Category Archives: Israel

Israel carries out Gaza Strip airstrike after militants release incendiary balloons

Posted on by

Fragile truce under threat after attack on the Palestinian enclave and violence amid Jewish ultranationalists parade through East Jerusalem

Israel has launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the first since a truce ended 11 days of cross-border fighting last month, in response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian territory.

The flare-up in violence, a first test for Israel’s new government sworn in three days ago, followed a march in East Jerusalem on Tuesday by Jewish nationalists that had drawn threats of action by Hamas, the ruling militant group in Gaza.

Continue reading...

Why is Israel lifting Covid restrictions as England extends them?

Posted on by

Analysis: both are viewed as running successful vaccine campaigns, but case numbers are very different

Israel and the UK were viewed as world leaders in their coronavirus vaccine campaigns but whereas the former is lifting almost all pandemic limitations, the latter is now glumly extending its restrictions in England amid a sharp rise in infections.

Despite starting its mass inoculation programme after the UK in December, Israel has sped ahead and it reached a key milestone on Tuesday, scrapping a requirement to wear face masks indoors, one of the final Covid limitations.

Continue reading...

The Viewing Booth review – seeing is believing in the Israel-Palestine conflict

Posted on by

Volunteers respond to politically polarised film footage from Israel and the Palestinian territories in this critical look at interpretation

Even though he tries to maintain a cool, scientific demeanour, Israeli director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz finally lets slip a twinge of despair at the end of this interesting geopolitical Rorschach test. Alexandrowicz sits studiously behind a monitor as he invites a succession of volunteers to enter an adjacent booth. There, they have a choice of 40 clips to watch, snippets of life in Israel, while he asks them to share their thoughts on what they see. Half of the clips are from rightwing Israeli sources; the other half are from B’Tselem, an Israeli human-rights organisation that aims to document abuses of power in Palestinian territories.

Alexandrowicz quickly zeroes in on the pensive Maia, a Jewish American who supports Israel, but brings an insistent scepticism to everything she watches. He is the director of pro-Palestine documentaries such as The Inner Tour (2001) and The Law in These Parts (2011) – and believes her to be his ideal audience: a possible convert.

Continue reading...

New Israeli government is just as bad as the last, says Palestinian PM

Posted on by

Mohammad Shtayyeh condemns Naftali Bennett’s announcements in support of Israeli settlements

Benjamin Netanyahu’s ousting closes one of the “worst periods” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but the new government headed by a settler advocate, Naftali Bennett, is just as bad as the last, the Palestinian prime minister has said.

“We do not see this new government as any less bad than the previous one, and we condemn the announcements of the new prime minister Naftali Bennett in support of Israeli settlements,” Mohammad Shtayyeh said, referring to hundreds of thousands of Jewish Israelis who have taken land in the occupied West Bank.

Continue reading...

Israeli elections: Raucous scenes in Knesset as Benjamin Netanyahu ousted from office – video

Posted on by

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year hold on power has ended as parliament voted on a new government of improbable allies. The schism was evident at a raucous session of the legislature ahead of the vote. Netanyahu loyalists, shouting ‘shame’ and ‘liar’, frequently interrupted the man set to replace him, nationalist Naftali Bennett, as he spelled out the new coalition's policies. During his last speech as prime minister, a combative Netanyahu vowed to return: ‘We will be back, soon’ he said multiple times 

Continue reading...

Benjamin Netanyahu: the former commando who became King Bibi

Posted on by

As he leaves office, some see Israel’s longest-serving PM as ‘Mr Security’, others as someone who spurned the chance for peace

Israelis and Palestinians under the age of 30 have lived most of their lives with Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel. First elected PM in 1996 aged 46, King Bibi – as he is known by supporters and critics alike – has since then never been far from high office, which he is due to now depart aged 71.

Related: Israeli coalition ousts Netanyahu as prime minister after 12 years

Continue reading...

Israeli coalition ousts Netanyahu as prime minister after 12 years

Posted on by

Far-right former settler leader Naftali Bennett to be installed as prime minister

Israel’s longest-serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been ousted from office by a loose coalition of rivals from across the political spectrum, united by their wish to end his 12-year run in power.

The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a centrist former TV news anchor, won a confidence vote in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, by a razor-thin advantage of 60-59 seats on Sunday evening.

Continue reading...

The Observer view on Iran’s rigged presidential election | Observer editorial

Posted on by
It is not only Iranians who will suffer if a hardliner wins, it could have profound consequences for world peace

Iran’s beleaguered voters do not have much of a choice in this Friday’s presidential election. The regime, dominated by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a fiercely anti-western conservative, has cynically manipulated the contest to ensure that a like-minded hardliner, most probably Ebrahim Raisi, head of the judiciary, wins.

While the result is hardly a cliff-hanger, its impact may nonetheless be far-reaching – in Iran and internationally. The possibly negative consequences for talks on curbing Iran’s nuclear programme, for peaceful relations with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the west, for the wars in Syria and Yemen, for the geopolitical balance and for Iran’s own citizens are alarming.

Continue reading...

New Israeli coalition government seeks to put an end to the Netanyahu era

Posted on by

The opposition-led administration will be sworn in on Sunday if it can prevail in a confidence vote in the Knesset

Benjamin Netanyahu is due to be ousted from office on Sunday by a new Israeli government formed with the primary aim of dethroning the country’s longest-serving leader.

A motley grouping of politicians, including former Netanyahu allies turned foes, have set aside bitter differences to put an end to the prime minister’s historic run in power. If successful, it will also break a political stalemate that has seen four snap elections in the country since 2019.

Continue reading...

Ex-Mossad chief signals Israel culpability for Iran attacks

Posted on by

Yossi Cohen reveals details of Iran nuclear programme attacks in interview timed to support Netanyahu

The outgoing head of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, has signalled the country’s clear responsibility for a series of attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear programme in an interview that appeared to have as much to do with Israel’s febrile politics as with Iran.

In a public intervention that appeared timed to help Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, before a Knesset vote on Sunday that could end his 12 consecutive years in office, the agency’s former head Yossi Cohenrevealed details of operations long attributed to Israel.

Continue reading...

One Gaza street, 43 deaths: ‘The real war is the aftermath’ – video

Posted on by

Omar Abu al-Ouf lost his parents, grandparents and two siblings when his building was bombed by the Israeli military last month, in a street where 43 people were killed. Two weeks after the 16-year-old was pulled from the rubble, he leaves hospital to visit his remaining family and return to what’s left of his devastated neighbourhood in Gaza City. Many of Omar’s neighbours also lost loved ones, and search through the rubble for possessions, after a war which killed more than 250 people in Israel and Gaza, the vast majority of them Palestinians 

Continue reading...

The conflict in the Middle East is sustained by the silencing of Palestinians | Ghada Karmi

Posted on by

Throughout history, our story has been narrated by others who treat our rights as less deserving of recognition

The silencing of the Palestinian story is nothing new. In 1950s Britain, a few years after Israel was established, even the name Palestine went out of use. When asked as a child where I came from, people would think I’d said Pakistan.

I remember how frustrating it was that no one wanted to hear our story, as if we had invented it. “It’s the land of the Jews,” I was repeatedly told. “The Arabs are only squatters on it.” Israel’s stunning victory in the 1967 war compounded these attitudes, and the Zionist narrative of Israel’s moral right to exist in the Jewish people’s “ancestral land” became supreme. Constantly made to understand we were second-class human beings with no valid right to “someone else’s country” was demoralising and intimidating.

Continue reading...

Biden accused of U-turn over Egypt’s human rights abuses

Posted on by

Critics say US president’s realpolitik ignores Sisi regime’s ‘hostage-taking tactics’ against dissidents

“It’s a hostage negotiation and it has been all along,” said Sherif Mansour, describing the arrest of his cousin Reda Abdel-Rahman by Egyptian security forces last August as an attempt to intimidate Mansour into silence.

Abdel-Rahman has been imprisoned without trial for nine months. Mansour, an outspoken human rights advocate in Washington with the Committee to Protect Journalists, has since learned that he and his father are listed on the same charge sheet, all accused of joining a terrorist group and spreading “false news”.

Continue reading...

Jerusalem sinkhole swallows up parked cars – video

Posted on by

A Jerusalem hospital parking lot has collapsed into a sinkhole, Israeli police say, but no casualties have been reported. Security video distributed by the Jerusalem Shaare Zedek Medical Center, showed cars falling into the sinkhole. Israeli police, backed by fire and rescue services, blocked the roads surrounding the hospital to conduct searches in the area. Hospital officials said they believed the collapse to have been triggered by a highway tunnel being dug nearby.

Continue reading...

Israeli police stop far-right march through Jerusalem

Posted on by

Plans blocked after a similar parade stoked tensions that contributed to last Gaza conflict

Israeli police have blocked a planned march by Jewish nationalists through Palestinian neighbourhoods of Jerusalem after a similar parade last month played a key role in building the tensions that led to the latest Gaza conflict.

In a statement, police said a permit for a different time or route might be considered.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu says Israeli coalition poised to unseat him is result of ‘election fraud’

Posted on by

Accusation comes as security services warn of an escalation in violent discourse in the country

Benjamin Netanyahu has said a newly formed Israeli coalition that is poised to unseat him as prime minister was the result of “the greatest election fraud” in the history of democracy.

The sweeping accusation, similar in tone to those made about the US election by his former close ally Donald Trump, came as Israeli security services warned of an escalation in violent discourse in the country.

Continue reading...

Myanmar school strikes and a plane diverted to Minsk: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

Posted on by

A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China

Continue reading...

Palestinians welcome end of Netanyahu era – but fear more of the same

Posted on by

Relief in the occupied territories is mixed with sense that ‘nothing will change’

“It is the end of Netanyahu’s dark era,” says Kareem Hassanian, 44, a Palestinian psychologist who lives in the Gaza Strip, a place still counting the cost of the latest devastating war between Israel and Hamas.

He adds quickly: “And it’s the beginning of a new dark era. The new coalition won’t be different from the previous one. Israel still occupies Palestine. We will not see the end of the occupation in the coming years.”

Continue reading...

Netanyahu attacks ‘dangerous’ coalition seeking to topple him

Posted on by

Israel’s longest-serving leader begins fight to remain in power as opposition parties rush to establish government

Benjamin Netanyahu has fought back against what he slammed as a “dangerous” coalition of opposition parties that were rushing to establish a government aimed at unseating the country’s longest-serving leader.

A day after the opposition head, Yair Lapid, announced that he and Naftali Bennett – his far-right partner and prime minister in waiting – could form a “government of change”, the race was on to get it voted on in parliament and sworn in.

Continue reading...

Israeli opposition leader tells president he can form government

Posted on by

Under terms of Yair Lapid’s proposed deal, far-right politician Naftali Bennett would replace Benjamin Netanyahu as PM

The Israeli opposition leader has told the country’s president that he can form a government, a critical step that places Benjamin Netanyahu in his most precarious political position for more than a decade.

After days of frenetic negotiations, Yair Lapid told President Reuven Rivlin less than an hour before a midnight deadline that he had the support of a majority of opposition parties for what has been called a “government of change” – a mix of bitter ideological rivals united by a shared desire to oust Israel’s longest-serving leader.

Continue reading...