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I hope you’ll check out, or continue making use of, our tracker of far-right actions by 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.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions.
All the best,
Debra
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Debra Shushan, PhD
Director of Policy, J Street
mobile: (757) 746-0366 | [email protected] | @DrShushan
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This week on j street
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J STREET WELCOMES 20 SENATORS’ LETTER ON US ROLE IN ISRAEL-SAUDI NORMALIZATION
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US GOVERNMENT MUST ACT TO STOP WAVE OF PALESTINIAN DISPLACEMENT FROM THE WEST BANK
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J STREET OPPOSES HOUSE CR THAT SLASHES FUNDING FOR HUMANITARIAN AID, SECURITY ASSISTANCE, DIPLOMACY
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WAVE OF PALESTINIAN DISPLACEMENT AMID SETTLER VIOLENCE DEMANDS URGENT ACTION
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What we’re reading
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Israeli Herders Spread Across West Bank, Displacing Palestinians
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| In the abandoned sheep pens of Al Baqa, a remote Palestinian hamlet in the West Bank, you can still smell the livestock. But the sheep themselves, as well as their shepherds, have vanished. The 54 Palestinian residents of the hamlet pulled down most of their huts and left with their animals en masse after a group of Israeli herders set up a rival farmstead a few dozen yards away in June. The Palestinians said the Israeli herders, who often carry guns, tried to intimidate them by wandering around the hamlet and sometimes through their homes at night. On the eerie, arid mountainside, only the Israelis remain. “Their job was to provoke us,” said Muhammad Mleihat, 59, one of the village leaders, who decamped to a valley five miles away. “They want to empty the area,” he added. Across remote parts of the West Bank, the mountainous territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Palestinian herding communities are abandoning their homes at a rate that has no recorded precedent, according to the United Nations. Simultaneously, Israeli settlers are establishing wildcat herding outposts at close to record levels, often near Palestinian villages, according to land assessments by Kerem Navot, an independent Israeli watchdog that monitors settlement activity. The group says that at least 20 new outposts have been established since the beginning of the year, a handful of which were dismantled by the Israeli Army before being reassembled… The Israeli settlers’ stated intention is to chip away at wide expanses of land that the Palestinian leadership, at the advent of the Oslo peace process 30 years ago, hoped would form the territorial spine of a future Palestinian state. |
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Palestinian killed during settler assault on West Bank town
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| A Jewish settler killed a 19-year-old Palestinian during a settler attack on the occupied West Bank town of Huwara on Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Residents said a group of settlers had erected a tent in Huwara, held prayers, and later marched through the town, some of them carrying arms, and began vandalising shops and cars. One of the settlers shot university student Labib Dumaidi, who later died of his wounds in hospital, the residents said. The Israeli military, offering a different account, said its forces fired at a Palestinian who had hurled a brick at an Israeli vehicle during clashes between dozens of settlers and townspeople. It said the suspect was struck by gunfire but did not elaborate on his identity. A military spokesperson said the military was unaware of any settler having fired a weapon during the confrontations. Violence again erupted later on Friday when dozens of people attended Dumaidi’s funeral under the watch of Israeli soldiers. The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 51 Palestinians were wounded in clashes with the military during the funeral, mostly from tear gas and rubber-tipped bullets and three from live fire… In the first eight months of 2023, an average of three settler-related incidents occurred per day, the highest daily average of settler-related incidents affecting Palestinians since the United Nations started recording this data in 2006… On Thursday, a suspected Palestinian gunman shot at a car in Huwara carrying three members of an Israeli family who were unharmed. Israeli security forces tracked him down and killed him. This came hours after two Palestinian gunmen and five Israeli soldiers were wounded in separate clashes. |
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Senate Dems raise concerns about possible elements of Saudi deal in letter to Biden
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| A group of 20 Democratic senators sent a letter to President Biden on Wednesday, raising concerns about a possible mega-deal with Saudi Arabia and calling on him to demand Israel make “meaningful and enforceable” concessions to the Palestinians as part of any such agreement. If a mega-deal is reached, some parts of it will likely have to be approved by the Senate. That means the Biden administration will need the support from Democrats, including those who are critical of the Saudi or Israeli governments or both… The senators, led by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), expressed support for a potential peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but said in the letter they have several concerns about possible parameters of the deal. The first concern was around possible U.S. security guarantees to Saudi Arabia… The second concern centered on possible U.S. support for a Saudi civilian nuclear program and the potential purchase of more advanced U.S. weaponry by Saudi Arabia as part of the deal… The third concern was around what a possible deal may mean for the Palestinians… “This should include, among other measures, a commitment by Israel not to annex any or all of the West Bank; to halt settlement construction and expansion; to dismantle illegal outposts (including those that have been retroactively ‘legalized’); and to allow the natural growth of Palestinian towns, cities and population centers and the ability to travel without interference between and among contiguous Palestinian areas,” they added. |
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Blinken Overrides GOP Block on Palestinian Food Aid at Last Minute Amid Looming Crisis
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| U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken overrode a Republican-issued hold on $75 million in food assistance for the Palestinian Territories, hours before the money was set to be forcibly redistributed elsewhere. Blinken’s under-the-radar approval of the funds comes after months of pressure from Democratic lawmakers in both houses of Congress, as well as dozens of civil society organizations, all of which warned abiding by the Republican hold on the previously appropriated funds would lead to 1.2 million Palestinians being without food and causing a humanitarian crisis… The Biden administration had no legal obligation to abide by the hold, which is a courtesy extended by the executive branch to the legislative branch. Blinken’s approval of the funds came days after U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced an additional $73 million in funding to support UNRWA’s core and emergency services… Republicans have long zeroed in on the UN agency, accusing it of fomenting anti-Israel sentiment while being explicitly linked to terror organizations. The Trump administration previously cut funding to UNRWA, along with other Palestinian aid, though much of this has since been restored by the Biden administration… The $75 million in food aid, meanwhile, has been utilized as a tool to pressure the State Department to ensure UNRWA schools are not used as weapons storage for Hamas, that it is not employing individuals affiliated with Hamas and that UNRWA educational materials are revised to address anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment. These conditions, however, are already State Department-mandated requirements in its framework agreement with UNRWA. |
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Spike in Incidents of Jews Spitting on Christian Worshippers in Jerusalem
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| Several incidents of Jews spitting on or near Christian worshippers in Jerusalem’s Old City were filmed on Sunday and Monday, giving more evidence to the fact that these attacks have become widespread. Tens of thousands of Jews joined in events and prayers for the Sukkot holiday in recent days, during which many of the spitting incidents were recorded. Most of the individuals filmed in the act were Jewish youths who spat on church buildings or at Christian worshipers they have encountered… In a press conference ahead of his elevation to the post of cardinal two weeks ago, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, told that these incidents are nothing new, “but we feel that recently it has become more common”… Pizzaballa added that the increase in these attacks is related to Israel’s far-right government. “It may be that some of these movements feel, not that they’re supported [by the state], but that they’re at least protected.” “What’s happening with Christians isn’t an isolated thing. We see an increase in violence within both Israeli and Palestinian societies. What we’re seeing with Christians is part of a wider phenomenon. Moderate voices aren’t being heard and extreme voices are getting stronger. We are in contact with the authorities and the police on this matter,” he said. |
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What a Saudi-Israeli Deal Could Mean for the Palestinians
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| When Netanyahu brought two extreme, ultranationalist parties—the Religious Zionist Party and the Jewish Home Party—into his ruling coalition, he effectively handed control of his government to two ideologues: Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is minister of national security, and Bezalel Smotrich, who is finance minister but who has also been given a special role in the defense ministry. For them, curbing the independence of Israel’s judiciary is just one way, albeit an important one, to facilitate their real agenda: the creation of a Jewish state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea by settling much of the West Bank, snuffing out Palestinian national aspirations, and, in the words of Smotrich, “encouraging” the Palestinians to relocate to other Arab countries, including neighboring Jordan… But Biden now has an opportunity to reverse this process and put an end to Smotrich’s revanchist ambitions. The U.S. president and the Saudi crown prince are in negotiations with Netanyahu for the full normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. They could condition the deal on the Israeli government changing course in the West Bank, first by ending settlement expansion and the legalization of illegal settlements. They should also demand that Israel hand over territory from the 60 percent of the West Bank that it now completely controls to the PA, which nominally controls the other 40 percent… It would give Saudi Arabia an immediate achievement on behalf of the Palestinians that will help Riyadh better justify its peace agreement with Israel in the Arab and Muslim worlds. And such a deal might eventually help breathe new life into the moribund Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. For Netanyahu, peace with Saudi Arabia would be a crowning achievement at a time when he is besieged by protesters and pursued by prosecutors… Most important, a package deal with a significant Palestinian territorial component would block Smotrich’s implementation of his plan and might even cause the collapse of the ruling coalition. |
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