May 14, 2021
Last Friday, as the holy month of Ramadan came to a close, Israeli forces stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. Mondoweiss’ Palestine correspondent, Yumna Patel reported that:
“The height of the violence took place inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where tens of thousands of Palestinian worshipers had gathered inside the Mosque and the surrounding courtyard for evening prayers on the last Friday of Ramadan.
Video footage from the scene shows people in prayer when armed Israeli forces stormed the compound, firing sound bombs, tear gas, and rubber bullets at worshipers.”
By Monday, events had escalated. Hamas issued an ultimatum to Israel: withdraw from Al-Aqsa and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood by 6:00 pm, and release all the Palestinians detained by police during the recent tensions in Jerusalem, or there would be retaliation.
Shortly after 6pm, Hamas launched several barrages of rockets from Gaza targeting Jerusalem and other cities farther inside Israeli territory than in past rounds of violence.
The Israeli reaction has been brutal. Airstrikes and land-based attacks on Gaza are still ongoing as we record this episode. Well over 100 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli attacks, many of them children. High rise apartment and office buildings are being specifically targeted, leaving hundreds people homeless and destroying the offices of many regional and international media outlets.
We spoke with Yumna today for a brief update.
After that, Phil Weiss talks to Dr. Norman Finkelstein about the recently released Human Rights Watch report that says Israel is guilty of apartheid. This groundbreaking report, as Dr. Finkelstein explains, indicts Israel for its current policies and practices, and for the full history of its efforts to engineer Jewish supremacy in Palestine.
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SHOW NOTES:
Hundreds injured as Israeli forces attack Palestinian worshipers in Jerusalem - https://mondoweiss.net/2021/05/hundreds-injured-as-israeli-forces-attack-palestinian-worshipers-in-jerusalem/
Israel kills 20 Palestinians in Gaza, injures hundreds in Jerusalem as Al-Aqsa tensions flare - https://mondoweiss.net/2021/05/israel-kills-9-palestinians-in-gaza-injures-hundreds-in-jerusalem-as-al-aqsa-tensions-flare/
Dr. Norman Finkelstein - http://normanfinkelstein.com/
Human Rights Watch's report, "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution" - https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution
Yumna Patel: Human Rights Watch finds Israel guilty of ‘crimes against humanity of apartheid, persecution’ - https://mondoweiss.net/2021/04/human-rights-watch-finds-israel-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-of-apartheid-persecution/
Phil Weiss: Israel cast its fate–‘Apartheid’ –with Nation-State law and dismissal of Palestinian state, says Human Rights Watch - https://mondoweiss.net/2021/05/israel-cast-its-fate-apartheid-with-nation-state-law-and-dismissal-of-palestinian-state-says-human-rights-watch/
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