The IDF locked down the area surrounding the West Bank town of Huwara on Sunday evening, following a Palestinian terrorist attack. An Israeli couple were injured in the shooting exactly three weeks after two Israelis were killed in a similar gun attack in the town. American-born Michael Stern was taken to hospital Read more…
Israel’s opposition leaders have rejected changes to Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reforms announced late on Sunday night. What happened The ruling coalition proposed a mild watering down of its effort to ensure the government’s control over judicial appointments. President Isaac Herzog announced a much-awaited alternative judicial reform package last week. It was Read more…
The below is Labour Friends of Israel’s 2023 National Policy Forum submission, to the ‘Britain in the world’ commission. Labour Friends of Israel: NPF Consultation Submission About LFI Established in 1957, Labour Friends of Israel campaigns for a negotiated two-state solution for two peoples; with Israel safe, secure and recognised Read more…
Today’s FCDO orals session saw LFI parliamentarians push the government on a number of policy issues. LFI parliamentary supporter and former LFI chair Andrew Gwynne MP asked the foreign secretary about UK support for the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, noting that it is now five years since the UK Read more…
February saw a sharp increase in the proportion of Israelis who describe the Jewish state’s overall situation as either bad or very bad, according to the Israeli Democracy Institute’s February 2023 polling. The percentage of Israelis who are optimistic about the future of Israel’s national security declined from 46 percent Read more…
Saudi Arabia has reportedly asked the United States to approve the development of a civilian nuclear programme in exchange for the kingdom normalising relations with Israel. The demand is the latest in a series of asks put to the US from Riyadh, though such a deal remains “very far off”, the Times Read more…
LFI director Michael Rubin has written the below article for the Jewish Chronicle. Click here to read the original. For friends of Israel, the last two months have been depressing and disturbing. Benjamin Netanyahu’s self-serving efforts to emasculate the independence of the judiciary and the repellent actions and rhetoric of his far-right Read more…
The Labour frontbench has today reiterated the party’s support for UK involvement in the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, a longstanding LFI campaign goal. Responding to a debate in the House of Lords on Israeli-Palestinian peace, Labour’s Lords FCDO spokesperson Lord Collins highlighted the importance of “economic development and Read more…
A number of LFI peers have this evening taken part in a debate on ‘calming the violence and build a lasting peace between the government of Israel and the Palestinian people’ in the House of Lords. LFI Lords chair Baroness Ramsay reminded colleagues of how Iran’s support for terrorism in Read more…
Israeli president Isaac Herzog has praised a summit involving the biggest business delegation from the Gulf which “would have been pure fantasy a few years ago”. Herzog formally opened the OurCrowd summit, the biggest investor event in the Middle East for start-up companies, saying he was particularly glad to see Read more…
Recent violence in the West Bank between the IDF and Palestinian militant groups has witnessed small numbers of young Palestinian men take up arms against Israel in defiance of the Palestinian political leadership. A number of newly emerging groups, many with fluid and overlapping affiliations, have emerged which lack clear Read more…
Record numbers of Israelis took part in protests on Saturday night as opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reforms continues to mount. An estimated 250,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and over 90 other locations. Almost all the reservists in the Israeli air force’s elite Squadron Read more…