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A 6-meter-high (20-foot) bronze statue of Nelson Mandela has been unveiled in the West Bank city of Ramallah. […] … (Ramallah’s Mayor Mussa) Hadid says the statue reflects the “special relationship between South Africa and Palestine.” It was erected in a new square named after Mandela. …

An assistant to Saeb Erekat, a long-time senior official in the Palestinian Authority (PA), has been arrested by PA security forces on suspicion of spying on behalf of Israel. Erekat has acknowledged the facts of the case, which were published by media based in Ramallah. The suspect is accused of working for Israel for the past 20 years. He is believed to be in a Palestinian intelligence facility at present. Erekat served as the secretary-general for the PLO and headed the Palestinian negotiating team during peace talks with Israel. He often threatened Israel with ended the security agreement and worked...

City seethes amid continuing calls for 'third intifada' as thousands gather to commemorate 11 years since Yasser Arafat’s death. The new Nutella shop on Zahra street in downtown Ramallah was humming with business on Wednesday. High school students Nur and her friend Sawsan had come into the city from the town of Katanna for memorial ceremonies marking the anniversary of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s death 11 years ago, but they seemed more interested in consuming large amounts of creamy Nutella atop fresh warm crepes than in discussing politics. “Yes, we’re having an intifada, but it’s not so bad here. It’s...

A Palestinian terrorist died in clashes with the IDF near Ramallah Sunday morning, after his attack on an army jeep backfired quite spectacularly. Abdallah Ghanayem, 21, died after being struck by the vehicle during clashes that erupted in the village of Kfar Malik following a dawn Israeli army raid, the Palestinian Authority sources said. An IDF spokesman confirmed to AFP that a Palestinian had died - after he threw an incendiary device at a jeep and the vehicle overturned on him. It was the second Palestinian terrorist killed in the past week,....

R&B, soul and hip hop singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill officially announced on Monday that she was cancelling her planned show in Israel, scheduled for May 7. In a statement on her website, Hill wrote, “When deciding to play the region, my intention was to perform in both Tel Aviv and Ramallah. Setting up a performance in the Palestinian Territory, at the same time as our show in Israel, proved to be a challenge.” “I’ve wanted very much to bring our live performance to this part of the world, but also to be a presence supporting justice and peace. It is very...

Carter the Elder has spoken. What says Obama the Younger? Former US president Jimmy Carter has created a stir with his call for Palestinian Arabs to hold elections to end the internecine struggle between Hamas and the PLO in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza. Speaking at a joint news conference with PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah - after cancelling his stop in Gaza where he was supposed to meet Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh – Carter – now a member of the independent Elders Group of global leaders - declared:.

JNS.org – In various cultures, a particular month, day or time is associated with a certain annual activity. For example, here in the United States, November—every other year—is election time. In Israel, every May brings the solemnity of remembering fallen soldiers, followed immediately by celebrations of national independence. And if it’s March and you happen to live in Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled territory, then you know it’s time for publicly praising and honoring one of the most gruesome Palestinian massacres of Israelis and Americans in modern history. That’s because March 9, 1978, was the day that a squad of 13 Palestinian...

A Haaretz reporter was ejected from a pro-Palestinian conference at Birzeit University on Saturday, reporter Amira Hass said—simply for being an Israeli Jew. Hass attempted to attend the “Alternatives to Neo-Liberal Development in the Occupied Palestinian Territories—Critical Perspectives” conference at the university, which is located near Ramallah where she lives. But she was ejected from the hall by the organizers, Hass claimed, after students at the admission desk noted she worked for the Israeli publication and alerted security authorities to intervene. Birzeit University has had a policy of barring Israeli Jews from the campus for over 20 years, administrators said,...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - Arab Rejectionism from Khartoum to RamallahPosted By Ari Lieberman On March 26, 2014 @ 12:30 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel offered to return land acquired during the conflict to her defeated Arab enemies in exchange for peace. On September 1, 1967 the Arab League, convening in Khartoum, Sudan drafted its predictable response to the Israeli overture in the form of the now infamous “Three No’s” proclamation: “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it…”Nothing has changed since then. Arabs still maintain their...

Palestinians would kill Jewish Israelis left under their rule, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday, continuing a campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ostensible willingness to leave Israeli settlers under Palestinian rule under a future peace agreement. Bennett also outlined his own plan for the West Bank — which he has largely been mum about since joining Netanyahu’s government — under which Israel would annex most of the territories. “Do you know why? Why Jews cannot live under Palestinian rule? Do you know why? Why Palestinians can’t rule over Jews?” Bennett said in an address at the...

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian protesters on Friday condemned the latest efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to advance peace talks with Israel, using chants evoking the Arab uprisings and telling him to go home. Hours before Kerry was due to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a raucous crowd of several hundred took to the streets of Ramallah, the West Bank's de facto capital, chanting "Kerry, you coward, there's no place for you in Palestine!"

The Yediot Aharonot newspaper revealed Tuesday new details of the brutal murders of reservists Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz. The soldiers were lynched in Ramallah in October 2000. The soldiers lost their way to their base on October 12, 2000, ending up in the Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled city of Ramallah by mistake. PA police forces took the two into custody. Word reached local PA residents that undercover Israeli agents were being held in the building; some 1000 rioters reportedly gathered outside. The IDF declined to take action to rescue the soldiers; they were eventually stormed by the rioters. …

A 9-year-old Israeli girl was injured Saturday night in a suspected terrorist attack at the West Bank settlement of Psagot, outside Ramallah. The girl, who was playing in the yard outside her home, said she was shot by a gunman at very close range; confusingly, doctors said later that they had not established whether her wounds were caused by a shooting or a stabbing. The girl, who did not lose consciousness, was reported in light-to-moderate condition by doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek medical center. It was “not clear” whether she had been shot or stabbed, said Dr. Danny Fink. Security...

This past month I went on a trip to Ramallah with J Street. I signed up for the trip with very little in terms of expectations – I was merely looking forward to a tour of Ramallah. Of course, I hoped the trip would be an educational experience. I expected to hear insight from Palestinians, activists and UN officials that I would disagree with. However, the most alarming encounters I was confronted with were from the American Jewish college students with whom I traveled. The 20 of us met at the International Convention Center across the street from the Jerusalem...

The next time U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Ramallah, will he actually violate U.S. law to make sure there are no Jews among his entourage, lest he upset his Palestinian hosts? "We will approve the meeting on condition there are no Jews." This is what you are likely to hear these days if you request a meeting with any senior Palestinian Authority official in the West Bank. Palestinian journalists who try to arrange meetings or interviews with Palestinian Authority representatives for Western colleagues have become used to hearing such things almost on a daily basis. Just last week,...

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the center of Ramallah on Wednesday to protest against US President Barack Obama’s planned visit to the city. Palestinian activists vowed to step up their protests against Obama on Thursday and Friday. The Palestinian Authority security forces plan to impose a curfew on large parts of Ramallah during Obama’s visit to the city. On the instruction of the PA leadership, schools will be closed in the city on Thursday and many streets blocked. The protest was organized by the radical Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir, which seeks the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. In a...

IDF commanders are investigating a "serious operational failure" that occurred Thursday morning when a lone soldier was left behind after an operation near Ramallah. Army Radio reported that an IDF mechanized infantry unit entered the village of Burdus near Ramallah to conduct operations that included searches. According to the report, shortly after the operation ended and the unit departed a lone soldier was left standing at the gate of the village. Local Arabs say they feared the soldier would be lynched and aided him in reaching an area under IDF control where another unit picked him up and returned him...

US President Barack Obama will be held responsible for the failure of the Middle East peace process, members of the Palestinian Authority delegation to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York charged on Thursday. The latest allegation came as the PA called for anti-Obama demonstrations in protest against his opposition to the Palestinian statehood bid. Dozens of Palestinians answered the call on Thursday, demonstrating against Obama in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The protesters carried signs with anti-Obama slogans and some burned pictures of the US president, Army Radio reported. The officials said that relations between the PA...

Danny Cohn-Bendit, who led extreme leftist riots in Paris in 1968, in PA to identify with its unilateral bid for independence. Former student revolutionary Danny Cohn-Bendit, aka "Danny the Red," visited Ramallah Thursday together with what was termed "a delegation of French Jews," in a show of support for the bid by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for a unilateral declaration of statehood. Cohn-Bendit, who led the ultra leftist Paris student riots in 1968, joined the Green Party in the 1980s and is now its European co-president. In Ramallah, Cohn-Bendit and the other "French Jews" met in the Muqata compound with...

The United States may have created a Frankenstein in the Palestinian Authority, which human rights groups fear is using U.S.-trained forces to build a police state. “I feel real concern that we are reaching the level of a police state,” according to Ramallah-based human rights group director Shawan Jabarin, quoted by the Financial Times. The United States has taken pride in its training PA ”policemen,” avoiding use of the words "armed forces" in order not to violate Oslo agreements. General Keith Dayton, who recently stepped down as director of the training program in the PA, has said the forces have...