Palestinians “struggling for survival” in Jerusalem

Source: electronicintifada.net

Israeli occupation forces blocked Palestinian worshipers from accessing al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City of Jeruslem Friday

“The message the Israelis are sending is that Jerusalem Palestinians are unwanted here and they are doing everything to reassert their control and squash any form of dissent and resistance to Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem,” Twitter user @BDS4Justice, orZalameh, told The Electronic Intifada from his home in the eastern occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat on 29 October.

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Starbucks: We Don’t Give Money To Israel

By: Ibrahim Balkhy

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

WASHINGTON — The global coffee company Starbucks released a statement this week to clarify apparent misconceptions about the company’s patronage of Israel.

In a fact sheet updated Aug. 5, Starbucks notes it does not support any political or religious causes, adding that neither Starbucks nor its CEO, Howard Schultz, provides any financial support to the Israeli government or Israeli military.

Why Israel Fears the Boycott

By: Omar Barghouti

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/

JERUSALEM — IF Secretary of State John Kerry’s attempts to revive talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority fail because of Israel’s continuing construction of illegal settlements, the Israeli government is likely to face an international boycott “on steroids,” as Mr. Kerry warned last August.

These days, Israel seems as terrified by the “exponential” growth of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (or B.D.S.) movement as it is by Iran’s rising clout in the region. Last June, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively declared B.D.S. a strategic threat. Calling it the “delegitimization” movement, he assigned the overall responsibility for fighting it to his Strategic Affairs Ministry. But B.D.S. doesn’t pose an existential threat to Israel; it poses a serious challenge to Israel’s system of oppression of the Palestinian people, which is the root cause of its growing worldwide isolation.

Will there be justice for the crimes committed in Gaza?

The International Criminal Court has to take a number of issues into consideration before launching an investigation.

More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including many children [Reuters]

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/

On July 25, Palestinian officials filed a criminal complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The complaint accuses Israel of war crimes as a result of its ongoing campaign in Gaza, which has now left more than 1,200 Palestinians and 53 Israeli soldiers dead. The filing alleges crimes including the crime of apartheid, attacks against civilians, excessive loss of human life and crime of colonisation.

The immediate response from the Israeli government is that it will need to consider the new filing, but according to Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Paul Hirchson, “The Israeli military is working 100 percent within the dictates of international humanitarian law.” There are now counter allegations emerging from Tel Aviv that the responsibility lies with Hamas and not the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).

Students offered grants if they tweet pro-Israeli propaganda

By: Ben Lynfield

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/

In a campaign to improve its image abroad, the Israeli government plans to provide scholarships to hundreds of students at its seven universities in exchange for their making pro-Israel Facebook posts and tweets to foreign audiences.

The students making the posts will not reveal online that they are funded by the Israeli government, according to correspondence about the plan revealed in the Haaretz newspaper.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, which will oversee the programme, confirmed its launch and wrote that its aim was to “strengthen Israeli public diplomacy and make it fit the changes in the means of information consumption”.