The election night highs for Palestinian citizens of Israel – Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats – turned into a week of delegitimising rhetoric from Israeli politicians.
asserted
parties → lead → politicians
Nearly 840,000 people voted for Ra’am and the Joint List, a 64 percent increase on 2022, and adding them to opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc would give an anti-Netanyahu coalition 67 seats; without them, only a unity deal between the main Zionist blocs or another election is possible.
asserted
deal → vote → blocs
Jazeera condemns Israeli ban extension, calls for its immediate lifting
- list 3 of 3Arab parties back Eisenkot: What’s the latest in Israel’s coalition talks?
asserted
latest → condemn → talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud alleged the election had been “stolen” by Palestinian parties with unproven claims of Qatari financing.
uncertain
election → allege → financing
Qatar denied such accusations, as police sources told The Times of Israel that there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
asserted
sources → deny → fraud
By Sunday, election committee chairman Noam Sohlberg declared the election “conducted properly”.
asserted
election → declare → Sunday
However, the rhetoric delegitimising the Palestinian vote is now being reflected in the coalition negotiations under way.
asserted
rhetoric → delegitimise → way
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party, has ruled out Palestinian partners, and Eisenkot has presented four conditions for anyone joining his coalition that would be anathema to the Palestinian parties, including recognising Israel as “a Jewish, democratic, liberal, and egalitarian state”, and mandatory national service for all citizens, including Palestinians.
asserted
that → we → Palestinians
However, Palestinian politicians continue to express a willingness to back an Eisenkot government from outside – if only to enable the departure of Netanyahu and the far right.
asserted
politicians → continue → Netanyahu
Meanwhile, thousands rallied in Tel Aviv for a coalition that includes the parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel.
asserted
that → rally → Israel
While the Israeli electorate was consumed by the election’s unclear results, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank continued enduring a variety of sieges, most prominently in Hebron.
uncertain
Palestinians → consume → Hebron
By October 29, Al Jazeera’s data unit counted 10 entrances sealed and about 5,000 people displaced.
asserted
unit → count → entrances
The city saw at least 120 arrests and 13 businesses demolished by Friday, when the army also blew up the homes of two men it blamed for an attack.
asserted
it → see → attack
Palestinian officials accused the government of using the operation to win settler votes; no Israeli official has said so outright.
asserted
official → accuse → votes
On November 2, Governor Khaled Dudin announced the army had withdrawn from Hebron, and that displaced families could return.
uncertain
families → announce → Hebron
The Jerusalem Post reported that the army’s chief of staff recommended leaving Hebron before the election, but that Netanyahu refused.
asserted
Netanyahu → report → election
But even with the operation over, the damage remains following more than 120 arrests and daily economic losses the governor put at 10 million to 12 million shekels ($3.2m to $3.8m) in a city responsible for about 40 percent of Palestinian industrial output.
asserted
governor → remain → output
Sieges in homes, expulsions from land
But Hebron was only the largest of many closures that continue to plague the West Bank.
asserted
that → continue → Bank
In Masafer Yatta, at least 12 villages were cut off, and the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that forces detained 10 teachers from the Jinba school on Sunday.
asserted
forces → cut → Sunday
Yousef Shanaran – who has been besieged in his home with his family in Wadi Rakhim for four weeks now – told Al Jazeera on Monday that settlers have now poisoned the well outside his family home, which the family already was unable to access for days at a time due to the siege.
asserted
family → besiege → siege
“No water, no food, nothing at all I’ve got,” he said.
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he → get → water
“Nobody is allowed to bring anything to us.”
asserted
Nobody → allow → us
These sieges continue as settlers, and increasingly Israeli forces, disrupt the olive harvest across the West Bank.
asserted
settlers → continue → Bank
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented 397 settler attacks causing casualties or damage in the first 26 days of October – a monthly high since OCHA began tracking such incidents in 2006.
asserted
OCHA → document → 2006
Across villages, a familiar pattern has emerged: settlers attack pickers, the army declares a closed military zone and orders the farmers out, and the harvest is lost.
asserted
harvest → emerge → farmers
Amid reports of detentions and deportations of solidarity activists who came to the West Bank to assist in the olive harvest in recent days, activists accused settlers of assaulting three activist journalists at Umm al-Khair, and Israel revoked Brad Lander’s travel authorisation after he was detained while harvesting olives two weeks ago.
asserted
he → come → olives
Gaza: Deadly ‘ceasefire’ continues
In Gaza, attacks continued on a daily basis as the UN human rights office warned on October 30 that Palestinians are being pushed into an ever smaller area, calling the “Yellow Line” a “kill zone” that is moving westward.
asserted
that → continue → Line
By November 2, the Ministry of Health put the death toll since last year’s ceasefire at 1,593.
asserted
Ministry → put → 1,593
Sunday was the deadliest day of the week, with at least eight killed.
asserted
eight → kill → week
Among those reported killed over the past week:
- Government and police personnel were among those killed.
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personnel → report → those
On October 28, a drone strike on a Ministry of Economy facility in al-Mawasi, Rafah, where staff and security personnel had gathered, killed five people, including Ministry of Agriculture official Wajdi Abu Bakr, who died on Sunday from injuries sustained in the attack.
asserted
who → gather → attack
- On November 1, a drone strike in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, killed five men whom Gaza’s Interior Ministry said were police officers.
asserted
Ministry → kill → men
- Israeli attacks also killed children.
asserted
attacks → kill → children
Six-year-old Tahani Shalalfeh died of a gunshot wound in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, on October 27, and Yamen Saqr, eight, died on October 30 of wounds from Israeli fire in Khan Younis, according to Wafa and local activists.
uncertain
Saqr → die → Wafa
The young child Zain Owais was reported killed on November 1 with his father, Mohammed Ali Owais, and a third man in a strike near Taj Mall in Gaza City.
asserted
child → report → City
- On October 27, a young man was killed in an air strike in west Rafah, and a member of the Bseiso family died of earlier wounds in Gaza City
asserted
member → kill → City
, Gaza Now reported.
asserted
Now → report → ?
Mohammad al-Bayouk was killed in Khan Younis on October 28, and Mohammed al-Najjar was killed near Jabalia on Thursday.
asserted
Najjar → kill → Thursday
- On Friday, the body of a 47-year-old man killed in an air strike at al-Waha, north of Gaza City, was recovered, Wafa reported.
asserted
Wafa → kill → City
- Ibrahim Saeed died on Sunday of wounds from tank fire in al-Musaddar, and Yusuf Abu Younis died Monday of wounds from a drone strike in Khan Younis the day before, according to local activist Hamza al-Masri.
uncertain
Younis → die → Masri
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
