Israel says asked Syrian rebels not to harm Druze

"JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Monday it had made humanitarian aid to select Syrian rebel groups on its border conditional on their undertaking not to harm the Druze minority in the country's civil war." News Link

Palestinian hunger striker 'close to death':lawyer

"Adnan is being held in "administrative detention", a procedure under which Israel imprisons Palestinian suspects without trial indefinitely for renewable six-month periods.

"He was arrested as part of an Israeli mass roundup shortly after last June's kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank." News Link

Israel urges French Jews to flee after factory attack

"I call on the Jews of France – come home! Anti-Semitism is rising, terror is increasing," immigration minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party said in a statement.

"This is a national mission of the highest priority." News Link

U.N. calls on Netanyahu to act on commitment to two-state solution

"UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to translate into action his commitment to a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, including halting settlement construction.

"Netanyahu took a stand against Palestinian statehood during his election campaign earlier this year, but has since committed to a two-state solution. Palestinians seek a state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in 1967." News Link

Aid convoy sets sail for Gaza in new bid to break Israeli blockade

"On Sunday, deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely said the flotilla was "the work of provocateurs whose aim is to blacken Israel's face," adding that the ministry had been working "through diplomatic channels night and day" to prevent it from reaching Israeli waters." News Link

Israel bars rights group from volunteer programme

"B'Tselem was one of 10 human rights groups which wrote to the attorney general last July to raise "concerns about grave violations of international humanitarian law" in the bombing and shelling of residential buildings in the Gaza Strip."

"Uri Ariel, minister responsible for the National Insurance Institute, which supervises the scheme, said on Tuesday he had given orders that volunteering with groups seen as hostile to the state would no longer be recognised as national service."

"It's not just B'Tselem," he added. "It's not just one organisation, there may be others and it applies to them as well." News Link

Orange CEO tells Netanyahu firm will deepen Israel ties

"JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The chief executive of French telecoms group Orange told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday he profoundly regretted remarks he made last week which he said were misinterpreted to make it sound as if he supported a boycott of Israel." News Link

No charges as Israel closes probe into deadly Gaza beach bombing

"The Israeli army said on Thursday that it was dropping proceedings over a July 16 bombing of a Gaza beach where four children died during last summer's war.

"The... case has been closed following the completion of a criminal investigation," it said in a statement, adding that two other cases involving Palestinian deaths in the fighting had also been closed, but a criminal investigation had been launched in an attack on a cafe in which nine died." News Link

Palestinians to send war crimes reports to world court

"RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian officials say they are pressing ahead with their war crimes case against Israel in the International Criminal Court.

"Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Thursday that he will travel to the Hague on June 25 to present the Palestinians' first reports to the court as part of a preliminary investigation.

"He said the reports will focus on Israeli settlement construction and Israel's war in the Gaza Strip last year.

"The Palestinians joined the ICC earlier this year.

"The Haaretz daily said Thursday that an ICC delegation would soon be visiting as part of the investigation. It quoted a senior Israeli official as dismissing the visit as a routine procedure. Israel opposes the investigation, accusing the Palestinians of avoiding negotiations." News Link

Israel refuses to treat shot Palestinian photographer

"Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel has barred a Palestinian photographer allegedly shot in the eye by an Israeli soldier from entering east Jerusalem for specialist treatment, he told AFP on Wednesday.

"The march was peaceful and no stones were thrown, no photographers were taking any pictures," he said, accusing soldiers of firing sound bombs at the photographers without any provocation.

"I raised my camera to my right eye to take a picture, but a soldier shot me in my left eye with his rifle, and the rubber bullet went through my gas mask's glass eye cover and into my eye."

"An Italian camerawoman was also injured during the same demonstration which came as Palestinians marked "Nakba", or the catastrophe that befell them when Israel was established in 1948." News Link

The Creation Of Israel

Israel isn't on UN list of parties that kill or injure children

"Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor said Israel should not be listed alongside groups like Islamic State, al Qaeda and the Taliban. Emmanuel Nahshon, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Israel took all possible steps to protect civilians.

"Israel acted to defend its residents from attacks by a murderous terrorist group, which has no qualms about placing Palestinian civilians, including children, in the line of fire," Nahshon said." News Link

Known Source Comment: "Placing children in the line of fire" means "Hamas let children sleep peacefully in their beds while Israel bombed their homes."

Israel hits Gaza, closes crossings after rocket attack

"Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israeli warplanes struck Gaza early Sunday for the second time in three days after cross-border rocket fire by an Islamic extremist group which is locked in a power struggle with Hamas.

"It was the third time Israel had staged retaliatory air strikes on the war torn Gaza Strip in the past fortnight after three instances of rocket fire, all of which were claimed by Salafist extremists loosely allied with the Islamic State group." News Link

Netanyahu slams 'miserable' Orange move to cut Israel ties

"Jerusalem (AFP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday condemned the "miserable" decision of French telecoms giant Orange to withdraw its brand from Israel, urging Paris to distance itself from the company.

"The absurd drama in which the democracy that observes human rights –- the State of Israel -– and which defends itself from barrages of missiles and terrorist tunnels, and then absorbs automatic condemnations and attempted boycotts, this absurd drama will not be forgiven," Netanyahu said at a memorial ceremony.

"I call on our friends to unconditionally declare -– in a loud and clear voice –- that they oppose any kind of boycott of the state of the Jews," he said." News Link

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"And since making the remarks Wednesday in Cairo, the Orange CEO has been contrite.

"He told Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper "we love Israel," and the office of Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said he had received a call on Friday to apologise.

"But Partner is unimpressed.

"The recent statements... are nothing more than a smokescreen, the object of which is to manipulate public opinion in Israel and the world," Saturday's statement said, slamming what it called Richard's "offensive statements, apologies and vague and evasive expressions." News Link

Israel slams Swiss funding for Israeli NGO exhibit

"The exhibition, which will open in Zurich this week, is being staged by Breaking the Silence, a rights group whose members are veteran combatants who testify about the abuses they have seen or taken part in during their military service in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"But Israel's newly appointed deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely is determined to prevent the show from taking place, ordering both the ministry and Israel's embassy in Bern to examine ways of preventing it, ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told AFP.

"Andrea Konig, director of Kulturhaus Helferei, the organisation hosting the exhibit, said she was surprised by the intensity of the criticism.

"Those who disagreed with Breaking the Silence had been offered a chance to participate in discussions to be held alongside the exhibit, she said.

"Konig's organisation also asked the Israeli embassy to participate but it declined, she said." News Link

Another Ethiopian Israeli protest in Tel Aviv

"Last month Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial city, saw its most violent demonstration in years when police on horseback charged at hundreds of protesters to disperse an angry outburst at a video showing policemen beating a soldier of Ethiopian descent.

"The latest demonstration was held to press for speedier measures against police accused of involvement in that assault. "Violent police ought to be jailed," some protesters chanted." News Link

Israel must be held to account for its war crimes

"According to Bensouda the ICC would "be looking at alleged crimes committed by all sides, in total independence and impartiality, and without fear or favour". That is the real meaning of justice: if human rights are to be truly universal no individual can be above the law.

"Some argue that ICC investigations will endanger prospects for peace. But over the last two decades, the Israeli government has shown no interest in furthering the peace process. In a candid moment at the end of the Israeli election campaign, Netanyahu ruled out a two-state solution while he was Prime Minister. He ruled out the very premise on which decades of the peace process have been based.

"Israel protests that its military tribunals are capable of dealing with the infractions of its soldiers, and thus that the ICC need not interfere. Expecting an army to investigate its own commanders, however, is too much to ask for – especially with the changes in Israel's military doctrines, which now appear to tolerate civilian deaths on a large scale. In the last three wars against Palestine, the most severe penalty handed to an Israeli soldier was seven-and-a-half months' imprisonment for stealing a credit card." News Link