On Tuesday, Bernie Sanders called for the U.S. to seek a ‘level playing field’ in its approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Speaking after his surprising victory in the Michigan Democratic primary, Sanders asserted that there are people of good will in both ‘Israel and the Arab communities’ whom he would seek to bring together as president.
By Mohamed Mohamed
The US has repeatedly tried to portray itself as an “honest broker” of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but actions speak louder than words. Allowing US citizens to participate in Israel’s occupation and oppression of Palestinians blatantly contradicts this self-proclaimed title.
The recent wave of heightened Islamophobia in the U.S. is not limited to the violent rhetoric and cruel policies of conservative politicians; it’s also being drummed into police through a Georgia-based program that has sent thousands of American law enforcement officials to Israel for counter-terrorism training.
A lawsuit has been filed in a US court seeking to stop non-profit groups from sending billions of dollars worth of tax-exempt donations to support illegal Israeli settlements and the Israeli army. A group of American citizens filed the suit on December 21 against the US Department of Treasury, claiming about 150 non-profits have sent an estimated $280bn to Israel over the past two decades.
[George] Jackson, a Black Panther and an author, was one of the Soledad Brothers, three African Americans charged with the murder of a white guard at Soledad Prison, California, in 1970. The incident occurred shortly after a marksman who had shot dead three Black men in the prison’s recreation yard was exonerated in a “justifiable homicide” ruling. Less well-known is the fact that Jackson also turned to the Palestinian struggle for inspiration during this time, and that the Palestinian prisoner writings that influenced him would continue to have an impact in the US Black community for decades to come.
By Palestine Center Interns
This autumn marks the beginning of the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle, in which a multitude of candidates will compete for their party’s support through a series of primary polls and debates. This year, there is a wide array of candidates on both sides of the ticket. The Republican candidates alone are so numerous that Fox News was forced to broadcast two separate debates. As corporate commitment and campaign spending begin to increase, we present here the presidential candidates by party and their views on Palestine and the broader Middle East.
By Yousef Munayyer
Given the recent statement made by Secretary Kerry about apartheid and Israel and the subsequent walk back, there was a great deal of discussion around the issue in the mainstream media in the last 48 hours.
You’d think the media might want to speak to some Palestinians, you know, those people suffering from the very system in question here, whatever you want to call it. It would be odd, for example, for network news shows to talk about racism without talking to people of color or talking about misogyny without talking to any women. Well, let me revise this, this would be odd in most places but Fox News, where we’ve come to expect such things.
By Yousef Munayyer
Two things are certain with U.S.-mediated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The first is that they will inevitably fail (I say inevitably because of long-standing foundational flaws precluding success) and the second is that when they do, the blame game will inevitably ensue. Well, we have arrived at blame game stage once again.
Both parties don’t trust each other, both parties don’t believe the talks will amount to anything and both parties do not want to be blamed for failure. But with nothing to show after months of talks and more trips by Secretary of State John Kerry than I can count, the question will be asked: who is to blame?
Yousef Munayyer: As protests rocked U.S. embassies in various Arab and Muslim capitals in recent weeks, a familiar question once again reverberated through American media: why do they hate us?
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