Latest news with #Isra
CairoScene
4 days ago
- Business
- CairoScene
How a Dubai-Based Palestinian Brand Bottles Heritage
How a Dubai-Based Palestinian Brand Bottles Heritage At some point in our diaspora timelines- between explaining where we're really from, passport queues and WhatsApp voice notes about political heartbreak- we begin hoarding things that taste like home. Fragrant spices in ziploc bags. Date syrup and honey in repurposed jam jars. That one specific za'atar or sumac mix your cousin swears by. It's not a habit. It's survival. Isra Abu Zayed, the Palestinian-Canadian academic and storyteller, wearing her heritage like the keffiyeh draped over her grandmother's shoulder, knows this ache. But unlike most of us who stash bottles of olive oil between our socks on the way back from Amman or Beirut, she decided to build a business around it. For Isra Abu Zayed, home has always been a matter of the palate rather than the postcode. Growing up in Toronto, she might have sat at a kitchen table far from the olive groves of the West Bank, but every Friday morning wafts of za'atar-dusty bread, the sweet stickiness of knafeh and, most of all, the green-gold glimmer of olive oil were reminders of a place she never really saw, but always knew. 'I'm Palestinian through and through,' Isra tells SceneNowUAE 'My parents made sure our identity shaped every part of how we moved through the world.' Schoolyard taunts and classroom maps couldn't erase the stories they shared at home- tales of harvests, of farmers who tended trees older than most nations, of olive-pressed rituals handed down through it wasn't until her six year old daughter wanted to learn more about her heritage and share that- 'a bottle of that season's oil for her teacher'- that Isra realised how tangible that connection could become. And just like that, a bottle of olive oil turned into a passport. In 2021, out of that realisation, Zeit Bladi came into being. From a single family-run farm in the West Bank, where Nabali trees can take twenty years to bear their first fruit, the olives are hand-picked only when village elders decree they're ready. They are cold-pressed within hours of harvest, then travel by land through Jordan to Dubai, arriving as spring's first bottles: limited seasonal drops that turn anticipation into ritual. 'We only sell what the land gives us each season,' Isra explains. 'It's not about scale; it's about honouring history, community and resilience- one small bottle at a time.'
Dubai Eye
6 days ago
- Business
- Dubai Eye
Pressure mounts on Netanyahu as opposition moves to dissolve parliament
A member of Israel's right-wing coalition threatened to quit the cabinet on Wednesday and support an opposition motion to dissolve parliament tabled for next week, piling pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Latest opinion polls suggest that Netanyahu's coalition would lose power if an election was held today, with many voters unhappy over the continued war in Gaza prompted by the attack by Hamas on southern Israel in October 2023. United Torah Judaism, one of two ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition, said it would withdraw from the government unless it secured last-minute concessions formalising an exemption for ultra-Orthodox men from military service. The opposition party Yesh Atid, led by former prime minister Yair Lapid, put forward a parliamentary vote for next week to topple the government, even as the Israeli army continues battling Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It would require the support of 61 out of the 120 members of the parliament to succeed. "This Knesset (parliament) is finished. It has nowhere to go," Lapid said. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, has remained silent on the looming crisis. A spokesperson for United Torah Judaism leader Yitzhak Goldknopf told Reuters the party would vote in favour of dissolving parliament unless exemption legislation was passed. With a week until the vote, Netanyahu and his allies still have time to negotiate over an issue that has dogged the coalition for months. A source close to the government said, on condition of anonymity, that negotiations within the coalition were continuing. Netanyahu's coalition of secular right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties holds an 8-seat majority in parliament. United Torah Judaism has 7 seats while its ally, Shas, the other ultra-Orthodox party, has 11. The coalition is sharply divided over whether young ultra-Orthodox men who are studying in religious seminaries should be exempt from mandatory military service. Failing to pass an exemption risks a walkout by ultra-Orthodox lawmakers, while approving it could trigger a protest exit by secular parties. Coalition member Ohad Tal of Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party criticized Goldknopf for threatening to trigger elections and called on the ultra-Orthodox lawmaker to resign. He urged others to negotiate a new arrangement but that a blanket exemption from military service could no longer stand. Former Knesset member Ofer Shelah said Netanyahu was likely betting the ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were bluffing, given the polls suggested they faced defeat in any early election. In March, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers threatened to bring down the government over the same issue, but time passed without any action. Resentment over the informal exemption given to religious seminary students is growing and lawmakers from the ruling coalition and opposition ranks say it is no longer tenable. Netanyahu won election in 2022 and does not have to return to the polls until 2026. Historically, few Israeli governments serve a full term. He has faced widespread criticism for failing to prevent the surprise October 2023 Hamas attack that killed roughly 1,200 people, and is facing growing calls from protesters and families of hostages still held in Gaza to end the war to secure their release. But some in his coalition say the war must continue until Hamas is eradicated. Political analysts say that the ultra-Orthodox lawmakers could simply quit the government to protest their failure to secure concessions, without toppling the ruling coalition.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
BBC joins Gaza children as they are evacuated to Jordan for treatment
We were flying through the warm light of the setting sun. There were villages and small towns where the lights were coming on. It was a peaceful landscape where people walked and drove without constantly looking to the sky. We were over the suburbs of Amman when Safa'a Salha held up her mobile phone so that I could read a message she'd written. "Oh my God," this Gaza mother wrote, "Jordan is so beautiful." The evacuees had come to the Jordanian border by road. I joined them there for the final part of the journey by helicopter to Amman. Safa'a spoke very little English, and in any case the noise of the helicopter made it impossible to converse. She showed me another message. "We used to see this [helicopter] every day and it was coming to bomb and kill. But today the feeling is totally different." Next to her sat her 16-year-old son Youssef who showed me the scar on his head from his last surgery. He smiled and wanted to speak, not of Gaza but ordinary things. How he was excited by the helicopter, how he liked football. Youssef said he was very happy and gave me a fist bump. Beside him was nine-year-old Sama Awad, frail and scared-looking, holding the hand of her mother, Isra. Sama has a brain tumour and will have surgery in Amman. "I hope she can get the best treatment here," said Isra, when we were on the ground and the noise of the engines faded. I asked a question which had been answered for me many times by looking at images, but not face to face by someone who had just left. What is Gaza like now? "It is horrible. It is impossible to describe. Horrible on so many levels. But people are just trying to get on with living," Isra replied. Four sick children were evacuated to Jordan along with twelve parents and guardians. They left Gaza by ambulance on Wednesday morning and travelled through Israel without stopping until they reached the border crossing. The plan to evacuate children was first unveiled during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Jordan's King Hussein in February. Jordan's stated aim is to bring 2,000 sick children to the kingdom for treatment. So far only 33 have been evacuated to Jordan, each travelling with a parent or guardian. Jordanian sources say Israel has delayed and imposed restrictions and this - along with the resumption of the war - has impeded the evacuation process. Sick Gazans have also been evacuated to other countries via Israel. We put the Jordanian concerns to the Israeli government organisation responsible - Cogat (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) - who told us that since "the beginning of the year, and especially in recent weeks, there has been a significant increase in the number of Gazans evacuated through Israel for medical care abroad." Cogat said thousands of patients and escorts had gone to countries, including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the US and others. The statement said that "the ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip pose a challenge to the implementation of these evacuation operations." Israel broke the last ceasefire in March launching a wave of attacks on what it said were Hamas positions. Construction sites appear in Gaza ahead of Israeli-US aid plan rejected by UN, images show Israeli strikes across Gaza kill 80, hospitals and rescuers say Entire Gaza population at critical risk of famine, UN-backed assessment says Gaza remains a claustrophobic zone of hunger and death for its residents. Those who get out for medical treatment are the exception. According to the UN the population of 2.1 million is facing the risk of famine. The organisation's head of humanitarian affairs, Tom Fletcher, has appealed to the UN Security Council to act to "prevent genocide" in Gaza. These are strong words for a man trained in the sober traditions of the British Foreign Office and who has served as an ambassador and senior government advisor. The Israeli blockade is preventing essential aid supplies from reaching the population. That along with the continued bombing explain Isra Abu Jame's description of a place horrible beyond words. The children who arrived in Jordan on Wednesday from Gaza will join a small community of other wounded and sick youngsters in different Amman hospitals. Since January we have been following the case of Habiba Al-Askari, who came with her mother Rana in the hope doctors might be able to save three gangrene infected limbs - two arms, and a leg. But the infection - caused by a rare skin condition - had gone too far. Habiba underwent a triple amputation. When I met Habiba and Rana again this week, the little girl was using the toes of her remaining foot to scroll, and play children's games on her mum's phone. She blew kisses with the stump of her arm. This was a very different child to the frightened girl I met on the helicopter evacuation five months ago. "She's a strong person," Rana said. Habiba will be fitted with prosthetic limbs. Already she is determined to walk, asking her mother to hold under her armpits while she hops. Some day, Rana hopes, she will take Habiba back to Gaza. Mother and child are safe and well cared for in Amman, but their entire world, their family and neighbours are back in the ruins. Concerns about Habiba's health make Rana reluctant to contemplate going back soon. "We have no house. If we want go back where will we go? We would be going back to a tent full of sand…[but] I truly want to return. Gaza is beautiful, despite everything that has happened. To me Gaza will always be the most precious spot on this entire earth." They will return. But to war or peace? Nobody knows. With additional reporting by Alice Doyard, Suha Kawar, Nik Millard and Malaak Khassouneh. Israel issues major evacuation order for Palestinians sheltering in Gaza City Scared and malnourished - footage from Gaza shows plight of children and aftermath of Israeli strike US-Israeli hostage reunites with family after being freed by Hamas
Egypt Independent
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Egypt Independent
Netanyahu chooses war – and his political survival – as Israelis demand hostage deal
CNN — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept up appearances for nearly 19 months: Freeing the hostages and defeating Hamas, he insisted, stood equally atop the pyramid of Israel's war goals. Even as members of his right-wing governing coalition threatened to topple his government if he agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release deal. Even as he himself threw up eleventh-hour obstacles to reaching such a deal. And even as evidence mounted that Israel's military operations had both directly and indirectly led to the killing of Israeli hostages. Amid all those contradictions, Netanyahu insisted both objectives were just as important. But not anymore. Now, Netanyahu is unabashedly prioritizing war – and the survival of his government – over the fate of 59 hostages still in Gaza and the will of most Israelis. A week after calling the defeat of Israel's enemies the 'supreme objective' of the war, Netanyahu is turning that rhetoric into action: calling up tens of thousands of reservists to pummel, seize and occupy large swaths of Gaza – what the prime minister calls the 'final moves' against Hamas. Israeli officials say the plan won't be implemented immediately, giving Hamas at least another week-and-a-half to agree to another limited hostage and ceasefire deal on Israel's terms – with some insisting that is the government's preference. The deadline, they say, is the conclusion of US President Donald Trump's visit to the region next week. But such a deal is unlikely to materialize in that timeframe and these are no longer idle threats. The right-wing ministers who have sabotaged previous ceasefire deals and long called for conquering Gaza are now celebrating, viewing the newly approved plans as the first step toward their vision of occupying and ultimately annexing the enclave. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich now vows that there will be 'no retreat from the territories we have conquered, not even in exchange for the hostages.' For Netanyahu, that means political security – taking Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's repeated threats to leave the government and force new elections off the table, keeping him in the prime minister's office. It also means going against the will of a clear majority of Israelis – 56% according to Israel's Kan 11 and 69% according to Channel 12 – who support a deal to end the war in exchange for the release of all remaining hostages. Hamas has repeatedly said it is open to such an all-in-one deal, hoping to salvage its position of power in Gaza, but the Israeli government has rejected any end to the war that leaves the group armed and governing the strip. For the families of Israeli hostages, Netanyahu's decision has been a gut punch, one they fear won't just delay the return of their loved ones but actively endanger them. 'It seems the government has placed defeating Hamas above rescuing and returning the hostages, because doing so would require stopping the war,' Anat Angrest, the mother of captive Israeli soldier Matan Angrest, told Haaretz. 'Ministers are sending soldiers into harm's way and putting the hostages at further risk, when all that was needed was a pause to develop a real strategic plan. What's happening now is a war fueled by revenge and conquest, not by a genuine desire to save lives.' 'It doesn't reflect the will of the people, or the Jewish heart,' she said. Israeli army tanks near the border with the Gaza Strip, on May 5, 2025. Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images The expanded Israeli assault in Gaza won't just bring the risk to the hostages of more Israeli bombs. Hamas has repeatedly said it will execute hostages if Israeli forces close in on their positions, a threat it carried out last August in murdering six of them. Israel's plan to displace nearly all of Gaza's population to its southern part while continuing to starve the rest of the strip of humanitarian aid could also endanger the hostages' access to the already limited food they are given. Notably, in the days before the Israeli security cabinet greenlit the expanded war effort, Netanyahu's wife and close adviser, Sara, sought to downplay the number of living hostages. When Netanyahu said last week that 'up to 24' hostages held in Gaza are still alive, his wife chimed in: 'Fewer.' Her comments reflected what Israeli officials told CNN are 'grave concerns' about three of those hostages – the same language previously used to refer to hostages who were eventually confirmed dead. For the people of Gaza, Netanyahu's decision threatens catastrophe beyond the dire humanitarian crisis already gripping the besieged territory. The expanded Israeli assault guarantees another mass forced displacement of Palestinians, more death and destruction and the continued use of starvation as a weapon of war. Even as Netanyahu's decision to prioritize destroying Hamas over the fate of the remaining hostages becomes clear, the Israeli military's ability to achieve its aims vis-à-vis the group remain uncertain. The factors that have allowed Hamas to survive and stay in power in Gaza after nearly 19 months of war still remain, and Israeli national security analysts remain skeptical that tens of thousands of additional troops will fundamentally change the dynamics of the conflict. Sending them with the goal of occupying large swaths of Gaza could drive up Israeli military casualties, with the risk of bogging the military down for years in a counterinsurgency morass. Perhaps that is why Netanyahu did not barrel headfirst down the path he has now chosen. Trump's return to power allowed Netanyahu to shed the guardrails imposed on him by President Joe Biden during the first 15 months of the war. But even as Trump and his administration made clear they would not seek to constrain Israel's military actions in Gaza, Netanyahu did not immediately pursue the expanded war his right-wing allies have been clamoring for. But in a fulcrum moment, he has now chosen – a decision that will shake the Gaza Strip, forever altering the fate of more than 2 million Palestinians and 59 hostages.
BBC News
15-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Edan Alexander: Hamas says it has lost contact with US-Israeli hostage in Gaza
Hamas says it has "lost contact" with the group of fighters holding an Israeli-American hostage captive in Gaza following an Israeli strike on their 21-year-old soldier, Edan Alexander, has appeared in videos released by the group in recent days. Israel had asked for him to be released on day one of a new 45-day ceasefire proposal put forward last week which has been rejected by on Tuesday did not indicate when contact had been lost and has not produced any evidence for their claim. Israel regularly asserts it avoids hitting locations where it believes hostages are being held. "We announce that we have lost contact with the group holding soldier Edan Alexander following a direct strike on their location," Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said in a statement."We are still trying to reach them at this moment," he the 251 hostages taken during Hamas' 2023 attack, 59 remain in the enclave, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Five of the hostages in Gaza are believed to be US citizens and Alexander was thought to be the only one still later on Tuesday also released a video addressed to the families of the remaining hostages, warning that they would return in coffins if Israel continued its military offensive in Saturday, Hamas had released a video of Alexander alive in which he pleads for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump to negotiate his appeared to be speaking under duress as he criticised the Israeli was part of an Israeli proposal for a 45-day ceasefire that would involve "the release of half of the hostages in the first week of the agreement," a Hamas official told AFP. The official said the proposal called for Alexander's release on the first day as a "gesture of goodwill".A two-month ceasefire at the start of the year saw Hamas release 33 hostages in return for the release of 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and aid and goods entering the negotiations for a second phase unravelled, Israel resumed its offensive on 18 in Tel Aviv but raised in New Jersey, Alexander served in an elite infantry unit on the border with Gaza when he was captured by Hamas militants during the 7 October attack. His father, Adi Alexander, had questioned Netanyahu's actions in an interview on Monday with US outlet NewsNation, asking: "How do you plan to get hostages out without ending this war and without committing to the second phase of this deal?"Hamas has said it is ready to return all of those still held captive in exchange for a complete end to hostilities and full Israeli withdrawal from Tuesday, the group rejected Israel's proposal for a renewed ceasefire because it called for their disarmament and it did not commit to Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza or an end to the war.A senior Palestinian official told the BBC: "The Israeli proposal relayed to the movement through Egypt explicitly called for the disarmament of Hamas without any Israeli commitment to end the war or withdraw from Gaza. Hamas therefore rejected the offer in its entirety." Since Israel restarted its offensive in Gaza, at least 1,630 people have been killed - bringing the total killed in 18 months of war to 51,000, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run health war was triggered by the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
