Settler attacks displace Palestinian Bedouins multiple times

Along with the constant military raids, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are also frequently attacked by Israeli settlers.

The village of al-Auja in the occupied West Bank used to be home to 600 Palestinian Bedouins. Almost all of them have dismantled their tents, packed their belongings and scattered searching for shelter after settler attacks.

Ayed Kaabneh, one of those displaced, told Al Jazeera he has been displaced three times in a month. He said the Israeli settlers who attacked his family before are now chasing their new home.

“We woke up the children and moved them to a safer place. We had to because we were scared the settlers would set the tents on fire. That’s happened in many other communities,” he said.

Communities say they do not have help or protection from authorities, either Israeli or Palestinian, and have no option but to leave.

Israel’s far-right minister to push for ‘migration’ of Palestinians from West Bank, Gaza

Israeli media is reporting the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as saying that he would pursue a policy of “encouraging the migration” of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

“We will finally, formally, and in practical terms nullify the cursed Oslo Accords and embark on a path toward sovereignty, while encouraging emigration from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria. There is no other long-term solution,” said Smotrich, speaking at an event organised by his Religious Zionism Party late on Tuesday.

Since last week, Israel’s security cabinet has approved a series of measures backed by far-right ministers to tighten control over the West Bank, including in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords, in place since the 1990s.

The Vatican will not take part in Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’

The Vatican will not participate in President Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” initiative, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s top diplomatic official, said.

Parolin added that efforts to handle crisis situations should be managed by the United Nations. The Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States”, Parolin said.

“One concern is that at the international level, it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted.”

Pope Leo, the first US pope and a critic of some of Trump’s policies, was invited to join the board in January.


Board of thieves, pedophiles and war criminals.

The controversial “Board of Peace” first formal meeting will take place tomorrow in Washington, DC, as beleaguered Palestinians in the war-battered territory wait for the second phase of the “ceasefire” agreement to come into force fully.

Since President Trump launched the controversial board at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, at least 19 countries have signed its founding charter.

The board, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza “ceasefire” and the territory’s reconstruction, despite the US providing at least $21.7bn in military aid to Israel since its war on the Palestinian enclave began.

But the board’s purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, triggering fears that the US president wants to create a rival to the UN. Trump has said the first meeting would allocate $5bn in humanitarian and reconstruction aid for Gaza.

Trump scrambles on rare praise for Iran amidst latest warning from Ayatollah

Donald Trump has faltered after he praised the Iranians by calling them tough and good negotiators. But he had to quickly change his line by calling them bad negotiators. This came hours before Iran said it was close to securing a deal with the US on its nuclear programme. Meanwhile, the Iranian Supreme Leader too has reminded the US what could happen to its ships if Tehran retaliated. Rifat Jawaid analyses the second round of Iran-US talks.