[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.]
The Occupation Forces
Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian at Occupied West Bank Checkpoint Israeli border police said on Tuesday they shot and killed a suspect who they say attempted to run over a female officer at a checkpoint in the Palestinian village of Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem. Police said the officer was slightly wounded in the incident. Palestinian officials rejected the police's account of the man's death. They identified him as twenty-seven-year-old Ahmad Erekat. "This young man was killed in cold blood. Tonight, was his sister's wedding," said Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Israel Begins Actual Steps on the Ground to Isolate the Jordan Valley in Preparation to Annex It Amin Abu Elia, head of al-Mughayyer village council, told WAFA that the army placed cement blocks at the road that leads from the village to a highway called Allon Road, which leads to the Jordan Valley. Abu Elia said the army has started actual steps on the ground to separate the Jordan Valley from its West Bank environs as part of Israel’s plan to annex the Jordan Valley starting 1 July, as stated by the Israeli prime minister.
Israeli Forces Steal Archaeological Artifacts from Hebron-district Town Israeli forces stole archaeological artifacts from Beit Ummar town on 23 June, located to the north of the West Bank city of Hebron, said a local media activist. Muhammad Awad confirmed that Israeli forces stormed the northeastern part of the town, known as al-Thaghra, where they unearthed and stole a number of Arab and Islamic-era artifacts.
Undercover Israeli Soldiers Kidnap Palestinian Youth Local sources said that Israeli soldiers dressed in civilian attire stormed the western neighborhood of Qabatia, broke into a Palestinian home, and arrested a young man identified as Sulaiman Tazaz’ah. Tazaz’ah was handcuffed, forced into a car, and transferred to an undeclared destination.
Israeli Army Conducts Weapon Testing on Animals The Israeli military secretly conducted hundreds of weapons development experiments on animals, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth reported on Sunday, Anadolu Agency reports. Around one thousand experiments were conducted by the Israeli Defense Ministry on different types of animals during the past three years.
Report: ‘I could not breathe’ says Arab-Israeli Diplomat Beaten by Jerusalem Security Guards An Arab-Israeli diplomat has filed a police complaint claiming he was racially profiled and beaten by security guards at Jerusalem’s central bus station last week, AP reported. According to the piece, Ishmael Khaldi, forty-nine, was travelling home from work when he was stopped and pinned down by security guards. The diplomat, Israel’s first from the Arab Bedouin community, was attacked for filming the checkpoint–even though he had already obtained permission to do so from a guard–and a guard placed his knee on Khaldi’s neck.
Domestic Policy
Governor of Ramallah Orders Lockdown of Village with COVID-19 Cases Laila Ghannam, the governor of Ramallah, ordered on 19 June a full closure of the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid after two cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the village on Friday night. She said preventive medicine crews were mapping potential COVID-19 patients in the village who might have contracted the disease from the aforementioned two patients.
Coronavirus Cases Double in a Week in Occupied West Bank The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the occupied West Bank has more than doubled in a week according to the Palestinian Authority, after warning that a possible second wave of infections could be worse than the first. The Palestinian health ministry on Monday reported one hundred forty-two new infections, "the highest rate in a single day" since the start of the outbreak.
Netanyahu Discusses Annexation Plan with Gantz: Report The Israeli Prime Minister reportedly suggested scenarios that ranged from taking a "purely symbolic step" to annexation of up to thirty percent of the territory–a move Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel's foreign minister, were not receptive to, Turkey's Anadolu Agency reported.
Foreign Policy
Meeting Abbas, Jordan Foreign Minister Warns Against Annexation Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has warned Israel's plan to annex large parts of the occupied Palestinian territories would pose an "unprecedented danger" and have wider consequences for peace in the region. His comments on Thursday came during a visit to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "within the framework of continuous coordination and consultation" between the two sides on the annexation issue.
Foreign Diplomats Join Palestinian Rally of Rage Against Israel Land Grab Bid Thousands of Palestinians have staged a demonstration to express their resentment over Israel’s US-sponsored plot to annex large swathes of the occupied West Bank. The protest rally, which was organized by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, was held in the West Bank city of Jericho. The event was attended by dozens of foreign diplomats, including the United Nations peace envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, the European Union’s representative, Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, as well as British, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Jordanian diplomats.
EU Ramps Up Rewards For Israel’s Crimes Members of the European Parliament are expressing strong opposition to the latest moves by the European Union to ramp up support for Israel even as it charges ahead with plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank–a flagrant violation of international law.
Russia Denies Claim it Saved Israel From UN Resolution to Create Palestine State Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday refuted an Israeli media report claiming that in 2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin saved Israel from a potential United Nations Security Council resolution spearheaded by the administration of former US President Barack Obama that would have forced Israel to setup a Palestinian state based on the 1948 borders.
Netanyahu’s aide: ‘Morsi was the last resistant Arab leader’ Edy Cohen, a close aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, revealed on Thursday that the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi could have been a “disaster for Israel”, hailing current Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted him. This comes several months after a former Israeli general admitted to involvement in the military coup that overthrew Morsi.
US Developing Stronger Military Ties with Israel Cooperation between the United States and Israel on developing defense technology is increasing in order to “establish a US-Israel Operations-Technology Working Group.” The “United States-Israel Military Capability Act of 2020” was introduced last month by US members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Senators Gary Peters and Tom Cotton.
Lack of Israel Unity May Force US to Cancel ‘deal of the century’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides are afraid that US President Donald Trump might cancel the “peace deal” he announced in January as a result of the differences among members of Israeli government coalition.
Kenya Calls on Israel to Respect Unity of Palestinian State’s Land Kenya has called on Israel to respect the unity of the land of the State of Palestine and its inalienable rights, Wafa news agency reported yesterday. In a statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry reported that the Kenyan stance came as part of “continuous political discussions” led by the ministry through the Palestinian embassy in Nairobi.
UN Chief Antonio Guterres Urges Israel to Drop Annexation Plans United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called on Israel to abandon plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, saying such a move would be a "most serious violation of international law". The Security Council meeting, to be held by video conference on 24 June, will be the last major international meeting on the issue before the 1 July deadline.
Settlers and Illegal Settlements
Israeli Settler Pepper-sprays Elderly Palestinian in an East Jerusalem Neighborhood An Israeli settler on 18 June attacked an elderly Palestinian man in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, pepper-spraying him in the face, said witnesses. They said that a settler approached Mohammad Daoud Abbasi and pepper-sprayed him in the face, causing him to suffer burning sensation and temporary blindness.
15-year-old By Left With Bruises, cuts in settler attack south of Bethlehem Ahmad Salah confirmed that Wadi' Fadi Salah, fifteen, was chased and pushed from a high place by a group of Israeli settlers while he was near his house in the Abu Sud neighborhood of the town, close to the Israeli settler-only by-pass Road 60. He sustained bruises and cuts across his body. He was rushed to a hospital in Bethlehem for urgent treatment.
Israeli Settlers Burn Down Dozens of Dunums of Almond Trees North of Nablus Israeli settlers on the evening of 23 June set fire to vast areas of agricultural land in the village of Burqa to the north of Nablus, the occupied West Bank, according to a local official. Ghasan Daghlas, in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, said a group of settlers set fire to dozens of dunums of agricultural land planted with almond trees in the northern eastern part of the village.
Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Movement
Dutch Pension Fund Divests From Two Israeli Banks Over Settlements’ Finances The ABP, the largest pension fund in the Netherlands, has decided to divest from Israeli banks, Hapoalim and Leumi, for their finance of construction projects in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to a statement attributed to the ABP’s spokesperson.
How Palestine Advocates Can Support Black Struggle Kristian Davis Bailey, an influential member of the national Students for Justice in Palestine organization, advocates that one of the best ways for those living in the United States to display solidarity with Palestinians is to support the Black revolution in their own country. His main points include the need to understand that the Black struggle at its core is a five-hundred-year anti-imperialist and anti-colonial struggle for self-determination; that if you live in the United States and are not Black or Indigenous, you must contribute to decolonization; the need to divest from anti-Black racism and invest in Black self-determination; and recognizing that justice for the Black struggle is also about justice for the African diaspora for slavery and colonialism.
UK Jews Demand New Right-wing Israel Ambassador Not be Allowed to Take Office Nearly 1,500 British Jews signed a petition calling on the Boris Johnson government to refuse the appointment of Israeli minister of settlement affairs, Tzipi Hotovely, as Tel Aviv’s ambassador to London because she “has an appalling record of racist and inflammatory behavior.”
Law
Pro-Palestine Group Wins Legal Battle Against MailOnline Over False anti-Semitism Claim Key figures at the center of the anti-Semitism row which rocked the Labor Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn have suffered an embarrassing legal defeat. Two British right-wing newspapers, The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, have been ordered to pay full damages and issue a written apology for publishing “grotesque” allegations about the Palestinian Return Centre. These allegations played key roles in damaging Jeremy Corbyn in the UK general election.
45 days Community Service for Israel Soldier Who Killed Palestinian An Israeli occupation soldier had been sentenced to forty-five days of community service for killing a Palestinian fisherman off the Gaza coast in 2018, Israel Hayom reported on Monday. In what rights groups have said is proof that Israel “protect[s] perpetrators, not their victims.” The sentence came following an army investigation that found the soldier had opened fire at the Palestinian without authorization.
Environment, Economy, and Other
Shashat Woman Cinema Releases 7 Films For Young Palestinian Women Filmmakers Shashat Woman Cinema, a non-governmental organization with a main focus of building the capacity of young Palestinian women filmmakers, has finished producing seven films documenting the diaries of young women filmmakers during the COVID-19 quarantine period, with support and funding from the CFD Foundation.
'1 million Palestinians Face Food Shortages in Gaza' Around one million Palestinian refugees in Gaza face food shortages due to Israel’s continued blockade and slashed global funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, a welfare organization said on Saturday, Anadolu Agency reports.
Palestine Seeks $100M Loan From Arab League Palestine’s Ambassador to Egypt and permanent representative to the Arab League, Diab al-Louh, said Wednesday that Palestinian authorities formally requested the regional group provide a hundred-million-dollar loan, Anadolu reports. “Arab countries bear a national responsibility to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in facing the Israeli and American plans,” he said, expressing hope that “[ Arab countries] will initiate as soon as possible the required financial support,” al-Louh said.
Countries Raise $130 Million for UNRWA And Commit Long-term Support to Palestine Refugees During an extra-ordinary global meeting on UNRWA at ministerial level hosted today by the governments of Sweden and Jordan, seventy-five governments and non-governmental organizations made 130 million dollars in financial commitments to sustain the operations and services of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East.
Weekly Losses of Transportation Sector in Palestine Hit $11 Million The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Transport in a joint press release said that in the aftermath of the state of emergency declared since the date of 25 March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, which completely prevented public transport vehicles for passengers from traveling between governorates and between the centers of cities and towns and villages affiliated to it has caused losses estimated at about eleven million dollars.