FMEP publishes two resources on (most) Fridays: Lara Friedman’s Legislative Round-Up and Kristin McCarthy’s Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to those reports, click here. To read last week’s reports, click here.

• For a comprehensive review of Congressional responses to the release of the report, see Lara Friedman’s Legislative Round-Up from 2/4/22
• Amnesty International is accused of anti-Semitism for saying the same thing Israeli leaders have said. @AymanM explains. [Video] (MSNBC // Ayman Mohyeldin)
• Salem Barahmeh: “Why is Israel an Apartheid State?” [Video]
• Amnesty International Report – What Palestinians have to say about it (Compiled by the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy PIPD)
• Amnesty International, joining other human rights groups, says Israel is ‘committing the crime of apartheid’ (Washington Post)
• The Amnesty Report on Israeli Apartheid: An Explainer (Jewish Currents)
• The Guardian view on Amnesty’s Israel report: dominating the discourse
  Editorial (The Guardian)
• Facing Facts: Biden & the Growing Apartheid Consensus (Palestine Deep Dive: Mark Seddon with Lara Friedman & Khaled Elgindy)
• A week has passed — and still not a single word in the ‘NYTimes’ about Amnesty International’s landmark report that found Israel practices ‘apartheid’ (Mondoweiss)
• Opinion | Bullets, Brutality and Bulldozers: What Israeli Apartheid Is Really Like (Haaretz // Hagai El-Ad)
• Israel’s apartheid and the myth of the democratic Jewish state (Al Jazeera//Marwan Bishara)
• Israelis mustn’t fear Amnesty’s apartheid report (+972 // Orly Noy)
• Israel’s rejection of Amnesty’s report does not change the reality of apartheid – opinion (Jerusalem Post // Gershon Baskin)

“The focus on institutionalised discrimination against 48 Palestinians in the recent Amnesty report reveals the limits of the apartheid framework, as it is framed in this document, as well as in the HRW and B’Tselem reports, and by liberal human rights institutions more broadly. Palestinian citizens of Israel do not merely face institutionalised discrimination and racial domination; they face Israeli-Zionist settler colonialism, of which apartheid is part. The failure to acknowledge settler colonialism as the overarching structure behind Israeli apartheid misses how citizenship in Israel is not merely the story of racial discrimination, but rather the story of colonial domination.”

“It is with great sadness that I must also conclude that my country has sunk to such political and moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime. It is time for the international community to recognise this reality as well….You simply cannot be a liberal democracy if you operate apartheid over another people. It is a contradiction in terms because Israel’s entire society is complicit in this unjust reality…Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, it is Israel that is permanently depriving millions of Palestinians of their civil and political rights. This is Israeli apartheid.”

“We write as a Palestinian living under and challenging Israeli apartheid, and as an American Jew who has spent decades fighting it. We are both active in the Palestinian-led, nonviolent, and inclusive Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which has played a leading role since its launch in 2005 in raising awareness about Israeli apartheid and effectively advocating for targeted, lawful sanctions to dismantle it—the very same tactics used against apartheid South Africa….Israel’s wrath at Amnesty for daring to release its study reflects that it now sees the same writing on the wall that Palestinians and the many millions worldwide who support their inherent right to freedom, justice, and equality have seen for years: Israel’s South Africa moment is nearing.”

“Israeli forces on Tuesday shot and killed three Palestinians in Nablus city in the occupied West Bank during a targeted operation, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, calling it an “assassination”. The three men were identified as Adham Mabrouka, Ashraf Mubaslat and Mohammed al-Dakhil, all members of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. They were shot while driving in a vehicle with a fourth person who was detained, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. Israel’s security service said it conducted a joint operation targeting Palestinian fighters who carried out shooting attacks against Israeli targets in recent weeks. A video from the location of the incident in the Makhfiya neighbourhood in Nablus showed a car pierced with dozens of bullet holes, which was reportedly the vehicle used by the four men when they were killed.” See also Israeli soldiers open fire at car in Nablus killing Palestinians (Al Jazeera); Gaza protests over Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Nablus (Al Jazeera); West Bank: Calls for confrontation with Israel after killing of Fatah fighters (Middle East Eye)

“A new photo of a 78-year-old Palestinian-American who died after his detention by Israeli military forces in the West Bank last month has surfaced in Israeli media. The soldiers involved in the incident that led to Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad’s death claim the photo, published Wednesday by Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, exonerates them. The photo shows As’ad’s final moments, lying on the sidewalk, bound and gagged, along with several other Palestinian detainees in the West Bank village of Jiljilya. Standing guard nearby is an Israeli soldier from the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion.” See also: Their Palestinian-American Father Was Left to Die by Israeli Soldiers. Now They Seek Justice (Ha’aretz) and When the Palestinian Victim Is Not a U.S. Citizen, the Israeli Army Doesn’t Care (Haaretz)

“The incident has brought the world’s attention to the soldiers who detained Asaad. All of them are part of Netzach Yehudah, an ultra-Orthodox unit that operates in the West Bank. Over the years, there have been many reports of incidents involving unruly behavior by this battalion, some of them investigated by the military police. There are now calls to dissolve the battalion entirely, with claims that it functions like an independent militia within the IDF. According to testimonies by soldiers and officers alike, the troops in the battalion tend to align with the ideological right and some of them live in the settlements. They are described as having a hard time distinguishing between their personal beliefs and their duties in uniform.”

“16-year-old Abdullah Tarabin lost an eye ■ Bassem has three fractures in his jaw ■ Taleb’s skull was smashed ■ Obeideh and Uday were injured in their faces ■ Israeli police loosened restrictions on the use of the hard sponge-tipped bullets. These are the stories of those paying the high price for it”

“As a new father, I’d love to imagine what the future holds for my child. But living under siege for nearly 15 years in Gaza, I fear I already know.”

“On April 10, 2022, the Jerusalem Local Planning and Construction Committee will discuss the approval of a Town Plan submitted by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (Plan No. 101-0674788). The objective of the Plan is to enlarge the boundaries of the existing National Park adjacent to the ramparts of the Old City, so that it will include most of the Mount of Olives, and parts of the Kidron Valley and Ben Hinnom Valley. The ramifications of this plan are not routine. While the ringing of the Old City on the north and the south is proceeding apace by means of settlement expansion in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, respectively, the expansion of the National Park will remove the remaining obstacles for the development of settlement-related activities to the East. By doing so, it will complete the total encirclement of the Old City by means of settlements and settlement-related projects that are fragmenting the Christian and Palestinian expanses in the visual basin surrounding it.”

“Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked said in an interview published on Wednesday in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that “we don’t need to mince words, the law also has demographic reasons, referring to the Palestinian family unification ban, approved by the Knesset in a first of three votes on Monday. “The law wants to reduce the motivation for immigration to Israel. Primarily for security reasons, and then also for demographic reasons.” It is meant to prevent a “creeping right of return,” Shaked told Yedioth.”

See also: “Rabet Docs: Fragmented Families”(PIPD): ““In this documentary two Palestinian siblings and a couple bravely share their stories of fragmentation and separation due to Israel’s apartheid Citizenship and Entry Law, which has separated them form their loved ones, at times, during the most dire circumstances.” and “Love, marriage, and residency (or why the Citizenship Law is wrong)” (Times of Israel//Former MK and past president of New Israel Fund Naomi Chazan, who asserts that this law “only serves to confirm charges of institutionalized discrimination by Israel against Palestinians, whether within the country or across the Green Line…This discrimination on the basis of religion and national origin is almost by definition the embodiment of an ethnically-driven structural bias.”

“Veteran Israeli peace negotiator Yossi Beilin and Palestinian attorney Hiba Husseini suggest the creation of a confederation, with people swaps involving settlers and refugees, as a way to revive the two state solution”

“Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas pledged commitment to reform on Sunday as the embattled Palestine Liberation Organization, where he serves as chairman, held a rare meeting to name new key leaders…Sunday’s meeting of the PLO’s 124-member Central Committee – the first in four years –was expected to fill several executive committee vacancies, including that held by ex-chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who died in 2020 after contracting the coronavirus. Highlighting Palestinian frustration with the PLO and Abbas, Sunday’s meeting was boycotted by several leftist factions, and protests demanding his resignation were held in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza, ruled by Hamas Islamists.” See also “Abbas accused of power grab after Palestinian appointments” (Al Jazeera)

“In addition to consolidating Abbas’s grip on power, this elaborate piece of political theater serves two purposes. It is a way to project movement in Palestine’s otherwise stagnant political environment as well as to enhance Abbas’s political legitimacy — especially since his last-minute decision to cancel long-delayed national elections last year. Many also see the new PLO appointments as an attempt by the aging Abbas, who turns 87 later this year, to lay the groundwork for a succession process — but from within his ever-shrinking inner circle. Such ploys by Abbas, who remains intensely unpopular, are unlikely to impress ordinary Palestinians, many of whom have come to see the PLO Central Council and Executive Committee as rubber stamps. Moreover, when a succession process does unfold, it is unlikely to go according to Abbas’s wishes.” 

“For the past week, Palestinians from Gaza have been participating in a series of social media events criticizing Hamas rule in the Strip, voicing concerns rarely expressed in the repressive enclave. Under the hashtag “They Kidnapped Gaza,” hundreds of Palestinians have taken part in nightly Twitter conversations lamenting the suffering of ordinary Gazans. While also critical of Israeli restrictions, the speakers regularly attacked what they deemed Hamas’s poor governance and corruption.” See also “Palestinians vent against Hamas in rare online event” (BBC)

“The influential rightwing lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) is driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry. The group’s strategy, which aims to protect large oil firms and other conservative-friendly industries, is modelled on legislation to punish divestment from Israel.”

“Today, seven months after her arrest on July 7, 2021, Health Work Committees (HWC) director Shatha Odeh, my mother, is still in Israeli detention. Her imprisonment and military trial is yet another frustrating spectacle of the inherent discrimination of the Israeli judicial system against the Palestinian people, including leading civil society actors like Shatha as part of a wider escalating crackdown. This past January, several COVID-19 cases were detected among Palestinian prisoners in Damon Prison. Shatha was one of them. My mother’s case is a microcosm of Israel’s systemic attacks on Palestinian civil society which has one goal: eliminate all voices critical of Israel’s decades-long oppression and persecution and to extinguish avenues of accountability for its grave violations and internationally recognized crimes…Israel’s alleged complaints against Shatha focus on her activities as director of HWC, and fabricate a tenuous link to “security” in an Israeli military court reserved for prosecuting Palestinians. Once in military court, Palestinian prisoners , including Shatha (as well as Palestinian children, legislators and human rights defenders) are subject to harsh interrogations and denied due process. This is yet another exhibition of Israel’s apartheid system.”

“After brushing aside allegations of anti-Israel bias for nearly a year, a multibillion-dollar investment research firm has done an about-face, hiring an outside law firm to investigate the company’s practices. The change of tack at Chicago-based Morningstar came in early December, about two weeks before the Illinois Investment Policy Board was set to place the company on its blacklist, which would have barred state-run pension systems from investing in Morningstar. According to complaints first raised by Jlens, which advocates for Israel in the investing world, Morningstar’s subsidiary Sustainalytics steers investors away from Israel by improperly inflating the country’s risk and controversy ratings — which, for Jlens and its allies, amounts to an antisemitic boycott of Israel….The dispute between Morningstar and pro-Israel activists is the latest front in the battle against the Israel boycott.”

“Israel’s Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar decided to use the boycott law passed in 2011 to sanction Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company, Unilever…In coordination with Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Sa’ar authorized anti-boycott regulations against the company. However, the decision must still be approved by the Knesset’s Law and Constitution Committee.”

“The defence for Shahd in response to this slander was extensive….The campaign, assisted by the European Legal Support Center and university and trade unions, was successful in lifting Shahd’s suspension at Sheffield Hallam University and now endeavours to prevent such an attack from reoccurring. This character assassination attempt is not an isolated case but part of a UK-wide, systematic drive to use the IHRA definition to silence the voices of Palestinian academics and supporters of the Palestinian cause.”

“In the article by staff writer David Weigel, published on February 9th, titled: “The Trailer: Coming soon to a Democratic primary fight: Israel” a statement from Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) was changed – the word “Palestine” was replaced with “Palestinian territories”….Later the publication issued a correction: “In an earlier version of this story, a reference in a DSA statement was changed from “Palestine” to “the Palestinian territories” because of a technical error. The statement has been corrected.” However, Washington Post copy editor, Vanessa H. Larson, appeared to confirm suspicions in her own Tweets (screenshots below) which read: “We appreciate your pointing this out! It is not Washington Post practice to change quotes; this stemmed from an autocorrect–type technical error during editing…”..The Nation’s Palestine Correspondent, Mohammed El-Kurd Tweeted out: “Last year, I was interviewed for a Washington Post podcast and they edited out every instance I said “occupation,” “colonialism” and “apartheid.” Journalism apparently.”

“It is telling that, at a time when partisan division in Congress is rampant, and members often stake out opposing positions for no reason other than pure partisanship, legislation aimed at further disenfranchising Palestinians is one of the few areas where Democrats and Republicans can come together…Certainly not all members of Congress support this strategy of creeping annexation. But almost all Republicans would back any legislation meant to support, and a substantial number of Democrats would as well. Even when it comes to so small a matter as these letters to the SEC, it is key for supporters of Palestinian rights to confront the creeping annexation that seeks to make an ever-harsher apartheid regime an inescapable reality.”

“Rubio then pitched Lipstadt a softball, asking her opinion of the recent Amnesty International report accusing Israel of apartheid. The question gave her the opportunity to denounce the report and the usage of the term, which has become a red flag for centrist and right-wing pro-Israel communities…Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., praised her for distinguishing between antisemitism and criticism of Israel. In her reply, Lipstadt embraced the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism…” See also If Not Now Movement Statement on the Confirmation Hearing of Dr. Deborah Lipstadt as Antisemitism Envoy (If Not Now Movement)

“I see Jewish organizations — big and small, secular and religious — rejecting the painstakingly crafted research of a whole swath of human rights organizations just out of hand, without even bothering to make arguments about what it’s saying on the merits. They just reject it out of hand, and in a way that really sows confusion, for non-Jews and Jews alike, about what antisemitism is. So they’re calling things like this Amnesty International report antisemitic, or saying that it will increase antisemitism just to look squarely at what the Israeli government is doing to Palestinians. This whole conversation is basically posing a false choice: that people can support Jews against antisemitism, or they can support Palestinian liberation from Israeli oppression. The idea that you have to pick one is so dangerous to me and so sad, because we actually can stand for Palestinian freedom and stand for our freedom and safety as Jews.”

“Last year, I buried my Tatas…Witnessing the conclusiveness of death threw into question all that I held certain in life. What return, what liberation, are we as Palestinians still fighting for, am I still fighting for, when our loved ones are buried in strange lands? What is a homeland, when our graveyards have no home, and when we immortalize our expulsion on our own tombs? What happens when our rootlessness roots itself in exile?”

“There is another element in the transformation of this former Zionist into a ferocious critic of Israel. Cypel remembers from his childhood the war the French fought to maintain their colony in Algeria. As a student in Jerusalem in 1969—only seven years after Algeria achieved independence—he was shocked to hear Israeli students who “talked about the Palestinians exactly the same way French settlers there [in Algeria] used to talk about the Arabs.” French Jews on the left had mostly, sometimes passionately, opposed the French colonial war in Algeria. Now it was all happening again in Palestine, even if the historical parallel was inexact. (The French colonists in Algeria had, at least in theory, a home country they could return to, unlike nearly all Israeli Jews.) For Cypel, just out of the Israeli army and haunted by recent memory, the result was the discovery of the “yawning gap between the promise and the reality of Zionism.”…Cypel shows us, in strident but truthful tones, the dystopian world of an ethnocratic polity immersed in systemic repression, institutionalized hatred toward Palestinians, and quotidian criminal acts in the occupied territories, where a colonial settler regime is firmly in place.”

“How the camp’s resistance fighters became a thorn in Israel and the Palestinian Authority’s side”