Category Archives: Israel

Pelosi ‘deeply saddened’ over Israel’s decision to block Omar and Tlaib’s visit – live

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Several more Democratic presidential candidates have issues statements condemning Israel’s decision to block Omar and Tlaib’s planned trip.

I don't believe any nation should deny entry to elected Members of Congress, period. It’s an affront to the United States. Open and engaged foreign relations are critical to advancing U.S. interests. Trump is playing politics as he weakens our global leadership. https://t.co/UnMt9Tsd7Q

It’s appalling that President Trump continues to attack two sitting Congresswomen and encouraged another country to deny U.S. officials entry. Trump's behavior is unacceptable, dangerous, and un-American. Israel's decision should be reversed immediately. https://t.co/jHd0VYVJ1u

Nancy Pelosi has put out a statement saying she is “deeply saddened” by Israel’s decision to block Omar and Tlaib’s trip.

“As one who loves Israel, I am deeply saddened by the news that Israel has decided to prevent Members of Congress from entering the country,” the House speaker said.

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Israel bars entry to US politicians Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib

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Donald Trump had said letting in high-profile pair would ‘show great weakness’

Israel has announced it will block the US congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country after public pressure from Donald Trump.

“It’s unacceptable to allow the entrance to the country of those who wish to harm the state of Israel,” Israel’s interior ministry said.

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Freedom of expression on Palestine is being suppressed | Letter

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Kamel Hawwash of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and 22 other signatories say that a council’s refusal to host a charity event has vindicated concerns raised about the IHRA working definition of antisemitism

Tower Hamlets council in London last month prevented a bike ride raising awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people from using space in one of its parks. We now know that the council feared that this advocacy for Palestine would violate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism (UK council refused to host Palestinian event over antisemitism fears, 3 August). This use of the IHRA definition demonstrates the real threat to freedom of expression that it represents, ignoring its protection in our national rights legislation.

Palestinian groups, eminent lawyers, academic experts on antisemitism, prominent British Jews and bodies such as the Institute for Race Relations previously raised these concerns publicly. The rights of all British citizens to accurately describe, inform and convey the reality of ongoing Palestinian dispossession, and to call for action to resist these illegalities, belongs in the public space. All public bodies have an obligation to protect and defend these rights, to maintain democracy.

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Palestinian militants killed on Gaza border, Israeli military says

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Soldiers opened fire after one of four armed men crossed into Israel, defence forces say

Israeli forces have shot dead four Palestinian militants near the border with Gaza, the Israeli military said.

In a post on Twitter, the Israel Defense Forces said the men were armed with assault rifles, anti-tank missiles and hand grenades, one of which was hurled at their troops. “Once one of the terrorists crossed into Israel, our troops opened fire.”

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Terrawatch: why salt crystals ‘snow’ down on Dead Sea floor

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Scientists have observed up to 10cm of salt falling to sea floor every year since 1979

Try swimming in the Dead Sea and you can’t help but float. This salt lake, bordered by Jordan, Israel and the West Bank, is nearly 10 times as salty as the oceans. In recent decades diversion of freshwater streams has made it even saltier, and since 1979 scientists have observed salt crystals “snowing” down, depositing up to 10cm on the sea floor every year. It’s the only place in the world where this happens and now scientists think they know why.

During summer the Dead Sea separates into two layers: a warm super-salty layer sitting above a cooler less-salty layer. The research, published in Water Resources Research , shows that when small waves break this boundary they encourage salty fingers to penetrate into the lower layer. Warm water holds more salt than cool water, so as the fingers cool they produce salt crystals which then rain down on the sea floor.

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Palestinian shot dead after wounding Israeli soldiers

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Israeli military said man was Hamas member but ‘not sent on an attack mission’

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian Hamas member after he crossed the Gaza fence overnight and shot and wounded three soldiers, the Israeli military said.

In the last two years similar incidents along the frontier have often escalated into large-scale confrontations between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza. However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) appeared to play down the event, saying the man was acting alone and not on orders from the militant group.

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Israelis held over alleged rape freed as British accuser is arrested

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19-year-old UK tourist to appear in Cypriot court on suspicion of making false complaint

Police in Cyprus have released seven Israeli tourists from detention and said the British teenager who accused them of gang rape would face court on suspicion of making a false allegation.

“All seven Israelis have been released, since 10am,” a police spokesman said. “The young woman will be taken to court tomorrow morning.”

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Israeli crews demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem

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Move follows long battle over buildings, which court ruled were too close to barrier

Israeli work crews have begun demolishing dozens of Palestinian homes in an East Jerusalem neighbourhood in one of the largest operations of its kind in years.

The demolitions capped a years-long legal battle over the buildings, built along the invisible line straddling the city and the occupied West Bank. Israel says the buildings were erected too close to its West Bank separation barrier. Residents say the buildings are on West Bank land, and the Palestinian Authority gave them construction permits.

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Benjamin Netanyahu becomes longest-serving Israeli PM

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‘King Bibi’ beats David Ben-Gurion’s record, but with threatening clouds on the horizon

Benjamin Netanyahu has become Israel‘s longest-serving prime minister, snatching the title from the country’s founding father and first leader, David Ben-Gurion.

As of Saturday, the man referred to as King Bibi by both those who adore and detest him, has spent 4,867 days – more than 13 years – in office.

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Israeli spraying of herbicide near Gaza harming Palestinian crops

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Israel sprays buffer zone to deprive potential ‘terror elements’ of cover, but farmers in Gaza say crops and livelihoods are damaged

Israeli aircraft spraying herbicide beside the buffer zone along the Gaza strip is directly affecting the livelihoods of Palestinians in violation of international standards, a new report claims.

The study tracked the drift of the herbicides on to the Gazan side and concluded it was killing agricultural crops and causing “unpredictable and uncontrollable damage”, according to the report’s main researcher.

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Jewish and Arab students learn to cross divides at Jerusalem school

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Pupils believe their bilingual school is proof that peace is possible between Palestinians and Israelis

It’s mid-morning in grade one and children are sitting in small groups, peering over colourful maths books. When it reaches 9.45am, a song plays for morning break and excited chattering breaks out.

It sounds like a typical classroom scene, but their school, say students, is unlike any other. The children are growing up in Jerusalem, a city at the heart of the Israel and Palestine conflict, where communities are deeply divided. Max Rayne Hand in Hand school is the only place in Jerusalem where students from Jewish and Arab backgrounds learn together, studying a bilingual and multicultural curriculum.

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Syria accuses Israel of ‘heinous aggression’ after airstrikes

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Syria accuses Israel of ‘practising state terrorism’ after strikes reported to have killed at least 15 people

Syria has accused Israel of “heinous aggression” after alleged Israeli airstrikes killed several civilians.

“Israeli authorities are increasingly practising state terrorism,” the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official Sana news agency on Tuesday. “The latest heinous Israeli aggression falls within the framework of ongoing Israeli attempts to prolong the crisis in Syria,” it added.

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Stray missile from Syria-Israel clash lands in Cyprus – video

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A stray missile has exploded in mid-air over villages in northern Cyprus, thought to have been fired by Syrian forces in response to an Israeli attack. Hours after the projectile struck the area at about 1am local time (11pm BST) debris was still being discovered in Turkish Cypriot villages

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Jared Kushner’s ‘deal of the century’ fails to materialise in Bahrain

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Senior adviser to Trump found no interest in his proposals for ending Israel/Palestine conflict

In the end, the ‘deal of the century’ was little more than a failed clearance sale. Jared Kushner arrived in Bahrain touting bedrock principles at untenable discounts. And even then there were no buyers.

The conference that was supposed to offer a new way out of the malaise of the Israel/Palestine conflict provided little of the sort. Its central premise of prosperity as a precursor to a lasting solution barely appeared to register on either side of the separation wall.

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Kushner plan leaves Middle East deal seeming further away than ever

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Plan demands Palestinians put a price on their surrender or risk losing even more ground

In the long, lamented history of Israeli-Palestinian peace plans, rarely have expectations been so low. As Jared Kushner took to the stage in Bahrain to effectively lay waste to decades of doctrine on how to solve the conflict, a solution seemed more out of reach than ever.

Kushner’s proposal has been put together by hardliners who have tossed out the rulebook and written a formula of their own serving the interests of the Israeli rightwing.

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Phase one of US Middle East peace plan greeted with scepticism

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No Israelis or Palestinians present for launch of plan that shreds decades of diplomacy

The first phase of the Trump administration’s long-awaited peace plan for Israel and Palestine has been rolled out to scepticism, anger and outright derision.

A conference hall of regional officials – with no Israelis or Palestinians present – was the first to hear details of the US-brokered deal, an economic blueprint that shreds decades of diplomacy and which even its mooted financial backers seemed reluctant to embrace.

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Jared Kushner’s economic blueprint for Palestinians faces boycott and derision

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Trump son-in-law’s plan, which ignores the key political issues, is dismissed as ‘a fantasy that is completely divorced from reality’

A US-designed economic blueprint for Israeli-Palestinian peace will be launched in Bahrain on Tuesday, without the participation of either Palestinian or Israeli officials.

The Palestinians are boycotting the conference and a late decision was taken not to invite Israelis. A relative handful of Palestinian business leaders are expected in Bahrain, for what is widely seen as a “vanity project” for Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

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US joins four rogue countries seen as likely forces for bad, poll finds

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Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran and the US are also seen as less likely to use their influence for good than they were 10 years ago

The United States has joined Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran in a rogue’s gallery of countries perceived as likely to use their influence for bad. All five countries are also seen as less likely to use their influence for good than they were 10 years ago.

Related: ‘Credible evidence’ Saudi crown prince liable for Khashoggi killing – UN report

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‘Trump Heights’: Israeli settlement in Golan named after US president

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‘It will mean something for him, that there is a place in the world, far away from the States, with his name,’ says resident in community

It is a world away from the grandiose high-rises that bear his name.

A sleepy, crumbling hamlet of fewer than a dozen Israeli residents surrounded by sun-parched fields of crisp hay. Weeds punctuate the cracked asphalt of a basketball court, its rusted hoops leaning at angles.

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