Author: Arshad Shaheen

A coalition of over 300 rabbis has denounced the efforts to politicise anti-Semitism by pro-Israel groups. The Central Rabbinical Congress criticised Zionist organisations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for cynically exploiting concerns about anti-Semitism to shield Israel from accountability. “The Torah is the Jewish people’s sole authority, and therefore the ADL and such organisations do not speak for the Jewish people,” said the rabbis. “They do what is beneficial for their agenda and not necessarily for the Jews.” Nevertheless, they insisted that, “Boycotts, sanctions and the like are not the way of…

The Palestinian Popular Conference stressed its commitment to the option of comprehensive resistance, as it is the proven path to defeating the occupation, and rejected the Oslo approach. In a statement released to mark 30 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Popular Conference also stressed the need to stop counting on American promises to reach compromise solutions with Israel, which deny all Palestinian rights. The conference called for working to formulate a national strategy to confront the crimes of the right-wing, racist, fascist occupation government, and to capitalise on the comprehensive crisis that is afflicting Israel by committing to implementing the decisions of the National and Central Councils to…

It is the 30th anniversary of the breakthrough Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians. The peace deal led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority, intended to provide interim self-government for just five years while negotiations solved outstanding core issues in the conflict. Today, nearly a decade after peace talks collapsed, the PA remains in place, but is losing its legitimacy. With its vibrant restaurants, bustling malls and new construction constantly under way, affluent Ramallah has become synonymous with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Since 1993 when the first of a pair of agreements known as the Oslo Accords were…

Toronto, Frankfurt (16/9 – 30) Derna is a second-tier city of roughly 100,000 people, situated in northeast Libya. Early dawn on Monday, September 11, two aging dams gave way, bursting and sending a seven-meter-high tsunami towards the city. Entire neighborhoods were washed into the sea. The dams failed after heavy rainfall hit the region, as Storm Daniel passed through. Before passing over Libya, a Storm Daniel landfall in Greece resulted in 15 fatalities, on September 4. The same storm also wreaked havoc in Turkey and even up in Bulgaria. At least five people were killed after a flash flood swept…

A look of admiration from behind bars, accompanied by hope for a better tomorrow that brings her and her life partner together. A life partner in whose cause she believes and has pride in his steadfastness in the face of his jailer, awaiting his release to that she can complete her happiness by wearing her white gown and marrying her groom who has been released from the cells of injustice, pain and death. This is the situation for many girls in Egypt, who have accepted marriage to political detainees who may have received severe prison sentences. They are waiting for…

Berlin (25/7 – 16.67) The table is set for the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast to remain a geopolitical hotspot. Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), eastern Tajikistan, is the home to the Pamir Mountains, also called “the roof of the world”, whose sharp mountain ranges and deep valleys resemble a lunar landscape. A far-flung frontier, situated in a troubled neighborhood, next to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, GBAO is a geopolitical treasure tethered to exterior interests: the authoritarian central Tajik government in Dushanbe, Chinese economic and military interests, and Russia, which historically frames the Pamirs as a part of its…

Israel will build a 100 billion shekel ($27 billion) rail expansion that will connect its outlying areas to metropolitan Tel Aviv and, in the future, could provide overland links to Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, reports Reuters. The announcement followed a trip by top US officials to Saudi Arabia last week to advance a possible forging of formal relations between the Muslim powerhouse and Israel. Opening the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Netanyahu appeared to sidestep the constitutional crisis that has roiled the country for seven months, denting its economy and shaking Western allies’ confidence in its democratic health. Instead,…

Inkript, a digital security solutions provider in the Middle East and Africa, will be producing the first commercialized biometric payment card in the world based on Zwipe’s platform. This biometric payment card will be made available by Kuwait International Bank (KIB) to its VIP customers. This announcement was made during Seamless Middle East 2023 at Inkript stand where the company was showcasing its latest solutions and services to a pool of visitors from the payments, fintech, identity and retail industries, among others. On this occasion, Riad Itani, Managing Director at Inkript Industries, explained the importance of this milestone and said,…

The United Arab Emirates in the coming days will lift a temporary restriction on issuing visas to Lebanese nationals imposed due to security concerns, a UAE official told Reuters on Thursday. “Temporary restrictions are in place in response to security concerns. Temporary restrictions continuously undergo review and are subject to be lifted for specific categories of visas in the coming days,” the UAE official said, without giving further details. Lebanese citizens have been reporting in recent weeks that visas for Lebanese outside the UAE were not being granted Two travel agents in Lebanon told Reuters they were unable to request visas for Lebanese nationals to…

The European Union (EU) understood Lebanon’s concerns about hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees on its territories and was ready to engage in constructive dialogue, said the bloc’s ambassador to Lebanon on Tuesday. “The European Union remains ready to engage in a constructive dialogue on these issues within the limits imposed by our respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty,” Ralph Tarraf was quoted in a statement released by his delegation as saying. Tarraf added that Lebanese and European citizens are concerned with social cohesion and economic imbalances when opening doors to others in large numbers. He said finding a balance is delicate…