Category Archives: Israel

Global report: Tokyo hits Covid-19 high as Australia limits arrivals

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Japan reels from resurgence of virus while Australia restricts admissions to 4,000 a week

Tokyo hit another record daily high number of new cases, Australia is to halve the number of citizens it allows to return each week and Hong Kong’s schools have closed early for the summer as countries around the world struggled to contain fresh coronavirus outbreaks.

Amid growing signs of a resurgence of the virus in Japan, the capital reported 243 new infections on Friday, more than the previous day’s 224 and the first time that more than 200 cases have been confirmed for two consecutive days.

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Iran admits incident at Natanz nuclear site caused major damage

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Country says suspected attack could slow production of advanced centrifuges, which Israel and US see as threat

Iran has admitted an incident at one of its main nuclear sites last week caused major damage and could slow down the country’s production of advanced centrifuges, technology Israel and the US see as a threat, intensifying suspicions there may have been a deliberate attack on the facility.

Newly released satellite imagery showed the damage from what Iranian authorities attributed to a fire at the Natanz nuclear facility was far more extensive that previously disclosed.

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Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews ‘least stressed’ by Covid-19, says study

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Despite being hardest hit by the pandemic, the country’s most devout community score highest in a happiness survey

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have been happier and less stressed during the Covid-19 pandemic than others, including secular Jews, according to new research.

A study of the Israeli Jewish population by Tel Aviv University found levels of resilience were higher in ultra-Orthodox communities than other groups, despite this group being disproportionately affected by the disease in terms of both health and economic factors.

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‘Annexation will suffocate us’: Jericho’s Palestinians fear being cut off

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Residents await Israel’s next move, concerned they could be isolated from the rest of the West Bank

The future of Palestinians in the city of Jericho is suspended in uncertainty and fear as they wait for Israel to decide when and how it will annex vast swathes of the land that surrounding them, a step outlined in a US peace initiative which could leave residents isolated from other parts of the West Bank.

“Annexation will suffocate us,” said Aisha Subeh, selling grape leaves on a street in Jericho.

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Boris Johnson warns against annexation in Israeli newspaper article

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International pressure on Israel escalates as Netanyahu misses self-imposed target date

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has missed his self-imposed target date for annexation of occupied Palestinian territories, as France warned of “consequences” and Boris Johnson made an appeal to Israel to reconsider the move in an article in the Hebrew media.

Johnson, who described himself in the opinion piece as a “passionate defender of Israel”, said any annexation would be a “violation of international law”, adding the UK would not recognise any changes to the pre-1967 borders in the West Bank that were not agreed by both Israelis and Palestinians.

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Netanyahu hints at delay to plans to annex the West Bank

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Israeli PM’s suggestion that deadline may be missed follows Benny Gantz saying Covid-19 is more urgent than annexation

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is struggling to push through his West Bank annexation plans, slated to start as soon as Wednesday, facing opposition from Palestinians, the international community and even his own government.

Netanyahu had pledged to begin the process of annexing Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley from 1 July, as part of a peace plan devised by Donald Trump’s US administration. But he hinted at a delay on Tuesday, saying annexation talks would continue “in the coming days” with US officials.

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Netanyahu’s annexation plan in disarray as Gantz calls for delay

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Alternate PM says planned 1 July date not ‘sacred’ and Israel should deal with Covid-19 crisis first

Plans by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to begin annexing parts of the occupied Palestinian territories from as early as Wednesday appeared in disarray as the country’s alternate prime minister, Benny Gantz, suggested annexation would have to wait while the country dealt with its coronavirus crisis.

Gantz told a White House envoy, Avi Berkowitz – who is in Israel for talks on the issue – that a 1 July deadline was neither “sacred” nor urgent in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. Israeli media widely suggested that the timing could slip beyond Wednesday.

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Everyone loses from Netanyahu’s territorial ambitions

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The land grab in the West Bank will damage the region, the international community and Israel itself

It was always about land. Arabs possessed it, Jews claimed it. Both believed they were in the right. Since the 1930s, when the flight from fascism in Europe trebled the Jewish population of Palestine to 33%, this elemental, foundational struggle has intensified inexorably – with Israelis gaining ground time after time. Now Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister and co-leader of a powerful 74% Jewish majority state, wants to finish the job.

Netanyahu’s plan is to annex large parts of the West Bank and the Jordan valley, but his starting date of 1 July may slip amid disagreements with the US and internally over its scope and pace. Last week, Jordan’s King Abdullah described annexation as “unacceptable” and threatened to slash diplomatic ties. Hamas militants in Gaza called the plan a “declaration of war”.

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Israel’s cabinet meets to finalise annexation plans

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Calls for sanctions are intensifying as the cabinet meets and Netanyahu awaits US approval

The Israeli cabinet will meet on Sunday to finalise plans to annex parts of the West Bank amid growing international opposition and calls for sanctions to be imposed if the proposal is implemented.

Related: Lisa Nandy urges ban on imports of West Bank goods

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Lisa Nandy leads calls for sanctions on Israel over West Bank annexations

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Labour hardens stance to apply imports ban if highly controversial proposals go ahead in face of mounting international opposition

The UK must ban the import of goods from illegal settlements in the West Bank if the Israeli government presses ahead with annexation plans this week, Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign secretary, has said.

The move would be a “major step” and require “courage that so far ministers have not been willing to show”, she told the Observer. But “such a blatant breach of international law must have consequences”.

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Israel brings back tracking system amid surge in Covid-19 cases

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Knesset votes to approve bill authorising domestic security agency to track infections

Israel is experiencing an alarming surge in coronavirus cases, which has prompted the government to approve reimposing a controversial tracking system administered by the country’s domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, over the reported objections of the agency.

Cases in the country have surged again after Israel eased restrictions at the end of May – a move that coincided with the Shavuot holiday, when people crowded beaches on both the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee.

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UN chief urges Israel to back away from West Bank annexation

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António Guterres says plans to annex around 30% of the disputed territory would ‘destabilise’ the region

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has expressed hope that Israel will hear global calls and will not go ahead with annexation of parts of the West Bank, which would undermine a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The UN has been consistently conveying the message “that annexation would be not only against international law but it would be a major factor to destabilise the region”, he told Associated Press in an interview.

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Global report: South Korea has Covid-19 second wave as Israel ponders new lockdown

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New infections in and around Seoul; Spain reports 36 new outbreaks; New Zealand strengthens borders

Authorities in South Korea have said the country is experiencing a second wave of the coronavirus in and around Seoul, and warned that stronger physical-distancing measures will be reimposed if the daily increase in infections does not come down.

Confirmation of the new wave came as the Israeli government said a lockdown could be reintroduced amid a sharp rise in cases, and a team of contact tracing experts prepared to deploy to the Australian state of Victoria to tackle a new outbreak in Melbourne.

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Israeli spyware used to target Moroccan journalist, Amnesty claims

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Amnesty alleges phone of Omar Radi in Morocco was infected by NSO’s Pegasus software

As NSO Group faced mounting criticism last year that its hacking software was being used illegally against journalists, dissidents and campaigners around the world, the Israeli spyware company unveiled a new policy that it said showed its commitment to human rights.

Now an investigation has alleged that another journalist, Omar Radi in Morocco, was targeted with NSO’s Pegasus software and put under surveillance just days after the company made that promise.

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Coronavirus mass surveillance could be here to stay, experts say

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Use of invasive digital and physical tracking measures soars as the pandemic spreads

Extensive surveillance measures introduced around the world during the coronavirus outbreak have widened and become entrenched, digital rights experts have said, three months after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic.

The measures have often been billed as temporary necessities rushed into place to help track infections, but governments have been accused of denting civil rights with the widespread use of techniques such as phone monitoring, contact tracing apps, and physical surveillance such as CCTV with facial recognition.

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Palestine says it will declare statehood if Israel annexes West Bank

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Shtayyeh calls on world powers to threaten Netanyahu with sanctions over expansion plans

Palestine will declare statehood over all of the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital, and push for global recognition if Israel goes ahead with plans to annex land it occupies, the Palestinian prime minister has said.

Mohammad Shtayyeh described the possible step pledged by the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, as an “existential threat” to a decades-long international effort for Israelis and Palestinians to reach an agreement that establishes two states side by side.

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2,500 rare texts from Islamic world to go online for free

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National Library of Israel is digitising collection of manuscripts and books dating back to ninth century

More than 2,500 rare manuscripts and books from the Islamic world covering a period of more than a thousand years are to be made freely available online.

The National Library of Israel (NLI) in Jerusalem is digitising its world-class collection of items in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, dating from the ninth to the 20th centuries, including spectacularly beautiful Qur’ans and literary works decorated with gold leaf and lapis lazuli.

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Israel’s West Bank plans condemned by leading British Jewish figures

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Simon Schama and Sir Malcolm Rifkind among those warning that annexation ‘would have grave consequences’ for Palestinians

Some of the most prominent and respected names in British Jewry have raised alarm over the Israeli government’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank, saying such a move would be an existential threat to Israel.

Among more than 40 signatories of an unprecedented letter to the Israeli ambassador to the UK are Sir Ben Helfgott, one of the best-known Holocaust survivors in Britain; the historians Sir Simon Schama and Simon Sebag Montefiore; the former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind; the lawyer Anthony Julius; the philanthropist Dame Vivien Duffield; the scientist Lord Robert Winston; the former MP Luciana Berger; the Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein; and the author Howard Jacobson. 

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Ancient DNA is offering clues to puzzle of Dead Sea scrolls, say experts

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Study may shed light on material and debated origins of some of the 25,000 fragments

With myriad fragments and an extraordinary past, the Dead Sea scrolls are quite a puzzle. Now experts say ancient DNA has helped them piece together which fragments come from the same scrolls, as well as which texts may have travelled a distance, and how widespread the writings were.

The scrolls are one of the most remarkable discoveries of the 20th century. Found in the caves of Qumran as well as other sites around the Judean desert, the ancient texts cover parts of the Hebrew bible canon as well as writings about religious practices, legal documents, and hymns.

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‘Palestinian lives matter’: Israeli police killing of autistic man draws US comparison

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Caregiver for Iyad Halak says she told police he was disabled shortly before he was shot

A caregiver for an unarmed, autistic Palestinian man killed in Jerusalem by Israeli police has said she repeatedly warned officers he was disabled before they opened fire, in a case that has drawn parallels with US police violence.

The body of Iyad Halak, 32, was buried late on Sunday night. He was shot dead the day before, reportedly after becoming confused by shouting police and fleeing in a panic to hide among rubbish bins.

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