Jerusalem row: Palestinian leadership suspends recognition of Israel

AL JAZEERA
January 16, 2018

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has decided to suspend its recognition of Israel until the latter recognises the State of Palestine on its 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

During a meeting in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah late on Monday, the PLO, which is an umbrella of major Palestinian political parties, also said that the Oslo Accords, signed with Israel in the early 1990s, "no longer stand".

In the final statement read after the meeting, the PLO's Central Council, the second-highest Palestinian decision-making body, said that it would renew its decision to "stop security coordination [with Israel] in all its forms" and called on all Arab states "to sever all ties with any state that recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transfers its embassy to it".

The meeting comes following a decision in December by US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Breaking with decades of US policy in favour of a two-state solution, Trump's declaration dealt a blow to the Palestinian leadership, which for more than two decades has unsuccessfully attempted to establish a state on the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

The PLO meeting in Ramallah was organised to lay out the Palestinian strategy to confront the US in the wake of its Jerusalem decision.

According to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, the PLO rejected the US' "deal of the century" for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and affirmed it would find "other international pathways under the auspices of the United Nations to sponsor solving the Palestinian cause".

At the start of the two-day meeting, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammedTrump's peace proposal, saying: "Now we say 'No' to Trump, we won't accept his plan - we say the 'deal of the century' is the slap of the century," referring to the US president's pledge to achieve the "ultimate deal".

After officially recognising Israel's existence in 1988, the PLO and Israel signed the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995 meant to lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state through the establishment of an interim Palestinian government - the Palestinian Authority.

The Oslo deals also gifted Israel complete control of the Palestinian economy, civil and security matters in over 60 percent of the West Bank, and introduced the controversial security coordination between Israel and the PA.

The PA says the only answer to more than 70-year-old conflict is the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

But since the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories has only intensified, making it difficult for Palestinians to envision such a solution.

Currently, between 600,000 to 750,000 Israeli citizens - or 11 percent of the Israeli population - live in the occupied Palestinian territories - encouraged by the right-wing Israeli government which offers them incentives to move there.

Guarded by heavily armed Israeli soldiers, they have taken up large swaths of Palestinian private land.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 29,2020

Mumbai, Jan 29: Unfazed by his suspension from flying on Tuesday, stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on Wednesday claimed that he once again approached television journalist Arnab Goswami, who he said was his co-passenger on a flight from Lucknow, for an "honest discussion" but was turned away.

Kamra tweeted in the morning that "Arnab Goswami was again travelling in his flight while returning from Lucknow". "I again asked him politely if he wants to have a honest discussion he with his verbal arrogant hand jester he asked me to move away & I did that (sic)," he tweeted.

The comedian was suspended from flying by IndiGo and Air India on Tuesday after he allegedly heckled Goswami aboard a Mumbai-Lucknow plane and posted a video clip on his Twitter handle.

While IndiGo suspended Kamra from flying with it for a period of six months, Air India banned him until further notice.

In a statement released on Twitter after he posted the video, Kamra said he did "exactly what Republic TV journalists do to people in their private/public spaces". Kamra stated he had not done anything criminal by allegedly heckling Goswami.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 16,2020

Mumbai, Jul 16: Poet-activist Varavara Rao has tested positive for Covid-19. The 80-year old, named as accused in the Elgar Parishad case, was shifted to state-run JJ Hospital from Taloja central jail where he was lodged after he complained of dizziness. The hospital conducted tests including one for Covid-19 the results for which confirmed that he is positive.

Dr Ranjit Mankeshwar, the dean of JJ Hospital said, “He has shown no symptoms of Covid-19 so far. He has no breathing difficulty and is stable. We will soon shift him to a Covid hospital.” Rao is likely to be shifted to St George hospital.

Last week, Rao’s family had held a press conference after receiving a call from him from prison. His family had then said that his condition was deteriorating and he should be provided immediate medical aid. He was earlier shifted to the hospital when he fell unconscious in jail in May but was discharged within three days. The family had said that he was not provided proper medical treatment.

Last month, a special court had rejected his interim bail plea where he had cited his susceptibility to the virus due to his age and other medical conditions. The court, however, had said the superintendent of prison has been directed to take appropriate measures in such cases where medical attention is required. Before he was shifted to the hospital on Tuesday, Rao was admitted to the hospital ward of the jail and as he had been unable to do basic chores without depending on other inmates.

An appeal against the special court’s order is pending before the Bombay High Court. The plea is likely to be heard tomorrow.

Comments

Naresh
 - 
Thursday, 16 Jul 2020

Real criminals got bail or they r free from jail becoz of corona. Varavara rao and other innocents under custody.

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 12,2020

Jun 12: The global number of COVID-19 cases has increased to over 7.5 million, while the death toll was nearing 421,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Friday morning, the overall number of cases stood at 7,500,777, while the deaths increased to 420,993, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US continues with the world's highest number of confirmed cases and deaths at 2,022,488 and 113,803, respectively, according to the CSSE.

In terms of cases, Brazil comes in the second place with 802,828 infections.

This was followed by Russia (501,800), the UK (292,860), India (286,605), Spain (242,707), Italy (236,142), Peru (214,788), France (192,493), Germany (186,691), Iran (180,156), Turkey (174,023), Chile (154,092), Mexico (133,974), Pakistan (125,933) and Saudi Arabia (116,021), the CSSE figures showed.

Regarding fatalities, the UK continues in the second position after the US with 41,364 COVID-19 deaths, which also accounts for the highest number of fatalities in Europe.

The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are Brazil (40,919), Italy (34,167), France (29,349), Spain (27,136) and Mexico (15,944).

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.