Slippery Slope

Israel has “voluntarily” returned at least 1,000 people to Sudan, an enemy country that has vowed to punish any of its citizens who ever set foot in Israel. The repatriation was done secretly, via a third country, over the last few months, without the knowledge of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Even though according to the Oslo accords Israel transferred to the Palestinian Authority full administrative responsibility over area A and civil administration of area B, the IDF is preventing construction and development in 4,700 dunams of these areas citing security reasons. Furthermore, seizure orders were issued for approximately 1,870 additional dunams in these areas for use in paving roads related to construction of the separation fence. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Four Israeli citizens are being denied the right to visit Israel, see their families and update their documents at the Interior Ministry just because they happen to live in the Gaza Strip, even though the authorities do not deny that the women are citizens. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

A new study criticizes Israeli school books, claiming they portray the Palestinians negatively. According to a source who read the final report, “the Israeli side emphasizes the series of disturbances, while the Palestinians claim that Israel is the result of imperialist acts. One of the main conclusions is that each side sticks to its own narrative.” Furthermore, the study criticizes Israeli textbooks for not showing the Green Line, and claims that the textbooks in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community are “the closest to the Palestinian textbooks in their treatment of the other side,” according to one source. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Israel does not allow a 6 year and 8 month old child to accompany his mother, a Palestinian resident of the Gaza Strip, on a visit to the West Bank, citing his age.

(Hebrew – Gisha.org)

The Prime Minister’s Office demanded that Prof. Rivka Feldhay, a faculty member of Tel Aviv University, cancel her participation in a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Netanayhu with academics in Berlin, because of her political views and criticism of government policy. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Germany decided to abstain from a UN General Assembly vote on the acceptance of Palestine as an observer state.  According to a senior German diplomat said that the reason for not opposing the move is that the “Israelis did not respond in any way to our request for positive gestures toward the Palestinians, specifically in relation to construction in settlements.” (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Israel may expand settlement construction,  as a possible sanction against the Palestinian Authority, should the PA request permanent observer-state status at the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

For over six years Israel has been preventing Palestinian human rights activist Shawan Jabarin from travelling abroad, without providing any cause for the travel ban, and without arresting or prosecuting him.

Israel’s Civil Administration issues 101 different types of permits to govern the movement of Palestinians, whether within the West Bank, between the West Bank and Israel or beyond the borders of the state. There is much overlap beween kinds of permits. For example, medical permits differentiate between physicians and ambulance drivers, and between “medical emergency staff” and “medical staff in the seam zone,” meaning the border between Israel and the West Bank.