May 14, 2018 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 14.05.2018, 20:05

DIPLOMACY The United States inaugurated
the embassy in Jerusalem, after a controversial decision by President Donald
Trump to recognize the city as the capital of Israel. The international
community considers that the final status of Jerusalem should be negotiated
during a peace process with the Palestinians. Most UN member states have
criticized the American decision. President Trump’s decision upset and
infuriated the Palestinians, who claim East Jerusalem to be the capital of
their future state. In Bucharest, the Romanian Foreign Ministry has rejected
the EU proposal calling on the member states to refuse that their embassies in
Israel be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Romanian government has already
adopted a memorandum on starting procedures to move the embassy, but president
Klaus Iohannis said Romania’s embassy can’t be moved to Jerusalem without his
consent.

CLASHES Scores of
Palestinians were shot dead by the Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip on Monday during a protest against the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem, the
local Health Ministry has announced. According to the same sources, hundreds
have been wounded by the Israeli forces. The Palestinian authority has accused
Israel of carrying out a ‘terrible massacre’. The spokesman for the Palestinian
government, Youssouf al-Mahmoud has called for an immediate international
intervention to put an end to the massacre. The Israeli army has explained in a
communiqué that its troops are trying to disperse the protesters using standard
procedures.

TENNIS The
Romanian-Latvian pair Sorana Cirstea/Jelena Ostapenko has qualified for the
second round of the WTA tournament in Rome, a competition with more than 3.3
million dollars in prize money. The two players have outperformed in two sets
7-6, 6-3 the Slovakian-Latvian pair Magdalena Rybarikova/Anastasija Sevastova.
Also on Monday Romanian Irina Begu and Lara Arruabarrena of Spain were
eliminated by Alla Kudryavtseva from Russia and Renata Voracova of the Czech
Republic in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 10-5. Another Romanian, Mihaela Buzarnescu has
also been eliminated in two sets 6-3, 7-6 (/2) by Shuai Zhang of China. The
world’s number one Simona Halep of Romania will be playing directly in the
competition’s second round.

MOTION The Senate in
Bucharest on Monday turned down a simple motion through which the opposition
parties, the National Liberals (PNL) and the Save Romania Union (USR) had
called for the sacking of Education Minister Valentin Popa. The Minister has
been accused of having significantly slashed the number of places for students
in Romania’s oldest and most prestigious universities. The PNL and USR senators
who have signed the motion argued that Minister Popa acted like that in order
to protect certain private interests and not the interests of the national
education. In turn, the Education Minister has described the motion as a mere
political move. We recall that many prestigious universities in Romania have
complained about the way in which the Education Ministry has distributed the
number of tax-free places for students in the 2018-2019 school year.

REMEMBRANCE DAY A National
Remembrance Day for the Martyrs of Communist Prisons is being marked in Romania
on May 14. The decision is stipulated in a law promulgated last year. The day
has been chosen as a remembrance of the night of May 14th to 15th
1948, when the communists who had just seized power in Romania, arrested over
10,000 Romanians who were opposed to the new regime. They were investigated,
tried and thrown into prison. The detention system, similar to that in Soviet
Russia was characterised by systematic physical and psychological terror. Until
the overthrow of communism, in December 1989, prisons had been an instrument of
political domination against all opponents: politicians of the inter-war
period, the intellectual elite, clerics and religious believers.