Progressive Democrats protest Israeli president’s address to US Congress

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib say they intend to boycott address due to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians

Democratic divisions over Israel were on stark display on Tuesday, as lawmakers prepared to welcome Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, the president of Israel, for an address to a joint session of Congress.

Several progressive House members, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, intend to boycott Herzog’s speech on Wednesday to protest against the treatment of Palestinians under the government of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Treasures lent by Israel for White House event ‘stranded at Mar-a-Lago’

Antiquities from Israel’s national treasures collection have ended up at Trump’s Florida estate, say reports

Ancient artefacts sent from Israel to the US four years ago on a short-term basis and intended for display at a White House event have ended up at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to a report.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday that antiquities including ancient ceramic oil lamps, part of Israel’s national treasures collection, were shipped to Washington DC with the approval of the then director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Hasson, for use in a Hanukah candle-lighting event at the White House. The event took place in December 2019, when Trump was in office.

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White House ends months-long snub to invite Benjamin Netanyahu to visit US

No date set for far-right Israel PM’s visit as arrival of President Isaac Herzog highlights over creeping annexation of West Bank

The White House has finally invited Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the US after months of snubbing the Israeli prime minister over his government’s creeping annexation of the West Bank and deepening oppression of the Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s office said President Joe Biden extended the invitation in a call between the two leaders on Monday ahead of a visit to Washington by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, this week that had thrown a spotlight on to the shunning of the prime minister.

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Israelis brace for disruption amid renewed push for judicial overhaul

Knesset races to pass bill eliminating ‘reasonableness’ standard before summer recess

Israelis are bracing for a turbulent week of protests and potential strike action as the country’s governing coalition races to pass a key component of its wide-ranging judicial overhaul before the parliamentary summer recess.

The Knesset’s constitution, justice and law committee on Monday discussed sending a bill eliminating the “reasonableness” standard that allows the supreme court to overrule government decisions back to the plenum for its second reading.

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Gaza: Israeli targeted killing operations prompt petition for inquiry

Action follows deaths of civilians during Israel’s Shield and Arrow assassination strike campaign

On the street in central Gaza City where the family of Khalil al-Bahtini lived, the contents of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander’s home and the two houses on either side remain spilled out into the street. Passersby must navigate the rubble and crumpled shell of a water tank, as well as the debris of an annihilated family life: a red teddy bear, kitchen utensils, scraps of books and clothing.

The Adas family were not the targets of the airstrike that hit their neighbour’s house at about 2am on 9 May, in the opening salvo of Israel’s Shield and Arrow operation, but the buildings were less than a metre apart. The GBU-39 bomb that crashed through three floors of the Bahtini home, down into the basement, also blew apart one side of the Adas’s house, killing the family’s two teenage daughters. Dania, 19, died immediately, while her sister, Imam, 17, clung to life for two hours before succumbing to her injuries in hospital.

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Benjamin Netanyahu discharged from hospital after heart tests

Israeli prime minister fitted with monitoring device after being kept overnight with dehydration

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been discharged from hospital after heart monitoring tests showed no irregularities during an overnight admission for dehydration.

Netanyahu, 73, was taken to hospital near his private residence in the coastal town of Caesarea on Saturday afternoon after complaining of dizziness and kept overnight for observation, his office said.

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Benjamin Netanyahu says he feels ‘very good’ after being taken to hospital

Israeli prime minister, 73, thought to be suffering from dehydration and is undergoing medical tests in hospital near Tel Aviv

Benjamin Netanyahu has said he “feels very good” after being taken to a Tel Aviv hospital for what doctors determined was likely to be dehydration.

Israel’s prime minister issued a video statement hours after he was hospitalised. In the statement, Netanyahu said he had been out in the sun on Friday without a hat and without water. “Not a good idea,” he said.

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Protests across Israel after parliament initially approves judicial overhaul bill

Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition wins first of three votes required for controversial changes to become law

Tens of thousands of Israeli demonstrators have blocked motorways across the country and access to Tel Aviv’s airport as part of a “day of disruption” in protest at the government’s renewed push to advance legislation overhauling the judiciary.

In the first of three readings on Monday night, Israel’s parliament – in which the governing coalition headed by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, holds 64 of 120 seats – voted in favour of a bill scrapping the “reasonableness” standard that allows the supreme court to overrule government decisions.

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Israel’s Knesset to vote on judicial changes amid pro-democracy protests

Rightwing ruling coalition hopes to pass bill curtailing ability of supreme court to overrule government decisions

Israel’s parliament is to vote on part of the government’s far-reaching judicial overhaul in a new push from the ruling coalition to pass legislation despite continuing nationwide protests and promises from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to drop or tone down some of the controversial elements.

The Knesset will vote at about 9pm local time (1900 BST) on Monday on a bill that would get rid of the “reasonableness” standard, which allows the supreme court to overrule government decisions it deems too political, implausible, or that undermine the public’s trust in government.

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Israeli protests reignite as PM pushes on with justice system overhaul

Large crowds in Tel Aviv demonstrate against Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to rein in supreme court

There have been huge anti-government protests in Tel Aviv against a renewed push by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to overhaul the justice system.

Tens of thousands demonstrated across the country, with the rally in Tel Aviv drawing crowds far larger than recent protests, N12 News and Channel 13 reported.

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Israeli forces kill two Palestinian militants in West Bank raid

Palestinian health ministry says ‘two martyrs’, Khairi Shaheen, 34, and Hamza Maqbul, 32, were killed in Nablus

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank during a raid on the northern city of Nablus, Israeli and Palestinian officials have said.

The Palestinian health ministry announced “two martyrs and three injured as a result of the occupation aggression on Nablus”.

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UN condemns Israel’s use of excessive force in attack on Palestine

The secretary general, António Guterres, called on Israel to abide by international law after its attack on Jenin in the West Bank

In a rare condemnation of Israel, the UN has denounced the country’s excessive use of force in its largest military operation in two decades targeting a refugee camp in the West Bank.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, clearly angered by the impact of the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp, said it had left over 100 civilians injured, forced thousands to flee, damaged schools and hospitals and disrupted water and electricity networks.

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Israeli court acquits officer over killing of autistic Palestinian man

Shooting of Iyad Halak in Jerusalem in 2020 drew comparisons to police killings in US

An Israeli court has acquitted a police officer of recklessly killing an unarmed autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Iyad Halak, 32, was shot dead in May 2020 after an encounter with police in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

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Australia should recognise state of Palestine as part of ‘fair go’ ethos, de facto ambassador says

Izzat Abdulhadi of Palestinian delegation calls for government to resist ‘pressure’ to avoid contentious topic – and to strongly condemn Israel’s raids on Jenin

Australia should stand up for the “fair go” by recognising Palestine as a state, according to its de facto ambassador, who argues that Israel’s “brutal” military operation in the city of Jenin only increases the urgency for bold steps.

Palestinian recognition is one of the foreign policy issues set to be discussed when Labor holds its next national conference in Brisbane in August.

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Missing Israeli-Russian academic being held in Iraq by militia group

Elizabeth Tsurkov went to Iraq to do research for Princeton University, office of Israeli prime minister says

An Israeli-Russian academic who went missing for months in Iraq is alive and being held in the country by an Iraqi Shia militia group, the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.

Elizabeth Tsurkov was captured by Kata’ib Hezbollah in March, the office said. She holds Israeli and Russian passports and entered Iraq using her Russian passport, according to the Israeli government.

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‘It’s just like the intifada’: Palestinians reel from Israel’s raid on Jenin

Clean-up begins after three-day operation, the largest attack on occupied West Bank in two decades

On the second floor of the Shibli family home in the Jenin refugee camp, three small boys knelt on the tile floor, picking up hundreds of spent bullet casings left by Israeli snipers who had used their kitchen as a firing position. The cartridges clinked and chimed gently as the children cleared up and their glum parents surveyed the extent of the damage inflicted on their property.

The 50 members of the extended family, who all live in flats in the same large building, returned to their homes on Wednesday morning after Israeli forces withdrew the night before. The three-day operation, codenamed Home and Garden, was the largest Israeli offensive in the occupied West Bank in two decades, involving airstrikes and up to 2,000 ground troops.

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Israeli forces withdraw from Jenin as rockets fired from Gaza

Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead after one of Israel’s biggest military operations in occupied West Bank in years

Israel has withdrawn its forces from the Palestinian city of Jenin after carrying out one of its biggest military operations in the occupied West Bank for years.

Local media quoted the Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari as saying all troops had left Jenin and that the operation was completed. Witnesses in Jenin reported seeing convoys of Israeli military vehicles leaving the city after dark.

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Israel’s Jenin assault displaces thousands as violence spirals on

Armoured incursion in response to rising bloodshed across Israel and West Bank looks political as much as tactical

In the darkness of the night, thousands of people stumbled in lines through the Jenin refugee camp, guiding each other through the twisted metal, churned-up concrete and spent ammunition littering the streets during a lull in Operation Home and Garden, Israel’s biggest offensive in the West Bank for 20 years.

Videos of the streams of people – about 3,000-4,000, according to Palestinian officials – fleeing to safety on Monday night were widely shared by Palestinians on social media, where they were likened to images of the Nakba, the expulsion of the Arab population from the newly created state of Israel in 1948.

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Thousands of Palestinians flee Jenin refugee camp after major Israeli raid

Deputy governor says about 3,000 have left, to be housed in schools and shelters, as Arab states condemn military operation

Several thousand Palestinians have fled their homes in the Jenin refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank after the launch of the biggest Israeli military operation in the area in two decades, Palestinian officials say.

“There are about 3,000 people who have left the camp so far,” the Jenin deputy governor, Kamal Abu al-Roub, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday, adding that arrangements were being made to house refugees in schools and other shelters in Jenin city.

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MPs vote to ban public bodies from boycotting Israel and other countries

Government wins Commons vote despite more than 80 Tory backbenchers joining Labour in abstained on the vote

MPs have voted to ban public bodies from boycotting Israel and other countries, despite scores of Conservative MPs not backing the bill, some of whom said the ban was illiberal and others that it would hamper action against China.

The government won a vote on Monday night on the economic activity of public bodies bill, despite the opposition of Tory backbenchers, after Labour abstained on the vote.

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