The United States Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the first to be released under the Biden Administration – reaffirmed that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, but made reference to the Palestinian Authority’s right to sections of the Holy City while reintroducing the notion that Israel occupies the West Bank.
While both the Biden and Trump administrations confirmed that Washington considers Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital, neither clarified the exact boundaries in which the Jewish state’s sovereignty should apply and both suggested that the final status of the city was subject to negotiations. Additionally, in the latest report Biden reaffirmed Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Trump recognized in 2019.
However, while the Trump administration’s final United States Country Reports on Human Rights Practices downgraded the Palestinian connection to Jerusalem, noting that “the Palestinian Authority exercises no authority over Jerusalem,” Biden’s first report omitted that line. It also referenced a “future Palestinian state” unlike the previous one.
This year’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices also included an explanation about Israeli occupation that was missing from the Trump administration’s 2019 report: “This section of the report covers Israel within the 1949 Armistice Agreement line as well as…territories that Israel occupied during the June 1967 war and where it later extended its domestic law, jurisdiction, and administration.”
The Gulf Arab nation of Bahrain has reportedly named Khaled Yousif Al-Jalahma as its ambassador to Israel. Jerusalem said it accepted al-Jalahma’s nomination for the post after Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and Manama’s top diplomat, Abd al-Latif al-Ziani, spoke earlier this week.
“The decision of the Bahraini government to appoint an ambassador to Israel is another important step in the implementation of the peace agreement between and of the strengthening of ties between the two countries,” Ashkenazi told al-Ziani, according to an Israeli statement. “In the coming weeks, a team from Bahrain will arrive in Israel to make the necessary arrangements.”
Along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel signed a historic normalization agreement, called the Abraham Accords, in Washington last September.
In related news, Israel’s National Security Agency has advised against travel to the UAE, Bahrain and other countries across the region, citing the threat of an attack by Iran.
Marwan Barghouti, the terrorist convicted of organizing several deadly attacks during the Second Intifada, has compiled his own list of candidates to run in the upcoming Palestinian legislative elections. The move is being construed as a major challenge to PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction.
“The decision came after it was confirmed to Marwan Barghouti that the Fatah movement did not comply with what was agreed upon with regard to choosing the names on the movement’s list,” Barghouti’s brother Muqbil was quoted as saying.
In January, Abbas issued a decree ordering the first Palestinian elections in over 15 years. There are currently three votes scheduled: parliamentary elections on May 22; presidential elections on July 31; and elections for the Palestinian National Committee — the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization — on August 31.
A recent poll found that if Barghouti were to break off from Fatah, 28 percent of respondents would vote for his list compared to 22 percent for Abbas’ candidates. Others polls show that Abbas would likely lose to Barghouti if the latter decided to run for president.
Thirteen Yemeni Jews were relocated to Egypt in a deal struck with Iranian-backed groups in war-torn Yemen. The move reduces the number of Jews remaining in the country to an estimated six, including Levi Salem Marhabi, who is currently in a prison run by Shiite Houthi rebels.
Some of the recently departed Jews have claimed that a quid pro quo was agreed to that would see Marhabi freed in exchange for them leaving.
“They reached an agreement with the Houthi leadership to go to Cairo. They wanted at first to go to the United Arab Emirates, but that proved impossible, so they went to Cairo. In Cairo, they have family there,” an anonymous official was quoted as saying.
The Jewish community of Yemen, once numbering over 50,000 strong, has dwindled in recent decades. Between 1949 and 1950, nearly 49,000 Yemenite Jews were brought to Israel.
HonestReporting has organized an exclusive trip to the Syrian border, where individuals can observe the prevailing security reality and have their pressing questions answered.
Itinerary:
- Travel to the Oz 77 memorial, which commemorates the Yom Kippur War and overlooks the Valley of Tears, where some of the fiercest battles took place;
- Visit the Monument to Eli Cohen, the notorious Israeli spy that infiltrated the highest echelons of power in Syria before getting caught and being executed. The site is located on an IDF special operations training facility in the Golan Heights;
- Tour the Israel-Syria border, where participants can view the town of Quneitra and a destroyed Syrian military building;
- Have free time at Ein Zivan, home of the De Karina Boutique Chocolate Factory and various other shops.
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- 100,000 Israelis Visit Museums, Tourist Sites for Free During Passover (Jerusalem Post)
- Rare Coin Rediscovered During Conservation Project of Jerusalem Museum Tower (Nurit Chinn, Times of Israel)
- Let Us Celebrate Breaking the Bonds of the Coronavirus (Prof. Arnon Ofek, Israel Hayom)
