Israel-Palestine News Update: 1st-7th June 🌍

Hebrew News Sources:
Ynet News: Settler leader: McDonald's boycotts settlements, keep it out of airport
Settler leaders are trying to stop the McDonald's from participating in a government tender for the duty free hall at Ben-Gurion International Airport over what they say is an unofficial boycott of the settlements by the fast food chain. The head of Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, wrote a letter to the finance and transportation ministers claiming that McDonald's Israel, under the guidance of owner Omri Padan has continuously refused to open any McDonald's branches in the West Bank, and therefore effectively boycotting Israeli citizens... "The law to prevent harm to the State of Israel via a boycott is clear and unequivocal (regarding) any public call for a cultural, academic or economic boycott of any person or entity solely because of a connection to the State of Israel," [Dagan] said... Padan was among the founders of the Peace Now movement, which has been advocating an end to occupation of the West Bank by Israel and the formation of an adjacent Palestinian state. In response, McDonald’s Israel said the global McDonald’s headquarters did not approve branches in the West Bank.
Read more: https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5519558,00.html

i24 News: Gaza militant groups replenish rocket supplies since last escalation with Israel: WSJ report
Gaza militants can launch a thousand rockets a day for a whole month, PIJ leader said last week. Militant factions in the Gaza Strip have restocked their supply of rockets to the same quantities they had before the last round of escalation against Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported this week based on interviews with Israeli officials. The stock of rockets was replenished through a combination of smuggling supplies into the strip and local production by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), according to the report, which added that the firepower is meant to help pressure Israel to lift the siege on Gaza.
Read more: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/1559629211-gaza-militant-groups-replenish-rocket-supplies-since-last-escalation-with-israel-wsj-report

The Times of Israel: Jerusalem’s no man’s land: Chaos and anarchy in the Kafr Aqab neighborhood
Israel captured Kafr Aqab in 1967 from Jordan during the Six Day War and shortly thereafter annexed and incorporated most of it into an expanded Jerusalem... The barrier and the checkpoint left Kafr Aqab residents, who hold Israeli residency and pay taxes to Israeli authorities, disconnected from the rest of Jerusalem. It also severed a handful of other neighborhoods from the remainder of the city, including the Shuafat refugee camp, Ras Khamis, Ras Shehada and Dahiyat al-Salam... Munir Zughayer, an activist who leads a committee that frequently complains to the Jerusalem Municipality about the state of services in Kafr Aqab, expressed concern about the lack of law enforcement in the neighborhood. “The police and the other law enforcement bodies almost never come here,” he said. “When a car accident, a robbery, a violent dispute or other incidents take place, we call the police, but they do not dispatch anyone here.” There is no permanent police presence in Kafr Aqab; many residents said law enforcement rarely enters the neighborhood. But Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld pushed back on Zughayer’s contention that police officers rarely go to Kafr Aqab. “We respond to all calls and when necessary, we send our forces, including the border police” he said... Zughayer added that the lack of law enforcement has forced family elders to mediate and resolve disputes. “The family leaders have undertaken work in brokering disputes, but they are no replacement for a permanent and professional police presence here.”
Read more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/jerusalems-no-mans-land-chaos-and-anarchy-in-the-kafr-aqab-neighborhood/

Arutz Sheva: Hamas livid after Abbas phones Rivlin
Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday called President Reuven Rivlin to express his condolences over the death of his wife, Nechama Rivlin, raising the ire of Hamas. According to the PA’s official news agency Wafa, Abbas offered his condolences to Rivlin “and asked God to provide him and his family with comfort and patience.” Rivlin thanked Abbas for the call and wished him happy holidays on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the conclusion of Ramadan, the report said. Hamas later blasted Abbas for making the phone call. "Abbas’s condolences are a betrayal of the Palestinian people, a knife in the hearts of the martyrs’ families, and a complete disregard of their feelings," the terror group said in a statement quoted by Yediot Aharonot.
Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/264312

Arab News Sources:
Palestine News Network: EU slams Israeli regime over seizing, selling humanitarian aid sent to West Bank
The European Union has lambasted Israel for its apparent plans to sell humanitarian aid given to inhabitants of Bedouin villages in Palestine’s occupied West Bank. Shadi Othman, EU’s spokesman in Jerusalem, said on Friday that COGAT, a unit in Israel’s ministry of military affairs that oversees civilian activities in the Palestinian territories, would put up EU-donated aid for auction within days... The European body often finances humanitarian structures in Bedouin villages, which are frequently seized by Israeli authorities who claim the necessary authorization has not been provided. Israeli authorities have been carrying out forced evacuations against Bedouins since 1949. The demolition of Bedouin homes by Israeli authorities, claiming that the residential structures have been built without the relevant building permits, is also part of the Israeli regime’s massive land grab policy, which will forcefully displace thousands of people.
Read more: http://english.pnn.ps/2019/06/01/eu-slams-israeli-regime-over-seizing-selling-humanitarian-aid-sent-to-west-bank/

Asharq al-Awsat: Israel Cuts Gaza Fishing Zone After New Fire Balloons
Israel has cut the fishing zone it allows off Gaza, an official said Thursday, in the third such response in a fortnight to Palestinian incendiary balloons. The Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity that as of Wednesday the fishing limit for Gaza fishermen had been reduced from a maximum of 15 nautical miles to 10. A spokesman for the Israeli fire service said incendiary balloons from Gaza caused three blazes on Tuesday. It was only on Tuesday that Israel restored the limit to 15 miles after a previous reduction in response to fire balloons last week. It imposed a similar cut on May 23. In the past year, Palestinians have succeeded in setting fire to large areas of farmland in southern Israel. The limit of up to 15 nautical miles set ahead of Israel's April general election is the largest allowed in years. But human rights activists note that it still falls short of the 20 nautical miles agreed under the Oslo accords of the 1990s.
Read more: https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1755901/israel-cuts-gaza-fishing-zone-after-new-fire-balloons

Al Jazeera: Palestinians wary of Israel's checkpoint changes
For years, workers would routinely spend up to three hours crossing checkpoints, including Qalandia, across the occupied West Bank, arriving in the pre-dawn hours in order to make it to work on time. The crowded conditions would sometimes lead to people fainting or sustaining injuries. But in recent months, Israel has renovated Qalandia and Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem, creating more lanes and introducing automatic gates in which Palestinians tap biometric entry permits to pass. Workers and analysts told Al Jazeera that despite the easing of conditions, they believe the new policies are part of an Israeli propaganda campaign aimed at enhancing its own image in the rest of the world and pacifying the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank... Mushtaq, a 35-year-old who works in construction in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera that he believes these renovations and policies at the checkpoint are meant to "reflect a nice image to the world".
"It helps the workers, but it's clear they (Israel) doesn't actually care. They just want to show a better image to the world," he said. "It's all propaganda."
Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/palestinians-wary-israel-checkpoint-190602052851651.html
Also: This piece from The Times of Israel, which we shared back in April, also speaks to workers about the new checkpoint facilities

The New Arab: Jerusalem set for Gay Pride march under heavy security
Thousands of people are expected to participate in Jerusalem's annual Gay Pride march on Thursday under high security following a knife attack by a Jewish religious extremist that killed a teenager in 2015... This year marks the 18th Gay Pride march in Jerusalem, but due to the city's conservative religious character, controversy and even violence have erupted at times... Israel has the most open attitude to homosexuality in the Middle East, with a large and influential gay community. But conservative Jerusalem, which is sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, is far less gay-friendly than liberal Tel Aviv... But queer pro-Palestinian activists have regularly slammed Israel for its double standards amid a wave of human rights violations against Palestinians, including those of the LGBTQ community.
Read more: https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/6/6/jerusalem-set-for-gay-pride-march-under-heavy-security

International News Sources:
The New York Times: New Palestinian Premier Warns of a ‘Very Hot Summer’
Pressured by the Trump administration, confronted with Israeli talk of annexing the West Bank, increasingly isolated in the Arab world and running out of money, the beleaguered Palestinian Authority is staring at what its new prime minister acknowledges could be its own demise. “We are in a collapsing situation,” the premier, Muhammad Shtayyeh, said in an interview... If the Israelis want the authority to collapse, “let them push it to collapse,” he said. “We will not dissolve the authority. But they can push it to collapse.”... When the authority can no longer pay its bills, he said, “we will start by sending our security people home.” That threat has a specific meaning in Israel, whose security forces work closely with their Palestinian counterparts to root out terrorist cells, prevent attacks on Israelis or pursue the perpetrators, and deconflict Israeli military raids in areas of the West Bank under Palestinian security control.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/world/middleeast/palestinian-prime-minister-israel.html

ABC News: A secret pay raise by Cabinet angers Palestinian public
The Palestinian labor market in the West Bank was limping along in 2017, with unemployment stubbornly high and economic growth slowing. But that didn't stop the Palestinian Cabinet from secretly giving itself a series of lavish payouts and perks, highlighted by a 67% salary hike. The payments and perks were kept quiet for the past two years, but news of the Cabinet decision leaked this week in a series of documents posted anonymously to social media... After years in office, Abbas has seen his popularity plummet. People are disillusioned by his failure to deliver an independent state, his loss of the Gaza Strip to the rival Hamas movement and general economic malaise. Unemployment in the West Bank is near 20%, and a typical salary for those who do work, such as civil servants, is roughly $700 to $1,000 a month.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/secret-pay-raise-cabinet-angers-palestinian-public-63478904
Also: New Palestinian PM has pledged to end this pay rise & investigate

The Telegraph: Mike Pompeo questions whether Jared Kushner's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan can succeed
Speaking to a closed-door gathering of US Jewish leaders, Mr Pompeo said the long-awaited peace initiative may be “unexecutable” and that he understood why it was widely seen as biased in Israel’s favour. “It may be rejected,” Mr Pompeo said, according to the Washington Post. “I get why people think this is going to be a deal that only the Israelis could love.”... Mr Kushner defended his plan in an interview with the Axios website but sparked controversy by questioning whether the Palestinians were capable of governing themselves and suggesting it didn’t matter if the Palestinians trusted him.
Read more: telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/03/mike-pompeo-questions-whether-jared-kushners-israeli-palestinian/

The Guardian: Galloway charity ‘may have delivered no aid despite £1m donations’
A charity fronted by the former MP George Galloway may not have conducted any charitable activity or distributed any humanitarian aid despite claiming to have gathered £1m in public donations, according to an investigation from the charity regulator. Viva Palestina was established in early 2009 and launched a large-scale media fundraising campaign to finance aid convoys to Gaza from the UK, bringing food, medicine, medical equipment and essential goods and services... On the website, Galloway – who was sacked this week by TalkRadio after sending an allegedly antisemitic tweet – was also listed as a “subscriber” and had signed the charity’s constitution, which said it was formed “for the alleviation of suffering and to help the people of Gaza to rebuild their land”. But investigators from the Charity Commission found that the charity’s trustees (who did not include Galloway) failed in the basic requirement to keep receipts and records of income and expenditure and never submitted any accounts. It concluded: “In terms of activities, it was difficult for the inquiry to establish with any certainty whether any charitable activity had taken place, as it found little if any evidence that humanitarian aid was distributed to those in need in accordance with the charity’s objects.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/06/galloway-charity-may-have-delivered-no-aid-despite-1m-donations

Israel-Palestine News: 1st-7th June