by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Muslim World, Social Round-up
The 30th African Union Summit, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Addis Ababa : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will deliver a keynote speech at the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), kicked off in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Sunday.
President Abbas is set to deliver a speech and meet with several African officials on the sidelines of the summit, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The summit is expected to present a draft resolution that affirms African rejection of US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The draft will include aspects such as rejecting moving any embassy to Jerusalem, ending settlement activities and providing international protection for the Palestinian people.
The opening ceremony will feature among others, speeches and keynote addresses by Guinean President Alpha Conde, the AU outgoing chairperson; statement by Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat; statement by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres; and a statement by Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit.
The 30th AU Summit, which is being held under the theme of “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation”, will wrap up its works on Monday, according to the AU website.
—AB/UNA-OIC
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Washington : The US has announced that it will withhold more than half of the funding it provides for a UN agency that supports Palestinians, about two weeks after President Donald Trump threatened to pull funding for the group.
Washington will withhold $65 million out of its scheduled $125 million payment to the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides humanitarian aid, education, social services and medical care to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, CNN reported.
Trump had said that the US could cut aid if Palestinians rejected peace efforts with Israel.
The decision drew condemnation from Palestinians and praise from Israel. The UN officials expressed deep concern and refugee groups worried about the humanitarian impact, particularly the potential for further destabilisation of a region already reeling from conflict in Syria.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Tuesday that the move had nothing to do with “punishing” the Palestinians for their refusal to enter into negotiations with Israel, or their decision to push for a UN vote that resulted in global condemnation of the US decision to unilaterally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“This is not aimed at punishing anyone,” Nauert said on Tuesday as she outlined the Trump administration’s decision to release $60 million in funding for the agency, while indefinitely withholding another $65 million.
The decision came two weeks after Trump complained that Washington receives “no appreciation or respect” in return for its aid.
“The move will have devastating consequences for vulnerable Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, including hundreds of thousands of refugee children in the West Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria,” said Jan Egeland, former Norwegian Foreign Minister and former UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “very concerned” about the impact on the region.
Nauert said the money was being withheld because the US would like to see reforms at UNRWA and added that Washington would also like to see other countries contribute more to the relief agency, which was founded in 1949 after the Arab-Israeli war, to deal specifically with Palestinian refugees.
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi slammed the decision to withhold the funds, saying it targeted “the most vulnerable segment of the Palestinian people”, adding that it “will generate further instability throughout the region”.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, praising the move said: “UNRWA has proven time and again to be an agency that misuses the humanitarian aid of the international community and instead supports anti-Israel propaganda, perpetuates the plight of Palestinian refugees and encourages hate.”
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Muslim World, Social Media, Technology
By Qais Abu Samra,
Ramallah, Palestine: Facebook has unilaterally closed several pro-Palestine pages for “incitement” in a move Palestinians describe as a flagrant violation of the freedoms of opinion and expression.
According to Palestinian daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida, Israeli officials — including Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked — recently met with Facebook representatives who were threatened with prosecution if they did not meet Israeli demands to delete the accounts of several Palestinian activists.
Within the past four months alone, the paper reported, Shaked submitted 158 separate requests to Facebook officials for the deletion of content on different pro-Palestine Facebook pages.
According to the newspaper, Facebook has so far complied with almost all of Shaked’s requests.
Ghazi Bani Odeh of the Palestinian Center for the Development of Media Freedoms, an NGO, said Israel was relying on a series of “understandings” — reached with Facebook two years ago — to remove any content deemed “incitement to violence”.
Such an arrangement “profoundly affects free expression”, Bani Odeh told Anadolu Agency, going on to assert that “dozens” of pro-Palestine Facebook accounts had been recently shut down as a result.
Last year, he added, Facebook had closed the official page of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement after it posted a photograph of a rifle-toting Yasser Arafat.
According to Bani Odeh, Facebook has never taken similar action against what he described as “dozens” of Israeli Facebook pages known for inciting violence against Palestinians and their property.
—AA
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
By Eshat Firat,
Nablus, Palestine: Israeli settlers used bulldozers to vandalize some agricultural lands belonging to Palestinian families in Nablus city’s Madama district in occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
Israeli soldiers intervened against Palestinian residents reacting against settlers’ vandalizing of their lands; five Palestinian journalists, including an Anadolu Agency photo journalist, who were trying to photograph the incident, were detained briefly by Israeli soldiers.
Anadolu Agency photo journalist Nidal Shtaya said soldiers seized journalists’ press cards and prevented them from taking pictures of the incident.
Madama district Mayor Ehab al-Qad told Anadolu Agency Israeli soldiers attacked local residents with rubber bullets and tear gas.
“The Jewish settlers are trying to seize these lands, vandalizing them with bulldozers. We call upon all legal institutions, media outlets and authorities to side with Palestinians against those Jewish settlers coming here and vandalizing the lands,” al-Qad said.
The incident came after an Israeli settler was shot dead on Tuesday evening by unknown gunmen, south of the West Bank city of Nablus.
Tension have been high in the Palestinian territories since Dec. 6, when U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, triggering condemnation and protest from across the Arab and Muslim world.
Since then, 12 Palestinians have been martyred — and thousands injured — in clashes with Israeli security forces in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.
Jerusalem remains at the heart of the perennial Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem — occupied by Israel since 1967 — might eventually serve as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
—AA
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (R) shakes hands with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita during a meeting on Jerusalem in Amman, Jordan, on Jan. 6, 2018.
Amman : King Abdullah II of Jordan on Saturday called for intensified Arab efforts to support the Palestinians following a decision by US President Donald Trump recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
At a meeting with several Arab foreign ministers, the king said there was a need for more efforts to support the rights of the Palestinians in preserving their legal and historic rights in Jerusalem and in creating their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, reports Xihua.
The Jordanian leader said the issue of Jerusalem should be settled through negotiations and as part of a lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis based on the two-state solution, the international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.
He underlined the need for supporting the Jerusalemites and protecting the Arabic identity of the city as well as the holy Islamic and Christian sites.
Jordan, he said, will continue to safeguard the holy sites in the city.
Discussions also covered best means to face the consequences of the US decision that violates international resolutions.
In a press conference following a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Amman, Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi reiterated the Arabs’ rejection of the US decision.
Rejecting any Israeli unilateral measures, he said the Arabs will push for a global recognition of Palestine.
The minister added that the Arabs will exert more efforts to curb any further recognitions of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, adding that there will be no peace and security in the region without creating an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
—IANS
