JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN, sarinj111@gmail.com
Loewenstein is former Associate Director of Middle Eastern Studies and Senior Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has lived and reported from Gaza and Beirut. She highlights a series of critical recent reports:
CNN reported on Sunday in “Israeli strike on mosque and school in Gaza kills scores, sparking international outrage” that “at least one U.S.-manufactured precision-guided bomb” was used in the strike on the Al-Tabi’in Gaza City school on Saturday.
“Footage of the aftermath filmed by CNN showed parts of an explosive device that Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician, confirmed were from a GBU-39 small diameter bomb,” the U.S. broadcaster added, noting that the munition is manufactured by Boeing.
Middle East Eye reports: “Not a ‘single full body’ left after Israeli attack on Gaza school, Gaza’s civil defence says.”
On Friday, Reuters reported: “U.S. releases $3.5 billion to Israel to spend on U.S. weapons, military equipment.” Truthout reports: “Decades of U.S. Arms Deals With Israel Paved the Way to Genocide in Gaza.”
Gideon Levy of Haaretz in “Welcome to Hell: B’Tselem’s Ignored Abuse Report Shows Israel’s True Face” writes: If a report like that of B’Tselem was almost totally ignored here, and if even after the evidence shown by Peleg the debate as to whether it’s permitted to detain the despicable soldiers presented in it continues — on the Channel 12 morning program there was a discussion of who’s in favor of rape and who’s opposed — then Peleg’s documentation is documentation of the face of Israel 2024, its spirit and its likeness. …
“On Tuesday, once again, a High Court of Justice hearing discussing the petition to close the torture facility Sde Teiman was interrupted, due to the shouts of the audience. ‘The people are sovereign,’ shouted the rabble at the High Court justices. …
“When you read the 94 pages of the B’Tselem report, which causes you to lose sleep, you understand that it wasn’t an exceptional incident, it’s the routine of torture, which has become a policy. …
“The indifference to all these [abuses in Israeli prisons] defines Israel. The public legitimization defines Israel. In the Guantanamo Bay detention camp that was opened by the United States after the 9/11 attacks, nine prisoners were killed in 20 years; here it’s 60 detainees in 10 months. Need anything more be said?”