“Microsoft has invested in a startup that uses facial recognition to surveil Palestinians throughout the West Bank, in spite of the tech giant’s public pledge to avoid using the technology if it encroaches on democratic freedoms. AnyVision, which is headquartered in Israel but has offices in the U.S., the U.K., and Singapore, sells an ‘advanced tactical surveillance’ software system, Better Tomorrow. It lets customers identify individuals and objects in any live camera feed, such as a security camera or smartphone, and then track targets as they move between different feeds.”

“According to a new research report, ‘Silenced Net: The Chilling Effect among Palestinian Youth in Social Media,’ the current legal, political and social environment is having a significant impact on the political activity of Palestinian youth on the internet. Many young Palestinians have had their content removed from online platforms, experienced harassment, or were interrogated in relation to what they posted on social networks. This has created a “Chilling Effect” among youth and made two-thirds of Palestinian youth afraid to express their political opinions online. “

“Israel opened its sixth faculty of medicine on Sunday with the blessings of US Ambassador David Friedman, who attended the inauguration and touted his country’s tight ties with Ariel University, located in the fourth-largest West Bank settlement of Ariel. Naftali Bennett, former education minister and co-party head of the New Right Party, said that the opening day ceremony was a ‘huge’ celebratory moment for Israel, both politically and educationally. ‘No longer is there a Green Line,’ Bennett said. ‘We are one [united] Israel and that is how it should be. We are going to serve everyone here.’ Friedman’s presence at the university and his words about the strong connection between the school and US President Donald Trump’s administration highlighted the dramatic shift in the US’s stance toward Israeli settlement activity.”

“Israeli forces raided a school in the village of Dahr al-Maleh in the West Bank, demolished its wall and confiscated a mobile container that was used as a cafeteria on Monday, the head of the village council told Middle East Eye. Israeli forces stormed into the village at 6.30am, smashing through the gates of the primary school and breaking down its doors, Omar al-Khatib said.”

“Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the 1956 Kafr Qasim Massacre….The Kafr Qasim Massacre: Document Library is an invaluable tool for educating our communities and ourselves, sharing information, and facilitating discussion around the massacre and its impact in the public sphere. The website contains thousands of pages of d documents, capitalizing on the primary sources about the massacre revealed to date, its background and the famous trial that followed. It also illuminates deliberate efforts to conceal the event and erase it from public memory.”

“Hundreds participated in an annual march and memorial service on Tuesday in the Arab Israeli town of Kafr Qasim, marking the 63rd anniversary of a massacre that took place there in which members of the Border Police shot dead dozens of residents. Participants walked through Kafr Qasim, which is located adjacent to the West Bank and 22 kilometers (14 miles) from Tel Aviv, to a monument that commemorates the massacre in the center of the town, where a number of speeches were delivered.”

“This is the situation. There are tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of the Palestinian Authority who are employed in Israel. The majority of them work in construction, while others work in the hospitality industry, agriculture and other areas. In order for them to work in Israel, they must be approved by the Israeli security forces and have a permit that designates their employer. But not every Israeli employer can ask for a Palestinian worker. There are caps in place in all of the major areas of employment, and it is only after the Ministry of the Interior confirms, or at least concludes, that there are no Israeli workers willing to work in certain jobs that officials will approve permits for a set number of workers. Most of these caps do get filled. Employers send their requests to the Palestinian Ministry of Labor, and the Palestinian Authority distributes the permits to Palestinian workers, who come to Israel and work for the specific employers who requested laborers.”

“Four Democratic presidential candidates now support conditions on Washington’s annual $3.8 billion military aid package for Israel, but Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wants to go further than both his opponents and the liberal lobbying group J Street.”

“Speaking before the national gathering of the left-wing U.S. Jewish group J Street, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer both argued for a return to traditional U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This included a strong endorsement of the two-state solution from both leaders, with Pelosi stressing that both Israel and the Palestinian leadership needed to avoid steps that may harm the prospects of the model. Speaking before Pelosi, and for the first time at a J Street event, Chuck Schumer also emphasized importance of maintaining United States’ support for Israel a bipartisan goal. Schumer also denounced those in American politics who ‘use Israel for partisan gain’.”

“To launch its 2019 national conference Sunday, the liberal Mideast advocacy group J Street announced a new campaign to pressure 2020 Democratic candidates to oppose Israel’s presence in the West Bank, with the goal of getting the party to include in its official platform this summer a formal opposition to the occupation. J Street leaders and student activists put out a ‘call to action’ to change the platform to more expressly condemn settlement expansion and support Palestinian aspirations. ‘Past party platforms have rightly stated a commitment to Israel’s security and included condemnations of threats and actions against our ally,’ the petition states. ‘Those platforms have, however, also been totally silent on the rights of Palestinians, on Israeli actions that undermine those rights and the prospects for a two-state solution, and on the need for security for both peoples’.”

“By Monday evening, Jeremy Ben-Ami, who founded J Street a decade ago as a ‘pro-Israel, pro-peace’ alternative to AIPAC, released a statement that tried to walk a fine line on the issue, to satisfy its leftist activists without alienating mainstream Democrats. ‘For too long, American taxpayers and lawmakers have been asked to provide military assistance to Israel without questioning whether the material acquired with that aid was being used as a blank check to further Israeli policies and actions that the U.S. opposes, including the entrenchment of the occupation,” it said. ‘J Street believes that our tax dollars should only be used in accordance with our laws and to further our policies and interests,’ he added. ‘Saying this does not amount to a call for reducing or conditioning American assistance. It does demand a serious inquiry into the uses to which aid is being put and consideration of what restrictions to its use are appropriate’.”

“Obviously, Dahlan, who has been residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 2011 and enjoys its financial support, has been trying over the past years to gain a foothold in the Palestinian political arena. He has increased support for humanitarian and relief projects in the Gaza Strip through the National Islamic Commission for Development and Social Solidarity (Takaful), and he signed understandings with Hamas in 2017. Observers believe that despite his growing popularity, especially in the Gaza Strip, Dahlan couldn’t run alone in elections if they are ever held. Yet he could forge alliances with other political parties or set up a political party separate from Fatah.”

“We want the national Palestinian library to be our link to national libraries around the world,” he said at a press conference in 2017. “We want to reclaim our looted heritage [by getting back Palestinian documents from around the world] through agreements … and through laws defending our cultural existence.”