Israel opened a new road in the central occupied West Bank on Thursday with an eight-meter wall separating Palestinian and Israeli traffic, leading many to deem the route “Apartheid Road.”
In late December, dozens of humanitarian organizations, businesses, educational institutions, and local municipalities across the West Bank and Gaza were faced with a harsh reality: grants they had been promised for 2019 from USAID, one of the largest and most important humanitarian agencies in the region, would not be coming. The decision to shut down USAID in the West Bank and Gaza is the latest in a series of efforts by the Trump administration to force Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to the negotiating table.
Israeli authorities have arrested five Israeli settlers suspected in the killing of 48-year-old Palestinian woman Aisha al-Rabi last month, according to the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence agency. Al-Rabi was killed in October 2018 when a group of settlers attacked her and her husband’s car with rocks on a West Bank highway. The mother of eight sustained a severe head injury that killed her, while her husband and young daughter sustained light wounds.
Israeli forces have reportedly threatened to expel the family of 28-year-old Saleh Barghouthi, who was killed by Israeli special forces last month, from their home in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah, unless Saleh’s brother Assem turns himself into police. The practice of assigning collective responsibility has been widely condemned.
It has been a whirlwind of a week in Israeli politics as the country’s Israeli election campaign is moves full speed ahead following a call for elections this April.
Israel and the United States have officially quit the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), citing “anti-Israel bias.” Israeli officials have long attacked UNESCO for listing several sites in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as “Palestinian World Heritage Sites.”
Looking back on this year, it is difficult to choose one moment, one tragedy, or one political decision that stands out among the rest. Palestinians witnessed a tumultuous year in 2018, as they saw hundreds killed from the West Bank to Gaza, their rights slowly stripped away inside Israel, and the heart of Palestinian identity, Jerusalem, pushed further out of reach. But as evidenced by the ongoing fight for the rights of refugees in Gaza’s Great March of Return, the fight against expulsion in places Silwan and Khan al-Ahmar, and the fight for equal rights as citizens in Israel, the fight for Palestinian rights continued as well.
Christmas is one of the most anticipated holidays of the year in Palestine, as both Muslims and Christians enjoy the celebrations with family and friends. In Bethlehem, the festivities are over the top with marching bands, a tree lighting ceremony, fireworks, and a visit from the Palestinian president. Each year thousands of people from all over the world travel to Manger Square in December to experience Christmas in the birthplace of Jesus. Yet, the Israeli occupation is never too far from people’s minds.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition announced on Monday that it would be dispersing the country’s Parliament and holding early elections in April 2019, seven months before their scheduled date next November. Israeli media and political analysts have speculated that the real reason behind the sudden call for snap elections is that Netanyahu wants an election before Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announces whether he will indict the premier in three different corruption cases. If he wins in April, Netanyahu will be able to claim the support of the people, and be better suited to combat potential charges against him.
After nearly two months of arbitrary detention, brutal interrogations, a hunger strike, and sexual harassment, 31-year-old Suha Jbara is expected to be released from Palestinian Authority custody in the next two days. Jbara, a Palestinian activist with American and Panamanian citizenship, was arrested by PA security forces on November 3rd over accusations that she collected and distributed money through “illegal methods,” a claim herself and her family vehemently deny. Her father spoke to Mondoweiss about the “nightmare” that his daughter and family have experienced over the past two months.