US special envoy ‘satisfied' with Lebanon reply to US roadmap to disarm Hezbollah
'What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time. I'm unbelievably satisfied with the response,' Barrack told reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, without giving details of the response.
Aoun's team gave Barrack a seven-page reply to his June 19 proposal.
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Arab News
4 hours ago
- Arab News
Israel's Netanyahu aide faces indictment over Gaza leak
JERUSALEM: An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces indictment on security charges pending a hearing, Israel's attorney general said on Sunday, for allegedly leaking top secret military information during Israel's war in Gaza. Netanyahu's close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024. The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a General Gali Baharav-Miara said in a statement that Urich and another aide had extracted secret information from the Israeli military and leaked it to German newspaper Bild. Their intent, she said, was to shape public opinion of Netanyahu and influence the discourse about the slaying of six Israeli hostages by their Palestinian captors in Gaza in late August 2024. The hostages' deaths had sparked mass protests in Israel and outraged hostage families, who accused Netanyahu of torpedoing ceasefire talks that had faltered in the preceding weeks for political vehemently denies this. He has repeatedly said that Hamas was to blame for the talks collapsing, while the militant group has said it was Israel's fault no deal had been reached. Four of the six slain hostages had been on the list of more than 30 captives that Hamas was set to free were a ceasefire to be reached, according to a defense official at the time. The Bild article in question was published days after the hostages were found executed in a Hamas tunnel in southern outlined Hamas' negotiation strategy in the indirect ceasefire talks and largely corresponded with Netanyahu's allegations against the militant group over the said after the investigation was announced that it does not comment on its sources and that its article relied on authentic documents.A two-month ceasefire was reached in January this year and included the release of 38 hostages before Israel resumed attacks in Gaza. The sides are presently engaged in indirect negotiations in Doha, aimed at reaching another truce.
Arab News
4 hours ago
- Arab News
How unequal shelter access puts Israel's Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk
LONDON: As Iranian rockets shook East Jerusalem in mid-June, Rawan Shalaldeh sat in the dark while her seven-year-old son slept. She had put him to bed early and hid her phone to prevent the constant alerts from waking him, hoping sleep would shield her child from the terror above. 'The bombing was very intense; the house would shake,' Shalaldeh, an architect and urban planner with the Israeli human rights and planning organization Bimkom, told Arab News. While residents in nearby Jewish districts rushed into reinforced shelters, Shalaldeh and her family in the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Al-Zaytoun had nowhere to go. 'East Jerusalem has only about 60 shelters, most of them inside schools,' she said. 'They're designed for students, not for neighborhood residents. They're not available in every area, and they're not enough for the population.' Her home is a 15-minute walk from the nearest shelter. 'By the time we'd get there, the bombing would already be over,' she said. Instead, her family stayed inside, bracing for the next strike. 'We could hear the sound but couldn't tell if it was from the bombs or the interception systems,' she recalled. 'We couldn't sleep. It was terrifying. I fear it will happen again.' That fear is compounded by infrastructure gaps that make East Jerusalem's residents more vulnerable. 'Old homes in East Jerusalem don't have shelters at all,' she said. 'New homes with shelters are rare because it's extremely hard to get a building permit here.' Israeli law requires new apartments to be built with protected rooms. However, homes built without permits are unlikely to follow the guidelines, leaving most without safe space. The contrast with West Jerusalem is stark. 'There's a big difference between East and West Jerusalem,' Shalaldeh said. 'In the west, there are many shelters, and things are much easier for them.' Indeed, a June 17 report by Bimkom underscored these disparities. While West Jerusalem, home to a mostly Jewish population, has about 200 public shelters, East Jerusalem, which is home to nearly 400,000 Palestinians, has just one. Even where shelters do exist they are often inaccessible. The municipality's website fails to clearly mark their locations, and many residents are unaware they exist. Some shelters even remain locked during emergencies — especially at night. The report concluded that the current infrastructure is grossly inadequate, leaving most East Jerusalem residents without access to basic protection during attacks. Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem hold temporary residency IDs that lack any listed nationality and must be renewed every five years. Unlike Arab citizens of Israel — often referred to as '48 Arabs' — or residents of southern Israel, they do not have Israeli citizenship. For many Palestinian and Arab citizens of Israel, the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June laid bare a deeper inequity — one that extends beyond conflict and into the fabric of everyday life. 'I haven't spoken with any of my friends in the north yet, but I saw videos on Instagram,' Shalaldeh said. 'Arab families tried to enter shelters and were prevented — because they're Arab.' The war, she said, exposed an uncomfortable truth for many Arab citizens of Israel. 'After the war, many realized they're not treated like Israelis — even though they have citizenship, work in Israel and speak Hebrew.' 'There's an Israeli policy that tries to blur their identity. But the war opened a lot of people's eyes. It became clear they're not equal, and the issue of shelters was shocking for many.' One town where this inequity became alarmingly visible was Tira, a predominantly Arab community in central Israel with roughly 27,000 residents. Though well within the range of missile attacks, Tira lacks adequate public shelters. 'Most of the few shelters that exist are outdated, insufficient, or located far from residential areas,' Fakhri Masri, a political and social activist from Tira, told Arab News. 'In emergencies, schools are often opened as temporary shelters, but they only serve nearby neighborhoods and can't accommodate everyone. 'Many homes do not have protected rooms, and this leaves families, especially those with children or elderly members, extremely vulnerable.' When sirens sounded during the attacks, panic set in. 'It was the middle of the night,' Masri said. 'Many of us had to wake our children, some still half asleep, and scramble for any kind of cover.' With official shelters scarce, families resorted to improvised solutions. 'People ran into stairwells, lay on the ground away from windows, or tried to reach school shelters — if they were even open or nearby,' he said. Others simply fled to their cars or huddled outdoors, hoping distance from buildings would offer some safety. 'It was chaotic, frightening, and it felt like we were left completely on our own,' Masri said. 'The fear wasn't just of rockets — it was also the fear of having no place to run to.' Underlying this crisis, he argued, is a deeper pattern of state neglect. 'Arab towns like Tira were never provided with proper infrastructure or emergency planning like Jewish towns often are,' he said. 'That in itself feels like a form of discrimination. 'It makes you feel invisible — like our safety doesn't matter. It's a constant reminder that we're not being protected equally under the same state policies. 'We are not asking for anything more than what every citizen deserves — equal rights, equal protection, and the right to live in safety and dignity. It is a basic human right to feel secure at our own home, to know that our children have somewhere safe to go during an emergency.' Masri, who has long campaigned for equal emergency protections, called on the Israeli government to end discrimination in shelter planning. 'Treat Arab towns with the same seriousness and care as any other town,' he said. 'We are people who want to live in peace. We want our children to grow up in a country where safety is not a privilege but a right — for everyone, Jewish and Arab alike. 'Until that happens, we will keep raising our voices and demanding fairness, because no one should be left behind.' The picture is similar for the roughly 100,000 Bedouin who live across 35 unrecognized villages in the Negev and Galilee regions, often in makeshift homes that provide little protection. Many of these villages are near sensitive sites targeted by Iran. One such village is Wadi Al-Na'am, the largest unrecognized village in Israel, home to about 15,000 Bedouin residents in the southern Negev desert. 'When we say unrecognized, it means we have nothing,' said Najib Abu Bnaeh, head of the village's emergency team and a member of its local council. 'No roads, no electricity, no running water — and certainly no shelters. 'During wars, people flee the villages. They hide in caves, under bridges — any place they can find.' • 250 Shelters built across Negev since Oct. 7, 2023 — half of them by the state. • 60 School-based shelters in East Jerusalem, concentrated in select locations. • 1 Public shelter in East Jerusalem. • 200 Public shelters in West Jerusalem. (Source: Bimkom) After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the army began installing a small number of shelters in unrecognized villages. But Abu Bnaeh said that these efforts have fallen short. 'In our village, they built two structures,' he said. 'But they have no ceilings, so they don't protect from anything.' He estimates that more than 45,000 protective buildings are needed across all unrecognized villages. As the head of Wadi Al-Na'am's emergency response team, Abu Bnaeh leads a group of 20 volunteers. Together, they assist residents during missile alerts, evacuating families to shelters in nearby townships such as Segev Shalom and Rahat, and delivering food and medicine. 'We train people how to take cover and survive,' he said. 'We also help train teams in other villages how to respond to injuries, missiles and emergencies. 'The best way to protect people is simple. Recognize the villages. Allow us to build shelters.' Even recognized villages face issues. In Um Bateen, officially recognized in 2004, basic infrastructure is still missing. 'Although our village is recognized, we still don't have electricity,' Samera Abo Kaf, a resident of the 8,000-strong community, told Arab News. 'There are 48 Bedouin villages in northern Israel. And even those recognized look nothing like Jewish towns nearby.' Building legally is nearly impossible. 'The state refuses to recognize the land we've lived on for generations,' she said. 'So, we build anyway — out of necessity. But that means living in fear; of winter collapsing our roofs, or bulldozers tearing our homes down.' Abo Kaf said that the contrast is obvious during her commute. 'I pass Beer Sheva and Omer — trees, paved roads, tall buildings. It's painful. Just 15 minutes away, life is so different. 'And I come from a village that is, in many ways, better off than others,' she added. With each new conflict, the fear returns. 'Israel is a country with many enemies — it's no secret,' Abo Kaf said. 'Every few years, we go through another war. And we Bedouins have no shelters. None. 'So not only are our homes at risk of demolition, but we also live with the threat of rockets. It's absurd. It's infuriating. If something doesn't change, there's no future.' Michal Braier, Bimkom's head of research, said that no government body had responded to its report, though many civil society organizations have supported its findings based on specific cases. 'There are stark protection gaps between high- and low-income communities,' she told Arab News. 'And most Arab and Palestinian communities rank low on socio-economic indicators. 'This is a very neo-liberal planning and development policy that, by definition, leaves the weak behind.'
Arab News
5 hours ago
- Arab News
Israel seeks to bypass Palestinian leaders yet again
One of the defining features of colonial regimes is a strategy of divide and rule. Successive Israeli governments have repeatedly resorted to this tactic to undermine Palestinian unity and erase any semblance of a collective Palestinian national identity. Soon after its occupation began in 1967, Israel sought to empower Palestinian leaders more loyal to Jordan than to the Palestine Liberation Organization. But the tide turned in 1974, when the Arab League Summit in Rabat officially recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. That same year, Yasser Arafat addressed the UN with his now-iconic speech, raising both an olive branch and a pistol. He urged the world to support peace and warned against those who would snatch away the olive branch. Rather than respond in kind, Israel signed a separate peace agreement with Egypt — one that deliberately sidelined the PLO. Israel's efforts to marginalize Palestinian nationalism continued into the 1980s. A growing alliance of nationalist mayors, intellectuals and civil society leaders began to gain popularity in the Occupied Territories. In 1980, an underground Israeli settler cell planted car bombs targeting three prominent West Bank mayors. While none were killed, the attacks left lasting scars: Nablus Mayor Bassam Shakaa lost both legs and Ramallah Mayor Karim Khalaf lost part of one leg. Rather than silence them, the attacks elevated these mayors to national hero status. When intimidation failed, Israel turned to a different colonial tactic — pitting rural Palestinians against the urban leadership. Menahem Milson, a Hebrew University professor and Israeli official, spearheaded the creation of the 'village leagues.' These bodies were meant to act as an alternative to the overwhelmingly pro-PLO nationalist movement. While they managed to attract a few collaborators, especially around Hebron, they were widely rejected by the Palestinian public. By 1988, the situation had reached boiling point. Inspired by nonviolent movements like those led by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Palestinians launched the first Intifada — a largely nonviolent uprising demanding freedom. Yet even then, Israel's divide-and-rule strategy persisted. During the 1970s, Israel had allowed Islamist groups to grow in influence as a counterweight to secular nationalists. This led to the formation of Hamas in Gaza, a group that participated in the Intifada but soon took a more radical, violent path. Even after the Oslo Accords were signed, Hamas worked to undermine the peace process. When intimidation failed, Israel turned to a different colonial tactic — pitting rural Palestinians against the urban leadership. Daoud Kuttab That process unraveled entirely in 1995, when a right-wing Israeli extremist assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposed Oslo, was narrowly elected shortly thereafter. With Rabin gone and Israeli politics turning sharply rightward, the peace process ground to a halt. In the post-Arafat era, Israel's right-wing governments — dominated by religious nationalists — have shown little interest in engaging with legitimate Palestinian leaders. This has been true under both Arafat and his more moderate successor, Mahmoud Abbas. Following the brutal Hamas attack in October 2023, the Israeli government used the violence not only to wage war on Hamas and the Palestinian people in Gaza, but also to further marginalize the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, as well as refugee camps in the West Bank. Despite quietly relying on the PA for security coordination, Netanyahu and his far-right ministers — such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — have consistently denied the PA any respect or political legitimacy. Their scorched-earth approach has extended even to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which they have sought to dismantle in the false hope that doing so will erase the Palestinian right of return. Now, with international support for Palestinian self-determination growing — and as France and Saudi Arabia prepare to co-chair a high-level UN conference on the two-state solution — Israel is doubling down on its efforts to delegitimize Palestinian nationalism. The latest twist in this decades-old playbook? Reviving the old village leagues tactic. Some tribal and local figures are again being courted to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for economic incentives, such as work permits. This new scheme, like its predecessors, is designed to bypass the PLO and weaken the Ramallah-based leadership. But such efforts are doomed to fail. There is no path to peace that avoids direct negotiations with the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people. Abbas, for all his critics, remains a committed advocate of nonviolence and coexistence. If Israel and the international community are truly interested in peace, they must engage with Abbas and the PLO in good faith — and work toward a permanent agreement that includes the creation of a viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian state alongside Israel. The time to act is now.
