domingo, 26 de fevereiro de 2017

Reality check, Israel vs Palestine: Hasbara vs Facts

The 13th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week began last week in South Africa. 
Israeli Apartheid Week will take place all around the world between March – April 2017.
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Inspired by the popular resistance across historic Palestine and struggles worldwide, IAW 2016  included a wide range of events, from lectures, film screenings, cultural performances, BDS actions, to postering in metro stations, setting up apartheid walls on campuses, and many more. These actions took place in more than 225 cities across the world.
The coming year (2017) will mark 100 years of Palestinian resistance against settler colonialism, since the inception of the Balfour Declaration. IAW will be an opportunity to reflect on this resistance and further advance BDS campaigns for the continued growth and impact of the movement. Despite all the legislative attacks on BDS internationally, IAW and the BDS movement continue to build linkages and solidarity with other struggles to achieve freedom, justice, and equality.
If you would like to organize and be part of Israeli Apartheid Week on your campus or in your city, check out what events are already planned at apartheidweek.org, find us on Facebook and Twitter, register online apartheidweek.org/organise/ and get in touch with IAW coordinators in your region
A 13ª Semana do Apartheid Israelense acontecerá através do mundo de meados de março a abril de 2017.
A Semana do Apartheid Israelense (SAI) é constituída de uma série de eventos internacionais que buscam aumentar a concientização do projeto israelense de limpeza étnica da Palestina, aumentando o apoio ao crescente movimento internacional de Boicote, Desinvestimento e Sanções (BDS).
Inspirada na resistência popular palestina e no trabalho dos defensores de uma Palestina livre e sobrerana através do mundo, a SAI 2016 incluiu ampla gama de eventos - de conferências, projeções cinematográficas, eventos culturais, ações BDS, a cartazes em estações de metrô, réplicas do muro do apartheid em universidades, e diversas coisas mais. Estas ações tiveram grande repercução midiática e despertaram mais de 225 cidades em cinco continentes para a desumanidade e ilegalidade da ocupação israelense.
Este ano de 2017 marca os 100 anos de resistência palestina contra o colonialismo, iniciado na Declaração de Balfour em 1917. SAI será uma oportunidade de refletir sobre esta resistência e seguir avançando nas campanhas de boicote para um crescimento contínuo do movimento. A pesar de todos os ataques legislativos contra o BDS em alguns países que ostentam a bandeira da democracia e cometem atos anti-democráticos, como a França e os Estados Unidos, a SAI e o movimento BDS continuam construindo vínculos e solidaridade com outras luts por liberdade, justiça e igualdade.
Se você quiser e puder organizar algum ato de solidariedade aos palestinos e contra a ocupação israelense durante a Semana do Apartheid Israelense em sua cidade ou em sua universidade, dê uma olhada nos eventos que estão sendo planejados na apartheidweek.org/es, no Facebook e Twitter; registre sua ação na apartheidweek.org/organise e contacte a coordenação nacional e/ou estadual da SAI no Brasil.

Podem projetar filmes como Cristãos na Palestina: The stones cry out - the story of Palestinian Christians. Atenção! Ao procurar o filme, preste atenção no título inteiro. Cuidado para não ser enganado pela hasbara israelense que foi feita em seguida com o mesmo título.   
Trailer do filme que conta a história dos cristãos palestinos.

Addameer's film that tackles the issue of administrative detention as a policy used by the Israeli government to hold Palestinians indefinitely on secret information without charge or trial. The film specifically focuses on the psychological effects of administrative detention on detainees and their families.
 Life on hold: Administrative detention
 
Addameer's film that addresses the process of arrest, interrogation, and the policy of house arrest and their effects on children. The film provides accounts of children who were arrested in order to highlight a larger policy of persecution and targeting of Palestinian children in Jerusalem
 Palestinians daring to love
Love Under Apartheid: 4 couples talk about daily restrictions they face due to Israeli policy."I never dreamed I would leave my country, but I also never dreamed I would be separated from the person I love."

Why is moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem such a big deal?

As I said at the beginning, Israeli Apartheid Week is beginning with many activities all over the World in every single Continent.
At the same time, a question arises: The Jewish settlers won the battle against international law and moral? 
While US and European pundits hemmed and hawed about the two-states solution, its opponents quietly took over Israeli government and much more.  
Two weeks ago, Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing the state to seize private Palestinian land on which Jewish colonies/settlements have been constructed and transfer it to the settlements’ exclusive use.
The infamous regulation could retroactively legalize several thousand homes of Jewish settlers and suspend any demolition proceedings previously initiated against them. 
Israel’s legal establishment has announced its opposition to the new law, saying it violates Israeli and international law and could lead to international repercussions. Israel’s president also came out against the law, arguing that it would “make Israel look like an apartheid state.” 
As if it were not.
The law already has come under heavy criticism from several of Israel’s allies and has been challenged in Israel's High Court, where it could eventually be overturned. Yet despite these far-reaching political implications, the law was backed by Israel’s entire ruling coalition, with only one dissenting member.  

Thus, while the Israeli right does in fact appear divided, the majority of its constituents, approximately 40 percent of the general Jewish-Israeli public, could be classified as ideologues, prioritizing control over the West Bank over security and material considerations. Which shows that Israel’s ideological right is not a radical fringe but a substantial segment of the public. Nevertheless, it remains a minority. 
Why, then, is it able to exercise such powerful influence on the Israeli leadership? 
Because ideological voters are not concentrated at the far right, as many commentators assume, but rather vote for parties across the center and right-wing political spectrum. Consequently, Israel’s political leadership is constrained not by its coalition partners at the far right but by voters that form its core base.
The great majority of Israelis support the genocide in Palestine by any illegal and amoral means - vile occupation, expropriation, subjugation, individual and massive assassinations, and so many surreptitious means of extermination that the Israelis have created.    
The disparity of forces, of means, and of short and long time Israli goal of ethnic cleansing that Israel is meating could not be clearer. Nevertheless, US and many European politicians like to preach from on high about justice for Palestinians and Israelis alike… as if the pathway of pain for occupied and occupier is one-in-the same… as if these two dramatically different ends of the scales of justice can, indeed should, be balanced.
When it comes to Palestine, for decades, Western governments have hidden behind a cheap frilly veneer of neutrality all the while the United States subsidized, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, a vicious, often deadly, criminal occupation that has used impediment and stalling tactics to re-sculpt a landscape that has been home to Palestinians for the millennium.
How often do we hear from US and European politicians that Palestine is a complex issue? 
It is not. 
It is the simplest issue of all international issues, as there are clear international regulations on the matter.
In point of fact, Palestine is very complicated only when confusion provides opportune cover for delay. Of course, ethnic cleansing knows no better cover than delay.
The debate about the whens, wheres and whys can go on and on as not much more than the allure of excuse. There are, however, certain fundamental truths about Palestine that cannot be denied even by those largely European immigrants to the State of Israel and invasors to the non-state of Palestine who have become expert at rewriting history to suit a land grab of epic and on-going proportion. 
While figures vary from source to source, in 1914, Palestine had a population of between 600-738,000 Palestinians (Muslim & Christian Arabs as well as other religions) and 59-94,000 Jews. In 1922, the census showed some 660-725,000 Palestinians and 84-89,000 Jews. 
In 1931, it is recorded that 4,075 Jews immigrated to Palestine along with 1245 Christians and 213 Muslims. 
In 1935 it was 61,854 Jews who immigrated with 903 Arabs and 1390 Christians and others. 
In 1937 it was 10,500 Jews, 743 Arabs and 1196 Christians and others who came to Palestine. 
By the end of 1944, the Jewish population had increased to 528,702 of which 117,226 were natural and 327,686 were immigrants. The Arab population had increased to 1,061,277 of which 453,405 were natural and 18,695 were immigrants. Christians and others increased to 149,645 of which 51,616 were natural and 18,948 were immigrant.
Four years later, in 1948, when land designated as Israel was ripped from the heartland of Palestine by UN political fiat, the two sides were ill-matched. The Jewish community in Palestine was much smaller: approximately 608-630,000 to the Arab, Christian and others 1.3-1.7 million… roughly 30 or so percent of the overall population. In spite of all Israel’s efforts, the Jewish population remains in the minority (as it has since at least the 5th century).
As to the land, in 1922 Jews owned roughly 3% of the land in Palestine which increased to some 7% of its total over the next decade. When the State of Israel was established, Jewish ownership of land stood at 8.6%, with 3.3% owned by those who were to become known as Israeli-Arabs while another 16.9% of land was abandoned by Palestinian owners who fled in advance of the war that was to come.
Following the UN pronouncement, some 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their farms and villages with estimates running as high as 20,000 civilians killed, twice as many injured and hundreds of rapes carried out by marauding terrorists from the Irgun, Stern Gang and Haganah.  Hundreds of villages and towns were eradicated.
In the war that followed, another 400 to 600 Palestinian villages were sacked while urban Palestine was almost entirely extinguished. Out of about 400 Jewish settlements built post 1948, 350 were fabricated on Palestinian refugee property. Between 1948 and 1950 some 369 Palestinian villages were erased and replaced by 161 new Jewish settlements. During that same period, Israel seized two-thirds of all cultivated land which had been owned by Palestinians who were forced to flee.
Reliable estimates indicate that ultimately 80% of the Arab inhabitants, in what became Israel, left or were expelled from their homes, swept out by a colonial design that has run unabated since 1948… one in which the US has been very much a willing partner, indeed, enabler of the ethnic cleansing that has ensued.
Abby Martin: How Palestine Became Colonized


The Oslo Peace Process of 1993 was intended to lead to a final negotiated settlement between the parties within five years. Among other things, it divided the West Bank into three administrative divisions: Areas A, B, and C. The first two were the smallest and were to be home to just Palestinians subject to varying degrees of Palestinian oversight. Area C, the largest at approximately 75% of the West Bank, was “gradually” to be transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction. It also led to the creation of a Palestinian Authority (PA) with responsibility for the administration of territory under its control.
Oslo I was signed in Washington D.C., followed by Oslo II in 1995. Among other things, this agreement, also known as the Taba Agreement, called for prompt Israeli withdrawals from various Palestinian areas and expanded Palestinian self-rule.
Following Oslo I, in rapid order, came: The Gaza-Jerico Agreement also known as the Cairo Agreement (1994);The Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities Between Israel and the PLO ( August 1994); The Protocol on Further Transfers of Powers and Responsibilities (August 1995); The Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron (January 1997);  The Wye River Memorandum (October 1998); The Sharm el-Sheik Memorandum (September 1999);  The Camp David Meetings in (July, 2000); The Agreement on Movement and Access (November 2005); and, most recently, during 2013-2014, the unsuccessful  attempt by now former Secretary of State Kerry to restart the so-called peace process.
Although these dozen or so hollow agreements, protocols and meetings made for powerful photo ops and fine dining, in practice they provided little more than cover… cover for Israel to steal more and more Palestinian land and moral cover for the US to speak of justice while, in reality, stoking the flames of racial and religious hatred through billions of dollars for Israeli settlements and weapons.
To some degree, the Oslo Accords are based upon the 1978 Camp David Agreement  that resulted in a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. At the time of the agreement, there lived some 7,400 settlers in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), and 500 in Gaza.
Fifteen years later, at the time of the 1993 Oslo Accords, there were some 262,500 settlers in the West Bank.
Seven years later, at the Camp David Summit of 2000, there were a total of 362,945 settlers in the West bank with 169,969 in East Jerusalem.
By 2013, some 20 years after the Oslo Accords, the number of settlers grew to 520,000, across the West Bank, including 200,000 in East Jerusalem.
Today, there are approximately 250 settlements and “outposts” in the West Bank… home to some 800,000 illegal settlers… constituting approximately 13% of Israel’s population.
Among them are 13 settlements and 12 solely Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem where 200,000 Israelis live. The population of East Jerusalem is now down to 37% Palestinian. Area C of the West Bank is now 99% settler occupied.
Empowered by the election of Donald Trump and his nomination of David M. Friedman, long aligned with its settler far right, as Ambassador to Israel, it has approved more than 3,000 new units in the occupied West Bank, and signaled a green light to take what little else remains.
One need not be a soothsayer to note a steady unbroken pattern of Israel swallowing more and more of the occupied West Bank even as U.S. politicians, republican and democrats alike convene feel good peace conferences or wax on about the need for justice for Palestinians.
As then President, Jimmy Carter noted “There has to be a homeland provided for the Palestinian refugees who have suffered for many, many years.” Ronald Reagan, spoke of “autonomy talks to pave the way for permitting the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate rights.”
George H.W.  Bush criticized the presence of illegal settlements in the West Bank noting “Outposts, yeah, they ought to go.”
President Clinton opined about the need for the creation of a new Palestinian State based on the idea of self-determination for the Palestinian people.
George W. Bush called for a halt to Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian lands needed for a state.
Several years ago Barrack Obama decried…“more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time.”
Though these sentiments have been echoed by each occupant of the White House over the last 40 years, in reality they’ve reflected little more than a conspicuous political subterfuge to garner votes while providing Israel unlimited funds to support its endless aggression.
The cold hard reality is US politicians care far more about the domestic political mileage and influence of American Zionists than they do abstract notions of international law or justice for Palestinians.
One simply can’t have it both ways… calling out for justice while subsidizing Israeli hatred and violence with an open checkbook and empty rhetoric. It’s just not possible to be a neutral and detached arbiter at the same time courting votes.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Israel simply does not care.
68 years of its history, and counting, has shown that it has and will continue to do whatever it wishes to Palestinians unless and until the United Nations holds it accountable by ripping up the blank check or until the pain and suffering of its colonial enterprise becomes just too much for Israelis to bear.
Palestinians' suffering is already unbearable.
Who really cares?
We all should. We all must. For the sake of humanity and justice. 


Inside Story (07/02/17):  Will Israel annex Palestinian territories?

domingo, 19 de fevereiro de 2017

US & Israel vs Palestine: The cards are on the table, finally.

Ativistas judeus, anti-limpeza étnica da Palestina, manifestaram sua revolta contra a nomeação do sionisto-fascista David Friedman à embaixada dos EUA em Israel.
Protesters repeatedly disrupted the confirmation hearing on Thursday for Trump's pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. Many of the activists were members of Jewish peace groups. One man even blew a shofar, a traditional Jewish horn, inside the hearing in protest. The progressive Jewish group IfNotNow organized the action. Three of its members were arrested.
In a powerful moment, a Palestinian man stood up holding a large Palestinian flag.
Meanwhile, in Vienna, Austrian activists disrupted Israeli Apartheid Minister Ayelet Shaked's conference. Ayelet Shaked became globally notorious after The Electronic Intifada published a translation of a post she put on Facebook in July 2014 supporting a call for the genocide of Palestinians.
Nesse ínterim, em Viena, ativistas de direitos humanos intervieram na hasbara que a ultra-sionista ministra israelense do Apartheid Ayelet Shaked, pró-genocídio dos palestinos,  estava disseminando em sua mal-vinda visita  à capital austríaca.

Como vazara na véspera, na quarta-feira passada, nos EUA, em uma simples frase - I am looking at two states or one state, and I like the ONE that both parties like,” sarcástica, Donal Trump descartou décadas de pseudo diplomacia estadunidense no "processo de paz" no Orient Médio.
O véu caiu.
Após a reunião entre Trump e Netanyahu as opções se consolidaram: ou as Nações Unidas tomam as rédeas da solução dos Dois Estados, ou o único Estado prevalece em uma das seguintes formas: um país do Mediterrâneo ao Jordão com cidadãos judeus, cristãos e muçulmanos com direitos iguais, ou um grande Israel sionista com o apartheid declarado e assumido.
Agora os chefes da Autoridade Palestina - Mahmmud Abbas e Salam Fayaad - não conseguirão mais enrolar seus compatriotas mantendo a ilusão de uma pátria autônoma e soberana. E nem conseguirão adiar a última Intifada.
Agora, ou vai ou racha.
As expected, last week, in a single sentence -  I am looking at two states or one state, and I like the ONE that both parties like,” sarcastically, Donald Trump has casually discarded decades of US fake diplomacy by both Democratic and Republican administrations on the Middle East "peace process".
The veil fell. Finally.
Netanyahu insisted that the source of "conflict" is Palestine's refusal to coexist yet only his side is ethnically cleansing & killing the other with impunity.
After the buddies Trump-Netanyahu meeting, options are consolidated and clear: Either the United Nations does its job establishing the Two States, judicially; or there is a One State with equal rights for all in one Palestine or a One Zionist State of Israeli exposed apartheid.
Now Mahmmud Abbas and Salam Fayaad will no longer be able keep the dellusion. 
Trump & Netanyahu may have triggered the Ultimate Intifada.
Jonathan Cook: Trump has reminded Palestinians that it was always about one state
Amira Hass: Palestinian security official: Washington establishment understands that Palestinian Authority keeps the peace.
Listen to Tulsi Gabbard (12/02/17)
Em 1981, o fotógrafo brasileiro Sebastião Salgado foi catapultado à celebridade mundial graças à sua foto do atentado contra o então presidente dos Estados Unidos Ronald Reagan.
Em 2016, no dia 19 de dezembro, o fotógrafo turco Burhan Ozbilici, da Associated Press, emergiu das sombras através de uma foto que também deu a volta ao mundo, de um outro atentado.
A diferença entre as duas é que a fotografia do fotógrafo brasileiro, de um ato condenával e condenado, não foi premiada. O protagonista do atentado não ficou para a história e sim a vítima da tentativa de assassinato.
Ozbilici captou para a eternidade o criminoso Meylut Mert Altintas após este esavaziar sua arma no corpo do embaixador russo Andrei Karlov em Ankara. Karlov jaz a seus pés perfurado por nove balas enquanto Mert ostenta sua arma, triunfante.
 A foto foi vista por mais de 18 milhões de pessoas na internet.
Uma foto que celebra o assassino e desrespeita a vítima do crime.
O fotógrafo turco foi premiado, segundo o júri, por sua "coragem".
O cinegrafista que filmou a cena, mais exposto, na verdade, continua no anonimato.
Nenhum dos dois corria perigo, de fato, já que o terrorista queria justamente o que conseguiu; celebridade.
O cinegrafista filmou até o fim. Até o ex-policial reconvertido em terrorista ser "contido" pelas balas dos seguranças do evento cultural.
O fotógrafo achou que seu trabalho acabara e parou no sucesso do atentado. Se tiver tirado alguma foto do assassino crivado de balas, não foram publicadas.
A moral dessa história amoral é que prevaleceu a mensagem do ódio, de vitória do assassino que pôs fim à vida de um diplomata de carreira, pai de família, que estava intermediando negociações de paz.
A World Press Foundation em Amsterdã avaliou 80.400 fotografias feitas por 5.034 fotógrafos de 125 países.
Por que escolheram logo esta?
It was a very, very difficult decision, but in the end we felt that the picture of the year was an explosive image that really spoke to the hatred of our times,” disse uma dos jurados.
Tudo na vida tem hora. Burhan Özbilici tem 59 anos. É filho de um intelectual herói de guerra. Trabalha na AP desde 1989 sem ser notado. Foi à entrevista coletiva naquela galeria de arte de Ankara por acaso. Estava voltando para casa e deu uma passada. Lá, foi premiado com a foto de sua carreira já bem andada.
É a terceira vez que a foto de um assassinato recebe o prêmio máximo.
A primeira foi feita por Yasushi Nagao em 1961. Suscitou na época grande debate sobre a moralidade da imagem e críticas sobre a priorização do sensasionalismo em relação à qualidade do trabalho. Questionou-se inclusive violação de privacidade da vítima.
A segunda foi feita por Eddie Adams em 1968. Retratou a execução do chefe de um esquadrão de vingança vietcong, em Saigon. A foto teve um impacto tão grande que marcou o início do fim da guerra civil vietnamita, na qual os  Estados Unidos eram, já então, os vilões.
Só que a imagem celebrizada em 2016 não teve nenhuma consequência política. Serviu apenas para dar publicidade a um ato criminoso e ao executante do mesmo.
Não acho que o fotógrafo turco não merece crédito pela foto. Merece. Inclusive pela carreira. 
Minha questão não é profissional e sim moral.
Os repórteres fotográficos, de maneira geral, raramente pensam nas consequências de suas imagens. Focam, apertam o botão da câmera, e dane-se o contexto em que a foto foi tirada.
Aliás, quase a maioria absoluta das fotos jornalísticas premiadas deturpam a realidade dos fatos porque fixa o imediato.
Enquanto que o repórter tem de focar na informação dentro de um todo que envolve o onde, como, quando, quem, o quê e o porquê.
O fotógrafo não tem este compromisso com o desenrolar da história. Seu compromisso é com o momento em que um fato ocorre, independente da causa e do resultado.
Tirar a foto é um reflexo natural em um repórter fotográfico.  
Portanto, ao tirá-la, faz seu trabalho conscienciosamente.
Mas premiar esse tipo de foto é outra história. É amplificar o ato terrorista dando-lhe uma publicidade adicional, lamentável.
Há fotos que contribuem com algo para a humanidade. 
A World Press Photo, sendo uma fundação caritativa, teria de ser um instrumento de conscientização dos males que assolam a humanidade e não um veículo de propaganda de um ato reprovável.
Pois quer queira quer não, a WPP vai dar publicidade ao criminoso e ao crime durante todo o ano de 2017, pois as fotos vencedoras serão exibidas em exposições organizadas em 45 países. Geralmente, são vistas por cerca de quatro milhões de pessoas.
Por que não deram o prêmio de foto-reportagem a Daniel Berehulak? O fotógrafo australiano documentou a campanha de execuções sumárias de suspeitos de tráfico nas Filipinas, ordenada pelo presidente Rodrigo Duarte. Em um mês, Daniel registrou 57 assassinatos em imagem. Um verdadeiro e perigoso trabalho de reportagem.
Será que que não houve questionamento sobre a falta de respeito da vítima exposta na foto porque o diplomata é russo? 

Aproveito a oportunidade para mostrar algumas imagens que fotógrafos desconhecidos captaram da perversa ocupação israelense na Palestina, no mesmo ano de 2016.
Demolição de residência em Qabatyia. Abril. Foto de Nedal Eshtayah
 Rafah crossing, fronteira de Gaza com o Egito. Maio. Foto de Mohammed Dahman  
Qalandya, checkpoint na Cisjordânia. Julho. Foto de Ahmad Al-Bazz
 Kufr-Qadum, Cisjordânia. Agosto. Foto de Nedal Eshtayah
 Beit Hanoun, Gaza, after Israeli strike. Setembro. Foto de Ashraf Amra
 Bailarina palestina acompanhada pelo Trio Joubran, Ramallah. Out. Foto de Shadi Hatem
Qalandya, quotidiano. Dezembro. Foto de Shadi Hatem 
Vale do Jordão. Palestina trabalha sob vigilância de tanques da IDF. Foto de Keren Menor

By the way, talking about photos, one might think of the Internet, and Facebook. I'm not on Facebook because I enjoy life for real and I don't understand the notion of sharing my most precious moments with Mark Zuckerberg's spies, or anybody else, for that matter.
Speaking of which, last week, Mark Zuckerberg set out a new mission for his company. “In times like these, the most important thing we at Facebook can do is develop the social infrastructure to give people the power to build a global community that works for all of us,” he says. A global community that “prevents harm, helps during crises and rebuilds afterwards”.
A role that might be more accurately described as this: government. Because that’s what this letter is, a template for Facebook’s role in a new world order. A supranational power that exists above and beyond the nation state. A digital interface between you and everything else: your friends, the news, the world.
But here’s another response: where does that power end? Who holds it to account? What are the limits on it? Because the answer is there are none. Facebook’s power and dominance, its knowledge of every aspect of its users’ intimate lives, its ability to manipulate their – our – world view, its limitless ability to generate cash, is already beyond the reach of any government. 
What’s more, Facebook is not just any corporation. It is a surveillance machine. In 2012, researchers from Cambridge University showed that knowing just 10 “likes” a Facebook user had clicked gave you more information on someone than a colleague might know; 150 and you’d know more than their partner. With 300, you’d know more about them than they knew about themselves.
We haven’t even started to think about what that means. It’s only just starting to come to light how the Trump campaign and the Leave campaign may have used that information to microtarget swing voters with highly personalised messages via Facebook ads. Or what it will mean in the future.
“In recent campaigns – from India across Europe to the United States – we’ve seen the candidate with the largest and most engaged following on Facebook usually wins,” Zuckerberg writes. As though it were a good thing!
Marine Le Pen has 1.2 million Facebook followers; and, here he is, cheerfully envisioning a world in which Facebook is the intermediary between people and their governments. “We can help establish direct dialogue and accountability between people and our elected leaders.”
To put it another way: a company with no oversight and accountability that uses an algorithm that it allows no one to see is developing an AI that will decide if you are or aren’t a terrorist. What could possibly go wrong? Zuckerberg’s letter is a scary big deal. And yet, in the current news cycle, you may well have missed it. He released it on Thursday, coincidentally the same day on which Donald Trump denounced the press as the enemy of the people. A press whose financial model has been undermined by Google and Facebook. Which, we all have to hope, finds another financial model – and fast.
Bottomline, Facebook is not at the service of humanity or morality. Facebook is a corporation doing what corporations do: making money, grabbing market share, maximising profit. And interfering in people's lives.
BDS
PALESTINA
At the White House, Netanyahu followed the pattern he used with Obama: declared support for limited Palestinian statehood, reiterated that settlements are not an obstacle to peace, and required the Palestinians to recognise Israel as a Jewish state. Trump might not fall for it as easily as Obama.

Inside Story: Does the Two-State solution still have a future?

"The two-state solution is not something we just came up with. 
It is an international consensus and decision after decades of Israel’s rejection of the one-state democratic formula. 
If the Trump administration rejects this policy it would be destroying the chances for peace and undermining American interests, standing and credibility abroad,”
Hanan Ashrawi senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. 

On contact: Chris Hedges & Miko Peled
 
Shministim
The principal fact is that the impact of Israel's illegal settlements goes well beyond their built-up area, as
On Sunday, 15 January 2017, laborers began uprooting olive trees and leveling land near the Palestinian villages of ‘Azzun and a-Nabi Elyas in Qalqilya District, under the supervision of Civil Administration (CA) personnel. This work is being carried out as part of the decision made by the military and the CA to build a bypass road to replace the section of Route 55 that runs through a-Nabi Elyas. Route 55 originally served as the main link between Nablus and Qalqilya and was one of the major traffic arteries in the West Bank. Over time, as settlements expanded, it also became essential to settlers, as it connects several large settlements with Israel’s coastal plains and central region.
The decision to build the bypass road was first made in 1989, with the goal of sparing settlers the need to drive through the village of a-Nabi Elyas. However, it was not pursued until September 2013, when the Civil Administration planning institutions began the planning process. In October 2015, the project was expedited due to pressure by the settler leadership: According to Israeli media reports , Prime Minister Netanyahu promised the heads of the settlement local councils that the road would be built after they had set up a protest tent in October 2015, following the attack that killed Naama and Eitam Henkin.
On 21 December 2015, the head of the Civil Administration issued an expropriation order for 10.4 hectares of land earmarked for the bypass road. The order noted that the new road will “serve the public good” and improve mobility between Nablus and Qalqilya. In March 2016, the Palestinian village councils and landowners petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) against the expropriation, on the grounds that the road will not serve all residents of the area but only settlers. On 16 November 2016, the HCJ denied the petition after accepting the state’s claim that the road is intended to serve the entire population of the area.
The seizure of the land and uprooting of olive trees have severely harmed the landowners, who have lost a source of income and a major financial asset, as well as an open space that served all local residents for leisure and recreational activities.
Hussni Abu Haniyeh, 69, a married father of seven and resident of ‘Azzun, told B’Tselem in a testimony he gave field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi on 22 January 2017:
 

Is rape used as a political tool in Israel to demonize and dehumanize Arabs and Palestinians?”
The Electronic Intifada contributor David Sheen appeared on The Real News Network on Tuesday to discuss this question.
In a recent article for The Electronic Intifada, Sheen shows how lawmakers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition try to “deflect attention from sex crime scandals involving the highest echelons of Israeli society by making false allegations against Palestinians and other non-Jews.”
Sheen told The Real News, “Unfortunately, what we see is that in Israel, instead of the government saying this [rape culture] is a major problem … what we have is top members of the government committing these crimes.”
Sheen added, “Sadly the only time it ever gets mentioned by Prime Minister Netanyahu is if he thinks he can somehow blame rape on non-white, non-Jewish people, specifically Palestinians and African refugees and other non-Jewish folk in the country.”
Watch part one of Sheen’s interview above, and the second part here.
Here are related articles by David Sheen for The Electronic Intifada:

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