Settlers attack Palestinians, Israeli peace activists with impunity

What We’re Reading

Occupation/Human rights

For settlers, there's no reason not to break the law,

How Israeli authorities avoid their duty to indict settlers who build illegally on other people’s land.

Wave of settler violence hits Palestinian villages in West Bank,

Settlers from the radical Yitzhar settlement attack Palestinians in Urif and Huwwara, just one day after Israeli activists were assaulted by masked settlers in the Jordan Valley.

Opinion: Settler attack showcases impunity of Jewish extremists,

In all my years as of activism, I have never seen or experienced such hatred as I did last Friday, when masked settlers attacked a group of Ta’ayush volunteers with clubs and stones.

Evicted Israeli settlers wait and wait for Netanyahu’s promised new home,

The government has proposed resettling the families on a site just outside the Jewish settlement of Shvut Rachel, to what would be the first new Jewish settlement in 20 years.

'Settlement activity banned' in Israel-China construction deal,

A construction deal that will see Chinese construction workers travel to Israel to work on projects will reportedly bar the workers from building in West Bank settlements, at Beijing’s insistence.

Inside Banksy’s West Bank Hotel,

Banksy is now using this symbol of regression [Israel’s separation barrier] against itself, turning it into a spur for people to come see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with their own eyes, and to do so in style.

Plight of Palestinian Refugees Now Spans 5 Generations,

The plight of Palestinians uprooted by Israeli-Arab wars is one of the world’s longest-running refugee crises, and a solution would likely require setting up a state of Palestine that would take in large numbers of them.

Palestinian politics

How Abbas is prepping for expected surge in nationalist sentiment,

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is pinning his hopes on Egyptian and Jordanian pressure on the Trump administration to engage in a two-state solution process within a regional framework.

PA Accuses Israel of Trying to Impede Abbas’ Visit to Washington,

The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of trying to hamper a scheduled visit of President Mahmoud Abbas to Washington, where he is expected to meet with President Donald Trump next month.

Palestinian officials head to US to prepare for Abbas visit,

PLO Secretary General and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat will lead the delegation in a series of high-level meeting with administration officials, including Trump’s son-in-law adviser Jared Kushner and Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt.

Palestinians say Marwan Barghouti’s health ‘dangerously deteriorating’,

According to the Media Committee for the Palestinian Prisoner Hunger Strike, the director of the Kishon Prison in northern Israel has asked Barghouti to get medical treatment. Barghouti has declined the treatment, according the report published by the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa.

Former Palestinian detainees praise hunger strikers, as prison strike continues,

Having dangerous repercussions on the strikers themselves, the strike is a tool used by Palestinians in Israeli prisons as means to cripple Israeli rule over their lives. Former hunger striker Khader Adnan described the hunger strike as “an act of resistance to break the chains of the oppressor, to feel we are in control even when we are chained by them”.

Israeli politics

Poll puts Likud 4 seats ahead of Yesh Atid, though most unhappy with Netanyahu,

Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has reestablished a lead over its centrist rival Yesh Atid, even though most of the public is not satisfied with Netanyahu’s performance as prime minister, a Channel 2 poll found.

Meretz leader hopes Trump can advance peace,

Gal-On clarified that in any kind of final-status agreement with the Palestinians, the settlement blocs will remain part of Israel forever.