Latest news with #ArabNations
Time of India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Muslim & NATO Nations BOIL Over Netanyahu Minister's Israel Dare: 'If You Recognise Palestine...'
/ Aug 15, 2025, 08:21AM IST Arab nations, the UN, and European countries have strongly condemned Israel's recent settlement plan in the E1 area of the West Bank. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to construct over 3,000 housing units in this contentious region, a move he claims will "bury the idea of a Palestinian state." Critics argue that this development threatens the viability of a two-state solution by fragmenting Palestinian territories. The United Nations has called for Israel to reverse its decision, labelling the settlements as violations of international law. European leaders, including those from the UK and Norway, have echoed these concerns, warning that the plan could further entrench the occupation and hinder peace efforts. The situation remains tense as the international community watches closely.#IsraelSettlements #TwoStateSolution #WestBank #MiddleEastPeace #InternationalLaw #UNCondemnation #ArabNations #E1Settlement #PeaceNow #BezalelSmotrich
Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Arab nations denounce Netanyahu remarks on ‘Greater Israel'
Arab nations have slammed comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently expressing support for the idea of an expanded 'Greater Israel,' calling the remarks a threat to their sovereignty at an especially tense time for the region. The term Greater Israel refers to a biblical interpretation of the nation's territory during the time of King Solomon, encompassing not only the present-day Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, but also parts of modern Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Ultra-nationalist Israelis have called for these territories to be occupied. Asked on Tuesday by i24NEWS interviewer Sharon Gal if he subscribed to such a 'vision' for a Greater Israel, Netanyahu said 'absolutely,' adding, 'If you ask me what I think, we're there.' He then pivoted to a comment about the founding of Israel and the 'great mission' of ensuring its continued existence. Israel's neighbor Jordan on Wednesday condemned the prime minister's Greater Israel remarks as a 'dangerous and provocative escalation' and 'a threat to the sovereignty of states.' A spokesman for its foreign ministry went on to reject what he called Netanyahu's 'inflammatory' rhetoric and 'delusional claims.' Egypt also said on Wednesday that it had 'requested clarification on this matter,' characterizing it as tantamount to a 'rejection of the option of peace in the region.' Netanyahu's remarks come in the midst of a 22-month war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip that has repeatedly spilled over into the wider Middle East and provoked frequent condemnation of Israel from across the Arab world. On Thursday, Iraq's foreign ministry condemned the comments, saying they revealed Israel's 'expansionist ambitions' and were 'a clear provocation to the sovereignty of countries.' Gaza mediator Qatar also decried Netanyahu's statements calling them 'absurd' and 'inflammatory.' The allusion to an expanded Israel also comes as far-right members of Netanyahu's cabinet demand the conquest of Gaza and annexation of the West Bank, where the government recently approved a rash of new settlements considered illegal under international law. Saudi Arabia on Wednesday voiced 'its total rejection of the ideas and plans for colonization and expansion adopted by the Israeli occupation authorities,' reiterating 'the historical and legal right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state.' In February, Netanyahu in a television interview provoked an outcry from Arab countries after he suggested a Palestinian state could be established on Saudi land. In Tuesday's sit-down, the premier also revived calls to 'allow' Palestinians to leave Gaza, telling Israeli broadcaster i24NEWS that 'we are not pushing them out, but we are allowing them to leave.' Past calls to resettle Gazans outside of the war-battered territory, including from US President Donald Trump, have sparked fears of displacement among Palestinians and condemnation from the international community.
BBC News
08-08-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Israel and the Palestinians: History of the conflict explained
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is one of the longest-running and most violent disputes in the world. Its origins go back more than a have been a series of wars between Israel and Arab nations. Uprisings - called intifadas - against Israeli occupation, and reprisals and crackdowns by Israel have also taken consequences of the historic dispute over issues including land, borders and rights are still being felt, and include the latest war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. What was Israel before 1948 and how was it created? Britain took control of the area known as Palestine in World War One, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled that part of the Middle Arab majority and a Jewish minority lived there, as well as other ethnic between the Jewish and Arab populations deepened when the UK agreed in principle to the establishment of a "national home" in Palestine for Jewish people - a pledge known as the Balfour had historical links to the land, but Palestinian Arabs also had a claim dating back centuries and opposed the move. The British said the rights of Palestinian Arabs already living there had to be protected. Between the 1920s and 1940s the number of Jews arriving grew, with many fleeing persecution in Europe. The murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust gave added urgency to demands for a safe Jewish population reached 630,000, just over 30% of the population, by 1947, against a backdrop of growing violence between Jews and Arabs - and against British rule - the United Nations (UN) voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states. Jerusalem would become an international Arab nations supported this. They argued the plan gave the Jews more of the land, even though their population was abstained. It decided to withdraw and to hand the problem to the UN at the end of 14 May leaders in Palestine declared an independent state known as Israel hours before British rule ended. Israel was recognised by the UN the following year. What was the 1948 Arab-Israeli war? The day after Israel declared independence, it was attacked and surrounded by the armies of five Arab conflict came to be known in Israel as its war of independence. By the time the fighting ended with an armistice in 1949, Israel controlled most of the left Egypt occupying the Gaza Strip, Jordan occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Israel occupying West 750,000 Palestinians fled, or were forced from, their homes on land which became Israel and ended up as event is known in Arabic as the Nakba (Catastrophe). In the years that followed, hundreds of thousands of Jews left, or were expelled from, Muslim majority countries across the Middle East and North Africa, with many going to Israel. What was the 1967 Middle East war? What is known as the Six-Day War changed boundaries in the Middle East and had major consequences for war saw Israel fight Egypt, Syria and started when Israel, fearing an attack by Egypt and Syria, launched a strike on Egypt's air the time the fighting ended, Israel had captured the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza from Egypt, most of the Golan Heights from Syria, and East Jerusalem and the West Bank from a million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem came under Israel's control. Israel's occupation of these areas has lasted until this signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 and returned the annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, making them part of Israel, although this has not been recognised by most of the international community. What is the status of the West Bank now? The West Bank - land between Israel and the River Jordan - is home to an estimated three million with East Jerusalem and Gaza, it is part of what are widely known as the Occupied Palestinian Palestinians have always opposed Israel's presence in these areas and want them to be part of a future independent state, something backed by the vast majority of the international still has overall control of the West Bank, but since the 1990s, a Palestinian government - known as the Palestinian Authority - has run most of its towns and cities. There are about 160 Israeli settlements, housing about 700,000 Jews, in the West Bank and East want all Israeli settlements to be removed and they are considered illegal under international Israel's government disputes this. It says the biggest settlements at the very least are permanent and that all settlements are rooted in its historical does not recognise the right of the Palestinians to have their own state and argues that the West Bank is part of the Israeli Israeli government announced plans to expand settlements after coming to power in 2022. It says the creation of a Palestinian state would be a threat to Israeli July 2024, the top court of the UN, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), said that Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal. It said that Israel should withdraw all settlers and that it was in breach of international agreements on racism and has been a sharp escalation in attacks by settlers against Palestinian villages since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on to a report by the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs, there were 2,208 attacks by settlers against Palestinians resulting in casualties or property damage between January 2024 and June violent settlers in the occupied West BankIsrael's borders explained in maps What is the dispute over Jerusalem? Israel and the Palestinians both claim Jerusalem as their which already controlled West Jerusalem, occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later declared the entire city its permanent capital. It says Jerusalem cannot be Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian of the population of East Jerusalem is Palestinian, only a small minority of whom have chosen to become Israeli citizens. Holy sites in Jerusalem are at the centre of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The most sacred site - known to Muslims as Al Aqsa Mosque compound, or Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and to Jews as Temple Mount - lies in East UN considers East Jerusalem to be Palestinian land occupied by Israel. What has happened in the Gaza Strip? The Gaza Strip is a stretch of land surrounded by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. It is 41km (25 miles) long and 10km to about 2.1 million people, it is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Even before the latest war between Israel and Hamas, Gaza had one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. Many people were living below the poverty line and depending on food aid to boundaries were drawn up as a result of the 1948 Middle East war, when it was occupied by was driven out of Gaza in the 1967 war and the Strip was occupied by Israel, which built settlements and placed Gaza's Palestinian population under military 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza, though it retained control of its shared border, airspace and shoreline, giving it effective control of the movement of people and UN still regards Gaza as Israeli-occupied territory because of the level of control Israel won Palestinian elections in 2006, and ejected its rivals from the territory after intense fighting the following and Egypt imposed a blockade in response, with Israel controlling most of what was allowed into the the years that followed, Hamas and Israel fought several major conflicts - including those in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014. A major conflict between the two sides in May 2021 ended in a ceasefire after 11 round of fighting has seen people killed on both sides, the vast majority of them Palestinians in Gaza. On 7 October 2023, Hamas fighters launched an assault from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people in Israel and taking 251 triggered a massive Israeli military offensive, by land, sea and air. More than 61,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health July, the UK and 27 other nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland called for an immediate end to the war. They said the suffering of civilians had "reached new depths".The same month, UN-backed experts warned the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" in the Gaza Strip. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said there was mounting evidence that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease were driving a rise in hunger-related agencies had already warned of man-made, mass starvation in Gaza. They have blamed the crisis on Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies to the has insisted that there are no restrictions on aid deliveries and that there is "no starvation".What we know about Israel's plan to take over Gaza CityFamine 'currently playing out' in Gaza, UN-backed experts warnIsrael levelling thousands of Gaza civilian buildings Which countries recognise a Palestinian state? The State of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the UN's 193 member as the State of Palestine at the UN, it has an official status of "Permanent Observer State", which gives it a seat but not a European countries, along with the US, do not recognise a Palestinian state and have said they will only do so as part of a long-term political solution to the conflict in the Middle in July France announced that it would recognise a Palestinian state in September, .UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it would also recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes "substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza".Canada said it too would formally recognise a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN General Assembly. Prime Minister Mark Carney said the move depended on democratic reforms from the Palestinian says it has a historical right to the West Bank and opposes an independent Palestinian state, saying it would pose an unacceptable some Palestinians aren't convinced by Starmer's promiseWhat does recognising a Palestinian state mean? What about Palestinian refugees? There are about 5.9 million Palestinians registered by the UN as are descendants of the Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes on land which became Israel in the 1948-49 Middle East live in Jordan, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Syria and insist on the right of refugees to return but Israel has refused this. It criticises the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, for allowing refugee status to be inherited by successive is Unrwa and why has Israel banned it? What is the two-state solution? The "two-state solution" is an internationally backed formula for peace between Israel and the proposes an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It would exist alongside rejects a two-state solution. It says any final settlement must be the result of negotiations with the Palestinians, and statehood should not be a Palestinian Authority backs a two-state solution but Hamas does not because it is opposed to the existence of says that it could accept an interim Palestinian state based on 1967 de facto borders, without officially recognising Israel, if refugees were given the right to efforts to settle the conflict saw Israel and Palestinian leaders sign a deal called the Oslo Peace Accords, in 1993. This was intended to provide a framework for peace talks. However, talks eventually collapsed with each side blaming the other.
The National
31-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Latest: US special envoy Witkoff to meet Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu
Arab nations back 2002 peace proposal at UN two-state solution conference Lebanon's President Aoun urges political parties to give up arms Israeli attack kills at least 15 people waiting for aid in central Gaza Canada and Malta plan to recognise Palestinian state At least 60,249 Palestinians killed and 147,089 wounded since Gaza war began
ABC News
31-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Canada's signal it will recognise Palestine part of broader international strategy on Gaza
Canada's move to join France and the United Kingdom by signalling it will recognise a Palestinian state reveals more about the highly coordinated international strategy on Gaza now unfolding that involves both Western and Arab nations. We've seen several manifestations of that strategy in the past few days — most conspicuously, the rollout of countries declaring their intention to recognise Palestine when the UN General Assembly meets in New York next month. But there have also been two separate statements: one released yesterday from the foreign ministers of 15 countries, including Australia, which said they "already recognised, have expressed or express the willingness or the positive consideration of our countries to recognise the State of Palestine, as an essential step towards the two-state solution, and invite all countries that have not done so to join this call". In other words, they weren't yet declaring they would back a push for Palestinian statehood, but Israel was put on notice that others were likely to join the move by what was then two major countries to shift position. In making the statement, those 15 countries were implicitly backing the actions of France and the UK. There was also a separate, much longer statement — the New York Declaration — emanating from a UN High-Level International Conference, which is just wrapping up. The statement was from the co-chairs of the conference: France and Saudi Arabia, and it significantly included Egypt, Qatar, Jordan and the League of Arab States. For the first time, this group of 18 countries not only agreed to take collective action, but also condemned the Hamas attacks of October 7, as well as Israel's attacks on civilians in Gaza. While it treads more carefully than the foreign ministers' statement, the declaration reflects the coordinated process that has been underway — led by France and the Saudis since early this year — to address the crisis over Palestine. Australia has been involved in this process, as reflected by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's repeated assertions that Australia is acting as part of an international effort rather than unilaterally. Significantly, the PM made several references at his press conference in Canberra on Wednesday to "the commitments made by the president of the Palestinian Authority on June 10". Like the New York Declaration, these commitments by Mahmoud Abbas condemned the October 7 terrorist attacks, and notably called for the liberation of hostages and disarmament of Hamas. He also calls for "elections within a year to trigger generational renewal and accepts the principle of a demilitarised Palestinian State". And it's noteworthy that while France and the UK have emphasised pressure on Israel to cease hostilities in Gaza and allow aid in, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney particularly has upped the pressure on the Palestinian Authority to get its house in order. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suggested in his statement that the UK might not proceed if Israel was to meet various conditions — including agreeing to a ceasefire and taking "substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza". But given Israeli intransigence, the UK must have made this statement on the presumption that the likelihood of Israel meeting all the conditions was pretty low. In contrast, Carney said Canada's intention to recognise Palestine was "predicated on the Palestinian Authority's commitment to much-needed reforms, including the commitments by Palestinian Authority President Abbas to fundamentally reform its governance, to hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarise the Palestinian state". The international effort appears to recognise the much-weakened political and military state of Hamas after almost two years of horrendous attacks on civilians in Gaza, and with its Iranian backers, and Hezbollah, also significantly diminished. While Hamas has continued to resist the push for hostages to be released, there is a clear sense within the international community that a tipping point has been reached, both in the position of Hamas and in the collapsed moral authority of Israel. Also, the declarations by France and the UK mean that four out of five members of the UN Security Council now support Palestinian recognition. That just leaves the United States as the blocker and the move must increase pressure on US President Donald Trump to move too. Significantly, his remarks on statehood on Air Force One on Wednesday morning, Australian time, were not dogmatically against it, just that he was not in the statehood camp at the moment. Resisting the renewed push for Palestinian statehood has been rationalised until now because the question of who would run Palestine is a live one: Hamas as a terrorist organisation is not an option that any Western nation is prepared to accept; but the Palestinian Authority also faces problems of both external and internal legitimacy. The Palestinian Authority hasn't held an election in the West Bank since 2006 and Palestinians living there do not have the right to vote in Israeli elections. Similarly, Hamas hasn't held elections since it took over Gaza in 2007. But both the aggressive push to annex large areas of the West Bank and now Gaza, and the utter physical devastation of the Gaza Strip, also raise the question of what will be left to form the basis of any future Palestinian state if the world cannot force the issue soon. In this regard, Carney's statement noted Israeli actions including "the accelerated settlement building across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while settler violence against Palestinians has soared". He also noted "actions such as the E1 Settlement Plan and this month's vote by the Knesset calling for the annexation of the West Bank [and] the ongoing failure by the Israeli government to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza, with impeded access to food and other essential humanitarian supplies". "The deepening suffering of civilians leaves no room for delay in co-ordinated international action to support peace, security, and the dignity of all human life," he said. "Preserving a two-state solution means standing with all people who choose peace over violence or terrorism, and honouring their innate desire for the peaceful co-existence of Israeli and Palestinian states as the only roadmap for a secure and prosperous future." Israel has already rejected both Canada and the UK's statements, arguing they are "a reward for Hamas" and will harm ceasefire efforts. Sources say that the focus of the peace push will not be on determining borders but on the fundamental need to put in place the governance and security architecture to allow the rebuilding of Gaza.
