[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 Army Wounds 'iconic' Palestinian Protester Israeli soldiers have shot and wounded a young Palestinian man whose photo has become recognized worldwide as a symbol of Palestinian resistance. After the photo of twenty-two-year-old A’ed Abu Amro with a Palestinian flag in one hand and a slingshot in the other went viral, he was shot in the leg by Occupation snipers during a demonstration on Monday.
10 Palestinians Injured As Gaza's Naval March Continues Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian crowds gathered at the northern borders of the besieged Gaza Strip to take part in the 15th naval march setting off from the Gaza seaport in an attempt to break the nearly twelve-year Israeli siege, on Monday. Local sources reported that Israeli forces injured ten Palestinians, including four injuries with Israeli live ammunition, while several others suffered from tear-gas inhalation.
Israeli Forces Detain 11 Palestinians in West Bank Israeli forces overnight and early Wednesday detained eleven Palestinians, including a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, from multiple West Bank districts, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
Israeli Authorities to Seize 356 Dunums of Palestinian Land in Jordan Valley Israeli authorities Monday notified Palestinians in Khilet Makhoul, a locale in the northern Jordan Valley, of their intentions to seize around three hundred fifty-six dunums of land, according to Aref Daraghmeh, a local activist.
Increasing Israel Attacks on Al-Aqsa, Ibrahimi Mosques Israeli authorities have recently increased their violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, the Palestinian Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs Yousef Edais said yesterday. According to the minister; Israeli occupation forces have committed more than thirty violations and storming of the grounds against Al-Aqsa Mosque and prevented the adhan (call to prayer) at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron more than fifty times in October.
Domestic Policy
Netanyahu Advances Bill Seeking Death Penalty for Palestinians Accused of ‘terrorism’ Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, will renew its debate next week over a bill that would seek the death penalty for Palestinians accused of “terrorism,” after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced their support to advance the bill earlier this week. Netanyahu told Israeli army radio on Monday that the opposition of the country’s security establishment should not stop the bill from being pushed through.
Palestinian Government to Compensate Jerusalem Hospitals for US Cut The Palestinian government decided, on Tuesday, to provide Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem with 12.5 million dollars to compensate for funds the United States had canceled. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said, "It is our national duty towards Jerusalem, its institutions and people," to prevent attempts to bury Jerusalem's identity and the heritage of the city.
Mahmoud Abbas in Egypt 'to discuss Hamas-Fatah reconciliation' Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is due to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Sharm el-Sheikh where they are expected to discuss Palestinian reconciliation and the situation in Gaza. Egypt has recently been involved in efforts to revive the reconciliation process that was signed last October between the two main Palestinian factions, however, the deal has been stalled for months.
Foreign Policy
Brazil's Bolsonaro Wants Israel Embassy Moved to Jerusalem Brazil's extreme right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has told an Israeli newspaper he intends to defy the Palestinians and most of the world by moving his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. "When I was asked during the campaign if I'd do it when I became president, I said 'yes, the one who decides on the capital of Israel is you, not other nations'," he told the Israel Hayom paper, which is a firm backer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hollywood Stars Raise Record $60m For Israel Army Hollywood celebrities raised a record-breaking sixty million dollars for the Israeli military at the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces annual gala last week. This year’s sold-out Western Region event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel welcomed more than twelve hundred supporters of Israel, including prominent actors and singers like Ashton Kutcher, Pharrell Williams, Gerard Butler, and Katharine McPhee.
Qatar Emir Calls on International Community to Stop Israel Violations Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday called for the international community to stop Israel’s “illegal acts” against the Palestinian people, Safa news agency reported. In the opening speech of the Qatari Shura Council, the Emir also called for ending the “oppressive” Israeli siege imposed on Gaza. He also called for halting Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank and resuming peace talks based on international legitimacy, the two-state solution, the right of return and establishing a Palestine state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Saudi Bars Palestinians of Israel from Hajj, Umrah Saudi Arabic will no longer issue Palestinian holders of Israeli passports visas to perform Hajj or Umrah using temporary Jordanian passports, the head of the Palestinian Committee in Jordanian Parliament said yesterday. This comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is normalizing its relations with Israel and follows the banning of Hajj visas to Palestinian refugees who hold temporary Lebanese passports and Palestinian refugees living in Jordan.
U.S. Authorities Accuse Israel of Measles Outbreak in Haredi Communities Cases of measles have been diagnosed in New York and New Jersey, and the N.Y. State Department of Health asserts that first ones were of children who had visited Israel. Media reports are tying the outbreak in Haredi communities in the U.S. to cases of measles in Israel. The reports highlight the lethal case of a toddler who died in Jerusalem over a week ago.
Settlements and Illegal Settlements
Israeli Settlers Dump Sewage on Palestinian School in Qalqiliya Israeli settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Shaare Tikva dumped their sewage into a Palestinian school in the Azzun Atma village in the northern occupied West Bank district of Qalqilia, on Thursday. Azzun Beit Amin School principal Alaa Marabeh said that the school's playground was flooded by sewage, adding that this is the second time in a period of two months that Israeli settlers dump their sewage on the school property.
4-month-old Injured as Israeli Settlers Attack Vehicle in Nablus A four-month-old infant was injured, on late Sunday, after Israeli settlers attacked her parents’ vehicle as they passed by near the illegal Israeli settlement of Havat Gilad, west of the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus. Reports said that Ali Shawahneh, from the Kafr Thulth village, east of the northern West Bank district of Qalqiliya, was heading home along with his family when Israeli settlers attacked their vehicle as they passed near the illegal Havat Gilad settlement. Israeli settlers threw rocks at the vehicle, forcing Shawahneh to suddenly stop, resulting in his infant daughter’s head hitting the glass and leading to her injury.
20 Palestinians injured as 1,000 settlers storm Nablus A thousand Israeli settlers raided the occupied West Bank city of Nablus last night to perform Jewish religious rituals in Joseph’s Tomb in the Balata neighborhood, the Palestinian news agency Wafa Palestinian reported. Israeli occupation forces prevented Palestinians from accessing the area while the settlers were there. Palestinians who attempted to block the roads to stop settlers trespassing were targeted by occupation forces who used live ammunition, rubber bullets, and teargas canisters to disperse them, injuring twenty.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement
NYU Students Move to Divest From Firms Tied to Israeli Occupation Pro-Palestine students have presented a resolution to New York University (NYU) Student Government Assembly, calling on the institution to sever ties with three companies they say are linked to abuses against Palestinians. The motion acknowledges Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric of complicity in human rights abuses against the Palestinian people and calls on NYU to institute a socially responsible investment model. But since New York state has implemented a blacklist on entities that engage in the BDS movement and NYU receives millions of dollars in public grants, the fight will likely be an arduous one.
Spanish City Cancels Israeli Women Water Polo Match The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions activists succeeded on Monday in persuading the Catalonian city of Molins de Rei not to host a scheduled women’s water polo match between Spain and Israel. The match was scheduled to take place on Tuesday afternoon as part of a European championship that serves as a preliminary to the world water-polo league tournament.
Israel’s Diamond Exports Crash as BDS and War Crimes Impact Israel’s gross diamond exports have crashed by a staggering forty-five percent since the 2014 massacre in Gaza. The net value of Israel’s diamond exports has fallen even further, by sixty percent from 11.25 billion dollars to 4.4 billion dollars over the period. This is about the same as the value of Israel’s total arms exports.
Support For Israel 'continues to drop' Among US Liberals, Youth New polling results indicate that key trends identified in recent years show no signs of slowing; Israel's reputation is deteriorating among demographics such as Democrats, younger voters, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans. The fact that the US public's view towards Israel remains positive overall masks an increasingly partisan divide; the Economist/YouGov poll found that only twenty-five percent of Democrat-voters consider Israel an "ally" of the US, compared with fifty-seven percent of Republicans.
Law
‘Worst fear came true’: Israel Detains Young Palestinian Man For 20 Months in Effort to Expel Him to Brazil Maen Abu Hafez, twenty-four, and his friends’ car was stopped by Israeli soldiers at a flying checkpoint on their way home from Tulkarem city to his hometown, Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank. Abu Hafez did not have one and was taken to a detention center and has been held at Givon Prison for twenty months. Abu Hafez was born to a Palestinian refugee father and a Brazilian mother. When his family moved to the Jenin camp, they were refused IDs by the Occupation administration.
Israel Deports Palestinian-American Writer From Ben Gurion The Israeli authorities banned and deported, on Friday night, a Palestinian-American writer and activist entry from the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to attend a literary festival in the occupied West Bank. The Haaretz online newspaper reported that the Israeli Population, Immigration, and Border Authority said that it prevented Susan Abu al-Hawa, an American writer and activist of Palestinian origin, from entering Israel because she reportedly had not arranged her visit. An Israeli judge ordered on Friday that Abu al-Hawa be deported at 10:00 p.m.
Environment, Economy, and Other
Palestinian Educators Arrive For Academic School Year in Kuwait The Palestinian Ambassador to Kuwait, Rami Tahboub, welcomed seventy Palestinian teachers, who were contracted by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education, upon their arrival in Kuwait and wished them success, on Saturday. The seventy Palestinian teachers were the second group to travel to Kuwait after being contracted by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education out of the besieged Gaza Strip for work in the education sector in Kuwait.
Palestinian Exports to be Exempt From Russian Customs Palestine and Russia are expected to sign an agreement, in the near future, exempting Palestinian products exported to Russia from customs, according to the Palestinian ambassador to Russia, on Monday. Abdul Hafiz Noufal, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia, told the Voice of Palestine radio that “Palestinian-Russian relations are making headway forward in various fields, particularly on the political and economic levels.”
Abbas Raises Taxes on Trucks Bringing Goods to Gaza Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday raised taxes paid by truck drivers who transport commodities through the Karm Abu Salem crossing to Gaza, the Private Transportation Association said. Head of the Private Transportation Association in Gaza Nahed Shuhibar said that Abbas increased the levies by eight dollars.