AFP reports: An announcement by a [Palestinian] lawmaker that he plans to join a pro-Palestinian flotilla seeking to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza caused outrage Monday among the country’s political class. Basel Ghattas, an Israeli MP with the Joint Arab List, sparked controversy after he announced he would join other parliamentarians and public figures from around the world in the latest attempt to reach Gaza by ship later this month.
IMEMC reports: The Israeli District Court in occupied Jerusalem sentenced, on Sunday morning, a young Palestinian man to 13 months of imprisonment, with an additional four months suspended, for what the court called “incitement” on his Facebook page.
Ma’an News: Hamas military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades reportedly claimed responsibility for Friday’s West Bank shooting that left an Israel man dead and another lightly injured. A statement released by the group identified the “Marwan Qawasmeh and Amir Abu Eisha Brigade” as the group directly behind Friday’s shooting, adding that “the operation was carried out days before the first anniversary of the martyrs Marwan Qawasmeh and Amir Abu Eisha.” The two were killed by Israeli forces after being accused of kidnapping and killing three Israeli teenage settlers near Hebron last summer in what many say was a triggering point for last summer’s Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.
‘NYT’s Rudoren Jodi Rudoren acts as a stenographer for an Israeli government report that whitewashes the military of war crimes in last summer’s invasion of Gaza, notably the slaughter of four boys playing soccer on the beach last July 16
“In the summer of 1967 I cast my fate to the wind and hitchhiked from Paris to Jerusalem hoping to live on an Israeli kibbutz, but a caprice of fate found me welcomed and married into a Palestinian family within weeks of my arrival in East Jerusalem, Jordan.” — Iris Keltz reflects on the 48th anniversary of the 1967 war in an excerpt from her forthcoming book, ‘Unexpected Bride in the Promised Land.’
Ynet reports: Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with several officials over the weekend regarding the possible plans of action to combat BDS. The talks included Strategic Affairs and Information Minister Gilad Erdan, whose office’s purview includes fighting BDS, as well as other officials from relevant ministries. Netanyahu and Erdan agreed that his office will receive at least NIS 100 million, most of which will go to fighting BDS. Erdan’s office will also receive 10 new positions for employees who will deal solely with the boycott and de-legitimization activities against Israel. The minister mentioned that he is flooded with calls from Jewish leaders from across the globe, who want to join the effort against BDS.
Al Jazeera reports: Adoption of a bill by Israeli cabinet ministers aimed at imposing tougher penalties on stone-throwers is the latest discriminatory measure by Israel, singling out Palestinians, a Palestinian diplomat has told Al Jazeera. The draft law stipulates 10 years in jail for stone-throwers without the need to prove the defendant’s intention to harm anyone. “When it comes to the Palestinians and Israelis, Israel has two different judicial systems. One is applicable to Israeli citizens and the other for Palestinians,” Maen Rashid Areikat, the chief of Palestinian Liberation Organisation Delegation in Washington DC, told Al Jazeera.
Haaretz reports: President Reuven Rivlin yesterday described academic boycotts against Israel as a “strategic threat of the first order.” During a discussion of the issue at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, the chairman of the Council of Presidents of Israeli Universities, Technion president Prof. Peretz Lavie, said it was still possible to stop the snowball effect of the movement, but warned that “we are at the 90th minute.”
Ma‘an reports: Heavy traffic jams were reported along the main road between Hebron and Bethlehem on Monday as a settler bicycle race took place in the area. The 30-minute drive between the two cities took three hours as Israeli forces closed a main exit from Hebron connecting to Route 60 as settlers from Kiryat Arba took part in a race.
A young Palestinian, Baraa Kalaid Madhun, 16, of Hebron is suspected of throwing stones at an Israeli occupying military base. Soldiers have told him that if he leaves his house between 6 PM and 11 AM they will break his legs. And if no stones are thrown in the next 30 days, they say it will be proven that he did so.