Embassy of the State of Palestine

a joint investigation by Four Corners and The Australian newspaper reveals evidence that shows the army is targeting Palestinian boys for arrest and detention. Reporter John Lyons travels to the West Bank to hear the story of children who claim they have been taken into custody, ruthlessly questioned and then allegedly forced to sign confessions before being taken to court for sentencing.

He meets Australian lawyer Gerard Horton, who's trying to help the boys who are arrested, and talks to senior Israeli officials to examine what's driving the army's strategy.

The program focuses on the stories of three boys. In two cases the army came for the children in the middle of the night, before taking them to unknown locations where they are questioned

On February 5th, PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi condemned Israel’s latest approval of the construction of 550 settlement units in Occupied Jerusalem and the demolition of Palestinian homes in Beit Hanina and Sur Bahir:
“It is evident that Israel is isolating Jerusalem from its Palestinian environment by means of apartheid walls, checkpoints and rings of settlements. The Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem continue to suffer at the expense of Israel’s policies of ethic cleansing which include home demolitions, annexation of Palestinian land, and the revocation of Jerusalem IDs.”

Jerusalem: The US Secretary of State was accused of supporting "anti Semitic" interests on Sunday after warning that Israel faced an economic boycott if it failed to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
John Kerry made the comment as he held talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Munich, where they promised to step up diplomacy on Tehran's nuclear programme.
Ministers in the cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Mr Kerry of effectively endorsing "anti-Semitic" efforts to impose sanctions on the country. "The risks are very high for Israel," Mr Kerry told the conference. "People are talking about boycotts. That will intensify in the case of failure.

Israel's finance minister halted the transfer of government funds to West Bank Jewish settlements on Saturday and ordered a probe into allegations that money meant to support municipalities had been funneled to a pro-settler political group.
The money in question had been earmarked to cover security and building maintenance fees that were incurred when Israel froze settlement building for 10 months during 2009 and 2010, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
But some of the money may have illegally made its way to the Yesha settler's council to be used for political purposes, including activities that run counter to government policy, the ministry said.

New Zealand activists have called on the NZ Government not to issue visas to members of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company which is booked as a featured act in next month’s New Zealand Festival of the Arts.

Boycott adds to pressure on firms over settlements

JERUSALEM // Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has blacklisted two Israeli companies involved in building settlements in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel’s government and business leaders are alarmed by a growing international boycott movement and the probable effect of European measures against exports from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank,

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas says East al-Quds (Jerusalem) should be the future capital of the Palestinian state.

Abbas made the remarks on Monday in an interview broadcast by Israeli media.

The Palestinian Authority chief also stated that one of the conditions for the so-called peace talks with the Tel Aviv regime “is that East al-Quds (Jerusalem) be the capital of the Palestinian state.”

GENEVA (17 January 2014) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday strongly condemned the repeated obstruction of convoys trying to bring supplies to a besieged population of some 18,000 people in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, saying that “impeding humanitarian assistance to civilians in desperate need may amount to a war crime.”

Today marks the launch of the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This will be a critical year for achieving the two-State solution, bringing an end to the occupation that started in 1967, and securing an independent, viable and sovereign State of Palestine living in peace and security with the State of Israel where each recognizes the other’s legitimate rights.

Thursday's Oscar nominations had some new language in the foreign language category: Nominee "Omar" was described as being from "Palestine," a reference the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has carefully avoided in the past.
"Omar," a drama set amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was directed by Hany Abu-Assad, whose 2005 thriller "Paradise Now" was also nominated in the foreign language category. But after a tussle with the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, the academy chose to refer to the film as a product of the "Palestinian Territories" or "Palestinian Authority," rather than simply "Palestine."