A year has now passed since the Israeli government announced its decision to "expand the civilian policy toward the [Gaza] Strip" and "ease" the closure. Perhaps concerned that the positive results of the "easing" aren't obvious enough, the IDF's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has published a report, "Implementation of the Civil Policy Toward the Gaza Strip: One Year Since the Cabinet's Decision to Expand the Civil Policy." This document is analyzed by the Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, an Israeli human rights group that monitors the situation in the Strip, in a study humorously dubbed "Numbers, Meet Context"... .

A July report by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem finds that of more than 800 Palestinian youths under the age of 18 charged with throwing stones in the West Bank over a six-year period, only one was acquitted. From the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2010, at least 835 Palestinian minors were arrested and tried in military courts in the West Bank on charges of stone throwing. Thirty-four of them were aged 12-13, 255 were 14-15, 546 were 16-17. Only one of the 835 was acquitted; all the rest were found guilty.

The movement Sheikh Jarah Solidarity organized a high-profile march in Jerusalem July 15 to demand an independent Palestine in the 1967 borders. More than 3,000 people—Jews, Muslim, and Christians, Israelis and Palestinians—showed up and marched for three hours in the piercing sun, drumming and chanting: "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies," "Say no to fascism," and "From Bilin to Jerusalem, Palestine will be free." Tens of Palestinian flags were waved on the route which passed alongside the walls of the Old City.

The Israeli government is under heat now also from citizens who are normally indifferent to its immoral conduct. After a successful boycott of cottage cheese that forced the producer to put down the prices, hundreds of Israelis are now taking to the streets in protest of lack of affordable housing, building a tent town on Tel Aviv's fashionable Rothschild Boulevard. Rents in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and most other large cities are so high that even people with average salaries cannot afford them. For example, a three-room apartment in central Tel Aviv is around 7,000 NIS (about $2,000). The average salary in Israel is 8,698 NIS, and minimum wage in Israel is 4,100 NIS.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a statement July 15 confirming the occupied status of East Jerusalem. "UNESCO wishes to reiterate that, contrary to recent claims, there has been no change in UNESCO's position on Jerusalem," the statement reads. "In line with overall UN policy, East Jerusalem remains part of the occupied Palestinian territory, and the status of Jerusalem must be resolved in permanent status negotiations." The statement notes that the Old City of Jerusalem is inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger. "UNESCO continues to work to ensure respect for the outstanding universal value of the cultural heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem." UNESCO had been criticized recently after it emerged that the organization's website listed Jerusalem as Israel's capital, despite the international—and United Nations—consensus that the Eastern part of the city is under military occupation. (Ma'an News Agency, July 15)

We have had plenty of occasion to point out before: Isn't it funny that those who invoke the supposed superiority of Western culture the loudest are the quickest to betray those values which supposedly make it superior (pluralism, tolerance, etc.)? It is nearly hilariously ironic in the case of Israel, whose apologists repeat like a mantra that it is "the Middle East's only democracy," in contradistinction to all those Arab dictatorships. When push comes to shove, however, pluralism and tolerance get chucked overboard. The Knesset has just passed a law banning calls for a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The Israel-based website BoycottIsrael!—"Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within"—remains online at the moment, and it will be interesting to see if any action is taken against it. Here are the basic facts from Ha'aretz, July 11:

The Israeli army last week began tearing down a section of its separation barrier in the West Bank near Bil'in village, where weekly protests have become a symbol of opposition to the wall's encroachment on Palestinian land. The rerouting of the barrier, after long delays, was a rare instance in which Israeli military officials were forced to change plans by a court order. It comes four years after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on a petition by villagers that the barrier's route did not serve security needs, but cut through village farmland for purposes of expanding the adjacent Israeli settlement of Modi’in Ilit, a fast-growing town of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The court ordered the barrier torn down and rebuilt closer to the settlement.

For the first time in three years, the Israeli state confiscated uncultivated land in the West Bank last week, to "legalize" a nearby settlement outpost. Acting on orders from the government, the Civil Administration declared 189 dunams of land belonging to the Palestinian village of Karyut to be state land, so as to retroactively "legalize" houses and a road in the Hayovel neighborhood of the settlement of Eli. The expropriation was carried out under an Ottoman land law dating from 1858 that allows uncultivated land to be declared state land. Hayovel was built on Karyut lands in 1998 as a temporary outpost, and later permanent houses and an access road were added.