From the frying pan into the fire? Abu Tir deportation trial continued until 12 July

An Israeli court on Sunday continued the detention of Hamas-affiliated East Jerusalem politician Mohammad Abu Tir for another week, until Monday 12 July.
On the basis of a “deportation” order pending since 2006, Israeli Police took Abu Tir’s Permanent Residence ID card soon after he was released from jail in May, after serving a more-than-four-year sentence [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

East Jerusalem parliamentarian arrested, facing “deportation”

Facing possible “deportation” — whatever that means in the circumstances — from East Jerusalem, Mohammad Abu Tir, a Hamas-affiliated politician elected in January 2006 to the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC), was arrested this afternoon in Jerusalem (where he is not supposed to be, any more) reportedly by undercover Israeli police disguised as Palestinians, and taken to [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Tony Blair says yes to Israeli obsession with control + supervision

If anyone failed to understand the ever-so-careful language in the Quartet statement issued on Monday [following the Israeli cabinet pronouncements on Sunday] Tony Blair spelled it out perfectly clearly in an interview published in part on Tuesday [the rest is promised for later in the week] with the Jerusalem Post’s David Horovitz and Herb Keinon.
First, [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Round-up

Monday 21 June 2010
Ram Cohen, principal of the Aleph High School in Tel Aviv, was summoned to appear before the Knesset Education Committee and the Minister of Education, Mr. Gideon Saar, today, as Cohen explained in an article published in YNet, “following my unequivocal words to my students, condemning the 43 year-old occupation and rule [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Quartet Statement on “indirect” Israeli-Palestinian talks + East Jerusalem

Russia has wanted to host an international conference on Middle East Peace since the start of the Annapolis process of direct negotiations in late November 2007.
It wasn’t exactly a full international multilateral conference, but today the Quartet of Middle East negotiators (US, Russia, European Union + UN) met in Moscow — with their Special Representative [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Now that Netanyahu has finally called…

Barak Ravid reported in Haaretz, rather quickly after the announcement of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin’s almost-overdue phone call to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (she was in Moscow attending a meeting of the Quartet), on what Israel will do now to help mend its most important external relationship.
Both the White House and the [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

St. Patrick’s Day in Ramallah

A day before the Quartet (USA, EU, Russia + UN ) meets in Moscow, European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton was (1.) in Jordan meeting King Abdallah II ["Jerusalem is a red line"] and (2.) in Ramallah to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen] on St Patrick’s Day — was she “wearing the [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Is Tony Blair being upgraded or downgraded in role as Quartet Middle East representative?

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Washington today that: “I spoke today with Quartet Representative Blair to discuss developments in the Middle East. This Administration has, from the beginning, worked to bring about comprehensive peace in the Middle East, including a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On that issue our [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

The US + EU = more than half the Quartet

Food for thought: Today, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, in her remarks to the press after her meeting at the State Department in Washington D.C. with the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton, that: “Together, we have a population of 800 million, a $27 trillion economy, a zone of peace, [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

New EU High Representative for Foreign Policy questions worth of Quartet

Akiva Eldar has reported in Haaretz that the new European Union High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Affairs, Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland (who has replaced Javier Solana), said in an address to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg that “she had spoken with Israelis, Palestinians and the U.S. Secretary of State about [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati