State Department: Israeli settlement products can be labeled ‘Made in Israel’

Author: Published: November 19, 2020

The US State Department announces that products from Israeli settlements can be labeled “Made in Israel,” breaking with longstanding policy.

The move is announced shortly after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited a settlement in the West Bank, a first by a top US diplomat.

The State Department says the change in the labeling policy is “consistent with our reality-based foreign policy approach.”

— AP

156 UN nations affirm West Bank settlements, east J’lem not part of Israel

Author: Published: November 19, 2020

The 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334 called on its member states to ensure that they do not participate in actions of de facto annexation.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF

NOVEMBER 19, 2020 09:59
The results of the UN General Assembly's Second Committee vote on Palestinian sovereignty in East Jerusalem and the West Bank (photo credit: screenshot)
The results of the UN General Assembly’s Second Committee vote on Palestinian sovereignty in East Jerusalem and the West Bank
(photo credit: screenshot)
The UN General Assembly’s Second Committee pushed back at the concept of de-facto Israeli annexation on Wednesday night, approving a draft resolution by 156-6 member states that called on nations to ensure that they do not treat the West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem as a part of sovereign Israel.
The six countries that opposed the resolution were Canada, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and the United States.
Israel formally annexed east Jerusalem in 1980, a move that has never been recognized by the US or the international community. It has, however, never annexed the West Bank settlements.
Still, it has expected that the international community would treat the settlements as if sovereignty had been applied and if these areas are part of Israel.
The 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334 called on its member states to ensure that they do not participate in actions of de facto annexation.
The resolution “underscored, in this regard, the call by the Security Council, in its resolution 2334 (2016), upon all States to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.”
Wednesday’s resolution, approved annually, recognizes Palestinians’ sovereign rights to the natural resources of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, calling on Israel not to exploit these resources.
The resolution also condemned Israeli razing of illegal Palestinian structures.
The text stated that the UNGA affirmed the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and of the population of the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources, including land, water and energy resources.”
It demanded “that Israel, the occupying Power, cease the exploitation, damage, cause of loss or depletion and endangerment of the natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”
The resolution also called “upon Israel not to impede Palestinian development and export of discovered oil and natural gas reserves.”
It also affirmed the rights of the Palestinians to be compensated for Israeli use of their natural resources.
The resolution against the exploitation of Palestinian natural resources is one of almost 20 texts that the General Assembly approvals annually against Israel. No other country has that many resolutions leveled against it.
An Israeli representative said that many of the resolutions were repetitive and wasted valuable resources.
“We are now presented with a resolution in which not one word had been changed in years,” an Israeli representative said.
A US representative belied the biased nature of the text, saying that it delegitimized Israel.
“This one sided approach only undermines trust between the parties,’ the US representative said.
The Palestinian Authority representative thanked those countries that supported the resolution, saying that it was an affirmation of the rights of Palestinians to the territory over the pre-1967 lines. Urgent international action is needed to bring Israel into compliance with international law, the representative said.
Countries which abstained from the resolution included Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote D’ivoire, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kiribati, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Togo, Tonga and Tuvalu.
The entire European Union block of 27 countries as wells the United Kingdom voted for the text.

10 dead, including 5 Iranians, in Israeli airstrikes on Syria

Author: Published: November 19, 2020

Iranians among the dead in Israeli airstrikes on Quds Force base in Syria. Death toll expected to rise, monitor group says.

David Rosenberg , Nov 18 , 2020 9:45 AM | updated: 3:14 PM
Airstrike (archive)

Airstrike (archive)

Flash 90

At least 10 people were killed and more injured in Israeli airstrikes in Syria overnight, a monitor group reported Wednesday morning.

Israeli military aircraft struck Syrian air defense batteries and an army base used by Iran’s Quds Force in Syria late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

According to a report by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Israeli aircraft bombed a Syrian army air defense center, as well as a regional headquarters for the Quds Force in Syria and supply depots and weapons caches used by pro-Iranian forces.

The targets were struck in Damascus and south of the capital, including in Sayyidah Zaynab and Kiswah.

A total of 10 fatalities were reported, all of them combatants, the SOHR said.

The casualties included three Syrian air defense personnel, five Iranians, and two pro-Iranian fighters whose identity has yet to be confirmed. They are likely either Lebanese or Iraqi nationals, the SOHR report said.

Syria’s state media outlet SANA, confirmed that three soldiers had been killed, and that a fourth was injured.

The SOHR report added that the number of dead is expected to increase, given the large number of injured.

The airstrikes reportedly resulted in “significant material losses” for the Quds Force in Syria.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said the attack was carried out in response to the placement of explosives near the border fence with Syria in Israeli territory, by a Syrian squad operating under Iranian guidance.

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