NEW FROM FMEP
FMEP Legislative Round-Up July 18, 2025 (Lara Friedman)
- Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters & Reports; 3. Hearings & Briefings; 4. Selected Members on the Record; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements
A conversation with Stefanie Fox, Executive Director of JVP (Occupied Thoughts podcast episode)
MEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Executive Director Stefanie Fox about the evolution of JVP as a Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the US, strategies for growing the movement, and navigating uncomfortable coalition partners, including on the political far-right. They also discuss how JVP thinks thinks about accountability to Palestinian partners, how it approaches electoral work and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), and how to counter the ubiquitous claim that US bases its support for Israel on a commitment to protecting Jewish people rather than on U.S. geopolitical and corporate interests.
“Late Stage Zionism” & What it Might Suggest for the Future of Israel and Palestine (Occupied Thoughts podcast episode)
FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Palestinian political analyst Iyad El-Baghdadi about Israel’s regional military campaigns, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and how it’s current aggressive posture reflects the attitudes of Israel’s founders. Looking forward, the two discuss how the bigger picture provides a framework to suggest what might come next.
GAZA
Aid for Gaza’s starving children is right at the gates. Let it in (Juliette Touma//+972 Magazine 7/15/25)
“More than 50 children died of malnutrition during Israel’s total blockade between March and May, according to the WHO, and malnutrition rates are still rising rapidly. Since January 24, UNRWA has screened over 242,000 children at its clinics and medical points, covering more than half of Gaza’s under-5 population. One in 10 children screened is malnourished…In Gaza, therapeutic food and medicine are in desperately short supply. Israeli authorities have imposed a tight siege, blocking the entry of food, medical supplies, nutritional aid, and even hygiene items like soap. Although the blockade is sometimes eased, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the primary humanitarian organization in Gaza, has not been allowed to bring in aid for over four months…Why should babies die of malnutrition in the 21st century, especially when it’s entirely preventable?” See also Stampede at Gaza aid distribution site kills at least 21, Health Ministry says (WaPo 7/16/25); Israeli airstrike kills at least 10, including six children, at Gaza water station, say health officials (The Guardian 7/13/25); At Least 70 Killed by IDF in Gaza, Including 28 Waiting for Aid, Amid Worsening Hunger, Officials Say (Haaretz 7/12/25);
GHF Guards Gassed Starving and Fenced in Palestinians, Causing a Deadly Stampede (Sharif Abdel Kouddous//Drop Site 7/17/25)
“At around 6 a.m., word spread that the site had opened and the crowd ran towards the distribution hub, according to multiple eyewitnesses, located some two to three kilometers (nearly two miles) away. When they arrived, a nightmarish scene unfolded. The site was closed, though sacks of food could be seen through a narrow and fenced in entrance. Starving and desperate, the crowd squeezed into the area. People were pushed up against the fencing, chest to back, hardly able to breathe. Some fell on the ground and were unable to get up. Then, according to eyewitnesses, GHF guards stationed nearby threw stun grenades and used pepper spray on the crowd, causing mayhem…At least 21 people were killed in the incident, according to the Gaza health ministry, and 15 of them died from suffocation due to the gas and the stampede at the site—what the ministry now calls “death traps”—while six others were shot on the road leading to it.” See also UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites (Reuters 7/15/25); IDF blames ‘error’ for Gaza strike that killed children collecting water (WaPo 7/13/25);
Israel strikes the Gaza church the pope used to call nightly, killing 3 (WaPo 7/17/25)
“An Israeli strike Thursday hit the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, killing three people, injuring 10 and causing extensive damage to the religious complex, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, an ecclesiastical office for Catholics in the region…The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on X that the strike was the result of a “stray ammunition.” The Israel Defense Forces said an initial inquiry “suggests that fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly.” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, told Vatican News that a tank had fired on the church directly, “the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this.”’ See also After angry call from Trump, PM says Israel deeply regrets mistaken shelling of Gaza church (TOI 7/18/25); Jerusalem’s highest-ranking Christian officials enter Gaza to visit church hit by IDF (TOI 6/18/25); Netanyahu Discusses Gaza Catholic Church Strike With Pope as Medics Say 25 Palestinians Killed in Friday Attacks (Haaretz 7/18/25)
Scoop: Israel seeks U.S. help on deals to move Palestinians out of Gaza (Axios 7/18/25)
“The director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency visited Washington this week seeking U.S. help in convincing countries to take hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, two sources with knowledge of issue tell Axios. The spy chief, David Barnea, told White House envoy Steve Witkoff that Israel has been speaking in particular with Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya.” See also Ceasefire talks give cautious hope. But the reality in Gaza couldn’t be more brutal (Ahmed Ahmed//+972 Magazine 7/11/25)
No Cancer Care, No Dialysis, No Power: Gaza’s Health System Is on the Brink of Collapse (Nir Hasson, Jack Khoury & Rawan Suleiman//Haaretz 7/10/25)
“ Of the 36 hospitals that were functioning before the war, 22 have been rendered inoperable and abandoned – either due to bombings or orders from the IDF. Beyond the direct harm to medical personnel, Gaza now has roughly half the number of hospital beds it did before the war, fewer than 50% of its operating rooms, just a third of its CT scanners, and none of the seven MRI machines that once existed in the Strip…In the 16 Gazan hospitals that are still operational – or partially functional – the situation is apocalyptic: doctors are struggling to keep thousands of wounded and ill patients alive inside partially destroyed buildings, without adequate equipment or medication, without clean water, and amid a collapsing electrical grid.” See also Israel Blocks Medical Equipment From Entering Gaza Strip, Citing Potential Hamas Use (Haaretz 7/14/25);
‘Humanitarian city’ would be concentration camp for Palestinians, says former Israeli PM (The Guardian 7/13/25)
“The “humanitarian city” Israel’s defence minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert has told the Guardian. Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert said, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation…Olmert said that after months of violent rhetoric, including calls from ministers to “cleanse” Gaza and projects to build Israeli settlements there, government claims that the “humanitarian city” aimed to protect Palestinians were not credible. “When they build a camp where they [plan to] ‘clean’ more than half of Gaza, then the inevitable understanding of the strategy of this [is that] it is not to save [Palestinians]. It is to deport them, to push them and to throw them away. There is no other understanding that I have, at least.”’ See also Concentration Camp, Illegal Orders and War Crimes: Israel’s Madmen Have a Grim New Plan (Dahlia Scheindlin//Haaretz 7/15/25)
Autel denies selling drones to Israel. So why are they roaming Gaza’s skies? (Yuval Abraham//+972 Magazine 7/17/25)
“Last week, +972 Magazine and Local Call published an investigation into the Israeli army’s weaponization of cheap commercial drones to bomb civilians in Gaza. Despite their intended use for photography, these drones have been modified by the army to carry grenades, and can be manually operated by ground troops with joysticks. Soldiers testified that they use the drones to drop grenades with the intent to kill Palestinians — including children — in parts of Gaza that Israel seeks to depopulate, so that others will “learn through blood” to flee the area. Many of these drones, we revealed, were manufactured by the Chinese company Autel Robotics. In response to our investigation, Autel said it was “deeply disturbed and gravely concerned” by our findings, but claimed it “has never sold drones to any users in the Israeli region, including but not limited to the Israeli military or Ministry of Defense.”…However, conversations with four Israeli importers of Autel drones, email correspondence included in a legal petition that has been made public, and information from the company’s own website undermine the credibility of Autel’s assertion that it was unaware of sales to the Israeli army and the use of its drones for military purposes.”
REGION//GLOBAL
Why did Israel attack Syria — and what does it have to do with the Druze (WaPo 7/18/25)
“Israel launched a wave of strikes on Syria this week, hitting the presidential palace and Defense Ministry in Damascus. Israel said the attacks were meant to protect Syria’s Druze minority. The Israeli intervention stemmed from a sectarian conflict on Syria’s southern border — where Druze and Bedouin groups have clashed. The Israeli attacks Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least three people in Syria and injured dozens, including women and children, before the Syrian government and a Druze leader announced a ceasefire, which remains tenuous. Here’s what to know about the Druze in Syria and the Israeli strikes.” See also As Bedouins mobilize, clashes with Druze resume in Syria’s Suwayda: What to know (Al Monitor 7/18/25); Israel strikes Syria’s defence ministry in third day of attacks (The Guardian 7/16/25); Israeli airstrikes target Syrian government troops amid sectarian unrest (WaPo 7/15/25); Israeli jets hit Syrian forces seeking to quell sectarian clashes in the south (WaPo 7/14/25);
“Humiliation and Helplessness”: Sectarian Violence Continues Unabated in Syria as Israel Strikes Damascus (Murtaza Hussain//Drop Site 7/17/25)
“The Israeli government has claimed that its attacks on Damascus were intended as a defense of the Syrian Druze community. In recent days, deadly clashes between Druze militias, Bedouin tribes, and armed groups associated with the Syrian government have taken place in the southern governorate of Sweida. In a statement giving the reason for its assault on the capital, the Israeli military said that, “the military headquarters in Damascus is the location from which Syrian regime commanders direct combat operations and deploy regime forces to the As-Suwayda area,” adding that the Israeli military “remains prepared for various scenarios.” The Syrian government led by interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a speech late Wednesday night characterizing the violence as part of an Israeli effort to divide the country along sectarian lines. “The Israeli entity—which has always sought to destabilize us and sow discord among us since the fall of the former regime—is once again trying to turn our sacred land into an endless arena of chaos,” Sharaa said in a speech. “Through this, it aims to fracture our people’s unity and weaken our ability to continue the path of reconstruction and national revival.”…The clashes in Sweida that preceded the Israeli assault on Damascus began after the government dispatched troops earlier this week to quell fighting between Druze and Bedouin militias in the region that was triggered by the reported abduction of a Druze merchant by Bedouin groups and retaliatory attacks by Druze militias that have maintained an autonomous presence in the region. Pro-government militias are then alleged to have engaged in attacks on Druze groups in the region, which had previously rejected government authority being imposed on Sweida.” See also Syria: Over 370 killed in Suwayda as fragile truce holds, Sharaa promises Druze local control (Al Monitor 7/17/25); Israeli Druze breach Syria border, call for ‘day of rage’ over Suwayda clashes (Al Monitor 7/16/25); ‘I haven’t been here in 40 years’: Emotional reunions as Druze cross Israel-Syria fence (Oren Ziv//+972 Magazine 7/18/25)
In EU first, Slovenia to ban Ben Gvir and Smotrich over ‘genocidal statements’ (TOI 7/17/25)
“Slovenia announced on Thursday that it will ban two far-right Israeli ministers from entering the country, in what authorities said was a first in the European Union. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will be declared “persona non grata,” the Slovenian government said in a statement, accusing them of inciting “extreme violence and serious violations of the human rights of Palestinians” with “their genocidal statements.”In June, Australia, Canada, Britain, New Zealand, and Norway imposed similar sanctions on Smotrich and Ben Gvir, key coalition partners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.” See also The rest of the world struggles to restrain Israel (Ishaan Tharoor//WaPo 7/17/25); EU accused of ‘cruel and unlawful betrayal’ of Palestinians over failure to confront Israel (The Guardian 7/16/25)
In Colombia, The Hague Group Charges Israel With Genocide (Jose Olivares//Drop News 7/15/25)
“On Tuesday, ministers and officials from over 30 countries gathered in Bogotá, Colombia to convene The Hague Group, an international organization co-chaired by the governments of Colombia and South Africa. The two-day conference will discuss steps forward for the international community to stop Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians…The countries represented at the emergency conference this week include Algeria, Bolivia, China, Brazil, Iraq, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Spain, Turkey, and Venezuela…Notably, Qatar and Egypt, which are overseeing negotiations between Hamas and the Israeli government, are in attendance…The conference marks an inflection point for how some states will address the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians by Israeli military forces. Some governments and officials are divided in their approach to pressure Israel, with some officials more hesitant than others on whether to call for the severance of diplomatic relations and whether to place sanctions on Israel…Annelle Sheline, a former foreign affairs officer at the State Department who resigned in March 2024 over the slaughter in Gaza, is attending the week’s proceedings. In response to the attempt by the US State Department to bully participating countries at the emergency meeting of the Hague Group, she told Drop Site, “These are sovereign states who have every right to uphold their obligations as UN members, including under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” She added, “This is not the weaponization of international law. This is the application of international law.”’
RIVER TO THE SEA
Family of US citizen beaten to death by Israeli settlers calls on Trump administration to prosecute killers (The Guardian 7/15/25)
“Relatives of Sayfollah Musallet, a US citizen from Florida beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, are calling for the Trump administration to arrest and prosecute those responsible for his killing. The 20-year-old from Tampa was visiting his family in an area near Ramallah, and died last week trying to protect their farm from invaders, they said at an emotional press conference in Florida on Monday afternoon…Musallet was beaten with clubs and bats, and died in the same attack that killed a 23-year-old Palestinian man. Razek Hussein al-Shalabi was shot and left to bleed to death, the Palestinian health ministry said. Hasem Musallet said the settlers prevented ambulances from reaching the injured men, and that a brother watched Sayfollah take his last breath.” See also Israeli settlers beat U.S. citizen to death in West Bank (NPR 7/12/25); ‘Why are you not preventing settler terrorism’: Palestinians call out IDF following beating death of American man (CNN 7/16/25); Huckabee calls on Israel to ‘aggressively’ probe ‘terrorist murder’ of US-Palestinian in West Bank (TOI 7/15/25); Huckabee calls on Israel to ‘aggressively investigate’ killing of American citizen in West Bank (JI 7/15/25); Huckabee Calls Death of Palestinian-American in West Bank ‘Terrorism’ (NYT 7/15/25);
The suffocation of Sinjil (Shatha Yaish//+972 Magazine 7/14/25)
“Encaging the West Bank town with barbed wire, Israel has cut off residents’ land and left others exposed to settler attacks, including a recent lynching.” See also Palestinian child shot dead in West Bank by Israeli forces amid land grabs (Al Jazeera 7/18/25); West Bank Palestinians say settlers stole and killed dozens of sheep (Haaretz 7/18/25)
U.S. ambassador makes an unprecedented visit to Netanyahu’s trial (Axios 7/16/25)
“Huckabee’s attendance at the court hearing is a significantly unusual and unprecedented move by a U.S. ambassador to Israel. The move was a way for Huckabee and the Trump administration to express support for Israel’s prime minister and to signal what seems to be distrust in the nation’s judicial system. In the weeks since the war between Israel and Iran ended, Trump has been pressing publicly to halt Netanyahu’s corruption trial, dangling an implicit threat to suspend military assistance if the “witch hunt” continues against the prime minister…At the court, Huckabee said he didn’t come to the hearing to express an opinion on the legal proceeding itself, but to send the message that President Trump was in a similar situation in the U.S. and that he thinks the trial distracts Netanyahu from his role as prime minister.” See also Ultra-Orthodox party quits Israeli coalition, weakening Netanyahu (WaPo 7/16/25)
Israel Renews Plans for Controversial Construction That Would Effectively Cut West Bank in Two (Hagar Shezaf//Haaretz 7/14/25)
“In a first since 2021, Israel’s government is renewing plans for construction in the E1 area, which will sever the northern West Bank from the southern West Bank…Objections to the plan were filed by organizations including Peace Now, Ir Amim and the Association of Environmental Justice in Israel, which joined Palestinians who live in the area and oppose the plans…They added that the plans have potential repercussions on a future peace agreement, since it will create a contiguous line of Jewish settlements, from the central West Bank leading up to Jerusalem.”
My journalist friend was arrested by Israel. He won’t be the last (Meron Rapoport//+972 Magazine 7/18/25)
“Early last week, Israeli authorities arrested one of the most senior journalists in Palestine: Nasser Laham, editor-in-chief of the Ma’an News Agency. He was held for nine days on suspicion of “assisting a terror organization through media,” then quietly released without charge…According to [Laham’s attorney, Osama] Saadi, the allegations rested primarily on Nasser’s affiliation with the Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen and on classified evidence never shared with the defense. In the end, he was released without conditions, and Saadi predicts that no charges will be filed…Indeed, Nasser’s arrest seems to have served another purpose. A journalist known in nearly every Palestinian household and across much of the Arab world, his detention aimed to send a clear message to all Palestinians: no one is immune. Not those living in caves or tin shacks in Masafer Yatta or the Jordan Valley, and not those who travel the world interviewing prime ministers. Even after his release, the message lingers. Nasser wasn’t the only journalist arrested by the Israeli authorities last week; Israel Frey, a Jewish-Israeli independent journalist and left-wing activist, was also detained by police for a tweet…It’s hard not to see the connection between Nasser’s arrest and that of Israel Frey, both of which fall on the same spectrum of silencing and intimidation.”
Home Raids and Violence: In Hebron, ‘Voluntary’ Transfer of Palestinians Is Underway (Gideon Levy & Alex Levac//Haaretz 7/11/25)
“Hebron’s main marketplace has been almost completely deserted for years. Anyone who wants to understand why, need only gaze upward: Hanging from the metal grilles Palestinians installed above the stalls to protect them from the settlers, are bags of garbage and excrement that the latter throw at visitors.
The homes of the settlers in Hebron’s Jewish Quarter loom above the dead market and abut it. On the other side of the checkpoint, in that quarter, not one Palestinian store or stall remains. Further along, the still-open part of the market was also half dead this week…The Palestinians have no money, in a city that once was the economic hub of the West Bank until the war in the Gaza Strip erupted. Want to know why? Look at its main entry gate. It was padlocked this week. A city of a quarter of a million inhabitants is shuttered. Can anyone find anything comparable to this on the planet? Israeli soldiers supervise the main entrance into Hebron. Sometimes they open the gate there, sometimes they don’t…there’s no reason other than the Israel Defense Forces’ need to abuse the inhabitants, which they are doing even more violently since October 7, in order to drive them to despair – and perhaps even down the road. Permanently. Indeed, perhaps a small number will choose to leave, finally, and thus fulfill the dream of some of their Jewish neighbors. For its part, the IDF is cooperating eagerly with these satanic plans, working hand in hand with the settlers on the path to the much-desired population transfer. Under the cover of the war in the Strip, here too abuse has gone into high gear, and is almost unrestrained.”
U.S. SCENE
Project 2025’s Other Project (NYT 7/16/25)
“Inside the plan from the Heritage Foundation to rapidly dismantle the pro-Palestinian movement in the U.S.”
Columbia adopts controversial antisemitism definition as it negotiates with Trump administration (The Forward 7/16/25)
“Under the new commitments, Columbia is adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which proponents say makes identifying and responding to antisemitism easier but has drawn criticism over its categorization of some forms of Israel criticism as antisemitic. It will also work with a number of groups — including the Anti-Defamation League, Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, and a faculty-led pro-Israel group created after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel — to offer programs about antisemitism.”
In sign of shift, far-right US network airs segment on unchecked settler violence (TOI 7/18/25)
“The far-right One America News Network aired a segment Wednesday on last week’s killing of Palestinian-American Saif Musallet by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, showing a sign of a change in right-wing public opinion in the US surrounding Israel’s actions against Palestinians. The network’s decision to focus on a phenomenon that was once largely ignored in conservative circles highlighted the shift among a camp of MAGA Republicans that has gradually become more critical of Israel. The anchor for the segment was former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, who was US President Donald Trump’s original pick for attorney general. Gaetz withdrew his nomination amid mounting scandals.”
Biden’s Team Lied About Gaza. It’s Time to Hold Them Accountable. (Matt Duss//Foreign Policy 7/18/25)
“They lied. Repeatedly. They claimed that they didn’t see evidence of systemic abuses. They resorted to strange formulations such as “too many Palestinians have been killed,” as if there was some acceptable number that had been exceeded. They said that Israel wasn’t “doing enough” to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid, pretending that a policy problem was a logistics problem…In the past few months, I’ve met with many former Biden administration officials, people who worked in the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon. Most of them don’t deny this. They acknowledge that Israel was deliberately harming civilians and that the administration knew this at every level. They insist that they were pushing back internally against the policy. My response to all of them has been the same: Speak up now and tell the truth about it…Part of preventing the alleged Gaza genocide from happening again—and that must be the overriding goal—is creating space for people to tell us what they know in order to speak to the historical record about what went wrong, and to do so sooner rather than later.”
PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS
The Gavel and the Gun (Darryl Li//Jewish Currents Summer 2025)
“Palestinian history shows that armed struggle campaigns often catalyze gains in international lawmaking.”
I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. (Omer Bartov//NYT 7/15/25)
“My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people…This is not just my conclusion. A growing number of experts in genocide studies and international law have concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza can only be defined as genocide…The continued denial of this designation by states, international organizations and legal and scholarly experts will cause unmitigated damage not just to the people of Gaza and Israel but also to the system of international law established in the wake of the horrors of the Holocaust, designed to prevent such atrocities from happening ever again. It is a threat to the very foundations of the moral order on which we all depend.”
The UN and the ICC Are Under Attack From Trump and Netanyahu (Alonso Gurmendi//Zeteo 7/17/25)
“International accountability mechanisms are under attack. A week ago, the US sanctioned UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, a key actor in the fight for accountability in Gaza. A few days later, on July 15, the three members of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Navi Pillay, Chris Sidoti, and Miloon Kothari, suddenly and suspiciously resigned from their positions – the first ever joint resignation of a UN Commission of Inquiry – leading some to suspect they sought to avoid potential US sanctions. That same day, Middle East Eye detailed how, back in May, Nicholas Kaufman, an Israeli lawyer with apparent ties to the Netanyahu government, allegedly secretly threatened International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan, who had been recently sanctioned by the US, not to request further arrest warrants against Israel or he and the court would be “destroyed.” About a month after the alleged threat was made, four ICC judges were sanctioned, too. The targeting of these three institutions is no coincidence.”
Yes, Israel’s plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza (Raja Shehadeh//The Guardian 7/12/25)
“I have tried hard to understand the incomprehensible suffering endured by Palestinians in Gaza and how it is that most Israelis do not acknowledge their humanity. How are they able to show no remorse for what their army is carrying out in their name? I believe the seed of our dehumanisation was planted during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Palestinians were violently deprived of land, property and belongings in what we would come to call the Nakba (Arabic for “the catastrophe”), on the grounds that the land was God-given to the Jewish people. From that time, Israelis have been able to use Arab homes, lands and orchards without any feeling of guilt. The 7 October attacks were the starting point of the war, but Israel has been systematically degrading and dispossessing the Palestinian people for decades…This has not been for lack of attempts by Palestinians over the years to invoke the law – whether through Israeli courts, international tribunals or third-party enforcement mechanisms. One simple reason for their failure has been that international law lacks effective means of enforcement. More complex reasons rest with the interests of the powerful. My hope lies in Palestinian resilience.”