Israel is not interfering with the scheduled Palestinian elections, Foreign Ministry political director Alon Bar told European ambassadors. “Israel will not prevent the election in the Palestinian Authority from happening,” he said.
Representatives from the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Ireland and other countries met with the Israeli diplomat to convey “the importance of democratic elections in the Palestinian Territories to strengthen political participation and accountability as well as democratic checks and balances,” according to a tweet published by their embassies.
The Palestinians are claiming that they requested that voting be allowed to take place in the eastern part of Jerusalem but have yet to receive an answer from the Israeli government. PA President Mahmoud Abbas is reportedly considering canceling the May 22 election if voting cannot be held there.
Ayman Odeh, head of Israel’s Arab-majority Joint List political body, has called for a Palestinian uprising and praised Arab youth for their active role in recent clashes with Israeli forces and Jewish residents in Jerusalem.
Taking to Facebook to comment on the police decision to remove crowd control barriers placed near the Damascus Gate in the Old City, Odeh published two posts, one in Hebrew and one in Arabic.
Odeh’s Hebrew-language post was translated as such by local media: “This is not the first time the police and the government have acted violently, then tried to whitewash it before finally being caught in a lie,” he wrote.
In Arabic, however, Odeh opted for a much more fiery tone: “This wonderful and honorable victory belongs to the youth of Jerusalem. These clashes are sometimes calm and sometimes erupt, and it will be so until the intifada comes and brings an end to the occupation and hoists the Palestinian flag over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, over the churches, and over the liberated gates of Jerusalem. We extend our greetings to the free people of Jerusalem.”
US President Joe Biden is reportedly expected to name Thomas Nides as the next US ambassador to Israel. Born in 1961 to a Jewish family in Duluth, Minnesota, Nides is a banking executive and if indeed picked, would bring both government and private-sector experience to the post.
From 2011 to 2013, he served as deputy secretary of state for management and resources under former US president Barack Obama, and has served in a variety of other government positions.
As deputy secretary of state for management and resources, Nides reportedly helped carry out Obama’s policy against Congressional efforts to limit US support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Nides also reportedly built effective working relationships with several Israeli officials and played a key role in the Obama administration’s approval of an extension on loan guarantees for Israel worth billions of dollars.
He was apparently tapped to be Hillary Clinton’s White House chief of staff had she not lost the 2016 US presidential election to Donald Trump.
The first Israeli female seeking to climb Mount Everest has just a few weeks left on her journey, local media reported.
Danielle Wolfson, 43, is a lawyer who lives in Tel Aviv. A lifelong lover of sports, she trained for months before setting off to Kathmandu, Nepal earlier this year.
Wolfson is several weeks into her Everest trek, which usually takes around two months to complete. She has reportedly ascended nearly 5,000 meters (16,404 feet), with 3,400 meters (11,154 feet) left to go.
In January, Wolfson departed Israel for Copiapó, Chile, where she climbed Ojos del Salada, the highest volcano in the world. She told local media at the time that the trip was a practice run for Everest. In March, Wolfson scaled Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe.
At the top of each mountain, Wolfson waves an Israeli flag: “I have a rule. On every summit I hoist an Israeli flag. I wasn’t born here, I came from Russia when I was 10, but I am so Israeli, in every artery. From my point of view, as a woman, just to reach the top and hoist a flag is an honor.”
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