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Phyllis Bennis | |
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| Born | January 19, 1951 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, policy analyst, activist |
Phyllis Bennis (born January 19, 1951) is an American Jewish writer, activist, and political commentator. Focusing mainly on issues related to the Middle East and the United Nations, she is a strong critic of Israel and the United States and a leading advocate of Palestinian rights.
She directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. [1]
Bennis is a left-leaning political activist who has been active in the Middle East since the 1970s and who covered the United Nations in the 1980s. In the early 1980s she was active in the Central America solidarity movement as a member of CISPES (the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador).
In 1987, Bennis witnessed the First Intifada and began to take a serious interest in pro-Palestinian advocacy. She made three additional trips to the Middle East in 1988 and 1989, and her experiences during this period led to a book, From Stones to Statehood: The Palestinian Uprising (1990), in which she describes the first two years of the Intifada and makes the case for a Palestinian homeland. [2]
In 1999, Bennis accompanied a group of congressional aides to Iraq, examining the impact of U.S.-led economic sanctions on humanitarian conditions there.
Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Washington, D.C., and of its offshoot, the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. At IPS, Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project, which “works primarily on Middle East and United Nations issues,” focusing on “the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” The project makes use of “education and activism” in an effort to change American policy and also seeks to “democratize and empower” the UN and free it of “U.S. domination.” [3]
She is also a founding member of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, which was established in 2002 during the Second Intifada, and currently serves on its steering committee. She is a leader of United for Peace & Justice and co-chairs the UN's International Coordinating Network on Palestine. [4]
The IPS describes her as having worked with the UN “on several issues related to Palestine and the Middle East” and as advising “several top UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues.” The IPS adds that she “has played an active role in the growing global peace movement” since 2002. [1]
Bennis has suggested[ when? ] that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would begin with "the creation of a truly independent, sovereign, and democratic State of Palestine to be constructed on the 22 percent of historic Palestine that Israel occupied in 1967: the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem." Under this arrangement, "Israel and Palestine, as equals, would jointly exchange full diplomatic relations" and "Israeli settlers would be given the option of moving to new homes inside Israel, or remaining in their homes as citizens of Palestine." In addition, "Jerusalem would be an open city, with two separate capitals within it: the capital of Israel in West Jerusalem, and the capital of Palestine in East Jerusalem." She also advocates for Palestinians' right of return to Israel. [5]
Although she formerly supported a two-state solution as the ultimate means of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Bennis has joined leaders of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in advocating the ultimate creation of a single bi-national state. In her manifesto, Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer, Bennis champions the one-state solution, arguing that "creating a Palestinian state on only part of historic Palestine represents an historic injustice." She further claims that "Palestine has the potential to reach as high a technological and scientific level" as Israel, "largely through the intellectual capital of its young and highly educated population." [6]
Bennis is a staunch opponent of what she regards as American imperialism and believes that actions should be taken to counter American and Western global hegemony. In the 1990s, she opposed US-led sanctions against Iraq and the US war on Iraq. In the early 2000s, she came out strongly against the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and has supported anti-American movements in those countries. Deploring what she sees as the excessive influence of the US at the UN, she has argued that the international organization "desperately needs reform," and she blames the failure to implement reform on the "anachronistic" determination of US and other Security Council permanent members "to orchestrate the post-war world." [7]
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Bennis "has repeatedly accused the 'Israel lobby' of pushing for a war against Iran" and "is often critical of Israel, including referring to Israel as an 'apartheid' and 'pariah' state." The ADL noted that in her 2008 primer, Iran in the Crosshairs: How to Prevent Washington's Next War, Bennis "defends Iran and challenges White House concerns that Iran intends to build nuclear weapons, going so far as to argue that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls to 'wipe Israel off the map' were misinterpreted and that really, 'the threat is the other way around' because Israel is pushing for a war against Iran." The ADL also noted her conviction that the US position on Iran was shaped by "Israel's powerful lobbies." [8]
Bennis celebrated a Washington, D.C., march called "One Nation Working Together," held in 2010 and sponsored by a coalition of organizations including the NAACP, the SEIU, the AFL-CIO, the National Council of La Raza, the Center for Community Change, and the US Students Association. The "uniting issue" was jobs, with placards reading :Jobs Not War" indicating "the connection between our out of control military budget...and the jobs crisis." [9]
Bennis opposed Western intervention in Libya in a March 2011 article for Al-Jazeera , questioning its credibility and saying that it threatened "the Arab Spring." [10] Bennis argued in Al-Jazeera in August 2011 that if rebel leaders in Libya wished to be successful, they would have to stop being dependent on the US and NATO. [11] She made similar arguments about Syria in 2012, saying that it was important "to make sure the U.S. is kept out of Syria militarily" because US military involvement could only "lead to greater civilian casualties." [12]
She described ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's August 2011 trial as "the iconic emblem of the Arab Spring: a repressive US-backed dictator, suddenly brought down by popular mobilization and displayed behind bars in the defendants' cage of a Cairo courtroom." [13]
Bennis argued in a September 2011 article for Al-Jazeera that the world was not changed by the September 11 attacks but by "the events of September 12, when the George W. Bush administration made the decision to take the world to war," a decision whose consequences, in her view, continue "to threaten the world's security and shred US democracy." [14]
Noting the simultaneous exchange and release by Hamas of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and by Israel of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, Bennis argued in an October 2011 article for Al-Jazeera that the disparity in numbers reflected the "control Israel wields over the occupied Palestinian population": while Hamas "control[s] the life of exactly one Israeli, a captured soldier," Israel "directly maintains power over the lives of thousands of Palestinian prisoners." To Bennis, Israel's holding of Palestinian prisoners is not about addressing genuine security threats but about "demoralis[ing]" Palestinians and "undermin[ing] the family unity that provides the crucial basis for Palestinians' sumud , or steadfastness, in resisting occupation." [15]
In a January 2013 article for Al-Jazeera, Bennis described as "unsurprising" Israel's imprisonment of Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in December 2008, given that "Israel has for years responded with outrage to human rights criticism and, with US backing, has increasingly directly repudiated UN authority and legitimacy." Describing Falk as "scrupulously fair," Bennis chastised Human Rights Watch for criticizing him and thus lending credibility to "the litany of false attacks" against him. [16] In another January 2013 article, Bennis described Falk as one of "the most important international defenders of human rights in the occupied territories," and characterized criticism of him by Israel, the US, and Human Rights Watch as the results of "smear campaigns launched by UN Watch, a right-wing outfit in Geneva known for its anti-UN, anti-Palestinian, pro-Israel and anti-human rights agenda." [17] When Bennis was placed on the shortlist to replace Falk, UN Watch opposed her candidacy and was in part responsible for her not being appointed. One of Bennis' colleagues Fiona Dove stated in respects to the withdrawn candidacy that "Phyllis Bennis was subject to scurrilous attacks by the Israeli press". UN Watch responded that "if quoting terror apologists' own words constitute "scurrilous attacks," we plead guilty" to having done so. [18]
Bennis argued in January 2013 that the US could save money by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, ending subsidies on fossil fuels, and cutting military spending. [17]
She cited US National Intelligence Estimates and reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency to argue in February 2013 that concerns about Iran's nuclear capability are outrageously exaggerated and that if "the threat of war still looms" it is not because of actual threat assessments, but because of "belligerent" politicians. "Even a theoretical future nuclear-armed Iran," she argued, "would not be a threat to the existence of Israel" but only "to Israel's longstanding nuclear monopoly in the Middle East." This, she maintained, "is the real threat motivating Israel's attack-Iran-now campaign." [19]
Bennis mocked U.S. President Barack Obama in March 2013 for giving a speech on the West Bank that was full of "soaring language in which he urged justice, reminding the world that the occupation can't remain," even as he refused "to acknowledge any of the immediate realities on the ground — the Wall, the checkpoints, the occupation soldiers preventing Palestinians from moving within their own land." She also criticized Obama's support for a two-state solution, arguing that it "has been rendered essentially impossible by unchecked settlement expansion." [20]
Bennis signed a 2013 statement calling the US war in Iraq "illegal and illegitimate" and "based on lies", and stating that bringing "democracy and freedom to Iraq... was never on the US agenda." [21]
Bennis praised "Iraqi civil society" in April 2013, saying that it "has been in motion in extraordinary, impressive ways." Not only is it "non-violent," she said, but it has also "challeng[ed] the existence of a sectarian government system that was put in place by the United States at the very beginning of its occupation." [22]
Bennis reacted to the appointment of John Kerry as Secretary of State by lamenting in April 2013 that "There is no indication Israel is any more willing than it ever was to stop violating international law and UN resolutions. There is no evidence that any of the 600,000 or so illegal settlers who are violating international law every morning just by getting out of bed, are at all worried about losing either their illegally built homes or their military protection and privileges guaranteed by the Israeli state. There is no sign the siege of Gaza is being canceled. And most important, there is no hint that the US is prepared to bring any pressure to bear on Israel to end any of those violations." [23]
Bennis is the author of nine books and the co-editor of two. [1] [4]
She is also co-editor of Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis Reader (1991) and Altered States: A Reader in the New World Order (1993). [1]
She has contributed articles to The Nation, the Baltimore Sun, New York Newsday, the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today, as well as in such publications as Znet, Electronic Intifada, From Occupied Palestine, Counterpunch, Palestine Monitor, and Tom Paine. Most recently, she has been a frequent contributor to Al-Jazeera.
Bennis has been invited to deliver political commentary on TV and radio in the U.S. and abroad. Among the outlets on which she has been featured are CNN, the PBS NewsHour, MSNBC, Democracy Now on Pacifica Radio, Grit TV, the BBC, and NPR. [4]
Bennis was featured in the 2007 award-winning documentary film Occupation 101 .
Bennis has often spoken at conferences alongside Noam Chomsky. She has also participated in conferences sponsored by the Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, which preaches “replacement theology,” namely the idea that the role of the Jews as God's “chosen people” ended with the arrival of Christianity. In October 2006 she was a speaker at a Sabeel conference entitled “Ending the Silence: Voices from the Holy Land.”
Bennis was featured as a speaker at the 2012 New York Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. [24]
Bennis was a featured speaker at “Confronting the War Today,” a conference to reflect on the Iraq War as it approached its tenth year. [25]
Bennis spoke at a memorial for Rachel Corrie on the tenth anniversary of her death in 2013. [20]
The Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is a polity and the smaller of the two Palestinian territories. On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north.
The First Intifada, also known as the First Palestinian Intifada or the Stone Intifada, was a sustained series of protests, acts of civil disobedience and riots carried out by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. It was motivated by collective Palestinian frustration over Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as it approached a twenty-year mark, having begun in the wake of the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. The uprising lasted from December 1987 until the Madrid Conference of 1991, though some date its conclusion to 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Issues relating to the State of Israel and aspects of the Arab–Israeli conflict and more recently the Iran–Israel conflict occupy repeated annual debate times, resolutions and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict as of January 2010.
Media coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has been said, by both sides and independent observers, to be biased. This coverage includes news, academic discussion, film, and social media. These perceptions of bias, possibly exacerbated by the hostile media effect, have generated more complaints of partisan reporting than any other news topic and have led to a proliferation of media watchdog groups.
Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization. Best known for her work as a legal adviser and a participant in peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian organizations, she has since been associated with Stanford University, Harvard University, and the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU).
Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights since the Six-Day War of 1967. It previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, occupation of the Palestinian territories was split between Egypt and Jordan, with the former having occupied the Gaza Strip and the latter having annexed the West Bank; the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights were under the sovereignty of Egypt and Syria, respectively. The first conjoined usage of the terms "occupied" and "territories" with regard to Israel was in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which was drafted in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and called for: "the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" to be achieved by "the application of both the following principles: ... Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict ... Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."
The status of territories captured by Israel is the status of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula, all of which were captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel's policies and actions in its ongoing occupation and administration of the Palestinian territories have drawn accusations that it is committing the crime of apartheid. Leading Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups have said that the totality and severity of the human rights violations against the Palestinian population in the occupied territories, and by some in Israel proper, amount to the crime against humanity of apartheid. Israel and some of its Western allies have rejected the accusation, with Israel often labeling the charge antisemitic; Amnesty International and others have called that claim political weaponization of antisemitism.
Occupation 101: Voice of the Silenced Majority is a 2006 documentary film on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict directed by Sufyan Omeish and Abdallah Omeish, and narrated by Alison Weir, founder of If Americans Knew. The film focuses on the effects of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and discusses events from the rise of Zionism to the Second Intifada and Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, presenting its perspective through dozens of interviews, questioning the nature of Israeli–American relations—in particular, the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the ethics of US monetary involvement. Occupation 101 includes interviews with mostly American and Israeli scholars, religious leaders, humanitarian workers, and NGO representatives—more than half of whom are Jewish—who are critical of the injustices and human rights abuses stemming from Israeli policy in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates, resolutions, and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, as of January 2010, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Richard Anderson Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was listed as the author or coauthor of 20 books and the editor or coeditor of another 20 volumes. Falk has published extensively with multiple books written about international law and the United Nations.
The future of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is considered central to progress in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Cases of prison sentences include the charges of terrorism or being a member of an "illegal terrorist organization", such as Hamas or prior to the Oslo Accords the Palestine Liberation Organization, but according to some accounts also by political activism such as raising a Palestinian flag.
Marwan Bishara is a Palestinian Arab, born in Nazareth, Israel. He is currently an author, columnist and the senior political analyst for Al Jazeera English From 2007 to 2014, Bishara was the editor and host of their flagship programme Empire, which examined global powers and their agendas in a fusion of documentary and debate with politicians, generals, philosophers, academics, novelists, movie directors, and activists from the world over. He has been described as "one of the Arab world's leading public intellectuals" and writes extensively on global politics and is widely considered a leading authority on the Middle East and international affairs.
Shawan Rateb Abdallah Jabarin is the general director of Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization in the West Bank. From 2005 to 2009, Jabarin was a member of the board of directors of Defense for Children International – Palestine, the national section of the Geneva-based Defense for Children International, an NGO established in 1979.
Ali Hasan Abunimah is a Palestinian-American journalist who has been described as "the leading American proponent of a one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict". A resident of Chicago who contributes regularly to publications such as the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, he has served as the vice-president on the board of directors of the Arab American Action Network, is a fellow at the Palestine Center, and is a co-founder of The Electronic Intifada website. He has appeared on many television discussion programs on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and other networks, and in a number of documentaries about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, including Collecting Stories from Exile: Chicago Palestinians Remember 1948 (1999).
Since the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, a number of countries and individuals have challenged the country's political legitimacy. Under international law, Israel has always met the standards for recognition as a sovereign state. However, over the course of the Arab–Israeli conflict, the country's authority has been questioned on a number of fronts. Critics of Israel may be motivated by their opposition to the country's right to exist or, since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, their disapproval of the established power structure within the Israeli-occupied territories. Some have called for Israel's destruction.
Quds Day, officially known as International Quds Day, is an annual pro-Palestinian event held on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to express support for Palestinians and oppose Israel and Zionism. It takes its name from the Arabic name for Jerusalem: al-Quds.
Palestinian stone-throwing refers to a Palestinian practice of throwing stones at people or property. It is a tactic with both a symbolic and military dimension when used against heavily-armed troops. Proponents, sympathizers, as well as analysts have characterized stone throwing by Palestinians as a form of "limited", "restrained", "non-lethal" violence. The majority of Palestinian youths engaged in the practice appear to regard it as symbolic and non-violent, given the disparity in power and equipment between the Israeli forces and the Palestinian stone-throwers, with many considering it a method of deterring Israeli military forces and civilians from the occupation of Palestinian lands. The state of Israel considers the act to be criminal, on the grounds that it is potentially lethal. In some cases, Israelis have argued that it should be treated as a form of terrorism, or that, in terms of the psychology of those who hurl stones, even in defense or in protest, it is intrinsically aggressive.
Issa Amro is a Palestinian activist based in Hebron, West Bank. He is the co-founder and former coordinator (2007–2018) of the grassroots group Youth Against Settlements. Amro advocates the use nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience to fight the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories. In 2010, he was declared "human rights defender of the year in Palestine" by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights In 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council expressed concern for his wellbeing and safety due to numerous accounts of harassment from Israeli soldiers and settlers and a series of arbitrary arrests. At present, Amro is being indicted by the Israeli military court with 18 charges against him. In May 2017, Bernie Sanders along with three U.S. senators and 32 congressmen wrote to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to urge Israeli authorities to reconsider the charges against Amro.
Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem is a proceeding in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), stemming from a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in December 2022, requesting the Court to render an advisory opinion. In January 2023, the ICJ acknowledged a request from the UNGA for an advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. Public hearings opened on Monday, 19 February 2024 in The Hague with 52 states and three international organizations participating.
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