Right-wing settlers furious at the Israeli army's eviction of the so-called House of Contention in Hebron invaded the northern West Bank city of Nablus Nov. 4, and set fire to fields and vehicles. Dozens were injured in Hebron as IDF troops evicted 13 families that were illegally occupying a house that belongs to a Palestinian family, enforcing an order from Israel's supreme court. The settlers also set fire to Palestinian homes in Hebron, and several were arrested by Israeli soldiers, who used tear gas to quell the riot. (Ma'an News Agency, Dec. 4)

For the first time since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war (at least), no Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are making the sacred annual pilgrimage to Mecca this year. Saudi Arabia, seeking to bolster the (Fatah) administration on the West Bank, asked it to compose a list of Palestinian pilgrims—4,000 from the West Bank and 2,200 from Gaza. Egypt opened its border with Gaza to allow the pilgrims out, and the West Bank residents left two weeks ago. But the Hamas administration in Gaza insisted on submitting its own list. When the Saudis said they would not grant visas to those on the Hamas list, Hamas set up checkpoints along the Egyptian border and barred passage to those on the other list.

On Nov. 23, Israel's Supreme Court issued a decision to allow the state until May 2009 to implement its ruling of February 2006 concerning the "National Priority Areas" (NPAs). In its 2006 decision, the court ruled that the government's division of the country into NPAs that are awarded special educational benefits discriminated against Arab citizens and must be annulled. The court originally gave the state one year to implement its ruling, until February 2007.

Israeli police evicted a disabled Palestinian man and his wife from their East Jerusalem home of more than 50 years in a late-night raid early Nov. 9. The eviction followed a July Israeli supreme court order that found the home, provided to the couple in 1956 by the Jordanian government and a UN refugee program, was built on land they did not own. A Jewish land association said it has Ottoman-era documents proving the land originally was owned by Jews who fled in 1948 when Jordanian troops took East Jerusalem.

President-elect Barack Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apologized Nov. 14 for disparaging remarks made by his father about Arabs. Benjamin Emanuel, speaking about his son to an Israeli newspaper last week, said, "Obviously, he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House." Rahm Emanuel called the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee to apologize, saying "These are not the values upon which I was raised or those of my family." (Fox News, Nov. 14)

Palestinian security forces arrested 12 followers of Hamas in West Bank Nov. 16, in an ongoing crackdown against the Islamic movement. The arrests, by forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, took place in Nablus, Salfeet and Hebron, a Hamas statement said. The arrests could further complicate efforts to reconcile the Hamas and Fatah movements. Hamas days earlier rejected an Egyptian initiative to hold a Palestinian reconciliation dialogue, saying it cannot sit with Fatah while its followers on West Bank face a Fatah-led clampdown.

Speaking before the General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Israel's ongoing efforts to build settlements in the West Bank is "illegal," a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and have lead to widespread human rights abuses against Palestinians. Ban's statement came as he announced the findings of two new reports prepared for his office last week.

An explosion in the northern Gaza Strip killed a Palestinian militant and critically wounded another, medical workers reported Nov. 15. The Popular Resistance Committees said an Israeli air-strike targeted a group of its militants as they approached the Israel-Gaza border near the town of Beit Hanoun. An Israeli army spokesman denied that any air-strike had been carried out. (Reuters, Nov. 15)