-Submitted by Mark Hage, Vermonters for Justice in Palestine
Media Reports from Occupied Palestine: The Flynn Pardon, Settlement Expansion & COVID-19 in Palestine
Reports on Flynn pardon leave out elephant in the room: Israeli interference in US policy
BY PHILIP WEISS NOVEMBER 26, 2020
Donald Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Mike Flynn…and leading media left out a large part of the basis of Flynn’s conviction: Israeli interference in U.S. foreign policy. They said that Flynn got charged for what he did for Russia. There’s no mention of Israel.
First a look back at Flynn’s downfall. In late December 2016, during the transition, President Obama issued sanctions against Russia for election interference. That same day the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak contacted Flynn, and Flynn called the team in Mar-a-Lago then called the ambassador back, and asked him not to escalate the situation. The next day Vladimir Putin said Russia wasn’t going to retaliate.
Flynn lied about these contacts to the FBI; and he got charged.
There’s a second false statement in the same plea document. Flynn actually contacted Kislyak six days before the sanctions matter (on Dec. 22, 2016) to ask Russia to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements. President Obama was planning to allow the resolution to pass, and Israeli officials contacted the Trump team, and Jared Kushner then initiated a “blitz” of calls by several officials to call foreign countries to step in. The blitz failed.
Flynn later lied to the FBI about contacting the Russian ambassador over the UN resolution.
| UN Resolutions Targeting Israel and the Palestinians 1955 – 1992 | |
| Israel has been targeted by at least 77 UN resolutions and the Palestinians have been targeted by 1. (View Sources & More Information) | |
Israel approves nearly 5,000 new settlement units in West Bank
BY YUMNA PATEL OCTOBER 15, 2020
THE ISRAELI SETTLEMENT OF EFRAT WITHIN THE GUSH ETZION SETTLEMENT BLOC BETWEEN THE PALESTINIAN CITIES OF HEBRON AND BETHLEHEM
The Israeli government advanced plans for 4,948 new settlement units in the occupied Palestinian territory during planning meetings on October 14th and 15th, settlement watchdog Peace Now reported.
According to the group, the advancement of the plans by the Israeli Civil administration, make 2020 the “highest year on record in terms of units in settlement plans promoted since Peace Now began recording in 2012.”
The group noted that all of the new units, except for two, were approved in areas that Israel would have to evacuate in the case of a two-state solution that adheres to the borders drawn in the Geneva Initiative.
| Current Illegal Settlements on the Other’s Land | |
| Israel currently has 261 Jewish-only settlements and ‘outposts’ built on confiscated Palestinian land. Palestinians do not have any settlements on Israeli land. (View Sources & More Information) | |
COVID-19 in Palestine: Pandemic Under Occupation
Mondoweiss has prepared a 5-part series on Palestine and COVID-19 that exploresCOVID-19 in Palestine: Pandemic Under Occupation how the pandemic is affecting the social, economic, and political situation in Occupied Palestine