The South African government is looking at plans to step up its support for Palestine. The Minister of Arts and Culture, Paul Mashatile, made the announcement during a press conference in Pretoria last week to announce that a Palestinian delegation, including Mr. Mashatile's counterpart, Siham Barghouthi, had met with representatives of the government and signed a cultural agreement between South Africa and Palestine. Plans for future cooperation include literature exchanges, exhibitions, language development programmes and heritage preservation initiatives.

The Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Executive Training in Morocco, Lahcen Daoudi, stressed that the cooperation in the scientific field between Morocco and Turkey is vital and must be among the priorities of the two countries. He noted that the cooperation between Morocco and Turkey in the economic field is much wider than in the scientific field.
 
Following his meeting with the Turkish Ambassador in Morocco Tence Aacdol, Daoudi declared, in a press statement issued by the official media outlets in Morocco on Thursday, February 2, that there is a need to expand the scientific cooperation with Turkish universities in all divisions of study, especially at the level of students, scholarships, university professors and scientific research, stressing on the need to promote cooperation in the high areas.

Reports on Hebrew radio claim that Kenya has requested military and security assistance from the Israeli government to deal with a "radical Islamic youth militia". Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga apparently made the request to Israel's President Shimon Peres during their meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine and its eminent panel of jurists has determined that Israel's practices against the Palestinian people are in breach of the prohibition of apartheid under international law. Following two intense days in Cape Town listening to testimony from expert witnesses, the Tribunal concluded unanimously that "Israel subjects the Palestinian people to an institutionalised regime of domination amounting to apartheid as defined under international law." The jury reached this conclusion having paid particular attention to the legal definition of apartheid and ensuring that each of the defining criteria was met. This included the following facts: "(i) that two distinct racial groups can be identified; (ii) that 'inhuman acts' are committed against the subordinate group; and (iii) that such acts are committed systematically in the context of an institutionalised regime of domination by one group over the other." They considered in their judgment the widespread evidence of, inter alia, "targeted killings"; the "use of lethal force" against peaceful demonstrators; and the torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians.