Embassy of the State of Palestine

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has refused to allow New Zealand’s new ambassador to Israel to present his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin this week, because he was also to be accredited to the Palestinian Authority. Israel’s objections led the ambassador to cancel his planned trip and are threatening to create a diplomatic crisis with the Commonwealth country.

Israel should immediately reverse its illegal appropriation of a large swath of land in the occupied West Bank south of Jerusalem, Human Rights Watch said today. The appropriation, announced on September 1, 2014, paves the way for substantial settlement construction near the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Transferring civilian settlers into occupied territory would amount to a war crime.

UNITED NATIONS — Israel’s 50-day war with Palestinian militants in Gaza was a “game changer” that persuaded the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to shelve the already moribund American-sponsored peace talks and decide to join the International Criminal Court, even if that meant defying the United States, a senior Palestinian leader said Tuesday.

“Because enough is enough, and what has the U.S. done for us?” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said in an interview during a visit to the United Nations.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully says New Zealand is deeply concerned at the announcement by Israel’s Civil Administration Authority that they will appropriate 400 hectares of privately owned Palestinian land near Bethlehem for Israeli settlements.

“Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem undermine efforts to negotiate a final status agreement with the Palestinians based on a two state solution,” Mr McCully says.

The Israeli leadership’s recent, criminal decision to expropriate more than 3000 dunums (almost 1000 acres) of Palestinian land, represents the largest Israeli land grab in the Occupied State of Palestine in three decades. The leadership intends to build a new settlement-city called Gvaot on the lands of five Palestinian villages in Western Bethlehem, known by Israel as the “Gush Etzion bloc”, an occupied area that Israel aims to illegally annex

PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, strongly denounced Israel’s announcement to confiscate 1,000 acres (3,811 dunams) of Palestinian land from the towns of Surif, Husan, al-Jabaa and Bethlehem and said:

“Today’s announcement clearly represents Israel’s deliberate intent to wipe out any Palestinian presence on the land and to willfully impose a de facto one-state solution.”

The Palestinian government has called on the United Nations and foreign states with citizens serving in the Israeli army to investigate and try them for war crimes committed during Israel’s latest onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday announced a long-term ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip.

In a short televised address, Abbas said the agreement would go into effect at 7 p.m.

"We confirm complete appreciation to the Egyptian efforts which started long ago seeking to satisfy all sides. Qatar also played a role in that. We also would like to mention that (US Secretary of State John) Kerry was also in touch with us for the same purpose and so we thank all those who played roles," Abbas said.

The challenge facing Palestine's footballers is not just confined to the pitch. Over the next few days I will share some of the stories, both heartbreaking and uplifting, of a footballing nation largely unknown outside its own region, but one that, through all the adversity it has faced, will take its place in Australia for the 2015 Asian Cup.

Today marks 51 days of the barbaric aggression that Israel carried out and continues to carry out against our people in Gaza Strip. During this period, the number of martyrs rose up to more than 2000, and the number of injured to more than 10,000 injured with tens of thousands of houses destroyed. Unfortunately, until this moment, the attack and the aggression continues indiscriminately and in most cases against innocents and civilians who are the primary victims of this aggression. As everyone knows, scores of families, probably more than sixty, were completely eliminated.