Brazilian Rodrigo led his Real Madrid team to win its twentieth title in the Spanish Football Cup competition, by scoring two goals in a 2-1 victory over Osasuna, on Saturday, at the "La Cartuja" stadium in Seville.

Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti's men ended a lean period that lasted 9 years, specifically since their last title in the competition in 2014.

Real opened the scoring through Rodrigo in the second minute, and Lucas Toro equalized for Osasuna (58), before adding the second Brazilian with a shot from close range that settled into the net (70).

"I'm very happy," Rodrygo told Spanish television station La 1. "We were talking about this trophy this week. It's been a long time since Real Madrid won this competition."

"I just needed this to complete (my collection of titles), it's a very special day for me, with two goals, I'm very happy."

At the age of 22, the Brazilian won all possible club titles with the Merengue team since joining him in 2019 from Santos, and he continued, “I want to continue to win a lot, and win this cup several times….”

And after the league title was logically decided in favor of Barcelona and contented with competing for the “honorable title” with its neighbor Atletico Madrid, Real won its first title this season out of two possible ones, since it continues to defend the Champions League title, as it engages in a grueling confrontation with Manchester City.

Barcelona holds the record for the competition that started in 1903 with 31 titles, in front of Bilbao (23) and Real (20).

The royal club benefited from its experience in the final matches that led it to 61 major titles in terms of cups, including 14 in the Champions League, without counting its 35 titles in the Spanish League, to decide the match against a team that had never reached this stage except once in its history. In 2005, when they lost the cup final to Real Betis on penalties.

Saturday's confrontation was also of moral importance to Ancelotti, as he was now lagging behind the title of orphan from the number of Frenchman Zinedine Zidane in terms of the number of titles as coach of the Royal Club (11).

The Italian currently owns 10 titles, and winning the Champions League will put him at the same distance from the 1998 World Cup champion, who occupies second place on the historical list of honor behind Miguel Muñoz (14 titles during 15 years as coach of the team between 1960 and 1974).
He considered the arrival of the Basque club, which was committed to continuity with its coach, Yaguba Arasati, to the cup final, as a big surprise for a team whose coffers include four titles in the second division and seven in the third.

Real did not wait more than two minutes after the starting whistle to open the scoring through Rodrigo, after a solo effort by his compatriot Vinicius Junior on the left side, to bypass Robin Peña and pass a back ball left by French striker Karim Benzema passing between his feet to reach the Brazilian, who fired it into the net.

Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois shone by blocking two balls from the same attack from two headers, starting from the Croatian Ante Bodemir and then the Moroccan Abdel Samad Al-Zalzouli (8), before Lucas Toro wasted a third header that passed next to the post (15).

And goalkeeper Sergio Herrera saved a goal for Real after a new breakthrough by Vinicius to penetrate into the area and pass the floor that Rodrigo failed to tame, to reach Benzema, which was crawled by the Spaniard (25), before Dani Carvajal prevented, after a minute, the equalizing goal for Osasuna by deflecting a ball at the goal line that was hit by Al-Zalzouli. After a mistake by Brazilian defender Militao, Courtois was unable to stop it (26).

Austrian defender David Alaba hit a free kick from 30 meters after a foul on Rodrigo, which hit the crossbar (32), and Vinicius Junior's through ball passed over the crossbar, missing the opportunity to double the score (35).

With the start of the second half, Real continued his pressure, but Osasuna equalized after a pass from Al-Zalzuli hit Carvajal's head and reached Toro, which was shot powerfully creeping into the far right corner, which Courtois was unable to block (58).

And once again, Rodrigo stood in front of Osasuna's ambitions to achieve his first title, as he returned Real to the fore after a new effort by his compatriot Vinicius, to reach the ball to the German Toni Kroos and from him to the scorer, to punish Herrera with a shot into the net from close range (70).

Rodrigo, the hero of the Seville evening, came out and was replaced by Marco Asensio (89), and Vinicius tried to add the third, but decided to pass without any player being able to reach the ball instead of shooting in front of the goalkeeper (90), before the referee blew the final whistle for Real to win his title. 20 in the competition.

On Saturday, a gunman shot and killed eight people and wounded seven others before committing suicide in a shopping mall in Texas, US state authorities announced.

"We found seven people at the scene dead," said Jonathan Boyd, chief of the fire department in Allen, a suburb of Dallas, where the shooting occurred. "We took nine more people to the hospital (...) two of whom have died since then."

The indiscriminate shooting at the massive "Allen Premium Outlets" shopping center, which is 40 km north of Dallas and is crowded at the weekend, caused panic.

Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey said a police officer was at the shopping center due to another problem unrelated to the incident when the shooting started around 15:30 (20:30 GMT).

He added that the policeman "heard gunshots and went to the place and clashed with the suspect and managed to neutralize him," after which he "called ambulances."

The identity of the shooter was not revealed. His body was lying on the pavement when the police arrived. He is one of the seven dead in the mall.

Boyd said that "three of the wounded" who were transferred to a number of hospitals in the region "are undergoing critical surgeries," while "the condition of the other four is stable."

A hospital official told NBC News that some of the victims were as young as five years old.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott called the shooting an "untold tragedy."

A White House official told reporters that President Joe Biden "was briefed on the shooting."

Local officials praised the action of the policeman, who responded to the shooter and killed him.

"We owe a debt of thanks to the first man who responded to gunfire and acted quickly to neutralize the threat," Republican Senator Keith Self said.

In video footage broadcast by CNN, the shooter is seen getting out of a car in the shopping center garage and starting shooting.
The authorities first believed that a second attacker might be moving about freely.

While the police were combing the shops in the center, shoppers and staff rushed into the garage.

On Sunday morning, the Israeli occupation forces demolished Tahadi 5 Elementary School in "Jeeb Al-Dhib" area in Beit Ta'mar, east of Bethlehem.

Local sources said that a force of the occupation army, accompanied by military vehicles, stormed Beit Tamar and besieged Tahadi 5 School, and completely closed the area and prevented citizens from accessing it before demolishing the school and seizing its contents.

It is noteworthy that the school includes about 60 students from the first to the fourth grade, and it was demolished in 2017 before it was rebuilt in the same year.

The Central Occupation Court issued a decision to demolish the school last March, after it rejected a petition submitted by the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission and the "St. Yves" human rights organization, to stop the demolition of the school.

The school is located on an area of 8 dunums, donated by members of the Al-Zawahra clan, with identity papers registered in the "Tabu", and was built of bricks and tin.

Clashes took place between the residents and the occupation forces in the vicinity of the school, during which live bullets, stun grenades and toxic gas were fired, as a result of which a number of them suffocated.

Today, Sunday, the Israeli authorities released a member of the Jordanian Parliament, Imad Al-Adwan, after detaining him for two weeks, for allegedly trying to bring weapons and ammunition into the occupied West Bank, after an agreement that he be tried and imprisoned in his country.

The General Internal Security Agency, the Shin Bet, stated that the aggression smuggled 12 rifles and 149 pistols, and since last February it carried out 12 smuggling operations, including weapons, electronic cigarettes, birds, and quantities of gold, in exchange for huge sums of money that he obtained using his diplomatic passport.

Today, Sunday, Army Radio reported that the military court session of Jordanian MP Imad Al-Adwan had been canceled and that his detention period had expired.

The Israeli authorities imposed a strict ban on publishing information about the course of his investigation

This Saturday evening, a support stand was organized for the sick prisoner, Walid Daqqa, in the Prisoner's Square in Haifa, at the invitation of the prisoner's family.

The participants in the vigil raised pictures of the prisoner Daqqa, and slogans calling for his freedom and his release from the Israeli occupation prisons, and others calling for national unity.

The demonstrators chanted slogans calling for freedom for the prisoners from the Israeli occupation prisons.

The prisoner, Daqqa, suffers from a rare cancer of the bone marrow. On April 12, he underwent an operation to remove part of his right lung. He suffers from inflammation and contamination in his left lung, in addition to feeling emaciated and unable to speak well.

And the prisoner Daqqa (60 years) from the town of Baqa al-Gharbia in the lands of 1948. He was arrested on March 25, 1986, along with a group of his comrades: Ibrahim Abu Mokh, Rushdi Abu Mokh, and Ibrahim Bayadsa.

During his long career in detention, he produced many books, studies, and articles, and contributed cognitively to understanding the prison experience and its resistance. Among the most prominent of his publications are: “Parallel Time,” “Diaries of Resistance in Jenin Camp,” “Melting Consciousness,” and “The Tale of the Secret of Oil.” .

Today, Saturday evening, protest demonstrations against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and the plan to weaken the judiciary were renewed, in Tel Aviv and dozens of major towns and intersections, for the eighteenth week in a row.

The Netanyahu government seeks to make radical amendments to the legal and judicial systems, to almost completely eliminate the Supreme Court's authority for judicial review, and to give the government an automatic majority in the judges' selection committee, which a wide segment of Israelis sees as "targeting democracy and undermining the judicial system."

On March 27, Netanyahu announced the "suspension" of the plan to give "an opportunity for dialogue," but the protests against his government are still intense, as the organizers of the protests saw this announcement as just an attempt by the government to contain the protests, and demanded that the plan be canceled completely.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has been leading negotiations for a month with representatives of the government and the opposition with the aim of reaching a settlement, but these negotiations did not reach any result, as Israeli society is witnessing a state of wide polarization between the forces supporting the government and its plan and the forces opposing it.

Diyar Omari, 20, from Sandala, was shot dead by a settler near the town in the Marj Ibn Amer area, while the police said that they arrested the settler with a pistol.

According to the details, Omri was martyred near the entrance to the "Gan Ner" settlement, located near the towns of Sandala and Al Muqebelah.

The young man was referred to Haemek Hospital in Afula to complete treatment, but his death was confirmed.

The Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine to the Arab League, Ambassador Muhannad Al-Aklouk, announced that the League Council will hold, tomorrow, Sunday, a meeting at the level of foreign ministers in an extraordinary session, to discuss developments in the Palestinian cause, and the continued Israeli violations against the Palestinian people.

Al-Aklouk said, today, Saturday, that the meeting comes at a time when the city of Jerusalem is exposed to a fierce attack by the occupying state against the city and its historical and cultural monuments and its Islamic heritage, and what is happening in Al-Aqsa Mosque in terms of daily violations and what happened in the chapel of Bab Al-Rahma in terms of flagrant violation, storming it several times and seizing it. on its contents with the aim of controlling it and imposing Israeli sovereignty and trying to impose temporal and spatial division in it.

He pointed out that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Riyad Al-Maliki, will brief the Council on the violations, crimes and the escalating Israeli siege against our people and the Palestinian cities, villages and camps.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota) and 16 other congresswomen have reintroduced a bill banning Israel from using US aid to detain Palestinian children, destroy Palestinian homes, or annex Palestinian lands.

Rep. McCollum and her colleagues reintroduced Friday, May 5 with the support of a growing list of civil society organizations and faith-based groups—introducing the Defense of the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act, which calls for accountability and investigation of the use of American taxpayer funds.

According to a press release from McCollum's office, "The legislation prohibits the Israeli government from using US taxpayer dollars in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem for the military detention, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention; the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian property and homes in violation of international humanitarian law." or any assistance or support for the unilateral annexation of Palestinian territory in violation of international humanitarian law.”

Congresswoman McCollum said, “No dollar of American aid should be used to commit human rights abuses, demolish family homes, or permanently annex Palestinian land. The United States provides billions in aid to the government of Israel every year — and those dollars should go toward Israel’s security.” , and not towards actions that violate international law and cause harm.”

The bill, which was first introduced in Congress in 2017, builds on the advocacy efforts of Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP). In 2013, activists concerned about Israel's treatment of Palestinian children gathered in Chicago.

“We at DCIP believe the bill is a strong step toward holding the United States accountable for ensuring that U.S. military funding does not support these abuses,” Brad Parker, DCIP senior policy and advocacy advisor, told MoonDuice. .

In addition to the bill's restrictions on Israel's use of American taxpayer funds, Parker says, "The law sets forth annual certification requirements for the Secretary of State to submit to Congress to prove that the Israeli government has not used any US funding to support these activities, as well as oversight reports describing the nature and extent of Government of Israel on these activities. Furthermore, the bill calls for the Comptroller General to submit a report to Congress detailing Israel's expenditures for foreign procurement."

Reintroducing the bill Friday, Representative McCollum said, "Peace can only be achieved when the human rights of all are respected, and Congress has a responsibility not to ignore the well-documented mistreatment of Palestinian children and families living under Israeli military occupation."

In her statement, she continued, “Support is growing rapidly for the Palestinian people, who deserve justice, equality, human rights, and the right to self-determination. Civil society groups, as well as Christian, Jewish, and Muslim organizations, have signed on to support this law — because we all agree that no Palestinian child, no child, should A Jew should sleep at night in fear of continued violence. There is a path to a peaceful future, and it requires leadership with our American values of democracy and equal justice for all."

Joining Rep. McCollum as original participants: Rep. Don Baer, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Donald Payne Jr., Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Raul Grijalva, Rep. Jamal Bowman, Rep. Mark Pocan, Rep. Cory Bush, Rep. Pramilla Jayapal, Representative Jesus "Choy" Garcia, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Representative Barbara Lee, Representative Summer Lee, and Representative Dwight Evans.

Today, Saturday, a child was injured, as clashes broke out between young men and the Israeli occupation forces, in Qalqilya and at the northern entrance of Al-Bireh.

According to local sources, a 12-year-old boy was wounded with a "rubber" bullet in the neck, during clashes between young men and the occupation forces in the town of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, and was subsequently transferred to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus.

Settlers uprooted and broke 258 olive saplings in the town of Kafr al-Dik, west of Salfit, owned by Tayseer Ali Ahmed.

Ahmed said that the settlers uprooted and broke olive saplings on his land known as "Deiryeh" located west of the town, adding that he has been working on reclaiming his land, which has an estimated area of 17 dunums, for the past 4 years, and planted it with about 450 saplings, whose age ranges between 5-10 years. .

He added that the financial cost of reclaiming his land amounted to about 70,000 shekels, and in a flash the settlers uprooted part of it, indicating that he will re-cultivate it again, and will not leave his land to them.

He explained that the settlers' attacks do not stop at uprooting the olive trees, but rather the water pipes that feed the trees, and the breaking of 7 trees owned by his brother Hassan.

The governor of Salfit, Abdullah Kamil, said that the uprooting of trees by settlers is part of the Israeli plans to seize Palestinian lands and build more settlements.

4 citizens were bruised, and another was arrested, after settlers and the Israeli occupation army assaulted citizens in Khirbet Maghayer Al-Abeed in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

Local sources said that a group of settlers beat the citizens while they were on their land located in Khirbet Maghayer Al-Abeed, which led to the injury of 4 citizens, who were identified as: Kayed Makhamreh and Izz El-Din Makhamreh, while the Israeli occupation forces arrested Salah Makhamreh (29 years).

Today, the occupation forces suppressed a stand condemning the settlement, and the settlers' repeated attacks on the people and pastures of the Maghayer Al-Abeed area, and fired bullets and stun grenades to disperse the participants in the event, and to provide protection for settlers to reach the village's pastures, and detained journalists and impeded their access to the event site, and detained an agency driver. Wafa, Ahmed Qazzaz.

Ukraine said Saturday it had shot down a Russian hypersonic missile for the first time, amid a wave of Russian attacks overnight Wednesday-Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the Kinjal missile, which he presented to the public in 2018, as an "ideal weapon" that is very difficult for missile defenses to intercept.

"I congratulate the Ukrainian people on this historic event. Yes, we shot down the unparalleled Kijal missile," General Mykola Oleshchuk said via Telegram.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that the missile was shot down by a Patriot system in the sky over Kiev at around 02:30 am on Thursday (23:30 GMT Wednesday).

Ukraine appealed to its Western allies for help in strengthening its air defense system after Russia bombed Ukraine's energy infrastructure from the air over the winter.

And in mid-April, Ukraine received its first shipment of Patriot, one of the most advanced US air defense systems.

Charles III is crowned king on Saturday in a solemn Christian ritual dating back a thousand years of history and tradition but adapted to reflect the image of Britain in the twenty-first century.

King Edward's Crown, the sacred symbol of the throne's power made of pure gold and used once during the reign, will be placed on Charles' head at 11:00 GMT to the sound of cries of "God save the King".

Trumpets will sound across London's Westminster Abbey and ceremonial cannons will be fired from land and sea to mark the first coronation of a British monarch since 1953, and only the fifth since 1838.

Church bells will ring across the country, before enthusiastic infantry and cavalry parade 7,000 soldiers through the streets of the capital.

King Charles and his wife, Camilla, who will be crowned queen, will return to Buckingham Palace in the gilded carriage that is rarely used, in front of large crowds, before watching an aerial show from the palace balcony.

The coronation ceremony is the second of its kind to be broadcasted on television and the first in color and on the Internet streaming service. It is a religious confirmation of Charles' accession to the throne.

And Charles, 74, has been the British monarch since the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September 2022, seven decades after he assumed the throne.

Much of the two-hour Anglican ceremony will take place in Westminster Abbey, presided over by Jason Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, a thousand-year legacy from the king's 39 ancestors who have been crowned in Westminster Abbey since 1066.

But while many of the rites and traditions of recognizing Charles as king remained unchanged, the king sought to modernize other aspects of the ceremony.

Women bishops will participate for the first time, as well as leaders of other religious minorities, and the Pythagorean languages will also have a prominent role.

As king, Charles heads the Church of England but leads a country more religiously and ethnically diverse than the one his mother inherited in the shadow of World War Two.

Charles also sought to make the 2,300 guest list more representative of British society, inviting members of the public to sit alongside heads of state, kings and princes from around the world.

In another change of tradition, the ceremony's logo will reflect Charles' enduring concern for biodiversity and sustainability.

From the Isle of Skye in northwest Scotland to Cornwall at the west coast tip of England, Westminster Abbey will be filled with seasonal flowers and boughs of green.

Single-use flower foams are banned, and all flowers will be donated to charities that help the elderly and the vulnerable.

Recycled ceremonial gowns from previous coronations will be used, and the oil Charles will be anointed with will be vegetable-based.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak deemed the event "a proud expression of our history, culture and traditions".

"A moment of exceptional national pride... living proof of the modern character of our country and traditions we cherish through which a new era is being born," he said.

But not everyone is convinced of that. Polls indicate declining support for the British crown, especially among younger men, with calls for modernization or the abolition of the entire monarchy.

And the Republicans, who demand an elected head of state, promised to stage a protest on coronation day with slogans saying "Not mine" (Nat May King).

Outside the UK, Charles's position as heir to the throne is weakening in 14 of the Commonwealth countries.

Earlier this week, Belize and Jamaica hinted at steps towards becoming a republic, and Australia, Canada and other countries are likely to take similar steps.

As for the British, who suffer from the high cost of living, they wonder why taxpayers should bear the cost of the ceremony, which is estimated at more than 100 million pounds ($ 126 million).

However, the royal crowds that camp all week on The Mall leading to Buckingham Palace are proof that the royal family still has a role in British history and tradition.

Many of these have been flown in from abroad, confirming the monarchy's unique position as the world's greatest British icon.

The coronation is the culmination of a three-day ceremony that includes a concert at Windsor Castle, west London, on Sunday night.

"It's amazing," Karen Chamberlain, 57, who works for a charity, told AFP. This woman set up a tent for her with her sister and son, hoping to follow the ceremony from the best places.
"Our mother came to London in 1953. Coming here is a way of saying we are proud of the throne. May we be here when (Charles's heir) William becomes king," she added.

Corgis that were a favorite of the late Queen Elizabeth II have been replaced by Jack Russell dogs beloved by King Charles III and Queen Camilla, which could add to the breed's popularity in the UK.

And now lives in Buckingham Palace dogs "Bluebell" and "Beth" of the type Jack Russell.

Charles and Camilla appeared in a photo taken on the occasion of their fifteenth wedding anniversary in 2020, carrying the two dogs, who belong to a type known for its short hair and great energy.

Bill Lambert, spokesman for the Kennel Club, Britain's largest canine health and training organisation, said: "If King Charles shows up with his dogs a lot, it is likely that this breed will become more popular in the UK." Lambert has noticed an increase in the number of records of Jack Russell puppies.

He pointed out that the number of corgi dogs that Elizabeth II acquired during her seventy years of rule may decline in popularity to a limited extent.

The Jack Russell breed, which was developed in England during the nineteenth century for fox hunting, is famous mainly in the United Kingdom.
Lambert explained that these dogs are smart, funny, and love to be surrounded by people and live in luxury.

Camilla adopted "Beth" from the "Patricia Dogs and Cats" animal shelter in London.

As for "Bluebell", he was in the same shelter, and joined the royal family after "Beth".

Speaking to Agence France-Presse, Becky Lauder, responsible for the adoption program at the Patricia Dogs and Cats shelter, said that the arrival of the two dogs into the royal family will remind everyone that there are animals waiting to be adopted and that there are a large number of cats and dogs waiting to join a home that provides them with care. suitable".

Today, Saturday, the masses of our people in Tulkarem Governorate mourned the bodies of the two martyrs, Samer Al-Shafei and Hamza Khreyoush, who were killed this morning by the bullets of the occupation forces in Tulkarem camp.

The funeral procession took off from the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital, and the participants carried the bodies of the two martyrs on their shoulders wrapped in the Palestinian flag, and they roamed the streets of the city towards the camp, chanting slogans condemning the crimes of the occupation against our people, before saying goodbye to them by their families, and praying for them in the Peace Mosque in the camp. After that, they will be buried in the Martyrs' Cemetery, in the suburb of Thanabah, east of the city.

The mourners emphasized continuing the path of struggle and freedom and confronting all the occupation’s crimes against people, stones and trees, stressing that these crimes will not prevent our people from continuing the path towards freedom and independence, leading to the establishment of our independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

The comprehensive strike took place in the city, suburbs and camps of Tulkarem, to mourn the two martyrs, Shafei and Khreyoush, at the invitation of the "Fatah" movement and the national action factions, which denounced this crime and described it as a continuation of the series of occupation crimes against our Palestinian people.

Since the beginning of this year, Tulkarm has bid farewell to four martyrs. In addition to my martyr today, Yazan Khasib from Qafin and Amir Abu Khadija have passed away.

A European judicial delegation listened to the testimony of the Minister of Finance in the Lebanese caretaker government, Youssef Khalil, as part of investigations into corruption cases and pending financial transfers in his country.

The official Lebanese National News Agency said that the European judicial delegation heard Khalil's statement today, over a period of 3 hours.

The agency stated that the minister explained the nature of his previous work as director of financial operations at the Central Bank of Lebanon, and promised to submit documents that include the bank's legal texts.

She pointed out that the European delegation received documents from Raja Salameh, brother of the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, and from Nada Makhlouf, an employee of the Deloitte financial auditing company, and stated that the delegation completed its current mission today.

A judicial delegation from Germany, France and Luxembourg arrived in Beirut at the beginning of May, as part of investigations it is conducting under the supervision of the Lebanese judiciary.

And a European judicial delegation had heard, in the past March and January in Beirut, within the framework of requests for judicial assistance that Lebanon received from France, Germany and Luxembourg, the testimonies of the Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, and 3 former deputies of the governor, directors of the Central Bank, bankers and auditors, as part of suspicions of corruption and money transfer cases that are being investigated. In which the judiciary in their countries deals with a company owned by Raja Salameh, brother of the Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon.

Last April, the Lebanese judiciary launched an investigation into suspicions about financial transfers made by Salameh, on suspicion of his and his brother Raja’s involvement in cases of embezzlement of more than $300 million.

Last December, the Lebanese judiciary released Raja Salameh on bail, seized his real estate, and prevented him from traveling after his two-month arrest on the grounds of "money laundering and illegal enrichment."

On February 23, the Lebanese judiciary charged Riad Salameh, his assistant, and his brother with crimes of embezzlement of public funds, forgery, illegal enrichment, money laundering, and violation of tax law.

Salameh denied the accusations against him, expressing his respect for the laws and the judicial system, stressing that the accused is innocent until proven guilty.

Salameh has occupied the governorship of the Central Bank of Lebanon since 1993, after working for 20 years as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in Beirut and Paris, and his current term is supposed to end at the end of next July.

It is noteworthy that Lebanon has been witnessing, since 2019, an economic collapse that the World Bank ranked among the worst in the world since the middle of the last century, as the country suffers from political, economic, living and health crises that led to the collapse of the value of the Lebanese pound, an increase in the poverty rate to 82%, an increase in unemployment and a shortage of basic commodities.

Fitch Ratings downgraded Egypt's rating by one notch from "B+" to "B", while converting its outlook to negative, indicating that it may downgrade the rating further in the coming months due to the country's economic problems.

In a statement, the agency spoke about the increase in external financing risks in light of the high financing needs and the tightening of external financing conditions.

The statement added, "All of this comes against the backdrop of a state of extreme uncertainty in the path of exchange rates and the decline in foreign liquidity reserves."

The agency's statement indicated that the occurrence of "further delay in the transition to a policy of flexible exchange rates will lead to a further deterioration in confidence and may also delay the implementation of the IMF program."

In late April, the credit rating agency, Standard & Poor's, announced that it had revised its assessment of the degree of Egyptian debt prospects from "stable" to "negative" due to the "large needs for external financing" it expects regarding public finances.

Egypt is experiencing one of the worst economic crises in its history. In one year, the Egyptian pound lost half its value against the US dollar while the country's foreign exchange reserves declined.

Today, Saturday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested two young men from the occupied city of Jerusalem, after severely beating one of them.

Local sources reported that the occupation forces arrested two young men, whose identities were not yet known, while they were in the Old City of Jerusalem, and severely beat one of them.

The Israeli occupation forces continue to impose their siege on the city of Jericho, for the 15th day in a row.

According to local sources, the occupation forces continue to erect military checkpoints at the entrances to the city of Jericho, and stop and search vehicles leaving the city specifically, and check the identities of passengers, and impede the movement and movement of citizens and goods.

The occupation erects its barriers at the two northern entrances to the city on the "Training Authority" and "Al-Maarajat" roads, the southern entrance near Aqabat Jabr camp, and the eastern entrance known as the yellow gate near the Karama crossing.

The violations of the occupation in Jericho since the beginning of this year, according to the latest statistics for the governorate of Jericho and the Jordan Valley, resulted in the death of 9 citizens, the injury of 45 others, in addition to 137 detainees, the demolition of 12 homes, and demolition notices for 55 homes and facilities, while the occupation authorities are still holding the bodies of 6 martyrs from the governorate. .

The value of the losses of the city of Jericho in the tourism sector and related sectors, from last February until last April, amounted to 221 million shekels, and the losses of the city in the same sector during the holiday period amounted to 121.4 million shekels.

Large crowds of our people in Nablus governorate, today, Saturday, buried the bodies of three martyrs from Nablus, who were handed over by the Israeli occupation authorities yesterday, Friday, after a 55-day detention.

The funeral procession of the martyrs: Uday Othman Al-Shami, Jihad Muhammad Al-Shami, and Muhammad Raad Dabeek, departed from Rafidia Hospital towards the Martyrs' Circle, amid angry chants condemning the continuous crimes of the occupation against our people.

Jihad, Uday al-Shami and Muhammad Dabeek were martyred on the twelfth of March 2023, after the occupation forces opened fire on the vehicle they were traveling in near the Surra military checkpoint, southwest of Nablus.

With the handing over of the bodies of the three martyrs, the Israeli occupation authorities are still holding the bodies of 133 martyrs since 2015, including the bodies of 12 martyred prisoners, 12 children and a female martyr, in addition to 256 martyrs in the number graves, according to the data of the national campaign to recover the bodies of the martyrs.

The Executive Committee of the PLO, chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas, met and discussed the criminal and aggressive escalation of the occupation government, the last but not least of which was the heinous massacre in the city of Nablus and the assassination of a girl in the town of Hawara. The Committee called on the international community to provide protection for our people and stop these Israeli crimes. .

In a meeting with the representative of the European Union and a number of Italian writers and writers, the Prime Minister, Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh, the European Union to condemn the crimes of the occupation and activate international solidarity with our people, and among the most prominent of his crimes is that of the young girl Iman Ziyad Ahmed Odeh, who is the mother of three children, whom they assassinated at a checkpoint of the occupation army in the town of Hawara.

The whole world knows that the occupation is not content with confiscating land, building settlements, and demolishing homes, but rather continues to assassinate our people in various locations, just as settlers continue their attacks, killing and plundering everything they can.

Thus, the occupation continues its attacks, and we continue to ask the international community to intervene, even though we know that this community has done nothing but issue statements and condemnations that have no value.

In this context, if the leaders are demanding, then the people are demanding what is more important, more useful, and more serious, and by that we mean two things. The first is restoring national unity and ending this devastating division, which turns over the years into a fait accompli and permanent. Restoring unity is not a difficult issue if the intentions of the leaders are true. It abandoned personal and factional interests.

The second thing that is no less important is holding presidential and legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza so that the people can say their word and choose who they want instead of continuing this situation, which weakens our cause and our position and gives the occupation a great opportunity to continue its aggressions, expansion and denial of all our rights.

A few days later, specifically on the ninth of May, the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazism will come upon us. The European peoples, especially the peoples of the former Soviet Union, paid a heavy price with the lives and capabilities of their children in order to bury this Nazi monster that reared its head more than ninety years ago for anti-peoples. And justice and the wheel of its natural development.

Today, the struggle against the colonial occupation and Zionism must be linked to the anniversary of the victory over Nazism, and to move with all the peoples of the world and its democratic and progressive forces to oppose the rise of neo-Nazism around the world and to protect our Palestinian people from the continuing crime of colonialism and in order to defeat the occupation, apartheid and the growth of racism.

Among the lessons learned from this victory over Nazism is the realization of the fact that determining the fate of the world in the contemporary stage of human development is a joint responsibility of a general and indivisible nature. Today, all peoples bear responsibility before the future generation in order to reach a multipolar and balanced international system based on ending the hegemony of American politics and its allies, and based on the principles and values enshrined by the victorious peoples against Nazism, the most important of which are the values and principles of freedom, democracy, and the right of peoples to self-determination and to choose The path of their independent development, wherein lies the responsibility of the peoples of the world.

There is a need today to end the phenomena of tyranny and racism in all its forms, as well as wars and wars by proxy that are based at the expense of the interests of peoples.

There also lies the need to work to strengthen mutual trust among peoples on the basis of justice, equality and solidarity among them, and joint research for future prospects for all of humanity, which must be better in order to protect the interests of peoples and international peace, and to end the continued payment of peoples for the American savage adventures around the world and its hegemony over the system. International, as well as the price of this heinous Israeli colonial occupation, which cannot continue forever, especially with the emergence of the phenomena of deep crises today within the Israeli society itself and the ongoing international and regional changes.

After the stage of victory over Nazism, the United States committed crimes against many peoples in different parts of the world. Within the framework of the results of World War II, which were not affected by it compared to the destruction that occurred in the European continent, it contributed with the colonial powers in Britain and France in provoking the Cold War and creating a scarecrow of the communist enemy against those who were their allies in the war, as well as dividing the region, dismantling it and re-engineering it geographically, demographically, politically and economically. , and its success in implanting the Zionist settler colonial entity, and its expansion throughout the entire Palestinian homeland later and until today, and its continued protection in accordance with what was stated in the declaration of the US Congress and the statement of the President of the European Commission on the anniversary of what they call their Independence Day, which embodies our catastrophe.
Today, it is pushing for a re-tension in the world in its war and threats against China, Russia, and the East in general, as well as against the peoples of Latin America and Africa.

What the savage right-wing and liberal forces are doing in the United States and its deep institution and some Western European countries today that are threatened by instability, and its allies, led by the Israeli occupation state, is based on a retreat from the spirit and results of victory 78 years ago and on intellectual foundations that express the return of a new Nazi and fascist spirit based on The foundations of racial discrimination, religious national extremism, and ethnic or religious supremacy, according to alleged concepts supported by international Zionist forces and Christian nationalists in the West, seeking what they tried to do 78 years ago, the German Nazism and its allies from the fascism of Mussolini, Franco, and others to persecute peoples that do not stem from their race or religion.

And in our current era, which is characterized by some manifestations of unjustified racism in the United States, which has become the rise of new Nazi ideas in it and in some Western European countries from the extreme right towards refugees or people of color and the return of a number of manifestations of tyranny, the mechanisms of Hitler's rise to power at that time are an inspiring issue for them in particular. There is no better model for those who desire the continuation of colonial ideology and the dismantling of democracy and justice at the expense of the rise of the national or religious fascist right.
Where a number of the rulers of the occupying state indicate that the cooperation of religious Zionism with secular Zionism succeeded in continuing as long as secular Zionism clearly adopted the idea of Jewish patriotism, which in my opinion transfers it to the stages of fascism today.

Where the Zionist movement derives its alleged religious and political purity through its vision of erasing our Palestinian people, and it derives the illusion of its historical legitimacy through the speeches of Netanyahu, Ben Gvir, Smotrich, and their early teachers by defeating us, the Palestinians, and resolving the early conflict with us, and as their results are promoted today in their government’s program, just as they were in the speeches of Goebbels, the Nazis, and Jabotinsky 78 years ago.

Incidentally, the Nazis drew inspiration from American racism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Where Hitler praises in his book "My Struggle" America as the only country that has made progress towards a racist concept as a basis for citizenship by excluding certain races from naturalization and citizenship and the practice of white supremacy, which is what a number of political leaders call for today in the United States, especially from the Republican Party such as Florida Governor Ronnie DeSantis, the candidate to be vice president if Trump wins.

California's forced sterilization program directly inspired the Nazi Sterilization Act of 1934. There are also criminal similarities between American and German death techniques, which the occupation criminals have repeated against our people in cells and detention centers.
Three years ago, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazism, and based on a proposal from Russia, a draft resolution was voted in the United Nations General Assembly stipulating “combating the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to pricing contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, etc. Intolerance relates to that.”

It was surprising that the United States of America and Ukraine and a few with them voted against the resolution, while most European countries abstained from voting. The situation was strange at the time, but what is happening today may contribute to explaining this, which is similar to their success in canceling the UN resolution equating Zionism with racism in 1991.

Attempts to persecute people with renewed ideas, crimes of ethnic cleansing, and the continued imposition of a continuous catastrophe on our Palestinian people, whose beginnings come to us as a crime against humanity 75 years ago, after a few days on May 15, which aimed to implement a racist colonial project on a land that we, the Palestinians, are the owners of, a land that does not belong to them. None of these settlers brought it from the countries they left within the framework of their conspiracy with the Nazis at the time and the exploitation of the followers of the Jewish religion and the poor Jews for the sake of the goals of the global Zionist movement, which "Lenin" described a century ago as the racist movement at the expense of resolving the Jewish issue in those societies. . That movement supported by the American and British colonial powers, which invented the idea of a national home for the Jews, to whom the concept of a “people” does not apply according to all criteria since the Balfour Declaration and before.

Today, 78 years after the victory over Nazism, new Nazi forces appear practicing policies of stirring up hotbeds of conflict in this world in attempts to continue imposing and saving the hegemony of the crumbling unipolar system that does not serve the principles of international peace and security, and these forces and some other countries contribute through their silence on the crimes of the occupation Encouraging the continuation of its perpetration and reinforcing the concept of the colonial occupying state as a system above international law and as a contemporary racist regime that is mainly protected by the United States in military, security and political forms and prevents condemnation of its crimes in the UN Security Council, despite its claim to sponsor the peace process, which has not led to results until now except the sustainability of this occupation in its various forms.

The paradox remains that the Nazi ideology, which was an enemy of the West in World War II, is today the one that implements the West's agenda in Eurasia, and even in some European countries that deviate from the general line of American globalization, which clearly shows that the conflict between Nazi Germany and the West in World War I was not An ideological conflict, rather a conflict of interests that serves the supremacy of the United States at the expense of destroying Europe and benefiting from it economically and expansionally, which is clearly evident with the existence of good relations between the German Nazi regime on the one hand and Britain and the United States of America on the other hand in the years before World War II and the support of Nazism at that time the Zionist plan.

This prompted the Russian Foreign Minister, whose country presides over the Security Council these days, to expose the essence of the longest Israeli occupation in history after the World War, and to attack Israeli policies and link them to the history of Nazism, after the discovery of its cooperation with neo-Nazis in Ukraine.

Also, the lessons and lessons learned from the victory over Nazism indicate the need to stop these small and large wars against the peoples of the earth, and the need to stop the wars of the power of political capital in the West through its military and financial complexes, and from the savage attempts of neo-liberalism to repeat history wherever it is and to produce weapons. Mass destruction and provoking hotbeds of tension at the expense of the issues of oppressed peoples, peace and stability, and dragging the world into a new broad war.

Tomorrow will not be the same as before in light of the beginnings of the collapse of unipolarity as a global system, and the peoples of the earth must strive for the victory of humanity’s issues and values in this universe in order to build a new world that is better than it was or even than it is now, and in order to defeat the initiators of war And the enemies of humanity. One of the lessons of the victory over Nazism after 78 years confirms that no force, no matter how mighty it is, can conquer the fate and interests of peoples, and that peoples, including our people, will inevitably be victorious.

The fighter, Khader Adnan, passed away silently and calmly, aware, confident and self-assured, after a strike that lasted nearly three months alone.
Some left and shouted, but the reactions were modest from Gaza, despite the Islamic Jihad's attempts and desires towards escalation, and the practice of jihadi action, as usual in confronting the occupation forces, as it is against the security calm and security coordination.

The Islamic Jihad movement is almost fighting its battles alone, in the face of the colony that has been monopolizing the movement for a while, with each faction on its own, with shy silence from the others, or vocal reactions through harmless missiles, either because of their weak destructive power, or the decision of those who launch them not to to step up.

In August 2022, the colonial forces launched a series of raids for three days, in different locations in the Gaza Strip, which led to the death of 44 Palestinians, the injury of 360 various injuries, and the complete destruction of 68 housing units, 71 units that were partially uninhabitable, and 1675 housing units that were completely uninhabitable. Partially habitable.

In those raids, the Jihad movement lost two of its prominent leaders, namely: Tayseer al-Ja’bari, responsible for the northern region in the Gaza Strip, and Khaled Mansour, responsible for the southern region, and three of its middle leaders: Raafat al-Zamili, Salama Abed and Ziyad al-Mudalal, and seven of its fighters. Reaching a cease-fire mediated by Egyptian-Qatari.

The colony's supremacy is not shameful, nor is the resistance factions' weakness in their capabilities. The Israeli superiority is tangible, and the weakness of the Palestinian ability is tangible, despite the high readiness to work, struggle, and confront the manifestations of occupation everywhere by individual initiatives, with the capabilities available to them, whether with weapons if available, or by raiding Cars through deliberate run-over operations, or the use of bladed weapons, knives, or even stones. It is up to the tools available to the initiators, and the Palestinians had already defeated Yitzhak Rabin with the civil stone uprising in 1987, and forced him to surrender and recognize the three titles: 1- The Palestinian people, 2 - With the Liberation Organization, 3- With political rights, and the gradual withdrawals that followed, starting with Gaza and Jericho first, and Rabin paid his life with assassination by the extreme right as a price for his political choices with the Palestinians.

The Palestinians also previously defeated Sharon with the second semi-armed intifada and forced him to leave in 2005, after dismantling the settlements and removing the bases of the occupation army from the Gaza Strip.

It is not shameful that the Palestinians are unable to outperform their enemy who occupies their land, confiscates their rights and violates their dignity, but what is shameful is the practice of misleading by claiming to strike the colony’s sites through missiles from the Gaza Strip, which are almost like fireworks in front of the enemy’s superiority, as the struggle is not limited to the practice of armed struggle If weapons are available, then the struggle has many different forms and tools, which is what is happening now and will be crowned with victory, no matter how long time goes on and the colony excels.

Since the formation of the far-right Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu and the entry of a figure known for its extremism and militancy into the government, Israel is witnessing successive crises, the latest of which is the departure of thousands of Israelis over the course of days from various cities of the interior to denounce and protest against amendments related to the judiciary that limit its independence in favor of granting more powers to the government.

Those protests prompted the far-right government to seek successive crises in Jerusalem and the cities of the occupied West Bank, and violent clashes and confrontations with the Palestinians, in order to relieve the pressure that Benjamin Netanyahu's government is facing as a result of the protests inside Israel.

The Netanyahu government, according to observers, is the most extremist government in the history of Israel, with a prime minister and prime minister who reject any language related to peace and dialogue, which prompted the United States of America and various countries of the world to express their rejection of the criminal actions of the right-wing government, and what is issued by the ministers. Extremists of "satanic" words and actions.

Perhaps the statements of the Minister of Finance in the extremist government towards the Palestinian people, and his raising the map of "Israel" during his speech in the French capital, Paris, which shows the map of Israel over the entire Palestinian territories, and part of the Jordanian territories and some Arab countries, sparked angry official and popular reactions against the state. Israeli occupation.

Where the Jordanian government went to summon the Israeli ambassador in Amman and handed him a strongly worded protest note, while the Jordanian parliament voted unanimously to recommend to the government to expel the Israeli ambassador from Amman, and a map was raised inside the dome of the parliament drawn in the colors of the Jordanian and Palestinian flags on all the Jordanian and Palestinian borders, including Israel, in addition to To an Arab and international condemnation of all the actions of the right-wing government, and I say.

Everyone agrees that the Netanyahu government is an extremist government, and it cannot continue in light of the policy of violence, extremism, terrorism and aggravation that it practices with the arrival of ministers known for their grudges, criminality and hatred of the other.

The Palestinian Arab soul will remain alive facing the oppression, brutality, criminality, extremism and terror of the occupier, no matter how much the right-wing government and any other Israeli government in the future tries to create crises and practice injustice and terror.

The time between the first Arab summit held in Inshas at the invitation of King Farouk in 1946 and the Riyadh summit on May 19, 2023 "77 years", and 32 ordinary Arab summits held between Arab capitals, along with a number of exceptional summits without these summits advancing joint Arab action and the Arab League To a model of effective and influential Arab integration and integration. Each summit often bore a name or description indicating the circumstances in which the summit was held.

And if these summits prevailed over the Palestinian cause, the Inshas summit was held for the sake of Palestine, and the Algiers summit was held under the name of the Palestinian cause. Perhaps the greatest achievement of these summits is the keenness to hold them, and this is an important matter that cannot be ignored, despite the lack of crucial decisions that rise to the level of these summits. What the Arab region is witnessing in terms of conflicts and wars, the latest of which is Sudan, regional and international targeting, challenges and threats to Arab national security, makes the Riyadh summit face great responsibilities and tasks, aspirations and hopes for restoring the effectiveness of joint Arab action and restoring the Arab system. This is the third Arab summit to be held in Riyadh, and it was preceded by more than one Chinese and American Arab summit and a summit of the Council of Islamic Cooperation and Cooperation. All this confirms to us the role played by Saudi Arabia today.

This summit comes in light of Arab, regional and international political contexts and transformations, between positive and negative. As we all know, the Arab summit is not closed in on itself, as it is a summit of the most important region in the world in terms of geopolitical and economic importance and the role played by its countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Emirates and Algeria.

This summit may be better than its predecessors, as it is held in light of the full Gulf reconciliation, the Iranian-Saudi agreement and its positive repercussions on important issues such as the war in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. It is also held in light of broader Arab understandings and coordination between its pivotal and influential countries.

This may help to crystallize an Arab regional alliance capable of dealing with the decline in the US role in the region, and the escalation of the role of other countries such as China and Russia. At the same time, it is being held in light of shifts in the regional and international balance of power and the repercussions of the Ukrainian war affecting the region, and in light of the competition and signs of a cold war between China and the United States. Iran and Israel. This summit has many files and issues. In addition to the traditional issues in the field of economy, reforming the League and advancing joint Arab action towards further integration, political and security issues are a top priority, and on top of these issues comes the return of Syria to its Arab incubator and the possibility of inviting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the summit, marking a political stage. New for a comprehensive settlement and restricting foreign interference in the Syrian affairs.

The Palestinian cause remains present, as it was at the Algiers summit, from more than one perspective: ending the Palestinian division, financial support, stressing Jerusalem as a central Arab and Islamic issue, adherence to the two-state solution, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. It is certain that there is no comprehensive peace or normalization without a settlement of the Palestinian cause.

In addition to files related to Libya, Iraq and the Lebanese file. Perhaps the most important issue before this Arab Summit is to restore the Arab citizen's confidence in the institution of the Arab Summit, and to restore credibility in joint Arab action.

It remains that the success of this Arab summit rests with Saudi Arabia and the vitality and effectiveness of its leaders, as its presidency of the summit remains for a full year. There is no doubt that this summit, and what causes optimism in its decisions and success, coincides with the transformations in the leadership role that Saudi Arabia plays at all Arab, regional and international levels. This role and the provision of all elements of the implementation of his decisions is as much as the success of this summit, so that its decision will constitute a major transformational stage in advancing joint Arab action steps forward. And at the international level in order to achieve strategic partnerships and common interests. It is a peak that either precedes the time of transformations in power, or that this time precedes it.
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Many, especially those who knew him, do not believe that he left this world as a young man in the prime of his life and the height of his activity and giving, preparing himself to become a popular Palestinian leader, distinct from those we knew from the rest of the oppressed leaders, but rather an international symbol in the peaceful, violent, stubborn and difficult struggle against injustice domestic and global arrogance. He laid the groundwork for the history of his struggle with five open-ended hunger strikes over the course of ten years against his administrative detention, until he declared the strike the moment he was arrested from home, i.e. before he reached the prison, regardless of the type of detention and the detaining party, until his last arrest came on a few fabricated charges in early February. At the beginning of May, he passed away without regret, without hesitation, and without bargaining over a morsel of food that could have brought him back to life for another forty years.

The struggling sheikh did not realize that circumstances had changed this time, and that the hour to kill him and get rid of him had come. They did not transfer him to the hospital after a month of his strike, not after two months. Here, he felt that he was being “neglected” by a prison administration or a jailer, which will soon be rectified. He wrote his will in an attempt to draw attention, without any tinge of retracting his decision to stop the strike or take the subsidies. Here, his lawyer applied for his release on bail, which means that the charges against him are empty, but even if they were not, they do not investigate him once. Or even a word, so why would they keep it there?

In her last visit, nine days before he was killed, the head of Physicians for Human Rights accused the Israeli doctors of abandoning their “duty” to save his life. Khadr told her that he was crammed into her bed room full of bugs, which forced him to sleep on the floor, and the emergency button was present. In the toilet he didn't have to crawl to get to it. So there is a ministerial decision to kill this person, taken by the concerned minister with others in the prison service, stating: He wants to die, let him die. The Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy, described him as a fighter for freedom, but for three months he has been a prisoner in detention by the State of Israel, and for this reason the Secretary-General of the United Nations called for the formation of an investigation committee. - . Not all people know the meaning of starvation for 87 days, starvation to death. It is one of the most difficult types of death, simply because it dies every day, but every hour and minute. Khader Adnan endured it in front of the world in its two poles, good and bad, clean and dirty, freedom fighter and racist. Fascist, so he enters honorable human history, and Khader Adnan becomes a martyr in the religious sense, as he goes to heaven, and the linguistic meaning, in the sense that he will perpetuate his people and live much more than he was destined for if he lived until the last moments of the most humiliating years of life. We loved you, Sheikh Khidr, alive above the earth, and we will love you more alive under it.

Palestinian Americans raise concerns about Israel's application to join the US Visa Waiver Program, causing delays in granting US approval to the Israeli application. If approved, the Visa Waiver Program would allow Israeli passport holders to visit the United States without first obtaining a visa from the US Embassy—a laborious and often unpredictable process that allows US consular officials to grant or deny visa applications at their discretion.

A recent letter from the American Federation of Ramallah-Palestine to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorcas, including input from the American Palestinian Council and various Arab American organizations, raised concerns about Israel's continued discrimination against US citizens, particularly Palestinian Americans entering Israel through an airport. Ben Gurion and the land crossings across the bridges with Jordan.

Countries participating in the US Visa Waiver Program must provide “reciprocal privileges for US citizens.” Reciprocity is a central principle upon which the US Visa Waiver Program is based. Every US citizen on a tourist visa to the 40 countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program should be treated equally - regardless of race, creed, ethnic background, or secondary citizenship. It is reported that Americans, especially Palestinian Americans, who enter or leave Israel are usually racially profiled based on their Arabic-sounding names, place of birth, second nationality, and the extent and nature of their political activity, and are often subjected to inhumane treatment and detained for long hours.
The 55,000 Palestinian Americans currently residing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are not permitted to travel through Ben Gurion Airport without a special, difficult-to-secure permit from the Israeli Civil Administration, which regulates practically most aspects of Palestinian life in the West Bank and, to a lesser extent, in Gaza.

Informed sources have informed me that a draft agreement has already been completed, and both Israel and the United States hope to sign the agreement by the end of May, but the US Department of State and Homeland Security continue to encourage all parties involved to raise their observations and concerns before the agreement is finalized. If approved, the agreement will become effective by September of this year.

Successive Israeli governments have made joining the Visa Waiver Program a priority political goal. But in order for Israel to be accepted into the program, the rate of rejection of tourist visa applications to the United States may be up to 3% at most. Israel has exceeded this limit mainly due to travel restrictions imposed in the wake of the Corona pandemic that have forced many Israelis to postpone applying for tourist visas to America until a later date, so there is now a rare window for Israel to qualify.

But many other requirements must also be met, and Israel must still commit to making fundamental policy changes before any final approval is granted by the United States. This gave the Palestinian Americans influence over Israel's admission to the program.

Palestinian Americans pointed out that no country that has occupied another people for more than 50 years and subjected millions to its military control is accepted into the US Visa Waiver Program. Also, Israel is the only country that does not have internationally recognized borders, which raises and complicates fundamental considerations.

Before Israel can be accepted into the Visa Waiver Program, the United States must certify that Israel has changed its discriminatory policies toward Palestinian Americans, especially those with Palestinian passports. Therefore, Israel must commit to the following:

Recognizing the primacy of US citizenship over any other nationality that Palestinians may hold, including the possession of a Palestinian passport.

• Israel must allow Palestinian Americans to enjoy unfettered, visa-free freedom to travel to, from, and within Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

US citizens should be allowed entry into Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, even Palestinian Americans.

Any agreement between the United States and Israel must include the Gaza Strip. Internationally, the world, with the exception of a few countries, views the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem as forming a single whole.

• Israel must include in its agreement all entry points - the airport, bridge crossings and any ports.

Complicating matters is the regulations enacted on October 20, 2022 by the Israeli Civil Administration, also known as the Office for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, as this office worked at the time to codify and tighten previous restrictions on the entry of foreigners, including American citizens, into West Bank. These regulations effectively prevent most US citizens from entering the West Bank. On the other hand, there are no restrictions imposed on US citizens who wish to visit the illegal Israeli settlements established in the West Bank.

If the restrictions imposed by the Office of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories remain in effect, this means that Israel will not respect the principle of reciprocity, and therefore it is not eligible to participate in the US Visa Waiver Program.

Palestinian Americans are requesting the US State Department to develop and implement a reporting system to track cases of denial of entry and mistreatment of US citizens at all entry points into Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. The US State Department should establish a 24/7 hotline at the State Department for US citizens to report Israeli violations of the terms of the US Visa Waiver Program.

The United States should also warn Israel in advance that any serious violations could necessitate its removal from the Visa Waiver Program, just as Argentina was kicked out of the Visa Waiver Program for its citizens overstaying tourist visas two decades ago, when Argentina was experiencing a severe economic slowdown.

Details of the draft agreement between Israel and the United States on the visa waiver program have remained classified and have not yet been made public. Despite the looming and approaching deadline for Israel's entry into the Visa Waiver Program, Israel should not take for granted that it will be allowed to join the program. It is noteworthy that Palestinian Americans have become more organized, more politically engaged and motivated than they were a few years ago.

Without meeting the guarantees required of Israel to enter the Visa Waiver Program, the United States cannot make an agreement with Israel that circumvents what US law requires. Otherwise, the US government will end up in a legal battle with the Palestinian Americans.

*Dr. Bishara Bahbah is Vice President of the American Palestinian Council, a US-based public advocacy group. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem daily Al-Fajr newspaper, taught at Harvard University, and served as the assistant director of the university's Middle East Institute.

On Friday, a video clip was published in which former US President Donald Trump testified in a case in which a female journalist accuses him of rape in the 1990s. The media began circulating the video after a jury had reviewed it Thursday.

Over the course of 48 minutes, Trump appears in the video wearing a blue tie, a white shirt and a dark jacket, and he defended himself, sometimes in a harsh tone, while answering questions from the plaintiff's lawyer, journalist E. Jane Carroll.

Trump had been absent from the civil trial in New York in this case, but the jury was shown Thursday previous testimony he gave in this video, in which he strongly denies the alleged facts.

And the former president confirmed in the video recorded while giving his statement in October 2022, "She is a liar and sick (...) I think she is sick and suffers from mental disorders."

Given his absence and the impossibility of interrogating him, the plaintiff's lawyers requested journalist E. Gene Carroll broadcast lengthy video excerpts during the court hearing.

In this civil case, a jury of nine citizens will decide whether the former president should pay damages to Jane Carroll, who since 2019 accuses him of raping her in the spring of 1996 in the fitting room of a New York supermarket and then defaming her by claiming that she was lying.

During his testimony, Trump reiterated that he did not know EJ Carroll, who was then a columnist for Elle magazine, and repeatedly stressed that she was "not his type."

Then I showed him a picture taken during a social evening in which he was present with Jane Carroll years before the alleged meeting in 1996.

Trump confirmed that he did not remember the incident, and thought that Jane Carroll in the picture was his ex-wife, Marla, "She is my wife ... She is Marla," and immediately his lawyer tells him, "It is (EJane) Carroll."

On Thursday, the jury was able to view a widely circulated video clip in which Trump says in 2005 degrading things to women.

In the video, Trump boasted of kissing and touching them as he pleased, saying, "When you're a star, women let you do that. You can do anything with them."

"It's really old news," he said during his testimony, stressing that it was "conversations in the dressing room" or "the way the general public speaks."

According to US media, Trump has been accused in the past by more than 20 women of sexually assaulting or inappropriate behavior towards them. He denied the accusations and was never prosecuted.

However, a new law that became effective in New York as of November gives rape victims the right to sue even if decades have passed since the sexual assault.

Lebanon announced that the Cypriot company "TUS AIR" was banned from flying over its airspace or landing at its international airport, because some of its shares are owned by an Israeli company.

This came, according to the official Lebanese National News Agency, in a statement issued by the Director General of Civil Aviation, Fadi Al-Hassan, in which he indicated that the Cypriot company has become 49.9% owned by the Israeli company KNAFAIM HOLDINGS LTD.

Fadi Al-Hassan had received a letter from the Cypriot Civil Aviation Authority including the appointment of TUS AIR to invest air transport services between Cyprus and Lebanon based on the air transport agreement between the two countries in 2017.

Al-Hassan's statement stated that the ban will be enforced "until further notice, pending recommendations issued by the next conference of liaison officers of the regional offices to boycott Israel in banning dealing with the aforementioned company."

The Office of the Boycott of Israel, which was established by the Arab League in 1951, sets a blacklist twice a year in the name of Israeli companies to boycott.