Palestine Update 591
Opinion
The challenge to recruit more solidarity activists for Palestine
Palestinian youth are well integrated in the struggle for liberation in Palestine. At the same time, they seek their explicit space within which to improve their social and political mobilities. In an enlightening and challenging webinar on 9th September, four Palestinian youth spoke out forcefully and with great profundity along with scholar and activist Prof. Ilan Pappe on the subject “Palestinian Youth speak: Perspectives on struggle and liberation”. The lively Q&A session that followed only served to illustrate that speakers had created deep impact on the webinar and its participants. A short report is as under. There is also a YouTube recording which we share. Our hope is that concerned solidarity activists will find time to watch it and disseminate it widely. It is a compelling articulation of Youth aspirations for a future that Palestinians search and struggle for.
We also share a report of Israel’s admission that they were probably responsible for the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The projection is that regardless of the admission, Israel will not punish anyone for the dastardly crime. Impunity, as always, will be Israel’s eternal principle.
Human Rights organizations which are under operational threat from Israel have called on the US to condemn the latest Israeli government actions aimed at delegitimizing and criminalizing Palestinian human rights defenders and civil society organizations. The allegations against the organizations are unsupported by investigations. But, in all likelihood, the US administration will soft pedal the demand. In a similar undertone, Israel does worse. It rationalizes its tyranny of Palestinians by decrying all resistance to it as “terrorism” ignoring its own official terror through its violations of all human rights standards against legitimate resistance.
Palestinians confront each morning with news of violence and armed clashes across the West Bank. Jenin is particularly targeted, although it is not the lone object of Israeli violence. Israel watches closely as West Bank seethes and increasing skirmishes suggest an even larger Israeli incursion of the northern West Bank. Resistance is on the rise and as strong as it can get. The western media, in particular, misleads by minimizing the truth that is, otherwise so visible.
In keeping with the force of Summud, Muslim officials have warned of dire consequences from violations by Jewish fanatics of the sanctity of and status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Zionist fanatics who infringe on the Al-Aqsa Mosque everyday are alerted to the possibility of tough retaliation if the grave Israeli missteps are continued.
Please view the YouTube and share the news snippets with a wider audience.
Ranjan Solomon
For MLN Palestine Updates
Watch YouTube recording of the webinar
“Palestinian Youth speak: Perspectives on struggle and liberation”
A major challenge facing any young generation within a veteran liberation movement is to improve the options for social and political mobilities. With better chances of moving into leading positions, the younger generation would have a greater say in strategizing forward the liberation struggle in Palestine.
At our webinar, we gained a glimpse of aspirations, issues, perspectives and concerns including:
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Impressions on generational features of refugees’ view on the future (One state and right of return)
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Refugees in Lebanon
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48 Arabs
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Gaza
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The diaspora and the West bank
The YouTube recording of the webinar is available on https://youtu.be/VaRffOSB7lY.We urge readers to view and disseminate it widely. It is a valuable record of youth sharing aspirations of the futures they are aspiring and struggling for.
https://youtu.be/VaRffOSB7lY.
Israel admits it’s gaslighting the world on Shireen’s killing
“After four months of gaslighting, the Israeli army finally admitted, following an internal probe, that one of its own soldiers “most likely” killed renowned Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin in May…The conclusion of Israeli culpability is hardly news. What makes the announcement infuriating, however, is the way in which the Israeli army has casually confessed to the crime, knowing full well that the shooter will never be punished for the killing, nor will his superiors in government or the military pay a price for peddling falsehoods for months…Yet amid this reality of indifference lies an empowering lesson. Despite Israel’s diversions, Palestinians and their allies demonstrated that they have the power to force Israel into a corner. Palestinian journalists and eyewitnesses, amplified by multiple investigations by some of the world’s most prominent media outlets, have shown for months that the shooter could not have been anything other than an Israeli sniper targeting Abu Akleh. The body of evidence was so overwhelming that even the army’s probe, for all its calculated ambiguity, had little wiggle room to suggest otherwise. The public activism that followed Abu Akleh’s killing not only made “Shireen” a household name beyond the Arab world, but ensured her name was echoed in parliaments and government offices across the globe. Elevated by this mass support, Abu Akleh’s family, including her devoted niece Lina, have taken their cause to the U.S. Congress and State Secretary Antony Blinken, putting direct pressure on Washington to hold its military funding beneficiary to account, let alone fulfill its duty to an American citizen killed by foreign forces.” |
Read full article by Amjad Iraqi in +972 Mag
DCI jointly demands United States condemn, reject Israeli government attacks
Read full commentary in DCI Palestine report|
A soldier is not a civilian
By blurring the line between combatants and civilians, Israel justifies its repression of Palestinians — and decries all resistance to it as “terrorism.” “The Israeli media avoids making the crucial distinction between an action directed against soldiers and an action directed against civilians; just like the regime it serves, in the eyes of the vast majority of the Israeli media there is no Palestinian struggle that is not inherently defined as terrorism, be it armed or unarmed. Every Palestinian protester is a “rioter” or “terrorist” and all armed resistance to Israeli invasions into West Bank cities, which are becoming an almost nightly event, is “terrorism.” All the while, Israel is steadily and alarmingly expanding the applicability of the concept of terrorism to the Palestinian population. Over the past decade we have heard Israeli officials accuse Palestinians of such absurdities as “construction terror” and “diplomatic terror,” while just last year Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s declared several of the most prominent Palestinian civil society organizations to be “terrorist organizations.” The media’s conduct is not only unprofessional; it is a dangerous manipulation of the public mind, which is also no longer able to distinguish between terrorism and legitimate opposition…Despite Israel’s smokescreen tactics, aided by a compliant media that will simply regurgitate every single thing the regime says about Palestinians, the facts must be stated clearly: as long as the occupation, which is an integral part of Israel’s apartheid regime between the river and the sea, continues, the Palestinian struggle against it will also continue, including by use of arms. And the right to conduct this struggle is anchored in international law. As such, the Israeli public has an interest in this struggle being limited to combatants, rather than dragging uninvolved civilians — both Israelis and Palestinians — into armed confrontation. International law, which Israel blatantly ignores, was created for this very purpose.”
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Resistance forces launch new anti-Zionist operation in Jenin|
Fierce armed clashes broke out between the Palestinians and Zionists on early Monday, according to the reports. The Israeli regime’s forces attacked the area to arrest a number of Palestinians. Three Palestinians were wounded during the armed clashes with the Zionist regime’s forces, local sources reported. Hebrew-language sources also reported that an Israeli regime’s soldier was wounded in the head during the clashes. The Zionists also launched a raid on the house of a freed Palestinian prisoner and rearrested him. Palestinian sources also added that at least 4 Palestinians were detained by Zionists in Al Khalil.
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Israel watches closely as West Bank seethes
Increasing skirmishes have Israel reportedly considering a large-scale invasion of the northern West Bank
“Palestinians are waking up almost every day to news of violence and armed clashes across the West Bank. The armed clashes, which for months had been limited to the Jenin refugee camp and the old city of Nablus, have now expanded to other areas of the West Bank, including the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, al-Faraa camp near Tubas, the village of Rujib near Nablus, the village of Silwad near Ramallah and the towns of Burqin and Qabatiya near Jenin.
On Sept. 4, a group of Palestinians opened fire at a bus carrying Israeli soldiers near the settlement of Hamra in the Jordan Valley, wounding seven of them, in what the Israeli media described as a “qualitative shift” in the Palestinian operations targeting Israelis in the West Bank. The perpetrators of the attack were immediately arrested. ..Palestinian militants opened fire at an Israeli military checkpoint near Ramallah, wounding four soldiers. On Sept. 7, a round of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces broke out in al-Faraa camp near Tubas, during which one Palestinian youth was killed. On Sept. 6, more than 100 military vehicles raided the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank as part of an operation to destroy the house of Raad Khazem, who was behind the deadly shooting in Tel Aviv in April that killed three Israelis. A shootout erupted after the Israeli raid, leaving one Palestinian youth dead and others injured. Earlier on Sept. 5, a Palestinian who belonged to the Islamic Jihad movement was killed during clashes with the Israeli army in Jenin.
Muslims warn of serious repercussions due to constant desecration by Jewish fanatics of Al-Aqsa Mosque
The warning came as the fanatics plan to blow the shofar, an ancient horn, on the premises of Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish New Year that coincides on September 26, and have already petitioned the Israel High Court for permission to do that.
They also want to bring into the Muslim compound prayer shawls and books as well as palm fronds and other plants used during the upcoming Sukkot holiday that will start in mid-October. On Monday, fanatic rabbi, Yehuda Glick, blew the horn through his mobile phone during his presence at Al-Aqsa Mosque while other fanatics danced and sang loudly and performed Talmudic rituals in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa.
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