This week we take a deep look inside the Jenin resistance following the Israeli bombardment of the city. What was happening inside Jenin, on the streets, during the Israeli assault? What was the Palestinian Authority doing or not doing? We feature a review and analysis of the Jenin assault through the eyes of 4 journalists who covered it in the following Mondoweiss News Service Report.
[Recording from Mondoweiss]
That was a special report and analysis of the recent Israeli attack on the Best Bank town of Jenin by a team of Mondoweiss on-the-ground reporters.
Before we go we want to report on the response of Massachusetts Congresswoman Lori Trahan who witnessed the complete and humiliating segregation of Palestinians under military occupation in Hebron, including children as young as her own daughters, on a Congressional junket tour she joined, sponsored by elements of the powerful Israeli Lobby. It left her in such despair that she quote wanted to “sprinkle magic dust and change their situation.”
It’s a shocking statement because there is so much that a U.S. congressperson can do, other than sprinkle magic dust, when they witness such conditions. Beginning with the fact that the U.S. gives Israel over $4 billion a year to pay for the soldiers Trayhan saw occupying Hebron. That ought to be leverage!
Trahan could demand that the U.S. stop blocking action against Israel at the International Criminal Court-– and point out that the 17-year-long blockade of 2 million people in Gaza is a war crime.
Trahan could sign on to the congressional letter demanding that the U.S. scrutinize Israel’s routine harassment of Palestinian visitors before putting the country in the visa waiver program.
Trahan could sign on to Betty McCollum’s bill to withdraw aid to Israel over its treatment of Palestinian children like the ones Trahan saw being humiliated before her eyes. Only 26 Congresspeople have signed on to that bill, not including Trayhan.
Trahan could stop taking insults and lies from Benjamin Netanyahu lying down. And stop telling us that Netanyahu is “impressive” and “does not lack charisma.”
Trahan could speak out about the fact that the American ambassador promotes the military forces that carry out human rights violations against Palestinians every day (and say, No that’s not “totally normal behavior” for an ambassador).
And finally, Trahan could call what they witness what it is. Apartheid. The systematic legal favoring of one ethnic group over another. The major human rights groups have called it apartheid. So have countless moral leaders (including lately Ban Ki-Moon).
Lori Trahan couldn’t call it apartheid because the Israel lobby group that took her to Hebron refuses to call it apartheid, and says a two-state solution is still in the offing. It is not because of Israeli extreme appropriation of Palestinian land through, among other things, rampant settlement expansion.
Nearly half of Democrats say it’s apartheid. It’s time for the American public to demand more from their representatives. And we are not talking about sprinkling magic dust.
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; Truthandjusticeradio.org has a link to This Week In Palestine archives back thru 1-6-2008. (TJR airs occasional 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 7-23-2023
A deep look inside the Jenin resistance following the Israeli bombardment of the city; the nonsensical reaction of Massachusetts Congresswoman Lori Trahan
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