MURDER INC. TRUMP & CO.

Sara Weinberger: 

Shining a light on the federal government’s killing spree  

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Published: 12/21/2020 12:52:32 PM

In June, Attorney General William Barr ordered the resumption of federal executions. Like a kid let loose in a candy store, Barr wasted no time.

On July 14, Daniel Lee Lewis, according to his lawyer, spent the last four hours of his life strapped to a gurney, waiting for the Supreme Court to decide his fate. On July 13, a federal judge had delayed his execution on the grounds that the constitutionality of Barr’s procedure for lethal injections had not been fully litigated. The Justice Department immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. Ultimately, Lewis was executed shortly after the court, in a 5-4 ruling, paved the way for 10 people to be executed by the federal government by year’s end.

The Supreme Court also rejected a petition by Lee’s family asking for a delay, because the coronavirus made it risky for them to attend his execution. The dangers associated with COVID-19 routinely deprive family members, spiritual advisers and attorneys from being present.

Wesley Ira Purkey and Dustin Lee Honken were executed that same week. According to his lawyers, Mr. Purkey had schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and brain damage, leaving him unable to understand the reasons for his death sentence. A federal district judge delayed his execution in order for the court to determine his fitness for execution, as well as whether lethal injection procedures violated his constitutional rights.

Again, the Supreme Court rejected the delays. Purkey was executed on July 16, without his spiritual adviser, a Buddhist priest, who was medically vulnerable to COVID. The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit by Purkey and Honken’s spiritual advisers claiming violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Lezmond Mitchell, who is Navajo and the only Native American on federal death row, was executed Aug. 26. The Navajo Nation fought his execution. For the first time in modern history, the federal government, which has jurisdiction over capital crimes occurring on reservations, carried out an execution for a crime committed on tribal land.

William Emmett LeCroy told a psychiatrist he believed that a nurse acquaintance was a former babysitter he called “Tinkerbell,” who sexually molested and cast a spell on him 20 years earlier. Killing her, he believed, was the only way to reverse the spell.

His lawyers appealed his death sentence on the grounds that his trial lawyers hadn’t adequately emphasized his mental illness and upbringing, which might have prevented his death sentence. Mr. LeCroy was executed on Sept. 22.

Christopher Andre Vialva, executed Sept. 24, and Brandon Bernard, executed Dec. 10, were the first two men in more than 70 years sentenced to death for crimes committed as teenagers. Both men were Black. The victims were white. There was only one Black person on the jury that convicted Vialva.

Brandon Bernard’s attorney requested a hearing regarding new evidence showing he played a lesser role in the crime. Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr took the case, requesting two weeks to prepare. Five of the original jurors stated they would not have sentenced him to death had this evidence been presented. Twenty-three prosecutors filed an amicus brief supporting the appeal. The Supreme Court denied the attorneys’ requests. Pleas to President Trump from Kim Kardashian, Jesse Jackson and AyannaPressley fell on Trump’s deaf ears.

Alfred Bourgeois received only 21 days’ notice of his execution, not enough time, according to his lawyers, to exhaust his legal options. Mr. Bourgeois is intellectually disabled, with an IQ between 70 and 75. A 2002 Supreme Court decision made it unconstitutional to execute a mentally disabled person. The court denied Bourgeois’ appeal. He was executed on Dec. 11.

The execution of Orlando Hall, a Black man convicted by an all-white jury, and executed Nov. 19 for the murder of a Black teenage girl, was the first federal execution under a lame-duck administration in over a century. His court-appointed trial attorneys made many mistakes that contributed to his death sentence.

The federal government’s killing spree hasn’t made front page headlines. Each of the brief descriptions above points to violations of rights accorded by our legal system to all human beings, regardless of their crimes. Supreme Court decisions ignoring mental illness, intellectual disabilities, age, racism, Native American sovereignty and the consequences of COVID are deeply troubling.

Most disturbing is the rush to execute people who have lingered on death row for years. William Barr exploited human lives as a vehicle to help his boss win the election by portraying him as a man who stands for law and order. The Trump administration has killed more prisoners sine July than any other administration has done in a full year since 1896.

Lisa Montgomery, possibly the first woman executed by the feds since 1953, Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs are scheduled for execution before the Trump administration’s serial killings end … for now.

Sara Weinberger of Easthampton is a professor emerita of social work and writes a monthly column. She can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.

Nigeria: Tobacco Industry 'Front' Rejected By WHO, Others, Finds Footing in Nigeria

20 DECEMBER 2020
Premium Times (Abuja)

By Ben Ezeamalu

To bypass the provisions of the WHO-FCTC, the tobacco industry established a public health foundation.

As the four students of Whitesands College, Lekki, posed for the camera after emerging winners of the 2018 Conrad Challenge, the name of an entity screamed from a roll-up banner behind them: Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.

The Junior Secondary School Two (JSS2) students had won the Smoke-Free World category of the Conrad Foundation Spirit of Innovation challenge held at the Kennedy Space Centre, USA.

With the World Health Organisation Framework for Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) urging Parties to ban or restrict all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, particularly ones targeting youth populations, the companies found a subtle way.

The FCTC is a legally binding treaty that requires countries bound by the treaty -- or Parties -- to implement evidence-based measures to reduce tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke. There are 182 Parties to the FCTC as of May 2020.

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, the sponsors of the challenge, is a foundation funded by Philip Morris International (PMI), one of the biggest tobacco manufacturing companies in the world.

Bypassing an obstacle

Tobacco kills more than eight million people each year, with more than seven million of the deaths due to direct tobacco use, according to the World Health Organisation. About 1.2 million of the deaths are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.

To check the interference of the tobacco industry in countries' public health policies, the WHO-FCTC in Article 5.3 stated that, "In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law."

To bypass this provision, PMI established, in September 2017, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW), a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to "solving the global health crisis and ending smoking in this generation." PMI initially pledged to, starting from 2018, support the Foundation with $80 million annually over 12 years.

Two weeks after its launch, the WHO issued a statement saying there are a number of clear conflicts of interest involved with a tobacco company funding a purported health foundation.

"WHO will not partner with the Foundation. Governments should not partner with the Foundation and the public health community should follow the lead," the UN agency stated.

Several other renowned public health bodies, including the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, also distanced themselves from any proposed partnership with FSFW. In January 2019, 279 global health organisations and public health leaders urged the WHO to reject any affiliation with the Foundation.

With millions of dollars in its coffers and the chances of partnership with notable public health organisations becoming a mirage by the day, FSFW found another way: give money to a foundation involved with young people. Enter the Conrad Foundation, which holds the annual Conrad Challenge, an innovation and entrepreneurship competition that encourages "young adults to participate in designing the future through purpose-driven education," according to information on its website. Other sponsors of the challenge include Dell Technologies, Bezos Family Foundation, and Kennedy Space Centre, among others.

But it is the involvement of the Foundation for a Smoke-free World that had raised eyebrows among tobacco-control advocates and other public health professionals.

"There is generally a difference between the provisions of the FCTC and the ways in which parties are legally obligated to adhere to those provisions," said Michél Legendre, Associate Campaign Director at Corporate Accountability.

"But there is no doubt that groups like the Conrad Foundation, which are affiliated with the industry, can be considered as advertising and promotion. This is clearly laid out in Article 5.3. More broadly, the FCTC seeks to protect children and adolescents, so any targeting of these groups by industry affiliates like the Conrad Foundation is in violation of the treaty."

The FSFW's 2019 tax return shows that PMI has continued to be the sole funder for its activities. An analysis of the tax return by Tobacco Tactics reveals that the grants and contributions for the year 2019 are not primarily focused on funding scientific research but appear to be in line with the Foundation's public relations and advocacy strategies.

"Only one in six of the grantees listed in this tax return (seven out of a total of 45) appear to be based within academic institutions."

Since it was introduced in Nigeria two years ago, 248 secondary school students have participated in the Conrad Challenge across four categories comprising aerospace and aviation, cyber technology and security, energy and environment, and food and nutrition. For the 2020-21 challenge, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World has introduced a new 'special category' named 'Repurposed Farmlands and Tobacco Crops.'

"A reduced demand of tobacco could bring devastating consequences to smallholder tobacco farmers who are economically dependent on tobacco crops for their livelihood," the Conrad Foundation said in a statement. "We challenge you to develop 21st-century agricultural technology solutions to increase smallholder agriculture efficiency and productivity to either repurpose tobacco farmlands for a different crop, or utilise farmlands for a different crop, or utilise the tobacco plant for a different purpose."

When contacted, the Conrad Challenge Nigeria denied any links with the tobacco industry.

"Conrad Challenge in Nigeria is currently only sponsored by the Conrad Foundation and through scholarships from Clarkson University New York," the foundation said in an e-mailed response.

In a follow-up email from the Conrad Foundation, the organisation said its funder, the FSFW, is independent of the tobacco industry.

"This is a misrepresentation of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW), which is an independent, nonprofit, private foundation committed to reducing deaths and diseases caused by smoking.

"For three years, FSFW has sponsored Conrad Challenge categories through grants that were aimed at eliminating and reducing e-cigarette usage and waste, as well as helping smallholder tobacco farmers who are seeking alternative livelihoods."

Prior to beginning the Conrad Foundation's relationship with FSFW, the organisation continued, the Conrad Foundation carefully examined FSFW's organizational documents to ensure its independence from any influence by the tobacco industry.

"Confirming FSFW's independence was vital to the Conrad Foundation's decision to accept FSFW funding."

After its initial funding promise, PMI amended its agreement with FSFW this year by adjusting its pledge thus: $80 million for 2018 and 2019; $45 million in 2020; $40 million in 2021; and $35 million from 2022 to 2029.

A FSFW spokesperson said the Foundation supports the full implementation of the FCTC and had authored and published papers that cite the need to fill gaps in its implementation.

"However, the Foundation does not agree with a biased interpretation of Article 5.3, which focuses on the governments who are the FCTC signatories and is not meant for nonprofit organisations like the Foundation," the organisation said in an e-mailed statement.

The statement reiterated that FSFW is independent of PMI and operates in a manner that ensures its independence from the influence of any commercial entity.

Drafting government's policy

The 2020 edition of Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction, published by the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World-funded Knowledge Action Change, called for Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) to be regarded as complementary, rather than inimical to reducing the global death and disease from smoking.

Although it noted that "there is no such thing as absolute safety," the report stated that the newer Safer Nicotine Products (SNP) have been in circulation for more than a decade, with evidence that they are much less risky than combustibles.

The report accused tobacco-control advocates of making misleading claims about the SNP which has led to an increase in the number of smokers who now believe that SNP are no safer or may even be more dangerous than cigarettes. This action, it stated, has allowed "activist NGOs" and academics to attract substantial funding from billionaire Michael Bloomberg, through Bloomberg Philanthropies. These NGOs, the report continued, had done nothing but spread bad science and misinformation, undermining the promise of THR products by putting governments under pressure to ban their use.

More than 16,000 people are killed by tobacco-caused diseases in Nigeria every year, according to the Tobacco Atlas.

Last July, the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) petitioned the Industry, Trade and Investment ministry accusing the tobacco industry of using agencies of government to draft a 'Policy on Conventional Tobacco and Non-Combusted Alternatives to Cigarette Smoking' in clear contravention of the National Tobacco Control (NTC) Act, 2015, its regulations; and the WHO-FCTC which Nigeria ratified in 2015.

The 19-page draft document listed the benefits from the tobacco sector to include employment creation, a significant contribution to Nigeria's GDP, and a significant increase in government revenue.

It also noted that there would be more than one billion smokers globally by 2025 and "it makes sense to offer less harmful, yet satisfying non-combusted alternatives for those smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke." It encouraged the switch to alternative products that do not combust tobacco but produce aerosol with potential to present less risk of harm compared to those found in cigarette smoke. Some of these alternatives include Electrically Heated Tobacco, Carbon Heated Tobacco Product, and E-Vapour Products.

"Epidemiologically, it has been clearly established that smoking increases the risk of developing a smoking-related disease. It has equally been demonstrated that if a smoker quits, the risk of developing a smoking-related disease decreases.

"So, it is wise to make available these alternatives to cigarettes for adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke."

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the draft document was sponsored by PMI and sent to the ministry of industry, trade and investment. Both PMI and the ministry did not respond to requests for comments.

It was not the first time the tobacco industry in Nigeria had attempted to flout the provisions of the WHO-FCTC. In 2014, the British American Tobacco Nigeria organised a training for police officers in Lagos on the enforcement of the then newly-passed tobacco control legislation in the state.

In its petition, the NTCA said such "outdated ploys" have been used by the tobacco industry in low- and middle-income countries like Nigeria to undermine their tobacco control policies and open up the market to "unproven safer alternatives." The group advocated that every novel tobacco product, including heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes, be banned in Nigeria while every new product be subjected to thorough regulatory scrutiny.

"Many countries have seen the gimmick [of the tobacco industry] and have taken strict measures against all kinds of tobacco products in the interest of public health and safety," said Akinbode Oluwafemi, who signed the petition on behalf of the NTCA, a network of frontline civil society organisations, NGOs, and professional groups working on tobacco control, public health and cancer control in Nigeria.

One of the most recent gimmicks by the tobacco industry was the action by Philip Morris, in July, after the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published the outcome of PMI's 2016 application to market its flagship heated tobacco product, IQOS, as a "modified risk tobacco risk product" in the U.S. In its ruling, the FDA noted that although the data submitted by PMI showed that IQOS may reduce exposure to harmful substances, it does not reduce the risk of disease and death when compared to cigarette smoking.

PMI immediately responded to the ruling, describing it as a "historic public health milestone." The company's managing director. sub-Saharan Africa, Bahman Safakish, told Nigerian journalists that providing smokers with science-based less harmful alternatives is a "commonsense solution to improve public health."

Anna Gilmore, a Professor of Public Health, described Philip Morris action in the aftermath of the FDA ruling as "worrying," and noted that, ultimately, the company is focused on profitability and not the well-being of tobacco users.

"There is a couple of things that might be worth flagging, one is that it's not just that Philip Morris is misrepresenting this decision but that, actually, in doing that, they try to push governments down a room for tobacco control that is not the most effective."

IQOS - which contains both tobacco and nicotine - was launched in South Africa in 2017, and plans are underfoot to extend the product to other African countries as soon as possible, Mr Safakish told the Nigerian Tribune in an interview last August.

Ms Gilmore, who is also the Director of the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, UK, said while independent research on IQOS showed that exposure to some chemicals was reduced, there was an increased exposure to other chemicals.

"And the critics also looked at the risk issue and showed that there really is no evidence that the risk of diseases is reduced and disease markers, if you like, are not reduced."


Read the original article on Premium Times.

Journalist arrested after exposing the plight of Palestinians in Israeli prisons

Bushra Al-Taweel, 27, was detained on 8 November while going home from Jenin via an Israeli military checkpoint near the illegal Yitzhar settlement

Laila Ahmet
Anjuman Rahman
December 1, 2020 

A Palestinian journalist and activist has been detained for the fifth time by the Israeli authorities after being released earlier this year from an eight-month term of administrative detention, when she was held with neither charge nor trial. Bushra Al-Taweel, 27, was detained on 8 November while going home from Jenin via an Israeli military checkpoint near the illegal Yitzhar settlement.

Palestinian journalists face growing threats, intimidation and violence as their freedoms are curtailed by the Israeli occupation. Journalism is a crucial pillar of democracy that holds those in power to account, so it comes as no surprise that Israel takes extreme measures to block any accurate reporting of the rights violations and crimes committed by its security forces in the occupied Palestinian territories.

According to Al-Taweel's mother, Muntaha, she was facing a lot of harassment and could neither move freely between cities in Palestine nor get a job to have an income to live on. "She is also, of course, prohibited from travelling abroad and cannot establish any commercial or economic project to develop, nor achieve her ambitions and goals as a professional journalist working with freedom and independence."

Al-Taweel is being held in Hasharon Prison in northern Israel where, her mother claims, she is being "tortured" by Israeli interrogators who are attempting to get "baseless confessions" from her. Palestinian journalists frequently report abuse by Israeli security forces and prison officers.

Palestinian woman detained by Israel soldiers at military checkpoint

Bushra Al-Taweel is the latest in a long line of Palestinian journalists who the Israeli occupation forces have harmed or killed, but the authorities have been unable to silence their criticism of the Israeli occupation and its unjust prison system. Soldiers rarely face legal consequences for their actions, and there is no sign that this will change anytime soon.

"There is no freedom for journalists to cover or publish what is newsworthy," explained Al-Taweel's mother. "They confiscated her cameras more than once, and she has borne insults and abuse from Israeli soldiers out in the field to cover events. They often fire tear gas and stun grenades at journalists to prevent them from filming."

Last year, Israeli soldiers arrested Al-Taweel in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, following the release of her father, a former leader of the local municipality in the town, Jamal Al-Taweel. She was first arrested when she was just 17, serving five months of an 18-month sentence before being released as part of a 2011 prisoner swap deal.

The fourth time that she was arrested was due to her coverage of issues affecting Palestinian detainees and prisoners held by the Israelis. "She covered things like the suffering that they and their families go through; the stopping of prisoners' stipends, and the use of administrative detention," said Mrs Al-Taweel.

The frequent arrest and harassment of Bushra Al-Taweel is symptomatic of the Israeli government's intention to discredit anyone who dares to speak out about the reality for Palestinians living under occupation and siege. Such brave individuals are silenced and, if necessary, taken out of the equation by Israel.

Bushra Al-Taweel, 27, was detained on 8 November while going home from Jenin via an Israeli military checkpoint near the illegal Yitzhar settlement


After graduating from Modern University College in Ramallah in 2013, Bushra launched the Aneen Al-Qaid Network, a media platform run by ex-prisoners, journalists, lawyers and humanitarian activists, who highlight the plight of Palestinian prisoners. She wanted to give voice to the suffering, especially of the mothers and children held by the Israelis, letting the world know what is happening through the media.

Israel has killed 46 Palestinian journalists since the outbreak of the Aqsa Intifada in 2000, the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate revealed in early November. The announcement was made during a rally outside the UNRWA headquarters in the Gaza Strip on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. Tahseen Al-Astal, the deputy head of the syndicate, called on the UN to assume its responsibility to protect journalists and bring to account the Israelis who commit crimes against Palestinians.

"The Syndicate records between 500 and 700 [Israeli] occupation attacks and crimes against Palestinian journalists every year," he pointed out. "It's time for these crimes to stop and to hold accountable those who committed them and those who issued the orders."

Muntaha Al-Taweel is concerned about the effect that the latest arrest will have on her daughter. "It will affect her psychologically because freedom is the most valuable thing that a person possesses. Prison is difficult and cruel, especially in light of the coronavirus. If she is infected, the prison authorities will not provide any medical treatment."

'They Tried to Freeze Me to Death': Torture and Resistance in Israeli Prisons

Even brief detentions during the Covid-19 pandemic can mean a death sentence. The majority of Palestinian prisoners are held in very cramped conditions, where social distancing is impossible. Moreover, they are left without the necessary sanitising, cleaning equipment and medical care to help to protect themselves.

There are currently around 4,500 Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails, 700 of whom require medical care. Israel has consistently failed to provide prisoners with basic precautionary measures during the pandemic, and even withdrew some food and hygiene products from prison canteens so that they couldn't buy them. "Families send money to prisoners so that they can make essential purchases of food and personal hygiene items," said Mrs Taweel. "If they are taken off the shelves by the Israelis, what can the prisoners do? Why aren't governments around the world holding Israel to account for such injustice?"

Bushra Al-Taweel was subjected to an administrative detention order yet again this week for a period of four months. No charges have been made against her. The detention order is renewable indefinitely.

"My daughter, Bushra al-Taweel, was arrested simply because she is a journalist with the credibility to expose the crimes of Israel and its occupation," said Muntaha Al-Taweel. "The world needs to sit up and take notice of what the occupation state is doing, especially against women and children."

Palestinian-American director Hind Shoufani tells MEMO about her new documentary


Artist, director and poet Hind Shoufani, 14 October 2017 [Ammar Abd Rabbo]

Naima Morelli
naimamorelli

December 16, 2020 

Artist, director and poet Hind Shoufani insists that her Palestinian-ness is a political act. "It is a choice to be on this side of history," she tells me, "whether we triumph or not, whether I carry some piece of identification paper with blue colours on it, or green colours on it, or rainbow glitter tie-dye on it."

Born in the Palestinian diaspora in Sidon in 1978 to Palestinian parents, both of whom were activists, Shoufani has for years explored her Palestinian identity through different expressions of her art: "In this life I have chosen to use my language and my camera, and my body performing on stage, and my angry throat dialectics, to commemorate our regional experience, to add to this arsenal of cultural memory, communal histories and personal perspectives."

A passionate storyteller, Shoufani has lived in a number of countries and cities: Damascus, Amman, Beirut, New York and Dubai. "When I was about 8 years old my dad, in his infinite lovely wisdom, told me it was a great thing to combine in me so much of the world. 'This is a gift and a good thing,' he told me. 'Embrace it', and so I have."

She started to work at eighteen, and for the past 24 years or so the red-haired powerhouse artist has moved around juggling freelance gigs. "I mixed my innate linguistic skills that are part DNA, part my mother and father's literary interests, and partly the fact that we read immense amounts of books growing up — there was little else to do in Damascus in the 80s — with my film studies to create a 'career' that straddles the worlds of language and video, in many capacities," she explains. "Some for clients, others for love. And some, for both."

With strong ties to Palestine, Shoufani was only able to go back in 2017, after 20 years of absence. "I am not someone attached to the idea of home," she says. "Home is wherever my contact lens solution, walking shoes, glitter eyeshadow and laptop are. But I wanted to experience the Galilee. I wanted something exquisite to ease my spirit. It was time to summon the witchcraft needed to cross those borders and ask some questions and tell some stories."

With an undefined idea for making a new movie, Shoufani, cameraman Nick Zajicek and producer Ossama Bawardi from Philistine Films began to do some research into Christian minorities, and found out that only a limited number of engaged and political communities were aware of the situation of Palestinians in the Christian Arab villages in Galilee. This research led to a visit to her large extended family in Nazareth and Miilya, without a precise plan in mind.


Trip Along Exodus (TAE)



"That first year we spent a month there in the gorgeous summer," she recalls. "Every day was a spell of exuberant overwhelmed senses and tears and laughter and drinking and smoking and eating plenty, and telling stories, and asking millions of questions, and touching a thousand succulents, and feeling a breeze to die for and dancing and dancing."

When filmmaking took over, the family introduced her to characters in the community, rituals, rites, locations, histories, events and experiences. Bit by bit, Hind and Nick visited eight different towns and cities over the course of the following three years, developing a relationship with a cast of characters who allowed them to gain an insight into their minds, homes and histories.

"My most profound takeaway from all this, before the film is edited and released, is gratitude that I was allowed such intimate access to these communities. I have a huge responsibility to do justice to the experiences I was invited to share and document."

The result of that experience is her new documentary, They Planted Strange Trees. It is focused on beauty as an act of will and resistance. "I wanted to make a film about the love I feel, and not the hate. I have perhaps given enough time for the hate, and it is a moment to remind myself of love, so that I, myself, can remain soft, open to the senses and ready to see beyond the anger."



She thinks that occupation is first and foremost a dulling of mind and will, and beauty counters this. "I cannot belittle the occupation's atrocious impact on the lives of millions, but we still move through the mountains and immerse ourselves in the sea, we still enjoy our coffees and touching the hair of our grandchildren. This is beautiful. The quotidian, the taken-for-granted is so heightened for me in Palestine."

She stresses that every time a Palestinian laughs, dances, makes love, gets wildly drunk and hugs a friend, performs a poem on stage, or gets a standing ovation at a concert, the occupation is a little less powerful in its sting. "We have in our skin, in our food, in our eyes and in our spirits enough beauty to see us through the harshness."

Palestine as a subject matter has been explored by the director before from different angles. In her debut film Trip Along Exodus, she looked at 70 years of Palestinian history through the experience of her father, activist Elias Shoufani. She believes that that film is the opposite of They Planted Strange Trees.

Trip Along Exodus was a film edited completely inorganically, combining different footage from over 20 sources shot over a period of 60 years. "Nothing was left as pure observation," Shoufani points out. "We made a film from a collage concept, like a child sticking random things into a sketchbook."

The new documentary, meanwhile, is almost pure observational work, with one camera and one camera person. "Everything was filmed by our star Nick Zajicek, who is essentially the person who made this film possible by offering his craft, time and dedication. No images from the past. No archive, no multimedia, no outside influences. The film is one unit, with one look, and through one central journey."


Trip Along Exodus (TAE)

The other difference is that Trip Along Exodus is about one man, and through him we see a lot of the regional dynamics. In They Planted Strange Trees, a dozen people all intertwine to speak of the central entity which is the land and the ecosystems that live within it: human, flora and fauna. "So it's from the outside heading inwards, whereas with my dad, I tried to work from within pointing outwards to the region and its history."

While the post-production of the new film was pushed back further and further because of Covid-19 — much to Shoufani's frustration – she has a plethora or projects to develop. There is a TV series about four female Arab poets; a short utopian, futuristic novella about Palestine in the year 2078; and a book about her mother's life and death in Amman and Damascus in the 1990s, to mention but a few.

Shoufani is also committed to nurture Arab art and poetry in the Middle East. Last month she launched the Barjeel Poetry Prize, inviting poets from around the world to respond to 20 works of 20th-century Arabic art from the UAE-based Barjeel Art Foundation collection. She was one of the three team members organising the competition. The idea was conceived by the founder of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, who is an avid collector of Arab art, and curator Suheyla Takesh.

She counts herself fortunate to be asked to take part. "And I am grateful to be partnered up with my dear friends Zeina Hashem Beck, the poet, and publisher Marcia Lynx Qualey. We have received over 500 submissions of dual language poems as they relate to 20 pieces of Arab art from the Barjeel collection. What an inspired way to get people all over the world to engage with Arab paintings, and to think about what their artists have been through over the past century, and to recreate that ethos in poetic language."

The results are due to come out later this month, and the judges are really pleased with the range and diversity of the winning poets. This was the inaugural year, and Shoufani doesn't know what future plans there are for the prize, but she sees it as a gift in the "apocalyptic year of despair known as 2020."

The artist, director and poet embraces all of her commitments with her usual energy and passion. "I am relaxed because at my age, after living in so many cities, not everything can overwhelm you, and because while being in Palestine is a privilege and a gift, it is also merely another piece of land where some people I love happen to live. It is a part of who I am, and not the entirety. No one place is."

Nevertheless, she is gratified that she was able to return to her homeland, which is something that her parents could not do. "And perhaps there is a way to be more present there in the future," she concludes. "Eventually, at the end, I would like to be swallowed up by a mountain in the Galilee."

Trip Along Exodus (TAE)

Israel: High Court is not expected to strike down Jewish Nation-State Law


Thousands of demonstrators from the Druze community stage a protest against the “Jewish Nation-State” law that was approved last month by the Israel’s parliament, at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel on August 04, 2018 [Daniel Bar On / Anadolu Agency]

December 23, 2020 

After hearing a series of fifteen petitions on Tuesday against Israel's Jewish Nation-State Law, the High Court of Justice is not expected to strike down the "racist" legislation, Dr Hassan Jabareen, the founder and executive director of Adalah rights group, has said.

Eleven Supreme Court justices sat on the panel sitting as the High Court of Justice. The latter generally hears petitions and provides judicial review over the branches of the Israeli government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the hearing on his Facebook page: "The court receives its power to rule by virtue of a basic law, and therefore cannot judge the source of its own power. This hearing illustrates the need for a series of judicial reforms."

Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin MK, from the Likud, warned the High Court that if the justices do strike down the law, he would consider the decision to be illegitimate, the Times of Israel reported. "Any decision that would violate the Basic Laws that were passed in the Knesset is a decision made without authority, and is thus invalid," Levin said in his letter sent to Chief Justice Esther Hayut.

READ: Israel set for snap election as budget deadline nears

According to Jabareen, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of the judges are supporting the law so that they will vote for it. "They will give explanations for the controversial articles in a way that keeps up with previous rulings. It seems that the court does not have political, legal or constitutional understanding for the racist dangers of this law. The court does not have an idea about the comparative law, nor does it understand that no country could accept such a law, which says that the state is only for Jews and not for its non-Jewish citizens."

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said that the High Court of Justice should not even have heard the case. As far as Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz is concerned, "The threats of Yariv Lavin and Netanyahu against the courts are threats to democracy and seek to dismantle the separation of powers."

Israeli law Professor Aeyal Gross expects the judges to defer giving an opinion on the law. A decision could take several weeks.

Document reveals plan by founder of Zionism to declare southern Morocco 'state of the Jews'


A portrait of Theodor Herzl, the late founder of political Zionism, adorning the building of "The Independence Hall Museum", the house in Tel Aviv where David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, declared the creation of Israel 70 years ago on 3 May 2018.

[JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images]

December 22, 2020 
A secret document has been leaked which gives details of a plan by Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, to declare southern Morocco as the "state of the Jews", Moroccan news website Hespress has revealed.

The document, said Hespress, brought "the historical relations between Jews and Morocco back to the fore after the resumption of official relations between Rabat and Tel Aviv." It noted that this idea appeared before "the idea of relocating the world's Jews to Palestine crystallised."

According to Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth, Herzl "promoted a secret and mysterious document of the [Morocco Plan], less well-known than the [Uganda Plan], which centred on settling Russian Jews in Wadi Al-Hisan, in the south-west of Morocco."

The plan to settle Jews in Uganda is part of Israeli schools' history curriculum, but much less is known about Herzl's alternative plan to settle Russian Jews in Morocco. He tackled this in an ambiguous letter he wrote in 1903. His sudden death a year later led to the plan being put on hold and archived.

READ: Netanyahu is a symptom, not the cause of Israel's political crisis

Yaakov Hagoel, the head of the World Zionist Organisation (WZO), told Yedioth Ahronoth: "There was a very large concentration of Jews there, whether in Morocco or in North Africa in general. It must be understood that Herzl was a very pragmatic man. He saw a problem with persecuted Jews suffering from violence mainly in Eastern Europe, and saw that Morocco had a thriving Jewish community with active Jewish centres."

Professor Joseph Chetrit, from the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa, said that the Morocco plan was presented for the first time by two brothers who were well-known activists in the Zionist movement at the time, Baruch and Yaakov Moshe Toledano. "Baruch spoke with Herzl a few months before the latter's death, then appealed to French Rabbi Vidal of Fez, who was close to the Moroccan monarchy and government, to establish an independent region for the Jews in Wadi Al-Hisan."

Chetrit pointed out that Rabbi Vidal, who was well versed in Morocco's politics, knew that this was a bogus plan that did not take the domestic situation in the country into account. "It was his grandson in Israel, who bears his name, who found the document and published it for the first time.

This Sao Paulo building is like a Palestinian refugee camp

Ahmad Hwedi
December 2, 2020 

On 29 August 1969, TWA Flight 840 took off from Los Angeles for Tel Aviv via Rome. There were 116 passengers on board, including a young Palestinian woman called  Laila Khaled. 

She and her accomplice, Salim Al-Issawi, hijacked the aircraft on the final leg of the journey, forcing it to land in Damascus. After releasing the passengers and crew unharmed, the pair blew the plane up.

Khaled said at the time that the intention was to get a number of Palestinian prisoners released and draw the world's attention to the justice of the Palestinian cause. A year later she tried to hijack an Israeli aircraft, but the plan failed and she was arrested in London.

That young woman became a national hero for the Palestinians, and her iconic image adorns walls all over the refugee camps within occupied Palestine and neighbouring countries. She remains a strong symbol of resistance to the Israeli occupation. Indeed, her picture greeted me above the entrance to a building in Sao Paulo, Brazil; not the first place that I would ever have expected to see it.

What's more, I was just as surprised to see Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali's signature cartoon figure "Handala" on the shutters of the shop on the ground floor of the same building. This was intriguing, so I asked around to find out who owns the building, and who lives or works there.


The iconic Handala cartoon on the building's ground floor shop [Middle East Monitor]

The block has more than 20 floors and is owned by a Brazilian bank. There are no offices inside, but there are plenty of people. In fact, a number of families have lived in it illegally for nearly six years, dividing the floors into rooms with wooden panels that are not entirely adequate but do provide at least some privacy. Apparently, they cannot be made to leave the building against their will. I was told about this by the three people who make up the administration team for the building. They are from Brazil's "People Without Land" movement, which defends homeless people in the courts.

There are families from Brazil, Bolivia, Syria, Algeria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt in the building. Most of the residents, though, are Palestinians, at least 15 families. They came to Brazil from Sbeineh Refugee Camp in Syria when the conflict there started in 2011. Each family has an average of four or five members, and there is a single Palestinian man from Iraq. They all pay around $50 per month towards the building management, electricity, and water charges.

READ: Latin America launches week of solidarity with Palestine

The residents face a lot of difficulties, as the building is old and not intended for housing. Moreover, there are issues with the water supply, which isn't suitable for drinking and has caused a few health problems.

All of the Palestinian families live on floors 9, 10, and 11, and there is no lift in the building. Instead, everyone has to go down and climb up the 1,500 stairs every time they want to leave the building and come back again.




There are 1,500 stairs in the building [Middle East Monitor]

Like all places around the world where refugees are gathered, those in this building in Sao Paulo have harrowing tales to tell. Hassan, for example, lives on the 11th floor with his wife and new-born son. His arduous journey to Sao Paulo started in Sbeineh Camp from where he went to Ain Al-Hilweh Camp in Lebanon before heading for Brazil. In Ain Al-Hilweh, he stayed with his parents and five other families in a single room. This was not unusual for displaced Palestinians coming from Syria.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are prohibited from working in more than 70 occupations and are treated very badly by the "host" community, so Hassan looked for every opportunity to leave the country. After getting married to his cousin, he was helped by some friends to get to Brazil in 2015. His friends are in the same building, he told me.

"The Brazilian people welcomed us with open arms," he explained. "Their treatment of us was very respectful, and the government allows us to work. I rented a small stall on the street that I called "Palestina Casa" ("Palestine House") and bought and sold everything that I could." He found no racism from the people." "In fact, all of my customers were Brazilians, and my monthly income was around $300. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, I have been unable to work for more than 10 months."




The sign on Hassan's stall in the street [Middle East Monitor]

Life in the building in Sao Paulo is just like being in a refugee camp, said Hassan. "We live as if we are in Sbeineh, fulfilling each other's needs and watching for each other's comfort. If someone complains, you find everyone in the building trying to help to make things easier. In Syria, we were people of one camp; today we are people of one building, and we must stick together."

Hassan is actually staying outside the building temporarily until his wife recovers from the Caesarean birth of their son. She cannot cope with the stairs so he is renting a room nearby at a much higher cost than usual due to the pandemic. "My wife is my strength in this," he said with tears in his eyes. "I cannot continue without her, and I will not find support for me in this life like that which she gives me."

READ: Venezuela backs Palestinians' right to establish independent state, insists president




In front of the room that Hassan has rented temporarily [Middle East Monitor]

I also met a man who lives in a small room of less than 10 square metres. It is very basic, so it was a shock to find 63-year-old Professor Issam Issa there. From Palestine originally, he had been staying in Iraq, where he obtained a doctorate from the University of Baghdad. He also has a doctorate in genetics and animal breeding from Romania. He came to Brazil after he was displaced from Al-Ruwaished Refugee Camp in No Man's Land between Iraq and Jordan. The camp was closed after Brazil agreed to host its Palestinian residents.

The professor has lived in the building for more than two years and told me that he is lonely after separating from his wife and children due to the harsh conditions of exile. Covid-19 has also prevented him from finding a job.

The entrance to Prof. Issam's room. He didn't want us to photograph the room itself (Photo credit: MEMO)

How could a science professor not find a job? "When I came to Brazil, I studied Portuguese and passed the test to qualify me to teach in Brazilian universities," he explained. "I got a one-year contract at a university in the south of Brazil, but local graduates are given priority here. So I have been out of work for five years."

Intisar is a 60-year-old Palestinian woman who has lived in this building for five years. She was a successful interior and fashion designer in Syria before she left Sbeineh Camp with her brother to escape from the war. Crossing into Lebanon, she lived in Shatila Refugee Camp in Beirut, staying for a year before making the move to Brazil.

"My husband and children tried hard to leave Syria and join me in Lebanon," she told me, "but they couldn't because they have Egyptian nationality and needed an entry visa. This was not possible in the wartime circumstances, so they went to Egypt and I stayed in Lebanon."

In Egypt, her children were unable to continue their education because of her Palestinian nationality. The plan was that she would go to Europe via Brazil and meet them there, but it didn't work out that way.

"Here in Brazil, I worked by sewing clothes with a Brazilian woman who befriended me and secured my housing and work until I was able to save the cost of the tickets for my husband and children to come to Brazil as well. Now my husband works in another city for around $200 a month. I do not see him very often because of the distance and the pressure of his work."

She too finds the stairs in the building very difficult to negotiate. "Climbing them can take me up to two hours. And then I am sick for the whole day." Tragically, she now has cancer and is unable to work.

OPINION: Brazil commemorates International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

There are many similar stories among the refugees in this building, many of whom are very well qualified and experienced in their fields. All they desire is to live with dignity. Like many Palestinian refugees, the world over they are generous and hospitable. Their main concern is being unable to find work during the pandemic so that they can take care of their families and neighbours.

I understood from the residents that there used to be many more Arab and Palestinian families in the building but they have moved to French Guiana, an overseas department of France on the Atlantic coast to the north of Brazil. There, they are waiting until they can apply for citizenship and be eligible for state support.

After that, as French citizens, they will be able to move to Europe and possibly be reunited with family members who were separated during the war in Syria. When I asked those still in the building in Sao Paulo what they want, the answer was almost unanimous: "We want to go to French Guiana."

ISRAEL THE 51ST STATE
US provides $500m to Israel under national Covid relief bill 

UNCLE SAM DADDY WARBUCKS


US Congress in session [Lawrence Jackson/Wikipedia]

December 22, 2020 


The United States has passed a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill to support industries and workers affected by the ongoing pandemic, of which hundreds of millions of dollars have been granted to Israel and its defence.

In the bill passed by US Congress yesterday – part of an overall $2.3 trillion package – the act under the heading of "Procurement, Defense-Wide" detailed a total of $500 million for the "Israeli Cooperative Programs".

Of that amount, "$73,000,000 shall be for the Secretary of Defense to provide to the Government of Israel for the procurement of the Iron Dome defense system to counter short-range rocket threats."

In addition to that, a further "$177,000,000 shall be for the Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense (SRBMD) program, including cruise missile defense research and development under the SRBMD program, of which $50,000,000 shall be for co-production activities of SRBMD systems in the United States and in Israel to meet Israel's defense requirements consistent with each nation's laws, regulations, and procedures."

Meanwhile, the rest of the relief package deals with matters such as tax breaks, the selection of the next Dalai Lama, and providing businesses and the unemployed with benefits to ease their ordeal during the coronavirus pandemic.

READ: A return to collaboration over Israel's security narrative

In the announcement of the agreement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated that the bill is "another major rescue package for the American people," referring to the first relief package made in March this year. He promised that the 5,593-page-long bill "is packed with targeted policies to help struggling Americans who have already waited too long."

Even those policies which help the citizens and unemployed are severely limited, however, with the agreed $300 per week bonus jobless benefit reportedly being half of the federal unemployment benefit given in the previous package. That payment runs for 11 weeks in comparison to the 16 in the last package. To add to that, the direct stimulus payment of $600 to many people is also half of that given in March.

The disparity in relief payments leads to questions relating to the prioritisation of the US defence industry, its affiliated companies, and the Pentagon – which reportedly received $696 billion in the package – as well as the defence industry of a foreign nation such as Israel.

Congress' justification for the limit in spending on the unemployed and businesses is that billions were allegedly also needed for other essential resources and unfinished business such as water provision and flood control in the country. The defence companies and military sectors which are provided money in the bill were also said to be heavily hit by the pandemic.

Lebanon criminalises sexual harassment
The law punishes perpetrators with up to two years imprisonment and a fine of up to 20 times the value of the minimum wage, which would currently amount to nearly $450 at the official exchange rate.



December 23, 2020 


The Lebanese parliament on Monday passed a landmark bill that criminalises sexual harassment, especially in the workplace.

The law punishes perpetrators with up to two years imprisonment and a fine of up to 20 times the value of the minimum wage, which would currently amount to nearly $450 at the official exchange rate.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, welcomed the passage of the law and described it as a step towards empowering women's and human rights, adding that "implementation is the key".

The National Commission for Lebanese Women also hailed the passage of the law, saying for the first time Lebanon has a law that punishes the perpetrators of this crime and provides protection and support for its victims.

However, the Legal Agenda, a non-governmental human rights organisation said the law contains several flaws; mainly that it approaches the subject from a "moral point of view aimed at protecting society and not the victim".

Aya Majzoub of Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the passage of the law as a positive step, even if it was late and insufficient.

The Lebanese parliament has also approved amendments to a controversial 2014 domestic violence law, broadening its scope to include violence related to – but not necessarily committed during – marriage.

The amended law allows women who leave their husbands as a result of domestic violence to retain custody of children until the age of 13.

Israel forces Jerusalemite woman to demolish her home

The Israeli municipality in occupied Jerusalem forced a Palestinian woman from the village of Silwan to demolish her house over claims that it lacked building licenses

December 23, 2020 




The Israeli municipality in occupied Jerusalem yesterday forced a Palestinian woman from the village of Silwan to demolish her house over claims that it lacked building licenses, Safa news agency reported.

Shahira Gheith said that she had been able to put off the demolition order but she was surprised when Israeli occupation police surrounded her house and told her that the court rejected the postponement.

She said that the Israeli police told her she must demolish her house by herself; otherwise, she would have to pay high for the municipality's bulldozers to carry out the demolition at a cost of 70,000 ($21,704).

Shahira and her children have now become homeless.

"I will set up a tent and live in it with my children," she said. "I had worked hard to build my house and I lost it just three months after living in it," she continued.

Israel settlers launch systematic attacks on Palestinian properties


Israeli flags can be seen around a Palestinian house which was illegally occupied by settlers under the protection of occupation forces in the West bank city of Hebron on 26 July 2017. [Mamoun Wazwaz /Anadolu Agency]

December 23, 2020 

Ongoing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians are part of a large campaign aimed at seizing more Palestinian lands and imposing new realities on the ground, B'Tselem warned yesterday.

"These attacks are being carried out with full support from the Israeli army and government," Kareem Jubran, director of the field research department at B'Tselem, said, stressing that the Israeli army and government support the extremist stances of the Israeli Jewish settlers.

Speaking to Palestine Voice Radio, Jubran said that the Israeli settlers have recently increased their attacks in many Palestinian towns and villages across the occupied West Bank. The settlers' attacks, he said, are protected by the occupation army and police.

Meanwhile, Director of Anti-Wall and Settlements Committee, Murad Ishtiwi, said: "There is another campaign carried out by the Israeli occupation army and police targeting Palestinian shops, homes and vehicles."

He said that this campaign is being carried out in parallel with the one carried out by the extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinian properties.

Do normalisers know or even care about Israel's crimes against the Palestinians?


Palestinian gather to protest a deal between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel to normalize ties, in Gaza City, Gaza on 19 August 2020. [Mustafa Hassona - Anadolu Agency]


Motasem A Dalloul
abujomaaGaza
December 21, 2020 

Some journalists from the UAE and Bahrain have visited Israel and praised the occupation state and its people. Expressing their admiration, they claimed that the Israelis are peaceful and teach peace to their children from an early age.

They visited Tel Aviv with their Foreign Ministry minder, Lorena Khateeb, and apparently enjoyed the "beautiful" beaches. They also went to the occupied Syrian Golan Heights with the Spokesman of the Israel Defence Forces, Avichai Adree, and said how proud they are that Lebanon's Hezbollah, which they said is their enemy, is being attacked by Israel.

The head of the delegation was Amjad Taha, who has recently obtained Bahraini citizenship. He claimed that there is a great deal of "coexistence" among Israeli Jews, Arabs and others. The UAE's Majed Al-Sarrah looked at Israelis in a Tel Aviv park and said: "This is a live example for coexistence." Israeli children, he said, had received them with "love, smiles and peace."

"When we are talking about peace, it's people to people…" explained President Reuven Rivlin when they went to his home. "Let's look forward that you will be the bridge to bring a lot of understanding between all the people in the region. It's a real pleasure."

Masha'el Al-Shammari, a young Bahraini who defined herself as a cultural activist, said that she was surprised by "the cultural variety" in Israel and the "massive amount of peace" among its people. "They plant peace in their children," she gushed. "We were misinformed about Israel," she told Makan TV. "We had been taught that [the Israelis] hated us, however, when they knew that we were from Arab Islamic countries of Bahrain and UAE, they welcomed us."

In an online workshop with Israeli journalists two months ago, the head of the Society of UAE Journalists, Mohammad Al-Hammadi said: "We need to change the stereotypical image in the minds of Arabs that Israel kills Palestinians. This image was reflected specifically by Al Jazeera." The recent delegation seems to be part of that change. It was no coincidence, of course, that Qatar's Al Jazeera was named specifically, given that the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have been besieging their neighbouring state since 2017.

READ: The strategic downfall of Morocco's normalisation

Amidst this normalisation and the whitewashing by Arab media of Israel's violence human rights abuses the reality is being ignored. I am a Palestinian, of course, so to avoid accusations of bias, let us look at what others say about Israel's treatment of the people of Palestine.

Avi Shlaim is an Israeli-British Professor of International Relations at Oxford University. On Britain's Channel 4 News last week, he said very clearly that Israel was responsible for the displacement and deportation of the Palestinians in 1948. He is not alone. Israeli historian Professor Ilan Pappé's 2006 book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine details the crimes committed against the Palestinians when Israel was created in their land. Indeed, the ethnic cleansing has been ongoing ever since. Ignorant normalisers like these journalists from the UAE and Bahrain are lying.

They claim that Israel is all about "coexistence", whereas on Friday Lee Yaron wrote about the children of foreigners and workers being segregated from other children in Israeli schools. "A Haaretz investigation has found that the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality is sending hundreds of children of asylum seekers and migrant workers to schools designated just for them, in which there are no Israeli children," she said.

The issue is not only about segregation, but also lower education standards. "The educational standards there are often different too," she noted. Indeed, a child of an asylum seeker, "Nahum", was accepted to enter a school for Israeli children but was then denied and is "now in third grade [and] still doesn't know how to read and write." While Israeli officials deny such segregation, Yaron found that, "Official figures from the municipality [of Tel Aviv], reported here for the first time, paint a clear picture: 2,228 out of 2,433 children of asylum seekers and migrants (91.5 per cent) in elementary school attend schools that are for foreigners only."


The flags of US, Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain are projected on the ramparts of Jerusalem's Old City on September 15, 2020 in a show of support for Israeli normalisation deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain [MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images]

In its editorial on the same issue, Haaretz asked, "Why Is Pluralist, Liberal Tel Aviv Segregating Foreign Children at School?" This reflected the shock that the kind of segregation seen in other Israeli cities like Petah Tikva, Eilat and Netanya, is happening in the "enlightened, pluralist and liberal" Tel Aviv. Discrimination is widespread across Israeli society and enshrined in law. It is especially noticeable in education, healthcare, the judiciary and housing.

According to America's Human Rights Watch, the Jewish Nation-State Law adopted by Israel in 2018 i "makes it a national priority to build homes for Jews but not others, and revokes the status of Arabic as an official language of Israel." In the same report, it stated that Israeli occupation "approved [in 2019] plans for 5,995 housing units in West Bank settlements, excluding East Jerusalem, as compared to 5,618 in all of 2018." Meanwhile, it "destroyed 504 Palestinian homes and other structures in 2019 as of November 11… The demolitions displaced 642 people as of September 16, more than the total number of people displaced in 2018 (472)."

READ: Israel, between the cold of Egyptian peace and the warmth of Emirati normalisation

The same report pointed out that the Israeli government "continued to enforce severe and discriminatory restrictions on Palestinians' human rights; restrict the movement of people and goods into and out of the Gaza Strip; and facilitate the transfer of Israeli citizens to settlements in the occupied West Bank, an illegal practice under international humanitarian law."

Moreover, "Israeli forces stationed on the Israeli side of fences separating Gaza and Israel continued to fire live ammunition at demonstrators inside Gaza who posed no imminent threat to life, pursuant to open-fire orders from senior officials that contravene international human rights standards. HRW cited informed sources that Israeli forces killed 34 Palestinians and injured 1,883 with live ammunition during the protests in 2019. To this must be added the thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel between 2008 and 2014 during the occupation state's military offensives. Thousands more have received life-changing injuries and tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed.

Other organisations such as Amnesty International and Israel's own B'Tselem have documented Israeli violations against the Palestinians. And yet these fools from the UAE and Bahrain believe that the Israeli occupation is a blessing and the Palestinians are beasts. Are they blind as well as stupid?

Of course, telling lies in order to whitewash Israel's violations of international law and human rights is now official government policy in the UAE, Bahrain and, presumably, the other recent normalisers Sudan and Morocco. Their claims that normalisation has stopped Israeli violations are entirely false. Such "journalists" and "activists" do neither themselves nor their people any favours by peddling their lies. Do these unprincipled liars know or even care about Israel's crimes?

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Biden DHS nominee has ‘refreshing’ meeting with faith groups about immigration, refugees
One attendee described the meeting as 'a 180 degree change from what we've been enduring for the last four years.'
President-elect Joe Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary nominee Alejandro Mayorkas speaks at The Queen theater, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
December 18, 2020
By Jack Jenkins, Emily McFarlan Miller


WASHINGTON (RNS) — President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security held a roundtable meeting with an array of faith groups on Friday (Dec. 18), a gathering participants described as “refreshing” and a shift away from the Trump administration’s combative relationship with religious organizations regarding immigration and refugee policy.

The long list of attendees huddled virtually with Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban American Sephardic Jew and former refugee Biden has tapped as his DHS nominee.

A Biden transition official noted there was significant energy at the meeting created by Biden’s promise to overturn President Donald Trump’s travel ban, which advocates characterize as a “Muslim ban.” They also discussed laws and regulations governing asylum claims.

Biden recently announced at a gathering of the Jesuit Refugee Service that he would raise the refugee ceiling to 125,000, above even the 110,000 cap former President Barack Obama set in his final year in office.

“The door just has not been open for discussion for the last four years for many of us in the human rights community,” Mark Hetfield of HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, told Religion News Service after the meeting. “It was nice to actually have a meeting where you can discuss issues — that’s a 180 degree change from what we’ve been enduring for the last four years.”

Many faith groups that work with the federal government on immigration have had antagonistic relationships with the Trump administration as the White House repeatedly reduced the refugee ceiling to historic lows, most recently to just 15,000.

Last year, three faith-based groups, including HIAS, sued the Trump administration over an executive order granting state and local officials the authority to block refugee resettlement.

“I honestly feel there is no better person in the country to serve in this role than Alejandro,” Hetfield said of Mayorkas, who has served on HIAS’ board. “I think there’s a genuine commitment to solving problems, and to working together, and to gathering different opinions to make the government function better.”

Hetfield and other attendees noted that Mayorkas himself was a political refugee from Cuba.

“He’s been through it,” said Hetfield, who characterized the overall meeting as “refreshing.”

Nathan Bult, director of governmental affairs at Bethany Christian Services, told RNS that Mayorkas took “detailed notes” at the 90-minute meeting.

Bult, whose organization cared for a number of children who were separated from their families under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, urged Mayorkas to continue protections for unaccompanied children. Also discussed was Biden’s promise to create a task force charged with reuniting children with their families.

Another attendee, the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, the founder of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, said he was also encouraged by the discussion of “bipartisan humane, and common-sense immigration reform.”

He and others said they were grateful to have Mayorkas’ ear but insisted on action.

“I felt like it was a genuine listening session, and many of us who’ve been around, we know when we’re being filibustered,” Salguero told RNS. “Now I hope that we’re able to move from listening to implementation.”

According to a Biden transition official, the meeting also included representatives from Catholic Charities USA, Emgage, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Code Legal Aid, Christian Churches Together, Jesuit Refugee Services USA, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Arab American Institute, Bridging Cultures Group, Esperanza, the Ismaili Council for the USA, the Secure Community Network, the Islamic Society of North America and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Attendees said they were hopeful more meetings would occur in the future, as it was at least the second meeting between the Biden transition team and faith leaders this week. On Thursday, a group of transition team members also met with the Poor People’s Campaign, a faith-based advocacy group dedicated to eradicating poverty.