Saudi Arabia welcomes moves by Australia, New Zealand toward recognizing Palestinian state
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Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Australia's PM says Israel's Netanyahu ‘in denial' over suffering in Gaza
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu was 'in denial' about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a day after announcing Australia would recognize a Palestinian state for the first time. Australia will recognize a Palestinian state at next month's United Nations General Assembly, Albanese said on Monday, a move that adds to international pressure on Israel after similar announcements from France, Britain and Canada. Albanese said on Tuesday the Netanyahu government's reluctance to listen to its allies contributed to Australia's decision to recognize a Palestinian state. 'He again reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well, which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people,' Albanese said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC, recounting a Thursday phone call with Netanyahu discussing the issue. Australia's decision to recognize a Palestinian state is conditional on commitments received from the Palestinian Authority, including that militant group Hamas would have no involvement in any future state. Albanese said last month he would not be drawn on a timeline for recognition of a Palestinian state and has previously been wary of dividing public opinion in Australia, which has significant Jewish and Muslim minorities. But the public mood has shifted sharply after Israel said it planned to take military control of Gaza, amid increasing reports of hunger and malnutrition amongst its people. Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched across Sydney's Harbour Bridge this month calling for aid deliveries in Gaza as the humanitarian crisis worsened. 'This decision is driven by popular sentiment in Australia which has shifted in recent months, with a majority of Australians wanting to see an imminent end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,' said Jessica Genauer, a senior lecturer in international relations at Flinders University. Neighboring New Zealand has said it is still considering whether to recognize a Palestinian state, a decision that drew sharp criticism from former prime minister Helen Clark on Tuesday. 'This is a catastrophic situation, and here we are in New Zealand somehow arguing some fine point about whether we should recognize, we need to be adding our voice to the need for this catastrophe to stop,' she said in an interview with state broadcaster RNZ. 'This is not the New Zealand I've known.'
Arab News
5 hours ago
- Arab News
Increasing the danger: Journalist killing in Gaza sends a chilling message
DOHA: Israel's targeted killing of an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza over the weekend was noteworthy even for a conflict remarkably blood-soaked for journalists, leaving some experts to marvel that any news at all emerges from the territory. An Al Jazeera executive said Monday that it won't back down from covering what is going on there and called for news organizations to step up and recruit more journalists. A total of 184 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel in the Gaza war since its start in October 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That compares to the 18 journalists and media workers killed so far in the Russia-Ukraine war, CPJ said. Aside from rare guided tours, Israel has barred international media from covering the 22-month war in Gaza. News organizations instead rely largely on Palestinian Gaza residents and ingenuity to show the world what is happening there. Israel often questions the affiliations and biases of Palestinian journalists but doesn't permit others in. 'You simply are in awe when stories show up,' said Jane Ferguson, a veteran war correspondent and founder of Noosphere, an independent platform for journalists. She can't recall a conflict that has been more difficult for reporters to cover, and she's reported from South Sudan, Syria and Afghanistan. Correspondent Anas Al-Sharif knew he was a target, and left behind a message to be delivered upon his death. He and seven other people — six of them journalists — were killed in an air strike outside of Gaza City's largest hospital complex on Sunday. Israel swiftly claimed responsibility, saying without producing evidence that Al-Sharif had led a Hamas cell. It was a claim the news organization and Al-Sharif had denied. The toll of journalists in Gaza has been high Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press, BBC News and Reuters are among the organizations regularly reporting from Gaza. An Aug. 7 AP dispatch vividly described the hunger faced by many in Gaza: 'A single bowl of eggplant stewed in watery tomato juice must sustain Sally Muzhed's family of six for the day. She calls it moussaka, but it's a pale echo of the fragrant, lawyered, meat-and-vegetable dish that once filled Gaza's kitchens with its aroma.' Other recent AP reports carried images and text reporting from the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church, and a profile of an 18-year-old aspiring doctor now trying to survive sheltered in a tent. Journalists from The Washington Post and the Guardian recently accompanied a Jordanian relief mission and took images of Gaza from the air, despite some restrictions from Israel. The Guardian's Lorenzo Tondo wrote: 'Seen from the air, Gaza looks like the ruins of an ancient civilization, brought to light after centuries of darkness.' None of the organizations match the power and immediacy of Al Jazeera, however, in part because their correspondents have been in front of cameras. They've also paid the heaviest price: CPJ estimates that 11 journalists and media workers affiliated with AJ have been killed in the Gaza conflict, more than any other single organization. In a social media post written in June to be sent if he was killed, Al-Sharif wrote that 'I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification — so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent.' In another posting on X on Aug. 10, the day that he was killed, Al-Sharif wrote of the challenges covering the aftermath of one attack. He said he lost his strength and ability to express himself when he arrived at the scene. 'Body parts and blood were all around us, and corpses were scattered on top of each other,' he wrote. 'Tell me what words and phrases could help any journalist describe this horrific image. When I told you on air that it was an 'indescribable scene,' I was truly helpless in the face of this horrific sight.' Al Jazeera calls for other news organizations to come forward Salah Negm, news director at Al Jazeera English, said Monday it is very difficult to get people in to Gaza. But it is full of educated people and those with training in journalism who can help get stories out. He called on other news organizations to step up. 'We get the news from several sources on the ground in Gaza — not only journalists but also doctors, hospitals, civil servants, aid workers,' Negm said. 'A lot of people in Gaza talk to us.' Many of the journalists working in Gaza are facing the same struggles to find food, for themselves and their families, as the people they are covering. Noosphere's Ferguson said she's never before had to ask a reporter whether she had enough food for herself and her child. In an interview in May on 'Democracy Now!,' 22-year-old journalist Abubaker Abed described the difficult decision he made to leave Gaza to pursue his education in Ireland. Not only was he suffering from malnutrition, he said, but his mother was concerned that his work as a journalist would make him and his family targets. 'If I stayed, I would die,' he said. Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said she's concerned about the implications for journalists in future conflicts if what is happening in Gaza is allowed to continue without international condemnation that has real teeth. 'They're essentially admitting in public to what amounts to a war crime,' Ginsberg said, 'and they can do that because none of the other attacks on journalists have had any consequences. not in this war and not prior. It's not surprising that it can act with this level of impunity because no international government has really taken it to task.' Given all that they face, 'to me, the most remarkable thing is that journalists are continuing to cover (Gaza) at all,' she said.
Arab News
7 hours ago
- Arab News
How global unity can end Israel's Gaza genocide
The consequences of the Israeli genocide in Gaza will be dire. An event of this barbarity, sustained by an international conspiracy of moral inertia and silence, will not be relegated to history as just another conflict or a mere tragedy. The Gaza genocide will be a catalyst for major events to come. Israel and its benefactors are acutely aware of this reality. This is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in a race against time, desperately trying to ensure his country remains relevant, if not standing, in the coming era. He is pursuing this through territorial expansion in Syria, relentless aggression against Lebanon and, of course, the desire to annex all the Palestinian territories it occupies. But history cannot be controlled with such precision. However clever he may think he is, Netanyahu has already lost the ability to influence the outcome. He has been unable to set a clear agenda in Gaza, let alone achieve any strategic goals in a 365 sq. km expanse of destroyed concrete and ashes. The Gazans have proven that their collective 'sumud' (steadfastness) can defeat one of the world's best-equipped armies. History has taught us that changes of great magnitude are inevitable. The true heartbreak is that such change is not happening fast enough to save a starving population in Gaza and that the growing pro-Palestinian sentiment is not expanding at the rate needed to achieve a decisive political outcome. Our confidence in this inevitable change is rooted in history. The First World War was not just a 'Great War' but a cataclysmic event that shattered the geopolitical order of its time. Four empires were fundamentally reshuffled; some, like the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman, were erased from existence. However clever he may think he is, Netanyahu has already lost the ability to influence the outcome. Dr. Ramzy Baroud The new world order resulting from the First World War was short-lived. The international system we have today is a direct outcome of the Second World War. This includes the UN and all the Western-centric economic, legal and political institutions that were forged at Bretton Woods in 1944, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and, ultimately, NATO, thus sowing the seeds of yet more global conflict. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was heralded as the event that would resolve the lingering conflicts of the post-Second World War geopolitical struggle. It supposedly ushered in a new and permanent global realignment — or, to some, the 'end of history.' History, however, had other plans. Not even the horrific Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the subsequent US-led wars could reinvent the global order in a way that was consistent with US-Western interests and priorities. Gaza is infinitely small when judged by its geography, economic worth or political import. Yet, it has proven to be the most significant global event in terms of defining this generation's political consciousness. The fact that the self-proclaimed guardians of the post-Second World War order are the very entities that are violently and brazenly violating every international and humanitarian law is enough to fundamentally alter our relationship with the 'rules-based order' championed by the West. This may not seem significant now, but it will have profound, long-term consequences. It has largely compromised and, in fact, delegitimized the moral authority imposed, often through violence, by the West over the rest of the world for decades, especially in the Global South. Gaza has proven to be the most significant global event in terms of defining this generation's political consciousness. Dr. Ramzy Baroud This self-imposed delegitimization will also impact the very idea of democracy, which has been under siege in many countries, including in the West. This is only natural, considering that most of the planet feels strongly that Israel must end its genocide and that its leaders must be held accountable. Yet, little to no action has been taken. The shift in Western public opinion in favor of Palestinians is astounding when considered against the backdrop of the media's dehumanization of the Palestinian people and various governments' blind allegiance to Israel. More shocking is that this shift is largely the result of the work of ordinary people on social media, activists mobilizing in the streets and independent journalists, mostly in Gaza, working under extreme duress and with minimal resources. The left is problematic in its own way. While not a monolith and while many on the left have championed the global protests against the genocide, others remain splintered and unable to form a unified front, even temporarily. Some leftists are still chasing their own tail, crippled by the worry that being anti-Zionist will earn them the label of being antisemitic. For this group, self-policing and self-censorship are preventing them from taking decisive action. History does not take its cues from Israel or the Western powers. Gaza will result in the kind of global shifts that will affect us all, far beyond the Middle East. For now, however, it is most urgent that we use our collective will and actions to influence a single historical event: ending the genocide and famine in Gaza. The rest will be left to history and to those who wish to be relevant when the world changes again. • Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle. His latest book, 'Before the Flood,' will be published by Seven Stories Press. His website is X: @RamzyBaroud
