This week, Israel moved further toward formalizing annexation in the West Bank through a mix of settler violence, tightening administrative restrictions, and legal changes designed to make permanent control look routine. In the United States and Europe, governments continued to escalate efforts to criminalize Palestine solidarity, from court battles in the UK to the ongoing detention and mistreatment of Leqaa Kordia in the United States. Netanyahu’s trip to Washington showed how hard Israel is still working to pull the United States into a war with Iran, even as AIPAC’s election strategy runs into a Democratic base that is shifting faster than party leadership is willing to admit. And across our commentary and reporting, a central thread holds that solidarity depends on centering Palestinian experience, whether that means defending the Right of Return, confronting the limits of liberal institutions, or listening to what it means to write about Gaza from exile.
📹 Video Short
Leila Warah takes a satirical look at how Israeli settlers steal land from Palestinians with a tongue-in-cheek real estate advertisement.
West Bank annexation
Israel’s project in the West Bank is advancing on multiple tracks, including settler terror on the ground, financial and administrative restrictions, and legal attacks on the distinction between “occupation” and annexation.
READ MORE → How Israel is eroding life for Palestinians in the West Bank — Abdaljawad Omar
READ MORE → Israel just started legalizing its annexation of the West Bank. Here’s what that means. — Qassam Muaddi
READ MORE → The hollowing out of Palestine’s most important university — Abdaljawad Omar
Criminalizing solidarity
Across the U.S. and Europe, governments are trying to turn Palestine solidarity into something that can be policed, prosecuted, and deterred. In the U.K., Palestine Action wins a major court victory.
READ MORE → UK court rules that the government ban on Palestine Action is unlawful — Michael Arria
READ MORE → The government-sanctioned persecution of Leqaa Kordia — Sam Judy
READ MORE → Power & Pushback: Leqaa Kordia is back in ICE detention after being hospitalized and disappeared by DHS — Michael Arria
Israel, Washington, and U.S. politics
Netanyahu’s trip to Washington was about pulling the U.S. deeper into Israel’s regional agenda, and toward confrontation with Iran. AIPAC’s efforts at electioneering keep colliding with a Democratic base that is shifting faster than the party’s leadership wants to admit.
READ MORE → Netanyahu strikes out in Washington — Mitchell Plitnick
READ MORE → The Shift: AIPAC’s own goal in New Jersey — Michael Arria
Centering the Palestinian experience
Israel and its supporters spend enormous energy on obscuring the Palestinian experience, reframing Israelis as the victims, and painting rightful Palestinian demands as unrealistic. This is a key area of global struggle in solidarity with Palestinians.
READ MORE → Why the Palestinian Right of Return is still the issue — Ahmad Ibsais
READ MORE → Liberal institutions are designed to acknowledge Palestinian oppression but not end it — A. Kayum Ahmed
READ MORE → Palestine Letter: To write about Gaza in exile, you must be there — Tareq S. Hajjaj