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‘Zionism is predicated on ethnic cleansing of Palestinians’
Mohamad Elmasry, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says Israel’s war on Gaza and its US backing highlights the total breakdown of international law.
Elmasry said the recent UN Security Council resolution demanding Israel to immediately stop its attacks – which has been completely ignored – was just a “public relations” exercise.
“It’s looking like the rules-based international order is more or less a myth. International law only counts for powerful nations. The United States doesn’t look like it’s interested in following international law, or that its closest ally Israel does. And that’s just the reality,” he said.
While Western nations talk about a “two-state solution”, he said the priority should be stopping the “genocide” being carried out by Israel in Gaza.
“Zionism is predicated on the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. The whole idea is for there to be a ‘greater’ Israel. The land is supposed to be purified of the Arab presence. Zionism is inherently expansionist. Until this is addressed, we’re not going to have a viable Palestinian state,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.
Nearly 2,000 academics pen letter condemning Israel’s ‘scholasticide’
Nearly 2,000 scholars in North America signed a letter denouncing Israel’s war on Gaza and its destruction of the Palestinian territory’s education system.
“We, the undersigned, write to condemn Israel’s systematic targeting of academics, students, educational institutions and cultural heritage sites in Gaza, in violation of international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law,” the letter says.
“These attacks are deeply personal. Some of us have taught Palestinian students or collaborated with faculty from academic institutions in Gaza who have been killed or injured, or who have seen their institutions destroyed.
“We mourn what these losses mean for world knowledge and culture, and for the future of the Palestinian people, and we stand in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues and students and all others who deplore this scholasticide.”
A Palestinian walks past the heavily damaged Islamic University in Gaza City
Israel attacks several towns in southern Lebanon
The Lebanese News Agency reports the Israeli air force carried out attacks on the outskirts of the towns of Naqoura, Yarin, and Alma ash-Shaab.
Separately, the residential neighbourhoods of the Lebanese towns of Adissa, Kafr Kila and Blida came under fire from assault weapons and intermittent artillery shelling was also reported.
The vicinity of the town of Khiam was also bombed. There were no reports on casualties.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire across Lebanon’s southern frontier in parallel with the Gaza war, adding to fears of a wider regional conflict.
