The Israeli Knesset passed on Wednesday the first reading of a bill to forcibly transfer families of Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis, despite heavy opposition from intelligence and army officials. If passed into law, it would see that within a week of an attack or attempted attack, the Israeli army’s central command would be permitted to expel the relatives of the Palestinian assailants from their hometowns to other areas of the West Bank.
Airbnb is denying claims by an Israeli minister that the company was going to reverse its November decision to remove listings in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said in a Facebook post on Monday that following meetings with Israeli government officials, Airbnb would not be implementing its November decision.
When Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality served Murad Hashimi with a demolition order for the home he built 20 years ago, he was given two options: demolish the house himself, or wait for Israeli forces to destroy his home, and then pay them a large demolition fee. “The decision to destroy my house by my own hands was difficult, but I had to do it for economic reasons,” Hashimi tells Mondoweiss. Due to the high costs of renting demolition equipment, the Hashimi family worked with activists to start a GoFundMe page to help alleviate the financial burden. “Where else in the world do you have to ask strangers for money so they can help you demolish your home?” he asks.
Israel has stepped up its efforts to demolish the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks on Israelis in recent days, a policy that has been widely criticized for years as collective punishment. In addition, Israel’s Misterial Legislation Committee approved on Sunday a bill that would see the families of accused Palestinians attackers forcibly expelled from their homes and transferred to other areas of the West Bank.
The ripple effects of Thursday’s outburst of violence in the occupied West Bank continued to be felt on Friday, as Palestinians woke up to news of more arrests, clashes, and plans of collective punishment by the Israeli government.
Four Palestinians and two Israelis were killed between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon in a series of attacks and search and arrest operations in the central occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society reported that between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Israeli forces arrested 56 Palestinians from across the occupied territory. In the center of Ramallah city, demonstrations erupted calling for another intifada.
Weeks after Airbnb’s landmark decision to pull out of Israeli settlements, Mondoweiss has learned that Airbnb is also currently preventing Palestinian hosts from listing their homes in the occupied West Bank. According to Airbnb customer service representatives in Israel and the United States any listings coming out of the West Bank are not currently being approved by the company — regardless if the listing is in a Palestinian city, or in an Israeli settlement.
Over the past week, activists in the West Bank have staged multiple protests in support of Dr. Marc Lamont Hill after he was fired from CNN for a speech he gave at the United Nations in which he criticized the Israeli occupation and the abuse of Palestinian rights. Mondoweiss spoke to Munther Amira, Coordinator of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, about his support for Dr. Hill and why he believes it is important for Palestinians to stand in solidarity with the activist.
One year ago, US President Donald Trump announced that he was officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, breaking with decades of US and international foreign policy in the region. The announcement sparked widespread protests across the occupied Palestinian territory and Gaza, some of which are still continuing today. The political implications of Trump’s decision were clear: the US was virtually erasing any Palestinian claims to the city, specifically occupied East Jerusalem, which Palestinians maintain must be the capital of their future state. And over the course of the next year, Trump and his administration would announce and enact a series of measures against the Palestinians in an effort to wear them down until they were forced to come to Trump and Netanyahu’s negotiating table and take whatever they could get.
Israel, along with the rest of the world, commemorated International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Monday, December 3rd, by promising greater integration of the country’s 1.5 million disabled citizens. As Monday’s activities came to a close, just across the Green Line in the northern occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, Israeli forces shot and killed a disabled Palestinian man in the back of his head.