Israel

23 Aug 2020; MEMO: Israeli anti-government protesters turned out in droves on Saturday in defiance of a police ban on the demonstrations, according to i24 News.

The protesters turned out in force to protest “crime minister” Benjamin Netanyahu, who is current Prime Minister of Israel in Jerusalem.

Despite police warnings not to, the protestors made their way through key routes in Jerusalem in order to get to Netanyahu’s residence on Balfour street.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The head of Israel’s coronavirus task force has asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to ban an annual pilgrimage in which Hasidic Jews visit the central Ukrainian town of Uman over concerns the site may become a virus hotspot.

Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews descend on Uman every Jewish New Year to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who revived the Hasidic movement and died in 1810. This year, Jewish New Year celebrations run from Sept. 18-20.

21 Aug 2020; MEMO: The International Federation of Jurists denounced Israel’s detention of Palestinian activist Raed Salah and called on the international community and non-governmental organisations to defend the Palestinian people’s rights.

The Istanbul-based rights organisation added in a statement that Israel commits “terrorist acts” by “killing of innocent [Palestinian] civilians using heavy arms, warplanes, and missiles,” Anadolu Agency reported.

21 Aug 2020; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he intends to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before the end of 2020, Anadolu reports.

“I intend to visit you soon, during this year,” Netanyahu told Jewish community leaders in the UAE via the Zoom application, according to a statement issued by his office.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers fired at Palestinians suspected of preparing to attack Israeli cars in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the military said, and Palestinian officials said a Palestinian teenager was killed.

A military spokeswoman said members of a “terrorist squad” were hit by the gunfire but she had no details on their condition.

Palestinian health and municipal officials said Mohammad Damer Hamdan, 16, was killed by Israeli forces and two other Palestinians were wounded. The Hamas Islamist militant group issued a statement mourning his death.

19 Aug 2020; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed that the deal to normalise relations with the UAE does not include the sale of US F-35 fighter jets to the Gulf state, Anadolu reported yesterday.

In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said the agreement did not include “any approval by Israel on any arms deal between the United States and the United Arab Emirates.”

19 Aug 2020; MEMO: Former US envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, said yesterday that Israel’s annexation plans were suspended, not cancelled, Israeli media reported.

“I think it’s important to look at the word that was chosen by the three parties and the official statement, which is the word ‘suspend’,” Greenblatt was reported by Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post as saying.

19 Aug 2020; MEMO: Israeli prison services sent Sheikh Raed Salah to solitary confinement in Ashkelon Prison, Palestinian sources in Israel told Quds Press yesterday.

Reporting lawyers who spoke with Israeli prison officials, Quds Press said that Salah was moved from Al Jalama Prison to solitary confinement in Ashkelon Prison.

His defence lawyers said they expected him to be put in solitary.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel is preparing for direct flights, over Saudi Arabia, to the United Arab Emirates as part of its normalisation deal with the UAE.

Israel and the UAE announced on Thursday that they will normalise diplomatic relations under a U.S.-sponsored deal whose implementation could reshape Middle East politics from the Palestinian issue to the fight against Iran. The UAE would only be third Arab state in more than 70 years to establish relations with Israel.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that a deal to establish full diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates proves that Israel doesn’t need to retreat from occupied land sought by the Palestinians in order to achieve peace and normalization with Arab states.