The way Israelis "negotiate": A timeline

Introduction

During the ceasefire period from January 19, 2025, to March 1, 2025, Netanyahu violated the agreement at least 266 times while Hamas may have violated it only one time - meaning if an erroneous return of a wrong dead body would be a violation.

One of his last violations of phase 1 of the ceasefire was the postponement of the release of Palestinian prisoners. This violation reminded us of a similar breach during the peace talks between Saeb Erekat and Muhammed Shtayyeh and their Israeli counterparts, Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molcho.

Netanyahu decided all of a sudden not to release the fourth and last batch of Palestinian prisoners.

The way how the Israelis were "negotiating" during the present war carried the character of parellel and pairing politics:

Parellel politics by trying to get the deal on their hands while going after new achievements, and pairing politics by giving "some" on one hand while grabbing behind anyone's back on the other. During the peace talks in 2013 and 2014, Netanyahu did exactly the same.

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.

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

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.”

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

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

(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

(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.

 

(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

(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

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.

(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.

(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

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

(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

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.

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

(Israeli 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."

Israeli 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