You Must Be Kidding: 
An official who was in charge of legalizing Israeli West Bank outpost settlements was named a judge to the Jerusalem District Court, where Palestinians may be forced to make petitions, many about settlements and settlers, instead of to the High Court.

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News Summary:
The papers had little new to share on the big story, the Netanyahu investigations, except that the police are arranging a date to question under warning the Prime Minister on both Case 4000, the Bezeq-Walla affair, and Case 3000, the submarines affair, his arrested former media advisor, Nir Hefetz, stayed silent in interrogations, but did complain of fleas in his bed, and that senior ministers in the government continue to stay silent. (Meanwhile, Israel dropped to 32 on the corruption index.)

The two other main stories were the appointment of two High Court justices, much to the satisfaction of the right-wing, and the Palestinian accusation that a Palestinian man who died in Israeli custody in Jericho was beaten to death by Israeli soldiers, as a video showed.

**The right-wing ‘judicial counter-revolution’ was completed yesterday, according to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. Her conservative candidate, Alex Stein, 60, was chosen despite criticism that he has not lived in Israel for the past 15 years. He lives in New York and is a professor at Brooklyn Law School and previously at Yeshiva University, Haaretz+ reported. Haaretz also revealed that an official who was in charge of legalizing Israeli West Bank outposts was named a Jerusalem District Court judge. Haya Sandberg heads the committee for legalizing unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts. What’s more, she was appointed to the court which Shaked wants will be responsible for hearing petitions by West Bank Palestinians instead of the High Court. A month ago, Shaked distributed circulated draft legislation that would bar the High Court from directly hearing petitions by West Bank Palestinians and instead send them to the Jerusalem District Court. Sources told Haaretz+ that for that reason Shaked specifically wanted Sandberg to be at the Jerusalem court. Also of interest, Israel now has its first female ultra-Orthodox judge and its first Arab registrar.

The other main story was the death of a Palestinian man in Israeli military custody, shortly after he was harshly beaten by soldiers Wednesday. A video shows the beating as he laid on the ground. The Israeli army claims he charged at soldiers. The Palestinians claim he was beaten to death. (Video) The story comes out a day after an Amnesty International report cited killings of Palestinians by Israelis security forces that “appeared to have been extrajudicial executions.” The organization said Israeli security forces killed at least 75 Palestinians last year, including at least 20 by riot-dispersal actions. It says some were killed while trying to commit a terror attack, while others, some of them children, were shot and killed when they did not pose a threat. The timing also coincides with the plea bargain two Israelis received after they viciously beat to death a Sudanese refugee, Babikir Ali Adham-Abdou, who tried to chat up some Israeli girls. VIDEO. According to the plea bargain, Dennis Barshovitch, 22,  will confess and be convicted of manslaughter, the other attacker, a minor, will only be convicted of committing intentional injury.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Ramallah used some smelly civil disobedience to express their dissatisfaction with U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. A few dozen activists threw eggs and vegetables at an American delegation visiting a Palestinian research and polling center near Ramallah. Palestinian police evacuated the delegation from the city. The protesters also waved Palestinian flags and held signs reading: “The U.S. is part of the problem, not the solution.”