Human Rights

04 Jan 2023; MEMO: The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency session to discuss the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. The session was called for by the UAE and China on behalf of the Palestinian and Jordanian UN missions, and could take place tomorrow, a diplomat told the Times of Israel.

05 Jan 2023; MEMO: Jewish organisations yesterday called on Israel's newly-appointed National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to allow ritual slaughter of lamb in Al-Aqsa Mosque to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Israeli media reported that several Jewish organisations submitted a formal request to Ben-Gvir and the Israeli police to allow them to carry out the Passover sacrifice in Al-Aqsa Mosque. Passover falls during the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan this year.

05 Jan 2023; MEMO: Israeli forces yesterday detained the mayor of Hebron's occupied town of Ad-Dhahiriya and confiscated a digger that was being used to carry out works in the town's Jamil district.

According to local sources, the occupation forces detained Mayor Bahjat Jabareen and a number of workers, adding that they were taken to the illegal Israeli Otniel settlement.

03 Jan 2023; MEMO: The leader of Lebanon's powerful armed Hezbollah Movement, Hassan Nasrallah, said that any infringement of the decades-long status quo at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem could lead to an explosion in the region, not just inside Palestinian Territories, Reuters reports.

Nasrallah's comments followed a visit to the site revered by Muslims, but also Jews, earlier in the day by Israel's new far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

03 Jan 2023; MEMO: American Jewish leaders are right to be worried. As Benjamin Netanyahu peels away at the façade that has maintained support for the occupation state within liberal Jewish constituencies in the US and elsewhere, they are discovering that their democratic image of Israel is but a figment of their imagination. Any remaining doubt about Israel's identity was erased last week when Netanyahu declared that the preservation of Jewish supremacy will be state policy.

03 Jan 2023; MEMO: US State Representative of Massachusetts, Jamie Zahlaway Belsito, slammed Israel's harsh policies against Palestinians, condemning it as a "mission to kill Palestinians and steal their lands".

Following the announcement of the Israeli government's plans to escalate expanding illegal Jewish settlements in the Occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, the politician took to Twitter criticising Israel as "an apartheid run thuggery terrorist regime."

02 Jan 2023; MEMO: Israeli settlers on Sunday destroyed the contents of an agricultural warehouse in the West Bank village of Shufa, southeast of Tulkarm, for the second time in a week.

The owner of the warehouse, Tahsin Hamed, said that he was surprised on Sunday morning when he arrived at his land near the settlement of Avni Hefetis to find that settlers had destroyed the contents of the warehouse and destroyed the agricultural equipment inside it.

02 Jan 2023; MEMO: The new Israeli government is preparing a package of sanctions against Palestinians, including the withdrawal of VIP cards granted to Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, Quds Press reported on Sunday.

The planned Israel sanctions are a response the UN approval on Friday of a resolution requesting the International Court of Justice evaluate Israel's "annexation" policies and the "legal status of the occupation."

02 Jan 2023; MEMO: The National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces will hold a meeting with Turkish officials on Monday to discuss the recent rapprochement between Ankara and the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, media sources reported.

The meeting comes at a time as political rapprochement between Turkiye and the Syrian regime is accelerating at a fast pace, which has caused concern within the Istanbul-based body.

02 Jan 2023; MEMO: The appointment of the far-right French lawmaker, José Gonzalez, as vice-president of the Algeria-France Parliamentary Friendship Group has caused widespread alarm because of his glorification of colonialism and denial of French colonial crimes in Algeria.