occupation

Every Palestinian I met on my visits to the Holy Land urged me to tell their story when I got home. Some have written to me with very moving accounts of misery and excruciating hardship under Israel’s brutal occupation, reinforcing the appalling truths I’d seen for myself.
Two years ago a young woman, a war-weary mom of three in a Gaza refugee camp, wrote to tell me that schools in Gaza were working in 2 or 3 shifts a day “especially in areas where displaced people of the last war still shelter in UNRWA schools — they don’t have any other place to go.”

Gaza has been the focus of intense talks behind closed doors in recent weeks as disquiet has risen among Arab states at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the coastal enclave.
Palestinians there are enduring a scorching summer with barely a few hours of power a day, after Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) has refused to finance essential services. Abbas is trying to weaken his Hamas rivals who rule Gaza and assert his own authority.

In a letter to a local newspaper about Brexit and the way prime minister Theresa May is handling it, I happened to mention in passing the Balfour Declaration, criticising her plans to celebrate the centenary “with pride” and invite Israel’s PM Netanyahu to the fun. This drew a sharp response from someone spouting the usual Israeli propaganda ‘facts’ and saying my attitude harmed the Jewish community worldwide.

Early October 2016, Misbah Abu Sbeih left his wife and five children at home and then drove to an Israeli police station in Occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem.
The 39-year-old Jerusalemite was scheduled to hand himself over to serve a term of 4 months in jail for, allegedly, trumped up charges of ‘trying to hit an Israeli soldier’.

AFGHANISTAN — Afghanistan, also known as the “Grave of Empires,” has been the victim of imperial occupation and exploitation by U.S. and coalition forces for nearly two decades. An entire generation of Americans will have grown up in the fog of a seemingly endless war – and with a new administration taking over, this painful reality is almost guaranteed. To many, Afghanistan exists in a state of invisibility – it is there, but beyond the scope of their daily life. Most don’t know why U.S. forces are in Afghanistan, just that they’re there “fighting terrorists.”

Tzipi Hotovely sits in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. On May 21, 2015 Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, delivered a message to the international community saying that Israel owes no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land and citing religious texts that it belongs to the Jewish people. (AP/Emil Salman)
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely, has called on the United Nations to stop using the term “occupation” in reference to Israel’s control over Palestinian lands.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman meets with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, in Riyadh, April 19, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/AP)

(RPI) By the end of this month, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Advisor HR McMaster will deliver to President Trump their plans for military escalations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. President Trump would be wise to rip the plans up and send his national security team back to the drawing board – or replace them.

(ANTIWAR.COM) In among the Pentagon plans of sending 3,000 to 5,000 more US ground troops into Afghanistan, they are also looking at getting future unilateral control over US troop levels in the country. Even that isn’t the end of it, as reports yesterday have them redefining the US “advisory” mission to put the troops closer to the front lines.