Month: December 2022

Benjamin Netanyahu returns as prime minister, after his Likud party formed a coalition with ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies.

There is domestic and international concern it will inflame the conflict with the Palestinians, damage the judiciary and restrict minority rights.

Mr Netanyahu has promised to pursue peace and safeguard civil rights.

Addressing a special session of the Knesset (parliament) in Jerusalem, he stated that his administration would “restore governance, peace and personal security to the citizens of Israel”.

“I hear the opposition’s constant laments about ‘the end of the state’, ‘the end of democracy’, members of the opposition, losing the elections is not the end of democracy – this is the essence of democracy.”

Mr Netanyahu was heckled by his opponents, some of whom chanted “weak”.

They suggest he has been forced to sign deals with hard-line parties because more liberal ones refuse to sit in government with him while he is on trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He denies any wrongdoing.

Several hundred protesters meanwhile gathered outside, waving Israeli flags, rainbow flags bearing the Star of David, and signs reading “shame”, “danger” and “down with racism”.

Mor, a woman from Jerusalem, told the BBC: “I’m here because my country’s falling apart from its democratic values.”

This is a record sixth term as prime minister for Mr Netanyahu, who was ousted by his opponents 18 months ago, but his coalition partners are pledging to lead the country in a new direction.

The first guiding principle of the new government, published on Wednesday, declares that “the Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the land of Israel”. It says that includes the occupied West Bank and promises to “advance and develop” settlements there.

About 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

There are also some 100 outposts – small settlements built without the Israeli government’s authorisation – across the West Bank.

In a coalition deal with the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party he signed last week, Mr Netanyahu agreed to retroactively legalise the outposts. He also promised to annex the West Bank while “choosing the timing and weighing all of the State of Israel’s national and international interests”. Such a step would be opposed by Israel’s Western and Arab allies.

Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich, a West Bank settler, will be finance minister and also oversee the Civil Administration, which approves settlement building in the West Bank and controls important aspects of Palestinians’ lives.

Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, another settler and ultranationalist politician who has previously been convicted of racism and supporting a terrorist organisation, will be national security minister, responsible for the police.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned that the plans to develop West Bank settlements would have “repercussions for the region”.

Mr Netanyahu’s coalition partners reject the idea of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict – the internationally backed formula for peace which envisages an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank alongside Israel, with Jerusalem as their shared capital.

There have also been expressions of concern both inside and outside Israel about some ministers’ very rigid views on the application of Jewish law and LGBTQ rights.

Avi Maoz, head of the anti-LGBTQ Noam party, will serve as a deputy minister in the prime minister’s office. He has called for Jerusalem’s Gay Pride event to be banned, disapproves of equal opportunities for women in the military, and wants to limit immigration to Israel to Jews according to a strict interpretation of Jewish law.

Activists, doctors and business leaders have meanwhile warned that discrimination against LGBTQ individuals could potentially be legalised if the anti-discrimination law is changed to allow businesses to refuse services to people on religious grounds.

Although the coalition deal between Likud and the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party calls for such an amendment, Mr Netanyahu has said his administration will not allow any harm to the LGBTQ community. He has also chosen an openly gay member of Likud, Amir Ohana, to be parliamentary speaker.

Critics have expressed concern at the coalition’s intention to pass legislation that would give a parliamentary majority the ability to override Supreme Court rulings.

Mr Netanyahu’s coalition partners have also proposed legal reforms that could end his corruption trial.

At Thursday’s protest, a woman from Tel Aviv, who did not want to give her name, said: “I refuse to accept what I feel is the possibility of the beginning of a fascist regime and I want to protect the rights of every citizen living in this country.”

Daniel Johnas, an activist in the religious LGBTQ community, said he was worried for the first time to go on the street with the rainbow flag. He was also concerned about the future of life in Israel for himself, his husband and children.

“A glorious century rests at the feet of God,” Mr Modi tweeted on Friday morning.

He lit his mother’s funeral pyre in Gandhinagar in western Gujarat state – where Heeraben lived – on Friday.

Heeraben had been admitted to hospital on Wednesday after her health deteriorated.

The Indian prime minister often visited his mother to seek her blessings on important occasions and festivals.

Her life and sacrifices had “shaped” his mind, personality and self-confidence, Mr Modi wrote on 18 June when Heeraben turned 99.

“My Mother is as simple as she is extraordinary. Just like all mothers,” he wrote.

They were last seen together in public on 4 December when Mr Modi visited her house during the assembly election in Gujarat, his home state.

Heeraben lived with Mr Modi’s younger brother and his family.

Several politicians and ministers have expressed sorrow over her death on social media.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that he was “deeply pained” by the news.

“The death of a mother leaves such a void in one’s life that is impossible to fill,” he wrote.

M Venkaiah Naidu, former vice-president of India, also expressed his condolences.

Heeraben was born in Visnagar in Gujarat’s Mehsana district in 1923.

“Her childhood was one of poverty and deprivation,” Mr Modi wrote.

As a teen, she was married to Damodardas Mulchand Modi and moved to the town of Vadnagar a few kilometres away.

“In Vadnagar, our family used to stay in a tiny house which did not even have a window, let alone a luxury like a toilet or a bathroom,” Mr Modi wrote in his blog.

He described his mother as punctual, neat and a hard worker. “While working, she would hum her favourite bhajans and hymns,” he wrote.

Heeraben never attended public programmes, Mr Modi wrote, adding that she had only accompanied him to two events – the second one was in 2001, when he first took oath as the chief minister of Gujarat.

“Since then, she has never accompanied me to a single public event,” he wrote.

Though he became India’s prime minister in 2014, Heeraben visited him in Delhi only two years later. Mr Modi had tweeted photos of himself showing her around his official residence.

Months later, when Mr Modi’s government controversially banned 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in a bid to crack down on undeclared wealth, Heeraben was photographed visiting a bank, like millions of Indians, to exchange old notes.

Mr Grady was given a two-day ban from the Commons in June after a panel ruled he had engaged in “unwanted physical touching”.

At the time, he told MPs he was “profoundly sorry” for his behaviour at a social event in 2016.

The SNP has confirmed that a six-month suspension from the party has expired.

There was a wider row about the party’s handling of the case after then group leader Ian Blackford was recorded urging MPs to “give as much support as possible” to Mr Grady.

Mr Blackford later apologised that this had “caused distress to the complainant”, and established an independent review of the support available to staff.

Mr Grady, who represents Glasgow North, had been sitting as an independent MP since a complaint was made against him, which led to his Commons suspension in June.

An independent panel found that he had touched and stroked the neck, hair and back of a colleague 17 years his junior at a social event in a pub in 2016.

The former SNP whip admitted his behaviour and apologised “without reservation”, saying he had undertaken “bespoke and generic training” since the incident.

“I am profoundly sorry for my behaviour and I deeply regret my actions and their consequences,” Mr Grady told the Commons, giving a “firm undertaking that such behaviour on my part will never happen again”.

It is understood that Mr Grady served a six-month suspension from the SNP, backdated to the point of his Commons ban in June.

The end of the suspension means he is part of the party’s group in the Commons again – now led by Stephen Flynn.

However it is not known if he could be eligible to stand on the SNP ticket again at the next general election, with the party having begun its selection procedures in September in anticipation of a snap vote.

The Scottish Conservatives said the SNP should have “sacked Patrick Grady for good”, saying he had “got away with little more than a slap on the wrist”.

Luis Fernando Camacho is the governor of Santa Cruz, the country’s wealthiest region. He helped oust President Evo Morales from power in 2019.

Mr Camacho has led an anti-government strike in Santa Cruz for over a month, bringing the region to a standstill.

His supporters have condemned his arrest as a kidnapping and have taken to the streets in protest.

But the state attorney’s office said the arrest was connected to the toppling of the former leftist president.

An October arrest warrant accused Camacho of “terrorism” but did not elaborate.

The strikes led by Mr Camacho are over delays in carrying out the country’s census.

The census would likely result in Santa Cruz – which has long locked horns with highland political capital La Paz – securing more tax revenues and political power. The census is scheduled for 2024, but protesters want it held next year.

Graciela Ortiz, an assistant for Mr Camacho who was with him during his arrest, said a white patrol van intercepted their vehicle.

“People dressed in black with black guns got out and they started hitting the windows. They didn’t even tell us to get out, they just hit them with the back part of the weapons,” she told the Reuters news agency.

“They threw him to the ground, tied him down, picked him up and took him.”

Upon being arrested, Mr Camacho was taken to a local airport to be flown to La Paz, local media reported.

As news of the arrest spread, his supporters took to the streets, setting up barricades and setting fire to the regional prosecutor’s office, according to the AFP news agency.

Protesters also descended on Santa Cruz’s Viru Viru airport, in an apparent attempt to prevent Mr Camacho from being taken to another location.

Long queues have been building up as people stock up on food, fearing road blockades.

Former President Carlos Mesa called the arrest a “kidnapping”.

But Mr Morales welcomed the arrest of the man who helped oust him three years ago.

“Finally, after three years, Luis Fernando Camacho will answer for the coup d’etat that led to robberies, persecutions, arrests and massacres of the de facto government,” he said.

The US State Department urged the government to refrain from excessive use of force against the opposition.

A UN spokesperson said that while they did not know the specifics of the case “people everywhere should be allowed to express their views and protest peacefully”.

“Furthermore, we stand against arbitrary arrests as they violate the fundamental human rights of an individual,” they said.