Palestine Updates 43
Opinion
Israel intensifies colonialist-apartheid impulses
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.
In solidarity
Ranjan Solomon
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Israel may legalize apartheid, explores for special Jewish State

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.
Kofi Annan: Israeli-Palestinian peace impossible with current leaders

Read what the Times of Israel says
Political immorality allows Israel to prevail over FIFA in suspending settlement clubs
FIFA has removed the 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 decision was taken after a tense meeting involving representatives from the Israel Football Association (IFA) and Palestine Football Association (PFA), chaired by FIFA Monitoring Committee chairman Tokyo Sexwale, failed to yield any resolution. The disagreement centres on six Israeli teams which are based in the occupied territory.FIFA’s 211 Member Associations were due to vote on the matter at Thursday’s (May 11) Congress. South African Sexwale, whose mandate as head of the Israel-Palestine Monitoring Committee is due to come to an end during the Congress, was thought be considering proposing that the organization give the IFA six months to suspend the teams involved as his preferred solution.
Read more in the Inside the games website
Israel threatens detainees; End strike to get medical treatment

Read more on the International Middle East Media Centre
Bernie Sanders goes pedestrian on Israel
– Rejects BDS, condemns UN for condemning Israel

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.
Read more/see interview: