Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired a key Cabinet ally on Sunday, heeding a Supreme Court ruling commanding him to do so and deepening a rift over the power of the courts.

Netanyahu announced he was firing Aryeh Deri, who serves as Interior and Health Minister, at a meeting of his Cabinet. Israel’s Supreme Court decided last week Deri could not serve as a Cabinet minister because of a conviction last year over tax offenses.

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian militant allegedly tried to stab an Israeli in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and the Israeli shot and killed the Palestinian.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the Palestinian man as Tariq Maali, 42, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group later claimed him as a member. The health ministry said he was shot northwest of the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

20 Jan 2023; MEMO: Israel's Chief Rabbi has given a kosher stamp of approval this week to a company looking to sell steak grown from cow cells – while effectively taking the animal itself out of the equation, Reuters reports.

Cultivated meat, grown from animal cells in a lab or manufacturing plant, has been getting a lot of attention as a way to side-step the environmental toll of the meat industry and address concerns over animal welfare.

JERUSALEM, Jan 19 (NNN-MNA) – Israel’s Supreme Court, ruled yesterday that, a key member in the country’s new extreme-right government, could not serve as minister, because of his criminal conviction.

Israel’s top court said, Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox party of Shas and a powerful figure in Israeli politics, is disqualified from serving as a minister, because of his conviction of tax fraud.

18 Jan 2023; MEMO: Israel has appealed to Pope Francis, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Secretary-General on Wednesday to help it recover four citizens held in the Gaza Strip for more than seven years, Reuters reports.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen's office said he sent letters of appeal after Gaza's ruling Palestinian group, Hamas, released a video of captive, Avera Mengistu, who walked into the enclave and whose family says he suffers from mental illness.

18 Jan 2023; MEMO: The United States expects Israel, under a visa-waiver deal being discussed between the allies, to enable free passage for Palestinian-Americans into the Occupied West Bank, the US ambassador said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, the West Bank has seen a surge in violence over the past year. It is peppered with Israeli military checkpoints and patrols.

JERUSALEM, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Israel's Supreme Court ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to remove a senior minister over a past tax fraud conviction, in a setback for the new right-wing coalition government.

The 10-to-one ruling on Shas party leader Aryeh Deri looks likely to further stoke tensions between the Cabinet and Israel's Supreme Court over government reform plans which aim to rein in the top court.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must fire a key ally from the country’s new Cabinet, presenting the Israeli leader with a potential coalition crisis and deepening a rift over the power of the courts.

17 Jan 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Tuesday that Israel's main conflict is with Iran, Anadolu News Agency reports.

This came during Netanyahu's meeting with Betsy Korn, head of the pro-Israeli American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasised that the main struggle has been – and remains – with Iran," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Jordan summoned the Israeli ambassador to Amman on Tuesday to protest a move by Israeli police to block the Jordanian envoy from entering a volatile holy site in Jerusalem. The incident quickly escalated tensions between the neighbors and reflected the heightened sensitivity around the sacred compound under Israel’s new ultranationalist government.