‘The move against Palestine is not a step that can be stomached,’ says Erdoğan
Turkey has threatened to suspend its diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates and recall its envoy, a day after the Gulf state announced it would become the third Arab country to establish full ties with Israel.
“The move against Palestine is not a step that can be stomached,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters on Friday.
Continue reading...Israel’s relationship with neighbours is no longer defined by occupation, Palestinians say
Shortly after Donald Trump announced he had brokered a “huge breakthrough” deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the White House published a list of bullet points detailing what it had achieved.
Only at the bottom, just after “expanded business and financial ties between these two thriving economies”, did the very last sentence blandly mention what had previously been the key regional issue: the fate of the Palestinians.
Continue reading...Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced an agreement on Thursday that will lead to a full normalisation of diplomatic relations between the two states, a move that reshapes the order of Middle East politics from the Palestinian issue to Iran. However, cracks in the deal became quickly apparent, with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying there was 'no change' to his annexation plans, while the UAE insisted that it 'immediately stops annexation'. The agreement was rejected by Palestinians, with some calling it a conspiracy.
Trump hails US-brokered pact as ‘peace agreement’ but cracks quickly appear as Netanyahu denies change of plan
Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties in a historic Washington-brokered deal under which Israel will “suspend” its plans to annex parts of the Palestinian territories.
However, cracks in the deal became quickly apparent after its announcement on Thursday, with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying there was “no change” to his annexation plans, while the UAE insisted that it “immediately stops annexation”.
Continue reading...Common ground rests on a ‘peace plan’ aided by splintered Arab solidarity over Palestine
The peace deal that few saw coming had been gathering steam in plain sight. Even before the election of Donald Trump, Israel and the UAE had been inching closer, drawn together by three factors – enmity with Iran, a loathing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a mutual belief that the agreed formula for peace with Palestinians was no longer working.
More than anything else, combating Iran became the conduit for the two sides. The adage of a foe of a foe becoming a friend has rarely been more apt. Tehran’s determination to acquire a nuclear weapon, its extensive reach into the Arab world, potential to shut off the Strait of Hormuz, and Shia Islamic revolutionary zeal, provided enough common ground for both sides to sharply deepen intelligence links to strategic levels over the past four years.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has said the United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt the annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their future state. US officials described the agreement, to be known as the Abraham Accords, as the first of its kind since Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994. It also gives Trump a foreign policy success as he seeks re-election in November
Continue reading...Actor says when he was younger he wasn’t told Palestinians lived on land that became the Jewish state
Seth Rogen has said he was “fed a huge amount of lies about Israel” as a young Jewish person, stoking controversy around the country’s sometimes fraught relationship with many North American Jews.
The Canadian-US actor, who attended Jewish camp and whose parents met on a kibbutz in Israel, said the fact that the Jewish state was created on land where Palestinians were living had always been omitted.
Continue reading...Romantic seascapes – with political message in washed up life jackets – raise funds for Bethlehem hospital
A Banksy triptych, which aims to make a powerful political statement on the global migrant crisis, sold for £2.2m at an auction in London that also featured works by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Bridget Riley.
The three paintings were offered by Banksy to raise money for a hospital in Bethlehem.
Continue reading...Israel accused British charity of links to Hamas in 2014, although Islamic Relief says it has yet to see ‘credible evidence’
A Tel Aviv court is set to hear a petition from Islamic Relief to restart its aid work in the occupied West Bank, six years after the Israeli government designated the charity a “terrorist organisation”.
Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) said the designation had left more than 70,000 Palestinians without vital support. It will argue on Monday that allegations linking it to the Palestinian militant group Hamas were unfounded.
Continue reading...Despite a prompt lockdown, the veteran leader is seen to have lost control of the crisis
For Benjamin Netanyahu it wasn’t a bad spring this year, considering the previous 12 months.
The prime minister managed, somehow, to continue his treasured run as Israel’s longest-serving leader, despite a scandalous corruption indictment, three national elections that almost ousted him, and a menacing party primary. Having been sworn back into power – his fifth term – in May, the 70-year-old politician won global praise for a swift lockdown, with Israel cited as a textbook example of how to handle a pandemic.
Continue reading...Prime minister Omar Razzaz says Israel’s annexation plan would destabilise region
Jordan’s prime minister has said his country could view positively a “one-state democratic solution” to the Israel-Palestine dispute, as he warned that Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank could unleash a new wave of extremism in the Middle East.
Omar Razzaz told the Guardian that the Israeli prime minister’s annexation policy would be “ushering in a new apartheid state” that could be a radicalising force and further destabilise the region.
Continue reading...The future of Israel-Palestine lies in it becoming a federal democracy with liberal values
For now, the coronavirus crisis appears to have stayed Israel’s outright annexation of the West Bank. Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial – he’s been accused of bribery, fraud and “breach of trust” – has been newly invigorated, a development that may further delay the announcement. But talk of annexation is beside the point. Fifty-three years of occupation and settlements have produced their own reality. Ironically, it is a reality that may give hope to those who seek justice in Israel-Palestine.
For many in the movement for Palestinian rights, the Oslo process – which began in 1993 and was ostensibly designed to produce a Palestinian state alongside Israel – appeared too limited in its ambitions. The Palestinian struggle has evolved from being a struggle for national rights, a 19th-century ideal, to one focused on human rights, a timeless, universal ideal. Indeed, while there are Palestinians who are committed to an ethnic Palestinian state, many are not. Personal dignity, an inclusive state, the freedom to preserve cultural identities (or not), freedom of movement and the pursuit of a life lived free of racial or ethnic fetters – those are our ideals.
Continue reading...Political fictions take a long time to die, if they ever fully do. The two-state solution is one of them
Israel’s impending annexation of the West Bank has put the fate of the two-state solution – or, perhaps more accurately its death – back in the headlines. Yet neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of his annexation intentions, nor the Trump “peace plan”, killed the chances of two states, which ceased to be realistic long ago. What the great drama of annexation playing out in the Anglo-American press is really about – in no small part due to the exclusion of Palestinian voices – is whether liberal Zionists will reconcile themselves to this reality or continue to deny it.
Related: Israel's annexation of the West Bank will be yet another tragedy for Palestinians | Ian Black
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...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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