Daily Archives: January 18, 2021

2021-01-18: News Headlines

Staff (2021-01-18). Palestine Refugees Are Forced to the Back of the COVID Vaccine Line. truthout.org As the world races to vaccinate against COVID-19, Israel has been touted for having one of the fastest response rates. The country has, as of January 1, 2021, already vaccinated 10 percent of its 9 million citizens and predicts another 2 million will be vaccinated by the end of the month. While these are laudable statistics, Palestinians living in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and in the Gaza Strip have been explicitly excluded, including health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-…

Human Rights Watch (2021-01-18). Israel must Provide Vaccines to Occupied Palestinians: HRW says Over 4.5 Million in West Bank, Gaza Excluded From Vaccination Push. juancole.com ( Human Rights Watch) — (Jerusalem) — Israeli authorities should provide Covid-19 vaccines to the more than 4.5 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch said today. While Israel has already vaccinated more than 20 percent of its citizens, including Jewish settlers in the West Bank, it has not …

WSWS (2021-01-18). This week in history: January 18-24. wsws.org 25 years ago: Arafat wins Palestinian voteOn January 20, 1996, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and his al-Fatah party won the election held among residents of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. The electoral triumph confirmed Arafat's role as the chief enforcer of Israeli dictates in the territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Arafat won 88 percent of the vote for president of the Palestinian Council while his nominees took more than half the seats on the legislative body.

Juan Cole (2021-01-18). Israel is increasingly an Apartheid State: What Martin Luther King Jr. Would have thought of that. juancole.com Revised Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) — The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose activism we honor today, took stands far beyond Selma and Montgomery, and called on other capitals than Washington, D.C., to ensure a dignified life for human beings. Dr. King was an early and vigorous opponent of the white South African Apartheid (segregationist) …

MEE staff (2021-01-18). Israel bans schools from hosting rights groups critical of occupation. middleeasteye.net Israel bans schools from hosting rights groups critical of occupation | The announcement came after Likud complained about the director of rights group B'Tselem who was scheduled to give a talk at a school in Haifa | Mon, 01/18/2021 – 14: 48 | Despite the order on Sunday, the director of B'Tselem, Hagai El-Ad, gave a scheduled lecture to students in the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa (AFP) | Israel's Education M…

Peace Now (2021-01-18). 780 West Bank Settlement Housing Units In Palestinian Lands, Approved Ahead of US Presidential Transition. globalresearch.ca 780 housing units in settlements, most of them deep in the West Bank (714 units (92%) in settlements that Israel will have to evacuate under a …

_____ (2021-01-17). The Jewish Supremacist State. popularresistance.org The respected Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem, has now officially reached this conclusion: "[T]he entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is organized under a single principle: advancing and cementing the supremacy of one group—Jews—over another—Palestinians"; "A regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime." | The B'Tselem position paper focuses on four aspects of Israeli apartheid. Two aspects—Jewish-only immigration and Jewish-only land development—operate in the…

RT (2021-01-16). 13 Israelis suffer FACIAL PARALYSIS after taking Pfizer Covid jab, amid influx of reports detailing adverse effects. rt.com At least 13 Israelis have experienced facial paralysis after being administered the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, a month after the US Food and Drug Administration reported similar issues but said they weren't linked to the jab. | Israel has been hailed for its speedy and efficient mass inoculation program, which has vaccinated a staggering 20 percent of the country's population since the drive For a handful of Israelis, however, the initiative has led to some unexpected health scares. At least 13 people have…

news.un (2021-01-16). Guterres welcomes Palestinian announcement of elections as 'crucial step' towards unity. news.un.org The UN Secretary-General has welcomed Friday's announcement from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the first full parliamentary and presidential elections in 15 years, scheduled to begin in May.

South Front (2021-01-15). Video: Israel and US Efforts in Large-scale Strikes on Iranian Infrastructure in Syria. globalresearch.ca The first two weeks of 2021 have, so far, been marked by an incredible increase in Israeli activity in the skies over Syria. | The most intense strike took place on January 13 morning hitting multiple Syrian and Iranian-affiliated targets in …

MEE staff (2021-01-15). Covid-19: Israeli man arrested for tricking ex into quarantine four times. middleeasteye.net Covid-19: Israeli man arrested for tricking ex into quarantine four times | Police said the suspect, a health ministry employee, sent messages on four separate occasions to his ex-girlfriend telling her she needed to isolate | Fri, 01/15/2021 – 13: 48 | An Israeli woman wearing a protective mask due to the Covid-19 pandemic sits on a park bench by feeding pigeons in Jerusalem on 16 April 2020 (2020) | An Israe…

Miko Peled (2021-01-15). Court Rules Palestinian Filmmaker Must Pay Damages To Israeli Soldier Who Took Part in Massacre. mintpressnews.com "Jenin, Jenin" documents a deadly Israeli assault on a Palestinian refugee camp that left hundreds of civilians dead and over fifteen hundred wounded, and its release has caused an uproar in Israeli society.

MEE and agencies (2021-01-15). Abbas announces first Palestinian elections in more than 15 years. middleeasteye.net Abbas announces first Palestinian elections in more than 15 years | Parliamentary elections will be held on 22 May, followed by presidential vote on 31 July, according to office of President Mahmoud Abbas | Fri, 01/15/2021 – 21: 32 | Mahmoud Abbas, 85, has been Palestinian president since 2005 (AFP) | Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the first parliamentary and presidential el…

Steve Lalla (2021-01-15). Resistance is not Futile: A Brief History of Lebanon's Hezbollah. counterpunch.org Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has inspired fear within the Empire through both armed struggle and its success in electoral politics. For effectively wielding this double-edged sword, the "Party of God" has been vilified by countless politicians and media outlets. From its birth as an armed resistance to Israeli attacks on Lebanon over 35 years ago,

Jessica Buxbaum (2021-01-15). Social Media Giants Ban Trump, but the Real Censorship is of Palestinians. mintpressnews.com In the wake of the Capitol Hill insurrection, Facebook and Twitter finally took a principled stand against President Donald Trump by suspending his accounts. While Facebook, Twitter, and other social media behemoths have faced criticism over the years for allowing misinformation and dangerous incitement to run rampant on their pla…

Akram Al-Waara (2021-01-14). Covid-19: Palestinians still awaiting vaccines as Israel dismisses calls to provide jabs. middleeasteye.net Covid-19: Palestinians still awaiting vaccines as Israel dismisses calls to provide jabs | Palestinian Authority also criticised for failure to secure vaccines and lack of planning on how to administer them | Thu, 01/14/2021 – 11: 11 | PA officials have made statements on who will be given priority when it comes to the vaccine, but have yet to put forward a comprehensive strategy for rolling it…

Melvin Goodman (2021-01-14). Bibi and Jonathan Pollard: Two Anti-American Peas in Their Own Pod. counterpunch.org Last month, the New York Times described the hero's welcome in Israel for Jonathan Pollard, who served 30 years in jail for spying for Israel, as "relatively subdued." In view of the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led this "subdued" reception, it is time to throw some shade on Bibi and Jonathan. After all, the United States has supplied Israeli with huge amounts of military and economic aid as well as intelligence support over the years with very little return.

Jonathan Cook (2021-01-14). Israel is losing the fight to obscure its apartheid character. dissidentvoice.org For more than a decade, a handful of former Israeli politicians and US diplomats identified with what might be termed the "peace process industry" have intermittently warned that, without a two-state solution, Israel is in danger of becoming an "apartheid state". The most notable among them include Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, two former Israeli prime …