This week, January 25-31, 2016 the absence of major political developments in Israel or Palestine creates a space for a number of articles which are often sidelined. The extra restrictions and violent punishments imposed on young Palestinian women by brothers and cousins is, sadly, a familiar topic. Now various Palestinian women’s NGOs and initiatives have […]

In an article that reads like a short story Liz Rose describes how an adolescent is delighted to discover meaning in the Israel and Zionism she learns about at summer camp along with its erotic companion, discovering one’s own and another’s body in teenage utopia.

Education minister Naftali Bennett commissioned a group of people to write a new civics textbook. After seeing how their work had been changed, three of them insisted their names as authors be removed. The new textbook defines their country as first and foremost Jewish. Democracy is an optional add-on.

Netanyahu’s latest kneejerk reaction to criticism is ridiculous and desperate. The mild-mannered UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon made a straight , unexceptionable speech about the plight of young Palestinians. To the Israeli PM this constituted direct encouragement of terrorism.

This account by the International Business Times of the Israeli Jordan Valley land grab tells us nothing new in words. But it displays a number of splendid photos in which the valley is a wonderful free space for Bedouin adults and children, sheep and shepherds. But the words tell you that Israel’s greed for land presages the end of that freedom.

Israel is seizing a large chunk of the West Bank and declaring it to be Israeli state land. It will probably be used for more settlements, as land taken ostensibly for military use is then built on for settlers. Many, including the UN and USA have condemned this land grab. But so what?

Those who advocate boycotting goods made in the illegal settlements are accustomed to being labelled antisemites, akin to the Nazis. Now we learn that the US Customs is reminding Israel that goods produced in the West Bank and Gaza must not be passed off as ‘made in Israel’.

Jewish Home et al are baying for more Palestinian blood (every stabber has been shot dead) and more restrictions. COGAT, which administers the oPt, counsels against tighter controls. That would cause more aggravation while maintaining current movements in and out of Israel for work is stabilising.

Figures for violence against women in the oPt are frighteningly high. One of the organisations created to respond it, SAWA, titled its latest conference ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ meaning the abused women identified with their tormentors rather than a possible world of freedom.

Women are more restricted, made more fearful by the Occupation. Not controversial. Women also have to face violence, legal discrimination and disregard for their fate as victims of traditional brotherhoods. More and more women’s groups are being created to challenge these practices.

In Israel’s scramble for modernity, work on a pipeline carrying oil from the port of Ashkelon to the resort of Eilat clashed with work to construct a new airport in Timna, southern Israel. More shocking than the environmental disaster has been the absolute secrecy about the pipeline – in which deals with prohibited countries are key. The FT’s John Reed looks at what’s involved.

Tourist visits to Israel have fallen for the second year running. The contribution of tourism to Israel’s GDP was once over 10% but has now fallen by over third to 7.2%. The FCO doesn’t say ‘don’t go’ but does advise a state of perpetual vigilance.

This article from 6 months ago, by Hajer Naili, suggests that early marriages, violence against women and difficulties for pregnant women all increased during the war against Gaza and have continued since.

There are many issues in Palestinian society which affect only women, or affect them disproportionately. They are rarely the subject of public discussion. Women journalists in Gaza want change – and not more coverage of women ‘weeping and complaining’.

The purpose of this article by Jonathan Schanzer for the right-wing Foundation for Defense of Democracies is to show that the failure to reach an agreement on a Palestinian state is entirely due to Hamas. The reason for posting it here is to ensure we know the range of views on why the conflict seems to have no end.

At last week’s national security conference, Isaac Herzog, joint leader of the Zionist Union, laid out his plan for next steps which Israel could take re Palestinians which would be acceptable to Israeli Jews. That means it offers a little bit more than Likud. Mitchell Plitnick is not impressed.

This week, January 18-24, 2016 the usual background has shifted slightly – although the pattern of stabbings and immediate execution seems to have become part of the usual background. My son had no freedom or dignity A new element is the verbal attack, by Jewish Home leader and member of the coalition government Naftali Bennett, […]

Sair, a suburb of Hebron, has produced more stabbers and suffered more extra-judicial killings than most places. The cause seems obvious – the grip of the notion that Palestinians should not have to tolerate a life of humilation.

The accurate labelling of place of origin of goods for sale has long been an EU rule. Israel’s attempt to pass off goods produced in settlements – illegal by all standards – as made in Israel is a scam. Many in Israel and the US Congress regard this application of law as an antisemitic boycott of all Israeli products. Read the label!

From a platform at the national security conference far-right minister Naftali Bennett attacked the Netanyahu-Ya’alon couple who dominate the cabinet and security policy – which in his view is lodged in the past and cannot deal with new threats.