1. New from FMEP

2. Gaza

3. Region/Global

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

Beyond unipolarity and the ‘rules-based international order’ toward a “Better Order Project” (New podcast episode)

FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with policy experts Zack Paikin and Trita Parsi about the the new report they co-authored, “Toward a Better Security Order,” the first report by the Quincy Institute’s Better Order Project. The report is the result of discussions with over 130 experts, scholars, and practitioners from over 40 countries, aspiring to put together a set of recommendations to stabilize international order as it (as they argue) transitions from away from a unipolar structure. They discuss the Biden administration’s focus on the so-called “rules-based international order,” recommendations for reforming the UN Security Council, and expectations for the incoming administration led by a president who, in the words of Trita Parsi, has “neither patience for rules nor laws.”

Understanding Palestinian Pain & Resistance: Reporting from the West Bank (New podcast episode)

FMEP Fellow Nour Joudah speaks with journalist Mariam Barghouti about reporting from the ground in the West Bank, views on the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian resistance, and understanding Israeli violence in Gaza and the West Bank within the larger frame of Palestinian history.

FMEP Legislative Round-Up November 22, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Selected Members on the Record; 5. Selected Media
   Note especially the section on Enabling the Trump admin to strip any NGO of non-profit Status, using support for Palestinians as the hook — HR 9495.

   For more from Lara Friedman, also see: Post-Election Assessment: US Election Results and the Future of US Foreign Policy and the Gaza War, (Webinar hosted by Arab Center DC) ft. Lara Friedman(FMEP), Yousef Munayyer (Arab Center DC), Sarah Leah Whitson (DAWN), and Josh Paul (New Policy), moderated by Khalil Jahshan (Arab Center DC) and Diplomacy is Not a Dirty Word – Iran and the Middle East (Panel convened by NIAC as part of the NIAC 2024 Post-Election Symposium), ft. Negar Mortazavi, (CIP), Lara Friedman (FMEP), Nader Hashemi (Georgetown University). Dr. Jon Hoffman (Cato Institute) and Steven Simon (Quincy Institute).

GAZA

Virtually no aid has reached besieged north Gaza in 40 days, UN says (BBC 11/20/24);

“Palestinians are “facing diminishing conditions for survival” in parts of northern Gaza under siege by Israeli forces because virtually no aid has been delivered in 40 days, the United Nations has warned. The UN said all its attempts to support the estimated 65,000 to 75,000 people in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia this month had been denied or impeded, forcing bakeries and kitchens to shut down. Earlier this month, a UN-backed assessment said there was a strong likelihood that famine was imminent in areas of northern Gaza.” See also In Gaza, ‘an entire society now a graveyard’ (Ishaan Tharoor//WaPo 11/10/24); Israeli attacks on Gaza kill at least 88, including children in their sleep (Al Jazeera 11/21/24); Witnesses say Israel is using sniper drones in Gaza and they’re shooting civilians (NPR 11/20/24); Israeli Troops Have Turned North Gaza’s Only Desalination Station Into a Military Base (Younis Tirawi//DropSite 11/19/24);

Gangs looting Gaza aid operate in areas under Israeli control, aid groups say (WaPo 11/18/24)

“As Gaza’s hunger crisis worsens, organized gangs are stealing much of the aid Israel allows into the enclave, operating freely in areas controlled by the Israeli military, according to aid group officials, humanitarian workers, transport companies and witnesses. Officials said criminal looting has become the greatest impediment to distributing aid in the southern half of Gaza, home to the vast majority of displaced Palestinians. Armed bands of men have killed, beaten and kidnapped aid truck drivers in the area around Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point into Gaza’s south, aid workers and transport companies said.” See also Food prices soar in Gaza after looting of almost 100 aid trucks worsens shortages (Guardian 11/19/24); A Gaza School Burned Down Hours After Aid Arrived. Witnesses Say Israeli Soldiers Started the Fire (Haaretz 11/16/24)

Gaza Security Forces Ambush Gang Accused of Looting Aid with Israeli Support (Sharif Abdel Kouddous & Jeremy Scahill//Drop Site 11/19/24)

“For over a year, Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war, restricting aid to Palestinians in Gaza to such a degree that a UN-backed panel last week issued an alert, warning of “an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine” across the enclave. The trickle of goods that are allowed in are being increasingly targeted by armed criminal groups, who either force truck convoys to pay exorbitant extortion fees or simply rob the aid. Much of this is facilitated by the Israeli military, who have systematically targeted Palestinian security forces charged with protecting the convoys, and then have allowed armed gunmen to attack aid convoys in areas under its control…Palestinian security forces are now actively clashing with the organized gangs that are looting much of the aid.  In the incident on Monday, “more than 20 members of gangs involved in stealing aid trucks were killed in a security operation carried out by security forces in coordination with tribal committees,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.” See also Gaza ministry says 20 killed in anti-‘gang’ operation after looting of aid convoy (Guardian 11/18/24)

U.S. says no policy consequences for Israel despite lack of Gaza aid (WaPo 11/12/24)

“The State Department confirmed Tuesday that Israel will face no policy consequences for the lack of aid reaching the hunger-ravaged Gaza Strip, following a warning last month from the Biden administration that it had 30 days to improve access or potentially lose some U.S. military assistance…Israel has largely failed to comply with the three main demands of the U.S. letter, according to aid groups and U.N. officials, which included surging humanitarian aid across the enclave, resuming access for commercial trucks and ending the isolation of the north. Humanitarian organizations say the policies have brought the Palestinian enclave to the brink of mass starvation.” See also Aid to Gaza falls to lowest level in 11 months despite US ultimatum to Israel (Guardian 11/11/24); ‘Dramatically Worsened’: Israel Defies Biden and Blinken’s 30-Day Deadline to Increase Aid to Gaza (Zeteo 11/12/24); ‘I don’t care who’s president there. I just want my kids to survive in Gaza’ (Mohammed R. Mhawish//+972 11/14/23)

Israel’s Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza: Mass Forced Displacement and Widespread Destruction (Human Rights Watch 11/14/24)

“Israeli authorities have caused the massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023 and are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report is being published at the time of an ongoing Israeli military campaign in northern Gaza that has most likely created a new wave of forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The 154-page report, “‘Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged’: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza,” examines how Israeli authorities’ conduct has led to the displacement of over 90 percent of the population of Gaza—1.9 million Palestinians—and the widespread destruction of much of Gaza over the last 13 months. Israeli forces have carried out deliberate, controlled demolitions of homes and civilian infrastructure, including in areas where they have apparent aims of creating “buffer zones” and security “corridors,” from which Palestinians are likely to be permanently displaced. Contrary to claims by Israeli officials, their actions do not comply with the laws of war…Human Rights Watch found that forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity.” See also Pope Francis calls for probe to determine if Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute ‘genocide’ (Times of Israel 11/17/24); UN Special Committee finds Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as weapon of war (UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner 11/14/24)

For Gaza’s olive farmers, the war has left little to salvage (Taghreed Ali and Ibtisam Mahdi//+972 11/19/24)

“Over the past several weeks, Palestinian olive farmers in Gaza have been desperately trying to salvage what remains of their crops. For many of them, that’s not much at all: over three-quarters of olive trees in the Strip have been destroyed by Israel’s attacks over the last year…Fayyad Fayyad, director of the Palestinian Olive Oil Council, told +972 that predicting how much olive oil will be produced this season in Gaza is “impossible,” but the amount is likely to fall below 10 percent of the annual average.” See also Gaza food production ‘decimated’ with 70% of farmland hit, UN finds (Guardian 11/21/24);

REGION/GLOBAL

ICC arrest warrants accuse Netanyahu, Gallant of war crimes in Gaza (WaPo 11/21/24)

“The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity, a historic rebuke of Israel’s battlefield conduct — one that requires dozens of nations that are party to the court’s statute to apprehend the men if they set foot in those countries. The ICC also issued a warrant for a Hamas military leader, Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July, according to Israeli officials. The court said it approved the order because prosecutors were not able to confirm his death. Two other warrant applications for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar were dropped after they were killed by Israel. The charges against Netanyahu and the former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, stem from Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip. The 13-month war has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, internally displaced about 2 million people and destroyed much of the enclave’s health-care system and infrastructure. A statement from the court said it found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant bear responsibility for crimes there, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as “murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”…Legal scholars described the court’s decision as significant: It obliges 124 countries, including many in Europe, to arrest the sitting prime minister of a key U.S. ally if he enters their territory. Neither Israel nor the United States is a signatory to the court’s statute. At the same time, experts said the inclusion of Deif, despite reports of his death, was an important step toward justice for victims of the Oct. 7 attacks.” See also Israel and U.S. condemn ICC arrest warrants; other nations vow to enforce (WaPo 11/21/24); Netanyahu calls ICC’s arrest warrant ‘antisemitic’ (Guardian 11/21/24; ‘Reward for terrorism’: Israeli politicians unite to condemn ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu (Guardian 11/21/24); US ‘fundamentally rejects’ ICC warrants, says it’s working with Israel on next steps (Times of Israel 11/22/24); ‘A modern Dreyfus trial’: Israel assails ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant (Times of Israel 11/21/24); What are the ICC countries where Netanyahu and Gallant may face arrest? (Al Jazeera 11/21/24); ICC warrants unlikely to lead to trial but likely to block Netanyahu travel (Jewish Insider 11/21/24); Reaction to the ICC warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders (Reuters 11/21/24); UK indicates it could arrest Netanyahu on ICC warrant, as Hungary invites him to visit (Times of Israel 11/22/24)

US vetoes UN security council push to call for ceasefire in Gaza (Guardian 11/20/24)

“The resolution demanded “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in the war between Israel and the Palestinian group, along with “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”. The UN security council voted 14-1 in favor of the resolution sponsored by the 10 elected members on the 15-member council, but it was not adopted because of the US veto.”

MBS condemns Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza as Saudi frustrations mount (Al Monitor 11/11/24)

“Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler condemned Israel’s offensive in Gaza as genocide and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state. “The kingdom renews its condemnation of the genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the summit in his opening remarks. He called on Israel to “immediately halt” its actions in Palestine and Lebanon at an Arab and Islamic summit being held in Riyadh…Prince Faisal said last month that normalization talks with Israel were “off the table” until rights for Palestinians were restored and a two-state solution had been reached.”

Israel’s war on Hezbollah takes terrible toll on Lebanon’s children (WaPo 11/19/24)

“Israel’s war against Hezbollah is exacting a terrible toll on Lebanon, where the militant group is based. More than a quarter of the dead registered by Lebanon’s Health Ministry have been women or children. At least 231 children have been killed and 1,330 injured, according to the ministry. Over the past three weeks, an average of 3.5 children have been killed and 9.5 wounded per day, according to a review of Health Ministry data. In the past two months, at least 400,000 children have been displaced from their homes, the U.N. children’s agency estimates. The Washington Post spent the past month visiting sites in Lebanon where children have been killed, interviewing wounded survivors in hospitals and meeting with displaced families. For a country already brutalized by years of economic crisis, the war has brought new misery: Lives forever changed by airstrikes. Daily survival made more challenging. A population anxious about what comes next.” See also Anger in Lebanon at large number of rescue workers killed by Israel (Guardian 11/15/24); Israeli strike on Beirut kills Hezbollah media chief Mohammed Afif (Guardian 11/17/24); Israeli attack on Syria’s Palmyra kills 36 people, Syrian state media says (Reuters 11/21/24)

Biden envoy: Lebanon and Israel now at decision point on ceasefire deal (Axios 11/18/24)

“President Biden’s envoy Amos Hochstein said on Tuesday in Beirut that Lebanon and Israel have reached “a moment of decision-making” regarding a ceasefire agreement…Hochstein traveled to Beirut on Monday in an effort to finalize a deal to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The draft agreement includes a ceasefire and 60-day transition period — during which the Israeli military would withdraw from southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army would deploy in areas close to the border and Hezbollah would move its heavy weapons north of the Litani River.” See also Can Lebanon’s army secure the south? A cease-fire deal could depend on it. (WaPo 11/20/24); Israel prepares Lebanon cease-fire plan as ‘gift’ to Trump, officials say (WaPo 11/13/24); Hochstein in Beirut, says ‘significant progress’ on Lebanon-Israel cease-fire as Hezbollah accepts proposal (Al Monitor 11/19/24)

Scoop: Israel destroyed active nuclear weapons research facility in Iran, officials say (Axios 11/15/24)

“The Israeli attack on Iran in late October destroyed an active top secret nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, according to three U.S. officials, one current Israeli official and one former Israeli official…The strike — which targeted a site previously reported to be inactive — significantly damaged Iran’s effort over the past year to resume nuclear weapons research, Israeli and U.S. officials said.” See also Netanyahu says Israel damaged ‘component’ of Iran’s nuclear program in Oct. strikes (WaPo 11/18/24); Elon Musk meets with Iran’s UN ambassador – report (Guardian 11/14/24)

RIVER TO THE SEA

Israeli Forces Raid Jenin As Fears Mount of Accelerated West Bank Annexation Plan Under Trump (Sharif Abdel Kouddous & Mariam Barghouti//DropSite 11/20/24)

“The Israeli military conducted a large-scale raid on the West Bank city of Jenin and neighboring towns this week, killing at least eight Palestinians and arresting an unknown number of residents. Troops, bulldozers, drones, helicopters, and warplanes attacked the area for two days before withdrawing on Wednesday evening…This week’s raids on Jenin and the surrounding areas are only the latest wave of assaults on cities and towns in the occupied West Bank. Since Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza began in October 2023, its military forces have conducted large and small-scale incursions across the territory, escalating in frequency and severity.”

‘Total oppression’: West Bank children being killed at unprecedented rate (Guardian 11/19/24)

“In the year from the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Israeli troops and settlers killed 171 Palestinian children there, equivalent to one death almost every other day, according to UN data. More than 1,000 others have been injured…Officially there is no war in the occupied West Bank, and the scale of death in Gaza has overshadowed the losses there. But children are dying in greater numbers than at any time since the Israeli army seized control of the area in 1967.” See also Israeli Settlers Suspected of Torching Homes, Car in West Bank Village (Haaretz 11/16/24)

With Trump win, Israeli minister calls to annex parts of West Bank (WaPo 11/11/24)

“Israel’s finance minister on Monday welcomed President-elect Donald Trump’s victory and said it meant “the time has come” to exert full Israeli sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank. The speech by Bezalel Smotrich, one of the most powerful ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government, was the strongest indication to date of how Trump’s election has emboldened Israeli hard-liners as they seek to cement the state’s control over the Palestinian territories.” See also Settlers steal sheep and dreams of a peaceful life in Masafer Yatta (Hamdan Ballal//Humans of Masafer Yatta 11/10/24); Rightwing settlers in Israel welcome ‘dream team’ of Trump and his hardline appointments (The Guardian 11/17/24); Israeli Right, Pushing to Annex West Bank, Sees Allies in Trump’s Picks (NYT 11/14/24); Biden issues more Israeli settler sanctions ahead of Trump term (Al Jazeera 11/18/24); Israel’s Defense Chief: West Bank Settlers No Longer Subject to Detention Without Trial (Haaretz 11/22/24)

The entire history of Zionism’s injustices, in one Bedouin village (Orly Noy 11/20/24)

“Last week, the State of Israel hung the scalp of another Palestinian community on its belt after completing the demolition of Umm Al-Hiran…Just like that, two and a half decades of legal struggle to save the village came to an end, and the residents were rendered homeless. If you want to understand the entire history of Zionism’s injustices against Palestinians — with all the discrimination, racism, dispossession, and violence, grounded in a vision of Jewish supremacy and a concomitant obsession with demographic engineering — you need look no further than Umm Al-Hiran…Palestinians are seen as human dust that can be simply swept away, or as chess pieces that can be moved from one square to another in accordance with Israel’s never-ending project of demographic engineering between the river and the sea. It is an essential part of the dehumanization of those whose lands the state has its eyes on: the deep conviction that these people have no roots, and therefore moving them from place to place cannot possibly be considered displacement.”

Torture, rape, abuse: New Palestinian testimonies reveal horrors of Israel’s prisons (New Arab 11/14/24)

“Since Israel’s war on Gaza began last October, thousands of Palestinians, including residents, medical staff, patients, and captured fighters have been detained and taken to Israel, usually shackled and blindfolded, according to the UN. Within Israel’s network of prisons, Palestinians face arbitrary, prolonged, and incommunicado detention, with documented evidence of horrific torture, rape, abuse, and other cruel and degrading treatment. At Least 53 Palestinians have died in Israeli jails over the past year as a result of these conditions. The number of prisoners detained from Gaza is in addition to the 11,600 Palestinians currently held in Israeli jails.” Also see B’Tselem’s report “Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps.”

U.S. SCENE

In Landmark Vote, 19 Senate Democrats Oppose Arms Sales to Israel (Haaretz 11/21/24)

“Nineteen Democratic senators effectively voted to block U.S. arms sales to Israel, in a landmark moment that demonstrates how Israel’s standing within the Democratic Party nearly 14 months after the October 7 attack and the ensuing Gaza war and humanitarian crisis have largely defined outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden’s foreign policy legacy…The vote, which in reality represented a disapproval vote rather than an actual effort to block the sales, followed fierce lobbying efforts from the Jewish establishment, the White House and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer against Sanders’ effort…The senators to vote opposing the sale of the tank rounds are: Sens. Martin Heinrich, Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine, Angus King, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Jon Ossoff, Bernie Sanders, Brian Schatz, Tina Smith, Elizabeth Warren, Peter Welch, Dick Durbin, Chris Van Hollen, Jeanne Shaheen, Ben Ray Lujan, Raphael Warnock, Chris Murphy. The votes include three of the nine Jewish Democrats in the Senate in Sanders, Ossoff and Schatz…Liberal and progressive Jewish organizations like J Street and Americans for Peace Now, meanwhile, lobbied in favor of the legislation, setting a new precedent in its own right about prominent Jewish organizations willing to hold Israel accountable in this form.” See also Exclusive: White House Says Democrats Who Oppose Weapons To Israel Are Aiding Hamas (HuffPost 11/20/24); Senate Democrats force Israel weapons vote, citing Biden inaction (WaPo 11/21/24); Progressive Jewish groups back Senate resolutions against arms sales to Israel (JTA 11/19/24); Elizabeth Warren denounces Biden administration over Gaza humanitarian situation (Guardian 11/14/24); Bernie Sanders Is Leading a Bold New Effort to Block Arms Sales to Israel (The Nation 11/20/24)

U.S. House Passes Bill Cracking Down on pro-Palestinian Nonprofits Ahead of Trump Term (Haaretz 11/21/24)

“ The U.S. House narrowly passed a bill that would streamline the process of removing tax-exempt status from nonprofits accused of providing support to groups recognized by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organizations. The bill, known as “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” is the most significant legislation to date targeting the pro-Palestinian protest movement and the most coherent example of how a crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests could dramatically expand. The issue is among the most significant free-speech debates in America heading into President-elect Donald Trump’s term.” See also Congress Is About to Gift Trump Sweeping Powers to Crush His Political Enemies (The Intercept 11/10/24); We Oppose H.R. 9495 (Joint statement from Council on Foundations, Independent Sector, National Council of Nonprofits, and United Philanthropy Forum 11/15/24); More than 55 US Jewish groups slam terrorism bill that could threaten nonprofits (JTA 11/20/24); HR 9495: Bill Threatening Nonprofits Passes House (Nonprofit Quarterly 11/21/24)

Congress is voting on a bill targeting pro-Palestinian groups. Israel’s example proves it’s a terrible idea (Daniel Sokatch//The Forward 11/20/24)

“This bill is likely a harbinger of further undemocratic steps to come. Trump and his allies have long sought to delegitimize progressive civil society organizations. Like Netanyahu, Trump routinely labels them as a violent internal threat. Those of us who care about the health of American civil society writ large should worry that laws used to target the movement demanding Palestinian rights in the U.S. — the clear first target of this bill — will ultimately be used to target other dissenters here, too.”

Next US defence secretary Pete Hegseth called for new Jewish temple at Al-Aqsa (Middle East Eye 11/14/24)

“Donald Trump’s choice as the next United States defence secretary has called for the building of a third Jewish temple on the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem…Hegseth has previously touted his avowedly pro-Israel credentials, which derive in part from his fundamentalist Christian beliefs. Speaking at an event in Jerusalem in 2018 he said there was “no reason why the miracle of reestablishing the temple on the Temple Mount isn’t possible”, using the Israeli name for the raised plateau in occupied East Jerusalem where Al-Aqsa Mosque stands…He also told attendees that Israel should take advantage of Trump being in office to do what they needed to do in the region, because there were “true believers” in Washington who would back them.” See also Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary nominee, has multiple Christian and Crusades-inspired tattoos (The Forward 11/15/24); Who is Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for UN ambassador? (BBC 11/11/24); Trump chooses pro-Israel congresswoman as US ambassador to UN (Middle East Eye 11/11/24)

Trump Picks Mike Huckabee, an Evangelical Christian and Annexation Proponent, as U.S. Ambassador to Israel (Haaretz 11/12/24)

“Huckabee, a former Governor of Arkansas, is a proponent of Greater Israel, and has had close relations with Israeli settlers and the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, throughout the course of his political career…His appointment, combined with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appointment of Yechiel Leiter as the next Israeli ambassador to the U.S., indicates that annexation could be at the forefront of any political agenda in the coming months.” See also Mike Huckabee, in His Own Words: What Trump’s Incoming U.S. Ambassador Really Thinks About Israel, Palestine and ‘Almighty God’ (Haaretz 11/17/24)

Trump’s unfinished business for ‘Greater Israel’ (Interview with Lara Friedman//+972 11/13/24)

Lara Friedman: “Israel-Palestine has never been central for Trump personally, but it is central for a number of the people who he feels accountable to or cares about — starting with Miriam Adelson, who was one of his top donors. It’s useful to look at what’s unfinished from [the first Trump administration’s] agenda. The selection of Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel [who denies that Israel is even occupying the West Bank] proves that Trump intends to advance and claim credit for achieving the “Greater Israel” dreams of messianic Zionist Jews and evangelical Christians. I think we’re in a “Greater Israel” policy period. They’ve already talked about Israel’s right to gain territory that is taken in self-defense, which of course is an outright repudiation of international law. That was the framing of the statement when [the first Trump administration] recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan [Heights], and I think it’s going to be applied to Gaza. I think the annexation of the West Bank is on the table, and annexation of parts of Lebanon is on the table. Don’t listen to me, listen to them.”

The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone (Ronan Farrow//New Yorker 11/20/24)

“In September, the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) signed a two-million-dollar contract with Paragon, an Israeli firm whose spyware product Graphite focusses on breaching encrypted-messaging applications such as Telegram and Signal. Wired first reported that the technology was acquired by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—an agency within D.H.S. that will soon be involved in executing the Trump Administration’s promises of mass deportations and crackdowns on border crossings. A source at Paragon told me that the deal followed a vetting process, during which the company was able to demonstrate that it had robust tools to prevent other countries that purchase its spyware from hacking Americans—but that wouldn’t limit the U.S. government’s ability to target its own citizens. The technology is part of a booming multibillion-dollar market for intrusive phone-hacking software that is making government surveillance increasingly cheap and accessible. In recent years, a number of Western democracies have been roiled by controversies in which spyware has been used, apparently by defense and intelligence agencies, to target opposition politicians, journalists, and apolitical civilians caught up in Orwellian surveillance dragnets. Now Donald Trump and incoming members of his Administration will decide whether to curtail or expand the U.S. government’s use of this kind of technology. Privacy advocates have been in a state of high alarm about the colliding political and technological trend lines.”

The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite. (Dove Kent//The Forward 11/19/24)

“Project Esther proposes a public-private plan for dismantling any domestic group that supports Palestinian rights — which they call the “Hamas Support Network.” The plan’s first targets are pro-Palestinian organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. But that’s just the start. Project Esther has its sights on what it describes as a much broader “coalition of leftist, progressive organizations such as Open Society Foundations, Tides Foundation and numerous others.”…its sole target is pro-Palestinian organizations, which it accuses of being not just “anti-Israel” but “antisemitic and anti-American.” The plan further claims that any organization working against “capitalism” is also aligned with “America’s overseas enemies” and should be a target. The opportunities for guilt by association are endless, and ultimately reveal the authors’ true McCarthyist intentions: dismantling any domestic organizing they deem “anti-American” under the guise of fighting “threats to Jewish safety.” Project Esther demonstrates that the right no longer needs any semblance of meaningful Jewish involvement or care for Jewish well-being to advance and expand their campaign.” See also Ben & Jerry’s accuses Unilever of silencing its pro-Palestinian stance (WaPo 11/14/24)

US sanctions key settlement organization Amana for dispossessing Palestinians (Times of Israel 11/18/24)

“The Biden administration on Monday sanctioned the Amana association, the settlement movement’s main development organization, in the latest in a series of punitive measures taken by the US against the settlement enterprise. While the impact of the move was likely blunted by this month’s election of Donald Trump, who may well reverse such sanctions, it still sends a signal to other Western countries that have already followed the US in imposing similar sanctions against Israeli extremists in the West Bank for the past year. Amana was already sanctioned by the UK and Canada earlier this year. The sanctions block any Amana assets based in US and crucially prevent US-based institutions, including Israeli banks, from providing services to the organization. They also bar US citizens and organizations from donating to it.” See also US unveils new West Bank sanctions amid calls to target Israeli ministers (Al Monitor 11/18/24)

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

“Resistance Through a Realist Lens” (Arielle Angel interviews Abdaljawad Omar//Jewish Currents 11/5/24)

Abdaljawad Omar: “It’s important to recognize that while Hamas currently leads the resistance, armed struggle is not unique to Islamists; it has been a defining feature of anti-colonial Palestinian struggle throughout history. And it is equally critical to understand that, while a particular group may emerge as the spearhead at a given historical juncture, resistance itself always expands the horizon of imagination and possibility. For leftists troubled by Hamas, the path forward is clear: They must organize, mobilize, and compete. In the piece, I refer to the concept of muzawada—the Arabic term for “one-upmanship.” One can critique Hamas’s ideology or tactics, but the only meaningful way to challenge Hamas is through an effort to surpass its capacity to mobilize Palestinians and their allies, to offer a compelling alternative grounded in solidarity, dignity, and justice.”

Bernie Sanders: No more arms sales to Netanyahu (Senator Bernie Sanders//WaPo 11/18/24)

“The United States government must stop blatantly violating the law with regard to arms sales to Israel. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act are very clear: The United States cannot provide weapons to any country that violates internationally recognized human rights. Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act is also explicit: No U.S. assistance may be provided to any country that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.” According to the United Nations, much of the international community and every humanitarian organization on the ground in Gaza, Israel is clearly in violation of these laws. That is why I have introduced, with colleagues, several joint resolutions of disapproval that would block offensive arms sales to Israel…As horrific as the situation in Gaza has been over the past year, it is getting unimaginably worse…All of this is unspeakable and immoral. But what makes it even more painful is that much of this death and destruction has been carried out with U.S. weaponry and paid for by American taxpayers. During the last year alone, the United States has provided $18 billion in military aid to Israel and delivered more than 50,000 tons of armaments and military equipment. In other words, as Americans, we are complicit in these horrific and illegal atrocities. Our complicity must end.”

The not-so-secret history of Netanyahu’s support for Hamas (Ghousoon Bisharat interviews Adam Raz//+972 11/11/24)

“When Israeli historian and human rights activist Adam Raz set out to write “The Road to October 7: Benjamin Netanyahu, the Production of the Endless Conflict and Israel’s Moral Degradation,” he knew he was tackling a blind spot in Israeli public discourse. The vast majority of Israelis, Raz believes, fail to grasp the full extent of Netanyahu’s involvement in bolstering Hamas before the current war, and in perpetuating an unending state of conflict. Raz’s book, released in May of this year, sheds light on a controversial policy whereby Netanyahu’s governments for years routinely approved and encouraged the transfer of Qatari funds into Gaza to prop up Hamas. While noting that the Israeli media has devoted more attention to this policy in the aftermath of October 7, Raz told +972 that this is “just a sliver of the bigger picture,” which is rooted in Netanyahu’s broader opposition to a just resolution to the conflict. “People need to understand the full scope of Netanyahu’s strategy,” he said. According to Raz, who also works as a researcher at the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, Netanyahu’s priority is not maintaining Israel’s security but rather preventing any real chance of resolving the conflict through the division of land, ending the occupation, or a two-state solution. Keeping the cash flowing to Hamas served this objective by ensuring the Palestinian national movement remained splintered between Hamas in Gaza and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, thus allowing Israel to maintain its dominance over the whole of the land. Even after the devastating events of October 7, Raz warns that Netanyahu’s playbook remains unchanged.”

Weaponizing Jewish fear, from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam (Em Hilton//+972 11/15/24)

“In the wake of October 7, scholars of antisemitism, genocide, and Jewish history have warned of the ways that particularly traumatic episodes in Jewish history have been evoked to justify Israel’s onslaught on Gaza and crack down on those who criticize it. As antisemitism scholar Brendan McGeever articulated clearly, despite being brutal and disturbing, the incident in Amsterdam was no pogrom — the term for an attack on an oppressed group with the backing of the authorities. The proliferation of this term and others like it in the aftermath of the violence only served to obfuscate the reality of those events through creating mass hysteria…The erasure of the racist violence of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans through negligent reporting by much of the mainstream media only accelerated it in this instance. At a time when genuine antisemitism is on the rise and Jewish people feel particularly under threat around the world, this instrumentalization of Jewish fear was especially galling. The question we must ask ourselves in the wake of these events and the discourse surrounding them is: what kind of politics does this serve? It is certainly in the interest of the Israeli government to frame the violence as solely motivated by anti-Jewish racism, and thus shut down any efforts to connect it to the genocidal war in Gaza.” See also Dutch Jews grapple with ‘weaponization’ of their fear following attack on Israelis (Arno Rosenfeld//The Forward 11/8/24); Amsterdam mayor takes back ‘pogrom’ comments following Maccabi-Ajax violence (Middle East Eye 11/18/24)

There Is No Victory in Gaza (Noura Erakat, Josh Paul, Charles O. Blaha, and Luigi Daniele//Foreign Affairs 11/18/24)

“Although it insists otherwise, the Israeli government has demonstrated over the past year that its ultimate target is not Hamas but the Palestinian will to resist occupation and subjugation. It is, in effect, applying a military solution to a political problem. Far from moving toward victory, Israel is becoming less secure in the region, less stable at home, and less likely to find a durable solution with the Palestinians.”

 

1. New from FMEP

2. Gaza

3. Region/Global

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

2024 Election Analysis (11/7/24 webinar)

The Arab American Institute hosted a webinar examining the results of the 2024 US Presidential election, featuring AAI President Dr. Jim Zogby & AAI Executive Director Maya Berry in conversation with Lara Friedman (FMEP), Gerald Seib (Former Wall Street Journal Exec. Washington Editor), & John Zogby (Founder, John Zogby Strategies).  The panel provided analysis on the election outcome and its impact on domestic and foreign policy, the state of American democracy, and next steps on continued support for Palestinian human rights.

FMEP Legislative Round-Up November 8, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Elex/Politics; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

Settlement & Annexation Report: November 8, 2024 (Kristin McCarthy)

1. Givat Hamatos Expansion Plan to Advance; 2. MK Sukkot Introduces Bill to Legalize All Outposts; 3. Settlers Lead Pogrom in al-Bireh; 4. Mapping the Settler-Led Expulsions of 50+ Palestinian Communities Since 2022; 5. Settlers Rejoice Over U.S. Election Results; 6. Netanyahu Appoints Kahanist Settler as New Ambassador to the U.S.; 7. Bonus Reads

GAZA

Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead are women and children, UN says (BBC 11/8/24)

“The UN’s Human Rights Office has condemned the high number of civilians killed in the war in Gaza, saying its analysis shows close to 70% of verified victims over a six-month period were women and children. The agency said the high number was largely due to Israel’s use of weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas, although some deaths may have been the result of errant projectiles by Palestinian armed groups. The report said it found “unprecedented” levels of international law violations, raising concerns about “war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes”…Its analysis found around 44% of verified victims were children and 26% women. The ages most represented among the dead were five to nine-year-olds. About 80% of victims were killed in residential buildings or similar housing, the agency added.” See also An Israeli strike kills 20 in north Gaza, where Palestinians say they’ve had little food for weeks (AP 11/5/24); UNRWA: 67 Children Killed by Israeli Attacks on Average Each Day in Gaza (Truthout 11/8/24)

‘A Siege Within a Siege’: How Israel’s Army Blocks Aid to Tens of Thousands of Gazans (Haaretz 11/6/24)

“[Georgios] Petropoulos [head of the Gaza suboffice of the OCHA and one of the most senior UN officials in the area], a Greek national living in Jordan with his family, has been working in humanitarian aid around the world for 20 years, 14 of them in the UN…”A humanitarian area in Gaza? No such thing,” he stresses. “You can be attacked from any direction at any time. In Ukraine there is a front. The front moves, but people have time to escape to get humanitarian aid to meet their needs. Here, residents fled to Mawasi in southern Gaza, but there are attacks there too, and everything is very tragic…Petropoulos says that the smell of rotting corpses permeates the entire Gaza Strip. It emanates from the rubble, under which people were buried, and dogs run around with humans remains in their mouths. “Feral dogs are everywhere. When you see a pack of dogs, there is a good chance they are standing around a corpse. One of my colleagues chased a dog that was holding a dead child’s foot in its mouth. Sometimes, when we pass by military check posts, we collect the bodies of people who were shot there and hand them over to the Red Cross.” See also This is What We Have to Endure in North Gaza (PCHR 11/6/24); Entire northern Gaza population ‘at imminent risk’ of death, UNICEF head says(WaPo 11/3/24); US gives Israel a ‘fail’ grade on improving aid to Gaza so far (AP 11/4/24); Israel Is Unleashing an Apocalypse in Northern Gaza (Haaretz Editorial 11/6/24)

Israel formally tells UN of intent to sever all ties with Unrwa relief agency (Guardian 11/4/24)

“Israel has formally informed the United Nations of its intention to sever ties entirely with the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees in a move the country’s allies and aid workers warn will deepen the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. The Knesset passed two bills last week banning Unrwa from Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli state contact with the agency on the basis of allegations that Hamas had infiltrated it…Aid experts, as well as Israel’s closest allies, have said there is no alternative to Unrwa in terms of providing relief to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and across the region, and that the ban could cripple services to an embattled population that increasingly depends on them. The head of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, said Israel had cut the flow of aid entering Gaza to a trickle, with an average of 30 trucks entering the territory a day, only 6% of the quantity delivered to Gaza before the war. “Restricting humanitarian access and at the same time dismantling Unrwa will add an additional layer of suffering to already unspeakable suffering. Only political will can put an end to a politically made situation,” Lazzarini said.” See also UN to Israel: Replacing UNRWA relief agency would be your responsibility (Reuters 11/6/24); UN agency for Palestinians facing its ‘darkest hour’, UNRWA chief says (Al Jazeera 11/6/24)

Israeli forces used civilians as human shields in Gaza, Palestinians and soldiers say (WaPo 11/3/24)

“For two weeks in late July and early August, said Mohammed Saad, 20, he and two other Palestinian men were forced by an Israeli army unit in Gaza to enter buildings feared to contain explosives and photograph every inch before troops were given the all clear to enter. When the soldiers were done with him, he said, someone shot him in the back. Saad was among four Palestinian men who spoke on the record to provide vivid accounts of what they described as Israel employing detained Palestinians as human shields in Gaza — defined by the Geneva Conventions as using civilians or other detainees to shield military operations from attack — in this case, by forcing them to carry out life-threatening tasks to reduce risk to Israeli soldiers. Their nearly contemporaneous accounts are detailed, corroborated by other witnesses, and consistent with testimony by an Israeli soldier who fought in Gaza, and with interviews collected by Breaking the Silence, an organization that works with troops who have served in the occupied Palestinian territories. They described a practice in which Palestinians are detained, interrogated and ultimately released, indicating the Israeli army did not believe them to be militants…“This wasn’t something that happened just here and there but rather on a large scale throughout a number of different units, at different times, throughout the war and in different places,” said Joel Carmel, advocacy director of Breaking the Silence, an organization that collects and verifies testimonies from troops who have served in the occupied Palestinian territories.” See also How Israel’s Army Uses Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza (NYT 10/14/24)

Intent to Destroy: Documenting a Year of Israel’s Attacks on Health in Gaza (Yara Asi//Arab Center DC 11/7/24)

“Since the beginning of the war on Gaza in October, Israel has destroyed the ecosystem of heath in Gaza, including all of its social determinants such as access to food, water, and shelter…Israel has destroyed the health situation in the Gaza Strip to a degree that makes it nearly impossible to imagine what rebuilding might look like, although some are already discussing the prospect. At the moment, however, the future is too uncertain, especially since Israeli government and military officials have given multiple indications that they plan to seize parts of Gaza permanently. What is certain is that the devastation wrought on Gaza’s health facilities—many of which Gazans had so painstakingly built after fighting endless restrictions—and on health personnel, many of whom studied outside of Gaza but returned to serve their people, will take generations to recover. And the health outcomes of more than a year of deprivation of food, water, medicine, and safety on an entire population are incalculable.” See also More than 30 killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza as hospital hit again (Al Jazeera 11/5/24);

‘I will stay inside my hospital until the last moment’(Ruwaida Kamal Amer//+972 11/5/24)

“The Israeli army killed his son and arrested his colleagues in Kamal Adwan Hospital, but director Hussam Abu Safiya refuses to abandon his patients.”)

Yoav Gallant reportedly says Israeli army has nothing left to do in Gaza (Guardian 11/7/24)

“Israel’s ousted defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has reportedly said the army has achieved all its objectives in Gaza and that Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a hostages-for-peace deal against the advice of his own security establishment. Gallant was speaking to hostages’ families on Thursday, two days after being sacked by Netanyahu, and reports of his remarks quickly surfaced in Israeli media.” See also Benjamin Netanyahu fires defence minister Yoav Gallant, triggering protests across Israel (Guardian 11/5/24)

REGION/GLOBAL

In Trump victory, Netanyahu sees himself as ‘the great winner’ (WaPo 11/6/24)

“ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejoiced over Donald Trump’s election victory, as he banked on resetting relations with Washington and following through on his maximalist aims in the country’s multifront war. Netanyahu congratulated Trump on “history’s greatest comeback” in a post on X Wednesday morning as the results became clear, but before many had made a final call, hailing his return to the White House as “a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance” between the U.S. and Israel. Later Wednesday, the two men spoke by phone, agreeing “to work together for Israel’s security” and discussing “the Iranian threat,” according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. “It’s time for total victory,” crowed Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu’s far-right national security minister, in an address to the Knesset on Wednesday, adding that he was confident Trump would see “eye to eye” with Israel on “all sorts of laws” that he has been trying to push through, including the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of terrorism. Israel Ganz, head of a council representing Israeli settlers across the occupied West Bank, celebrated the moment as a historic “opportunity for the settlement movement,” which has already made significant gains since Netanyahu returned to power in 2022.” See also Unnerved by Biden’s Sanctions, Israeli Settler Leaders Are Excited About Trump’s Victory (Haaretz 11/7/24); Trump will give Israel ‘blank check’ which may mean all-out war with Iran, says ex-CIA chief (Guardian 11/7/24); Israeli settlers, ultra-Orthodox celebrate Donald Trump’s victory (Al Monitor 11/6/24); Netanyahu concerned ICC to issue arrest warrant before Trump takes office (Jewish Insider 11/8/24)

Trump tells Palestinian president he wants to end Gaza war (Axios 11/8/24)

“President-elect Trump told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a phone call on Friday — their first since 2017 — that he will work to end the war in Gaza, according to a statement from the Palestinian presidency and a Palestinian official briefed on the call. Why it matters: Abbas and Trump had not spoken since Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the U.S. embassy there. But the call is the latest sign the Palestinian leadership wants to start fresh with Trump after a bruising four years when he was last in the White House.” See also Palestinians dismayed by Trump’s win, their leaders urge peace (Reuters 11/7/24);

Qatar tells Hamas leaders to leave as Gaza cease-fire talks deadlocked (Al Monitor 11/8/24)

“Qatar has told Palestinian militant group Hamas to leave the country, two US officials confirmed to Al-Monitor. The Persian Gulf state has for more than a decade hosted Hamas’ political office in Doha. Along with Egypt, Qatar has facilitated the indirect negotiations between Israel and the militants over a possible cease-fire and hostage deal in the Gaza Strip. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official said Hamas’ expulsion had been under discussion for some time, following the latest collapse of Gaza cease-fire talks, and had advanced in the past week…Qatar frequently acts as an intermediary for the United States and its adversaries, including Russia and Iran, as well as regional Islamist movements. The gas-rich country has hosted Hamas’ self-exiled political leadership since they left their headquarters in Damascus, Syria, in 2012. Qatari officials maintain their hosting of Hamas was done at the request of the Obama administration so that indirect lines of communication could be established with the Palestinian militant group.” See also Gulf States See Trump as Ally They Can Do Business With (NYT 11/7/24)

How pro-Iran armed groups reacted to Trump’s victory (Al Monitor 11/8/24)

“On Wednesday, Hamas released a statement indicating that its position on the Trump administration will be tied to its approach to the Palestinian people: “Our position on the new US administration depends on its positions and practical behavior towards our Palestinian people, their legitimate rights and their just cause.”…A member of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon expressed skepticism about a shift in US policy. Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi told Reuters on Thursday that the group wants to see action taken by the US government, no matter which party is in power…The Houthis have expressed great distrust in the incoming administration. A Houthi source in Yemen told Newsweek that the group believes Trump will not follow through on his promises to end the war.”

Israel strikes Beirut as Trump’s in-law seeks to lead Lebanon file (Al Monitor 11/7/24)

“Heavy Israeli airstrikes hit several areas across Lebanon overnight and on Thursday, as the death toll from Israel’s ongoing attacks on the country since October 2023 crossed 3,000…Later on Thursday, at least three people were killed when an Israeli drone strike hit a car at the entrance of the southern city of Sidon. Five UN peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL) were injured in the attack that struck near their vehicle, the UN mission said in a statement, while three Lebanese soldiers were also wounded, according to the army…Massad Boulos, a prominent Lebanese-American businessman and father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, said in an interview with the local Al-Jadeed television channel on Wednesday that the new president-elect is committed to ending the war in Lebanon and will “fulfill the promises” he made to the Lebanese people…Boulos also revealed to Al-Jadeed that he will assume the task of negotiating with the Lebanese side in order to secure a cease-fire in Lebanon.” See also Dozens Killed as Israeli Strikes Pound Lebanon, Health Ministry Says (NYT 11/7/24); Israeli Strikes Target Syria for a Second Day in a Row (NYT 11/5/24); UN peacekeepers accuse Israel of ‘deliberate and direct’ attack in Lebanon (Al Jazeera 11/8/24)

Israeli strikes in eastern Lebanon are hitting civilians without warning (WaPo 11/4/24)

“Last week, Israel’s military issued an evacuation order for the entire eastern city of Baalbek, home to about 100,000 people, telling residents it would “act forcefully against Hezbollah interests in your city and villages.” But most of the strikes, like the one in Bednayel, about 14 miles from Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, have hit outside the evacuation zone…The Post talked to survivors and witnesses of four of the 14 strikes that resulted in casualties in the Baalbek region on Friday, all of which took place within approximately 90 minutes, they said. While thousands of families in Baalbek have heeded Israeli evacuation orders and are packed into schools and others shelters in surrounding communities, at least 10 of the 14 areas hit Friday were outside the evacuation zone, according to a Post review of strike locations.” See also Israel abducts alleged Hezbollah official in unprecedented sea raid (Guardian 11/2/24); Hezbollah attack drones target Tel Aviv army base as Israel pounds Lebanon (Al Jazeera 11/7/24); Lebanese first responders say they are being targeted by Israeli strikes (WaPo 11/6/24); Rescuers pull 30 bodies from a building in central Lebanon hit in an Israeli strike (AP 11/6/24)

Amsterdam police arrest more than 60 people after attacks on Israeli football fans (Guardian 11/8/24)

“Amsterdam police have made more than 60 arrests after what authorities called “hateful antisemitic violence” against Israeli football fans…The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, described an “outburst” of antisemitism with “hit and run” attacks on the visiting supporters…Amsterdam’s police chief, Peter Holla, said there had been “incidents on both sides”, starting on Wednesday night when Maccabi fans tore down a Palestinian flag from the facade of a building in the city centre and shouted “fuck you Palestine”…A social media video verified by Reuters showed Maccabi fans setting off flares and chanting “Olé, olé, let the IDF win, we will fuck the Arabs”, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. The police chief said a large crowd of Maccabi supporters had then gathered on Dam Square on Thursday lunchtime and there had been “fights on both sides”…Police said on Friday they had launched “a major investigation into multiple violent incidents” and that five people had been taken to hospital and 62 arrested. There was no evidence of “kidnappings or hostage takings” but police were “probing reports”, they said. The leaders of Israel, the US and the Netherlands condemned the attacks, while a leading Jewish group said the Dutch capital should be “deeply ashamed”. Officials in Amsterdam said that in several places in the city, supporters were attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks and that riot police had to intervene several times to protect Israeli supporters and escort them to hotels. Residents and businesses in Amsterdam were shocked by what appeared to be organised small groups of people chasing Israeli fans in Amsterdam’s city centre after the match.” See also Dutch, French leaders denounce attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam (Al Monitor 11/8/24); Israeli hooligans provoke clashes in Amsterdam after chanting anti-Palestinian slogans (Middle East Eye 11/8/24)

As Middle East crisis grinds on, Pentagon shows signs of strain (WaPo 11/5/24)

“The open-ended crisis in the Middle East has begun to squeeze the Pentagon, fueling unease over the U.S. military’s ability to balance imminent threats to American interests there with longer-term objectives as Russia and China test Washington elsewhere in the world. Signs of strain were underscored in recent days by a decision to withdraw the sole U.S. aircraft carrier in the region, the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose imposing presence defense officials credit with helping to contain the ongoing violence between Israel, Iran and its network of well-armed proxies…When the Lincoln departs in coming days, the Defense Department instead will rely on a mix of other forces, including naval destroyers, B-52 bombers and land-based fighter jets, to sustain its expansive and potentially combustible deterrence mission that stretches from the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf and other volatile shipping routes around the Arabian Peninsula.” See also B-52 Bombers, Dozens of Fighter Jets: As Israel Braces for Iran Attack, U.S. Boosts Mideast Forces (Haaretz 11/7/24); Additional US F-15 fighter jets arrive in Jordan as Israel anticipates Iran attack (Al Monitor 11/7/24)

RIVER TO THE SEA

Israel Katz, new Israeli defense minister, is longtime Netanyahu ally (WaPo 11/6/24)

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed his new defense minister as a “man of action” with a combination of “rich experience” and “executive capabilities.” But analysts describe Israel Katz as primarily a yes-man who will provide Netanyahu more freedom in pursuing wars on multiple fronts — and the path to the prime minister’s own political survival. Katz, 69, had been serving as Israel’s foreign minister until Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a sudden move Tuesday night. The ousting came as the Biden administration, which had used Gallant as a crucial interlocutor, was distracted with the U.S. election. While Gallant had served as a general, Katz has no experience in the portfolio…“The prime minister gave a very eloquent statement about the wonderful experience he brings and his qualifications, but he has no qualifications,” Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv-based political analyst, said of Katz. “He’s a loyalist.”’ See also Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, prompting protest in Tel Aviv (11/5/24); People across Israel protest defence minister’s firing (Al Jazeera 11/5/24); Thousands of Israelis Take to the Streets to Protest Defense Minister’s Firing; 40 Arrested in Tel Aviv (Haaretz 11/6/24); Netanyahu aide arrested over leaked documents linked to stalled hostage deal: What we know (Al Monitor 11/4/24)

The Israeli Government Neglected to Build Shelters in Arab Towns. Now Deaths Are Rising (Haaretz 11/4/24)

“Of the 34 civilians killed by rocket attacks in the north since the start of the war, 19 were from the Arab community. Without protected spaces in their homes or access to public shelters, many live in constant fear and are angry over the state’s indifference. ‘They don’t see us as equal or as important as Jews’.”

How Four Posts on Instagram Destroyed Her Life (NYT 11/3/24)

“Between 2020 and 2023, prosecutors filed incitement-to-terrorism charges about once or twice a month, on average. In the past 12 months, 189 defendants have been indicted, with hundreds more arrested, investigated and released for lack of evidence. The suspects aren’t high-profile Arab activists. They’re emergency-room nurses, kindergarten teachers and college students. This policy has led to scenes that cause widespread intimidation: In broad daylight, police officers blindfolded and zip-tied a female Arab hairdresser in Majd al-Krum, on suspicion of making social media posts that criticized the I.D.F. By the time she was released, the video of her arrest had gone viral….There is no equivalent of the First Amendment in Israel…The criterion for an incitement conviction is the “possibility” that a person’s speech may cause harm, and the law doesn’t clarify what it means by “incitement” to terrorism or “identification” with a terrorist group, leaving a lot of discretion to prosecutors and judges…There is one law group in Israel solely dedicated to working civil-rights cases for the Arab minority: Adalah, which means “justice” in Arabic. Adalah provides legal aid to defendants, and pursues strategic litigation in the courts. It is something like the Israeli equivalent of the N.A.A.C.P…Nareman Shehadeh Zoabi, a lawyer at Adalah, told me that since Oct. 7, “you can’t express a Palestinian identity and not be linked to Hamas. And if you’re not fully on the Israeli side, you’re a legitimate target.”’

The ultranationalist TV channel fast becoming Israel’s most-watched news source (Guardian 11/3/24)

“An ultranationalist Israeli television channel backed by the government is fast emerging as one of the country’s most-watched news sources, despite allegations from liberal groups that it is inciting war crimes, and claims from the army that it is riling up hatred of its generals for not being far enough to the right…Media analysts say Channel 14’s rise is both a sign and a driver of the shift of Israeli public opinion to the extreme right that has rapidly accelerated since the start of the Gaza war a year ago…Just over a month earlier, three Israeli civil society groups formally demanded that the country’s attorney general launch a criminal investigation into the channel, accusing it of broadcasting material that incited war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide.” See also Holding Israeli Media Accountable: Incitement to Genocide is a Crime (FMEP podcast with Israeli human rights attorney Alon Sapir)

In Masafer Yatta, our very right to education is under fire (Mahmoud Al-Omour//+972 11/7/24)

“Amid Israeli settler attacks, military raids, roadblocks, and an economic crisis, simply getting to school can be a challenge. But still we fight for our students.”

U.S. SCENE

Trump is Eyeing Iran Hawk Brian Hook as First Foreign Policy Pick (Murtaza Hussain//Drop Site News 11/6/24)

“Brian Hook, a hawkish fixture of the first Donald Trump administration who formerly served under George W. Bush, is reportedly getting the call to start staffing the State Department for a new Trump term. Hook, known as a major Iran hawk who helped lead the “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions, sabotage, and assassinations that characterized Trump’s approach to Tehran, has been appointed to help oversee the formation of a new foreign policy team, according to reports from Politico and CNN. Hook served as U.S. Special Representative for Iran and advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the last two years of Trump’s presidency, which saw the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and expansion of crushing sanctions intended to spur regime change in Iran. That approach ultimately failed to collapse the Iranian government, or compel it to reduce its support for its network of armed proxies in the region. Instead, it wound up escalating the hostility between the two countries while Iran ramped up its nuclear enrichment following Trump’s withdrawal from the Obama-era nuclear deal.” See also Pro-Israel leaders encouraged by Brian Hook’s role on State Department transition team (Jewish Insider 11/8/24)

Netanyahu Appoints Yechiel Leiter as Israel’s Ambassador to U.S. Hardline Settler, Ex-member of Far-right Kahanist Group (Haaretz 11/8/24)

“Leiter, a right-wing writer affiliated with Kohelet Forum, supports West Bank annexation and was once active in Kahane’s Jewish Defense League. His son died in combat in the Gaza war. The pick signals Netanyahu’s intention to align with Israel’s settler movement ahead of Trump’s new term.” See also Netanyahu appoints hardline backer of settlements as Israeli envoy to US (Guardian 11/8/24)

Trump’s Strange Bedfellows: Arab Americans and Right-Leaning Jews (NYT 11/7/24)

“Along the way to his decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, Mr. Trump drew at least some Arab American and Muslim voters who are outraged by the Biden administration’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza. He managed to do so without alienating the right-leaning American Jews who see Mr. Trump as Israel’s strongest champion…The two groups hold sharply divergent expectations for the president-elect. And both strongly pro-Israel Trump voters and some of Mr. Trump’s Arab American backers are skeptical that his ascent this week is the start of a durable cross-ideological, interfaith coalition…“This was not even a shotgun wedding — it was a blind-date wedding,” James Zogby, a founder of the Arab American Institute in Washington and a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee, said of Mr. Trump’s new support from Arab Americans and Muslims. Mr. Zogby said many of those voters backed the former president to protest the Biden administration’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza, not to affirm his campaign. He anticipated that Mr. Trump would “pursue policies that will make them more furious.” “The more they see what’s going to happen, the less enchanted they’ll be,” he said of Arab Americans. “I don’t expect the right wing in the Jewish community to be disappointed at all, unfortunately.”’ See also For Many Arab Americans in Dearborn, Trump Made the Case for Their Votes (NYT 11/6/24); 79% of US Jews voted for Harris, according to largest preliminary exit poll (Times of Israel 11/6/24)

Former Trump Middle East Envoy: The President-elect Will End the Chaos (Jason Greenblatt//US News 11/7/24)

“A second Trump administration will likely help those who help themselves and who advance America’s interests in having a stable world. Such a policy recognizes, especially in the wake of the devastating events and aftermath of Oct. 7, that Hamas and other Iranian proxies are serious sources of destabilizing violence, and the U.S. supports Israel’s quest to uproot them. Trump has repeatedly said it has to be done quickly. I hope this will include Lebanon as well, so that the Lebanese can have the bright future they deserve. To uproot Hamas and Hezbollah is no easy feat, and of course concern must be given to the loss of innocent lives of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. I believe the president-elect would work with Israel not just to provide statements of support but to supply practical solutions to wrap up the war once it’s established that Hamas and Hezbollah can never repeat their atrocities or attacks…A second Trump administration will be clear-eyed about the Iranian threat to the region without courting a confrontation, though I would not rule out an attack on Iran under certain circumstances. I believe Trump will continue to provide U.S. defensive measures as President Joe Biden has, and hopefully even more. Trump is also likely to reimpose sanctions on Iran, and this time, European and other countries who try to skirt the sanctions should beware. Trump does not have a high tolerance for those who try to undermine his goals.”

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

The Harris Campaign’s Missed Opportunity on Palestine Voters (Yousef Munayyer//TNR 11/4/24)

“But before we go further, it is crucial to understand that voters alienated by the Biden-Harris genocide policy are not only Arab and Muslim Americans, they are all sorts of people from all faiths and backgrounds. The uncommitted vote in Michigan, which was a product of a campaign during the primaries to signal to Democrats that voters could bolt over their genocide policy, pulled thousands of votes from all over the state, not just in the Dearborn area, which has a major concentration of Arab American voters. Polls show us time and again that younger people and people of color, key constituencies in the Democratic base, feel more strongly about this issue than other groups…Given this, it is probably more accurate to speak about a different category of voter. We can call it the Palestine voter. The Palestine voter is not necessarily Palestinian or Arab or Muslim. In fact most of them are probably not, but rather they are voters who are attuned to the suffering of Palestinians and outraged over it enough to cast their ballot based on it…For the Palestine voter, voting for Harris despite the Biden-Harris administration’s genocide policy is a vote to legitimize genocide…Palestine voters also feel that American democracy simply isn’t working. They know that most Americans oppose continued weapons to Israel, they know most Democrats view what is happening as a genocide, they know most Americans wanted to see a cease-fire a year ago; and yet despite where public opinion is, they see government officials who only want to send more weapons to Israel and make excuses for every Israeli war crime while ensuring impunity for Israel in international fora as well.” See also Democrats Ignored Gaza and Brought Down Their Party (Peter Beinart//NYT 11/7/24)

After Trump’s victory, Palestinians cannot afford to wait until the next US election (Samer Badawi//+972 11/7/24)

“But beyond Harris’ decisive loss in the presidential race, several down-ballot contests — especially for seats in the House of Representatives — also pointed to waning support for Israel. In Pennsylvania, the hotly contested swing state that ultimately tilted the election toward Trump, Pittsburgh’s Summer Lee — who has called Israel’s campaign in Gaza a genocide — retained her seat by a large margin. And representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, both outspoken critics of U.S. policy on Israel-Palestine, won easily…In Michigan, a so-called “blue wall” state home to the country’s largest concentration of Arab and Muslim Americans, Tlaib’s down-ballot win alongside Harris’ loss underscores the Democrats’ failed strategy. Although it remains unclear how many of these voters abandoned Harris over her Israel policy or her refusal to allow a Palestinian speaker at the Democratic National Convention, Tlaib’s victory showed that a full-throated defense of Palestinian rights need not be a liability.”

As a former staffer, I feel betrayed by Harris. But Trump would be catastrophic (Lily Greenberg Call//+972 11/2/24)

“In the weeks leading up to this election, I have grappled with the sad truth that neither Harris nor Trump care about the Palestinian people, but one of them will be president in January. Clearly, a Harris administration is not going to be the panacea for the systemic inequalities and injustices we face here at home, nor for America’s disastrous decades of foreign policy across the Arab world. However, a second Trump term would be catastrophic not only for Palestinians, but also for progressive movements for justice and equality across the country…It is also important to note that, under a Trump presidency, the movement for Palestinian rights could be prosecuted out of existence. Earlier this month, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank that authored the controversial Project 2025, unveiled a blueprint for the Trump administration to destroy the Palestine solidarity movement within two years. Under Project Esther, the U.S. government would equate all anti-Zionism and anti-war protests with antisemitism, and move to infiltrate, surveil, and take legal action against groups like Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, and American Muslims for Palestine — all of whom it tarnishes as a global “Hamas support network.”’

Trump Will Work to End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Erasing Palestinian Aspirations (Jack Khoury//Haaretz 11/7/24)

“In contrast to Trump’s previous term, Palestinian reality in the near future is expected to be considerably harder: no pressure for a withdrawal from Gaza, no negotiations for a diplomatic solution and no talk of a plan that will halt the settlement project…As Palestinians see it, Trump will work to end the conflict – not through the realization of Palestinian national aspirations but through their erasure. Just as was done in the American continent centuries ago, the Palestinians will be forced to play the role of Native Americans…A continuation of the rift between Palestinian factions (proof of an utter lack of vision), the hollow vying for supremacy and the conflicts of interest in the Arab world will render the Palestinians easy prey for Trump’s assertiveness and Netanyahu’s settler-government.”

 

1. New from FMEP

2. Gaza

3. Region/Global

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene + Activism & Repression

6. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

Israel’s UNRWA Ban: What it means for Gaza, the UN and the World (Webinar 11/1/24)

On Monday, despite warnings by the international community against such a step, Israel’s Knesset voted overwhelmingly to adopt two laws that effectively ban the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency that has served the needs of Palestinian refugees since 1949, from operating in Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories (West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem). Since Israel’s war on Gaza began more than a year ago, UNRWA has been the primary provider of urgently needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, where 2 million people face catastrophic humanitarian conditions, including mass starvation and disease. Numerous governments from across the world, including the Biden administration, have warned that ending UNRWA operations would have far-reaching and disastrous humanitarian consequences, particularly in Gaza. To address the background to and implications of Israel’s UNRWA ban — for Palestinians, the wider region, and UN/humanitarian interventions worldwide — the Middle East Institute (MEI) and Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) are pleased to invite you to join a virtual panel discussion featuring Roland Friedrich, Director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank; Mona Jebril, Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge; Alexander Smith, JD/MPH/MA, former USAID official (resigned May 2024); and Moderated by: Khaled Elgindy, Middle East Institute &  Lara Friedman, Foundation for Middle East Peace.

FMEP Legislative Round-Up October 25, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Elex/Politics; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

Settlement & Annexation Report: October 25, 2024 (Kristin McCarthy)

1. Three New (Violent) Outposts Reported; 2. Nachala Movement, Ministers Prepare for Gaza Settlement & Call for Expulsion of Palestinians; 3. IDF Recruits, Pays Settlers in Reserves to Guard Outposts; 4. Settlers Continue to Terrorize Palestinians & Hamper Olive Harvest; 5. Bonus Reads

Holding Israeli Media Accountable: Incitement to Genocide is a Crime (new podcast episode)

FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with Israeli human rights attorney Alon Sapir about the legal complaint he recently filed, together with other Israeli attorneys, accusing Israeli media Channel 14 of incitement to genocide against Palestinians and other grave crimes. As Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza continues, intensifying especially in northern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians face mass displacement and forced hunger, the legal effort Alon describes represents one concrete attempt to hold promoters of genocide accountable for their speech and actions.

Israel’s Plans for a “New Order” in the Middle East (new podcast episode)

FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks with Mouin Rabbani about Israel’s war on Gaza, its offensive in Lebanon, and how these and other developments fit into Israel’s broader objectives in the region, most notably with respect to Iran. Mouin is widely published analyst and commentator on Palestinian affairs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the contemporary Middle East.

GAZA

‘Entire population of north Gaza at risk of dying,’ warns UN’s top humanitarian official (UN News 10/26/24)

““What Israeli forces are doing in besieged north Gaza cannot be allowed to continue,” said Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a statement posted on the social media platform X. Hospitals have been hit, health workers detained and first responders prevented from rescuing people trapped under the rubble, she noted. “Shelters have been emptied and burned down…families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload,” she added. According to reports, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since Israeli security forces renewed their offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced again. “The entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying,” Ms. Msuya warned. “Such blatant disregard for basic humanity and for the laws of war must stop.”’ See also Gaza war’s ‘darkest moment’ unfolding in north, UN says (BBC 10/25/24); People in northern Gaza running out of means to survive, U.N. says (WaPo 10/24/24)

Gaza aid falls to lowest level since start of war despite US warning to Israel (FT 10/29/24)

“Aid to Gaza has fallen to its lowest level since the war began, despite the US warning Israel that military assistance could be at risk if conditions did not improve. US secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of defence Lloyd Austin wrote to the Israeli government on October 13 giving Israel 30 days to “surge all forms of humanitarian assistance” in the strip and “end isolation of northern Gaza” immediately. But humanitarian officials say conditions have deteriorated still further since the leaked letter was sent two weeks ago, with aid entering Gaza at a lower rate in October than in any month since the start of the war a year ago…Gaza’s north remains largely cut off from aid and under heavy bombardment, with tens of thousands of residents displaced under forced evacuation orders.” See also The Aid Workers Who Risk Their Lives to Bring Relief to Gaza (Dorothy Wickenden//New Yorker 10/28/28)

What to know about UNRWA, the U.N. organization banned by Israel (WaPo 10/30/24)

“It is hard to overstate the role of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip.The agency, long a major employer in Gaza, is a source of aid, but also social services, health care and education, fulfilling in practice what elsewhere would fall to the state. As the only U.N. agency dedicated solely to one group of refugees, UNRWA operates beyond Gaza in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Most of its 30,000 workers are Palestinian refugees. A pair of laws passed by the Israeli Knesset this week, however, could imperil its ability to work in Gaza. Here’s what to know about UNRWA.” See also What Will Israel’s UNRWA Ban Look Like for Palestinians? Experts Warn of ‘A Massive Ripple Effect’ (Haaretz 10/30/24); Israel has banned the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. That could be devastating for millions (CNN 10/30/24); Western Countries Condemn Israel’s Ban on UNRWA, Warm of Worsening Crisis Without Alternative Aid (Haaretz 10/29/24)

Israeli strikes kill 95 Palestinians across Gaza, hospital targeted (Al Jazeera 11/1/24)

“At least 95 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip, mainly in the north of the enclave where a hospital was attacked, medical supplies were torched and operations were disrupted, health officials said. A vast majority of the victims in Thursday’s attacks were civilians in northern Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera. The Israeli military’s shelling of central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, the Nuseirat refugee camp and the az-Zawayda areas also left dozens wounded from attacks on Thursday night that continued into Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Most of those killed were women and children, Wafa reported, as medical sources confirmed that 47 bodies were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah.” See also Israeli strikes reportedly kill more than 150 in northern Gaza and Lebanon (Al Jazeera 10/29/24); Plight of Gaza civilians ‘unbearable’ as Israel kills over 50 in a day (Al Jazeera 10/27/24); Israeli Strike on Hospital in Jabalya in Northern Gaza Kills 33, Including at Least 21 Women and Children (Haaretz 10/19/24); Israeli strike kills at least 73 people in northern Gaza, medics say (WaPo 10/19/24);

Inside the siege of northern Gaza, where ‘death waits around every corner’ (Mohammed R. Mhawish, Ola Al Asi and Ibrahim Mohammad//+972 10/23/24)

“Limbs scattered on the streets, shelters set ablaze, hundreds trapped inside hospitals: Palestinians detail the apocalyptic scenes of Israel’s latest campaign.” See also ‘I see my wife and son burning every time I close my eyes’ (Ibtisam Mahdi//+972 10/18/24); He Dreamed of Escaping Gaza. The World Watched Him Burned Alive. (NYT 10/21/24); Israeli strike on school sheltering displaced families in Jabalia kills 28 (Al Jazeera 10/17/24);

The Murderous Logistics of Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing Campaign in Northern Gaza (Sharif Abdoul Kouddous & Abubaker Abed//Drop Site News 10/23/24)

“For the past 19 days, the Israeli military has waged a concentrated campaign of extermination and ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, according to medical staff and eyewitnesses who have been speaking to Drop Site News. The IDF has besieged the area with troops, blocked roads, and constructed earthen barriers, while cutting off access to food, water, fuel, and medical supplies. From the air, it has targeted homes, shelters, schools and hospitals with relentless airstrikes. Quadcopters are shooting civilians in the streets. Amid shelling and demolitions on the ground, soldiers have rounded up residents, arresting hundreds and forcing tens of thousands to march south. “This is the first time since the beginning of the war that the occupation army has besieged an area and then begun a campaign of bombing, killing and starvation in such a complete way,” Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told the Palestinian press agency Safa. In one of the deadliest incidents, at least 87 people were killed or have been reported missing following an airstrike on a residential block in Beit Lahia on Saturday.” See also For Gaza’s schoolchildren, another year of destruction, loss, and uncertainty (Ruwaida Kamal Amer and Ibtisam Mahdi//+972 10/24/24); UN should consider suspending Israel over ‘genocide’ against Palestinians, says special rapporteur (Guardian 10/31/24)

‘”Our Job Is to Flatten Gaza. No One Will Stop Us”: Inside One Israeli Battalion’s Yearlong Mission Of Destruction” (Younis Tirawi and Sami Vanderlip//Drop Site News 10/22/24)

“Journalists Younis Tirawi and Sami Vanderlip have managed to find and archive all the Instagram stories and daily posts shared by the soldiers of one key unit, Israel’s 749 Combat Engineering Battalion. They’ve mapped out the structure of the unit and identified the individual soldiers and officers involved, along with their various roles in operations. They have tracked the activities of each company in the battalion, including what they were doing, when, and where, as the force shred their way through Gaza. The mission is nothing less than a systematic, concerted, and deliberate effort to erase the intellectual, cultural, and social future of the Palestinian people. “Our job is to flatten Gaza,” the soldiers of the official D9 company of the battalion wrote on their Instagram page. They added, accurately: “No one will stop us.”…The following is a thorough account of the acts committed by the 749 battalion, complete with the evidence they post themselves. These are not just isolated events, but represent a pattern that runs through the very heart of the Israeli military—a sadistic attitude toward the civilians of Gaza, whose futures they have been tasked with blowing up or flattening. If sadistic sounds harsh, read through this dispatch and ask yourself if it’s not, in the end, too soft of a description.” See also Fears for six Palestinian journalists after Israel names them as targets (Al Jazeera 10/24/24); Al Jazeera rejects Israeli claim that its journalists have militant links (WaPo 10/24/24)

A Cartography of Genocide: Israel’s Conduct in Gaza since October 2023 (Forensic Architecture)

“Since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, Forensic Architecture has been collecting data related to attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure by the Israeli military. Our analysis of this conduct reveals the near-total destruction of civilian life in Gaza. We have also collected and analysed evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military directing Palestinian civilians to areas of Gaza designated as ‘safe’. These orders have resulted in the repeated, large-scale displacement of the Palestinian population across Gaza, often to areas which subsequently came under attack. The patterns we have observed concerning Israel’s military conduct in Gaza indicate a systematic and organised campaign to destroy life, conditions necessary for life, and life-sustaining infrastructure…The platform and report present a comprehensive mapping of military conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023. They deploy spatial and pattern analysis to observe the ways in which Israel’s military operations entailed widespread civilian harm.”

Will there be a future for newborns in Gaza? (Bilal Irfan, Abdallah Abu Shammala, Khaled Saleh//The Lancet 10/23/24)

“Our teams, comprising international physicians working in tandem with local Palestinian health-care workers, have witnessed first-hand the collapse of Gaza’s health-care infrastructure during medical missions. People are being left to navigate an impossible situation: the once-celebratory event of childbirth has now become a matter of survival. Prenatal care is virtually non-existent in Gaza. The rise in premature labour is staggering, often triggered by the chronic stress of displacement, malnutrition, and the trauma of witnessing air strikes. As hospitals struggle to keep up with mass casualties, maternity wards are becoming non-functional. In some cases, women have had to deliver babies outside, in unsanitary conditions, without the assistance of midwives or doctors. This reproductive violence is not just a consequence of the military assault—it is a deliberate outcome of policies that restrict access to health care.”

REGION/GLOBAL

Israel has damaged or destroyed nearly a quarter of buildings in Lebanon’s south (WaPo 10/31/24)

“Nearly a quarter of all buildings in 25 Lebanese municipalities near the Israeli border had been damaged or destroyed as of Saturday, according to an analysis of satellite data by The Washington Post — illustrating the far-reaching toll of Israel’s land and air war against Hezbollah…The vast majority of the damage — almost 80 percent — has occurred since Oct. 2, the day after Israel launched its ground invasion. Since then, the destruction has continued at a rapid pace, roughly doubling every two weeks, even as Israeli officials signal they are willing to begin negotiations to wind down the war.” See also Israel pounds Beirut’s southern suburbs after US truce push (Reuters 11/1/24); Israel Demolished Hundreds of Buildings in Southern Lebanon, Videos and Satellite Images Show (NYT 10/30/24)

Leaked document outlines Lebanon-Israel cease-fire, might be reached in ‘hours or days’ (Al Monitor 10/30/24)

“A leaked document, purportedly of the Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire proposal drawn up by senior US presidential advisor Amos Hochstein, was published by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on Wednesday.
The document emerged as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Naijb Mikati, expressed optimism that a cease-fire could be reached “hours or days” after speaking on the phone with Hochstein…The document, dated Oct. 29, outlines a multiphase process, the first phase being a 60-day implementation period during which the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) will deploy to the Lebanon-Israel border and work to disarm Hezbollah. Israel’s military will withdraw from Lebanon within seven days of a cessation of hostilities and be replaced by the LAF. United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers will aid in the transition.” See also What Naim Qassem’s ascension as Hezbollah leader means for Iran, Lebanon (Al Monitor 10/29/24); Tyre, Lebanon’s ancient city, bombarded by Israeli airstrikes (Al Monitor 10/28/24)

What visuals reveal about the impact of Israeli strikes on Iran (WaPo 10/29/24)

“Israeli airstrikes on Iran last week damaged the country’s missile production capabilities and air defenses, an analysis of satellite imagery showed, in an attack that analysts said will limit Tehran’s ability to retaliate and set Iranian deterrence policy back years. Though Iran downplayed the extent of the impact, satellite imagery analyzed by The Washington Post shows damage to two radar sites associated with Iran’s air defenses and at least three sites associated with missile production.” See also Israel met ‘all its objectives’ in strike; Iran vows response (WaPo 10/27/24); Israel strike crippled Iran’s missile production, sources say (Axios 10/26/24); Iran preparing major retaliatory strike from Iraq within days, Israeli intel suggests (Axios 10/31/24); Pentagon denies role in Israel’s Iran strikes after warning against nuclear targets (Al Monitor 10/28/24)

Saudi-Israel normalization ‘off table’ until Palestinian statehood, FM says (Al Monitor 10/31/24)

““I would say certainly normalization with [Israel] is not just at risk. It is off the table until we have a resolution to Palestinian statehood,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan told the Future Investment Initiative forum in Riyadh.“I would say that it is not just the issue of normalization with the kingdom that is at risk; I would say that the security of the region as a whole is at risk if we do not address the rights of the Palestinians,” he added.” See also CIA director floated month-long Gaza ceasefire, hostage deal in Doha (Axios 10/28/24); Hamas rejects any hostage deal that doesn’t end war, despite mediators’ efforts (Times of Israel 10/31/24)

RIVER TO THE SEA

Israeli forces killed 165 Palestinian children in West Bank over past year: UN (New Arab 10/25/24)

“Israeli forces have killed at least 165 children in the West Bank  over the past year, the UN has said. Of those killed, at least 129 were killed by Israeli live ammunition “mostly in the upper body and head”, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said, while 36 were killed by air strikes. The latest child to be killed was 11-year-old Abdullah Jamal Hawash, who was shot during a raid in Nablus on Tuesday.”

‘Copy-paste the West Bank to Gaza’: Hundreds join Gaza resettlement event (Oren Ziv//+972 10/22/24)

““We came here with one clear purpose: to settle the entire Gaza Strip.” That was the declaration of Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss at a gathering of hundreds of right-wing Israelis near Gaza on Monday, where they celebrated the Jewish festival of Sukkot by calling to erect settlements inside the besieged enclave. This was not the biggest event of the past year to promote that demand…But this well-organized, calm, and joyous gathering — which was approved and held against all logic in a closed military zone near the border, and was attended by several senior figures in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party — marked a new step in the effort to mainstream the idea of resettling Gaza with Jewish Israelis. And while the Israeli government has repeatedly denied to U.S. officials that the army is implementing the so-called “Generals’ Plan” to besiege, starve, and expel the residents of northern Gaza before annexing the territory to Israel, it was evident that participants in Monday’s event were counting on such a plan to cleanse the area for Jewish settlement.” See also ‘The Arabs will disappear’: emboldened Israeli settlers eye return to Gaza (Guardian 10/31/24)

Red Alert: Mapping a Year of 28,000 Rocket, Missile and Drone Attacks on Israel (Haaretz 10/15/24)

“The map of alerts below documents all of the sirens heard in Israel warning of imminent rocket, missile and drone attacks. The map lists all alerts heard in every month, in every Israeli community (the greater the number of alerts, the bigger the point marker), and is constantly updated with every additional attack. The map shows how, as the weeks and months have gone by, fire from the northern front (principally Hezbollah) has intensified, while fire from the south (Hamas) has weakened. The map is automatically animated and you can click to view a specific month….The map of alerts below documents all of the sirens heard in Israel warning of imminent rocket, missile and drone attacks. The map lists all alerts heard in every month, in every Israeli community (the greater the number of alerts, the bigger the point marker), and is constantly updated with every additional attack. The map shows how, as the weeks and months have gone by, fire from the northern front (principally Hezbollah) has intensified, while fire from the south (Hamas) has weakened. The map is automatically animated and you can click to view a specific month.” See also 7 people killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks, marking deadliest day in months for north (Times of Israel 10/31/24);

From attack dogs to prison time, this is how Israel is trying to thwart my activism (Sami Huraini//+972 Magazine 10/24/24)

“This is not the first time I have been arrested, humiliated, and tortured by the Israeli army. In fact, this latest incident is one part of an ongoing and targeted campaign of harassment against me, which began over three years ago, and against my community for decades…Even before this legal persecution began, it was clear that the Israeli army uses these tactics — arbitrary arrests, beatings, perpetually delayed legal proceedings, and long jail sentences — to make an example of human rights activists, to discourage and frighten Palestinians from exercising their basic right to protest the occupation and theft of their land. It is something my family members have dealt with for generations.

On Israeli TV, Extremism Reigns and the Gaza Horror Is Completely Screened Out (Haaretz 10/22/24)

“As the war in Gaza and Lebanon rages, Israel’s news broadcasters go morally bankrupt: Palestinian victims and the destruction in Gaza are nonexistent, Arab commentators are excluded, and the army spokesperson has almost absolute control over the coverage.” See also ‘They Only Understand Force’: The Deadly Racism Behind Israel’s Policy Toward the Palestinians (Dahlia Scheindlin//Haaretz 10/22/24); Israel’s Most Beloved TV Journalist Blew Up a Building in Lebanon. Israelis Didn’t Blink (Haaretz 10/27/24)

We, Israelis, are calling for global pressure on Israel to force an immediate ceasefire – Open letter (Guardian 10/24/24)

“We, Israeli citizens residing in Israel and abroad, call on the international community – the UN and its institutions, the United States, the European Union, the League of Arab States, and all states around the world – to intervene immediately and implement every possible sanction towards achieving an immediate ceasefire between Israel and its neighbors, for the future of both peoples in Israel and Palestine and the peoples of the region and for their rights to security and life…We are motivated by our love for the land and its residents, and we are concerned for their future…The state of Israel is on a suicidal path and sows destruction and devastation that increase day by day…Please, for our futures and the futures of all of the residents of Israel and the region, save us from ourselves and use real pressure on Israel for an immediate ceasefire.” See also ‘He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him’: Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide (CNN 10/21/24)

Israeli Soldiers Attacked Military Police at Gunpoint for Arresting Comrades Over Sde Teiman Abuse (Haaretz 10/15/24)

“Israeli soldiers from Force 100, which guards Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman detention camp in Israel, attacked military police investigators in July when they came to arrest their colleagues on suspicion of abusing and sodomizing a Gazan detainee, according to investigative military policemen involved in the arrest. The soldiers seized the suspects from the investigators at gunpoint and barricaded themselves with the suspects in another building at the base. Even though the military police has witness testimonies to the assault, it has not investigated, on the grounds that the assaulted soldiers are afraid to officially complain even though in its aftermath, some of the investigators involved stopped fulfilling operational roles, and one stopped showing up for reserves duty.” See also Beatings, Humiliation and Torture: The IDF’s Night of Terror at a Palestinian Refugee Camp (Haaretz 10/25/24); Israeli Settlers Recruit Reservists to Guard West Bank Outposts and Help Form New Ones (Haaretz 10/20/24)

A Palestinian Family Goes to Pick Up Olives. It Ends in an Execution by Israeli Soldiers (Gideon Levy//Haaretz 10/30/24)

“Hanan Abu Salameh, 59, was gathering olives with her family in their own grove near the West Bank village of Faqqua, near Jenin, when an Israeli military truck pulled over and a soldier opened gunfire, says her son Fares, 40. His father waved at the man to stop shooting but he went on. Trying to escape, the family ran to their tractor. Hanan fell down on her back. When Fares and Hossam hurried to pick her up, they saw a wound in her chest. They rushed her to the hospital, but it was too late. This is the family’s account of how their first harvest day ended last week. Although occupation authorities had explicitly permitted Faqqua farmers to pick olives, this harvest ended in bloodshed, killing a mother of seven and grandmother of 14. Hanan’s murderer is still walking free and might not even be held to account for her death.”

The Israeli task force deporting foreign activists from the West Bank (Oren Ziv//+972 10/31/24)

“Solidarity volunteers describe threatening interrogations, false charges, and swift expulsion orders by a new police unit established by Ben Gvir.”

U.S. SCENE + ACTIVISM & REPRESSION

U.S. inundated with claims that American arms killed Gaza civilians (WaPo 10/30/24)

“The Biden administration has received nearly 500 reports alleging that Israel used U.S.-supplied weapons for attacks that caused unnecessary harm to civilians in the Gaza Strip, but it has failed to comply with its own policies requiring swift investigations of such claims, according to people familiar with the matter…Yet despite the State Department’s internal Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, which directs officials to complete an investigation and recommend action within two months of launching an inquiry, no single case has reached the “action” stage, current and former officials told The Washington Post. More than two-thirds of cases remain unresolved, they said, with many pending response from the Israeli government, which the State Department consults to verify each case’s circumstances.”

Arab American voters struggle to back Harris over U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza (PBS 10/29/24)

““I love this country, but I’ll tell you, we have never been so disappointed in this country as we are now,” said Nabih H. Ayad, chairman of the Arab American Civil Rights League. “We wanted to give the Democratic Party the opportunity to do something, and they haven’t.” “The one line we can’t cross,” Ayad said, “is genocide.”…If Harris loses Michigan and the presidential election next week, it’s conversations like this one that could explain why. The Detroit area has the country’s largest concentration of Arab Americans, and Democrats fear that Harris will pay a steep political price for U.S. support for Israel, which rejects allegations that its military operations in Gaza constitute a genocide. Community members who normally back Democrats said they face an impossible decision. Either they punish Harris for what they view as complicity in the deaths of at least 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, or they endure Donald Trump ‘s return to the White House, which they fear would revive discrimination toward their community.” See also Scarred by Trump and Biden, Palestinians remain pessimistic over US election (Al Monitor 10/30/24); Michigan’s Lebanese Americans Feel Abandoned by Democrats (Foreign Policy 10/28/24); On campaign trail for Harris in Michigan, Bill Clinton defends Israel’s war in Gaza (Times of Israel 11/1/24); Bill Clinton criticised for saying Israel ‘forced’ to kill Gaza civilians (Al Jazeera 10/31/24)

Former ADL chief Abe Foxman slams group for muted response to Trump’s MSG rally (JTA 10/30/24)

“When Jonathan Greenblatt used his platform as the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League on Monday to condemn a certain act of bigotry, his longtime predecessor atop the ADL, Abe Foxman, took notice — not just of what Greenblatt said but also of what he didn’t say that day. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Greenblatt joined a chorus of voices condemning a conservative commentator for implying on-air that a fellow guest on a CNN program was a member of Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Greenblatt was silent on the day’s much larger topic of discussion: Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, which many, including Foxman, saw as a grotesque spectacle of antisemitism, racism, xenophobia and misogyny. “I’m reluctant to criticize my successor, but, hello, he went after this guy on CNN yesterday, and couldn’t mention Trump, it’s a little bizarre,” Foxman, who led the ADL for decades and has endorsed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency…Foxman also broadened his critique to a slew of major American Jewish organizations that he said have abdicated their duty by refraining from speaking out about Trump’s rally.” See also ‘America is for Americans and Americans only’: How Trump 2.0 evokes the Nazis (The Forward 10/28/24)

Project 2025 Creators Have a Plan to ‘Dismantle’ Pro-Palestine Movement (Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain//Drop Site 10/29/24)

“The architects of Project 2025 at the conservative Heritage Foundation have drafted a plan to break the pro-Palestinian movement in the U.S., in anticipation of a victory by Donald Trump victory in next week’s presidential election. The plan, dubbed “Project Esther,” casts pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S. as members of a global conspiracy aligned with designated terrorist organizations. As part of a so-called “Hamas Support Network,” these protesters receive “indispensable support of a vast network of activists and funders with a much more ambitious, insidious goal—the destruction of capitalism and democracy,” Project Esther’s authors allege…To achieve its goals, Project Esther proposes the use of counterterrorism and hate speech laws, as well as immigration measures, including the deportation of students and other individuals in the United States on foreign visas for taking part in pro-Palestinian activities. It also advocates deploying the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law placing disclosure obligations on parties representing foreign interests, against organizations that the report’s authors imply are funded and directed from abroad…Project Esther’s authors envision their campaign unfolding in a series of stages: first, the purging of “propaganda” from school curricula, followed by an intimidation campaign to dissuade students from joining demonstrations, and restrictions on social media communication, gatherings, and other forms of coordination between pro-Palestinian groups. The end of the process leads to a moment when both the U.S. public and a “preponderance of Jewish community perceives HSOs”—short for Hamas Support Organizations—“as a threat to their safety.” These steps, Project Esther’s authors pledge, will break the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States “within 12 to 24 months.”’ See also ‘Project Esther’: The Right-Wing Group Behind Project 2025 Has a Plan to Crack Down on America’s Pro-Palestine Movement (Prem Thakker//Zeteo 10/29/24); House Education Committee: University leaders ‘turned their backs’ on Jewish students (Jewish Insider 10/31/24); US and Canada impose sanctions,d blacklist pro-Palestinian group Samidoun (Al Jazeera 10/15/24)

Foundations leverage funding to suppress support for Palestine (Prism 10/21/24)

“According to workers from nonprofit organizations that spoke to Prism, over the last year, risk-averse funders and Zionist foundations have withdrawn hundreds of thousands in funding and canceled future grants for nonprofits that criticize Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Crushing power dynamics between foundations and nonprofits have long existed in the progressive funding space—and the genocide is illuminating the limits of foundations’ commitment to liberatory work. Even more troubling, many of the nonprofits that have had their funding slashed in recent months are led by women of color who serve communities of color.” See also 1000+ Authors Refuse Collaboration with Complicit Israeli Publishers in Mass Declaration (Palestine Festival of Literature 10/28/24); Top Law Firms Shrink From the Heat of the Mideast Conflict (NYT 10/25/24); Partners for Progressive Israel Becomes First U.S. Zionist Group to Call for Halt in Offensive Aid to Israel (Haaretz 10/30/24); Palestinian student stripped of UK visa after Gaza remarks wins human rights appeal (Guardian 10/30/24)

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

Why ‘From the River to the Sea’ still echoes across campuses one year into protests (Maha Nassar//The Forward 10/24/24)

“The debate over this phrase  reflects a larger generational divide in how Americans, including American Jews, view this conflict. Rather than demonizing young people who call for a free Palestine, or repressing free speech altogether, we should seek to understand why so many people — especially young people — are calling for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.”… “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” encapsulates their desire for a region where everyone can live with freedom, dignity, and safety.”

Reimagining Palestine After One Year of Genocide (Yara Hawari//Al Shabaka 10/22/24)

“After a year of enduring relentless violence and devastation, Palestinians stand at a pivotal moment. This commentary reflects on the immense losses for the Palestinian people since October 2023 and the emerging opportunities to work towards a future free of settler colonial oppression. It argues that now is the time for the movement to shift from a reactive stance to one that defines its own priorities. As part of this transition, this commentary outlines three necessary steps: moving beyond a reliance on international law, deepening connections in the Global South, and dedicating resources to exploring radical visions of a liberated future.”

Exile From Gaza (Jewish Currents)

“Jewish Currents spoke to four Palestinians who have been pushed out of Gaza in the past year: Zak Hania, who spoke to the magazine in February for our Rafah dispatches and who was separated from his family for almost nine months after he was arbitrarily prevented from leaving by Israel; Safa and Amal Al-Majdalawi, two sisters who made it to limbo in Cairo after their brother paid for their way out; and Mohammed Ghalayini, a British Palestinian scientist whose new life in the Gaza Strip was violently halted in its tracks. The interviewees describe the horrors they fled but cannot escape, the impossible choices they had to make in the process of leaving, and the halting process of trying to rebuild themselves from the rubble. These dispatches have been edited for length and clarity.”

What Was I Doing While Israel Was Killing civilians in Gaza? (Michael Sfard//Haaretz 10/28/24)

“Dresden pales in comparison to what we have done in Gaza. We have bombed indiscriminately, pulverized blatantly civilian targets and obliterated civilian infrastructure that makes life possible in the Gaza Strip, that became one huge Ground Zero. We have killed some two percent of its population, the vast majority of victims being civilians. And the worst thing is, we have grown used to that. Israelis do not bat an eye when they hear reports of dozens of children and women killed in a bombing. They just don’t care. These attacks, where dozens of human beings, who just like us love, dream, hurt, have family and friends – are slaughtered (I have no other word) by our military, became a routine. Any death of “innocent bystanders” used to be extensively reported, even raising public debate. Today, a year into the war, reports of displaced persons’ camps in which refugees were burned (and it is not a metaphor!) hardly make it to the fleeting war updates on news websites. We are exterminating, yes, e-x-t-e-r-m-i-n-a-t-i-n-g, life in the Gaza Strip. And the best HBO series keep appearing on our streaming platforms.”

With or without Sinwar, Netanyahu has no interest in ending the war (Meron Rapoport//+972 10/30/24)

“The Hamas leader’s death could make the return of Palestinian governance in Gaza more likely. For Israel’s government, that scenario must be thwarted.”

The Case for a New Arab Peace Initiative (Marwan Muasher//Foreign Affairs 10/29/24)

“The time has come for a fundamental shift in how the world approaches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather than focusing on a two-state solution as the be-all and end-all of the dispute, international leaders should focus first on ensuring that Palestinians and Israelis have equal rights. Outside governments should, specifically, pressure both peoples to agree to common rules and principles—leaving the shape of the solution for later. And they should let Arab states lead the way in promoting a rights-based resolution to the conflict…Focusing on the rights of Israelis and Palestinians, not their governments’ dueling claims to sovereignty, will push the communities toward a solution in which both can live in peace and dignity. It is the only viable alternative for both communities. It fits within the framework of two states, one state, or even a federation. And it is the best way to end the carnage and promote security and stability in a tragically tumultuous region.”

If It Looks Like Ethnic Cleansing, It Probably Is (Haaretz Editorial 10/29/24)

“For three and a half weeks, Israeli forces have been besieging the northern Gaza Strip. Israel has almost completely blocked the entry of humanitarian aid, thereby starving the hundreds of thousands of people who live there. Information emerging from the besieged area is only partial, because ever since the war began, Israel has barred journalists from entering Gaza. But even based on the little that has been revealed to the public, two things can be said about the siege. First, the scale of the civilian casualties from the army’s daily bombings of towns and refugee camps in northern Gaza – children, women, elderly people and men who are innocent of any crime – is enormous. Moreover, medical and other aid facilities have largely collapsed, and other institutions are also collapsing. Consequently, hundreds of thousands of people are now at risk of starvation or are already suffering terrible hunger…Israel is sliding into ethnic cleansing; its soldiers are carrying out the criminal policies of the messianic, Kahanist right; and even the opposition on the center and center-left isn’t making a peep. This consensus behind ethnic cleansing is shameful, and every public leader who doesn’t demand an end to the de facto expulsion is supporting this crime and has become a party to it. If this process doesn’t stop immediately, hundreds of thousands of people will become refugees, entire communities will be destroyed and the moral and legal stain of this crime will cling to and pursue every Israeli.” See also Is Israel carrying out de facto ethnic cleansing? (Ishaan Tharoor//WaPo 10/25/25)

Why the Democrats were Israel’s perfect partners in genocide (Tariq Kenney-Shawa//+972 10/29/24)

“By masking support for Israel with hollow humanitarian gestures and empathy for Palestinians, Biden and Harris have diluted pressure to end the war.”

 

1. New from FMEP

2. Region//Global

3. Gaza

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

“The clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground” — Ta-Nehisi Coates & Peter Beinart (New Occupied Thoughts episode)

FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates about Coates’ new book, The Message. Coates’ website describes this part of the book this way: “Coates travels to Palestine, where he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narratives, and the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground.”

REGION/DIPLOMACY

Biden sends antimissile system and 100 troops to Israel, deepening U.S. role (WaPo 10/13/24)

The United States is sending one of its most advanced missile defense systems and about 100 U.S. troops to Israel, deepening U.S. involvement in the escalating war in the Middle East amid U.S. expectations of an imminent Israeli assault on Iran. The mission marks the first significant deployment of U.S. troops to Israel since the war in Gaza began…The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system, or THAAD, is the latest indication that the United States expects the Israeli assault to be “so comprehensive that the Iranians will have to respond,” said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert who has advised multiple Republican and Democratic administrations. The THAAD deployment adds to the more than 50,000 tons of armaments and military equipment the United States has sent Israel since the start of the war last October, according to Israel’s Defense Ministry.”

U.S. demands Israel improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza or risk military aid (Axios 10/15/24)

“The Biden administration sent a letter to Israeli leaders on Monday demanding Israel take steps within 30 days to improve the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza or risk the supply of U.S. weapons to Israel being affected, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Axios…Israeli authorities closed crossings into Gaza earlier this month, halting deliveries of food and essential supplies to 400,000 Palestinians before some trucks were able to enter again on Monday…Countries that receive U.S. military aid and are in an active military conflict must allow the transfer of U.S.-supported humanitarian aid without interruption, according to U.S. law and a national security memorandum signed by President Biden in February. Failure to do so could lead to the suspension of U.S. military aid…The letter sent Monday from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and Minister of Defense Yoav Galant signals the Biden administration doesn’t think Israel is implementing its commitments. The letter was the most wide-ranging and comprehensive list of U.S. demands from Israel since the beginning of the war.” See also Israel lets 50 aid trucks into northern Gaza after US threat to curb arms deliveries (Times of Israel 10/17/24); U.S. warns Israel arms transfers could halt unless humanitarian situation in Gaza improves (WaPo 10/15/24)

Israeli jets pummel southern Lebanon and Beirut suburbs (Al Jazeera 10/16/24)

“Israel has ramped up air strikes across Lebanon, killing a city mayor, toppling buildings and causing widespread destruction in several southern areas. The latest strikes came with Israel under increasing international pressure after its forces attacked United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon, causing several injuries. The Israeli army said its warplanes struck dozens of targets linked to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in the southern city of Nabatieh on Wednesday. The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 16 people were killed and 52 injured in the strikes on two municipal buildings, adding that rescuers were searching for survivors.” See also Hezbollah launches rocket attacks on central Israel after deadly Haifa strike (Al Monitor 10/14/24); Israeli strike kills Lebanese mayor at meeting to coordinate aid deliveries (Guardian 10/16/24); Where a Million Desperate People Are Finding Shelter in Lebanon (NYT 10/16/24); With Lebanon under Israeli bombardment, over 200,000 flee to war-torn Syria (Al Monitor 10/13/24); The UN says over 400,000 children in Lebanon have been displaced in 3 weeks by war (AP 10/15/24); Lebanon’s Hospitals Buckle Amid Israel’s Offensive Against Hezbollah (NYT 10/15/24)

Netanyahu tells U.S. that Israel will strike Iranian military, not nuclear or oil, targets, officials say (WaPo 10/15/24)

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Biden administration he is willing to strike military rather than oil or nuclear facilities in Iran, according to two officials familiar with the matter, suggesting a more limited counterstrike aimed at preventing a full-scale war…President Joe Biden has said publicly he would not support an Israeli strike on nuclear-related sites.” See also France again bans Israeli firms from defense fair, deepening diplomatic rift (Al Monitor 10/16/24)

UNIFIL says Israeli tank fired at peacekeepers watchtower in Lebanon (Al Jazeera 10/16/24)

“UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon say Israeli forces have fired at one of their positions in the south in a “direct and apparently deliberate” attack that damaged a watchtower. The incident is the latest in a series of Israeli attacks and violations against peacekeepers in Lebanon and comes as Israel expands its bombardment and ground attacks on the country, killing hundreds of people and displacing nearly a quarter of the population. On Sunday, UNIFIL said Israeli troops “forcibly entered” a UNIFIL position near the village of Ramyah, crossing the UN-mandated Blue Line, the de facto border between Israel and Lebanon, with two tanks.” See also What is Unifil and why has Israel been firing on its positions in Lebanon? (Guardian 10/15/24)

Hezbolla drone attack kills four IDF soldiers as US prepares to send missile system to Israel (Guardian 10/13/24)

“A Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others on Sunday, the Israeli military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago. Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city a retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defence systems during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.”

 

GAZA

UN says 400,000 trapped in north Gaza as Israel ups strikes, limits aid (Al Monitor 10/15/24)

“The Gaza-based Health Ministry said in a Tuesday statement that 55 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll from the year-long Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip to more than 42,000 with over 99,000 injuries…On Oct. 5, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for several areas of the northern Gaza Strip including hospitals as Israeli tanks began what the military says is an operation to eliminate “terrorist infrastructure and terrorists.” On the same day, Israeli forces laid siege to Jabalia and its refugee camp, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, with UN agencies saying the operation has severely restricted aid entry after Israeli forces closed the main crossings into the northern part of the Strip earlier this month. On Tuesday the Biden administration sent a letter to the Israeli government demanding to see improvement in the humanitarian situation or risk the disruption of US arms shipments, according to reports. More than 50,000 people have fled the Jabalia area since then, while nearly 400,000 remained trapped in the north amid intense bombardment, according to UN humanitarian agency OCHA.” See also Israel is turning northern Gaza into a killing cage (Jeremy Scahill & Sharif Abdel Kouddous//Drop Site 10/14/24); UN says no food has entered northern Gaza since start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of starvation (CNN 10/11/24); Israel kills at least 50 in Gaza, tanks deepen raid in the north (Reuters 10/15/24); Israeli Strikes on Northern Gaza Kill at Least 20, Aid Workers Say (NYT 10/12/24)

UN says no food has entered northern Gaza since start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of starvation (CNN 10/11/24)

“No food has entered northern Gaza since the start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of going hungry, the World Food Programme told CNN on Friday. In August, approximately 700 hundred aid trucks entered northern Gaza. In September, only 400 aid trucks entered, after commercial operations ceased at the Allenby Crossing on the border between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, the WFP added. No food trucks have entered northern Gaza in October, the WFP told CNN. On Wednesday, the WFP said in a report that the aid entering the strip has plummeted to its lowest level in months, forcing the organization to stop the distribution of food parcels in October. “Hunger remains rampant and the threat of famine persists,” WFP added.  “If the flow of assistance does not resume, one million vulnerable people will be deprived on this lifeline.”’ See also Palestinians ‘starving’ in northern Gaza as Israel presses assault (Al Jazeera 10/16/24)

Israeli siege plan for Gaza under scrutiny as U.S. demands urgent change (WaPo 10/16/24)

“For the first two weeks of October, no food reached the 400,000 people in war-battered northern Gaza. Rescue workers said Israeli forces fired at families as they tried to heed evacuation orders; hospitals ran desperately short on supplies as they struggled to treat the wounded and evacuate the critically ill.
What has played out in this stretch of the enclave mirrors, at least in part, a controversial siege plan conceived by a former Israeli general to gain full control of northern Gaza and then larger swaths of the enclave. It envisions systematically emptying areas of civilians and starving out — or shooting down — anyone who stays. The “General’s Plan” is being pushed by some members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, despite pushback from the Israeli military, human rights groups and the White House.” See also Is Israel deploying a ‘surrender or starve’ strategy in Gaza? (Ishaan Tharoor//WaPo 10/14/24)

“It Was Like Hell on Earth”: Scenes From a Night of Horror in Gaza (Mohammed R. Mhawish//The Nation 10/16/24)

“It was around 2 am on Monday when an Israeli air strike tore through the tents of the displaced at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza—where families, patients receiving treatment, and many of my friends and colleagues were sheltering. The strike cast a horrific, searing glow of fire that soon consumed the place they thought would provide safety. In videos from the scene, the people’s cries for help could be heard as they stumbled through the dense smoke, searching for loved ones amid plumes of smoke that curled up into the sky. The air itself seemed to scream, and the ground burned with the heat of destruction. What brought me to tears were the wails of people burning alive before they even registered the sounds of the attack. That night has left both the living and the dead destroyed beyond recognition.” See also Shaaban Al-Dalou, Burned Alive in Gaza, Would Have Been 20 Today (Abubaker Abed//Drop Site 10/16/24); Mohammed R. Mhawish’s new Substack; ; Israeli strike at Gaza’s al-Aqsa Hospital burns tents, killing at least 4 (WaPo 10/14/24)

Survivors of Israeli Bombardment Face New Catastrophe: Epidemics, Amputations, Starvation (Murtaza Hussain//Drop Site 10/15/24)

“As the northern Gaza Strip is subjected to a fresh campaign of massacres and enforced starvation, doctors working elsewhere in Gaza say that a quieter threat is now sweeping across the territory: chronic disease and infection.”

UN inquiry accuses Israel of seeking to destroy Gaza healthcare system (Reuters 10/11/24)

“A United Nations inquiry said it found that Israel carried out a concerted policy of destroying Gaza’s healthcare system in the Gaza war, actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination. A statement on Thursday by former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay that accompanied the report accused Israel of “relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities” in the war, triggered by Hamas militants’ deadly cross-border attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.”

Big Tech and the risk of genocide in Gaza: what are companies doing? (Marwa Fatafta//Access Now 10/11/24)

“Technology is playing a central role in enabling the relentless mass slaughter and destruction unleashed in Gaza. From supplying the dystopian AI systems used to automate the killing and bombing, to facilitating the spread of state-sponsored disinformation and online incitement to violence and war crimes, Big Tech is deeply embroiled in this brutal war. However, the impunity with which Israeli authorities have been allowed to wage this war has also served to shield technology companies from scrutiny. Not only have companies failed to uphold their human rights commitments in times of war, they have also dismissed, ignored, and even punished dissenting voices among their own ranks, civil society, and the public flagging their possible complicity in what the UN’s top independent expert on Palestine describes as an unfolding genocide. This post interrogates how technology companies can be potentially facilitating or contributing to an endless list of egregious violations of international law, including the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, currently under investigation by the ICJ and the International Criminal Court (ICC). We also provide companies with recommendations to avoid potential complicity in such violations.”

Israeli Defense Officials: Gov’t Pushing Aside Hostage Deal, Eyeing Gaza Annexation (Haaretz 10/13/24)

“According to senior defense officials, the Israeli government is not seeking to revive hostage talks and the political leadership is pushing for the gradual annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip. In closed-room discussions, these officials say the chances of reaching a hostage deal appear slim right now. One of the reasons cited is that since negotiations were suspended, there has been no discussion among international players involved in the talks. In addition, they say, Israel’s political leaders have not held any discussions with the various security branches about the condition of the hostages.” See also ‘It is doable’: 10 Likud MKs to attend conference calling for ‘resettling Gaza’ (Times of Israel 10/16/24)

How Israel’s Army Uses Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza (NYT 10/14/24)

“An investigation by The New York Times found that Israeli soldiers and intelligence agents, throughout the war in Gaza, have regularly forced captured Palestinians like Mr. Shubeir to conduct life-threatening reconnaissance missions to avoid putting Israeli soldiers at risk on the battlefield. While the extent and scale of such operations are unknown, the practice, illegal under both Israeli and international law, has been used by at least 11 squads in five cities in Gaza, often with the involvement of officers from Israeli intelligence agencies. Palestinian detainees have been coerced to explore places in Gaza where the Israeli military believes that Hamas militants have prepared an ambush or a booby trap. The practice has gradually become more widespread since the start of the war last October. Detainees have been forced to scout and film inside tunnel networks where soldiers believed fighters were still hiding. They have entered buildings rigged with mines to find hidden explosives. They have been told to pick up or move objects like generators and water tanks that Israeli soldiers feared concealed tunnel entrances or booby traps.”

RIVER TO THE SEA

The ‘pact of silence’ between Israelis and their media (Edo Konrad//+972 10/16/24)

“When the war began, the Israeli media found itself at a critical juncture, navigating the trauma of a nation that was shaken by unprecedented violence and quickly retreated into a deeply-entrenched perception of historical victimhood. News broadcasters responded to this national trauma, [veteran journalist Omer] Persico notes, by slipping further into the clutches of state-sanctioned propaganda. As days of brutal violence turned into weeks and months, the Israeli media reverted to familiar patterns: rallying around the flag, amplifying state narratives, and marginalizing any critical coverage of Israel’s brutality in Gaza, let alone showing images or telling stories of human suffering among Palestinians in the Strip. The path to this moment was paved long ago. Israel’s media landscape, which Persico says has always been subservient to the political and military establishment, has come under relentless pressure from Benjamin Netanyahu over the last decade; the Israeli prime minister has attempted to transform it into a tool for wielding power and ultimately ensuring his own political survival…In an interview with +972…Persico reflects on the media’s historical role in the denial of Israel’s human rights violations, its failure to challenge the political establishment, and the near-complete lack of solidarity for Palestinian journalists under bombardment in Gaza.” See also The great emigration: Israel sees an unprecedented number leave the country (JPost 10/13/24); A Year of Living Among Genocide Apologists
Diana Buttu on what life in Israel has been like since Oct. 7, 2023. (Zeteo)

Investigation: Netanyahu’s Government Not Only Permits Jewish Terror in the West Bank, but Also Finances It (Hagar Shezaf & Hilo Glazer//Haaretz 10/11/24)

“Settlers call it a revolution: More than 60 illegal farm outposts have sprung up in the West Bank during the past seven years, seizing vast tracts of Palestinian land. With cheap labor provided by ‘at-risk’ youths, this enterprise has also become a main fomenter of Jewish terror in the territories – and the state is generously footing the bill” See also U.K. Sanctions Israeli Settler Outposts, Organizations for Violence Against West Bank Palestinians (Haaretz 10/15/24)

West Bank facing ‘most dangerous olive season ever,’ UN-linked experts warn (Times of Israel 10/16/24)

“Palestinian farmers in the West Bank are facing “the most dangerous olive season ever,” experts affiliated with the United Nations said Wednesday, urging settlers and soldiers not to interfere with the harvest and recommending a “foreign presence” to act as a buffer between the two sides.”

Roadblocked (NYT 10/13/24)

“Getting around the West Bank is never easy, but it’s a lot harder if you are Palestinian. That’s no accident. We rode along on two bus trips, one for Israelis, the other for Palestinians, that tell a story of separate and unequal roadways…“Palestinian free movement on main roads in the West Bank is viewed as something that Israel can give and take as it wishes based on its own interests,” said Sarit Michaeli, of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. “It is providing a swift and fast system of transport for Israeli settlers into Israel and between settlements. This has always been the guiding principle.”’

U.S. SCENE

What to know about U.S. military support for Israel after a year of war (WaPo 10/14/24)

“The United States has provided Israel with billions of dollars’ worth of security assistance and weapons over the past year since Israel began retaliating for Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack. In addition, the Biden administration has deployed the U.S. military in direct support of Israel. The Gaza conflict has since broadened into an invasion of southern Lebanon, amid fears of an even wider war. Ahead of Israel’s anticipated response to Iran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this month, the United States said Sunday that it would send a THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense antimissile system, to Israel along with the U.S. military personnel needed to operate it. The deployment, which places U.S. troops on the ground acting in Israel’s defense, comes after the U.S. military helped defend Israel against two large-scale Iranian missile attacks in April and October…Separate from the U.S. military’s own efforts in defense of Israel, Washington has significantly increased the amount of military assistance funding sent to Israel and has approved more sales of arms and equipment to the country. Israel had already received more U.S. military aid — and more U.S. aid of any type — than any other country since World War II…U.S. security assistance to Israel has totaled more than $200 billion since the aftermath of World War II.”

The group behind Project 2025 has a new plan to fight antisemitism (Arno Rosenfeld//The Forward 10/15/24)

“The organization behind Project 2025, the controversial blueprint for a second Trump administration, just released a plan to counter antisemitism. It’s called Project Esther, and, in short, suggests the federal government train its sights on “virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American groups” that it calls the “Hamas Support Network,” or HSN, and compares to the German-American Bund that supported Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The plan calls for using counterterrorism and immigration laws against leaders of this alleged network — which includes Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine — as well as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act that was used to bring down the mafia. This dragnet would also target major progressive foundations like Tides and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which fund a handful of pro-Palestinian organizations as well as many other liberal causes. Project Esther is full of grandiose language light on many specifics, but it’s worth paying attention to because of its authors. It was published by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which also wrote Project 2025. The think tank has helped shape the policies of Republican presidents for decades and is now focused on “institutionalizing Trumpism.” And its antisemitism plan was drafted by a coalition that includes the America First Policy Institute, which is often referred to as a “White House in waiting.”’

How Israel’s War in Gaza Ripped a Major Abortion Fund Apart (Slate 10/14/24)

“The falling-out at DCAF (DC Abortion Fund) is emblematic of a much larger clash currently roiling the worlds of philanthropy and nonprofits. Employees at left-leaning, mission-driven organizations have increasingly adopted a worldview that sees all issues of injustice as interconnected, making many less satisfied to contain their advocacy to any single issue. This doesn’t always cause internal disputes: Often, a new position added to a group’s platform will be broadly agreed upon, such as a commitment to ending police brutality, and will function more as an expression of solidarity than a programming priority. But nonprofits that attract staffers and funders of reasonably diverse political leanings are finding it difficult to broaden their messaging in ways that please the full spectrum. As a result, coalitions that have worked toward similar goals are fracturing over issues only tangentially related to their core missions, threatening their ability to make progress on areas of common ground. This is especially true when it comes to the topic of Israel and Palestine—one of the touchiest issues in American politics, laden with ancestral trauma and emotional ideological commitments for Jewish and Arab communities. But the staggering scale of the devastation in Gaza has compelled many in the social-justice sector to condemn Israel’s assault and the U.S. aid that is bankrolling it, leading to a growing crisis in nonprofits as donors and philanthropic institutions cease their contributions in response.”

A clarion call: How attacks on U.S. Palestinian solidarity movements undermine our democracy

(Rana Elmir//Fall 2024 Issue of Responsive Philanthropy)

“Our social movements are complex living and breathing formations with the capacity for growth and contraction. The existential threats to democracy that we are facing demand that we grow in this moment. By castigating, threatening and defunding one group, in this case Palestinian human rights voices, we have not only set a precedent for the targeting of others, but we have made our movement smaller, effectively weakening our collective power and in turn impeding our own progress toward a just, inclusive and multiracial democracy.”

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested outside New York Stock Exchange (Reuters 10/14/24)

“Police arrested more than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had staged a sit-in outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday to demand an end to U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, authorities said. The protesters, many of them from activist groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, chanted “let Gaza live” and “stop funding genocide” in front of the exchange’s iconic building near Wall Street, in lower Manhattan.”

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

How Palestinians look back on 7 October a year later (Muhammad Shehada//New Arab 10/10/24)

“While used by Israel to justify the destruction of Gaza, Palestinian attitudes to Hamas’ attack reveal a more complex picture: what exactly do Palestinians support about that fateful day? Why? And in what context does this support occur?…The PSR (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research) adds that almost 90% of the Palestinian public believes that Hamas militants did not commit alleged or documented atrocities on that day, and either attribute them to others present or question their genuineness. The Hamas-led attack consisted of two waves, with the first consisting of elite Hamas militants, the Nukhba forces, that predominantly focused on Israeli military bases surrounding Gaza. The second wave formed spontaneously once news of the attack broke in Gaza, and anyone with a gun rushed to the fence, including members of six other armed factions and non-Nukhba Hamas individuals, as well as criminal elements and curious spectators. This wave had no central command, prior plans, coordination, or set goals, which prompted Hamas’ own leaders to acknowledge that “things went out of control”…In that sense, two 7 Octobers have since emerged; one that Israel and its supporters see as “pure evil”, which focuses on the killing and kidnapping of civilians, and another that Palestinians voice support for; an attack on military targets that broke Israel’s image of invincibility.”

No Matter What, Palestinians Will Never Give Up (Ahmad Ibsais//The Nation 10/16/24)

“In the last year, the world has seen the sumud, or steadfastness, of my people over and over again…Yet, even as our very existence is met with genocide, the people of Gaza embody sumud—the unbreakable refusal to submit to subjugation. It is the moral backbone of Palestinian resistance…In the diaspora, our sumud must be equally tangible, not an abstract ideal. Sumud cannot simply be just about bearing witness to death and dispossession, as some would suggest. Sitting with the images of inhumanity is a minimum. We have to believe that what we do in our daily lives is having an impact, and not succumb to the despair that Israeli society so desperately wants to create…Palestinians have shown what it means to see our land get stolen yet still believe in our right to return to it. We have taught the world what it means to live under occupation yet still hope for a better future. We have shown what it means to live through generations of ethnic cleansing yet never lose pride in our being.”

“The Only Refuge I Could Offer” (Anonymous//Jewish Currents 10/16/24)

“Just one week before Israel invaded Rafah, A. and I were able to leave. We left our families behind. We carry this guilt, an inescapable weight. We didn’t deserve safety more than they did. I didn’t deserve to give birth in a hospital with resources to care for patients more than any other pregnant woman in the Strip. It’s just the privilege of knowing someone abroad, of speaking English, of being able to secure money. The world does not see Gazans as human. We are just abstract ideas. The things we are facing don’t matter to them. They don’t need us…R. was born to us, distant from the warmth of her grandparents, the teasing of her aunts and uncles. She was brought into a world I both cherish and fear. I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened had we stayed—whether either of us would have made it. When I held R. for the first time, her tiny warmth resting against me, I kissed her over and over, thanking her for holding on to me, to us. And now, as she nestles against me, each determined latch feels like a surge of life, a quiet exchange of energy filling us both with the power to be.”

Israel’s Hidden War: The Battle Between Ideologues and Generals That Will Define the Country’s Future (Mairav Zonszein//Foreign Affairs 10/15/24)

“The contest that pits Israel’s security establishment against the ascendant far right and its settler allies is not over whether Israel should use force in Gaza, stop occupying the West Bank, or make concessions to help find a solution to the decades-old conflict. It’s a clash over the security of the Israeli state, which for many Israelis is a battle over its identity. Israel could heed the warnings of security officials such as Bar or it could continue to be guided by the imperatives of the far right. The latter course will cause more bloodshed, ultimately hurt Israel’s standing and support in the West, and lead to further international isolation and even pariah status. Many Israelis who still view their country as secular, liberal, and democratic see the struggle against the extreme right as existential, with ramifications for every level of governance and Israel’s foreign relations. This battle will decisively shape Israeli politics and security in the years to come.”

No Propaganda on Earth Can Hide the Wound That Is Palestine: Arundhati Roy’s PEN Pinter Prize Acceptance Speech (Arundhati Roy//The Wire 10/11/24)

“So, this is the part in my speech where I am expected to equivocate to protect myself, my ‘neutrality’, my intellectual standing. This is the part where I am meant to lapse into moral equivalence and condemn Hamas, the other militant groups in Gaza and their ally Hezbollah, in Lebanon, for killing civilians and taking people hostage. And to condemn the people of Gaza who celebrated the Hamas attack…I refuse to play the condemnation game. Let me make myself clear. I do not tell oppressed people how to resist their oppression or who their allies should be…I am acutely aware that being the writer that I am, the non-Muslim that I am and the woman that I am, it would be very difficult, perhaps impossible for me to survive very long under the rule of Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Iranian regime. But that is not the point here. The point is to educate ourselves about the history and the circumstances under which they came to exist. The point is that right now they are fighting against an ongoing genocide. The point is to ask ourselves whether a liberal, secular fighting force can go up against a genocidal war machine. Because, when all the powers of the world are against them, who do they have to turn to but God? I am aware that Hezbollah and the Iranian regime have vocal detractors in their own countries, some who also languish in jails or have faced far worse outcomes. I am aware that some of their actions – the killing of civilians and the taking of hostages on October 7th by Hamas – constitute war crimes. However, there cannot be an equivalence between this and what Israel and the United States are doing in Gaza, in the West Bank and now in Lebanon. The root of all the violence, including the violence of October 7th, is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and its subjugation of the Palestinian people. History did not begin on 7 October 2023.”

Is this Israel’s first apartheid war? (Oren Yiftachel//+972 10/15/24)

“But contrary to popular opinion, clear-eyed analysis of the past year shows that Israel continues to promote an unmistakable strategic goal in this war: maintaining and deepening the regime of Jewish supremacy over Palestinians between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. In this sense, the past 12 months might be best understood as Israel’s “first apartheid war.” While its eight previous wars attempted to create new geographical and political orders or were limited to specific regions, the current one seeks to reinforce the supremacist political project Israel has built throughout the entire land, and which the October 7 assault fundamentally challenged. Accordingly, there is also a steadfast refusal to explore any path to reconciliation or even a ceasefire with the Palestinians.”

Israeli and Palestinian Societies Have Little Remaining Hope of Peace (Nathan Brown//Carnegie Endowment 10/16/24)

“Any hope for a revived diplomatic effort lies in the despair that is shared among so many.”

Gaza at risk of becoming ‘graveyard of international law’ – Palestinian lawyer (Guardian 10/15/24)

“A prominent Palestinian human rights lawyer whose Gaza home was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in the early weeks of the war has called on western powers and global institutions to do more to prevent the territory becoming “the graveyard of international law”. Raji Sourani, who founded the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in 1995 and was a key member of the South African legal team that took Israel to the international court of justice on a charge of genocide, met the UK attorney general last week to urge him to assume a leadership role in defending humanitarian law…Last week, delivering the Edward Said lecture in London, Sourani shifted from quietly spoken wonder at the double standards of the west over Ukraine and Gaza to an angry prediction that Israel still intended to expel all Palestinians into the Sinai. Speaking to the Guardian, he said he was not sure of the extent to which the west was aware it was jeopardising something precious by shielding Israel from the legal consequences of its actions.”

 

1. New from FMEP

2. Region//Global

3. Gaza

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

The (Bipartisan) Betrayal of Arab Americans (New episode of Occupied Thoughts podcast)

FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Maya Berry, Executive Director of the Arab American Institute. The two discuss Maya’s experience testifying on hate crimes before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September, where several Republican Senators challenged her in expressly anti-Arab ways. Peter and May discuss Maya’s testimony on anti-Arab hate crimes and why it’s so difficult to collect good data on them. Additionally, Peter and Maya talk about the 2024 presidential election and the ways in which Vice President Kamala Harris has botched her relationship with Arab Americans.

FMEP Legislative Round-Up October 4, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Elex/Politics; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

Settlement & Annexation Report: October 4, 2024 (Kristin McCarthy)

1. U.S. Imposes Sanctions on “Hilltop Youth” Settler Terror Group & Two Individuals; 2. Prominent U.S. Senators Call for Biden Admin to Sanction Amana Settler Group; 3. Settlers Push Settlement of South Lebanon, Advertising Houses & Calling for Conquest; 4. 2024 Olive Harvest Season Set to Begin Amidst Concerns Israel, Settlers Will Prevent Access; 6. Bonus Reads

REGION/DIPLOMACY

Israeli strikes in Lebanon have been most intense and deadly in decades (WaPo 10/2/24)

“The majority of the more than 1,800 people killed in Lebanon in the past year have died since Sept. 20. Fifty children died under Israeli bombardment on Monday and Tuesday — the United Nations estimates that’s double the rate of children killed during Lebanon’s 2006 war. Hezbollah has fired roughly 1,750 rockets into Israel since Oct. 7, killing at least 30 Israelis, according to Haaretz. Israel’s air defense systems have intercepted the majority of the projectiles fired by Hezbollah — including a missile allegedly aimed at the headquarters of Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, on Wednesday.” See also Israeli raids in Lebanon displace a quarter of the country’s population (PBS News Hour 10/4/24); Peacekeepers wounded by Israeli fire in Lebanon, U.N. says, as tensions rise (WaPo 10/10/24); UN peacekeepers in Lebanon say Israel has fired on their bases deliberately (Guardian 10/10/24);

Israel’s Netanyahu warns Lebanon could face destruction ‘like Gaza’ (Al Jazeera 10/8/24)

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Lebanon could face destruction “like Gaza” and claimed Israel has killed slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s “replacement, and the replacement of his replacement”. Netanyahu’s remarks came in a video message addressed to Lebanese citizens on Tuesday, in which he also claimed Hezbollah is “weaker than it has been for many, many years”…“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” Netanyahu said in his address, referring to the besieged enclave that has been under a relentless and bloody Israeli bombardment campaign for one year.” See also 22 killed in deadliest strike in central Beirut since start of war (WaPo 10/10/24); Israel begins ground operation in southern Lebanon (Axios 9/30/24)

Why the US, Israel disagree over striking Iran’s nuclear sites (Al Monitor 10/10/24)

“While the White House initially threatened to impose “severe consequences” on Iran in coordination with Israel for the attack, Washington has since toned down the threats. Last week, Biden publicly ruled out supporting any potential Israeli strikes on Iran’s enrichment facilities, an option that Netanyahu has held over the heads of prior US administrations, and suggested Israel should avoid striking Iran’s oil infrastructure. US officials say the Pentagon has the capability to significantly disrupt if not destroy Iran’s nuclear sites.  But Biden is the latest president to spurn the option out of concerns of wider fallout…The Israeli premier scored a phone call with Biden on Wednesday morning, breaking more than seven weeks of silence between the two leaders amid simmering anger in the White House over his repeated rebuffing of American admonitions not to escalate against Iran’s proxy front. Trust is at a new low between the two leaders. Further fueling the anxieties in Washington is a long-standing disagreement with the Israelis about how and when to deal with the Iran nuclear problem.” See also U.S. sends more troops, warplanes to Middle East as bulwark against Iran (WaPo 9/30/24);

Biden and Netanyahu closer to consensus on Israel’s plans to attack Iran (Axios 10/10/24)

“President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved closer to an understanding on the scope of Israel’s planned retaliation against Iran during their call on Wednesday, three U.S. and Israeli officials tell Axios. Why it matters: The Biden administration accepts that Israel will soon launch a major attack on Iran, but it fears that strikes on certain targets could dramatically escalate the regional war.” See also Netanyahu blocks defense minister’s U.S. trip to discuss possible Iran attack (Axios 10/8/24); One year after Oct. 7 attacks, Netanyahu is on a winning streak (Axios 10/6/24); US said seeking to install new Lebanese president, push aside weakened Hezbollah (Times of Israel 10/10/24)

Macron urges countries to ‘stop delivering weapons’ to Israel for war in Gaza (WaPo 10/6/24)

“French President Emmanuel Macron urged countries to stop providing weapons to Israel for its war in the Gaza Strip and expressed concern that the civilians of Lebanon could face a fate similar to that of Palestinians. “The priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to carry out fighting in Gaza,” Macron said in an interview with France Inter, a public radio station, that aired Saturday. France itself, Macron said, was not delivering any weapons. Macron’s call comes amid mounting public scrutiny of the high death toll in Gaza and Israel’s widening conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Macron said Lebanon should not be allowed to “become a new Gaza,” referring to Israel’s ground and air offensive in the country. “The Lebanese people cannot, in turn, be sacrificed,” he added.” See also Ireland and Unifil reject Israel’s request to remove peacekeepers from Lebanese border outpost (Irish Times 10/4/24)

A Primer on Lebanon—History, Palestine and Resistance to Israeli Violence (Lara Deeb, Maya Mikdashi, Tsolin Nalbantian, Nadya Sbaiti//MERIP 10.4.2024)

“This primer situates the latest Israeli war on Lebanon and resistance to it within the broader context of Lebanon’s political development and its relationship to Palestine. The primer begins by offering a historical overview of Lebanon’s formation that describes the role of external and internal forces in shaping the country throughout the twentieth century (Part I and Part II). It then details how regular Israeli violence as well as Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements and political parties fit into this trajectory (Part III). The primer ends with an explanation of the series of recent crises that are exacerbating the devastating effects of ongoing and escalating Israeli attacks on Lebanon (Part IV).”

Iranian missiles hit Israeli military sites, visuals show (WaPo 10/4/24)

“At least two dozen long-range Iranian ballistic missiles broke through Israeli and allied air defenses on Tuesday night, striking or landing near at least three military and intelligence installations, according to a review of videos and photos of the attack and aftermath. Videos verified by The Washington Post showed 20 missiles striking the Nevatim air base, in the southern Negev desert, and three striking the Tel Nof base, in central Israel. Analysts told The Post the visuals were consistent with direct impacts on the bases rather than debris from intercepted missiles. Other videos showed that at least two missiles landed near Tel Aviv in Cinema City Glilot, Hod Hasharon, close to Israel’s Mossad spy agency headquarters, leaving at least two craters.” See also Israel and U.S. repel 180-missile attack from Iran (Axios 10/1/24); White House vows consequences for Iran’s attack on Israel (WaPo 10/1/24)

For Israel’s weary army, war in Lebanon is an attempt to salvage its image (Sophia Goodfriend//+972 10/2/24)

“After detonating thousands of pagers carried by Hezbollah members in an attack that caught much of the world by surprise, Israel has now launched a bloody aerial and ground assault on Lebanon. Since Sept. 23, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of women and children, in what has been described as one of the most intense air raids in modern history. Over one million are displaced across the country. And despite assassinating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Israel’s aggression shows no sign of slowing down. The Hamas-led October 7 attack dealt a resounding blow to Israel’s image as the Middle East’s ultimate security state, as has a year of protracted guerilla warfare in Gaza. Now, more fighting in Lebanon offers the opportunity for image restoration. As in Gaza, death and destruction abetted by sophisticated espionage networks and algorithmic weapons systems are critical to this makeover. Indeed, the Israeli and international press hailed the pager attacks and assassination of Nasrallah as proof of the army’s technological prowess.” See also Kill Lists (Sophia Goodfriend//LRB 10/10/24); Two killed in Kiryat Shmona, several hurt in Haifa as Hezbollah rockets batter north (Times of Israel 10/9/24);

Mossad’s pager operation: Inside Israel’s penetration of Hezbollah (WaPo 10/5/24)

“As an act of spy craft, it is without parallel, one of the most successful and inventive penetrations of an enemy by an intelligence service in recent history. But key details of the operation — including how it was planned and carried out, and the controversy it engendered within Israel’s security establishment and among allies — are only now coming to light. This account, including numerous new details about the operation, was pieced together from interviews with Israeli, Arab and U.S. security officials, politicians and diplomats briefed on the events, as well as Lebanese officials and people close to Hezbollah. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence. They describe a years-long plan that originated at Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv and ultimately involved a cast of operatives and unwitting accomplices in multiple countries. The Washington Post account reveals how the attack not only devastated Hezbollah’s leadership ranks but also emboldened Israel to target and kill Hezbollah’s top leader, Hasan Nasrallah, raising the risk of a wider Middle East war.”

Killing Hezbollah leaders failed 30 years ago. It won’t work now (Elia Ayoub//+972 10/4/24)

“Nasrallah’s death also came at a time of unprecedented domestic weakness for Hezbollah, due to its unpopular involvement in the Syrian civil war and its violent politics in Lebanon. In this sense, Netanyahu’s decision to assassinate Nasrallah — turning him into a national and pan-Arab martyr — may prove to be Hezbollah’s greatest PR win in years.”

After Nasrallah (Adam Shatz//LRB 10/10/24)

“Hizbullah is not a personality-driven organisation, or claims not to be, but in Nasrallah it had a leader of unusual gifts, and his death is an enormous, if not a mortal, blow; it is also a huge setback for Iran. Iranian leaders have promised a ‘decisive reaction’ to the killing, and this can hardly be ruled out, but the fact that Khamenei called on ‘all Muslims’ to respond meant that Iran itself has no intention of doing so anytime soon…Netanyahu’s popularity in Israel, already buoyed by the pager attacks, is soaring. But Israel’s euphoria may prove short-lived. Like other secondary wars carried out in times of quagmire – the French bombing of Tunisia in the late 1950s, the American bombing of Cambodia in 1969-70 – the assault on Lebanon is unlikely to provide more than a fleeting consolation: a dazzling victory on the battlefield in a much larger, unwinnable war. Killing Nasrallah isn’t likely to hasten the defeat of Hamas in Gaza, or the return of the remaining hostages (in whose fate Netanyahu appears to have lost all interest, except as a talking point), much less the surrender of the Palestinian people to Zionist aspirations. Hizbullah will slowly rebuild, and Nasrallah and his cadres will be replaced by a new and no less embittered generation of leaders who will remember the furies unleashed by Israel in Lebanon: the killings, maimings and displacement caused by one of the most intensive bombing campaigns in the 21st century. Nasrallah’s death is as humiliating a setback for his movement as Nasser’s defeat in 1967 was for the Arab cause. But nothing feeds resistance like humiliation.”

In Egypt, displaced Palestinians live in limbo (New Statesman 10/5/24)

“A question intrudes itself: how many Palestinians have left Gaza for Egypt since October? The number I kept hearing from both Palestinian and Egyptian authorities is something like 150,000. Not all have registered at the Palestinian embassy, so the number could be even higher… Some of these, if they held passports for a third country, will have since moved elsewhere, but it seems safe to say that more than 100,000 remain in Egypt, almost all in the greater Cairo region…With very few exceptions, they are not allowed to work or study, cannot receive residency status and must live on the charity of others or meagre savings which, after a year, have now been completely exhausted. There is no way to legalise your status in Egypt in order to find work.”

Palestinians want to choose their own leaders – a year of war has distanced them further from this democratic goal (Maha Nassar//The Conversation 10/6/24)

“As a scholar of Palestinian history and politics, I see talk of reforming existing bodies or propping up a unity government made up of the same players as missing a larger point: Palestinians are increasingly frustrated by their political representation; they want the opportunity to choose their own leaders.” See also Gaza’s governance must remain in Palestinian hands (Said Zeedani//+972 10/8/24)

“Burning the Off-Ramps” (Alex Kane interviews Daniel Levy//Jewish Currents 10/10/24)

Daniel Levy: “ The basic way to understand US policy is to remember that alongside domestic political calculations—the lobby and campaign finance considerations—the US sees Israel as an ally for managing its interests in the region, even if it’s an ally that occasionally goes off on unfortunate tangents. The Biden administration leadership sees a geostrategic advantage in working with Israel to substantially degrade Axis groups, and perhaps attempt to put in place friendly regimes in Lebanon, Syria, and even Iran. If that happens, America can finally achieve the shared Trump-Biden vision of a new Pax Americana between Israel and Arab states to marginalize the Palestinians, manage the region, and prevent any hostile hegemon arising, while also serving to block Chinese and Russian interests. That would also help the US shift its attention and assets towards the Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions. Such Israeli-American fantasies of a Middle East reshaped around an Israeli hegemon, and around finishing the job of crushing the Palestinians, have failed before and they will fail again, but the US is apparently incapable of learning lessons. Hence, the conveyor belt of arms being delivered to Israel, as well as the deployment of 50,000 US troops to the Middle East and additional warships and aircraft carriers off the coast of Lebanon and in the Gulf—all attempting to restore Israel’s lost deterrence, power projection capabilities, and escalation dominance.”

GAZA

One year of Israel’s war on Gaza (Al Jazeera 10/8/24)

“At least 41,909 people killed…That’s one out of every 55 people in Gaza. 16,756 children killed, 11,346 women killed, 69% of the victims are women and children…At least 97,303 Palestinians injured in the last 365 days. That’s 1 out of every 23 people in Gaza…More than 10,000 people are missing or unaccounted for in the mass destruction of Gaza…114 hospitals and clinics rendered inoperative…At least 986 medical workers killed…520 bodies recovered from 7 mass graves created by Israeli forces inside hospitals…75% of Gaza’s population (1.7 million out of 2.3 million) have been infected with contagious diseases…At least 2.1 million people or 96% of Gaza’s population are facing high levels of food insecurity…95% of Gaza’s population has and no access to clean water for months…At least 175 media workers killed…10,000+ Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons under grave conditions. 3,300+ are held without charge or trial.” See also Israel has bombed much of Gaza to rubble. What would it take to rebuild? (WaPo 10/6/24); UN Report Accuses Israel, Hamas of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity During Gaza War (Nir Hasson//Haaretz 10/10/24); Israel tallies a year of Gaza war: 40,000 targets bombed, 4,700 tunnels hit (Reuters 10/7/24);

Report: In One Year, More Than 100,000 Deaths in Gaza—Aided by $17.9 Billion From the US (Mother Jones 10/8/24)

“On October 7, 2024, the Costs of War Project at Brown University released two new reports. One report from the military-research group details how much the United States government has spent aiding the Israeli military between October 2023 and September 2024. The other gathers and evaluates previously published data to estimate the human cost of this past year’s unrelenting violence.  In both cases, the researchers show staggering new findings. The Costs of War Project researchers estimate the cost to US taxpayers at over $17.9 billion, and the likely number of people killed at well over 100,000—which, even then, is a “very conservative, minimum amount of death.” As researchers begin to calculate the costs, the human and monetary toll is starting to become clearer.” See also Nowhere to Go: How Gaza Became a Mass Death Trap (NYT 10/7/24); US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7 (AP 10/7/24); Gaza’s uncounted dead (WaPo 10/9/24);

‘Dead bodies everywhere’ in Jabalia camp as Israel besieges northern Gaza (Ibrahim Mohammad and Mahmoud Mushtaha//+972 Magazine 10/10/24)

“The Israeli army has launched a major new offensive in northern Gaza, besieging the Strip’s three northernmost cities and their surroundings. Early Sunday morning, the army ordered the approximately 400,000 residents remaining in the north of the Strip to move to the so-called “humanitarian area” in the south ahead of a new military operation. Many refused to leave their homes, and residents of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya have been under intense bombardment since Sunday afternoon, cut off from Gaza City to the south as tanks and drones shoot at people who try to escape. Over 120 Palestinians have already been killed in the area since the latest operation began as a result of airstrikes, artillery fire, and shooting by Israeli soldiers and quadcopter drones. No humanitarian aid is entering the besieged areas, and Israel has bombed Jabalia’s last functioning bakery. The army has also ordered the evacuation of all medical staff and patients from the three principal medical facilities in the area: Kamal Adwan Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia. Residents of Jabalia refugee camp, the epicenter of the army’s current ground invasion, report that bodies are strewn across the streets, with ambulances unable to retrieve them.” See also ‘We Won’t Leave’: North Gaza Residents Staying Put as Israeli Army Steps Up Pressure (Haaretz 10/10/24); At least 28 killed in Israeli attack on school sheltering displaced in Gaza (Al Jazeera 10/10/24); As Israel Launches Massive Attack in Northern Gaza, Hospital Director Defies Israeli Evacuation Order (Drop Site 10/9/24); At least 400,000 people trapped by Israel’s latest Gaza offensive, says Unrwa (Guardian 10/9/24); ‘Catastrophic situation’ at children’s hospital as Israel renews Gaza attacks (Guardian 10/10/24)

A year of war: IDF data shows 728 troops killed, over 26,000 rockets fired at Israel (Times of Israel 10/7/24)

“According to the data [provided by the IDF], some 17,000 Hamas operatives and members of other terror groups have been killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7, when gunmen rampaged through southern communities massacring some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 to Gaza…Since the beginning of the war, over 26,000 rockets, missiles, and drones have been launched at Israel from multiple fronts. The numbers included 13,200 projectiles fired from Gaza — at least 5,000 on October 7 alone — 12,400 from Lebanon, around 60 from Syria, 180 from Yemen, and 400 from Iran — the latter of which in two direct attacks on Israel on April 13 and October 1.”

The Killings They Tweeted: An Airwars Investigation Airwars 10/9/24

“In the largest public analysis of Israeli military strike footage, Airwars, in collaboration with Sky News, reviewed hundreds of clips of strikes the IDF said were targeting Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza that were posted on official military social media accounts in the first month of the war. Despite the grainy videos published with few details on targets or locations, Airwars matched 17 strikes to specific geo-coordinates where our researchers had tracked Palestinians killed or injured. In these strikes alone, more than 400 civilians were reported killed. The video above explains our findings in detail, while the interactive map below features all strike footage geolocated as well as those cases matched to the Airwars civilian harm archive.” See also Israel Bombs Mosque in Deir al-Balah, Gaza’s Last Standing City (Drop Site 10/7/24); One year and climbing: Israel responsible for record journalist death toll (Committee to Protect Journalists 10/4/24); Al Jazeera cameramen in critical condition after Israeli shooting in Gaza (Al Jazeera 10/10/24); I’m still reporting on Gaza. But the blood on our streets is no closer to drying (Mohammed R. Mhawish//+972 10/9/24)

How many hostages are still in Gaza since Hamas attack on Israel? What to know. (WaPo 10/9/24)

“The Israeli government estimates that 251 hostages were taken in the cross-border Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel. According to the latest figures, 63 hostages are believed to still be alive and in captivity in the Gaza Strip, but Israel has not given the full basis for its estimates. Since the attack, 117 hostages held in Gaza have been freed; most, including 81 Israelis and two Americans, were released as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas in November. Others — including two other Americans — were released or rescued outside of the deal. The number of hostages who have died in captivity and the ages, genders and nationalities of those remaining in Gaza are unclear. Israel has estimated that the majority of those remaining have Israeli citizenship and are male. It’s unclear how many are members of the Israeli military. Four American hostages are still believed to be alive in Gaza and the bodies of three others are still being held there. While Hamas is thought to hold most of the hostages, some are believed to be held by other militant groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, whose fighters also took part in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Israel blames Hamas for the deaths of some hostages, and has also said at least three were killed in its own operations. Hamas says Israeli strikes have killed some hostages. The Washington Post could not independently verify either side’s claims. Here’s what we know about the hostages still held in Gaza and the names of those who have been released.”

65 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza (Feroze Sidhwa//NYT 10/9/24)

“Using questions based on my own observations and my conversations with fellow doctors and nurses, I worked with Times Opinion to poll 65 health care workers about what they had seen in Gaza…This is what we saw. 44 doctors, nurses and paramedics saw multiple cases of preteen children who had been shot in the head or chest in Gaza…63 doctors, nurses and paramedics observed severe malnutrition in patients, Palestinian medical workers and the general population…52 doctors, nurses and paramedics observed nearly universal psychiatric distress in young children and saw some who were suicidal or said they wished they had died…64 doctors, nurses and paramedics observed that even the most basic medical necessities, like soap and gloves, were usually unavailable in Gaza…Together, Israel and the United States are turning Gaza into a howling wilderness.” See also Nearly 100 U.S. Health Workers Who Served In Gaza Demand Arms Embargo To Israel (Huff Post 10/2/24); UN inquiry accuses Israel of crimes against humanity in destroying Gaza’s hospitals (Al Monitor 10/10/24); ‘Death sentence’: Asbestos released by Israel’s bombs will kill for decades (Al Jazeera 10/8/24);

RIVER TO THE SEA

Israel’s Internal Contradictions (Meron Rapoport//The Nation 10/7/24)

“If you want to understand where Israel is at almost a year into its longest war, you might start by looking at two very different figures: Giora Eiland and Einav Zangauker. Eiland, a retired major general, is the former head of the Israeli National Security Council and has long been considered one of the most prominent “intellectuals” among the not very intellectual Israeli security apparatus. A frequent TV commentator, he does not come from a religious-messianic background, is a vocal critic of Benjamin Netanyahu and his politics, and generally presents as a moderate, sober thinker. Yet from the beginning of the war, Eiland led the way by calling to destroy Gaza…Almost a year after Israel launched its bloodiest attack ever on Gaza and on the Palestinian people as a whole, killing at least 40,000, driving almost 2 million from their homes, and leveling most of the Gaza Strip, Eiland and his military friends believe that Israel has not done enough—that it has been “too soft” on the Palestinians. And the Israeli political class and media agree…Einav Zangauker represents the current mood of the country at least as well as Eiland does. Zangauker’s son, Matan, was kidnapped on October 7 and is being held in Gaza. Zangauker is a resident of Ofakim, a small town in southern Israel, that was overrun during Hamas’s murderous attack. She describes herself as a Likudnik, as do the overwhelming majority of Ofakim residents. Yet Zangauker is today the undisputed leader of a huge wave of protests calling for a deal with Hamas that would include the release of the Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel as well as a ceasefire in Gaza…In her grief, anger, and despair, Zangauker embodies the feelings of many Israelis, hundreds of thousands of whom poured into the streets at the end of the summer demanding a “deal now.” With Eiland on one side and Zangauker on the other, Israel finds itself at a crossroads—one that could determine the fate not only of the Israeli hostages and the people in Gaza but also of the broader Middle East. Take one path, and there is endless war; take the other, and there is the possibility of “normality.” And yet, as deep as the divisions are between the two sides, there is one crucial matter on which they are fundamentally aligned: Neither side includes Palestinians as part of their equation. The Israeli public is not distressed by the violence its military is inflicting on Gaza; nor are they concerned about future relations with the Palestinians.” See also One Year on, Israel’s Hostage Families Vow to Keep Fighting as War Escalates (NYT 10/7/24; includes a video of Einav Zangauker); A year after the Nova massacre, survivors are still paralyzed with grief (Alice Austin//+972 10/7/24)

Israel’s Start-Ups Struggle to Lure VC Capital Amid Escalating Wars (Drop Site 10/10/24)

“Since October 7, data from Israel High-Tech, Venture Capital and Private Equity Data and Analytics (IVC), the Bank of Israel and the Israeli Innovation Authority, shows investment in the country’s tech sector is on the decline. Founders have been trickling out of the country and with workers across the country reporting for reserve duty in the IDF, 20% of whom are in the high-tech sector according to a July analysis, the labor market has been stretched thin. Amid all of this, the cost of war has cut into the government’s ability to buoy its tech sector—even leading some in the industry to call for an end to Israel’s wars.” See also Israel-UAE trade to hit $3.3B in 2024 as wars in Lebanon, Gaza continue (Al Monitor 10/5/24)

No rest in Umm al-Khair: Settler violence overshadows life (Al Jazeera 10/7/24)

“Every day, people wake up expecting to become homeless, Tariq [Hathaleen] said, sitting on a bench during a late-night watch in the community centre playground. “We live in continuous fear,” he said. “You don’t know what will happen – whether the settler that is coming to shepherd next to your house will decide to attack you or not.” Since late June, a string of violent or aggressive incidents have taken place in Umm al-Khair, with incursions by Israeli settlers, and sometimes the Israeli army, becoming a daily occurrence.” See also Mapping 1,400 Israeli settler attacks in the West Bank over the past year (Al Jazeera 10/10/24); West Bank: Armed settlers attack Palestinians on first day of olive harvest (Middle East Eye 10/6/24); Israeli settlers are seizing occupied West Bank land under the cover of war (Middle East Eye 10/5/24); At least four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank’s Nablus (Al Jazeera 10/9/24)

A Year After October 7th, a Kibbutz Survives (Ruth Margalit//New Yorker 10/5/24)

“In Be’eri, where more than a hundred people were killed and thirty taken captive, former residents are attempting to rebuild.” See also ‘The land is full of blood’: An Israeli kibbutz where Oct. 7 never ends (WaPo on Kibbutz Be’eri 10/7/24)

How weapons from the Gaza war are killing Palestinians on Israel’s streets (Baker Zoubi//+972 10/1/24)

“Since the beginning of 2024, more than 180 Palestinians citizens of Israel have been murdered in attacks linked to organized crime, a figure that could be on track to match last year’s record of 244. And it’s not just the numbers that are shocking; it’s also the nature of the attacks. Whereas in the past, criminal killings were overwhelmingly shootings, in recent months there has been a sharp uptick in the use of explosive devices…For Palestinians across Israel, there is a sense that the adoption of such tactics means criminal organizations present a more lethal danger than ever before. And the proliferation of high-grade weaponry on Israel’s streets can be traced directly to the army’s year-long offensive in the Gaza Strip.”

Torture in Israel’s Prisons (Aryeh Neier//NYRB 10/17/24 issue)

“Most of the time, in my experience, detainees are tortured in police facilities before being transferred to regular jails and prisons, apparently to elicit information that will incriminate the detainee or others…The testimonies in “Welcome to Hell,” in contrast, describe guards torturing detainees in regular prisons over an extended period with no such motive. One detainee says that he was asked, “Where’s Sinwar?” But that’s about it. Nor does this abuse seem intended to punish disrespect to the guards or infractions of the rules. Such abuse tends to be sporadic, whereas these accounts describe prisoners suffering sustained torture over weeks and months…Another characteristic of torture in other countries is that it usually takes place when the detainee is isolated…The only witnesses are the torturer and his or her fellow torturers. And yet almost all the violence in Israel’s torture camps, according to the testimonies, takes place in full view of other detainees. Sometimes others are made to witness it.”

On Israeli Apathy (Mairav Zonszein//NYT 10/7/24)

“A year since the murderous Oct. 7 Hamas attack set off the war in Gaza, Israel is sinking deeper into an existential crisis. It is a shrunken country, with tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from northern towns and kibbutzim, as well as southern border villages, as it fights a multifront war that is only intensifying and expanding. And, in addition to having to cope throughout the year with loss, shock, rocket fire and overwhelming fear for their safety from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran itself, that anxiety is compounded by turmoil from within…The way many Israelis protesting across the country see it — a group largely identified as the secular liberal elite — this is not just about saving the hostages; it is a battle over the state’s character and identity. This, then, is the state’s existential inflection point: between a democracy and authoritarianism…And yet, somehow, this battle is completely detached from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and from Palestinians themselves, as if they do not breathe the same air we breathe, in Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza. The outrage in the streets is largely confined to the Israeli government’s failure to save the Israeli hostages. There is almost no outrage over the indiscriminate destruction of Gaza and the killing of over 40,000 people, many of them civilians, over the past year. Few are protesting Israel’s excessive use of force. It simply does not register that even if Israelis are in an existential crisis, Palestinians are in a battle for their very existence. Israeli disregard for Palestinian suffering, whether conscious or not, has been one of the most palpable and disturbing features of life in Israel since Oct. 7. Of course it existed well before then, but it is all the more stark and consequential now.” See also Seven people killed in shooting, stabbing terror attack in Jaffa (Times of Israel 10/1/24)

Unprepared for a Hamas Onslaught, Ignored by Their Commanders, Israel’s Women Soldiers Fought to the End (Haaretz 10/7/24)

“At the Nahal Oz army outpost, the operations room was completely unprotected. At Kerem Shalom and Yiftah, the unarmed spotters continued to work as bodies piled up. An independent panel has uncovered numerous failures by the IDF and the government – alongside the heroism and the comradeship of these largely unarmed women soldiers on the Gaza border.” See also ‘They told us a big attack wouldn’t happen’: the intelligence failures before 7 October (Guardian 10/7/24); 130 Israeli Soldiers Declare They Will Refuse to Serve Unless Gov’t Seeks Hostage Deal (Haaretz 10/9/24); ‘This Isn’t a Country I’ll Sacrifice My Life For’: Why 130 Israeli Soldiers Are Refusing to Serve (Haaretz 10/9/24)

 

U.S. SCENE

Pro-Palestinian ‘Uncommitted’ Group Comes Out Firmly Against Trump (NYT 10/8/24)

“Uncommitted, the national group of Arab Americans, Muslim Americans and Palestinian rights activists that emerged from primary-season voters protesting President Biden’s Middle East policy, took a big step Tuesday toward encouraging supporters to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. In a video detailing the plans and suggestions of Trump advisers to expel or displace Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, Lexi Zeidan, a Dearborn, Mich., resident and co-founder of the group, stopped short of endorsing Ms. Harris. But she concluded, “We have to orient less toward who is the better candidate and more toward what is the better antiwar approach in building our collective power.” The message, posted on all major social media platforms, was a marked shift for the group, which has made significant demands of Ms. Harris with little result.” See also In Michigan, Harris meets Arab American leaders angry over Israel (Reuters 10/4/24)

Biden Sought Peace but Facilitated War (Nicholas Kristof//NYT 10/5/24)

“Instead of midwifing the landmark Middle East peace that he hoped for, Biden became the arms supplier for the leveling of Gaza — a war that killed more women and children in a single year than any other war in the last two decades, according to Oxfam. Biden has been calling for restraint for a year, but he marginalized himself by continuously providing the weapons that allowed his appeals to be ignored…It wasn’t a failure of vision or of hard work. Biden concocted a grand plan for a multipart deal that would deliver a cease-fire in Gaza, normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations, a path to a Palestinian state and a stronger Saudi-American relationship that would freeze China out of the region. But Biden was unwilling to forcefully use his leverage to get there, so Netanyahu ran rings around the president.” See also Biden’s Moral Failure in Israel (Peter Beinart // NYT 10/8/24); Joe Biden Chose This Catastrophic Path Every Step of the Way (Matt Duss//TNR 10/7/24)

Pro-Palestinian Group at Columbia Now Backs ‘Armed Resistance’ by Hamas (NYT 10/9/24)

“The pro-Palestinian group that sparked the student encampment movement at Columbia University in response to the Israel-Hamas war is becoming more hard-line in its rhetoric, openly supporting militant groups fighting Israel and rescinding an apology it made after one of its members said the school was lucky he wasn’t out killing Zionists. “We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” the group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, said in its statement revoking the apology.” See also Brown Rejects Protesters’ Push to Divest Over Israel Ties (NYT 10/9/24)

Pro-Palestinian Group Is Relentless in Its Criticism of Israel, and It Isn’t Backing Down (NYT 10/5/24)

“Ms. [Nerdeen] Kiswani bills herself as part of a bolder, new generation of Palestinian American activists who are calling for what she says earlier generations also wanted, but feared to say in public: the replacement of the state of Israel with a state called Palestine, covering all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. “We may look more moderate, or whatever, if we talk about a two-state solution,” she said. “But that’s been dead on arrival for years now. It’s already a one-state solution. It’s a state that’s controlled by Israel in every sense.” There was no point in softening her message, she said. “People from our community who tried to appease politicians, they were still marginalized. They were still called terrorists,” she added. “So if we’re going to receive that backlash regardless of what we say or do, then we might as well make the full demands of what we want for our people, which is complete and total liberation.”

Journalist’s distress over Israel-Gaza war spurred self-immolation, writings show (WaPo 10/6/24)

““I give my left arm to you,” Mena wrote on his personal website ahead of Saturday’s pro-Palestinian demonstration, referring to the children in Gaza who have lost limbs…Then, Mena, of Phoenix, ignited his left arm — becoming the second person this year to set fire to themselves in the nation’s capital to protest Israel’s military actions in Gaza.” See also Failing Gaza: Pro-Israel bias uncovered behind the lens of Western media (Al Jazeera 10/5/24)

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

A Year That Has Brought Us to the Breaking Point (Yousef Munayyer// TNR 10/7/24)

“What we have witnessed in Palestine over the last year has been a continuation of what we have witnessed in Palestine over the last century. Undoubtedly, the level of violence we are witnessing now is greater than before, and, importantly, it may well pale in comparison to the level of violence we will witness a decade from now. Hard as it may be to wrap one’s head around that possibility, it is nevertheless imperative for us to do so. Unless the patterns that created this year of genocide can be broken, we should expect them to repeat—and to become worse…Every red line up the ladder to genocidal violence has been erased by continued U.S. backing. Now genocidal violence itself is being normalized. Our leaders won’t say these words, but they have given their blessings to the actions that constitute the crimes those words describe. In doing so they are laying the groundwork for genocides to come in Palestine and yes, perhaps beyond Palestine as well.”

How Israel has made trauma a weapon of war (Naomi Klein//Guardian 10/5/24)

“But it does raise the question: why does it seem that so many prominent Jewish leaders want Israel to have suffered a modern-day Holocaust of its own, enough to indulge these false and dangerous comparisons? On one level, it makes little sense: Israel’s Staatsraison is its claim that it alone can guarantee Jewish safety in the face of Jew-hatred, cast as a primordial force in the human psyche that can rise up with genocidal fury at any moment. The 7 October attacks were brutal, but they did not represent an exterminatory threat to either Israelis or Jews as a people. Why, then, would Israel want to undercut its core mission by advancing a narrative that makes it seem less safe than it actually is? Here is one theory: the wound at the heart of Israel’s founding is that Palestinians have been forced to pay for Europe’s crimes. Forced to pay with their land. Their homes. Their freedom. Their blood. Over and over again, in what many Palestinian scholars and political leaders, from Hanan Ashrawi to Joseph Massad, have termed the “ongoing Nakba”. However, if Palestinians are the new Nazis, or worse than Nazis (as we have heard this year), and if 7 October is a new Holocaust, or an extension of it, that would even the score after the fact. Put differently, in the new national identity being forged around that traumatic day, Israel might be less physically safe than it has long claimed, but it believes it is more politically safe, since it would, within this logic, not be founded on the crime of ethnically cleansing a people who never posed an existential threat to the Jews. And that means it would be safe to finally finish the job of the Nakba, which looks very much like what is under way in Gaza and large parts of the West Bank.”

A Year of War Without End (Lina Mounzer//The Markaz Review 10/4/24)

“And yet I have come to the point where words fail. Not because the words themselves aren’t up to the task of describing the savagery. But because I’m coming to terms with the inability of those words to effect any change in some listeners. To convey the magnitude of loss and horror, to affirm the unique, irreplaceable humanity of those we’ve lost over the last year — and the magnitude of each individual loss — to those disinclined to see us as human. The failure is not that of language itself then but of the rotten substructure of the world within which this language is meant to function. For what is difficult to understand about a doctor in Gaza describing the amputation of limbs undertaken without anesthesia, or a doctor in Beirut saying that he’s “never had to remove more eyes”? What further eloquence might aid in the comprehension of such horror?”

Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again (Noura Erakat//The Nation 10/7/24)

“Today, Day 367, it is almost impossible not to despair. “Catastrophe is not in the future, the Nakba is not the past,” historian Sherene Seikaly tells us. We are not on the precipice of apocalypse; we have been building life in its folds…Our collective labor has made an indelible impact: The United States and Israel are isolated globally, their influence reduced to the use of naked coercive force devoid of any legal or ethical persuasion. Their boundless destruction is matched only by their moral bankruptcy, now plain for those who want to see it…We must recognize our despair, and name it, to prevent its bottomless darkness from transforming our activist spaces into toxic places of harm. We must remember that surrender is not an option, and that history is more than even an epoch. We must turn to Palestinians for our greatest guidance and inspiration—they, who over 76 years, have been pummeled more than once, and who every time have risen like a phoenix to reconstitute themselves and continue forging a future with the fire of the most difficult sacrifice and the surety of collective victory. A genocide has threatened to erase Palestine, but it has ensured that Palestine now lives in each one of us, immortal. Nothing, and none of us, will be the same again.”

After a year of terror in Gaza, our souls feel suspended in time (Ruwaida Kamal Amer//+972 10/5/24)

“It is a terrible thing to witness the obliteration of your homeland. When I think about what we’ve lived through this past year, I feel like I’m going to lose my mind completely. It is a shock that I’m still unable to absorb. I try not to think at all, in the hope of maintaining my sanity until it ends. Seconds go by like hours. One night of this torment is difficult enough; our souls feel suspended in time, until morning comes and we have to endure another day. We search for one piece of news that might change our lives for the better. I long for the day when we no longer hear the constant noise of bombs, warplanes, and drones. The day the death stops.”

Palestine and Lebanon are living the same nightmare. We will rise out of it together (Mohammed R. Mhawish//+972 9/29/24)

“I am not in Lebanon, but I can picture the scene vividly. The air is thick with dust, and the deafening roar of explosions is only drowned out by the never-ending wail of sirens. The streets are full of people running for their lives, but there’s nowhere safe to go. Ambulances, overwhelmed and unable to reach the wounded, are helpless as the shelling tears neighborhoods apart. Civil Defense teams scramble to rescue survivors, but the sheer intensity of the bombardment renders their efforts futile. I can picture this because the scenes unfolding today in Lebanon are heartbreakingly familiar to me as a Palestinian journalist from Gaza. They echo what my hometown has lived through for generations, including the last year of Israeli genocide. I know the terror that grips those streets. I know what it’s like to wake up to the sound of bombs, to scramble for safety with nowhere to go, to hold your child close and wonder if you’ll live to see tomorrow.…For the people of Lebanon, Gaza is not a distant cause; it is a mirror of their own suffering. They understand too well the feeling of being abandoned by the world, the endless waiting for help that never comes. They know the pain of watching their children grow up under the shadow of war, of raising a family in the ruins of what once was. And even now, with bombs exploding around them, they stand with us, just as they always have.”

‘Living to death’: Poet Mosab Abu Toha on Gaza’s trauma, one year on (Al Jazeera 10/6/24)

“I was born in a refugee camp,” he says. “My father and mother were born in refugee camps. My grandfather was born in a refugee camp. I can’t ignore or unlive my background, the background of someone who was born in a refugee camp and who was wounded and who never left Gaza until he was 27. And whose house was bombed. And who was kidnapped by the Israeli army.”…“I want every single person who is living outside [Gaza] to imagine themselves being born in Palestine,” he says. “Being born in a refugee camp and living all their lives under occupation and under siege. To raise your children in a war zone not for one year, two years, three years, no – for me it’s been all my life.” See also from Mosab Abu Toha: The Pain of Travelling While Palestinian Mosab (New Yorker 9/21/24); Gaza’s Schools Are for Learning, Not for Dying (NYT 10/6/24); The Gaza We Leave Behind (New Yorker 10/7/24)

Must the Sword Devour Forever? (Seth Anziska//Jewish Currents 10/2/24)

“There is a gnawing and nightmarish sense that this latest war emerges as an extension of Gaza—its annihilatory model projected northward, even as the campaign in Gaza is itself an extension of Lebanese wars past…These wars have pushed the limits of international humanitarian law, creating dangerous new precedents. The violation of national sovereignty and territorial integrity is now an unremarkable phenomenon. Extrajudicial executions masquerading as targeted assassinations in densely populated neighborhoods claim large numbers of civilian lives, from Gaza’s Nuseirat to Beirut’s Haret Hreik; no one is held accountable. New, indiscriminate technologies of 21st-century warfare—from AI programs like Lavender, which generate endless lists of targets by algorithm, to exploding pagers and walkie talkies, which turned alleged Hezbollah members at the pediatrician’s office or the greengrocer into human grenades—continue to erase the distinction between combatant and civilian, an erosion of norms that even the permissive theorist of “just war doctrine” Michael Walzer denounced in the pages of The New York Times. The last 12 months may reflect a new chapter in Israeli warfare deployed against Palestinians and Lebanese, but they presage grotesque “innovations” coming to a theater near us all. What is normalized in wartime will shape our collective future.”

His Mother Was Killed by Hamas. Her Death Transformed His Life. (NYT 9/30/24)

“Israelis always tell me that when the hostages were brought into Gaza, people cheered,” he said. “I think the same people will cheer when we bring peace.” If the very militants who destroyed his kibbutz came to him now saying they were ready to negotiate for peace, Yonatan told me he would listen openly. “Come,” he said. “Even if you killed my mother before.”

‘I Have Watched My People Suffer in Ways That Would Shock the World’ (Lujayn, Mohammed R. Mhawish, Ahmed Abu Artema, Hani Almadhoun//The Nation 10/7/24)

“Now, as we reflect on this painful year, we return to some of the people we have met along the way—among them, an impossibly brave 14-year-old girl who has held on to her capacity for love and hope; a writer and father who survived six months in Gaza before fleeing to Egypt; and a poet, activist, and father who has persisted, day after day, despite enduring the ultimate loss…We urge you to read their words—to listen to the pleas and yearning within them, to the fear and despair, to the rage and sorrow and, yes, love. And we urge you to share their words, far and wide, so that the world cannot fail to hear them.”

What Was Possible Before October 7th, and What Remains Possible Now (Isaac Chotiner interviews Yezid Sayigh//New Yorker 10/7/24)

“To talk about what might be next for the region, I recently spoke by phone with the Palestinian writer and scholar Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Malcolm H. Kerr Middle East Center, and an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Lebanese politics. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why Hamas misjudged Israel’s response to October 7th, whether Israel has done any long-term planning beyond its military actions, and what the war in Gaza has revealed about international law.”

What Life Looked Like for Palestinians Before October 7 (Jacobin 10/7/24)

“Israel is fast turning Gaza into a wasteland, the result of decades of occupation and apartheid. Israeli journalist Amira Hass explains what life was like for Palestinians before the current genocide.”

Alive in Gaza (Zeina Azzam//Vox Populi)

“‘I’m still alive. I’m doing my best to stay alive.’My mind tries to process this message from a young friend in Gaza. I met Ahmed virtually through We Are Not Numbers (WANN), a writing program for youth in Gaza, a year and a half ago. I have mentored college-age students through WANN for almost eight years now, and Ahmed was the most recent one before the events of October 2023…Getting Ahmed’s messages makes Israel’s war on Gaza so real to me, so visceral…I have realized that I feel so much guilt about Gaza. I am helpless and impotent to do anything about the genocide. It seems that no amount of personal or community lobbying and protesting, writing articles or letters for the news or social media or to lawmakers, composing poems from the heart, sending donations to humanitarian organizations or GoFundMe appeals, or simply praying has made life in Gaza at all livable or secure. Nothing seems to stop Israel’s devastating war on Gaza and its people. We constantly hear of more death and destruction. It is unfathomable that no one in the world is doing what it takes to make this nightmare stop.”

To honour Jimmy Carter’s legacy, amplify his call for freedom in Palestine (Mustapha Barghouti//Al Jazeera 10/8/24)

“Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States who turned 100 this month, has built a legacy of courage and moral clarity over his many decades in public service, fighting tirelessly for peace and human dignity at home and around the world. Now, as he nears the twilight of his life, we must take the time to reflect on one of his most courageous stances: his unwavering commitment to Palestinian dignity and self-determination…Now, as he enters his 100th year and tributes pour in to honour his many humanitarian achievements, we must not forget that he was one of the most important truth-tellers of our time. Carter was willing to see the brutality inflicted on the Palestinian people and refused to remain silent about it. That is a rare kind of courage, especially for a former US president, that should be recognised and remembered. The best way we can honour Jimmy Carter, his bravery and unwavering moral clarity is to carry forward his commitment to equal human rights for all people.”

Focus On: A Year of Genocide in Gaza (Al Shabaka 10/8/24)

“This Focus On highlights how Al-Shabaka has sought to respond to these gaps, drawing on Palestinian analysis from members of our policy network and guest contributors. From grounding October 7th in the broader context of Israeli settler colonialism, to interrogating Israel’s multifaceted war machine, to assessing rapidly evolving regional relations, this compilation of works represents Al-Shabaka’s ongoing effort to articulate the Palestinian condition in real time.”

Here in Gaza, a new year of hunger, humiliation, and loss begins (Ahmed Abu Artema//Middle East Eye 10/9/24)

“Living in a tent, even the simplest things become distant dreams…And there’s no guarantee of safety, as Israeli warplanes have repeatedly bombed tents, instantly killing their inhabitants. Palestinians are forced to clean up the remains and erect new tents atop such tragedies.I saw this process unfold once, and I was shocked. How could someone bear to live in a place where a slaughter had occurred just a few hours earlier; where a person’s body had lain in pieces? I shared my astonishment with a friend, who replied: “If he hadn’t put up his tent, someone else would have done so right away.” This war is changing us all. When will the volume of tragedy satisfy Israel’s appetite for punishing the Palestinian people?”

Rashid Khalidi, America’s foremost scholar of Palestine, is retiring: ‘I don’t want to be a cog in the machine any more’ (Guardian 10/8/24)

“As the Columbia University professor steps down, he addresses student protests, links between Ireland and Palestine and how ‘higher education has developed into a hedge fund’’

 

1. New from FMEP

2. Region//Global

3. Gaza

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Media

7. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

FMEP Legislative Round-Up September 27, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Targeting/Slandering/Inciting Against Rep. Tlaib, Again (& twice over); 5. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Elex/Politics; 6. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

Settlement & Annexation Report: September 27, 2024 (Kristin McCarthy)

1. High Court Denies Request to Allow Zanuta to be Even Minimally Rehabilitate Village After Settler Destruction; 2) Bimkom Report on Outpost Retroactive Authorization; 3) Israeli Groups Release Report on Annexation; 4) U.S. Congress Votes to Advance Bill that Labels Settlements As Israel, Greenlighting Annexation; 5) Bonus Reads

REGION/DIPLOMACY

Israel Targets Hezbollah Chief Nasrallah in Massive Beirut Strike; Israeli Officials Estimate 300 Killed (Haaretz 9/27/24)

“The Israeli army attempted to assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday evening at the group’s central headquarters in Beirut. The Israeli security establishment estimates that Nasrallah was present in the headquarters at the time of the bombing and that he was hit, and that the commander of the organization’s southern front, Ali Karaki, as well as the commander of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, Abbas Nilforushan, were killed in the attack. According to estimates by Israeli defense officials, about 300 people were killed in the air force strike. Some of the victims were in nearby buildings. IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the facility that was targeted is located underneath residential buildings. Despite Israeli assessments, a Hezbollah source told Reuters that Nasrallah survived the attack. Saudi media, including Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath, also reported that Nasrallah survived and that he was “at a safe location.” Despite this, Israel’s security establishment maintains that Hezbollah was present in the headquarters at the time of the attack. An Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran is attempting to discern his condition.” See also Who is Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah? (WaPo 9/27/24); Middle East crisis live: Israel continues Lebanon airstrikes; Iran says attack targeting Hezbollah leader ‘changes rules of the game’ (Guardian 9/27/24); Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon – a visual guide (Guardian 9/27/24); Israel conducts massive strike in Beirut targeting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (Axios 9/27/24)

Netanyahu vows to continue Hezbollah war, defying U.S. cease-fire plan (WaPo 9/27/24)

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed during a fiery address to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that his country would continue its military operation in Lebanon in defiance of a U.S. cease-fire proposal demanding a temporary halt in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. His swaggering, bellicose remarks included a warning to all of Israel’s enemies, namely Iran, that there is no place to hide from Israel’s might. “If you strike us, we will strike you,” Netanyahu said. “There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that’s true of the entire Middle East.”…Friday’s speech at the United Nations is the latest in a series of remarks from the Israeli leader that have embarrassed U.S. officials, who earlier this week touted a “breakthrough” in negotiating a proposal for a 21-day truce that they insisted was done in full coordination with the Israeli government.” See also Netanyahu tells UN Israel will continue attacks on Gaza, Lebanon (Al Jazeera 9/27/24); At the U.N., overwhelming anger at Israel (Ishaan Tharoor//WaPo 9/27/24); ‘Stop killing children’: protests as Netanyahu arrives for UN address (Guardian 9/26/24); Leader of Palestinian Authority denounces Israeli Gaza offensive at UN, insists: ‘We will not leave’ (AP 9/26/24)

From yes to no to maybe: Behind Netanyahu’s shifting stance on Lebanon cease-fire (Al Monitor 9/27/24)

“The Biden administration was shocked and frustrated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s flip-flopping over the  US-French cease-fire proposal to stop fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, with his vowing upon arriving in New York that the fighting will continue. On Wednesday, Axios reported that Netanyahu had given his explicit approval to an Israeli team to pursue discussions on the proposal. That was before he boarded a flight to New York to attend the annual UN General Assembly meeting. Al-Monitor confirmed Axios’ reporting through a source in the negotiating team and that Netanyahu gave a greenlight to the US on the proposal ahead of landing in New York. After landing on Thursday, Netanyahu vowed that Israel would keep fighting the Iran-backed Lebanese militia. Diplomatic sources confirmed that his backtracking took the Americans by surprise.  That Washington would be surprised seems odd given the considerable experience of successive US administrations in dealing with Netanyahu and his ways over the past 15 years.” See also US, France call for 21-day cease-fire on Israel-Lebanon border (Al Monitor 9/25/24); Netanyahu softens position, says Israel discussing US-France cease-fire plan in Lebanon (Al Monitor 9/27/24); Israel rejects US-backed Lebanon ceasefire plan, hits Beirut again (Reuters 9/26/24); US, frustrated, says ceasefire plan rejected by Netanyahu had been coordinated with him (Times of Israel 9/26/24);

At least 700 killed, 120,000 displaced as UN calls Lebanon situation ‘catastrophic’ (Al Monitor 9/27/24)

“At least 700 people, including women and children, have been killed and approximately 2,600 others injured amid ongoing, wide-scale Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon that have rendered the situation in the country “catastrophic,” according to the United Nations. More than 120,000 people are believed to have fled their home amid heavy fighting in the southern and eastern parts of the country, according to local authorities. “We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many express their fear that this is just the beginning,” said Imran Riza, the United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, in a Friday press release. Israel has expanded the scope of its airstrikes since Monday, initially hitting thousands of Hezbollah targets in the south and to the east in the Bekaa Valley and in the previously untargeted districts of Keserwan and Jbeil (Byblos), north of Beirut. In the past week, Hezbollah, engaged in cross-border exchanges of fire with Israel since last October, has announced the killing of several of its top commanders, including the head of its Aerial Command, Mohammad Hussein Srour, in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Thursday…In response to the extensive airstrikes, Hezbollah has continued to launch rockets at military sites in northern Israel. On Friday, it claimed rocket attacks on Kiryat Ata, Tiberias and Ilaniya.” See also Missile intercepted above Tel Aviv as Hezbollah targets city for first time – video (Guardian 9/25/24); Hezbollah steps up rocket attacks on Israel in retaliation for attacks (Axios); Israel calls up reservists, telling troops to prepare for Lebanon incursion (WaPo 9/25/24); Israel’s Bloodbath in Lebanon (Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain//Drop Site 9/23/24); Lebanon says Israeli airstrikes kill at least 492, residents flee from south (Reuters 9/24/24); Over 90,000 people in Lebanon had to flee Israel’s bombardments this week (NPR 9/26/24); More than 30,000 people crossed into Syria from Lebanon: UN (Al Jazeera 9/27/24)

Israel: Pentagon finalizes $8.7B arms package as strikes on Lebanon continue (Al Monitor 9/26/24)

“The State Department unlocked an additional $3.5 billion in funding to enable the Israeli military to purchase more American-made weapons this week, even as Biden administration officials publicly called for de-escalation in response to Israel’s intensified bombardment of Lebanon. The additional funds – previously approved under the supplemental spending bill passed by Congress in April – were part of a larger $8.7 billion package finalized during negotiations between senior US and Israeli officials at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Israel’s Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that $5.2 billion of the latest package would pay for additional air defense systems, while the $3.5 billion released this week will go to “essential wartime procurement” in order to “support Israel’s ongoing military efforts.”’ See also Pentagon to Send More U.S. Troops to Middle East as Tensions Rise (NYT 9/23/24); ‘End This War’: Biden Calls for Gaza Cease-fire in Final U.N. Speech (NYT 9/24/24); ‘Houthi missile’ seen over Israeli city before interception (Al Jazeera 9/27/24); Houthis boast they fired missile, drone at Tel Aviv and Ashkelon, vow to launch more (Times of Israel 9/27/24);

With pager blasts and airstrikes, Israel unleashes its terror on Lebanon (Elia Ayoub//+972 9/23/24)

“Gaza has long been Israel’s preferred military laboratory, and Israeli start-ups that market “battle-tested” weapons have reaped the benefits. This has turned Gaza into a place where the most morbid world records have been broken — home, for example, to the highest percentage of child amputees, with around 10 children per day losing one or both of their legs to Israeli bombs, according to the UN.
But Lebanon, too, has been a key battleground for Israel to develop its military stratagem. First outlined by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot during the 2006 war, the infamous Dahiya doctrine endorses “disproportionate” force to “the enemy’s actions and the threat it poses,” and includes specifically targeting civilian infrastructure “to an extent that will demand long and expensive reconstruction processes,” according to a 2009 report by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. Anyone affected by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon instinctively understands the Dahiya doctrine. And after the nearly year-long genocide in Gaza, which has seen the relentless destruction of entire cities, and recent statements from Israeli leaders, Lebanese citizens are firm in conviction that the Israeli military will not hesitate to inflict massive civilian casualties. Last November, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared that “what we can do in Gaza, we can do in Beirut,” while last week, IDF Major General Ori Gordin proposed re-occupying south Lebanon to create a “buffer zone” with Israel.” See also Did exploding pagers attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon violate international law? (NPR 9/20/24); Are Israel and Hezbollah Headed Toward an “Open-Ended Battle”? (Rania Abouzeid//New Yorker 9/24/24); Israel’s Pager Bombs Have No Place in a Just War (Michael Walzer//NYT 9/21/24); Doctors Describe the Horror of Israel’s Pager Attack in Lebanon (New Lines Magazine 9/25/24)

GAZA

Israel attacks school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza (Al Jazeera 9/27/24)

“An Israeli air attack on a school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza has killed at least 15 people. The Israeli military confirmed it struck the school in the Jabalia refugee camp, claiming it was targeting Hamas fighters. The bombing on Thursday brought the number of people killed in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours to 36…In the southern city of Khan Younis, the authorities buried the bodies of 88 Palestinians that Israel returned to Gaza in a mass grave. The Health Ministry denounced what it called the “inhumane and immoral” way Israel had treated the bodies, saying they were sent back piled in a truck with no information to identify them.”

Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them. (Propublica 9/24/24)

“The U.S. government’s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza. The U.S. Agency for International Development delivered its assessment to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department’s refugees bureau made its stance known to top diplomats in late April. Their conclusion was explosive because U.S. law requires the government to cut off weapons shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed humanitarian aid. Israel has been largely dependent on American bombs and other weapons in Gaza since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. But Blinken and the administration of President Joe Biden did not accept either finding. Days later, on May 10, Blinken delivered a carefully worded statement to Congress that said, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”’

How the Health Ministry in Gaza Counts the Dead (Sharif Abdel Kouddous//Drop Site 9/25/24)

“Every day, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza publishes a bulletin of the number of people killed and wounded in Gaza over the previous 24 hours and updates the total number of casualties since October 7. Today’s report shows 24 Palestinians killed and 85 wounded, bringing the totals to 41,495 and 96,006, respectively. The ministry also works to keep track of the names, ages, ID numbers, and other biographical data of those killed, periodically making its latest list public. The most recent published list includes biographical information for 34,344 Palestinians killed between October 7 and August 31—with the important caveat that there are over 6,000 more confirmed dead that the ministry had not been able to successfully identify. The Health Ministry has persisted in documenting casualties despite the health care system in Gaza coming under a direct and sustained assault by the Israeli military, with multiple hospitals being bombed, besieged, and invaded by Israeli forces, doctors arrested and killed, and severe restrictions on medicine and medical supplies allowed into Gaza. Out of 35 public hospitals treating patients in Gaza before October 7, only 16 are partially functioning today. To understand how it has managed to document tens of thousands of dead in Gaza to a high degree of accuracy, the processes it has used, and the philosophy behind it, Drop Site conducted an interview with Dr. Zaher al-Wahaidi, director of the information center at the Ministry of Health in Gaza who is based at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.”

Giving Birth in Gaza (Marie Claire 2024 Changemakers Issue)

“Lesser known is the story of birth taking place amid so much death, with about 180 babies being born in Gaza every day. Mostly, it is a story of extreme hardship—a maternal health crisis where nearly every mother is malnourished like Abed, leading to preterm and low birthweight babies, miscarriages and stillbirths; women who cannot reach the few remaining hospitals to give birth due to the danger, so they deliver unsafely at home or in tents; gender-based violence against birthing women on the rise, spurred on by all the stress; serious infections in both mother and child; postpartum hemorrhaging of the mother, sometimes leading to death; and nearly every woman suffering from post traumatic stress—trauma they pass on to their babies. Juliette Touma of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), one of the main UN agencies providing emergency humanitarian aid to Gaza, said that she has worked in conflict zones for decades, and never seen a crisis of this magnitude. “I tell you, it’s probably one of the most difficult places on earth to be a woman,” she said, especially a woman who is pregnant. But it is also a story of heroism, of the doctors, midwives, and other healthcare staff who are delivering babies and caring for birthing women amid tanks and bombs and gunfire; who are continuing to work despite having lost homes and belongings and loved ones themselves.”

Hamas Stopped Responding to Gaza Cease-fire, Hostage Deal Proposals, Diplomatic Source Says (Haaretz 9/26/24)

“A diplomatic source said that Hamas has stopped responding to proposals relayed by mediating countries in recent weeks regarding negotiations for a hostage release and cease-fire deal. “We have no information suggesting that Yahya Sinwar is dead, but he has been out of contact for at least a few weeks,” the source stated. “In fact, we are not receiving any communication from Hamas, but we cannot determine if this is related to Sinwar.”’

For Gazans with disabilities, Israel’s genocide shows no mercy (Ibtisam Mahdi//+972 9/27/24)

“Feeling but not hearing the bombs, displaced without their specialized equipment, mauled by army dogs: this is how Palestinians with physical and cognitive impairments are surviving and dying amid Israel’s onslaught.

 

RIVER TO THE SEA

Israeli Bulldozers Flatten Mile After Mile in the West Bank (NYT 9/25/24)

“Over two weeks, Palestinians watched as Israeli military bulldozers tore up mile after mile of their streets and alleys, sewage seeping into the dusty ruts left behind. The people of Tulkarm and Jenin, the two West Bank towns that were the focus of Israel’s latest military raids, said they had never before experienced such a scale of destruction…Visual evidence analyzed by The New York Times supports accounts from residents about the damage from Israel’s latest raids. Videos filmed in Tulkarm and Jenin show bulldozers destroying infrastructure and businesses, and soldiers impeding local emergency responders. “We watched their bulldozers tear up streets, demolish businesses, pharmacies, schools. They even bulldozed the town soccer field, and a tree in the middle of a road,” said Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, a governorate in the northern West Bank. “What was the point of all of this?”’ See also Settlers attacked Bana’s village. Then a soldier shot her through her window (Oren Ziv//+972 9/23/24)

Israeli forces shut down Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau (WaPo 9/22/24)

“Israeli security forces shut down Al Jazeera’s Ramallah bureau in the West Bank on Sunday, the country’s latest action against one of the few news organizations providing nearly uninterrupted coverage of the war in Gaza and a surge in violence in the West Bank. Footage broadcast on Al Jazeera’s Arabic network showed heavily armed Israeli troops entering the bureau on Sunday morning. According to the network, soldiers arrived around 3 a.m. local time and ordered employees to evacuate within 10 minutes, leaving any equipment behind. Al Jazeera said a 45-day closure order was handed to the Ramallah bureau chief, Walid al-Omari. None of the network’s employees were harmed in the raid, but some journalists were threatened with laser-pointed weapons, Al Jazeera said — preventing them from covering the operation. On Sunday, it said the bureau was sealed off with two large metal plates welded over the entrance, making it inaccessible. In a subsequent statement, the Israel Defense Forces said it had confiscated the broadcaster’s equipment.” See also Israel closes Al Jazeera bureau in Ramallah: All you need to know (Al Jazeera 9/22/24); Palestinian Journalist Mujahed al-Saadi Violently Arrested by Israeli Forces in Home Raid (Drop Site News 9/24/24); The Shutdown of Al Jazeera Is a Dire Warning for All Journalists in Israel: You’re Next (Sheren Falah Saab//Haaretz)

Human Rights Groups: Israel’s Far-right Channel 14 Has Called for Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza More Than 50 Times (Haaretz 9/24/24)

“Since the start of the war, Israel’s Channel 14 has given a platform to more than 50 statements calling for genocide or supporting genocide against the Palestinians, and to more than 150 statements calling for the commission of war crimes and of crimes against humanity (or supporting the commission of such crimes). Dozens more statements included calls for the mass expulsion of the population in Gaza and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. In addition, dozens of statements of racist incitement against Gazans and Palestinians have also been documented. These figures were compiled by three organizations – Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, Hatzlacha: Movement for the Promotion of a Fair Society, and the Democratic Bloc. In letters sent Monday morning to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and to the Ombudsman of the Second Broadcasting Authority, these organizations call for a criminal investigation to be opened against the Channel 14, arguing that it is responsible for systematic and widespread incitement for the commission of these offenses. They also call for sanctions and serious fines to be levied against the channel for violating the rules of ethics in its broadcasts.” See also Jerusalem’s Ultranationalist Deputy Mayor Probed for Terror Incitement After anti-UNRWA Posts (Haaretz 9/23/24)

As war widens and costs mount, Israel’s economy is in ‘serious danger’ (WaPo 9/26/24)

“The country has seen its credit score downgraded and its gross domestic product shrink sharply. Tens of thousands of businesses have closed, and a growing number of jobs are being moved offshore. Israeli reservists have put careers on hold — or struggled to juggle them with military service. While Israel’s massive high-tech industry has remained resilient, construction and agriculture — which relied heavily on Palestinians whose work permits were canceled by Israel after Oct. 7 — have been hit hard. Tourism has plunged by more than 75 percent, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in June, leaving many shop fronts shuttered in the usually bustling thoroughfares of Jerusalem’s Old City. Defense spending, meanwhile, has at least doubled, with the Central Bank warning that the war could cost $67 billion through 2025 — a prediction made before Israel’s recent escalation in Lebanon and the mobilization of two reserve brigades to the northern front on Wednesday.” See also Moody’s Lowers Israel’s Credit Rating for Second Time Amid Escalating Security Situation (Haaretz 9/27/24)

In Israel’s prisons, skin diseases are a method of punishment (Vera Sajrawi//+972 9/25/24)

“Pale and frail, with an unkempt beard and a prosthetic eye, his emaciated body testifies to the neglect and torture he experienced inside Israeli prison. “Stay away,” he shouts at the eager crowd surrounding him upon his release. “I don’t know what disease I’m carrying — I have a rash and can’t risk shaking hands.” But his parents, overcome with emotion, move forward to embrace him. He shrinks away, fearfully insisting that he should remain untouched. Mo’ath Amarnih, a Palestinian photojournalist from the occupied West Bank, was released from Ktzi’ot prison in July…Amarnih is one of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners recently released from Israeli jails whose skinny bodies have been marred by scabies — a parasitic infestation caused by mites, leading to severe itching and rashes that often worsen at night and are exacerbated by the summer heat. The outbreak has been reported in multiple prisons…Over the past year, the total prison population has risen significantly: from 16,353 on Oct. 6, 2023, to over 21,000 by June of this year, according to Israel Prison Service (IPS) data. Around half of them, approximately 9,900 at the time of writing, are defined as “security prisoners,” of whom more than 3,300 are being held in administrative detention. With this sharp spike in the prison population, conditions inside Israeli jails have worsened drastically.”

U.S. SCENE

Targeting/Slandering/Inciting Against Rep. Tlaib, Again (& twice over) (Lara Friedman’s Legislative Round-Up 9/27/24)

“9/19/24: Racist, Inciting Cartoon targeting Rep. Tlaib: On 9/19/24, on the heels of an Israeli operation in Lebanon, in which thousands of booby-trapped pagers exploded, maiming and killing a large number of people (an operation that former CIA director and former, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called “a form of terrorism”) the National Review published a political cartoon (see on X) featuring a caricature of Rep. Tlaib (D-MI) pictured seated at her desk, with a burned a smoking object on the desk, and a thought bubble with the words “Odd. My pager just exploded.”…9/20/24:  Inciting Cartoon Against Tlaib Used as Hook for…Further Incitement Against Tlaib. On 9/20/24, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, speaking out on X, posted a comment that in effect shifted the focus away from the racist, dangerously inciting cartoon depicting Tlaib as a terrorist who Israel might have tried to assassinate (in a military action that was framed in a positive light by many in Congress and the media), to focus instead on false – and inciting – accusations against Tlaib, who (along with others, including the ACLU) has called Nessel out for what they see as the targeting of Palestine rights protesters  (some of whom, by the way, are Jewish) with criminal charges.  Nessel posted on X on 9/20/24: “Rashida’s religion should not be used in a cartoon to imply that she’s a terrorist. It’s Islamophobic and wrong. Just as Rashida should not use my religion to imply I cannot perform my job fairly as Attorney General. It’s anti-Semitic and wrong.” With that post — for which Nessel did not provide any evidence  Nessel re-cast Tlaib — the victim of a racist, anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, inciting cartoon, and a voice standing up for students’ right to protest — as the antisemitic victimizer, and cast herself as the righteous victim of Rashida’s evil action. That re-casting of Nessel as the righteous victim of Tlaib’s alleged antisemitism immediately took over and became the theme of the coming days.” See also Fact-check: Tlaib did not say Nessel charged pro-Palestinian protesters because she’s Jewish (Detroit Metro Times 9/23/24); Anatomy of a Smear Campaign Against Rashida Tlaib (Prem Thakker//Zeteo 9/24/24)

Sanders Files to Force First-Ever Vote in Congress on Blocking Weapons to Israel (Truthout 9/26/24)

“en. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and two other senators have introduced resolutions that will force the Senate to undertake the first-ever vote in Congress on blocking weapons to Israel. On Wednesday, Sanders introduced six resolutions blocking six sales of different weapons contained within the $20 billion weapons deal announced by the Biden administration in August. The sales include many of the types of weapons that Israel has used in its relentless campaign of extermination in Gaza over the past year. The senator said it is clear that the sales must be blocked as Israel openly violates humanitarian guidelines — making it a violation of multiple U.S. laws to continue funding its military, Sanders said.”

‘American society will have to divest from Israel before our leaders do’ (Samer Badawi//+972 9/27/24)

“In Ohio and around the U.S., pro-Palestine activists alienated by the presidential race are redoubling their efforts in local elections.”

Top Muslim-voter organization endorses Harris as Middle East conflict escalates (AP 9/25/24)

“Emgage Action, the political arm of an 18-year-old Muslim American advocacy group, endorsed Harris’ presidential campaign on Wednesday, saying in a statement provided first to The Associated Press that the group “recognizes the responsibility to defeat” Donald Trump in November.”

How the Powerful Outmaneuvered the American Protest Movement (Zeynep Tufekci//NYT 9/21/24)

“Over the summer, while protesters scattered to pursue internships or wait tables or help out at home, many institutions quietly changed the rules regarding political action. Mother Jones reported that dozens of institutions of higher education, in charge of nearly 100 campuses, were “effectively banning many forms of protest” with new regulations going far beyond the “time, space and manner” restrictions that were already in place. Students will still raise their voices, of course, but don’t count on seeing many big encampments, nor administrators paralyzed for months on end, unsure how to deal. The balance of power has tilted sharply back in their favor, where it is likely to stay for a while… Those in power have figured out how to outmaneuver protesters: by keeping peaceful demonstrators far out of sight, organizing an overwhelming police response that brings the threat of long prison sentences, and circulating images of the most disruptive outliers that makes the whole movement look bad. It works. And the organizers have failed to keep up.” See also Palestine Legal and CAIR File Lawsuit Against U. of Maryland for Canceling Palestinian and Jewish Student Groups’ Vigil (Palestine Legal 9/17/24); UChicago Students File Civil Rights Complaint After Disciplinary Charges, Arrests, and UCPD Surveillance (Palestine Legal 9/25/24)

After the Encampments (Aparna Gopalan//Jewish Currents 9/26/24)

“In hindsight, it is clear that—with few exceptions—neither negotiation nor escalation managed to secure real commitments to divestment last spring. Instead, both the deals that came from negotiations and the sweeps that followed escalations seemed to have hastened the end of the encampments, and thus the dissipation of students’ leverage. Such decampments, whether voluntary or forced, ultimately worked together with the arrival of the summer break to offer a reprieve that universities could use to refortify themselves against future uprisings. Administrators at more than 100 schools took to this task with gusto, instituting draconian policies penalizing protest; cordoning off lawns and other common campus spaces; announcing sweeping bans on pro-Palestine speech and, at times, speech writ large; and giving themselves new pretexts for calling the police on demonstrators who do not, say, confine their rallies to specific corners of campus or certain hours of the day.”

Pro-Palestinian Activists Shut Down a Campus Job Fair. One Student’s Punishment Could Get Him Deported. (Chronicle of Higher Education 9/24/24)

“After more than 100 students disrupted an on-campus job fair last week, Cornell University vowed to suspend all of them. For Momodou Taal, the promise came with an additional worry: deportation. Taal, a 30-year-old British graduate student and a prominent voice in Cornell’s pro-Palestinian protests, said this week that he is facing possible deportation as the university threatens to revoke his student visa. Some on Cornell’s campus see Taal’s case as a telling example of how colleges are ratcheting up pressure on pro-Palestinian protesters this fall. Administrators say they have tightened policies to try to curb the chaos of last spring, while some students and faculty have raised alarms about what they see as a crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech.”

Meet the First Tenured Professor to Be Fired for Pro-Palestine Speech (Natasha Lennard//The Intercept 9/26/24)

“Maura Finkelstein never hid her support for Palestinian liberation during her nine years working as a professor of anthropology at Muhlenberg College, a small liberal arts school in Allentown, Pennsylvania…Neither her longtime public support of Palestinians, however, nor the courses on Palestine she taught in her early years at the school prevented Finkelstein from earning tenure in 2021. Following the arduous tenure process, professors are supposed to enjoy lifetime job security and robust safeguards of academic freedom. The bar for dismissal from a tenured academic position is by design meant to be extremely high, requiring justifiable cause. In late May, however, Muhlenberg told Finkelstein that she was fired. The reason? She had shared, on her personal Instagram account, in a temporary story slide, a post written not by herself but by Palestinian poet Remi Kanazi calling for the shunning of Zionist ideology and its supporters.”

 

 MEDIA

The Return of Ta-Nehisi Coates A decade after “The Case for Reparations,” he is ready to take on Israel, Palestine, and the American media. (NY Mag 9/23/24)

“This time, he lays forth the case that the Israeli occupation is a moral crime, one that has been all but covered up by the West. He writes, “I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel.” Coates traveled to the region on a ten-day trip in the summer of 2023. “It was so emotional,” he told me. “I would dream about being back there for weeks.” He had known, of course, in an abstract sense, that Palestinians lived under occupation. But he had been told, by journalists he trusted and respected, that Israel was a democracy — “the only democracy in the Middle East.” He had also been told that the conflict was “complicated,” its history tortuous and contested, and, as he writes, “that a body of knowledge akin to computational mathematics was needed to comprehend it.” He was astonished by the plain truth of what he saw: the walls, checkpoints, and guns that everywhere hemmed in the lives of Palestinians; the clear tiers of citizenship between the first-class Jews and the second-class Palestinians; and the undisguised contempt with which the Israeli state treated the subjugated other. For Coates, the parallels with the Jim Crow South were obvious and immediate: Here, he writes, was a “world where separate and unequal was alive and well, where rule by the ballot for some and the bullet for others was policy.” And this world was made possible by his own country: “The pushing of Palestinians out of their homes had the specific imprimatur of the United States of America. Which means that it had my imprimatur…How could he have been so wrong before? The fault lay partly with the profession he loved. In journalism, he had found his voice, his platform, his purpose in life. And yet, as he sees it, it was journalistic institutions that had not only failed to tell the truth about Israel and Palestine but had worked to conceal it. As a result, a fog had settled over the region, over its history and present, obscuring what anyone at closer range could apprehend easily with their own two eyes. The Message is an attempt to use the journalist’s tools to dispel this veil.” See also Author Jhumpa Lahiri declines NYC’s Noguchi Museum award after keffiyeh ban (Al Jazeera 9/26/24)

‘It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive’ Wins News & Doc Emmy Despite Calls For Its Disqualification (Variety 9/25/24)

““It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive,” the AJ+ news story from Palestinian journalist/activist/filmmaker Bisan Owda that sparked controversy after earning a News and Documentary Emmy nomination earlier this year, has now won that Emmy. The report won the outstanding hard news feature story—short form category on Wednesday during the news portion of the two-day 45th Annual News & Documentary Emmys, held by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. After the project’s nomination, there were calls by the U.S.-based nonprofit Creative Community For Peace for the nomination to be rescinded, with a letter signed by the Hollywood notables including of Debra Messing, Sherry Lansing, Haim Saban and others accusing Owda of having ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a United States-designated terrorist group…In accepting the award, senior executive producer John Lawrence said, “This award is testament to one woman, only with an iPhone, who survived almost a year of bombardment. Over 100 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza, including several of our Al Jazeera colleagues. Our bureau in the occupied West Bank was shut down at gunpoint just last week. We thank you, our journalistic community, for this recognition.. and we urge you in joining us in saying that journalist is not a crime.”’ See also Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda and AJ+ win Emmy for Gaza war documentary (Al Jazeera 9/26/24)

Meta’s Oversight Board Rules ‘From the River to the Sea’ Isn’t Hate Speech (Human Rights Watch)

“Earlier this month, Meta’s Oversight Board found that three Facebook posts containing the phrase “From the River to the Sea” did not violate Meta’s content rules and should remain online. The majority of the Oversight Board members concluded that the phrase, widely used at protests to show solidarity with Palestinians, is not inherently a violation of Meta’s policies on Hate Speech, Violence and Incitement, or Dangerous Organizations and Individuals (DOI).”

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

Congress must restore humanitarian funding to stop famine in Gaza (Hassan El-Tayyab//The Hill 9/24/24)

“The people of Gaza aren’t starving. They are being starved. Over 2 million Palestinian civilians are facing a man-made humanitarian catastrophe, with famine and disease spreading due to a lack of aid access. At the same time, the Biden administration and Congress are withholding all U.S. funding for the largest aid operation in Gaza: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)…UNRWA is the “backbone” of all aid delivery operations in Gaza, ensuring that millions of people receive the help they desperately need. Continuing to block U.S. funding for UNRWA’s vital work is a cruel and unwarranted mistake that will only needlessly exacerbate the already catastrophic humanitarian suffering in Gaza.”

As a Former Hostage of the Palestinian Resistance, I Refuse to Support Genocide (Catherine Hodes//Truthout 9/18/24)

“My heart breaks for today’s hostages. I know what my parents went through while I was being held captive. What the families of today’s hostages are enduring is indescribably searing. Will they find comfort in the deaths of tens of thousands of people in the names of their loved ones? My own father wanted to fly to Jordan and rescue us. Our captivity took a great toll. Never though, did he articulate wanting revenge or retaliation. The only words I recall were expressions of sorrow about the intractability of global politics, and the rising death toll in Palestine. The agonizing experience of being a hostage causes me to resonate deeply with the closing off of the Gaza Strip, the families trapped there, and the Palestinians held hostage to Israeli policy and in Israeli prisons.”

Speaking the Unspeakable: (Anahid Nersessian//LRB 10/17/24 Issue)

“The Palestinian American poet Fady Joudah asks what it would mean—aesthetically, morally, politically—to write a good poem about genocide.”

‘Not All Jews Longed for a Jewish Supremacist State in the Land of Israel’ (Haaretz 9/27/24)

“The book returns to the history of Israel’s War of Independence and the Palestinian Nakba, but in a way this has never been done before: from the point of view of the Israelis and the Palestinians who fought here. In addition to examining personal correspondence, the book offers a systematic survey of Arab and Zionist propaganda disseminated during the war, and puts forward a narrative that in many cases contradicts the official version on which generations of Israelis were educated. [Shay] Hazkani shows, for example, that some of the Jewish volunteers from abroad (in the Mahal unit) who fought in the War of Independence found themselves bitterly disabused of the ideals they had brought with them to Israel, that some soldiers abhorred the exaggerated use of violence against the Arabs, and that immigrants from Morocco were furious at the racist treatment they endured, leading some of them to want to return to their homeland…”I think that the attempt to separate the Zionist story from the story of Palestinian history is untenable…”The Zionist story is interwoven with the rise of Palestinian nationalism. You discover that similar ideas appear in both movements; for example, the glorification of force and militarism as part of the need to struggle against the idea of a flawed masculinity that exists in both.”’

 

1. New from FMEP

2. Gaza

3. Region//Global

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Lawfare

7. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

FMEP Legislative Round-Up September 20, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Elex/Politics; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

Settlement & Annexation Report: September 23, 2022 (Kristin McCarthy)

1) Booking.com To Post Warning on Settlement Listings (Like Other “Conflict Affected” Areas); 2) Things to Watch During Jewish High Holidays; 3) Bonus Reads

Palestine in the 2024 U.S. Elections (New Occupied Thoughts episode)

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP President Lara Friedman discusses how Palestine is one of the defining issues of the 2024 elections with Rania Batrice, and FMEP 2024 non-Resident Fellow.

U.S. Policy Through the Looking Glass (New Occupied Thoughts episode)

FMEP Non-resident Fellow Rania Batrice talks with Matt Duss (Center for International Policy) about the current state of politics on Israel and Palestine in the U.S..

GAZA

Gaza publishes identities of 34,344 Palestinians killed in war with Israel (Guardian 9/17/24)

“Gaza’s health ministry has identified 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks in the territory, publishing a list of names, ages, gender and ID numbers that cover more than 80% of Palestinians killed in the war so far. The remaining 7,613 people included in its death toll, which is now above 41,000, are Palestinians whose bodies have been received by hospitals and morgues, but whose identities have not yet been confirmed…The document runs to 649 pages, with the dead listed largely by age. Gaza’s population is youthful, and the register underlines the high toll of Israeli attacks on Palestinian children. More than 100 pages are filled with the names of victims under 10 years old, and the first adult names do not appear until page 215. Israeli officials question the death toll given by the authorities in Gaza, arguing that because Hamas controls the government there, Gaza’s health officials cannot provide reliable figures. However, doctors and civil servants in the territory have a credible record from past wars. After several conflicts between 2009 and 2021, United Nations investigators drew up their own lists of the dead and found they closely matched ones from Gaza…[The list] does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but a majority of the 34,344 dead can be identified as civilians based on age and gender alone. It includes 11,355 children, 2,955 people aged 60 or older, and 6,297 women. There are also many civilian men of fighting age who have been killed.” See also At least 16 killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, Palestinian officials say (Guardian 9/16/24)

Palestinian poll finds majority of Gazans say Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack was wrong (Al Monitor 9/17/24)

“Support for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel has dropped significantly among Gazans and, for the first time, a majority of Gazans have judged the attack as wrong, according to a poll published Tuesday. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) conducted a poll in early September, asking 410 people in Gaza and 790 people in the West Bank whether they thought the Oct. 7 attack, which killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, was a positive move. With a 3.5% margin of error, 57% of Gazans surveyed said the attack was wrong and 39% said it was the right thing to do. In the West Bank, though 64% of respondents said that attack was the right move, that number dropped from 73% in June…The PCPSR found respondents’ feelings around the attack to be complicated: “More than two thirds of the Palestinians believe that the attack has put the Palestinian issue at the center of attention and eliminated years of neglect at the regional and international levels.” Palestinian support for the attack has dropped significantly in Gaza since the PCPSR conducted its first poll in December 2023, when 71% of Gazans said that Hamas was right to conduct the attack. In the West Bank in December, 82% of respondents said the attack was the right move…The poll shows that 78% of Gazans say a family member has been killed or injured in the war.”

Hunger still stalks Gaza (Ishaan Tharoor//WaPo 9/16/24)

“The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains catastrophic. Hunger and disease stalk the embattled territory, which has been devastated over 11 months of war. Israel continues to carry out strikes on alleged militant Hamas targets in supposed safe zones, invariably killing civilians caught in the crossfire. And relief organizations trying to help alleviate a desperate situation are still lamenting impediments to aid distribution, and security risks to their workers posed by Israeli troops and a morass of gangs that have emerged out of Gaza’s ruin.”

The Gazan infants who never saw their first birthday (Ibrahim Mohammed//+972 9/18/24)

“On Sept. 16, Gaza’s Health Ministry released a 649-page document containing the personal information of 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israel’s onslaught on the enclave over the past 11 months…Over 11,300 of the identified victims are children, and 710 of them were killed before they turned 1. These are the stories of six of those infants who were stolen from the world before even seeing their first birthday, as told by their families.” See also ‘The war has stolen our future’: Gaza children begin second school year without education (Guardian 9/15/24); U.N. Says Israeli War in Gaza Has ‘Catastrophic Consequences’ for Children (NYT 9/19/24);

‘People torn to pieces’ in Israeli airstrike on Gaza displacement camp (Ruwaida Kamal Amer and Mahmoud Mushtaha//+972 9/12/24)

“In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Israeli missiles rained down on a designated “humanitarian zone” in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis. For months, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have taken shelter there upon Israel’s orders to evacuate from almost everywhere else in the Gaza Strip. But even in this supposed sanctuary, safety for Palestinians is an illusion, and the displaced remain as vulnerable as ever…Tents were set ablaze, and the bombs left deep craters in the earth. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the airstrikes killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens more. It was Israel’s fifth attack on the area since designating it a place of refuge, and Tuesday’s bombings brought the total death toll from these attacks to more than 150.” See also Israeli strikes on Khan Younis kills 40 Palestinians in tent camp massacre (New Arab 9/10/24); Six UN aid workers among 18 killed in Israeli strike on Gaza school (Guardian 9/12/24);Gaza: Doctor dies in Israeli custody after being abducted from al-Shifa Hospital, officials say (Middle East Eye 9/18/24);

“Until our last breath”: Journalist Anas al-Sharif on Documenting Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Every Day for 11 Straight Months (Sharif Abdel Kouddous//Drop Site 9/11/24)

“Anas al-Sharif has become one of the most recognizable faces on television in the Arab world. For the past 11 months, the 27-year-old Al Jazeera correspondent has been reporting from the front lines of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza—now the deadliest place for journalists in modern history. By some counts, over 160 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October—a rate of one journalist killed every other day for nearly a year. Al-Sharif has personally endured threats against his life, and his home was targeted in an Israeli attack, killing his father. Al-Sharif is one of the few reporters who have remained in northern Gaza since October 7—an area from which, just a few days into the war, the Israeli government ordered 1.1 million people to evacuate and which has been the most heavily bombarded by Israel…Anas al-Sharif continues to report every day from northern Gaza. Drop Site asked him to reflect on his work in Gaza for the past 11 months. He sent a 10-minute voice note in response.” See also A plan to liquidate northern Gaza is gaining steam (Meron Rapoport//+972 9/17/24)

Gripped by despair, Israel’s hostage families try to keep hope alive (WaPo 9/16/24)

“In the weeks since the bodies of the six hostages were found in Gaza — shortly after being shot at close range by their Hamas captors, Israel’s Health Ministry said — Israelis have returned to the streets for increasingly massive protests, calling on Netanyahu to secure the release of the remaining captives. But U.S.-backed cease-fire talks have faltered again, as Netanyahu insists on keeping Israeli troops along the Gaza-Egypt border and Hamas demands that more Palestinians be released from Israeli prisons…Among hostage families, the deaths of the six marked a turning point. Many who had been keeping their protests in Tel Aviv largely apolitical have now joined the more overtly anti-government demonstrations a few blocks away. The result, organizers say, has been the biggest crowds yet, measuring in the hundreds of thousands.” See also 3 Hostages Likely Killed by Israeli Strike Last Fall, I.D.F. Says (NYT 9/15/24); U.S. charges senior Hamas leaders with deaths of Americans in Israel (CBS 9/3/24); US officials believe hostage-ceasefire deal unlikely by end of Biden’s term – report (Times of Israel 9/20/24); Organizers claim largest-ever rally in Tel Aviv as calls for hostage deal intensify (Times of Israel 9/8/24); I Was a Hostage in Gaza. Netanyahu Is Prepared to Sacrifice Those Israelis Still Held Captive (Liat Atzili//Haaretz 9/12/24)

 REGION/DIPLOMACY

Israel’s New Campaign of “Terrorism Warfare” Across Lebanon (Jeremy Scahill, Murtaza Hussain, Sharif Abdel Kouddous//Drop Site News 9/18/24)

“For the second day in a row, electronic devices across Lebanon, including walkie talkies, exploded on Wednesday, killing 14 people and injuring over 450, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The attack came one day after thousands of pagers across the country exploded at the same time, killing eleven people—including a 9-year-old child—and wounding nearly 3,000, including many civilians and government and hospital workers. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for the attacks…The second attack appeared timed to cause total panic among the civilian population and to undermine confidence in Hezbollah’s ability to control and contain Israel’s assault. On Wednesday, multiple explosions went off at a funeral for some of those killed on Tuesday, according to the AP whose reporters witnessed the attack…At approximately 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, thousands of pagers across Lebanon sprang to life, beeping and vibrating. The message on the screen indicated an error. “The message was: Fault. Fault. And it continued to beep and heat up before the explosion of the pager,” said Ali Jezzini, a security analyst and journalist in Lebanon who has been speaking to hospital workers treating the wounded. Many victims, he said, lifted the devices to examine the pagers and as they did so, they exploded, causing injuries to their faces and hands. “It did give a code and it continued to ring and vibrate. So that’s why they had to hold it in their hands to check what’s happening. It was faulty, it was not responding, so that’s why they kept it in front of their faces and the palms of their hands, because they’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with it. That’s why most of the injuries are like that. It didn’t explode right away.” See also ‘We are isolated, tired, scared’: pager attack leaves Lebanon in shock (Guardian 9/19/24); Hezbollah chief says ‘inevitable’ response to Lebanon blasts coming (Al Monitor 9/19/24); Exclusive: Hezbollah suspicions forced Israel to expedite Lebanon pager attack (Al Monitor 9/17/24); From Taiwan to Hungary: What we know about manufacturing of Hezbollah pagers (Al Monitor 9/19/24); Israel’s Pager Attack Was a Tactical Success Without a Strategic Goal, Analysts Say (NYT 9/18/24)

IDF hits more than 100 loaded Hezbollah launchers in series of major Lebanon strikes (Times of Israel 9/20/24)

“Israel carried out dozens of strikes on Thursday across southern Lebanon, in what Lebanese security sources said were some of the most intense bombings since Hezbollah began daily cross-border attacks on northern communities after the start of the Gaza war on October 7. The military said fighter jets had struck over 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon that were primed for immediate attacks on Israel. It said that in total, the launchers included around 1,000 launch barrels.” See also Hezbollah leader calls Israeli pager attacks a “declaration of war” (Axios 9/19/24); Israel detonates Hezbollah walkie-talkies a day after pager attack (Axios 9/18/24)

Israeli Army Assassinates Top Hezbollah Commander Ibrahim Aqil in Beirut Strike (Haaretz 9/20/24)

“The Israeli army said it assassinated top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil in an airstrike in Beirut on Friday. According to Lebanese reports, the strike targeted a building in a residential neighborhood known to be used by Hezbollah. The Lebanese Health Ministry said the attack killed 12 people and injured 66. Aqil, Hezbollah’s head of operations, is part of the group’s top leadership and considered part of the organization’s general staff. He was reportedly discharged from the hospital on Friday morning after being wounded in the attack on Hezbollah’s communications devices.” See also Who was Ibrahim Akil, top Hezbollah member killed in Israeli strike? (Al Monitor 9/20/24)

A broader Israel-Lebanon war now seems inevitable (Ishaan Tharoor//WaPo 9/20/24)

“For months, the refrain has been the same. Even as they backed Israel to the hilt, U.S. officials repeatedly stressed that they didn’t want to see a wider war explode across the Jewish state’s northern border with Lebanon. Leaders of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, a longtime Israeli antagonist, and their supporters in Iran signaled that they, too, had little desire for a full-blown conflict. And in Israel, top political and security officials in a country already in the throes of a sweeping, bloody campaign against Hamas in Gaza bickered over what to do about the threat posed by Hezbollah — recognizing, perhaps, that the Middle East’s most powerful military may be too stretched by another massive war. All the performed restraint may be melting away. The stunning series of deadly blasts in Lebanon this week ushered in a new reality. At least 37 people — including a few children — were killed and some 3,000 others injured when pagers, walkie-talkies and other devices exploded simultaneously on Tuesday and Wednesday across the country. The devices appeared to belong to Hezbollah operatives, though the huge organization is embedded throughout Lebanese society and incorporates vast networks of noncombatants, including medical professionals…Numerous international law experts, including a U.N. panel, accused Israel of violating international law and carrying out a form of terrorism, no matter that it was an attempt to weaken a known terrorist organization. For Hezbollah, the operation has been disastrous…Though the pager attacks represent a dramatic tactical victory for Israeli’s security establishment, it’s not clear what strategic goals it achieves.” See also Israel’s clash with Hezbollah strains U.S. effort to prevent wider war (WaPo 9/19/24); Israel didn’t tell U.S. in advance about Hezbollah pager attack, officials said (Axios 9/17/24); Biden administration distances itself from pager attack in Lebanon (JI 9/17/24); Israel’s Shin Bet foils Hezbollah plot to kill former senior security official (Al Monitor 9/17/24); Israel destroyed reported Iranian underground missile factory in Syria ground raid (Axios 9/12/24); Houthis fire missile from Yemen into central Israel, warn of more strikes (WaPo 9/15/24)

MBS: No Saudi-Israel Normalization Until Palestinians Get A State (Annelle Sheline//Responsible Statecraft 9/18/24)

“In a televised speech today, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated that, “The [Saudi] kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. We affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.” With this statement, the Crown Prince appeared to dash the Biden’s administration’s lingering hopes of achieving a landmark normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which would have also given Riyadh a U.S. defense agreement as well as a pledge to assist in the establishment of a civilian nuclear program…MBS’ clear statement of Saudi support for the establishment of a Palestinian state demonstrates the impact of the events of the past year…The Saudi state had sought to downplay condemnations of Israel, something few other Arab governments have tried to do, which prompted questions about whether MBS was trying to maintain the possibility of normalizing relations…The far right government of Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly made clear over the past year that they would not make a single concession towards the establishment of a Palestinian state…With the recent announcement by Saudi Arabia and the vote in the UN, the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israel’s military aggression is increasingly isolating the United States.” See also Saudi crown prince says no Israel normalization without Palestinian state (Al Monitor); Defense secretary postpones trip to Israel amid U.S. concerns of war with Lebanon (Axios 9/19/24)

UN members back resolution directing Israel to leave occupied territories (Guardian 9/18/24)

“In a symbolic step exposing Israel’s continued international isolation, the UN general assembly has voted overwhelmingly to direct Israel to leave the occupied Palestinian territories within a year. The non-binding vote follows a historic advisory ruling in July by the international court of justice (ICJ) urging Israel to cease “its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as soon as possible and stop all settlement activity there immediately”. Wednesday’s resolution was passed by 124 votes to 14 with 43 abstentions, prompting applause across the general assembly chamber in New York. The UK and Australia abstained while the US voted against.”

The UK and Its Illusive Arms Embargo (Shahd Hammouri//Al Shabaka 9/15/24)

“UK arms companies have long profited from selling weapons to Israel, with licenses issued from the British government. Since 2008, these exports have totaled an estimated $740 million, continuing even amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In protest, a Foreign Office official recently resigned over this policy of continued licensing. Following the Labour Party’s July 2024 election victory, which promised alignment with international law, some were cautiously optimistic that an arms embargo would be forthcoming. In September 2024, the British government suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel. Activists and human rights groups argue that this is far too limited. Accordingly, this policy memo details Britain’s international legal obligations and potential governmental maneuvers regarding arms sales to Israel.” See also UK suspends 30 arms export licences to Israel after review (Guardian 9/2/24); Which countries have suspended or restricted arms sales to Israel? (WaPo 9/11/24)

Germany has stopped approving war weapons exports to Israel: Report (Al Jazeera 9/19/24)

“Germany has put a hold on new exports of weapons of war to Israel while it deals with legal challenges, according to the Reuters news agency. A source close to the Ministry of Economy cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licences for arms to Israel due to legal and political pressure from legal cases arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law.”

Columnists resign from the Jewish Chronicle over allegations Gaza articles were fabricated (ABC News 9/16/24)

“Prominent columnists have resigned from the Jewish Chronicle newspaper over allegations that it published fabricated articles about the Israel-Hamas war. The resignations on Sunday came after the London-based newspaper removed multiple articles by a freelance journalist and apologized to readers, saying it conducted an investigation into the writer and was “not satisfied with some of his claims.” The newspaper didn’t specify which articles by the journalist, Elon Perry, were problematic. Among other claims, Perry — who described himself as a commando in the Israel Defense Forces — alleged that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar planned to smuggle himself and Israeli hostages out of Gaza through the border area with Egypt known as the Philadelphi corridor. Israeli media initially circulated the article, but later came to question its sourcing. The report has drawn speculation that it may have been part of a disinformation campaign in support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because the claims largely mirrored those made by the leader about the Philadelphi corridor earlier this month. Long-time Jewish Chronicle columnist Jonathan Freedland resigned in protest on Sunday, saying “the latest scandal brings great disgrace on the paper” and that it has “departed from the traditions that built its reputation as the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper.”’ See also Why did a British Jewish newspaper publish fake Israeli intelligence? (Ben Reiff//+972 9/11/24); Columnists resign from London Jewish Chronicle amid allegations that Gaza news was fabricated (JTA 9/16/24); Jewish Chronicle Scandal: When ‘pro-Israel’ Means Becoming a Megaphone for the Netanyahu Government (Haaretz 9/18/24); Forged Hamas documents leaked to shape public opinion, report says (Middle East Eye 9/9/24); How the Elon Perry fabrication scandal shook the Jewish Chronicle (Guardian 9/20/24)

RIVER TO THE SEA

Israeli soldiers filmed pushing bodies of Palestinians off West Bank roof (Guardian 9/20/24)

“Israeli soldiers have been filmed pushing three apparently lifeless bodies from a rooftop during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in the latest in a series of suspected violations by Israeli forces since the start of the Israel-Hamas war that rights groups say show a pattern of excessive force toward Palestinians. The incident took place in the town of Qabatiya in the northern West Bank, where the Israeli military has been carrying out large-scale raids since late August that the Palestinian health ministry says have killed dozens of people…The Associated Press (AP) said one of its journalists had witnessed the incident. The agency could not immediately confirm the identities or whereabouts of the bodies, nor the death toll from the Israeli raid.” See also IDF ‘Investigating’ After Soldiers Filmed Throwing Palestinian Bodies Off West Bank Rooftop (Haaretz 9/20/24)

The Siege of Jenin (Photos by Wahaj Bani Moufleh, text by Maya Rosen//Jewish Currents 9/12/24)

“On August 28th, the Israeli military began its largest concerted assault on the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada, in what Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described as “an attack to prevent terror.” Accompanied by tanks and bulldozers, and backed up by airstrikes, hundreds of troops entered Palestinian cities and towns across the region, including Tulkarem, Tubas, the Al-Faraa refugee camp, and Jenin, which was a central focus of the incursion. Over the next nine days, Israeli soldiers killed 36 Palestinians in the northern West Bank, eight of them children, and injured another 145; 21 of those killed were from Jenin. Under the guise of “destroying terrorist infrastructure,” as one Israeli military official put it, Israel destroyed an estimated 70% of the city’s critical infrastructure, including water, sewage, and electricity lines, as well as commercial buildings, medical facilities, and residential areas. Wahaj Bani Moufleh, a 24-year-old photographer with the Palestinian–Israeli visual journalism collective ActiveStills, documented the Israeli invasion of Jenin and its environs…In Jenin, Moufleh described seeing “the army storming and destroying the city.” In the ten-day period before Israel withdrew troops, soldiers drove numerous Palestinian families out of their homes at gunpoint—in some cases unleashing attack dogs to expel them “to places unknown, to a fate unknown,” in the words of the writer Mariam Barghouti, who reported from Jenin during the invasion. “The people in the camp were already refugees from 1948, and now they had to evacuate again,” Moufleh said. “It was like a new Nakba.” See also Dispatch from Jenin: Resistance Swells After Israel’s Brutal Invasion (Mariam Barghouti//Drop Site 9/9/24)

After expulsion by settlers, Palestinians embrace precarious return to Zanuta (Hamdan Ballal Al-Huraini//+972 9/9/24)

“On Aug. 21, dozens of Palestinians were finally able to return to the village of Khirbet Zanuta, in the South Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank. After years of facing constant threats from Israeli settlers, all of Zanuta’s approximately 300 residents were forced to flee their homes when settlers escalated their daily harassment and violent attacks in the wake of October 7. Zanuta was one of several Palestinian communities in Area C — the two-thirds of the West Bank controlled entirely by the Israeli army — that were displaced during the first weeks of the war. But in early August, following a legal appeal by the residents, the Israeli High Court ruled that the police had failed to protect Palestinians in Zanuta from settler violence, and ordered the authorities to facilitate their return. Despite the ruling, however, the threats of violence and dispossession in Zanuta have not disappeared. Just days after the residents’ return, a group of Israeli settlers descended on the village and harassed the community. On Sept. 9, Yinon Levy, a settler sanctioned by the United States as part his involvement in the organization Hashomer Yosh, entered the village and tried to steal a sheep belonging to the residents. The police and army stood by and failed to uphold their obligation — a haunting reminder that, even with a rare legal victory, the situation remains extremely precarious. I had accompanied the residents of Zanuta as they returned to their village a few weeks ago. The sadness and pain was visible in their eyes as they witnessed the extent of destruction the settlers had left in their absence. Almost every house had been damaged with their walls smashed, and even the school had been torn down and ruined. Yet on that day, for many of the Palestinians, the sense of loss was almost outweighed by the joy of being able to return to their land.” See also Extremist settlers rapidly seizing West Bank land (BBC)

Targeting childhood: Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank (DCI-Palestine 9/9/24)

“20 percent of the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2000 have been killed after October 7, 2023 at a rate of one child every two days, Defense for Children International – Palestine said in a report released today. The report, “Targeting Childhood: Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank,” details and analyzes Palestinian child fatalities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023, and July 31, 2024. Israeli forces routinely targeted Palestinian children with live ammunition and aerial attacks, prevented ambulances and paramedics from reaching wounded children, and confiscated children’s bodies in violation of international law.”

War, Apartheid, Dehumanization: Polls Reveal Bleak Parallels Between Palestinians and Israelis (Dahlia Scheindlin//Haaretz 9/18/24)

“Eighty-five percent of Israeli Jews recently agreed, in a new Israeli-Palestinian joint survey, that “the victimization of Jews is the worst compared to other people that suffered from persecution and injustice.” Among Palestinians, 83 percent agreed with the same statement, arguing that Palestinian victimization is the worst compared to all others. Polls are an imperfect instrument, but the undeniable symmetry of responses to a few questions in this latest poll, conducted between July 18-29 by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and the International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel Aviv University, seems to explain everything: the past, present, and likely future of the conflict. As the poll shows, feelings of victimization fuel justifications for war and violence. Eighty percent of Palestinians believe that their recent years of suffering in Gaza justify October 7, and 84 percent of Israeli Jews believe that October 7 justifies the war. Eighty-nine percent of Palestinians believe the land “very much” belongs to them and 92 percent of Israeli Jews say the land very much belongs to them…The symmetry of trends can seem surprising. Israelis and Palestinians experience vastly different realities of the occupation and this war. But the mind-set of victimhood and justifications for hostility are so similar as to represent almost a mirror image.”

New video, witnesses challenge Israel’s account of U.S. activist’s killing (WaPo 9/11/24)

“Eygi’s caution did not protect her. She was fatally shot in the head on Friday in the village of Beita, near Nablus, following brief clashes after Friday prayers. The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday it was “very likely” she had been hit “unintentionally” by one of its soldiers. “The incident took place during a violent riot,” the statement said, and the fire was aimed at “the key instigator.” But a Washington Post investigation has found that Eygi was shot more than a half-hour after the height of confrontations in Beita, and some 20 minutes after protesters had moved down the main road — more than 200 yards away from Israeli forces. A Palestinian teenager, who witnesses say was standing about 20 yards from Eygi, was wounded by Israeli fire; the IDF would not say if he was a target. Citing an ongoing investigation, the IDF also declined to answer questions from The Post about why its forces fired toward the demonstrators so long after they had retreated, and from a distance where they posed no apparent threat.” See also Israel’s Crackdown on the West Bank Has Already Killed an American Citizen (The Nation 9/13/24); At Funeral in Turkey, Family Mourns American Activist Killed by Israeli Gunfire (NYT 9/14/24); US lawmakers warn of Israeli inaction after another American killed in West Bank (Al Monitor 9/12/24); Murray, Jayapal, Cantwell call for inquiry into UW grad’s death in West Bank (Seattle Times 9/12/24); Murray, Jayapal Call for Independent Investigation, Accountability in the Killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi (Rep. Jayapal 9/11/24); I’m an American Activist. Israeli Forces Shot Me at a Peaceful Protest in the West Bank (Daniel Santiago//Time 9/13/24)

U.S. SCENE

Biden’s arms transfers to Israel under internal investigation (WaPo 9/18/24)

“Government watchdogs with jurisdiction over the State Department and Pentagon are preparing to publish the results of multiple investigations scrutinizing the Biden administration’s provision of U.S. weapons to Israel for its military campaign in Gaza, and “several” related inquiries are either underway or planned, their offices told The Washington Post. The forthcoming inspector general reports, which are not yet public, follow complaints from within the U.S. government that the export of billions of dollars in arms to Israel has violated laws prohibiting the transfer of American military assistance to governments that have committed gross human rights violations or blocked the movement of humanitarian assistance. The Biden administration has acknowledged the likelihood that Israel has used U.S. weapons in Gaza in violation of international law, but says continued arms transfers are justified for the defense of the country.”

Harris ‘entirely supportive’ of hold on large munitions while standing by Israel’s right to self-defense (Jewish Insider 9/17/24)

“Speaking at a gathering hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated her support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas while adding that she is “entirely supportive” of President Joe Biden’s decision in May to withhold certain large, offensive munitions from Israel as leverage. “One of the things that we have done that I am entirely supportive of is the pause that we’ve put on the 2,000-pound bombs, so there is some leverage that we have had and used,” Harris said. “But ultimately, the thing that is going to unlock everything else in that region is getting this [cease-fire] deal done.”’

‘Sidelining antiwar voices’: US Uncommitted Movement not endorsing Harris (Al Jazeera 9/19/24)

“The Uncommitted National Movement, a grassroots effort in the United States that is seeking to pressure the Democratic Party to shift its policy towards Israel amid the Gaza war, says it cannot endorse Kamala Harris for president. The group said on Thursday that Harris’s team had failed to respond to its request for a meeting with representatives and families of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip by a September 15 deadline…Our movement cannot endorse the vice president,” Abbas Alawieh, one of the Uncommitted National Movement’s leaders, said during a virtual news conference on Thursday morning. “At this time, our movement opposes a Donald Trump presidency, whose agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of antiwar organising,” Alawieh said. “And our movement is not recommending a third-party vote in the presidential election, especially as third-party votes in key swing states could help inadvertently deliver a Trump presidency, given our country’s broken Electoral College system.”’

Most Americans Want to Stop Arming Israel. Politicians Don’t Care. (Jonah Valdez//Intercept 9/10/24)

“A majority of voters support ending arms transfers to Israel, and support for an arms embargo is growing. “The reality is that the public is far more in favor of stopping arms sales to Israel than opposed,” Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at Arab Center Washington D.C., told The Intercept. He pointed to a June poll from CBS that showed 61 percent of all Americans said the U.S. should not send weapons to Israel, including 77 percent of Democrats and nearly 40 percent of Republicans. Poll results have been consistent for months.”

At antisemitism event, Trump says ‘the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss’ if he is defeated (JTA 9/19/24)

“He suggested that Jews would be to blame if he loses in November. He also said American Jews who vote for Democrats harm American interests, in an escalation of his standard rhetoric…Trump has for years made the claim that American Jews who mostly vote for Democrats are mentally ill, and this year, he has taken to saying that Jews who vote for Democrats need to “have their head examined.” He has also repeatedly said Israel will be destroyed if he loses the election, a prediction he repeated Thursday…Trump told both audiences Thursday night that he would “deport the foreign jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters from our midst” and restore a ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries that he instituted in 2017. The ban was opposed at the time by a broad range of Jewish groups. “I will ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip,” he said. “And we will seal our border and bring back the travel ban. Remember the famous travel ban? We didn’t take people from certain areas of the world because I didn’t want to have people ripping down and burning our shopping centers and killing people. We’re not taking them from infested countries.”’ See also Fifty Shades of Antisemitism: What Trump Says About U.S. Jews, in Office and on the Campaign Trail (Alison Kaplan Sommer & Ben Samuels//Haaretz)

UC Berkeley launches one of the nation’s few Palestinian-Arab studies programs amid demand (LA Times 9/10/24)

“UC Berkeley will launch a new endowed program and chair in Palestinian and Arab studies, one of the few in the nation, as the Israel-Hamas war has fueled huge demand to better understand the history, culture and politics of the people of the region. Ussama Makdisi, a UC Berkeley history professor and leading scholar of modern Arab history for nearly three decades, was named the inaugural chair. He said the program represents a groundbreaking effort to build understanding about the Palestinian people, who are often portrayed through the lens of the conflict with Israel, yet have a long, rich ethical and ecumenical history of their own…A $3.25-million gift by anonymous donors led to the establishment of the program, which will fund research opportunities and cultural activities, along with the endowed chair named after May Ziadeh, a pioneering Palestinian-Lebanese feminist, poet and writer…In support of the initiative, UC Berkeley has pledged $500,000 to bolster the program.”

 

LAWFARE//REDEFINING ANTISEMITISM TO QUASH ADVOCACY FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS

Republican Senator Targets Only Muslim Witness at Hate Crimes Hearing (Prem Thakker//Zeteo 9/18/24)

“Lawmakers and people of varied backgrounds donning keffiyehs filed into the US Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing room on Tuesday for Washington’s first official attempt to address anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab hate. But the hearing did everything but, with one Republican senator explicitly contributing to it. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy yelled at the only Muslim and Arab-American witness present — saying she supports Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. “You should hide your head in a bag,” the US elected official said menacingly toward Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute and co-chair of the Hate Crimes Task Force for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “You asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country,” Berry responded when Kennedy first suggested she supports Hamas.”

New Policies Suppress Pro-Palestinian Speech (Radhika Sainath//Insider Higher Ed 9/16/24)

“In July, Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Maryland applied to hold a vigil on Oct. 7. The university granted the application but, after receiving numerous complaints, made a threat assessment, found “no immediate or active threat,” then still canceled the event—and, in an extraordinary and unlawful move, banned all expressive events on campus that are not university-sponsored on that date. This may be the most egregious example of universities trying to appease pro-Israel forces by preventing protests against Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, but as students return to campus, colleges are rewriting policies that will have dire consequences on university life for years to come…Indeed, my office, Palestine Legal, is receiving a surge of reports of students being censored and punished as they return to school, often under the pretext that support for Palestinian rights (or wearing Palestinian keffiyehs, or scarves) violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by creating a hostile environment for Jews, even though Jewish students are at the center of many of the protests and wear Palestinian scarves. Often, no reason is given.” See also False Profits: Why I Am Not Teaching in the Classroom This Fall (Steven W. Thrasher on American Campus Crackdowns on Free Assembly//LitHub 9/16/24); Man Suffers Severe Burns After Self-immolation Protest Outside Israeli Consulate in Boston (Haaretz 9/17/24); A rabbi protested the war in Gaza. Her activism came at a high price. (WaPo 9/13/24); UC police seek approval for more pepper balls, sponge rounds, launchers, drones (LA Times 9/19/24)

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

One Issue on Which Israeli Extremists Are Mainstream (Hagai El-Ad//NYT 9/16/24)

“In the one-state reality that is Israel-Palestine, half of the population is Jewish, and half is Palestinian. While Jewish Israelis retain all their rights regardless of where they live, Israel maintains a hierarchy of subjecthoods for Palestinians, and this hierarchy is based precisely according to where they live. Palestinian citizens of Israel are second-class by law. In occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinians are “permanent residents.” In the rest of the occupied territories, they are stateless subjects. Nowhere in the entire area under Israel’s control, between the river and the sea, will one find equality between Jews and Palestinians. This kind of regime has a name: apartheid…Israeli liberals and Western diplomats tend to believe there are two paths forward: a binational, single state, or the two-state solution. But there is a third path: ethnic cleansing, by the expulsion of Palestinians. This is the path that Israel appears to be choosing. Will the United States and Israel’s other allies finally do something about it?”

The Angst and Sorrow of Jewish Currents (New Yorker 9/9/24)

“A little magazine wants to criticize Israel while holding on to Jewishness…Sarah Aziza, a Palestinian American writer who has contributed to Currents, told me, “Sometimes I feel like it’s almost a luxury to be a Palestinian in this moment, as opposed to being Jewish, because it’s easy to be clear.” At the same time, she continued, “breaking up with half your family is nothing compared to losing half of it.” Two hundred members of her extended family, she said, had been killed in Gaza.”

B’Tselem at the UNSC: For the Israeli government, the occupation and the settlements matter more than human life (B’Tselem 9/5/24)

“On Sunday, we woke up to the news that six Israeli hostages were executed by Hamas, just before soldiers reached them in a tunnel in Gaza. Another six, added to tens of thousands of people in this land who should not have died over the past year. During this week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets. They feel angry, desperate and betrayed by their government. They have understood, perhaps for the first time, that the Israeli government does not want to return the hostages in a deal, but to continue the war indefinitely. They see that the occupation and the settlements matter more than human life – and not only of Palestinians, said B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak, who addressed the UN Security Council last night (Wednesday)…Novak added “Since the criminal Hamas-led attack on October 7th, I and every Israeli I know have been living in deep anxiety. The government is cynically exploiting our collective trauma to violently advance its project of cementing Israeli control over the entire land. To do that, it is waging war on the entire Palestinian people, including committing war crimes almost daily”. Watch B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak’s address to the UNSC.”

Living the Nakba (Tareq Baconi//NYRB 9/12/24)

“Palestinians have long argued that the Nakba is not a finite event but an ongoing process of violent dispossession. Since Zionists started colonizing Palestine at the end of the nineteenth century, our social fabric as Palestinians has been torn apart, our land occupied, our archives and communal knowledge erased, our loved ones murdered, exiled, or incarcerated, and our people dispersed from their homeland. This violence is a kind of patrimony: it wedges itself into family life and forces silence within the home. Raja Shehadeh grew up knowing long absences but never the details of his father’s service to the cause; he saw only relentless work, a stern demeanor, moments of rage, and an unyielding cynicism that he could not quite place. Nor could he truly grapple with his mother’s perennial dissatisfaction. Their entire world was a product of the Nakba, and its violence persisted, unresolved, at the margins of their intimate lives. “For a long time I thought it was father’s politics that distanced me from him,” Shehadeh reflects in his latest memoir, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I. “Now I am aware that a more important reason was the politics within the family.” Is it ever possible to separate the two? As we grow up we start seeing behind our parents’ façade of normalcy. When we discover the pain they live with, we want to assuage it and sometimes to avenge it—to fight for healing. It was an inherited “public spirit” and “sense of responsibility,” Shehadeh writes, that animated his work at al-Haq: “I had the illusion,” he tells his absent father in Going Home, “that it would be possible to achieve personal justice for you through the collective struggle.” How does a little boy watching his father shave one morning come to terms with such a burden? Shehadeh is far from the only Palestinian to have grown up with this dilemma. We inherit the tragedy of losing a just fight. We want to reverse that loss, to give our parents back what is theirs and reclaim what is ours. This is how we learn to love.”

An ‘Unlawful Presence’ (David Shulman//NYRB 9/19/24)

“I think that information about the occupation and its terrors is largely available in Israel. Most of the daily crimes against Palestinians on the West Bank take place only a few miles from the homes of Israeli citizens within the pre-1967 borders of the state. Particularly vicious events are sometimes reported, in relatively subdued and peripheral ways, in Haaretz, the only respectable newspaper in the country, and also, rarely, on the evening news that everyone watches. Still, even peace-oriented, left-wing Israelis often express shock when I tell them of witnessing violent attacks by settlers and soldiers on Palestinian shepherds and peasant farmers. It is as if that kind of knowledge were pushed away from conscious awareness, or as if the knowledge itself exists somewhere in the mind but knowledge of that knowledge does not…In short, much of the population of Israel has lived through the last five decades in varying modes and intensities of denial.”

 

1. New from FMEP

2. Gaza

3. Region//Global

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Lawfare

7. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

FMEP Legislative Round-Up August 30, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Elex/Politics; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements; See also FMEP’s Legislative Round-Up August 23, 2024.

Settlement & Annexation Report August 23, 2024 (Kristin McCarthy)

1. Smotrich Tours Land Near Bethlehem He Now Controls, Threatens Systematic Demolition of Palestinian Buildings; 2. Following Pogrom in Jit, Borrel Threatens EU Sanctions Against Israeli Ministers; 3. New Outpost Reported Near Jericho; 4. IDF Invades Ramallah Neighborhoods to Demolish Two Homes; 5. The Israeli Government Has Transferred 150,000+ Guns to Settlers; 6. Peace Now Releases New Settlements Map; 7. Bonus Reads

 

The Accountability Archive (New Occupied Thoughts episode)

FMEP Non-Resident Fellow Nour Joudah speaks with Philip Proudfoot and Mahdi Zaidan from the Accountability Archive (@archivegenocide), which describes itself as a “crowdsourced record of journalists, politicians, and public figures endorsing or encouraging the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and/or defaming pro-Palestinian activists.”  The trio discuss how the archive came about, how it is coming along, and plans for the future, as well as what it has been like to undertake both such a massive project as well as the experience of wading through such incredibly graphic material.

U.S. Policy Through the Looking Glass (New Occupied Thoughts episode)

FMEP Non-resident Fellow Rania Batrice talks with Matt Duss (Center for International Policy) about the current state of politics on Israel and Palestine in the U.S.

GAZA

Israel strikes aid convoy organized by U.S. humanitarian group, killing 5 (WaPo 8/30/24)

“The Israeli military fired a missile killing five people in the lead vehicle of an aid convoy in Gaza that it claimed had been hijacked by militants…The D.C.-based nonprofit that organized the convoy, American Near East Refugee Aid, known as Anera, described it as a “shocking incident” in a statement on Friday and said that those killed were from a local transportation company. It was urgently seeking more details about the incident…The deadly strike in southern Gaza on Thursday comes just days after a World Food Program truck was fired on in the enclave and amid an increasingly strained environment in which humanitarian organizations are operating.” See also Israeli military launches fatal airstrike on humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza (Guardian 8/29/24)

World Food Program suspends staff movement after vehicle shot at in Gaza (Al Monitor 8/28/24)

‘“Despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach, the vehicle was directly struck by gunfire as it was moving towards an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint,” said the WFP in a statement. “It sustained at least ten bullets: five on the driver’s side, two on the passenger side and three on other parts of the vehicle.” The WFP added that this is the first time during the war that one of its vehicles has been directly shot at near a checkpoint. No WFP employees were injured in the exchange. The organization is “pausing the movement of its employees in Gaza until further notice,” per the release.” See also Israel says its attack on UN vehicle was ‘communication error’ (Al Jazeera 8/30/24)

Israeli evacuation orders force displaced Gazans into ever-smaller spaces (WaPo 8/30/24)

“In August alone, Israeli military evacuation orders in Gaza have displaced more than 250,000 Palestinians, according to the United Nations — shrinking the enclave’s only humanitarian zone and making it increasingly difficult for civilians to find food, water and shelter. Ten months into the war in Gaza, Israeli forces have repeatedly ordered evacuations as they battle Hamas militants and search for hostages. The orders — always expanding, sometimes overlapping, often confusing — have forced Gaza’s 2.2 million residents to move again and again, wedged into increasingly small segments of the shattered Strip. There have been 16 evacuation orders this month, with the most recent covering parts of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, the only major urban area that has yet to see a prolonged military incursion…“The IDF so-called humanitarian zone is no longer a viable place for us to render aid,” Georgios Petropoulos, head of the U.N. humanitarian agency’s Gaza office, told The Post. “The system is dead.” See also Aftermath of Israeli offensive in Gaza’s Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah (Al Jazeera 8/30/24); Israeli airstrikes kill at least 36 Palestinians in southern Gaza (Guardian 8/24/26); Israel strikes market and school in Gaza, killing at least 20 Palestinians (Al Jazeera 8/20/24); Eighteen members of same family killed in Israeli strike on Gaza (Guardian 8/18/24); IDF wraps up 3-week raid in south Gaza; 250 gunmen killed, 6 km of tunnels destroyed (Times of Israel 8/30/24); U.N. says evacuation order in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah ‘upends’ aid efforts (WaPo 8/28/24)

‘The polio vaccine is effective, but delivering it requires a ceasefire’ (Ruwaida Kamal Amer//+972 8/27/24)

“For 25 years, the Gaza Strip was free of polio. No longer. Earlier this month, the health ministry reported that a 10-month-old baby had contracted the disease; a week later, he was paralyzed. This came after poliovirus had been detected in sewage samples from six locations in the cities of Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis. With raw sewage flowing through Gaza’s streets, in close proximity to the tents of displaced people and the few remaining sources of freshwater, a potentially catastrophic epidemic could soon be afoot. A mass vaccination campaign is essential, but so long as Israel’s military offensive continues, such a campaign seems impossible — even as vaccines have started to be brought in. All across the Gaza Strip, Palestinians fear the consequences of the spread of the disease, especially to children who comprise half of the enclave’s population. “When my children go out to play, we run after them, shouting not to go near the sewage water,” Reem Al-Masry, a 35-year-old mother of three displaced from Beit Hanoun to Deir al-Balah, told +972. “But they are bitten all the time by mosquitoes and flies that live on piles of garbage and sewage and transmit diseases to us. Every day, my children complain of stomach pain, fever, skin rashes, and other health problems.”’ See also Gaza sees first polio case in 25 years as UN calls for mass vaccinations (Guardian); A 10-month-old Palestinian baby suddenly stopped crawling. Polio had struck Gaza (AP);

WHO delivers 1.2m polio vaccine doses to Gaza as pauses in fighting agreed (Guardian 8/30/24)

“The World Health Organization has said it delivered 1.2m doses of polio vaccine to Gaza, with 400,000 more to follow, as part of an emergency campaign after the first case of the childhood disease in the war-hit coastal strip in a quarter of a century. The vaccinations, due to begin this weekend, will be accompanied by three-day pauses in the fighting in several areas of the territory to allow the inoculation of more than 640,000 children. However, UN officials warned that Hamas and the Israeli military “must respect” the humanitarian pauses negotiated to allow the vaccinations, after two incidents this week – one deadly – when Israeli forces fired on aid vehicles, raising questions over how safely the vaccinations could be conducted.” See also Gaza polio vaccine rollout hindered by Israeli evacuation orders, says UN (Guardian 8/27/24); Israel agrees to brief pause in Gaza for polio vaccinations, U.S. official says (WaPo 8/28/24)

Children are drinking from puddles and wading through sewage pools, as Israel pummels water systems in Gaza (CNN 8/23/24)

“The Israeli offensive has displaced up to 1.9 million people – nearly the entire population – in Gaza, according to the UN. People in sprawling tent camps say they can barely access potable water or sanitation facilities in areas polluted by raw sewage and teeming with bugs. Women endure several menstrual cycles without washing, according to the UN. Others queue in the heat to use toilets at overwhelmed hospitals – or risk being chased by dogs to use washrooms in the middle of the night. The UN previously recorded one improvised shelter with only 25 toilets for 14,000 people inside and 59,000 outside. Palestinians told CNN they must prioritize scarce water supplies for consumption instead of bathing, washing clothes or cleaning dishes. Parents told CNN they struggle to find enough gas or fuel to boil and sterilize water, increasing the risk of illness. Some give their children food that requires minimal water for preparation – but offers poor nutritional value. Others describe water contaminated during transportation in unclean tanks.” See also Israel using water as weapon of war as Gaza supply plummets by 94%, creating deadly health catastrophe: Oxfam (Oxfam);

Netanyahu’s Insistence on Israeli Control of Philadelphi Route Jeopardizes Hostage Deal (Haaretz 8/30/24)

“Israeli and foreign officials warned on Friday that negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release are threatened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on keeping Israeli troops along the Philadelphi route, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border…According to sources, the defense minister told Netanyahu that he had never before expressed a willingness to back down from the Israeli presence in the corridor. However, he advised that the cabinet ministers look at it as a turning point: the hostages’ lives or staying in the Philadelphi corridor for six weeks.” See also Gallant said to fume at cabinet that PM potentially condemning hostages to their deaths (Times of Israel 8/30/24); Gaza talks focus on “nitty gritty” in hope of getting hostage-ceasefire deal (Axios 8/29/24); US tells UN Security Council Gaza ceasefire ‘in sight’ ahead of Cairo talks (Al Jazeera 8/22/24); ‘Members of Israel’s negotiating team accuse Netanyahu of intentionally sabotaging hostage deal talks — report (Times of Israel 8/20/24); Gaza Cease-Fire Talks Will Continue in Cairo, Officials Say (NYT 8/26/24)

Israel’s Hunt for the Elusive Leader of Hamas (NYT 8/25/24)

“He is by far Hamas’s most important figure, and his success in evading capture or death has denied Israel the ability to make a foundational claim: that it has won the war and eradicated Hamas in a conflict that has decimated the group’s ranks but also destroyed the Gaza Strip and killed tens of thousands of civilians…Interviews with more than two dozen officials in Israel and the United States reveal that both countries have poured vast resources into trying to find Mr. Sinwar.” See also As he stalls Gaza talks, Israel’s Netanyahu prioritizes capturing Sinwar (Al Monitor 8/29/24);

‘They told me to strip.’ Former Palestinian detainee says he was sexually abused in an Israeli prison (CNN 8/25/24)

“Salem alleges to have been beaten, verbally abused, had hot water poured on him, and told by soldiers that the rest of his family had been killed. But the worst part, he said, was the sexual abuse…“They would bring the metal detector and run it all over our bodies, then they would hover it over private parts and hit me there,” he said. As he crouched in pain, naked, with five or six soldiers looking, he said he felt the troops violate him from behind…As of April, more than 9,500 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons, including more than 3,500 without charge, according to Addameer Prisoner’s Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO. The figure doesn’t include detainees from Gaza, the group said.” See also Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured (Human Rights Watch 8/26/24); We Served on Israel’s Sde Teiman Base. Here’s What We Did to Gazans Detained There (Haaretz);

Israel Is Buying Google Ads to Discredit the UN’s Top Gaza Aid Agency (Wired 8/26/24)

“Back in mid-January, Mara Kronenfeld was googling the name of the nonprofit she runs, which raises money in the US on behalf of the leading humanitarian aid provider in Gaza. Atop the search results for her organization—UNRWA USA, partner to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—she saw a surprising ad. It read like a promo from the UN agency, but the link directed to an Israeli government website. Kronenfeld says she had found the beginnings of a months-long online advertising campaign by Israel to discredit and defund UNRWA….By buying ads for searches for “UNRWA” and “UNRWA USA,” the Israeli government now appeared to be aiming to draw potential donors to a webpage full of allegations about why the UNRWA couldn’t be trusted…After seeing the ads—paid for by the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, according to details shown when clicking on the menu button beside them—Kronenfeld and her staff of seven quickly appealed to Google for help fighting what they viewed as a misinformation campaign. What has happened since shows the delicate relationship Google has kept with its advertising client, Israel, and the limits of the company’s policing of alleged misinformation in ads.”

Israeli Hostage Escaped Gaza Captors, Returned to Israel by IDF (Haaretz 8/27/24)

“Israeli hostage Kaid Farhan Elkadi, who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, was found on Tuesday in a tunnel in southern Gaza and was subsequently rescued by the Israeli army. He was found alone in the tunnel, and the soldiers did not come across Elkadi’s captors or other terrorists, and no other hostages were found in the tunnel where he was being held.” See also Freed Israeli captive Noa Argamani says she was wounded by Israel, not Hamas (Middle East Eye 8/23/24); An Israeli freed from Gaza returns to a village where 70% of homes are targeted for demolition (AP 8/29/24); Israeli military recovers bodies of 6 hostages in Gaza operation (WaPo 8/20/24)

Satellite Imagery Shows Vast Destruction in Rafah (Bellingcat 8/27/24)

“Israel Defense Forces (IDF) invaded Rafah in May this year in order to establish control over the Gaza-Egypt border – an eight-mile-long strip of land referred to as the “Philadelphi Corridor”. Recent imagery provided by Planet Labs PBC showed a large amount of destruction not only along the corridor but in neighbourhoods two kilometres from the border such as eastern Tall As Sultan.” See also Bombed hospitals, buried children: we have become numb to Gaza’s destruction (Hala Alyan//Guardian 8/19/24)

Gaza Reduced to 42 Million Tonnes of Rubble. What Will It Take to Rebuild? (Bloomberg 8/15/24)

“So far, Israeli air strikes have left more than 42 million tonnes of debris across the Strip, according to the UN. That’s enough rubble to fill a line of dump trucks stretching from New York to Singapore. Removing it all may take years and cost as much as $700 million. The task will be complicated by unexploded bombs, dangerous contaminants and human remains under the rubble. The majority of the debris is destroyed housing, and its distribution across the Strip roughly mimics Gaza’s population density before the war…Property rights and difficulties in finding disposal sites for contaminated debris will further complicate the process. Rebuilding Gaza could cost far more than $80 billion, when taking into account hidden expenses like the long term impact of a labor market devastated by death, injury and trauma, according to Daniel Egel, a senior economist at California-based think tank RAND.”

 

 REGION/DIPLOMACY

Israel and Hezbollah both claim victory after night of heavy fighting (Axios 8/25/24)

“Israel said it hit dozens of targets in Lebanon on Sunday morning local time in a preemptive strike ahead of what Israeli and U.S. intelligence said was expected to be a major missile and drone attack on Israel by Hezbollah…Both Israel and Hezbollah tried to present their strikes on Sunday as a major success. Israel said it managed to thwart a large-scale Hezbollah attack with a preemptive strike. Hezbollah claimed its major attack was successful and said it had ended its military operations for the day. The exchange of blows, which U.S. and Israeli officials feared could ignite a much larger crisis in the region, appears contained for now, officials said… Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah confirmed the militia launched drones towards the Unit 8200 intelligence base in northern Tel Aviv and towards an air defense base in central Israel. But he claimed Israel is lying when it says it thwarted the attacks. Nasrallah also claimed Israel was lying about the success of its preemptive strike and said none of the rockets and drone launchers used for the attack were damaged.” See also Hezbollah’s Nasrallah says group reserves ‘right to respond’ in future after cross-border fire with Israel (Al Monitor 8/25/24); Hezbollah’s attack disappoints Hamas but averts all-out war with Israel (Al Monitor 8/26/24);  Pentagon shared intel with Israel to thwart Hezbollah attack (Al Monitor 8/26/24); How Israel and Hezbollah stepped back from the brink of all-out war (WaPo 8/26/24)

Mapped: U.S. rushes warships to Middle East in show of force to Iran (Axios 8/27/24)

“The U.S. has positioned about 18 warships including two aircraft carriers in and around the Middle East as it seeks to deter Iran and its proxies from conducting attacks that could evolve into all-out war with Israel. The big picture: This is a frantic year for the U.S. Navy. Some of the vessels operating in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have been combating the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels for months, while more Navy and Air Force assets are being brought in now as a show of force. Zoom in: In addition to two carrier strike groups now operating in the Middle East, an Air Force F-22 Raptor squadron has already arrived in the region and the USS Georgia — a guided-missile submarine — is lurking nearby. Disclosing the location or destination of a submarine like the nuclear-powered USS Georgia is a rare and purposeful power move.” See also White House’s Kirby says US would defend Israel in Iranian attack (Reuters 8/27/24)

Inside the Movement to Settle Southern Lebanon (Maya Rosen//Jewish Currents 8/19/24)

“Since October 7th, the drive to war has been widespread within Israeli society—especially in the country’s north, where mayors and heads of local municipalities facing Hezbollah attacks have been demanding that Israel enter Lebanon, destroy its southern region, and occupy parts of the country as a means of ensuring security. Ministers and Members of Knesset have joined these exhortations, with MK Avigdor Lieberman arguing that “everything between the Litani [River] and Israel must be under the control of the IDF.” Such remarks make it clear that both war and occupation are firmly on the agenda as Israel expands its military operations toward Lebanon. Now, a new Israeli group is looking to push this extreme vision even further. Uri Tzafon, named for a biblical verse literally meaning “awaken, O North,” was founded in late March with the goal of demanding not only war and reoccupation but also Israeli civilian settlements in southern Lebanon…It is tempting to dismiss Uri Tzafon as fringe..And yet, experts warned me again and again that the movement to settle Lebanon ought not to be discounted lightly. [Scholar of the far-right Natasha] Roth-Rowland agreed, noting that “there is a fairly well-established track record of even the most fringe parts of the Israeli settler movement becoming not so fringe over a period of decades or even years,” and pointing to the ways that the movement has succeeded in establishing and growing settlements, including, for example, the particularly violent one in the heart of the Palestinian city of Hebron.”

EU’s top diplomat asks member states to sanction some Israeli ministers (Al Monitor 8/29/24)

“On Tuesday, Borrell said he intends to ask member states to impose joint sanctions on Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Borrell’s request requires unanimous approval by all 27 EU members. Israeli diplomatic sources told Al-Monitor that the chances of such an approval are low, especially since Hungary, a friend of Israel, currently holds the presidency of the EU Council. Israel is also hoping for a change of tone in Brussels after Borrell steps down at the end of the year and is replaced by former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. On Aug. 12, Borrell condemned statements by Ben-Gvir that the transfer of humanitarian aid and fuel to the Gaza Strip should be stopped “until all our abductees are returned home.” Borrell said on the platform X that sanctions should be on the EU agenda and urged the Israeli government to distance itself from Ben-Gvir’s comments. “Like Minister Smotrich’s sinister statements, this is an incitement to war crimes,” Borrell noted.” See also Israel’s Right to Defend Itself Has a Limit’: Top EU Diplomat Borrell on Israel, Netanyahu and the Gaza War (Dahlia Scheindlin interviews Borrell//Haaretz 8/29/24)

Scottish government suspends meetings with Israel (BBC 8/19/24)

“The Scottish government has announced it will not hold any more meetings with Israeli ambassadors until “real progress” is made in peace talks over the Gaza conflict.” See also Norway forced to shut down Palestine office after Israel’s move to rescind accreditation to diplomats (AA 8/16/24);

RIVER TO THE SEA

Israel’s Violent Invasion of West Bank Parallels the Early Stages of War on Gaza: UN Rapporteur on Palestine (Jeremy Scahill//Drop Site 8/30/24)

“Israel is in the midst of its largest scale assault of the occupied West Bank since 2002.
Beginning in the predawn hours on Wednesday, hundreds of Israeli forces in columns of armored vehicles and bulldozers backed by drones and helicopters stormed into refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas. Israel also carried out drone strikes and snipers have reportedly been firing on people inside Jenin. Internet and cell phone service, as well as water and sewage systems, were shut down in parts of the West Bank as Israeli forces conducted house raids. Local residents have reported widespread demolitions of their homes and streets and the blocking of ambulances and medical workers attempting to reach wounded people. Israeli forces surrounded the main hospital in Jenin and have reportedly been searching people entering and exiting the facility…In an interview with Drop Site News, [UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca] Albanese said, “I see a serious pattern parallel with what is happening in the Gaza Strip”—“patterns of torture, of destruction, of extrajudicial killings, of uprooting that are very similar to Gaza.” “It is my responsibility to warn against the risk of the genocide leaking into the West Bank. There is similar rhetoric, similar patterns, and escalating violence, ordering similar things.” See also Israel launches large-scale West Bank raid as minister calls for Gaza-style operation (CNN 8/28/24); ‘This is a war’: FM urges Gaza-style temporary evacuation of Palestinians in West Bank (Times of Israel 8/28/24); Top Hamas official urges resumption of suicide terror attacks against Israel (Times of Israel 8/28/24); Hamas, Islamic Jihad claim responsibility for bomb blast in Tel Aviv (Reuters 8/19/24);

Israel kills Palestinian commander, traps civilians in West Bank incursion (WaPo 8/29/24)

“A major Israeli military incursion in the northern West Bank stretched into a second day on Thursday, as troops battled militants in cities and refugee camps, trapping civilians, destroying roads and infrastructure and raising the operation’s death toll to at least 16, according to Israeli authorities and Palestinian health officials. Around Tulkarm and Jenin, where the raids were concentrated, residents said they were stuck at home or in mosques and hospitals as clashes erupted and Israeli military vehicles blocked the roads. Others were detained by soldiers and later released, they said, but were unable to get home. In some places, basic services such as water, power, internet and cellular service shut down amid the fighting.” See also Toll Reaches 17 Dead in Israel’s West Bank Raid, Including a Militant Commander (NYT 8/29/24); Deadly Israeli raids in occupied West Bank as Gaza war rages (Al Jazeera 8/29/24); Israeli forces kill at least 10 Palestinians in West Bank raids and strikes (Guardian 8/28/24); Israeli settlers kill Palestinian in West Bank, military strike kills 5 others (Reuters 8/26/24); Israeli strike kills five Palestinians in occupied West Bank refugee camp (Al Jazeera 8/27/24)

‘If you try to defend yourself, you’re dead’: A West Bank village’s night of terror (Oren Ziv//+972 8/29/24)

“On Tuesday morning, the streets of Wadi Rahal were littered with stones and bullet casings — evidence of an attack the night before. According to the Palestinian residents of the village, which is located south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, about a dozen Israeli settlers had driven in, some of them armed. They threw stones at cars and houses, and when residents came out to defend themselves, the attackers opened fire. One resident, 47-year-old Khalil Salem Ziadeh, who divided his time between Jerusalem and Wadi Rahal, was shot dead. Four others were wounded…Ziadeh’s murder comes just two weeks after a pogrom in the village of Jit, where settlers set houses and cars on fire and shot dead another Palestinian man.”

Israeli condemnations ring hollow after settler pogrom in Jit (Oren Ziv//+972 8/19/24)

“As night fell, settlers descended upon the village. “There were more than a hundred of them — masked and armed with guns and clubs. They smashed the windows of my two cars and threw gasoline inside, setting them alight along with the entrance to my home. We rushed out with water to try to douse the flames. We had nothing to protect ourselves with except stones.” This was the scene on Aug. 15, as described by Ibrahim Sidda, in the Palestinian town of Jit — the latest in the occupied West Bank to suffer a pogrom at the hands of Israeli settlers…In all, the settlers burned three cars and four houses, but their violence didn’t stop at property damage: they attacked any Palestinian who dared to come out and try to defend themselves and their families, shooting dead 23-year-old IT technician Rashid Sidda and wounding five more. According to Ibrahim Sidda, it took Israeli soldiers around an hour to arrive and put a stop to the pogrom; another testimony published in Haaretz alleged that soldiers were present in the town during the attack and did nothing to stop it…What was different this time, however, was the immediate condemnations of the attack by Israeli politicians. Evidently spooked by the recent wave of U.S. and international sanctions targeting violent settlers and their organizations — and the looming threat that these could soon be leveled at senior government figures and state-funded bodies — Israeli leaders were quick to denounce the latest pogrom.” See also ‘They Came to Kill’: After Israeli Settler Attack on Palestinian Village, Locals Fear There’s No One to Save Them (Haaretz 8/18/24); Israeli Army Probe Finds Settler Attack on Palestinian Village a ‘Terrorist Act’ (Haaretz 8/28/24); Editorial | Jewish Terror Has Exploded, and Nothing Is Standing in Its Way. It May Bring Israel Down (Haaretz Editorial 8/25/24)

U.S. sanctions group that supports illegal West Bank outposts (Axios 8/28/24)

“The U.S. State Department and the Department of Treasury on Wednesday announced new sanctions against an Israeli non-governmental organization that operates in the occupied West Bank for its support of violence by extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians…The organization “Hashomer Yosh” has been funded and supported in recent years by the Israeli government. Senior members of the NGO are affiliated with the parties of ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich…Some of these outposts and farms have been sanctioned by the U.S. government for their involvement in violence against Palestinian civilians. Hashomer Yosh has received political and material support from the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment, and from individual ultranationalist lawmakers in the governing coalition. The NGO also raises donations in the U.S. through several foundations and online.” See also What is Hashomer Yosh, the latest settler group hit with U.S. sanctions? (+972)

Israeli settlers are seizing Palestinian land under cover of war – they hope permanently (BBC 8/27/24)

“They are stealing our land to build their dreams on our catastrophe,” says Ghassan Olyan, whose property is among that seized…Last week, Israel’s domestic intelligence chief Ronen Bar wrote to ministers warning that Jewish extremists in the West Bank were carrying out acts of “terror” against Palestinians and causing “indescribable damage” to the country. Since the start of the war in Gaza, there has been an acceleration in settlement growth in the occupied West Bank. Extremists in Israel’s government boast that these changes will prevent an independent Palestinian state from ever being created.” See also ‘Life Has Been Hell’: Inside Bethlehem, the West Bank’s Tourism Capital Turned Ghost Town (Haaretz); Masked Israeli Army and Police Forces Attack Palestinians in West Bank, Eyewitnesses Say (Haaretz 8/29/24)
​​

How Israel is Arming Israeli Settlers (Visualizing Palestine)

“This visual captures how the Israeli government has transferred hundreds of thousands of guns and other weapons to Israeli settlers since October 7, 2023, as settler violence against Palestinian communities skyrockets with impunity.”

“I was severely beaten if I moved”: Palestinian children held without charge or trial by Israeli forces (DCI-Palestine 8/27/24)

“Israeli authorities are unlawfully detaining Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank by holding them without charge or trial and subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment…Ill treatment and torture of Palestinian children remains widespread and systematic in the Israeli military detention system as children arrested by Israeli forces arrive at Israeli interrogation centers blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces used blindfolds and hand ties on almost all the children interviewed by DCIP. Children frequently report they signed documents during interrogation drafted in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. The rise in the number of Palestinian children subjected to administrative detention coincides with the alarming conditions faced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. The situation of Palestinian prisoners has become increasingly worse, with children reporting very harsh conditions since October 7. Israeli forces are holding 75 Palestinian children in administrative detention as of June 30, according to the latest information shared by the Israel Prison Service. This is a record number since DCIP began monitoring child administrative detainees in 2008. The majority of these children were detained after October 7, 2023, as Israeli forces escalated military operations throughout the occupied West Bank. Around one in three Palestinian child detainees are held under administrative detention orders, according to the Israel Prison Service. At the end of June, Israeli forces were detaining 226 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.”

Now in Power, Israel’s Messianic Far-right Is Dead Serious About Rebuilding the Temple (Haaretz)

“Recruitment of kohanim [priests], breeding red heifers, architectural plans – anyone who thinks that Ben-Gvir and his cohorts want only to pray on the Temple Mount should look again. The big project is already underway.” See also Israeli minister Ben-Gvir says he would build synagogue on Al-Aqsa compound (Al Jazeera 8/26/24); Saudi Arabia denounces call by Israeli minister to build synagogue inside Al-Aqsa Mosque (AA 8/27/24); Open Jewish prayer, prostration on Temple Mount now ‘routine,’ activists say (Times of Israel 8/29/24); Heritage Ministry to fund Temple Mount tours amid far-right push to alter status quo (Times of Israel 8/27/24)

A Video Shows an Israeli Settler Shooting a Palestinian Point-Blank. 10 Months Later, No One Has Been Arrested (Zeteo)

“Jewish settler Yitzhak Nir does not deny shooting Zakaria al-Adra, a 28-year-old Palestinian father of four, on Oct. 13, 2023. Nir, armed with an Israeli military-issued assault rifle, and at least one other settler left the illegal Ma’on Farm outpost in the occupied West Bank late that morning, walked 350 meters down a rugged hillside, and entered the neighboring village of At-Tuwani, according to court documents…Within a day of the shooting, the video of it went viral. A police investigation, according to court documents, named Nir as the shooter. Nir later claimed self-defense: Al-Adra, he said, intended to throw a stone. Ten months after the shooting, the police have made no arrests. Al-Adra and his family continue to live as neighbors with the man who shot him.” See also The battle to document Israeli settler violence in Masafer Yatta (New Arab); In this West Bank village committed to nonviolence, attacks by Israeli settlers are the new daily norm (The Forward)

For a Bit of Air, the Palestinian Lawmaker Lies Down on the Floor, by the Crack Under the Cell Door (Haaretz 8/30/24)

“Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar was arrested again after the war broke out and has been jailed ever since without charges – now in total isolation, in inhuman conditions” See also West Bank: Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar faces slow death in Israeli solitary confinement; effective and immediate action needed (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor 8/29/24);

How Israel’s Elite Intelligence Unit Targets Queer Palestinians in the West Bank (Drop Site)

“Over the past several months I spoke with dozens of queer Palestinians who had encounters with Israeli intelligence. Many had received threatening messages via Grindr, Instagram, or Facebook from an anonymous individual who had their identifying information, forcing them to turn into informants. That, in turn, has sown suspicion across the West Bank and frayed trust. “Israel’s objective in the occupied Palestinian territory is control, domination, and subjugation,” said Jalal Abukhater, who works at 7amleh, a Palestinian digital security organization. Its larger goal, he said, “to instill fear in Palestinians, preventing them from acting or socializing naturally.”…Over the decades, numerous investigations have exposed how Israeli intelligence targets LGBTQ+ people. In 2013, Vice published an investigation detailing how the Palestinian Authority’s preventative security forces, under the direction of the IDF, had isolated gay Palestinians from their communities, kept files on them, and exploited them for intelligence. In 2015, news reports revealed that a surveillance technology company run by a former Unit 8200 official had helped provide Uganda with malware allegedly used against LGBTQ+ activists…For queer Palestinians blackmailed by Israel, the impossible question before them is whether to risk being outed for their sexuality or for collaboration.”

U.S. SCENE

Harris says she won’t change US policy on arming Israel, stresses need for hostage deal (Times of Israel 8/30/24)

“US Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that she won’t change US President Joe Biden’s policy of arming Israel, in her latest rejection of calls to curb weapons shipments or end them completely. Harris was pressed on the matter during a CNN interview with her running mate Tim Walz — her first since becoming the Democratic party’s presidential nominee last month. Highlighting calls by progressives to withhold weapons shipments to Israel, CNN asked Harris whether she would take a different approach to the Israel-Hamas war than Biden has…“I’m unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not going to change,” Harris said…“As I said then, I say today: Israel has a right to defend itself. We would,” she said. “And how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” Harris added, referencing her concern over Israel’s prosecution of the war — something she has been slightly more vocal in Biden in emphasizing. The vice president then reiterated her belief in the urgent need for a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas…Pushed again on whether she would change the current policy regarding weapons shipments, Harris responded, “No” before quickly continuing her point about the need for a hostage deal.” See also Trump to Jewish supporters: ‘Schumer is like a Palestinian’ (JNS 8/19/24); Trump Accuses Schumer of Being a Hamas Member, Blames Democrats for Israel Losing PR Battle (Haaretz 8/22/24)

Israel says US shipments of arms and equipment during war exceed 50,000 tons (Times of Israel 8/26/24)

“Five hundred transport planes and 107 ships have delivered more than 50,000 tons of armaments and military equipment from the United States to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza last October, the Defense Ministry said on Monday. The military equipment delivered to Israel since the beginning of the war includes “armored vehicles, munitions, ammunition, personal protection gear and medical equipment,” according to the ministry. The deliveries are “crucial for sustaining the IDF’s operational capabilities during the ongoing war.”’

Palestine Won at the Democratic Convention (Jim Zogby//AAI)

“The 2024 Democratic National Convention was an exhausting roller coaster ride for Arab Americans and supporters of Palestinian rights.  It was a messy affair, with highs and lows, some small victories and some setbacks. But on balance, the naysayers are wrong, because Palestine and supporters of Palestinian rights were big winners during the four days in Chicago. We didn’t get language on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict changed in the party platform, nor did we get a Palestinian American speaker in prime time from the convention’s main stage. But the issue of Palestine was front and center from Monday through Thursday, and in the days that followed. They were little wins, to be sure, but they were victories, nonetheless.” See also Why the Uncommitted Movement Was a Success at the DNC (Waleed Shahid//Jacobin);

Here Is the Speech That the Uncommitted Movement Wants to Give at the DNC (Mother Jones 8/22/24)

“Delegates with the Uncommitted movement at the Democratic National Convention have continued pushing this week for either a Palestinian American or a doctor who has volunteered in Gaza to be allowed to speak on the main stage of the arena. There are thirty uncommitted delegates at the DNC representing the hundreds of thousands who voted uncommitted in lieu of supporting President Joe Biden’s primary campaign. They have been calling for a ceasefire and a halt to arms transfers to Israel while in Chicago. As we reported on August 1, the Uncommitted movement has also been continually requesting a speaker for the main stage. Last night, national Democrats denied their request for a speaker. Yesterday, ceasefire delegates began a sit-in to continue pushing for a brief speaking slot tonight…Mother Jones obtained the speech that Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American and Democrat, is still hoping to give…Below, you can find the speech Romman wants to give…Rep. Romman and Uncommitted organizers both confirmed that this was the speech she was planning to give if allowed for a potential 2-minute speaking slot. Uncommitted said they were open to the speech being edited and vetted. They said the DNC did not ask to see the speech.” See also DNC Faces Backlash After Organizers Deny Request for Palestinian Speaker (Prem Thakker//Zeteo 8/23/24)

Harris Can Change Biden’s Policy on Israel Just by Upholding the Law (Peter Beinart//NYT)

“Without supporting an arms embargo, she can still signal a clear break with Joe Biden’s near-unconditional support for an Israeli war effort that many legal scholars believe has led to genocide. And she can do so in a way befitting a former prosecutor: When it comes to Israel, Ms. Harris should simply say that she’ll enforce the law. The law in question has been on the books for more than a decade. It prohibits the United States from assisting any unit of a foreign security force that commits “gross violations” of human rights. Aid can be reinstated if the foreign country adequately punishes the perpetrators. Passed by Congress in 1997, it bears the name of former Senator Patrick Leahy — and it has been applied hundreds of times — including reportedly against U.S. allies like Colombia and Mexico.But it has never been applied to Israel, the country that over the past eight decades has received more U.S. aid, by far, than any other. That’s not because the Israel Defense Forces don’t commit serious abuses. “There are literally dozens of Israeli security force units that have committed gross violations of human rights” and should thus be ineligible for U.S. aid, a former State Department official, Charles Blaha, told ProPublica in May.” See also Meet the megadonors pumping millions into the 2024 election (WaPo 8/26/24); ‘Very Bad Sign for Democracy’: AIPAC Has Spent Over $100 Million on 2024 Elections (Common Dreams 8/28/24)

Gaza Debate Reopens Divisions Between Left-Wing Workers and Union Leaders (NYT 8/30/24)

“Since last fall, many rank-and-file union members have been outspoken in their criticism of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks, in which Hamas-led militants killed more than 1,000 people and took about 250 hostages. The leaders of many national unions have appeared more cautious, at times emphasizing the precipitating role of Hamas…In some ways, this divide reflects tensions over Israel and Gaza that exist within many institutions — like academia, the media and government. But labor’s divide over Gaza also reflects a deeper, more existential debate: Is the future of organized labor with its left-leaning activists, who have become increasingly outspoken on various issues inside and outside the workplace? Or is it with establishment leaders whose politics are more pragmatic?”

A Palestinian American’s Place Under the Democrats’ Big Tent? (Ta-Nehisi Coates//Vanity Fair 8/21/24)

“This is a formulation that depends on seeing Palestinians, and Palestinian life, with the same clarity as all other human life. One way this clarity and equality is expressed in our society is through our arts, our media, our public rituals—rituals like national political conventions. Maybe more than in any other year, this DNC has urged its various constituencies to highlight their identities and the collective pain that animates them. Racism, forced birth, land theft. It has been an exhibition of what the Palestinian scholar Edward Said called “the permission to narrate,” and it is that permission that Palestinian Americans have been denied. They have heard their names mentioned fleetingly by a handful of speakers but have not been granted the right to speak their names themselves. Perhaps that is for fear of what else a Palestinian American speaker might name. I cannot say that fear is unwarranted.”

The Democratic Party Has Been Avoiding This Fight for Too Long (Farah Stockman//NYT 8/20/24)

“The party still faces a long-term moral quandary of how to square its rhetoric about being the party of freedom, equality and racial justice with the virtually unconditional support it has offered to a far-right government in Israel that is accused of starving and bombarding large numbers of civilians in Gaza since the brutal Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.”

This Is Who Kamala Harris Fails (Hala Alyan//NYT 8/28/24)

“There is no doubt Ms. Harris is more articulate than President Biden on the issue. In her speech accepting the Democratic nomination, she spoke of Palestinians’ devastation, of their displacement, their hunger, their right to “freedom” and “self-determination.” “The scale of suffering is heartbreaking,” she said. I appreciate Ms. Harris’s broken heart. What I’d appreciate more is a direct naming of who is killing and starving Palestinians, acts that are neither inevitable nor without a perpetrator. I’d appreciate the upholding of international law through sanctions and an arms embargo. It’s hard to abide the passive framing of Palestinian death in the same speech that reasserts a nuclear power’s right to defend itself — a “defense” that in the past few months has included both American and Israeli representatives calling to level Gaza, mobs rioting to defend the rights of soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner, and bombs shredding hundreds of starving children in refugee camps.”

LAWFARE//REDEFINING ANTISEMITISM TO QUASH ADVOCACY FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS

Columbia Cuts Due Process for Student Protesters After Congress Demands Harsher Punishment (The Intercept 8/29/24)

“In early August, Columbia University told Congress that most of the students arrested in the past year for protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza would be allowed to return to campus for the fall. Then a congressional inquiry applied pressure…Now dozens of student protesters have received notices that their cases are being fast-tracked to university disciplinary hearings, short-circuiting Columbia’s own investigation process. Scheduled interviews with students have been canceled, and cases are moving directly to the University Judicial Board, which can expel or otherwise punish students, according to an email reviewed by The Intercept. Moving a case to a hearing without interviewing students for their version of events is an unprecedented move, and likely a sign that the university is caving to external pressure from Congress, said Katherine Franke, a professor at Columbia Law School.”

College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests (Natasha Lennard//The Intercept 8/27/24)

“Tucked into a document purportedly offering clarification on school policy, the new NYU guidelines introduce an unprecedented expansion of protected classes to include “Zionists” and “Zionism.” Referring to the university’s nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policy, known as NDAH, the updated conduct guide says, “Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists.” The university’s NDAH rules are intended to reflect the school’s legal obligations, including to Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination and harassment based on a student’s race, color, national origin, religious identity, shared ancestry, or ethnicity.  “Using code words, like ‘Zionist,’” the guide says, “does not eliminate the possibility that your speech violates the NDAH policy.”…According to NYU’s guidance, then, Zionist and Zionism are either antisemitic dog whistles when invoked critically or a protected category akin to a race, ethnicity, or religious identity.” See also NYU issues new hate speech guidelines discouraging students from targeting ‘Zionists’ (JTA 8/23/24);

Aug 25. Press Release: Responding to New Student Conduct Document (NYU Faculty for Justice in Palestine)

“We are alarmed by NYU’s updated guidance on student conduct shared by Provost Gigi Dopico and Executive Vice President Martin Dorph on August 22, 2024. The new guidance sets a dangerous precedent by extending Title VI protections to anyone who adheres to Zionism, a nationalist political ideology, and troublingly equates criticism of Zionism with discrimination against Jewish people. Furthermore, the new guidance implies that any nationalist political ideology (Hindu nationalism, Christian nationalism, etc.) that is integrated into some members of that group’s understanding of their own racial or ethnic identity should be entitled to civil rights protections. This is a disturbing development that will legitimize far-right and ethnonationalist ideologies under the guise of protecting students from racial discrimination. This weaponization of the Title VI apparatus openly threatens the university’s commitments to academic freedom and to nondiscrimination, and we insist that the administration reconsider these changes for the good of the university community.”

The Cost of Trying to Make Palestinian Lives Matter in the Newsroom (Soda Sherif//The Nation 8/19/24)

“On World Press Freedom Day, the National Writers Union published a report titled “Red Lines: Retaliation in the media industry during the Gaza conflict.” It documented 44 cases of retaliation against media workers—whether by way of assignment restriction, social-media suppression, or termination—in response to a belief that the accused either supported Palestinians or appeared “critical of the Israeli government.” The investigation did not yield a similar trend toward pro-Israeli media workers. According to the report, this wave of retaliation impacted more than a hundred media professionals across North America and Europe from October through February, a large portion of whom were of Middle Eastern, North African, or Muslim descent. The effect of this is clear: the production of less news about the reality of Palestine.” See also More Than 65 Palestinian Filmmakers, Including Hany Abu Assad, Elia Suleiman and Farah Nabulsi, Sign Letter Accusing Hollywood of ‘Dehumanizing’ Palestinians (Variety)

San Francisco State University divests from weapons companies aiding Israel’s war on Gaza (Middle East Eye 8/29/24)

“California’s San Francisco State University has begun the process of divesting from four weapons manufacturers currently involved in Israel’s war on Gaza, in a move activists are describing as a “major victory” for Palestinian rights advocacy in the United States…Noam Perry, the strategic research coordinator with the AFSC, told Middle East Eye the move was significant for a variety of reasons, none more so than “the transformative process the university went through, and the moral stance it committed to” in reaching its decision to change track on the investments. “It’s not that the university decided to divest from these four companies. It’s that the university decided on a new ethical investment policy, and when it screened its direct investments through this new lens, these are the companies that were flagged. So the policy would make sure the university cannot directly invest in these and other similar companies in the future.”

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

The real schism in the Israel–Hamas ceasefire talks is about who decides Gaza’s future (Amjad Iraqi//Chatham House 8/23/24)

“Notwithstanding disputes over the ‘phasing’ of troop withdrawals and a hostage-prisoner exchange, the core divergence in the negotiations revolves around a vital political question: what will happen to Gaza following a ceasefire – or what has crudely been described as the ‘day after’. And it is here that international actors, chiefly the US, are harming prospects both for a deal and a path out of the conflict…To break from this trajectory, the US must abandon the dangerous logic that says Israel’s ‘right to self-defence’ grants it the right to control the Palestinians as it wishes. Washington must call out Netanyahu’s manoeuvres and use its extensive military, economic, and diplomatic leverage to ensure a total Israeli withdrawal. In Gaza, the immediate priority must be facilitating the swift delivery of humanitarian aid, including by lifting the siege. But governments must also make Palestinian agency and sovereignty a fundamental pillar of Gaza’s present and future. This can be realized through measures such as the empowerment of a Palestinian-led reconstruction council; a Gazan economy reconnected to the West Bank and wider region; an integrated Palestinian security force (rather than foreign peacekeepers); and a reformed Palestinian political body that brings Hamas into the fold. All this must be done with regional and international support, but it must be steered and owned by Palestinians – irrespective of what their occupiers demand.”

The US diplomatic strategy on Israel and Gaza is not working (Daniel Levy//Guardian 8/27/24)

“The staggering shortcomings in the Biden administration’s approach, exacerbated in secretary of state Antony Blinken’s latest mission, are highly consequential and worth unpacking. Alarm bells should have been set off when Blinken at his recent press conference in Jerusalem announced that Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted the US “bridging proposal” – when the Israeli prime minister himself declared no such thing. Within hours, it became clear that Israel’s chief negotiator, Nitzan Alon, would not participate in the talks as a way of protesting against Netanyahu’s undermining of the deal. That was followed by senior US and Israeli security officials anonymously briefing the press that Netanyahu was preventing a deal. Similar conclusions were also reached and made public by the main forums representing the Israeli hostage families. On his ninth visit to Israel since the 7 October attack, Blinken again failed – not just at mediating between Israel and Hamas, but even in closing the gaps between the competing camps inside the Israeli system. The US refusal to take seriously that there are Hamas negotiating positions which are legitimate, and which will need to be part of a deal (and with which the US ostensibly agrees to in substance – such as a full Israeli withdrawal and a sustainable ceasefire), has condemned US-led talks to repeated failure.”

“I Couldn’t Ask if She Was Still Alive”: A Girl, Her Mother, and a Bloody Night In Gaza (Lujayn//The Nation 8/26/24)

“I am Lujayn, a 14-year-old girl who has survived many wars in Gaza, though this is the worst one I have ever experienced. In the last week of May, my family and I had to leave the place where we were living after the occupation forces threatened to invade Rafah. It was the ninth time we’d had to move since October…I write these lines while we are still in the house with nowhere to go. The bombing continues. They keep discussing ceasefire proposals at the cost of our blood. I may not be able to finish my story this time, and I hope anyone who reads my words and feels the bitter reality we live in will wish for my mother, my people, and me to complete our stories with the end of this war. I don’t know when I’ll be able to send more lines again…My mother keeps whispering in my ear, “Be safe and well,” and I tell her, “There is no life, no goodness, no peace without you.” Together we will bury that shrapnel that wounded her and was stained with her blood. It will sprout and grow into courage, dignity, and love.”

Read about why JNF Canada lost charitable status after a decade of problems (Canadian Jewish News 8/26/24)

“Jewish National Fund of Canada has known for years that Canada’s tax agency had “major concerns” with how the charity operates, The Canadian Jewish News has learned. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) warned JNF Canada in 2019 it planned to take away its charitable status and then warned them again in 2023 and in 2024, due to “repeated and serious non-compliance” with the Income tax Act rules governing charities, particularly covering JNF Canada’s work in Israel. Documents recently released to The CJN by the CRA show the venerable Canadian Jewish charity–that has helped reforest and build infrastructure in Israel since the late 1960s—had been warned repeatedly to clean up its act between 2016 and 2023, and even earlier…Barring any future legal reversals which JNF Canada may obtain through the courts, the revocation order means the charity is now unable to issue any tax-exempt donation receipts, or to receive tax-exempt donations or gifts from other registered Canadian charities. It must wind up its charitable business within one year, dispose of its $30 million in assets, or risk paying a 100 percent tax….In its full report on the 2014 audit, the tax department examined at least 17 projects that either indirectly or directly helped the Israel Defense Forces or were built in areas of the West Bank including East Jerusalem or in the Golan Heights. While the CRA permits charities to operate anywhere in the world, and doesn’t explicitly forbid charities from working in the West Bank, officials say they are bound to follow Canadian government policy on the issue, which is set by Global Affairs Canada.”

Food Sovereignty in a Palestinian Economy of Resistance (Fathi Nimer 8/27/24)

“In their struggle against Zionist settler colonialism, Palestinians have long worked towards establishing a resistance economy. Understood as a form of popular organizing such that economic institutions and activities serve the political aims of the Palestinian struggle, the notion of a resistance economy emerged organically during the early decades of the liberation struggle and later became a central pillar of the First Intifada. During this time, economic autonomy was regarded as a means to sustain the anti-colonial struggle. Today, food sovereignty constitutes a natural continuation of such modes of resistance, building upon the principles of agricultural self-sufficiency practiced throughout the history of the Palestinian revolution. Accordingly, this policy brief traces the origins of food sovereignty and the challenges Palestinians face to effectively put the framework into practice. The brief argues that doing so will help better recontextualize the resistance economy today, thus paving the way for establishing a more contentious economic order.”

Israeli society’s dehumanization of Palestinians is now absolute (Meron Rapoport//+972 8/23/24)

“After every war in recent decades that Israelis have fought in, there have been public displays of remorse. This has often been criticized as a mentality of “shooting and crying” — but at least the soldiers were crying…During the First Intifada, many soldiers spoke out about the abuse of Palestinians. The Second Intifada gave rise to the NGO Breaking the Silence. The moral discourse about the occupation may have been narrow and hypocritical, but it existed. Not this time. The Israeli military has killed at least 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza — about two percent of the Strip’s population. It has wreaked total havoc, systematically destroying residential neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, and universities. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli soldiers have fought in Gaza over the past 10 months, and yet the moral debate is almost non-existent. The number of soldiers who have spoken out about their crimes or moral difficulties with serious reflection or regret, even anonymously, can be counted on the fingers of one hand.”

The Fall and Fall of Mahmoud Abbas (Khaled Elgindy//Foreign Affairs 8/30/24)

“For nearly two decades, Palestinian leadership has been fractured. Along with a basic division between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, numerous other groups have competed for influence. In late July, leaders of all 14 Palestinian political factions, including Fatah and Hamas, met in Beijing to issue a call for national unity. The agreement they signed, known as the Beijing Declaration, promised to create a consensus government presiding over both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, to reform and expand the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and to hold national elections…Yet despite the gravity of the situation, Mahmoud Abbas, the longtime president of the Palestinian Authority and leader of Fatah in the West Bank, has—through a spokesman—disparaged the Beijing Declaration as unhelpful and insignificant. (Abbas sent a Fatah representative to the talks in his place.) It is puzzling that a political leader, especially one as deeply unpopular as Abbas, in a moment of national trauma and existential despair, should show such open contempt for a display of national unity…Either way, Abbas’s arrogant dismissal of the plan highlighted two hallmarks of his nearly 20 years in power—a profound disconnect with his people and an unwillingness to promote a coherent strategy for Palestinian liberation…Once seen as a promising peacemaker and political reformer, Abbas has steadily devolved into an erratic and small-minded authoritarian with a virtually unbroken record of failure…Now, amid a terrible and unending war, Abbas has an opportunity to mitigate some of the damage done to Palestinians and to his own legacy by pursuing Palestinian unity. And yet even at this most decisive moment in Palestinian history, Abbas remains a helpless bystander, with little say in either war or peace.”

 

1. New from FMEP

2. Gaza

3. Region//Global

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Lawfare

7. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

FMEP Legislative Round-Up August 15, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Elex/Politics; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

Settlement & Annexation Report: August 16, 2024 (Kristin McCarthy)

1. New Blue Line Map Paves Way for New Settlement, Nahal Heletz; 2. New Blue Line Map Grants Migdal Oz Settlement More Land; 3. Tender Issued for Alon Shvut Construction; 4. Givat Hamatos Expansion Plan Deposited; 5. Settlers Open Long Awaited “Zip Line” Project in Jerusalem; 6. Settlers Lead Violent Pogrom in Jit; 7. Threat of Multiple Demolitions in al-Bustan, Along with Settler Takeovers, Amplifies Threat of Mass Displacement; 8. IDF Partially Dismantled Giv’at Oz Zion Outpost; 9. Settlers Stage Another Protest On Gaza Boundary; 10. Regavim Files Lawsuit Against U.S. Government Over Settler Sanctions; 11. Canada Revoked JNF Tax Exemption; 12. Bonus Reads

GAZA

Gaza cease-fire talks conclude in Qatar with ‘bridging proposal’ (Al Monitor 8/16/24)

“Two days of talks over a cease-fire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip wrapped in Doha Friday after negotiators presented Israel and Hamas with a so-called bridging proposal to resolve their remaining differences. A joint statement from the United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt described the new proposal as one that “builds on areas of agreement over the past week, and bridges remaining gaps in the manner that allows for a swift implementation of the deal.” Leading the negotiations in the Qatari capital were CIA Director William Burns, Mossad Director David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and Abbas Kamel, director of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service. Hamas refused to attend the talks.” See also U.S. puts new proposal on table to try to close Gaza deal gaps (Axios 8/16/24); U.S. proposes final Gaza cease-fire plan, seeking agreement by next week (WaPo 8/16/24); More than 40,000 killed in Israel’s war in Gaza, Health Ministry says (WaPo 8/15/24); New round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations begins without Hamas (Guardian 8/15/24)

Israel Was Less Flexible in Recent Gaza Cease-Fire Talks, Documents Show (NYT 8/13/24)

“For weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has denied that he is trying to block a cease-fire deal in Gaza by hardening Israel’s negotiating position. Mr. Netanyahu has consistently placed all blame for the deadlocked negotiations on Hamas, even as senior members of the Israeli security establishment accused him of slowing the process himself. But in private, Mr. Netanyahu has, in fact, added new conditions to Israel’s demands, additions that his own negotiators fear have created extra obstacles to a deal. According to unpublished documents reviewed by The New York Times that detail Israel’s negotiating positions, Israel relayed a list of new stipulations in late July to American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators that added less flexible conditions to a set of principles it had made in late May…the documents reviewed by The Times make clear that the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the Netanyahu government has been extensive — and suggest that agreement may be elusive at the talks set to begin this week…While Hamas has also proved intransigent, Mr. Netanyahu’s Israeli critics partly blame the prime minister for the deadlock because his new conditions risk derailing the talks at a time when a deal appears within reach. Some have argued that he is prioritizing the stability of his coalition government above the freedom of the hostages…” See also Netanyahu’s office denies call with Trump about the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal (Axios 8/15/24)

Israeli strike on Gaza school kills more than 100 people (Al Jazeera 8/10/24)

“More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to officials in the enclave. Three Israeli bombs hit al-Tabin school, located in the Daraj district, Gaza’s civil defence agency said of the attack on Saturday, which it described as a “horrific massacre”. Women, children and the elderly are reported to be among the dead and the toll was expected to rise.” See also Israel Strikes School Complex Turned Shelter in Gaza, Killing Dozens, Local Health Officials Say (NYT 8/10/24); Israel expands evacuation order in Gaza’s Khan Younis, more than 75,000 flee (Al Monitor 8/11/24)

Gaza rubble likely to conceal untold horrors to swell 40,000 death toll (Guardian 8/15/24)

“Ten months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the death toll has passed 40,000, according to health authorities there. Most of the dead are civilians and the total represents nearly 2% of Gaza’s prewar population, or one in every 50 residents. But even that figure does not tell the full story of Palestinian losses. “This number, 40,000, includes only bodies that were received and buried,” said Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the Palestinian ministry of health. “New procedures are being tested to include those who are missing or known to be under the rubble on the list of the dead, but they have not yet been approved.” About 10,000 airstrike victims were thought to remain entombed in collapsed buildings, Hams said, because there was little heavy equipment or fuel to dig through steel and concrete ruins looking for them.” See also The bloodiest face of its genocide: Israel has killed 2,100 Palestinian infants and toddlers in Gaza (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor 8/14/24); Israeli strike kills newborn twins as father collected birth certificates (Al Jazeera 8/13/24); The daily battles to survive the Gaza genocide (Yousef Aljamal//+972)

Israeli Army Uses Palestinian Civilians to Inspect Potentially Booby-trapped Tunnels in Gaza (Haaretz)

“Random Palestinians have been used by Israeli army units in the Gaza Strip for one purpose: to serve as human shields for soldiers during operations…In recent months, Israeli soldiers have used human shields in this way all over Gaza; even the chief of staff’s office knows…The incidents described to Haaretz occurred in different parts of Gaza, but they are all very similar…For its part, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said: “IDF instructions and orders prohibit the use of Gazan civilians caught in the field for military missions that pose a deliberate risk to their lives.”…One soldier said that when soldiers there expressed concerns, they were told that “the idea in general was that if the house was booby-trapped, or if there was an ambush or terrorists were in the area, they would kill [the Palestinian who was sent in] and not the soldiers.” See also Israeli forces in Gaza ‘use civilians as human shields’ against possible booby-traps (Guardian)

Hamas says one Israeli hostage killed and two more injured in Gaza (Guardian 8/12/24)

“The armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas has said its militants shot and killed an Israeli hostage and wounded two others, both women, “in two separate incidents” in Gaza…Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement: “In two separate incidents, two [Hamas] soldiers assigned to guard enemy prisoners fired at a Zionist prisoner, killing him immediately, and also injured two female prisoners critically.”…Abu Obeida said Hamas had formed a committee to investigate the shootings.”

How an Israeli hostage rescue that left scores of Palestinians dead unfolded (WaPo)

“On the morning of June 8, Israeli commandos launched a raid that rescued four hostages who had been taken during Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7 and held inside Gaza for eight months. Before the operation, Israel had freed only three hostages by force. The successful rescue prompted celebrations inside Israel, but for Palestinians, it was one of the deadliest days of the war. The Gaza Health Ministry said that 274 Palestinians were killed during the operation. The Israeli military said that there were fewer than 100 casualties. Neither entity differentiated between civilians and combatants. This Washington Post video investigation reconstructs the raid in which Israel sought to free hostages that Hamas had hidden in a crowded residential area. It shows how the Israeli military employed heavy airstrikes for nearly four hours, leaving women and children among the casualties. The Post identified at least 13 airstrikes across Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza, and at least 17 destroyed structures in the vicinity of the raid.”

REGION/GLOBAL

In warning to Israel, Hezbollah shows off massive underground tunnel network (Al Monitor 8/16/24)

“Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement released a video Friday showing a massive underground facility used by the group to store and launch missiles amid heightened fears of an all-out war between the Iran-backed group and Israel. The well-produced, four-and-a-half minute video, published on Hezbollah’s Military Media website, is titled “Our mountains are our storehouses.” It showcases a well-lit maze of large, complex tunnels where Hezbollah operatives in full military gear are seen moving around…Motorbikes and a convoy of large trucks that appear to be carrying missiles are seen driving around the tunnels. Large missile launchers are also seen emerging above ground ready for use. The voice of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is heard throughout the video. In his recorded message — an excerpt of one of his previous speeches — Nasrallah boasts about Hezbollah’s possession of “precision and non-precision missiles along with weapons capabilities so that if Israel imposes a war on Lebanon, Israel will face a destiny and reality it didn’t expect any day.” See also What to know about Hezbollah weapons as Israel awaits retaliatory strikes (WaPo); ‘We can’t handle a war’: poor and broken, Beirut’s residents dread the arrival of fresh conflict (Guardian 8/14/24)

Iran Expected to Delay Retaliation Over Killing of Hamas Leader, Officials Say (NYT 8/16/24)

“Iran is expected to delay planned reprisals against Israel for the assassination of a top Hamas leader in Tehran to allow mediators time to make a high-stakes push for a cease-fire to end the war in Gaza, U.S., Iranian and Israeli officials said on Friday.”

Israel anticipates direct attack from Iran; U.S. deploys more vessels to region (WaPo 8/12/24)

“The United States has deployed more vessels to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including a submarine and several destroyers, as concerns grow in the region about a potential Iranian attack on Israel…
The U.S. deployment was announced by the Defense Department after talks between Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The pair discussed efforts to “deter aggression” by Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, according to a readout of the call.” See also U.S. Moves a Guided-Missile Submarine to the Middle East Amid Fears of Escalation (NYT);  Israel expects UK, France to help hit Iran if Tehran attacks, [Israeli Foreign Minister] Katz tells counterparts (Times of Israel 8/16/24)

U.S. plans to sell $20 billion in weapons to Israel over several years (WaPo 8/13/24)

“The Biden administration has approved about $20 billion in new weapons sales to Israel over the next several years, amid fading hopes that a negotiating session scheduled for Thursday would lead to a Gaza cease-fire and hostage release. Notification of the pending sale was sent to Congress on Tuesday. It includes F-15 fighter jets, 120mm tank ammunition, tactical vehicles, AMRAAM antiaircraft missiles and high-explosive mortars. The tactical vehicles and about 50,000 mortar cartridges are expected to be delivered starting in 2026. The following year, more than 32,000 120mm tank-ammunition cartridges are estimated to arrive in Israel. Roughly 50 F-15 fighter jets, along with supplies to modify Israel’s own fighter jets, are expected to start arriving in 2029 — supplies that will cost about $18.82 billion.” See also In Gaza, Israel’s Military Has Reached the End of the Line, U.S. Officials Say (NYT 8/14/24); Biden Administration Sending 6,500 Munitions to Israel, Despite Ongoing Killing Of Civilians in Gaza (Prem Thakker//Zeteo 8/9/24)

Palestinian leader Abbas tells Turkish parliament he will go to Gaza (Al Jazeera 8/15/24)

“Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has promised to go to the besieged Gaza Strip, saying he will stand by the Palestinian people even if it costs him his life. Speaking to Turkey’s Grand National Assembly on Thursday as the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli war on Gaza surpassed 40,000, Abbas decried the “silence of the international community” in the face of atrocities committed by Israel…It was not clear when or how Abbas would head to Gaza.” See also Putin hosts Abbas as Russia looks for role in ending Gaza war (Al Monitor 8/13/24); The veteran Palestinian leader Abbas says he will visit Gaza and calls on Muslim leaders to join him (AP 8/15/24)

How Coca-Cola tried and failed to suppress a boycott over Gaza (WaPo 8/12/24)

“U.S. megabrands such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Starbucks and KFC all have experienced a decline in sales in regions that have had Gaza-related boycotts…The boycott against Coca-Cola derives from the decision of its franchisee the Central Bottling Company to operate out of the Atarot Settlement Industrial Zone in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, said Omar Barghouti, co-founder of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, a nonviolent activist movement opposed to Israel’s occupation…McDonald’s was targeted after its franchise in Israel sponsored a giveaway of thousands of free meals to Israeli soldiers. Starbucks came under fire after the coffee giant sued its own union, Starbucks Workers United, after the workers posted a message of solidarity with Palestinians under an account on X that uses the Starbucks logo…In response to the boycotts, the companies have all stressed that they take no side in the fraught conflict.”

Canada Revokes JNF’s Tax-exempt Status Amid Complaints About Its West Bank Activities (Haaretz)

“The Canadian government announced on Monday that it had revoked the tax-exempt status of two major Jewish organizations: Jewish National Fund Canada and the Ne’eman Foundation. While the government did not publicly provide a reason for the revocations, pro-Palestinian groups claim it is due to complaints they filed with the tax authorities, alleging that the nonprofits work to advance Jewish settlements in the West Bank…JNF Canada plans to appeal against the decision, accusing the government of acting on antisemitic motives. Earlier in June, Canada also imposed sanctions on Amana, a leading settlement organization, and Daniella Weiss, a prominent West Bank settler activist.” See also JNF Canada to mount legal challenge after it was ‘blindsided’ by revocation of its charitable status (eJewishPhil)

RIVER TO THE SEA

Palestinian killed as settlers torch homes and cars in West Bank village (Times of Israel 8/16/24)

“Dozens of extremist Israeli settlers, many of them masked, rampaged in the West Bank Palestinian village of Jit on Thursday night, setting fire to homes and vehicles. A Palestinian man was also reported killed amid the attack. The settlers hurled stones and Molotov cocktails, torching at least four homes and six vehicles in the village, located just west of Nablus. More than 100 assailants were involved, according to an Israeli security official. The Palestinian Authority health ministry said a 23-year-old Palestinian, named Rasheed Seda, was killed and another Palestinian civilian was critically wounded by the “settlers’ bullets.”’ See also Report: Initial probe of settler rampage reveals soldiers stood by and didn’t act (Times of Israel 8/16/24); Palestinian killed in attacks by Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank (Al Jazeera 8/16/24);

Israel’s Netanyahu shakes off credit downgrade as deficit grows (Al Monitor 8/13/24)

“The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adopted a defensive posture Tuesday after US credit agency Fitch downgraded the country’s credit rating amid heightened tensions in the region, including the war in Gaza and a potential confrontation with Iran. Netanyahu’s statement came after Fitch cut Israel’s credit rating late Monday to A from A+, citing the conflict in Gaza, “which could last well into 2025.” The ratings agency added that there are risks the conflict could broaden to other fronts as fear of a war with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon looms.” See also Hundreds of Israelis Gather at Prayer Rally by Gaza Border, Demanding Re-settlement of Strip (Haaretz)

Israel is redrawing the West Bank, cutting into a prospective Palestinian state (WaPo)

“During more than 19 months in power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government has dramatically expanded Israel’s footprint in the occupied West Bank — accelerating a long-term campaign by the country’s settler movement to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state. The government has approved strategic land seizures — almost 6,000 acres this year alone — and major settlement construction, escalated demolition of Palestinian property and increased state support for illegally built settler outposts. Together, they mark the most significant territorial changes in the West Bank in decades. While the Biden administration insists that any diplomatic solution to the war in Gaza include a path to an independent Palestinian state, radical Jewish settlers and their far-right political backers, who have ascended to the highest levels of Israel’s government, are redrawing the map in real time — making the two-state solution envisaged in past peace accords effectively impossible. In interviews across six Palestinian communities, residents described paralyzing constraints on daily life as settlements creep closer, limiting their ability to move freely and to access the farmlands that long sustained them. Settler violence has erased some villages.” See also The wild West Bank: The lawless settlers terrorising Palestinian farmers (Al Jazeera); ‘The demolitions are equal to death’: the Palestinian families whose West Bank homes have been bulldozed (Guardian)

Israel approves new illegal settlement on UNESCO site near Bethlehem (Al Jazeera)

“The new 60-hectare (148-acre) settlement, which received preliminary approval along with four others in June, lies between Gush Etzion and Bethlehem. The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said it will flank houses in the Palestinian village of Battir, a World Heritage Site known for its stepped agricultural terraces, vineyards and olive groves. The group denounced the plan, calling it a “wholesale attack” on an area “renowned for its ancient terraces and sophisticated irrigation systems, evidence of thousands of years of human activity”. Israel’s actions posed “an imminent threat to an area considered to be of the highest cultural value to humanity”, the organisation said in a statement.”

The taps have run dry in Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood (Noa Pinto//+972)

“In the searing heat of summer, Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood is facing a major water crisis. Since June, residents of Kufr ‘Aqab have been receiving just 2 to 12 hours of water per week…Located within Jerusalem’s northeastern municipal boundary but severed from the rest of the city by the separation wall, Kufr ‘Aqab’s residents have grown accustomed to the systematic neglect they face from the Israeli authorities…Despite the fact that the majority of the neighborhood is officially part of Jerusalem, Kufr ‘Aqab doesn’t receive water from the municipal water supplier, Hagihon. Instead, like Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank, water is provided by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) — an arm of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) — which purchases it from the Israeli national water company, Mekorot. This is symptomatic of Israel’s system of water apartheid in the occupied territories: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are denied control of the aquifers under their feet, and must instead buy the water back in limited quantities from Israel. While Israelis have access to an average of 300 liters of water per day, Palestinians in the West Bank enjoy only 80 liters — 20 liters less than the World Health Organization’s recommended daily quantity.” See also Ben-Gvir During Inflammatory Temple Mount Visit: Our Goal Is to Permit Jewish Prayer (Haaretz)

In Jenin and Tulkarem, Israel’s war on Palestinian armed resistance is failing (Fatima AbdulKarim//+972)

“Nearly 20 years after the Second Intifada ended, the Israeli military has fully resumed its use of air power in the West Bank, particularly in the northern part of the occupied territory. Since October 7, it has launched more than 46 drone attacks and airstrikes in the area — the latter of which killed 77 Palestinians, including 14 children, by the end of June. This has created a situation that, to many Palestinians, resembles a “mini-Gaza” — a condition in which Israel is repressing the people from the skies, but also an example of a counterinsurgency campaign that is doomed to fail. Jenin has been a particular target of this campaign. Despite scores of military incursions, a dozen airstrikes, and extensive operations since October 7, Israel has been unable to quell Palestinian armed resistance in the city and its refugee camp — primarily led by the Jenin Brigade, an umbrella group made up of various factional militias…At the same time, the continuous violence and destruction has created a humanitarian crisis. The camp suffers from frequent power blackouts, shortages of essential supplies, and breakdown of public infrastructure. And with each army incursion deepening the resentment among the local population, Israel is not only failing to weaken the militant groups, but serving to drive recruitment for armed resistance.”

Gallant: ‘Absolute victory’ slogan ‘gibberish’; Netanyahu slams his ‘anti-Israel narrative’ (Times of Israel 8/12/24)

“Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday reportedly called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises of “absolute victory” in the ongoing war “gibberish” and questioning the premier’s courage to make tough decisions to achieve that aim. Gallant’s comments were leaked to Hebrew media from a closed-door briefing of  members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Netanyahu later clapped back at Gallant’s comments, declaring that the defense minister was bound by the promise of “absolute victory,” and charging that his remarks were “anti-Israel” and obstructed talks for a hostage deal.”

U.S. SCENE

New Poll Suggests Gaza Ceasefire and Arms Embargo Would Help Dems with Swing State Voters (Prem Thakker//Zeteo)

“A significant share of Democrats and independent voters in pivotal swing states Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona are more likely to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee (presumptively Kamala Harris) if said nominee pledges support for an arms embargo to Israel, and if President Joe Biden secures a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The findings come in new polling commissioned by the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding Policy Project and conducted by polling firm YouGov…Overall, Democrats and independents in all three states examined in the exhibited YouGov/IMEU poll have strong support for a permanent ceasefire and disapproval of unconditional aid to Israel. At least 80% of respondents in each state supported a ceasefire, while more than 60% disapproved of unconditional military aid to Israel. Roughly a quarter of respondents in all states said the violence in Gaza — and candidates’ positions on it — is important to them and will likely sway how they vote.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters vow massive showing at Democratic convention (WaPo)

“Organizers say tens of thousands will show up, creating scenes of fury and dissent at a moment when Democrats will be working to project unity. Democratic leaders hoped that Vice President Kamala Harris’s ascent to the top of the ticket would shrink the protests, since she was not the architect of President Joe Biden’s Gaza policies and has been more vocal in challenging Israel and voicing empathy for Palestinians. But to many activists, Harris has not done nearly enough…Little Palestine is about 15 miles from the United Center, where the Democratic convention will be held. Many of its residents immigrated to the United States after Israel’s founding in 1948, and another wave came in the 1960s and 1970s. Overall, the Chicagoland area has the highest number of Palestinian Americans in the United States.” See also Pro-Palestine activists who heckled Kamala Harris in Detroit call for nationwide disruptions (Middle East Eye); Harris campaign taps Israeli-born former peace negotiator Ilan Goldenberg as liaison to Jewish community (JTA)

U.S. will fund Israeli unit accused of gross human rights abuses (WaPo)

“An Israeli security unit found by the United States to have committed gross violations of human rights will continue to receive U.S. funding because its actions have been “effectively remediated,” the Biden administration said Friday. The announcement concludes a months-long investigation that coincided with an intense lobbying campaign by the Israeli government to oppose funding restrictions for the Netzah Yehuda battalion, an ultra-Orthodox unit accused of wrongdoing in the death in 2022 of an elderly Palestinian American man. The finding amounts to a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a stinging defeat for human rights experts inside the State Department and Pentagon who built a case over years that certain Israeli units should be barred from U.S. assistance under legislation known as the Leahy Laws.”

Ilhan Omar’s Very Big, Very Important Win (John Nichols//The Nation)

“Isn’t it a major political development that Omar—who, because of her close 2022 primary, came into the 2024 election as potentially one of the most vulnerable of the pro-ceasefire incumbents—proved to be unbeatable? Shouldn’t it be noted that Omar articulated her position so ably—expressing horror at the October 7 Hamas attack that targeted Israeli kibbutzim and a music festival, while at the same time condemning the targeting of Palestinian civilians and infrastructure in Gaza by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—that she drew endorsements from Muslims, Christians, and Jews for her reelection bid? Isn’t it consequential that Omar did such a good job of organizing her supporters, and winning the endorsement of the DFL, that AIPAC recognized that she couldn’t be defeated? And that she ultimately won her primary by more than 16,000 votes? Isn’t it newsworthy that Omar was not alone in victory? That the four original members of “the Squad”—New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, Massachusetts’s Ayanna Pressley, and Omar—all have, as ardent ceasefire backers, either won primaries or positioned themselves to be renominated without serious opposition? Isn’t it equally newsworthy that the vast majority of pro-ceasefire House members who have sought reelection this year—from Greg Casar in Texas to Delia Ramirez in Chicago to Summer Lee in Pennsylvania to Mark Pocan in Wisconsin—have been renominated with wide support?” See also Ilhan Omar defeats challenger in Minnesota House primary (WaPo)

U.S. restarts offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia after lengthy ban (WaPo)

“The Biden administration is lifting its years-long suspension of offensive arms shipments to Saudi Arabia, authorizing an initial shipment of air-to-ground munitions and saying it would consider additional new transfers “on a typical case-by-case basis,” according to senior administration officials.”

More Than 100 Journalists Come Together With Their Fellow Journalists in Palestine and Against US Complicity in Their Killing (The Nation 8/16/24)

“By arming Israel, the State Department bears responsibility for its killing of journalists. That is why we, as leaders of organizations dedicated to defending press freedom and free expression, have organized a coalition of journalists and journalism advocates to coauthor a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling on the United States to impose an arms embargo on Israel immediately. More than 100 journalists, including four Pulitzer Prize winners, along with 18 news outlets and seven press freedom organizations, most of them American, have come together to take a stand in solidarity with their fellow journalists in Palestine and against US complicity in their intentional killing.” See also The Rotten Partnership Between the US Media and the Israeli Military; An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered. (Murtaza Hussain//Drop Site)

LAWFARE

Columbia’s President, Whose Response to Protests Ignited Encampments Nationwide, Resigns Suddenly (Chronicle of Higher Education)

“Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, whose embattled presidency of Columbia University came to encapsulate a period of historic tumult in American higher education, resigned suddenly on Wednesday…Shafik was one of several Ivy League presidents who were grilled last academic year by congressional lawmakers about colleges’ handling of antisemitism following Hamas’s attack on Israel and the ensuing war. In a notorious hearing that preceded Shafik’s by several months, Claudine Gay, of Harvard University, and Liz Magill, of the University of Pennsylvania, appeared wooden and bureaucratic in responding to the lawmakers’ questions. Both lost their jobs. Facing similar questions in April, Shafik took a different tack, pledging to act with more force against hateful rhetoric. The next day, on April 18, she ordered the New York Police Department to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment that had cropped up on the Manhattan campus, resulting in over 100 arrests. On April 30, she called in New York police again to forcibly evacuate an academic building that had been occupied by protesters — resulting in jarring images of officers in riot gear storming the campus…The immediate reason for Shafik’s departure was unclear…Whatever the reason, the political significance of Shafik’s departure was already being felt Wednesday night. Elise Stefanik, the Republican congresswoman who publicly pushed for the resignations of Gay, Magill, and Shafik, declared on X: “THREE DOWN, so many to go.”’ See also I reported from the Columbia Gaza encampment. Then I was investigated (Lara Nour-Walton//New Arab); Columbia President Resigns After Months of Turmoil (NYT 8/14/24); A Year Ago, Women Were the Majority Among Ivy League Presidents. Now Most of Them Have Quit. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Judge orders UCLA to ensure equal campus access to Jewish students after pro-Palestinian protests (LA Times)

“A federal judge on Tuesday admonished UCLA for its handling of pro-Palestinian encampments and ordered the university to ensure equal access to Jewish students, three of whom alleged in a lawsuit that the university enabled protesters to block Jews from parts of campus because of their faith. In issuing his preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi sided with the students, whose June suit said the university helped to enforce a “Jew Exclusion Zone” on campus during pro-Palestinian protests when UCLA erected bike rack barriers around an encampment. Also, the suit alleged that UCLA hired security guards who allowed protesters to cross into the encampment, but not Jewish students…The case centers on a pro-Palestinian encampment on Royce Quad that went up April 25. It was one of the largest and most controversial of those built on college campuses across the U.S. to demand that universities divest from financial ties to Israel. When a mob attacked the camp on April 30, law enforcement response was delayed by hours. Police broke apart the encampment on May 1 and arrested more than 200 people. UCLA had opposed the lawsuit, saying its actions related to the encampment were about ensuring safety and deescalating tensions, not discriminating against Jews…On the question of whether the encampment discriminated against Jews, there has also been significant debate. Pro-Palestinian students and faculty activists at UCLA, including a Faculty for Justice in Palestine group that filed an amicus brief, have drawn a distinction. They say protests were anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish and that many protesters were Jewish.”

Microsoft Encourages Employee Donations to Illegal West Bank Settlements, While Barring UNRWA (Murtaza Hussain//Drop Site)

“Microsoft includes a number organizations based in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including at least one that fundraises to support the Israeli military, in its employee charitable giving platform. Yet the company has delisted the UN agency providing relief in Gaza, according to Microsoft employees petitioning the company internally to change its policy. The listing of the charities on the expansive platform means Microsoft will automatically match contributions.”

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel (Omer Bartov//Guardian)

“This is the logic of endless violence, a logic that allows one to destroy entire populations and to feel totally justified in doing so. It is a logic of victimhood – we must kill them before they kill us, as they did before – and nothing empowers violence more than a righteous sense of victimhood. Look at what happened to us in 1918, German soldiers said in 1942, recalling the propagandistic “stab-in-the-back” myth, which attributed Germany’s catastrophic defeat in the first world war to Jewish and communist treason. Look at what happened to us in the Holocaust, when we trusted that others would come to our rescue, IDF troops say in 2024, thereby giving themselves licence for indiscriminate destruction based on a false analogy between Hamas and the Nazis.”

Why should US troops pay the price for Biden’s failure to rein in Netanyahu? (Harrison Mann//Guardian)

“As the close calls and injuries mounted, we came to a stunning realisation: there was no real plan to protect US troops beyond leaving them in their small, isolated bases while local militants, emboldened and agitated by US support for Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, used them for target practice…It is clear there is no real plan underpinning the Biden administration’s decision to accelerate deployment of aircraft and warships to the Middle East. It’s simply more of the reflexive and unconditional support for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu that has only encouraged reckless escalation towards a wider war. Netanyahu would not have killed senior Hezbollah and Hamas officials in Beirut and Tehran last week – leading to the wounding of US troops in a reprisal attack – if he wasn’t confident that the US navy would be dispatched immediately after to protect him from the consequences of his actions. Ten months into this war, it’s time to think harder about why we’re putting troops in harm’s way….As Iran and Hezbollah prepare to retaliate, the Biden administration cannot articulate an escalation management strategy beyond leaking stern words and hoping that nobody gets another lucky shot in. The endless rolls of the dice all but guarantee that sooner or later a Hezbollah rocket will fall short on an Israeli school, or any other number of casus belli will occur that allow Netanyahu to launch a new war in his desperate attempt to cling to power.”

Without our libraries and universities, how will we tell the story of Gaza? (Mezna Qato//New Statesman)

“Since Operation Swords of Iron was launched in October 2023, nearly every library, archive, and cultural centre or institution in Gaza has been destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli bombardment, firebombing and looting…We’ve been here before. The Nakba in 1948 was a loss of life and land, and the materials of social worlds crafted by communities over generations. Then, as now, the losses remain difficult to quantify and a challenge to trace. Much of these looted collections are in the Israeli state holdings, such as the Israeli State Archive and the National Library, as well as in the collections of Israeli universities, and in the hands of private collectors and former soldiers. The catalogues are kept under tight control. To tell a history of Palestine now often requires seeking access through Israeli state gatekeepers. So how will be tell the stories and histories of Gaza? New archives – digital and diffuse – are already being formed by the Palestinians of Gaza themselves. They are the first archivists of both the atrocities of the last ten months but of Gaza’s histories and worlds too…The only way to lose Gaza is to stop listening to the Palestinians of Gaza.”

State Secrets and Crimes—Rape at Israel’s Sde Teiman Prison (Lisa Hajjar, Basil Farraj//MERIP)

“Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is an evolving story, but one never free of dehumanization and discrimination. Endemic torture and abuse of prisoners is only one dimension of the violent and degrading practices present in all spheres of Israeli control that affect Palestinians. Israel’s carceral project has been designed and developed to eliminate Palestinians’ national-collective existence, to re-engineer the population through fragmentation and repression and to deter people from engaging in resistance or even aspiring to liberation. Indeed, as Walid Daqqa—a long-serving prisoner who died in Israeli custody in April—explained, there are the “small prisons,” where at least 800,000 Palestinians have been incarcerated over the decades, and the “large prison” of Palestinian society which, despite geographic and political fragmentation, remains unified by experiences of occupation and apartheid.” See also Released Palestinians describe worsening abuses in Israeli prisons (AP 8/12/24)

The Man Using Sports to Fight Israeli War Crimes (Dave Zirin & Jules Boykoff//The Nation)

“Jibril Rajoub, the 71-year-old head of the Palestine Olympic Committee, has been fighting the Israeli Occupation for almost 60 years…”Sport today is a global language,” he told us. “I have spent 17 years in Israeli jails, which was worse than the Bastille. But in spite of that, I don’t want to cause suffering to anyone, no matter who he is and where he is coming from. I do believe that using sport, using athletes as an asset in our resistance and in our struggle, is very effective. And even here in France, the way that we were received, and all over the world, is encouraging me and motivating me to continue this path. A peaceful, nonviolent tool: sport.”’

Democrats Need to Stop Trashing Palestinian Voters if They Want to Win (Layla Saliba//The Nation)

“I voted for Joe Biden in 2020. Last October, he authorized the weapons transfers necessary to bomb my family members, some of the last Palestinian Christians in Gaza, and then cast doubt on the death toll that same week. But Palestinian Americans like me are discovering something this year: the Democratic Party will bomb your homeland, kill your family, use your own money to do it, and still expect your vote. More than that, Democrats will curse you and shame you if you push back.” See also I Left Biden’s Campaign Over Gaza. Here’s How Harris Can Earn My Trust Again. (Amed Khan//The Nation)

Kamala Harris Is Speaking. Is She Listening? (M. Gessen//NYT)

“These voters are not choosing between Harris and Trump. They are choosing between their sense of themselves as moral beings if they vote for Harris and their sense of themselves if they vote for a third-party candidate or for no one at all…If they vote for Harris in November, what will that say to the people of Gaza — that they’d held their noses while people died? What will they tell their children — that politics is the game of the possible, and sometimes it’s just not possible to stop a genocide? What will they tell themselves to be able to sleep at night? For these voters, the psychic price of voting for Harris — of voting at all — is extremely high. It is possible that they could be convinced to pay this price, because, of course, they know, just as I do, that a Harris Middle East policy would be infinitely preferable to a Trump one. But they have to be convinced, not dismissed.”

Threatened by a moderate Iranian president, Israel is pulling him into a fight (Lior Sternfeld//+972)

“Unlike the picture that Israel and its allies paint, Iran is a rational actor. It is a country with domestic and international interests, and it employs many tools to achieve them: internal repression, ties with militias and non-state actors throughout the region, and various aid and support enterprises. When one strategy fails, Iran shifts to another. Iran can survive and enjoy profitable cooperation with Russia and China. But its preferred way of rehabilitating its regional and international standing is through reestablishing relations with the West. Whenever it has had to choose between developing relations with Russia and China or an agreement with the United States and the West, Iran chose the latter. Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran was intended to urge Iran to respond, and perhaps escalate hostilities, thus finally bringing about the full-blown regional war that Israel craves…Days after the assassination, multiple officials from Pezeshkian’s administration affirmed that the current president’s priorities remain focused on domestic issues, especially Iran’s economy. Iran’s Foreign Minister even went on record to say that the Islamic Republic would withhold its response if Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza — a message reiterated by Iran’s UN delegation in recent days. The Iranian government thus remains reluctant to go to war, in part because it recognizes its domestic risks: war would likely strengthen the ultra-conservative opposition to Pezeshkian, and justify further escalation of oppressive measures at home and abroad.”

 

1. New from FMEP

2. Region//Global

3. Gaza

4. River to the Sea

5. U.S. Scene

6. Perspectives//Long Reads

NEW FROM FMEP

FMEP Legislative Round-Up August 9, 2024 (Lara Friedman)

1. Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Elex/Politics; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

Turning Pain into Power: Feeding Families & Bringing Attention to Gaza (Occupied Thoughts Podcast)

FMEP Fellow Rania Batrice speaks with Hani Almadhoun, Gaza native, Director of Philanthropy at UNRWA USA, and co-founder, along with his family in Gaza, of Gaza Soup Kitchen. They discuss survival and loss in Gaza, where Hani’s parents, siblings, and extended family live, and the project his family created to provide meals and clean water to thousands of Palestinians in Gaza. Rania and Hani also talk about the hopes and priorities for Palestinians in the United States and how people in America see the Palestinian cause. They draw from Hani’s work at UNRWA USA — including the recent jump in donors to UNRWA USA from 10,000 to 120,000 donors — as well as Hani’s experience attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech in Congress as a guest of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

Immoral Policy, Looming Regional War, and Leaving the Biden Administration (Occupied Thoughts podcast)

FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Harrison Mann, a former U.S. Army major and executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Middle East/Africa Regional Center who resigned in protest of his office’s support for Israel during its Gaza campaign. They discuss Harrison’s decision to resign, why government officials continue to implement policies they consider immoral, and how U.S. intelligence internally predicted almost everything that has happened in Israel’s assault. They also compare some elements of U.S. and Israeli policy and look at how and why the US may be dragged into a regional war.

REGION/GLOBAL

Washington and Arab states scramble to avert an all-out Middle East war (WaPo 8/6/24)

“The United States has scrambled to position additional military assets, including a squadron of F-22 jets and naval destroyers, closer to Israel to help defend against what officials believe will be an imminent attack by Tehran in retaliation for last week’s killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is leading a diplomatic sprint to apply indirect pressure on Iran, asking top officials in Cairo, Baghdad and other Arab capitals to urge that any response from Tehran and, potentially, its militant allies be restrained.” See also US official warns of ‘quite significant consequences’ if Iran attacks Israel (Times of Israel); Scoop: Israel told U.S. Hezbollah will pay “disproportionate price” if attack hits civilians (Axios); Most Americans oppose sending U.S. troops to defend Israel, poll finds (WaPo); Iran says it has duty to punish Israel over killing of Hamas leader in Tehran (Guardian); US to supply Israel with 1000lb MK-83 bombs as regional tensions mount (Israel Hayom); As war looms and flights dwindle, Lebanese grapple with whether to flee (WaPo)

Iran may rethink reprisals against Israel over killing of Hamas’s leader (Guardian 8/8/24)

“Iran may be rethinking the scale and format of its planned reprisal against Israel after the assassination of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, but is not likely to be put off by the absence of explicit support from Muslim states for an Iranian military response, officials have suggested. Meanwhile, Israeli officials have reportedly concluded that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is determined to carry out an attack in the next few days in response to Israel’s killing of senior commander Fuad Shukr, but the degree to which it will coordinate with Iran is unclear. US and Israeli sources have reportedly said in recent days that Tehran is still deciding on the scale and scope of its response after significant diplomatic pressure to avoid civilian casualties. Iran appears likely to target those responsible for the attack, specifically the Mossad and its agencies, rather than civilians.”

Israel revokes accreditation for Norwegian diplomats dealing with Palestinian Authority (Times of Israel)

“Israel revokes the diplomatic accreditation of eight Norwegian diplomats based in Tel Aviv who dealt with the Palestinian Authority. A Foreign Ministry statement says the move is in response to “a flurry of recent anti-Israel and unilateral steps taken the government of Norway,” including recognizing a Palestinian state and recent “severe comments by senior Norwegian officials.”…“There is a price for anti-Israeli conduct. Instead of fighting Palestinian terrorism after October 7 and supporting Israel’s fight against the Iranian axis of evil — Norway chose to award the murderers and rapists of Hamas in the form of recognition of a Palestinian state,” says Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Oslo also “joined the unfounded lawsuit against us at the ICC,” Katz says.”

Trauma of Palestinians Who Fled Gaza for Egypt Is Compounded by Legal Woes (Truthout)

“By some estimates, as many as 100,000 Palestinians have escaped into Egypt since the war began…Palestinians from Gaza currently living in Cairo say they were given a 45-day permit upon arriving in Egypt. The Egyptian government has overlooked the tens of thousands of Palestinians overstaying their permits during the war. But undocumented Palestinians cannot open bank accounts, attend school, open a business, or get health insurance. Many have turned to charity to survive. “I’m feeling so lost,” Hashim says, in tears; her family is also now entirely reliant on the help of others, lining up to collect cash assistance from the Palestinian embassy in Cairo and various nonprofit organizations to afford basic necessities, such as rent and food.”

Turkey joins genocide case against Israel at the ICJ after months-long delay (Middle East Eye)

“Turkey officially submitted its intervention in favour of Palestine on Wednesday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a case pursued by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Even though Ankara officially announced in May that it would join the case, the legal complexities of the application and possible future ramifications put Turkey in months-long deliberations before submitting its intervention.” See also Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Submits Amicus Curiae Observations to the International Criminal Court on the Oslo Accords (Al Haq)

UK’s biggest private pension fund dumps £80mn of Israeli assets (FT)

“Britain’s biggest private-sector pension fund has sold £80mn of Israeli assets, joining a wave of global retirement funds retreating from the conflict-ridden region following public pressure. The £79bn Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which has more than 500,000 members, has “materially” reduced its exposure to Israeli investments including government debt and Israeli currency in the past six months, said two people with knowledge of the matter…The move followed sustained pressure from the pension fund’s members, concerned over Israel’s human rights record in occupied Palestinian territories since the start of the war with Hamas last year.”

GAZA

U.S., Qatar and Egypt invite Israel and Hamas for summit to finalize Gaza deal (Axios 8/8/24)

“President Biden, the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are calling on Israel and Hamas to take part in a final round of negotiations next week to finalize a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, the three leaders said in a joint statement on Thursday…U.S. officials said in recent days that a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal is the only way to calm regional tensions that reached a new height after Israel assassinated a top Hezbollah military commander in Beirut and Hamas’ political leader in Tehran last week. The Biden administration is trying deter Iran and Hezbollah from attacking Israel as part of a retaliation to the assassinations, while also pushing for a diplomatic solution…The negotiations over the hostage and ceasefire deal stalled in recent weeks over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new conditions.” See also Hamas said demanding release of Marwan Barghouti in first stage of hostage deal (Times of Israel); U.S., Egypt, Qatar urge Israel, Hamas to restart Gaza cease-fire talks (WaPo)

Hamas names Yahya Sinwar as new leader after Ismail Haniyeh’s killing (Al Jazeera)

“Haniyeh’s assassination, almost certainly carried out by Israel, sent shockwaves through the region and was seen by many as an effort by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scuttle efforts to negotiate a ceasefire, in which Haniyeh was a key figure. Analysts have said his replacement by Sinwar, who has gone largely unseen since the October 7 attack was an indicator of the central place that Gaza occupies in the group’s political vision. “He [Sinwar] has skyrocketed to an influential position in Hamas, leading it in Gaza. The choice of Hamas to name him leader of the movement now puts Gaza front and centre of, not just the events on the ground, but certainly of the dynamics in the Hamas movement,” Nour Odeh, a Palestinian political analyst based in Ramallah, told Al Jazeera. “And it really sends a signal, as far as negotiations of a ceasefire is concerned, that Gaza calls the shots.”’ See also Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, now has the top political post in Hamas. (NYT); For Gaza Palestinians, Haniyeh’s death makes him ‘just like the rest of us’ (Al Monitor)

Israel strikes Gaza schools, saying Hamas uses them to plan attacks (WaPo 8/8/24)

“The Israeli military said in a statement that “the school compounds were used by Hamas terrorists and commanders as command and control centers” from which they planned and carried out attacks. Many Palestinians displaced by the fighting, or whose homes have been destroyed in the war, have sought shelter in schools across the Gaza Strip, crowding into disused classrooms to pool resources and in the hope that the facilities might provide some protection. But in recent weeks, strikes on schools have become much more frequent, with Israel targeting seven schools in the eight days prior to the attacks Thursday, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office. In a report this week, the United Nations said it was “horrified” by the escalation, which has seen at least 163 Palestinians — including children and women — killed in strikes on at least 17 schools over the past month.” See also Israel kills 40 Palestinians in Gaza airstrikes amid fears of wider war (Reuters 8/8/24); Dozens killed as Israel bombs Gaza schools housing displaced Palestinians (Middle East Eye 8/4/24)

Israeli Army Launches Ground Operation in Gaza’s Khan Yunis (Haaretz)

“The Israel Defense Forces announced on Friday morning that it has launched a ground operation in the Khan Yunis area in southern Gaza – the third such ground operation conducted by the IDF since the start of the war on October 7.” See also Gaza war: Khan Younis residents forced to evacuate as Israel launches new attacks (New Arab 8/9/24)

Netanyahu says ‘victory’ over Hamas is in sight. The data tells a different story (CNN 8/5/24)

“of their fighting capabilities despite more than nine months of Israel’s brutal offensive, according to analyses by the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, the Institute for the Study of War and CNN. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, has repeatedly said that Israeli forces are nearing their stated goal of eliminating Hamas and destroying its military capabilities. Addressing a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, he said: “Victory is in sight.” But forensic analyses of Hamas’ military operations since it led attacks against Israel on October 7, which draw on Israeli and Hamas military statements, footage from the ground and interviews with experts and eyewitnesses, cast doubt on his claims.”

‘Order from Amazon’: How tech giants are storing mass data for Israel’s war (Yuval Avraham//+972)

“However, a new investigation by +972 and Local Call can reveal that the Israeli army has in fact stored some intelligence information collected via the mass surveillance of Gaza’s population on servers managed by Amazon’s AWS. The investigation can also reveal that certain cloud providers supplied a wealth of AI capabilities and services to Israeli army units since the start of the Gaza war…According to multiple sources, the exponential capacity of the AWS public cloud system allows the army to have “endless storage” for holding intelligence on almost “everyone” in Gaza. One source who used the cloud-based system during the current war described making “orders from Amazon” for information while carrying out their operational tasks, and working with two screens — one connected to the army’s private systems, and the other connected to AWS. Military sources emphasized to +972 and Local Call that the scope of intelligence collected from the surveillance of all Palestinian residents of Gaza is so large that it cannot be stored on military servers alone…The vast amount of information stored in Amazon’s cloud, the military sources testified, even helped on rare occasions to confirm aerial assassination strikes in Gaza — strikes that would have also killed and harmed Palestinian civilians. Taken altogether, our investigation further exposes some of the ways in which major tech corporations are contributing to Israel’s ongoing war — a war that has been flagged by international courts for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity on illegally occupied territory.”

Israel returns ‘decomposed’ bodies of 89 Palestinians to Gaza (Al Jazeera)

“Israel has returned the bodies of nearly 90 Palestinians killed in its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has said. Yamen Abu Suleiman, the director of the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said on Monday that it was unclear whether the bodies had been dug up from cemeteries by the army during the ground offensive, or whether they were “detainees who had been tortured and killed”. “The occupation provided us with no information about the names, or ages, or anything. This is a war crime, a crime against humanity,” Abu Suleiman said.”

Notes from Underground: The life of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza. (David Remnick//New Yorker)

“Abdul said, “I may not support Hamas, but I support the struggle. We cannot go on losing and losing.” There was no bottom to his quiet fury. And, like the I.D.F. general in Be’eri, he found his frame of reference in the Second World War. The Israelis, he said, were no longer the victims of Hitler: “They now seem to want to be Hitler. ‘The most moral army in the world?’ All a big lie.” As we got up to leave, I asked Abdul what he thought about Sinwar. “Sinwar is in every home in Palestine,” he said. “He is the most important Palestinian in the world.”’ Also see from David Remnick: Israel’s Other Intractable Conflict (New Yorker podcast with author Nathan Thrall and human rights lawyer & author Raja Shehadeh); See also Nathan Thrall: ‘The scale and brutality of the Israeli response in Gaza hasn’t surprised me, no’ (Guardian);

Implications for Hamas: A Manageable Challenge (Belal Shobaki//Al Shabaka)

“Sinwar’s appointment is likely to be accepted by the movement’s larger base, both as a result of increased general support as well as due to members’ political education, which stresses acceptance and loyalty to the party’s decisions. Indeed, Haniyeh’s assassination is likely to increase the credibility of Hamas’s leadership among both its members and its broader following. Many believe that his killing, as well as the recent killing of his family in Gaza by Israeli bombardments, reflect how the leadership remains deeply intertwined with the reality faced by Palestinians on the ground. This desire to anchor leadership within Gaza has been a central concern for Hamas for years, and played a crucial role in the selection of Sinwar as Head of Hamas in Gaza in 2017. Undoubtedly, it remains a key consideration as he succeeds Haniyeh today. Overall, it is unlikely that there will be vast changes within Hamas following this latest assassination.” See also Haniyeh’s Assassination & Israel’s Charade of Diplomacy (Belal Shobaki, Tariq Kenney-Shawa, and Fathi Nimer//Al Shabaka);

Journal still can’t confirm January story about UN agency for Palestinians (Semafor 8/4/24)

“In January, The Wall Street Journal made an explosive claim: Quoting “intelligence reports,” the paper reported that not only had 12 members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, taken part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but 10% of the relief agency’s 12,000 workers in Gaza had ties to militant groups. The New York Times on Jan. 28 had published a detailed story about 12 workers who aided in the Oct. 7 attacks, followed by the Journal’s broader piece about UNRWA staff’s alleged links to Hamas — a one-two punch that had an immediate impact on the agency. More than a dozen countries including Germany and Britain froze funding to UNRWA, stalling a total of $450 million. It was a massive scandal that put the organization, the main conduit for aid to Gaza, on the defensive. But months later, the paper’s top editor overseeing standards privately made an admission: The paper didn’t know — and still doesn’t know —whether the allegation, based on Israeli intelligence reports, was true…According to three people familiar with the situation, since the story was published earlier this year, reporters have tried and failed to corroborate the 10% claim at the center of the story.”

U.N. fires Gaza staff, citing possible involvement in attack on Israel (WaPo)

“The United Nations has officially closed its internal investigation of Israeli allegations that staff members of UNRWA, the main U.N. relief agency in Gaza, participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel after determining that nine of 19 accused “may have been involved” in the attack. The nine have been fired, according to U.N. statements. Investigators determined there was “insufficient” evidence to support Israel’s charges against another nine of the accused, and “no evidence” against one, a spokesman for Secretary General António Guterres said Monday.

Israel’s Bombs Will Go On Killing Gazans Long Into the Future (Mary Turfah//The Nation)

“Even when the war is technically declared over, thousands and thousands of unexploded munitions will remain, waiting for their chance to do harm.”

‘We’ve lost everything, for what?’: Gazan anger at Hamas grows as war drags on (Mahmoud Mushtaha//+972)

“What has become clear over the past 10 months is that the Palestinian leadership — both Fatah and Hamas — has abandoned the people without any forethought or a coherent plan. While Gazans face relentless Israeli bombardment with no safe place to turn to, Hamas evades its responsibility to protect the population and Fatah is nowhere to be found. As the war has dragged on, displays of public opposition to or criticism of Hamas have grown among Palestinians in Gaza. Many accuse Hamas of failing to anticipate the ferocity of Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks, and hold the group partially accountable for the dire consequences they are now facing.”

RIVER TO THE SEA

Smotrich: Might be ‘justified and moral’ to cause 2 million Gazans to die of hunger, but world won’t let us (Times of Israel)

“Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich implies he believes that blocking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is “justified and moral” even if it causes 2 million civilians to die of hunger, adding however that the international community won’t allow this to happen. “We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” Smotrich says at a conference in Yad Binyamin hosted by the Israel Hayom outlet. “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned. Humanitarian in exchange for humanitarian is morally justified, but what can we do? We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war.”’ See also Israel’s Western allies slam Israeli minister’s remark that Gaza starvation may be justified (AP)

Palestinian prisoners describe systemic abuse in Israel’s jails (Guardian)

“Violence, extreme hunger, humiliation and other abuse of Palestinian prisoners has been normalised across Israel’s jail system, according to Guardian interviews with released prisoners, with mistreatment now so systemic that rights group B’Tselem says it must be considered a policy of “institutionalised abuse”. Former detainees described abuse ranging from severe beatings and sexual violence to starvation rations, refusal of medical care, and deprivation of basic needs including water, daylight, electricity and sanitation, including soap and sanitary pads for women. In a months-long investigation, B’Tselem interviewed 55 former prisoners housed in 16 Israeli prison service jails and detention centres run by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), mapping the scale and nature of abuse. The highly respected Jerusalem-based group concluded that Israel’s prisons should now be labelled “torture camps”…A former barracks that became a processing centre for people seized in Gaza, there have been suggestions that suffering at Sde Teiman is a horrific and temporary exception created by the Gaza war. Detainees’ testimony and the B’Tselem report suggest, however, that it is just one particularly violent component of an abusive system, and cases of abuse are not unsanctioned acts of violence. Instead, it is suggested that under the direction of the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the mistreatment has become an integral part of Israel’s detention system. At least 60 people have died in Israeli custody since the war in Gaza broke out, compared to one or two deaths a year previously.” See also: Everything is legitimate’: Israeli leaders defend soldiers accused of rape (Al Jazeera 8/9/24); Torture, abuse and humiliation: Palestinians on Israeli prison ‘hell’ (Guardian); Leaked video shows Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting Palestinian detainee (Al Anadolou)

Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps (B’Tselem)

““Welcome to Hell” is a report on the abuse and inhuman treatment of Palestinians held in Israeli custody since 7 October 2023. B’Tselem collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians held during that time and released, almost all with no charges. Their testimonies reveal the outcomes of the rushed transformation of more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities, military and civilian, into a network of camps dedicated to the abuse of inmates as a matter of policy. Facilities in which every inmate is deliberately subjected to harsh, relentless pain and suffering operate as de-facto torture camps.” See also Sexual-Abuse Case Rocking Israel’s Military Broke After Doctors Sounded Alarm (WSJ)

‘Raped by female soldiers’: Palestinian in leaked Sde Teiman photo speaks out (Al Jazeera)

“Blindfolded, arms behind his head and standing by the barbed wire fence of the Israeli Sde Teiman detention camp. It was one of the first photos leaked from the notorious army base, where thousands of Palestinian prisoners were held without charge and routinely tortured. The man in the picture, Ibrahim Salem, was released last week after nearly eight months of detention…“Most of the prisoners will come out with rectum injuries [caused by the sexual assault],” Salem, 36, told Middle East Eye…In the following eyewitness account, Salem recalls his ordeal, starting from his arrest at a hospital in Gaza until his release.”

Israeli Army Strikes Tul Karm, West Bank; Palestinians Report Nine Dead, Including Hamas Commander (Haaretz 8/3/24)

“The IDF said it struck a vehicle carrying terrorists in Tul Karm using a drone, and claimed the occupants were on their way to carry out an attack. The army struck Tul Karm a second time, and eyewitnesses reported nine dead in the two strikes.”

Director of Al-Haq Shawan Jabarin Holds Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera accountable (European Legal Support Center)

“Il Corriere Della Sera, one of Italy’s most prominent newspapers, has paid around 15,000 Euros in damages to Shawan Jabarin, the General Director of Al-Haq, for falsely accusing him in 2021 of being a terrorist and murderer, an unfounded allegation based on Israeli propaganda and smear campaigns…After being summoned to Court, Il Corriere Della Sera accepted a settlement agreement, which included compensating Shawan Jabarin for ‘reputational’ damage suffered and publishing an article retracting the defamatory claims. Despite reporting on the incident and retracting the terrorist claim, the newspaper failed to acknowledge that it was their own publication that had defamed Mr. Jabarin.”

The Radicalization of Israel’s Military (Isaac Chotiner interviews Yehuda Shaul//New Yorker)

“Lawlessness and violence was allowed because the relationship between the military and the settlers on the ground became so symbiotic. It is now so symbiotic that it’s not clear any more where the military starts and ends, and where the civilians start and end…The police in the West Bank are almost completely settlers and militia…And if I zoom out and connect the West Bank to Israel, I would say that we are in a place where Israel will have to decide whether we are a country that has a settlement project—a colonial project in the West Bank—or we are a colonial project that has a country.” See also With attention on Gaza, Jewish settlers expand in the West Bank (NPR); Three Israeli army refusers: ‘We will not participate in genocide’ (Oren Ziv//+972);

Scoop: U.S. won’t sanction IDF unit for human rights violations in West Bank (Axios)

“Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Friday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and informed him that he had decided to end the investigation into the Israel Defenses Force’s “Netzah Yehuda” battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank and not impose sanctions on the unit, according to two senior U.S. and Israeli officials. Why it matters: It’s a significant diplomatic achievement for Gallant, who in recent months has had quiet talks with Blinken and other senior U.S. officials in an effort to demonstrate the IDF has taken steps to address human rights violations by members of the battalion. If sanctions were imposed on the Netzah Yehuda battalion, it would have been an unprecedented move on the part of the Biden administration, and potentially damaged the IDF and relations between Israel and the United States.”

Settlers assault Arab Israelis, torch car after they accidentally enter W. Bank outpost (Times of Israel)

“Five Arab Israelis, including an infant, were attacked and their car was set on fire Friday after they accidentally drove into an illegal West Bank outpost…Nufah, one of the woman who was attacked, told Haaretz their navigation app had led them astray.
“We accidentally went into some place and then people started running after the car, throwing rocks,” she said. “After they broke all the windows they sprayed tear gas.” She said one of the attackers put his gun to the infant’s head and ordered them to get out of the car.”

U.S. SCENE

US support for Israel is collapsing. And Aipac knows it (Yousef Munayyer//Guardian)

“On Tuesday night, Representative Cori Bush lost in a Democratic primary election to challenger Wesley Bell, whose election campaign was overwhelmingly financed by pro-Israel groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). According the New York Times, the spending by pro-Israel groups “transformed the race into one of the most expensive House primaries in history”. While Bush, an outspoken opponent of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, is on her way out of Congress because of Aipac’s big spending, the victory for Israel donors is the latest sign of their cause’s decline in the United States and especially in the Democratic party. How could it be that such a powerful flex by pro-Israel donors is a reflection of a weakening cause? It’s simple: it is because such power flexes were never needed before. Now, it has become routine.” See also In Washington’s streets, a new popular consensus on Palestine (Ahmed Moor//+972); Cori Bush loses primary after pro-Israel groups spend millions to oust ‘Squad’ member (Guardian)

Israeli Minister Held Talks With Black Cube About Spying on pro-Palestinian U.S. Student Group (Haaretz)

“Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli met recently with Black Cube CEO Dan Zorella to examine the possibility of the private intelligence agency conducting an investigation into Students for Justice in Palestine – the group that has led anti-Israel protests on U.S. campuses since the Israel-Gaza war broke out in October. Hiring a private intelligence firm to spy on a group based in the United States, and when most of its activists are U.S. citizens, could be seen as a blow to U.S. sovereignty, according to ex-senior Israeli diplomats…In response to this story, a spokesperson for the Diaspora Affairs Minister said Black Cube had approached the ministry, but the ministry rejected its proposal. However, three sources with knowledge of the matter painted a different picture, saying the initiative came from the ministry but was rejected by the company.”

Pro-Israel interests pour millions into defeating a second ‘Squad’ member (WaPo)

“In Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, the pro-Israel lobby is pouring millions into a campaign to unseat Bush as part of a broader, well-funded effort to replace critics of the Israeli government and the war in Gaza, such as Bush, with more Israel-friendly Democrats. Outside groups have already spent over $15 million in this race, according to Open Secrets, a Washington nonprofit that tracks campaign finance and lobbying data. More than 80 percent of that money has gone toward ads opposing Bush and supporting her opponent…Bush is facing a tight primary contest Tuesday against St. Louis county prosecutor Wesley Bell, who is backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel group.”

Uncommitted voters respond to Harris-Walz ticket with hope and reservations (Guardian 8/8/24)

“Leaders of the “uncommitted” campaign spoke with Kamala Harris and her newly announced running mate, the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, before a rally in Detroit on Wednesday to discuss their calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel. Harris “shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with the Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo”, the organization said in a statement. But a Harris aide said on Thursday that while the vice-president did say she wanted to engage more with members of the Muslim and Palestinian communities about the Israel-Gaza war, she did not agree to discuss an arms embargo, according to Reuters.” See also Harris rejects claims she would support Israel arms embargo (BBC 8/824); Trump claims surging Jewish support, suggests those backing Harris ‘get head checked’ (Times of Israel); Kamala Harris heckled by protesters over Israel-Palestine stance (Al Jazeera 8/8/24); Here’s Why Two Protesters Interrupted Kamala Harris—in Their Own Words (Mother Jones 8/9/24)

Antisemitism? No, That’s Not The Reason Kamala Harris Rejected Josh Shapiro (Prem Thakker//Zeteo)

“Amid mass enthusiasm over Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick of Minnesota Gov. Walz as her running mate, Republicans and other pro-Israel figures…disingenuously claim her decision was in fact motivated by antisemitism…Above all else, they conveniently and cynically ignore the litany of reasons that Harris, whose husband is Jewish, may have had for seeing Walz as a better fit for her campaign. For one, Harris was reportedly compelled by Walz’s biography and political accomplishments…And then there was concern about alienating voters concerned with Israel’s war on Gaza and worried about Shapiro’s record on Israel (not his Jewish faith). On the one hand, Shapiro has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “one of the worst leaders of all time.” But as independent writer and contributing editor at Jewish Currents David Klion recently argued, the Pennsylvania governor’s recent steps suggest a stance unique even among his Democratic colleagues who share generically pro-Israel records. In April, as student protests began erupting across the country against Israel’s war on Gaza, Shapiro compared student protesters to the KKK. He also suggested that a peaceful pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Pennsylvania was threatening student safety. When the university shut down the protest – at his urging – and arrested 33 people in the process, his office called it the “right decision.” Anti-war and pro-Palestine voters also pointed to his broader record. In 2021, then-Attorney General Shapiro heralded penalizing Ben & Jerry’s – founded by two Jewish Americans – under the state’s anti-Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions law after the company refused to sell its ice cream in illegal Israeli settlements.”

U.S. Official: Biden Realized Netanyahu Lied to Him About Hostage Deal (Haaretz 8/3/24)

“A senior official in the Biden administration told Haaretz on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ungrateful toward the United States and disregards the significant amount of aid it has provided to Israel throughout the past 10 months of war. The official also said that the last two conversations between President Joe Biden and Netanyahu – one during a meeting at the White House some 10 days ago, the other over the phone last week – were difficult and tense. “Biden realized that Netanyahu was lying to him about the hostages,” the official told Haaretz. “He’s not saying it publicly yet, but in the meeting between them, he specifically told him, ‘Stop bullshitting me.'”’ See also Netanyahu, Defiant, Appears to Have Gone Rogue, Risking a Regional War (NYT 8/2/24); State Dept calls for Israel to investigate allegations of ‘horrific’ sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees (CNN)

Far-right groups that block aid to Gaza receive tax-deductible donations from US and Israel (AP)

“Three groups that have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza — including one accused of looting or destroying supplies — have raised more than $200,000 from donors in the U.S. and Israel, The Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim have found in an examination of crowdfunding websites and other public records…Donations have continued even after the U.S. imposed sanctions against one of these groups.”

PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS

We’re already in a regional war. Only a Gaza ceasefire can end it (Amjad Iraqi//+972)

“Indeed, although October 7 thrust the entire Middle East into a violent vortex, we have repeatedly been told that the threshold of a “regional war” has not yet been crossed. The battling actors, experts insist, are still playing a risky but calibrated game to re-establish mutual “deterrence,” permitting certain levels of violence that can still be read as avoiding all-out havoc. In many ways, however, this is a discursive trick that downplays the harrowing truth on the ground: we have already been in the throes of that regional war for months. The evidence is in the bodies and debris piling up in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and in the activation of the Western-led alliance and the Axis of Resistance across multiple fronts — from U.S. warships in the Mediterranean to Houthi militias in the Red Sea, from Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon to a missile barrage from Iran. This confrontation can become infinitely worse. Yet the very reason that international actors have belatedly jolted into action this past week is the same reason the war is being pushed into its most hazardous phase yet: that certain lives, and certain interests, matter more than others…As much as Western powers may skirt around the problem, a ceasefire in Gaza remains the keystone to regional de-escalation, and Palestinian liberation the blueprint for regional hope. Palestine is hardly the first epicenter of the Middle East’s regional battles, but it may be the final crack that shatters any semblance of the international order that failed to prevent such a war. What comes next will be defined by what happens in Gaza — and Palestinians must seize the tools to sculpt it.”

In memory of journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul, Gaza City’s voice to the world (Mohammed Mhawish//+972)

“Ismail joined Al Jazeera in November and chose to document a genocide as one of their main reporters in Gaza City, with broadcasts nearly every hour. With his recurring sign-off, stretching out the vowels of his name — “Ismaeel Alghoool, Al Jazeera, Gaza City” — he was a reassuring presence to me and his millions of viewers worldwide…Ismail was also the eyes and ears for the world when the Israeli military raided Al-Shifa Hospital, at a time when much of the international media denied the testimonies of Palestinians. He continued reporting from the scene bravely and professionally until Israeli forces arrested him. Despite the fact that he was a well-known Al Jazeera journalist, the soldiers treated him brutally and interrogated him harshly during his detention…Ismail was killed barehanded. He wasn’t holding a gun or firing a rocket, and posed no threat to anyone. On the contrary, he was clearly marked as a member of the press, wearing his flak jacket and protective helmet. Still, the Israeli military deemed him a target and decapitated him with a drone strike, in what was one of the cruelest images to be broadcast on television during this war.” See also Al Jazeera rejects Israeli allegation that slain journalist was Hamas fighter (WaPo)

WATCH: ‘Israel’s Reel Extremism’ – A Startling New Documentary from Zeteo (Zeteo)

“An ‘extraordinary’ film on Israel examining viral social media posts from Gaza – including exclusive interviews with the Israeli soldiers behind them.”