The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they happen.
Top Biden aide arrives in Saudi Arabia, meets with crown prince ahead of Israel visit
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received White House National SecurityAdviser Jake Sullivan in the Saudi city of Dhahran, the Saudi state news agency reports.
Sullivan is due to travel to Israel after his visit to Saudi Arabia, where a senior US official told The Times of Israel he and the crown prince will discuss the long-shot US effort to broker a normalization agreement between Jerusalem and Riyadh. In Israel, Sullivan will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to update him on his talks in Riyadh and also discuss Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah, the US official said.
Hundreds protest against Israel at ‘Nakba’ rally in Washington
Hundreds of protesters rally within sight of the US Capitol in Washington to demonstrate against Israel and mark the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, of Israel’s founding and the accompanying exodus of some 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the War of Independence in 1948.
There are calls in support of the Palestinians and an immediate end to Israeli military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, which was launched following the terror group’s devastating October 7 onslaught. “No peace on stolen land” and “End the killings, stop the crime/Israel out of Palestine,” echo through the crowd.
Protesters also focus their anger on US President Joe Biden for his support of Israel.
“Biden Biden, you will see/genocide’s your legacy,” they say. The Democratic president is in Atlanta on Saturday.
Penn students among 19 anti-Israel protesters arrested during attempt to occupy building
PHILADELPHIA — A half-dozen University of Pennsylvania students were among 19 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested during an attempt to occupy a school building, university police say.
Their arrests come a week after authorities broke up an anti-Israel protest encampment on campus and arrested nine students — and as other colleges across the country, anxious to prepare for commencement season, have either negotiated agreements with students or called in police to dismantle protest camps.
Members of Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine announced the action Friday at the school’s Fisher-Bennett Hall, urging supporters to bring “flags, pots, pans, noise-makers, megaphones” and other items, the University of Pennsylvania Division of Public Safety said in a news release.
Officers could be seen closing in “within the hour,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. University police supported by city police then escorted the protesters out and secured the building, news outlets report.
Police say after clearing the building that they recovered “lock-picking tools and homemade metal shields fashioned from oil drums.”
Exit doors had been secured with zip ties and barbed wire and barricaded with metal chairs and desks, while windows were covered by newspaper and cardboard, and bike racks and metal chairs blocked entrances, police said.
Seven of the students arrested remain in custody awaiting felony charges, including one person who assaulted an officer, campus police say. A dozen were issued citations for failing to disperse and follow police commands. They have been released from custody.
The attempted occupation of Fisher-Bennett Hall comes a week after city and campus police broke up a two-week encampment on the campus, arresting 33 people, nine of whom were students and two dozen of whom had “no Penn affiliation,” according to university officials.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Lapid urges police action after hostage families, relatives of Oct. 7 victims face violence at protest
Opposition leader Yair Lapid pans images of violence against relatives of hostages held by Hamas terrorists and those wounded and killed in the October 7 massacre.
“There’s nothing to expect from the police minister [Itamar Ben Gvir], but the police commissioner [Kobi Shabtai] needs to stop it immediately — where is he?” Lapid writes on X.
In one incident tonight at the Tel Aviv anti-government protest, Gadi Kedem, who lost six of his family members on October 7, was allegedly beaten by a right-wing activist carrying a sign reading “leftist traitors.”
Police arrested two suspected of the attack, and medics took Kedem to hospital.
גדי קדם בעלה של ראומה ש-6 מקרובי משפחתם נרצחו הוכה לפי עדויות על ידי אדם עם שלט שמאלנים בוגדים ונפצע בראשו. הוא פונה לבית חולים. ״ביביסט קילל אותנו אמר לנו טוב שהילדים מתו…יא מנוולת יא שמאלנית מסריחה והשוטרים עומדים…. והביביסט ברח. הוא עמד איתם… היה לו שלט שמאלנים בוגדים"… pic.twitter.com/3KjdXvmrkQ
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) May 18, 2024