Alray International Media Watch section is a daily press tour through selected international websites and newspapers, particularly the Israeli ones.
This section is prepared by Alray Palestinian Media Agency to update its viewers with the most Palestinian top news in the international press.
Yedioth Ahronoth:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancels a meeting of an inter-ministerial team intended to discuss the annexation of the Jordan Valley, following the International Criminal Court’s decision to launch a probe into alleged Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians. Further details
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared the decision by the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor to investigate possible war crimes in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, to the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus IV, calling the ICC decision anti-Semitic. Further details
The High Court of Justice said on Sunday it will debate whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could form a government despite the incumbent being indicted in three different criminal cases. Further details
Nazareth Mayor Ali Sallam had an audience last weekend with Pope Francis at his private Vatican residence for discussions on Israel's political situation, the importance of Nazareth in Christianity, and a possible second visit to Israel by the head of the Catholic Church. Further details
Israeli officials on Sunday slammed the decision by the International Criminal Court to launch a probe into alleged Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians, calling it “diplomatic terrorism,” and a “weapon in the political war.” Further details
The UN entity on human rights is expected to publish at the end of January the much-delayed “blacklist” of Israeli business operating in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, sources in “Jerusalem” said Sunday. Further details
Top Israeli officials are alarmed about the potential consequences of the International Criminal Court's decision to launch a probe into war crimes allegedly committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories, according to a report by Channel 12 News on Saturday. Further details
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court took a major step Friday toward opening an investigation in the occupied Palestinian territories, asking judges exactly what territory a future investigation could cover. Further details
The Jerusalem Post:
An Israeli watchdog is calling on the government to tax the pay-for-slay money received by some Arab citizens of “Israel”. Further details
Fuad Shubaki, a senior Palestinian Authority security officer who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Israeli prison for his role in the 2002 botched attempt to smuggle an illegal weapons shipment to the PA, has accused the PLO and Fatah of ignoring his case and that of all Palestinian prisoners. Further details
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu campaigned for Likud Party votes by promising to annex all West Bank settlements, thereby totally dismissing the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) threat of war crime suits for such activity. Further details
Yesha Council head David ElHayani has asked the Prime Minister’s Office to clarify that preparatory work for the annexation of the Jordan Valley has not been cancelled. Further details
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met on Tuesday night with new CIA director Mike Pompeo, a Palestinian security source told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. Further details
Likud MK Gideon Sa'ar posted a photo on his Facebook page where he was seen lighting a Hanukkah candle at the “Cave of the Patriarchs” in Hebron, shortly after a 16-year-old Palestinian boy bearing a knife was arrested attempting to get inside bearing a knife. Further details
The Likud will run the same list of candidates for the March 2 election as it did in the September and April races, an internal Likud court decided on Monday. Further details
Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christian United for Israel (CUFI), released a statement on Monday, calling the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to launch an investigation of Israel "absurd." Further details
The eviction of three Jewish families from a Palestinian home in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood was upheld by the Jerusalem District’s Appeals Court on Monday. Further details
A prominent commodore (ret.) of the Royal Saudi Navy, Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, speculated on what if the Arab states had recognized “Israel” following its declaration of independence in May 1948, in which he surmises that numerous reverberating political events would not have occurred throughout the Middle East in the ensuing years. Further details
The Times of Israel:
The biblical city of Bethlehem, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, was preparing Monday to welcome pilgrims from around the world to celebrate Christmas in the Holy Land. Further details
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex the West Bank’s Jordan Valley have reportedly entered a “deep freeze” following the International Criminal Court’s decision to move forward with a potential war crimes. Further details
The editor in chief of a Belgian daily newspaper accused a Jewish lawmaker of spying for Israel in parliament. Further details
Three days before Likud voters choose between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival MK Gideon Sa’ar to lead the party into the next election, Sa’ar on Monday said that, if elected, he’d seek to appoint the prime minister president. Further details
“Israel’s” military liaison to the Palestinians on Monday night announced that he was expanding the permitted fishing zone off the Gaza coast back to 15 nautical miles, as it had been before a series of rocket and mortar attacks last week. Further details
The Likud party’s internal court on Monday canceled the primaries for the party’s Knesset roster ahead of the March general election, accepting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appeal against the judges’ earlier decision requiring the vote. Further details
MK Avigdor Liberman on Monday lambasted the prime minister for the government’s decision not to raze the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the southern West Bank out of concerns that such an action would prompt an investigation by the International Criminal Court. Further details
The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Monday that an Israeli firm did not legally purchase a disputed home in Hebron from its original Palestinian owners and ordered that the settlers living inside since 2005 evacuate within 45 days. Further details
Police on Monday issued a statement to reporters that has become common in recent years: An investigation has been opened into allegations that two Palestinian maintenance workers were assaulted on the job at a clinic in the northern West Bank settlement of Yitzhar by a pair of young settlers who doused them with pepper spray then fled the scene. Further details
A Palestinian man crossed the Gaza border fence and threatened “IDF” soldiers with a knife on Monday, according to the “Israel Defense Forces”. Further details
The International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor reportedly met with a Palestinian group, but avoided meeting with Israeli organizations, before the court announced Friday that it was preparing to probe alleged war crimes committed by “Israel” against the Palestinians. Further details
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused the International Criminal Court of “pure anti-Semitism” for saying that it was preparing to probe alleged war crimes committed by “Israel” in the Palestinian territories. Further details
