Israel Demolishes Over 30 West Bank Structures in Two Days, Leaving Dozens Homeless

-West Bank demolitions are not law enforcement but expulsions
-Israeli army demolishes 260th structure in the West Bank in 2015
-Four Palestinian families face eviction from East Jerusalem home next week
According to figures from the United Nations, Monday’s demolitions caused the largest number of West Bank Palestinians to lose their homes on the West Bank in a single day since October 31, 2012. The four communities where the demolitions took place are al-Saidi, near the town of al-Zaim, west of Ma’aleh Adumim; and three others to the north of Ma’aleh Adumim: Bir el-Maskub, Wadi Sneysel and Abu Falah, all in the area of Khan al-Ahmar. A total of 400 people live in these communities.
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Inside the small, pro-Israel outfit leading the attack on Obama’s Iran deal.

 
Pulling strings: Mark Dubowitz and Clifford May.
 The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the so-called 800-pound gorilla, is the big player in lobbying against the nuclear weapons agreement that the United States and five other countries signed with Iran. When it comes to influencing members of Congress, AIPAC has the access to financial contributors with which to reward the compliant and pressure the recalcitrant.

WATCH: How Palestinian land becomes an Israeli national park

Issawiya, a crowded Palestinian village situated on the slopes of Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus, is home to 23,000 people. The municipality is planning to build a national park atop land belonging to the village, rather than building schools and infrastructure that would benefit its residents. The Palestinian residents of the village aren’t taking the decision lying down.

Occupation is the real 'Jewish terrorism'

The phrase ‘Jewish terrorism’ has come up frequently over the past week. But aren’t the daily actions of the Israeli army also terrorism? And can radical settlers be considered terrorists if they share the convictions of the state?
Relatives laid dozens of photos of 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabshe in memorial to the slain toddler, Duma, West Bank, July 31, 2015. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

I’ve recently tried to figure out the over-use of the phrase “Jewish terror” and as a good girl, I decided to Google it. According to Wikipedia, “Jewish terror” refers to terrorism carried out by Jews against Arabs since the establishment of the state, with some incidents here and there of Jews targeting other Jews.
So I asked our contemporary source of knowledge and wisdom: please teach me what was “Jewish terror before ’48.” The Zionist Google machine spit out the answer, “Palestinian terror” as the first and second entries, followed by Jewish terror dating after the establishment of the state.

The story behind the viral apartheid photo

 A. (right) is arrested by Border Police, while the Jewish boy who accused A. of assaulting him, Jerusalem’s Old City, July 25, 2015. (photo: Mahmoud Illean)
 Recently, a photograph made waves for its apparent depiction of the disparities in the treatment of Israeli and Palestinian minors. This is what happened to the boys in the photo, with a strange twist involving an Israeli soldier lost in a Palestinian village. 
By Avi Blecherman (translated by Hadas Leonov)
The following story is going to make your jaw drop, as it demonstrates the absurdity of this place, a reality beyond any imagination — especially if you are a Palestinian. This is a story about a family in Jerusalem who encounters the police three times in the span of a few days. Each encounter is its own adventure.
You probably remember the powerful photo shared across social media outlets from a few weeks back. Well, not the exact one, but rather its twin that was sold to one of the big news agencies. This one is very close to the original:
 It was taken a few Sundays ago during Tisha B’Av (a Jewish day of fasting which commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem) in the Muslim Quarter market not far from Damascus Gate. In the photo we see a Palestinian teen being arrested by two Israeli Border Policemen, looking nervous as his hands are folded behind his back. To his left is a Jewish boy, most likely a resident of the Muslim Quarter. A policeman accompanies him, only that the former gently puts his hand on the boy’s shoulder, as if he is strolling with his younger brother. He is even suppressing a tiny smile.
 In the original photo the Jewish boy is seen talking to the policeman, and it is clear he feels comfortable with him. One might guess that the reason they are there together is related to something that happened a moment earlier, though it is impossible to know from the photo. The difference in body language between the two boys — and between them and the policemen — is well pronounced, giving the photo its power. They illustrate better than any description what occupation and apartheid look like: a regime based on total separation between two groups that are treated in a very different manner by the government.
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Demolishing Arab women's homes is the easy way out

What are Arab citizens expected to do when the city only builds for Jews, and why do single mothers almost always pay the price?
 
Hannah al-Naqib (right) as Israeli authorities demolish her home in Lod, February 10, 2015. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

There has been no approved zoning plan for decades. Arabs cannot build on their own lands, and plans that are meant to authorize legal construction in the Arab neighborhoods are stuck in bureaucratic pipelines – at least according to the plan for the improvement of the Lyd municipality that was passed by Netanyahu’s government. Meanwhile, the municipality collects its arnona tax, and homeowners are levied enormous fines in the process of procuring permits, all while leaving roads unpaved and offering no basic services, as well as continuing to threaten residents home demolitions whenever there is a dispute between the mayor and the head of the opposition.
Not a single housing project has been built for Arabs, not even one meant for the general population where Arabs would also be permitted to purchase homes. None. On the other hand, thousands of new housing units have been built at lightning speed right across from the Arab neighborhoods for the latest gari’n of religious settlers (small communities of religious Jews who move, usually from the occupied territories, into cities with mixed Arab and Jewish population) or other religious groups. Furthermore, the plan to encourage more privileged families to settle in Lyd has been making much progress, with families of army and police veterans moving into the city. A young Arab couple cannot even go near the sales offices of these projects, much less dream of the huge subsidies and grants that are offered to the city’s new residents who have come to “strengthen” Lyd.

Demolishing Palestinian structures is the norm — not the exception

A sharp increase in demolitions of structures in the West Bank displaces over 120 Palestinians, drawing media attention and a harsh response from the United Nations.
 
Home demolition in East Jerusalem [Illustrative]. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Ziv/Activestills.org)

Over August 17-18 Israeli authorities demolished around 40 Palestinian structures in the West Bank, displacing over 120 Palestinians. The demolitions were carried out during a record-breaking heat wave that has hit Israel-Palestine over the past week.

Monday’s total of 22 demolitions — in the Ma’ale Adumim area of the West Bank — displaced 78 Palestinians (including 49 children), the highest such number in one day since October 2012. Tuesday saw 17 structures demolished in the village of Fasayil in the Jordan Valley, leaving 48 homeless, including 31 children. All the affected families belong to Bedouin communities found throughout the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley.

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Black activists send clear message to Palestinians: “Now is the time for Palestinian liberation, just as now is the time for our own in the United States”

The actual distance between Ferguson, Missouri, and Gaza is about 6,000 miles. But last summer, the repressive and deadly violence visited upon blacks and Palestinians, respectively, made that distance seem to disappear. Immediately, lines of solidarity began to emerge between those groups, and in August a set of activists and organizations in Palestine issued this statement:
We the undersigned Palestinian individuals and groups express our solidarity with the family of Michael Brown, a young unarmed black man gunned down by police on August 9th in Ferguson, Missouri. We wish to express our support and solidarity with the people of Ferguson who have taken their struggle to the street, facing a militarized police occupation.

1,000 Black Activists, Artists, and Scholars Demand Justice for Palestine

Over 1,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students, and organizations have launched a statement expressing their solidarity and commitment to ensuring justice for Palestinians. Signatories to the statement span a wide cross-section of Black activists and scholars, including Angela Davis, Boots Riley, Cornel West, dream hampton, Emory Douglas, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pam Africa, Patrisse Cullors, Phil Hutchings, Ramona Africa, Robin DG Kelley, Rosa Clemente, Talib Kweli, and Tef Poe. 38 organizations signed on, including The Dream Defenders, Hands Up United, Institute of the Black World 21st Century, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Organization for Black Struggle.

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Michael Oren’s account of his years as Israeli ambassador to the United States is the gift that just keeps on giving. We have already seen how the memoir (Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide) reveals just how ultra-sensitive Israel’s elite is to American opinion, but also how contemptuous he is of Jewish Americans. But there is even more in the book, and here at the site we are delighted it reached the best seller list briefly, and sorry that it has now slipped off.  Ally is a valuable look at what Israel is really like in 2015. - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/michael-memoir-revelations#sthash.Rr4EowNg.dpuf

Michael Oren’s account of his years as Israeli ambassador to the United States is the gift that just keeps on giving. We have already seen how the memoir (Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide) reveals just how ultra-sensitive Israel’s elite is to American opinion, but also how contemptuous he is of Jewish Americans. But there is even more in the book, and here at the site we are delighted it reached the best seller list briefly, and sorry that it has now slipped off. Ally is a valuable look at what Israel is really like in 2015. - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/michael-memoir-revelations#sthash.Rr4EowNg.dpuf

Israeli cafe in India said to only serve white customers

The Freekasol cafe in Kasol, India (YouTube screen capture)

 

A cafe in India that serves Israeli food has been subjected to a torrent of criticism over reports that it has enacted a “whites only” customer policy, Channel 10 news reported Tuesday.

The Freekasol cafe in the small village of Kasol will apparently not serve Indian customers, according to local reports.

Channel 10 reported that the owner of the cafe was an Israeli, while Stefan claimed the man was in fact Indian. The cafe is widely being reported as Israeli-owned.

An Indian woman and her British partner told Channel 10 they were turned away from the establishment a few days ago due to the woman’s ethnicity.

“He denied me saying that it was only for members,” the woman named Ritika recounted. But when her white partner Stefan then went over to the cafe and asked for a menu, “he gave the menu to him.”

'Yemen after 5 months looks like Syria after 5 years': Red Cross president

A Yemeni man carries a canister of gas he bought, after waiting for several hours in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015. The Saudi-imposed blockade has created severe shortages of gas, petrol, and other goods, causing prices to skyrocket. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

GENEVA -- "Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years," the head of the international Red Cross says, describing the devastation from a conflict that has left more than 1,900 people dead since March.
Peter Maurer, fresh off a trip to the war-torn country in the Arabian Peninsula, said entrenched poverty, months of intensified warfare and limits on imports because of an international embargo have contributed to "catastrophic" conditions in Yemen.
"The firepower with which this war is fought on the ground and in the air is causing more suffering than in other societies which are stronger and where infrastructures are better off and people are wealthier and have reserves and can escape," Maurer told The Associated Press at his office in the headquarters of the International Committee for the Red Cross.