The United States announced new visa restrictions that would target both Palestinians and Israelis who are believed to be involved in violence in the West Bank.
The immediate family members of those implicated in the attacks may also be subject to the visa restrictions, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar says there is “no way in hell” that she will attend Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s joint address to Congress and that he should not even be invited to speak.
“There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma,” Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, tweeted Wednesday.
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday announced that he had negotiated a coalition framework with supportive parties to allow him to return to power.
Israel’s longest serving prime minister will soon lead a coalition of six parties on a right-wing platform, the New York Times reported. Many establishment media outlets, including the Times, have bemoaned his return to power and warned that his victory could signal a drift away from democracy for the Jewish nation.
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Ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s ended a boycott of the West Bank after a local franchise took over the brand, its parent company Unilever announced Tuesday.
“Ben & Jerry’s in Vermont no longer has any authority over Avi. They can’t stop him from selling Ben & Jerry’s ice cream,” Alyza Lewin, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which represented Zinger, told The Times of Israel.
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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and 11 other attorneys general sent a letter to Unilever and its subsidiary, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., demanding they reverse their decision to boycott Israel in refusing to sell Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“We must defend the laws of our states and oppose attempts by global corporations to engage in economic warfare against the State of Israel,” said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich in a statement.
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday became the first top American diplomat to visit an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank as the State Department in a major policy shift announced that products from the settlements can be labeled “Made in Israel.”
The two moves reflected the Trump administration’s acceptance of Israeli settlements, which the Palestinians and most of the international community view as a violation of international law and a major obstacle to peace.
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The Trump administration will order the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to shutter its Washington, D.C., office in a bid to increase pressure on Palestinian leadership amid stalled peace talks. “We have been notified by a US official of their decision to close the Palestinian mission to the US,” PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat said in a statement Monday, according to Al-Jazeera. National Security Advisor John Bolton is expected to announce the closure in a speech to the conservative Federalist Society on Monday. “The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Palestinians refuse to take steps to start direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” Bolton is expected to say, according to a draft copy of his prepared remarks reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “The United States will always stand with our friend and ally, Israel,” Bolton will add. The closure of the PLO’s Washington office would be the latest in a series of punitive measures the Trump administration has taken against Palestinian leadership while the White House develops its yet-to-be-revealed peace plan. Under President Donald Trump, Washington has sought to slash financial support for the Palestinian organization, arguing that U.S. aid rewards corrupt and intransigent behavior on the part…
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