“A top Iranian security official on Monday accused Israel of using “electronic devices” to remotely kill a scientist who founded the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program in the 2000s. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, made the comment at the funeral for Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, where Iran’s defense minister separately vowed to continue the man’s work “with more speed and more power.” Israel, long suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the last decade, has repeatedly declined to comment on the attack.”

Also See

• “Who is Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the Iranian scientist killed in Tehran?” (Middle East Eye)

“Iran will give a “calculated and decisive” response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist, said a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, while a hardline newspaper suggested Tehran’s revenge should include striking the Israeli city of Haifa.”

Also See

• “Jerusalem fears attacks on Israelis visiting UAE following Iran hit” (The Times of Israel)
• “Rouhani accuses ‘mercenary’ Israel of killing top Iran scientist” (Al Jazeera)
• “Iran vows revenge against Israel during funeral of slain nuclear scientist” (Middle East Eye)
• “Iran says it has ‘a lead’ on nuclear mastermind’s killers” (Ynet)
• “As Iran Mourns Nuclear Scientist, Officials Vow to Find His Killers” (New York Times)

“The United Arab Emirates condemned on Sunday the killing of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and called on all parties to exercise self-restraint to avoid sliding the region into new levels of instability, the state news agency reported on Twitter.”

Also See

• “World leaders urge calm after assassination of Iran scientist Fakhrizadeh” (Middle East Eye)

“Intelligence officials say there is little doubt that Israel was behind the killing — it had all the hallmarks of a precisely timed operation by Mossad, the country’s spy agency. And the Israelis have done nothing to dispel that view. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long identified Iran as an existential threat, and named the assassinated scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, as national enemy No. 1, capable of building a weapon that could threaten a country of eight million in a single blast…Whatever the mix of motives, Mr. Biden must pick up the pieces in just seven weeks. The question is whether the deal the president-elect has outlined — dropping the nuclear-related sanctions Mr. Trump has imposed over the past two years if Iran returns strictly to the nuclear limits in the 2015 accord — was shot to pieces along with Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s S.U.V. in the mountain town of Absard, east of Tehran.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, with the support of President Trump, seems intent on scorching the earth to make it harder for any return to diplomacy under President-elect Joe Biden. Israel and the Trump administration apparently fear that a Biden administration would seek a quick return to the nuclear agreement, which could revive Iran’s struggling economy and make it harder to contain its influence in the Middle East. Killing Mr. Fakhrizadeh makes that all the more difficult.”

“But still, the war that many in Israel and in the United States have sought has yet to fully materialize. And now that Biden has defeated Trump, those who want war, particularly in Israel, likely see their window of opportunity closing. Meanwhile, Israel is coordinating with Trump, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates for a flood of new sanctions designed to, again, at a minimum to sabotage Biden’s chances of restarting diplomacy with Iran. If Israel was behind the assassination of Fakhrizadeh — which seems highly likely though not yet proven — it demonstrates the degree to which Netanyahu feels emboldened to undermine Democratic U.S. presidents with impunity and drag the United States into war.”

“Yesterday, the Execution Office delivered notices of eviction to both the Duweik and Shweiki families (total of eight nuclear families), according to which they must vacate their homes in Batan al-Hawa, Silwan within 20 days of the notice’s receipt (by 19 December 2020). According to the notice, if the families do not vacate their homes within the specified time-frame, they will be subject to forcible removal from their homes by 3 January 2021.”…Since 2015, 14 families have already lost their homes with over 80 other households facing eviction lawsuits filed by Ateret Cohanim, placing some 600-700 individuals of one community at risk of displacement. If Ateret Cohanim is successful, Batan al-Hawa (number 25 on map below) is anticipated to become the largest settler enclave in a Palestinian neighborhood in the Old City Basin, with the outcome of significantly tightening the emerging ring of state-sponsored settlement activity around the Old City and severely undermining the possibility of a future political resolution on Jerusalem.”

Also See

• “Dozens of East Jerusalem Palestinians face eviction following settlers’ lawsuits” (Haaretz)
• “Israeli court orders eviction of 87 Palestinians from East Jerusalem neighbourhood” (Middle East Eye)

“This is an attempt to displace a Palestinian community and to replace it with an Israeli one, in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The settlers could not have succeeded without the Israeli authorities’ close support and assistance. In addition to the hard blow to the prospects for a two-state solution by preventing a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, this is an injustice and an act of cruelty to throw out families who have lived lawfully in their homes for decades. For every dunam in East Jerusalem that was owned by Jews and had been lost in the 1948 war, there are tens of thousands of dunams in Israel that were owned by Palestinians who lost them in the 1948 war. The settlers’ demand to disposes the Palestinians based on pre-1948 ownership is a strategic threat on the moral justification of hundreds of thousands of Israelis living on lands that were owned by Palestinians.”

“Israeli authorities have released Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras, who spent 103 days on hunger strike in protest against his administrative detention. Akhras suspended the hunger strike on 8 November after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the prisoner’s administrative detention should end after a four-month term, which is 26 November. Administrative detention is a highly controversial practice. Used almost exclusively against Palestinians, it allows for detention without charge or trial for renewable periods of three to six months, without the possibility of appeal or knowing what accusations are being levelled against the detained. Early on Thursday, Akhras was moved to al-Najah hospital in Nablus, north of the occupied West Bank, for medical and health checks. He told local reporters that “my freedom is the freedom of my people, and we have won over the occupation with our will and determination.””

“A Palestinian killed during what police initially reported as a suspected ramming attack may have been shot after the incident had ended and as officers called for security forces to hold their fire, according to a video released by the human rights group B’Tselem. Nur Jamal Shuqeir, a 30-year-old Palestinian resident ofٍ Silwan, in East Jerusalem, was pulled over by police officers at the Al-Za’im checkpoint outside of the capital last Wednesday. After being questioned by officers, Shuqeir drove quickly through the checkpoint, lightly wounding one Border Policeman before being shot, according to Israeli authorities.”

“Almost every night, armed Israeli soldiers raid homes, wake women, men and children, and carry out different actions inside the homes of Palestinian residents. According to UN figures, these invasions occur more than 200 times each month. Beyond the harm suffered by individuals and families as a result of the intrusion into their homes, this practice effectively serves as a means to oppress and intimidate the Palestinian population and increase control over it. This report, A Life Exposed, is the product of a joint project launched by Yesh Din, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) and Breaking the Silence in 2018. It presents the practice of raiding Palestinian homes in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) and its impacts and offers an outline of the provisions within military legislation that regulate and enable it. This legal outline provides the basis for an analysis of home invasions in light of international law, which defines Israel’s obligations as the occupying power in the West Bank, and helps expose how this practice brazenly violate these legal provisions.”

“A damning report by three Israeli human rights groups has condemned the military’s widespread practice of entering Palestinian homes in the occupied territories, often in the middle of the night. The report, which includes testimonies of soldiers, doctors and Palestinian families, claims that Israeli troops enter homes on average more than 250 times every month to conduct arrests but also for other purposes including “mapping” houses, to use roofs for observation posts or to search for money, weapons or for intelligence purposes. Soldiers interviewed for the report, including several who spoke to the Observer, said they believed an important function of many raids was intimidatory – a claim denied by the Israeli military.”

“Following a prolonged process which revealed that the plan to build a lift at the most important ancient site in the West Bank was approved without serious attention to the historical, archaeological, and architectural aspects, the Civil Administration has decided to approve the plan. The frequent statements by politicians that they had instructed the planning bodies and the Civil Administration to approve the plan as soon as possible, and the speed of the approval process do not leave any room for doubt that political motivations were driving of this decision. The decision to violate the status quo of the fragile arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians may have long-term implications. Unfortunately what happens in Hebron does not remain in Hebron. Often, the dynamics at the Tomb of the Patriarch correspond with developments at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem. The approval of the plan and the involvement of politicians in the planning processes could constitute a precedent that will impact other sites.”

“Between 2007 and 2018, “the estimated cumulative economic cost of the Israeli occupation in Gaza under the prolonged closure and severe economic and movement restrictions and military operations would amount to $16.7 billion (constant 2015 US dollars),” it said. This was equivalent to six times the value of Gaza’s gross domestic product in 2018, or 107 percent of the total Palestinian GDP, including the West Bank, it said. The result, the UN agency said, was that, “Gaza has witnessed one of the worst economic performances globally.”

“During the reporting period (3-23 November), a total of 129 structures were demolished, or seized, due to a lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 100 people and otherwise affecting at least 200. The largest incident took place on 3 November in Humsa Al Bqai’a, where 83 structures were destroyed, displacing 73 people, including 41 children. Thirty more structures were demolished in 12 other Area C communities. The remaining 16 took place in East Jerusalem, where demolitions have resumed after a three-week suspension, following an announcement by the Israeli authorities on 1 October that, due to the pandemic, they would stop the demolition of inhabited residential buildings in the city. More structures have been demolished or seized so far in 2020, than in any complete year since OCHA began systematically documenting this practice in 2009, with the exception of 2016.”

“Among the bodies are those of seven men who died of illness during incarceration over the past four years, including one detainee who had not even been tried. The total number of bodies held by Israel is unknown but estimates are as high as a few hundred…The Al-Quds Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, which represents some of the families whose relatives’ bodies have not been brought back to them, said that to the best of its knowledge, some of the bodies have been buried and others are being stored in freezers in Israel. This past September the security cabinet approved a decision by Defense Minister Benny Gantz to retain possession of the body of anyone who was suspected of participating in an attack on Israelis or who had carried out such an attack, regardless of their political affiliation. Gantz adopted the position of his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, as a means to wield pressure on Hamas to return the bodies of Israeli soldiers killed in the 2014 war on Gaza.”

“Jared Kushner will travel in the coming days to Saudi Arabia and Qatar in a last-ditch effort to resolve the dispute between the Gulf countries.  Fixing the rift between Saudi Arabia and Qatar would bring a sense of stability back to the Gulf and notch a last-minute achievement for Kushner and the Trump administration before Jan. 20…Kushner’s trip comes a week after a secret meeting between MBS and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…Kushner’s relations with MBS proved crucial over the last few months as the Trump administration moved forward with the Abraham Accords, which led to normalization between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan. The Saudis have not agreed to normalization, but they did agree to let Israeli airlines use Saudi airspace for the first time, and they gave Bahrain a green light for normalization with Israel. The decision by MBS to meet with Netanyahu was another significant step. The Trump administration is still trying to push forward more potential normalization agreements before January. Kushner hopes to convince the Saudi and Qatari leaders to reconcile and reach a deal on several outstanding issues, U.S. officials tell me. Kushner also wants to use the talks in Saudi Arabia to cement the agreement for Saudi Arabia to allow eastbound flights from Israel to pass through Saudi airspace.”

Also See

• “Kushner Heading to Saudi Arabia, Qatar Amid Regional Tension Over Fakhrizadeh Assassination” (Haaretz)
• “Kushner’s US team heads to Saudi Arabia amid Gulf tensions over Iran scientist killing” (Middle East Eye)
• “Kushner to travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar in push for another Mideast deal: report” (i24 News)

“Following the normalization agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which will focus mostly on the economy, Jerusalem is beginning to also work on strengthening economic relations with Egypt. Officials from both countries are currently in talks ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reported visit to Cairo in the coming weeks, during which he will meet with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. In the future, a bilateral meeting is planned between the economic delegations of Israel and Egypt, where joint economic projects and the promotion of business relations between the two countries will be discussed.”

“Israeli authorities have been careful over the past five to six years to refrain from addressing the civil war in Yemen, which is considered an enemy state. Still, lack of public statements does not mean that Israel is not concerned over the Houthi-Iranian axis, which could bring Tehran closer to Israel geographically, including an opening to the Red Sea…Israeli experts claim that Iranian involvement in the Yemen war is part of a comprehensive strategy by Tehran to increase its regional influence and military presence…The reported visit of Netanyahu Nov. 22 to Saudi Arabia might very well enhance the Houthis’ apprehensions. Normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia does not seem to be in the immediate offing, but rapprochement absolutely yes. Israel is adamant not to be dragged into the Yemen war. A similar approach on Syria seems to be working, at least partially.”

“Agritechnology is just one sector within the established Israeli tech industry expected to benefit from the normalization of ties between two of the Middle East’s largest economies. Technology is a crucial part of the UAE’s push to prepare itself for a fast-approaching world of low energy prices. To that end, a hallmark of Dubai Vision 2030 is advancing innovation and putting technology at the forefront of the sheikdom’s economy. “One of the main motivations of this agreement is Israeli high-tech,” Henrique Cymerman, president of the Israel-GCC Chamber of Commerce, told Al-Monitor. “The Emiratis do not want to just buy, they want to share and do joint ventures.” Assil told Al-Monitor, “The long-term challenge for the UAE remains the ability to continue diversifying the economy away from oil.” He noted that the UAE’s main political challenge of stabilizing the Middle East and North Africa is linked, adding, “The economic plans need to go hand in hand with political initiatives to manage the main conflicts in the region.””

“However, the latest unilateral decisions by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain to normalize their relationship with Israel without consulting with Palestinians has caused trepidation to many in the city. While Jerusalemites insist that the holy places in the city belong to the faithful from around the world, they felt unease to see Emiratis entering Al-Aqsa Mosque under Israeli protection and using the only gate — al Moghrabi — that Israel doesn’t allow Palestinian guards from the Islamic Waqf to be present at. All other gates have both Israeli police guards and a representative of the Jordan-administered Waqf Department. Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Mohammad Ahmed Hussein said Aug. 18 — just one week after the UAE’s decision to normalize relations with Israel — that praying in Al-Aqsa requires religious regulation. “It must not be part of legitimizing the occupation of Palestinian land and should be carried out in coordination with the responsible Palestinian authorities that regulate visits to the occupied areas.””

“The unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases in Gaza will soon overwhelm the underequipped health sector. Al Mezan warns of a looming catastrophe facing the population in Gaza, and highlights the role of Israel’s closure and punitive measures in disrupting the health sector’s development. Al Mezan calls on the international community to exert pressure on Israel, the occupying power, to lift the blockade and closure, and to urgently mobilize support for residents of the Gaza Strip, including by ramping up supply of medical equipment necessary to fight the pandemic. “

“The World Health Organization delivered 15 ventilators to Gaza hospitals on Sunday amid a spike in COVID-19 infections that has tested the Palestinian territory’s under-developed health system. The donation of the intensive care devices, funded by Kuwait, came a week after local and international public health advisers said hospitals in the enclave could soon become overwhelmed. “These devices will help medical teams provide better service to patients, but it is not enough,” said Abdullatif Alhaj of Gaza’s health ministry. Alhaj said hospitals had suffered acute shortages in oxygen essential in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.”

Also See

• “Gaza Gets Medical Aid From Kuwait as Hospitals Buckle Under COVID Caseload” (Haaretz)

“As long as Israel controls Israel / Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, it must treat equally the 6.5 million Jews and 6.5 million Palestinians living there. The first, immediate step is to purchase millions more vaccine doses. After all, the virus, unlike the Israeli government, does not differentiate between Jews and Palestinians.”

“The Jordanian monarch also stressed “the need to preserve the existing legal and historical status in Jerusalem, stressing the Kingdom’s rejection of all unilateral measures aimed at changing the identity of the city and its sanctities, and attempts to divide al-Aqsa Mosque/ the Noble Sanctuary in time and place [between Muslims and Jews],” the agency added.”

Also See

• “Jordan’s King Abdullah and Palestinian Leader Abbas Meet, Hope Biden Revives Peace Process” (Haaretz)
• “Jordanian and Palestinian leaders pin hopes on Biden reviving two-state solution” (Middle East Eye)

“Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has asked Defense Minister Benny Gantz to hold off on his probe into the so-called submarine scandal, denting the Blue and White party leader’s political leverage over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mandelblit said Gantz should wait until a criminal probe into the naval acquisitions scandal can be completed.”

“Amid growing speculation Israelis will soon find themselves at the ballot box for the fourth time in under two years, Defense Minister Benny Gantz ordered his Blue and White party on Monday to prepare proposals for a number of contentious laws that do not have coalition backing, in a move that could bring down the government.”

“Is Netanyahu, who tagged along with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his Saudi visit this week without informing his political partners, putting together with the Trump administration in its waning days a massive arms deal involving Israel, the Saudis and the Americans? Is such a deal supposed to pave the Saudis’ way to normalization with Israel? All these questions are hanging in the air. The IDF chief of staff, the ministers of defense and foreign affairs, and the heads of the security and intelligence agencies do not have a clue about the answers, and they have no one they can ask. Netanyahu is the proverbial one-man show. The only one to whom he is accountable is soon-to-be former US President Donald Trump. “On this front, at least, change is coming,” a senior Israeli security official told Al-Monitor last week on condition of anonymity, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.”

“We, the undersigned Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists and intellectuals are hereby stating our views regarding the definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and the way this definition has been applied, interpreted and deployed in several countries of Europe and North America. In recent years, the fight against antisemitism has been increasingly instrumentalised by the Israeli government and its supporters in an effort to delegitimise the Palestinian cause and silence defenders of Palestinian rights. Diverting the necessary struggle against antisemitism to serve such an agenda threatens to debase this struggle and hence to discredit and weaken it.”

“Equating antisemitism with BDS activities is baseless, incorrect and purposely defamatory: antisemitism refers to discrimination targeting Jewish people because of their ethnic and religious identity and, as all forms of hate, must be confronted in all its forms. The BDS movement, on the other hand, protests against a nation-state’s policies and actions, not against its people. This kind of protest is in line with the rights to freedom of expression and association, as the European Union has already recognised. Indeed, the European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that calls for boycotts fall within the right to freedom of expression and clearly distinguishes actions and statements concerning subjects of general interest – i.e., respect for international law by the State of Israel and the human rights situation in the OPT – that fall within the scope of political speech from incitement to hatred, violence and intolerance. This conclusion reflects the position of FIDH’s International Board, which formally recognised and reaffirmed the right of individuals to peacefully participate in and call for BDS measures to protest the Israeli government’s occupation and discrimination policies in 2016.”

“Obama certainly believes that US support for Israel’s occupation of the West Bank damaged US interests. That support, he writes, “continued to inflame the Arab community and feed anti-American sentiment across the Muslim world.” The bottom line: “the absence of peace between Israel and the Palestinians made America less safe.” As president, Obama tried to change that, but found his efforts stymied, in large measure, by the Israel lobby. Soon after taking office in 2009, he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze settlement growth. Obama levels criticism at Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, whom he considered overly cautious. But he argues that “[t]here wasn’t much Abbas could give the Israelis that the Israelis couldn’t already take on their own.” So “given the asymmetry in power . . . I thought it was reasonable to ask the stronger party to take a bigger first step in the direction of peace.”…In his memoir, Obama implicitly makes the same point: That he can’t change US policy until Americans—through their activism—eliminate the political obstacles that constrain US presidents. To progressive activists, “make me do it” may sound like a politicians’ way of shifting the blame for his own lack of courage. But it’s an accurate depiction of how American politics actually works. Changing government policy toward Israel/Palestine—like changing government policy on climate change or policing—requires grassroots mobilization powerful enough to overcome entrenched interests. The presidency of Joe Biden—a man even less inclined to challenge the Israel lobby than Obama—will expose how much more of that mobilization we still require.”