Minister explains why Namibia joined The Hague Group
We’ve been covering the formation of a new organisation called The Hague Group, which brings together nine countries committed to taking “coordinated state action” to support Palestinian’s right to self-determination.
They are Belize, Bolivia, Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa.
We now have more from Namibia’s Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab on why her country joined the group. In a speech delivered at the launch of the group, Dausab said it will be important to tell future generations what “concrete measures” they took to support Palestinians.
“When future generations enquire [about] our contribution to Palestines right to self determination, our response must be, we took concrete measures, or we will be remembered as leaders who watched and did nothing,” she said in a widely shared video.
The Palestinian Authority and Israel are allies in silencing the truth
On December 28, 21-year-old journalism student Shatha Al-Sabbagh was assassinated near her home in Jenin. Her family accused snipers from the Palestinian Authority (PA) deployed in the camp of shooting her in the head. Al-Sabbagh had been active on social media, documenting the suffering of Jenin residents during the raids by Israel and the PA.
Just a few days after Al-Sabbagh’s assassination, the authorities in Ramallah banned Al Jazeera from reporting from the occupied West Bank. Three weeks later, PA forces arrested Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamad Atrash.
These developments come as the Israeli occupation has killed more than 200 media workers in Gaza and arrested dozens across the occupied Palestinian territories. It has also banned Al Jazeera and refused to allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza. The fact that the PA’s actions mirror Israel’s reveals a shared agenda to suppress independent journalism and control public opinion.
To Palestinian journalists, that is hardly news. The PA has never been our protector. It has always been a complicit partner in our brutalisation. That is true in the West Bank and it was true in Gaza when the PA was in power there. I witnessed it myself.
Palestinian prisoners ‘endured extreme torture until the very end’
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has called for swift and urgent global action to end Israel’s “systematic and pervasive crimes of murder, torture, and other grave violations against Palestinian prisoners and detainees”.
The call came in a statement outlining the “torture and systematic malnutrition” of Palestinians prisoners who were released from Israeli jails as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
“The majority appeared to be in a serious state of decline, with each of them losing several kilogrammes of weight due to what appears to be intentional starvation,” the group said.
“Following their release, many of the inmates and detainees required immediate hospital transfers for critical medical examinations. One in particular seemed incapable of recognising his future after being denied treatment while in custody,” it said.
One freed prisoner from the town of Haris in the occupied West Bank said Israeli forces forcibly shaved their heads a day before their release.
“The inmates endure extremely harsh living conditions, and the most extreme forms of torture, abuse, and degrading treatment were performed against us until the very end,” he added.
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