“Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday heard the appeal of the local director of Human Rights Watch, who is seeking to block an attempt by the government to expel him for allegedly supporting an international boycott movement against Israel.”

“Following the start of the occupation in 1967, Israel moved to annex East Jerusalem and establish the city, alongside annexed West Jerusalem, as its “united capital.” Since that time, Israel has worked to entrench its control over Jerusalem, instituting a variety of policies and practices that aim to drive Palestinians out of the city while acquiring land and property in the process. As a result, the Old City, the heart of Jerusalem, has suffered from the same issues as other Palestinian neighborhoods in the city. This includes, in part, the confiscation of property, a discriminatory planning regime and inadequate services, the transfer of Israeli settlers, the targeting of Palestinian institutions, the targeted de-development of the economy, and harassment by Israel’s municipal authorities. What sets the Old City apart from other neighborhoods of Jerusalem or other areas of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), in addition to its unique history and holy sites, is the stark contrast between the Israeli narrative consumed by the countless tourists that flow through its streets and the reality of the human rights abuses happening around them. Consequently, Israel’s targeting of Palestinians and erasure of Palestinian presence is happening in full view.”

Peace Now: “This is a cruel story that did not need to happen. KKL-Jewish National Fund has become a settler fund. It has repeatedly tried to throw a Palestinian family out of its home by exploiting a legal method that is stacked against Palestinians, and has not let go for nearly 30 years even after losing in court. This is part of an ugly process of using absentee property law based on questionable evidence to take Palestinian assets and give them to settlers, and to destroy the delicate fabric of life in Jerusalem.”

“The Israel Police arrested overnight Sunday 25 Palestinians, among them minors, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyah on suspicion that they had hurled firebombs and rocks at policemen and fellow civilians. “

“The murder of a young Palestinian woman at the hands of her family highlights what many Palestinian women have been saying all along: The struggle against patriarchy and gender-based violence cannot be separated from the fight against Israel’s occupation.”

“According to a summary of a meeting between Shimon and the head of an IDF body that manages the separation barrier area, along with Binyamin Regional Council chairman Yisrael Gantz and other officials, the army explained, ‘The significance of the building ban and the security importance of restricting building on both sides of the security fence.’ Nevertheless, the document states that, ‘It is possible to examine the request positively in the future,’ but this was subject to several conditions the army posed. First of all, the area must be properly zoned. In addition, the army insists that the cemetery be surrounded by a metal fence three meters high. The local council also must “’Install security cameras with both night and day surveillance capability,’ and, ‘The council must commit to stationing armed civilian security guards at every funeral from beginning to end as a condition for holding it’.”

“At the end of August 2019, there were 185 Palestinian children held as ‘security prisoners’ in Israeli prisons. 55% of children were detained inside Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Also in this issue: hand-ties and blindfolds – update; army forced to admit blindfolding detained Palestinians is against protocol; annual report of the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflict; military courts update briefing note; Journal of Conflict and Security Law: Rulings of the Israeli Military Courts and International Law; a child’s testimony; and a soldier’s video testimony.”

“The post-election bargaining process discourages interest in the peace process. Whoever is given the first mandate by the Israeli president to try and form the government must do so within 28 days, though they can ask for an additional 14 days. If that person fails, the president can task a second politician with forming the government. Should that person also fail, 61 members of the Knesset can write to the president asking him to give the mandate to a specific Knesset member. And if that doesn’t work, new elections must be held. After all of that politicking, the parties’ focus will not be on negotiations with the Palestinians, but on simply getting back into government or the Knesset.”

“Likud wants to be first to work toward forming a government. The party is operating of the belief that the moment that authority falls into its hands, it will have 42 days to formulate media spin and make promises in the hopes that Gantz will enter a unity government with Netanyahu. Likud would rather there be no rotation for the role of prime minister, but is prepared to give Gantz the last year as an assurance. Likud is insisting to be first in the rotation on account of “governmental continuity,” in the words of a negotiation staff member from the right-wing bloc. The party’s talking point in upcoming interviews is that they have no preconditions and everything is on the table, but in practice, leading the rotation is a central demand of its joining.”

“Less than a week after his impressive electoral achievement, the head of the largest Knesset faction, Kahol Lavan leader Benny Gantz, conceded his right to be the first to try and form a coalition government. The explanation given by ‘party sources’ for this concession is that Gantz prefers to wait for Netanyahu to try first and fail.”

Anshel Pfeffer writes, “Many factors led to Israelis voting against Netanyahu last week. But when the story of his final days of leadership is written, it will be remembered that Netanyahu built his political strategy around whoever was in the Oval Office, and when Netanyahu needed the president’s support most, he was abandoned.”

“If you criticize Israeli policy, you will lose your federal funding. That is the message the Department of Education is sending with its threat to withdraw federal support for the Consortium for Middle East Studies, operated jointly by Duke University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, if it does not alter the content of its programming. Just three months after Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, ordered an investigation into a conference about the politics of the Gaza Strip that the consortium had sponsored – an authoritarian threat, in and of itself – the Department of Education issued a letter demanding that the Duke-UNC consortium remake its curriculum. Or else.”

“The University of North Carolina is disputing the Trump administration’s accusations of bias in a Middle East studies program that the school operates with Duke University. In a letter sent to the department Friday and obtained by The Associated Press through a records request on Monday, UNC’s research chief defends the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, saying it has been a leader in Middle Eastern language studies for years.”