1. New from FMEP

2. Gaza

3. Region//Global

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Lawfare//Redefining Antisemitism to Quash Criticism of Israel

7. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

RESIGNED: The Former Biden Admin Officials Who Left Their Jobs Over Gaza (Webinar/podcast recorded 4/12/24)

FMEP is honored to host Josh Paul, Tariq Habash, and Annelle Sheline for their first joint public appearance and conversation over their individual decisions to resign from their jobs in the Biden Administration over the President’s policy on Israel, Palestine, and the ongoing war in Gaza. We discuss the Biden Administration’s policy and decision-making, and the possibilities for changing course, as well as the personal stakes, choices, and costs of public protest against the U.S.’s close embrace of Israel and its brutal war on Gaza.

FMEP Legislative Round-Up: April 12, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings & Markups; 4. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

GAZA

Aid ‘still not reaching Gaza’, as top US official warns famine has started (Guardian)

“A promised surge in aid into Gaza that Benjamin Netanyahu promised Joe Biden a week ago has so far failed to materialise, aid workers say, as the US aid chief confirmed that famine is beginning to take hold in parts of the besieged coastal strip. The increase in the number of truck crossing into Gaza claimed by Israel conflicts with UN records and already appears to be faltering…Aid officials say the amount of food getting into the coastal strip is far short of what is needed to fend off an impending famine, particularly in the north. On Wednesday, Samantha Power, the head of the US humanitarian and development agency, USAID, became the first American official to confirm publicly that famine had already got a grip in at least some parts of Gaza.” See also ‘It’s an established fact’: US envoy says most Gazans at risk of imminent famine (Times of Israel); Few Signs of Progress on Aid to Gaza After Israeli Pledges (NYT); 

‘The colors and joy have disappeared’: Gazans return to decimated Khan Younis (Ruwaida Kamal Amer//+972)

“Thousands of Palestinians have returned to the city of Khan Younis in recent days after the sudden withdrawal of Israeli forces on Sunday. What awaited them was a scene of total devastation, such that many were unable to even recognize their old homes and streets. Entire neighborhoods have been decimated by bombing, shelling, and bulldozing, leaving barely a trace. Khan Younis is now a city of rubble and ash. Before the war, the city and its surroundings were home to approximately 400,000 people, making it the Gaza Strip’s second largest municipal area after Gaza City. That number more than doubled within the first weeks of the war, as Israel ordered all residents of the northern Strip to evacuate southward, even as it kept bombing Khan Younis. When Israeli troops fully besieged the city in early February, many Palestinians were forced to escape through a so-called “safe corridor,” which entailed abuse and humiliation for those who made the journey. With the army vacating Khan Younis in recent days, the city’s former residents were eager to return after two months or more to see what was left of it. Walking the once bustling and now virtually indiscernible streets, many were shocked by what they found.” See also Palestinians return to destroyed homes in Khan Younis after Israeli withdrawal (The Guardian); Civilians return to Khan Younis – in pictures (Guardian); Khan Younis ‘smells like death’ as Palestinians return to devastated homes (Al Jazeera); ‘There’s no more life’: Khan Younis residents return to find former neighborhoods in ruins (CNN); Israel Withdraws Troops From Southern Gaza as War Hits 6-Month Mark (NYT)

The disappeared of Gaza: tens of thousands missing in territory since start of war (Guardian)

“After six months of war, tens of thousands have disappeared in Gaza, their whereabouts unknown to their relatives or friends. The International Committee of the Red Cross has recorded more than 7,000 cases of missing persons since the start of the conflict in Gaza…Artillery bombardment and airstrikes have reduced entire blocks of flats or tenements to rubble across much of the territory, burying many whose deaths have gone unrecorded. Some of the dead have been placed in makeshift graves by strangers…Some of the disappeared, especially badly traumatised children or the psychologically ill, may still be alive, but unable to find their relatives after being separated.”

Numbers That Stagger the Imagination: There’s No Way to Quantify the Suffering in Gaza (Amira Hass//Haaretz)

“Due to the limitations of the human imagination (as opposed to the imagination of warmongers and weapons developers), and in the absence of a different dictionary, there’s no real way to describe the destruction and loss in Gaza after six months of war. Theoretically, it would be sufficient to view the hundreds if not thousands of video clips that show the trembling children – unable to control their trembling – after Israeli bombings: in hospitals, in the street, some of them sobbing, some unable to utter a word. Covered with dust and bleeding. That’s one detail that’s sufficient to represent the disaster…As of late January, 17,000 children are walking around the Strip without adult accompaniment, according to UNICEF. Their parents were killed, they weren’t extricated from among the ruins. Or the children got lost during all the mass marches to the south. And that’s not including the 14,000 children (of about 33,000 known dead) who were slain so far by Israeli bombings. Added to them are thousands of children who have lost limbs, are suffering from burns, are walking around with wounds that have become infected in the absence of bandages and medicine, and will suffer from PTSD for the rest of their lives. What’s their future? It’s impossible to quantify the suffering… “Palestinians in Gaza now make up 80 percent of all people facing famine or severe hunger worldwide,” according to the joint interim report of the World Bank, the European Union and the United Nations, which was published last week.” See also Gaza’s Carnage Through the Eyes of Palestinian Photojournalists (Rolling Stone); 

Three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in Israeli strike (Al Monitor) 

“Al Jazeera Arabic reported that three of Haniyeh’s sons and several of his grandchildren had been killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Shati Camp, in northern Gaza.” See also An Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills 3 sons and 4 grandchildren of Hamas’ top leader (AP)

Dying for a bag of flour: Videos and eyewitness accounts cast doubt on Israel’s timeline of deadly Gaza aid delivery (CNN)

“The 27-year-old was surrounded by hundreds of other Palestinians who had gathered for an aid delivery on February 29 when Israeli soldiers accompanying the humanitarian convoy opened fire. More than 100 people were killed and 700 injured, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The tragedy, which has become known among Palestinians as the “Flour Massacre,” is one of the single deadliest mass casualty events to take place in Gaza since Israel launched its assault on the strip following Hamas’ October 7 terror attack…CNN collected testimonies and videos from 22 eyewitnesses, many of whom had traveled from other cities across Gaza in the hopes of finding something for their families to eat. When the convoy passed through an Israeli checkpoint on Al Rashid Street, the main north-south route designated by the Israeli military for humanitarian aid, survivors recalled Israeli troops opening fire on crowds as they tried desperately to reach the food aid. Many said they were undeterred by the bullets, believing that if they weren’t killed attempting to get the flour, they would die of hunger instead…But CNN’s analysis of dozens of videos from the night and testimonies from eyewitnesses’ casts doubt on Israel’s version of events. The evidence, reviewed by forensic and ballistic experts, indicated that automatic gunfire began before the IDF said the convoy had started crossing through the checkpoint and that shots were fired within close range of crowds that had gathered for food.” 

Crutches and chocolate croissants: Gaza aid items Israel has rejected (WaPo)

“Israel is under growing pressure to ramp up aid to Gaza, where its military operations and siege have brought mass displacement, hunger and disease. In recent days, Israeli authorities say, they have increased the number of food and aid trucks entering the enclave, after President Biden warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that U.S. support for Israel depends on the measures it takes to protect civilians and aid workers. But in the six months since the start of the war, Israeli authorities have also denied or restricted access to a number of items, ranging from lifesaving medical supplies to toys to chocolate croissants.“I think it’s unprecedented,” Shaina Low, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Palestinian territories, said of the Israeli restrictions. “It’s just nothing that aid agencies have ever had to deal with.”’

Before WCK strike, aid groups had warned of peril to Gaza relief workers (WaPo)

“For months, aid groups in Gaza warned that the system used to coordinate their deliveries with Israel’s military was broken, putting the lives of relief workers at risk…Over the past six months, humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and the U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), have publicized at least nine accounts of aid convoys or buildings coming under attack, despite their routes or coordinates being shared with Israeli authorities in advance. Nearly 200 Palestinian aid workers have been killed, according to Humanitarian Outcomes, an organization that tracks aid-worker deaths. “What’s increasingly clear is that the deconfliction process is a fiction,” said Ciarán Donnelly, a senior vice president at the International Rescue Committee, which operates in Gaza. “It doesn’t provide any guarantees of safety.”’ See also UNRWA USA resumes funding to the UN agency for Palestine refugees, providing $5 million in support for life-saving humanitarian relief in Gaza (UNRWA USA); Statement From Anera’s President on Resuming Operations in Gaza (Anera); UNICEF worker describes attack on Gaza aid convoy (Al Jazeera); 

Israel’s Account of Attack on Aid Convoy Raises Wider Legal Questions, Experts Say (NYT)

“Israel’s account of its attack on a World Central Kitchen convoy raises significant legal questions even if the strike was the result of a series of mistakes, experts say. The Israeli military announced on Friday that its preliminary investigation had revealed a string of errors that led to the deaths of seven aid workers. It took responsibility for the failure, saying that there were “no excuses” and citing “a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making and an attack contrary to the standard operating procedures.” But the description of events that has emerged raises broader questions about the military’s ability to identify civilians and its procedures for protecting them, legal experts told The New York Times — including new concerns about whether Israel has been complying with international law in its conduct of the war in Gaza more generally.” See also Top IDF commander in aid strike wanted to block humanitarian supplies into Gaza (The Telegraph); Israel sacks 2 top IDF officials, citing ‘serious failure’ in strike on Gaza aid workers (Al Monitor)

Hamas Does Not Have 40 Hostages Who Meet Terms of Potential Swap With Israel, Official Says (NYT)

“A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that Hamas did not have 40 living hostages in Gaza who met the criteria for an exchange under a proposed cease-fire agreement with Israel being negotiated…International negotiators have proposed an initial six-week cease-fire during which Hamas would release a first group of 40 hostages — including women, older people, ill hostages and five female Israeli soldiers — in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons as well as other demands.”See also US, Israeli officials fear most hostages held by Hamas are dead — report (Times of Israel); Hamas says it is studying cease-fire proposal after negotiators leave Cairo (WaPo) 

Against the magnitude of death, our pens feel powerless in Gaza (Ibtisam Mahdi//+972)

“Israel’s onslaught made me a refugee, a bereaved sister, and a mother to starving children. My journalistic endeavors have become almost impossible.” 

Inside Israel’s Bombing Campaign in Gaza (Isaac Chotiner interviews Yuval Abraham//New Yorker) 

“Since the war began in Gaza, more than six months ago, the Israeli magazine +972 has published some of the most penetrating reporting on the Israel Defense Forces’ conduct. In November, +972, along with the Hebrew publication Local Call, found that the I.D.F. had expanded the number of “legitimate” military targets, leading to a huge increase in civilian casualties…Then earlier this month, +972 and Local Call released a long feature called “Lavender: The AI Machine Directing Israel’s Bombing Spree in Gaza.” The story revealed how the Israeli military had used the program to identify suspected militants, which in practice meant that tens of thousands of Palestinians had their homes marked as legitimate targets for bombing, with minimal human oversight…The author of both stories was Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist and documentary filmmaker. Abraham co-directed the documentary “No Other Land,” about the daily struggles of Palestinians in the West Bank.” 

REGION//GLOBAL

Biden vows ‘ironclad’ US commitment to Israel amid fears of Iran attack (Guardian)

“Joe Biden has vowed that US commitment to defend Israel against Iran was “ironclad” as concerns rose in Washington that a “significant” Iranian strike could happen within days, in retaliation for the bombing of an Iranian consular building in Damascus. US and allied officials fear that a strike is imminent and could come in the form of a direct missile launch from Iran, rather than an attack through a proxy like Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has vowed to respond in kind to such a direct strike, raising the prospect of a regional war, which US officials now believe is more likely than at any point since the beginning of the Gaza conflict on 7 October.” See also Israel threatens to strike Iran directly if Iran launches attack from its territory (AP); Biden Administration Fears Iran Might Target U.S. Forces Over Israel Strike (The Intercept); CENTCOM chief begins Israel visit, coordinating for possible Iran attack (Al Monitor); Iran’s Khamenei says Israel ‘will be punished’ for Syria consulate bombing (Al Monitor)

Scoop: Iran warns U.S. to stay out of fight with Israel or face attack on troops (Axios)

“Iran sent a message to the Biden administration through several Arab countries earlier this week: if the U.S. gets involved in the fighting between Israel and Iran, U.S. forces in the region will be attacked, three U.S. officials told Axios…A U.S. defense official told Axios the U.S. is moving additional assets to the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for U.S. forces.” See also Iran signals it will limit response to Israel attack to avoid escalation (Axios)

Gulf states warn US not to launch strikes on Iran from their territory or airspace (Middle East Eye)

“The US’s Gulf allies are working overtime to shut down avenues that could link them to a US reprisal against Tehran or its proxies from bases inside their kingdoms, according to a senior US official who spoke with MEE on condition of anonymity. As tensions flare, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Kuwait have raised questions about the intricate details of basing agreements that permit tens of thousands of US troops to be stationed across the oil-rich peninsula. They are also moving to prevent US warplanes from flying over their airspace in the event the US conducts a retaliatory strike on Iran.” See also U.S. Sends a Top General to Israel Amid Fears of Iranian Strikes (NYT); Iran’s Retaliation Likely to Be Limited, but Errors Could Lead to War, Experts Say (NYT)

France, India, Russia, UK issue travel warnings over Israel-Iran tensions (Al Jazeera)

“Countries including France, India, Russia and the United Kingdom have warned their citizens against travelling to Israel, the Palestinian territories and, in some cases, the wider region amid threats of an Iranian attack in response to a strike this month on its consulate in Damascus.” See also France, Canada, Australia warn citizens against travel to Israel, Lebanon, Iran (Al Monitor); 

The U.S. issues new travel guidelines, warning that Iran will avenge the killings of senior commanders. (NYT)

“The U.S. State Department on Thursday barred its employees from traveling to large parts of Israel, the first time the U.S. government had restricted the movement of its employees in this way since the war in Gaza began more than six months ago.” See also Report warns Iran could launch major drone and missile attack within hours (Times of Israel, 4/12/24)

Leaders of Jordan, France and Egypt: Cease fire now in Gaza (King Abdullah II, Emmanuel Macron and Abdel Fatah El-Sisi//WaPo)

“The war in Gaza and the catastrophic humanitarian suffering it is causing must end now. Violence, terror and war cannot bring peace to the Middle East. The two-state solution will. It is the only credible path to guaranteeing peace and security for all, and ensuring that neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis ever have to relive the horrors that have befallen them since the Oct. 7 attack. In light of the intolerable human toll of the war, we, the leaders of Egypt, France and Jordan, call for the immediate and unconditional implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2728. We underline the urgent need to bring about a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.”

What to know about the Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member (WaPo)

“The Palestinian Authority is pushing for global recognition of a Palestinian state by asking the U.N. Security Council to reconsider its application for full membership.” See also US readies another veto as Palestinians seek elusive UN membership (Al Monitor); Ireland says moving closer to recognising Palestinian state (Reuters)

At U.N. Court, Germany Fights Allegations of Aiding Genocide (NYT)

“Germany on Tuesday defended itself at the International Court of Justice against accusations that its arms shipments to Israel were furthering genocide in Gaza, arguing that most of the equipment it has supplied since Oct. 7 was nonlethal and that it has also been one of the largest donors of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. At the U.N. court in The Hague, lawyers for Germany said that the allegations brought by Nicaragua had “no basis in fact or law” and rested on an assessment of military conduct by Israel, which is not a party to the case…On Monday, Nicaragua had argued that Germany was facilitating the commission of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza by providing Israel with military and financial aid, and it asked for emergency measures ordering the German government to halt its support. The court is expected to decide within weeks whether to issue emergency measures.” See also Israel’s security at core of German foreign policy due to Holocaust, ICJ hears (Guardian)

Indonesia ready to normalize ties with Israel as part of bid to join OECD – official (Times of Israel)

“Indonesia could normalize ties with Israel as part of a deal to smooth the entry of the world’s most populous Muslim nation into a global forum for developed countries, an Israeli official said Thursday…The OECD began the process of adding Jakarta to the 38-nation forum in February, but Israel had reportedly objected to its accession due to the lack of diplomatic relations. Countries must receive unanimous support to join the bloc, which is dedicated to advancing economic growth via neo-liberal fiscal policies.”

Germany detains Gaza surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah and ‘refuses him entry’ (Middle East Eye)

“Prominent British–Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah said authorities in Germany have detained him and are refusing him entry into the country. Abu Sittah was due to speak at a Palestinian conference in Berlin on Friday. The surgeon said he had been invited to the conference to speak “about my work in Gaza hospitals”.”

RIVER TO THE SEA

Detention Figures & Update (Military Court Watch March 2024 Newsletter)

“According to data issued quarterly by the Israel Prison Service (IPS), as of 31 December 2023, there were 8,308 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in detention facilities including 137 children (12-17 years). In the case of children there was an 11% increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual increase of 15% compared with 2022. Forty-nine children were held in administrative detention without charge or trial – 1,178% above the 16-year average. According to the IPS, 49% of child detainees and 74% of adults were unlawfully transferred from the occupied West Bank to prisons in Israel in December in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Rome Statute…Since 7 October 2023, 37 adult Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody (10 in IPS facilities, 27 in Israeli military custody). Adult and child detainees report harsh conditions including violence in prison and while being transferred to military courts. Evidence of violence and medical neglect appears to be corroborated by doctors working in field hospitals and autopsies conducted since 7 October.”

While War Rages in Gaza, the West Bank Has Undergone a Metamorphosis (Gideon Levy & Alex Levac//Haaretz)

“In the past six months, the occupied West Bank has undergone a metamorphosis…It’s impossible to overestimate the depth and breadth of the changes wrought in the West Bank in these months. Most of them, if not all, are probably irreversible…Some changes are immediately apparent to anyone who travels around the West Bank, others are less visible. The West Bank is shuttered and besieged. Practically all Palestinian cities and villages have some, or even many, access roads that have been sealed off. Indeed, most of the locales’ ubiquitous iron entry gates were locked by the Israel Defense Forces on October 8. With such a system of gates and other barriers, a total lockdown of the West Bank can be implemented within a short time…Life has become intolerable for three million people. It’s not only the time that is lost in prolonged travel from place to place; it’s also the fact that one never knows if one will reach one’s destination amid the galling wait and the indignities at the checkpoints. Along with the locked gates have come dozens of ad hoc roadblocks erected by soldiers, which suddenly appear and then disappear; when they are in place, traffic becomes a nightmare for any Palestinian who encounters them. The West Bank has gone back in time almost a quarter of a century, to the period of the second intifada, but this time without the intifada…Some 150,000 West Bank Palestinians who were formerly legally permitted to work in Israel have been prohibited to do so since October 8. The consequences for the Palestinian (and the Israeli) economy are obvious. Likewise, the consequences of forced idleness among tens of thousands of people are equally clear and predictable…At the same time, a quiet population transfer continues, bit by bit but systematically, especially of the weakest residents – those of the pastoral communities, mostly – at both poles of the West Bank: the Jordan Valley in the north and the South Hebron Hills on the other side…Hundreds of Palestinians, mostly children and teenagers, have been killed, most for no apparent reason. Soldiers deployed in the West Bank seem to have become more trigger-happy than they were before.” See also Israeli Troops Shoot and Kill a Palestinian Shepherd Reading the Quran on His Land (Haaretz); Israeli Army Kills Two Palestinians in West Bank Clashes (Haaretz); One dead as settlers rampage in West Bank (Al Jazeera); Palestinian Killed, Three Israeli Soldiers Wounded in Clashes During Search for Missing 14-year-old Israeli (Haaretz); Israel declares record amount of occupied West Bank as state-owned land in 2024 (Middle East Eye)

Terminally ill Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa dies in Israeli custody (Al Jazeera)

“Imprisoned Palestinian novelist and activist Walid Daqqa, who was suffering from cancer, has died in Israel’s Shamir Medical Center, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs. Daqqa was from Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a predominantly Palestinian city in Israel, and had served for 38 years in Israeli prisons, the commission added, before saying that he had died as a result of a “slow killing” policy carried out against ill prisoners by the Israeli prison administration.” See also Israeli Police Weigh Investigating Tel Aviv University Professor for Eulogizing Walid Daka (Haaretz); Amnesty International urges Israel to return body of Palestinian who died of cancer in custody (Amnesty)

Opinion | Dear President Biden, Are You Okay With Israeli Settlers Using American Weapons? (Amira Hass//Haaretz)

“In March, 147 attacks by Israeli Jews against Palestinians in the West Bank were recorded, an average of five per day…But the pattern is familiar from many similar incidents in which Israelis with the outward characteristics of observant Jews (kippot, sidelocks, tzitzit dangling from their undershirts) attack Palestinian farmers, old and young. They have also assaulted Israeli activists against the occupation, including women – including older women, and rabbis. Let’s say it for the millionth time: The pattern, established for decades, shows that the authorities – who do not prevent, arrest, detain, prosecute or punish anyone – want the attacks to continue…FYI President Joe Biden: Their guns are U.S.-made, and the goal is for these weapons to terrorize people…In March there were 147 recorded attacks. In February, 145. In January, 108. Last October saw a record number, as expected, 408. In June, 184. In total, in the past 12 months, 1,926 attacks by Jews against Palestinians were recorded. Let this number sink in: 1,926. All kinds of attacks were committed: armed men invading villages – tents, vineyards, fields and springs; mere threats with guns; damage to trees and property; thefts of livestock; rocks thrown at homes and cars; people beaten bloody, their bones broken; and killings – with or without an escort of armed soldiers for protection of the invading settlers.”

Iran Smuggles Arms to West Bank, Officials Say, to Foment Unrest With Israel (NYT)

“Iran is operating a clandestine smuggling route across the Middle East, employing intelligence operatives, militants and criminal gangs, to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to officials from the United States, Israel and Iran. The goal, as described by three Iranian officials, is to foment unrest against Israel by flooding the enclave with as many weapons as it can. The covert operation is now heightening concerns that Tehran is seeking to turn the West Bank into the next flashpoint in the long-simmering shadow war between Israel and Iran. That conflict has taken on new urgency this month, risking a broader conflict in the Middle East, as Iran vowed to retaliate for an Israeli strike on an embassy compound that killed seven Iranian armed forces commanders.” See also Fatah blames Iran as intra-Palestinian violence rocks West Bank (Al Monitor)

U.S. SCENE

Gaza War Turns Spotlight on Long Pipeline of U.S. Weapons to Israel (NYT)

“In the fall of 2016, the Obama administration sealed a major military agreement with Israel that committed the United States to giving the country $38 billion in arms over 10 years…Now that military aid package, which guarantees Israel $3.3 billion per year to buy weapons, along with another $500 million annually for missile defense, has become a flashpoint for the Biden administration. A vocal minority of lawmakers in Congress backed by liberal activists are demanding that President Biden restrict or even halt arms shipments to Israel because of its military campaign in Gaza. Mr. Biden has been sharply critical of what he on one occasion called “indiscriminate bombing” in Israel’s war campaign, but he has resisted placing limits on U.S. military aid. The process of arms delivery to Israel is opaque, and the pipeline for weapons to the country is long.” See also Nancy Pelosi Among 40 Democrats Urging Biden to Halt Pending Israel Arms Sales, Condition Aid (Haaretz); In Potential Game-changer, Top Democrat Won’t Grant Biden Rubber Stamp on Pending F-15 Sales to Israel (Haaretz); Kaine, Sanders push Biden to get tougher with Israel (Politico); 

US has seen no evidence that Israel has committed genocide, Austin says (Politico)

“’We don’t have any evidence of genocide being [committed]” by Israel in Gaza, Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a budget hearing, where his testimony was interrupted several times by protesters.”

Elizabeth Warren says she believes Israel’s war in Gaza will legally be considered a genocide (Politico)

‘“If you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that they’ll find that it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so,” Warren (D-Mass.) said Friday while taking audience questions during an event at the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, Massachusetts…At the mosque, Warren said the focus on the war in Gaza should go beyond a “labels argument.” “For me, it is far more important to say what Israel is doing is wrong. And it is wrong,” she said. “It is wrong to starve children within a civilian population in order to try to bend to your will. It is wrong to drop 2000-pound bombs, in densely populated civilian areas.”’

State department sees unprecedented flood of internal dissent memos over Gaza war (The Independent) 

“State department staff sent at least eight internal dissent memos to express disagreement with US policy on Israel and Gaza during the first two months of the war, The Independent can reveal. A further memo was sent last month from the US embassy in Jordan, warning of increasing instability across the region due to Israel’s ongoing war, according to a person familiar with the matter, bringing the total number to at least nine. Such a high number of internal dissent memorandums – a formal process by which staff can express concerns internally to a policy – highlights the widespread opposition within the department to the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. By comparison, only one internal dissent memo was filed during the first three years of the Iraq War, widely considered to be one of the United States’ biggest foreign policy disasters.” See also Biden pressure on Israel not enough, say dissenting US officials (BBC)

Democratic Coalition Sends Biden a Demand on Military Aid to Israel (NYT)

“A coalition of a dozen liberal organizations and labor unions sent a letter to the White House on Thursday night demanding that President Biden end military aid to Israel until its government lifts restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza, the latest indicator of shifting mainstream Democratic opinion on the war. The group includes not only progressive groups like MoveOn and the Working Families Party, but also the mainstream Democratic Center for American Progress and NextGen America, the organization founded and funded by Tom Steyer, a billionaire who ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primary. Other signatories to the letter include the Service Employees International Union and the National Education Association, labor unions that make up key elements of the Democratic Party. The letter calls on Mr. Biden to enforce the Foreign Assistance Act, which bars military support from going to any nation that restricts the delivery of humanitarian aid.” See also How the War in Gaza Mobilized the American Left (NYT); About 50 arrested for protesting Israel-Gaza war in Senate cafeteria (WaPo)

The Vicious Things Republicans Have Said about Palestinians Since October 7 (Prem Thakker//The Intercept)

“Members of Congress like Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., have long been pilloried — and even censured — by their colleagues for speaking out against Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinians, while the media class has spilled boats-worth of ink on bad-faith interpretations of the progressive Democrats’ statements. Republicans who belittle, or even encourage, Palestinian suffering have typically generated no such equal, let alone proportional, response…REPUBLICANS’ HUNGER FOR violence began just days after Hamas’s attack against Israel on October 7. “We are in a religious war here, I’m with Israel,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., declared on October 11, in an appearance on Fox News. “Do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself. Level the place.” (Graham later said that no amount of civilian casualties in Gaza would prompt him to scrutinize Israel’s conduct.) Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., echoed Graham’s bloodlust on Fox in mid-October. “As far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza,” said the senator…In the House of Representatives, Republicans have taken glee in fantasizing about Palestinian suffering.” See also Trump says Jewish Americans who vote for Biden don’t love Israel and ‘should be spoken to’ (CNN)

6 months of war: Palestinians say the U.S. government lacks empathy for their plight (NPR)

“[Yousef] Munayyer: “You know, I think what we’ve seen on the ground is not something that surprised me, because I think, given what we know Israelis have been capable of in terms of their treatment of Palestinians within Israeli society and policy circles, I wasn’t so much surprised by how Israel was treating Palestinians throughout this war. What did, I think, surprise me was the extent to which the rest of the world – and in particular the United States and the Biden administration – were willing to tolerate the continuation of these horrors. And there’s no doubt in my mind that leverage has been available to President Biden the entire time to bring an end to this war. I expected Israel to do horrific things to Palestinians, but I also expected that at some point American leaders would find their conscience.”

LAWFARE//REDEFINING ANTISEMITISM TO QUASH CRITICISM OF ISRAEL

Enforcing IHRA Definition of Antisemitism Across the Whole-of-Gov’t (Lara Friedman’s Congressional Round-Up, 4/12/24) 

“S. 4091/HR 7921 (bill text): Introduced in the Senate 4/9/24 by Rosen (D-NV) and Lankford (R-OK), and in the House 4/10/24 by Manning (R-NC) and Smith (R-NJ), the “Combating Antisemitism Act.”…Notably, this extraordinarily far-reaching bipartisan, bicameral legislation, which would impact every Federal agency and beyond, and which is framed as an effort to support implementation of Biden’s antisemitism strategy, in actuality centers on legislating & enforcing the IHRA definition of antisemitism — in direct contradiction to the Biden Administration’s decision to NOT center/endorse/enforce the IHRA definition of antisemitism as part of its antisemitism strategy…It includes a lengthy section entitled “Countering Antisemitic Discrimination in Higher Education.” This section is devoted to weaponizing Trump’s Executive Order on Combating Antisemitism. As a reminder, that EO centers on enforcing the IHRA definition, including its examples, as part of Title VI, as a means of repressing/punishing/chilling criticism and activism targeting Israel and/or Zionism on U.S. campuses. In effect, this bill in general, and this section in particular, would pour gasoline on the fire that has already been set by congressional Republicans as they target US universities, as well as on the fire that has been set by lawfare actors waging all-out warfare with lawsuits and Title VI complaints against US campuses for failing to repress and punish pro-Palestinian activism (see table tracking these efforts). My twitter thread laying out this analysis is here.”

Columbia Is Waging War on Dissent (Katherine Franke//The Nation)

“It has reached a point where our students who stand in solidarity with Palestinians find themselves so fully constrained by a web of rules regulating their speech and expressive conduct—and a bureaucracy determined to enforce those rules abusively—that they have lost any faith that the university is truly committed to the principles of academic freedom and the robust debate of ideas. Indeed, it is difficult to avoid drawing the conclusion that the university now sees its primary constituency, to whom it owes a duty of loyalty, as outside institutional actors, such as congressional committees, foreign governments, and the NGOs and funders supporting those entities, not its students and faculty.” See also Jewish faculty reject the weaponization of antisemitism (Columbia Spectator)

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

Six months of this cruel nightmare (Ruwaida Kamal Amer//+972) 

“Six months have passed since Israel’s cruel war on the Gaza Strip began, and my life became one continuous nightmare. Six months with virtually no access to electricity or water. Six months without knowing what happened to countless family members, friends, and colleagues. I long for the daily routine and moments of calm that we used to complain about. For just one hour of that boring normality. We have run out of energy and our bodies can no longer bear it. The sounds of explosions do not stop. I have grown afraid of the sound of a speeding car, or anything that resembles the terrifying noise of a falling missile. Our house in Khan Younis is constantly shaking, and the doors make a banging sound as if someone is hitting them repeatedly with their fists. I have given up on looking for any glimmer of hope that the war will stop and this pain will end.”

‘A new abyss’: Gaza and the hundred years’ war on Palestine (Rashid Khalidi//Guardian)

“Some have argued that these events represent a rupture, an upheaval, that this was “Israel’s 9/11” or that it is a new Nakba, an unprecedented genocide. Certainly, the scale of these events, the almost real-time footage of atrocities and unbearable devastation – much of it captured on phones and spread on social media – and the intensity of the global response, are unprecedented. We do seem to be in a new phase, where the execrable “Oslo process” is dead and buried, where occupation, colonisation and violence are intensifying, where international law is trampled on, and where long-fixed tectonic plates are slowly moving. But while much has changed in the past six months, the horrors we witness can only be truly comprehended as a cataclysmic new phase in a war that has been going on for several generations…this is not an age-old struggle between Arabs and Jews that has been going on since time immemorial, and it is not simply a conflict between two peoples. It is a recent product of the irruption of imperialism into the Middle East and of the rise of modern nation-state nationalisms, both Arab and Jewish; it is a product of the violent European settler-colonial methods employed by Zionism to “transform Palestine into the land of Israel”, in the words of an early Zionist leader, Ze’ev Jabotinsky; and it is a product of Palestinian resistance to these methods.”

After six months of war, I fear we may lose Palestine completely (Raja Shehadeh//Guardian)

“For 75 years we Palestinians have been demanding Israeli recognition, if not an apology and amends, for the horrors committed against us during the first Nakba of 1948, when more than 700,000 were forced out of their homes in what became Israel. Now the tragedy has been compounded. Which makes me feel that I spent the last 50 years of my life getting used to the loss of the Palestine of my parents; and that I might spend the remaining years of my life trying to get used to the loss of Palestine in its entirety.”

After the Carnage (Tony Karon & Daniel Levy//The Nation) 

“If there’s a thread of continuity that runs from the 1947 UN proposal that effectively legitimized the Nakba that followed to the two-state imaginary of the Biden administration, it is the assumption that the Palestinian people have neither the ability nor the right to speak for themselves or choose their national destiny. As in colonial times when Western empires conjured up nation-states and installed handpicked rulers to govern their populations in accordance with Western needs, so are “solutions” to be imposed on the colonized people of Palestine…The starting point for any sustainable political solution to the crisis in Palestine—whatever its final design—must be that that it is founded on respect for the right of the Palestinian people to determine their own future, including choosing their own leaders, and it must recognize the Palestinians as a people with the right to live in freedom and dignity. That’s a standard all partition processes and realities thus far have failed to meet.” See also Israel: Cease-Fire, Get Hostages, Leave Gaza, Rethink Everything (Thomas Friedman//NYT)

I’m Jewish, and I’ve covered wars. I know war crimes when I see them. (Peter Maass//WaPo)

“Millions of Jews in America feel connected to Israel’s creation. Maybe our ancestors gave or raised money, maybe they went and fought, maybe they donated to Zionist organizations. What’s a Jew to do now? Everyone makes their own choices, but my experience of war crimes taught me that being Jewish means standing against any nation that commits war crimes. Any.”

What Netanyahu Must Do to Bring Home the Hostages (Gershon Baskin//NYT) 

“If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel were serious about securing the release of all the hostages in Gaza, they would have been home long ago. From his first official statements after Oct. 7, Mr. Netanyahu has placed a higher priority on destroying Hamas than on ensuring the hostages’ safety…I was one of Israel’s negotiators on that 2011 deal, and I was told many times that nothing like it could ever occur again. But holding so many hostages was a logistical nightmare for which Hamas was not prepared, which meant there was room to negotiate. From my communications with Hamas and with people in the Israeli war cabinet in the first days of the current conflict, I saw that a quick deal would have been possible to return the women, children, wounded, sick and elderly on terms that Israel could tolerate…Israel’s strategy has been a disaster. Six months into the war, Israel has destroyed a vast majority of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. More than 30,000 Gazans have been killed, and about two million are displaced, with no homes to return to. Hundreds of thousands are at risk of dying from starvation. Throughout all that, despite amassing enormous amounts of intelligence, the Israeli military has succeeded in rescuing just three hostages (and killing three others who were trying to escape).”

Stopping Famine in Gaza (International Crisis Group) 

“The war in Gaza is far from over, but the fate of many of its residents may soon be sealed: the strip’s north may be facing the world’s worst famine, relative to population size, of the past few decades. Unimpeded, sustained and safe humanitarian access to the whole Gaza Strip, with civil authorities and civic groups allowed to safeguard aid distribution, is needed to prevent this outcome…Israel’s approach to aid distribution, especially in the north, has been a fiasco. It has not coordinated military with humanitarian action, endangering aid workers and recipients, and frequently halting convoys. It has attacked civilian police, citing links to Hamas, and compelled their retreat, which leaves supplies vulnerable to plunder, whether by profiteers or the desperately hungry. It has tried to work around the international aid system and its protocols for famine prevention and response, doling out assistance on an ad hoc basis in hopes of building a network to administer Gaza on its behalf after the war. It directs aid to big families who agree to embrace its agenda, while targeting those who refuse, risking damage to Gaza’s social fabric in a way that a U.S. official noted is reminiscent of Mogadishu in the early 1990s…The 7 April announcement that Israel has withdrawn most of its ground forces from Gaza is a positive sign. But the priority today is to address the humanitarian crisis through a surge in aid, measures to permit freer movement in Gaza, particularly for aid agencies, and reliance on civil authorities and civic groups to protect and facilitate distribution. Realistically, such steps will work only with a ceasefire. But failure to achieve a ceasefire cannot excuse inaction. Imports still should be increased to the extent possible, aid convoys permitted to pass safely and movement restrictions relaxed. Israel should stop targeting civic leaders and Gaza officials involved in safeguarding aid and overseeing distribution. True, some are linked to Hamas. But given that no other feasible option exists, the alternative is accelerating death from starvation, coming atop the already extraordinary levels of suffering in Gaza.”