Eight innovative projects qualified to represent Palestine at the GITEX International Exhibition in Dubai, at the conclusion of the annual Palestine Challenge for the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence 2023, with the participation of projects from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

This year, a group of creative projects from all governorates of the country were submitted to the challenge, divided into three categories: startup companies, university graduation projects, and school student projects. Palestinian girls were distinguished this year by innovative scientific and technological projects, as the percentage of girls participating in the challenge this year reached 62 %.

The names of eight winning projects were announced to be sent to Dubai in the middle of this month (October) to represent Palestine in the “Arab Challenge for the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence 2023.” The results were as follows:

For the emerging companies category:

The Jusoor Labs project, owned by Amin Abu Diak from the city of Nablus, is a platform for education through interactive virtual laboratories, which provide comprehensive educational experiences in the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for students from all over the world.

The “Alera” project, owned by Souad Zaid from the city of Ramallah, is a smart electronic chip that works with artificial intelligence and replaces the business identification card and interacts with all the smart systems in our lives. It also communicates with social media platforms, sends commands, receives information, analyzes it, and learns it.

The Cry Care project, owned by Mona Al-Razi from Gaza City, is an application that analyzes, with the help of artificial intelligence, the reason for the child’s crying, and provides advice in case of danger under the supervision of doctors.

For the category of graduation projects in universities:

The iCare Ecosystem project, owned by Yona Nawahda from the city of Ramallah, is a device built on artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things and is considered a way to get rid of pathogens and limit their spread.

The Life Bracelet project, owned by Ibrahim Zaid from the city of Jenin, is a project to prevent drowning in swimming pools, which works by measuring the user’s vital signs and giving signals to the monitoring room.

The smart energy management project, owned by Youssef Shahwan from the Gaza Strip, is a project specialized in the Internet of Things and controlling different sources of energy through the network and distributing it to devices and systems in the home or facility in the most appropriate manner, which ensures cost reduction and does not waste energy without benefit.

For the student school projects category:

The Motherhood Guide Project, owned by Layali Al-Khatib from the city of Jenin, is an application that helps mothers and fathers understand the needs of the infant through the sound of his crying and his body movements using artificial intelligence technology.

The “Examine Your Eyes at Home” project, by its owner, Moamen Abdel Fattah, from the city of Nablus, is a pair of glasses that automatically examine your vision after wearing them and control the grades via a phone application, providing data and the type of vision problem you are suffering from.

It is worth noting that the Palestine Challenge for the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence went through several stages to select the projects participating in the exhibition and the final ceremony. Among the 243 projects submitted for the challenge from various governorates of the country, including those nominated by the Arab American University and Palestine Polytechnic University, 41 projects were selected to participate. In the introductory and training workshops, and in the final stage, they participated in the final exhibition based on criteria approved by the Scientific Committee, which were divided between graduation projects for university students, startup companies, and student projects.

Today, Sunday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested a young man east of Tubas.

According to local sources, these forces arrested the young man, Sameh Arabi, while he was passing through the Tayaseer military checkpoint.

The occupation forces detained the young Arab man with another citizen at the checkpoint, before arresting him.

A boy was injured by shrapnel from live bullets, today, Sunday, during confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces that broke out in the eastern region of the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya.

According to local sources, a 16-year-old boy was injured by shrapnel from live bullets in the shoulder. He was taken to the hospital, and his injury was described as stable.

The "October Victory" allowed Egypt to achieve a series of political and military gains, but the 1973 war against Israel became more like a passing stop for a young generation that constitutes the majority of Egyptian society and knows nothing of the war except its memory.

Over the past decades, the October 1973 war was the womb from which the military presidents of the Egyptian Republic were born, starting with Anwar Sadat, who led the war and then concluded a historic peace treaty with Israel, to his successor, Hosni Mubarak, with the exception being the current president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who joined... At the Military College in the year the war broke out.

Cairo turned its field victories, most notably its army’s crossing of the Suez Canal and penetrating the ranks of Israeli forces in Sinai, into political and diplomatic gains.

Tawfiq Aklimandos, an analyst at the Egyptian Center for Thought and Strategic Studies, believes that what Sadat did during the war and after it gave him “legitimacy” that might replace that enjoyed by his predecessor Gamal Abdel Nasser, the military hero of the 1952 revolution that ended the monarchy in Egypt.

After the assassination of Sadat in 1981 by Islamists, his deputy Mubarak took power.

Reinforced by his pivotal participation in the war as commander of the Air Force, experts expected that the “man who had the first air strike” with the start of the Egyptian offensive in 1973 would gain popularity among his citizens as president of the republic.

The Islamist Mohamed Morsi, who was elected president of Egypt in 2012, was the exception that broke the rule that Egypt was ruled by the military... but he was quickly overthrown by the army led by Sisi in 2013 following popular demonstrations against him.

In 2014, Sisi became the first president of Egypt outside the military club that participated in October 1973.

Despite this, Sisi sought to exploit the war within the interim political framework.

Last year, Sisi named the anniversary of October 6, 1973, “the Day of Pride and Dignity,” and sent several messages to Egyptians, including that “victory will remain proof of the will and steadfastness of the Egyptians and their adherence to the sovereignty and dignity of the nation.”

Al-Sisi thus wanted to raise the resolve of more than 105 million Egyptians to bear the difficult social and economic conditions that worsened during 2022 as a result of the shortage of foreign currency, the decline in the value of the local currency, and the unprecedented rise in prices.

However, relying on the memory of the war seems difficult in the face of the current reality.

“All of this has now become far from the targets of the new generation,” Clementos explained to Agence France-Presse, attributing this to the fact that this generation “does not have access to serious Arabic books on this matter.”

He continued, "Only people who lived through the war remember the fear and restrictions imposed by the war economy."

While Sisi was not on the front lines in 1973 when the Egyptians regained Sinai, he fought another war in the peninsula located in the northeast of the country, but this time against “terrorism,” especially the extremist Islamic groups that were active in this region after the overthrow of Morsi.

Before it was recovered as a result of the field advances in the 1973 war and the Camp David Peace Accords years later, Sinai was under Israeli occupation after the harsh defeat suffered by Egypt and Arab countries in the June 1967 war.

Egypt's recovery of Sinai contributed to the largest Arab country in terms of population regaining its position on the diplomatic arena.

Hisham Hillier, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, believes that after the war, “Egypt emerged from Soviet influence to join the Western security sphere,” especially with its annual military aid exceeding a billion dollars.

He added to Agence France-Presse that today, in “a world in which there are multiple poles of influence,” Cairo has begun to balance its relations so as not to favor one of its allies in favor of the other, whether in terms of Russia, China, and India, or in terms of the Americans, Europeans, and the Gulf.

Amr Al-Shobaki, a researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, believes that the 1973 war made the Egyptian army “the army of victory instead of the army of defeat in 1967.”

Fifty years after the war, the facts in the Middle East have changed dramatically. Egypt concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994. 2020 witnessed the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco.

Although the peace agreement with Cairo is the oldest in time, the Egyptian street is still unable to fully deal with this normalization, as Israel is always viewed as the enemy.

Al-Shoubaki believes that Sadat, who caused widespread surprise by visiting Jerusalem in 1977 and meeting with Israeli officials even before peace was concluded, “would not have been surprised (by the recent normalization agreements).

He continues, "At that time, he was completely convinced that he had made the right decision to sign peace."

Today, Sunday, Israeli occupation forces arrested a Palestinian citizen north of Jericho.

According to local sources, the occupation forces arrested the young Palestinian, Ibrahim Yousef Yaghi (35 years old), a resident of Aqabat Jabr camp, south of Jericho, while he was passing through the Hamra military checkpoint in the north.

On Sunday, several Russian regions were subjected to bombing and drone attacks by Ukraine, which resulted in three people being injured and flights being diverted at one of the country's airports, according to officials.

Kiev has intensified its drone attacks on Russian territory since it began a counterattack last June to regain territory controlled by Moscow forces in eastern and southern Ukraine.

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said, "On Sunday morning, Ukrainian armed forces bombed the central market area in Shipenko."

He added, "According to preliminary information, three people were injured. A woman was injured by shrapnel in her neck... and two men were injured by shrapnel in the legs."

For his part, the governor of the Bryansk border region reported that the Ukrainian bombing damaged homes in one of the villages and two official administration buildings, without recording any casualties.

To the west of the capital, Russian officials announced that they had shot down five drones in the Smolensk region, and another drone over the coastal Krasnodar region overlooking the Black Sea.

These attacks disrupted shipping traffic in Sochi. The airport authorities of the city overlooking the Black Sea reported, “On the morning of October 1, Sochi Airport imposed temporary restrictions on navigation. Six flights were rerouted to alternative airports.”
Also on Sunday, the bridge linking the Russian mainland to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, was temporarily closed, without the reasons for this being explained.

The Prisoner's Club said that the occupation authorities continue to expand the scope of the crime of administrative detention, as the number of administrative detainees increased by the end of last month to (1,319) administrative detainees, including (20) children and (4) female prisoners.

The Prisoner's Club confirmed in a press statement today, Sunday, that these numbers had not been recorded for more than 20 years, while the number of orders as of the end of last month reached (2646), of which (269) were issued during last September, and mainly affected former prisoners. They spent years in occupation prisons, including years in administrative detention. In addition, since last year, the occupation began targeting a new generation that had never been subjected to arrest.

He added that the crime of administrative detention today constitutes the most prominent current issue that has imposed a major shift on the reality of the issue of prisoners due to their high numbers, in addition to the significant impact that has affected hundreds of families, as a result of the repeated arrests of their families.

The Prisoners' Club pointed out that the occupation seeks, through this crime, to undermine the escalating state of struggle against it, in addition to the fact that some of them are sick, elderly, and wounded.

He continued: The occupation courts, in their various degrees, continue their role as a primary arm in consolidating the crime of administrative detention, through their decisions that translate the decisions of the intelligence agency (Shin Bet), through moot court sessions.

The Prisoner's Club called for the development of a path leading to a comprehensive boycott of the military courts, at a time when dozens of administrative detainees continue to boycott the occupation courts.

It is noteworthy that the total number of prisoners in the occupation prisons reached more than 5,200, including 36 female prisoners and about 170 children.

An opinion poll published by the Israeli Kan 11 channel showed that 56% of Israelis support normalization with Saudi Arabia, and 39% agree on the necessity of not signing an agreement that allows the Kingdom to enrich uranium on its territory.

The results of the poll revealed that 56% of Israelis support the normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, 12% do not support it, and 32% do not know whether they support it or not. The results also indicated that 63% of the voters of the ruling coalition in "Israel" supported the agreement, and only 9% of them opposed it, while 67% of the Likud Party voters supported the agreement and 11% of them opposed it.

As for opposition voters, 58% support the agreement with Saudi Arabia and only 16% do not support it. Regarding not signing an agreement allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium on its territory, 39% of Israelis supported this, while 28% opposed it.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh had indicated in an article yesterday, Saturday, that “evidence indicates that the Kingdom is not in a rush to establish relations with “Israel” under American auspices.”

She explained that "negotiating to establish relations with Israel will go through stages, with another path being to prepare the appropriate ground for the agreement to be built on clear foundations, and each party will know what it has and what it is owed once it is completed."

In this context, the White House announced yesterday that “negotiations aimed at normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia continue to advance.” This coincides with statements by the Saudi Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that Saudi Arabia is approaching the step of normalization with Israel, but he stressed the importance of the Palestinian issue for its negotiations.

Saudi media confirmed, on Saturday, that “the Palestinian issue is at the core of Saudi policy priorities, and that the Kingdom is at the forefront of countries supporting it at all levels.”

Al-Riyadh newspaper said, in its editorial today under the title “A Different Peace,” that “the balanced Saudi positions toward various issues make Saudi policy an attractive factor for gaining support for any just cause,” noting that “evidence indicates that the Kingdom is not in a rush to establish Relations with Israel under American auspices.”

She added, "Negotiating important matters and files takes a long time until reaching points of agreement between the negotiating parties, and it may take longer than expected," saying that "in negotiation, you may not get everything you want, but you get most of what you want."

The newspaper stressed that "negotiating to establish relations with Israel will pass through stages, with another path being to prepare the appropriate ground for the agreement to be built on clear foundations, and each party will know what it has and what it is entitled to once it is completed."

The White House confirmed earlier that "negotiations aimed at normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia continue to advance."

National Security Council spokesman at the White House, John Kirby, said, “The two parties have established, I believe, a basic structure for what we can move toward,” noting that “a basic framework for a future agreement” has been reached, according to the Times of Israel newspaper.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that "there are many countries that are looking to make peace with Israel because of its security, cyber and technological capabilities."

Netanyahu said, in the government session, that “Israel is committed to establishing peace with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia while preserving its security interests,” pointing out that “we had to overcome the concept that had prevailed until now that this could not be achieved without resolving the Palestinian issue.”

This comes a week after the Saudi Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said that Saudi Arabia was approaching the normalization step with Israel, but he stressed the importance of the Palestinian issue for its negotiations.

Meanwhile, Haim Katz, the Israeli Minister of Tourism, visited Saudi Arabia and said that “the love affair began to crystallize into a stable relationship between Riyadh and Tel Aviv.”

Yesterday evening, Wednesday, the website "i24NEWS" conducted an interview with Haim Katz, in which he explained that the Israeli delegation was warmly received in Riyadh, and roaming its streets was like wandering the streets of Tel Aviv.

Katz's visit comes at a time when Israel and Saudi Arabia are continuing their efforts to reach a normalization agreement, and it also coincides with the arrival of the first Saudi ambassador to Palestine, Nayef Al-Sudairi, to Ramallah for the first time, in order to receive his diplomatic credentials.

It is noteworthy that Israel signed agreements to normalize relations with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco, and similar understandings with Sudan, in late 2020, under American sponsorship, and is currently seeking to sign a similar agreement with Saudi Arabia, which repeatedly confirms that this matter is linked to resolving the conflict with the Palestinians.

There are also reports that Saudi Arabia also links the normalization file to its acquisition of a peaceful nuclear plant with American assistance, which Israeli officials fear will get out of control in the future.

Israeli officials expressed their rejection of an agreement that gives Saudi Arabia the ability to enrich uranium, even if it is under an American umbrella.

They said in statements to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority “Kan”: “The vision of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for peace with Saudi Arabia through an agreement to normalize relations with it is indeed a ‘new Middle East,’ but we fear that within its framework will be the Kingdom’s ability to enrich uranium.”

Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs Hatem Al-Bakri said that settlers, protected by the Israeli occupation forces, stormed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque 18 times, while the call to prayer was prevented 60 times in the Ibrahimi Mosque during last September.

Al-Bakri explained in a report issued by the Ministry of Endowments on Sunday that the raids carried out by settlers took place in the morning and evening, and were accompanied by rituals and provocative tours.

He pointed out that these raids come at a time when the so-called “temple organizations” allegedly incited settlers to carry out widespread and collective raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish holidays.

The Minister of Endowments condemned the occupation’s destruction, at dawn today, of part of the contents of the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall and the seizure of another part of it, considering that this is aggression and an escalation of the religious war to which the Palestinian people and their sanctities are exposed, stressing that the prayer hall is an integral part of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and has the same sanctity and value. .

Al-Bakri pointed out that the occupation authorities prevented the call to prayer for 60 times in the Ibrahimi Mosque, in addition to closing it for several days under the pretext of Jewish holidays, stressing that what the occupation is doing is a blatant and blatant assault, and a dangerous violation of the property and sanctity of the Mosque.

Settlers, protected by the occupation army, also attacked shrines in Zawiyat al-Sharafa in the Old City of Hebron.

Administrative prisoner Kayed Al-Fasfus (34 years old), from the city of Dura, south of Hebron, has continued his hunger strike for two months, in rejection of the crime of his administrative detention, amid great fears for his life.

The Prisoner's Club explained, in a press statement, that the occupation authorities refuse, to this day, to respond to the demand of the prisoner Al-Fasfous, which is to end his arbitrary administrative detention.

The Prisoner Club stated that Al-Fasfous, which began its strike on the third of last August, had carried out a hunger strike in 2021 that lasted for (131) days, and had previously gone on strike in 2019.

The Prisoners' Affairs Authority, the occupation prison administration, held full responsibility for the life of prisoner Mahmoud Abu Dhari from Dura, who was transferred today, Sunday, urgently from Raymond Prison to Soroka Hospital.

The authority explained in a statement that the transfer of the prisoner Abu Dhari came after he vomited blood extensively, noting that this condition was repeated several times during the past days, and the prison administration did not deal with his condition seriously, which led to its worsening.

It is noteworthy that the prisoner, Abu Dhari (55 years old), has been detained for 21 years and has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Today, Sunday, a number of citizens suffered from suffocation after the Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Beita, south of Nablus.

According to local sources, confrontations broke out after the occupation forces stormed the town of Beita, amidst the firing of bullets and tear gas bombs. This led to a number of citizens suffering from suffocation.

Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman has offered to resume financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, if the PA can crack down on militant groups in the West Bank. 

Al Monitor  analysis: The PA, for its part, is willing to support US-mediated diplomacy between Israel and Saudi Arabia, if Israel gives up some control over West Bank towns and dismantles Israeli settlements there, as Axios reported. These potentially game-changing steps place the Israeli-Palestinian conflict back in the center of regional diplomacy, hooked to the next phase of normalization.   

This is a turnaround, and a good one. The dividends of US-Saudi diplomacy are on full display these days. Credit Washington and Riyadh for putting behind a scratchy first year after US President Joe Biden took office. It’s hard to imagine any type of diplomacy moving in the Middle East — whether Israel-Palestine, Iran, or China —  without a fluid US-Saudi relationship. And that seems to be what we have. 

The latest flurry gives PA President Mahmoud Abbas a possible lifeline, but also puts him on the spot. Saudi engagement comes as Abbas is in the midst of a makeover of Palestinian leaders and rising unpopularity, as Daoud Kuttab documents in his must-read newsletter. It may be too little, too late, as the PA hangs on by thread, and sometimes barely that, in an increasingly radicalized West Bank, especially in the camps in Nablus and Jenin.  

The spotlight also shifts to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He badly wants to cement his legacy by establishing ties with Saudi Arabia. For a while he seemed to be getting a pass, as the action turned, and still turns, on the Saudi asks of the United States — more and even better US weapons packages, a security agreement, and a civil nuclear deal — all heavy lifts, requiring Congressional buy-in. 

While Netanyahu was willing to swallow the demands of his hardline coalition partners on a divisive judicial reform bill, he now must contend with their vocal opposition to any concessions to the Palestinians. Agreeing to hold off on annexing parts of the West Bank, as Netanyahu did with a center-right government to secure the Abraham Accords in 2020, is one thing. Dismantling settlements and ceding territory to a weakened PA, with a far-right government, during an uptick in Palestinian attacks on Israelis (35 Israeli Jewish citizens killed so far this year), is another. The mood is dark, and as Ben Caspit writes, “the calls for revenge play well with young, radical settlers who carry out almost daily attacks on their Palestinian neighbors.”   

There are no illusions here about the difficulties ahead to close the deal on Israel-Saudi normalization. But Washington and Riyadh, and by extension Tel Aviv and Ramallah, are having all the right conversations about all the right things. Given the increasingly desperate situation in the West Bank, the declining prospects for a two-state solution, the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal, and the challenge of China, US-Saudi diplomacy is more vital then ever.

Last week Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, known as MBS, told Fox News that “everyday we get closer" to normalizing ties with Israel, but it ultimately depends on a breakthrough with the Palestinians. Left mostly unsaid is that a full peace with Israel probably also depends on a breakthrough with Iran, above and beyond the China-brokered Iran-Saudi rapprochement achieved earlier this year. Analysis of Al Monitor. 

First stop: Ramallah 

Let’s start with the Palestinian issue. Last week, in the first such visit by a Saudi official since at least 1967,  Saudi ambassador to Palestine and consul general to the city of Jerusalem Nayef bin Bandar al-Sudairi visited Ramallah and reaffirmed the Saudi commitment to a Palestinian state, as reported by Daoud Kuttab in his must read Al-Monitor Palestine Newsletter. The visit comes during a flurry of diplomacy among Washington, Riyadh, and Ramallah. Working closely with the Biden administration, MBS has offered to resume aid to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, if the Palestinian Authority (PA) can crack down on radical armed groups in the West Bank. 

The PA, in return, is willing to go along with normalization if Israel gives up control in some West Bank towns and dismantles settlements. These are all the right moves, reflecting a welcome sense of urgency about the deteriorating situation for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The potential Saudi lifeline comes as Abbas is initiating a makeover of Palestinian leaders to integrate a younger generation, but his unpopularity remains as high as ever. It may be too little, too late for Abbas’s increasingly slim hold on the West Bank, especially Nablus and Jenin, the new centers of resistance.

The demand for the PA to crack down on the radicalized armed groups would come with a cost, given its lack of confidence with many Palestinians.

 Next stop: Tel Aviv

 And that brings us to Israel, where any baby step toward a two-state solution seems likely to hit a dead end. Ben Caspit writes today that “the required Israeli concessions to the Palestinians are a non-starter for many members of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s multiparty coalition, who have been demanding and also carrying out unilateral measures to bury once and for all any prospect of an independent Palestinian state.” 

The only workaround, as Caspit explains, is if the Saudi demand falls short of Palestinian statehood, or if Benny Gantz, the former defense minister and current head of the National Unity opposition party, can somehow be lured into a revamped Israeli coalition government. The former would be a letdown, given the expectations to date, including numerous Saudi statements, and the latter a near miracle, if Washington could pull it off. 

Last Stop: Tehran 

The Saudi approach to normalization has always come with a hedge because of Iran. Riyadh’s asks of the US — support for its nuclear program, a defense treaty, and the very top weapons systems — are all geared toward Iran. Let’s start with the Saudi nuclear program. Last week, Riyadh announced that it would give the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wider access to its facilities, as Jack Dutton reports, a boost to its bid for American nuclear support. 

The Saudi steps still fall short of the IAEA’s additional protocol — which, combined with the kingdom’s desire for its own uranium enrichment capability, would make congressional approval of a Saudi nuclear deal difficult. Riyadh wants to do its nuclear deal with the United States, but is ready to take its business elsewhere, including perhaps China, if necessary.Riyadh’s bid for nuclear power, including its own uranium enrichment, is not just about developing a new alternative energy source. Iran is at the core of the Saudi calculus. If Iran gets the bomb, then Saudi Arabia would have to get one, MBS told Fox News. The implication is also that if Iran has its "right to enrich," and will not adhere to the additional protocol, then Saudi Arabia should not be held to a different standard. MBS also has to assess what level of US security guarantees is enough, if relations go south with Iran. 

The sophisticated Iranian drone attack on Aramco two years ago, in September 2021, couldn’t help but reset Saudi calculations. The Donald Trump administration did nothing, despite a longstanding US policy, known as the Carter Doctrine, to use military force, if necessary, to defend its national interests in the region.

The prospect of Saudi Arabia as a "major non-NATO ally" would be a step up, but probably not the commitment envisaged in Riyadh. Iran’s missile and drone capabilities, already formidable, are soon to expand. In October, the parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will meet around “transition day,” when sanctions on Iran’s import and export of missile and drone technology will be lifted, assuming none of the JCPOA parties (most likely the UK) institute snapback sanctions. The US and Saudi Arabia conducted a joint counter-drone military drill earlier this month, as Jared Szuba reports.

Iran is now embracing the rapprochement with Saudi Arabia in its media and policy statements, but the kingdom wants more action to complement the words. The visit of Houthi leaders to Saudi Arabia last week was a major step in diplomacy to end the Yemen War, thanks to Tehran. Perhaps the most telling, and encouraging, sign for Saudi Arabia is that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will allow direct US-Iran nuclear talks, as Amwaj first reported. 

The prospect of US-Iran talks could complement regional trends toward de-escalation. There is a major trust deficit among the parties; the confidence-building process will take time.Going Big The Biden administration is going big in the Middle East with Saudi-Israel normalization and some type of nuclear deal with Iran. After a scratchy start in its relations with Saudi Arabia, US President Joe Biden came to realize that going big — such as Israel-Saudi normalization, support for a two-state solution, ending the war in Yemen, and deterring Iran — requires a close partnership with the kingdom; there’s no workaround. 

Despite the clear urgency and traction toward normalization, the hurdles to a full peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia are vast, both in terms of the Palestinian issue, and the Saudi asks of the United States.

These are all conversations nonetheless worth having, as they move the region toward diplomacy and integration. If, and it’s a big if, Netanyahu can do the needful with the Palestinians, the missing and final piece will be Iran. And in the end, MBS will weigh the guarantees from the US against the risks from the Iran in making the call on normalization. 

The Hebrew newspaper Haaretz revealed, on Sunday, that the Jewish National Fund is financing a settlement project targeting young settlers to encourage them to establish settlement outposts under the cover of agricultural and grazing projects in various areas of the West Bank.

According to the Hebrew newspaper, in the last two years, the Fund transferred an amount of 4 million shekels for a project called “Rehabilitation of Youth” who suffer from danger due to their dropping out of schools, universities, and others.

The newspaper quoted a source at the Jewish National Fund as saying that some of the farms being supported in the West Bank are larger than those in the Negev and Galilee.

The far-right "Return of Zion" organization received support from the Jewish National Fund, as well as many settlement organizations, where it received an amount of half a million shekels, and it is expected to receive an additional 1.75 million shekels this year.

Among those settlement farms under whose cover settlement outposts are established is the “Moshe Farm” (Ameq Tirza) in the Jordan Valley, whose residents carry out acts of violence against the Palestinians.

The newspaper indicated that the Israeli Civil Administration transferred about 800,000 shekels to a settlement association with the aim of encouraging similar projects, while similar associations will receive similar amounts.

These projects focus on controlling the largest possible amount of Palestinian land, and constitute a center of attraction for young settlers.

The Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Authority said in a press statement on Sunday that 12 prisoners are in the "Ramla Prison Clinic" suffering from critical health conditions and in need of therapeutic interventions to save their lives.

The authority explained that the medical cases in the “Ramla” prison clinic are the most difficult in prisons, as there are people who have been shot, are paralyzed, and have been suffering from chronic diseases and malignant tumors for years, and all of them are detained in harsh conditions, in addition to the continuous medical violations they are exposed to, which makes them prey to diseases. .

 Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Authority stressed that the occupation prison administration continues to violate the rights of prisoners, especially the sick ones, and deliberately neglects their difficult health conditions, refrains from providing them with the necessary treatment, and only gives them painkillers and sedatives, without treating them properly.

Israeli economists opposed to the government's judicial reform are fighting a religious war against Judaism, United Torah Judaism lawmaker Moshe Gafni claimed during a political gathering at the religious central Israel kibbutz of Hafetz Haim on Saturday evening.

Jerusalem Post reported that Gafni launched a scathing attack on economists whom he claimed to have met with over the past few months, stating that "their war is not socio-economic or security-related, it's a war on religion.

"This is how it should be referred to and [we] must be careful not to say what should not be said," the UTJ MK added.

Gafni laments warning against Israel's judicial reform

Gafni lamented economists for what he claimed were false warnings against the judicial reform, explaining that he "met with economy leaders many months ago and they told me how severe the situation is and what might happen to the economy if the reform passes.

"By the way, a lot of time has passed since then and the economy is in great shape," Gafni said. 

The Jerusalem Post reported last month that the New Israeli Shekel has depreciated in value by around 10.34% against the USD since the beginning of 2023, having taken a particularly significant dive in value at the beginning of March.

"I told them - this is not about the judicial reform or anything related to it, you are carrying out a religious war against us," Gafni continued. "This is why members of Degel HaTorah do not take interviews anymore, this will not help anyone."

Gafni also heavily criticized the scenes at Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Square during Yom Kippur, where fighting broke out as some worshipers tried to set up partitions to separate men and women, which the Tel Aviv municipality and the High Court of Justice had banned because it was a public space.

"What we saw in Tel Aviv" is proof of a war on religion, Gafni claimed. "When fighting breaks out over Kol Nidrei prayers in Tel Aviv, this means we are in the midst of a war on religion."

Today, Sunday, the Israeli occupation authorities forced citizen Fayza Hussein Atta Al-Obaidi to demolish her two residential apartments in the town of Beit Hanina, north of occupied Jerusalem.

According to local sources, the occupation municipality in Jerusalem forced the family of Citizen Al-Obeidi to demolish her two apartments, each of which has an area of 125 square meters and is inhabited by 10 people, under the pretext of building without a license.

The sources explained that, despite following the procedures for obtaining a license, the family resorted to self-demolishing the two apartments to avoid the occupation municipality imposing heavy fines on them if they demolished them using its machinery.

Jerusalemites are forced to self-demolish their homes under pressure from the occupation municipality, to avoid paying heavy fines if the municipality carries out the demolition, or arrest if they fail to pay them.

Today, Sunday, Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, and closed the archaeological area there.

According to local sources, large forces from the occupation army stormed the town, closed the archaeological area, and prevented entry and exit. They also raided several homes surrounding the area and wreaked havoc on citizens’ property, forcing some families not to send their children to school.

1. Everyone is talking about a new phase that the region will witness in light of the Saudi move to find a solution to the Palestinian issue and normalize relations between the Kingdom and Israel, which in turn, if this happens, many Arab and Islamic countries will normalize with the Israel, especially if it commits to implementing the Arab initiative, which is originally Saudi. The Arab and Islamic countries agreed to it, or most of them certainly.
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3. However, what draws attention is that the Israel is the one that is currently, in the past, and perhaps in the future, standing in front of this new phase and preventing it from implementing what is required of it for the security and stability of the region and putting an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has gone on for a long time without any solutions. 
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5. On the contrary, any initiative or proposed solution is failed by Israel, especially if this solution emphasizes Palestinian national rights and the necessity of Israel implementing international resolutions related to the Palestinian issue, which affirm the right of the Palestinians to establish their independent state and the withdrawal of Israel from the lands it occupied in 1967, Including East Jerusalem. 
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7. We believe that the new phase will not take place as long as Israel continues the cancerous settlement and works to increase the number of settler herds in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and the West Bank is considered Israeli territory, and the settlers have the right to settle there, and as long as the settler herds continue their attacks on the Palestinian people, In addition to the occupation forces continuing their crimes against everything that is Palestinian, the annexation, Judaization and Israelization of Jerusalem, the daily attacks on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and many violations such as house demolitions and ethnic cleansing operations in more than one place and location to push citizens to leave the land of our fathers and grandfathers, which they baptized with the blood of martyrs and prisoners of freedom.
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9. The practices of the occupation and its failure to recognize international resolutions, laws and norms, especially those related to the Palestinian issue, are what will fail any aspirations to make the region stable without wars and conflicts, just as all previous initiatives and attempts at solutions have failed. 
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11. Therefore, we say that we should not rely too much on the possibility of the region witnessing a new phase, as long as Israel continues its arrogance, believing that the power it possesses can resolve the conflict in the region in its favor and erase and liquidate the Palestinian issue, and it is important to do so, because power will not last and the Palestinian people who adhere to their full rights are... Who will prevail in the end, sooner or later, and then all the occupation’s attempts to liquidate the issue will be in vain. Will Israel understand that, or will it continue in its error until it is defeated?!!

     

The occupation steals the land every day, and had it not been for our large population, it would have announced the annexation of the entire West Bank. It took a step based on this logic when it realized that the Gaza Strip is a small area with a large population that had left forever and Gaza was relieved of its misfortunes, but it is still besieging the Strip and putting pressure on its people. By possible means.

The citizens of the West Bank are a big thorn in Israel's side, and that is why the occupation confiscates as much land area as possible and the smallest number of residents, and that is why we see settlement in the least populated places, and it also works to displace as many of them as possible in order to seize the land without population or with the smallest number of population.

An international investigation committee has confirmed that Israel has committed major violations against the people that require legal consequences, but these are just words said from here and forgotten by society from there. Arrogance remains for the strongest and the weak continue to pay the price dearly and constantly.
However, the situation in the West Bank in its current reality raises Israeli fears and anxiety among the settlers in particular, because they feel fear and suffer from it in every one of their movements, which consequently leads to official government tension that prompted Netanyahu to hold a special session today to assess the security situation and take the necessary steps. To confront it, in this context, he does nothing but strengthen and increase the number of his forces in the West Bank and around the settlements in the hope of protecting them. He also defends the settlers. An example of this is that he was content with deporting a settler from the West Bank and not prosecuting him, who was accused of killing a Palestinian in the town of Burqa.

This does not only concern us in the West Bank, but also the Palestinians inside, where the government has canceled effective programs to combat the escalating and increasing crime there. One of its most painful manifestations was the killing of five people from one family by gunfire. The majority of these victims were young men and in many cases from one family. The cancellation of these programs sparked widespread dissatisfaction and increased thinking that the Israeli government does not care about what is happening among the Arabs or is encouraging this violence in various forms.

In all cases, and regardless of the Palestinian situation in the West Bank and Gaza or inside, the future is ours, and no matter how fragmented or quarreled these forces are, this situation will disappear, and the truth remains that we are one people, one interest, and one future..!!

The great responsibility remains on the shoulders of the national authority, which must prevent or confront this state of security chaos and social chaos that is strengthening among the people of one people amid this devastating state of occupation with all its practices.

In truth, the authority alone cannot bear this problem. The duty and responsibility remain with those who represent the tribal leaders and have a voice in society and solve many family problems. It is necessary to strengthen cooperation and brotherhood among people so that a strong, established national spirit prevails, and they are capable of this if they devote all their efforts. Their activities for sound national and social service.

Finally, we must say a word to the leaders of Fatah and Hamas, which is the question: How long will this division and this running after factional and private interests at the expense of the national interest last??!!

Speaking to Fox News Agency, when asked about the development of normalized Saudi-American relations, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that the Kingdom is keen to improve the lives of the Palestinians.

Saudi Arabia represents the last card in the Palestinian balance of the game. It is necessary to re-talk about the Arab Peace Initiative. The Palestinian citizen hopes that Saudi Arabia will reject normalization before implementing the Arab Peace Initiative launched by King Abdullah for peace in the Middle East, which was announced at the Arab Summit in Beirut in 2002. It aimed to normalize relations between the Arab countries and Israel in exchange for the establishment of an internationally recognized Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, the return of refugees in accordance with Resolution 194, and Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights. This initiative received the support of all Arab and Islamic countries, while the occupying state neglected it by not responding.

This week, the non-resident Saudi Consul, Nayef Al-Sudairi, visited the city of Ramallah in a very important diplomatic gesture that is considered a tangible development in the level of Arab-Palestinian relations, especially the relations of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Palestine, as the Sultanate of Oman is the only member of the Gulf Cooperation Council that enjoys resident diplomatic representation. In addition to four Arab countries: Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. We hope to witness more Saudi presence in Palestine until a resident diplomatic representation is opened.

In talking about improving the lives of Palestinians, we would like to draw attention to the importance of distinguishing between improving life on the one hand, and rights and needs on the other hand. Abraham Maslow gave us the theory of human needs: At the base of the pyramid, Maslow places physiological needs to ensure the continued survival of the body by providing basic needs for survival such as air, food, water, sleep, and sex. Maslow then presented us with the need for security, and this includes physical safety and job security. Then he moved to social needs, and here we talk about family relationships, friendship, feelings and emotions, then he introduced the need for appreciation, and here we mean respect and trust. Finally, Maslow reached the needs to achieve self-actualization, and this comes through innovation, ethics, problem solving, freedom from stereotypes, and creativity. . The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 defined basic human rights equally regardless of religion, color, nationality, language, ideological or geopolitical affiliation.

Talking about improving people's lives and providing job opportunities and economic prosperity means providing needs, but the political aspect under negotiation should not address needs. In the 21st century, we can add the Internet (4G/5G), electricity, travel, communication, and study as basic needs that are not subject to negotiation. These are human rights and physiological needs that are not disputed.

There is a lot of talk about an upcoming deal between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Israel, brokered by America. The position of Saudi Arabia and the King’s position on the Palestinian issue was clear and was linked to the Arab Peace Initiative, despite the noise of the American and Western media to the contrary, based on the language of interests and weapons in a pragmatic neoliberal world. Saudi Arabia is the strongest link in these negotiations, and we hope that it will remain the champion of the Palestinian cause, based on the idea that there is no negotiation over immutable rights.

David Aaron Miller is one of two Jewish experts whose work continued for twenty years under four presidents, as envoys to resolve all the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The second is Dennis Ross, meaning that each of them spent all those years entrusted with the same mission without their efforts advancing a single step.

This is why Miller's views in particular, and what he has come out of his long experience in charge of solving the Palestinian problem as a representative of American presidents, are gaining appeal among political think tanks.

There have been many meetings with him over the years, until the present time in 2023. Questions are asked to him, and he answers, drawing from his experience, vision, and advice.

Miller now combines membership in a number of centers specialized in political research, such as the Carnegie Center for International Peace, in addition to being director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, in addition to resorting to issues of specialized newspapers to poll his opinion on the subject of Israeli policy and its apparent and hidden intentions.

One of the titles of the meetings with him was “Progress in the Arab-Israeli conflict seems impossible.”

The questions asked to him varied, including: Are we on the verge of a mass expulsion of the Arab population from their lands? And a question about whether what we have seen in recent years is a limited diplomatic role for America to the point that America seemed to be absent, and other questions to which Miller’s answer was as follows: The two-state solution is heading towards a dead end, and it seems as if they are pushing the situation towards disintegration of the issue. Palestinian, meaning more like independence, and not real independence for Gaza under the administration of Hamas, and a Palestinian authority that administers the remaining 40% of the West Bank, and is dependent on Israel, while Israel occupies the remaining 60%, and imposes its control over Jerusalem.

Then he says: In the face of this situation, President Biden must respond boldly to the Netanyahu government, which is controlled by a determination to place the West Bank and Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty.

Then Miller says: It seems that the Biden government is trying to avoid involvement in this chaotic situation, although Biden must make it clear to Israel that his government will not deal with the policies of its minister Ben Gvir if he continues his racist policy.

In one of his answers to another question, he said: What we are seeing recently of Israeli politicians and ministers going to the Holy Mosque in Al-Aqsa Mosque is done in a way that indicates that the Israeli Ministry of National Security and its Minister Ben Gvir are determined to change the current situation and create a permanent Jewish presence in its place.

American writer Malcolm Kerr quotes Aaron Miller as believing that a diplomatic solution has become unattainable, under the title “My Eyes Don’t Lie.” In this regard, Kerr refers to an article previously published by Miller under the title “The End of Greatness: Why There Are No Great Presidents in America.” He published it in Foreign Policy magazine in 2014. Miller said this while answering a question: You participated in the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations in the governments of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Do you consider that these negotiations are dead? ?

His response was: I left that mission in 2003 in charge of American governments, and my analysis of the negotiations taking place today leads me to describe them with the phrase “they have died.” Since I left these negotiations, I have noticed that they have become negative and will not lead to any result.

In order to put the mission that David Miller carried out for twenty years in its complete and objective framework, what happened from the beginning when he was used, and with him Dennis Ross, took place after the closing of the page of the mediators who took responsibility for that case and they were members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and they were known as Arabists, which is a term given to them. Because of their experience in the Arab region, their knowledge of the culture and traditions of its people, and all dimensions of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and their endeavor to adhere to a neutral position. It is true that their page was closed after the assistance of Aaron Miller and Dennis Ross, but despite being Jewish, they made efforts to try to find a loophole in the impasse in front of the Palestinian solution, and their bias towards Israel was not exaggerated, unlike others who played this role after that, even if Miller was the most objective. Towards this thorny issue of Ross. In agreement with the Gulf

American politics is unmistakably chaotic and dysfunctional — even though the United States never tires of berating other countries for their lack of democratic institutions or failure to protect democratic values.

This was clearly demonstrated last week when President Joseph Biden, in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, urged other countries to join the United States in defending democracy in Ukraine. Then, during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden mildly criticized the Israeli leader’s efforts to weaken that country’s judiciary.

As we continue to call on other countries to stand up for democracy and its values, a recent study by the Pew Research Center shows that Americans’ trust in our political system has fallen to dangerously low levels — and for good reason. Congress is paralyzed by hyperpartisanship, stubborn ideologues, and complex and arcane rules that permit and encourage obstructive behavior. In the House of Representatives, the Republican Speaker has become a hostage of a handful of hard-liners who have pledged to abstain from voting in favor of passing a very “Republican” budget unless he responds to demands for deeper cuts in domestic spending and foreign aid.

As a result, the United States is once again facing the specter of a federal government shutdown. The “Democrats” have only nominal control (51-49) of the US Senate, but they face problems from two self-described “independent” senators, whose votes can never be guaranteed, as well as from the rules that allow a senator to “ “Obstruct” presidential nominations regardless of the candidates’ qualifications.

It is mentioned here that a senator blocked 200 military promotions and appointments due to a disagreement with the Pentagon’s abortion policy. What is certain is that after Republicans blocked consideration of President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee — later approving President Trump’s nominee — and were given the opportunity for another position because an elderly judge refused to resign before it was too late for Obama to fill his seat, the court took conservative positions on… Separation of church and state, abortion, and environmental laws.

Although approximately two-thirds of voters express their dissatisfaction with the possibility of renewed competition between Biden and Trump, both parties appear to be heading towards renomination in 2024. However, the problems do not end there. With the complete collapse of campaign finance systems, our elections and the entire political process are increasingly controlled by the billions raised by parties, political action committees and corporate interest groups to pay consultants and massive negative campaign advertising expenses that fuel polarization and pollute the political waters.

Add to this the similar problems faced by state and local governments, and a biased major media that no longer reports news but shapes it according to their own political agendas — and you have a toxic cocktail of dysfunction resulting from increasing polarization. In fact, what we mentioned above only describes some of the problems facing the major institutions that worked in the past to secure democracy in the United States. Therefore, it is not surprising that the recent Pew Center study found that Americans have lost confidence in the country’s policies and institutions. The center’s findings include the following:

• Only 4% of respondents say that the American political system is working well, while 63% express little or no confidence in the future of American politics.

• 56% are unwilling or unable to identify any strengths in the American political system.

• 65% always or often feel exhausted when they think about politics, and 78% are rarely or not at all enthusiastic about politics, while the majority seems not optimistic.

• When asked to define their feelings about our political system, only 2% used a positive term, while 79% used negative terms such as “divisive,” “corrupt,” “chaotic,” or “chaos.”

• More than 80% say the cost of political campaigns is so high that they prevent good people from running and give big donors and lobbyists too much power. Pew concludes its study by asking voters to evaluate a number of ideas that would reform policy. Among the proposals that enjoy a great deal of support among them are imposing a maximum on the number of terms for members of Congress, imposing a maximum age for elected officials and Supreme Court justices, imposing a maximum on the amount of spending on election campaigns, whether by individuals or groups, and requiring an identification document bearing A copy issued by the government for voting.

But the chances of success and passage of these proposals remain slim, given the necessity of their approval by Congress, the president’s signature on them, and their constitutional approval by the Supreme Court. Therefore, the dysfunction of our political system will continue, leaving voters disengaged from politics, disillusioned and vulnerable to exploitation by demagogues like Trump, and others hoping for change, difficult as it may be, but unsure how it will happen and whether it will be for the better or worse. For the worse.

*President of the Arab-American Institute, Washington

The pages of American magazines, newspapers and media outlets these days are filled with news and repercussions of the bribery scandal in which Cuban-born American Congressman Bob Menendez and his wife Nadia (of Lebanese origin) are accused. Menendez, according to the federal indictment, is accused of receiving bribes from three businessmen of Egyptian origin, consisting of money, gold bullion, and a Mercedes car, in exchange for exploiting his position for the benefit of the Egyptian government, specifically with regard to providing information and facilitations on the issue of American aid and military sales to Egypt. It is known that Egypt receives annual financial aid. From America, it is often used as a pressure tool on the Egyptian state to adopt certain policies, and large parts of it have been blocked since 2013 for issues allegedly related to the human rights file in Egypt.

Menendez pleads his innocence in the face of these accusations and refuses to appear at the request of half of the Democratic senators who are demanding that he resign from his position as a senator, even though he stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee due to the scandal, which is the same position that Joe Biden held before he became vice president and then president of the states. United..
The truth is that this is not the first time that Menendez has faced accusations of this kind. In 2015, the Democratic senator faced 14 charges of corruption, including bribery of about a million dollars in the form of gifts and trips from one of his friends. All charges were dropped after he proved his innocence.

The Menendez case reconsidered the influence of money power in the American political system. Money alone in America decides who the candidate is, what are his chances of winning, and what are his programs and priorities. The course of the electoral process in Congress can be summarized by saying to one of its members: “If you have a good idea and ten thousand dollars, and I have an idea that is not worth anything but I have a million dollars, then I will succeed in convincing people that my idea is the good one.”

American law is full of loopholes that can be accessed to justify the money received by candidates and members of Congress. As Menendez did the first time the charges were dropped against him, he defended himself in a press conference by saying that the money they found in his home was withdrawn from his savings account. But the problem he must solve this time lies in the presence of fingerprints on the envelopes filled with money that were seized in his house belonging to the businessmen accused of bribing him.

The repercussions of the resounding case will not stop at accusing a member of Congress of receiving a bribe, but rather will affect Egyptian-American relations and voting trends in Congress regarding Egypt in the coming days.. Egypt has many enemies inside Washington who took advantage of the issue and began to demand that it be a case of national treason and espionage, and the voices calling for stopping aid increased. American aid to Egypt or withholding large parts of it, the latest of which was stated by the senior Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, who called for the suspension of $230 million in American aid to the Egyptian state due to the human rights file. Even Menendez himself called in his latest press statement to focus on human rights in Egypt.

In 2009, the US government dropped spying charges against two members of AIPAC, the most powerful Israeli lobby organization responsible for collecting donations for members of Congress, because they provided major security secrets to the Israeli embassy related to US policy towards Iran. In the same case, the investigation was closed against Congresswoman Jane Harman, who told an Israeli agent in a recorded phone call that she would pressure the Department of Justice to reduce espionage charges against Israel. In return, the Israeli agent promised her to obtain a wealthy donor in the campaign of Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democrats in Congress, to pressure her to appoint Harman to the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives!

The story of Bob Menendez is not the first and will not be the last in a Congress whose electoral battles are not fought in the arena of voters, but rather through the power of exploiting money, suspicious deals, and secret settlements. There is no one more brilliant than the Israeli lobby in this matter. Robert Kennedy was right when he once said: It is the best Congress that money can buy. The question is: Who is accused, Egypt or Menendez?

Another speech fest at the UN General Assembly has come to a close. “Debates,” the week-long session is called. One by one, leaders of the UN’s 193 member states deliver high-minded declarations about what the world’s supreme governing body should or shouldn’t do. 

As it happens, this year’s round of jaw-wagging coincides with the hundredth anniversary of the birth of an unfortunate situation the UN continues to bear responsibility for and has the ability to resolve — a situation one of its founding members created; arguably the oldest unresolved item on the UN’s 78-year-old decolonization agenda: the Palestinian people’s thwarted right to self-determination, as provided for by the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations.

A hundred years ago today, on September 29, 1923, the League of Nations formally assigned Britain the role of Mandatory Power in Palestine. Its mission: to guide Palestine’s people out of colonialism, into independence.Bottom of Form

Instead, in one of modern history’s most egregious acts of bad faith, duplicity, and cynicism, the world’s preeminent colonial power handed Palestine over to European colonists, dispossessing Palestine’s native people and sowing the seeds for a hundred years of bloody conflict and grief.  

Britain’s fiduciary duty had been set forth in the 1919 Covenant of the League of the Nations. Article 22 of the Covenant stated:  

“Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory.” [emphasis added]

And:

“To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization.” 

Who were these “peoples” whose “wellbeing and development” Britain was instructed to hold in “sacred trust”? According to a 1917 British census, 92% of them were ‘Arabs’ (Muslim, Christian, and other non-Jewish minorities) and 8% Jewish (half of them indigenous Arab Jews). 

Five years later, in October 1922 – poised to take up its Mandatory position – Britain completed another census. The results: 78% Muslim, 10% Christian and 11% Jewish. 

Fully aware of these numbers, Britain tossed its fiduciary duty to decolonize Palestine and liberate its people out the window. Its rationale is well known – the Balfour Declaration.

In November 1917, in a single, sixty-seven-word sentence, Britain had already declared its intention to turn Palestine into a “national home” for 10% of its people and the rest of the world’s Jews, while referring to 90% of Palestine’s population as what they were not:

“His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

But Britain had other reasons to violate its Covenant duties. 

“Britain had decided long before World War One — long before Weizmann and the Zionists came along and sold their project to the British War cabinet — that they needed to control Palestine,” Palestinian scholar Rashid Khalidi told Mondoweiss. “Palestine is the land terminus of the shortest route between the Gulf and the Mediterranean, and therefore the route to India. So it was absolutely vital strategically to the British Empire that they control Palestine.”

Of course, Balfour and his colleagues were also antisemites. Britain’s 1905 Alien Act – drafted by Balfour himself —  was designed to keep European Jews out. What better place to send them than Palestine, where they could be put to good use?

Mondoweiss spoke about this with Israeli historian Avi Shlaim. British Prime Minister Lloyd George “had a perception of the Jews as being uniquely powerful worldwide; the Jews as having covert power; the Jews having control over international finance,” says Shlaim. “[By] aligning Britain, the British Empire, with the Zionists in the Middle East, Lloyd George was acting on a misperception; the misperception of Jewish power.”

So, Balfour, George, Churchill, and other British leaders needed no convincing when Chaim Weizmann came knocking. Still, between the inking of the Covenant and the drafting of Britain’s Palestine Mandate — in London, Paris, and San Remo, Italy — Weizmann moved heaven and earth to get Balfour incorporated into the Mandate, conferring legal status on the Zionist project.

He succeeded. Under the terms of the Mandate, in force on September 29, 1923, Britain would ensure Jewish immigration, the acquisition of citizenship by European Jews, “intensive” Jewish cultivation and “self-governing” Zionist institutions. 

Palestine’s native people got tossed a few bones — “civil and religious rights” [not political], and a judicial system to “assure to foreigners, as well as to natives, a complete guarantee of their rights.”

“They didn’t ask for a Jewish state because that would have been asking for too much and it would have immediately alienated all the Arabs. So, they moderated the claim to a national home. And the British went along with it.” Avi Shlaim

What was Britain’s true aim – the creation of a Jewish “national home” (whatever that meant), or an actual Jewish state? And how did the Zionists see themselves – as colonists, or Palestine’s true native people?

“[A] national home was a newfangled concept,” Avi Shlaim told Mondoweiss. “So, no one knew quite what it meant.”

“But the Zionist leaders had a very clear idea what they meant; they meant a state. They didn’t ask for a Jewish state because that would have been asking for too much and it would have immediately alienated all the Arabs. So, they moderated the claim to a national home. And the British went along with it.”

Hypocrisy and duplicity

“But there is a lot of hypocrisy on the British side in all of this,” says Shlaim. “The Zionists and the British knew from the beginning what they were doing; that they were enabling the systematic Zionist takeover of Palestine at the expense of the Palestinians.”

Hypocrisy indeed, and duplicity. “Balfour, Churchill and Lloyd George told Weizmann at a private dinner a few years [after the start of the Mandate] that what they meant by this obfuscating and opaque language was a Jewish state,” Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi told Mondoweiss.

“There was no shame in the 20s and 30s about being a colonist. [They] understand perfectly that they were European settlers engaged in the colonial enterprise.”

Rashid Khalidi

As for the Zionists, settler-colonialism was in vogue back then. “There was no shame in the 20s and 30s about being a colonist,” Rashid Khalidi told Mondoweiss. “[They] understand perfectly that they were European settlers engaged in the colonial enterprise. The agency that’s purchasing a lot of this land is called the Jewish Colonization Agency!”

Palestinian legal scholar Noura Erekat puts it differently. “[The] Zionist project never envisioned Jews as being part of the Middle East,” Erekat told Mondoweiss. “Israel was seen by its founders very much as an extension of Europe and a site of Jewish settlement as a satellite state, but not part of the Middle East, culturally, ethnically, linguistically, politically.”

As always, the Zionists played the game both ways.

“Ussishkin and others who openly kind of talked about colonialism — and in fact thought that Britain would see them as settlers similar to the white settlers in Rhodesia — Ben-Gurion didn’t like that comparison,” Israeli historian and writer Ilan Pappe told Mondoweiss. “He said no, no, we are not the same. We are the indigenous people who came back home, a home usurped by the aliens, the foreigners.”

As for Britain, it knew perfectly well who Palestine’s indigenous people were, says Ilan Pappe. Junior members of the British government were even bothered by Whitehall’s duplicity. In the end, Britain was free to do as it pleased.

“The League of Nations was the body overseeing the Mandatory charters,” Pappe told Mondoweiss. “This international body was dominated by Britain and France and therefore they were the ones who actually would decide whether there was a violation or not.”

Why look back?

So, what are the practical implications of bad British faith and duplicity a century ago? Can British wrongs be set right?

“I think it’s important to check every chapter in that history of elimination with two realizations,” Ilan Pappe told Mondoweiss. “One is that Zionism – from its very inceptions until today – has not given up the idea of having as much of historical Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians as possible … Even liberal Zionism is not averse to that goal. It just has different ideas of how to do it. So that’s one realization. And that’s why we need to study that history. And secondly, the international Western coalition that enabled the beginning of the project … that international coalition is still today providing immunity for a state that Amnesty International has already defined as an apartheid state.”

“A hundred years ago is not that long. Acknowledging 100 years since the Palestine Mandate is placing that context front and center … It places responsibility where it belongs, primarily at the footsteps of Britain, but also at the footsteps of the international community.”

Noura Erekat

“Well, if we don’t look back at this and other aspects of history, we are liable to be prone to the kinds of myths and disinformation and falsehoods that have dominated the way people have seen this part of the world,” Rashid Khalidi told Mondoweiss. “Obviously, Zionists prefer to pretend that they did it all themselves; that it was just the hard work and the sweat of the pioneers and their sacrifice … But without the might of the British Empire, all of this would either have come to naught or would have been a much, much more difficult process.”

“A hundred years ago is not that long,” Noura Erekat told Mondoweiss. “Acknowledging 100 years since the Palestine Mandate is placing that context front and center … It places responsibility where it belongs, primarily at the footsteps of Britain, but also at the footsteps of the international community, because the Balfour Declaration was incorporated almost verbatim into the [1923] Palestine Mandate in the preambular text, where it thereafter becomes a central part of international law and therefore is no longer just British prerogative, but now becomes obligations of the international community to adhere to.”

International legal obligation

In legal jargon, the international community’s obligations are ‘live’. 

According to Article 80 of the UN Charter, “nothing shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.”

Put simply, says Canadian law expert Ardi Imseis, the international community’s obligation to decolonize Palestine and liberate its people, set forth in Article 22 of the Covenant, has not lapsed. That obligation has been inherited by today’s UN.  In support of this view, Imseis cites the International Court of Justice’s 1971 ruling, Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia.

Para. 55 of Namibia stated: “[To] the question whether the continuance of a mandate was inseparably linked with the existence of the League, the answer must be that an institution established for the fulfillment of a sacred trust cannot be presumed to lapse before the achievement of its purpose.”

Will the international community finally fulfill its sacred trust to the Palestinian people? Not if Israel’s allies have a say. Resolution of the ‘conflict’ must be achieved through direct negotiation between the ‘parties’, they insist, untethered from international law. 

In line with this stance, the U.S., Canada, and Britain, among others, are now urging the ICJ not to render an Advisory Opinion on the legal dimensions of Israel’s ‘prolonged’ occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem (strikingly parallel to South Africa in Namibia), as requested by the UN General Assembly last December. ICJ involvement would make ‘peacemaking’ harder, if not impossible, they argue – and the ‘peace process’ is the purview of the UN Security Council, not the General Assembly.

Cynics that they are, Israel’s allies know this isn’t so. They’re familiar with Article 80. So is the ICJ. Its ruling, sometime in 2025, will likely provide grist for another round of jaw-wagging on the floor of the UN General Assembly – many of its members former British colonies, incensed by the survival of British-Israeli settler-colonialism, a hundred years after it began.

On Sunday, the repression units of the Israeli Occupation Prisons Administration stormed Section 5 of Raymond Prison and transferred all the prisoners held there to Nafha Prison.

It is noteworthy that the repression units of the occupation prison administration include soldiers with strong bodies and experience who served in various military units in the occupation army, and their members received special training to suppress and abuse prisoners, using various weapons, including bladed weapons, batons, tear gas, and electrical devices that lead to To burns on the body, weapons that fire incendiary bullets, internationally banned “dum-dum” bullets, and strange bullets that cause severe pain.

The Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom reported on Sunday that Israel began providing economic facilities to the Palestinian Authority after it recently reduced taxes imposed on fuel by 50%.

According to the Hebrew newspaper, the tax is now 1.5%, instead of 3%, as was the case since the signing of the economic agreements annexed to the Oslo Accords.

According to the Hebrew newspaper, this leads to saving an amount of 80 million shekels annually from the Palestinian Authority’s budget.

The newspaper indicated that the additional economic concessions and facilities provided by Israel to the Palestinian Authority since the beginning of the current year 2023 amounted to 270 million shekels, which represents an increase in tax payments collected for the Authority, amounting to 730 million shekels per month on average, compared to about half One million shekels 3 years ago.

It pointed out that funds were transferred to the Palestinian Authority on the basis of “accounts” in “increasing transparency by paying the value-added tax” in general, which is an additional budget amounting to 350 million shekels, which Israel has transferred, for the benefit of the Authority, since the formation of the current right-wing government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a decision to reduce the fuel tax on the Palestinian Authority a few months ago, and it was approved by the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, under the pretext of Netanyahu’s commitment to the American government, as the Hebrew newspaper says.

According to the newspaper, the administration of US President Joe Biden is putting strong pressure on the Israeli government to improve the economic situation of the Palestinian Authority, under the pretext that it is on the verge of economic collapse.

On Sunday morning, settlers stormed the village of Jalboun, east of Jenin, under heavy protection from the Israeli army.

According to the Hebrew Kan Radio, dozens of settlers who live in the neighboring Kibbutz Merav, inside the Green Line, crossed through a gap in the security fence and stormed the village.

She pointed out that the kibbutz residents who participated in the storming operation protested the recent recurrence of shooting operations towards the kibbutz, especially on Friday and Saturday during Sukkot, which caused the home of a settler to be hit by a bullet.