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Palestinians mourn man found shot in West Bank, blame Israel, AP
Hundreds of people on Wednesday mourned the death of a man Palestinian health officials said was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. Raed Jadallah, 39, a resident of Beit Ur al-Tahta near Ramallah, was buried on Wednesday. According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Jadallah was a gardener and was shot at the western entrance of his village while returning from work in Israel. The circumstances of the death were unclear, as there were no conflicts in the area when the shooting happened Tuesday night.
Rare meeting with Palestinian leader sparks rift in Israeli government, Axios
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s trip to Ramallah on Sunday to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — the first such visit by an Israeli Cabinet member in 12 years — ultimately proved how politically sensitive any steps to improve relations with the Palestinians can be in Israel. Relations with the Palestinian Authority were frozen almost entirely under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Gantz’s visit was months in the making and was approved by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, but ended up causing tensions within the government.
Israeli military investigates fatal shooting of Palestinian, Reuters
The Israeli military said on Thursday it was investigating the fatal shooting of a Palestinian civilian in the occupied West Bank, who residents said was killed by soldiers while returning from work in Israel. In a statement, the military said troops operating on Wednesday near a highway where Israeli vehicles had come under fire-bomb attack earlier in the week, had fired at a “suspect, who fled the area”.
Israeli leader surprised Biden hardly raised China during visit, Axios
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had prepared for wide-ranging discussions on China with President Biden and other senior U.S. officials, but the issue hardly came up, an Israeli official who attended the Biden-Bennett meeting tells me. Chinese involvement in Israel became a rare point of contention between the Trump and Netanyahu governments, with the Trump administration warning of damage to the U.S.-Israel security relationship, but former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dragging his feet on the issue.
Fire antisemitic blogger, 70 State Department employees demand in letter to Blinken, JTA
Six months after his internet posts attacking Jews came to light, a U.S. Foreign Service officer remains employed by the State Department while at least 70 of his co-workers sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding his dismissal. The letter, sent July 28, argues that Fritz Berggren is a threat to Jewish employees at the State Department, and has violated department rules and ethical standards, Foreign Policy reported after obtaining a copy.
Knesset approves state budget framework in 1st reading, Times of Israel
The Israeli military said on Thursday it was investigating the fatal shooting of a Palestinian civilian in the occupied West Bank, who residents said was killed by soldiers while returning from work in Israel. In a statement, the military said troops operating on Wednesday near a highway where Israeli vehicles had come under fire-bomb attack earlier in the week, had fired at a “suspect, who fled the area”.
Israeli Minister Orders Police to Stop Confiscating Palestinian Flags at Protests, Haaretz
Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev recently told the police commissioner and other high-ranking officers in the force that the Palestinian flag, which is also the flag of the PLO, may only be confiscated during demonstrations under certain, exceptional circumstances. Jerusalem police officers regularly confiscate Palestinian flags from protesters on the grounds that they could lead to “a serious disturbance of the peace.”
Jewish Israelis support new government’s proposed religious reforms, survey finds, JTA
Majorities of Jewish Israelis back a range of reforms proposed by the country’s new government, according to an annual survey. The poll by Hiddush, an organization that advocates for religious pluralism in Israel, takes the pulse of Jewish Israelis on a range of questions regarding government involvement in religious affairs, from marriage to funding for yeshivas to which stores should be allowed to open on Shabbat.
Netanyahu Is Gone. Netanyahu-ism Still Reigns., Foreign Policy
Steven Cook writes, “The Israeli leader left Washington on Sunday having accomplished what he set out to do. He had a warm meeting with the president of the United States, who spoke of Washington’s ‘unwavering commitment … to Israel’s security’ without giving anything up or altering his policies on Iran, the Palestinians, or the region more broadly. If Netanyahu has any perspective, he will surely grasp the importance of what Bennett did while he was in Washington. The Israeli prime minister advanced Netanyahu’s agenda without all the toxicity and clothing-rending Strurm und Drang that encompassed U.S.-Israel relations over last decade or so. In other words, so far it seems that Netanyahu-ism can thrive without Netanyahu.”
The Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on protest shows it will never serve its own people, The Guardian
Yara Hawari writes, “Both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli regime depend on each other, the former to maintain its militarised grip over its own people, and the latter to maintain a subdued and depoliticised Palestinian people. It is clear, more than ever, that Palestinians will never be free of Israeli oppression under the leadership of the Palestinian Authority.”