RAMALLAH (WAFA) – The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee on 18 May 2014 approved a new master plan to build a 'national park' on the lands of two Palestinian villages, Al-'Issawiya and At-Tur, in occupied East Jerusalem. The plan will confiscate approximately 700 dunams from the two villages. The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) and the Arab Center for Alternative Planning, in coordination with the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, submitted an objection to the plan in April 2013.

RAMALLAH (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday, during a meeting with visiting President of FIFA Sepp Blatter, that the Israeli government puts obstacles in the way of the Palestinian Football Association’s activities in violation of international law and the laws of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA).

BETHLEHEM (WAFA) – Received in an official ceremony by President Mahmoud Abbas, Pope Francis I of the Catholic Church expressed hopes that peace in the Middle East could soon materialize so as to reach an end to the suffering of thousands of people affected by time-long conflicts in the region.

Francis expressed , in a joint press conference with President Abbas, his desire to advance peace which ‘rests on the acknowledgment by all of the right of two States to exist and to live in peace and security within internationally recognized borders.’

TEL AVIV – (WAFA) – Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli ‘Internal Security’ Ministry decided Thursday to install 500 surveillance cameras in Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.

Ramallah (WAFA) – The Foreign Ministry, in a statement Tuesday, strongly condemned the Israeli government’s policy of administrative detention, without charge or trial, against Palestinian prisoners.