560 new settler homes in the West Bank

What We’re Reading

Occupation/Human rights

Plans for 560 settler homes in Ma’aleh Adumim advance after annexation calls,

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advanced plans for 560 new setter home in Ma’aleh Adumim just hours after right-wing politicians called on him to annex that West Bank Jewish city.

Half of Israeli Jews oppose West Bank withdrawal — poll,

If a referendum were held today on an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank excluding major settlement blocs, a majority of Jews, 52 percent, would vote against such a withdrawal, according to a major poll of Israeli public opinion.

Opinion: Two-State Solution Slipping Away!,

“At the end of the day, the sad reality for peoples on both sides of the conflict is that the things which they hold most dear – statehood and security – are slipping further away,” writes Nicolai Mladenov.

Right-wing activist confesses to moving knife in Hebron shooting case,

Prosecutors in the manslaughter trial against Elor Azaria, the IDF soldier who is accused of unnecessarily shooting to death an already neutralized terrorist in Hebron in March, questioned a key witness on Tuesday, who they suggest attempted to cover up the suspect’s crime.

Israel allows lethal force on stone throwers: report,

Regulations revealed by rights group allow police to use live fire as first resort against Palestinians throwing stones.

Palestinian politics

The beginning of the end of the Abbas era,

“A rise in terrorism, and internal Palestinian violence, underline the growing instability in the West Bank — and the sense of an imminent leadership change,” writes Avi Issacharoff.

Palestinian Authority said to sever ties with the Quartet,

The London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat reported that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas decided to stop working with the Quartet — the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations — following a series of disappointments in Ramallah in the group’s work.

Israeli politics

How Israel is turning anti-occupation activists into dissidents,

Israel’s parliament is expected to pass the so-called “NGO Law” in the coming days, a piece of legislation meant to stigmatize left-wing and human rights organizations in Israel as agents of foreign powers.

Israel faces off against Facebook,

Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan has claimed that some of the blood in Israel’s streets is on Facebook’s hands as Knesset members demand better monitoring.

Israeli right-wing outraged over construction plans in Jerusalem-area Palestinian town,

Right-wing Israeli politicians denounced on Monday a decision by the Israeli government to approve construction plans in the Palestinian town of Beit Safafa in occupied East Jerusalem, claiming that the move, despite a spike in illegal settlement construction plans, represented a focus on the Palestinian community to the detriment of Jewish Israelis.

Gaza

Israeli ban cripples furniture industry in Gaza,

“Israel’s prohibition on certain kinds of wooden planks has axed local output and caused many to lose their jobs,” Belal Aldabbour reports.

Israel bombs Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire,

Israeli air strikes hit four sites in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, causing damage but no injuries, officials said, after Palestinian militants fired a rocket that struck a building in southern Israel.