Day: April 30, 2023

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Activists in Spain launch campaign to prosecute Apartheid Israel

The Palestinian Arab Community Association, in coordination with Amnesty International and the municipality of Reus, organized yesterday a series of activities in solidarity with the Palestinian people at the Freedom Square in the city of Reus. The activities were attended by the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Spain, Husni Abdel Wahed, the Mayor of Reus, Monsey Flores, Spanish MPs and members of the Palestinian and Arab communities in Spain. Amina Shoman, the head of the Palestinian Arab Community Association in Reus, told WAFA that these activities aim to collect the largest possible number of signatures on a petition to prosecute the Israeli occupation for its practice of apartheid against the Palestinian people. The deputy mayor of Tarragona, Paula Varas, expressed her solidarity with the Palestinian cause, denouncing all the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, who have the right to live in peace. In February last year, Amnesty International confirmed in a report what Palestinian and international human rights experts and advocates have been saying for decades, that Israel is responsible for the crime against humanity of apartheid. The comprehensive report documented how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a discriminatory system which amounts to a crime against humanity under international law.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency (WAFA)

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Farmers denied reclamation of their lands by Israeli forces in Salfit

Two Palestinian farmers were prevented today by the Israeli occupation forces from maintaining their own lands in the village of al-Zawiya, in the occupied West Bank province of Salfit, according to local sources. Mohammad Raddad, the mayor of the village, told WAFA that Ra’ed Musleh and Yaser Musleh, two Palestinian landowners and farmers from the village, have been denied access into their lands by the Israeli occupation forces over the past three days. The two farmers say they have to go to their lands in order to carry out maintenance works in preparation for the plantation season. Raddad said villagers trying to access their lands adjacent to the Israeli segregation barrier, which is close to the village, have been attacked several times by the Israeli occupation forces, including being attacked with teargas canisters.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency (WAFA)

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JORDAN TO HOST SYRIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER FOR REGIONAL MEETING ON MONDAY

Jordan will host Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and his regional counterparts on Monday, as various Arab states look to rekindle ties with Damascus. The kingdom will host the foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria, state news agency Petra announced. The meeting follows a similar gathering held in Jeddah early this month and ‘builds on the contacts that these countries made with the Syrian government’, Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sinan Majali. There was no immediate comment from Damascus. Several Middle Eastern countries have held meetings with Syrian representatives in the past month as Damascus looks to emerge from its decade-long isolation. Ankara said “constructive talks” were held with Syria last week as it looks to repair relations with its southerly neighbour, while Tunisia appointed its new ambassador to Damascus on Thursday. Foreign ministers of the Gulf Co-operation Council and Egypt, Iraq and Jordan met in Jeddah earlier this month, agreeing Arab states must lead the way in brokering a solution to the Syrian crisis. Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 over the government’s violent crackdown on protests against President Bashar Al Assad’s rule. The protests escalated into a civil war that has claimed more than half a million lives and forced about half of the population from their homes, including millions who fled to neighbouring countries.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

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MAWLAWI’S OFFICE COMMENTS ON THE CIRCULATION OF A PHOTO OF A SYRIAN POLICEMAN’S CARD IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF LAQLOUQ:

Caretaker Interior and Municipalities Minister, Judge Bassam Mawlawi’s press office issued a statement this afternoon, commenting on the circulation of a photo of a card issued by the municipality of Laqlouq to a Syrian policeman. “Minister of Interior, Bassam Mawlawi, directed the security services affiliated with the ministry to immediately investigate the validity of issuing the municipality mentioned for the card, and the extent to which the municipality applies the laws, as well as the identity papers of the Syrian person,” the statement read. The statement added that “the necessary legal measures will be taken against the violators in light of the investigation’s outcome.”

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

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AL-RAHI: OUR COUNTRY IS COLLAPSING AND OUR PEOPLE ARE MIGRATING TOWARDS COUNTRIES THAT RESPECT PEOPLE BECAUSE OF BAD GOVERNANCE

Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Al-Rahi, affirmed, in his Sunday Mass sermon, at the Patriarchal Church in Bkerke, that ‘The Lebanese state is collapsing, and the people are migrating to a country that respects people, and all this is due to the misrule of a corrupt, destructive and failed political group without an iota of moral and patriotic conscience.”

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

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BASSIL: LET NO ONE THREATEN US WITH ‘ME OR CHAOS’ EQUATION

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday urged a Christian agreement on a new president. ‘As Christians, we have a historic and major responsibility to agree, in order not to give an excuse to local and foreign forces to impose a president on us,’ Bassil said during a visit to Jezzine. ‘We want to propose candidates on whom we can agree at the Christian level at first and secondly at the national level,’ Bassil added, stressing that the FPM ‘will not cover any marginalization of Christians.’ Referring to political rivals who are nominated for the presidency, the FPM chief said: ‘Let no one threaten us with the ‘me or chaos’ equation and think that he can impose it.’ ‘Let no one lecture us about learning from the past, because he’s the one who has to learn and not act in an inferior way or accept any settlement only because it leads to his election, even if that comes at the expense of his environment, society and country,’ Bassil went on to say. He added: ‘Let no one bet on foreign settlements, because no matter how strong they cannot continue if they are not immunized and covered with domestic consensus

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon