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Ayman Odeh: Pence ‘Dangerous and Messianic,’ Dedicated to ‘Destruction.’

US vice-president Mike Pence. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The head of Israel’s Arab coalition party has vowed to boycott the flash visit by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, expected to arrive in Israel on Sunday evening.

“We were asked if there’s a change in our position regarding Pence’s visit,” Joint Arab List chairman, lawmaker Ayman Odeh, wrote on Twitter. “He is a dangerous man with a messianic vision that includes the destruction of the entire region.

“He comes here as the emissary of a man who is even more dangerous,” Odeh wrote in reference to U.S. President Trump, who he called a “a political pyromaniac, a racist misogynist who cannot be allowed to be lead the way in our region.

“The entire Joint List will boycott his speech in the plenum,” Odeh wrote regarding Pence’s planned speech on Monday in the Knesset.

Ahmed Tibi, another lawmaker from the party, said they were boycotting Pence because “Trump’s speech on Jerusalem and Pence’s own positions, as Pence is one of those pushing for the U.S. to relocate the embassy [to Jerusalem] and because of his outrageous claim that they have taken Jerusalem off the table. This administration is part of the problem, not the solution.”

Pence embarked Saturday on a trip to the Middle East, despite a U.S. government shutdown. His spokeswoman explained that that Pence’s meetings with Egypt, Jordan and Israel are “integral to America’s national security and diplomatic objectives.”

Pence was originally supposed to arrive to the area in December, but the White House delayed his visit by a month as a result of the vote in Congress over the Republican tax plan.

Over the last few days, rumors circulated that his trip might again be delayed once again because of the internal political crisis in Washington that led to the government shutdown on Saturday, but the White House made it clear that the trip would not be postponed.

(Haaretz, PC, Social Media)

8:21 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

BDS Slams Bollywood for Embracing Israel

A selfie bringing together a few Indian film actors and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accused of committing war crimes against Palestinians. (Photo: via Twitter)

Pro-Palestinian activists with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Campaign, BDS, in South Asia joined progressive commentators in slamming the Israeli prime minister over his visit to India and his charm offensive at the country’s film industry in an attempt to brush off his country’s abuses against the Palestinians.

Apoorva Gautam, who heads the pro-Palestine BDS movement in South Asia, said Israel’s appeal to Bollywood is a symptom of a bigger “ideological shift” in the country since the election of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.

“These initiatives are ultimately part of a wider move by the Israelis to improve its image globally, as it continues to perpetrate war crimes against the Palestinians,” Gautam told Middle East Eye Friday. “The Israelis’ attention has now shifted to Bollywood, as the BDS movement gains traction in America and Europe.”

His comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a selfie on his Twitter account which showed him with multiple Bollywood figures, including legendary movie star Amitabh Bachchan. The picture was taken during an event called “Shalom Bollywood”, a high-profile outreach program sponsored by the Israeli government to improve its image in the region.

Progressive figures in media and film industries rebuked Bollywood for its embrace of the right-wing prime minister and his government, reminding them of his government’s abuses.

“You are a fascist, racist, child-murdering war criminal. Your place in history is with the despots and dictators,” Muslim British activist and director said in a tweet Friday in response to Netanyahu’s selfie tweet.

“These Bollywood actors, @SrBachchan @juniorbachchan @rajcheerfull @vivek_oberoi should be all be ashamed of themselves.” The controversial selfie included another notable Bollywood figure, Imtiaz Ali who directed the Bollywood film “Drive”, funded by the Israeli Ministry for Tourism, and filmed in Israel.

Gautam of the regional BDS arm expressed disappointment that Bollywood is falling for Israel’s “cultural propaganda” as the country loses ground in Hollywood where “more and more actors and industry leaders are coming out against Israel and subverting this perception” of it being “a free country that was democratic,” he told the Middle East Eye.

Israel and India have seen a warming in relations under the Modi government. He became the country’s first prime minister to visit Israel in 2017. Tel Aviv also reached an arms deal with India worth US$630 million last year.

Several agreements are expected to be signed as part of Netanyahu’s six-day visit to India where he is touring several cities around the country with his family.

The prime minister’s visit was also met with protests by Muslims in India’s eastern city Kolkata Thursday, rejecting the way their government is happily welcoming him.

“We oppose the way in which Israeli Prime Minister was given a grand welcome in our country,” Kamaru Jaman, president of the All Bengal Minority Youth Federation, told Reuters. “We demand that we should not have any relations with the Israeli President or the Prime Minister. Whatever relations were there relating to business purpose should also be ended.”

(teleSUR, PC, Social Media)

8:32 pm | Posted in Articles | Blog | Features | News | Read More »

Palestinian Prisoner Dies from Medical Neglect

Due to medical negligence, Palestinian prisoner from West Bank passed away on Saturday morning inside an Israeli prison.

Palestinian sources identified the Palestinian prisoner as Hussein Atalla from the West Bank city of Nablus. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The Palestinian prisoner suffered cancer and received inadequate care in prison.

Like other patients, inmates in the same prison said, the Israeli occupation did not offer him proper medical care intentionally.

Rights groups say that there are more than 6,500 Palestinian prisoners inside the Israeli jails, including at least 400 patients, who do not receive proper healthcare.

According to Palestinian prisoners rights group Addameer, as of December, there were 6,171 Palestinians being held in Israeli prison, 479 of whom were serving a sentence longer than 20 years.

(Ma’an, PC, Social Media)

3:44 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

US Will Further Slash UNRWA Aid by Another $45 Million (VIDEO)

Food aid distributed by the UN Palestinian refugees agency, UNRWA in the besieged Gaza Strip. (Photo: Social Media)

Time Magazine reported that the US State Department is further slashing its aid package to UNRWA by another $45 million.

This announcement comes just days after the US was harshly criticized by world governments and organizations for cutting its aid to UNRWA by $65 million per year.

UNRWA provides relief, education and food aid to more than 7 million Palestinian refugees.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement slamming the US move, which they said would directly jeopardize the health and well-being of millions of refugees. They further criticized the US for harming a vulnerable population to punish the Palestinian leadership.

UNRWA was established in 1949 after the establishment of the State of Israel, which led to the displacement of millions of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland. The United States and European countries provide the bulk of UNRWA’s budget.

(PC, Social Media)

3:03 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

Iconic Irish Leader Gerry Adams Calls for Declaration of State of Palestine (VIDEO)

Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams at the Apartheid Wall in Palestine. (Photo: Social Media)

Long-time supporter of Palestine, and president of the Sinn Féin party in Ireland, Gerry Adams called the International Community once again to recognize a Palestinian State. He called on his own government to upgrade the status of the Palestinian mission in Ireland to full ambassadorial status.

Adams was extremely critical of the US role in the region and Trumps intentions to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

He also called on his own government and the international community to be more active in pressuring Israel to release the hundreds of Palestinian children currently in Israeli prisons.

Adams has visited Palestine on many occasions where he has met with local community leaders, placed a wreath on the grave of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and in recent years has met with leaders of the Hamas movement.

Adams has been an proponent for Palestinian rights for decades and in recent years has been barred by the Israelis from visiting the Gaza Strip. During that time, he likened the Israeli siege and separation wall to Apartheid.

His political party, Sinn Féin strongly supports the Palestinian cause and has organized demonstrations against earlier wars in Gaza.

(PC, Social Media)

2:39 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Videos | Read More »

PLO Calls on EU to Take Effective Political Steps to Salvage Peace (VIDEO)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a joint press conference with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, Brussels, Belgium. (Photo: Anadolu Agency via MEMO)

Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat Thursday called on the European Union (EU) to take effective political steps to save peace in the region.

This came during a meeting with representatives of the EU countries at the PLO’s headquarters in Ramallah, in which he briefed them on the latest political developments and the outcomes of the PLO’s Central Council meeting.

He called on the EU to protect the principles and the human rights’ system that it has built over the years, by translating and embodying its firm position on the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders and recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of a recognized State of Palestine.

Erekat reiterated the PLO’s position that the United States’ has lost eligibility to play the role of peace broker after its illegal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the occupying Power, and praised the position of the EU in the Security Council and the General Assembly against US President Donald Trump’s decision.

He said: “The US administration’s rejection of international law constitutes a threat to the international system as a whole, and would drag the region and the world into an endless wave of wars and international chaos. Its decision to cut aid to UNRWA will contribute to increasing despair and extremism. Funding UNRWA is a collective international responsibility and the solution can only be achieved through law and international community.”

Erekat called on the EU to support UNRWA and bridge the gap created by the US in its budget for the refugees’ issue.

(Wafa, PC, Social Media)

1:55 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Videos | Read More »

Israel Apologizes for Deadly Embassy Shooting in Amman

Two Jordanian nationals were killed by the Israeli embassy officer at the time. (Photo via social media)

Israel has formally apologized for the fatal shooting of two Jordanian citizens by an Israeli embassy guard in Amman last year, Jordan’s foreign ministry said.

The guard, identified as “Ziv”, shot two Jordanians in a residential building in the heavily fortified Israeli embassy compound in Jordan’s capital in July 2017.

The two victims were 17-year-old Jordanian Mohammed al-Jawawdeh, and Bashar Hamarneh, the owner of a property rented out to the Israeli embassy in Amman.

Mohammed was supposed to deliver and install a bedroom set at the embassy residence that had been ordered by the Israeli embassy through Hamarneh.

The Israeli government has pledged to follow up on legal proceedings and compensate the victims’ families, Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Full operations at the embassy will resume immediately, a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed.

“Israel attaches great importance to its strategic relations with Jordan, and the two countries will act to advance their cooperation and to strengthen the peace treaty between them,” the statement on Thursday read.

In its letter to Jordan, Israel also offered an apology for the death of a Jordanian judge, Raed Zeiter, in 2014.

Zeiter was shot by Israeli soldiers at a West Bank border crossing.

Tensions between the two countries rose last summer after Israel installed metal detectors around the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Thousands of Jordanians took to the streets of Amman to denounce the Israeli measures at the al-Haram al-Sharif. The incident at the embassy came amid the tensions in Jerusalem.

Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. It called an urgent meeting for Arab foreign ministers to discuss the situation.

(Aljazeera, PC, Social Media)

1:46 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

OCHA Says Reduction in Humanitarian Aid to UNRWA Worrying

Children in Gaza pose with the flag of UNRWA. (Photo: Days of Palestine)

The significant reduction in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is worrying against the backdrop of an overall decline in humanitarian funding in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) in recent years, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for the oPt said on Wednesday.

The United States announced this week that it has cut $65 million of its $125 million January installment to UNRWA, which was seen as a punishment to the Palestinian Authority for not accepting its dictates on negotiations with Israel.

“I am deeply concerned about the significant reduction in funding for UNRWA, which is critical to the provision of humanitarian assistance in the occupied Palestinian territory. Some 2.5 million Palestinians in this area, or about half of the population, need humanitarian aid, including 1.4 million Palestine refugees, who are among the most vulnerable groups in the oPt,” Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the oPt, Roberto Valent, said in a statement.

He said some 53 percent of the funding requirements for humanitarian interventions in the oPt for 2018 are for UNRWA activities, in the areas of health, food security, shelter, water and sanitation, and education among others; $286.7 million out of $539.7 million.

“It is crucial that decisions related to humanitarian financing be guided by the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, in order to ensure that the essential needs of the most vulnerable are met. Member states are encouraged to increase funding towards meeting humanitarian needs of Palestine refugees in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip at this critical juncture,” said Valent.

(Wafa, PC, Social Media)

12:52 am | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

Israeli Soldiers Call for ‘Revenge Unit’ against Palestinians

Israeli soldiers apprehend a Palestinian boy in the Occupied West Bank for allegedly throwing stones. (Photo: File)

Israeli military police have uncovered a recruitment drive for soldiers to join a unit devoted to acts of revenge against Palestinians, following the death of a settler last week, the Jerusalem Post reported yesterday.

Police found flyers with the Israeli army logo at a military base on Tuesday, with a header reading “Secret and classified,” and its title stating “Notice about the establishment of a special unit for payback actions.”

“In response to the terrible murder which happened in Havat Gilad, and in revenge for the spilling of the blood of the martyr Rabbi Raziel Shevach, may God avenge his blood, a pay-back actions unit is being restarted to restore national honor,” the flyer read, advocating for its volunteers to attack Palestinians.

“With strength and power we will fight, we will strike hard, we will strike hard and we will win.”

A contact number was provided for more information, but the leaflet advised volunteers not to make contact through official army channels.

The Israeli military has reportedly launched an investigation and a soldier has been arrested on suspicion of having produced the leaflet and distributing it on a military base.

In the aftermath of the death of settler leader Rabbi Meir Goldmintz, several Israeli ministers also called for retribution for the attack, but in the form of settlement construction.

“We must make clear that every murder will be met with immediate [settlement] construction. Regulating [the status of] Havat Gilad and building there is the most painful price Israel can exact to deter terrorists from undertaking the next attack,” Education Minister Naftali Bennett said.

Following the shooting, Israeli occupation forces carried out raids in several Palestinian villages in the Nablus region and imposed blanket movement restrictions on residents, preventing them from entering of exiting local areas.

Last night, at least one Palestinian was killed in a raid by Israeli soldiers on the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. A Palestinian health ministry official identified the man killed as Ahmed Jarrar, a member of Hamas, whom Israeli claims committed the attack.

(MEMO, PC, Social Media)

8:24 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

Israel Prevents Restoration Works at Al-Aqsa

Jewish settlers perform religious Jewish rituals at Al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy army security. (Photo: PIC)

The Israeli authorities have prevented official workers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque from undertaking any restoration work inside the mosque compound, a Palestinian official revealed yesterday.

“Israeli police forced their way into the office of the Al-Aqsa reconstruction committee and warned engineers against carrying out any mosaic work or restoring the Dome of the Rock’s wooden ceiling,” the spokesperson of Jerusalem’s Religious Endowments (Awqaf) Authority, Firas Al-Dib, said.

“Police have also prohibited any reconstitution work in the Al-Qibli and Marwani mosques [both of which are located in the Al-Aqsa compound],” Al-Dib added.

“They even threatened the reconstruction director with detention if any additional work was carried out,” he noted.

Late yesterday, the Israeli move was condemned by the Jordanian government.

Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is considered the world’s third holiest site for all the Muslims. On the other hand, Jews refer to the area as the “Temple Mount”, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

The city of Jerusalem, in which Al-Aqsa is located, remains at the heart of the Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem – currently occupied by Israel – might one day serve as the capital of the Palestinian state.

(MEMO, PC, Social Media)

4:55 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »
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