Top news stories from Israel/Palestine: April 4, 2018

What We’re Reading

Gaza

Israel: Gaza Killings Unlawful, Calculated ,

Senior Israeli officials who unlawfully called for use of live ammunition against Palestinian demonstrations who posed no imminent threat to life bear responsibility for the killings of 14 demonstrators in Gaza and the injuring of hundreds on March 30, 2018, according to Human Rights Watch.

As soldiers, we too were told to open fire at protesters in Gaza,

“I was on the border with Gaza six years ago. The same marchers, the same protest. Even the orders to open fire at crowds of people remained the same,” writes Shai Eluk.

B'Tselem to Israeli soldiers: Refuse orders to shoot Gaza protesters,

Israeli soldiers have a legal obligation to refuse manifestly illegal orders. In a new campaign, the Israeli human rights group says shooting unarmed civilian protesters is just that — unmistakably and patently illegal.

The Gaza march is a wake-up call to the world ,

“With this march, Palestinians in Gaza are reminding the world that they cannot be “managed”. They and their fellow Palestinian refugees continue to hold rights under international law,” writes Tareq Baconi.

Gaza: The Open-Air Prison Seethes,

“The events along the Gaza border underscore how, no matter how hard Israel may try to wall off the Gaza Strip not only from its own territory but from our consciousness and from the universe of live and festering political issues, it cannot succeed,” writes Paul Pillar.

Israelis kill Palestinian man in Gaza buffer zone,

A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli troops on the Gaza border on Tuesday, the health ministry in the Strip said. The ministry said 25-year-old Ahmed Arafa was shot in the chest in the buffer zone area east of Bureij in central Gaza.

Occupation/Human rights

Digital occupation: What's behind Israel's social media in Arabic,

Israeli social media accounts in Arabic aim to normalise Israel’s occupation and whitewash its image, Palestinians say.

Cars vandalized in Palestinian village in suspected hate crime attack,

Several cars were vandalized in a Palestinian village in the West Bank early Wednesday and spray-painted with graffiti messages in Hebrew in an attack Palestinians blamed on Israeli settlers.

Defense Ministry clears minefield near settlement, pledges new housing on site,

A Defense Ministry unit began clearing a minefield outside the Karnei Shomron settlement Tuesday, paving the way for the expansion of the Jewish community in the northern West Bank.

Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East

Saudi Prince Says Israelis Have Right to ‘Their Own Land’,

Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince has said that Israelis “have the right to have their own land” and that formal relations between Israel and the kingdom could be mutually beneficial, in an interview with The Atlantic.

Palestinian politics

PA accuses Israel of ‘shoot-to-kill policy’ in Gaza, asks for UN protection,

The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations has appealed to the Security Council for immediate international protection for Palestinian protesters in the wake of the deadly clashes along the Israel-Gaza border last week.

Abbas meets with Egyptian intel chief on reconciliation with Hamas,

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in his office in Ramallah on Tuesday with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Mustafa, who delivered to him an “important” letter from President Abedel-Fattah el-Sissi.

US-Israeli/Palestinian relations

US high court cancels $655m jury award against the PLO,

The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid to make the Palestine Liberation Organization pay $655m in damages to Americans injured in six attacks in Israel.

BDS and settlement boycotts

Sweden's envoy in Israel says BDS not anti-Semitic,

Sweden’s ambassador to Israel criticized on Tuesday what he said was a tendency in Israel to “demonize” Sweden and in particular foreign minister Margot Wallström, and said that he doesn’t see the BDS movement as anti-Semitic.

Will Cynthia Nixon’s Bid For NY Governor Split Jews Over Israel?,

The entry last week of actress Cynthia Nixon into the race against incumbent Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination raises the possibility the two might also square off over Israel and the Palestinians.