Israel

JERUSALEM; 02 Jan 2019; AA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lobbied the Honduran president to move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

This came during a joint meeting between Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez in Brazil on the sidelines of the inauguration of new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

01 Jan 2019; DW: The countries announced in 2017 that they would withdraw from the UN Educational, Science and Cultural Organization, accusing it of bias against Israel. That went into effect at the stroke of midnight.

31 Dec 2018; DW: Almost 30,000 Jews immigrated to Israel over the past year, the country's immigration agency says. Around a third of them came from Russia.

Immigration by Jews to Israel rose by 5 percent over the past year, with 29,600 people moving to the country in 2018, according to figures released on Sunday by the state immigration organization "Jewish Agency for Israel."

Jerusalem, Dec 30 (AP) Two senior Israeli Cabinet ministers announced Saturday that they are forming a new party to run in April elections, hoping to present a hard-line alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said they were leaving the Jewish Home party and would instead lead a new list of candidates.

The Jewish Home is a hard-line nationalist party that is especially popular with religious voters and West Bank settlers.

JERUSALEM; 27 Dec 2018; AA: Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, the imam at East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, has condemned criticisms of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leveled recently by Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Sabri -- who is also head of Jerusalem’s Supreme Muslim Council -- attributed Netanyahu’s remarks to the fact that Israel “doesn’t want any country to support the Palestinian cause”.

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli security official on Wednesday confirmed responsibility for overnight airstrikes in Syria, saying the air force had hit a series of targets involved in Iranian arms transfers to the Hezbollah militant group.

Russia had criticized the airstrike, saying it endangered civilian flights. The comments highlighted the increasingly tense relations between Israel and Russia, which have grown strained since the September downing of a Russian plane by Syrian forces responding to another Israeli raid.

24 Dec 2018; DW: Leaders in Israel's governing coalition have decided to dissolve parliament and hold elections seven months early. Coalition disagreements over a military conscription bill appear to have caused the move.

Israel will hold a general election on April 9 after leaders moved to dissolve parliament, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

JERUSALEM, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday played down Israeli concerns over the U.S. pullout from Syria, saying his country will continue to act against Iranian forces in Syria.

"I would like to reassure those who are concerned," he said at the weekly cabinet meeting. "Our cooperation with the United States will continue in full and finds expression in many areas."

This cooperation includes joint operations, intelligence information, and "many other security spheres," he added.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis across the country are protesting what they see as the government’s inadequate response to violence against women.

Protesters blocked main intersections and staged graphic demonstrations drawing attention to their cause. In Jerusalem, protesters splattered red paint on a street littered with signs bearing the names of dozens of women killed. Activists filled a Tel Aviv square with some 200 dyed-red shoes meant to symbolize violence against women. A central protest will be held later Tuesday.

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Saudi dissident has filed a lawsuit against an Israeli surveillance company, claiming its sophisticated spyware targeted him and helped lead to the killing of his friend, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The suit, filed in a Tel Aviv court on Sunday, follows others previously filed against the company. But because of its links to the international outrage over the killing of Khashoggi, it is likely to shine a larger spotlight on the company and the Israeli government, which licenses the export of the surveillance technology.