Israel intensifies colonialist-apartheid impulses

The news we bring this time around is disappointing and infuriating too.

Israel has done the unthinkable in terms of political conceit and defiance of the international community. It has moved firmly towards officializing apartheid.  It has green lighted a national debate on a controversial bill that would anchor the apartheid state’s status as solely a Jewish one. The bill, if finally approved, will further separate Arabs from Jews and add yet another stumbling block to the peace process.

Sounding a note of despondency, Former United Nations Chief Kofi Annan starkly dismissed chances for Israeli-Palestinian peace while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas remain in power. His statement was made alongside others from the Group of Elders which makes this news even harder to digest. With Israel’s high degree of coldness to international law and UN resolutions, Annan knows what he is saying.

In the field of sport, it is not any better. FIFA has reportedly removed an item concerning the dispute between Israel and Palestine from the Congress agenda after they claimed it would be “premature” for the membership to “take any decision” regarding the ongoing row. The disagreement centres on six Israeli teams which are based in the occupied territory. Israel is lobbying hard to neutralize the Palestinian campaign.

And probably the most horrendous news: With the prisoners strike into its 21st day, Israeli prison authorities are denying sick hunger strikers access to health services. They are demanding, instead, that prisoners abandon the strike. This violates the Geneva Conventions and Israel cannot be allowed to get away with impunity. The world must act – for now it is fast asleep.

In a disappointing, but not altogether surprising move: Bernie Sanders, in an Al Jazeera interview, stoutly defended Israel’s right to exist, rejected BDS as a tactic and assailed the United Nations for singling out the country for condemnation.  It makes one ask: So was the real Bernie Sanders just another closet Zionist/sympathizer who pretended he was a political progressive who wanted to combat racism and apartheid? One can only surmise that, like most US politicians, he too has skeletons in his cupboard that the Zionists know about.

Trump as President is no better and no worse. Obama hoodwinked the world into believing he was a man of peace. He finally amplified Israel military aid to Israel and handed Palestinians mere crumbs plus lip service. It may be time for the Palestinians to now look at new interlocutors. The USA is not the upright and reliable option. It simply cannot deliver a just peace. Its lobbies simply won’t allow Congress or the Senate to act with integrity.

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In solidarity

Ranjan Solomon

Israel has green lighted a national debate on a controversial bill that would anchor the apartheid state’s status as solely a Jewish one, further discriminating against Arabs and setting up a further barrier to a peace process with Palestine.
Sunday saw an Israeli cabinet committee approve a revised version of a bill that was first proposed in 2011 and that declares the “State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people,” its author, Avi Dichter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, wrote on Facebook. The bill, however, must still go through a drafting by the Justice Ministry and pass several votes in parliament in what is expected to be a lengthy process to reach its potential approval.

Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan starkly dismissed chances for Israeli-Palestinian peace while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas remain in power. The Israelis and Palestinians haven’t engaged in serious negotiations in years, Annan told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview, “given the leadership that is in place, I don’t see a possibility of making a deal.” He said ending the conflict is “crucial” even as international attention focuses on Middle East wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. “To find a solution, you need to have in place leaders who are prepared to deal,” he said. “We haven’t seen that for a long time.”

The Prison Authority of the Ohali Kidar, one of Israel’s infamous prisons, has been using unethical means on the hunger-striking Palestinian detainees who have are ill or have fallen sick, informing them that they must end their strike before receiving any sort of treatment. Similar to other detention facilities and prisons where Palestinian detainees are held, the prison clinic at its best is not more than a room with a few beds and some painkilling pills, yet, even that is now being used to blackmail the detainees into ending their strike.

Bernie Sanders defended Israel’s right to exist, rejected BDS as a tactic and assailed the United Nations for singling out the country for condemnation.  The Vermont senator’s interview on the Qatar-based network, known for its often hypercritical coverage of Israel, was consistent with a style that Americans came to know last year during his run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination: Sanders does not modify his messaging for his audience.

So was the real Bernie Sanders was just another closet Zionist paid to defend racism and apartheid. I bet the man has skeletons in his cupboard. Trump as President is no better and no worse. Obama hoodwinked the world. So, it is time for the Palestinians to dump the USA and look at new interlocutors.
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