In the Israeli military’s fairytale world, it is Palestinian society, and not the elephant in the room — Israel’s occupation of Palestine — that “cultivates hate, violence, and a willingness to kill.”
Knesset members from all coalition parties and some in the opposition signed a bill that would deport Palestinian attackers’ family members to Gaza, even though the Israeli Attorney General said last week that expelling the families from the West Bank to Gaza violates Israeli and international law.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today for failing to condemn the killing of an American tourist in Jaffa yesterday evening in an attack where 10 more were injured.
Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, has released a new report (PDF) on discriminatory and anti-democratic legislation being considered by the Israeli Knesset. “We are being introduced to new laws and bills that in some way are narrowing the meaning of democracy here,” Adalah legal advocate Nadeem Shehadeh tells Mondoweiss.
A Pew survey of Israeli attitudes reflects the deep racism in Israeli Jewish society: most Jews (48 to 46) want Palestinian Israelis to be transferred or expelled from the state, and 4 out of 5 say they like discriminatory legal system. More than 3/4 of Palestinians say that the U.S. is too supportive of Israel.
Isaac Herzog, leader of the Israeli “opposition,” outlines for the readers of the New York Times his recently announced separation plan, aimed at keeping the colonial project intact while affording the world the illusion of something en route to a state for the Palestinians. In the op-ed, “Only Separation Can Lead to a Two-State Solution,” Herzog is explicit that the plan eschews the establishment of a State of Palestinian at this time; instead it allows Israel to take what it wants while maintaining complete control. Neat trick.
“If the day comes and I have the opportunity to lead the country, not to mention become the prime minister, I will build the temple on the Temple Mount,” rookie Likud lawmaker and Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Oren Hazan announced last Thursday night at a panel in Petach Tikvah, an Israeli city 20 kilometers east of Tel Aviv. After the panel discussion organized by the group Students For The Temple Mount, Dan Cohen and David Sheen asked Hazan how he would demolish Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock in order to make way for a temple, he replied, “It would not be responsible at this point in time to tell you how we would do it, but I will say it clear and loud: When I have the opportunity to do it, I will.”
Israeli police fired several rounds into an incapacitated Palestinian after he stabbed officers near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate yesterday morning. Two Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded in the attack. A team from Al Jazeera captured the killing as it unfolded in the background of their rolling cameras, astonished by the quantity of live-fire shot into the downed Palestinian.
William Booth, the Washington Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief, was conducting interviews by the Damascus Gate outside of the Old City’s walls in Jerusalem this afternoon when Israeli border police detained him, accusing the journalist of incitement. His detention comes at a time of tense words from the Israeli government aimed at the foreign press corps in Israel, and increased governmental scrutiny of Israeli journalists.
Benjamin Netanyahu: “Will we surround all of the State of Israel with fences and barriers? The answer is yes. In the area that we live in, we must defend ourselves against the wild beasts.”