Free Republic

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...

Scores of violent Arab students forced the British consul general to make a hasty departure from a university in Ramallah on Tuesday, according to witness reports. Consul General Sir Vincent Fean had travelled to Bir Zeit University near Ramallah to deliver a lecture on Britain's policy in the Middle East and the prospects for peace but was turned away by vehement Arab demonstrators, the Ma’an news agency reported. Video footage showed protesters banging on his car and shouting: "Get out of Bir Zeit!" Although Fean was hurriedly escorted back to his car and escaped unscathed, the protesters manage to break...

Protests against the government of Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad continued over the weekend. Dozens of protesters gathered in Ramallah demanding that Fayyad resign, blaming him for the high prices of food and fuel in the Palestinian Authority. In one incident, protesters waited outside a radio station where Fayyad was giving an interview and when he emerged, they tried to rush him..... PA chief Mahmoud Abbas said that he believed the protests would intensify, but did not expect them to degenerate into anarchy.

The Grand mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Muhammad Hussein on Tuesday condemned the vandalism of a Ramallah area mosque earlier in the day, saying, "the attack on this mosque is part of a systematic policy aiming to flame the conflict and show disrespect to the religious and human values of others," the Palestinian Authority's Ma'an news agency reported. Arabs from the community of al-Muayar near Ramallah reported that a carpet in the mosque was set aflame during the early morning hours in what appeared to be a "price tag" attack...