This week, Israel moved further toward formalizing annexation in the West Bank through a mix of settler violence, tightening administrative restrictions, and legal changes designed to make permanent control look routine. In the United States and Europe, governments continued to escalate efforts to criminalize Palestine solidarity, from court battles in the UK to the ongoing detention and mistreatment of Leqaa Kordia in the United States. Netanyahu’s trip to Washington showed how hard Israel is still working to pull the United States into a war with Iran, even as AIPAC’s election strategy runs into a Democratic base that is shifting faster than party leadership is willing to admit. And across our commentary and reporting, a central thread holds that solidarity depends on centering Palestinian experience, whether that means defending the Right of Return, confronting the limits of liberal institutions, or listening to what it means to write about Gaza from exile.
📹 Video Short
Leila Warah takes a satirical look at how Israeli settlers steal land from Palestinians with a tongue-in-cheek real estate advertisement.
West Bank annexation
Israel’s project in the West Bank is advancing on multiple tracks, including settler terror on the ground, financial and administrative restrictions, and legal attacks on the distinction between “occupation” and annexation.
READ MORE → How Israel is eroding life for Palestinians in the West Bank — Abdaljawad Omar
READ MORE → Israel just started legalizing its annexation of the West Bank. Here’s what that means. — Qassam Muaddi
READ MORE → The hollowing out of Palestine’s most important university — Abdaljawad Omar
Criminalizing solidarity
Across the U.S. and Europe, governments are trying to turn Palestine solidarity into something that can be policed, prosecuted, and deterred. In the U.K., Palestine Action wins a major court victory.
READ MORE → UK court rules that the government ban on Palestine Action is unlawful — Michael Arria
READ MORE → The government-sanctioned persecution of Leqaa Kordia — Sam Judy
READ MORE → Power & Pushback: Leqaa Kordia is back in ICE detention after being hospitalized and disappeared by DHS — Michael Arria
Israel, Washington, and U.S. politics
Netanyahu’s trip to Washington was about pulling the U.S. deeper into Israel’s regional agenda, and toward confrontation with Iran. AIPAC’s efforts at electioneering keep colliding with a Democratic base that is shifting faster than the party’s leadership wants to admit.
READ MORE → Netanyahu strikes out in Washington — Mitchell Plitnick
READ MORE → The Shift: AIPAC’s own goal in New Jersey — Michael Arria
Centering the Palestinian experience
Israel and its supporters spend enormous energy on obscuring the Palestinian experience, reframing Israelis as the victims, and painting rightful Palestinian demands as unrealistic. This is a key area of global struggle in solidarity with Palestinians.
READ MORE → Why the Palestinian Right of Return is still the issue — Ahmad Ibsais
READ MORE → Liberal institutions are designed to acknowledge Palestinian oppression but not end it — A. Kayum Ahmed
READ MORE → Palestine Letter: To write about Gaza in exile, you must be there — Tareq S. Hajjaj
Thank you Dave, from EI:
“…“Israel” already has total control and a thief can’t legalize its own theft by declaring it to be a legitimate purchase…”
Ali Abunimah
Also in the recent news are stories about how the Israeli police and justice system behave differently when crime happens to Jews and when it happens to Israeli citizens of Palestinian heritage:
A killing a day: How a crime epidemic is spotlighting inequality in Israeli society….The victims are all Palestinian citizens of Israel. Homicides in their community have risen so dramatically that one person has been killed every day on average this year. Palestinian citizens make up 20% of the country’s population, and many say the Israeli government has not only failed to curb the crime wave, but that its inaction has helped spur a cycle of violence largely perpetrated by Arab organized crime groups….The data bears out a stark inequality: Israel Police has solved just 15% of homicides in Israel’s Arab communities versus 65% among Jewish Israelis, according to data from Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, and Eilaf, the Center for Advancing Security in Arab Society….According to the Eilaf report, Palestinian citizens of Israel face “selective enforcement” of the law….“On the one hand, a tough approach towards political activity and freedom of expression, and on the other, a soft approach towards criminals and crime,” the report said….Data compiled by Abraham Initiatives shows that homicide cases among Palestinian citizens of Israel more than doubled in 2023….That was far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir’s first full year overseeing the police…Within months of entering office, Ben Gvir cut off key funding for an anti-Arab crime initiative called “Stop the Bleeding,” launched by the previous government. The next year, he dismissed the police official in charge of fighting crime in Arab society and put a lower-ranking official in his place...
A killing a day: How a crime epidemic is spotlighting inequality in Israeli society | CNN
When do we get to name it apartheid?