On Tuesday, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper revealed a reconciliation meeting held between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Minister of So-Called National Security in his government, Itamar Ben Gvir.

According to the newspaper, Ben Gvir was invited to a personal, private meeting with Netanyahu, at a hotel in the city of Caesarea, near Netanyahu’s home.

According to the newspaper, a senior figure in Likud worked to appease Ben Gvir, and told him that without him, Netanyahu would not have a government.

The meeting between the two sides continued for several hours, with the aim of ending the crisis between them, especially against the backdrop of Ben Gvir's repeated demands regarding tightening the conditions of Palestinian prisoners, and his exclusion more than once from security discussions.

Recently, officials in the Israeli government coalition criticized Ben Gvir, accusing him of trying to impose his positions on the coalition, and that he had become a burden on it.

It is not known whether Netanyahu reached understandings with Ben Gvir on controversial issues, especially regarding security and the Palestinians.

On Tuesday morning, settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in successive groups, amid calls to intensify the storming to commemorate the so-called “Throne Day.”

A group of settlers were seen performing “epic prostration” inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa, dressed as priests.

Previously, large forces of the occupation police stormed the courtyards of the mosque to secure the settlers’ incursions, as some members of those forces were seen removing some of the stationed people from inside it.

The occupation forces deployed heavily inside the Old City since the early hours of dawn in preparation for securing the settlers’ incursions, as they obstructed worshipers’ access to the mosque.

On Tuesday, settlers cut off the electricity network connecting the towns of Qusra and Jalud in Nablus.

According to local sources, a group of settlers infiltrated the area, destroyed the network, and barbarically and brutally attacked citizens’ property and vandalized agricultural lands.

Yesterday evening, the town of Qasra witnessed confrontations between young men and settlers who stormed the outskirts of the town under the protection of the occupation army, which led to injuries among citizens.

Two Syrian soldiers were injured last night in an air strike targeting Syrian army positions around the city of Deir ez-Zor.

An official Syrian military source said that the bombing targeted several Syrian armed forces sites around the city, wounding two soldiers and causing some losses.

Syrian sources said that the bombing targeted Iranian facilities and sites of Syrian forces.

On Tuesday, the Israeli occupation forces launched a campaign of arrests among citizens in various areas of the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.

According to local sources, these forces wounded a young man at Al-Fawwar checkpoint, south of Hebron, before arresting him, without knowing his identity.

In Ramallah, citizen Basil Al-Zubaidi was arrested from Al-Jalazoun camp, while Jihad Judeh was arrested from Al-Bireh.

While Nour Raddad was arrested from Sidon, north of Tulkarm, and the young man Amjad Al-Ali was kidnapped from his home after besieging him in the Rafidia area in Nablus.

In occupied Jerusalem, the young man Ayman Al-Shami was arrested.

The occupation forces stormed the town of Beita, south of Nablus, and raided many homes, searched them, and interrogated their residents, amid violent confrontations that led to a number of young men being injured by rubber bullets and suffocation.

Other forces also stormed the town of Al-Samou and other areas in Hebron, amid raids on citizens’ homes.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, during his speech at the “Story of a Homeland” conference, which concluded its activities on Monday in the New Administrative Capital, announced his candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections in response to the call of the Egyptian people.

Al-Sisi said, "I promise you that the coming period will be an extension of our common quest for Egypt and its people, and I call on all Egyptians to actively participate in the presidential elections."

The Egyptian President announced that he followed the national dialogue with great interest, and directed the government and state agencies to study the package of outcomes produced by the dialogue.

Al-Sisi added, "I intend to continue this state of dialogue and develop political and party life, so that the state can achieve paths, alternatives, and visions on a permanent basis."

He said, "After this conference, and the numbers and facts about the Egyptian state, how it was and how it has become... I confirm that we are renewing the covenant, and there is no fear for a nation whose crescent is intertwined with its cross. Our nation is neither afraid nor broken, but rather creates pyramids for glory and a history for civilization."

He said, "When I answered the call and assumed responsibility, I did not possess the treasures of the earth or the collections of rosy promises. I only had faith in God, then in Egypt, and working with impartiality and sincerity, carrying with me the honor of the Egyptian military, and it was enough for me to have a medal on my chest."

He directed his speech to the Egyptians: “I faced with you and with you all the challenges and crises, and together we crossed the bridges of safety, and we are on the verge of an election that will assume responsibility for the administration of the Egyptian state, and for ten years I have only taken the initiative to summon the Egyptians, whom I call on to make these elections the real beginning of a vibrant political life that witnesses pluralism, diversity, and difference.” Without overstepping or insulting.”

The National Elections Authority has set days (1, 2, and 3) of next December as the date for holding presidential elections outside Egypt, with the electoral process being held inside Egypt on days (10, 11, and 12) of the same month.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said today (Monday) that his country is studying the possibility of canceling visa requirements with a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia.

Kanaani stated this during a weekly press conference in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

He said that the issue is being studied by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that there are a set of plans and ideas in this field and meetings have been held with relevant institutions.

He added that after studying all political and security aspects, the result will be presented to the Council of Ministers.

On Monday evening, the Israeli occupation forces arrested an elderly citizen and a young man in occupied Jerusalem.

According to local sources, the occupation forces arrested the elderly Ali Darwish (80 years old) from the town of Al-Issawiya, northeast of Jerusalem, after they raided and searched his house.

The young man, Qusay Adnan Ghaith, was arrested from the town of Silwan, south of Jerusalem, and was transferred to a detention center, after the occupation forces assaulted and beat him.

It is noteworthy that the detained Ghaith is the son of the Governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith.

A number of Palestinian citizens suffered from suffocation and bruises, today, Monday, as the people of Qasra, south of Nablus, confronted a settler attack.

According to local sources, settlers from the Yesh Kodesh settlement attacked homes on the eastern side of the town, under the protection of the occupation army.

The sources added that the residents confronted the settlers, which led to the outbreak of confrontations, during which the occupation soldiers fired bullets and tear gas bombs. They also beat the residents and attacked several homes in the area.

Today, Monday, the Council of Ministers decided to allocate a sum of 100 million shekels to hospitals in occupied Jerusalem through funding from international partners.

The Council of Ministers also decided, in its weekly session held in the city of Ramallah, headed by Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, to form a committee to follow up on investment in government lands, with the aim of facilitating the procedures for establishing projects in all Palestinian territories by Palestinians, especially expatriates among them.

He approved the Ministry of Local Government's plan (Sovereignty and Resilience Programme) to support the steadfastness of citizens in the Palestinian governorates, especially areas designated (C), and provide the necessary financing methods and direct investment to these areas.

The Council of Ministers also approved the Ministry of National Economy’s plan to improve the business and investment environment, and a license to provide water and sanitation services for the West Jenin Water Facility.

It approved two projects in the field of energy in Gaza and Ramallah, and ratified the recommendations of the ministerial committee to supervise the project to prepare the national spatial plan.

The Council of Ministers also ratified, in its weekly session, the cooperation agreement in the field of higher education and scientific research between the governments of the Republic of Tunisia and the State of Palestine, and agreed to start operating the Ain al-Bayda Emergency Center in the northern Jordan Valley 24 hours a day.

The Council of Ministers devoted a wide area of discussion to developing a government program targeting lands classified as (C) by establishing infrastructure that includes building roads, land reclamation, and extending electricity lines, water networks, and communications, in order to enhance the steadfastness of citizens in those areas, embody sovereignty over them, and ensure Urban expansion and services therein, to confront the processes of settlement expansion and land seizure through which the occupation authorities are trying to restrict the residents of those areas, by demolishing homes, destroying property, and seizing land.

The Council decided to form a ministerial steering committee to supervise the implementation of the program, headed by the Minister of Local Government and membership of the ministries of Agriculture, Finance, Economy, Transport and Communications, Civil Affairs, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, and the Land Authority, Water, and Energy.

The Cabinet heard from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Riyad Al-Maliki, an explanation about the diplomatic efforts made during the past weeks in all state and Arab forums to enhance the presence of the State of Palestine in international and Arab organizations and bodies, the most recent of which was to raise the name of Palestine in the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in its seventh session. The sixtieth century, which was held in Vienna, reached the level of the “State of Palestine”, as well as the advanced position achieved by the State of Palestine in the vote that took place today in the League of Arab States on the Arab Charter on Human Rights.

The Council also heard a report from the Minister of Health, Mai Al-Kaila, on the conditions of hospitals, supplying them with medical personnel, and opening clinics in remote areas, where it approved the installation of a number of medical and health personnel who had previously worked during the “Corona” pandemic, and the allocation of an amount of 100 million shekels for the benefit of hospitals in the occupied city of Jerusalem. And operating the Ain Al-Bayda Emergency Center 24 hours a day to provide services to citizens in the area.

The Council of Ministers listened to a presentation of the latest draft of the Civil Service Law, to be a modern and advanced law, and addresses some of the failures and some loopholes in the previous law, to be submitted to the President for approval and issuance.

He also heard from the Minister of Local Government, Majdi Al-Saleh, an explanation about the project of the spatial plan for the lands of the State of Palestine, and the recommendations of the ministerial committee related to the project, which has been working on for three years, while he heard from the Minister of National Economy, Khaled Asseily, about the ministry’s plans to expand trade horizons with brotherly Jordan via Karama crossing, and related recommendations for discussion with Jordanian officials.

In his speech at the beginning of the session, Shtayyeh called on the United Nations to implement what was stated in the report of the independent investigation committee of the international body, in which it called on all countries to take action to put an end to Israeli violations and illegal practices in the occupied territories.

He added, "The continuing crimes committed by the occupation soldiers and settlers against our people, the most recent of which was the execution of the young man Muhammad Rummana from Al-Am'ari camp, the detention of his body, and the arrest of the wounded friend, require imposing sanctions on the occupying state, and not allowing the perpetrators to escape punishment." He expressed his condolences to the family of the martyr and to all the families of the martyrs, wishing recovery for the wounded.

The Prime Minister thanked the 92 countries that voted at the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in favor of raising the name of Palestine in the agency to “State of Palestine,” which would enhance recognition of the Palestinian state and grant it more privileges.

The Prime Minister said: “Area C is an integral part of the entire territory of the State of Palestine, and that there is an attempt by the current Israeli government and its predecessors to annex those areas. Since the beginning of our work, we have given these areas a major priority in various fields, and today we are renewing the launch of programs related to those areas.” The regions and all ministries are working to make the program a success, each according to its specialty.”

Today, Monday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested an elderly man and seized his agricultural tractor, in the town of Deir Istiya in Salfit Governorate.

According to local sources, the occupation forces stormed the “Al-Qaada” area, north of the town of Deir Istiya, and detained a number of farmers for several hours, before arresting the elderly citizen, Nael Mahareq, “67 years old,” and seizing his agricultural tractor.

On Monday evening, the Israeli occupation forces closed the western entrance to the villages of the western countryside in Bethlehem Governorate.

According to local sources, the occupation forces closed the “Aqbat Hasna” area, the main entrance to the towns of Nahalin and Battir, and the villages of Wadi Fukin and Husan, which led to a traffic crisis.

During the monthly report on the state of press freedoms in September 2023, the Journalists Support Committee monitored more than (88) violations against media freedoms and journalists, including (61) Israeli violations, and (14) violations by Palestinian internal parties and unknown persons, in addition to recording more Of (13) cases of violations by social media companies, within the framework of combating Palestinian digital content.

The Israeli occupation forces committed a total of (18) cases of attacks on journalists, as sixteen journalists were injured in the Gaza Strip, including the injury of freelance journalist Ashraf Abu Amra, who was seriously injured in his hand, as a result of the Israeli occupation directly throwing poisonous and incendiary gas bombs at them. Two cases were also recorded. In the West Bank and in the city of Jaffa in the occupied territories.

While the occupation forces arrested, detained and deported more than (10) journalists, including the arrest of the Jerusalemite photographer Ahmed Abu Sobeih, Dujana Ali Abu Al-Rub, and journalist Abdul Rahman Al-Alami, and the deportation of media activist Alaa Al-Sous for two weeks from Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.

In continuation to obscure the occupation’s crimes against citizens, the occupation forces, with the participation of settlers, prevented a number of journalists from practicing their work. The committee recorded more than (25) cases of preventing and obstructing journalists’ coverage.

In addition, the report showed that it monitored a number of (5) cases of confiscating journalists’ identity and press cards while preventing them from practicing their professional work and exposing the crimes of the occupation. It also recorded (1) a case of threats with weapons, (2) a camera being destroyed in the occupied West Bank, and a journalist’s vehicle in the Gaza Strip.

Regarding the fight against Palestinian content, activist journalists and their media sites were subjected to an attack on digital media through the applications of “WhatsApp,” “Tik Tok,” “Facebook,” “Instagram,” and other social media sites, after accounts were closed and restricted and social media site administrations banned. Under pressure by the Israeli occupation on more than (13) accounts and pages for journalists and media sites, it varied in deleting and restricting “WhatsApp” for more than (8) journalists and media sites, recording (2) cases of deletion on Tik Tok, and (1) case of closure on the platform. Instagram, in addition to recording (2) cases on Facebook, which included deleting the page of journalist Tamer Al-Mashal, who later restored his page.

Knesset member Ram Ben Barak from the “There is a Future” party announced on Monday evening his intention to compete with his party’s leader, Yair Lapid, for the leadership.

According to the Hebrew website Ynet, the party will hold internal primaries to elect its leader next December.

Ben Barak, the current party leader, will face Lapid, who founded the party in 2012, the first elections held since its founding.

No other party figure announced her intention to compete for the presidency.

At the end of September 2023, the General Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine held its regular meeting, the “Sabra and Shatila Martyrs’ Session,” in which it discussed political developments at various local, Arab, regional and international levels.

In its final statement, the committee stressed that the issue of prisoners will remain among the priorities of the Front’s work, as it is a national and popular issue, and that it will continue to work to release the prisoners by all means, internationalize their cause, and support them in all forums.

The committee reviewed the internal Palestinian situation and the effects of the continued division and its economic and social consequences, and the failure of the meeting of the General Secretaries in El Alamein, as the statement stated, in addition to the escalation of Israeli aggression.

The Central Committee of the Popular Front said, "The failure of the El Alamein meeting must constitute an incentive to activate the Front's vision regarding the formation of a national and popular coalition whose goal is to intensify pressure to end the division, restore unity, and confront the occupation."

The committee called on all Lebanese and Palestinian national parties to spare Ain al-Hilweh camp and the Palestinian camps the fate that the occupation and its allies desire by liquidating the Palestinian presence of these camps, and the refugee issue and their right to return.

She believed that what an occupying country is going through indicates that it is experiencing a structural crisis that will expand and take the form of racist practices and persecution of minorities, calling on the people of the occupied interior to stand up seriously against the organized crime behind which the occupation stands.

The Central Committee of the Popular Front criticized the normalization of Arab countries with the Israeli occupation, considering it a “treacherous step against the Palestinians,” as it put it, calling for the formation of an Arab front to resist normalization.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said that the occupation prison administration continues to escalate its aggression against prisoners, through raids on prisoners' sections and mass transfers.

The Prisoners' Club added that the prisoners of section (5) who were transferred from "Raymon" prison to "Nafha" prison yesterday, as well as the prisoners of "Raymond" prison, are in the process of taking protest steps against the aggression launched by the prison administration against them, and these steps may reach They will go on a hunger strike at the end of this week, unless they stop the torturous measures against them.

The Prisoners' Club stated that all the data in the prisons indicate the possibility of a renewed and escalating state of confrontation, with the continuation of raids and abuse of prisoners, in addition to mass transfers, through which the prison administration deliberately targets any state of "stability" that the prisoners are trying to create. Since the beginning of this year, it has carried out mass transfer operations, mainly targeting prisoners serving high sentences.

It is noteworthy that the number of prisoners in the occupation prisons is more than 5,200.

On Monday, a young man was injured by Israeli occupation forces’ bullets during confrontations in Aqabat Jaber camp in Jericho.

According to the Red Crescent, the young man was shot in the foot with live bullets and was taken to the hospital.

Today, Monday, the Ministry of Finance denied what was reported in Hebrew newspapers about the Israeli government providing financial facilitations to the Palestinian National Authority.

The Director General of Customs, Excise, and Value Added at the Ministry of Finance, who is responsible for accounting with the Israeli side, Louay Hanash, said, “Contrary to what is reported in the Israeli press, the current Israeli government has doubled the illegal unilateral deductions from Palestinian taxpayer funds in an unprecedented manner, ranging from these deductions range from 240-260 million shekels per month, equivalent to 25% of the Authority’s revenues from the tax money collected by Israel, without any detail or explanation about these deductions.”

Israel also deducts 3% of the clearing funds as a collection commission, the monthly average of which exceeds 35 million shekels, as this commission for the past ten years has exceeded 3 billion shekels.

Hanash pointed to what Finance Minister Shukri Bishara demanded at the donors’ meeting, held in New York last month, where he stressed the previous Palestinian demands that require the necessity of completely abolishing this commission on fuel purchases, reinforcing his position with reports issued by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on the necessity of canceling it, as all transactions for these purchases are carried out electronically and directly between Israeli companies and the Palestine Petroleum Authority, and reducing the commission to 1.5% is insufficient and shows the extent of the Israeli thefts in this file and that it must be completely cancelled.

Bishara also stressed, according to the Director General of Customs, his previous and ongoing demands for the necessity of reducing the collection commission that Israel generally charges on all other goods, so that it is based on the cost, which the World Bank estimated in one of its reports that it should not exceed a maximum of 0.6%. What clearly shows the extent of the Israeli thefts is in this file alone.

At the donors' meeting, the Minister of Finance said that Israel's solution to only 5 of the many outstanding financial files between the two sides would achieve financial balance in the Palestinian budget.

Hanash explained that the Israeli side has punitively and illegally deducted, in exchange for what the Authority provides to the families of those affected by the Israeli occupation and the families of the martyrs, prisoners and wounded, an amount of 2.8 billion shekels, and these deductions are still continuing.

In addition to its monthly deductions that have been ongoing for many years and that violate all agreements, Hanash said that the Israeli government recently added a monthly deduction at the rate of 20-30 million shekels, deducted from the debts accumulated by the Jerusalem Electricity Company, noting that it is a private company and the authority supports it in repaying its loans and supporting the price of electricity. And paying off camp debts.

Hanash stressed that these cuts clearly demonstrate that the occupation is responsible for the stifling financial crisis that the Authority is going through and the main obstacle to the development of the Palestinian economy.

Today, Monday, a number of male secondary school students were injured during the Israeli occupation forces’ storming of the village of Jalboun, northeast of Jenin.

According to local sources, these forces fired poison gas bombs at the school students, causing a number of them to suffer from suffocation while these forces were near the house of citizen Jihad Muhammad Mahmoud Abu Al-Rub, which they turned into a military barracks.

Today, Monday, after the visit of its lawyer Fadi Obaidat, the Prisoners and Ex-Detainees Authority revealed a group of medical conditions for a number of Palestinian prisoners held in the Negev prison.

Among the cases is the case of prisoner Munther Dhib (23 years old), from the town of Silwad/Ramallah, who has been suffering from pain in the right side of the back and abdomen for a month and a half and does not know the cause. He was informed by the detainee’s doctor that he needs to undergo tests in the hospital. However, the prison administration only gives him painkillers.

Meanwhile, prisoner Thaer Hasaniyeh (48 years old), from the city of Jenin, has been suffering from gum infections and tooth and molar tooth decay since 2005. This led to the loss of most of his molars and teeth because the necessary treatment was not provided to him. He is in need of treatment, and is still waiting until now, as the administration deliberately The detainee is neglecting his health condition. He also complains of middle ear infections and is only given drops. He needs to have x-rays taken and be shown to an ear and throat doctor. However, the prison administration is still practicing the policy of keeping the situation as it is, which increases the suffering of the prisoners, especially those with sentences. The high.

As for the prisoner Ibrahim Abbas (23 years old), from the city of Jenin, who is currently in the “Naqab” prison, he suffers from health problems, as he is exposed to frequent fainting cases on a daily basis, without any reason. He was transferred to “Soruka” Hospital, where he stayed for four days and underwent surgery. Numerous medical examinations, EEG, and x-rays, in addition to blood tests, where the results of the examinations showed that they were stable, noting that he was exposed to cases of fainting in the hospital, and complained of severe pains and aches in the head, which subsequently caused him to lose the ability to see and lose consciousness, but the prison administration merely gave him Painkillers and deliberately neglecting him medically.

While the prisoner Muhammad Haniyeh (21 years old), from the city of Tulkarm, suffers from a sharp increase in blood sugar levels, and two weeks ago it reached record levels and does not fall below (400 mg). This sudden increase led to a sharp drop in weight, and within just a week the prisoner Haniyeh ( 20 kilograms) of its weight.

The prisoner also vomits everything he eats and complains of abdominal pain. He was transferred to the prison clinic, and was given intravenous insulin needles to lower the sugar level, but to no avail. He was returned to the department, and as a result of his unstable health condition, he was returned to the hospital. Many medical examinations were conducted for him, and the doctors informed him. That his pancreas stopped working, in addition to problems with the thyroid gland and a weak heartbeat, his vision deteriorated, and the prisoner Haniyeh remained in the hospital for three days to be returned to the prison.

The authority held the Israeli prison administration fully responsible for the continuing series of medical negligence against Palestinian detainees, and called on international institutions, human rights organizations and the Red Cross to fully play their necessary role towards the issue of detainees.

Today, Monday, Israeli forces stormed sections (3, 2, and 1) of Gilboa prison.

According to the Prisoners' Club, these forces began searching a group of rooms, indicating that a state of tension prevails in the prison.

Citizens suffocated and a Palestinian teenager was arrested, today, Monday, during confrontations with Israeli occupation forces in the Arroub camp, north of Hebron.

The occupation forces fired live bullets, stun grenades and toxic tear gas towards the citizens, causing dozens of them to suffocate. The occupation soldiers also arrested another teenager whose identity was not known.

Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef has said that the mental faculties of secular Jews who eat unkosher food are "impaired," and therefore it is "difficult for them to comprehend things."

His comments were released by Israel's Channel 13 on Sunday. The rabbi added that, "I observe everything happening within the secular community. They are in a state of jeopardy. They do not find satisfaction in life; everything is driven by the desires of this world."

"They are poor souls...they are jealous of us. They see the haredi sector, with its holidays and children, it is all jealousy," the rabbi continued. "And the hate is developed from jealousy." He also called on religious organizations to promote the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle to secular Israelis.

Opposition outrage by chief rabbi's comments

His statements have sparked a political uproar, with strong condemnations coming from the opposition.

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid commented that Yosef has misrepresented his role, saying, "he is not the Chief Rabbi of Israel but rather the rabbi of a vocal minority that condemns millions of Jews who serve in the army, risk their lives, work, and support this nation. In one aspect, he is correct - they felt somewhat foolish tonight when they realized they are the ones funding his salary."

Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman, also commented, "The sole foolishness with your statements is the fact that the secular public is funding and paying a salary to someone as uninformed as you." A member of his party, MK Yulia Malinovsky, added, "Based on Chief Rabbi Yosef's statements, even consuming kosher food alone doesn't ensure profound wisdom.

Today, Monday, the Israeli occupation forces tightened their military measures around the city of Nablus.

According to local sources, these forces closed the checkpoint between the city of Nablus and the northern town of Asira, and the street linking Ignisnia and Zuata, and prevented citizens from passing through them, in order to secure the settlers’ incursion into the Mount Ebal area.

She pointed out that the occupation forces tightened their military measures at the military checkpoints at the entrances to the city, and impeded the movement of citizens, as vehicles were being searched.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi denounced Sunday any attempts by regional countries to normalize relations with its arch-enemy Israel as "reactionary and regressive."

The remarks came amid ongoing U.S.-brokered negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia to establish formal ties, with the United States saying Friday that the two countries are moving toward the outline of a deal.

"Normalizing relations with the Zionist regime is a reactionary and regressive move by any government in the Islamic world," Raisi said during an international Islamic conference held in Tehran.

An Israeli delegation is expected to arrive Sunday in Saudi Arabia, days after the first official visit by an Israeli minister to the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia also sent a delegation Wednesday to the occupied West Bank for the first time in three decades in a bid to reassure the Palestinians ahead of the prospective deal.

Raisi on Sunday further labelled any normalization attempt as the "foreigners' desire," while stating that "surrender and compromise" regarding Israel were not on the table.

"The only option for all the fighters in the occupied land and the Islamic world is to resist and stand against the enemies," he said, reiterating Iran's position that Jerusalem must be "liberated."

In 1967 Israel occupied and then annexed east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as the future capital of their proposed state.

An agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia would follow the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords which saw Israel establish diplomatic relations in 2020 with three Arab countries.

Last month, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Raisi said any "relationships between regional countries and the Zionist regime would be a stab in the back of the Palestinians."

Shiite-dominated Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, two regional powerhouses, resumed relations, severed since 2016, under a China-brokered deal announced in March.

European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell announced on Monday that all of the bloc's foreign ministers are meeting for the first time outside its borders, in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

The meeting comes at a time when Kiev seeks to join the European Union in the future, in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is now in its twentieth month.

“We are holding a historic meeting of European Union foreign ministers here in Ukraine, the candidate country and next member of the European Union,” Borrell said in a statement on social media. “We are here to express our solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people.”
He added, "Ukraine's future lies within the European Union."

For its part, Kyiv welcomed the meeting.

“This is a historic event because it is the first time that the Foreign Affairs Council meets outside its current borders, outside the borders of the European Union, but within the future borders of the European Union,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters alongside Borrell.

As for French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, she saw the meeting as a message to Moscow that reflects the bloc's determination to stand by Ukraine.

"It is an expression of our firm and permanent support for Ukraine, until it is able to prevail," she told reporters in Kiev. "It is also a message to Russia that it should not rely on the possibility of exhausting us."

In turn, Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Sloat stressed that "it is really important that we meet here today to express our solidarity with Ukraine."

In 2014, Ukrainians overthrew the pro-Moscow regime in a popular pro-EU uprising.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed to accelerate Kiev's accession to the bloc as a response to the Russian invasion.

The Prisoners' Club held the occupation prison administration fully responsible for the life of prisoner Mahmoud Hassan Abu Dhari (55 years old), from the city of Dura/Hebron, who has been facing a deterioration in his health condition for several days, and to this day there is no final diagnosis of his health condition.

The prisoner Abu Dhari, who has been detained since 2003 and has been sentenced to life imprisonment, was transferred yesterday from Raymond Prison to Soroka Hospital urgently, and then the prison administration returned him late last night to prison, but his health condition deteriorated this morning. He was transferred again to the prison clinic.

The Prisoners' Club confirmed that the prisoners informed the prison administration that if he is not transferred to the hospital again and his health condition is seriously diagnosed and the necessary treatment is provided to him, there will be protest steps, as the prisoners continue to demand that he be transferred to the hospital since the morning.

The Prisoners' Club considered that what is happening to the prisoner, Abu Dhari, is only part of the process of the systematic crime of medical negligence (slow killing), which the prison administration continues to practice at several levels and with its various tools, most notably the processes of procrastination in diagnosing the disease and providing treatment.

It is noteworthy that Abu Dhari is one of hundreds of prisoners facing the crime of medical negligence (slow murder).

On Monday, the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem decided to reconsider the petition submitted against prisoner Kayed Al-Fasfous, who has been on hunger strike for the 61st day in a row.

According to the Prisoners and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs Authority, the court’s decision was based on the illegality of canceling the previous appeal and that the appeal must be heard despite the non-attendance of the appellant prisoner Al-Fasfous, due to his deteriorating health condition.

The Commission indicated that this decision is a retaliatory and arbitrary decision, despite the presence of the prisoner’s lawyer and legal representative.

Today, Monday, the Israeli occupation forces closed the Noble Mosque of the Patriarchs to Muslim worshipers, under the pretext of Jewish holidays.

The Director General of the Hebron Endowments, Nidal Al-Jaabari, explained that the occupation will close the Ibrahimi Mosque until ten o’clock in the evening tomorrow, Tuesday, considering this a blatant infringement on the sanctity of the Mosque, and a provocative attack on the right of Muslims to access their places of worship.

Al-Jaabari called on the international community in general, and the Islamic and Arab countries and institutions related to cultural, heritage and religious affairs, led by UNESCO, to put its decisions into effect, given the seriousness of what is happening in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa and Ibrahimi Mosques.

The occupation forces also tightened their security measures and closed all military checkpoints and electronic gates leading to the Ibrahimi Mosque, to secure the settlers’ celebrations of the Jewish Throne Day in the Mosque and its squares.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that the occupation forces intensified their presence at all entrances leading to the Mosque to secure settlers’ access to the city of Hebron and archaeological areas, under the pretext of celebrating Jewish holidays, and closed some markets in the Old City.

This time around, the day is overshadowed by the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war known as the Yom Kippur War. Of all of Israel's wars, this was the most traumatic for Israelis, and the old Israel is searching for its soul now under that shadow.

The broader religious and traditional meaning of Yom Kippur and the days leading up to it are always a time of soul-searching, and above all a time when we seek forgiveness for sins we have committed. 

The ceremonial rituals are saturated with clichés, including the blessing of wishing others that they be "inscribed for a good year" - which is how people greet one another on the street, instead of saying "shalom" (peace) as the holiday approaches. 

Israel is supposed to atone for its collective sins on Yom Kippur and Jewish Israelis are supposed to atone for their individual sins - yet this has never properly happened in any year, and this year less so than ever.

It has never occurred to Israel to ask for the most significant forgiveness of all the kinds it ought to be seeking: that is, asking forgiveness from the Palestinian people. Israel has never asked forgiveness for its sins towards the Palestinians committed in 1948, nor for those committed against them continuously since 1948, nor even for the sins it has committed against them during this past year, as demanded by Jewish law and tradition every year.

Moreover, this past year was a very hard one for Israel and the Palestinians, a year in which Israel has been ruled by the most extreme right-wing government in its history. 

This is the year when not only is there nothing to be said about asking forgiveness from the Palestinians, but it is also the year in which Israel has lost all shame for the crimes it has committed against them.

This is the year when government ministers, referring to a Jewish criminal convicted of burning a Palestinian family alive as they slept in their home, have called the perpetrator a saint and a victim. The campaign demanding the release of Amiram Ben-Uliel went viral in Israel and in a matter of days raised more than $400,000 through crowdfunding to support action on his behalf.

This is the forgiveness many Israelis are seeking - for a man who willfully set a house on fire in the middle of the night and was convicted in a court of law, itself a rarity in the Israel of 2023 where Jews are almost never brought to justice, whether soldiers or civilians, for their crimes against Palestinians.

Some Israelis have already moved ahead a notch and are seeking forgiveness from the murderer rather than his victims. They not only deny that he is a murderer; some believe that, because the Palestinians he killed were innocents, including an infant, he is made holy by this act. This is what happens when all shame is lost.

A real spiritual self-examination for every Israeli, as Yom Kippur entails, or at any other time of the year, would necessarily involve an accounting for actions vis-à-vis the Palestinian people. On the national level, such an accounting has not even begun.

Even when Israel was signing agreements like the Oslo Accords, exactly 30 years ago now, there was no question of taking responsibility nor any request for forgiveness: these things were not even on the table.

A truth and reconciliation commission in the post-apartheid South African mode is completely far-fetched in Israel's case; no more than a fantasy, completely detached from reality. It is not difficult to imagine the potential positive impact on relations between Israel and the Palestinian people of a move on Israel's part to take responsibility for its crimes.

Cruel, discriminatory regime

After over 100 years of Zionism, which for the Palestinians has meant 100 years of dispossession, oppression, killing, destruction, humiliation, loss of rights and loss of dignity, in Israel there is no whisper of a thought about taking responsibility and seeking to atone, as Jews are bound to do by Jewish law on the holy day of atonement when these lines are being written.

On the contrary, just as the killer Ben-Uliel is the victim in the eyes of extremist Israelis, most Israelis see themselves as the victim, and only as the victim, in the context of their relations with their real victims, the Palestinians.

Only by falsely positioning themselves as the victims can Israelis cope with their past, denying and repressing it as few nations have managed to deny their past along with their present. A nation of immigrants took control of a land already inhabited for hundreds of years, suppressed its inhabitants, deprived them of their land and possessions, expelled some of them and oppressed the rest, seized control of the land and established a state which is by definition a state where Jewish supremacy exists. 

This year, Israel also lost any shame over defining Zionism as Jewish supremacy. As Israel is pushed into a corner by an extreme right-wing government, an impressive protest movement has taken to the streets month after month to fight for democracy.

Yet this impressive protest ignores the question of the society's inherent Jewish supremacy, and demands only a return to the status quo ante, meaning democracy for the Jews in the Jewish state controlling a land in which two nations of equal size are living.

One nation lives under a democratic regime that is currently in danger, and the other nation lives under one of the worst military dictatorships in the world. Few nations anywhere live under such a cruel, predatory and discriminatory regime. Yet this is ignored by the democratic protest movement so admired by nearly everyone.

Entire nation in denial

For more than 100 years we have been depriving the Palestinians of their land, their property, their way of life, their culture and their dignity. While the methods of operation have changed over the years, the intention remains constant. The aim was and continues to be to try to arrange for as few Palestinians as possible to stay here, if any at all.

This is the true meaning of a "Jewish and democratic" state. This is the only way to settle the contradiction between Jewishness and democracy in the reality of a binational state. In 1948, Israel expelled hundreds of thousands of people, and even if some of them technically fled in terror, in either case, they were never given an opportunity to return. Israel then imposed military rule on the remaining Palestinians residing within its domain, terming them "Israeli Arabs".

A few months after the military regime within Israel came to an end, in 1966, it was replaced by a military occupation of the Palestinian territories that has continued ever since. Nearly seven million Palestinians live under Israeli control in various ways, in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

Conditions of deprivation in all areas of life for Palestinian citizens of the state; military tyranny for the stateless Palestinian subjects in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; and prison conditions for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the world's largest cage for human beings.

Brutality is the only means of preserving all of that. There is no nonviolent way to preserve such a violent reality.

The military regime employs cruel violence on a daily basis. War crimes are perpetrated hourly in cooperation with armed settler militias. And Israelis view all of that with denial and repression. They lie to themselves and remain complacent, or morbidly indifferent. Most do not know and especially do not want to know the reality, while most of the Israeli media does their part by not disturbing Israelis with a true portrayal of the reigning immorality they are refusing to see.

This is how we reached this state of affairs, in which an entire nation is living in denial. This is how we have ended up where we are now, so that when the day of atonement approaches, no one thinks about asking forgiveness from Israel's greatest victim.