The Palestine Chronology

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers with military escort raided Halhul, vandalizing 1 mosque; Israeli forces shot and injured 2 Palestinians with live ammunition and others with baton rounds and tear gas when the Palestinians confronted the settlers. Israeli settlers also assaulted Palestinian farmers in Shufa, causing injuries. Elsewhere, Israeli settlers chased Palestinian herders off their land in al-Juwaya in the Masafer Yatta area and let their cattle graze on Palestinian crops. In East Jerusalem, Israeli settlers with Israeli police escort attacked 3 Palestinians in Silwan, causing hospitalizations, and vandalized 1 vehicle. Off the coast of Gaza, Israeli naval forces arrested 8 Palestinian fishermen and seized 2 boats within 3 nautical miles northwest of the Rafah seaport; 6 of the 8 fishermen were released on 6/1. (WAFA, WAFA, WAFA 5/31; PCHR 6/1)

Hamas’s military judicial authority sentenced 2 Palestinians for spying for Israel. 1 of the Palestinians was sentenced to life in prison while the other received a 7-year sentence. (JP 5/31)

An Israeli military court sentenced 1 Palestinian man to life in prison plus 25 years for the killing of an Israeli soldier in the West Bank on 8/2019 and ordered him to pay $450,000 to the family of the soldier. The Palestinian man was not present at the killing, but the court claimed that he had formed a cell that incited the murder of the Israeli man. (HA 5/31)

PA president Mahmoud Abbas spoke with U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken in a phone call. According to Axios reporting, President Abbas pressed Secretary Blinken on Israeli attempts to change the Status Quo at the Haram al-Sharif compound, the lack of a political horizon, the Israeli settler march on 5/29, and the Biden administration’s failure to act on its campaign promises on Palestine. Abbas also asked the U.S. to remove the PLO from the U.S. list of terror organizations and to reopen the PLO mission in Washington D.C. Abbas also met with Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi in Ramallah. (WAFA 5/31; AX, WAFA 6/1)

Haaretz reported that an Israeli plan to reduce the economic gaps between Palestinians and Israeli Jews living in Israeli cities had been postponed due to failure to fund the program. The plan was finalized in October 2021 in response to tensions between Palestinians and Israeli Jews in cities in which both populations reside. Additionally, some local governments have opposed earmarking funds exclusively for Palestinian communities in the cities they govern. (HA 5/31)

Israel and the UAE signed a free trade agreement removing tariffs on food, agriculture, cosmetics, medical equipment, and medicine. The agreement also defines tax rates, imports and intellectual property. The free trade agreement was part of the Israeli-UAE-U.S. normalization agreement. (REU 5/30; ABC, AJ, ALM, BB, HA, JP, MEMO, NBC, REU, TOI, WSJ 5/31; CNN 6/1; ALM, HA 6/2)

U.S. state department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that the Biden administration remains committed to reopening the U.S. consulate to Palestinians in Jerusalem. The statement comes after reporting in the Times of Israel that the U.S. had given up on its plans due to the instability in the Israeli government coalition. (REU 5/31; MEMO 6/1; AX 6/4)

15 Democratic members of the U.S. house of representatives, led by Cori Bush (D-MO), wrote a letter to Secretary Blinken urging him to send the “strongest message possible” to prevent Israel from evicting more than 1,000 Palestinians from the Masafer Yatta area, calling the displacement of Palestinians “a war crime.” (HA, MEE 5/31; WAFA 6/1)

Lebanese parliament reelected Nabih Berri of the Amal Movement as speaker at the 1st parliamentary session of the newly elected parliament. Speaker Berri, who received 65 of 128 votes, has been the speaker of the parliament since 1992. (AJ, HA, MEMO, REU, REU 5/31)

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers razed 20 dunums (5 acres) of land near Jalud. Israeli forces punitively demolished the home of an alleged attacker in Turmus ‘Ayya, displacing his family and damaging nearby buildings as the house was blown up. 8 Palestinians were arrested during late-night raids in and around al-Arroub refugee camp, Hebron, Dahariya, al-Khader, and Abu Dis. In East Jerusalem, Israeli forces delivered a demolition order for a 4-story building in Shu‘fat, which would displace 55 Palestinians. 2 Palestinians were arrested during raids in Isawiya and the Old City. In Gaza, Israeli forces opened fire on residential buildings east of Rafah, causing damage but no injuries. (AJ, ALM, AX, HA, JP, MEE, MEMO, REU, REU, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA 7/8; AP, TOI 7/9; PCHR 7/15)

Palestinian owners of the land seized by Israeli settlers for the Evyater settlement outpost petitioned the Israeli high court of justice to cancel the deal made between the Israeli settlers and the Israeli government on 7/1. (HA, WAFA 7/8)

1 Palestinian prisoner held on administrative detention was released from detention to a hospital in Ramallah after 65 days of hunger strike. (PCHR 7/7; AP, HA, MEE, MEMO, WAFA 7/8; AJ 7/9)

PA president Mahmoud Abbas and other senior PA officials met with 11 U.S. congresspeople in Ramallah, including the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Ted Deutch (D-FL), David Cicilline (D-RI), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Andy Barr (R-KY), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), and French Hill (R-AR). The members of Congress met with Israeli officials on 7/6. (MEE 7/6; JNS 7/7; WAFA 7/8)

Israel charged a Palestinian Israeli imam of Lydda’s largest mosque, Shaykh Yousef al-Baz, with incitement to violence for sharing a movie clip on Facebook showing people killing a police officer. Shaykh al-Baz was arrested on 6/17. (ALM, HA 7/8)

Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid and Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi met at the Allenby Bridge, where the 2 made agreements for Jordan to buy 50 million cubic meters of water from Israel and to increase the Jordanian export to the West Bank from $160 million to $700 million. Foreign minister Safadi also called for Israeli to halt settlement expansions, maintaining the status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem, and called evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem a “war crime.” Walla News also reported that Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett secretly met with Jordan’s king Abdullah II in Amman last week and that PA president Mahmoud Abbas was summoned to meet King Abdullah shortly after his meeting with Prime Minister Bennett. President Abbas met with King Abdullah in Amman on 6/30. (AJ, ALM, AP, AX, HA, HA, MEE, MEMO, REU, TOI 7/8; MEMO 7/9)

The Israeli high court of justice denied petitions challenging the legality of the nation-state law, ruling 10-1 that the law is not anti-democratic in the eyes of the judges. The dissenting judge is the court’s only Palestinian Israeli judge. Chairman of the Joint Arab List Ayman Odeh called the ruling “racist and anti-democratic.” Adalah said that the court had “enshrined Jewish supremacy and racial segregation as founding principles of the Israeli regime” with its ruling. For more about the Nation-State law, see the IPS publication “Israel's Nation-State Law: Institutionalizing Discrimination.” (AJ, AP, HA, JP, TOI, WAFA, WP 7/8; MEMO 7/9)

The U.S. embassy in Israel issued a statement criticizing the Israeli punitive demolition of the house of an accused Palestinian-American assailant in Turmus ‘Ayya (see above); secretary of state Antony Blinken “raised concern directly with senior Israeli officials” about the issue, possibly because the family living in the building are U.S. citizens. House chairman Meeks also called the Israeli foreign minister to protest the demolition. (AJ, ALM, AX, HA, JP, MEE, MEMO, REU, REU 7/8; AX 7/14)

Israeli forces shoot and kill a Palestinian youth in the Old City of Jerusalem after she allegedly attempts to stab an Israeli police officer at Damascus Gate, causing no injuries. Palestinian witnesses say that she did not pose a threat to the police, and that she was “executed in cold blood.” Elsewhere in East Jerusalem, the Israeli police open a new station in Shu‘fat r.c. It’s the first of 5 new stations planned across East Jerusalem as part of the NIS 1 b. plan to increase security announced in 8/2016 (see JPS 46 [1]). Meanwhile, Israeli forces arrest 6 Palestinians during late-night raids in Silwan and the Old City. Along Gaza’s border, Israeli forces conduct limited incursions to level land nr Dayr al-Balah and Khan Yunis. Off Gaza’s coast, Israeli naval forces open fire on Palestinian fishing boats nr. Bayt Lahiya, causing no damage or injuries. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers assault Palestinian farmers protesting the expansion of a settler bypass road nr. Ramallah; there are no serious injuries. IDF troops confiscate surveillance tapes, arrest 8 Palestinians, and issue 2 arrest summons during late-night raids in and around Bethlehem, Qalqilya, and Hebron; and patrol nr. Nablus and Hebron during the day. (HA, MNA 5/7; MNA 5/8; PCHR 5/11)

The Egyptian authorities open the Rafah border crossing for the 2d of 3 planned days. They also announce that the crossing will be open an additional day on 5/9. (WAFA 5/7)

The IPS releases footage, taken on 4/27 and 5/5, purportedly showing Marwan Barghouti eating cookies and candy in his prison cell. Barghouti, the Fatah leader who organized the Dignity Strike, is currently being held at Kishon Prison. Some IPS sources say that they provided him with the food to see if they could get him to break his strike. Barghouti’s lawyer and various Palestinian leaders dismiss the videos as forgeries. (JP, NYT, TOI 5/7; HA 5/8)

Israel’s Ministerial Comm. for Legislation approves a new version of the so-called nation-state bill, which would cancel Arabic’s status as an “official language” of Israel and codify Israel’s status as the “national home of the Jewish people”. Disagreements over previous drafts of this bill led to the dissolution of the Knesset and national elections in 3/2015 (see JPS 44 [3, 4]). Unlike earlier drafts, the version approved today does not subordinate Israel’s democracy to its Jewish character. (HA, JP, TOI 5/7)