Today (23/11/20) the Jerusalem District Court rejected the Duweik family’s appeal of the Magistrate’s Court ruling of February 2020, which ruled that it must vacate its home in favor of settlers in Batan Al-Hawa in Silwan….Thus, in one week, the appeal of 8 families (five families in Duweik’s house and three families in Odeh and Shweiki’s house) of 45 persons was rejected and the court ordered that they be evicted from the homes they built on land they had legally purchased. The families intend to file a request to appeal at the Supreme Court, a procedure that has a low chances of success, which can take several weeks or months.

The Ateret Cohanim settler organization is waging one of the most comprehensive state-backed settler takeover campaigns in East Jerusalem through initiating mass eviction proceedings against Palestinian families in Batan al-Hawa.  Eighteen families have already lost their homes with over 80 other households facing eviction demands, placing some 600-700 individuals of one community at risk of displacement.

See Also:

• B’Tselem: High Court of Justice paves way for cleansing of Palestinians from Silwan
• Ir Amim and Peace Now: Broken Trust: State Involvement in Private Settlement in Batan Al-Hawa, Silwan

Today we @YeshDin launch a new position paper, Killing Time, focusing on the failure to investigate complaints of death and injury of Palestinians during the Great March of Return protests in Gaza in 2017-2018. The figures we release today relate to the FFA Mechanism, a mechanism set up by the military with the professed aim of speeding up decisions whether to launch investigations into suspected breaches of the laws of war. Despite this official purpose, the mechanism works slowly and inefficiently and, in fact, undermines the possibility of launching such investigations. Consider these figures:

• 234 deaths have so far resulted in only 17 investigations.
• Two years after the Great March of Return protests began, about 80% of the incidents forwarded to the FFA Mechanism for assessment are still under review or investigation. 
• The military ignores cases of injury and simply does not investigate them, even when the injuries result in amputations or cause permanent disability.….

Our ongoing monitoring of the work done by the military’s law enforcement system with respect to the investigation of soldier offenses and its decisions on prosecution repeatedly show that the system gives soldiers near immunity.

• See Also: Killing Time: The slow processing of complaints regarding Gaza Great March of Return casualties and the use of the Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism to thwart prosecution of soldiers // Yesh Din

The High Court of Justice rejected a petition on Monday night to reexamine a military court plea bargain that would give an Israeli soldier three months of community service for the wrongful shooting of two Palestinians, one of whom died, saying it did not have justification to intervene in the case.

According to the Israeli news website i24, soldiers took part in a mock war scenario inside the occupied coastal enclave. Chief of Staff of Israeli Army, Aviv Kochavi, was reported saying that these military exercises were planned several weeks ago.

Some 50 climate activists chained themselves to one another and blocked the access road to the Nahal Raba quarry in the West Bank on Sunday morning, protesting against the advancement of large construction plans in an area home to a unique sustainable ecological system that sits on either side of the border between Israel and the West Bank….The activists are members of the One Climate movement, a group that organizes actions on issues at the nexus between the climate crisis and the Israeli occupation….The quarry, located in the Sha’ar Shomron area, is owned by Hanson Israel, a cement company that is a subsidiary of the German conglomerate HeidelbergCement Group.

• See Also: Eight climate activists arrested in protest against new West Bank industrial zone // +972

An Israeli settler and two teens were indicted on Thursday for attacking Palestinians harvesting their olives near a settlement last month, following which a 72-year-old farmer from the West Bank village of Na’alin suffered a head injury. The three – Nuriel Sharabi from the settlement of Ganei Modi’n and two minors whose names cannot be published – are charged with aggravated assault and violating a legal order. The indictment, filed at the Lod District Court, states that the accused threw large stones at a Palestinian family that was harvesting olives in the wadi near the settlements of Ganei Modi’in and Hashmonaim, in the central West Bank. According to the indictment, they sprayed the harvesters with pepper spray and threw planks at them while yelling, “Sons of bitches, get out of here, go home” and “Leave” in Arabic. The accused also threw stones at a female member of the family who was nearby and sprayed the minors who were with her with pepper gas. One of the accused even grabbed one of the minors and hit him with a wooden plank, hurting his leg.

The Israeli Right has sought to solidify its hold on the West Bank’s Area C through a formal property registration process, which they have pressed the IDF to execute, partly to oppose the Palestinian Authority’s registration of the same territory, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee was told on Monday. “These are the critical years in which the fate of the territory is being determined,” said MK Tzvi Hauser (Derech Eretz), the committee chairman.

Israeli forces Tuesday afternoon cracked down on an anti-annexation protest heading towards Khirbet Humsa al-Fawqa village, southeast of Tubas, in the northern Jordan Valley, injuring dozens. A large Israeli military force violently dispersed the participants of the rally organized against the Israeli occupation authorities’ plan to annex the site of the demolished village and the larger Jordan Valley .Soldiers opened tear gas canisters and concussion grenades on protesters as the latter reached Tayaseer military checkpoint, east of Tubas city, which was closed in advance, causing dozens to suffocate due to inhaling the toxic gas. Four protesters sustained injuries after being directly hit with tear gas canisters in their feet and were treated at the scene. Two others sustained injuries after being struck with tear gas canisters in the head and the abdomen. Both cases were rushed to the hospital. Israeli troops showered journalists with tear gas canisters at the scene as a means to prevent them from covering the events.

Israeli  forces today forcefully expelled over 10 Palestinian families from their houses in the northern Jordan Valley to make room for military drills, according to a local activist. Aref Daraghmeh, a local human rights activist, told WAFA that Israeli forces evicted more than  10  Palestinian families from their homes in al- Burj and al- Mayta villages, citing the need to conduct military drills as a pretext.

Palestine today recorded 1,946 new Covid-19 cases and 17 fatalities, according to Health Minister Mai al-Kaileh. Al-Kaileh announced that 1,946 Palestinians tested positive for the novel coronavirus and 17 others died of it in the occupied territories.

Nearly half – 45 percent – of active coronavirus cases in Israel are in Arab communities, Health Ministry data show, and that number is rising. The figure was cited by the Arab Emergency Committee, an organization established several months ago to curb the spread of the pandemic in the country’s Arab communities. Last week 2,168 new cases were confirmed. These figures do not include mixed (Arab and Jewish) towns, though Arabs are believed to account for many of the cases in these communities too.

The run-up to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has witnessed a flurry of non-routine settlement activity in the occupied territories. These range from a surge in West Bank settlement announcements, to fast-track eviction proceedings against the areas targeted by settlers in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, to a spike in home demolitions. None of this is being done in stealth, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s highly touted visit to a settlement last week would indicate. Everything is happening in broad daylight. It is widely understood that the crescendo is a last-minute attempt by Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Trump, Pompeo, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman to create not only irreversible facts on the ground, but a “new normal” that would enshrine a Greater Israel and an exclusively Israeli Jerusalem.The reality may be more complicated than commonly understood, albeit no less sinister in intent. Nothing discloses this more than the accelerated settlement activities taking place in and around Jerusalem in neighborhoods like Givat Hamatos, Atarot, and E-1….

In this interregnum between the Trump and Biden administrations, the whole world is navigating dangerous and uncharted waters. This applies to Israel-Palestine as well. With the current administration in DC not entirely on the rails, and the upcoming administration powerless to act, much depends on those “responsible adults” in the international community already overburdened with the demands of maintaining the remnants of an international order.

The United States this week rapidly deployed several heavy bombers to the Middle East this week in an apparent threat to Iran, amid swirling speculation that US President Donald Trump plans to take military action against Tehran before President-elect Joe Biden enters office. US Central Command said the planes were sent into the region “to deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies.” In a highly irregular move, the B-52H Stratofortress planes were seen flying toward Israeli airspace on Saturday en route to the base where they will be stationed, likely in Qatar.

Forty progressive Democrats in the US House of Representatives signed a letter last week urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to condemn the Israeli demolition of a wildcat Palestinian village in the West Bank and demanded to know if American-sourced equipment was used in the razing. “This single act was the largest Israeli displacement of Palestinians in four years — behavior only made possible by continued silence from the American government,” the letter spearheaded by Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan reads. “This is a grave humanitarian issue that demands your immediate attention and our collective condemnation.”

• See Also: Pocan et al letter to Pompeo in FMEP Legislative Round-Up: November 20, 2020 // Lara Friedman

Senior Palestinian Authority officials have begun talks with associates of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, according to Western diplomats who heard this from their Palestinian counterparts and associates of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. According to the diplomats, preparations are being made for a phone conversation between the two leaders, after Biden spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Monday.The deputy head of Fatah, Mahmoud Alalul, said Monday that the Palestinian Authority leadership has come to several understandings with Biden’s staff about various decisions made by the Trump administration on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Alalul, a senior PA official who is close to Abbas, told Voice of Palestine radio that the understandings are about the definition of settlement products as made in Israel and the recognition of those born in East Jerusalem as Israelis.

President-elect Joe Biden’s choice of Antony J. Blinken as his secretary of state is being welcomed and praised by Israeli foreign policy veterans on both sides of the political map.

These, then, are the main challenges to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that will confront the incoming Biden administration. It must address: the territorial, political, and economic issues created by Israel’s massive settlement expansion; the consolidation of power by the far right in Israel; the dysfunction that ​has come to define the Palestinian polity; and the lack of trust in Washington’s discredited “go it alone” approach to peacemaking. What follows are some steps the Biden administration could take to begin to set things right. As a first step, it must put muscle behind the Democratic Party platform pledges to oppose Israeli settlement construction and any moves toward annexation (including the “creeping annexation” involved in seizures of Palestinian land and home demolitions). To ensure that the US opposition is seen as credible, the new administration will need to revisit ​the country’s reluctance to hold Israel accountable for any violations. This will inevitably require a reassessment of the platform’s rejection of conditioning US assistance used in any expansionist activities.

President-elect Joe Biden will inherit a Middle East policy that upended international norms and all but buried the two-state solution model. The question now is: What will Biden—whose record on the issue has been guided by the imperative that there be “no daylight” between the US and Israel—do to undo the damage wrought by Donald Trump?

What would this accountability look like? First, countries must condition and ultimately end military funding and arms sales to Israel as a result of its human rights abuses. Second, countries, especially the United States, must end charity tax exemptions offered to its citizens over financial support to illegal Israeli settlements. Third, privileges such as open visas, travel, and trade offered to settlers living on occupied land must be stopped. Fourth, countries must ban products and services produced in illegal settlements within the occupied Palestinian territories—and hold accountable entities that either operate in or have relations with those who operate in occupied territory, such as Airbnb and Psagot wine.

The European Court of Justice has taken a good first step by mandating that products made in settlements and sold within the European Union must be labeled accordingly. Finally, foreign aid must be leveraged to make sure democracy is being respected—and ensure the suffocating political structures of Oslo aren’t reinforced or exacerbated.

Of course, these policies are only a start toward ensuring a more promising future for all. But even a start is a radical shift away from stagnancy. Palestinians understand that the global community cannot deliver them freedom, but it does have the power to choose either to support or impede the Palestinian people in their quest for it.

For Israel, an alliance with the Arab gulf powers provides military might that could be deployed on its behalf in the event of a mutual threat. It also provides, in theory, geographic proximity to Iran to launch any secret incursions that U.S. ships or bases might currently provide. For the Arabs, it ensures that a nuclear-armed power stands behind them should Iran ever obtain a weapon, and establishes a connection with Israel’s vaunted intelligence agencies. A de facto alliance would also reduce dependence on the United States and its domestic political whims, replacing U.S. mediation with direct ties between the nations’ security apparatuses. Abandoning the Palestinians in the face of such concrete advantages is, if artfully done, obviously in the security interest of the Saudis and gulf kingdoms.

• Also See: Israeli prime minister makes historic visit to Saudi Arabia, intelligence official confirms

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had hoped for a breakthrough in normalization talks with Saudi Arabia during Netanyahu’s face-to-face meeting Sunday with Riyadh’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but their hopes were frustrated, Israel’s Channel 12 news reported Monday.

“The Wall Street Journal” reports that Google is laying the groundwork for a fiber-optic network that for the first time will connect Israel and Saudi Arabia, and that will open a new corridor for global Internet traffic, according to sources familiar with the matter….”The Wall Street Journal” said that the background to the Blue Raman project was the diplomatic and commercial agreements recently signed with US mediation between Israel and Persian Gulf states.

During the last year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the question of whether Saudi Arabia would make peace with Israel had come down to a question of when….Unless Trump’s aides can conjure up a way to offer rewards that would be safeguarded when the White House changes leader, Prince Mohammed may decide not to play his hand for now. How normalising ties would affect relations with the incoming administration, and whether doing so may influence Biden on Iran, remain key considerations. Pompeo, a Christian Zionist who sees safeguarding Israel as a divine mission, has a lot to play for in the coming weeks. At face value, the heir to the Saudi throne has much more time – and a lot more to consider. Meanwhile, after a miserable four years in the US tipped the balance of power even further from them, the Palestinian hope is that Biden will somehow stop their slide.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Lord William David Trimble of Northern Ireland for their path-breaking peace deal that opened the door for Israel to normalize ties with its Arab neighbors.The Prime Minister’s Office reported Tuesday on the nomination, noting that Trimble was a recipient of the prize in 1998 for his efforts to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland. fThe office said that in light of Trimble’s standing as a former prize recipient, the Nobel Prize Committee was more likely to discuss the nomination. US President Donald Trump, who brokered the deal, was not nominated.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday morning that he would make an official visit to Bahrain “in the near future.” In a video announcement made available on social media, Netanyahu said that he had a “very friendly” conversation on Monday with Bahraini Crown Prince Salman Hamad bin Khalifa. The conversation focused on strengthening ties between the two countries.

Israelis will be able to start visiting the United Arab Emirates “in another few days,” the Foreign Ministry announced on Monday. The statement said it had reached an agreement with its counterparts in the UAE, but didn’t specify exactly when Israelis will start being allowed into the country….The agreement in question is an interim arrangement under which Israeli airlines will be able to arrange electronic visas for all Israeli passengers on their flights. It will be in force until an official agreement on visa-free travel between the two countries takes effect in about a month.

Egyptian singer and actor Mohamed Ramadan has sparked a social media backlash after his image with two Israeli celebrities in Dubai went viral. In the image, shared by an Arabic-language account affiliated with Israel’s foreign ministry, Ramadan is seen posing with Israeli singer Omer Adam and Emirati influencer Hamad al-Mazrouie during a trip to Dubai. “Art always brings us together,” wrote the official Israeli Twitter account on 21 November, followed by the flags of Egypt, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The images sparked a social media campaign against the Egyptian star, with trending hashtags accusing him of being a “Zionist” and betraying the Palestinian cause by encouraging normalisation with Israel.

Israel sent a first delegation to Sudan to discuss potential economic and humanitarian cooperation on Monday after the countries announced a U.S.-brokered agreement on Oct 23 to take steps toward establishing relations, a source said. The talks focussed on how Israel might shore up Sudan’s agriculture, food security, water supplies and health care, the source, who declined to be identified by name or nationality, told Reuters.

In short, the IHRA definition seeks to make rather banal and soft criticisms of Israel acceptable (eg, policy X failed because of certain unintended consequences, a misreading of the political conditions, etc.) while censoring more serious and necessary critiques (ie, the Palestinian critique of the colonial foundations of the Israeli state and the need to transform them).

Bob Goodfellow, the Interim Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, issued the below statement:

“The Department of State’s targeting of groups advocating for using peaceful means, such as boycotts, to end human rights violations against Palestinians as antisemitic violates freedom of expression and is a gift to those who seek to silence, harass, intimidate and oppress those standing up for human rights around the world. This is simply the latest attack from a US government determined to undermine the universality of human rights and the global fight against racism and discrimination, including antisemitism. Advocating for boycotts, divestment and sanctions is a form of non-violent advocacy and of free expression that must be protected. Advocates of boycotts should be allowed to express their views freely and take forward their campaigns without harassment, threats of prosecution or criminalization, or other measures that violate the right to freedom of expression. Instead of attacking and restricting BDS activities the US should end such measures and instead ensure that BDS advocates are free to express their views and take forward their campaigns without harassment or threats of prosecution. The US administration is following Israeli government’s approach in using false and politically motivated accusations of antisemitism to harm peaceful activists, including human rights defenders, and shield from accountability those responsible for illegal actions that harm people in Israel, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and here at home. The process comes across as particularly hypocritical and deceitful coming from an administration that has emboldened neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other groups who advocate violence and discrimination, shown a callous disregard for international law, and favored Israeli policies that result in institutionalized discrimination and systematic human rights violations against millions of Palestinians.”

These hyperactive NGO campaigns are filled with examples of modern blood libels and whitewashing of terror, including allegations that Israel “stole land” and deliberately kills innocent civilians (including children). For anyone looking beyond the labels of the self-declared guardians of morality, the case for labeling these organizations as systematically anti-Semitic is clear….Precisely because the abuse of human rights to promote hate and discrimination is important to both the Left and the Right, and the evidence is overwhelming, it is important that the State Department’s initiative be joined by both Democratic and Republican Party leaders in the United States, and by Europeans. The demand for serious measures, such as pressing organizations to adopt and implement the IHRA working definition, is not bound by party affiliation.

Even though the Palestinian Authority’s recent decision to resume coordination with Israel is expected to ease the fiscal stress, a large financing gap (deficit after expected grants) of US$760 million is projected for 2020 and additional efforts by the Palestinian Authority, the donor community and Israel remain crucial to secure additional financing, today said a report issued by the World Bank.

Tensions have resurged between Israel and the Hamas movement after the latter accused Israel of failing to implement the truce understandings reached in October 2018, including lifting restrictions on imports for Gaza infrastructure projects. The deadline given by Hamas to Israel to implement the understandings expired on Nov. 1 without Israel making any step forward. Meanwhile, Israeli media reported on Nov. 15 that Qatar refused to commit to Hamas to increase the monthly financial aid it provides to the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority’s decision to resume security coordination with Israel following a six-month suspension may indicate looming fundamental changes in the relationship between the two sides, in which the former is expected to make more concessions to the latter, according to analysts.

As American Jews increasingly enter the Palestinian rights movement, the power dynamics between the two groups often lead to tensions. One activist opens up about the complexities of navigating those dynamics, and what Jews should be doing to center Palestinian voices.