A United Nations rights expert issued a blistering criticism of Israel’s policies on Monday, deepening a row over alleged anti-Israel bias within the UN following US pressure. In a report, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Michael Lynk, charged Israel with “the subjugation of humanity” and intensifying a crackdown on human rights campaigners.

The Foreign Secretary and the Israeli prime minister discussed the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict during the talks. Mr Johnson also used the visit to Israel to seek to boost trade as part of the Government’s drive to build international links ahead of Brexit.

Thank you for reading 10 free articles on Fredericksburg.com. You can come back at the end of your 30-day period for another 10 free articles, or you can purchase a subscription and continue to enjoy valuable local news and information.

An Israeli newspaper is reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered the country’s opposition leader a unity government late last year that would promote a regional peace initiative – before backing out. Haaretz reports Sunday that Netanyahu sent a document to Isaac Herzog detailing a willingness to make compromises for the creation of a Palestinian state and to rein in West Bank Jewish settlement construction.

The Bethlehem hotel with the “worst view in the world” just got a million-dollar upgrade in the form of several wall murals by elusive British street artist Banksy. The artwork was unveiled Friday at “The Walled Off Hotel,” a nine-room Palestinian guesthouse in the West Bank dubbed the “hotel with the worst view in the world.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is reviewing its participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, seeking reform of its agenda and an end to its “obsession with Israel”, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. Washington has long argued that the Geneva forum unfairly focuses on Israel’s alleged violations of human rights, including war crimes against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces are demolishing nine homes in the heart of the West Bank settlement of Ofra after the Supreme Court ruled they were built on private Palestinian land. Netzach Brodt watched as his house was destroyed and said, “We are extremely disappointed and broken that this house is being torn down.”

Israeli forces began evacuating nine homes in the West Bank settlement of Ofra on Tuesday, following a Supreme Court decision that ruled they were built on private Palestinian land. Dozens of settlers and their supporters were protesting on the rooftops as military and police forces handed the evacuation orders to settler leaders and asked them to cooperate peacefully and avoid confrontation.

Palestinian Authority leader Rami Hamdallah on Sunday sent a threatening message to Hamas, stating that if the movement does not agree to hold the local elections on the date determined, there will be no choice but to postpone the election in Gaza and hold them only in the PA-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria. Hamdallah gave Hamas an additional week to provide its final answer regarding the local elections, adding that the PA government in Ramallah will formulate its position based on this answer.

Palestinians take part in a protest following the sentencing of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, in the West Bank City of Hebron February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Australia’s opposition leader Bill Shorten says he raised his Labor Party’s concerns about Israel’s settlements in Palestinian territories during discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The pair talked for almost an hour in Sydney on Friday, the third day of the first Australian visit by a serving Israeli prime minister.

Netanyahu will start his four-day visit with talks with his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull at his official Sydney address. Turnbull wrote an opinion piece in Wednesday’s The Australian newspaper that backed Netanyahu’s criticism in 2015 that the United Nations General Assembly had adopted 20 resolutions critical of Israel in the preceding year and only one in response to the Syrian war.

An Israeli military court on Tuesday sentenced a soldier to 18 months in prison for his deadly shooting of a Palestinian attacker who lay wounded on the ground, capping a nearly year-long saga that has deeply divided the country. The sentence, which included a year’s probation and a demotion in rank, was lighter than expected.

President Trump should not be swayed by Netanyahu’s duplicitous argument, however convincing it might sound, that he is committed to a two-state solution when in fact he has opposed and will continue to reject in principle the creation of an independent Palestinian state under any circumstances. Netanyahu’s repeated assertions that he is ready to negotiate with the Palestinians unconditionally is hollow because he knows that President Abbas will not enter into negotiations unless Israel suspends the continuing expansion of settlements and the creeping annexation of Palestinian land, which prevents the Palestinians from establishing their own viable state.