End of the Hebron Protocol

     The Tomb of the Patriarchs

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/428713

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-899608

Smotrich announces the end of the Hebron Protocol

Bezalel Smotrich says Israel has stripped Hebron’s Arab municipality of planning authority over the Jewish community and holy sites.

Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich announced on Tuesday the completion of a process to deny the Arab Hebron Municipality all planning and construction authorities granted to it by the Hebron Protocol.

The process follows a cabinet decision initiated by Minister Smotrich and ratified several months ago. On Monday, the Central Planning Bureau passed the ruling required to complete the process.

As a result of the decision, planning and construction authority over the Jewish community in Hebron and the holy sites there, including the Cave of the Patriarchs, will no longer rest with the Hebron municipality but will instead return to the full responsibility of the State of Israel.

Smotrich said, “Yesterday, we canceled the Hebron Protocol. For many years, one of the most absurd provisions of the Oslo Accords remained in effect, under which authority over matters relating to the Jewish community in Hebron and its holy sites depended on the terrorist municipality of Hebron. Yesterday, we put an end to that. This is far more than a planning measure; it is a historic correction. We are continuing the revolution of regulating settlement, strengthening governance, and deepening Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry stated:  "This decision was made following years of a complete lack of cooperation on these matters by the Arab Hebron Municipality."

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/428713

Smotrich’s announcement of the reported annulment of the Hebron Accords was made during the inauguration ceremony for the new West Bank settlement of Doron, located in the Hebron hills.

     Defense Minister Israel Katz and Smotrich at Doron Cornerstone Laying Ceremony

“For many long years, one of the most absurd clauses of Oslo remained in place, whereby authorities relating to the Jewish settlement in Hebron and to the holy sites were subject to the Arab terrorist municipality of Hebron,” Smotrich said. “Yesterday we put an end to that."

He called the move a “historic correction,” noting that it is part of the initiative to regulate settlements and “deepening Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria."

Under Smotrich’s claim, all planning and construction responsibilities granted to the Hebron Municipality under the Hebron Agreement had been withdrawn and instead “returned” to the Israeli government.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's office called the seizure of powers an "infringement upon the political and legal status of Hebron," and a violation of international law.

Many MKs, including Smotrich, have pushed for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).

In May, Israel approved a NIS 250 million plan to preserve heritage and antiquities sites across the West Bank, the Jordan Valley, and the Judean Desert.

New heritage centers, set to serve as research and educational facilities, and visitor centers will be constructed at sites in these areas in order to bolster “the connection of the Israeli public to the Jewish people's historic assets in the region.”

A multi-year plan worth tens of millions of shekels will also be implemented to upgrade existing infrastructure and, hopefully, turn the sites into major tourist destinations.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-899608

     Tomb of the Patriarchs

The Tomb of the Patriarchs is revered in Judaism as the burial site of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah.

The settlement movement and the Jewish community in Hebron have long sought to assert Israeli civilian control over the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Muslims built the Ibrahimi mosque in the ​14th century, to desecrate the site.

Smotrich, who wants to bury the ‌idea of ⁠Palestinian statehood in the West Bank, has backed a rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the territory.

Netanyahu's security cabinet approved steps earlier this year to make it ​easier for settlers to buy land in the West Bank and give Israeli authorities more enforcement powers in the territory.

A Jewish presence has existed there for thousands of ​years. They view the West Bank as their biblical heartland.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has led an unprecedented drive to expand Jerusalem’s control of Judea and Samaria, having approved tens of thousands of homes and dozens of new communities in the past three-and-a-half years.

Pally Soccer Chief/Terrorist Supporter denied Visa to enter USA

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/428645

Pally soccer chief denied US visa to attend FIFA World Cup

The head of the PA soccer association, Jibril Rajoub, is denied a US visa for the 2026 World Cup. Rajoub is known for his anti-Israel comments and incitements.

Jibril Rajoub, the prominent Fatah official who leads the Palestinian Authority’s soccer association, revealed that his request for a United States visa had not been approved, blocking him from traveling to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, JNS reported.

The development follows several instances where the Trump administration barred specific tournament delegates from entering the country, with recent restrictions impacting an Iraqi team photographer and a Somali referee.

Rajoub, who served a prison sentence in Israel for security-related offenses, regularly incites against Israel, and has in the past said that Jews deserved the genocide inflicted on them by the Nazis.

In October 2011, he delivered a speech at a ceremony honoring the terrorists released by Israel in the Shalit deal, in which he praised Hamas for abducting the soldier and hailed the released prisoners as heroes.

In another incident, he declared that if the PA had a nuclear bomb, it would use it against Israel.

In 2018, Rajoub was suspended for a year from FIFA for inciting hatred and violence, after he called on soccer fans to target the Argentinian Soccer Association and burn jerseys and pictures of Messi when he was scheduled to play a friendly game in Israel.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/428645

Palestinian soccer chief says US, Canada haven’t granted him visa to attend World Cup

Jibril Rajoub went to the opening match between Mexico and South Africa on Thursday in Mexico City. But he is among several people accredited to attend the soccer World Cup who have been denied visas or have yet to receive them from the United States.

Rajoub told AFP that he had also failed to obtain a visa for Canada, which is co-hosting the World Cup.

The United States has refused entry to delegates from a raft of countries, including a referee from Somalia and a photographer traveling with Iraq’s team.

The US State Department last year implemented new restrictions on Palestinian passport holders, including on anyone who has been employed by the Palestinian Authority.

It revoked a visa to allow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to travel to the United Nations General Assembly last September.

Last month, Rajoub refused to shake hands with the head of Israel’s soccer federation.

Palestinian soccer chief Jibril Rajoub ‘denied US visa for 2026 World Cup’

In 2024, then Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz threatened to ban Rajoub from traveling abroad, accusing him of using sports to promote terrorism and violence.

“Jibril Rajoub, a terrorist in a suit who openly supported Hamas’s crimes, is working around the clock to get Israel removed from the international soccer association,” Katz tweeted, tagging FIFA on the post.

“We will work to thwart his plans, and if he doesn’t stop—we will imprison him in the Muqata’a [P.A. presidential compound in Ramallah], where he will be left to play Stanga by himself between the walls,” added Katz, referring to a soccer-like game popular with Israeli children.

On April 30, Rajoub refused to stand alongside Israel Football Association Vice President Basim Sheikh Suliman during a tense moment at the FIFA Congress in Vancouver.

Both officials were invited to the stage by Infantino, who attempted to bring them together. Rajoub declined to move closer to Suliman despite Infantino placing a hand on his arm and gesturing for him to do so.

https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/palestinian-soccer-chief-jibril-rajoub-denied-us-visa-for-2026-world-cup

IDF Eliminates Hezbollah Commander

 

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-899391

IDF kills senior Hezbollah commander who served as Nasrallah's former bodyguard, in southern Lebanon

Ali Musa Daqduq was responsible for founding the 'Golan Terrorist Network,' coordinating various attacks against IDF soldiers along the border, and planning the murders of five US soldiers in 2007.

The IDF killed senior Hezbollah commander Ali Musa Daqduq in a precision strike in southern Lebanon, the military announced on Sunday. 

According to the statement, Daqduq held various senior positions within Hezbollah, including as bodyguard to then-Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, head of the terror group's infantry unit, and founding commander of the "Golan Terrorist Network."

The "Golan Terrorist Network" is the terrorist unit responsible for Hezbollah's involvement in Syria and the established military infrastructure along the Israel-Lebanon border. The network was exposed by the IDF in 2019.

Daqduq orchestrated many of Hezbollah's operations against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel, primarily near the border with Lebanon.

Leiter announces death of senior Hezbollah terrorist before IDF publishes confirmation

Israel's Ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, announced the assassination of Daqduq before the IDF statement was officially released.

According to Leiter, Daqduq was responsible for carrying out the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in 2007 and managing Hezbollah's "Golan Portfolio" plan to invade and take over northern Israel.

Who was Ali Musa Daqduq?

Daqduq joined Hezbollah in early 1983, The Jerusalem Post previously reported.

He was sent to Iraq in 2005 after Iran asked Hezbollah to form a group to train Iraqis to fight coalition forces in the country. He helped train and advise the terrorists in Jaysh al-Mahdi, now known as Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq. Daqduq was behind bloody attacks against Western troops in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, including the attack that killed five US soldiers.

He was captured by the British SAS in Basra in March 2007 and spent five years in prison. He was released by the Iraqi government in 2012 despite strong protests from Washington. He was designated by the United States Treasury Department that year for his role in the attack.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-899391

Medical Advice from Francesca

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/428454

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/428520

'Change your medication': Anti-Israel UN envoy mocks mother of October 7 victim

UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese faces heavy backlash after mocking the mother of an Oct. 7 victim.

UN investigator Francesca Albanese, known for her anti-Israel rhetoric, is facing sharp criticism after publicly deriding the grieving mother of a young woman killed during the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, JNS reported.

The backlash followed comments from the mother expressing that she was overwhelmed by a palpable sense of animosity while present at a Berlin function that celebrated the UN official.

The victim, Carolin Bohl - a 22-year-old German national who worked as a fashion student and model - was slain by Hamas terrorists during the assault on Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel.

Speaking with the German publication Die Welt, the victim's mother, Sonja Bohl-Dencker, reflected on her experience attending a March film screening in Berlin where Albanese was the featured attendee.

“I have never been in a room where I felt so much hatred," Bohl-Dencker said. “Everywhere keffiyehs, terrible slogans and sheer hatred against everything connected with Israel."

Reacting online to a social media publication that detailed Bohl-Dencker's emotional recollection, Albanese responded directly with a brief remark, “Change medication."

Her retort quickly drew intense public focus due to a parallel legal battle involving her own family. In a lawsuit launched by Albanese and her relatives aimed at lifting financial restrictions leveled against her by Washington, the legal filing explicitly notes that both Albanese and her spouse required medical prescriptions for health ailments sparked by the stress of the US sanctions. The court documents specify that the U.N. official required treatment for gastric ulcers, while her partner experienced sleeplessness and severe anxiety.

Albanese has repeatedly come under fire over her anti-Israel bias. In one of the more recent instances of this bias, she was condemned by several European Union foreign ministers for comments made at an Al Jazeera conference, in which Albanese had said: “The fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support ... We who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons, we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy."

Albanese later claimed in an interview that she "never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity,'" calling the accusations "completely false accusations."

Albanese’s history of anti-Israel statements and actions is well-documented and dates back to social media posts uncovered in 2022, in which she claimed that the “Jewish lobby" controls the US.

At the time, Albanese rejected arguments that the comments about the “Jewish lobby" were antisemitic and claimed they were “mischaracterized", but her anti-Israel bias has continued to be exposed since.

Related articles:

• Danon fires back at UN envoy who ridiculed bereaved mother
• US reimposes sanctions on UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese
• 'World gave Israel license to torture Palestinians'
• Anne Bayefsky vs Francesca Albanese at the UN

Her criticism of Israel has grown since the October 7, 2023 massacre, which Albanese described as an act that must be viewed in “context" and as a response to Israeli “aggression."

In late March, Albanese claimed that the world has given Israel "a license to torture Palestinians", alleging that "torture has effectively become state policy" in Israel.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/428454

'Moral decline': Danon fires back at UN envoy who ridiculed bereaved mother

Ambassador Danny Danon blasts UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese for mockingly telling the mother of an October 7 victim to change meds.

US Ambassador to Israel Danny Danon blasted UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese, known for her anti-Israel bias, after she mocked the bereaved mother of a victim of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre, advising her on social media to “change medication".

“The mother of Carolin Bohl, a young German woman brutally murdered by Hamas on October 7, has posted about the extreme anti-Israel hostility she encountered at a film premiere in Berlin, where Francesca Albanese, the UN ‘Special Rapporteur,’ was the guest of honor," Danon wrote.

“After the bereaved mother shared her pain and experience, Albanese’s outrageous response was: ‘Change medication,’" he added.

“There seems to be no limit to Francesca Albanese’s moral decline," said Danon.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/428520

Pally Actioneers to be sentenced for terrorism

Samuel Corner (pictured) was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm after he fractured a female police officer's spine with a sledgehammer during the course of the raid

 https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15895097/Judge-rules-attack-Palestine-Action-supporters-UK-defence-factory-saw-police-officer-struck-sledgehammer-terror-connection-landmark-case.html

Judge rules Palestine Action thugs carried out 'act of terrorism' as he jails weeping weapons factory raiders while police arrest more than 100 supporters outside court

Four Palestine Action protesters who smashed their way into an Israeli-linked weapons factory carried out 'an act of terrorism', a judge ruled as he jailed the quartet today.

In a landmark case, Mr Justice Johnson said the raid on Elbit Systems in Bristol was an attempt to 'shut down' the company or influence the UK Government into blocking its operations.

Two of the defendants wept as the judge ruled they would be sentenced for carrying out an 'act of terrorism' .

The wanton violence caused £1.2 million worth of damage, left a police officer with a fractured back, and saw the Government subsequently define Palestine Action as a banned organisation.

Samuel Corner, a 23-year-old former Oxford student, was convicted of criminal damage along with three others, and was also found guilty of grievous bodily harm after he attacked Sergeant Kate Evans with a 7lb sledgehammer.

Corner was handed a sentence of seven years and eight months, while Charlotte Head, 30, and Leona Kamio, 30, each received sentences of five years, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, was jailed for four years and eight months.

The judge said the four 'sought to glorify criminality and vigilantism', and used 'extreme force and aggression'.

Activists gathered outside court in support of the four activists being sentenced for criminal damage to the Elbit Systems factory in Bristol 

The judge said all the defendants were 'well aware of the underlying sentiment and aims and strategies of Palestine Action'.

He said: 'Each defendant agreed to take part in high-level actions, and did so with the shared aim of shutting down Elbit.

He ruled: 'I'm satisfied the action was designed to influence the UK Government and also to intimidate a section of the public, and was for the purpose of advancing an ideological or political cause.'

The ruling means the activists will not qualify for early release from prison provisions, the Parole Board will assess their risk to the public when it determines when they can be set free, and they will face monitoring from counter terror policing in the future.

The Elbit raid in August 2024 was one of the triggers which caused the UK Government to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

Mr Justice Johnson ruled last year in pre-trial hearings that the Elbit raid had a 'terrorist connection', and decided during a day-long hearing today to pass tougher sentences on the activists as a consequence.

Charlotte Head (pictured), 30, was driving a prison van that was used as a 'battering ram' to break into the Elbit facility, Woolwich Crown Court heard

Fatema Rajwani (pictured), 21, was among six defendants standing trial - she was found guilty of criminal damage

Leona Kamio (pictured), 30, was found guilty of criminal damage by jurors 

Sergeant Kate Evans told jurors at an earlier hearing how she believed her spine could have been 'shattered' and feared she may have been 'paralysed' after being hit by Samuel Corner

Head was behind the wheel of an old prison van that crashed through the gates of the Elbit Systems factory in Bristol on August 6 2024.

The four activists, dressed in red jumpsuits, began destroying property before ending up in a fight with security guards and police.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said the attack was 'meticulously organised' to cause maximum damage and get information about the company.

Prosecutor Ms Heer KC told the sentencing hearing Palestine Action has ideological aims to 'influence government decisions and policies' in the UK and Israel.

She said the group had vowed to 'shut Elbit down' through direct action. 

She pushed for the judge to sentence the defendants for a crime with a 'terrorist connection'.

The police officer struck with the sledgehammer as she was on her knees during the attack said she still suffers from panic attacks and ongoing pain.

She has been forced to accept a demotion from Sergeant to the rank of Pc, and has received abuse on email over what happened.

Ms Evans told the court she felt 'dehumanised' by the first trial's outcome.

She said: 'I found this extremely difficult to process, particularly as the attack had been captured on CCTV and clearly showed I posed no threat.

'I struggled to understand how a verdict could not be reached given the evidence that had been presented in court.

'This left me feeling dehumanised, as though the impact on me did not matter because I am a police officer.'

A spokesman for the Avon and Somerset Police Federation, representing Ms Evans and other officers, said in a statement: 'The distressing scenes we have seen during this trial show some of the worst side of police work that our officers are faced with.

'Samuel Corner is a violent criminal - and his actions have had devastating consequences for a courageous and dedicated police officer. 

'The sentence given to the perpetrator today is a semblance of justice. Our colleague Sgt Kate Evans will have life-lasting effects from this despicable attack.

'Fracturing a brave police officer's spine with a sledgehammer is not protesting a cause - it's pure evil.'

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15895097/Judge-rules-attack-Palestine-Action-supporters-UK-defence-factory-saw-police-officer-struck-sledgehammer-terror-connection-landmark-case.html