News and Analysis 12/4/23

Fact checkers have proven that horrific descriptions of prisoner abuse are true …

• How a Palestinian Teen’s Release Exposed Israeli Mistreatment of Prisoners (Aljazeera)

… and Dror Sadot of B’Tselem says, that it is “much more a political means of control than a justice system” …

• How Israel’s Judicial System Handles the Estimated 7000 Palestinians in Its Prisons (NPR)

…. and now “[t]he resumption of fighting between Israel and Hamas has dashed hopes of families … for the further release of the more than 10,000 Palestinians who remain in Israeli jails”:

• What the Resumption of Israel-Hamas Fighting Means for Palestinians in Israeli Jails (NPR)

When an unaffiliated passerby shouted an anti-Semitic rant, “one of the organizers ‘took the bullhorn to condemn him’,” yet the student organizations behind the protest “were suspended the next day”:

• Columbia Suspended Pro-Palestine Student Groups. The Faculty Revolted (New Yorker)

Israel widens its murder rampage continues ion Gaza and the West Bank:

• Israel-Hamas War Live: Gaza Hospitals ‘Flooded with Dead Bodies’ (Aljazeera)
• Palestinians Say Man Killed in West Bank Settler Raid (Reuters)
• 2 More Palestinians Killed by Israeli Army Gunfire in West Bank (Andalu Ajansi)
• Israel Orders Mass Evacuations as It Widens Offensive; Palestinians Are Running Out of Places to Go (abc News)

She couldn’t stop the rain of death, but Mirna El Helbawi found a way to circumvent Israel’s brutal blackout that prevented Gazans about to die from saying goodbye to their loved ones:

• When Gaza Lost Telephone and Internet Connection, this Activist Found a Way to Get Palestinians Back Online (CNN)

“This isn’t a religious conflict, but this conflict is sometimes clothed in religion. I think our faith groups can inspire us to do the right thing, to remedy the wrongs, to stand up for justice, to stand up for life”:

• In US, Some Muslim-Jewish Interfaith Initiatives Are Strained by Israel-Hamas War (abc News)

“Canada has cast UN votes against its own stated positions and opposed Palestinian efforts to seek redress at the International Criminal Court, and … has backed hardline, Israeli policies and failed to hold the country accountable for rights abuses”:

• Israel, Palestine and Canada’s ‘Schizophrenic Foreign Policy’ (Aljazeera)

Most of the executed were drug offenders, but eleven “were political and religious prisoners. Two were juvenile offenders and two [were] women”:

• Report: 122 Prisoners Executed in Iran in November (VoA)

I grew up in Gaza where tunnels provided us with essentials Israel banned and hostages were the Palestinians it imprisoned unjustly” — Palestinian-American photojournalist Eman Mohammed:

• What ‘Tunnels’ and ‘Hostages’ Mean in Gaza (Aljazeera)

“The Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian sentiment that’s being pushed out by our universities, by our governments, locally and nationally, are contributing to violence at home” — Prince A. Williams ’25, AFRO member and Crimson editor:

• Harvard Pro-Palestine Groups Organize ‘Week of Action,’ (Harvard Crimson)

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