Protests were held in 20 cities across Israel, with demonstrators also decrying proposed settlement expansion in the West Bank
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv for the fifth consecutive week to demonstrate against controversial legal reforms touted by Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing government.
Crowds carrying blue and white Israeli flags filled the city’s central Kaplan Street on Saturday, with signs labelling the new government a “threat to world peace”.
Continue reading...Israel’s attorney general said to PM it would amount to a conflict of interest over his corruption trial, according to letter
Israel’s attorney general has told Benjamin Netanyahu that he must not be involved in an overhaul to the country’s judicial system proposed by his government because it would amount to a conflict of interest over the prime minister’s corruption trial, according to a letter made public Thursday.
Netanyahu’s new far-right government has made changing the legal system a centrepiece of its legislative agenda and despite mounting public criticism, has charged ahead with steps to weaken the supreme court and grant politicians less judicial oversight in their policymaking.
Continue reading...Israeli army confirms ‘striking in the Gaza Strip’ early on Thursday, hours after it said it intercepted a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory
Israel conducted airstrikes on the central Gaza Strip early on Thursday, according to journalists and witnesses, hours after the military said it intercepted a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory.
New rounds of rockets were fired from Gaza after these strikes, and fresh explosions could be heard from Gaza City about 3.15am local time, Agence France-Presse journalists reported.
Continue reading...Dominic Raab under increasing pressure as civil servants’ union calls for him to be suspended until bullying inquiry concludes
MPs have been told that paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland have coerced young people with drug debts to take part in rioting, PA Media reports. PA says:
A community worker gave an example of a user’s debt being reduced by £80 for doing so.
Megan Phair, coordinator of the Journey to Empowerment Programme and member of the Stop Attacks Forum, said both loyalist and dissident republican groups use the tactic to force people on to the streets.
It’s time for the prime minister to come out of hiding and face the music. The public deserves to know the truth about what he knew and when, including the full disclosure of any advice given to him by the Cabinet Office.
Continue reading...US secretary of state says it is up to Israelis and Palestinians to find way to end recent violence
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has finished his Middle East tour with no breakthrough in reducing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, saying that it was “fundamentally up to them” to end the violence after days of bloodshed.
Blinken said he had heard “deep concern about the current trajectory” during meetings in Israel and the occupied West Bank but, beyond calling for a “de-escalation”, he offered no new US initiative.
Continue reading...US secretary of state meets Israel’s prime minister and reaffirms support for two-state solution
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has called for calm after days of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, as he visited Jerusalem for talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
A Palestinian man died on Monday after an altercation with Israeli troops, as violence in the region continued to spiral.
Continue reading...Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces moves after deadliest terrorist attack in Jerusalem in years
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has announced a series of punitive steps against Palestinians in the wake of the deadliest terrorist attack in Jerusalem in years in which a gunman killed seven people outside a synagogue.
In a statement issued after the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said that Israel’s security agency would explore “additional deterrent measures regarding the families of terrorists that express support for terrorism”, including the revocation of Jerusalem residency rights and Israeli citizenship, and legislation allowing employers to dismiss workers who have “supported terrorism” without the need for a hearing.
Continue reading...At vigil in Neve Yaakov there are calls for reprisals after worst attack by a Palestinian against Israelis since 2008
Sifting through construction debris on the traffic intersection in occupied East Jerusalem where seven Israelis were killed by a Palestinian gunman on Friday night, three emergency response volunteers wearing plastic gloves and hi-vis vests scraped up handfuls of blood-stained earth, placing it in a bag.
After sunset on Saturday, the end of Shabbat, they had arrived equipped with torches, trowels and putty knives. Their task was to ensure every drop of spilled blood was collected for proper Jewish burial.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu announces punitive steps against Palestinians in response to attacks that killed seven Israelis
Israeli officers have sealed off the Jerusalem family home of a Palestinian gunman who killed seven people outside a synagogue on the outskirts of the city, police said, after Benjamin Netanyahu promised “a swift response”.
Netanyahu has announced a series of punitive steps against Palestinians in response to a pair of shootings in Jerusalem that killed seven Israelis and badly wounded five others.
Continue reading...A chain reaction of killings leaves Israel and the occupied territories on the brink of a new round of bloodletting
On Friday nights, quiet descends upon the holy city of Jerusalem. Many Muslim families are at home, spending time together after afternoon prayers; Jewish-owned businesses close just before sunset, buses and trams stop running and candles on dining tables announce the beginning of Shabbat.
What began as a normal, peaceful Friday evening ended in tragedy for the Mizrahi family, who live in the occupied East Jerusalem settlement of Neve Yaakov. At about 8pm, a lone Palestinian gunman opened fire on people outside a synagogue, killing seven and wounding nine.
Continue reading...Shooting comes hours after seven people killed outside synagogue and two days after deadliest Israeli raid in West Bank for 20 years
Two Israelis have been shot in occupied East Jerusalem hours after a gunman killed seven people outside a synagogue, as the worst violence in years across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories continues to escalate.
Israel’s ambulance service said a father and son, in their 50s and 20s, were badly hurt in the incident in a Jewish neighbourhood near the Old City on Saturday morning. Police said the assailant had been shot by an armed passerby. There were conflicting reports on his condition.
Continue reading...Palestinian Authority suspends security cooperation after nine people were killed by Israeli defence forces
Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories remained tense but calm after an exchange of rocket fire between the Gaza Strip and Israel triggered by a deadly raid in the West Bank.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) entered the Jenin refugee camp, in the north of the occupied territory at about 7am (5am GMT) on Thursday acting on intelligence suggesting a cell linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad was planning to carry out imminent attacks, the army said in a statement.
Continue reading...Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza on Friday morning, to which Israel responded with missile strikes
Washington has raised concern over the escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence after Israeli forces on Thursday killed nine Palestinians during a West Bank raid in the deadliest single day in the territory in decades.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he feared the security situation could worsen after two rockets were fired from Gaza early on Friday and Israel responded with airstrikes on the territory.
Continue reading...Palestinian leaders cut security ties with Israel after deadly gun battle at Jenin refugee camp
Israeli forces have killed nine Palestinians during a raid in the north of the occupied West Bank in the deadliest single day in the territory in years, prompting Palestinian leaders to cut security ties with Israel and leaving international mediators scrambling to prevent the violence from escalating.
A 61-year-old woman and a male civilian were among the dead, the Palestinian health ministry said, and about 20 more people were seriously injured in the violence on Thursday morning. Two of the casualties were claimed by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another four by Hamas, and one by the armed wing of the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.
Continue reading...Amir Yaron said to have warned PM that erasing democratic checks and balances could deter crucial foreign investment
The governor of the Bank of Israel has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that his new government’s proposals for sweeping judicial reform could damage the country’s economy, according to Israeli media reports.
Prof Amir Yaron met the Israeli prime minister on Tuesday, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, after requesting an “urgent meeting”.
Continue reading...International code adopted as part of ‘anti-racism commitment’ could be used to shut down genuine criticism of the state of Israel, critics warn
The University of Melbourne has become the first tertiary institution in Australia to adopt a controversial international definition of antisemitism, in a move critics say could be used to shut down legitimate criticism of the state of Israel.
On Wednesday, the university announced it would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism as part of its broader “anti-racism commitment”.
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Continue reading...Estimated 100,000 people took to streets in Tel Aviv in what protesters described as ‘fight for Israel’s destiny’
An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night in what protesters described as a “fight for Israel’s destiny” over sweeping judicial changes proposed by the new far-right government.
Israel’s longtime prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, returned to office last month at the helm of a coalition of conservative and religious parties that make up the most right-wing government in the country’s history.
Continue reading...Culture minister’s attack on two documentaries set in Palestinian territories part of campaign to silence dissent, film-makers say
Israel’s culture minister is attempting to revoke state funding from two documentary films dealing with the occupation of the Palestinian territories, increasing concerns that the country’s new hard-right government will follow through on promises to crack down on dissenting voices.
The minister, Miki Zohar, of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, has pledged to “revoke funding that promotes our enemy’s narrative” and withhold grants from films that “present Israeli soldiers as murderers”. He has also said he will require film-makers to sign a declaration they will not use state funds to create content that “harms the state of Israel or IDF soldiers”.
Continue reading...Prime minister’s coalition in jeopardy after Aryeh Deri ruled ineligible for government due to tax offences
Israel’s supreme court has ruled that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must fire a key ally from the country’s new cabinet, presenting the Israeli leader with a potential coalition crisis and deepening a rift over the power of the courts.
Ten of 11 judges on the high court found that Aryeh Deri, the influential head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party who has served repeatedly in Netanyahu’s previous governments, is disqualified from serving as a minister after he was convicted last year for tax offences and placed on probation as part of a plea deal. Deri has pledged not to quit and met Netanyahu after the ruling.
Continue reading...Army says soldiers opened fire in refugee camp near Bethlehem after people threw molotov cocktails at them
Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian boy near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, where the army said they opened fire after people threw molotov cocktails.
Omar Khmour, 14, was shot in the head early on Monday in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the southern West Bank and “succumbed to his wounds”, the Palestinian ministry said.
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