News and Analysis 2/17/23

“This law represents a very dangerous escalation. It only deepens the apartheid system that is in place and creates separate laws for Palestinians and Jews”:

• Israel Passes Law Allowing Deportation of Palestinian Prisoners (Aljazeera)

“It’s clear I hit a raw nerve” — James Cavallaro,”candidate for an Organization of American States position [who] had said top House Democrats were bought and controlled by pro-Israel groups”:

• Biden Yanks Human Rights Candidate Over Anti-Israel Comments (Haaretz)

Nations are around the world are appalled — and even the U.S. is “deeply dismayed” — by Israel’s flagrant contempt for international law …

• UN Security Council to Vote on Israel’s Settlements Expansion amid International Condemnation (Palestine Chronicle)
• US ‘Deeply Dismayed’ by Israeli Settlement Announcement (Middle East Eye)

… and as “the fascist new government provokes international criticism, Israelis grow nostalgic for the days when the state could act with violent impunity against the Palestinians”:

• Israel: It’s Apartheid, Not ‘Democracy’, These Protesters Really Want to Save (Middle East Eye)

The Israeli army paralyzed him and then “refused to allow his family to build a home for him, despite the fact that the family was on their privately-owned land, and so they were forced to live in the cave” until his death …

• The Theft of Harun Abu Aram’s Body, Home, and Life (972 Magazine)

… and unsatisfied with the extrajudicial killing of a terrorist suspect, now blows up his family;s homne …

• Israeli Army Blows Up Home of Palestinian It Killed Last Year (Middle East Eye)

… while in America a Palestinian victim of police brutality suffered “internal bleeding in his brain, a fractured pelvis, a broken nose and multiple bruises and lacerations” shortly before release “from hospital … for a hearing”:

• US Police Officer Faces Criminal Charges After Repeatedly Punching Palestinian Boy (New Arab)

Released journalist opines that Iran’s revolving prison doors serve a sinister purpose:

• Iranians Aren’t Fooled by the Regime’s Ruse. You Shouldn’t be Either (Washington Post)

It’s not just for pro-Israeli propaganda; “a unit of disinformation operatives based in Israel” has “sold access to their software to unnamed intelligence agencies, political parties and corporate clients” …

• ‘Aims’: the Software for Hire that Can Control 30,000 Fake Online Profiles (The Guardian)

… and successfully duping a veteran French anchorman:

• French Broadcaster BFMTV Suspends Presenter amid Disinformation Scandal (The Guardian)

A “‘charitable’ organisation that has long been used by the apartheid state for expropriating Palestinian lands and obfuscating Israel’s war crimes, acquired the private island for $21.5 million in an auction”:

• Israel ‘Bought Island’ from Bahrain in Latest Normalisation Move (Middle East Monitor)

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