Repeating political talk, speeches, statements, and other things that we have heard repeatedly is no longer useful and has no value. Rather, it is a waste of time and an effort to implant the unreasonable and the unacceptable in the minds of those who care about it or follow it.

The destructive reality of the occupation is what it does not once, but repeatedly, and we suffer and pay a heavy price for our land and our future. The last thing that this hateful occupation did, but not the last, was to issue 85 military orders to seize control of large areas of the lands of Jerusalem and its environs and seize 350 A dunum of land from neighboring villages and towns.

Also, a young man was seriously injured in Jerusalem and another was arrested at the Qalandiya checkpoint. There were raids into the city of Jerusalem and settlers attacked its people and its surroundings.

As President Abu Mazen said in his speech at the United Nations, since 1948 until today, about a thousand decisions have been issued on the Palestinian issue and the occupation’s attacks, but none of them were implemented, and the decision remained for the strongest and arrogant who do not understand and do not want to understand anything other than expansion, building more settlements, and confiscation. land and displacing citizens whenever possible.

We heard that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued a statement confirming that settler violence is displacing Palestinians and is increasing, and more than a thousand people have been displaced since last year. This statement issued by the United Nations confirmed that incidents related to settlers affect the Palestinians, their lives and their land daily.

The holy Al-Aqsa Mosque is still subject to attacks, as more than 200 settlers stormed it and performed Talmudic prayers and religious rituals in its courtyards. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Tsapala, also held a press conference at the Patriarchate headquarters in Bab al-Khalil in Jerusalem, in which he spoke about the measures and harassment that churches and clergy are being subjected to at the hands of Police in Jerusalem and elsewhere and provocations from religious Jewish extremists.

Speech is no longer effective and no one listens to it. Serious practical and field stances must be taken to work to stop the practices of the occupation and the settlers in the first place.

The Palestinian people, the owners of this Arab land, the land of Palestine, are a politicized people, politicized at home and abroad.
In the homeland in particular, his entire life since his birth has depended on a political decision! It is often a brutal occupier who can turn his life upside down with the stroke of a pen, or with the scream of a fascist Knesset member, or with a pistol shot from a terrorist that kills you or your brother, or with a cursed shell from the occupying army that smashes his house over his head.

In addition, the occupation can change the nature of the land on which the Palestinian Arab lives, including streets, buildings, or trees, without permission from the land owner. He (i.e. the owner of the land) has no power over what is happening to the occupation that controls the country, and the people are subjected to calamities and daily war, theft, and the process of racial segregation and apartheid are practiced against them.

Therefore, all Palestinian affairs, including eating, drinking, breathing, and movement, no matter how small, are subject to politics, especially violent Israeli politics, and subject to the logic of the necessity of steadfastness, composure, patience, and steadfastness, and thus revolution and resistance.

The Palestinian youth does not need to be encouraged or urged to resist the occupier, as the factors of incitement, incitement and motivation come from the occupier himself on a daily basis. The occupation inflames feelings of hostility towards it with its ugly actions, and it incites the youth (in fact, as if it is begging them) to resist it with its inhumane violations.
How could it not be, when the young man was arrested at a young age and was subjected to all the aggressive practices against him in detention? Or as he sees his brother, father, or sister being arrested or perhaps killed before his eyes... and he sees his house (Tahwisha Al-Omar) being demolished. There is no young Palestinian today who has not been attacked directly or indirectly by the occupation army or gangs of terrorist colonialists. Direct, so the Palestinian Arab is inherently political.
The daily (routine aggressive) actions carried out by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip, or in the West Bank (and likewise, albeit in a different form inside, or against the Palestinians as well abroad), including killing, siege, or endless restrictions, are entrusted with bringing about popular revolution and resistance to the occupation. It is the responsibility of these measures to create a rebellious generation that will be more violent and cruel than the previous one. Every action has a reaction, and the forces may not be equal, but the reaction may be latent, and when it finds its opportunity, it will revolt in a way that the oppressive and breathless occupier does not expect.

Politics for the Palestinian student or young man begins when he wakes up in the morning, anticipating, calculating, and anxious about going to his school or university! Neither the road is safe nor the school or university safe! Of course, his life is not safe, nor is the street as free to move as it is for any ordinary non-Palestinian person in his country, because the dozens of permanent checkpoints in the West Bank that divide the land and protect the colonizers carry out their daily incitement work, as do male and female soldiers who lack humanity, and organized gangs of colonialists with their attacks. Frequently (they see it as routine, and they even treat attacks and killings as an outing under the auspices of army forces) in the streets, against stones, against humans, against animals, and against trees. Therefore, the Palestinian student and young man achieves his growing internal revolution not primarily from the literature, books, statements, or practices of the Palestinian factions, but rather from the aggressive actions of the occupation.

When a student wakes up from his sleep, he cannot be sure that he or one of his friends will ever be able to reach his school or university unscathed (mentally or physically). Likewise, schools or universities themselves (like every place in Palestine) are not immune from the occupation’s attacks, and this applies to all other aspects of life. Therefore, the Palestinian youth is unique from all the youth of the entire world. He has been political since birth.

Politics among Palestinian Arab youth has “three” forms of practice. The first is that it practices politics in the sense of struggle and resistance on the ground, whether by rejecting the occupation by stone, raising one’s voice, demonstrating, challenging its attacks, or by steadfast steadfastness on the ground, in his university and all its activities, and he practices politics. Second: By belonging to a faction here or a faction there, he acquires to incite the occupation a measuring tool, methods of dealing, a new culture, and a thought that focuses and confirms the political goal that must not deviate from the absolute belief in the justice of the issue and our eternal right on the historical, religious, legal, and political levels. From here arises the desire of the young man to gain more understanding. It means more work to achieve understanding.

Third: Involvement in politics among young people is understood practically in practice and not only in the theoretical cultural dimension. This is done primarily through the school or university portal, belonging to factions on the basis of belonging, commitment, and involvement in student action or serving the masses and popular resistance, and in public political life through the portal of participation through voluntary effort. Sharing time and participating in the decision, otherwise no.

The greatest credit for the growing awareness of young people and their involvement in politics and field work is due first to the practices of the occupation and then to the experiences of young people and their immediate surroundings, which feed into the above-mentioned act of intensifying rejection of silence or weakness. Or admitting the defeat that the occupation's actions come to achieve, and thus returning to his real slaughter. The ambition of the young man or student remains linked to the strict rejectionist mind of “Abu Iyad,” or to the courage of “Abu Jihad,” or the mobility and charisma of the immortal Yasser Arafat, or the theorizing of Khaled Al-Hassan, so he does not get lost from whichever of them he quoted, or in the path of the friends who preceded them.

Pay attention and follow the thinking of the colony’s leaders. It is not possible to explain what they are doing on the ground against the Palestinians, including brutality, killing, cleansing, and deportation, whether in Areas 48 or Areas 67, while affirming in recognition that the colony’s tools of action against the Palestinians differ from one location to another, according to Smotrich’s expression: 1- The Israeli Arabs, that is, those who remained in their homeland in the Palestinian Arab cities and villages that were seized in 1948 by the colonial forces, and were unable to expel them, and they remained and imposed Israeli citizenship on them despite the discrimination imposed on them compared to the rights, gains and privileges of the Hebrew-Israeli nationality, of the Jewish Israelis.

2- Arabs of “Judea and Samaria,” that is, residents of Palestinian Arab cities and villages in the areas of the second occupation in 1967, people of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

Smotrich lays out his announced plan to address the challenges facing the colony project, at the forefront of which is the demographic factor and the presence of Palestinian Arabs on the land of the “colony” extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, while emphasizing the refusal to give the Palestinians the right to establish their state on the land of “Israel” Palestine.

Smotrich acknowledges that “the battle has not yet been decided to this day, as we still have a population within the Land of Israel, who refuse to recognize the fundamental right of the State of Israel to exist as a state for the Jewish people, who continue to undermine its existence and its Hebrew identity,” and that “the Arabs in Judea and Samaria, seeking and aims to establish an Arab state within the 1967 borders, while not hiding the fact that this is only a stop towards their real goal: returning to Haifa, Jaffa, Ramla, and Tiberias, and establishing an Arab state on the ruins of the State of Israel, and they teach their children about this at home, school, and in summer camps. No one denies that these (whether in areas 48 or areas 67) are the basic assets of Palestinian nationalism.”

Smotrich says the plan (which he developed, entitled the Decisive Plan), aims to deal with this issue: the issue of Palestinian aspirations, whether in areas 48 or areas 67, and the necessity of working to thwart them.

Smotrich proceeds to acknowledge that "the Palestinian people are nothing but a movement opposed to the Zionist movement. This is its essence and the reason for its existence."

The Zionist movement, he says, "came to return the Land of Israel to the Jews."

He adds: “The continuation of conflicting national aspirations on our small piece of land will guarantee more years of bloodshed and the perpetuation of armed conflict. Therefore, one of the two parties must, voluntarily or by force, abandon its national aspirations in the Land of Israel, and the party that must abandon its aspirations to achieve its national identity in the Land of “Israel is the Arab side,” the Palestinian.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there is a rare opportunity within several months to reach an agreement to normalize relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and if we are not able to achieve this in the coming months, it is expected that these endeavors will be postponed to several subsequent years.

This came during a television interview with the American Fox News network, several hours after he delivered his speech from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly.

Netanyahu touched on the obstacles facing efforts to sign the Abraham Accord to normalize relations between Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and stressed the possibility of overcoming them and reaching a historic turning point that creates a new Middle East and opens a new corridor between Asia and Europe.

He believed that achieving peace with Saudi Arabia, and starting to end the Arab-Israeli conflict, would lead to the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling on the Palestinians to benefit from the agreement.

He refused to reveal the concessions that Israel might be prepared to make on the Palestinian track in order to sign the agreement to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia. He was also quoted by the Arabic-language Makan channel.

The State Department condemns far-right coalition MK Limor Son Har-Melech after she defended the Jewish terrorist responsible for the 2015 murders of three members of a Palestinian Dawabsheh family  as a “holy righteous man.”

“It is critical for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution. This certainly includes inflammatory rhetoric and actions,” reads a statement from a State Department spokesperson. “We would refer to the Knesset member to discuss those comments.”

Netanyahu’s coalition partners hailed his speech Friday to the UN General Assembly in which he said Israel is on the verge of normalizing ties with Saudi Arabia, while insisting they would not support Israeli concessions widely understood to be a critical component of the deal. Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the far-right Oztma Yehedit party said his and a second far-right party would quit the coalition if such concessions were made.

The responses highlighted the lack of wiggle room Netanyahu has to negotiate, even as both the US and Saudi Arabia have made clear that he will need to offer something significant to advance a two-state solution in order to get the deal across the finish line.

“If there will be concessions for the Palestinians, we will not remain in the government — and not just us, but the Religious Zionism party as well. Netanyahu can only make this deal with Benny Gantz,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said in a statement, referring to the opposition National Unity faction chairman who has already ruled out the possibility of joining Netanyahu’s government to ensure a Saudi normalization deal.

Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism hold 14 Knesset seats together, and without them, Netanyahu’s coalition would lose its majority.

“Otzma Yehudit supports normalization — on this Netanyahu has our full support. But we will not accept any concessions to the Palestinians. I told the prime minister not to put us in a corner,” Ben Gvir said.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of Religious Zionism, praised Netanyahu’s performance at the UN but subtly indicated what he’d be willing to give in exchange for normalization with Arabia. “Together, with God’s help, we will bring peace for peace. We will continue to maintain Israel’s security, settle in all of its regions, developing along with all of the Middle East and the entire world,” he wrote on X.

Smotrich, who has spearheaded the government’s record-setting rate of approvals for settlement home construction, already said last month that he would not countenance any concessions for the Palestinians.

The term “peace for peace” was used by Netanyahu to describe the 2020 Abraham Accords, which turned the prevailing logic on its head by seeing Israel normalize ties with additional Arab countries before it reached a peace deal with the Palestinians.

But contrary to Netanyahu’s framing that Israel did not give up anything in exchange for normalization in 2020, he did agree to shelve plans to annex large parts of the West Bank as part of the UAE deal.

Several other coalition lawmakers used the same “peace for peace” phrase in their praise of Netanyahu’s speech on Friday, including Justice Minister Yariv Levin of Likud.

“We are advancing peace for peace. We are actualizing the vision of peace between Israel and the Arab world,” Levin wrote on Facebook.

Likud Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said: “A powerful speech by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Together with him, we will advance peace with strength, based on truth. A new Middle East of peace for peace.”

Likud MK Danny Danon, a former envoy to the UN, appeared to be the only coalition lawmaker willing to acknowledge that a deal with Saudi Arabia will require Israeli gestures to the Palestinians.

However, Danon insisted in a Kan public broadcaster interview that they would be merely economic measures. “The Saudi issue should not be conditioned on the Palestinian issue,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu presented a new map erasing Palestine during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) 78th session on Friday. 

The illustration showed a "new Middle East" wherein the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip appeared to be part of Israel.

An earlier erroneous map shown by Netanyahu also included the Palestinian territories as part of Israel in 1948. 

Israel did not control the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, or the Gaza Strip following its violent creation in 1948 on 80 percent of historic Palestine. It illegally occupied them in 1967, and continues to do so in what is known as the longest occupation in modern history. 

The inclusion of Palestinian lands (and sometimes land belonging to Syria and Lebanon) in Israeli maps is common among believers of the concept of Eretz Yisrael - Greater Israel - a key part of ultra-nationalist Zionism that claims all of these lands belong to a Zionist state.

Earlier this year, Netanyahu's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, spoke from a podium adorned with a map that also included Palestine, Lebanon and Syria as part of Greater Israel. In the same event, he said there was "no such thing as Palestinians". 

The use of such maps by Israeli officials comes at a time when Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist government has taken steps that experts say amount to the "de jure annexation" of the occupied West Bank. De jure is a legal term that describes a practice as it is recognised in law. 

During the presentation of the map on Friday, Netanyahu enthusiastically promoted the reshaping of the region based on establishing ties with Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia. 

"There's no question: the Abraham Accords heralded the dawn of a new age of peace," he claimed. "I believe we're on the cusp of a more dramatic breakthrough: a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia."

His remarks come amid US-sponsored talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia to establish formal relations.

This week, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman suggested that they are edging closer to such an agreement "every day".

During an interview with Fox News, the crown prince said the "Palestinian issue is very important" in these talks, but did not elaborate further. 

When asked what concessions he would expect Israel to give to the Palestinians, he said that was "part of the negotiation".  

Netanyahu stressed on Friday that "we must not give the Palestinians a veto over new peace treaties with Arab states". 

His speech comes a day after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UNGA, saying that Middle East peace is not achievable until Palestinians are granted full rights with statehood.

"Those who think that peace can prevail in the Middle East without the Palestinian people enjoying their full legitimate and national rights would be mistaken," Abbas said.

Two young men were injured by Israeli occupation army gunfire, this Friday evening, in the village of Zabuba, west of Jenin.

According to local sources, the occupation forces fired bullets at two young men while they were near the separation and apartheid wall erected on village lands, and they were taken to Ibn Sina Hospital.

Today, Friday, the State of Palestine participated in the coordination meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 and China, and the Ministerial Conference of the Group of 77 and China, which witnessed the election of Uganda to chair the group for the year 2024.

The State of Palestine was represented at the meeting and ministerial conference, which were held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, by its permanent representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Riyad Al-Maliki.

Mansour congratulated Uganda on its election to chair the Group of 77 and China for next year 2024, thanking Cuba for its outstanding performance in chairing the group during the current year 2023.

Mansour stressed the importance of the unity and solidarity of the group’s countries to confront challenges and difficulties in all development and political fields to achieve sustainable development, stressing the rejection of unilateral punitive steps against a number of the group’s member states by specific countries.

He also stressed the necessity of reforming and changing the global economic and financial system that is heavily biased in favor of the countries of the North at the expense of the countries of the South, which constitute the overwhelming majority of the countries of the world.

Mansour appreciated the group's principled solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian people.

The new operation of the special Israeli undercover (Musta'ribin) units in the Jenin camp, on Tuesday evening, failed to reach the resistance fighter Muhammad Hussein Mustafa Zidan "undercover Al-Baha", whom they accuse of leading the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, despite the surprise attack they launched on his home and family located at the main entrance on the outskirts of the Jenin camp. It took revenge on his family by destroying his house, arresting his elderly father, and threatening to assassinate him if he did not surrender himself, but it was forced to release him from the Jalama checkpoint after he suffered a sudden heart attack.

Under the cover of darkness, the special units chose their date and, as eyewitnesses told Al-Quds.com, infiltrated the entrance to the main camp using three Palestinian vehicles, and stopped a few meters away from the house of the sixty-year-old citizen Hussein Mustafa Ahmed Zidan, claiming that his son, the freed prisoner Muhammad “Abu al-Baha” (35 years old), at the top of the Israeli intelligence wanted list.

When the undercover units were infiltrating the family's home, they were discovered by the residents and the resistance, which sounded sirens and came to confront them, amid violent armed clashes.

During this time, the undercover began attacking Abu al-Baha's house to quickly complete their operation, before the family became aware of what was happening around them, including the siege of their house and the attempt to assassinate their son.

His mother reported to Al-Quds.com that she was surprised by the explosion of the main gate of her house, and the heavily armed undercover soldiers, accompanied by a police dog, stormed in. Within seconds, they turned the house into a military barracks and began searching amid an atmosphere of terror and alert.

She says: "They detained us, and when they did not find Abu Al-Baha, their anger increased, and they became more ferocious and brutal. They destroyed and vandalized everything, threw bombs into the rooms, and released the police dog to search."

She added: "We lived through horrific moments. They threatened to liquidate my son. They destroyed the children's rooms. They sent us a letter threatening to liquidate and execute my son if he did not surrender himself. They arrested my husband despite his illness. They handcuffed him and took him with them for investigation."

Meanwhile, the resistance closed all the alleys and streets of the camp, which turned into a real battlefield with the undercover. Witnesses confirm that the resistance besieged the undercover and they were unable to leave Abu al-Baha’s house and the surrounding area, in light of the ferocity of the resistance, which showered them with bullets and locally manufactured bombs.

Within minutes, the scene changed, and the entire area turned into an arena of violent clashes, so the occupation sent in large military reinforcements.

According to witnesses, more than 80 military patrols raided the city and the outskirts of the camp, and soldiers and snipers occupied buildings and buildings overlooking the Al-Aqwas area at the entrance to the camp and the Al-Zahraa neighborhood in the city. As the clashes intensified, the occupation launched a “Maoz” suicide plane and detonated it in the main square, causing It led to the injury of a number of citizens and the explosion of the main electricity transformer, plunging the camp into complete darkness.

The drones that flew at a low altitude, and dozens of soldiers and snipers who were deployed in the area, were unable to control the situation, as they were subjected to heavy fire, and the military wings of the resistance participated in attacking the soldiers from every nook and corner in clashes that did not stop, while dozens of explosive devices were detonated. Explosive explosives were deployed against occupation patrols, and the occupation admitted that two patrols were directly hit.

Despite the extensive raids and search campaigns under the cover of gunfire in the vicinity of Abu Al-Baha’s house, the occupation spokesman admitted the failure of the operation and the inability of the special units to reach Abu Al-Baha. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades stated in a military communiqué issued during the operation that its leader, Abu Al-Baha, survived the ambush and the assassination attempt. He returned to the positions of its fighters who fought with fighters from other military wings until the last patrol withdrew from Jenin and the camp.

Eyewitnesses told the Al-Quds.com correspondent that they witnessed a real battle between the occupation and the fighters, who attacked the patrols from very close distances, which led to a number of martyrs and a high number of injuries among citizens. During the withdrawal of the patrols from the camp, residents observed resistance groups pursuing them. With canisters and bullets like never before.

Witnesses confirm that the first victim of the Israeli aggression on the camp was the child Raafat Khamaysa (15 years old), who was shot by undercover soldiers at the entrance to the camp, when he discovered them and began screaming and warning of their presence, so they hit him directly.

His uncle, Nizar Khamaysa, told Al-Quds.com: “When Raafat left his grandfather’s house at the entrance to the camp, he saw the undercover besieging Abu Al-Baha’s house, so he ran screaming, and the undercover unit chased him and fired bullets directly at him.”

He added: "Raafat fell to the ground covered in blood. He was hit with a bullet in the middle of the abdomen and exited from his chest. The ambulance crews were unable to reach him, because the occupation closed the area and prevented them from moving. He remained bleeding in his grandfather's house for an hour and a half, and after the occupation withdrew and transferred him." To the hospital, he was declared martyred.”

During the funeral of the bodies of the four martyrs of the aggression, Mahmoud Al-Saadi, Mahmoud Ararawi, Raafat Khamaysa and Atta Musa, the resistance fighter Abu Al-Baha went out with dozens of resistance fighters to participate in the march. He told reporters: “A few moments separated me from the Israeli attack, as they surrounded my house shortly after I left.” When they raided it and did not find me, they destroyed and broke its contents. Not even my children’s rooms and belongings were spared, and they threatened my family to liquidate me if I did not surrender myself.”

Abu Al-Baha, who took up his weapon and was surrounded by a large number of resistance fighters, said: “My response to the occupation’s threats: We are fighting for the freedom of Palestine, our people, and our prisoners, and I will not back down or give myself up. We are determined to follow this path and the path of the martyrs, and we are satisfied with what the Lord of the Worlds chooses for us.” .

He added: "I am not better or better than our martyred heroes who sacrificed for us. My brother was martyred and handed over the banner to me, and my children will continue the journey. We will all one day meet the Lord of the Worlds, so let us meet Him as martyrs."

Abu Al-Baha said: “The battle that Jenin camp witnessed on the evening of the attempt to assassinate or arrest me, and the unity of the unified resistance factions and what it achieved was a victory for the camp. The occupation was defeated in the face of the resistance and the heroism of the resistance. Thanks go to God first, to the martyrs second, and to the lions of the camp who did their duty greatly.”

He added: "The occupation's threats of new operations and massacres in the camp and our assassination will not weaken our resolve. We will remain on the path of the martyrs. The more the aggression intensifies, the more determined we will be to complete the journey. Our choice is martyrdom or the liberation of Jerusalem, and our choice is resistance until the liberation of Palestine and the prisoners."

Regarding the occupation’s continued targeting of the leadership of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Resistance, Abu Al-Baha said: “All of us in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Al-Qassam Brigades, the Jenin Brigades and Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades. There is nothing that divides us. We fight not under one slogan, but rather one blood. We have resolve and determination to stand firm and challenge the occupation, and we affirm that we You will not leave this path, and these threats will not distance us from the path of resistance and the path to Jerusalem, God willing.”

As three weeks have passed since he was absent from his family, and put behind bars, amidst no news of him, the family and wife of the prisoner, Shadi Muhammad Zyoud (40 years old), are experiencing moments of anxiety and sadness, especially with his three children repeating their daily questions about their father, their missing them, and their great sadness.

His wife, Umm Bakr, says, “Every day, my children ask me every moment about their father, why they arrested him, when he will return and be with us, and the situation has become more painful because of schools, and their longing for their father’s embrace, and I hold back my tears and sorrows, and I keep myself patient and tell them he will return tomorrow, and so on every day.” .

In the town of Silat al-Harithiya, west of Jenin, the prisoner Shadi was born and lived. He did not complete his education after the preparatory stage, and, according to his wife Umm Bakr, he went to work and take responsibility, to help support his family, and build himself and his future, and after a journey of struggle working in the construction field, he got married and after 8 Only months later, he was subjected to his first arrest

On 7/18/2009.

She says: "My husband was not interested in politics and was devoting his life to his family. Suddenly, they stormed his workplace inside and arrested him. He spent two months in prison and was freed. He returned to continue our lives, which he filled with happiness and joy."

She added: “The Lord of the Worlds blessed us with three children: Alma, 13 years old, Sarah, 10 years old, and the youngest, Bakr, 7 years old, and we lived a beautiful family life under his care.”

On September 3, 2023, all the rituals and details of prisoner Shadi’s family’s life changed with his arrest. His wife said: “He left our house naturally for his workplace inside. He is committed and only cares about his work and his children. When I called to check on him as usual, I found his phone switched off all day. I felt very anxious, and it was a huge shock, the moment the news of his arrest arrived from his work area.”

She added: "We do not have any information except that he is detained in the interrogation cells in Al-Jalama Prison. They prevented the lawyer from visiting him, and I cry day and night, because I am worried about my husband. Everyone knows the difficult conditions of detention and torture in this hateful prison."

She continues: "The court extended his detention in the same prison, and the lawyer was not able to visit him. He was scheduled to be brought to the Salem court last Wednesday, so we waited for him, but the session was postponed at the request of the intelligence services without bringing him, which increases our anxiety and sadness in light of his unknown fate."

Umm Bakr fights back her tears, to protect her children, and to continue her life and journey with them, after she became the bearer of a great responsibility, especially in light of her little girl, Sarah, suffering from a chronic illness. She says: “Shadi was my partner in all the responsibilities for our children, especially to follow up on the care and treatment of our child, who suffers from There was water on her brain and we performed several operations on her and we are still following up on her treatment.”

She added: “Our child is very attached to her father, because he follows her up with the doctors inside the Green Line, and he follows up with me a lot to provide a safe, healthy environment for her, because she is suffering and it is forbidden for her temperature to rise, and before she goes to school, she asks me every day when my father will return?”

She continues: “My children miss their father, with the beautiful memories, his care for them, and meeting and providing for their needs, whatever they may be, such as swimming, bringing toys, and trips. And every day they cry and ask when our father will return, so that we can rejoice, swim, and travel on trips, and no matter how strong I am, my words fail to express in front of my children, whom the occupation has deprived of the sight of.” "Their father."

Umm Bakr tries to comfort her children by talking about their father’s love for them, and says: “I face painful moments every day. My children are very attached to their father, and because of his tenderness, love, and embrace, they miss him even when they sleep. They remember how they used to leave their beds and go to sleep next to their father.”

She added: “But today he is behind bars, and all those images are engraved in the minds and minds of our children, who cannot forget them and wish, like me, for their father’s return, so that they can return to joy, joy and happiness in our home with their mother and father. But we put our trust and patience in God, to make him steadfast and patient until he returns to us soon.” ".

The condition of the seventy-year-old mother, Khairiya, is no different, who suffers from the pain of separation more than the pressure, diabetes, and stroke that afflicted her. Her daughter-in-law, Umm Bakr, says, “My mother-in-law does not dry up her tears. She always cries over his absence. He took care of her, took care of him, and had a close relationship with his mother, always sending an atmosphere of joy and happiness.” He transformed her and us with his presence, fun sessions, affection, and dedication.”

She adds: "We are all eagerly waiting for salvation from these difficult moments and days and for beautiful news that brings us the good news of his freedom."

A child was injured, Friday evening, in a settler attack in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

According to local sources, the settlers chased the sheep herders and sprayed pepper gas on the child, Usaid Khaled Al-Hadar, resulting in burns that resulted in him being transferred to Yatta Governmental Hospital.

The sources indicated that the settlers attacked the child’s father and prevented him from grazing his sheep on his land, in preparation for seizing it and emptying the lands from farmers and sheep herders, with the aim of expanding the Susiya settlement established on citizens’ lands.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani lambasted Israel in his UN General Assembly address earlier this week. 

He claimed that Israel “responds to Arab peace and normalization initiatives with more nationalist and ultra Orthodox intransigence and extremism… [as] reflected in government coalitions and further settlement expansion, in addition to the Judaization of Jerusalem, attacks on the holy sites and heavy-handed and draconian measures against the people in Gaza.” 

Al Thani blasted the “intransigence of the Israeli occupation and the rejection by consecutive Israeli governments of any just political solution according to international legitimacy.”

On Friday evening, the Israeli occupation forces suppressed the weekly demonstration denouncing settlement activity in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.

According to local sources, these forces assaulted citizens and foreign supporters participating in the demonstration.

The participants in the demonstration carried the Palestinian flag and banners denouncing settlement activity and attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

On Friday evening, Israeli occupation forces arrested a young man during clashes that broke out in the town of Tuqu', southeast of Bethlehem.

According to local sources, the confrontations were concentrated in the vicinity of the municipality, during which the occupation forces fired bullets, stun grenades, and toxic tear gas at the young men, but no injuries were reported.

During the confrontations, the occupation forces arrested the young man, Muhammad Walid Al-Amour (18 years old).

The official presidential spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said in response to the speech of the occupation prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the United Nations, “There will be no peace or stability in the region without the satisfaction of the Palestinian people, and the fulfillment of their demands in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative.”

Abu Rudeina added in a statement, "This is the official Palestinian position that was determined by the historic Palestinian leadership, and it will not give up on it. Anyone who believes otherwise is wrong."

He continued: "Peace begins with Palestine, and stability begins with the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate national rights and establishing their independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Without that, there is no peace, no security, and no stability in the region and the region."

The official presidential spokesman stressed that the Palestinian people will not deviate from their national principles and will remain committed to their land and sanctities, and history has always proven that the occupation will disappear, no matter how long it takes.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem commented on the speech of the occupation government’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, before the United Nations General Assembly, saying: “Netanyahu practiced a state of unprecedented bullying against our Palestinian people in his speech, as a result of the normalization agreements that were concluded, or those that under way to be concluded.”

Qassem added in a statement today, Friday, “Netanyahu’s mention of the positive effects of normalization confirms that this path only achieves the interests of the occupation, and constitutes a real threat to the Palestinian cause.”

He pointed out that the occupation will continue to exploit the path of normalization to escalate its aggression against our people with the aim of liquidating the Palestinian presence, and is trying to implement the dreams of the Israeli right based on normalization. According to what he said and described.

Qassem called on the vital forces in the nation to escalate their resistance to normalization with the occupation, and to strengthen calls to boycott it.

Today, Friday, a group of settlers destroyed dozens of olive trees in the town of Qaryut, south of Nablus.

The mayor of Qaryut reported that settlers destroyed 40 olive trees, damaged the water tank, and damaged the irrigation network on the land of citizen Muhammad Amin Saeed Musa.

This land is located near the “Shavot Rachel” settlement, which was established on the lands of Qaryut and neighboring towns.

He was injured, and another was arrested, after the Israeli occupation forces attacked them, today, Friday, at one of the surrounding military checkpoints in Tel Rumeida in Hebron.

According to local sources, these forces severely beat the citizen Jalal Al-Muhtasib (30 years old), which resulted in him suffering bruises and bruises all over his body, after which he was transferred to Alia Governmental Hospital.

Meanwhile, the occupation forces arrested the young man Abdullah Abu Aisha.

On Friday evening, the Israeli occupation forces arrested a young man from inside the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.

According to local sources, these forces arrested the young man, Bilal Saleh Al-Ghazali, from the town of Al-Jib, northwest of Jerusalem, under the pretext of raising the Palestinian flag in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his hostile accusations against President Mahmoud Abbas of spreading what he called “anti-Semitism” against the Jewish people.

In his speech before the United Nations, Netanyahu called on the Palestinian Authority to recognize the right of the Jewish people to establish a Jewish state.

Netanyahu also called on the Palestinian Authority to stop paying money to the perpetrators of the attacks, and to continue incitement against the Israelis.

He claimed that he was committed to making every effort to overcome any obstacles to peace for the benefit of the peoples of the region, saying: “The Palestinians must not object to any agreements with Arab countries.”

Netanyahu claimed to have "achieved a tremendous achievement by signing 4 peace agreements with 4 Arab countries, all of which bore fruit until the Jews held their weddings in Dubai and the Emiratis came to Israel." like he said.

Regarding normalization with Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu said, “Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will create a new Middle East,” noting that peace will be achieved under the leadership of US President Joe Biden.

He added: "Israel was a country isolated from its surroundings in 1948, but now the map of the Middle East will change completely for us."

Netanyahu indicated that he would build a new corridor of peace between Asia and Europe, passing through the Emirates and Jordan.

Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini was speaking at UN Headquarters alongside the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Jordan, Ayman Safadi, following a meeting to support its lifesaving work, which is almost entirely funded by donor contributions.

 “It has become absolutely unbearable to deal with a situation where the needs of the Palestine refugees increase, the expectations increase, the region is hit by multiple crises, and at the same time to operate public-like services…with decreasing funding,” he said.

The tension is also fuelling “a feeling of abandonment by the international community”, he warned.

UNRWA delivers education, healthcare, protection and other services for nearly six million Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 

It was established in 1949 as a temporary agency to provide aid to Palestinians following mass displacement from land that became Israel, making it one of the first UN humanitarian operations.

The agency had been seeking up to $190 million by the end of the year, and another $100 million to keep food pipelines flowing in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.

Pledges announced at the meeting will sustain services until at least the end of October “which means we will have to continue to redouble our efforts to mobilize the necessary support for the agency,” Mr. Lazzarini said.

“This financial crisis makes us run after the money all the time,” he remarked.

Mr. Lazzarini recently took the decision to open UNRWA schools even though he was unsure if they will remain open for the rest of the year. More than half a million children depend on the UN agency for education, its “flagship program”.

He said education was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and austerity measures, but also violence in the occupied Palestinian territories and in refugee camps, such as the clashes between factions at the Ein El Hilweh camp in Lebanon this month.

“One indicator which I was sharing with members here today was data on the fourth grade this year. Only 20 per cent of the students reached the average for Arabic and Mathematics, whereas in 2015 it was 60 per cent,” he said.

The donor meeting, held amid the high-level week of the UN General Assembly, was organized by Jordan and Sweden.  

Mr. Safadi recalled that UNRWA will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year and still represents the only hope for Palestine refugees. He urged the international community to step up support.

“If we are still unable to establish justice for the Palestine refugees, let us at least give them a chance to live decently and in dignity,” he said. 

One of Canada’s top journalism schools is inaugurating an award in honour of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, whose killing by Israeli forces last year sent shockwaves around the world and spurred calls for justice and media freedom.

The Shireen Abu Akleh Emerging Reporter Award in Social Justice Journalism at Carleton University will be unveiled at an event in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, on Friday evening.

“Such scholarships will maintain her legacy, will maintain her name,” Abu Akleh’s brother, Tony Abu Akleh, said in a statement shared by the university.

“Awards like these, which honor Shireen and her contributions to journalism and her commitment to giving voice to those who live under brutal military occupation, are a way to keep her memory alive and let young journalists continue her legacy,” he added.

“And that legacy was speaking truth to power and shining a light on both the pain of injustice and the perseverance of those who live under it.”

Abu Akleh, a renowned and celebrated journalist who worked with Al Jazeera for more than two decades, was killed in May 2022 while reporting on an Israeli military raid in Jenin, a city in the north of the occupied West Bank.

A number of Palestinians were injured today, Friday, after the Israeli occupation forces suppressed marches on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip.

According to local sources, the occupation soldiers stationed inside their positions and military vehicles fired bullets and poisonous tear gas canisters at the demonstrators, causing a child to be injured by a gas canister in the thigh and others to suffocate.

Dozens of rebellious youth demonstrated on the eastern borders of Gaza, Jabalia, and Khan Yunis, in protest against the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and the continuing crimes against holy sites and our people.

The occupation artillery bombed two military points of the field control forces of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, east and south of the Gaza Strip.

The Government of the Republic of South Africa exempted Palestinian citizens who hold Palestinian passports from visas to enter South Africa.

Under this decision, Palestinian citizens will be granted entry visas at all airports, ports and border crossings in South Africa for a period of 90 days, without the need to issue visas from South African embassies.

A memorandum from the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine today confirmed the implementation of this decision as of September 18, based on the official request of the State of Palestine from the South African government and close follow-up by the Embassy of the State of Palestine.

For its part, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, through its Minister Riyad Al-Maliki, welcomed the historic decision of the Government of the Republic of South Africa.

Al-Maliki considered the decision to be a new message of solidarity from South Africa in favor of the just cause of our people, and an embodiment of the lofty principles of South African foreign policy, and its belief that the freedom it obtained and international solidarity with it calls on it to support peoples suffering from colonialism and apartheid.

He praised the efforts made by the Ministries of Interior, International Relations and South African Cooperation, members of Parliament, members of the ruling party and its allies, and all solidarity committees and civil society institutions, which contributed to achieving this achievement, to facilitate the movement and livelihood of the citizens of the State of Palestine.

Israeli settler violence has displaced more than 1,100 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2022, a United Nations report released on Thursday said, with officials describing the mass exodus as unprecedented in recent years.

The report documented about three settler-related incidents every day in the West Bank – the highest daily rate since the United Nations began documenting the trend in 2006. The violence has completely emptied five Palestinian “communities.”

The report stated that six others witnessed the departure of half of their residents, while seven others witnessed the flight of a quarter of them.

According to the report, “With the expansion of Israeli settlements under the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinians say that violence practiced by extremist Israeli settlers has reached its peak.”

“The United Nations has recorded unprecedented levels of settler violence against Palestinians this year, and while the humanitarian community is responding to their urgent needs, there would be no need for humanitarian assistance if their basic rights were respected,” Lynn Hastings, humanitarian coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories, told The Associated Press. "By the occupation authorities.

Those who have left their homes say attacks on their pastures and violence from settlement outposts — many of which have recently been established on hilltops surrounding rural Palestinian villages — have prompted them to leave permanently.

The report says, "This trend changes the map of the West Bank and further undermines the prospects for establishing an independent Palestinian state. The Palestinians seek to establish their future state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip - areas occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War."

According to the Associated Press, “The affected villages depend mostly on pastoralism and agriculture for their livelihoods. The report stated that almost all communities had to sell part of their livestock, and 70% had to borrow money to pay for artificial fodder after settler incursions blocked access to grazing lands.” "And more than a third of the population was forced to change their livelihoods, with some abandoning sheep herding altogether."

According to the report, the Palestinian communities that witnessed the largest population loss were in the areas with the largest number of settlement outposts.

The report says: “Successive Israeli governments have promoted settlement expansion for nearly six decades, but Netanyahu’s far-right government has made it a top priority. Bezalel Smotrich, a powerful settlement agitator and finance minister, now oversees settlement policy and has pledged to ramp up construction.” And legitimizing settlement outposts that were built without a license.”

The international community overwhelmingly views the settlements as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. President Joe Biden met with Netanyahu on Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, and raised these concerns with him about the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinians.

In their first meeting since Netanyahu took office late last year, Biden urged Netanyahu to take steps to improve conditions in the West Bank at a time when violence is escalating in the occupied territories, according to the Associated Press, “a senior US official confirmed, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.” “Biden raised his concerns about terrorist violence committed by settlers” during the meeting.

Displaced Palestinians report that the Israeli authorities, charged with administering the area, rarely respond to cases of settler violence. According to UN data, almost all communities where displacement occurred said they had filed complaints with the authorities, but only 6% said the Israeli authorities followed up on the complaint.

The escalation in settler violence comes at a time when there is violent Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the region.

About 190 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire this year. Nearly half of them belonged to armed groups, but young men throwing stones in protest against military incursions and people who did not participate in the confrontations were also killed. More than 30 people were killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Today, Friday, massive crowds mourned the body of the teenager martyr, Abdullah Imad Abu Al-Hassan (16 years old), in the town of Al-Yamoun, west of Jenin Governorate.

The funeral procession started from in front of the Martyr Khalil Suleiman Governmental Hospital in Jenin, towards the main roundabout, with the participation of thousands of citizens. The body of the martyr Abu Al-Hassan was raised on the shoulders, amid chants denouncing the ongoing crimes of the Israeli occupation against our people.

Mourners transported the martyr's body to the town of Al-Yamoun, his birthplace, where he was buried after praying for him and a final farewell from his family and lovers.

The teenager, Abu Al-Hassan, died at dawn today, as a result of being shot in the abdomen by live bullets from the occupation forces, during their storming of the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin.

A number of citizens were injured by live bullets, rubber-coated bullets, and suffocation, during confrontations that broke out with the occupation forces in the West Bank governorates, today, Friday.

In Qalqilya, three young men were injured by rubber-coated metal bullets, as a result of the Israeli occupation forces’ suppression of participants in the weekly anti-settlement march in the village of Kafr Qaddum.

Local sources reported that the occupation soldiers stormed the village and fired live and metal bullets at the citizens and their homes, wounding three young men with metal bullets, who were treated in the field.

The march began in front of the Omar bin Al-Khattab Mosque in the village, and the participants chanted national slogans against the occupation and demanded the escalation of popular resistance.

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter.

For nearly nine months, tens of thousands of Israelis have protested every week against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the judiciary, concerned that it risks severely curtailing the powers of the Supreme Court, the only body that provides a check on the executive and legislative branches of government.

Meanwhile, watching and worrying from the sidelines, many Palestinians fear a weakened Supreme Court could lead to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and the eventual annexation of the territory they want for a future state.

Most Israelis have cited the erosion of democracy and human rights in protesting the overhaul, but its potential implications on more than three million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank haven’t played a significant part in the public discourse.

Sawsan Zaher, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and human rights lawyer working with the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, argues the implications could be enormous. She refers to the overhaul as a “judicial coup,” saying it risks facilitating the “de facto annexation of the West Bank without any critique or any review” from the Supreme Court.

Zaher’s concern is rooted in words and actions that Netanyahu government has taken since coming into power at the end of last year. The cabinet includes a number of West Bank settlers in powerful positions, and the agreement that brought together the government calls for extending Israel’s sovereignty in the West Bank, effectively a call for annexation.

Under Netanyahu’s far-right government, Israel has approved a record number of housing units in West Bank settlements, Peace Now said in a July report.

Most countries and the United Nations consider the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied and therefore view Israeli settlements there as illegal under international law. Israel says the territory is disputed and denies its settlements there are illegal.

Many Israelis support their government’s expansion into the occupied territories. A 2020 survey by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute found that more than half of Jewish Israelis supported extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, an ambition that Netanyahu has voiced.

The overhaul includes a number of bills, the first of which passed in July by a 64-0 vote, thanks to the entire opposition walking out in protest before the vote. That law strips the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable.

Supporters of the overhaul say that the judicial system in Israel is flawed, and gives too much power to the court. Some have been calling for judicial reform for years, saying it would balance all three branches of government.

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Last week, the Supreme Court heard challenges to the reasonableness law, with the entire panel of 15 judges convening for the first time ever to hear a case.

Justices grilled lawyers from both sides rigorously, giving little indication which way they would rule. It is unclear when the court will announce its decision on the reasonableness law.

The ruling could be historic, since the reasonableness law is an amendment to one of Israel’s 13 Basic Laws. Unlike many democracies, Israel doesn’t have a written constitution. Instead, it relies on Basic Laws, as well as court ruling precedents that could one day become a constitution. The court has never struck down a Basic Law or an amendment to one.

“If you look at the core essence and intentions of the judicial coup, it is basically to stop the Supreme Court from having any kind of judicial review on Basic Laws or government decisions,” Zaher told CNN.

A narrow avenue for legal recourse.

Experts say that while the Supreme Court has generally supported Israel’s settlement expansion, it has sometimes provided a narrow avenue for legal recourse by Palestinians.

Eliav Lieblich, a law professor at Tel Aviv University said the court has never hindered the settlement movement. “It never ruled on the overall legality of the settlement projects.”

What it did do, he said, is “provide specific protections for situations in which private property of Palestinians has been infringed, or otherwise used for settlements,” Lieblich told CNN.

But Zaher said that Palestinians have never considered the Supreme Court as sympathetic to their cause, and that Netanyahu’s overhaul risks scrapping any remaining mechanisms, no matter how small, that can override policies viewed by Palestinians as violations of their rights.

“Did the Supreme Court protect Palestinian rights in the West Bank? The answer clearly is that in 95% of cases, no,” Zaher estimated.

Palestinians in the West Bank fall under a different set of laws than Israelis. They are subject to the jurisdiction of multiple, separate authorities, including the Palestinian Authority and Israeli military laws. West Bank Palestinians have the option of petitioning Israeli courts to rule against evictions, demolitions or land seizures, even if there’s a slim chance of success.

According to human rights organizations, the Supreme Court approves the majority of the orders for demolition of the family homes of Palestinians engaged in attacks against Israelis, and rarely grants petitions filed by Palestinians against those measures. The practice has been criticized by rights groups as collective punishment.

 Israel argues that it deters future attacks.

Palestinians have however had some rare victories. In 2005, the Supreme Court ordered the government to come up with a new route for part of its security barrier in the northern West Bank to minimize hardship for Palestinians. The International Court of Justice in The Hague had said a year earlier that the entire barrier is illegal.

And in 2012, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of Palestinian landowners, ordering the removal of five settler buildings in the West Bank above the Palestinian village of Dura al-Qara.

More recently in 2017, Israeli security forces bulldozed nine homes built on private Palestinian land in the West Bank settlement of Ofra. The decision to destroy the homes came after the High Court of Justice struck down an appeal by the settler residents of Ofra to evacuate the homes but not destroy them. The court had issued the demolition ruling in 2015, seven years after the legal aid group representing the Palestinian landowner filed the case in 2008.

In other cases, however, rulings in favor of Palestinians have been reversed. Last year, in an unprecedented move, the high court ruled that a settlement outpost – Israeli housing in the West Bank built without government authorization – on private Palestinian land can remain place, almost two years after ordering its removal.

Fears of ‘speedy’ annexation.

Palestinians say that settlement expansion under the Netanyahu government suggests there will be even less restraint on expansion when the Supreme Court is no longer a bureaucratic hurdle for the government.

There may be “an acceleration of the annexation in a speedy way that we did not see before,” Zaher said.

Ahmed Tibi, a Palestinian-Israeli member of Israel’s parliament and head of the Ta’al party, said that supporters of the reasonableness law include far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, both of whom are settlers. These supporters, Tibi said, “aim to control the judicial system to facilitate the annexation of occupied territories.”

“Many suggestions (in the judicial overhaul) would benefit the settlers,” Tibi told CNN. “Anything that strengthens the settlers tends to weaken the Palestinians.”

Gershon Baskin, director of the Holy Land Bond, a new investment fund aimed at investing in housing projects for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, sees settlement expansions as being at the heart of Netanyahu’s judicial plan.

 “The small avenues that Palestinians have found within the Israeli High Court are going to be closed doors in the not-too-distant future if Netanyahu is successful in pushing through the reform,” Baskin said.

While the formal annexation of the West Bank is “an extreme scenario,” Lieblich said, it would be easier to do if the Supreme Court is severely weakened, with no authority to review government decisions. Weakening judicial review would also make it easier to take incremental steps that could amount to annexation for all practical purposes, he said.

“Once you diminish judicial review, you empower the executive, in what is already a zero-sum game (between Israel and the Palestinians),” he added.

Tens of thousands performed Friday prayers in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite the strict military measures imposed by the Israeli occupation forces at the gates and entrances of the Old City in occupied Jerusalem.

The Islamic Endowments Department in occupied Jerusalem reported that about 50,000 worshipers performed Friday prayers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite the occupation’s restrictions.

Local sources reported that the occupation forces deployed in the streets of the city and the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and were stationed at its gates, stopping the worshipers and checking their personal cards.