2010/2011

Report

Date may not be accurate as it is the date when the documentary is posted [00h48m26s]

Quartet envoy tells Channel 10: When it comes to security, I'm 100% on Israel's side. Israel has a right to inspect what goes into Gaza - Special envoy of the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators, Tony Blair, said Tuesday that any investigation into Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last week had to be "full and impartial" and that Israel had the right to defend itself.

2013

Report

Palestinian leaders condemn support for bill as US secretary of state heads to region for latest attempt to unblock peace talks

Palestinian Center for Public Opinion poll finds that 56% of Palestinians expect a fresh confrontation with Israel. A majority of Palestinians believe that the current peace talks with Israel have reached a dead end and see no point in their continuation, a public opinion poll published Monday showed. The poll also showed that a majority of Palestinians expect the talks to fail.

450 African asylum seekers moved to new detention centre, where they will be held indefinitely without charge.

Israel destroyed 30 Palestinian properties in occupied territory, displacing families for second time in two weeks.

The president of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem says both Israel and U.S. Jewry are strong and vibrant - they just need to realize that.

story

discussion

• Palestinian Authority says "if things go well," talks could begin in Washington in "coming days"
• "Four years of political stagnation are coming to an end," Israel's justice minister says
• Hamas in Gaza dismisses peace negotiations as "useless"
• A report says peace formula involves a landmark concession from Israel

For retired West Bank farmer Issa Hamed, the idea that Jewish settlements are destroying a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is a no-brainer.

explainer

VIDEO GRAPHICS - The Arab League recently flagged a shift in the terms of its 2002 peace initiative to incorporate mutual land swaps under an Israeli-Palestinian settlement -- a move welcomed by Washington. US Secretary of State John Kerry has recently visited the Middle East five times in as many months, as he seeks to breathe fresh life into Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, stalled since 2010.

With talks between Israel and the Palestinians stalled, US Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the Middle East with the incentive of a major investment plan for the Palestinians, dependent on progress towards a peace deal.

Government also planned construction of 40 new housing units in Nokdim settlement; court says land claims must be studied first

Labeling products made in West Bank settlements is consumer protectionism, European Union Ambassador to Israel Andrew Standley told reporters in Jerusalem on Wednesday, as he defended the measure against charges that it amounted to a boycott.

Israeli settlers have called for a boycott of McDonald’s after the fast food giant refused to build a restaurant in a major West Bank settlement.

 

(Israeli source) - McDonald’s Israel declined an offer to open a restaurant in Ariel because it is located in the West Bank.

My comment: The global interest of the fast food chain looks more important than supporting the civilian occupation of the West Bank by supplying food to these occupiers

Israeli supermarket tycoon Rami Levy appears intent on becoming a real estate developer in the occupied West Bank by building new shopping centers in illegal settlements. On 28 May, Levy announced that he was teaming up with the firm Mega Or Holdings to build a mall in Ariel, a Jewish-only settlement.

The heads of two United Nations aid agencies today raised the alarm over the worsening food insecurity in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where one in three Palestinian households now struggle to feed their families.

Israel will not bow to the Palestinians' demand on the borders of their future state before peace talks begin but will meet their request for the release of some prisoners, Israeli officials said on Saturday.

• 20130620 - Israeli cabinet approves bill to put any peace treaty with Palestinians to referendum

(warning Russian source) - "Any agreement which may be reached in negotiations will be put to a referendum," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office as quoted by AFP. "It is important that on such historic decisions every citizen should vote directly on an issue deciding the country's future." 
 

Shimon Peres can attest better than most to the maxim that politics is the art of the possible. A lifetime in the often violent cauldron of the Middle East will have brought home to a man who won a Nobel Peace Prize - for a peace that has never arrived - that political failure is often a more likely outcome than success.

Israel is pressing on with plans for more than 1,000 new homes in two West Bank settlements, officials said on Thursday, moves that could complicate U.S. efforts to persuade Palestinians, seeking a construction freeze, to return to peace talks.

Demonstrators in Berlin protesting the deaths of pro-Palestinian activists in a clash with Israeli commandos aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, June 2010. (Sean Gallup/Getty)

(Israeli source) - Israel’s settlement building is increasingly isolating the country in Europe, leading to European Union policies that could reinforce Israel’s delegitimization, according to the top EU representative to the peace process.

An Ultra-Orthodox man on Thursday in Ramat Shlomo, a religious Jewish settlement in an area of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem by Israel. Credit Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

(Israeli source) - Israel says it is moving ahead with the planning and construction of hundreds of Jewish settlement homes as retaliation against the new Palestinian government, which has been accepted by the United States and much of the world even though it is supported by Hamas.

for more see June 2, 2013 - Abbas Swears In a New Palestinian Government

Report Summary, June 2013 - Not long ago, Israeli Minister of Economy Naftali Bennett, former chairman of the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council, called on Israel to impose sovereignty unilaterally on Area C and then grant Israeli citizenship to Area C’s local Palestinian residents, whom he said numbered 50,000.

(warning Russian source) - With street violence against Arabs and the number of ‘price tag’ attacks, often involving Israeli youngsters, on the rise, PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced to decry “racism against Israeli Arabs and acts of hooliganism against Palestinians.”

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, right, with President Mahmoud Abbas at the swearing-in ceremony on Monday in Ramallah. Credit Majdi Mohammed/Associated Press

Declaring that a “black page in history has been turned forever,” President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority swore in a new government on Monday intended to reunite the West Bank and Gaza Strip after seven years of harsh political and social division.

for more see June 5, 2013 Israel Expands Settlements to Rebuke Palestinians

The approval of the urban plan for Eli, submitted thirty years after the settlement was founded, will legalize hundreds of illegal houses. Legalization of further outposts will soon follow.

The meat and livestock sector in the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories is suffering because of though Israeli security restrictions, the development of Israeli settlements and a recent outbreak of bluetongue disease, industry specialists and reports claim

Thick locks hug the front gates of shuttered shops, now covered in graffiti and dust from lack of use. Only a handful of customers pass along the dimly lit road, sometimes stopping to check the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, or ordering meat in near-empty butcher shops.

Hoping to use economic promise as a bridge to a peace deal between Palestinians and Israel, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced an estimated $4 billion economic development proposal for the West Bank on Sunday that he said could cut the 21 percent unemployment rate by two-thirds

Revealed: Olmert's 2008 peace offer to Palestinians

(Israeli source) - 'Post' obtains copy of Abbas' sketch of proposed Palestinian state; Former PM Olmert blames Livni, Barak for breakdown of talks.

Gen. John Allen Appointed U.S. Security Envoy in Peace Process

Former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan to formulate U.S. security policy in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Fragmented lives Humanitarian Overview 2012

May 21, 2013 - In my visits to Palestinian communities in both the West Bank and Gaza, I saw little ... action can only provide temporary solutions that save lives and alleviate suffering. ... security. Palestinian civilians throughout the. oPt continue to be exposed to a ..... the tunnels under the border with egypt. the tunnel industry has grown ...

(Israeli source) - To visit Palestinian-controlled areas, some foreign nationals need military entry permit that Israel doesn't explain how to get.

• 20130519 - Israel’s ‘illegal’ military entry permit bars selected tourists from West Bank - report

(Russian source) - Many tourists hoping to visit the West Bank are finding it impossible to do so – because Israel requires certain visitors to have an entry permit. Obtaining permission is anything but easy, because Tel Aviv doesn't explain the process, Haaretz reported.

Peace Now calls plan, revealed days before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returns to region to try to restart peace talks, a 'slap in the face.'

May 16, 2013 - The Palestinian health situation faces many challenges under the ... United Nations organizations active in the health sector, the Ministry of ..... suffer from abject poverty as a result of measures taken by Israel and the ..... authorization by the Israeli authorities for reasons justified as security-related; the issuance of other.

(Israeli source) - Palestinian group had sought war crimes charges for firm that rented equipment used to construct the West Bank security barrier

Riwal operates from the Ekkersrijt industrial zone north of Eindhoven in the Netherlands

Prefabricated houses are seen in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Maskiot in this May 18, 2009, file photo. (photo by REUTERS/Baz Ratner)

Comprising 30% of the West Bank, the Jordan Valley has long been the target of demolitions, settlement and forced displacement in what seems to be a successful effort by the Israeli government to change the geographical political map of the territory. Before the 1967 war, the valley belonged to the governorates of five cities in the West Bank: Toubas, Nablus, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron.

• 20130513 - Israel to Legalize Four West Bank Settlement Outposts Slated for Demolition

(Israeli source) - Peace Now calls plan, revealed days before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returns to region to try to restart peace talks, a 'slap in the face.'

• 20130513 - Haaretz Expose // The Organization Behind Illegal West Bank Outpost Construction

(Israeli source) - With friends in high places, law-evading ploys and piles of money in the bank, veteran settler leader Ze'ev Hever and his organization Amana are seemingly immune to Israeli legal action.

opinion

"I am embarking on the challenge of making two TV shows: one on Israel and one on Palestine."

Palestinians say there's oil in West Bank

Palestinians report growing indications of oil in the occupied West Bank, which Israel may be quietly exploiting even as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu resists U.S. pressure to freeze Jewish settlement expansion in the territory.

Palestinian villages such as Al Hadidiya in the Jordan Valley are suffering from chronic water shortages, write Layan Masri and Loor Awwad.

story

IT WAS just another day for the Israeli army on the West Bank. Having parked its jeeps in the hills south of Hebron, a unit of soldiers checked the papers of the Palestinians who lived there, confiscated one or two, and then herded the people and their flocks off a hilltop which a nearby Jewish settlement, called Susiya, has been eyeing with a view to taking it over.

(Israeli source) - Defense Ministry given two months to change construction plans near Battir after locals, environmentalists warn of damage to landscape

Settlers show their anger at the checkpoint where an Israeli was stabbed this week (Photo: Getty images)

(warning Israeli source) - Evyatar Borovsky, an actor and security guard from the settlement of Yitzhar, who was stabbed to death on Tuesday, was the first Israeli killed in a terror attack in the West Bank in nearly two years.

Israel on Tuesday welcomed a shift in the terms of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative following top-level talks in Washington, with the proposal now endorsing the idea of mutually-agreed land swaps with the Palestinians. PLO executive committee member Wassel Abu Yussef said the proposal fails to address the "heart of the problem," which is the "Israeli occupation

(warning Israeli source) US Secretary of State John Kerry met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday for a third day of talks seeking to piece together a plan to persuade the Israel and Palestinians to return to negotiations, which have been stuck in stalemate since September 2010.

The UN says it is suspending all its food distribution centers in the Gaza Strip after protesters angered by aid cutbacks stormed one of its compounds.

 

• 20130405 - Hamas criticizes UN aid suspension in Gaza

The UN says it is suspending all its food distribution centers in the Gaza Strip after protesters angered by aid cutbacks stormed one of its compounds.

Israel has carried out an air strike on the Gaza Strip for the first time since an eight-day war ended in a truce last November. Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza, says aircraft bombed fields near the border and no-one was injured.

 

• 20130403 - Israel and Gaza Trade Rockets for First Time Since Truce

Two rockets launched from the Gaza Strip have landed in Israel, in response to the air strike carried out by Israeli Defence Forces on Tuesday evening.

 

Researcher uncovers hidden facts of Israeli-Palestinian water politics

The Israeli government has been forcing the Palestinian Authority into approving water infrastructure for illegal West Bank settlements for the past 15 years, according to research by a University of Sussex academic.

2014

'Mothers of all Palestinians should also be killed,' says Israeli politician

 

As the situation widely deteriorates in the Gaza Strip, Israeli parliament member and law-maker Ayelet Shaked has stigmatized all Palestinians as terrorists, wishing death on all Palestinians while supporting the Israeli military assault.

(Israeli source) - SIsraeli troops conducting searches and making arrests in the West Bank have brought with them candy and matchboxes with anti-Hamas... "Hamas is making life bitter in the West Bank' is one of the messages."

(Israeli source) - France's Foreign Ministry says West Bank settlements, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights are built on occupied land, which is illegal according to international law.

(Israeli source) - IDF operations in West Bank continue, nine days after kidnapping of three Israeli teens.

Israeli forces shot dead two young Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank today, bringing the number of shooting victims to five in an ongoing military siege on the territory now in its tenth day. It is the largest assault on the West Bank in more than a decade.

(Israeli source) - The Israeli operation in the West Bank to locate the three Israeli teenagers kidnapped last Thursday amounts to terrorism, Balad MK Hanin Zoabi said Saturday, in an interview filled with provocative statements.

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian youth before dawn Friday and seriously wounded several adults as their sweeping West Bank arrest campaign following last week’s disappearance of three Israeli teenagers both slowed and encountered more resistance.

Demolitions of Palestinian Bedouin homes are part of an Israeli push to make room for more West Bank settlements.

(Israeli source) - Israeli public less opposed to territorial concessions. - A public opinion poll on settlements in the West Bank, conducted annually for the past six years, shows a trend of decreasing...

Israel's military has arrested about 80 Palestinians in the West Bank, including members of Hamas, as part of efforts to locate three teenagers believed to have been abducted in the territory while hitchhiking home.

propaganda

(Israeli source) - The pamphlet claiming responsibility for the kidnappings doesn't seem to have come from the Salafi group now terrorizing Iraq and Syria. But maybe a local cell decided to claim affiliation with ISIS to inspire fear.

(Israeli source) - An autopsy performed on Wednesday on the body of a Palestinian teenager killed last month during Nakba Day clashes in Beiytuna concluded that Nadim Nuwara, 17, had been killed by live fire, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.

(Israeli source) - The Bayit Yehudi chairman insists that his "sovereignty program" is the best course of action and the "only available option" left to Israel.

 

(warning Israeli source) - Ten days after Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon told The Times of Israel that Benjamin Netanyahu had imposed a “silent freeze” on settlement building, the prime minister reportedly confirmed that he has suspended some construction in West Bank settlements, and cited American pressure.

(Israeli source) - The number of West Bank housing starts dropped by 76.4 percent in the first quarter of 2014, compared to the same period last year. That drop was much more dramatic than the 16% countrywide decrease in starts in the first three months of this year.

The comments by F.W. de Klerk echo warnings made by Palestinian, American and dovish Israeli officials. But his words carry special meaning, given his role in South Africa's painful history of race relations.

(Israeli source) - An Israeli firm has been working for 10 years to perfect plans that would transform the city's 'natural' urban boundaries into a border between two future countries, in a nonthreatening and aesthetic manner. Click image to enlarge.

Right-wing MKs say organizations operate with a lack of transparency, Israeli public does not benefit from their activity - A new draft bill calls for increased supervision of non-government organizations or Israelis who receive funding from foreign...

(Israeli source) - Former MI head Amos Yadlin says Israel rejects Saudi peace initiative because Arab League turned it into a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

Palestine presidential election

The jailed PLO leader, in prison over a decade for murder, would crush two potential Hamas candidates and top Mahmoud Abbas by a smaller margin.

May 15 marks the "Nakba" exodus of Palestinians after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war - During protests in the West Bank this year, two Palestinian youths were shot dead -
Israel's military says the protest was extremely violent but that "no live fire was shot" - But one of the dead teenager's fathers alleges his son was "assassinated in cold blood"

• 20140523 - Killing of Palestinian teenagers in West Bank elicits UN call for prompt investigation

The United Nations human rights chief has voiced her “very serious concerns” about a recent incident involving the killing of two Palestinian teenagers in the occupied West Bank.

(Israeli source) - Justice minister attacks Bennett's plan to annex Area C as "the end of Zionism"; defends meeting with Abbas in London, saying that talking to Palestinians is necessary despite cancellation of negotiations.

• 20140522 - Netanyahu threatened to fire Livni after Abbas meeting

(Israeli source) - Yair Lapid stepped in, warning Netanyahu that such a move would mean the end of the coalition, according to a report by 'Ma'ariv'.

(Israeli source) - Officer tells Knesset committee method used to reduce illegal construction, Palestinian population in Area C; Habayit Hayehudi MK urges crack-down on international groups who assist construction.

One should not put too much diplomatic stock into the threats of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sever ties with the Palestinian Authority (PA), in reaction to the inclusion of Hamas in the new Palestinian government.  Even when Hamas was a pariah in Ramallah, the nine months of negotiations did not generate anything near a permanent arrangement.

Israel's ultra-nationalist construction minister – whose actions have been blamed by some US officials for torpedoing the peace process – has predicted an explosion of settlement activity in the next five years on the occupied West Bank.

• 20140516 - Israeli minister sees 50 percent more settlers in West Bank by 2019

The number of Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank could grow by as much as 50 percent by 2019, Israel's ultra-nationalist construction minister said on Friday.

Middle East envoy Martin Indyk was overheard at an upscale Washington, D.C., bar bashing Israel and fully blaming it for the recent failure of peace talks with the Palestinians, according to an individual who overheard the conversation and described it as a surprising and "nasty" 30-minute-long tirade against the Jewish state.

(Israeli source) - The U.S. special envoy to Middle East peace is characterized by his support for Israel and disdain for its settlements.

• 20140515 - Netanyahu Seeks Alternative Diplomatic Plan in Light of Failed Peace Talks

'I think the status quo is not a good idea, I don’t want a binational state,' Netanyahu says in interview during Japan visit.

(Israeli source) - President’s aides blame Swedes for mix-up, but Foreign Ministry says President's Office failed to follow correct protocol.

Facing concrete shortages and price hikes as well as demolitions, Palestinians turn to more traditional method of building homes.

Calls are mounting for hardline Jewish settlers to be classified as terrorists after a spate of attacks on Palestinian property in the West Bank and Israel, and threats of violence towards Israeli soldiers.

A pro-Islamist newspaper was sold in the West Bank on Saturday for the first time in seven years, another sign of a Palestinian unity pact that prompted Israel to suspend peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel fired back on Friday at a senior U.S. official, who blamed Jewish settlement construction in part for the breakdown of peacemaking with the Palestinians, saying he himself had done nothing to help the negotiations.

US special envoy to the Middle East peace process Martin Indyk makes a broad case for effort to forge peace; says "no urgency" from Israel, Palestinians.

• 20140509 - Livni: Israeli Settlements Are to Blame for Failure of Talks

(Israeli source) - Echoing U.S. special envoy Martin Indyk's comments, justice minister tells Army Radio that 'settlement construction makes it impossible to defend Israel around the world.'

spy issues

As Obama aides refer darkly to ‘red lines’ rarely crossed before in decades of mutual eavesdropping, Rupert Cornwell investigates a diplomatic bust-up that reveals how even the closest relationships between allies have unspoken limits

The former head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission Brigadier General (res.) Uzi Eilam just dropped a bombshell (no pun intended): "The Iranian nuclear program will only be operational in another 10 years," he told the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronoth.

• 20140508 - Ex-atomic agency chief: Netanyahu using scare tactics on Iran nuclear program

(Israeli source) - An insider in Israel's nuclear program believes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is employing needless fearmongering when it comes to Iran's atomic aspirations, in order to further his own political aims.

(Saudi source) - Over the course of just three weeks, Israeli forces destroyed Suleiman Qaed's small cinderblock house and the trailer home an aid group sent him as a replacement. Even the Red Cross tent his family now calls home appears at risk of being torn down, with Israeli officers taking pictures of it and warning him that it's in an illegal location.

(Israeli source) - In TV interview, the Israeli president says he was on the brink of a historic peace agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

• 20140507 - United, the Palestinians Have Endorsed 1967 Borders for Peace. Will Israel?

(Israeli opinion) - Now Hamas has indicated its recognition of the 1967 borders, the main Palestinian players all seek an historic agreement with Israel. But is Netanyahu's government strong enough to respond?

• 20140507 - Joy greets end of Hamas ban on West Bank newspaper

(Israeli source) - Following reconciliation deal, Gaza leaders permit distribution of Al-Quds daily for the first time in six years

The six children of Ahmad and Roqaya Al-Khateeb move between their parents houses throughout the week, spending some of their time with their mother in Jerusalem and the remainder with their father in the West Bank. However, their story is unlike that of other families torn apart by divorce.

Latest incident takes place near the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin; 30 trees damaged by vandals; earlier this week, US State Department criticized Israel for largely not prosecuting attacks by “extremist Jewish settlers.”

(Israeli source) - Ban Ki-moon calls on parties and int’l community to take ‘meaningful’ action to save peace process

Schools, businesses and services were shuttered Wednesday in Fureidis the day after the Arab town became the latest community in Israel to be vandalized in a rash of hate crimes.

• 20140430 - Portrait of a Palestinian Family Divided by Israel's Separation Barrier

The Khatibs are being kept apart by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement in East Jerusalem, including the towering separation barrier.

Following Washington’s admission that Israel is being kept out of its visa-waiver program due to discrimination against Arab-Americans, a French citizen is detained for three days under similar circumstances. French Embassy: ‘We’re regularly in touch with the Israeli authorities about these issues.’

(Israeli source) - Soldiers made use of a burgeoning new social media meme Wednesday to express support for a soldier who faces investigation after cocking his weapon at a Palestinian teenager, saying they were sick of having their hands tied when dealing with Palestinian provocateurs in the West Bank. - screenshot is from this video

(warning right-wing Israeli source) - From the American secretary of state to left-wing Israeli politicians to the mullahs of Iran, many subscribe to the notion that if Israel does not surrender the “West Bank” for the creation of a Palestinian state, it will be overwhelmed by an Arab population that will destroy the Jewish character of the state.

Israel destroys mosque and seven Palestinian homes in the West Bank village of Khirbet al-Tawil for "permit violations".

• 20140429 - Israel Authorizes Record Amount of West Bank Land for Settlement Construction

Most of the newly confirmed state land is in areas of strategic importance for settlers, including outposts that could join up with nearby settlements. -- A record amount of land – slightly more than half of it outside the West Bank separation barrier – was confirmed as...

Reviving campaign platform, Jewish Home party leader says Palestinians in areas claimed by Israel should get citizenship

(Israeli source) - Offer was made to PA negotiators on night before talks collapsed; Egypt played quiet role in Fatah-Hamas unity negotiations

My comment: why do the Israelis need to ready for? It's just saying "OK, we allow". That's all.  But, the Palestinians were then still not there yet due to a range of other hurdles the occupiers have erected.

Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah announced Wednesday they've agreed to reconcile -- a development that could see the Palestinian territories under a unified leadership for the first time in years.

• 20140424 - Israel suspends peace talks over Palestinian unity deal

(Israeli view) - Government says it won’t negotiate with PA government that includes Hamas; PM: ‘Whoever chooses Hamas’s terror does not want peace’

 

(Israeli source) - The two Palestinian factions reportedly agree to hold elections within six months, with a unity government headed by Abbas until that time.

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, issued a renewed warning on Tuesday that if the American-sponsored Middle East peace talks fail, he may dissolve the authority and hand sole responsibility for the West Bank back to Israel.

• 20140422 - 'Paradigm shift': Palestinians join treaties

Israel has called Palestinian accession to 15 international treaties 'blackmail', but what does the move really mean?

The tale of the two teens provides a stark example of the vast disparities of Israel's justice system in the West Bank, a contested area at the heart of the elusive search for a lasting peace.

Peace talks have stalled after Israel refused to release Palestinian prisoners and PLO signed international agreements.

Seven Palestinians injured in clashes with occupying troops in Hebron

(warning Israeli source) - Some 50 demonstrators gather near army post near Jewish settlement in West Bank city and throw rocks at IDF post.

The Defense Minister’s green light to appropriate land in the West Bank places him in the extreme right and shatters Israelis’ hopes for resolving the conflict with the Palestinians.

In a narrow alley in Shuafat refugee camp, in East Jerusalem, slender plastic water pipes snake down the outside of buildings to the ground and to the electric pumps buried at ground level. It is noon and they are warm to touch. A tap by the pump is turned, but it coughs empty.

A new Israeli settlement development in a tense West Bank city has drawn allegations that Benjamin Netnayahu's government is trying to sink already floundering peace talks

In their latest redrawing of the map of the West Bank at the expense of Palestinians, Israeli occupation authorities have declared about 250 acres of territory south of Bethlehem to be land belonging to the state, paving the way for it to be used to expand three Israeli settlements.

click here to view map

• 20140413 - Ya'alon: Settlers can move into Hebron house

"Defense" Minister Moshe Ya’alon took steps Sunday to strengthen Israel’s land holdings in the West Bank, including in Hebron, as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Jerusalem to rescue the deadlocked peace process.

Israel has imposed sanctions against the Palestinian Authority (PA) in retaliation for its signing up to join international treaties, officials say.

Israel's seizure of EU-funded aid projects prompts compensation calls

Israel has seized three EU-funded humanitarian aid projects on the edge of a settlement construction zone that Europe views as a "red line", spurring demands for compensation payments to Brussels at a crisis moment for John Kerry's attempts to broker a Middle East peace deal.

Defense minister vows authorities will react harshly to "domestic terrorism" against security personnel.

(warning Israeli source) - According to press reports, the crowd at a recent Republican Jewish Coalition conference “noticeably gasped” when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie referred to the West Bank as “occupied territories.” Christie promptly apologized to the event’s host, mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, clarifying that his remarks “were not meant to be a statement of policy,” a source said.

(Israeli source) - Khirbet Ain Karzaliya (AFP) – Two weeks after their fragile tin shacks were destroyed by Israeli bulldozers, Atiya Bani Minna and his family are still sleeping under the stars, struggling to resume some semblance of normal life.

1,000 protesters throw stones and roll burning tires at Israeli forces; smaller demos in Hebron, Qaddum, Rachel’s Tomb -- The demonstrators threw stones and rolled burning tires toward nearby Israeli security forces, who responded with crowd dispersal measures

For cause(s) of the riots see March 2014

An Israeli minister threatened on Wednesday to annex further territory in the occupied West Bank in retaliation for renewed Palestinian action to join United Nations agencies and international treaties. -- "If they are now threatening (to go to UN institutions), they must know something simple: they will pay a heavy price," Tourism Minister Uzi Landau told public radio.

• 20140402 - U.S. looking for way forward in faltering Mideast peace talks

The Obama administration scrambled on Wednesday to rescue faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations after what it called "unhelpful, unilateral actions" by both sides.

Israeli soldiers violently attacked several nonviolent protests held by Palestinians across the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem marking the 38th anniversary of Palestine’s Land Day, leading to dozens of injuries and several arrests.

Israel tells Palestinians it will not release fourth group of prisoners by March 29 deadline, jeopardizing peace talks.

(Israeli source) - The 24 infrastructure projects include new roads between settlements, the beginning of a West Bank train system, and a Jordan Valley pedestrian bridge for Palestinians.

It's hypocritical for the Royal Institute of British Architects to suspend Israel’s participation when it works in countries without women's rights.

My comment: see also 20140320 - Israeli architecture association faces ban from international forum; the source uses the architecture in Tel Aviv below instead of Israeli architecture in the West Bank like the image above.

Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters during a rally to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the assassination of the group's spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin in an Israeli airstrike a decade ago, in Gaza City, Sunday, March 23, 2014. (photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

(Israeli source) - In first, Sheikh Hassan Yousef says Islamists will support an accord should it pass a referendum, offers interim cease-fire

(Israeli source) - There has been a serious water shortage in the Palestinian refugee camp of Shoafat for almost three weeks, activists in the camp said. A third of inhabitants of Shoafat have no water at all, and rest can get only very weak dribble.

(Israeli source) - Steep drop in new construction in center of country and around Tel Aviv where demand for housing is higher.

(Israeli source) - The government allocated nearly NIS 600 million ($172 million) to West Bank settlements since last October, outside of the annual budget and at the expense of Israeli citizens, Labor MK Stav Shaffir charged on Sunday.

At least three Palestinians have been killed and 14 others injured in an Israeli raid in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials and medics said, with some of the wounded in critical condition.

• 20140322 - Hamas warns Israel over calls to attack Gaza

Haniyeh spoke at a rally marking 10 years since Israel killed Hamas' spiritual leader [AFP]

Group's leadership says Israel will "pay a very high price" if it heeds Israeli calls to reoccupy the Gaza Strip

• 20140322 - Hamas sends threatening text messages to Israelis

(warning Israeli source) - Palestinian militants sent threatening text messages to a large number of Israelis on Saturday evening, calling on them to leave the country and warning them they would be “the next Gilad Shalit.”

(Israeli source) - The remaining plans for 839 new homes in Ariel, 350 in the Shevut Rachel neighborhood of Shiloh and 65 Shavei Shomron were all approved for deposit. -- he Palestinian Authority on Friday accused Israel of sabotaging the peace talks by advancing plans for 2,372 settlers homes in eight West Bank settlements. --  "The Israelis are trying to push the talks to a dead end with this systematic escalation of continuing settlement activity,” said a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudaineh.

The European Union and UNICEF launched a project Thursday to build a desalination plant in the Gaza Strip to provide 75,000 Palestinians with drinking water.

Royal Institute of British Architects proposes boycott of Israeli Association of United Architects' over Palestinian settlements

My comment: see also 20140325 Israeli architects appeal to foreign ministry, Britain against boycott threat

Israel granted final approval Wednesday for plans to build another 186 new homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, a city councilor told AFP, drawing an angry reaction from the Palestinians.

 

2014 expansion illegal settlement Har Homa  in East Jerusalem

Palestinians want to start oil production but some worry Israel will stand in the way. -- The Palestinian Authority (PA) has issued a global tender for oil exploration in the West Bank, casting a spotlight on a crucial dimension to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the struggle over resources.

(American source) - Assuming Israel would have to move about 100,000 people if a peace accord is reached, the organization, Blue White Future, estimates that compensation of $400,000 would be needed for each of 25,000 households, Co-Chairman Gilead Sher said. Fifty percent of those affected would move voluntarily, while about 40 percent would refuse, the group said, based on survey findings presented yesterday.

Security services cite current situation in the Gaza Strip, including the rise of Islamic Jihad and Hamas’ governance, as reasons to extend law.

Ministry says diesel to be delivered after lack of fuel forced closure of Palestinian enclave's only power plant.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (second from left), alongside the chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, during a 2013 visit to the West Bank. (photo credit: Israeli ministry of defense/Flash 90)

(Israeli source) - Defense minister intimates Kerry not an honest broker, says won’t be deal in his lifetime, warns Hamas will take over if IDF leaves West Bank

Knesset passes referendum bill as a virtually unchallengeable Basic Law that requires popular approval for any withdrawal from Israeli territory as part of peace deal.

On Saturday B’Tselem camera volunteer Shadi Sidr filmed a settler trying to climb onto Sidr’s own roof to take down a Palestinian flag flying there.

(warning Israeli source) - The mayor of Dutch town Baarle-Nassau said he was “not amused” by reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was investigating whether a highly complicated Dutch-Belgian border arrangement offered a precedent for Jewish settlers remaining in a future Palestinian state.

see also 20140309

Four Palestinian-owned plots near Qalqilya were retrieved by their owners, after being previously seized by Israeli companies claiming ownership to the land.(WAFA) The Qalqilya governorate said in a statement, on Monday, that “brokers have long attempted to forge documents relating to ownership of the land which is adjacent to settlements and the apartheid wall.

(opinion) - Ending the occupation is a crucial first step if Israel wants real peace with its neighbors.

(Israel source) - PM said investigating world’s ‘most complicated’ enclave arrangements as possible precedent for keeping settlers in ‘Palestine’

see also 20140311

(warning Israeli source) - There were 297,000 Palestinians living in Area C of the West Bank as of 2013, according to a report published Wednesday by the UN. At the same time, the UN started a fund-raising campaign to improve conditions for the population living under Israeli military and civil control.

download “Area C Vulnerability Profile”

• 20140306 - Expert bashes UN’s ‘politicized’ West Bank numbers

(Israeli source) - Claim that 300,000 Palestinians live in areas under full Israeli control is not quite true, says ex-official who drew the map

Israel's right wing politicians and religious extremists are eyeing al-Aqsa for annexation.

(biased Jewish source) - Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center is considering bringing the terror funding issue to the attention of foundations that fund Oxfam, companies like Coca-Cola, and Oxfam’s global ambassadors.

--

Reference in the article: "Following the international brouhaha last month, when actress Scarlett Johansson publicly quit her position as a global ambassador for Oxfam after the organization criticized her marketing efforts for Israeli company SodaStream, Shurat HaDin sent a letter to Oxfam and its Netherlands branch warning of an anti-terrorism lawsuit."

Israel central bureau of statistics says work began on 2,534 new housing units in 2013, compared to 1,133 in 2012.

• 20140303 - Israel Doubled West Bank Settlement Construction in 2013

Hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to meet President Barack Obama on Monday, Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that Israel began construction on twice as many homes in the West Bank in 2013 than in the previous year.

• 20140303 - Obama Warns Netanyahu On Peace Talks

President Obama set the table for Monday's meeting at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by pointedly warning that if current peace talks with the Palestinians fall apart, the United States may not be able to protect its longtime ally from the consequences.

(Israeli source) - The Israel "Defense" Forces believes brute strength is the only way to act, yet Israelis refuse to see what Amnesty International and others tell them. -- The most moral army in the world fired an anti-tank missile at the house in which a wanted young Palestinian was hiding. The most...

(Israeli source) -  US representatives in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians offered Ramallah a “lease” deal for West Bank settlements that lie outside the major settlement blocs. The Palestinian Authority rejected such a deal outright.

(Arabic source) - Events of the Arab Spring and the Syrian conflict have somewhat eclipsed the problem of the Middle East agreement. However, in Moscow the view still prevails that a failure to resolve this conflict, first of all between the Palestinians and Israel, is one of the main sources of instability in the region.

Secretary of state and elite team of US diplomats return to Israel as goals shift for the US's once-ambitious peace plan

What are the main sticking points in the John Kerry-brokered framework agreement between Israel and the Palestinians?

A Palestinian man has been shot dead by Israeli troops in the West Bank. Palestinian medics identified him as Mohammed Mubarak, 22, a labourer from the Jalazun refugee camp near Ramallah.

(Israeli source) - The country’s leading strategic think tank recommended on Tuesday that if the diplomatic process with Palestinians fails, Israel...

(Israeli source) - Demand by PA president in taped speech to INSS conference stands in stark contrast to Israeli position. The transitional period between the signing of a peace agreement with Israel and the final withdrawal of all IDF troops from the West Bank cannot exceed three years, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview aired Tuesday.

(Israeli source) - Former MI chief warns of "diplomatic intifada" and describes fallback plan for Israel in the event of talks with PA failing.

• 20140127 - "Palestinians: Yes to Jews, no to settlers in our state"

(Israeli source) - Netanyahu raised issue of settlers remaining in a future Palestine during recent talks with John Kerry, Palestinian official says

Speaking in Davos, PM says he has no intention to uproot Israelis; however, Hebrew statement not republished by PMO.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a press conference in Davos on Friday and said that he does not intend on uprooting any Israeli citizen.

Some young people on programs like Birthright later face the Kafkaesque task of proving they qualify as Jews under the Law of Return. They grew up believing they were Jewish. They signed up for programs in Israel hoping to strengthen their Jewish identity.

Mohamed Shtayyeh says PA should "change its function to a resistance authority and not one that provides services."

Israel on Wednesday moved forward with plans for 261 new homes in two settlements located deep in the occupied West Bank, a watchdog said, drawing strong European condemnation.

• 20140122 - Jewish building plans advanced in West Bank, East Jerusalem

Peace Now: Plans for a visitor center were deposited by the Elad organization with the Jerusalem District Committee for Planning and Construction.

(Israeli source) - Incitement should be combated by peace-seeking NGOs, Canada’s former justice minister Irwin Cotler believes

 

• 20140119 - Expert: Palestinian Hate Speech a Major Obstacle to Peace

World-renowned legal expert and former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler says mounting and unchallenged state-sponsored hate speech against Israel in the Palestinian Authority is a major obstacle to peace.

Officials add: Proposal makes no mention of Jerusalem being capital of future Palestinian state. - The United States has proposed absolving Israel of any responsibility for the fate of the Palestinian refugees in the forthcoming framework peace agreement,...

(Russian source) - Israel’s envoy to the UN has slammed its “Year of Solidarity with the Palestinians” as “propaganda.” The UN announced 2014 as the year dedicated to identifying obstacles to the peace process and promoting solidarity with the Palestinians.

(Israeli source) - Less than a week before the start an exhibit chronicling 3,500 years of Jewish ties to the Land of Israel, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has postponed the event, slated to open at its Paris headquarters Monday, out of concern that it could be harmful to the peace process.

 

• 20140117 - UNESCO pulls Simon Wiesenthal Center exhibit after Arab League objection

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) pulled a Simon Wiesenthal Center exhibit on the Jewish connection to the land of Israel after the Arab League objected to the display

(warning: Israeli right-wing propaganda video) - video as part of a campaign being run by the Yesha Council, which represents the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, and another settlers group; both receive regular funding from the government.  Read more on Mother Jones

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned on Friday against Israel using peace talks as a "cover" to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank. Abbas was speaking in Morocco at a meeting of the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee

(Israeli source) - PLO says peace process is not serious, calls on international involvement in negotiations.

*) means: no right to return to Palestine

China is ready to join the Middle East Quartet to help negotiate a peace agreement between the Israeli and Palestinians, according to the country’s foreign minister.

(Israeli source) - Findings also show that 70% of the Palestinians are pessimistic about the chances for success of the talks. -The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, covered some 1,270 Palestinians and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said that the UAE would be willing to trade with Israel if it agreed to a peace deal with the Palestinians.

The United Nations today launched the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, with senior officials urging that the observance be used to redouble efforts to achieve a durable peace between Israel and Palestine.

(Israeli source) - US secretary is ‘obsessive and messianic’ in his quest for an Israeli-Palestinian deal, Ya’alon says in Yedioth Ahronoth expose; Livni, Herzog protest his comments

• 20140114 - Israeli Minister: Kerry Should 'Win A Nobel Prize And Leave Us In Peace'

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon apologized late Tuesday for comments in which he described U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as having a "messianic fervor" toward bringing peace to the Mideast.

Palestinian president hints Palestinians may pursue international recognition if Israel continues settlement construction.

Israel announced plans Friday to build 1,400 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territory the Palestinians claim for their future state.

• 20140110 - Erekat: Israel sabotaging US peace effort with new settler homes

Israel announces 800 new homes in W. Bank, 600 in e. J'lem; Lapid: Yesh Atid will do everything it can to block the building.

With US secretary of State John Kerry scheduled to meet top Arab League officials next week, State Department officials denied efforts were under way to get the league to alter its 2002 peace initiative and recognize Israel as a Jewish state, thereby paving the way for the Palestinians to do the same.

(Israeli source) - And why Lieberman’s proposals on ceding 300,000 Israeli Arabs only strengthen Palestinian suspicions of the demand to recognize Israel as a 'Jewish State.'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Likud Knesset faction on Monday that he opposes evacuating settlements like Hebron and Beit El, which are outside...

Find alternative to current 'warehousing' of migrants UNRA tells Israel in rare public statement. - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has criticized Israel’s policy on African migrants, and in particular the new amendments to the country's anti-infiltration law.

(Israeli source) - Palestinians accused of preaching anti-Semitism, including ‘elements of admiration for Hitler’; PM says true peace requires ending incitement

see also 2014016 for more

Fatah official says Kerry proposed the idea of a "greater Jerusalem" as a capital for two states.

• 20140105 - Saudi King backs Israeli-Palestinian push, Kerry says

Saudi King Abdullah offered his "enthusiastic support" to U.S. efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday.

As America's top diplomat seeks Jordanian and Saudi backing for his peace proposal, Israel has stepped up opposition to leaving an area of the West Bank envisaged as part of a future Palestinian state

Move prompted by Palestinian leader's attempt to join international conventions, says spokesperson for justice minister.

• 20140103 - Israel cancels Palestinian prisoner release (BBC)

Israel has cancelled the release of a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners over the Palestinian leadership's pursuit of further UN recognition.

• 20140103 - Israel cancels prisoner release (jpost)

Livni calls for PA to retract unilateral decision to apply to international bodies; says talks are "to be reviewed."

US Secretary of State John Kerry wants to revive peace talks following Israel's release of some prisoners.

Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin said Thursday that “the 1967 borders are Auschwitz borders” and therefore Likud has to reject any proposal to withdraw from the West Bank. Elkin, of the Likud party himself, spoke during a morning tour of settlements in the Jordan Valley attended by parliamentarians and ministers that are members the Land of Israel lobby.

(opinion) - A bi-national state with Palestinians and Israelis having equal rights may be the solution to the on-going conflict.

• 20140102 - Israel raids on West Bank homes condemned

Reported rise in soldiers using Palestinian homes for mock raids in West Bank, as Kerry prepares to resume peace talks.

African asylum seekers say Israeli efforts to repatriate them violate their human rights.

comment: this article is added because the deportation fits the Israeli Zionism politics which focuses on a state only for Jews

(warning Israeli source) - Israeli Arab citizens living in northern ‘Triangle’ would find themselves in Palestinian state under swap deal to enable annexation of settlement blocs, Maariv says

2015

(opinion Arabic source) - Tony Blair’s chance to play a political role in the Palestinian issue is slipping away, as the PA refuses to accept him, President Abbas and the PLO refuse to deal with him on a personal level and Hamas has turned down all his initiatives.

(comment article) - For Arabs – and for Britons who lost their loved ones in his shambolic war in Iraq – Blair’s appointment was an insult

Ayelet Shaked, of the far-right Jewish Home party, drew outrage last year when she posted a quote online which appeared to brand all Palestinians enemy combatants and legitimate targets

 

 

 

The International Criminal Court has begun considering whether to investigate alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, along with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, approved on Sunday the expansion of an Israeli colony located on stolen Palestinian land near Ramallah. The expansion of the Beit El settlement will cost nearly $18 million, and will result in 300 new units being constructed in the colony.

2016

Israeli officials are vowing to build thousands of new settlement homes on occupied Palestinian land, in defiance of a United Nations resolution passed Friday condemning such construction as a "flagrant violation under international law." The Security Council vote was 14-0. The United States abstained, denying a veto sought by Israel and President-elect Donald Trump

• 20161227 - Israel Cuts All Development Aid to Angola in Retaliation for UNSC Vote

The African nation of Angola has just lost its hard-earned Israeli development assistance, in the wake of its vote last week supporting the anti-Israel United Nations Security Council resolution 2334(2016).

Israel is suspending diplomatic ties with nations that supported the controversial United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, condemning Israeli settlements on land claimed by Palestine.

Civilian coordination with Palestinians also cut in retaliation to UN resolution, Defence Minister Lieberman announces.

• 20161225 - Israel defiant, vows retaliation after UN settler vote

Israel has vowed to take a host of measures to counteract a UN resolution condemning illegal settlements. Some right-wing members of the government have advocated for annexing parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

• 20161225 - Liberman orders army to cut civilian ties with PA following UN vote

In retaliation for anti-settlement measure, defense minister instructs army to work with Palestinians on security issues only

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has apparently snubbed Theresa May over the UK’s support of a highly critical UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement building.

• 20161224 - Palestine victorious over UNSC resolution, Israel left 'abandoned' by US

Palestinian leadership and members of the international community were victorious after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an end to illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory and reiterated that their existence is illegal under international law.

• 20161224 - Israel lashes out over UN settlements vote by withdrawing ambassadors and halting aid

Diplomatic representatives to New Zealand and Senegal withdrawn as Israeli official accuses US of 'abandoning' the country by abstaining on Security Council resolution

• 20161224 - Israel rejects historic UN settlement, announces diplomatic retaliation

Israel lashed out at US President Barack Obama over a UN Security Council resolution passed Friday demanding it halt settlements in Palestinian territory, while vowing it would not abide by it.

• 20161224 - UK puts UNHRC 'on notice' for bias after five resolutions against Israel passed

The United Kingdom on Friday put the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) "on notice" over its "bias against Israel", after the Geneva-based body adopted four resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a fifth condemning alleged human rights abuses in the Golan Heights.

Defying extraordinary pressure from President-elect Donald J. Trump and furious lobbying by Israel, the Obama administration on Friday allowed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution that condemned Israeli settlement construction.

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned on Thursday the Israeli government’s decision to build hundreds of housing units in illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

Both Palestinian and Israeli leadership reacted with disappointment to a report released Friday by the Middle East Quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations -- that attempted to underscore the major impediments to a two-state solution.

The Israeli government reportedly approved on Friday the construction of new housing units in the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, after a Palestinian boy stabbed an Israeli girl to death in her bedroom in the settlement Thursday.

The Israeli-imposed blockade on the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron remained in effect on Saturday, after Israeli forces sealed the entire district, while maintaining a complete lockdown on the village of Bani Naim, revoking travel permits to Israel for some 2,700 of its residents, and reportedly detaining several Palestinians across Hebron overnight.

The entire city of Hebron was placed under a general closure on Friday while tax transfers collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) were also cut, following a series of deadly incidents that left three Palestinians and two Israelis killed in two days.

The Israeli cabinet approved on Sunday a 50 million shekel ($12.8 million) plan to “strengthen” the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank, in a move which anti-settlement group Peace Now said in a statement Monday was part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to “prioritize the most extreme settlements.”

On the 13th of April 2016, Americans for PEACENOW movement published on its website a report indicating that Israel has advanced building plans in a number of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) during the first quarter of 2016.

(Israeli source) - Former prime minister Ehud Olmert insinuated on Monday that his successor, Binyamin Netanyahu, was an “idiot” and that his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, became revered only after lapsing into a coma.

 2017

Protesters aged 17 and 18 die of their wounds from separate incidents in the occupied West Bank.

• 20170723 - Israel installs new cameras at Al Aqsa compound

Israel has installed new security cameras at the entrance to a sensitive Jerusalem holy site. The cameras were spotted Sunday as Israel said it was considering an "alternative" to the metal detectors at the contested shrine that set off a weekend of violence.

President Mahmoud Abbas' move follows deadly clashes that left three Palestinians dead and hundreds more wounded.

Israel has been using the pretext of security to quietly continue the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land.

• 20170721 - Israeli measures at al-Aqsa will 'increase resistance'

The new measures of control implemented by Israeli forces in Jerusalem's Old City after a deadly gun battle will only lead to more attacks and an escalation in violence, analysts say.

Palestinian worshippers have clashed with Israeli security forces outside a gate to the Old City in Jerusalem, as tensions continue over the new security measures implemented at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) medic who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for killing a Palestinian assailant has been released to house arrest.

• 20170718 - Palestinian rams car into Israeli soldiers, shot dead

A Palestinian driver rammed his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and was shot dead by the troops, the Israeli military said.

• 20170718 - Protest calls grow as Israel tightens grip on al-Aqsa

Fatah calls on Palestinians to boycott holy mosque as heightened security measures are feared to be signs of a takeover.

• 20170718 - Metal detectors at Jerusalem shrine trigger new tensions

A dispute over metal detectors is escalating into a new showdown between Israel and the Muslim world over a Jerusalem shrine that has triggered major Israeli-Palestinian confrontations in the past.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a resumption of long-stalled peace talks between Israel and Palestine based on a two-state solution.

• 20170716 - Macron calls for new Israeli-Palestinian talks

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to create two independent states.

• 20160716 - Israeli forces shoot dead suspected Palestinian militant in West Bank gunfight

Israeli forces killed a suspected Palestinian militant they were seeking to arrest after he shot at them in the occupied West Bank, police and the military said.

• 20170716 - Muslim worshippers visit Jerusalem holy site

Hundreds of Muslim worshippers have visited a Jerusalem holy site after Israel reopened the compound following a rare closure in response to a deadly shooting last week that raised concerns about wider unrest.

• 20170716 - Israel reopens Jerusalem holy site after deadly assault

Hundreds of Muslim worshippers visited a Jerusalem holy site Sunday after Israel reopened the compound following a rare closure in response to a deadly shooting last week that raised concerns about wider unrest.

• 20170716 - Palestinians reject Israel security measures in al-Aqsa

Al-Aqsa mosque officials have rejected new security measures put in place by Israel as it reopened the holy site following a deadly gun battle that prompted a two-day closure.

• 20160716 - Israel shuts down al-Aqsa Mosque after shooting

Israeli police closed and cancelled Friday noon prayers in the al-Aqsa Mosque and briefly detained Jerusalem's top Muslim leader after three Palestinians and two Israeli police officers were killed in a gun battle in the mosque compound.

Construction has begun at Amichai, raising fresh fears over land restrictions and settler violence.

UN's cultural arm voted 12 to three to give heritage status to the Old City of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Days of Palestine, West Bank -Israeli Jewish Rabbi Shlomo Mlma asked on Sunday Israeli Jewish settlers to poison Palestinian water resources in order to kill them.

• 20170704 - Settler Leader Used State Resources to Fund Illegal Outpost, While Israel Turned Blind Eye

Scheme involves mortgaging West Bank land obtained from the state to divert funds to outpost, with the help of a Canadian lawyer and the Civil Administration

Israeli soldiers abducted, overnight and at dawn Monday, seventeen Palestinians, including children, from their homes in different parts of the occupied West Bank.

• 20170703 - Israeli forces raid West Bank mosque, village

JENIN/NABLUS - Israeli forces raided overnight and Monday a mosque and a village in the north of the West Bank, local and Palestinian security source said.

• 20170703 - Israel arrests 11 in West Bank, 6 of them from one village

Israeli army detained early Monday at least 11 Palestinians during raids across the West Bank districts, six of them from one village, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

[premium] Netherlands' Foreign Ministry requested Israel return equipment it confiscated, valued at over 40,000 euro; Israel failed to hand out demolition orders in advance

• 20170702 - Netherlands outraged after Israel seized Dutch-funded solar panels in West Bank

Israeli forces confiscated the solar panels in the isolated village of Jubbet al-Dhib east of Bethlehem on Wednesday that were installed last year, under the pretext that they were built without the nearly impossible to obtain permits required by Israel to develop in Area C, the 61 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli military control.

• 20170702 - Israel seizes solar panels donated to Palestinians by Dutch government

Israeli authorities insist that stop-work orders were issued before soldiers carried out raid on solar farm which allegedly did not have proper building permits

• 20170702 - UNESCO World Heritage meet opens amid tensions over Hebron motion

Officials opened the 41st annual UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s conference in Poland on Sunday, bringing together 21 member states, more than 170 observer nations and many non-governmental organizations.

• 20170702 - Israel's Attorney General Authorized Legalizing Settler Buildings on Private Palestinian Land

[premium] -- Aiming for an alternative to the 'land grab' law he deems unconstitutional, Mendelblit approved the use of a rare 1967 order

• 20170702 - Israeli police detain 28 Palestinians from the West Bank in Negev

Israeli forces recently detained 28 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank for entering Israel without Israeli permission, as well as six Palestinian citizens of Israel accused of transporting them, Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Samri reported Sunday.

• 20170702 - Israeli Army Rearrests Palestinian Lawmaker Khalida Jarrar, a Year After Her Release From Jail

Jarrar, who was initially incarcerated in 2015 for incitement and membership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has become even more active in the group, the army says

• 20170702 - Israel abducts Palestinian lawmaker on security allegations

Israeli military forces have abducted a Palestinian legislator and a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during separate raids across the occupied West Bank.

Jordanian King Abdullah visited Washington this week and discussed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with senior officials in the Trump...

• 20170701 - B’Tselem chief: Israel sabotaging fight against anti-Semitism to retain West Bank

Hagai El-Ad tells UN forum: ‘Palestinians who oppose the occupation are terrorists, Israelis who do so are traitors, and those in the international community are of course anti-Semitic’

[story] --The predawn sky exposes the outlines of the slopes of the Judaean desert. A strip of lamps on a new highway bathes the rocky earth in a ruddy glow, as motorists zip through the lonely expanse toward Jerusalem.

Local activist Muhammad Ayyad Awwad said that Israeli forces escorted army rabbis into the village of Beit Ummar in the West Bank district of Hebron before dawn and broke into the village’s main mosque, which hosts the tomb of Nabi Matta, also known as Matthew’s Tomb

• 20170629 - Six wanted "suspects arrested overnight in West Bank

Six wanted terrorists were arrested in the West Bank overnight on Wednesday in a joint operation carried out by IDF, Shin Bet, Border Police and police forces.

• 20170629 - Israel’s controversial conversion bill, explained

This week, Israel’s government inflamed simmering tensions over Jewish conversion when a Cabinet committee advanced a bill that would further empower the country’s ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. The measure declares that the rabbinate is the only body authorized by the government to perform conversions in Israel.

• 20170629 - ILLEGAL: The West Bank’s world class wines have Israelis toasting the settlements

Psagot Winery calls its Sinai wine an “unassuming but distinctive blend” of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.

• 20170629 - 'Carrot, not stick': Israel pushes its curriculum in Palestinian schools

Young Palestinian Faris Abu-Mayyaleh will soon find out how he did in his final high school exams, in which he answered questions about Israel's founding fathers and the history of Zionism.

• 20170629 - Israel seeks secret ballot on Hebron inscription on world heritage list

Israel hopes to sway the World Heritage Committee to vote by secret ballot when it decides on July 7 whether to inscribe Hebron’s Old City and the Tomb of the Patriarchs on the List of World Heritage in Danger under the “State of Palestine.”

• Jewish: Tomb of the Patriarchs

• Muslims: Sanctuary of Abraham or the Ibrahimi Mosque

Head of the village council Rateb Abu Mahamid told Ma’an that Israeli army forces and members of the Israeli Civil Administration raided the village early Wednesday to seize the solar panels, highlighting that they were installed last year by human rights organizations to provide electricity to the remote village, which has "no necessities of life to survive," according to the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ).

• 20170628 - Two Minors From West Bank Settlement Arrested for Stoning Israeli Army Ambulance Two Weeks Ago

[premium] --Third juvenile arrested for attacking soldiers earlier in the week as IDF demolished an illegal structure in the settlement of Yitzhar

• 20170628 - Israel Tackles Environmental Hazards in West Bank - in Violation of Oslo Accords

[premium] --Israel's Civil Administration is taking action against a waste disposal site and charcoal producers in Area B, the territory under Palestinian civil control

• 20170628 - Israeli Minister Plans a Floating Island Off the Coast of Gaza

The Israeli Ministry of Intelligence, in cooperation with the Ministry of Transportation, released a video detailing its plan for an artificial island with an airport, seaport, power plant, and more that would allow Palestinians a “humanitarian, economic, and transportation gateway to the world without endangering Israel’s security.” The only problem? Gaza would not be in control of it.

my comment: The idea brings no end to the blockade, only eases the blockade as the Israelis will have control over that man-made island

• 20170628 - AIPAC leaders to ariive in Israel for "special" meeting on Kotel crisis

Will the American Israel Public Affairs Committee be able to salvage the situation for Diaspora Jewry?

• 20170628 -  U.S. Jews Angry as Netanyahu Scraps Western Wall Mixed-Prayer Plan

TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government faced growing international criticism Wednesday after halting a project that would have allowed men and women to pray together at one of Judaism's holiest sites.

An Israeli conscientious objector speaks out about racism and subjugation as the occupation enters its 51st year.

• 20170627 - Israel bombs Gaza after rocket fire

No casualties after Israel targets at least three areas in the Hamas-run territory, according to Palestinian officials.

•  20170627 - Ultra-orthodox lawmaker: Reform Jews don't believe in temple

A senior ultra-Orthodox lawmaker says protestations of liberal Jews over alternative access to Jerusalem's Western Wall are merely provocation since they don't even believe in the sanctity of the site.

In light of Sunday’s decision by the Government of Israel to maintain the traditional men’s and women’s sections at the Kotel, with a special, raised platform, out of sight, for mixed prayers, the Board of Governors of The Jewish Agency for Israel announced it “will be changing its entire agenda for the remaining two days of its meetings in Jerusalem, in order to address the ramifications of these decisions.” Also, according to the same press release, “The scheduled dinner with the participation of the Prime Minister has been canceled.”

information: the article is about  Netanyahu's politics on the Western Wall he wants to turn into "one wall for one people".

• 20170626 - A Palestinian family divided

[story] -- The Tailakh family, like hundreds of thousands of others, has been split apart by the Israeli occupation.

The Yesha Council of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria demanded the immediate approval Sunday of 300 housing units in Bet El, north of Jerusalem.

• 20170625 - Assailants destroy 45 olive trees and spray paint 'revenge' on Palestinian land

Some 45 olive trees were found destroyed near the village of Burin, adjacent to the notorious illegal Yitzhar settlement in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, while the Hebrew word for “revenge” was spray painted on a stone left in the area, an Israeli human rights organization said Sunday.

• 20170625 - Bennett: Palestinians refugees can't return en masse to the West Bank

Providing the Palestinians with autonomy, instead of statehood, in the West Bank, would prohibit such an option, says Education minister.

• 20170625 - 20 arrested for trying to visit Joseph’s Tomb in West Bank

Jewish pilgrims intercepted on road to Palestinian city out of bounds to Israelis; rights group claims 4 were beaten by PA security personnel

• 20170625 - Netanyahu to millions of Jews: We don’t really want you

Op-Ed: The PM’s decision to freeze the Western Wall compromise plan is a blow to the heart and soul of world Jewry

• 20170625 - A Jewish American who immigrated to Israel asks why refugees can’t

Journalist Mya Jaradat in this interview: 'I felt responsibility for what the Jewish state was doing in my name'

Years of Israeli siege, coupled with crippling electricity cuts, have pushed the Strip's health system close to failure.

• 20170624 - In Tense Meeting, Jared Kushner Reportedly Protested Abbas' Refusal to Condemn Jerusalem Terror Attack

London-based Al-Hayat cites Palestinian official as saying Trump's envoy Jared Kushner also complained that Abbas refused to meet U.S. envoy Friedman due to his support for settlements

• 20170624 - Israeli army detains 4 Palestinians across the West Bank

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained at least four Palestinians during across the occupied West Bank on Saturday, according official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Ramallah reportedly accuses US delegation of being mouthpiece for Israel, rebuffs watered-down demand to stop paying 600 prisoners serving life terms

• 20170623 - Lieberman: Not a single Palestinian refugee will return to their lands in Israel

During a speech at Israel’s Herzliya conference, aimed at discussing the country’s national policies, ultra right Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman rejected the possibility of Palestinian refugees from historic Palestine, which Israel was built on, being able to return to their lands within the 1967 borders, a right that is upheld by United Nations Resolution 194.

• 20170623 - What happens when famous novelists ‘confront the Occupation’ in the West Bank

[opinion] -- Instead, they came to “bear witness” to the crisis in the West Bank and Gaza, where thousands of reporters, nongovernmental organization ...

• 20170623 - Israeli settlers change name of Damascus Gate-area street to 'honor Israeli soldiers'

A group of Israeli settlers escorted by Israeli police and border police forces changed the name of the Damascus Gate-area Sultan Suleiman Street in occupied East Jerusalem to Heroines Street, “in commemoration of killed Israeli soldiers.”

• 20170623 - Americans Disproportionately Leading the Charge in Settling the West Bank

[paid subscription] -- Are they being nudged there by the stealth efforts of the Israeli government and its NGO allies?

• Cheaper Israeli health care proves a draw for U.S. immigrants

• Sharp downturn in Jewish immigration from U.S. to Israel

• Despite anti-Semitic wave, U.S. Jews won't move to Israel anytime soon

Israeli authorities have continued devastating power cuts for the fourth consecutive day in the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday, after Israel approved a dramatic reduction in Israel’s electricity supply to the territory upon request of the Palestinian Authority (PA), while Egypt-provided fuel has put Gaza's sole power plant back in operation following its closure some two months ago.

• 20170622 - Netanyahu Announces Promotion of 300 Housing Units in West Bank Settlement of Beit El by September

Earlier this week, Netanyahu refused to state a deadline for the housing units during a meeting with the regional council head, Shai Alon

News comes as relief for Palestinians in the besieged strip, but reports that PA may prevent its use a cause for worry.

• 20170621 - US Ambassador to UN Nikki Haley: Hamas is Causing Gaza’s Problems, Not Israel

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that Israel isn’t behind the misery that Gaza’s residents are suffering — the enclave’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization is the cause.

• 20170621- Knesset takes one more step towards  de facto annexation of West Bank

As the Knesset forges ahead with a bill that applies a law to the West Bank, the Left is warning of the "creeping annexation" underway.

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian near the Qalandiya military checkpoint in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah on Monday, with the Israeli army claiming the man attempted to carry out a stabbing attack on Israeli soldiers.

• 20170620 - Israel starts work on new West Bank settlement

Netanyahu says he considers building new West Bank settlement an 'honor' after decades of expanding existing ones ....

... which is hasbara language.

• 20170620 - Netanyahu says Israel starts construction on new West Bank settlement

"The entire public expects of the prime minister not to allow any hostile element, whether they be leftist groups, judicial or clerical bodies, stop the construction," say residents of Amona.

• 20170620 - Israel starts work on first new West Bank settlement in 20 years

Israel has started work on the first new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank for more than 20 years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

Relatives of a Palestinian teenager shot and killed by an Israeli border police officer in 2014 said on Sunday that an Israeli Supreme Court hearing date was set to appeal the sentence levied against the officer in the case.

• 20170619 - 70% Rise in Building Starts in West Bank Settlements During 2016-17

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics data say 2,758 housing units were started between April 2016 and March 2017, compared to 1,619 in the previous 12 months

• 20170619 - Israeli settlement building soars in West Bank

Israeli data shows work began on 2,758 dwellings between April 2016 and March 2017, compared with 1,619 the year before.

• 20170619 - Israeli law tears Palestinian families apart

Children are often denied access to their families amid controversial citizenship laws.

It is difficult to imagine the pain the Bakr family must have felt in July 2014, when an Israel Defense Force (IDF) missile killed four of their children, cousins Ismail, 9; Ahed, 10; Zakariya, 10; and Mohammad, 11, as they played football on the beach in Gaza.

Today, they grieve again, after IDF forces fatally shot another family member, Mohammad Bakr, 25 years old and the father of two, while he fished with two brothers, Omran and Fadi, and a cousin on May 15.

"The Israeli target was lightly injured as he defended himself. IDF soldiers neutralized the attacker without discharging their weapons."

Hundreds of Palestinians protested on Friday along Gaza’s borders with Israel, as international rights groups warned of a “total collapse” of basic services amid a steadily worsening electricity crisis.

• 2070616 - Marking 50 years of rule, Rivlin calls on world to recognize Golan as Israel

President calls strategic plateau ‘essential to our existence as a people,’ says internal debate over Israeli claims has ‘ended’

• 2070616 - Israeli minister says settlement building coordinated with Trump team

Israel is coordinating the largest building of settlement homes in the West Bank since 1992 with the Trump administration, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told an audience Thursday night.

• 2070616 - Female police officer seriously injured in Jerusalem attack

An Israeli police officer has been seriously injured in what initial reports suggest was a coordinated attack by three Palestinians at two locations just outside Jerusalem’s Old City.

• 2070616 - Palestinians shot dead after Jerusalem Old City attacks

At least two Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces after twin attacks that kill Israeli policewoman at Damascus Gate.

• 2070616 - Palestinians shot dead after alleged Jerusalem attacks

20:21 pm -- Three Palestinians killed by Israeli forces after separate attacks at Damascus Gate near Jerusalem's Old City.

Palestine cultural event expects to draw 10,000 people in London in July but officials warn it could be cancelled.

• 2070615 - Israel anti-occupation NGO welcomes Man Booker donation

Israeli writer's US translator to give half of prize money from literary award to group fighting for Palestinian rights.

Prime Minister Netanyahu calls for total shut down of UNRWA, saying it is responsible for incitement against Israel.

• 2070612 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls for dismantling of UN Palestinian refugee agency

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the dismantling of the UN agency that aids millions of Palestinian refugees, accusing it of anti-Israeli incitement and saying he had conveyed his message to the US ambassador to the United Nations.

• 2070612 - Gaza: 'Jerusalem feels as far away as Mecca'

Quota for exit permits for Friday prayer at al-Aqsa markedly less than 2016, signifying a “tightening" of the siege.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning called for the dismantling of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Speaking at his cabinet meeting, the PM said that the Arab refugees have their own separate agency which is connected to incitement against Israel, and which perpetuates the refugee problem rather than solve it – which is why it has to be dismantled and integrated into other UN agencies.

• 2070611 - Israel plans most settlement homes since 1992: minister

Defence minister says first half of 2017 has seen most illegal expansion since before "Oslo peace process" began.

Israel’s Water Authority shut off the Shiloh pipeline, saying illegal Palestinian drilling is wreaking havoc on the supply. Now everyone is suffering

Israel has served up plans for thousands of homes across the West Bank in the first announcement of settlement construction since President Donald Trump urged a building freeze in February.

"We're trying to change the legislative reality in the Knesset," Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked offered, but critics slam her suggestion as a move that would create a situation of "apartheid plus."

• 20170607 - Israel approves plans to tighten grip on East Jerusalem

Figures show that Israel has been allowing Jewish ultra-nationalists to visit the Al-Aqsa compound in record numbers.

• 20170607 - Israeli plans to build 67,000 housing units in West Bank

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has published a report on housing unit construction plans made by Israeli Settlement Council West Bank in order to solve the housing crisis in Gush Dan settlement bloc.

• 20170607 - The Immigrants Fueling the Population Growth of West Bank Settlements

Immigrants to Israel account for as much as half the population at some West Bank settlements, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein told settler activists attending a parliamentary committee meeting on Tuesday.

• 20170607 - Nikki Haley in Jerusalem: UN cannot continue to bully Israel

The UN understands that it cannot go on “bullying” Israel as it has in the past, Washington's ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Wednesday after meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

• 20170607 - "Israel may deduct ‘martyr’ payments from PA funds"

Local version of ‘Taylor Force Act’ calls for withholding a billion shekels in Palestinian tax revenue, equivalent to the sum paid to terrorists and their families

'All settlement goods are tainted by illegality', says Amnesty International, as it launches new global campaign

paid subscription -- The atmosphere is being compared to that on the eve of the 2014 Gaza war. Israel must decide whether and to what extent it will intervene

OPINION -- Westerners who rail against Israel for the failure to end the conflict are being too easy on their own governments

• 20170604 - With Meeting in Ramallah, Israel's Finance Minister Blazes Palestinian Trail

ANALYSIS - It's been more than a decade since a top Israeli minister visited the Palestinian Authority, but economic gestures are no substitute for diplomatic ones, Palestinian PM hinted

• 20170604 - Disturbing the Peace review – voices from the Israel-Palestine conflict

This article is a review about an documentary

Civil Administration committee to meet for first time in months after it was pushed off for Trump’s visit last month.

 

Israeli forces have shot and wounded a Palestinian girl after she allegedly stabbed a soldier outside of a Jewish-only settlement in the northern occupied West Bank.

• 20170601 - Donald Trump delays moving US embassy to Jerusalem

US president signs six-month waiver delaying the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

• 20170601 - Trump team looks to Obama-era West Bank security plan – report

Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, has reportedly been meeting with American security officials who in years past have looked at solutions for the day after an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty is signed, including those who worked on the issue during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Fifty years after Israel occupied the Palestinian territories, its policies in the West Bank and Gaza are at the root of Palestinian hardship, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

• 20170531 - Israeli soldier stabbed outside West Bank settlement

A security guard saw a Palestinian woman heading toward the community’s gate and yelled at her to stand back. The woman ignored the guard and headed toward a group of soldiers by the gate, stabbing one of them, according to an Israel Police spokeswoman. A video of the incident posted on YouTube showed the attacker, who was wearing pants and a hijab, walking toward the gate. Shortly thereafter, a soldier is seen running after her."

[opinion] -- On this day, Israel is celebrating what it calls "Jerusalem Day", when it occupied East Jerusalem at the end of the 1967 war with Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

A mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails has been called to an end after 41 days as Israel offered a compromise deal to meet some of the strikers’ demands.

Hundreds of Palestinians took part in violent protests against Israeli troops across the West Bank and Gaza on Friday, in support of a hunger strike by security prisoners.

• 20170526 - Israeli forces injure scores of Palestinians during clashes across West Bank, Gaza

Israeli forces suppressed demonstrations across the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip on Friday held in solidarity with some 1,300 Palestinians entering their 40th day on a mass hunger strike, injuring numerous Palestinians with live bullets, rubber-coated bullets, and tear gas.

• 20170525 - Jerusalem still suffers from divisions, 50 years after war

Israel is marking this week the 50th anniversary of its capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war - an event it celebrates as the "unification" of the its eternal capital.

My comment: It's not caused by the war. The Jewish European migrants claimed the city as their capital before the fall of British Mandatory Palestine.

On this day, Israel is celebrating what it calls "Jerusalem Day", when it occupied East Jerusalem at the end of the 1967 war with Syria, Egypt and Jordan. The annual celebration is a day when right-wing, mostly young Israelis rampage around East Jerusalem's Old City, carrying Israeli flags and shouting anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racist slogans.

(article) -- Just ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, President Trump told a group of reporters several times that he “never mentioned the word, or the name, Israel,” in his Oval Office conversation with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador earlier this month.

Recent raid of Arab Studies Society's Jerusalem office highlights a long-standing problem, rights groups say.

An estimated 80,000 Bedouins live in unrecognised villages in the Negev region without basic infrastructure or services.

• 20170517 - Nikki Haley: Western Wall part of Israel, US embassy should be moved to Jerusalem

(Israeli source) -- The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Tuesday that the US embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, upholding a campaign promise of US President Donald Trump, and that the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem is part of Israeli territory.

A Palestinian fisherman has been killed after the Israeli navy opened fire on a vessel it accused of breaching the blockade north of the Gaza Strip.

• 20170515 - Analysis A New Underground Reality Is Taking Shape Along the Gaza-Israel Border

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has challenged US concerns over moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and said a move will help the peace process to progress.

Palestinians held municipal elections on Saturday in the occupied West Bank, a first democratic exercise in years, but one that has also raised tensions between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements.

• 20170513 - West Bank Palestinians vote in local elections

With all major Palestinian factions except Fatah boycotting the local poll, it is effectively a one-party election.

Palestinian football body wanted FIFA to decide fate of Israeli clubs in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israel released video footage Sunday purportedly showing Marwan Barghouti, a man Palestinians compare to Nelson Mandela and the leader of an open-ended hunger strike by hundreds of Palestinians incarcerated in Israel, breaking the strike by sneaking a mouthful of cookies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday symbolically tossed into a bin a Hamas policy paper published last week that set out an apparent softening of the Palestinian Islamist group's stance toward Israel.

Personal comment: Netanyahu hasn't changed his attitude since his comment "Hamas Must Be Destroyed" he in a CNN interview about 7 years again. His tossing is clear evidence he has a destructive hamasophobia

United States special envoy Jason Greenblatt held a high-level meeting in Brussels with Israeli and Palestinian ministers on Thursday to discuss economic initiatives in the West Bank.

(Israeli premium article) -- Tour operators say Israel increasingly doesn’t want you here if you plan to spend a night in Bethlehem, oppose the settlements or have the wrong stamp in your passport

• 20170502 - UNESCO criticizes Israeli over Jerusalem excavation

The UN cultural agency has passed a resolution critical of Israeli excavations in and around Jerusalem's Old City. Referring to Israel as an "occupying power", UNESCO has called on Israel to cease all digging, tunneling and works projects in East Jerusalem.

• 20170502 - UNESCO to vote on Jerusalem resolution

UNESCO is expected to vote on the status of holy sites in the disputed city of Jerusalem on Tuesday. The government of Israel has condemned the resolution and is calling on countries to vote against it.

(STORY) -- As Israel celebrates the Palestinian Nakba as its triumphant independence on May 1, it is preparing for a massive celebration for the 50th anniversary of its occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

• 20170501 - Israel and Palestine battle for votes over Jerusalem resolution at UNESCO

(Israeli source) -- The resolution would deny Israel sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, including the western part of the city

• 20170501 - Israel to UNESCO: Reject fake history on Jerusalem

(warning Israeli source) -- A day prior to a UNESCO vote in Paris on a resolution that rejects Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem, Israel's Deputy FM Tzipi Hotovely called attempts to promote the resolution "fake history."

• 20170501 - Israel: Hamas is trying to fool the world with its new policy paper

It remains unclear whether the document replaces or changes in any way Hamas's 1988 charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction and is the Islamist group's covenant.

• 20170501 - Israel Blasts Hamas' New Charter: Group Still Dedicated to War With Israel

(warning extreme Israeli source) -- Hamas' new political charter, to be announced later today, still expected to reject Israel's right to exist and to back 'armed struggle'

• 20170501 - Hamas accepts Palestinian state with 1967 borders

Khaled Meshaal presents new document in which Hamas accepts 1967 borders without recognising state of Israel.

• 20170501 - Hamas Presents New Charter Supporting Palestinian State Along 1967 Borders

Vowing to continue to strive to liberate all of Palestinian lands, Hamas says fight is with Zionism, not Jews | Hosting Doha hotel canceled, prompting delays | Israel blasted new charter as smoke screen for group's real intentions

• 20170501 - Hamas rebrand itself in new manifesto, but old goals remain

The new political program of Hamas, published Monday, is meant to help the Islamic militant group break out of its international isolation.

(warning Israeli source) -- Is Germany leading European support for the resolution attacking Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem?

Netanyahu cancelled his planned talks with Gabriel on Tuesday after the minister met group 'Breaking the Silence', which is critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. The dispute threatens to widen a rift between Israel and Germany over the Palestinian issue.

• 20170428 - Palestinian 'day of rage' in support of prisoners

At least 50 Palestinian protesters were injured in clashes with Israeli forces on a "day of rage" held across the occupied Palestinian territories to show solidarity with more than 1,500 prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons.

• 20170428 - 'Day of Rage' protests across West Bank in support of hunger strikers

Thousands of Palestinians held protests in at least a dozen locations around the West Bank and East Jerusalem on Friday as part of a “day of rage” in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners, some 1,500 of whom have refused food in Israeli prisons for the past 12 days.

• 20170428 - Remaining alert: 15 years after Israel biggest West Bank OP since 1967.

(Israeli source) -- 15 years after Operation Defensive Shield, the situation on the ground is quiet, thanks to security cooperation with the PA, improved intelligence and almost nightly raids.

• 20170428 - Protest across the West Bank: Palestinians report dozens injured

 

(Israeli source) -- Dozens were reported as hospitalized due to tear gas inhalation. According to Palestinian media the clashes began immediately after Friday morning prayers. The West Bank’s ruling party Fatah had called on Palestinians to participate in the day of rage this in support of the hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners.

• 20170428 - Clashes erupt in West Bank on day 12 of hunger strike

(Israeli source) -- Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters erupted across the West Bank and East Jerusalem on Friday, on what protesters called ‘a day of rage’ marking the twelfth day of a mass Palestinian hunger strike.

• 20170428 - Israeli forces detain six Palestinians, ransack homes in West Bank raids

(Palestinian source) -- Israeli forces Friday detained at least six Palestinians and ransacked a number of homes during multiple predawn raids across a number of West Bank districts, said security sources.

• 20170428 - 6 Palestinians injured in West Bank clashes with Israeli troops

(Israeli source) -- Six Palestinians were wounded in a series of clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. The clashes Friday came amid a so-called day of rage in support of Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli prisons, The Times of Israel reported

•  Clashes break out all over West Bank following prisoner solidarity protests

A number of Palestinians were injured by live ammunition, rubber bullets and teargas grenades as clashes broke out in different areas of the West Bank between youths and IOF, following protests in solidarity with 1,500 hunger striking prisoners.

• 20170427 - Challenging Hamas, Palestinian Authority Cuts Electricity Payments for Gaza

The Palestinian Authority informed Israel on Thursday that it would no longer pay for the electricity that Israel supplies to the Gaza Strip, in an extraordinary push by the authority to reassert some control after years of rule in Gaza by the militant group Hamas.

• 20170427 - Israeli forces detain 16 Palestinians in West Bank raids

(Palestinian source) -- Israeli forces detained at least 16 Palestinians during predawn raids Thursday across the occupied West Bank, in addition to sealing a lathing workshop under the claim that it was “illegally manufacturing weapons,” according to local Palestinian and Israeli army sources.

(Israeli source) -- Tour agencies are awaiting clarification, fearing such a directive would hurt Christian groups that spend the night in Bethlehem

• 20170426 - Israel revives controversial plan for 10,000 new settlement homes in West Bank

Israel's Housing Ministry is reviving controversial plans for a new neighborhood in East Jerusalem that falls outside of the 1967 borders and inside the West Bank, according to the Israeli TV outlet Channel 10. The 10,000-strong neighborhood is reportedly planned for the site of the now defunct Atarot Airport, north of Jerusalem, and is aimed at providing housing for ultra-Orthodox Israelis.

(Israeli source) -- Settlers and Palestinians clashed on Saturday in two West Bank incidents outside the Yitzhar settlement. It followed three other incidents in what was an unusually violent weekend. The Left-wing organization Yesh Din said that on Saturday afternoon several dozen Israelis had thrown stones at homes and vehicles in the Palestinian villages of Urif and Huwara.
 

• 20170423 - Israel Accepts Chinese Demand Not to Employ Chinese Laborers in Settlements

(Israeli source) -- The cabinet on Sunday ratified an agreement with China relating to the employment of Chinese construction workers in Israel. The agreement was made possible after Israel agreed to a condition demanded by the Chinese government that in practice provides that Chinese construction workers in Israel will not be employed in settlements in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.

April 15, to the 21, 2017.

Activists accompanying Palestinian shepherds near a West Bank settlement were attacked by settlers on Friday.  Settlers threw stones at the activists, who belong to the Ta'ayush organization, and tried to hit them with clubs near the Baladim outpost. Four of the activists were lightly hurt, according to a complaint filed with the police. 

• 20170421 - Israeli settlers attack activists in the West Bank

Video shows masked men approaching and attacking a group of activists accompanying Palestinian shepherds.

FIFA to discuss in May sanctions call over six teams based in Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

Israeli naval forces opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Beit Lahiya in the northwestern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, witnesses told Ma'an, while Israeli bulldozers conducted a limited incursion in southern Gaza the same morning.

• 20170419 - "Barghouti poised to win if hunger strike succeeds"

(warning Israeli source) - “If it goes on for a long time and if anyone dies, it will definitely bring more sympathy and support for the Palestinian cause.”

• 20170419 - Israeli settlement building soars in West Bank

More than 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem [Reuters]

Israeli data shows work began on 2,758 dwellings between April 2016 and March 2017, compared with 1,619 the year before.

paid reading - Lawyers from organizations that aid Palestinian prisoners in Israel announced a boycott of all Israeli court sessions starting Tuesday, after the Israel...

My comment: Israel is officially still in stage of war since 1967 with the remaining party they view as their enemy. The Laws Of War forbids the transfer of prisoners to the occupier's territory. They must be held in facilities in the territory that is occupied.

• 20170418 - Israel rules out talks with Palestinian hunger striking inmates

Israel says it will not negotiate with more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees who have begun a mass hunger strike against conditions in Israeli jails.

• 20170418 - Israel rejects negotiations with jailed Palestinian hunger strikers

Israel has said it will not negotiate with hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who began a hunger strike to improve conditions.

• 20170418 - How Israeli soldiers interrogated me

STORY - On Palestinian Prisoners Day detainees and their relatives tell horror stories of torture and abuse in Israeli jails.

• 20170418 - Israel punishes hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners

Israeli authorities look to quell mass hunger strike through solitary confinement and punitive measures.

• 20170418 - Palestinian prisoners launch mass hunger strike

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners start hunger strike to demand basic rights as Israeli jails' conditions hit 'new low'.

Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails launched a hunger strike on Monday following a call from leader and prominent prisoner Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian Authority official said.

• 20170417 - Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to participate in mass hunger strike Monday

(warning: Israeli source) According to an Israel Prison Service (IPS) statement, any prisoner participating in the hunger-strike will be subject to "serious consequences."

A British woman thought to be in her 20s has been stabbed to death in Jerusalem, police have said.

STORY - Around 4000 Palestinians live in fear over recent encroachment from Israeli settlements.

Why is Israel afraid of the Nakba's March of Return? - For the first time, Israeli police block the annual march to commemorate the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948.

This is how Bashar resists the Israeli occupation ... with his horse.

(warning Israeli source) - In an unexpected, unprecedented and curious move, Moscow on Thursday said it considers West Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital, making Russia the first country in the world to extend such a recognition to any part of the city.

• 20170406 - Israeli Soldier Killed in West Bank Car Attack; Palestinian Assailant Arrested

(Israeli source) - Second Israeli lightly wounded after Palestinian ploughed into two Israelis, both in their 20s, at junction outside of the settlement of Ofra

• 20170406 - In Highly Irregular Move, Israel Demolishes Palestinian Homes Within Jerusalem Borders

Israeli security forces razed five buildings in the Palestinian village of Al-Zaim, near Jerusalem, on Tuesday morning. Had residents known the homes lay within Jerusalem's jurisdiction, and not in the West Bank's Area C, the demolition could have been prevented, rights group says.

Israeli mother died 16 months ago, father is a non-Jewish Latvian. - Israel is refusing to grant citizenship to a 3-year-old boy who has AIDS and is the son of a Jewish woman with Israeli citizenship...

• 20170405 - A Village Under Occupation

A Village Under Occupation is the story of the Palestinian village of Qaryut in the occupied West Bank which residents say comes under regular attack by nearby Israeli settlers

• 20170405 - Israel Slams EU: 32 Humanitarian Crises in the World and Europe's Obsessed With Palestinians

(Israeli source) - The criticism comes after the European Union demanded that Israel stop demolishing Palestinian homes in Area C of the West Bank.

 

The European Union expressed frustration with Israel's continued demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank in a high-level meeting last week, according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

• 20170404 - EU ambassador denounces Israel's West Bank demolitions policy

The European Union has expressed frustration with Israel over its demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank, with the EU ambassador taking the unusual step of reading out a joint statement denouncing the practice.

• 20170404 - UNSC won't focus on Israeli-Palestinian conflict under Nikki Haley presidency

(warning: Israeli source) - Instead, the discussion will revolve around issues such as Iran’s support for terrorism, the Syrian crisis, Hezbollah and Hamas among others, Haley explained during a press briefing on Monday.

Israeli forces detained at least 14 Palestinians in predawn military raids across the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources.

• 20170403 - HRW: Israel denying human rights workers access to Gaza

Rights group says Israel is blocking access for researchers to Gaza, compromising efforts to document violations.

• 20170403 - Inside Story - Why are human rights workers barred from Gaza?

The Gaza Strip is one of the most isolated places in the world. The territory has been under Israeli blockade since Hamas seized control in 2007. Almost two million Palestinians are cut off from aid, proper medical care and work outside the Strip. Now, rights workers say they too are struggling to get into Gaza.

• 20170403 - Unwilling or Unable / Israeli Restrictions on Access to and from Gaza for Human Rights Workers

For the last 25 years, Israel has imposed increasingly strict restrictions on travel to and from the Gaza Strip.

UN chief calls decision to build another illegal settlement on occupied Palestinian land an 'obstacle to peace'.

At the meeting the security cabinet decided to curb settlement construction, Netanyahu told the ministers: We must not mislead the Americans, they are tracking every house in the settlements, including in East Jerusalem.

• 20170402 - Norway's FM: 'Two-state solution is under pressure'

(Israeli source) - Norway's Foreign Minister, Borge Brende, warned on Saturday that the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict "is under pressure", The Associated Press reported.

Israel's government has approved the building of the first new settlement in 20 years in the occupied West Bank - a move swiftly condemned as an obstacle to peace based on a two-state solution.

 

Israeli forces, on Thursday afternoon, fired teargas and sound grenades towards Palestinian protesters who took part in the annual Land Day demonstration.

Israel’s government on Thursday approved the establishment of a new settlement in the West Bank for the first time in more than two decades, and also laid the groundwork for further expansion despite a request from President Trump to hold off on settlement activity.

• 20170330 - Israel approves first new settlement in two decades

Benjamin Netanyahu honours promise he made after Amona settlement was destroyed earlier this year

• 20170330 - Israeli cabinet approves first West Bank settlement in 20 years

Israel's security cabinet on Thursday approved the building of the first new settlement in the occupied West Bank in two decades, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu negotiates with Washington on a possible curb on settlement activity.

20170328

A new poll was released by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Tuesday, revealing that a majority of Israelis oppose any Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank, while 79 percent of Israelis believe in the importance of maintaining a unified Jerusalem under Israeli control, in contradiction with longstanding international peace negotiations and international law.

• 20170328 - U.S. planning Israeli-Palestinian-Gulf peace summit

(warning Israeli source) - Members of the Trump administration are exploring whether to host a landmark conference over the summer that would bring Gulf Arab leaders, the Palestinian Authority president and Israel’s prime minister onto the same stage for the first time, sources tell The Jerusalem Post. US officials are quietly gauging interest in the event, according to the Israeli sources, who requested anonymity in order to respect their relationships with the new administration.

• 20170328 - Trump’s peace envoy back in region for fresh talks

(warning Israeli source) - US President Donald Trump sent his peace envoy back to the Middle East on Tuesday in a move seen as a sign that he intends to make a push for a peace deal “very soon.”

• 20170328 - New Palestinian envoy in DC sees ‘opportunity’ in Trump

(warning Israeli source) - US President Donald Trump seems “committed” and “serious” about helping Israelis and Palestinians reach a peace deal, but he will have to adopt a more neutral role than past US administrations to reach the “win-win” situation he hopes for, the incoming Palestine Liberation Organization ambassador to Washington said.

(warning Israeli source) - The Trump administration will not allow a repeat of last year’s United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel for its settlements, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told AIPAC.

The idea of future land swaps has been used to justify expanding Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, analysts say.

Israeli forces notified several Palestinian families in the northern Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank on Sunday that they would have to evacuate their homes on Wednesday to make way for Israeli military training exercises, official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Palestinian officials on Saturday welcomed the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) adoption of four resolutions concerning the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and called upon the international community to take immediate action to hold Israel accountable for its violations.

 

Resolution, which also condemns Israeli construction in West Bank, passes by overwhelming majority despite Israeli efforts to thwart it.

• 20170324 - Israel ignores U.N. demand for end to settlement building: U.N.

Israel has ignored a demand by the United Nations Security Council to halt settlement building and some Palestinian groups are continuing to incite violence against Jews, U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the 15-member body on Friday.

• 20170324 - Israeli settlement expansions illegal and ‘concerning’: UN envoy

Israel took no steps to comply with a Security Council call to stop all settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and instead authorized “a high rate” of settlement expansions in violation of international law, the United Nations said Friday.

• 20170324 - Israel ignores U.N. demand for end to settlement building: U.N.

Israel has ignored a demand by the United Nations Security Council to halt settlement building and some Palestinian groups are continuing to incite violence against Jews, U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the 15-member body on Friday.

20170323

David Friedman approved as US ambassador to Israel

The US Senate has approved the appointment of President Donald Trump's former bankruptcy lawyer, a supporter of Israeli settlement building, as Washington's ambassador to Israel. Trump's nomination of David Friedman had raised concerns about America's commitment to a two-state Middle East peace deal. David Friedman, a known donor to illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

• 20170323 - Israeli policeman caught on video beating Palestinian truck driver

An Israeli policeman who attacked a Palestinian truck driver has been suspended and is facing a criminal investigation. The incident was caught on video, and has caused widespread outrage.

• 20170323 - Video: Israeli officer beats Palestinian in Jerusalem

Officer suspended from duty after video emerges showing him violently assaulting Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem.

20170322

Israel shuts down Arab primary school in East Jerusalem

Israeli occupation authorities shut down the private school a month ago, alleging an affiliation with Hamas. Sur Baher, occupied East Jerusalem - Perched on a stool in his mother's shop, Mohammad Jadallah recited the homemade study plans he has used since his school was closed down by the Israeli Ministry of Education.

 

20170322

Israel's human rights spies: Manipulating the discourse

A fascinating expose in Haaretz reveals how, in the mid-1970s - not long after the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights - Israel used university faculty members to infiltrate Amnesty International. The state thus actively intervened in order to shape human rights activism, just as the rights discourse was becoming one of the most popular forms of political struggle against injustice around the globe.

20170322

Israel built 2,630 illegal homes in West Bank last year

Israel built 2,630 illegal settler homes in the occupied West Bank in 2016, an increase of 40 percent compared to numbers from 2015. According to figures released by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, construction was at its "second highest" in 15 years, falling slightly short of the 2,874 illegal homes built in 2013.

• 20170322 - US asked Israel to halt building outside settlement blocs, impose quota: report

(Israeli source) - The United States has asked Israel to freeze settlement construction outside of settlement blocks and imposed a yearly quota on building, Israeli media reported Wednesday.

(warning: Israeli Jewish orthodox source) - New Zealand opposition party says foreign affairs minister acted without authorization in voting against Israel at Security Council. - New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister did not have the required approval of the country’s Cabinet to support a United Nations Security Council resolution critical of Israel, an opposition party has charged.

20170320

UN report decries Israeli settlements' 'alarming pace'

The UN's special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories has decried how Israel's "illegal settlement enterprise has moved at an alarming pace" this year. Michael Lynk pointed on Monday to announcements by Israel to build 6,000 new housing units in Palestinian areas, accompanied by "high rates of demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem".

20170319

Israel's high court rules to restore residency rights of East Jerusalem Palestinian

In a precedent-setting ruling, Israel's High Court has ordered the Ministry of Interior to restore residency rights to a Palestinian man born in East Jerusalem. The ruling changes de facto ministry policy of revoking residency from Palestinians born in the city if they have been out of the city for more than seven years. The judgement could help protect Palestinian residency rights in occupied East Jerusalem.

20170319

UN Report Accusing Israel of Apartheid Withdrawn

A report which accuses Israel of apartheid practices against Palestinians has been withdrawn from the UN. The head of the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia believes the report was pulled because of Israeli pressure.

20170318

Slain Palestinian activist laid to rest

The funeral of Basil al-Araj took place in his home village of Al Walajah near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. Israeli police had accused him of planning attacks in Israel. Palestinians dispute the accusations and say he was a hero.

20170318

UN withdraws Israel’s apartheid report

Arab countries want to know why the United Nations has withdrawn a report that accuses Israel of apartheid practices against Palestinians. The head of the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia resigned following criticism from Israel and its allies.

20170317

UN buries report accusing Israel of 'apartheid'

A UN agency report, that accuses Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" of racial discrimination on the Palestinian people has created a political firestorm.

• 20170317 - Senior U.N. official quits after 'apartheid' Israel report pulled

A senior U.N. official resigned on Friday over the withdrawal of a report accusing Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on Palestinians, saying "powerful member states" pressured the world body and its chief with "vicious attacks and threats."

• 20170317 - Inside Story - Is Israel imposing 'apartheid' on Palestinians?

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia has issued a report which condemned the Israeli government for its treatment of Palestinians.

20170316

Israeli Lawmaker: Only Palestinians Who Serve in Army Would Be Able to Vote in Binational State

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My comment: Every Palestinian who is serving in the occupying forces will loose his rights as defined in the Geneva Conventions and in the Customary International Humanitarian Law

20170316

In Historic Report, U.N. Agency Says Israel Is Imposing an "Apartheid Regime" on Palestinian People

For the first time, a United Nations agency has directly accused Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on the Palestinian people. The report also urges governments to "support boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS] activities and respond positively to calls for such initiatives." The findings come in a new report published by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which is comprised of 18 Arab states. For more, we speak with the co-author of the report, Richard Falk. He’s professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and previously served as the U.N. special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.

• 20170316 - In First, UN Agency Accuses Israel of Being an 'Apartheid Regime'  

Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman likened the report, which was published by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), to Der Sturmer - a Nazi propaganda publication

A top adviser to Donald Trump has met Israeli settler leaders in an unusual move that may raise fresh concerns over prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

20170316

In Precedent-setting Ruling, Israel's Top Court Recognizes East Jerusalem Arabs as 'Native-born Residents'

Over 14,000 Arabs have had their residency rights revoked since 1967 because they were absent from Jerusalem for more than 7 years. Court ruling challenges practice that treated them like immigrants in their own city.

Palestinian Authority (PA) official Ghassan Daghlas, who is in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, told Quds Press that Israel “is seriously working on the issue of moving the West Bank to become under full Israeli sovereignty.”

• 20170316 - Israeli cabinet postpones vote on annexation of West Bank settlement

The Israeli cabinet postponed a vote on Tuesday regarding the annexation of a major illegal colony-settlement in the occupied West Bank. The vote on the future of Ma’ale Adumin is now likely to be held in three months’ time at the request of the Likud Party, which wants to avoid any friction with the Trump administration in the US.

Israel's leader says he will confer again with U.S. envoy Greenblatt "to reach an agreed policy for building in settlements." Rough cut. (No reporter narration)

20170315

UN report: Israel has established de facto 'apartheid regime'

A branch of the United Nations has prepared a report at the request of its member states looking at whether Israel has a policy of de facto apartheid toward the Palestinians.

The gunman in the case was killed in a shootout with IDF forces following the incident. - An Israeli military court in the southern West Bank sentenced a Palestinian, Mohammed Ameira, to two consecutive life prison sentences on Wednesday after...

(Israeli source) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, for more than five hours in Jerusalem Monday night amid the Trump administration’s efforts to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which have been frozen since 2014.

A Knesset committee vote on a bill that would annex the large West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim was postponed to avoid a conflict with a visiting Trump administration official.

“The data reflect a trend of protracted failure in investigation of ideological motivated offenses against Palestinians.”

20170309

Israel Moves to Lower Volume of Mosques' Call to Prayer

The controversial new bill is aimed at "improving residents' quality of life."

• Muting mosque bill gets initial thumbs up in Israel

A law to muffle mosques' amplified calls to prayer in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem won preliminary approval on Wednesday in a charged parliamentary session where Palestinian legislators denounced the measure as racist. The bill passed a preliminary reading with 55 votes in favor and 48 against as the assembly broke out into chaotic arguments.

Nearly 6,000 miles separate Washington D.C. from Beit El, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and yet the two have never been closer. A direct connection runs between the White House and the small religious community Beit El, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. The community is perched on a windswept hill, near Palestinian communities. The mark of US President Donald Trump's administration is clear. According to tax records for the Trump Foundation, in 2003, Trump donated $10,000 to the settlement's schools. In addition, Trump's controversial pick for US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has a deep connection to Beit El.

• 20170309 - Overstepping Authority, State Body Advances Illegal Israeli Settlement Construction in West Bank

Although it’s financed with public funds, the division is not a regular government agency; as a subordinate of the World Zionist Organization, it isn’t subject to government transparency rules.

20170308

Israel denies redress to thousands of Palestinians

Israel has given itself almost complete immunity from paying compensation in cases where its soldiers have killed, injured or disabled Palestinian civilians, an Israeli human rights group has warned. In a report released on Wednesday, entitled Getting Off Scot-Free, B'Tselem said that Israel had violated its obligations under international law by denying many thousands of Palestinians redress in Israeli civil courts. 

20170308

Britain's Johnson backs two-state solution on Mideast trip

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson meets his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Malki, in Ramallah, saying his government remains committed to a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

(Israeli source) - Nikki Haley meets Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour, urges ‘direct negotiations rather than looking to the UN’

The Trump administration has explicitly warned Israel against annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, saying it would trigger an "immediate crisis" between the two close allies, Israel's defense minister said Monday. It was the latest indication that President Donald Trump is returning to more traditional U.S. policy and will not give Israel free rein to expand its control over the West Bank and sideline the Palestinians, as Israeli nationalists had hoped.

• 20170306 - Annexing West Bank Leads to ’Immediate Crisis’ with Trump: US Warns Israel

Highly pro-Israel administration of the US, fed up with regime's violations against Palestinians, warned Tel Aviv over annexing West Bank and threatened that such a move would lead to an "immediate crisis" with the Trump administration, Israel's defense minister said Monday.

• 20170306 - Amid Annexation Talk, U.S. Official Tells Haaretz: Trump Expects Israel to Act Reasonably on Palestinian Issue

Israel should give the U.S. time to consider the best way to move forward with the peace process, U.S. official says after Lieberman tells Knesset committee Washington warned Israel against West Bank annexation.

20170303

EU mulling high-level talks with Israel

European Union foreign ministers are considering holding high-level talks with Israel, diplomats said Friday, according to The Associated Press. The diplomats said the EU must be clear in its dealings with Israel, especially given what they called the U.S. administration's “unclear position” on the Israel-Arab conflict.

• 20170303 - EU-Israel high-level talks in doubt over settlements

European Union foreign ministers are to discuss whether to hold high-level talks with Israel soon amid concern over its settlement policy and commitment to a two-state solution, diplomats said Friday. The diplomats said the EU must be clear in its dealings with Israel, especially given the US administration’s unclear position on the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

This latest postponement wasn’t the first time the prime minister foiled discussion of the bill – the last time was on the eve of his meeting with President Donald Trump in February. - Israeli lawmakers have decided to postpone Sunday's planned vote on a bill to annex the West Bank...

20170302

Human Rights Watch denied entry into Israel

A Human Rights Watch researcher has been denied entry into Israel on both a work visa and a tourist visa.

20170302

Gaza report: 'Not about justice for Israel's victims'

The Israeli leadership shows no signs of heeding the lessons of an official report into the 2014 Gaza war that led to massive destruction and loss of life in the tiny coastal enclave, Palestinians warned this week. After a two-year inquiry, the State Comptroller, an official Israeli watchdog, published a report on Tuesday into the 51-day war, which began in July 2014. It was highly critical of Israeli government officials, as well as Israel's military and its intelligence services.

20170301

Israel soldier appeals conviction in killing of Palestinian attacker

An Israeli soldier who was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for killing a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian assailant appealed on Wednesday against a manslaughter conviction that could have sent him to jail for a maximum 20-year term. Three of Elor Azaria's defense attorneys said after the appeal was announced that they were quitting. In a statement, they said he had received a "fantastic and seemingly impossible" sentence, appearing to suggest he should not put it at risk.

watch original video

20170301

Israel: Damning report finds Benjamin Netanayahu at fault over Gaza War

Benjamin Netanyahu failed to brief his security cabinet on the threat posed by the Hamas tunnel network before the 2014 Gaza war, according to a new report by Israel's government watchdog. The long-awaited report accused the Prime Minister and his defence and intelligence chiefs of failing, prior to the war, to make his security cabinet—which formulates strategies and approves military action—aware in a timely fashion of the strategic threat they knew the network presented.

20170301

U.S. seeks end to U.N. rights council's 'obsession' with Israel

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is reviewing its participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, seeking reform of its agenda and an end to its "obsession with Israel", a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. Washington has long argued that the Geneva forum unfairly focuses on Israel's alleged violations of human rights, including war crimes against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli police have begun evacuating nine houses judged by the Supreme Court to have been built illegally on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

 

• 20170228 - Israeli police evacuate West Bank settler homes

Israeli police begin removing residents and protesters from nine West Bank settler homes set to be demolished under a Supreme Court ruling.

• 20170228 - Israeli police confronted at West Bank settlement

Hundreds of protestors have tried to prevent the evacuation and demolition of nine homes in the Israeli settlement of Ofra in the West Bank

A two-year inquiry into the 2014 Gaza War by Israel's official watchdog, the State Comptroller, has found the government failed to explore diplomatic solutions that could have avoided the seven-week conflict.

• 20170228 - Israeli PM is slammed over conduct in 2014 Gaza war

Last week, in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump surprised the world by appearing to dismiss a long-standing US commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Prominent hard-right Israeli Education Minister, Naftali Bennett, welcomed the statement saying: "The era of a Palestinian state is over."  "There already exists two states for the Palestinians: one in Gaza, a full blown state run by Hamas, and the other is Jordan, where 70 percent of the citizens are, indeed, Palestinians," Bennett told UpFront.

Israeli has refused to issue a visa for a senior Human Rights Watch staff member, accusing the US-based rights group of pro-Palestinian bias and saying it will no longer grant visas to its staff. HRW said on Friday that its Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir, a US citizen, had received a rejection letter on February 20, months after an application for the permit was submitted by the group on his behalf.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is at a critical juncture and the EU and its member states should recognise Palestinian statehood, according to members of Parliament’s Palestine delegation. Led by delegation chair Neoklis Sylikiotis, the five members visited Jerusalem and the West Bank on 20-24 February. In addition MEPs discussed the Israeli government’s recent decision to retroactively legalise settlements illegally built on Palestinian land during a plenary debate on 14 February,

• 20170223 - Recognize Palestine to preserve the two-state solution, says European Parliament Delegation

[PRESS RELEASE] "The viability of the two-state solution is at a critical juncture and the EU and its Member States must recognize Palestine as a state to protect and preserve it", says the cross-party delegation of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Palestine when visiting Palestine on 20-24 February 2016.

A young Israeli soldier who shot dead an incapacitated Palestinian assailant has been jailed for 18 months. 

• 20170221 - Israeli soldier Elor Azaria to be sentenced for manslaughter

A convicted Israeli soldier is due to be sentenced for manslaughter for killing a Palestinian man. Elor Azaria shot Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, as he lay injured on the ground. Sharif had earlier tried to stab another soldier. The case raised questions over how Israeli soldiers deal with perceived threats by Palestinians.

• 20170221 - Soldier sentenced to 18 months in prison for fatal shooting of wounded Palestinian attacked

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• 20170221 - Family of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria sings the national anthem in court

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My comment: compare this with an Israeli military court in the southern West Bank who sentenced a Palestinian, Mohammed Ameira, to two consecutive life prison sentences on Wednesday after... read more

The UN has reiterated a two-state solution is the only viable option for a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley rejects suggestions that the United States is abandoning the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying Washington "absolutely" supports the policy but wants fresh ideas on how to move forward.

• 20170216 - Palestinians react to Trumps statement on two-state solution

Donald Trump has a new approach to the Middle East peace process and has signalled strong support for Israel. Al Jazeera spoke to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to gauge their reaction to the shift in US policy away from a two-state solution.

• 20170216 - Palestinians horrified to see state slipping away

For decades the Israeli-Palestinian peace process progressed, or not, along a steel rail of policy agreed by all parties; that a two-state solution was the answer and ultimate destination. On Wednesday that all changed. "So, I'm looking at two-state and one-state and I like the one that both parties like. I'm very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one. If Bibi and if the Palestinians...if Israel and the Palestinians are happy,I'm happy with the one they like the…

• 20170216 - Palestinian alarmed by Trump two-state shift

US President Donald Trump's shelving of the decades-long goal of a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict has excited Israelis and alarmed Palestinians, though no one is quite sure what it means.

• 20170216 - Inside Story - What happens to global support for two-state solution

President Donald Trump has broken with more than two decades of United State's support for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. He would be happy with one. Where does that leave international support for the two-state option? And where does it leave any efforts to resolve the conflict?

• 20170216 - Explainer - Israel-Palestine conflict, the two-state solution

What is a two-state solution and why is it so important?

• 20170216 - Berlin insists on two-state solution in Middle East crisis

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel repeats his government's position in favor of a two-state solution in the conflict between Israel and Palestine saying, "we think it's the only possible way to reduce conflict in the region."

• 20170216 - Ambassador Haley: US Supports 2-State Solution

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley says the United States absolutely supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a joint press conference at the White House on Wednesday. Trump encouraged a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

• 20170215 - Trump and Netanyahu to hold first White House talks

The White House says it will not insist on a two-state solution during President Donald Trump's first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. Netanyahu had a strained relationship with the former president towards the end of Barack Obama’s administration, but Trump has promised the US-Israeli alliance will be different under his leadership.

• 20170215 - Trump drops US commitment to Israel-Palestine two-state solution

US President Donald Trump has dropped the long-standing US commitment to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Trump used his first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say he would be willing to back one state if both sides agreed. He also pushed Netanyahu to curb settlement construction.

• 20170215 - Mixed reaction to Trump's Israel-Palestine one-state comment

There has been a mixed reaction to Donald Trump's abandonment of US commitment to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas emphasised the need for a two-state solution but some Israeli leaders say it is time for a new approach.

• 20170215 - Trump: Israel, Palestine must make compromises

US President Donald Trump said he was committed to a Middle East peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, but warned that both sides would need to make "compromises." Trump made the comments during a joint news conference with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrived at the White House on Wednesday.
Trump said he would be beside both parties during the negotiations but he said that there would have to be compromises, as he turned, smiled and pointed to Netanyahu. Trump also accused the United Nations of treating Israel "very, very unfairly". In December the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution urging an end to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a move which former President Barack Obama refused to veto. Trump has since criticized Obama's decision.

• 20170215 - Trump says UN has treated Israel "very, very unfairly"

• 20170215 - Trump "happy" with one or two-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Donald Trump has said he will be "happy" with a one-state or two-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict - an apparent break from longstanding US foreign policy.

• 20170215 - PLO says committed to two-state solution

Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary general Saeb Erekat denounced what he said were "attempts on the behalf of this Israeli government to bury the two-state solution and eliminate the idea of the State of Palestine."

Palestinians and Israelis are waiting nervously to see how President Trump proceeds with foreign policy - with some believing this may be the last chance for a two-state solution.

• 20170214 - Netanyahu and Trump: What are their key priorities

Israeli bulldozers, escorted by Israeli police, demolished a house in the village of Wadi al-Na‘am in the western part of the Negev in southern Israel. Locals told Ma‘an that the demolished house was owned by an elderly woman and her daughter.

President Donald Trump told Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, that he is "not somebody that believes that going forward with ... settlements is a good thing for peace," in an interview billed as his first with Israeli media since taking office.

Israeli forces demolished homes in two Bedouin villages in the Negev yesterday leaving a 100-year-old Arab woman homeless.

Law that retroactively legalizes settler homes on private Palestinian land widely condemned as legitimizing theft.

Top officials implicated in sex crime scandals occupy top positions within Israeli state, says journalist David Sheen

• 20170207 - How False Allegations of Rape Are Used to Lynch African Refugees and Palestinians (2_2)

Israel's parliament has passed a law to legalize about 4,000 settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land. The law has divided Israeli politicians, angered Palestinian leaders and drawn international condemnation.

US President Donald Trump has warned Israel that constructing new settlements "may not be helpful" to Middle East peace efforts, shifting toward a tougher line with the country's Government.

".....financial assisting in illegal civilian administrative acts in order to achieve illegal demographic alteration in the West Bank ....

as systematically under a range of internationally not recognized restrictions such as "no permit", "no (valid) documents" as such do not reflect the real purpose of the occupying power ....

the diminishing, then leading to the extermination of the very existence of those affected.

Israeli politicians are debating a bill to introduce a controversial law legalizing about 4,000 settler homes on privately owned Palestinian land. The attorney general has called the measure "unconstitutional" and provoked widespread anger.

(Israeli source) - Benjamin Netanyahu said the U.S. Embassy should be relocated to Jerusalem after the head of a Republican group in Israel said the prime minister was holding up the move.

• 20170129 - Netanyahu Says U.S. Embassy ‘Needs to Be’ in Jerusalem

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who had been closemouthed on the contentious question of moving the United States Embassy to Jerusalem, said on Sunday that the embassy “needs to be here.”

• 20170129 - Netanyahu backs U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem though signals no urgency

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support on Sunday for moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem but mentioned no time frame, after a Republican activist accused Israel of pressing the Trump administration to delay the pledged step.

Building plan for occupied West Bank came two days after more than 500 settlement homes were approved in East Jerusalem.

Since last October, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been marked by a wave of stabbing attacks: Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have carried out over 100 knife attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.  Faced with this new form of violence, Israeli authorities have re-implemented their controversial house demolition policy, meaning that bulldozers are sent to level the homes of the knife attackers' families. But how effective is this policy?

"Under no circumstances shall we recognize Israel [with the] United States saying east Jerusalem is annexed," says Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Saeb Erekat.

Israeli mathematician Kobi Snitz, who participated in the action in Umm al-Hiran, says the evidence undermines the police's version of the story as a terrorist attack

• see 20160118 - Israeli Policeman Killed During Protests

Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned Israel's decision to build another 2,500 settler homes in the occupied West Bank. Abbas said the plans will derail efforts to bring peace to the region and will promote extremism and terrorism. Israel's government insists the new homes must be built to meet housing needs.

• 20170125- Analysis - US role in Israel latest settlements expansion plan

The Israeli government hasn’t wasted any time, since Donald trump has been in the White House for less than a week, and they have already announced two installments to its expansion of new housing settlements.

Four days after  the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, Israel announced on Tuesday plans to build an additional 2,500 units inside West Bank settlements. Most new building to take place in large settlement bloc; new Palestinian industrial park also to be built.

• 20170124 - Thousands attend funeral of Bedouin driver killed in demolition clashes

Thousands attended the funeral of Abu Al-Qia in the Bedouin village of Hura, near Beersheba, Tuesday. Al-Qia was killed by police officers during a protest against the demolition of the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran last week.

• 20170124 - Israeli settlement construction resumes

Just days after US President Donald Trump was sworn into office, Israel approved the construction of approximately 2,500 new housing units in West Bank

• 20170124 - Israel expands settlements as Netanyahu invited to WH

Donald Trump's support for the Israeli government has already emboldened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

Palestinian Israelis marched to the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on Monday, to protest against government-ordered home demolitions in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran. Houses have been already demolished, as the Israeli government claimed they were built without permission.

Israeli authorities have approved building permits for more than 560 settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem.  The move comes after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, who has expressed strong support for Israel.

Israel confirmed on Thursday it was planning to appropriate a large tract of fertile land in the occupied West Bank, close to Jordan, a move likely to exacerbate tensions with Western allies and already drawing international condemnation.

Police were in the village of around 400 people to carry out housing demolition ordered by the Israeli government. The area is to be replaced with a new Jewish community called Hiran.

Palestinians in Israel have protested against home demolitions. The Israeli government says the homes were built without permission and are illegal. Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reports from Wadi Ara, in central Israel, where bulldozers are threatening another 2,000 homes.

The Israeli army is continuing with its demolition of Palestinian homes in southern Israel. An Israeli officer and an Israeli Palestinian have been killed in confrontations.

• 20170118 - Two dead in Bedouin village confrontation

Two people have died in a confrontation between police and Bedouin villagers in Umm al-Hiran, southern Israel. Officers say an Israeli Arab was shot dead after he rammed his car into a group of policemen, killing an officer.  Israeli officials have been wary of car ramming since the advent of a wave of Palestinian street attacks in October 2015. However, a rights activist present at the time of Wednesday's incident (January 18, 2017) disputed the police account of events.

• 20170118 - Bedouin and Israeli policeman killed during demolition of Palestinian village

• 20170118 - Israeli Policeman Killed During Protests 

ILTV ISRAEL DAILY: Arab MKs participated in clashes with police in Bedouin village.

see: 20170126 - Demonstrator Against Demolition of Bedouin Village Challenges Account of Israeli Police Shooting

A Palestinian teenager has been shot dead by the Israeli army during a confrontation in the occupied West Bank, according to officials. The violence erupted on Monday when Israeli forces raided the village of Tuqu, south of Bethlehem. Four other Palestinians were wounded in the clashes.

• 20170115 - Inside Story - Another attempt at peace for Palestine and Israel

Delegates from 70 countries met in Paris to try and jump-start stalled talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders - and reaffirm their support for a two-state solution. But Israeli and Palestinian diplomats weren't there to hear what was said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the summit while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed it.  He says only bi-lateral negotiations have a chance of being successful.

• The Lobby P1: Young Friends of Israel  (Jan. 10, 2017)

In the first of a four-part series, Al Jazeera goes undercover inside the Israel Lobby in Britain. We expose a campaign to infiltrate and influence youth groups, including the National Union of Students, whose president faces a smear campaign coordinated by her own deputy and supported by the Israel Embassy.

• The Lobby P2: The Training Session  (Jan. 11, 2017)

In part two of The Lobby, our undercover reporter joins a delegation from the Israeli Embassy at last year’s Labour Party Conference. The programme reveals how accusations of anti-Semitism were made against key Labour Party members – and how a former official at the Israeli Embassy was upset when her background was revealed.

• The Lobby P3: An Anti-Semitic Trope  (Jan. 12, 2017)

In part three of The Lobby, our undercover reporter travels to the Labour Party Conference, revealing how accusations of anti-Semitism by group within Labour targeted Israel critics and saw some investigated.

• The Lobby P4: The Takedown (Jan. 14, 2017)

In part four of The Lobby, the senior political officer at the Israeli Embassy in London discusses a potential plot to 'take down' British politicians – including a Minster of State at the Foreign office who supports Palestinian civil rights.

Israel is influencing student, activist and parliamentary groups in the UK, offering financial and strategic assistance in order to gather support among young organisers and shape British politics, Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit reveals.

Israel has torn down 11 homes in the town of Qalansuwa for "not having the necessary permits".  Palestinian workers have gone on strike in northern Israel in protest against the demolitions.

Israel has apologised to the UK after one of its embassy staff in London was secretly filmed apparently suggesting he wanted to bring about the downfall of a British government minister who has been very critical of Israeli policy. The senior political officer was speaking in a London restaurant to a British civil servant, who is now "said to have resigned"

At least four people have been killed and 15 injured after a Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of soldiers in Jerusalem. Police say the driver was shot dead at the scene, and they are treating the incident as a terrorist attack.

• 20170108 - Netanyahu alleges Jerusalem truck attacker was an ISIL supporter

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the driver was a supporter of ISIL and suggested the attack was inspired by similar assaults in Europe.

Al Jazeera reveals discussions between Israeli diplomat and UK civil servant to "take down" anti-settlement politicians.

Al Jazeera has uncovered evidence of an Israeli diplomat's involvement in smear campaigns to discredit a British minister and other politicians. Al Jazeera’s investigative unit went undercover with an Israeli lobby group for several months. The investigation reveals conversations in which a diplomat plotted to damage the careers of MPs they feel don't give enough support to Israel.