Common Grounds

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• How Kurdish independence is central to Israel's plans to reshape the region

  
  October 04, 2017 13:47

  Source: The National

  https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/how-kurdish-independence-is-central-to-israel-s-plans-to-reshape-the-region-1.663503

   

  By Jonathan Cook

  October 2, 2017

   

  The unravelling of the map of the region would likely lead to chaos of the kind that a strong, nuclear-armed Israel could richly exploit, writes Jonathan Cook

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• An Atheist in the Yeshiva: The education of Yossi Zvi Gurvitz

  
  October 06, 2017 14:02

  Source: Mondoweiss

  http://mondoweiss.net/2017/09/atheist-yeshiva-education/

   

  By Yossi Gurvitz

  Published September 29, 2017

   

  It’s Yom Kippur, and I guess I have to explain why a former yeshiva boy will soon prepare his usual Friday dinner and may, if laziness permits, take out his camera into the streets and attempt to capture the ferocious burst of freedom which can be experienced only in Israel on this day: the roads all devoid of cars and given, for one day, to bicycles and hikers.

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• Good Arab, bad Arab, holy martyr

  
  October 06, 2017 14:14

  Source: JEWS FOR JUSTICE FOR PALESTINIANS

  http://jfjfp.com/?p=95503

   

  By Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom
  September 29, 2017

   

  A tale of two stories

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• From denial to recognition: There is no 'humane' occupation

  
  October 09, 2017 11:57

  Source: +972 Magazine

  https://972mag.com/israeli-civilians-bear-responsibility-for-the-occupation-too/130077/

   

  By Frima (Merphie) Bubis

   

  As Israelis, as Jews, as human beings, we must confront the daily reality that takes place throughout the occupied territories. And in doing so, we must face ourselves.

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• Why a leading Palestinian activist isn’t fixated on a Palestinian state

  
  October 10, 2017 14:19

  Source: The Washington Post

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/10/06/why-a-leading-palestinian-activist-doesnt-care-about-a-palestinian-state/?utm_campaign=buffer&utm_content=bufferf0efb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=.af57489aaba2

   

  By Ishaan Tharoor 

  Published October 6

   

  In Washington, a generation of diplomats, politicos and wonks see the prospect of peace between Israelis and Palestinians entirely in the context of the "two-state solution," a scenario in which an independent Palestinian state emerges alongside Israel. It has been an article of faith for successive American administrations, even the current one. But on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territories, the two-state solution is a mirage.

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• Will Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal succeed?

  
  October 13, 2017 13:27

  Source: Al Jazeera

  http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/10/hamas-fatah-reconciliation-deal-succeed-171013064803703.html

   

  By Jonathan Cook

   

  Nazareth - The announcement of an Egypt-brokered reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas on Thursday raised hopes that a decade of bitter feuding between the rival Palestinian factions may finally come to an end.

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• The 13 questions on life in Palestine that non-Palestinians always ask me

  
  October 16, 2017 13:59

  Source: MONDOWEISS
  http://mondoweiss.net/2017/10/questions-palestine-palestinians/

   

  By Inès Abdel Razek

  October 11, 2017

   

  I am a Palestinian from my father’s side of the family and this month, I moved to Palestine. I was educated in France, worked in international organizations in a European and then an East African country, and also have lived in South America. Many of my colleagues, friends and acquaintances have no ties to the Holy Land. But they care and fantasize about it too. Therefore, during the many friendly discussions with people around me about why I was moving there, what it meant, how it would be, I found myself answering the same questions over and over again prompted by candid and genuine curiosity.

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• WATCH // Week-long Cultural Festival Aims to Revive Palestinian Traditions, Life in Jerusalem

  
  October 17, 2017 13:43

  Source: Haaretz

  https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.817713

   

  Reuters, Oct 17, 2017

   

  'Layali al-Quds' is the first cultural festival in Jerusalem launched by 'Shafaq', also known as the Jerusalem Arts Network

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• The slow death of Israeli citizenship

  
  October 17, 2017 13:54

  Source: +972 Magazine

  https://972mag.com/the-slow-death-of-israeli-citizenship/130212/

   

  By Marzuq Al-Halabi

  Published October 15, 2017

   

  As the Right consolidates its power over nearly every sphere of Israeli politics, it is slowly turning citizenship into a matter of ideology. Non-Jewish citizens aren’t the only ones who will suffer.

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• Forcing Jews into a nation

  
  October 19, 2017 12:35

  Source: JEWS FOR JUSTICE FOR PALESTINIANS

  http://jfjfp.com/?p=95483

   

  ByYoav Litvin, Mondoweiss
  September 29, 2017

   

  A Jewish atonement for Zionism

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