By AGENCIES ARABNEWS RAMALLAH, West Bank: A senior Palestinian official called Wednesday for the replacement of international Middle East envoy Tony Blair, saying the former British leader is biased in favor of Israel and is “of no use at all.” Mohammed Ishtayeh, a member of the Central Committee of the dominant […]
IDF patrol vehicle near Shilo trapped by roadblocks; settlers and soldiers clash in what a senior officer calls ‘crossing a red line.’ By Anshel Pfeffer haaretz online. Dozens of Jewish settlers surrounded an IDF patrol vehicle on Wednesday evening near the Shilo settlement, setting up roadblocks and physically assaulting IDF […]
Capital of the Khazars, a Turkic people who converted to Judaism, was thought washed away by Caspian Sea. By The Associated Press HAARETZ.COM Russian archaeologists said Wednesday they had found the long-lost capital of the Khazar kingdom in southern Russia, a breakthrough for research on the ancient Jewish state. “This […]
PARIS (AFP) – Palestine won a first diplomatic victory in its quest for statehood on Wednesday when the UNESCO executive committee backed its bid to become a member of the cultural body with the rights of a state. Palestine’s Arab allies braved intense US and French diplomatic pressure to bring […]
By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI | REUTERS ARABNEWS GAZA: Palestinian officials are going public with long-whispered complaints that international Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, is biased toward Israel. Unofficial suggestions that Blair should now be replaced coincide with a Palestinian drive to secure membership of the […]
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Key US lawmakers are blocking about $200 million in Palestinian aid in response to their UN statehood bid, congressional aides said Saturday. Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have frozen the funding “until the Palestinian statehood issue is sorted out”, […]
RAMALLAH (AFP) – Jordan Times. The Palestinians have secured eight Security Council yes votes for their UN membership bid, just one short of the nine they need, the Palestinian foreign minister said on Thursday. Speaking to reporters in Ramallah, Riyad Al Malki said he had received assurances from two additional […]
ANTHONY SHADID and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK CAIRO — By force of this year’s Arab revolts and revolutions, activists marching under the banner of Islam are on the verge of a reckoning decades in the making: the prospect of achieving decisive power across the region has unleashed an unprecedented debate over […]
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE THE MONTREAL GAZETTE UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council on Wednesday pushed back a decision on the Palestinian bid to join the United Nations in a move that will give more time to international efforts to revive direct talks. But UN envoys for the two foes […]
By P. K. ABDUL GHAFOUR | ARAB NEWS Published: Sep 28, 2011 02:23 Updated: Sep 28, 2011 02:23 JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has urged the United Nations to accept the Palestinians’ request for full membership in the international body and recognize it as an independent state. It also called for restricting the […]
By John V. Whitbeck The Palestine Chronicle The number of UN member states extending diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine has now risen to 131, leaving only 62 UN member states on the wrong side of history and humanity. If one ignores small island states in the Caribbean and […]
AMMAN (Jordan Times) – The Department of Antiquities has recovered from Israel hundreds of clay artefacts after 44 years, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. The agency quoted acting Director General of the General Antiquities Department Fares Hmoud as saying Monday that the 620 artefacts, which date back to the […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls are some of the most valuable religious texts known to man. Discovered between 1947 and 1956 at Khirbet Qumran, they form the oldest known versions of Biblical documents and take the form of 972 texts. Their age dates them at somewhere between 150 BCE and 70CE […]
By Karin Laub, The Associated Press, Jordan Times. RAMALLAH – With combative speeches at the United Nations, the Palestinian and Israeli leaders have locked themselves into positions that seem to preclude a resumption of peace talks and usher in a season of confrontation over a Palestinian state. Palestinian President Mahmoud […]
By MOHAMMED MAR’I ARABNEWS GAZA: The GCC program for the reconstruction of Gaza has succeeded to rebuild hundreds of homes destroyed during the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip in 2008-2009. Rif’at Diab, the program coordinator in the Strip, told the Voice of Palestine Radio that the program finished the first […]
By Matthew Lee The Associated Press, JORDAN TIMES UNITED NATIONS – The Obama administration has managed to buy time and may have staved off an embarrassing and politically awkward showdown over Palestinian statehood at the UN. It may also have manoeuvred itself into a corner.The US and the rest of […]
Source: Spiegel International At the UN on Friday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas appealed for recognition of an independent Palestinian state in a statesmanlike speech. His appearance may have won Palestinians sympathy abroad — but it does little to advance their cause. He kept the most dramatic statement for the […]
Source: Yahoo News UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Defying U.S. and Israeli opposition, Palestinians asked the United Nations on Friday to accept them as a member state, sidestepping nearly two decades of failed negotiations in the hope this dramatic move on the world stage would reenergize their quest for an independent […]
Source: Eli Lake, NEWSWEEK (The Daily Beast) While publicly pressuring Israel to make deeper concessions to the Palestinians, President Obama has secretly authorized significant new aid to the Israeli military that includes the sale of 55 deep-penetrating bombs known as bunker busters, Newsweek has learned. In an exclusive story to […]
Source / Credit: Guardian UK The Palestinian leader is expected to hand over a letter asking for Palestine to join the UN as a state shortly before he addresses the general assembly to plead the case for admission. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is scheduled to speak shortly afterwards. He […]