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REMINDER > EVENT TOMORROW!
Solidarity in Struggle:
Black and Palestinian Resistance
Please join Ithaca CJP (Committee for Justice in Palestine) on Saturday, February 1st, from 2:30-4:30pm for an illuminating panel discussion on the history of Palestine, international black solidarity, and apartheid. This event is for all ages and will highlight ways for young people to get involved. Light refreshments will be provided.
Location: Southside Community Center, 305 S Plain St., Ithaca
Speakers: Grant Farred, Russell Rickford, Begüm Adalet, Momodou Taal
For more information, please contact ithacacjp@gmail.com
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TOP OF THE NEWS: Impact of Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts & Israel’s Law Prohibiting UNRWA in Palestine
Last Friday’s unprecedented directive from Sec. of State Rubio to pause all U.S. foreign aid, with the exception of military funding for Israel and emergency food funding for Egypt, provoked warnings from humanitarian officials that people will die as a result.
Under pressure, Sec. Rubio issued a temporary waiver on Tuesday for “life-saving humanitarian assistance … core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance.” Interpreting and applying the categories of this waiver to actions on the ground has led to confusion and work stoppages.
Gaza is a case in point. Officials there said that the freeze means that not all of the 600 aid trucks specified in the ceasefire agreement will be moving into Gaza. Work to supply Gazans with hygiene kits has been suspended, along with emergency shelters, water system rehabilitation and water trucking, since water does not have a waiver. “Everything for water is suspended. Everything for shelter is suspended,” local officials told CNN.
There are wider ramifications for the programs delivering U.S. foreign aid in many countries. Scores of USAID contractors have been laid off or furloughed. This may lead to permanent closures due to payroll collapse, as well as failure to fulfill contracts with staff and foreign governments. Around 60 USAID senior staff have been put on paid leave, accused of actions designed to circumvent Executive Orders from the White House.
For Palestinians, the collapse of USAID is intensified by new Israeli laws, taking effect yesterday, that prohibit UNRWA activity in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, along with a prohibition on any relationship between the agency and Israeli state authorities. UNRWA is being ‘disappeared,’ along with UN refugee status for Palestinians, and thus any Right of Return.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said this week that implementation of this law will be “disastrous.”
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Sabeel Delegation in Bethlehem with Alice Kisiyah whose land in Al-Makrour is threatened by Jewish settlers. Bethlehem is surrounded by encroaching settlements. Mary Anne in back row, second from left.
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Mary Anne Grady-Flores recently traveled to Palestine with an Advent delegation of Sabeel. Sabeel is a Palestinian Liberation Theology community leading internationals to witness and be present in Occupied Palestine. Mary Anne first traveled to Palestine in 2007 and has been an active member of CJP for a decade and a half. She is currently a member of the communications committee and shares her experience here:
“The first person that we met in Jerusalem was a brilliant woman, Budour Hassan, an international law expert who is blind. She co-authored the Amnesty International report, “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman” which concluded Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. She had taken direct testimony from hundreds of Gazans by phone (see interview 12/6 democracynow.org).
Going through a checkpoint, we visited the Shufat refugee camp in East Jerusalem and learned of the Israeli military repeatedly firing into schools and homes. Schoolboys who had never seen Westerners come into their camp and excitedly surrounded us. The conditions of poverty and the incredible tightness of every space in Shufat were difficult to witness. Every nook is either filled with shops or apartments. It was shocking to hear that Palestinians in Shufat pay Israel three times more in taxes than any Israeli, yet receive no services or water.
We saw the apartheid wall, surveillance towers, checkpoints, roadblocks, and Ofer prison. We met Layan Naser of Birzeit (released after 8 months in prison), Dalia Qumsieh and Alice Kisiya of Cremizan and El-Makhrour. We spoke with Doud Nasser from Tent of Nations, whose land, the last green spaces in Bethlehem, are threatened by encroaching settlements that surround them. We visited Church leaders, including Bishop Munib Younan as well as Rev. Munther Isaac, who is famous for his speech, “Christ is still in the rubble.”
We went into the holy site of the Al Aqsa Mosque and were given a tour by Aouni Bazbaz on its history. Aouni showed us bullet holes in the windows and columns, and a corner where the Israeli military killed women during prayer. We witnessed an entourage of Israelis accompanied by soldiers with guns parading through the grounds of the mosque, taunting the worshipers. The continued onslaught and Gazafication of the West Bank today is horrifying.
We felt degrees of hope. In each place we went, we heard messages of nonviolent struggle. The most profound thing was witnessing those practicing nonviolence with dignity and Sumud (steadfastness). Their faith was so strong. I was challenged by their courage, especially hearing again the Christmas message of the Angel Gabriel, “Do not be afraid!”
I feel hope, even though things look bleak. I am blown away by the faith and resolve Palestinians carry in their hearts, working tirelessly together in community supporting one another, Muslim, Christian, and Jew. The theme I kept hearing from Palestinians who came to speak with us is “We can live on this land together. We refuse to be enemies.” We, in the US, can support Palestinians by participating in the BDS movement, visiting the Holy Land, and being involved locally with CJP and other national support groups. Be sure to watch for Mary Anne’s soon-to-be-scheduled local talks and Zoom presentation.”
You are invited to visit the Holy Land through Friends of Sabeel North America www.fosna.org/delegations. For more questions, contact Mary Anne at gradyflores08@gmail.com.
Photo: Layan Naser, a Palestinian Christian, with her mother in Birzeit, West Bank. She was released after 8 months in prison, held without charges, locked down 23 hrs a day, given 1 ladle of broth & 1 ladle of rice per day for sustenance.
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Recommended Reading
Peter Beinart’s opinion piece in the NY Times this week supports the thesis, “States don’t have a right to exist. People do.” Beinart examines U.S. policy on the question whether states that deny individual rights have a “right to exist” in their current form, examining State Dept. support for “regime change” with the noted exception of Israel.
“Heresy and Checkpoints” by Nadia Bolz-Weber, offers personal reflections on her conversations with The Rev. Munther Isaac. Their encounter took place in Jordan this week at the International Consultation on Understanding Christian Zionism and Its Effects on Christians in the Middle East, a gathering of academics and church leaders from 17 countries.
Excerpts from Sumud : A New Palestinian Reader. This new release by Seven Stories Press is an anthology that celebrates the power of culture in Palestinian resistance, with selections of memoir, short stories, essays, book reviews, personal narrative, poetry, and art from the Markaz Review.
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News Briefs
**On Tuesday, Senate Democrats blocked a bill from being put to a vote. It would have imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the last week, JVP Action supporters sent over 6,000 emails to our Senators, using tools provided by JVP’s sister organization, JVP Action. JVP comments: “We can be sure a new version of this legislation is coming. Still, this victory is a strong reminder of the impact we make when we organize.”
**President Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday to combat antisemitism and fulfill campaign promises. “I will issue clear orders to my Attorney General to aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews,” the White House quotes Trump as saying, adding: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
**In response to Trump’s executive order (see above), Haaretz reports that pro-Israel groups are calling on WhatsApp for Jewish and Israeli students and alums to report on pro-Palestinian campus activists. Members of the U.S. branch of the right-wing Betar movement say they hope to provide the Trump administration with information leading to deportations. Over the past year, the group has built a database by analyzing video footage from protests and cross-referencing faces with online profiles to create detailed dossiers.
**The Doomsday Clock was reset to 89 seconds to midnight this week. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists issued its assessment on Tuesday. Each year scientists are asked two questions: Is humanity safer or at greater risk this year than last year? Is humanity safer or at greater risk compared to the 78 years the clock has been ticking? Last year’s Bulletin said the war in Ukraine, nuclear escalation and climate change all contributed to the 90-seconds to midnight setting of the clock. In the year since, artificial intelligence has progressed, the Russia-Ukraine war continued, and the war in the Middle East has escalated, leading to the reset.
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Quote of the Week
“As Palestinians are ruthlessly slaughtered in the name of Israel’s security, are Israelis really victims in a collective national sense? Is there not an essential distinction to be made between being Jewish and being Israeli, and thus between a long history of Jewish victimhood at the hands of antisemitic persecutors in the Christian West and the more recent Israeli suffering in the context of the anti-colonial violence that their own colonization of Palestine has provoked?”
“On the Victims of the Victims,” by Ussama Makdisi in Jewish Currents, 1-17-25
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