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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

OIC seeks probe into ‘war crime’ over mass graves in Khan Younis

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned “the horrific massacres” committed by Israel following the uncovering of mass graves in the courtyard of Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The organisation said in a statement that “hundreds of displaced, wounded, sick people and medical teams have been subjected to torture and abuse before being executed and buried collectively”.

It called for a probe into “a war crime, a crime against humanity, and organised state terrorism”, stressing the need for the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice “to assume their responsibilities in this regard”.


Palestinian workers unearth a body buried by Israeli forces at Nasser Medical Complex


73 bodies discovered in 3 more mass graves at Nasser Hospital

More tragedy keeps unfolding in the city of Khan Younis. Not only is the entire city being obliterated by Israeli attacks, but there have been more mass graves found inside the courtyard of Nasser Hospital.

Medical staff and international personnel who have visited the hospital described it as a “graveyard” after Israeli forces raided the facility.

Three more mass graves were discovered on the hospital grounds, in addition to one found yesterday. The civil defence department retrieved 73 bodies of women, children and young men who had been missing for the past two months when the Israeli military first stormed the hospital.






‘There must be a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip’

Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh has blamed Israel for stalling ceasefire efforts, saying it refuses to agree to a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza for it to happen.

The comments came in an interview with Turkish broadcaster A News over the weekend.

“Despite dozens of sessions and communications exchanged via our mediators, the Zionist enemy until this point has not agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza. All they want is the return of captives so they can continue the war on Gaza – and this cannot be,” Haniyeh said.

“They want Hamas and the resistance to agree to maps referencing the deployment of the Israeli army as if to say we are legitimising the occupation of the Strip. There must be a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”



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SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

US universities imploding

Columbia University cancels in-person classes over Gaza protest tensions

Students at Columbia University in New York City will attend classes virtually today amid ongoing tensions related to student activist demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza.

Columbia President Nemat Minouche Shafik said the university was cancelling in-person classes. She also denounced “anti-Semitic” language and behaviour she said occurred on campus. “These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas,” Shafik said. “We need a reset.”


Pro-Palestinian student protesters at the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ at Columbia University

More than 100 protesters were arrested on Thursday on the campus after Shafik called in New York police to clear the tent encampment set up by the student protesters.

Elie Buechler, an Orthodox rabbi at the university, told students in a mass WhatsApp message that the safety of Jewish students cannot be guaranteed. Student activists, meanwhile, have said they do not stand for any type of “bigotry” and are demonstrating against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Dozens arrested during pro-Palestinian demonstration at Columbia University

The protest took place hours after the school cancelled in-person classes to de-escalate tensions on its New York campus, where police cracked down on a tent encampment last week.

Protests have been held at Yale University, Columbia and other campuses across the nation in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.



Columbia University on edge over Gaza: What’s going on?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/22/columbia-university-on-edge-over-gaza-whats-going-on

The pro-Palestinian US student protest effort, dubbed the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment”, is collectively organised by student-led coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.

The protesters are calling for Columbia University in New York City to divest from corporations that profit from Israel’s war on Gaza.

The CUAD website lists additional demands, including more financial transparency pertaining to Columbia’s investments, and the severing of academic ties and collaborations with Israeli universities and programmes.

The groups are also calling for a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza.

 

Pro-Palestine demonstrators at Yale arrested over protest camps on US university campus

Between 40 to 50 people, including students, have been arrested and charged with trespassing at the US university, on the third day of protests calling for divesting from weapons manufacturers amidst Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the Yale Daily News.

The tents were set up overnight on campus, where some students could be heard chanting, “One, we are the people. Two, we won’t be silenced. Three, stop the violence now, now, now, now” and “resistance is justified, when people are occupied”, according to the newspaper’s report.



 



SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

Pro-Palestine protest breaks out in Istanbul as German president visits

Pro-Palestinian protesters have held a demonstration in Istanbul against German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as he met with Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on a trip to mark the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

As Steinmeier and Imamoglu visited an exhibition at Istanbul’s historic Sirkeci train station, pro-Palestinian protesters began chanting slogans from across the train tracks. Police quickly intervened, moving them away from the railings and using force to restrain them.

Critics have accused Germany of anti-Palestinian bias and, in a case at the top UN court brought by Nicaragua, the country is facing accusations of aiding genocide in Gaza by selling arms to Israel, whose military has killed more than 34,000 people in the Strip since October 7.


Borrell says no progress on reducing Gaza ‘humanitarian catastrophe’

The European Union’s high representative has said that there is no progress on three issues related to the Israeli war on Gaza: the release of captives, a ceasefire, and reducing the humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged coastal enclave.

Speaking in Luxembourg after a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Josep Borrell stressed that these are “three things that we need”.

“Sorry to say, there is not progress on any one of them, significant progress. Nothing on the release of hostages, no prospect for a ceasefire and … the [EU] commissioner in charge for humanitarian help provided us with some examples of how the humanitarian support is being obstructed,” he said.

Borrell also said that the EU had called for unhindered access to the Gaza Strip for relief and aid distribution purposes “and it is clear that it is being hindered … so there is not an easing of the humanitarian support, so the humanitarian catastrophe for the Palestinian people continue[s].”

Israel’s Gaza war has negatively impacted human rights, US report says

Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis, has had “a significant negative impact” on the human rights situation, the US State Department said in its annual report.

Significant human rights issues include credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture and unjustified arrests of journalists, said the State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

Rights groups have flagged numerous incidents of civilian harm during Israel’s offensive in Gaza and have raised alarm about rising violence in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinian Health Ministry records show Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 460 Palestinians since October 7.

Despite the many reports, the Biden administration said it has not found Israel in breach of international law so far.

US looking into alleged Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza: Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States is looking into allegations of human rights abuses by Israel in its war on Gaza.

Unveiling the State Department’s annual human rights report, Blinken denied the US has double standards when it comes to Israel and human rights. “Do we have a double standard? The answer is no,” Blinken told reporters.

Correct, you have many double standards, not just one.



SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

Gallant assures Netzah Yehuda army unit of Israel’s support before expected US blacklisting

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has told the soldiers from the Israeli military’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion, which is expected to be hit with US sanctions, that the army and the state support and “appreciate” them.

“Errors and mistakes happen wherever there is military activity, and they must not happen, … but the fact that one or two or [multiple] soldiers did something wrong, this should not vilify the [entire] battalion,” Gallant said, adding that in those cases, the soldiers are “taken care of”.

“No one in the world will teach us what morality is and what norms are,” he added.

The unit, made up of ultra-Orthodox soldiers, was previously stationed in the occupied West Bank, where it was accused of right-wing “extremism” and violence against Palestinians.



‘This opens up a Pandora’s box of potential sanctions on Israeli units’: Rights group

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a Washington, DC-based rights group, says Israel has ignored warnings about the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, which has been accused of committing human rights violations against Palestinians, and instead has allowed it to act with impunity.

On Saturday, Axios reported that Washington was planning to impose sanctions on the battalion.

“If the US puts Leahy sanctions on even one Israeli unit, what it is really saying is that it has lost confidence that the Israeli justice system is willing or capable of holding its soldiers and officers accountable,” said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN.

“That opens up a Pandora’s box of potential sanctions on a slew of Israeli units, but only if the Israelis don’t improve their accountability mechanisms. Leahy sanctions are intended to be corrective, not punitive.

“They disappear the moment the secretary of state certifies that the country is taking effective steps toward accountability. Netanyahu’s defiance suggests that his government isn’t willing to take such steps.”



SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

Israel ‘knowingly and intentionally imposing famine’ on Gaza: UN rapporteur

The UN special rapporteur on the right to health warns that the medical evacuation rate in Gaza is “very low”, standing at only “47 percent”. Tlaleng Mofokeng stressed that it was hard to gather data on how many people need medical evacuation due to the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

“There isn’t a systemic, structured, focused and deliberate intent to ensure that people’s rights to health are protected,” Mofokeng told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency in Geneva.

“The point is Gaza should not be evacuating people for support, right? These facilities and the health services should be able to adequately respond to their needs where they live and where they reside,” she said, adding that the world was witnessing a “genocide” in Gaza.

“Not only is Israel killing and causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its bombardments, it and their allies are also knowingly and intentionally imposing famine, prolonged malnutrition and dehydration.”

UN expert warns of mental health risks for Palestinians from Israeli war

A UN expert has warned that mental illnesses could manifest themselves years from now among the people of Gaza due to the current Israeli war.

“Acute mental distress that will then turn into anxiety and other kinds of mental illnesses later on in life is really, really important to start thinking intentionally about,” said Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN special rapporteur on the right to health.

UNICEF said in February that an estimated 17,000 children in Gaza were unaccompanied or had been separated from their families during the conflict and nearly all children in the enclave were thought to require mental health support.

“The health system in Gaza has been completely obliterated, and the right to health has been decimated at every level,” Mofokeng said.

2.3 million people with PTSD...



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SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

UNRWA report ‘damning’ for Israel

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/22/no-evidence-of-unrwa-staff-links-terrorist-groups-independent-review

An independent review on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees is expected to be released publicly at the UN headquarters in New York in the next few hours.

It’s about 48 pages long. I’m still going through all of it, but there are some highlights that we can glean from it already. Number one, the big picture, is that this is a pretty damning report, damning not for UNRWA but for Israel, which accused 12 UNRWA employees of taking part in the October 7 attack, leading to a number of donors suspending their funding.

In this report, former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna says that Israel never gave them any evidence to back up those claims.

Now, this isn’t necessarily new. We’ve been hearing that for months now from the spokesperson of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. But the fact that this is now also in the Colonna report, this backs up what we’ve been hearing all along.

The report is not intended to look directly at the claims of the 12 people who were allegedly involved. This probe, commissioned by the secretary-general, is an independent investigation that’s an “independent review to ensure that UNRWA adheres to the principle of neutrality”.

Israeli allegations against UNRWA ‘amount to the mother of all lies’: Former employee

Chris Gunness, the former chief spokesperson for UNRWA, has spoken to Al Jazeera about the report by a former French foreign minister that we have been covering. “I will welcome this report,” he said. “I think UNRWA will welcome it because it confirms that UNRWA is an indispensable lifeline for the people of the Middle East for refugees.”

“It also confirms UNRWA has established a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with humanitarian principles, particularly neutrality, and it says UNRWA possesses a more robust approach to neutrality than any other UN or NGO organisation,” he said.

In late January, Israel accused 12 UNRWA workers from Gaza of involvement in the October 7 attacks on southern Israel by the Qassam Brigades and other Palestinian armed groups, prompting key donors to halt funding to the agency.

Those allegations, Gunness said, “remain unsubstantiated; it would seem that the Israeli claims amount to the mother of all lies based on a dodgy dossier”.


Colonna is speaking at the UN

Catherine Colonna, the former French foreign minister, is speaking at the UN about the independent investigation she led into UNRWA.

“UNRWA plays an indispensable and irreplaceable role in the region,” she said.

She said the UN agency had a “significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principle of neutrality” and UNRWA had a “more developed system than other UN organisations or agencies”.

....

One recommendation is that UNRWA regularly shares digitalised lists of employees with host countries and Israel. She says host countries and Israel would need to provide screening results and evidence if there are any red flags.

UNRWA ‘one of the best’ UN agencies: AJ senior analyst

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, says the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is “one of the best-performing UN agencies”.

“It is evaluated, reviewed, and audited, and various recommendations are made. I think it’s part of the nature of things of any UN agency,” Bishara said.

He noted that when Israel began making allegations against UNRWA staff in Gaza in January, the Israeli army had already killed some 150 UN staff members there.

“We are putting UNRWA on the stand … while the country that is killing UN staff is, of course, not at all on the stand,” Bishara said.


If Israel has such damaging evidence, where is it?

There are two separate reports; that’s the confusing thing about this.

[Colonna’s] report looked at the mechanisms of UNRWA and looked at whether they needed to be reformed.

While there’s a specific report into potential wrongdoing of UN staff, and remember, Israel claimed that 12 UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7 attacks, it also made claims that 12 percent of the organisation was affiliated with Hamas. The UN Office of Internal Oversight is conducting a separate report.

[Colonna’s] report does touch on this issue, and you have heard people asking about it at the UN. Israel has made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organisations. However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this.

We’ve heard similar things from the UN spokesman every single day when he’s asked about this at the daily UN briefing, and it does beg the question; if Israel has such damaging allegations, why does it not provide the evidence?

UNRWA welcomes Colonna report’s findings and recommendations

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees “welcomes the findings and recommendations of the independent review on the agency’s adherence to the humanitarian principle of neutrality”, the head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, says in a statement.

“The report confirms that UNRWA has established – over many years – policies, mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the principle of neutrality” he said.

“Safeguarding the neutrality of the agency is central to our ability to continue saving lives and contributing to the human development of Palestine Refugees in the Gaza Strip as it faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, and in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.”

He also stated that the agency is developing an action plan with a timeline and budget to implement the report’s recommendations.

UNRWA has ‘very comprehensive neutrality framework’, analyst says

The Colonna report shows UNRWA has “developed a very comprehensive neutrality framework with policies, practical measures, arrangements to inspect installations”, Lex Takkenberg, a senior advisor for the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development NGO, has told Al Jazeera.

He added that there was also evidence that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) had “arrangements to safeguard the neutrality of beneficiaries, and robust training on social media neutrality and, more generally, on neutrality [in] humanitarian operations”.

He noted that these systems continued to remain in place “even in the very challenging circumstances of genocidal actions in the Gaza Strip”.



SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

Israel rejects UNRWA review, Palestinians urge donors to resume funding

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein has said the review of UNRWA headed by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna was insufficient and an “effort to avoid the problem and not address it head on”.

Marmorstein accused more than 2,135 UNRWA workers of being members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But according to the Colonna report, Israel has still not provided any evidence for its allegations.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said the recommendations “enhance UNRWA’s already high standards of impartiality, humanity and neutrality”. The ministry appealed to donors who paused funding to “urgently reconsider their decisions”.

Israel’s claims against UNRWA employees were ‘political’ and ‘cruel’: Analyst

Jeffrey Sachs, an economist and professor at Columbia University, says Israel’s claims that UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks “were political” and “cruel”.

The allegations, he said, “elicited an immediate response from 16 donors … that immediately cut off funding” to the agency without waiting for evidence.

“This was politics at play, this was not substantive,” he said, adding that Israel should “abide by the findings of today’s report” – referring to the findings of an independent review of UNRWA, which found that Israel has yet to provide evidence for its allegations that a significant number of UNRWA staff were members of “terrorist” groups.

Donors should “stop this financial boycott” of the agency, Sachs said.

“It’s reprehensible at a time when the people of Gaza are in such urgent need.” Sachs noted that UNRWA has been “under politicised attacks” for a long time, and has taken “detailed” measures to demonstrate its neutrality.



US rights group welcomes findings of State Dept human rights report on Israel

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) has said that the US Department of State in its 2023 human rights report cited numerous incidents taken by Israeli forces such as arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture and unjustified arrests of journalists, among others.

“While we welcome reports indicating the State Department’s intention to blacklist some Israeli units in accordance with Leahy laws, today’s human rights report shows that designating only a few units amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist,” said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director.

“The widespread nature of the abuses described in the human rights report is overshadowed by the State Department’s inaction on these same findings. The State Department needs to read its own report and take immediate action against all abusive Israeli units.”

Israeli authorities “took no publicly visible steps to identify and punish officials accused of committing human rights abuses”, said the report, covering the incidents of last year.


US double standards over Israel’s war on Gaza ‘very clear’, analyst says

Sultan Barakat, a professor in conflict and humanitarian studies at the Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, has criticised Blinken’s rejection of suggestions that Washington might have a “double standard” when applying US law to allegations of Israeli military abuses in Gaza.

“The whole world has seen the double standard over the last six months or so; it’s very clear,” Barakat told Al Jazeera.

The US, as Israel’s strongest ally, is now trying “to provide a smokescreen by highlighting a number of infringements” made by Israel, he added. He used the example of the potential sanctions against an Israeli ultra-orthodox military unit and individual settlers.

“That’s not a solution. That’s not enough. And I think the United States and Blinken understand very well that that’s not the answer.”

Bakarat said frustration at the double standards is obvious to many in the US, especially younger people, and the pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place across US universities are something the government should take seriously, “This is the generation that has the ability to see what’s going on in Gaza on social media. And I don’t think they can take them lightly,” he said.



SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

Israeli missile attack destroys residential block in Gaza City

Video footage obtained and verified by Al Jazeera shows the moment the Israeli military bombed a residential building in the al-Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City earlier in the day.

One video shows a single missile striking the top floor of the residential block, causing a large explosion and a cloud of dark smoke to fill the sky. Other videos show people in the surrounding streets running for shelter as smoke engulfs the area.

The building was almost destroyed. One side collapsed, exposing the interior of the apartments. Residents can be seen climbing in the rubble.

An Israeli attack on a tent camp in Rafah


Displaced Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a tent camp in the southern Gaza Strip, April 22




SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

Pro-Palestine chants for ‘azaadi’ at Columbia University provokes debate

Protesters caused a stir at Columbia University when they used the Urdu chant, which some interpreted as an instance of anti-Semitism on campus.

“Azaadi”, originally a Persian word, means “freedom”. Kashmiri activists said the chant originated from their struggle for greater rights and autonomy in India.

Others say the slogan is associated with groups accused of trying to rid Kashmir of Hindus.



Pro-Palestinian demonstrations at MIT, Yale, NYU, Emerson college


Students at MIT set up the encampment of tents on campus to protest what they said was MIT’s failure to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and cut ties to Israel’s military


Pro-Palestinian demonstrators call for Yale to disinvest from military weapons manufacturers in New Haven, Connecticut


New York University students and pro-Palestinian supporters rally outside the NYU Stern School of Business building in New York


Student protesters sit in front of a tent during the Pro-Palestinian protest at the Columbia University campus in New York



SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

Mass grave reports ‘extremely troubling’: UN spokesperson

Stephane Dujarric has said that reports of mass graves discovered in Gaza were “extremely troubling” and renewed calls for a “credible and independent” investigation of the sites.

Responding to a question from a journalist on mass graves found at Gaza’s al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals, Dujarric said the reports were “yet another reason why we need a ceasefire” as well as “greater protection of hospitals”.




5 shot as Israeli forces open fire on cars, storm West Bank refugee camps

Israeli forces have shot two people during early morning raids on the Aqbat Jabr and Ein el-Sultan refugee camps located to the north and south of Jericho city, Wafa reports. One of the injured was shot in the chest and another was hit in the abdomen, Wafa reports, adding that the victims were receiving treatment at the Jericho government hospital.

Earlier in the night, three people were injured – two women aged 63 and 30 and a 19-year-old man – when Israeli forces opened fire on cars travelling on the Halhul bridge north of Hebron. They were said to be in “moderate” condition at a hospital in Hebron.

Wafa also reported military raids and arrests elsewhere:

  • In Tammun town, south of Tubas city, a 24-year-old was arrested at an Israeli checkpoint.
  • Israeli soldiers stormed a house in Jalbun village, east of Jenin, and set up a military command post on the second floor of the residence, while troops established a checkpoint and fired bullets at locals attempting to resist the incursion.
  • Armed Israeli settlers also opened fire on Palestinian homes in Sebastia village, northwest of Nablus. No casualties were reported from the attacks, which damaged several houses.

Israeli forces kill father of three in occupied West Bank’s Jericho: Report

A 44-year-old Palestinian man has been shot and killed during an Israeli military raid in Jericho city, the first death in a night of shootings that saw five other Palestinians wounded by Israeli bullets in the occupied West Bank.

Wafa identified the deceased as Shadia Issa Galaita, a father of three and brother of longtime Palestinian prisoner Fadi Galaita who has been imprisoned by Israel for 24 years.