Egyptian President, German FM Discuss Cooperation, Regional Issues

 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi holding talks with German Foreign Minister in Cairo on Saturday, February 12, 2022. (Egyptian Presidency)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi holding talks with German Foreign Minister in Cairo on Saturday, February 12, 2022. (Egyptian Presidency)
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Egyptian President, German FM Discuss Cooperation, Regional Issues

 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi holding talks with German Foreign Minister in Cairo on Saturday, February 12, 2022. (Egyptian Presidency)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi holding talks with German Foreign Minister in Cairo on Saturday, February 12, 2022. (Egyptian Presidency)

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi on Saturday held talks with visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to discuss bilateral cooperation and regional issues.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and German ambassador to Cairo Frank Hartmann also attended the meeting.

Baerbock commended Egypt’s role in providing humanitarian and relief aid to millions of refugees, integrating them into the society and offering them all their basic rights.

She further hailed its success in consolidating the principles of freedom of worship, religious tolerance and acceptance of the other.

Presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said Sisi underlined the importance Egypt attaches to its close ties with Germany, and efforts to bolster bilateral cooperation and mutual interests in various fields.

"Cairo looks forward to continue this cooperation based on mutual respect and balanced partnership," Rady quoted Sisi as saying.

Baerbock also stressed the German government’s keenness to bolster and develop the existing partnership between the two countries at various levels.

The two leaders also agreed to join efforts to implement the decisions emanating from the Berlin Conference on Libya to settle the situation in the war-torn country in a comprehensive and integrated manner.



Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways.

The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial.

Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7.

Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked.

“All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell.