by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Handaxes found at the prehistoric site in Jaljulia: these were much easier to make than the more complex Levallois tools.
Jerusalem : Israeli archaeologists have announced the discovery of half-million-year-old stone tools that suggest that the cognitive capabilities of the hominids who crafted them were much more similar to our own than previously thought.
Dubbed a kind of stone-age Swiss Army knife by one of the archaeologists working on the site, many of the objects found were flint hand axes, among other tools, Efe news reported.
A view of a half-a-million-year-old open-air prehistoric site found in Jaljulia, during a salvage excavation.
“The carving of these pieces requires a conceptual leap that allowed them to imagine the desired tool before starting to shape it,” said Ran Barkai, the head of the Archaeology Department at Tel Aviv University, emphasizing that this was the key to the discovery’s importance.
The tools were found in the Israeli Arab town of Jaljulia, located at the edge of the coastal plain near the border with the West Bank.
Tel Aviv University archaeologist Ran Barkai shows a sections of sediments filled with pieces of flint and tools at a prehistoric site in Jaljulia.
Excavation’s director Maayan Shemer called the findings (at Jaljulia) “amazing”, highlighting the tools’ technological variety.
Shemer said the investigations can aid scientists in their understanding of Homo erectus, a species of extinct hominid that inhabited the area during the Paleolithic Age.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
By Eshat Firat,
Ramallah, Palestine: Israel has seized around 2,500 acres of Palestinian land, destroyed 500 buildings and constructed eight new Jewish settlement units in 2017, according to Palestine’s Land Research Center (LRC).
According to the report of the center, Israel seized Palestinian lands with “military aims” and the “aim to construct Jewish settlement units” in the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem.
The report also recorded 900 incidents of violence and attacks of Israeli forces in East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.
According to Israeli and Palestinian law institutions, activities of Jewish settlement in West Bank and East Jerusalem have increased by three times in 2017 compared with the previous year.
Peace Now movement also announced that Israeli government approved the construction of 1,982 houses in 2015, 2,629 houses 2016 and this figure increased to 6,500 in 2017.
Israel’s Minister of Public Works and Housing, Yoav Galant, on Dec. 24 announced a plan to build 300,000 new houses in East Jerusalem under the name of “housing on the land of united Jerusalem, the capital of Israel”.
Jewish settlement building activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered to be one of the most important obstacles in front of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that was halted in April 2014.
The Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently accelerated the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
It has been stated that Israel has established 131 settlements in the West Bank, 10 in East Jerusalem and 116 in the regions of the Hill of the West Bank since 1967.
It is said that Israel wants to bring the number of settlers in the West Bank to a million in a short period of time, while half a million residents are currently living in Jews settlements in Palestinian soil and 220,000 in the settlements in East Jerusalem.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Jerusalem : Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country has the strongest air force against threats, with the ability to reach targets at all distances.
“Israeli Air Force is at the prime of its capabilities, with the very best technological tools, aircraft, pilots, possessing defensive and offensive capabilities, with immense fire capabilities, which can reach near and far targets,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday at a graduation ceremony for air force pilots at the Hatzerim Air Base, Xinhua reported.
Netanyahu also warned that “we will not let the Iranian Armed Forces establish themselves in Syria in order to harm the State of Israel and we will work in order to prevent the manufacturing of deadly weapons to be used against us.”
Netanyahu gave similar warning that Israel won’t allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria for several times.
As for the Gaza Strip, he said “we want the local population to live peacefully, but the peace in Gaza depends first and foremost on Gaza.”
Thirty-six pilots, including one woman, received their symbolic wings after graduating from the three-year long Israeli Air Force Flight Academy on Wednesday.
Beginning next week, these graduates, who are now combat air crew, will be assigned to various air force squadrons and will begin their operational training, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The F-35 fighter, the newest and most advanced U.S. fighter jet, flew an aerial show at the graduation ceremony. Israeli Air Force announced in early December that its new squadron of F-35 fighter jets is fully operational.
Israeli Air Force has several technological advancements like unmanned aircraft, the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and the Arrow system, said Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman at the graduation ceremony.
In the coming years, the Israeli Air Force will remain the decisive force of the IDF, said Lieberman. “In those years there will be challenges that we have never dealt with before.”
Upon the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Israel faces many threats from the north and the south, said Gadi Eizenkot, Chief of the General Staff of IDF.
Eizenkot said that the IDF has been operating on all frontiers, with creativity and determination, in order to ensure the security of Israel.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
US Vice President Mike Pence
Washington : US Vice President Mike Pence, who was scheduled to travel to Egypt and Israel on Tuesday, has postponed his trip until next month to ensure the Senate passage of the much-awaited Republican tax bill, the media reported.
“The largest tax cut in American history is a landmark accomplishment for President Trump and a relief to millions of hardworking Americans,” Pence press secretary Alyssa Farah said in a statement on Monday.
“The vice president is committed to seeing the tax cut through to the finish line.”
Pence is now expected to leave for Egypt, Israel and potentially additional countries in the region the week of January 14, senior White House officials said, though the revised trip is still being planned, reports CNN.
A White House official said that while the tax vote is still in “very good shape”, Pence — who can serve as a tiebreaking vote in the Senate — does not want to take any chances, especially in light of Senator John McCain’s expected absence due to health issues.
The trip was also slated to take place as Palestinians continue to protest President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, though the White House officials insisted the unrest and security concerns were not a reason for the postponement.
Meanwhile Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas cancelled his scheduled meeting with Pence in the wake of the Jerusalem announcement, as did the top Muslim and Coptic Christian leaders in Egypt.
A senior White House official declined to say whether Pence would seek to put his meeting back on with Abbas, who has said the US should no longer be involved in the peace process, in light of the postponement.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Hassan Rouhani
Tehran : Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that Iran could restore its relations with Saudi Arabia should the kingdom end its “friendship” with Israel.
Tehran would “have no problem” with Riyadh if it stops “bowing to Israel” and relies on itself, Rouhani said at a parliamental meeting, Xinhua reported.
“We want Saudi Arabia to stop two things, the misguided friendship with Israel and the inhuman bombardment of Yemen,” he stressed.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran in early 2016 in protest against the attacks against Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran following the Saudi execution of a Shiite cleric.
The firing of a ballistic missile at Riyadh by the Houthis last month led to renewed tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Rouhani’s remarks came amid media reports that Riyadh has been seeking closer ties with Israel in a bid to counter the rising influence of Iran, a common enemy to Saudi and Israel.
On November 25, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman compared Iran’s growing regional influence to Germany’s hegemonic policies in the Hitler era.
“We learned from Europe that appeasement would not work. We do not want the ‘new Hitler’ of Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East,” he said.
A Saudi-led military coalition has been fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015 to support President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was ousted by the Houthis in September 2014.
The Houthis have seized control of much of Yemen’s northern areas, including the capital Sanaa since 2014.
—IANS
