PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

The death of a young Jerusalemite due to a traffic accident in the occupied interior

Jerusalem - "Al-Quds" dot com - The young man from Jerusalem, Ahmed Amr (25 years), was killed at dawn today, Friday, as a result of a traffic accident inside the occupied territories .


According to local sources, the young man, Amr, died as a result of a road accident between a bicycle and a private vehicle in the Kfar Saba area.

OPINIONS

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

The President's speech at the United Nations and the statement of the Executive Committee are a step forward and two steps back

بقلم:وليد العوض


عقدت اللجنة التنفيذية لمنظمة التحرير الفلسطينية اجتماعها مساء يوم الخميس السادس من تشرين الاول الجاري، وقد كان على جدول أعمالها وضع الاليات المناسبة لتحويل خطاب الرئيس ابو مازن أمام الدورة ٧٧ للجمعية العامة للأمم المتحدة الى برنامج عمل لتنفيذ مع ما ورد في الخطاب المذكور.
كما جاء هذا الاجتماع بعد زيارة أمين سر اللجنة التنفيذية للمنظمة حسين الشيخ الى واشنطن واجتماعه مع العديد من أركان الادارة الامريكية الحالية لسبر غور ما يمكن أن تقدمه هذه الادارة غير الوعود التي تميزت بها الى جانب استمرار سياسية المراوغة وكسب المزيد من الوقت لمصلحة الاحتلال، وبيع المزيد من الوهم للجانب الفلسطيني مما ينقص من رصيده ويعرض مصداقيته للتآكل ليس فقط لدى ابناء شعبنا الفلسطيني الذين سئموا ذلك بل لدى كل رؤوساء العالم الذين استمعوا لخطاب الرئيس أبو مازن من على منبر الامم المتحدة، هذا الخطاب الذي اعتبره الكثيرون سواء من يختلفون او يتفقون مع الرئيس مؤشراً لاغلاق مرحلة تميزت بالارتباك والبؤس ، ويفتح طاقة من الامل لاستعادة مكانة القضية الفلسطينية على مختلف الصعد، خاصة وانه حمل مضامين ومفاصل مهمة يمكن ان تعيد الامور الى نصابها اذا ما تم العمل معها بجدية ، فقد اعاد الخطاب التذكير مجدداً بحقيقة جوهر الصراع التي تقول ان النكبة التي تعرض لها شعبنا عام ١٩٤٨ كانت ذروة المؤامرة وقد مثلت وصمة عار في جبين الإنسانية وبالذات في جبين أولئك الذين تآمروا وخططوا ونفذوا هذه الجريمة البشعة التي ما زالت اثارها دامية حتى الان ، كما حمل في نفس الوقت ومن على منصة الشرعية الدولية المجتمع الدولي مسؤولياته الاخلاقية والسياسية على استمرار النكبة ومفاعيلها بصمته وعزوفه عن متابعة تنفيذ قراراته ، مضيفاً بأن تحقيق السلام يتطلب تنفيذ العدالة وهذه تتطلب معالجة النكبة ونتائجها عبر اعادة الحقوق لأصحابها وفقاً لما اقرته الشرعية الدولية ذاتها.
وتجدر الاشارة بانتباه شديد لتناوله قرارات المجلس المركزي فيما يتعلق بالاتفاقات الموقعة مع الاحتلال وبانها باتت في حكم المنتهية وأن تحديد العلاقة بين فلسطين وإسرائيل ـ منذ الآن على حد تعبير الرئيس - كعلاقة بين دولتين واحدة محتلة والأخرى تحتلها بالعدوان المتواصل على الأرض ونهب الموارد وتطلق يد الجيش والمستوطنين الإرهابيين لقتل واعتقال أبناء وبنات الشعب الفلسطيني وهدم بيوته وتشكيل مُنظمات إرهابية عنصرية يهودية تمارس الإرهاب ضد الفلسطينيين وبأن إسرائيل لم تُبقِ لشعبنا أرضاً لإقامة الدولة الفلسطينية وعاصمتها القدس، وهي تُسنُّ القوانين العُنصرية، وتَفلِتُ من المُساءلة والعقاب وتدير ظهرها للقوانين والاعراف الدولية مضيفاً بأن ما تفعله إسرائيل الآن هو امتداد لما فعلته عام 1948 عندما دمرت 529 قرية فلسطينية، وطردت سُكانها وارتكبت أكثر من خمسين مذبحة منذ العام 1948 وتذكير زعماء العالم بالمجازر بأن هذه المجازر مستمرة واخرها التي تعرض لها الأطفال في العدوان على غزة هذا العام والعام الماضي، وتحميل اسرائيل المسؤلية عن كل ذلك مطالباً بتحميلها المسؤولية القانونية والسياسية والأخلاقية والمادية جراء ذلك .
لقد جاء كل ذلك في خطاب حظي بقبول وتأييد غالبية شعبنا الامر الذي اعتبره الكثيرون وانا منهم مقدمة لاغلاق باب مرحلة بائسة ويفتح طريقاً لامل لم يفقده شعبنا . كما ان الخطاب رفع من السقف عبر التأكيد بأننا لن نبقى الطرف الوحيد الذي يلتزم باتفاقات التي لم تعد قائمة وقد بات من حقنا ولزاماً علينا البحث عن وسائل أخرى للحصول على حقوقنا في اشارة واضحة الى اننا من المفترض بتنا نقف على مدخل مسار مختلف عنوانه الرئيسي التصرف كحركة تحرر وطني من حقه ان يمارس اشكل الكفاح المناسبة بما لايتعارض مع القانون الدولي، بالاضافة لذلك. فان الخطاب تضمن مؤشرات تحمل بعدا سياسيا وقانونيا واخلاقيا عبر تذكير العالم أجمع بمئات القرارات المعطلة الخاصة بفلسطين التي أصدرتها الأمم المتحدة بما فيها قرار التقسيم رقم ١٨١ والقرار الخاص بعودة اللاجئين رقم ١٩٤، مذكراً بدور أمريكا في حماية إسرائيل من المساءلة، ودور بريطانيا في إقامة هذا الكيان المتمرد على كافة الاعراف القوانين الدولية. كما جدد الخطاب العزم على التوجه المحكمة الجنائية الدولية للشروع في التحقيق في هذه الجرائم فوراً ومجدداً مطالبة فلسطين بحقها بالعضوية الكاملة في الامم المتحدة وانها ستفعل انضمامها للعديد من المنظمات الدولية.
ما استعرضته أعلاه مثل جوهر خطاب الرئيس في الامم المتحدة بالاضافة للعديد من النقاط والمفاصل الهامة واحتضانه لقضية الاسرى وأسرهم وهمومهم والاستعداد لاجراء الانتخابات مع ضمانات لإجرائها في القدس عاصمة دولة فلسطين ،،، كان وما زال يستوجب على اللجنة التنفيذية لمنظمة التحرير أن تترجمه لخطة عمل شاملة والبدء بتنفيذه ولو بخطوة واحدة على الاقل اثباتاً لجدية الموقف ،، لكن مع الاسف فقد تناول بيانها هذه القضية الهامة متضمناً عبارة فضفاضة كانت على النحو التالي (وشددت اللجنة التنفيذية على أهمية وضع آليات لتنفيذ ما جاء في خطاب الرئيس الهام أمام الجمعية العامة للأمم المتحدة)، ويبدو أن اللجنة التنفيذية قد عادت مجدداً لتشكيل اللجان لمتابعة الأمر وكانت قد شكلت لجان مماثلة لبحث تنفيذ قرارات المجلس المركزي وقد اجتمعت لجنة المتابعة المنبثقة عن اللجنة التنفيذية مساء الجمعة وما رشح عنها في وسائل الاعلام يشير الى اننا ذاهبون في خطوة للوراء بكل ما تعنيه هذه الكلمة من معنى، الامر الذي يحمل تساؤلاً مشروعاً ما هي الحسابات التي حكمت موقف اللجنة التنفيذية لمنظمة التحرير الفلسطينية ودفعتها بأن تسحب الموقف الفلسطيني لخطوة الى الوراء إن لم يكن أكثر.

* عضو المكتب السياسي لحزب الشعب الفلسطيني

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Herzog: I am currently focused on stopping further division in Israeli society

Jerusalem.com - Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Sunday that he is currently focusing on two issues that are central to the current situation inside Israel over the dispute over judicial reforms.


Speaking about the criticism leveled at him following his refusal to take a position on the issue, Herzog explained that he respects these criticisms directed at him, but he is currently focused on preventing a historic constitutional crisis and stopping further division among Israeli society.


He pointed out that during the past week he worked all the time and made continuous efforts with the various parties to create dialogue and talks, expressing his hope that they would yield positive results.


The Israeli arena is witnessing a state of attraction and political division over the judicial reforms announced by the Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, with the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many ministers, while the opposition, the left, and Israeli civil society organizations consider them dangerous to "democracy" and aim to undermine it, and to protect Netanyahu and his ministers.


Yesterday, tens of thousands of Israelis took part in massive demonstrations against the Netanyahu government, with the participation of opposition Knesset members, former ministers and others, in protest against the policy of the Netanyahu government.

OPINIONS

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

After the speech: change or stagnation in the same place?

Written by: Hani Al-Masry
I wished, and still do, that I was wrong in my expectations that the president's speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations did not and will not lead to a change in the path that the president complained about in his last speech. Through two major indicators: the first, the postponement of the enlarged meeting that was to be held in Algeria; The second is the continuation of security coordination and thinking of doubling it.

As a result of the differences, the Palestinian meeting was not held in Algeria, which was supposed to be held on the second of this month, and research is underway about the possibility of holding it at a later date in this month. Well-informed sources stated that President Mahmoud Abbas, through the delegation of the Fatah movement, insisted on the need to focus in the ongoing dialogue with Algerian mediation on forming a government of national unity that adheres to international legitimacy. He also refused to expand the independent participants in response to an Algerian proposal to reasonably increase their number.

Without a political will willing to pay the price for unity, the division will deepen

Whether the meeting is held in Algeria, or not, it will only result in a new failure as long as the divided parties are not ready to pay the price of national unity and provide its requirements, and as long as other parties are not strong enough to impose the will and interest of the people on everyone, and as long as the president wants unity to be achieved. Its conditions are rejected by most of the people and the active factions, and as long as the opposition is waiting for its position to change, contenting itself with condemnation and criticism at times, and appealing and demanding at other times, without crystallizing a comprehensive vision, and developing a plan that opens the way for building an alternative from the current reality if the current political system does not respond to the call for change, from Through political and public pressure on the official leadership and the Fatah movement to work together to create a true partnership that changes power and the political path in favor of a consensual national path, rebuilding the organization’s institutions to include the various colors of the political spectrum, through national consensus, and resorting to elections at all levels and political and trade union sectors.

Without achieving the aforementioned, the division will continue, deepen and turn into separation, which portends the continuation of the state of siege, aggression and truces that are extended time after time in the Gaza Strip without a horizon for decisive change, and with no total exclusion of a long-term truce on the basis of security in exchange for an economy and facilities in parallel. With economic peace and security cooperation in the West Bank.

At the same time, Israel continues to swallow the West Bank within the policy of creeping and gradual annexation, which is accompanied by the completion of the Judaization of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and the endeavor to liquidate the refugee issue, the racial discrimination against our people at home, and the blockade and aggression against the Gaza Strip; That is, continuing the policy of escalating the conflict and not reducing it, as they claim.

This was evident in the escalation of incursions, assassinations, and arrests, especially in Jenin and Nablus, amid discussions within the Israeli political, military, and security circles about what are the best policies, and the trade-off between continuing the aggression at its current pace, or mitigating it, provided that the Palestinian Authority doubles its role, especially in the cities. or escalate it by using assassinations from the air, or by carrying out a new “defensive wall” operation or operations; In the sense that the occupying forces, in large numbers, completely occupy an area, and Jenin is nominated to be the first, and they will remain in it until the resistance fighters are arrested and killed and the resistance infrastructure is liquidated.

The authority is at a crossroads, and the opposition is waiting for it

The authority appears helpless, confused and weak, as it continues security coordination, but within the minimum, and it is required to double it. If it does everything that the occupation demands of arresting the resistance fighters and withdrawing weapons without a political horizon, it fears that the resistance fighters will revolt with increasing popular support, as happened when it arrested Musab Shtayyeh and Brigadier General Tubaila In Nablus, in light of the escalation of resistance, to the extent that more than 200 shootings were carried out against the occupation patrols and settlers during the month of September, according to the Israeli Shin Bet.

And in the event that the authority stands idly by, this will push the occupation to carry out the task alone, and this reduces its need for it, and this may encourage it to re-disassemble and re-install the authority, and turn it more quickly into a full-fledged security agent, and an obedient tool in its hand.

This scenario (escalation) will be strengthened if the right-wing led by Benjamin Netanyahu wins the upcoming elections, or if the authority chooses to side with its people and proceeds to implement unanimous decisions regarding reconsideration of the political, security and economic commitments resulting from the Oslo Accords, and to stop working on them all at once or gradually, and this matter It will open a wide political horizon for the Palestinians, and it will put the PA in a confrontation with the occupation, which it is not ready for, and it must start preparing for this option. Because the existing structure in it is against any fundamental change; This makes it more likely that the PA will remain as it is, and this will make it continue its progress, slowly or quickly, to turn into a security agent completely subservient to what the occupation wants.

In this context, the information circulating about the calls that took place between President Abbas and the Israeli President and his Minister of War to congratulate them on the Jewish holidays discussed how the PA could carry out its responsibilities in terms of security coordination and cooperation. Media sources also mentioned that the PA is trying to solve the issue of persecuted and exposed resistance fighters. For assassination and arrest by persuading them to surrender themselves and their weapons in exchange for financial compensation, and perhaps joining the security services, in return for pardoning them with a pledge from the authority and the occupation not to arrest them.

The same sources indicated that the persecuted resistance fighters rejected this offer, as evidenced by their recent escalation of resistance operations on their own initiative, with the availability of an increasing popular incubator, and not by confronting the Israeli incursions only, and this is true as evidenced by the issuance of statements by the "Lions' Den" and other resistance brigades adopting operations Resistance targeted Israeli sites and targets.

This path and fate reached by the authority is a natural result of the failure of the Palestinian path to change after the failure of Oslo and the negotiating process, since the failure of the Camp David summit in the year 2000, and as a result of the shift in Israeli policy from a policy of separation from the Palestinians, and the approval of the establishment of a Palestinian state according to Israeli conditions that strip its specifications. States, within a dysfunctional political process, as happened since the signing of the Oslo Accords until 2009, when Netanyahu returned to the premiership, determined to complete the Israeli eradication of Oslo and preserve it for the Palestinians, insisting on a policy of rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, and removing the political dimension from Israeli-Palestinian relations , limiting it to an economic security ceiling, proceeding to divide and fragment the Palestinians, and dealing with them as individuals and not as a people under occupation, and swallowing more of their land; The most that can be allowed to be established is a conflicting entity or entities that are or are totally subject to the occupation.

A political, leadership and program incubator is required

The president's recent speech has no meaning without changing the course, adopting a new vision and strategies, providing a political and leadership incubator (from the existing factions and leaders, and this is impossible and unlikely so far, or the emergence of new leaders, factions, and movements, or a combination of the old and the new), the existence of a political horizon, and the formation of A broad national front or meeting that is capable of imposing national unity on a national basis (that embodies common denominators), democracy, and genuine partnership and making it a priority for the various parties, especially the official leadership. Likewise, there is no meaning to the criticisms and condemnations associated with or exchanged with the appeals and demands of the official discourse.

Without providing for the above, the old has remained and will remain on its feet, and the worst thing is that things are going from bad to worse, and the valiant and glorious resistance will not be invested politically in proportion to the size of the heroics and sacrifices.

ARAB AND WORLD

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Nancy Pelosi believes that parliamentarians who are not vaccinated against Corona pose a threat to Congress

واشنطن- (أ ف ب) -دانت زعيمة الديموقراطيين في الكونغرس الأميركي نانسي بيلوسي البرلمانيين الذين لم يتلقوا لقاحا ضد كورونا معتبرة أنهم “أنانيون” ويشكلون خطرا على الكونغرس وطاقم موظفيه، مبررة بذلك إبقاء وضع الكمامات إلزاميا في قاعة المجلس.
وأدى الوباء إلى تعميق الانقسامات بين بعض الجمهوريين والديموقراطيين في الولايات المتحدة وشكل وضع الكمامة في بعض الأحيان دليلا على الموقف السياسي.
وتسير حملة التطعيم بشكل جيد في الولايات المتحدة حيث تلقى حوالى 48 بالمئة من السكان البالغ عددهم 160 مليون نسمة، جرعة واحدة على الأقل من أحد اللقاحات الثلاثة المرخص لها في البلاد.
وألغت السلطات الصحية الأميركية الأسبوع الماضي توصيتها بوضع كمامات للأشخاص الذين تم تطعيمهم ضد كوفيد-19.
وتسبب الإعلان عن هذا الإجراء ببعض الارتباك في المكاتب والمدارس وكذلك في الكونغرس حيث لا أحد ملزم بالإبلاغ رسميا عما غذا كان قد تلقى لقاحا.
في الممرات، يمكن الآن للبرلمانيين وطواقمهم والصحافيين نزع الكمامات لكن ليس في القاعة.
وقدم زعيم الأقلية الجمهورية في مجلس النواب كيفين مكارثي هذا الأسبوع قرارا يسمح للبرلمانيين بنزع الكمامات داخل المجلس لكن الأغلبية الديموقراطية رفضته.
وقال الجمهوري براين ماست الثلاثاء أنه فرضت عليه غرامة قدرها 500 دولار لرفضه وضع كمامة.
وردا على سؤال حول هذه الخلافات، قالت نانسي بيلوسي الخميس إن الأطباء المسؤولين عن الكابيتول مبنى الكونغرس، أوصوا بوضع الكمامات أثناء الاجتماعات إلى أن يتم تطعيم الجميع.
واضافت بيلوسي في مؤتمر صحافي “من المؤسف أن عددا كبيرا من الأشخاص في الكونغرس رفضوا تلقي لقاح أو لا أعرف إذا كانوا قد تلقوا اللقاح ولا يريدون كشف ذلك”.
وكشف استطلاع لشبكة “سي ان ان” أن مئة بالمئة من الديموقراطيين في الكونغرس تلقوا لقاحات مقابل 45 بالمئة فقط من البرلمانيين الجمهوريين.
وقالت بيلوسي “علينا الانتظار حتى يتم تطعيمهم لأنهم يعرضون الآخرين للخطر بما في ذلك الطاقم هنا”. وأضافت “نتحمل مسؤولية التأكد من أن مجلس النواب ليس بؤرة” للفيروس “بسبب أنانية بعض الذين لا يريدون أن يتم تطعيمهم”.

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

The exacerbation of crises increases the hardship of life in the Gaza Strip

GAZA - (Xinhua) - Life crises are escalating in the Gaza Strip , which is inhabited by nearly two million people, day after day, in light of the worsening electricity crisis, the high rates of poverty and unemployment, and the dependence on international aid.


Officials and local residents complain that the Israeli blockade imposed on the narrow, overcrowded coastal strip since June 2007 is one of the main obstacles to economic recovery and revival.


Perhaps the power outage crisis is one of the crises that afflict the residents of the Strip with the onset of summer and the accompanying high temperatures, as electricity hours reach homes for about 6 hours and power cuts are cut off for more than 10 hours.


When the electricity went out in her small, asbestos-roofed house in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, Umm Hassan Awad hurried to carry a piece of plastic in her hand, hoping to bring the air current to her children sleeping around her in the yard of the house.


Umm Hassan, whose face is covered in sweat, complains that she cannot do her housework because of the power outage for long hours, as well as her children who complain of high temperatures.


Umm Hassan, while sitting with her husband and two children in the yard of their house, told Xinhua that the children sleep on the floor due to the high temperatures, and I cannot find an alternative to that in light of the long power outages.


The homes of the majority of the Gaza Strip's population turn into cemeteries in the summer, at a time when many Palestinian families flee to the seashore, as it is the only outlet in light of the disastrous situation.


Muhammad Thabet, spokesman for the Electricity Company in Gaza, told Xinhua that the deficit in the distribution schedule is the difference between the available electric current and the required one, pointing out that the company suffers in the summer from the demand for energy.


Thabet stated that the Gaza Strip needs 550 megawatts per day, and all that is available does not exceed 180 megawatts produced by the only power station in the strip or through transmission lines from the Israeli side.


Despite the intensification of the power outage crisis and its impact on climatic factors, the majority of the Gaza Strip population cannot rely on alternative energy sources, as they are very expensive in light of the difficult economic conditions.


In parallel, Mays al-Aqraa, in her mid-40s, was saddened by the fact that she lived in her small house in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, accompanied by her husband and 8 of her children, on one meal a day.


"My husband is unemployed, and he goes out daily with two of his children in search of scrap to sell in order to provide a living," Mais Al-Aqraa told Xinhua while preparing an egg meal for her children in her cramped kitchen.


Mays, who complains of the difficult situation and the bitterness of life, adds, "My adult children, no more than 12 years old, left school to work with their father because of the lack of home money."


Local officials say that food insecurity, which has reached more than 70 percent in the sector, especially among the most vulnerable groups in society, seriously warns of the reality of these groups, which are increasingly deteriorating in light of the rise in global prices.


Israel has imposed a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip for 15 years, and Israel launched 4 large-scale military operations, the latest of which was in May of last year, which caused the destruction of hundreds of residential homes and massive damage to the infrastructure.


Adnan Abu Hasna, media advisor at UNRWA, believes that the conditions in the Gaza Strip are "tragic, most of the population there are refugees, and 80% of them are below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate rose in the first quarter of this year to more than 50%, and poverty rates to 65%."


Abu Hasna told reporters in Gaza that the population depends almost entirely on humanitarian aid, and this situation has consequences on all psychological, social and economic levels.


In this regard, Salah Abd al-Ati, director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Gaza, said that the Palestinians live in a difficult environment, and many of them resort to emigration because they are unable to continue living under difficult circumstances.


Abdel Ati said in radio statements that the matter calls for urgent international intervention to lift the siege imposed on Gaza, end the division and restore national unity.

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

A citizen was killed and 3 others were injured in a traffic accident west of Hebron

Hebron - "Jerusalem" dot com - A 38-year-old citizen was killed and 3 others were injured, this evening, as a result of a self- driving accident on Wadi Al-Qaf Street, west of Hebron.


The media spokesman for the police, Colonel Louay Arziqat, said that the accident was caused by a vehicle overturning on the side of the road, which caused a number of citizens to be trampled on the side of the road, which resulted in 4 injuries that were taken to the hospital for treatment.


Irzeigat added that the doctors announced the death of one of the injured as a result of his serious injuries.


Arziqat explained that the police are making every effort to bring the driver of the vehicle, as he fled the moment the accident occurred, leaving his vehicle.

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Updated | President Discussed and Safadi: The truce in Gaza must include stopping the attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank

رام الله- “القدس” دوت كوم- أكد الرئيس محمود عباس، اليوم الثلاثاء، أن التهدئة في قطاع غزة يجب أن تشمل وقف اعتداءات إسرائيل في القدس والضفة الغربية.

جاء ذلك لدى استقباله في مدينة رام الله نائب رئيس الوزراء، وزير الخارجية الأردني أيمن الصفدي حاملاً رسالة “تضامن ودعم” من العاهل الأردني عبد الله الثاني.

وأعرب الرئيس عن التقدير لمواقف الأردن “الداعمة للقضية الفلسطينية على الصعد كافة”، مثمناً جهود عمّان بالتعاون مع الأشقاء العرب والإدارة الأمريكية والأطراف المعنية، لوقف العدوان على الشعب الفلسطيني.

وأطلع الرئيس عباس الصفدي على آخر مستجدات الأوضاع في الأراضي الفلسطينية، والاتصالات التي تجريها القيادة الفلسطينية مع الولايات المتحدة والأمم المتحدة والأطراف العربية والدولية ذات العلاقة لوقف العدوان الإسرائيلي “الذي ما زال قائماً في الضفة والقدس”.

وشدد الرئيس على ضرورة أن “تتكثف جهود إعادة إعمار ما دمره الاحتلال في قطاع غزة، وضرورة أن تشمل التهدئة التي يجري العمل عليها أيضاً وقف اعتداءات واقتحامات المستوطنين المتطرفين على المسجد الأقصى المبارك، وعلى أبناء شعبنا في الضفة”.

كما دعا إلى “احترام الوضع التاريخي، بما يشمل الوصاية الهاشمية على الأماكن المقدسة الإسلامية والمسيحية في القدس الشريف”.

وفيما يتعلق بالحوار الوطني الفلسطيني، جدد الرئيس التأكيد على استعداد القيادة الفلسطينية لمواصلة الحوار الفلسطيني لتشكيل حكومة وحدة وطنية “تكون ملتزمة بالشرعية الدولية”.

وتطرق عباس إلى العملية السياسية، مؤكداً ضرورة الانتقال بعد تثبيت التهدئة، إلى مرحلة البدء العاجل بمسار سياسي تحت إشراف اللجنة الرباعية الدولية “ينهي الاحتلال الإسرائيلي عن شعبنا وأرضنا، ويؤدي إلى نيل الشعب الفلسطيني حريته واستقلاله في دولة ذات السيادة بعاصمتها القدس الشرقية، على أساس قرارات الشرعية الدولية”.

بدوره، قال الصفدي إن زيارته إلى رام الله تأتي بتكليف من الملك عبدالله الثاني لـ”إيصال رسالة دعم واستعداد دائم لتنسيق الجهود من أجل وقف العدوان الاسرائيلي على الشعب الفلسطيني في القدس والمقدسات”.

وأكد الصفدي أهمية تحقيق التهدئة لتشمل الضفة وغزة والعمل على إعادة الاعمار في قطاع غزة والاسراع بالانتقال لحل سياسي وفق قرارات الشرعية الدولية يؤدي إلى إنهاء الاحتلال وتجسيد الدولة الفلسطينية المستقلة وعاصمتها القدس الشرقية.

ودعا إلى تحقيق التهدئة لتشمل الضفة الغربية وغزة، والانتقال إلى حل سياسي للقضية الفلسطينية.

من جانبه، قال وزير الخارجية وشؤون المغتربين رياض المالكي خلال مؤتمر صحافي مع الصفدي: “تحدثنا خلال اللقاء عن أهمية هذه المرحلة وضرورة استكمال التنسيق الأردني الفلسطيني الذي نعتبره مهم، وكان الحديث ليس فقط في تثبيت التهدئة إنما في تهدئة دائمة تشمل القدس الشرقية والضفة الغربية كما قطاع غزة”.

وتابع: “نوقش خلال الاجتماع إعادة إعمار قطاع غزة، والذي يجب أن يكون جزءا أصيلا من خطة أكبر تشمل الحديث عن مسار سياسي يخرجنا من هذا الوضع المستمر منذ سنوات إلى أفق سياسي يسمح بالعودة إلى المفاوضات، وفق المرجعيات الدولية تفضي إلى إنهاء الاحتلال”.

ودعا المالكي إلى استمرار الحراك السياسي ليس بين الأردن وفلسطين فقط، وإنما على المستوى العربي والإسلامي والإقليمي والدولي، ومحاولة ترجمة الزخم الدولي الحالي من أجل إيجاد حل سياسي لهذا الوضع، وإنهاء معاناة الشعب الفلسطيني، وتجسيد دولته وعاصمتها القدس الشرقية.

من جانبه، قال الصفدي: “الرسالة التي نقلتها من الملك عبد الله الثاني إلى الرئيس محمود عباس أكدت على الموقف التاريخي للملكة الأردنية الهاشمية بالوقوف إلى جانب الشعب الفلسطيني، وبذل كل جهد ممكن حتى إقامة دولته المستقلة على كامل التراب، وفق قرارات الشرعية الدولية ومبادرة السلام العربية”.

وأضاف: “لا يتوقف العدوان الإسرائيلي على الشعب الفلسطيني إلا بوقف كافة الاجراءات التي فجرته في مدينة القدس، ووقف الخطة الإسرائيلية لترحيل المقدسيين من حي الشيخ جراح، وحي سلوان، فيما تشكل المدينة المقدسية أهمية قصوى للوصي على المقدسات الملك عبد الله الثاني”.

وأوضح الصفدي: “الطريق للوصول إلى هدنة دائما تأتي عبر إيجاد أفق سياسي من أجل حل الصراع وإقامة الدولة الفلسطينية المستقلة وعاصمتها القدس الشرقية، ويسعى الأردن للعمل على عدم تكرار العدوان الإسرائيلي والحفاظ على التهدئة عبر معالجة الأسباب التي أدت إلى ذلك”.

وأشار إلى أن “اللقاء بحث أيضا الزيارة التي سيقوم بها وزير الخارجية الأميركي إلى فلسطين اليوم، وإلى الأردن يوم غدٍ، حيث نرى بأن موقف الإدارة الأميركية الجديدة من الاستيطان وترحيل السكان وفرص تحقيق السلام إيجابي ويمكن البناء عليه، وبالتالي علينا البحث عن كيفية الانتقال من الموقف إلى الفعل لإيجاد مفاوضات جادة تقود إلى حل الدولتين”.

ولفت الصفدي إلى أن التنسيق بين الأردن وفلسطين مستمر، فيما أن الرسالة إلى العالم بأنه لا يمكن القفز فوق القضية الفلسطينية، كما لا يمكن تحقيق السلام الشامل والدائم في المنطقة قبل حل عادل للقضية الفلسطينية.

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

The occupation transfers ownership of large areas of Jerusalem to its favour

Jerusalem - "Jerusalem" dot com - Muhammad Abu Khudair - The head of the Maps Department, settlement expert Khalil al-Tafakji, revealed that the Israeli Land and Settlement Department had secretly transferred the ownership of a large area of the lands of Abu Dis, Ras al-Amud and al-Sawahra to the benefit of the occupying state and from there to associations settlements, including (Ateret Cohanim), in order to build a huge settlement neighborhood under the name (Kedmat Zion).


Al-Tafakji told Al-Quds.com that the issue has its roots in old allegations and an unproven story promoted by the occupation, about the purchase by a group of Jewish refugees at the beginning of the last century of a large area of land in Abu Dis, Al-Sawahra and Ras Al-Amud.


He added: The Israeli Ministry of Justice announced that it had completed secret procedures for the temporary transfer of ownership of the land to the “state”, through information provided by investigators whose services were hired by the “Custodian of Absentee Property” about the purchase of land by Jews at the beginning of the last century who recently obtained approval from the Central Court to transfer ownership to the Jewish Association.


These associations claimed that in the year 1924 the formation of “Faad HaShekhnim” (Population Committee), its chairman was Joshua Avizohr Senglopsky (his brother is the founder of the ORT company), and the association’s secretary was (Jacob Yehoshua Dement) with the aim of buying land and establishing a neighborhood for a religious Jewish group, and that they headed to the south East Jerusalem - the town of Abu Dis, in 1927, and 453 dunums were purchased. Construction was scheduled to start in 1930, but the events of the Al-Buraq Revolution in 1929 prevented this from happening, and construction has not been completed since then, due to the difficulties of defending it, and the construction in a Jewish geographical contiguity only. . Because of the outbreak of the revolution in 1936 and due to administrative problems in the association, all activities stopped completely.


The settlement association claimed that it was able to complete the registration of 371 dunums in the Tabu from the British Mandate records, and 82 dunums remained unregistered despite the completion of its purchase, as it claimed. Most of these lands remained in the year 1967, and after the construction of the separation wall and Israel's demarcation of the borders of occupied East Jerusalem, outside the borders, 60 dunums of 400 dunums of them remained inside the separation wall that was built in 2003 on the Israeli side. And the lands that were registered in the Jordanian registry - (enemy property). She moved to the general trustee in the Ministry of Justice in Israel.


Al-Tafakji pointed out that the local Committee for Planning and Building had previously approved a settlement outpost project on an area of 100 dunums. This plan came during the era of the former mayor of the occupation, "Ehud Olmert", and the plan stipulates the establishment of 230 settlement units, and the number has been raised today to 600 settlement units for the settlement of the "Ateret" settlement association. Kohnim," stressing that the settlers seized two Palestinian homes and settled 6 settler families in them.


Tafakji said that after the construction of the separation wall, the settlement godfather, Arvin Moskowitz, claimed in 2004 to buy two Arab houses in which 10 Jewish families lived. The families (Altmann, Nvon and Horwich, Revelin, Goldberg and Gnut) live in large homes with their 23 children.


He added that the plot claimed by the investigators of the "Absentee Property Department" belongs to Jewish families with an area of 16 dunums and is called Bir al-Sunna. It is one of the sites that were announced under settlement work - under Basin No. 31735 - from the lands of Abu Dis, as it has become registered in the Land Registry in the names of settlement associations. .


He explained that an association affiliated with the "One Hundred Shearim" settlement neighborhood also claims that it bought the same land in 1850 to house the homeless Jewish families at that time, and registered the land in the name of Rabbi "Zvi Pesach Frank", and some of this land was transferred over the years to the Israeli "Jen Kempt Fund", and after The Nakba of 1948. The land was managed by the "Custodian of Enemy's Property." After the 1967 war, these lands were transferred to the public domain owner. Some landowners and their heirs were found, according to their claim.


Al-Tafakji said that Moskowitz found in Olmert’s presidency of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem what he needed, an open door and a listening ear, and Olmert pushed the plan forward, and the local planning committee approved the plan, but even months ago it was stuck in the district committee for planning and building with an unofficial government objection, waving On the horizon is a modified plan for the construction of more than 600 settlement units, a school, a synagogue, public institutions, and a park.


Al-Tafakji confirmed that these lands are located within ponds and land with fixed ownership in the land registry in the names of Jerusalemite families such as Ghosheh, the Al-Hassan family, and others.


He said that the occupation turned the Cliff Hotel into a center and base for the border guards, under the pretext that the hotel is "absentee property," which belongs to the Ayyad family from Abu Dis.


Israeli investigators claimed before the Land Department / Land Settlement in the year 2021 that this area, which is called Area A, is owned by Jews. Ateret Cohanim,” stressing that the “Custodian of Absentee Property” is also working to find similar lands in the villages of East Jerusalem.

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns the forms of terrorism practiced by the occupying power

Ramallah - "Al Quds" dot com - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned all forms of organized state terrorism practiced by the occupying state and its various arms on a daily basis in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, from intimidation and collective punishment of defenseless Palestinian citizens who are safe in their homes, and terrorism Settler militias, organizations and armed elements.


The Foreign Ministry said in a statement, today, Thursday, that the escalation of the occupation is one of its crimes in the Holy City, its neighborhoods and its old town, and the suppression of citizens in Issawiya, Silwan, Wadi al-Joz, Al-Sawana, Beit Hanina, Sur Baher, Jabal Al-Mukaber and others, and the continuation of its unjust siege of Shuafat camp and the town of Anata, and its abuse of citizens for the sixth day in a row under False pretexts and pretexts, mainly aimed at displacing Palestinian citizens and emptying the Holy City of its original inhabitants to complete its Judaization and familyization, and to exclude the political nature of the conflict and internationally recognized political solutions and replace them with military obsession and security solutions away from the peace process and negotiations, and away from international law and resolutions of international legitimacy.


The Foreign Ministry added that the continuation of the occupation forces in their bloody incursions into Palestinian cities, villages, towns and camps, and the closure of main roads with dirt berms in many Palestinian areas, as is the case in Nablus, Hebron and its old town, and the unleashing of settler militias and their terrorist elements armed with the protection, support and supervision of the occupation forces, is an episode in a series of operations. Ethnic cleansing, attempting to abolish the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and all areas classified (C), and undermining any opportunity to embody the Palestinian state on the ground and replace it with a hateful apartheid regime in occupied Palestine.


She emphasized that the current Israeli escalation is a systematic and deliberate policy to cover up the occupation's loss of control over the Palestinian citizens and its loss of any legitimacy for its existence and continuation in the land of the State of Palestine. Palestinian territories by force.


The Ministry held the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for the repercussions of its deliberate and dangerous escalation of the situation, and its attempt to impose formulas of coexistence with occupation and settlement on Palestinian citizens as an alternative to the historical solution to the conflict based on international legitimacy resolutions, and called on it to immediately stop its criminal policies and practices aimed at punishing our people collectively, and causing Unlimited suffering with the aim of displacing him from his home and land.


It called on the international community, and the US administration in particular, to assume its responsibilities in curbing the Israeli incursion into our people and forcing the occupying state to stop its attacks on Palestinian citizens.

ECONOMY

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

117.9 million euros grant from the European Union for the water and energy sectors in Egypt

CAIRO, (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation announced today (Thursday) that the European Union will provide 117.9 million euros in grants to support the budget of the water and energy sectors.


The Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, said in a statement that the grant comes within the framework of strategic relations and continuous cooperation between Egypt and the European Union, with the aim of supporting the country's development plans and priorities through effective development cooperation, strengthening efforts to transition to a green economy and implementing environmentally friendly projects, especially as Egypt is preparing to host a conference. UN Climate COP27 next November.


Al-Mashat added that the new grant comes within the framework of Egypt's commitment to consolidating international cooperation and development financing mechanisms, enabling it to achieve national visions and goals to reach comprehensive and sustainable economic growth, accelerate the transition towards a green economy, enhance competitiveness, increase growth rates, and stimulate the role of the private sector in development. .


She explained that the water and energy sectors in Egypt are given a high priority by the government because of their importance in maintaining economic growth rates and promoting sustainable development, noting that international partnerships have contributed to financing many vital projects in this field.


She noted that the energy sector has been witnessing a great development for eight years, as Egypt has succeeded through the major national projects that have been implemented from turning into an energy deficit into a surplus that is exported to other countries, and that it is moving forward in expanding renewable energy projects from its various sources, whether wind energy. Or solar energy, and also expanding green hydrogen generation.


The current cooperation portfolio between Egypt and the European Union amounts to about 1.35 billion euros in grants to support several sectors, including transport, water, agriculture, small and medium enterprises, sustainable energy, the environment, social protection, strengthening stability and governance, capacity building and civil society, in addition to Egypt benefiting from many European initiatives and cooperation programs. regional.

ARAB AND WORLD

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Burma condemns the Court of Justice's insistence on hearing the issue of the Rohingya genocide

Rangoon (AFP) - Burma 's ruling military junta on Saturday expressed its disappointment over the decision of the United Nations' highest court to give the go-ahead to proceed with a case linked to allegations of genocide against members of the Rohingya Muslim minority.


On Friday, the International Court of Justice in The Hague rejected all Burma's objections to a case brought by the West African Republic of The Gambia in 2019.


The decision paves the way for full court hearings on charges related to the bloody 2017 security crackdown carried out by Buddhist-majority Burma's authorities against the Rohingya.


"Burma is disappointed that its initial protests were rejected," said a statement on the Foreign Ministry's Facebook page.


He added that the military council saw that its objections were legally strong, noting that a judge had expressed an opposing opinion on one issue.


In its protest, Burma insisted that the court does not have jurisdiction that gives it the right to hear the case, and that it should dismiss the case in the early stages of the case.


Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled the Southeast Asian country five years ago, amid horrific reports of killings, rape and burnings.


Gambia, which is predominantly Muslim, has filed a lawsuit arguing that Burma's treatment of the Rohingya is in breach of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.


About 850,000 Rohingya remain in refugee camps in Bangladesh.


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared in March that the Burmese army's violence against the Rohingya amounted to genocide.

ARAB AND WORLD

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Trump paid $1 million in taxes while in office and paid nothing in 2020

Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump paid $1.1 million in federal taxes over two of his four years as president, according to a report reviewed by lawmakers Wednesday.


The Republican paid $750 in 2017 and $1 million in 2018 and 2019, and nothing in 2020, the year in which his losses increased and he lost the presidential election in the face of Democrat Joe Biden.


The figures, published late Tuesday in a report by a parliamentary committee, show that the 76-year-old billionaire suffered significant losses from 2015 to 2020.


However, his revenues rose dramatically in 2018 and 2019, prompting more speculation about the size of his wealth as Congress prepares to release his tax records.


The former reality TV star recorded capital gains from asset sales of $22 billion in 2018 and nine billion the following year.


But he lost about $65 million during his presidential campaign in 2015 and 2016 and about $13 million during his first year in office.


In the year 2020, his profits were estimated at only about five billion dollars.


Lawmakers voted Tuesday to release the tax records of the former president, who led a multi-year legal battle to keep them secret.


"Trump reported tens of millions of dollars in losses and credits without (providing) any kind of justification that the average taxpayer would provide," Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett said in a statement.


And a separate parliamentary report on the US Tax Agency showed that the latter did not do what it should have done for almost all of Donald Trump's term.


According to the text of the report, "the IRS only conducted one mandatory review from 2017 to 2020, regarding records submitted while the former president was in office."


The IRS began auditing Trump on the same day that the Democrats on the committee asked for information about his 2019 taxes.

ARAB AND WORLD

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Myanmar.. Detention of a former British ambassador in Rangoon

Rangoon - (AFP) - The Burmese authorities are detaining the former British ambassador to Burma, Vicki Bowman, a diplomatic source told AFP Thursday.


Vicki Bowman, who was her country's ambassador to Burma between 2002 and 2006, was arrested on Wednesday in Rangoon, the country's economic capital, which has been witnessing violent conflict since the February 1, 2021 coup, according to this source, who asked not to be identified.


Prior to assuming this position, Bowman was a Diplomat with the rank of Second Secretary at the British Embassy from 1990 to 1993.


"We are concerned about the detention of a British woman in Myanmar ," a British embassy spokesman told AFP. "We are in contact with the local authorities and providing consular assistance," he added.


The diplomatic source said that Boman's husband, the well-known artist Htin Lin, was also detained. Local media reported that Bowman and her husband have been transferred to Insein Prison in Rangoon and will be charged with immigration violations.


The law stipulates a five-year prison sentence for each such charge.


A spokesman for the military group did not respond to AFP's requests for comment.


Bowman is a manager at the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business and is fluent in Burmese.


Htin Lin was arrested in 1998 and imprisoned on charges of opposing the ruling military council at the time. After his release in 2004, he caught the attention of then-Ambassador Bowman through a series of paintings he made while in prison using contraband.



She persuaded him to let her take the paintings for his own safety, and they married in 2006.


Relations between the UK and Burma have been tense since the 2021 coup.


Earlier this year, the military council criticized Britain's recent downgrade of its mission level in the country, describing the decision as "unacceptable".


The British government imposed sanctions on many companies and individuals associated with the military in the aftermath of the military takeover.

ARAB AND WORLD

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Aleppo International Airport returns to service after an Israeli strike

Aleppo International Airport returned to service on Friday morning, three days after an Israeli strike hit the runway, according to an official in the Syrian Ministry of Transport, told AFP.


Since the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and neighboring Turkey on February 6, Aleppo International Airport has been used as a major station for planes transporting humanitarian aid that flowed into Syria from several countries to provide relief to the affected areas.


Following the Israeli strike at midnight Monday-Tuesday, which affected the landing strip, relief aid planes and other flights were diverted to Damascus and Latakia airports in the west of the country.


"The airport has been operating since eight o'clock in the morning and is ready for any landing after we have repaired all the damage," Suleiman Khalil, official of readiness at the Ministry of Transport, told AFP.


A source at the airport, in turn, stated that there are no flights on the airport's schedule on Friday, despite its return to service, indicating that the first flight is supposed to arrive on Saturday.


The Syrian Ministry of Defense had reported that the airport had been hit by an Israeli strike that put it out of service, but without announcing any deaths.


The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that three people, including a Syrian officer, were killed in an Israeli missile that landed near the airport.


Suleiman Khalil told AFP on Tuesday that Aleppo airport had received more than 80 aid planes after the earthquake.
The UN Resident and Acting Humanitarian Coordinator, Sura Al-Mustafa Benmelh, said in a statement that the airport's closure as a result of the raid "caused an impediment to the arrival of humanitarian aid and could have dire humanitarian consequences for the people affected by the earthquake."


Over the past years, Israeli strikes targeted Aleppo International Airport several times, putting it out of service last September for several days.


This is the second time that Israeli strikes targeted areas in Syria after the earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in Syria and Turkey, including about 6,000 in Syria.


On February 19, 15 people were killed in an Israeli bombing that targeted a residential neighborhood in Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.


Over the past years, Israel launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria, targeting Syrian army sites and Iranian and Hezbollah targets, including weapons and ammunition depots in separate areas.


Israel rarely confirms the implementation of strikes in Syria, but it repeats that it will continue to confront what it describes as Iran's attempts to consolidate its military presence in Syria.


Syria has been witnessing a bloody conflict since 2011, which has killed about half a million people, caused massive damage to infrastructure, and led to the displacement of millions of people inside and outside the country.

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Agenda for Biden's visit to "Israel" and the region

Translation by "Jerusalem" dot com - Today, Sunday, the Hebrew website Ynet published the agenda for US President Joe Biden's visit to Israel , which is scheduled to begin next Wednesday.


And the American presidential plane will land at Lod Airport, "Ben Gurion" at 3:30 in the afternoon, occupied Jerusalem time, as this will be his tenth visit to Israel, and his first as president, after he visited it for the first time in 50 years as a young senator, during which he met Golda Meir, and since At that time he met every Israeli prime minister.


This will be the twelfth visit of an American president to Israel.


Biden will arrive without his wife, but accompanied by a large entourage, and hundreds of hotel rooms have been rented in Jerusalem, and a separate plane with 120 journalists on board will arrive with him to cover the visit. and Prime Minister Yair Lapid, and an Israeli honor guard, as mentioned by the Hebrew site.


A senior Israeli official said that Biden is coming to Israel to coordinate positions with officials because there is a clear belief that the nuclear agreement has collapsed, and his arrival will be accompanied by a strategic dialogue of a kind that has not been the case and has not happened for many years.


After the ceremony at Lod airport, Biden will go with his accompanying delegation to the Palmachim military air base, accompanied by Lapid, and he will be received by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, where he will give him an overview of air defense systems, including the world's first new "laser" interception system. Drones and missiles.


He will later go to Jerusalem, to attend a ceremony at the "Yad Vashem" museum and meet two survivors of the so-called "Holocaust". Then he will meet Thursday morning with Lapid in a hotel in Jerusalem, then meet with the Israeli government, and later go to the Israeli presidential house with an official reception.


It is not yet known whether he will meet Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu at the presidential residence, or at the hotel where he will stay after the reception. He will also meet with Israeli and American athletes.


The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the visit plan is still in preparation and the best short timetable is being drafted due to the hot weather, in light of the American fear that the hot weather will harm US President Joe Biden.


On Friday morning, Biden will go to a Palestinian hospital east of Jerusalem, then to Bethlehem to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and later he will leave for Saudi Arabia .

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

1,500 Palestinian security personnel were deployed to Bethlehem during Biden's visit

Bethlehem - "Jerusalem" dot com - Najeeb Farraj - The spokesman for the Palestinian police, Colonel Louay Ireziqat, stated that 1,500 Palestinian security men will participate in securing the visit of US President Joe Biden to the city of Bethlehem, including 600 Palestinian policemen.


Erziqat stressed that police and security measures will be taken, such as closing some streets through which the convoy passes, preventing parking in these streets, and preventing tourist movement in the Nativity Square and Church throughout the visit and limiting it to visiting tourist places in the city of Beit Sahour.


Palestinian activists published in the streets of the city of Bethlehem pictures of the late colleague Sherine Abu Aqelah, screens and banners confirming the racism of Israel.


For his part, Muhammad al-Masri, secretary of the Fatah movement in Bethlehem, who participated in the reception of President Mahmoud Abbas upon his arrival in the city this Thursday evening, said that all the personalities in the governorate who received the president put before him and Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh the same vision, to the effect that the visit was sidelined. The Palestinian side is clearly a visit in favor of Israel, and Badin dealt with the Israeli side as a bridge, nothing more, nothing less.


Al-Masri added, in an interview with Al-Quds correspondent, "Many issues need to be discussed with the American side, including the issue of the martyr Sherine Abu Aqelah, and the issue of those deported from the Church of the Nativity."


Al-Masri added, "Despite the great rejection of the American position, the Palestinian side does not have the right to receive it in order to preserve international protocols, and this does not prevent us from presenting our position clearly to it."




PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Arab Journalists: The American report on the assassination of Abu Aqleh is biased towards Israel

Cairo - "Al Quds" dot com - The General Federation of Arab Journalists rejected the report of the American experts regarding the examination of the bullet that killed the martyred journalist , Sherine Abu Aqelah .

The union said in a statement today, Wednesday, that it is an unprofessional report, and it is a political and security report that is biased towards Israel.


Union President Moayad Al-Lami said that this biased report towards Israel aims to evade holding Israel responsible for targeting Abu Aqelah and her deliberate assassination. by the Israeli occupation.



Al-Lami expressed the solidarity of the General Federation of Arab Journalists with full force with Palestinian journalists in taking all measures to bring the perpetrators to the International Criminal Court, especially against the leadership of the Israeli occupation army, calling on all Arab and international media institutions to continue their efforts in order to achieve justice for the martyr Abu Aqelah and not to impunity for the perpetrators. He stressed that the Federation renews its demand for an impartial and transparent international investigation.


In the context, the Kuwaiti Journalists Association affirmed its absolute support for the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, regarding the report issued by the Palestinian Attorney General in the case of the assassination of the martyr Sherine Abu Aqelah, the United Nations report, reports issued by prominent American media institutions, and eyewitnesses who confirmed the killing of the martyr Abu Aqelah at the hands of the occupation soldiers. Israeli.


In a statement, the association called on the international community to continue its efforts to achieve justice, stop impunity for criminals, and protect fellow Palestinian journalists to play their role and perform their work in covering events in the occupied territories.

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

During his visit by the lawyer, the striking prisoner, Raed Rayan, recounts the details of his health condition and that of Awadeh

Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - The striking prisoner, Raed Rayan , told the lawyer of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs, Fawaz Al-Shaludi, after visiting him in the so-called "Ramle Prison" clinic, the details of his health after 103 days of his open hunger strike, indicating that he was suffering From blurred vision, severe pain in the head and joints, constant emaciation and fatigue, he can only sleep for very short periods and feels that he wants to vomit.


Rayan added that he had recently been suffering from heat in his body, especially in the hands and stomach, and the doctor supervising his condition informed him that his body had begun to erode as a result of the long period of his strike.


The prisoner, Rayan, explained to Shalodi the tragic details that his fellow hunger striker, Khalil Awadeh , is also going through. He continues his strike for the 16th day, and had previously suspended it after 111 days based on promises of his release, but the occupation reneged on the promises and issued a new administrative detention order for a period of 6 months, which prompted him. To resume his strike, pointing out that Awadeh's health condition is deteriorating rapidly and he suffers from a severe drop in blood sugar, and he is frequently transferred to Assaf Harofeh Hospital.


It is noteworthy that the prisoner, Rayan (28 years), from the town of Beit Duqqu / Jerusalem, has been detained since 11/3/2021, and an administrative detention order was issued against him for a period of six months, and the order was renewed for him for the second time for a period of 6 months, and he is a former detainee who spent nearly 21 months in captivity. Administrative detention, and the prisoner Awawda (40 years) from the town of Ithna / Hebron has been detained since 12/27/2021, and the occupation issued an administrative detention order against him for a period of six months, and his detention order was renewed for the second time for a period of four months, and he is married and the father of four children, and a former prisoner He spent years in occupation prisons.

ARAB AND WORLD

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Two Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli bombing of Damascus

Damascus - "Al Quds" dot com - Two Syrian soldiers were killed, after midnight, as a result of an Israeli bombardment targeting Damascus International Airport and its surroundings.


According to an official Syrian military source - as reported by the official Syrian news agency SANA - the Israeli army carried out an air aggression at dawn with bursts of missiles launched from the northeastern direction of Lake Kinneret, targeting Damascus International Airport and its surroundings.


The source pointed out that the bombing killed two soldiers and wounded others, pointing to material damage and the failure of Damascus International Airport.

ECONOMY

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

As part of its campaign "Your next step is bigger".. The Housing Bank announces the winners of the savings account prizes for the month of September

Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - The Housing Bank in Palestine announced the results of the draw on the "monthly prizes" for the savings account prizes for the month of September, with a value of 100,000 shekels for one winner, which was won by Dawood Mahmoud Daoud Mahajneh from the Jenin branch, in addition to Weekly prizes of 10,000 shekels each were won in the first week by Rama Abdel Rahim Mahmoud Jouri for the benefit of Raafat Ghaleb Salim Jouri from the Nablus branch, in the second week by Nabil Jeries Suleiman Musleh from the Bethlehem branch, and in the third week by Nadia Rajeh Muhammad Khalaf for the benefit of Jad Shahlan Al-Asmar from Jenin branch.


The monthly savings account prize campaigns launched by the Housing Bank come in order to ensure continuous communication with its customers, who chose it to be their first and preferred bank and put their trust in it due to the comprehensive and distinguished banking services it provides to them.


These awards also express the extent of the bank’s appreciation for its saving customers, despite the difficult financial and health conditions and the economic slowdown globally and locally. New savings accounts at any of the bank's branches and give them great chances to win one or more of the many prizes offered by the bank to the holders of these accounts.


On this occasion, it is mentioned that the total cash prizes offered by the Housing Bank in Palestine for savings accounts for the year 2022 amount to 2,320,000 shekels for 56 winners, noting that the campaign is based on providing 100,000 shekels per month to one winner, and the value of the prize increases in the month of June to reach 250,000 shekels for one winner. One, then the prize will be doubled at the end of the year to one million shekels for one winner.


During the campaign, the bank will also present additional prizes of 30,000 shekels per week distributed to three winners of 10,000 shekels for each winner, in addition to distributing 50,000 shekels to ten winners in the month of June, at the rate of 5,000 shekels for each winner, and 50,000 shekels to ten winners in the month of December, at the rate of 5,000 shekels for each. winner.


During this campaign, which continues throughout the year, the Housing Bank will announce through various advertising means, its website and social media platforms the winners of its distinguished prizes.


The Housing Bank allows existing and new customers wishing to participate in this campaign to open savings accounts in any of the bank's branches spread across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and allows customers who have existing accounts with the bank to transfer from their other accounts to their own savings account through the "ISKAN" mobile application. Mobile" or "Iskan Online".

OPINIONS

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Jerusalem declares its disobedience...


Written by: Younis Al-Amouri


It is the city of sorrows, the mother of cities, and the gate of ascension towards the sky since it was, and it was obsessed with its history, and it had to gather in its folds the contradictions of man and the struggle of the poles of evil with the humanity of action for life. Humanity and quarantine through a scheme to erase its history and existence Al-Qahtani, as it has been an Adnan affiliation since it was.


In Jerusalem, and those in Jerusalem today get lost in a sea of questions about fate in light of the intensification of the Hebrew onslaught, and tents multiply on the margins of its hillocks, and the question remains unanswered about fate in light of wandering and loss. The apostate from the walls of the times of apostasy gets lost in the noise of speech….


Between condemnation and condemnation, denunciation and denunciation, and everyone competes with eloquent words to act out the threat, and everyone sings about his night, and the night of Jerusalem is black this time, and a child tries to roar in my old dialogues to practice his self-act in the sheen of wandering and confusion... As is the carnival of death, Al-Maqdisi dances sarcastically over scenes of rape Mother of cities….


And the cities of Canaan respond to the call as much as they can, the way of the masters of the tribes and the princes of determination, linkage and dissolution at the defining moment of issuing the decision issued by the Sublime Porte, in an attempt to thwart the huge noise around, which will inevitably be subject to detailed calculations and measures of profit and loss accounts between the princes of the current reality, as it is All things are subject to the logic of satisfaction and compromise between the players and the Joker, the game has become known and exposed.


In Jerusalem there is another story whose heroes are different and the action in it is different, and the master of the situation in it is heavily armed and in the fiercest forms of hatred against its Arabism, its people and its stone. With all expressions of affirmation and emphasis on the absolute right to the capital of Palestine.


Jerusalem is undoubtedly outside the context, and outside the action programmed by everyone who claims to sit on the throne of the national movement in all its aspects, and to preserve the Jerusalemite identity requires Jerusalemites to work with determination to remain Jerusalemites despite everything that would create impossible conditions for living, so what was The occupation authorities turned a blind eye to the cancerous growth of a neighborhood theoretically called Jerusalem in the form of cement forests that formed random enclaves out of control. It is absurd and random. Jerusalemites live in its dialogues, trying to live if that was possible. Shuafat, Anata and the neighborhood camps, and those names have become Ras Shehadeh and Ras Khamis and Kufr after the temporary safe haven, so that Al-Maqdisi will remain Al-Maqdisi, even for a while.


Jerusalem has speech, and the practice of speech has its origins and has its perceptions and starting points, and every word or point and even the cessation of permissible speech is literal and committed, serving those who want to cross to other places, or achieve a desire to prevail and become a vocal phenomenon and a contractor among the contractors of rhetorical festivals, and from He does not know, let him know that there are many who know where the shoulder is eaten from and how to eat it...


Killings, beatings, demolitions, and fear infiltrate against our will the streets of Jerusalem, which have become a hotbed of ghosts, arrests and raids on institutions that try to speak the language of antiquity, besieging homes and terrorizing the safe house in the Al-Bustan neighborhood next to the temples of God. And the loudspeaker and Beit Hanina... And arrests at dawn, and chasing those who pray at the demolition stones, and the temple has become empty of shepherds, and infidelity has become dominant in the public scene...


And the heavily armed has become the one who controls the state of love today in all places, and we no longer distinguish much between Judas in the streets of Jerusalem and that infiltrating the dreams of virgins in the house... Everything became permissible and there were no longer taboos, so after the scene became natural, the blood spilled is one, and the demolished house is also one. The state of displacement is the same, and betrayal has become a point of view, and it contains a lot of rhetoric. It is possible to resist the resister, and it is possible to meet the murderer. What is the difference then..??


Meeting and begging from the poor of the country to return to reason, practice dialogue and resolve differences, and there is no life for whom you call if you call alive, and madness has become an adjective adjacent to the practice of good governance, and intimidation and threat have become the act accompanying the masters of the new era who are now sitting in the capital of a million martyrs in an attempt by them as they claim to be They will reconcile, and reconciliation here is related to buying and selling trade....


And in Jerusalem, those in Jerusalem are trying to exercise their steadfastness on a land that is said to be holy and sanctified, and its sanctity has affected all other aspects, and there is no sanctity today for anything. The occupation, and the master of the resistance, proves that it is the most capable of establishing a truce and appeasement with the other through the equation of conflict, and it cannot accept to practice the art of truce with those who are supposed to be the partner in the homeland, if we accept the formula of the homeland and the citizen, the plurality of understanding, the eloquent speech, the practice of thought and freedom of expression….


Jerusalem was on a date, and every day it has many appointments with the agenda of the silent, soft, rolling aggression to impose a fait accompli, and the camera is the master of positions, the maker of paper heroes.


They came at night and screamed and unleashed dogs that knew the language of verbal speech and the practice of the same act, and they proceeded with the actual contracting process for the real demolition of a house that housed those who house beauties and men who could have been in the arms of those they love, and of a child who might be dreaming of a butterfly landing on the window of his room and flaunting its colors... and what was there Distinguished gentlemen, however, they expressed their deep regret and anger at the demolition of the house in the heart of Jerusalem, considering that the demolition and settlement operations in Jerusalem destroy peace, and may destroy the calm and truce that we are keen on with eyelashes, and constitute a violation of the settlement and peace-making conferences, and they called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop this Condemned provocative policies, which impede reaching any peaceful settlement agreement and may impede the extension of the armistice and calm, and God spares the believers the evil of fighting, and the demolition, gentlemen and honorable ones, continues in all parts of the city, and the sit-in tents have become normal in the Jerusalemite scene, one in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and the other in Silwan And the third is in Shuafat, and the fourth is in the Mount of Olives.

In these tents, the lovers of the house gather and sit in them to express their rejection of these policies... The sit-in may move to all the neighborhoods of Jerusalem, so that the scene becomes normal.... Victims know each other and act in broad daylight...


There is no doubt that Jerusalem, in my opinion, has a lot of words, and the word Jerusalem has become a necessity these days, and its saying cannot be correct without a loud cry that shakes the corners of the globe through the actions of the people of Jerusalem themselves... Do not count on the leaders of the regime and the regimes, as support will not come to you, as the roads are closed and only you will speak your name, and it will not be You have a platform other than your sit-in tents... and the bulldozers will not stop demolishing.... Declare your disobedience and begin to protect your sleeping quarters. Declare your revolution against the injustice of your relatives first…. Speak the words of Jerusalem, openly and clearly, and begin an act of disobedience that would stop the massacre of expulsion and transfer from Jerusalem, and let the year be a year of civil disobedience in Jerusalem and in all directions.

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

The call to prayer in Turkey... a religious aspect that combines art and politics

Edirne - (AFP) - On a summer day, five muezzins compete inside the old mosque, whose construction was completed in 1414, in the Turkish city of Edirne, to reach the finals of a competition for the best muezzin, in a country where the call to prayer sometimes takes on a political dimension.


One of the competitors, dressed in black and wearing a white turban, approaches the radio and slowly pronounces the takbeer while placing his hands on his ears while fixing his elbows to perform the prayer in the historic mosque.


The jury members take notes while sitting in front of the nominees. From the center of the mosque, Mufti Altin Bozkurt, who represents the highest religious authority in the region, announces after about an hour the name of the muezzin who performed the best.


The winner, Abdullah Omar Erdogan, 25, told AFP, "I started performing the call to prayer when I was ten years old, during summer lessons that were offered by the mosque," indicating that he paid attention to the health of his vocal cords by not exposure to cold, drinking lukewarm water, and avoiding some sleeping positions. .


And if he manages to win the next stage of the competition to be organized at the end of July, the young muezzin who wears an orthodontic device and enjoys a trimmed beard will participate in the awaited national competition on August 17, which dedicates the most beautiful voice of a muezzin among the hundreds who participated in the competitions. Across the country it has been launched since the beginning of June.


In April, two Turkish muezzins, one of whom was praying in the ancient city of Edirne, won the first and second places in a similar competition broadcast on television and organized in Saudi Arabia with the participation of muezzins from 80 countries.


In a video clip posted by the winner the day after the announcement of the results of the competition, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears congratulating the winner, telling him, "May God protect you."


Since he came to power in 2003, initially as prime minister, some 15,000 new mosques have been built across Turkey, one of which is in Istanbul's famous Taksim Square, a symbol of secular Turkey and where unprecedented anti-government protests took place in 2013.


Erdogan, who also built the largest mosque in Turkey on the Chamliga hill in Istanbul, and converted the former Hagia Sophia church into a mosque in 2020, gave prayer a prominent political dimension.


On the night of July 16, 2016, in which an attempted coup against power took place, imams and muezzins from about 90,000 mosques in Turkey, through the minarets' loudspeakers, urged faithful Muslims to repel the putschists, in a move that followed an appearance by the Turkish president via the "FaceTime" application.

And the Mufti of Edirne says, "We realized that night the power of the call to prayer. Thanks to it, we called the people to take to the streets and saved the country" from the coup attempt.


Erdogan, who will seek re-election as president in June 2023, accuses his opponents of wanting to silence the mosques . He said on several occasions, "They will not be able to silence the call to prayer!", although this step did not appear in any of the political parties' programs.


In Turkey, which has an overwhelmingly Muslim population and a secular regime, the politicization of the call to prayer has made it irritating to some.


Erol Koemen, a postdoctoral student in folk musicology at the University of Chicago, points to "a widespread feeling among secularists that the volume of the call to prayer has increased since the coup attempt, as part of the current authority's attempts to change public spaces."


The researcher, who prepared a study on the role of the call to prayer in repelling the failed coup attempt in 2016, adds that these attempts "led to an increasing rejection of the call to prayer (among secular circles)."


Since 2017, the powerful Directorate of Religious Affairs has required mosques “not to exceed the level of eighty decibels” during the broadcast of the call to prayer, a number that some Turks consider too high, while others assert that mosques do not respect it.


And after the order directed by the Saudi government last year to mosques to reduce the size of the loudspeakers in them to a third of their maximum capacity, under the pretext of their impact on the health of children and the elderly, voices were raised in Turkey calling for their country to follow the example of the Kingdom.


Inside the old Edirne Mosque, Mufti Altyn Bozkurt expresses his dissatisfaction with the will of some to silence the mosques and stresses that "the call to prayer is a legal right!"


"Muslims should be able to hear the call to prayer, just as Christians can easily hear the sound of their church bells," he added.

ARAB AND WORLD

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Four people were killed in a helicopter crash in Kazakhstan

(AFP) Four employees of Kazakhstan 's Ministry of Emergency Situations died Thursday in a helicopter crash, authorities said in the Central Asian country.


A spokesman for the Ministry of Emergency Situations told AFP that the crash of the "Mi8" helicopter, which dates back to the Soviet era, occurred not far from the village of Chapurino in the western (northwest) Kazakhstan region, ten kilometers from the Russian border.


The same source added, "There were six people in the helicopter, five of whom were crew members and a representative of Kaztransoil," which is an official oil transport company, pointing out that the four dead were employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.


The Mi8 helicopter is usually used to transport passengers and equipment to isolated places or to remote, sparsely populated areas.


The accident occurred while the helicopter was flying over an oil pipeline, according to the source.


Kazakhstan is the first economy in Central Asia, with an area five times the size of France and rich in hydrocarbons.


Helicopter and small plane accidents are common in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Jaffa: a protest against eviction and displacement

Jaffa - "Jerusalem" dot com - Today, Friday, our people in the city of Jaffa, within the 48 territories, organized a protest stand against the decision to displace 1,400 people from Palestinian families in the city.


The participants in the vigil, which was called for by the Palestinian political and civil forces in Jaffa, raised slogans denouncing the Israeli decision to "absentee property" to expel the Palestinian residents, stressing that uprooting and Judaization is nothing but a time bomb to evacuate the city from the Palestinians.


And I call on all our people within the 48 lands to show solidarity with them, and to participate in vigils, to confront displacement and deportation.


Our correspondent reported that the people of Jaffa organize a weekly stand to mobilize and win public opinion against the Israeli decision.


The demonstrators, who own homes threatened with eviction, expressed their fear of a recurrence of the 1948 catastrophe.


One of the house owners told "Wafa": "We will stay in our homes, and we will not submit to anyone, because they will fail to displace us."


Source: Wafa Agency

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

18 women were killed when a river boat sank during a wedding in Pakistan

Siddiqabad ( Pakistan ) - (AFP) - The Pakistani authorities announced that a boat carrying 100 people from the same family who were heading to a wedding party sank in the Sindh River on Monday, killing at least 18 women, while dozens of people are still missing. the missing.


Authorities said the boat sank while it was transporting family members as part of a wedding procession from Machka to Kharoor, two villages in Sadiqabad district of Punjab province.


Rana Kashif Mahmood, a spokesman for the Sadiqabad district administration, said that the accident resulted in the drowning of 18 women who were "confirmed dead", while between 25 and 30 people survived after "rescued by residents living on the banks of the river or managed to reach the land by swimming."
He added that rescue teams are continuing to search for the missing.


For his part, policeman Mohamed Hammad told AFP that "the majority of the drowned are women," because "most of the men can swim."


He added, "The death toll is likely to rise."


Rural people in Pakistan often use boats for transportation, especially since they are cheaper than land transportation.
However, the nature of conservative society in Pakistan discourages women from learning to swim.

ECONOMY

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

The closing of Silicon Valley Bank... the largest American bankruptcy

The crisis that hit Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which was shut down by US authorities on Friday, caused panic across the banking sector, with markets questioning the consequences of the biggest bank failure in the US since the 2008 financial crisis.


The bank is no longer able to meet the huge withdrawals made by its customers for their money, and they are especially active in the field of technology, and its attempts to increase capital quickly did not succeed.


On Friday, the US authorities announced that they had closed the “Silicon Valley Bank”, which is close to the technology community, and that it suddenly found itself in a state of insolvency, and that it entrusted the management of deposits to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the United States (FDIC).


On Friday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called several regulators responsible for the financial sector to discuss the situation, stressing that she had "full confidence" in their ability to "take appropriate measures" and that the banking system was "strong and resilient."


The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the United States plans to reopen the bank's 17 branches, which are based in California and Massachusetts, on Monday, and allow customers to withdraw up to $ 250,000 in the short term, which is the amount that is usually guaranteed by the institution.


The Fed stated that the California Financial Protection and Innovation Authority (DFPI) officially took over the bank, citing "insufficient liquidity and insolvency."


At the end of 2022, the bank had assets of $209 billion and deposits of $175.4 billion.


Although little known to the public, Silicon Valley Bank was the 16th largest US bank by assets.
The closure of SVB not only represents the largest bank failure since the closure of Washington Mutual Savings Bank in 2008, but also the second largest retail bank failure in the United States.


In front of the bank's headquarters in Santa Clara on Friday, several customers stood asking how they could withdraw their money. A paper from the DFPI hung on the door stating that they could consider the two of them withdrawing the $250,000.


In the markets, the wave of panic began Thursday after SVB announced that it was seeking to raise capital quickly to cope with the massive withdrawals made by its clients of their funds, in addition to the loss of $ 1.8 billion from the sale of securities.


The announcement surprised investors and revived concerns about the strength of the banking sector as a whole, especially with the rapid rise in interest rates leading to a decline in the value of bonds in their portfolios.


The four largest US banks lost $52 billion on stock exchanges on Thursday, followed by Asian and then European banks.
In Paris, Societe Generale lost 4.49%, BNP Paribas 3.82% and Credit Agricole 2.48%. Elsewhere in Europe, Germany's Deutsche Bank lost 7.35%, Britain's Barclays 4.09% and Swiss UBS 4.53%.


On Wall Street, major banks rebounded on Friday after falling the previous day. Shares of JP Morgan Chase rose 2.3 percent in the middle of trading, while Bank of America and Citigroup approached balance.


On the other hand, local banks such as First Republic and Signature Bank witnessed more strikes, with their shares declining 23% each.


In a note, Christian Parisot of the Oriel BGC brokerage group confirmed that investors "also saw in the bank's difficulties the effect of an inversion of the interest rate curve", that is, when short-term rates are higher than long-term rates.
Banks usually borrow at short-term rates to offer loans at medium or long-term rates.


Another American group faces challenges. The parent company of Silvergate Bank, which operates in cryptocurrencies, announced Wednesday that the institution will be liquidated.


Stephen Innes, an analyst at the "SBI Management" group, said in a note that he wanted to be reassured that the possibility of a "capital or liquidity incident between major banks" is "minimal".


Since the financial crisis of 2008-2009 and the bankruptcy of the American "Lehman Brothers" bank, banks have to provide strong guarantees of the authority to control the national and European markets.


The European Banking Authority is subjecting fifty major banks on the continent to solvency tests.


The results of the last such test at the end of July 2021 revealed that financial institutions are able to withstand a serious economic crisis without serious damage.


For analysts at Morgan Stanley, the “funding pressures facing SVB+ are very special and should not be taken as the norm for other domestic banks”.


"We do not believe that the banking sector is facing a liquidity shortage," they added in a note.

PALESTINE

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:30 pm - Jerusalem Time

Popular National Congress for Jerusalem: Shuafat camp is a victim of an occupying ideology

Jerusalem - "Jerusalem" dot com - The General Secretariat of the National People's Congress of Jerusalem said that the Israeli siege targeting the residents of Shuafat camp and its neighbourhoods, "Anata, Dahiyat al-Salam, Ras Khamis and Ras Shehadeh", reflects the terrible racist ideological thought of the occupying state, which still sees the Palestinians after 74 years From the Nakba, as a human surplus that must be disposed of, using a false and misleading narration of the world that is complicit with it in the gradual liquidation of the Palestinian people or imposing forced immigration on them under the weight of the harshness of life, so that their choice becomes limited, "either life or death."


The General Secretariat added, in a statement issued yesterday, that when death becomes better than life for the Palestinians as a result of the presence of the military occupation that sheds blood daily, seizes the land and desecrates everything that is sacred, the latter will go to the first option, because life is when dignity and freedom are robbed of it. become untenable.


The General Secretariat confirmed that what is happening in Shuafat camp and targeting more than 130,000 people crowded into a very narrow geographical area of about two square kilometers, is a collective punishment for all societal groups and difficult humanitarian cases, especially the elderly, the sick and infants who need intensive care. What confirms the bloodiness of this occupation, which is devoid of everything that is human and does not understand anything but the language of blood and violence, and that what does not come by force comes with more force, stressing that the occupying state would be mistaken if it believed that the people of the camp would raise the white flag and accept the fait accompli.


The General Secretariat of the National People's Congress of Jerusalem affirmed that the people of Shuafat camp are not alone in the field, as all Jerusalemites stand by their side shoulder to shoulder in this unequal battle. His free will to express his rejection of arbitrariness, violence, persecution and injustice that targets the innocent, the sick, school students and the infirm elderly.


The General Secretariat said that the world is required to take immediate action to save tens of thousands of human lives threatened in the Shuafat camp, which has been under strict siege for several days, under the pretext of searching for the perpetrator of the shooting at the military checkpoint established at the northern entrance to the camp, which is completely illegal. As is the occupation, which has no legitimacy and no coexistence with it, just as "there is no peace or dialogue between the sword and the neck."


The General Secretariat considered that the direct reason for what happened in the Shuafat camp, Nablus, and other Palestinian governorates, is the occupation's persistence in attacking Palestinian blood and national dignity, which would explode the volcano of anger latent in the hearts of people who have been suffering at all levels for decades, despite the "deception." The peace "that Israel is talking about," so what kind of peace is this that allows the killing of children in cold blood, and gives Israel the right to detain more than five thousand Palestinians in its prisons, and in exchange for the blockade and starvation of the people of the Gaza Strip, while Jerusalem is violated daily and without any deterrence or respect for religion or sanctity At a time when a state was established for settlers deep in the West Bank, which confirms that the lie of establishing an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital has been exposed in public.


The General Secretariat concluded its statement by stressing that the Shuafat camp brings back to the Palestinian memory the state of siege that was imposed on all cities, villages and camps in the midst of the Al-Aqsa Intifada and before that at the height of the Great Intifada in 1987. However, on the other hand, there is a very advanced state of solidarity in the Palestinian street, whose message is to the world. She says: "There is no coexistence with the occupation, and our struggle is a legitimate right until we achieve our freedom and independence."

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:29 pm - Jerusalem Time

Thai police rescue a woman who was stuck in the bathroom for three days

BANGKOK - (AFP) - Thai police have rescued a woman residing in the capital, Bangkok, who was stuck for three days in the bathroom of her home, by removing the door, the authorities announced Friday.


The 54-year-old woman survived by drinking tap water.


Police said the woman feared for her life so much that she wrote her will on the walls of the cramped bathroom using cosmetics.


The victim was trapped on Monday evening in the bathroom of her home, where she lives alone, and it is possible that a panic attack contributed to the broken doorknob.


On Thursday, her sister reported to the police station in Bangkok's Phra Khanong district that she had lost contact with her.


"Her sister could not contact her for three days, so she asked the police for help to go see (the victim) as the front doors were locked from the inside," Phra Khanong Police Captain Chanchai Sunsiang told AFP.


The police captain pointed out that the victim is in fairly good condition and did not have to go to the hospital for check-ups.

Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:29 pm - Jerusalem Time

16 million birds have been killed in France due to bird flu

Paris - (AFP) - The French Ministry of Agriculture said Monday that since the start of the bird flu epidemic in November, 16 million domestic birds have been slaughtered in France, a record number.


However, the ministry indicated that "the peak of the epidemic at the end of March has been passed, and the speed of its spread has slowed down."


Since the first case was recorded in northern France at the end of November, more than 1,300 farms have been infected with the virus, especially in the Vendée, western France, and in the neighboring departments, where the authorities emptied farms by slaughtering large numbers of infected, but also uninfected birds as a precautionary measure. .


The crises associated with avian influenza remain generally confined to southwestern France, particularly to duck farms dedicated to the production of foie gras.
Last year, nearly 500 outbreaks were recorded on farms and 3.5 million birds, mostly ducks, were slaughtered.


Avian influenza is a seasonal disease transmitted by migratory birds from Asia. It usually appears in October in Europe and lasts until April.
But for the first time, wild birds brought the disease to farms this year as they migrated from countries in the south, leading to a second wave coming to an end.