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Lebanon to file complaint to UN over Israeli wall beyond ‘Blue Line’
The National News Agency reports Lebanon plans to file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council over Israel’s construction of a concrete wall along its southern border that traverses the “Blue Line”, a UN-backed, unofficial ceasefire line between the two countries.
According to the news agency, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun requested the complaint be issued along with recent UN reports confirming the Israeli wall has blocked off some 4,000sq metres (43,055sq feet) of territory to Lebanese people.
Israel killed more than 4,000 people, mostly civilians, in its recent war on Lebanon, and displaced more than a million people. It razed dozens of villages to the ground and invaded – and still refuses to withdraw from – at least five points on Lebanese territory.
Anti-government protesters rally across Israel
The Times of Israel reports that nationwide, anti-government rallies are occurring for another week in Israel, including in Tel Aviv and Haifa.
Many of the demonstrators are urging the government to launch a state inquiry into the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far resisted.
The biggest rally is taking place in Tel Aviv, with activists heading from the Defence Ministry headquarters towards Habima Square, according to the news report.
A demonstration in support of establishing a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks in Habima Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday
Deeply unpopular Palestinian leader Abbas turns 90
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas turned 90 on Saturday, still holding power in tiny pockets of the occupied West Bank but marginalized and weakened by Israel.
The world’s second-oldest serving president – after Cameroon’s 92-year-old Paul Biya – Abbas has been in office for 20 years, and for nearly the entire time has failed to hold elections. His weakness has left Palestinians leaderless, critics say, at a time when they face an existential crisis.
Abbas “has put his head in the sand and has taken no initiative”, said Khalil Shikaki, head of the People’s Company for Polls and Survey Research, a Palestinian pollster.
“His legitimacy was depleted long ago. He has become a liability to his own party and for the Palestinians as a whole.” An October poll by Shikaki’s organisation found 80 percent of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza want Abbas to resign.
For many Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority is a subcontractor of the occupation, suppressing opponents while Israel swallows up an increasing amount of the West Bank.
“It has chosen to put itself hand-in-hand with the Israeli occupation, even as [Israel] acts to make it more fragile and weaker,” said Abdaljawad Omar, an assistant professor of philosophy and cultural studies at the West Bank’s Bir Zeit University.
Even lower approval rating than Trump
