Palestinian Authority

Nadia Hijab writes: The dust is settling after US President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel, the occupied Palestinian territory and Jordan, and it is now easier to see the extent of the debris he has left behind. It is perhaps at the geopolitical level that Obama has done the most damage – and that to [...]

Karl Vick writes: Today, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas formally asks the United Nations General Assembly to be voted aboard as a “non-member state.” Assured of its passage by a whopping majority, Israel and the United States have noted their objections mildly and mostly for the record, their effort to limit the fallout for the [...]

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: Julia Gillard has been forced to abandon her personal opposition to Palestinians winning a seat in the United Nations – despite threatening to exercise a prime ministerial veto and demand Australia reject the bid. The backdown headed off an ugly stoush in Labor caucus that threatened to deliver a fresh [...]

The Guardian reports: Britain is prepared to back a key vote recognising Palestinian statehood at the United Nations if Mahmoud Abbas pledges not to pursue Israel for war crimes and to resume peace talks. Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, has called for Britain’s backing in part because of its historic responsibility for Palestine. The [...]

If the assault on Gaza was conceived as a demonstration of a war-making prime minister’s strength as he approaches an election, Benjamin Netanyahu’s drop in the polls already indicates how big a failure Operation Pillar of Cloud quickly became — the damage to Israel’s standing will only continue. The next big “threat” Israel faces will [...]

The Associated Press reports: A Western diplomat says the exhumation of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s remains will take place Nov. 26. He says a Swiss team has arrived in the West Bank ahead of the planned exhumation. The team will assess the grave site and plan how best to dig up the remains. The [...]

The Guardian reports: Within the guarded walls of the Palestinian presidential compound, known as the Muqata, the body of Yasser Arafat lies inside a gleaming limestone and glass mausoleum. It is here that political figures, dignitaries, devotees and tourists come to pay their respects to a man who was revered and reviled across the world [...]

The Associated Press reports: A French murder probe into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat prompted an Israeli denial of responsibility on Wednesday and renewed doubts that Palestinians would stick to a halfhearted pledge to exhume Arafat’s body. Arafat’s death eight years ago in a French hospital has remained a long-running mystery for many, [...]

The Associated Press reports: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has given his permission to exhume the remains of his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, a top aide said Monday, days after a Swiss institute reported finding elevated traces of a radioactive substance on the late leader’s belongings. The findings by Switzerland’s Institute of Radiation Physics were inconclusive, but [...]

The Associated Press reports: An aide says the Palestinian leader wants more information from a Swiss lab before deciding whether to dig up the remains of his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Doctors at the lab say they found elevated levels of the radioactive agent polonium-210 on clothing reportedly worn by Arafat before his death in November [...]

Ma’an News Agency reports: The Palestinian Authority has agreed to set up an international investigation into the death of President Yasser Arafat, and has no problem exhuming his body from a Ramallah grave, officials said Wednesday. Arafat’s widow Suha called on Tuesday for the Palestinian leader’s body to be examined after Al Jazeera reported that [...]