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Our Nakba: Israel Celebrates 50 Years as Occupier

Gideon Levy; Jonathan Cook Haaretz (Israel)
Israel must cloak itself in sorrow over what happened since that terrible summer of 1967, when it won a war and lost nearly everything. Israel is to hold lavish celebrations over the coming weeks to mark the 50th anniversary of what it calls the “liberation of Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights” – or what the rest of us describe as the birth of the occupation.

Richard Gere on Segregation in Hebron: It's Exactly Like the Old South

Lisa Goldman +972 Magazine (Israel)
`It's exactly what the Old South was in America. Blacks knew where they could go: they could drink from that fountain, they couldn't go over there, they couldn't eat in that place,' the American actor tells an Israeli TV station during a tour of the segregated West Bank city.

With New Israel Aid Deal, Obama Is Patron of the Occupation; Hundreds of Israeli Intellectuals Ask World Jewry: `End Occupation for Israel's Sake'

Gideon Levy; Times of Israel; Ravit Hecht Haaretz (Israel)
U.S. generosity, which costs every American taxpayers $300 a year, is detrimental to Israel and will only push it toward more acts of aggression. Hundreds of Israeli intellectuals appeal to world Jewry: `End Occupation for Israel's Sake'. Signatories of letter include seven high-ranking IDF officers, 20 former ambassadors, authors David Grossman, Amos Oz. As long as U.S. aid isn't in question, Israeli settlements are here to stay.

Celtic Soccer Solidarity with Palestine - Match the Fine For Palestine: The Higher You Build Your Barriers, the Taller We Become

Abby Zimet; Wilson Dizard Common Dreams and Mondoweiss
The defiant display of Palestinian flags in Glasgow last week by Scottish fans of the Celtic soccer team raised over $200,000 in donations online, all marked for two Palestinian charitable groups. Activist fans of Scotland's Celtics soccer team - the working-class, historically progressive community already facing punishment for flying Palestinian flags at a recent game against Israel to protest the Occupation - have launched the fundraiser.

A Brief History of the `Nakba' in Israel; Thousands of Irish Lie on Streets in Solidarity with Palestinians

Eitan Bronstein Aparicio; Instituto Manquehue Mondoweiss
This text describes the discourse on the Nakba - mostly the concept but also the historical event - in Israel. When did it appear? When did it decline and was repressed? What caused these changes? The attempt here is to describe historical moments, a periodization, from the founding of the state until today, in order to describe the relation to the term in each period and the changes it went through. Nakba Day - Solidarity actions across Ireland.

The Israeli General who Compared the Jewish State to Nazi-era Germany

William Booth Washington Post
'It's scary to see horrifying developments that took place in Europe begin to unfold here,' Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan said during a Holocaust Remembrance speech. The lunatics who will now start to scream against him need to know: This is what morality and responsibility sound like. - Israeli opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog.

5 Signs That Benjamin Netanyahu's Split With Israel Security Chiefs Is a Crisis

J.J. Goldberg Jewish Daily Forward
Seldom, if ever, have Israel's decision-makers been so sharply at odds with their professional watchdogs on so many critical issues. Netanyahu has staked out a position on the nature of Islamist terrorism that's fundamentally at odds with his own intelligence community. Other questions include the causes of the current violence and strategies for containing it, the advisability of goodwill gestures toward the Palestinians, and the feasibility of resuming peace talks.

Largest US Jewish Group Slams Israel's `Misguided' Policies; Israel's Descent Into Jingoistic `Orgies of Feeling'

Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA); Neve Gordon
The current Israeli government is unlikely to permit advances in religious freedom such as civil marriage, equal funding of non-Orthodox institutions and reducing the power of the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate...an alternative to the rigid and insular Judaism that permeates Israeli public life must remind the Israeli state about the power and wisdom of a pluralistic approach to Jewish life, said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Palestinian Red Crescent Society Declares State of Emergency in the West Bank; Clashes Break Out Across West Bank; JVP Statement;Tel Aviv March

Annie Robbins; Allison Deger; Jewish Voice for Peace
Scores of Palestinians were injured in clashes across the West Bank and more than 200 were arrested in Jerusalem, after Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday he is running an all-out war against Palestinian terrorism. Palestinians protested Tuesday in a day of rage, Reports from Palestine, statement by Palestinian Red Crescent Society and Jewish Voice for Peace. Protest vigil in Tel Aviv against the occupation and escalation Oct. 9.

BDS and the "Anti-Semitism" Charge; Penalties Will Grow Worse The Longer Israel Persists In Settling - Israeli and Jewish Perspectives

Gideon Levy; Jerry Haber
BDS is neither motivated by anti-Semitism, nor is it, in effect, anti-Semitic. The "anti-Semitism" charge against BDS is false, intellectually lazy, and morally repugnant. The Israelis are fighting for their right to persist in settling, exploiting and stealing land; to continue breaking international law that prohibits settlement. For the sins of occupation, boycotts are a Light punishment. Commentary from an Israeli, American, and Orthodox Jewish perspective.
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