Benjamin Netanyahu

UNSC to soon discuss Palestinian request

NEW YORK -- The UN Security Council will decide on the request for recognition of a Palestinian state at the end of the year, said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

A draft resolution on ending the Israeli occupation will be submitted to the UN Security Council Dec. 17 after the Palestinians agreed with France on a merged text, foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said.
      
"The draft that will be presented today (Wednesday) is the French draft based on Palestinian observations and decisions," Malki told AFP.
      

 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Dec. 16 the United States had made "no determinations" about any possible U.N. Security Council resolutions on Palestinian statehood.
   

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday angrily rejected a Palestinian bid to set a UN deadline for an end to Israel's occupation amid a flurry of talks led by US top diplomat John Kerry.
      
"We will not accept attempts to dictate to us unilateral moves on a limited timetable," the Israeli leader said before arriving in Italy.
      

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Dec. 14 rejected talk of Israel withdrawing from east Jerusalem and the West Bank within two years, on the eve of a meeting with the top US diplomat.
      
"We... stand against the possibility of a diplomatic assault, that is an attempt to compel us by means of UN decisions to withdraw to the 1967 lines within two years," said Netanyahu.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Athens, it emerged on Saturday.

Nobody was hurt in the predawn raid on Friday, when more than 50 shots were fired from Kalashnikov assault rifles at the building near central Athens.

A Palestinian threw acid at a family of Israelis who gave him a ride in their car in the West Bank on Dec. 12 before being shot and wounded, the army said.
      
"A vehicle carrying a family with four girls picked up a hitchhiker" near a checkpoint outside Bethlehem and close to the Gush Etzion settlement area, the army said in a statement.
      

Israel is to hold a snap election on March 17, the parliament's spokesman said Dec. 3, following a crisis within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fractious coalition government.

The Palestinian leadership urged France to act on a parliamentary vote Dec. 2 in favour of recognising Palestine as a state, expressing its "gratitude" to the French lawmakers.

"We call on the French government to translate its parliament's vote into action," Hanan Ashrawi, a senior leader in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said in a statement.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced he wants early elections as soon as possible after dismissing two rebellious cabinet ministers. 

A statement from Netanyahu's office said: "The prime minister plans to call for parliament's dissolution as soon as possible and to go to the people and get a clear mandate to lead Israel."