Our Wednesday News Analysis | ‘LIKE GIVING A DROWNING PERSON A BREATH OF AIR’

Displaced Palestinians struggle carrying on with daily life amid the rubble left by Israeli attacks in Jabalia, Gaza on January 12. Lacking basic necessities, families are clinging to survival in makeshift tents set up near their destroyed homes, while enduring harsh cold weather conditions. / Photo by Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images.

"… when you’re suffering from severe malnutrition, giving one a meal or two days of meals is like giving a drowning person a breath of air.

… in real time . . . bodies burning, people hungry, homes bombed

. . . seeing it without knowing or understanding what to do.

“‘I can see it’s a baby, but it happens to be a Palestinian baby.
But Palestinians are terrorists, and terrorists are not babies.’
So people are like—how do you say?—malfunctioning.
Their racism makes them numb.

'State denial also has changed... Israel plays the usual role. They disrupt evidence. They misrepresent. They bomb. And then they say: ‘We didn’t do it.’”

The world remains on fire in many places, but it is easy to forget that things are still burning in Gaza, and the worst is not over for the Palestinians.

The Israelis are in the process of deciding whether, once again, to bomb what they fear is a rebuilt Hezbollah command in Lebanon. I’ve been told by an informed official that the Iranian Army, more than a million strong, may hold the fate of Iran. President Donald Trump, after attacking Venezuela and apprehending President Nicolás Maduro, now claims control of more oil in reserve than Saudi Arabia and Russia put together, and of course, far more than China. Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone missing from the peace talks with Ukraine.

The Israel military, under the command of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is continuing to drop bombs on Gaza as yet another ceasefire is broken. Now squeezed into one half of Gaza, the Palestinians are staying put and doing all they can to stay alive. Some are even preparing to plant their crops for the coming season.

It is a miracle of endurance despite the fact that, as the New York Times reported this week, the Israeli Air Force and Army have destroyed more than 2,500 buildings in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement with Israel was signed last October. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian survivors are now living in tents that are flooded in heavy rain. It is a zone that is very cold.

As has been widely reported, there is now more food coming into Gaza, but much of it does not reach those in need but instead those most able to pay.

I recently had a long talk with a veteran observer of Gaza, who has been visiting the territory for years, long before and many times after the murderous Hamas attacks on Israel of October 7, 2023.

The official tolls for Gazans after the reprisals for those attacks began now stand at more than 71,000 deaths and more 171,000 injuries. There is no reliable estimate of the number of young children whose physical development and mental well-being have been stunted by the lack of food, safe housing, and sanitation during the ongoing Israeli war and occupation...

Read more: ‘LIKE GIVING A DROWNING PERSON A BREATH OF AIR’

___________________

DIASPORA JEWS, IF YOU CARE ABOUT ISRAEL – FIGHT JEWISH TERRORISM

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026-04-05/ty-article-opinion/.premium/diaspora-jews-if-you-care-about-israel-fight-jewish-terrorism/0000019d-5e38-db3c-a3df-dfbdc4f50000

By Yiftah Elazar and Inbal Arnon, Abigail Jacobson, Oded Steinberg
Published April 5, 2026

Jewish terrorism functions as part of the Netanyahu government's toolkit, and since the outbreak of war with Iran, violent settlers have dramatically escalated their attacks on Palestinians. If you love Israel – hold it accountable, now

Palestinians walk past graffiti of a Star of David in the West Bank village of Deir al-Hatab following a reported attack by Israeli settlers on March 22, 2026. Credit: AFP/ZAIN JAAFAR

...many actions of the current government – including the devastating war in Gaza, the enablement of settler violence, and the establishment
of a mandatory death penalty only for Palestinians – undermines Israel's legitimacy and damages the image of the Jewish people worldwide.

Like many liberal academics in Israel, we have long known that Jewish settlers were using the cover of war in Gaza to carry out thousands of violent attacks on rural Palestinian communities in the West Bank, with the goal of displacing them and expanding settlements. Until recently, however, our attention was directed elsewhere.

We had taken to the streets to oppose the Netanyahu government's assault on the judiciary. We were consumed by Hamas' horrific October 7 massacre and by Israel's disproportionate and devastating response to it in Gaza. Meanwhile, only a small number of brave activists and organizations consistently confronted the rising tide of settler violence in the West Bank.

Ironically and sadly, the war with Iran has changed that. Whether intoxicated by the fervor of conflict or seeking to exploit the wartime confusion, violent settlers have dramatically escalated their attacks on Palestinians in recent weeks. Haunting reports have emerged from the West Bank, like that of the settler assault in Khirbet Humsa, which reportedly involved beating up young girls and sexually assaulting a Palestinian man in front of his family.

The unintended consequence has been to mobilize liberal Israelis like us to join the cause of fighting what can only be described as Jewish terrorism: the use of violence to advance the ideological goal of displacing Palestinian rural communities and taking over their lands.

One of our first actions was organizing a petition signed by over 600 academics from most academic institutions in Israel, urging the international community to protect Palestinian communities and hold perpetrators of violence accountable. The petition calls for "far-reaching measures against individuals and entities involved in acts of violence and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank."

While it does not specify which far-reaching measures should be taken, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently advocated for intervention by the International Criminal Court, and several governments – including those of the U.S. and EU – imposed targeted sanctions in recent years on individuals and entities involved in settler violence...

Read more: Diaspora Jews, if You Care About Israel – Fight Jewish Terrorism

___________________

PALESTINIAN CHILDREN’S DAY: STOLEN CHILDHOOD, UNBROKEN WILL

Source: Palestine Chronicle
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/international-day-of-the-palestinian-child-stolen-childhood-unbroken-will/

By Palestine Chronicle Editors
Published April 6, 2026

International Day of the Palestinian Child reveals genocide, imprisonment, and systemic denial, yet children persist through education, culture, and resistance.

Palestinian barbers give free haircuts to children ahead of Eid al-Fitr, offering moments of normalcy amid genocide (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

... education continues under constant interruption.

Children navigate checkpoints, delays, and the threat of violence simply to reach school.
Some wait for hours each day for gates to open, while others are forced to take longer, more dangerous routes.

Yet they persist.

… for Palestinians, education is not merely a social good. It is a form of continuity—a refusal to allow war and occupation to define the limits of their future.

On April 5, Palestinians mark Palestinian Children’s Day, a day that has grown increasingly urgent with each passing year.

The day is not a ceremonial occasion, nor a symbolic gesture. It is a political and human reality shaped by occupation, and, in the current moment, by genocide in Gaza.

To speak of Palestinian childhood today is to speak of a condition defined by violence, disruption, and systematic targeting. Yet it is also to speak of persistence—of a generation that continues to assert its right to exist, to learn, and to remain.

What is Palestinian Children’s Day?

The Palestinian Children’s Day emerged in the 1990s through Palestinian institutions and civil society organizations seeking to document violations against children living under Israeli occupation...

Read more: Palestinian Children’s Day: Stolen Childhood, Unbroken Will