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Sunday, April 14, 2019

US congratulates new Palestinian government

Date created : 15/04/2019 - 03:19 GMT/ZULU

Newly appointed Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh speaks at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 10, 2019AFP/File

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by Melissa Gruz and Biodun Iginla, France24

The United States congratulated the new Palestinian government Sunday, a day after incoming prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced his new cabinet alongside president Mahmud Abbas -- leaving out the Islamist movement Hamas.

"Congratulations to the new Palestinian Authority Cabinet," tweeted Jason Greenblatt, assistant to US President Donald Trump and special representative for international negotiations.

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"With the experience of those on the list, we hope we will be able to work together toward peace and improving Palestinian lives. It's time for a new chapter."

Several key positions were unchanged from the previous administration of Rami Hamdallah.

Analysts say the change of government was made to further isolate Hamas, which has been at odds with the Fatah party of Abbas and Shtayyeh for more than a decade.

They say 84-year-old Abbas, in power since 2005, retains the real decision-making authority.

In a statement late Saturday, Abbas confirmed the new government and welcomed the cabinet. It includes many of his longtime allies and members of Fatah, though several smaller factions are also represented.

It comes as the Trump administration is expected to finally publish a long-delayed peace plan.

The contents remain closely guarded, but Palestinians have reason to fear it will be skewed toward Israel.

Since coming to power, Trump has proven to be perhaps the most pro-Israel American president in history, breaking with decades of international consensus to recognize Jerusalem as the country's capital and Israel's control over the Golan Heights.

The peace plan is being developed by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, an Orthodox Jew whose close family ties to Netanyahu have heightened Palestinian suspicions over whether the US administration can serve as an honest broker.

US officials have only revealed vague outlines of what the plan might propose, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has suggested it could break abruptly with precedent.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

U.S. sees Palestinian state on most of West Bank, some of East Jerusalem

January 17, 2019 03H42 GMT/UTC/ZULU

by Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, JERUSALEM. Disclosure: Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla dated when she was based in New York.

JERUSALEM - Israeli television said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan would propose a Palestinian state on as much as 90 percent of the occupied West Bank, with a capital in East Jerusalem - but not including its holy sites.

The White House, which has kept details of the plan under wraps and said its release could still be months away, dismissed the report by Israel’s Reshet 13 TV as inaccurate speculation.

Citing what it said was a source briefed by the Americans, the television report said the plan would entail Israel annexing Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank while isolated settlements would either be evacuated or their construction halted.

Trump wants the proposed Israeli moves to be supplemented by territorial swaps with the Palestinians, and for East Jerusalem’s walled Old City - site of major Jewish, Muslim and Christian shrines - to be under Israeli sovereignty but with the joint management of the Palestinians and Jordan, the report said.

It said “most Arab neighborhoods” in East Jerusalem would be under Palestinian sovereignty as a future capital.

Israel calls all of Jerusalem its “eternal and undivided capital”, a status not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, including the Al Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City, as capital of a future state.

The report made no mention of the fate of Palestinian refugees, another core dispute in the decades-old conflict, or of how the Gaza Strip, which is under the control of Hamas Islamists opposed to peace with Israel, might fit into the plan.

Israeli and Palestinian officials did not immediately respond to the Reshet 13 report.

Trump’s Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, a main architect of the plan along with the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, said in a message on Twitter the report “is not accurate.” He did not specify, however, what in the report was incorrect.

“Speculation about the content of the plan is not helpful Very few people on the planet know what is in it ... for now,” Greenblatt wrote. “Peddling false, distorted or biased stories to the media is irresponsible & harmful to the process.”

In separate remarks to reporters, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, predicted that the Trump plan would not be released before an Israeli election on April 9.

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Opinion polls predict an easy win that would secure a fifth term for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rightist whose U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stalled in 2014.

“From what we understand, it will not be presented before the election,” Danon said. “It’s a smart decision because we don’t want it to become the issue of the elections.”

Sunday, November 11, 2018

BREAKING: Several killed in Israeli raid on Gaza Strip, says Hamas

November 12, 2018 01H:15 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla, France24, Gaza City, Palestine. Disclosure: Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla had a romantic relationship when she was based in Jerusalem.

Latest update : 2018-11-11

Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in an undercover raid targeting a Hamas commander and air strikes that provided cover for the troops to escape back into Israel by car, Hamas said.

The Israeli incursion and air attacks drew rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled enclave, with sirens sounding in Israeli communities along the border.

The military said its defenses intercepted two launches. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage on the Israeli side of the frontier.

The violence prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a visit to Paris, where he had been gathering with world leaders for a World War One commemoration.

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Hamas said the incident began when assailants in a passing car opened fire on a group of its armed men, killing one of its commanders.

Hamas gunmen gave chase as the car sped back towards the border with Israel, Hamas said in a statement.

During the pursuit, Israeli aircraft fired more than 40 missiles in the area, according to witnesses.

Medics and Hamas officials said at least six people were killed including commander Nour Baraka and another member of the group. It was unclear if the other fatalities included gunmen.

The Israeli military said in a brief statement that: "During IDF (Israel Defense Forces) operational activity in the Gaza Strip, an exchange of fire evolved."

A return by Israel to a policy of targeting individual Hamas commanders - tactics largely abandoned in recent years - could significantly raise tensions along the border.

Violence has flared frequently on the frontier since Palestinians began weekly protests on March 30. Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations have been trying to broker a long-term ceasefire.

Date created : 2018-11-11