Israel has exploited the steady decline in the numbers of Palestinian Christians to advance its claim that they are being hounded from the region by Muslim extremists. But the real blame lies with Israel and the foreign Churches
Palestinian workers’ dependence on Israel is now placing them in harm’s way. Although many are likely to catch the coronavirus in Israel while working, Israel is refusing to take responsibility for their welfare.
Western states have not only turned a blind eye to Israel's outrages, but are actively assisting in silencing anyone who dares to speak out, leaving Israel to luxuriate in its impunity. This was starkly illustrated when hundreds of heavily armed Israeli soldiers, many of them masked, raided a neighbourhood of Sur Baher, on the edges of Jerusalem, to demolish dozens of Palestinian homes.
How did a 14-year-old Palestinian girl who has never set foot in the open-air prison of Gaza find herself being dumped there by Israeli officials – alone, at night and without her parents being informed? The terrifying ordeal – a child realising she had not been taken home but discarded in a place where she knew no one – is hard to contemplate for any parent.
Israel's military authorities have published a video on social media publicising Palestinian attractions in the West Bank, in what looks like a generous promotional stunt to bring tourists to Palestine. Except that is precisely not where the video invites them. Instead it beckons tourists to visit "Judea and Samaria", the Biblical names Israel uses to justify the illegal Jewish settlements that dominate much of the West Bank.
Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman launched his new plan to retool the occupation. His "carrot and stick" approach is intended to sideline the Palestinian Authority in favour of new local leaders hand-picked by Israel. He will use a new website to speak in Arabic directly to ordinary Palestinians, who in turn will be colour-coded in green and red to denote whether they are "good" or "bad".
In just a decade, a Palestinian farming project, Canaan Fair Trade, has recruited 2,000 small-hold olive farmers in the West Bank. It teaches them how to grow crops that can withstand the privations of a hostile occupation; cooperate to raise prices and make a sustainable living; and access foreign markets as a way to bypass Israeli control.
Israel is stepping up its efforts to seize control of Palestinian heritage sites and antiquities in the occupied territories in violation of international law, Palestinian and Israeli archaeologists warned this week. The experts echoed criticisms levelled against Israel in a recent resolution passed by the United Nations' cultural agency, UNESCO, that accused Israel of interfering with major holy sites in occupied areas.
There is mounting evidence that Israeli ambulance crews are withholding treatment from Palestinians injured during a wave of attacks over the past six months. Physicians for Human Rights in Israel found that wounded Palestinians had been left untreated for as long as two hours. In some cases, it is believed medical teams failed to tend to the injuries of suspected attackers as revenge, in the expectation that they would die from their wounds.
Israel is to put financial pressure on Palestinian schools in occupied East Jerusalem in an effort to make them switch over to an Israeli-controlled curriculum. Palestinian officials have slammed the move, warning that it is part of intensified efforts by Israel to disconnect East Jerusalem from the neighbouring West Bank and entrench its control over the 300,000 Palestinians in the city.
