Human Rights

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has lost his credibility and respect among the Arab world, an Egyptian politician said yesterday.

Hassan Nafaa, political science professor at Cairo University, told Al-Resalah news site that there was no "valid reason for Abbas to meet [Israeli Defence Minister] Gantz, at a time when the Israeli policies have not changed and crimes against Palestinians have not stopped."

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: "We have no more land left for confiscation. The [Israeli] settlers have turned into an entity organised to terrorise and deport Palestinians," the head of Palestine's Land Research Centre (LRC) has said.

30 Dec 2021; MEMO: Head of the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s General Commission of Civil Affairs, Hussein al Sheikh, announced on Wednesday that Israel had agreed to the reunion of 1,000 Palestinian families.

On twitter, Al Sheikh wrote: "This is the second batch of reunification agreement which covers all Palestinian governorates."

Meanwhile, Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported that Defence Minister Benny Gantz agreed on 9,500 cases.

30 Dec 2021; MEMO: An Israeli court turned down on Wednesday a request by the Public Prosecution to demolish 41 homes in Israel's Arab city of Qalansuwa, Arab48 reported.

The Israeli authorities are planning to extend a high-pressure electricity network over the Arab homes and is using this a pretext to demolish them.

Owners of the homes said that there should be an alternative plan as did occur in Tel Aviv when the Israeli authorities created an underground electricity network.

Srinagar, Dec 29 (PTI) The National Conference Wednesday expressed dismay over the "clean chit" given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Jammu and Kashmir Police to security forces in the Hyderpora encounter, saying the report fails to address the legitimate concerns of the aggrieved families and the general public.

Demanding an independent investigation into the matter, NC spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said the "self-trial" by police in the form of SIT "stands rejected" by the affected families.

Kohima, Dec 30 (PTI) The Centre's decision to extend the stringent Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act by another six months has raised the hackles of prominent Naga outfits, which said the measure was "unacceptable" and made with the intention to "suppress Nagas for generations to come".

The Centre on Thursday declared the entire state of Nagaland a "disturbed area" for six more months with effect from December 30 under the AFSPA while terming the situation there as "disturbed and dangerous"

28 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Israeli occupation authorities demolished on Tuesday a Palestinian-owned three-story house in al Isawiyyeh neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem displacing 23 people, local news agencies reported.

Owner of the house, Nidal Yassin Mustafa, said that the municipality staff protected by the Israeli occupation police surrounded the area where the building is located and demolished the building under the pretext it had been built without a permit.

28 Dec 2021; MEMO: Qatar's foreign ministry yesterday condemned what it described as "continuous attacks carried out by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers against the Palestinians in the occupied city of Nablus."

"The Israeli attacks are a continuation of their brutal crimes practiced against the Palestinian people," the ministry said in a statement, describing the aggression as a "flagrant violation of international laws and human rights."

28 Dec 2021; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has stressed that no American consulate would be opened in Jerusalem while he is in his post, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

Speaking to the Knesset, Bennett said: "The government under my leadership has repeatedly clarified its position that there is no place for a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem."

According to The Jerusalem Post, Bennett said: "Jerusalem is the capital of one state, the State of Israel, period."

Kolkata, Dec 28 (PTI) "The doors of the Mother House are open to all," said a nun nonchalantly as she went about doing her work. Money, apparently, doesn't matter in a place where service is not a dogma but a way of life.

At Mother House, the abode of Saint Teresa, it was work as usual on Tuesday as the nuns went about attending to the destitute, the wayward alcoholic, and the leper, with crumbling maggot-filled limbs.