Day: 6 February 2022

The African Union convening in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, today unanimously adopted a decision to suspend granting Israel observer status in the Union.

Press reports said the summit of the African Union’s heads of state and governments suspended the AU’s former chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat’s decision on July 22 to grant Israel observer status in the AU.

The summit also agreed to establish a committee comprised of the new chairman of the AU, Macky Sall of Senegal, along with six other heads of state including Algeria, South Africa, Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Cameron, to present recommendations to the next summit meeting on whether to revoke Israel’s status as an observer or not.

Seven Arab and AU member states submitted in August a memorandum objecting to granting Israel an observer status, stressing that such a decision should be taken at a summit of the leaders of the member states and not by a unilateral decision by the commission’s chairman.

Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Comoros, and Djibouti have asked for including a discussion regarding granting Israel observer status on the agenda of the current summit.

The 35th African Union Summit opened its session yesterday and was attended by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Shtayyeh made a strong appeal in his speech before the summit yesterday for withdrawing Israel’s observer status in the AU.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

The Palestinian Central Council, the second-highest decision-making body in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), is scheduled to open today at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah its 31st session with a speech by President Mahmoud Abbas.

The session, to be held under the title: “Developing and activating the Palestine Liberation Organization, protecting the national project, and popular resistance,” is going to discuss the colonial settlement war facing the Palestinian cause in all of the Palestinian territory, especially in occupied Jerusalem.

It will also discuss the stagnation in the Middle East peace process, and the need for the international community to assume its responsibility in implementing its decisions on the Palestinian issue, especially with regard to stopping Israeli settlements and providing international protection for the Palestinian people, and convening an international peace conference under the umbrella of the United Nations to implement its resolutions.

The 31st session of the Central Council will also discuss mechanisms for implementing the decisions of the Palestinian National Council, the highest decision-making body in the PLO, and earlier Central Council decisions regarding the relationship with Israel, as well as the relationship with the US administration.

The council’s agenda includes: following up on Palestinian issues that were brought before the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and the Human Rights Council, joining international organizations and conventions, United Nations resolutions related to the Palestinian issue, as well as resolutions of Arab summits and the Arab Peace Initiative.

The council will discuss the situation in occupied Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state, the popular resistance against the Israeli occupation and settlement and how to develop and activate it, as well as the issue of prisoners and families of martyrs.

Regarding the situation at home, the Central Council will discuss ways to strengthen Palestinian national unity within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and to strengthen intra-Palestinian relations.

The agenda of the 31st session of the Central Council also includes the election of a new presidency of the Palestinian National Council, the election of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Palestinian National Fund, and filling the voids in the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

Israeli occupation forces last night arrested six Palestinians during raids into the village of Beit Fajjar, in the West Bank province of Bethlehem, and in occupied Jerusalem, according to local sources.

In Bethlehem, south of the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops stormed the village of Beit Fajjar and arrested three Palestinians, including two minors, after raiding and searching their homes. The two minors were identified as Samir Taqatqa, 16, and Shaher Taqatqa, 17.

In occupied Jerusalem, Israeli occupation forces stormed Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood where they arrested three Palestinian young men after raiding their homes.

Almost on a daily basis, Israeli occupation forces carry out raids targeting populated Palestinian communities for arrests or searches. The practice, mostly carried out at nighttime, has become a routine under Israeli military regime.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

Representatives of the Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli detention declared today the state of general mobilization in protest of a new series of reprisal measures by the Israel Prison Service (IPS), the Palestinian Authority’s Detainees Affairs Commission said in a statement.

The Commission said the decision of the Palestinian prisoners was made after IPS went back on understandings that had been previously reached with prisoners’ representatives in late September 2021.

“In response to this, the Palestinian prisoner movement of all its spectra declared the state of general mobilization, including the dissolution of all partisan bodies starting tomorrow Monday,” said the Commission.

Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoners at the Israeli prisons of Rimon and Nafha have decided to lock down all of the sections of the two prisons in protest of an IPS decision reducing the daily break-time by 50 percent, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a press statement.

PPS said as a result of the IPS decision, prisoners at certain sections have been unable to meet prisoners from other sections during the daily break-time as before.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

Weather today in Palestine is cloudy, cold to extremely cold especially in the mountainous areas, with a slight rise in temperature which remains 3°C below the seasonal average, and with a low chance of rain over some areas, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Winds are westerly to northwesterly, moderate to active, and sea waves are low to medium.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 11°C and a low of 7°C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 10°C and a low of 6°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 20°C and a low of 13°C, while it is expected to reach a high of 16°C and a low of 12°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

A further rise of temperature is expected on Monday and Tuesday to become around the seasonal average, with cloudy to partially cloudy skies prevailing throughout the two days.

Temperature drops on Wednesday, and partially cloudy to clear skies are expected to prevail.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

The three Palestinian Arabic-language dailies focused today on the 31st of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC), the second-highest decision-making body in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which is scheduled to be held in Ramallah later today.

Al-Quds said the scheduled PCC session will discuss the relationship with the US and Israel, while Al-Hayat Al-Jadida said President Mahmoud Abbas is poised to deliver an inclusive political speech before the session.

The dailies also highlighted Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh’s remarks before the African Union summit yesterday, in which he called on the Union to withdraw Israel’s observer status.

On a different subject, Al-Quds and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida said a group of Israeli settlers yesterday uprooted and vandalized some 25 olive saplings belonging to Palestinian farmers in the village of Bruqin, in the occupied West Bank province of Salfit.

The two dailies reported that Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem foiled an arson attempt by an Israeli settler in their neighborhood on Friday-Saturday night.

The three dailies reported on the tragic death of the Moroccan child Rayan who was pulled out yesterday from a deep well in his village in northern Morocco, where he had been trapped for five days.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida said Nasser Abu Hmeid, a Palestinian serving a life sentence in Israeli jails, remains in a critical health condition and is need of urgent healthcare.

Al-Ayyam said Israeli airlines may soon halt flights to Dubai following disagreements between the Shin Bet and authorities in the United Arab Emirates over security arrangements in the central Gulf city

The three dailies said over 3,000 new COVID cases and 8 deaths were registered across Palestine yesterday.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency