The Guardian reports: “The Israeli military has quietly handed over significant legal powers in the occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants working for the far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich. … Smotrich and his allies have long seen control of the Civil Administration, or significant parts of it, as a means of extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. Their ultimate goal is direct control by central government and its ministries. The transfer reduces the likelihood of legal checks on settlement expansion and development.”
Smotrich and his allies have frequently been compared to the KKK.
The increased controls prompted Yanis Varoufakis, who is calling for boycotts and sanctions against Israel, to highlight that the Israeli government’s goal is ethnic cleansing, not any sort of legitimate self defense.
Al Jazeera reports: “UN rights chief warns situation in West Bank ‘dramatically deteriorating.’”
Israeli attacks on the West Bank have continued, for example, see video posted by Ramy Abdu of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor: “This is Mujahid Abbadi, an innocent civilian from Jenin in the West Bank. The Israeli army shot him without reason, then placed him on the front of a military vehicle, using him as a human shield. #GazaGenocide”
ISSA AMRO, [in Hebron] Issaamro@gmail.com, @issaamro
Amro is based in Hebron on the West Bank and is founder of Youth Against Settlements. He is regularly threatened, harassed and detained by the Israeli military and settlers for his nonviolent activity such as making films and attempting to prevent home takeovers. He just met with Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, who wrote: “Reporting this week on the West Bank, I caught up with Palestinian non-violent activist @Issaamro, who has endured repeated beatings and attacks for his advocacy. He has been called a Palestinian Gandhi. I’m hoping he stays safe.”
MIKO PELED, mikopeled@gmail.com, @mikopeled
Peled is an activist and podcaster. He has done speaking tours with Amro. His books include The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine. He wrote the piece “The October Failures.” He has recently helped establish the Palestinian House of Freedom in Washington, D.C. They post information such as “ADL Deemed Unreliable Source on Israel-Palestine; Potentially on Anti-Semitism,” and “Israel’s Crimes of Apartheid: Segregation and Control.”