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Media Summary

Erez border with Gaza to re-open

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The i reports an announcement yesterday by Israel’s Defence Ministry that the Erez border crossing with the Gaza Strip will be re-opened, having been closed to traffic for the past eight years. The re-opening will increase the commercial vehicles and number of goods entering Gaza and will decrease the pressure on the Kerem Shalom crossing at which hundreds of trucks continue to enter Gaza daily from Israel. The re-opening of the Erez crossing is one of the terms of the ceasefire which brought an end to Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

The Independent online says that both Israeli and German officials have denied claims in the German daily Der Spiegel that the German government is reconsidering its staunch support for Israel.

The Guardian online reports that Israel’s military has ordered that Palestinian journalist Omar Nazzal should be held under administrative detention for four months over “unlawful activity” for the terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The latest developments in the claims of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party are widely covered this morning. The Telegraph, Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Express, i, The New Day, Daily Mirror and Sun all report that three Labour councillors were suspended by the party pending investigation. Two called for Israeli Jews to be relocated to the United States, while one claimed that Israel was behind terror attacks carried out by ISIS.

An editorial in the Telegraph says that Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is in “disgraceful denial” over the anti-Semitism in his party and that his leadership has seen Labour “become a party where bigots feel at home.” Meanwhile, in the Times, Melanie Phillips says that the demonisation of Israel by much of the left cannot be isolated from anti-Semitism, saying that “Hatred of Israel and Jews cannot be separated.”

Meanwhile, the online editions of the Guardian and Independent both report on US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Geneva, in order to salvage the tentative process towards a ceasefire in Syria. They report that Kerry announced “several proposals” are being considered to restore the partial truce and reduce the violence in Aleppo. The Times online covers a Sky News report, which claims that the Assad regime and ISIS have been cooperating over oil revenues and to an extent on the battlefield.

In the Israeli media, Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Israel Hayom prominently report a stabbing last night in Jerusalem’s Old City, which saw a 60-year-old Israeli man moderately wounded. The area has been a particular focus of often deadly attacks during the wave of violence which has killed at least 31 Israelis since October, although the Old City has been relatively quiet in recent weeks. Israel Radio news says that an 18-year-old Palestinian male from the West Bank was arrested last night and admitted to the knife attack.

Maariv includes a report in which several MKs from across the political spectrum have criticised the Labour Party for the apparent anti-Semitism within its ranks. Zionist Union MK Nachman Shai has called for Israel’s Labor Party to freeze ties with their UK counterpart, while there is also condemnation from Yesh Atid’s Meir Cohen and Likud’s Oren Hazan.

Meanwhile, Yediot Ahronot reports condemnation from several political leaders over Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s suggestion that all Israeli laws should be applied to residents of West Bank settlements. Senior Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni said that Jewish Home Minister Shaked’s suggestion would inevitably lead to a bi-national state. The initiative was also sharply condemned by Meretz leader Zehava Galon and the report says that Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu Party has made clear that a bill to such an effect by Shaked has “no real chance of passing.”