Trump administration to provide $60 million in Palestinian aid, withhold $65 million
January 16th, 20180 WASHINGTON - The United States will give a U.N. agency $60 million in aid for Palestinians but will withhold a further $65 million “for future consideration,” a U.S. official said on Tuesday. In keeping back some of the aid, Washington appeared to carry out a threat made by President Trump in a Twitter post on Jan. 2 in which he...
Hamas: Palestinian unity deal is collapsing
December 24th, 20170 GAZA —Hamas’ leader in Gaza said on Thursday a reconciliation deal with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction was collapsing, just 10 weeks after the agreement was reached. The rivals signed a deal brokered by Cairo on Oct. 12 after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of the Gaza Strip, including its border...
Trump tells Arab leaders he will move embassy to Jerusalem, breaking with U.S. policy
December 5th, 20170 WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM - President Donald Trump told Israeli and Arab leaders on Tuesday that he intends to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a decision that breaks with decades of U.S. policy and risks fueling violence in the Middle East. Senior U.S. officials said Trump on Wednesday, Dec. 6, is expected to recognize...
Kushner: Trump still considering whether to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
December 3rd, 20170 WASHINGTON – President Trump has not yet made a decision on whether to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, his adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner said on Sunday, a move that would break with decades of U.S. policy and could fuel violence in the Middle East. “He’s still looking at a lot of different facts, and...
Interpol approves membership for State of Palestine over Israeli objections
September 29th, 20170 JERUSALEM ― Interpol voted on Wednesday to admit the State of Palestine as a member over Israeli objections at the international police organization’s general assembly in Beijing. The decision came despite Israeli efforts to delay a vote and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the Palestinians’ joining the...
Six dead in clashes in Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon
August 24th, 20170 SIDON, Lebanon ― Two members of the Palestinian group Fatah were killed in clashes with Islamist groups in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon on Wednesday, medical sources said, bringing the number of dead to six in nearly a week of fighting. The two sides later agreed a ceasefire deal, Palestinian officials said, as a security...
Netanyahu climbdown in Al-Aqsa standoff, thousands of worshipers surge into holy site
July 27th, 20170 JERUSALEM - Thousands of Muslim worshippers surged into Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday and at least 113 were hurt in scuffles with police after Israel lifted security measures imposed at the sacred site in the face of days of violent protests. Chaotic scenes unfolded as Israeli forces used stun grenades to try to control...
Israel replaces Al-Aqsa mosques metal detectors with surveillance cameras, Palestinians reject new measures
July 25th, 20170 JERUSALEM - Palestinians have vowed to continue protests and confrontations with Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, in rejection of new surveillance cameras installed at the gates to al-Aqsa Mosque compound. After a security cabinet meeting late on Monday, a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
U.N.: Solution is needed by this Friday to curb escalating violence in Jerusalem
July 24th, 20170 NEW YORK - United Nations Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov warned on Monday that a solution was needed by Friday to the Jerusalem mosque crisis, which he said threatens to have "potential catastrophic costs well beyond the walls of the Old City." Israel installed metal detectors at entry points to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in...
Al-Aqsa standoff: Palestinian anger mounts over holy site restrictions
July 21st, 20170 JERUSALEM — For the first time in decades, Israel closed the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City to worshipers on Friday, July 14. The closure followed an attack near an entrance to the compound that houses the al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites for Muslims, following a deadly shootout that killed two Israelis and...
Palestinian driver shot dead after ramming car into Israeli soldiers
July 18th, 20170 JERUSALEM - A Palestinian driver rammed his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and was shot dead by the troops, the Israeli military said. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials. According to Israel's Magen David Adom, two of their soldiers were slightly wounded. "In...
Israeli ‘counter-terrorism boot camp’ a tourist attraction in occupied West Bank
July 17th, 20170 GUSH ETZION SETTLEMENT, WEST BANK – Taking in the scene of a simulated fruit market in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, a group of tourists ponders whether a poster-size figure of an Arab man holding a cellphone is a threat and should be shot. The aim of the mock scenario is to teach rapt foreign visitors how to deal...
50 years later, the 1967 Naksa continues to shape policies and inflict misery
June 10th, 20171 DEARBORN — The 1967 Six Day War was one of the most salient events of the Arab-Israeli conflict, its effect evident through its shaping of Israeli and Arab political discourse. While its byproducts continue to resonate, the events of the Six Day War are solidified largely through oration and narrative. "There's historical...
Trump delays moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem by six months
June 1st, 20170 WASHINGTON — President Trump signed an order on Thursday to keep the U.S. Embassy in Israel in Tel Aviv temporarily instead of relocating it to Jerusalem, despite his campaign pledge to go ahead with the controversial move. After months of fierce debate within his administration, Trump chose to continue his predecessors' policy of...
Jewish nation-state bill: Israel’s precarious identity is Palestine’s nightmare
May 19th, 20170 The Israeli Knesset (parliament) has hurriedly passed a new bill that defines Israel as the "national home of the Jewish people." Although the association between Jewishness and Israel goes back to the foundation of the state, the new law also carries clear discriminatory elements that target the country's Arab communities, numbering......
Palestinian killed as settler opens fire during clashes
May 19th, 20170 WEST BANK — A Palestinian man was killed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday when an Israeli settler opened fire as protesters crowded around his car and pelted it with rocks, according to multiple accounts. A Reuters photographer and other witnesses said hundreds of Palestinians had gathered near the city of Nablus to show...
Trump visit seen as long shot to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking
May 19th, 20170 JERUSALEM — Just four months after taking office, Donald Trump will make the earliest foray into Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking by any U.S. president next week. But with mounting obstacles at home and abroad, he faces long odds of succeeding where more experienced predecessors have failed. Even as last-minute changes are being made......
Palestinian killed as settler opens fire during peaceful protest
May 18th, 20170 WEST BANK ― A Palestinian man was killed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday when an Israeli settler opened fire as protesters crowded around his car and pelted it with rocks, according to multiple accounts. A Reuters photographer and other witnesses said hundreds of Palestinians had gathered near the city of Nablus to show...
‘I had no choice:’ Odeh accepts plea deal, resists admission of guilt
April 27th, 20170 DETROIT— Hours before Rasmea Odeh entered her plea in court on Tuesday, dozens of supporters, ranging from organizers and Chicago-based defense team members, rallied outside the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in opposition to the parameters set around her conviction. Groups in attendance included the U.S....
BREAKING: Federal government drop charges against AMP staffers
April 24th, 20170 WASHINGTON, D.C.- Federal authorities have dropped charges against AMP (American Muslims for Palestine) staffers Taher Herzallah and Kareem El-Hosseiny. The two men, both employees for the group, faced charges for disrupting David Freidman's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, vocalizing opposition to the U.S. Ambassador to...
Israeli troops kill Palestinian who rammed West Bank bus stop
April 20th, 20170 BETHLEHEM ― Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian driver who rammed his car into a bus stop in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday injuring a pedestrian, the army and a hospital spokesman said. An army statement said the car rammed a bus stop at Gush Etzion Junction, a busy intersection near a cluster of Israeli West Bank......
More than a thousand Palestinians in Israeli jails begin hunger strike
April 17th, 20170 WEST BANK ― Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails began a hunger strike on Monday in response to a call by prominent prisoner Marwan Barghouti, widely seen as a possible future Palestinian president. Palestinians termed the open-ended strike a protest against poor conditions and an Israeli policy of detention without trial that...
Two JDL members arrested for brutally beating Palestinian man outside AIPAC conference
April 1st, 20170 WASHINGTON, D.C. ― A 55-year old Palestinian-American instructor at a North Carolina community college was “brutally beaten” by members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) whil e walking through a protest outside the AIPAC conference in Washington D.C. on Sunday. The man was identified as Kamal Nayfeh. The JDL members......
Israeli ban targeting boycott supporters raises alarm abroad
March 24th, 20170 JERUSALEM — A law barring foreigners from entering Israel if they back boycotts against the country is causing alarm among liberal American Jews and others who perceive an attempt to suppress critical political opinion. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government has long campaigned against the Palestinian-led Boycott,...As drugs flood into Gaza, Hamas getting tougher on smugglers
GAZA — Marijuana and prescription painkillers are flooding into the Gaza Strip as never before, prompting officials from the ruling faction Hamas to seek tougher punishments for smuggling drugs into the blockaded territory. The quantity of drugs seized in Gaza in January was as much as for the whole of 2016, officials said. Eight......
