Israel’s shadow war with Iran is an obstacle to peace

APCentrifuge machines in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran.

OPINION by Donna Miles-Mojab, Dominion Post & The Press, 19 April 2021

The murky world of sabotage, assassinations and espionage might appear exciting in James Bond movies but, in real life, they are a source of escalating violence and perpetual shadow wars.

Take the recent attack at Natanz nuclear facility in Iran, where an Israeli sabotage caused a complete blackout and extensive damage to key facilities.

Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, vowed Iran would “take revenge” for what he said was “nuclear terrorism”.

Report: Israeli army prepares bank of targets in Gaza

Israeli artillery strike sites in the besieged Gaza Strip. (Photo: via Twitter)

Palestine Chronicle, 18 April 2021

The Israeli army has revealed a plan including simultaneous attacks on hundreds of targets in Gaza based on a prepared bank of targets, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported on Friday.

Palestine’s stolen water resources

An alarming video documentary on the violation of the right of clean water for Palestinians under Israeli colonial occupation. Video presented by Osama Nazzel for Palestinian Broadcast International, 15 April 2021.

COVID-19 cases surge, vaccination rates still low in Palestine as Ramadan approaches

UNRWA employees wear face masks outside a UN clinic in Deir El-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, on April 3, 2021. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/APA Images)

By Yumna Patel, Mondoweiss, 14 April 2021

Palestinians are recording higher daily rates of new coronavirus cases and COVID-19 related deaths every day, as the “third wave” of the virus continues to spread rapidly across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health recorded 2,593 new cases of the virus in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, the majority of which were recorded in the latter.

The MOH also recorded 21 new COVID-19 related deaths, one of the highest daily death rates for Palestine since the pandemic began in March 2020.

Campaign to #BoycottHP is winning

Sustained collective efforts at holding HP (Hewlett-Packard) companies to account and pressuring them to end their ties with apartheid Israel have achieved many milestones. BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions) pressure is working!
Help give HP companies a final push to cut their ties of complicity that sustain Israel’s regime of apartheid, settler-colonialism and occupation against Palestinians.

US restores less than half of pre-Trump funding to UNRWA

An UNRWA employee distributes food aid in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in September 2020.

By Maureen Clare, Electronic Intifada 11 April 2021

The US will resume economic and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians, providing a total of $235 million, the State Department announced on Wednesday.

The department said that $75 million would be allocated to “economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza.” Another $10 million would go to “peacebuilding programs.”

Washington will restore $150 million to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees. That figure represents less than half of the annual funding the US sent to UNRWA before the Trump administration eliminated support to the agency in 2018.

Trading military equipment with Israel is a human rights outrage

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa

Media Release 10 April 2021

Trading military equipment with Israel is a human rights outrage

Revelations that foreign affairs officials have approved the sale of military equipment to a host of human-rights-abusing countries, including Israel, is an outrage.

In recent years foreign affairs has been dominated by trade priorities with concerns for human rights sidelined. Senior foreign affairs staff at all levels have advised successive ministers of foreign affairs to prioritise trade above everything else.

The tragic outcome was seen in last night’s television one story. [See link below]

In Israel’s case the situation is even more galling because New Zealand has also been importing military equipment from Israel which has been “battle-tested” on the civilian Palestinian population.

The ICC vs. Israel: Three Main Scenarios

The question that must be asked: What are the possible future scenarios for the ICC probe in Palestine?

Gambian war crimes lawyer Fatou Bensouda takes the oath during a swearing-in ceremony as the International Criminal Court’s new chief prosecutor in The Hague, on June 15, 2012. [Photo: Bas Czerwinski, ANP/AFP via Getty Images]

OPINION by RAMZY BAROUD

Politics Today, 6 April 2021

On March 22, the Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, declared that “the time has come to stop Israel’s blatant impunity”. His remarks were included in a letter sent to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, and other top officials at the international body.

There is modest – albeit cautious – optimism among Palestinians that Israeli officials could potentially be held accountable for war crimes and other human rights violations in Palestine. The reason behind this optimism is a recent decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to pursue its investigation of alleged war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Take Puma on a virtual tour of its support for Israel’s illegal land grabs

ByPalestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) /

Puma claims it doesn’t support illegal Israeli settlements, but Puma’s logo is on official Israel Football Association map of settlement teams (see above image)

puma-ifa website.jpg

<img src="http://clicktotweet.com/img/tweet-graphic-4.png" alt="Tweet: Puma claims it doesn't support illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land.</p> <p>Ooops. That's @PUMA's logo on an official Israel Football Association map of settlement teams.</p>

Puma claims it doesn’t support teams in illegal Israeli settlements.

False! 

Puma sponsors the Israel Football Association (IFA). The IFA not only includes teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land, it actively advocates to maintain them.

Puma’s logo is directly under an official map of settlement teams and pitches on the IFA website.

Puma can’t deny the obvious. Tweet Puma this virtual tour of its support for Israel’s illegal land grabs.   

Puma only makes these false statements because it is under pressure from the growing #BoycottPuma campaign.

Puma cares deeply about its image as a supposed corporate champion of social justice.

On Palestinian Land Day, and every day, tell Puma it can’t support universal equality while sponsoring Israeli apartheid. 

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has called on Netball New Zealand to end their sponsorship deal with PUMA until PUMA ends its support for the IFA.

The Silver Ferns represent the best values associated with womens’ sport – high skill levels associated with tenacity, courage and commitment on the netball court. 

This campaign is asking that they show the same character and values off the court – standing with Palestinian sportspeople who face apartheid in sports as awful as that faced by black South Africans suffering under apartheid.

Marking Palestinian Land Day in Aotearoa/NZ

Many of the delegates attending the 2021 national conference of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa held a spontaneous rally to commemorate Palestinian Land Day on the streets of Auckland yesterday.

Land Day symbolizes Palestinian resistance to Israel’s ongoing land expropriation, colonization, occupation and apartheid.

Palestinian protester shot in the head dies

Middle East Eye, 19 March 2021

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man during a demonstration in the northern occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced.

PSNA National Meeting this weekend

Inspirational speakers include Annette Sykes, Maori human rights lawyer, and Haneen Zoabi, Palestinian Israeli activist and former MP in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) via Zoom.

VENUE: Grey Lynn Library Hall, 474 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland.

REGISTER by email to: Secretary@PSNA.nz

For more information go to the PSNA website: http://www.psna.nz

Palestinian MP: Rachel Corrie’s Blood is a ‘Witness to Israeli Crimes’

Rachel’s parents during a protest in Palestine (Photo: ISM)

Palestine Chronicle, March 17, 2021

A Palestinian MP said on Tuesday that Rachel Corrie’s blood is a “witness to Israeli crimes”.

Huda Naim made her comment in a statement issued on the anniversary of the death of the US-born pro-Palestine activist, who was killed on March 16, 2003, as she was trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer demolishing Palestinian homes in Rafah.

“The blood of freedom fighter Rachel Corrie will remain Israel’s shame,” said Naim. “The [Israeli] occupation violated human rights and international law by killing Corrie.”

She added that the relative lack of condemnation of the “Israeli criminals” and the absence of any sanctions or punishment gave them a green light to commit more crimes.

“Rachel Corrie demonstrated the highest meaning of humanity by her defense of Palestinian rights,” the MP pointed out. “The Palestinians will always remember her activism, her resistance and her sacrifice at the hands of the Zionist killing machine.”

She called for those responsible for killing 23-year-old Corrie to be prosecuted as “war criminals”.

(MEMO, PC, Social Media)

Video: Israeli Apartheid – Let’s talk it over

Music legends Brian Eno and Roger Waters discuss the concept of apartheid when it comes to Israel as well as the attempts to criminalize the BDS movement both in the UK and in the US.

They also address the recent declaration of the International Criminal Court in regards to Israel/Palestine.

With British solicitor and founder of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights Daniel Machover and Diala Shamas, Staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Conversation hosted by Frank Barat.

Streamed live earlier today 17 March 2021 by Let’s Talk It Over

Roger Waters urges Stevie Wonder: Say no to Apartheid Israel

Video by USACBI, 13 March 2021

Famed musician Roger Waters of Pink Floyd issued a video appeal (above) to Stevie Wonder, urging him to reject the Israeli Wolf Prize and say no to Israeli apartheid.

Waters’ appeal came as over 700 organizations, artists and individuals around the world joined the US Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel’s appeal to Wonder, urging him to “Say No to this “Prize”, say No to the normalization of Israeli Apartheid, and stand with Justice, Equality and Freedom for all Palestinian people.” Both appeals recalled that Wonder declined to perform at a fundraiser for the “Friends of the IDF” in 2012 as well as his long history in standing against apartheid in South Africa.

The appeal was signed by a diverse group of supporters, including visual artist Samia Halaby, graphic artist and Black Panther veteran Emory Douglas, composer Raymond Deane, artist Freda Guttman and songwriter Dave Lippmann. A wide range of organizations endorsed the call, including the Canadian BDS Coalition, the South Africa BDS Coalition, South African Jews for a Free Palestine, and Boycott from Within, the alliance of Israeli citizens for BDS.

Read the appeal below — and add your name to join the open letter:

Video: the dangers of fishing in Gaza

VIDEO by: We Are Not Numbers #Gaza@WeAreNotNumbers· 12 March 2021

In #Gaza, even something as simple as fishing is dangerous business. In this video, we tell the story of how Israel’s illegal blockade has impacted one fishing family in Gaza. And their fate is far from unique. Thanks to video producer, Rakan Abed El Rahman.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Vch3cKfRLGo…

VIDEO: Israeli Forces arrest 5 Palestinian children near Hebron

VIDEO: Israeli forces detain five Palestinian children, while they were picking wild vegetables. [B’tselem]

Palestine Chronicle, 11 March 2021.

Israeli occupation forces today detained five Palestinian children between the ages of 7 and 11, including three brothers, while they were picking akoub (wild vegetables) in the Masafer Yatta area, near Hebron (Al-Khalil).

The five children were first chased away by Jewish settlers from the land where they were picking the plant that is used as meals in the Palestinian kitchen before calling the army who detained the five children.

The children were taken to a police station in the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba.

(WAFA, PC, Social Media)

Book review: These chains will be broken

Book review by Lois Griffiths, The Daily Blog, 11 March 2021

These Chains Will Be Broken by Ramzy Baroud, is a collection of narratives by some of the many Palestinians, men, women and children who have been held in Israeli prisons.

John Pilger tells us , “With each story, there is a roll-call of the best of humanity: courage, struggle, determination, generosity, passion , humility and above all defiance of injustice.”

On International Women’s Day: 35 Female Prisoners, Including 11 Mothers, in Israeli Prisons

Israa Jaabis’s son and others protest for her release (Photo: via Facebook)

Palestine Chronicle, 8 March 2021

The Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS), a local NGO which advocates for the rights of the Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, said today that the Israeli authorities are currently incarcerating 35 female Palestinian prisoners, 11 of whom are mothers.

The PPS said in a statement on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, which coincides on March 8, that 26 of the female political prisoners in Israeli detention have been sentenced for varying periods, the longest of whom are Shurooq Dwayyat and Shatila Abu Ayyad, who are serving a jail sentence of 16 years each.

ICC Prosecutor Opens Formal Investigation into War Crimes in Palestine

ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. (Photo: ICC Website)

Palestine Chronicle, 4 March 2021

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, today announced that her office will open a formal investigation into war crimes in Palestine.

“Today, I confirm the initiation by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of an investigation respecting the Situation in Palestine. The investigation will cover crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court that are alleged to have been committed in the Situation since 13 June 2014, the date to which reference is made in the Referral of the Situation to my Office,” read a statement by Bensouda’s Office that was made available to international media and received by The Palestine Chronicle.

“How the Office will set priorities concerning the investigation will be determined in due time, in light of the operational challenges we confront from the pandemic, the limited resources we have available to us, and our current heavy workload. Such challenges, however, as daunting and complex as they are, cannot divert us from ultimately discharging the responsibilities that the Rome Statute places upon the Office.”

“On the basis of our deliberations, we knew that one issue we would need to have resolved related to the territorial scope of the Court’s jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine. For this reason, we took, as a responsible prosecuting Office, the preliminary step of seeking a ruling on the question, because it was important for us to obtain clarity on it at the outset, so as to chart the course of any future investigation on a sound and judicially tested foundation.”