NEW FROM FMEP
ICE, Gaza & The Flow of Surveillance Technology to Fuel Repression (Occupied Thoughts episode)
Fellow Peter Beinart interviews researcher and journalist Dr. Sophia Goodfriend on the pernicious flow of repressive surveillance technology between the U.S. and Israel, which is now being seen deployed by Israel in Gaza and by ICE in the U.S.. Goodfriend recently published, ”ICE operations increasingly resemble Israeli occupation. That’s no coincidence” in +972 Magazine.
Upside-Down Love, human rights work, and living in the West Bank (Occupied Thoughts episode)
FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with human rights attorney and writer Sari Bashi about her new memoir, Upside-Down Love: A Memoir in Two Voices, which came out in English in January. Ahmed and Sari discuss Sari’s experience of building and raising her Jewish-Palestinian family in the West Bank and the process of writing and publishing the memoir, which originally came out in Hebrew. They also talk about the moral and individual culpability of Jewish Israelis for genocide/warm crimes, the future of Israel/Palestine, and the state of human rights more broadly.
Forced Displacement & Ethnic Cleansing in the Service of Jewish Supremacy (Occupied Thoughts episode)
FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Myssana Morany, a lawyer and coordinator of the Land and Planning Rights Unit of Adalah, the legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel, and Sarit Michaeli, the International Advocacy Director at the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. They discuss forcible transfer and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and the Naqab/Negev, looking at shared patterns of policy and action that supports Jewish control over land, enacting and entrenching the regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea.
FMEP Legislative Round-Up February 27, 2026 (Lara Friedman)
- Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings & Markups; 4. Selected Members on the Record 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements See also FMEP Legislative Round-Up February 20, 2026 and FMEP Legislative Round-Up February 13, 2026
Settlement & Annexation Report: February 27, 2026 (Kristin McCarthy)
ANNEXATION: U.S. Offers Consular Services in Settlement, More; WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS & OUTPOSTS: Smotrich to “Relocate” Seam Zone Village, New Bypass Road, Outpost Rebuilt Near Mukhmas, Eliyahu Raises Israeli Flag on Jordan Valley Peak, New Outpost Phenomenon Near Barrier, More; SETTLER & STATE TERRORISM: Firey Attack on Masafer Yatta, More; See also Settlement & Annexation Report: February 20, 2026 and Settlement & Annexation Report: February 13, 2026
GAZA
Israel responsible for two-thirds of record 129 press killings in 2025, says CPJ (The Guardian 2/25/26)
“A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed in the course of their work in 2025, two-thirds of them by Israeli forces, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). It was the second consecutive year in which killings of members of the press reached unprecedented levels, and the second year running in which Israel was responsible for roughly two-thirds of the total, the New York-based independent organisation, which documents attacks on journalists worldwide, said in its annual report published on Wednesday. Israeli fire killed 86 journalists last year, the CPJ said, the majority of them Palestinians reporting from Gaza.” See also Dozens of Palestinian journalists beaten, starved or raped, report alleges (The Guardian 2/19/26)
In Gaza, we’re still breaking our fast under the buzzing of drones (Ahmed Dremly//+972 Magazine 2/25/26)
“For the third consecutive year, the holy month of Ramadan arrives in Gaza bearing painful memories of the life we no longer have. A holiday once marked by lively streets, plentiful meals, and easy moments with loved ones now takes place amid streets scarred by bombs and swallowed by darkness. Food and water are scarce, and many of the people we once celebrated with are gone…This year, even after four months of a so-called “ceasefire,” Ramadan in Gaza remains unrecognizable. Israeli forces still dominate the skies over the Strip, carry out intermittent bombings, and push the so-called “Yellow Line” deeper into Gaza day by day. At least 618 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, including nine since the start of the holiday last week. Families struggle to find the basic ingredients for nightly meals, as food entry remains tightly restricted and subject to Israeli approval. What little is available is priced far beyond reach. And the threat hangs in the air: Israel appears terrifyingly close to shattering the ceasefire again, or once more choking off the entry of food, as it did last year.”
Behind the Numbers: The Truth About Gaza’s Death List (Nir Hasson//Haaretz 2/24/26)
“The Gaza Health Ministry’s list of the dead, which Haaretz translated from Arabic with the help of AI and which spans more than 2,000 pages, is a document whose significance is rivaled only by the controversy it has generated. Governments worldwide, along with researchers and human rights organizations, have treated it as the closest thing to an official estimate of the death toll. Israel and conservative researchers, on the other hand, have raised doubts. They have criticized the list, attempted to undermine its credibility and pointed to errors, though these appear negligible. Over time, however, a consensus has taken shape: even if the list has weaknesses, including the fact that it does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, it reflects the scale of the disaster inflicted on Gaza and its people. It also forms the basis for allegations that Israel committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and even genocide…Of the recorded deaths, 20,876, about 30 percent, are young girls, teenage girls and women. Another 3,220 were aged 65 and over, including the final name on the list, Tamam al-Batsh, who was 110 when she died…17,594 were age 16 and under, including 3,150 infants and toddlers (3 and under). 18 were killed within their first 24 hours of life…Those not suspected of being combatants – about half of the dead – make up a much higher share than in any other war in the 21st century.”
Palantir’s AI Is Already Playing a Major Role in Tracking Gaza Aid Deliveries (Drop Site 2/26/26)
“Palantir Technologies has a permanent desk at the U.S.-led Civil Military Coordination Center (CMCC) headquarters in southern Israel, three sources from the diplomatic community inside the CMCC told Drop Site News. According to the sources, the artificial intelligence data analytics giant is providing the technological architecture for tracking the delivery and distribution of aid to Gaza. The presence of Palantir and other corporations—along with recent changes banning non-profits unwilling to give data to Israeli authorities—is creating a situation in which the delivery of aid is taking a backseat to the pursuit of profit, investment, and the training of AI products, experts say…In January 2024, three months into Israel’s war on Gaza, Palantir announced it had entered into a “strategic partnership” with the Israeli military for “war-related missions.”…Palantir did not disclose what technologies would be provided to Israel but a year earlier the company introduced its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) to help militaries rapidly analyze and identify bombing targets. The company’s technology has been described by a Palantir executive as a way of “optimizing the kill chain.”…The use of Palantir to track aid deliveries to Gaza is of particular concern to observers. “The distinction between death by drone and delivery of aid is being evaporated while we all sit around the same table,” a source from the diplomatic community who attends CMCC sessions told Drop Site.” See also ‘No meaningful protection’: Israel’s new Gaza aid rules raise data, security risks (Al Monitor 2/22/26); Israeli Intelligence Agent Charged in Smuggling Goods Into Gaza (NYT 2/26/26);
Israeli Soldiers Killed Gaza Aid Workers at Point Blank Range in 2025 Massacre: Report (Sharif Abdel Kouddous//Drop Site 2/23/26)
“Israeli soldiers fired nearly a thousand bullets during the massacre of 15 Palestinian aid workers in southern Gaza on March 23, 2025—with at least eight shots fired at point blank range—according to a joint investigation by the independent research groups Earshot and Forensic Architecture. The report, based on eyewitness testimony and audio and visual analysis, shows that a number of aid workers were executed and that at least one was shot from as close as one meter away. In Tel al-Sultan that day, Israel killed eight aid workers with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), six from Palestinian Civil Defense, and a UN relief agency staffer. It immediately triggered international condemnation and was described as “one of the darkest moments” of the war by PRCS. The Israeli military was forced to change its story about the ambush several times, following the discovery of the bodies in a mass grave, along with their flattened vehicles, and the emergence of video and audio recordings taken by the aid workers. An internal military inquiry ultimately did not recommend any criminal action against the army units responsible for the incident. The report by Earshot and Forensic Architecture reconstructs, minute by minute, how the massacre unfolded.”
REGION//GLOBAL
Trump ‘not happy’ with Iran situation and says military force is still an option (The Guardian 2/27/26)
“Donald Trump says he has not made a final decision on whether to launch strikes on Iran but is “not happy” with the situation and military force – including regime change – remains an option. The remarks came at the White House on Friday after talks between the US and Iran on Tehran’s nuclear programme ended inconclusively, with a suggestion that further discussions would be held next week.” See also US-Iran nuclear talks end without a deal as threat of war grows (The Guardian 2/26/26); U.S. evacuates Israel embassy staff as Trump’s Iran decision looms (Axios 2/27/26); Amid Iran tensions, Huckabee tells US embassy staff in Israel they should leave ‘TODAY’ if they wish (JTA 2/27/26); Israel Facing Prospect of War With a Depleted Missile Defense (NYT 2/27/26); Trump’s claim on Iranian missile development said unsupported by US intelligence (TOI 2/27/26); Trump advisers scramble to justify US military intervention in Iran (The Guardian 2/27/26)
“This is Not a Dress Rehearsal”: U.S. Engaged in Massive Military Buildup as Threat To Bomb Iran Grows (Drop Site 2/18/26)
“The U.S. military is in the midst of amassing an enormous fleet of aircraft and warships within striking distance of Iran as the region enters the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. It is the largest buildup of firepower in the Middle East since President Donald Trump authorized a 12-day bombing campaign against Iran last June that killed more than 1,000 people.”
Israel, ‘ready’ for Iran escalation, looks to US to take lead (Al Monitor 2/27/26)
“The expected arrival today of the USS Gerald R. Ford in Haifa — the world’s largest aircraft carrier — along with related military buildups over the past 24 hours, has pushed tensions in Israel to their highest level since the mass protests in Iran last month, when Israeli security officials assessed that a US strike on the Islamic Republic was imminent. On the face of it, it appears that the US is preparing for war.” See also U.S. Sent F-22 Fighter Jets to Israel, Official Says (NYT 2/24/26); Despite warnings from Israel’s defense elite, Netanyahu pushes for Iran strike (Al Monitor 2/20/26);
Donald Trump’s Pantomime United Nations (Ishaan Tharoor//New Yorker 2/21/26)
“By the sheer fact that the White House is staking so much on the Board of Peace’s success—Trump told his counterparts on Thursday that it could be “the most important day of our careers”—the board may actually have legs. Phil Gordon, the former national-security adviser to Harris, said, “As absurd as it is, it’s also the only game in town.” This doesn’t bode well for the U.N., or for Gaza, where the Board of Peace’s role remains vague. Figures including the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair hold key positions of authority on the board, but no Palestinian official sits on the top executive rungs of its organizational structure, a fact that led Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, to dismiss the whole enterprise as “a colonialist operation.” A U.S.- and Israeli-vetted Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up, but its head, Ali Shaath, was visibly sidelined during Thursday’s meeting and appears to have been working thus far from Cairo. Meanwhile, Gaza is carved up into one zone under Israeli military control and one where Hamas still holds sway; the bulk of Gaza’s population lives in the latter and is often hit by periodic Israeli strikes on alleged Hamas targets…Israel can live with the status quo, but Palestinians in Gaza cannot. [Michael] Hanna [of the International Crisis Group] told me that if things stay “in this unreconstructed state, then it’s a slow-bleed displacement that happens.” He warned, “In the face of a kind of stark reality where Gazan society has been razed to the ground, people eventually will vote with their feet.”’ See also Troops for Gaza and money top agenda as Trump’s Board of Peace meets (The Guardian 2/19/26); Trump pledges $10 billion for Board of Peace in inaugural meeting on Gaza (Axios 2/19/26); Trump’s Board of Peace debuts: Who’s in, who’s out, who could join next (Axios 2/19/26); Disputes over Hamas disarmament stall Gaza peace plan progress (The Guardian 2/25/26); How did FIFA become part of Trump’s Gaza reconstruction effort? (Al Monitor 2/20/26); Trump officials plan to build 5,000-person military base in Gaza, files show (The Guardian 2/19/26);
Did Mike Huckabee Just Green-Light Israel to Invade Half the Levant? (Yousef Munayyer//TNR 2/26/26)
“But Huckabee’s latest interview with Tucker Carlson, and the statements he made during it, are roiling the region and making it clear to regional players that their very low expectations for the Trump administration were not quite low enough. The row also comes at the intersection of two important contemporary currents: an American military buildup in the region putting it on a collision course with Iran, as well as a growing divide in the American right over support for Israel…Carlson asked Huckabee if the land Israel had a right to was the land God had promised Abraham in the Bible; that is, the land between the Nile and the Euphrates. This territory today includes large chunks of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and of course Palestine. This is when Huckabee said: “It would be fine if [Israel] took it all.”…The reaction from regional capitals to Huckabee’s comments were swift and condemnatory. Multiple countries issued joint statements blasting Huckabee’s comments. This also comes at a time when Israel exercises unprecedented hegemony and power projection throughout the region. It has bombed a record number of regional nation-states in the last two years, taken more territory in Syria and Lebanon, and carried out attacks in Iran and Yemen, all while routinely boasting about its deep infiltration into many of these nations. Huckabee’s comments are dangerous not just because they amount to the U.S. government giving the green light to massive Israeli expansionism but also because they come at a moment when Israel seems more willing and capable than ever to take such steps. The reaction from the White House has largely been to try to sweep this issue under the rug and hope it goes away, instead of issuing a clear denunciation or separation from Huckabee’s views. At worst, that signals to the region and the world that Washington actually shares Huckabee’s vision for a Middle East where Israel takes over several more countries; at best, it signals that Washington’s foreign policy in the region is completely dysfunctional.” See also Trump team on damage control after Huckabee comments on Israel (Politico 2/23/26); Israel has biblical right to the Middle East, Huckabee tells Carlson (Axios 2/20/26);
At least 10 killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, health ministry says (The Guardian 2/20/26)
“At least 10 people have been killed and 24 wounded – including three children – in Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley, the Lebanese health ministry has said. Israel said it had hit “command centres” of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Two security sources told Reuters that the senior Hezbollah leader Hussein Yaghi was killed in the attacks.”
RIVER TO THE SEA
Israel’s Perfect Storm: The West Bank Has Been Sacrificed for Trump’s Gaza Plan (Hagar Shezaf//Haaretz 2/23/26)
“Anyone with eyes knows it’s foolish to think that the annexation of the West Bank will happen through a declaration. The government’s actions are making annexation a reality, and it’s happening now, out in the open…Any attempt to explain Israel’s actions in the West Bank over the past three years will inevitably sound like a laundry list of bureaucratic details, but it’s important to understand the essence what is being done: rapidly transferring land to Israeli state control and preventing Palestinians from accessing it; withdrawing powers and withholding funds from the Palestinian Authority, thereby harming residents who rely on its salaries as a source of income; demolishing Palestinian homes and freezing the demolition of illegal settlement outposts; removing restrictions on land purchases by settlers and removing oversight on potentially fraudulent transactions. There’s more: Israel is changing the control structure in the West Bank and transferring it from military to civilian authorities; placing settlers and far-right figures in key positions; funding and protecting the illegal outposts whose residents are perpetuating ethnic cleansing; dismantling Palestinian refugee camps; and repealing the 2005 disengagement from the northern West Bank. Meanwhile, the military is collectively punishing Palestinian farmers. During the war in Gaza, any remaining separation between the military and the settlers dissolved, the military prosecution increasingly disregarded and failed to prosecute soldiers for their involvement in crimes, and the police permitted violence against Palestinians to escalate at an unprecedented rate. In other words, annexation is occurring in almost every sense except the official one. This gives Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu room for denial and serves the settlers and their representatives in the government.” See also Israeli Settlers Declare New West Bank Settlement Deep Inside Palestinian Hebron (Haaretz 2/22/26); West Bank Mosque Torched in Suspected Settler Attack (Haaretz 2/23/26); 2025 was record year for settlement expansion, construction and planning, NGO finds (TOI 2/25/26); ‘Clear Act of Annexation’: Israel’s New Plan to Claim State Ownership of Palestinian West Bank Land (Matan Golan//Haaretz 2/16/26); Smotrich: Next government should ‘encourage migration’ of West Bank Palestinians (TOI 2/18/26); In Area C, Faster Demolitions Clear the Way for Jewish Expansion (Amira Hass//Haaretz 2/23/26)
Israeli settlers kill 19-year-old Palestinian American, officials and witnesses say (The Guardian 2/20/26)
“Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank shot and killed a Palestinian American man during an attack on a village, the Palestinian health ministry and a witness have said…Abu Siyam’s killing is the latest in a surge in violence in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces and settlers killed 240 Palestinians last year, according to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. Palestinians killed 17 Israelis over the same period, six of whom were soldiers…Abu Siyam’s mother told the Associated Press that he was an American citizen, making him the second Palestinian American person to be killed by Israeli settlers in less than a year…Palestinians and rights groups say authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers or hold them accountable for violence.” See also US avoids condemning settler killing of Palestinian-American in armed West Bank attack (TOI 2/22/26); Two left-wing Israeli activists airlifted to hospital after settlers beat them in West Bank (TOI 2/27/26); ‘They Had Murder in Their Eyes’ Reports: Four Wounded After Israeli Settlers Assault Palestinians, Activists in West Bank (Haaretz 2/27/26); West Bank Dispatch: “Everything is Destroyed” (Maya Rosen//Jewish Currents 2/27/26);
US to offer passport services to citizens in illegal West Bank settlements (The Guardian 2/25/26)
“The US will provide on-site consular services in two Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank for the first time, breaking with previous policy, in a move that has been criticised by Palestinian officials as “a clear violation of international law”…The US embassy in Jerusalem said similar facilities offering consular services would be provided in the coming months in a second Israeli settlement, Beitar Illit, as well as in the Palestinian city of Ramallah and three cities inside Israel.” See also Settlers Drive a Palestinian Family Off Its Land (NYT 2/23/26); Left-wing activists hospitalized following settler attack in West Bank village (JPost 2/27/26); West Bank mosque set on fire, graffitied with ‘revenge’ in apparent settler attack (TOI 2/23/26); Israel’s new separation wall will sever Jordan Valley from rest of West Bank (Oren Ziv//+972 Magazine 2/16/26);
‘Children are inside!’: Palestinian homes, vehicles set on fire in apparent settler attack (TOI 2/25/26)
“Homes and vehicles in the Palestinian village of Susya, in the southern West Bank, were set ablaze on Tuesday night in an attack apparently carried out by extremist Israeli settlers. Footage published by Palestinian media showed several fires burning in the village, and reports indicated that at least four locations had been targeted, including the site of a residential tent and the entrance to a family home with the family inside…Israeli security forces were eventually dispatched to the scene, although the flames had died down by that point, and no arrests were made.”
‘Al-Aqsa is a detonator’: six-decade agreement on prayer at Jerusalem holy site collapses (The Guardian 2/20/26)
“A six-decade agreement governing Muslim and Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site has “collapsed” under pressure from Jewish extremists backed by the Israeli government, experts have warned. A series of arrests of Muslim caretaker staff, bans on access for hundreds of Muslims, and escalating incursions by radical Jewish groups culminated this week in the arrest of an imam of al-Aqsa mosque and an Israeli police raid during evening prayers on the first night of Ramadan. The actions by the Jerusalem police and the Shin Bet internal security force, both now under far-right leadership, represent a rupture in the status quo agreement dating back to the aftermath of the 1967 war, which stipulates that only Muslims are permitted to pray in the sacred compound around the mosque, known as the al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims, which also encompasses the seventh-century Dome of the Rock shrine…Changes in the status quo have historically shown the potential to ignite unrest and conflict in Jerusalem and the Palestinian occupied territories with repercussions across the world.” See also Israel warns of a Ramadan escalation — while doing everything to provoke one (Baker Zoubi//+972 Magazine 2/24/26)
Israel’s arms sales are surging. So why are its weapons expos smaller than ever? (Sahar Vardi//+972 Magazine 2/23/26)
“On the one hand, some two dozen countries have announced that they will halt or restrict arms trade with Israel. In the past year, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines have all canceled deals already signed with Israeli companies, apparently due to political pressure. On the other hand, Israeli defense exports rose from $12.5 billion in 2022 to $14.7 billion in 2024 — and although figures for 2025 have not yet been published, this number is expected to continue rising. According to The Database of Israeli Military and Security Exports (DIMSE), a project by the Israeli anti-militarism movement New Profile, the majority of these exports (accounting for 54 percent of the total) are to European countries; in the past year alone, Germany signed procurement agreements for Israeli weapons systems worth €7 billion. In other words, while major arms exhibitions are shrinking and foreign guests are not arriving, sales of weapons systems used in the genocide in Gaza are skyrocketing. While Israel is increasingly seen as a pariah and boycotted around the world, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange recently launched a new index of Israeli defense companies.” See also When Israeli Arms Merchants Boast of Gaza Serving as a Lab for Human Testing (Sapir Sluzker Amran//Haaretz 2/24/26); 59 Homicides in 2026: Man Fatally Shot in Arab Israeli Town Reineh (Haaretz 2/26/26); Fueled by festering crime wave, Kafr Kanna family feud erupts into all-out war (TOI 2/25/26); A killing a day: How a crime epidemic is spotlighting inequality in Israeli society (CNN 2/14/26);
Israel’s Restrictions on Medical Evacuations from Gaza and the West Bank (Yara M. Asi//Arab Center DC 2/25/26)
“For Palestinians in Gaza, where nearly all infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli bombs, receiving medical care is a largely hopeless prospect. Thousands of people needing cancer care, surgeries, and other complex procedures face multiple barriers keeping them from treatment. With Israel’s unprecedented physical and administrative control over how, where, and when Palestinians can move within, to, and from their territories, the dispossession of Palestinians from their rights has hit a new peak.” See also Israeli court blocks life-saving cancer care for boy, 5, due to his Gaza address (The Guardian 2/10/26)
U.S. SCENE
America’s slipping sympathy for Israel (Axios 2/27/26)
“For the first time in 25 years of Gallup polling, more Americans say they sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis — a striking shift in U.S. public opinion…The reversal reflects a dramatic shift in attitudes toward Israel — a key U.S. ally — after its war with Hamas triggered a humanitarian crisis and reshaped the Middle East…The difference — 41% who sympathize more with the Palestinians versus 36% for the Israelis — is not statistically significant, Gallup notes. But the trend over the last year shows how suddenly U.S. public opinion has soured on Israel — slipping 10 percentage points in 12 months. At the same time, Israel’s favorable rating has declined to near its historical low in Gallup’s polling…The shift in sympathies is largely driven by political independents, who reported more pro-Israel views in past-Gallup polling. Those surveyed now say they sympathize with Palestinians over Israelis 41% to 30%…Seven in 10 Republicans still say they sympathize more with the Israelis.” See also Israelis No Longer Ahead in Americans’ Middle East Sympathies (Gallup 2/27/26);
Scoop: Dems working on secret report found Gaza cost Harris votes (Axios 2/22/26)
“Top Democratic officials who worked on the party’s still-secret autopsy of the 2024 election concluded that Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the Biden administration’s approach to the war in Gaza, Axios has learned…The Democratic National Committee’s research on what went wrong in 2024 has been under lock and key since party leaders decided last year to hide it from the public — a reflection of how explosively it could resonate within the party and beyond.” See also There’s No “Progressive Foreign Policy” Without a Reckoning for Dems Who Supported Genocide (The Intercept 2/25/26); Gavin Newsom says he never has and ‘never will’ take money from AIPAC (JTA 2/24/26); Democrats Should Release Their 2024 Election Autopsy – and Stop the Gaza Denial (Margaret DeReus//Zeteo 2/25/26);
Young Americans increasingly likely to view Hamas as ‘resistance,’ not terrorists (Arno Rosenfeld//The Forward 2/23/26)
“American adults under the age of 30 increasingly view Hamas as “militant resistance” operating on behalf of the Palestinian people, rather than a self-interested terrorist organization, according to data gathered by the American Jewish Committee…The findings, shared with the Forward this month, track with another survey last summer that found 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds sided with Hamas over Israel in the Gaza war. It suggests the support that young Americans express for the Palestinians, and the same cohort’s deeply negative views toward Israel, are breaking through what was long a taboo: sympathy for an organization classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, and which has engaged in decades of violence against Israeli civilians. Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a fellow at the pro-Palestinian think tank Al-Shabaka, attributed this shift to a broader disillusionment with mainstream media and the political establishment that has long presented Israel as a close U.S. ally with shared values. “Americans have come to not trust these traditional narratives,” he said in an interview. “That spills over into thinking, ‘If we’ve been lied to about Israel’s true nature, maybe that means we’re also being lied to about Oct. 7 and groups like Hamas.’”
As Americans Sour on Aid to Israel, Jewish Anti-Occupation Groups Split on Strategy (Josh Nathan-Kazis//Jewish Currents 2/27/26)
“A new House bill introduced this week that would set conditions on Israel’s use of US weapons is setting off a fight over political strategy between left and liberal Jewish anti-occupation groups, as activists clash over how to take advantage of growing public opposition to US military aid to Israel. Since May of last year, more than a quarter of House Democrats have signed on as cosponsors of the Block the Bombs Act, which would ban the US from sending 2,000-pound bunker busters and certain other munitions to Israel. That bill has the support of the anti-Zionist group JVP Action, along with a number of Arab and Palestinian-led organizations, including the IMEU Policy Project and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action. J Street, the leading liberal Zionist advocacy group, doesn’t oppose Block the Bombs. But late Monday, it backed a new House bill, introduced by Illinois Democrat Sean Casten, called the Ceasefire Compliance Act, which would set conditions for restricting Israel from using all US weapons in the West Bank and Gaza.” See also AIPAC is trying to derail my House campaign — because I’m a Jew who defies Israel (Robert Peters//The Forward 2/27/26)
Pro-Palestine International Students Have Won in Court. Why Hasn’t Mahmoud Khalil Won His Freedom? (The Intercept 2/26/26)
“Most of the student activists targeted for deportation by the Trump administration for their pro-Palestine speech have beaten back their deportation cases. Despite being one of the most recognizable faces among the activists, however, Mahmoud Khalil still faces possible re-detention and deportation to Algeria, a country he’s never lived in. Now, on the heels of a federal court ruling that delivered a blow to his case, Khalil is mounting a new fight in immigration court, where he is appealing his deportation order.” See also Calls mount for release of Palestinian protester held by ICE for nearly a year (The Guardian 2/13/26); Columbia Protester Held by ICE Says She Was Chained to Bed After Seizure (NYT 2/12/26); Trump administration files lawsuit against UCLA, saying it failed to protect Jewish and Israeli employees (JTA 2/24/26); California is sued by Jewish advocacy groups seeking to stop antisemitism in schools (LA Times 2/27/26)
Family of UN human rights investigator sues Trump administration over sanctions for Israel criticism (AP 2/26/26)
“The family of independent U.N. investigator Francesca Albanese has sued the Trump administration over U.S. sanctions imposed on her last year for her criticism of Israel’s policies during the war with Hamas in Gaza, saying the penalties violate the First Amendment. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, Albanese’s husband and minor child outlined the serious impact those sanctions have had on the family’s life and work, including the ability to access their home in the nation’s capital…“At its heart, this case concerns whether Defendants can sanction a person — ruining their life and the lives of their loved ones, including their citizen daughter — because Defendants disagree with their recommendations or fear their persuasiveness,” according to the filing.” See also Maine university pulls support from conference on Palestine, citing Trump sanctions (The Guardian 2/25/26);
PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS
From Ambiguous Governance to Stabilization Failure in Gaza: The Limits of the Board of Peace (Carol Daniel-Kasbari//The Global Observatory 2/19/26)
“On February 19th, the Board of Peace held its first meeting in Washington, DC, bringing together representatives from more than two dozen countries that have accepted President Trump’s invitation to join. This makes Gaza the first test of a new model of international governance—one that promises stabilization without resolving political authority. The Board of Peace, promoted primarily by the United States and a coalition of participating states, has been presented as an innovative mechanism to coordinate reconstruction, oversee administrative transition, and restore order where diplomacy has stalled. Yet the early design of the board raises a deeper question: Can stabilization succeed when the structures that produced the crisis remain intact?…Stabilization efforts that are not anchored in political authority, local consent, and enforceable access do not resolve governance vacuums; they deepen them…But Gaza is not a generic case of institutional decay or failed negotiations. It is the product of long-standing structures of control: nearly six decades of Israeli military occupation followed by almost two decades of comprehensive blockade. Gaza’s political and territorial separation from the West Bank has not been incidental; it has been orchestrated through control over borders, security, the population registry, fiscal flows, and movement. Palestinian governing capacity in Gaza did not simply erode; it was constrained within an architecture of external control that fragmented political authority and prevented the emergence of a unified mandate across the Palestinian territories. In this context, the Board of Peace is not entering a vacuum. It is entering an existing structure of control. The question, therefore, is not whether stabilization is needed. It is whether a stabilization mechanism that does not confront the underlying distribution of authority risks institutionalizing it.” See also Phase Two’s Baked-In Failure: Why the Chances for Trump’s Gaza Plan Are Dim (Yousef Munayyer//Arab Center DC 2/20/26)
“Giving Palestinians Fewer Rights than Eichmann Received” (Maya Rosen//Jewish Currents 2/16/26)
“On November 10th, 2025, the Israeli Knesset voted to advance a bill designed “to establish the death penalty for terrorists who have carried out murderous terror attacks.” If passed, the new law would require only a simple majority of judges to rule against a defendant; the convicted must then be hanged within 90 days without any possibility of commutation. The bill, which applies only to the murder of Israelis, has become a symbol of the far right’s desire to extract revenge…The bill is currently being debated in committee; afterwards, it is expected to return to the Knesset plenary for final voting, where it appears likely to pass into law. In anticipation, the Israel Prison Service has announced that they have already begun designing special facilities where those convicted will be hanged, and training prison employees to perform the executions. To learn more about Israel’s past positions on the death penalty, the details of the current legislation, and the cultural and political changes that have led to its advancement, I spoke with Ron Dudai, an Israeli sociologist who studies criminology and human rights.”
‘Terror Was Needed to Make Arabs Leave’: What the Israeli Army Did in 1948, Revealed (Adam Raz//Haaretz 2/27/26)
“Just about two years ago, in late March 2024, Ronit Zilberman, a zoologist, was walking near her home in the Ramat Hahayal neighborhood of Tel Aviv when she noticed boxes with what she realized were thousands of documents that someone had left next to a dumpster. Curious, Zilberman started to riffle through the material. What she discovered was an extraordinary number of documents relating to the War of Independence, including some labelled confidential, others describing military operations in nascent Israel and neighboring countries, and maps and historical photographs that, it emerged, had never been made public (including images appearing in this investigative report). Documentation of this sort and of this scale must be properly researched and archived, Zilberman thought. Although the boxes were quite heavy, she lugged them home. Her next step was to contact Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, where I am a researcher. The collection turned out to belong to Rafi Kotzer, one of the first fighters in the Golani infantry brigade and a founder of the 12th Battalion’s commando unit, which later became Sayeret Golani, the brigade’s elite recon force. Kotzer commanded several battles in 1948, and was later a founder of the Israel Defense Forces’ Disabled Veterans Organization…In the view of many Israelis, if the Arabs decided to flee, Israel is not responsible for creating the Palestinian tragedy. But if Israel expelled the Palestinians and its troops apparently didn’t hesitate to spill the blood of those who refused to leave, then a very dark cloud hangs over the period of the state’s establishment. If the underlying mission of the nascent army was not to ensure “purity of arms” as conceived at the time – i.e., that soldiers will not harm innocent people and will only use their weapons against individuals who perpetrate violent acts – but rather to perpetuate ethnic cleansing, it follows that historical memory in Israel is a deception.”
Evil in the West Bank (David Shulman//NYRB 3/12/26 issue)
“Ras al-‘Ain was the last large Palestinian village in the southern Jordan Valley. The others, including the twin village of Mu‘arrajat two miles away, had been destroyed and their people expelled in a highly effective campaign of ethnic cleansing backed by the Israeli government. For many decades roughly a thousand people lived in Ras al-‘Ain. They belonged to three Bedouin tribes—Rashaida, Jahalin, and Ka‘abneh—that united in the hope that together they could withstand settler violence. Most of the villagers were shepherds, surviving in a subsistence economy. On the night of March 7, 2025, dozens of heavily armed settlers under the protection of the police and the army invaded Ras al-‘Ain and stole at least a thousand, and possibly as many as 1,500, of the villagers’ sheep and goats. We have excellent video documentation, taken by two remarkably courageous activists, of that raid. The Palestinian owners submitted a formal complaint to the police, with the video documentation, but— as usual these days —within a few hours the police closed the file on the grounds that there was no supporting evidence. A thousand sheep are worth some two million Israeli shekels. The economic foundation of the village was devastated. Still, most of the families held on. The village was on privately owned Palestinian land that under Israeli law should have been off limits to the settlers. No Israeli official, however, was prepared to enforce the law. The police have been turned into a vicious ultranationalist militia under the command of Itamar Ben-Gvir, the serial criminal (dozens of indictments and several convictions) and hate-monger appointed minister of national security by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There is also no succor from the Israeli civil courts. After the theft of the sheep, those who remained in the village still had to deal with the daily incursions of the settlers, including beatings, curses, threats, harassment, pepper spray, and more theft. Our activists—all of us Gandhian-style nonviolent resisters—did what we could to block the violence, with some success…By now the village has been emptied of its people.”