Huffpost UK, the Guardian, the Mirror and the Daily Mail via PA report on the ongoing issue of Jeremy Corbyn’s membership of a controversial private Facebook group about Palestine. He yesterday denied ever seeing antisemitic posts. Labour is investigating after claims of abusive messages about Jews were exchanged on the forum and Labour has suspended several party members who posted in the closed Facebook group. Corbyn said he was signed up to the group without his knowledge but later exchanged messages on it. Campaigners against antisemitism have said Labour’s response to Corbyn’s participation in a Facebook group hosting antisemitic material is “totally inadequate”. Euan Philipps, spokesperson for Labour Against antisemitism said the Labour leader had “serious questions to answer” and called for an independent investigation. “The evidence proves Jeremy Corbyn was an active member of the Palestine Live network from 2013 up to and beyond his leadership election victory in 2015,” he added.

The Daily Mail via AP reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opened an exhibition at the UN on Jerusalem to reinforce Israel’s claim to the historic city as the Jewish people’s “eternal capital”. Netanyahu’s UN visit on Thursday followed US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December. The UN General Assembly voted soon after that denouncing Trump’s announcement and declaring it “null and void”. The exhibition traces Jews in Jerusalem back centuries before the Christian era.

The Independent reports that Palestinians and human rights activists have reacted with anger to the passing of a controversial “breach of loyalty” Bill in the Israeli Knesset, which will allow the authorities to strip Arabs living in Jerusalem of their right to live there. Residency documents belonging to any Palestinian deemed to be a threat to the state can be seized by the Ministry of the Interior under the new measures, which went to a vote on Wednesday. An amendment to the Bill, which was first proposed in September, also means the Supreme Court will be unable to challenge any interior ministry rulings.

Politico Europe has published an interview with Naftali Bennet, leader of the Jewish Home party. Bennet said: “After the era of Netanyahu, I intend to be the prime minister of Israel.” He further acknowledged that he’d need to broaden his party’s appeal, to “revamp” it and “open it up” well beyond its current base of hard-line pro-settlement Orthodox supporters before he could become a national leader. In another interview this week he said he’d be open to remaining in a Netanyahu Cabinet, albeit with the more prestigious and powerful Defence Ministry portfolio.

The Independent has reported that a bill to decriminalise cannabis use passed was unanimously in its first reading in Israel‘s parliament. The proposal would mean those caught smoking marijuana would be fined rather than arrested and prosecuted. First-time offenders would be fined 1,000 shekels (£209), second-time offenders fined double and those caught a third time would face a “probation” period.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that Israeli lawmakers have passed a controversial bill allowing police to hold the corpses of alleged Palestinian assailants indefinitely, parliament said on Thursday. The act was passed late Wednesday by 48 votes to 10, a Knesset statement said, hours after another measure permitting the interior minister to strip Palestinians in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem of their permanent residency permits “if they are involved in terrorism”.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews protested Thursday in Jerusalem against compulsory military service, clashing with security forces and paralysing traffic by blocking a major road. The demonstrators blocked a major road linking Jerusalem with Tel Aviv before the security forces dispersed them and the artery was reopened, police said in a statement. Thursday’s protest came a day after the arrest of a young man who failed to show up to request an exemption after being conscripted.

The Independent, the Guardian and the Times report on the ongoing visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the UK. UK Prime Minister Theresa May presented the Prince with an antique family tree showing the descent of the al Saud dynasty of the kings of Arabia. Downing Street said the framed document was originally created by Queen Victoria’s consul general in Jeddah in 1880. “The PM thought it would be a nice and appropriate gift to give,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said. May was also expected to press him off-camera on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, according to her spokesperson. The Times reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman yesterday that Saudi Arabia should open up the country to Christian churches and other faiths, allowing them to practice openly. The Guardian has published a brief on “Why Saudi Arabia [is] in Yemen and what does it mean for Britain?” and published interviews with young Saudis in London who “welcome crown prince’s modernising drive”.

The Times, the Guardian and the Telegraph report on the ongoing battle in Eastern Ghouta. Doctors and rescue workers in the besieged Syrian region of eastern Ghouta have said are struggling to cope with another intense bout of what they described as “insane” violence, in which more than 90 people were killed overnight, according to war monitors. The airstrikes and shelling of the enclave near Damascus led to the postponement of aid deliveries to more than 300,000 people under siege, amid military advances by forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

The Israeli media primarily focuses on two issues – the continuing investigations into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ongoing coalition crisis over the Conscription bill for ultra-Orthodox men.

Yediot Ahronot headlines that former Netanyahu media advisor Nir Hefetz has agreed to a meeting with the Prime Minister. This would be an unusual step, and up until now, the police have not had the other state’s witnesses Ari Harow and Shlomo Filber confront the Prime Minister.

Maariv reports comments by Netanyahu, who said: “We’re Under attack, I Will Not Be Silent”. It also writes that Nir Hefetz will complete almost a week of testimony today. “Every day, for several hours, ever since being released to house arrest, the former media adviser and Netanyahu family confidant met with detectives and provided them with documents, recordings, text and written messages. He also provided every detail he knows about the lifestyle of the prime minister and his wife, including Netanyahu’s conduct in the Bezeq merger and in the matter of the Walla website,” the story reported. Maariv also adds that immediately upon Netanyahu’s return from the US, he will be told to schedule a date for another round of questioning, possibly more than one.

Yediot Ahronot reports that Nir Hefetz turning to be a state’s witness has affected the willingness of Likud MK’s to publically support Netanyahu. “If until now they have found it difficult to muster their strength in order to go out and defend the Prime Minister in the media, ever since Nir Hefetz turned state’s witness, the hardship has become a true paralysis.”

The media also focus on the coalition crisis. Yediot Ahronot writes that Sunday is the last day when the new conscription bill can be put to a vote in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, so by tomorrow or Sunday at the latest, Netanyahu will have to decide whether to throw his whole weight behind resolving the draft crisis, or conceding and calling early elections. However, one of the ministers said this week that if the Prime Minister decides to call early elections, he will be doing so out of his own political and personal reasons, not because of the conscription bill crisis. An opinion piece by Yossi Verter in Haaretz claims that Netanyahu prefers elections.

Army Radio reports that Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett said yesterday that should Netanyahu call early elections, he will demand the defence portfolio in the next coalition agreement as a condition to joining the government. “I don’t intend to push Netanyahu out, but if he forms the next government, I definitely intend to demand the defence portfolio. If he goes off the stage, I intend to run for Prime Minister.”

Yediot Ahronot adds that Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said he would object to passing the new conscription bill, even in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, since the bill was not drafted in coordination with the security establishment.