Middle East

Israel’s Jewish population tops 6.5 million Israel”s Jewish population grew 2.3% percent from September 2016 to September 2017, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported Monday, rising to approximately 6,523,000. Out of a total population of 8,743,000 people, Jews make up 74.6% of Israel”s population – a slight decrease compared to 2016, when Israel”s 6,377,000 Jews

Two residents of the Druze village of Hurfeish in the Golan Heights were found guilty Sunday of involvement in an attack in 2015 on wounded Syrians being treated in Israel. The Haifa District Court convicted Kamal Amer, 24, and Yusuf Sharif, 55, of chasing a military ambulance transporting Syrian patients and blocking the road to

Hamas said Sunday it had agreed to steps toward resolving a decade-long split with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah, announcing it would dissolve a body seen as a rival government and was ready to hold elections. The statement comes after Hamas leaders held talks with Egyptian officials last week, and with the Gaza Strip run

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli Arabs from the Galilee in northern Israel will join their Jewish neighbors in enjoying a new fast train link to Tel Aviv, where jobs are in greater in supply, after a campaign by a civic equality group sought to ensure equal access for all. The 90-minute Karmiel-Tel Aviv line will

Israel’s justice ministry said Sunday the government would advance legislation giving gay couples equal rights in adopting children following controversy over the issue. Gay couples can currently adopt in Israel but they face legal and bureaucratic hurdles resulting in part from the wording of the law. The Association of Israeli Gay Fathers had petitioned the

King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa of Bahrain condemned the Arab boycott of Israel in Los Angeles, California last week. King Hamad made the remarks during an event denouncing religious hatred and violence at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in LA. Bahrain, a kingdom of some 1.5 million people in the Persian Gulf, currently does not

On September 16, Saeb Erekat, Secretary-General of the PLO’s Executive Committee, issued a statement marking the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon, in which he stressed that “there is no statute of limitations annulling the rights of the Palestinian people’s victims.” Erekat added that the “State of Palestine” would pursue “the Israeli

Several hundred ultra-Orthodox Jews scuffled with police in Jerusalem on Sunday in protest against a court ruling that could require them to serve in the army like secular Israelis. The demonstration in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of the city was organised by a particularly hardline group known as the Eda Haredit. Rabbis gave speeches in Yiddish