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Israel Rejects European Bid to Unilaterally Recognize Palestinian State as ‘Reward for Terrorism’
Then-Israeli transportation minister Israel Katz attends the cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 17, 2019. Katz currently serves as the foreign minister. Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/Pool via REUTERS
Israel’s foreign ministry on Monday warned four EU member states that unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would effectively amount to a reward for terrorism.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state following the October 7 massacre sends a message to Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations that murderous terror attacks on Israelis will be reciprocated with political gestures to the Palestinians,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat declared on X/Twitter.
Haiat added that a “resolution of the conflict will only be possible through direct negotiations between the parties. Any engagement in the recognition of a Palestinian state only distances reaching a resolution and increases regional instability.”
The foreign ministry was responding to a joint announcement on the sidelines of last Thursday’s European Council meeting in Brussels issued by Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and Malta. The four EU members stated that they had “agreed on the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of hostages and a rapid, massive and sustained increase of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
Signed by their four respective prime ministers — including the now former Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who abruptly announced his resignation last week — the statement continued: “We are agreed that the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the region is through implementation of a two-state solution, with Israeli and Palestinian States living side-by-side, in peace and security. We discussed together our readiness to recognize Palestine and said that we would do so when it can make a positive contribution and the circumstances are right.”
Haiat said that the “comments of the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, about recognizing a Palestinian state, as well as the joint statement by Spain, Malta, Slovenia, and Ireland about their readiness to recognize a Palestinian state, constitute a reward for terrorism.”
At the same time, Spain appears to be moving away from its threat to recognize a Palestinian state unilaterally, as was suggested last November by Sanchez. Speaking in Brussels, Sanchez said that Madrid would prefer to coordinate recognition with other EU member states.
“We want to take this step united. It’s a decisive step in order to lay the foundations of a lasting peace,” he said. Sanchez also argued that the fact the four leaders represented all sides of the political spectrum — with Spain and Malta governed by centre-left parties, Slovenia by a Liberal party, and Ireland by a centre-right party — demonstrated a broad consensus that the recognition of State of Palestine is necessary for any future peace process.
Slovene Prime Minister Robert Golob separately pledged a greater effort at the UN to secure recognition of a Palestinian state. Golob said that conditions for doing so may be “ripe” within “a few weeks, maybe a month.”
However, European Council President Charles Michel said last Friday that recognition was not yet on the 27-member bloc’s agenda.
“The debate on the recognition of Palestine was not on the table,” Michel said following the Brussels parley. “But I will share with you what I think about it. I think that if the idea is to start a kind of process so it’s possible to take into account steps that could be made on both sides — by the Palestinian Authority, for instance, and by Israel— then it could be a useful process.”
On Monday, a Spanish government spokesperson told the Publico news outlet that while Israel was considered a “friendly” country, reviving the peace process was the key imperative.
“Spain is a sovereign country that makes its decisions in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the spokesperson said.
The influence of the four states on the EU as a whole is limited, moreover. According to the most recent budget figures available, only eight EU member states, led by Germany and France, are net contributors to the bloc. Of the four states pushing for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, only Ireland is a net contributor, while Spain, Malta, and Slovenia are classed as beneficiaries. Additionally, both Malta and the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia are relatively new members, having acceded to the EU in 2004.
The post Israel Rejects European Bid to Unilaterally Recognize Palestinian State as ‘Reward for Terrorism’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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