“We’re extremely concerned abt UNRWA allegations. We urge a full & transparent investigation,” US Envoy Jason Greenblatt tweeted.

By Joseph Wolkin, World Israel News

Following an Al Jazeera report on Monday that the Ethics Department of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, has accused Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl of corruption, U.S. Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt is calling for a full probe into the agency.

The UNRWA chief is charged with abusing “authority for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives.”

“We’re extremely concerned abt UNRWA allegations,” Greenblatt tweeted on Monday. “We urge a full & transparent investigation by the UN. UNRWA’s model is broken/unsustainable and based on an endless expanding number of beneficiaries. Palestinians residing in refugee camps deserve much better.”

When America cut funds to the agency, Krähenbühl and other higher-ups in UNRWA allegedly had “an extreme concentration of decision-making power” for themselves. The group’s internal report said the leaders were “highly dysfunctional.”

According to the report, soon after Krähenbühl’s appointment as UNRWA chief in 2014, he began taking trips to the Gulf with agency official Maria Mohammedi, and their relationship went “beyond the professional.” He then appointed her as his senior adviser and used his authority to enable her to travel with him on the organization’s dime.

UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-General Sandra Mitchell and Chief of Staff Hakam Shahwan are also involved in the corruption allegations.

Krähenbühl did not respond to request for comment from Al Jazeera.

The U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services is examining the allegations detailed in the Al Jazeera report, but Greenblatt wants an independent investigation.

UNRWA has been the source of much controversy over the years, apparently grossly exaggerating the number of Palestinian refugees and perpetuating their refugee status, as well as supporting an education system that reportedly incites anti-Israel hatred and violence.

“Israel’s policy is that UNRWA should be closed down,” Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said in a briefing of foreign diplomats in December. “They’re the problem, not the solution.”

The post US wants probe into suspected UNRWA corruption appeared first on World Israel News.

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton told the Christians United for Israel summit in Washington on Monday that America will not fund the Palestinians until they stop paying terrorists and their families.

The post WATCH: Bolton says US won’t fund terrorist-supporting Palestinians appeared first on World Israel News.

The real problem is the Palestinian denial of Jewish history, not the presence of America’s ambassador at the unveiling of a biblical archeological site.

By Jonathan S. Tobin, Editor-in-Chief, JNS

The critics are right about U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman’s presence at the ceremonial opening of Jerusalem’s “Pilgrimage Road” being unprecedented. None of his predecessors would have been caught dead at a Jewish site on the wrong side of the “Green Line.” Up until last year, the United States had stubbornly refused to recognize that any part of the ancient capital of the Jews belonged to the Jewish state.

But even if we concede that the participation of Friedman and U.S. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt was a departure from past policies—and that the ambassador’s swinging of a sledgehammer to break down the symbolic wall that completed the opening of the biblical route provided a metaphor for the critics of the Trump administration—that doesn’t mean it was wrong or a mistake.

If we have to use the imagery of the Americans smashing anything, it was not—as critics of President Donald Trump and Friedman contend—a symbol of their destruction of the already dead-in-the-water peace process. Rather it was yet another reaffirmation of the administration’s correct determination to emphasize the absurdity of the Palestinians’ willingness to go on denying Jewish history.

The “Pilgrimage Road” is a project created by the El Ad Association that operates the City of David National Park in association with the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Nature and Parks Authority. Archaeologists working at the site first uncovered evidence of the city that was King David’s capital of biblical Israel. T

he “road” is a tunnel that has been dug underneath a present-day Jerusalem neighborhood that permits scholars and visitors to trod the path taken by ancient Jewish pilgrims. Thousands of years ago, Jews would walk from the Pool of Siloam at the City of David and then ascend to the Temple Mount above to worship.

Those who walk through the excavated tunnel now will emerge several hundred yards from its entrance to a point near the Western Wall inside the Old City.

Since the international community normally considers the preservation of ancient heritage sites a good thing, an observer might wonder why the opening of the tunnel has provoked so much fuss and criticism.

Notion that Jerusalem can be ‘Judaized’ is absurd

The answer is that the international community regards anything that reminds them of the deep roots that both Judaism and Jewish peoplehood have in the soil of Jerusalem with dismay. The City of David is located in the part of the city that was held illegally by Jordan from 1949 to 1967. That means they consider it “occupied territory” in which the Palestinians and their foreign cheerleaders claim that any Jewish presence is illegal, even if means an attempt to delegitimize a historic site that has provided abundant proof of the historical biblical kingdom of Israel.

Therefore, any Israeli activity in the area, which encompasses the Arab neighborhood of Silwan, has been viewed as an illegal settlement, in addition to an impediment to plans aimed at partitioning the city and making it the capital of a putative Palestinian state. But their main complaint is that the archaeological park is part of an effort to “Judaize Jerusalem.”

The notion that Jerusalem—the city that has been integral to Jewish national identity, history and faith for 3,000 years—can be “Judaized” is absurd. But it fits in with the claims of both the Palestinian Authority and their Hamas rivals that the ancient temple, the Davidic kingdom and the whole history of the city is fiction rather than fact.

To buttress their complaints about the excavations, critics of the project point to the fact that some Palestinians have been inconvenienced by the construction that has gone on underneath their homes. They have our sympathy, but the same can be said of anyone who lives in proximity to building projects in cities all over the world. Their real beef is not about cracks developing in walls but that the history the archaeologists have unearthed undermines efforts to portray Jews as foreign colonists in their ancient capital.

Trump’s critics say that Friedman’s and Greenblatt’s presence constituted U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem. They say this prejudices peace negotiations in which the Palestinians would hope to be given parts of Jerusalem or at least it would if the P.A. were ever willing to return to peace talks and demonstrate any willingness to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders were drawn.

But the problem with that argument is that as long as the United States was willing to pretend—as it was from 1949 to 2017—that Jerusalem wasn’t Israel’s capital or that it had no legitimate claim to sites such as the City of David, it only reinforced Palestinian intransigence. The United States has always needed to make it clear to the Palestinians that, at a bare minimum, they couldn’t expect Israel to give up parts of Jerusalem that are as integral to Jewish heritage.

Yet this is what Trump’s predecessors failed to do, and as a result, it has continued to fuel the Palestinians’ unwillingness to recognize that their century-old war on Zionism had failed.

Key point: Uncovering the truth

Friedman wasn’t wrong when he noted not only that Israel was as likely to give up this heritage site as the United States would be to surrender the Statue of Liberty; still, the key point about the opening of the site was the uncovering of truth. Without an acknowledgement on the part of the Palestinians of the truth about the Jewish history that they continue to lie about, true peace is impossible.

Instead of complaining about the unveiling of these sites, the Palestinians and their allies should acknowledge the facts about Jewish Jerusalem and stop hoping for a fantasy in which the Jewish state will no longer exist. Trump, Friedman and Greenblatt are merely sending them a reminder to give up those delusions—something their predecessors didn’t do nearly enough. Those who claim to wish the Palestinians well should be doing the same thing.

The post Analysis: US Ambassador’s pilgrimage didn’t ‘Judaize’ Jerusalem appeared first on World Israel News.

Journalist Hagai Segal says that while Trump’s peace team is pro-Israel, their economic plan shows they have adopted the Palestinian victimhood narrative.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

One of the leaders of the right-wing camp in Israel has publicly rejected the economic part of President Trump’s “Deal of the Century” that was discussed last week in a conference in Bahrain.

Calling it “a mixture of primeval sympathy for Israel with a flattery of political correctness,” Hagai Segal, editor of Makor Rishon, attacked the premise underlying the American plan in Sunday’s paper.

The U.S. president’s point men on the Middle East, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, “are still assuming that the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) is Palestinian territory,” he charged. “Even the most pro-Israel administration in history is also devoted to the narrative of the Israeli occupation and the oppressed Palestinians.”

The details of the economic plan reflect that they have now “formally adopted” that narrative, according to Segal, who gave several examples that he says proves his point.

These include the fact that the half a million Jews who live in Judea and Samaria aren’t even mentioned in the plan.

“Only the Arabs are depicted as having rights in ‘the West Bank,’” he writes. “They would receive … a commitment to give them legal aid in land disputes, the possibility of expanding at the expense of Area C, the construction of an autonomous transportation route between Judea and Samaria and Gaza at the expense of sovereign Israel, and even insurance against war damages.”

“It reminds one of the madness of Shimon Peres. The New Middle East 2,” Segal said, referring to the late Israeli president’s book outlining his utopian vision of what the region would look like after the Oslo Accords were signed.

Segal added that those in Israel who have seen parts of the as-yet-unrevealed political part of the deal are worried.

“It’s expected that their plan will recognize the classic settlement blocs, but include the Benjamin region in the painful Israeli concessions,” he said. “They also adopt the Obama administration’s stubborn opposition to construction in E1.”

The E1 zone is a few square miles of land between eastern Jerusalem and the city of Ma’ale Adumim, where building has been frozen for at least a decade due to international pressure.

Critics of Jewish building say it would cut the part of Jerusalem that Palestinians claim for a capital from the rest of the planned Palestinian state. However, Israel argues that illegal Arab building in the area, which falls completely under Israeli control according to the Olso accords, endangers Israel’s territorial integrity, as E1 falls along a major transportation artery connecting Israel’s north and south.

“Judging by the economic part of the famous deal,” he summed up, “[Kushner and Greenblatt] don’t have the courage to put a final axe to the anthology of Palestinian lies and stories of the occupation.”

The post Hidden dangers in Trump peace plan embrace false Palestinian narrative, says right-wing journalist appeared first on World Israel News.

Saleh Abu Mayala was part of a small group of Palestinians, led by businessman Ashraf Jabari, present at the event despite the official Palestinian boycott.

By World Israel News Staff

Hebron businessman Saleh Abu Mayala, who was said to have been detained by the Palestinian Authority (PA) intelligence forces when he returned from the U.S.-led economic conference in Bahrain, has now reportedly been released.

“According to Palestinian reports, the decision to release the businessman came following a threatening letter from the U.S. Embassy,” says Israel Hayom.

“We are pleased the PA has released the Palestinian they arrested after attending the Peace to Prosperity [Bahrain] workshop. We look forward to continuing our conversation with all who attended the workshop and anyone else who wants a better future for the Palestinians,” tweeted Jason Greenblatt,  a U.S. special representative for international negotiations, who attended last week’s two-day conference.

The PA boycotted the gathering, protesting what they viewed as an attempt to buy Palestinians off with economic aid before the announcement of a U.S. plan for a political solution.

Abu Mayala was part of a small group of Palestinians, led by businessman Ashraf Jabari, present at the event despite the official Palestinian boycott.

“Another participant, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said he and the other Palestinian attendees feel they are in ‘great danger,’ having been threatened by the PA and on social media,” said Israel Hayom.

The U.S. economic plan, announced to coincide with the Bahrain conference, speaks of $50 billion in regional investment projects over the coming decade, with more than half in the Palestinian territories in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and the rest in Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon.

When President Donald Trump declared U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, the PA announced that it was cutting off diplomatic contacts with Washington.

The White House has said that publication of the political plan for Israelis and Palestinians has been delayed by the political instability in Israel. After a Knesset election in April, Israelis are scheduled to return to the polls on September 17.

The post Palestinian jailed by PA for attending Bahrain released after US threats appeared first on World Israel News.

“They believe that we’re trying to buy the Palestinians off with this economic vision; that’s not true,” said Greenblatt to Kan public broadcasting.

By World Israel News Staff

With the conclusion of the two-day Bahrain economic workshop for the Middle East, organized by the United States, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump is accusing the Palestinian Authority of misrepresenting the American efforts and, as a result, missing an opportunity to help its own people.

‘The Palestinian leadership is manipulating what we’re saying,” said Jason Greenblatt in an interview with Israeli public broadcaster Kan at the Manama conference.

“They believe that we’re trying to buy the Palestinians off with this economic vision; that’s not true,” Greenblatt added.

“We need the economic [support], the money and the assistance, but before everything, there is a political solution,” said Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday, criticizing the American approach of presenting its economic plan for the region before announcing its political vision for Israelis and Palestinians.

The U.S. economic plan, announced to coincide with the Bahrain conference, speaks of $50 billion in regional investment projects over the coming decade, more than half in the Palestinian territories in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and the rest in Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon.

“We understand that you cannot have an economic plan without a political plan, but similarly you cannot have a political plan without an economic vision,” Greenblatt told Kan in response to the Palestinian argument.

He ridiculed the PA accusation that it was left out of the planning or from attending the economic conference.

“They decided to boycott the event before they were even invited to the event,” the Trump adviser retorted.

The PA announced that it was cutting off diplomatic contacts with the Trump administration when the U.S. president recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.

However, Greenblatt told the Israeli public broadcaster that he wants the Palestinians to be involved in the process.

“I hope that we’re going to get input from the Palestinian leadership. We need their input. We want their input,” he said.

Following the publication of the U.S. economic plan, an announcement of the political vision appears to be on hold pending the September Knesset election and the formation of a new Israeli government.

The post Palestinians ‘manipulating’ US economic vision for Mideast, says Trump envoy appeared first on World Israel News.

The announcement means that neither Israelis nor Palestinians will be attending a conference meant to shape their fate.

By Matthew Lee, AP

A White House official says that Israeli representatives have not been invited to the Trump administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in Bahrain next week.

The official said Monday that the meeting is to focus on the administration’s “economic vision” for the Palestinians and will not focus on “political issues.”

The administration official was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The announcement means that neither Israelis nor Palestinians will be attending a conference meant to shape their fate.

The Palestinians, accusing the U.S. of bias favoring Israel, have rejected the Trump administration’s peace plan out of hand and have urged Arab countries to boycott the meeting.

Last week the White House said Jordan, Egypt and Morocco would be attending the workshop in Manama.

The post White House: Israelis not invited to Mideast peace workshop in Bahrain appeared first on World Israel News.

The U.S. plan “in essence, divides Jerusalem and changes its borders,” Israel Hayom reports.

By World Israel News Staff

Another report has emerged on the details of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. American officials have said that the plan will be made public right after next month’s Knesset election.

At the center of the report by Nadav Shragai, published in Israel Hayom, is the status of Jerusalem under the terms of the U.S. plan.

When Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017, he stated that his declaration did not relate to what the final boundaries of the city would be. Indeed, his peace plan “in essence, divides Jerusalem and changes its borders,” says the report, although no source is mentioned.

Shragai reports that “portions and ideas” from the plan have already been presented to Israel, the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt.

Certain northern sections of the current Jerusalem municipal boundaries, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, but where an Arab village and refugee camp are located, would be transferred to a Palestinian state, along with Arab neighborhoods in southern Jerusalem captured in the same war.

At least at the first stage of implementation, Israel would maintain “broad security powers” in the areas handed over to the Palestinians, says the paper, adding that 85% of Judea and Samaria would be included in the Palestinian state, as well.

In its plan, the report continues, the U.S. administration distinguishes between the areas of “former Jordanian Jerusalem” before the ’67 war, which includes the Old City and adjacent neighborhoods, and a far larger swathe of territory which Israel annexed into its capital after the war but which had not been included within the municipal lines before that point.

The Old City and adjacent areas, including the Mount of Olives, would remain under Israeli sovereignty, according to the report. However, some of the outlying Arab neighborhoods, which became part of Jerusalem only after the ’67 conflict, would be included in the Palestinian state.

The Western Wall would remain under exclusive Israeli control.

Regarding the Temple Mount, the Americans wished to consider the establishment of a joint inter-Arab religious administration which would include other states, in addition to Jordan which currently serves as patron of the Muslim holy sites. This administration would work in tandem with Israel, according to the reported plan, and the area would remain under Israeli sovereignty.

A safe passage route would be set up between the “Palestinian” part of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

The Palestinian Authority rejects the Trump plan outright, the report says.

The post Jerusalem will be divided in Trump plan, report says appeared first on World Israel News.

Middle East expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar discusses the merger between the new United States Embassy and the Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem and what it means to the Palestinians.

The post WATCH: Palestinians view Jerusalem consulate closure as ‘humiliation,’ analyst says appeared first on World Israel News.

PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki says the Palestinians “view the Warsaw conference as a plot against the Palestinian cause.”

By Associated Press

The Palestinian foreign minister is asking Arab countries to boycott or downgrade their representation at the upcoming U.S.-sponsored Mideast summit in Poland.

Riad Malki says that, at the very least, Arab nations should have low-profile delegations, below the ministerial level, at the conference. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are sending foreign ministers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be at the summit.

Malki says the Palestinians “view the Warsaw conference as a plot against the Palestinian cause.”

Most Arab nations have refrained from establishing relations with Israel without significant progress being made toward peace with the Palestinians. But many Gulf states share with Israel concerns over Iran’s growing influence.

The post PA to Arab States: Boycott US-sponsored Warsaw conference, it’s a plot appeared first on World Israel News.

Responding to Nikki Haley’s push for Trump’s “deal of the century,” eight European countries and Russia insisted that only a two-state solution could succeed.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The European members of the United Nations Security Council and Russia warned the American administration Tuesday that any Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement must include a Palestinian state. Otherwise, they said, it will be doomed to failure.

The statement came in reaction to outgoing U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s last remarks at the U.N. Tuesday, in which she did not mention the words “Palestinian state” when discussing the as-yet-unrevealed plan in general terms.

The absence of these words seemingly did not sit well with France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, Sweden, Belgium and Poland. They issued a joint statement stressing the importance of “the internationally agreed parameters for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, based on international law, relevant UN resolutions and previous agreements.”

“The EU is truly convinced that a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital of both states” is the only viable and realistic way to end the conflict and achieve a just and lasting peace, satisfying “Israeli and Palestinian security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty” as well as ending the “occupation” and resolving all final status issues,” the statement said.

Russia, too, joined the chorus, with its UN representative, Vasily Nebenzya, telling the TASS news agency that “it is crucial to rely on a two-state solution.”

Haley said the plan is “different from all previous ones” and “recognizes the realities on the ground in the Middle East have changed” — as has technology, which can help both sides, although she did not give any specifics.

Charging the Palestinian leadership with clinging to “50-year-old demands that have only become less and less realistic” while their people “are suffering terribly,” she challenged them to be visionaries instead and to seriously consider the plan when it is revealed, hopefully early next year.

She emphasized that the Palestinians stand to gain tremendously if they enter negotiations. “What awaits the Palestinian people with a peace agreement are the prospects of a massive improvement in the quality of their lives and far greater control over their political future,” she said.

The post EU to Trump: Peace deal must include Palestinian state appeared first on World Israel News.

Ramallah, unlike Jerusalem, will not see the U.S. plan for a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement until it is unveiled.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Palestinian Authority (PA) will not see the American peace plan before it’s presented to the world, Ma’ariv reported on Wednesday.

Ramallah, which broke off relations with the Trump administration after the U.S. Embassy was moved to Jerusalem in May, has reportedly offered to help in crafting the parameters of the agreement but was turned down. The report did not state when the offer was made.

This means that if and when the two sides return to the negotiating table, the Palestinian Authority will have the distinct disadvantage of not having been given any specific prior knowledge of its contents – versus the Israelis, whose input was requested.

The report also stated that once the long-awaited American deal is unveiled, its crafters, Trump son-in-law and special assistant Jared Kushner and US Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, will step aside. A new diplomatic team will take over the mediating role during the actual talks between the two sides.

Various events in the region have contributed to the postponement of the plan’s rollout. At the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly in September, U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned that he wanted the peace process to start within two to four months. Unnamed U.S. officials have now said that the plan most likely will not be unveiled until March or April. Of course, if elections in Israel are moved up from November, which is a possibility, the timetable for releasing the plan would most likely be pushed off once again.

The decision to freeze the Palestinians out of the formulating process – yet another blow to add to the funding cuts from the Trump administration – naturally angered them.

Kushner, who is a business tycoon like his father-in-law, believes the Palestinians will come to the table once the plan comes out. As he said in September, after the administration closed the PLO office in Washington, “In every negotiation I’ve ever been in, before somebody gets to ‘yes,’ their answer is ‘no.’”

The post PA input unwanted in ‘Deal of the Century’ appeared first on World Israel News.

In a tough interview, Erekat sought to defend himself and Abbas on issues ranging from their dealings with the Trump administration to the peace process, corruption, and PA human rights violations.

By Benjamin Kerstein, The Algemeiner

The Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said last week that his government was out of ideas vis-à-vis peace talks with the Israelis in the Trump era.

“I’m gonna recline my feet,” he declared during a contentious interview on the show Conflict Zone, “because I’ve done everything humanly possible to make peace.”

Facing a series of withering questions from hard-nosed interviewer Tim Sebastian, Erekat sought to defend himself and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on issues ranging from their dealings with the Trump administration to the peace process, corruption, and PA human rights violations.

Interviewing Erekat at the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum for the German media outlet Deutsche Welle, Sebastian charged that as a result of the PA’s boycott of the Trump administration, “you will have disqualified yourself from any role in the peace process,” and asked, “you keep on waiting for someone better to come into the White House?”

Erekat shot back, “What shall I sit with them to do? Thirty-seven meetings, they refuse to say two states on ’67, they moved their embassy, they closed their consulate, which they established in 1844 in Jerusalem…”

“You’re out of ideas?” Sebastian asked.

PA negotiator: I’m gonna recline my feet’

“I’m gonna recline my feet,” Erekat said, “because I’ve done everything humanly possible to make peace.”

“I’m asking what your next move is, Saeb Erekat. You’re not talking to anybody, you say there’s no point talking to anybody,” Sebastian asserted.

“I’m talking to you, I’m talking to the Europeans, I’m talking to the Russians,” Erekat protested.

“And you can’t get a deal without the Americans, you know that,” answered Sebastian.

Erekat then blasted the Trump administration, “This White House requires giant statesmen, not real estate agents.”

“They think by twisting my arm,” Erekat added, “by blackmailing me, by cutting $844 million aid to me” they can force the Palestinians to “sell Jerusalem.”

“Of course not!” Erekat shouted.

Appearing to portray Trump as a danger to the entire world, Erekat said, “Anyone who puts his ideology, his convictions, above his thoughts will doom us and him.”

Erekat ‘worried about Europe, Latin America, Africa’

While he is worried for the Palestinians, Erekat added, he is also “worried about you in Europe, I’m worried about Latin America, Africa…”

Questioned about Palestinian politics, Erekat asserted, “You can say anything about us. We are a full democracy.”

“I did not come and president Abbas did not come to be the president by a tank,” he said. “He came by elections. He won by 61 percent of the votes. I won by 57 percent of the votes.”

“He is 13 years into a four-year term,” Sebastian remarked of Abbas, and asked when the PA will hold elections.

“If we have elections without Gaza what will you say, Tim? We are separating? You think we can have a state without Gaza?” Erekat asked.

Sebastian then noted, “in Gaza you’re actually helping to cause hardship,” pointing to PA cuts in funds transferred to Gaza and other aggressive policies toward Hamas.

“That’s not true,” Erekat said. “I have an overloaded wagon of complexities.”

Turning to the issue of human rights, Sebastian noted that the PA security forces had arrested and beaten protesters, “and you tell me how democratic you are.”

‘I’m not perfect’

“Well look, if you want me to be perfect, I’m not perfect,” Erekat said.

“This is very far from being perfect, isn’t it?” Sebastian responded.

“You mentioned one demonstration and some people were beaten up, that’s right, and then an investigation committee was formed the day after by President Abbas, an ongoing investigation,” Erekat protested.

“But how many demonstrations do I have on a daily basis?” he asked. “Every single day!”

On the issue of corruption, Erekat said, “Do we have corruption? Yes.” But he pointed to the fact that, “Last year, four Palestinian ministers were in front of the court of corruption. I think it’s the only time in the history of Arab and Islamic countries. But to go on and exaggerate this much. That’s too much,” he said, waving his hands in the air.

Sebastian asked about a report by the Palestinian anti-corruption organization AMAN that found hundreds of salaries were being paid to workers at Palestinian Airlines, and noted, “There is, of course, no Palestinian Airlines. … It’s a big fraud, Saeb Erekat.”

“Not hundreds,” Erekat said. Asked if AMAN got it wrong, he responded, “Of course. Nobody pockets any money.” He pledged to review the issue with the organization.

Sebastian then asked about a recent Human Rights Watch report that found 147 incidents of “shocking abuse” by Palestinian security forces. Erekat protested that a committee had been formed to “investigate every single matter.”

“You say this every time. You have exactly the same answer,” said Sebastian.

“The people who committed these atrocities will be held accountable. That’s my promise,” Erekat replied, then said, “Security figures in certain areas were fired. They were demoted.”

“How many?” asked Sebastian.

“I really can’t…” said Erekat.

“It doesn’t mean anything unless you have a number,” asserted Sebastian.

“I will get you the number,” Erekat replied.

Interviewer: ‘Aren’t you ashamed?’

Pressed further on the issue of human rights abuses, Erekat cried, “When it happens we stop it! We admit it! We don’t hide it! We don’t find excuses! We don’t buy people!”

Sebastian pointedly asked Erekat, “Aren’t you ashamed of all this?”

“In some cases I’m ashamed, yes,” Erekat said, but added, “Sometimes I can’t because I’m a young Authority. I’m 23 years old. I cannot differentiate between freedom of expression and incitement.”

Asked what a future Palestinian state would look like, Erekat responded, “The future Palestinian state would look like the discussion that’s going on now. The future of the Palestinian state will be the future of democracy, human rights, women’s rights, accountability, transparency, and the rule of law. This is my promise.”

“So very different from what you have now,” Sebastian noted dryly.

Watch Erekat’s full interview with Sebastian below:

The post Palestinian chief negotiator grilled in hard-hitting interview appeared first on World Israel News.

“It’s not a state now. It does not meet the customary international law test of statehood,” US National Security Adviser John Bolton stated.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

US National Security Adviser John Bolton put the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) official status into perspective at a Wednesday press briefing when he announced that the United States would no longer be a signatory party to the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“The president has decided that the United States will withdraw from the optional protocol and dispute resolution to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This is in connection with a case brought by the so-called state of Palestine naming the United States as a defendant [in the ICJ], challenging our move of our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Bolton said.

White House reporters immediately jumped on the adjective, asking whether calling the Palestinian Authority (PA) a “so-called state” was “productive,” considering that President Donald Trump had said he was working towards a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Bolton’s answer was unequivocal.

“It’s not a state now. It does not meet the customary international law test of statehood,” he said. “It doesn’t control defined boundaries. It doesn’t fulfill the normal functions of government. There are a whole host of reasons why it’s not a state.”

“It could become a state, as the president said, but that requires diplomatic negotiations with Israel and others,” he added. “So calling it the ‘so-called state of Palestine’ defines exactly what it has been. [That’s] the position that the United States government has pursued uniformly since 1988, when the Palestinian Authority declared itself to be the State of Palestine.”

Bolton might have been referring to the fact that 137 countries have recognized the PA as a state since that date. He reiterated the US rejection of this position on a bipartisan level.

“We don’t recognize it as a state… We have consistently, across Democratic and Republican administrations, opposed the admission of ‘Palestine’ to the UN as a state because it’s not a state.”

Although the PA is only a “non-member observer state” at the UN, it was allowed to formally join the International Criminal Court in 2015. Since the court’s decisions are binding, the US, by leaving the protocol, blocked the Palestinian case.

Bolton added that the withdrawal was part of a general effort by the Trump administration to protect US sovereignty from the reach of the international court.

“We will commence a review of all international agreements that may still expose the United States to purported binding jurisdiction dispute resolution in the International Court of Justice,” he said. “The United States will not sit idly by as baseless politicized claims are brought against us.”

The post Bolton: ‘Palestine’ is not a state appeared first on World Israel News.

The UN agency was forced to evacuate 10 of its top officials from Gaza to Israel amid death threats from the agency’s employees.

By: World Israel News Staff

The Palestinians’ dedicated agency UNRWA assisted 10 international senior officials in their escape from the Gaza Strip to Israel on Monday based on credible threats to their safety.

Israeli media outlet Ynet reported that UNRWA took these steps after officials received death threats following announcements related to major layoffs necessitated by the Trump administration’s massive aid cuts, which slashed millions of dollars from the agency’s coffers and officially ended American support for the UN body.

The harassment reportedly was perpetrated by the agency’s own disgruntled employees, with the officials spirited out of Gaza via the Erez Crossing, despite the fact that it was officially closed due to the Sukkot holiday.

While UNRWA’s deputy head is still in Gaza, Ynet reported that multiple sources suggested further evacuations may be required.

Later on Monday, UNRWA confirmed it had “temporarily withdraw[n]” members of its international staff from Gaza “following a series of worrying security incidents affecting its personnel in the strip,” Times of Israel reported.

The US recently rescinded its $350 million annual contribution to UNRWA, based primarily on the Palestinians’ refusal to negotiate a peace agreement with Israel and allegations that the agency vastly inflates the number of Palestinian “refugees” it assists.

While other countries are scrambling to make up UNRWA’s budget deficit, the lack of funds forced the agency to cut 113 jobs and convert 584 staff positions. UNWRA’s Gaza employees responded to these moves with a strike on Monday in protest.

UNRWA has faced pervasive criticism for permitting a curriculum that promotes anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel in its classrooms and for assisting the Hamas terror group, which rules the Gaza Strip.

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Abbas went on the offensive against US President Donald Trump and made vile accusations against Israel in his speech to the UN General Assembly.

By: JNS.org

Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas went on the offensive against US President Donald Trump in his speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, harshly criticizing the American leader for his actions to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and aid cuts while at the same time praising Palestinian terror prisoners as “hero martyrs.”

“Jerusalem is not for sale, and the Palestinian people’s rights are not up for bargaining,” Abbas said as he opened his speech.

The Palestinian leader said that Trump has undercut the peace process by recognizing Jerusalem in December 2017.

“From the start of his tenure, from the same positive engagement, we welcomed his launching of the initiative of peace,” said Abbas. “We awaited his peace initiative with utmost patience. But we were shocked by his statements and actions that contradicted the aims of his administration in the peace process.”

The Palestinians have boycotted talks with the Trump administration over the last year as a result of the Jerusalem recognition. At the same time, Trump has retaliated on his own, cutting funding to UNRWA, the UN agency that handles Palestinian refugees, as well as direct funding to the PA and shuttering the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mission in Washington, D.C.

“It’s really ironic that the American administration still talks about what they call the ‘Deal of the Century.’ But what is left for this administration to give to the Palestinian people?” Abbas asked. “When they remove from the table Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and security, what is left?”

Palestinians ‘never use violence’

The Palestinian leader also took aim at Israel, calling the recently passed nation-state law “racist,” and saying it will create an “apartheid state” that will diminish hopes for a two-state solution. He also declared that Palestinians “never use violence,” in contrast to Israeli “settlers.”

“We are resisting the Israeli occupation by legitimate means decided by international resolutions. Only peaceful means. We never use violence,” he said. “By contrast, settlers use arms against our people. We will continue to reject violence and use of weapons.”

Abbas also praised Palestinian terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails as “our hero martyrs and prisoners of war.”

The United States and Israel have both passed legislation this year that deducts monies to the PA for its support of terrorists and their families.

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