Feeding babies in Gaza: Palestinian mothers out of resources
31/07/2025
Israel: Reactions to Germany's shift on recognising a Palestinian state
31/07/2025
Germany: Process to recognise Palestine state "must begin now"
31/07/2025
War in Gaza: Washington's support for Israel is dividing the MAGA camp
31/07/2025
Arab nations call on Hamas to disarm and relinquish control of Gaza
Middle East
31/07/2025
Trump's tariff policies: US consumers face price hikes
31/07/2025
Russian air strikes pound Kyiv, 6-year-old boy among dead, Zelensky says
Europe
31/07/2025
Los Angeles: Some undocumented migrants scared to leave homes
31/07/2025
Trump announces 25% tariff on India and unspecified penalties for buying Russian oil
31/07/2025
Ukraine's parliament to consider restoring power of anti-graft agencies
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LeMonde
12 minutes ago
- LeMonde
The encouraging response to France's initiative to recognize Palestine
One week after President Emmanuel Macron pledged on July 24 to recognize the State of Palestine at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly in September, there have been notable shifts. Two other G7 member states, the United Kingdom and Canada, have also taken steps toward recognition, as has Portugal. While the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict calls for caution, this momentum is encouraging. The French commitment would certainly not have resonated the same way if Israel had finally ended its war against Gaza and the Palestinians surviving there – with no resolution for the hostages still held captive. Instead, the coalition led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose escalation by evoking ethnic cleansing and wielding starvation as a weapon. The Israeli-American organization set up to reinforce Israeli control over Gaza has produced well-known results: notoriously insufficient food distributions that have turned into bloodbaths due to its incompetence. With Israel maintaining total control over access to this narrow strip of land-turned-deathtrap, it is solely responsible for the global outrage provoked by the suffering inflicted upon its residents. Unsurprisingly, the French initiative has sparked Israel's fury. One can only hope that this will help open the eyes of those who still see Israel as it once was, rather than what it has become. The overwhelming adoption by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, of a non-binding resolution in favor of annexing the West Bank is another warning sign. It is regrettable that Israeli centrist parties chose to abstain on an issue concerning a territory conquered militarily in 1967 and colonized by force, over which Israel has no legitimate right. Against this backdrop of Israeli intransigence, the French initiative stands out for restoring a political dimension at a time when the lack of any prospects has fueled extremism for years. Especially significant is its clear stance toward Hamas, which bears responsibility for triggering this ongoing tragedy – namely, the massacres of October 7, 2023. It is imperative that Hamas be disarmed and evicted, something that more than 22 months of all-out war have failed to achieve. A glimmer of hope This position is shared by Arab countries, which could help rebuild Gaza and offer a glimmer of hope to its people once the fighting ends. The corollary of Hamas's removal has also been reaffirmed: the rebuilding of a Palestinian Authority (PA) that is currently discredited. It is worth recalling that the PA was established by the 1993 Oslo Accords to support a peace process, not to serve as a powerless auxiliary to an occupying power. But there is no guarantee that the momentum seen since July 24 will bear fruit. The threats made by Donald Trump against Canada following Prime Minister Mark Carney's statement in favor of recognizing Palestine demonstrate the determination of those unwilling to exert any meaningful pressure on Netanyahu. Yet the voices in France and abroad that have criticized Macron's initiative offer no alternative but to remain entrenched in a dead end.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Donald Trump orders nuclear submarines moved after Russian 'provocative' comments
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France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Their families fled the Nazis. Facing Trump, US Jews are making Germany ‘Plan B'
Joe Sacks, a high school science teacher in Washington, DC, has begun the process of obtaining German citizenship. He is one of hundreds of Jewish Americans looking to reclaim German citizenship after their families fled the Nazis. "You click 'Yes, I'm Jewish' on the German form and send it to the German government,' he told NPR in an interview last month. 'It's wild.' Among the hundreds of Jewish-American applicants seeking German citizenship, many cite practical reasons like easier travel or opportunities in Europe. Others say they want to have a 'Plan B' in today's tense political climate. But for many, it is a decision taken with a heavy heart. A growing trend Trump's attempts to demonize and scapegoat segments of the population – notably immigrants, 'elite' institutions like universities as well as the media – are uncomfortable echoes of 1930s prewar Germany. His insistence on abject loyalty and taking control of state, independent and cultural institutions to serve his own ends have drawn comparisons to fascist and autocratic regimes. And more than one former Trump adviser has publicly made a Nazi salute – in one case, prompting a French far-right leader to cancel a planned US speech. The United States is also experiencing a surge in hate crime and xenophobic speech. "This rise of authoritarianism just parallels the rise of Hitler,' Eric Podietz, a retired, Philadelphia-based IT consultant who has applied for German citizenship, told NPR. "The squelching of speech and the academic institutions being compromised. The signs are there. It's happening." Podietz's mother fled Germany when she was a child in the late 1930s. Like Sacks, he isn't planning to move, but is increasingly worried by the political rhetoric in the United States that he says harks back to that heard in Germany before his family was forced to flee. At a ceremony held in July 2024 at the German consulate in New York, 82 Holocaust survivors, along with their children and grandchildren, became German citizens. "We've seen an upward trend since 2017, when Donald Trump [first] became president,' David Gill, Germany's then consul general in New York, told the German news program Tagesschau, which covered the event. And the numbers only continue to increase. The New York consulate received 350 applications in 2016 versus 1,500 in 2024, which resulted in 700 naturalizations, according to the German Consulate General NY Instagram account. Streamlined procedure The German constitution granted citizenship to former German citizens who were persecuted by the Nazis and their descendants back in 1949. But for years, difficult legal requirements prevented many applicants from taking advantage. Some were denied German citizenship because their ancestors had adopted another nationality before their German citizenship was officially revoked. Individuals born before April 1, 1953, could only obtain citizenship if they were able to prove that their father had been stripped of German nationality – citizenship having been stripped from the mother was not enough. Germany addressed these problems and others beginning in 2021, significantly simplifying the citizenship process. Anyone applying now can rely on proof obtained on the maternal side, and no longer need to prove they can support themselves financially. Applicants just need to prove that their ancestors were persecuted in Germany between 1933 and 1945, or that they belonged to a targeted group like Jews or Roma, political dissidents or the mentally ill. Although the application process is free of charge, finding old documents to prove family links can be a major hurdle, said Marius Tollenaere, a partner at Frankfurt-based immigration law firm Fragomen, in comments to CNN. The applications must also be submitted in German. Reluctance from some families All four of Scott Mayerowitz's grandparents were forced to flee Germany in the 1930s. He grew up in New Jersey with parents who refused to buy any German-made products or drive a German car. The decision to apply for citizenship from the country that had caused his family so much pain was a weighty one. His mother Susan agreed to gather the necessary documents, albeit reluctantly. 'My parents must be turning over in their graves,' she told CNN. Mayerowitz convinced his mother by pointing out the practical benefits, including the work and educational opportunities the EU could offer his own daughter. 'And finally, I said if for some reason she one day needed to flee the US for persecution, this opened up a lot more doors,' he told the network. Arlington resident Anne Barnett had a similar experience with her mother, who was initially upset that she wanted citizenship from the country that had exterminated so much of her family. She came around eventually, Barnett told CNN. Unfortunately, what convinced her was the increasing anti-Semitism in the United States. Travel writer Erin Levi of Connecticut also made the move to obtain German citizenship after she found her grandfather's US alien ID card, which was stamped '1942' and had Germany as his country of citizenship. Eighty years after the end of World War II, Levi told CNN she feels safer in Germany than in other countries where anti-Semitism is on the rise. 'I think Germany has become such a strong ally and supporter of Israel. It's incredible to see the responsibility they've taken for the atrocities they committed. There aren't that many other countries that have,' she said. Turning the Page Steve North made the decision to apply for German citizenship in 2020 out of fear that Trump would be re-elected. North, a writer for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, recalled an emotional exchange with former consul general Gill, who handed him his naturalization papers. To his surprise, Gill said that giving him his papers 'feels wonderful, because we Germans get part of our history back', North wrote for the agency. ''It reminds us how much knowledge and wisdom was lost by expelling and murdering the Jews.' Gill went on to describe handing naturalization papers to a 97-year-old woman from Hamburg who said the process gave her closure, and of repatriating a 95-year-old man who told him, 'the Germany of today is a Germany I feel comfortable with'. While North isn't planning on leaving the United States just yet, he is keeping his options open. '[T]he unthinkable happened in a supposedly civilized country in modern times, and it would be foolish to disregard the possibility of history repeating itself here, given the Jew-hatred we constantly see expressed on both the extreme right and left of the American political spectrum,' he wrote.
