New Israeli government takes steps to penalize Palestinians

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s new Security Cabinet has approved a series of punitive steps against the Palestinian leadership. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that the moves were in retaliation for the Palestinians pushing the U.N.’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation. The move underscores the hard-line approach to the Palestinians that Israel’s new ultranationalist government has promised at a time of rising violence in the occupied territories. It comes a week after the United Nations General Assembly voted to approve a resolution requesting that the International Court of Justice intervene and render an opinion on the state of the conflict.