Week in Review
2/22/25
PROTEST THE BANNING OF UNRWA!
Urgent statement from Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council on the Israeli banning of UNRWA....and the potential for the abandonment and starvation of Palestinian refugees.... statement ends with action items.
On October 29, 2024, the Israeli Knesset passed laws banning UNRWA from Israel and forbidding any interaction between UNRWA and the Israeli government. These laws took effect January 29, 2025. That same day, Republican Representative Christopher Smith introduced a ban on US contributions to UNRWA to reinforce Israeli law.
There is no indication that Israel plans to take responsibility or contract with another organization to replace UNRWA’s vital services. The banning of UNRWA and even its capacity to help implement a transition to another agency spells catastrophe for Palestinians. Given the conduct of the IOF and the inflammatory comments of right-wing Israeli politicians, it has become hard to imagine any Israeli intention besides the abandonment, starvation, and destruction of the Palestinian people.
Urgent health update: Consequences of war on Gaza, West Bank/East Jerusalem, and Lebanon 2/14/25
Much of the information, and almost all the good news, contained in these weekly updates comes from UNRWA efforts to keep Palestinians in schools, housing and health care, both in the West Bank and Gaza. Oppose Israel’s attempt to get rid of UNRWA, supported by the US government although hardly anyone else in the world. See the JVP Health Advisory Council statement on our website and be sure your local and national electeds, as well as your unions and associations, support UNRWA.
Palestinian Displacement in the West Bank Is Highest Since 1967, Experts Say
The continued Gazafication of the West Bank....
Activist, physician, author provides insight on health and human rights in Gaza
student report from my talk at Suffolk Univeristy 2/18/25
Pentagon schools suspend library books for ‘compliance review’ under Trump orders
The purge of library books will affect up to 67,000 children being taught in Pentagon schools worldwide. The Guardian understands that all 160 schools, located in seven US states and 11 countries, are subject to the censorship.
The Guardian has obtained a list of books that have been caught up in the blanket evaluation. They include No Truth Without Ruth, a picture book for four-to-eight-year-olds about the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to sit on the US supreme court.
February Strike of 1941: When Citizens Took to the Streets Against the Nazis
we can take inspiration from the 1941 strike in Amsterdam, 300,000 protesting Nazis on short notice long before the internet.
I had a wonderful book tour in Boston... here is the book talk at Brookline Booksmith, tickets were sold out, very responsive audience, lively Q&A
Suffolk University event sponsored by Our Bodies Ourselves and the Ford Hall forum....there were about 50 in person (despite frigid cold) and 70 on Zoom.
BBC slammed for pulling film that 'humanised Palestinian children'
Again revealing the power of art and film and the power of bigotry and hate.
67,000 children are brainwashed in Pentagon schools! Probably paid for by the department of education!