In this episode of FMEP’s Occupied Thoughts podcast, FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) director Giovanni Fassina and ELSC manager of communication and advocacy strategies and campaigns Alice Garcia about ELSC’s groundbreaking new report, “Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy through the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism – Violating the Rights to Freedom of Expression and Assembly in the European Union and the UK.” This report is the first case-based account of human rights violations resulting from the institutionalization and application of the controversial IHRA definition by the EU and the UK.

“Exposing Israel’s annexation requires zooming out. This is what the international community fails to do, and it is why Israel’s brazen violation of international law has not drawn the ire it deserves. International discourse is hung up on the ceremonial, formal version of annexation—Putin’s annexation, which was rightly met with rebuke and sanctions. The world does not know how to deal with Netanyahu’s tactics. Though it was not accompanied by a grand statement, the Israeli defense ministry’s portfolio transfer to Smotrich amounts to an act of de jure annexation of the West Bank—and is a dangerous step toward entrenching apartheid within the territory.”

“Israel’s coalition government, the most right-wing in the country’s history, has come under fire for proposing reforms that would weaken the judiciary and dismantle checks and balances. They provoked some of the biggest protests ever seen in Israel and were eventually put on hold after a tremendous international and domestic backlash. But another move by the government—a bureaucratic change that has hardly drawn any attention—is just as significant.”

“During the rounds of fighting that have taken place in the Gaza Strip in recent years, Israel has attacked densely populated residential areas from the air, ground and sea. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed, thousands more have been injured, tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless. Entire families have lost their whole world in the blink of an eye, unable to protect their children or themselves inside their own homes. Though patently illegal, this policy is fully backed by Israel’s political, legal and military leadership.”

“This report is the first of its kind dedicated to examining the land expropriation orders for “public purposes” issued by the Israeli military in the West Bank since June 1967 – a total of 313, covering an area of some 74,000 dunams…The conclusion of this study is evident: under the guise of its legal obligation to ensure the wellbeing of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, Israel has nevertheless expropriated extensive areas of land to promote the settlement project beginning in 1967. In some cases, it has done so while completely and blatantly ignoring its duty to ensure that the expropriated area is for the use of the Palestinian population, and in other, more sophisticated cases, it has done so by creating a dependency between the mutual interests of both Palestinian and settler populations.”

“One Israeli and four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded during a shooting near the northern West Bank settlement of Mevo Dotan on Tuesday afternoon.”

“Faris Abdel-Menem Hashash, 19, sustained gunshot wounds to the chest, abdomen, and lower body, according to the ministry. He was shot in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus and brought to Rafidia Surgical Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. A large Israeli force raided the camp on Tuesday afternoon, leading to confrontations with residents who hurled stones and other projectiles at soldiers.”

“According to the WFP, 64% of Gaza residents suffer from food insecurity. If they pass scrutiny, they are added to a list that allows them to use a supermarket card, which allots each family member $10.30 a month. This month, however, the WFP announced that 200,000 people who receive food aid in Palestine “will no longer be receiving food assistance due to a severe funding shortage.” This development is nothing short of devastating for thousands of families in Gaza who have no other consistent food source.”

“Israel is expected to approve over 4,500 new housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank over the coming weeks, with more than 1,000 homes up for final approval and plans for over 3,000 more in the pipeline.”

“In his sixth term as prime minister, Netanyahu believes that the international community in general and the United States in particular talk a lot but in fact let Israel do whatever it pleases in the occupied territories. That is why the United States and the European states must make it clear to the occupation and annexation government that it must stop the destruction immediately. Wishy-washy condemnations will not help.”

“The probe found that at the same time, one of the soldiers at a post near the Palestinian village spotted two figures entering a vehicle in the area, and wrongly thought it was the gunmen who had opened fire at the settlement. The soldier asked for permission from his commander to open fire, and after receiving an okay, fired several bullets at the car, resulting in the fatal injury of infant Mohammed and the serious injury of his father.”

“The Military Advocate General on Tuesday said criminal charges would not be brought against an officer and a soldier over the 2022 death of an elderly Palestinian-American, who suffered a heart attack after being temporarily bound and gagged by soldiers and later abandoned at a construction site in the middle of winter.Soldiers had detained 78-year-old Omar As’ad after he refused to identify himself at a random checkpoint the soldiers had set up in his village of Jiljilya in the central West Bank. They gagged him and tied his hands with zip-ties at a construction site in the near-freezing January night as they continued to examine people. When they later came to release him, he was unresponsive. The soldiers removed the bindings but left As’ad on the ground unconscious at the scene.”

“Nearly 80 percent of caregivers in Gaza reported an increase in bedwetting among their children, according to research by Save the Children published in 2022. A further 78 percent reported that their children rarely completed tasks, and 59 percent said their children faced difficulties in speech, language, and communication. The NGO interviewed 488 children and 168 parents and caregivers for the study, to update similar research in 2018. It found that the mental health of children, young people, and caregivers deteriorated dramatically, with the number of children reporting emotional distress rising from 55 percent to 80 percent. “What children in Gaza are suffering from exceeds PTSD,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability programme director at Defence for Children International, told MEE, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder.”

“While the news of assassinations, army raids, arrests, and lone wolf operations has continued to come in without interruption, it is undeniable that the erstwhile vitality of the West Bank resistance groups has dimmed in recent weeks. There is some regional variation on this score, but Israel’s concerted onslaught against Aqbat Jabr refugee camp, the Old City of Nablus’s Yasmina neighborhood, Balata and Askar refugee camps, Jenin refugee camp, and Tulkarem, has left behind a trail of martyrs, and there are only so many losses that the resistance groups can bear before their ranks begin to thin. The Yasmina neighborhood is now emptied of its militant youth, the martyrs’ cemetery in Jenin refugee camp is running out of graves, and Aqbat Jabr continues to be regularly invaded by the army following a weeks-long siege on Jericho during the previous month. Jenin refugee camp might hold out for a while longer, and the armed presence there is likely to remain even in the long term — but the presence of arms and the use of arms are not the same.”

“Alongside pressure to fully integrate the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service) into what is being termed “the struggle against Arab crime” — in spite of recommendations by the attorney general, the State Prosecutor’s Office, and even the head of the Shin Bet himself — Ben Gvir is now requesting to be granted far-ranging powers that would include, among other things, the authority to put Israeli citizens in administrative detention, just as the defense minister is authorized to order the administrative detention of Palestinians in the West Bank (and, formerly, Gaza).”

“‘Is the face of Akko changing? Large migration of young religious Zionists,’ blared one recent headline on Israel’s Walla! news site. ‘30,000 new residents,’ declared another, referring to a new neighborhood to be built in Akka’s mostly Jewish eastern half.”

“Palestine Legal and 13 civil rights groups, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Law for Black Lives, wrote the City University of New York (CUNY) today to raise serious concerns that the university’s May 30th Statement condemning as “hate speech” the principled remarks by graduating CUNY Law 3L Fatima Mohammed violated state and federal laws. Published two weeks after Mohammed gave her speech in which she criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, the statement from CUNY’s Board of Trustees and Chancellor contributed to the bullying campaign led by anti-Palestinian groups, politicians, and rightwing media outlets in the wake of Mohammed’s speech, and incited additional online harassment and threats against Mohammed.

The coalition letter calls on CUNY to retract the statement, issue a public apology, recognize that opposition to the political ideology of Zionism is a stance for equality and freedom, and hold trainings on anti-Palestinian racism, among other demands.”

“Indeed, as Israel lurches ever further to the right and more young Jewish Americans turn away, the attempt to make Israel the center of diaspora Jewish identity — and to silence anyone who criticizes it — no longer appears to be a guarantor of Jewish continuity so much as a threat to it.”

“Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, met this week with an Israeli minister who justified Elon Musk’s attacks against George Soros and called J Steet a “hostile organization.” Her meeting with Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli took place during a three-day visit to Israel, which focused on the American Jewish Committee’s conference in Tel Aviv.” Recall – “Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Blasts J Street as Soros-funded Group ‘Hostile’ to Israel“

“A senior official of the Biden administration attacked Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli on Wednesday, saying that he  ‘does not understand the American Jewish Diaspora.’…Referring to the minister’s trip to the United States last week, the senior Biden administration official told JTA that Chikli was unable to hold any public meeting with American Jewish officials.”

“U.N. cultural and scientific agency UNESCO announced on Monday that the United States plans to rejoin — and pay more than $600 million in back dues — after a decade-long dispute sparked by the organization’s move to include Palestine as a member.”

“In a letter sent on Tuesday, a bipartisan group of 35 lawmakers urged the administration to push back against the International Court of Justice’s investigation of Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The ICJ investigation comes following a United Nations General Assembly vote to seek an advisory opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The letter, obtained by JI, urges Secretary of State Tony Blinken to “submit a strong brief to the ICJ opposing an advisory opinion against Israel” that both presses the ICJ to reject the case and defends Israel “on the merits.” It also urges Blinken to seek similar briefs from allies who opposed the UNGA resolution.”

“The special envoy will be tasked with encouraging additional countries to follow the lead of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020.”

“The resolutions, listed in a platform section on international relations, broadly express support for “equal measures of security, freedom and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians,” while backing “vigorous diplomatic engagement for Middle East peace, with the United States as a mediator between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority,” according to a draft document reviewed by Jewish Insider. The platform, which will head to a vote by the party’s state executive committee on June 24, also calls for “full human rights for Palestinians and Israelis” and condemns “acts of racism, religious bigotry” against Muslims, Palestinian and Jews, among other measures.”

“Israeli parliament members cast their vote on Wednesday to determine the representatives to the Judicial Appointments Committee, in what has become a crucial test for both Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the judicial system, and the opposition and the protest movement. It also threatens to scuttle the compromise talks held at the President’s Residence.” Also See: “Israel’s Day of Drama: Why Today’s Knesset Vote Is So Momentous for Netanyahu and Israeli Democracy” (Haaretz)

“The proposal would allow police to limit the freedom of movement and employment of the suspect, enforces bans on internet use, and constraints on their communications. It would also allow police to place Israelis under house arrest for up to six months under “maintaining public order,” and let judges use inadmissible evidence.”

“President Isaac Herzog has been invited by US President Joe Biden to visit the White House during a trip to address Congress in the third week of July, several Hebrew media outlets reported Tuesday. It will be Herzog’s second visit to the White House in less than a year, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to be invited to meet with Biden since winning the Israeli elections in November, causing some tension

“’I think we should continue to focus on finding a pathway toward a two-state solution, on finding a pathway toward giving the Palestinians dignity and justice. I think the US has a similar view that it’s important to continue on those efforts,’ he said last week after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Riyadh.”

“Speaking at the start of a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the prime minister appeared to react to reports that Washington was in renewed contact with Iran regarding moribund nuclear deal talks.”

Take a deep dive into the incredible work of Forensic Architecture and its founder, Eyal Weizman.

“Despite the Israeli regime’s increasingly right-wing policies, liberal Zionism still plays a dominant role in Zionist ideology. It fulfills the specific and critical function of providing the settler colonial project with the veneer of enlightened, Western civilization and democratic, progressive politics. In our latest policy brief, Al Shabaka analyst Mark Muhannad Ayyash exposes this veneer and proposes a guiding framework for how to confront and invalidate the notion of liberal Zionism.”