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SvennoJ on 12 March 2025
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Events from March 12th

  • The UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Palestine, Muhannad Hadi, told Al Jazeera that he has “never seen anything close” to the suffering he witnessed in Gaza and called for a permanent truce so that Palestinians can have access to food, protection and a chance to re-establish their lives.
  • The families of Israeli captives remaining in Gaza urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restore electricity to the Strip, saying the decision puts their loved ones in danger.
  • Hamas welcomed US President Donald Trump’s apparent retreat from his proposal for a permanent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. The US leader had told reporters at the White House that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians from Gaza”.
  • Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestine Liberation Organization presented the Arab League-endorsed plan for the reconstruction plan to US enjoy Steve Witkoff in Doha.
  • Protesters in the US continue to rally against the Trump administration’s arrest and planned deportation of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil for his role in pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus.

Talks between Arab states, US envoy are ‘late, but important’

It’s been mixed signals coming out of Washington.

On the one hand, a US official said the Egypt-led plan will not work out and that they are sticking to Trump’s plan.

But then, when you listen to Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, you hear a different tone, a more nuanced tone, certainly more amenable to listening to dialogue, and that’s what diplomats are supposed to be doing.

Hence, the discussions in Doha today are important.

Late, quite late, but important. Why do I say late?

It’s true that there’s no longer intensive bombing in Gaza and so media outlets around the world are not paying as much attention. But starvation and disease – during winter time in Gaza – is deadly.

Gaza is suffering just as much as it did before. But it’s not getting as much urgency. It’s important to have meetings that could accelerate the permanency of a ceasefire in order to lead to the reconstruction of Gaza.

US activists slam Trump for once again using ‘Palestinian’ as a slur

Muslim and Jewish activists have criticised the US president for using the term “Palestinian” as a slur while referring to Jewish Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

Trump made the comment at the White House when a reporter asked him about the US corporate tax rate. In response, he expressed displeasure with congressional Democrats – including Schumer, the US’s highest-ranking elected Jewish official – for not supporting his agenda.

“Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned. He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish any more. He’s a Palestinian,” Trump said.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said Trump’s use of the word Palestinian as a “racial slur is offensive and beneath the dignity of his office”.

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, accused Trump of advancing an “extreme agenda” and making “Jews less safe”.

The US president, during his election campaign in August, had made the same comment, saying Schumer had “become a Palestinian” and accused him of being a “proud member of Hamas”.