Israel protests – Free Palestine Melbourne

Tag: Israel protests

Netanyahu dismisses election calls as thousands protest in Tel Aviv

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

Jerusalem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday dismissed the idea of holding early elections, while thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv for an anti-government protest.

Netanyahu has seen his popularity plummet in opinion polls since Hamas’ October 7 attack that sparked the devastating war in Gaza.

Anti-government protests that shook the country for much of 2023 have largely subsided during the war. Still, demonstrators again took to the streets of Tel Aviv Saturday night calling for new elections, which are not scheduled until 2026.

The crowd was much smaller than last years’ mass protests, numbering a few thousand, according to local media.

“I’d like to say to the government that you’ve had your time, you ruined everything that you can ruin. Now is the time for the people to correct all the things, all the bad things that you’ve done,” said one protester, his head wrapped in an Israeli flag.

Netanyahu was asked at a press briefing about calls within his own ruling Likud party to hold early elections right when the Gaza war ends.

“The last thing we need right now are elections and dealing with elections, since it will immediately divide us,” he said. “We need unity right now.”

Netanyahu also pledged to push on with the military campaign and said troops would move into the southern border city of Rafah.

Israeli forces carried out arrests in Gaza’s largest functioning hospital, health officials and the military said on Saturday, as airstrikes hit across the enclave and rain battered Palestinians taking shelter in Rafah.

Israeli forces raided the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Thursday as they pressed their war on Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that rules the enclave.

“Occupation forces detained a large number of medical staff members inside Nasser Medical Complex, which they (Israel) turned into a military base,” said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra.

The Israeli military said it was hunting for militants in Nasser and had so far arrested 100 suspects on the premises, killed gunmen near the hospital and found weapons inside it.

Hamas has denied allegations that its fighters use medical facilities for cover. At least two released Israeli hostages have said they were held in Nasser and Israel has released pictures and videos supporting its claim that Hamas operates within medical compounds.

The Israeli incursion into the hospital has raised alarm about patients, medical workers and displaced Palestinians sheltering there.

About 10,000 people were seeking shelter at the hospital earlier this week, but many left either in anticipation of the Israeli raid or because of Israeli orders to evacuate, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Further south in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are sheltering, the winter cold added to already dire conditions when wind blew away some tents of the displaced and rain flooded others.

Key mediator Qatar said on Saturday that talks on a potential cease-fire deal in Gaza “have not been progressing as expected” in the past few days after good progress in recent weeks.

Speaking during the Munich Security Conference, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdurrahman Al Thani, noted difficulties in the “humanitarian part” of the negotiations.

Netanyahu, who is under pressure to bring home remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, said he sent a delegation to cease-fire talks in Cairo earlier in the week at U.S. President Joe Biden’s request but doesn’t see the point in sending them again.

Hamas wants a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Palestinians held by Israel.

Reuters, AP

Israel-Hamas war: Police and protesters clash outside Netanyahu’s house

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

Thousands of Israeli protesters have descended on the house of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for the “fall” of the country. Watch video, see photos.
Protesters in Israel are gathering outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home calling for new elections in an effort to replace the Israeli leader.
Israeli demonstrators have rallied outside the parliament and near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence demanding early elections and chanting “All of them! Now!” calling for hostage release, as US, Qatari and Egyptian mediation efforts towards a truce deal have stalled for months.
“We need to shut down the country in order to make the government fall,” said Yaacov Godo, whose son Tom was killed during the Hamas attack, at the start of what activists describe as a week of anti-government action across the country.
The war should have stopped “a long time ago”, and the return of the captives would “end this story”, Mr Godo said.
Israeli media said another rally is planned in front of the parliament building late Tuesday.
It comes as witnesses reported gunfire and artillery shelling near Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where the civil defence agency said at least 13 people died in two separate strikes on a family home and on a commercial building.
Witnesses and the Hamas government media office said there were some strikes and fighting elsewhere in northern and central Gaza.
In a statement, the Israeli army said its operations continued on Tuesday in central and southern Gaza including Rafah city on the border with Egypt.
In Rafah, where the Israeli military has said it would pause fighting along a key route in the city’s east, witnesses saw Israeli military vehicles and reported shelling in other areas.
United Nations rights chief Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva he was “appalled by the disregard for international human rights” and “unconscionable death and suffering”.
At least three people were wounded and eight arrested as Israeli police clashed with protesters outside the Jerusalem home of Mr Netanyahu.
Tens of thousands of Israeli protesters have been converging in Jerusalem for eight months after the start of the war and a year-and-a-half since the unveiling of the Netanyahu-led government’s judicial coup.
The demonstrations are calling for new elections, a permanent ceasefire and hostage release deal, and more.
Some protesters were violently arrested as water cannons were used to put out a fire that protesters had lit on the road, according to local Israeli media.
Following the dissolving of Mr Netanyahu’s war cabinet, reflecting the country’s political fractures, representatives from several anti-government protest groups announced they will be intensifying their activism with “A Week of Resistance” that will include countrywide demonstrations taking place over the next several days.
Protesters set a fire near the residence of the Israeli prime minister during an anti-government rally calling for early elections, in Jerusalem. Picture: AFP
Protesters set a fire near the residence of the Israeli prime minister during an anti-government rally
The upheaval comes after centrist military leader Benny Gantz, who formed and headed the Israeli war cabinet, resigned over Mr Netanyahu’s lack of a post-war plan for Gaza.
Protester Oren Shvill said: “The healing process for the country of Israel, it starts here. After last week when Benny Gantz and Eisenkot left the coalition, we are continuing this process and hopefully this government will resign soon.”

Labor senator Fatima Payman calls on government to ‘recognise Palestine’ in rebuke to Albanese

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

Party were ‘fierce champions of Palestine’ in opposition and they must ‘summon that spirit of old’, she writes for Al Jazeera

The Labor senator Fatima Payman has called on her own government to “recognise Palestine” and undermined efforts by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to discredit protests against Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Payman, writing for Al Jazeera, argued that nations needed to take a “definitive stance” on Palestinian statehood because Israel “continues to disregard its obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and cease genocidal acts”. Israel denies committing genocide in its military response to the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
Labor has accused the Greens of encouraging protests outside MPs’ electorate offices, which it argues are undemocratic, and joined with the Coalition opposition to condemn what it calls “misinformation” over the government’s position on recognising Palestine.
The Greens have targeted the Albanese Labor government for its refusal to join a procedural motion to bring on a parliamentary debate about recognition of Palestinian statehood.
“My party, the Australian Labor Party, has consistently argued that such motions are political machinations on the part of the Greens in order to score ‘cheap points’ and sway the public,” Payman wrote.
“Even if that were the case, this ‘politicking’ does not detract from the underlying fact that a genocide is ongoing, and the Australian public knows it.”
Payman broke ranks in May by accusing Israel of genocide and declaring “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a politically charged phrase that Albanese has criticised.
“Our country must not become one that smothers voices calling for justice, or one that censors the oppressed seeking freedom,” she wrote in Al Jazeera.
“Australian hearts have an affinity for justice. This is the reason why our students across the country are standing up as their predecessors did when they denounced the wars in Vietnam, and Iraq, and Afghanistan. The students were right on each of these generation-defining conflicts.”
Payman also noted that “in opposition, our prime minister and the Labor Party were fierce champions of Palestine and passionate voices for justice”.
“I ask that we summon that spirit of old and do the same in power.
“Let historians write of us that we were on the right side of history, that we boldly reinforced international law, and that we were a shining beacon and voice for freedom. It is time to recognise Palestine.”
Australia supported a UN vote on Palestinian membership although the foreign minister, Penny Wong, was at pains to note the motion was not about recognising Palestine as a state.
The international criminal court has applied for warrants for the arrest of five people including three Hamas leaders, and the Israeli prime minister and defence minister for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Albanese government has said it respects the independence of the ICC, as the opposition led by Peter Dutton demanded it denounce the decision.
On Tuesday Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, blasted Payman, who he said had “taken positions on the conflict utterly antithetical to her government’s own policies, including the use of a chant that our own prime minister called ‘violent’ and contrary to a two-state solution”.
Ryvchin said the offices of her own colleagues had been targeted.
“Instead of writing for Qatari state media, the senator would be well served reflecting on how this war started and calling on the Hamas leadership in Gaza and Doha to accept the ceasefire that Israel and all meditating parties have supported.”
Payman has rejected claims her use of the politically charged phrase “from the river to the sea” promoting Palestinian freedom is antisemitic. Organisers of protests outside electorate offices insist they are peaceful.
“This is all a distraction from what is at stake: the total destruction of Gazan society and the mass killing of innocent civilians,” Payman said on Tuesday night. “Words are not violence, violence is violence, and it beggars belief that Israel continues to act with impunity, punishing innocent civilians, eradicating entire family lineages, ignoring international law, and still claiming with a straight face, that it is defending itself.
“I reiterate that I do not want to see antisemitism and islamophobia weaponised here or anywhere else, nor any harm come to innocent people. The various strategies to cast those standing up for the recognition and liberation of Palestinians as violent, obfuscate the very real violence that we condemn and demand that it be stopped.”
Earlier in June the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, hit back at the prime minister and the opposition leader, accusing them of “attempting to distract from their complicity” and adding: “I will not be lectured to about peace and non-violence by people who back the invasion of Gaza.”

Dozens killed after Israeli troops allegedly open fire near aid trucks, IDF says trampling happened

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

In short: Gaza health authorities say an Israeli strike has killed at least 104 people in Gaza City while they were waiting for aid.
The latest strike brings the death toll in Gaza to more than 30,000 killed since October 7, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Aid groups say it has become nearly impossible to deliver humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

Health authorities in Gaza have claimed Israeli troops opened fire on people waiting for aid near Gaza City, reportedly killing more than 100 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more.

Israel disputed the account and the death toll provided by health officials, saying aid trucks had been surrounded by hundreds of people and in the confusion many were trampled or run over.

A spokesperson for Israel’s military said there was no knowledge of shelling that was initially reported at that location.

But the military later said dozens of people were hurt as a result of pushing and trampling when aid trucks arrived in northern Gaza.

An Israeli source told Reuters that troops opened fire at “several people” in the crowd who posed a threat to them.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office said he “condemned the ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army this morning against the people who waited for the aid trucks at the Nabulsi roundabout”.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said the incident took place at al-Nabusi roundabout west of Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave.

Medical teams were unable to cope with the volume and severity of injuries from dozens of wounded people who arrived at al-Shifa hospital, Mr Qidra said.

The head of Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza City, Hussam Abu Safieyah, said it had received 10 dead bodies and dozens of wounded patients from the incident west of the city.

“We don’t know how many there are in other hospitals,” Mr Safieyah told Reuters by phone.

Hamas warned in a statement that the incident could lead to the failure of talks aimed at a deal on a truce and hostage release.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said the incident involving its troops was “under review”.

“Early this morning, during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks, and looted the supplies being delivered,” the IDF said in a statement.

“During the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling.”

An Israeli government spokesperson described Palestinian casualties as a tragedy and said initial indications were that deaths were caused by delivery drivers ploughing into a surging crowd.

“At some point the trucks were overwhelmed and the people driving the trucks, which were Gazan civilian drivers, ploughed into the crowds of people, ultimately killing, my understanding is, tens of people,” spokesperson Avi Hyman told reporters.

“It’s obviously a tragedy but we’re not sure of the specifics quite yet.”

US President Joe Biden said the United States was checking the reports and he believed the deadly incident would complicate talks on a ceasefire.

“I know it will,” Mr Biden told reporters as he left the White House for a trip.

He also said a temporary ceasefire probably would not happen by Monday, as he had earlier predicted, but he was hopeful.

The area has suffered widespread devastation and has been largely isolated during the conflict.

Trucks carrying food reached northern Gaza this week, the first major aid delivery to the area in a month, officials said Wednesday.

Aid groups said it has become nearly impossible to deliver humanitarian assistance in most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order, with crowds of desperate people overwhelming aid convoys.

The UN says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians face starvation; around 80 per cent have fled their homes.

The UN’s aid chief Martin Griffiths said he was appalled at the reported killings and injuries.

“Even after close to five months of brutal hostilities, Gaza still has the ability to shock us,” Mr Griffiths said in a post on X.

“I’m appalled at the reported killing and injury of hundreds of people during a transfer of aid supplies west of Gaza City today.”

Gaza death toll surpasses 30,000

Separately, the health ministry said the Palestinian death toll from the war has climbed to 30,035, with another 70,457 wounded.

It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures but says women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.

The health ministry maintains detailed records of casualties. Its counts from previous wars have largely matched those of the UN, independent experts and even Israel’s tallies.

The Hamas attack into southern Israel that ignited the war killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and the militants seized around 250 hostages.

Hamas and other militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of about 30 more, after releasing most of the other captives during a November cease-fire.

The increasing alarm over hunger across Gaza has fuelled international calls for another cease-fire, and the US, Egypt and Qatar are working to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas for a pause in fighting and the release of some of the hostages.

Mediators hope to reach an agreement before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts around March 10. But so far, Israel and Hamas have remained far apart in public on their demands.

One in six children under 2 in North Gaza suffer malnutrition, UN says

Meanwhile, UN officials have warned of further mass casualties if Israel follows through on vows to attack the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has taken refuge. They also say a Rafah offensive could decimate what remains of aid operations.

Several hundred thousand Palestinians are believed to remain in northern Gaza despite Israeli orders to evacuate the area in October, and many have been reduced to eating animal fodder to survive. The UN says one in 6 children under 2 in the north suffer from acute malnutrition and wasting.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said around 50 aid trucks entered nothern Gaza this week. It was unclear who delivered the aid. Some countries have meanwhile resorted to airdrops in recent days.

The World Food Program said earlier this month that it was pausing deliveries to the north because of the growing chaos, after desperate Palestinians emptied a convoy while it was en route.

Since launching its assault on Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 attack, Israel has barred entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies except for a trickle of aid entering the south from Egypt at the Rafah crossing and Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing. Despite international calls to allow in more aid, the number of supply trucks is far less than the 500 that came in daily before the war.

COGAT said Wednesday that Israel does not impose limits on the amount of aid entering. Israel has blamed UN agencies for the bottleneck, saying hundreds of trucks are waiting on the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom for aid workers to collect them.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Wednesday countered by saying large trucks entering Gaza have to be unloaded and reloaded onto smaller ones, but there aren’t enough of them and there’s a lack of security to distribute aid in Gaza.

Police in Gaza stopped protecting convoys after Israeli strikes on them near the crossing.

AP/Reuters

Families of hostages march for four days to demand their freedom

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

Tel Aviv: The families of hostages held in Gaza and their supporters have started a four-day march from southern Israel to Jerusalem to demand their loved ones be set free.

The march comes as negotiations are underway in Qatar to bring about a new deal between Hamas and Israel that would lead to a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages. US President Joe Biden has said such a deal was at hand, but officials from Israel and Hamas were sceptical of his optimism.

Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar are working in Paris on a framework deal under which Hamas would free some of the dozens of hostages it holds in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a six-week halt in fighting. During the temporary pause, negotiations would continue over the release of the remaining hostages.

Hostages freed in a late-November deal, some of whom still have relatives held in Gaza, joined the march, which will end near the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the weekend.

In its October 7 attack on southern Israel, Hamas abducted roughly 250 people, according to Israeli authorities, including men, women and children. Roughly 100 were freed about 50 days into their captivity. Some 130 hostages remain, and Israel says about a quarter of them are dead. Some 1200 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack.

While Netanyahu’s popularity has plummeted because of the military and intelligence failings that enabled Hamas’ incursion, he has a strong parliamentary majority and the next polls aren’t scheduled until 2026, Bloomberg reported.

But the plight of the hostages has deeply shaken Israelis, who see in them an enduring symbol of the state’s failure to protect its citizens from Hamas’ assault.

The subsequent Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe and sparked global concern over the situation in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town along the border with Egypt, where 1.4 million Palestinians have sought safety from Israel’s daily bombardments. Israel has indicated Rafah is next in its crosshairs.

Nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish in its count between fighters and noncombatants. Israel says it has killed 10,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The emir of Qatar spoke in Paris of “a race against time” to secure hostage releases as part of the diplomatic push for a ceasefire.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who was attending a dinner in his honour hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, noted that their two countries were working intensely on Gaza diplomacy but also spoke about the mounting casualties.

“The world sees a genocide of the Palestinian people. Hunger, forced displacement, savage bombardments are used as weapons. And the international community still hasn’t managed to adopt a unified position to end the war in Gaza and provide the strict minimum of protection for children, women and civilians,” the Qatari leader said, speaking through a translator.

South Africa accuses Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians, and has filed a case at the United Nations’ top court, the International Court of Justice. Israel adamantly denies the genocide allegations and says it is carrying out operations in accordance with international law.

“We are in a race against time to bring the hostages back to their families and at the same time we must work to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people,” Thani said.

Meanwhile, five organisations supporting the families of those held hostage have been awarded Israel’s prestigious 2024 Genesis prize.

The $US1 million ($1.5 million) award is usually given to a person for their professional achievements, contributions to humanity and commitment to Jewish values.

“The purpose of this year’s award is not to influence policy, but to raise international awareness of the plight of the hostages and provide humanitarian assistance focused on recovery, rehabilitation, and treatment,” said Stan Polovets, a co-founder of the prize.

The recipients include the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a grassroots group that sprung up following the October 7 attack to advocate for the return of the abductees.

Prize money will also go to the Jewish Agency’s Fund for Victims of Terror; Lev Echad; Natal-The Israel Trauma and Resiliency Centre; and OneFamily.

Tensions high as Israel nationalists march into east Jerusalem

Posted on August 12, 2023August 12, 2023 by admin

Tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists marched to Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday in an annual flag-waving march commemorating Israel’s capture of it, as tensions on the Gaza border remained high.

Palestinians in annexed east Jerusalem closed their shops and were banned from the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City, a social hub, to make way for the marchers, some of whom attacked journalists with rocks and bottles, an AFP reporter said.

Police said they made two arrests over the attack, one of an adult and one of a minor.

The United States, Israel’s main ally, on Thursday condemned demonstrators’ “racist” chants against Arabs, with AFP reporters saying that many of the marchers had shouted anti-Arab slogans.

“The United States unequivocally opposes racist language of any form. We condemn the hateful chants such as ‘Death to Arabs’ during today’s marches in Jerusalem,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote on Twitter.

In Gaza, thousands gathered for a rival flag day on the Israeli border, many of them holding Palestinian flags.

Israeli troops fired tear gas towards anyone approaching the border fence, AFP reporters said.

A Palestinian security source in Gaza said the territory’s Islamist rulers, Hamas, fired a “warning rocket” into the sea, without elaborating.

Ahead of the Israeli march, the militant group said it “condemns the campaign of the Zionist occupation (Israel) against our Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem”.

Two years ago, after weeks of violence in Jerusalem in which scores of Palestinians were wounded, a war between Hamas and Israel erupted during the march.

Speaking late Thursday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the celebrations were being held in Jerusalem “75 years after it was re-established as the capital of the reborn state of Israel, and 56 years after being reunited”.

Two of his extreme-right cabinet members, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, attended Thursday’s march, one of the events marking what Israelis refer to as Jerusalem Day.

“Today, we say to Hamas who threatened us: ‘Jerusalem is ours,'” Ben-Gvir said in a statement.

– ‘Provocations’ –

Following the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel annexed east Jerusalem and its Old City in a move never recognised by the international community.

Thursday’s rally took place days into a ceasefire that ended deadly cross-border fighting with Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza.

Thirty-three people, including multiple civilians, were killed in the blockaded Palestinian enclave and two in Israel, a citizen and a Gazan labourer.

Thursday’s march began in the western part of the city before passing into east Jerusalem and through the Old City to the Western Wall, where about 50,000 people took part in the Jewish evening prayer, according to local authorities.

Those marching were mostly young men, with some wearing white T-shirts and carrying Israeli flags, as about 2,500 police officers looked on.

Before the march began, Palestinians with shops in the Old City closed up for the day.

Resident Abu al-Abed, 72, said he wanted “to go home”.

The marchers “are harmful, they’re walking and start to hit the doors of the shops and the doors of our houses,” he told AFP.

Scuffles between Jewish and Palestinian youths took place as early marchers arrived in the Old City, with police saying that in some cases forces “were required to act to prevent friction and provocations”.

But the violence was greatly reduced from last year, when at least 79 people were wounded as police clashed with Palestinian counter-protesters outside the Damascus Gate.

Before the march, dozens of Jews — including at least three lawmakers from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and a minister from Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power faction — visited Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site.

– ‘Acquiescence’ to extremists –

Jews, who call it the Temple Mount and revere it as their religion’s holiest site, are allowed to visit but not pray.

One of them, Tom Nissani, was sitting at Jaffa Gate with an Israeli flag, awaiting the march.

“It’s our capital city, we have to show it, to enjoy it, to fight for it,” the 34-year-old West Bank settler, who works for an organisation promoting a Jewish presence on the flashpoint site, told AFP.

Transport Minister Miri Regev, from Netanyahu’s Likud, was among Israelis waving flags at the Damascus Gate hours before the official rally.

A spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned Israel “against insisting on organising the provocative flag march”.

Pushing ahead with the parade “confirms the acquiescence of the Israeli government to Jewish extremists”, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Wednesday.

Since last year’s rally, Israel’s leadership has taken a marked shift to the far right.

Ben-Gvir, the country’s national security minister, was convicted in 2007 of supporting a terrorist group and inciting racism.

Far-right ally Smotrich holds the finance portfolio along with some powers in the occupied West Bank and also has a history of inflammatory remarks about Palestinians.

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