In case you missed it: Israel Is Mobilizing Its Occupation Skills to Fight Coronavirus
April 12th 2020
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Here is a selection of interesting stories that did not make it into our newsletter earlier in the week. Make sure you follow us on Twitter.
Israel Is Mobilizing Its Occupation Skills to Fight Coronavirus (Haaretz)
“The IDF is doing what it’s learned to do over the last 53 years – how to occupy. First it took Bnei Brak. Subsequently, it may also take over Mea Shearim, and on Wednesday it locked down over the entire country. Let the defense ministry win, demands Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, give us your elderly, your infants, your ultra-Orthodox and the quarantine refusers. Actually, give us all your citizens and the army will do the rest. The army knows where and how to set up roadblocks, to check identification papers in order to verify the address of “illegal” Jewish residents trying to infiltrate into forbidden territory; the army has also rushed to hand out to its soldiers a handbook of phrases and basic commands in Yiddish, just like soldiers at roadblocks in the territories have one in Arabic.”
From Covid-19 to the ‘Deal of the Century’ — Palestine and international law (Mondoweiss)
By Yaser Alashqar, Lecturer in Conflict Studies and Middle East politics at Trinity College, the University of Dublin: “Achieving national unity should be prioritized. Unified calls and lobbying efforts to end the Gaza blockade and the occupation must intensify during and after the Covid 19 crisis. Internal power struggles are essentially a source of fragmentation as well as a strategic weakness. Palestinian political leaders also need to move from being reactionary actors, responding to external forces and plans, to proactive players with a united strategy and agreed agenda.”
Jerusalem mayor accuses Israel of neglecting Palestinian hospitals (Middle East Monitor)
In a letter to Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov, the mayor Jerusalem, Moshe Leon, stated: “I would like to warn you regarding the serious shortage of medical equipment at the hospitals in East Jerusalem, particularly protective equipment and equipment to conduct coronavirus testing. This is despite repeated promises on the part of your (ministry).”
The health care system in Jerusalem as a whole could collapse “in light of the inability of the hospitals in the east of the city to sustain the concerted efforts by all hospitals during this period,” Leon warned.
Abdel Qader Husseini, the president of the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network, told Al-Monitor only two hospitals in Jerusalem are equipped to deal with coronavirus patients. “The Makassed Hospital, which has 22 beds isolated for coronavirus cases, and the Saint Joseph Hospital, which closed its surgery department and converted 28 beds for coronavirus cases,” he explained.
Palestine in Pictures: March 2020 (Electronic Intifada)
A round-up of the main events from last months as well as a selection of truly compelling photographs.
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Palestine DeepDive