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Several European member states are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood by the end of May, the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday...

Uploading personal photos to the internet can feel like letting go. Who else will have access to them, what will they do with them—and which machine-learning algorithms will they help train? The company Clearview has already supplied US law enforcement agencies with a facial recognition tool trained on photos of millions of people scraped from the public web. But that was likely just the start. Anyone with basic coding skills can now develop facial recognition software, meaning there is more potential than ever to abuse the tech in everything from sexual harassment and racial discrimination to political oppression and religious...

RAMALLAH — Palestinian leaders voted on Monday to call for the suspension of recognition of Israel, as they met in response to US President Donald Trump’s acknowledgement of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The vote ordered the Palestine Liberation Organisation to suspend its recognition of the Jewish state until Israel “recognizes the state of Palestine,” cancels its annexation of East Jerusalem, and stops settlement activity, a statement said. It was unclear if the vote by the Palestinian Central Council, a high-ranking arm of the PLO, was binding. A previous vote by the council in 2015 to suspend security coordination with Israel...

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas has been waging a battle against U.S. President Donald Trump's intention to recognize Jerusalem as the official capital of the State of Israel but appears to be having trouble recruiting Arab leaders to the cause, Hahadashot (formerly Channel 2 News) reported Sunday. According to the report, Abbas has been calling all the leaders of the Arab and Islamic region and asked them to convene an emergency meeting of the Arab League. Despite his appeals, however, the leaders of the Arab world are not cooperating with him. The only one who expressed willingness to help...

"....Today, when the [UN] General Assembly has swelled to include 193 states, I believe that the proportion of states that support Israel is even greater, and is over 83%. This, especially after some five Arab states and quite a few Muslim ones have recognized the state of Israel, [that state] which the dreamers – those who dream of restoring the stolen homeland [Palestine] – so expertly call by a whole bunch of names, such as 'the Zionist entity' or 'the Israeli occupation,' etc. Today, there are only 32 countries that don't recognize Israel, in different parts of the world... It...

France will recognize a Palestinian state if its efforts in coming weeks to try to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians fail, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Friday. "France will engage in the coming weeks in the preparation of an international conference bringing together the parties and their main partners, American, European, Arab, notably to preserve and make happen the solution of two states," he said. Fabius said that as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, France had a responsibility to try to keep up efforts to find a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon predicted on Monday that the “momentum” of countries recognizing the “state of Palestine” will grow. Ban, who spoke before a UN committee on Palestinian rights, urged Israel and the Palestinian Authority to "step back from the brink" and return to peace talks. "The Israeli and Palestinian people face a shared fate on shared land. There is no erasing the other," Ban said, according to the AFP news agency. "Governments and parliaments are taking action. That momentum will grow," said Ban, referring to recent moves by governments in Europe to recognize “Palestine”. British lawmakers voted overwhelmingly...

The British parliament on Monday night officially voted in favor of recognizing the “state of Palestine”. The non-binding resolution was passed by 274 in favor to 12 votes against, to “recognize the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel” as part of a “contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution”, according to AFP. The motion, while non-binding, is heavy with symbolism but is unlikely to change government policy, the report noted. […] British Prime Minister David Cameron said prior to the vote that he would not take part in it. …

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry thinks it is a “mistake” for Israel to demand that the Palestinian Authority (PA) recognize it as a Jewish state in order to achieve peace. “I think it's a mistake for some people to be raising it again and again as the decider of their attitude towards the possibility of a state and peace, and we've obviously made that clear," Kerry told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday, when asked to clarify the official position of the Obama administration on the issue, according to the Breitbart website. He further said that the...

The United States believes there is no need for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as part of a peace agreement, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday. Psaki, who spoke to the PA-based Arabic-language Al-Quds newspaper, said, “The American position is clear, Israel is a Jewish state. However, we do not see a need that both sides recognize this position as part of the final agreement.” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been adamant on the PA recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, explaining that the Arabs’ refusal to recognize Israel stands at the heart...

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Hanan Ashrawi said on Saturday that Israel's demand that the PA recognize it as a Jewish state is an attempt to “legalize racism,” reports the Ma’an news agency. Ashrawi, a member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, said that defining Israel as a Jewish state would signify that any Jewish person would have the right to return to “Palestine”, while Palestinian Arabs would lose that right. Israel wants to "create a narrative that denies the Palestinian presence, rights, and continuity on the historic Palestinian lands," she charged, in a conversation with Ma’an. She also claimed that...

An op-ed published in the New York Times on Tuesday by Roger Cohen, titled "My Jewish State" has shed light on comments Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid made during a sit down with the columnist in August 2013. During their chat last summer, Lapid reiterated his lack of interest in Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Lapid reportedly told Cohen “the fact that we demand from Palestinians a declaration that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state, I just think this is rubbish. I don’t need that. The whole point of Israel was we came here saying we...

A newly approved Christian fraternity at Yale University may be denied official recognition and student group funding because it plans to restrict membership to men who believe in Jesus. Just days after the leaders of Beta Upsilon Chi (BYX) announced the Yale chapter's formation, the student newspaper reported that the group "will have to change its membership rules if it intends to comply with Yale's anti-discrimination policies."

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met Tuesday in Ramallah with representatives of EU countries in the Palestinian Authority and discussed with them the regional situation following the Arab spring and the PA’s position towards the peace process with Israel. Abbas told the European representatives that the PA is ready to resume negotiations with Israel on the basis of the EU’s official positions. He noted that the PA will make use of these EU positions when it submits its recognition to the United Nations General Assembly. He also stressed that the PA’s unilateral statehood bid to the UN does not mean...

The president of France formally asked the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government on Monday. "France asks the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government – inclusive and representative – that can become the legitimate representative of the new Syria, “ President Francois Hollande announced in an address at the presidential palace to a group of new French ambassadors. “We are including our Arab partners to accelerate this step. France will recognize the provisional government of Syria once it is formed.” .....

Abbas tells Dutch parliament US, EU, Russia working to resume talks; says UN statehood bid not meant to "dismiss or delegitimize Israel." Talkbacks (13) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said that the Palestinian people recognize Israel's right to exist and they hope the Israeli government will respond by "recognizing the Palestinian state on the borders of the land occupied in 1967." The PA president's comments came in a speech to the Dutch parliament in the Hague. Official Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted Abbas as saying, "Our primary goal is peace negotiations with the Israeli side and I hope...

Shaath says Spain wants Palestine recognized in UN; announcement comes as Abbas meets with Islamic Jihad officials, Gen. Tantawi in Cairo to discuss Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, Mideast peace process. Talkbacks (13) The Palestinian Authority announced on Thursday that Spain has decided to recognize a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines before September. A spanish diplomat told Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath that Spain would support making the state of Palestine a UN member. The announcement came as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo on Monday, under the auspices of Egyptian authorities, with Ramadan Shallah, Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad organization,...

Israel wins rare victory in Latin America with Colombian President Calderon announcement at World Jewish Congress meeting in Bogota. After suffering a series of diplomatic defeats to the Palestinians in Latin America, Israel won a rare victory on Wednesday when Colombia announced that it would not unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told a delegation of the World Jewish Congress in a meeting in the Colombian capital of Bogota that his government would not recognize Palestinian statehood as “a matter of principle.”

Iranian president makes comments on Israel, capitalism and the death penalty whilst on visit to New York for UN General Assembly. NEW YORK – Stating that Iran would never recognize the “Zionist regime,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke his mind freely on Monday and Tuesday while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meetings, commenting on capitalism, the Holocaust and a potential war that “knows no limits” to various audiences. Ahmadinejad is to address the General Assembly on Thursday, but spoke to other audiences in the days leading up to his speech. Speaking before a group of Muslim...

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