[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 Police Shoot, Kill Palestinian in Jerusalem And Hold His Body Israeli occupation police forces have shot and killed a Palestinian protester in the occupied East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Health Ministry says. “We were in a peaceful demonstration because they come here every day and fine us, fine our house, our farms, our cars,” said Mahmoud Mahmoud, a resident at Isawiya village, where Israeli occupation forces attacked the Palestinian protesters. Palestinian medical sources said that the martyr was Mohammed Samir Obeid, twenty-one, adding that the Israeli occupation authorities are holding his body.
Palestinians, Including cameraman, Shot And Injured As Israeli Forces Quell March East of Qalqilia Israeli forces shot and injured at least ten Palestinians, including a cameraman and a minor, as they used rubber-coated steel bullets to quelled the weekly and peaceful anti-settlement demonstration in the village of Kufr Qaddoum to the east of Qalqilia.
IOF Demolish Park, Water Wells And Trees in Yatta Nature Reserve Israeli occupation forces, on Wednesday demolished a park and water wells, uprooted trees from a nature reserve in the villages of Khashm al-Daraj and Umm al-Kheir, east of Yatta town, south of Hebron, southern West Bank. The head of the Khashm al-Daraj village council, Ibrahim Eid al-Hathalin said that Israeli occupation forces raided the area and destroyed a children’s park, in addition to water wells, before they uprooted forest trees from the reserve, claiming that it is a “military training” area.
Domestic Policy
Israeli Media Sources Claim Test Rockets Fired From Gaza According to the Israeli “Hadashot 24” site, more than ten experimental rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards the sea, while settlers from the Gaza enclave settlements said they heard explosions in the northern Gaza Strip. “Walla” website claimed that Hamas conducted a test in the last hour towards the sea, saying that the number of rockets in Gaza is increasing, adding that “Israeli policy allows Hamas not only to develop rockets, but to also strengthen them.”
President Says He is Ready To Sever All Ties With Israel If It Keeps Ignoring Agreements President Mahmoud Abbas said today that he is ready to sever all ties with Israel if the latter does not honor the signed agreements. "If Israel does not abide by the agreements, we are going to cancel them all... no matter what will happen," he said answering a question about reports that the Palestinian Authority may collapse.
‘I am against a state of all its citizens’ — Netanyahu’s ‘liberal’ Challenger Declares The Israeli Blue-White opposition co-chair Yair Lapid ventured into dangerous territory on Twitter last week, where he argued for “equality” and a “state of all its citizens.” This brought backlash not least from the foreign minister for being “anti-Semitic” and for using the “slogan of the enemy.” Lapid quickly retracted.
Palestinian Businessman Freed By PA After Bahrain Meeting Arrest The Palestinian Authority's intelligence service had on Saturday detained Salah Abu Mayala, a businessman from the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, a security source told the AFP news agency. Abu Mayala, who is in his seventies and has health problems, was back at home on Sunday, a family source in the occupied southern West Bank city, told AFP. Abu Mayala's family refused to comment on the arrest.
Ethiopian Jews Protest After Israeli Policeman Kills Teen Angry protesters clashed with Israeli police on Tuesday over an off-duty officer's killing of a young man of Ethiopian origin, as the incident drew fresh accusations of racism. Solomon Teka, reportedly eighteen or nineteen, was buried on Tuesday, after he was shot dead in Kiryat Haim, a town near the northern port city of Haifa, late on Sunday.
Israel’s Left-wing Party Meretz Elects New Leader Nitzan Horowitz–a journalist with Israeli daily Haaretz and two-time Knesset Member–was elected as party chair in Meretz’s primaries yesterday. His victory sees him oust previous chairwoman Tamar Zandberg, who led the party in Israel’s last election on 9 April.
Foreign Policy
US and Palestinian Christians Meet; Affirm What Would Make Peace Building on previous gatherings at the Carter Center in Atlanta, in Washington, DC and in Houston, this week’s Churches for Middle East Peace meeting reflected on developments that have contributed to rising tensions and affirmed that a just peace can only be based on equality and rights for all.
CEAPAD Conference Comes in Response to US-led Bahrain Conference, Says PM Prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said the convening of the Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development for the first time in Palestine comes at a sensitive time and in response to the US-led Bahrain workshop.
Far-right Dutch Politician Calls For ‘transfer’ of Palestinians to Jordan Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders has called for the forcible transfer of Palestinians from their homeland to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as an alternative to the US “deal of the century.” Transfer is a well-known Zionist euphemism for forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing. The Dutch politician has a long history of such extreme views.
Border Patrol Is Using “Virtual Wall” Technology Israel Uses in Palestine In 2015, towers had been seen along the US-Mexico border after an investigation by Todd Miller and Gabriel Schivone revealed a new fifty-three-tower security project by Elbit Systems. The first “virtual wall,” known as the “Secure Border Initiative Network,” or SBInet, got awarded to Boeing (with Elbit as a subcontractor) in 2006 under the George W. Bush administration’s “Secure Fence Act.”
Activists Scale Israel Arms Manufacturer Building, Demand End to UK Complicity in Rights Violations Activists from the Manchester Palestine Action network have scaled the roof of the Israeli owned Elbit/Ferranti arms manufacturer in Oldham in protest of UK complicity in Israel’s human rights violations. The group say that over the last five years the UK has raised their arms sales to Israel and are calling for an arms embargo and the closure of all Elbit factories in the United Kingdom.
Settlers and Illegal Settlements
US Officials Participate in Unveiling of Settlers’ Tunnel in Occupied Jerusalem Palestinians are outraged after US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and White House Middle East Envoy Jason Greenblatt participated in the inauguration of a disputed tunnel in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday. The tunnel project, sponsored by the right-wing settler organization Elad, has been under construction for the past eight years, and runs directly under the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, adjacent to the Old City.
US Duty Free Tycoons Fund Israeli Settlements The family that runs Duty-Free Americas donated at least 5.6 million dollars to groups responsible for building illegal settlements in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to a report by the Associated Press Monday, says Anadolu Agency.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Movement
Bernie Sanders Joins Democratic Party Debate Over US Aid to Israel During a 23 June appearance on CBS, Vermont Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders implied that military aid to Israel might only come with conditions if he is elected president. Specifically, he stated that he would say to Israeli leaders: “look you want military aid from the United States you are going to have to treat the Palestinian people and that region with respect that we intend to work with you to do that.”
Mandela’s Grandson Slams pro-Israel Group’s Efforts to Shutter Palestine Event The grandson of iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela has condemned attempts by UK Lawyers for Israel to shut down London’s Palestine Expo event, at which he is slated to speak this weekend. A statement issued today by Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela and the Royal House of Mandela read: “We wish to express our outrage and disgust at the intimidation tactics of the UK Lawyers for Israel. We say to them and all who seek to deny our basic human rights such as freedom of expression–hands off BDS, hands off Palestine Expo.”
US Jewish Organizations Launch Campaign Against Israel Occupation IfNotNow, a Jewish American organization opposed to the Israeli occupation, has been using the American presidential campaigns to spread its call for ending the occupation and achieving a peace that ensures freedom and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians alike, the Anadolu Agency reported.
Israeli Government Minister Takes Credit For 27 U.S. States Passing anti-BDS Laws Gilad Erdan, minister for strategic affairs and information under Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed the Jerusalem Post conference in New York two weeks ago, and bragged that the Israeli government had taken its fights “to the enemy,” and that includes taking credit for anti-BDS laws. “Our efforts are producing results. Twenty-seven US states now have counter-BDS legislation,” he said. Erdan continued by advocating more legislation to counter BDS activity and arguing for the identification of BDS with terrorism.
Law
Israel Punitively Transfers Askalan Prisoners to Other Prisons Last month, Palestinian prisoners held in Asqalan prison started an opened-ended hunger strike in protest of their detention conditions. Israeli Prisons Services Monday morning punitively transferred all Palestinian prisoners from the Israeli prison of Asqalan to other prisons, according to the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission.
Israel Releases Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Police in the early hours of Sunday arrested Fadi al-Hadami at his home in occupied East Jerusalem without explaining why he was being held. Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld told AFP news agency that al-Hadami was detained for "activities in Jerusalem." After his release later on Sunday, al-Hadami's lawyer was quoted as saying by Palestinian news agency Wafa that the arrest was in relation to his client accompanying visiting Chilean President Sebastian Pinera during a visit to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque compound a few days ago.
Lieberman: Religion Cannot Be Separated From State in Israel Israel’s former defense minister and head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party Avigdor Lieberman said yesterday that it was impossible to separate religion from the state in Israel. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Lieberman said: “When we talk about relations between religion and state, I say that religion must be separated from politics in the State of Israel. However, it is impossible to separate religion from the state.”
Environment, Economy, and Other
Church of Nativity No Longer on UNESCO List of Endangered World Heritage The church was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 2012 and placed on its endangered list the same year due to its poor condition as a result of water leakage from the roof, threatening the structural integrity of the building. The committee reached the decision to remove it from the endangered list during a meeting in Baku, mostly due to a request from Palestine following restoration efforts. The restoration was carried out with donations received from all over the world towards the program.