Monthly Reports

CURRENT SITUATION

During the month of May, Israel tried again to form a government, after the last election occurred two months before. At the end of May, the parties of Yamina and Yair Lapid reached an agreement, according to which their leaders will respectively take turns as Prime Minister for the next five years. Both leaders will have a mandate of 2 years and half long.
The fight against the occupations in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood continued throughout the whole month: many people were arrested and, in the middle of the month, the road to access the area was blocked with concrete barriers. The police constantly monitored the district, raiding several times and removing people from the neighborhood.
May 11th is the so-called Jerusalem Day, commemorating the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City after the "6-Day War". On that day, Israeli military forces threw grenades into Al Aqsa Mosque, causing a fire. The police broke up the Muslim believers by sticks, rubber bullets and tear gas.

CURRENT SITUATION

Due to the increasing number of Covid cases in Israel (approximately 8,000/day), the Government imposed a 2-week total lockdown at the beginning of the year. The lockdown was later extended to the whole month of January, with every movement between Palestine and Israel prohibited.
On January 24th Israel closed Ben Gurion airport, blocking all flights for people coming back to Israel from abroad. Land borders with Jordan and Egypt have been closed since January 26th. These restrictions caused protests: on January 26th in the town of Bnei Brak a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews protested violently against anti-Covid measures, setting a bus for public transport on fire.
In Palestine, lockdown has been prolonged until the end of January, so movement between the West Bank governorates is prohibited unless it is strictly necessary.
Meanwhile, Israel has continued its massive vaccination campaign, and now one third of the population is covered.

CURRENT SITUATION

Israel started its Covid-19 vaccination campaign in December and, at the beginning of January, became the State with the highest rate of vaccinated population (10%). In fact, the vaccination campaign began in early December with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was shown on media receiving the first vaccine dose with some of his ministers.
Nevertheless, in mid-December a new lockdown was enforced in Israel, which will last until the first week of January: movement between towns and between Israel and Palestine is prohibited, only shops selling basic necessities will remain open.
In Palestine the first vaccine doses are expected for the beginning of January, even if no suitable infrastructure to deliver and store the vaccine has been set up. The Palestinian Authority declared they intend to give vaccine to the whole population in the shortest possible amount of time. According to the statement, new specific structures will be set up in the major towns, such as Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron. In mid-December a new full lockdown started (at first only in Hebron, Bethlehem, Tulkarem and Nablus Governatorates, but then it was extended to all Governatorates).

CURRENT SITUATION

In the beginning of October, Israel reimposed a full national lockdown due to the second wave of Covid-19. The restrictions, which should have ended at the beginning of the month, lasted until October 18th, when a reopening phase started (implying the possibility to declare some cities as red areas). Among the measures included in the way out strategy, the reopening of religious sites in Jerusalem was planned. Although, legally Israelis still need specific reasons to leave their homes. This norm was considered as limiting the freedom to demonstrate. So, on October 3rd, a series of large demonstrations against Netanyahu were held throughout Israel. The decision to start reopening the country came after a significant decline in the number of new daily Coronavirus cases since June.
No lockdown was imposed in Palestine, but some restrictions were implemented to limit the movements in those areas where high number of Coronavirus cases were reported. At the end of October about 6,000 cases of Covid-19 were reported for a total of about 60,000 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
On October 18th, during a meeting in Bahrain between an Israeli government delegation and the Bahraini Foreign Minister, 7 memoranda were signed besides the agreement reached the previous month between the two countries. In particular, these memoranda provide for a greater economic and political cooperation.
On October 23rd Sudan signed a normalization agreement with Israel as well, becoming the fifth Arab country to officially recognize the State of Israel (along with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain). The agreement was signed in front of a delegation from the United States, which welcomed this détente with pleasure. Hamas viewed the agreement as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.