The latest Israeli military order allows forces to seize funds in Palestinian banks. The political motivation behind this “legal” hogwash is the Israeli desire to punish the Palestinian leadership for refusing to stop making welfare payments to those Palestinians who were, or continue to be, detained in Israeli prisons—political prisoners,—in addition to welfare payments made to families of martyrs. It is important to note that nearly one million Palestinians have gone through the Israeli prison system since the start of Israeli military occupation in 1967.

Palestinians must recognize the “right and reality of Jewish state,” and US left is “equally wrong” to Trump in not criticizing Palestinians for their failure to do so, says Biden aide Tony Blinken, signaling that Biden will be far more supportive of Israel than Obama was.

Robert Cohen writes, “Looking the other way when a crime is committed is not a Jewish value I remember being taught in my Hebrew classes. The British Board of Deputies’ effort to build non-existent Jewish unity over Israel turns out to be little more than political expediency in Israel’s favour.”

Rashid Khalidi’s great great great uncle tried to tell Herzl not to colonize Palestine in 1899 but Herzl assured him that Zionists would bring Jewish acumen to the country and improve everyone’s lives. Yet after 100 years of settler colonialism, aided by superpowers, Palestinians remain undefeated. An interview with Khalidi about his new book.

Daniel Pipes’s op-ed in the NYT opposing annexation of the West Bank because it would increase number of Palestinians –without any concern about how annexation will affect Palestinian human rights — confirms critique that Zionism is racist. But op-ed editor Bari Weiss will do anything to try to maintain Israel’s hold on elite opinion.

A ruling shutting down the densely populated city of Bnei Brak is similar to countless rulings that Israeli High Court judges have written in recent decades on the rights of the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories. This time the Ministry of Health took the role of the military commander in a Palestinian village. The ease with which judges have allowed the government to place a closure on Bnei Brak only proves how weak the Israeli High Court of Justice really is.

Human rights groups sent an urgent letter to Israeli authorities yesterday demanding an immediate halt to Israel’s aerial herbicide spraying in the eastern Gaza Strip as Palestinians in Gaza desperately fight to keep coronavirus at bay and prevent its outbreak into the wider population.

Liberal Zionists who now call on Democrats to stop Israeli annexation should have applied sanctions pressure years ago. But they feared the left’s call for democracy and sided with rightwing Israel supporters on lavishing aid to the Israeli occupation. No wonder Israeli leaders have always ignored liberal Zionists.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have fostered settler violence against Palestinians, the U.N. reports, according to the Jerusalem Post. Between March 17 and 30, “at least 16 attacks by Israeli settlers resulted in five Palestinian injuries and extensive property damage. This represents a 78% increase compared to the bi-weekly average of incidents since the start of 2020.”

Coronavirus entered the West Bank in early February, but political decisions have interfered with response, from apartheid water restrictions on Palestinians to the Netanyahu government’s refusal to quarantine Israelis returning from AIPAC conference in Washington. –A report from JVP’s Health Advisory Council.