How Palestinians can achieve a real 'peace of the brave' — Middle East Eye (8/30/19)

That the leader of the colonised natives would speak of the “peace of the brave” in reference to surrendering Palestinian rights to their colonisers was farcical. It is true that Arafat also called on the Israelis to embrace the Gaullist formula of a “peace of the brave” - but, for him, it was a call that both the coloniser and the colonised should embrace. In Algeria, the revolutionaries showed their bravery by fighting for the liberation of their country from French settler-colonialism. The “bravery” that Arafat and his PA functionaries embraced was one of surrendering their homeland and people to perpetual Zionist settler-colonialism. When the Israelis spoke of the “peace of the brave”, it was former prime minister Ehud Barak who used the term - although it came up in the context of “peace” with Syria.

Trump will greenlight West Bank annexation to force Israeli pols to keep Netanyahu as PM, observers say — Mondoweiss (8/29/19)

Israel would not exist without ethnic cleansing — Middle East Monitor (8/29/19)

In 2006, dissident Israeli historian Ilan Pappé published his most seminal work, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Although far from the first book which told the truth about the Nakba (Catastrophe), The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine set the facts out in particularly clear and accessible terms. Pappé popularised and solidified the analysis that sees the Nakba for what it was and remains: a form of ethnic cleansing. He also explained all the steps that led up to the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of 800,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949. As he pointed out in Chapter one of his book, though, the term “ethnic cleansing” came into regular use during the wars that accompanied the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, and was used by the perpetrators of those crimes. However, the fact of ethnic cleansing predates the mid-nineties; there have been many instances of ethnic cleansing in history, even if the term was not itself used.

How Ilhan Omar is changing the way Americans talk about Israel — Middle East Eye (8/28/19)

Jake Tapper’s anti-Palestinian views face scrutiny — Electronic Intifada (8/28/19)

Harvard University student from Palestine denied US entry — Al Jazeera (8/28/19)

A Palestinian student and incoming Harvard University freshman was barred from entering the United States after the teenager said he was questioned for hours by US immigration officials about his religious practices and friends' social media activities. Ismail Ajjawi, a 17-year-old refugee living in Lebanon who was awarded the Hope Fund undergraduate scholarship by US non-profit Amideast, landed at Boston Logan International Airport on Friday before being sent back. In a statement to Al Jazeera, Michael McCarthy, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman said Ajjawi was "deemed inadmissible to the US based on information discovered during the CBP inspection". "CBP is responsible for ensuring the safety and admissibility of the goods and people entering the United States," he said on Tuesday.  Ajjawi said he was questioned by immigration officials for hours, with one asking him to unlock his phone and laptop for further screening. "After the five hours ended, she called me into a room and she started screaming at me. She said that she found people posting political points of view that oppose the US on my friend's list," he told the Harvard Crimson newspaper.