Tag Archive for Palestinian Authority

| November 12, 2014
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No Honor Among Terrorists: Abbas Afraid to Enter Gaza for Fear of Hamas

Despite int’l expectations Fatah would re-claim its political power in Gaza after ‘Operation Protective Edge’, Israeli officials say ‘Gaza is a trap for Abbas’.

By Cynthia Blank

 

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas does not want to take responsibility of the Gaza Strip, because he is afraid of entering into a conflict against Hamas, accuse senior Israeli officials.

One of the officials told Walla! News Monday that “Abu Mazen is afraid to take responsibility for Gaza. The international community’s great hope that Fatah will come in and take charge after Operation Protective Edge will not be realized in the meantime.”

The main reason for Abbas’ inaction in Gaza, Israel explains, is the understanding that he does not have the ability to impose his authority on Hamas. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , ,
| October 16, 2014
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Israel’s Defense Minister: The Palestinians Will Have Autonomy – Not Sovereignty

Defense Minister Ya’alon says a political separation between Israel & Abbas’ PA has already come about, and he calls for demilitarized autonomy for the Palestinian Authority.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

The Palestinian Arabs will not have a “state” but rather an “autonomy”, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon told the Israel Hayom daily newspaper in an interview published Wednesday.

“Our efforts to create shortcuts over the last two decades — from Oslo until present day — have all failed,” he said. “We know how to live with it. It is certainly not necessary to control them. We can give them political autonomy like they have now,” said Ya’alon. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| October 15, 2014
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Palestinians’ envoy to the Netherlands hopes to avoid taking Israel to the ICC

‘Going to the International Criminal Court is the finale divorce,’ says Nabil Abuznaid, ‘I don’t think Palestinians & the Israelis are ready for a final divorce.’

By

 

JTA — Loading a newly released video of a beheading in Syria on his smartphone, Nabil Abuznaid, the Palestinians’ ambassador here in The Hague, shakes his head in disbelief.

Criminal Court

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki (left) at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. – Photo: AFP

“Look at those animals,” he says, referring to the fighters from the Islamic State jihadist group who carried out the decapitation. “Do you think Israelis are immune from this craziness?

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| October 8, 2014
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PLO Official Attacks Israel’s Plan to Expand Jewish access to Temple Mount

PLO’s Hanan Ashrawi calls Israel Tourism Ministry’s proposal an ‘insult’ to Muslims worldwide, accuses Israel of violating`sanctity of religious sites without consequences.’

 

 

An Israeli Ministry of Tourism proposal to enable Jews to enter the Temple Mount through a second gate, in an effort to reduce the waiting time for visitors, generated harsh opposition from the Palestinians.

The Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem.

The Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem. – Photo: Gil Eliyahu

The Temple Mount, which Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, is both the holiest site for religious Jews and the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.

Up to now, Jews have been allowed to enter the Temple Mount only through the Mughrabi Gate. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , ,
| July 13, 2014
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Holland tells Palestinians: Stop paying convicted terrorists’ pensions & salaries

Holland donates $88 million each year for direct PA aid, where the Dutch believe $5.5 million goes to rewarding convicted criminals & terrorist with huge monthly salaries and pensions.

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The Dutch parliament passed a motion calling for an end to salaries that the Palestinian Authority pays to terrorists.

Palestinian protester.

A Palestinian protester holds placards during a demonstration to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israel, outside the Red Cross building in Jerusalem, June 10, 2014. – Photo: Reuters

The motion, which passed unanimously, was supported by the 148 lawmakers who voted on the motion. The Dutch lower house, or the Tweede Kamer, has 150 members.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| June 23, 2014
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Netanyahu admits PA President Abbas’ condemnation of Hamas kidnappings was ‘good’

PM Netanyahu: Israel has no intention to deliberately hurt Palestinians & adds that Israel has shown unequivocal proof that Hamas was behind the abductions to a few countries, and the proof will shortly be made public.

Four days after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas strongly condemned the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu acknowledged Sunday that the Palestinian leader’s words were “good.”

Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference January 21, 2014 – Photo: Menahem Kahana/AFP

“I think it was good that he said that, and I think it would be tested now by his willingness to stop the incitement against Israel and the glorification of terrorists,” Netanyahu said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

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| June 18, 2014
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PA Police Raid Exposes Concealed Hamas Dungeon for Holding Israeli Abductees

 

VIDEO: Security forces revisit hidden underground holding facility, found 9 months earlier by Abbas’ Palestinian Authority police.

By Dave Bender, The Algemeiner

 

Video footage released on Tuesday showed what Palestinian Authority (PA) security officials said was an underground dungeon Hamas had prepared meant to hide abducted Israelis.

bunker

Entry to dungeon – Screenshot: Mako

The underground facility, with electricity, piped-in air, running water and waste disposal, served as a bunker intended to not only hold hostages, but also to serve as a command center to hold negotiations over their release, according to the officials, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

PA officials said the footage was shot in September, 2013, during a raid conducted in the West Bank village of Tzurif, between Hebron and Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| June 18, 2014
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PA Official promises termination of unity-gov’t if Hamas guilty of kidnapping

 

As both factions skeptical of the other, PA considers seizure of Hamas assets.  A PA source leaked: “The more evidence is collected, the more it appears that Hamas betrayed the trust it was given & that the organization exploited the reconciliation agreement to throw sand in our eyes.”

By Daniel Siryoti & Shlomo Cesana

 

Tensions between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, following the abduction of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, have reached a critical lack of trust that threatens to dismantle the Palestinian unity government and delay the implementation of the sides’ reconciliation pact.

The new Palestinian unity government was sworn in two weeks ago – Photo: Reuters

The crisis, according to a senior source in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ bureau, began after Abbas ordered his security forces to increase cooperation with Israeli security forces to help locate the three missing teens.

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| June 9, 2014
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Israel seeks dismantling of Hamas military arm forces with PA’s return to Gaza

 

Israel launched diplomatic campaign last week in effort to pressure Abbas to assert PA control over Gaza, following his formation of a Hamas-Fatah unity government .

By

 

 

Israel launched an international diplomatic campaign last week aimed at putting pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the new Palestinian government to assert its control over the Gaza Strip and take security responsibility for what happens there.

Palestinian unity government

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah (6th L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (5th L) with ministers at the unity government’s swearing-in ceremony, Ramallah, West Bank, June 2, 2014.- Photo: Reuters

On Thursday, June 5, the Foreign Ministry issued an order to Israel’s diplomatic missions worldwide, regarding diplomatic activity following the wave of international recognition for the new Palestinian unity government.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , , ,
| May 31, 2014
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Palestinian Authority: BDS Activists Are Troublemakers, Criminals

In the 1st case of its kind, 4 prominent BDS activists this week went on trial before a Palestinian Authority court for “provoking riots & breach of public tranquility.”

A PA official in Ramallah explained that BDS and its followers make the Palestinians appear as if they are all radicals who are only interested in boycotting & delegitimizing Israel.

by Khaled Abu Toameh

 

At university campuses in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe, they are hailed as heroes campaigning for Palestinian rights. But in Ramallah, ironically, activists belonging to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement are seen by the Palestinian Authority [PA] as trouble-makers and law-breakers. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| May 30, 2014
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Palestinian Religious Affairs Minister slams Hamas’ incitement

 

Religious Affairs Minister for the Palestinian Authority, Al-Habbash says Fatah’s nonviolence resistance is moving Palestinian state forward, claims unity gov’t will be ‘under ideology of PLO, not Hamas’

By The Media Line

 

A senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian leadership rejects any efforts to teach Palestinian children a culture of violence. Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Palestinian Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs was responding to a report on Israel’s Channel 2 on a Hamas rally in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Abbas meets with Hamas delegation (Photo: AFP)

Abbas meets with Hamas delegation – Photo: AFP

In the video, Palestinian boys, some of them wearing black ski masks, carried toy guns and waved the Islamist group’s green and white flag. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| April 22, 2014
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Palestinian lead negotiator says Abbas has no intention of dismantling PA

 

Palestinian head negotiator Erekat, says that while Palestinians aren’t interested in dissolving the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s actions ‘have annulled all political, legal, economic, security & operational aspects of the PA.’

By AFP

 

RAMALLAH – The Palestinians have no intention to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Tuesday.

 

“No Palestinian is speaking of an initiative to dismantle the Palestinian Authority,” Erekat told AFP.

“But Israel’s actions have annulled all the legal, political, security, economic and operational aspects of the prerogatives of the Palestinian Authority,” said Erekat.

The Palestinian negotiating team reportedly warned US mediator Martin Indyk last week that they may decide to dismantle the Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, in order to shift responsibility of governing the Palestinian territory and its 2.5 million residents to Israel, should peace talks fail. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| April 11, 2014
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Talks continuing as Israel hits Abbas’ PA with punitive economic sanctions

 

U.S. State Department official reports gaps narrowing between Israel & Palestinian Authority, but reports of agreement are premature.

By HERB KEINON, KHALED ABU TOAMEH

 

 

 

Israeli and Palestinian officials did not reach an agreement on Thursday during their fourth session in a week to find a way out of the current impasse in the talks, but sources familiar with their discussions said they did agree to continue meeting in the days ahead.

Netanyahu and Abbas - Photo: REUTERS

Netanyahu and Abbas Photo: REUTERS

The sources’ comments came amid reports coming from Cairo – where Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with Arab League officials – that there was a breakthrough in the talks that would enable a continuation of the talks past the April 29 deadline. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| April 11, 2014
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Ramallah Gloats: ‘State of Palestine’ accepted into UN conventions & agreements

Palestinian ‘foreign ministry’ having been accepted into UN convention will herald in ‘right of return’ for ‘refugees’.

By Dalit Halevy

 

The Palestinian Authority’s “foreign ministry” announced Thursday that it had received a message from the UN Secretary General confirming the acceptance of the “State of Palestine” into the conventions and agreements signed early April by Mahmoud Abbas, “the President of the State of Palestine.”

The acceptance of the “State of Palestine” is immediately valid in the following treaties: the UN Convention against Torture; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racist Discrimination; the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that deals with the involvement of children in armed conflicts. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| April 9, 2014
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Bennett Calls on Gov’t to Annex ‘Settlement Blocs’ like Jerusalem & Golan

Economics Minister drafts letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu demanding gov’t take legal sovereignty over settlement blocs, after PA scrubbed negotiations.

By Hezki Ezra

 

Economics Minister and Jewish Home party Chairman Naftali Bennett has drafted a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday night, demanding that Israel establish full sovereignty over “settlement blocs” in Judea and Samaria.

Bennett explained that the demand comes now – not earlier – due to the fact that the Palestinian Authority has violated the Oslo Accords by taking unilateral action in international fora by applying for membership in fifteen different international organizations.

“These days we have witnessed the decline of the peace process,” Bennett wrote to the Prime Minister, “and the Palestinians broke a new record of extortion and disobedience. Continue Reading »

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