Israel has constructed 25 km of earth berms roughly along the yellow line in Gaza and is fortifying 38 military bases on the eastern side of the territory it controls. Image by Forensic Architecture. Newly constructed Israeli military bases along the “yellow line” appear like elevated military forts in Gaza’s devastated landscape By Forensic Architecture…
See the full text of the TJ briefing by Daniel Seidemann here: TJ Analysis of E1 Developments Israeli media is reporting that the government has backtracked from discussing a formal West Bank annexation proposal, removing it from the September 5 cabinet agenda amid intense external pressure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly shelved plans to consider…
John McHugo, Balfour Project Trustee, international law expert and Middle East historian writes: The International Court of Justice is the judicial organ of the United Nations. In December 2022 it was requested by the UN General Assembly to clarify “the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory…
By Menachem Klein (reprinted from the US journal LOGOS*) The death of Faisal Husseini, the senior Palestinian leader in East Jerusalem, in May, 2001, and Israel’s order to close the Orient House, the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem, in August of that year, left East Jerusalemites without local leadership. The leadership vacuum that Israel carefully maintains…
By Menachem Klein (reprinted from LOGOS*) This is a much-extended and updated version of a previously published article.[1] Israel’s November, 2022, election results, which led to the establishment of a far right coalition with radical settlers occupying key positions in the ministries of finance, defence and home security, surprised many on the left and the centre.…
European Parliamentarians, including British MPs and Peers, have written to the Foreign Secretary calling for Government action to dissuade Israel from three “red line” actions:– designating six Palestinian civil society organisations as “terrorist”– evicting Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem and– advancing plans to build a new illegal settlement on E1,…
Balfour Project statement, 26 May 2021 Equal rights under the law are the foundation stone of all democracies. Israel views itself as a democracy. But many in Israel and around the world, including in Britain, were dismayed by the Knesset’s adoption in 2018 of the discriminatory Nation State Law. This declares that the right to…
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The Governments of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK issued this statement on Israeli settlements on May 6. We urge the Government of Israel to reverse its decision to advance the construction of 540 settlement units in the Har Homa E area of the occupied West Bank, and to cease its policy of settlement…
By Mary Robinson, published in The Financial Times on 15 March 2021. ICC decision to investigate Hamas and Israel has implications for both sides. BP Trustee, author and international lawyer John McHugo writes: For far too long, political leaders have shied away from calling on Israel and the Palestinians to take international law as the starting…
The British Government has now replied to the six recommendations in the Balfour Project statement “Israel-Palestine: equal rights for a lasting peace” which concluded our 27 October conference on Jerusalem. We are indebted to our patron, Rt Revd John Pritchard, for asking his MP to forward the statement to the Foreign Secretary and seek a…
Published by CAABU, 9 February 2021. Over 80 British parliamentarians representing all parties, in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, wrote in a letter to the British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab that the British government must do everything in its power to prevent the mass/forced evictions and dispossession of Palestinian families…
By Hagai El-Ad, published in The Guardian, 12 Jan, 2021 The systematic promotion of the supremacy of one group of people over another is deeply immoral and must end “One cannot live a single day in Israel-Palestine without the sense that this place is constantly being engineered to privilege one people, and one people only:…
The rapid integration of the settlers and their roads with pre-1967 Israel means a workable two-state solution becomes more impossible by the minute. By Ahmad Al-Bazz and Edo Konrad, published on +972 on December 31, 2020. How Israel’s road projects are ensuring apartheid is here to stay The expansion of settler bypass roads in the West Bank has been…
By Michel Sabbah on 22 December 2020. Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah served as the archbishop and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1987 to 2008, the first native Palestinian to hold the office for centuries. He is a co-author of the Kairos Palestine Document and a member of the Kairos Palestine board. Israel’s military occupation of…
You can watch Open Bethlehem on Vimeo. Below is the excerpt of Open Bethlehem about Rachel’s Tomb, shown during the event. Leila Sansour is a Palestinian/British filmmaker with more than 24 years of experience working in television as a producer, director and writer. She is best known for her two feature documentaries released across cinemas…
By Nir Hasson, Nov 25, 2020 from Haaretz, the Israel daily newspaper. Around 20,000 young Palestinians will be eligible to expedite their requests for Israeli citizenship after a court forced the Interior Ministry to publish guidelines for the scheme on Monday. According to experts, the updated procedure should allow another 7,000 or so young Palestinians to…
By Ian S. Lustick from Logos, a journal of modern society and culture. For more than forty years experts and politicians have warned of Israel’s creeping de facto annexation of the West Bank. In 1982 Meron Benvenisti and Thomas Friedman declared it was five minutes to midnight”–just a few ticks of the clock before withdrawal…
Thursday 24 September 2020 Click here to view video. 3.13 pm Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)I beg to move, That this House has considered settlement and annexation of the Occupied Palestinian territories. This country has a unique place in history and a unique responsibility, particularly if we trace this back to the Balfour declaration. It is…
Published by Mondoweiss on 20 August 2020 by Jeff Wright “Annexation could be the final straw when it comes to a viable Christian presence in Palestine,” declare pastors representing four of the Holy Land’s historic denominations. “For Palestine, Bethlehem and particularly its Christian population… annexation will be particularly catastrophic.” The July letter sent to diplomatic…
Question from Baroness Janke (Lib Dem) on 1st February 2023 (HL5315) To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the expulsion of Palestinian residents from the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank; and what discussions they have had with the government of Israel about protecting the rights of those individuals, including…
Question by Wera Hobhouse (Lib Dem) on 18th January 2023 (UIN 126759) To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made representations to the Israeli Government over settlement expansion and demolitions of Palestinian homes and other buildings. Answer from David Rutley (Conservative) on 26th January 2023 The UK…
Oral Answer on Monday 6th July 2020 1. Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime:– Dominic Raab (Conservative, First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs): Mr Speaker, with permission, I would like to make a statement on the global human rights sanctions regulations. As we forge a dynamic new vision…
By Robert A. H. Cohen, published on Mondoweiss, 30 July 2020 Progressive rabbis in the UK have written to the Israeli embassy in London to express their concern over the Israeli government’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank. The letter has been sent from British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights, an organisation…
By Alleks Phillips, first published in The Jewish Chronicle, 9 July 2020 Over 40 British rabbis – including former Liberal senior rabbi Danny Rich and outgoing Reform senior rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner – have written to the Israeli embassy in London opposing the government’s annexation policy. Addressing chargé d’affaires Sharon Bar-li, who is Israel’s senior diplomat…
By Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the time is ripe for his country to permanently seize Palestinian territory by annexing swathes of the West Bank. With a US “vision for peace” blueprint largely backing up his expansionist ambitions, the Israeli prime minister intends to make the explosive move with the support of…
In an unprecedented letter to Israel’s UK ambassador, prominent British Jews warn that annexation ‘poses an existential threat to the traditions of Zionism in Britain, and to Israel as we know it’ The following letter was sent by leading members of the UK Jewish community to Israel’s Ambassador to the Court of St James’s, Mark…
By Alistair Burt Courtesy of Arab News Three notable interventions from UK sources this week gave an indication that the country’s long relationship with and support for the state of Israel is imminently facing its greatest ever test. Almost 130 cross-party and nonaligned parliamentarians signed a letter drawing attention to the Israeli coalition government’s declared…
Click here to read Nabil Fahmy’s The “Deal” of the Century? Nabil Fahmy writes: ‘The Trump plan imposes Israeli security and economic control over a self-autonomous Palestinian entity’ Below are Sir Vincent Fean’s thoughts on Fahmy’s suggestions. Dr Nabil Fahmy, former Foreign Minister of Egypt, is well placed to offer policy advice to the Palestinian…
UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov spoke as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White Party heads are at odds over whether the next government would impose sovereignty over West Bank settlements. By TOVAH LAZAROFF MARCH 31, 2020 10:20 West Bank annexation would make it impossible to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and would destroy any possibility…