The United Nations treats Palestinians differently from any other group, counting unlimited generations and even resettled people as “refugees.” This includes some 5 million people, who would otherwise not be defined as such according to the standard definition for a refugee.
The real number is thought to be around 30,000. The massive discrepancy makes it significantly harder to reach a just peace in the Middle East.
Fortunately, in 2012 the US State Department commissioned a study based on accepted international standards for refugee status. But the findings have been classified to this day.
Please sign our petition encouraging the White House to release the State Department report, which could breathe new life into progress toward a Middle East peace, based on principles of transparency, truth and real justice: for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Regional tensions have escalated ahead of the 1-year anniversary of the US drone strike that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. In response, local media has reported that the Israeli military is preparing for the possibility of a strike by Iran-backed militias in Iraq or Yemen.
Last week, the IDF said that the Jewish state was tracking Iranian movements around the region, and that Israeli submarines were quietly “sailing everywhere.” This announcement came after an Israeli submarine reportedly openly crossed the Suez Canal in a show of force directed at the Islamic Republic.
Relatedly, Tehran on Saturday announced that it plans to enrich uranium up to 20 percent at its underground Fordow nuclear facility “as soon as possible,” pushing its program towards weapons-grade levels. Concurrently, Iranian officials have issued a stream of threats against the US.
Ahead of the weekend, the United States sent B-52 bombers flying over the region and a nuclear-powered submarine into the Persian Gulf. The Trump Administration unilaterally withdrew Washington from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Jerusalem of trying to provoke a war by planning false flag attacks on American forces in Iraq:
New intelligence from Iraq indicate that Israeli agent-provocateurs are plotting attacks against Americans—putting an outgoing Trump in a bind with a fake casus belli.
Be careful of a trap, @realDonaldTrump. Any fireworks will backfire badly, particularly against your same BFFs.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 2, 2021
Israel has vaccinated over one million people against COVID-19. The country’s inoculation drive is proving to be the world’s most rapid, with 11.55 percent of citizens inoculated, according to statistics from the Our World in Data website operated by Oxford University.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on hand to mark the millionth Israeli to receive a vaccine, in the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm. Arabs make up around 20 percent of Israel’s population and have been relatively slow to embrace the vaccination campaign, prompting Netanyahu to launch a series of visits to Arab localities.
The Jewish state is currently in its third nationwide lockdown aimed at containing the outbreak. More than 426,000 cases and at least 3,338 deaths have been tallied since the pandemic began.
Despite the successful drive to immunize the public, Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein are pushing for a total closure this week as the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise. As health officials have warned, the vaccination shots will not on their own stop the spread of the contagion. There were 6,004 new cases diagnosed on Friday – 6.1 percent of those screened tested positive, up from 5.7 percent the day before.
Tightening restrictions would mean closing classrooms for students in grades 5 through 10, decreasing the number of people allowed to be in offices from 50 percent to 30 percent, reducing public transportation, and perhaps further restricting movement.
Palestinians could gain from Israel’s normalization agreements with Arab states, according to the UN’s outgoing Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mladenov argued that these deals could prove beneficial to the Palestinians, should they reconsider their rejectionist stance. “Who’s most effective when they try to push Israel to do certain things? Egypt and Jordan,” Mladenov said. “If four, six or 10 Arab countries have embassies in Tel Aviv, you’d want them to be on your side, right?” He urged the Palestinians to explain their situation to their “Arab brothers and friends,” so that these countries can use the normalization treaties as leverage.
In the past few months, the USA has brokered normalization treaties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
Also this weekend, Yasser Arafat’s widow was quoted as saying that the Second Intifada – which killed over a thousand Israelis – was a mistake. Her husband should not have returned to the path of terrorism, Suha Arafat said. She also dismissed long-held claims that her husband was poisoned by Israel.
For the first time since the founding of the State of Israel, the country’s Jewish population dropped below 74 percent in 2020, according to the Israeli Immigration Policy Center (IPC), citing data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
“This year as well, the proportion of the population that is Jewish continued to shrink at a fast pace,” said IPC Director Yonatan Jakubowicz. He called upon the Israeli government to adopt a “responsible and strategic immigration policy that will protect Israel’s interests as a Jewish and democratic state.”
Jewish immigration significantly decreased mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Israel closed its borders several times over the last year in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile on the first day of 2021, 300 new immigrants from Ethiopia arrived on one of the first flights of 2021. The landing was part of Operation Rock of Israel, an effort by the government to help the last remaining Jews of Ethiopia make Aliyah (immigrate to Israel). The new Israelis were pictured kissing the ground as they arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport.
300 #immigrants from #Ethiopia the first to make aliyah to #Israel in 2021.
Welcome home! ??
?Shlomi Amsalem / @GPOIsrael pic.twitter.com/bNXGsjv4zK
— Israel Nitzan?? (@IsraelNitzan) January 3, 2021
- Islamic Revolution 101 (Clifford D. May, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Is Peace With the Gulf States Real? Yes, It Is. (David M. Weinberg, Israel Hayom)
- In New Playground Dubai, Israelis Find Parties, Jewish Rites (Isabel Debre, Associated Press)
- ‘Israel Must Transition From the Startup Nation to the Innovation Nation’ (Yafit Ovadia/Ctech, Algemeiner)
- Israeli Illusionist Performs Spoon-bending Trick while Getting COVID Vaccine (Yahoo! News)
