The 65,000-Person Question

"It felt just like apartheid, or things that recall dark times and the Holocaust..."
  --IDF soldier responds to instructions it received from Bat Ayin settlement to block entry to non-Jews.

• Israel seals off East Jerusalem checkpoint serving 65,000 Palestinians - Move contravenes 2008 High Court ruling that conditioned closing of Ras Khamis crossing on the expansion of Shoafat refugee camp's only other checkpoint. (Haaretz+)
  
• IAF strike kills two, seriously wounds one in Gaza - The dead were members of the extremist group Islamic Jihad, said Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for Gaza's Health Ministry; witnesses: Rockets fired from Rafah toward Israel prior to the strike. (Haaretz)
  
• Petition: Social services budgets discriminate against Arabs - Advocacy groups petition High Court for new social services budgeting system, claiming that current one favors Jewish towns over Arab ones. (Ynet)
  
• Tayibe: Shots fired at news website's offices - Panet's offices were empty at time of attack; residents of Arab city say leaflets slandering website were distributed three months ago. (Ynet)
  
• Pioneers in the heart of Venezuela - Even though its ally is Iran, Venezuela has asked an Israeli company: Build us a moshav. The company, A. B. Planners, won the tender to build the moshav with at a cost of $400 million. (Yedioth, p. 23)
  

For the full News from Israel.