JERUSALEM: Israel’s prime minister has vowed to change a street name in an Arab town honoring the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday before a cabinet meeting that he won’t allow streets “named after murderers of Israelis and Jews.”
Mohammed Watad, of Jatt council in northern Israel, told Channel 2 TV the sign has been up for nine years.
He pointed out that Arafat, together with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
Arafat is widely remembered in Israel as leading militants who targeted civilians. Palestinians view him as a national icon of their movement for independence.
Arabs in Israel enjoy full rights but face discrimination in some areas. Many identify politically and culturally with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Netanyahu vows to remove Arafat street sign in Arab town
Netanyahu vows to remove Arafat street sign in Arab town
Jordan condemns Israeli far-right minister Ben-Gvir’s storming of Al-Aqsa compound
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson warned of Israeli attempts to divide the compound both temporally and spatially
LONDON: Jordan condemned the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday in East Jerusalem.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates spokesperson Fouad Majali denounced the incident as a “blatant” violation of the site’s status quo, a desecration of its sanctity, and a dangerous provocation. He stressed that Israel has no sovereignty over occupied East Jerusalem or its Islamic and Christian holy sites, according to the Petra news agency.
Ben-Gvir has visited Al-Aqsa’s compound several times in recent years, despite widespread condemnation.
Majali warned of Israeli attempts to divide the compound both temporally and spatially, saying that these “provocative and inflammatory” actions aim to impose a new reality at the site.
“Israel’s violations reflect the extremist Israeli government’s policy of escalating dangerous and unilateral measures in the occupied West Bank and of violating the sanctity of holy sites in occupied Jerusalem,” he added.
