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Tag: Jerusalem

  • Nigeria didn’t attend U.S. embassy relocation event in Jerusalem – Presidency

    The Presidency has refuted media report that Nigeria attended an event during which the United States officially relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Monday.

    A presidency source, who spoke to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, said the Federal Government had written to a foreign medium, Al Jazeera, demanding a retraction of its story that listed Nigeria as one of the countries represented at the event.

    The Presidency officially disclosed that based on the report, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, queried the Nigerian Ambassador to Israel to explain his presence at the event.

    The source said, “Based on that report, the minister queried the ambassador to explain why he attended the event.

    “The ambassador has since replied that he was not at the event.

    “It was on the strength of the ambassador’s response that the Federal Government wrote to Al Jazeera to retract its story.”

    The U.S. on Monday officially relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in a deeply controversial move that angered Palestinians and drew widespread global condemnation.

    The ceremony took place amid road closures and heavy police presence in anticipation of Palestinian protests.

    It also featured deadly demonstrations in Gaza calling for the refugees’ right to return to the homes they were forcibly expelled 70 years ago.

    U.S. President Donald Trump, who in December 2017 declared Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move long sought by Israel, addressed the ceremony via a recorded video message.

    “Today we follow through on this recognition and open our embassy in the historic and sacred land of Jerusalem, and we’re opening it many, many years ahead of schedule,” Trump has said.

  • Israeli forces kill 41 in Gaza protests as anger mounts over U.S. Embassy [Video]

    Israeli forces kill 41 in Gaza protests as anger mounts over U.S. Embassy [Video]

    Israeli forces killed at least 41 Palestinians along the Gaza border on Monday as angry protesters demonstrated at the frontier on the day the United States opened its embassy in Jerusalem, health officials said.

    It was the highest Palestinian death toll in a single day since a series of protests dubbed the “Great March of Return” began at the border with Israel on March 30, and since the 2014 Gaza war.

    The health officials said 900 Palestinians were wounded, about 450 of them by live bullets.

    Tens of thousands streamed to the coastal enclave’s land border on Monday, some approaching the Israeli fence – a line Israeli leaders said Palestinians would not be allowed to breach. Clouds of black smoke from tyres set alight by demonstrators rose in the air.

    Demonstrators, some armed with slingshots, hurled stones at the Israeli security forces, who fired volleys of tear gas and intense rounds of gunfire.

    “Today is the big day when we will cross the fence and tell Israel and the world we will not accept being occupied forever,” said Gaza science teacher Ali, who declined to give his last name.

    “Many may get martyred today, so many, but the world will hear our message. Occupation must end,” he said.

    Israeli leaders and a U.S. delegation including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and President Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, were due to attend the opening of the embassy, relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a controversial decision.

    “A great day for Israel,” the U.S. president, who stoked Arab anger by recognizing disputed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December, said in a tweet.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in lockstep with Trump over fulfilling a long-standing U.S. promise to move the embassy to the holy city and over Washington’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal last week, echoed the sentiment.

    “What a moving day for the people of Israel and the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.

    The Palestinians, who seek their own future state with its capital in East Jerusalem, have been outraged by Trump’s shift from previous administrations’ preference for keeping the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv pending progress in peace efforts.

    Those talks, aimed a finding a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, have been frozen since 2014. Other international powers worry that the U.S. move could also inflame Palestinian unrest in the occupied West Bank, which Israel captured along with East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

    Most countries say the status of Jerusalem – a sacred city to Jews, Muslims and Christians – should be determined in a final peace settlement and that moving their embassies now would prejudge any such deal.

    Reuters

  • U.S. officially opens new embassy in Jerusalem amid protests

    U.S. officially opens new embassy in Jerusalem amid protests

    The United States has formally opened a new consulate in Jerusalem amid global protests.

    The ceremony of moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem began on Monday with the US national anthem.

    US ambassador to Israel David Friedman then spoke and President Donald Trump was given a standing ovation when he mentioned him.

    Friedman referred to the embassy’s location as “Jerusalem, Israel” drawing wild applause.

    Earlier in the day, violent clashes erupted along the Gaza Strip’s border, leaving 37 Palestinians dead from Israeli fire and hundreds wounded in the conflict’s bloodiest day in years.

    Tens of thousands had gathered near the border in protest while smaller numbers of stone-throwing Palestinians approached the fence and sought to break through, with Israeli snipers positioned on the other side.

    US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan led the Washington delegation at the inauguration that also included Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, both White House aides, as well as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

    Some 800 guests were attending the ceremony.

    Jerusalem’s status is perhaps the thorniest issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    Israel considers the entire city its capital, while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

    AFP

  • Israel to send 16,000 African migrants to Western countries under new UN deal

    Israel to send 16,000 African migrants to Western countries under new UN deal

    Israel said on Monday it has scrapped a plan to deport African migrants to Africa and reached an agreement with the U.N. refugee agency to send more than 16,000 to Western countries instead.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Canada, Italy and Germany as some of the nations that will take in the migrants.

    Other migrants, many of whom are seeking asylum, will be allowed to remain in Israel, which they entered illegally on foot through the border with Egypt, for at least the next five years.

    The fate of some 37,000 Africans in Israel has posed a moral dilemma for a state founded as a haven for Jews from persecution and a national home. The right-wing government has been under pressure from its nationalist voter base to expel the migrants.

    But the planned mass deportation led to legal challenges in Israel, drew criticism from the United Nations and rights groups and triggered an emotional public debate among Israelis.

    In February, Israeli authorities started handing out notices to 20,000 male African migrants giving them two months to leave for a third country in Africa or risk being put in jail indefinitely.

    Teklit Michael, who came to Israel from Eritrea a decade ago, said he was delighted by the new deal.

    Reuters

  • Municipality insists Churches must pay off $187m tax debts

    The Jerusalem Municipality intends to recover 650 million shekels (almost 187 million dollars) from Christian denominations as taxes for their real estate located in the city, Mayor Nir Barkat has said.

    “The debts for commercial space owned by churches exceed 650 million shekels.

    “We will no longer demand that the citizens of Jerusalem bear this burden and subsidise this colossal debt,” Barkat said in a statement, by the mayor’s office press service.

    The municipal authorities demand that Christian denominations pay municipal taxes for all real estate, except for churches themselves, and have already started arresting bank accounts, demanding a penalty for previous years.

    “In Jerusalem, everyone is equal before the law – Christians, Muslims and Jews.

    “The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, like all the churches of Jerusalem, synagogues and mosques, is exempt from municipal tax.

    “There are no changes in this respect,” Barkat said.

    The mayor noted, however, that commercial buildings such as hotels, retail and office space were subject to municipal tax, regardless of who owned them.

    In response, Church leaders accused the city authorities of violating the long-standing status quo and closed the Temple of the Holy Sepulcher for pilgrims and tourists in protest.

     

  • Jerusalem: Great measures of beauty, sorrow – Anglican Primate

    The Anglican Primate and Archbishop of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Most Reverend Suheil Dawani, has described the Holy Land as knowing great measures of beauty and sorrow.

    Archbishop Dawani, comparing Israel to the rest of the world, opined that the beauty of Jerusalem lies not only in its history and in the Holy Site, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but in the people themselves.

    The Anglican Primate, speaking at a university public address, reminded the world that the sorrow of the Land lies in the long history of one conquest and occupation after another.

    According to him, the land has been fought over for two thousand years, and that its people know only too well the suffering and sorrow that comes with war and religious persecutions.

    According to reports, in 1948, the Christian population in Jerusalem was about 27%, but today, it is less than 1%. In 1967, there were well over 30,000 Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem, but today, they are barely 6,000.

    Notwithstanding the statistics, it has been reported that the devotion of Christians in proclaiming the gospel of Christ remains undaunted, and many in the Holy Land are grateful for their lives and the name of Jesus.

    TheNewsGuru reports this year, in May, Israel will mark her 70th Independence anniversary celebration.

     

  • Jerusalem should be shared capital, British FM tells Palestinian FM

    Jerusalem should ultimately be shared capital of Israeli and Palestinian states, British Foreign Minister, Boris Johnson, told his Palestinian counterpart ,Riyad al-Malki on Monday, a statement from Britain’s foreign office said.

    “I reiterated the UK’s commitment to supporting the Palestinian people and the two-state solution, the urgent need for renewed peace negotiations, and the UK’s clear and longstanding position on the status of Jerusalem,” Johnson said.

    “It should be determined in a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Jerusalem should ultimately be the shared capital of the Israeli and Palestinian states.”

    The U.S. President, Donald Trump on Dec. 8 recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

    Trump defied overwhelming global opposition by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but insisted that the highly controversial move would not derail his own administration’s bid to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    In a short speech delivered at the White House, Trump directed the state department to start making arrangements to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a process that officials say will take at least three years.

    “I have determined that it is time to officially recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Trump said.

    He added that “while previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.

    “My announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.”

     

  • Israel set to cede parts of Jerusalem in peace deal

    Israel set a higher threshold on Tuesday for any future vote on ceding parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.

    Palestinians wanted the eastern part of the city for a future independent state.

    The amendment passed by the Israeli parliament to existing legislation raised from 61 to 80 the number of votes that would be required in the 120-seat Knesset to approve any proposal to hand over part of the city to “a foreign party”.

    The amendment, long in the legislative pipeline, comes less than a month after U.S. President Donald Trump angered the Palestinians, Middle East leaders and world powers by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    U.S. negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen since 2014 but, if ever resumed, a special Israeli parliament majority to approve handing over parts of Jerusalem could complicate efforts to reach a peace accord.

    Trump’s Dec. 6 decision touched off protests in the region and the Palestinians have said Washington can no longer serve as a peace broker.

    A U.S. bid to revive negotiations, led by the president’s adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has so far shown no progress.

    “The authority to relinquish parts of the land is not in the hands of any Jew, nor of the Jewish people,” said Naftali Bennett, head of the far-right Jewish Home coalition party, which sponsored the legislation.

    Palestinian officials were not immediately available for comment on the new amendment, which passed by a vote of 64 to 52.

    Opposition head Isaac Herzog said Jewish Home was leading Israel “toward a terrible disaster”.

    The status of Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally.

    It says the entire city is its “eternal and indivisible” capital.

    Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state that would also include the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

    On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party unanimously urged legislators in a non-binding resolution to effectively annex Israeli settlements built in the West Bank.

    Political commentators said the decision might bolster right-wing support for Netanyahu, who could seek a public mandate in an early election while he awaits possible criminal indictments against him on corruption suspicions. He denies wrongdoing.

    Parliamentary elections are not due until November 2019 but the police investigations in two cases of alleged corruption against Netanyahu and tensions among coalition partners in his government could hasten a poll.

    Some commentators, pointing to an existing law that already sets a similar high threshold for handing over territory in a land-for-peace deal, have said Jewish Home was essentially competing with Likud for support among the right-wing base.

     

    Reuters/NAN

  • UN votes 128-9 to reject Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem

    UN votes 128-9 to reject Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem

    The UN General Assembly has decisively backed a resolution effectively calling on the US to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

    “The text says that any decisions regarding the status of the city are “null and void” and must be cancelled.” BBC reports

    The non-binding resolution was approved by 128 states, with 35 abstaining and nine others voting against.

    It came after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut financial aid to those who backed the resolution.

    Before the vote, the Palestinian foreign minister urged member states to reject “blackmail and intimidation”.

    Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said it would reject the anticipated result “outright” and dismissed the UN as a “house of lies”.

    The nine who voted against the resolution were the US, Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo.

    Among the 35 abstaining were Canada and Mexico

    Those voting in favour included the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia and the UK) as well as key US allies in the Muslim world.There were 21 countries who did not turn up for the vote.

    Recall that Trump yesterday had warned that he might cut financial aid to states who voted in favour of the resolution.

    “They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” he said. “Well, we’re watching those votes,” he added. “Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”

  • U.S. embassy unlikely to move to Jerusalem before 2020 – Tillerson

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. embassy in Israel was unlikely to be moved to Jerusalem before 2020, national media outlets reported.

    “It’s not going to be anything that happens right away,” U.S. news daily the New York Times quoted Tillerson’s speech at the State Department.

    “Probably no earlier than three years out, and that’s pretty ambitious,” the head of the State Department added.

    U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Dec. 6 the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his intention of moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

    The declaration serves “the interest of the United States and the peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” said Trump at a televised speech.

    Speaking of the moving of the U.S. embassy, Trump said the State Department will immediately begin to hire architects and engineers, so as to make the new embassy “a magnificent tribute to peace” when completed.

    Trump’s decision, which was seen as undermining the Middle East peace process and further destabilizing the region, has drawn condemnation and opposition globally.