Palestinian Affairs

The U.S. State Department this week released its annual human rights report. The watchdog group NGO Monitor unpacked the report, noting the contrast between investigators’ descriptions of Israeli and Palestinian judicial systems. Palestinian Authority and Hamas security forces conduct “arbitrary arrest and associated torture and abuse” in a judicial climate...

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U.S. Members of Congress are calling upon Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to take action against PA broadcasts that incite violence and hatred against Israelis and Jews: April 11, 2013 President Mahmoud Abbas Ramallah, West Bank via PLO Delegation to the United States 1732 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington, DC 20007 Dear...

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The State Department is emphasizing that a planned trip by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Gaza Strip next month is “counterproductive.” Speaking to reporters at a briefing yesterday, State Department Acting Deputy Spokesperson Patrick Ventrell added that U.S. officials consider the Iran-backed group to be a “foreign terrorist organization [and]…...

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Palestinian Authority (PA) President Muhammad Abbas’s aturday evening decision to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad came as a result of political jockeying and amid intense international diplomacy. Fayyad met this evening with Abbas in a session that lasted just twenty minutes, after which news leaked of the resignation. On Thursday Reuters reported...

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Arabic media sources are reporting that President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, after the two met briefly late in the day Saturday. The resignation comes in the aftermath of a public spat between the two officials over the departure of Finance Minister Dr....

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Egyptian security forces operating in the Sinai Peninsula have seized several caches of weapons and explosives this week, which officials believe were destined for use against both Israel and Egypt. Officials told the Ma’an News Agency that among the cache contained anti-aircraft shells, grenades, and anti-tank mines intended for the bordering...

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