Israel

3 June 2019; MEMO: A new report has claimed that an exodus of educated Israelis is accelerating, reported Ynet.

According to the Tel Aviv University-affiliated Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research, Israel “has seen an increase in the emigration of many of its most educated citizens to the United States”.

HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Majed Jameel was overwhelmed.

This wasn’t the kind of pressure he’d grown accustomed to as a teacher in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron. On a recent, not uncommon occasion, clashes erupted between students and Israeli soldiers, sending volleys of tear gas into the playground. That he could handle.

This was a different stress. After the Trump administration slashed funding last year to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, Jameel saw his classes nearly doubled in size.

1 June 2019; MEMO: US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has given a new map of Israel, which included the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a press conference held in Jerusalem, Netanyahu announced that he had received this gift through Kushner, the chief architect of the US “deal of the century”.

30 May 2019; DW: Israeli lawmakers have voted in favor of dissolving parliament following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's failure to form a coalition government. The move comes after weeks of difficult negotiations.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament voted to dissolve itself early Thursday, sending the country to an unprecedented second snap election this year as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition before a midnight deadline.

The dramatic vote, less than two months after parliamentary elections, marked a setback for Netanyahu and sent the longtime leader’s future into turmoil.

27 May 2019; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embarked on Sunday on what he termed a “final effort” to break a deadlock on forming a governing coalition ahead of a Wednesday deadline for a deal, Reuters reports.

In power for the past decade, Netanyahu has unexpectedly struggled to seal an agreement with a clutch of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties that would align with his Likud party and ensure him a fifth term following Israel’s April 9 election.

26 May 2019; DW: Opposition protesters have vowed not to let Benjamin Netanyahu undermine democracy, as they rallied against plans to grant the prime minister immunity from prosecution on a series of corruption charges.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have rallied in Tel Aviv to protest against a looming coalition agreement to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution and weaken the powers of the Supreme Court.

22 May 2019; MEMO: The Israeli government has retracted its claim that two journalists “led a riot” in Nabi Saleh in 2015, “and that their beating by soldiers was therefore justified”, reported Haaretz.

According to the article, “this is the gist of a compromise reached between the Jerusalem district attorney and the two photographers, Abbas Mumani and Haim Schwarczenberg”, who had sued the Israeli military over the assault.

22 May 2019; MEMO: Some 13,500 patients in Israeli hospitals died or were infected by illnesses while receiving care in 2017, an internal Ministry of Health report revealed yesterday.

21 May 2019; MEMO: Likud officials have warned that the failure to find a breakthrough in coalition negotiations could lead to fresh elections, reported Ynet.

According to the news site, the unnamed officials are frustrated at what they believe are “unreasonable demands” from Likud’s natural coalition partners.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has until 28 May to form the next government, having already received the permitted, one-off 14-day extension from President Reuven Rivlin.