Knesset votes overwhelmingly against Palestinian statehood, days before PM’s US trip
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- Written by JACOB MAGID | The Times of Israel JACOB MAGID | The Times of Israel
- Published: 23 July 2024 23 July 2024
Now there can be no doubt, Israel is against a two-state solution or any solution that provides Palestinians with human rights and self-determination:
The Knesset late Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to pass a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The resolution was co-sponsored by parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition together with right-wing parties from the opposition and even received support from Benny Gantz’s centrist National Unity party.
Lawmakers from Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s center-left Yesh Atid party left the plenum to avoid backing the measure, even though he has spoken in favor of a two-state solution. The more left-leaning Labor Party followed suit. The only ones to oppose the resolution were lawmakers from the Arab-majority Ra’am and Hadash-Ta’al parties.
The initiative was passed just days before Netanyahu’s visit to the US to address a joint session of Congress and meet with President Joe Biden at the White House. The move was likely to further irk Democrats uncomfortable with embracing an Israeli government that increasingly rejects a two-state solution.
Already in February, the Knesset passed a resolution sponsored by Netanyahu rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, but that motion specifically addressed the unilateral establishment of such a state amid reports that countries abroad were considering recognizing a Palestinian state absent a peace agreement with Israel.
This resolution — passed 68-9 — altogether rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state, even as part of a negotiated settlement with Israel.
We Volunteered at a Gaza Hospital. What We Saw Was Unspeakable.
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- Written by MARK PERLMUTTER and FEROZE SIDHWA MARK PERLMUTTER and FEROZE SIDHWA
- Published: 22 July 2024 22 July 2024
American surgeons who witnessed the civilian carnage of the Israel-Hamas war.
GAZA — In the United States we would never dream of operating on anyone without consent, let alone a malnourished and barely conscious 9-year-old girl in septic shock. Nevertheless, when we saw Juri, that’s exactly what we did.
We have no idea how Juri ended up in the Gaza European Hospital preoperative area. All we could see was that she had an external fixator — a scaffold of metal pins and rods — on her left leg and necrotic skin on her face and arms from the explosion that tore her little body to shreds. Just touching her blankets elicited shrieks of pain and terror. She was slowly dying, so we decided to take the risk of anesthetizing her without knowing exactly what we would find.
In the operating room, we examined Juri from head to toe. This beautiful, meek little girl was missing two inches of her left femur along with most of the muscle and skin on the back of her thigh. Both of her buttocks were flayed open, cutting so deeply through flesh that the lowest bones in her pelvis were exposed. As we swept our hands through this topography of cruelty, maggots fell in clumps onto the operating room table.
Read more at: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/19/gaza-hospitals-surgeons-00167697
I Fixed the New York Times' Pro-Israel Headlines on Gaza
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- Written by ASSAL RAD | Zeteo ASSAL RAD | Zeteo
- Published: 19 July 2024 19 July 2024
When a poll in March showed that only about half of Americans could correctly answer that more Palestinians had been killed in the war on Gaza than Israelis, many of those who have been following the conflict were stunned. After all, the gap between Israeli and Palestinian deaths is enormous. By early March, Israel’s war on Gaza had killed more than 31,000 Palestinians.
Perhaps, however, it’s not all that surprising, given the coverage of the war by U.S. mainstream media, which appears to be going to great lengths to help absolve Israel of its crimes and dehumanize Palestinians.
The New York Times has been particularly egregious in removing Israel’s criminal responsibility from the broader story. In April, the Intercept reported a Times memo leak in which the paper’s reporters were instructed to avoid words and phrases like “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” “occupied territory,” and “Palestine,” according to the Intercept.
To see the memo’s impact, you only have to look at the NYT’s headlines – something I’ve been doing since the war began. I've also been ‘fixing’ them so that they reflect the reality on the ground rather than covering it up.
Read more at: https://zeteo.com/p/new-york-times-whitewashing-israel-genocide-gaza?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Israel’s settlement policies break international law, court finds
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- Written by Associated Press on The Guardian Associated Press on The Guardian
- Published: 19 July 2024 19 July 2024
The top United Nations court has ruled that Israel’s settlement policies and use of natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territories violate international law.
The international court of justice said “the transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel’s maintenance of their presence, is contrary to article 49 of the fourth geneva convention”.
The panel of 15 judges from around the world also said the use of natural resources was “inconsistent” with its obligations under international law as an occupying power.
Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/19/israels-settlement-policies-break-international-law-court-finds
Exclusive: Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war
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- Written by Lee Fang and Jack Poulson | The Guardian Lee Fang and Jack Poulson | The Guardian
- Published: 24 June 2024 24 June 2024
As the Gaza war rages, Israeli funds target US college campuses and push to redefine antisemitism in US law
“There’s a fixation on policing American discourse on the US-Israel relationship, even college campus discourse, from Israel, going all the way up to Prime Minister Netanyahu,” said Eli Clifton, a senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “One struggles to find a parallel in terms of a foreign country’s influence over American political debate.”
None of the groups identified in this story’s reporting have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara). This law requires groups receiving funds or direction from foreign countries to provide public disclosures to the US Department of Justice.
“There’s a built-in assumption that there’s nothing at all weird about viewing the US as sort of an open field for Israel to operate in, that there are no limitations,” said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.