As Israel’s far-right has gained political influence and momentum, including with respect to the current government’s “judicial reform” plans, the outsized impact of the Kohelet Policy Forum – a formerly low-profile, high-impact Israeli think-tank – has increasingly been making headlines. Two key parts of this story — insufficiently understood and examined by the media — are the ties between Kohelet and right-wing fellow travelers and funders in the U.S., and their years-long efforts to influence policy and law not only in Israel, but in the United States, both at the state- and federal-level. Join FMEP & Jewish Currents for a conversation among experts who have been researching and documenting the activities and funding of the Kohelet Policy Forum including its transnational connections and impact of its work in both the U.S. and Israel/Palestine. Featuring Ran Cohen (Democratic Bloc), Yousef Munayyer (Arab Center DC) & Eran Nissan (Mehazkim), in conversation with Lara Friedman (FMEP).

FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks to Vito Todeschini (legal expert in human rights law, international humanitarian law and international accountability, focusing on Palestine/Israel and the wider MENA region) about ongoing efforts to enforce some measure of accountability on Israel for its actions vis-a-vis Palestinians via international legal bodies – most notably the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. They also look at the stark contrast between the ICC’s quick action vis-à-vis Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and the ICC’s very slow process with respect to Palestine.

FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with +972’s Haggai Matar about the developments of the last two days — Netanyahu firing the Defense Minister after the latter spoke out against the judicial and legislative reforms; hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting against the government; a general strike that has shut down businesses, universities, ports and the airport; and the planned far-right armed demonstration this evening in Jerusalem. Haggai talks about the tension between the Israelis who are protesting “under the banner of democracy” and the actual possibility of dismantling apartheid in Israel/Palestine.

1.Bills, Resolutions & Letters

2. Hearings
3. Media & Reports
4. Members on the Record (Palestine/Palestinians)
5. Members on the Record (Israel)
6. Members on the Record (Iran)
7. Members on the Record (other Mideast countries)

1. Israel Reaffirms Commitment to Short Settlement Pause – Then Immediately Violates it, Publishing Tenders for 1,029 New Settlement Units
2. Knesset Repeals Clauses of 2005 Disengagement Law, Allowing for Reestablishment of Four West Bank Settlements
3. Netanyahu Contradicts Coalition Agreements in Attempt to Pacify International Outcry Over Disengagement Law Repeal
4. Knesset Initiates Bill for West Bank “Admission Committees”
5. U.S. State Department Issues Its 2022 Human Rights Report
6. Bonus Reads

“When President Biden bluntly warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he “cannot continue down this road” of overhauling his country’s judiciary, he touched off the kind of response usually expressed by America’s adversaries rather than its allies. “Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Wednesday, accusing the U.S. president of meddling in another country’s politics — which is exactly what Mr. Biden was intending to do. It was a remarkably public outbreak of the kind of disagreement that usually takes place in private. But there were other factors at work that had been brewing for many years.” See also Biden’s private message to Bibi (Axios);  Biden: Israel Can’t Continue Down This Road; Netanyahu Slams ‘Pressures From Abroad’ (Haaretz), Biden-Netanyahu spat bursts into full view (WaPo); Netanyahu delays judicial overhaul after unprecedented strikes, protests (WaPo); Protests Erupt in Israel After Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister (NYT); The Israeli Government’s Plan to Overhaul the Judiciary: What to Know (NYT)

“It took a lot of precious time for Washington to internalize that there really is a clear and present danger to the future of the State of Israel – and therefore to strategic relations with the country too. But from the moment that the full extent of the danger was internalized, and the Americans “entered the event,” the temporary suspension maneuver by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu really wasn’t enough to placate them…This diplomatic escalation is a rare and exceptional development in the relations between the two countries.” See also Biden says Israel ‘cannot continue down this road,’ says he won’t invite Netanyahu soon (JTA); White House Clarifies No Imminent Invitation for Netanyahu to Visit Washington (Haaretz); Israel-U.S. Rift: After Netanyahu Rebuffs Biden, Ben-Gvir Says ‘We’re Not Another Star on the American Flag’ (Haaretz)

“While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit pause Monday on his government’s hugely controversial efforts to overhaul the judicial system, members of his coalition have been quietly moving ahead with a raft of other, no less radical, legislative plans. These include bills allowing public servants to accept gifts and the police to search private homes without a warrant; legalizing the death penalty for terrorists; banning bread from hospitals over the Passover holiday; and significantly expanding the jurisdiction of Israeli rabbinical courts.” Also see Israel’s Judicial Coup | Knesset Passes Law Preventing AG From Declaring Netanyahu Unfit for Office: “According to the new legislation – the first part of the government’s judicial coup to be enshrined in law – the prime minister cannot be declared unfit even if he violates the conflict-of-interest agreement he has signed;” Also see Explained: The Amended Law Allowing Israelis to Return to West Bank Sites Vacated During 2005 Disengagement (Haaretz); Amid Evangelical Pressure, Netanyahu Says Israel Won’t Push Bill Targeting Christian Missionaries (Haaretz)

“Ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir will ask the government on Sunday to approve the creation of a national guard force with 2,000 service members who will answer directly to him, according to a proposal published Wednesday night. Based on the text of a resolution to be considered by the cabinet, the national guard will be tasked with tackling “nationalist crime,” terrorism and “restoring governance where needed.” See also ‘Building a Dictatorship’: Thousands of Israelis Protest Move to Give Far-right Minister a Private Militia (Haaretz); Israeli right-wing protesters attack Palestinians in Jerusalem (Al Jazeera); Israel: Far-right protesters attack Palestinians during pro-government rallies (Middle East Eye); How Ben Gvir’s ‘private militia’ threatens Palestinians and Israel’s security (Middle East Eye); Far-right Activists Attack, Injure Israeli Reporter at Jerusalem Protest (Haaretz)

“Netanyahu’s opponents explicitly fear him achieving what illiberal nationalist governments in Hungary and Poland already have, where entrenched right-wing parties set about restructuring the judiciary much to the ire of colleagues elsewhere in the European Union…Tellingly, it emerged that Israeli officials had consulted with Polish counterparts as they plotted their own judicial reforms.” See also Israel protesters vow to continue until judicial ‘reform’ gone (Al Jazeera)

“Itamar Ben Gvir, a serial racist who leads the Jewish Power party and serves as national security minister, was promised by Netanyahu that the state would move forward with creating a national guard under Ben Gvir’s authority – dubbed by some commentators as his “private militia”. This deal speaks volumes to the intimate connection between the two crises simultaneously gripping Israel: the internal polarisation around judicial reforms, and the government-empowered escalation of extremism against Palestinians. That connection is glaringly obvious, but rarely acknowledged in Israeli political circles…Israeli society is experiencing what French-Martinique anti-colonial author and politician Aime Cesaire called the “boomerang effect of colonisation”. The work of Cesaire and others looked at how policies used on the colonised by colonial states could then be brought back to the imperial metropole and deployed against citizens.” … Huwwara is the present, but it also offers a link to the past and a glimpse of a potential future. A second Nakba is something that Israeli right-wing politicians openly threaten with increased frequency, and for which settler militias under Israeli military cover are testing the ground.  The insipid politics of the Zionist centre and centre-left cannot reverse these trends. For outside powers, the choice is between complicity in apartheid or holding Israel accountable. And while Palestinians have always paid the price for Israel’s impunity, many Israelis are now discovering that it carries costs for them too.” See also Israelis Are Trying to Save a Democracy That Never Existed (Daily Beast//Mairav Zonszein); 

“What started with 37 pilots, who changed the track and mood of the protest, is now turning into an avalanche of hundreds. Reservists from other units, including Unit 8200, an Israeli intelligence corps unit, have also threatened to not turn up for duty. Meanwhile, reservists and veterans from the Golani combat infantry brigade have announced their refusal to serve as long as the “dictatorship legislation” continues. Reservists from other elite formations, such as the Flotilla 13 naval commandos and the air force’s Shaldag special forces unit have also said they will either refuse call-up orders or cease volunteering extra time…Neri Yarkoni, a retired colonel and combat pilot for over 30 years, told Middle East Eye that the actions of the 37 pilots were a major turning point for the protest movement. “Israel does not have that many fighter pilots. Unlike in other Israeli army units, almost all of the pilots are reservists and not young soldiers performing a mandatory service,” he said…Everybody understands that without them, there is no air force and without the air force, there is no Israel.”” See also How an elite Israeli commando built a protest movement to save his country (The Economist); Israeli PM Netanyahu, under pressure from military brass, delays judicial overhaul (Al Monitor); Netanyahu’s Legal Crusade Is Sparking a Military Backlash in Israel (Foreign Policy); U.S. lawmakers: Israeli judicial reform debate has raised concerns for Israeli security (Jewish Insider)

“The fundamental motivation for the proposed law is not just to decrease the number of Arab representatives in the Knesset, but to eliminate that representation altogether. The political participation of Arab citizens of Israel in the Knesset is contingent on unequal grounds for disqualification and is founded on a constitutional framework that requires them to abstain from all activity that could be interpreted as rejection of the Jewish character of the State of Israel, which has already led to statements from various bodies — such as the international human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — that in Israel there exists a regime of apartheid against Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.” See also from +972: The Israeli right’s arrogance has made a new struggle possible (Meron Rapoport); How this protest movement is bringing Netanyahu to his knees (Haggai Matar//+972); Israel’s economy was Netanyahu’s crown jewel. Can apartheid survive without it? (Nimrod Flaschenberg); The dilemmas of the Mizrahi left in the Israeli protest movement (Interview with Smadar Lavie); Do Israeli protesters really want democracy? (Orly Noy);

“According to a survey carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 61 percent of Palestinians expect a new uprising, while 68 percent support the formation of armed groups, such as the Nablus-based Lions’ Den, who do not take orders from the Palestinian Authority. While 52 percent said they were worried that the formation of such groups could lead to armed clashes with the PA security services, 52 percent also said that “the Palestinian people’s interest lies in the collapse or dissolution of the PA”.” See also Persistent Violence in Israel-Palestine Could Escalate Further (International Crisis Group); Number of Palestinians Under Detention Without Trial Has Doubled in Israeli Prisons (Haaretz); 953 Palestine structures demolished by Israel in 2022: EU (MEMO); “Non-Visit” to the occupied Palestinian territory by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (UN//Ms. Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur)

“As of March 1st, Israeli prisons hold 971 administrative detainees, the highest number of prisoners without trial in 20 years, data from the Israel Prison Service provided to the Center for the Defense of the Individual (Hamoked). The figures show all but four of the detainees are West Bank Palestinians, East Jerusalem residents or Israeli Arabs. The other four are Israeli Jews…Administrative detainees are held in Israeli prisons without an indictment, the arrests being deemed a preventive measure. No evidentiary procedure occurs in the court. The defendants’ lawyers are provided with nothing except a summary several sentences long known as a “paraphrase” that cites the allegations against them.” See also Israeli closures in Huwwara stifle Palestinian businesses and movement (Middle East Eye); Settler attack Palestinians in Huwara amid Israeli army presence (Al Jazeera); Two Israeli soldiers wounded in Huwwara shooting (Middle East Eye); Two settlers charged with terror for attack on Palestinians in Huwara’ (Times of Israel); UPDATE: Six Palestinians shot, injured during Israeli military incursion into Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho (WAFA);

“The following is a letter by Tareq Barghouth, a Palestinian political prisoner who in July 2019 was sentenced to 13.5 years in prison, after being convicted of committing shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank. The letter was written from inside his prison cell as a message to the occupying society.”

“Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from a worsening energy crisis due to the Israeli regime’s ongoing siege. As a result, they have adopted different coping strategies, including solar energy technology to offset electricity shortages. Al-Shabaka policy analyst and 2022 Visiting Gaza Fellow Asmaa Abu Mezied examines this reality, and offers recommendations for Palestinian leadership and stakeholders to promote Palestinian economic self-determination in Gaza.” See also PCHR Launches New Report:  Serious Repercussions on Gaza Strip’s Due to Shortage of Medical Equipment and Essential Medicines (Palestine Centre for Human Rights)

“Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel are expected on Friday to mark the 47th anniversary of the Land Day, in which six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces while demonstrating against the seizure of their land in 1976. For the last 47 years, Palestinians have commemorated the deadly incident by holding marches in the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Arab villages throughout Israel.” See also Thousands of Palestinians commemorate Land Day in Sakhnin (WAFA)

“The face of Al Jazeera in Palestine, Abu Akleh was a journalist whose death resounded across the Arab world. Hours later, a bullet claimed the life of a schoolboy 60 miles away, Thaer Yazouri. This is the story of their last day”

“Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Senator Bernie Sanders are leading an effort to urge President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to investigate whether Israel is using US weapons to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians, in violation of United States law, according to a letter and e-mail sent to other members of Congress obtained by Jewish Currents. The letter was written by Bowman, while Sanders is spearheading efforts to garner support from other senators, according to Bowman’s office. The letter has so far been signed by eight additional lawmakers: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Summer Lee, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Betty McCollum, André Carson, and Ayanna Pressley. “At this inflection point, we ask your administration to undertake a shift in US policy in recognition of the worsening violence, further annexation of land, and denial of Palestinian rights,” the lawmakers wrote. The lawmakers end the letter by calling on the Biden administration to “ensure US taxpayer funds do not support projects in illegal settlements” and to “determine whether US-origin defense articles have been used in violation of existing US laws.” The letter criticizes the new Israeli government’s “alarming actions” and its cabinet of “far-right, anti-Palestinian individuals and parties,” asserting that the Israeli coalition in power is “pushing repressive, anti-democratic policies and escalating violence towards the Palestinian population.”” See also Progressive Democrats Plan to Make Strongest Statement Yet Against Netanyahu’s Far-right Government (Haaretz); ‘Precedent-setting’: Lawmakers demand Biden probe Israel’s use of US arms (Middle East Eye)

“Five large Jewish organizations — all known for their vocal pro-Israel advocacy — began Monday afternoon trying to answer those questions in a unified voice that sent a positive message: praise for a decision to pause the government’s divisive judicial overhaul. Instead, in a somewhat messy process that unfolded over the course of the afternoon, they ended up sending out a number of different statements that contrasted in subtle yet telling ways. The scramble to publish a statement reflecting consensus — and the resulting impression that consensus was lacking — was a reflection of how Israel’s politics have created a rift in the U.S. Jewish establishment.” Also see Prominent British Jews Tell Netanyahu: We Oppose the Israeli Judicial Coup (Haaretz); 

“While the American media and political system fixated on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his armies of cyber warriors, trolls, and bots, what was completely missed in the Russiagate investigation of 2016 was the Israeli connection…Yet I can reveal here the details of an elaborate covert operation personally directed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that aimed to use secret intelligence to clandestinely intervene at the highest levels in the presidential election on behalf of Trump.”

“Israeli protesters may not realize it yet, but the only way they can protect their own rights and democracy is by allying with Palestinians.”

“George Washington University has cleared a professor of allegations from a federal civil rights complaint that she discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students, in the latest instance of universities and pro-Israel groups wrangling over how to define antisemitism on campus. The summary of the findings, by an outside law firm, also criticized the pro-Israel group StandWithUs for its “expansive view of the definition of antisemitism,” which the report’s authors said would stifle academic freedom if applied widely. The university shared the summary on Monday.” See also US university dismisses antisemitism claims against psychology professor (Middle East Eye); Summary of Findings of Independent Investigation by Crowell & Moring LLP (GW Office of the President): “At the conclusion of its review, Crowell found no evidence substantiating the allegations of discriminatory and retaliatory conduct alleged in the complaint.  Many of the statements the complaint alleges were made by Dr. Sheehi were, according to those who heard them, either inaccurate or taken out of context and misrepresented…Underlying much of the discourse that arose in the class is the issue of what is appropriately defined as antisemitism – that is, whether structural critiques of the State of Israel, including actions by the Israeli government, constitute antisemitism.  This issue is being debated in college campuses across the country, and in many other arenas.  SWU and a few of the students in the class, advocated for an expansive view of the definition of antisemitism, which, if accepted in the university environment, could infringe on free speech principles and academic freedom.”

“The year 2022 witnessed a significant increase in the volume of violent speech directed at the Arab and Palestinian communities, as violent speech increased by 10% compared to 2021, and the number of violent publications published through networks in the Hebrew language reached 685 thousand conversations, compared to 620 thousand violent publications during the year 2021…In this context, 7amleh indicates the need for social media companies to take decisive measures to prevent the spread of incitement, racism and violence against Arabs and Palestinians through various platforms.”