Our feature presentation this week is the remainder of an interview, the first half of which we presented last week, with British journalist Jonathan Cook. As we said then, Cook lives and writes from Nazareth, a predominately Palestinian/Arab city in the north of Israel. This interview is about ten years old, and was done on the occasion of the publication of his book Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State, but it continues to resonate because he goes into great detail describing the plight of Palestinians who live in the state of Israel and constitute some 20% of Israelâs citizens.
Because the interview was too long for one broadcast we split it between last week's and this week's edition on This Week In Palestine.
We left off last week, and now continue, with his description of problems Palestinian/Arabs have in finding professional work in Israel where they live. Although the Palestinian population is highly educated, finding work as a professional, a doctor, engineer, lawyer, or academic is close to impossible. We pick up at the point where Jonathan Cook observes that much of the purpose of this is to make life difficult for Israeli Arabs, so that they will leave.
Before that, an action alert: The Zionist lobbies in Massachusetts, with JCRC at the helm, are trying again to pass legislation designed to punish and weaken the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. Unsuccessful last term, the lobby is trying again with stealth antidiscrimination legislation that doesn't even mention BDS, but would promote targeting of the BDS movement.
Specifically, the bill forbids the state from contracting with institutions and individuals who boycott companies that profit off the Israeli occupation and policies of apartheid. Framed as an anti-discrimination measure, the bill looks innocuous but of course it's not. The sponsors and bill numbers are State Senator Creem of Newton (SB92) and State Rep. Paul McMurtry of Dedham (HB779). We urge our listeners to weigh in as soon as possible.
Closing this episode, we read from an instructive article in Mondoweiss written by Palestinian journalist Sherene Khalel. The subject is Palestinians' concerns and non-concerns about the now-begun Trump presidency. Itâs posted at http://mondoweiss.net/2017/01/palestinians-react-inauguration/.
This Week In Palestine (a weekly part of Truth and Justice Radio) is an award-winning three-quarter-hour segment of news from Palestine and discussion of issues relevant to the Palestinians' struggle for freedom from Israel's brutal military occupation and colonization of their homeland. It speaks from the point of view of Palestinians and those who care about them. It's a regular part of Truth and Justice Radio, aired Sundays 6-10am ET on WZBC 90.3FM, Newton, MA, streaming live and archived for two weeks at wzbc.org; TJR's website, truthandjusticeradio.org, has a link to This Week In Palestine archives back thru 1-6-2008; editions are also accessible at radio4all.net or by navigating through our playlists. (At this important time, TJR has been airing Palestine coverage IN ADDITION to that provided by This Week In Palestine.) We hope you'll write to us at tjradio@fastmail.com if you rebroadcast our work, or have questions or comments.
This Week In Palestine 1-29-2017
Remainder of the Jonathan Cook interview, plus a BDS action alert
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