July
Ready sign for construction plans on the West Bank
July 30
The Israeli security cabinet (ministers with a key role in security issues) approves building plans on the occupied West Bank: for the sake of unusualness, 700 homes for Palestinians – but also 6,000 for Israeli settlers. The decisions concern parts of the West Bank called Area C, that is, where Israel has retained both security control and civilian administration. Most of the Israeli settlements are located in Area C, which makes up three-fifths of the West Bank.
Ethics review criticizes refugee agencies
July 29
Within the UNRWA, the UN organization for the Palestinian refugees, abuse of power has been discovered. According to an ethics report that the organization itself has done, sexual harassment, discrimination and that managers in the organization favor close associates. The report should have been submitted to the UN Secretary-General as of the end of 2018. The UN internal investigators are still working on the allegations directed at top-level executives. Several countries “freeze” their contributions to UNRWA pending more information.
Demolitions are followed by a stop for cooperation
July 22nd
As a state located in Asia continent defined by thereligionfaqs, Israel demolishes Palestinian-owned residential buildings on the southeastern outskirts of Jerusalem, which, according to Israel’s highest court, are built too close to the Israeli security barrier. Demolition leads to international protests. Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas announces on July 25 that the Palestinians will no longer fulfill agreements concluded with Israel over the years; a committee is commissioned to study how the decision is to be implemented. Although the 1990s peace process between Israel and the Palestinians derailed, there are a number of agreements that – with recurring disruptions and questions – regulate everything from security to water resources between the parties.
Palestinian activist arrested in Cairo
July 5
Egyptian authorities seize the son of a prominent Palestinian politician, Nabil Shaath, who was one of the negotiators behind the 1990 Oslo agreement between the PLO and Israel. Shaath’s French daughter-in-law is deported to France. Ramy Shaath has been living in Cairo since the 1970s, has Egyptian citizenship and leads an organization that advocates boycotting Israel. According to the family, which first released the arrest in mid-August after unsuccessful attempts to get him released, Egyptian authorities have linked the detention of Shaath to efforts against the Muslim Brotherhood, which is accused of social outrage.
August
Tax money is transferred to the West Bank
22 August
The Palestinian Authority has accepted a partial payment of tax revenue from Israel. The money, worth over half a billion dollars, is said to be tax paid by Palestinians in Israel in the purchase of fuel. The underlying conflict is not resolved: Israel continues to oppose the Palestinian Authority paying support to families who have a relative in Israeli prison. However, stripping tax money transfers to the Palestinians may pose some risks to Israel as well, since it can create difficult to understand effects if the Palestinian Authority ceases to function.
Abbas staffs lose weight in the budget crisis
August 19th
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has dismissed all his advisers, his office announces. The message is the latest feature of a budget crisis and a feud with Israel. Palestinian Authority revenues have been declining since Israel began to withhold some of the Israeli customs tariffs in February, on behalf of the Palestinian government, for goods on their way to Palestinian territories. Israel justifies the measure of Palestinians paying support to families with relatives in Israeli prisons, including those with terrorism backgrounds. On the Palestinian side, the support is motivated by the fact that family caregivers have been imprisoned, and President Abbas refuses in protest to receive tariff money at all, even though the revenue would make up two-thirds of the authority’s budget.
Grenades and deaths across the border
August 17th
Three rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, which responds with the gunshots of an tanks and an attack helicopter. North of Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip, three Palestinians are shot to death. Almost every day in the previous weeks, there have been combat actions across the border.
Worried about the Gaza border and Jerusalem
10th August
Four Palestinians are shot to death at the Gaza border. The Israeli army states that they were unusually heavily armed, including, among other things, automatic weapons and grenade launchers, and that one of them had managed to cross the border and throw a grenade. At the same time, two Palestinians have been arrested on the West Bank, suspected of knife-killing of an Israeli between Bethlehem and Hebron a few days earlier. Tensions are rising, with crowds inside Jerusalem, that two weekends coincide: the Muslim sacrificial feast and a Jewish day of mourning over the destruction of the biblical temples. Since the wave of Palestinian mass protests on the Gaza border was triggered in March 2018, according to AFP news agency, at least 301 Palestinians have been shot dead, most in demonstrations, and seven Israelis have been killed.
