“In occupied East Jerusalem, concerns are growing the coronavirus is spreading through Palestinian neighbourhoods undetected. The number of recorded cases shot up this week to 41, but health workers fear it could actually be double that. Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett reports.”

“Israeli police raided a coronavirus testing clinic in the East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan and arrested its organizers on Tuesday night because the clinic was operated in collaboration with the Palestinian Authority. According to the clinic’s managers, there is a shortage of coronavirus tests in Silwan, where doctors say there are 40 confirmed cases and where overcrowded living conditions could lead to a rapid spread of the virus…Israel prohibits any PA activity in Jerusalem and last month also prevented PA workers from disinfecting public spaces in the capital. In contrast, two weeks ago Israel allowed armed PA forces to respond to a violent dispute that took place in one of the Jerusalem neighborhoods that are beyond the separation barrier.”

“Medical professionals report an increase in COVID-19 infection among Palestinians in East Jerusalem, estimating that at least 80 patients have been diagnosed. Half the patients are said to be in Silwan, where Dr. Samar Awar, who volunteers in the neighborhood, says 14 patients are members of the same family. On Sunday, the first three patients were identified in the neighborhood of Isawiyah, two of whom work in the health system and in nursing homes, and the first patient was identified in Shoafat refugee camp.”

“The Palestinian government is soliciting donations from the private sector and individual citizens for a fund to help deal with the social and health damage caused by the coronavirus outbreak in the Palestinian territories. The Waqfat Izz (Dignified Stand) fund began accepting donations in early April and within hours had received $7 million, officials said, adding that they hope to more than quadruple that figure.”

“Palestinian Authority (PA)’s health ministry yesterday received an assistance package of 50,000 coronavirus testing kits from China’s e-commerce Alibaba Group. The Palestinian Health Minister, Mai Al-Kaila, told local reporters that aid was provided in cooperation with Jack Ma, e-commerce giant Alibaba’s co-founder. Al-Kaila thanked the Chinese president, government and people for their ‘generous assistance and support in light of the global spread of the coronavirus.’”

“Coronavirus testing has resumed in the Gaza Strip after Israel delivered five testing kits purchased by the World Health Organization (WHO) into the enclave, a Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday. But the spokesman, Ashraf al-Qidra, said the kits would be of ‘limited immediate help’ because they could be used to test only about 500 people in a densely populated territory of two million. ‘We began testing immediately after receiving the kits late [Sunday] night,’ Qidra said. ‘We need to carry out these tests all the time and therefore, we are in need of thousands of testing kits.’”

“The Gaza Strip has run out of coronavirus test kits but will soon have a new laboratory capable of conducting as many as 3,000 tests a day. Gaza Health Ministry Undersecretary Youssef Abu al-Rish said the 300-square-meter (3,229-square-foot) lab is expected to be assembled and equipped by April 16. The lab will be a joint effort of Beijing Genomics Institute and Israel’s AID Genomics.”

“As Israel and Hamas inch closer to a possible prisoner exchange deal, the IDF has taken over two dozen coronavirus test kits to be tested in it’s laboratory in central Israel. ‘The State of Israel is helping the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip deal with the spread of the coronavirus,’ the IDF said in a statement. ‘Assistance is provided through international bodies, the Health Ministry and the IDF. The division of these roles is done according to the political echelon.’ As part of that effort, 50 tests were transferred from the Gaza Strip on a one-time basis to the military’s laboratory in Tzrifin which is also conducting tests for soldiers suspected of having the deadly virus.”

“Egypt reopened its border crossing on Monday with the Gaza Strip after nearly three weeks, allowing hundreds of Palestinians stranded by the coronavirus pandemic to return home. Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza, has coordinated the timing of Rafah crossing’s one-way reopening with Egypt to coincide with the completion of 1,000 rooms to place the returnees into mandatory quarantine. The arrivals were taken into buses, without their luggage, under police escort into the quarantine centers. Sick returnees would be placed in hospitals and the old at hotels. Security forces and medics waited for the arrival in full protection clothes. Hamas and its governing bodies are struggling to keep the COVID-19 threat at bay after its spread in neighboring Israel and Egypt.”

“Senior Palestinian officials refused on Monday to back down on accusations that Israel has been responsible for intentionally spreading the coronavirus in the West Bank, after Jerusalem called such claims ‘incitement’ and warned of significant consequences for repeating them. ‘We will not bow to blackmail in any form,’ Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said during a press conference. The premier was responding to a question regarding Hebrew media reports, according to which Israeli defense officials have been furious about the rhetoric coming out of Ramallah in recent days, where officials have implied or outright accused Israel of seeking to spread the virus among the Palestinian population. In addition, the PA Health Ministry has listed on its website the cause of the confirmed Palestinian coronavirus cases in the West Bank as ‘the occupation state.’ PA officials say that the vast majority of the 261 Palestinian coronavirus cases in the West Bank have been individuals working in Israel or those who had come in contact with them upon their return.”

“The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov has asked Israel to release the Palestinian tax revenue that it is withholding to allow the Palestinian Authority to combat the social and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.” Also see: Jerusalem Post – Mladenov: Israel should help Palestinians survive coronavirus impact

“Israeli settlers have set up a mobile home on Palestinian land in Qaryout village located southwest of the West Bank’s Nablus, according to official news agency Wafa. The mobile home was placed by the illegal Israeli settlement of Shilo, who are taking advantage of the lockdown in light of the coronavirus outbreak to seize Palestinian land and establish a settlement outpost,  Palestinian official in charge of the settlements file in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Daghlas, explained…In Hebron, Israeli settlers attempted to raid a Palestinian youth club in the occupied city last night. The settlers, who were protected by the Israeli army, attacked the centre run by the Youth Against Settlements group, located in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood, but they were chased away by locals.”

“Judea Samaria District Police were scrambled to the area near Metzoke Dragot overnight Tuesday following a report that a number of masked individuals had attacked a group of Palestinians with rocks and tear gas, and set two of the Palestinians’ cars on fire…An official from Israel’s security establishment expressed frustration at the event: ‘Terrorism against Border Police in Yitzhar, terrorism against innocent minorities tonight in Metzoke Dragot – this is how the ‘hilltop activists’ express their thanks to Israel for taking care of them during the corona crisis.’ According to the official, the Tuesday night incident was ‘more proof that this is a violent, radical, and racist group that carries out terrorism wherever they are. Security forces will bring the perpetrators to justice.’”

“Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were granted Monday overnight a brief extension in unity talks, following a joint request to President Reuven Rivlin to extend the Kahol Lavan leader’s mandate to form a coalition. Rivlin gave Gantz until Wednesday at midnight to reach an agreement on a unity government that could tackle the coronavirus crisis.” Also see: Al-Monitor – Israel’s deadline after the deadline

“The right-wing religious-Zionist Yamina party is watching the unity talks now underway between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White’s Benny Gantz with growing frustration and fear…In its public statements over the past week, Yamina hasn’t been subtle about its frustration over the relinquishing of judicial reform to Blue and White, nor its skepticism over whether Netanyahu really plans to implement any annexation…One compromise now being considered assumes that the sidelined, frustrated party heads to the opposition — and its former justice minister Shaked is selected as the opposition representative on the [Judicial Appointments] committee. Suddenly, miraculously, everything falls into place for all parties.”

“The era of the Labor party, which led the State of Israel through its establishment and first three decades, is no more. A new era has begun with the search for a target-oriented alternative. The Arab Joint List, a union of four Arab parties that holds 15 Knesset seats, is well aware of the repercussions for itself. It has already started taking the reins to lead the Israeli political left as the only party that has remained loyal to its voters and offers the same interesting messages as did the Jewish left: Resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians and a socialist or social-democratic socio-economic platform, which could appeal to more and more Israelis, Arabs and Jews affected by the economic crisis induced by COVID-19.”

“Government authorities decided that the current nation-wide curfew may indeed be extended for Deir al-Asad and the neighboring town of Bi’ina. The outbreak was reportedly started by a Kashrut supervisor who came in contact with workers at a slaughterhouse in Deir al-Asad, one of the biggest in the country.”  Also see – Ynet – Residents of Arab towns in Galilee asked to stay indoors amid virus spread & Times of Israel – Joint List MK warns of ‘disaster’ if virus testing for Arab Israelis not increased

“…sources in Hamas are saying that the group is willing to carry out preliminary steps for a deal that would entail the release of 250 prisoners in exchange for “information.” The sources said that Hamas was unwilling to talk about a final deal until Israel released 55 Hamas members who had been freed in exchange for Schalit but re-imprisoned.”

“Hamas delivered Israel a list of 250 Palestinian prisoners it seeks to release from Israeli jails, as indirect negotiations for a prisoner exchange deal continue, Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday. The list includes old and sick prisoners, as well as minors and women. According to some reports, they would be released in exchange for information on Israeli citizens held in the Gaza Strip, as the first stage of the proposed deal….Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem denied in an interview to Nazareth Radio that the organization seeks to link humanitarian aid, and specifically the delivery of ventilators to hospitals in the Strip as part of the organization’s coronavirus response, to the deal currently being negotiated. Qassem said there is no relation between the two issues, adding that Israel, as well as the international community, are responsible for Gaza’s health system.”

“A fierce dispute has divided the Palestinian community after Gaza’s rulers, Hamas, arrested six local activists for chatting by video conference with left-leaning campaigners in Israel…In the two-hour call via video conference service Zoom — the latest in a format they have called ‘Skype with your enemy’ — the participants had discussed their daily lives and expressed hopes for better leadership for both Israelis and Palestinians. Rami Aman, 36, the founder of the Gaza Youth Committee, was detained and accused of ‘treason’ along with five others after speaking to the dozens of Israeli activists online.”

“Arresting activists for a video chat violates basic principles of international human rights law, to which Hamas authorities have said they consider themselves bound. Laws that forbid ‘contact with the enemy’ or efforts to oppose normalization should not restrict peaceful expression or association between ordinary people. Hamas’s ordering the detention of people for exercising their basic rights is particularly troubling amid a pandemic that has led countries worldwide to release prisoners to reduce the threat of contagion.”

“For Palestinians and their supporters, ‘normalisation’ – warming relations with Israel and/or individual Israeli citizens – has long been a complex subject of controversy. The issue has once again come back to the fore in the past week. The arrest of a Palestinian man by authorities in the besieged Gaza Strip for organising a virtual call between Palestinians and Israelis caught the attention of international media – landing a Palestinian activist in the crosshairs of a social media campaign in the process for having publicly denounced the online meeting. The case has highlighted both the longstanding debate on what relationship, if any, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip should have with Israelis amid decades of occupation, several wars and a crushing siege – and the nuances often lost in the process.”

“The New York Times article failed to provide its readers with any thoughtful insights into the concept of ‘normalization,’ let alone an explanation as to why so many Palestinians staunchly refuse to hold any kind of dialogue with Israelis. The piece also expresses a kind of sympathy with the depoliticized concept of ‘dialogue’ and ‘peace talks,’” while trivializing the anti-normalization movement and presenting anti-normalizers as people who find fault with “‘the idea of befriending Israelis.’”

“Uwe Becker, the commissioner of the Hessian federal state government for Jewish life and the fight against antisemitism in Germany, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the director of the Ruhrtriennale music and cultural festival should be dismissed for providing a platform for Israel-related antisemitism…Becker, who is also president of the pro-Israel NGO, the German-Israel friendship society, said  ‘Ms. Carp should be discharged from her duties and Prof. Achille Mbembe should be disinvited from the event.’ Becker’s statement is the first call for Carp’s dismissal in a widening anti-Israel scandal involving her no holds barred defense of Mbembe, who has been accused of antisemitism and trivializing the Holocaust. Mbembe signed a petition supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israel.”

“Independent Michigan Congressman Justin Amash, whose father is a Palestinian Christian, teased on Monday evening that he is looking ‘closely’ at a third-party presidential bid to help remove U.S. President Donald Trump from office. Amash, a fierce critic of Trump, was once a founding member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, but left the Republican Party last July and voted to impeach Trump this year.  Amash’s comments came on Twitter in response to Trump claiming his ‘authority is total’ during his latest coronavirus task force briefing. Amash quoted the president on Twitter and wrote, ‘Americans who believe in limited government deserve another option.’”