Palestine

By Mohamed Mohamed November 2, 1917 marks an infamous chapter of Palestinian history, when the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued a statement declaring British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Coming from the most powerful empire of the time, the Balfour Declaration provided a major endorsement and propaganda …

Eight people were killed when the Israeli military struck a tunnel leading into Israel from Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. The Israeli Army said earlier it had “neutralized a terror tunnel” leading into southern Israel from Khan Younis in the south of Gaza. Israeli Army …

President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian government mourned on Saturday dozens of Egyptian policemen killed on Friday during a raid at a base for terrorists in the Egyptian desert. Abbas expressed strong support for Egypt in its battle against “blind extremist terrorism aimed at Egypt, its security, stability and its …

Beleaguered Gazans exulted at seeing the two main Palestinian factions take an important step toward reconciliation on Monday, as the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister arrived to take the reins of their impoverished territory’s government. If the effort succeeds, the Palestinians could have a unified leadership for the first time in …

A decade on, Rawda al-Zaanoun is at last willing to forgive the gunmen who killed her son during the civil war that split Palestine. It has been painful, but she says it is time. ”He was hit with a bullet in the back. He was a martyr,“ the 54-year-old said …

By Lamis Beshara –World leaders gathered at the 72nd meeting of the UN Nation’s General Assembly, not to denounce the violence and barbarity driving the world today but rather to confirm their choices for war by maintaining and reiterating same stances against each other’s without any hope for change, as …

The UN Human Rights Commissioner, Zeid bin Ra’ad Al Hussein, sent a letter two weeks ago to 150 companies around the world, warning them that they are to be added to a database of companies doing business in Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian occupied territories since 1967 in the West …

Three Israelis have been shot dead by a Palestinian at the entrance to a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, Israeli police say. The gunman, a 37-year-old from a nearby village, was also shot and died later. Police say he pulled out a gun as he waited to enter …

Israel is seeking to thwart the Palestinian Authority’s latest bid to join the international law enforcement body Interpol over concerns it would leak sensitive information to Palestinian terror groups. Interpol’s General Assembly will convene for its annual meeting in China on Tuesday, where the international policing organization will vote on …

A Chicago Palestinian activist with a decades-old record of bombings in Jerusalem will be deported to Jordan on Tuesday, her spokesman said. Supporters and community activists plan to gather at O’Hare International Airport before Rasmea Odeh, 70, departs for Jordan, said Hatem Abudayyeh, coordinator of her defense committee. Odeh pleaded …

By Dr. Swee Chai Ang This September will be the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Sabra-Shatila Massacre in West Beirut. Three thousand unarmed refugees were killed from 15-18 September 1982. I was then a young orthopedic trainee who had resigned from St Thomas Hospital to join the Christian Aid Lebanon medical …

US President Donald Trump will reportedly meet Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later this month. According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, a senior White House official said Trump intended to meet “a long list of world leaders on a wide …

Palestinian security forces arrested human rights defender and well-known Palestinian activist Issa Amro in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday. The arrest was reportedly related to a Facebook post published by Amro, in which he criticized the Palestinian Authority for arresting a journalist a day earlier. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud …

Palestine has picked Annemarie Jacir’s Wajib as its official contender for the 2018 Oscars in the foreign-language category. The film, which premiered in Locarno’s official competition, where it won three independent prizes, pairs father and son Mohammad Bakri and Saleh Bakri for the first time, teaming the celebrated Palestinian actors …

Hamas and Iran have patched up relations, the Palestinian militant group’s new leader in Gaza said on Monday, and Tehran is again its biggest backer after years of tension over the civil war in Syria. “Relations with Iran are excellent and Iran is the largest supporter of the Izz el-Deen …

A 19-year old woman has been jailed by the Israeli authorities for refusing to be conscripted into the Israel Defence Force. Noa Gur Golan is currently being held in a military prison near Haifa, having been detained for more than 30 days. She is being held in a room with …

Al-Jazeera has denounced Israel’s decision to close the Jerusalem bureau of Qatar’s flagship satellite network, saying that the measure is “undemocratic” and that it will take legal action. Israel’s move follows in the footsteps of four Arab countries that are aligned against Qatar as part of a months-long political dispute …

An attack has taken place at the Israeli embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman, with casualties reported. A BBC reporter at the scene says the immediate vicinity has been locked down but authorities have not released details. Media reports citing security sources say one Jordanian was killed and one Israeli …

Israel has placed CCTV cameras near an entrance to a holy site in Jerusalem as tensions over security measures there continue. Metal detectors installed after two Israeli policemen were killed have sparked protests by Palestinians. It remains unclear if the metal detectors will be removed. Tensions over the site, known …

Three Palestinians have been killed during clashes with Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say. Hundreds were injured in the violence, after days of friction over a Jerusalem holy site boiled over. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he was freezing all contacts with …

Israeli police besieged Makased hospital in East Jerusalem on Tuesday seeking to arrest a Palestinian shot and seriously injured by police the night before in Silwan neighborhood, according to hospital sources. They said a large force has besieged the hospital since the morning with some police officers entering the wards …

Israeli forces have attacked Palestinians staging a sit-in outside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in protest at Tel Aviv’s recent restrictive measures around the holy Muslim site. According to Quds News Network, the Israeli troops on Tuesday clashed with the sit-inners outside the Lions Gate, a main entrance to …

Ramallah, Amman- US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, announced on Thursday a tripartite agreement over a water deal between Israel, Palestine and Jordan. The deal guarantees the accession of Palestine to the “Red-Dead Water Project”, which has been negotiated for many years. “The United States welcomes the …

Three gunmen opened fire at police near Jerusalem’s holiest site on Friday, wounding three Israelis, two of them critically, before the attackers were killed by security forces, Israeli police said. The gunmen arrived at the sacred site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, …

Israel and India have signed a series of agreements to cooperate in the fields of technology, water and agriculture. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday the cooperation marks a “match made in heaven” as he stood alongside the visiting prime minister of India, Narendra Modi. The agreements are the centerpiece …

Israeli authorities said on Saturday they had found no evidence of Islamic State involvement in attacks by three Palestinians that killed an Israeli policewoman, despite the group’s claim of responsibility. Palestinian militant factions also denied Islamic State was involved in the attacks in Jerusalem on Friday, in which a second …

By Jeff Mason | BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK for REUTERS — U.S. President Donald Trump talked up the prospects of peace between Israelis and Palestinians on Tuesday, saying he believed both sides were committed to an historic deal, but he offered no concrete proposals on how to get there. After an hour …

A map of Israel on a video the White House produced about US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit shows the country without the West Bank (where Israel does not claim sovereignty) or the Golan Heights (where it has extended Israeli law). The short clip, which is meant to promote the …

The Levant News — People across the world are commemorating the Nakba Day which marks the anniversary of the forcible eviction of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland by Israelis in 1948. The Day of Catastrophe is officially marked every year on May 15, but the occasion this year coincides …

The Levant News — President Donald Trump is trying to determine how keeping his promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem could affect his hopes of brokering a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians, his secretary of state said on Sunday. Since taking office in …

The Levant News — Hamas has presented a new political document that accepts the formation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, without recognising the statehood of Israel, and says that the conflict in Palestine is not a religious one. The positions were made official on Monday in Qatar’s …

  THE LEVANT NEWS EXCLUSIVE – By Jasmi Rasheed — Palestinian sources told The Levant News that the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is scheduled to meet the US President Donald Trump on 3 May 2017. Abbas will insist on the right of the Palestinian people to reward its …

An Israeli court on Sunday sentenced a Palestinian-Israeli former MP to two years in jail after he pleaded guilty to smuggling mobile phones to Palestinian prisoners, a court transcript showed. Basel Ghattas, of the Arab-dominated Joint List, resigned his seat in the Israeli parliament as part of a plea bargain reached last …

By Ruth Eglash for the Washington Post — If being an apartheid state means committing inhumane acts, systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over another, then Israel is guilty, a United Nations panel has determined in a new report. The findings from an Arab-led group were not cleared …

The Levant News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he would honor his commitment to build a new settlement in the occupied West Bank, the first in two decades. The Israeli leader made the remarks hours before meeting with Jason Greenblatt, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East …

The Levant News — The Israeli Foreign Ministry has called the South African ambassador to Israel to be officially reprimanded following statements made by two senior officials in the government accusing Israel of practicing an apartheid system, and describing the neutralized Palestinian terrorist killed by Elor Azaria as a helpless …

US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday discussed reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations during her first meeting with the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations. Haley tweeted after her talks with Ambassador Riyad Mansour that the Palestinians should “meet with Israel in direct negotiations rather than looking to the UN to deliver …

By Jasmin Rasheed — Following the visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington, his plan to enact the apartheid policy and liquidate the two state solution was uncovered. According to Palestinian sources, the plan of the Occupation Government is aimed at countering UNSC resolution 2334. This resolution clearly states that …

By John Irish and Lesley Wroughton, Reuters – Some 70 countries on Sunday reaffirmed that only a two-state solution could resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned they would not recognize any unilateral steps by either side that could prejudge negotiations. The final communique of a one-day international Middle East peace …

By Jasmin Rasheed — Palestinian reliable sources revealed that Mousa Abu Marzook, member of the Hamas Political Bureau, met the representatives of Mohammad Dahlan to discuss future moves against Abu Mazen. According to these sources, a week ago, Abu Marzook met in Cairo two close associates of Mohammad Dahlan – …

The Levant News – By Jasmin Rasheed — According to Palestinian sources, despite an improvement in relations with Hamas, and Rafah Crossing being open more frequently, the Egyptian authorities consistently continue their activity against visitors from the Gaza Strip suspected of links to terror. On 10-12 December, Rafah Crossing was …

The Levant News — In an unusual move, and after years of neglect, American and European delegations and development agencies have recently been visiting East Jerusalem and showing an increased interest in “doing something” about its deteriorating socioeconomic conditions. Moreover, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is, after a prolonged silence, working …

By JIMMY CARTER for the NY Times — We do not yet know the policy of the next administration toward Israel and Palestine, but we do know the policy of this administration. It has been President Obama’s aim to support a negotiated end to the conflict based on two states, …

The Levant News – By Jasmin Rasheed — Palestinian sources spoke out against the Gaza Strip leadership for focusing on internal politics and ignoring the deteriorating economy. The sources state that senior Hamas officials are engrossed in the internal elections, and Ismail Haniyeh, deputy head of Hamas’s Political Bureau, has …