Israel to Build 1,400 New Settlement Homes
The Israeli government is preparing another major settlement expansion in occupied East Jerusalem. Some 1,400 new homes will be added to the Gilo settlement near the West Bank town of Bethlehem. It’s Israel’s largest known settlement expansion since unveiling plans to add 1,600 homes right during a visit from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden last March.
Israeli Gov’t to Probe Human Rights Groups
Thousands of people marched in Tel Aviv this weekend to protest a government probe of Israeli human rights groups. Earlier this month, the Israeli parliament formed a committee to investigate the funding of several left-leaning Israeli NGOs and activist organizations. Adam Keller of the group Gush Shalom denounced the move as a witch hunt.
Adam Keller: “There is a very big danger to Israeli democracy and to the future of this country, because we have a government where there is a very dominant presence of racists and anti-democratic people, and some of them really are outright fascists.”