-Compiled by JNS.org-
Palestinian Authority to join International Criminal Court on April 1
(JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority (PA) will become the 123rd member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced late Tuesday.
“The Statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on 1 April 2015 in accordance with its article 126 (2) which reads as follows: ‘For each State ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to this Statute after the deposit of the 60th instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, the Statute shall enter into force on the first day of the month after the 60th day following the deposit by such State of its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession,’” Ban said, referring to PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s signing of the ICC’s Rome Statute.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) on Tuesday condemned the PA’s “irresponsible and destabilizing efforts to use the ICC to target Israel and undermine the peace process” and called for the Obama administration to halt funding to the PA.
“The Administration must now enforce U.S. law as mandated by Congress and cut off U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority until they start acting like the partner for peace that is needed in the Middle East,” Kirk said.
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Labor-Hatnuah union nixes word ‘Zionist’ from ads to appeal to Arab voters
(JNS.org) In a bid to appeal to Israeli Arab voters, the joint Labor-Hatnuah campaign that is challenging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March’s elections has apparently decided to remove any mention of the parties’ Zionist agenda from election ads.
The joint ticket formed by Labor leader Isaac Herzog and Hatnuah leader Tzipi Livni has been informally named the “Zionist Camp,” but a campaign ad aired by Israel’s Channel 10 on Tuesday evening, with hopes of appealing to Israeli Arab voters, made no mention of word “Zionist” and referred to the joint ticket as the “Labor party for peace and equality.”
A Labor source told Israel Hayom that the ad in question was released prior to the party’s union with Hatnuah, and that “Zionist Camp” was not the ticket’s official name. The final decision on the official name will be made only after Labor’s primaries next week, which will determine the makeup of its Knesset list.
Another Labor source said both parties believed a Zionist agenda, including the name “Zionist Camp,” would be perceived as problematic by some among their voter base, particularly the Israeli Arab voters the parties are courting. The parties’ joint campaign, said the source, still needs to review the matter.
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Israeli attorney-general mulls incitement charges against Arab Knesset member
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein is weighing pressing criminal charges against Hanin Zoabi, an Arab Knesset member from the Balad party, over an incident last summer in which she allegedly accosted two courthouse officers in Nazareth.
A statement issued by the Northern District Prosecution on Tuesday said that while the State Attorney’s Office has recommended that Zoabi face trial for incitement and offending a public servant, the final decision on the matter is subject to the results of a judicial hearing, since as a Knesset member, Zoabi has parliamentary immunity.
Last July, according to the State Attorney’s Office, Zoabi verbally assaulted two Israeli Arab bailiffs serving at the Nazareth Magistrates’ Court. The state said that following the arraignment of Arab youths detained after rioting over the murder of 16-year-old Muhammed Abu Khdeir in June, Zoabi had accused the bailiffs of being “traitors” and urged others to harm them.
Zoabi said of the bailiffs, “We should ostracize them. We should spit in their faces. They are the ones who testify against our sons and daughters, the ones collaborating with the occupation against their own people.”
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Hamas denies that leader Khaled Mashaal was kicked out of Qatar
(JNS.org) The Palestinian terror group Hamas has denied a report that its exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, was kicked out of Qatar.
Mashaal and members of the Muslim Brotherhood were expelled from Qatar and were likely on their way to Turkey, CNN had reported Monday. Mashaal has been in Qatar since he was forced out of Syria in 2012. He was based in Syria for nearly a decade, but left over tensions with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regarding the civil war there.
Hamas official Izzat Rishq wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday afternoon, “There is no truth to reports by certain media concerning the departure of Khaled Mashaal from Qatar.”
Nevertheless, the Israeli Foreign Ministry congratulated Qatar on its decision to deport Mashaal, saying, “The Foreign Ministry, led by Minister Avigdor Lieberman, has advanced various moves to cause Qatar to carry out this step and stop aiding Hamas, directly and indirectly. To this end, minister Lieberman and the ministry’s professional staff have acted in overt and covert tracks with Qatar and other states. We expect the Turkish government to now follow suit.”
The report on Mashaal comes as Qatar is seeking to repair ties with its Gulf neighbors—Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates—as well as Egypt. In late December, it was reported in the Arab media that Qatar suspended ties with Hamas in an effort to pressure the Palestinian terror group to change its policy against Egypt.
At the same time, the Saudis are brokering reconciliation efforts between Qatar and Egypt, in order to end an 18-month standoff over Qatar’s support of Hamas’s parent group, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar opposed the overthrow of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood member, in July 2013.
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