[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on Palestine and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Palestine Page co-editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each roundup to Palestine@jadaliyya.com.]
The Occupation Forces
Israeli Forces Detain Youth for Wearing Shirt of Palestinian Flag Israeli police forces detained a Palestinian youth, on Saturday, in Jerusalem City in the central occupied West Bank for wearing a shirt of the Palestinian flag. Witnesses told Ma'an that Israeli forces prevented a Palestinian youth, identified as being from Palestinian lands occupied by Israel in 1948, from entering the al-Aqsa Mosque reportedly for wearing a shirt of the Palestinian flag.
Palestinian Youth Killed by IOF During Clashes in Tubas A Palestinian young man was killed and others were wounded by live bullets, metal bullets, and gas inhalation during clashes with Israeli occupation forces in Tammoun village, south of Tubas, northern West Bank. Medical sources reported that Mohammed Bisharat, twenty-one, was shot in the chest before he was taken to hospital and announced dead there.
Coptic Monks Beaten by Israeli Police at Jerusalem's Church of The Holy Sepulcher Tens of Coptic monks were beaten by Israeli military police on Wednesday during a protest over the contested al-Sultan monastery on the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the head of Jerusalem's Coptic Church told Middle East Eye. The monks were staging a sit-down protest in the plaza of the church in Jerusalem's Old City to oppose Israeli-led restoration works at the site which they say favor Ethiopian monks living in the monastery.
Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian in Hebron After Alleged Stabbing Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian man in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank using an alleged stabbing attempt as pretext for the killing, Palestinian WAFA news agency said. The Palestinian was identified by local media as forty-two-year-old Moammar Arif Refa'ey al-Atrash from Hebron. The Palestinian health ministry said the Israeli military had informed the Palestinian District Coordinating Office of the killing, without formally identifying the victim.
Domestic Policy
HRW: Palestinian Authorities Committed Abuses, Torture Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned the "systematic arbitrary arrests and torture" carried out by the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank and Hamas in Gaza. In a report published on Tuesday, the international rights group demanded the Palestinian governments hold those responsible to account and also called on donors to the Palestinian authorities to suspend aid to the agencies implicated in abuses until action is taken.
Fatah’s Request to Dissolve Legislative Council will Be on Central Council Agenda - Official The request by Fatah’s Revolutionary Council (FRC) to the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) to dissolve the Legislative Council will be discussed as an emergency item on the agenda of the PCC, which will be held on 28 and 29 October, the president of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), Salim Zanoun, said on Monday.
Foreign Policy
Jordan Canceling Annexes of Peace Treaty With Israel, King Abdullah Says Following recent protests, King Abdullah says Jordan will terminate parts of a 1994 treaty that allowed Israeli ownership rights under Jordanian sovereignty in the Naharayim/Baqura area and the Zofar/al-Ghamr area. King Abdullah tweeted, “Our decision is to terminate the Baquoura and Ghamar annexes from the peace treaty out of our keenness to take all decisions that would serve Jordan and Jordanians."
France Urges Israel Not to Demolish Khan al-Ahmar Village France joined several other European countries on Tuesday in calling on Israel not to demolish the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem. French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed in a statement France's deep concern at Israeli plans to demolish the village and displace its Palestinian residents.
Palestine PM meets with Chinese Vice President Prime Minister Dr. Rami al-Hamdallah, on Tuesday met with the Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan and his entourage at his office in Ramallah. Hamdallah stressed the depth of historical and distinguished relations between the Peoples of Republic of China and Palestine. Hamadullah called on China to play an active role in the political process as a permanent member of the Security Council, to support President Abbas’s peace initiative and to hold an international peace conference in which China will be a key sponsor.
UEFA bows to Israel pressure, allows games to be broadcast to settlements The Union of European Football Associations has bowed to Israeli pressure and withdrawn its condition that its football games not be broadcast to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. UEFA had previously told Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) that it could not do so, but withdrew this condition and replaced it with the condition that Kan must broadcast the games with Arabic-language commentary in addition to Hebrew.
Settlers and Illegal Settlements
Israeli settlers steal Palestinian olive harvest in Nablus Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and olive harvesters in the Burin village, in southern Nablus City of the northern occupied West Bank, on Saturday. During the past week, Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian farmer while harvesting his olive trees in the Deir al-Hattab village in Nablus, and other farmers in Burin; settlers also uprooted dozens of olive trees and stole harvest in the Tell village.
Palestinians Fear Widening Highway 60 in South of West Bank Part of Settlement Expansion Plan The Israeli government’s approval on Wednesday of a plan to widen Highway 60 in the part that runs from Jerusalem to Hebron in the south of the West Bank caused Palestinians to fear that in addition to seizing thousands of dunums of Palestinian land, the decision is also part of a larger long term plan to expand Jewish settlements in the Bethlehem and Hebron areas.
Palestinian Family Forced to Leave Its Jerusalem House For Israeli Settlers A Palestinian family of eleven members was forced on Wednesday to leave its house in Silwan, a neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, and hand it over to Jewish settlers. Wadi Hilweh Information Center said Israeli police broke into the apartment of Jawad Abu Sneineh, which is located in a five-story building in Silwan, and removed all his furniture in preparation to turn it over to the settlers.
Report: Israel Manipulates Tourism in Occupied Golan Heights For its Benefit Israel has hijacked and manipulated the tourism industry in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights to benefit itself while harming the local Syrian population, according to a new report by al-Marsad, a Golan-based human rights organization. The report, “Monopolizing the Sites–The Politics of Tourism in the Occupied Syrian Golan,” investigates and analyzes the tourism industry in the occupied Syrian Golan and discusses how Israel exploited these sites for its own benefit at the expense of the local Syrian population.
Revealed: Israel Tax Funded Group Gives Loans to Build Illegal Settlements The World Zionist Organization (WZO) gave dozens of loans to aid the establishment of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a new investigation has revealed. The investigation, conducted by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, uncovered documents which “show a pattern in which settlers have established farms and unauthorized outposts over the past twenty years with loans from the [World Zionist Organization’s] Settlement Division—financed entirely through taxpayers’ money”.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement
Kuwait Excludes Firms Dealing with Israel From Any Oil Work Kuwait Petroleum Corporation has ordered the Kuwait Oil Company to review lists of qualified oil companies which have any kind of relations with Israel, the local al-Rai paper reported. According to the Kuwaiti newspaper, sources said that this requested review would be “difficult” due to the “massive network” among global companies and their offshoots. However, the sources, which were not identified by the Kuwaiti newspaper, stressed that authorities have insisted on implementing this decision. Head of the Office of Boycotting Israel in the Kuwait custom’s department, Walid al-Hammadi, said in August, “We do not allow the entry of Israeli goods into Kuwaiti markets. The Kuwaiti people support this boycott and report any Israeli goods found in the local market.”
30+ NYU Student Groups Pledge Non-cooperation with NYU Tel Aviv Thirty different student groups, including NYU Students for Justice in Palestine, the African Students Union, JVP NYU, and Muslim Student Association, signed a pledge to not participate in or apply to study abroad programs hosted at NYU Tel Aviv. The pledge says “Our participation would render us complicit in the state of Israel’s targeted discrimination against activists and Palestinian and Muslim students.”
European Politicians Lobbied to Declare BDS Tactics Against Israel as anti-Semitic An Israeli-backed conference in Brussels will urge all European parties to define boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) tactics as “fundamentally anti-Semitic.” Ahead of the European elections in May, the conference seeks to convince political hopefuls and parties to sign up to a document that draws “red lines,” including one that declares BDS activities to be anti-Semitic.
How the BDS Movement Convinced ‘Transparent’ Creator Jill Soloway to Shoot in L.A. Instead of Israel Jill Soloway’s new book, She Wants It, opens the doors to the backstory of how a BDS campaign influenced Transparent, a corporate television program in the United States, for the first time. Soloway appeared more willing to have a discussion with BDS activists than some other artists in recent BDS campaigns. The author of this article, Sarah Schulman, spoke with Soloway, who radically changed shooting location to Los Angeles.
Law
Israel Issues 40 Administrative Detention Orders Israeli authorities issued forty administrative detention orders, on Sunday, against a number of Palestinian prisoners held in various Israeli prisons. Palestinian Prisoner's Society confirmed that thirty-two out of the forty administrative detention orders are renewed orders, while the remaining eight detainees received detention orders for the first time.
Israeli Court Rules to Free Jerusalem Governor, Places him Under House Arrest The Israeli District Court in Jerusalem ruled on Monday to release Adnan Ghaith, appointed two months ago by President Mahmoud Abbas as governor of occupied Jerusalem, and to place him under house arrest for seven days, according to his attorney, Mohammad Mahmoud. The charges against him have not been clear as of yet, but appear to deal with his work against the sale of Palestinian-owned property in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter to illegal settlers.
Israel Cuts Hot Water, Family Visits For Female Palestinian Prisoners Israel Prison Service has banned female Palestinian prisoners from family visits and cut hot water supplies after they launched protests against the installation of CCTV cameras in their courtyards. The prisoners in the HaSharon prison have refused to leave their rooms for forty-nine days in protest of Israel’s tightening of surveillance. Many have since complained of harsh treatments in the prison’s medical clinic leading to them deciding to refuse to access care there.
Israel Calls to Cut Palestinian Prisoner Treatment Costs From PA Taxes An Israel parliamentarian committee is discussing a bill which would force the Palestinian Authority to pay the expenses of treating Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails, Quds Press reported yesterday. Reporting the Israel’s Channel 7, Quds Press said that the Welfare Committee in the Israeli Knesset prepared the bill which stipulates that the Palestinian Authority must pay for the treatment of Palestinian prisoners who are wounded during their detention.
Economy, Environment, and Other
Palestinian Photojournalist Wins First Place in French Photo Awards The top photo prize of the twenty-fifth edition of the Bayeux-Calvados-Normandy Award for War Correspondents went to Palestinian photojournalist, Mahmoud Hams. Thirty-eight-year-old Hams won for his picture of Palestinian protester, Saber al-Ashqar, on a wheelchair in the besieged Gaza Strip, preparing to throw a rock using a slingshot at Israeli soldiers on the other side of the border fence with Israel.
Palestinian to co-author Scientific Report on Global Mental Health Dr. Mohammad Herzallah, faculty member, founder and director of the Palestinian Neuroscience Initiative at al-Quds University, was selected among thirty scientists to co-author a comprehensive scientific report as a part of the Lancet's Commission on Global Mental Health.
Report: 32 Palestinians Died From Electricity Cuts in Gaza Since 2010 At least thirty-two Palestinians in Gaza, twenty-five of whom were children, have died in the Gaza Strip since 2010 due to the enclave’s electricity crisis, according to the al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights. The strip has witnessed blackouts and power shortages since the Israeli blockade began in 2006, prompting residents to use fires or fuel generators to stay warm and provide light. However harsh conditions, particularly in the winter when temperatures at night drop below freezing, have prompted several deaths.