The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Israeli

  • All you need to know about Hamas, Israel-Palestine conflict

    All you need to know about Hamas, Israel-Palestine conflict

    Hamas has a host of leadership bodies that perform various political, military, and social functions. General policy is set by an overarching consultative body, often called the politburo, which operates in exile. Local committees manage grassroots issues in Gaza and the West Bank.

    Hamas fired rockets and mortars into Israel since the group took over the Gaza Strip in the mid- 2000s. Hamas gained the ability to build its own missiles after training with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and proxies.

    In October 2023, Hamas launched a massive surprise attack on southern Israel, killing hundreds of civilians and soldiers and taking dozens more as hostages.

    Israel declared war on the group in response and indicated its military is planning for a long campaign to defeat it. On several occasions this year, hundreds of Israeli forces carried out military raids in the Palestinian city of Jenin.

    In January, a Palestinian man killed seven people outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem.

    After a spate of terrorist attacks in Israeli cities in 2022, Israeli forces killed at least 166 Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

    Historical region of Palestine

    To understand the history of the conflict, we first need to understand Palestine. Before 1948, Palestine was a geographical region located in the Eastern Mediterranean, bordered by modern-day Israel, Jordan and Lebanon.

    It was home to a diverse population of Arabs, Jews, and Christians – as all groups had strong religious ties to the area, especially the biblical city of Jerusalem.

    In 1947, the United Nations (UN) voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab States and for Jerusalem to become an international city.

    In 1948, British leaders ceased trying to solve the conflict and Jewish leaders declared the creation of the State of Israel. This marked the end of the British rule in Palestine.

    Many Palestinians objected to the creation of Israel and a war ensued. By the time the fighting ended, Israel controlled most of the territory – and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been driven from their homes in what they call Al Nakba, or “The Catastrophe”.

    There was never any peace agreement which means that more tension, disputes, and wars have continued over the following decades.

    The area formerly known as Palestine is divided into three parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River), and the Gaza Strip.

    What’s Gaza Strip?

    The Gaza Strip is central to the current ‘war’ as it is from where Hamas entered Israel early on Saturday (7 October) and has long been a contested territory.

    The air space over Gaza is controlled by Israel, which also restricts who and what goods are allowed in and out through its borders.

    However, Gaza is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority and the Strip itself is governed by Hamas.

    Hamas and Israel have engaged in several wars over the years, with Hamas repeatedly firing deadly rockets at Israel – and Israel also consistently attacking Hamas with air strikes. Together, with Egypt, Israel has also blockaded the Gaza Strip since 2007, which it says is necessary for security.
    Timeline of conflict-related activities:

    In May 2021, the Israeli police raided Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third-holiest site in Islam, which set off an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas that killed more than 200 Palestinians and more than 10 Israelis.

    In 2018, at least 170 Palestinians were killed as Israel responded to protests along the barrier fence that separates Gaza and Israel.

    In 2014, Hamas kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers, prompting attacks from Israel, and rocket launches from Gaza, in a conflict that killed more than 1,881 Palestinians and more than 60 Israelis.

    Read Also: Israeli at war only with Hamas, says envoy

    In November 2012, Israel killed Ahmed al-Jabari, Hamas’s military chief, setting off more than a week of an exchange of fire in which more than 150 Palestinians and at least six Israelis are killed.

    In January 2009, Israel and Palestinian groups declared unilateral cease-fires, then Israel withdrew from Gaza, and redeployed to the strip’s perimeter.

    In response to rocket fire from Gaza, Israel launched an attack on Hamas targets in December 2008 that killed 200 Palestinians. Shortly after, they opened a ground war against Hamas. In total, 1,200 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

    In January 2006, about a year after the death of the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, the co-founder of the paramilitary organization Fatah, Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary election. One year later, Hamas seized control of Gaza, routing the Fatah forces.

    Beyond the current situation, experts believe what’s now a fight between Israel and Hamas has the potential to turn into a wider war, convulsing a region that hosts many rivalries.

  • Israeli startup aims to save the planet from thirst using algae

    Imagine if showering was a luxury, washing your floors a dirty secret, and shampooing the dog was illegal. It isn’t unthinkable that within our lifetimes, bath will be a dirty word as the world grows ever shorter of water — to drink, to wash and crucially, to irrigate crops. Enter the Israeli startup Aqwind, which has taken the lowest life-forms in the world, bacteria and algae, and harnessed them to a low-cost way to clean dirty water enough for irrigation.

    Manure is great as fertilizer, but irrigating with raw human sewage will just produce fruit & veg chock full of goodness, and intestinal bacteria, parasites, and viruses.

    On the other hand, using post-treatment sewage is fine for crops. The question is how to clean the sewage affordably and sustainably, producing water fit for farming and without merely concentrating the toxins and dumping them.

    Aqwind does exactly that, by taking natural processes and engineering them, explains its CEO and founder, Udi Leshem. “Natural systems can’t cope with concentrated sewage. We imitate the natural systems,” he says.

    As algae do

    Like Aqwind, other water treatment plants rely on bacteria to break down the organic matter in our sewage and are energy-heavy. But they need large amounts of energy to oxygenate the water for the bacteria to breathe.

    Aqwind, formerly known as Aquanos, added algae to the equation. Algae, as other plants do, breathe in carbon dioxide during the day and breathe out oxygen. Thus Aqwind reduced the energy requirement in water treatment by 70% to 90%, it explains.

    Is the energy used to oxygenate water for bacteria to eat sewage really a global problem? It is. “Treating sewage is responsible for around 4% of total electricity usage in the United States,” Leshem says. “Generating the oxygen for the bacteria to breathe is responsible for a quarter to half of that.”

    And then there are the countries dumping sewage right into the sea, partly because they simply can’t afford to build all the wastewater plants they need.

    Not only that: the algae system is a net generator of energy. The system also produces methane, which can be used for power generation, explains Leshem, adding that existing wastewater treatment plants can be retrofitted to use the Aquanos algal system.

    The Aqwind system only uses about 50% of the electricity needed by the most efficient treatment plants; compared with inefficient ones, it saves around 90%, Leshem says – making it suitable for low-income countries.

    Could the system be matched with renewable energy resources such as solar panels? Theoretically yes, but it’s a hair complicated; or the methane could be used to make electricity, Leshem suggests.

    In any case the energy solution has to be adapted to the system size served by the Aqwind system, which can run from a system for a single home to a city of say a million people, Leshem says.

    The beautiful circle of breathing

    How does it work? The first microbeings unleashed on our waste are anaerobic bacteria, which start the process of breaking down the organic material, and also produce the methane, which can be collected and sold.

    The algae come in en route to the second bacterial stage: breakdown by aerobic bacteria, who work on the waste while breathing oxygen produced by the algae. Which are breathing the carbon dioxide breathed out by the bacteria. It’s a beautiful circle.

    The product of this process is water clean enough for agriculture, but isn’t recommended for drinking.

    So far the company has sold 25 systems, one in California and the rest in Israel.

    Some aren’t necessarily what had been originally envisioned. The American project involves cows. A lot of cows, which are notoriously adding to GHG emissions with their various eructations. Aqwind’s systems are cleaning the water but to capture the methane emitted by the tons and tons and tons of cow output. No, that isn’t why they renamed the company Aqwind.

    Asked how this project had reached the little Israeli company, Leshem says simply, “Oh, they called us by phone one day, said they hadn’t found a solution anywhere else in this world.”

    The company also has a special project with Israel’s national water company Mekorot, to clean desalination output.

    The water systems output would be clean enough to drink if people weren’t so fussy, in theory, but some cringe at the thought of drinking treated toilet water. And to be fair to the fastidious among us, the company stresses that even with the best-controlled treatment systems, there is risk that despite all that loving microbial attention, the treated water will have traces of heavy metals, pathogens or something else that we don’t want to imbibe. And some bacteria. And that is why Aqwind system can relieve the pressure on fresh water, leaving more for us to drink, without you innocently going to the store and seeing recycled plastic bottles on shelves bearing the legend “From toilet to toi!”

    This article is being published as part of Earth Beats, an international and collaborative initiative gathering 18 news media outlets from around the world to focus on solutions to waste and pollution.

     

  • Donald Trump, Israeli’s friend or foe?

    Donald Trump, Israeli’s friend or foe?

    With friends like the 45th President of United States of America, Donald Trump, Israel possibly needs not worry about the danger posed by Hamas – the Palestinian resistance movement. Gaza is firmly under the heels of Hamas which unapologetically remains hard put to recognize the state of Israel. Last Wednesday, December 6, President Donald Trump acted true to character as a renegade President of US to unilaterally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. He even dared to announce the relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem!

    Of course there is already a bagful of his renegade policies; repeal of Obamacare, renege on Climate treaty, reversal of the deal with Iran, reversal of Cuba-America detente, ad infinitum! No country parades such a president mid-way in the first term! True to expectation, amidst global outrage which trails Trump’s diplomatic provocation, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya declared the US decision on Jerusalem as “war declaration against Palestinians”. He called for a new “Intifada”, an uprising.

    The critical question begging for an answer is what manner of a friend of Israel is Trump, who through sheer political brigandage pushes Israel back to the brink of intifada (a Palestinian insurgency manifesting in series of violent acts and attacks against the Israeli occupation lasting from December 1987 to 2014 in which both the Palestinians and Israelis buried their dead)?  A received African wisdom has it that “a close friend can become a close enemy”! With friends like Trump, Israel does not need to worry about Hamas leader Ismail Haniya. This is another paradox of Middle East’s intractable conflicts; both the enemies and so-called friends of Israel achieve same goal: keeping the state of Israel in perpetual war of attrition!

    Reading through the 1250 plus word counts of President Donald Trump recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel reminds me of the opening sentence by Simon Seberg Montefiore in his preface to his best-selling “Speeches that Changed the World” (2005). According to Simon, a “great speech does not just capture the truth of the era; it can also capture the big lie”. President Donald Trump’s speech is comparable to Adolf Hitler’s demagoguery of September 1938. According to Donald Trump, his predecessors had invoked “waivers” refusing to move the US embassy to Jerusalem or to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city. Apparently, Trump did not invent the idea of Jerusalem as the Israel’s capital after all, contrary to his verbal appropriation and empty grandstanding. Why should Trump then be “holier than the Pope”, even when we have just witnessed many devilish details (tear gas, stone-throwing, shootings and killings!) in the aftermath of his unthinking self-serving diplomatic adventure?

    Former American presidents correctly set their eyes on peace in a war-torn region. This explained their measured discretion in applying the controversial 1995 American Jerusalem Embassy Act. It is tragi-comedy that a trigger happy President Trump bent on diverting attention from his domestic woes needs a diplomatic blunder to prove his “courage”!

    Elie Wiesel, a celebrated writer and Jew survivor of Nazi Germany had long warned us about the “perils of indifference”. It is refreshing the world had risen in unison to condemn President Trump for reinventing violence in Jerusalem and almost putting on hold the peace process in the Middle East.  According to Pope Francis, Jerusalem’s status should be preserved and needless conflict avoided. At his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Pope Francis observed with “…a heartfelt appeal to ensure that everyone is committed to respecting the status quo of the city, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.”

    “Jerusalem is a unique city,” he added, “is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, where the Holy Places for the respective religions are venerated, and it has a special vocation to peace.”

    To Secretary General of United Nations, Antonio Guterres, “Jerusalem is a final-status issue that must be resolved through direct negotiations between the two parties on the basis of the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, taking into account the legitimate concerns of both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides”. “In this moment of great anxiety, I want to make it clear: There is no alternative to the two-state solution,” he said. “There is no Plan B.”!

    Only Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who hopes to politically profit from domestic Palestinian red-hearing, (just like Trump!) hailed Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Most peace loving Israelis are not as excited as Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump. For instance, notable Israeli politicians such as Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On, a serving member of Knesset from 1999 to 2017 observed that moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem could inflame the entire region. She warned that such a unilateral move could displace peace. “Moving the embassy could serve Netanyahu but could bring about an unnecessary explosion.”

    Ayam  Odeh, Chairman of the Joint List, said: “Trump is a pyromaniac who could set the entire region on fire with his madness” adding that Trump’s  grandstanding  “proves decisively that the United States cannot remain the sponsor or arbitrator in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians”. The African Union Commission also rightly questioned the United States’ decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, noted with deep concern the decision. According to AU, the decision “will only increase tensions in the region and beyond and further complicate the search for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” He reiterated the solidarity of the African Union with the Palestinian people and its support to their legitimate quest for an independent and sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The chairperson spoke the mind of Africans in calling for a Middle East solution, “based on the existence of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security, within the framework of relevant African Union and United Nations pronouncements.”

    It is really true that bad friends like Trump will prevent Israel from having good friends. By the way, I searched in vain for Nigeria’s position on the latest Donald Trump’s diplomatic reckless adventure in Jerusalem. It’s time President Muhammed Buhari worked his talk at the 2017 UN General Assembly in September on key foreign policy issues such as Middle East crisis. Increasingly, Nigeria’s voice is lost on topical international issues. At best Nigerian foreign policy has become reactionary, reacting than setting agenda for genuine global discourse.

    Lest we forget – the late Nelson Mandela rightly observed that “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

     

    • Aremu is a member, National Institute, Kuru Jos.
  • 2018 FIFA World Cup ticket sales resumes on Thursday

    2018 FIFA World Cup ticket sales resumes on Thursday

    Ticket sales for the world’s biggest football event, the 2018 FIFA World Cup, will resume on Thursday on a first-come first-served basis.

    A total of 622,117 tickets were successfully allocated to subscribers, even though this was subject to payment being made later.

    This was also at the conclusion of the first window of sales phase from Oct. 1 to Oct. 12.

    According to a report by the FIFA Media Office on Tuesday, some 3,496,204 tickets had initially been requested with many ticket products and matches being heavily oversubscribed.

    This requires the allocation of tickets through a random selection draw process carried out in the presence of a public notary.

    During this process FIFA also identified a number of ticket applications which were not eligible to enter into the random selection draw.

    For example, ticket applications for team-specific ticket series — for teams that are no longer able to qualify — as well as ticket applications that violated the household restrictions.

    This is in the category of applying for a maximum of four tickets for up to seven matches.

    From the total number of applications, majority have come from Russia, and based on results of the Random Selection Draw process 57 percent of tickets were allocated to Russian fans.

    Tickets allocated to international fans account for 43 percent of the total number of allocated tickets.

    The US, Chinese, German, Brazilian, Israeli, English, Finnish, Mexican and French fans all rank in the top ten in this category.

    During the upcoming sales period, which starts on Thursday and end on Nov. 28, fans will be able to purchase tickets in real time on FIFA.com/tickets.

    They will get immediate confirmation of successful applications, subject to availability.

    Football fans were advised to place their order as soon as the sales period opens.

    This is because high demand is expected and the remaining inventory following the random selection draw sales period was likely to sell out very quickly.

    Tickets purchased during sales phases 1 and 2 will be delivered free of charge to fans in the weeks leading up to the tournament.

    Deliveries have been planned to start in April or May of 2018, even though this is subject to change.

    Tickets may be purchased using payment cards of Visa, the Official Payment Services Partner of FIFA.

    Purchases can also be made by other accepted payment methods.

    FIFA’s Head of Ticketing, Falk Eller, said the world football body was already overwhelmed by the positive response from both Russian and international fans so far.

    “’With only a few teams still to qualify, we are again expecting high demand once sales resume on Thursday.

    “Considering such remarkable interest in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia from fans all over the world, we will like to once again stress that the only official, legitimate and user-friendly source to purchase tickets is the FIFA.com/tickets website.

    “Fans who purchase tickets from other sources put themselves at significant risk of missing out on the World Cup, and of course we will not want that to happen.

    “Category 4 tickets, which are exclusively reserved for Russian residents, will not be available for purchase during the upcoming first-come, first-served sales period.

    “This is due to the full allocation of the currently available category four tickets during the previous sales period.

    “FIFA will also make a dedicated allocation of tickets available for disabled people, people with limited mobility and fans classified as obese,” Eller said.

    NAN

  • Ifeanyi Ubah to buy Spanish, Israeli club – official

    Ifeanyi Ubah to buy Spanish, Israeli club – official

    Business mogul and oil magnate, Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah has opened talks to buy an unnamed Spanish or Israeli club, his top aide has disclosed.

    The owner of FC Ifeanyiubah, a Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) side, Scorenigeria.com.ng gathered, is mulling owning a club in either Israel or Spain and has begun his quest by opening buy-over talks with the clubs.

    If and when the deal eventually sees the light of success, the European club would serve as destination for young football talents from Nigeria, especially from his much cherished ‘One Family, One Footballer’ project.

    Ifeanyi Ubah, who doubles as chairman of Anambra State Football Association and whose club, FC Ifeanyiubah, have struck a partnership deal with Premier League side, West Ham United, has said football is his second love and would stop at nothing in seeing his football dream through.

    Ikechukwu Emeka Onyia, Special Assistant to Ifeanyi Ubah on Media, confirmed this in Onitsha during an ABS television sports programme, Sports In The Mix.

    “Dr Ifeanyiubah is trying to buy a club in Israel or Spain”, Onyia said.

    “Of course, when the deal eventually gets through, some of the young players who will be discovered from the ‘one family, one footballer’ programme will have somewhere in Europe to horne their career.

    “We all know the fact and extent to which sports can drive the economy and this has been the vision of Dr Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah”, Onyia stressed.

    Ifeanyiubah’s club, FC Ifeanyiubah, became the first club from Anambra State to win the Federation Cup since the state was created in 1991 when they won the 2016 Federation Cup at the expense of Nasarawa United.

  • FUTO partners with Israeli school on Master’s programme

    To sustain its newly-introduced Global Human Resources Management programme, the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), has signed a partnership agreement with Galilee International Management Institute Israel.

    Both institutions vowed to ensure students admitted into the programmes get quality training to develop manpower in human resoiurces management. FUTO has called for application from qualified candidates for consideration for admission into Master’s degree programme.

    The partnership would generate ideas that will promote understanding of management science and bring about innovation, ethical standard in the profession.

    Management of FUTO said the programme would go beyond basic teachings and theory to examine global case studies and focus on industries both in Africa and Middle East.

    The structure of the programme is made up of five phases. The first phase comprises 14-week semester during which seven courses would be taught. The second phase will be held in Israel and instruction will focus on high-tech industries. It will last for six weeks and four courses will be taught.

    Four courses will be taught in phase three, which lasts for eight weeks. Students will use the fourth phase to prepare their thesis and the final phase will witness project presentation and defence.

  • Thousands of Gazans flee after Israeli warning

    Thousands of Gazans flee after Israeli warning

    •165 killed; over a thousand wounded
    •UN calls for ceasefire

    Thousands fled their homes in a Gaza town yesterday after Israel warned them to leave ahead of threatened attacks on rocket-launching sites, on the sixth day of an offensive that Palestinian officials said has killed at least 160 people.

    “Those who fail to comply with the instructions will endanger their lives and the lives of their families. Beware,” read a leaflet dropped by the Israeli military in the town of Beit Lahiya, near the border with Israel.

    Despite intensified Israeli military action – which included a commando raid overnight in what was Israel’s first reported ground action in Gaza during the current fighting – militants continued to launch rocket after rocket across the border.

    No one has been killed by the more than 800 rockets the Israeli military said has been fired since the offensive began, and during Saturday night’s barrage, customers in Tel Aviv beachfront cafes shouted their approval as they watched the projectiles being shot out of the sky.

    The Gaza Interior Ministry, in a statement on Hamas radio, dismissed the Israeli warnings as “psychological warfare” and instructed those who left their homes to return and others to stay put.

    The warnings cited roads that residents could use safely and said Israeli forces intended to attack “every area from where rockets are being launched”. The military did not say in the leaflet whether the strike would include ground troops.

    At least 4,000 people fled Beit Lahiya and crowded into eight U.N.-run schools in Gaza City yesterday, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said.

    Some arrived on donkey carts filled with children, luggage and mattresses, while others came by car or taxi. One man, still in his pajamas, said some residents had received phone calls warning them to clear out.

    “What could we do? We had to run in order to save the lives of our children,” said Salem Abu Halima, 25, a father of two.

    Israel says a ground invasion of Gaza remains an option, and it has already mobilized more than 30,000 reservists to do so, but most attacks have so far been from the air, hitting some 1,200 targets in the territory.

    International pressure on both sides for a return to calm has increased, with the U.N. Security Council calling for a cessation of hostilities and Western foreign ministers due to meet on Sunday to weigh strategy. Hostilities along the Israel-Gaza frontier first intensified last month after Israeli forces arrested hundreds of Hamas activists in the Israeli-occupied West Bank following the abduction there of three Jewish teenagers who were later found killed. A Palestinian youth was then killed in Jerusalem in a suspected Israeli revenge attack. A Hamas source commenting on the air strike against the Gaza police chief’s home said the officer, Tayseer Al-Batsh, was in critical condition. All of those killed in the air strike. which television footage showed was reduced to piles of rubble, were members of Al-Batsh’s family. Israel says it is targeting Hamas militants and facilities, including the homes of senior operatives. However, the United Nations has estimated that 77% of the people killed in Gaza have been civilians.The UN Security Council called for a ceasefire and peace talks on Saturday. It is the first time since Israel’s offensive began that they have issued a statement, with members previously divided on their response. Rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on Saturday evening  Palestinians mourned their relatives in a morgue in Gaza

    Early on Sunday, Israeli air strikes destroyed most of the security headquarters and police stations run by Hamas Islamist militants, the BBC’s Rushdi abu Alouf in Gaza reports.

    The homes adjacent to the security compound suffered extensive damage, as the headquarters are located in the densely populated neighbourhood of Tel al-Hawa in south Gaza, our correspondent adds.

    It is believed to be the first time Israeli troops – thought to be naval commandos on this occasion – have entered Gaza since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, which it says is aimed at stopping rocket attacks and destroying Hamas’ capabilities.

    At least five Israelis have been injured this week by rocket and missile attacks, two of them seriously, but no Israelis have been killed by the attacks. Wars between Hamas and Israel tend to finish with some sort of ceasefire. Factors influencing the timing of a deal include the amount of blood spilt, and the level of international pressure on both sides to make a deal.

    It looks as if that point has not yet been reached. Neither side is ready for that yet. This conflict may have to get worse before the pressure for a ceasefire becomes unanswerable.

    On Saturday evening, four Israeli missiles hit a three-storey house in Gaza belonging to police chief Tayseer al-Batsh, a Gaza health official said.

    The strike killed 17 members of the same family, while Tayseer al-Batsh was wounded but survived, officials added.

    Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri described the raid as “a heinous crime”, adding: “Israel will pay a heavy price for its aggression against the Palestinian people.”

  • Enyeama celebrates Israeli Cup win

    Enyeama celebrates Israeli Cup win

    •Maccabi Tel Aviv grabs 20th silverware

     

    SUPER EAGLES shot-stopper, Vincent Enyeama couldn’t hide his joy as he joined ecstatic Maccabi Tel Aviv fans last Saturday night to celebrate the club’s 20th all-time title win at the Yitschak Rabin Square.

    Recall the Nigerian three months ago celebrated Nigeria’s AFCON triumph after the Super Eagles piped Burkina Faso 1-0 in the Nations Cup final at the Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg.

    Enyeama alongside Israeli pop stars Peer Tassi, Lior Narkis and the popular band “Ethnix”, his teammates, managerial and logistical professional staffs, took to the stage and listened on while their names were greeted by the cheers and admiration of the abundance of supporters who had gathered to celebrate a season that had returned to them the pride they had felt in happier days.

  • Israeli ambassador promises improved patnership with Nigeria

    The new Israeli ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency Uriel Palti, has promised improved collaboration with the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC) for more robust Christian pilgrimage exercise.

    He disclosed this recently during his first official visit to the NCPC corporate headquarters in Abuja.

    The ambassador said: “I will do everything that I can to ease pilgrimage and let more and more pilgrims come to Israel”.

    He further said: “I will work hand in hand with NCPC in order to make pilgrimage easy”.

    Palti also said: The Israeli government is favourably disposed to ensuring that the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) with Nigeria is signed soon”.

    He thanked the Executive Secretary of NCPC, Mr. John Kennedy Opara, for the great friendship he showed to him, his family and Israel.

    He said it was important to treat your friends as you would treat yourself.

    According to him: “This is the essence of the Bible and this is the way I feel about the Executive Secretary”.

    Earlier, Mr Opara described the ambassador as a “seasoned diplomat and a man of unique character”.

    He told the ambassador that NCPC is the only Christian agency that is linked to the government. He, therefore, called on the ambassador to ensure that the Israeli government always deals directly with the commission which was set up by an Act of the National Assembly to coordinate all Christian pilgrimage activities to Israel.

  • Reps condemn deportation of Israeli

    Reps condemn deportation of Israeli

    The House of Representatives has begun investigation into the circumstances leading to the deportation of a foreign construction worker.

    The decision followed the adoption of a motion raised under matters of urgent national importance by Razak Belo-Osagie (ACN, Edo).

    Belo-Osagie said Yaniv Dabah, an Israeli, who works with Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), the company handling the renovation of 5-Junction in Benin City, Edo State, ran into trouble after making clarification on the status of the project.

    He said: “It was noted that during the recent good governance tour led by the Minister of Information, the erroneous impression was created that it was a Federal Government project.

    “But we are aware that upon further enquiry, it was clarified by Dabah that the project was being executed by the Edo State Government.

    “It is disturbing that it was after the clarification that Dabah was subsequently deported, a situation that portends grave consequences for the completion of the project and the country’s image.”

    The lawmaker, who questioned the timing and intent of the deportation, said the deportation has damaging consequences on the country’s image.

    “At a time we are clamouring for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the power sector, oil and gas as well as manufacturing, what impression are we creating with this manner of deportation?

    “How do we reconcile our clamour for the FDI with this development?” he lamented.

    Belo-Osagie asserted that the deportation could be a reprisal action against the state’s stance on the good governance tour.

    “Even if the man had immigration issues, why wait till after making clarifications on who engaged his company on a particular project.

    “Why can’t we play by the rules of engagement?

    “As it is, this man is clearly a casualty for telling the truth.

    “The development is unfortunate, what is wrong in correcting an impression.

    “Could the deportation be a backlash of Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s refusal to commit state’s resources to the good governance tour?

    “This is the most profound executive rascality and is clearly unacceptable to any civilised society.

    “People should not be sacrificed for telling the truth, we need to know the truth about the whole incident.”

    The motion was overwhelmingly supported when it was put to a voice vote by the presiding officer, Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha.

    The Committees on Works, Foreign Affairs and Interior were mandated to investigate who awarded the project and the circumstances surrounding the deportation.

    They are to submit their reports in four weeks.