Israel

27 May 2019; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embarked on Sunday on what he termed a “final effort” to break a deadlock on forming a governing coalition ahead of a Wednesday deadline for a deal, Reuters reports.

In power for the past decade, Netanyahu has unexpectedly struggled to seal an agreement with a clutch of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties that would align with his Likud party and ensure him a fifth term following Israel’s April 9 election.

26 May 2019; DW: Opposition protesters have vowed not to let Benjamin Netanyahu undermine democracy, as they rallied against plans to grant the prime minister immunity from prosecution on a series of corruption charges.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have rallied in Tel Aviv to protest against a looming coalition agreement to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution and weaken the powers of the Supreme Court.

22 May 2019; MEMO: The Israeli government has retracted its claim that two journalists “led a riot” in Nabi Saleh in 2015, “and that their beating by soldiers was therefore justified”, reported Haaretz.

According to the article, “this is the gist of a compromise reached between the Jerusalem district attorney and the two photographers, Abbas Mumani and Haim Schwarczenberg”, who had sued the Israeli military over the assault.

22 May 2019; MEMO: Some 13,500 patients in Israeli hospitals died or were infected by illnesses while receiving care in 2017, an internal Ministry of Health report revealed yesterday.

21 May 2019; MEMO: Likud officials have warned that the failure to find a breakthrough in coalition negotiations could lead to fresh elections, reported Ynet.

According to the news site, the unnamed officials are frustrated at what they believe are “unreasonable demands” from Likud’s natural coalition partners.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has until 28 May to form the next government, having already received the permitted, one-off 14-day extension from President Reuven Rivlin.

20 May 2019; MEMO: Israel’s chief Rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, has stoked controversy by describing Afro-Americans as “monkeys” during one of his weekly religious lessons.

The remark, which will prompt further discussion about entrenched racism within the country, was reported by Israeli newspaper Ynet News.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Palestinian prime minister said Monday that any American peace plan that ignores the Palestinian people’s political aspirations for an independent state is doomed to fail.

Mohammad Shtayyeh’s comments immediately cast a cloud over the American-led Mideast peace conference expected to take place in late June in the tiny Gulf Arab state of Bahrain.

20 May 2019; MEMO: The Israeli organisers of this year’s Eurovision feared that some of the competitors, under pressure from the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, might inject politics into their performances.

In the end, however, it was Eurovision’s special guest star, Madonna, who used her performance to make a political statement.

TEL AVIV, May 18. /TASS/: Russia’s Sergey Lazarev performed his technically sophisticated show without a hitch at the Eurovision Song Contest’s final on Saturday, TASS reported from the scene.

The singer sang his ‘Scream’ surrounded by eight digital screens as each projected an image of the singer creating an effect of doubles amid images of lighting and rain.

Russian celebrated pop singer Philip Kirkorov produced Lazarev’s Eurovision entry. Kirkorov co-authored the song with Dimitris Kontopoulos (Greece) and Sharon Vaughn (US).

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Netherlands won the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv Saturday, with Duncan Laurence’s doleful piano ballad “Arcade” crowned champion of Europe’s annual music extravaganza.