Our Wednesday News Analysis | Education on an empty stomach

The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has been forced to reduce its services in Gaza because of budgetary cuts. Ashraf AmraAPA images

Khitam Salim struggles to provide her children with packed lunches.

A mother of three, she has been a single parent since her husband died from leukemia four years ago.

Her children attend a primary school in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), the school does not provide its students with meals so they have to bring sandwiches or buy food from a canteen.

To buy food, the children would need more than $1 per day. Their mother cannot afford that amount.

“No one helps me,” Salim – who is unemployed and depends on social assistance – said. “The conditions in which we find ourselves are very hard. The children see some of their classmates buying things during the break. Not being able to buy anything themselves has a bad effect on them psychologically.”...

Read more: Education on an empty stomach

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UK AND ISRAEL: HAS THE FIGHTBACK AGAINST WEAPONISED ANTISEMITISM BEGUN?

Source: Middle East Eye
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-israel-antisemitism-weaponised-fightback-begun-has

By Jonathan Cook
Published September 25, 2023

Jewish groups and academics are finally exposing the UK establishment's smear campaign to silence criticism of Israel and destroy the left

Demonstrators protest on Whitehall, following a visit by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Downing Street in central London on 24 March, 2023 (AFP)

There has been a wave of highly damaging but unsubstantiated allegations of antisemitism against students and academics, according to a new survey of British universities.

In 38 of 40 cases brought against lecturers, students, student unions and societies in the five years to 2022, no evidence was found to support the accusations of antisemitism. Hearings in the other two cases have yet to conclude.

Hidden in the raw figures is the enormous toll such false allegations take on the accused: personal suffering and reputational and career damage, as well as the additional chilling effect on academic freedom in the wider university community.

That is unlikely to be an unfortunate side product of these allegations. It seems to be precisely their point.

Brismes, a group representing British academics studying the Middle East, published the survey findings in a report this month that suggests wrongful or malicious claims of antisemitism are likely to increase in number...

Read more: UK and Israel: Has the fightback against weaponised antisemitism begun?

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OPINION | PALESTINIANS IN ISRAEL NEED INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-09-18/ty-article-opinion/.premium/palestinians-in-israel-need-international-intervention/0000018a-a9d6-df78-adca-eff61bf30000

By Ahmad Tibi
Published September 18, 2023

A Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag.Credit: AP

A few years ago, an Israeli historian named Ilan Pappé published “The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel,” which highlighted the background and context of the Palestinians left in what became Israel. He used the word “forgotten” because very few voices have presented that case over 75 years. But looking into our situation as Palestinian citizens of Israel may help understanding one of the most relevant topics in today’s international forums, which is the extremist Israeli government and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

As Palestinian citizens of Israel, we remain part of the Palestinian people. Therefore, we are concerned and affected by the policies of colonial-settlement expansion and annexation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. But the fact that we live under dozens of racist anti-Palestinian laws within Israel is not something that is mentioned often. On the contrary; we are used to Western officials – mainly from the U.S., but also Europeans – repeating slogans of “shared values” with Israel as if we did not exist...

Read more: Opinion | Palestinians in Israel Need International Intervention