The Greenhouse propaganda—How Gazan history is being rewritten to dehumanise Palestinians

What really happened to the greenhouses? 

According to the New York Times, two months prior to the withdrawal, in July of 2005, Israeli settlers demolished about half of the greenhouses, “creating significant doubts that the greenhouses could be handed over to the Palestinians as ‘a living business.’” There are other reports that rather than leave their greenhouses behind for the Palestinians some settlers decided to burn them to the ground. Notwithstanding the destruction that had already been wrought, wealthy American philanthropists led by the Gates foundation and James Wolfensohn, the US Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement, bought the remaining greenhouses from the Israeli settlers on behalf of the Palestinians in Gaza for $14 million. Wolfensohn contributed $500,000 of his own money.Admittedly, Palestinian looters took to the greenhouses when they were transferred to Palestinian control in mid-September 2005, hauling away some of the irrigation pipes, water pumps, plastic sheeting and glass, but leaving the greenhouses themselves structurally intact. Bassil Jabir was the CEO of the Palestine Economic Development Company (PED), the organization founded by the Palestinian Authority to take charge of the greenhouse project after it was turned over to the Palestinians. The PED invested more than $20 million into the project. Jabir said that as a result of the destruction by Israeli settlers and Palestinian looters the PED had to invest an additional $5 million into the greenhouse project to revive it. Despite the initial setbacks, the greenhouses were up and running by mid-October. By late November, the New York Times reported that the Palestinians were preparing to harvest a crop of peppers, strawberries, tomatoes and herbs worth $20 million. Presciently, in the same article, Palestinians expressed concern that if Israel did not keep the Karni border crossing open, it could result in the demise of the greenhouse project. Read more

AIPAC Is the Only Explanation for America's Morally Bankrupt Israel Policy

Stephen M. Walt
The official name for Israel's latest assault on Gaza is "Operation Protective Edge." A better name would be "Operation Déjà Vu." As it has on several prior occasions, Israel is using weapons provided by U.S. taxpayers to bombard the captive and impoverished Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll now exceeds 500. As usual, the U.S. government is siding with Israel, even though most American leaders understand Israel instigated the latest round of violence, is not acting with restraint, and that its actions make Washington look callous and hypocritical in the eyes of most of the world.
This Orwellian situation is eloquent testimony to the continued political clout of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the other hardline elements of the Israel lobby. There is no other plausible explanation for the supine behavior of the U.S. Congress--including some of its most "progressive" members--or the shallow hypocrisy of the Obama administration, especially those officials known for their purported commitment to human rights.
The immediate cause of this latest one-sided bloodletting was the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli hikers in the occupied West Bank, followed shortly thereafter by the kidnapping and fatal burning of a Palestinian teenager by several Israelis. According to J.J. Goldberg's reporting in the Jewish newspaper Forward, the Netanyahu government blamed Hamas for the kidnappings without evidence and pretended the kidnapped Israelis were still alive for several weeks, even though there was evidence indicating the victims were already dead. It perpetrated this deception in order to whip up anti-Arab sentiment and make it easier to justify punitive operations in the West Bank and Gaza.
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US objects Palestinian bid to International Criminal Court

Spokesperson of the US Department of State Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that her country objects to the Palestinian Authority's efforts to try Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Commenting at a daily press briefing in Washington on what she called "reports of a push for an ICC investigation", she said: "Our view is that we continue to strongly oppose unilateral actions that seek to circumvent or prejudge the very outcomes that can only be negotiated."
She continued: "We've been very clear that, while we've expressed concerns when we've had them, there is – the only realistic path for realising Palestinian aspirations of statehood is through direct negotiations between the parties."
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Netanyahu asks US to help Israel avoid war crime charges

 
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked US lawmakers to help fend off Palestinian claims that his country engaged in “war crimes” in Gaza, one top politician tells the New York Post
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Shoppers Use App To Boycott Israel In Grocery Store Aisles

When young California-based developer Ivan Pardo launched smartphone app Buycott last year, users at first seized upon its technology to avoid putting coins in the coffers of the conservative billionaire Koch brothers.
Everyday shoppers using iPhones or Android devices could scan the barcode of, say, Brawny paper towel or Dixie cups and trace the corporate ownership of both kitchen cupboard staples to Koch Industries , the conglomerate run by the politically active (and thereby controversial) industrialists Charles and David Koch.
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Native American Indians Take a Stand For Gaza

The parallels to the plight of the Palestinian people and Native Americans have been drawn by many. Speaking in San Francisco, Tony Gonzales of the American Indian Movement (AIM), ”with a common legacy of bantustans (homelands) – Indian reservations and encircled Palestinian territories – Native Americans understand well the situation of Palestinians.”
While there are certainly diverse views on nearly every political issue imaginable within Native American communities, a growing number are beginning to empathize with and see a disturbing parallel between what happened to the First Peoples of North America, and Palestinians in the Levant.

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Israel's atrocities in Gaza prompt unprecedented political fallout

 
Ben White
"Carnage" in Gaza – "the killing of children and the slaughter of civilians". Not the words of a Palestinian spokesperson but rather French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Australia's FM Julie Bishop condemned what she called "shocking" and "indefensible" incidents, with "hundreds of innocent people" killed.
Just two examples of how Israel's strongest allies have criticised the conduct of 'Operation Protective Edge' in unprecedentedly harsh terms. In the UK specifically, there has been an undeniable sea-change in the way that self-declared 'friends' of Israel have drawn a red line – adding their voices of criticism to more vociferous condemnation heard at numerous, large-scale demonstrations.
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ISIS consolidates

Patrick Cockburn

As the attention of the world focused on Ukraine and Gaza, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) captured a third of Syria in addition to the quarter of Iraq it had seized in June. The frontiers of the new Caliphate declared by Isis on 29 June are expanding by the day and now cover an area larger than Great Britain and inhabited by at least six million people, a population larger than that of Denmark, Finland or Ireland. In a few weeks of fighting in Syria Isis has established itself as the dominant force in the Syrian opposition, routing the official al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, in the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor and executing its local commander as he tried to flee. In northern Syria some five thousand Isis fighters are using tanks and artillery captured from the Iraqi army in Mosul to besiege half a million Kurds in their enclave at Kobani on the Turkish border. In central Syria, near Palmyra, Isis fought the Syrian army as it overran the al-Shaer gasfield, one of the largest in the country, in a surprise assault that left an estimated three hundred soldiers and civilians dead. Repeated government counter-attacks finally retook the gasfield but Isis still controls most of Syria’s oil and gas production. The Caliphate may be poor and isolated but its oil wells and control of crucial roads provide a steady income in addition to the plunder of war.

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Mohamed will never see his father's face again; will he see his mother's?

In 34 days of war on Gaza, the Israeli occupation has killed around 1,900 Palestinians and wounded around 9,000 others. Most of them, according to UN statistics, were civilians. At least 400 children are among the dead.
 Nine year-old Mohamed Badran was looking forward to hugging his parents and playing with his six brothers during the three-day annual holiday that follows the holy month of Ramadan. Despite the fact that the Israeli war has devastated any hope of happiness in Gaza, Mohamed remained hopeful.
But days later, with his mother and his uncle standing beside him in Al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammed told MEMO: "All my dreams were shattered after two Israeli tank shells darkened my life and wounded all my brothers."
After the dawn prayer of the first day of the holiday, Eid Al-Fitr, Mohamed and his family members were sleeping peacefully in their house. Mohamed prepared the new clothes and toys his mother had bought him and his brothers to wear for the holiday.
He went to bed, looking forward to his mother waking him up in the morning. He did not know at that moment he was going to close his eyes forever. Two merciless Israeli tank shells hit his house, destroying his bedroom and wounding him and his six brothers.
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Palestine will not withdraw their complaint to the ICC

Palestinian Justice Minister Salim Al-Saqqa affirmed that the Palestinian complaint to the ICC against Israeli war crimes had not been withdrawn, Palestinian newspaper Al-Resalah reported on Saturday.
Several sources reported on Friday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas had withdrawn the complaint under international pressure.
Al-Saqqa recognised that there is international and regional pressure on the PA to withdraw the complaint. He did not name any of the bodies exerting that pressure, but he affirmed that the complaint is still "active."
He said that he is the only person "authorised" to deal with the complaint and he did not "withdraw" it. "I will not withdraw it," he stressed.
The minister said that the PA had filed the complaint to the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda through the famous French lawyer Jill Denver.
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Hollywood studios blacklist Penelope Cruz over Gaza letter

"The Oscar-winning actors Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz have fuelled furious divisions within Hollywood over the Gaza conflict by accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the territory.
Pledges to shun the Spanish actors – believed to have been made privately by a handful of top industry executives – came after Bardem and Cruz, who are married, signed an open letter denouncing “the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army”.

Spain freezes arms exports to Israel over Gaza op

Spanish demonstrators protest against the Israeli campaign in Gaza, Madrid, July 31, 2014. Photo by APThe Spanish government decided to temporarily freeze arms and military technology exports to Israel over the offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Spanish daily El Pais reported on Monday.
Spain is the second country to announce sanctions over arms sale to Israel in the past 24 hours, after Britain said it was reviewing all arms export licenses to Israel. A similar move was taken by the British government after Operation Cast Lead in 2009.
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UK Foreign Office minister resigns over UK’s 'morally reprehensible' stance on Gaza

Lady Warsi announces on Twitter that she is standing down because she can no longer support government policy

Lady Warsi has resigned saying: ‘I can no longer support government policy on Gaza’. Photograph: Lee Thomas/Zuma Press/Corbi

Lady Warsi, the senior Foreign Office minister, has resigned from the government in protest at its policy on Gaza, describing it as “morally indefensible”.
Warsi announced her departure on Twitter on Tuesday, saying: “With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister & tendered my resignation. I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza.”
In her resignation letter, Warsi said the government’s “approach and language during the current crisis in Gaza is morally indefensible, is not in Britain’s national interest and will have a long term detrimental impact on our reputation internationally and domestically”.