Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of Apartheid, Persecution
In a new report, Human Rights Watch said the Israeli government is guilty of the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution for its treatment of Palestinians within Israel and in the Palestinian territories. Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the report as “preposterous and false” and accused the group of having anti-Israel bias (Associated Press)
Dozens Injured in Far-Right, Anti-Arab Protests in Israel
Dozens of people, including more than one hundred Palestinians, were injured yesterday after violence broke out in Jerusalem following a march organized by a far-right, anti-Arab group. Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have been attacked in recent days after videos purportedly showing Palestinians assaulting Jews were shared on social media (Haaretz)
Anti-Netanyahu Bloc Wins Control of Israeli Parliamentary Committee
A coalition opposed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won control of the committee that sets the agenda for the Knesset during the transitional period before a government is formed (Haaretz)
Netanyahu, who has two weeks to form a government, proposed direct elections for prime minister as a way to break the political impasse following deadlocked parliamentary elections (Haaretz)
Israeli Police, Palestinian Protesters Clash
Israeli police and hundreds of Palestinian protesters clashed in Jerusalem yesterday. The police used stun grenades and a water gun to disperse the crowd, according to reports (Associated Press)
UN Warns of Rise in Attacks on Palestinian Civilians
UN human rights experts warned that violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians has increased substantially in 2021. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented 210 violent incidents and one death in the first three months of the year (Reuters)
Israel to Reject ICC Authority
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation into potential war crimes in the Palestinian territories (Times of Israel)
In a response to the ICC due today, Israel will reject allegations against it and assert its ability to self-investigate (Reuters)
U.S. Reverses Trump-Era Aid Cuts to Palestinians
The Joe Biden administration announced it will restore $235 million in aid to the Palestinians, a move welcomed by the Palestinian Authority and rebuked by the Israeli government. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the decision reflects U.S. support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for the prosperity and security of both sides (Wall Street Journal)
Israel’s Netanyahu Invited to Try to Form Government
President Reuven Rivlin granted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the opportunity to form a government after last month’s deadlocked vote, Israel’s fourth election in two years, though Rivlin also said no candidate had a real chance of successfully forming a government. Netanyahu, who received the most endorsements from lawmakers, has twenty-eight days to build a coalition (Haaretz)
Separately, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian driver and injured his wife at a checkpoint in the West Bank. Local Palestinian officials said that they may raise the incident at the International Criminal Court (Reuters)
Trial of Israel’s Netanyahu Resumes as Postelection Talks Begin
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial for charges of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust restarted today. The hearing comes as President Reuven Rivlin meets with lawmakers to discuss whether to recommend that Netanyahu remain as prime minister following last month’s deadlocked election (Times of Israel)
Jailed Palestinian Militant to Challenge Abbas in Elections
Marwan Barghouti, a popular militant currently serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison, intends to challenge Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s party in the territories’ May elections. The power struggle could weaken the Fatah party, which controls the Palestinian Authority, and strengthen Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza (New York Times)
Vote Counting Underway for Israeli Parliamentary Elections
With almost 90 percent of votes counted, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party leads in parliamentary elections held yesterday. Still, whether he will gain enough seats to form a coalition government is unclear, raising the possibility of a fifth election (Haaretz)
Separately, the Israeli military conducted raids overnight on Hamas positions in Gaza. Air strikes reportedly attacked a rocket manufacturing site and military post, in response to rockets fired from Gaza (Al Jazeera)
Israel Holds Fourth Parliamentary Elections in Two Years
The country holds its fourth parliamentary elections in two years tomorrow. Polls indicate a close race, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a slight edge (Associated Press)
Tens of thousands of people urged Netanyahu to resign at a protest in Jerusalem on Saturday (Times of Israel)
Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian Protestor During Stone-Throwing Clash
A Palestinian man involved in a weekly protest against Israeli settlements was shot by Israeli soldiers today. According to a witness, a group of Palestinians threw stones towards the soldiers and the soldiers opened fire (Reuters)
Memo Lays Out U.S. Plan to Reset Relations With Palestinians
A U.S. State Department memo obtained by the National reportedly details a plan to reset U.S.-Palestinian relations, including by providing coronavirus aid and backtracking on positions espoused by the Trump administration that were seen as favoring Israel (National)
Sources said the plan is at an early “working stage” (Reuters)
Kosovo Opens Embassy in Jerusalem
Kosovo opened an embassy in Jerusalem weeks after establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. The United States and Guatemala are the only other countries with embassies in Jerusalem, the status of which is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Al Jazeera)
ICC to Investigate War Crimes in the Palestinian Territories
International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced a probe into possible war crimes perpetrated by Israeli and Palestinian groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel rebuked the move as anti-Semitic, while the Palestinian Authority praised it (Haaretz)
Palestinian Factions Meet Ahead of Elections
Fourteen Palestinian political groups kicked off a two-day, Egypt-backed dialogue in Cairo to iron out issues before legislative and presidential elections are held later this year. The elections will be the first since Palestinian governance fractured over the results of elections in 2006 (Al Jazeera)
Israel Demolishes Palestinian Bedouin Village
Israeli authorities have begun demolishing a Bedouin village in the West Bank for the second time in three months, after claiming it was an illegal construction. A rights group claimed this was an attempt to displace the entire Palestinian community from the area (Reuters)
Israel to Send Five Thousand COVID-19 Vaccines to West Bank
Israel will send five thousand COVID-19 vaccine doses to the West Bank, which it previously gave one hundred doses for medical personnel. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have been left out of Israel’s vaccination campaign, sparking international criticism (Haaretz)
U.S. Will Restore Relations With Palestinians
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration plans to restore aid to Palestinians and reopen diplomatic missions that were closed by the previous administration, said acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Richard Mills. Mills also reaffirmed U.S. support for a “mutually agreed two-state solution” (New York Times)
Israel Conducts Air Strikes in Syria
Syrian state media reported that Israeli air strikes in the region of Hama killed four people. In recent years, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria against suspected Iranian military deployments (Reuters)
Israel Approves New Construction in West Bank
The Israeli government approved the construction of nearly eight hundred housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel to reverse the decision, calling it a “flagrant violation under international law” (Times of Israel, Agence France-Presse)
Israel to Build Eight Hundred New Homes in the West Bank
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that a Defense Ministry panel will approve plans to construct some eight hundred homes for Jewish settlers in the Israel-occupied West Bank (Times of Israel)
Militants in Gaza Fire Rockets in “Joint Exercise”
Militant groups in the Gaza Strip fired rockets into the sea in what they said was their first joint exercise. Israeli media described the event as a show of force organized by Iran (Reuters)
Israeli Government Collapses Again
The Knesset dissolved after the parties of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz failed to reach a deal on this year’s budget. The dissolution triggers the country’s fourth elections in less than two years, set for March 23 (Haaretz)