[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.]
Israel Occupation Forces
Israeli Forces Open Fire at School Students in Nablus Israeli soldiers opened live fire and tear-gas bombs targeting Palestinian students who were leaving their school in the northern occupied West Bank village of Tell in Nablus, on Thursday. Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles passing by the main Nablus-Qalqilya road near the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar.
Israel Returns Body of Slain Teen to Family in Jerusalem Sources told Ma’an that Israel returned the body of Abed al-Rahman Abu Jamal, seventeen, to his family at a checkpoint in Jabal al-Muabbir. Israeli forces shot and killed Abu Jamal after he allegedly carried out a stabbing attack inside an Israeli police station in the village, which his family denied and said no video footage existed of the supposed attack.
Israeli Forces Detain 11 Palestinians in Overnight West Bank Raids Israeli forces detained at least eleven Palestinians during overnight raids across the occupied West Bank. According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, there are 5,554 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons.
15 Israeli Military Vehicles Break into Ramallah Israeli Occupation Forces on Wednesday morning broke into the area of Ein Munjed and al-Masyoun in Ramallah, northern West Bank. According to eyewitnesses, about fifteen military vehicles belonging to the occupation stormed the city from Betounia village in the west and were conducting searches and confiscating recordings of shop cameras.
Israeli Warplanes Attack Targets in Gaza Strip Israeli warplanes resumed on Monday air raids on targets in the Gaza Strip causing damage to property but no injuries, according to WAFA correspondent. He said the warplanes fired two missiles at a location northwest of Beit Lahiya in the north of the Gaza Strip destroying it in total and causing damage to homes in its vicinity.
Israeli Forces Target Paramedics at Gaza Protest (Days after ‘NYT’ Publishes ‘war crime’ Report on Killing of a Medic) On Friday evening, 4 January 2019, Israeli forces wounded forty-six civilians, including seven children, four journalists and six paramedics, in an excessive use of force against the peaceful demonstrators in the eastern Gaza Strip. On this Friday, the Israeli forces have increasingly targeted the medical personnel in the field and wounded six of them, including one who was hit with a teargas canister while he was in an ambulance transferring one of those wounded in eastern Rafah City.
Domestic Policy
Al-Haq: Draft Social Security Law by Decree ‘a deterioration in the judiciary system’ Al-Haq, an independent Palestinian human-rights organization, stated its concern in regard to the Draft Law by Decree related to creating a Palestinian Authority’s social security program, “the Committee’s report and Draft Law by Decree vest the executive with over-broad and unconstitutional powers over the judiciary.” Al-Haq confirms that deficiencies in the judiciary and justice system are structural and manmade. These flaws are not intrinsic in the law itself.
President Abbas: The door of Palestine is Closed to America President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Cairo for a three-day visit on 4 January 2019. President Abbas will meet with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The president stressed that the actions of the United States will not “undermine our legitimate right to Jerusalem and will not make us relinquish our national interest. Palestine does not agree to the ‘Deal of the Century,’ which has violated international law. It will not change the fact that East Jerusalem is the capital of our Palestinian state.”
Fatah Official Says Upcoming Leadership Meetings to Define Position on Hamas Dalal Salameh, member of the Central Committee of Fatah movement, said on Sunday that the leadership is going to hold several meetings following President Mahmoud Abbas’ return from his current visit to Egypt to develop a “more precise position and measures on Hamas.” She told official Voice of Palestine radio that the meetings come in the aftermath of the attack and vandalism by five masked assailants of the Gaza offices of the Palestine TV, the official PA TV, last Friday.
Government Says Palestinians with Israeli Citizenship Need Permission to Rent in West Bank The Palestinian government said on Tuesday that Palestinians with Israeli citizenship need to have permission before they can rent in the West Bank. It said, according to a statement issued at the conclusion of the weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah, that this procedure is intended for organizational purposes only and it should not take more than two weeks to give an answer after an application is submitted.
Israel-Arab MK Tibi Splinters Joint List The Joint List has split ahead of Israel’s general election, after Palestinian politician Ahmad Tibi broke away from the four-party coalition. Tibi submitted a request to the Knesset House Committee yesterday asking that he be allowed to break away from the Joint List, a coalition of four Arab-dominated political parties.
Palestinian Legislative Council Votes to End Abbas’ Mandate The Palestinian Legislative Council today overwhelmingly voted to end Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ mandate saying he has lost his constitutional, legal, and national capacity.
Israeli Elections: Netanyahu’s Likud Maintains Lead as Opposition Parties Continue to Fragment Early prediction polls have put Netanyahu in the lead, with his right-wing Likud party expected to gain the most seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. According to Israeli news outlets, as many as fifteen parties forming various coalitions could be throwing their hats in the ring come 9 April.
Foreign Policy
US Ambassador to Israel: ‘deal of the century’ to Be Delayed by Months The US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said on Sunday that the Trump administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan will be released within “the next several months.” “We want to release it a way that gives it the best chance of getting a good reception,” Friedman told the media.
Jordan to Carry Out Aid Projects in Support of Palestinian Refugees The Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation yesterday started carrying out healthcare projects in aid of Palestinian refugees in Jordan, local news agency Petra reported. The aid projects are funded by the National Indonesian Zakat Agency.
Netanyahu Wants US Recognition of Israel Sovereignty Over Golan Heights Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on US National Security Adviser John Bolton to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights in compensation of its withdrawal from Syria, Israeli media reported. According to Quds Press, Netanyahu also brought the Golan Heights up during his meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo which took place in Brazil last week.
Settlers and Illegal Settlements
Report: New Settlement Plan Named (EII) to Besiege Bethlehem Within the context of the settlement plans and the electoral battle, a plan was put forward to build two thousand five hundred settlement units near the Efrat settlement south of Bethlehem in a project called “E-II” that Netanyahu supports in order to get the votes of the Israeli right-wing, and to prevent any development or expansion in the city.
Settlers Uproot Olive, Almond Saplings Near Nablus Illegal Jewish settlers on Sunday uprooted and stole newly planted almond and olive samplings near the small village of Yanoun, to the south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, local sources said. Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities in the area, told WAFA that settlers from the illegal outpost of “777,” accompanied by a bulldozer, uprooted several olive and almond saplings, which belong to Palestinian villagers from Yanoun.
Jewish Terrorism Against Palestinians Tripled in 2018, Says Israeli Media Terror attacks by Israeli Jewish groups against Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories have tripled in 2018 in comparison to the previous year, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday. It said that as of mid-December four hundred eighty-two such incidents had been reported, compared to 140 for 2017.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement
Palestine Solidarity Campaign Wins Right to Go to Supreme Court The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has won the right to challenge the Court of Appeal judgement which upheld the government’s right to restrict Local Government Pension Schemes from divesting contrary to UK foreign and defense policy, thereby limiting the possibility of divestment from companies involved in Israel’s human rights violations.
Anti-BDS Measure Stalled in US Senate But 'will come back' US legislation addressing security policy in the Middle East, including a measure taking aim at boycotts of Israel, failed to clear a key procedural hurdle on Tuesday but politicians say the bills "will come back" after the partial government shutdown ends. The legislation, introduced by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, consolidates four bills that did not make it through Congress last year.
Law
Israeli Court Sentences Palestinian Teen to 11 Years of Prison The Israeli military court of Ofer issued a rule against a Palestinian nineteen-year-old, on Friday, sentencing him to eleven years of prison. Palestinian Prisoners and Former Prisoners' Affairs Committee said that the military court of Ofer sentenced Daoud Manasra, nineteen, to eleven years of prison and imposed a compensation of seventy-three thousand dollars and three more years of prison in lieu of the compensation.
Palestinians Vow Hunger Strikes If Israel Worsens Jail Conditions Hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, detention facilities, and interrogation centers are preparing to launch a mass hunger strike once Israel implements new measures that will worsen conditions for prisoners. In a joint statement, prisoners, including administrative detainees held without charge, said they were responding to a "new level of oppression."
Environment, Economy, and Other
Human Rights Defenders Call on Israel to Stop Spraying Dangerous Herbicides Over Gaza Strip Several human rights organizations called on Israel to stop spraying dangerous herbicides over the Gaza Strip because they endanger health and crops, a press release by Adalah—The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said on Wednesday. According to media reports and accounts from residents, on 4 December the Israeli military sprayed herbicides from the air over areas inside the Gaza Strip and near the fence.
Palestine Draws Against Syria in Its First Football Game in Asia Cup Palestine's first game in the Asia Cup football games against Syria on Sunday at al-Sharjah Stadium in the United Arab Emirates ended in a draw 0-0. The Palestinian team played with ten players in the last twenty minutes of the game after one of its players, Mohammed Saleh, was thrown out of the game after getting a red card.
Rashida Tlaib Wears a Palestinian Dress to be Sworn into Congress And inspires #TweetYourThobe Palestinian-American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from Michigan was sworn into Congress today wearing a traditional embroidered Palestinian dress known as a thobe, inspiring many to post images of themselves and relatives to social media wearing similar dresses. Days before Tlaib was sworn into Congress she announced she planned to wear her thobe, inspiring professor and writer Susan Darraj to start a campaign of women supporting Tlaib’s historic win to represent Michigan’s 13th Congressional district.