“The Israeli occupation authorities today demolished a two-story, four-apartment residential building in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyya displacing, as a result, four families, including 12 children, according to local sources. A reinforced Israeli force was deployed in the vicinity of the building, owned by the Ilayyan family, before a bulldozer tore it down, reducing it to rubble, purportedly for being constructed without a license.”

Also see:

• Jerusalem homeowner accuses Israel of demolishing his house in reprisal for working as guard at Al-Aqsa Mosque (Wafa)
• Two shops in an East Jerusalem neighborhood and built 50 years ago demolished by Israel without prior notice, says owner (Wafa)

“Three years after the hunger strike and the bypass road agreement in Judea and Samaria which was led by Samaria Regional Council Chief Yossi Dagan, along with then-heads Avi Naim and Malachi Levinger and several bereaved families, work was begun today (Sunday) on a road to bypass the town of Hawara. This is one of the most expensive and strategic projects in Judea and Samaria and its cost is estimated at ILS 260 million. The road is intended to connect the center of the country to the localities of Gav HaHar, Yitzhar, Itamar, Elon Moreh and Har Bracha, and will provide a safe trip for residents and passengers to these areas.” Also see: IDF look to new technology to safeguard Judea and Samaria roads (Israel Hayom)

“Destruction of barrier at Iron Age Israelite cultic site deep in PA-controlled Area B creates media maelstrom, as right-wing campaign claims Palestinians destroying heritage sites…’We are demanding from the government of Israel to take overarching responsibility for all of the sites that are suffering — in Judea and Samaria, and in Areas A, B, and C. Not to wait until there is destruction and attempt to repair it, but rather avoid it to begin with’…”

“The Palestinian women workforce faces a ‘direct threat’, as Israeli forces raze their agricultural lands.”

“…this week, undeterred by statements of condemnation from the EU and Ireland, Israel destroyed shelters funded by the EU to rebuild the community in front of a group of European diplomats who were visiting the spot, according to aid workers who were present. The Israeli government has designated the area a military firing range, and insists its soldiers are repeatedly breaking up and seizing the donated tents and animal shelters because the village is illegal and the Palestinians need to move on for their own safety. But European officials and humanitarian groups view the demolitions as a transparent attempt at a land grab that contravenes international law in an area in which Israeli settlements have been expanding in a way that erodes prospects for a viable Palestinian state.”

Also see:

• Israel destroys Palestinian villages, leaving residents without shelter in snowstorm (Middle East Monitor)
• Israeli occupation forces remove 12 residential tents, water tanks, animal shelters in Humsa al-Bqaia community (Wafa)
• Palestinian village braves atrocities, biting cold to foil Israeli land grab (Al Anadolu)
• Set up, demolish, repeat: Israel targets Bedouin tent community (The New Arab)

“For years, the Bashiti family has lived in a never-ending cycle of Israeli harassment for refusing to abandon their strategically located home.”

“Move, seen as the latest sign of improving ties between Israel and African nations, will make Equatorial Guinea the third country to move its embassy to the contested city, after the United States and Guatemala.”

“The Palestinian Authority’s Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission said today that Israeli occupation authorities have maintained the unfair policy of medical negligence of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli detention. The Commission said in a statement that the occupation authorities are deliberately neglecting the medical conditions of many sick prisoners, who are only allowed to get painkillers rather than a genuine medical treatment.” Also see: Israel returns body of Palestine inmate (al Anadolu)

“The UN said in a report that Palestinian socioeconomic development has suffered one of its worst years since 1994. The report published Thursday by the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), said that almost half of the Palestinian population requires humanitarian aid, with the protracted humanitarian crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.”

“Israeli officials and several major US Jewish groups on Sunday accused Saturday Night Live of spreading anti-Semitic tropes after one of its actors joked in a news segment that Israel has only been vaccinating its Jewish citizens. ‘Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population, and I’m gonna guess it’s the Jewish half,’ cracked Weekend Update co-host Michael Che to a chuckling audience.” Also see: No, ‘Saturday Night Live’ Isn’t Inciting the Mass Murder of Jews (Haaretz); Israel ambassador demands apology from SNL over controversial vaccination joke (The New Arab)

Also see, via Twitter:

• Salem Barahmeh (PIPD): Some people are angrier at a joke than 5 million people not getting the vaccine.
• Tania Hary (Gisha): You know what else isn’t funny? Millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank not having access to vaccines
• Jacob Magid (Times of Israel): Could Michael Che have been more accurate? I guess. But the predictable freakout from organized US Jewry only leads to more questions regarding why Israel isn’t doing more to vaccinate the Palestinians. Own goal
• Russel Neiss: A reminder that Israel maintains military control over 3.7-million non-citizens preventing freedom of movement and the imports and exports of things like vaccines.It’s not antisemitic to point that out, and pretending it is makes folks take actual antisemitism less seriously.
• Noga Tarnopolsky (journolist, translating video clip from Israeli news): “So you say Israel shouldn’t bring vaccines and the  Gazans can just die of corona?” ex justice min @Ayelet__Shaked was asked tonight. “That’s right. As long as they hold our soldiers’ bodies they can deal on their own… not even humanitarian aid.”

“Israel has agreed to purchase hundreds of thousands of Russian-made COVID vaccines that will be given to Syria, according to foreign reports. The pledge to buy the vaccines appeared in a secret clause of a deal with the Assad regime to release an Israeli woman who crossed the border into Syria…Joint List lawmaker Ahmad Tibi seemed to allude to reports about the deal on Twitter Friday , calling for vaccines to be sent to the Gaza Strip as well. ‘Must we wait for a Jew to cross the border into Gaza for us to get vaccinated?’ he wrote on Twitter. ‘There is another way. It’s international law and it’s humane. This is the same, continuous epidemiological region.’”

Also see:

• Netanyahu’s Vaccine Deal With Syria’s Assad Will Haunt Him in Dealings With Hamas (Haaretz)
• A light unto the nations, and vaccines (Israel Hayom – “As always, Israel’s strength isn’t just a matter of its military and scientific might, but also its righteousness, specifically its humanitarian gestures toward its neighbors.”)

“Israel may donate precious Covid-19 vaccine doses to an undisclosed Arab country in return for normalisation, the country’s Army Radio reported on Sunday. The vaccines would be given to Arab states after its own inoculation efforts have concluded, a government official told the Army Radio, despite providing no assistance to Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. One of those countries is a state with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations, the official said, rumoured to be Mauritania. Israel would offer that country Covid-19 vaccines in exchange for the normalisation of ties, the official explained without naming the nation.”

“The Palestinians’ COVID-19 vaccination plan faces a $30 million funding shortfall, even after factoring in support from a global vaccine scheme for poorer economies, the World Bank said in a report on Monday.”

“Israel, which has faced criticism from human rights groups for not extending its world-leading vaccination program to Palestinian territories under its control, agreed Friday to inoculate 100,000 Palestinians who regularly cross into Israel to work, according to the Palestinian minister of health.”

“The Palestinian Ministry of Health today launched a national vaccination campaign against corona virus. Patients deemed most at risk were inoculated in the first phase of the rollout of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccination, with former Palestinian Authority Minister of Health, Dr. Riyad Al-Zanoun, amongst the first to receive the injection…Medical staff will be among the first to receive the 2,000 doses of the vaccine which were allowed into Gaza late last week, days after it was due to arrive as a result of Israeli occupation forces blocking the transfer of the potentially life-saving medication. The vaccines were donated by Russia.” Also see: UAE Transfers 20,000 Doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID Vaccine to Gaza (Haaretz)

“The International Criminal Court’s ruling that it has jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories has pleased many residents but alarmed others that Palestinian leaders could face investigations they fear will be political.” Also see: Who Should Fear More the Long Arm of International Justice: Israel or Hamas? (Haaretz)

“A coalition of more than 70 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), faith-based groups and academic institutions called Wednesday on the Biden administration to repeal sanctions against key members of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The coalition’s members include the American Civil Liberties Union, the International Commission of Jurists, the World Organization Against Torture and Parliamentarians for Global Action.”

“No fewer than 16 former heads of state, high-ranking ministers, and security experts have reached out to the newly-appointed chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Karim Khan, and warned him that an investigation against Israel would be part of international efforts to delegitimize Israel and would make the ICC into a political entity, hurting its own standing.”

Also see:

• U.S. and European Government Leaders Slam ICC Investigation into Israel (Free Beacon)
• NGO Monitor’s International Advisory Board Statement on ICC’s Jurisdiction Claim (NGO Monitor)

“The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) announced on Saturday, 20 February 2021, cancelling the ‘yellow voucher – double portions food basket’ for the abject poor, and replacing it with a unified food basket system for all beneficiary refugees in the Gaza Strip…The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights believes that the unified food basket system will harm thousands of refugees; both those who received the “yellow voucher” and those who were removed from the beneficiaries list (those with a guaranteed and stable income). PCHR asserts that this new system may carry grave consequences on poor refugees who live under harsh circumstances in refugee camps with high poverty and unemployment rates, which grew further under the coronavirus pandemic as many refugees became unable to meet their basic needs.” Also see: Gaza Strip: refugees protest against UNRWA decision to downsize food coupons (Middle East Monitor)

“Palestinian agricultural areas suffered $1.5 million in damages as a result of Israel’s decision to open rainwater floodgates, Anadolu reported. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture in the Gaza Strip Israel has so far flooded nearly 700 dunums of agricultural land including 600 dunums (148 acres) east of Gaza City, and 100 dunams (24.7 acres) east of the town of Beit Hanoun. The ministry added that Israel has opened floodgates twice this month, and called on human rights organisations to immediately intervene and stop the Israeli violations against the agricultural sector in Gaza.”

Also see:

• Palestinian farmers near the southern Gaza border leave their fields after Israeli occupation forces open fire at them (Wafa)
• Israeli navy opens fire at Palestinian fishing boat off Gaza shore, forces fishermen to leave the sea (Wafa)

“Al Arabiya reports Israel has approached Cairo, but details of the negotiations, which come amid reports of a vaccines-for-prisoner deal between Israel and Syria, remain unclear.”

Also see:

• Report: Egypt trying to promote Israel-Hamas prisoner swap (Israel Hayom)
• Hamas: ‘Israel will not get its soldiers in Gaza without prisoner swap’ (Middle East Monitor)

“The trip, following similar delegations of Greek and Cypriot leaders, is intended to show that the regional allies are united and coordinated, when dealing with friends and foes.” Also see: Israel to build new natural gas pipeline from its offshore rig direct to Egypt (Times of Israel)

“Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr starts job gunning for improvements to Palestinian economy and renewing bilateral ties, but is not giving up on two-state solution.”

“The Palestinian Authority (PA) sent an official letter to the White House claiming that all factions, including Hamas, were committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The letter was delivered by Hussein Al-Sheikh, the PA’s Head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs, to U.S. President Joe Biden’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr.” Also see: Is Hamas reconsidering its position regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process? (Israel Hayom)

“Trump bartered the Sahrawi people as a kickback to Morocco to normalize its relations with Israel. But Biden can challenge Rabat’s occupation – and help liberate the last colony in Africa.”

Hamas says it won’t nominate presidential candidate for Palestinian elections (Times of Israel)

Palestinian Elections: PA urges Hamas to release ‘political’ detainees (Jerusalem Post)

Israeli forces arrest Hamas members in West Bank ahead of Palestinian elections (The New Arab)

EU denies threatening to reduce aid to Palestinians [if no elections] (Middle East Monitor)

Israel sceptical about Abbas’s election intentions (Middle East Monitor)

Are UAE-supplied vaccines intended to prop up Abbas rival? (Jerusalem Post)

Rival of Palestinian president delivers vaccines to Gaza (Associated Press)

Fatah on Verge of Split Ahead of Palestinian Election That Might Still Be Nixed (Haaretz)

Living in Israel [East Jerusalem], voting in the PA (Israel Hayom)

Palestinian elections are attempt to settle political landscape (YNet)

Abbas orders Palestinian public freedoms boosted before planned elections (Times of Israel)

“In a poll published this week, nearly half of ultra-Orthodox and national religious Israeli youth expressed hatred toward Arabs and noted support for stripping them of their citizenship, a sentiment shared by 23 percent of secular youth. The Thursday poll from the Hebrew University’s aChord Center was conducted among 1,100 respondents between the ages of 16 and 18. Of those polled, 66% of Haredim, 42% of religious nationalists and 24% of secular Israelis expressed feelings of fear and hatred toward Arabs, which make up some 20% of the population. Forty-nine percent of all religious Israelis and 23% of secular Israelis indicated support for stripping Arab Israelis of their citizenship, the poll showed.”

“Breaking ranks with most MKs, Omer Barlev and Yair Golan, two of the top security experts in politics, say the JCPOA was good for Israel, even if everyone else refuses to say so.”

A guide to Israel’s never-ending elections (+972 Magazine)

Sources: Likud held talks with Palestinians over Netanyahu support in elections (YNet)

Likud said in touch with PA, asking help to get Arab Israeli votes for Netanyahu (Times of Israel)

Israel Elections: Did a rogue Likud MK ask the PLO to support Netanyahu? (Jerusalem Post)

The Israeli Left’s Test: Standing Up for Arab Labor Candidate (Haaretz)

Haredi media again praise Smotrich (Arutz Sheva)

Poll shows Blue and White failing to enter Knesset, Yamina still power broker (Times of Israel)

Netanyahu needs Yamina, Gantz falls below threshold (Jerusalem Post)

130 former IDF officers call on Gantz to quit race (Jerusalem Post)

Gantz Says Ex-defense Officials’ Letter Urging Him to Quit Is a ‘Shot in the Back’ (Haaretz)

Gantz: If I lose my Knesset seat, Netanyahu will turn Israel into a monarchy (Times of Israel)

Rabbi Druckman, senior rabbis endorse Smotrich and Ben-Gvir (Jerusalem Post)

Likud will never be able to remove stain of Kahane (Nahum Barnea/YNet)

Kahanist Netanyahu Ally Invokes Hitler in Israeli Election Ad, Draws Ire (Haaretz)

“As Jewish organizations fight to stem the rising number of antisemitic incidents in the United States, the Jewish community itself is engaged in a struggle about the very definition of antisemitism and whether criticism of Israel should be regarded as an antisemitic act.”