Young Turks drive protests against Erdogan as new generation seeks change
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Saudi Gazette
17 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
Australia to recognize Palestinian state, leaving US increasingly isolated among key allies
BRISBANE — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday that his country will recognize a Palestinian state in September, joining a growing list of Western allies as international condemnation and anger builds over Israel's actions in Gaza. A formal recognition will be made at the United Nations General Assembly next month, where 'Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority,' Albanese said at a press conference. On Monday, New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters said his country was also considering recognizing a Palestinian state, and would make a decision at a cabinet meeting in September. 'New Zealand has been clear for some time that our recognition of a Palestinian state is a matter of when, not if,' Peters said in a statement, echoing the language used by Australian officials in the weeks leading up to Monday's announcement. Describing the situation in Gaza as an 'absolute human catastrophe,' New Zealand Prime Minister Chrisopher Luxon said in a press conference that it was 'entirely appropriate that we take the time to actually make sure we weigh up our decision and work that through in a sensible way.' Australia joins the United Kingdom, France and Canada in announcing plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September. The move leaves the United States increasingly isolated from some of its closest allies in its defense of Israel's escalating military campaign that's decimated the besieged enclave after almost two years of war. If Wellington also moves, it will mean that four of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network comprising the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, will recognize Palestinian statehood. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she'd spoken to US Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio in a call Sunday to give him advance notice of Australia's impending announcement. A read-out of the call released by the US did not mention Palestinian statehood. In an interview with Catholic broadcaster EWTN last week, Rubio said that declarations of support for a Palestinian state were 'largely symbolic' and only 'emboldened Hamas and made it harder to achieve peace.' Albanese said Australia had sought and received assurances from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas would play no role in any future Palestinian state. Other conditions include a commitment to demilitarize and to hold general elections, abolish a 'system of payments to the families of prisoners and martyrs,' and governance and education reform, as well as 'international oversight to guard against the incitement of violence and hatred,' Albanese said. 'A two-state solution is humanity's best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict suffering and starvation in Gaza,' he said. 'This is about much more than drawing a line on a map. This is about delivering a lifeline to the people of Gaza.' Canada and France have both said they would recognize a Palestinian state in September, when world leaders meet in New York for the UN General Assembly. The UK has said that it will, too, if Israel does not meet conditions that include agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a rare press conference with international media in which he called steps by Western nations to recognize Palestinian statehood 'shameful.' 'To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole, just like that, fall right into it, and buy this canard is disappointing,' Netanyahu said. 'But it's not going to change our position. We will not commit national suicide to get a good op ed for two minutes.' Australian Foreign Minister Wong said, 'we cannot keep doing the same thing, and hoping for a different outcome. We can't keep waiting for the end of a peace process that has ground to a halt.' Wong framed the decision as an 'opportunity as a nation to contribute to momentum towards two states' which she underscored was 'the only prospect for peace.' Israel announced an expansion of its war in Gaza on Friday, with a planned military takeover of Gaza City that is expected to involve the forced evacuation of up to a million people. On Sunday, United Nations officials and UN Security Council member states condemned the plan, saying it would lead to 'another calamity' and constitute 'further violations of international law.' Ramesh Rajasingham, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva said what is unfolding in Gaza 'is no longer a looming hunger crisis – this is starvation, pure and simple.' Last month, the UN-backed food security agency the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned that 'the worst case scenario of famine' was unfolding in Gaza, its starkest alert yet as starvation spreads. Hunger-related deaths are rising in the enclave, especially among children, Rajasingham told the UN Security Council. Since October 2023, 98 children have died from severe acute malnutrition — 37 since July 1 alone, he said, citing health authorities in Gaza. Israel is facing growing global condemnation over its conduct in Gaza, with large protests breaking out in major cities - including London and Australia's Sydney - as people demonstrate their horror and anger over starvation in the territory. More than 460 people were arrested at a massive protest in London on Saturday and, last week, more than 90,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Organizers put the figure at closer to 300,000 and plan more protests this month. — CNN
Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
Recognition of Palestine: a strategic recalibration of the global conscience
As the world confronts the moral collapse unfolding in Gaza and the dangerous entrenchment of unilateralism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the international community is beginning to coalesce around a long-delayed imperative: formal recognition of the state of Palestine. What was once considered a diplomatic outlier — recognition of Palestinian statehood outside the framework of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations — is now gaining legitimacy as a necessary corrective to decades of political stagnation and asymmetry. July's international conference on the two-state solution, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France at the UN headquarters in New York, was a critical inflection point in the global approach to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Countries such as France, Malta, Spain, Ireland and even the UK have either formally recognized a Palestinian state or declared their readiness to do so. Such actions are not merely symbolic gestures, they are a collective geopolitical recalibration, an assertion that the Israeli strategy of permanent occupation and settlement expansion is incompatible with international law, regional stability and basic morality. It is no longer tenable to continue placating Israeli defiance by treating Palestinian sovereignty as a negotiable commodity. For years, Western powers, led by the US, have clung to the illusion that statehood must be the end product of bilateral negotiations — a formula that effectively handed Israel the power of veto over the very existence of Palestine. In practice, this posture enabled Israel to construct an irreversible reality on the ground: the annexation of land, building of settlements, and fragmentation of Palestinian society. But a growing number of countries are now rejecting that logic. They understand that Palestinian self-determination is not a gift to be granted, it is a legal and moral right enshrined in the UN Charter and countless international resolutions. Recognition of Palestinian statehood is therefore not a reward to be handed out for good behavior or used as a bargaining chip; it is an act to rectify historical injustice and realign global diplomacy with its own professed principles. The momentum building in Europe is particularly instructive. France, traditionally cautious on the issue, is now at the forefront of this diplomatic shift. Ireland and Spain, longtime advocates for Palestinian rights, have already shifted from rhetoric to action. Malta has followed suit, and the British Parliament has witnessed growing calls for recognition of Palestine, with many MPs now urging the government to match its verbal commitment to a two-state solution with a concrete policy to achieve it. This surge in recognition efforts also carries real strategic weight. It signals a broader divergence from a decades-old transatlantic consensus, dominated by Washington, that has consistently blocked the admission of Palestine to the UN as a full member (it currently has observer status), and shielded Israeli authorities from accountability at the International Criminal Court for their actions. By recognizing the State of Palestine without Israeli consent, these nations are not only challenging an obsolete consensus, they are actively reshaping it. Indeed, the cumulative effect of these recognitions could transform the diplomatic landscape; they help strengthen the Palestinian Authority's claim to full sovereignty, and enable greater Palestinian participation in multilateral institutions. Enhanced status at the UN and other international organizations would empower Palestinians to bring legal claims against Israeli authorities for their actions, including those related to settlement expansion, war crimes and the blockade on Gaza. This would subject Israel's conduct to international scrutiny in ways it has long sought to avoid. By recognizing the State of Palestine without Israeli consent, these nations are not only challenging an obsolete consensus, they are actively reshaping it. Hani Hazaimeh Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have all stepped forward to provide aid to Gaza, distinguishing themselves as regional powers committed not only to humanitarian relief but to a recentering of the Palestinian issue in global discourse. This Arab engagement is not peripheral, it is foundational to any long-term regional solution. But the central question remains: Will Israel and the US bow to this evolving international consensus? All the signs suggest they will continue to resist, at least in the short term. The Netanyahu government, propped up by a coalition of ultranationalists and religious extremists, continues to treat Palestinian statehood as an existential threat rather than a diplomatic necessity. Its response to international recognition efforts has been to double down on its own maximalist policies: expansion of settlements, tightening of its grip on East Jerusalem, and now the expansion of its unrelenting military campaign in Gaza that has shocked even its closest allies. The Trump administration, for its part, remains hesitant to act. Washington's reluctance to endorse recognition stems in part from domestic political considerations, and in part from its historical alignment with Israel's security narrative. However, the erosion of America's credibility as an 'honest broker' is accelerating. As more democracies recognize Palestine, the US risks diplomatic isolation on an issue where it once claimed moral leadership. There is, nonetheless, a growing awareness within Washington that the status quo is unsustainable. Younger Americans, progressives and diaspora communities — particularly Arab Americans and those Jewish Americans critical of Israeli policies — are demanding a shift in US policy. The Democratic Party itself is increasingly divided on how to respond to the actions of Israel. These internal pressures, combined with external diplomatic shifts, might eventually compel the US to reevaluate its rigid stance on the issue. Ultimately, recognition of Palestinian statehood is about more than diplomatic titles or UN votes. It is about whether the international community will continue to tolerate a world order in which might trumps right, or it will reclaim the moral clarity that animated the institutions it built in the aftermath of the Second World War. It is about affirming the fact that sovereignty, dignity and self-determination are not rights reserved for the powerful and the privileged, but the inalienable rights of all peoples, Palestinians included. The cascade of recognition of Palestinian statehood is a critical juncture. If it is sustained, the momentum could break the paralysis that has defined Middle East peace efforts for generations. It could force Israel back to the negotiating table with clear parameters grounded in international law. And it could restore a measure of credibility to global diplomacy, which has too often failed the Palestinian people. The recognition of Palestine will not, on its own, end the occupation or resolve all dimensions of the conflict. But it is a necessary first step; a recalibration of the global conscience, a diplomatic counterweight to decades of impunity, and perhaps the last viable path toward a just and durable peace in the Middle East. • Hani Hazaimeh is a senior editor based in Amman. X: @hanihazaimeh
Saudi Gazette
4 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
Germany halts arms sales to Israel after Gaza takeover plan approved
BERLIN — Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that country will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in Gaza "until further notice". The move from Berlin, which has historically been a stalwart supporter of Israel, comes after the Israeli Cabinet announced plans to take over Gaza City. In a statement, Merz emphasised that Israel "has the right to defend itself against Hamas' terror" and said that the release of Israeli hostages and "purposeful" negotiations toward a ceasefire in the 22-month war "are our top priority". He also said Hamas must not have a role in the future governance of Gaza. "The even harsher military action by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, approved by the Israeli (security) cabinet last night, makes it increasingly difficult for the German government to see how these goals will be achieved," he added. "Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice." The German government remains deeply concerned about the suffering of civilians in Gaza, he said. "With the planned offensive, the Israeli government bears even greater responsibility than before for providing for their needs," Merz explained. He called on Israel to allow comprehensive access for aid deliveries, including for UN organisations and other NGOs, and said Israel "must continue to comprehensively and sustainably address the humanitarian situation in Gaza." Germany also called on Israel's government "not to take any further steps toward annexing the West Bank." Israel imports almost 70% of its military arsenal from the US, the world's largest arms exporter. Germany is Israel's second biggest supplier and since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza started in October 2023, Berlin has exported €485 million worth of weapons. Italy ranks third, supplying less than 1% of Israel's military kit. Merz's comments come amid a sea change of opinion among a number of Western countries about how the war on Hamas in Gaza is being fought and the resulting humanitarian crisis. In July, the foreign ministers of 28 countries, including Belgium and the United Kingdom, issued a joint statement saying the war "must end now" and that Israel must comply with international law. The foreign ministers said "the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths' and condemned 'the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food." In January, Israel banned the main UN organisation delivering aid to Palestinians in Gaza, UNRWA, from operating, claiming the agency turned a blind eye to Hamas members in its ranks. Responsibility for aid distribution was handed over to the opaque US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which had no previous experience of delivering aid to combat zones. Its delivery method has been criticised by established aid groups and deliveries at its four distribution sites across Gaza have often seen people killed, either in crowd crushes or after Israeli forces or security contractors opened fire near aid-seekers. Also last month, French President Emmanuel Macron said France would recognise Palestine as a state at the UN General Assembly in September, adding that he hoped the move would help bring peace to the region. Shortly after that announcement, Portugal's government said it was consulting the country's main political parties about potential recognition of a Palestinian state. — Euronews
