Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on Israel banning U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and fellow Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s planned tour, and subsequent reversal allowing Tlaib entry to West Bank for a family visit (all times local):

9:45 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota disputes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that she and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan didn’t ask to meet with Israeli government or opposition officials before he barred them from visiting Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank next week.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s interior minister said Friday he has received and granted a request by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib to enter the Israeli-occupied West Bank on humanitarian grounds.

The decision marked the latest sharp reversal over what had been a planned visit by Tlaib and fellow Democrat, Rep. Ilhan Omar, to Jerusalem and the West Bank.

16 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said that he thought the head of the Mossad intelligence agency or Israel’s ambassador to the United States (US) as his prospective successors.

“There are two people I consider fit to lead the State of Israel — Yossi Cohen and Ron Dermer,” Walla quoted Netanyahu as saying. His remarks come as he bows out of his political life.

JERUSALEM, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- One Palestinian man was shot dead and another critically wounded after they stabbed an Israeli police officer in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, the police said.

The incident took place in East Jerusalem's Old City.

The police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement that the officer was injured moderately before the police forces at the scene opened fire at the suspects.

Describing the incident as a "terrorist attack," Rosenfeld said the police have sealed off the exits and entrances of the Old City.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on Israel’s decision to bar two U.S. Democratic congresswomen from visiting (all times local):

12:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump is defending Israel’s decision to bar two Democratic members of Congress from visiting the country, even as he claims he didn’t “encourage or discourage” the move.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he “did speak to people over there” regarding the decision but says he was “only involved from the standpoint that they’re very anti-Jewish and very anti-Israel.”

15 August 2019; DW: The decision to bar Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib is likely to deepen a rift within the Democratic Party over Israel. President Donald Trump backed the decision shortly before it was announced.

Israel's government decided to bar two Democratic congresswomen from entering the country on Thursday, in an unprecedented move that is likely to reverberate through the halls of the US Congress.

15 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israeli authorities will finally allow Palestinian Bedouin citizens in the village of Rahma to have an elementary school “after 13 years of civil struggle”, reported Haaretz.

14 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has recommended banning two candidates from the ultra-right-wing Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party from contesting the country’s September election.

13 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing US President Donald Trump to give the go-ahead for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank before the country’s upcoming general election.

12 Aug 2019; MEMO: Hundreds of Jewish settlers on Sunday forced their way into Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to a Palestinian official, Anadolu reports.

“Since the morning, over 1,729 Jewish settlers have entered the compound,” Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for Jerusalem’s Religious Endowments Authority said in a statement.

“The settlers incursions were backed by Israeli police officers,” he said.