Embassy of the State of Palestine

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."

16 January 2014 – The United Nations today launched the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, with senior officials urging that the observance be used to redouble efforts to achieve a durable peace between Israel and Palestine.

“The coming year will be crucial to achieving the two-State solution,” Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said in his remarks to the UN General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

Today PLO Executive Committee member and head of the PLO Department of Culture and Information, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, strongly denounced Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s statements that questioned the illegality of settlements and called for the international community to refrain from labeling settlements illegal under international law

Israel has summoned the ambassadors of Britain, France, Italy and Spain, accusing their countries of pro-Palestinian bias.

The Foreign Ministry said the envoys would be told that their "perpetual one-sided stance" is unacceptable.

On Thursday, the four EU countries summoned Israeli ambassadors to object to plans to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The EU's Catherine Ashton has labelled the settlements "an obstacle to peace".

Diplomatic row follows criticism of US secretary of state's efforts to broker Middle East peace deal reported in Israeli newspaper.
American efforts to broker a peace deal in the Middle East were engulfed in a diplomatic row on Tuesday when the US state department lambasted a senior Israeli minister for "offensive and inappropriate" comments describing John Kerry as obsessive and messianic.