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In the West Bank, spiking violence and an idle economy spur fears of a broadening conflict
DEIR ISTIYA, West Bank (JTA) — The video, making the rounds in this northern West Bank Palestinian village, showed an Israeli settler firing a rifle in the air above a group of Palestinians harvesting olives in a field not far from an Israeli settlement.
Standing in a small olive grove, the settler told the Palestinians that he would “put a bullet in their head” if they return. Later in the day, anonymous flyers were found on cars elsewhere in the village, warning its residents of a coming “forced expulsion” or “Nakba,” the Arabic word for “catastrophe” that Palestinians use to describe the dispersion and expulsion of Palestinians during Israel’s 1948 War of independence.
The incident last week comes amid an escalation in violence in the West Bank following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war against the terror group in Gaza. The eruption of West Bank clashes has been dwarfed in attention by the war, in which thousands have been killed and wounded and an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza is ongoing.
But this year is already the bloodiest in the West Bank in nearly two decades, and fears are compounding of the situation escalating further amid a dangerous mix of dynamics, including, since Oct. 7, economic insecurity after Israel suspended the permits that some 140,000 West Bank Palestinians rely on to work.
Since Oct. 7, according to the Times of Israel, more than 130 West Bank Palestinians, including dozens of children, have been killed by Israeli forces, and a number by settlers, while one Israeli soldier has been killed by Palestinians.
The past three weeks have also seen more than 100 incidents of violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers, according to the Israeli legal rights group Yesh Din, which said more than 800 West Bank Palestinians have been forced from their homes during that period.
Meanwhile, more than 1,200 Palestinians from the West Bank have been arrested, a majority of them affiliated with Hamas, according to the Israel Defense Forces. And on Thursday, an Israeli man was shot to death in the West Bank as he drove home from his army reserve duty.
Palestinians mourn Nasser Barghouti during his funeral in the West Bank village of Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023. (Flash90)
The spike in West Bank violence has led to differing and at times contradictory responses from Israeli officials. One lawmaker in the country’s right-wing government has called for “a Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of ’48,” while another far-right lawmaker was recently appointed to head a subcommittee focusing on the West Bank. The army is also planning to train and arm residents of Orthodox settlements without army experience to guard their settlements, according to a report Thursday in Haaretz.
Local leaders and those tasked with security, meanwhile, have condemned vigilante attacks and urged residents to leave law enforcement to Israeli troops.
“There is a big difference between a feeling of security and security,” Oded Revivi, the mayor of the West Bank settlement of Efrat, posted on Facebook on Wednesday praising the IDF brigade that protects the settlement. “A feeling of security is a very important feeling, but sometimes it turns out that the action that led to the feeling did not contribute to security. Conversely, actual security always brings a sense of security.”
The rising tide of West Bank settler attacks has led Israel to begin taking active measures to respond, placing extremist Israeli settler Ariel Danino in a four-month period of administrative detention, a term that signifies arrest without charges and is largely used for Palestinian detainees. On Monday, an off-duty IDF soldier from a unit of Orthodox soldiers was arrested for involvement in the killing of a 40-year-old Palestinian, Bilal Muhammed Saleh, who was shot dead on Saturday while harvesting olives near the village of As-Sawiya in the northern West Bank.
“We absolutely condemn any form of violence, whether it is against Jews or Palestinian civilians,” Betty Ilovici, the media and foreign affairs adviser for Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Administrative detention is used as a tool to stop anyone that poses an imminent threat to civilians.”
She added, “The military is doing everything in its power to maintain this arena as stable as possible, and again we condemn any form of violence and will do what is necessary to prevent it or stop it if necessary.”
Palestinians inspect the demolished family home of Saleh al-Arouri, in the West Bank village of Arura, near Ramallah, on October 31, 2023.(FLASH90)
That posture has come as the violence and string of evictions has increased. A Haaretz report said that in one instance, several Palestinians were stripped and tortured by soldiers and settlers. And in recent days, human rights groups have reported that two communities in the South Hebron Hills were evacuated following continued harassment from Israeli settlers. According to Comet-ME, an Israeli-Palestinian organization providing basic energy and clean-water services to Palestinians living off the grid in the West Bank, since Oct. 7 there have been 12 reported incidents of vandalism on energy and water infrastructure.
“Palestinian herding communities and farmers throughout Area C are being forced off their land and forcibly transferred into the enclaves of area A and B,” said activist Yehuda Shaul, co-director of the human rights organization Ofek, referring to farmers being forced from Israeli-governed areas into Palestinian-run districts. Shaul said the number of Palestinians displaced during the first three weeks of the war is approaching the 1,100 who were displaced in all of 2022.
The violence has converged with rising economic insecurity in the West Bank, which is currently at the peak of the olive harvest, an annual tradition at the heart of the Palestinian identity in villages such as Deir Istiya, which are surrounded by thousands of olive trees. This year, in addition to a poor overall crop of olives, the increase in settler attacks has scared some farmers from harvesting their crop.
“Palestinian farmers are particularly vulnerable at this time, during the annual olive harvest season, because if they are unable to pick their olives they will lose a year’s income,” reads a recent statement signed by 30 Israeli human rights organizations urging the international community to intervene.
Adding to the peril to the area’s economy is the status of 140,000 Palestinians who have had their Israeli work permit suspended. For the past three weeks, following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war against the terror group in Gaza, they have largely sat idle at home.
Within Israel, townships across the country have frozen construction projects that rely heavily on Palestinian as well as Arab-Israeli workers. Israeli settlements across the West Bank have likewise issued bans on Palestinian entry.
“As of today, there are no Palestinian workers entering Efrat,” Efrat announced on Oct. 27. Regarding Israeli Arabs, the announcement said, “Although we are aware of the feelings and concerns of the residents, at this time, we do not have the authority to prevent their entry.”
The work permit system has existed for decades, since the 1993 Oslo Accords led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority, which governs daily life in some Palestinian areas of the West Bank. The permits are managed by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which oversees civilian life in the West Bank, and are given to a predetermined number of workers who pass a security screening.
The permits give their holders access to work opportunities in Israel and the relatively higher salaries that come with them. They are also one of the only ways most Palestinians and Israelis encounter each other outside the context of military engagements. In addition to the West Bank permits, before the war more than 15,000 Gaza Palestinians had authorization to work in Israel. Now, that system is in limbo as Israel prosecutes a war in Gaza and killings and arrests have escalated in the West Bank.
“My permit is finished,” said Jamal, a construction worker from Deir Istiya who works with contractors across Israel and declined to share his full name out of concern for his physical safety. He displays the COGAT application on his phone: The screen for his work permit is now blank; applications to enter Israel, it says, are only available for “medical” or “travel” purposes.
A representative from COGAT told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that while all entry into Israel for work is temporarily illegal, Palestinian laborers in the West Bank are permitted to continue working in Israeli West Bank factories for “essential purposes” related to the war effort.
But cracks in the ban have begun to appear, demonstrating the extent to which both Palestinians and Israelis rely on the permit system. This week, a temporary exemption was granted for 8,000 workers to enter Israel due to a labor shortage.
Israeli security forces in the Barkan industrial zone in the West Bank, Oct. 7, 2018. (Flash90)
Meanwhile, Palestinians employed at Israeli companies are figuring out how to get through this period. In Deir Istiya, the economic impact of the war is already being felt, Jamal said. He said a local shopkeeper has allowed him to run up a tab, and that as long as he has “oil, pita and zaatar,” he can survive many months without work. He lamented that the Palestinian Authority has not provided assistance to workers in his position.
“For someone who has not put money in the bank, it is problematic,” he said. “I go to the mini-mart and ask for a few things — give me a few weeks or months and I will return to work and pay you the money.”
Some Palestinian workers were in Israel during the attack. Diaa, a 25-year old from the Deir Istiya, recalls working late into the night of Oct. 6, and into the next morning, at an Israeli restaurant in Rishon Lezion, a large coastal city south of Tel Aviv.
“We finished cleaning up around 2 a.m., I remember having a cigarette and falling asleep,” he recalled. “At 6:30 a.m. we woke up to the sound of rockets and ran to the shelter.”
He was able to split a taxi back to Deir Istiya with a friend. Since that day, Diaa, Jamal and others are sitting at home, following the war in Gaza.
“I was very unhappy about Oct. 7 seeing the children dying, people’s bodies being decapitated,” Jamal said, though he acknowledged that other Palestinians in the West Bank had a different reaction. “There were some people that were happy that they broke out of the Gaza jail and are fighting for Allah.”
Jamal said many people have stopped watching TV in order to avoid the graphic wartime images, though most still get updates on the war through their phones. At one point, he opened a post on Telegram, a messaging platform, with videos of Palestinian children lying dead in a Gaza hospital.
Others have attempted to keep working at their jobs, but Jamal said that for some, the situation has grown untenable. His cousin Abu-Ghazal, who works in a steel factory in the northern West Bank’s Barkan industrial area, said he kept going to work “until the police told us to go home.” All his boss could do is promise to call the workers back when they are allowed to return to the factory.
And Jamal added that some of the Palestinian workers who still have permission to work in the Barkan industrial zone have chosen to return home, citing the war climate and changes in Israeli society, where calls for private gun ownership have jumped since Oct. 7.
As of the beginning of the war, he said, “All the owners have weapons, they do not let you move around even to go to the bathroom without supervision.”
He added, “It’s very stressed there. There are people saying, ‘I will go home and wait until this is over, because it is so tense.’”
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The post In the West Bank, spiking violence and an idle economy spur fears of a broadening conflict appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa and Naama Levy named as Israeli hostages to go free on Saturday
Ben Sales reports on Friday for JTA. Stay tuned for more exclusive coverage related to Jewish Canadians from The CJN.
Hamas has published the names of the four hostages it will release on Saturday, the second group of captives to go free in the initial phase of the ceasefire that began this week.
The four hostages expected to be released on Saturday are Daniela Gilboa, Liri Albag, Naama Levy and Karina Ariev. All are Israeli soldiers, an apparent breach of Hamas’ agreement with Israel, which stipulated that civilian women be released first. The four hostages are all expected to come out alive after nearly 500 days in captivity since they were abducted in Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
The impending release of the four soldiers also means that the two civilian women still in captivity—Arbel Yehud and Shiri Bibas—will not go free on Saturday.
Yehud is thought to be held by Islamic Jihad, another Gaza terror group. Israel had reportedly demanded her release this week. No sign of life has publicly been disclosed about her since the Oct. 7 attack.
Bibas was abducted with her children Kfir and Ariel. Hamas said early in the war that all three members of the Bibas family had been killed, but Israel has not confirmed that allegation.
Agam Berger, a female Israel soldier, is also still being held hostage. A hostage released in November 2023 said Berger, who had started her army service two days before she was taken hostage, was alive in captivity.
After the four women are released, a total of 90 hostages will still be held in Gaza, dozens of whom have been confirmed to be dead. Hamas was due to provide details as to the condition of some of them, though the extent of that information remains unclear.
The release on Saturday is due to come six days after Hamas released Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher, all civilian women. In exchange, Israel released some 90 Palestinian security prisoners, and is due to release dozens more in exchange for the four hostages returning to Israel on Saturday.
The release of the three hostages on Sunday occasioned celebration and relief across Israel, which has collectively held its breath ahead of Saturday’s expected release. Most Israelis are in favor of the ceasefire deal, but it has also drawn opposition because it includes the release of convicted Palestinian terrorists and potentially an end to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. President Donald Trump has pushed for the deal but also sounded skeptical about it lasting.
The hostage releases are part of the first stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which began on Sunday and is due to last six weeks. Over the course of that period, Hamas is to release a total of 33 hostages, most of whom are thought to be alive.
The second stage of the ceasefire, which has yet to be negotiated, would see Israel fully withdraw from Gaza in exchange for the release of the remaining living hostages. A third stage would see the rest of the hostages be released as reconstruction of Gaza begins.
The post Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa and Naama Levy named as Israeli hostages to go free on Saturday appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Oklahoma Legislator Introduces Bill to Adopt IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
The Tulsa, Oklahoma skyline. Photo: Photomakers/Wikimedia.
Oklahoma State Rep. John Waldron, a Democrat elected in Tulsa, has introduced legislation that would use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism to guide state employees in assessing bigotry against Jews.
Rising antisemitism on college campuses motivated Waldron to draft a bill to aid schools in identifying hate speech. He said he hoped to “give higher education tools for defining what political speech, and therefore protected under the First Amendment, and hate speech that tends toward violence, and should be dealt with according to administrative procedure is,” according to KTUL ABC 8 in Tulsa.
The legislation, House Bill 2243, was introduced last week and says that “state officials and institutions have a responsibility to protect citizens from acts of hate and bigotry motivated by discriminatory animus, including antisemitism, and must be given the tools to do so; valid monitoring, informed analysis and investigation, and effective policymaking all require uniform definitions.”
Joe Roberts, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Tulsa, released a statement advocating for the legislation.
“For Jewish Oklahomans, HB 2243 is more than policy — it is a statement that Oklahoma stands firmly with the Jewish community against rising hate,” Roberts said. “By adopting the IHRA definition, Oklahoma is taking a crucial step in ensuring that our community is protected, our voices are heard, and our concerns are taken seriously. The IHRA definition is the gold standard in identifying and addressing antisemitism, and its adoption here will help build a safer and more inclusive Oklahoma for all.”
IHRA — an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries including the US — adopted the “working definition” of antisemitism in 2016. Since then, the definition has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum, and it is now used by hundreds of governing institutions, including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations. Dozens of US states have also formally adopted it through law or executive action.
According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.
The Oklahoma legislation describes the IHRA definition as “an essential definitional tool used to determine contemporary manifestations of antisemitism and includes useful examples of discriminatory anti-Israel acts that can cross the line into antisemitism.” The bill also notes its usage “by various agencies of the federal government and by over 30 governments around the world.”
Opponents of state legislation to codify into law the IHRA definition often claim that such moves threaten free speech, particularly criticism of Israel. However, the text of Waldron’s bill explicitly counters that objection, stating, “Nothing in this section shall be construed to diminish or infringe upon any right protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or the Oklahoma Constitution.”
The Oklahoma state legislature has scheduled the bill for its first reading on Feb. 3.
Other states where representatives have worked recently to introduce or pass similar laws utilizing the IHRA definition include New York, Ohio, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and South Dakota, among others. According to the Combat Antisemitism Movement, as of Nov. 1, 2024, 1,262 entities worldwide have adopted the definition, including 45 countries, 37 US state governments, and 96 city and county governments.
In a Wednesday guest column in The Oklahoman, Roberts further advocated for the bill and defended the IHRA definition from its detractors’ conventional argument.
“Critics of the IHRA definition have raised concerns about free speech, arguing that defining antisemitism in law could suppress legitimate criticism of Israel. This is simply not true,” Roberts wrote. “The IHRA definition explicitly states that criticism of Israel, similar to that leveled against any other country, is not antisemitic. What the definition does do is distinguish between legitimate discourse and hateful rhetoric — such as denying Israel’s right to exist, holding Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s actions, or using classic antisemitic tropes to demonize the Jewish state.”
Roberts wrote that Waldron’s legislation “does not criminalize speech, it simply provides guidance for recognizing when antisemitism is at play.” He concluded his column warning that “antisemitism is not just a Jewish issue; it is a threat to the fabric of our society. It is an attack on the values that bind us together as Oklahomans and as Americans. If we are serious about protecting our way of life, we must act now. Pass HB 2243.”
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, 8,800 Jews lived in Oklahoma in 2024, making up 0.22 percent of the state’s population.
Oklahoma Gov. J. Kevin Stitt has urged more Jews to move to Oklahoma and called for his fellow Christians to learn from Jewish traditions. “The Jewish community is welcome in Oklahoma,” he told the New York Post last year. “When you think about the values of who we are as Oklahomans it matches with the Jewish community, family-focused, very faith-focused, entrepreneurial, hard-working.”
Stitt, a self-described “Old Testament-loving Christian,” added, “Christians — we don’t do a good job of bringing the family together and really setting aside electronics and, and really focusing on the Sabbath. You know, one day a week, and I just think that’s something that we can learn a lot from the Jewish community.”
The post Oklahoma Legislator Introduces Bill to Adopt IHRA Definition of Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former NFL Players Take Solidarity Trip to Israel, Advocate for Release of Hamas Hostages
Tony Richardson, far left, and Nick Lowery, far right, posing for a photo with Israeli President Isaac Herzog during their recent trip to Israel. Photo: The Office of the President of Israel
NFL legends Nick Lowery and Tony Richardson, who are former Kansas City Chiefs teammates and members of the team’s Hall of Fame, took a tour of southern Israel recently to see areas and meet families impacted by the deadly Hamas terrorist attack that took place on Oct. 7, 2023.
Lowery, one of the NFL’s greatest placekickers, and Richardson, a former NFL star fullback, toured Kibbutz Kfar Aza and the Nahal Oz base of the Israel Defense Forces, as well as the site of the Nova music festival massacre. They met with families of those kidnapped during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in an effort to help advocate for the release of the hostages. Their five-day visit to Israel that started on Dec. 29 was sponsored by Project Max and the nonprofit organization Athletes for Israel, which aims to bring well-known sports figures to the Jewish state.
The goal of Project Max is to fight racism, antisemitism, and intolerance through sports. Lowery is part of the #SportSpeaksUp campaign that is led by Project Max CEO Eric Rubin.
During their time in Israel, Lowery and Richardson spoke with Yoni and Amit Levy, father and brother of Naama Levy, who has been held hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip for over 450 days. Naama, 20, is one of five young women kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, by Hamas-led terrorists from the IDF base in Nahal Oz near the Israel-Gaza border. She was filmed being dragged into a jeep by terrorists, with her hands tied behind her back, during her abduction. Her ankles were cut, her face was bleeding, and her sweatpants were blood-stained.
“As a father, nothing to be proud more than to have a daughter like Naama,” Yoni told the NFL legends in a video that was shared on social media. “She’s quite shy, but very, very strong inside. It gives us a lot of hope that she is surviving.” Amit, 22, further told Lowery and Richardson: “I think it’s so important what you are doing because it’s been so long, it’s easy for people to move on. It’s not just a poster. [She’s] my sister and she has dreams.”
In response, the athletes expressed hope that Naama will return home soon. They also said they will do what they can to speak up in support of the hostages. “One of our goals is to help her dream and give voice to it,” said Lowery, 68. “The connection with Naama as a triathlete, to work through pain, to work through challenge … I hope that the athletes that are watching this … if Naama can’t speak up for herself, we must speak for her and the others. She will be back. We love this place. We love the people.”
Lowery and Richardson also visited the soccer field in the Druze-majority town of Majdal Shams in northern Israel, where 12 Druze children and teenagers were killed, and at least 42 were injured, by a Hezbollah rocket on July 27, 2024. During the stop they met with 13-year-old Jwan Ibraheem, who survived the rocket explosion and is having a difficult time moving on with his life after blaming himself for not being able to save his best friend who was killed by the Hezbollah rocket.
The former NFL teammates also toured Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, and met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana, and IDF soldiers. “We will be a voice to those who don’t have one,” they told Herzog. They also took a tour of religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall, and Lowery was re-baptized at the Sea of Galilee. They also stopped by the StandWithUs center in Jerusalem, where they learned more about the history of Israel and antisemitism.
The post Former NFL Players Take Solidarity Trip to Israel, Advocate for Release of Hamas Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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