THE ‘incendiary kites unit’ of the Gaza Strip announced on Wednesday that the amount of incendiary kites and balloons targeting Israeli areas surrounding Gaza would increase as a response to the increased siege on the Gaza Strip.
The unit, calling themselves the ‘Sons of Zouari’ in reference to the Tunisian engineer assassinated by the Israeli Mossad, denied any reports published by Israeli Hebrew-language media, that the Hamas movement will stop the launch of more incendiary kites and explosive balloons or that the amount of launched kites would decrease within the next 72 hours.
The unit said in a statement that their peaceful resistance will continue until their demands are met and until the siege of the Gaza Strip is lifted. The statement added that factions in the Gaza Strip would not stand between them and peaceful resistance.
The announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to impose severe economic sanctions by closing the Gaza Strip’s main commercial crossing, Kerem Shalom, and limiting the Palestinian coastal enclave’s fishing zone in response to the protests in the form of incendiary balloons across the borders.
About 6,000 dunams (1,482.6 acres) of agricultural produce as well as thousands of dunams of open fields were burned due to about 678 fires caused by incendiary kites and balloons flown from inside the Gaza Strip into Israel.
• The Israeli Knesset approved the controversial ‘Nationality Bill’ on Wednesday morning for a second and third reading. The Nationality Bill that was passed was initiated by MK Avi Dichter of the Likud, a right-wing political party, among others, enshrining in law the status of the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.
The second and third reading votes in the Knesset took place throughout the day on Wednesday and was carried in the evening. Eight Knesset members, all of the Likud party, voted in favour of the proposed bill, while seven members opposed it.
The vote was followed by a commotion in the Knesset. Shouting matches erupted when MK Tibi was speaking in Arabic, while MKs from the Likud responded that: ‘Arabs have 21 countries while the Jews only have one.’ MK Tibi said: ‘I announce with shock and sorrow the death of democracy. The funeral will take place today in the plenum.’
The most controversial part of the bill was within Part A of Article 7, which grants all residents of the state the right to take action to preserve their culture, heritage, language and identity. Part B of the section allows the exclusion of citizens from cities and towns based on their nationality or religion.
Critics of the proposed bill raised concerns that this section will permit the exclusion of various populations, based on nationality or religion, and allow the illegal establishment of Jewish settlements and communities only.
The amended wording that was approved says that ‘the state considers the development of Jewish settlements a national value and will act in order to encourage and promote the foundation and establishment of such settlements’.
After the first reading, according to the state of Israel, the establishment of Jewish-only settlements is not discriminatory. The bill includes legally preserving Israel’s ‘democratic’ character, its state symbols (national anthem, flag, icon), Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Hebrew as the official language and the right of return for Diaspora Jewry. Regarding the Arabic language, it will receive a special status as Israel’s second official language, but the law would not require making state services accessible in Arabic.
• The Israeli Knesset has passed the first reading of a bill dubbed the ‘Facebook Bill’ which demands deleting ‘inciting’ content from social media, on Tuesday. The bill was initiated by Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home, and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan of the Likud party. The proposed bill must go for a second and third reading in the coming days.
The Knesset said that the bill will authorise the court to issue orders to delete internet content which was classified as harmful to ‘human safety, public, economic, state or vital infrastructure safety’. The ‘Facebook Bill’ includes blocking content of giant social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other internet platforms, as well as private blogs.
The bill also includes search engines like Google, in which it would be able to block certain ‘unsafe’ content from appearing in the search results.
According to an Israeli news outlet, Justice Minister Shaked said that ‘Israel is fighting terror on the web’. MK Revital Swid of the opposition Zionist Union, expressed concern regarding the bill could be more likely used ‘not for incitement but terror’. Swid continued to warn the Justice Minister and Public Security Minister that the bill should not harm the freedom of speech or the right to protest.
On Wednesday, the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked the Israeli Knesset to halt the ‘Facebook Bill’ out of concern that freedom of expression could be harmed. Netanyahu believes that the current version of the proposed bill could be interpreted too broadly and might not guarantee Israeli citizens the right to freely express their criticism through the online platforms.
He added that the bill should not allow Israeli police to ask the courts to remove anything from the internet that they classify as ‘incitement’ without the person who posted it online even being able to respond to it in court, thus, allowing the censoring of opinions.
It is noteworthy that many Palestinians have turned to social media as a non-violent way of expressing criticism and anger over human rights violations, and as a way to share the everyday reality of Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. The bill, if passed into law, could be used to silence this form of free speech, thus, extending the occupation into the online world.
• The Israeli parliament has struck down a law passed earlier this year, which would enable the regime’s prime minister and minister of military affairs to declare war on their own. The lawmakers on Tuesday rescinded the law, which had cleared the Knesset in late April, with 77 votes to 16.
The legal amendment would allow the duo to forgo a full-cabinet approval before ordering war or a major military operation that could lead to war. It would enable them to take such decisions in ‘extreme circumstances’, without specifying those situations. The clause, which has replaced it, now says that such a decision has to be made ‘by as wide a panel as possible’.
Lawmaker Ofer Shelah of the Yesh Atid party hailed Tuesday’s vote, saying that it was ‘inconceivable that a decision to go to war could be in the hands of one person, without consultation with cabinet members’.
The Israeli regime has a long history of waging wars and occupying sovereign states. The regime, under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, has escalated its attacks against the Gaza Strip to a scale unprecedented since its last war against the Tel Aviv-blockaded Palestinian territory in 2014.
Tel Aviv has also been conducting sporadic aerial assaults against Syria in what is widely viewed as an attempt to support the terror groups operating against the Damascus government. Israel has, meanwhile, been threatening Lebanon with a new military offensive in recent months. Separately, the Knesset approved with 56 votes to 48 a law extending the jurisdiction of Israel’s Administrative Court to the occupied West Bank.
The Jerusalem Post called it the ‘latest push for de facto annexation’ of the Palestinian territory, which Israel occupied back in 1967. Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said: ‘The Knesset today has made an important statement – the residents of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) are indistinguishable from other Israeli citizens.’ Since the occupation, Israel has built hundreds of settlements across the land against the international law, which forbids construction on occupied land.
