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BEIRUT: Mount Makmel, Lebanon’s highest mountain rising 3,093 meters above sea level, is preparing to host the country’s first astronomical observatory.

A telescope set to be installed at the observatory is a gift from Japan’s Kochi Prefecture to Notre Dame University–Louaize (NDU). It will complement the university’s existing main observatory on campus, the largest of its kind in the Middle East.

NDU recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Municipality of Bsharri, as Mount Makmel, the tallest peak in the entire Levant, geographically spans the districts of Bsharri and Danniyeh. The region is renowned for hosting some of the last remaining Cedars of Lebanon forests.

The area has been identified by the National Council for Scientific Research as the most suitable site for astronomical studies.

University President Fr. Bechara Khoury described the project as “a new framework that opens broad educational and research horizons for students in the field of astronomical sciences.”

Meanwhile, Bsharri Mayor Joe Kairouz said that the municipality “will work to secure the necessary funding to implement the astronomical observatory project on Mount Makmel in cooperation with relevant local and international bodies, ensuring that its objectives are achieved according to the highest standards.”

According to the university president, the Notre Dame University–Louaize Observatory will foster “a dynamic framework of integrated scientific cooperation” between the main observatory on the Zouk Mosbeh campus and the new site on Mount Makmel.

Khoury said it reflects “the university’s educational and research mission, and enhances its capacity to provide precise astronomical data.”

Awareness activities will also be organized to promote scientific culture and public interest in astronomy.

The collaboration between NDU and the Bsharri Municipality also focuses on efforts to declare “Mount Makmel a Dark Sky Reserve, in order to protect the nocturnal environment and preserve the purity of the night sky from light pollution,” added Khoury.

JERUSALEM: Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favor of advancing two bills on annexing the occupied West Bank, an ambition openly promoted by far-right ministers in recent months.
The vote came with US Vice President JD Vance visiting Israel to shore up a Gaza ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump, who has made clear he would not back annexation of the West Bank.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,” Trump told reporters at the White House in September. “It’s not going to happen.”
Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called on MPs from his Likud party to abstain from voting.
In a statement, Likud called the votes “another provocation by the opposition aimed at damaging our relations with the United States.”
“True sovereignty will be achieved not through a showy law for the record, but through proper work on the ground,” it added.
During a preliminary reading on Wednesday, lawmakers voted in favor of examining two bills, which means they will be brought forward for further readings in parliament.
The first text, passed by 32 MPs to nine, proposed annexing Maale Adumim, a large Israeli settlement home to some 40,000 people just east of Jerusalem.
The second proposal to annex the entire West Bank was supported by 25 MPs while 24 voted against.
The Knesset, as the parliament is known, has 120 members.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have openly called for annexation of the Palestinian territory, occupied by Israel since 1967.
“Mr Prime Minister. The Knesset has spoken. The people have spoken,” Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich posted on X.
“The time has come to impose full sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria — the inheritance of our ancestors — and to promote peace agreements in exchange for peace with our neighbors with strength,” he said, using the Israeli Biblical term for the West Bank.
All of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
In August, Israel approved a major settlement project between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem in an area of the Palestinian territory that the international community has warned threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.
At a signing ceremony in September, Netanyahu vowed that there would be no Palestinian state.
“We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state, this place belongs to us,” he said at the event in Maale Adumim.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as more than 500,000 Israelis living in settlements.
Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, violence has also surged in the West Bank.