And now there is blood on my name, on my tree in Israel. Do not speak to me of self-defense, of necessity and nations and history. ― Julia Vinograd, For My Tree in Israel, 1988
The unpleasant and unavoidable comparison is with South Africa during the Apartheid period. And ― having visited South Africa ― I must say that they were much better off than the Palestinians living in refugee camps. ― Richard Falk, Occupation 101, 2006
You can’t have occupation and human rights. ― Christopher Hitchens, English-American author and journalist, 1997
We’re only hearing a fraction of the story. ― Allison Weir, Occupation 101, 2006
I think it’s a foreign concept for many Americans, what it’s like to live under military occupation. ― Allegra Pacheco, Israeli human rights lawyer, Occupation 101, 2006
Settlements are strategically built colonies of Israel . . . connected by a network of roads, which separate each Palestinian community from the next. ― Occupation 101, 2006
And the bottom line, in all of this, is to make Palestinians leave the country. . . it’s a kind of ethnic cleansing. ― Jeff Halper, Israeli activist, Occupation 101, 2006
The pre-eminent obstacle to peace is Israel’s colonization of Palestine. ― Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Ha’aretz, Mar 10, 2006
The mainstream Israeli Jewish society believe, because that’s the way they have been educated, that Palestine was empty, had been empty, when the Jewish settlers came there. ― Ilan Pappe, Israeli historian, Occupation 101, 2006
Until the early 1930’s the Jewish population of Palestine remained under 17%. ― Occupation 101, 2006
The Palestinians, they were not the Nazis, they were not responsible for the Holocaust, but they were the ones that paid the price. ― Phyllis Bennis, Occupation 101, 2006
We found out that there was a systematic expulsion of Palestinians . . . there was an ethnic cleansing operation taking place. ― Ilan Pappe, Israeli historian, Occupation 101, 2006
The ruthlessness of the attack on Deir Yassin drove fear and panic into the Palestinian population, and led to the flight of unarmed civilians from their homes all over the country. ― Occupation 101, 2006
Of the 500 Palestinian villages in what became Israel in 1948, 400 were destroyed. ― Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University historian, Occupation 101, 2006
I can go back to Israel, as if I were returning, and claim immediate citizenship, having no historical tie, speaking no Hebrew, knowing no one in the country, having no family whoever was there . . . all that one needs is being Jewish. ― Phyllis Bennis, Occupation 101, 2006
Land on the West Bank is slowly being dragged from Palestinian control. Slowly, slowly push “them” back and back until the land is empty ― as some have pretended it was from the start. ― Irena Klepfisz, Yom Hashoah, Yom Yerushalayim, 1989
Who paid the price when they settled there? Is it really true that Israel was a land without a people, for a people without a land? ― Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, Occupation 101, 2006
We cannot call ourselves Progressive and remain silent on Palestine. ― Jewish Voice for Peace
They left me in the room for five hours with my hands tied behind my back and my legs tied to each other. When I refused to confess, they slapped me and tightened the hand ties more and more. ― 15-year-old Palestinian, Room No. 4, Nov 1, 2015
Nine killed when a missile struck a cafe Wednesday night where about a dozen locals had gathered to watch the World Cup. Israeli military said the target was a single terrorist. ― The New York Times, Jul 12, 2014
100 years since the Balfour Declaration; 70 years since the partition of Palestine; 50 years of occupation; 10 years of the siege on Gaza. ― American Muslims for Palestine, 2017
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, Feb 14, 2018
I’m not even asking [Israel] to allow full, equal citizenship to Arab Israelis, since that would require Israel no longer being a Jewish state. — Peter Beinart, Jewish American professor of journalism and political science, 2010.
Since 2020 Beinart has supported a single Israeli state with equal rights for Palestinians and the right to return for Palestinian refugees. Change is happening.
There are laws in Israel that establish separate educational systems that are funded unequally. According to a 2005 study by Hebrew University three times more was spent on the education of Jewish children than on Palestinian children who were Israeli citizens. ― Second Class Citizens, 2016
There is a law in Israel that empowers hundreds of local Jewish communities to exclude applicants based on ethnicity or religion. Israel’s Supreme Court upheld this law in September 2014. Palestinian Israeli citizens are barred from living in 68% of all towns in Israel by admissions committees. ― Second Class Citizens, 2016
The Israeli government limits building permits in Palestinian Israeli communities more than Jewish, and omits Palestinian Israeli towns from some government social and economic plans. Buildings without permits are illegal, and this is a commonly cited reason for demolishing Palestinian buildings. ― Second Class Citizens, 2016
There is a law in Israel prohibiting anyone from calling for a boycott of Israel, its institutions, or any person because of their affiliation with Israel, including the settlements in the occupied territories. The law was upheld by Israel’s Supreme Court on April 15, 2015. ― Second Class Citizens, 2016
There is a law in Israel that bans any political party that denies the existence of Israel as a “Jewish” state. A party advocating equal rights for all Israeli citizens regardless of ethnicity is illegal. ― Second Class Citizens, 2016
Unequal treatment under Israeli law applies to over 1.7 million Israeli citizens, more than 21% of the population. By comparison, African Americans are 13% of the U.S. population. ― Second Class Citizens, 2016
Intentionally harming a civilian population is a war crime and I strongly condemn it. ― Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, speaking of Ukraine and not Palestine, Apr 3, 2022
We shall keep our priests within the confines of their temples in the same way as we shall keep our professional army within the confines of their barracks. Army and priesthood shall receive honors high as their valuable functions deserve. But they must not interfere in the administration of the State which confers distinction upon them, else they will conjure up difficulties without and within. — Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (1896)
If a state with a Jewish majority was to be created in Palestine, a country with a massive Arab majority with uncontested legal claim to the lion’s share of privately owned land, the expulsion of a large part of this majority and the seizure of their land were absolutely necessary. — Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage, 2006
Israel is not targeting “terrorists” supposedly hiding behind “human shields.” On the contrary, it’s targeting the “human shields” themselves. ― Norman Finkelstein, Dec 27, 2023
Frankly I don’t think we would be having this conversation if a group of Palestinian aid workers had been killed. — New York Times correspondents discussing the killing of foreign World Central Kitchen workers on The Daily, Apr 4, 2024
Civil rights in Israel depend on more than citizenship alone. They differ depending on citizenship, ethnicity, and religion. — Joel Beinin, Emeritus Professor of Middle East History, Stanford University, 2023
The Israeli Ministry of Interior requires all residents to provide an original birth certificate, an original marital status certificate, and an original proof of religion in order to receive the required national ID card.
It’s just a tough situation, with victims on both sides. On one side you’ve got people being slaughtered in droves by genocidal massacres and siege warfare, while on the other you’ve got people whose feelings get hurt when these atrocities are opposed. Hard to say which is worse. — Caitlin Johnstone, Apr 25, 2024
The ICC is preparing to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials, Israel nearly started a war with Iran, and the IDF is preparing to commit a horrifying massacre in Rafah, so naturally the mainstream press is very, very interested in “anti-semitism” on college campuses again. — Caitlin Johnstone, 2024
A quick guide to Israeli public relations
“We haven’t heard reports of deaths, we’ll check into it. The people were killed, but by a faulty Palestinian rocket or bomb. OK, we killed them, but they were terrorists. OK, they were civilians, but they were being used as human shields. OK, there were no fighters in the area, so it was our mistake. But we kill civilians by accident, they do it on purpose. OK, we kill far more civilians than they do, but look at how terrible other countries are! Why are you still talking about Israel? Are you some kind of antisemite?”
— Adam Johannes, Cardiff Stop the War Coalition, Aug 3, 2014
145 of the 193 UN member states recognize Palestinian statehood, including 9 of the G20 and 10 of the 27 EU countries. ― Joel Beinin, Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus, Stanford University, Jun 1, 2024
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, Jul 24, 2024. She’s talking about North Korea, but it could be Israel, or the United States.
The Israeli leadership and the Israeli public didn’t think about the occupation, didn’t talk about Palestinians. . . I mean, they blockaded a place that is one of the most densely populated places in the world for almost 20 years. . . And now that everybody understands that they do exist and that it is back on the table, then they are very, very vengeful. ― Merav Zonshine, Israeli journalist and commentator in Israel’s Reel Extremism, Jun 18, 2024
“Jewish Democracy” is an oxymoron. ― Rotem Levin, Israeli peace activist, referring to apartheid and the second-class status of Palestinians under Israeli law, Nov 19, 2024
I’m not working for peace. I’m working for justice. ― Osama lliwat, Palestinian activist placing human rights over Israeli ceasefire, Nov 19, 2024
This is all this has ever been about. Not hostages. Not ending Hamas. Not self-defense. Not mass rapes. Not beheaded babies or babies placed in ovens. This has always been about taking land from the indigenous people of Palestine. ― Caitlin Johnstone, Oct 13, 2024
When crises erupt, we protect civilians from mass atrocities, promote accountability for those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, seek to free political prisoners, and create space for civilian dialogue. ― Joseph R. Biden in A Proclamation on Human Rights Day and Human Rights Week, Dec 9, 2024. Except for Palestine.
The Israel Prison Service said that Palestinian prisoners released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal must “refrain from any expression of joy within Israeli territory.” ― Jeremy Scahill And Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Drop Site News, Jan 17, 2025
Last night, Trump horrified even his own advisors by saying that the United States would take over Gaza and turn it into a resort area. “There was little beyond an idea inside the president’s head.” ― Heather Cox Richardson, Feb 5, 2025
It is imperative to oppose antisemitism as one would oppose any racism. The problem is the definition of antisemitism. It cannot be the case that if you criticize Israel, you’re attacking the Jewish people. ― Judith Butler, EL PAÍS, Dec 14, 2024
We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger. Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe? There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living. ― Yuval Abraham, Israeli co-director of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land.
It is Nazism, yes, but before they were its victims, they were its accomplices; they tolerated that Nazism before it was inflicted on them, they absolved it, shut their eyes to it, legitimized it, because, until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples. ― Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 1950, pg 36
Gaza has exposed that there is no international law in the world. All those who preached to us about international law, human rights and democracy, and international humanitarian law, where are they? ― Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian National Initiative, Apr 20, 2025, after 48 days of siege and starvation in Gaza.
The censorship of content related to Palestine on Instagram and Facebook is systemic and global. Meta’s inconsistent enforcement of its own policies led to the erroneous removal of content about Palestine. ― Human Rights Watch, December 2023
Meta has “severely restricted the ability of Palestinian news outlets to reach an audience” since Israel’s genocide began in October 2023. ― BBC Arabic, BBC World Service, and BBC Monitoring, December 2024
Leaked data reveals a massive Israeli campaign to remove pro-Palestine posts on Facebook and Instagram. Meta has complied with 94% of Israeli takedown requests since 7th October 2023. ― Drop Site News, April 11, 2025
Israel is burning children alive in Gaza. And call me an antisemitic Jew-hating Nazi terrorist lover if you must, but I happen to believe that’s wrong. — Caitlin Johnstone, May 28, 2025
Summary: We launched a pre-emptive attack on Iran, because Iran is the aggressor. ― Israeli Defense Forces, Jun 12, 2025
President Donald Trump has done what he swore he would not do: involve the United States in a war in the Middle East. — Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, June 21, 2025
If attack ads can’t bury a Muslim socialist, maybe the 0.01% doesn’t run things as much as it imagines. The horror! ― Paul Krugman, on nominee Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor, Jun 26, 2025
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has announced that in order to improve “public diplomacy” efforts the term “hasbara” will no longer be used, because people have come to associate it with lies and propaganda. ― Caitlin Johnstone, Aug 4, 2025
We are reporting a lot of Hamas operatives killed, but I think most of the people we report as dead are not really Hamas operatives. People are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their death. — Israeli Intelligence Source, +972 Magazine, August 21, 2025
They lie non-stop — both the military echelon and the political echelon. In every raid, the IDF Spokesperson’s announcements said: ‘Hundreds of terrorists were killed. It’s true that hundreds were killed, but they weren’t terrorists. — Major General (Res.) Itzak Brik, Ombudsman for Soldiers Complaints, +972 Magazine, August 21, 2025
From Israel’s perspective, being judged by the same standards applied to others after a lifetime of impunity may well feel like being singled out for special treatment. But the reality is of course precisely the opposite. ― Mouin Rabbani, Sep 6, 2025
The list of humanitarian institutions who accuse Israel of genocide now includes:
1. The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory
2. The International Association of Genocide Scholars
3. B’Tselem (an Israeli organization)
4. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (another Israeli organization)
5. Amnesty International
6. Doctors Without Borders
7. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
8. Human Rights Watch
9. The International Federation for Human Rights
10. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention
— Caitlin Johnstone, Sep 17, 2025
“Yitgadal V’yitkadash Shmei Rabba —
May His great Name be magnified and sanctified.”
Not great and not holy is He,
for in His Name blood is spilled in vain.
― Avrum Burg, Kaddish of the New Year, Sep 12, 2025
“V’yatzmach Purkanei —
May He cause redemption to sprout.”
What redemption has ever sprung from fields of carnage,
from the kernels sown in the souls of terrified children?
― Avrum Burg, Kaddish of the New Year, Sep 12, 2025
I saw a video where two Australian doctors described how they had to deliver a baby via emergency c-section because the baby’s mother had been decapitated by an Israeli airstrike. Information like this always reminds me of that period last year when all the western politicians and media outlets were telling us that the worst people in the entire world were the university students who were protesting against this genocide. — Caitlin Johnstone, Sep 21, 2025
Even the corpse of a single Israeli captive counts for more in Washington than the tens of thousands of slaughtered Palestinian children. ― Mouin Rabbani, Oct 04, 2025
So I say: give me democracy in the public square, and leave Judaism to the realm of individuals and communities. Religion belongs in the private sphere; the state must belong equally to all its citizens. ― Avrum Burg, “Judeo-Christian, Jewish-Democratic, No such things,” Oct 05, 2025
Whatever the coming weeks and months may hold, Palestine now once again stands at the very center of global attention, and is today what Edward W. Said termed the litmus test for humanity and morality. Two years ago, as may be recalled, it had all but disappeared, out of both sight and mind. ― Mouin Rabbani, Oct 9, 2025
After the devastation of Gaza, it can no longer be said that the Jewish people are a persecuted nation. Historically and morally, the Israeli Jew has become a persecutor. ― Avrum Burg, Oct 12, 2025
Our solidarity with Palestinians is not a betrayal of Judaism, then, but a fulfillment of it. When our sages taught that to destroy one life is to destroy an entire world, they did not carve exceptions for Palestinians. We shall not rest until this ceasefire carries forward into an end of occupation and apartheid. ― Jewish figures worldwide call for sanctions against Israel, Arab News, October 22, 2025
We consider the State of Israel, established in 1948, to be a continuation of that same colonial enterprise built on racism and the ideology of ethnic or religious superiority. ― Kairos Palestine, A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, Nov 14, 2025
While people of the world have stood in solidarity with us, the genocidal war has laid bare the hypocrisy of the Western world, its hollow values and its empty boasts of commitment to human rights and international law. In truth, the Western world has sacrificed us, revealing racism and double standards toward our people. ― Kairos Palestine, A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, Nov 14, 2025
Christian Zionism calls on a tribal, racist god of war and ethnic cleansing, teachings utterly alien to the core of Christian faith and ethics. Christian Zionism must therefore be named for what it is: a theological distortion and a moral corruption. ― Kairos Palestine, A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, Nov 14, 2025
The time has come for the churches of the world to repudiate Zionist theology and to state clearly their position on Palestine: this is a case of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing of an indigenous people. ― Kairos Palestine, A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, Nov 14, 2025
Not every Jew is a Zionist and not every Zionist is a Jew. ― Kairos Palestine, A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, Nov 14, 2025
Do Palestinians deserve to be free?
“A complex and controversial issue,” says OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Do Israelis deserve to be free?
“Yes, like all people,” says ChatGPT (Twitter, 5/8/23).
The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem suppressed a February 2024 report on northern Gaza because it “lacked balance.” ― JONATHAN WHITTALL, DROP SITE NEWS, FEB 02, 2026
Israel is not the only democracy in the Middle East. In fact, it’s not a democracy at all. ― Ilan Pappé, 2017
And it’s 1, 2, 3 what are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it’s 5, 6, 7 open up the pearly gates.
Well, there ain’t no time to wonder why,
WHOOPEE we’re all gonna die.
― Country Joe McDonald, I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag by Country Joe and the Fish, 1965. Joe died Mar 8, 2026 at 84.
The family of nations has failed to hold those who carried out the genocide in Gaza accountable for their grave crimes against humanity. This has created a pervasive sense of impunity. The message is: commit horrific atrocities and war crimes that violate every standard of civilized conduct as laid out in the UN Charter, and you will very likely get away with it. ― Rev. J. Mark Davidson, Executive Director, Voices for Justice in Palestine, writing on Gaza, Iran, Israel, and the United States.