JERUSALEM: Jerusalem’s deputy mayor, an ultranationalist Israeli politician, has asked for rubbish not to be collected from the French consulate after Paris barred Israeli firms from an arms show.
Organizers of the Eurosatory trade show just outside Paris said last month French authorities had banned Israeli firms, with the French defense ministry attributing the decision the Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip’s Rafah city.
Deputy Mayor Arieh King posted on social media platform X a letter he had addressed to the municipal sanitation department, asking “to instruct Jerusalem municipal maintenance workers to cease immediately garbage removal service from the French consulate building.”
A City Hall statement said King’s request would not be implemented.
In his letter, he denounced “traitorous and anti-Israeli conduct” by French President Emmanuel Macron, who King said aimed “to harm the State of Israel and Israeli industry,” in an apparent reference to the French expo move.
“As the City Hall of Israel’s capital, we must not stand idly by and accept the French president’s decision to stand alongside the Hamas terrorist organization,” King wrote.
France has an embassy in the coastal city of Tel Aviv and a consulate in Jerusalem which also serves Palestinians in the city’s Israeli-annexed east as well as the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the future capital of an independent state, while Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem as its indivisible capital.
The Jerusalem City Hall told AFP in a statement that garbage collection would continue at the French consulate.
“The Jerusalem municipality removes trash from all parts of the city on a professional basis and provides the best service to all its residents,” it said.
A municipal official, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the press, told AFP King has no authority to decide on such a move.
French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu has told French media it was inappropriate to host Israeli weapons manufacturers and defense firms at the expo given Macron’s calls for an end to the fighting in Rafah, which went unheeded.
Israel, which has vowed to crush Hamas militants in Gaza following the group’s October 7 attack, sent ground troops into the far-southern city in early May despite widespread concern for Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
Seventy-four Israeli firms were set to take part in the Eurosatory event which opened on Monday. Organizers said about 10 of them were planning to exhibit weapons.
“By decision of the government authorities, there will be no stand for the Israeli defense industry at the Eurosatory 2024 fair,” Coges Events had said in a statement confirming the ban.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week condemned “hostile policies against Israel” by France, in remarks rejected by other senior officials.
Jerusalem official takes on French consulate after Israel arms show ban
https://arab.news/yxqz5
Jerusalem official takes on French consulate after Israel arms show ban
- Organizers of the Eurosatory trade show just outside Paris said last month French authorities had banned Israeli firms
- A City Hall statement said King’s request would not be implemented
Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 42,847
- The toll includes 55 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry
The toll includes 55 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 100,544 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Lebanon needs help to expand army and rebuild, caretaker PM tells Paris summit
PARIS: International support will be needed to shore up and expand Lebanon’s army and rebuild the country’s destroyed infrastructure, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati told a Paris conference convened amid Israel’s assault on Hezbollah.
Mikati said the Lebanese government had decided to recruit more troops and could deploy 8,000 soldiers as part of a plan to implement a ceasefire and UN Security Council resolution, which calls for the army to be deployed in southern Lebanon.
Putin says Middle East ‘on brink of full-scale war’
KAZAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin told a BRICS summit on Thursday that the Middle East was on the verge of full-scale war.
“The military action that started a year ago in Gaza has now spread to Lebanon. Other countries in the region are also affected,” Putin told a meeting in Kazan attended by several world leaders.
“The level of confrontation between Israel and Iran has sharply risen. This is all reminiscent of a chain reaction and puts the whole Middle East on the verge of full-scale war,” Putin said.
Violence in the Middle East will not end until the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Putin said at the summit, attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
“The key demand for restoring peace and stability on Palestinian territories is carrying out the two-state formula approved by the UN Security Council and General Assembly,” the Russian president said.
He added that this would be “correcting the historical injustice toward the Palestinian people.”
“Until this question is resolved, it will not be possible to break the vicious circle of violence.”
Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian president toward unity government for post-war Gaza
- The Palestinian Authority, the governing body of the occupied Palestinian territories, is controlled by Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah political faction
MOSCOW: Palestinian militant group Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to begin negotiations on a national unity government for post-war Gaza, a senior Hamas official told the RIA state news agency after talks in Moscow.
Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas politburo member, met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow.
“We discussed issues related to Palestinian national unity and the creation of a government that should govern the Gaza Strip after the war,” Marzouk was quoted as saying by RIA.
Marzouk said that Hamas had asked Russia to encourage Abbas, who is attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, to start negotiations about a unity government, RIA reported.
Abbas is head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing body of the occupied Palestinian territories.
The PA was set up three decades ago under the interim peace agreement known as the Oslo Accords and exercises limited governance over parts of the occupied West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state.
The PA, controlled by Abbas’ Fatah political faction, has long had a strained relationship with Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs Gaza, and the two factions fought a brief war before Fatah was expelled from the territory in 2007.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed strong opposition to the PA being involved in running Gaza.
Israeli attack on Lebanese bank violates international humanitarian law, says UN expert
- Israel attacked the offices of Al-Qard Al-Hasan bank, which it claims finances Hezbollah
- The bank offers small interest-free loans and undertakes charitable activities
NEW YORK: Israel’s multiple bombings of a financial institution in Lebanon earlier this week were illegal attacks on civilian objects under international humanitarian law, an independent human rights expert said on Wednesday.
Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said that attacks on economic infrastructure are illegal “even if they indirectly sustain (the adversary’s) military activities.”
Ahead of the attack, Israel issued public warnings that it would strike the offices of Al-Qard Al-Hasan bank, which it claims finances Hezbollah.
The bank offers small interest-free loans and undertakes charitable activities. It has thousands of customers and multiple branches across Lebanon.
In armed conflict, only “military objectives” whose destruction “offers a definite military advantage” can be attacked, Saul said.
The economic activities of an adversary do not effectively contribute to military action, he added.
“Bombing banks obliterates the distinction between civilian objects and military objectives which is fundamental to protecting civilians from violence. It opens the door to ‘total war’ against civilian populations, where fighting is no longer limited to attacking militarily dangerous targets,” the expert said. “Such attacks jeopardize the right to life.”
Saul warned that international counterterrorism law does not authorize military attacks to prevent alleged terrorist financing or money laundering.
“Bombing banks is not a lawful solution to the challenges of financial crime and regulation,” he said.
To suppress terrorist financing, states should instead resort to administrative and criminal law measures, Saul added.
The attacks were the latest escalation of violence in Lebanon over the past year, with more than 2,400 people killed and 1.2 million displaced, according to the UN.
Saul joined other UN officials in calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
