After weeks of negotiations, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week a new framework on settlement construction in the West Bank. Citing the wishes of the new American administration to see settlement building curtailed, Netanyahu announced that any new construction will be limited to within existing settlement boundaries. Where Read more…
Iain McNicol, general secretary of the Labour party, travelled to Israel this week with Labour Friends of Israel. The three-day trip included laying a wreath at Yad Vashem; meeting with Israeli Labor MKs Hilik Bar and Michal Biran and the party’s new general secretary, Eran Hermoni; visiting a Jerusalem coexistence Read more…
Israel struck a number of targets in Syria last week, in what was the country’s strongest intervention into the Syrian civil war yet. Whilst previous attacks have mostly been concentrated in southern Lebanon and Damascus, this series of raids also included a hit on a military base near Palmyra. In Read more…
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Whatever its merits, the nuclear deal concluded two years ago this summer has done nothing to satisfy Iran’s appetite to establish regional hegemony in the Middle East. This is unsurprising: one of the great flaws of European and US efforts was a willingness to overlook Iran’s Read more…
Likud transport minister Yisrael Katz voiced his support again last week for a new sea port on the Gaza coast, indicating continuing Israeli concern about the future of the Palestinian enclave. The idea has been proposed in various forms over the past five years, though Katz’ vision is particularly ambitious: Read more…
The Israeli Labor party’s leadership primary election will be held on 3 July, it was announced this week. Isaac Herzog, the current party chairman who is standing for re-election, is expected to be joined by up to seven candidates in the contest. The Labor party – the senior partner Read more…
This week sees the return of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) to campuses in the UK. The week long anti-Israel campaign originated in Toronto in 2005 and has since spread to dozens of cities around the world. Campus groups host a series of discussions, exhibitions, film viewings and publicity stunts, aiming Read more…
LFI chair Joan Ryan has welcomed the introduction of a new bill in the US Congress which raises the prospect of a significant boost to the international campaign to fund coexistence projects in Israel and Palestine. Congressmen Jeff Fortenberry and Joe Crowley introduced the bill in the US House of Representatives to Read more…
An unconventional joint press conference was held by American President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. The new American administration, the president said, would be “working toward a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States will encourage a peace and, really, a great Read more…
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week approved the construction and planning of 2551 housing units in the West Bank. The decision followed an earlier announcement approving 566 homes beyond the Green Line in Jerusalem. The announcement was met with noticeable silence from the Trump administration when the White House Read more…
Donald Trump’s ascendancy to the American Presidency has worried advocates of a two-state solution across the globe. A number of early proposals and statements have aligned the incoming Republican President with both sceptics and opponents of a two-state deal. Heavy criticism followed Trump’s appointment of bankruptcy lawyer David Freidman as Read more…
On Wednesday 18th January, Joan Ryan MP, Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, tabled a ten-minute rule bill entitled Promotion of Israeli-Palestinian Peace. The bill requires the Secretary of State to promote the establishment of an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace to support coexistence projects and civil society programmes. The Read more…