Actor Benedict Cumberbatch read out a poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish on a London stage last week. In reciting On This Land There are Reasons to Live, the actor gave an airing to the timeless claim for Palestinian statehood.
“On this land, there are reasons to live,” he read. “This land, the lady of lands, the motherland of beginnings, the motherland of all ends. She was known as Palestine; she, forevermore, will be known as Palestine. My land, my lady, you’re a reason to live.”
Days later, France and the UK became the first western permanent members of the UN Security Council and the G7 to take the Palestinian demand as equal to that of Israel. Other nations have followed, including Canada and Australia.
Whatever outcome emerges from Israel's war in Gaza, the tension between the generational claim and present dangers will not go away.
For decades, the British government and its counterparts among rich nations had a policy that set Palestinian statehood as the reward for a peace deal. That old formula which underpinned western policy was a losing battle. The new calculus is equally daunting but it changes the game.
Until now, all the building blocks had to be in place for recognition of the state of Palestine to represent the keystone in the arch. That formula relied on the belief that all the other steps could be taken and these would hold. The arch would stay in place and eventually be capped as a solid edifice.
Now, all that assumption-building has been swept away and these countries are left with a different construct. A new calculation must be tested if the gambit they have just launched can withstand deterioration of the conditions on the ground.
History is at a turning point on the Palestine-Israel peace process.
David Lammy lasted just over a year as UK foreign secretary before he was promoted to deputy prime minister. As he heads to the conference on the two-state solution in New York, he has already made his mark. And it takes diplomacy back to a test that is well-known around the world. The rebel Irishman Robert Emmet declared at his execution that no one should write his epigraph until the boundaries of his nation were drawn.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that his government will now try to destabilise the new position of the western partners as rapidly as possible.
The British Foreign Office statement on Sunday detailed the target he would have in his sights: “A two-state solution, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state led by a reformed Palestinian Authority, is the only path to a lasting peace for the Israeli and Palestinian people – free from the horrendous violence and suffering of the last two years.”
The concerns over the conflict in Gaza are clear and grave. The threat posed by Israel’s plans for illegal settlements and a path to annexation through its E1 plan will deepen in the weeks ahead.
The UK is hoping it has a framework for peace that is solid. It has called for reform of the Palestinian Authority, and for those restructuring efforts it has appointed the veteran fixer Sir Michael Barber as UK Envoy for Palestinian Authority Governance.
In its version, France has aligned with Saudi Arabia to offer a new working blueprint to fulfil the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.
Mr Netanyahu is certainly preparing the Israeli public for a worse showdown to come. In the past few weeks, he has talked darkly of an isolation economy that would rely on Israel’s resilience. This is a far cry from his claims of tech superpower brilliance that he used to see as the legacy of his long leadership of Israel.
For western policy makers who have signed on to this shift and even for others such as Japan and Germany, the difficulty will be how to keep engaged with Israel.
It is hard now because the Israeli officials in charge are not interested in a relationship that takes on board the concerns of their counterparts. Indeed, the actions of the government are aggravated attempts to go in the other direction.
In future, the western governments will act to preserve the ideal that the British and French and other states are signing up to. In this, there is a parallel to the instructive moments both countries engaged in with the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the Palestine Mandate after the First World War.
Countries backing the two-state solution have moved the process on to a new plane of international politics by taking the position of promoters of the Palestine state.
As the experts at the UK think tank Chatham House noted after the Palestinian recognition announcement on Sunday, the new direction provides a leadership boost for Mr Starmer. It reassures the Labour Party base and progressives as a whole that his government is on the side of principled action against the damage of Mr Netanyahu's forever wars.
That in itself is an achievement that makes the recognition decision a landmark of international leadership.
Results:
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 (PA) | Group 1 US$75,000 (Dirt) | 2,200 metres
Winner: Goshawke, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer)
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas (TB) | Listed $250,000 (D) | 1,600m
Winner: Silva, Oisin Murphy, Pia Brendt
7.40pm: Meydan Classic Trial (TB) | Conditions $100,000 (Turf) | 1,400m
Winner: Golden Jaguar, Connor Beasley, Ahmad bin Harmash
8.15pm: Al Shindagha Sprint (TB) | Group 3 $200,000 (D) | 1,200m
Winner: Drafted, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (D) | 1,600m
Winner: Capezzano, Mickael Barzalona, Sandeep Jadhav
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (T) | 2,000m
Winner: Oasis Charm, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
10pm: Handicap (TB) | $135,000 (T) | 1,600m
Winner: Escalator, Christopher Hayes, Charlie Fellowes
Meydan racecard:
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 (PA) Group 1 | US$75,000 (Dirt) | 2,200 metres
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas (TB) Listed | $250,000 (D) | 1,600m
7.40pm: Meydan Classic Trial (TB) Conditions | $100,000 (Turf) | 1,400m
8.15pm: Al Shindagha Sprint (TB) Group 3 | $200,000 (D) | 1,200m
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (D) | 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (T) | 2,000m
10pm: Handicap (TB) | $135,000 (T) | 1,600m
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
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Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
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UFC Fight Night 2
1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)
Date started: August 2021
Founder: Nour Sabri
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace
Size: Two employees
Funding stage: Seed investment
Initial investment: $200,000
Investors: Amr Manaa (director, PwC Middle East)
The specs
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Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
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Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
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RESULT
Valencia 3
Kevin Gameiro 21', 51'
Ferran Torres 67'
Atlanta 4
Josip Llicic 3' (P), 43' (P), 71', 82'
Mrs%20Chatterjee%20Vs%20Norway
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if you go
The flights
Emirates flies to Delhi with fares starting from around Dh760 return, while Etihad fares cost about Dh783 return. From Delhi, there are connecting flights to Lucknow.
Where to stay
It is advisable to stay in Lucknow and make a day trip to Kannauj. A stay at the Lebua Lucknow hotel, a traditional Lucknowi mansion, is recommended. Prices start from Dh300 per night (excluding taxes).
'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
- Cinematography, shots and movement.
- All aspects of post-production.
- Emerging technologies and VFX with AI and CGI.
- Understanding of marketing objectives and audience engagement.
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- Professional ethics.
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
Company%C2%A0profile
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo
Power: 435hp at 5,900rpm
Torque: 520Nm at 1,800-5,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Price: from Dh498,542
On sale: now
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
'Morbius'
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Stars: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona
Rating: 2/5
