Five Israeli tourists are blown up at a Bulgarian resort. Netanyahu wastes not a minute in blaming Hezbollah. Conspiranoid websites waste not a minute in blaming an Israeli “false flag” attack. Birds of a feather, it seems.
A panel commissioned by the Israeli government recommended that the state “legalize” dozens of unsanctioned West Bank settlements, and nullify Supreme Court decisions that have barred settlement expansion in certain areas.
A delegation of senior British jurists released a report finding Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children in custody violates international law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Fourth Geneva Convention.
Police detained 89 demonstrators after more than 6,500 people flooded Tel Aviv’s Habima Square to protest the arrest of Daphni Leef, a leader of last summer’s mass movement against the high cost of housing in Israel.
As Iran announces plans to build a nuclear submarine, Israel receives its fourth nuclear-capable submarine from Germany. Der Spiegel reports that the subs have already been armed with nuclear-tipped Cruise missiles.
Amnesty International urged Israel to release all “administrative detainees” or immediately try them under international fair trial standards. The report protests that Israel continues to use “emergency measures” dating to the British Mandate period.
Amid a wave of anti-immigrant protests and harsh new laws, Israel’s Interior Minister Eli Yishaii complains that most of the “Muslims that arrive here do not even believe that this country belongs to us, to the white man.”
Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli facilities agreed to an Egyptian-brokered deal ending the strikes in exchange for improved conditions and a pledge to release the detainees at the end of their “administrative detention” terms.
Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called for a new intifada to support the more than 4,000 Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel, hundreds of whom started a mass open-ended hunger-strike two weeks ago.
In a move blasted by rights organizations, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that buildings of the Ulpana settlement outpost on the West Bank, ordered destroyed because of a claim by Palestinian land-owners, would receive a 60-day reprieve.
UN aid agencies in the occupied West Bank protested that Israel destroyed 21 homes of Palestinian Bedouin refugees at Khalayleh north of East Jerusalem—leaving 54 people homeless, including 35 children.
Israeli prison authorities stormed the cells of Palestinian prisoners, leaving 61 injured. The raid in Israel’s Nafha facility came after prisoners refused to submit to forcible DNA tests. The Palestinian Authority says the tests are illegal.
