[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 Air Raids in Gaza Kill Palestinian, Wound Two Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip have killed one person, Palestinian officials have said. The Gaza Ministry of Health said twenty-seven-year-old Ahmed al-Shehri was killed during pre-dawn attacks on Saturday. Two others were wounded in the strikes.
Undercover Israeli Force Kidnaps Teen From Ramallah An undercover Israeli force last night kidnapped a Palestinian teenager after raiding his family home in the village of Beit Liqya, to the west of Ramallah in the West Bank, local sources said. The force reportedly kidnapped the teen, identified as seventeen-year-old Ahmad Saleh Badr, during a raid and search on his family home, and took him to an unknown destination.
Israeli Forces Injure 88 Palestinians at Gaza Border Live bullets or rubber-coated rounds injured at least eighty-eight Palestinians on Friday, 1 November, as Israeli forces attacked dozens of protesters taking part in the weekly Great March of Return at Gaza-Israel border, according to medical sources.
Leaked Footage Shows Israeli Forces Aimlessly Shooting Palestinian Civilian Video footage that has gone viral online showed an Israeli Border Police officer shooting a Palestinian man who was walking away with his back turned toward the officer and his hands up. In the short video, released by Israeli Channel 13, officers can be heard yelling, “run already” at the man, before one of the officers shoots him.
Israel Forces Arrest Researcher For Human Rights NGO B’Tselem Israeli Occupation Forces arrested a researcher for Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem last week on the basis he had photographed a protest against an illegal settlement outpost, reported Haaretz. Arif Daraghmeh, fifty, was detained at the Tayasir checkpoint last Thursday, and released only “late that night.” According to the researcher, the detention was purely “intended to intimidate.”
Domestic Policy
Palestinian Families Fight For Relatives' Remains Held By Israel There are currently more than 250 bodies being held in Israeli morgues and cemeteries, according to the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center. However, a Supreme Court ruling handed down on 9 September declared that Israel now has the legal right to hold on to the bodies of Palestinian suspects.
Gantz Backs Assassinations And Attacks on Gaza The leader of Israel’s Blue and White Party has called for a new round of military offensives against the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, Arab48.com reported on Sunday. Benny Gantz also wants a return to the assassination of Palestinian leaders.
Hamas: It Is Impossible to Talk Directly With Israel Senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu-Marzouq yesterday denied reports that the movement had been in direct contact with Israel to reach a prisoner swap, al-Hayat newspaper reported. “It is impossible to carry out direct talks with Israel,” Abu-Marzouq, who lives in Cairo, said.
Israel May Face Third Election As Chances of New Government Diminish After the failure of the leader of the Blue and White Party to put together a coalition to govern Israel, monitors have said that the country is facing the possibility of a third general election in less than a year. In the view of an anonymous official quoted by Israel Hayom, both the right-wing and thee centrist-left blocs would be harmed by another election, and the idea of a unity government “is dead”.
Foreign Policy
'Punitive': Palestinian Rights Activist Slams Israel's Travel Ban Laith Abu Zeyad, who works as Amnesty's campaigner on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, was stopped by Israeli authorities at the King Hussein/Allenby border crossing on 26 October while on his way to attend a relative's funeral in Jordan. After being held for four hours, he was told he was banned from travelling abroad.
UNRWA Boss Resigns Amid Probe Into Misconduct Claims The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Pierre Krahenbuhl, has resigned effective immediately after the initial findings of an internal investigation found "management issues" that need to be addressed. A confidential internal agency ethics report, first reported on by Al Jazeera in July, accused Krahenbuhl and his "inner circle" of "abuses of authority for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives."
Qatar to Stop Providing Funds, Aid to Gaza in 2020 Qatar may cease its provision of funding and aid to the Gaza Strip in 2020, a report by the Lebanese al-Akhbar newspaper claims. The paper, which is affiliated with Hizballah, quoted Hamas officials who revealed that the Qatari envoy Mohammad al-Emadi had expressed that there would be difficulties in continuing aid in 2020.
US Envoy Meets Netanyahu And Gantz to Save Deal of the Century US presidential adviser Jared Kushner has urged Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of the Blue and White party, Benny Gantz, to form a unity government in order to seize the opportunity to implement the so-called deal of the century. The Times of Israel read from Kushner’s remarks that he appears to discount the possibility of any government that does not include Netanyahu.
Settlers and Illegal Settlements
The EU: All Settlement Activity is Illegal Under International Law The spokesperson of the European Union said, “In October 2019, Israeli authorities approved the advancement of well over two thousand housing units in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.” The European Union’s position on Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territory is clear and remains unchanged: all settlement activity is illegal under international law, and it erodes the viability of the two-state solution.
Settlers Harvest 300 Palestinian-owned Trees in The Olive-picking Season Israeli settlers on Sunday stole olives from the lands of al-Sawiya village south of Nablus in the olive-picking season. Ghassan Daghlas, an organizer against settlements, said farmers from the town of al-Sawiya went to harvest olives in the al-Tamla area, adjacent to the settlement of Rahalim, which was forcibly erected on citizens’ lands. However, they discovered that the fruit of nearly three hundred olive trees has been stolen.
Bethlehem: Israeli Settlers Flood Agricultural Land With Wastewater According to the head of the village council, Diab Masha’leh, the settlers of Beit Ayin, which was forcibly established on the lands of the village, flooded five dunums of agricultural land planted with olive trees with wastewater, owned by Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Loula.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Movement
HRW Official Facing Deportation Due to His Support of BDS The Israeli Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a government decision not to renew the work visa of a Human Rights Watch official who will have to leave the country within twenty days or face deportation, his lawyer said. Israel says that Shakir supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
Adelson-funded Anti-BDS Group Sets Sight on European Campuses A pro-Israel advocacy group funded by notorious right-wing donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson is expanding its operations to European university campuses, reported US-based news site JNS. According to CEO David Brog–formerly of Christians United for Israel–having been active on over one hundred North American campuses, the Maccabee Task Force will now expand into eleven universities in six European countries.
Law
Israel Frees Two Jordanians Held Without Charge Israeli authorities have released two Jordanian citizens who had been detained for two months and returned them to Jordan. Hiba al-Labadi, twenty-four, and Abdul Rahman Miri, twenty-nine, crossed the King Hussein Bridge into Jordan on Wednesday where they were received by family members.
Environment, Economy, and Other
EBRD Addressing Youth Unemployment in West Bank and Gaza The EBRD and its co-investors the Palestine Investment Fund, Semilla de Olivo, and FMO (the Netherlands Development Finance Company) are financing the first Palestinian employment-development impact bond to address high levels of youth unemployment in the West Bank and Gaza.
Twitter Suspends Accounts of Palestinian Quds News Network Twitter has suspended multiple accounts belonging to an independent Palestinian news website considered one of the primary sources of news on Palestine and the Israeli occupation. The suspension of Quds News Network accounts, which have hundreds of thousands of followers, is the latest in a series of actions involving social media sites including Facebook either temporarily or permanently banning Palestinian accounts.