Posts Tagged ‘Israel’

Israel summit scrapped in row over Holocaust

Thursday, February 21st, 2019

This week’s summit between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of four Central and Eastern European nations has been abandoned following a row about the Holocaust. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki pulled out of the summit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday after Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli cabinet accused Poland of Read more

Landmines cleared: site of Christ’s baptism reopening

Thursday, December 13th, 2018

Thousands of landmines have been cleared from the banks of the river Jordan. Besides being the place of Christ’s baptism, the site is widely held to be the location where the Israelites crossed the river Jordan following the 40 years in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. It is also believed to be the Read more

Pope meets Palestine’s president

Thursday, December 6th, 2018

Pope Francis and Palestine’s president Mahmoud Abbas, who met on Monday at the Vatican, discussed a number of topics including Christian persecution, the status of Jerusalem and a two-state solution for the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The Vatican says the good relations between the Holy See and Palestine were noted during the meeting, “as Read more

Pope meets Israeli president

Monday, November 19th, 2018

Pope Francis met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at the Vatican last week 15 for a private discussion that included the importance of building greater trust between Israelis and Palestinians. The Vatican says they spoke about the importance of mutual trust in negotiations “so as to reach an accord respecting the legitimate aspirations of both Read more

Catholic clerics want Israel’s nation-state act repealed

Monday, November 5th, 2018

Israel’s Nation-state Act gives Jews a “unique” right to self-determination, which discriminates against members of the country’s other faiths, say Catholic clerics. The act holds Israel to be the historic homeland of the Jews and demotes Arabic from its former status as an official language. Senior Catholic clerics in Jerusalem are among those who want Read more

New Bible shows prophecies coming true

Monday, April 23rd, 2018

God’s prophecies are being fulfilled in modern day times, says American Rabbi Tuly Weisz. He and a team of biblical scholars in Israel,who work together as an organisation called Israel365, have published a new Hebrew-English Bible. “We tried very hard to illustrate the modern state of Israel and connect them to the miracles of the Read more

Interfaith unity: Christians and Muslims attend Gaza vigil together

Thursday, April 5th, 2018

Interfaith unity has seen Orthodox Christians and Muslims in the Occupied West Bank join together in a march to remember those who were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last month. Palestinian Orthodox Christians limited their celebrations on Palm Sunday, restricting the occasion to religious rituals to mourn the deaths of 17 Gazans killed in Read more

Jerusalem’s Church of Holy Sepulchre closed in tax protest

Monday, February 26th, 2018

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has been closed in protest at Israeli tax policies which Christian leaders say unfairly target the Christian community. The Church is important to Christians as it was built where Jesus’s crucifixion is believed to have taken place. Read more

Jerusalem: the latest chapter in a century of colonialism

Thursday, December 14th, 2017

One hundred years ago, on 11 December 1917, the British army occupied Jerusalem. As General Allenby’s troops marched through Bab al-Khalil, launching a century of settler colonialism across Palestine, prime minister David Lloyd George heralded the city’s capture as “a Christmas present for the British people”. In a few months’ time, we mark another such Read more

The plight of Christians in Palestine

Thursday, December 14th, 2017

On 6 December, Donald Trump officially recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “It has been the capital of the Israeli people since ancient times,” said the President. “It’s undeniable, it’s just a fact.” Christians in Bethlehem responded to the news by burning photos of the American president. They held signs saying: “Jerusalem, Palestine’s heart, is not Read more