Embassy of the State of Palestine

The United Nations figures show that the annual rate of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians has nearly quadrupled in the past eight years.

The figures released on Wednesday also said that Israeli security forces have failed to stop the so-called “price tag” campaign against Palestinians.

(Reuters) - Israel on Friday published tenders for 1,400 new homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, days after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the region to push peace efforts with the Palestinians.

The Palestinians have warned in the past that any further expansion of Israeli settlements on land they seek for a state could derail U.S.-brokered peace talks that resumed in July after a three-year break and are set to last until April.

Pope Francis has announced his first trip as pontiff to the Holy Land, from 24 May to 26 May.He will visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem in the West Bank, and the Jordanian capital, Amman.

He made the announcement during his weekly Sunday blessing in Vatican City.

The visit is so far his only foreign trip planned for 2014. He said he would hold a meeting with the representatives of all Christian Churches in the Middle East in Jerusalem.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) has accused the Israeli regime of using torture against detained Palestinians despite a court ban on the practice.

The rights group said on Monday that Israel never stopped using torture despite a High Court ruling that declared torture “illegal” back in 1999.

Israel’s deputy foreign minister Ze'ev Elkin said Israel would not contemplate going back to their 1967 borders. FM said that Israel would not accept any peace deal with the Palestinians that mentioned the 1967 borders and the release of the recently annexed Jordan Valley.

New guidance, published on 3 December by UK Trade & Investment, a government body that works with British businesses in international markets, warns there are “clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements, and we do not encourage or offer support to such activity”. It says:

Senator Rehiannon, Senator Milne and Federal member for Fermantle, Melissa Park MP, raised enormous concern on the Australian government recent, change in its voting position in the UN General Assembly on resolutions relating to the illegality under international law of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the applicability of the Geneva Conventions.
They called upon the Australian Government to respect the international rule of law and the Government's own professed support for a two state solution.

Third States are under an obligation to combat organised crime by ensuring that support, financial or otherwise, is not being lent to violent settler groups by private and public entities within their jurisdiction. A new report by Al-Haq, “Institutionalised Impunity: Israel’s Failure to Combat Settler Violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, details how these duties, including the obligation to investigate, stem from the domestic laws and public policy of some States, set in accordance with international law.

PLO Executive Committee member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi urges the Dutch government to exclude settlement companies from the Netherlands-Israel Cooperation Forum, which will be launched next weekend.

According to Dutch and Israeli media reports several firms located in settlements or in other ways linked to Israel’s illegal settlement policy will be taking part in the Netherlands-Israel Cooperation Forum.
“This is incomprehensible and unacceptable,” Dr. Ashrawi said. “The official policy of the Dutch government is to discourage economic relations of Dutch companies with settlements. How can the Dutch government establish a cooperation forum with Israel which facilitates these relations and effectively supports the settlement economy?”

Message of H.E. Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People