Scottish Friends of Palestine

Briefing Paper                                                       

July 2024           

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by official Israeli bodies [Source: Law for Palestine]

·         The Israeli Knesset approved a preliminary reading of two bills, one proposed by Knesset member Yulia Malinovsky, seeking to designate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) as a terrorist organization and sever all official relations with it, while the other, presented by Knesset member Dan Elep, aims to strip UNRWA of the immunity granted to United Nations organizations in Israel. (May 29, 2024)

·         The Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” reported that an investigation by the Israeli military police revealed that the deaths of two Gaza Strip citizens last March were caused by Israeli soldiers beating them after their arrest and transfer to the “Sde Teman” detention facility near Beersheba. This contradicts the soldiers’ claim that road conditions were to blame. The investigation has questioned several soldiers but none have been arrested, similar to over 33 other cases of deaths of Gaza residents transferred to Israel during the war.

·         The Israeli Foreign Minister criticized the Slovenian government’s decision, based on the Slovenian parliament’s recommendation, to recognize the Palestinian state. He claimed that the decision “rewards Hamas for murder, rape, mutilation of bodies, beheading of babies.” He added, “I hope the Slovenian Parliament rejects this recommendation” (May 30, 2024)

·         The Israeli Foreign Minister rejected Spain’s request to lift restrictions on its consulate in Jerusalem, and stressed that Israel will not tolerate unilateral recognition of a terrorist Palestinian state led by Hamas. He warned that any contact between the Spanish Consulate and the Palestinian Authority poses a threat to Israeli national security, and that any violations could lead to the closure of the consulate. (May 31, 2024)

·         In response to Biden’s announcement of what he said was an Israeli proposal to stop the war in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the war in Gaza would continue until Hamas is “destroyed.” (May 31, 2024)

• The Israeli Security Council has chosen not to release the body of Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa to his family, opting instead to retain it for potential future negotiations with Hamas regarding prisoner exchanges. The Israeli government justified this decision as a strategic maneuver aimed at securing the release of Israeli hostages, emphasizing the complex considerations and circumstances involved. (June 12, 2024)

• Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that Israel has deducted around 130 million shekels from frozen Palestinian Authority (PA) funds and allocated these funds to “families of victims of terrorism” in accordance with court-ordered compensations. Smotrich characterized this action as a reaffirmation of historical justice, alleging that the PA supports and incentivizes terrorism through financial disbursements to families of terrorists, prisoners, and released detainees. (June 13, 2024)

• The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture disbursed funds to a West Bank settlement owned by settler Neria Ben Bazi, who is under sanctions from the United States (US), the European Union (EU), and the United Kingdom (UK). Despite an administrative order issued by the Israeli state in January prohibiting his residency in the West Bank, Ben Bazi received NIS 12,000. Similar financial support was also approved for farms owned by Zvi Bar-Yosef and Moshe Sharvit, who were sanctioned by the US in March. (June 13, 2024)

• Outgoing Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai has revealed details of repeated attempts by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to interfere in operational matters in recent months, including attempts to prevent police patrols from guarding humanitarian aid convoys headed for Gaza. Additionally, Haaretz published an article by Josh Breiner, entitled: “How Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir Took Over Israel’s Police.” (June 13, 2024)

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by official Israeli bodies

• The Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Court approved Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s request to extend the temporary ban on the Al Jazeera news network in Israel, resulting in its broadcasts and websites being blocked for an additional 45 days. In its decision, the court said that it found a direct and causal connection between individuals who carried out terror attacks inside Israel and the consumption of Al Jazeera content. It also determined that there was a “close connection” between Al Jazeera and Hamas, noting that some Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza had become “assistants and partners” with Hamas, and that some of them had even carried out terror attacks (June 17, 2024).

• The Israeli Security Cabinet discussed steps to strengthen settlement in “Judea and Samaria”, including in response to the countries that unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state after October 7. The Cabinet also considered various actions against the Palestinian Authority (PA) for its moves against Israel within international bodies. The Prime Minister instructed that all of these proposals be brought to a vote at the next Security Cabinet meeting (June 17, 2024).

• Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said that there would not be a Palestinian State between the sea and Jordan, rejecting any form of PA control in Gaza. He also called for the establishment of security forces and settlements in Gaza “to preserve security gains.” Also, Minister Itamar Ben Gvir pressed for the renewal of settlement in the Gaza Strip, and added that: “In addition to settlement, voluntary immigration should also be encouraged” (June 18, 2024).

• The Guardian newspaper published a report revealing that the Israeli military has quietly transferred significant legal powers in the occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants working for the far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich. This shift diminishes the oversight on settlement expansion and development. The report indicated that Smotrich and his allies aim to extend Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank (June 20, 2024).

• Israel’s Channel 7 reported that approximately twenty planned arrests in the West Bank by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet were canceled this week due to overcrowded detention centers and prisons. Security authorities warned of a worsening issue, noting that the overcrowding has led to the cancellation of operations and the release of some low-risk detainees to make room for others.(June 23, 2024)

• Israel’s High Court of Justice has ordered the state to disclose details regarding the conditions in which Gazan prisoners are held at the Sde Teiman detention center in southern Israel, despite the state’s plan to empty the facility. The court’s decision came in response to a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and other human rights organizations, demanding the closure of the Sde Teiman facility due to harsh humanitarian conditions, lack of medical treatment, punishment methods and cuffing conditions. (June 23, 2024)

• In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stressed that he is not willing to compromise until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are eliminated and the 120 hostages are returned. He also stressed the importance of ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel. Netanyahu pointed out that missile attacks and Iranian incursions make the Hamas-Israeli war part of a broader multi-front campaign. (June 24, 2024)

• Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that he intends to “establish facts on the ground in order to make Judea and Samaria [West Bank] an integral part of the State of Israel.” He added, “We will establish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, first on the ground and then through legislation. My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.” (June 24, 2024)

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that settlement in the Negev and the Galilee is an “important national mission.” He added, “We continue to work vigorously to make these areas more attractive to young people and families. We will also soon increase reductions on land development, thereby encouraging new construction and job creation.” (June 25, 2024)

• Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvirexplained that he has ordered a reduction in food rations for Palestinian prisoners as a “deterrent” measure. Ben-Gvir made his comments in response to a request for clarification by the Israeli Supreme Court regarding the fact that the portion of food received by Palestinian prisoners is far less than what is stipulated by international law. “The Palestinian detainees will receive the minimum rights and the minimum food, and I will ensure that this policy is implemented,” said the minister. He added, “security prisoners [Palesrinians] must receive a smaller ration than criminal prisoners.” (June 26, 2024)

• The Israeli security cabinet approved legalizing five West Bank outposts and a series of sanctions against the Palestinian Authority. In return, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will sign off on moves unfreezing the last three months of tax funds withheld from the Palestinian Authority. (June 28, 2024)

A late article, current reality can only be much worse . . . .

Onslaught of violence against women and children in Gaza unacceptable

UN Human Rights Office  06/05/2024  “The treatment of pregnant and lactating women continues to be appalling, with the direct bombardment of hospitals and deliberate denial of access to health care facilities by Israeli snipers, combined with the lack of beds and medical resources placing an estimated 50,000 pregnant Palestinian women and 20,000 new-born babies at unimaginable risk. Over 183 women per day are giving birth without pain relief, while hundreds of babies have died because of a lack of electricity to power incubators,” they said. “The dreadful conditions have resulted in increases in miscarriages by up to 300 percent. 95 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women face severe food poverty”. Read more: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/05/onslaught-violence-against-women-and-children-gaza-unacceptable-un-experts#:~:text=Over%20390%20bodies%20have%20been,alive%2C%E2%80%9D%20the%20experts%20said.

Mutiny call a sign of growing rift  Mati Yakov EI 01/06/2024

In a message directed to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the reserve soldier said Gallant should resign, warned that 100,000 reservists in Gaza are not willing to “hand over the keys of Gaza to any Palestinian Authority” or other “Arab entity,” and said these soldiers would only take orders from Netanyahu. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/mutiny-call-sign-growing-rift-israeli-society/46746

Jabaliya  Tamara Nassar  EI  03/06/2924

Last week, Israeli military forces withdrew from Jabaliya, a city in northern Gaza, after a 20-day operation that left the area and its refugee camp, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight camps, almost unrecognizable. . . . “There is no longer Jabaliya camp, there are no schools and hospitals, the scale of destruction is so great that no one can imagine it, and the destruction cannot be counted,” Palestinian woman Asma al-Masri told Al Jazeera. She had returned to the camp to retrieve supplies for her family in Beit Hanoun, another northern area.

Northern Gaza was the first target of Israel’s ground invasion, and became the epicenter of an Israeli-US manufactured famine that forced people to rely on animal feed and wild plant foraging in order to eat. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/invasions-fail-break-spirit-resistance-jabaliya

After eight months of war, here’s what Gaza’s humanitarian crisis looks like   Rachel Wilson and Sana Noor Haq  CNN 07/06/2024  They are trapped, along with his wife and mother, in a sea of displaced families with little respite from overcrowding and pollution. The Palestinian father told CNN he struggles to find aid. Instead, he and his family have no choice but to drink contaminated water and eat just one meal per day.

“I don’t want to talk about food because there is none,” he said in a written message on June 5. “We survived the death from rockets and shelling; will we die of famine? Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/07/middleeast/gaza-humanitarian-aid-israel-dg-intl/index.html

‘Insane escalation of violence’ in Gaza Israel-Palestine News 06/06/2024

At least 70 people have been killed and more than 300 wounded in the past 24 hours, showed the count as they were brought to Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. They were predominantly women and children. “The odor of blood in the hospital’s emergency room this morning was unbearable. There are people lying everywhere, on the floor, outside … bodies were being brought in plastic bags. The situation is overwhelming,” said Karin Huster from Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF). “With the insane escalation of violence in various locations of the Gaza Strip over the last 48 hours and while the Rafah crossing point has remained closed for a month, the health system has been stretched to the point of collapse,” Huster said. “The situation is apocalyptic.” Read more: https://israelpalestinenews.org/the-situation-is-apocalyptic-as-israel-bombs-another-un-school-day-243/

Online Popular University for Gaza  Open Letter  M/Weiss 06/06/2024

As the death toll rises in the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, San Francisco State University (SFSU) has once again decided to cancel its only Palestine course that Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi was scheduled to teach during this summer school. This abrupt and irrational decision seeks to criminalize the Palestine curriculum while dismissing and ignoring popular student demand to learn a critical Palestinian perspective that has been absent on U.S. college campuses. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/announcing-the-launch-of-the-online-popular-university-for-gaza/?ml_recipient=123482065736828280&ml_link=123482058063348894

Nuseirat’s UNRWA school massacre Qassam Muaddi  M//Weiss  06/06/2024

The UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said through his account on X that Israel bombed an UNRWA school that housed thousands of displaced Palestinians during the night, without any warning to the displaced or to the UNRWA. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-244-israel-commits-new-massacre-in-strike-on-unrwa-school-in-nuseirat/?ml_recipient=123482065736828280&ml_link=123482058081174691

Dozens killed sheltering at UN school    MC Murphy EI 07/06/2024

Three prominent Palestinian human rights groups said that at least four missiles struck the southern building of the school in Nuseirat refugee camp. . . killing at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory. . . . Nearly 6,000 displaced people are sheltering at the school that was bombed, according to the UN human rights office, which said it was “shocked” by reports of the attack. . . Both The Washington Post and CNN reported that US-supplied weapons were used in the deadly attack, which survivors said occurred without warning. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-bombing-kills-dozens-sheltering-un-school

Gloom grips the West Bank  Fayha Shalash EI 06/06/2024

. . . Nur Shams has been subjected to numerous raids.

The raids are presented as operations against armed resistance groups in refugee camps.

During them, Israel inflicts widespread destruction on civilian infrastructure, including people’s homes. Israel has also blocked the supply of water to the camp several times. On each occasion, it has taken weeks before the supply could be restored. Electricity has been affected, too, as the Israeli military has cut wires and blown up transformers. During an invasion of Nur Shams in April, Israel killed at least 14 Palesinians, including three children. That raid lasted for more than two days. As well as invading from the ground, Israel has increased airstrikes since 7 October. Israel has frequently used drones and other warplanes as tools of oppression against the West Bank in the recent past. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/gloom-grips-west-bank/46901

German leader Olaf Scholz repeats lie about nonexistent Hamas “rape videos” Ali Abunimah EI 06/06/2024

Despite it being definitively exposed as a lie, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has become the latest German leader to assert that Hamas fighters filmed themselves raping Israeli women on 7 October. . . . , no such video exists, a fact confirmed by Israeli government sources and a UN team that reviewed thousands of photos and dozens of hours of video provided by the Israeli government or obtained from open sources. The UN team headed by Pramila Patten, the UN secretary-general’s special representative on sexual violence in armed conflict, concluded in its report published in March that “in the medicolegal assessment of available photos and videos, no tangible indications of rape could be identified.” Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/german-leader-olaf-scholz-repeats-lie-about-nonexistent-hamas-rape-videos

Israel unleashes “unprecedented bloodshed” in West Bank  Tamara Nassar EI 07/06/24   Palestinians in the area are “being subjected to day after day of unprecedented bloodshed,” Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said this week. . . More than 500 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, including at least 490 by Israeli troops, according to UN monitoring group OCHA.. . Since the beginning of the year, Israeli forces have killed nearly 200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. This is nearly double and four times the numbers recorded in the same periods last year and in 2022, respectively, Türk warned. . . “The prevalence of Palestinians who died after being shot in the upper part of the body, along with a pattern of the denial of medical assistance to those injured, suggests intent to kill in violation of the right to life,” Türk added. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-unleashes-unprecedented-bloodshed-west-bank

The invisibility of Palestinian Christians  Qassam Muaddi M/Weiss 08/06/2024

The current war has changed many things in Palestine. For Christians, it has been a moment of realization of what many of them describe as their own “invisibility” before the rest of the world. When a building adjacent to the Saint Porphyrios Orthodox church of Gaza was struck by Israeli warplanes shortly before Christmas, the Israeli deputy mayor of Jerusalem said that “there are no churches in Gaza” and “no Christians” when asked about the incident. . . . The airstrike on the Saint Porphyrios Orthodox church had killed 17 members of the congregation taking shelter inside the church, and later, an Israeli sniper killed another two Palestinian Christian women inside the holy family Catholic parish in Gaza City. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/the-invisibility-of-palestinian-christians/?ml_recipient=123663226227393615&ml_link=123663221402895738

Testimonies from the Nuseirat massacre  Tareq Hajjaj M/weiss 09/06/3024

This time, the Israeli military wore civilian clothes, rode in Palestinian cars, and moved among the people in disguise. There were no warnings to evacuate, or orders from the army to move elsewhere, and people were surprised by the Israeli special forces and tanks. A large number of special forces hidden among the people only revealed themselves once the deadly operation began as other special forces stormed the area traveling in cars loaded with luggage, the same luggage that the displaced people carry with them, such as mattresses, pillows, blankets, and bags. When the Palestinians detected them, the soldiers quickly called for support, and helicopters, fighter planes, artillery, and tanks descended. Reconnaissance aircraft and foot solders then began committing massacres against the civilian population. The Israeli operation killed 274 Palestinians, including 64 children, and injured 689 Palestinians in total. “Some of the bodies that arrived at the hospital were body parts, as well as dismembered bodies,” the Gaza Ministry of Health reported when announcing the casualty numbers. 

As the world celebrates the liberation of four Israeli hostages . . . . Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/i-heard-all-of-my-friends-last-breath-testimonies-from-the-nuseirat-massacre/?ml_recipient=123753849373591356&ml_link=123753839774926448

Panic in central Gaza  Abubaker Abed EI 10/06/2024

I never imagined that I would live through such terror. . . A blast occurred nearby and it felt like my eardrums had been pierced. A building mere meters away had been targeted. . . Another airstrike destroyed a house in our area. Missiles kept falling around us. We could see US-made Apache helicopters being flown low in the sky. From them, Israeli troops were shooting at civilians in the streets. . . .We learned that Israel had been carrying out an operation to rescue some of its captives. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/panic-central-gaza/46981

“There was blood everywhere”  Ruwaida Amer  EI  10/06/2024

Maryam Salim is a doctor at the hospital. “The atmosphere completely changed,” she said. “Suddenly, we heard the sounds of bombing” The dead and wounded were brought to the hospital both in ambulances and cars. “There was blood everywhere,” Salim said. “Most of the people injured were women and children.” Some of the children had been taken to hospital without their families. “They were screaming because they wanted their father or mother,” Salim added. “Many of them were trembling greatly from fear.”

As she tended to the wounded, Salim saw so much blood that “I almost lost consciousness.

Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/there-was-blood-everywhere/46991

‘People’s red line’ surrounds the White House  M/Weiss 11/06/2024

June 8 marked the eight month mark of Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza and demonstrators held a two-mile long red banner filled with the over 36,000 names of Palestinians who have been martyred since October. The banner was also a reference to the “red line” the Biden administration promised to enforce against the Israeli invasion of Rafah but then abandoned. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/peoples-red-line-surrounds-the-white-house-to-demand-end-of-gaza-genocide/?ml_recipient=123935049677538726&ml_link=123935044124280117

Gaza resistance sources say . . .   Ahmed Omar  M/Weiss  11/06/2024

The U.S. pier was at the center of coverage of the massacre, as multiple news sources, videos, and eyewitness accounts from Gaza indicated that U.S. forces may have been involved in the operation and that humanitarian trucks entering Nuseirat were hiding the Israeli soldiers that carried out the massacre. Live Aljazeera footage depicted what appeared to be a humanitarian truck driving through the camp accompanied by two armored military vehicles, while other videos circulated showing Israeli soldiers using a helicopter allegedly in the area of the U.S. floating pier as an evacuation point, taking advantage of U.S. air defenses. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/gaza-resistance-sources-say-fear-is-rising-u-s-pier-will-be-used-for-forced-displacement-of-palestinians/?ml_recipient=123935049677538726&ml_link=123935044088628522

Taking back the power of definition  Marilyn Garson M/weiss 11/06/2024

The IHRA definition is now the backdrop for the genocide which is being done in our names. Its power is pervasive. The IHRA definition has hemmed in the space of speech and protest, rendered statements of Palestinian identity and rights suspect, foreclosed on millenia of Jewish pluralism, and elevated political difference to the absolute wrong of racism. It diverts from urgent, lifesaving speech: permanent ceasefire now, sufficient humanitarian provision now, peace with justice forever. Every message must now be filtered (or rammed) through a language that places Zionist-Jewish discomfort before Palestinian survival. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/the-new-jewish-international-taking-back-the-power-of-definition/?ml_recipient=123935049677538726&ml_link=123935044102260014

How an Israeli colonel invented the burned babies lie to justify genocide David Sheen EI 11/06/2024  None of the 13 civilians killed were executed and only one of them was certainly killed by Hamas fighters who conquered the kibbutz house by house on the morning of 7 October, the survivors say. The remaining 12 were killed hours later during Israel’s counteroffensive to reconquer the territory. After heated exchanges over the phone with the commander of a Qassam fighting force of dozens dug in at the Cohen home in Be’eri, Israeli police arrived at the home in the middle of the afternoon with guns blazing. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israeli-colonel-invented-burned-babies-lie-justify-genocide/47011

Torture camp faces legal challenge  MC Murphy EI  11/06/2024

“More than 1,000 detainees are held in cage-like facilities, without beds or any other equipment,” according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which told the Israeli high court that detainees are blindfolded “for days even during medical treatment and toilet use.”

“Testimonies have revealed an incomprehensible reality of surgeries performed without anesthesia, the holding of detainees for days on end in painful positions and such severe handcuffing that led to amputation,” the Israeli human rights group said. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israels-desert-torture-camp-faces-legal-challenge

Invention - the burned babies lie to justify genocide David Sheen EI 11/06.2024

As Israeli forces recaptured territories temporarily taken by Hamas earlier that day, the commander of the national rescue unit of the Israeli army’s Home Front Command Colonel Golan Vach led the recovery of corpses from the region, which spanned an area of hundreds of square kilometers. A week later, Vach began asserting that Hamas fighters had brutally executed “eight babies” in a single house in Kibbutz Be’eri. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israeli-colonel-invented-burned-babies-lie-justify-genocide/47011

No need for ‘Jewish values’ in the fight for Palestine Anna Rajagopol M/Weiss 13/06/2024  But Palestinian liberation does not need Jewish anything, much less the saviorism justified by “Jewish values.” As Palestinian organizers have said for years: Jewish people will not liberate Palestine, Palestinians will. And if Judaism exists without a notion of supremacy afterward, that will have been a byproduct of Palestinian freedom rather than a priority over it. But this certainly doesn’t mean that we, as Jews, are exempt from the labor of revolution — quite the opposite. Revolution requires of us a radical decentering of self in the fight for liberation and the recentering of communal struggle and collective freedom. Until we are able to separate our individualism from the struggle, we only serve Zionism—Jews don’t need “Jewish values” to justify our work toward Palestinian liberation. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/no-need-for-jewish-values-in-the-fight-for-palestine/?ml_recipient=124123756404672487&ml_link=124123754258236667

The story of the U.S. ‘floating dock’  Tareq Hajjaj M/Weiss 14/06/2024

But one thing is becoming clearer. The Trident appears to be used to facilitate the Israeli army’s invasions throughout Gaza. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Palestine, said that Israel “perfidiously” used aid trucks as cover during the Nuseirat invasion, calling it “‘humanitarian camouflage’ at another level.” Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/the-story-of-the-u-s-floating-dock-built-from-the-rubble-of-gazas-homes/?ml_recipient=124206810588513969&ml_link=124206806904865919

Children killed, damaged infrastructure in West Bank Tamara Nassar EI 16/06/24  A warning on 4 June from the UN human rights commissioner that “unprecedented bloodshed” in the occupied West Bank must come to an end has gone unheeded.

The Israeli military, at times in collaboration with Israel’s Border Police and the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic secret police, has continued to conduct deadly raids into the occupied West Bank, wreaking havoc on private Palestinian property and civilian infrastructure in the process. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-kills-children-damages-infrastructure-west-bank

Kibbutzniks block humanitarian aid Jonathan Ofir Mweiss 18/06/2024

The issue of Israelis physically blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza has been reported in the mainstream media over the past few months. In March, CNN’s Clarissa Ward reported on Israeli right-wing activists seeking to block the crossings into Gaza where humanitarian aid was being transported in with their bodies. Ward pushed back on the demonstrators’ claims that the rice bags were being filled with bullets by explaining that Gazans were dying of starvation, to no avail. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/the-kibbutzniks-who-are-blocking-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza/?ml_recipient=124569224427341472&ml_link=124569220019128145

“I imagine them with me everywhere” Asil Almanssi EI 19/06/2024

Last week, I was walking by the Beit Lahiya cemetery when I saw a woman crying at a grave. I walked over to her and she introduced herself as Nujoud al-Shish. She told me the grave was that of her two daughters, Jana, 10, and Rana, 6. The girls were killed on 17 November 2023, when Israeli tanks shelled the Tal al-Rabia’ school in Beit Lahiya where the family had been displaced. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/i-imagine-them-me-everywhere/47191

Treating trauma under worst possible conditions Abubaker Abed EI 20/06/24

With very few staff and volunteers, the AFSC has been providing a range of services. They include offering food aid to families, hygiene kits to women and arranging kite flying and other recreational activities for children and adolescents. AFSC’s aid work is accompanied by its international campaigning. One of its projects is called Goals for Gaza. By joining forces with football players across the world, that project demands an end to US military support for Gaza and the lifting of restrictions on humanitarian aid. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/aid-workers-try-treat-trauma-under-worst-possible-conditions/47216

. . . . . and patients die in silence  Tareq Hajjaj Mweiss 21/06/2024

Nabil Kuhail, 3 years old, sat on a bed inside the European Hospital in Khan Younis. His grandmother, who took care of him after he lost 24 family members, sat beside him. She attempted to narrate the story of her grandson’s slow death before her eyes, crying more than she spoke. A local reporter recorded her appeal to rescue her grandson, who fell ill due to the new conditions of displacement and pollution in their shelters and tents. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/gazas-hospitals-are-empty-and-patients-die-in-silence/?ml_recipient=124840994107557529&ml_link=124840990201612116

The myth of Israeli democracy Steve France Mweiss  22/06/2024

Miscreants, as we know, tend to resist accusations that they’ve done wrong: they invent alibis, deny key facts, plead confusion, or make other excuses for their conduct. But Israel’s distinctive form of “affirmative denial” runs deeper, and sweeps more broadly, Saree Makdisi shows in Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial. Beyond merely covering up or refuting allegations, Israel has always promoted comforting counterimages — fairy tales, in effect — about its moral impeccability. The effect is to impugn critics’ motives and displace factual specifics with loud and emotional “affirmation of values such as tolerance, [and] diversity” – all to get away with “unspeakable – and unspoken of – crimes.” Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/the-myth-of-israeli-democracy-died-in-gaza-and-israels-hasbara-will-never-recover/?ml_recipient=124931589747509145&ml_link=124931586115241542

The Missing Children of Gaza, the drones, the bombs Israel-Palestine News 25/06/24 Furthermore, the bodies of children have been among those recently found in mass graves with many showing signs of torture.  The spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights described bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste”, and that some were bound and stripped of their clothes.  Up to 3,000 people have been detained in Gaza including an unknown number of children. Detainees have reported being held in secret locations with no way of contacting loved ones, being forcibly transferred to Israel, having their identity documents confiscated, and being treated with extreme physical, psychological, and sexual violence. (Save the Children) Read more: https://israelpalestinenews.org/missing-children-gaza-drones-bombs-us-complicity-day-262/

‘More horrific than Abu Ghraib’: Lawyer recounts visit to Israeli detention center  Baker Zoubi  +972 Magazine 27/06/2024 ‘Even the courts are rife with hatred’ Mahajneh told +972 that Arab was nearly unrecognizable after 100 days in the detention facility; his face, hair, and skin color had changed, and he was covered with dirt and pigeon droppings. The journalist had not been given new clothes for nearly two months, and was only allowed to change his pants for the first time that day because of the lawyer’s visit. . . . “But the prisoners began refusing to shower because they don’t have watches, and going beyond the allotted minute exposes prisoners to severe punishments, including hours outside in the heat or rain,” Read more: https://www.972mag.com/sde-teiman-prisoners-lawyer-mahajneh/

Leaked plan for annexing the West Bank  Qassam Muaddi Mweiss  27/06/2024

The issue of Israel’s creeping annexation of the West Bank has resurfaced in recent days after a leaked recording of Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed a “dramatic” plan to impose permanent Israeli control over the West Bank “without the government being accused of annexing it,” as Smotrich was recorded saying. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/israels-leaked-plan-for-annexing-the-west-bank-explained/?ml_recipient=125384613966120693&ml_link=125384605604775171

Israel’s stated goals are an epic lie Susan Abulhawa EI 27/06/2024

When you’re in Gaza and see the destruction firsthand, the clearest conclusion is that Israel’s stated goals are an epic lie, on a par with “a people without a land for a land without a people,” packaged and sold to the world.The Israelis are not targeting Hamas, nor are they interested in returning their captives, who pose tremendous liability upon their release, as they often have good things to say about their captors. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/math-proves-israels-stated-goals-are-epic-lie/47371

UK related articles                                                                                   Israel lobby funded a quarter of British MPs John McEvoy Declassified UK 05/06/2024 One of the most significant funders is Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), a parliamentary group which does not disclose its sources of funding. Around 80 percent of Tory MPs are members of CFI. Over the past decade, it has taken more MPs on overseas trips than any other political donor in Britain. Declassified recently revealed that CFI has funded 118 sitting Tory MPs to travel to Israel on 160 occasions, providing over £330,000 towards the visits. The organisation also enjoys close access to Whitehall, and organises private briefings for ministers. Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), another opaquely funded parliamentary group, counts some 75 MPs as supporters or officers. Read more: https://www.declassifieduk.org/israel-lobby-funded-a-quarter-of-british-mps/

Britain is complicit in Israel’s barbarism Roddy Keenan EI 12/06/2024

Sunak’s commitment was echoed by then Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on 9 October, when he said the UK would continue to support Israel’s military operation in Gaza. When asked if it was “proportionate” for Israel to cut off water, electricity, food and fuel, Cleverly said “Israel has a right to defend itself against attack,” seemingly unaware that occupying forces have no such right under international law. Cleverly’s comments came on the same day that Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant infamously described the people of Gaza as “human animals.”  Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/britain-complicit-israels-barbarism/47031

Scenes from the Cardiff encampment for Palestine Mouna Madanat Mweiss 20/06/24 Around 45 police officers gathered. They were kneeing us in the back, pinching our arms, pushing, shoving, and kicking people. We were told that if we didn’t vacate we would be arrested, to stand up and leave now, so people got up to leave and were pulled back down and arrested.” Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/were-refusing-to-let-ourselves-live-in-comfortable-complacency-scenes-from-the-cardiff-encampment-for-palestine/?ml_recipient=124750441025111051&ml_link=124750436743775643