Issue 28: Friday, 4 June 2021

THIS WEEK IN DC — Biden Taps Harris to Tackle Voting Rights Legislation; Biden Commemorates Tulsa Massacre 100th Anniversary; House Democrats Seek Ways to Investigate January 6 After Senate Republicans Block Commission; Biden Announces 'All-of-America Sprint' to Get More Vaccinated By July Fourth; House Lawmakers Call on Pentagon to Support Replenishment of Israel's Iron Dome Defense System; Pentagon Chief and Saudi Crown Prince Discuss Regional Security in Yemen War; Supreme Court Rules on Tribal Police and Immigrants’ Testimony; Biden Offers Major Change to Tax Proposal to Secure Infrastructure Deal with GOP; Biden Directs Federal Agencies to Up Their Anti-Corruption Game; Biden's U.N. Envoy Sees 'Desperation' as Russia Threatens to Close Crossing into Syria.

IN THIS ISSUE

Featured: Netanyahu’s End in Sight?
Palestine: Tell Your Story
Legislative Tracker

FEATURED ISSUE

Netanyahu's End in Sight?

Guest Contributor: Nayyer Ali, MPAC Boardmember

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister, has been avoiding political defeat for the last two years. Israel’s complex politics has been so deadlocked that four elections have been held without a winner in that time. No one has been able to cobble together a government that requires 61 members of the 120 seat Knesset to hold power. As such, Netanyahu has been able to cling to power. But this last election in March may have finally resulted in his removal.

Netanyahu is part of the Israeli hard-right, completely opposed to any settlement with the Palestinians and utterly committed to preserving total Israeli control of the entire land of Palestine from the Jordan River to the sea. No room anywhere for a Palestinian state, meaning that the 5 million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank are to be consigned to a permanent apartheid, a slave-like status where they have no citizenship in any state whatsoever, and no rights that any Israeli government has to respect, and no voice in the power that is ultimately sovereign over their lives. This is what makes the Occupation so uniquely pernicious and evil.

Read the full article →

Palestine, the world needs to hear your account of what is happening.

In order to advocate for meaningful change in U.S. policy impacting Palestine, the Muslim Public Affairs Council is amplifying human stories of Palestinians and their families by ensuring top officials in the Biden administration see them. To submit your story, please use the form below. Upon submission you will receive an email acknowledging its receipt. If your story is one we’d like to follow up on for further details or if we have questions, we will contact you at the phone number and email provided.

Your voice, and your stories can impact change.

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GOOD TO KNOW

Fragile Israeli coalition to oust Netanyahu faces growing pressure
Sweeping 2021 legislative victories for American Muslims and all Illinois residents
COVID cases in U.S. fall to levels not seen since March 2020
UK's Matt Hancock praises British Muslims for role in vaccine drive
Report: Number of mosques in U.S. grows overall, but African American mosques in decline
Folk singer Mustafa: ‘I’m trying to preserve the memories of young Black Muslims’
Palestinian community center in NJ bombarded with threats for 7 hours
U.S. labor unions voice historic support for Palestinians

ICYMI:
The African American and Palestinian Shared Struggle For Freedom

We invited Palestinian and African American community leaders for a compelling discussion on Human Rights and the intersection of both movements in their shared struggle for freedom.

Click here or the image above to watch the full webinar.

LEGISLATIVE TRACKER:

Review status of key legislation on issues we're covering —

The bills below seek to address the ongoing plight of the Palestinian people.

HR.2590 Introduced by Rep. McCollum, Betty [D-MN-4]
To promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation and to ensure that United States taxpayer funds are not used by the Government of Israel to support the military detention of Palestinian children, the unlawful seizure, appropriation, and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the West Bank, or further annexation of Palestinian land in violation of international law.
S.Res.225 - Introduced by Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT]
A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the value of Palestinian and Israeli lives and urging an immediate cease-fire and diplomatic efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
H.J.49 - Joint Resolution introduced in the House by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D-NY-14}
A resolution calling for congressional disapproval of the proposed direct commercial sale to Israel of certain weaponry and munitions.

What can you do to help?

Contact your local congressional offices.

— THIS WEEK IN HISTORY —

May 30, 1510 - Portuguese forces under Afonso de Albuquerque abandon Goa after its former ruler Yusuf Adil Shah, the Muslim King of Bijapur reconquers the city; May 30, 1913 - Treaty of London signed by the Great Powers, the Ottoman Empire and the victorious Balkan League, bringing an end to the First Balkan War; May 30, 1941 - British Army enters Baghdad; May 31, 70 - Rome captures first wall of the city of Jerusalem; May 31, 1974 - Israel and Syria sign an agreement concerning Golan Heights, facilitating withdrawals by both countries' armed forces following the 1973 War; May 31, 2010 - Gaza Flotilla raid: Israeli Shayetet 13 soldiers board ships trying to break blockade of Gaza, during violent confrontation aboard MV Mavi Marmara; June 1, 1941 - British troops occupy Baghdad; June 4, 1982 - Israel attacks targets in south Lebanon; June 5, 1916 - The Sharif Hussein proclaims a revolt of the Arabs in the province of Hejaz, an action that undermines the Turkish Empire; June 5 ,1963 - State of siege proclaimed in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini arrested; June 5, 1975 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat reopens Suez Canal.

May 30, 1783 - Benjamin Tower of Philadelphia publishes first daily newspaper in U.S.; May 30, 1937 - Memorial Day Massacre: Chicago Police Department shoot and kill 10 unarmed demonstrators during the "Little Steel Strike" in the United States; May 30, 1956 - Bus boycott begins in Tallahassee, Florida; May 31, 1870 - Congress passes first Enforcement Act (rights of blacks); May 31, 1921 - A large-scale race riot breaks out in Tulsa, Oklahoma, later described as the worst incident of racial violence in American history; around 150-300 African Americans killed; May 31, 1955 - U.S. Supreme Court orders school integration "with all deliberate speed"; June 1, 1862 - African Slave Trade Treaty Act: Bilateral treaty between the US and UK abolishing the slave trade in all U.S. possessions; June 2, 1863 - Harriet Tubman leads Union guerrillas into Maryland, freeing slaves; June 2, 1899 - Black Americans observed day of fasting in protest against lynchings; June 4, 1919 - U.S. Congress passes the Women's Suffrage Bill, the 19th Amendment; June 5, 1851 - Anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe first published in serial form; June 5, 1950 - U.S. Supreme Court undermines legal foundations of segregation; June 5, 1956 - U.S. Federal court rules racial segregation on Montgomery buses anti-Constitutional.

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