NEW FROM FMEP
FMEP Legislative Round-Up April 25, 2025 (Lara Friedman)
- Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings; 4. Selected Members on the Record; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements
GAZA
The Situation in Gaza Is No Longer a War, but an Unrestrained Assault on Civilians (Jack Khoury//Haaretz 4/18/25)
“In the absence of any real military targets, Israel is waging a reckless offensive against those who are in no way involved in the fighting against it. Gazans are forced to choose between death and displacement to ‘safe zones’ that are far from safe.” See also At least 59 Palestinians killed as Israel escalates Gaza bombardment (Al Jazeera 4/24/25); Children in school shelter among 25 killed in wave of Israeli strikes on Gaza (The Guardian 4/23/25); Israeli bombardment of Gaza kills 92 in two days: Health Ministry (Al Jazeera 4/19/25);
‘We’ll Die Whether From Hunger or the Bombing’: Gaza Faces Critical Food Shortage (Sheren Falah Saab//Haaretz 4/25/25)
“”It’s very hard – so hard that I can’t concentrate,” says H., a journalist from the Gaza Strip describing his efforts to cope with the shortage of food and clean water. He sounds exhausted. “I feel weak,” he says. “I eat one date at 1 P.M. and another at 6. It’s been like that for three weeks now. The rice at home is almost gone, and there’s no flour. The only thing I’m thinking about is how to feed my kids in the next few days.”…The food shortage is the biggest challenge for most Gazans now. Eight weeks have passed since Israel stopped allowing aid into the Strip, and experts are warning of a sudden and rapid decline in health due to the shortages of food, clean water and medicine. This situation isn’t new for Gazans. In the past year they have learned to adapt to extreme conditions, including hunger. But now they are very worn out, both emotionally and physically, and with each day their ability to survive erodes further.” See also Israel ends mention of humanitarian zones as Gaza war grinds on (Guardian 4/24/25); Despair in Gaza as Israeli aid blockade creates crisis ‘unmatched in severity’ (Guardian 4/19/25); World Food Program says it has run out of food stocks in Gaza due to closing of crossings (Haaretz 4/25/25)
Bombing plants, severing pipelines: Israel pushes Gaza water crisis to the brink (Ibtisam Mahdi//+972 Magazine 4/23/25)
“Since March, the army’s intensified targeting of water infrastructure has left Gazans no choice but to drink seawater and ration contaminated supplies…This crisis is not a side effect of Israel’s onslaught, but rather a deliberate aspect of it. According to data from Gaza’s Government Media Office, the Israeli army has destroyed 719 water wells since October 7. On March 10, Israel cut off the remaining electricity supply to Gaza, forcing the Strip’s largest desalination plant to scale down its operations. A few days later, the second largest plant went out of service due to fuel shortages resulting from Israel’s total blockade on the enclave. Another, the Ghabayen plant in Gaza City, was bombed in early April. And on April 5, Israel halted the water supply to Gaza from the Israeli company Mekorot, which provided nearly 70 percent of the Strip’s drinking water.” See also ‘No mercy’: Israel keeps blocking aid amid systematic destruction of Gaza (Al Jazeera 4/24/25)
Reoccupying Gaza (Joshua Leifer//NYRB 4/23/25)
“After Israel blocked the entry of all goods and humanitarian aid early last month, conditions in the territory have again become dire…The next stage in Israel’s destruction of the territory appears to be what many on the country’s hardline right have long urged: a reversion to the pre-disengagement paradigm of direct occupation and siege…Top Israeli officials, Netanyahu among them, have simultaneously committed to another goal: the mass expulsion of Gaza’s inhabitants.” See also Eyeing a new opportunity, Jewish settlers are positioning themselves on the Gaza border (JTA 4/18/25)
Israel’s A.I. Experiments in Gaza War Raise Ethical Concerns (NYT 4/25/25)
“In the past 18 months, Israel has also combined A.I. with facial recognition software to match partly obscured or injured faces to real identities, turned to A.I. to compile potential airstrike targets, and created an Arabic-language A.I. model to power a chatbot that could scan and analyze text messages, social media posts and other Arabic-language data, two people with knowledge of the programs said. Many of these efforts were a partnership between enlisted soldiers in Unit 8200 and reserve soldiers who work at tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Meta, three people with knowledge of the technologies said. Unit 8200 set up what became known as “The Studio,” an innovation hub and place to match experts with A.I. projects, the people said…No other nation has been as active as Israel in experimenting with A.I. tools in real-time battles, European and American defense officials said, giving a preview of how such technologies may be used in future wars — and how they might also go awry.” See also Spain halts controversial $7.5m deal to buy ammunition from Israeli company (Al Jazeera 4/24/25); Israel Is Using Suicide Drones to Target Displaced Palestinian Families Sheltering in Tents (Drop Site 4/24/25)
Israel acknowledges killing aid worker in strike after initially accusing UN of ‘baseless slander’ (CNN 4/24/25)
“The Israeli military acknowledged on Thursday that it was responsible for killing a United Nations aid worker in a strike on a UN guesthouse in Gaza last month, backtracking on its previous denials in the face of mounting public evidence of Israeli responsibility…The Israeli military initially denied any role in the strike on the UN guesthouse and Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused the United Nations of “baseless slander” for saying Israeli tank fire was the source of the attack.” See also Israel Acknowledges Second Deadly Attack on Aid Workers in Gaza (NYT 4/24/25)
Killing of Gaza Aid Workers: IDF Troops Fired Indiscriminately for Over Three Minutes, Some at Point-blank Range (Haaretz 4/23/25)
“The soldiers fired at the vehicles continuously for three and a half minutes – even from point-blank range – reloading their ammunition multiple times, despite attempts by the aid workers to identify themselves.” See also New details on killing of paramedics in Gaza appear to contradict IDF’s account (Guardian 4/24/25); Humanitarian agencies reject IDF claim Gaza medic killings caused by ‘professional failures’ (Guardian 4/21/25)
REGION/GLOBAL
Trump willing to meet Iran’s Khamenei but ‘will be leading’ war pack if no deal (Al Monitor 4/25/25)
“President Donald Trump said he is optimistic that a deal can be reached with Iran on its nuclear program and is willing to meet with Iran’s president or supreme leader…Asked about his concerns that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would drag him into military conflict with Iran, Trump emphatically said, “No,” explaining, “He may go into a war. But we’re not getting dragged in,” and adding that the United States “may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”’ See also Amid differences, Trump and Netanyahu hold call, discuss Iran nuclear talks (Al Monitor 4/22/25); Trump’s NSC Director for Israel and Iran Previously Worked for Israeli Ministry of Defense (Drop Site 4/21/25); U.S. negotiating position on Iran in flux as talks continue (WaPo 4/24/25);
US to offer Saudi Arabia $100bn weapons deal as Trump visit planned: Report (Al Jazeera 4/25/25)
“The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth more than $100bn, the Reuters news agency reports, citing six sources familiar with the matter. The deal is reportedly in the works in advance of a planned trip by US President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next month, Reuters reported on Thursday.” See also How Gaza’s horrors turned Israeli normalization into a Saudi domestic crisis (Hind Al Ansari//+972 4/25/25); US attacks Yemen again after at least 80 people killed in Hodeidah (Al Jazeera 4/19/25); Yemen’s Houthi fighters down $200m worth of US drones in under six weeks (Al Jazeera 4/25/25); U.S. Airstrike Hits Yemeni Capital, Killing 12, Local Health Officials Say (NYT 4/21/25);
Gaza’s Christians ‘heartbroken’ for pope who phoned them nightly (Reuters 4/21/25)
“Members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community said they were “heartbroken” on Monday at the death of Pope Francis, who campaigned for peace for the devastated enclave and spoke to them on the phone every evening throughout the war…Francis called the [Holy Family Church] hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, [George] Antone [head of the church’s emergency committee] said, the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war. He would make sure to speak not only to the priest but to everyone else in the room, Antone said. “We are heartbroken because of the death of Pope Francis, but we know that he is leaving behind a church that cares for us and that knows us by name – every single one of us,” Antone said, referring to the Christians of Gaza who number in the hundreds.” See also Pope Francis’ final speech called for ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza war (The Forward 4/21/25);
Jordan bans Muslim Brotherhood: Here’s what to know about the group (Al Monitor 4/23/25)
“Jordan banned the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, throwing the future of the largest opposition bloc in the Hashemite Kingdom into question and joining a host of Arab countries that have outlawed the Islamist group. Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh announced a ban on the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities, adding that membership in the organization and promoting its ideas are likewise prohibited. Jordanian police raided premises used by the Brotherhood on Wednesday in accordance with the ruling, state media reported. The decision followed Jordanian authorities announcing a foiled plot last week allegedly linked to the group. Jordanian intelligence said they arrested 16 people over a plan “targeting national security, sowing chaos and sabotage within Jordan.” The government said the alleged perpetrators belonged to an unspecified “dissolved group,” and some of the accused said in confessions aired on state television that they were recruited by the Muslim Brotherhood. The plan included efforts to manufacture weapons and drones, per the authorities.” See also Jordan outlaws Muslim Brotherhood group, confiscates assets (Al Jazeera 4/23/25)
RIVER TO THE SEA
My Oscar for ‘No Other Land’ Didn’t Protect Me From Violence (Hamdan Ballal//NYT 4/25/25)
“On March 2, I won an Academy Award for best documentary for a film I co-directed, “No Other Land.” It’s hard to put into words how that moment felt. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life. Three weeks later, I was brutally attacked in my home and arrested. In an instant, it was as if the Oscars had never happened, as if the award didn’t mean anything…The press attention that the attack in Susiya received because of our Oscar victory was unlike anything we experienced before. The messages and voices of support around the world have been overwhelming. I know that there are thousands and thousands of people who now know my name and my story, who know my community’s name and our story and who stand with us and support us. Don’t turn away now.” See also ‘No Other Land’ Made Available for Download in North America Amid Distribution Challenges (Haaretz 4/21/25); See No Other Land here.
A settler shot a Palestinian father in the leg. Soldiers arrived to detain his son (Basel Adra//+972 Magazine 4/22/25)
“After the attack in the West Bank village of Al-Rakeez, Sheikh Saeed Rabaa was forced to undergo amputation, as his son Ilyas remained in Ofer Prison.” See also Israeli Settlers Torched Homes, Goat Pen, Shot at Palestinian Residents in West Bank (Haaretz 4/24/25);
Half of Jewish Israeli Teens Hate Arabs, but Hope for Change Remains, Study Shows (Haaretz 4/18/25)
“In the latest aChord report, “Losing True North: Commitment to Democracy among Israeli Youth,” 51 percent of Jewish respondents reported high levels of hatred toward Arabs versus 33 percent of Arab respondents toward Jews. A quarter of Jewish Israeli teenagers think Jews and Arabs should be separated in public spaces…Only a few studies have been done on young people’s attitudes toward Israel’s various population groups, [aChord CEO Ron] Gerlitz says. He believes that these efforts will help “reduce tensions between the groups and promote an emotional, behavioral and educational infrastructure among the education system’s future graduates.” His aChord Center is part of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and promotes egalitarian, tolerant and respectful relations among Israel’s social groups – and between Israel and its neighbors.”
Israeli Minister Says Freeing Hostages Not ‘Most Important’ Aim of the War (NYT 4/21/25)
“A far-right Israeli politician said on Monday that saving the hostages in Gaza was not Israel’s “most important goal” in its war with Hamas, further stoking the debate in Israel over its objectives for the war. Bezalel Smotrich, the country’s powerful finance minister, suggested in a radio interview that ensuring that Hamas no longer ruled the Gaza Strip after its deadly 2023 attack in southern Israel was a higher priority.”
U.S. SCENE
In a Normal World, Harvard’s Lawsuit Against Trump Would Be a Slam Dunk (Elie Mystal//The Nation 4/24/25)
“In a world where laws, constitutional principles, and even court rulings still mattered, Harvard’s lawsuit would be a slam dunk against the Trump administration. The government ordered Harvard to promote speech the government finds valuable. It literally told Harvard to hire certain kinds of professors, admit certain kinds of students, and deny admission to other kinds of students, based solely on what those professors and students say and how they think. When Harvard refused, the government punished the university, in an attempt to coerce it into saying and doing what the government wanted it to say and do. The government’s coercion and attempted compulsion of the university’s speech is a clear violation of the First Amendment. Harvard should win this case, easily, and only the most unprincipled judicial avatars of the Trump movement (like, perhaps, Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito) will even try to argue otherwise. What’s critical to understand here is that Harvard violated no laws, and the Trump administration does not even allege that Harvard violated any laws. What the Trump people want you to forget is that we already have a law (a very famous law) that prohibits universities from engaging in discrimination, including antisemitism, when it comes to hiring professors or admitting students. It’s called the 1964 Civil Rights Act. If the Trump administration, or literally anyone else, thought that Harvard was discriminating against Jewish students, prospective students, or faculty, they could sue Harvard.” See also By Weaponizing Arrest Records and Suspending Due Process, the Trump Administration Has Targeted Over 1,000 Foreign Students (Drop Site 4/19/25); What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it (Forward 4/16/25); Jewish Senate Dems accuse Trump of weaponizing antisemitism to attack universities (Jewish Insider 4/25/25)
Trump Administration Texted College Professors’ Personal Phones to Ask If They’re Jewish (Akela Lacy//The Intercept 4/23/25);
“Most professors at Barnard College received text messages on Monday notifying them that a federal agency was reviewing the college’s employment practices, according to copies of the messages reviewed by The Intercept. The messages, sent to most Barnard professors’ personal cellphones, asked them to complete a voluntary survey about their employment. “Please select all that apply,” said the second question in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, survey. The choices followed: “I am Jewish”; “I am Israeli”; “I have shared Jewish/Israeli ancestry”; “I practice Judaism”; and “Other.” Other questions asked respondents whether they had been subjected to antisemitism, as well as whether they were subject to “unwelcome discussions,” graffiti or signs depicting antisemitic messages or images, antisemitic or anti-Israeli protests, “unwelcome comments, jokes or discussions,” or “pressure to abandon, change or adopt a practice or religious belief.” “The federal government reaching out to our personal cellphones to identify who is Jewish is incredibly sinister,” said Barnard associate professor Debbie Becher, who is Jewish and received the text. “They are clearly targeting what most of the United States, I hope and I think, defines as freedom of speech, but only in the case of anti-Israeli speech.”’ See also U.S. Federal Gov’t Texted Barnard Staff to Ask if They’re Jewish or Israeli, Faced Antisemitism (Haaretz 4/24/25); US philanthropists warn against capitulating to Trump: ‘We need to step up’ (The Guardian 4/19/25); Philanthropies fear Trump will target their tax-exempt status (DevEx 4/18/25); The Trump Takeover of the US Institute of Peace—What Nonprofits Need to Know and How to Prepare (Nonprofit Quarterly 4/17/25);
‘Pro-Palestinian Protesters Backing the Nazis in Gaza’ | Far-right Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir Taunts Yale Protesters as Water Bottles Thrown at Him (Haaretz 4/24/25)
“Pro-Palestinian protests and projectiles were aimed at Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after he addressed a Jewish society for Yale students in New Haven on Wednesday…According to the attendee, Ben-Gvir said Israel should bomb food storage facilities in Gaza and ethnically cleanse Palestinians, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate them to other countries.” See also Ben-Gvir: US Republicans support bombing Gaza ‘food and aid depots’ (Al Jazeera 4/23/25);
PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS
‘Infinite License’ (Omer Bartov//NYRB 4/24/25)
“The Israelis are perpetrating a genocide in Gaza because they perceive Palestinians as savages, but they have justified it as a response to another potential genocide that would be akin to the Holocaust, carried out by Hamas militants who were rehearsing for another Final Solution…And when “never again” becomes not just a slogan but part of a state ideology, when it becomes the prism transforming every threat, every security issue, every challenge to the state’s legitimacy or righteousness into an existential peril, then no holds must be barred to defend those who have already faced annihilation. It is a worldview, [Peter] Beinart writes, that “offers infinite license to fallible human beings.” Once Hamas militants are seen as modern-day Nazis, Israel can be imagined as an avenging angel, uprooting its enemies with fire and sword…How was it possible, well into the twenty-first century, eighty years after the end of the Holocaust and the creation of an international legal regime meant to prevent such crimes from ever happening again, that the state of Israel—seen and self-described as the answer to the genocide of the Jews—could have carried out a genocide of Palestinians with near-total impunity? How do we face up to the fact that Israel has invoked the Holocaust to shatter the legal order put into place to prevent a repetition of this “crime of crimes”?’
The Cowardice of Elites (Nathan Robinson//Current Affairs 4/16/25)
“ In fact, Harvard didn’t want to fight Trump. The New York Times notes that until recently Harvard “had adopted a conspicuously low and accommodating profile — so much so that many on campus had openly fretted that the university was pursuing a Columbia-style path of appeasement.” It was only when the Trump administration (apparently accidentally) sent Harvard an impossibly extreme list of demands that the university was forced into the position of fighting Trump. In its lawsuit against the administration, Harvard takes great pains to show how much it has done to crack down on protests and boasts that it has distinguished itself from other universities by adopting the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism…The Trump administration will escalate its efforts to quell dissent. Trump is carrying through his vow to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests and conduct mass deportations.”
‘My work is a scream for help’: Gaza’s artists document life under fire (Guardian 4/21/25)
“Work illustrating the war’s brutality but also the resilience of four Palestinian artists, is being exhibited at the Darat al Funan in Jordan”
Remembering an artist who gave life to the children of Gaza (Loaay Wattad//+972 4/18/25)
“Dorgham Qreaiqea led film, theater, and painting projects with an unshakeable belief in the power of art to transcend the war. An Israeli airstrike killed him.”