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21/04/2021
| | A debt to the future
Gush Shalom - Itzik Saidian was sent by the State of Israel to fight in the Sajaiya refugee camp. He shot and killed residents of the camp,
saw several of his comrades being killed, came back with battle shock...
[bz] | | | Noam Chomsky Without Regrets: Interview With a Libertarian Socialist
Kelly Candaele - Portside - At 92, Noam Chomsky remains a political
activist. In recent interviews and in a new book, Chomsky for
Activists, he takes stock of his own political involvement going back
to the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, and offers
lessons and warnings for today’s activists.
Chomsky has always contended that intellectuals should play an
antagonistic role in society. His 1967 essay, “The Responsibility of
Intellectuals,” offered a devastating critique of the complicity of
intellectuals and policy bureaucrats in the Vietnam disaster,
advising that Americans should “follow the path of integrity,
wherever it may lead.” Characterized by many conservatives and some
on the left as cavalier in his criticism of the United States, he has
not wavered from critiquing American moral complacency and misuse of
power. A pioneer in linguistic theory and language development at MIT
for over 60 years, Chomsky has devoted most of his time to writing
and political work. Speaking by phone from his home in Tucson,
Arizona, he told Capital & Main, “If you think there is a serious
problem and you know that you can do something about it, then it
follows on simple ethical grounds that you should do what you can do
— which means become an activist.” The following interview was edited
for length and clarity.(rh) | | | Prof.: Denying Me the Israel Prize Is Delegitimization of Left
Or Kashti - Haaretz - The researcher whose receipt of this year’s
Israel Prize in mathematics and computer science was countermanded by
the education minister said Yoav Gallant’s decision was “another
small step in the delegitimization of the left in Israel.” Prof. Oded
Goldreich said that Gallant’s move to deny him the prize constituted
“political persecution.” Goldreich made the comment after Thursday’s
High Court of Justice ruling giving Gallant 30 days to justify his
decision. The professor will not receive the prize during this week’s
Independence Day ceremony.(rh) | | | PTSD-afflicted IDF veteran sets himself alight, suffers serious burns
JUDAH ARI GROSS - Times of Israel - An IDF veteran diagnosed with
post-traumatic stress disorder set himself on fire Monday outside a
Defense Ministry office that handles the rehabilitation of injured
soldiers in central Israel, the ministry said in a statement. The
man, 26, was seriously injured, sustaining burns all over his body.
He was identified by Channel 12 as Itzik Saidyan, who had been
interviewed by the television station two years prior as part of a
story on soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. The IDF
Veteran’s Association said that the man was frustrated at his
treatment by authorities. He was recognized by the Defense Ministry
as having 25 percent disability from his post-traumatic stress
disorder, but had requested 50 percent recognition. The ministry had
refused, saying at least a portion of his illness was due to
childhood trauma, not his military service.(rh) | | | Increasingly, Jewish Critics of Israeli Policies Are Using The Term “Apartheid”
ALLAN C. BROWNFELD - Washington Report on Middle East Affairs - In
January 2021, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem issued a
statement which declared that the Israeli government was an
“apartheid regime.” It stated that, “A regime that uses laws,
practices and organized violence to establish and maintain the
supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime.” B’Tselem
argues that the Israeli regime “of apartheid” rests on four pillars:
citizenship, land, freedom of movement and political participation.
Virtually any person of Jewish ancestry anywhere in the world can
claim Israeli citizenship; immigration to Israel is all but
impossible for Palestinians, and only a minority of Palestinians—
about 1.6 million out of seven million—-who live on land controlled
by Israel are citizens of Israel and even their rights are limited
compared with their nearly seven million Jewish counterparts. (rh) | | | Thousands of Palestinians attend Ramadan’s first Friday in Al-Aqsa
Wafa - JERUSALEM, Friday, April 16, 2021 (WAFA) – Compared with
Ramadan 2020, when the mosque was devoid of any worshipper, thousands
of Palestinians today attended the prayers of the first Friday of
Ramadan at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound. Worshippers anxious
to attend the first prayer of Ramadan in Jerusalem made their way to
the mosque compound, crossing military barriers as Israeli police
beefed up presence around and in the city. Since the early morning
hours, the Israeli occupation authorities sealed off the checkpoints
separating Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and deployed
police around and across the Old City, obstructing the movement of
Palestinians and their vehicles and forcing them to walk for long
distances to reach the holy site. (rh) | | | Israel stands alone on Iran
Ben Caspit - Al-Monitor - Guillot’s late February visit reflects the
extent of cooperation between the various Israeli and American
defense and intelligence agencies, which has been experiencing a
golden age in recent years. Israel is the only country in the world
other than the United States in which a prototype of the F-35 Stealth
fighter is being upgraded with additional armaments and fuel tanks.
Israel is the only country permitted to install its own domestically
developed technology on the advanced aircraft, which will allow it to
share the F-35’s sophisticated command and control system with older
fighter planes in the Israeli fleet, such as the F-15 and F-16. These
capabilities, as well as being the only country in the world to
dispatch the Stealth on real time operational missions on a daily
basis, have drawn the attention of many other air forces. The
extensive cooperation with the British, Italian, Greek, German,
Emirati and other air forces is breaking all records. Israel’s two
main defense assets — the absolute control of the skies over the
Middle East and the seemingly inexhaustible information collected by
its intelligence community — have turned Israel into a magnet for
international cooperation, ardent courting and joint drills. However,
the picture is bleak for Israel’s diplomatic posture on the world
stage. Israel is experiencing “withdrawal symptoms” from the high it
enjoyed for four years of the Donald Trump presidency. Unlike the
welcome presence in many countries of Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
Chief Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Mossad director Yossi Cohen, Norkin and
other top brass, Israel’s foreign affairs arena is under threat of
international boycott from Washington and elsewhere. (rh)
| | | The Palestinians: “We Shall Not Be Moved”
DANIEL BEAUMONT - Counterpunch - A number of articles about the
upcoming elections have focused on the political divisions among the
Palestinians. Without a doubt, those divisions—foremost, the Fatah-
Hamas divide—have hobbled their cause. Those divisions are real and
complicated. The essay that follows is an attempt to consider recent
events in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza in light of regional and
international events that I think are changing the terms of conflict
and working in favor of the Palestinian cause.(rh) | | | The Jewish Women Who Posed an `Existential Threat` to Israel by Marrying Arab Men
Ofer Aderet - Haaretz - In 1942, all traces of Bianca Schwartz
disappeared. An orphan who arrived in Palestine as part of the Youth
Aliyah effort to save Jewish refugees from war-torn Europe, she had
lived on Kibbutz Afikim in the north before moving to Jerusalem. A
lengthy search eventually revealed that Schwartz had converted to
Islam, married an Arab man, changed her name to Leila Natshe Ali and
was living in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, which
in 1948 had come under Jordanian control. The couple had five
children. After her husband died, in 1971, she wanted to return to
the fold of Judaism. According to one account, Hanania Dery, the
chief rabbi of Jaffa, was walking in the Old City when he happened to
notice a woman who was dressed in Arab attire but whose facial
features struck him as Jewish. Dery asked her to tell him about
herself, and thanks to his efforts she returned to her Jewish roots
and was recognized as a new immigrant.(rh)
| | | US warns Israel to stop ‘dangerous, detrimental’ chatter on Natanz attack
TOI STAFF and AGENCIES - Times of Israel - Washington has conveyed to
Israel in no uncertain terms that the “chatter” about its alleged
involvement in the blast at the Natanz nuclear facility early this
week must stop, warning that it is dangerous and detrimental as well
as embarrassing to the Biden administration as it attempts to
negotiate a return to the nuclear deal with Tehran, Channel 12 news
reported Friday. The unsourced report said the message was conveyed
to Jerusalem through several channels in recent days. (rh)
| | | For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections | |
Recommended articles
| | Unsettled :PODCAST: Will this Palestinian matriarch get to keep her Jerusalem home? | | The Times of Israel:Settlers filmed pelting Palestinian man with stones in West Bank | | B`Tselem & Kerem Navot:This Is Ours – And This, Too : Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank | | Raja Shehadeh:Issa Amro`s plight highlights Israel`s intolerance of even nonviolent protest | | Mohammed El-Kurd:Why are Palestinians being forced to prove their humanity? | | Associated Press:New roads pave way for massive growth of Israeli settlements | | Aseel Jundi:Palestinians of historic Jerusalem neighbourhood fear displacement | | Edo Konrad:How did Israeli pundits become more right-wing than Fox News? |
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