“The Shin Bet internal security agency was reportedly livid at Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday for ordering the release of a Jewish terror suspect from administrative detention on Tuesday — a day after he signed the order to arrest him. Bennett, leader of the right-wing Yamina alliance, canceled the extraordinary measure to detain Eliya Ben David following an outcry by far-right lawmakers and activists. ‘The decision to cancel the detention order, which the minister himself had signed and approved, lends support to extremist activities on the ground,’ Channel 12 news quoted Shin Bet sources saying. ‘They [the extremists] are likely to interpret this as a move meant to weaken the security services’ operations against Jewish terror and to raise the motivation for violent and illegal action,’ they added. The sources warned of a repeat of the 2015 attack in Duma, where three Palestinian members of a family were killed in a firebombing — allegedly by Jewish extremists.”

“The Hebrew University of Jerusalem will award two academic credits to students who volunteer with the right-wing movement Im Tirtzu, despite the institution’s bylaws that determine that organizations recognized as ‘partisan’ or ‘political’ would not be awarded points for social engagement. A spokesperson for the university said the movement had no partisan or political affiliation, and that the credits were given after the movement declared that it focuses on social activities for the needy, elderly and disadvantaged in Jerusalem, including Israeli-Arabs. Meretz leader MK Nitzan Horowitz said in response to the move that, “Im Tirtzu is an extremist right-wing movement, its ‘social’ activity amounts to incitement against leftists and marking ‘traitors from the inside’.”

“Israel’s Civil Administration forbade Palestinian farmers from working their land last month because the area, which they had been farming since the fifties, had been declared an antiquities site during the British Mandate period. The brothers Nader and Rasem Abu Aleiyeh, residents of the West Bank village Al-Mughayyir, which is adjacent to Ramallah, said the Civil Administration confiscated their tractor indefinitely and without any warning, and that as a result they have lost their source of income. They said their family has worked the land since the 1950s and that they were never forbidden from working it….Relatives assert that the administration issued the order under pressure from residents of the adjacent illegal settlement outpost, Malachei Hashalom, which was founded in 2015 on an abandoned military base. Since the outpost was established Palestinian residents of the area have complained of harassment by settlers, including making noise to drive away the shepherds’ flocks, blocking tractors and stealing an archaeological pillar from the site. The Civil Administration responded to an inquiry from the family in a letter to its attorney, Kamer Masharqi, that the brothers are suspected of harming antiquities and that the tractor was confiscated as evidence by the police, and that therefore it could not release the tractor. Masharqi told Haaretz: ‘It’s another method of driving the Palestinians from their lands. Working the land does not harm antiquities, and the state also never made such an allegation. The archaeological claim was only invented after the establishment of the outpost.’”

“To connect the enclaves that make up Kedumim, settlers seized control of a central road serving Palestinians and blocked their access to it…”

“The residents of Jerusalem’s Har Homa neighborhood who organized opposition to the construction of a large commercial and business center at the entrance to their neighborhood never dreamed that their battle would be so short and successful. Less than a week after they began their campaign, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon folded in the face of the not-so-heavy pressure they exerted. Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin (Likud), whose ministry invested 2.5 million shekels ($730,000) in planning the project, decided not to intervene; instead, he let the plan die, despite the severe shortage of job opportunities in East Jerusalem and the fact that the plan was supposed to serve the Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa as well as well as the Palestinian neighborhood of Umm Tuba.”

“The Israeli municipality of Jerusalem demolished today a house belonging to a Palestinian citizen in the occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, under the pretext of being built without an Israeli permit, the house owner said. Iyad Shweiki told WAFA that two days ago, the crews of the Israeli municipality handed him a notice of the demolition order which asked him to evacuate his house, which shelters his family of six.”

“Nearly four years in the making, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday unexpectedly published a list of more than 100 companies that conduct business in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israeli reacted angrily to the publication of the blacklist, denouncing the UN body responsible for compiling it and vowing to protect Israeli financial interests. The Palestinians, meanwhile, celebrated a ‘victory for international law.’ Most of the 112 companies on the list are Israeli, including all major banks, state-owned transportation companies Egged and Israel Railways Corporation, and telecommunications giants Bezeq, HOT and Cellcom. It also lists medium-size companies such as restaurant chain Café Café and Angel bakeries.”

“Jerusalem harshly condemned a United Nations ‘blacklist’ of more than 100 firms operating in the West Bank on Wednesday, with President Reuven Rivlin describing its release as recalling ‘dark periods in our history.’…Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, on the other hand, welcomed the list. ‘The publication of this list of companies and parties working in the settlements is a victory for international law,’ he said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Facebook page. He also urged member states of the UN Human Rights Council to study the list and recommend and instruct the companies cited on it to terminate their operations in the settlements.”

“The wall-to-wall support for West Bank settlements voiced in Israel on Wednesday in response to the UN human rights office’s release of a list of businesses operating in the settlements shows that the annexation everyone is talking about these days has actually happened de facto long ago. Without any dramatic Knesset votes or referendums, and without the need for any favors from the Trump administration, the entire Israeli establishment stood unambiguously on the side of the settlements…the most surprising condemnation came from Amir Peretz, chairman of the ostensibly left-wing Labor-Gesher-Meretz joint ticket…This was an official death certificate for the Zionist left in the face of the annexation that has already happened.”

“Israel is suspending its ties with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday, several hours after the UN body published a list of 112 companies that do business in West Bank settlements. Foreign Minister Israel Katz’s office said he ordered the ‘exceptional and harsh measure’ in retaliation for Michelle Bachelet’s office ‘serving the BDS campaign,’ referring to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. Katz intends to protect the companies operating in Israel, his office stated.”

“Following the release of the United Nations ‘blacklist’ – of more than 100 companies across the globe it said are complicit in violating Palestinian human rights by operating in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria – the Foreign Ministry instructed Israeli consulates in the United States on Wednesday night to reach out to respective governors of states in which the companies mentioned in the UN report are headquartered, and ask them to denounce the initiative.” [Key Netanyahu quote: “In recent years, we have promoted laws in most US states, which determine that strong action is to be taken against whoever tries to boycott Israel.”]

“The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a list of 112 companies on Wednesday that do business in Israeli West Bank settlements, sparking swift negative reactions from the Israeli government, many members of Congress and most mainstream American Jewish organizations.”

“Leading Members of the U.S. Congress from both parties denounced the UN Human Rights Council for publishing a database on Wednesday of companies that operate in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.”

“An emergency meeting of industry representatives from the Barkan Industrial Area was held this morning, Thursday, together with Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan and with the participation of MK Eli Cohen, Minister of Economy. At the meeting, a list of steps to be taken by the Samaria Regional Council together with the industrialists to combat the decision and to assist the factories was decided on. Among other things, the decision was made, together with the industrialists, to file a class action against the UN in accordance with the BDS Law. Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, said “…at the beginning of the week the Samaria Regional Council together with representatives of factories in the Barkan Industrial Zone will file a lawsuit against the boycott of human rights council officials, led by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, as well as against other leftist organizations, and we will demand to receive compensation, as was decided by the Jerusalem District Court under the honorable Judge Yosef Shapiro, that there is no immunity from civil lawsuits and there is no way to hide behind immunity.”

“Former US Envoy Jason Greenblatt spoke on Thursday morning to Galei Tzahal about the UN blacklist of companies that do business in Judea and Samaria. He called the blacklist ‘Outrageous. The fact the UN did it now,’ he said, just after the US revealed its peace plan, ‘shows its true colors.’ He added that by releasing the list, the UN was ‘hurting the chances for peace, doing things that undermine possibility of peace.’Greenblatt urged people to counter the blacklist and ‘Do the opposite. Buy more products from these companies.’”

“The Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday that it will go after companies that are included on the UN Human Rights Council’s list of firms active in West Bank settlements. Hailing the publication of the list, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called for companies to shutter their operations in the settlements. ‘We will pursue the companies listed in the report legally through international legal institutions and through the courts in their countries for their role in violating human rights,’ Shtayyeh was quoted as saying by the PA’s official Wafa news agency. He called for companies operating in the West Bank to immediately close their offices and branches there, saying they violated international law and UN resolutions. ‘We will demand compensation for illegally using our occupied lands and for engaging in economic activity in our lands without submitting to Palestinian laws and paying taxes,’ he added. Shtayyeh also suggested the companies could move to areas controlled by the PA to avoid potential retribution.”

“Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the US administration’s peace plan at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, but said he would be willing to open negotiations with Israel under the patronage of the Quartet and on the basis of international resolutions. ‘I came to all of you today to affirm the Palestinian position which rejects the American-Israeli deal,’ Abbas said at the beginning of his remarks to the Security Council. ‘It legalized what is illegal: settlement building and confiscation and annexation of Palestinian lands,’ he said. ‘I affirm, here, that it is necessary that this deal or any part of it not be considered an international reference for negotiations.’”

“…Abbas’s visit to New York, which ended Tuesday without a vote on a counter-offer to the Trump plan, was ostensibly a ‘failure’ for Abbas. But the 84-year-old leader has largely regained public relevance thanks to the Trump plan. On Tuesday, many thousands took to the streets of Ramallah to express support for Abbas, despite the freezing weather. It is an achievement for the PA leader and his Fatah party, who managed to snap the Palestinian public our of its years-long apathy. Suddenly, Palestinian eyes are again on the Muqata’a, whether Israel likes it or not, and Abbas is again perceived as the leader of the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, the Hamas terror group is continuing to play with fire in Gaza — literally. On Tuesday night it again fired two mortar shells at Israeli border-adjacent communities. It is clear that the preservation of the myth of the ‘resistance’ is serving Hamas.”

“…‘There is an atmosphere of bitter disappointment among the members of the delegation who went to the UN with Abbas,’ the Palestinian source said. ‘The sense is that we are coming back with our tails between our legs. We were caught unprepared, and we didn’t properly assess the American pressure on the members of the Security Council.’ The official added that representatives from almost all of the UNSC member states told the Palestinian delegation that they sympathize with the Palestinian claims, but that the Americans brought all of their weight and influence to bear to strike the draft resolution presented by Tunisia and Indonesia on behalf of the Palestinians.”

“Palestinians overwhelmingly oppose US President Donald Trump’s plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a survey published on Tuesday. Ninety-four percent of Palestinians are against the US initiative and 4% support it, a poll conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found…Sixty-five percent of Palestinians support Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s recent pledge to end all relations with Israel and the US, while 27% oppose it, according to the survey…Sixty-eight percent, however, believe that Abbas will not actually stop security coordination with Israel and 73% maintain he will not roll back relations with the Jewish state to where they stood before the signing of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, the poll indicated…According to the survey,  64% believe Palestinians should respond to the plan by waging a violent uprising.”

“…During Tuesday’s session, representatives from the UN Secretariat, all 15 members of the Security Council, Israel, the ‘State of Palestine’ and the Arab League made statements. ‘If you look at these speeches, they all emphasized, more than was done before, the need to respect existing UN resolutions,’ the Palestinian official said. ‘Every single country told Trump: No, your plan doesn’t work for us. That’s the bottom line.’ Indeed, while most speakers — everyone but Abbas and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit — were careful not to outright criticize the Trump plan, all of them, except for the US and Israel, reiterated their support for the international community’s traditional framework for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.”

“Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir says that US President Donald Trump’s peace plan can be the basis for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. ‘There are positive elements in Trump’s peace plan,’ al-Jubeir says during a visit to Romania. ‘These elements may establish the basis for negotiation between the two sides.’ However, he goes on to say that ‘the Palestinians have rejected this plan and made it clear that it doesn’t meet their requirements,’ stressing that ‘it is our duty to support the Palestinians.’”

“Tunisian President Kais Saied’s first major foray into international affairs appears to have backfired, with his diplomatic strategy called into question over the dismissal of Tunis’ UN envoy. Saied, a 61-year-old constitutional law expert with no previous political experience, swept to victory on October 13 last year. He draped himself in a Palestinian flag on the night of his election and has refused a “normalization” of ties with the Jewish state, repeating strongly anti-Israel positions. But in a sudden twist, Tunisia fired UN envoy Moncef Baati last Friday, accusing him of failing to consult the foreign ministry and other Arab countries on a strongly-worded condemnation of Washington’s controversial Middle East peace plan.”

“Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen, head of the National Security Council Meir Ben Shabbat and the prime minister’s aides have all been working hard in recent days to organize yet another trip to an Arab country for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in advance of the March 2 election. As we recall, about a week ago Netanyahu flew to Uganda and met with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the temporary Sovereignty Council of Sudan and that country’s leader. Topping Netanyahu’s ‘preferred’ list is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. If the efforts succeed and the two conduct a public meeting anywhere in the world at any time, but preferably before the election, there’s no question that it would be the prime minister’s crowning diplomatic and security achievement, and a significant contribution to Israel’s foreign relations.”

“A former senior Qatari official has appeared to indicate that Israel is on track to sign a non-aggression pact with Gulf countries. The tweet by Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, a former Qatari prime minister and foreign minister, comes two weeks after the unveiling of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan and months after Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz confirmed Jerusalem was working on such treaties with Arab countries.”

“If a ‘private’ nonaggression pact is signed between Israel and the Gulf states, it would void the Arab peace initiative and eliminate the only carrot the Arabs still have to advance the peace process. Ostensibly, that carrot didn’t stand any chance of developing in any event, primarily because of Israel’s objections to a withdrawal from the territories and the diplomatic rupture between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. But given the shared Arab position reached at the recent League summit in Cairo, which opposes Trump’s ‘deal of the century,’ it is difficult to foresee even a few of the Gulf states agreeing to sign a nonbelligerence pact with Israel prior to any breakthrough in the process with the Palestinians. Such a move would complete the ‘betrayal’ of the Palestinians. It appears that the Gulf states will wait, just as the people of Israel are, for the Israeli election before making any historic moves that could place Israel in an unprecedented strategic position in the Middle East.”

“…Since Haniyeh’s visit to Tehran, several developments have taken place that observers believe indicate Egyptian anger towards Hamas and deteriorating relations. Last month, Hamas, which governs the besieged Gaza Strip, allowed incendiary balloons to be floated into Israel from the coastal enclave for the first time in months – prompting heavy Israeli bombardment. Yet Egypt, which plays a key role in monitoring the implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza, stayed noticeably clear from any role in de-escalating events. Meanwhile, Cairo also withheld supplies of household gas to the Strip.”

“With Israeli and US assistance, the chairman of Sudan’s sovereign council could become the archetypical compliant dictator of US strategy in the region.”

“MK Moshe Ya’alon, one of the leaders of the Blue and White party, on Wednesday toured the Gush Etzion region with MKs Yoaz Hendel, Zvi Hauser and Orit Farkash-Hacohen as well as Michal Cotler-Wunsh, who is on the Blue and White Knesset slate in the #36 spot. At the conclusion of the tour, Ya’alon said, ‘Our ancestors settled in Gush Etzion a long time ago, and even when we had to leave due to our riots, we renewed the Jewish settlement and returned, 19 years after the founding of the state, to Gush Etzion. It is good to see the bloc blooming. This is Zionism.’ Ya’alon commented on the political situation and said, ‘We will not sit in the government with neither Bibi nor Tibi. The Blue and White party led in the last election and we see the thirst for change on the ground.’”

“Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan party is trying to come up with strategies for how to form a government without the Arab parties’ Joint List. For the past few days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been hammering home the message that Gantz can’t form a government without the Joint List’s support, and therefore wouldn’t be able to annex the Jordan Valley or launch a military operation in the Gaza Strip. His Likud party believes that associating Gantz with the Joint List will thwart his efforts to win over two to three seats’ worth of rightist voters. ‘We’ll apply Israeli law here,’ Netanyahu said during a tour of the valley this week. ‘Gantz won’t. He’s gotten a veto from [MK] Ahmad Tibi, who told him, ‘If you annex, you won’t be prime minister.’ And when Gantz talks about an operation in Gaza, what operation? Ahmad Tibi won’t let him. He’ll veto that, too.’ Kahol Lavan admitted on Wednesday that this is a weakness which makes it harder to woo rightist voters, though it isn’t deterring the party’s existing supporters. That’s why it has recently tried to dissociate itself from the Joint List. ‘The Joint List can’t be part of the government I will form,’ Gantz said Tuesday. ‘My disagreements with its leadership on national and security matters alone are deep, harsh and irreconcilable.’”

“Yisrael Beytenu leader MK Avigdor Liberman on Thursday said he wouldn’t rule out sitting in a government with the leftist Labor-Gesher-Meretz alliance after the coming national elections and appeared to drop his previous demand for a unity government of the Likud and Blue and White parties.”

“Confidants of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have recently been holding talks with the head of the extreme-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in order to safeguard a Knesset majority of 61 MKs for the right-wing bloc in the upcoming March 2 election, a third national ballot in less than one year.”

“Americans who self-identify as Jewish represent a tiny portion of the American electorate. Often discussed as a homogeneous voting bloc, in reality the American Jewish community is defined by its heterogeneity. As a demographic, it includes individuals who, while all self-identifying as Jewish, simultaneously define their identity in terms of a wide spectrum of religious, social, and political beliefs and practices. It is therefore confounding to some that taken as a whole, the American Jewish community, for all its internal divisions and distinctions, has nonetheless long been characterized by remarkably consistent, and by all appearances coherent, voting preferences…”

“Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum called AIPAC a ‘hate group’ on Wednesday, in an unusually harsh attack on the leading lobby group supporting Israel in Washington. McCollum, who has served her St. Paul district since 2001, released a lengthy statement in which she denounced AIPAC for a recent ad that accused Democrats of anti-Semitism…’The decision by AIPAC to use my image in paid Facebook ads weaponizing anti-Semitism to incite followers by attacking me, my colleagues, and my work promoting human rights for Palestinian children detained in Israeli military prisons is hate speech,’ McCollum wrote on Wednesday. She then quoted from the AIPAC petition, which included the following sentence: ‘It’s critical that we protect our Israeli allies especially as they face threats from Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS and – maybe more sinister – right here in the U.S. Congress.’”

“Much has been written arguing that anti-BDS laws violate the First Amendment. Amendment. However, there has been far less focus on the discrimination claim itself. This Note debunks the claim that BDS constitutes legally cognizable discrimination. It argues that antidiscrimination doctrines do not support this claim.”

“The Lawfare Project and Israel Allies Foundation are teaming up to fight implementation of the European Court of Justice’s discriminatory ruling in November that required special labels on Jewish-made products from ‘disputed’ Israeli territories. The Lawfare Project’s international network includes more than 400 lawyers who are passionate about defending the civil rights of the Jewish people. They will work in coordination with the Israel Allies Foundation, whose network includes around 1,000 legislators in 40 pro-Israel parliamentary caucuses in countries around the world.”

“A series of cyber attacks, apparently originating in the Gaza Strip and targeting senior officials of the Palestinian Authority, was revealed Thursday by an Israeli cybersecurity company. According to Cybereason, spyware was inserted into phones in order to surveil the official’s movements, retrieve sensitive files from the smartphones and monitor conversations…The company’s Nocturnus Research Team found clear evidence implicating a group of Gaza based hackers called MoleRATs and also known as “The Gaza Cybergang,” which has been active since 2012. The group is affiliated with Hamas and supported by Iranian cyber units… The PA had in the past hacked the phones of the Hamas leadership both in Gaza and abroad, and both Palestinian factions have released embarrassing recordings and information meant to harm their adversaries. Still, it is not inconceivable that there were more advanced cyber elements behind the attack, who wanted to understand the situation within the Palestinian leadership and were simply hiding behind a Hamas-affiliated cover. Such advanced capabilities could be found at the disposal of state actors such as Russia, China, the U.S. and Israel.”

“In the end, these are cookbooks, intended to be a celebration — of a rich and storied cuisine whose history extends much further than the past seven decades. Some of the writers use their pages to chronicle the current Palestinian plight while others focus on the food and pass over the conflict in silence; both approaches have been criticized. But if to say ‘Palestinian’ is in itself a political act, then each author is, in effect, an advocate. And all are united in the hope of making readers see Palestinians as ‘ordinary human beings with needs and wants,’ as El-Haddad says: as a people like other peoples, whose name can be spoken.”