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February 2016

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Two Israeli minors were convicted in a Jerusalem district court this afternoon for the abduction and killing of 16-year old Mohammed Abu Khdeir in July 2014. One of the killers aged 17 was sentenced to life in prison, and the younger defendant aged 16 was sentenced to a lesser 21 years. “We are really disappointed feeling sad and angry,” said Amsam Abu Khdeir hours after the judgment was issued. “We want to treat them as they treat any Palestinian, to demolish their houses, and withdraw their nationality, and to get a lifetime in prison. As they [the killers] prevent Mohammed from life, they should taste the same and whatever this court sentence is it won’t be enough for us. Nothing will bring Mohammed back to us. They burned him for the second time today.”

Some 60 Palestinians awoke Tuesday morning to the sound of bulldozers razing their West Bank village in the South Hebron Hills as the Israeli army cleared the grounds to expand a live-fire training zone. The military demolished 22 structures in the herding community of Khirbet Jenbah, a ramshackle town with houses made of tin, tarp and stone. Thirty-two children were left homeless.

Israeli forces stormed the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin’s Qabatiya village, the home of three Palestinian youths who were shot dead Wednesday after killing one 19-year-old Israeli police officer and seriously injuring another, a PLO spokesman told Ma‘an. Ali Zakarneh said that during the raid, Israeli forces shot and injured four youths with live bullets, one of whom is in critical condition after being shot in the head.

The biggest story to come out of the Democratic caucus in Iowa, beyond Clinton’s razor-thin margin of victory, was the overwhelming generational divide within the party. So far this split has been explained by political differences over health care and income inequality within the Democratic Party, but polling suggests a similar generational divide exists over Israel and could just as much define where the party is headed.