Netanyahu has issued an unprecedented apology over the killing of a Palestinian in 2017, admitting Israeli officials covered up their role in his death. But the Israeli PM's remarks don't just belatedly expose a police crime, they expand and deepen the lies
The US and Israel don't just share brutal and racist policing methods. In a world of depleting resources and a contracting global economy, they are devising strategies to prevent resistance from a growing underclass.
Israel's Palestinian citizens brought the country’s busiest highway to a crawl as they drove in a slow convoy towards Jerusalem to protest police inaction over a tide of violence that has swept their communities. More than 70 lives have been claimed so far this year.
The annual "March of Return" by Palestinians in Israel, commemorating the Nakba - the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 - has been blocked by the Israeli police for the first time in its history. The police have denied the organisers a permit, saying there is a shortage of officers to oversee the march. But Palestinian leaders in Israel accuse the government of Benjamin Netanyahu of being behind the decision.
The top posts in Israel's national police force are now in the hands of hardline religious settlers who are seeking to make "alarming" changes to policing in both Israel and the occupied territories, critics have warned. The growing influence of the settler movement was highlighted this month with the appointment of Rahamim Brachyahu as the force's chief rabbi.
Wearing a T-shirt, chanting songs at a demonstration or donating clothing could be enough for Israel's large Palestinian minority to fall foul of a newly passed anti-terrorism law, civil rights groups have warned. The legislation, applied in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, dramatically broadens the range of offences to include sympathising with, encouraging and failing to prevent terrorism.
Israeli human rights groups say videos taken on phones challenge the accuracy of official Israeli accounts of the circumstances in which police have killed or injured Palestinians. The footage provides concrete evidence that police have been “quick to shoot to kill” rather than arrest Palestinians in Jerusalem and Israel who were suspected of involvement in attacks on Israeli Jews.
