Top news stories from Israel/Palestine: January 16, 2019

What We’re Reading

US-Israeli/Palestinian relations

Florida governor threatens Airbnb over West Bank settlements,

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he would prohibit state workers and contractors from using Airbnb facilities over the company’s decision to remove about 200 rental units located in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

GOP Lawmakers Team Up With Anti-Islam Activist To Launch Israel Victory Caucus,

A pair of Republican lawmakers launched a caucus on Thursday aimed at ensuring the “victory of Israel in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” The legislators seek to replace peace talks with a policy that could be seen as greenlighting Israeli aggression towards Palestinians.

Occupation/Human rights

Israeli settlers uproot olive trees near Hebron's Ibrahimi mosque,

Israeli settlers under the heavy protection of Israeli forces raided the garden of the Ibrahimi mosque and uprooted olive trees, in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron, on Sunday.

Israel evicting Palestinian family to replace them with settlers,

Authorities hand eviction order to the Sabbagh family of 45 people, so Israeli settlers could move into their homes.

Palestinian politics

Thousands of Palestinians Strike in West Bank Over PA Social Security Law,

Some 2,000 Palestinians working in the private sector demonstrated Tuesday against a new social security law that went into effect after a few delays.

Israeli politics

Radical Settler, ‘Proud Homophobe’ and Wunderkind: Meet the New Leader of Israel's Far Right,

Bezazel Smotrich, the youthful face of unrepentant Jewish extremism, has been elected to lead one of Israel’s oldest parties, marking a generational changing of guard in the settler movement.