Protest in Maine

During the Pumpkin Festival, a major public event and tourist attraction in Damariscotta, Maine, Palestinian solidarity activists staged a blockade of the bridge into town. The main organizer was arrested within minutes but other activists lined the bridge, holding up banners and signs for Palestine. Their leaflet read, in part,

“This Indigenous Peoples’s Day we stand in solidarity with all indigenous people whose lands were violently stolen… Don’t let history repeat itself.  Stand up for Palestine. …”

…. and listed several demands.. with only the first one checked off:

    Ceasefire

    Lift the Siege

    End the Occupation

    Dismantle Israeli Apartheid

    Recognize Palestinian Statehood

    Hold Perpetrators Accountable…

USAID CUTS HELP PUSH WEST BANK INTO EXTREME WATER SHORTAGES

Water shortages are contributing to the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967.

Since taking office, Trump, with the help of Elon Musk, has eviscerated the U.S. foreign aid budget. In March, Rubio terminated 80 percent of USAID programs after a review by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The administration also said foreign aid would be shrunk and reconstituted under the State Department. On July 1, USAID formally dissolved.

The consequences of this retrenchment will land on Palestinian communities like Dura, which for decades have counted on the U.S. as the preeminent funder of water infrastructure in the Occupied Territories.

The water supply for Palestinians in the West Bank is already tight. 

Read the article here.

After Gaza Ceasefire, “Massive Political Pressure” Needed to Prevent Israel from Restarting the War

A ceasefire came into effect in Gaza on Friday after the Israeli government approved the first phase of the U.S.-backed plan to end two years of war in the Palestinian territory. The deal calls for a pause in Israeli attacks, the release of the remaining Israeli captives held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, as well as an influx of badly needed humanitarian aid for the starving population of Gaza. Israeli forces have pulled back but continue to control roughly half the territory, with the ceasefire agreement calling for further withdrawals in later phases.

“This is a deal that really should have been made long, long ago,” says Amjad Iraqi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “We’ve known that the parameters of this truce have been on the table for well over a year, if not since the very beginning of the war.”

Palestinian human rights attorney Diana Buttu says while people are happy for a pause in the slaughter, she finds it “repulsive” that Palestinians had to bargain with their own oppressors. “It should have been that the world put sanctions on Israel to stop the genocide, rather than forcing Palestinians to negotiate an end to it.”

Watch this on Democracy Now.