Latest news with #Israel-Palestinian
UPI
13 hours ago
- Politics
- UPI
U.N. meeting looks at 2-state solution for Israel, Palestine
1 of 5 | Dignitaries attend a high-level international conference examining two states of Israel and Palestine in the Middle East. It took place at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Monday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo July 28 (UPI) -- Government ministers from more than 100 countries on Monday gathered at the United Nations to consider a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The two-day conference, which is called the "Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the two-State Solution" was delayed from June because of the war between Israel and Iran. In remarks, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said separate Israel and Palestine nations "remains the only framework rooted in international law, endorsed by this assembly, and supported by the international community." In December 2024, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution backing two states. Israel has been a U.N. member since May 11, 1949. Palestinians' bid for full U.N. membership was vetoed by the United States in the 15-member Security Council in 2024. Ultimately, the 193-member General Assembly overwhelmingly upgraded Palestine's rights as an observer state. Israel and the United States are boycotting the two-day meeting hosted by France and Saudi Arabia. Israel, which was recognized as an independent state in 1948, has opposed separate states, and the United States sees no benefit in the summit The issue is more pronounced since the war between Israel and Hamas when the militants invaded on Oct. 7, 2023. But the debate has been going on for decades. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot opened the conference and agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron's commitment last week urging a "decisive step" toward resolving the conflict with separate nations. "We must move from the end of the war in Gaza to the end of the entire conflict, which threatens regional stability," Barrot said. "Only the two-state solution will meet the legitimate aspirations of both peoples. There is no alternative." Barrot said "concrete steps" include the official recognition of Palestine, normalized relations with Israel, Palestinian institutions reforms and Hamas disarmament. Antonio Guterres then addressed the group. "We are here today with our eyes wide open -- fully aware of the challenges before us," he said. "We know that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has endured for generations -- defying hopes ... defying diplomacy ... defying countless resolutions and defying international law. We know that the conflict continues to take lives, destroy futures, and destabilize the region and our world." But he said it can be resolved. "That demands political will and courageous leadership," he said. "And it demands truth. The truth is: We are at a breaking point. The two-state solution is farther than ever before." He noted the terror attacks by Hamas, Israeli hostages taken, the killing of tens of thousands of citizens and starvation in Gaza. Guterres also described Israel's "relentless expansion of settlements," including in the West Bank and Israel's Knesset declaration last week to annex the territory. "They are part of a systemic reality that is dismantling the building blocks of peace in the Middle East," he said. "And yet, precisely because of the grim realities, we must do even more to realize the two-state solution. "Today's conference is a rare and indispensable opportunity." He said it "it is the only credible path to a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians." Guterres added: "Specifically -- Israel and Palestine -- living side-by-side in peace and security, within secure and recognized borders, on the basis of the pre-1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both States -- in line with international law, UN resolutions and other relevant agreements." During an address on April 25, Guterres warned "the promise of a two-state solution is at risk of vanishing altogether." Bob Rae, Canada's ambassador to the U.N., said it is "not a peace conference." Before the summit, he told U.N. News: "It's a way of trying to maintain the debate and get beyond the sticking points to the solutions. We hope there'll be some listening, and we hope there'll be some learning on the basis of what we hear." Israel, with a population of 9.8 million, including 7.2 million Jews, is surrounded by Arab nations: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia. And Palestinians include 2.2 million people on the Gaza Strip, and 3 million in the West Bank. The idea for two states predates the U.N. founding in 1945. In 1947, Britain's mandate over Palestine ended with a U.N. partition plan in 1947 to divide the territory into Jewish and Arab states. Israel accepted the plan but Arab nations declared war without the two-state solution implemented. Jordan took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt had oversight of Gaza. In the 1967 Mideast war, Israel captured those territories. Palestinians receive aid in Gaza Palestinians carry sacks of flour after trucks with humanitarian aid entered through the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza on July 27, 2025. Photo by Mahmoud Issa/UPI | License Photo
The Hindu
14 hours ago
- General
- The Hindu
Nuns to stay, serve in Gaza despite attacks, says Missionaries of Charity
A day after two nuns of the India-headquartered Missionaries of Charity were seen in a viral video in the close proximity of a deadly rocket attack in Gaza Strip, the Mother House in Kolkata reiterated its commitment to continue to serve in the conflict-hit enclave. Three nuns of the Missionaries of Charity are in Gaza and will continue to stay there 'as that is the life of the nuns of the order' a spokesperson from the Mother House in Kolkata told The Hindu on Monday (July 28, 2025). 'The sisters are on the ground in Gaza and are currently serving the old and the children. They have been there from the beginning of the conflict helping the common people who are suffering because of the war. In fact, we have been there for a long time,' the spokesperson said over phone, adding that the nuns of the order have been present in Gaza Strip for decades throughout which several Israel-Palestinian conflicts have taken place. The remarks from the Missionaries of Charity, started by Mother Teresa, came a day after a video went viral showing two of the three nuns of the order praying inside a church as bombs fell outside shattering the calm of the Sunday congregation. The Missionaries of Charity has served in multiple conflict zones in the world, including in Gaza where they began helping the affected people since February 26, 1973. The organisation started facing difficulties soon after the latest Israel-Palestinian conflict began on October 7, 2023. On December 16, 2023, more than two months after the start of the military campaign by Israel against targets in Gaza, the Missionaries of Charity's convent located on the compound of the Holy Family Parish, the only Catholic church near Gaza City, was bombed. That incident was reported by Father Gabriel Romanelli of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, pastor of the Holy Family Parish. The video of Sunday's attack was also shared by Father Romanelli with the international media. Father Romanelli was injured in an attack on July 17 on the Holy Family Parish that was reportedly carried out by the Israeli Defence Forces. The Missionaries of Charity did not share the names of their nuns who are serving in Gaza 'as the situation remains fragile' on the ground and the spokesperson said, 'This is the life of the nuns of the Missionaries of Charity. We will continue to serve there despite the violence.'
Nahar Net
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Nahar Net
What to expect and what not to at UN meeting on Israel-Palestine two-state solution
by Naharnet Newsdesk 28 July 2025, 14:16 The U.N. General Assembly is bringing high-level officials together this week to promote a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict that would place their peoples side by side, living in peace in independent nations. Israel and its close ally the United States are boycotting the two-day meeting, which starts Monday and will be co-chaired by the foreign ministers of France and Saudi Arabia. Israel's right-wing government opposes a two-state solution, and the United States has called the meeting "counterproductive" to its efforts to end the war in Gaza. France and Saudi Arabia want the meeting to put a spotlight on the two-state solution, which they view as the only viable road map to peace, and to start addressing the steps to get there. The meeting was postponed from late June and downgraded from a four-day meeting of world leaders amid surging tensions in the Middle East, including Israel's 12-day war against Iran and the war in Gaza. "It was absolutely necessary to restart a political process, the two-state solution process, that is today threatened, more threatened than it has ever been," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Sunday on CBS News' "Face the Nation." Here's what's useful to know about the upcoming gathering. Why a two-state solution? The idea of dividing the Holy Land goes back decades. When the British mandate over Palestine ended, the U.N. partition plan in 1947 envisioned dividing the territory into Jewish and Arab states. Israel accepted the plan, but upon Israel's declaration of independence the following year, its Arab neighbors declared war and the plan was never implemented. Under a 1949 armistice, Jordan held control over the West Bank and east Jerusalem and Egypt over Gaza. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those lands for a future independent state alongside Israel, and this idea of a two-state solution based on Israel's pre-1967 boundaries has been the basis of peace talks dating back to the 1990s. The two-state solution has wide international support. The logic behind it is that the populations of Israel, east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza are divided equally between Jews and Palestinians. The establishment of an independent Palestine would leave Israel as a democratic country with a solid Jewish majority and grant the Palestinians their dream of self-determination. Why hold a conference now? France and Saudi Arabia have said they want to put a spotlight on the two-state solution as the only viable path to peace in the Middle East — and they want to see a road map with specific steps, first ending the war in Gaza. The co-chairs said in a document sent to U.N. members in May that the primary goal of the meeting is to identify actions by "all relevant actors" to implement the two-state solution — and "to urgently mobilize the necessary efforts and resources to achieve this aim, through concrete and time-bound commitments." Saudi diplomat Manal Radwan, who led the country's delegation to the preparatory conference, said the meeting must "chart a course for action, not reflection." It must be "anchored in a credible and irreversible political plan that addresses the root cause of the conflict and offers a real path to peace, dignity and mutual security," she said. French President Emmanuel Macron has pushed for a broader movement toward a two-state solution in parallel with a recognition of Israel's right to defend itself. He announced late Thursday that France will recognize the state of Palestine officially at the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in late September. About 145 countries have recognized the state of Palestine. But Macron's announcement, ahead of Monday's meeting and amid increasing global anger over desperately hungry people in Gaza starting to die from starvation, makes France the most important Western power to do so. What is Israel's view? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the two-state solution on both nationalistic and security grounds. Netanyahu's religious and nationalist base views the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people, while Israeli Jews overwhelmingly consider Jerusalem their eternal capital. The city's eastern side is home to Judaism's holiest site, along with major Christian and Muslim holy places. Hard-line Israelis like Netanyahu believe the Palestinians don't want peace, citing the second Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s, and more recently the Hamas takeover of Gaza two years after Israel withdrew from the territory in 2005. The Hamas takeover led to five wars, including the current and ongoing 21-month conflict. At the same time, Israel also opposes a one-state solution in which Jews could lose their majority. Netanyahu's preference seems to be the status quo, where Israel maintains overall control and Israelis have fuller rights than Palestinians, Israel deepens its control by expanding settlements, and the Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in pockets of the West Bank. Netanyahu condemned Macron's announcement of Palestinian recognition, saying it "rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became." What is the Palestinian view? The Palestinians, who label the current arrangement "apartheid," accuse Israel of undermining repeated peace initiatives by deepening settlement construction in the West Bank and threatening annexation. That would harm the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state and their prospects for independence. Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and close associate of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the meeting will serve as preparation for a presidential summit expected in September. It will take place either in France or at the U.N. on the sidelines of the high-level meeting, U.N. diplomats said. Majdalani said the Palestinians have several goals, first a "serious international political process leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state." The Palestinians also want additional international recognition of their state by major countries including Britain. But expect that to happen in September, not at Monday's meeting, Majdalani said. And he said they want economic and financial support for the Palestinian Authority and international support for the reconstruction and recovery of the Gaza Strip. What will happen — and won't happen — at the meeting? All 193 U.N. member nations have been invited to attend the meeting and a French diplomat said about 40 ministers are expected. The United States and Israel are the only countries who are boycotting. The co-chairs have circulated an outcome document which could be adopted, and there could be some announcements of intentions to recognize a Palestinian state. But with Israel and the United States boycotting, there is no prospect of a breakthrough and the resumption of long-stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on an end to their conflict. Secretary-General António Guterres urged participants after the meeting was announced "to keep the two-state solution alive." And he said the international community must not only support a solution where independent states of Palestine and Israel live side-by-side in peace but "materialize the conditions to make it happen."
Chicago Tribune
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
What to expect, and what not to, at the UN meeting on an Israel-Palestinian two-state solution
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly is bringing high-level officials together this week to promote a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict that would place their peoples side by side, living in peace in independent nations. Israel and its close ally the United States are boycotting the two-day meeting, which starts Monday and will be co-chaired by the foreign ministers of France and Saudi Arabia. Israel's right-wing government opposes a two-state solution, and the United States has called the meeting 'counterproductive' to its efforts to end the war in Gaza. France and Saudi Arabia want the meeting to put a spotlight on the two-state solution, which they view as the only viable road map to peace, and to start addressing the steps to get there. The meeting was postponed from late June and downgraded from a four-day meeting of world leaders amid surging tensions in the Middle East, including Israel's 12-day war against Iran and the war in Gaza. 'It was absolutely necessary to restart a political process, the two-state solution process, that is today threatened, more threatened than it has ever been,' French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Sunday on CBS News' 'Face the Nation.' Here's what's useful to know about the upcoming gathering. The idea of dividing the Holy Land goes back decades. When the British mandate over Palestine ended, the U.N. partition plan in 1947 envisioned dividing the territory into Jewish and Arab states. Israel accepted the plan, but upon Israel's declaration of independence the following year, its Arab neighbors declared war and the plan was never implemented. Under a 1949 armistice, Jordan held control over the West Bank and east Jerusalem and Egypt over Gaza. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those lands for a future independent state alongside Israel, and this idea of a two-state solution based on Israel's pre-1967 boundaries has been the basis of peace talks dating back to the 1990s. The two-state solution has wide international support. The logic behind it is that the populations of Israel, east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza are divided equally between Jews and Palestinians. As President Donald Trump shows off his golf courses for Britain's leader, crisis in Gaza loomsThe establishment of an independent Palestine would leave Israel as a democratic country with a solid Jewish majority and grant the Palestinians their dream of self-determination. France and Saudi Arabia have said they want to put a spotlight on the two-state solution as the only viable path to peace in the Middle East — and they want to see a road map with specific steps, first ending the war in Gaza. Israeli strikes kill at least 36 people in Gaza, officials say, as some aid restrictions are easedThe co-chairs said in a document sent to U.N. members in May that the primary goal of the meeting is to identify actions by 'all relevant actors' to implement the two-state solution — and 'to urgently mobilize the necessary efforts and resources to achieve this aim, through concrete and time-bound commitments.' Saudi diplomat Manal Radwan, who led the country's delegation to the preparatory conference, said the meeting must 'chart a course for action, not reflection.' It must be 'anchored in a credible and irreversible political plan that addresses the root cause of the conflict and offers a real path to peace, dignity and mutual security,' she said. French President Emmanuel Macron has pushed for a broader movement toward a two-state solution in parallel with a recognition of Israel's right to defend itself. He announced late Thursday that France will recognize the state of Palestine officially at the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in late September. About 145 countries have recognized the state of Palestine. But Macron's announcement, ahead of Monday's meeting and amid increasing global anger over desperately hungry people in Gaza starting to die from starvation, makes France the most important Western power to do so. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the two-state solution on both nationalistic and security grounds. Netanyahu's religious and nationalist base views the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people, while Israeli Jews overwhelmingly consider Jerusalem their eternal capital. The city's eastern side is home to Judaism's holiest site, along with major Christian and Muslim holy places. Hard-line Israelis like Netanyahu believe the Palestinians don't want peace, citing the second Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s, and more recently the Hamas takeover of Gaza two years after Israel withdrew from the territory in 2005. The Hamas takeover led to five wars, including the current and ongoing 21-month conflict. At the same time, Israel also opposes a one-state solution in which Jews could lose their majority. Netanyahu's preference seems to be the status quo, where Israel maintains overall control and Israelis have fuller rights than Palestinians, Israel deepens its control by expanding settlements, and the Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in pockets of the West Bank. Netanyahu condemned Macron's announcement of Palestinian recognition, saying it 'rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became.' The Palestinians, who label the current arrangement 'apartheid,' accuse Israel of undermining repeated peace initiatives by deepening settlement construction in the West Bank and threatening annexation. That would harm the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state and their prospects for independence. Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and close associate of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the meeting will serve as preparation for a presidential summit expected in September. It will take place either in France or at the U.N. on the sidelines of the high-level meeting, U.N. diplomats said. Majdalani said the Palestinians have several goals, first a 'serious international political process leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state.' The Palestinians also want additional international recognition of their state by major countries including Britain. But expect that to happen in September, not at Monday's meeting, Majdalani said. And he said they want economic and financial support for the Palestinian Authority and international support for the reconstruction and recovery of the Gaza Strip. All 193 U.N. member nations have been invited to attend the meeting and a French diplomat said about 40 ministers are expected. The United States and Israel are the only countries who are boycotting. The co-chairs have circulated an outcome document which could be adopted, and there could be some announcements of intentions to recognize a Palestinian state. But with Israel and the United States boycotting, there is no prospect of a breakthrough and the resumption of long-stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on an end to their conflict. Secretary-General António Guterres urged participants after the meeting was announced 'to keep the two-state solution alive.' And he said the international community must not only support a solution where independent states of Palestine and Israel live side-by-side in peace but 'materialize the conditions to make it happen.'
Chicago Tribune
21 hours ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
As President Donald Trump shows off his golf courses for Britain's leader, crisis in Gaza looms
EDINBURGH, Scotland — President Donald Trump once suggested his golf course in Scotland 'furthers' the U.S.-U.K. relationship. Now he's getting the chance to prove it. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting Monday with Trump at a golf property owned by the president's family near Turnberry in southwestern Scotland — then later traveling to Abderdeen, on the country's northeast coast, where there's another Trump golf course and a third is opening soon. During his first term in 2019, Trump posted of his Turnberry property, 'Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!' Starmer is not a golfer, but toggling between Trump's Scottish courses shows the outsized influence the president puts on properties bearing his name — and on golf's ability to shape geopolitics. However, even as Trump may want to focus on showing off his golf properties, Starmer will try to center the conversation on more urgent global matters. He plans to urge Trump to press Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and attempt to end what Downing St. called 'the unspeakable suffering and starvation' in the territory, while pushing for a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas. Britain, along with France and Germany, has criticized Israel for 'withholding essential humanitarian assistance' as hunger spread in Gaza. Over the weekend, Starmer said Britain will take part in efforts led by Jordan to airdrop aid after Israel temporarily eased restrictions. But British Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged Monday that only the U.S. has 'the leverage' to make a real difference in the conflict. Still, asked about the crisis in Gaza on Sunday night, Trump was largely dismissive — focused more on how he's not personally gotten credit for previous attempts to provide food aid. 'It's terrible. You really at least want to have somebody say, 'Thank you,'' Trump said. The president added, 'It makes you feel a little bad when you do that' without what he considered proper acknowledgement. Starmer is under pressure from his Labour Party lawmakers to follow France in recognizing a Palestinian state, a move both Israel and the U.S. have condemned. The British leader says the U.K. supports statehood for the Palestinians but that it must be 'part of a wider plan' for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israeli strikes kill at least 36 people in Gaza, officials say, as some aid restrictions are easedAlso on Monday's agenda, according to Starmer's office, are efforts to promote a possible peace deal to end fighting in Russia's war with Ukraine — particularly efforts at forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table in the next 50 days. Trump in the past sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for also failing to express enough public gratitude toward U.S. support for his country, taking a similar tack he's now adopting when it comes to aid for Gaza. The president, though, has shifted away from that tone and more sharply criticized Putin and Russia in recent weeks. On Tuesday, Trump will be at the site of his new course near Aberdeen for an official ribbon-cutting. It opens to the public on Aug. 13 and tee times are already for sale — with the course betting that a presidential visit can help boost sales. What to expect, and what not to, at the UN meeting on an Israel-Palestinian two-state solutionProtesters have planned a demonstration in Balmedie, near Trump's existing Aberdeen golf course, after demonstrators took to the streets across Scotland on Saturday to decry the president's visit while he was golfing. Starmer and Trump are likely to find more common ground on trade issues. While China initially responded to Trump's tariff threats by retaliating with high import taxes of its own on U.S. goods, it has since begun negotiating to ease trade tensions. Starmer and his country have taken a far softer approach. He's gone out of his way to work with Trump, flattering the president repeatedly during a February visit to the White House, and teaming up to announce a joint trade framework on tariffs for some key products in May. Starmer and Trump then signed a trade agreement during the G7 summit in Canada that freed the U.K.'s aerospace sector from U.S. tariffs and used quotas to reduce them on auto-related industries from 25% to 10% while increasing the amount of U.S. beef it pledged to import. Discussions with Starmer follow a Trump meeting Sunday with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry course. They announced a trade framework that will put 15% tariffs on most goods from both countries, though many major details remain pending. The president has for months railed against yawning U.S. trade deficits around the globe and sees tariffs as a way to try and close them in a hurry. But the U.S. ran an $11.4 billion trade surplus with Britain last year, meaning it exported more to the U.K. than it imported. Census Bureau figures this year indicate that the surplus could grow. There are still lingering U.S.-Britain trade issues that need fine-tuning. The deal framework from May said British steel would enter the U.S. duty-free, but it continues to face a 25% levy. U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Monday that 'negotiations have been going on on a daily basis' and 'there's a few issues to push a little bit further today,' though he downplayed expectations of a resolution. The leader of Scotland, meanwhile, said he will urge Trump to lift the current 10% tariff on Scotch whisky. First Minister John Swinney said the spirit's 'uniqueness' justified an exemption. Even as some trade details linger and both leaders grapple with increasingly difficult choices in Gaza and Ukraine, however, Starmer's staying on Trump's good side appears to be working — at least so far. 'The U.K. is very well-protected. You know why? Because I like them — that's their ultimate protection,' Trump said during the G7.
