[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
4 Palestinians Were Arrested: IOF Raids Blacksmith Workshop, Seizes Equipment Near Salfit The Israeli Occupation Forces on Wednesday stormed a Palestinian-owned blacksmith workshop and confiscated its equipment in Kafr al-Dik town, southwest of Salfit, as well as kidnapping a number of Palestinians during overnight raids throughout the West Bank.
Israel Pumps Rainwater Into Gaza Farmland Israeli Occupation Forces pumped huge amounts of rainwater into agricultural lands east of the Gaza Strip, causing planted crops to sink, witnesses said. They said Israeli authorities opened the rainwater collection dams along the border with the Gaza Strip, causing about one thousand dunams of agricultural land planted with wheat, barley, peas, cabbage, and cauliflower to sink.
Israeli Forces Stop Work on Land Rehabilitation Project in Ramallah-area Village The project supervisor, Engineer Fajer 'Atawneh, told WAFA correspondent an Israeli military force stormed the area where the land is being reclaimed and forced project workers to stop working before seizing heavy machinery that was working on the opening of two kilometers of agricultural roads and the rehabilitation of seventy dunams of the village’s land.
Israel Threatens to Kill Nasrallah Over Repeated Warnings to Occupation State Israeli minister of intelligence and foreign affairs, Israel Katz, on Monday threatened that Israel would assassinate Hassan Nasrallah over his repeated warnings to the occupation state.
Domestic Policy
Health Ministry: Five People Died of H1N1 Flu Virus in Palestine Since the Start of Winter Five people have died in Palestine of H1N1 flu virus since the start of the winter season in September, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said today, explaining that this figure is even less than last year’s. The ministry explained that the five had chronic diseases, making death from the virus and its complications more likely.
Birzeit University to Resume Classes After Four Weeks of Interruption - Minister Classes at Birzeit University, the largest university in the West Bank, are expected to resume soon, Minister of Higher Education Mahmoud Abu Mowais said today. The closure resulted from a student council strike after a dispute with the administration over political activities on campus.
Tibi: Joint List Will Not Back Gantz If He Plans to Annex Jordan Valley Arab Member of the Israeli Knesset Ahmed Tibi has pledged that the Arab parties will not back a government coalition led by the Blue and White party if it advances proposals to annex the Jordan Valley.
Report: 34 Palestinians Victims of PA, Israel Revolving Door Arrest Policy At least thirty-four Palestinians were arrested in 2019 as part of the Palestinian Authority’s revolving door security coordination policy which sees Israel arrest Palestinians shortly after they are released by the Palestinian Authority or vice versa, the committee of prisoners’ families announced 8 January.
Foreign Policy
NBC: Israeli Intel Helped US Assassinate Soleimani The Israeli intelligence helped the United States assassinate head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, Major-General Qasem Soleimani, NBC News reported. According to The New York Times, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before Soleimani was assassinated, making Netanyahu the only leader in the region that was informed about the operation.
President Abbas Mourns Omani Leader, Declares Three Days of Mourning President Mahmoud Abbas mourned Oman’s Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, who died on Friday, 10 January. In response, he declared an official three-day mourning period and made a visit to the country.
EU Diplomats Go on a Fact-finding Mission to Issawiya Neighborhood in East Jerusalem European Union Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah yesterday went on a fact-finding mission to Issawiya, a neighborhood in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, to hear from residents and representatives of civil society organizations about unprecedented and continuous incursions and clashes between residents and Israeli police in the neighborhood since May 2019.
US envoy: Next Plan is to Let Israel Annex West Bank US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said yesterday that America’s next step, after recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, is the annexation of the occupied West Bank, Ma’an reported.
Settlers and Illegal Settlements
Girl Run Over By Settler While on Her Way to School A seventeen-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl was run over and injured by an Israeli settler while on her way to school in Keesan village, east of Bethlehem this morning. Yasmine Ghazal was taken to al-Yamamah Hospital in Bethlehem and is being treated for moderate injuries.
Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinian Homes in Nablus Area with Stones On Monday, 13 January, Israeli settlers attacked with stones Palestinian residents’ homes in the village of Madama to the south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, according to a local activist. According to Ghassan Daghlas, in charge of the anti-settlement activity in the northern West Bank, the residents were able to fend off the attack and did not suffer injury.
Settlers Flood Farmlands of Jenin-district Village with Wastewater Mayor of Jalboun Nidal Abu al-Rub told WAFA that settlers from neighboring illegal colonial settlements have been discharging their untreated sewage for several days through Israel’s segregation wall.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Movement
Group Calls For Action to Release UN Database of Businesses Engaged in Israel’s Settlements The Ramallah-based al-Haq human rights organization today called on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to release the long-overdue database of businesses engaged in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.
South Dakota Governor Signs anti-BDS Executive Order On 14 January, South Dakota’s Republican Governor Kristi Noem signed an executive order that prohibits state offices from doing business with companies that boycott Israel. The executive order applies to companies with more than five employees that do business with the state for one hundred thousand dollars.
NY Private School Fires Jewish Teacher For anti-Zionist Statements Today the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that the Fieldston School fired a Jewish history teacher, J.B. Brager, after Brager published anti-Zionist comments. It is the second time in two years that a Jewish history teacher has been forced out of a private New York high school due to anti-Zionist statements.
The Trump Administration is Investigating UCLA Over a pro-Palestine Event And Lecture The move comes just one month after President Trump signed an executive order that effectively allows the government to crack down on pro-Palestine campus organizing. UCLA is reportedly being investigated over their hosting of the 2018 National Students for Justice in Palestine conference as well as hosting a guest lecture by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, who has been repeatedly targeted by “lawfare” efforts by the International Legal Forum.
New Poll Shows Nearly Half of Democratic Voters Familiar with BDS Support It; Most Voters Oppose anti-BDS Measures A new University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll reveals that among those who have heard of BDS, forty-eight percent of Democrats support it. When asked about laws that penalize supporters of BDS, the majority of every political group said they were opposed to them: eighty percent of Democrats, sixty-two percent of Republicans and seventy-six percent of independents.
Law
Israel to Construct New Prisons for Palestinian Inmates Israel has approved a plan to build four new jails in the occupied territories as the regime mounts its arrest campaign against Palestinians. Israel’s Channel 7 said the new prison complexes would fit for four thousand political prisoners and would each include detention centers, a police station and a court.
After 114 Days of Hunger Strike: Israel Sets Release Date For Prisoner Zahran The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leftist movement confirmed a victory for prisoner Ahmad Zahran, who suspended on Monday evening his open hunger strike after reaching an agreement with the Israeli Prisons Service to not renew his administrative detention, and that he will be released on 25 February.
Israeli Cabinet Warns From Secret ICC Arrest Warrants Members of the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet are said to be “profoundly concerned” that the International Criminal Court and may issue secret arrest warrants for Israeli officials it considers suspects. If the International Criminal Court does issue such warrants, high-ranking Israeli officials and army officers may be arrested upon traveling abroad and extradited to The Hague.
Transfer of Palestinian Minors From Prisons a 'violation of law' The Israeli Prison Service transferred at least thirty-three Palestinian child detainees on Monday from Ofer prison to Damoun without the presence of adult representatives. Amina al-Tawil, a researcher at the Palestinian Prisoners' Center for Studies, said the transfer is in violation of the law that states prisoners under the age of eighteen cannot be moved from one prison to another without adult representatives.
Environment, Economy, and Other
Jeopardy!: Church of Nativity clue 'flawed', aired due to 'error' The producers of the US quiz show Jeopardy! have issued a correction to an episode that prompted outrage after a contestant was told she was wrong when she identified Palestine as home to Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
In Zuabi’s ‘Grey Rock’, a Palestinian Rocketman Dreams of Reaching the Moon A new play called Grey Rock, features a Palestinian TV repairman who secretly builds a rocket in his shed to travel to the moon. “The occupation is not frontal, Israelis are a vague presence, and so this piece could get past the censors of the Public as the Freedom Theatre’s production of The Siege failed to do when it was canceled three years ago,” says Philip Weiss. Nevertheless, the play seems to be doing well and is enjoyed as a piece of visionary fiction.