May 2019, Week 1

May 2019, Week 1
Wednesday
05.01.2019 Palestinian family left homeless after demolition in Yatta Maan News. Jewish occupation troops threw another Palestinian family—the al Andorrans—out of their home, demolished the building, and left the people destitute as part of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign to replace indigenous Palestinians with Jewish colonists.

05.01.2019 Israeli settlers chop down 150 olive trees near Ramallah Maan News. Heavily armed Jewish occupation troops drove villagers off their fields and groves in Burqa village to allow Jewish thugs to cut down the farmer’s trees.

05.01.2019 Israel forced 3,000 Palestinians from their homes within 15 years Maan News. According to Israeli human rights NGO B’Tslem, Israel made 2,927 humans in Jerusalem (just Jerusalem) since 2004. 1,574 of them were minors.

05.01.2019 Israeli bulldozers raze lands east of Gaza City Maan News. 60-ton armored Jewish bulldozers crush more farmlands inside Gaza segregation fence.

05.03.2019 Israel rips out the Palestinian flags form a children’s sports court because even just a flag threatens Israel’s illegal occupation Days of Palestine by Ben White. Video of a gang of Jewish occupation troops with guns and body armor ripping flags off the fence of kid’s soccer field. One commenter asks, “Can you imagine the “outrage” and coverage MSM would give to Palestinian police ripping down Israeli flags in Jerusalem?”

05.01.2019 One way to silence Israel boycotts? Get lawmakers to pass anti-BDS bills USA Today and the Center for Public Integrity. by Liz Essley White. The Israel Lobby is writing public policy. In response to burgeoning support of BDS against companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the Israel lobby in the U.S. is pushing through boilerplate legislation state by state that compromises the first amendment right to free speech in favor of Israel.
From the article: “A rapid succession of States—27 in four years—adopted measures to curb the initiative known as BDS. These new laws were crafted by [Israel Lobby] activists, then copied from one state to the next and adopted with virtually identical language. Most require tens of thousands of state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel or lose their government funding. Other efforts require state pension boards to divest from companies that boycott Israel.” These findings are from a 2-year investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and USA Today who traced dozens for anti-BDS bills to the Israel Lobby and law makers across the country who “write public policy word for word.”

05.01.2019 PGFTU: Gaza’s poverty level reaches 80% Maan News. Palestinian
General Federation of Trade Unions.

Thursday
05.02.2019 New legislation in Congress criticizes U.S. military assistance to Israel Jerusalem Post. by Omri Nahmias. Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D.MN) said in a press release, “Israel’s system of military juvenile detention is state sponsored child abuse designed to intimidate and terrorize Palestinian children and their families.”

05.02.2019 Judge OK’s pro-Palestinian event on UMass Amherst campus Boston Herald. by Rich Sobey. “Jewish students trying to kick a pro-Palestinian forum off UMass Amherst’s campus is the latest example of students trying to shut down opposing viewpoints, experts say.”

Article quotes Superior Court Judge Robert Ullman who said, “I can’t enjoin a forum just because someone may say something at the forum that fits someone’s definition of anti-Semitism, or racism, or homophobia, or anything else. There’s nothing that comes even close to a threat of harm or incitement to violence or lawlessness.”

05.02.2019 Judge denies injunction against UMass Israeli-Palestinian panel Daily Hampshire Gazette by Dusty Christiansen. Three anonymous Jewish students sued UMass, Amherst are trying to silence a panel discussion called, ‘Not Backing Down: Israel, Free Speech, and the Battle for Palestinian Rights,’ which focuses on Israel supporters trying to silence free speech in America about Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Robert Ullman ruled that such an injunction would amount to a prior restraint on free speech. The unnamed Jewish students claimed the event was anti-Semitic and a threat to Jewish students. Jewish Voice for Peace of Western Massachusetts—one of the event’s sponsors—told the court the plaintiff’s definition of anti-Semitism is not agreed upon, even within the Jewish community.

05.02.2019 Saudi Arabia offers Abbas $10 billion to accept ‘Deal of the Century’ Maan News. Saudi prince Muhammad Bin Salman (Trump’s son-in-law’s friend and probably the evil one who ordered American journalist Jamal Kashoggi’s murder/dismemberment in the Saudi Embassy in Turkey last year) offered 83-year-old Mamoud Abbas $10 billion over a ten year period to sell out the Palestinian people under Kushner’s plan. [Abbas, of course, wouldn’t live to see the money even if it were paid out]. Abbas declined saying it would end his political life. Article noted the PA has been boycotting the U.S. Administration since December 2017 when Trump recognized Israel’s claim on Jerusalem.

05.02.2019 Israeli air strikes target sites in northern Gaza Strip Maan News. Jewish state air force bombed multiple sites under the pretext that a Palestinian attacked Israel with a burning rag tied to a toy balloon. No Israeli injuries reported from the toy balloon.

05.02.2019 Gaza fires missiles towards southern Israel Maan News. After Israel bombed multiple places in Gaza, Islamic Jihad fired two rockets towards Israel. Neither rocket did any damage.

Friday
05.03.2019 Mass judge refuses to halt pro-Palestinian event at UMass featuring Roger Waters and Linda Sarsour Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman. . Once again the Israel lobby has shot itself in the foot by trying to shut down free speech and, in trying, has generated media coverage that reached millions for an event that would have attracted a few hundred, tops.

After a judge ruled against a lawsuit attempting to stop the forum, Amy talks with activist and Pink Floyd front man, Roger Waters, the lawyer who spoke to the court on behalf of the forum, and organizer of the Amherst forum on attempts to censor discussion of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Sut Jhally. Interesting thing about this broadcast; contrary to all other reports that say the lawsuit to stop the forum was brought by 3 anonymous Jewish students, Sut says the group behind the lawsuit is a right-wing hate group calling itself ‘Americans for Peace and Justice.’

05.03.2019 Israel rips out the Palestinian flags from a children’s sports court because even just a flag threatens Israel’s illegal occupation Days of Palestine by Ben White. Video of a gang of Jewish occupation troops with guns and body armor ripping flags off the fence of kid’s soccer field. One commenter asks, “Can you imagine the “outrage” and coverage MSM would give to Palestinian police ripping down Israeli flags in Jerusalem?”

05.03.2019 Watch//12 vehicles vandalized, a grave desecrated in suspected West Bank hate crime Haaretz by Yotam Berger. Spray painted star of David on cars and buildings, racist graffiti, slashed tires.

05.03.2019 Israel implemented 53 West Bank settlement projects in April Maan News.

05.03.2019 Jewish man spat on, cursed in Brooklyn in latest NYC anti-Semitic attack Jerusalem Post. by Jeremy Sharon. Why look. Spitting is international news. From watching the video, it turns out the spitter was also Jewish. So I guess this is a two-fer, anti-wise.

05.03.2019 Egypt summons Hamas official in fear of escalation on Gaza border. Maan News. Israeli press says Egypt talked to Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials after Israel bombed Gaza again yesterday.

05.03.2019 In video: dozens of Israeli settler storm Urif, attack Palestinians Maan News. Jewish thugs attacking Arab residents under the protection of heavily armed occupation troops, again.

Saturday
5.04.2019 Gaza killings spike ahead of Eurovision Electronic Intifada by Ali Abunimah. Israeli snipers and warplanes killed eight more Palestinians today including a toddler and her pregnant mother. In negotiations Hamas, Netanyahu’s government promised to ease the blockade against Gaza then reneged.

05.04.2019 Palestinian on crutches among those killed by Israeli gunfire on Gaza border, says rights center Wafa. 19-year-old Raed Abu Teir was on crutches since an Israeli Jewish sniper shot him in the pelvis last week. Today Israel shot him again, in the abdomen, and he is dead. Jewish state troops injured 116 Palestinians today, including 39 children under 18, 4 women, 4 medics, and a journalist. Thirty-five of the people were shot with live ammunition. *update from Maan News on 5/5 notes that 2 more of those shot Friday have died. Names of the dead: Abdullah abu Malauk-age 33, Alaa al-Boubi-age 29, Ramzi Abdo-age 31, and Raed abu Teir, 19.

Sunday
05.05.2015 14-month-old Palestinian toddler, pregnant mother, killed in Israeli airstrike Maan News. Little Saba Arar, age 1 year-2 months, and her mother Falastin, slaughtered in their home.
Article notes Israeli Jewish snipers killed four other Palestinians—including a nineteen-year-old on crutches—along the Gaza border as they participated in the Great March of Return protests. In addition, the snipers shot and injured 116 Palestinians on Friday including 39 children and 4 women. After Israel killed the four protesters and bombed Gaza, Hamas fired about 250 home-made rockets at southern Israel

05.05.2015 Israeli warplane targets 2 Palestinians on motor cycle Maan News. Video shows Jewish state missile blowing up two Gazans on a motorcycle in Jabaliya. One of the riders is in critical condition. The other is reported as moderately injured. Meanwhile Israel injured six other Palestinians in ongoing aerial bombardments.

05.05.2019 The Gaza Ghetto uprising Haaretz by Gideon Levy. At turns brilliant, sarcastic, and precise, this piece is Levy at his best. “The cruelty and temerity of the people in Gaza once more reached new heights Saturday: dozens of rockets on Israel before the week of its independence day, just after its Holocaust remembrance day, and worst of all, two weeks before its Eurovision*. How dare you Gaza, how dare you?”
Levy compares Gazans to Jews in the Warsaw ghetto during World War Two. He makes the case that Gaza’s fight is just, Israel siege is not, and, “Anyone who doubts how hollow and destructive the inculcation of the Holocaust is in Israel should look at the responses in Israel to this reality in Gaza ghetto uprising. Anyone who ignores the reality in Gaza or tries to deny its disaster has learned nothing.”
*Eurovision is the European Song Contest that Israel is hosting this year, despite being a country in Asia. Israel is run by recent European Jews who are always trying to ingratiate the country with Europe.

05.05.2019 Dozens of Israeli settlers raid, damage Urif high school Maan News. Rock throwing Jewish thugs smashed windows at the school again last night. Article notes Jewish colonists and/or Jewish occupation troops have closed the school six times so far this semester and closed it eight times last semester.

05.05.2019 Israeli bulldozers uproot 120 Palestinian olive trees near Ramallah Maan News. A month ago the Israeli occupation troops delivered an order to an al Lubban al Gharbi farmer that his land was confiscated by the Jewish state to build a Jews-only road to an illegal colony of Jewish settlers. Today the Israelis killed 120 of the villagers’ trees.

05.05.2019 Shin Bet men suspected of ordering search of Palestinian woman’s private parts likely won’t stand trial Haaretz by Josh Brenner. Israeli secret police conducted an invasive cavity search of “a Palestinian woman’s private parts for no particular reason in 2015.” After dragging the case out for years the Israeli government is getting ready to close the case thereby exonerating the secret police.

05.05.2019 Supporters, some protesters, attend ‘Not backing down’ panel on Israel Palestine Daily Hampshire Gazette by Dusty Christiansen. Due to massive publicity on the news thanks to the Israel lobby trying to shut it down, over 1,500 people filled the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center to hear Roger Waters, Linda Sarsour, Mark Lamont Hill, and other Palestinian supporting advocates.
To criticism that the event was one-sided Palestinian Sarsour rejected the notion that for her, “truth to be whole…it needs to be validated by my oppressor.” Article notes that there were originally 3 university groups: Dept of Communications, Dept of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies, and the Resistance Studies Initiative, who co-sponsored the event but after all the attacks on the forum by the ADL, Mass Republican Jewish Committee, Mass Republican Party, and others, 5 additional university departments joined co-sponsorship in solidarity including the departments of anthropology, philosophy, and sociology.

05.05.2019 Turkey condemns ‘Israeli Terrorism’ for bombing news agency in Gaza The Guardian by Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem. Among casualties of Israel’s latest bombing campaign against civilian targets in Gaza was Turkey’s news office. The Turks are not okay with it.

05.05.2019 Eurovision ticket sales low, less tourists flock to Israel as Gaza flare-up refuses to simmer down Haaretz by Itay Stern. [Last year Eurovision was held in Lisbon. 90,000 people showed up.] After a year of frenetic advertising, Israel expected to have 20,000 show up in Tel Aviv for the Eurovision song contest. With nine days to go, they’ve got 5,000.

05.05.2019 UN report indicts Israel in Gaza killings but changes nothing The Jordan Times by Osama al Sharif. A UN commission of inquiry into Israel shooting thousands of unarmed civilians along the Gaza segregation fence in 2018 found ‘reasonable grounds’ that Israeli forces violated international law. Among other crimes, the UN found that Israeli snipers shot over 6,000 unarmed demonstrators. The Israeli snipers killed 189 people. Of those,183 were killed with live ammunition. Further, Israel targeted medics, journalists, children, and disabled people when the snipers could clearly identify them as such. Among the dead were 35 children, 3 paramedics, and two journalists.
True to form, Israeli Prime Minster Bibi Netanyahu called the United Nations liars. [The United States probably would have defended Israel against the commission but the United States had already withdrawn from the commission in support of Israel.]

05.05.2019 Two pregnant women among 22 Gazans said killed by Israeli strikes as Israel resumes targeted killings Haaretz by Yaniv Kubobich, et all. Well, there you have it. Targeted killings, by definition, are killings aimed at targets. Today Israel targeted two pregnant women.

Monday
05.06.2019 In video-25 Palestinians killed, including infant, in Israeli air strikes Maan News. The Jewish state air force targeted four-month-old Maria al-Ghazali, along with her parents Ahmed and Iman, today, bringing Israeli bombing deaths in Gaza to 25. Article notes 154 people are wounded, some are in critical condition.

 

Palestinian mourners carry the little body of Saba Abu Arar during her funeral in Gaza City, Credit: AFP
Comedian Bill Burr does stand-up on the bodies of dead Palestinian kids. Says he’s moving to Israel “just for the laughs…”

05.07.2019 Bill Burr pledges to return after successful performance in TA The Jerusalem Post by Amy Spiro. Yesterday, May 06,20219, as Gaza buried its dead, Bill Burr played Tel Aviv. He said, “I’m gonna fucking move here…I’m gonna come here just for the laughs.”

05.06.2019 Death toll rises to 27:Married couple found under the rubble in Gaza Maan News. Talal and Raghda al-Jadyan were found dead after Israel blew up their home in a terrorist air attack. The couple’s 12-year-old son Abdul was in earlier body counts after Israel killed him aerial bombardments.

05.06.2019 Activists slam western media for providing cover as Israel bombs Gaza TRTWorld [Turkish media]. Bogus headlines blame Gazans for the latest round of Israeli bombings. New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, and other media point the finger at Gazans firing rockets but don’t mention that the day before Gazans began firing rockets Israeli Jewish snipers killed 4 Palestinians and shot/injured 116.

05.06.2019 Ashrawi: ‘Targeting defenseless civilians criminal’ Maan News. Hanan Ashrawi, PLO executive committee member, condemned Israel’s latest bombing massacre in Gaza as, “a cynical attempt to inflict pain and terrorize the captive Palestinians of Gaza for political gains during [Netanyahu’s] negotiations.” Article notes the Israelis are bombing defenseless populated civilian neighborhoods, and have destroyed seven [inhabited] residential buildings, four houses, three media offices, and a mosque.

05.06.2019 Euro Med warns of catastrophic living conditions in Gaza Maan News. Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor once again calls out the Jewish state for “not only restricting (Gazans’) lives through the blockade, but by repeatedly targeting their lives and property by shelling and direct killing in clear disregard to all international treaties guaranteeing the protections of civilians in times of armed conflict.”

05.06.2019 Israeli forces detain 11 Palestinians across West Bank Maan News.

05.06.2019 Israeli settlers raze Palestinian lands for settler only road Maan News. West Bank village of Madama in Nablus district. Jewish colonists under military protection took over farmer’s lands and flattened them for a Jews only-no Palestinians-road.

05.06.2019 Trump advisor tweets fake video to smear Ilhan Omar The Young Turks. A Tea Party residue, Trump advisor named Katrina Pierson tried to connect Ilhan Omar with Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza to Israel. To drive the point home she included footage of a massive rocket barrage. Pierson did not mention that the footage was taken in 2015—in the Ukraine. Many people called her out for it.

05.06.2019 John Bolton makes loud noises at Iran Slate by Joshua Keating. Trump’s 70-year-old national security advisor, neo-con chicken hawk John Bolton, has announced that the U.S. is deploying aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln (Abe must be rolling in his grave), and a bomber task force as a warning against Iran if it should attack U.S. interests or those of our allies (read Israel), including by proxy (read Palestinians, Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese or pretty much any group in the Middle East that Israel feels threatened by, which is everybody),
Iran’s gutsy and erudite Foreign Minister Javid Zarif described Bolton, and his collaborators: Israel’s P.M. Netanyahu, Saudi Arabia’s Prince bin Salman, and Abu Dhabi’s Prince bin Zayed, as “the B-team” who are trying to goad Iran into a war.

Tuesday
05.07.2019 Israel restarts work at gas field off Gaza coast. Middle East Monitor. [Americans are typically surprised to learn Israel is stealing Gaza’s massive petroleum reserves in broad daylight from the Tamar field 12 miles off the coast of Gaza.] The Jewish state called their workers off the rigs this week  in case Gazans fired rockets at them. Now they’re back at work.

05.07.2019 Gazan schools severely damaged in Israeli escalation Maan News. Not content with killing 27 Palestinians, including infants and pregnant mothers, and wounding 154 others, the Jewish state air force targeted 13 schools, causing them major structural damage.

05.07.2019 Israeli forces shoot, injure Palestinian worker without reason or warning in Gaza Maan News. Jewish snipers shot at a group of workmen at a waste collection site. They hit one man in the foot.

05.07.2019 Why the U.S. suddenly decided to send an aircraft carrier and bombers to check Iran Business Insider. Israel is behind intel that conjures, “a possible Iranian plot against U.S. targets in the region, or U.S. allies.” (read Israel).

05.07.2019 The U.S. sent an aircraft carrier to ‘send a message’ to Iran—but it’s at a major disadvantage Business Insider by Alex Lockie. Carriers are effective in the open ocean. Against shore batteries, like under the cliffs of Iran if it should come to that, not so much.

05.07.2019 Israeli forces detain 9 Palestinians in West Bank raids Maan News.

05.07.2019 Israel orders evacuation of 15 Palestinian families from Jordan Valley Maan News. Jewish occupation troops delivered orders kicking about 100 people out of their homes so the Jewish occupation army can practice attacking Arabs on the villager’s lands. For the next month the people will not be allowed access to their homes on a schedule set by Israel.

05.07.2019 Iraq condemns Israel strikes on Gaza. Middle East Monitor. [Not long ago Netanyahu made a preposterous boast about Israel’s good relationships with Israel’s neighboring Arab countries. Might be time to amend that.]

05.07.2019 Israel’s war against press freedom: the plight of Palestinian journalists Middle East Monitor by Mohammad Hussein. 22 Palestinian journalists, 3 of them women, are locked up in Israeli prisons. They’re also targets of Israeli snipers when their vests are clearly marked as PRESS. Two of them were killed in April, 2019 on different days. They are often harassed, assaulted, cameras broken, etc.

05.07.2019 Israeli politician would like Gaza bombed, but after Eurovision finishes TRT World. Born in the U.S., Israeli Parliament member Michael Oren resurfaces again with this nugget, “Right after our holidays and Eurovision, Israel must evict Hamas from Gaza. The U.S. should back us militarily and diplomatically…”

05.07.2019 Israel says it will not allow in activists planning to ‘disturb’ Eurovision The Guardian by Oliver Holmes, Jerusalem correspondent. Last year, when Israel won the host privilege for 2019 Eurovision, the contest organizers took the unprecedented step of making Israel promise to allow open access to the contest to anyone, just as is expected in all European countries. Israel promised. Now, with the contest a week away, Israel is reneging on its word.