Israel

07 August 2023; MEMO: Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has backed a Jewish settler accused of carrying out a terrorist attack against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, following the killing of 19-year-old Palestinian Qusay Jamal Matan.

07 August 2023; MEMO: The former head of Israel's Mossad spy agency has said that he believes that the occupation state is heading for self-destruction, the religious-Zionist Makor Rishon news outlet reported on Sunday.

Tamir Pardo explained that he came to his conclusion after the signing of the coalition agreement among the current parties in the far-right cabinet, even before the announcement of the judicial reform plan by Minister of Justice Yariv Levin.

JERUSALEM, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying on Sunday that he would work to change the committee that selects judges, amid a wave of protests over planned legislation which could see the highest court stripped of many of its powers.

Asked about the next phase of legislation on the judiciary, Netanyahu said "it would probably be about the composition of the committee that elects judges". He told Bloomberg: "That's basically what's left."

"Because other things I think we should not legislate," he said, without elaborating.

JERUSALEM, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Washington has condemned as terrorism the killing of a Palestinian by suspected Jewish settlers, in sharpened language that appeared to reflect U.S. frustration with surging violence in the occupied West Bank under Israel's hard-right government.

Israeli police detained two settlers in Friday's incident near Burqa village. According to Palestinians, they were part of a group that threw rocks, torched cars and, when confronted by villagers, shot a 19-year-old dead and wounded several others.

Tehran, IRNA – Media sources of the Zionist regime have reported that some 33% of the settlers of the occupied territories, including 56% of the youth, are thinking of migration because of amendments planned in the Israeli judicial law which is viewed as a coup by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is being rocked by a wave of mass protests calling for the country’s democracy to be upheld. But the pro-democracy movement lacks any clear message of opposition to Israel’s open-ended military rule over millions of Palestinians.

This contradiction reflects a widely held belief among Jewish Israelis that the conflict with the Palestinians is both intractable and somehow separate from Israel’s internal strife.

31 July 2023; MEMO: Israel's Supreme Court, on Monday, said all 15 judges, in an historic first, would take part in a hearing on arguments against a law Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist government passed as part of an overhaul of the judiciary, Reuters reports.

02 August 2023; MEMO: Israel yesterday submitted an official complaint against Lebanon at the United Nations Security Council, demanding the Lebanese government and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) take immediate action to prevent Hezbollah's ongoing construction of military infrastructure on Israel's northern border, Anadolu news agency reported.

JERUSALEM, Aug 1 (Reuters) - U.S. observers are in Israel this week to discreetly assess conditions at its border crossings for Palestinian-Americans as part of an emerging Israeli-U.S. visa waiver deal, four officials said.

The officials, who declined to be identified by name or nationality, said the delegation visited Israel's immigration office on Sunday, Ben Gurion Airport on Monday and would on Tuesday tour checkpoints on the occupied West Bank's boundaries.

MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened fire in an Israeli settlement east of Jerusalem on Tuesday, wounding at least five people before being shot and killed, Israeli police said.

The shooting outside a shopping mall in the sprawling Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim, in the occupied West Bank, was the latest in the most violent stretch of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the territory in nearly two decades.