Rising murder rates among Arab Israeli raises debate over police negligence — Middle East Monitor (9/26/19)

Rising murder rates among the Palestinian citizens of Israel have ignited a debate between police and civilians regarding the force’s negligence of Arab neighbourhoods and the practice of segregating communities within the country. The debate comes after seven Arab Israelis were shot to death over the past week, four on the same day, bringing to 68 the number of those killed in shootings so far this year. It is the latest in a sharp rise in the murder rate among Palestinians of Israel who constitute a fifth of the population but make up 63 per cent of murder victims over the past two years. Palestinian citizens of Israel account for 80 per cent  of those killed so far this year.

Elizabeth Warren won’t stand up to Israel’s crimes — Electronic Intifada (9/25/19)

Netanyahu on Steroids: What a Gantz-led Government Means for Palestine — Palestine Chronicle (9/25/19)

Experience has taught Palestinians not to pay heed to Israeli elections. But to every rule, there is an exception. Although it is still true that no Israeli Zionist leader has ever been kind to the Palestinian people, the dynamics of the latest Israeli elections on September 17 are likely to affect the Occupied Palestinian Territories in a profound way. Indeed, the outcome of the elections seems to have ushered in a new age in Israel, ideologically and politically. But the same claim can also be made regarding its potential influence on Palestinians, who should now brace themselves for war in Gaza and annexation in the West Bank. Former chief of general staff of the Israeli army, Benny Gantz, who had orchestrated the destructive war on the besieged Gaza Strip in 2014, is likely to be tasked with the job of forming Israel’s new government. Gantz had recently boasted about sending “parts of Gaza back to the Stone Age”.

Netanyahu’s exit could make it harder to fight occupation from the outside — +972 Magazine (9/25/19)

As Gaza’s economy goes into freefall, the debtors’ prison is overflowing — Mondoweiss (9/24/19)

Netflix and Israel: A special relationship — Middle East Eye (9/24/19)

Back in 2016, the Israeli embassy in the United States tweeted with regard to Netflix’s global expansion: “For the 5+/- days a year the weather’s not good… @Netflix, now in Israel!” What fortune, indeed, that Israel managed to erect itself on stolen land with such favourable meteorology. And speaking of luck, Netflix has proven itself a veritable godsend for the Jewish state, for a lot more than five days out of the year. As with various entertainment platforms, Netflix has been willingly subsumed into the Israeli hasbara industry. The latest pro-Israel production to grace subscribers’ screens is the six-part Netflix series The Spy, starring Sacha Baron Cohen as Israel’s celebrated Mossad agent Eli Cohen, executed in Damascus in 1965. Predictably, the series humanises Cohen as a humble, loving and dedicated patriot engaged in noble subterfuge on behalf of innocent Israelis under attack from dastardly Syria. No mention is made of Israel’s preeminent role as attacker-provocateur, while its history of mass slaughter in the service of predatory regional designs is - as usual - disappeared under the mantra of “self-defence”.