NEW FROM FMEP
FMEP Legislative Round-Up December 20, 2024 (Lara Friedman)
- Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. House GOP Goes All-In on Targeting Israel Protest/Speech on Campus. 4. Selected Members on the Record; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements
Settlement & Annexation Report: December 20, 2024 (Kristin McCarthy)
- De Facto Annexation: Israel Applies Domestic Urban Renewal Law to Settlements, Easing High-Density Construction; 2. High Court Orders Illegal Settler Construction Dismantled; 3. Knesset Caucus to Push Bill Preventing West Bank Exit; 4. Israeli Demolitions Continue Alarming Spike; 5. Israel is Expanding Settlements in the Golan Heights, As Army Moves to Expand Occupation of Syrian Land; 6. Bonus Reads
Eyewitness to Israel’s Intentionally Created Health Apocalypse in Gaza (Occupied Thoughts episode)
FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks with Dr. Tammy Abughnaim, an American physician who has been to Gaza twice since 10/7/23, serving as a humanitarian physician and has worked at Al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Medical Complex; and Dr. Yara Asi, assistant professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Global Health Management and Informatics and a 2023 Palestine fellow for the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
Can Syria Rebuild? (Occupied Thoughts episode)
FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart and Maha Yahya, Director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, discuss the new developments in Syria. They look at how Syria’s new leaders governed in the areas they controlled over the last few years, why some Syrian minorities are fleeing to Lebanon, and whether Turkey will pursue the Kurds in Syria.
Connecting the Bullets: Guns on the Kitchen Table to Organized Crime to Crimes Against Humanity (Occupied Thoughts episode)
FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with attorney and activist Meisa Irshaid, activist and author Rela Mazali, and Professor Jonathan Metzl about the proliferation of guns in civilian spaces in Israel/Palestine. They discuss the the acceleration of organized crime and gun violence in Palestinian communities inside of ’48 Israel, the mass armament of Jewish Israeli citizens, mostly men, on both sides of the Green Line, spearheaded by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and the links between militarization, occupation, and crimes against humanity.
GAZA
Israel accused of act of genocide over restriction of Gaza water supply (Guardian 12/19/24)
“Israel’s restriction of Gaza’s water supply to levels below minimum needs amounts to an act of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, a human rights report has alleged. Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigated Israeli attacks on the water supply infrastructure in Gaza over the course of its 14-month war there. It has accused Israeli forces of deliberate actions intended to cut the availability of clean water so drastically that the population has been forced to resort to contaminated sources, leading to the outbreak of lethal diseases, especially among children. Israel’s actions have killed many thousands of Palestinians and constitute an act of genocide, HRW argues, citing declarations by ministers in the country’s ruling coalition that Gaza’s water supply would be cut off as evidence of intent. The 184-page report, Extermination and Acts of Genocide, comes after an Amnesty International report this month concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.” See also Israel’s Crime of Extermination, Acts of Genocide in Gaza (Human Rights Watch 12/19/24); Gaza death trap: MSF report exposes Israel’s campaign of total destruction (Medicins Sans Frontieres 12/19/24)
Gaza strikes leave dozens of people dead as Israeli bombardment continues (WaPo 12/20/24)
“Israeli strikes in Gaza left 77 people dead over 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry said early Friday. Later in the day, more strikes followed. Eight people were killed in a strike on a building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to the two hospitals where bodies were brought. A strike on a building in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza’s north killed 10 people, including seven children, and left 15 injured, Gaza civil defense force spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said in a statement. In a civil defense force video sent out after the Jabalya strike, Bassal holds up the lifeless body of a small child. “Why do they kill? Why are these children killed?” he asks, his voice full of grief and anger. “Imagine this little girl is your daughter, imagine she is your child.”’
‘People Simply Vaporized’: Israeli Attacks on the South Gaza Humanitarian Zone Have Killed Scores of Palestinians (Nir Hasson//Haaretz 12/17/24)
“The strike was one of several strikes on Mawasi – an area the IDF has classified as a humanitarian zone to which it directs Gaza’s civilian population. Despite its humanitarian classification, the IDF has never refrained from striking it, and scores of people are estimated to have been killed there to date. The UN says the strikes in the zone have intensified recently…The strikes in Mawasi are different in character from the bombings in urban areas. Rather than destroying buildings – from which dust-covered, panicked wounded are pulled – strikes on Mawasi involve huge bombs that leave giant craters in the dunes. There are some reports of people completely disappearing due to the intensity of the explosion and the lack of shelter that could protect against the bombings. “It looks like Nagasaki,” said Georgios Petropoulos, head of the Gazan branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “They counted the bodies, but there are people who simply vaporized. Ten or twenty people who were known to be in the tents have simply vanished,” he said. “I was at the hospital after the bombing, it looked like a slaughterhouse, blood everywhere.”
‘No Civilians. Everyone’s a Terrorist’: IDF Soldiers Expose Arbitrary Killings and Rampant Lawlessness in Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor (Yaniv Kubovich//Haaretz 12/18/24)
‘”The forces in the field call it ‘the line of dead bodies'” a commander in Division 252 tells Haaretz. “After shootings, bodies are not collected, attracting packs of dogs who come to eat them. In Gaza, people know that wherever you see these dogs, that’s where you must not go.” The Netzarim corridor, a seven-kilometer-wide strip of land, stretches from near Kibbutz Be’eri to the Mediterranean coast. The IDF has emptied this area of Palestinian residents and demolished their homes to construct military roads and military positions…A recently discharged Division 252 officer describes the arbitrary nature of this boundary: “For the division, the kill zone extends as far as a sniper can see.” But the issue goes beyond geography. “We’re killing civilians there who are then counted as terrorists,” he says…These accounts of indiscriminate killing and the routine classification of civilian casualties as terrorists emerged repeatedly in Haaretz’s conversations with recent Gaza veterans…An officer in Division 252’s command recalls when the IDF spokesperson announced their forces had killed over 200 militants. “Standard procedure requires photographing bodies and collecting details when possible, then sending evidence to intelligence to verify militant status or at least confirm they were killed by the IDF,” he explains. “Of those 200 casualties, only ten were confirmed as known Hamas operatives. Yet no one questioned the public announcement about killing hundreds of militants.”’
‘Everything is gone’: how Israeli forces destroyed Jabaliya refugee camp (Guardian 12/18/24)
“A chronicle of Jabaliya’s destruction, using eyewitness accounts, satellite imagery and video footage.” See also Israeli Knesset Members Plan Resettlement of Gaza in Observation Tour (Haaretz 12/20/24)
‘My hands are paralyzed from torture’: Gazans reveal horrors of Ofer Camp (Oren Ziv//+972 12/19/24)
“Inmates at Israel’s shadowy new facility face non-stop abuse — from deadly beatings and electric shocks, to constant handcuffing and skin diseases.”
Israeli Strike Kills Gaza Man Who Went Viral For Tribute To Slain Granddaughter (HuffPost 12/16/24)
“An Israeli strike in Gaza has killed an elderly Palestinian man known from a touching video that went viral last year of him grieving his 3-year-old granddaughter, also slain in an airstrike. Khaled Nabhan was killed Monday during an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to reports. Khaled Nabhan drew global attention after CNN reported in November 2023 on the Israeli military bombing his home and killing his grandchildren, 3-year-old Reem and 5-year-old Tariq. His daughter and the children’s mother, Maysa, was injured. At the time, the video spread on social media of him gently cradling Reem’s body, nuzzling her with his beard, opening her eyes to kiss them and tearfully telling her in Arabic, “Rouh al rouh,” which means “You are the soul of my soul.”’
Faced with mounting public anger, a weakened Hamas starts to compromise (WaPo 12/16/24)
“With its military power depleted and its political influence on the wane, Hamas is under growing public pressure to help bring the war in Gaza to an end…Last week, Hamas publicly softened its negotiating position with Israel. A new proposal for a 60-day pause in hostilities and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners includes key concessions from Hamas, which relented on its demands for a complete halt to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces, a Hamas official told The Washington Post. The group is still insisting that displaced Palestinians be allowed to return to northern Gaza, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. As diplomats shuttle back and forth between Cairo and Doha, Qatar’s capital, to discuss the proposal, Egypt has been working separately to broker a postwar Gaza governance agreement between Hamas and its political rival, the Fatah party, which controls the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under his own domestic pressures, has refused to put forward a “day-after” plan and has ruled out the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, a key U.S. and Palestinian request. He has also rejected any role for the remnants of Hamas, saying Israel will keep fighting in Gaza until the Islamist movement has been eradicated. In the meantime, powerful members of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition are pushing to annex and resettle the enclave, and some have proposed expelling Palestinians by “encouraging voluntary immigration.” Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 17 years, is at its weakest point, according to residents, Palestinian officials and analysts, reduced to pockets of guerrilla fighters and increasingly incapable of governing.” See also Gaza ceasefire talks continue, but no apparent breakthrough (WaPo 12/19/24); Israel says hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas closer than ever: What we know (Al Monitor 12/16/24); Israel keeps up Gaza bombardment as ceasefire talks intensify (Reuters 12/19/24)
REGION/GLOBAL
Were Israel’s Yemen strikes trial run for major attack on Iran? (Al Monitor 12/20/24)
“The recent large-scale Israeli operation against targets in Yemen took weeks to plan, but does not point to Israeli leaders having sidelined what they consider the biggest threat to Israel — Iran. On Dec. 19 at 2:30 a.m., dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets, loaded with fuel and one-ton bombs, took off toward Yemen, more than 1,120 miles away. Their flight path took them along the Red Sea coastline, past the ballistic missile the Houthi rebels had fired from Yemen toward Israel at the very same time. As the warplanes dropped their bombs, the warhead of the Houthis’ Iranian-supplied missile landed on an empty school building in suburban Tel Aviv, destroying it…The Israeli attack was the third in the past six months launched against Yemen in retaliation for some 400 missiles and drones that Israel accuses the Houthis of firing at it. The pilots dropped some 60 bombs on power stations and fuel depots, hitting Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, for the first time as well as the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa. The attack caused widespread power outages throughout the country…Israel regards the Houthi drones and missiles, most of which were intercepted, as nuisance attacks or harassment on the sideline of the main arena, Iran. Some in Israel even regard the three retaliatory strikes on Yemen as a “pilot project” in preparation for a possible attack on equidistant Iran.” See also Israel builds flexible presence in Syria as window opens to strike Iran (Al Monitor 12/13/24); Houthis and Israel trade strikes after missile hits Israeli school (WaPo 12/19/24); Syria’s collapse and Israeli attacks leave Iran exposed (WaPo 12/17/24); Israel approves plan to expand settlements on occupied Golan Heights (WaPo 12/15/24)
After Assad’s fall, a new Middle East ‘order’ is taking shape (Ishaan Tharoor//WaPo 12/20/24)
“Fear and hope color the unfolding drama in Syria in equal shades. After the stunning fall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, attention has centered on the new dispensation taking shape in Damascus — and the powerful regional actors that may be influencing it. Analysts have already declared geopolitical winners and losers: Iran and Russia, Assad’s longtime backers, are licking their wounds; Turkey and Arab monarchies that supported the Syrian rebels to varying extents are in the ascendance. Israel, which carried out a ruthless bombing campaign on Syrian military targets and moved ground forces across the disputed Golan Heights into Syrian territory clearly feels emboldened, too. As the Islamist rebel group that ousted Assad takes the reins in steering the country’s political transition, Western governments are starting to reengage a country long in the diplomatic cold. On Tuesday, the French flag was hoisted above France’s embassy in Damascus for the first time in 12 years. And on Friday, a U.S. delegation was in Syria, the first American diplomatic visit to Damascus in more than a decade…Assad’s fall has made some dynamics clear. The regime’s demise was prefigured by Israel’s tactical decimation of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy that was vital to securing the Assad regime over a decade of civil war. Furthermore, after defending him for years, both Iran and Russia were unable or even unwilling to keep Assad in power. His ousting represents a political sea change in the Middle East.” See also U.S. officials in direct contact with Syria’s new leaders (WaPo 12/14/24); Netanyahu says Israel will occupy Syria buffer zone for foreseeable future (Guardian 12/18/24); Turkey condemns Israel plan to double Golan Heights population (Guardian 12/16/24); U.S. lifts bounty on Syria’s interim leader amid diplomatic outreach (WaPo 12/20/24); US scraps $10M bounty on HTS leader Golani after meeting in Damascus (Al Monitor 12/20/24)
Israel will close its Ireland embassy over Gaza tensions as Palestinian death toll nears 45,000 (AP 12/15/24)
“Israel said Sunday it will close its embassy in Ireland as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli airstrikes killed over 46 people including several children. The decision to close the embassy came in response to what Israel’s foreign minister has described as Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.” In May, Israel recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland announced, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, it would recognize a Palestinian state. The Irish Cabinet last week decided to formally intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel denies it.” See also Israel to shutter Ireland embassy, citing ‘antisemitic rhetoric of the Irish government’ (JTA 12/16/24); Fearing Arrest, Netanyahu Reportedly to Skip Auschwitz Liberation’s 80th Anniversary in Poland (Haaretz 12/20/24)
For Syrians in the Golan, Assad’s fall sparks hope and uncertainty (Baker Zoubi//+972 12/13/24)
“Residents of the occupied Jawlan celebrated the regime’s collapse, but remain wary amid political instability and further Israeli encroachment inside Syria.” See also Israel approves plan to expand settlements on occupied Golan Heights (WaPo 12/15/24)
Vatican Nativity scene with Christ child on Palestinian keffiyeh removed (Catholic Herald 12/11/24)
“A Nativity scene displayed at the Vatican that depicted the infant Jesus resting upon a Palestinian keffiyeh has now been removed after causing significant controversy. When the scene was unveiled on 7 December in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall, the placing of the infant Jesus upon a piece of cloth that serves as the traditional Palestinian head dress lead many to interpret the gesture as a political statement on the part of the Holy See. The black-and-white chequered keffiyeh is widely seen as a pro-Palestinian symbol. The Nativity scene, designed by two artists from the Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, was described by the Palestine Chronicle as “a poignant nod to the Palestinian struggle”, yet received blowback from the Israeli and Jewish communities.”
RIVER TO THE SEA
What’s behind PA’s crackdown against Hamas, Islamic Jihad in Jenin? (Daoud Kuttab//Al Monitor 12/19/24)
“Mohammad Mustafa, the mild-mannered, US-trained former World Bank official who is the current prime minister in Ramallah, made a rare statement on Dec. 14 during a visit to Jenin, praising the crackdown and warning against “those who want to destroy the country.”…Armed members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad operate widely throughout the camp. Israel accuses the groups of being part of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance and says Tehran has for years smuggled small arms into the West Bank. Jenin has long been a flashpoint for tensions between Palestinian security forces and armed factions, but saw a major escalation in December. PA members arrested a prominent member of the Jenin Battalion — an umbrella organization of militant groups — and militants responded by seizing two government vehicles, sparking direct confrontations.”
U.S. asks Israel to approve urgent military aid to Palestinian security forces (Axios 12/15/24)
“The Biden administration asked Israel to approve U.S. military assistance to Palestinian Authority security forces for a wide-ranging operation the PA is conducting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian, U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios. Why it matters: The security operation to regain control in the city of Jenin and its refugee camp from militants is the largest conducted by Palestinian security forces in years. Palestinian and Israeli officials said the operation is focused on a local armed group that includes militants affiliated with both Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas. Both groups receive funding from Iran. “This operation is a make or break moment for the Palestinian Authority,” one Palestinian official said. Palestinian and U.S. officials said Palestinian leadership launched the operation out of fear that Islamist militants — emboldened after armed rebels took control of Syria — could try to overthrow the Palestinian Authority.”
Bibi Netanyahu Is Failing Ever Upward (Noa Landau//NYT 12/19/24)
“The Israeli prime minister’s endurance can be traced back to several political factors, including a decade of echo-chamber building within Israeli media and Bibi’s own sophisticated and cynical exploitation of Israelis’ deep yearning for unity after Oct. 7. But perhaps the strongest force keeping Mr. Netanyahu in power is the most basic: his fractured, increasingly nonexistent opposition. The vast majority of those who loathe him as a leader do not oppose the war itself, nor the way it has been conducted. They want him out of power but they have no coherent alternative vision. For the past year, all Mr. Netanyahu has had to do was hold on to power — and pass the blame.”
Israeli Settlers, Jerusalem Municipality Exploiting War to Evict Palestinians From East Jerusalem, Residents Say (Nir Hasson//Haaretz 12/19/24)
“Silwan residents these incidents add up to a full assault by the authorities on their village. The Jerusalem municipality and the settler organizations, they say, are exploiting the war to push them out and bring the Judaization of Silwan to a new level…”Everybody in Silwan feels that they are using the war to evict us and demolish our homes,” says Zuhair Rajabi, a neighborhood resident. “And no one can say a word.” Indeed, the data on house demolitions in East Jerusalem reinforces the view that the municipality is taking advantage of the state of emergency to step up the pace of home demolitions. According to the NGO Ir Amim, some 243 structures have been demolished this year, more than in any single year since 1967. Of those, 171 were homes…The demolition of nine homes in Al-Bustan follows the razing of 15 others in the past year. Another 85 face demolition orders. After that, the entire neighborhood is slated to disappear. In 2010, Nir Barkat, who was then Jerusalem’s mayor, unveiled a program to raze the entire neighborhood and create a park to be called Gan Hamelech (the King’s Garden) in its place. The archeological park is designed to link up with the City of David National Park, which is administered by the Elad nonprofit.” See also Candidate for Israel’s Top Court Lives in House Illegally Built on Private Palestinian Land (Haaretz 12/20/24)
U.S. SCENE
US violating law to fund Israel despite alleged human rights abuses, lawsuit says (Guardian 12/17/24)
“The state department is facing a new lawsuit brought by Palestinians and Palestinian Americans accusing the agency of deliberately circumventing a decades-old US human rights law to continue funding Israeli military units accused of widespread atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories. The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday, marks the first time that victims of alleged human rights abuses are challenging the state department’s failure to ever sanction an Israeli security unit under the Leahy Law, a 1990s-era law that prohibits US military assistance to forces credibly implicated in gross human rights violations. The plaintiffs include Amal Gaza, a pseudonym for a mathematics teacher from Gaza who has lost 20 family members; Shawan Jabarin, the director of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, who endured six years of arbitrary detention in the West Bank; and Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American with relatives in Gaza who have been repeatedly displaced by the ongoing Israeli offensive…Along with two other plaintiffs, they are demanding judicial intervention to force the US to comply with the law.” See also 77 House Democrats accuse Israel of violating arms sales laws (Guardian 12/13/24); Family of US activist killed in West Bank says Blinken offers no prospect of US inquiry (Reuters 12/16/24); Why isn’t Israel being held accountable for killing my wife and other innocents? (Hamid Ali//The Hill 12/14/24)
The Democrats’ stubborn refusal to learn from the campus protests for Palestine (Ahmed Moor//+972 12/17/24)
““I didn’t feel like my views were represented by either party,” Sophia Rosser, a third-year student at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told me. For Rosser, the fact that Harris seemed to back all of Biden’s policies, especially his support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, highlighted contradictions in her campaign. “I can’t think of her attempt to solve the housing crisis without thinking about the fact that 90 percent of people in Gaza have been displaced,” she said…This was a common sentiment among young voters I spoke to in Pennsylvania: a refusal to accept that achieving progressive political priorities at home must come at the cost of continuing a destructive, illiberal policy abroad. Democrats, they argue, can no longer afford to be “progressive except Palestine.” And thousands of them, like Rosser, are university students who participated in protests and joined encampments over the past year. Rather than take their concerns seriously, Democratic politicians and party leaders spent much of the past year berating and belittling students for their vocal opposition to Israel’s genocide, and smearing them as being motivated by hatred of Jews.” See also US won’t sanction Smotrich and Ben Gvir before end of Biden’s term — officials (Times of Israel 12/19/24); Huckabee addresses settlement-focused One Israel Fund as ‘quirky right-wing’ cause goes ‘mainstream’ (eJewish Philanthropy 12/20/24)
‘Tired of writing about dead kids’: why a US state department worker resigned over Israel-Gaza policy (Guardian 12/18/24)
“Casey resigned from the state department in July after four years at the job, discreetly leaving the post unlike other recent high-profile government departures. Now seated at his kitchen table in the quiet suburbs of northern Michigan, Casey reflected on how, as one of only two people in the entire US government explicitly focused on Gaza, he became an unwilling chronicler of a humanitarian catastrophe. “I got so tired of writing about dead kids,” he said. “Just constantly having to prove to Washington that these children actually died and then watching nothing happen.” Casey’s work function included documenting the humanitarian and political landscape through classified cables, research and reporting. But his disillusionment wasn’t sudden. It was a slow accumulation of bureaucratic betrayals – each report dismissed, each humanitarian concern bulldozed by political expediency.”
Defunding Dissent (Will Alden//Jewish Currents 12/19/24)
“Donors’ break with abortion funds is just one example of a quiet crackdown currently underway inside the veiled world of American philanthropy. In conference rooms, Zoom meetings, and email inboxes, largely hidden from public view, funders who style themselves as champions of progressive values are conditioning their grants on support for—or, at least, silence about—Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza, denying resources to organizations they had previously supported and praised. More than 40 interviews with people on either side of the grantmaker–grantee divide reveal a pattern of funding decisions that punish expressions of Palestinian solidarity, affecting social justice organizations that work on a range of domestic issues, from police violence and the prison system to environmental justice and the affordable housing crisis. For funders—including prominent Jewish family foundations like Schusterman—the enforcement of Israel-related guardrails lays bare the contradictions inherent in a philanthropic portfolio that pursues a progressive domestic agenda while promoting allegiance to the Jewish state.”
Viet Thanh Nguyen broke a BDS rule. Now he is its vocal advocate (Edo Konrad & Alaa Salama//+972 12/17/24)
“Refusing interviews with what he calls the “mainstream Israeli media,” Nguyen knows his decision to support the boycott, juxtaposed with the publication of his work in Israel, not only carries immediate repercussions — it demands grappling with questions of accountability, complicity, and the role of writers and cultural movements in political movements, especially during times of mass violence. His position on Israel today, as he put it in an interview with +972 Magazine, is unequivocal: no collaboration without a clear renunciation of colonization and apartheid.”
PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS
How Many People Have Died of Starvation in Gaza? (Alex de Waal//World Peace Foundation 12/17/24)
“We don’t know how many people in Gaza have perished from starvation and related health crisis. But we have good reason to fear that the toll will be high. The humanitarian data for Gaza are poor and inference from the existing data to a death toll is a hazardous exercise with a wide margin for error, as this paper will show. However, absence of evidence is not evidence for absence. Israel and defenders of Israel have criticized the Integrated food security Phase Classification (IPC) data and analysis, but the alternative data and analysis they have put forward do not add up to a refutation. What Israel needs to do is to facilitate high quality data gathering by humanitarian agencies, to provide an accurate determination of levels of suffering and needs. This paper covers the following: (a) the question of what is included in excess mortality in humanitarian emergencies; (b) methods for estimating mortality in these circumstances; (c) some estimates for mortality derived from these approaches; and (d) how Gaza’s humanitarian emergency compares to others.”
The Palestinian Struggle: From Genocide to Global Realignment (Tareq Baconi//Al Shabaka 12/17/24)
“While the Palestinian movement is experiencing unprecedented momentum through global grassroots support and solidarity, we must become more strategic in translating this popular power into political power. Questions of international law, foreign policy toward Global South actors, and global governance require deliberate and coordinated engagement. These are not merely abstract concerns but urgent, practical considerations for advancing the Palestinian cause on the world stage. Today’s strategic deficit is not incidental but the product of decades of systematic repression. The Israeli regime worked relentlessly to dismantle the revolutionary leadership of the 1960s and 1970s—through co-optation, imprisonment, exile, and assassination—leaving a vacuum in institutional capacity and decolonial vision. Rebuilding this revolutionary infrastructure is an urgent priority. Without it, foreign interests and Western hegemony will continue to impose paradigms that marginalize Palestinian rights and reinforce settler-colonial oppression. The critical question today is how to seize this moment—marked by the genocide in Gaza and the global attention it has drawn—to revitalize our revolutionary legacy. This is not a call to return to the past, as such a return is neither possible nor desirable. Instead, we must reimagine decolonization and revolutionary politics for our current era, defined by interconnected global challenges and shifting power structures. Resuscitating a decolonial project rooted in our history but oriented toward the future is our most urgent task. It is through this work that we can chart a path toward justice, liberation, and self-determination for Palestinians and all oppressed peoples.”
The New Old Warfare (Sophia Goodfriend//Boston Review 12/16/24)
“The reality is that the revolving door between tech, venture capital, and the military does little to enhance security. Israeli officials themselves have stated that an overreliance on supposedly state-of-the-art surveillance and weapons systems contributed to the devastating security failures on October 7…All the death and destruction in Gaza over the last year has done little to dislodge this institutionalized conceit. Within weeks of declaring war against Hamas, Israel’s military circulated press releases claiming state-of-the-art AI-powered targeting systems were augmenting its killing capacities. As the ground troops rolled in, military heads boasted that algorithmically enhanced tanks were allowing units to wage war with lethal precision. And as soldiers reoccupied the strip, security officials announced that the war was yielding a steady stream of data to build up new defense technology products. Their press releases were aimed at the private sector. Transnational firms like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Palantir signed over a host of computing infrastructure and AI systems over the past year. Defense tech startups have also rushed to the battlefield to begin product testing…But these are just slogans. As investigative reporting from Yuval Abraham with +972 Magazine has made clear, most of the algorithmic weaponry determining where bombs fall—most notably, AI-assisted targeting systems called Lavender, Where’s Daddy?, and The Gospel—have simply lent the veneer of technical rationality to a military bent on largely indiscriminate destruction. The billions poured into engineering and maintaining these technologies have done nothing to achieve Israel’s stated goals of decimating Hamas or bringing the remaining hostages home. Instead, it has turned most of Gaza into a death zone.”
How antisemitism, Israeli nationalism and anger over Gaza clashed in Amsterdam (WaPo 12/18/24)
“Israeli officials have characterized it as a premeditated pogrom, reminiscent of the darkest days of Jewish persecution in Europe. Pro-Palestinian activists and other locals contend they were attempting to defend their city from the aggressive provocations of Israeli soccer fans, and to protest the bloodshed of Israel’s war in Gaza…But a Washington Post review of more than 100 videos, WhatsApp and Telegram chats, and interviews with more than 30 witnesses found that neither of the dominant narratives accurately reflect how the violence unfolded. There was some planned coordination — among taxi drivers and other locals who used messaging apps to organize a show of force, with at least one chat referring to a “Jew hunt.” Those conversations took place after, and in many cases in response to, episodes the night before the match, when Maccabi supporters pulled down a Palestinian flag and damaged a taxi. Neither The Post nor Dutch investigators came across plans for orchestrated violence in the days ahead of the match. The Post found that the violence that unfolded was not one-sided. Israeli fans were harassed, chased and in some cases beaten. But video of one of the earliest post-match altercations, shared by multiple news organizations as an example of attacks on Israelis, in fact shows Maccabi supporters as the aggressors.”
Is Israel Really Building an Empire Across the Middle East? (Dahlia Scheindlin//Haaretz 12/19/24)
“In the early months of 2024, an Arab colleague from a Middle Eastern country asked what in the world Israel was trying to do. Israel seemed to be acting like the expanding Muslim empire of the early Middle Ages, the colleague said anxiously, poised to conquer the whole Middle East. It sounded like a paranoid or at least heavily exaggerated view of Israel as a perennial evil expansionist aggressor…But frankly, it’s getting harder to push back against the “empire” claim. After months of limited, if deadly, escalations with Hezbollah, Israel escalated to full-scale war in September; the pager explosions and killing Hassan Nasrallah were a prelude to a full-scale air and ground invasion, designed to remove the military threat of Hezbollah forever. But what was the added security value of calling Lebanon “part of the promised land,” as an esoteric new group called Wake up the North did back in June? In November, Ze’ev Erlich, known by his community as a “Land of Israel” researcher from the West Bank settlement of Ofra, was killed in Lebanon. He had apparently attached himself to the army and was reportedly researching an ancient fortress…to re-historicize Lebanon’s territory as part of his “Land of Israel” research…This week, the IDF also admitted that members of Wake up the North had gotten into Lebanon – and pitched tents…In the meantime, Syria’s wretched dictator Bashar Assad has fallen and fled, vanquished by rebels. In response, Israel moved forthwith into the Golan Heights demilitarized zone within Syria, for the first time since the 1974 armistice terms… [Netanyahu] stated that Israel will stay put in Syrian territory – which he called a “very important place” – for now.”
Defining genocide: how a rift over Gaza sparked a crisis among scholars (Alice Speri//Guardian 12/20/24)
“A pair of reports published this month by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch mark a significant contribution to the raging debate over how to characterize a war that has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians and decimated Gaza. But the reports – the first found that Israel is committing genocide, the second acts of genocide – are unlikely to quell deep divisions in the academic field of Holocaust and genocide studies, whose scholars study mass violence. The dichotomy in the discipline is at the core of the tension, creating a split between those who hold that the Holocaust was a unique event and those who believe in a comparative view. The conflict has tapped into a foundational question: what is genocide studies for?”