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JERUSALEM: Israel’s outgoing coalition government will fast-track a bill this week to dissolve parliament, setting up the country for its fifth elections in three years, a Cabinet minister said Tuesday.
The development comes after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Monday that he would disband his alliance of eight ideologically diverse parties, a year after taking office, and send the country to the polls. A series of defections from his Yemina party had stripped the coalition of its majority in parliament.
Bennett cited the coalition’s failure earlier this month to extend a law that grants West Bank settlers special legal status as a main impetus for new elections. His key ally, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, will become the caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed in the aftermath of elections, which are expected to be held in October.
Welfare Minister Meir Cohen, a member of Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the coalition would bring the bill to a preliminary vote on Wednesday.
“We hope that within a week we will complete the process,” Cohen said. “The intention is to finish it as soon as possible and to go to elections.”
New elections raise the possibility that longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu, now opposition leader, will be able to stage a comeback. Netanyahu was ousted by the eight-party alliance after four inconclusive elections that were largely seen as referendums on the his fitness to rule.
The alliance’s factions range from dovish liberals opposed to Israeli settlements to hawkish ultranationalists who reject Palestinian statehood and were united solely in their opposition to Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is currently on trial for corruption, but has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly dismissed the charges as part of a witch hunt to drive him from office. Israeli law does not explicitly state that a politician under indictment may not become prime minister.
As politicians gear up for fall elections, several coalition members have floated the possibility of passing a law before the Knesset disbands that would bar a lawmaker accused of a crime from serving as prime minister.
UNITED NATIONS: Donors pledged about $160 million for the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, but it still needs over $100 million to support education for more than half a million children and provide primary health care for close to 2 million people and emergency cash assistance to the poorest refugees, the agency’s chief said Friday. Briefing reporters on the outcome of Thursday’s donor conference, Philippe Lazzarini said the pledges when turned into cash will enable the UN Relief and Works Agency known as UNRWA to run its operations through September. But “I do not know if we will get the necessary cash to allow us to pay the salaries after the month of September,” he said. “We are in an early warning mode,” Lazzarini said. “Right now, I’m drawing the attention that we are in a danger zone and we have to avoid a situation where UNRWA is pushed to cross the tipping point, because if we cross the tipping point that means 28,000 teachers, health workers, nurses, doctors, engineers, cannot be paid.” UNRWA was established to provide education, health care, food and other services to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948. There are now 5.7 million Palestinian refugees, including their children and grandchildren, who mostly live in camps that have been transformed into built-up but often impoverished residential areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, as well as in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. But UNRWA only helps the more than 500,000 in school and close to 2 million who have health benefits. Lazzarini said the more than $100 million shortfall in funding for 2022 is about the same as the shortfall that UNRWA has faced every year for almost a decade, but while income has stagnated costs have increased. In past years, UNRWA has been able to absorb the shortfall through austerity and cost control measures, he said, but today it’s not possible because there is very little left to cut without cutting services. “Today, we have some classrooms with up to 50 kids,” the UNRWA commissioner-general said. “We have a double shift in our schools. We have doctors who cannot spend more than three minutes in medical consultation. So if we go beyond that, it will force the agency to cut services.” Lazzarini said UNRWA’s problem is that “we are expected to provide government-like services to one of the most destitute communities in the region, but we are funded like an NGO because we depend completely on voluntary contributions.” Funding the agency’s services has been put at risk today because of the “de-prioritization, or maybe increased indifference, or because of domestic politics,” he said. Lazzarini said the solution to UNRWA’s chronic financial problem requires “political will” to match the support for the agency’s work on behalf of Palestinian refugees. He said UNRWA has a very strong donor base in Europe and last year the Biden administration resumed funding which was cut by the Trump administration, but he said the overall contribution from the Arab world has dropped to less than 3 percent of the agency’s income. Donors have also faced financial difficulties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, and now there’s a major effort to help Ukraine in its war with Russia, he said. “We will know better at the end of the year how much it will impact the agency,” Lazzarini said. Some donors have already warned UNRWA “that we might not have the traditional top-up at the end of the year, which would be dramatic” for the agency, he said. Ahead of Thursday’s donors conference, Israel’s UN Ambassador Erdan Calls on countries to freeze contributions until all UNRWA teachers that it claims support terrorism and murdering Jews are fired. Lazzarini said UNRWA received a letter from Israel’s UN Mission Friday which he hadn’t read, but he said all allegations will be investigated and if there is a breach of UN values and misconduct “we will take measures in line with UN policies.”
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s newly reappointed prime minister-designate Najib Mikati has called on the Lebanese to leave their differences aside and put the country on the path to recovery.
Mikati, currently serving as caretaker PM, was named prime minister-designate by President Michel Aoun on Thursday after binding parliamentary consultations.
The billionaire, who has already served in the role three times, received the support of 54 of 128 MPs.
However, if he fails to form a new government in the four months before President Michel Aoun’s term ends on Oct. 31, no executive decisions will be able to be taken during that time.
Meanwhile, 25 MPs designated Nawaf Salam, a former Lebanese ambassador to the UN and now a judge at the International Court of Justice, while one MP, Jihad Al-Samad, designated former premier Saad Hariri, arguing that “Hariri is the top representative of the Sunni community in Lebanon.”
Forty-six MPs, including Christian MPs affiliated with the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement, in addition to some reformist MPs, refrained from designating anyone.
Mikati is expected to hold non-binding parliamentary consultations by Monday or Tuesday to elicit MPs’ opinions, and to see whether the new government will be a government of national unity.
Following the binding parliamentary consultations, many MPs stressed the importance of forming a government.
MP Sami Gemayel, head of the Lebanese Kataeb Party, said: “I wish MPs would stop saying that there will be no government before the presidential elections. The country cannot wait, and the people cannot wait, nor can the economy or the national currency. Lebanon cannot withstand four more months like this.”
Calling on the forces of change to unite to form an opposition force, opposition MP Michel Moawad said: “The dispersal of the opposition is a major obstacle to our ability to achieve change.
“We have a collective responsibility in the opposition to agree on the crucial milestones; otherwise we will bear the responsibility for what is happening in the country.”
Hezbollah did not announce its position on participating in the government, but did designate Mikati to form it.
MP Bilal Abdallah, from the Democratic Gathering bloc, told Arab News: “When it comes to forming a government, the current stage is different from the previous ones. Last time, we designated Mikati and participated in his government, but we have a different approach today. We have called on unifying the political position of the opposition, but no one answered our call. The majority remains divided.”
Abdallah said that the FPM did not designate Mikati the last time, but insisted on selecting all the Christian ministers in his government.
“Will this happen again this time? That political team’s demands will be even more impossible to meet if it wishes to disrupt the presidential elections. We got so used to seeing this team disrupting political life; how can we trust that it wants to hold presidential elections on time? They have always disrupted government just to have their way. Disruption is their middle name.”
Meanwhile, the FPM is continuing its campaign against Riad Salameh, seeking to have the central bank governor replaced before the end of Aoun’s term.
Controversial Lebanese judge and Mount Lebanon state prosecutor Ghada Aoun filed another lawsuit against Salameh, his four former deputies, former director-general of the Ministry of Finance Alain Biffany, and several central bank employees in light of a complaint submitted by the People Want Reform group against Salameh and anyone whom the investigations show to be involved in illicit enrichment, money laundering, forgery, counterfeiting and fraud.
Aoun, who is affiliated with the FPM, referred the case to the first investigative judge in Mount Lebanon, requesting the arrest of Salameh and the others, and referring them to the Mount Lebanon Criminal Court, while maintaining the travel ban issued against Salameh.
Earlier, Aoun personally supervised a raid on Salameh’s home in the Rabieh area.
State security officers searched the house and opened safes, only to find that the property had been abandoned and the safes contained only some papers, which were confiscated.
RABAT, Morocco: Moroccan authorities said that five migrants were killed and scores of migrants and police officers were injured in a “stampede” of people trying to cross into the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla on Friday. About 130 migrants breached the border between Morocco and Melilla on Friday, the first such incursion since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month. A spokesperson for the Spanish government’s office in Melilla said about 2,000 people attempted to enter the North African city. Morocco’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the casualties occurred when people tried to climb the iron fence. It said five migrants were killed and 76 injured, and 140 Moroccan security officers were injured. Those who succeeded in crossing went to a local migrant center, where authorities were evaluating their circumstances. Several migrants and police officers were slightly injured, said the spokesperson, who could not be identified by name in keeping with government rules. People fleeing poverty and violence sometimes make mass attempts to reach Melilla and the other Spanish territory on the North African coast, Ceuta, as a springboard to continental Europe. Spain normally relies on Morocco to keep migrants away from the border. Over two days at the beginning of March, more than 3,500 people tried to scale the 6-meter (20-foot) barrier that surrounds Melilla and nearly 1,000 made it across, according to Spanish authorities. Friday’s crossings were the first attempt since relations between Spain and Morocco improved in March after a year-long dispute centered on the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976. Morocco loosened its controls around Ceuta last year, allowing thousands of migrants to cross into Spain. The move was viewed as retaliation for Spain’s decision to allow the leader of Western Sahara’s pro-independence movement to be treated for COVID-19 at a Spanish hospital. Tensions between the two countries began to thaw earlier this year after Spain backed Morocco’s plan to grant more autonomy to Western Sahara, where activists are seeking full independence.
RAMALLAH: Officials at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem have raised deep concerns over Israeli excavation work at the holy site which they claim has caused cracks and other damage to the building’s structure.
And Azzam Al-Khatib, director general of the city’s Islamic Awqaf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs department, has warned that the mosque could be in danger of collapse if the digging continued at its current intensity.
The Israelis have been carrying out excavations beneath Islam’s third-holiest site for a number of weeks which officials say has led to cracks appearing and stones being dislodged from walls and ceilings.
Al-Khatib said: “There are dangerous and unknown excavations, and no one knows what they are and what their goals are. We see the removal of large quantities of dust and hear the sounds of digging equipment and the breaking of stones.
“The vibrations led to the fall of several stones from the mosque’s ceilings in the southern prayer halls.
“I asked the Israeli police to allow specialized engineers and technicians from our department to find out what is going on and what is happening, and for a week we have been talking to the Israeli police about these excavations, which are taking place day and night, and they just ignore our request,” he added.
Al-Khatib noted that similar activities had taken place in the past but digging work had been stepped up in recent weeks.
He said: “We are concerned about the tunnels being dug that may lead to the collapse of the Al-Aqsa. So, we informed the Jordanian Royal Court, the Jordanian Ministry of the Islamic Awqaf, the Jordanian ambassador, and most importantly, we appealed to (Jordan’s) King Abdullah, custodian of the holy sites, to intervene in this issue.
“The Islamic Awqaf does not want friction but is deeply concerned about surprises for Al-Aqsa and stability in the region.
“I asked the Israeli police to allow us to repair the wall from which stones came off, and which might be in danger of collapsing, but they refused.
“Neither the Waqf, nor UNESCO (the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) knows what is happening. We are entrusted with Al-Aqsa and carrying out our mission. What is happening is a dangerous matter that worries and frightens us,” Al-Khatib added.
Technical sources in the Islamic Awqaf told Arab News that a committee of engineers and experts affiliated with the department had been set up to look into what was happening and report back to officials.
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun on Friday reaffirmed his country’s position on the Palestinian cause during a meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of Hamas.
Aoun expressed “the right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state on all their national territory, with Jerusalem as its capital,” and stressed Palestinian refugees’ right to return home.
“Palestinians’ resistance to occupation is not terrorism,” Aoun said, adding that “no one can imagine Jerusalem without the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other holy sites,” and stressing the need “to preserve Jerusalem, where Christianity, Islam and Judaism meet.”
After the meeting, Haniyeh said: “The Israeli occupation does not differentiate between a Muslim and a Christian in Palestine, especially in Jerusalem.
“Hamas stands in solidarity with Lebanon and condemns the Israeli enemy’s attempt to steal from Lebanon’s maritime resources.”
He added that he wished Lebanon “security, stability and more solidarity.”
Haniyeh’s visit to Lebanon is his third in two years and coincided with World Refugee Day. On his first visit, he said: “Our missiles will be launched from our land (targeting Israel) and we will not involve Lebanon.”
Raafat Murra, a Hamas official, said Haniyeh’s visit to Beirut “highlights the need to resolve the crisis of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.”
Haniyeh’s office said one of the aims of the trip was “addressing the reality of the Palestinian cause and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon” as well as “consulting and cooperating with the Palestinian factions’ officials, in a way that serves the Palestinian cause.”
A Palestine Liberation Organization official in Lebanon, who chose to remain anonymous, told Arab News that “the PLO and Fatah are not involved with Haniyeh’s visit to Lebanon. This visit is part of the special program between Hamas and Hezbollah.”
During his time in Lebanon, Haniyeh also visited Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah said that “Haniyeh and Nasrallah underlined the importance of cooperation between the Axis of Resistance to serve the central goal, which is concerned with Jerusalem, holy sites and the Palestinian cause.”
The PLO official said that Hezbollah was “trying to solve the problems between Hamas and the Syrian regime.”
Asked about a Hamas announcement that Haniyeh’s visit to Lebanon was related to the Palestinian refugee camps, he said the refugees had their own authority — the PLO — and that Lebanon recognized the independent state of Palestine and deals with it to address all issues facing the camps.