Christian leaders on Thursday protested the sale of properties owned by the Greek Orthodox church to a Jewish pro-settlement group in mainly Palestinian areas of Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

Israel's top court gave final approval on June 11 to the 2004 sale of three buildings located in east Jerusalem's Old City to businesses linked to the Ateret Cohanim organisation.

The group works to "Judaise" East Jerusalem in its entirety by purchasing real estate in Palestinian areas through front companies.

US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib took a swipe at American lawmakers who are seeking to criminalise the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, in a tweet denouncing the move as “unconstitutional”.

Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, made the trenchant remarks on Twitter while sharing an article concerning an Israeli park in the Galilee that has introduced measures which critics and human rights group say is reminiscent of apartheid South Africa. A non-Jewish lawyer and her infant were barred from entering the public park last week triggering a legal battle over whether local authorities in Israel can segregate citizens on the basis of race.

A new war between Israel and Palestinian factions in the occupied Gaza Strip “is not far away”, and will be “will be deadlier and more destructive than any previous” offensive, according to a report by the Jerusalem Post’s military correspondent.

According to the analyst, Israeli officials “have repeatedly said that any future war with [Hamas]…will have to have a clear and decisive win by the Israeli military so that the other side will think twice about going to war in the future.”

The Military Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Aviv Kochavi, “has already approved operational combat plans and recently set up an administrative unit to handle the formation of a list of potential targets in the coastal enclave for when the next war breaks out,” the Post reported.

Israeli opposition politician Benny Gantz, the leader of Blue and White Party and former military head, declared on Thursday that he does not intend to remove settlers from the occupied West Bank.

In radio interviews, Gantz affirmed that his party is in favour of “striving for an agreement” so long as it is based on “strict adherence to the security arrangements and, of course, our historical right to the State of Israel, the Jordan Valley, the settlement blocs, and of course Jerusalem”.

“There is no return to the 1967 lines,” he added.

Gantz also clarified that any “arrangement” that emerges in the context of peace talks would ultimately be “brought to the people for decision” (i.e. a referendum).

A battle is underway in Ireland to ensure that a ban on imports from Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank will not be vetoed.

Legislation to introduce such a ban has received majority support in both houses of Ireland’s parliament, the Oireachtas. Yet the country’s government is expected to try and wreck the legislation by invoking the little known “money message” provision.

“Money messages” rely on a clause in the Irish constitution which states that no law involving the expenditure of public finance will be enacted unless it has been signed by the taoiseach, the country’s prime minister.

A paper drawn up by Michael McDowell, a prominent Irish lawyer and politician, insists that the legislation banning Israel’s settlement goods does not require approval via a “money message.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu pledged on Wednesday not to dismantle even the remotest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, in a message to settlers ahead of September's general election.

Israeli media had speculated that after US President Donald Trump handed Netanyahu valuable political prizes by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital and its annexation of the Golan Heights, Trump might expect concessions in return when he finally unveils his long-awaited proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

"We shall not allow the dismantling of any settlement in any peace plan," Netanyahu told an audience at the settlement of Revava in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Tuesday July 9th marked the fifteenth anniversary of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision to declare the Israeli separation wall in occupied Palestinian territory as illegal under international law.

Israel began construction of the separation wall, known by many as the Israeli “Apartheid Wall”, in 2002 in the middle of the Second Intifada. Israeli officials said the wall was a necessary “security precaution against terrorism” from Palestinian attackers coming from the West Bank.

But with the construction of the wall, came unprecedented demolitions of Palestinians homes along the planned route, massive land confiscations, and the division of dozens of Palestinian communities along the Green Line.

Netanyahu went on to reference the Biblical mention of a place called Caphtor, thought to be modern-day Crete, where the Philistines allegedly migrated from before arriving in Palestine.

He went on: “There’s no connection between the ancient Philistines & the modern Palestinians, whose ancestors came from the Arabian Peninsula to the Land of Israel thousands of years later.”

“The Palestinians’ connection to the Land of Israel is nothing compared to the 4,000 year connection that the Jewish people have with the land,” the premiere concluded.

Palestinian activists and supporters were quick to tear down Netanyahu’s comments which they said were setting a dangerous precedent for the denial of Palestinian human rights.

Ali Abunimah, journalist and co-founder of the Electronic Intifada news website called Netanyahu’s comments a “warning sign of genocide.”

The Electronic Intifada is publishing the first photos of the police spy who infiltrated a Palestine solidarity group in the UK 15 years ago.

As we reported in December, the spy was an officer with the “anti-terrorist” Special Demonstration Squad.

During his time undercover in the London chapter of the International Solidarity Movement between 2004-2007, he gave his name as “Rob Harrison.”

His real name is not yet known, but the cover name was released in December by an independent official inquiry into undercover policing.

The barring of a lawyer and her infant from a public park in the Galilee last week has triggered a legal battle over whether local authorities in Israel can segregate citizens on a racial basis.

Human rights groups have warned that the ban marks a growing trend by local authorities representing the Jewish majority towards explicit separation of public space in ways reminiscent of apartheid South Africa.

An Israeli court will have to decide whether it is reasonable for Afula, a city in the country’s north, to deny non-residents entrance to the main local park, which includes a playground, a small zoo, basketball courts and a running track.

The restriction amounts to a ban on Palestinian citizens from surrounding communities using a public resource, according to Adalah, a legal human rights group representing Israel’s Palestinian minority, one in five of the country’s population.

Israel is isolating Palestinian universities by forcing international scholars to leave their academic positions in the occupied West Bank.

Two Palestinian human rights groups, as well as Birzeit University, are calling on Israel to lift restrictions preventing international academics from working in the West Bank and to publish “a clear and lawful procedure for issuing entry visas and work permits.”

Israel’s policy of denying internationals entry to the West Bank, as well as refusing and failing to process visa extension applications in a timely manner, has affected dozens of scholars working at Palestinian universities.

Israeli occupation forces shot and fatally wounded a young Palestinian man, reportedly at close range, as the month of June came to a close.

Israel claimed that Muhammad Samir Ubeid, 20, had thrown lit firecrackers at police during confrontations in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiyeh on 27 June.

Ubeid’s body was held by Israel until 1 July.

Shortly before Ubeid was killed, residents of Issawiyeh protested against weeks of police raids on the village.

In 2018 If Americans Knew made a 15 minute video exposing Israel’s projects to censor the Internet. YouTube removed our video. We tried again. This time YouTube restricted it. Now we’re trying yet again. See version #3 below of “How Israel Censors the Internet”.

We wonder if this time the video will escape censorship, or whether Israel partisans will succeed once again in their efforts to impede Americans’ access to facts that Israel doesn’t want Americans to know…

Illegal Israeli settlers have called for the death of a Palestinian who was wrongly accused of raping a seven-year-old Israeli girl, spraying graffiti on walls in his West Bank village and vandalising cars.

The graffiti was discovered yesterday in Deir Qadis, a Palestinian village northwest of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The village is home to Mahmoud Katusa, a 46-year-old Palestinian who was wrongly accused of raping a young Israeli girl and released last month after charges against him were dropped.

Written in Hebrew, the graffiti read “the death penalty is necessary for Mahmoud Qadusa,” while several cars parked in the village were also vandalised, the Times of Israel reported.

The Israeli daily noted that this is not the first such incident, pointing to an attack on the nearby village of Sinjil where cars were found with their tyres slashed and graffiti spray-painted on the walls read: “we give them jobs and they rape.”

Israeli police this morning forced a Palestinian family out of their house in the Silwan neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, WAFA reported.

Silwan-based Wadi Hilweh Information Centre posted a video showing occupation forces and settlers storming the house and assaulting the family members to seize their home. The centre reported that the Siyam family refused to comply with the eviction order and at least one family member was detained. Jawad Siyam is the director of the Wadi Hilweh Information Centre and was detained in Silwan along with three other Palestinians in the neighbourhood.

The Siyam family had been battling a right-wing Israeli settlement group for 25 years to remain in their family home. The Elad Association is notorious for its efforts to encourage Jewish settlement in Silwan, located just outside the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Elad also confiscated money raised to help the Siyam family fight their eviction order, Haaretz reported on Monday.

An Israeli court has overturned the conviction of a Jewish settler filmed stoning Palestinian cars in Hebron, the occupied West Bank, reported Haaretz.

According to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge, the decision was taken following a report by the probation officer claiming that the accused “takes responsibility for committing the crime”.

Instead, the right-wing activist was sentenced to pay 400 shekels ($112) in compensation to two Palestinian car owners whose vehicles were vandalised.

The case goes back to 2014, when settler activist Noam Federman and his son Oved “hurled rocks at parked Palestinian cars”, allegedly in response to having stones thrown at them by Palestinians.

It won’t just be Jeffrey Epstein that will be on trial in the months ahead. As this scandal unfolds, the entire U.S. legal system will be on trial, and if justice does not prevail many Americans will lose faith in the system for good.

And of course the rest of the world will be watching too, and so what are they supposed to think about us if we are not able to put Epstein and all of his dirty friends in prison? As I detailed in part three of this series, the evidence against Jeffrey Epstein and his partners in crime is mounting. If Jeffrey Epstein is put behind bars that will be a step in the right direction, but it will not nearly be enough.

Israeli occupation authorities have issued 432 administrative detention orders against Palestinians since the start of 2019, the Palestine Prisoners’ Centre for Studies (PPCS) reported yesterday.

The PPCS’ spokesman Riyadh Al-Ashqar said that the number included 294 renewed orders and 138 new orders.

He noted that the orders ranged from between two and six months.

Al-Ashqar said that the continuous Israeli detention of Palestinian prisoners without trials is a clear violation of international laws and conventions.

The African Group has called on the United Nations (UN) to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinians.

The African Group – sometimes known as the Group of African States – is a regional assembly within the UN comprised of 54 member states from the African continent. It represents 28 per cent of all UN members.

The group yesterday addressed the 41st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, one item of which discussed the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt).

The group’s representative, Andre da Conceicao Domingos of Angola, called for the international community to act to end Israel’s now 52-year-old occupation and the blockade it has imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007, as well as to end Israel’s illegal settlement project, imprisonment of Palestinians and policy of collective punishment.

The Israeli government is set to press mobile phone companies to improve coverage for illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, reported business news site Globes.

According to the report, “one of the first tasks” for incoming Minister of Communications David Ansalem “is dealing with the poor mobile reception in Judea and Samaria [occupied West Bank].”

US Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, has said that the White House is to reopen the PLO’s office in Washington if Israeli-Palestinian talks resume.

In an interview with the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam published yesterday, he said: “The PLO office in Washington can be reopened once negotiations are resumed.”

“The PLO office could have been kept open if it was involved in a peace process,” he said, noted that it was closed “because President Abbas threatened Israel with going to the ICC.”

Regarding the closure of the consulate in Jerusalem, he said: “We have a responsibility to American taxpayers. If we have a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem because we have now recognised that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, the presence of two diplomatic missions in Jerusalem is a waste of money from taxpayers.”

Harris was moving when she talked about how as a child, “my sister and I had to deal with the neighbor who told us her parents [said she] couldn’t play with us because we were Black.” She recounted that as a little girl, she was a member of only the second racially integrated class in her public school.

She touted her record fighting for civil rights as attorney general of California and defended the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, and called for passing an Equality Act.

But whatever her record in the US, Harris’ support for freedom, civil rights and equality does not extend to one group of people systematically and violently denied them: Palestinians.

Nearly 250 left-wing activists who donated money to help a Palestinian family in East Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood may discover that their money has ended up with the right-wing group Elad, which seeks to evict the family.

Elad has obtained a lien on tens of thousands of shekels that the 241 activists donated for the Siyam family, on the grounds that the family owes it money. The lien requires an Israeli crowdfunding site, IsraelGives, to freeze the bank account where the money raised to help the Siyam family is deposited.

Public remembers failed mission by a special IDF force mostly because Hamas uncovered it

Newly published army probe unveils how Israel's cover was blown, the evacuation happened and evidence left behind was destroyed

Following a legal battle and three years of waiting, Israel gave Gaza fisherman Abdul-Muti al-Habil his fishing boat back. Al-Habil is one of 21 Palestinian fishermen whose boats were recently returned after Israel confiscated them, claiming they had breached the allocated fishing zone.

But the fishermen are not ready to rejoice just yet. They may have gotten their vessels back, and their livelihood, but according to the representative of the Strip's fishermen, the boats were returned without their motors and nets, and some of them are visibly damaged.

Nazareth is the largest of the Palestinian communities in Israel that survived the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948, which forced most of the native population out of the bulk of their homeland and replaced it with a Jewish state. Today, one in five Israeli citizens are Palestinian.

The city and its immediate environs include the highest concentration of Palestinian Christians in the region. But it has long suffered from the hostility of Israeli officials, who have starved Nazareth of resources to prevent it from becoming a political, economic or cultural capital for the Palestinian minority.

The city has almost no land for growth or industrial areas to expand its income base, and Israel has tightly constrained its ability to develop a proper tourism industry. Most pilgrims pass through briefly to visit its Basilica of the Annunciation, the site where the angel Gabriel reputedly told Mary she would carry Jesus.

The coupling between the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government has created some iconic, unforgettable pictures. But none can compete with the messianic radiance on the face of the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, when he was breaking down a fake wall with a sledgehammer in the tunnels under Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood.

That picture was more powerful than a thousand conferences in Bahrain. I’ve met tourists who’ve come down with Jerusalem Syndrome; they weren’t dangerous, but no one thought to make them an ambassador.

In response to the criticism, Friedman tweeted: “Fake News: ‘Friedman uses sledgehammer to destroy wall under Palestinian homes.’ Real News: ‘Friedman uses sledgehammer to break ceremonial cardboard wall to open once-in-a-century archeological discovery.’”

Israel has a secret department which makes critical documents disappear, especially documents related to what the Palestinians refer to as the Nakba of 1948, the year that marks the foundation of the state of Israel and the displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their villages, towns and cities in lands that make up the border of Israel.

An investigative report by Haaretz revealed that an Israeli Defense Ministry department called the “Director of security of the Defense establishment” or MALMAB (its acronym in Hebrew) is tasked with wiping out archives on Nakba, or catastrophe in Arabic, which opposes the Israeli version of the event.

The protection of Palestinian civilians could be improved by the deployment of UN-mandated armed forces or unarmed observers, a beefed-up UN civilian presence or expanded UN assistance, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote in a report on Friday.

The United Nations General Assembly requested the report in a resolution adopted in June that condemned Israel for excessive force against Palestinian civilians and denounced the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas.

The Jews behind the protest say about themselves, “we are #JewsAgainstICE because #NeverAgainMeans never again for anyone.” This sounds good enough to me and I have no criticism of the official objective behind this humanist protest. Yet the Jewish nature of the gathering raises some crucial and necessary questions:

Are these Jewish protestors willing to describe Gaza as a concentration camp?

Will the Jewish activists protest in front of the Israeli embassy invoking the holocaust, pointing out that the Palestinians are subject to long-term genocidal policies?

Will these Jewish protestors allow gentile pro Palestinian activists, for instance, to equate Israel with Nazi Germany or maybe invoke the holocaust is a Jews-only domain?

Well, thank the powers that be that that’s over.

The Manama Peace to Prosperity conference promised little and delivered nothing. There was some shouting and posturing, but overall the performance fizzled.

It was not, however, merely a botched exercise in futility.

It was a show of unadulterated cynicism.

Even the messianic glint in Jared Kushner’s eyes cannot mask the fact that none of the US peace trifecta that the White House has deployed to deprive Palestinians of their rights really believes this shambles could have any traction whatsoever.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) removed, at the request of the state of Palestine, Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity from UNESCO’s list of endangered world heritage sites following restorations.

The holy city's Arab Palestinian character is an important part of its world-renowned diversity

The grandson of iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela has condemned attempts by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to shut down London’s Palestine Expo event, at which he is slated to speak this weekend.

A statement issued today by Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela and the Royal House of Mandela read: “We wish to express our outrage and disgust at the intimidation tactics of the U.K. Lawyers for Israel. We say to them and all who seek to deny our basic human rights such as freedom of expression – hands off BDS, hands off Palestine Expo.”

The statement came after it was revealed that UKLFI – a pro-Israel legal group – has made several attempts to cancel Palestine Expo, which will take place at the Olympia London this weekend. UKLFI claimed that the organisers of the Palestine Expo – UK-based NGO Friends of Al-Aqsa – are “major promoters” of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Silverstein appealed to Facebook, using their own definition of “hate speech”, to argue that his post does not fit the criteria, since he was not directly attacking Israeli settlers as much as reporting a fact the Israeli court itself agrees upon: these particular settlers had used fraudulent means to obtain the land.

This is not Silverstein’s first suspension. As he told MEE: “I have been suspended by Twitter and Facebook a number of times. I’ve also had individual posts censored without being suspended.” On one occasion, he said, an Israeli professor at a university that specialises in training engineers for the Israeli air force organised “a mass reporting of my FB account, claiming it was fake”.

Four years ago, historian Tamar Novick was jolted by a document she found in the file of Yosef Vashitz, from the Arab Department of the left-wing Mapam Party, in the Yad Yaari archive at Givat Haviva. The document, which seemed to describe events that took place during the 1948 war, began:

“Safsaf [former Palestinian village near Safed] – 52 men were caught, tied them to one another, dug a pit and shot them. 10 were still twitching. Women came, begged for mercy. Found bodies of 6 elderly men. There were 61 bodies. 3 cases of rape, one east of from Safed, girl of 14, 4 men shot and killed. From one they cut off his fingers with a knife to take the ring.”

Israel wants to restore calm to the South, but at the same time is preparing for a wide-scale military campaign inside the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Netanyahu’s comments came after he convened a security cabinet meeting at the IDF Gaza Division headquarters to discuss the situation in the Strip, followed by a meeting with local and regional council heads, some of whom left the meeting in protest.

Two Israeli officials have proposed a “solution” for the Gaza Strip which includes another massive military offensive against the enclave and moving the Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Arabi21.com reported on Sunday. The end of the government led by Mahmoud Abbas is also suggested in a report published by the Jerusalem Institute for Public and State Affairs.

The purpose of the proposal is to make the humanitarian crisis in Gaza even worse, prompting a military confrontation. Its authors are Shimon Shapira, a former military secretary to Israel’s Prime Minister, and Shlomi Fogel, an official who has proposed numerous initiatives related to the Arab world. The phase which would follow the offensive would be based on economic and commercial development for Sinai backed by Egypt.

In ongoing Israeli attacks on Occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces also abducted 3 Palestinians & ransacked dozens of homes, hospitals and clinics, assaulting physicians, nurses & patients… part of Israel’s effort to create a “National Garden” in the area… Soldiers shot 21 year old, in the heart from close range.

On Friday evening, Israeli soldiers, including undercover officers, invaded the Islamic Industrial School for Orphans, in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, and stopped an educational activity held by the General Union of Palestinians Writers.

Media sources said the school was about to hold a poetry festival, dubbed as “Yes To Peace, No To War,” and shut it down.

The activity was organized by several Palestinian poets in occupied Jerusalem, and was meant to encourage the students to read and write, and to help them realize their potentials and talents.

The sources added that the soldiers, accompanied by undercover police officers, stormed the school just minutes before the festival was supposed to start, and shut it down.

Announcement that Oman to be first Gulf state to open embassy in Palestinian territories coincides with US-led economic workshop in Bahrain.

Ali Abunimah discusses Jared Kushner's presentation of his peace plan's economic portion in Bahrain this week. He dangled fifty billion dollars for the Palestinian economy, but no freedom, political rights, nor an end of the Israeli occupation

These are the not-so-prescient words of Jeffrey Goldberg, named this week the new chief editor of the 159-year-old Atlantic Magazine, one of the most famous journalistic institutions in U.S. history.

The openly-Zionist Goldberg moved to Israel nearly 25 years ago and served in the Israeli Defense Forces. Since then, he has been the opening speaker for numerous Zionist functions, including the American Jewish Committee conference and Zionism 3.0.

Most garishly, he worked as a prison guard at Ktzi’ot, Israel’s largest detention camp for Palestinian political prisoners, where he boasted of helping beat Palestinian political prisoners. Ktzi’ot is one of Israel’s largest detention camps and has long been criticized for its inhumane conditions, which include frequent beatings, lack of drinking water and forced labor.

Over the weekend, the White House released “Peace to Prosperity,” the economic component of its so-called Deal of the Century.

It calls for $50 billion in “investments” spread over 179 projects. Half the money would be spent on Palestinian infrastructure over 10 years, with the rest spread between Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.

It will supposedly include a $5 billion transportation corridor between the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and another $2 billion in the Palestinian tourism sector.

Calls for the annexation of the Occupied West Bank are gaining momentum in both Tel Aviv and Washington. But Israel and its American allies should be careful what they wish for. Annexing the Occupied Palestinian Territories will only reinforce the current rethink of the Palestinian strategy, as opposed to solving Israel’s self-induced problems.

Encouraged by the Donald Trump administration’s decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israeli government officials feel that the time for annexing the entirety of the West Bank is now.

In fact, “there is no better time than now” was the exact phrase used by former Israeli Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, as she promoted annexation at a recent New York conference.

According to documents released by the White House, the economic aspect of Donald Trump’s peace plan between Palestine and Israel includes granting $9 billion to Egypt, half of which is in the form of soft loans.

The documents revealed that $50 billion will be dedicated to the economic part of the deal of the century, which will be invested in the revival of the Palestinian territories, as well as Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

The US President’s advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner will announce the details of the first phase of the peace plan during the workshop on “Peace for Prosperity” in Manama, Bahrain, on 25 and 26 June.

Hanna Issa, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Secretary-General for the Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places, has announced that the number of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) has reached 503, with 474 located in the West Bank and 29 in East Jerusalem.

In a press release today, Issa also stated that the illegal settlers living in these settlements number over one million, adding that the settler population is increasing at a far higher rate than the population growth rate of Israel itself.

Palestinian Authority (PA) Finance Minister Shukri Bishara yesterday revealed that international donations to the authority have declined by 60 per cent in the past six years.

This came during an urgent meeting held in Egyptian capital Cairo for Arab finance ministers to discuss ways to assist the PA, which is thought to be on the brink of financial collapse. Bishara called for Arab states to raise a financial safety network worth $155 million a month, Al-Watan Voice reported.

Bishara also stated that international donations to the PA have decreased substantially, from over $1 billion in 2013 to less than $450 million in 2018 – a 60 per cent decrease.

The British government licensed arms deals worth over £14m ($17.8m) to Israel last year even as Israeli soldiers were accused of intentionally firing on Palestinian protesters at the Gaza border in what the UN says may be potential war crimes.

Weapons approved for sale included ammunition, components for assault rifles, and other types of arms which could be used for repression, according to newly released details from the Department of International Trade (DIT), compiled by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).

Analysts have rebuked the economic part of the United States's Middle East peace plan for failing to address the main problem that has heavily curbed the Palestinian economy - the 52-year-old Israeli military occupation over the Palestinian territories.

The economic plan was released by the White House on Saturday and is set to be presented during a US-led workshop in Bahrain on June 25-26.

When the document was released, many noticed that the 40-page plan was void of any political context with the words "occupation", "freedom", "equality", "blockade" missing.

"The absence of those words is actually quite glaring and it's very indicative of what they see is the issue," Diana Buttu, a Haifa-based analyst and former legal adviser to Palestinian peace negotiators, told Al Jazeera.

The White House published the economic section of its peace plan for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dubbed the "deal of the century". The teased plan suggests investing $50 billion over 10 years to boost the Palestinian Authority's economy, but gives no hints about political solutions to the conflict.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has slammed the US for palnning to use secretely-developed ideas to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ignoring the existing international agreements.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Sunday toured the West Bank with John Bolton, said he will listen to US peace proposals – but added that “any future agreement” with Palestine must guarantee an Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley.

Footage posted on Sunday showed Israel’s prime minister and the US national security adviser overlooking the Israeli-occupied area from an aircraft and on the ground, with Netanyahu seen giving Bolton an excursion.

Foxtrot, the movie that Israel doesn’t want you to see.

The Jerusalem Center of Socio and Economic Rights, Monday, warned of the escalation of Israeli demolitions in occupied Jerusalem, noting it bears the nature of a collective form of punishment. The director of the center Zeyad al-Hamouree warned, in a statement, that the Israeli municipality and civil administration are carrying out demolitions in Qalandia, Sur Baher, Silwan and al-Bustan neighborhoods. He explained that Israel plans to demolish wide parts of Palestinian facilities to build Israeli facilities, noting the Israeli plans to establish the so-called National Park in Arrababh neighborhood. He stressed, according to Al Ray, that the next phase in Jerusalem is so difficult, especially regarding residential buildings. He said that dozens of demolition orders are carried out without warning.

A $50 billion plan for Palestine’s economy that hinges on peace with Israel has been revealed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. He calls it the “opportunity of the century” but a chorus of Palestinian groups disagrees.

Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Kushner dangled the multibillion proposal separately from the central –political– part of US President Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace deal plan. He said he did so on purpose to let people “digest” the “less controversial” side of the plan before the political details finally land.

The former chief of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, has said that Israel does not want peace and that, if it had, it would have made peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA) long ago.

Shavit gave his remarks to Israeli daily Maariv, reiterating that if Israel wanted peace it would have discussed it in economic and infrastructure terms that serve the interests of both parties, Arab 48 reported yesterday.

However, Shavit said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not see the PA as a negotiating partner and therefore refuses to develop relations with the authority. “Do you know any other head of an Israeli government who did not talk with the Palestinians?” he asked.

Shavit also claimed that Netanyahu stopped speaking to the PA under pressure from the Israeli right-wing, who he claimed “would lynch him in the city centre” if he opened discussions today.

Hamas yesterday stressed that the Palestinians have enough power and resilience to undermine Israel.

Marking the 63rd Friday of the Great March of Return, Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanou said “our people have enough power, resilience and willingness to undermine all [Israeli] projects.”

He added: “The Palestinians are sticking to their land and are able to fight all plans aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause.”

As is common practice during the summer after the election of a new House of Representatives, a group of freshman Congress members will take an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel in August. The list of Democrats currently stands at twenty-three, with two more indicating that they are trying to fit the trip into their schedules.

The trips will be sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), the nonprofit arm of the powerful lobbying organization, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

The goal of the trips is to promote American support for Israel despite Israel’s violations of human rights, international law, U.S. law, and discrimination against Christians and others. Lawmakers are currently considering legislation that will give Israel a minimum of $38 billion over the next 10 years. This amounts to $7,230 per minute, or about $23,000 per Jewish Israeli family of four.

MARY JO KILROY was elected to Congress at the height of the financial crisis, in November 2008, to represent Columbus, Ohio, and the surrounding area. She landed a seat on the Financial Services Committee, where she had a chance to address the foreclosure crisis ripping through her state, as well as to push for tougher regulation of Wall Street.

As she learned to navigate Washington during her first term, one of the more unexpected pressures she faced was about a foreign trip. It wasn’t just any congressional sojourn, but rather a trip to Israel organized by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and sponsored by the nonprofit arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. “I would say that I was ‘strongly encouraged’ to take the Steny Hoyer AIPAC trip. ‘Everyone’ is going except you,” recalled Kilroy, who resisted the pressure, telling AIPAC that she didn’t want to go on a one-sided tour of the region.

Palestinian protesters carry a wounded boy during clashes with Israeli troops on the Gaza-Israel border, east of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, on June 21, 2019. At least 81 Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon during clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has pledged $20 million to establish a foundation that will fight anti-Semitism and BDS (the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement). Kraft made the announcement while in Israel accepting The Genesis Prize, a $1 million award that Time Magazine has called “the Jewish Nobel.”

The award was presented by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the prize is administered in partnership with Israel’s government. Like President Trump, Netanyahu has been friends with Kraft for years. “Robert Kraft fights back,” said Netanyahu, “and he’s committed to fight BDS and the slanders against Israel and to stand up for the state of Israel.”

Newly-appointed Israeli transportation minister Bezalel Smotrich has declared that one of his main objectives is to ‘Judaise the Galilee’, in light of the region’s number of Palestinian citizens.

In an interview with Israel Hayom, the notorious right-wing nationalist also vowed to boost settlement infrastructure in the occupied West Bank.

Smotrich, part of the Union of Right-Wing Parties, was given the transportation ministry by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a transitional government between elections.

The health sector in the occupied Gaza Strip is still struggling to cope with injuries sustained by protesters in Great March of Return demonstrations, according to a new update from UN OCHA.

A recently published World Health Organisation (WHO) report noted that gunshot accounted for 210 of the fatalities between 30 March 2018 and 31 March 2019, and for 6,872 injuries, or 25 per cent of the total casualty caseload over the time frame analysed.

“Although any health system in the world would be overwhelmed if it had to manage a high influx of trauma casualties every week; the most pressing concern was the staggering number of gunshot wounds”, the WHO noted.

Decades of failed talks with Israel and internal divisions have left residents more desperate than ever, and the 'deal of the century' seems unlikely to change the status quo

14-year-old Palestinian boy was forced to undergo a leg amputation after an Israeli soldier shot him as he retrieved a football near the Separation Wall in the West Bank

Recent revelations confirming the involvement of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in efforts to actively disrupt the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel did not come as a surprise to pro-Palestine activists.

Gilad Erdan, the Israeli strategic affairs minister and a senior figure in Israel's fight against BDS, met Mossad head Yossi Cohen to discuss "the struggle against the boycott", according to the politician's 2018 official diary.

Israeli daily Haaretz, which first reported on the matter, did not give further details about the meeting, but said that according to Erdan's schedules, which were made public by a Freedom of Information request filed by the Israeli Hatzlaha group, the minister had also met the head of the National Security Council, as well as a number of Jewish organisations.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the occupied West Bank village of Kifl Haris, preventing Palestinian Muslims from conducting evening prayers at their local Mosque and vandalising property for hours.

The mayor of Kifl Haris, located in northeast of the occupied Salfit, Essam Abu Yaqoub, told The New Arab’s Arabic-language service that Israeli settlers, backed up by heavily armed forces stormed the village just before night prayers were due, preventing Muslims attending their local mosque.

Abu Yaqub said that the settlers stormed the village to pray at tomb of Joshua and Caleb, located inside the village. He added that settlers ransacked the village, and damaged properties and vehicles of the Palestinian residents.

Hamas' chief Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday accused Israel of dragging its feet in carrying out its obligations under an indirect cease-fire for the Gaza Strip, saying the fragile deal was in danger of collapsing.

Speaking to international journalists, Haniyeh said the 2 million residents of Gaza "have not felt" any improvement in their living condition, despite what he said were Israeli pledges to ease a crippling blockade on the territory. The unofficial truce was brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the U.N. after a round of heavy fighting in May.

Whereas the OCLA and the BCCLA (and the CCLA) are distinct and separate organizations, the OCLA nonetheless also opposes the international campaign to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which is targeting all levels of government in Canada, as well as universities, police, and other authorities.

In this context, the OCLA opposes the “hate speech” provisions of the Criminal Code. The said provisions are distinct from the “threat of violence”, “harassment” and “coercion” provisions, are contrary to international law, remove the State’s onus to prove actual harm to any actual specific victim, and are incompatible with democratic values. Further, the said provisions are susceptible to erosion and practical abuse from political campaigns such as the IHRA campaign.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has recognized Palestine as a state by allowing it to join the body as an observing member, a move that drew fire from the Israeli regime.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and Palestinian Ambassador to Vienna Salah Abdul Shafi signed an agreement on Tuesday that lets IAEA inspectors carry out safety checks on radioactive materials and fissile nuclear materials, such as uranium, that are stored in Palestine.

Palestine has no nuclear reactors, but there are medical equipment components of nuclear materials in physics departments in some hospitals and universities, according to reports by Israeli media.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the move by the IAEA amounted to a "violation of international conventions."

The Israeli occupation has left its physical and political mark within the historic walls, with most Palestinians barred from visiting Al-Aqsa

In an interview with the New York Times, Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris said she believes Israel meets international human rights standards “overall.” The declaration comes less than a week after Israel wounded ninety-two Palestinian civilians during a weekly protest at the Gaza border, including twenty-eight children and four medics.

Harris made the comments about Israel during a New York Times feature, in which the paper asked a number of the candidates twenty-one questions. One of those questions was, “Do you think Israel meets international standards of human rights?”

Harris: I think that Israel as a country is dedicated to being a democracy, and is one of our closest friends in that region and that we should understand the shared values and priorities that we have as a democracy, and conduct foreign policy in a way that is consistent with understanding the alignment between the American people and the people of Israel.

On 31 May, 2010, Israel carried out a deadly attack on human rights activists trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. After boarding the Mavi Marmara during a dawn raid whilst it was sailing in international waters, Israeli soldiers killed nine aid workers and injured several others; one of those injured succumbed to his wounds a few years later. The assault was met with international outrage, but nine years on the victims of the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla are still seeking justice. I was on board the Mavi Marmara on that day and witnessed the ordeal of my fellow passengers. Since then, as a lawyer, I have been working closely with the victims in their quest for justice.

Two infamous anti-Palestinian activists in London pleaded guilty to charges of harassment and threatening behavior on Wednesday.

Jonathan Hoffman, a former leader in the Zionist Federation, and Damon Lenszner changed their earlier not-guilty pleas in exchange for government prosecutors dropping related assault charges.

The incident took place in October last year when the pair attacked Palestine solidarity protesters calling for the boycott of a Puma store in Carnaby Street, central London.

Hendon Magistrates’ Court, in Northwest London, imposed a fine and costs totaling $350 on Hoffman, and about $300 costs and charges on Lenszner, whose lawyer said he was unemployed.

When US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman commented on Israel’s “right” to annex land in the occupied West Bank — as a dutiful Zionist he called it “Judea and Samaria” — he provided the Palestinians with an important reason for resistance to the Israeli occupation. So too does Israel’s systematic annexation policy, which is basically ethnic cleansing because the state is trying to rid itself of the Palestinians in the areas taken.

There are now 20 synagogues in occupied East Jerusalem; there will probably be more. What’s more, the Israeli Supreme Court has approved a deal for the settler organisation Ateret Cohanim to buy three buildings from the Greek Orthodox Church located in the Christian quarter of occupied Jerusalem.

The Israeli international TV channel i24 News last week aired a call for the total ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

“There will never, ever be a two-state solution,” British far-right demagogue Katie Hopkins stated. “Israel will become the super force here. You will have to have a one-state solution.”

But she wasn’t talking about a single state with equal rights for all.

“There will not be peace in Israel until you remove the people who don’t belong there,” Hopkins asserted.

Palestinians are calling for a boycott of the German festival that disinvited American rapper Talib Kweli because of his support for BDS – the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.

Earlier this month, the Open Source Festival in the western city of Düsseldorf dropped Kweli for refusing to denounce BDS.

PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, is now calling on other artists to cancel their performances to show solidarity with Kweli.

Is there any other country on Earth with which America would dare collude on such a scale? Forget the “special relationship” with the crackpots in Britain, or the New World coming to the rescue of the Old World in the Second World War.

There’s only one special relationship that matters right now – and we all know what that is. Having given its blessing to all Jerusalem as Israeli property and having now handed Golan to Israel as a possession – for “to annex” means “to take possession”, does it not? – Donald Trump has undermined the entire foundation of “land for peace” enshrined in Security Council Resolution 242. And Israel is happy. A gift for Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election, we are told.

Israeli forces Tuesday demolished a structure and uprooted a number of olive trees in the village of Qusra, near northern West Bank city of Nablus, according to local sources.

According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, Israeli forces demolished a structure used for agricultural purposes.

The agricultural structure was demolished last November and its owners rebuilt it again.

According to the UN, Israel has approved only 1.5 percent of the construction building permits requested by Palestinians.

Israel Police withheld potentially-crucial evidence and changed their timescale of events in a case against a West Bank Palestinian who is accused of raping an Israeli child.

Earlier this year, a seven-year-old Israeli girl from an ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlement was brutally raped. The girl’s name and the exact location of the settlement are currently under an Israeli court gag order, but the attack is presumed to have taken place in Modi’in Ilit, a Haredi settlement near Israel’s illegal Separation Wall.

On Monday, 46-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud Katusa – who hails from the village of Deir Qadis, next to Modi’in Ilit – was charged with her kidnap and rape. Katusa reportedly worked at the girl’s school as a maintenance worker, with the indictment against him charging that he won the girl’s trust by engaging her in conversation and giving her sweets over a prolonged period of time.

Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan yesterday praised the role played by a controversial definition of anti-Semitism in the fight against the Palestinian-led boycott campaign.

Speaking at a conference he described as “the most important gathering of the pro-Israel and anti-BDS community”, Erdan hailed the efforts being made to undermine the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, telling delegates: “We built the network to fight the network.”

“We do have a lot to be proud of tonight,” the minister declared. “We did what we said we were going to do: We moved from defence to offense and put BDS on the defensive.”

In front of a reported 300 pro-Israel activists and “legal experts” from over 30 countries, Erdan stressed the importance of attacking BDS as “anti-Semitic”.

Newly uncovered documents have revealed that Israeli authorities began looking for ways to encourage Palestinian emigration immediately after occupying the West Bank in 1967.

According to +972 Magazine, the discovery was made by Omri Shafer Raviv, a PhD student in the Department of Jewish History at Hebrew University. The study uses official government documents from the 1967 war and its aftermath that have only recently been declassified.

The documents uncovered by Shafer Raviv show that “mere weeks” after the Six-Day War, “Israel enlisted teams of academics in the country to find ways to encourage Palestinians to emigrate from the newly occupied territories”.

In November 2016, fresh off his electoral win, US President-elect Donald Trump boasted of his intention to end the Israel-Palestine conflict by striking what he called the “ultimate deal”.

Calling it “the war that never ends”, Trump told the Wall Street Journal: “As a deal maker, I’d like to do… the deal that can’t be made. And do it for humanity’s sake.”

A billionaire property tycoon and reality TV star known for his wheeling and dealing in the New York City real estate market, this was not the first time that Trump had framed the cause of peacemaking and diplomacy in terms of a business transaction.

Asked in March 2016 during his election campaign what the best deal of his life had been, he said it had been the creation of 6,000 housing units on the West Side of Manhattan.

His interviewer then asked him what would be the best deal he could make as president.

Israel’s Supreme Court yesterday gave the green light for the state to demolish 13 apartment blocks built in “Area A” of the occupied West Bank, but which now lie inside the route of the illegal Separation Wall.

According to Haaretz, Palestinians say that the ruling “sets a precedent that will enable the demolition of thousands of buildings in the West Bank”.

The court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, backed the state’s argument that the buildings do not have the required permits, and thus can be demolished. The buildings contain roughly 100 apartments, 20 of which are already inhabited and the rest are under construction.

The buildings are in Wadi Hummus which is located on the edge of Sur Baher, in southeast Jerusalem. As described by Haaretz, “unlike the rest of the village, this neighbourhood lies beyond the city’s municipal boundaries, in the West Bank”. Most is designated “Area A”, under the administrative control of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Israeli circles have demanded that a large-scale military naval operation be carried out in Gaza to respond to the growing military capabilities of Hamas, provided that it would surprise Hamas and exploit the soft belly of Gaza, specifically the western side of Gaza’s coast on the Mediterranean Sea.

I will discuss Israel’s warnings about Hamas’s growing naval capabilities, its readiness to confront them, the movement’s combative capabilities in the face of an Israeli maritime invasion, and Israel’s purposes for the marine operations.

Israeli reports are increasingly concerned about Hamas’ naval commando units, which have successfully developed strategic capabilities on the seafront. This is especially in the light of the lingering Israeli memories of Hamas’s infiltration of Zikim Beach, north of Gaza during the 2014 war.

As Qatar delivered $20 million in cash to aid impoverished families in Gaza on Sunday, a shortage of essential medicines threatens the lives of patients in the occupied territory.

Gaza’s health ministry has less than a month’s supply of more than half of the medicines in its stocks, spokesperson Ashraf al-Qedra stated on Sunday.

The depleted stocks include therapeutic milk for infants, as well as medicines for patients with cancer, kidney failure, diabetes and hypertension.

Some 8,000 cancer patients are affected, according to the health ministry, as well as nearly 1,200 patients who receive dialysis – among them 39 children.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights called on the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank “to shoulder its responsibilities and urgently intervene to ensure the supply of medicines and medical disposables” to Gaza health facilities.

When Israeli prime ministers are in trouble, facing difficult elections or a corruption scandal, the temptation has typically been for them to unleash a military operation to bolster their standing. In recent years, Gaza has served as a favourite punching bag.

Benjamin Netanyahu is confronting both difficulties at once: a second round of elections in September that he may struggle to win; and an attorney general who is widely expected to indict him on corruption charges shortly afterwards.

Mr Netanyahu is in an unusually tight spot, even by the standards of an often chaotic and fractious Israeli political system. After a decade in power, his electoral magic may be deserting him. There are already rumblings of discontent among his allies on the far right.

Given his desperate straits, some observers fear that he may need to pull a new kind of rabbit out of the hat.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled an illegal settlement in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights named after US President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu yesterday inaugurated the settlement – called “Ramat Trump”, Hebrew for “Trump Heights” – hailing the US President as a “great friend” of Israel. The development will extend the existing settlement of Bruchim, located in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights captured by Israel during the war of 1967.

Israel has been granted protection from its critics by the state of Florida in recent amendments to the Florida Educational Equality Act (FEEA), which includes provisions that suppresses free speech. Under new definitions of anti-Semitism adopted by the American state, limits have been placed on discussions of the plight of the Palestinian people and underscoring the brutality of Israel’s occupation.

The bill is likely to open the door for criminal charges to be levelled against human rights activists and critics that advocate a single democratic state in which Israeli Jews, Palestinians and all others are granted full, equal rights. Supporters of the Palestine cause face the prospect of being silenced on the grounds that calls for equality under a single democratic state is deemed to be an attempt to deny the Jewish people their right to self-determination and that such a call for non-discrimination questions Israel’s right to exist.

US Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt has stood behind comments made by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, in which the latter stated Israel has “the right” to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.

Speaking yesterday at a conference held by Israel’s English language daily the Jerusalem Post in New York, Greenblatt said: “I will let David’s comments stand for themselves. I think he said them elegantly and I support his comments.”

Greenblatt was referring to an interview with Friedman in the New York Times last weekend, in which the ambassador claimed that, “under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank”. Friedman was understood to be referring to Israel’s illegal settlement blocs, several of which extend deep into the occupied West Bank and which Israel seeks to formally annex under any future peace settlement.

On 13 June, the Toronto Raptors won the National Basketball Association (NBA) Championship. A few days earlier, news had broken in the Israeli media that one of the team’s billionaire co-owners, Larry Tannenbaum, announced in April that if the team won, he would take them on a trip to Israel. Tannenbaum is one of the founders of the leading pro-Israel lobby group in Canada, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) It is interesting to note how the Zionist lobby seamlessly merges Israel and Jewish. The reaction by progressive fans to this proposed trip was initially shock, and then a commitment to push back on such a blatant attempt to sports-wash Israel’s war crimes. The Canadian BDS Coalition started a petition on 14 June, calling on team members not to be part of such an infamy; it has already gathered over 3,000 signatures.

Selling settlement products as “Made in Israel” may mislead consumers and stop them from making what they consider to be ethical buying choices, a senior European Union legal official says.

“Just as many European consumers objected to the purchase of South African goods in the pre-1994 apartheid era, present-day consumers may object on similar grounds to the purchase of goods from a particular country” because it pursues “policies which that consumer happens to find objectionable or even repugnant,” Gerard Hogan, advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Union writes in an advisory opinion published last week.

The opinion specifies that consumers may object to buying goods from Israeli settlements “precisely because of the fact that the occupation and the settlements clearly amount to a violation of international law.”

The Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR): On Friday, 14 June 2019, in excessive use of force against peaceful protesters on the 61st Friday of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege, Israeli forces wounded 92 Palestinian civilians, 28 of them were children and four were paramedics, including a female paramedic, in the eastern Gaza Strip. One of the wounded was a child, who was hit with a live bullet to the chest and sustained serious wound.

According to observations by PCHR’s fieldworkers, the Israeli forces who stationed in prone positions and in military jeeps along the fence with Israel continued to use excessive force against the protesters by firing bullets and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, dozens of the protesters were hit with bullets and teargas canisters without posing any imminent threat or danger to the life of soldiers.

After US Ambassador David Friedman gave a thumbs-up to possible Israeli annexation of portions of the West Bank last week, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg seized on the threat for political capital, saying he would make Israel pay a price in aid for such a move. “If Prime Minister Netanyahu makes good on his threat to annex West Bank settlements, he should know that a President Buttigieg would take steps to ensure that American taxpayers won’t help foot the bill,” said the South Bend mayor.

In seeming to threaten sanctions against Israel, Buttigieg is leading the Democratic field– much as Beto O’Rourke jumped to the front on Netanyahu’s racism some weeks ago. Buttigieg is even ahead of Bernie Sanders. Though Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have co-sponsored a resolution condemning the idea of annexation because it is a threat to the two-state solution.

Israel’s high court has given the green light for major properties in Jerusalem’s Old City to be sold to an extremist settler organization.

The Greek Orthodox Church had appealed against the 99-year lease of three major Jerusalem assets in prime locations near Jaffa Gate, but the high court rejected the appeal on Monday.

Ateret Cohanim, a right-wing organization involved in Israeli settlement on Palestinian land in Jerusalem, claims to have bought church land in 2004 from Ireneus I, the Greek Orthodox patriarch at the time.

The Greek Orthodox Church has subsequently taken over the site but Ateret Cohanim is now trying to seize the land that it bought over a decade ago.

Ireneus I claims his ousting was not legal and still identifies as the patriarch.

Theophilos III, the current patriarch, has rejected the sale that his predecessor approved.