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

SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

‘Attention has to remain’ on Gaza: Ilhan Omar on protests

The progressive US congresswoman says that protests at Columbia University have “now ignited a nationwide Gaza Solidarity movement”.

Protests have now spread to other universities after students, including Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi, were suspended and arrested at the university in New York on Thursday.

Omar said that while she is “glad to see this type of solidarity”, the focus must be on “the genocide in Gaza and the attention has to remain on that”.



Isn't that the purpose of the demonstrations? "Gaza solidarity movement" is ultimately about Gaza is it not? That more people join out of protest of free speech being attack, that's still about free speech on calling for a ceasefire and/or sanctions.

The problem is with the US media, spinning it into anti-semitic anti-Israel demonstrations.

Academics voice support for pro-Palestine student protests

Academics and scholars at Columbia University have expressed support for the ongoing student-led protest against Israel’s war on Gaza at the university.

Professor and Al Jazeera UpFront host Marc Lamont Hill said he will no longer deliver the 2024 Mamie Phipps Clark and Kenneth B Clark Distinguished Lecture on race and justice at Columbia University on Wednesday. Lamont Hill also said he “will not accept the accompanying $10,000 award” in light of the present academic boycott of the institution.

Bassam Khawaja, who teaches human rights at the university, said in a post on X that there was a “massive faculty walkout” on Monday opposing the university calling police to remove the Palestine solidarity protests.



Staff, students arrested at NYU pro-Palestine protests

Police have arrested staff and students protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza at New York University. Earlier, faculty members reportedly joined a line of people holding hands to form a line to separate student activists from the police.

The activist group Within our Lifetime said police then “arrested all faculty who were protecting students at the encampment”. Students at Columbia University and Yale University have also been arrested in recent days as pro-Palestinian student protests continue around the United States.




History repeating itself, free speech and anti-war protests go hand in hand.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1960s-america/a/the-student-movement-and-the-antiwar-movement

  • The student movement arose to demand free speech on college campuses, but as the US involvement in the Vietnam war expanded, the war became the main target of student-led protests.
  • News coverage of the war, which included graphic visual testimonies of the death and destruction in Vietnam, turned US public opinion increasingly against the war.
  • Revelations that the Johnson and Nixon administrations had lied to the American people about the war undermined the public’s trust in government.

Sound familiar?



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

Australian PM should apologise to UNRWA: Mehreen Faruqi

Australian Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has called on the Australian prime minister to “make a formal apology and immediately increase aid to UNRWA”, after an independent report on the UN agency said it was “pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services”.

“Labor must wake up from their unquestioning support of Israel and sanction it immediately,” Faruqi said.

Australia already restored 6 million Australian dollars ($3.9m) in funding to UNRWA in mid-March after suspending its support in January.

Faruqi said Australia’s decision to join other countries in suspending aid to UNRWA had contributed to the $450m the report found Israel’s unproven allegations had so far cost the UN agency.



The US can't claim they didn't know. It was all known long before but now it's written down in a US human rights report as well.

US rights reports on Israel highlights judicial discrimination against Palestinians

The US State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices says Israel’s war on Gaza has had “a significant negative impact on the human rights situation”, while details in the report demonstrate systemic discrimination against Palestinians in the judicial process.

According to the State Department, there were several reports that the Israeli government or its agents had “committed arbitrary or unlawful killings during” 2023, as well as “disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities”.

The report also addressed the conditions in Israeli jails and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, saying that “there were numerous reports that authorities held some prisoners in conditions that harmed their health, including severe overcrowding”.

“Military law allowed the indefinite administrative detention without charge or trial of Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza detained or imprisoned within Israel,” the report states.

“Israeli citizens who committed crimes within the West Bank were subject only to Israeli law and could only be tried in civilian courts within Israel, whereas Palestinians in the West Bank were subject to trial in Israeli military courts.”



SvennoJ on 22 April 2024

Biden CONDEMNS Columbia Student Protestors As 'Anti-Semitic'




Media SLAMS Pro-Palestinian Protestors At Columbia University





Palestinians Must Suffer "Agonising" Deaths - Because They Went To The Beach - Israeli TV




Cobretti2 on 23 April 2024

I don't get why the media keeps calling the protests PRO-Palestine. It's implying that they are racist towards Israel.

This is far form it, thee headlines should read Protestors against war in Palestine



 

 

SvennoJ on 23 April 2024

Fox and other networks call it anti-Israel protests. Pro Palestine doesn't mean they are racist to Israel either, more against the US veto on the recognition of Palestine as a state.

However indeed, the protests are against the involvement of the Universities with Israel, against their complicity in genocide, against stifling of free speech of anti war protestors, they're calling for a ceasefire and for Palestinians to be free. Pro Palestine captures it sort of but is easily twisted in black and white USA to anti Israel. In the end most advocate for a 2 state solution, implying both Israel and Palestine... Yet that seems to much for Fox viewers to comprehend.


NYU professor denounces ‘over-the-top response’ against demonstrators

Helga Tawil-Souri, an associated professor at New York University, says school administrators gave conflicting reasons for the crackdown on pro-Palestine demonstrators.

“When they brought in the police – hundreds of policemen in riot gear – they charged us with trespassing, though we are NYU faculty and students. I don’t know how we trespass on our own campus but that was the charge against us,” she told Al Jazeera.

It remains unclear how many demonstrators were arrested but news reports say “dozens”.

“I’ve been a professor at NYU for 20 years. I’ve never seen a crackdown of this nature and such an over-the-top response by campus security and then on the part of the NYPD [New York Police Department]. It is reflective of attempts across the country to crack down on what is being called pro-Palestine speech.”

 

‘Stop investing in this genocide’

In addition to antiwar demonstrations at Ivy League schools, pro-Palestine encampments have sprouted up on other campuses, including the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dozens of arrests have been made overnight, with school administrators cracking down. Mohammad Khalil, an activist from Columbia University, urged his school to stop funding war-related industries.

“The university should do something about the genocide that’s happening in Gaza. They should stop investing in this genocide that our people are now suffering from,” said Khalil.

Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into anti-Semitism and made them feel unsafe.

In an email to staff and students on Monday, Columbia University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said the school is cancelling in-person classes and moving to online teaching to “deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps”.



US student protesters see Washington’s ‘dishonesty’ over Gaza

Hassan Barari, a professor of international relations at Qatar University, says pro-Palestine protests that are snowballing across elite US universities are “not surprising” given the “scope of the genocide taking place in Gaza”.

“It’s obvious to many students that the American administration has been providing lip service when talking about humanitarian aid and the need to stop the war” – even as it keeps funding Israel with billions of dollars, said Barari, who taught at Yale University.

Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters have been arrested at Yale University, Columbia University and New York University as they held Gaza solidarity demonstrations.

Antiwar protests have also spread to Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan.


Demonstrators call for Yale University to disinvest from weapons-makers that supply Israel


Columbia, NYU, Yale on the boil over Israel’s war on Gaza

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

Top American schools are on edge. Classes will be held virtually because of mounting tension between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters with dozens of students and faculty members arrested.

UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese has highlighted the arrests and alleged targeting of students who showed solidarity with Palestine.

“What lessons are Western universities and governments imparting to their young citizens and students when they attack the very values and rights that are said to be foundational to Western societies?”


Last edited by SvennoJ - on 23 April 2024

Around the Network
SvennoJ on 23 April 2024

Israeli ships, warplanes pound sites in Gaza’s north, centre and south overnight

We are receiving reports that Israeli naval ships are attacking Gaza’s central coast in the areas of az-Zawayda, Deir el-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp, while artillery and fighter jets pounded eastern areas of Khan Younis city in the south and Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian territory.

Wafa reports that gunboats opened fire at dawn, attacking sites on the beaches in the three central Gaza areas.

Israeli jets also attacked targets in Gaza City and southern Khan Younis, according to Wafa and Al Jazeera Arabic, resulting in deaths, injuries and destruction of civilian homes.

Israeli artillery also fired on the Zeitoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City, according to the reports.


Video captures moment of Israeli bombing in north Gaza’s Beit Lahiya

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have obtained and verified video footage that shows the moment of an Israeli attack on a residential building in Beit Lahiya.

The sound of the explosion is followed by shouts as people take cover and smoke billows over the site of the strike in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The video also captures the immense destruction of the residential building.


 

‘Aura of fear’: Air attacks on Rafah seen as prelude to Israeli ground attack

UNRWA reports a “palpable aura of fear” among displaced Palestinians packed into the Rafah area of southern Gaza amid Israeli air attacks and promises by Israeli officials that an invasion is imminent.

“Airstrikes on Rafah have heightened concerns of an escalation in this southernmost area of Gaza, which is already hosting over half of Gaza’s population,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in the latest assessment of conditions in the war-torn territory.

A senior UNRWA official stressed the importance of allowing civilians safe passage to relocate from Rafah before the ground invasion by Israeli forces begins.

An estimated 1.4 million Palestinians have fled to Rafah – an area measuring some 64sq km (25sq miles) – in the hope of finding safety from Israeli attacks that have pulverised the north, centre and southern areas of Gaza over the past six months.

Foreign governments, including Israel’s staunchest ally the US, and international aid agencies, are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe if Israeli forces push ahead with their plan to launch a ground invasion of the Rafah area.




Palestinian snipers, rockets, mortars target Israeli forces in Beit Hanoon battles

Israeli forces operating in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoon city on Monday came under sniper fire as well as mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attacks by Palestinian armed groups, war monitors report.

Fighters with Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the self-claimed military wing of Fatah, reported several attacks carried out against Israeli units in Beit Hanoon and east of the city, which is located in the northeastern corner of the Gaza Strip.

According to the US-based military think tanks Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), Israeli forces have carried out “multiple raids targeting Palestinian militias in Beit Hanoun in recent weeks”.

Yet, the Palestinian resistance continues in Beit Hanoon.

“These attacks and the [Israeli military’s] raids indicate that Palestinian militia cells remain in Beit Hanoun,” the ISW and CTP said in their latest Gaza situation report, noting the situation in the city remains as “previously assessed”.







SvennoJ on 23 April 2024

Netanyahu promises to fight sanctions on Israeli military unit ‘with all my power’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said those who believe “they can impose sanctions on a unit” in the Israeli military should think again.

In an address shared on social media to mark the Jewish Passover Seder festival, Netanyahu said he will fight any attempt to sanction Israeli forces for human rights violations “with all my power”. “As our soldiers are united in defending us on the battlefield, we are united in defending them in the diplomatic arena,” he said.

Netanyahu made his comments as reports emerged that the US is considering sanctions against a unit of the Israeli military over human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that “processes” were under way to look into allegations of rights abuses by the Israeli military.

Reports indicate that the Netzah Yehuda, or “Judea Forever”, unit for ultra-Orthodox Jewish soldiers, which is stationed in the occupied West Bank, could be the target of sanctions.

Family not expecting justice for US victim manhandled by Netzah Yehuda unit

Omar Assad’s 81-year-old widow isn’t pinning hope on any action the United States might take against the battalion who manhandled her husband, leading to his death two years ago in the occupied West Bank.

Assad, a dual Palestinian-US citizen, died from a heart attack after being detained by members of the Israeli army’s Netzah Yehuda unit. His widow, Nazmiya Assad, told Reuters he had been coming home from a game of cards when the soldiers held him.

He was 78 at the time of his death, and still had a plastic zip-tie around one wrist when he was found dead in the early morning at a construction site in his village of Jiljilya, some 20 km (12 miles) north of Ramallah.

An autopsy found he died from a stress-induced heart attack brought on by being manhandled.

His death drew attention in the United States, which in 2022 called for a criminal investigation and is now reported by Israeli media to be planning sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda unit over its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank – an unprecedented step by Israel’s closest ally.

The Israeli military has said soldiers temporarily gagged Assad – who had a history of heart problems – with a strip of cloth and cuffed his hands with a zip tie because of his refusal to cooperate. The soldiers left him supine and unresponsive, saying they assumed he had fallen asleep.

Netzah Yehuda’s battalion commander was reprimanded and two officers were dismissed, but Israeli military prosecutors decided against pursuing criminal charges because they said there was no link between the errors made by soldiers and Assad’s death.



SvennoJ on 23 April 2024

ICRC expresses concern about West Bank violence

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has drawn attention to the “recent escalation of violence in multiple areas” of the occupied West Bank in an X post.

Since early last year, Israel has intensified raids in the West Bank, which were accelerated after Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7. At least 482 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war began.

But last week, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian communities ramped up significantly, and a raid by Israeli forces that lasted several days on the city of Tulkarem and its Nur Shams refugee camp killed 14 people. In its post, the ICRC said that over the weekend, two medics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) were harmed while trying to respond to calls for help.

“One volunteer suffered a gunshot wound while serving as a paramedic on a PRCS ambulance in Tulkarem. Mohammed Awad Allah Musa was killed while providing medical support on a private ambulance in Nablus,” the organisation said.

“Ambulances and medical workers are not a target,” it added.



Israeli forces kill Palestinian in Jericho

The PA ministry of health has said that Shadi Jalaita, 44, was killed by Israeli forces as they raided the occupied West Bank city of Jericho.

The ministry said that a child was critically injured in the raid, and a third person was wounded with a live round to the knee. According to the ministry, more than 480 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank since October 7.



SvennoJ on 23 April 2024

Iran calls EU sanctions ‘regrettable’ after attack on Israel

“It is regrettable to see the [European Union] deciding quickly to apply more unlawful restrictions against Iran just because Iran exercised its right to self-defence in the face of Israel’s reckless aggression,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on X.

“It is also regrettable that while the Israeli regime continues its genocide against the Palestinians through different war crimes, missile attacks & famine, the EU’s reaction to such crimes is almost nothing more than hollow words.”

He suggested sanctions on Israel instead.



Qatar denounces Israeli officials for ‘attacking the mediator’

Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari has criticised some Israeli ministers for accusing Qatar of “ulterior motives” in Gaza war negotiations.

“We have deep frustration with such statements especially from Israeli officials familiar with our mediation efforts and humanitarian work in Gaza,” he said.

“Attacking the mediator does not show commitment. And this is what we are getting from our Israeli counterparts. We’ve been accused of having ulterior motives. This is simply untrue. Mediation is the only way to end this conflict – to end the massacre in Gaza and return the Israeli captives. Without belief in the process itself, I feel it will be very difficult for the mediators to accomplish a result.”

Al-Ansari added: “As long as Qatar’s mediation efforts continue, there is no justification for the end [of] the presence of the Hamas political bureau in Doha. This office was opened – in coordination with the United States – for the purpose of mediation between both sides. As of now, nothing has changed in that regard.”



SvennoJ on 23 April 2024

Irish FM accuses Israel of deliberate attempt to undermine UNRWA: Report

Ireland’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister Micheal Martin has accused Israel of deliberately undermining the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in a bid to remove “the right to return” for Palestinians.

Martin said by attempting to “remove UNRWA”, Israeli had hoped to “essentially remove the right to return” for Palestinian refugees, Ireland’s state broadcaster RTE reports. UNRWA collectively recognises millions of displaced Palestinians who have a right to eventually return to their occupied land as stipulated under UN Resolution 194.

Martin, who is in Egypt and will visit the Gaza border crossing at Rafah, said Ireland’s decision to increase funding to UNRWA – despite the Israeli allegations that 12 staff had taken part in the October 7 attack – was now vindicated.

“We took an opposite view to most countries, we actually increased our aid at that time, and I’m hoping now as a result of the publication of this report that some countries who have paused their support will now allow their support,” he said.


Finland reiterates support for UNWRA following independent probe

Finland says it supports UNRWA activities in war-ravaged Gaza. The statement comes after an independent review found Israel provided “no evidence” of any wrongdoing by staff of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

“10% of our UNRWA support is now earmarked for risk management to prevent abuses,” the country’s Foreign Ministry posted on X.

Ville Tavio, Finland’s minister for development cooperation and foreign trade, met with Heli Uusikyla of UNRWA’s Gaza office, who visited the Finnish capital, Helsinki, it said.

EU humanitarian chief urges countries to restore UNRWA funding

“I call on the donors to support UNRWA – the Palestinian refugees’ lifeline,” Janez Lenarcic, the European commissioner for crisis management, has said on X.

The plea comes after an independent review said yesterday Israel had provided “no evidence” of any wrongdoing by staff of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The EU official said he welcomed the agency’s “significant number of compliance systems in place as well as recommendations for their further upgrade”.

Israel in January made the allegation that some UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 attacks, which led to numerous donor states suspending or pausing some $450m in funding. Many have since resumed funding while others – including the US, the largest donor – have not.

The review led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna found that “Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence” for its claims.

Norway urges donors to resume funding for UNRWA

Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide has said that UNRWA is the lifeline for the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza, calling on “countries that have still frozen their contributions to UNRWA to resume funding”.

“The situation is catastrophic. Gaza is in ruins. The population lacks everything, and many are starving. UNRWA’s presence is also crucial for other humanitarian organisations’ efforts in Gaza,” he said in a statement.

“UNRWA is much more than a humanitarian organisation. Mandated by the UN General Assembly, UNRWA is the international community’s commitment to Palestine refugees and their rights.”


UNRWA review discredits Israeli claims: Jordan’s top diplomat

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has said the independent investigation into the UN agency for Palestinian refugees “totally discredits Israel’s false accusations”.

“It confirms the agency’s neutrality and professionalism, and asserts it is indispensable, irreplaceable. UNRWA’s noble role must be supported. The agency must be protected from the Israeli conspiracy against it,” he said on X.

The review, from the former French foreign minister, found that Israel has not backed up claims it made against the refugee agency operating in Gaza.

UNRWA’s Lazzarini blasts ‘blatant disregard’ of agency’s premises, staff in Gaza

Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says attacks on the agency are primarily based on the “objective to strip the Palestinians” of their status as refugees.

“This is the reason why there are pushes today for UNRWA not to be present anymore in Gaza, but … we are also under pressure when it comes to [operations] in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” Lazzarini said at a news conference.

Lazzarini called on members of the UN Security Council for an independent investigation on the “blatant disregard … of UN premises, UN staff and UN operations in the Gaza Strip”, noting that about 180 UNRWA employees have been killed in the Strip since October 7.


UNRWA’s Lazzarini says working on ‘response plan’ after Colonna’s report

Lazzarini has welcomed the results of an independent review on the agency that were announced on Monday.

The review on the neutrality of UNRWA, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, was ordered after allegations made by Israel in January that some of the agency’s staff may have participated in the October 7 Hamas attacks. The report noted that Israel had yet to provide evidence for its allegations that some UNRWA staff were members of “terrorist” groups.

Lazzarini told reporters “we are committed” to implementing the report’s recommendations.

The agency already has a number of mechanisms “to deal with neutrality issues, far ahead than other UN agencies”, UNRWA’s commissioner-general said. “We need to be extremely vigilant, and we can always do more,” he added.

Lazzarini said his team is now working on a “response plan” to ensure “partners are aware” of the measures being taken in line with the report’s recommendations.