It is currently before Israel’s Supreme Court. Israel’s judiciary does not have a reputation for operating “Kangaroo Courts”, they largely follow established Western legal traditions of jurisprudence, and there have been Arab Israelis even on the Supreme Court (and Arab Israeli Muslims on the lower courts.)
Sheikh Jarrah is not particularly complex as a matter of Israeli law, which is what the Israeli Supreme Court rules on. A small number of houses in the neighborhood fairly clearly were owned by Jewish families prior to 1947-48 (when the Civil War broke out and turned into the Arab-Israeli War after Israel declared independence from the Mandate.) The armistice line between Arab and Israeli forces after the 1948 war left Jordan in control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Over time, Jordan annexed this territory into Jordan proper, and some Jewish families who lived in East Jerusalem were forced out of their homes. Jordan built homes for Arab families who were refugees of the conflict, and moved them into the homes.
When Israel won the 1967 War it ended up in occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights (which is often left out of discussions on Israel-Palestinian because it’s a matter between Israel and Lebanon.) Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980. At that point Israeli law applied to East Jerusalem and the court cases started working their way through the system. It is fairly clear under Israeli law the original Jewish families and their descendants have legal title to the land, due to an Israeli law that says Jews dispossessed by the wars are entitled to have their land given back to them in circumstances like this.
As a simple matter of domestic Israeli law, it is fairly straight forward. The judiciary’s job is not to write law or decide on public policy, and within the confines of written Israeli law, their decision is logical and sound.
Now of course the reason all of this is controversial is because the international community writ large does not acknowledge Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, so does not view it as legally valid for Israeli domestic law to apply in East Jerusalem at all.
Another issue of “equity” is that this basically establishes a “right of return” for Jewish refugees of the 1947-1948 conflict, while official Israeli position for years has been an adamant refusal of right to return for Arab refugees of that same conflict.
So just now, 35 minutes before the deadline, the so-called “Change Coalition” informed the President that they have managed to form a government. This followed a week of nail-biting brinkmanship where a bunch of parties with very different agendas manage to put aside their differences and hammer together something vaguely like an accord.
This still has to pass a vote, of course, and there are a number of procedural steps where the Likud can still try to gum up the works, but so far things are looking pretty good.
What’s the latest, especially from Israeli reporting? Latest I heard is that the security services have put out a warning of high risk of right wing violence and that (scumbag) Bibi appears to be tacitly encouraging this in the hopes of will disrupt the Knesset vote to remove him.
Also taking a page from Trump with his “you’re only safe with me” rhetoric. So a few weeks ago when rockets were raining down on Israel, was that your idea of safe? Or is that coming “two weeks” after you are back in charge?
Note that while Bibi is using Trumpian language, he’s not actually claiming election fraud in any legal sense. Instead, he’s accusing the right-wing members of the “change coalition” that, by teaming up with left-wing parties, they’re breaking campaign promises and betraying the will of their voters.
Much worse is the indirect threats of violence he’s making through his far-right proxies, who later this week intend to try to carry out the Flag March that had been planned for last month, with the obvious intent of rekindling the conflict with the Palestinians. This is supposed to place more pressure on the right-wing members of the change coalition - in addition to the constant demonstrations in front of their houses and the death threats they’ve been receiving. It’s going to be an interesting week.
How I would love for the Palestinian neighborhoods to take a cue from Wunsiedel, and respond to this sort of provocation with a fundraiser. (NOT SAYING THE SETTLERS ARE NEO-NAZIS BUT SUPPORTING THE COUNTER-PROTEST METHOD). I figure they could raise significant sums if the walkathon went international.
This is collective blame, IMO. And also false, in my understanding of the facts (if directed at all Palestinians). Some Palestinians have protested non-violently over the years. Obviously not all, but I think it’s wrong to make this kind of collective negative judgment, especially when there have been many contrary instances over many years.
I’m obviously using the term “the Palestinians” in the same way I’d use the term “the Chinese” or “the Russians” - I’m referring to their leadership, not to the individual people. As for your point, as anyone who’s ever been at a protest knows, there’s no such thing as a mostly nonviolent demonstration. The moment violence starts, it can’t be put back into the bottle; everyone there becomes a potential threat.
Anyway, I’m sorry about my comment. It was a cynical aside that doesn’t have anything to do with this discussion.
Maybe. But there will have to be elections first, and there’s no guarantee that forming a new government will be any easier this time than the last four times. We may be looking at an open-ended Bennet caretaker government.
Surabaya Johnny is a classical song by Kurt Weill (this version sung by Dagmar Krause from the excellent compilation Lost in the Stars), an equivalent Shalom Song is unknown to me. So if I wanted to nitpick I could argue that the problem with OP’s title is not the sayonara part, but the Netanyahu part. It should be sung Surabayu, Bibi!
But I don’t want to nitpick, I want to know if Netanyahu is already deposed and the new government stands or not yet. When, pray tell, is this announced government going to be sworn in?