Fourth night of protests calling for removal of Netanyahu government, end of Gaza war
Thousands of Israelis protested for a fourth consecutive day against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in favour of an agreement to end Israel’s war on Gaza.
The demonstrators gathered with banners and torches near the parliament building in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening where they called for new elections and accused Netanyahu of standing in the way of a deal that would free Israeli captives held in Gaza.
The DPA news agency said that clashes between police and demonstrators broke out when protesters tried to march to Netanyahu’s private residence and break through a security barrier protecting the site.
Five protesters were arrested for “violating public order”, the police said.
Antigovernment protesters gather with signs and candles in Jerusalem on April 2, 2024, calling for the dissolution of the Israeli government and a deal that will see the return of Israelis held captive in the Gaza Strip
Why Biden’s White House iftar unravelled amid Gaza war
The White House has cancelled a Ramadan iftar meal after several Muslim Americans declined the invitation in protest of President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The sources, who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, said the cancellation on Tuesday came after Muslim community members warned leaders against attending the White House meal.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), also said the event was nixed because so many people chose not to attend, including invitees who had initially agreed to go.
“The American Muslim community said very early on that it would be completely unacceptable for us to break bread with the very same White House that is enabling the Israeli government to starve and slaughter the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Mitchell told Al Jazeera.
UK healthcare workers protest against US company supplying Israel’s army
Hundreds of British healthcare workers blocked the entrance to NHS England’s headquarters in central London demanding the cancellation of business deals with American company Palantir citing Israel’s “war on hospitals”.
A statement from the group Health Workers for a Free Palestine accused Palantir of supplying “advanced technology to Israel’s military”.
NHS England awarded a 330 million pound ($415m) contract to Palantir in November. Healthcare staff are “shutting down access to NHS England protesting its contract” with a company “complicit in the systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system”, it said.
Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp has said he’s “exceedingly proud” of the company’s involvement in “operationally crucial operations in Israel”.
The protest comes as Israel continues to target Gaza’s overwhelmed and destroyed hospitals with raids.
‘Plausible risk of genocide in Gaza’: UN eyes Israel arms embargo
The UN Human Rights Council will consider a draft resolution on Friday calling for an arms embargo on Israel. If the draft resolution is adopted, it would mark the first time the United Nations’s top rights body has taken a position on the war raging in Gaza.
The text condemns “the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects by Israel” in populated areas of Gaza and demands Israel “uphold its legal responsibility to prevent genocide”.
The eight-page draft demands Israel end its occupation of Palestinian territory and immediately lift its “illegal blockade” on the Gaza Strip. It calls on countries to stop the sale or transfer of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel, citing “a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”.
The draft also “condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, calls for an immediate ceasefire and “condemns Israeli actions that may amount to ethnic cleansing”.
The draft resolution was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of 55 of the 56 UN member states in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – the exception being Albania.
