Petah Tikvah Market, in more peaceful times

JERUSALEM (AP) ” A Palestinian opened fire and stabbed shoppers with a screwdriver near a busy open air market in central Israel on Thursday, wounding at least six people, police said.

Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police confirmed it was a “terror attack” and that the 18-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank was arrested soon after the shooting in Petah Tikva.

Israeli media reported that the Palestinian attacker fired at a bus and toward shoppers buying groceries at the market ahead of the Jewish Sabbath, before running down the street. He continued shooting as civilians gave chase.

Read more:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11797802

NZ Herald, Wednesday 8 Feb 2016:  A number of New Zealand’s leading academics on conflict resolution have slammed the country’s “dangerous double standard” on the Israel- Palestine problem.

In an open letter to Foreign Minister Murray McCully, the academics say New Zealand needs to take a firm stance on the long-running conflict in the Middle East and show leadership.

It comes in the wake of a United Nations Security Council resolution – co-sponsored by New Zealand – which stated Israel’s settlement activity was a “flagrant violation” of international law and had no legal validity.

The letter praises McCully’s leadership in pushing for the resolution, particularly in the face of pressure from Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu to withdraw it from the UNSC’s table.

However, the Government’s position did not go far enough, they said, and slammed a “dangerous double standard” in supporting the resolution but failing to impose sanctions on Israel or its products made in illegal settlements. This while there were “serious tax-payer funded sanctions” on Palestinian groups involved in violence.

Read more:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11796916

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ” Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who spent hundreds of hours on the phone and in meetings with U.S. presidents and secretaries of state in the past 12 years, has tried unsuccessfully to reach out to President Donald Trump. Abbas and his aides are alarmed by the possibility of being sidelined at a time when the administration is embracing Israel’s prime minister who heads to the White House next week. Here’s a look at what’s at stake for Abbas and Palestinian hopes for statehood.

Read more:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11797055

PLO official: Israeli settlement law “last nail in coffin”2:30 AM Wednesday Feb 8, 2017 SHARE: Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedInPARIS (AP) ” Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, has told The Associated Press that Israeli legislation to retroactively legalize thousands of West Bank settlement homes is “putting the last nail in the coffin of the two-state solution.”

Source: PLO official: Israeli settlement law “last nail in coffin” – World – NZ Herald News

JERUSALEM (AP) ” A Palestinian Cabinet minister on Tuesday called on the international community to punish Israel for a contentious new law, just hours after the Israeli parliament adopted the bill to retroactively legalize thousands of West Bank settlement homes built unlawfully on private Palestinian land.

Source: Palestinians ask world to punish Israel for settlement law – World – NZ Herald News

Israel’s Parliament passed a contentious law that allows the state to seize land privately owned by Palestinians in the West Bank and grant the properties to Jewish settlements for their exclusive use.The…

Source: Israel passes bill to seize private Palestinian land for Jewish settlements – World – NZ Herald News