June 21 In the News (On This Day)

The administration of Trump has gone extremely vile.  As the meme says “2016: Come on, you’re talking like Trump’s going to put people in concentration camps” //  “2018: First of all, I think it’s offensive that you refer to them as ‘concentration camps'”.

The administration – it’s not just Trump, he just happens to approve and encourage – is now putting refugees in overcrowded “holding facilities” (concentration camps where work doesn’t set you free).  A good number of these held refugees are children (two months to 17 years, 11 months, 29 days).

Here’s where we get to the daily news.  This detention / separation camp is not unique to the United States.  With U.S. support this also happens in Israel.  On June 21, 2018 a tweet read: “But for decades Israel’s been kidnapping innumerable Palestinian children, separating them from families, mentally and physically torturing them, & yes, even locking them in outdoor cages during the winter.  All funded, at least in part, by consecutive US regimes.”  (This comes from an article titled: Before Trump, Israel put Palestinian Children in Cages).

Several hundred Palestinians – and a couple Israelis – are held in administration detention in Israel.  They are jailed indefinitely without being charged with a crime.  Several are political prisoners – some are members of the Knesset.

In other treatment-of-Palestinian news from June 21 there are articles about house demolitions, raids on refugee camps, “mistaken” killing of teenage Palestinians, “mistaken” killing of a Palestinian man who had a heart attack while driving, and an article about the harassment of U.S. Jewish activists who stand up for Palestinian rights (in this case while staffing a J Street table) by other American Jews.

While all of these are interesting and deserve a look, at the present time I think it’s most relevant to note the parallels between U.S. treatment of refugees – and other groups it wants to oppress – and the Israeli treatment of the oppressed Palestinians.