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Several Palestinian clans have rejected The Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a move widely seen as a revolt against the PA. Critics of the treaty claim that it goes against Arab and Islamic norms and teachings. “This treaty is unacceptable to Arabs and Muslims,” remarked Palestinian activist Abu Ghassan Shaheen. “It goes against our religion and traditions.” On Saturday, leaders of large Palestinian clans in Hebron called on the PA to withdraw from the treaty. They also called for banning feminist groups from entering Palestinian schools. The clan leaders expressed opposition to the PA’s...

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said Friday her team plans to launch an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, drawing a sharp rebuke from Israel. In a statement, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Besouda said there was a “reasonable basis” for an investigation. “In brief, I am satisfied that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip,” she said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the announcement by the Hague-based court as a “dark day for truth and justice.” “The ICC prosecutor’s decision...

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council held its periodic hearing on the Middle East. In her capacity as president of the Security Council for December, US Ambassador Kelly Craft invited Adele Raemer, a resident of Kibbutz Nirim near Gaza, to address the council. This is the first time an Israeli from the south will speak to the Security Council. In her address, Ms. Raemer asked the council: “Have you ever had to run for your life? When I hear the Red Alert early warning system for incoming rockets, I know that I have between 5-10 seconds to get to someplace...

The most potent non-military threat to Israel’s existence is the opposition to Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights by the international community, led by the European Union. The EU is the largest single donor to the Palestinians – more than a half-billion euros annually. It funds over two dozen anti-Israel propaganda organizations (NGOs) dedicated to demonizing Israel – over €6 million annually. In addition, these NGOs also receive millions from individual European countries. The EU is the largest contributor to UNRWA, which is dedicated to Israel’s demise. The EU supported US president Barack Obama’s “deal” with...

Joe Biden said Saturday that it is “bizarre” for Bernie Sanders to propose withholding U.S. military aid from Israel if the government there doesn’t moderate its treatment of Palestinians. The remarks highlight a nuanced but significant distinction between the Democratic presidential contenders. Biden and Sanders support a “two-state solution” for Israel and the Palestinians, and both men have criticized political leaders on each side of the long-standing conflict. But Biden’s take, offered during a question-and-answer session with Iowa voters, hewed a more traditional U.S. establishment line by reaffirming a financial commitment to Israel regardless of its actions toward Palestinians. The...

The House on Friday approved a resolution supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, recording opposition to any peace plan put forth by the Trump administration that doesn’t expressly call for an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side with a Jewish state of Israel. Only 5 Republicans backed the measure in the 226-183 vote, though 11 GOP lawmakers had joined a bipartisan amendment reaffirming U.S. commitments to providing military aid to Israel that was added to the bill.

The European Union’s top court ruled Tuesday that EU countries must identify products made in Israeli settlements on their labels, in a decision welcomed by rights groups but likely to spark anger in Israel. The European Court of Justice said that “foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the State of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin.” The Luxembourg-based court said when products come from an Israeli settlement, their labeling must provide an “indication of that provenance” so that consumers can make “informed choices” when they shop. The EU has consistently spoken out against Israeli settlement...

The Fatah movement headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas emphasizes its continued adherence to the "national struggle" as a means to counter all the "colonialist" plans which they believe seek to undermine the existence of the "Palestinian people" and their cause. Such "colonialist" plans range from the Balfour Declaration to US President Donald Trump's peace plan. On the occasion of the approaching 102nd anniversary of the statement by former British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour in support of the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people, the Fatah movement called the Balfour Declaration a "historic crime" against humanity...

At the joint press conference (Video embedded below), Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "We are now the largest bilateral donors in the Palestinian territories." According to Germany's Bild news, the federal government announced that in 2018 about 166.2 million euros flowed to the Palestinians. In addition, Germany transferred about 173.2 million euros to UNRWA, a UN agency for Palestinian Muslims. Throughout her years as Chancellor, Angela Merkel gave the Palestinian Authority more than half a billion dollars, not including foreign aid to UNRWA. The Palestinian Authority openly pays salaries to every terrorist who murdered Jews as an act of jihad. In...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has threatened that as president she would consider cutting off U.S. aid to Israel if the country moves against a two-state solution, but last year, she condemned President Trump for cutting off aid to intransigent Palestinians. The Democratic front-runner said regarding aid to Israel, "Right now, Netanyahu says he is going to take Israel in a direction of increasing settlements. That does not move us toward a two-state solution." She added, "It is the official policy of the United States of America to support a two-state solution, and if Israel is moving in the opposite direction, then...

Michigan Independent Rep. Justin Amash blasted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a “Donald Trump asset,” arguing in a Friday night Twitter post that Clinton’s criticism of Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard will only “drive many people into the arms of Donald Trump.” “The thing we know for sure is that Hillary Clinton is a Donald Trump asset,” Amash, a frequent Trump critic who recently left the Republican Party to become an Independent, tweeted Friday night. “Hillary does — and did — drive many people into the arms of Donald Trump. Her attack on Tulsi does likewise. In my...

A Palestinian rally set to take place Wednesday in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate has caused a diplomatic storm as both the Israeli and US ambassadors to Germany called for a performance by Palestinian rappers Shadi Al-Bourini and Shadi Al-Najjar to be banned. Their pressure succeeded at the last hour with the Jüdische Allgemeine newspaper reporting, just 30 minuted before the rally was due to start, that the Berlin Senate Department for Home Affairs and Sport said it was banning the two rappers from appearing. The spokesperson for the Home Affairs and Sport Ministry, Martin Pallgen, said it would probably...

The United Nations released an “unprecedented” report on anti-Semitism on Monday, which pointed out that the frequency appears to be increasing. It also linked anti-Semitism to denunciations of Israel as well as the Palestinian-led Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for a boycott of all Israeli products. The report stressed that the “prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes and the risk of violence against Jewish individuals and sites “ is significant. The report, “Combating Antisemitism to Eliminate Discrimination and Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief,” was released on Monday by U.N. Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on freedom of religion or...

New official data obtained by The Associated Press shows a spike in Jewish settlement construction in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem since President Donald Trump took office in 2017, along with strong evidence of decades of systematic discrimination illustrated by a huge gap in the number of construction permits granted to Jewish and Palestinian residents. The expansion of Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem, which Israel seized along with the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, threatens to further complicate one of the thorniest issues in the conflict. The refusal to grant permits to Palestinian residents has confined them to...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce later Tuesday his intention to promote annexation steps in the occupied West Bank if he wins the next week's elections, an Israeli official tells me. Why it matters: Netanyahu has already spoken about annexation before Israel's elections in April, but he didn’t commit or promise anything. Netanyahu’s statement is directed at his right-wing base and the settler lobby in order to boost support for his Likud party over other right-wing parties, ensuring that Likud wins most seats in the elections to gain an upper hand in building a coalition. The international...

The idea that there is this mythical nation of Palestine is unknown to those in the Arab world, but anti-Semites and fools use it with great agility as an excuse to undermine Israel. Not that there is a definable difference between the two groups, and that includes Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. But I digress. The Bible is the final authority in support of what I have just said; and not that it is needed, archeology too supports my fact. Jew-haters are all motivated by the same mindset: 1) they hate Jews but are unable to provide any truly...

In 1844, when the Ottoman Empire still controlled the Holy Land, a census was conducted, which revealed that Jews constituted a majority of the population of Jerusalem. Where were the "Palestinians"? Where were the Canaanites? The census count reported the presence of three groups in the city: Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Canaanites were apparently not present. But suddenly, inexplicably, all Palestinians were spontaneously transformed into Canaanites in 2019, just as quickly as all Jordanian and Egyptian Arabs in Israel were spontaneously transformed into Palestinians in 1967. It took nothing more than the word of Yasser Arafat to create Palestinians out...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threatened this week that "million of fighters" would swarm Jerusalem and topple the Jewish state's capital city, warning that "no matter how many houses and how many settlements they declare that they [plan to build] here and there—they shall all be destroyed." Abbas, in an Arabic language speech at Jalazone Refugee Camp near Ramallah that was heavy with threats of destruction, doubled down on the Palestinian government's policy of using public money to pay convicted terrorists and their families, telling his audience, "We will not accept their designation of our martyrs as terrorists. Our martyrs...

BEIT UR AL-FAUQA, West Bank, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Sitting under an olive tree in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Muftia Tlaib scoffs at the attention she has recently received from the president of the United States. "May God ruin him," she says. Tlaib is the grandmother of U.S. congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, at the center of an affair that has drawn Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu together against U.S. Democrats. On Thursday, bowing to pressure from Trump, Israel barred a visit by Rashida Tlaib and fellow Democrat Ilhan Omar that it had initially said it would allow.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the U.S.-Israel relationship can withstand the “weakness” of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shook diplomatic norms this week in barring two members of Congress from visiting the country. Pelosi told The Associated Press that the “weakness of Netanyahu and the weakness of Donald Trump combined” into a policy that’s “a no.” “We have a deep relationship and long-standing relationship with Israel that can withstand Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu,” Pelosi said. “We cannot let their weaknesses stand in the way of our ongoing relationship.” She said the U.S. commitment to...