Navigating wartime tensions: Coexistence initiatives in Israel tentatively resume as Arabs and Jews live side-by-side amid conflict
Groups like the Good Neighbors Project are navigating wartime tensions, making good on years of work trying to foster mutual respect. MICHELE CHABIN, of Religion News Service, reports…
Israel’s premier calls for unity after Netanyahu victory
Jerusalem AP Israel’s Prime Minister on Sunday issued a plea for national unity, days after he was defeated in national elections by the former premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, with the backing of a far-right ultranationalist party. In a memorial ceremony for the assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned of the deep […]
Israeli Supreme Court upholds contentious Jewish state law
Jerusalem, IsraelAP Israel’s Supreme Court last week upheld a controversial law that defines the country as the nation state of the Jewish people – rejecting claims by opponents that it discriminates against minorities. In its ruling, the court acknowledged shortcomings in the so-called Nation State Law. But it said the law “did not negate Israel’s […]
Gaza conflict intensifies with rocket barrages and air strikes
Gaza/JerusalemReuters Palestinian militants fired more rockets into Israel’s commercial heartland on Thursday as Israel kept up a punishing bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip and massed tanks and troops on the enclave’s border. Four days of cross-border fighting showed no sign of abating, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the campaign “will take more […]
Jerusalem Patriarch says settlers are pushing Christians out of Old City
World Watch Monitor The most senior Christian leader in the Holy Land has accused hardline Jewish settlers of trying to intimidate clergy in Jerusalem’s Old City and acquire church-owned property in an attempt to weaken the Christians’ presence there. In an interview with The Guardian, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, said: “Today […]
US Vice President’s plans to help Middle East Christians overshadowed by political storm
World Watch Monitor US Vice President Mike Pence in a June 2017 photo PICTURE: NASA/Bill Ingalls US Vice President Mike Pence’s postponed trip to the Middle East goes ahead this weekend amid myriad tensions and a fast-shifting diplomatic landscape. Mr Pence’s trip is a shortened version of the one planned for last month, which was […]