. The public is invited.

    Letters have been sent to Sen. Baldwin as well as Rep. Mark Pocan asking for their response to Netanyahu’s visit. As of this writing, no response has been received.

    Rep. Pocan had this to say in June about Netanyahu’s appearance before Congress:

    “A group of us are meeting. We’re trying to figure out what’s the best to show that there’s not unanimity in Congress by any stretch of imagination for Benjamin Netanyahu. There is for the Israeli people, for the peace process, but Benajamin Netanyahu doesn’t represent either of those anymore.”

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  • Bike ride fundraiser helps raise money for Gaza and refugees

    Participants pedaled through Madison’s scenic bike paths on Sunday, joining forces to raise money for humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza.

    MADISON (WKOW) — Participants pedaled through Madison’s scenic bike paths on Sunday, joining forces to raise money for humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza.

    The event, featuring an eight-mile route, centered around Tenney Park, where attendees enjoyed refreshments, live music, poetry readings, bike decorating and kite making.

    “All funds raised, as outlined in our literature, are earmarked for Gaza, with occasional allocations to refugee camps in Lebanon,” explained Donna Wallbaum, a dedicated volunteer with the Madison Rafah Sister City Project. “Specifically for today, all proceeds will directly support emergency aid efforts on the ground in Gaza.”

    Proceeds from the event will benefit the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), headquartered in Berkeley, California. MECA is committed to providing essential supplies such as clean water, food, and basic necessities to the people of Gaza and refugee camps.

    “We’ve exceeded nearly 200% of our original fundraising goal, which is truly remarkable,” Wallbaum said. “This marks our third annual event, and we anticipate it becoming a cornerstone fundraiser. Today, our target is $300,000, a goal we are very close to achieving. We plan to continue and expand this effort next year.”

    The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, Jewish Voice for Peace-Madison, and Palestine Partners united as sponsors for the event, underscoring a collaborative community commitment to the cause.

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  • Jul 21, 2024: Ride for Palestine Update

    The Ride for Palestine on July 21 was a great success, with about 50 riders and others helping the Madison Team blow past our $3000 goal for a total of over $7,000! A special thanks to our co-sponsors Jewish Voice for Peace-Madison and Palestine Partners.

    MECA has raised $280,000 of their $300,000 goal for the ride in Berkeley and around the country. The fundraiser will remain open until the end of August, so if you would like to contribute and help them reach their goal, you can do so here.

    July 21, 2024

    MECA WI Ride for Palestine – Madison Team Website
    24-07-21 Ride for Palestine

    And much more at Bike For Palestine!

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  • Top UN court says Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territories is illegal and should end

    Palestinian foreign policy advisor Riad Malki and other members of the legal team take their seats before judges enter the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday July 19, 2024, where the United Nations top court is delivering a nonbinding advisory opinion Friday on the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state, a ruling that could have more effect on international opinion than it will on Israeli policies. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)

    BY  MIKE CORDER, ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 19, 2024

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top U.N. court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is “unlawful” and called on it to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately, issuing an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly denounced the nonbinding opinion issued by the 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, saying the territories are part of the Jewish people’s historic “homeland.” But the resounding breadth of the decision could impact international opinion and fuel moves for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. 

    The judges pointed to a wide list of policies, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians, all of which it said violated international law.

    The court said Israel had no right to sovereignty in the territories, was violating international laws against acquiring territory by force and was impeding Palestinians’ right to self-determination. It said other nations were obliged not to “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territories. It said Israel must end settlement construction immediately and that existing settlements must be removed, according to a summary of the more than 80-page opinion read out by court President Nawaf Salam.

    Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful,” the court said, saying its presence must be ended as “rapidly as possible.”

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  • Israel Has Lost the Gaza War, and Much Else as Well

    Joel Beinin, 7/19/24

    Growing numbers of Israeli observers have been saying publicly that Israel cannot win the Gaza war. Their judgment has nothing to do with what a new Human Rights Watch report defines as the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Hamas and its allies committed during their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Rather, it is a consequence of Israel’s response to October 7: a military strategy prioritizing mass bombardment, the annihilationist rhetoric of its military and political leaders, and media reporting that obscures the massive destruction, loss of civilian life, and humanitarian catastrophe that the rest of the world is witnessing (the daily Haaretz and +972 webzine are important exceptions).

    University of Chicago professor of international affairs Robert Pape argues that Israel’s failure is fundamentally due to its “gross misunderstanding of the sources of Hamas’s power…. Israel has failed to realize that the carnage and devastation it has unleashed in Gaza has only made its enemy stronger.” “Hamas is Winning,” Pape’s article in the establishment US foreign policy organ, Foreign Affairs, proclaims.

    Perhaps the most basic element of Israel’s failure to understand the Gaza Strip is that some 75% of its inhabitants on October 7 were refugees or descendants of refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe. Official and popular Israeli unwillingness to acknowledge the Nakba and the conditions created by Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip since 1967 and siege of Gaza since 2007 (abetted by Egypt) make it difficult to comprehend Palestinian political and military actions.

    Figures from the core of Israel’s military and security establishment have been publicly asserting that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s announced war objectives of destroying Hamas and returning the hostages through military pressure were always unattainable. In a TV interview, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, “the idea of destroying Hamas is throwing sand in the face of the Israeli public.” National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi, a lifelong Likudnik and former minister with an impeccable rightwing pedigree, told the Herzliya Security Conference in June, “Hamas as an idea can’t be eliminated.”

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  • Jul 19, 2024: WORT: The Republican National Convention and American wars, especially Gaza

    WORT

    A Public Affair
    12 pm – 1 pm
    89.9 FM, live online, or in the archives

    COLEEN ROWLEY is a retired FBI agent and was named one of TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2002. She is a long-time member of Women Against Military Madness and Veterans for Peace and was with a group of peace activists at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They had a big red “Stop the Genocide” banner.

    MATTHEW HOH is the associate director of the Eisenhower Media Network. He is a former Marine Corps captain, an Afghanistan State Department officer, and a disabled Iraq War veteran. He wrote recently that “The elected majorities of both political parties argue Israel’s genocide of Palestinians must be supported because Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East…Wars overseas will come home.”

    Both will be my guests this Friday at noon CT on WORT, 89.9 FM, www.wortfm.org, to discuss the RNC and American wars, especially the one on Gaza. Join us. 

    Esty Dinur
    … for, truly, I am not a website and my name is not Etsy

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  • Madison joins cities around the world for Ride For Palestine

    Annual Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) fundraiser

    By  Rodlyn-mae Banting, Madison 365, Jul 17, 2024  

    On Sunday, July 21, Madison Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) will be participating in a Ride for Palestine bike fundraiser to raise money for its longtime partner Middle East Children’s Alliance for Peace (MECA). This will be Madison’s first time participating in MECA’s annual fundraiser. 

    The Madison team is close to reaching its $3,000 fundraising goal, which will all go towards MECA’s $200,000 goal this year. At the time of this writing, the team has raised 97% of their goal. [130% at this posting]

    MECA is a nonprofit organization based out of Berkeley, Calif. that “works to protect the rights and improve the lives of children in the Middle East through aid, empowerment and education,” according to their website. Since it was established in 1988, MECA has provided a wide variety of on-the-ground support in Palestine, including establishing clean water projects, implementing music programs in classrooms, and providing psychosocial support for children who have lost family members.

    This year will mark MECA’s third annual bike fundraiser and all proceeds will go to emergency aid in Gaza in light of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine, including emergency assistance to those who’ve had to flee their homes and medical supplies for hospitals and clinics.

    Riders are encouraged to arrive at the Tenney Park Pavilion at 10:30 a.m. to decorate their bikes and participate in other arts and crafts, along with supporters and community members. There will be a “shove off” at 11 a.m., after which riders will embark on an 8-mile flat ride on the bike path, then return to the pavilion for more festivities and community building. The ride is anticipated to take approximately an hour and 15 minutes.

    Donna Wallbaum, who is a member of MRSCP and is Madison’s team captain, highlighted the importance of showing solidarity with Palestine during this time. “It’s something we can do, right?” she said. “We can’t do a whole lot. But this is a tangible thing that can actually provide aid on the ground.” 

    Wallbaum emphasized that everyone, whether they’ll be riding or not, is encouraged to join this family-friendly event. “Not every action we do has to be directed towards politicians. We also have communities to build and solidarity to build, and so I wanted to also be part of a celebration of our togetherness,” she said. 

    Madison’s local chapter of Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) will also be co-sponsoring the event. JVP member Samantha Bosco, who moved to Madison in November of last year, emphasized the importance of getting organized with fellow anti-Zionist Jewish Madisonians and showing solidarity with Palestine.

    “The very first weekend I moved here, I started going to JVP meetings and getting involved in organizing our local Jewish community,” she said. [We’re] doing as much as we can do to show our support for Palestine and raise our voices against U.S. complicity in genocide.”

    Both organizers noted that Madison is a great city to hold a fundraising team because of its strong bike culture, especially since cycling has a long history of popular protest and organizing. “Bikes to me represent a do-it-yourself kind of mentality, [of] each one teach one,” Bosco said. “They are very simple but very efficient machines that bring people together [and give them] freedom and empowerment.”

    Madison’s love for cycling is mirrored in the perseverance of the Gaza Sunbirds, the region’s paracycling team made up of riders who are survivors of Israeli attacks and who often have prosthetic limbs. “[It demonstrates] the power of the bicycle to bring people meaning and freedom, even through such adversity,” Bosco noted. 

    Festivities at Tenney Park will continue until 2 p.m. and will include kid-friendly activities including kite making, sign decorating, chalking, live music, and a read-aloud. Those who are interested in participating in the ride are still encouraged to register.

    Most of all, Wallbaum emphasized the event’s opportunity to provide one another with a moment of levity amidst such horrors. “As activists, we sometimes need to be together and heal with one another too,” she said. “This is hard to watch. It’s a very unique situation. This is a specific situation that’s happening very intentionally because of the United States. I think a lot of us feel the weight of that.”

    To learn more about, donate to, or join the Madison team, click here. 

    Rodlyn-mae Banting
    Rodlyn-mae Banting is a writer and educator currently pursuing a master’s degree in Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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  • The Killing Didn’t Start on October 7

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  • What life is like for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation

    Al Jazeera English, Jul 16, 2024

    What if every aspect of your life was under someone else’s control? This is the reality for millions of Palestinians who say Israel’s occupation has deprived them of freedom for generations.

    Since October 7 conditions in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have significantly worsened with settler attacks tripling in the West Bank, according to the United Nations.

    In the 76 years since the Nakba Israel has controlled the resources Palestinians can use, the services they can access, where they can travel, and even what they can build on their own land. We take a look into the lives of three Palestinians, each facing their respective struggles under Israel’s occupation.

    Presenter: Anelise Borges

    Guests
    Leila Warah – Journalist and content creator
    Mohammad Hureini – Activist
    Sami Khalidi – Financial sector specialist

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  • “We Are Not Numbers” is Back Online

    We Are Not Numbers relaunches email newsletter on a weekly basis

    If you are not yet receiving the newsletter, please use the subscribe button!

    July 16, 2024

    We Are Not Numbers has relaunched its newsletter on a new, weekly schedule, commencing July 16. This follows several months of suspended publication.

    Distributed via email, the newsletter provides subscribers with a list of annotated links to the most recently published stories, along with news about organization activities.

    If you are not yet receiving the WANN newsletter, please use the subscribe button in the footer of our website.

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  • The E.U. sanctioned settlers for ‘human rights abuses against Palestinians’

    Ephrat Livni, New York Times, July 16, 2024

    Two men in olive-green fatigues look out over a rocky landscape. One holds a rifle and the other looks through binoculars.
    Israeli army reservists near the settlement of Tekoa in the West Bank in October. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

    A surge in Jewish settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is raising the ire of some in the international community as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government officially expands its hold on the occupied territory by claiming more land and quietly assists extremists with tacit military support, according to rights activists.

    The European Union on Monday sanctioned five Israeli settlers, two outposts and an extremist group that were “responsible for serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank,” the European Council, the E.U. body that represents the heads of the member governments, said in a statement. The United States last week also imposed sanctions on Israelis and entities in the West Bank that the State Department said had incited violence against Palestinians or encroached on Palestinian land.

    Peace Now, an Israeli organization that tracks Jewish settlements, responded to the European sanctions by accusing the Israeli government of failing to enforce its own laws and of being complicit in the settler violence. 

    The West Bank is home to about 2.7 million Palestinians and more than 500,000 settlers. Israel seized control of the territory from Jordan in 1967 during a war with three Arab states, and Israelis have since settled there with both tacit and explicit government approval, though the international community largely considers settlements illegal, and many outposts also violate Israeli law. Settlers are governed by Israeli civil law while their Palestinian neighbors are subject to Israeli military law.

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  • “The Shells Fell Like Rain”

    14.07.2024


    PCHR’s Field Researcher and Survivor of Attack on UNRWA School Shelters Shares Her Story

     Zainab Ahmad Mohammad Al-Khaldi, a resident of Al-Sudaniya area in northern Gaza and a volunteer field researcher.

    On 07 July 2024, as we usual do, we headed to shelters and healthcare facilities such as Al-Maamadani Hospital or Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital in order to document the Israeli violations committed against children in northern Gaza.

    At around 18:00, I left Al-Maamadani Hospital and headed to UNRWA-run Daraj Schools, near the Jabalia parking lot and not far from Al-Maamadani Hospital.  These schools are considered the largest and most overcrowded school shelters for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from across Eastern Gaza.

    Just when I was about 10 meters away to the south of the first school entrance, the situation was suddenly turned upside down. Israeli warplanes launched more than six missiles in the proximity of the area, just 150 meters away to the east of the school, near what is known as the market stall, enticing fear and panic among the displaced, especially children and women.

    Nevertheless, I went on and entered the school to do my work and fill out forms for children injured during the war. I thought that the school would be safer since it is run by UNRWA and is considered a civilian object expressly protected under international law, so I chose to stay among the IDPs there.

    While at the school, anxious and cautious, I started filling out several forms and taking testimonies from the women there. At 18:30, More than seven shells struck the school yard and the buildings, hitting the third and fourth floors.

    All of a sudden, IDPs in crowds started rushing out of school running for their lives, while shells continued to fall like rain.

    I do not know how I was running with such crowds; no one knew what was going on or where to go. When I reached Yafa Street coming from Al-Sidra area, a shell fell in the proximity, and shrapnel scattered on people fleeing the looming threat of death. I fell on the ground as the burning shrapnel hit my under knee; too hot black fragments stuck to my body, causing burns and wounds. It looked like molten metal, red and black in color.

    I tried to move forward and leave the area with the help of some of IDPs.  They took me to the Jabalia parking lot where I saw several dead bodies lying on the ground along with people injured, all of them women and children. No one paid attention to them out of panic and fear. I saw a cart transporting the injured to Al-Maamadani Hospital, which turned out to be closed due to evacuation orders from the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF), so they were referred to the Indonesian Hospital.

    Despite my injury, I kept walking, with fear overshadowing the pain. I was running so fast with other people and sobbing from exhaustion and fear.  I arrived at Al-Sahaba intersection where Israeli quadcopters were unprecedentedly covering the sky and flying very low while opening fire randomly. The scene resembled the horrors of Judgment Day, as panicked crowds tried to escape, running for their lives.

    When I reached Dabeet area, I had a good phone signal. I could no longer walk out of severe pain, and some colleagues contacted me to check on me. I was then transported to the Friends of the Patient clinic. Less than two hours later, I heard artillery shelling and heavy gunfire in the proximity of the universities area, so I decided to leave and head northwards to Al-Safatawi area.

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  • “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy.”

    — Former President Barack Obama, July 14, 2024

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  • Thousands March in Milwaukee on the Republican Convention!

    All Photos: Wisconsin Bail Out The People Movement

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  • Justice For Gaza – Tell the FIFA Council to Ban Israel from World Football

    The pressure is working — FIFA announced it will make a decision about whether or not to ban Israel by July 20!

    The FIFA council is deciding right now how to vote, and FIFA’s top bosses hold tremendous sway. If we each send them messages on Instagram and Twitter, they will feel like the whole world is watching them, and that very well could influence them to vote in favor of a ban. 

    Below are some talking points to help you, and if you are a football fan, make sure to mention that! 

    Gianni Infantino, FIFA President – Send him a message on Instagram
    Patrice Motsepe – Leave a comment on his Instagram posts, or tweet at his foundation
    Victor Montagliani –     Tweet at Montagliani
    Alejandro Domínguez –     Tweet at Domínguez, comment on his Instagram posts, as well as LinkedIn
    Lambert Maltock –     Send him a Facebook message or tweet at the OFC 

    Here are some talking points, but the more personal, the better:  

    • I urge you to ban Israel from FIFA and stop whitewashing genocide on the global stage.
    • Israeli forces have killed at least 1000 athletes and destroyed all football infrastructure in Gaza including Al-Yarmuk stadium.
    • The Israeli Football Association is complicit in enforcing violent oppression of Palestinians – from blocking their ability to travel to games to failing to address racist chants towards Arabs.
    • The Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza and oppression towards Palestinian football are in violation of FIFA statutes – therefore I urge you to ban Israel. 

    FIFA has banned oppressive regimes before, they can do it again – but only if the council sees and feels pressure from every corner of the world. Let’s each take 2 minutes now and help make history!

     JUSTICE FOR GAZA — TELL THE FIFA COUNCIL TO BAN ISRAEL 

    Thanks for all that you do, 
    Rewan, Eoin, Maen, Vicky and the team at Ekō

    Ekō is a community of people from around the world committed to curbing the growing power of corporations. We want to buy from, work for and invest in companies that respect the environment, treat their workers well and respect democracy. And we’re not afraid to stand up to them when they don’t.

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  • Israeli Use of Fragmentation Bombs Eviscerating Children’s Bodies

    “Restraining Israel in October rather than enabling its operations in Gaza,” said one international policy expert, “could have avoided a lot of dead and mangled children.”
    A man carries a child injured in an Israeli attack at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza on July 9, 2024.
     (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

    JULIA CONLEY, COMMON DREAMS, Jul 11, 2024

    Doctors who have had to perform “a constant flow of amputations” on injured children in Gaza said Thursday that the injuries they have witnessed were consistent with the use of “fragmentation bombs” loaded with shrapnel—which Israel has used in the past and which rights groups have said are designed to cause maximum casualties. 

    Volunteer doctors who have worked at European Hospital and al-Aqsa Hospital over the past three months told The Guardian that a majority of the patients they operated on were children who had wounds that were barely discernible—called “splinter injuries” by Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon from California—but caused catastrophic internal damage to the children’s bodies.

    “About half of the injuries I took care of were in young kids,” said Sidhwa. “Children are more vulnerable to any penetrating injury because they have smaller bodies. Their vital parts are smaller and easier to disrupt. When children have lacerated blood vessels, their blood vessels are already so small it’s very hard to put them back together. The artery that feeds the leg, the femoral artery, is only the thickness of a noodle in a small child. It’s very, very small. So repairing it and keeping the kid’s limb attached to them is very difficult.”

    The Guardian also spoke to explosives experts who reviewed pictures of the shrapnel found by medical staff and the doctors’ descriptions of the tiny external wounds they treated on seriously injured children, and said the accounts were consistent with bombs the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fits with “fragmentation sleeves” around warheads.

    Amnesty International first documented the IDF’s use of fragmentation bombs in Gaza in 2009 and said the explosives “appear designed to cause maximum injury and, in some respects, seem to be a more sophisticated version of the ball-bearings or nails and bolts which armed groups often pack into crude rockets and suicide bombs.”

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  • At least 90 killed in Israeli strike targeting Hamas military leader

    WaPo Washington Post logo
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that “there is still no absolute certainty” that Mohammed Deif was killed. 
    Israel Defense Forces attack in the Mawasi area of southern Gaza on July 13. (Reuters)

    By Victoria Bisset and Mohamad El Chamaa, Washington Post, July 13, 2024

    Israel targeted Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif in a series of strikes in southern Gaza on Saturday, an operation that killed at least 90 people and injured 300 more, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

    “There is still no absolute certainty” that Deif was killed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference. “But one way or another, we will reach every senior member of Hamas.”

    An Israeli military official, speaking on background in line with protocol, said the Israel Defense Forces had “precise intelligence” that Deif, the head of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was in a “compound” in the Mawasi area west of Khan Younis.

    Netanyahu said intelligence suggested “there were no signs” Israeli hostages were in the area of the strike, which aid agencies and Gaza’s civil defense force said took place within Israel’s designated “humanitarian zone” in Mawasi.

    Video shows chaos after strike hits southern Gaza.

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  • National Mobilization to Arrest Netanyahu in DC

    and petition to boycott Netanyahu’s speech

    July 24, 2024
    US Capitol Building
    10 am to 2 pm CT

    The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights is joining with many other groups and calling for people to come to Washington, DC to protest Israeli Prime Minister and war criminal Netanyahu’s address to Congress. Plans call for surrounding Congress with a People’s Red Line. 

    Click here to register to join the USPCR contingent and find a link to bus information; presently the buses closest to Madison are out of Schaumburg and Chicago, IL.

    Whether or not you are going, please take a moment to sign this petition from Win Without War and others asking your Senators and Representatives to boycott Netanyahu’s speech.

    Also consider contacting Rep. Mark Pocan (DC phone 202-225-2906) and Senator Tammy Baldwin (DC phone 202-224-5653) and insist that they boycott the speech.

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  • Israel’s Crimes in the West Bank, June 2024

    08. 07. 2024

    Report on Israel’s Crimes and Violations of Palestinians’ Rights in the West Bank in June 2024

    During the reporting period, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) and Israeli settlers continue their violence against Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, amounting to crimes and other violations of international law. These crimes have included willful killings, destruction of public and private property, arrests, threats, among others.

    In this report, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) highlights a number of monitored and documented crimes and violations committed by IOF and Israeli settlers against the Palestinians:

    Killings and violation of the right to life and bodily integrity

    The IOF and settlers’ attacks during the reporting period in the West Bank have resulted in the killing of 36 Palestinians, including 18 civilians; amongst them 8 children, and the rest were members of the Palestinian armed groups. Ten of these members were extrajudicially killed (assassinations), and the rest were killed during Israel’s incursions into Palestinian cities.  

    So far in 2024, IOF attacks have killed 246 Palestinians, including 53 children, and 4 women.

    According to our field documentation, Israel has employed different methods and weaponry, either by shooting in protests or confrontations, military raids and assaults, drone strikes, or by carrying out extrajudicial killings by Israeli special units.

    On 01 June 2024, IOF killed 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child, in two separate crimes during an incursion into Aqbat Jaber refugee camp in Al-Bireh governorate and Ramallah governorate.

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  • Jul 10, 2024: Call Mayor Johnson on the RNC March Permit

    The Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine is encouraging everyone to make a phone call Wednesday, July 10 between 8 am and 5 pm CT to the Milwaukee Mayor’s office asking him to issue the permit for the planned July 15 march on the Republican National Convention. The march has made standing with Palestine one of its central issues.

    Please call Mayor Cavalier Johnson at 414-286-2200 to give him the following message:

    “Tell Mayor Johnson to give us the permit for our March on the RNC in Milwaukee on Monday, July 15, 2024, at 10am. We will rally at Red Arrow Park and march to the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum. We have waited long enough and are excited to march!”

    We suggest that you keep trying and if you can’t get through, try on Thursday.

    Complete information online and on Instagram.

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  • Gaza Ceasefire Vigil & March on the Republican National Convention

    Saturday, July 13 – Vigil for Ceasefire in Gaza at Farmers Market

    Join us and the Interfaith Peace Working Group as we gather for the third time this summer in an action featuring a display of shoes and a reading of Gazan victims’ names. Please let us know if you’d like to help read names or set up or take down the exhibit, at warabolition@gmail.com. Both the visual and the audio are powerful representations of the suffering. Some people are moved to tears by the vigil. Please note that, because of the Art Fair on the Square, this Saturday, July 13, the Farmers’ Market will be at Breese Stevens Field. Our vigil will be outside the stadium, in Reynolds Park, at the intersection of E Mifflin and N Paterson. Stop by for any time or the entire time as you can. 

    Monday, July 15 – March on the RNC

    Next Monday, July 15, let’s join CODEPINK to march on the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. 10:00 am start. RSVP here. Drop us a line at warabolition@gmail.com for carpooling from Madison.

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  • ‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s free-for-all violence in Gaza

    Israeli soldiers describe the near-total absence of firing regulations in the Gaza war, with troops shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, and leaving corpses on the streets — all with their commanders’ permission.
    Israeli soldiers from the 8717 Battalion of the Givati Brigade operating in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, December 28, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

    By Oren Ziv, +972 Magazine, July 8, 2024

    In partnership with

    In early June, Al Jazeera aired a series of disturbing videos revealing what it described as “summary executions”: Israeli soldiers shooting dead several Palestinians walking near the coastal road in the Gaza Strip, on three separate occasions. In each case, the Palestinians appeared unarmed and did not pose any imminent threat to the soldiers.

    Such footage is rare, due to the severe constraints faced by journalists in the besieged enclave and the constant danger to their lives. But these executions, which did not appear to have any security rationale, are consistent with the testimonies of six Israeli soldiers who spoke to +972 Magazine and Local Call following their release from active duty in Gaza in recent months. Corroborating the testimonies of Palestinian eyewitnesses and doctors throughout the war, the soldiers described being authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will, including civilians.

    The six sources — all except one of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity — recounted how Israeli soldiers routinely executed Palestinian civilians simply because they entered an area that the military defined as a “no-go zone.” The testimonies paint a picture of a landscape littered with civilian corpses, which are left to rot or be eaten by stray animals; the army only hides them from view ahead of the arrival of international aid convoys, so that “images of people in advanced stages of decay don’t come out.” Two of the soldiers also testified to a systematic policy of setting Palestinian homes on fire after occupying them.

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  • Israeli Newspaper Confirms IDF Employed ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7

    IDF soldiers were reportedly ordered to “turn the area around the border fence into a killing zone.”
    An Israeli soldier is pictured securing a position at the Nir Oz kibbutz, one of the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip attacked on October 7, on October 30, 2023. (Photo: Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images)

    JAKE JOHNSON, COMMON DREAMS, Jul 07, 2024

    The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday that Israel’s military repeatedly employed a protocol known as the “Hannibal Directive” during the October 7 Hamas-led attack in an attempt to prevent the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers—even if it meant putting the lives of army captives and civilians at risk.

    Haaretz found based on documents and interviews with soldiers and senior Israeli officers that Hannibal—an operational order developed in 1986 that “directs the use of force to prevent soldiers being taken into captivity” by enemy militants—was used “at three army facilities infiltrated by Hamas, potentially endangering civilians as well.”

    During the first hours of the Hamas-led attack, according to Haaretz, Israeli soldiers were given an order: “Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza.” 

    “At this point, the IDF was not aware of the extent of kidnapping along the Gaza border, but it did know that many people were involved,” the newspaper continued. “Thus, it was entirely clear what that message meant, and what the fate of some of the kidnapped people would be.”

    The full text of the Hannibal Directive has never been published. But according to a Haaretz story about the directive from more than two decades ago, part of it states that “during an abduction, the major mission is to rescue our soldiers from the abductors even at the price of harming or wounding our soldiers.”

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  • ‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 272

    Israelis urge Netanyahu to accept U.S. ceasefire deal as Hamas gives its response

    Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets on the Galilee after Israel’s assassination of one of its senior commanders.

    BY QASSAM MUADDI, Mondoweiss,  

    A UN-run school sheltering displaced people near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was bombed by Israeli warplanes on July 3, 2024. (Photo: Abdullah Abu Al-Khair/APA Images)A UN-RUN SCHOOL SHELTERING DISPLACED PEOPLE NEAR NASSER HOSPITAL IN KHAN YOUNIS WAS BOMBED BY ISRAELI WARPLANES ON JULY 3, 2024. (PHOTO: ABDULLAH ABU AL-KHAIR/APA IMAGES)

    Casualties 

    • 38,011 + killed* and at least 87,445 wounded in the Gaza Strip. Among the dead, 28,200 have been fully identified. These include 7,779 children, 5466 women, and 2418 elderly people as of May 1. In addition, around 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble.*
    • 561+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. These include 136 children.**
    • Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
    • 677 Israeli soldiers have been recognized as killed, and 4021 as wounded by the Israeli army since October 7.***

    * Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on July 4, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.
    ** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health on July 3, this is the latest figure.
    *** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The number of Israeli soldiers wounded according to declarations by the head of the Israeli army’s wounded association to Israel’s Channel 12 exceeds 20,000 including at least 8,000 permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7, as of June 18.

    Key Developments 

    • Israel kills 134 Palestinians, wounds 476 across Gaza since Monday, July 1, raising death toll since October 7 to 38,011 and number of wounded to 87,445, according to Gaza health ministry.
    • Hezbollah launches over 250 rockets and 20 guided drones at Israeli positions, at distances of up to 35 kilometers into the Galilee and the Golan heights, in response to Israel’s assassination of a Hezbollah senior commander in Tyre, southern Lebanon. Hezbollah commander identified as Muhammad Naameh Naser, 59, head of the “Aziz” unit.
    • Israel bombs surroundings of southern Lebanese towns of Kufr Shuba, Rashaya al-Fakhar, and Kuf Hamam. 
    • U.S. envoy Amos Hockstein arrives on Wednesday in Paris to discuss de-escalation between Israel and Lebanon.
    • Office of PM Netanyahu and Mossad announce receiving Hamas response to amended U.S. ceasefire proposal. Israeli cabinet set to meet today to discuss Hamas response.
    • Israeli Channel 12 quotes Israeli officials saying that Hamas response “for the first time allows for making progress in negotiations.”
    • Israeli captives’ families demand Netanyahu accept deal, warn “millions will take to the streets” if he doesn’t.
    • Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot says Israel’s security branches angry at Netanyahu and Smotrich attempts to sabotage deal.
    • Israeli army recognizes killing of 7 soldiers since Monday, July 1, and 50 wounded, including 39 in Gaza.
    • Palestinian resistance factions announce attacks on Israeli troops in Shuja’iyya, Rafah, and Netzarim corridor.
    • Israeli airstrikes target 12 family houses since Monday, July 1, in Gaza City, Nuseirat, Rafah, and Khan Younis.
    • The Palestinian health ministry announces partial halt of operations in Naser Hospital in Khan Younis due to lack of fuel for power generators.
    • UN says 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once since October 7.
    • In West Bank, Israeli army kills 4 Palestinians in airstrikes on Tulkarem.
    • Israeli government approves confiscation of 13 square kilometers in Jordan Valley area, becoming largest single Israeli land grab in past 30 years.
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  • Dr. Mads Gilbert discusses Gaza and the Palestinian People

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  • Dr. Ammar Ghanem and Nurse Monica Johnston in Gaza

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  • After a ceasefire resolution, the City of Madison played host to some of Israel’s largest weapons suppliers

    BY MARIAMA SIDIME ● TONE ● JULY 3, 2024 

    A photo shows a hand holding up a small toy missile, consisting of blue foam fins and a white plastic cylindrical body, with the Northrop Grumman logo printed on it. In the background, cars can be seen moving through a crosswalk on East Wilson Street in downtown Madison.
    An attendee of the recent NSMMS-CRASTE conference at Monona Terrace holds up a toy missile, distributed as a promotional item for defense contractor Northrop Grumman. Photo courtesy of Josh Jenkins.

    A recent defense-industry conference at Monona Terrace highlights the gap between local declarations and local action.

    On June 24, the National Space & Missile Materials Symposium (NSMMS) and Commercial and Government Responsive Access to Space Technology Exchange (CRASTE) kicked off a joint conference on missile and space technology at Madison’s Monona Terrace. While the event’s branding cloaked it in images of astronauts and NASA spacecraft, it was very much a conference for defense contractors. Its sponsors included companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman—each of which provide Israel’s military with missiles, bombs, and fighter jets.    

    The five-day conference, at a City of Madison-owned venue, comes after months of debate amongst Madison’s elected officials over resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Most recently, the Madison Common Council failed to enact a resolution in support of the UW-Madison student encampment after Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin authorized a multi-agency squad of riot police to carry out a violent crackdown. In December, however, the Common Council voted unanimously to call for an immediate ceasefire, and for “urgent political action to both de-escalate the crisis and to prioritize truth, reconciliation, restitution, and the building of a future for the Palestinian and Israeli people.” 

    Despite this ceasefire resolution, Monona Terrace—technically a city agency, with an operating budget of $14,701,064 for 2024—played host to weapons manufacturers largely responsible for the destruction of 70 percent of homes in Gaza and the deaths of over 35,000 people, mostly civilians.  

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  • 62 DEMOCRATS JOIN 207 REPUBLICANS IN VOTE TO CONCEAL GAZA DEATH TOLL

    an amendment blocks the State Department from citing the Gaza Health Ministry’s statistics
    The Gaza Ministry figures have been cited broadly, including by the U.S. and Israeli governments.
    The bodies of Palestinians killed during an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced people, at the Tel al-Sultan clinic in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on May 27, 2024. Photo: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images

    Prem Thakker, The Intercept, June 27 2024 

    THE HOUSE OF Representatives has voted to effectively conceal the death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza.

    On Thursday, lawmakers voted 269-144 on an amendment to prohibit the State Department from citing statistics from the Gaza Health Ministry. The measure is part of the annual State Department appropriations bill. It was led by Democratic Reps. Jared Moskowitz, Fla., and Josh Gottheimer, N.J., and Republican Reps. Joe Wilson, S.C.; Mike Lawler, N.Y.; and Carol Miller, W.V.

    In total, 62 Democrats joined 207 Republicans in supporting the amendment.

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  • Seen at the International Festival

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  • Local Art Auction To Support Humanitarian Aid For Gaza

    WORT

    8 O’CLOCK BUZZ & Nicholas Wootton, WORT, JUNE 24, 2024

    For the past 21 years, the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project has sought to foster person-to-person relationships with residents of the southern Palestine city of Rafah. Previous humanitarian projects for the people of Rafah, including water purification systems, mental health resources, a playground, a children’s library, a house reconstruction, and more.

    Now, as the Israeli-Hamas war enters its tenth month, the need for humanitarian aid has never been greater.  The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project will host Art for Gaza 2024, a silent art auction, with all proceeds going to the Middle East Children’s Alliance.

    Some of the artwork for auction
    Cassandra Dixon

    Cassandra Dixon works as a carpenter in Madison, volunteers for the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, and has made several aid trips to Palestine. Cassandra spoke with Monday Eight o’Clock Buzz host Brian Standing to talk about the art auction and about the how war in Gaza is affecting the civilian population.

    All photos courtesy Cassandra Dixon

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  • Jul 2, 2024: Meet & Greet the Artists of the Silent Art Auction

    5:30 – 7 pm
    Java Cat Coffee House
    4221 Lien Road

    Thanks to the amazing generosity of the Java Cat owners there will be a meet & greet event with artists contributing to our Silent Art Auction. 

    Besides seeing the artwork attendees will have a chance to talk with some of the artists and learn more about the work of the Middle East Children’s Alliance in Gaza. Refreshments will be available.

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  • Jun 30, 2024: Auction Artists on WORT

    WORT

    5-6 pm, after the news

    Three of the artists contributing their works to our Silent Art Auction for Gaza relief will be interviewed on WORT Radio’s World View Program. 

    Tune in to 89.9 FM, listen live online, or archived afterwards to hear from artists Matthew Braunginn, Erika Rosales Garcia, and Baz Sundark.

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  • Jun 29, 2024: International Festival

    Overture Center
    201 State Street, Madison
    10 am – 5 pm

    Join Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, Palestine Partners, and Playgrounds for Palestine to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of our community. Enjoy foods from around the world and browse the stunning arts and crafts — sold here, but with global connections.

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  • Statement from Addameer on torture in Israeli prisons

    ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, 26-06-2024

    Over the past decades, Israeli occupation authorities have systematically used torture against prisoners and detainees in their prisons from the very first moments of arrest. Hundreds of prisoners have died in Israeli jails over the years as a result of various forms of torture, without any accountability from relevant international bodies. Recently, with the outbreak of comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people across all locations and the genocidal war that has spared no one, not even prisoners in prisons, the use of torture has intensified to the harshest and most brutal forms. This increase in torture, especially against detainees from Gaza who were arrested from schools, shelters, and hospitals after the ground invasion by the occupation forces, stems from Israel’s longstanding impunity from accountability.

    Since the beginning of the genocidal war against Palestinians, approximately 54 martyrs from all Palestinian provinces have died in Israeli occupation prisons due to torture, inhumane detention conditions, systematic abuse, and deliberate attacks. Among them, 36 were prisoners from Gaza and 18 were prisoners martyred in prisons under the Israeli Prison Service. It’s worth noting that the occupying state continues to withhold information about the martyr prisoners, as reports have revealed the deaths of dozens of martyrs inside camps and prisons without families knowing the fate of their loved ones or the names of those who have died in these camps. This underscores the scale of the humanitarian disaster faced by prisoners inside these prisons. The situation inside prisons and camps has become increasingly severe due to the punitive policies of the occupation authorities against prisoners and detainees. It is noteworthy that the number of detainees from Gaza and their information remains unknown until now, estimated to be in the thousands.

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  • Java Cat Coffee to host Humanitarian Aid for Gaza Silent Art Auction

    By Omar Waheed, Madison365, Jun 27, 2024  

    Artwork from Java Cat Coffee’s Humanitarian Aid for Gaza Silent Art Auction (Photo by Omar Waheed)

    Java Cat Coffee’s Humanitarian Aid for Gaza Silent Art Auction will go live on Friday as the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) partners with artists for humanitarian aid in Gaza.

    MRSCP’s auction “Art For Humanity’s Sake: A Silent Art Auction for Gaza” will start on June 28 and go until July 8. The auction features 66 donated works from artists around the country with the intention of raising funds for humanitarian aid. The goal amount for the fundraising auction is $6,000 with the proceeds going to Middle East Children’s Alliance.

    “What is needed right now is a huge worldwide aid response to the situation in Gaza. And I hope, personally, that that will happen,” Cassandra Dixon, a member of MRSCP, told Madison365. “I hope that my country will be a part of that at some point. But in the meantime, I think that it falls to just regular people to try to make that happen.”

    Madison-Rafah Sister City Project was founded in 2003 seeking to build person-to-person relationships with Rafah, Palestine. It aims to increase awareness of ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflicts and influence United States public policy. While it is not an official sister city recognized by Madison, it has been working to spread awareness on protests, policy, news and aid efforts.

    Palestinians receiving aid in Gaza have seen ongoing difficulties as Israel’s government has prevented deliveries from arriving. Aid via Rafah, on the border between Palestine and Egypt, has been building up due to continued military operations, the Washington Post reported.

    The art auction comes after garnering interest from a previous silent auction. Auctioning off art comes with the hope of bringing some tangibility to a “situation so unimaginable,” Dixon said.

    Artwork on display at Java Cat Coffee (below)

    “None of us really can imagine 2 million people facing starvation. We can’t imagine the devastation of all housing, all infrastructure, all education. It’s so hard to take that in, and yet we have to in order to respond,” Dixon said. “Art also requires imagination, and it requires putting yourself into a creation to appreciate it. It requires the person who created the art and the person who’s experiencing it, to have a partnership in a way.”

    Aid will go towards providing fresh produce like rice, shampoo, soap, sanitary pads, laundry detergent, toothbrushes, and toothpaste, along with helping prepare hot meals, clothing, blankets, clean water, and beginning installation of solar-powered water desalination and purification units.

    Bidding on artwork is open June 28 through July 8. An in-person showing of auctioned goods will be held at Java Cat Coffee Shop, 4221 Lien Rd., on Tuesday, July 2, 5:30-7 p.m.

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  • Jun 28 – Jul 8, 2024: Silent Art Auction for Gaza Update

    The final total raised is over $5000. More than 30 artists contributed 79 beautiful works of art to the auction. And a special shout-out to Java Cat Coffee House which hosted an amazing display of these pieces and a July 2 meet-and-greet with some of the artists. Please patronize Java Cat and consider giving them a good review here.

    Online bids open June 28 and close July 8, 2024
    Artists Meet-and-Greet Tuesday July 2, 5:30 – 7:00 pm at Java Cat Coffee Shop
    Art on Display Starting June 21 at Java Cat Coffee Shop and Online 

    Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) is partnering with more than 25 artists to present a silent art auction in response to the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

    Bidding will open online at 8 am CT on June 28 and run until July 8 on more than 50 works of art, with proceeds going to Middle East Children’s Alliance  (MECA) for immediate purchase and distribution of desperately needed humanitarian aid in Gaza.  Many of the artists represented are Wisconsin based, and their donated work includes photography, acrylic and mixed media paintings, pottery, textiles, prints, and embroidery. 

    For more information and to view auction items go to Art Auction for Emergency Relief for Gaza. 

    In addition most of the actual works will be available for public view starting June 21 at Java Cat Coffee Shop, 4221 Lien Road on Madison’s eastside.

    A meet-and-greet event with artists is scheduled for Tuesday, July 2 at Java Cat, from 5:30 to 7 pm. Attendees will have a chance to talk with some of the artists and to learn more about the work of the Middle East Children’s Alliance in Gaza.

    Because entry of humanitarian aid continues to be severely (and unnecessarily) restricted by Israel, the people of Gaza are facing an unprecedented level of death, injury, displacement, disease, trauma and destruction of their ability to survive in their own land. Hunger is now so severe that the large majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people – especially babies, children, pregnant women, the elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases – face starvation and famine.

    In spite of these difficulties, MECA’s Gaza staff has worked from the beginning of the crisis with local and international partners to source food and other necessities,  procuring food and hygiene supplies from stores, warehouses, factories, and farmers.  

    Most recently MECA has been using international donations and their network of local grassroots community organizations to:

    • Deliver boxes of fresh produce from farmers and other food items like rice and lentils to 14,000 families now in Khan Younis (next to Rafah) and “Middle Areas” just north. 
    • Provide soap, shampoo, sanitary pads, laundry detergent, toothbrushes and toothpaste. 
    • Prepare about 8,400 hot meals a day, even after they had to close their community kitchens in Rafah.
    • Bring clean water by truck to families who fled from the North to Gaza City, and to several areas in areas of Khan Younis for people who fled from Rafah. 
    • Begin installation for four new solar-powered “Maia” water desalination and purification units to provide drinking water to thousands of families daily.

    Since 2003 MRSCP has supported many humanitarian projects for the people of Rafah including water purification systems, mental health resources, a playground, a children’s library, a house reconstruction, and more. Many of these projects have been in partnership with MECA and we remain committed to working with them to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

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  • Monona Terrace Convention faces Palestine protesters

    By: Chloe Morrissey, 27 News, Jun 26, 2024

    Protesters took to the Monona Terrace to protest the National Space & Missle Materials Symposium (NSMMS), claiming the City of Madison should not host an event like that. The event is a joint symposium with Commercial and Government Responsive Access (CRASTE).

    MADISON (WKOW) — Protesters took to the Monona Terrace to protest the National Space & Missile Materials Symposium (NSMMS), claiming the City of Madison should not host an event like that.

    The event is a joint symposium with Commercial and Government Responsive Access (CRASTE).

    Weapons and arms manufacturing companies like Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and Northrop Grumman attended the convention. Protesters claim that the companies profit off of the war in Gaza. 

    Phil Trachtenberg is a member of World Beyond War and Jewish Voice for Peace, some of the many groups present at Wednesday night’s protest.

    “These companies, especially Boeing Lockheed and Northrop Grumman, are actively and openly having a conference where they’re talking about weapons and the bombs that we can see right now on our phones being dropped in Gaza,” Trachtenberg said. “Any company that profits off of war like this and off of death should not be allowed here, and that’s what we’re here to say.”

    Protesters said that The City has supported Palestine in the past. In December of 2023, the Common Council passed a ceasefire resolution.

    Kristen Durst, Community and Public Relations Manager for the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center told 27 News:

    “Monona Terrace hosts over 500 events each year. Event space is rentable to any person, business, or organization that can fulfill the terms of our lease. The content at events and views and opinions of clients who rent space at Monona Terrace is their own.” 

    In another statement, City of Madison Spokesperson Dylan Brogan added: 

    “The City has a long history of supporting the right to peacefully protest. This situation is no different.”

     The convention is set to wrap up on Thursday.

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  • Jun 26, 2024: War Profiteers out of Madison!

    NSMMS letterDownload
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  • Jun 25, 2024: Fitchburg Gaza Ceasefire Resolution Tabled Indefinitely

    On June 25 a City Council vote to indefinitely table the ceasefire resolution tied. The Mayor broke the tie by voting to table the resolution.

    The June 11 resolution has been postponed until June 25. You can Email the Fitchburg Mayor and City Council to support the resolution. Their addresses can also be found at Mayor & City Council.

    Tuesday, 7:30pm

    Good morning,

    I am joining Alder Nicole Vafadari in co-sponsoring a Ceasefire Resolution at next week’s Fitchburg Common Council meeting, June 11th at 7:30pm.

    A few details:

    • Resolution Language: Resolution R-123-24 is on the agenda section of the City’s website this Friday.
    • Council Meeting: This resolution will likely be discussed and passed at the beginning of the council meeting. You are welcome to participate in any and all of the following ways:
    • Attend in person at Fitchburg City Hall – 5520 Lacy Road in the Frances Huntley Cooper Council Chambers
    • Comment in person: If you attend in person, you have the option of speaking for up to 3 minutes. You can grab a comment sheet in the back of the room and share with the Mayor
    • Watch Virtually: You may watch via FACTV, Fitchburg’s Public Access website.
    • Attend and/or speak virtually: If you would like to comment virtually, please email scott.yarbrough@fitchburgwi.com to get a zoom link. You will have the same 3 minute speaking limit.
    • Invite friends/supporters/allies: Please feel free to share this invitation far and wide, as it will add to the chorus of other municipalities and counties who have spoken out and put pressure on our federal elected officials.

    Joe Maldonado
    Alder

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  • Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war

    As the Gaza war rages, Israeli funds target US college campuses and push to redefine antisemitism in US law
    Amichai Chikli speaks in Krakow, Poland, on 22 January 2024. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty Images

    Lee Fang and Jack Poulson, The Guardian, Mon 24 Jun 2024

    Last November, just weeks into the war in Gaza, Amichai Chikli, a brash, 42-year-old Likud minister in the Israeli government, was called into the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to brief lawmakers on what could be done about rising anti-war protests from young people across the United States, especially at elite universities.

    “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again now, that I think we should, especially in the United States, be on the offensive,” argued Chikli.

    Chikli has since led a targeted push to counter critics of Israel. The Guardian has uncovered evidence showing how Israel has relaunched a controversial entity as part of a broader public relations campaign to target US college campuses and redefine antisemitism in US law.

    Seconds after a smoke alarm subsided during the hearing, Chikli assured the lawmakers that there was new money in the budget for a pushback campaign, which was separate from more traditional public relations and paid advertising content produced by the government. It included 80 programs already under way for advocacy efforts “to be done in the ‘Concert’ way”, he said.

    The “Concert” remark referred to a sprawling relaunch of a controversial Israeli government program initially known as Kela Shlomo, designed to carry out what Israel called “mass consciousness activities” targeted largely at the US and Europe. Concert, now known as Voices of Israel, previouslyworked with groups spearheading a campaign to pass so-called “anti-BDS” state laws that penalize Americans for engaging in boycotts or other non-violent protests of Israel.

    Its latest incarnation is part of a hardline and sometimes covert operation by the Israeli government to strike back at student protests, human rights organizations and other voices of dissent.

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  • Jun 24 – 27, 2024: Madison is hosting a conference for genocide profiteers

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  • Israel Is Officially Annexing the West Bank

    A quiet bureaucratic maneuver by Netanyahu’s government has begun transferring control over the occupied territory from military to civilian leadership—violating international law.

    By Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer specializing in international human rights law and international humanitarian law. 

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attend a press conference at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on Jan. 25.
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attend a press conference at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem on Jan. 25.

    Foreign Policy, JUNE 8, 2023

    On Nov. 22, 1967, the United Nations Security Council debated a resolution that would become the international community’s most important directive about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the 1947 partition plan for Palestine. The discussion concerned the outcome of the 1967 war, during which Israel had triumphed over its Arab neighbors to capture the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and Golan Heights from Syria.

    At the Security Council, Israel’s then-Foreign Minister Abba Eban said, “We shall respect and fully maintain the situation embodied in the cease-fire agreements until it is succeeded by peace treaties between Israel and the Arab States ending the state of war.” Eban wasn’t being entirely accurate: When he made his statement, Israel had already unilaterally applied its law over East Jerusalem; it would do the same 15 years later by formally annexing the Golan Heights. And, over the past half-century, settlement expansion into the West Bank would deepen Israeli control and make a military withdrawal look increasingly unlikely. (Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt as part of a 1979 peace treaty.)

    Still, nebulous diplomatic verbiage aside, Eban’s speech would define Israel’s official position on the West Bank for the 50 years to come: The final status of the occupied territory was to be determined in mediated talks. That is, until a few years ago—when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started openly pushing a policy of unilateral annexation. A recent bureaucratic maneuver within his new far-right government all but made annexation official by beginning the process of transferring many powers overseeing the West Bank from military to civilian leaders—in contravention of international law.

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  • Jun 24 – 26, 2024: War profiteers in Madison! They are not welcome!

    Week of June 24

    Scroll down for:

    –   Monday 6/24 midday vigil 

    –   Tuesday 6/25 midday vigil

    –   Wednesday 6/26 community actions

    –   Your message

    War profiteers, including Lockheed, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman are having a secret symposium in Madison this coming week, June 24th – 27th. It will be hosted at Monona Terrace, and the building will be closed to the general public.

    Most of the sessions and presentations are led by defense contractors, Defence Department officials and representatives of various branches of the US military. Furthermore, thematically, this symposium is heavily dominated by topics of weapon development, such as hypersonic missile technology, advanced materials, and missile defense.

    This event is restricted to government and government contractors only; is not advertised and is not open to the press or general public.

    They want to be unnoticed! So let’s not let them fly under the radar!

    Monday 6/24, Tuesday 6/25 12pm – Madison for WBW is planning to be present in the MLK blvd block between E Wilson and E Doty. The goal and details are being defined; but the fundamental issue remains the same: the war industry causes global death and destruction of all life, suffering, loss of a future and we stand against it.

    Wednesday 6/26 – A coalition of local groups is working on organizing a community action for this day. The hope is to get as many of us out there to show our unequivocal opposition: we know what the war industry causes and we don’t want it.  

    Please understand that both plans above are being worked on as we write. Details as places, times, engagements are being discussed in the coalition.   They will be communicated daily on instagram: stay tuned!  If you are not linked to Instagram, please email to warabolition@gmail.com to let us know that you want to be informed.

    Your message – Create your own sound bite message against the war industry: what is your main reason to oppose it (many choices…); make your own sign of dissent to wave. Send us a picture of that slogan, we’ll collect them.

    World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, chapters, and affiliated organizations advocating for the abolition of the institution of war. 
    Donate to support our people-powered movement for peace.

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  • Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza City

    Israeli strikes killed 38 people in four neighborhoods Saturday, the Gaza civil defense force said. The military said it struck Hamas infrastructure in the city.

    By Victoria Bisset, Mohamad El Chamaa and Lior Soroka, The Washington Post,

    June 22, 2024

    Palestinian families mourn next to the bodies of their relatives at Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip on Friday. (Haitham Imad/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

    Israeli airstrikes on four neighborhoods in Gaza City killed at least 38 people Saturday, the Gaza civil defense force said, adding that rescue crews were continuing to search for more dead and wounded in the rubble.

    The bombardment hit residential buildings in the city’s north, south, east and west, with significant damage and a massive crater reported in the densely built Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets “struck two Hamas military infrastructure sites in the area of Gaza City,” without elaborating. The Gaza civil defense force did not say if combatants were among the dead.

    Video from Shati verified by Storyful showed entire blocks destroyed by the strike, with residents covered in dust from the debris while searching for survivors.

    “People were sitting, and suddenly, missiles destroyed a group of houses and burned the entire area,” said Yousri al-Ghoul, 43, who lives in Shati.

    “Most residents of the camp were affected because the shrapnel flew across the squares and residential blocks,” he said in a phone interview. “People were carrying others on their backs. There’s still people under the rubble.”

    The multiple, heavy strikes were somewhat unusual for Gaza City, where some of the major battles between Israel and Hamas have died down. Still, the IDF carries out regular strikes in the city, including one on Friday that killed five municipal workers, according to local authorities.

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  • ‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 258

    Threat of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah rises

    Hassan Nasrallah warned in a televised speech that Hezbollah would “fight without restraints and without limits” in the event of an all-out war. Meanwhile, the first lawyer to visit Gaza detainees in Sde Teiman said they face “unimaginable” abuse.

    BY QASSAM MUADDI, MONDOWEISS, 

    Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks in televised address threatening Israel that Hezbollah would fight "without restraints" in the event of an all-out war, June 19, 2024. (Photo: Screenshot from AlMayadeen Youtube Channel)HEZBOLLAH LEADER HASSAN NASRALLAH SPEAKS IN TELEVISED ADDRESS THREATENING ISRAEL THAT HEZBOLLAH WOULD FIGHT “WITHOUT RESTRAINTS” IN THE EVENT OF AN ALL-OUT WAR, JUNE 19, 2024. (PHOTO: SCREENSHOT FROM ALMAYADEEN YOUTUBE CHANNEL)

    Casualties 
    • 37,431 + killed* and at least 85,653 wounded in the Gaza Strip.*
    • 544+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
    • Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
    • 662 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, and at least 3,860 have been wounded.***

    * Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel on June 20, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.

    ** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on June 13, this is the latest figure.

    *** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The number of Israeli soldiers wounded, according to declarations by the head of the Israeli army’s wounded association to Israel’s Channel 12, exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7, as of June 18.

    Key Developments 
    • Israel kills 84 Palestinians, wounds 281 since Thursday, June 13, across Gaza, raising death toll since October 7 to 37,431 and number of wounded to 85,653, according to the Gaza health ministry.
    • Fears of all-out war rise as Hezbollah and Israel exchange threats.
    • Hezbollah releases 10-minute-long drone footage of Israeli strategic facilities in threat to Israel.
    • Washington says that war between Israel and Hezbollah will have devastating consequences.
    • Israel bombs south Lebanese towns as Hezbollah mourns one of its fighters and launches dozens of rockets into northern Galilee.
    • Israeli army spokesperson says Hamas impossible to destroy as an idea.
    • UN Human Rights Council fact-finding mission for Palestine concludes that Israel committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including intentional killing of civilians, starvation, and collective punishment.
    • First lawyer to visit Sde Teiman detention center and military base reports torture, sexual abuse, and “unimaginable” inhumane conditions.
    • Gaza health ministry says 70% of bed capacity in Gaza medical facilities has been lost, with only 272 functioning patient beds for more than 85,000 wounded.
    Hezbollah and Israel exchange threats of all-out war, escalate cross-border attacks
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  • June 20, 2024: Jeff Halper on WORT

    WORT

    Noon – 1 pm

    Anthropologist, author and anti-occupation activist Jeff Halper will be interviewed by A Public Affair host Allen Ruff about how we can deepen our critical understandings of Israel’s ongoing onslaught on Palestine.

    Halper insists that what we have been witnessing before and since October 7 can only be understood through “the lens of settler colonialism.” A coordinating director of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Halper is the author of War Against the People: Israel, Palestine, and Global Pacification and a co-founder of the One Democratic State Campaign. He last spoke in Madison in May of 2016.

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  • ISRAEL’S NEW AIR WAR IN THE WEST BANK

    NEARLY HALF OF THE DEAD ARE CHILDREN 
    Photo Illustration: Fei Liu/Getty Images

    Nearly 20 years after the Second Intifada, the Israeli military has resumed airstrikes in the West Bank — and killed 24 children. 

    Catherine Cartier, The Intercept, June 12 2024

    AROUND 9:30 P.M. in late February, a white Mazda pulled up near a game cafe in the Jenin refugee camp on the northern edge of the West Bank, where a crowd of boys and young men often gathered to socialize. 

    As the car stopped, a few people walked by on the narrow street. Two motorbikes weaved past in different directions. “Everything was fine at the time,” according to an eyewitness sitting nearby in the camp’s main square.

    Then the car erupted in a ball of flame. Two missiles fired from an Israeli drone had hit the Mazda in quick succession, as shown in a video the Israeli Air Force posted that night.

    According to the IAF, the strike killed Yasser Hanoun, described as “a wanted terrorist.”

    But Hanoun was not the only fatality: 16-year old Said Raed Said Jaradat, who was near the vehicle when it was hit, sustained shrapnel wounds all over his body, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International-Palestine. He died from his injuries at 1 a.m. the next morning.

    Jaradat is one of 24 children killed in Israel’s airstrikes on the West Bank since last summer, when the Israeli forces began deploying drones, planes, and helicopters to carry out attacks in the occupied territory for the first time in decades. 

    With 37 bombings, helicopter gunship attacks, or drone strikes, the Israeli military’s air campaign has killed 55 Palestinians, including 24 children. Map illustration: Fei Liu

    The world’s attention has been on the Israeli campaign in Gaza, which has killed at least 36,000 people — including more than 15,000 children — and prompted accusations of genocide from U.N. officials and at the International Court of Justice. In the name of eliminating Hamas in retaliation for the attacks in October, the Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip continues.

    But Israel has also transformed its tactics in the West Bank. Since June of last year, and with increasing regularity during the Gaza offensive, the Israel Defense Forces have shown a new willingness to use air power in the West Bank, regardless of the collateral damage to children and other civilians caught in the blasts.

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  • “Complete Dehumanization”: Israel Killed Over 800 Palestinians in 11 Days

    “We can no longer accept the statement that Israel is taking ‘all precautions’ — this is just propaganda.”

    By Sharon Zhang, TRUTHOUT, June 13, 2024

    A Palestinian woman and a child cry as they mourn the death of a loved one following Israeli bombardment, outside a hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on June 7, 2024.

    Israel’s recent massacres in Gaza killed over 800 Palestinians in less than two weeks — an extreme rate of brutal killing that has become normalized in western circles due to the “complete dehumanization” of Palestinians, a human rights group said this week.

    From June 1 to June 11, Israeli forces killed over 800 Palestinians and wounded over 2,400 as they carried out bombardments and raids across Gaza, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported. This is an average of over 72 Palestinians killed each day at the hands of Israeli forces.

    This includes Israel’s assault of Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday that killed 274 Palestinians, including 64 children, and injured 698 others, with Israeli forces carrying out one of the most deadly single attacks of their genocidal siege so far in order to retrieve four Israelis held hostage in Gaza. The attack was carried out on a bustling civilian center in the middle of the day, raising questions about whether Israeli forces violated international law.

    MSF condemned Israel’s “propaganda” that it is not committing war crimes in Gaza.

    “How can the killing of more than 800 people in a single week, including small children, plus the maiming of hundreds more, be considered a military operation adhering to international humanitarian law?,” said Brice de le Vingne, who heads MSF’s emergency unit, in a statement. “We can no longer accept the statement that Israel is taking ‘all precautions’ — this is just propaganda.”

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