Thousands Protest in Chicago, New York, and Other Major Cities Across the Globe Against Israel

Thousands of Pro-Palestinian marchers in New York shut down 42nd Street as they chanted slogans such as “Defend Jerusalem,” “Gaza under attack,” “No more money for Israeli crimes,” “Free Palestine” and “End the occupation now.” In Chicago, a massive group of protesters from The Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine filled Congress Plaza in downtown Chicago Wednesday to condemn what they characterized as Israeli aggression. But Pro-Israel groups say the fighting is in response to Palestinian provocations.

According to Aljazeera News, the Israeli raids on Gaza came after weeks of mounting tension over the looming forced expulsion of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, by Jewish settlers. Israeli police stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, the third-holiest site in Islam, and wounded hundreds of Palestinian worshippers during several days of violence. Protests broke out across the occupied territories and inside Israel. The Palestinian faction Hamas, which governs Gaza, launched rockets towards Israel. Israeli airstrikes killed ten top Hamas officials and toppled a pair of high-rise towers in Gaza.

According to the IDF, over 1,050 rockets and mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel since the outbreak of fighting on Monday evening. Five civilians were killed in the attacks. In response, the IDF launched strikes on upwards of 500 targets in the Gaza Strip, aimed at Hamas personnel, weaponry and infrastructure, the army said.

The militant group Hamas has fired rockets into Israel from Gaza just minutes after the passing of its ultimatum for Israel to withdraw its security forces from the Jerusalem compound which is home to the al-Aqsa mosque, and from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in the city’s east.

Residents in Jerusalem reported hearing air raid sirens shortly after 6pm local time when the ultimatum was due to expire, and the sound of three distant explosions, although it was not clear if the detonations were rockets exploding or anti rocket systems being deployed.

The Hamas ultimatum followed the latest clashes around the compound on Monday that left over 300 injured. The latest violence came after Israeli police stormed the compound early on Monday firing stun grenades and tear gas and clashing with Palestinians inside following days of worsening clashes.

Hamas’s military wing claimed responsibility for the rocket fire in a statement saying it struck Jerusalem in response to Israel’s “crimes and aggression in the Holy City, and its harassment of our people in Sheikh Jarrah and Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

“This is a message that the enemy should understand well,” said a spokesperson for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Hamas escalation of the already dangerous crisis, came as the Israeli military suspended its biggest military exercise in 30 years to redeploy its forces fearing rocket attacks from Gaza.

Israel also ordered roads near Gaza closed, while the mayor of the southern city of Ashkelon ordered public bomb shelters opened. Flights into Ben Gurion airport were also reportedly diverted to a northern flight path away from Gaza.

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Aljazeera:    https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/5/12/in-pictures-9

Times of Israel:    https://www.timesofisrael.com/thousands-of-pro-palestinian-new-yorkers-pack-midtown-in-protest-against-israel/




Israel: Netanyahu Given Power to Declare War, Bringing US with Him If He Starts New Wars

Israel: Parliament passed a law allowing the prime minister and defense minister to decide alone whether the nation will go to war. This puts Netanyahu firmly in the driver’s seat. The law says that this power shall be use only “under extreme circumstances”, which is not defined in the law. If Netanyahu declares war, it is certain that the US will back Israel – which means that Netanyahu now can bring America into war. In a video recorded a number of years ago, Netanyahu says that Israel has 80% support from Americans and that America can easily be maneuvered. -GEG

Video of Netanyahu boasting of being able to be an aggressor because America will back Israel, he said: “American is something that you can easily maneuver, and move in the right direction. And even if they say something….So then they say something, so what? 80% of Americans support us! It’s absurd! We have such support there, and here we’re thinking what we should do “if”…”

In a surprise and potentially far-reaching victory for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Knesset on Monday evening gave the prime minister the authority to declare war or order a major military operation by consulting only the defense minister, and not via a full cabinet vote as the law had previously required.

Sixty-two Knesset members voted the dramatic proposal into law, beating out the 41 opposition MKs who opposed it claiming that the language of the law effectively gives free reign to the prime minister by removing all oversight.

According to the new law, in “extreme circumstances,” military operations can be authorized by the prime minister and defense minister alone and will not need a vote by cabinet ministers.

The law does not specify exactly what those circumstances may be, or who will determine them, saying only that the case will apply, “if the issue is necessary due to urgency.”

The proposal — advanced by Netanyahu since last year — had been rejected earlier in the day by members of two key Knesset committees: Law and Justice, and Foreign Affairs and Defense. It was resubmitted, however, by Likud member and Foreign Affairs and Defense committee chairman Avi Dichter during the second and third readings of a broader amendment and was voted into law as part of that wider legislation.

That wider amendment allows the government to delegate the authority for going to war under normal circumstances, or mobilizing for a major military operation, to a forum made up of “at least half” of all cabinet ministers.

Some eight years ago, Netanyahu and then-defense minister Ehud Barak instructed the chief of staff and head of the Mossad intelligence service to put the army into a state of readiness, only to be told by the latter two that the relevant activity was illegal because it had not been properly approved and could lead to war.

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