Israel's leading human rights groups are mobilizing to halt two new military orders that are to take effect April 13, which will make any resident of the occupied West Bank who does not have an Israeli-issued permit liable for deportation or imprisonment. The new "Order Regarding Prevention of Infiltration" and "Order Regarding Security Provisions" have "severe ramifications," the rights groups say. Palestinians, and any foreigners living in the West Bank, could be labelled infiltrators and deported within 72 hours or imprisoned for seven years if they are found without the correct permit. But the orders do not define what Israel considers a valid permit.

In speeches before the annual Washington policy conference of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) March 22, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took barely veiled stabs at each other. "The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today," Netanyahu told 7,500 cheering delegates. "Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital." His remarks received a standing ovation—but also denunciations from a few protesters whose shouts were quickly drowned out by the AIPAC delegates.

In a possible sequel to the recent Dubai assassination, Israeli spy planes flew "uninvited and unannounced" over Budapest the same day a Syrian man was shot to death in his car in the Hungarian capital, the New York Post reports March 19. Two Israeli air force Gulfstream V-type jets flew more than 1,300 miles over Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania on March 17 before flying over Budapest and then disappearing, Hungarian media reports said.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reportedly boycotted the official visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva. Lieberman declined to attend meetings with the visiting head of state or his address to the Knesset, Israeli and Brazilian media reported. Lieberman was reportedly upset that Lula refused to visit the grave of Zionist movement founder Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem, contrary to a new Israeli protocol for visiting dignitaries. Instead, Lula donned a keffiyeh around his shoulders and laid a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. "This is an insult," one senior Foreign Ministry official said. "It is offensive that he laid a wreath at the grave of a terrorist, but not at the tomb of Zionism's visionary." US Vice President Joe Biden last week was the first world leader to lay a wreath at Herzl's grave as part of the new protocol, initiated a few weeks ago to honor Herzl's 150th birthday.

From Human Rights Watch, Feb. 1:

Jordan: Stop Withdrawing Nationality from Palestinian-Origin Citizens
Authorities Arbitrarily Withdraw Nationality From More Than 2,700; Hundreds of Thousands at Risk
Jordan should stop withdrawing nationality arbitrarily from Jordanians of Palestinian origin, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Authorities stripped more than 2,700 of these Jordanians of their nationality between 2004 and 2008, and the practice continued in 2009, Human Rights Watch said.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay rebuked both Israel and the Palestinians for failing to carry out independent investigations into human rights abuses in Gaza last winter, as demanded by the Goldstone Report. In a report to be delivered this week to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, she says that neither the Israeli army's "criminal or command investigations are adequate.... All of the command investigations, special and ordinary, appear to rely predominantly if not exclusively on information provided by those potentially implicated in the violations. They do not appear to meet the standards required for practical independence."

Palestinians staged angry protests in Jerusalem March 16 as part of a "day of rage" declared by Hamas, clashing with police and setting fire to tires and garbage bins. Police in riot gear fired back with rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas. Some 60 Palestinians and 14 police officers were reported injured, and at least 30 protesters were arrested.

Several dozen Palestinian women clashed with Israeli troops on the outskirts of Jerusalem on March 13. The confrontation erupted at the Qalandiya crossing between the West Bank and the contested city. The women chanted "Jerusalem is Arab, our eternal capital," briefly planted a Palestinian flag on one of the crossing's metal gates, and attempted to push through it. Israeli troops finally dispersed the women with tear gas. At one point, a firebomb hit a military jeep and soldiers rushed to extinguish the fire. (AP, March 13)