Swiss court gives Nord Stream 2 more time to avoid insolvency

The Swiss company behind the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 has received a four-month extension to try to repay its debts. 

Keystone / Jens Buettner

This content was published on September 8, 2022
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The Zug cantonal court in Switzerland, where Nord Stream 2 AG is headquartered, granted the company a second extension, according to an entry in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce published on Thursday. The firm has until January 10, 2023 to turn things around and avoid bankruptcy proceedings.

In May, the court granted a provisional moratorium against bankruptcy proceedings for the first time, which was valid until September 10. This period has now been extended by another four months.

Nord Stream 2 is a subsidiary of the Russian gas company Gazprom and has its headquarters in the low-tax canton of Zug, located 30 kilometres south of Zurich. The pipeline, which was laid and completed through the Baltic Sea, was to bring Russian gas to Germany. However, the German government put the approval process for Nord Stream 2 on hold in view of Russia's war against Ukraine. The US imposed sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, prohibiting further business with the company.

The Zug economic authority had already spoken of massive payment difficulties as a result of the sanctions imposed on Nord Stream 2 and of imminent "bankruptcy" at the beginning of March. More than hundred employees in Zug were laid off at that time.

Quality issues delay sale of cannabis products in Basel pilot scheme

 

Other Swiss cities have applied to carry out the same cannabis product trials as in Basel. 

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Switzerland's first pilot project for the legal sale of cannabis products has been delayed after some of the initial stock failed quality control tests.

This content was published on September 9, 2022 
swissinfo.ch/mga

The ‘Weed Care’ experiment in the city of Basel was supposed to launch on September 15External link. But it has been put on hold because traces of pesticides were found in some of the supposedly organic plants.

Basel’s health department said on Friday that the delay could last several weeks or even months as products must now be analysed again by an independent body.

Six cannabinoid products – four types of cannabis flowers and two types of hashish – were due to go on sale in nine pharmacies from next week.

The Federal Office of Public Health approved the pilot scheme in April as part of a project by the University of Basel, its psychiatric clinics and the cantonal health department.

It is intended to help evaluate the effects of new regulations on the recreational use of cannabis and ultimately combat black market distribution.
Pilot sale over-subscribed

Several other local authorities, including Zurich, Geneva and Bern, have also applied to roll out similar trials. The Swiss parliament laid the legal basisExternal link for such small-scale initiatives in September 2020.

The Basel pilot, which will allow 370 people to participate in the sale of approved products, is over-subscribed with 700 applications.

Basel health officials will now consider options, including different products from the official supplier or even examining different potential suppliers.

The recreational use of cannabis remains banned in Switzerland but it can be consumed for medical reasons. In 2008, voters rejected a proposal to decriminalise cannabis consumption.



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Giant ‘water battery’ plant inaugurated in Switzerland
 

The Nant de Drance hydroelectric power plant has six giant turbines in a cavern hollowed out of a mountain

© Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

A Swiss pumped-storage power station, which can both produce electricity and store power from other sources, has been officially inaugurated.

This content was published on September 9, 2022 

The Nant de Drance hydroelectric plant in western Switzerland has been operational since July. Its turbines can generate 900 megawatts of electricity per hour by releasing water from an upper reservoir through dam sluice gates.

This is a similar amount of electricity production as the Gösgen nuclear power plant in Switzerland, making Nant de Drance one of the largest power producers in Europe.

The Nant de Drance facility can also store power by pumping the water back up to the reservoir ready for re-use when more electricity is needed. The storage capacity of the plant is equivalent to more than 400,000 car batteries.

It was built to cope with fluctuations in wind and solar-power supply and help stabilise electricity output Europe-wide.

It could, for example, store surplus energy from solar plants in Europe to be later released when the sun is not shining.

The Nant de Drance station is built in a remote region of canton Valais at an elevation of 2,225 metres above sea level next to the Vieux Emosson reservoir.

NGOs oppose extension of Swiss secret service powers

 

Swiss intelligence officers have been criticised and reprimanded for abuse of power in the past. 

Keystone / Sascha Steinbach

The Swiss intelligence service should not be given additional powers to monitor for signs of terrorist activity, say NGOs, trade unions and left-leaning political groups.

This content was published on September 9, 2022 -  swissinfo.ch/mga

But political parties from the centre and right have given their backing to a government proposal to better protect national security.

In May, the government said the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) should be given greater access to financial recordsExternal link and more freedom to keep an eye on extremist groups. The consultation period for the proposed law change ended on Friday.

A coalition of 15 NGOs, including Public Eye, Amnesty International Switzerland, Democratic Lawyers Switzerland and Operation Libero, said the expansion of surveillance would come at the expense of fundamental rights.

FIS has already been criticised and reprimanded for keeping files on left-wing politicians and groups External link without good cause.

In 2016, voters backed a strengthening of the lawExternal link to allow intelligence officers to tap private phone lines and monitor cyberspace activities to prevent terrorist attacks.

But not everyone is against a fresh extension of FIS powers. The People’s Party want the proposed law amendment to also oblige doctors and social workers to give up information to combat terrorism and extremism.

Other parties in the centre and right of the political spectrum endorsed the government’s plans, saying they are essential for national security and include enough safeguards to prevent abuse.

The prosed law change will now go to parliament and potentially a nationwide referendum.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Credit Suisse chief faces early test in $800m Singapore trial

 

Ulrich Körner has his hands full as he steers Credit Suisse through troubled waters. 

Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

Ulrich Körner faces his first test as Credit Suisse chief executive as the bank goes on trial in Singapore over its past relationship with Georgia’s former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

This content was published on September 5, 2022 - 
Owen Walker, Stephen Morris, Mercedes Ruehl, Financial Times

Billionaire Ivanishvili, who is Georgia’s richest person, is pursuing the Swiss lender for up to $800 million in damages, having already been awarded $607.5m from the bank in a related case in Bermuda this year.

Körner — Credit Suisse’s fourth chief executive since 2005, who last month replaced Thomas Gottstein — is grappling with a major overhaul of the lender’s investment bank, which analysts have estimated could lead to billions of dollars in restructuring costs and require an additional capital raise.
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The Ivanishvili case is also an early challenge for Credit Suisse’s recently installed general counsel Markus Diethelm. Both Körner and Diethelm are former UBS executives who spent more than a decade fighting legal battles at the bank following the financial crisis.

Credit Suisse can ill-afford another nine-figure loss after setting aside a total of SFr3.9bn ($4bn) in net provisions for litigation since the start of 2020.

The bank’s executive board has been holed up in meetings this week — coincidentally also taking place in Singapore — thrashing out the future of the group’s investment bank. Analysts at Deutsche Bank said the costs of paring back the unit — outlined as a priority by Körner, dubbed “Uli the Knife” — would leave a SFr4bn hole in the bank’s capital position.

Changes too late?

“Running down other parts of the investment bank and selling smaller businesses across divisions could help over time, but this would likely come too late to avoid an equity raise,” wrote Deutsche analysts Benjamin Goy and Sharath Kumar Ramanathan.

Such a move would prove unpopular with shareholders after Credit Suisse was forced to raise $1.9bn last year. Its share price dropped below SFr5 for the first time in more than three decades this week, having halved since the start of last year.

The Singapore trial, which is expected to take three weeks, will start on Monday morning at the country’s Supreme Court and be heard before Justice Patricia Bergin. The closing arguments are expected in December, with a verdict due early next year.

Ivanishvili’s dispute with Credit Suisse goes back to 2011 when he was a private banking client of the group.

It was then that details emerged that, for more than a decade, Credit Suisse private banker Patrice Lescaudron defrauded some of the Swiss bank’s most sensitive accounts — including those held by Ivanishvili and Russian oligarch Vitaly Malkin — funding a lavish lifestyle of luxury houses, sports cars, Rolex watches and gifts of Chanel jewellery.

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A damning report into the affair by the Swiss regulator Finma, which was inadvertently made public in February last year, found repeated warning signs, evidence of hundreds of suspicious transactions and four formal disciplinary proceedings that were not acted upon by Credit Suisse.
Rogue banker blamed

The bank has long maintained that Lescaudron — who was criminally convicted in 2018 and died by suicide in 2020 after an early release — was a highly successful rogue operator who worked tirelessly to hide his illegal activity from superiors and colleagues. The Swiss criminal case against Lescaudron found the bank to have been a wronged party.

Ivanishvili tried to sue Credit Suisse in New Zealand, one of the countries — alongside Singapore and Bermuda — where the bank set up investment vehicles for wealthy clients. But the country’s High Court ruled in 2018 that the case should be heard in Switzerland.

He is expected to give video evidence from Georgia in the trial. His lawyers, Drew & Napier, are expected to argue that Credit Suisse’s Singaporean subsidiary, Credit Suisse Trust, failed to review the investments, did not protect the assets and did not accurately account for them.

However, a person briefed on Credit Suisse’s legal defence said the case would rest on whether staff in the Singapore subsidiary were party to the fraud with Lescaudron, which the bank denies, or acted in good faith.

They added that it was too early for the bank to take provisions or inform the market about potential losses.

Expensive tree hobby

Neither side has proposed settling the case so far, according to people briefed on the process.

Credit Suisse said it “does not comment on ongoing litigation matters”, while Ivanishvili declined to comment.

Ivanishvili, who served as Georgia’s prime minister between 2012 and 2013, amassed an estimated $4.8bn fortune in metals and banking, according to Forbes.

In recent years, he has spent millions collecting giant trees and transporting them by barge to his private garden on the Black Sea shoreline, which is partly open to the public. A documentary about the billionaire’s latest hobby, , premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022

BlackRock hits back at Republican AGs’ ESG qualms

By International Affairs

September 9, 2022

BlackRock is refuting what it calls ‘inaccurate’ claims by a coalition of Republican attorneys general that the money manager’s ESG investing policies sacrifice investor returns and violate the firm’s fiduciary duty.

On August 4, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and 18 other conservative attorneys general sent a letter to BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink accusing him and his firm of ‘putting leftist politics above investors’ interests and returns.’

A letter released Wednesday by BlackRock’s head of external affairs Dalia Blass responds to that accusation and explains that BlackRock’s motivation for participating in ‘various ESG-related initiatives’ is not driven by politics, but in fact by financial performance.

‘We believe investors and companies that take a forward-looking position with respect to climate risk and its implications for the energy transition will generate better long-term financial outcomes,’ BlackRock’s letter states, noting that governments comprising more than 90% of global GDP have committed to shifting to net zero energy policies in the future.

Among BlackRock’s ESG-related policies is its participation in the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, which asks companies to submit detailed disclosures on the environmental impact of their operations. BlackRock argues this is an effort to enhance transparency for risk assessment purposes, and denies that it dictates emissions targets or political lobbying strategies for companies it invests in.

Ironically, BlackRock’s statements seem to align perfectly with Attorney General Brnovich’s statement in a news release that ‘a fiduciary responsibility requires putting your client’s best interests ahead of any political agendas.’ The disconnect, it would seem, is that ESG critics including the aforementioned attorneys general appear to believe that climate change is not a pecuniary issue. BlackRock disagrees, but argues it has not limited clients, including pension fund clients, from investing in legacy oil and gas companies if they so choose.

‘BlackRock’s belief that climate risk poses investment risk is backed by our publicly-available research,’ the firm wrote. ‘We also understand, however, that these views are not universal. For this reason, we offer clients a broad choice of investment products … that allow clients to gain broad market exposure, including to energy companies, and to make energy-specific investments.’

BlackRock’s letter further states that firm leadership is ‘disturbed’ by the emerging trend of red states politicizing pension plans and ‘troubled’ by their efforts to use anti-boycott statutes to limit what kinds of strategies retirees can invest in.

Last month, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar banned BlackRock and nine other asset managers from handling pension funds for the state after determining that the firms ‘boycott’ oil and gas companies – West Virginia previously did something similar – and ordered state pension funds to divest from about 350 ETFs and mutual funds found to have an ESG tilt.

In its letter, BlackRock once again categorically denied that it boycotts oil and gas companies, or companies in any sector, and asserted that it currently has roughly $170bn invested in US energy companies, including in states that have been hostile to the firm. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was among the 19 signatories of Brnovich’s August 4 letter.

Wall Street Giants Set to Smash Profit Records Off Global Hunger, Energy Crisis



By International Affairs

September 9, 2022

Russia’s war on Ukraine has wreaked havoc on global commodity markets, driving up energy and food prices and exacerbating hunger emergencies around the world.

“We’re in a market where speculators are driving prices up.”

But while disastrous for the global poor—millions of whom are living on the brink of famine—the chaos has been a major boon for Wall Street giants, according to new data showing that the world’s 100 largest banks are on pace to smash commodity trading profit records this year.

“The 100 biggest banks by revenue are set to make $18 billion from commodities trading in 2022,” Bloomberg reported Friday, citing figures from the London-based firm Vali Analytics. “That would be the highest in the data, which goes back 14 years, and exceed the previous high watermark in 2009.”

“The prediction is the latest evidence that the wild swings in energy prices triggered by the war in Ukraine are delivering a boon to commodity traders, even as they push European nations into crisis,” Bloomberg added. “Vali, an analytics firm that tracks trading business, compiled data that includes the leading five banks in commodity trading: Macquarie Group Ltd., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Morgan Stanley.”

Though the prices of wheat and other food staples have fallen from their peak in recent months, they remain significantly elevated compared to last year, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, leaving millions vulnerable to hunger and starvation.

The World Food Program estimates that “as many as 828 million people go to bed hungry every night” and “the number of those facing acute food insecurity has soared—from 135 million to 345 million—since 2019.”

Energy prices have also eased but remain high, contributing to cost-of-living crises throughout Europe and other parts of the globe.

“People’s misery makes capitalists’ superprofit,” Salvatore De Rosa, a researcher at the Lund University Center for Sustainability Studies, tweeted in response to Bloomberg‘s reporting. “How do you reform this?”

Wall Street banks have not just benefited from the commodity price increases—they’ve actively helped fuel them, experts say.

“We’re in a market where speculators are driving prices up,” Michael Greenberger, former head of the Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told Mongabay in July.

“Commodity markets are supposed to be hedging markets for people who are dealing with the commodity involved,” Greenberger said. “In the case of wheat, it would be farmers and people buying wheat. But if we looked at it, there would be banks in there with no interest in what the price of wheat is, writing swaps and controlling this price.”

“It’s too easy to say the war in Ukraine has unbalanced all these markets, [or that] supply chains and the ports are shot, and that there’s a supply and demand reason for these prices going up,” Greenberger added. “My own best guess is anywhere from 10% to 25% of the price, at least, is dictated by deregulated speculative activity.”

COVID-19 drugs persist in wastewater, may pose risk to aquatic organisms

Treated wastewater effluent is sprayed at Penn State’s beneficial reuse site, the “Living Filter.” This diverts the wastewater from Spring Creek and allows the soil to act as a natural filter for any chemical residuals that remain in the wastewater.

 Credit: Heather Preisendanz, Penn State

By International Affairs

September 9, 2022

Certain drugs used to treat COVID-19 patients—including remdesivir, dexamethasone and antibiotics for associated bacterial infections—persist through wastewater treatment and may occur in waterways at levels high enough to negatively affect aquatic organisms, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. The findings highlight the broad utility of wastewater surveillance as a tool for monitoring the effects of human health on water quality and ecosystem health.

According to Heather Preisendanz, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, Penn State, over-the counter and prescription-strength pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics and pain relievers, are excreted by humans, and many are known to persist through wastewater treatment plants and into nearby waterways, where they can negatively affect aquatic organisms.

“This knowledge spurred concerns that increased use of pharmaceuticals during the pandemic could also lead to increased concentrations of these drugs in wastewater treatment plant effluent and potentially harm aquatic life,” said Preisendanz.

The team—which included scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture—collected weekly influent (incoming) and effluent (outgoing) samples from two wastewater treatment plants in central Pennsylvania between May 2020 and May 2021. One of the sites includes a hospital in its service area.

The researchers analyzed the influent at both wastewater treatment plants for the virus SARS-CoV-2, as well as the influent and effluent for a variety of medications that may have been used to treat COVID-19. Their findings published in the Journal of Environmental Quality.

“People experiencing mild COVID-19 symptoms, but who are not severely ill to the point of needing hospitalization, have generally been recommended to treat their symptoms with pain relievers such as naproxen and acetaminophen,” said Preisendanz. “Meanwhile, antibiotics have been prescribed for patients who have COVID-19 complications leading to bacterial infections, and some hospitalized patients have been treated with remdesivir and dexamethasone.”

In their study, the researchers examined two over-the-counter fever reducer/pain relievers (acetaminophen and naproxen); five antibiotics (ampicillin, doxycycline, ofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim); two COVID-19 therapeutic agents (remdesivir and dexamethasone, which is used to reduce severe upper respiratory inflammation in patients on ventilators); and hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that was ultimately shown in clinical trials to be ineffective for treating COVID-19.

Credit: Heather Preisendanz, Penn State

“It’s possible that the detection of these pharmaceuticals may increase with increasing detection of SARS-CoV-2,” said Preisendanz. “By analyzing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 and various medications, valuable information regarding the well-being of entire communities may be gained without the need to interview, survey or test individuals.”

The team found that remdesivir concentrations were correlated with the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, while dexamethasone concentrations were associated with the number of hospitalized patients on ventilators. Specifically, influent to the wastewater treatment plant servicing the hospital had concentrations of remdesivir and dexamethasone of 28% and 31%, respectively, while the average removal efficiencies by the wastewater treatment plant for these drugs were 39% and 56%, respectively. Hydroxychloroquine was not detected at any of the influent samples collected at either treatment plant.

“The virus concentrations, alone, couldn’t tell us whether we would see those medications; rather, it was really tied back to who was in the hospital and who was on ventilators,” said Preisendanz.

According to Preisendanz, although risk to aquatic organisms from remdesivir could not be calculated, as no research has yet been done to determine the concentrations that could pose a risk, dexamethasone was detected in quantities that could pose a low acute risk to fish.

Among the antibiotics tested, the team found that trimethoprim concentrations could pose a low-to-medium risk to aquatic life, while sulfamethoxazole could pose a high risk, specifically to algae, which is a food source for many organisms.

In addition, the team found that although acetaminophen and naproxen were present at concentrations much higher than all the other pharmaceuticals of interest, no correlations were observed between virus concentrations and influent concentrations of either drug, suggesting that they are not indicators of the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community. However, naproxen concentrations detected in effluent were at levels that could pose a low-to-medium risk to aquatic organisms.

“While the concentrations we calculated considered the individual risks that each drug could pose on aquatic life, these calculations do not account for the potential risks that could come from the synergistic effects of these drugs in a mixture, which could be much higher,” said Preisendanz. “Importantly, our study highlights the opportunity that wastewater surveillance provides to understand the effects of human health on water quality and ecological health.”

Emerging organic contaminant levels greatly influenced by stream flows, seasons
More information:

Kathryn R. Hayden et al, Impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on pharmaceuticals in wastewater treated for beneficial reuse: Two case studies in central Pennsylvania, Journal of Environmental Quality (2022). DOI: 10.1002/jeq2.20398

Provided by
Pennsylvania State University

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WASTEWATER 

ZIONIST ETHNIC CLEANSING

Israeli forces kill Palestinian teenager in occupied West Bank


By International Affairs

September 5, 2022

Taher Mohammad Zakarneh, 19, was shot by Israeli forces during a raid near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during a raid on the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin and its outskirts, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Taher Mohammad Zakarneh, 19, was killed on Monday in the village of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, after being shot in the head and legs.

Zakarneh was alive when he was taken to hospital in the morning, before succumbing to his injuries several hours later.

The Israeli raid on Jenin began at dawn and led to confrontations with Palestinians.

An Israeli army statement said its forces were conducting “counterterrorism activity” in Jenin and Qabatiya, and that “violent riots were instigated”.

“The rioters hurled rocks, explosive devices and Molotov cocktails at the forces and shots were heard in the area,” the statement said. “The soldiers responded with live fire, hits were identified.”

A funeral procession was held for Zakarneh in Qabatiya shortly after the killing.

[Translation: The martyrdom of the youth Taher Mohammad Zakarneh, 19 years old, after he was shot in the head by the [Israeli] occupation during a raid on Qabatiya, outside Jenin, this morning.]

The Israeli army said 17 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank overnight. Palestinian prisoner groups said that at least five had been arrested in Jenin.
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The Israeli army raids Palestinian towns and villages on a near-daily basis, often resulting in confrontations and the killing or wounding of Palestinian residents.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied territories since the start of the year, including 49 during the recent three-day Israeli assault on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Nineteen people have been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank in 2022.

On Sunday, six Israeli soldiers and a driver were injured after a bus they were travelling in was shot at by Palestinian fighters near Tubas, in the northern West Bank.

NO RIGHT TO PRIVACY

New rules make foreign visitors to West Bank declare romantic ties to Palestinians




By International Affairs

September 4, 2022

TEL AVIV — Foreign passport holders in the West Bank will be required to report their romantic relationships with Palestinians to Israeli authorities, according to new, hotly contested rules set to take effect on Monday.

Palestinian legal experts and human rights advocates say the move, which would also restrict Palestinians from visiting family members and sharply limit Palestinian academic exchanges with foreign universities, is an escalation of an already entrenched system of discrimination against Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967.

The 97-page Israeli ordinance detailing the new restrictions requires foreign passport holders, including, in some cases, American Palestinian dual citizens, in a romantic relationship with a Palestinian resident of the West Bank to “inform” Israeli security authorities “in writing (at a special e-mail address) within 30 days of the relationship’s start.”

“The ‘starting date of the relationship’ shall be considered the day of the engagement ceremony, of the wedding, or of the start of cohabitation — whichever occurs first,” it said.

The new restrictions — which also ask applicants to declare if they have land or are inheriting land in the West Bank — would not apply to the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The territory’s two-tiered legal structure treats Jewish Israelis as citizens living under civilian rule while Palestinians are treated as combatants under military rule, subject to nighttime military raids, detention and bans on visiting their ancestral lands or accessing certain roads.

Palestinian rights advocates condemned the updated, more stringent procedures on social media as another example of Israel stripping rights from Palestinians living under its 55-year occupation.

“One side of this is about control & isolation,” Salem Barahmeh, executive director of Rabet, the digital platform of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, wrote on Twitter Saturday. “The other is: if you can’t be together in Palestine then you will have [to] leave & to do so elsewhere. It’s about driving as many people as they can outside of Palestine to maintain supremacy.”

Fadi Quran, campaign director for activist group Avaaz, tweeted that the new rules signal that in the occupied West Bank, “love is dangerous.”

Foreigners visiting the West Bank already face intensive screening. One Palestinian woman, who lives in Germany and is married to a German man, said she worries that the rules will make it even more difficult for her and her husband — and their future children — to visit her relatives in the West Bank. The woman spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid calling the attention of Israeli authorities to her case.

After learning of the new rules, the woman decided to bring her new husband to the West Bank to meet her family in May, before they took effect.

Even then, she said, Jordanian authorities at the border crossing advised the couple not to cross together and to scrub any evidence of their relationship from their phones, since Israeli officials had been turning back foreign spouses of Palestinians.

The couple took off their wedding rings, unlinked their Airbnb booking and deleted their WhatsApp conversations and photos together. Her husband told border guards he was visiting the West Bank for tourism. Still, he faced intense questioning from the Israeli police.

A spokeswoman from COGAT, Israel’s military agency responsible for coordinating with the Palestinians on civilian matters, declined to comment on the new restrictions, but said that a new version of the regulations would likely be published on Sunday.

The ordinance describes the “purpose of the procedure” as a way to codify norms that have already been in place for years for foreign passport holders entering the occupied territory. The goal is to “define the levels of authority and the manner of processing for applications from foreigners who wish to enter the Judea and Samaria area through the international crossings, in accordance with policy and in coordination with the appropriate offices,” said the document, referring to the biblical name Israel uses for the West Bank.

Since first announced in February, implementation of the new restrictions has been delayed repeatedly by Israel’s High Court.

In June, HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization, along with 19 individuals, petitioned the High Court to halt the new rules, arguing that they set “extreme limitations on the duration of visas and visa extensions” that would impede foreigners’ ability to work or volunteer for Palestinian institutions for more than a few months, bar them from leaving the West Bank and returning during the visa period, and in some cases require people to remain abroad for a year after their visa expires before they can apply for another.

The rules would also “deny thousands of Palestinian families the ability to live together without interruption and lead a normal family life,” HaMoked said in a statement in June, as well as make it more difficult for foreign academics to work at Palestinian universities.

The new rules allow 100 professors and 150 students with foreign passports to stay in the West Bank — a substantial blow to Palestinian higher education institutions. They rely on academic collaborations and recruit hundreds of foreign passport-holding students every year. More than 350 European university students and staff studied or worked at Palestinian universities under the Erasmus program, an E.U. student exchange program, in 2020, up from just 51 five years earlier.

Mariya Gabriel, E.U. commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, suggested in July that the development could also harm Israel-Europe academic ties.

“With Israel itself benefitting greatly from Erasmus+, the Commission considers that it should facilitate and not hinder access of students to Palestinian universities,” Gabriel said. She added that E.U. officials have expressed their concerns to Israeli authorities “including at the highest levels.”

Sam Bahour, an American-Palestinian economist, cited Israel’s High Court rulings to delay the new rules’ implementation as proof of their illegitimacy.

He said he has been fielding daily phone calls from Palestinian emigres throughout the world worried that the new procedures could make future visits difficult or impossible. He said the new protocols would be so “absurd” that they would be “impossible to implement.”

But, he said, they have delivered a decades-old message from Israel to the Palestinians: “Stay away.”