Arab and Palestinian leaders reacted angrily after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Oct. 31 departed from her administration's insistence that Israel halt settlement growth, instead applauding Tel Aviv's "restraint on the policy of settlements." Palestinians have refused to return to negotiations with Israel until it fulfills committments to halt de facto expansion of its borders into occupied territory—a stance President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated from Abu Dhabi. In Morocco, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa denied the that negotiations could resume without a freeze in settlement construction.

From Amnesty International, Oct. 27:

Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies. These unreasonably restrict the availability of water in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and prevent the Palestinians developing an effective water infrastructure there.

Palestinians again clashed with Israeli police forces at the al-Aqsa Mosque Oct. 24, leaving 17 protesters and nine officer injured, and 21 Palestinians detained. The violence erupted when members of the Islamic Movement mobilized to the site to prevent followers of the right-wing Eretz Israel Shelanu from holding a gathering at the Temple Mount.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) responded in a press release entitled "Why We Report on 'Open' Societies" Oct. 20 to an op-ed in the that day's New York Times, "Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast," written by the organization's former chairman Robert Bernstein, accusing the group of bias against Israel, which it characterized as one of the few "open societies" in the Middle East. HRW responded that the group covers "open" societies such as Israel and the US as well as "closed" ones. Defending its coverage of Israel, HRW wrote:

The Oct. 2 passing of Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, has occasioned respectful but generally sanitized eulogies in the world Jewish press—with few exceptions, neatly avoiding any mention of his anti-Zionist politics. An Oct. 6 remembrance in New York's Jewish Week is typical in dodging the issue entirely.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay endorsed the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in Gaza at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva Oct. 15. Pillay stated that steps to hold war criminals accountable "are not obstacles to peace, but rather the preconditions on which trust and, ultimately, a durable peace can be built."

Palestinian protesters, angry at Israeli-imposed restrictions on access to the al-Aqsa Mosque, clashed with police in Jerusalem Oct. 9—the latest in a series of confrontations in the past two weeks. At least four Palestinians were arrested—bringing the total to 75 for the week—and 11 Israeli police reported injured. The violence clouded the visit of White House envoy, George Mitchell, who met separately that day with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. (WSJ, Oct. 10)

Israeli soldiers used tear gas against anti-wall protests in the West Bank villages of both Nilin and Bilin Sept. 11. In Nilin, several protesters reportedly vomited after breathing the gas. The weekly Friday anti-wall protest at Bilin was cut off by IDF armored vehicles. Troops also used sound bombs to disperse the peaceful protesters. (Maan News Agency, Maan News Agency, Sept 12)