Israeli PM Prevents Gantz from Meeting Jordanian King in Ramallah

Prime Minister Nafatali Bennett (L) and Defense Minister Benny Gantz at a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim airbase in southern Israel, June 24, 2021. (AFP)
Prime Minister Nafatali Bennett (L) and Defense Minister Benny Gantz at a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim airbase in southern Israel, June 24, 2021. (AFP)
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Israeli PM Prevents Gantz from Meeting Jordanian King in Ramallah

Prime Minister Nafatali Bennett (L) and Defense Minister Benny Gantz at a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim airbase in southern Israel, June 24, 2021. (AFP)
Prime Minister Nafatali Bennett (L) and Defense Minister Benny Gantz at a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim airbase in southern Israel, June 24, 2021. (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has barred Defense Minister Benny Gantz from attending a meeting in Ramallah on Monday between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II so as not to divert attention from the Negev summit, a political source in Tel Aviv said.

The foreign ministers of Israel, the United States, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt are scheduled to meet in the Negev Desert on Tuesday.

The meeting is being described as "historic" because it will bring together Arab countries which have normalized relations with Israel.

Media reports said last week that Gantz was due to take part in this week’s Abbas-Abdullah II meeting to discuss efforts to prevent an escalation in violence during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which begins in early April.

However, the sources said Bennett thought that Gantz’s attendance would overshadow the historic meeting with Arab leaders in the Negev desert. Relations between the Israeli officials are already strained.

"The Negev meeting is rare and unique and has never happened before. It is historic and therefore the prime minister wants to guarantee it is not overshadowed by any other event," the same source said.

However, other political sources said Bennett took the decision when he found out about the meeting from an "Arab source" instead of the minister himself, in what he believed was an attempt to undermine his authority.

He feared that the meeting would come up with political statements that are not supported by the right-wing parties in government.

However, despite Bennett’s opposition, political sources in Ramallah said King Abdullah is keen on Gantz attending the meeting.

The sources said Jordanian Prime Minister Ayman al-Safadi might attend the Negev Summit on condition that his Palestinian counterpart, Riad al-Maliki, join too.

"This proposal is not welcomed by Bennett who does not want to bring the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict back to the forefront," the sources added.



Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
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Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP

In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town's main Christian communities -- Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican --- and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

"The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children," said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

"There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it," the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zabadeh's Anglican church was busy in the runup to Easter but across the West Bank Christian communities have been in sharp decline as people emigrate in search of a better life abroad.

Zabadeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

"It led to a lot of people to think: 'Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?'" said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

"Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?"

- 'Existential threat' -

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and in recent months far-right ministers in its coalition government have called for the annexation of swathes of the territory.

Kasabreh said this "existential threat" was compounded by constant "depression" at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel's response to Hamas's October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Work has been hard to find for Zababdeh's mainly Christian residents since Israel rescinded Palestinian work permits following the October 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor's office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

"Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war," said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. "Nobody knows what will happen".

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fuelling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

"People can't stay without work and life isn't easy," said 60-year-old maths teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

"For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It's a reality, not a call for emigration," he said.

"But I´m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

"And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad -- one in Germany, the other two in the United States."

Catholic priest Father Elias Tabban insists the hard times his congregation has been going though have deepened their faith.

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation's spirituality had never been so vibrant.

"Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that's when) you see the faith is growing," Tabban said.