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US SECRETARY OF State Antony Blinken is due in Jerusalem later today to discuss steps for de-escalation in violence between Israel and Palestine.
French president Emmanuel Macron has urged all parties to avoid feeding a “spiral of violence” during a telephone call on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Pope Francis has deplored the “death spiral”.
Yesterday, Israel prepared to demolish the east Jerusalem family home of a Palestinian man who killed seven people near a synagogue, as part of measures to punish the relatives of attackers.
The step comes as violence rages in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which also saw dozens of Palestinians killed this month, sparking global alarm.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also urged “maximum responsibility” in calls with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts.
In the wake of two shooting attacks targeting Israelis, Netanyahu’s security cabinet moved to punish “the families of terrorists that support terrorism”.
The government is planning to rescind the rights to social security benefits of attackers’ relatives and has also considered easing access to guns for Israeli civilians.
In the first concrete move, Netanyahu’s cabinet said the east Jerusalem home of 21-year-old Khayri Alqam — shot dead by police following Friday’s attack — “will be sealed immediately ahead of its demolition”.
An AFP correspondent saw Israeli forces on the property after they shuttered its entrances, with Palestinians clearing out their belongings.
Alqam’s mother was one of five people who remained in custody on Sunday, police said, out of 42 suspects arrested after the shooting in the settlement of Neve Yaakov.
Although Israel already routinely demolishes the homes of Palestinians who kill Israelis, the process requires prior notice to families and allows for an appeals process.
Dani Shenhar, a legal expert at Israeli rights group HaMoked, said sealing off Alqam’s home overnight demonstrated the government’s desire for “revenge against the families”.
The measure was carried out “in complete disregard for the rule of law”, he charged, adding that HaMoked would launch a protest with Israel’s attorney general.
The government went one step further on Sunday, announcing that the home of a 13-year-old boy who shot two Israelis would also be sealed off “even though his attack caused severe injury to its victims and not their deaths”.
The boy was shot and detained after the attack in Silwan neighbourhood just outside east Jerusalem’s walled Old City.
The punitive measures are in line with proposals from Netanyahu’s extreme-right political partners, whose support enabled him to return to power in late December.
They are likely to apply primarily to Palestinians with Israeli nationality, known as Arab Israelis, and Palestinians with residency permits for annexed east Jerusalem.
Revoking Israeli identity cards of the relatives of attackers was on the agenda Sunday at Netanyahu’s weekly cabinet meeting.
The government also plans to make it easier for Israeli citizens to obtain permits to carry firearms.
“When civilians have guns, they can defend themselves,” extreme-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Saturday outside a Jerusalem hospital.
The Jerusalem attacks came after the deadliest raid by Israeli forces in the West Bank in nearly two decades killed 10 Palestinians.
Israel said Thursday’s raid in Jenin targeted operatives from Islamic Jihad, which along with Hamas later fired several rockets from Gaza, prompting Israeli retaliatory strikes on Hamas sites. No casualties were reported.
Since the start of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 34 Palestinian adults and children — including attackers, militants and civilians.
Friday’s shooting was the first fatal attack targeting Israelis this year and killed six Israeli civilians, including a child, and one Ukrainian citizen.
The bloodshed is expected to top the agenda when Blinken meets Netanyahu, before travelling to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
The surge in violence has been followed by a wave of arson and vandalism.
A Palestinian home and vehicle in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya were torched overnight. An Israeli security official told AFP Israeli extremists were the suspected perpetrators.
Official Palestinian news agency Wafa said 120 cars were hit by stones, allegedly thrown by settlers, and 22 shops attacked in the Nablus area Saturday night.
Outside the nearby Israeli settlement of Kedumim, guards killed a Palestinian who the army alleged had a handgun.
The Palestinian health ministry identified him yesterday as 18-year-old Karam Ali Ahmad Salman.
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Old knobbly knees is on the gravy train again.
@JJandtim Dwyer: Hope she wears the hijab . Wouldn’t want to upset her Muslim network ! Might be no harm when she is in an investigative mood to have a look at how our “Foreign Aid “ budget of approx. €800 million is spent , and why our Government screws citizens with appalling Inheritance Taxes etc. to support the ideologies of the likes of Robinson .
A tax on initiative at home by saving and leaving something for your family , but by God don’t we cut a dash on the Foreign Aid circuit !
@JJandtim Dwyer: very original is that the best you can come up with
@Tony Lyons Mary will look after Mary and her leftist pals, investigating a Nigerian banker what does she expect to find,,,a rose garden.
whats the most corrupt nation on earth?Advance fee fraud?Immigration fraud.
Wake up Tony
@Tony Lyons: take a look at your spam folder and you will have no problem identifying the 419 scam artists and where they originate from , its not rocket science and certainly does not need the lavish expenses of Mary dear and I presume Nick will accompany?
How is Princess Latifa these days? Mary was no help to her.
A c0rrupt Nigerian……one displaying a lavish lifestyle with expensive suits…..surely not
No doubt the radical left will be saying that’s racist.
@Fintan O’flaois: No doubt the radical right will be saying “no doubt the radical left will be saying that’s racist.”
Mary Robinson is an incredible States woman, a successful barrister, former President and head of the Elders and a champion on Climate. Mary Robinson has and is spending her life in service to the greater good and fair dues to her to take on this dangerous and complex task. Right wing Trump bots busy on here again – disgraceful lack of respect for an incredible woman.
@Woman On the Up: Incredible woman? How did her €8.5m bill for a Ballina library – complete with tax breaks for her – go down with the public? She’s another champagne socialist.
You’ve a memory of a goldfish.
@Woman On the Up: Noddy has never had a real job in her life and has made millions from the Irish tax payer.
@Woman On the Up: Spending her life on the greater good of Mary just like Trump,to the detriment of the average working man.
@Woman On the Up: And im sure Mary is back in the Mount Falcon nodding in agreement
No better woman.
“Ireland has become the African Development Bank Group’s 81st shareholder, following a declaration issued by the institution’s President, Akinwumi Adesina, on 24 April 2020.” – so says the bank’s website.
Here is another of the “world’s five largest multilateral development” banks. Ireland is a shareholder there too: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ebrd-complaint-exclusive/exclusive-ebrd-head-faces-investigation-call-over-dossier-on-directors-idUSKCN1MF2CZ
Same old
Hopefully she doesnt quit half way through the task
All the offshore assets of the Third World elite should be frozen and then returned to sovereign wealth funds in each of those countries, to be then used under proper supervision for social and infrastructural development. A lot of this ill gotten wealth is of course bribes and side kicks for natural resource robbery, these days by in particular the Chinese. Africa has massive wealth and resources. Its just a matter of who controls it. Not doing this, means half of the disenfranchised in Africa want to arrive here in Europe, encouraged by likes of M.R. under the guise of “climate justice” migration and others including the left wing of the Green Party, who want to do away with our “false” asylum restrictions.
@Nicholas Grubb: Well said Mr Grib
A GREAT woman. Always a head of her time.
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