Jordanian concerns grow over Palestinian flights from Israeli airport

Special Jordanian concerns grow over Palestinian flights from Israeli airport
Jordanian MP Khalil Attia said that he will demand that every Palestinian who flies from Ramon Airport be prevented from entering Jordan. (AFP)
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Updated 26 August 2022

Jordanian concerns grow over Palestinian flights from Israeli airport

Jordanian concerns grow over Palestinian flights from Israeli airport

RAMALLAH: Just days after the first flight carrying Palestinian citizens took off from Israel’s Ramon Airport, Jordan has voiced growing concerns that it will suffer significant economic losses as a result.

The Palestinian Authority has tried to offer reassurances to the Jordanians. Prime Minster Mohammed Shtayyieh said on Aug. 24 that the airport will not become an alternative to flights from Jordan for Palestinians. This failed to ease the concerns of Jordanian authorities and the business community.

Jordanian MP Khalil Attia said that he will demand that every Palestinian who flies from Ramon Airport be prevented from entering Jordan. Palestinian air travelers face a choice between Jordan, which supports Palestine, or the occupier of their land, he added.

Samih Maaytah, a former Jordanian information minister, accused the PA of colluding with Israeli authorities to facilitate travel by Palestinians from Ramon Airport as an alternative to traveling to Jordan and flying from there. He said that the PA, which is able to control the West Bank and prevent shots being fired at Israel, should also be capable of preventing Palestinians from flying out of Ramon Airport.

Jordanian authorities collect $14 million a year from Palestinians who enter their territory. The country’s treasury therefore stands to lose some portion of that money if large numbers begin to use Ramon Airport instead.

Suleiman Jamhour, a Palestinian travel agent who works with Jordanian, international and Arab airlines that fly from Queen Alia International Airport near Amman, told Arab News that Royal Jordanian and other airlines in Jordan could lose more than 70 percent of their Palestinian passengers. Royal Jordanian has been considered the national carrier for Palestinians for many years, he added.

As an example, he said that more than 90 percent of passengers who fly with Royal Jordanian to and from Chicago, a key destination for the airline, are Palestinian.

Queen Alia Airport itself will also be affected, Jamhour predicted, along with regional airlines such as Fly Dubai and Pegasus.

Royal Jordanian Airlines launched a promotion in Ramallah on June 21 that offers a number of travel benefits and new services for Palestinian passengers. They include discounts of 15 percent on the price of economy-class tickets and 10 percent on business-class tickets, and free hotel accommodation in Amman for passengers flying to destinations in North America and Europe.

Dalia Kaddoura, the airline’s media relations representative, said that Palestinian use of Ramon Airport will be a big economic blow to the airline and could cause a deficit in the state treasury.

Some economists have warned the potential annual losses to Jordan’s transport and tourism sector could amount to $700 million, which is 50 percent of current revenue.

Palestinian authorities said that the average cost of having to travel via Jordan is $143 per person, and that this is reduced to $49 by travel from Ramon Airport.

A hotel manager in Amman, who asked not to be named, told Arab News that Palestinians book about 50 percent of his hotel rooms, especially during the summer. He warned that the hotels sector in his country will undoubtedly suffer adverse economic effects if Palestinians no longer need to fly via Jordan.

Ahmed Amer, who drives Palestinians to Jordan via King Hussein Bridge, told Arab News that he and 200 colleagues are very concerned about the possible decline in the number of passengers and the effect this will have on their jobs, which some have been doing for more than 20 years. Many other transport businesses, car-rental companies, hotels, stores and restaurants also fear they will suffer.

Experts estimate that between 50,000 and 100,000 Palestinian passengers will travel via Ramon Airport during the first year of operation. They expect the figure to rise sharply, as Israel is expected to allow 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to fly from the airport, in addition to 3 million from the West Bank.

Palestinians may prefer to us Ramon Airport because it will reduce journey times and save them money. It will prevent them from having to pass through three countries within a distance of only 5 kilometers, where they often have to wait for hours at borders to be searched.

In addition, thousands of West Bank citizens are prohibited from traveling to or passing through Jordan for security reasons because they were previously arrested by Israeli security forces.

Samir Hulileh, a Palestinian economist, told Arab News that he expects Jordan's economic losses due to the reluctance of Palestinians from the West Bank to travel through it to exceed $700 million a year.

“Jordan must improve the situation and treatment at the crossings with the West Bank, as this is its responsibility to every visitor to Jordan, without considering it a favor for the sake of the Palestinians, because we gain from each other and we must help each other,” he said.

He believes Israel’s motive for allowing Palestinians from the West Bank to fly from Ramon Airport is primarily economic. Nevertheless, he does not believe the Palestinian-Jordanian relationship will be seriously damaged by the opening of airport to Palestinians.

“The Palestinian-Jordanian relationship is not one of transit through Jordan but a relationship of common interests,” he said.

“The Palestinians will not sever their relationship with Jordan because of the availability of an alternative airport. Still, the Jordanians must understand that they may not be traveling through Jordan.”


Thousands of Israelis block streets in protest of judicial overhaul

Thousands of Israelis block streets in protest of judicial overhaul
Updated 19 sec ago

Thousands of Israelis block streets in protest of judicial overhaul

Thousands of Israelis block streets in protest of judicial overhaul
TEL AVIV/JERUSALEM: Israelis took to the streets en masse on Thursday in protest against the government’s overhaul of the court system, blocking roadways across the country and intensifying a months-long campaign decrying the move.
Thousands of people carrying flags and signs marched on a Tel Aviv thoroughfare stopping traffic in the middle of the workday. A small group burned tires in the street outside a seaport, briefly blocking trucks. Police forced demonstrators from the road in front of a conference center in central Israel.
The protests have escalated since the start of the year when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government introduced new legislation that would limit the authority of the Supreme Court.
The plan has stirred concern for Israel’s democratic health at home and abroad. Military reservists have joined the protests and senior officials in the Finance Ministry warned this week of an economic backlash.
In Jerusalem, crowds gathered along the walls of the Old City from which they hung a huge replica of the country’s declaration of independence.
“What we are doing here is we are fighting for our lives. We are fighting for our lives as a Jewish people together in the state that we have been building for 75 years,” said Avidan Friedman, who was wearing a Jewish prayer shawl over his head.
“We are fighting because we feel like what’s going on now is tearing us apart and we are calling on the government to stop.”
Netanyahu in the meantime pushed ahead with the legislation, which includes bills to give the government decisive sway in electing judges and to limit the court’s power to strike down laws. On Thursday a law was ratified limiting the circumstances in which a prime minister can be removed.
Netanyahu — on trial for corruption charges he denies — says the judicial overhaul is needed to restore balance between the branches of government. Critics say it will weaken Israel’s democracy and hand uncontrolled powers to the government of the day.

UK may have killed up to 32 civilians in Syria campaign against Daesh: charity

UK may have killed up to 32 civilians in Syria campaign against Daesh: charity
Updated 3 min 10 sec ago

UK may have killed up to 32 civilians in Syria campaign against Daesh: charity

UK may have killed up to 32 civilians in Syria campaign against Daesh: charity
  • Figure undermines Ministry of Defence claim that RAF strikes caused single civilian casualty: BBC

LONDON: Airstrikes launched by the UK’s military in Syria may have killed up to 32 civilians, research by a charity has reportedly revealed.

According to the BBC, the Action on Armed Violence organization, which investigates conflicts around the world, said its research had shown that at least nine attacks by the Royal Air Force led to civilian casualties between March 2016 and 2018.

It undermines a claim by the UK Ministry of Defence that its activities only led to a single civilian death during Britain’s seven-year aerial campaign against Daesh.

A ministry spokesperson said that military personnel examine evidence and mission data from every operation, and that there was “no evidence” of civilian casualties in the airstrikes investigated by AOAV.

A statement by the ministry said it had “identified nothing to indicate that such civilian casualties were caused in Syria.

“The RAF always minimizes the risk of civilian casualties through our rigorous targeting processes … but no evidence has been identified in these instances.”

The charity’s research claims that “at least 26 civilians are likely to have been killed” in RAF airstrikes during the two-year period, while “up to 32 civilians may have actually been killed.”

AOAV used “self-reported” civilian deaths to reach its figure, where military personnel under the US-led coalition against Daesh reported the high likelihood of civilian casualties following an operation.

The charity found that the reports were “credible” in eight of the nine RAF airstrikes.

It cross-checked the reports with the Ministry of Defence’s own internal mission data as well as information from US Central Command and other charities.

The single civilian death that the UK Ministry of Defence has admitted came in May 2018, when a motorcyclist was killed by a Reaper drone targeting Daesh fighters.

But another report surrounding possible civilian deaths, which the ministry has denied, centered on an RAF jet operation in May 2017, when Tornado aircraft attacked seven Daesh targets in Iraq’s Mosul.

The incident led to a “self-reported” claim by coalition personnel, with The New York Times newspaper finding that three civilians were nearby one of the strike targets, according to US mission data.

The data said: “The explosion from striking the mortar site was large enough to conclude that any person in the blast radius was seriously injured or killed in the strike.”

The US has said that 1,437 civilians may have been killed in the aerial campaign against Daesh between August 2014 and May 2023.


Israeli forces kill one Palestinian in West Bank raid on first day of Ramadan

Israeli forces kill one Palestinian in West Bank raid on first day of Ramadan
Updated 23 March 2023

Israeli forces kill one Palestinian in West Bank raid on first day of Ramadan

Israeli forces kill one Palestinian in West Bank raid on first day of Ramadan
  • The Palestinian health ministry said 25-year-old Amir Abu Khadijeh was shot in the head in the city of Tulkarem

RAMALLAH: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian officials said, amid attempts to curb surging violence from spiralling further.
A statement from Israeli border police said its undercover unit was involved in a raid early on Thursday to arrest a Palestinian man suspected of involvement in several shooting attacks. The forces surrounded the house he was in and fired at the man after he aimed a weapon at them, the border police said.
The Palestinian health ministry said 25-year-old Amir Abu Khadijeh was shot in the head in the city of Tulkarem.
A new group formed to confront Israel’s occupation under the name of the “Tulkarem Brigade” said Abu Khadijeh was one of its founders and described the killing as an “assassination.”
Thursday marked the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the Palestinian territories.
In previous years, Ramadan has occasionally seen clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians, particularly around Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, revered as the Temple Mount by Jews. Ramadan coincides this year with Judaism’s Passover and Christian Easter.
On Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian officials made commitments to de-escalate violence at a meeting attended by US, Egyptian and Jordanian delegations in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of confrontations in recent months, with near-daily Israeli military raids and escalating violence by Jewish settlers, amid a spate of attacks by Palestinians.
Over the past year, Israeli forces have killed more than 250 Palestinians in the West Bank, including fighters and civilians. More than 40 Israelis and three Ukrainians have died in Palestinian attacks in the same period.
The Palestinians aim to establish an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital, territories Israel captured in a 1967 war.


Israel ratifies law limiting conditions for a Netanyahu ouster

Israel ratifies law limiting conditions for a Netanyahu ouster
Updated 24 min 54 sec ago

Israel ratifies law limiting conditions for a Netanyahu ouster

Israel ratifies law limiting conditions for a Netanyahu ouster
  • May be meant to shield the incumbent leader from any fallout from his corruption trials
  • ‘What we see before our eyes is a cluster of legislation elements that are most troubling and are being advanced at great speed’

JERUSALEM: Israel ratified a law on Thursday limiting the circumstances in which a prime minister can be removed, despite worries voiced by a government jurist that it may be meant to shield the incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu from any fallout from his corruption trials.
The amended definition for the “incapacity” of national leaders is among legislative measures by the religious-nationalist coalition that have tipped Israel into crisis, with the opposition arguing that judicial independence is in peril.
The coalition says the overhaul is aimed at pushing back against what it calls Supreme Court over-reach and restoring balance among branches of government.
By a 61-to-47 final vote, the Knesset approved the bill under which prime ministers can be deemed unfit — and compelled to step aside — either if they or three-quarters of cabinet ministers declare them so on physical or psychological grounds.
The stipulations fleshed out a quasi-constitutional “basic law” that provides the government with guidance in the event of a non-functioning prime minister — but which previously lacked details on circumstances that may give rise to such situations.
According to the Israel Democracy Institute think tank, the rule had earlier left Netanyahu vulnerable to a possible assertion of his incapacity by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, should she perceive an attempt by him to halt his three court cases.
The new law precludes this, IDI senior researcher Amir Fuchs said — while adding that he had considered such a finding by Bararav-Miara to be an unlikely “extreme case.”
Netanyahu denies all charges against him, and has cast the trials as a politicized bid to force him out of office.
Baharav-Miara — who was appointed by the former, centrist Israeli government — said last month that Netanyahu must stay out of his coalition’s push for a judicial overhaul because of what she deemed a conflict of interest arising from his trials.
Baharav-Miara’s deputy, Gil Limon, voiced misgivings over the incapacity bill during a Knesset review session on Tuesday.
“What we see before our eyes is a cluster of legislation elements that are most troubling and are being advanced at great speed,” Limon said, according to an official transcript.
“They have the potential to serve the personal interests of a man regarding the outcomes of legal proceedings he is facing.”
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel filed a Supreme Court appeal against the new law. Should the court rule to overturn the law, that would in itself fuel the feud.
“Netanyahu and his coalition of corrupt men are trying every possible maneuver in their attempts to escape the threat of justice,” a statement from the watchdog group said.


Palestinians and Israelis clash at UN over Netanyahu actions

Palestinians and Israelis clash at UN over Netanyahu actions
Updated 23 March 2023

Palestinians and Israelis clash at UN over Netanyahu actions

Palestinians and Israelis clash at UN over Netanyahu actions
  • Ambassador Riyad Mansour takes issue with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denying the existence of Palestinians as a people
  • Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan hits back, accusing the Palestinian leadership of regularly inciting terrorism and erasing Jewish history

UNITED NATIONS: The Palestinians and Israel clashed over the future intentions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far right-wing government at a UN Security Council meeting Wednesday, with the Palestinian UN ambassador pointing to an Israeli minister’s statement “denying our existence to justify what is to come.”
Israel’s UN ambassador countered that the minister had apologized, and accused the Palestinian leadership of regularly inciting terrorism and erasing Jewish history.
The council’s always contentious monthly meeting on the Mideast was even more acrimonious in the face of comments and actions by Israel’s new coalition government, which has faced relentless protests over its plan to overhaul the judiciary and strong criticism of Tuesday’s repeal by lawmakers of a 2005 act that saw four Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank dismantled at the same time that Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour told the Security Council the statement by firebrand Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claiming there’s “no such thing” as a Palestinian people wasn’t part of “a theoretical exercise” but was made as Israel’s unlawful annexation of territory the Palestinians insist must be part of their independent state “is more than underway.”
While not all Israeli officials go as far as denying the existence of Palestinians, some deny Palestinian rights, humanity and connection to the land, Mansour said.
Last year was the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank, with the past three months “even worse,” he said. So far this year, 85 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, and Palestinian attackers have killed 15 Israelis, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Nonetheless, with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the approach of the Jewish holiday Passover and Christianity’s Easter observance, Mansour said the Palestinians decided to be “unreasonably reasonable” and leave no stone unturned to prevent bloodshed.
The Palestinian envoy urged the Security Council and the international community to mobilize every effort “to stop annexation, violence against our people, and provocations.” Everyone has a duty to act now “with every means at our disposal, to prevent a fire that will devour everything it encounters,” he said.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called his country “unquestionably the most vibrant liberal democracy in the Middle East” and accused the Palestinians of repeating lies, glorifying terrorists who spilled innocent Israeli blood and “regurgitating fabrications” that are not going to solve the decades-old conflict.
“To the Palestinian representative, I say: ‘Shame on you. Shame on you.’ It is so audacious that you dare condemn the words of Israeli minister who apologized and clarified what he meant, while your president and the rest of (the) Palestinian leadership regularly, regularly incite terrorism, never condemn the murders of Israeli civilians, praise Palestinian terrorists, and actively attempt to rewrite facts and the truth by erasing Jewish history,” he said.
Erdan accused the Palestinians of being “dead set on encouraging more violence” while Israel has taken significant steps to de-escalate the current tensions by sitting down with Palestinian officials in Jordan in February and on Sunday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
In a joint communique afterward, the two sides had pledged to take steps to lower tensions ahead of the sensitive holiday season — including a partial freeze on Israeli settlement activity and an agreement to work together to “curb and counter violence.”
The Palestinians seek the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an independent state, with east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war. Since then, more than 700,000 Israelis have moved into dozens of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — which most of the world considers illegal and an obstacle to peace.
But Netanyahu’s government has put settlement expansion at the top of its agenda and has already advanced thousands of new settlement housing units and retroactively authorized nine wildcat outposts in the West Bank.
The repeal of the 2005 act on the four West Bank settlements came after Sunday’s agreement, and a Palestinian shooting attack that wounded two Israelis in the West Bank underscored the difficulties in implementing the joint communique. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, criticized the repeal, summoning Israel’s US ambassador, and other countries were also critical.
Netanyahu appeared to back down Wednesday, saying his government has no intention of returning to the four abandoned settlements.
Ambassador Erdan echoed him, saying “the state of Israel has no intention of building any new communities there,” but he said the new law “rights a historic wrong” and will allow Israelis to enter areas that are “the birthplace of our heritage.”