“Early on Monday, a large number of Israeli forces stormed the city in the northern West Bank, deploying snipers on some houses, and violent confrontations broke out in several areas, during which soldiers fired live bullets, stun grenades and tear gas, and attack helicopters were used. The declared aim of the raid was to arrest 36-year-old Hamas activist Assem Abu al-Haija from the Jabriyat neighbourhood in the outskirts of Jenin. After his arrest and the withdrawal of the military vehicles, Palestinian fighters detonated an explosive device under the military jeeps, which wounded several Israeli soldiers. Banan Abu al-Haija, the sister of Assem, said that Israeli soldiers brutally stormed his house at 5am local time and arrested him. The raid took two and a half hours, she said.”

More on this raid:

• “Teen Palestinian girl dies of wounds sustained in Jenin clashes between gunmen, IDF” (The Times of Israel)
• “Israel uses Apache helicopter fire in West Bank for first time since 2002” (Middle East Eye)
• “Israel snipers targeted journalists during Jenin raid” (MEMO)
• “Sixth Palestinian dies after Israeli raid on Jenin refugee camp” (Al Jazeera)

“Palestinian gunmen affiliated with the Hamas terror group opened fire at a gas station in the West Bank on Tuesday afternoon, killing four Israelis and wounding four others, the military and medics said. According to the Israel Defense Forces, two gunmen carried out the terror attack at the gas station and an adjacent hummus restaurant near the settlement of Eli. One of the terrorists was shot dead at the scene by an armed Israeli civilian, while the second fled and was killed some two hours later by special forces.”

More fallout:

• “‘Our response to terror’: PM okays 1,000 new homes in West Bank settlement of Eli” (The Times of Israel)
• “IDF to raze homes of deadly Eli attack terrorists, revoke relatives’ entry permits” (The Times of Israel)
• “Netanyahu: ‘All options open’ in responding to deadly West Bank shooting attack” (The Times of Israel)
• “Settlers mass at Evyatar, vow to reestablish outpost in response to deadly attack ” (The Times of Israel)

“Israeli settler vigilantes tore through several Palestinian towns in the West Bank following a deadly shooting attack on a nearby settlement Tuesday night, setting cars and fields on fire, vandalizing homes and terrorizing residents in a grim repeat of an incident some termed a pogrom earlier this year. Palestinians in Luban a-Sharqiya, Huwara, Beit Furik, Burin and other towns south of Nablus in the northern West Bank said carloads of settlers rampaged through the villages Tuesday night, hurling stones and setting cars, fields, homes and other property ablaze.”

B’Tselem said in a statement:

“These events don’t reflect a single, isolated failure of the military or the state, but rather a clear expression of Israel’s policy in the occupied territories for many years. As part of this policy, Israel arms gangs of settlers and allows, and even encourages them, using inciting language, to attack Palestinians. As if that were not enough, in some of these cases, soldiers and police officers remain idle, assist the attackers or even harm Palestinians who are trying to protect themselves.”

More on this:

•  “Palestinians pick up the pieces after settler pogrom in West Bank village” (+972 Magazine)
•  “One dead as settlers rampage in Palestinian town after terror victims’ funerals” (The Times of Israel)
• “Israeli Settlers Burn, Vandalize Palestinian Property After West Bank Shooting Attack” (Haaretz)
• “‘Obey the law’: Netanyahu condemns Druze riots in Golan, West Bank settler rampages” (The Times of Israel)

“The decision to build more housing units in West Bank settlements also comes a few months after a security summit attended by security and diplomatic officials from Israel, the PA, the U.S., Egypt and Jordan in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, during which Israel has pledged to “stop discussion of any new settlement units for four months and to stop authorization of any outposts for six months…The Supreme Planning Council has announced that it plans to move ahead to obtain approval for 4,560 new housing units in West Bank settlements. The plans include 390 housing units in Betar Ilit, 371 in Eli, 340 in Ma’aleh Adumim, 330 in Halamish and 287 in Adora. They call for 264 units in Etz Ephraim, 196 in Telem, 184 in Migdalim, 150 in Hashmonaim, 120 in Kiryat Arba, 104 in Karnei Shomron and 98 in Ariel. In addition, final approval is being sought for 787 housing units in Givat Ze’ev, 381 in Revava and 343 in Elkana.”

“Israel’s government on Sunday granted a pro-settlement firebrand authority over planning in the occupied West Bank and lifted red tape on the settlement housing approval process. The changes make it easier for Israel to expand its settlements on land the Palestinians seek as the heartland of their future state, at a time when hopes for peace are more distant than ever. The measure was approved by the government on Sunday as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, who is in charge of Middle East affairs, was set to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during a weeklong visit to the region. The U.S. Statement Department later issued a statement expressing concern over Israel’s action. “As has been longstanding policy, the United States opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace,” spokesman Matthew Miller said.”

“The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday that without a new injection of funding, it is “likely or highly likely” that the agency will not be able to deliver some services or pay salaries by the fall. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said at a press conference in Beirut that the agency responsible for services to Palestinian refugees has been facing a shortfall of $150 million to $200 million annually in recent years. Donors at a pledging conference earlier this month provided only $107 million in new funds, significantly less than the $300 million the agency had called for to keep its programs running through the end of the year. Those programs include health and education services and, in some cases, cash assistance to families in Syria, Lebanon, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Jordan. While he acknowledged that the agency’s funding woes have become “almost a broken record,” Lazzarini warned donors not to “take for granted the ability of UNRWA to muddle through.”

“Here it’s all right to evict hundreds of Palestinian families from their homes in disgrace and destitution, because prior to 1948, the dwellings were owned by Jews. But no one even considers doing the same for the Palestinians who lost their property that same year, under the same circumstances, in the same city. And all of this takes place, of course, with the sweeping authorization of the vaunted Israeli judicial system at all its levels, over whose autonomy a battle is now being waged in Israeli society. Jews may return to the property they lost in East Jerusalem, but Palestinians may not return to the homes they lost in the western part of that city, under the court’s approval. Is that not apartheid? Then what is it?”

“Smotrich and the settlers understood very well that Netanyahu’s utter dependence on the extreme right opened a historic window of opportunity for them, and they are exploiting every moment of it to take over more and more Palestinian land to build, alter the area irreversibly and entrench one large apartheid state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The crisis that Israel is mired in is a golden opportunity for the settlers and their destructive project.”

“wo years after the May 2021 events, Adalah published a report that provides an in-depth understanding of the events and their implications within a broader system of oppression against Palestinians. During May 2021, the police violently dispersed peaceful protests by PCI without justification, clamping down on freedom of expression and assembly. Data obtained by Adalah demonstrates how the police and the State Attorney followed a clear two-tiered policy of racial discrimination, and a segregated system of law enforcement – one for Palestinians and one for Jewish Israelis – in applying the law and filing indictments.”

“But the biggest challenge is within our own society: how to encourage people, youth, and foundations to participate in our kind of work, to not be afraid, and to not be indifferent. To work with such organizations means you have to give up many privileges. Our salaries aren’t high, and there is always uncertainty and obstructions. There’s a sense of responsibility and weight because it is social and national work. Still, the privileges of this job are to fulfill yourself, your project, and your identity. I would never choose another kind of work. “These challenges do not come to me because I’m a woman; it is more because I’m in a framework that operates under Israeli and international political conditions that are limiting, and which requires patience and recharging very often.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition decided on Monday to reignite its controversial plan to shake up Israel’s judiciary, setting a goal to curtail judicial review of the “reasonableness” of government decisions before the Knesset recess next month…The coalition leaders’ decision likely sounds a death knell for the stalled talks hosted by President Isaac Herzog to work towards a consensus solution.”

“Anger over the mounting insecurity is directed at Israel’s government and its ultranationalist minister in charge of police, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Critics say that with his history of anti-Arab rhetoric, he cannot be trusted to combat the rising scourge. The skyrocketing violence lays bare the deep inequities in Israeli society, with Arabs facing years of discrimination that activists say laid the groundwork for the unabating bloodshed.”

“Among various factors, the sharp rise in criminality over the past two decades is partly linked to the effects of a policy pursued by the Shabak (Shin Bet), Israel’s internal security agency. In the late 1990s, Israel began “planting” collaborators from the occupied territories, who had worked as informants with the security services, in Palestinian towns and villages inside Israel. ..Two years ago, at a high-level meeting addressing the rise of crime, a senior officer in the Israeli police was reported to have made a surprisingly blunt comment, saying that most of the criminals leading the violence in Palestinian towns in Israel were indeed collaborators with the Shabak, and that “the hands of the police are tied” because those informants enjoy immunity. The remarks appear to affirm what is regarded as common knowledge among Palestinians in Israel, and which were also previously vindicated by Israeli state archives showing how such relationships were developed from the time of military rule from 1948 to 1966.”

“Two weeks ago, hundreds of activists formed an anti-pinkwashing bloc in the Jerusalem Pride parade, where they were attacked by police who tried to confiscate their Palestinian flags. In Tel Aviv a week later, more than two hundred activists marched in the bloc, and were attacked several times by other protesters. This week, three activists were arrested during the march in Haifa when undercover police officers attacked the bloc with extreme violence after seeing a trans teenager carrying a Palestinian flag. Next week they plan to march in Be’er Sheva. “The bloc is calling for queer liberation, and for a shift from nationalism and capitalism to solidarity,” said Yaheli Agai, a young trans woman and activist. “The government, the army, the Tel Aviv municipality, and corporations are carrying out injustices, but during [Pride] month they drape themselves in Pride flags and superficially support the parade to whitewash their actions. Our protest is against the occupation and the injustices that directly harm the queer community, such as the military’s extortion of LGBTQ Palestinians, or the fact that the Tel Aviv municipality doesn’t support sex workers or the unhoused population, many of whom are trans.”

“Under the reported agreement, some Americans—namely those who hold a Palestinian ID—would be required to obtain a military-issued permit to travel to Israel to use the airport and visit family members in the West Bank, while other Americans would only be subject to civil law and given free access to the West Bank for any purpose, with no restrictions on their entry and travel throughout the area.”

“This pilot program appears to be an effort by the Biden Administration to bring Israel into the Visa Waiver Program without requiring it to end its systematic profiling and discrimination against Palestinian Americans,” Foundation for Middle East Peace President Lara Friedman told Mondoweiss. “This effort strips the term ‘reciprocity’ of all meaning, gives a U.S. kosher stamp to foreign governments engaging in blatant racism against Americans, and demonstrates yet again that the rule of U.S.-Israel relations – regardless of which party is in the White House, and even when talking about the welfare and rights of American citizens – is zero accountability.” “Israel will demonstrate that it doesn’t discriminate against Palestinian-Americans by creating an entirely different process for entry that only Palestinian-Americans will be subjected to,” tweeted Yousef Munayyer. “What a joke.””

“According to the new guidelines issued by the European Commission’s Trade Department, importers will be denied access to the preferential tariff system unless they enter a special code that confirms the goods do not come from settlements in the main electronic customs declaration, which means it will be checked automatically.”

“The Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) bill, which was presented to parliament on Monday, would prohibit procurement and investment decisions made by public bodies that are ‘influenced by political or moral disapproval of foreign state conduct’. The bill sets out that the government can “specify a country or territory” for which the bill ‘does not apply’. But the text of the bill, as reported exclusively by MEE last week, explicitly states that such exemptions “may not specify” decisions or considerations “relating specifically or mainly to Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, or the Occupied Golan Heights”. In comments announcing the bill on Monday, communities secretary Michael Gove said boycotts of organisations and businesses linked to Israel had led to ‘appalling antisemitic rhetoric and abuse’.”

“My grandmother lived through wars and then some. Older than Israel itself. For this, she was hailed as the “icon of Palestinian resilience” by Jerusalemites. During the 1948 Nakba, she left her Haifa home meticulously cleaned, not knowing she would be readying it for its colonizers. A refugee, cast with her children from city to city, she finally settled in Jerusalem, only to be confronted with the Naksa—Israel’s occupation of Arab lands following the 1967 War—followed by the annexation of Jerusalem, and, in her last days of life, the imminent annexation of the West Bank. She passed away amid the chaos of the “Deal of The Century” and Israel’s plans to make Palestinian subjugation permanent and call it a state. Her activism led her from court halls to protests to hospitals. Relentless, she worked and worked until survival was a funny story to tell with what remains of the family.”

“The growing disenchantment and disaffection with Israel among young American Jews has long been evident. This development is the subject of a new documentary, Israelism, directed by Eric Axelman and Sam Eilertsen, which had sold-out premieres in New York and LA this past week. The documentary explores the awakening of two 30-ish Jewish Americans, both thoroughly steeped in pro-Israel propaganda throughout their childhoods, to the harsh realities of the Israeli Occupation. Simone Zimmerman, co-founder of  IfNotNow and “Eitan” (who withheld his last name) recount their personal journeys from enthusiastic supporters of Israel to pro-Palestinian activism.”