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SvennoJ on 15 May 2024
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Belgium favours total EU ban on weapons to Israel

Belgium’s development cooperation minister has said Brussels, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, backs a complete ban on EU weapons exports to Israel but is facing resistance from other EU members.

“It is very clear that Belgium is in favour of a full weapons ban but some member states are still exporting,” Caroline Gennez said on a visit to the Jordanian capital, according to comments carried by The National newspaper.

“Israel has the right to defend itself. On the other hand, it is not allowed to punish an entire population for what happened on October 7,” said Gennez.

Germany, by far the bloc’s biggest military exporter to Israel, defended its shipments at the International Court of Justice in April in a case brought against it by Nicaragua.

However, Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius indicated last week that Berlin is weighing pausing some arms shipments to Israel following its Rafah operation.

Activists target defence industry factory in UK in protest against Gaza war

Video posted on X by the group Palestine Action shows a group of people in red jumpsuits on the roof of a factory belonging to weapons manufacturer Teledyne in the UK city of Shipley.

They can be seen removing the roof of the factory and throwing it off the building. The group said the action was in retaliation for the company producing electronic components for missiles and planes used by Israel in its war on Gaza, which has killed at least 35,233 Palestinians.

Palestine Action targeted several other Teledyne factories last month, causing damage.


UK pro-Palestine activists protests against arms shipments to Israel

Protesters in the UK have staged demonstrations outside factories of arms manufacturing companies to call against weapons shipments to Israel.

In Glasgow, a group of pro-Palestine activists blocked the entrance to the Thales plant, demanding an end to the supply of ammunition and weapons to Israel.

Meanwhile in Shenstone, members of the Palestine Action group blocked entrances to the UAV Engines Ltd factory.

Police arrested six protesters at the scene, the group wrote on X.


Prominent authors support divestment from companies that profit from Israel

More than 200 authors, including Naomi Klein and Sally Rooney, have signed a letter calling for increased pressure on investment management firm Baillie Gifford – sponsors of the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction – to divest “from companies that profit from Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide”.

The letter was inked by Fossil Free Books, a UK-based group of workers in the literary industry, which has pressured the company to stop investing in the fossil fuel industry. Now, it is also focusing on divestment from Israel as it believes that “solidarity with Palestine and climate justice are inextricably linked”.

Literary organisations that accept sponsorship from Baillie Gifford “can expect escalation, including the expansion of boycotts, increased author withdrawal of labour, and increased disruption until Baillie Gifford divests,” the letter reads.

Protesters gather at university in Paris for Nakba day

Video posted by French media shows a gathering of people at Paris’s Sorbonne University to commemorate Nakba Day, when 76 years ago Palestinians were uprooted from their homes and lands in a series of violent episodes.

Protesters angry about Israel’s war on Gaza have been gathering at Sorbonne University since late last month, when the global campus Gaza encampment protests spread there.



Beirut protesters mark 76th anniversary of the Nakba

Pro-Palestine protesters in Beirut marched to mark the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, Reuters reports.

The demonstration began outside the American University of Beirut and reached its final destination outside the British Embassy in the city.

This year’s commemoration has been dominated by the plight of around two million Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are living in temporary shelters after being displaced from their homes by the Israeli war.

The seven-month-long war, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians and displaced most of the population, has drawn fears among many of a second Nakba in which they would be forced from the besieged coastal enclave altogether.


Protesters carry signs and flags as they march in support of Palestinians in Gaza and to mark the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, in Beirut, Lebanon, May 15

First Jewish Biden appointee publicly resigns over Gaza war policy

A US Interior Department staffer has become the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest of the country’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Lily Greenberg Call is a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Department of the Interior. She accuses President Joe Biden of using Jews to justify US policy in the conflict.

She is at least the fifth mid- or senior-level administration staffer to make public their resignation in protest of the Biden administration’s military and diplomatic support of the now seven-month-long Israeli war.

In her resignation letter delivered Wednesday, she said she “can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration”.

“I think the president has to know that there are people in his administration who think this is disastrous,” Call said of the war overall and US support for it. “Not just for Palestinians, for Israelis, for Jews, [but also] for Americans, for [Biden’s] election prospects.”