Israel/ Palestine

By Phyllis Bennis | – ( Commondreams ) – Human Rights Watch is the best-known and arguably the most influential among Washington elites of any of the many human rights organizations in the United States. So when HRW issues an unsparing, 200-plus page legal and factual report concluding that Israeli government authorities are guilty of […]

Israel/ Palestine

‘Apartheid’, Israel and the verdict of international law: The Problem is Occupation

Juan Cole

Leonie Fleischmann | – Discrimination against Palestinians by Israeli laws and policies amount to the crime of apartheid, according to a recent report from Human Rights Watch. The 213-page report, released on April 27, accuses Israel of operating a system of apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It concludes that “in certain areas … they […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli security forces arrest Palestinian journalist Alaa al-Rimawi in Ramallah: Must disclose his Location, Charges

Committee to Protect Journalists

( Committee to Protect Journalists) – Israeli authorities should immediately make public any charges against Palestinian journalist Alaa al-Rimawi and disclose where he is being held, or release him unconditionally at once, the Committee to Protect Journalists said last week Early on the morning of April 21, a group of about 12 Israeli soldiers raided […]

Israel/ Palestine

How the US is shielding Israel from Apartheid charges and itself from complicity charges

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor) – The Palestinians mentioned apartheid in connection with Israel long before B’Tselem used the description. Now it is the turn of Human Rights Watch (HRW) to — rightfully, if belatedly — accuse Israel of apartheid in its latest report titled A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and […]

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Why Jerusalem is Sacred to Muslims, and why even the Emirates are Rebuking Israel for Persecuting Palestinians There

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began Monday, April 12, and for the succeeding week and a half there was trouble at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate. Muslim youth were used to gathering in the square in front of the the gate, which had been built by the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman […]

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Israel is an Apartheid State seeking Systemic Domination of Palestinians: Human Rights Watch

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Human Rights Watch has issued a 214-page report concluding that between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean there are 6.8 million Jews and 6.8 million Palestinians, and that the Israeli state systematically privileges the Jews, wherever they are, and disprivileges the Palestinians, on the basis of race. HRW, like other […]

Israel/ Palestine

Is Grassroots American Activism Shifting Public Opinion toward the Palestinians?

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor) – At a recent J Street Conference online, US Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren broke yet another political taboo when they expressed willingness to leverage US military aid as a way of putting pressure on Israel to respect Palestinian human rights. Sanders believes that the US “must be willing to […]

Israel/ Palestine

Some in Congress want Oversight of US funds used by Israel for War Crimes, but AIPAC says ‘No’

Walter L. Hixson

Akron, Oh. (Special to Informed Comment) – In mid-April, Rep. Betty McCollum (D.-MN) introduced a bill requiring oversight of how Israel uses U.S. aid and forbidding its use to detain Palestinian children. Although Congressional limitations on the billions of dollars it sends Israel every year were the norm only a few decades ago, it is […]

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Israeli Police injure 12 Palestinians in Continued Iron Fist Crackdown on Jerusalem Ramadan Crowds

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)- Arab48 reports that Israeli security forces on Saturday night attacked Palestinian worshipers at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem with batons and teargas, leaving 12 Jerusalemites wounded, according to the Palestinian Red Cross. Damascus Gate or Bab al-Amoud in Arabic is the major entrance way to the Old City of Jerusalem, which is […]