Three Israelis were killed and 10 others were injured in a shooting attack that targeted a bus and two Israeli vehicles near the village of Al-Funduq, east of Qalqilya Governorate, on Monday morning.

It was reported that the dead were two women and a young man, while the condition of one injured person was described as critical and 5 injuries ranged from moderate to minor.

Magen David Adom reported that its crews provided first aid to six injured people, including two women in their 60s, and four other injured people whose condition was described as moderate.

The Israeli army radio quoted an unnamed security official as saying that two "terrorists" opened fire on two Israeli vehicles and a bus, then fled the scene.

He pointed out that large forces began pursuing the perpetrators of the operation, and Nablus and other villages in the area were closed and besieged.

The Israeli army announced in a brief initial statement that it had received a report of a shooting operation near "Kedumim."

With the increase in the pace of media statements and talks issued by officials in the Hamas movement and the Palestinian side in general, and Arab and foreign mediators and Israel about progress in the ongoing exchange deal negotiations in Doha, and with the arrival of the American envoy Brett McGurk to the Qatari capital yesterday, and the possibility of the arrival of the head of Mossad David Barnea today, if he obtains permission to do so from Netanyahu, whose office denied yesterday that he received a signal of approval from Hamas on the names of 34 detainees, despite a statement by a responsible source from Hamas to Reuters, which is an indication of an important breakthrough in the talks (if confirmed), with some pending issues remaining, and reports that indicated the possibility of heading towards a partial exchange deal under the auspices of the United States, which may last two to three months, it is absolutely not permissible to be overly optimistic, because all previous experiences in the context of the negotiations have led to a very disastrous failure for all parties, due to the conditions of the Israeli government, headed by Netanyahu, who seeks to continue the war of revenge against the Palestinians, and to shed more innocent blood, by claiming to exert pressure on Hamas, until it submits to Israel’s conditions and agrees to the criteria of the deal according to Netanyahu’s whims And his gang.

After all these long, difficult and complicated days, and with the continuation of the war of extermination without any mercy, it is necessary to focus on stopping the suffering of the people of Gaza and the martyrdom of dozens of them daily, the injury of hundreds, the destruction of homes and shelters, and ending their suffering of a difficult life in tents under the bombing, shells and raids and in very cold weather, under the framework of Israeli sanctions and the siege of hunger and diseases, and the humiliation of detainees and citizens in general, and all of this amidst the shortage of medicines and treatment, as a result of the destruction of hospitals and health centers, and the failure of aid to reach its owners and many other sufferings that have turned the lives of more than two million citizens in the Strip into an unbearable hell.

After all these days, it is time for the Israeli army to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and for this continuous barbaric aggression to end without any mercy. The mediators and the world must move seriously and urgently to stop this terrible massacre carried out by the occupation army. The real deal is the one that liberates the people of Gaza and its people from the crimes of the occupation, its massacres and its aggression that cannot be described, as it is the most destructive and influential on the components of life of our Palestinian people. The most important equation remains: human life, which is priceless.

Since the first day of the war of extermination and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, everyone has been aware of Netanyahu's constant desire to continue it and his constant disruption of every effort that might lead to the conclusion of a deal to stop this extermination. The observer senses this through Netanyahu's deliberate statements, discussions, and procrastination, and his constant evasion of all internal pressures, especially the demonstrations that take to the streets, demanding that he agree to a swap deal that would result in stopping the war. Under false excuses and flimsy arguments, Netanyahu continues his plan based on not reaching a deal and thwarting the efforts of all mediators, in order to achieve his goals of creating a new geographical reality in Gaza, in which the occupation nibbles away at vast areas of the Strip's lands, and draws new maps in the north, south, and center, and along the border strip.

Continuing the war of extermination and ethnic cleansing, remaining in Gaza, re-occupying for a long time, and stealing natural resources, most importantly gas, is the desire of Netanyahu and his government coalition, and it is one of the goals of the ongoing extermination. Therefore, he is working to thwart every effort made by mediators to reach an exchange deal and stop the war, and he is betting on the continuation of American support and even its increase with President Trump taking office in the middle of this month.

Netanyahu is obstructing the exchange deal, betting on prolonging the war, expanding the scope of destruction in Gaza, and killing more innocent lives. His bet exposes the lies of his claim, as he does not care about the detainees nor does he care about them, because Netanyahu’s desire coincides with his government coalition’s desire to continue the genocide and ethnic cleansing. This removes any doubt about his real desire to reach an agreement, which invalidates the bet of some that the parties are approaching an agreement, and as always, this agreement quickly fails at points of disagreement that surface.

What Netanyahu is stalling for is clear, but he has been unable to achieve it to this day with all the military power he has that has destroyed the Strip, and with all the various security technology. He was unable to reach the detainees without reaching a deal, and he was unable to displace people and expel them outside Gaza, despite all the suffering, pain and suffering, but the people remain and refuse to emigrate and be displaced. He was also unable to achieve the image of victory he wants. How can the image of the victor be on the remains of children and women, above the rubble of destroyed homes, and in the burning and demolition of hospitals and the arrest of medical staff, the latest of which was the scene of the arrest of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyeh, whose fate is still unknown. So what images are the criminals of genocide looking for?

Will the indirect negotiations currently taking place in Qatar between the delegations of the Israeli colony and the Palestinian Hamas movement succeed in reaching a ceasefire?

The negotiations of the so-called last station, in reference to the end of the US President’s term and the beginning of Trump’s assumption of his constitutional powers, and the different expectations of the reactions of the next US President regarding the continued presence of Israeli prisoners, including six Americans, held in the Gaza Strip, and as he indicated that hell awaits the kidnappers, which raises the question: Is what Gaza is facing today far from hell: the hell of killing civilians and all professional groups, and the extent of the destruction that includes all institutions, without any sanctity towards any of the institutions: hospitals, health centers, schools, universities, and places of worship such as mosques and churches, so does Trump have anything he can do more than what Netanyahu did against the people of the Gaza Strip??

Since November 2023, and throughout 2024, Netanyahu has thwarted all mediators’ initiatives, and has not accepted Hamas’s facilitating proposals with acceptance and approval, but rather viewed them and dealt with them, as if what Hamas presented was an expression of its weakness and retreat in the face of the firepower of the colony’s army that burned the people of Gaza with killing and destruction. This is a conclusion, even if it is accurate, as it is not recorded against Hamas, but rather in its favor because it seeks to end the continued Israeli bombing and killing of the Palestinian people.

Hamas, in any case, has an interest in the mediators succeeding in reaching a deal based on the following factors:

1- Ceasefire, 2- Prisoner exchange, 3- Return of the displaced people of the Gaza Strip to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip: Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, 4- Gradual withdrawal of the colony forces from the entire Gaza Strip.

These factors, and others, some of which, if achieved, will be a success and victory, even a triumph for the Hamas movement, and will be recorded as failures and failures for Netanyahu’s program, who announced through the program of his former Defense Minister Yoav Galant that the goal of the war since October 8, 2023, and after the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip on October 28, 2023, until this day is:

1- Releasing the Israeli prisoners, without an exchange process, and he was unable to do so, despite his invasion and occupation of the entire Gaza Strip. In fact, the locations of the prisoners inside the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip are not known until now.

2- He was unable to eradicate the resistance from among its people and end its existence, as the resistance factions continue to direct various blows at the colony’s forces, even though they have previously suffered heavy losses, due to the colony’s superiority in aviation, technology, missiles and electronics. However, the resistance is still steadfast, and this explains why the occupation forces are directing their blows at the popular incubator that provides the resistance with human energy, so that it may wither, weaken and disappear.

Netanyahu has no interest in a ceasefire, but he is misleading the army and security services who insist on the importance of a ceasefire, as there is nothing they can do against Hamas. He also has no arguments or pretexts to continue the war in front of the families of the Israeli prisoners, and he is also seeking to show victory before a subsequent investigation committee regarding the failure to deal with the October 7 operation and its repercussions.

Netanyahu and his choir never stop repeating the slogan of the need to change the Middle East, which is an old colonial concept that began at the beginning of the last century and took on tempting and ambiguous names as well, the latest of which was what Netanyahu referred to when he divided the region into countries of blessing and countries of curse, which is another vision that reproduces Balkanization, creative chaos, the dismantling of the Arab world, Sykes-Picot and San Remo. Dismantling our countries has always been a dream of the colonialists since the Frankish invasions in the eleventh century, as they believe that we do not rise to the stage of forming peoples or countries, but rather we are just primitive tribes with backward and stupid mentalities and we can be controlled like herds, God bless you.

The important thing here is that Netanyahu, who wants to change the Middle East into acceptable and rejected states, ultimately means destroying those states that are seething with resentment, and allying with those states that enjoy blessings and mercy. The man aims to reconstruct Arab demography and political geography. He wants to rename things, create entities and establish new weak and fragile pockets and regions that depend on him for everything. The man wants to be the master of the region, its protector, its leader, its inspiration, and the maestro who controls its trends and behavior.

This man discovers that the historical moment is very suitable for dismantling the entire region so that he does not have to recognize a free and independent Palestinian state, and that he can fight all arenas until he instills despair and frustration in the hearts of the Palestinian people, as if he wants to say that peace is no longer possible at all, and that the time and place require the imposition of a security settlement, not a political one. In other words, Netanyahu, with his colonial and supremacist intellectual and ideological load, believes that peace or a settlement in the sense of equality and partnership, including the establishment of a Palestinian state, is no longer possible after all that has happened, and that it is now necessary to use force in its broadest sense, political, religious, military and media.

Israel, driven and protected by the colonial West headed by the United States of America, wants to regain everything it lost after October 7, 2023, and not only that, but to dismantle what is around it, dominate it and control its rhythm, so that it no longer threatens or is likely to threaten. Based on this, Israel does not want to cut off roads, confiscate and monopolize wealth, or monitor armament operations only, but rather wants to control the language of the media, the contexts of school curricula, and the language of discourse in the public sphere. It also wants to design the systems and their internal and external relations.

Israel now wants to create a model that has never existed in history before, I mean, the invader who wants to be loved and accepted by force and for his suffering to be understood and for him to be rewarded for his injustice. Israel does not want to be a liberal occupation or an enlightened or invisible occupation. No, it wants an occupation that is as if it is God’s gift to the people, or that this occupation is an inevitable divine destiny. More than that, it wants an occupation that defies the course of history and triumphs over it as an act and divine will above laws and traditions. This gives it the right to change the entire region through dismantling, occupation, genocide, displacement, and permanent threats, and to strip peoples of their sources of wealth and military capabilities and prevent them from developing, uniting, and integrating. It gives it the right to demand that it not be tried, questioned, or criticized. It gives it the right to impose its illusions on the entire world and for those illusions to be dealt with as if they were facts. It gives it the right to demand that the world deal with it as a witness to a miracle of the Lord’s miracles.

Now, after fifteen months of war on our people, a war that began with certain parties and objectives and will end - if it ends - with other parties and objectives, Israel is in the process of placing the entire region under its wing and subjecting its will and the will of its people to it and controlling its development directly and indirectly under the pretext of seeking and consolidating security and saving Israel from its fates. This new chapter in the developments of the Arab-Israeli conflict heralds the entry of the entire region into what could be called the Israeli era.

The question is: Is there an Arab project to confront this era with all that it contains?! Is there a unified strategy to respond, absorb, confront, or thwart it?! By the way, the absence of such a project will simply mean that everyone in the region will pay the price or tax of that era, each according to his position and each according to his ability.

At first glance, the horror of the genocidal crimes committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip over the past fifteen months makes it legitimate to say that genocidal Israel is implementing a project whose national goal is to destroy the future of Gaza.

But reading the crimes being committed from the perspective of the concept of Palestinian national security, as well as the Israeli one, makes the concept of future executions a fallacy that involves exaggeration, perhaps unintended.

From an existential philosophical perspective, it is about time, and time always flows towards the future, which means that the annihilation of the future is impossible as long as there is time flowing towards the future. The famous German philosopher Martin Heidegger, who is considered one of the most prominent philosophers of the twentieth century and one of the founders of existential philosophy, discussed in his book “Being and Time” the relationship between man and time and how he understands time and the future.

From an Islamic religious perspective, the idea of destroying the future and surrendering creation and servants to it is completely rejected, because hope, work and change are part of the belief in the fact that man or all of creation cannot destroy the future, because God Almighty is the one who owns time, and His servants cannot control its course. Rather, they must work in their present to improve their future, which means the afterlife, where man will be rewarded for his deeds in this world, as God Almighty said: “And this worldly life is not but amusement and diversion. And indeed, the home of the Hereafter - that is the life, if they only knew.” (Al-Ankabut 64).

From the perspective of Palestinian national security, despite the Palestinians’ failure to develop a unified concept of their national security and make it the regulatory tool for determining their strategies and policies, the youngest Palestinians realize that the first national goal that protects their national security is to get rid of the criminal settler colonialism that has gone beyond being described as apartheid and has moved to the stage of genocide. The crimes of genocide that are being carried out against them in the shadow of the suspicious silence of those near and far, and despite their high prices, evoke from within them their determination and insistence on defeating the criminals and their partners through their steadfastness and insistence on creating a better future.

From the perspective of the Israeli national security concept, and specifically according to the Israeli national security equation that was developed based on the concept, national goals are what determine the means according to national capabilities. Accordingly, “killing the future of Gaza” through the use of weapons and explosives carrying toxic materials to poison the soil of Gaza, and transforming it into an area unfit for human life and repelling its residents, involves stupidity in applying the equation of the national security of the state, because in that there is “killing the future” of Israel, especially the areas adjacent to the Gaza Strip from the east and north. On the other hand, the toxins of the soil of Gaza become a danger to the army that seems to be preparing and getting ready to remain in Gaza for a long time, in addition to the fact that the soil of Gaza becomes unsuitable for the plans of the national right and the settlers to settle in Gaza, as they announce morning and evening.

The devastated state of Gaza evokes the historical model of Carthage and the Romans, where the former was the most prominent obstacle, while the Roman Empire imposed its control over Africa, which prompted the Romans to cultivate the Tunisian land of Carthage with salt after occupying it in 146 BC to force its resistant inhabitants to leave. However, the Roman Empire disappeared from history, and Carthage remained present and inhabited, its land suitable for agriculture, and a symbol of global culture.

Regarding the treatment of the rubble of the destroyed Gaza, it is the main challenge, not only for the Palestinians, but for the unjust world before the Palestinians, as it is the one required to treat this greatest challenge facing a world whose ugliness has been exposed by the crime and the falsehood of the values on which it claims to be based.

As for the role of the Palestinians in this treatment, I recommend in this article that the Palestinians insist on keeping part of the rubble and the remains of the martyrs and survivors in a specific area of the small area of Gaza, and transforming this area into a museum, a shrine and a witness to the Jewish-Israeli crime, and an incentive and motivation to increase human determination to punish the criminals, and to do what is necessary to prevent its recurrence in the future, which cannot be executed, just as is the role of the Auschwitz camp in Poland and the Holocaust Museum in Washington.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced that the number of child deaths in the Gaza Strip due to cold and lack of shelter has risen to 7, in light of the ongoing Israeli war of extermination on the Strip.

UNRWA added in a statement issued tonight that "cold weather and lack of shelter are causing the death of newborns in Gaza, while 7,700 newborns lack life-saving care."

So far, reports have indicated that "at least 7 children have died due to the cold in the Strip."

The statement indicated that "the World Health Organization condemned the Israeli army's attacks and putting Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza out of service."

The UN agency stated that "Israel has been confirmed to have carried out 50 attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital and surrounding areas since October 2024."

The World Health Organization also called for the release of the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya.

The displaced people live in tents made of cloth and nylon, in harsh humanitarian conditions due to the scarcity of basic necessities of life, such as water and food, in addition to a severe shortage of clothing, fish blankets and heating devices during the winter.

The Israeli occupation forces launched an arrest campaign in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem at dawn and this Monday morning.

In Nablus, the occupation forces stormed the Jasmine neighborhood in the Old City, the areas of the Martyrs' Roundabout and its surroundings, Rafidia, and Street 15, raided several homes, searched them, and ransacked their contents, and arrested the young man, Louay Al-Sarawi.

The occupation forces also stormed Balata camp accompanied by a military bulldozer and began bulldozing and destroying the infrastructure inside the camp’s neighborhoods, especially Al-Jammasin and the market.

In Jenin, the occupation forces stormed the town of Al-Yamoun, raided and searched a number of homes, and arrested: Sari Hawshiya, Moataz Abu Hassan, and Islam Ramez Abu Hassan.

In Qalqilya, the occupation forces arrested Majd Ibtali, Osama Nabrisi, Maher Abu Asab, Mu'ayyad Nofal, Nidal Nazzal, and Kayed Hassan, after raiding and searching their homes.

During the storming of the city, the occupation forces were deployed in several areas, including "Al-Naqqar neighborhood, Al-Dahr neighborhood, Street 22, Al-Quraan Street, Shuraim, Al-Wad Street, and Sufin." A number of occupation snipers climbed onto the roofs of houses after raiding them, including Arabs, including Musab Al-Hassanein, and the vicinity of the Muhammad Al-Fateh Mosque. The occupation also fired sound bombs and live bullets at vehicles, which led to the shattering of the windows of a vehicle.

In occupied Jerusalem, the occupation forces arrested Hamed Al-Sheikh, Muhammad Khaddour, and Ibrahim Hamidan, after raiding their homes and tampering with their contents in the town of Biddu.

14 citizens were killed and dozens were injured, at dawn on Monday, in the ongoing occupation bombing of various areas of the Gaza Strip on the 458th day of the war of extermination on the Strip.

Local sources reported that the occupation warplanes bombed the house of the Barakat family in the vicinity of Sheikh Radwan Lake, north of Gaza City, which led to the death of 4 citizens and the injury of others.

It added that the occupation drone targeted a residential apartment in the Al-Zaybaq building next to the Great Omari Mosque in the Old City in central Gaza, which led to the death of a child and a woman, and several injuries, most of them children and the elderly, and a number of missing persons.

A citizen was also killed in the occupation's bombing of Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and twins were killed in the ongoing bombing of the north.

Dr. Thabat Salim, a volunteer at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Labalah, was martyred when the occupation forces bombed a house in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Our correspondent said that two citizens were killed as a result of the occupation's bombing that targeted farmers while they were sleeping in their agricultural field in the Musbah area, north of Rafah Governorate, south of the Gaza Strip, and two others were killed in the occupation's bombing that targeted northeast Rafah.

The Israeli occupation continues its aggression on the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air since October 7, 2023, which has resulted to date in the death of 45,805 citizens, the majority of whom are women and children, and the injury of 109,064 others. These numbers are still expected to rise due to the presence of thousands of victims under the rubble and on the roads, where ambulance and rescue crews are unable to reach them due to the intensity of the bombing and the continuation of the aggression.

By Yoav Shemer-Kunz, member of the editorial board.

The revival of anti-Zionist Judaism in Europe is one of the major effects of October 7, 2023 and has since been an integral part of the mobilization in support of the Palestinian cause in Europe. Who are the anti-Zionist Jews? What is the meaning of their commitment to Palestine? What are their historical and religious references? Deciphering a Jewish movement that is advancing rapidly and the creation of the new European Jewish network — “European Jews for Palestine”.

“The time of isolation is over,” announces Eléonore Merza-Bronstein, a keffiyeh around her neck and a watermelon kippah on her head, from the 7th floor of the Paul-Henri Spaak building of the European Parliament in Brussels. Her flamboyant speech, which has gone viral on social media, is part of the fight of the Anti-Zionist Jewish Alliance of Belgium (AJAB). Indeed, wearing a watermelon kippah today no longer only symbolizes unity between Judaism and Palestine, but also anti-Zionist Judaism.

The setting is formal. Far from the usual activist spaces, such as street demonstrations or student camps on their campuses, here there is no megaphone, no banner. Eléonore Merza-Bronstein is in front of a European flag, live from a conference room of the EU Parliament in Brussels, the very heart of democracy on a European scale.

This speech is part of an exceptional event: the launch of the new European Jewish network in support of the Palestinian cause, “European Jews for Palestine” (EJP), on October 3, 2024. This date is not insignificant: a few days before the anniversary of October 7, it corresponds to the 1st of Tishrei 5785, the new year in the Jewish calendar, the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

To understand the creation of the EJP network, we must first follow the history of TSEDEK! – Jewish decolonial collective. This activist collective appeared publicly for the first time in June 2023 by participating in the popular mobilization against police violence in France following the murder of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old teenager, shot dead by police officer Florien M. during a traffic stop in Nanterre, in the Paris region.

Just a few months later, following October 7, this small group of Jewish activists quickly gained visibility. In December 2023, the Mayor of Paris canceled the collective's conference with the famous American philosopher, feminist and Jewish, Judith Butler. Other film debates organized by this Parisian collective were canceled in the process. Faced with censorship, TSEDEK! decided to retaliate by co-organizing, with the French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP), an "International Jewish Meeting" and to invite other European anti-Zionist Jewish groups. The meeting poster features an iconic image of the Bund, an anti-Zionist workers’ movement from the early 20th century.

Saturday, March 30, 2024 marks the beginning of a new European Jewish network. Representatives from all over Europe arrive in the large hall of the Independent Workers’ Party (POI) in the 10th arrondissement of Paris: from the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, etc. The room is full. A group of Jewish activists from the Zionist collective “nous vivrons” is blocked outside by the POI security service. After a day of round tables, entitled “Colonial War in Palestine · Anti-Semitism · Repressions”, the next day is devoted to a time of exchange between the different collectives present, who decide to continue working together: a Europe-wide mailing list is thus created to stay in touch. A week later, a joint declaration against genocide and Zionism was signed by thirteen Jewish groups from ten countries.

It is interesting to note that some Jewish groups, although present at the meeting in Paris, did not sign this joint declaration, considering it too anti-Zionist. The Na’amod group - British Jews Against the Occupation, created in 2019 in the United Kingdom, is against the occupation and apartheid but does not share the anti-Zionist positions, while the Union of Progressive Jews of Belgium (UPJB) defines itself rather as ‘non-Zionist’. Indeed, in its press release of October 7, 2024, ‘A year of carnage. Honoring the victims by acting for peace and justice’, there is no criticism of Zionism. In addition, the term ‘genocide’ is not used in the press release of the Belgian group.

Inspired by this new international dynamic, new collectives are being created, both to participate and to follow the movement, such as AJAB in Belgium or the Marad collective - a Jewish decolonial collective in French-speaking Switzerland - "marad" being the common root in Semitic languages to say "revolt".

The informal network resulting from the Paris meeting continues with online meetings, email exchanges and drafting sessions for a common manifesto, which establishes the identity and objectives of the EJP, "Who we are and what we are committed to". While the joint declaration of April 2024 following the international meeting in Paris was drafted quickly and focused mainly on the urgency of stopping the genocide in Gaza, the EJP manifesto is more developed, in particular on the meaning of commitment to Palestine as Jews, on the claim of a Jewish identity in opposition to Zionism, and on the fight against anti-Semitism and its instrumentalization.

Who are the anti-Zionist Jews?

The EJP is now made up of 23 groups from 16 different countries. Most are informal, without legal entities or bank accounts, and the majority were created following October 7, 2023, and in a movement of mobilization against the genocide in Gaza. These collectives are created organically: activists meet on the ground, during mobilizations against the war, demonstrations, and decide to perpetuate this solidarity by carrying their anti-Zionist conviction with one voice. The protocol is often simple: find a name, create a logo, open an account on Instagram.

These collectives are thus very active and present on social networks, but also in demonstrations for Palestine and on university camps. All say they are very solicited by other organizations of solidarity with Palestine, as well as by journalists. With very little means and a small number of activists, this revival of anti-Zionist Judaism in Europe has quickly gained visibility, in the activist community for Palestine, but also beyond.

For anthropologist Eléonore Merza-Bronstein, this is only the beginning. She states that "the time when we were considered marginal and unrepresentative voices is over. We are determined to weigh in on the public debate, to come and shake you up, we are determined to make it heard that we refuse Israel the centrality of our existence. (...) We recognize, finally, that the creation of a Jewish nation state in historic Palestine has led to an injustice against the Palestinian people, an injustice that continues today, and of which Gaza is probably one of the most violent historical episodes. (...) We believe, on the contrary, that we can form a community everywhere, beyond national borders, inherited from colonial empires. (…) it is precisely because we are Jewish, because we are Jewish, proud of our history, that we stand unequivocally on the side of the Palestinian people.”

The anti-Zionist political line, which calls for the liberation of all of historical Palestine from Zionism, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, is assumed and claimed, even if the label “anti-Zionist” is not always used by the members of the network who often choose not to put it forward. The term “decolonial” is often preferred, or a position “for a just peace” or “for Palestine”. In addition to their commitment to Palestine, these groups have an approach of reconnecting with Jewish culture, around Jewish holidays and their traditions, in line with a progressive, open and secular trend. The age of the activists is mostly between 25 and 35 years old: it is the new generation of Jewish anti-Zionist activism, inspired by the feminist and queer movements, and by practices imported from the American Jewish anti-Zionist movement.

Jewish activism between the “here” and Palestine

For Eléonore Merza-Bronstein, Jewish solidarity is not only with Palestine, it is a universal commitment: “Our Judaism invites us to be in solidarity with oppressed peoples everywhere in the world, but also here — where we live, where we campaign […]”

In a similar vein, Fenya Fischler, on behalf of the Belgian Flemish Jewish group, Een Andere Joodse Stem (EAJS), Another Jewish Voice, speaks of the concept of “Doykait,” or “here-ness.” This concept, based on the Yiddish word “do,” meaning “here,” was developed and promoted by the doctrine of the Bund, a secular, utopian, and staunchly anti-Zionist Jewish socialist workers’ movement that continues to inspire contemporary anti-Zionist Judaism. The Bund—the general union of Jewish workers—was founded in 1897 in Vilnius and was very popular among the Jewish proletariat, but also among the elite, throughout the Yiddishland of the Russian Empire, which today corresponds to Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus. Created in 2024 in Zurich, a very young Swiss German-speaking anti-Zionist Jewish collective chose the name Kollektiv Doykait, in homage to this historical concept reinvested by a new generation of anti-Zionist Jews. At the same time, in Berlin, an anti-Zionist collective, also part of the EJP, was created in 2021 called Jüdischer antifaschisticher Bund, or simply Jewish Bund, a direct homage to this revolutionary movement.

These political and identity references to Jewish history in Europe are important, because these activists are first and foremost engaged as Jews.

The spiritual meaning of Jewish political engagement

On behalf of the Danish group, Jøder For Retfærdif Fred 5784, Jews for Just Peace 5784, created in October 2023, Joy Kummer explains that her activism for Palestine is based on Jewish morality. She takes up concepts from the Jewish religious tradition such as “Tikkun Olam” in Hebrew, which means “repair of the world”, which encourages Jews to work for justice, compassion and the repair of the injustices of this world. She also speaks of “Pikuah Nefesh”, “saving a life”, a principle according to which the preservation of human life takes precedence over all else, emphasizing its sacred character. In the name of TSEDEK!, Avi Melka refers to the fruits traditionally eaten during Rosh Hashanah, such as pomegranates and dates, and her speech ends with a short prayer in Hebrew.

From an event to a new European solidarity

During the launch of EJP, MEPs also take the floor to show their support for the new network. The participation of the vice-president of the foreign affairs committee of the parliament (AFET), Hana Jalloul (Socialists and Democrats, Spain), the president of the human rights subcommittee (DROI), Mounir Satouri (the Greens/European Free Alliance, France), as well as Marc Botenga (The Left, Belgium) and Hanna Gedin (The Left, Sweden) replay the solidarity of Jewish collectives at the institutional level.

The revival of anti-Zionist Judaism in Europe is one of the major effects of October 7, 2023 and has been fully part of the pro-Palestinian mobilization in Europe since then. This means, perhaps, a certain change in the positioning of European Jews towards the State of Israel and Zionist ideology, like Jews in the United States and the success of the organizations "Jewish Voice for Peace" or "If Not Now" among American Jewish youth. In any case, these new Jewish voices are now being heard in Europe and it is interesting to listen to what they have to say today and for tomorrow.

The author of the article, Yoav Shemer-Kunz, a member of the editorial board of YAANI, is also a member of the TSEDEK! collective and of the coordination team of the European Jewish Network for Palestine, EJP.

Adnan Abu Hasna: 3 weeks to implement Knesset laws on banning UNRWA, and this will have serious consequences

Sami Mshasha: The existence of UNRWA and the right of return are in imminent danger, and the displacement and settlement plan is being implemented on a slow fire

Atallah Hanna: The conspiracy against UNRWA falls within the framework of the conspiracy against the right of return and the abolition of the Palestinian cause

Dr. Fawzi Al-Samhouri: Part of an American-Israeli plan to cancel UNRWA without finding a just solution to the refugee issue

Adel Shedeed: Disrupting UNRWA's work will cause hunger, epidemics, chaos and the destruction of life in Gaza

Lawyer Moein Odeh: The presence or absence of UNRWA does not affect the historical and legal right of refugees to return

The law passed by the Israeli Knesset on October 28, which bans the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in areas under Israeli control, will come into effect on January 31, 2025. If implemented, this will cause a complete halt to all UNRWA operations in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

The final approval of the draft law was the culmination of the campaign launched by the occupying state against the International Relief Agency (UNRWA), as it is the living witness to the Palestinian refugee issue for more than seven decades, which reached its peak following the war of extermination launched by the occupying state on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, when it accused its employees of participating in the attack launched by the resistance on its settlements and military sites in the Gaza Strip envelope on that date, in addition to its sharp attack on the United Nations in general and its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the point of considering him an undesirable person, bombing the agency’s headquarters in the Gaza Strip, and assassinating, arresting, and wounding large numbers of the agency’s employees.

Analysts, writers and clerics considered the occupation state’s targeting of UNRWA as targeting the entire Palestinian cause, which began with the emergence of the Palestinian refugee issue in the Nakba of 1948, where UNRWA was established later and took over providing services to the masses of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the surrounding Arab countries.

They warned of the danger of any Israeli move targeting UNRWA with closure, both in terms of its implications for the refugee issue and its disastrous effects on millions of Palestinian refugees who depend on it for many aspects of their lives, including health, education, relief, and other aspects.

The collapse of the humanitarian system in the Gaza Strip

Adnan Abu Hasna, the official spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said that there are about three weeks left before the implementation of the decisions or laws adopted by the Israeli Knesset regarding the ban on UNRWA in East Jerusalem, as well as the other decision related to preventing communication with UNRWA in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

He added: "These decisions have serious consequences that affect the movements of UNRWA employees, as visas for international employees are now banned, in addition to consequences related to bank transfers and UNRWA's financial and banking situation. Operations related to the Egyptian and Israeli systems, such as purchasing and others, have also been affected.

Abu Hasna stressed that preventing communication in general means practically stopping operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which will have serious consequences at all levels.

He said: "In Gaza, for example, it will lead to the collapse of the humanitarian work system, as UNRWA is the main factor in providing basic services and constitutes the lifeline of the sector, stressing that removing UNRWA from this system means a death sentence for the place.

He added: "We have more than 13,000 employees in Gaza, in addition to 10,000 contract holders."

The UNRWA spokesman continued: “We receive about 16,000 patients in our clinics every day, and last year alone we provided about 6 million medical visits. We play a major and central role in distributing food and aid, as well as distributing fuel to UNRWA organizations and non-governmental organizations.

UNRWA represents the collective memory of Palestinians

He believed that removing this role from the Gaza Strip means sentencing the place to death. The question that arises now is: What about UNRWA in the West Bank and Gaza?

“We have about 350,000 students, millions of medical visits to UNRWA clinics, in addition to hundreds of facilities, institutions and vehicles,” he said.

He stressed that UNRWA represents the collective memory of the Palestinians, and therefore removing it from this place will have serious repercussions at all levels.

Regarding the education sector, Abu Hasna wondered: Who will take care of these students? Pointing out that UNRWA is the only entity in the Middle East that offers and teaches human rights.

He warned that halting UNRWA operations would foster extremism and increase instability in an already fragile region. He said: “The alternative to UNRWA is UNRWA itself.”

Abu Hasna noted that previous Israeli attempts to create alternatives to UNRWA had failed, pointing out that other UN organizations such as the World Food Program, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF had expressed their inability or unwillingness to be an alternative to UNRWA. He concluded by emphasizing that "the alternative to UNRWA is UNRWA."

UN officials' statements are hollow and come too late

For his part, Sami Mshasha, an expert in international institutions, considered the statements of UN officials and the UNRWA Commissioner-General that time is running out to ban UNRWA from working in Palestine, and their successive statements about the impact of this on the services provided to millions of Palestinian refugees, hollow because they came too late, and because they are warnings issued in this way without a clear and implementable plan of action to confront the Israeli Knesset’s decisions to expel the international institution from Jerusalem, and to stifle its ability to work in occupied Palestine.

"Not only is there no movement or plan for confrontation, but there is an acceptance of the reality and an attempt to position and adapt," said Mish'ash'a.

He stressed that the transfer of the Commissioner-General's office and UNRWA headquarters offices outside Jerusalem, and the relocation of the West Bank headquarters offices located in its historical headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah to branch offices in the West Bank, are two clear indications of this development.

Mshasha said: “The agency and the Secretary-General were required to take action and sound the alarm months ago, before the systematic attacks on the agency’s headquarters and facilities, and on UNRWA workers in Gaza, 263 of whom have been martyred so far, as humanitarian service providers.”

He pointed out that expelling the agency from Jerusalem, cancelling the camp status of the Shuafat camp within the borders of Jerusalem, and closing UNRWA schools and other services is a matter of time.

He pointed out that it is a matter of time before pressures and restrictions on UNRWA's work in the West Bank are lifted, with the expansion of Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

He explained that the occupying state has curbed the agency's work in Gaza, and that the ambiguity of the refugee situation in Syria today is a cause for great concern.

The emergence of the scarecrow of refugee settlement in Lebanon is a cause for fear and anxiety

He stressed that the destruction that befell the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon during the recent incursion into southern Lebanon and the capital Beirut, and the emergence of the scarecrow of settlement and mobilization against the Palestinians there, is a cause for fear and concern.

He said: “Demonizing the agency and trying to bring it to its knees financially are all attempts aimed at abolishing the agency, encouraging voluntary displacement, activating forced displacement and deportation, and eliminating the right of return as a basic and central goal that the occupation has set its sights on implementing for decades.”

Mshasha explained that all these developments have direct impacts on the educational services of more than half a million students, a large number of whom have lost an entire academic year and are about to lose a second academic year, and that UNRWA’s health, relief, social and emergency services for millions of refugees who live in extremely dire economic, political, security and psychological conditions will be affected, with the majority of them already living below the poverty line and extreme poverty.

He stressed that all those concerned with the refugee and return file, internationally, Arab, and Palestinian in particular (with our official apparatuses, political capabilities, diplomatic movement, media efforts, and popular and factional work), are all waiting for the implementation of Israel’s decisions, following the multiple field steps taken by the occupying state against UNRWA, the refugees, and the right of return.

He said: "Everyone is waiting, and no one has a practical, effective, influential and immediately implementable plan, apart from statements of condemnation and denunciation."

Mish'sha concluded his talk to Al-Quds by warning that the right of return file is in imminent danger, that the UNRWA file is in existential and catastrophic danger as well, and that the displacement and settlement file is being implemented on a slow fire, and this year will be a difficult and dark year.

UNRWA is an urgent necessity in light of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba

In turn, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, Archbishop of Sebastia for the Greek Orthodox, said that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was established in the wake of the Nakba of the Palestinian people in 1948, with the aim of caring for Palestinian refugees in their camps.

Bishop Hanna explained that the repercussions of the Nakba still exist to this day, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees has not been achieved, which makes the basic reason for establishing UNRWA ongoing and urgent.

He said: “It is neither fair nor logical to ban UNRWA while refugees are still suffering in their camps. Rather, we are witnessing a new catastrophe and ongoing displacement, especially in the Gaza Strip, which increases the need for UNRWA’s presence and the continuity of its services and its role in supporting Palestinian refugees.”

Bishop Hanna added: “The conspiracy against UNRWA falls within the framework of the conspiracy against the right of return. They seek to liquidate this right and cancel the entire Palestinian cause.”

He continued: "What we are witnessing today in Gaza in terms of a war of extermination and ethnic cleansing is part of this plan aimed at targeting the Palestinian people and their just cause.

Bishop Hanna pointed out that attempts to cancel UNRWA reflect an insistence on escalating the conspiracy against the Palestinians and their cause, stressing the importance of the agency’s existence in light of the difficult circumstances that the Palestinian people are going through.

Bishop Hanna called on all international organizations, UN and human rights bodies, in addition to Arab countries and free people in the world, to work hard to preserve UNRWA and ensure its continuity.

"The existence of UNRWA is a matter of utmost importance, especially at this critical stage in the history of our people," he said.

A step to erase the Palestinian refugee issue

For his part, writer and political analyst Dr. Fawzi Al-Samhouri, head of the Juzur Center for Human Rights in Amman, said that targeting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) represents part of an American-Israeli plan to abolish the agency without finding a just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue.

Al-Samhouri explained that this targeting aims to achieve two main goals: the first is to eliminate the living witness to the crimes of ethnic cleansing, adding: Israel seeks to obscure the crimes committed by the Zionist gangs, with the support of the British occupation, which resulted in the birth of the Palestinian refugee issue.

Al-Samhouri said: The second goal is to put pressure on the Palestinian Authority by punishing the refugees, and this is done by depriving them of the basic services provided by UNRWA, including health, education and social services, which may push them to leave the camps, thus paving the way for their destruction later, given that they are considered starting points for resisting the occupation.

Al-Samhouri stressed that these steps constitute a flagrant violation of Israel's obligations as a member of the United Nations. He called on the international community to take immediate action to impose sanctions on Israel in response to the ban on the work of a UN institution.

He pointed out that the only alternative in the event of the cancellation of UNRWA is to oblige Israel, as an occupying power, to assume all services provided by the agency, in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the decision of the International Court of Justice, with the imposition of political and economic sanctions in the event of its failure to do so.

Al-Samhouri warned that targeting UNRWA does not only aim to undermine refugee services, but also to liquidate the entire Palestinian cause.

Targeting UNRWA is a link in the plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause

For his part, researcher and political analyst Adel Shadid said that the Israeli targeting of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is not new, but rather dates back more than fifty years.

Shadid explained that this targeting was not limited to Israel alone, but also included members of the US Congress, especially those who are strongly influenced by the Zionist lobby in the United States and are among the strongest supporters of Israel.

Shadid pointed out that this targeting is political in essence, and aims to eliminate the Palestinian refugee issue, considering that liquidating this issue means liquidating the entire Palestinian issue.

He explained that the current efforts to achieve this goal include two basic dimensions: the first goal is to close UNRWA and prevent it from performing its duties, which will lead to the exacerbation of the humanitarian situation and the spread of chaos, especially in the Gaza Strip.

He pointed out that UNRWA represents a lifeline for many Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip, who depend on the food aid and basic services it provides.

He stressed that disrupting UNRWA's work would lead to: starving the Palestinian people, spreading poverty and epidemics, causing chaos, and destroying the foundations of life in Gaza.

Disintegrating the social fabric and increasing the suffering of the Palestinians

He explained that these steps are part of the goals of the current Israeli war, which seeks to dismantle the Palestinian social fabric and increase human suffering.

He continued: As for the second goal, it is related to seeking to liquidate the Palestinian refugee issue and reconsidering the definition of who is a refugee from Israel's point of view.

He explained that this step aims to eliminate the right of return as an essential part of the Palestinian cause.

Shadid pointed out that the issue of refugees and their camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere represents the last living evidence of the catastrophe of the Palestinian people in 1948, when Zionist gangs, with Western imperialist support, displaced three-quarters of the Palestinian people and destroyed more than 540 Palestinian cities and villages.

He stressed that there are no alternatives capable of filling the void that UNRWA will leave, as the only alternative under the occupation is the continuation of UNRWA's work.

Analyst Shadid stressed that the real solution lies in settling the Palestinian issue in a fair manner by granting the Palestinian people their political rights, including building their independent state and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes.

"Then, it can be said that the Palestinian issue has found a comprehensive and just solution," he said.

A step to remove the status of "refugee" from the Palestinians

“Israel has always viewed UNRWA as the agency that maintains the ‘refugee’ status of Palestinians who were displaced from their homes and lands in 1948 and 1967,” said lawyer Moein Odeh, an international law specialist.

He explained that Israel sees ending UNRWA's work and withdrawing it from the legal framework as a step that would lead to the Palestinians being stripped of their refugee status, and thus cancelling their right to return.

Awda pointed to an important point related to UN Resolution 194, issued in 1948, which affirms the right of refugees to return to their homes, and which was issued before the establishment of UNRWA in 1949. Accordingly, he said: “The presence or absence of UNRWA does not affect the historical and legal right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.

In terms of services, Awda stressed the importance of the role played by UNRWA in areas such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

He pointed out that the majority of Gaza's population suffers from a severe shortage of food and health services, in addition to the deterioration of education, stressing that UNRWA is working to alleviate the suffering of the population and provide basic support in these sectors.

Stopping coordination between UNRWA and Israel will create a big problem

Awda pointed out that targeting UNRWA would create major problems related to coordinating the agency's work, especially in the Gaza Strip, which depends on coordination to bring in humanitarian aid and necessary trucks.

He said: "UNRWA's departure from the framework of coordination with the Israeli side will lead to a large gap, especially in the reconstruction efforts after the end of the war, which it is not yet clear who will take over."

He added that Israel is promoting allegations linking UNRWA to the events of October 7, accusing some of its employees of supporting terrorism, despite the absence of any evidence for these allegations.

He expected that this position would complicate logistical operations and increase UNRWA's costs, in addition to the possibility of the emergence of intermediaries and brokers to manage the relationship between UNRWA and Israel, which would further complicate matters.

Attorney Odeh stressed that the current Israeli government, led by some Knesset members and ministers, is making these decisions without considering their consequences or effects on the Palestinians and even on Israel itself in the future.

He explained that the main goal of some Israeli politicians is to achieve electoral gains by claiming to have achieved accomplishments against UNRWA, without caring about the suffering that will be exacerbated as a result of these policies.

At the end of his interview with Al-Quds, Awda stressed that such steps complicate the situation, emphasizing the need to find just solutions that guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people.

The screams of the bereaved rise up over the loss of their fathers, mothers and children, who moments ago were comforting their loneliness on the long path of Calvary, open to the desert of wandering, after their throats became hoarse from cries for help that fell on deaf ears, and from a so-called humanity that was lost among the scattered corpses that dogs are devouring, and the rubble of demolished buildings; a humanity that silently watches the death of the victims by the thousands, and the wounded as they breathe their last in hospitals that are out of service, and all they can do is raise their index finger before departing from life.

Our hearts are torn and our souls shaken by the bloodied faces of our children, from the effects of the raids that rain down their lava on those who have taken refuge in tents and what remains of homes among the rubble, and in the streets and roads, pursued by swarms of drones; killing them in front of the queues for the takaya and water, until there is no longer a place in Gaza for families to take refuge in, escaping the specter of death moving between the alleys and neighborhoods in the cities, villages, towns and camps.

All kinds of death pass before those waiting for their turn in the extermination queue. Some of them have died under the rubble of their homes, or are threatened with death by starvation in the siege imposed on thousands of families remaining in the north, or are breathing their last breaths bleeding in hospitals that lack supplies, and where doctors are killed or arrested.

There is nothing left in this world in our hands except the remnants of tears in our eyes.

Stop the genocide now...!

By Gregory Mauzé

While the issue of support for Israel has taken an unprecedented place in the 2024 US presidential campaign, speculation is rife about its impact on Trump’s victory. Did the billionaire triumph because of Joe Biden’s complicity in the crushing of the Palestinians in Gaza?

Kamala Harris and Joe Biden

Let’s cut short any suspense right away: Palestine and Israel probably did not make the US presidential election on November 5, 2024. “It’s the economy, stupid”: the expression popularized by Bill Clinton’s victory in 1992 resonates particularly with this election dominated by questions affecting the wallets of the citizens of Uncle Sam’s country.

Nevertheless, it would be equally risky to claim that the war in Gaza and the shockwave it caused around the world did not weigh on the campaign. On the Democratic side, it crystallized the antagonism between a base that now largely perceives the Palestinian cause as a symbol of the fight against injustice, and its leadership, which is firmly anchored in unwavering bipartisan support for Israel. Trump, for his part, initially remained relatively discreet on the subject, torn between his unconditionally pro-Israeli stance and the less convincing one of president “of the end of endless wars.” He subsequently reaffirmed his alignment with Tel Aviv’s views throughout the campaign.

Even if a correlation is not a causality, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict therefore occupied a secondary place in this campaign, but nevertheless unprecedented for an international issue. The question of its influence, even if marginal, in the outcome of this election arises all the more since it was, precisely, played out on the margins. Indeed, contrary to what the first results suggested, the 2024 presidential election was particularly close: the final count only gives Donald Trump a lead of less than 1.5 points over Kamala Harris, a narrow gap not seen since 1968 for a race where the winner of the electoral college also wins the popular vote.

The shadow of “Genocide Joe”

For many years now, social justice activists have fully seized the defense of Palestinian rights in the United States, with significant consequences for public opinion. Between 2013 and 2023, sympathy for them rose from 19 to 49% among Democratic voters, while sympathy for Israel fell from 55 to 38%. Developments that are reflected in particular in the positions of the candidate in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries, Bernie Sanders, or those of the "squad", a group of four progressive representatives of color, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, elected in 2018.

Despite these major developments, the party of the donkey, with the exception of this left wing, will remain impervious to them and will continue to support the bipartisan consensus around the unwavering alliance with Tel Aviv. On May 18, 2020, Joe Biden's future Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, thus assured that his administration "will not link military assistance to Israel to any political decision", that is to say despite the fact that it does not comply with its international obligations. The cruel implications of this commitment will become clear in the response to the Hamas assault in October 2023. By its very unconditionality, this support will indeed make Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the sole master of the conduct of an operation now widely recognized as genocidal, carried out mainly with weapons and ammunition made in the USA.

For key sectors of the electoral coalition that brought Biden to power, the latter's inflexibility is becoming a growing source of tension as the devastation of Gaza progresses. In addition to the warnings from his own staff, the civil rights association NAACP or unions, two citizen dynamics will be symptomatic of this divorce with segments that are in principle loyal to the Democrats: on the one hand, the occupations of university campuses for a ceasefire, which represents the most important anti-war movement since Vietnam; on the other hand, that of the so-called "uncommitted" voters, calling for abstention during the Democratic primary in Michigan due to the lack of any progress by Biden on this issue. However, nothing has changed the course of the White House tenant, beyond exhortations to respect international humanitarian law that are as late as they are sterile and a few anecdotal measures, such as the suspension in early May of the delivery of 1000 KG bombs and sanctions against violent settlers.

When she replaced him at short notice after his withdrawal on July 19, 2024, Kamala Harris did not really take any opportunity to dissociate herself from the legacy of "Genocide Joe." He would pursue her from then on, like a ball and chain during her short campaign, despite timid signals such as her absence, along with dozens of Democratic elected officials, during Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before the American Congress on July 24. "You know what: if you want Donald Trump to win, say so. If not, I'm the one talking." This response from the candidate to the pro-Palestinian activists who came to disrupt a rally in Detroit on August 7, 2024 would become the symbol of the arrogance of a Democratic leadership deaf to the calls of its base.

Reasons of State and Strategic Calculations

It would be tempting to sum up the obstinacy of the Democratic leadership as the reflexes of a gerontocracy that the expectations of its voters were not enough to make deviate from a line that, in its eyes, falls under the heading of “reasons of state”. The need to ensure unwavering support for Israel is one of the convictions that founded Joe Biden’s commitment. “If there were no Israel, the United States would have to invent an Israel to protect its interests in the region,” the man who likes to define himself as a “Zionist” once told Congress to justify the colossal amount of military aid to Israel. After the November 5 election, Biden will continue to supply weapons, obstruct the UN Security Council, and rail against the damning international reports on Tel Aviv, reinforcing the feeling that this policy was not driven by electoral considerations.

However, it also responded to strategic calculations. Without even mentioning the significant weight of pro-Israeli lobbying in Washington, avoiding appearing subservient to pro-Palestinian activists did indeed present a certain rationality in the eyes of public opinion. Even if an absolute majority of Democrats oppose US support for the offensive against Gaza in its current form, this is not necessarily the case for the entire population, divided equally between supporters of its reduction, maintenance or increase. “Is Biden losing votes because of his position on Gaza? Yes, probably. However, he would probably lose more votes if he adopted a different position on Gaza,” the influential statistician Nate Silver estimated on November 23, 2023 on X (ex Twitter). Moreover, opinion polls indicated that the risk of a flight of voters hostile to Biden’s Middle East policy was limited, in particular because of Trump’s even stronger alignment with the agenda of the Israeli right.

Thus, a survey by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, published in April 2024, reveals that young people aged 18 to 29 are five times more likely to be in favor of a ceasefire than those who oppose it, but only 34% placed the Israeli-Palestinian issue among their priorities, compared to 64% for inflation or 54% for health care.

A solo race to the center

The centrist strategy in which this positioning is part, even though the Republican was leading a campaign aimed at his base, has nevertheless led him to neglect his left and demobilize it, without reaping any benefits from the “never Trumpists”. Because if there is one explanation for Harris’ failure that is beyond dispute, it is her inability to mobilize her camp: the number of votes won by the Democratic candidate four years ago has in fact melted by nearly 7 million, while that of the Republican has only increased by 2.5 million. In fact, Harris is regressing in conservative counties, as The Nation notes. It is reasonable to think that conversely, signals to the progressive fringes of the electorate, particularly in favor of support for the Palestinian cause, could have helped seduce those who were most favorable to it, starting with young people. While no Democratic candidate has won less than 60% among 18-29 year-olds since 2008, the latter, whose participation has fallen from 52 to 42% in four years, would have been only 54% to opt for Harris in 2024.

This certainty of taking the pro-Palestinian vote for granted was particularly damaging to her in Michigan, a pivotal state won by Trump, where abstention is declining in absolute terms, but on the contrary increasing in 8 of the 9 Democratic counties. Harris has indeed multiplied the vexations towards her large Muslim minority (4%), a community for which the end of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon was among the priorities. In August, she had refused to allow a Palestinian voice to be heard at the Democratic National Convention. This was followed, a month before the election, by a high-profile tour with Republican Liz Cheney, recalling the dark hours of the “war on terror” led by her father, Vice President Dick Cheney, another supporter of Harris, like most neoconservatives, put off by Trump’s isolationism. The final own goal was scored by former President Bill Clinton, who justified the deaths of civilians in Gaza on October 31 during a rally in Muskegon Heights, by fully adopting the narrative of the Israeli authorities.

By harboring such resentment towards himself, the Democratic team helped to de-demonize Trump, who then only had to bend over to reap the political benefits. The author of the "Muslim ban" thus allowed himself the luxury of going to Dearborn, the largest Arab-majority city in the country, on November 1, embodying the image of the "president of peace" in front of community representatives. He achieved the feat of winning by 42% in this locality that had chosen Joe Biden by 74% in 2020, ahead of Harris (36%) and the green candidate who placed the Palestinian question at the heart of her campaign, Jill Stein (18%). The hypothesis of a Muslim vote of sanction against the outgoing administration is corroborated by the victories in Dearborn of the Democrats in the House of Rashida Tlaib, a left-wing Palestinian elected representative, and in the Senate of Elissa Slotkin, also a critic of the Israeli offensive.

A symptom of a lack of vision

On Gaza, more than other issues, seeking to make Trump a bogeyman seemed doomed to failure for the outgoing administration. On November 9, 2024, the former co-director of Jewish Voice for Peace, Mitchell Plitnick, summed up the point of view of many activists for Palestinian rights: “Ms. Harris’s main campaign argument was to say how awful Donald Trump was going to be. She’s not wrong, even on Middle East policy.” But this is an empty argument when the so-called “lesser evil” is a full partner in the most brutal, sadistic, and massive genocide of the 21st century. It is a lesser evil that is too horrible to support.”

Of course, it is impossible to guarantee that a more critical stance toward unconditional support for Israel would not have led to a demobilization of other segments of the electorate. The fact remains that Harris’s posture of casting a wide net, even if it meant abandoning her own base, proved ineffective in the context of such a polarized election. More than a reason for her failure, the presidential camp’s illusion of having thought it could hide US complicity in the ordeal of the Palestinians in Gaza was a symptom of their lack of tactical sense and their inability to form a winning coalition.

While no one knows what the future holds for the Palestinians, their cause will not disappear from the agenda, especially after a second term of a Trump ready to give in to all the wishes of the Israeli far right. For the Democrats, persisting in maintaining a foreign policy that a majority of their voters disapprove of can only contribute to paving the way for future defeats.

Source: YAANI.fr

The official spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, stated the following in response to what was published by Al Jazeera today, Sunday, regarding its claim that outlaws had seized an RBG weapon from the security force operating in the Jenin camp:

- The Palestinian security services, as we indicated in previous statements, do not possess this type of weapon.

- The image shown by Al Jazeera of this weapon is just a manufactured model that was previously used by outlaws in military parades.

- Al Jazeera uses and employs its huge capabilities in the field of fabrication, dubbing and montage to show that this weapon is real.

Al Jazeera’s insistence on spreading false and misleading news, adopting the discourse and narrative of outlaws, and actively participating in this organized and escalating attack, only deepens its hostility to the Palestinian people, their unity, security, and stability.

- The exaggeration practiced by Al Jazeera brings to mind its destructive role that has not ended in the Gaza Strip, and by publishing this news, it calls for the intervention of the occupation to storm the Jenin camp to rescue the outlaw groups, in light of its continued efforts to spread chaos and undermine the foundations of civil peace and societal security.

The competent Palestinian court issued a decision today, Sunday, to block the websites of Al Jazeera Media Network, based on a request from the Attorney General.

According to the decision, the decision was based on “investigations by the judicial police, which monitored the network’s continued broadcasting of media discourse that includes incitement that threatens civil peace and harms national unity, which poses a direct threat to societal stability and the public interest, which is a clear violation of the provisions of Palestinian law.”

Following the judicial decision, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy issued a circular to local radio and television stations not to rebroadcast or transmit any of the websites or satellite channels linked to the Al Jazeera Media Network.

Hamas has agreed to a list of 34 Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip, submitted by Israel, to be included in a prisoner exchange and ceasefire agreement, Reuters reported, citing a Hamas official. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly denied this, claiming that Hamas has not yet handed over the names of the hostages.

Reuters news agency quoted a Hamas official as saying that "the movement agreed to a list of 34 detainees presented by Israel, to be exchanged for prisoners in a ceasefire agreement."

The same source added that the movement "does not see any response from Israel regarding the withdrawal from Gaza or the ceasefire agreement."

He stressed that "any agreement will depend on the approval of Israel's withdrawal and a ceasefire."

In contrast, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office was quick to deny this, saying in a brief statement, "Contrary to what is being claimed, Hamas has not yet provided a list of the names of the kidnapped."

The Walla website quoted an Israeli official as saying that Hamas "agreed to a list of 34 names of the kidnapped," but he added that the movement "has not yet determined the number of those who are alive or dead."

This comes as Mossad chief David Barnea heads to the Qatari capital, Doha, tomorrow, Monday, to continue negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.

Israeli estimates: Partial deal reduces chances of releasing remaining prisoners in Gaza

Channel 12 Israel quoted unnamed Israeli sources on Sunday evening as saying that "there is significant progress" in the negotiations.

The same sources added that "it is too early to congratulate the final (form), and there is still a lot to be accomplished."

Axios reported, quoting an American official, that "Brett McGurk, senior advisor to (US President Joe) Biden, has arrived in Doha to join the ceasefire talks in Gaza."

But despite the recent optimism expressed by the Israeli side, and Hamas leaders talking about the increased chances of reaching a deal, two Israeli sources familiar with the work of the negotiating team and the parties in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office involved in prisoner exchange talks with Hamas said that the gap between Hamas and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government remains “wide and deep,” according to what the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Sunday, indicating the widening gap between the two sides on a number of issues.

Negotiations seek 'comprehensive interim agreement'

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper reported on its website on Sunday evening, citing informed Palestinian sources, that the ongoing negotiations in Doha are looking for a “comprehensive interim agreement,” noting that the negotiations are still ongoing in light of the existence of some outstanding points.

According to the report, a leader of the Palestinian factions denied the accuracy of the leaks claiming that Hamas leaders had left the Gaza Strip as part of the Israeli conditions for completing the agreement, and said, “These are leaks within the framework of the media war.”

He added, "During the negotiations, Hamas refused to remove all of the prisoners with high sentences, and after marathon negotiations, it was agreed that the number of prisoners with high sentences to be removed would not exceed fifty prisoners, which is a very small percentage, compared to the number of those who will be released within this category."

He stated that there is no talk of a partial agreement or a partial deal, stressing that what is being negotiated is a comprehensive, interim agreement for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of the occupation army from Gaza.

In the same context, he said, "All that is being circulated about a partial agreement is completely false."

According to another leader in the Palestinian factions, the approval to include a number of names that the occupation government requested to be added to the list of Israeli prisoners who will be released in the first phase of the proposed agreement did not result in a change in the occupation government’s position regarding the Palestinian prisoners who are called “the heavyweights in the resistance leadership.”

He said that these are on a list that will not be included in the first phase of the agreement.

The source stated that in exchange for the resistance including the names of 12 prisoners whom it considered to be soldiers, due to their ages being less than 50 years, the movement stipulated that the first phase include a large number of Palestinian prisoners with long sentences in the occupation’s prisons.

A child was killed, Sunday evening, after being shot by the Israeli occupation forces, in Askar al-Jadeed camp, east of Nablus.

The Ministry of Health reported, in a brief statement, that the child Moataz Ahmed Abdel Wahab Madani (17 years old) was killed by the occupation forces’ bullets in Askar camp.

The occupation forces stormed the Askar Camp hill area, and fired live bullets, flares and tear gas, which resulted in the child Madani being injured by a live bullet in the chest. He was subsequently transferred by the Palestinian Red Crescent to Rafidia Hospital in the city of Nablus, where he was declared dead as a result of his injuries.

Today, Sunday, the Israeli occupation authorities forced six Jerusalemite families to demolish their homes in the town of Silwan in occupied Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Governorate reported in a brief statement that the occupation authorities forced the owners of six homes owned by the Awida family to demolish their homes in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Minister Mu'ayyad Shaaban, stated during a press conference held today at the Commission's headquarters that the occupation authorities issued 903 demolition notices against Palestinian facilities last year under the pretext of lack of permits, with the number of demolition operations in the Jerusalem governorates reaching 190.

He noted that the occupying state has stepped up the pace of implementing its goals related to the Palestinian land to unprecedented levels, within the framework of its efforts to control all the lands between the river and the sea in order to decide Jewish superiority, in the context of eliminating the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state, by isolating Jerusalem and emptying it of its authentic Palestinian cultural and civilizational context, and by controlling the strategic joints of the Palestinian geography, through division, looting and tampering, and by controlling the Palestinian way of life and livelihood, through checkpoints and an intensive closure system.

Jordan announced today, Sunday, the release of Jordanian doctor Abdullah Al-Balawi, who was arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities last December, while crossing to participate in a medical relief mission heading to the Gaza Strip.

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement that "Dr. Abdullah Salama Abu Malal Al-Balawi, who was arrested by the Israeli authorities while crossing to participate in a medical relief mission heading to the Gaza Strip, was released today, Sunday."

The official spokesman for the ministry, Ambassador Sufyan Al-Qudah, explained that "the ministry made intensive diplomatic efforts through the Jordanian embassy in Tel Aviv, from the moment of the arrest until the doctor's release was secured and he was received a short while ago through diplomatic channels via the Sheikh Hussein Bridge, and in the presence of the embassy representative, where he will be handed over to his family immediately."

She added that "the Ministry's Operations Center and the Jordanian Embassy followed up on the case on a daily basis, and the Israeli side was informed of the Kingdom's rejection of the charges against the Jordanian doctor, and demanded the necessity of his release and ensuring his return to the Kingdom as soon as possible."

The ministry stressed that it "was keen to maintain continuous communication with the doctor's family since the moment of his arrest and inform them of all developments related to his case, as well as continuous coordination with the lawyer appointed to defend Dr. Al-Balawi."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that "the ministry continues its efforts to protect the rights of Jordanian citizens and ensure their safety in various circumstances."

It is noteworthy that a group of Jordanian doctors are participating in international campaigns to provide relief to the people of the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to an Israeli war of extermination since October 2023.

On the last day of 2024, when the UN human rights office released a critical report on Israel’s destruction of hospitals in Gaza, one would have expected the next day’s headlines to feature these horrific findings prominently, but that didn’t happen, Howard French, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in Foreign Policy.

The report noted that “the destruction of the health care system in Gaza, and the extent to which patients, staff and other civilians have been killed in these attacks, is a direct result of the disregard for international humanitarian law and human rights law.”

French says he began New Year’s Day listening to the BBC’s Newshour, which did indeed report the story in the first part of its broadcast. But when he checked major American newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, he found no mention of the UN report. The same was true of the newscasts he scanned, as well as radio and public television broadcasts.

According to French, the lack of widespread coverage underscores a broader trend in American media outlets' reporting on Israel's war on Gaza.

It is noteworthy that during the fifteen months of war, many analysts have condemned the Biden administration for failing to criticize the Israeli tactics that have brought utter destruction to Gaza; for losing its voice on the moral tragedy of the military killing of more than 45,000 people, most of them women and children; and even for using its authority to silence criticism of Israel, as when it pushed a U.S.-funded organization to withdraw a report on impending famine in northern Gaza. But the administration is not alone. The American media has also badly downplayed the bleak nature of this crisis.

This was evident in the muted or absent coverage in early December, after Amnesty International, a human rights organization that is treated with great respect when it reports on non-Western countries, accused Israel of genocide in Gaza. Its report concluded that Israel “deliberately imposed harsh living conditions on Palestinians in Gaza with the aim of destroying them over time.”

It is noteworthy that in most cases, Israel's rejection of the content of the Amnesty International report, which accused it of committing genocide in Gaza, was based on the report itself or the substance of the violations of international law listed by the organization itself.

On December 26, the New York Times published a lengthy investigation showing that Israel had relaxed its rules of war and allowed mid-ranking Israeli officers to make decisions to indiscriminately bomb Palestinian civilian communities if they believed Hamas operatives might be present. But this kind of damning coverage of Israel's war on Gaza is rare in the American media.

“To find more serious coverage of the nature and cost of this war, one must look abroad, to outlets like the Israeli newspaper Haaretz,” French says.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on January 1, 2025, that in a recent cable, unnamed Israeli military officers told Haaretz that their division’s goal was to forcibly displace some 250,000 Palestinians remaining in northern Gaza. The officers said their commander, Brigadier General Yehuda Vach, told them: “Only the loss of territory will enable the Palestinians to learn the necessary lesson from the massacre Hamas committed in southern Israel on October 7.”

Haaretz also reported that Vach said that “they needed to make things difficult for the [humanitarian aid] convoys that entered and harassed them” and that “there are no innocent people in Gaza.” Haaretz’s reporting recalls an earlier high-profile incident in the toll of severe human rights criticism of Israel since the war began. In June, Aryeh Neier, a Holocaust survivor who co-founded the leading U.S.-based human rights organization Human Rights Watch in 1978, wrote in the New York Review of Books that he had come to the conclusion that Israel was carrying out genocide against the Palestinians.

According to Haaretz, it was Israel’s policy of obstructing humanitarian aid that convinced Neier, who wrote: “As early as October 9, 2023, senior Israeli officials announced their intention to prevent the delivery of food, water and electricity, which are essential for water purification and cooking. Defense Minister Yoav Galant’s words became infamous: ‘I have ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.’” The statement expressed the view that seemed to guide Israel’s approach throughout the coming war: that the entire population of Gaza was complicit in Hamas’s actions on October 7.

As the UN report this week noted, Israel repeatedly justifies the death and destruction in Gaza by saying it is targeting only Hamas members. Yet, as Neier wrote, “obstructing humanitarian aid is unlikely to directly affect Hamas fighters.” He added: “All access to territory in Gaza is controlled by the Israeli military, which has denied entry to Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations and international organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Limiting the ability of these organizations to gather information and produce detailed reports on the conflict does not insulate Israel from criticism of its abuses.”

Human Rights Watch made its own assessment last month (18/12/2024), concluding that Israel is committing “acts of genocide.” This came after South Africa filed its main legal claim accusing Israel of genocide with the International Court of Justice in The Hague in October. Fourteen other countries have announced that they intend to support South Africa’s case, which Israel has dismissed as a “blood libel.”

Four citizens were killed and others were injured, Sunday evening, after the occupation forces bombed the Asdaa Entertainment City Police Station, northwest of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Local sources reported that the occupation's drones bombed the Asdaa Entertainment City Police Station, northwest of Khan Yunis, killing four citizens and wounding others.

She added that the occupation warplanes bombed the village of Al-Masdar in the middle of the Gaza Strip, which resulted in a number of citizens being injured.

The Israeli occupation forces burned dozens of houses at the Abu Aita junction in Jabalia camp, north of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation continues its aggression on the Gaza Strip, by land, sea and air, since October 7, 2023, which resulted in the death of 45,805 citizens, the majority of whom are women and children, and the injury of 109,064 others, in an incomplete toll, as thousands of victims are still under the rubble and in the streets, and ambulance and rescue crews cannot reach them.

Today, Sunday, settlers established a pastoral colonial outpost on lands in the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem.

According to local sources, a group of settlers set up two large barns for raising livestock on the lands of the “Ein Fares” area west of the town, located between the “Beitar Illit” settlement, the village of Wadi Fukin, and Al-Jab’a, to create a pastoral focus, in preparation for establishing a large colonial focus.

She pointed out that this arbitrary measure will deprive farmers and shepherds from accessing their lands in the "Ein Fares" area, which is about 2,000 dunams in area, noting that the aforementioned area has been subjected to repeated attacks by the settlers of "Beitar Illit", which included pumping wastewater, which led to the damage of crops and the pollution of water.

It is noteworthy that this morning, settlers established a new colonial outpost on citizens’ lands in the village of Qaryut, south of Nablus.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission revealed, in its annual report, that the violations of the occupation forces and settlers recorded a record increase last year, 2024, in various governorates, with 16,612 violations.

Israeli reports indicated that Mossad chief David Barnea will head to the Qatari capital, Doha, tomorrow, Monday, to continue negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.

This came as Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper quoted a Palestinian source as saying that today, Sunday, is a decisive day in the negotiations, as the mediators succeeded in bridging the gaps, amid anticipation of an Israeli response.

The newspaper quoted the Palestinian source, who it said "preferred to remain anonymous," as saying that "the mediators were able to bridge the gaps between the two parties through compromise solutions."

He added that the mediators are awaiting the Israeli government's response tonight, after a meeting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold with a number of ministers and officials.

Netanyahu is meeting with his coalition partners later this evening, Israeli reports said; the Israeli delegation's plane had earlier left Doha, returning to Tel Aviv.

Israeli reports said Netanyahu invited Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Shas party leader Aryeh Deri to participate in the meeting.

Reports indicated that the meeting would discuss developments in the negotiations and the offer brought by the negotiating delegation from Doha, before Barnea heads to the Qatari capital to deliver the Israeli response.

The Ministry of Agriculture reported that the areas that farmers were unable to reach during the last olive season and harvest their fruits amounted to more than 110 thousand dunums (about 13.2% of the area planted with olives in the northern governorates).

The ministry added in a report published during the closing conference of the comprehensive national olive harvest campaign "Al-Fazaa" for the year 2024, today, Sunday, that after this campaign, those areas decreased to about 35 thousand dunums, or about 4.2% of the total area planted with olives.

In the southern governorates, more than 75% of the olive trees were destroyed, and our people in the Gaza Strip were only able to harvest a very small portion of the undestroyed lands.

Regarding the obstacles and serious risks facing farmers during the olive harvest season, the report noted that due to the settlers and the occupation army, farmers were unable to harvest tens of thousands of dunams, or carry out the necessary agricultural operations such as plowing, pruning, and others.

The Ministry indicated that this year it called for mobilizing the spirit of support and challenge to achieve a fruitful olive harvest season by launching a national voluntary campaign (Al-Faz’a) to pick olives, in partnership with all the various government agencies, local and international bodies and institutions to support farmers in reaching their lands and picking the olive produce from their trees, focusing on key areas that are repeatedly exposed to repeated attacks by the occupation forces and settlers, which included areas behind the apartheid wall, near the wall, adjacent to illegal settlements, and on the sides of main roads in areas classified as (C).

The Ministry explained that it was decided to adopt the National Olive Picking Campaign (Al-Fazaa) as one of the Ministry’s permanent annual programmes.

This table shows the areas that farmers were unable to reach and harvest olives in for the 2024 season compared to the 2023 season.

Five teachers were injured on Sunday after their vehicle was hit by an Israeli military vehicle in the northern Jordan Valley.

Local sources reported that an occupation military vehicle hit a vehicle belonging to teacher Mohammed Sawafta, accompanied by four teachers working at Bardala Secondary School, while they were stopped near the village of Ein al-Baida.

The same sources added that the five teachers were transferred to the hospital to receive treatment.

Earlier today, the occupation forces stormed Bardala Secondary School during official working hours, at the instigation of settlers from the newly established pastoral colonial outpost west of Bardala village.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission announced today, Sunday, that violations by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers recorded a record increase last year, 2024.

The Commission stated that the number of these violations reached 16,612 against citizens and their property in various governorates.

The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Minister Mu'ayyad Shaaban, said during a press conference held at the Commission's headquarters, in the presence of the Director of the Government Communication Center, Muhammad Abu al-Rab, that the occupation army carried out 13,641 violations, while the settlers committed 2,971 violations.

The occupation's violations were concentrated in the Hebron Governorate, with 2,934 violations, followed by the Nablus Governorate with 2,531 violations, then the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate, in which 2,224 violations were monitored.

Shaaban explained that the settlers' violations were concentrated in Nablus Governorate with 806 attacks, then Hebron Governorate with 657 violations, and Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate with 532 violations.

10 martyrs in settlers’ violations and attacks on more than 14 thousand trees

The Minister stated that 10 citizens were martyred during the past year at the hands of settlers, who caused 373 fires to property and fields in the governorates of Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin and Tulkarm, in addition to 451 violations that resulted in the uprooting, damage, sabotage and poisoning of a total of 14,212 trees, including 10,459 olive trees.

Hebron topped the governorates in terms of the number of damaged trees, with 3,980 trees, followed by Bethlehem Governorate with 3,791 trees damaged and uprooted, then Nablus Governorate with 2,737 trees damaged and uprooted.

Establishing 51 new colonial outposts and starting to settle the status of 13

The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission explained that last year, the settlers established 51 new colonial outposts, 36 of which took the form of pastoral outposts in the governorates of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Jerusalem, Tubas, Jericho, Salfit, and Tulkarm.

He pointed out that the occupation authorities have practically begun to settle the status of 13 colonial outposts, so that some of them will be transformed in the future into colonial neighborhoods or colonies in themselves, through government decisions and amending the borders of colonies.

More than 770 thousand settlers in 180 settlements and 256 outposts

Shaaban pointed out that the number of settlers in the West Bank settlements, including Jerusalem, reached a total of 770,420 settlers by the end of 2024, distributed over 180 settlements and 256 colonial outposts, including 138 outposts classified as pastoral and agricultural.

He said that the occupying state redefined itself in 2024 as the last apartheid state on earth, removing the mask from an ugly face dripping with blood, extremism and racism. It did not stop there, but rather positioned itself as a moving crime machine that is insatiable with killing, theft and tightening its grip on citizens’ necks, to present itself on a platter of the bones and skulls of the innocent and the weak, in a blatant challenge to the simplest rules of ethics of conflicts and relations known to humanity.

He called on all national institutions, official, popular and civil, to join the framework of a national strategy to confront the occupation’s plan, considering it a top national priority to mobilize national and popular capabilities and reproduce new tools that are compatible with the stage and adapt to its difficulties, pointing out that the current stage brings the old-new demand back to the forefront, which is the necessity and quality of real and immediate international protection that protects the Palestinian people and their national capabilities in the face of the occupation’s bullying.

903 facilities demolished and 939 others notified

The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission stated that the occupation authorities issued 903 demolition notices against Palestinian facilities last year under the pretext of lack of permits, distributed in the Hebron governorate with 180 notices, the Jericho and Jordan Valley governorate with 140 notices, and then the Bethlehem governorate with 126 notices, during which 20 notices were issued targeting the eastern Bethlehem wilderness.

He noted that the occupation authorities carried out a total of 684 demolition operations during the year 2024, during which 903 facilities were demolished in the West Bank, including the city of Jerusalem, and 4,332 people were affected as a result, including 2,320 children.

The demolitions were concentrated in the Jerusalem governorates with 190 demolitions, then the Hebron governorate with 172 demolitions, and the Bethlehem governorate with 68 demolitions.

Seizing more than 46 thousand dunums and approving the construction of 8800 colonial units

On the level of colonial expansion, Mu'ayyad Shaaban said that the occupation authorities seized 46,597 dunums last year, pursuant to a series of military orders issued, including 35 orders to seize land that targeted about 1,073 dunums to establish 12 buffer zones around the settlements, 5 "expropriation" orders that ended with the seizure of about 803 dunums, 8 decisions to declare state lands that targeted 24,597 dunums, and 6 orders to modify the borders of a nature reserve, pursuant to which the occupation seized about 20,000 dunums.

Shaaban pointed out that the "planning committees" of the occupation authorities studied a total of 173 plans targeting settlements established on the lands of the West Bank and Jerusalem.

He added that these committees studied the plans for the establishment of 23,461 colonial units, which resulted in the approval of the construction of 8,800 new colonial units, and the deposit of a total of 14,661 colonial units for subsequent approval. These plans targeted a total of 14,982 dunums of citizens’ lands.

The annexation plan is no longer silent

The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Mu'ayyad Shaaban, stressed that the occupying state has escalated the pace of implementing its goals related to the Palestinian land to unprecedented levels, within the framework of its efforts to control all the lands between the river and the sea in order to decide Jewish superiority, in the context of eliminating the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state, by isolating Jerusalem and emptying it of its authentic Palestinian cultural and civilizational context, and by controlling the strategic joints of the Palestinian geography, through division, looting and tampering, and by controlling the Palestinian way of life and livelihood, through checkpoints and an intensive closure system.

He added that the occupying state continued to implement the annexation plan, specifically in the Jordan Valley and eastern slopes, reaching Masafer Yatta in the far south of the West Bank, by creating a coercive environment that repels the indigenous Palestinian population, using armed settler militias to implement this, in one of the clearest manifestations of the functional exchange between the official institution and the settlers.

Shaaban explained that the year 2024 was distinguished by the legislative environment that embraced colonial terrorism, which was created and developed by the occupying state, through a set of laws and draft laws that it submitted for approval, which pertain to controlling and plundering Palestinian land, so that the result of all of this would be a real annexation and alleged sovereignty over Palestinian land.

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said on Sunday that the first condition for implementing the agreement with Hezbollah is a complete withdrawal of the party's fighters behind the Litani River in Lebanon.

Katz added that if this condition is not met, there will be no agreement between the parties, and Israel will take steps to "ensure the safe return of residents to the north of the country."

This came during a field tour by the Israeli Minister of Security at the headquarters of the Northern Command, to inspect Hezbollah weapons that the occupation army confiscated during its operations in southern Lebanon.

Katz said, "Israel is interested in implementing the agreement in Lebanon and will continue to enforce it fully and without compromise to ensure that the residents of the north return to their homes safely."

"But the first condition is a complete withdrawal of Hezbollah behind the Litani River, the dismantling of all weapons and the destruction of its infrastructure in the area by the Lebanese army, and this has not happened yet," he added.

He added: "If this condition is not met, there will be no agreement, and Israel will have to work on its own to ensure the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," he said.

Katz indicated that Israel will not allow a new threat to the northern settlements and to Israeli citizens, and said that the Israeli army continues to take strict measures against Hezbollah's violations.

The Undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Wael Al-Sheikh, confirmed today, Sunday, that the Ministry of Health is facing a major shortage of medicines and medical supplies, as a result of the financial crisis caused by the occupation’s theft of the Palestinian people’s money.

Al-Sheikh explained, in statements to the media, that “120 types of medicines, including 20 types of cancer drugs, have zero stock in our warehouses, and 420 types of medical consumables, 170 of which are specialized for the heart, eyes, and others, have zero stock.”

The Undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Health considered that this reflects a major problem that directly affects the health sector.

Al-Sheikh pointed out that the Ministry of Health's debt is close to 3 billion shekels, the largest part of which is for private and public hospitals.

The Undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that this debt has been accumulating over the past years, and that the Ministry of Finance is making payments to cover this debt, but consumption is more than what is being paid.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa pointed out that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to deduct the allocations of the families of martyrs and prisoners, which began in February 2019, and have so far amounted to about 3.5 billion shekels.

Today, Sunday, settlers bulldozed citizens' lands near the village of Mikhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem.

Local sources reported that a number of settlers proceeded at dawn to bulldoze and plough citizens’ lands near the village of Mikhmas.

Settlers had established the "Sde Yonatan" colonial outpost, adjacent to the "Ma'ale Mikhmas" settlement, on the villagers' lands, and they use the outpost as a starting point for carrying out their attacks on the citizens' lands and property.

Today, Sunday, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs issued a special report on the occupation’s violations of Islamic and Christian holy sites in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the year 2024.

The Ministry of Endowments said in its report that the Israeli occupation, during its ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of last year, completely destroyed (815) mosques, partially destroyed (151) mosques, completely destroyed (19) cemeteries, and violated their sanctity by attacking them, digging up their graves, and removing the bodies, and targeted and destroyed (3) churches in Gaza City.

She added that the Israeli occupation attacked Al-Aqsa Mosque by allowing terrorist settler gangs to storm it and desecrate its courtyards and benches, with (256) incursions during the past year, during which the settlers practiced Talmudic rituals, which have become practiced on a daily basis, such as the epic prostration that began on 8/13/2024, where this prostration was practiced by Knesset member "Moshe Feiglin" for the first time, in addition to blowing the trumpet and wearing prayer clothes in a clear demonstration of their practice inside Al-Aqsa, which is practiced in a specific place and at specific times in a clear consecration of the temporal and spatial division, and all of this under the supervision and protection of the occupation police, which permanently prevents the guards of Al-Aqsa Mosque affiliated with the Jerusalem Endowments Department from doing their work during these incursions.

She pointed out that the so-called "Temple Groups" had facilitated the Jewish New Year celebrations for settlers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque during the past year, and that "Temple Mount activists" had incited the burning of Al-Aqsa Mosque, by publishing a video clip showing the burning of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and attached to it the comment: "Soon in these days."

On the anniversary of the alleged destruction of the Temple, the settlers performed collective rituals for the first time in the western area opposite the Dome of the Rock, and the eastern area of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is treated as an undeclared “synagogue.”

The ministry explained in its report that the terrorist Ben Gvir, supported by his far-right government, had stormed Al-Aqsa (7) times since he assumed office, and 4 times since the start of the war on Gaza. He issued a number of far-right statements in which he threatened to establish a Jewish synagogue in Al-Aqsa Mosque, in reference to controlling it. He also worked to intensify the Jewish presence through government support and giving it legal cover.

The report indicated that (2567) settlers stormed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, and during it they committed numerous violations, the most prominent of which was the storming of "Ben Gvir", and Rabbi Yisrael Shalita performed Talmudic rituals, and practiced dancing, singing, and epic prostration.

The Ibrahimi Mosque:

Regarding the Ibrahimi Mosque, the occupation forces practiced their violations on a daily basis, whether by preventing the call to prayer from being made there, which has been made approximately (674) times since the beginning of the year, or by restricting Muslims by preventing them and closing it (10) times during the same period.

The occupation also installed the so-called "candelabrum" and Israeli flags on the roof and walls of the Ibrahimi Mosque, and held noisy parties and Talmudic rituals in the occupied section, and practiced banging on the doors, shouting, cursing and swearing. The occupation also obstructed the celebrations of the Prophet's birthday inside the mosque.

The report indicated that the number of worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque during the year 2024 amounted to only 236,530 worshipers, and this number is considered less than expected due to the strict measures imposed by the occupation, including the closure of the entrances to the mosque since October 7, 2023, which hindered the arrival of large numbers of worshipers.

3,381 Israeli soldiers stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque during the year, in a flagrant violation of the sanctity of the religious site and a provocation of the feelings of Muslims. The occupation intensified the checkpoints around the mosque and closed all its entrances, leaving only the market gate, which made it more difficult for Palestinians to reach it.

The report pointed out that despite the Israeli restrictions on movement and the continued closure of the entrances to the Ibrahimi Mosque, it received only 12,663 tourists during the year 2024.

The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned the dangerous plans to be implemented towards the Ibrahimi Mosque, which were announced by a member of the Knesset from the ruling Likud Party in Israel, who called for the nationalization of the Ibrahimi Mosque, controlling it, and placing it completely under Israeli sovereignty by canceling what is related to Palestinian sovereignty over it in the Oslo Accords, and returning it to the hands of Israel by seizing it gradually.

Places of worship:

As for the rest of the places of worship and mosques, the Israeli occupation attacked (20) mosques in different areas in the West Bank, with a clear focus on the Tulkarm and Jenin governorates, either by partially destroying a number of facilities or by desecrating them with writing and mocking Islamic rituals.

The Ministry of Endowments monitored in its report a number of attacks on holy places and Christian worshippers, as extremist Jewish religious groups attacked and spat on Christian pilgrims in the occupied city of Jerusalem, specifically in the area of the Church of the Prison of Christ.

They were also restricted during Christian holidays and prevented from reaching the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Resurrection.

The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs called on the international community to force the occupation to stop these violations, which have become increasingly frequent, especially with the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip.