 |
| I’m writing to share J Street’s statements and news updates.
Thanks to all who tuned into our webinar on “Surging Settler Violence and West Bank Escalation” with Israeli experts Lior Amihai (Executive Director of Peace Now) and Celine Touboul (CEO of the Economic Cooperation Foundation) yesterday. If you’d like to check it out (or re-watch it), the link is here.
We were pleased this week to welcome two important steps from the Biden Administration. First, the Administration indicated that it will not allow US taxpayer funding for scientific cooperation agreements between the US and Israel to pay for research projects in Israeli settlements. This is an important return to decades-long bipartisan US policy and reverses the move by the Trump Administration to treat Israeli institutions in the settlements as though they are inside Israel. J Street encourages the Biden Administration to also reverse the disastrous “Pompeo Doctrine,” which terminated long standing bipartisan US policy and stated that settlements are not inconsistent with international law. Second, we are glad to see the Biden Administration name Ambassador Daniel Shapiro as Senior Advisor for Regional Integration. This provides an opportunity for the US to push for Palestinians to be a full and equal partner in normalization, and work toward achieving a two-state solution and an end to the occupation. You’ll find our statements on both of these developments below.
In this week’s News Digest, you’ll also find updates on developments in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. Approvals of thousands of new settlement units by the Israeli government and retroactive authorization of illegal outposts have both made 2023 the highest year on record in terms of settlement expansion (only six months into the year!) and violated pledges made to the US in the Aqaba and Sharm El Sheikh agreements. In addition, while accountability and prevention of settler attacks (including against US citizens) are still severely lacking, Israel’s security forces released a notable statement indicating that: “These attacks contradict all Jewish values and are nationalist terror in every sense, and we are obligated to stop them.” You’ll also find an update on the Netanyahu government’s push to undermine Israeli democracy through its judicial overhaul.
I hope you’ll check out, or continue making use of, our regularly updated dossier on the Netanyahu government. As always, you can find our Congressional briefing book, background information on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, recordings of previous briefings and more at J Street’s Congressional Resource Page.
Feel free to reach out with any questions.
All the best,
Debra
—
Debra Shushan, PhD
Director of Policy, J Street
mobile: (757) 746-0366 | [email protected] | @DrShushan |
This week on j street
|
|
|
| STATEMENT |
|
J STREET CONGRATULATES AMBASSADOR DANIEL SHAPIRO ON HIS APPOINTMENT AS SENIOR ADVISOR FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
| STATEMENT |
|
J STREET WELCOMES RESTORATION OF LONGSTANDING BIPARTISAN POLICY PREVENTING US FROM FUNDING RESEARCH IN SETTLEMENTS
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
What we’re reading
|
Israel OK’s plans for thousands of new settlement homes, defying White House calls for restraint
|
 |
| Israel’s far-right government on Monday approved plans to build over 5,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Israeli media said, a move that threatened to worsen increasingly strained relations with the United States… It also raised tensions with the Palestinians at a time of rising violence in the occupied territory… Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, said Israel has now approved over 13,000 settlement housing units this year. That is nearly three times the number of homes approved in all of 2022 and marks the most approvals in any year since it began systematically tracking the planning procedures in 2012… The Biden administration has been increasingly outspoken in its criticism of Israel’s settlement policies. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the settlements “an obstacle to the horizon of hope we seek” in a speech to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC. On Monday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the U.S. was “deeply troubled” by the reported decision to build more settlement homes… Despite the criticism, the U.S. has taken little action against Israel. In a sign of its displeasure, the White House has not yet invited Netanyahu for a visit — as is customary following Israeli elections. And this week, the U.S. said it would not transfer funds to Israeli institutions for science and technology research projects in the West Bank. The decision restored a longstanding policy that had been canceled by the pro-settlement Trump administration. Ahead of Monday’s vote, Israeli Cabinet Minister Issac Wasserlauf, a member of the far-right Jewish Power party, played down the disagreements with the U.S. “I think the alliance with the U.S. will remain,” he told the Army Radio station. “There are disagreements, we knew how to deal with them in the past.” |
| read more |
U.S. to Stop Funding Academic Institutions in the West Bank
|
 |
| The Biden administration has informed Israel on Sunday that the United States will not transfer any funds to research institutes or scientific and technological projects taking place in the West Bank. The U.S. announcement, first reported by Kan public radio, reverses the policy which former President Donald Trump had implemented in the final weeks of his administration and augurs a return to traditional U.S. policy on the issue. The Biden administration is embracing traditional American policy that views the West Bank as occupied territory, which the U.S. does not recognize as legally part of Israel… An official from the Biden administration told Haaretz that the directive only affects institutions located over the Green Line — which was set following a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Jordan and subsequently became the invisible boundary between Israel and the territories that Israel conquered in the 1967 Six-Day War. The U.S. official added that the administration is interested in continuing to expand scientific technological cooperation with Israel… The move is the most notable reversal of a Trump-era doctrine concerning West Bank settlements, many of which were pushed through by former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman… It remains to be seen whether Biden will overturn the rest of the so-called “Pompeo Doctrine,” in which he declared that settlements were “not per se inconsistent with international law” in 2019. This policy, it bears noting, was formulated by the Kohelet Policy Forum – the right-wing Israeli think tank behind Netanyahu’s attempts to gut Israel’s judiciary. |
| read more |
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro Set to Become First Abraham Accords Envoy
|
 |
| The United States announced on Thursday that former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro will be serving as the Biden administration’s point person on the Abraham Accords and deepening Israel’s integration into the Middle East… Shapiro’s appointment comes one day after Blinken had warned that “the fire burning in [Israel’s] backyard” makes it “a lot tougher, if not impossible, to actually both deepen the existing agreements as well as to expand them to include potentially Saudi Arabia.” In his most recent opinion piece for Haaretz… [Shapiro] advised that the key priorities of containing Iran’s nuclear capabilities and Israeli-Saudi normalization should not be “derailed by the raging domestic turmoil in Israel over judicial overhaul legislation and escalating Israeli-Palestinian tensions in the West Bank – both of which Israeli leaders should do everything actually in their power to de-escalate.” Blinken’s announcement comes several weeks after the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation creating a new special envoy position in the State Department dedicated to the Abraham Accords and Israel’s ongoing integration in the greater Middle East… Since Shapiro’s job is described as special advisor instead of “envoy,” he will not be subject to a Senate confirmation hearing which would have undoubtedly been highly politicized. “There are a number of Senate-confirmed officials already working on this. The secretary just had a trip to Saudi Arabia where we talked about normalization, raised it with Saudi officials. And we think he can perform all the duties he needs to perform to advance the agenda as the senior advisor,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. |
| read more |
Knesset restarts judicial overhaul with bill to broadly outlaw ‘reasonableness’ test
|
 |
| Deliberations began Sunday on the coalition’s bill to broadly outlaw judicial review of the “reasonableness” of government or ministerial decisions, officially restarting the judicial overhaul three months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu froze the controversial legislative package… Presented as an amendment to the existing Basic Law: The Judiciary, the bill would completely block courts, including the High Court of Justice, from invalidating decisions or appointments made by the prime minister, the cabinet, ministers, or other elected officials based on their “reasonableness.” Going beyond past proposals, the legislation would prevent courts from even holding hearings on the reasonableness of a barred decision… Reasonableness has been the primary judicial check against appointments, and was used earlier this year to remove Shas leader Aryeh Deri from twin cabinet postings, citing his recent tax offenses and past bribery conviction. Opposition lawmakers have warned that without the reasonableness protection, the government would be able to fire the attorney general and appoint personal cronies in her place, an example raised on Sunday. The coalition plans to fast-track the bill to become law during the month remaining in the Knesset’s summer session, and Sunday’s discussion is the first of three that the Constitution Committee is scheduled to hold on the matter this week. The bill was prioritized by the coalition shortly after opposition lawmakers withdrew from judicial reform compromise talks following a stymied election of MKs to the Judicial Selection Committee earlier this month. The coalition, meanwhile, said it plans to move ahead with efforts to revamp the committee in the upcoming winter session. |
| read more |
Israeli Military, Police and Shin Bet Chiefs: Settler Attacks Are ‘Nationalist Terrorism’
|
 |
| IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi, Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai came out on Saturday night to denounce the spate of recent settler mob attacks on Palestinian villages in the West Bank in a joint statement, claiming they plan on stepping up efforts against them. “In recent days, violent attacks in Judea and Samaria have been carried out by Israeli citizens against innocent Palestinians,” they said. “These attacks contradict all Jewish values and are nationalist terror in every sense, and we are obligated to stop them.” “The violence only fuels Palestinian attacks, harms Israeli security as well as the international legitimacy of Israeli security forces,” they added. According to the statement, the IDF is diverting its forces to prevent similar attacks, and the Shin Bet plans to widen the scope of its use of administrative detention. “We call on settlement leaders, educators and public leaders to publicly denounce these acts of violence,” they said. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant strongly condemned the violence, saying that “this is not our way,” and asked that all security forces prevent uncontrolled violence by residents and protect civilians in the West Bank… [opposition leader Benny Gantz] added that “Anarchy is developing in the West Bank under the auspices of legitimizing illegal moves by some government ministers,” and questioned the government’s desire and ability to manage the situation. |
| read more |
Fight Heats Up as Israeli Efforts to Enter U.S. Visa Waiver Program Go Down to the Wire
|
 |
| Israel is entering the final stretch to see whether it can finally gain entry into the coveted U.S. Visa Waiver Program, and advocates on both sides of the argument in the United States are preparing for an intense three months… The Biden administration has a September 30 deadline before the clock resets on Israel’s efforts to enter the program… Should Israel fail to meet the deadline, it is highly unlikely it would ever manage to gain entry moving forward. Israel has not been eligible for the program until now for a variety of reasons. Foremost among these is its failure to guarantee reciprocity, whereby every U.S. citizen will be allowed to travel freely to and from Israel and the West Bank. Many travelers who are not white and Jewish have long complained about racial profiling at Ben Gurion Airport. Meanwhile, Palestinians with U.S. citizenship travel abroad by passing through the Allenby Bridge crossing with Jordan. During the month of July, the U.S will test the treatment of Palestinian-American dual citizens at Israel’s borders, airports and checkpoints. The pilot, according to Reuters, will entail a 30- to 45-day period during which U.S. delegates will keep tabs on Palestinian-American travel through Ben-Gurion Airport and across West Bank checkpoints… The Biden administration – with outgoing U.S. ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides leading the matter – and successive Israeli governments have prioritized Israel’s entry into the program as a key bilateral initiative to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship… While Nides has vowed that Israel will not be granted entry unless the condition of reciprocity is met, pro-Palestinian advocates are concerned that the Biden administration is putting the cart before the horse and making equal treatment a byproduct of entry rather than a precondition. These fears persist despite U.S. officials noting that Israel’s entry would be conditioned with “snapback” provisions should Israel violate reciprocity after it enters the program. |
| read more |
|
