Ehud Barak, Israel’s increasingly hawkish defence minister, approved an intelligence recommendation to demolish the houses of Hakim and Ajmad Awad, two cousins from the Palestinian village of Awarta.

The decision, the first of its kind in nearly seven years, will render the wives and children of both men homeless.

The two Palestinians are serving life sentences for the murders of Ehud and Ruth Fogel, as well as three of their six children, in the West Bank settlement of Itamar in March, 2011.

The dead included a three-month-old infant and a four-year-old boy stabbed to death in a frenzied attack that horrified Israel.

The Israeli authorities abandoned the once common practice of punitive demolitions in 2005 after facing heavy international criticism. (Read more)

The Israeli government on Tuesday retroactively legalized three Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank, and moved to delay the scheduled evacuation of a fourth, in a provocative move that some critics said marked the first establishment of new settlements in two decades. (Read more)

At a public meeting on Friday Diskin, former head of Shin Bet (Israel’s MI5), described Netanyahu and Barak as “not fit to hold the steering wheel of power”. He went on: “I have observed them from up close … They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off … They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won’t have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race.”

Diskin joins a long list of eminent members of the Israeli security establishment who have publicly voiced criticism of, and opposition to, their government’s ultra-hawkish line on Iran. In fact, his astonishing attack on his former bosses came just 48 hours after the head of Israel’s military, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, declared that the Iranian leadership had not yet made a decision to build nuclear weapons, that it was unlikely to go this “extra mile”, and was composed of “very rational people”. “Decisions must be made carefully out of historic responsibility but without hysteria,” added Gantz in a not-too-subtle dig at his political masters. (Read more)

The Co-operative Group has become the first major European supermarket group to end trade with companies that export produce from illegal Israeli settlements.

The UK’s fifth biggest food retailer and its largest mutual business, the Co-op took the step as an extension of its existing policy which had been not to source produce from illegal settlements that have been built on Palestinian territories in the West bank.

Now the retail and insurance giant has taken it one step further by “no longer engaging with any supplier of produce known to be sourcing from the Israeli settlements”. (Read more)

Imagine my complete lack of surprise…

The Israeli government is seeking to renege on a pledge to demolish a West Bank outpost built on privately owned Palestinian land.

The move comes amid a wave of international condemnation over its retrospective authorisation this week of three other illegal outposts, strengthening Israel’s hold on the West Bank and bolstering pro-settler groups, whose influence on government policy is growing.

The attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, will ask the supreme court to delay an order to evacuate and demolish five apartment buildings at Ulpana, on the edge of the Beit El settlement. The case is due to be heard before Tuesday’s deadline for evacuation. (Read more)

Following last week’s eviction of the Palestinian Natcheh family from their Beit Hanina home, Israeli Knesset members Michael Ben-Ari and Aryeh Eldad visited the house now inhabited by some eight settlers. To mark the occasion they posted a picture of themselves lounging on the Natcheh’s sofa on Facebook.

“We are at the start of the establishment of a new Jewish neighborhood in the area, which will create a continuous sequence of Jewish neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem,” said Eldad to the settler online mouthpiece, Israel National News. “Only the stubbornness of the Jewish landowners and Aryeh King of the National Land Redemption Fund ultimately led to the achievement of the day and we are confident law enforcement agencies will be required from now on to remove Arab squatters from all the properties of the Jews in the area.” Ben-Ari and Eldad “affixed mezuzahs” inside of the house, rituatlistically marking the takeover.

The Knesset ministers hope to judaize Beit Hanina, though historically there have never been Jewish residents in this East Jerusalem neighborhood. On Facebook, Ben-Ari said the settlers will build 50 new housing units on the property. (Read more)

In a reminder that Persian rhetoric is not always easy for English-speakers to interpret, a senior Israeli official has acknowledged that Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, never actually said that Israel “must be wiped off the map.” (Read more)

Israel’s Interior Ministry last week refused to allow a Swedish tourist to enter the country unless she signed a document committing her to avoid any contact with “members of pro-Palestinian organizations”.

Anna Pgereld, a 30-year-old Swedish woman who is five-months pregnant, arrived at the Taba border crossing near Eilat around noon on Tuesday with a Norwegian friend, and was immediately singled out for questioning. (Read more)

British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Thursday said he was “disappointed” with Israel’s decision not to renew its moratorium on West Bank settlement construction after efforts to reach a deal with the United States on the matter were pronounced a failure.

“I am disappointed that Israel has not renewed the freeze on settlement construction and that peace talks are currently on hold. It is Britain’s longstanding view that settlements are illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace,” said Hague. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) — Israel has access to airbases in Azerbaijan near Iran’s northern border to use in a military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites, sources told a U.S. magazine.

Unnamed senior diplomats and military intelligence officials were interviewed in the Foreign Policy magazine report, “Israel’s Secret Staging Ground,” published Wednesday.

“The Israelis have bought an airfield … and the airfield is called Azerbaijan,” a senior administration official was quoted as saying.

The Azeri military has four abandoned Soviet-era airfields that would potentially be available to Israel and four air bases for their own aircraft, the report says, quoting details from Military Balance 2011 from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials are increasingly concerned Israeli military expansion in Azerbaijan will hamper efforts to dampen tensions with Iran, an official told Foreign Policy. (Read more)

Israel is considering sanctions against the Palestinian Authority after the United Nations’ Human Rights Council decided to establish an international investigative committee on the West Bank settlements.

Today, a forum of eight senior Israeli cabinet ministers is scheduled to meet in Jerusalem to discuss sanctions against the PA and representatives of the UN Human Rights Council in Israel. It is unclear whether any decisions will be made during today’s meeting.

Three members of the octet reportedly support freezing the transfer of tax revenues to the PA. According to one source, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz would back such a move. (Read more)

Israel’s Foreign Ministry orders envoy to Geneva to ignore all phone calls from rights council commissioner; ‘The council sparked this process’, says a senior Israeli official.

Israel decided Monday to sever all contact with the United Nations human rights council and with its chief commissioner Navi Pillay, after the international body decided to establish an international investigative committee on the West Bank settlements.

The Foreign Ministry ordered Israel’s ambassador to Geneva to cut off contact immediately, instructing him to ignore phone calls from the commissioner, a senior Israeli official said. (Read more)

Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority blocked an advertisement promoting tourism in Israel earlier this week, following complaints that it was “misleading” in implying the occupied territories were part of Israel.

The ad, promoting a new book on northern Israel, first appeared in British newspapers in November 2011. It evoked no less than 350 complaints to the ASA, which oversees and regulates the advertising industry in the United Kingdom.

The complaints came mainly from pro-Palestinian organizations such as Friends of Al-Aqsa and Jews for Justice in Palestine. (Read more)

Jerusalem, March 19 (IANS) Israel is taking steps to prevent a Palestinian initiative at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to establish a fact-finding mission on West Bank settlements.

According to the initiative, slated for discussion Monday, a UN fact-finding team will be formed with the goal of examining the impacts of the Jewish settlements and construction in east Jerusalem on the Palestinian residents.

“This is an improper Palestinian attempt to escape from the uppermost need for peace negotiations,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told Xinhua Monday. (Read more)