Confusion over Palestinian-Israeli talks is helping no-one

Tensions in the West Bank are boiling over and unclear communication following a meeting of security officials in Aqaba puts de-escalation at risk

THE NATIONAL
EDITORIAL

A Palestinian man walks between scorched cars in a scrapyard, in the West Bank town of Hawara on Monday. Scores of Israeli settlers went on a violent rampage, setting cars and homes on fire after two settlers were killed by a Palestinian gunman. Palestinian officials say one man was killed and four others were badly wounded. AP

Critical security talks between Palestinian and Israeli officials held in Jordan at the weekend provided initial optimism that direct engagement and negotiations are back on the table in the Middle East’s longest-running conflict. Jordan, Egypt and the US had also participated in the talks, hosted in the Jordanian city of Aqaba. By Monday morning, however, confusion over their outcome had already set in.

A joint statement released by the White House on Sunday said Israel had agreed to suspend illegal settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory.

“This includes an Israeli commitment to stop discussion of any new settlement units for four months and to stop authorisation of any outposts for six months,” the statement said.

However, Israel's National Security Adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said on Sunday that there had been no policy change, and that the government would legalise nine outposts and approve 9,500 housing units in the West Bank in the coming months.

This came before a comment from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who tweeted that Jewish settlements would continue “according to the original planning and construction schedule, without any changes”.

“There is and will not be any freeze,” he added.

Israeli soldiers speak with settlers in the town of Huwara near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Monday. AFP

The comments risk extinguishing what was already a very faint glimmer of hope for de-escalation. If a public commitment can be reversed almost immediately, it also leaves Palestinian negotiators with little to show for their efforts.

It is difficult to deny that the settlements make daily life for many Palestinians unendurable, fuelling grievance and extremism. They also act as a lightning rod for conflict, as they did on Sunday, when two settlers were shot dead in the West Bank town of Huwara, leading to a wave of violence in the area. The violence peaked when some settlers appear to have set fire to Palestinian homes.

Suspending discussion of new settlements would have sent a signal to Palestinians that the Israeli authorities wanted to at least establish a breathing space, particularly as tensions rise ahead of Ramadan, which will overlap with the Jewish Passover holiday in April. This can be a particularly precarious time – clashes during Ramadan in 2021 at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the West Bank escalated into an 11-day war.

But with several members of the Israeli Cabinet drawing much of their support from within the settler movement, it is difficult at this stage to see how even limited change to the government’s settlement policy can be secured.

The uncertainty over what commitments, if any, were made in Aqaba also threatens to suck the air out of whatever engagement process remains. Waiting in the wings, too, are the militants of Hamas, who have condemned the Palestinian Authority (PA) for taking part in the Jordan meeting. The government of President Mahmoud Abbas also faces the rise of new armed groups outside of PA control, such as Lion’s Den in Jenin, which are adding an uncontrollable element to a deteriorating security situation.

The pervading sense of despair in the occupied Palestinian territories shows no sign of abating. It undermines attempts to reach what many regard as a realistic, just and attainable settlement: a two-state solution. Just over a month ago, a survey of more than 2,000 people published by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Research found that only 33 per cent of Palestinians and 34 per cent of Israeli Jews said they support a two-state solution, a significant drop from data collected in 2020.

This is a time for allies of the Palestinian people and Israel alike to redouble their efforts to facilitate dialogue. But for dialogue to be of any consequence, it must be clear, it must be sincere and it must lead to change. Dashing people’s hopes is not just a temporary setback. It can become a long-lasting one, too.

Published: February 27, 2023

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The National Editorial
Insight and opinion from The National’s editorial leadership

Why is Israel-Palestinian violence surging?

PublishedShae

IMAGE SOURCE,

Image caption,

The death toll has climbed steeply already this year

By Raffi Berg

BBC News Online Middle East editor

There has been an intensification of violence between Israel and the Palestinians since the start of this year, with deaths mounting on both sides. Here is a brief guide to what is going on.

What is happening?

The current violence is mainly taking place in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - areas occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war. While the starting point is debatable, it began to escalate in March 2022. In a period of days, Israel was rocked by a series of deadly Palestinian attacks and the Israeli military launched an open-ended operation in the West Bank in response, resulting in near nightly raids into the occupied territories.

How has it got worse?

There have been many individual injuries and deaths resulting from Israeli military operations and Palestinian attacks over the past year, but what marks this period of violence out is both the scale of the loss of lives and the number of incidents in which multiple people have been killed.

Last year, at least 146 Palestinians - militants, civilians and attackers - were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - more than any time since UN records began in 2005. Meanwhile, 29 Israelis and two foreign nationals - all but four of whom were civilians - were killed in attacks by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs. This was deadliest year for Israelis since 2015.

Already in the first two months of this year, the death toll - 60 Palestinians and 14 on the Israeli side - has been higher than any similar period in 2022, swelled by some of the bloodiest incidents in years.

In one Israeli military raid in Nablus in February, 11 Palestinians were killed in the ensuing violence, with dozens more injured by bullets, according to the Palestinian health ministry. In another raid and gun-battle in Jenin the previous month,10 Palestinians were killed.

Israelis have also reeled from a spate of particularly deadly attacks: seven civilians were shot dead outside an East Jerusalem synagogue in January, while in another incident in February three were killed in a ramming attack at a bus stop on the outskirts of the city.

Many others have been killed and injured on both sides in near-daily incidents, fuelling what is often described as a cycle of violence.

What is driving the violence?

Each side blames the other, but there are also longer-term underlying causes.

Palestinian attackers and those who support them say they are fighting Israel and the occupation and avenging Israeli assaults. Some of the attacks have been carried out by "lone wolves" - individuals who were not acting on the orders of an organisation. Israel accuses the Palestinian Authority (PA) - the Palestinians' governing body in the West Bank - of inciting such attacks.

Other attacks have been carried out by Palestinian militant groups, including the newly formed Lions' Den, whose popularity on the Palestinian street has surged.

• A 100-year-old conflict

Israel says its ongoing operation in the West Bank, called "Break the Wave", is targeting militant groups with arrest raids to stop them from launching attacks. The raids, however, are often taking place in densely populated refugee camps and other urban areas, where they meet resistance from gunmen and often turn bloody.

Is there an end in sight?

Not in the short-term. Israel says it has to continue its operations to weaken the militant groups and thwart attacks, while Palestinians say the attacks are a response to Israel's actions and overwhelmingly more powerful military. There is also no political peace process which could offer the prospect of a permanent solution, leaving decades-old grievances - the Palestinians' want of a state and Israel's want of security chief among them - festering.

The PA - derided and seen as complicit in Israel's military occupation by many Palestinians - shows no appetite to act against militants, a move which would be unpopular among ordinary Palestinians and put its own survival at risk. Israel's new hard-line, right-wing government is also intensifying measures against Palestinian violence, including accelerating demolitions of attackers' homes, allowing for attackers to be deported, and expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The ongoing expansion of Jewish settlements on land Palestinians claim for a future state is seen by them as a root cause of their long conflict with Israel. Settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

A faint flicker of hope lies with US-brokered talks, which brought Israel and the Palestinians face-to-face in the first meeting of its kind for years in Jordan on Sunday in an attempt to de-escalate tensions, with an aim for the two sides to meet again in March.

• Hawara: 'What happened was horrific and barbaric'

  1 day ago

  

• Israel and Palestinians pledge to reduce violence

  2 days ago

Israel extremist Minister calls to assassinate Palestinian faction leaders

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir 

[Saeed Qaq - Anadolu Agency]

February 28, 2023 

The Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party called, Monday, for a return to the policy of assassinations and the "elimination" of the Palestinian factions' leaders who, according to him, "incite against Israel".

This came during a visit to an illegal outpost built on Palestinian land in Beita village near the city of Nablus, in the northern Occupied West Bank, before completing its evacuation process.

"Time has come to stop the policy of containment," Ben Gvir said to members of his party and settlers who returned for the outpost.

READ: Palestine man who helped quake victims in Turkiye killed by Israeli fire on his return

"The enemy on the other side understands the opposite of the message. The terrorists need to be crushed, and time has come for that," Ben Gvir said.

Regarding the settlers' wave of attacks against the Palestinian homes, cars and properties in Huwara town, he said he understands the pain, but called not to take the law into their own hands.

"The party that must deal with terrorism and deter it is the Israeli government, not the citizens," he said.

He indicated that he called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day, asking him to legitimise the outpost and not to evacuate the settlers from it.

READ: Eyewitness: Settlers carried out new Nakba in Huwara

Israel demolishes Palestinian home in East Jerusalem


A heavy duty machine of Israeli forces demolishes a house belonging to a Palestinian 

[Mostafa Alkharouf - Anadolu Agency]

February 28, 2023 

Israeli municipal authorities demolished a Palestinian-owned home in Occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, according to family members, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Hani Al-Hussaini said Israeli authorities cited lack of a building permit for bringing down the house in Jabel Mukaber neighbourhood, south of East Jerusalem.

"The building was constructed about six years ago and was inhabited by a 4-member family," he told Anadolu.

READ: Israel rejects appeal against demolition of Palestinian primary school in Bethlehem

Al-Hussaini said the house owners had repeatedly tried to obtain a building permit from Israeli municipal authorities.

"They refused to grant us a permit and now they demolished the house allegedly for unauthorised construction," he added.

According to Al-Hussaini, there are 180 Palestinian houses in the neighbourhood at the risk of demolition due to lack of building permits.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israel has demolished 50 residential homes in East Jerusalem since the start of this year.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognised by the international community.

International law regards both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as Occupied Territories and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there illegal.

READ: False hopes and broken promises litter the ground behind the UN Statement on Palestine

Israel rejects appeal against demolition of Palestinian primary school in Bethlehem

February 28, 2023

Israeli security forces take measures as Israeli forces demolish the house belonging to Palestinian [Mostafa Alkharouf - Anadolu Agency]

February 28, 2023 

An Israeli court rejected an appeal today against the demolition of a Palestinian primary school in the southern occupied West Bank governorate of Bethlehem, reported Wafa news agency.

Submitted by the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission and the Society of St. Yves, a Catholic human rights organisation, the appeal was against a previous court order to demolish Al-Tahadi School 5 in Beit Taamir.

READ: Palestinians protest against Israel settler attacks

The Director of the Office of the Bethlehem Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Hassan Brijieh, told Wafa that an Israeli court in favour of the school's demolition in 2017 and since then the file has been legally followed up in order to cancel this decision, however, the court rejected the appeal during a hearing last week.

Some 66 students attend the school, which was previously demolished and rebuilt in 2017.

School 5 is one of 17 Al-Tahadi schools, built by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Area C of the Occupied West Bank, which constitutes around 60 per cent of its area.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was divided into three regions – Area A, B and C.

Area C is under Israel's administrative and security control until a final status agreement is reached with the Palestinians.

 

Israeli Settlers Hold Provocative March in Old City of Hebron

Af.M | DOP - 1 March, 2023

Under the Israeli occupation forces’ protection, Israeli settlers held Wednesday, 1 march 2023 a provocative march roamed several neighborhoods in the Old City of Hebron.

Local Palestinain sources reported that Israeli settlers armed with rifles and guarded by the Israeli forces, walked through the alleys of Hebron’s old city while shouting racist slogans targeted at local Palestinian residents.

Colonial settlers concentrated on the old town of Hebron, banging drums and shouting anti-Palestinian slogans.

Earlier this week, armed settlers set dozens of Palestinian homes and cars on fire in Huwara, a town in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, in what appeared to be the worst outburst of settler violence in decades.

Local Palestinian sources reported that illegal settlers torched some 30 Palestinian-owned homes and cars during the late-night rampage, which came a day after two settlers were killed.

Tensions have escalated between Palestinians and Israeli colonial settlers amid intensified Israeli deadly military raids in occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the occuiped West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by the Israeli occupation.

The city of Hebron is home to roughly 200,000 Palestinians and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers who live in colonial outposts in the heart of the city, heavily guarded by Israeli troops.

 

 Settlers hurl stones at Palestinians, attack soldiers and police; five arrested

Officials say forces tried to stop Jewish Israelis from attacking Palestinian-owned cars on highway near al-Mughayyir; one suspect kicked soldier and maced police officer

By EMANUEL FABIAN 28 February 2023

Settlers run from a soldier hurling a tear gas grenade near al-Mughayyir

 in the West Bank, February 28, 2023. (Screenshot: Twitter)

The military on Tuesday said a group of settlers assaulted soldiers and police officers who attempted to stop them from hurling stones at Palestinian vehicles in the West Bank, the latest in a series of violent incidents.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, troops were dispatched to the scene on the Route 458 highway near the town of al-Mughayyir after receiving a report of stones being hurled at Palestinian-owned cars.

“When forces arrived at the scene, they identified a number of suspects, some of them masked, hurling stones at a Palestinian truck,” the IDF said.

The IDF said the troops fired into the air, but the suspects refused to disperse.

The troops then used tear gas against the group, and in response, one suspect kicked a soldier and maced a police officer with pepper spray, according to the IDF.

Police added that another suspect punctured the tires of the vehicle belonging to the officer.

Five suspects were detained and handed over to police for further questioning.

Both the IDF and police said they viewed attacks on security forces “with severity.”

Settlement groups said the group had gathered in the area after Palestinians had hurled stones at Israeli-owned cars, wounding a young girl. The Rescuers Without Border emergency service said the toddler did not require hospitalization after being lightly hurt by glass shrapnel.

Police said four Palestinian minors were detained for hurling stones that wounded the toddler. The teens, who did not have a driver’s license, initially attempted to flee in a car that had been taken off the road, police said.

Later in the day, another two Israeli women were lightly hurt after Palestinians allegedly hurled stones at their vehicle in the West Bank town of Huwara, the service said.

According to Rescuers Without Borders, the cousin of terror victims Hallel and Yagel Yaniv — who were killed in Huwara on Sunday — was driving through the town when he was attacked.
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Two hitchhiking Israelis in the backseat were lightly hurt by glass fragments, the service said.

A car damaged in a stone-throwing attack in Huwara, the West Bank, on February 28, 2023.

 (Courtesy: Rescuers Without Borders)

The incident near al-Mughayyir comes amid a series of violent incidents by settlers against Israeli troops in the West Bank, and following extreme settler rioting in the Palestinian town of Huwara, following the killing of two Israelis in a shooting attack there.

The IDF said that on Monday, a group of settlers who hurled stones at Israeli forces in the West Bank attempted to ram an officer with a vehicle. In a separate incident on Sunday, the IDF said a senior officer was assaulted by a group of settlers near the West Bank settlement of Rimonim.

The incidents came during and following a violent rampage carried out by Israeli settlers in the West Bank town of Huwara on Sunday evening. They set fire to Palestinian homes and cars, hours after a terror attack in the same town claimed the lives of two Israeli brothers.

The settler riots saw one Palestinian killed in circumstances that remain unclear, scores injured and dozens of Palestinian homes and cars set on fire.

Security forces failed to contain Sunday’s violence for long hours despite early warnings of a planned violent protest in Huwara. Troops were also preoccupied with searching for the gunman who killed the Israeli brothers, as well as dealing with settlers who had defiantly returned to the evacuated Evyatar outpost.

Eight suspects were detained by Israeli troops and police officers on Sunday night over their alleged involvement in the rampage,

Six were released Monday morning, including one to house arrest, and the last two were released on Tuesday morning to house arrest, Israel Police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told The Times of Israel. As of Tuesday afternoon, three Israeli suspects were under house arrest.

There were no other known arrests following the riots.

Military chief Herzi Halevi vowed to “thoroughly investigate” the riots.

Illustrative: Israeli soldiers speak with Israeli settlers in the West Bank town of Huwara near Nablus on February 27, 2023. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP)

Additionally, Elsdunne said police had no information about officers being involved in the killing of the Palestinian man, Sameh Aqtash, in nearby Za’tara during the rioting on Sunday night.

A military official told The Times of Israel on Sunday that Israeli soldiers were not involved in the shooting that killed Aqtash, 37. His family has claimed he was shot by Israeli forces.

The military has bolstered the West Bank with four additional infantry battalions following the attack and subsequent settler rioting in Huwara.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been high for the past year, with the IDF conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks.

There has also been a noted rise in settler violence toward Palestinians in recent months.

Biden’s policy on Israeli extremism is– Kiss Netanyahu’s ass

BY PHILIP WEISS AND MICHAEL ARRIA

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

NETANYAHU IS HUGGED BY SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER, AS US AMBASSADOR THOMAS NIDES (L), SENATOR JACK REED, AND SENATOR MARK WARNER (REAR CENTER) LOOK ON.

 PHOTO BY ISRAELI GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE, AMOS BEN-GERSHOM. FEB. 24, 2023.

A picture says 1000 words, and this one is getting attention round the world: the Israeli government’s photo of a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. ambassador and at least three Democratic senators on February 24– two days after Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians in occupied Nablus, many of them civilians.

The Democratic Senators– Chuck Schumer, Mark Warner and Jack Reed– are all jollying Netanyahu. While Nides celebrated bipartisan Senate delegations to Israel of at least 16 senators, saying all the Senate leadership” had come to Israel, including Mitch McConnell and Schumer, who was “probably on his 500th trip.”

“Netanyahu and his far-right allies are leading Israel to the edge of the abyss. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s response was to provide him cover with a smile and a hug, stifling any momentum building toward real accountability,” Haaretz’s Ben Samuels commented on the photo.

The trip was praised on Twitter by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides. “Bipartisanship is alive and well in Israel!!,” he tweeted. “What a great time having Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell along with their Senatorial delegations here.”

In the last day Nides has issued statements of condolence for Israeli victims of the Palestinian attacks, but said nothing about the Jewish settler rampage in Huwara that killed a Palestinian and torched businesses, homes, and cars.

“It is the crudest possible form of racism to express concern for the lives of one racial group and silence (i.e., contempt) when it comes to the losses among another racial group. Have you no shame?” writes scholar Saree Makdisi.

But that is U.S. policy under Joe Biden. Nides and Schumer (who has often said his name in Hebrew means “guardian” of Israel) are affirming the Biden doctrine of embracing Benjamin Netanyahu and pretending that there is no extremist government in Israel.

The State Department went out of its way to clap Netanyahu on the back in the wake of the settler rampage in Huwara. “We appreciate Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Herzog’s statements calling for a cessation of this vigilante violence…”

When a reporter asked if it is not “imperative” to point out that members of Netanyahu’s government who are “outright fascistic” have praised massacres and laughed at Israel’s supposed agreement not to build more Jewish colonies in Palestinian territories, State’s Ned Price demurred.


None of these members are the prime minister of Israel. We work directly with the prime minister, with his team, with our direct counterparts.

This is absurd. Netanyahu has himself scoffed at that summit agreement in Jordan to freeze settlements. And as for the settler rampages, they are government-approved “pogroms,” Americans for Peace Now said in a statement yesterday.

“We hold the Israeli government responsible for its failure to prevent the settlers’ large-scale attack on Palestinians on Sunday, for its dismissive reaction to the pogrom, and for its ongoing settlement activity…. The settlers’ rampage went unhindered by Israeli troops who were present at the scene. … Only a handful of settler suspects were detained. They were immediately released…According to press reports, Israeli authorities sought to let the settlers ‘vent’ their anger.”

“This is nothing short of state incitement—exactly what we’d expect from a govt dominated by supremacists and other extremists,” Khaled Elgindy says of the rampage.

The head of Americans for Peace Now, Hadar Susskind, called for American government actions to punish Netanyahu and Israel, presumably including withdrawal of aid. “The time has come for the Biden administration to hold the government of Israel accountable for both its unrestrained settlement activity and its enabling of settler violence. These are two sides of the same coin. Our government has a large toolbox with which it could show Netanyahu and his government that it will not tolerate the Israeli government’s illegal, violent West Bank frenzy.”

This will not happen. Biden is going out of his way to show that There Is No Daylight between him and Republicans in support of Israel. Just a week ago Secretary of State Tony Blinken was able to water down a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel over settlement expansion.

As usual, devotion to Israel (and its lobbying groups) transcends party. As Biden knows, the Israel lobby has even helped grow a conservative faction inside the Democratic Party. This week, (while Huwara is burning) we have a bipartisan letter from 18 congress members calling on the UN to fire Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese over her alleged bias against Israel. Today the Jewish Insider reports that Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY) and Republican Rep. Mike Lawler (NY) are introducing a bill that would create an ambassador for the Abraham Accords. And here is Nides welcoming that “phenomenal delegation” of Republican Senators led by Mitch McConnell to Israel earlier this week.

TOM NIDES (C) GREETS DELEGATION OF REPUBLICAN SENATORS (L TO R) KATIE BRITT, TOM TILLIS, MARKWAYNE MULLIN, MITCH MCCONNELL, JONI ERNST, TED BUDD, PETE RICKETTS. FEB. 24, 2023.

 SCREENSHOT FROM NIDES’S TWITTER FEED.

So the Israeli government’s extremism will go unchecked by a White House administration that is about to seek reelection. Even when it expresses fullthroated racism.

The Israeli minister of public diplomacy said yesterday– in English, to reach the world — that the conflict has nothing to do with land but is about murderers “programmed to seek Jewish blood.” Galit Distel Atbaryan of Netanyahu’s Likud Party said:


Don’t be misled and don’t be naive, it’s not a war over territory. No, it’s a fundamentalist religious war of brainwashed murderers who are programmed to seek Jewish blood since age zero. There are hypocrites who wake up to condemn violence here, only when it suits their narrative of a so-called ‘occupying apartheid country.'”

GALIT DISTEL ATBARYAN, MINISTER OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY FOR THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT, SAYS THAT IT’S A “FUNDAMENTALIST RELIGIOUS WAR.” FEB. 27, 2023. SCREENSHOT.

The only good news is that some of the press is waking up, and so is public opinion, we can hope. BBC today did extensive coverage of the “settler rampages.” The press corps at the State Department yesterday was highly dubious of the Biden line. Here are some of the questions:

So the Israelis arrested a handful of these vigilantes, and then have released most of them. So I’m wondering if you’re satisfied with the Israeli response to that settler violence?…

I noticed in your tweet yesterday you referred to the shooting that – in which two Israelis were killed as a terror – or terrorism, whereas the settler violence was separated. Was that deliberate? And if yes, how do you differentiate or decide when to use the word “terrorism” versus when not to?

As Khaled Elgindy said today of a US envoy’s visit to Palestinians in Huwara in an expression of sympathy: “Come on, you can say it: it’s called terrorism.”

Historian says Fla. dispute shows why AP class in African American studies is needed

Khalil Gibran Muhammad says College Board needs to stand firm behind curriculum

Khalil Gibran Muhammad says Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis is “absolutely wrong” in his claims that an AP course in African American studies was “historically inaccurate” and “lacks educational value.”

Photo by Kayana Szymcza

BY Liz Mineo

Harvard Staff Writer
DATE February 28, 2023

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, suggests the heated controversy triggered by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ threat in January to ban a pilot Advanced Placement course in African American studies reflects the need for such a class in public high schools. DeSantis argued the course was “historically inaccurate” and “lacks educational value.” At least four other states are also reviewing the curriculum to ensure it complies with local laws. The College Board, which produces AP courses (higher-level coursework for which high school students can earn college credit), revised the curriculum but says it was for pedagogical reasons and not in response to political pressure. The Gazette spoke to Muhammad about the dispute and what it means. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q&A
Khalil Gibran Muhammad

GAZETTE: Why is it important to have an AP course in African American studies?

MUHAMMAD: It represents a long-fought effort to legitimize the teaching of Black people’s contributions to the world, because African American studies is bigger than just what happened here in the United States. It is an effort to legitimize this in a way that would make for a radical departure from what is customarily taught today in 2023. The fact that people have fought for this AP course and the right for it to be developed is an important and significant achievement.

Also, the fact that the College Board has a monopoly over the way their 38 AP courses are taught in high schools across the United States in some ways is the closest thing to a national curriculum in the United States. We should see this course amongst the three dozen others as a window into the kinds of material that we take seriously in our secondary education system, as a feeder into higher education more generally.

GAZETTE: To justify his threat to ban the course, DeSantis has said that “it lacks educational value.” What is your response to that?

MUHAMMAD: As someone who has spent his entire career in the field and who used to lead the oldest research and cultural archive dedicated to Black studies [the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture], the governor is absolutely wrong. His claims are an open attack on everything that African American studies has fought hard to achieve, both in its position within higher education and the histories of the people who make contributions that African American studies both acknowledges and is built upon. It is a complete erasure and denigration of the contributions of people of African descent in this society and around the globe.
“What is happening here is the fight against the effort to change the way in which the celebrations of white supremacy or the erasure of Black History continues to be a problem in American education.”


GAZETTE: In your view, what is behind these arguments and the general reluctance to teaching African American history in public schools?

MUHAMMAD: The larger context in which this backlash is happening strikes me as a direct consequence of the protest movements that have been going on in this country for the past decade that are loosely described as the Black Lives Matter movement. These racial justice protests culminated in inspiring millions of white people across the country in the summer of 2020 to take to the streets to protest police violence. Since that time, there has been a political movement led by the White House under Donald Trump and later moved to state houses and legislative bodies to essentially cut off any further reading, discussion, or teaching about the history of antiracist struggles in this country and the contemporary movement for racial justice. What’s behind this current political attack is an effort to stem any further change in this country that would address the longstanding and enduring problems of structural racism that exists in the United States.

GAZETTE: Do you find any parallels between these actions and the backlash that took place after Reconstruction?

MUHAMMAD: There are parallels, but what happened after Reconstruction was more directly connected to the disenfranchisement of Black voters, particularly Black men, from the ability to have a say in representative government in this democracy. Whether it was disenfranchisement at the ballot box or the use of terror for people to self-disenfranchise, meaning to simply withdraw from political life altogether, it was a more visceral period in U.S. history that ultimately led to legal segregation and second-class citizenship for Black Americans.

The Reconstruction period also witnessed the creation of the narrative of the Southern Lost Cause and the celebration of white supremacy in American education and in textbooks across the South and the construction of monuments to celebrate the Confederacy. What is deeply troubling now in this moment is that this is in many ways still the status quo. What is happening here is the fight against the effort to change the way in which the celebrations of white supremacy or the erasure of Black History continues to be a problem in American education.

GAZETTE: What do you think is a possible solution to this controversy?

MUHAMMAD: At this point, the College Board has to show a vigorous defense of the field and an unflinching commitment to the fact that African American studies is about the past and the present. And that today’s fight for racial justice is also embodied in the increasing acknowledgement that queer Black people have been consistently left behind and that newer activists today recognize that freedom depends upon fighting for trans people’s rights as well. Fifty years from now, someone will look back on this moment, and either the College Board will be on the right side of history or on the wrong side of history. The wrong side will have been to bend to the political pressure, to accept censorship, and to believe that a half-victory is better than no victory at all. That’s how we got into this mess in the first place.

The College Board is going to have to commit itself fully to restoring this curriculum as it was originally imagined and designed. I do also believe that that will not solve the problem of Florida and potentially now several other states, including Arkansas, Virginia, North Dakota, and Mississippi, that have all said that they will now be reviewing the AP course to ensure that it complies with their state laws.

Some people might think this is not as important as some other political issues that are more pressing in their minds. But Black people have always been the canaries in the coal mine for the fascist underpinnings of this society. Black people lived longer than any other population with 100 years of totalitarian government in the Jim Crow South. We know what fascism looks like; we know what racist propaganda looks like. We’ve lived through it and fought against it. What today is the problem of an AP course in African American studies or Stop Woke Act is a fight that tomorrow will increasingly envelop other communities in this country who believe in equity and justice. That is a window into the dystopian future that every American ought to care deeply about for those who don’t want to slide into an authoritarian society, which seems to be the direction that significant parts of this country are heading. All of this is happening right now right in front of us, and I’m afraid not enough people are standing up to fight against it.

Biden faces dilemma in fight over large Alaska oil project


By BECKY BOHRER and MATTHEW BROWN

yesterday

This 2019 aerial photo provided by ConocoPhillips shows an exploratory drilling camp at the proposed site of the Willow oil project on Alaska's North Slope. The Biden administration is weighing approval of a major oil project on Alaska's petroleum-rich North Slope that supporters say represents an economic lifeline for Indigenous communities in the region but environmentalists say is counter to Biden's climate goals. A decision on ConocoPhillips Alaska's Willow project, in a federal oil reserve roughly the size of Indiana, could come by early March 2023. 

(ConocoPhillips via AP, File)

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Biden administration is weighing approval of a major oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope that supporters say represents an economic lifeline for Indigenous communities in the region but environmentalists say is counter to President Joe Biden’s climate goals.

A decision on ConocoPhillips Alaska’s Willow project, in a federal oil reserve roughly the size of Indiana, could come by early March.

Q: What is the Willow project?

A: The project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the company — about 1.5% of total U.S. oil production. But in Alaska, Willow represents the biggest oil field in decades. Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said the development could be “one of the biggest, most important resource development projects in our state’s history.”

On average, about 499,700 barrels of oil a day flow through the trans-Alaska pipeline, well below the late-1980s peak of 2.1 million barrels.

ConocoPhillips Alaska had proposed five drilling sites as part of the project. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management in early February identified up to three drill sites initially as a preferred alternative, which ConocoPhillips Alaska said it considered a viable option. But the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees the bureau, took the unusual step of issuing a separate statement expressing “substantial concerns” with the alternative and the project.

The alternative showed extracting and using the oil from Willow would produce the equivalent of more than 278 million tons (306 million short tons) of greenhouse gases over the project’s 30-year life, roughly equal to the combined emissions from 2 million passenger cars over the same time period. It would have a roughly 2% reduction in emissions compared to ConocoPhillips’ favored approach.

Q: Is there support for Willow?

A: There is widespread political support in Alaska, including from the bipartisan congressional delegation, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and state lawmakers. There also is “majority consensus” in support in the North Slope region, said Nagruk Harcharek, president of the group Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, whose members include leaders from across much of that region. Supporters have called the project balanced and say communities would benefit from taxes generated by Willow to invest in infrastructure and provide public services.

City of Nuiqsut Mayor Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, whose community of about 525 people is closest to the proposed development, is a prominent opponent who is worried about impacts on caribou and her residents’ subsistence lifestyles. But opposition there isn’t universal. The local Alaska Native village corporation has expressed support.

U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat who is Yup’ik, said there is “such consensus in the region and across Alaska that this project is a good project.” She hoped to make a case to Biden that the project would create well-paying union jobs.

Ahtuangaruak said she feels voices like hers are being drowned out.

Q. What are the politics of the decision?

Biden faces a dilemma that pits Alaska lawmakers against environmental groups and many Democrats in Congress who say the project is out of step with Biden’s goals to slash planet-warming carbon emissions in half by 2030 and move to clean energy. Approval of the project would represent a betrayal by Biden, who promised during the 2020 campaign to end new oil and gas drilling on federal lands, environmentalists say.

Biden has made fighting climate change a top priority and backed a landmark law to accelerate expansion of clean energy such as wind and solar power, and move the U.S. away from the oil, coal and gas.

He faces attacks from Republican lawmakers who blame Biden for gasoline price spikes that occurred after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Q: Didn’t the Biden administration support Willow?

A: Justice Department attorneys in 2021 defended in court an environmental review conducted during the Trump administration that approved the project. But a federal judge later found flaws with the analysis, setting aside the approval and returning the matter to the land management agency for further work. That led to the review released in early February.

Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she was concerned the Biden administration would “try to have it both ways” by issuing an approval but including so many restrictions it would render the project uneconomical.

Earthjustice, an environmental group, has encouraged project opponents to call the White House, urging Willow’s rejection.

Q: What about greenhouse gas emissions?

A: Federal officials under former President Donald Trump claimed increased domestic oil drilling would result in fewer net global emissions because it would decrease petroleum imports. U.S. companies adhere to stricter environmental standards than those in other countries, they argued.

After outside scientists rejected the claim and a federal judge agreed, the Interior Department changed how it calculates emissions.

The latest review, under the Biden administration, is getting pushback over its inclusion of a suggestion that 50% of Willow’s net emissions could be offset, including by planting more trees on national forests to capture and store carbon dioxide. Reforestation work on federal lands was something the administration already planned and needed to meet its broader climate goals, said Michael Lazarus, a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute.

“That doesn’t help you meet a reduction goal. It’s absurd,” said Lazarus, whose work was cited by the judge who overruled the Trump-era environmental review. “It doesn’t address the fact that we’re increasing global emissions by doing this project. ... We’re locking in emissions for 30 years into the future when we should be on a reduction schedule.”

Q: What about Biden’s promises to curtail oil drilling?

A: Biden suspended oil and gas lease sales after taking office and promised to overhaul the government’s fossil fuels program.

Attorneys general from oil-producing states convinced a federal judge to lift the suspension -- a ruling later overturned by an appeals court. The administration ultimately dropped its resistance to leasing in a compromise over last year’s climate law. The measure requires the Interior Department to offer for sale tens of millions of acres of onshore and offshore leases before it can approve any renewable energy leases.

The number of new drilling permits to companies with federal leases spiked in Biden’s first year as companies stockpiled drilling rights and officials said they were working through a backlog of applications from the Trump administration. Approvals dropped sharply in fiscal year 2022.

The Biden administration has offered less acreage for lease than previous administrations. But environmentalists say the administration hasn’t done enough.

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a recent interview declined direct comment on Willow but said that “public lands belong to every single American, not just one industry.”

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press writer Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this story.

Wave of Poison Attacks on Schoolgirls Alarms Iranians

Tuesday, 28 February, 2023 

General view of Qom city

 WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Asharq Al-Awsat

Hundreds of Iranian girls in different schools have suffered "mild poison" attacks over recent months, the health minister said, with some politicians suggesting they could have been targeted by religious groups opposed to girls' education.

The attacks come at a critical time for Iran's clerical rulers, who faced months of anti-government protests sparked by the death of a young Iranian woman in the custody of the morality police who enforce strict dress codes.

The poison attacks at more than 30 schools in at least four cities started in November in Iran's city of Qom, prompting some parents to take their children out of school, state media reported.

Social media posts showed some hospitalized schoolgirls, who said they had felt nauseous and suffered heart palpitations.

"Investigating where this mild poison comes from ... and whether it is an intentional move are not within the scope of my ministry," Health Minister Bahram Einollahi was quoted as saying by state media.

His deputy, Younes Panahi, said on Sunday "it was found that some people wanted schools, especially girls’ schools, to be closed", according to IRNA state news agency.

One boys' school has been targeted in the city of Boroujerd, state media reported.

Lawmaker Alireza Monadi said the existence of "the devil's will" to stop girls from going to school was a "serious threat", according to IRNA.

He did not elaborate, but suspicions have fallen on hardline religious groups.

In 2014, people took to the streets of the city of Isfahan after a wave of acid attacks, which appeared to be aimed at terrorizing women who violated the country's strict Islamic dress code.

"If operatives of the acid attacks had been identified and punished then, today a group of reactionaries would not have ganged up on our innocent girls in the schools," reformist politician Azar Mansoori tweeted.

Several senior clerics, lawmakers and politicians have criticized the government for failing to end the poison attacks and giving contradicting reasons for them, with some warning that frustration among families could ignite further protests.

"Officials are giving contradictory statements ... one says it is intentional, another says it is security-linked and another official blames it on schools' heating systems," state media quoted senior cleric Mohammad Javad Tabatabai-Borujerdi as saying.

"Such statements increase people's mistrust (towards the establishment)."

A judicial probe into the poisoning cases is under way, state media reported.