Israel on high alert as Palestinians petition UN

JERUSALEM: Some 22,000 Israeli police and border police were on high alert across the country on Friday, poised to respond to any unrest resulting from a Palestinian bid to seek UN membership in New York.

“We have deployed 22,000 police and border police officers who will be on duty until at least Saturday night in order to maintain order across the country,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

The forces were deployed along the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank, in annexed east Jerusalem, and around Arab Israeli towns, he said.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will present a formal request for UN membership for a Palestine state later on Friday in a move which has sparked anger in Israel and opposition from Washington which has vowed to block the move at the UN Security Council.

Israel’s defence establishment has been preparing for months for the eventuality of rioting and mass unrest should the membership bid be scuttled, with the army, police and emergency services all on high alert on Friday.

In Jerusalem, police barred entry to the city’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound to men under 50 and anyone not holding a blue east Jerusalem ID card.

The army also boosted numbers in the West Bank, deploying an extra 1,500 reservists across the territory, media reports said. A military spokesman on Thursday said troops would show “restraint” in dealing with any disturbances, “using riot dispersal means” in accordance with the level of unrest.

Earlier this week, tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied across the West Bank in a massive show of support for the UN campaign, but there was little sign of any unrest and only isolated incidents of stone throwing.

More gatherings are planned for Friday evening when Palestinians are expected to turn out en masse to watch Abbas’s speech to the UN General Assembly on large screens in towns and cities across the West Bank.

Palestinian officials have repeatedly pledged that the marches and demonstrations will be peaceful and stay within Palestinian-controlled areas. AGENCIES

Turkey warns of continued Jerusalem settlement

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has issued a warning to the Israeli government of the repercussions of its continued settlement activity in occupied Jerusalem, saying that settlement construction “aims at changing the demographics of this sacred city”.

In a press release issued by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, it strongly condemned Tel Aviv s continued settlement policies in East Jerusalem highlighting the Israeli government s contradictory stance on the issue of peace. “On the one hand, Israel has decided to construct 900 settlement units in Har Homa in East Jerusalem, while on the other, it calls on the Palestinian side to return to the peace negotiations table”.

The press release called on the Israeli government to listen to the calls of the international community to halt “illegal settlement activity” in East Jerusalem, and all attempts to change the demographics of the city. It warned that the settlement policy undermines trust and weakens the peace efforts between the parties of the conflict.

Israel imposes age restrictions for Friday prayers entry

Israeli security was tightened in and around the city of Jerusalem as tens of thousands of Palestinian worshippers tried to cross the border to take part in prayers in Jerusalem s al-Aqsa mosque.

Men under the age of 50 and women under the age of 45 were denied access to Jerusalem on the second Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

At the Israeli army s two main checkpoints, Bethlehem in the south and Qalandiya checkpoint in the north, which link the West Bank to Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Palestinians queued at the crossing points as Israeli troops checked identification cards, denying any men under 50 years of age or women under 45 access to the holy city.

For most Palestinians residing across the West Bank, access to Jerusalem — where Islam s third holiest shrine, the al-Aqsa is located — is denied due to Israeli army restrictions on access and movement imposed on Palestinians.

Israeli filmmaker claims to find the nails from crucifixion of Jesus

The nails were discovered in a 2,000-year-old tomb in Jerusalem, turned up by chance in a Tel Aviv laboratory.

The Israeli/Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici said that these nails would be the premise of his new documentary film “The Nails of the Cross”.

The film follows three years of research during which Jacobovici presents his assertions – some based on empirical data, others requiring much imagination and a leap of faith.

Palestine National Orchestra makes debut in Israel

HAIFA: The Palestine National Orchestra has made its debut in the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and the Israeli city of Haifa under the banner of “Today an orchestra, tomorrow a state.”

The 40-member orchestra launched its inaugural tour on Friday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, moved on the next day to east Jerusalem and on Sunday night to Haifa, which has a large Arab Israeli community.

“Today an orchestra, tomorrow a state,” Suhail Khoury, director of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music named after the US-Palestinian intellectual who died in 2003, wrote in the programme.

“Today we are witnessing the birth of the Palestine National Orchestra at a time when the Palestinian struggle for independence is passing through one of its most critical and difficult moments,” he wrote.

“We musicians truly believe that a state is not only about buildings and roads, but most importantly it is about its people, their values, their arts and their cumulative cultural identity.”

Khoury said that such concerts would, “for several years to come, be a one-time annual event … until this orchestra will become a full-fledged, full-time orchestra based in a free Palestine.”

Before full houses and enthusiastic audiences, the orchestra played concertos by Mozart and Gyorgy Ligeti as well as Beethoven”s Symphony No 4, after starting each concert with the Palestinian national anthem.

Israeli guard kills Palestinian in East Jerusalem

Clashes erupted between residents of Silwan district of Jerusalem and Israeli border police after an Israeli security guard killed a Palestinian on Wednesday, in an East Jerusalem district that sees frequent tensions over its Jewish settler enclave.
The guard shot 32-year-old Samer Sarhan, while driving through Silwan before dawn, a police spokesman said, adding that he told investigators he had opened fire after his car was blocked and stoned by dozens of Palestinians.
Local residents said the Israeli worked as a guard for the small Jewish settlement in Silwan, and that at least two other Palestinians were wounded in the shooting.
Israeli police fired smoke grenades and tear gas to disperse clashes with stone-throwing Palestinians in Jerusalem’s most hotly contested holy site.
Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and regards all of the city as its capital, a status not recognised internationally. Many settlers claim a Jewish biblical birthright to the occupied territory.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a demand at the heart of U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Israel which resumed this month.

Israel hints Jerusalem compromise in peace talks

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM: Israel’s defence minister said on Wednesday the Jewish state would be willing to hand over parts of Jerusalem in peace talks with the Palestinians to be launched by U.S. President Barack Obama.

A flare-up of violence in the occupied West Bank and a deadlock over Jewish settlements there loom as potential deal-breakers for Obama, who will host Middle East leaders for dinner at the White House in Washington.

Obama brought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together for face-to-face negotiations after months of U.S.-mediated indirect talks. But

he faces deep skepticism about his chances of success.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak’s rare comments about the need to partition Jerusalem, which is at the heart of the conflict, could signal a softening of Netanyahu’s long-stated refusal to divide

Israel ready to cede parts of Jerusalem: Barak

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel is ready to cede parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians in the framework of a peace deal, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday ahead of the start of talks in Washington, as the Israeli settlers announced they would break a moratorium and resume construction in the West Bank.

Barak told a local newspaper in an interview that partition in Jerusalem — at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict — would include a “special regime” for managing the city”s holiest sites.

He said the killing of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank on Tuesday should not stop the talks starting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Wednesday for their first face-to-face negotiations, has publicly balked at dividing the city.

Israeli restrictions on Ramadan worship continue

JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinians lined up at West Bank checkpoints early on Friday morning, waiting to be granted access to the holy city of Jerusalem for prayer on the second Friday of Ramadan.

Visits to the Noble Sanctuary, which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem remain restricted.

Pilgrims that made it through the West Bank separation fence were greeted by heavy Israeli military and police presence around the Old City, and had to pass through dozens of secondary checkpoints installed in the area. The secondary points double check documents of Palestinians heading for worship, preventing all men under 50 and women under 45 without special permits from entering the area.

The policy of limiting Palestinian and Muslim access to the mosque was marked, as worshipers observed the

Palestinians slam Israeli plan to expel Hamas

RAMALLAH, West Bank: The Palestinian president has denounced Israel’s plan to expel four politicians from Jerusalem because they belong to the Islamic group Hamas.

Here is the original post: 
Palestinians slam Israeli plan to expel Hamas

Next Page »