Tag Archives: West bank

Fatah and Hamas leaders appear to be moving closer to setting up a unified list that will be the basis of a Palestinian coalition government, a draft agreement between the rival factions reveals. The agreement, seen by Arab News, was a key factor in the decision to hold elections — …

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday announced dates for the first Palestinian elections in more than 15 years, setting legislative polls for May 22 and a July 31 presidential vote. Abbas’s Fatah party, which controls the Palestinian Authority based in the occupied West Bank, and the Hamas group, who hold …

France on Tuesday condemned Israel’s plan to advance construction of 800 more Jewish settler homes in the occupied West Bank in a move to cement the projects shortly before pro-settlement U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office. In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry urged Israeli authorities to drop the plan. …

Amnesty International on Wednesday called on Israel to provide coronavirus vaccine doses to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, saying the Jewish state was obligated to do so under international law. The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, which is home to some 2.8 million Palestinians, has …

Israeli authorities have cleared police of any wrongdoing in the case of a nine-year-old boy who lost an eye after apparently being shot in the face by an Israeli officer earlier this year. Malik Eissa was struck by what appeared to be a sponge-tipped munition last February and lost vision …

Bahrain will not allow the import of Israeli goods produced in settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, state news agency BNA reported, disavowing comments made by the Gulf state’s trade minister earlier this week. Bahrain’s Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani had voiced openness to settlement imports, adding …

Jordan’s King Abdullah on Sunday met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and both leaders set high hopes that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will revive peace talks over a two-state solution to the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict, officials said. In a palace statement after meeting with Abbas in the Red Sea port …

Mike Pompeo on Thursday paid the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, in a parting show of solidarity with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the outgoing Trump administration. Palestinians accused Pompeo of helping Israel to cement its control over …

A Palestinian on Friday ended a 103-day hunger strike against being held without charge by Israel after being assured his detention would not be extended, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said. An Israeli security official confirmed that Maher Al-Akhras, 49, had ended his hunger strike and would be released …

Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups voiced concern on Tuesday over the condition of a Palestinian who began a hunger strike 79 days ago against his detention without charge by Israel. Maher Al-Akhras, 49, is now in an Israeli hospital suffering from heart pain and convulsions and has slipped occasionally …

A top Palestinian business executive said on Monday that new Gulf Arab ties with Israel, condemned by Palestinian leaders, could also be an opportunity to apply fresh pressure to halt Jewish settlement in occupied land. Bashar Masri, a Palestinian-American who runs two of the Palestinians’ largest holding companies, said the …

Two days ago Columbia College undergraduates voted overwhelmingly to divest from companies that profit from or engage in the State of Israel’s acts towards Palestinians under “apartheid” law. The university’s president Lee Bollinger promptly repudiated the vote saying it was a “complex” issue on which no campus consensus exists. Speaking to the …

The king of Bahrain reiterated the necessity of reaching a fair and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, based on the two state solution, in a call with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahrain’s state news agency BNA said on Friday. Bahrain joined the …

Palestinian leaders won renewed Saudi support for Palestinian statehood at a Wednesday meeting, but did not persuade the Arab League to condemn last month’s normalisation deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. At a video conference of foreign ministers, the Palestinian leadership softened its own censure of the UAE …

U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a Sept. 15 signing ceremony for a groundbreaking Middle East agreement normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, a senior White House official said on Tuesday. As part of the deal, announced at the White House on Aug. 13 following what officials …

Footage of an Israeli soldier throwing a Palestinian activist to the ground and kneeling on his neck has sparked outrage in the Palestinian territories and beyond. The protester, named as Khairi Hanoun, a man in his late 60s, took part in demonstrations on Tuesday near Tulkarm, in the north of …

Top aides to U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fly to the United Arab Emirates on Monday to put final touches on a pact establishing open relations between the Gulf power and Israel. Even before discussions start in Abu Dhabi, the delegates will have made aviation …

Israel talked of “history” and Palestinians of “betrayal” after Thursday’s surprise announcement of a deal to normalise relations between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates. In a nationwide televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal would lead to “full and formal peace” with the Gulf …

Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced on Thursday that they will normalise diplomatic ties and forge a broad new relationship, a move that reshapes the order of Middle East politics from the Palestinian issue to the fight against Iran. Under the accord, which U.S. President Donald Trump helped broker, …

Jordan’s King Abdullah warned on Monday that any unilateral Israeli moves to annex territory in the occupied West Bank would fuel instability and dim hopes of a final settlement of the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict. The monarch told British lawmakers the only path to a comprehensive and lasting Middle East peace …

A U.N. rights investigator urged the European Union on Friday to consider measures to prevent or punish any Israeli annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, a few days after over 1,000 European lawmakers made a similar call. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added his voice to the matter …

Israel cannot expect to normalise relations with the Arab world if it annexes land in the occupied West Bank, a United Arab Emirates envoy wrote in Israel’s top newspaper on Friday. Some Israeli officials have dismissed the notion that applying sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the …

Israel must face consequences if it annexes land in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Tuesday, pointing to possible European sanctions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to extend sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, territory Israel took …

Israel’s intention to annex parts of the occupied West Bank is being challenged by Jewish settlers who might have been expected to cheer the plan promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under a U.S. peace blueprint. A month before the proposed expansion of Israeli jurisdiction is due to be discussed …

Half of Israelis support annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, although they are divided over whether to take the step without U.S. support, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday. Some 25 percent of Israelis surveyed by the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank said they want their government to apply sovereignty …

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said on Monday he ordered the military to step up preparations for Israel’s pending annexation of parts of the West Bank, a plan that could stoke Palestinian violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to begin cabinet discussions on July 1 on extending Israeli sovereignty …

By James M. Dorsey   Israel knew the drill even before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo boarded his flight to Tel Aviv earlier this month four days after the death of his father. It was Mr. Pompeo’s first and only overseas trip since March. Echoing a US warning two …

The Palestinians have suspended contacts with the CIA after announcing an end to security coordination with Israel and the United States in protest at Israeli proposals to annex territory in the West Bank, a Palestinian official said on Thursday. Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Washington …

Palestinian leaders on Friday vowed to defy a new Israeli military order which they fear could lead to the confiscation of money destined for prisoners, their relatives and the families of those killed in unrest. Israel has long sought to end the payments, made by the Palestinian Authority to around …

By Nasser Nasser   We are witnessing the “annexation of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley” fever and the left in Israel is running to catch up to Israel. This is the meaning of what one of Israel’s senior investigative journalist, Raviv Drucker, revealed in Haaretz yesterday, January 13th, …

The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements said in his latest weekly report , stated in the fifteen anniversary of the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice -ICJ in the Hague on July 9th, 2004 regarding the Israeli separation wall in which the Court affirmed that …

The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements said in his latest weekly report , that  the former Mayor of the Israeli Occupation Municipality in Jerusalem, Nir Barkat presented an economic plan similar to the one offered by US President Donald Trump ahead of the economic summit in Bahrain, …

The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements said in his latest weekly report , that the Israeli occupation government proceeds with its settlement plans in the West Bank and works day and night to seize more lands. The percentage of confiscated land has increased to a high degree …

The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements said in his latest weekly report , that the Israeli ignores of the international law and international legitimacy resolutions through annexing more occupied Arab territories, as the US President Trump’s Adviser, Jared Kouchner on Thursday handed over a new map to …

Nearly 1,000 people attended the launch of the annual Palestine Cinema Days festival at the Cultural Palace in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday. The 5th edition of the festival is screening in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nablus and Gaza between 17-23 October with more than 60 films …

A Palestinian attacker opened fire inside a joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial zone in the West Bank on Sunday, killing two Israelis and seriously wounding a third, the military said. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the preliminary finding is that a 23-year-old from a nearby village carried out a “terror …

A Palestinian fatally stabbed an American-born Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank on Sunday then was himself shot and seized by armed civilians who gave chase. The victim, Ari Fuld, 45, was well-known amongst settlers as a pro-Israel advocate. According to his Twitter account, he had planned a lecture …

The National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlement stated that the Israeli Central Court’s resolution on keeping hundreds of settlement units in the occupied West Bank under an Israeli judicial procedure called “market regulations,” is a dangerous precedent that retroactively paves the way for the renewal of building …

Asharq Al-Awsat reports on a developing US Mideast peace plan that recognizes east Jerusalem as Palestinian capital, no right of return, limited demilitarized sovereignty, billions in aid, Jordan Valley remaining in Israeli hands; Europeans offer arbitration assistance but unwilling to replace US. The US peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian …

International condemnation of the settlement activities in the occupied West including Jerusalem, as the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Arad ratified the Israeli government’s reduction of the requirements for obtaining arm licenses, especially, settlers as well as allowing the young settlers belonging to terrorist hilltop and pay the price gangs …

US President Donald Trump has ordered more than $200m (£155m) in economic aid which was to be allocated to Gaza and the West Bank be redirected elsewhere. A State Department official said the decision was made after a review “to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with US national …

Israeli military forces have reportedly arrested a reporter for the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) in the central part of the West Bank, as the Tel Aviv regime is pressing ahead with a heavy-handed crackdown on members of the press in the occupied Palestinian territories. The PBC announced in a statement that …

At the beginning of the year 2018, the Knesset approved a law of annexing academic institutions in the settlements constructed West Bank e.g. Ariel University and the 2 Education faculties in the Akena and Alon Shvut settlements to the Israeli Higher Education Council, knowing that the above mentioned law is …

By: Madeeha Araj     Israel continues to flagrantly disrespect the International Law and the resolutions of international legitimacy, and insists on the policy of ethnic cleansing and displacement in the West Bank, especially in Jerusalem and its surroundings to serve its settlement project. Thus, international and legal organizations are reacting …