Hamas is threatening to jail three Palestinian peace activists for holding a video call with Israelis in April. The activists, who belong to the Gaza Youth Committee, were charged by Palestinian military prosecutors last week with “weakening revolutionary spirit” for participating in a peace-building initiative called “Skype With Your Enemy”. Read more…
In their steadfast opposition to the historic agreement signed last week between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have found a rare common cause. Earlier this month, President Mahmoud Abbas hosted a meeting in Ramallah which brought together all 14 major Palestinian factions – Read more…
LFI’s chair, Steve McCabe, has written an op-ed for this week’s Jewish News in which he urges the government to take action on the Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum. The curriculum, introduced in 2017, incites violence and glorifies terrorists. Through the Department for International Development, UK taxpayers’ aid funds the salaries Read more…
A Bulgarian court this week sentenced two men to life imprisonment for a 2012 bus bombing in which five Israeli tourists were murdered and more than 35 injured. The driver of the bus also died in the attack. The two men, both of Lebanese origin, were tried in absentia and Read more…
The United States and European countries, including Britain, are at loggerheads over efforts by the Trump administration to reimpose all sanctions on Iran lifted after the 2015 nuclear deal. The so-called “snapback” clause in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was triggered when the UN Security Council voted last month Read more…
The Israeli cabinet is to consider a raft of new restrictions to dampen the country’s sharp rise in covid-19 cases. The meeting comes just days after Israel became the first country in the world to impose a second national lockdown. As the three-week lockdown – which has seen schools and Read more…
Jeremy Corbyn directed aides to get Ken Livingstone back into Labour, reports the Jewish Chronicle. In a special enquiry by Panama journalist John Ware, sources revealed two senior leaders’ staff were tasked with organising the former Mayor of London’s re-admittance into the party, coming after his second suspension after his Read more…
Amnesty International described Iran’s execution of wrestler Navid Afkari as a “travesty of justice”. The 27-year-old was sentenced to death over a security guard murder that occurred during a 2018 wave of anti-government protests. Afkari alleged his confession was secured by torture, stating in audio released by the human rights Read more…
The Knesset’s coronavirus cabinet has agreed to a three-week national lockdown in Israel as cases continue to spike. The decision came ahead of the Jewish high holy days while Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya is said to be overwhelmed and turning away new covid-19 patients. On Sunday, Haredi Minister Yaakov Read more…
In the third announcement of its kind in as many weeks, the Israeli and Bahraini Governments announced the normalising of relations. This follows a similar agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and two Balkan states. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu traveled to Washington DC for a four day trip Read more…
LFI chair Steve McCabe has written for The House, click here to read the original. Relations in the Middle East are shifting. Labour Friends of Israel will help craft a new internationalist approach to the region, while standing up to anti-Semitism in our party Labour Friends of Israel this week Read more…
Last Saturday, about 20,000 protesters gathered outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem. With parallel gatherings held outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea and at over 300 bridges and major intersections nationwide, the demonstrations are in their eleventh consecutive week. Activists are calling on the prime minister to resign Read more…