This week, April 4th to 10th the website is very full. It has been a week that is rich in news and comment. Timeless, and most moving is the lament from Rita Khoury. Both Palestinians and Israeli Jews love their children, friends, families. They are both grievously hurt when one of them is killed. None […]

This a rare piece that touches on the harrowing feelings of loss and helplessness that afflicts those who have to go on living when one of theirs is killed – stabbed or executed. And still neither the Israeli nor the Palestinian leader takes responsibility for making a political resolution.

A visit to Lady Amos, director of SOAS, seems to have been the first formal call made by Mark Regev after taking up his position as Israel’s ambassador to the UK. Rabbi Mirvitz had to make do with a tweet. Students of course protested.

Yes, it can and does get worse. Experienced journalist Mazal Mualem writes that, for the first time, Likud has abandoned all links with its liberal past, responds only to right-wing pressure and no longer has anyone to block the move into a security hegemon.

Private security agencies protect settlements and run checkpoints and surveillance systems. Why does the Israeli state contract out these functions? Largely because private agencies can carry them out without invoking an obligation to ensure all citizens and all security agencies are subject to the same rules.

‘There is not a single case of an Israeli soldier being indicted for murder after shooting and killing an unarmed Palestinian civilian.’ Lisa Goldman counts the killed and notes the shocking clarity of the images of the scene of the killing of a wounded Palestinian. Dan Cohen says the soldier was just obeying orders.

For Ma’an news, the ‘shooting incident’ should have been international news but was ignored by the media. For Zvi Bar’el, the same incident was a defining moment in Israel’s history, one which serves both left and right. But it’s the right which is attacking the gov’t for not supporting the shooter.

In a clear-sighted, gently written article Sayed Kashua imagines what the soldier thinks when killing a Palestinian. Putting down a dog? Scientifically rendering him neutral? Knowing Israelis must clean up their own garbage he sees he is compelled to return to Israel from the US.

Haifa, once a Palestinian town, has become largely populated by Israeli Jews. But the desire to forge a clear identity for the Palestinians who remain has led to a surge of creative, cultural work. This requires independent financing as state arts funding depends on ‘loyalty’ to the state.

The EU has been funding the construction of simple modular homes for Bedouin in the Jordan Valley for some time. The Israeli state has been knocking them down for just as long. Regavim, the right-wing body which has appointed itself the guardian of all land in ‘Greater Israel’, has sharpened its attack on ‘EU-funded Palestinian settlements’ but not improved the quality of its arguments.

It would astonish many to know that survivors of the holocaust living in Israel do not receive generous pensions to allow them to live comfortably in their old age. Worse, a new dispute has cut off their incomes. Bank Leumi is one of the entities involved and as it enjoys such a profitable relationship with non-tax-paying Israelis it could surely afford to be generous.

“Badil shows the desperate need for intervention by the ICC on the grounds that Israel’s internal investigative processes are structurally inept at delivering genuine accountability or justice.”

Glenn Greenwald surveys how all expressions of Palestinian resistance, and support for it, are defined as antisemitic, terrorist, or criminal – which BDS has been made by various states and universities.

A clutch of Israeli businesses and individuals have gained a lot of money through secretive dealing and tax evasion. People from Mossack Fonseca and Leumi bank representatives discussed their dealings during golf games or barbecues. The two chief conspirators, Mossack and Fonseca, were born into Roman Catholic families. Who needs John Le Carré or Graham Greene when real life is so exotically dishonest?

The bill to suspend MKs if they negate the existence of Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state,” incite racism, or express support for a terror group passed its first reading last month despite major opposition from Likud MKs as well as the Joint List and Labour.

This posting and the one below should cause alarm. By some measures the Israeli public is ready to ignore the rule of law in order to back the murder of a wounded Palestinian. And the IDF is no longer the unifying, idealised body it once was. No rule of law, no civilisation.

Israeli forces use excessive and intentional force without justification against Palestinian civilians in the oPt. And Israel lacks the legal mechanisms and political will to effectively investigate. That’s at the heart of this report from 3 major human rights organisations. They call for Israel to be brought, like everyone else, under the rule of international law.

This week, March 28th-April 3rd, the website buzzes with activity (other people’s). Tair Kaminer, the young Israeli CO (conscientious objector) has been released after serving 20 days in prison – but is subject to prison recall throughout her years of eligibility for military service: Defiant CO goes to gaol Palestinian women however have become more […]

In the view of the Jewish Chronicle Britain has ‘a Jewish community’ which is pretty much of one mind. Green mayoral candidate Sian Berry is not what that mind wants (she’s for smart boycotts of Israeli products, against faith schools…) London’s mayoral and assembly elections and the Welsh, N. Irish and Scottish parliament elections are on 5 May 2016.

Hebron and Tel Rumeida have been sliced into sections by Israeli security, designated a closed military zone with the twin aims of protecting settlers and ensuring total control by armed forces. Here, at a checkpoint, a soldier casually shoots dead a wounded Palestinian. He never imagined there would be a fuss about it.