Category Archives: Israel

DeSantis to meet UK foreign secretary with eye on US presidential bid

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Florida governor lines up four-nation tour in attempt to boost credentials as credible leader on world stage

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, is to meet the UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, in London at the end of the month as he attempts to burnish his credentials as a credible Republican leader capable of operating on a global stage ahead of a widely expected run for US president.

He is to lead a Florida trade delegation on a four-nation tour taking in Japan, South Korea, Israel and the UK.

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Israel: self-proclaimed ‘racist’ politician nominated as New York consul general

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May Golan has insulted Africans in Israel and disparaged the Reform movement, the largest Jewish denomination in the US

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has nominated a far-right politician who once boasted that she is “proud to be a racist” as his country’s top diplomat in New York.

The appointment of May Golan was swiftly denounced by Israeli and American former diplomats, and the head of the largest Jewish denomination in the US, as an affront to the US and damaging for Israel.

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China ready to broker Israel-Palestine peace talks, says foreign minister

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China is positioning itself as a regional mediator after brokering the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia

China’s foreign minister told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks, state media reported.

The separate phone calls between Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang, and the Israeli and Palestinian top diplomats comes amid recent moves by Beijing to position itself as a regional mediator.

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Protests show depth of mistrust in Israeli government, says Rothman

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Architect of Israel’s judicial changes doubles down for next round of legislative battle when Knesset reconvenes in May

The vicious fight in Israel over the government’s proposed judicial changes “transcends issues of left and right, and comes down to public distrust in government”, one of the architects of the plans has said, acknowledging that there is room for compromise going forward.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, returned to office in December at the helm of a coalition of conservative and religious parties that make up the most rightwing government in the country’s history. The new administration’s most pressing item on its agenda proposed what it called “judicial reform” to limit the supreme court’s ability to overturn laws and to give politicians more control over the appointment of justices.

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Hungary and Poland provide model for Israel’s assault on judiciary

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions remind many of first steps taken by ‘illiberal’ governments in Budapest and Warsaw

At the height of the protests in Israel over Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned judicial changes early last month, a Polish minister gave a revealing radio interview in Warsaw.

“Of course, we are talking with Israel, and to some extent we shared our experiences in this regard,” said the deputy foreign minister, Paweł Jabłoński, when asked for his views on the proposed Israeli laws.

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Access to Orthodox Easter ceremony in Jerusalem limited over security concerns

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Holy Fire rite has traditionally attracted about 10,000 Christian worshippers but numbers have been limited in recent years

Thousands of Christians in Jerusalem have celebrated the traditional Holy Fire rite ahead of the Orthodox Easter, despite a security clampdown limiting access to their most holy site.

The ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the thousand-year-old rite takes place, was built over the site where Christian tradition says Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected.

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US arrests suspect behind leak of Pentagon documents

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Jack Teixeira, 21-year-old US air national guardsman, is believed to have led online group where classified files appeared

The FBI has arrested a 21-year-old air national guardsman in Massachusetts suspected of being responsible for the leak of US classified defence documents that laid bare military secrets and upset Washington’s relations with key allies.

Jack Teixeira was arrested at his home in the town of North Dighton by FBI agents. Helicopter news footage showed a young man with shorn dark hair, an olive green T-shirt and red shorts being made to walk backwards towards a team of agents standing by an armoured vehicle dressed in camouflage and body armour, pointing their rifles at him.

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Christians are in danger under Israeli government, says Holy Land patriarch

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing policies are emboldening attacks on 2,000-year-old community, says Catholic regional leader

The head of the Roman Catholic church in the Holy Land has warned in an interview that Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has made life worse for Christians in the birthplace of Christianity.

The Vatican-appointed Latin Patriarch, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said that the region’s 2,000-year-old Christian community has come under increasing attack, with the most rightwing government in Israel’s history emboldening extremists who have harassed clergy and vandalised religious property at a quickening pace.

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Jerusalem holy site visits restricted after Israeli soldiers shoot two Palestinians

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Al-Aqsa mosque closed to non-Muslims and tourists after gunmen who shot at an army post killed by security forces

Israel has halted visits by non-Muslims and tourists to a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site, as its military said soldiers had shot dead two Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank, as a wave of unrest showed no sign of subsiding.

Last week, an Israeli police raid at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, a tinder box in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, triggered rocket attacks from Gaza, south Lebanon and Syria that drew Israeli air and artillery strikes.

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Experts warn of new spyware threat targeting journalists and political figures

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Citizen Lab says victims’ phones infected after being sent a iCloud calendar invitation in a ‘zero-click’ attack

Security experts have warned about the emergence of previously unknown spyware with hacking capabilities comparable to NSO Group’s Pegasus that has already been used by clients to target journalists, political opposition figures and an employee of an NGO.

Researchers at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School said the spyware, which is made by an Israeli company called QuaDream, infected some victims’ phones by sending an iCloud calendar invitation to mobile users from operators of the spyware, who are likely to be government clients. Victims were not notified of the calendar invitations because they were sent for events logged in the past, making them invisible to the targets of the hacking. Such attacks are known as “zero-click” because users of the mobile phone do not have to click on any malicious link or take any action in order to be infected.

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Thousands gather for West Bank funeral of British-Israeli shooting victim

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Lucy Dee, 48, died on Monday after gun attack that also killed two of her daughters

Thousands of mourners have gathered at an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank for the funeral of a British-Israeli woman who died after a shooting attack days earlier.

Israelis holding national flags lined the roads in the rain leading to the funeral for Lucy Dee in Kfar Etzion on Tuesday.

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Pentagon leaks: US seeks to mend ties after claims Washington spied on key allies

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Defence secretary speaks to South Korean counterpart after leak suggesting US was spying on Seoul’s internal discussions on arms sales

The US is attempting to mend fences with key allies after leaked Pentagon documents claimed Washington had been spying on friendly countries including South Korea and Israel.

The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, spoke to his South Korean counterpart on Tuesday as officials in Seoul denied the possibility that the president’s office could have been the source of leaks over South Korean arms sales to the US.

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Netanyahu reverses decision to fire Israel defence minister after protests

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Dismissal of Yoav Gallant triggered unprecedented surge of protest against plan to disempower judiciary

As Israel faces a surge in violence on almost every front, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has reversed his decision to fire the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for warning that his judicial overhaul was harming the military.

In a televised speech late on Monday, Netanyahu said Gallant would stay in his position, two weeks after he dismissed the minister.

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Mother of British-Israeli sisters killed in West Bank shooting dies

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Lucy Dee sustained critical injuries in attack on Friday that killed her daughters Maia and Rina

The mother of two British-Israeli sisters killed in a shooting in the occupied West Bank has died from injuries sustained in the incident.

Maia and Rina Dee, 20 and 15, were killed on Friday when their car was shot at by a suspected Palestinian gunman. Their mother, Lucy (also known as Leah), 45, who was in the car with them, sustained critical injuries and was left in a coma.

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Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli troops in West Bank refugee camp

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Teenager killed and two others wounded during Israeli arrest operation amid escalating tensions

Israeli troops have fatally shot a 15-year-old Palestinian boy and wounded two other people during an arrest operation in a West Bank refugee camp, as tensions continued to escalate in the occupied territories.

Mohammed Balhan was shot in the head, chest and abdomen in the Aqabat Jabr camp near Jericho, according to local Palestinian official Hani Obeidat, who called it an “unjustifiable crime”. A video showed him lying dead on a stretcher in the hospital, his head bandaged and his mother wailing as she leaned over his body.

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Crises on multiple fronts threaten Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power

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Support for prime minister wanes as his ‘plot to overturn Israel’s democracy’ is seen as threat to national security

On Friday afternoon, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, found himself standing at the side of a remote road in the vast desert valley that runs the length of the occupied West Bank’s frontier with Jordan.

Along with his defence minister, Yoav Galant, Netanyahu was inspecting the scene of a shooting attack earlier in the day that killed British-Israeli sisters Maia and Rina Dee, 20 and 15, and left their 45-year-old mother Lucy fighting for her life. An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) search for the perpetrator is still under way.

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Holiday rites without clashes in Jerusalem but region braces for further violence

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Al-Aqsa mosque compound tensions have triggered cross-border fighting in Gaza and drawn in Lebanon and Syria

Simultaneous Muslim and Jewish holiday rites at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount or al-Aqsa mosque compound have passed without major clashes after rare cross-border airstrikes and rocket fire between Israel and Syria overnight, and fears of wider conflict in the Middle East after escalations on multiple fronts.

About 15,000 Jewish worshippers gathered at the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem, the holiest site at which Jews can pray, on Sunday morning for a benediction prayer marking Passover. At the same time, thousands of Palestinians performed dawn and midday Muslim prayers at al-Aqsa, an esplanade on the other side of the wall, as part of observances during the holy month of Ramadan. Christian pilgrims also flooded the Old City to mark Easter Sunday, in a rare convergence of celebrations in the three different faiths.

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Israel launches strikes on Syria after rocket fire as violence flares

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Attacks come amid sharply increased Israel-Palestinian tensions following Israeli raids this week on al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem

Israeli jets hit Syrian military targets in response to rockets launched towards Israeli-controlled territory overnight, Israel’s military said, as violence flared again after cross-border exchanges of fire during the week.

State media in Syria reported explosions in the vicinity of the capital Damascus as Israel said its forces continued to hit Syrian territory after six rockets were fired overnight towards the Golan Heights.

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Penny Wong condemns escalating violence and calls for calm in Middle East

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Foreign minister’s comments follow rocket attacks fired into Israel, and police raids on a Jerusalem mosque

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has condemned escalating violence and terror attacks in the Middle East.

Her comments follow rocket attacks fired into Israel from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

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British-Israeli sisters killed in West Bank gun attack named

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Rina and Maia Dee, aged 15 and 20, identified on Twitter by Benjamin Netanyahu as mother remains in intensive care

The two British-Israeli sisters killed in a gun attack in the occupied West Bank on Friday have been named as Rina and Maia Dee.

Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, who were born in London, were identified on Twitter by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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