Tension over control of the Haram al Sharif compound of mosques in Jerusalem’s Old City has reached a pitch unseen since clashes at the site sparked the second intifada nine years ago. Ten days of intermittently bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in Jerusalem culminated yesterday in warnings by Palestinian officials that Israel …
Continue reading “Tensions Mount Again at al-Aqsa “
The head of the U.N. commission that investigated the December-January Gaza war Thursday rejected assertions by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that any action to pursue the recommendations of his commission’s report could prove fatal to any renewed peace process with the Palestinians. "For the life of me, I don’t understand the reason for that …
Continue reading “Goldstone Rejects Netanyahu Remarks”
EAST JERUSALEM – Palestinian politicians and Israeli political analysts are warning of a third Palestinian Intifadah following serious rioting in East Jerusalem last Sunday. Clashes broke out between Palestinians protesters and Israeli security forces after a group of extremist Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli soldiers and police, tried to enter the compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque, …
Continue reading “Riots May Point to Third Palestinian Uprising”
Eight months after Barack Obama launched his presidency by promising a speedy push for Palestinian-Israeli peace, that effort has stalled badly. And there are now growing fears that the top levels of Obama’s peace team are torn by internal disagreements that may undermine the whole peace effort. Some of these problems were on view during …
Continue reading “A Week of Dimming Mideast Peace Prospects”
It’s unsustainable, says William Pfaff
EAST JERUSALEM — Almost a year ago a barely noticed event took place in Sawarha, a Palestinian neighborhood in the Israeli-occupied part of the city. On that November day, Israeli Jerusalemites were voting in a new mayor and a new city council. On that same day, in this neighborhood home to 25,000, people were ignoring …
Continue reading “Jerusalem Palestinians Defining Their Own Future”
BI’ILIN, West Bank – Eight children between the ages of 10 and 17 were arrested and detained by Israeli soldiers during military raids Monday night and Tuesday morning in the northern West Bank cities Nablus and Qalqilia. Defense for Children International (DCI) Palestine has released a statement that the number of children detained in Israeli …
Continue reading “More Palestinian Children Getting Jailed”
While Israeli officials claimed a major win in U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to shelve his long-held demand for a freeze on Israeli settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, some analysts here believe it may yet prove a Pyrrhic victory for the hard-line government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The decision, announced at …
Continue reading “Has Netanyahu Out-Maneuvered Obama or Vice Versa?”
JERUSALEM – "Nobody can usurp the right to determine the fate of the nation on their own – not the Palestine Liberation Organization, nor anyone else. It is the will of the Palestinian people that must determine our future," declares Hamas political leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh was speaking Sunday at the onset of …
Continue reading “US Pushing Beyond Settlement Freeze”
An ill-fated light railway under construction in Jerusalem was originally heralded by Israeli officials as a way to cement the city’s “unification” four decades after the city’s Palestinian half was illegally annexed to Israel. But the only unity generated among Jewish and Palestinian residents after four years of disruptions to the city’s traffic and businesses …
Continue reading “Boycott Derails Jerusalem’s Transit System” 
