[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
‘Devastation and outrage’ After Israeli Forces Destroy Palestinian Homes in Sur Bahir At around 2:15am on Monday, the people’s worst fears came true with the sounds of military jeeps, bulldozers, and heavy machinery rolled into their neighborhood of Wadi al-Hummus, on the outskirts of Sur Bahir, right next to Israel’s separation barrier. By late afternoon local time, Israeli Forces had destroyed ten out of eleven buildings, and had rigged the final building with explosives in preparation for its demolition, local activist Hamada Hamada told Mondoweiss.
MADA Condemns Targeting Journalists by IOF The Palestinian Center for Development & Media Freedoms ”MADA” condemns the continuous Israeli Occupation Forces attacks against female/male journalists in Palestine by using deadly force against them to suppress them and exclude them from the location of events.
IOF Detain 8 Palestinian Teens Celebrating Exam Results in Jerusalem Israeli Occupation Forces have detained eight Palestinians from Jerusalem today, raising the total number of detainees to seventeen. Wadi Hilweh Information Center has confirmed that Israeli police detained eight Palestinian teens, from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, during celebrations throughout the occupied Palestinian territories following the announcement of the official results of Palestine’s secondary school examination.
Israeli Forces Wound Nearly 100 Gazan Protesters Israeli Occupation Forces have attacked Palestinians taking part in the weekly “Great March of Return” rallies, injuring ninety-eight Gazan protesters, according to the Gazan Health Ministry. The Gazan Health Ministry also said that forty-nine of the injured protesters had sustained bullet wounds from Israeli live fire. Four paramedics were also among the wounded.
After Army’s Denial, Rights Group Proves Israel Soldier Shot Child in Head With Live Fire Last week, nine-year-old ‘Abd a-Rahman a-Shteiwi was shot in the head and remains in hospital. B’Tselem noted that, “in its statements to the media, the military denied that soldiers used live fire, and even rejected any responsibility for the incident.” However, the investigation published yesterday “proves a soldier fired live ammunition”, B’Tselem stated, “a direct result of the [military’s] open-fire policy” in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Israeli Forces Seize Tents, Solar Panels From Bethlehem-district Town Deputy Mayor of Nahalin Hani Funoon told WAFA that Israeli Forces stormed the area of Ein Fares and seized solar panels and five tents used for livestock breeding. Israeli Forces have frequently seized irrigation equipment, prevented the construction of agricultural roads and delivered stop construction orders for houses in Nahalin.
Domestic Policy
President Abbas Calls For Urgent Meeting of The Palestinian Leadership President Mahmoud Abbas today called for an urgent meeting of the Palestinian leadership to be held on Thursday evening at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, according to the president's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh. This comes, seemingly, in response to the demolitions in Sur Baher and the continued withholding of funds by Israel.
Erekat: Leadership Decided to Cancel All Agreements With Israel Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the Palestinian leadership decided to put in place mechanisms to cancel all agreements with Israel. Erekat added that President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed Palestine's UN permanent delegate Riyad Mansour to ask for an emergency session of the Security Council in order to begin proceedings in an international court system, as opposed to the Israeli courts.
Netanyahu Becomes Israel's Longest-serving Prime Minister With more than thirteen years at the helm, he has surpassed Israel's “founding father,” David Ben Gurion. Netanyahu has survived scandals, crises and conflicts, winning election after election even though the country is growing more polarized.
Israel to Deduct a Further $198m From PA Tax Revenue A bill passed last year by the Knesset and approved by the Israeli cabinet earlier this year ruled that Israel could deduct 198 million dollars a year from tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to stop prisoners’ stipends. The United Nations warned that the Palestinian Authority could collapse if the US, Australia, and Israel continue to apply financial pressure, cautioning that such moves could push the already cash strapped authority to “breaking point” and cause a complete “system failure” in the occupied West Bank.
Foreign Policy
EU: Israeli Demolition Policy of Palestinian Buildings Illegal in Int’l Law The EU issued a statement in response to Israel’s demolition of buildings in the Sur Baher neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, saying “The majority of the buildings are located in Area A and B of the West Bank where, according to the Oslo Accords, all civil issues are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. Israel’s settlement policy, including actions taken in that context, such as forced transfers, evictions, demolitions and confiscations of homes, is illegal under international law.”
UK House of Commons Condemns Killing of Palestinian Medics in Gaza by IOF The House of Commons released an Early Day Motion entitled “Health Workers in Gaza” on the 15th July condemning the killing of Palestinian medics by Israeli occupation forces in the occupied Gaza Strip. The Early Day Motion has been signed by eleven members of parliament so far, including seven Labor Party members, two members of Plaid Cymru, one member of the Liberal Democrats and one Conservative Party member.
Palestine And Bolivia Sign Development Cooperation Agreement Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki and his Bolivian counterpart Diego Pary Rodríguez signed an agreement on development cooperation. The agreement will include cooperation in various fields of development, including agriculture, health, energy and others.
Palestinian American Running for a US Congress Seat Rashad “Rush” Darwish, a Palestinian American originally from the West Bank village of Bittin and now running for a Democratic seat in the 2020 US congressional election, was endorsed by the Palestinian-American Council in Chicago. He has pledged to “make sure US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is abolished and destroy any entity that separates kids from their families.”
Why Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Are Protesting Thousands of Palestinian refugees protested in and around their camps on Friday to demand that the Lebanese government end its requirement that they must obtain a work permit to gain employment. Critics have claimed that the Ministry of Labor’s recent measures are part of a campaign directed at the larger Syrian refugee population to force them to return home.
Settlers and Illegal Settlements
Israel Won’t Allow Uprooting of Settlements Under Any Deal With Palestine: Netanyahu Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the regime will not evacuate the settlements it has built in defiance of international law on the occupied Palestinian territories under any conflict resolution deal with Palestine. “In any diplomatic plan, I will not allow the uprooting of a single settlement or a single settler, not a single settler,” Netanyahu said.
Israel Gives Green Light For Civilian Aircraft to Overfly Occupied West Bank This new route could expose aircraft to ground fire as they pass over the West Bank and poses a “security risk”, but despite this, the new route was approved by the Israeli army. A former high-ranking official at Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority acknowledged the risk but said that in the event of a plane being fired on while using this flight path, the “gates of hell” would be opened against the Palestinians in the occupied territory.
Israeli Court Acquits Settler Who Justified Killing Soldiers Evicting Settlements Nahum Ariel, twenty-five, wrote: “there isn’t a single prohibition in halakha [Jewish law] against killing a soldier conducting a nighttime eviction”. According to Haaretz, the settler was originally indicted for social media posts he published in 2014, concerning the imperative of resisting evacuation of settlements. The judge, however, this month accepted the defense argument that Ariel’s posts “did not constitute incitement or a criminal insult to a public servant”.
Israel Court Rules Settlers Can Occupy Palestinians’ Hebron Homes The court ruled yesterday that the settlers – who are occupying two Palestinian homes on Hebron’s Al-Shuhadah Street, in the south of the occupied West Bank – can remain in the properties until legal disputes are settled. This is not the first time Israel’s courts have ruled in favor of Hebron’s illegal settlers.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Movement
New Jersey Lawmakers Are Trying to Amend the State’s Discrimination Laws to Equate Criticism of Israel With Antisemitism Lawmakers in New Jersey have introduced an antisemitism bill that would prohibit certain criticism of Israel in public schools and universities. The proposed legislation comes on the heels of similar bills being passed in South Carolina and Florida. Last year, the Department of Education adopted a new definition of antisemitism to include criticism of Israel.
Ilhan Omar Takes Up The BDS Fight, And Conflicted Democrats Moan And Bicker Omar recently introduced a resolution supporting the use of economic boycotts for human rights. While it’s clearly in response to crackdowns on BDS, Omar’s resolution makes no mention of Israel or Palestine. And while condemning the “send her back!” chants at Trump’s rally, many US Democrats have cited several of the same lines of attack against the Squad as those advanced by Trump.
Law
Ashrawi: ICC Prosecutor Must Immediately Launch An Investigation Into Israeli War Crimes The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court must immediately launch an investigation into Israeli war crime of ethnic cleansing, today said Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. This iteration of Ashrawi’s calls on the ICC comes after Israeli demolitions in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher.
Israel Fights to Reinstate Palestinian Poet's Conviction Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour sat in prison for a poem she published on Facebook. After an Israeli court ruled that the poem does not constitute incitement to violence, the prosecution is now appealing the partial reversal of her conviction. The prosecution had initially attempted to prove that Tatour is an influential poet and thus her writing could be deemed a danger, although it now claims that Tatour is not a poet at all, and thus the freedom of expression generally extended to artists should not be taken into account in her case.
Environment, Economy, and Other
Gaza’s Sea Water Desalination Plant Project Completed, Says Official The head of the Water Authority, Mazen Ghoneim, announced today the completion of the sea water desalination plant project in Gaza City. Ghoneim said in a press release that the experimental operation of the station, which has a capacity of producing 10,000 cubic meters per day, will serve more than 200,000 citizens living in Gaza and northern Gaza districts.
Mafar Releases Its Second Musical Album Series “VISA” “VISA – تأشيرة” is based on exposing the audience to an audiovisual experience that includes motion, showcasing a story about a young man and the daily conflicts that the Arab youth experiences in presence of occupation, inequitable governments, social class division, and order of Tarboush’s. The album focuses on political, social, economic, and cultural issues that has been marginalized by the system.
Phase One of Bethlehem’s Industrial City Project to Be Completed At End of Year - Official The first phase of the Bethlehem industrial city project will be completed by the end of this year, Minister of National Economy Khalid Ossaily said on the 23rd. Ossaily stressed the importance of the government program in the construction of industrial zones and cities to develop the national economy and attract foreign investments.
Palestinians Drive Saudi Man Out of Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound A Saudi man visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem as part of an Israeli-sponsored trip has been driven out of the site by Palestinians. Mohammed Saud was recorded on Monday being chased out of the Old City of Jerusalem as Palestinians threw plastic chairs and hurled insults at him, accusing him of being a traitor and a Zionist – likely because of his tweets supporting Netanyahu.
Failed Gaza Operation Topples Senior Israeli Intelligence Officer The failure of the Israeli Special Forces operation in Khan Younis last year continues to plague the leaders of Israel’s army intelligence division, Aman, with the resignation of a senior officer, local media have reported. Yedioth Ahronoth, however, indicated that the intelligence officer “was directly responsible for the results of the failed operation in Khan Younis, which led to the death of Lieutenant Colonel M, who worked under the command of Y, although they held the same rank.”