But relations have taken a turn for the worse since Italy’s populist parties came to power in June.
Much of the dispute has been about immigration.
France has criticised Italy for not allowing rescue boats carrying refugees and migrants to dock along its Mediterranean ports.
On Monday, it summoned Italy’s ambassador after Italian Deputy Prime minister Luigi Di Maio accused France of creating poverty in Africa and forcing mass migration to Europe.
So, how much of this is politics ahead of EU elections in May?
Presenter: Richelle Carey
Guests:
Adama Gaye – Journalist, Author and West Africa Analyst
Jacques Reland – Head of European Research at the Global Policy Institute
Matteo Villa – Research Fellow with the Europe and Migration programmes at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies
The Senate was in session for just three hours on Wednesday, with no party meetings and no votes. A trickle of senators came through the hallways, none offering any endgame to the historic shutdown. | M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico
Competing bills in the Senate will likely fail, which some senators hope will jumpstart talks.
The Senate will take its first votes in more than a month on reopening government. But both a clean spending bill and President Donald Trump’s proposal appear on course to fail.
Though a short-term spending bill giving the president no new border funding bill passed the Senate with no dissent in December, it’s poised to fail on the Senate floor on Thursday. Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the Nos. 3 and 4 GOP leaders, both said Wednesday that the “continuing resolution” cannot pass the Senate.
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Democrats need at least 13 GOP votes to get to 60, and the pickings are slim barring a surprise change of opinion by Trump in the next 24 hours. Many Republicans say the president won’t sign it, so there’s no point in voting for the two-week spending bill written by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) intended to allow government to reopen and negotiations to begin.
Opponents include members like Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has met with a bipartisan group about how to end the shutdown, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a freshman who has attacked Washington for being dysfunctional.
“I don’t know why we’d do that,” Scott told reporters. “This idea that you just open up the government … then you deal with people that have said I will not negotiate with you, that’s crazy.”
Trump’s bill “represents an actual attempt to compromise and could get signed into law,” said Daniel Keylin, a spokesman for Tillis. “Schumer’s proposal offers no compromise, no increase in border security funding, and would get vetoed.”
A number of GOP senators declined to say how they would vote on the clean short-term spending bill, including moderates like Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine as well as Republicans that are sick of the shutdown like Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
Democrats said they were struggling to comprehend how a bill could pass the Senate by voice vote in December and then fail on the Senate floor a month later.
“Sen. Collins and anybody else: let’s just vote for what you’ve already voted for,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
But Trump’s veto threat in December changed everything, setting off a 33-day shutdown and scuttling Republican support for bills that don’t offer more money for the president’s border barrier.
One senator, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal party dynamics, said McConnell and GOP leaders are trying to crush the “continuing resolution” to force Democrats to negotiate on Trump’s border wall.
“Our leadership is strongly encouraging us to set off a negotiation by having both go down so that it forces a negotiation,” the GOP senator said.
If there were serious efforts to whip senators, they were going on in private. The Senate was in session for just three hours on Wednesday, with no party meetings and no votes. A trickle of senators came through the hallways, none offering any endgame to the historic shutdown.
Republican sources said that a handful of GOP senators like Gardner, Collins and Murkowski may vote for the CR. But in an interview, Barrasso said plainly that the CR will fail when asked: “Correct.”
“The president has laid out a fair, reasonable proposal that shows a lot of compromise. And it’s time for the Democrats to do the same,” Barrasso said.
McConnell himself was more circumspect ahead of the vote: “We’ll see what happens.” He strongly praised the president’s proposal on Wednesday on the floor as “a fair compromise that pairs full-year government funding with immigration policy priorities from both sides” after Schumer attacked it.
The two leaders clinched a deal to have the two votes, essentially to demonstrate publicly that neither Trump’s proposal nor a spending bill sans wall money can pass the Senate. On Thursday the Senate will vote first on Trump’s proposal, then on Schumer’s.
“The first vote, unless you do it my way, ‘I’m keeping the government shut down’ – it’s the Trump amendment. Our amendment: open up the government and then let’s talk,” Schumer said Wednesday.
Some Republicans, like Gardner, Collins and Murkowski could vote for both proposals. Collins took to the floor on Wednesday to endorse the president’s proposal, but declined to say how she’ll vote on the stopgap bill, advising a reporter to “stay tuned.”
Murkowski said the proposals at least represent a step forward if not an actual solution to reopen the government.
“I’m at the point of being happy that we’re going to the floor and having an opportunity to vote on anything. I’m not very optimistic about the chance of passage,” Murkowski said, declining to say precisely where she will come down on either proposal. “I think it offers us an opportunity to proceed.”
Less surprising is that the president’s proposal will go down, too, given the inclusion of $5.7 billion in wall funding and restrictions on asylum seekers in Central American countries. That turned off most Democratic senators, and McConnell needs to pick up at least seven Democratic votes for it to advance. The bill also gives Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and people under Temporary Protected Status only three-year protections from deportation, while Democrats want permanent legal status for those immigrants.
Republicans are targeting three moderate senators to vote for Trump’s bill: Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Doug Jones of Alabama and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. None would say on Wednesday how they would vote. It’s also possible that some conservative Republicans oppose the president’s plan, which also includes large spending bills that fiscal hardliners loath.
So what happens on Thursday afternoon after both bills fail and the shutdown threatens to drag into next week?
“Then it’s time, I would hope, for the president to look for more things he can put on the table he’d like to do, like defense spending,” Blunt said. “But it’s also time for Democrats to talk about: If they don’t like the president’s DACA proposal, what do they like? You can’t just not like everything.”
When I turned 33-years-old, I decided it was time for me to become a “real adult” and do things real adults do — eat meals at a table, learn what a stock is, and maybe even buy a house.
The former goals were what I could foreseeably accomplish, the latter was what I wanted most of all. All of my high school classmates did it, even the ones who couldn’t tell the difference between Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. As someone who has plenty of unresolved adolescent psychodrama, I refused to accept defeat.
So I downloaded multiple housing apps and did what I knew best: I swiped.
There are dozens of real estate apps — Zillow, Trulia, StreetEasy, and Realtor.com to name a few — but there are infinite ways these apps have managed to consume every free moment of my time and every available neuron of my brain. I started off my house hunt by casually swiping “just to see what was out there,” before the apps became a soul-mutilating obsession.
I swiped before work, during lunch, and at all mealtimes. I swiped on my way up elevators and down escalators and on each and every one of my commutes. Books? Why read books on the train? Friends? Why talk to friends in real life? I was working on building my future, I was swiping damnit.
After all, swiping had served me well in my twenties: swiping got me my girlfriend (on Tinder), my apartment (on Naked Apartments), my therapist (on ZocDoc), and hundreds of followers on Twitter, just by liking the right poisonous trash.
There was nothing I could do, there was no way I could stop myself: Securing a house was the last milestone I needed to reach so I could secure my financial future and one-up all my frenemies on Facebook with photos of my newly polished softwood kitchen floors.
I just couldn’t swipe my way to a house, though. Housing prices were astronomically higher than my extremely dumb 20-year-old brain ever imagined. Even as I lowered my standards — a studio apartment for me, my girlfriend, and our future two kids, or a “fixer upper home” that included a collapsed toilet full of cat hair — it all felt painfully out of reach.
It became increasingly clear that I couldn’t afford anything I needed. If I wanted a home, I’d have to leave the city entirely and find a new career. I’d have to give up on having more than one child or find a way to monetize the cute one. To be fair, things could change for me and the millions of people in my generation in the exact same financial position.
There’s plenty of housing apps but not enough housing
By now, the statistics about home ownership are familiar and exhausting. Home ownership for millennials is low: a full eight percent lower than Gen-Xers and baby boomers’ rates when they were at the same age. By this point, we should have 3.4 million more homeowners than we currently do.
For communities of color, these numbers are even smaller. Black home ownership has dropped far more dramatically than other comparably sized demographic since 2000, according to the Urban Institute.
Sure, in some parts of the country, home prices have been dropping. Yet home purchases have decreased as mortgage rates have gone up. Real estate brokerage firm Redfin recently found that the supply of homes middle-class families can buy has declined by 86 percent in 49 different metropolitan areas.
86 Percent.
The reasons for this crisis are well-documented, including spiraling inequality, flat wages, decreased housing supply, and rising school debt. In the case of the black community, you can add on decades of gerrymandering, subprime mortgage lending, and racial bias.
It’s not like millennials have much of a choice about where they live, either. Many millennials move to urban centers where housing prices are highest because that’s where the best career opportunities are. If you’re queer, or trans, or a person of color, moving to rural or suburban areas where housing prices are often lowest isn’t always the best option. You need to move to diverse cities, where you can find other people just like you.
I would love to make a living as a writer who works out of her beautiful rustic queer commune in Northern California. Alas, I cannot.
In the cities, the dream of homeownership is even more distant. If I were to rely on only my and my partner’s salary alone, it would take us 45 years to buy a two bedroom apartment in New York. I would be eighty years old by the time I made my first down payment. My flesh will be falling off my face. My uterus will look like a California raisin. Even then, I won’t be able to write that check unless housing prices stay constant which, lol.
The future is bleak for most of us. None of it stops us from swiping.
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop Swiping Help
Despite all of this crushing economic data working against me, I still haven’t deleted these apps. I love to pretend that with just the right amount of scrimping and saving and relatives dying, I’ll be able to secure a two bedroom apartment within an hour radius of my job. I also do love the swiping.
To be clear: iI the economic environment does change, home ownership is theoretically possible for me, which it isn’t for most people my age. That makes it an absolute privilege. Until that day comes, however, I’ll be window shopping on the internet, ooh-ing and aah-ing over granite countertops and stainless steel appliances and — because I live in New York — closets.
Apps are designed to keep you clicking. Housing apps are built to make you desire. There are photos that you feel forced to swipe through, descriptions and data you feel compelled to analyze. Thanks to Trulia, Zillow, and StreetEasy, I can now picture myself in a 12′ x 25′ living room with an antique pocket door and an oversized window that overlooks a tree, not a rat den.
I just can’t do much besides imagining. The apps won’t save me. Forgive me if I don’t stop hoping that one day, they will.
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Clear the sidewalks, Amazon’s new delivery bot Scout is coming through.
The Prime bot, which looks like a light blue cooler on six wheels, started delivering packages Wednesday in Snohomish County, north of Seattle.
The bot will work alongside usual Amazon delivery methods (aka human drivers) and only six of the robots will be rolling around to start. The Scouts will only drop off packages Monday through Friday during daylight hours.
Here’s Scout, developed by Amazon in Seattle, in delivery mode:
The electric device is autonomous, but to start an Amazon employee will “shadow” Scout to make sure it is properly accomplishing its Prime-ly duties.
The bots arrival comes before Amazon Prime Air — the company’s drone delivery service that still hasn’t taken off. Sure there was an inaugural flight more than two years ago, but the company says the project is still in development.
As to when an Amazon drone could join Scout as part of a robotic delivery fleet, the company can’t really say. “We will deploy when and where we have the regulatory support needed to safely realize our vision,” Amazon says.
With Scout’s announcement also came new Amazon job listings: software engineers, robotics scientists, and more. Looks like Amazon’s army of robots could be growing soon.
The eviction of refugees from Italy‘s second-largest centre for asylum seekers has continued for a second day amid protests from locals and opposition politicians over the way the transfers are being carried out.
The reception centre is located in Castelnuovo di Porto, a town near Rome, and the vast majority of the 540 people there are asylum seekers, including women and children.
The centre, chosen by the Popein 2016 for the traditional Holy Thursday mass, in which the pontiff performs a foot-washing ceremony, is due to close by the end of the month following funding cuts.
The evictions began on Tuesday when 30 people were taken away and another 75, including 10 women, were seen getting on buses on Wednesday without any knowledge of where they were headed.
According to UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, at least 10 people who hold “humanitarian protection” permits will be left without a roof over their heads.
The recently passed “Salvini law” cracks down on asylum rights by abolishing such permits – issued to people who did not qualify for refugee status but were deemed as vulnerable – and barring those who hold them from receiving aid.
The law is set to leave thousands of people undocumented and without rights in the next two years.
Other centres across Italy are set to close in the coming months as well, including Italy’s largest in Mineo, Sicily.
Observers have criticised the way the government decided to carry out the transfers by sending in the police and the army with barely 48 hours of notice, and without prior coordination with the local authorities or the cooperative running the centre.
The transfers to other areas of the country will inevitably disrupt the lives of asylum seekers, some of whom have lived in Castelnuovo for over a year.
They will also affect asylum applications that must be reviewed by local commissions.
“Fourteen children will have to interrupt their school year,” UNHCR‘s spokesperson for southern Europe, Carlotta Sami, told Al Jazeera.
“There’s no clarity on where they will be taken and what will happen to hundreds of asylum applications that were being examined by the local commission.”
More than 100 people, who were employed at the centre as language teachers or psychologists, are also set to lose their jobs.
The centre had been open for over a decade, hosting at one stage up to 1,000 people.
“The centre had become an integral part of Castelnuovo di Porto,” the town’s mayor, Riccardo Travaglini, told a local newspaper.
“I’m not saying the centre shouldn’t be closed, but it should have been coordinated. Castelnuovo has been at the forefront of this emergency for 10 years, 8,000 people came through here. Some respect was due to a community that has done much not only for Italy, but for Europe as well.”
Trade unions have scheduled protests to take place on Thursday. Some locals, including the town’s mayor, took part in a silent march on Tuesday to protest the closure of what many considered a model centre.
Italy’s interior minister and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini defended the eviction, arguing that a drop in arrivals had freed places in other centres across the country.
“It is a question of common sense and good administration that will save Italians six million euros a year, without taking away the rights of anyone,” Salvini told a local radio station.
“All the guests who have the right to, will be transferred with as much generosity and with as many rights to other structures,” he said in a Facebook Live video.
The new class of liberal House Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has frequently been compared to the conservative Freedom Caucus, with each more than happy to challenge party leaders. | Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
Liberal freshmen Democrats and conservative GOP hard-liners are set to face off in the House Oversight Committee.
Jim Jordan, meet Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The powerful House Oversight Committee was already stacked with hard-line Republicans ready to serve as President Donald Trump’s first line of defense in a new Democratic House. Now they’ll be going up against Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and other progressive stars eager to investigate the president and his administration.
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“I’m hoping that will re-balance the committee a little bit. We could use a little bit of heft from the left,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), a member of the Oversight Committee.
The new class of liberal House Democrats has frequently been compared to the conservative Freedom Caucus, with each more than happy to challenge party leaders. But on the Oversight Committee, they are typically aligned with leadership, which frequently places their most vocal partisans on the panel.
When Republicans controlled the committee during the Obama administration, Jordan, the top Republican on the Oversight panel, and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) investigated the Benghazi attack and Eric Holder’s Justice Department.
Some of the new Democratic additions to the committee are already becoming lightning rods. Tlaib made headlines on her first day in office when she pledged to “impeach the motherf—er,” while Ocasio-Cortez has come under fire for her liberal views and her use of social media to push back on the GOP.
Their Democratic colleagues dismissed concerns of the potential for a circus-like atmosphere when the freshman lawmakers face off against Jordan, Meadows and other Trump loyalists in such a high-profile setting.
“Some people feel like it’s only Republicans who have the right to get passionate about politics. It’s not just Republicans. It’s Democrats, too,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a liberal member of the Oversight Committee. “Progressives are fighting mad about what the Trump administration has done with America. So if they don’t like it, they’re just going to have to learn to live with it.”
Republicans, too, are keenly aware of what the new additions mean for the committee, which will soon begin investigating a wide array of Trump administration scandals and controversies.
“I don’t know that any of them will be timid about expressing their opinions,” Meadows, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said with a smile.
The hard-liners in each party don’t necessarily dislike each other.
Meadows and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a new Democratic member on the committee, were talking about each other in separate conversations with reporters on Wednesday when they walked past each other.
“Speaking of Ro Khanna — there he is,” said Meadows. “I’m saying nice things!” he quipped to Khanna.
The rare moment of levity even amid the doom and gloom of a government shutdown wasn’t surprising for two lawmakers who attend plays together with their wives and have worked closely together on foreign policy initiatives. But they acknowledge that they’ll soon be butting heads on the Oversight Committee.
“I think there will be fireworks, just because of the political nature of the first hearing that we are having,” Meadows added, referring to ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s appearance originally planned for next month. A spokesman for Cohen announced on Wednesday that he was postponing his testimony because of “ongoing threats against his family” from Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, though some Democratic lawmakers are discussing whether to compel Cohen to testify with a subpoena.
While Meadows has earned a reputation as a conservative bomb-thrower on Capitol Hill, the North Carolina Republican pointed out that he has close relationships with lawmakers across the aisle. In addition to Khanna, Meadows enjoys a good relationship with Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).
Meadows said he hopes that things don’t get heated on a personal level in the committee. But Meadows, one of Trump’s designated “warriors,” also warned that he is not afraid to stick up for his beliefs.
“I’m not shy about calling that out,” Meadows said.
There was a high level of interest in joining the Oversight panel, according to Democratic sources. The Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over everything from impeachment to gun policy, is typically seen as a bigger prize for lawmakers. But with Democrats promising to launch a slew of new investigations, a spot on the Oversight Committee suddenly became even more coveted.
Democrats say they aren’t interested in simply scoring political points, but that the GOP-controlled House neglected to probe myriad issues of impropriety under Trump, instead focusing on trying to find evidence of anti-Trump bias within the FBI and Justice Department.
“[The new members] will be able to model some behavior for our Republican colleagues, who have utterly failed to conduct oversight over the last two years,” said Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), a member of Democratic leadership.
Ocasio-Cortez won a spot on Oversight even though she was already named to the Financial Services Committee, an exclusive panel. But after she told leaders that she was interested in a spot on the Oversight Committee, she was granted a waiver that allows her to serve on both.
Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview that she talked with Cummings about “some of the most pressing and concerning issues in the administration,” adding, “That’s really what we were focusing on and less the political dynamic.”
This post is part ofHard Refresh, a soothing weekly column where we try to cleanse your brain of whatever terrible thing you just witnessed on Twitter.
If power-washing porn is your cup of tea, then historic painting conservation is going to be your new relaxation destination.
When I need to unwind, I turn to the highly educational and surprisingly calming YouTube genre, popularized online by conservationist Julian Baumgartner. (Baumgartner is the most popular YouTube conservationist, which is an admittedly small community to begin with.)
This is the video that made me a fan:
In general, we can break painting conservation into a few major steps. The process varies depending on the extent of the damage and the piece’s needs, but Baumgartner usually follows the same playbook.
First he evaluates the painting’s condition and what type of paint the artist used, so he can be sure chemicals won’t harm the original work. After that, he often needs to remount the painting onto a new canvas or surface to ensure the painting is strong enough to be handled. Next comes the cleaning process, where layers of dirt and buildup are oh-so-satisfyingly removed. Finally, retouching: parts of the work that are lost or damaged are repainted.
Baumgartner mixes chemicals and solvents to take off the mixture of varnish and grime that has accumulated — sometimes hundreds of years. It’s a delicate process that is both disgusting and immensely gratifying.
In the video below, Baumgartner is tasked with removing an oil painting on paper from the piece of wood to which it’s adhered. He chisels all the wood away until just a thin layer is left, then removes that layer using a scalpel. It’s a bit like watching a surgery, but with none of the gross bits for people who are squeamish.
Baumgartner also narrates quite a few of his videos. His voice is even and mellow, which suits the steady pacing. It’s also nice to know exactly what’s going into the process — especially one that’s so unfamiliar to most people.
Most of the videos don’t stick to the same auditory scheme either. Some of his videos are borderline ASMR, in which the sounds of the cleaning, repairing, and painting are front and center. Like in this video:
In some videos, he takes the musical approach, pairing his work with classical compositions. Personally, I find this method to be so soothing that I’ve nearly fallen asleep to it. If that sounds up your alley, check this video out:
At this point, I’ve spent several hours watching these videos and frankly, I’ve learned a lot. I now know the importance of reversible paints (so future conservators can take off the past conservation jobs without harming the original painting), and that B72 resin is paramount for stabilizing wood and other surfaces the paint sits on.
And I’m clearly not the only one who’s a fan. In December of last year, Baumgartner won a YouTube Creator’s Silver Award for surpassing 100,000 subscribers, and in true conservationist and YouTuber fashion, he made an unboxing video.
While these videos are very pleasing and will make you feel like an expert, just remember that Baumgartner is a professional. Please don’t try these methods on your own priceless antique paintings (that you have). The chemicals used are very dangerous and you would likely turn your paintings into mush without the proper training.
Xiaomi president Bin Lin has confirmed the rumors that the company is working on “the world’s first double-folding phone” by sharing a video of himself demoing the device. In his Weibo post, Bin Lin mentioned that Xiaomi will consider mass producing the device if consumers give positive feedback, but he is already crowdsourcing potential names for it.
Nowitzki was the three-point champion during All-Star Weekend in 2006, defeating Ray Allen and Gilbert Arenas in the final round.
Nowitzki has appeared in 16 games this year and is shooting just 26.1 percent from beyond the arc. He had ankle surgery last April, which not only kept him out for Dallas’ first 26 games but is also clearly impacting his performance.
Nowitzki was a 40.9 percent three-point shooter in 2017-18 before his ankle injury forced him out of action.
His invitation is almost certainly a way for the league to honor the 40-year-old before he retires. Nowitzki is11thall-time in made threes (1,930) and will be remembered as the best shooting big man in NBA history.
Given both his age anddesire to avoida yearlong farewell tour, the 2018-19 season could be Nowitzki’s last in the NBA. Should that be the case, All-Star Weekend would provide fans with one more chance to enjoy Nowitzki on a big stage.
Since Nowitzki can still receive consideration for the Three-Point Contest into his 21st season, maybe the doorisn’t completely closedon LeBron James finally getting into the Slam Dunk Contest.
Palestinians and activists have attempted to block a newly opened road in the occupied West Bank dubbed “apartheid road”.
Dozens of protesters on Wednesday temporarily sealed the gates to the first operational section of the eastern ring road around Jerusalem.
It has two separate lanes divided by an eight-metre-high concrete wall – one for Palestinians who reside in the West Bank, and the other for residents of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Two protesters have been arrested, and four others suffered injuries as Israeli forces attempted to reopen the road, local media reported.
For Palestinians, who cannot access Jerusalem without hard-to-obtain permits from the Israeli military, the road is designed to lead them to an underpass that would eventually lead to the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem – without having to drive through Jerusalem.
For Israeli settlers, the road has granted them quicker and easier access to and from the city.
Two protesters have been arrested, and four others suffered injuries [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu]
The road runs northeast of Jerusalem past the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar and the Maale Adumim settlement, in an area known as E-1.
Israel has planned to annex E-1 and develop the land for as part of the “Greater Jerusalem” plan to redraw the borders of the city. Expanding Jerusalem further east would create space for settlement expansion and would connect Maale Adumim to the city.
The annexation of E-1 would also displace thousands of Palestinians living in towns and villages in the area.
In a statement issued last week upon the road’s opening, Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), said its creation “affirms Israel’s willful intent to entrench its racist colonial regime and superimpose ‘Greater Israel’ on all of historic Palestine.”
“With the blanket support of the current US administration, including endorsement of Israel’s egregious violations and total disdain for international law and the global consensus, Israel is successfully destroying the territorial contiguity and territorial integrity the West Bank [including East Jerusalem] to enhance its colonial settlement enterprise and facilitate the creation of Bantustans throughout occupied Palestine,” she said.
Ashrawi called on the international community, including the European Union, “to confront these glaring manifestations of colonial racism and hold Israel accountable for its unlawful unilateralism and war crimes with effective concrete measures, including sanctions”.
Israel occupied and annexed East Jerusalem in the aftermath of the June 1967 War, in a move that was never recognised by the international community.
Since, Israel has built more than a dozen settlements for Jewish Israelis in the eastern half of the city, some in the middle of Palestinian neighbourhoods.
About 200,000 Israeli citizens live in East Jerusalem under army and police protection, with the largest single settlement complex housing 44,000 Israelis.
Daily Trends Hunter 