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New York City and Israel Sign Declaration of Intent for New Council to Foster Economic, Business Partnerships
A New York City Police officer monitors the “Israel Day on Fifth” parade in New York City, U.S., May 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Angelina Katsanis
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat signed a Declaration of Intent on Monday to establish a joint initiative that will further economic and business ties as well as innovation between the two governments.
The New York City–Israel Economic Council will focus on fostering business partnerships between the city of New York and Israel in economic development, emergency management, education, and technology. It will help Israeli businesses and startups that want to establish a presence in New York City; support collaboration in sectors including environmental innovation, life sciences, and artificial intelligence; and coordinate participation in major business and technology conferences.
The council will meet regularly and will be comprised of representatives from the New York City Mayor’s Office and Israel’s Economic Mission to the United States. Adams’ Office for International Affairs is leading the initiative. The Declaration of Intent signed by Adams and Barkat on Monday is non-binding but highlights a commitment between the two governments to collaborate and build partnerships.
Mayor Adams said on Monday that the council will “serve as a gateway to the US market for Israeli businesses.”
“Today’s announcement of a Declaration of Intent reflects a proud tradition of New York City mayors collaborating with Israel, and will drive innovation, create jobs, and strengthen the unbreakable bond between our two governments,” the mayor added.
“The NYC–Israel Economic Council represents both strategic partnership and moral clarity,” said Moshe Davis, the executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, which was announced earlier this month. “As antisemitism rises globally, New York City is responding with substantive collaboration in key sectors like environmental innovation and artificial intelligence. This council will not only drive opportunity and growth, it will demonstrate that the world’s greatest city stands firmly with Israel and the Jewish people.”
New York City is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.
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UK Police Arrest 55 at Parliament Rally for Banned Palestine Action Group
A detained demonstrator sits inside a police van, following a protest in support of the Palestine Action group in Parliament Square in London, Britain, July 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
Fifty-five people were arrested at a rally for the banned Palestine Action group outside Britain’s parliament on Saturday, London’s Metropolitan Police said.
The crowd in Parliament Square had been waving placards supporting the group that was banned this month under anti-terrorism legislation, the force said in a post on X.
People from the rally, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, were taken away in police vans.
British lawmakers proscribed the group earlier this month after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
Membership of Palestine Action now carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
The group has called the decision “authoritarian,” and a challenge to the ban will be heard at London’s High Court on Monday.
Palestine Action is among groups that have regularly targeted defense firms and other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza.
Police have arrested scores of the group’s supporters at rallies across Britain since the ban came in
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US Says Attack on West Bank Palestinian Church Was ‘Act of Terror’
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called on Saturday for the perpetrators of an attack on a Palestinian church in the West Bank blamed on Israeli settlers to be prosecuted, calling it an “act of terror.”
Huckabee said he had visited the Christian town of Taybeh, where clerics said Israeli settlers had started a fire near a cemetery and a 5th-century church on July 8.
“It is an act of terror, and it is a crime,” Huckabee said in a statement, “Those who carry out acts of terror and violence in Taybeh – or anywhere – (should) be found and be prosecuted. Not just reprimanded, that’s not enough.”
Israel’s government has not commented on the incident, but has previously denounced such acts.
On Tuesday, Huckabee said he had asked Israel to “aggressively investigate” the killing of a Palestinian American beaten by settlers in the West Bank, similarly describing it as a “criminal and terrorist act.”
Huckabee is a staunch supporter of Israeli settlements and his comments are a rare and pointed public intervention by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Trump in January rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Settler attacks on Palestinians and Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank have risen since the start of Israel’s war on the Hamas terror group in Gaza in October 2023, though violence has long simmered there.
The United Nations’ highest court said last year that Israel’s settlements in territories it captured in the 1967 Middle East war, including the West Bank, were illegal.
Israel disputes this, citing biblical and historical ties to the land as well as security needs.
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Israel and Syria Agree to Ceasefire, US Envoy Tom Barrack Announces
US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and US Special Envoy Keith Kellogg attend the Turkey-US-Ukraine trilateral talks in Istanbul, Turkey, May 16, 2025. Photo: Arda Kucukkaya/Turkish Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Israeli and Syrian leaders have agreed to a ceasefire, US envoy to Turkey and Syria Tom Barrack announced on the X platform.
Earlier in the week Israel launched an air campaign in Syria aimed to protect Syrian Druze — part of a minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
Barrack said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, with the mediation of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, agreed to a ceasefire “embraced” by Turkey, Jordan and other unidentified neighbors.
There is no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office or the Syrian Presidency.
The post Israel and Syria Agree to Ceasefire, US Envoy Tom Barrack Announces first appeared on Algemeiner.com.