EU removes reference to ‘disputed’ territories in statement on Israel settlements
Middle East Monitor / January 10, 2020
The European Union (EU) deleted a reference to “disputed lands” from a statement issued yesterday condemning Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, reported the Times of Israel.
The initial version of the statement by Brussel’s new foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, issued via...
Israel’s plan to isolate Al-Aqsa Mosque, end Waqf role
Middle East Monitor / January 9, 2020
Since the start of the year, Israel has been implementing a plan to isolate and suffocate Al-Aqsa Mosque and change its status.
The Deputy Director of the Muslim Waqf (Religious Endowments) Department in occupied Jerusalem, Najeh Bkerat, said the occupation is increasing the frequency...
Report: 34 Palestinians victims of PA, Israel revolving door arrest policy
Middle East Monitor / January 9, 2020
At least 34 Palestinians were arrested in 2019 as part of the Palestinian Authority’s revolving door security coordination policy which sees Israel arrest Palestinians shortly after they are released by the PA or vice versa, the committee of prisoners’ families announced yesterday.
Reported by Safa news...
Netanyahu: I won’t let settlements be uprooted in any diplomatic plan
Middle East Monitor / January 9, 2020
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared yesterday that he will not agree to the removal of any Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in the context of a peace deal.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu was speaking at a conference organised by...
Report: Israel carried out 760 violations against Palestinian journalists in 2019
Middle East Monitor / January 9, 2020
Israeli occupation forces committed 760 violations and crimes against Palestinian journalists in 2019, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS) has said.
In a report issued by the Freedoms Committee, the PJS recorded 12 critical injuries with live ammunition, 62 injuries with rubber-coated steel bullets and 58 injuries...
Bennett: Israel is working to apply sovereignty to all of Area C
Middle east Monitor / January 9, 2020
Israeli Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said yesterday that “Area C” of the occupied West Bank belongs to Israel, Anadolu reported.
“I solemnly declare that Area C belongs to Israel,” Bennett said at a conference on settlement construction, adding that he has repeatedly called for imposing Israeli...
US envoy: Next plan is to let Israel annex West Bank
Middle East Monitor / January 9, 2020
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said yesterday that America’s next step, after recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, is the annexation of the occupied West Bank, Ma’an reported.
In a press conference held jointly with the Israeli Defence...
Israel issues home demolition notices to Palestinian families in Jerusalem
Middle East Monitor / January 8, 2020
The Israeli-run Municipality of Jerusalem delivered at least 12 home demolition notices to Palestinian residents in the city’s Isawiyeh neighbourhood today, Maan News Agency has reported.
The notices were issued under the pretext that the homes were built without a permit. Palestinians are rarely granted building permits by...
Israeli settlers cut 50 olive trees in occupied West Bank
Middle East Monitor / January 9, 2020
Israeli settlers yesterday chopped down more than 50 perennial olive trees in the occupied West Bank’s northern village of Nablus.
The Palestinian official in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Douglas, told Wafa that the settlers from the Jewish illegal settlement...
Justice at Last? ‘Panic’ in Israel as the ICC takes ‘momentous step’ in the...
Ramzy Baroud
Middle East Monitor / January 6, 2020
At long last, Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has uttered the long-anticipated conclusion that “all the statutory criteria under the Rome statute for the opening of an investigation (into alleged war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian...
