The Supermarket chain Co-Operative Group, Britain's fifth-largest food retailer, is the first major European retailer to stop buying from companies that export produce from Israeli settlements east of the Green Line. The largest Israeli agricultural export companies affected by this move are Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin.
By Tibbi Singer
Last Sunday night, a Palestinian woman arrived with her 12-day-old baby girl at an IDF post in the Benjamin region of Judea and Samaria. The infant was having trouble breathing and needed immediate first aid. Commanders from the Benjamin Regional Brigade explained that Palestinians in the region know that if they have a life-threatening emergency, they can come to the IDF post for assistance.
First obtained and published by Haaretz, the transcripts reveal his motivations for facilitating terrorist attacks against Israeli targets, his fears of losing the Palestinian street, and the extent of Arafat's autonomy.
Hamas number two Moussa Abu Marzouk said Thursday that if Hamas comes to power in a future Palestinian state, it will not uphold any peace agreements with Israel.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) boasted a successful campaign and praised the EU on Tuesday for deciding not to renew a contract with the world’s largest security solutions company, because it also does business with Israeli prisons and security services.
Ranking Islamic Jihad official Khader Adnan, who went on a 66-day hunger strike over his detention by Israel, has been released in keeping with the deal reached with him to end his hunger strike in February. One day before his release on Tuesday, some 2,300 Palestinian inmates in Israeli jails began an open-ended hunger strike, synchronized with Palestinian rallies marking "Prisoners' Day."
The latest Israeli Police figures: 43 activists altogether have been detained at Ben Gurion airport. Out of this number, 31 were transported to the Givon detention facility for processing and 12 were put on returning flights. Nine Israeli activists waving pro-Palestinian banners were detained for questioning.
By Tibbi Singer
Israeli security forces are preparing for a "fly-in" of as many as 2000 pro-Palestinian provocateurs, who will be trying to push their way in front of the cameras at Ben Gurion airport on Sunday. Those activists who will make it through, coming in mostly from Europe, will be turned around and sent right back to their ports of origin, but not before being handed a leaflet expressing the sentiments of their brief hosts.
IDF Soldiers and Military Police on Wednesday arrested a Palestinian armed with seven explosives at the Beka'ot crossing in the Jordan River Valley. The terrorist appeared suspicious and while searching him the soldiers discovered three knives and bullets, as well as the explosives. The terrorist was taken for further investigation by security forces.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a delegation of Israeli leftists on Sunday that he would ask the UN General Assembly to recognize Palestinian statehood if Israel does not respond to his demands for the resumption of negotiations. Those demands include a total freeze of Jewish settlement construction in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem, and the release of Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisoners.
By Tibbi Singer
The condition of Ismat Abdul Khaliq, the Palestinian woman who had been arrested over her critical writings about PA President Mahmoud Abbas, is deteriorating in an isolation cell in prison. Prosecutors accuse Abdul Khaliq of writing a Facebook status update criticizing Abbas. She has been held since last week after a court extended her detention for 15 days.
In a key defeat for NGO "Lawfare", the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Tuesday decided that it does not have jurisdiction to begin an investigation over cases related to the 2008-09 Gaza War because "Palestine" is not a state. But this victory over Israel's Palestinian foes may not be long lasting.
At the Kalandia checkpoint, where Palestinian youths have been taunting Israeli security forces all day, activity fizzled down after TV cameras had left. Jordan mass sit-in remained 6 miles from the border. Lebanon's army restrained Iranian and Palestinian busloads of demonstrators. In this region things can change rapidly, but we're off to the mikvah, to prepare for Shabbat. Here's hoping for a peaceful evening.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton phoned President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting of the international Quartet scheduled for next month. Clinton's call to Abbas was to follow up on discussions between Abbas and Obama a day earlier.
Israel and Germany signed a contract purchasing the Israeli Navy's sixth submarine Wednesday. It is an SSK Dolphin Class submarine. Last year the newspaper The Welt am Sonntag reported that German chancellor Angela Merkel conditioned the sale of the Dolphin on Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, which Netanyahu obliged.
In an interview in Ankara, Turkey, published by the Anatolia news agency on Monday, Political Bureau Chairman of Hamas Khaled Mishaal accused Israel of using the Gaza Strip as a "guinea pig" for testing its military capabilities before attacking Iran.
Watch compilation of rocket attack filmed by civilians. The cease fire which was supposedly declared last Tuesday morning remains more wishful thinking than an actual cessation of violence. Or perhaps, as some experts have said, this is the Islamic Jihad's new style of hurting Israel, delivering the cuts of a thousand knives in groups of only three a day, to make any serious IDF reaction appear "disproportionate."
Following reports of a ceasefire, communities in the South were hoping that life would go back to normal, but at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday a Grad rocket exploded in a parking lot in Netivot, causing damage to vehicles. One person was lightly wounded by shrapnel; 11 suffered from shock.
Multiple rockets were shot, after a ceasefire had gone into effect Tuesday. Rockets landed at Eshkol, Ashkelon, and Sha'ar Ha'Negev. Still, the shooting has subsided significantly. Palestinians agreed to stop launching rockets at Israeli cities, Israel agreed to stop targeting terrorist leaders from the air. Israel released only a noncommittal confirmation, saying "Quiet will be met with quiet."
Two Palestinians were killed Monday evening in an IAF strike east of Gaza City, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 25 since Friday. The IDF Spokesman reported that the IAF attacked a terrorist squad Monday night in northern Gaza, shortly before it was able to shoot a high trajectory, medium-range rocket toward Israeli territory.
While the Air Force continues to attack Gaza and rocket attacks on communities in the south persist, following the killing of Gilad Shalit's kidnapper, both Israel's Prime Minister and Minister of Defense are threatening terrorist organizations in Gaza. In conversation with mayors in the south, Netanyahu said: "We'll arm ourselves with additional Iron Dome systems, which have tested well again." Barak: "No one in Gaza is immune." IDF Chief of Staff: "We will respond aggressively to every rocket launch against Israel."
Prime Minister of Israel Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement warning that steps by the Palestinian Authority to implement a new agreement with Hamas will mean the end of peace talks with Israel.
By Rafi Harkham
Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal came to an agreement on an interim unity government on Sunday. Mashaal: We are seeking unity "to resist the enemy and achieve our national goal."
After a nasty interchange between Israeli and PA representatives in Amman, Prime Minister Netanyahu telling his cabinet "signs are not particularly good" for peace as a result of negotiations
Members of terror group’s political echelon had been hiding from law in Red Cross compound.
By Sam Ser
Man locked daughter in bathroom for nine years because she wanted to go to school. "She hasn't seen sunlight since," he told police.
By Sam Ser
Longtime Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who has ruled the terrorist group’s political structure from Damascus since 1996, has told Palestinian media he would soon step down.
The European Union, fearful that the "window for the two-state solution is rapidly closing" has decided to skirt Israeli building regulations in Area C of Judea and Samaria.
By Aaron Klein
“You don’t need to hit only the immediate, direct nuclear infrastructure of theirs. You can achieve this goal by going after some other targets, without being more specific,” said Shabtai Shavit, who served as Mossad director from 1989 to 1996.