News

Netanyahu wants an emergency government of Jews only

Afif Abu Much March 16, 2020

Although the coronavirus doesn’t distinguish between Jews and Arabs, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been doing so while calling on Blue and White leaders to join him in an “emergency government.”

Citing the current coronavirus outbreak, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remarked on March 12, “An emergency government was established 53 years ago in Israel. I call for the establishment of a similar government now. This evening.” He then called on Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz to join him in the endeavor. Gantz tweeted in response, “Given the situation, we are prepared to discuss the creation of a broad national emergency government, which would include representatives of all parties in the House.” In other words, the government he envisioned should include the Arab Joint List. Netanyahu later clarified his position, asserting, “Supporters of terrorism cannot be part of the government, whether under routine circumstances or in times of emergency.” (more…)

Palestinians’ electoral success in Israel can’t be denied

Daoud Kuttab

March 12, 2020

Palestinian citizens in Israel made a powerful statement in the March 2 elections, with the Arab Joint List winning an unprecedented 15 seats in the 120-member Knesset. The alliance consists of Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), headed by Ayman Odeh; the Arab Movement for Change, led by Ahmad Tibi; the Islamic Movement, headed by Abbas Mansour; and the nationalist Balad, led by Mtanes Shehadeh. The 64.7% of Palestinian voters who turned out cast their ballots almost exclusively for the Joint List, thus thwarting the hopes of the current Israeli caretaker prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to form a majority coalition government of 61 members.

Fadi Elsalameen, adjunct senior fellow at the Washington, DC-based American Security Project, told Al-Monitor that the results of the elections stand as a huge success for Palestinian citizens in Israel. “This success not only blocks Netanyahu from forming a government, but also ends the right-wing agenda of excluding Palestinian Arabs from having a place in Israeli politics,” Elsalameen said. (more…)

Celine Dion to perform on ethnically cleansed land

Tamara Nassar

5 March 2020

Canadian singer Celine Dion is set to perform in an Israeli park this summer built on top of ethnically-cleansed Palestinian land.

Dion is scheduled to perform during Tu B’Av, celebrated by some as Israel’s Valentine’s Day, in August. The venue – Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv – is built on the ruins of Jarisha, a village that was completely depopulated of its Palestinian inhabitants by the Irgun, a Zionist militia, in May 1948.

Weeks earlier, the Irgun, led by future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, had carried out the notorious massacre in the village of Deir Yassin, which sowed panic and fear across Palestine. (more…)

Not neo-Nazis, Judeo-Nazis

Amos Oz got it wrong again. Bloodcurdling bureaucracy and the banality of evil, here in the land of milk and honey.

Uri Misgav

May 30, 2014

This is an article from 2014 which preceded Israel’s murderous attack on Gaza. In 1967 Israeli philosopher and academic Yeshayahu Leibowitz coined the term ‘Judeo-Nazis’ in reference to what would ensue from Israel’s illegal settlement project.

Amos Oz got it wrong again. It’s not neo-Nazis. It’s Judeo-Nazis. Scions of a unique group which Yeshayahu Leibowitz prophesized so well immediately after the great victory of 1967. Racism, murderousness and profound hatred originating in a religious-messianic worldview that is fueled by the occupation and settlement enterprise. (more…)