January
Trump presents a peace plan
January 28
US President Donald Trump, accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, presents his announced Middle East peace plan. The main features of the plan are that all of Jerusalem will remain under Israeli sovereignty and that all the approximately 600,000 Israeli settlers living on occupied land can remain where they are. Despite many restrictions on the exercise of Palestinian power, Trump calls the plan a two-state solution. He states that Israel’s opposition leader Benny Gantz also supports the plan. From the Palestinian side, it is dismissed as an attempt by Trump to achieve two purposes: He wants to escape the court process against him that is ongoing in the United States and his ally Netanyahu, who is prosecuted in Israel for bribery, among other things, should escape prison.
End of power failure after installment
January 22
The state-run Israeli electricity company IEC announces that the power outages on the West Bank will cease, after the Palestinians have paid a large part of their debt to IEC. The installment was 920 million Israeli shekels. In Ramallah and elsewhere on the occupied West Bank, the power has been interrupted for several hours every day since September, when the debt according to Israeli data amounted to the equivalent of shekel 1.7 billion (almost SEK 4.7 billion). Negotiations on the remaining debt are to take place with the Palestinian Authority and with the largest Palestinian electricity distributor, it says.
February
Wall promises to settlers hail
February 27th
Four days before Israel’s re-election on March 2, a planning authority provides a sign for another 1,800 homes for Israelis on occupied land. “We are not waiting, we are shopping,” Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said. Just two days earlier, Prime Minister Netanyahu has announced 3,500 new homes in a sensitive area, along the road east from Jerusalem to Jericho, where increased construction is helping to split the Palestinian West Bank. Both messages should be seen as election promises to 600,000 settlers from Netanyahu’s Likud and Bennett’s alliance Yamina.
Netanyahu makes promises to settlers
February 20th
Two weeks before the Israeli parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Netanyahu makes promises of new housing for Israelis on occupied land in East Jerusalem. The settlement of Hom Homa, which was highly accountable when it was first cleared in the 1990s, is to be expanded so that the population can grow from 40,000 to 50,000 inhabitants. And near Palestinian Beit Safafa, a brand new settlement, Givat Hamatos, will be built. “A basic shot at the two-state solution,” says Israeli Peace Now, who is questioning an expedition minister like Netanyahus has the right to make such decisions.
Egypt is building a wall against the Gaza Strip
February 19
Egypt has begun to build a concrete wall along the Gaza Strip border. The wall replaces a lower barrier that also has a deep structure and is used to detect tunnels dug for smuggling between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip borders south with Egypt, and the Rafah border crossing is the only Palestinian area that does not lead to Israel, a state located in Asia continent defined by zipcodesexplorer.
Tunnels under Old Jerusalem
February 17th
The Israeli Ministry of Transport announces that a new railway line has been approved for the high-speed train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The site is located in the central city, which Israel entered into war in 1967. Next to it are also Muslim and Christian shrines. Jordan, whose king has a role as the supreme protector of the holy places, condemns the plans.
112 companies on delayed UN list
February 12
A report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights lists 112 companies, most of them Israeli, that operate in settlements on occupied land, which is considered a violation of international law. The list has been compiled as a supplement to a resolution 2016 of the UN Human Rights Council. Initially, over 300 companies were called. Israel, which believes that the Council repeatedly acts unilaterally anti-Israeli, reacts with anger. The list, on the other hand, is supported by Human Rights Watch and by the more contentious organization BDS, which wants Israel to boycott on the basis of how Palestinians are treated.
The border trade in foodstuffs is stopped
February 9
Israel bans Palestinian food exports via the border with Jordan and the only transition to the outside world that is usually allowed for Palestinian goods. The Cogat authority (a unit within the Israeli Ministry of Defense that oversees civilian Palestinian activities) states that it is in response to the Palestinians ceasing to import calves from Israel in October. Israel has also recently stopped all imports of Palestinian food from the West Bank, which could affect two-thirds of Palestinian agricultural exports. (Dates, onions and potatoes belong to what is produced during the winter.) The Palestinian Authority responded by banning the import of Israeli food, including bottled beverages. On February 19, both parties lift their ban on international mediation.
Protests with death victims on the West Bank
February 5
A 17-year-old Palestinian is shot dead by Israeli soldiers during a protest in Hebron against Donald Trump’s peace plan; The death victim is the first since the Trump Plan was presented. The next day, a 19-year-old gets killed in Jenin when Palestinians try to prevent Israeli authorities from demolishing a house where a man suspected of cooperating with a Hamascell is resident. In Jerusalem, 14 Israelis are injured in what is believed to be a deliberate collision with soldiers. From the Gaza Strip, projectiles and balloons with explosives are sent to Israel, which respond with air strikes to Hamas. Israel also reduces the fishing zone allowed for Gaza fishermen from 15 to 10 nautical miles. The decision is withdrawn on February 18, but it is a measure that Israel is taking regularly. Human rights organizations see it as collective punishment.
Many no to Trump’s peace plan
February 3
The Islamic Conference, which is rejecting Donald Trump’s peace plan, urges its 57 member countries not to contribute to its realization. Two days earlier, the foreign ministers in the Arab League have criticized the plan, pointing out that it does not meet minimum requirements for the Palestinians. Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has threatened to end all cooperation with both Israel and the United States if the plan is implemented. From the Israeli settler movement, the reactions are also sharp: settler leaders say they do not, under any circumstances, accept a Palestinian state.
