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FBI opened terrorism investigations into nonviolent Palestinian solidarity group, documents reveal (The Intercept)
Nothing in the documents suggests any of these investigations ever resulted in criminal charges. Instead, the documents reveal sprawling investigations involving FBI field offices in multiple states and the national headquarters, as well as local law enforcement. FBI agents resorted not only to confidential informants and physical surveillance, but a scandal-prone unit formed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks accessed the phone records of at least one activist.
According to FBI documents outlining the justification for the probe, ISM members ‘“predisposition to anti-capitalist and anti-global philosophy” — an apparent reference to the anti-globalization movement — “coupled with their sympathetic views on the Palestinian cause gives rise to the concern that ISM members can be directed, coerced, or through their own volition, be the purveyors of acts of terrorism.”
It’s Time to Reclaim UNRWA(Al-Shabaka)
Though the 2018 US decision caused an “historical shortfall” in The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees’ budget, it did not signal a fundamental shift in US policy. Rather, it represented an upsurge in an ongoing US-Israeli strategy to weaken and ultimately dismantle the agency. Instead of serving as a means to integrate refugees, as was originally intended by Western powers, over the decades UNRWA emerged as a symbol of the Palestinian refugee predicament and a substitute welfare state-in-exile. This is why the agency’s wings are being clipped and its programs targeted.
This Gaza factory once made kids’ clothes. Now it makes protective suits(+972 Magazine)
When the new coronavirus reached Gaza, Alaa Qreiqea decided he would repurpose his children’s clothes factory to make protective suits. His workshop now produces about 400 suits a day, which are sold to essential workers inside the strip as well as in the West Bank and Israel.
The factory employs about 30 people, said Qreiqea, who is in his 20s and hails from the Shuja’ia neighborhood of Gaza City. Knowing that the laborers have families to support in this difficult time is what motivated him to keep the factory operational, he explained.
Calls to seal off ultra-Orthodox areas add to Israel's virus tensions (The Guardian)
“Two Israeli officers were to go undercover, although not posing as drug dealers or arms traffickers. For this particular assignment, they were to disguise themselves as ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Their mission on Friday was to bust an illegal gathering in a synagogue. People were praying together, a practice that is now against the law in the era of the coronavirus. Once the officers got inside to confirm the crowd, more units barged in and dispersed people.”
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