14/09/2025

theSun on Sunday SEPT 14, 2025

WORLD 8

Israel rejects declaration on two-state solution

Suspect in shooting of activist caught OREM: The widow of prominent right wing activist Charlie Kirk pledged on Friday to carry on her husband’s work, after US authorities announced a suspect has been captured. Investigators had

appeared to be making slow progress in the hunt for the suspect, until they released security camera images of a young man. “We got him,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox told a press conference early on Friday,

NEW YORK: Israel on Friday rejected the UN General Assembly endorsement of a declaration outlining steps towards a two-state solution. “Once again, it has been proven how much the General Assembly is a political circus detached from reality. In the dozens of clauses of the declaration, there is not a single mention that Hamas is an organisation,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said on X. The resolution seeks to breathe new life into the two-state solution without the involvement of Hamas. The text was adopted by 142 votes in favour, 10 against – including Israel and key ally the United States – and 12 abstentions. It clearly condemns Hamas and demands that it surrender its weapons. Although Israel has criticised UN bodies for nearly two years over their failure to condemn the attack on Oct 7, 2023, the declaration, presented by France and Saudi Arabia, leaves 50 killed in Gaza City “We’re more than our struggle and pain,” she said in Dubai, where she is preparing to raise the Palestinian flag at the pageant in Thailand in November. “Our people need a voice and we don’t want our identity to be erased.” Nadeen said she wanted to showcase her homeland’s rich heritage and beauty, to humanise a people long reduced to just their suffering. Palestinians are also “children who want to live, women who have dreams and aspirations,” said the beauty queen. Nadeen lives between Ramallah, Amman and Dubai – where she founded an organisation that trains content creators on sustainability and artificial intelligence. She grew up in the occupied West Bank, the United States and Canada. After earning degrees in English literature and psychology, she went on to teach and work for NGOs in the occupied territories. “My parents are academics and they always told me to focus on my studies.” But after modelling at a show in Italy, people working in the industry encouraged her to look into competing in pageants, so she launched a Miss Palestine franchise. In 2022, the first Miss Palestine pageant was held online to allow for Palestinians scattered abroad, in Israel and in the territories to take part. As its first winner, Nadeen has worked on the organisation’s philanthropic activities and competed in Miss Earth in 2022. But since the Gaza war erupted, she has not participated in any beauty pageants. Nadeen said she would take any opportunity to speak out for her people. “We must be present on every stage. Every single opportunity that we have to talk about Palestine, to show Palestine, we must take it.” – AFP

saying the resolution “expresses international willingness to support our people’s rights and constitutes an important step towards ending the occupation and achieving our independent state.” The vote precedes an upcoming UN summit co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris on Sept 22 in New York, in which French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to formally recognise the Palestinian state. Israeli military operations killed 50 people in Gaza on Friday, the territory’s civil defence agency said, as the army stepped up its attacks on Gaza City. In Berlin, Germany, Britain and France called for an “immediate” halt to the military offensive and condemned Israel’s recent strike in Qatar. Foreign ministers of the three European powers said in a joint statement that “the focus must remain on reaching a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and flooding Gaza with aid to stop the famine”. The statement said Israel’s strike “violate Qatar’s sovereignty and risk further escalation”. – Reuters/AFP

no ambiguity. Formally called the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, the text states that “Hamas must free all hostages”. It also calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution.” The declaration, which was already endorsed by the Arab League and co-signed in July by 17 UN member states, including several Arab countries, also seeks to fully exclude Hamas from leadership in Gaza. “In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” the declaration states. Palestinian vice-president Hussein al-Sheikh welcomed the decision,

identifying the suspect as Tyler Robinson (pic) , 22, who had reportedly been confronted by his father over the pictures and then turned in. The 31-year-old Kirk was hit by a single bullet while addressing a large crowd at Utah Valley University in the town of Orem on Wednesday. A heartbroken Erika Kirk on Friday mourned the loss of “the perfect father ... the perfect husband”. Kirk’s murder has consumed America for the past three days, capturing almost all cable news coverage, while Trump has ordered flags to fly at half-mast. Speculation swirled over markings that Cox said were found on unused bullet casings in the weapon Robinson is believed to have used. One cartridge had “Hey, fascist! Catch!” written on it, while another featured “Bella ciao”, a World War II-era Italian anti-fascist song that reports said had recently been repurposed in niche online circles. Other cartridges were marked with symbols and wording that appeared to be from online gaming culture. Authorities took 33 hours to make the arrest. FBI director Kash Patel said the arrest was finally made on Thursday night. Robinson was being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, and was expected to be formally charged in the coming days. Utah has the death penalty for such crimes. – AFP ISTANBUL: A Turkish prosecutor ordered the detention of 48 suspects, including the mayor of Istanbul’s opposition-run Bayrampasa district, as part of a corruption investigation, state broadcaster TRT Haber said yesterday. Police carried out early morning raids at 72 locations to seize documents and detain suspects on charges that include embezzlement, bribery and tender rigging, according to TRT Haber. In a post on X, Bayrampasa Mayor Hasan Mutlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said he had nothing to hide and called the investigation “a political operation based on unfounded slander”. The detentions come amid a nearly year-long crackdown on the CHP and CHP-run municipalities, in which hundreds of party members have been arrested and jailed. A court ruling tomorrow could remove the leader of the CHP in a case widely seen as a test of the country’s fragile balance between democratic institutions and centralised power, increasing the legal pressure on the party. – Reuters Istanbul district mayor detained

Miss Palestine to compete on global stage DUBAI: Nadeen Ayoub, the first Palestinian to compete in Miss Universe, will step onto the stage at the height of one of the most harrowing periods in her people’s history, determined to show they are more than headlines of war.

Nadeen uses every opportunity to talk about Palestine. – AFPPIC