How Gaza Dethroned The King Of Israel

How did Benjamin Netanyahu manage to serve as Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister? With a total of 15 years in office, Netanyahu surpassed the 12-year leadership of Israel’s founding father, David Ben Gurion. The answer to this question will become particularly critical for future Israeli leaders who hope to emulate Netanyahu’s legacy, now that his historic leadership is likely to end.

Netanyahu’s ‘achievements’ for Israel cannot be judged according to the same criteria as that of Ben Gurion. Both were staunch Zionist ideologues and savvy politicians. Unlike Ben Gurion, though, Netanyahu did not lead a so-called ‘war of independence’, merging militias into an army and carefully constructing a ‘national narrative’ that helped Israel justify its numerous crimes against the indigenous Palestinians, at least in the eyes of Israel and its supporters.

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The Past is the Present in Palestine

If the United States and Israel think that normalizing relations with Arab states will weaken our national cause, they should know that this means nothing to Palestinians. The Palestinian people have learned to look only to themselves for rescue. The young Palestinians of today are brimming with rebellion. They have lost faith in the diplomatic route and are fed up with U.S. policy. Be forewarned: Nothing will contain them.

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The Palestine Litmus Test

There aren’t many issues which clearly and unequivocally delineate right from wrong. The question of justice for the Palestinian people and their right to be protected by international law is one which gives no wiggle room for ifs, ands, or buts. Israel’s apartheid system is of such long standing and is so brazen that millions of people feel not only outrage but an insult to their own personal integrity and now speak up though they once demurred.

The state of Israel periodically decides to bomb Gaza, evict Palestinians from their homes, or attack the al-Aqsa mosque. They have done all of those things in recent weeks, during the holy month of Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr celebration no less. Israel continues its practice of violating international law by carrying out collective punishments against civilian populations.

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As A Doctor In Gaza, These Have Been The Most Difficult Days Of My Life

For the last 14 years, I have been running a hospital in the city of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. The first day of the war was the hardest day of my life as a doctor.

I’m talking about the first shelling by Israel on Gaza. It was a week ago, just a little after seven in the evening. The first ones killed.

Two children arrived in an ambulance, one of them was three years old, one was seven. They are brothers, and as soon as I saw them, it was clear to me that they were both dead. Their bodies crushed and burned.

Their father also arrived. He was seriously wounded but still conscious. He got upset and asked me, “What about them, what about my kids?” Then another ambulance arrived with a little girl, 10 years old. She too died. This is the older sister of the first two children. All from the al-Masri family.

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‘Humanitarian Interventions’ And Regime Change – Non-Applicable To Israel

Over the past two weeks, the world has looked on in ominous horror as the military might of Israel, fully supported by both the US and Britain, has waged a relentless onslaught on the citizens of the besieged Gaza Strip; with what had initially begun as protests against the eviction of six Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, and the subsequent storming of the al-Asqa Mosque by Israeli police the following day, soon escalating into a full-fledged military assault on Gaza, one which has already drawn comparisons with the 2014 war which resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 Palestinians in the space of 7 weeks.

Although the ongoing violence has garnered worldwide media attention, an unusual occurrence for events in the Middle East, one glaring double-standard remains so far in all mainstream media coverage…

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Understanding Israel’s Latest Attack on Gaza, and Who Benefits

“Both sides need to de-escalate.”

“No one benefits from this. ”

You’ll hear a lot of statements like that from pundits, elected officials, government spokespeople, and mainstream media anytime there’s violence in Israel-Palestine.

In the last few days, Israeli warplanes, armed drones, and artillery mounted on tanks have killed more than 119 Palestinians in the besieged and blockaded Gaza Strip. Thirty-one of them were children. Rocket fire from Gaza left eight Israelis, including one child dead.

It’s easy to say no one benefits. But it’s not true.

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has a whole lot to gain from this assault — among other things, it may keep him out of jail.

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Killing Gaza: Documentary Shows Life Under Israel’s Bombs And Siege

In Killing Gaza, independent journalists Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen documented Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza and its devastating aftermath.

Yet this film is much more than a documentary about Palestinian resilience and suffering. It is a chilling visual document of war crimes committed by the Israeli military, featuring direct testimony and evidence from the survivors.

James North of Mondoweiss wrote, “If documentary films like ‘Killing Gaza’ appeared regularly on American television, public opinion would start turning against Israel overnight. The film, just released by Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal, is inspiring and sickening.”

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Israel Bombardment Of Gaza Escalates

The Israeli military has continued its bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip early on Wednesday, targeting several areas after rockets were fired from the enclave.

It is the most intense airstrikes in Gaza since the bombardment in 2014.

Health authorities in Gaza said at least 35 Palestinians – including 10 children – were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Strip since late on Monday, after Hamas launched rockets from the coastal territory towards Israel. At least 233 others were injured.

At least five people in Israel have also been killed.

The rocket fire came after Hamas, which rules Gaza, issued an ultimatum demanding Israel stand down its security forces from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after days of violence against Palestinians.

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Egypt Reopens Rafah Crossing Indefinitely

Egypt today opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip until further notice, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said, a move described as an incentive for reconciliation between the main Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo, Reuters reported.

Leaders of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction, which controls the West Bank, and of Hamas, which governs the besieged Gaza Strip, began Egyptian-brokered talks yesterday to address long-standing divisions ahead of elections planned for later this year.

The 365 square kilometre (141 square mile) Gaza Strip is home to around two million Palestinians. An Israeli-led, Egyptian backed, the blockade has put restrictions on the movement of people and goods since 2007.

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Israel’s Genocide In Gaza Goes Uninterrupted

A report published by the United Nations in 2018 stated that by the year 2020 the Gaza Strip would be uninhabitable. It said specifically that, “the United Nations has stated that Gaza may well be unlivable by 2020.” The report emphasized also that “Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967, drew attention to Israel’s persistent non-cooperation with the Special Rapporteur’s mandate. As with his two predecessors, Israel has not granted him entry to visit the country, nor the Occupied Palestinian territory.” Anyone who thinks that the Gaza Strip was liveable prior to 2020 is out of their mind.

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Israeli blockade Has Cost Gaza $16.7 Billion

Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip cost the Palestinian enclave’s economy an estimated $16.7 billion in just over a decade, the United Nations said Wednesday.

The coastal enclave has been under an Israeli-enforced blockade since 2007, the year the Islamist movement Hamas took power.

In the 11 ensuing years, its economic situation deteriorated dramatically, the UN Conference on Trade and Development found in a new report.

Between 2007 and 2018, “the estimated cumulative economic cost of the Israeli occupation in Gaza under the prolonged closure and severe economic and movement restrictions and military operations would amount to $16.7 billion (constant 2015 US dollars),” it said.

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To Succeed, Struggles Have To Be Connected, Not Localized

In this video, Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, and Fayrouz Sharqawi, Global Mobilisation Coordinator of Grassroots Al-Quds discuss the situation in contemporary Palestine. What do the people of Palestine think in 2020? They talk about former chairman of Palestine Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat’s numerous visits to India. They also talk about how Israeli army’s recent airstrikes and healthcare crisis due to Covid-19 in the Gaza city are dismantling the life of the people there.

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Better To Launch Balloons Than Die In Silence

In recent weeks, the tension between Palestinians in Gaza and Israel’s forces of occupation has increased. Israel has used the launching of incendiary balloons by Palestinian youths as a pretext to bomb Gaza once again.

The release of the balloons is a gesture of protest against how the Israeli occupation has procrastinated in abiding by its previous agreements with the Palestinian resistance. Under those agreements, Israel had committed to easing the siege on Gaza.

This procrastination has caused the continued deterioration of Gaza’s health and public services and its economy.

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Victory For The Humboldt 3!

Es lebe die freiheit – long live freedom – is the cry of every Palestinian and all people longing for freedom from colonialism.They were also the last words of Hans Scholl, a member of the White Rose anti-fascist resistance movement in Nazi Germany, before his execution on February 22 1945. The White Rose brought the Nazis’ crimes to public awareness, and demanded justice for their victims.

Over seventy years later we, the Humboldt 3, drew inspiration from the White Rose. Along with Israeli anti-Zionist activists Ronnie Barkan and Stavit Sinai, I disrupted a talk given at the Humboldt University of Berlin in June 2017 by a representative of the Israeli state, Aliza Lavie.

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