Palestinian health workers and medical professionals in Gaza are still struggling to get their hands on the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, after Israeli authorities reportedly blocked the entry of 2,000 doses into the besieged territory, according to Palestinian officials.
Bilal Bawatneh, Azzam Amer, and Khaled Nofal are the latest Palestinian victims in a spate of settler violence that has rocked the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, with new accounts of settler attacks on Palestinian civilians being reported in Palestinian and Israeli media nearly every day.
With the one year anniversary of the pandemic in Palestine fast approaching, and minuscule numbers of the population getting vaccinated, the COVID-19 situation in Palestine remains bleak, and will likely continue to grow in the coming months.
The International Criminal Court’s decision on Friday confirming its jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory has made waves in Israel, Palestine, and abroad in recent days. In a video response released over the weekend, Benjamin Netanyahu called the Israeli crimes in questions “fake war crimes,” and accused the court of specifically targeting Israel.
Analysts say Benjamin Netanyahu’s courtship of the United Arab List goes beyond the its ability to help him form a ruling coalition, pointing to a much more sinister reason for the premier’s efforts to break up the Joint List.
On Monday morning, Israeli armed forces and Civil Administration authorities arrived at Khirbet Humsah, a Bedouin enclave in the northern Jordan Valley, with bulldozers and proceeded to dismantle at least 28 structures, including homes and agricultural pens. This was not the first time Khirbet Humsah’s residents were left homeless and displaced. On November 3rd, 2020, just hours before the US elections, Israeli forces also completely razed the village to the ground, leaving its residents to spend a cold and rainy winter night without shelter.
After weeks of mounting pressure from the international community, Israel announced that it will be giving 5,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine supplies to the Palestinian Authority (PA) — an amount so miniscule, that the PA said it “will not help us.”
Human rights activists launched a campaign this week to stop social media giant Facebook from adjusting its hate speech policy to classify the word ‘Zionist’ as a protected category, a move that would make any criticism of Zionism a violation of Facebook’s Community Standards and hate speech policy.
As Israel continues to deny responsibility for inoculating the Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territory, the government has carried on with its demolition campaign against Palestinian homes and structures.
On January 15th Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held this spring and summer, 15 years after he was first elected for what was supposed to be a four-year term. Yumna Patel talks to Palestinians about their thoughts on the vote and many share the same concern — will they be a true chance to make their voices heard, or is it just another facade of democracy on part of the PA?