Alice Speri of The Intercept writes: “The U.S. has laws banning the funding of military assistance to foreign military units with a record of human rights abuses. But they have never applied them to Israel.” See her new piece.

On Monday, Sam Husseini questioned State Department spokesperson Ned Price, see: “State Dept. Claims ‘We Follow the Law in Every Instance’ but Stonewalls on Law About Israeli Nukes” on Substack.

On Monday, Price criticized Israeli building of illegal Jewish-only settlements on the West Bank, but said Israel “is going to make its own sovereign decisions.” But Israel does not have sovereignty over the West Bank.

ISSA AMRO, issaamro@gmail.com, @Issaamro
The Israeli military assaulted UN-Recognized Human Rights Defender Amro on the closed Shuhada Street in occupied Hebron. The assault, which was caught on camera in a viral video, happened in front of New Yorker correspondent Lawrence Wright, who said the Israeli military misrepresented the incident.

An Israeli soldier was filmed grabbing Amro by the throat and throwing him violently to the ground, then proceeding to kick him before another soldier intervened. Wright tweeted the video, which went viral. The Israeli army claimed that Amro provoked the incident. In response, Wright tweeted: “The IDF is misrepresenting what led to assault on peace activist Issa Amro in Hebron yesterday. The soldier initiated the encounter. Amro did not curse or interfere only asked that he call the commander. Nothing to justify the attack that followed.”

Haaretz reports the soldier is to be jailed for ten days.

But Amro notes Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tweeted a statement in support of the attacker. In response, Amro stated, “Last time I filmed an Israeli soldier brutally beating up an activist, Israeli media reported that the soldier received large money donations in support of his violence.” Amro stated. “I would not be surprised if this soldier will now receive money too. This is the reality under Ben Gvir’s extremist army.”

The assault is the most recent incident in the bout of attacks against Palestinians and Amro in the wake of the latest Israeli elections. Amro has faced threats, beatings and arbitrary detentions since filming an assault of an Israeli peace activist in late 2022. Amro is the director of the charity Friends of Hebron and the co-founder and former coordinator of the Palestinian community group Youth Against Settlements. While visiting the U.S. last month, Amro was featured on an IPA news release.

Sam Husseini is an independent journalist and senior analyst at IPA.