Mission & Justice

12/8/08

Lebanon’s new government has won a vote of confidence, approving a policy statement recognising Hezbollah’s right to use all means possible to regain Israeli-occupied land claimed by Lebanon. One hundred members of the 128-seat parliament voted in support of the cabinet proposal on Tuesday, allowing the cabinet to finally start work. “One hundred MPs have given their confidence to the cabinet, five voted against and two abstained,” Nabih Berri, the parliament speaker, announced to the assembly. The policy statement recognises the right of Lebanon, its government, people and armed movements to use all means possible to regain land claimed by Lebanon, a reference to the Shebaa Farms and nearby Israeli-held parts of Ghajjar village.

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Eran Azran; 27/7/08

The rabbi who supervises Jerusalem’s Western Wall condemned the removal of a prayer note purportedly written by Sen. Barack Obama, saying the action was “sacrilegious.” The U.S. presidential candidate visited the site early Thursday and placed a note in the cracks of the wall, as is customary. The note was subsequently removed from the wall, according to the daily Maariv, which printed what it said were the contents of the prayer. Maariv said a religious student gave the note to the newspaper. Obama’s senior strategist Robert Gibbs told CNN: “We haven’t confirmed nor denied” that the note is from the Illinois senator. The notes are supposed to be removed twice a year, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and Passover, and placed in a repository “to keep them hidden from human eyes,” said Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, who supervises the Western Wall. “This sacrilegious action deserves sharp condemnation and represents a desecration of the holy site. Notes placed in the Western Wall are between the person and his Maker. Heaven forbid one should read or use them.”

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2/5/08

Members of the Middle East Quartet have called on Israel to freeze the construction of further settlements in the West Bank. The Quartet “called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity,” Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said on Friday reading from a statement agreed at the meeting of the UN, the US, Russia and the European Union. Meeting in London, the Quartet said Israel should also dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001.They also called on Arab states to honour the financial and political pledges they have made to the Palestinian people.

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