TEL AVIV: Israelis blocked roads and demonstrated on Thursday against a contentious government plan to overhaul the judiciary, hoping to ramp up pressure on lawmakers after parliament reconvened this week following a month-long recess.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused the overhaul in March after intense pressure and the opposing sides are trying to reach a compromise agreement. But in a sign of the mistrust of his intentions, tens of thousands have continued to protest every Saturday night since.
Thursday’s midweek protest was expected to be smaller, but demonstrators are hoping to remind legislators of their presence and their ability to disrupt the country over their opposition to the overhaul.
Dozens of protests under a sea of Israeli flags choked off major roads and intersections in seaside Tel Aviv, including its main highway. Demonstrations took place outside the homes of Israel’s ceremonial president and the country’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who in exchange for the plan being paused demanded Netanyahu grant him authority over a new national guard, which critics say would amount to his own personal militia.
Police said one protester was arrested for causing disturbances.
Protest leaders have billed Thursday’s event a call for “equality,” expanding their criticism to the rising cost of living in Israel and the military draft exemptions granted to most ultra-Orthodox Jews. Protesters dyed white a pool of water in the square of Israel’s national theater in Tel Aviv, to symbolize a recent milk price hike.
The plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, advanced by Israel’s most right-wing government ever, plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises, ripping open longstanding societal rifts and creating new ones. While the freeze in the legislation eased tensions somewhat, Netanyahu’s allies are pushing him to move ahead on the overhaul. The talks underway, meant to forge a path out of the crisis, do not appear to have produced any results.
Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, faced a barrage of criticism over the legal plan from a broad swath of Israeli society, including business leaders, the booming tech sector and military reservists, who threatened not to show up for duty if the plan was approved. He relented only when a burst of spontaneous protests erupted after he fired his dissenting defense minister, a decision that was later reversed.
Proponents of the plan, which would weaken the Supreme Court and limit judicial oversight on legislation and government decisions, say it is necessary to rein in what they say is an interventionist court and restore power to elected lawmakers.
Opponents say it would upset Israel’s delicate system of checks and balances and imperil its democratic fundamentals.
Israelis block roads in protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan
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Israelis block roads in protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan
- Israeli leader paused the planned overhaul in March after intense pressure
- But tens of thousands have continued to protest every Saturday night in a sign of the mistrust
UAE, New Zealand begin economic partnership negotiations
- Agreement sets out to bolster trade by eliminating or reducing tariffs and trade barriers, improving market access
DUBAI: The UAE and New Zealand have agreed to start negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, with the intention to enhance trade and investment ties between the two countries, the Emirates News Agency reported.
A joint declaration of intent confirming the agreement was signed by Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Trade Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi and New Zealand’s Minister of Trade Todd McClay on Monday.
The agreement sets out to bolster trade by eliminating or reducing tariffs and trade barriers, improving market access, and establishing investment pathways that will create new opportunities in key sectors such as agriculture, renewable energy, logistics, education, professional services, and healthcare.
“New Zealand has become a valued trade partner for the UAE, one that shares our conviction that open, rules-based trade is an essential driver of sustainable economic growth,” Al-Zeyoudi said.
“A comprehensive economic partnership agreement will open up a range of exciting opportunities for both nations, with the UAE offering direct access to new markets for New Zealand’s exports, particularly in food and agricultural products, while our services exporters and investors will be able to explore a range of high-value sectors. We are both eager to get started,” he added.
McClay said that an agreement with the UAE will offer new opportunities for New Zealand exporters who “are integral to revitalising our economy, which is why the government has set the ambitious target of doubling exports by value within 10 years.”
The New Zealand minister continued: “New opportunities in the UAE will open further commercial opportunities that will help lift domestic incomes and reduce the cost of living.
“The UAE is a key export destination and hub in the Gulf region, and there are significant opportunities to enhance cooperation across a range of areas, including agriculture and sustainable energy.”
The proposed agreement is an indication of the growing bilateral relations between the two countries, with non-oil trade between the UAE and New Zealand reaching $764.5 million in 2023, an increase of more than 15 percent compared with 2019.
Hamas says it agrees to ceasefire proposal in Gaza war
- Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators that the group accepted their ceasefire proposal, according to a brief statement from Hamas
CAIRO: Hamas on Monday agreed to a ceasefire proposal in the seven-month-old war with Israel in Gaza, hours after the Israeli military told residents to evacuate some parts of Rafah, which has been sheltering more than a million displaced people.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators that the group accepted their ceasefire proposal, according to a brief statement from Hamas, which gave no details of the accord.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
The agreement, should it take effect, would be the first truce since a week-long pause in the fighting in November, and follows months of failed attempts at pausing the fighting to free hostages and allow more aid into Gaza.
There had been concerns that the ceasefire talks being held in Cairo had stalled after Hamas official Izzat Al-Rashiq warned that any Israeli operation in Rafah would put the truce talks in jeopardy.
The city, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, has been the last sanctuary for around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, pushed south by Israel’s seven-month-old assault.
Biden speaks with Netanyahu as Israelis appear closer to Rafah offensive
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Monday morning, a White House official and a National Security Council spokesperson said, as Israel appeared closer to launching an offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah — a move staunchly opposed by the US on humanitarian grounds.
The NSC spokesperson said Biden reiterated US concerns about an invasion of Rafah — where more than 1 million civilians from other parts of Gaza are sheltering after 7 months of war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel — and said he believes reaching a ceasefire with Hamas is the best way to protect the lives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the call before an official White House statement was released.
The call comes hours before Biden is to host King Abdullah II of Jordan for a private lunch meeting at the White House on Monday.
On Sunday, Netanyahu rejected international pressure to halt the war in Gaza in a fiery speech marking the country’s annual Holocaust memorial day, declaring: “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”
“I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself,” he said, speaking in English. “Never again is now.”
UN experts condemn Israel’s ‘sexual assault and violence’ in Gaza
- Statement pointed to “continued reports of sexual assault and violence against women and girls, including against those detained by Israeli occupation forces”
GENEVA: United Nations experts on Monday condemned “unacceptable” violence by the Israeli military against women and children during the ongoing war in Gaza, particularly sexual violence and enforced disappearances.
“We are appalled that women are being targeted by Israel with such vicious, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, seemingly sparing no means to destroy their lives and deny them their fundamental human rights,” the seven special rapporteurs said in a statement.
Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. They do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
The statement pointed to “continued reports of sexual assault and violence against women and girls, including against those detained by Israeli occupation forces.”
They cited UN reports saying women and girls in Gaza were victims of enforced disappearances.
Referring to Hamas, which runs the besieged Palestinian territory, Israel’s mission in Geneva alleged the experts had “once again chosen to ignore Hamas’s systematic militarization of health facilities and civilian infrastructures in the Gaza Strip, voluntarily and actively using the population as human shields.”
“In issuing such a statement, the signatories try to create an alternative narrative, parroting the agenda of a terrorist organization that is actively destroying the lives of the Palestinian population in Gaza,” the Israeli mission said.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war started after an unprecedented attack on southern Israel by militants from Hamas on October 7.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s relentless retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 34,700 people in Gaza — most of them women and children — according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The UN experts said Israel’s widespread destruction of housing in Gaza and the fact that Palestinians were having to live in “precarious” conditions in makeshift tents had a disproportionate impact on women and girls, particularly on their personal security and privacy.
“The treatment of pregnant and lactating women continues to be appalling, with the direct bombardment of hospitals and deliberate denial of access to health care facilities by Israeli snipers,” they added.
More than 180 women per day were giving birth without pain relief, while hundreds of babies have died due to a lack of electricity for incubators, they said.
These conditions have led to a surge in miscarriages, the experts said.
They said Israeli forces had “destroyed Gaza’s largest fertility clinic,” which stored embryos, and estimated that 690,000 women and girls in Gaza were deprived of menstrual hygiene products.
The Israeli mission in Geneva said Israel “categorically rejects unsubstantiated allegations of sexual assaults and violence.”
It said Israel was ready to investigate “any concrete claims of misconduct by its security forces when presented with credible allegations and evidence.”
The UN experts said “the government of Israel has continuously failed to conduct an independent, impartial and effective investigation into the reported crimes.”
‘Where can we go?’ say Rafah residents as Israel demands evacuation
- Areas designated for evacuation currently shelter some 250,000 people
- Israel’s retaliatory offensive, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, mostly women and children
Rafah: Palestinian civilians in the southern Gazan city of Rafah voiced despair on Monday as Israel dropped fliers urging them to evacuate for their own “safety” ahead of a “limited” military operation.
Israel’s army said it was instructing Palestinian families in eastern Rafah to flee in preparation for an expected ground assault on the city which abuts Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Residents of Rafah described emerging outside after a terrifying night in which around a dozen air strikes were carried out on Rafah, to find fliers falling from the sky telling them to “evacuate immediately.”
“The army is working with intensive power against the terrorist forces near you,” read a flier circulated in eastern Rafah.
“For your safety, the IDF (Israeli military) tells you to evacuate immediately toward the expanded humanitarian zone of Al-Mawasi,” it said, with a map indicating the location to the north of Rafah.
Osama Al-Kahlout, of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza, told AFP that the areas designated for evacuation currently shelter some 250,000 people, many of whom have already been displaced from other areas in the Gaza Strip.
“The evacuation process has begun on the ground, but in a limited manner,” he said.
An Israeli militark spokesman, when asked how many people should move, said: “The estimate is around 100,000 people.”
About 1.2 million people are currently sheltering in Rafah, according to the World Health Organization, most having fled there during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.
Amid pouring rain, some of those sheltering in Rafah said they had begun packing up their things from the densely packed tents and preparing to leave even before Israel’s directive arrived.
“Whatever happens, my tent is ready,” a resident told AFP.
But others said the area they were being told to flee to was already overcrowded, and they did not trust that it would be safe.
Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar, 36, said he and 12 family members were in the designated evacuation area.
Jazar and his family did not know what to do, he said, because the “humanitarian zone” they were told to head for “does not have enough room for us to make tents because they are (already) full of displaced people.”
“Where can we go? We do not know,” he told AFP.
“There are also no hospitals and it is far from any services many need,” he said, adding that one of his family members relied on dialysis at the Al-Najar hospital, in the area of Rafah instructed to evacuate.
“How will we deal with her after that? Should we watch her die without being able to do anything?“
An Israeli military spokesman told reporters that the evacuation “is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas ... we had a violent reminder of their presence and their operational abilities in Rafah yesterday.”
On Sunday, four Israeli soldiers were killed and others wounded, the army said, when a barrage of rockets was fired toward the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza.
The army said the rockets were fired from an area adjacent to Rafah.
International aid organizations have voiced alarm at the expected invasion of Rafah.
“From the humanitarian perspective, no credible humanitarian plan for an attack on Rafah exists,” said Bushra Khalidi, advocacy director for Oxfam in the Palestinian territories.
She said she could “not fathom that Rafah will happen,” asking where displaced Palestinians will go “when most of their surroundings have been reduced to death and rubble?“
Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war broke out following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized some 250 hostages, with Israel estimating that 128 of them remain in Gaza, including 35 whom the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
