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24/01/2020
| | NGO Ir Amim says 104 housing units were demolished by the Israeli army in 2019, compared with 72 units a year earlier.
Aljazeera - Israeli authorities demolished homes in Palestinian areas
of occupied East Jerusalem at a significantly higher rate in 2019
than the previous year, according to an Israeli advocacy group. In a
new report, Ir Amim said 104 housing units were demolished in 2019
compared with 72 units in 2018. The 44 percent spike also ends what
had been a decline in demolitions between 2016 and 2018.(rh) | | | Netanyahu suddenly facing effective opposition
Mazal Mualem - Al-Monitor - The fight being waged over the past few
days to have Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s immunity removed
even before the election on March 2 is the most effective opposition
effort seen in the Knesset in years. On Jan. 12, Knesset Speaker Yuli
Edelstein will have to decide whether he will allow the formation of
a new Knesset House Committee to discuss Netanyahu’s immunity. The
Blue and White party has already threatened that if he vetoes the
demand of 65 Knesset members to form the committee, they will take
steps to replace him. This extremely aggressive tactic signals that
the Blue and White party is starting to use the same methods against
Netanyahu that he himself would have no qualms using to get what he
wants. Will they go all the way with their threat? There is no way of
knowing. (rh)
| | | Israeli ministry paying for anti-BDS propaganda in major news outlets
Itamar Benzaquen and The Seventh Eye - +972 - The Israeli government
recently paid tens of thousands of shekels to the Jerusalem Post in
order to publish a series of articles connecting the boycott,
divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS) to anti-Semitism, according
to the government’s own procurement department. The articles were
part of a “package” purchased by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs
that included branding, advertising, a slot at a recent Jerusalem
Post conference, and the articles themselves, which appeared in the
run-up to the conference. The Jerusalem Post denied that the articles
had been paid for. The Strategic Affairs Ministry, headed by Likud
minister Gilad Erdan, has for years been spearheading an
international campaign to counter what it sees as “de-legitimization”
of the State of Israel. This project has, in large part, involved
providing funds and handing down directives to non-governmental
organizations and journalists in order to enlist them in the fight
against BDS.(rh) | | | Why Trump`s peace plan won`t rescue Netanyahu
Ben Caspit - Al-Monitor - Will US President Donald Trump once again
come to the aid of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of
the elections? This burning question has been dumped in quite a few
political laps in Israel, especially that of the Blue and White
party’s chair and candidate for the premiership, Benny Gantz.
Persistent reports according to which the US administration is
considering presentation of what has been dubbed its "deal of the
century" for Israeli-Palestinian peace prior to the March 2 elections
are generating heavy headaches for the opposition party’s leadership.
| | | Israeli rightwing parties merge ahead of election – wolves in sheeps’ clothing
Jonathan Ofir - Mondoweiss - The big drama occurred last night, on
the right. The New Right is now being led by Naftali Bennett, who has
in the past boasted of killing “many Arabs.” Bennett leads the New
Right with Ayelet Shaked, the former Justice Minister who is known
for having incited genocide on social media, posting a text that
called Palestinian children “little snakes”. Shaked has recently
complained that a law meant to punish illegal construction is also
targeting Jews, and that this was not the intention. Amazingly,
Bennett is now portraying himself as a liberal. He wanted to get
Jewish Home to run together with him, but insisted on them dropping
the merger with Jewish Power that they had recently made. Jewish Home
is led by Rafi Peretz, the Education Minister who promoted gay
conversion therapy and called intermarriage a “second Holocaust”.
Jewish Home and Jewish Power had gotten together because they were
both polling below the threshold, and Peretz was livid about
Bennett’s insistence. So for Bennett, Peretz was kosher, but Jewish
Power, the disciples of the Jewish terrorist Meir Kahane, were not.
(rh) | | | The Battle to Impeach Trump Is Part of a Global Struggle for Democracy
Henry A. Giroux - Truthout - he impeachment proceedings against
Donald Trump — with their abundance of political theater and insipid
media coverage — often treat Trump’s crimes as the endpoint of an
abuse of power and an illegal act. This is a grave mistake: We must
understand Trump’s crimes not as an endpoint but as symptoms of a
long history of conditions that have led to the United States’ slide
into the abyss of authoritarianism. Trump’s impeachment battle is
part of the wider historical and global struggle taking place over
democracy. This is apparent, as Larry Diamond points out, in Trump’s
attack on “the independence of the courts, the business community,
the media, civil society, universities and sensitive state
institutions like the civil service, the intelligence agencies and
the police.” (rh) | | | Palestinian citizens in Israel expect to get 15 seats in Knesset Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/01/israel-elections-arab-joint-list-knesset-palestinian-votes.html#ixzz6BhJ4LP3t
Daoud Kuttab - Al-Monitor - Palestinian citizens in Israel expect to
see an increase in their number of Knesset seats in the third
election cycle in less than one year in Israel. Days before the
window is set to close for submitting election lists, due Jan. 17,
polls show it is possible the Joint List — a unified slate of
predominantly Arab parties — could garner as many as 15 members in
the March 2 elections, a whopping 50% improvement over the results of
the April 2019 elections when the Joint List was split and only able
to reach 10 seats. When Arabs united in the September 2019 elections,
they gained 13 seats. (rh)
| | | Ban on Israeli activists from West Bank based on lies and misinformation : Naftali Bennett`s decision to bar 30 Israeli activists from the West Bank is an attempt to silence anyone who dares work alongside Palestinians to end the occupation.
Oren Ziv - +972 - Whether it is because Israel completed the building
of the barrier, activist fatigue, or violent suppression of the
protests — which included arrests, injuries, and even deaths — the
demonstrations have never been smaller. In the past, hundreds of
Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists would join the
weekly protests in numerous sites around the West Bank. Today only
symbolic protests take place in the villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin,
which usually include no more than 20 people. Nabi Saleh no longer
holds protests on a regular basis. Only in the village of Qaddum do
between 100-200 people still demonstrate on a weekly basis.(rh)
| | | Palestinian community orgs and ex-prisoners say the Arab Bank is closing their accounts
Yumna Patel - Mondoweiss - At the beginning of January, Abu Srour
stopped by the bank to pick up the new check books he had ordered two
weeks prior, as he had done countless times before. But when he
arrived, he was told that his application had been denied, and any
further questions should be referred to the compliance department at
the bank. After a few days of following up with the bank, he received
a call that left him utterly confused. “They told me that I had to
close the account of the youth center and move banks as soon as
possible,” he told Mondoweiss from his office in the Aida Refugee
Camp. When he asked why the account was being closed, Abu Srour said
he was told it was an “internal policy” decision. “They refused to
elaborate more than that,” he said. (rh) | | | Gantz Vows to Annex Jordan Valley, `Hopes Trump Releases Peace Plan Soon`
Noa Landau - Haaretz - Benny Gantz, chairman of Kahol Lavan, said
Tuesday that he would work to advance Israel`s annexation of the
Jordan Valley after Israel`s March 2 election, adding he is expecting
the publication of the Trump administration`s Mideast peace plan.
Speaking during a tour of the region, Gantz said "The Jordan Valley
is Israel`s eastern defensive barrier in any future conflict. Israeli
governments that spoke of the possibility of returning the area [to
Jordanian control] were making a grave strategic and security
mistake, and we see this strip of land as an inseparable part of the
State of Israel." (rh) | | | For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections | |
Recommended articles
| | Hagai El-Ad:How Israel’s top court outlawed moral opposition to the occupation | | Oren Ziv:Arrest of Israeli activist shows extreme-right group working with the state | | Abdelwahab El-Affendi:Israel, UAE and the hypocritical manipulation of religion | | Gideon Spiro:
A letter to Supreme Court Judges on the Vanunu case
| | Adam Keller:The US Is No Honest Broker in Israel and Palestine | | Asa Winstanley:Don’t let the smears that sank Corbyn tank Bernie Sanders | | Judith Sudilovsky :Exploited and underpaid, Palestinian women are fighting back in the workplace | | Omar Karmi:Why did Israel bomb Gaza? Because it can |
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