“Bank documents indicate that companies associated with or controlled by the Israeli-Russian billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich have contributed nearly 350 million shekels ($102 million) to the Elad organization, which works to strengthen the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem. The disclosure links the Russian-born oligarch to four companies that are registered in the British Virgin Islands and over which up to now, it was not known who was behind them.”

Also see:
Times of Israel – Leaks show Chelsea owner Abramovich donated $100m to Israeli right-wing group;
BBC investigation (with video) – The settlers’ billionaire backer

“Israel expands its surveillance of Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is in defiance of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, which claims the surveillance is a violation of sovereignty.”

“Israeli forces ordered two Palestinian brothers to tear down agricultural structures, Monday, in the area of Khirbet Yerza, in the northern Jordan Valley, the Palestinian WAFA News Agency reported. Activist Aref Daraghmeh, said that the Israeli authorities ordered two Palestinian brothers, Rami and Hafez Masaeed, to remove their structures within 96 hours, under the pretext that they were built without an Israeli issued permit. WAFA added that Israeli forces confiscated, on Monday evening, a Palestinian-owned water tanker, east of Tubas, west of the Jordan Valley, according to Daraghmeh.”

“Israeli soldiers invaded, Monday, the al-Walaja Palestinian town, northwest of Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank, and handed orders halting the construction of a poultry farm and retaining walls. The WAFA Palestinian News Agency has reported that the soldiers stormed an area, in the northern part of al-Walaja, and handed the orders to two residents. It added that the orders instruct the residents to stop the construction or face high fines and fees, in addition to the demolition of their properties. Although the lands of al-Walaja have been illegally annexed by Israel and considered part of occupied Jerusalem, the Palestinians are not granted residency rights, and the army does not allow them to build new structures, in addition to repeatedly demolishing their homes, farms, and other structures.”

“Israeli occupation forces have closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron for the second day in a row during the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, Wafa news agency has reported. Muslim worshippers were again prevented from attending the mosque for daily prayers. The director of the mosque slammed Israel’s latest violation of human rights conventions which guarantee the right to religious freedom. Sheikh Hifthi Abu Sneineh told Wafa that the occupation authorities closed the mosque on Saturday night in order to make way for illegal settlers.”

“Israeli settlers in the West Bank sending a ‘Shana Tova’ message with summary of activities in previous year: 188 trees destroyed Tyres of 866 vehicles slashed 40 houses damaged 69 cars attacked by stone throwing 59 Palestinians attacked, 24 wounded One school torched”

“Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said yesterday that the US is imposing a political, economic and financial siege on the Palestinian leadership, Anadolu reported. At the beginning of his weekly cabinet meeting, Shtayyeh said US President Donald Trump had stopped American assistance for the Palestinians and prevented some Arab states from paying funding they had pledged. He also said that this aimed at ‘putting pressure on the Palestinian leadership, extorting it and forcing it to barter its rights for money.’ The prime minister stressed: ‘The people who have right on their side are strong. The one who has will or faith in his homeland, does not bargain it for money.’”

“When an Israeli reportedly tried to ram his car into anti-Bibi protesters, the police peacefully subdued him. Palestinians often aren’t so lucky.”

“Israeli forces detained at least five Palestinians, on Monday, including 61 year old activist from the occupied Palestinian territories, the Palestinian WAFA News Agency reported. Local sources said that soldiers detained Khairi Hannoun, 61, a former prisoner, after storming his home in Anabta town, east of Tulkarem city, in the northern West Bank. Hannoun, who has served eight years in Israeli prisons for his activism, made headlines earlier this month after Israeli soldiers assaulted him as he participated in an anti-settlement protest in Shufa village, south of Tulkarem.”

“Ahmed Dawabsha, a 10-year-old Palestinian from the village of Duma in the northern West Bank, is getting ready to go back to school on Sept. 20. When he learned that he had to wear a face mask as a protective measure against the novel coronavirus, Ahmed broke into tears. ‘How would I put on a face mask and I don’t have an ear,’ he sobbed. Ahmed is a member of the Dawabsha family, whose home was firebombed in the Duma arson attack by a group of Israeli settlers in 2015. The family home was set on fire at night, resulting in the death of Ahmed’s younger 18-month-old brother Ali and his parents, Saad and Riham, who died of their wounds weeks later. Ahmed, four years at the time, survived but suffered severe burns on his head, face and body.”

“Israel is now requesting that Gazan women with breast cancer submit the results of biopsies and diagnostic imaging as a condition for getting a permit to seek medical treatment in East Jerusalem. The Gaza District Coordination and Liaison Office began making these demands in July. Until then, all that was required was a referral for the medical care they needed. For years, the Israeli government claimed that the process of approving the travel permit did not question the medical needs as determined by Gaza physicians, but was merely a security check.”

“The Be’er Sheva District Court, sitting as an administrative court, dared to rule that S.O., a Palestinian doctoral student in engineering, must be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip for Tel Aviv in order to receive a visa for the European state in which he is meant to begin his research on October 1. But Israel is determined to block the 28-year-old Gazan man from realizing his dream. To this end, it enlisted its endless supply of time, resources, clerks, officers and jurists. So important was it for Israel to shoot down S.O.’s scholarship and his research that it hastened to appeal the Be’er Sheva court’s ruling to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court justices did not disappoint.”

“Arab media speculates tunnel collapsed over faulty construction, or after the IDF detected it and ‘employed special technological measures to make it collapse.’”

“Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Arab nation and home to Islam’s holiest sites, has made its official position on the region’s longest-running conflict clear: Full ties between the kingdom and Israel can only happen when peace is reached with the Palestinians. Yet state-backed Saudi media and clerics are signaling change is already underway with Israel — something that can only happen under the directives of the country’s powerful heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The divergent messages on the possibility of Saudi ties with Israel reflect what analysts and insiders say is a schism between how the 35-year-old prince and his 84-year-old father, King Salman, view national interests.” Also see: Times of Israel – Saudi Arabia on road to ties with Israel, but not quite there yet

“The recent statements made by US President Donald Trump, who claimed that Kuwait could be the next country to establish direct diplomatic relations with Israel, have sparked controversy, especially in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas reported, Monday, quoted governmental sources as saying that the Kuwaiti position on normalisation with Israel is firm and unaltered, noting that Kuwait will not change its stance and refuses categorically to normalise relations with Israel.”

“King Hamad said on Monday Bahrain is committed to an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Arab peace initiative. The king was speaking after Bahrain, along with the UAE, signed agreements with Israel last week to normalize relations. The king said Manama’s position on the Palestinian issue was firm and permanent and that Bahrain is commitment to achieving a two-state solution…”

“Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas are set to meet in in Istanbul, Turkey for direct talks aimed at ending the 15-year-long rift in Palestinian politics, Fatah said Monday. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction is to be represented by a delegation led by Fatah Secretary General Jibril Rajoub and Central Committee member Rawhi Fattouh. The delegation arrived in Istanbul on Monday night to begin talks with representatives of the terror group Hamas, Fatah said in a statement on its Twitter page.”

“Palestine has quit its current chairmanship of Arab League meetings, the Palestinian foreign minister said on Tuesday, condemning as dishonorable any Arab agreement to establish formal ties with Israel.” Also see: Al Jazeera – Palestine quits Arab League role in protest over Israel deals; Middle East Eye – Palestine renounces Arab League Council chair to protest Israel normalisation

“Palestinian security forces have detained dozens of supporters of a rival to President Mahmoud Abbas who is based in the United Arab Emirates, his political group said Monday. Mohammed Dahlan, a former senior Palestinian official who was banished from the West Bank in 2010 after a falling-out with Abbas, has denied any role in the UAE’s agreement to normalize ties with Israel, which most Palestinians view as a betrayal of their cause. Dahlan’s political movement said in a statement that dozens of its members have been detained or summoned for questioning by Palestinian security forces in the West Bank in recent days, calling it a ‘stark violation of the law.’” Also see: Times of Israel – PA arrests ‘dozens’ of associates of Abbas rival Mohammad Dahlan in West Bank; Middle East Eye – Palestinian security forces arrest supporters of Abbas rival Dahlan

“It has been nearly a month and a half since the surprise announcement that the United Arab Emirates was establishing open ties with Israel. But analysts say the Palestinian Authority is still at a loss as to how to combat the wave of normalization sweeping the region. ‘There is no strategy right now — at least not in foreign policy,’ Jihad Harb, a Palestinian political analyst based in Nablus, told The Times of Israel. Palestinians have scrambled to respond, switching rhetoric fast enough to give close observers whiplash. Bitter denunciation of the UAE, including public burnings of pictures of UAE Crown Prince Mohammad bin Zayed, was suddenly put on hold after harsh criticism from powerful Gulf sponsors forced Abbas’s office to announce that it respected ‘the sovereign symbols’ of its fellow countries.”

“The United States and the United Arab Emirates hope to have an initial agreement on the sale of F-35 stealth fighter jets to the Gulf state in place by December, as the Trump administration studies how to structure a deal without running afoul of Israel. Sources close to the negotiations said the goal is to have a letter of agreement in place in time for UAE National Day celebrated on Dec. 2. Any deal must satisfy decades of agreement with Israel that states any US weapons sold to the region must not impair Israel’s ‘qualitative military edge,’ guaranteeing US weapons furnished to Israel are “superior in capability” to those sold to its neighbors. With that in mind Washington is studying ways to make the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 more visible to Israeli radar systems, two sources said. Reuters could not determine if this would be done by changing the jet or providing Israel with better radar, among other possibilities.”

Also see:
Al-Monitor – F-35 deal with Emirates could benefit Israeli defense industries
Jerusalem Post – Why is Benny Gantz in Washington?
YNet – Gantz heads to U.S. with shopping list of weaponry
The Algemeiner – The Strategic Benefits to the US and Israel of Offering F-35s to the UAE

“The EU and Israel are in talks to reinstate the body strengthening their bilateral ties, after the government suspended plans to extend Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, The Jerusalem Post has learned.The readout from Brussels on a pre-Rosh Hashanah call between EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on Friday states simply that ‘both agreed on a shared, mutual interest in intensifying bilateral cooperation,’ but a Foreign Ministry source confirmed that they discussed the reestablishment of the EU-Israel Association Council.”

“The recent normalization deals between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have fundamentally shifted the region’s alliances. Both Gulf countries maintain close ties with Saudi Arabia, and speculation abounds as to whether or not the Saudis will be the next country to formalize ties with the Jewish state. While Israel may be on the verge of cementing a close alliance with major Sunni Arab states in the face of a common enemy with Iran, at the same time, concern is also growing about a possible nuclear race in the region with China’s help.”

“In the wake of the Abraham Accords, will Iran’s fear of a ‘Zionist presence’ in the Gulf region lead it to carry out a Crimea-style invasion of Bahrain, risking a direct confrontation with the United States?”

“The United States Embassy in Bahrain on Monday warned American citizens in the Gulf kingdom of the ‘need for caution,’ days after Manama signed a US-backed deal with Israel. ‘The Embassy encourages all US citizens to review their personal security plans, remain aware of their surroundings, including local events, and maintain a high level of vigilance,’ an embassy statement read.”

“Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem tells Calcalist about his prior visits to Israel and his plans to make Haifa a bridge between continents.”

“A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today between Israel’s Start-Up Nation Central and India’s International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology (iCreate) to initiate a bilateral program to accelerate innovation and technology cooperation between start-ups and corporates from both countries. The aim of this program is to bring together Israeli and Indian entrepreneurs and startups to collaborate on innovative projects.”

“If Facebook does eventually bow down and include the full IHRA definition in its algorithms, free speech on Israel/Palestine, which is already under immense pressure, will receive a lethal blow. It is up to Facebook users to voice their concern by notifying Zuckerberg and Sandberg that they will abandon the platform the moment the media giant decides to adopt the IHRA definition. Ultimately, we, the users, do hold the power.”

“Academics who want to re-establish balance about Israel, as well as those who have intellectual or emotional interests there, need help. The network Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) provides such assistance through shared best practices, mentoring and guidance to students and junior faculty. Further steps should be taken, such as enhancing the network with supportive Jewish, Christian and minority community members. Another is continuing to bring the problem out into the open with students, parents, trustees and faculty speaking to local and national media. Open protests on campuses, which will almost invariably elicit vocal hostility from BDS supporters, will prove the case. Lawsuits from or in support of faculty members, who, for example, find their academic organizations subject to hostile or covert takeovers by BDS supporters, or who find their promotions impeded because of their pro-Israel politics, are the final line of defense.”