News Roundup for January 7, 2022

January 7, 2022
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J Street works to promote an open, honest and rigorous conversation about Israel. The opinions reflected in articles posted in the News Roundup do not necessarily reflect J Street’s positions, and their posting does not constitute an endorsement from J Street.

Top News and Analysis

Israeli Military: Forces Kill Palestinian Gunman in Raid, AP News
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian who had opened fire on them during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus early Thursday, the Israeli military said.

Eight Palestinian Teens Killed in West Bank Car Crash, Haaretz
Eight Palestinian teens were killed on Thursday when the van they were in collided head-on with a truck in the Jordan Valley. The victims, all 14-17 years old, are from Aqraba, a village in the Nablus area, according to a Palestinian labor union. They were driving back from work. Israel’s Magen David Adom reported that two other passengers of the van were wounded and taken to the hospital for care, with one of them in critical condition.

News

Deputy minister assails settlers at illegal outpost as ‘subhuman,’ sparking furor, Times of Israel
Deputy Economy Minister Yair Golan of the liberal Meretz party on Thursday morning said Jewish settlers residing in an illegal outpost in the northern West Bank were “subhuman,” sparking a severe backlash, including calls for his dismissal. “These people who come to settle there, riot in the [adjacent Palestinian] village of Burqa, smash gravestones — they are carrying out a pogrom. We, the Jewish people, who suffered pogroms throughout history, are now carrying out pogroms on others?” he exclaimed. “These aren’t people; they are subhuman, despicable people… they should not get any support and they should be removed by force from there,” Golan said.

Lapid talks Ukraine, Iran in call with Blinken, i24 News
Israel’s Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke by phone early Thursday morning with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, State Department spokesperson Ned Price confirmed. “The Secretary and Foreign Minister discussed a range of regional and global challenges, including the risks of further Russian aggression against Ukraine as well as the challenges posed by Iran,” Price said.

Annual poll: Public’s faith in institutions, satisfaction in state of country dire, Times of Israel
With Israel passing a national budget for the first time in two years, ending recurrent coalition collapses and repeated elections, trust in the government rose ever so slightly, but overall confidence in state institutions remains low, according to an annual survey released Thursday by the Israel Democracy Institute. For Arab Israelis, who generally distrust state institutions more than Jewish Israelis do, a significant increase was seen in their faith in the government, political parties and the Knesset, as the coalition for the first time in decades now includes an Arab party.

Opinion and Analysis

Haifa’s Lost Palestinian Bourgeoisie, 972 Mag
Himmat Zoubi tells the story of the Boutagy family exemplifies how urban, middle-class Palestinians struggled to maintain their status in Israel after the Nakba.

Palestinians seek Israeli citizenship in Jerusalem, Al-Monitor
Taghreed Ali reports, “A number of Palestinians in Jerusalem are seeking to obtain Israeli citizenship, in the hope of living in stability amid the prevalent difficult economic and living situation in Jerusalem. Obtaining Israeli citizenship has its advantages, such as health insurance, social security and freedom of movement.”

Provoked, Israeli PM Bennett Blows a Fuse, Haaretz
Yossi Verter observes, “For Bennett, what we saw in the Knesset on Wednesday brought up images of January 6 last year in Washington. It wasn’t an exact parallel, of course, but that was the spirit. And there is one clear outcome: the dubious connection between the coalition’s unlikely partners grew stronger. The zoo-like unruliness in the opposition benches, together with the nationalist-racist metaphors that accompanied it, put no one in the mood to break coalition discipline and cross lines.”