(Reuters) — Israel announced on Thursday plans to build some 3,000 more settler homes in occupied territory in response to the inauguration of a Palestinian unity government backed by Hamas Islamists opposed to the Jewish state’s existence. Housing Minister Uri Ariel said he had issued notices inviting bids to construct 1,500 housing units. Israeli officials…
“My religion is Zionism,” Dani Dayan says. It is hard to know quite what to make of him. Is he, as Yariv Oppenheimer, director of Peace Now suggests, the enemy? “His agenda is the same as the most fanatic right-wing settlers. But he has this ability to hide it and to speak with the public…
Right-wing Israeli lawmakers are calling on the government to annex about 90 Jewish settlements built on occupied West Bank land, with one of them saying it was retaliation for the collapse of peace talks with the Palestinians a month ago. While Israel has built dozens of enclaves since capturing the land in a 1967 war,…
(JTA) — Perhaps the most lasting image from Pope Francis’ trip to Israel and the West Bank will be the pontiff praying, eyes closed, with his head against a wall. It wasn’t the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest site and a necessary stop for visiting dignitaries. It was Israel’s security fence in the West…
Israel is adopting certain recommendations of a report that claims Israel is not occupying the West Bank. The government-commissioned Report on the Legal Status of Building in Judea and Samaria, authored by former Israeli Supreme Court Judge Edmond Levy in July 2012 and often referred to as the Levy Report, says that Israel is not…
The European Union does not allow the import of poultry produced in West Bank settlements, E.U. officials told Israel’s ministry of agriculture. E.U. officials recently informed the ministry of the ban, E.U. sources confirmed to the news agency AFP Thursday. The reason stated is that the union does not recognize the jurisdiction of Israeli veterinarians…
On the surface, the Israeli army’s Facebook Intifada is a very 21st-century crisis. A soldier on patrol cocks his weapon at a Palestinian youth, apparently violating the army’s rules of engagement. Other Palestinians film the encounter and upload it to YouTube, exposing the soldier to possible discipline. The soldier’s friends launch a Facebook page in…
Naftali Bennett, an Israeli cabinet minister, joined other right-wing leaders in justifying the actions of a soldier who was filmed loading a rifle and pointing it at Palestinian youths. In the incident on Sunday in Hebron, the soldier, who identified in Israeli media only as David, ordered a Palestinian youth to leave the area. In…
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