Day: 26 July 2021

A Sudanese Judoka today withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics to avoid potentially facing an Israeli opponent.

Sudan’s Mohamed Abdalrasool did not show up to face Israel’s Tohar Butbul in the men’s 73-kilogram division despite weighing in for the bout earlier, becoming the second athlete to drop out of the Olympic before Butbul.

Abdalrasool became the second athlete to drop out of the Olympic before facing Butbul, following in the footsteps of the Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine, who was sent home from the Olympics.

Nourine preferred to withdraw from a possible confrontation against Butbul, citing his support for the Palestinian question as the reason behind his decision.

“We were unlucky with the draw. We had an Israeli rival and that is why we had to withdraw. We have made the right decision,” said Amar Benikhlef, Nourine’s coach.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Palestine today confirmed 101 new Covid-19 cases and one death, according to Health Minister Mai al-Kaileh.

She announced that 101 Palestinians tested positive for the highly contagious virus and another died of it in the occupied territories.

Among the new 101 cases, 28 cases were recorded in the West Bank and 73 others in the besieged Gaza Strip.

She identified the death case as a resident of the Gaza Strip.

She added that 34 Covid-19 patients recovered; 14 recovery cases in the West Bank and 20 others in the Gaza Strip.

She pointed that nine Covid-19 patients are getting treatment in intensive care units and 10 others are currently receiving treatment at hospitals and Covid-19 dispensaries, including one who is intubated.

She said that the recovery rate in Palestine has so far reached 98.6 percent, while active cases declined to 0.3 percent. The death toll stood at 1.1 percent of total infections.

Regarding the Covid-19 vaccination rollout, al-Kaileh said that 576,038 people have received their first jab of the vaccine in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including 407,426 people who received the second dose of the vaccine.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

In a letter to Rev. John C. Dorhauer, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ in the United States, Kairos Palestine chair, Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah, and Rifat Kassis, Kairos Palestine General Coordinator, thanked the United Church of Christ for its resolution on peace in the Middle East.

“The board and staff of Kairos Palestine are delighted and encouraged to learn of the United Church of Christ’s overwhelming passage of the resolution, ‘Declaration for a Just Peace Between Palestine and Israel,’ at its Thirty-third General Synod,” they wrote.

“It’s more than a sign of solidarity. We receive the Synod’s vote as a bold act of faith and conscience, precedent-setting among denominations in North America.” Kairos Palestine chair and coordinator said, “Over many years and through many resolutions and actions, the United Church of Christ has stood with Palestinians in our struggle for a just and lasting peace.

We’re grateful for the resolution’s reference to Kairos Palestine’s A Moment of Truth: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering and Kairos Palestine and Global Kairos for Justice’s Cry for Hope: A Call for Decisive Action. Perhaps others will be encouraged to read our plea – grounded in faith, hope and love – and be moved to join us in our nonviolent resistance to the sins of Israel’s brutal occupation and its apartheid policies and practices.”

They added, “As we have said to our Jewish neighbors in A Moment of Truth, ‘Even though we have fought one another in the recent past and still struggle today, we are able to love and live together. We can organize our political life, with all its complexity according to the logic of love and its power, after ending the occupation and establishing justice’.”

Sabbah and Kassis ended their letter saying, “We know that many people worked long and hard to create the resolution, to distribute it for endorsement by others, to inform and educate others, and to see it through to its passage at the Synod. Please convey our gratitude to them and your many congregations.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

On Tuesday, July 27 at 4:30 pm, Al-Awda New York: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition with the NY4Palestine Coalition, which includes American Muslims for Palestine – New Jersey Chapter, Existence Is Resistance, Within Our Lifetime: United for Palestine, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, and allied groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace – New York City, will protest outside the Brooklyn office of New York Attorney General Letitia James to draw attention to New York-based Zionist nonprofits helping Israeli settlers – like Long Island-born Justin “Yaacov” Fauci – to participate in the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians.

Fauci moved from New York to invade and steal Palestinian lands including the Al-Kurd family home in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem and became notorious for publicly admitting his crime when he stated, “If I don’t steal it, someone else is gonna” as he invaded the Palestinian home.

The advocates will urge New York Attorney General Letitia James to shut down and revoke the non-profit, tax-exempt status of groups which are funding war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine. The groups are also demanding an end to New York-based Zionist extremism and calling on New York communities and government officials to stop aiding and normalizing war criminals operating in the state.

“The U.N. Human Rights Commission Rapporteur recently decried settlements as war crimes, and New York private and government actors are actively abetting war crimes, violence and genocide in Palestine with wholesale impunity. This must end if Palestine and the region can ever see peace,” said attorney Audrey Bomse, a member of Al-Awda New York and the National Lawyers Guild.

“It is a violation of US federal law for Americans to engage in war crimes and genocide, it is shocking that there is impunity for such open acts of violence, and it is outrageous that New York State actively shelters, promotes and celebrates such violence, which is itself also a crime,” said attorney Lamis Deek.

“Our government should be working to keep our communities safe and not exhorting them to export violence or to break US laws and codify anti-Palestinian racism into law. This has to end, and these actors and organizations must be held accountable,” said Suzanne Adely, president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild.

“It’s appalling that government officials like DeBlasio are denouncing an ice cream company for partially withdrawing from Israeli-invaded lands while sheltering war criminal organizations right here in New York,” added Daniel Teehan, a member of Al-Awda New York.

Deek closed by saying, “This will be the first of many actions to demand the closure and prosecution of Israeli apartheid and war crime perpetrators. New Yorkers want our taxes to be used to support our communities here instead of being used to destroy communities and commit high crimes in Palestine.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency