Israel blocks Arab ministers from Ramallah meeting on Palestinian statehood
The delegation included ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Palestinian Authority officials said. The ministers would require Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in "a provocative meeting" to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security."
A Palestinian Authority official said that the issue of whether the meeting in Ramallah would be able to go ahead was under discussion.
The move comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
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Rakyat Post
an hour ago
- Rakyat Post
Chief Genocide Enabler Should Not Be Welcomed In Malaysia [Opinion]
By Professor Mohd Nazari Ismail BDS Malaysia Chairman Recently, the prime minister announced that US President Donald Trump is coming to Malaysia to attend the ASEAN summit, which is scheduled to take place at the end of October. This pleased Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim so much that he told Trump that he would be announcing the visit to the Malaysian parliament. The display of pride and happiness when he made the announcement was a stark contrast to the anger and disgust on his face when he spoke on previous occasions about how the Western governments were aiding Israel in committing genocide in Gaza. This very puzzling inconsistency is made worse by the fact that the US is the leading supplier of weapons used by Israel to commit genocide in Gaza. Since Germany recently announced that it will no longer supply Israel with weapons that can be used in Gaza, the US will be the ONLY supplier of such weapons. To make matters worse, Trump had recently announced to the world that he had managed to force many world leaders to 'kiss his ass' to negotiate for a lower tariff on exports from their countries to the US. These countries most certainly include Malaysia, which negotiated hard to reduce the tariff from 25 per cent to 19 per cent, whilst there were zero tariffs imposed on almost all US products exported to Malaysia. In addition, Malaysia agreed to invest in the US and purchase more American products, including additional orders of Boeing aircraft valued at tens of billions of dollars. There are differences in opinion on whether this deal benefits the US more than Malaysia since the US is Malaysia's third most important export destination, after China and Singapore. Moreover, the sectors that are involved – electrical and electronic products, palm oil and rubber employ a substantial number of workers. However, it can also be argued that the US, especially its consumers, will lose more by the imposition of high tariffs on Malaysian exports. Therefore, an alternative strategy is to call Trump's bluff, which was China's strategy. That could have imposed more pressure on Trump since his priority is to remain popular among American voters. In any case, what was more concerning was the reticence of the PM on whether he had raised the issue of Palestine with Trump during their telephone conversation. If the PM did not use the opportunity to pressure Trump to stop sending weapons to Israel, then that is indeed very saddening. All this while, the PM has been so vocal in saying that the world must do something to stop the genocide in Gaza. He should have used the opportunity to make Trump realise that Malaysians can never tolerate a leader who continues to be the leading enabler of the killings of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian women and children. The whole world is now aware of what is happening in Gaza. Children are being deliberately shot by Israeli snipers, or blown to pieces by bombs and shredded into pieces of meat, either by being crushed by falling buildings or driven over by giant bulldozers. Now, Israel is deliberately making sure the Gazans will starve to death by blocking food from coming into Gaza. Hundreds are now dead due to starvation, and hundreds more are slowly dying of hunger, including babies. Based on the announcements made by Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, it is very clear that Israel plans to occupy Gaza completely and displace as many Palestinians as possible. Israel's ultimate plan at the end of the genocide is to carry out ethnic cleansing of the remaining Palestinian population, which is a crime under international law. Israel can do this with impunity because of the unwavering backing by the US. The US is still supplying Israel with fighter jets, bulldozers and bombs that are being used to commit genocide in Gaza. In other words, Israel's impunity and deliberate crime of genocide in Gaza is due to the iron-clad support it is getting from Trump. When asked by a reporter about his response to Netanyahu's plan to take over Gaza City and displace more Palestinians, Trump said that it is up to Israel. In other words, Trump is deliberately allowing Israel to force Palestinians to leave their homes and their homeland permanently. Therefore, if Malaysia is serious about trying to protect the Palestinians, the minimum the prime minister should have done is to tell Trump directly to his face that the US should stop enabling Israel to commit genocide in Gaza. Instead, he exchanged pleasantries with Trump before extending the invitation to him to attend the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur. So, where does that leave Malaysia's stated policy of unwavering support for Palestinians in their fight for freedom from the settler-colonial Zionist regime and her oft-expressed utter disgust with the parties that are enabling the genocide in Gaza? Malaysia has to rise above rhetoric and be consistent in its support for the Palestinian cause lest it too would be accused of hypocrisy, a charge that Malaysia itself has often levelled at the Western governments. It is still not too late for the prime minister to send a message to Trump that, because of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which the US is very much involved, he is not welcome to visit Malaysia. Prof. Mohd Nazari Ismail (Phd.) is the chairman of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (Malaysia) and Director of the Hashim Sani Centre for Palestine Studies, in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Malaya. If you'd like your opinion shared on TRP, please send it via email at editorial@ with the title 'OPINION:' or through social media on TRP's Get more stories like this to your inbox by signing up for our newsletter.
Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Red Cross calls Israeli Gaza assault ‘intolerable' as humanitarian crisis deepens
GENEVA, Aug 21 — Israel's expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip, aimed at conquering Gaza City and targeting the remaining Hamas strongholds in the besieged Palestinian territory, is 'intolerable', the Red Cross said on Thursday. The Israeli military's plan, which includes the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, has deepened fears that the campaign will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the blockaded coastal strip. 'The intensification of hostilities in Gaza means more killing, more displacement, more destruction and more panic,' Christian Cardon, chief spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told AFP. 'Gaza is a closed space, from which nobody can escape... and where access to health care, food and safe water is dwindling,' said Cardon. 'Meanwhile, the security of humanitarians is getting worse by the hour,' the spokesman added. 'This is intolerable.' Cardon has taken an active role in the Red Cross's humanitarian activities on the ground, and has been involved in every exchange of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas in the Palestinian group's October 7, 2023 attack. That attack, which sparked the war in Gaza, resulted in the death of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas, 49 are still held captive in Gaza, including 27 who the Israeli military believes are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,122 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military. — AFP
New Straits Times
3 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Israel maintains military pressure on Gaza City ahead of planned offensive
s Reuters CAIRO: The Israeli military maintained its pressure on Gaza City with heavy bombardments overnight, residents said, ahead of a meeting today between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers on plans to seize the enclave's largest city. The military a day earlier called up 60,000 reservists in a sign that the government was pressing ahead with the plan, despite international condemnation. Although one military official said that most reservists would not serve in combat and that the strategy to take Gaza City had not yet been finalised. Calling up tens of thousands of reservists is also likely to take weeks, giving time for mediators to attempt to bridge gaps over a new temporary ceasefire proposal that Hamas has accepted, but the Israeli government is yet to officially respond to. The proposal calls for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas and of 18 bodies. In turn, Israel would release about 200 long-serving Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The Israeli government has restated that all of the remaining 50 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza must be released at once. Israeli officials believe that around 20 of them are still alive. Gaza City seizure Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with some cabinet ministers on Thursday to discuss his plan to seize Gaza City, according to Haaretz and other Israeli media, without giving more details. The plan was approved this month by the security cabinet, which he chairs, even though many of Israel's closest allies have urged the government to reconsider. Netanyahu is under pressure from some far-right members of his coalition to reject a temporary ceasefire and instead to continue the war and pursue the annexation of the territory. In Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians have left their homes as Israeli forces have escalated shelling on the Sabra and Tuffah neighbourhoods. Some families have left for shelters along the coast, while others have moved to central and southern parts of the enclave, according to residents there. "We are facing a bitter-bitter situation, to die at home or leave and die somewhere else, as long as this war continues, survival is uncertain," said Rabah Abu Elias, 67, a father of seven. "In the news, they speak about a possible truce, on the ground, we only hear explosions and see deaths. To leave Gaza City or not isn't an easy decision to make," he told Reuters by phone. Israeli tanks have been edging closer to densely populated Gaza City over the past ten days. Israeli officials have said evacuation notices would be issued to Palestinians there before the military moves in. Two more people have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Thursday. The new deaths raised the number of Palestinians who have died from such causes to 271, including 112 children, since the war began.
