Category Archives: Palestinian Territories

Power is everything – and progressives forget that at their peril | Jonathan Freedland

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As Boris Johnson and Donald Trump know, being in office means setting your own agenda

You take comfort where you can. Especially at a time like this, when the side of progress is beleaguered, when left or liberal values are taking a hammering on every front, apparently losing every battle, it’s natural to cling to whatever blanket of consolation we can find. When a single week can see Britain leave the European Union and Donald Trump bragging and swaggering in vengeful celebration as he escapes punishment for a high crime he clearly committed, the need for soothing can become intense. One such solace is that, despite the concrete defeats visible all around us, the left is somehow “winning the argument”.

Related: Without the BBC we could be facing a post-truth dystopia | Jonathan Freedland

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Jared Kushner insists Middle East peace plan is ‘a real effort to break logjam’

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  • Kushner hopes Palestinians ‘read’ the Middle East peace plan
  • Mahmoud Abbas cuts ties with US and Israel after rejecting plan

Though the Palestinian Authority has cut ties with the US and Israel over the Trump administration’s plan for Middle East peace, its author has insisted his plan is not dead yet.

Related: What we Palestinians think does not matter – all that matters is Israel | Diana Buttu

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Palestinians cut ties with Israel and US after rejecting Trump peace plan

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  • Mahmoud Abbas addresses Arab League in Cairo
  • Trump and Netanyahu presented peace plan last month

The Palestinian Authority has cut all ties with the US and Israel, including those relating to security, after rejecting a Middle East peace plan presented by Donald Trump, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said on Saturday.

Related: Trump's foreign policy is cynical and self-interested. His 'peace plan' is no exception | Michael H Fuchs

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Labour condemns government for praising Trump Middle East plan

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Emily Thornberry accuses Boris Johnson’s administration of ‘shameful betrayal’

Labour has condemned the government for praising Donald Trump’s vision for Middle East peace, with the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, calling it a “shameful betrayal” of previous UK support for a viable two-state solution.

In an urgent Commons question on the plan, which has been condemned for granting Israel the bulk of its wishes but only offering a Palestinian state under severe restrictions, Thornberry called it “a monstrosity” and a guarantee of future violence.

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The Guardian view on Trump’s ‘peace plan’: a con, not a deal | Editorial

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A two-state solution came about as the result of a rules-based world order, which Mr Trump detests because it is inimical to the raw power that he prefers to govern global affairs

Donald Trump’s Arab-Israeli peace plan rests upon the absurdity of the Palestinians accepting a state in name alone. Since 1993’s Oslo accords, hope had been kindled that a “Palestine” could be created from most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with its capital in East Jerusalem. The Trump administration’s document pays lip service to such an entity while shrinking its size and mutilating its scope to non-existence. It envisages the potential transfer of Palestinian towns out of Israel. It contains a blatant attempt to stop Palestinians seeking justice for war crimes – including those currently under way. Mr Trump boasts he is a dealmaker, offering $50bn in investment if Palestinians trade away their civil and national rights. But Palestinians see a conman with no intention of making good on empty promises.

This proposal is a sop to rightwing ideologues in the US and Israel. It ends the charade that Mr Trump could play a mediating role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has good reason to think his visit to Washington is his finest hour. He once warned Israel would be in mortal danger if a viable Palestine existed alongside it. The indications are Mr Netanyahu’s cabinet will vote in days to begin annexing all settlements in the West Bank as well as the Jordan Valley. The old gibe against the Palestinians – that they never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity for peace – is singularly inappropriate. Mr Trump’s blatant support for Israel and his snub of the Palestinians in drafting his plan has let Mr Netanyahu do whatever he wants.

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‘We will never be Jerusalem’: Abu Dis pours scorn on Trump plan

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Mayor of Palestinian town cut off from Jerusalem by Israeli wall says it has no aspiration to be capital of future ‘state’

It seems nobody thinks much of the hillside Palestinian town of Abu Dis, not even its mayor, who finds it hard to say why he took the job. “For real, I don’t know,” he said. “There’s a lot of crime and drugs.”

When they still lived in a village with stunning views of the golden Dome of the Rock and the Mount of Olives, families from Abu Dis would walk across the valleys into Jerusalem to sell sheep, goats and cheese.

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Trump’s Middle East peace plan: key points at a glance

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President’s vision emphasises Israel’s security rather than Palestinian self-determination

President Donald Trump has unveiled his much-touted Middle East peace plan, tweeting a map showing his vision for an even further depleted Palestinian state than that envisioned by the Oslo peace agreement in 1993.

The crude “concept” map in the plan shows the occupied Jordan valley under Israeli control – although Trump suggests that could be eased in the future – and a West Bank split north and south around Jerusalem, heavily eaten into by Israeli settlements which the plan proposes to recognise under Israeli sovereignty.

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All that’s missing from Trump’s ‘overly good’ Middle East plan is Palestinians

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The unusually detailed 80-page proposal fulfils a wishlist of Israeli demands while abandoning longstanding tenets of US diplomacy

Donald Trump pronounced his newly unveiled peace plan “overly good” to the Palestinians but it was the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was at his side, grinning broadly.

Related: 'Don't talk about history': how Jared Kushner crafted his Middle East 'peace' plan

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Trump unveils Middle East peace plan with no Palestinian support

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Plan offers route to Palestinian state but recognises Israeli settlements in West Bank

Donald Trump has unveiled his vision for Middle East peace in a White House launch that gifted Israel a wishlist of its long-held demands while promising Palestinians a potential “state”, but with severe restrictions.

Standing next to the smiling Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump announced details of the 181-page plan to cheers and applause. Palestinian leaders were absent from the launch, having pre-emptively rejected his proposal, citing flagrant bias.

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Trump unveils ‘ultimate deal’ for Middle East peace – video

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The US president launches his plan for peace in the Middle East, saying the 80-page proposal offers a 'realistic two-state solution' that has already been agreed to by Israel as the basis for negotiations. Despite the absence of a Palestinian presence at the launch, Trump says the US will support Palestine if the president, Mahmoud Abbas, 'chooses the path to peace'

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Where once there was fury, Palestinian issue now stirs up apathy

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Region no longer views fate of Palestinians as lynchpin, or – in some cases – even a cause worth championing loudly

For much of the last 70 years the cause of Palestine stirred the Arab street. From Yemen to Morocco and all points in between, laments were sung in song and enshrined in poetry as the decades mounted without a Palestinian state. Regional statesmen built careers by standing by a people without a land. Wars were fought and lost in their name.

After the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, that slowly began to change and by the time Iran became the preoccupation of the US and its allies in the region, the Palestinians were cast into the unfamiliar role of playing second fiddle. Then came Donald Trump, and ever since the once-overarching cause of the region has barely been given a seat in the orchestra pit.

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Trump to meet Israeli leaders as doubts over ‘peace plan’ grow

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Netanyahu’s trip a welcome distraction from indictment while election opponent Gantz also visits White House

Donald Trump is set to disclose details of his much-delayed Middle East “peace plan” during meetings with Israeli leaders in Washington on Monday, amid a rising global chorus of doubt about its timing and substance.

The choreography between the US and Israel has been interpreted as a convenient distraction for both Trump, who faces an impeachment trial, and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces three criminal corruption indictments and an uncertain election campaign.

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Former BBC executives criticise Orla Guerin’s Holocaust report

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Michael Grade and Danny Cohen hit out at ‘unjustifiably offensive’ News at Ten piece

The former BBC chairman Michael Grade and Danny Cohen, its former director of television, have joined criticism of the broadcaster over an “unjustifiably offensive” News at Ten report that appeared to link Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust.

Orla Guerin, the BBC’s international correspondent, made the reference at the end of an interview with Holocaust survivor Rena Quint ahead of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

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Prince Charles wishes Palestinians ‘freedom, justice and equality’

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Prince of Wales walks alongside Muslim and Christian leaders on historic visit to West Bank

The Prince of Wales has sympathised with the Palestinian people, speaking of the hardships they face and saying he wished them “freedom, justice and equality” in the future.

Charles’s words of support – spoken during his first visit to the Palestinian occupied territories – came as Donald Trump was expected to unveil his long-awaited Middle East peace plan.

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Donald Trump invites Israeli leaders to Washington to hear peace plan details

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  • ‘Ultimate deal’ reported to be extremely favourable to Israel
  • Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader to visit next week

Donald Trump has invited Israel’s prime minister and leader of the opposition to Washington for talks on the “prospects of peace”, signalling that the White House was preparing to share details of its long-awaited “ultimate deal” for Israelis and Palestinians.

Mike Pence, the US vice-president who is visiting Jerusalem for a Holocaust remembrance forum, said after a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu that he had asked the leader to fly to Washington next week.

“President Trump asked me to extend an invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to come to the White House next week to discuss regional issues as well as the prospect of peace here in the Holy Land,” he said. Opposition leader Benny Gantz would also visit, he added, although it was not clear if at the same time.

No Palestinian representatives appeared to have been invited.

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Benjamin Netanyahu hustled off stage at election rally after rocket launched from Gaza – video

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Israel's prime minister was bundled off the stage at an election rally on Wednesday after sirens rang out, warning of a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. The incident happened in the southern town of Ashkelon, a few miles from Gaza. Israeli authorities said their Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted the rocket. Netanyahu was campaigning hours before an internal Likud party leadership ballot

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Benjamin Netanyahu takes shelter after rocket launched from Gaza

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Second attack in three months forces Israel’s prime minister to interrupt campaign rally

A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip at a southern Israeli city as it hosted a campaign rally prompted the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to take shelter briefly before resuming the event, Israeli TV stations have reported.

The Israeli military confirmed the launch on Wednesday against Ashkelon, which is 12km (7.5 miles) from the coastal Palestinian enclave, and said the rocket was shot down by an Iron Dome air defence interceptor.

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Barriers, barbed wire and borders in the head: Josef Koudelka’s Holy Land

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The Magnum photographer grew up behind the iron curtain. As a documentary charts his journey where Israel and Palestine meet, Koudelka talks about challenging official narratives – and himself

There’s a surreal moment near the start of Koudelka Shooting Holy Land, a documentary about the acclaimed photographer Josef Koudelka. He has pointed his lens at one of the concrete barriers that separate Israel and Palestine but has been stopped by an official and a heavily armed soldier. His local assistant, Gilad Baram, is trying to smooth things over. “It might result in a book,” Baram tells the soldier. “He is a one of the most renowned photographers worldwide. He is a photographer with an agency called Magnum.”

Suddenly the atmosphere changes. “Magnum? Ah, I know it,” says the soldier, his stern face breaking into a smile. A short discussion later, a friendly handshake and all is well.

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Musicians decry Hamas ban on co-ed school concerts in Gaza

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Authorities sanction strict Islamic fatwa that forbids boys and girls playing together on stage – but face strong criticism from teachers

Two orchestral concerts by students and graduates of Gaza’s decade-old music conservatory have been cancelled after the Hamas authorities insisted for the first time that they could not go ahead with girls and boys playing together on stage.

The Gaza music school, part of the Palestinian-wide Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, rejected a new single-sex condition which the conductor told the Observer would be a disaster for the 45-member orchestra if sustained by the de facto government.

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ICC to investigate alleged Israeli and Palestinian war crimes

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu hits out at ‘baseless and scandalous decision’

There is sufficient evidence to investigate alleged Israeli and Palestinian war crimes committed in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, the international criminal court has announced.

In a landmark decision, the ICC said it saw “no substantial reasons to believe that an investigation would not serve the interests of justice”.

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