[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
IOF Shot Palestinian Child During Clashes in Kafr Qaddum Israeli Occupation Forces wounded a Palestinian child on Friday in Kafr Qaddum in Qalqiliya City north of the West Bank during the weekly march against the wall and Israeli settlements. Abdul Rahman Yasher Ashtewi, the child who was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet, is in critical condition after being taken to the hospital for treatment.
Israeli Forces Open Fire at Palestinians in Gaza, Injure One Israeli Forces stationed at the borderline to the east of Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip shot and injured a Palestinian citizen today, according to a WAFA correspondent. Additionally, Israeli navy attacked fishermen and their boats as they were sailing six nautical miles off al-Sudaniya area, northwest of Gaza City.
Israeli Forces Breach Gaza Border, Raze Land in Rafah Israeli forces breached the Gaza territory today and razed agricultural lands to the east of Rafah in the south, according to a WAFA correspondent. He said that a number of military vehicles infiltrated about one hundred meters into Palestinian-owned lands near the Gaza borderline, razed land, and built sand barricades along the line amidst intense shooting in the area.
Palestinian Killed by Israeli Fire in Northern Gaza Strip According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, the Israeli army shot twenty-eight-year-old Mahmoud al-Adham at the fence east of the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. Al-Adham died hours later at the Indonesian Hospital in the town of Beit Lahiya from gunshot wounds.
Israel Face-recognition Start-up ‘secretly tracking Palestinians’ According to the article, Anyvision Interactive Technologies “is taking part in two special projects in assisting the Israeli army in the West Bank.” One project “involves a system that it has installed at army checkpoints that thousands of Palestinians pass through each day on their way to work from the West Bank” and the other “more confidential” one allegedly includes “facial recognition technology elsewhere in the West Bank, not just at border crossings."
Domestic Policy
Voting for the 2019 Re-run in Seven Palestinian Local Council Elections Begins The total number of eligible voters reached 29,589 registered in fourteen polling centers, said the CEC. A total 194 candidates in twenty-three electoral lists are competing over seventy-nine local council seats in seven localities in the West Bank, which are: Hizma in the Jerusalem district, Qifeen in Tulkarem district, Qabalan in Nablus, Jayyous in Qalqilya, Kafr al-Deek in Salfit, and Beit Awwa in Hebron district.
Israel's Right-wing Nationalists Target Left-wing Academics The Israeli government has reportedly enlisted its intelligence agency to counteract the Palestinian-led campaign against Israeli oppression. Now some academics who back the movement say they are being targeted in a so-called witch-hunt by right-wing nationalists.
Israeli Minister Calls Intermarriage a ‘second Holocaust’ and Endorses Gay Conversion Therapy Israel’s new Education Minister Rafi Peretz, leader of the far-right Union of Right Wing Parties, caused international uproar when he compared intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews in the United States to a “second Holocaust,” and later expressed his support for gay conversion therapy.
Foreign Policy
Israel Restricting Visas For Academics Visiting Palestine Universities The organizations–The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, better known as Adalah, and al-Haq–today emphasized that Israel regularly denies visas to international academics seeking work at Palestinian universities. One university particularly affected is Birzeit, a prominent institution located near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
PLO Ready to Resume Talks With Washington If It Abides By Peace References Nabil Abu Rudainah, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said today the leadership was completely ready to resume talks with the United States administration if the latter agrees to abide by “the framework of international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.”
Top Dems Imply They’d Pressure Israel to End The Occupation, But None Will Even Commit to Moving the Embassy Back to Tel Aviv Since June, IfNotNow activists have been confronting Democratic candidates on the campaign trail and asking them about the occupation of Palestine. They received confirmation that Warren, Buttigieg, Biden, and O’Rourke portray the occupation as a problem to solve with US pressure, while Booker said, “If that is your issue, I would understand if you want to support somebody else.” However, none of the US Democratic presidential candidates say they’d move the embassy back to Tel Aviv.
Settlers and Illegal Settlements
Palestinian Child Killed in Hit-And-Run by Israeli Settler Sources said that Tareq Zabania, seven years old, was riding his bike when he was run over by an unknown settler who fled to the “Adhoura” settlement after hitting the boy. Israeli ambulances transported the child to a hospital where he was pronounced dead from his injuries. So far, Israeli authorities have not attempted to apprehend those who killed the boy.
UN Investigator: Israel “moving rapidly” Towards West Bank Annexation Israel is “moving rapidly” towards annexing parts of the Palestinian West Bank and tough rhetoric from Israeli politicians could presage a “dramatic” step in the coming months, United Nations investigator Michael Lynk told Mondoweiss.
Israeli Settlements Are a Regular Destination on Birthright Trips For years, Birthright has been taking participants into the occupied territories, usually without their knowledge or consent. “At the end of the day, we Israelis always have been less than truthful about where those lines and boundaries are for tourists,” one former tour operator says.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Movement
Hundreds Set to Cycle Through London And Manchester in Support of Palestinian Rights Hundreds of human rights campaigners from across the United Kingdom are set to take part in The Big Ride for Palestine 2019, an annual event which combines a love of cycling and solidarity with the Palestinian people. The event is supported by a number of campaigning organizations including Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want, Jews for Justice for Palestinians and Campaign Against Arms Trade.
Unite, UK’s Second Largest Union, to Boycott HP In a major victory for the Boycott HP campaign, the second largest British and Irish trade union, with 1.2 million members, Unite the Union, joined the campaign. The Boycott HP campaign and the trade unions concerns’ focus on HP and HPE’s provision of equipment and technology for Israel’s army and police, and for the population database that Israel uses to enforce its system of racial segregation.
Protesters Disrupt World’s Largest Christian Zionist Summit Over Israeli Occupation of Palestine More than one hundred Christian, Jewish, and Muslim protesters chanted slogans and waved banners inside and outside the annual conference of Christians United for Israel, which had CUFI founder John Hagee, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and US Vice President Mike Pence as plenary speakers.
US Education Secretary: BDS Campaign ‘pernicious threat’ on Campuses US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has described the boycott of Israel as a “pernicious threat” on college campuses, speaking at a Justice Department-convened event on anti-Semitism on Monday.
Ilhan Omar Seizes Spotlight to Push pro-BDS Resolution Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is about to drop her resolution which would defend the pro-Palestinian boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel and that may not go over so well with Democratic leadership.
Law
PODCAST: Exposing Israel's Arms Sales to Oppressive Regimes Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack is working to uncover both Israel’s historic ties to brutal military regimes, such as Pinochet’s Chile, as well as its current arms exports to countries carrying out gross violations of human rights, like South Sudan and Myanmar.
Palestinian Detainee Dies While Held in Solitary Confinement in Israeli Prison Nassar Majed Taqatqa, thirty-one, who has been held in solitary confinement in the Israeli prison of Nitzan in Ramleh was declared dead on Tuesday. He was detained by the occupation forces about a month ago in Beit Fajjar and taken for interrogation.
Israeli Policeman Who Killed Black Teen Released on Bail The officer, who was off-duty when he killed the nineteen-year-old Ethiopian Israeli Solomon Teka on 30 June, will be subject to a series of restrictions while the investigation continues. Teka's killing sparked three days of nationwide protests that were often violent over long-standing grievances of Ethiopian Israelis, who say they are discriminated against and targeted by police because they are black.
Court Tells Israeli Municipality It Cannot Use ‘residents only’ Ban to Prevent Palestinians From Attending Local Park Following an international media controversy and intense pressure from Palestinian rights groups, the northern Israeli city of Afula will end its “residents only” ban on its parks. Sunday’s court decision came after Palestinian legal rights NGO Adalah, with support from Israel’s district attorney’s office, filed a petition against the city of Afula for discrimination in preventing the entry of Palestinian residents of surrounding areas.
Environment, Economy, and Other
ARIJ: $270 Million Loss to Palestinians Due to Military Checkpoints in West Bank A study conducted by the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem shows that Palestinians are losing sixty million hours a year due to restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation on movement of citizens between the cities and villages of the occupied West Bank. According to the study, the cost of the loss is estimated at two hundred seventy million dollars per year, as well as the consumption of eighty million liters of additional fuel per year which costs up to one hundred thirty-five million dollars.
Hamas Using WhatsApp to Hack Israel Soldiers According to a statement by an Israeli army spokesperson yesterday, Hamas members have been posing as Israeli soldiers in order to message army personnel and gain access to confidential information. Despite Israeli officials’ earlier claims of Hamas’ lack of cyber capacity, Hamas now reportedly is able to hack cell phones to gain access to information on soldiers posted near the Gaza fence and record audio and video remotely.
50% of Palestinian University Graduates Still Unemployed According to the study by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate among graduates reached fifty percent at the end of 2018, compared to a thirty-one percent overall unemployment rate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.