FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks to political, policy, and advocacy strategist Rania Batrice about the changing political landscape in the grassroots and in Congress with respect to Palestine.

For decades, stories of the Nakba – both personal experiences and an historical accounting of facts – have been systematically hidden, discredited, or ignored. Scholars, both Palestinian and non-Palestinian, have struggled to document and establish that history and challenge the denialism and mythologies – like the myths that ‘the Arabs’ intended to ‘push the Jews into the sea,’ that Palestinians left their homes at the behest of Arab armies, or that pre-1948, Arab residents of Palestine had no shared Palestinian identity or real links to the land – that have flourished in its place. In this context, we have invited three leading scholars of the Nakba to talk about how they approach researching, writing, and teaching this history — and the importance of amplifying personal, individual stories as a critical point of access to understanding nationalism, colonialism, citizenship, and the construction of racial categories in the Middle East.

“A 16-year-old Palestinian succumbed to his wounds on Thursday morning after an Israeli soldier opened fire on him the previous night near the illegal West Bank outpost of Evyatar. Amhad Shamsa was shot after he threw an explosive device at the soldiers. He was later taken to a hospital in Nablus with head injuries.

Also see:

• Palestinian teen shot by Israeli troops in West Bank dies (AP)
• Dismantle the Unauthorized Evyatar West Bank Outpost (Haaretz editorial)

“A Border Police officer who shot and killed an autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Old City in May 2020 after mistaking him for a terrorist has been charged with reckless manslaughter, the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department announced on Thursday. The indictment was filed Thursday against the officer, 20, who was not publicly named…If convicted on charges of reckless manslaughter, the officer could serve up to 12 years in prison. The shooting officer’s commander, who participated in the chase and was present at the shooting, will not be charged. Joint List leader MK Ayman Odeh called the reckless manslaughter charge ‘an infuriating and contemptible charge that enables the murder of any Palestinian who displeases a police officer or a soldier. The end of the occupation will be justice for Iyad,’ he added.” Also see: Israeli officer charged in killing of autistic Palestinian (AP)

“The High Court of Justice is set to hold a hearing on August 2 regarding the pending eviction of four Palestinian families from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The families had turned to the High Court after two lower courts upheld ownership claims by the Nahalat Shimon Company to the property on which their homes are built. Nahalat Shimon wants to develop the land for Jewish housing. It is located next to the tomb of Second Temple-era priest Shimon HaTzadik, also known as Simeon the Just. The families are part of a group of 28 which originally fled their homes during the 1948 War of Independence and entered east Jerusalem, which was in Jordanian hands after the war. Jordan gave them housing in Sheikh Jarrah, on land owned by Jews; in exchange, they gave up their refugee status.”

“The new unity government failed in its efforts Wednesday to extend a law barring Palestinians who marry Israeli citizens from receiving citizenship…Family reunification in Israel typically involves an Israeli citizen requesting citizenship for his or her non-Israeli spouse. Most unification applications are submitted by Arab Israelis on behalf of a Palestinian spouse living in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. The process of family reunification for Palestinians has been made more stringent in recent years due to concerns it was being abused by terror groups to gain access to Israel. Critics call the law racist and say it is an attempt by Israel to keep the number of Arab citizens down.”

Also see:

•  Israel: new coalition struggles to extend ban on Palestinian family reunification (i24 News)
• tweet from official Likud party twitter account (translated here from Hebrew), which makes clear the law is about demographics, not security: “Because of the delusional composition of Bennett’s weak government, it is unable, as early as the third day of its existence, to pass an extension of the Family Unification Law to prevent the naturalization of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and illegal infiltrators , which would destroy the Jewish state.”

“Israeli settlers Wednesday evening attacked Palestinian houses and vehicles in Qusra town, south of Nablus city, according to local sources. Member of Qusra Municipal Council, Imad Jamil, told WAFA that a group of settlers sneaked their way into the southern part of the village, attacked the houses of at least two villagers and smashed the windshields of a villager’s vehicle. He added that the villagers rushed to fend off the attack of the settlers, who came from the nearby colonial outpost of Esh Kodesh, but were met with Israeli military gunfire. No injuries were reported though.” Also see: Tweet from Kerem Navot’s Dror Etkes (including photos).

“An Israeli soldier was filmed at the beginning of the month hitting a Palestinian with a rifle butt during an arrest, while another soldier is seen kneeling on the Palestinian man’s neck. The Israeli army said that the Palestinian man was arrested after acting violently towards the soldiers following a routine examination and had pulled at the one soldier’s weapon, but that the film footage also shows that some of the soldiers had acted in violation of standing rules. In the video, which was filmed in the West Bank town of Hebron, several Jewish settlers are seen assisting the Israeli security forces by clearing Palestinian residents away from the scene. One settler was filmed spraying pepper spray at Palestinians who had congregated in the area.” Also see: Israeli forces detain nine Palestinians, injure four others in West Bank raids (WAFA)

“Israeli occupation authorities notified today evening for the demolition of six houses under construction in Khirbet Faris in Yabad area to the south of Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank, according to a local official. Head of Zebda village council told WAFA Israeli forces delivered notices to demolish six houses under construction belonging to Palestinian residents in Khirbet Faris, citing unpermitted construction as a pretext. The notices gave the homes owners until July 12th to appeal the demolitions at Israeli courts.”

Also see:

• Israel to demolish eight structures south of Hebron (WAFA
• Israeli forces demolish tin-roofed structure north of Hebron (WAFA)

“Testimonies collected by Adalah reveal that officers beat detainees and deprived them of medical treatment during police crackdown on Palestinian citizens.”

“Israeli police on Thursday arrested Yusuf Albaz, the top Islamic authority in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod, on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorism on social media…Police questioned the imam over social media posts he published earlier this week that appeared to call for violence against Israel Police. One post saw Albaz add a caption reading ‘the best way to deal with injustice’ to a video of a scene from a Hollywood movie showing the murder of police forces by rioters.” [Reminder from 2019 – Arab MK wants Oren Hazan charged for parody video killing (he wasn’t charged)]

“Two men were charged with attempted murder and one man as an accomplice in connection with several firebomb attacks in Jaffa last month, including one that left a 12-year-old Arab boy seriously injured, Tel Aviv prosecutors announced on Thursday…The three, all Arab residents of Jaffa, were accused of planning and carrying out attacks on Jewish homes in the city’s Ajami neighborhood ‘out of a nationalist motive,’ with the attack on the Gintazi family home a case of mistaken identity.”

“Egypt postponed a highly anticipated meeting between Palestinian factions to avoid failure, as Cairo recently came out as a major regional player after brokering the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.” Also see: Why Egypt’s Hamas policy changed after Israeli-Gaza conflict (Arab News)

“Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Morocco on Wednesday for his first visit to the North African country, at the invitation of the ruling Justice and Development Party (PJD), according to a party source, reported the Anadolu Agency website…The Hamas delegation’s schedule, invited by the Moroccan Justice and Development Party (PJD, Islamist) which heads the government coalition, includes meetings with various Moroccan political parties.”

“Americans for Peace Now on Wednesday rolled out a new position supporting the conditioning of U.S. military aid to Israel — the first U.S. Zionist organization to do so. ‘What has become abundantly clear, underscored by the horrifying images coming out of Gaza, East Jerusalem and inside Israel last month, is that continuing to give Israel military aid without conditions neither serves U.S. policy interests—nor, I would argue, does it serve Israel,’ APN President and CEO Hadar Susskind wrote in Time Magazine.”

“Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the Biden administration’s ambassador to the UN, has called the UN Human Rights Council’s frequent criticism of Israel ‘appalling’, asserting that ‘antisemitic’ countries from the Middle East sit on the international body. Testifying at the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Thomas-Greenfield faced a barrage of pro-Israel questions and remarks from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.” Also see: New U.S. ambassador-nominee a ‘big fan of Israel’ (Arutz Sheva – video report)

“Progressive Black Democrats are reviving a radical tradition of Palestine solidarity in Congress, challenging Black leaders in their own party and Washington’s support for Israeli state violence.”

“’American Jews don’t love Israel enough,’ Donald Trump declared this week, bemoaning his small share of the U.S. Jewish vote… ‘You know what really surprises me? I did the (Golan) Heights, I did Jerusalem and I did Iran — the Iran deal was a disaster right? And I also did many other things,’ he said, referring to his decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and Jerusalem and his withdrawal from the nuclear deal. ‘Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough,’ he continued, noting that he was excluding the Orthodox community in this criticism, whose support for him was ‘very high. I believe we got 25 percent of the Jewish vote, and it doesn’t make sense. It just seems strange to me.’” Also see: Mnuchin, Friedman opening investment office in Tel Aviv (Jerusalem Post)

“Israel’s ‘change coalition’ facilitated, then criticized, a Jewish supremacist rally in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians were threatened by racists and assaulted by the police.”

“New Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is signaling he intends to move cautiously at first on issues like Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an approach that will suit the Biden administration just fine. Why it matters: Bennett is aiming to avoid an early confrontation with the U.S., and his fragile and ideologically diverse government will have a hard time taking any groundbreaking steps on foreign policy in the first place. The Biden administration is also planning to take it slow, avoiding any big initiatives that could destabilize the new government, a U.S. official tells me.”

“The upcoming challenge will be the vote on the budget, which at the moment is the most significant threat to the coalition’s survival.”

“Israel is willing to work toward establishing ties with southeast Asia’s Muslim majority nations, its ambassador to Singapore said on Thursday, despite their condemnation in May of Israeli air strikes on Gaza.”

“Sudan is disappointed with the results of normalising relations with Israel and complained about insufficient investments in the fields of agriculture and technology, Israeli broadcaster Kan reported. The channel quoted Sudanese officials as saying that the US has not yet fulfilled the promise to invest in Sudan, as it pledged during the announcement of normalising relations with Israel nine months ago.”

“Gulf kingdom’s foreign minister says communications between the two nations – which normalized relations last year – are ‘driven by approach based on understanding, dialogue and cooperation among people’.” Also see: Bahrain extends greetings to new Israeli govt, notes importance of two-state solution (i24 News)

“Jordan has decided to cancel a highly touted joint project with Israel and the Palestinian Authority for a canal linking the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, after years of the plan stagnating, the Kan public broadcaster reported Thursday. According to the report, Amman has decided to finally pull the plug on the joint pipeline, citing unnamed sources saying there was ‘no real Israeli desire’ for the plan to go ahead. Instead Jordan will reportedly focus on a potential internal project that will see water pumped from the Red Sea and desalinated at a facility in Aqaba.”

“With the support of its governor and state legislators, Texas has become the first U.S. state to fully utilize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism to interpret anti-Jewish acts. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the measure on Wednesday, part of HB3257 that establishes a Texas Holocaust, Genocide and Anti-Semitism Advisory Commission. Among the commission’s work will be producing a biennial study of anti-Semitism in the Lone Star State with the IHRA definition as a guide.” Also see: Texas becomes first state to officially adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism (Israel Hayom)