Recent Opinions polls that were conducted in Norway and Germany showed that the majority in these two countries view Israel as a hostile entity and its settlers as extremists. According the poll in Norway, 59 per cent of the respondents described the Israelis as extremists, 55 said Israel does not want peace, 43 said they support the Palestinians, and 21 per cent were in favour of Israel. In Germany, 55 per cent of the respondents said they are convinced that the Israelis are responsible for ...

The United Nations Middle East envoy Robert Serry says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to expand Beit El Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank is “deeply troubling.” “The latest announcements for adding 300 [residential] units in Beit El, [which is] deep inside the West Bank, are deeply troubling,” The UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process said on June 14. Serry reiterated that it is “the international commu...

The US blocked Israel’s participation in the Global Counterterrorism Forum’s (GCTF) first meeting in Istanbul on June 8. A pro-Israeli source in Washington reportedly said that Israel was excluded from the meeting because of fierce objections by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Israel tried hard to obtain an invitation to the meeting, and its exclusion, despite the tight US-Israeli intelligence ties, has greatly disappointed officials in Jerusalem. The GCTF, one of the pill...

Israel’s state watchdog on June 12 criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that left nine Turks dead and ties with Ankara in shreds.
In a 153-page report, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss slammed the decision-making process that led to the botched predawn raid on the six-ship flotilla on May 31, 2010, which was headed by the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ferry carrying more than 600 people. The assault triggered an inter...

Syria is now in a full-scale civil war as President Bashar Assad’s military loses control of territory around the country, a top UN official was reported as saying on June 11. Asked whether he believed Syria is in a civil war, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said: “Yes, I think we can say that ... I think there is a massive increase in the level of violence, so massive indeed that in a way it indicates some change of nature in the conflict. Now we have confirmed reports of not...

A Tunisian military court on June 12 sentenced ousted ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali to 20 years in jail in absentia for inciting “murder and looting” during a police attempt to smuggle his nephew out of the country during last year’s revolt. The case involves the death of four protesters, who were shot by police in the coastal town of Wardanein, as they tried to prevent Qais Ben Ali – now in jail in Tunisia – from fleeing on Jan. 15, 2011 a day after the presiden...

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) on June 13 called on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate allegations of anti-Muslim bias in the rejection of a proposed Islamic centre in St. Anthony, Minn. The St. Anthony City Council voted 4-1 to deny a conditional use permit for the Abu-Huraira Islamic Centre, despite a recommendation by the St. Anthony Planning Commission to approve the project. The project had been on hold since a March moratori...

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) on June 13 called on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate allegations of anti-Muslim bias in the rejection of a proposed Islamic centre in St. Anthony, Minn. The St. Anthony City Council voted 4-1 to deny a conditional use permit for the Abu-Huraira Islamic Centre, despite a recommendation by the St. Anthony Planning Commission to approve the project. The project had been on hold since a March moratori...