UN blasts Israeli minister for taunting Palestinian prisoner
GENEVA : The UN's human rights office today condemned a far-right Israeli minister for taunting a Palestinian prisoner in his cell and sharing the footage online.
National security minister Itamar Ben Gvir published a video on Friday last week showing him confronting Marwan Barghouti, the most high-profile Palestinian detainee in Israeli custody.
UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said the footage was unacceptable, adding: 'The minister's behaviour and the publication of the footage constitute an attack on Barghouti's dignity.'
Barghouti, now in his sixties, was sentenced in 2004 to life in prison on murder charges.
Regarded as a terrorist by Israel, he often tops opinion polls of popular Palestinian leaders and is sometimes described by his supporters as the 'Palestinian Mandela'.
'International law requires that all those in detention be treated humanely, with dignity, and their human rights respected and protected,' said Kheetan.
He warned that the minister's actions 'may encourage violence against Palestinian detainees' and enable rights violations in Israeli prisons.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
30 minutes ago
- Malay Mail
Israel insists on full hostage release in any Gaza truce deal after Hamas accepts new proposal
JERUSALEM, Aug 20 — A senior Israeli official yesterday said the government stood firm on its call for the release of all hostages in any future Gaza ceasefire deal, after Hamas accepted a new truce proposal. Mediators are awaiting an official Israeli response to the plan, a day after Hamas signalled its readiness for a fresh round of talks aimed at ending nearly two years of war. Mediator Qatar expressed guarded optimism, noting the latest proposal was 'almost identical' to an earlier version agreed to by Israel. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Israeli official told AFP the government's stance had not changed and demanded the release of all hostages in any deal. The two foes have held on-and-off indirect negotiations throughout the war, resulting in two short truces during which Israeli hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, but they have ultimately failed to broker a lasting ceasefire. Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have mediated the frequent rounds of shuttle diplomacy. Egypt said Monday that it and Qatar had sent the new proposal to Israel, adding 'the ball is now in its court'. Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said on Tuesday that Hamas had given a 'very positive response, and it truly was almost identical to what the Israeli side had previously agreed to'. 'We cannot make any claims that a breakthrough has been made. But we do believe it is a positive point,' he added. Mounting pressure According to a report in Egyptian state-linked outlet Al-Qahera News, the latest deal proposes an initial 60-day truce, a partial hostage release, the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners and provisions allowing for the entry of aid. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly comment on the plan, but said last week that his country would accept 'an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war'. Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said on social media that his group had 'opened the door wide to the possibility of reaching an agreement, but the question remains whether Netanyahu will once again close it, as he has done in the past'. Hamas's acceptance of the proposal came as Netanyahu faces increasing pressure at home and abroad. On Sunday, tens of thousands took to the streets in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv to call for an end to the war and a deal to free the hostages still held captive. Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's October 2023 attack that triggered the war, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. The new proposal also comes after Israel's security cabinet approved plans to conquer Gaza City, despite fears it will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis. On Tuesday, the new offensive was presented to the defence minister by the military's top brass. Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir—who has staunchly opposed ending the war—slammed the plan, warning of a 'tragedy' if Netanyahu 'gives in to Hamas'. Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said: 'Unfortunately, today's Zionist reactions reflect Netanyahu's malicious intentions to continue the war, genocide and ethnic cleansing.' Unbearable In Gaza, the civil defence agency reported Israeli strikes and fire killed 48 people across the territory on Tuesday. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the situation was 'very dangerous and unbearable' in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City, where he said 'artillery shelling continues intermittently'. The Israeli military declined to comment on specific troop movements, saying only that it was 'operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities' and took 'feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm'. The military later said a strike in Khan Yunis overnight targeted a Hamas militant. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swaths of the Palestinian territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military. In the Zikim area of northern Gaza on Tuesday, an AFP journalist saw Palestinians hauling sacks of food aid along dusty roads lined with rubble and damaged buildings. Gazan Shawg Al-Badri said it took 'three to four hours' to carry flour, what she called 'white gold', back to her family's tent. 'This bag is worth the whole world,' she said. Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's offensive has killed at least 62,064 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable. — AFP
Malay Mail
an hour ago
- Malay Mail
The Playbook of Silence: From Gaza to Colombo — how power murders witnesses, bans cameras, and calls it ‘security' — Che Ran
AUGUST 20 — A press tent is not a battlefield. And yet, near the gates of Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital on the night of August 11, 2025, an Israeli strike ripped through a cluster of reporters' tarps and cables. Four Al Jazeera staff were killed: Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, and Mohammed Noufal. Hours later, the army publicly claimed responsibility and smeared al-Sharif as a 'terrorist,' offering no verifiable evidence. If this feels like a plot twist, it isn't. It's the next chapter in a documented pattern. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) counts about 190 journalists and media workers killed since the Israel–Gaza war erupted — the deadliest conflict for the press in CPJ's history. CPJ's running tally and analyses spell out a through-line: overwhelming Palestinian casualties; frequent family 'wipeouts'; and near-zero accountability. When journalists die with the word PRESS stamped across their chests, the 'accident' defence collapses. Ask the family of Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah, killed on October 13, 2023 in south Lebanon when an Israeli tank fired two 120 mm rounds at a clearly identified press group. A Reuters forensic reconstruction, a UNIFIL report, Amnesty, HRW, and CPJ all converged: the shells came from Israel; the group was plainly marked; the attack likely violated international law. Still, no one has been held to account. Palestinians protest against the killing of journalists in Gaza, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 11, 2025. — Reuters pic And before Gaza burned, a voice that taught a generation of Arabs what journalism sounds like — Shireen Abu Akleh — was shot dead in Jenin in May 2022. After months of evasions, Israel conceded a 'high probability' an Israeli soldier killed her; the New York Times investigation had already said the same. No criminal case. No charges. The message is louder than any denial. Legalise the blackout On April 1, 2024, Israel's parliament passed a law letting officials shutter foreign broadcasters deemed a 'national security' risk. On May 5, 2024, the government raided Al Jazeera's office, seized gear, and ordered Israeli providers to yank it off-air — steps extended again in June. This wasn't content moderation. It was a switch flipped on a newsroom. Blackouts don't stop at borders. Israel destroyed Gaza's al-Jalaa Tower — home to AP and Al Jazeera — during the May 2021 assault, erasing years of equipment and archives in one televised implosion. Through 2024–2025, Israel barred foreign media from independent entry to Gaza unless embedded or escorted, a chokehold on eyewitness reporting. We've seen this movie before — in Sri Lanka If Gaza is the present tense of media murder, Sri Lanka is the handbook. In January 2009, Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of The Sunday Leader, was ambushed and shot on his way to work in Colombo. Days later, his posthumous editorial — 'And Then They Came for Me' — ran exactly as he wrote it: 'When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.' Sixteen years on, impunity endures; rights groups have repeatedly urged credible prosecutions. Disappearance as policy: Cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda vanished on 24 January 2010; his case remains a byword for enforced disappearance and stalled justice. J.S. Tissainayagam was convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in 2009 for journalism and later pardoned — a textbook misuse of a law activists still call draconian. The beatings of Poddala Jayantha (abducted and dumped by a 'white van' squad, June 2009) and the near-fatal attack on editor Upali Tennakoon (January 2009) sealed that era's signature: state-aligned terror against the press. Burn the printing press: The Tamil-language daily Uthayan in Jaffna was shot up and torched — April 2013 was the fifth such attack since January that year alone. Uthayan has lost staff to gunmen, seen warehouses burned under curfew, and endured decades of threats blamed by observers on state forces and allied paramilitaries. Different island. Same playbook. Sri Lanka still chills the messenger with new tools. RSF ranked Sri Lanka 150/180 in 2024, citing the Online Safety Act (January 2024) and ongoing misuse of the PTA; in 2025 it ticked up to 139, but RSF still classifies conditions as 'very serious.' Translation: the path out of impunity is unfinished. Same script, different uniforms Step 1 — Smear the reporter as an enemy combatant or traitor. (Gaza: 'Hamas operative'; Sri Lanka: 'LTTE mouthpiece.') Step 2 — Criminalise journalism with 'emergency' or 'terrorism' laws. Step 3 — Erase infrastructure: seize cameras, torch presses, bomb towers. Step 4 — Stall investigations until the clock runs out. It's not chaos. It's design. When the world blinks, the law sometimes doesn't: On May 20, 2024, the International Criminal Court prosecutor sought arrest warrants for Israeli leaders (and Hamas commanders) over Gaza, including the alleged use of starvation as a method of warfare. On May 24, 2024, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to 'immediately halt' its offensive in Rafah under the Genocide Convention case brought by South Africa. These are facts, not slogans — the first legal bricks in what accountability could look like. Roll-call of the fallen (a fragment) Gaza/ Region: Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal (Al Jazeera, Aug 2025). Issam Abdallah (Reuters, Oct 2023). Shireen Abu Akleh (Al Jazeera, May 2022). CPJ's Gaza ledger: ~192 journalists killed since Oct 2023. Sri Lanka: Lasantha Wickrematunge (Jan 2009), Dharmeratnam 'Taraki' Sivaram (Apr 2005), Mylvaganam Nimalarajan (Oct 2000), Subramaniyam Sugitharajah (Jan 2006), Uthayan staff and distributors (2006–2013). Each name opens a case file; almost none close with justice. The point of killing a journalist It's not just to silence one witness. It's to criminalise a narrative — to starve the world of proof, so atrocities can be denied as 'unverified'. That's why Israel banned Al Jazeera domestically and kept foreign media largely locked out of Gaza. That's why Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist governments in Sri Lanka leaned on the PTA, armed the Press Council, waved through 'white van' abductions, and green-lit raids on Tamil newsrooms. Different contexts, identical outcome: erase testimony. What we owe the dead We owe them precision — names, dates, places — and persistence. Use the tools that exist: Demand independent, international probes of the al-Shifa press-tent strike and all journalist killings in the war — with sanctions tied to non-cooperation. Back CPJ/RSF legal actions and push states to enforce the ICJ's orders; press ICC judges to move swiftly on the warrant applications. In Sri Lanka, insist on reopening the Lasantha case, concluding Eknaligoda's, and repealing the PTA/Online Safety Act provisions weaponized against journalists. History did not begin in Gaza, and it did not end in Mullivaikkal. We have seen this before — the banning, the branding, the bullets. We either recognize the script and stop it, or we wait for the next press tent to go dark. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
Kim slams military drills while inspecting warship
Boost for defence: Kim inspecting the warship 'Choe Hyon' in Nampo, North Korea. — AP Leader Kim Jong-un condemned South Korean-US military drills and vowed a rapid expansion of his nuclear forces to counter rivals, state media said, as he inspected his most advanced warship being fitted with nuclear-capable systems. Kim's visit to the western port of Nampo on Monday came as the South Korean and US militaries kicked off their annual large-scale summertime exercise to bolster readiness against growing North Korean threats. The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield, which the allies describe as defensive, will mobilise 21,000 troops, including 18,000 South Koreans. North Korea has long denounced the allies' joint drills as invasion rehearsals and Kim has often used them to justify his own military displays and testing activities aimed at expanding his nuclear weapons programme. While inspecting the warship Choe Hyon, a 5,000-tonne-class destroyer first unveiled in April, Kim said the allies' joint military drills show hostility and their supposed 'will to ignite a war,' the North's Korean Central News Agency said. He claimed that the exercises have grown more provocative than before by incorporating a 'nuclear element,' requiring the North to respond with 'proactive and overwhelming' countermeasures. 'The security environment around the DPRK is getting more serious day by day and the prevailing situation requires us to make a radical and swift change in the existing military theory and practice and rapid expansion of nuclearisation,' KCNA paraphrased Kim as saying, using the initials of North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The government of South Korea's new liberal President Lee Jae-myung, who has expressed a willingness to repair ties and resume dialogue with the North, did not immediately respond to Kim's comments. — AP
