LFI would like to express its huge thanks to Peter Lerner, International Director General of Histadrut, the Israeli TUC, for taking the time to speak at our event with BITUD on Wednesday 12 May. Peter discussed the response to the Covid crisis by Israeli trade unions, as well as his reflections on the ongoing situation[…]
The Islamist Ra’am party announced on Monday that it was suspending coalition talks with the anti-Netanyahu “change bloc” in the wake of Hamas rocket fire from Gaza. The move represents a potentially major blow to the hopes for an anti-Netanyahu government, which began last week when the prime minister’s mandate expired after he failed to[…]
A number of potential presidential candidates in Iran have emerged out of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), raising concerns regarding the further militarisation of the country’s politics. Hopefuls have until Saturday to formally register their status as a candidate ahead of the election on 18 June. Their names will then be handed to the[…]
Israeli and Lebanese negotiators have restarted talks over disputed offshore gas reserves in the Mediterranean sea. Previous talks over the maritime border dispute collapsed in October 2020 following an attempt by Beirut to extend its claims deep into what Israel considers its exclusive economic zone. Israel pushed back in November, with energy minister Yuval Steinitz[…]
US president Joe Biden has expressed his support for the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Arab countries and Israel that has developed out of last year’s Abraham Accords. In a phone call with the UAE’s crown prince Mohamad bin Zayed Al Nahyen on Tuesday, Biden “underlined the strategic importance of the normalisation of relations between[…]
Benjamin Netanyahu’s mandate to form a coalition government following Israel’s March general election expired on Tuesday night. After 28 days of negotiations, Netanyahu announced that he had failed to persuade enough other parties to join a government led by his Likud party. Netanyahu’s efforts ultimately failed when Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism[…]
Israel experienced its worst ever civilian disaster last week, when a stampede at Mount Meron in the northern Galilee led to the deaths of at least 45 people. More than 100,000 people, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews, gathered at the annual Lag B’Omer celebrations, which include visits to the gravesite of the second century rabbi Shimon Bar[…]
LFI and BITUD invites you to us in conversation with Peter Lerner. 12 May 2021, 7pm via Zoom. The last year has seen a crisis for workers that is truly global. This webinar will hear from the Histadrut’s (Israeli TUC) International Director General, Peter Lerner, to talk about the response to the Covid crisis by[…]
Labour candidate and incumbent London mayoral Sadiq Khan spoke about his friendship and partnership with Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai this week, at a London mayoral Jewish community hustings organised by the Jewish London Forum, Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies. He talked about how he had worked with Huldai on the vaccine[…]
LFI vice-chair Rosie Cooper today pushed Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa James Cleverly on potential UK membership of the international board of the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. “It is now five months since the US Congress passed a $250 million Act to create the international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace,[…]
General Secretary of the UK Labour Party, David Evans, has met with his counterpart, Eran Harmoni, Secretary General of the Israeli Labor Party. LFI Chair Steve McCabe MP joined the meeting. It was the first meeting between the two General Secretaries of the sister parties in over four years, and the first formal meeting between[…]
Labour Friends of Israel vice-chair Rosie Cooper MP has written for LabourList. Click here to read the original. UK Labour can learn from the example of Merav Michaeli, new leader of Israel’s Labor Party The challenges facing Israel’s Labor Party will sound all too familiar to all of us; at successive elections, its support has slumped[…]