November 20th, 20190WASHINGTON, D.C. — Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), a coalition of 29 church communions and organizations, applauded this week the European Union’s Court of Justice November 12 decision that products made in Israeli settlements could no longer be labeled as though they were made in Israel.
Since 1984, CMEP has worked to...
August 26th, 20190BEIRUT - Lebanese farmers and residents of Beirut suburbs hit by drones at the weekend vowed on Monday to stand their ground in the event of any Israeli attack, amid heightened tensions between the Hezbollah group and Israel.
Two drones crashed on Sunday in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which are dominated by the the Shia, prompting...
August 17th, 20190WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to a recent question inquiring whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is racist, New Jersey Senator and presidential candidate Cory Booker said he entered the Senate to stand up for the state of Israel.
Booker was asked about Netanyahu at the Iowa State Fair on August 10 by Jewish...
August 15th, 20190JERUSALEM – Outspoken U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) have been barred from entering Israel ahead of a planned visit to the country.
News came Thursday shortly before President Trump said Israel would show weakness by allowing the two representatives from visiting.
“They hate Israel and all Jewish...
July 13th, 20190The U.S. and Iran have had a rocky relationship for a while now, but now that Iran has "violated" a key element in the 2015 international agreement that mandated the country to limit its development of nuclear weapons, an empty shot in a game of Russian roulette between the states has begun.
The Iranian state news service, Fars,...
June 22nd, 20190GAZA - Palestinian officials on Saturday dismissed proposals unveiled by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for big money projects to form the first economic portion of the Trump administration’s long-awaited Middle East peace plan.
Senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Hanan Ashrawi said Kushner’s...
June 22nd, 20190The United Nations’ World Refugee Day, observed annually on June 20, should not merely represent a reminder of “the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homeland under threat of persecution, conflict and violence.”
It should also be an opportunity for the international...
June 16th, 20190In a TV interview on June 2, on the news docuseries “Axios” on the HBO channel, Jared Kushner opened up regarding many issues, in which his “Deal of the Century” was a prime focus.
The major revelation made by Kushner, President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, was least surprising. Kushner believes that Palestinians are not...
June 8th, 20190The chief military advocate general of the Israeli army, Sharon Afek, and the U.S. Department of Defense general counsel, Paul Ney, shared a platform at the “International Conference on the Law of Armed Conflict”, which took place in Herzliya, Israel between May 28-30.
Their panel witnessed some of the most misconstrued...
May 31st, 20190Palestinian groups Fatah, Hamas and others should not confine themselves to simply rejecting the Trump administration's so-called “Deal of the Century.” Instead, they should use their resistance to the new American-Israeli plot as an opportunity to unify their ranks.
Leaked details of the “Deal of the Century” confirm...
May 31st, 20190WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is leading a U.S. delegation to the Middle East this week, seeking support for a late June workshop aimed at "helping the Palestinians", a White House official said on Tuesday. But, Palestinians have been vocally critical of this effort.
Kushner, Middle East envoy Jason...
May 20th, 20190On May 4, Israel launched a series of deadly airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip, prompting a response from various resistance groups. At least 25 Palestinians were killed and nearly 200 people wounded in the Israeli attacks. Four Israelis were also killed by Palestinian rockets.
The clashes were instigated by Israel, when the...
May 6th, 20190GAZA — An Egyptian-mediated ceasefire agreement was reached with Israel on Monday to end a weekend of violence in the Gaza Strip and Israel, a report from Reuters said.
“The ceasefire understanding will begin Monday 04:30 (01:30 GMT)” a Palestinian official familiar with the agreement said to the news agency.
The fighting was...
May 3rd, 20190A recent statement made by the outgoing French ambassador to the U.S. regarding the nature of Israeli apartheid accentuates a larger ailment that has afflicted the European Union foreign policy.
The EU is simply gutless when it comes to confronting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
Ambassador Gerard Araud was, of course,...
April 26th, 20190As the 300-foot spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris tragically came tumbling down on live television, my thoughts ventured to Nuseirat Refugee Camp, my childhood home in the Gaza Strip.
Then, also on television, I watched as a small bulldozer hopelessly clawed through the rubble of my neighborhood mosque. I grew up around that...
April 23rd, 20190OCCUPIED GOLAN HEIGHTS - Israel said on Tuesday it would name a new community on the occupied Golan Heights after President Trump as an expression of gratitude for his recognition of its claim of sovereignty over the strategic plateau.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in a 1967 war and annexed it, against international law. The...
April 19th, 20190TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won the backing of a majority of parliament members on Tuesday to form a new government, following the April 9 election.
Netanyahu is heading towards a record fifth term in office confident of being able to put together a bloc of religious-rightist parties.
It would be a slim...
April 19th, 20190I awakened early Wednesday to listen to a voicemail message from Omar Barghouti, a leading member of the Palestinian movement to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) Israel. In the message, Omar told me that he was at Ben Gurion Airport and despite holding a valid U.S. visa and a boarding pass for his flight to Washington, D.C., the...
April 12th, 20190Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli financial interests, has been denied entry to the United States after airline staff informed him he wouldn't be flying.
Barghouti was at Ben Gurion International Airport on Wednesday when he was told by U.S....
March 9th, 20190Immediately after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forged an alliance with the fringe political group Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), a widespread outrage ensued.
The anger did not emanate only from the Center, Left and Arab parties, but from some in the Right as well. Even the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., known for its hawkish...
March 9th, 20190On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution by a vote of 407-to-23 to condemn both anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred, among other forms of bigotry, including those of White Supremacists, a development Democratic U.S. Reps Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Andre Carson of...
March 9th, 20190TEL AVIV — Israel’s election board has approved far-right Jewish candidates accused by rivals of racism for next month’s election while disqualifying an Arab party that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said supported terrorism.
The Central Elections Committee’s decisions, taken late on Wednesday, were unlikely to be...
February 24th, 20190JERUSALEM - In yet another violation of Palestinian rights, the Israel occupation authorities issue permits to large pharmaceutical firms to carry out tests on Palestinian and Arab prisoners, according to a report by Israeli Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian issued yesterday.
In addition, the Hebrew University lecturer also revealed...
February 20th, 20190Jewish-American mogul Sheldon Adelson faces a billion-dollar lawsuit that the U.S. appeals court has reopened, seeking to hold him and other Israeli donors and supporters (more than 30 people) liable for war crimes and support of Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the...
February 8th, 20190On Tuesday, the Senate passed S.1, the "Middle East bill" that included the “Combating BDS Act of 2019”, a measure that encourages state and local governments to enact legislation that bars state agencies from contracting with individuals or companies who support boycotts of Israel, more commonly known as the Boycott, Divestment and...
February 4th, 20190Forget the hype. Israel’s “security technology” has nothing to do with why some African countries are eager to normalize relations with Israel.
What is it that Israel is able to offer in the technology sector to Chad, Mali and others that the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa and...
January 28th, 20190TEHRAN - A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander on Monday threatened Israel with destruction if it attacks Iran, state media reported.
The comments by Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, came after an Israeli attack on Iranian targets in Syria last week - the...
January 26th, 20190BEIRUT — Hezbollah has “for years” been able to enter Israel, the Lebanese group’s leader said on Saturday, responding for the first time to Israel’s discovery of tunnels dug into Israeli territory from Lebanon.
Israel’s unveiling of what it called Hezbollah “attack tunnels” last month, and Lebanon’s accusation that...