[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
Toddler Injured in Gaza Protests Dies of Wounds A four-year-old toddler who was injured on Friday during the border protests between Gaza and Israel died on Tuesday of his wounds, medical sources reported. They said the toddler, Ahmad Abu Abed, was seriously injured when soldiers stationed on the Israeli side of the southern border with Gaza opened fire at protesters in the Khan Younis area.
Israeli Forces Raid al-Quds University Israeli forces raided the al-Quds University, on Wednesday, in Abu Dis village, southeast of the central occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem. Local sources confirmed that a large number of heavily armed Israeli forces raided the campus, ransacking several faculties and offices, causing material damages. Israeli forces searched student bloc offices, damaged the students' personal belongings, and seized surveillance camera recordings.
Israel's Alleged Impersonation of Gaza Aid Workers Raises Concern Since the exposure of Israeli undercover forces by Hamas fighters in the occupied Gaza Strip on 11 November, an incident that triggered the most intense round of escalation since 2014, a number of reports have emerged about the circumstances surrounding Israel's thwarted raid. On 22 November, Hamas published photos of individuals it said were involved, images that Israel's military censor immediately subjected to a publication ban.
Scores of Amputations in Gaza as Israeli Troops Aim at Legs Israeli forces deployed along the fence that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip have fired live rounds at rock-throwing Palestinian protesters ever since demonstrations demanding the right to return began in March. And for eight months, Israeli snipers have targeted one part of the body more than any other—the legs. Still, 175 Palestinians have been shot dead, according to a count by the Associated Press news agency.
New Videos Contradict IDF Claims About West Bank Killing CCTV footage of Israeli soldiers shooting a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Tulkarm last week appears to contradict the army’s claims about the killing. The footage, taken from four separate cameras, appears to show that, unlike the army’s claims, no clashes were taking place at the time of the shooting, no crowd control measures were used, and that the soldiers were not in any danger when they shot Muhammad Habali in the back of the head.
Domestic Policy
International Federation of Journalists Condemns Israeli Raid on WAFA News Agency The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned on Tuesday a raid by Israeli soldiers of the headquarters of the Palestinian news agency WAFA and called for the release of all Palestinian journalists jailed by Israel and an end of persecutions of Palestinian journalists, according to an IFJ statement.
PLO Holds Israel Responsible For Assassination Calls Against Abbas Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi, said in a statement, "We strongly condemn Israeli settler threats and hate language targeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, including the distribution and display of posters calling for the assassination of President Abbas."
Foreign Policy
Germany Contributes €21m For Work to Complete Construction of Nahr el-Bared Refugee Camp Germany contributed twenty-one million euros for completing the final phase in the reconstruction of Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee said on Wednesday.
Palestinian Backlash as Qatar Proposes Airport to Be Built in Gaza Strip Palestinian officials were reportedly concerned over reports that Qatar is aiming to establish a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip; allegations which came following Qatar’s proposal of creating an international airport in Gaza. According to Qatari ambassador, Mohammed al-Emadi, Israel is yet to respond.
Kushner: US ‘Deal of the Century’ to Be Revealed in ‘next couple of months’ Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, has revealed that the Trump administration’s peace plan for Israel and Palestine will be presented in negotiations in ”the next couple of months.” In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, he described the forthcoming deal as one which ”not every side is going to love,” but claims “there is enough in it and enough reasons why people should take it and move forward.”
UNGA Adopts Resolutions on Palestinian Refugees And Israeli Occupation The United Nations General Assembly on Friday adopted four resolutions relating to Palestinian refugees and five resolutions relating to Israel’s illegal practices in occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories. All nine of these resolutions were voted against by Israel and by the United States but were successfully adopted.
UNGA votes against anti-Hamas resolution The United Nations General Assembly failed to pass an anti-Hamas resolution, on Thursday, serving a crushing defeat to both the United States and Israel after weeks of diplomacy. While the draft resolution, which was proposed by outgoing United Nations envoy, Nikki Haley, received eighty-seven votes in favor, it fell short of the two-thirds super-majority needed to pass.
Arab League Warns Brazil Not to Move Embassy to Jerusalem The Arab League, comprising twenty-two member states, told Brazil's right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro that moving Brazil's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would be a setback on relations with Arab countries, in a letter seen by Reuters on Monday. The move planned by Bolsonaro, who takes office on 1 January, would be a sharp turn in Brazilian foreign policy, which has traditionally backed a two-state-solution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Groundbreaking Poll: American Support for One Democratic State Equal to Support For Two State Solution A new poll conducted by Shibley Telhami at the University of Maryland shows unprecedented support among Americans for the one-state solution in Israel/Palestine, and stronger sanctions against Israel for the occupation, as well as growing criticism of the Israeli role in US politics.
Settlers and Illegal Settlements
Christian Groups Invested $65 million to Israeli Settlements Evangelical Christian groups have invested up to sixty-five million dollars in projects in the “Biblical Heartland” over the past decade, however, that does not include services they provide free of charge, such as volunteer laborers, according to a Haaretz investigation.
Israel Minister Tours West Bank Settlements: ‘We are here to win’ Israeli minister Ophir Akunis toured Israeli settlements yesterday and “declared his support” for the annexation of the so-called Gush Etzion settlement “bloc” and “Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] in general,” reported right-wing news outlet Arutz Sheva.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement
30,000 people sign petition not to hold Eurovision in Israel The international campaign, acting in solidarity with Palestinian civil society, has widespread support with over thirty thousand people signing a European-wide petition demanding the Eurovision not be held in Israel. In Ireland, almost fifteen thousand people have signed a separate petition calling on RTÉ and performers to boycott the event, and there is much support among the artistic community, including from former Eurovision winners and presenters.
ACLU warns Congress Anew Against Criminalizing Boycotts of Israel The American Civil Liberties Union has issued a new warning about congressional efforts to pass legislation criminalizing politically motivated boycotts of Israel, amid reports that the bill may be slipped into “the end-of-the-year omnibus spending bill.” The ACLU reaffirmed that it “has long opposed the Israel Anti-Boycott Act through its multiple iterations because the bill would make it a crime to participate in political boycotts protected by the First Amendment.”
Breaking: Temple Will Not Punish Marc Lamont Hill, Issues Condemnation Following a Board of Trustees meeting this afternoon, Temple University President Richard Englert released a statement on behalf of the board, announcing that professor Marc Lamont Hill will not be punished or investigated for his 28 November speech during an event organized with the United Nations.
Law
Twitter Enforcing Israel’s Gag Order on Botched Gaza Operation Twitter is thought to be enforcing Israel’s gag order on details of its botched operation in Gaza, instructing a number of media outlets to remove posts revealing the identity of Israel’s undercover operatives. The Electronic Intifada (EI)–a Chicago-based media outlet which reports on Israel-Palestine–revealed yesterday that it had received a message from Twitter instructing it to delete a tweet linking to a story about Israel’s undercover operation in the besieged Gaza Strip in November.
Israel Railways Dumped Waste on Palestinian Land Israel Railways was taken to task Monday by the country’s Supreme Court “for turning a site near the West Bank settlement of Nili into a dump site in 2011 and not clearing it since.” According to the report in Haaretz, “two of the justices hinted that they would rule against the railroad in the case.”
Israeli Conscientious Objector Sent to Prison for Seventh Time An Israeli Defense Forces disciplinary body sentenced Israeli conscientious objector Adam Rafaelov to ten days in military prison last Friday for his refusal to be conscripted. Rafaelov, eighteen, from Kiryat Motzkin in northern Israel, has been sent to prison seven times since July when he was first sentenced. Upon completing his current sentence, Rafaelov will have served a total of eighty-seven days behind bars.
Environment, Economy, and Other
Gaza Set to Export Strawberries Despite Imposed Siege Palestinian farmers from the Beit Lahiya town in the northern besieged Gaza Strip will be exporting their produce of strawberries to Europe. Deputy Minister of the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture in Gaza, Ibrahim al-Qidra, said that the twelve hundred dunams planted with strawberries produce thirty-six hundred tons.
Tourists in Palestine to Exceed 2.8 Million by End of 2018 The number of tourists and pilgrims who will visit Palestine by the end of 2018 will exceed the 2.8 million mark, according to the Palestinian minister of tourism and antiquities, Rola Maayaa. Maayaa told the Palestinian Authority-owned news agency, Wafa, in an interview, "There is a significant increase in the number of tourists and pilgrims this year compared to 2017," and stressed that the number has "reached 2.7 million until now," and that most hotels are fully booked.
Why Thousands of Palestinian Refugees Are Moving Out of Lebanon Palestinian refugees have been leaving Lebanon for years, either legally or illegally, owing to the dire economic conditions and government regulations that deny them basic rights. Many are trying to reach Europe, specifically Spain, by way of smugglers through South America. Several thousand have made it to Madrid. Unemployment of Palestinian working-age refugees in Lebanon is near twenty percent.
‘Unprecedented’ Decline in Number of American Jews on ‘Birthright’ Trips to Israel There has been a sharp decline in the number of American Jews participating in the “Birthright” trips to Israel this winter, reported Haaretz, describing “a downturn of this magnitude, unrelated to the security situation” as “unprecedented.” Haaretz noted how “recent studies have shown that Jewish millennials, who are largely progressive, feel less connected to Israel than their parents and grandparents because they perceive the country’s policies as antithetical to their values.”
Airbnb is Preventing Palestinian Hosts From Listing Their Homes in the Occupied West Bank Mondoweiss has learned that Airbnb is currently preventing Palestinian hosts from listing their homes in the occupied West Bank. When attempting to list a property for rent in a Palestinian city in the West Bank, users are denied by the website, and given a message saying, “country code is invalid.” But when speaking with an Israeli Airbnb customer representative, the rep told a Mondoweiss reporter that the issue was not with the lack of a formal address for the listing, but that their listing in the city of Bethlehem was not being approved because they were in the West Bank.