Fault Lines investigates the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli military forces.
On May 11, 2022, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was reporting from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank when an Israeli soldier shot and killed her.
The Israeli military would eventually admit it was “possible” she was killed by their fire.
But Abu Akleh was also an American citizen and her killing has brought into sharp focus the United States’s handling of her case.
In The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, Fault Lines spoke with witnesses from that day and took questions to the White House and State Department about whether the US will investigate her shooting.
Relatives mourn at the Ramallah Hospital for 21 year-old Cevad and 22 year-old Zafir Abdurrahman Abdulcevad Rimavi brothers who shot and killed as a result of the fire opened by Israeli soldiers in the events in the town of Kafr Ayn in Ramallah, West Bank on November 29, 2022.
Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Three Palestinian men were killed by Israeli fire during separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday. They were the latest deadly incidents in a mounting surge of Israeli-Palestinian violence and soaring tensions, less than a week after a bombing in Jerusalem killed two Israelis.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that clashes erupted between Israeli forces and residents north of the city of Hebron in the West Bank.
The Israeli military said soldiers shot at Palestinians who hurled rocks and improvised explosive devices at the forces operating in the town. The army said the Palestinians also shot at the troops, and two army vehicles got stuck due to mechanical issues.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man killed near Hebron as Mufid Khalil, 44, and said at least eight other people were wounded by live fire in the incident.
In a separate incident, two brothers identified by Wafa as Jawad and Dhafr Rimawi, 22 and 21, were killed by Israeli fire during clashes with troops near the village of Kafr Ein, west of Ramallah in the northern West Bank early Tuesday.
The Israeli military said troops operating in the village came under attack from suspects throwing rocks and firebombs, and soldiers responded with live fire. It said it was reviewing the incident.
Later on Tuesday, a Palestinian driver rammed his car into an Israeli pedestrian near a West Bank settlement north of Jerusalem in what the army said was a deliberate attack. Paramedics said they treated a 20-year-old woman for serious injuries. Police said officers pursued and shot the driver. The driver’s condition was unknown.
Forensic experts inspect the vehicle of a Palestinian who carried out a ramming attack on an Israeli soldier at the Mukhmas junction, after it was stopped northern entrance of Ramallah near the Israeli settlement of Beit El in the occupied West Bank on November 29, 2022.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been surging for months amid nightly Israeli raids in the West Bank, prompted by a spate of deadly attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people in the spring.
More than 138 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making it the deadliest year since 2006. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
In a new report, the army described a fragile situation in the West Bank, where it has carried out nearly nightly arrest raids since March. It said it has mobilized thousands of troops and arrested some 2,500 Palestinians and confiscated around 250 weapons since March
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
A fire erupted during birthday celebrations in a home in Jabalia city, spreading quickly through an apartment complex.
At least 21 people have been killed and dozens injured after a fire broke out in a residential building in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, according to local sources.
Al Jazeera correspondent Youmna ElSayed, reporting from Gaza, said the fire was believed to be caused by a gas leak during a birthday celebration inside an apartment on Thursday. “When candles were lit up, a fire quickly erupted and an explosion took place,” she said.
The fire spread rapidly through the apartment and extended to the rest of the building, ElSayed reported.
The blaze has now been contained, but the search continues for several people who are missing.
The building is located in a densely populated area of Jabalia, thereby increasing the chances of fire spreading quickly through the neighbourhood.
The civil defence services in the city are not adequately equipped to tackle such emergencies effectively, said Al Jazeera’s ElSayed.
Mohammad Souf, 18, stabbed several Israelis at the Ariel settlement’s industrial entrance in the occupied West Bank.
A Palestinian killed at least two Israelis and wounded four others in an attack in a settlement in the occupied West Bank before he was shot and killed by Israeli security personnel, Israeli paramedics and Palestinian officials said.
The Magen David Adom paramedic service said that two people were killed in the settlement of Ariel. The four wounded were hospitalised in a serious condition.
It was the latest attack in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence this year that has seen near-daily Israeli raids on the occupied West Bank, in which Palestinians are arrested or killed, as well as attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
The Israeli military said the Palestinian, named by the Palestinian health ministry as 18-year-old Mohammad Souf, first attacked the Israelis at the entrance to the settlement’s industrial zone, then proceeded to a nearby petrol station and stabbed more people there. The army said the man then stole a car, intentionally collided with a car on a nearby highway and struck another person, before fleeing the scene on foot.
It said the attacker was shot by a soldier, and that troops were searching the area for additional suspects.
Amateur video aired on Israeli television appeared to show the suspected attacker running down a highway and collapsing to the ground after he was shot. The Palestinian health ministry later said that Souf was from the nearby village of Hares.
Israeli forces raided Souf’s family home and, according to Palestinian media outlets, physically attacked family members.
No Palestinian faction has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it was hailed by spokespeople for Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In a statement, Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou said that the operation demonstrated “the ability of our people to continue their revolution and defend Al-Aqsa Mosque from daily incursions”.
The left-wing PFLP said the attack was in response “to the policy of field executions pursued by the [Israeli] occupation and its security services against our people, the last of which will not be the Palestinian girl Fulla Masalmeh who was killed in Beitunia yesterday”.
Deadliest year
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid sent condolences to the families of the Israelis killed in the attack and said Israel was “fighting terror nonstop and full force”.
“Our security forces are working around the clock to protect Israeli citizens and harm terror infrastructure everywhere, all the time,” he said.
This year’s surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem has killed at least 25 people on the Israeli side and more than 130 Palestinians, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006.
Israel says its almost nightly arrest raids in the West Bank are needed to dismantle armed networks at a time when Palestinian security forces are unable or unwilling to do so.
The Palestinian Authority says the raids undermine their security forces and are aimed at cementing Israel’s open-ended 55-year illegal occupation of territories they want for their hoped-for state.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been rounded up in such raids, with many placed in so-called administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold them indefinitely without trial or charge.
Netanyahu back as Israeli PM, Saudi investment in Twitter, and police violence in Iran. Here’s your round-up, written by Abubakr Al-Shamahi, Al Jazeera Digital’s Middle East and North Africa editor.
Even with essentially all his political rivals united against him, Benjamin Netanyahu just couldn’t be kept down. The right-wing politician had spent 12 years as the Israeli prime minister, until March 2021, when he was forced out of office. Over the course of his career, Netanyahu had made so many enemies, across the entire political spectrum, that right-wing and left-wing Israelis, and even Palestinians, all united in a coalition against him. He’s also been indicted for fraud, and faces prison.
No matter, it seems. The anti-Netanyahu coalition collapsed, and for the fifth time in less than four years, Israelis voted. And with the count almost complete (by the time you read this, it could well be done), the results suggest that Netanyahu will be back as prime minister.
How’d he do it? Netanyahu went and made new friends – namely Itamar Ben-Gvir, who once proudly displayed in his office a picture of an Israeli who massacred 29 Palestinians, and Bezalel Smotrich, who has said that the founders of Israel didn’t “finish the job” when they failed to get rid of all the Palestinians in 1948. It’s a glaringly stark sign of Israel’s plunge into the far right that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich’s alliance, the Religious Zionism Party, has done so well in the elections, and in the process has helped prop up Netanyahu.
For many Palestinians, it’s just more of the same. Under the supposedly centrist, current and apparently outgoing prime minister, Yair Lapid, near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank have killed dozens of Palestinians since the start of the year. Meanwhile, as Zena Al Tahhan reports, many Palestinians living in Israel say they haven’t seen an improvement in their situation, despite the first-time presence of a Palestinian party in Israel’s now-outgoing coalition government.
Before the vote, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, labelled Israel’s democracy an “utter fiction” because it rules over millions of Palestinians who are denied the right to vote. “Far-right fanatics and bloody generals dominate the absolute majority of seats in the Israeli Parliament,” Bishara says in his op-ed – and that was before the far right increased their seat tally.
Saudis are No. 2 at Twitter after Musk takeover
He might be the world’s richest person, but Elon Musk hasn’t just pumped his own money into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter. Instead, Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company, led by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, is keeping its shares, and together with bin Talal’s private office, is the second largest investor in the new and (if you believe Musk) improved Twitter.
The prince and Musk weren’t always so friendly. The two got into a Twitter tiff in April, when the owner of Tesla and SpaceX first announced his intention to buy the social media company, after bin Talal rejected Musk’s initial offer. Musk’s response was to ask about Saudi Arabia’s views on journalistic free speech. Feisty …
Video of Iranian riot police beating man goes viral
Authorities in Iran have limited the amount of protest footage that gets out by throttling the internet, and banning several messaging apps. But one of the videos that has made it out has been particularly shocking, and appears to show police beating a man, who is then beaten further as he lies on the ground. Iran’s police force has said it’s investigating the incident.
Being an Afghan refugee in Iran is already difficult enough. Add being a woman who coaches a men’s football team into the mix, and life just got that much harder. But that’s exactly what Rozma Ghafouri is doing, even though she’s often forbidden from coaching from the sidelines.
In Brief
Human Rights Watch accuses Bahrain’s government of using laws and other tactics to keep the opposition out of office – The Arab League holds its first summit since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Algeria – Qatar has made progress on workers’ rights but challenges remain, says International Labour Organisation – Tunisia could be banned from the World Cup over government interference in the Tunisian Football Federation – Michel Aoun steps down as president of Lebanon, with no one to replace him – Ukraine demands that Iran stop sending weapons to Russia – Spanish football fan walking to the World Cup in Qatar has been arrested in Iran – Iraq’s parliament approves new government
“Alaa will either be free in the next days, or he will die in prison during #COP27 as the world watches.” – Canadian author Naomi Klein on the Egyptian prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah. The dissident has decided to escalate his hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment. His family says he will reduce his caloric intake to zero, and on November 6, stop drinking water, when the COP27 global climate talks begin in Egypt.
Washington, DC — A top civil rights group in the United States has asked the Supreme Court to review a lower court’s ruling that upheld an Arkansas state law penalising companies that boycott Israel.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a petition on Thursday asking the top court to take up the case, arguing the Appeals Court decision violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the right to free speech.
“When a state singles out particular boycotts for special penalties, as Arkansas has done here, it not only infringes the right to boycott — it also transgresses the First Amendment’s core prohibition on content and viewpoint discrimination,” ACLU lawyers wrote in their filing.
In June, the appeals court ruled in favour of the law, saying boycotts fall under commercial activity, not “expressive conduct” guaranteed by the First Amendment.
The law follows similar measures passed by dozens of US states to curtail the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which pushes to pressure Israel through non-violent means to end abuses against Palestinians.
Several rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have said Israel’s treatment of Palestinians amounts to apartheid.
The Arkansas case started in 2018 when The Arkansas Times, a publication in the city of Little Rock, sued the state after refusing to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel to win an advertising contract from a public university.
The law requires contractors that do not sign the pledge to reduce their fees by 20 percent.
A federal district court initially dismissed the lawsuit but a three-judge appeals panel blocked the law in 2021, ruling it violates the First Amendment. In June, a full appeals court reversed the panel’s decision, essentially reviving the law.
The Supreme Court is the final level of appeal and review in the US judicial system. If the top court refuses to take up the case, the appeals court’s decision will stand.
The nine-seat Supreme Court has a conservative majority with three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel.
Rights advocates have warned that anti-boycott measures do not only push to unconstitutionally silence Palestinian rights activism but also threaten free speech rights in general — and are being used to restrict boycotts of other entities, including the fossil fuel industry.
Brain Hauss, a senior staff lawyer with the ACLU, said the June decision to uphold the anti-BDS law in Arkansas “badly misreads” legal precedents and withdraws protection for freedoms exercised by Americans for centuries.
“Worse yet, the decision upholds the government’s power to selectively suppress boycotts that express messages with which the government disagrees,” Hauss said in a statement on Thursday.
“The Supreme Court should take up this case in order to reaffirm that the First Amendment protects the right to participate in politically-motivated consumer boycotts.”
Americans for Peace Now (APN), an advocacy group that describes itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace, also called on the Supreme Court to review the ruling.
“A Supreme Court decision on this case, if it decides to take it up, could have broad repercussions in the United States and beyond,” APN President Hadar Susskind said in a statement.
“We hope the Court discusses the matter and rules that states have no business imposing conditions on the free speech rights of individuals, organizations and companies. You may support or oppose boycotting Israel or the occupation, but as a government you must not impose your opinion on others or sanction them for their views.”
Anti-BDS laws often restrict boycotts of Israel as well as any Israeli-occupied territories. Last year, several US states threatened sanctions against Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream company decided to stop doing business in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
Protesters held banners in solidarity with victims of Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Khan Yunis, Gaza — Thousands of people in the besieged Gaza Strip have protested in solidarity with fellow Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem amid a wave of violence by Israeli forces.
The rallies on Friday, called by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, began from mosques in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza and Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, where the demonstrators carried banners that read: “Palestine brings us together, Jerusalem is ours, We will defend Jerusalem with our hands and souls.”
The protesters held banners of solidarity with the people of Jerusalem and pictures of young men killed by the Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“The West Bank and Jerusalem are entering in a new phase that shows Israeli occupation that armed struggle is the choice of our people,” he said.
He said daily incursions by Israeli settlers into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in the old city of Jerusalem, and other recent Israeli provocations at the site were only driving Palestinian resistance.
“Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque are the core of the conflict and for their sake our people rose up throughout their history,” he said.
“The West Bank is rising up again, confirming that the path towards liberation and sweeping the occupier is through the barrel of a gun.”
Israeli forces have been carrying out near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank in recent months, largely focused on the towns of Jenin and Nablus, where a new wave of Palestinian armed resistance is emerging.
Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year, at least 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including 51 Palestinians during Israel’s three-day assault on Gaza in August, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Tensions have also been high in occupied East Jerusalem since Saturday evening after Israeli police locked down the Shuafat camp on the pretext of searching for a Palestinian suspected of killing a female soldier.
On Wednesday, businesses went on strike and educational institutions closed in occupied East Jerusalem in solidarity with the besieged people in the Shuafat camp and with the Anata, Ras Khamis, Ras Shehadeh and Dahiyat al-Salam neighbourhoods, where the Israeli police have imposed strict restrictions on residents’ movements.
A woman participant in the protest holds a banner that reads ‘Al-Aqsa is for us, not for the darkness’ [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
In Khan Yunis, Abu Sufyan Muhammad, 60, told Al Jazeera he was protesting to show his support for the people of the occupied territories in light of the recent wave of violence.
“We will not be silent about the Israeli actions against us. We are one people and one suffering, and our protest today is an affirmation of our unity in the face of the occupation,” he said.
Muhammad called on all Arab and Islamic countries to intervene to stop repeated Israeli aggression.
“The situation has become unbearable. Enough of the silence and humiliation. The occupation does what it wants without accountability.”
Smoke billows around Israeli security forces vehicles during a reported operation in Jenin city in the occupied West Bank, October 8, 2022.
JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/Getty
Ramallah, West Bank — A 12-year-old Palestinian boy died Monday after being shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers during a weekend army raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Mahmoud Samoudi was shot in the abdomen Saturday during an army raid in Jenin, a refugee camp and stronghold of armed Palestinians.
During the raid, soldiers entered the camp and surrounded a house. In videos circulated on social media, exchanges of fire could be heard. At the time, Palestinian health officials said two teens, ages 16 and 18, were killed and that 11 people were wounded.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Monday’s death.
Israel has been carrying out nightly arrest raids across the West Bank since a spate of attacks against Israelis in the spring killed 19 people. The army said it had traced some of the perpetrators of those attacks back to Jenin.
Mourners and relatives carry the body of a Palestinian man who was killed by Israeli soldiers, during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, October 8, 2022.
Ayman Nobani/Xinhua/Getty
Israeli fire has killed more than 100 Palestinians during that time, making it the deadliest year in the occupied territory since 2015.
The Israeli military says the vast majority of those killed were militants or stone-throwers who endangered the soldiers. But several civilians have also been killed during Israel’s months-long operation, including a veteran journalist and a lawyer who apparently drove unwittingly into a battle zone.
Local youths who took to the streets in response to the invasion of their neighborhoods have also been killed.
Israel says the arrest raids are meant to dismantle militant networks. The Palestinians say the operations are aimed at strengthening Israel’s 55-year military occupation of territories they want for an independent state.
Israeli security forces check Palestinians walking in the Palestinian Shuafat refugee camp in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, October 10, 2022, as Israeli forces searched for a Palestinian suspected of killing an 18-year-old military policewoman in east Jerusalem.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty
Hours after the deadly raid in the West Bank, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on an Israeli military checkpoint in east Jerusalem, killing a female Israeli soldier and wounding three other people, Israeli authorities said. The hunt for the shooter continued on Monday.
It was the latest bloodshed in the deadliest round of fighting in east Jerusalem in seven years. It came a day before Israel started celebrating the weeklong Sukkot holiday, a time when tens of thousands of Jews visit the holy city.
The Israeli troops were shot at a checkpoint near the Shuafatrefugee camp in east Jerusalem. Police said the assailant got out of a car and opened fire, seriously wounding the female soldier and a security guard before running into the camp. The army announced early Sunday that the woman, who was 19, had died.
Dozens have been killed in Israeli military raids and attacks in the most violent year since 2015.
The United Nations is expressing alarm at a rising number of attacks in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and has urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to restore calm.
An Israeli soldier was killed when a Palestinian gunman allegedly opened fire at a checkpoint near a refugee camp in Occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday. That followed the deaths of at least four Palestinians in Israeli raids.
The UN says at least 120 Palestinians and 11 Israelis have been killed since January, the worst year of violence since 2015.
Can anything be done to reduce the tension?
Presenter: Hazem Sika
Guests:
Gideon Levy – Columnist at Haaretz
Sawsan Zaher – Palestinian human rights lawyer
Guy Shalev – Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights Israel
The EU is seeking to reset its often testy relationship with Israel next week, convening a summit on Monday of senior political figures for the first time in a decade.
The meeting format, known as the EU-Israel Association Council, has essentially been dormant since 2013, when Israel canceled a gathering in protest over the EU’s stance on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Since then, the two sides have continued to clash over similar issues.
But the 2021 exit of hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the door for current rapprochement. His replacement, Yair Lapid, who also holds the foreign minister role, has embraced a two-state solution with Palestine — a position more in line with many EU countries’ approach, even if several countries are still expected to express disapproval of Israel’s Palestinian policies on Monday. Brussels is also eager to shore up energy supplies from Israel amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Lapid is expected to attend Monday’s council meeting.
“There’s a big hope that the upcoming association council between the EU and Israel will bring … a new wind into our relationship,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told POLITICO last week at the United Nations General Assembly, expressing optimism that the development will be one of the key achievements of the Czechs’ six-month rotating EU presidency.
Still, getting EU consensus on one of the world’s most notoriously contentious conflicts is not going to be easy.
Countries like Ireland and Sweden have traditionally taken a more pro-Palestinian stance — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stopped off in Dublin for a meeting with the Irish prime minister earlier this month en route to the U.N. annual gathering. On the other end of the spectrum, Israel has strong supporters within the EU. Hungary, for example, is a staunch ally with economic and ideological bonds forged over the years between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Netanyahu.
Before the EU-Israel council went dark, it had served for more than a decade as a forum for officials to regularly meet and discuss these issues. Now, with the council set to be revived, member states are tinkering with an official communique that needs to satisfy the spectrum of views regarding EU-Israeli relations.
Finding common language can mean weeks of fighting over a single word while backroom deals are cut to appease the myriad interests at play. Palestinian officials are also watching closely, demanding not to be left out of a similar diplomatic engagement with Brussels.
The EU’s complicated role in the Israel-Palestine conflict has played out in numerous controversies this year alone.
This spring, the European Commission was forced to delay funding for the Palestinian Authority over the content of textbooks, which critics say included anti-Israeli incitements to violence.
The decision to block the funds was led by Hungarian EU Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi. As POLITICO first reported, 15 countries sent a letter to the Commission in April blasting the move. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen finally announced the money would be disbursed during a visit to the Palestinian city Ramallah in July.
EU commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement Olivér Várhelyi | Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
Further tensions with Tel Aviv emerged following an Israeli raid in July on the offices of Palestinian NGOs.
Israel had accused the groups — some of which received funds from EU countries — of being terrorist organizations. But numerous EU countries weren’t convinced.
In a joint statement at the time, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden all blasted Israel, saying it had not supplied “substantial information” to justify the raids. The bloc reiterated those “deep concerns” in August after further Israeli raids on civil society groups.
Another dynamic affecting the EU’s relationship with Israel is the Continent’s energy woes. As Europe scrambles to find alternative sources of Russian gas, furthering energy ties with Israel is one possible answer.
In a June visit to Israel, von der Leyen signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel and Egypt to boost gas exports. The EU is also Israel’s largest trade market and accounts for about a third of Israel’s total trade.
But while economic imperatives explain part of the new push for engagement with Israel, long-term observers say the outreach also reflects a new willingness to engage with Tel Aviv after Lapid came to power this summer. Lapid entered office as part of a power-sharing arrangement with Naftali Bennett, who held the job for a year prior to him.
“I think it is a genuine shift,” said Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu, who helms the Israel-Europe Program at Mitvim Institute, an Israeli think tank. “The change of tone was made by Lapid, who shares much of the EU’s normative stance on the liberal democratic world order. It’s now much more positive than during Netanyahu’s government, even if Bennett and now Lapid government is not advancing the peace process.”
Sion-Tzidkiyahu said mutually beneficial scenarios are helping to replace “megaphone diplomacy” with closer dialogue.
“Disagreements on contentious issues such as the Palestinian or Iranian one will not disappear, but perhaps there are now better understanding for the concerns of each side,” she said.
Lipavský, the Czech foreign minister, is aware of the concerns some EU countries have about the Israeli’s government actions in the West Bank and towards Palestinians.
“We need to discuss [these concerns] openly, but I don’t think that one issue should block the debate about the others,” he said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen poses for pictures with Israel’s Yair Lapid | Pool photo by Maya Alleruzzo/AFP via Getty Images
Officially, the EU supports the two-state solution that sees a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel — a vision also shared by the United States. But making that prospect a reality seems as far away as ever.
Sven Koopmans, the EU special representative for the Middle East peace process, wrote earlier this month that all parties needed to help identify ways to solve the man-made conflict.
“The current situation is increasingly seen as a structural human rights problem, in which Israel has the upper hand,” he wrote in the Israeli outlet Haaretz. “That negatively affects how the world perceives Israel, and holds risks for the long-term. It should not be that way.”
When it comes to resuming the peace process, Sion-Tzidkiyahu is not confident.
“Under the current political circumstances in the Palestinian Authority and Israel, such development is not foreseen,” she said. “At most, the EU can push for more practical steps by Israel to improve Palestinian’s condition.”
I grew up half Jewish and half Italian-Catholic. I made jokes about how these different identities left me mostly confused. Had Jesus risen again or not? I thought I had to choose one side rather than celebrating all the parts within myself, so I almost erased my Jewish half. I learned how to make risotto, but not matzah ball soup.
Christianity is the dominant culture in the United States and obscures the other religions. People would always say Merry Christmas to me, assuming everyone celebrated it, assuming it was the only holiday. I unconsciously accepted that and embraced my Catholic heritage more. I learned gospel hymns, but never learned the Hebrew blessings sung on Shabbat.
In addition to being stifled by Christianity’s dominant force, I also grew up internalizing sexism, striving to be like the men I deemed superior, by playing jazz and chess, composing music, reading philosophy, being stoic, and working hard.
Weighed down by sexism from without and within, I was unaware of the ways I was also part of oppressive systems. In undergraduate jazz school I was so anxious about playing equally to men that I didn’t wake up to systemic racism. I took a jazz history class, where I learned about the racism Black musicians endured, but that felt like history, miles away. I couldn’t see my white privilege because I only noticed how inferior I felt to my male classmates.
It wasn’t until I was 30 that I realized I had spent most of my life trying to prove I was as good as men, and this had distracted me from other issues. It wasn’t until I was 32, when I made a joke about Jewish people, that my Jewish friend let me know what I said was antisemitic.
“But I’m Jewish!” I said, stunned.
It turns out antisemitism is everywhere.
Even inside me.
In my thirties, when I finally uncovered the side of me that was Jewish and uprooted my internalized antisemitism, I found the joy of being Jewish: dressing up for glittery Purim events in Brooklyn; going to a feminist, antiracist synagogue; and connecting to a community of inspiring Jewish activists. The more I learned about Jewish traditions, the more I realized there was so much of Judaism already flowing through me without me even knowing: my connection to the moon, my eco-spirituality, my humor, my animated hand gestures.
As I became in touch with the Jewish part of me that was lost and erased, I also learned about the Israeli government’s erasure and deliberate killing of a large amount of Palestinian people. US media and Zionist culture declare that Israel and Palestine are in conflict, it’s complicated, and there are two sides. But 5,590 Palestinians were killed from 2008-2020 compared to 251 Israelis killed. Human Rights Watch has declared Israel to be guilty of apartheid and human rights crimes. Israel has the largest army in the Middle East, funded by the US government’s aid of 3.8 billion dollars a year. Hamas, meanwhile, has rocks and rockets that are easily intercepted by Israel’s military system. Israel is the one with the power, and their government uses it to oppress and kill the Palestinian people.
My Grandma had always talked about her love of Israel, and I absorbed that without any questions for too long. The truth of Israel’s aggression was hidden in plain sight.
Just as I first had to embrace Judaism within myself, and then awoke more to the antisemitism around me, so I learned about Zionism and Israel’s mass killings of Palestinians. The uncovering never ends, just like my battle with sexism delayed my awakening to racism. Different oppressions conceal other oppressions. Until they don’t anymore. Until we wake up from our individual struggles and realize how the system wants to keep people separated.
The veil that kept me isolated in my own struggle of sexism and antisemitism also became the path toward connection. Once we know there is a veil, we can then see through it, leading us to pursue solidarity with other causes. We can see how all the struggles overlap — that the Black Lives Matter movement is part of Palestinian liberation, part of queer and trans liberation, part of reproductive rights and feminism — that the intersection of all these injustices is where our community power lies.
When white supremacists stormed the capital on January 6th, some wore shirts that said “6MWE.” My stomach churned when I saw on Facebook what that meant: “6 Million Wasn’t Enough.”
I texted a friend: They’re talking about the Holocaust. They’re talking about me.
Some people hate me, which is sickening, and I am not going to hate or oppress anyone else. I know that it is, in the words of Jewish organization If Not Now, a “false choice between Palestinian freedom and Jewish safety.” The intergenerational trauma from the Holocaust has created an extreme militant Israeli government unable to see they are now harming others. Israel’s government is stuck in a pattern they feel is defensive but is actually violently aggressive. This round of Israeli bombing in May killed at least 256 Palestinians in Gaza, including 67 children, displaced tens of thousands, destroyed hospitals, schools, sewage systems, clean drinking water supplies, and the only COVID testing site. In contrast, thirteen Israelis were killed. That’s not Israel acting in defense — that is aggressive and violent, a series of human rights violations. When you bombard an area densely populated with civilians who are unable to escape, that’s a deliberate and horrific mass killing. That’s a war crime.
The more I dig into the rich and beautiful culture of Judaism, I learn that there is a long history of anti-Zionism within Judaism. The Judaism that I know and love wants basic human rights for all people. If Not Now states, “Palestinian liberation and dismantling antisemitism are intertwined … We will not be pitted against each other … We won’t be distracted from our fight for freedom and safety for all people.” No one is free until everyone is free, and that includes Palestinians oppressed under apartheid; Black, brown, and Indigenous people brutalized and killed by the police in the US; transgender people who are horrifically murdered; Jews experiencing hate crimes; and people in other countries fighting totalitarian and fascist governments. Our liberation is bound up in each other’s.
Still, some people try to link any opposition to Israel’s government as being antisemitic. As Palestinian-American writer and policy analyst Yousef Munayyer writes, “When people turn humanizing Palestinians into antisemitism, they not only enable the continued dehumanization of Palestinians but they also cheapen antisemitism by cynically weaponizing it.”
I, an American Jew, stand with Jews all around the world in protest of Israel’s government, because I know injustice, war crimes, human rights violations, and apartheid when I see them. I will fight for the rights of marginalized people until everyone is free.
[Feature image: Close-up of barbed wire with the golden Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem visible in the distance under a blue sky. Source: @RJA1988 for Pixabay.]
Mare Berger is a singer-songwriter, pianist, teacher, writer, improviser, gardener, and activist living in Brooklyn, NY. In April 2020 Mare released an album “The Moon is Always Full” featuring their original lyrics, songs and orchestration. You can buy Mare’s album here. Follow Mare @maremoonsong. Listen to music and read more of their writings at marielberger.com.
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Jeremy R. Hammond’s new book Obstacle to Peace: The US Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict explains not only why peace in the Middle East has remained so elusive, but also why you won’t hear the answer from the US government or mainstream media.
Press Release –
Jun 20, 2016
Cross Village, Michigan, June 20, 2016 (Newswire.com)
– Worldview Publications will release Jeremy R. Hammond’s new book, Obstacle to Peace: The US Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on July 9, 2016.
In a meticulously documented account, Jeremy R. Hammond deconstructs standard mainstream narratives about the conflict, shattering popular myths and navigating the maze of conflicting information to reveal a clear direction forward.
“Obstacle to Peace is a call to action. To achieve peace, there needs to be a proper understanding about the true nature of the conflict. The book’s purpose is to empower readers with knowledge to effect the necessary paradigm shift.”
Jeremy R. Hammond, Author of Obstacle to Peace
The publication date coincides with the anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s 2004 advisory opinion finding that Israel’s settlements and separation wall in the occupied West Bank are violations of international law.
The Court’s ruling underscores the legal foundations of the two-state solution to the conflict, which include the requirement of international law that Israel fully withdraw from the Palestinian territories it occupied during the June 1967 “Six Day War”.
As Obstacle to Peace details, the framework for negotiations under the US-led “peace process” is one that rejects the applicability of international law. Far from being designed to produce a peaceful settlement, the so-called “peace process” is the process by which Israel and the US block implementation of the two-state solution.
The book sets out to demonstrate that US policy is itself a primary impediment to a peaceful solution and constitutes a rejection of the right of the Palestinians to self-determination. The book also closely examines the role of the mainstream media in manufacturing consent for the US’srejectionist policy.
“Obstacle to Peace is a call to action,” says author Jeremy R. Hammond. “To achieve peace, there needs to be a proper understanding about the true nature of the conflict. The book’s purpose is to empower readers with knowledge to effect the necessary paradigm shift.”
Obstacle to Peace will be available on July 9 from Amazon.com and other fine retailers, in both hardcover and paperback editions, with electronic editions later to be announced.
Review copies are available, and the author is available for interviews. View the media kit at:
Jeremy R. Hammond is an independent political analyst and publisher and editor of Foreign Policy Journal. In 2009, he received the Project Censored Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for his coverage of the US’s support for Israel’s 22-day full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip, “Operation Cast Lead” (Dec. 27, 2008 – Jan.18, 2009). He is the author of three books: The Rejection of Palestinian Self-Determination (2009), Ron Paul vs. Paul Krugman (2012), and Obstacle to Peace (2016) Find him on the web at JeremyRHammond.com.
Obstacle to Peace: The US Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Jeremy R. Hammond
Worldview Publications
P.O. Box 181, Cross Village, MI 49723
Publication Date: July 9, 2016 • ISBNs: 978-0-9961058-0-4 (hardcover); 978-0-9961058-1-1 (paperback) • 538 pages • Trim Size: 6” x 9” • $37.99 (hardcover); $22.99 (paperback) • Political Science/History
