1.Bills, Resolutions & Letters

2. House Dems’ Most Excellent Recess Adventure Celebrating Israel & AIPAC
3. Israel in the 2024 Election Cycle (things are starting to heat up)
4. Media & Reports
5. Members on the Record

“A large contingent of Israeli soldiers accompanied by a military bulldozer raided the Balata refugee camp, forced families to evacuate a residential building and then blew it up at about 3am on Wednesday. The incident overnight was among several raids by Israeli forces in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank…Earlier, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters at Palestinians in the eastern part of the city where they were providing cover for Israeli settlers who had stormed Joseph’s Tomb, a shrine located within an area controlled by the Palestinian Authority.” See also Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinians in raid on occupied West Bank (Al Jazeera); Palestinian Critically Wounded by Israeli Forces Escorting Jewish Worshippers in West Bank

“A court on Tuesday ordered an Israeli suspected of killing a Palestinian during a recent clash in the West Bank be released to house arrest, rejecting law enforcement’s request to keep him in custody…On Monday, the court had rejected a request by [Yehiel] Indore’s lawyer to release him to house arrest, days after police revealed they no longer suspect a racial motive for his actions, but still suspect him of killing Matan with intent or indifference, participating in a riot, conspiracy to commit a crime and obstruction of justice…Earlier Tuesday, police arrested two Palestinians from Burqa on suspicion of assault and throwing stones during the violent altercation…The case has garnered international media attention partially due to the fact that one of the suspects, Elisha Yered, is a former spokesman for far-right Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech. Yered was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the death and obstructing the police investigation but was released to house arrest last week. Law enforcement appealed to have him rearrested and returned to custody, but the motion was dismissed by the Supreme Court.”

“Israel maintains a system of water apartheid all across the West Bank. Jewish settlements and outposts (even those that Israeli law holds to be illegal) are connected to the Israeli water network, enabling their residents to consume water freely on demand without pre-imposed limits…In neighboring Palestinian villages, however, consumption is determined by allocation within a separate Palestinian water network. This network does not function properly due to the military regime’s restrictions on Palestinian building of public infrastructure, including for pumping water. It is completely dependent on the mountain aquifer, from which the occupation authorities allow Palestinians to draw negligible amounts of water…As a result, on most days of the week, Palestinians throughout the West Bank do not have sufficient running water, in contrast to their settler neighbors who consume on average three times more water…But there are some places, like Masafer Yatta where I live, and like the Jordan Valley, where this apartheid is particularly extreme. Here, most of the Palestinian villages — which Israel is trying to expel through quasi-legal mechanisms, army harassment, and violent settlers who enjoy impunity for their attacks — are not allowed to connect to the water network at all. Meanwhile, Israelis in the nearby villa-settlements consume on average 20 times more water than the area’s Palestinian villages…This situation did not come about by chance. Israel has total control over the water resources between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and these discriminatory policies reflect political motives. In Masafer Yatta, that motive is to force out the Palestinians while expanding Israeli settlements. Deliberate thirst is one of many means to achieving this.”

See also Two West Bank Outposts to Be Expanded After Israel Retroactively Authorized Them (Haaretz; the outposts are in the South Hebron Hills); Smotrich said aiming to allocate $180m to settlements, including illegal outposts (Times of Israel); See also As Israeli settlements thrive, Palestinian taps run dry. The water crisis reflects a broader battle (AP); They Have No AC or Running Water. Now They Are Trying to Survive in 108 Degrees (Haaretz: “Scorching heat as a result of climate change is making the usual problems of the Bedouin of the Judean Desert and Jordan Valley — poverty, settler violence and harassment by authorities — truly unbearable”)

“We need to understand that the people who evicted us from our home are not marginal — they are the people in government. This is what I don’t get about the Israeli demonstrations [against the far-right government and the judicial coup] — what are you protesting about? They are protesting to maintain the status quo. The only reason they go protesting is because this government touched their rights. But they have been doing this to us for decades, and none of them protested. If you want to fight for real democracy, go defend the Palestinians in Khan al-Ahmar, go to Sheikh Jarrah, go where the violence and the oppression is taking place. You cannot allow a system of violence to thrive for decades and not expect it to turn on you. You’re creating a monster, and in the end it will turn on you. I think the road ahead for this struggle should be with a united voice for Muslims, Christians, Jews, Druze, Armenians, etc. All who face the same discrimination should stand up against it. This is the time for the Israelis demonstrating to catch up.” See also “Now it is Happening to My Family”: The Dispossession of Palestinians from the Old City of Jerusalem” (FMEP Fellow Rabea Eghbariah interviews Rafaat Sub Laban)

Raja Shehadeh: “It’s very difficult to recommend anything because [the Palestinians are] in a bind. The Israeli government is very bent on destroying the Palestinians and punishing them and not giving any concessions or leeway. So it’s very difficult to see how to move forward. But I think that the important thing is for the Palestinians to stay put and to perhaps realize that we will be the first victims in the demise of Israel—if that’s what’s happening—and the untangling of the Israeli state. It will not be favorable to us because we are the weaker party; we’re going to be suffering the most in the case of any dissolution of Israel or Israeli institutions…I think we’re in a very dangerous moment; I feel that the settlers are consciously pushing Palestinians toward action that will result in a very bad conflict, which will be much worse than anything that we’ve lived through before. I’ve lived through two intifadas now, and if there is a third it’ll be much worse than anything I have seen. And that makes me very worried and afraid for our future.” See also ‘We need you alive’: How a new generation is resisting occupation in Jenin camp (Middle East Eye); Israel’s Repression of Palestinians Paved the Way for Its New Antidemocratic Court (Juan Cole//The Nation)

“On July 30th, the second to last day of its summer session, Israel’s Knesset voted 39-7 to pass a law that imposes harsher punishments for sexual harassment, assault, and rape committed with “nationalistic motivations.”…On its face, such a law might appear to be a welcome addition to the legal code protecting women from sexual crimes. “If someone’s looking from the outside,” said Rachel Stomel, a spokeswoman for the Center for Women’s Justice, an Israeli nonprofit, “they could think that this was a progressive feminist take.” But both Stomel and Ori Narov, who heads the legal department for the civil rights group Israel Religious Action Center, told Jewish Currents that the language of “nationalistic motivations”—a legal term most often invoked in terrorism cases, which are almost exclusively brought against the country’s Arab minority—signals that the law is animated by a Jewish supremacist ideology…The new law not only doubles the financial penalties for “nationalistically motivated” sexual crimes under Israel’s penal code, it also places such crimes under the country’s draconian terrorism law from 2016, which, according to the minority rights group Adalah, almost exclusively targets Arabs…According to [Amal] Oraby, the new law is poised to fail at protecting women because its real goals are to prevent racial mixing, criminalize Arabs, and legally encode Jewish supremacy. In this, he said, the legislation is continuous with other recent laws promoted by the Jewish Power Party: multiple bills that would make it illegal to wave a Palestinian flag, a law that gives Ben Gvir unprecedented power over Israel’s police, and a bill that would give him, personally, the power to detain citizens without trial. Looking at the sexual violence law in “the big picture,” Oraby said, one can see that Son Har Melech “wants to take the logic of the settlements and apply it to all of Israel.” 

“Senior Israeli army commanders warned on Wednesday that if the crisis revolving around the government’s judicial coup continues, the readiness of Israel’s Air Force and Military Intelligence would be diminished within weeks or several months. Speaking at a Knesset security committee, the officers also issued a warning over the readiness of the Israeli Navy and the cyber and medical arms, adding that damage could also be dealt to field units…At the beginning of the hearing, Maj. Gen. Basiuk stated that the IDF is currently prepared for warfare and capable of fulfilling its ongoing missions as required. However, the officers expressed concerns during the discussions that a significant blow to the army’s morale is already being felt, impacting its readiness.” See also US army chief to visit Israel, said looking to assess damage to IDF readiness (Haaretz); Scoop: Milley to visit Israel as U.S. concerns grow over Israeli military crisis (Axios); Netanyahu’s tension with Israeli security brass boils over amid accusations of dictatorship (Al Monitor); Pilots said to tell Gallant they won’t fly sorties if Israel not democratic (Times of Israel); How mass army refusal is forcing Israelis to rethink their red lines (+972); Israeli Army Suspends Top Navy Commander From Reserve Duty for Resisting Netanyahu’s Judicial Coup (Haaretz); Lebanon’s Hezbollah makes show of force with tanks, armored vehicles as Israel tensions mount (Al Monitor)

“Public transportation is the latest front of a culture war in Israel over the status of women in a society that is sharply divided between a secular majority and politically powerful minority of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who frown on the mixing of women and men in public…As part of an agreement with ultra-Orthodox allies that underpinned the formation of the coalition, Mr. Netanyahu made several concessions that have unsettled secular Israelis. Among them are proposals to segregate audiences by sex at some public events, to create new religious residential communities, to allow businesses to refuse to provide services based on religious beliefs, and to expand the powers of all-male rabbinical courts. Israel’s laws have not been amended to reflect the concessions, but some fear that the changes are already coming, at the expense of women. The Israeli news media has been full of reports in recent months about incidents seen as discriminatory. Bus drivers in central Tel Aviv and southern Eilat have refused to pick up young women, because they were wearing crop tops or workout clothes. Last month, ultra-Orthodox men in the religious town of Bnei Brak stopped a public bus and blocked the road because a woman was driving…Over the past decade, sex segregation has seeped into many areas. Small public colleges that enroll ultra-Orthodox students seeking undergraduate degrees segregate classes by sex. Some drivers’ education and government job training courses have run sex-segregated sessions, and some public libraries post separate hours for girls and boys.” See also Analysis | This Is How Netanyahu’s Government Plans to Enshrine the Discrimination of Women Into Law (Haaretz); Israeli Public Bus Driver Tells Girls to Cover Up, Sit in Back: ‘You’re in a Jewish State’ (Haaretz)

“But it is precisely the judicial overhaul, which settlers conceived for their nationalist-religious needs, and which was supposed to bring them to the peak of their power, that threatens to destroy what they’ve been able to achieve since the Gaza disengagement. What started off in January as polite demonstrations by Israel’s upper-middle class has morphed into a rebellion — not only against the overhaul and the current government, but against the entire right-wing regime, and against the theo-ethnocratic nationalism at its foundation…Today, it is difficult to find a single speaker who takes the stage at the Tel Aviv protests and does not make a connection between the judicial overhaul, pogroms in the West Bank, and Jewish supremacy — a connection that was until recently drawn exclusively by the radical left. The veil with which religious Zionism sought to hide the reality of the occupation, and the oppression of Palestinians, has been torn off.”

“Speaking to Israel’s public broadcasting station Kan, Amiram Levin, former head of the Israeli army’s Northern Command, said that “there hasn’t been a democracy there in 57 years, there is total apartheid.” According to Levin, “the IDF, which is forced to exert sovereignty there, is rotting from the inside. It’s standing by, looking at the settler rioters and is beginning to be a partner to war crimes. These are deep processes.” When asked to elaborate on the specific “processes,” Levin invoked Nazi Germany. “It’s hard for us to say it, but it’s the truth. Walk around Hebron, look at the streets. Streets where Arabs are no longer allowed to go on, only Jews. That’s exactly what happened there, in that dark country.” See also Ex-IDF millitary intel chief: Netanyahu a threat to Israel’s security (Israel National News)

“Some 80% of new Israeli startups are choosing to incorporate in the United States, particularly in the state of Delaware, the Reuters news agency reports….The report cites an Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) survey indicating that as many as 80% of new Israeli tech startups in 2023 chose to incorporate in Delaware, up from 20% in 2022.”

“Palestinian officials welcomed their first Saudi Arabian ambassador, even as the kingdom mulls over establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s diplomatic adviser Majdi al-Khalidi received a copy of the credentials of Ambassador Nayef al-Sudairi as a non-resident envoy in Jordan on Saturday, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. Al-Sudairi, the kingdom’s current ambassador to Jordan, will also serve as consul general in Jerusalem…The Saudi envoy also called the appointment “an important step”, which underscores the desire of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “to strengthen relations with the brothers of the State of Palestine and give it a formal boost in all areas”, he said in video broadcast by the Saudi state-affiliated Al-Ekhbariya channel.” See also Israel says no Jerusalem base for Saudi envoy to Palestinian Authority (Al Jazeera: “Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM on Sunday that the new ambassador, Nayef al-Sudairi, could meet representatives of the PA but would have no fixed presence. “Will there be an official physically sitting in Jerusalem? This we will not allow,” Cohen said.”)

“Leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and Fatah officials held a rare meeting in the Gaza Strip on Monday evening as efforts for reconciliation between different Palestinian factions intensified this month in Turkey and Egypt. According to a joint statement, Islamic Jihad political bureau member Khaled al-Batsh and Fatah central committee member Ahmad Halas discussed ways to strengthen bilateral relations and defend the Palestinian cause. The statement read that the two sides “agreed to continue these meetings in a way that contributes to strengthening bilateral relations between the members and leaders of the two movements in confronting the occupation, restoring the unity of our Palestinian people, strengthening their resistance and preserving the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.””

“Former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is the leading candidate to be the new U.S. ambassador to Israel and could be nominated by President Biden in the coming weeks, according to three people familiar with the matter…Lew, a former Cabinet secretary and White House chief of staff, worked closely with Biden during the Obama administration. He’s also worked with Netanyahu and the prime minister’s close confidant Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister for strategic affairs. As deputy secretary of state, White House chief of staff and secretary of treasury, Lew had a front-row seat to several of the most challenging moments for the U.S.-Israeli relationship during the Obama presidency. Much of that tension revolved around Netanyahu’s policy of expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank and the clash between Netanyahu and Obama over the United States’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Lew, who practices Orthodox Judaism, has kept the Sabbath throughout his government career and has deep relationships with the Jewish community throughout the U.S. State of play: Lew has told former White House colleagues that he’s interested in the job.”

“Hundreds of Israeli and American public figures have called on US Jewish groups to speak out against the occupation of the Palestinian territories as “the elephant in the room” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s deeply divisive judicial reforms. The statement has drawn international attention because of the prominent Israelis who have signed its forthright declaration that “Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid”, including the renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris, and the former speaker of the Israeli parliament, Avraham Burg. The open letter, which has gathered more than 1,500 signatories since it was released a week ago, comes amid months of mass demonstrations in Israel against Netanyahu’s legislation to weaken the power of the judiciary, widely seen as a battle for the country’s soul.”

“Prominent American author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates spoke at a literary festival in the West Bank last week titled Palestine & the Global South, with the aim of linking the Palestinian struggle with others around the world in the era of decolonization…Coates opened his remarks with a comparison between the struggle of African Americans and Palestinians, discussing the process that he underwent with his identity as a black man and the struggle of the Black community. He explained that he had felt he needed to be well-versed in the facts before expressing himself on the Palestinian issue.”

“The biggest military export agreement in Israel’s history will proceed after the United States agreed to back Germany’s $3.5 billion purchase of the state-of-the-art Arrow 3 air-defense system. Israel’s defense ministry announced in a statement Thursday that senior German and Israeli officials will sign a letter of commitment in the coming weeks for the system, which was developed jointly by the Israel Missile Defense Organization and the United States Missile Defense Agency and manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries…The Arrow 3 is Israel’s most advanced long-range missile defense system, able to intercept ballistic missiles while they are outside the earth’s atmosphere. It can take out aerial weapons from a distance of up to 2,400 kilometers (1,490 miles). A more advanced system, the Arrow 4, is currently under development. Germany has been seeking to strengthen its defense capabilities since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Berlin has been trying to acquire the Arrow 3 for around a year now.”

“Twenty-five years ago this week, on July 17, 1998, more than 140 countries gathered in Rome to complete the negotiations for a new international treaty to create a permanent international tribunal: the International Criminal Court. Out of these talks emerged the Rome Statute that established the ICC, which would try perpetrators of serious international crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity…One of the seven countries voting against the Rome Statute was Israel. Its refusal to ratify the treaty and join the ICC, it is widely acknowledged, was over the Rome Statute designating civilian settlements in occupied territory as a war crime—which would directly apply to the activities of Israeli political, military and administrative leaders involved in the country’s massive settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967…The language on settlements was not placed in the Rome Statute lightly, or as a form of political revenge, as Israel alleged. Rather, its inclusion was deliberate, appropriate and linear, the culmination of 50 years of precedent in international law…The future decision by the ICC’s prosecutor should not, legally, be a difficult one. The status of Israeli settlements as a war crime is seemingly straightforward in international criminal and humanitarian law.”

“While the global debate around using artificial intelligence in warfare heats up, Israel has brazenly deployed AI systems against the Palestinians. Bloomberg reported last month that the Israeli army deployed an advanced AI model called Fire Factory designed to select targets for air strikes and handle other military logistics. This wasn’t the first time Israel had used AI in combat operations. While the global debate around using artificial intelligence in warfare heats up, Israel has brazenly deployed AI systems against the Palestinians. Bloomberg reported last month that the Israeli army deployed an advanced AI model called Fire Factory designed to select targets for air strikes and handle other military logistics. This wasn’t the first time Israel had used AI in combat operations.”

“As the Israeli regime escalates its apartheid and settler colonial practices in Palestine, calls for accountability are mounting. Among these demands are growing calls for sanctions. Still, questions around this tactic remain – both in terms of their ethics and efficacy.  Al-Shabaka spoke with Khaled Elgindy and Nada Elia for further insight on sanctions against Israel. Together, they detail the varied forms that sanctions may take, their potential to affect meaningful change, and distinguish how sanctions targeting the Israeli regime would differ from those wielded by Western powers in other contexts.”