The Islamic Resistance Movement has expressed its concerns over the proposed deal between the Vatican State and Israel, which implies the acknowledgement of Israeli sovereignty over Christian churches and other properties in occupied Jerusalem. Hamas said that such a deal would be a dangerous concession in Israel’s favour and...

The Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights has reiterated its opposition to the extradition of former Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi to his homeland. The LDHR claims that the elements necessary for a fair trial are currently absent in Libya. The League’s head, Abdel Sattar Bin Moussa,...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES The Palestinian footballer Mahmoud al-Sarsak has reached his 88th day of continual hunger strike in protest at being held in an Israeli prison for the past three years without charge. Al-Sarsak was a student in his third year of a computer programming course when he was arrested...

A human rights organisation has reported that the Israeli prison administration is due to move so many Palestinian prisoners to and from Megiddo Detention Centre that they will be accommodated in tents. In a statement issued on Monday, June11, the International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights said that around...

The Israeli-led municipality in Jerusalem has approved a plan to construct a large building near to Ein Silwan Mosque in the middle of the occupied Jerusalem suburb of Silwan, Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said on Monday. The District Committee for Planning and Building will oversee the project...

The Secretary-General of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, Sheikh Hammam Said, has equated the current flow of solidarity humanitarian convoys to the Gaza Strip with Jewish migration to Palestine early in the 20th century. Sheikh Said is in Gaza with the Miles of Smiles 13 convoy, which arrived in...

A senior member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has denied reports that preparations are being made in Washington for a meeting between the organisation and Israeli members of parliament. Ibrahim Munir said that there is a “red line” on such matters and a meeting is “out of the question”. “It...

Hebrew media sources have revealed moves in the Israeli parliament (Knesset) to enact a law which will ban student activities and events which are “incompatible with the Jewish character of Israel” in universities and educational institutions within the country. A radio report on Tuesday said that about 30 Knesset...

A former senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Dr. Kamal Helbawy, has claimed that consensus on the members of the assembly charged with drafting Egypt’s new constitution is “a step in the right direction”. Dr. Helbawy added that this has nothing to do with the political path...

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the elected Palestinian government in Gaza, has called on the international community to read Israel’s report on the Mavi Marmara attack carefully before prosecuting the government officials responsible. The report, which has been published by Micha Lindenstrauss, Comptroller of the State of Israel, says...

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled that the “political isolation” law endorsed by the country’s parliament is unconstitutional. The law prohibits any member of the previous regime from standing for public office but the court’s decision clears the way for presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq to take part in the...

Armed clashes have taken place between Palestinian Authority security forces and a group of gunmen in the Balata refugee camp east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The gunmen are believed to be members of Fatah. According to local sources in Balata, the violence erupted around midnight on...

Unsuccessful presidential candidate and senior academic Dr. Abdullah Al-Ashaal has criticised the rulings of Egypt’s Constitutional Court on the law of political isolation and the country’s parliamentary legitimacy. “The rulings,” claims Dr. Al-Ashaal, “have come at a very politically sensitive time and are in the interests of the counter-revolutionaries.”...

African migrants have been enduring serious racial discrimination in Israel, prompting Israeli writers to send a letter to the country’s Prime Minister. The signatories urged Benjamin Netanyahu to take immediate action to stop the violence, sedition, man-hunts and all other kinds of racial discrimination against Africans in Israel. Headed...

The moves towards national reconciliation between the two main Palestinian movements of Fatah and Hamas are deadlocked because of complications arising out of the security portfolio, special sources have revealed. The proposed merger of the security services in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is one of the...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has insisted that the peace process with Israel is “clinically dead”, a situation for which he blames the Israelis. “The ball is now in their court,” he said. “We have fulfilled our commitments, a fact which is recognised by countries worldwide.” Abbas made his...

A high-ranking Palestinian delegation is heading to the Vatican to hold talks with the Holy See on the legal status of property owned by the Catholic Church in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. According to a statement from the Palestinian President’s office, the delegation includes Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Foreign...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES The Israeli navy has detained four Palestinian fishermen off the Gaza coast, capturing their boat and taking them to an undisclosed location. Witnesses said that the Israeli gunships encircled the fishing boat offshore from Al-Shat’e refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip. Israeli sources said...

Tunisia’s official news agency has reported that Interim President Moncel Marzouki has cancelled trips to Brazil and Senegal because of the worsening security situation in the country. According to a Presidential press statement, “Due to the delicate situation that the country is going through, President Marzouki has decided to...

The head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Khaled Meshaal, has accused Israel of using the Gaza Strip as an experimental theatre of war to test its anti-missile shield and other military capabilities prior to an attack on Iran. Hamas leader Meshaal told the Turkish Anatolia...

An Israeli human rights group has concluded that the absence of accountability “encourages soldiers to kill Palestinian civilians”. In its annual report published this week, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, B’Tselem, said, “From the start of the second intifada in the year...

The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Amr Mohamed Kamel, has arrived in the Chinese capital Beijing at the start of an Asian tour which will include visits to Japan and South Korea. According to a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the tour is intended to “revive and activate Egypt’s...

An Israeli court has banished eight Palestinian minors from their home town of Beit A’mer, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank). The eight are currently being detained by Israel. Yousef Abu Maria, the Coordinator of the People’s Committee in the town, said that the court’s decision prohibits...

A report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has criticised the Israeli army’s use of live ammunition against unarmed Palestinian civilians. The UN also expressed deep concerns regarding Israel’s continued neglect in bringing its security forces to account for perpetrating crimes against Palestinians....

Ambassador Hisham Badr, Egypt’s permanent representative to the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, has confirmed Cairo’s full support for the establishment of an international fact-finding committee to investigate the impact of Israeli settlements on Palestinian human rights. A proposal for the committee was submitted by the...

The stifling Israeli-led blockade on the Gaza Strip, coupled with the non-implementation of Egypt-Gaza fuel import agreements, has led to a fresh fuel crisis in the besieged territory. According to reports, the only fuel currently available inside Gaza is a small, overpriced supply brought in from Israel which Palestinians...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Palestinian Authority has called on the international Middle East Quartet mediators to adopt a more serious position which holds the Israeli government fully responsible for thwarting the peace process and negotiations. The international group has also been asked to condemn Israel’s ongoing...

The Iraqi government has announced the disruption of work and public services in the capital Baghdad next week in preparation for the forthcoming Arab summit. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that disruption will last from 25 March until 1April. The main summit will be preceded by a meeting of...

The Palestinian government in Gaza has called the electricity and fuel shortages “totally fabricated political crises”, and accused the Israeli occupation and its “tools” of trying to aggravate the siege on Gaza. Despite this, said the Deputy Prime Minister, Israeli plans will fail and the Palestinian people will triumph,...

Political sources in Palestine have revealed that the Islamic Resistance Movement’s preparations for its leadership election are under way, as per its constitution. The vote is scheduled for April in Gaza and overseas simultaneously. There are no real surprises at this stage. The anonymous sources claim that the movement’s...

The Al-Nahda bloc in Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly has said that its members won’t participate in the meetings of the Parliamentary Committee of the Union for the Mediterranean alongside an MP from Israel. Such participation would, claimed Al-Sahbi Atteq, “help to normalise relations” with Israel and this they would...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ramallah has called the UN Human Rights Council’s adoption of resolutions on Palestine, with a large majority, “another achievement for Palestinian diplomacy”, and said that UN agencies stand with the Palestinians’ right against the occupation and its gross violations of international law. A...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES On Sunday 25-03-2010, students at Jerusalem University’s Media Faculty organised a festival attended by the Minister for Prisoners in the Ramallah government alongside a number of national and Islamist figures as well as freed Palestinian prisoners. The festival was organised to express solidarity with the hunger strike...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Dozens of Palestinian families are currently being forced to live on a plot of government land to the south of Gaza City in makeshift accommodation. Most of these families live in extreme poverty and are unable to find adequate shelter as a consequence of the five-year old...

The Shura (Consultative) Council of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is holding an extraordinary meeting to discuss whether or not to participate in the country’s presidential election. A decision is due by the end of this week. There are reports of a split within the movement on this issue, with some...

Media sources are reporting that jailed Fatah leader Marwan Al-Barghouti has called on the Palestinian leadership to end all forms of economic and security coordination with Israel. In a letter written from Israel’s Hadarim Prison, where he is serving a life sentence, Al-Barghouti said, “I call on the National...

The government of Israel has decided to cut ties with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) a week after the council declared its intention to open an investigation into Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank. The announcement was made by a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, who...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES According to the Ministry of Agriculture in Gaza, fishermen in the beleaguered territory are complaining bitterly over the escalating effects of the fuel and electricity shortages on their ability to make a living for themselves and their families. Their boats are now nearly all confined to port....

Dozens of Israeli soldiers, all in uniform, accompanied a group of illegal Jewish settlers and stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards on Wednesday morning. This was part of a massive mobilisation of the Israeli occupation army. Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said that soldiers and settlers entered the...

Lawyer Shaul Mofaz has defeated his rival Tzipi Livni in the election for the leadership of Israel’s opposition Kadima Party. His victory was announced on Wednesday morning. The final results of the leadership ballot showed that Mofaz had won a landslide victory, obtaining 61.7 per cent of the total...

The Deputy Chairman of the Civil Service Union in the West Bank, Ma’en Ansawi, has threatened to begin protests and strikes if Salam Fayyad’s government in Ramallah doesn’t respond to his members’ demands “and provide a decent life for them”. In a press statement, Mr. Ansawi said that living...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES An Egyptian parliamentary delegation arrived in the Gaza Strip late on Wednesday via the Rafah Crossing for a short official visit during which they will meet with government officials and civil society leaders. Following a meeting with Palestinian parliamentarians this morning (Thursday 29 March), the delegation met...

It has been disclosed that the Israeli occupation authorities have seized hundreds of acres of agricultural land in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem for the benefit of illegal settlement and Judaisation projects. A report prepared by the Palestine Liberation Organisation to coincide with Land Day also claims that...

Fatah has declared that purchasing goods and produce made on Israeli settlements constitutes “a national crime against the rights of the Palestinians”. Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi added that a boycott of such produce is a “national duty” for all Palestinians. “The Israeli occupation is trying to break the will of...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Thousands of Palestinians gathered earlier today at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate to take part in a rally to commemorate Palestinian Land Day. Protesters were attacked by thousands of armed Israeli forces, some of whom were on horseback. Tear gas was fired into the unarmed crowds while dozens of...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Demonstrations in the Gaza Strip held as part of the Global March on Jerusalem have attracted huge crowds on the streets of the beleaguered Sector. After today’s Friday congregational prayer, thousands of came out onto the streets of Gaza in solidarity with Jerusalemites. The protesters held aloft...

Will a 62-year-old engineer, businessman and father of 10 sons, who was removed from his university post by former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and was arrested by ousted President Hosni Mubarak five times, but is still considered to be a symbol of moderation in the Muslim Brotherhood, be the...

The Palestinian Prisoner Society has said that female prisoners in Israel’s Hasharon Prison are suffering from difficult, and deteriorating, medical and living conditions which cannot be tolerated. Israel, claims the society, is now mixing Jewish criminal prisoners with Palestinian political detainees to the extent that only a plastic door...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES The Israeli occupation authorities decided yesterday to expel Hana Al Shalabi to the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian administrative detainee, who has been on hunger strike for 43 days, will have to spend at least three years in Gaza before being allowed back to her home village in...

The head of Tunisia’s Al-Nahda (Renaissance) movement, Rashid Al-Ghannouchi, has said that his country’s January 14 revolution was not only against injustice, tyranny and corruption. It was also, he said, against what he called the “suspicious links” of the former regime, especially with Israel. This was a reference to...