Abbas official says PA is prepared to talk peace
The Palestinians are ready to participate in a peace initiative, the office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement, the French news agency AFP reported on Aug. 29.
“We are ready to participate in any regional or international initiative with the objective of a comprehensive and fair solution,” the president’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said in the statement, according to AFP.
The statement came amid unconfirmed reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin is arranging a meeting between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Kremlin could not confirm such a meeting, AFP reported.
The Israeli news website Ynet reported Aug. 28 that an Abbas-Netanyahu meeting under the auspices of Putin would take place around October, citing unidentifed Israeli and Palestinian officials.
The Palestinians favor the French peace initiative launched in June at a one-day summit in Paris of foreign ministers from two dozen countries aimed at rebooting peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, who were not invited to the event. The ministers proposed an international conference to further talks between the two sides by the end of the year.
Israel has balked at the initiative, saying it enables the Palestinians to continue to avoid the direct talks Israel wants.
Abbas and Netanyahu last met officially in 2010, but it is believed that since then they have held secret meetings.
Meanwhile, Abbas reportedly is being urged to cancel upcoming elections in the West Bank and Gaza for fear that his Fatah party will be trounced.
Citing Israel’s Channel 2, the Times of Israel reported that Fatah officials are worried the party’s more militant rival, the terrorist group Hamas, could win in a landslide in municipal elections on Oct. 8. Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007.
Losing in October would mean “the destruction” of Fatah, officials reportedly told Abbas. — jta
Expel Palestinian scouts, says son of terror victim
The son of an American man killed in a Jerusalem terror attack has called on the world scouting organization to drop the membership of the Palestinian branch, which has glorified his father’s killer.
The Palestinian Scout Association, which was accepted six months ago as a full member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, named its leadership training course that started last week after the killer of Richard Lakin.
Publicity for the course, called the “Martyr – Leader Baha Alyan Course,” shows Alyan in a Palestinian scouts uniform. The Palestinian branch had been a nonvoting conditional member of the world body for 10 years.
“Should you allow the Palestinian Scout Association to keep its membership in the World Organization of the Scout Movement at the same time as they are presenting a murderer as a role model for future scout leaders, then your organization is effectively a co-sponsor of this terror-promoting course,” Micah Lakin Avni, of Tel Aviv, wrote to the world scouting organization.
Richard Lakin and two others were killed last October in a stabbing spree aboard a Jerusalem bus by Alyan and an accomplice. Lakin moved to Israel from Connecticut in 1983. More than 10 people were wounded in the attack. Alyan was killed and his accomplice, Balal Abu Gaanam, was captured and sentenced to three life sentences. — jta
IDF looking into fatal shooting by one of its soldiers
The Israeli soldier who shot and killed a Palestinian man who witnesses say charged a West Bank guard post and ignored warnings to stop is being investigated for negligent manslaughter.
The soldier, a member of the haredi Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion, was questioned Aug. 28 under caution as a suspect in a crime, according to reports.
The man who was killed on Aug. 26 — identified as 38-year-old Iyad Zakariya Hamed, a father of three from the Ramallah area — was not armed. He ignored calls to halt his rapid advance on foot toward the guard post near the Ofra settlement, as well as warning shots fired in the air and later in his direction, before the soldiers aimed at his body as per Israel Defense Forces rules of engagement, according to the soldier’s military defense attorney.
The military Criminal Investigation Division is receiving testimony from soldiers present at the scene and is seeking to interview Palestinian witnesses to the incident, Ynet reported. The soldier has not yet been charged with a crime.
“The soldier carried out what was demanded of him and acted in accordance with military instructions in light of the behavior of the Palestinian that aroused his suspicion and the risk he appeared to be posing,” the soldier’s attorney said in a statement.
Hamed’s family told the Israeli daily Haaretz that they plan to sue the Israeli military for wrongful death. — jta
Construction on Shabbat under attack in Tel Aviv
Haredi Orthodox parties in Israel are threatening to leave the ruling coalition and bring down the government over the construction of a Tel Aviv train station on Shabbat.
On Aug. 27, the heads of the religious parties demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and issued calls for him to fire his transportation minister, Yisrael Katz of his Likud party.
The haredi Shas and United Torah Judaism parties on Aug. 25 held lengthy talks on the issue with Katz, calling on him to not undertake the work on Shabbat. Party leaders in a statement called the work an “unnecessary desecration of the Shabbat.” They reportedly threatened to leave the government coalition during the talks.
Katz said the work had to be undertaken on Saturday to avoid traffic snarls that would endanger the public safety. During the rail infrastructure work, parts of the major Ayalon Highway were closed off.
“The work done over the weekend was something that was both needed and essential. There was no other way,” Katz said during a visit to the Hashalom train station in Tel Aviv. “I operated in accordance with the law and the status quo. I would not agree to cancel the work despite the pressure to do so.”
The work is part of the construction on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv high-speed train line. — jta
Israeli judo medalist sells Olympic patch to benefit charity
Israeli judoka Yarden Gerbi, a bronze medalist at the Rio Olympics, brought in $52,100 for charity in an auction for her Olympic name patch.
Twenty-two individuals placed 87 bids for the signed and dedicated patch during the week-long auction on eBay that closed on Aug. 29. The buyer was not identified.
The proceeds will be donated to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center to be used to purchase medical equipment, Gerbi said in her description on the auction website.
Gerbi defeated Miku Tashiro of Japan for Israel’s first Olympic medal since the 2008 Games in Beijing. Another Israeli athlete in judo, Ori Sasson, won a bronze medal in the men’s competition.
“The medal is for all of Israel, for everyone who supported me and cheered me on,” Gerbi said after her victory. — jta