Sweden’s city planning and environment minister, Mehmet Kaplan, was on board Turkish vessel which sought to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
More than 500 anthropologists from all over the world have recently signed a petition declaring their ''opposition to the ongoing Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, including the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and east Jerusalem.''
The Swedish ambassador to Israel will be summoned to the Israeli foreign ministry following a statement made by Sweden’s new Prime Minister Stefan Lofven that his country would recognize Palestine as a ‘sovereign state,’’ the ministry’s spokesperson, Emmanuel Nachson, announced.
Israel's ambassador to Belgium, Jacques Revah, was summoned to the Belgian foreign ministry by Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders ‘’to seek clarification on the destruction of a cooperation project financed by Belgium in the West Bank.''
Sweden’s newly-formed center-left government is set to become the first European Union member state to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced.
The European Union said the future of its relations with Israel depend on Israel’s '’’commitment to peace based on a two-state solution,’’ in a strongly worded statement condemning construction plans in East Jerusalem.
As he sent a letter of congratulations to new Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz for her nomination, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Director General of the European Jewish Association (EJA), called on her to to reverse the country’s controversial ban on the practice of Jewish ritual slaughter.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the step would also send a ''troubling message'' if the Israeli government proceeded with tenders and construction.
