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| We’re all transfixed by the horrifying attacks perpetrated in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the direction of Vladimir Putin and I know many of you are deeply engaged in coordinating your bosses’ response to the conflict. All of us at J Street are hoping and praying for the senseless bloodletting to end as soon as possible. Thank you for your important work in helping to make that happen.
As I do weekly, I’m writing to share J Street’s statements and news updates. This week, the top news is an Israeli law barring Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from receiving citizenship and residency rights and the top Israeli court’s looming decision on whether the military may expel Palestinians from their West Bank homes. There’s also an important piece from the Associated Press noting that the settlement surge that began when President Donald Trump was in office has continued unabated under the Biden administration. I’d also call your attention to the interview of Reps. Price and Dean about their experience on the J Street Education Fund trip to Israel and the West Bank in February.
In addition, please visit IranDiplomacyWorks.org (or Twitter) for the latest updates and resources on a potential agreement to address Iran’s nuclear program. With the terrifying prospect of a nuclearized conflict with Russia, the imperative of boxing in the Iranian nuclear program to prevent the prospect of Iran developing a nuclear weapon is clearer than ever.
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.
Let me know if you have any questions or would like further information.
All the best,
Debra
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Debra Shushan, PhD
Director of Government Affairs, J Street
mobile: (757) 746-0366 | [email protected] | @DrShushan |
This week on j street
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J STREET WELCOMES PASSAGE OF OMNIBUS PACKAGE THAT INCLUDES ROBUST AID AND NEW ACCOUNTABILITY PROVISIONS
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What we’re reading
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Israel’s Knesset passes law barring Palestinian spouses
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| Israel’s parliament on Thursday passed a law denying naturalization to Palestinians from the occupied West Bank or Gaza married to Israeli citizens, forcing thousands of Palestinian families to either emigrate or live apart… Proponents say the law helps ensure Israel’s security and maintains its “Jewish character”… However, critics say the law discriminates against Israel’s 21% Arab minority – who are Palestinian by heritage and Israeli by citizenship – by barring them from extending citizenship and permanent residency rights to Palestinian spouses. |
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Israeli top court to rule on Palestinians’ bid to stop displacement from West Bank homes
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| Israel’s Supreme Court held a hearing on Tuesday on petitions against a long-running bid by the Israeli army to displace over 1,000 Palestinian inhabitants from a rural part of the occupied West Bank it designated for military exercises. After two decades of inconclusive legal maneuvering, the high court is expected to hand down a ruling soon on the army’s move to demolish eight small communities in a rocky, arid area of the southern West Bank near Hebron. Petitioners say that would make more than 1,000 Palestinians homeless and endanger their distinct, generations-long nomadic way of life, eking out a living from farming and herding. |
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Trump-era Israeli settlement growth proceeds in his absence
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| The growth of Israel’s West Bank settler population accelerated last year, according to figures released by a pro-settler group on Thursday, despite renewed American pressure to rein in construction on occupied territory that the Palestinians want for a future state. The figures show that a settlement surge initiated when President Donald Trump was in office shows no sign of slowing down. Trump provided unprecedented support for Israel’s claims to land seized in war, reversing decades of U.S. policy. President Joe Biden’s administration has returned to the previous approach, criticizing settlement expansion as an obstacle to resolving the conflict. But Israel has continued to build and expand settlements, and major road projects are expected to bring even more settlers into the territory. |
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Settlers ram troops, assault Palestinians near Homesh, IDF alleges
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| An Israeli rammed his car into soldiers manning a West Bank checkpoint Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said. Two soldiers were hit by the car near the illegal outpost of Homesh but did not require hospitalization, according to the army, which described it as one of two recent “violent incidents” in the area. It described the car as Israeli, likely meaning it had Israeli license plates. The military did not say if the alleged assailant was arrested or if soldiers opened fire. Unlike in the case of similar attacks by Palestinians, it did not describe the incident as “terror.” |
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Two Killed by Israeli Forces in Separate West Bank Incidents, Palestinian Health Ministry Says
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| A 16-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire on Tuesday during a raid in a West Bank refugee camp, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, and another Palestinian was killed in a separate incident in the Jerusalem area. Apart from the teen, at least three other Palestinians were wounded in clashes that followed the early morning raid in Balata, a sprawling refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Nablus. One of them, according to medical officials, is in serious condition, and another suffered facial burns from a stun grenade. |
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U.S. Growing Alarmed Over Israel’s Safe Harbor for Russian Oligarchs
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| Israel’s apparent hesitancy in joining international sanctions against Russia while failing to clamp down on oligarchs has provoked rare public warnings from the Biden administration, as U.S. lawmakers and Russia experts urge a further crackdown on Vladimir Putin’s allies aiming to use Israel as their safe haven… Victoria Nuland, the U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, told Israel’s Channel 12 News on Friday that Israel should join the financial and export-control sanctions that Washington has levied on Putin. “We have to squeeze the regime. We have to deny it the income that it needs, squeeze the oligarchs around him; we squeeze its economy,” she said, adding that “you don’t want to become the last haven for dirty money that’s fueling Putin’s wars.” |
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Returning from J Street trip to Israel, Dems emphasize ‘urgency’ of two-state solution
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| “We gave a broad perspective of friendship and support for Israel — that’s uniform among our 10 members,” he said. “But we think that the best way to express support for that is in expressing support for a resolution of this conflict, and that it’s illusory and deceptive and dangerous to let this thing slide.” … “On a human level my takeaway — whether it was the Palestinians in the West Bank or those in the Gaza Strip — is that millions of Palestinians are simply not free. And that goes against my American and democratic and human values. And we must do everything in our power to, if possible, reach that two-state solution.” |
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Editorial | The Iran nuclear deal was working. Restoring it is the right course.
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| So, after Trump ended the deal and reimposed sanctions, what happened? The renewed sanctions did not bring Iran to its knees or cause it to accept a tougher deal. Instead, after a period of continuing to honor the arrangement, Iran, too, abandoned the 2015 agreement. Tensions between the United States and Iran got worse. Whereas the seven-nation compact had limited uranium enrichment to under 4 percent, Iran is now enriching at nearly 60 percent, much closer to the weapons-level concentration of about 90 percent. Amid cloak-and-dagger explosions at its Natanz underground facility, Iran has also brought new lines of advanced enrichment centrifuges into use. |
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OPINION | Israel’s top court will decide whether to expel 1,300 of my neighbors
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| When I was four years old, my expelled neighbors petitioned the High Court, which issued a temporary order that allowed them to return to their homes — until a final decision is made. Twenty-two years have passed, and the court never decided our fate. We grew up in the shadow of waiting for a decision: will they expel the people I love and know best, or won’t they? On March 15, the court is set to hold its final hearing on the issue. After that it will make a decision. The fate of eight villages and 1,300 people is once again on the agenda. As a Palestinian living under the military occupation of a foreign invader, we do not have the right to decide our fate. This feeling — that you are being controlled by others — permeates every aspect of our lives here, every single day. |
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