Portside

'The danger of oppression is not just being oppressed, it’s becoming an oppressor.'

Following the murder attempt on right-wing activist Yehuda Glick, leader of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, the claim is being made that he and his colleagues have been leading a civil rights movement for Jews. The Temple Mount movement has never been a movement for religious equality or peaceful coexistence. And continued efforts to change the status quo at the al-Aqsa Mosque could lead to catastrophe.

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The Israeli Defense Ministry stated Sunday it has closed its Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings to Gaza in response to a single rocket fire from Gaza, which resulted in no injuries, deaths, or damages. Palestinian rights campaigners warn that the closures are especially dangerous as traumatized and displaced Gaza residents struggle to rebuild from Israel’s recent seven-week military assault in which 2,000 Palestinians—at least 75 percent of them civilians—were killed.

In what appears to be the largest-ever joint protest by senior Israeli security personnel, a group of 106 retired generals, Mossad directors and national police commissioners has signed a letter to PM Netanyahu urging him to “initiate a diplomatic process” based on a regional framework. Retired generals have occasionally made joint statements in the past, but never in such numbers and rarely on political matters that aren’t directly related to army business.

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A student-led movement is seeking to `open' a prominent U.S. Jewish campus group to a broader range of voices, and it's gaining ground. Last weekend, Open Hillel will seek to model an inclusive Jewish community that embraces marginalized voices. The treatment of and solidarity with Palestinians has now become the civil rights issue of the day for modern Jews, especially younger Jews who will be here long after the older post-Holocaust generation has moved on...

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The international aid agency Oxfam warned last week that money pledged at the global donor conference “will languish in bank accounts for decades before it reaches people, unless long-standing Israeli restrictions on imports are lifted,” adding that “under current restrictions and rate of imports it could take more than 50 years to build the 89,000 new homes, 226 new schools, as well as the health facilities, factories and water and sanitation infrastructure people need.

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