Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 18, 2021

The following interview with Palestinian activist and author Susan Abuhawa was conducted by Ted Kelly, May 3, 2021.

Abulhawa speaking at rally for Palestine in Philadelphia, May 15. WW Photo: Joe Piette

Susan Abulhawa: Recently five or six young Palestinian boys were kidnapped and arrested; you know, just terrorized. They were young; they were babies, and they were targeted because they were picking wild zaatar, wild herbs. This is actually part of our tradition. Palestinians have been foraging for zaatar and meramiyeh for thousands of years.

Nobody has harmed that landscape more than the Zionists. You can see it in the way they build their homes. They literally decapitate the hills. Palestinians never built that way; Palestinian homes are built on the sides of hills and in the valleys to conform to the landscape, not the other way around. Israel makes the land conform to their desire.

If youve never seen a hill being decapitated, it is such a violent act. The hills are covered in trees, so all those trees are destroyed. Consider how many animals depended on those trees as their habitats and for their sustenance, all of thats gone. Theres just zero respect for the land.

From its inception Israel devastated the water. One of the first things they did was to drain the Hula [Valley] wetlands. That was considered Zionist ingenuity. They touted it and went on and on about what geniuses they are. They drained the Hula wetlands. They call it the Hula swamps.

It was actually a massive ecological treasure that was home to hundreds of bird species, of frog species, fish, flora many of which have become extinct, because they were unique to that region, which was a huge migratory station. They drained the wetlands to establish settler colonies, but they didnt understand the land. So there were all these natural processes that happened, that ended up leading to subterranean internal combustion that basically made it impossible to build their damn houses there. They had to end that project, but the wetlands were destroyed. Theres a tiny bit left thats a fraction of its former glory.

The Zionists were Europeans. Theyre trying to make the land European. And so they brought all these European, non-native trees a lot of pines and firs that basically destroyed the ground vegetation, because pine needles are acidic and ultimately made the whole thing a tinderbox. Thats why they had those massive forest fires a few years back.

And not to mention the way that they have scarred the land with that hideous wall. But at the same time, they do all this greenwashing and all these Western newspapers and media outlets are complicit in it.

WW: Similar ecological destruction happened in North America. The European settlers came here not knowing how to cultivate food on their own. They needed to learn that from the Indigenous people. They tried in many ways to force the natural environment to behave more like a European environment. But theres still this pervasive myth that Israel is not a European colonial project.

SA: Youre right to point out the parallels with North America, because it really is the same thing; its the same concept its just a different time, a different place, a different context.

In order to colonize a place, you cant come just with brute force, right? You have to have a whole set of mythology to make the people, to make colonizers feel righteous about murder and plunder.

In North America, there was Manifest Destiny. There was a divine aura to it all. It was destined; people were escaping persecution to come here. They were coming here for a better life. And the current inhabitants werent even viewed as the current stewards of the land or even worthy of the land. God was not on their side all of these things, so it makes it palatable to the average colonizer.

Presumably the people coming here werent these evil monsters, right? They were people in search of a better life. But they became colonizers. They became monsters. They were adhering to mythologies that made sense to them. And the same thing is happening in Palestine.

The original Zionists were Europeans who very much had that European colonial mentality. They looked at the East as backward, inferior and unworthy. They decided they wanted to have their own Jewish colony somewhere the Jewish state.

Most of them were atheists, by the way. So this was never a religious thing. This was always about power. It was always about colonialism. Because of European anti-Semitism, they they didnt have the access that they wanted. They wanted their own special piece of the pie. Thats the origin of Zionism.

They had nothing to do with Judaism. Of course, they looked everywhere. They looked in Uganda, Argentina, Ethiopia and Palestine. It was never about returning to Palestine, but Palestine made for a better myth.

All the other places were a little bit too raw and too wild, whereas Palestine was small enough. It was built-up; it had an infrastructure it had homes. It had a history. It had water. It had, you know, a Biblical aura. It had everything they needed to create the other really potent aspect of colonialism, which is the mythmaking.

Judaism had roots there. Judaism also has roots in Egypt and in Iraq and in Persia. They could have manufactured the same thing in any of these places. But Palestine made for an attractive place for many reasons, particularly the fact that it was under British mandate.

The British enticed Jews, especially following World War II, who were coming for a better life to come and take up arms and become the same monsters that they escaped from. I dont care what people say. Israelis have become the modern-day Nazis. I get that people dont like to hear that comparison. But I dont know how else to say it.

Their entire society wants to kill us. They want us gone. They look at us as inferior. They have no qualms about murdering us and killing us and beating our children and demolishing our homes or stealing our homes like they have zero moral compunctions about it.

And the only reason is because were not Jewish. Because we were there before they came.

Colonialism and cultural appropriation

WW: There are many comparisons made between Palestine and South Africa. Do you think apartheid is a helpful term?

Yes and no. Its a recognizable historic moment. So you say the word apartheid, and people have a context already. They understand it was a really evil system. And so you dont have to start from scratch.

Palestinians have been describing this system to the world for years. Decades. Nobodys listened to us. I want to stress that this isnt something new. The way that apartheid in Israel is being talked about is that like its something that is new that developed over time because of right-wing governments. But from the very beginning, they wanted to get rid of us. From the very beginning, they hated us.

They wanted to, in the words of Zeev Jabotinsky, sweep away the Orient, in the same way that white settlers tried to destroy Indigenous cultures. When they couldnt destroy the the cultures, they certainly committed genocide. That was the original intent.

But in new generations and identity politics, there has been this desire to indigenize themselves. They dont want to be seen as colonizers. They want to be Indigenous. So suddenly they created falafel. They have their own indigenous cuisine, which is basically Palestinian cuisine.

Theyre stealing our clothing; theyre pretending like its Israeli in their fashion shows. Theyre even like appropriating the keffiyeh, making a blue-and-white keffiyeh. And theyre claiming our archaeological heritage. They have been raiding graves in hundreds and thousands of years-old cemeteries, Muslim cemeteries especially, because they want to erase us. Theyre threatened by our presence. And you didnt see that in South Africa, that didnt exist.

WW: Your research also found that Israel is the worst exporter of weapons globally, per capita.

SA: Israel was consistently the no. 1 exporter of weapons in the world per capita, exceeding the U.S. by a huge margin, exceeding Russia, exceeding China, France, Italy. I did the research and examined a 10-year period. I got the information from SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, that basically tracks all weapons transactions across the world and especially in conflict situations.

All of Israels weapons transactions are only known indirectly because of the disclosure by the recipient countries. However, they have been one of the biggest subversive weapons hustlers, especially in regions or in conflict situations where there are international bans on weapon sales. When there were weapons embargos against South Africa, Israel was arming them. When the military mowed down all those kids in Soweto, those were Israeli-supplied weapons.

They sold nuclear technology to the Apartheid government. The extent of Israels collusion with South Africa was actually quite shocking. Theres a really good book called The Unspoken Alliance by Sasha Polakow-Suransky, which is worth a read for anybody who wants to see the level of Israels collusion with them. But it wasnt just South Africa; Israel supplied weapons to Rwanda.

And thats just the weapons. That doesnt include the surveillance technology, the drone and facial recognition equipment. It doesnt include their training of police forces around the world, including in the U.S., on suppression methodologies.

WW: Regarding Gaza, what do you think about the term open-air prison? Is that accurate? What does that really mean in practice?

It is a prison. Probably the biggest prison in the world. People arent allowed in or out. They are violated in a million different ways, but its more than that. Its not just a place to warehouse people. They have made it into a laboratory, a weapons testing ground.

Whenever they launch a quote unquote war its never the word genocide stocks just skyrocket, because thats where they test all their new stuff. And it allows them to put this field tested label on their weapons. Literally, they market their weapons as being field tested, which means: We use this on Palestinians, and it murdered them effectively. And thats what its about. Its economic as well as political and social. And one thing that its not about is Israeli security. Thats what its not about.

Capitalism is a cancer, and colonialism is just an extension of capitalism.

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A conversation with Susan Abulhawa on Zionism - Workers World

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Posted By admin on May 16, 2021

Palestine, area of the eastern Mediterranean region, comprising parts of modern Israel and the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip (along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea) and the West Bank (west of the Jordan River).

The term Palestine has been associated variously and sometimes controversially with this small region, which some have asserted also includes Jordan. Both the geographic area designated by the name and the political status of it have changed over the course of some three millennia. The region (or at least a part of it) is also known as the Holy Land and is held sacred among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Since the 20th century it has been the object of conflicting claims of Jewish and Arab national movements, and the conflict has led to prolonged violence and, in several instances, open warfare.

The word Palestine derives from Philistia, the name given by Greek writers to the land of the Philistines, who in the 12th century bce occupied a small pocket of land on the southern coast, between modern Tel AvivYafo and Gaza. The name was revived by the Romans in the 2nd century ce in Syria Palaestina, designating the southern portion of the province of Syria, and made its way thence into Arabic, where it has been used to describe the region at least since the early Islamic era. After Roman times the name had no official status until after World War I and the end of rule by the Ottoman Empire, when it was adopted for one of the regions mandated to Great Britain; in addition to an area roughly comprising present-day Israel and the West Bank, the mandate included the territory east of the Jordan River now constituting the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan, which Britain placed under an administration separate from that of Palestine immediately after receiving the mandate for the territory.

The name Palestine has long been in popular use as a general term to denote a traditional region, but this usage does not imply precise boundaries. The perception of what constitutes Palestines eastern boundary has been especially fluid, although the boundary frequently has been perceived as lying east of the Jordan River, extending at times to the edge of the Arabian Desert. In contemporary understanding, however, Palestine is generally defined as a region bounded on the east by the Jordan River, on the north by the border between modern Israel and Lebanon, on the west by the Mediterranean Sea (including the coast of Gaza), and on the south by the Negev, with its southernmost extension reaching the Gulf of Aqaba.

The strategic importance of the area is immense: through it pass the main roads from Egypt to Syria and from the Mediterranean to the hills beyond the Jordan River.

Settlement depends closely on water, which is almost never abundant. Precipitation, which arrives in the cool half of the year, decreases in amount in general from north to south and from the coast inland. Perennial rivers are few, and the shortage of water is aggravated by the porous nature of the limestone rocks over much of the country.

For further reading on the political units most closely associated with Palestine, see the articles Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Coastal lowlands of varying widths front the Mediterranean. The most northerly is the Plain of Akko (Acre), which extends with a breadth of 5 to 9 miles (8 to 14 km) for about 20 miles (32 km) from the Lebanon border in the north to the Carmel promontory, in Israel, in the south, where it narrows to a mere 600 feet (180 metres). Farther southward the lowland opens out rapidly into the Plain of Sharon, about 8 miles (13 km) wide and extending south to the latitude of Tel AvivYafo. Once covered with marshes, the Sharon plain was reclaimed in the post-Exilic and Hellenistic period and is now a settled area. Fields and fruit groves are laid out between scattered sandstone ridges, on which villages have grown up. South of the spur of low hills that approaches the coast at about Yafo (Jaffa), the plain widens into a fertile region known in biblical times as Philistia, a district of orange groves, irrigated orchards, and fields of grain.

Farther northward the Plain of Esdraelon (Emeq Yizreel), formed by subsidence along lines of faults, separates the hills of southern Galilee from the mountains of Samaria. The plain, 16 miles (26 km) wide at most, narrows to the northwest, where the Qishon River breaks through to the Plain of Akko, and to the southeast, where the arod Riverwhich rises at the Spring of arodhas carved the plain into the side of the Jordan Valley. Covered with rich basaltic soils washed down from the Galilean hills, Esdraelon is important both for its fertility and for the great highway it opens from the Mediterranean to the lands across the Jordan. The maritime plain connects with Esdraelon by the pass of Megiddo and several lesser routes between the mountain spurs of Carmel and Gilboa.

The hill country of Galilee is better-watered and more thickly wooded than that of Samaria or Judaea. North of the Bet Netofa Valley (Plain of Asochis) is Upper Galilee, with elevations of 4,000 feet (1,200 metres), a scrub-covered limestone plateau that is thinly populated. To the south, Lower Galileewith its highest peak, Mount Tabor (1,929 feet [588 metres])is a land of east-west ridges enclosing sheltered vales like that of Nazareth, with rich basaltic soils.

Samaria, the region of the ancient kingdom of Israel, is a hilly district extending from the Plain of Esdraelon to the latitude of Ramallah. Its mountainsCarmel, Gilboa, Aybl (Ebal), and Al-r (Gerizim)are lower than those of Upper Galilee, while its basins, notably those of the Arrbah Plain and Nblus, are wider and more gently contoured than their equivalents in Judaea. Samaria is easily approached from the coast across the Plain of Sharon and from the Jordan by the Friah valley. The city of Jerusalem has expanded rapidly along the mountain ridges.

From Ramallah in the north to Beersheba in the south, the high plateau of Judaea is a rocky wilderness of limestone, with rare patches of cultivation, as found around Al-Brah and Hebron. It is separated from the coastal plain by a longitudinal fosse and a belt of low hills of soft chalky limestone, about 5 to 8 miles (8 to 13 km) wide, known as Ha-Shefela. The Judaean plateau falls abruptly to the Jordan Valley, which is approached with difficulty along the wadis Qelt and Muqalliq.

The Jordan Valley is a deep rift valley that varies in width from 1.5 to 14 miles (2.5 to 22 km). In its northern section the bed of the drained Lake ula and of Lake Tiberias (the Sea of Galilee) are blocked by natural dams of basalt. Descending to about 1,310 feet (400 metres) below sea levelthe lowest land depth on the Earths surfacethe valley is exceedingly dry and hot, and cultivation is restricted to irrigated areas or rare oases, as at Jericho or at En Gedi by the shore of the Dead Sea.

The Negev, a desertlike region, is triangular in shape with the apex at the south. It extends from Beersheba in the north, where 8 inches (200 mm) or more of precipitation falls annually and grain is grown, to the port city of Elat on the Red Sea, in the extremely arid south. It is bounded by the Sinai Peninsula on the west and the northern extension of the Great Rift Valley on the east.

The social geography of modern Palestine, especially the area west of the Jordan River, has been greatly affected by the dramatic political changes and wars that have brought this small region to the attention of the world. In the early 21st century, Israeli Jews constituted roughly half of the population west of the Jordan, while Palestinian ArabsMuslim, Christian, and Druzeand other smaller minorities accounted for the rest. The Jewish population is increasingly composed of persons born in Israel itself, although millions of immigrants have arrived since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. The Arab population is descended from Arabs who lived in the area during the mandate period and, in most cases, for centuries before that time. The majority of both Jews and Arabs are now urbanized.

According to Jewish nationalists (Zionists), Judaism constitutes a basis for both religious and national (ethnic) identity. Palestinian nationalists usually emphasize that their shared identity as Arabs transcends the religious diversity of their community. Both Muslim Arabs, constituting about 18 percent of the Israeli population, and Christian Arabs, about 2 percent, identify themselves in the first instance as Arabs.

The Arab majority resident in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the still larger number of Arab Palestinians living outside the area (many in nearby countries such as Lebanon) have strongly opposed Israeli control and feared an eventual annexation of the West Bank and Gaza by Israel. Many ideological Jewish Israeli settlers support such an annexation and think those lands properly belong to Israel. In 2005 Arab concerns were partially assuaged when Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and handed over control of the territory to the Palestinians, but the Israeli settlement population in the West Bank nearly doubled between 2005 and 2019.

Both Zionists and Palestinian Arab nationalists have at various times since the 19th century claimed rightful possession of the area west of the Jordan River. The rivalry between the two groups and their claims have been major causes of the numerous Arab-Israeli conflicts and the continuing crises in the region. Some members of each group still make such sweeping and mutually exclusive claims to complete control of the area, whereas others are more willing to seek a peaceful compromise solution.

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Palestine | History, People, & Religion | Britannica

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Palestine is a small region of land that has played a prominent role in the ancient and modern history of the Middle East.The history of Palestine has been marked by frequent political conflict and violent land seizures because of its importance to several major world religions, and because Palestine sits at a valuable geographic crossroads between Africa and Asia.Today, Arab people who call this territory home are known as Palestinians, and the people of Palestine have a strong desire to create a free and independent state in this contested region of the world.

The word Palestine derives from the Greek word, Philistia, which dates to Ancient Greek writers' descriptions of the region in the 12th century B.C. Since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in World War I to 1948, Palestine typically referred to the geographic region located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Arab people who call this territory homehave been known as Palestinians since the early 20th century. Much of this land is now considered present-day Israel.

Today, Palestine theoretically includes the West Bank (a territory that sits between modern-day Israel and Jordan) and the Gaza Strip (which borders modern-day Israel and Egypt). However, control over this region is a complex and evolving situation.There is no international consensus concerning the borders, and many areas claimed by Palestinians have been occupied by Israelis for years.

More than 135 United Nations member countries recognize Palestine as an independent state, but Israel and some other countries, including the United States, dont make this distinction.

Scholars believe the name Palestine originally comes from the word Philistia, which refers to the Philistines who occupied part of the region in the 12th century B.C.

Throughout history, Palestine has been ruled by numerous groups, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, EgyptiansandMamelukes.

From about 1517 to 1917, the Ottoman Empire ruled much of the region.

When World War I ended in 1918, the British took control of Palestine. The League of Nations issued a British mandate for Palestinea document that gave Britain administrative control over the region, and included provisions for establishing a Jewish national homeland in Palestinewhich went into effect in 1923.

In 1947,after more than two decades of British rule, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition Palestine into two sections: an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state.The city ofJerusalem, which was claimed as a capital by both Jews and Palestinian Arabs, was to be an international territory with a special status.

Jewish leaders accepted the plan, but many Palestinian Arabssome of whom had been actively fighting British and Jewish interests in the region since the 1920svehemently opposed it.

Arab groups argued that they represented the majority of the population in certain regions and should be granted more territory. They began to form volunteer armies throughout Palestine.

In May 1948, less than a year after the Partition Plan for Palestine was introduced, Britain withdrew from Palestine and Israeldeclared itself an independent state, implying a willingness to implement the Partition Plan.

Almost immediately,neighboring Arab armies moved in to prevent the establishment of the Israeli state. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War that ensued involved Israel and five Arab nationsJordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. By the war's end in July 1949, Israel controlled more than two-thirds of the former British Mandate, while Jordan took control of the West Bank, Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

The 1948 conflict opened a new chapter in the struggle between Jews and Palestinian Arabs, which now became a regional contest involving nation-states and a tangle of diplomatic, political and economic interests.

In 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formedfor the purpose of establishing a Palestinian Arab state on the land previously administered under the British Mandate, and which the PLO considered to be occupied illegitimately by the State of Israel.

Although the PLO was originally dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel as a means of attaining its goal of Palestinian statehood, in the 1993 Oslo Accords, the PLO accepted Israel's right to exist in exchange for formal recognition of the PLO by Israela high water mark in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

In 1969, the well-known Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat became the Chairman of the PLO and held that title until he died in 2004.

The Six-Day War was triggered during a volatile period of diplomatic friction and skirmishes between Israel and its neighbors.In April 1967, the clashes worsened after Israel and Syria fought a ferocious air and artillery engagement in which six Syrian fighter jets were destroyed.

In the wake of the April air battle, the Soviet Union provided Egypt with intelligence that Israel was moving troops to its northern border with Syria in preparation for a full-scale invasion. The information was inaccurate, but it nevertheless stirred Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasserto advance forces into the Sinai Peninsula, where they expelled a United Nations peacekeeping force that had been guarding the border with Israel for over a decade.

Israel Defense Forces then launched a preemptive aerial attack against Egypt on June 5, 1967. Both nations claimed that they were acting in self-defense in the ensuing conflict, which ended on June 10 and also drew in Jordan and Syria, who sided with Egypt.The Six-Day War, as it came to be called, resulted in major land gains for Israel.

By the end of the war, Israel had taken control of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula (a desert region situated between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea) and the Golan Heights (a rocky plateau located between Syria and modern-day Israel).

The outcome ofthe 1967 Arab-Israeli War would lead to continued tension and armed conflict between Israel and its neighbors over the coming decades.

In 1987, the First Intifada brokebroke out, a boiling over of Palestinian anger over ongoing Israeli occupationof Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian militia groups revolted, and hundreds of people were killed.

A subsequent peace process, known as the Oslo Peace Accords,was initiated during the early 1990s in a multilateral attempt to end the ongoing violence.

The first Oslo Accord (Oslo I) created a timetable for a Middle East peace process and a plan for an interim Palestinian government in parts of Gaza and the West Bank. The agreement was signed in 1993 and witnessed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Arafat returned to Gaza in 1994 after being exiled for 27 years. He headed up the newly-formed Palestinian Authority.

In 1995, Oslo IIlaid the groundwork fora complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of the West Bank and other areas. It also set a schedule for Palestinian Legislative Council elections.

Unfortunately, the Oslo Accords failed in their ultimate goal of bringing Israel and the Palestinians to agree over a full-fledged peace plan.

In September 2000, the Second Palestinian Intifada began. One of the triggers for the violence was when Ariel Sharon,a right-wing, Jewish Israeli who would later become Israels prime minister,visited the Muslim holy site at the al-AqsaMosque in Jerusalem. Many Palestinians felt this was an offensive move, and they protested.

Riots, suicide bombings and other attacks subsequently broke out, putting an end to the once-promising peace process.

This period of violence between Palestinians and Israelis lasted nearly five years.Yasser Arafat died in November 2004, and by August of 2005, the Israeliarmy withdrew from Gaza.

In 2006, Hamas, a Sunni Islamist militant group, won the Palestinian legislative elections.

That same year, fighting between Hamas and Fatah, the political group that controlled the PLO, ensued. In 2007, Hamas defeated Fatah in a battle for Gaza.

Many countries consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization. The group has carried out suicide bombings and repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel.

Hamas and Israel fought each other inseveral bloody wars, including Operation Cast Lead in December 2008, Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012 and Operation Protective Edge in July 2014.

In April 2014, Hamas and Fatah agreed to a deal that would form a unified national Palestinian government.

Palestinians are still fighting for an official state thats formally recognized by all countries.

Although Palestinians occupy key areas of land, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,some Israelis, with their government's blessing,continue to settle inareas that are generally agreed to be under Palestinian control. Many international rights groups consider such settlements illegal, the borders arent clearly defined, and persistent conflict continues to be the norm.A substantial proportion of Israelis also oppose the settlements and would prefer to find peaceful ways to resolve their land disputes with the Palestinians.

In May 2017, leaders of Hamas presented a document that proposed the formation of a Palestinian state using the 1967 defined borders, with Jerusalem as its capital. However, the group refused to recognize Israel as a state, and the Israeli government promptly rejected the plan.

In May 2018, tensions erupted when the U.S. Embassy relocated fromTel Avivto Jerusalem. Perceiving this as signal of American support for Jerusalem as Israels capital, Palestinians responded with protests at the Gaza-Israel border, which were met with Israeli force resulting in the deaths of dozens of protesters.

While so much of Palestines history has involved bloodshed, displacement, and instability, many world leaders continue to work toward a resolution that will result in peace throughout the region.

Palestine. Ancient History Encyclopedia.What is Palestine and Palestinians? Israel Science and Technology Directory.Everything you need to know about Israel-Palestine. Vox.com.Map: The countries that recognize Palestine as a state. Washington Post.UN Partition Plan. BBC News.The Palestinian Liberation Organisation. The History Learning Site.Timeline: History of a Revolution. Al Jazeera.Hamas accepts Palestinian state with 1967 borders. Al Jazeera.Palestine Liberation Organization. Oxford Islamic Studies Online.Oslo Accords Fast Facts. CNN.Profile: Hamas Palestinian movement. BBC News.

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Palestine - History, Religion & Conflicts - HISTORY

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Supporters of bothIsrael and Palestine clashed on the streets ofNew York City Tuesday, following violent attacks in the Middle Eastthis week.

New York police officers attempted to keep the groups separated, but videos posted to social media showed protestors breaking free in an attempt to physically assault one another.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS ISRAELI ACTIONS WORK 'AGAINST' SOLUTION TO CRISIS

Both the pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups were relatively small, but their shouts and repeated attempts to attack one another drew a crowd in front of the Israeli consulate in Manhattan.

A much larger group of pro-Palestinian supporters marched through New York City, carrying banners condemning Israeli actions.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio could not be immediately reached by Fox News for comment.

Due to safety precautions, staff members at the Israeli consulate in New York City were sent home ahead of Tuesdays protest, the Times of Israel first reported.

ISRAEL, HAMAS CONTINUE TO EXCHANGE FIRE AS DEADLY CONFRONTATION PERSISTS

Rallies in support of Palestine have popped up globally, with several events scheduled in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdomand Europe.

Another"All Out For Palestine" protest is expected in New York Wednesday.

Since Monday, Israel and Palestine have exchanged rocket fire, resulting in hundreds of injuriesand the deaths of at least two Israelis and 32 Palestinians.

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Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland urged Israelis and Palestinians to stop their aggressive retaliatory actions Tuesday night, warning against "a full-scale war."

"Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation," he said in a statement. "The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working with all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now."

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Protesters supporting Israel, Palestinians clash in New York ...

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Israel is the worlds only Jewish state, located just east of the Mediterranean Sea. Palestinians, the Arab population that hails from the land Israel now controls, refer to the territory as Palestine, and want to establish a state by that name on all or part of the same land. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is over who gets what land and how its controlled.

Though both Jews and Arab Muslims date their claims to the land back a couple thousand years, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. Jews fleeing persecution in Europe wanted to establish a national homeland in what was then an Arab- and Muslim-majority territory in the Ottoman and later British Empire. The Arabs resisted, seeing the land as rightfully theirs. An early United Nations plan to give each group part of the land failed, and Israel and the surrounding Arab nations fought several wars over the territory. Todays lines largely reflect the outcomes of two of these wars, one waged in 1948 and another in 1967.

The 1967 war is particularly important for todays conflict, as it left Israel in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, two territories home to large Palestinian populations:

Today, the West Bank is nominally controlled by the Palestinian Authority and is under Israeli occupation. This comes in the form of Israeli troops, who enforce Israeli security restrictions on Palestinian movement and activities, and Israeli settlers, Jews who build ever-expanding communities in the West Bank that effectively deny the land to Palestinians. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, an Islamist fundamentalist party, and is under Israeli blockade but not ground troop occupation.

The primary approach to solving the conflict today is a so-called two-state solution that would establish Palestine as an independent state in Gaza and most of the West Bank, leaving the rest of the land to Israel. Though the two-state plan is clear in theory, the two sides are still deeply divided over how to make it work in practice.

The alternative to a two-state solution is a one-state solution, wherein all of the land becomes either one big Israel or one big Palestine. Most observers think this would cause more problems than it would solve, but this outcome is becoming more likely over time for political and demographic reasons.

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What are Israel and Palestine? Why are they fighting? - Vox

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In progressive America, an official elected in a predominantly Jewish district in the countrys largest city can be punished for asserting an indisputable historical fact if it happens to offend the sensibilities of hard-left activists. In this case, Kalman Yeger, a councilman from Brooklyn, in a back-and-forth about Rep. Ilhan Omar, tweeted that, Palestine does not exist. There, I said it again. Also, Congresswoman Omar is an antisemite. Said that too.

Mayor Bill de Blasio quickly issued an ultimatum to Yeger demanding he apologize, or else. After he refused, NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson booted Yeger fromwhat I assume is a wholly uselesscity immigration committee. I found Council Member Yegers comments completely unacceptable Johnson explained. They were dehumanizing to Palestinians and divisive, and have no place in New York City.

One of Yegers statements might be debatableperhaps some of you dont find Omars numerous attacks on American Jews anti-Semiticbut the other contention is a historical and present-day reality. Despite this, nearly every media story covering the kerfuffle frames the councilmans contention about the status of the West Bank and Gaza as some kind of appalling attack on decency. What other Howard Zinn-like historical fantasies must we adopt to participate in debate?

Now, if he comes out and he apologizes, and says, Look, I was wrong and I realize what I did was hurtful and Ive got to change, different discussion, de Blasio said. Pointing out that theres no nation called Palestine might be provocative and argumentative, but the contention is no less accurate because of the emotional reaction it provokes. The American lefts censorship mission creep already deems numerous words and ideas off limits if enough people act insulted. Now, theyre trying to impose limits on speaking out about incontestable geopolitical truths.

Although one day it might, Palestine doesnt exist today. An independent Arab Palestine has never existed. It didnt exist under the Ottoman rule or the British Mandate or, in the end, under a United Nations Partition Plan that was rejected by every single Arab state and Palestinian leadership. It didnt exist when the Palestinians were governed by governments in Jordan and Egypt (a time when there was virtually no international pressure to create an independent Palestine) and it didnt come into existence when the Arab states rejected Israels peace gestures after the 1967 and 1973 wars.

Yasser Arafat ultimately rejected peace in every negotiation he ever participated in, embracing Intifada instead. Palestine didnt exist after Israel granted Gaza autonomy and the populace turned to the terrorists of Hamas, and it wont exist until Hamas and Fatah stop engaging in and supporting terrorism and drop their absurd demands for Jerusalem and the Right of Return.

Rashida Tlaib can put as many sticky notes over Israel as she likes, and it wont change this reality.

A number of media outlets covering this incident point out that the United Nations and 137 states have bilaterally recognized Palestine. While its nice that Botswana and Cuba (and scores of other nations that suppress their own minority populations) have decided to act as if a small, disputed territory in the Middle East is an independent entity, the United States does not recognize a Palestinian nation. More significantly, the only country that can make the Palestinian state a reality is Israel.

Contra Johnson, pointing out the fact that Palestinians have never governed their own nation is not dehumanizing. Nor is pointing out the fact that the Arab use of Palestinian is a relative historical neologism mean there are no such people today. Simply because theres no Kurdistan doesnt mean that 35 million Kurds (whose independence the UN doesnt care one wit about) do not exist. Nor does the absence of theBasque country or Balochistan mean that there arent Basques or Balochs. The same goes for the hundreds of other minority populations that have as good, if not far better, claims to statehood.

The United Nations and other anti-Israel organizations and activists have attempted to rewrite history and reality to create an inevitability around a future Palestinian state. Thats why theyre so offended by those who try to correct the historic record. The attempted regulating of rhetoric, and the imposition of false history, is meant to stifle debate. None of this is new. Watching elected New Yorkers like de Blasio and Johnson help them, however, is.

New York has come a long way from the days when Mayor Rudy Giuliani kicked Arafat, the father of modern terrorism, out of Lincoln Center. Almost every mayor going back to the creation of Israel, in fact, stuck up for the Jewish communitya community that has incrementally surrendered its cultural history to progressivism. In the end, though, Yeger only stated truth. Perhaps its an uncomfortable truth. But its not as if he claimed that Palestinians were hypnotizing the world with evil deeds.

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Sorry You're Offended, But 'Palestine' Does Not Exist

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Posted By admin on May 16, 2021

The sudden rekindling of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the ensuing horrors, is a shameful reminder of the international communitys almost criminal neglect of the crisis. There have been no substantive peace talks for more than a decade. Donald Trumps deal of the century was a cruel sham. Efforts now under way to engineer a ceasefire, or what is called a sustainable calm, amount to applying a sticking plaster to a deeply felt, long-festering wound.

This story of neglect, cementing in place injustices and inequities stretching back to the 1948 Palestine war, made a new explosion of violence all but inevitable. It has played into the hands of extremists on both sides who seek victories, not peace. It threatens the future of Israel and Palestine and regional stability. The events of the past week have rendered the prospect of a lasting settlement more distant than ever.

In several respects, the latest clashes broke new ground, all of it negative. The sustained rocket barrage mounted by Hamas from its Gaza stronghold, targeting Tel Aviv and penetrating deep into the country, has surprised and alarmed Israels leaders. So, too, has intercommunal violence pitting Arab and Jewish Israelis against each other in numerous towns and cities. This fracturing is potentially deeply damaging in the longer term.

But other aspects of the crisis are sickeningly familiar. As in previous wars between Israel and Hamas, in 2009, 2012, and 2014, the principal casualties are civilians, including many children. Given Israels vastly superior resources, the toll of death and destruction is disproportionately felt by Palestinians. As in the past, the violence is exacerbating political divisions and polarisation. It feeds the extremists narratives of hate.

This state of affairs is inhuman, intolerable, irrational and wholly unacceptable. This cycle of mutual terror and suffering must not be allowed to repeat itself at some future date. Jews and Arabs living side by side can and should do better. Yet for this to happen, greater honesty is essential. It is no good pretending, as so many in Israel, the US, Europe and the Arab sphere do, that the Palestinian problem will somehow go away by itself. It will not.

So lets be honest. Benjamin Netanyahu is not fit to be Israels prime minister. His de facto rejection of the UN-backed two-state solution, his support for seizures or annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, his discriminatory attitude to Israeli Arabs, his tolerance of neo-fascist religious and far-right settler groups and the recent police outrage at Jerusalems al-Aqsa mosque have all stoked the current crisis.

Lets be honest. Mahmoud Abbas, a discredited figure who presides over the Palestinian Authority, is not a fit leader for Palestine, especially without new elections. But neither is Hamas, an oppressive, aggressive organisation that depends on Qatar and Iran, rejects Israels right to exist and evidently has no qualms about using its own people as human shields to advance its claim to Palestines leadership.

Lets be honest. In the end, issues of religion, ethnicity, race and even land are not the main problem. The problem is that, politically speaking, both Israelis and Palestinians are shockingly badly led. Each day, shared hopes of peace, security and prosperity are betrayed by blinkered politicians and ideologues who prioritise their own interests and prejudices. Each day, by their actions and inactions, the US and Britain perpetuate a historical confrontation they played a big part in creating.

Both sides need fresh leaders, infused with a vision for peace, not war. A truce is a necessary first step and is required immediately. But a cessation must not be a signal, as in the past, for the worlds attention to turn away. It must be the moment when a new, determined international diplomatic drive begins for a permanent two-state settlement that both peoples, under new management, can live with. Its the only honest way.

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The Observer view on the Israel-Palestine conflict - The Guardian

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Posted By admin on May 16, 2021

Israeli forces respond to a Palestinian man protesting in Jerusalem by placing him in a choke hold. (Photo by Menahem Kahana / AFP via Getty Images)

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I have been trying to think of a moment since 1948 when so broad a range of Palestinians have been exposed to as great a level of Israeli violence as they have been these last few daysand I dont think I can.

In towns throughout Israel, Palestinians have been beaten and terrorized by rampaging mobs; one man was dragged from his car and brutalized in what many are describing as a lynching. In the West Bank, Palestinians have been shot and killed in raids by the Israeli military. In Jerusalem, Palestinian families, facing the ongoing threat of expulsion, have been harassed by settlers and military alike. And across Gaza, Israeli war planes have dropped bomb after bomb, destroying entire apartment buildings. Many have died, many more have been injured. If they manage to survive, they will witness their society shattered when the smoke clears.

The origins of this moment are as obvious as they are painful, but they bear explaining and re-explaining for a world that too often failsin fact, refusesto see the true terms of Palestinian suffering.

To understand how weve arrived at this moment, it is essential to start with the story of Sheikh Jarrah. That small Jerusalem enclave, from which several Palestinian families have been under threat of expulsion, is perhaps, the most immediate proximate cause of this latest crisis. It is also just the latest targeted dispossession of Palestinians by Israel, which has been part of a more than 70year process.

Since occupying the West Bank in 1967, the Israeli government has pursued various policies aimed at demographically engineering the city of Jerusalemagain, all with an eye toward ensuring its perpetual dominance over the city. Among such policies are the building of illegal settlements around the city to cut it off from the rest of the Palestinian population in the West Bank; the restriction of movement to deny Palestinians access to and within the municipality itself; the revocation of Palestinian residency status, which is tantamount to expulsion; and the demolition of Palestinian homes. The Israelis also expel Palestinians from their homes, as we are witnessing in Sheikh Jarrah, so that they can be handed to Israeli settlers.Current Issue

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Such policies have created a uniquely potent set of threats, humiliations, and injustices targeting Palestinians in Jerusalem. Yet what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah is not just about Jerusalem but is also reflective of the entire Palestinian experience. Since the start of Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine, the aim has been to slowly and steadily expand control over the territory, pushing the indigenous population out in a continual process of replacement. The single biggest episode of this was the Nakba of 1948, during which Jewish militias and then the state of Israel depopulated hundreds of towns and villages, made nearly two-thirds of the Palestinian Arab population refugees, and subsequently denied their return, first by military force and then by force of law. But the process did not stop there. In the decades since, the settler colonial process has moved forward in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza through the building of settlements, land theft, and brute military force.

All of this would be tinder enough for this moment, but it also happens to be taking place in a broader immediate context, one in which the vise grip of accelerating right-wing, theocratic nationalism is tightening across Israel. Recent Israeli elections brought outright Kahanists Jewish theocratic extremists who seek to deny any rights to Palestinians and embrace ethnic cleansinginto the parliament in their most significant numbers ever. Right-wing ideologues have long dominated the Knesset, but as Israeli politics shifts ever right-ward, enabled by internationally ensured impunity, there is now increasing political space for the most open and direct racism we have seen. (It should therefore come as no surprise that it has burst out into the streets in the shape of lynch mobs.)

These new depths of depravity have coincided with the possibility that the Likud party, whose leader Benjamin Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics longer than any other, risks losing power. This is not due to a challenge by those to his left, but those to his right who seek to replace him.

What makes the threat to Netanyahus grip on power particularly dangerous is that he is perhaps the most seasoned Israeli politician when it comes to riling up violence by his followers in moments of political turmoil. It is a tactic he has often deployed, perhaps most famously just before of the assassination of his political rival Yitzhak Rabin by a right-wing Israeli in 1995. Since the election in March, these violent extremists have escalated their attacks on Palestinians throughout the West Bank and have rampaged in Jerusalem, shouting Death to Arabs as they marched through the Old City. These attacks, fully tolerated if not outright supported by the state, further escalated during the holy month of Ramadan, culminating first with efforts by the Israeli government to shut down the Damascus Gate and then, ultimately, with the brutal raids we have seen this week by the Israeli military inside Al-Aqsa mosque.

Once again, these events, on their own, would have been enough to bring the region to this volatile and fast-shifting moment. Yet there have also been other events, and other shiftsmost notably, perhaps, the rupture of an experiment in the politics of Palestinian citizens of Israel. The Joint List, which brought together several smaller parties, once reached 15 seats in the Israeli Knesset, but it broke apart this time as some parties indicated a willingness to back a Netanyahu government for the right price. The failure of this experiment was the failure of the very idea that Palestinian citizens of Israel could have their grievances addressed by participating in the Israeli government. As even these limited mechanisms of representation faltered, people were primed to take to the streets. Just as the election was taking place, thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel rallied in the city of Umm al-Fahem, carrying Palestinian flags, and singing of their beloved homeland, foreshadowing many of the events in recent days.Related Articles

Nor was it only in Israel that Palestinians have been turning away from institutions that have failed them. In late April, Palestinians throughout the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem were denied the opportunity to express their voices about their so-called leaders in the Palestinian Authority when PA President Mahmoud Abbas postponed Palestinian elections indefinitely. The elections, announced in January, would have been the first in 15 years. But Abbas called off the elections because they could have presented a serious challenge to his party, and his rule, since Israel would not permit Palestinians in Jerusalem to participate in the vote. The denial of even this limited opportunity for political expression undoubtedly contributed to the mass mobilizations we are witnessing.

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The representative vehicles for Palestinians, throughout all of Palestine, have broken down irreparably. But that may not be a bad thing, since those vehicles have effectively driven them to a dead end of greater fragmentation and occupation. While many had come to this conclusion long ago, the mass mobilizations we began seeing several days ago in the streets, from Jerusalem, to Haifa, Nazareth, al-Lyd, Umm al-Fahem, Ramallah, Gaza, in refugee camps, and in the diaspora around the world have showed that a new generation not only recognizes this but that they are starting to act on it. These mass mobilizations that have united Palestinians show a shared understanding of their struggle and perhaps even the embryonic form of a united, coordinated effort against Israeli settler colonialism in all its manifestations.

The struggle for freedom is a constant journey, with stops called hope and despair along the way. While the last few days have given me incalculable reasons to despair, it is in the possibility of a united Palestinian effort, glimpsed these last few days, that I have seen a shard of hope. When freedom comes, and when the history of the struggle for it is being written, I hope this moment will prove to be a transformational one. To this end, we all have a role to play, and it is incumbent on people who believe in justice to stand in solidarity with Palestinians today and until the journey ends.

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A Nightmare of Terror Across the Landscape of Palestine - The Nation

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Posted By admin on May 16, 2021

Eid al-Fitr marks the conclusion to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Usually cause for celebration, this holiday is sorrowful for Palestinian Americans, Muslim or otherwise, who are mourning amid the worst violence seen in the homeland in years.

It doesnt feel like a holiday for us, Amani al-Khatahtbeh, a Palestinian American author and founder of the online magazine Muslim Girl, told the Guardian. These types of atrocities that are taking place really harm the collective diaspora.

The images of the compound of al-Aqsa mosque Islams third holiest site engulfed in flames during the final nights of Ramadan were widely circulated on social media.

The days-long violence in Jerusalem and now Gaza over the contested neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah sparked international condemnation, notably by a growing cluster of US progressive lawmakers who spoke out against Israeli military , accusing it of using excessive force to try to displace Palestinians from their homes.

UN human rights officials also urged Israel to stop evicting Palestinians from their homes and abide by international humanitarian law which states East Jerusalem remains part of Palestinian territory.

Palestinian activists reacting on social media say this public denunciation of Israel is a seismic shift from previous language used by American politicians surrounding conflict in the region.

Its really different this time and honestly I think its in large part because of social media, al-Khatahtbeh said.

Especially with young people becoming more vocal, our new generation is really not OK with injustice being swept under the rug or covered up. Its impossible now to hide all of the abuses taking place. Thats terrifying to the old guard that has invested so much in the status quo. Were decentralizing and democratizing that.

Joe Biden has been criticized by groups within his own party after he made a statement saying he believed in Israels legitimate right to defend itself; the statement from the White House failed to address the violence against Palestinians. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took direct issue with Bidens position, saying: Blanket statements like these with little context or acknowledgment of what precipitated this cycle of violence namely, the expulsions of Palestinians and attacks on al-Aqsa dehumanize Palestinians and imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations. Its wrong.

On Twitter, the Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, called out the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, saying: When will the US condemn racist violence against Palestinians? Is it your policy to support settlers stealing Palestinian homes & burning their lands? Billions of US taxpayer $ support the racist Netanyahu government & the apartheid state they enforce every year.

The criticism from Tlaib and other Democrats prompted a response from Blinken, who announced the US is sending an emergency envoy to the Middle East to urge calm between Israel and Palestinians.

Calls to place sanctions against Israel, which receives $3.8bn in aid from the US each year, were echoed across a leftwing bastion in the US House of Representatives in the past that included Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush.

Muslim members of Congress including Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Andr Carson joined forces to release a statement expressing their horror at the violence on al-Aqsa mosque and Palestinians by Israeli forces and also urged retaliatory violence by Hamas to come to an end. Tlaib and Carson also protested outside the state department.

The current conflict is also proving to be a major issue in the New York City mayoral race. Andrew Yang, the races current frontrunner, backtracked after he was lambasted for tweeting his support for Israel without any mention of violence against Palestinians.

Yang planned to deliver groceries in Astoria ahead of the Eid holiday but organizers asked him not to attend. Residents in Astoria, Queens, confronted the candidate in person in a video shared widely on social media.

Soon after Yangs blunder, the Islamic Leadership Council of New York issued a statement demanding that public officials seeking to wish Eid greetings to people to also condemn Israels attack on the al-Aqsa mosque earlier this week.

To me, Andrew Yangs tweet was a milestone to the movement. He was immediately, completely demolished on social media. He had to go back and issue a second statement acknowledging Palestinian lives. Thats never happened before. Theres a whole new bar now, said al-Khatahtbeh.

This week, protests against the Israeli occupation in Palestinian territory erupted in US cities including Chicago, New York and Washington DC.

After a video of an Israeli settler threatening to steal a Palestinian womans home went viral, Palestinian-American social media influencers like al-Khatahtbeh and Subhi Taha utilized their platforms to share infographics and videos explaining the history of Israels occupation of Palestinian territories.

Palestinian celebrities also used social media to condemn the forced displacements of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem. Palestinian American models and sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid expressed their outrage on Instagram. Other celebrities including the actors Viola Davis, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo and musicians Dua Lipa and the Weeknd also voiced their support to #SaveSheikhJarrah.

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Samer Owaida, a Chicago-based Palestinian artist and activist born and raised in the West Bank, credits grassroots organizations like US Palestinian Community Network and the Students for Justice in Palestine, for the growing global awareness of the movement to liberate Palestine and end the Zionist occupation and colonization of all Palestinian and Arab lands.

On the future outlook for Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah, Owaida said he wasnt holding out hope to be saved by US politicians.

Do I think politics in America will free Palestinians? Absolutely not. Freedom can only come from Palestinians in Palestine. Palestinians are robbed of our agency. The least that we can do is honor that agency by respecting, uplifting and honoring their calls to action, whether it be boycotting, divesting from and sanctioning [Israel] or boosting [social media] posts as much as possible.

He concluded: I believe the youth are the catalyst for change.

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Its different this time: Palestinian Americans find support in US progressives - The Guardian

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Posted By admin on May 16, 2021

GAZA CITY/LONDON/NEW YORK: Palestinians on Saturday marked the anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe when more than 700,000 were driven from their homes to establish the state of Israel in 1948.

Israel observed the day by killing two women and eight children from one family in an airstrike on a refugee camp.

Three heavy missiles also destroyed the 12-story Al-Jalaa Tower in Gaza City, which housed the offices of media outlets including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera, and bombed the home of Khalil Al-Hayeh, a senior Hamas leader.

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed at least 139 people, including 39 children and 22 women.

Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel and killed eight people, the latest on Saturday when a man died in a rocket strike on the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan.

There was outrage over the attack on the AP building, which also contained residential apartments. The Israeli military said Hamas was operating inside the building, but offered no evidence.

The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today, AP chief executive Gary Pruitt said. We are shocked and horrified.

Earlier, an Israeli air raid on the densely populated Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City killed 10 Palestinians from one family, Israels deadliest single strike of the conflict.

Missiles targeted the three-story home of Alaa Abu Hatab, 35, killing his wife, four of his five children, his sister, and four of her five children. A five-month-old baby survived, along with Abu Hatabs daughter, who is in intensive care.

Abu Hatabs brother-in-law Muhammad Al-Hadidi wept as he told Arab News how his children had insisted on spending the night at their uncles house to play with their cousins.

I heard the sound of the bombing, but I did not know it was the building my wife and children were in. I received a call to tell me Abu Hatabs house was targeted. I went quickly, to find all my children with my wife, under the rubble.

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As Israeli airstrikes continued, Heba Al-Attar, 45, told Arab News: The feeling I have is, when will I be killed? When will our house be destroyed? How will my three children live without me if they survive? I feel scared every day, I cant sleep at night.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called on Saturday for an immediate ceasefire. They urged the international community to confront the aggressive Israeli practices against the brotherly Palestinian people.

Tens of thousands march

As Israeli forces stepped up the bombardment of Gaza, tens of thousands of protesters marched in major European cities including London, Berlin, Madrid and Paris in support of the Palestinian cause.

In London, several thousand protesters carrying placards reading Stop Bombing Gaza and chanting Free Palestine converged on Marble Arch, near the British capitals Hyde Park, to march toward the Israeli embassy.

Packed crowds stretched all along Kensington High Street where the embassy is located.

This time is different, Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot told the demonstrators.

This time we will not be denied any more. We are united. We have had enough of oppression.

Simon Makepace, a 61-year-old accountant told AFP he had joined the protests because the whole world should be doing something about it, including this country.

Click here to read our previous stories about the Nakba

'Palestine will be free'

In cities across North America, tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators also called for an end to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

The protests were held on the anniversary of Nakba Day, or catastrophe, that saw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during Israels creation in 1947-1948.

Gatherings to show solidarity with Palestinians on the anniversary of Nakba Day, took place in cities including New York, Boston, Washington, Montreal and Dearborn, Michigan.

Several Jewish people attended, carrying placards that said Not in my name and Solidarity with Palestine as the protesters took over a street in the area which has a large Arab population.

Im here because I want a Palestinian life to equal an Israeli life and today it doesnt, said 35-year-old Emraan Khan, a corporate strategist from Manhattan, as he waved a Palestinian flag.

When you have a nuclear-armed state and another state of villagers with rocks it is clear who is to blame, he added.

Alison Zambrano, a 20-year-old student, traveled from neighboring Connecticut for the demo.

Palestinians have the right to live freely and children in Gaza should not be being killed, she told AFP.

Mashhour Ahmad, a 73-year-old Palestinian who has lived in New York for 50 years, said dont blame the victim for the aggression.

Im telling Mr. Biden and his cabinet to stop supporting the killing. Support the victims, stop the oppression.

The violence committed by the Israeli army recently is genocide, he added, raising a poster above his head that said Free Palestine, End the occupation.

President Joe Biden spoke separately Saturday with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, expressing his grave concern over six days of violence that has left scores dead or wounded.

He expressed Washingtons strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best path to reach a just and lasting resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the White House said.

Throngs of people gathered in Copley Square in Boston, while a few hundred rallied on the Washington Monument grounds in the US capital.

Several thousand demonstrated in Montreal, Canada, calling for the liberation of Palestine.

Protesters also denounced war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and carried placards accusing Israel of violating international law during the protest in the center of the Canadian city.

(With AFP)

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Lebanese in war of words over Palestine action - Arab News

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