Lebanon pressured to disarm Hezbollah, and crackdowns in West Bank
On today's episode of Trending Middle East:
Abu Dhabi's population crosses four million after 7.5 per cent surge in 2024
This episode features foreign editor Mohamad Ali Harisi, Jerusalem correspondent Thomas Helm, and assistant features editor Evelyn Lau.
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Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
UN rapporteur says tech firms and corporations profiting from Israeli genocide
A UN expert has called on corporations to cut ties with Israel and for executives to be held accountable for enabling and profiting from crimes including illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide in the occupied Palestinian territories. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese's call for action comes in a scathing new report in which she names over 60 companies, including major technology firms like Google, Amazon and Microsoft, alleging their involvement in what she calls "the transformation of Israel's economy of occupation to an economy of genocide". "By shedding light on the political economy of an occupation turned genocidal, the report reveals how the forever-occupation has become the ideal testing ground for arms manufacturers and Big Tech . . . while investors and private and public institutions profit freely," Albanese writes in the report. "Too many influential corporate entities remain inextricably financially bound to Israel's apartheid and militarism." The detailed, 24-page report, which is set to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, identifies dozens of corporate actors, including those involved in the arms, technology, construction and energy sectors, which it says are complicit. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters They range from companies which the report says are destroying Palestinian life, including weapons companies Elbit Systems and Lockheed Martin, to heavy equipment manufacturers whose machinery is used in building illegal Israeli settlements, such as Caterpillar and HD Hyundai. 'Unique testing ground' The report also focuses on the historic and current role of technology companies which it says have profitted from "the unique testing ground" of the occupied territories, highlighting how the repression of Palestinians has "become progressively automated". In October 2023, when Israel's internal military cloud overloaded, Microsoft Azure and the Project Nimbus Consortium, run by Google and Amazon, "stepped in with critical cloud and AI infrastructure", the report says. The report also focuses on AI systems that have been developed by the Israeli military to process and generate targets during the war on Gaza, pointing to the collaboration between Palantir Technology Inc and Israel which predates October 2023. "There are reasonable grounds to believe Palantir has provided automatic predictive policing technology, core defence infrastructure for rapid and scaled-up construction and deployment of military software, and its Artificial Intelligence Platform, which allows real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision making," the report said. Gulf states linked to Israeli businesses on UN settlements blacklist Read More » It said 48 of the companies named have been "duly informed of the facts" that led Albanese to make her allegations, 15 of which responded directly to Albanese's office. Their replies were not published. Middle East Eye is seeking comments from all of the companies named in this article. But these companies are "just the tip of the iceberg", the report says, adding that Albanese's office has developed a database of 1,000 entities in total from submissions received in a call for input into the investigation. The report also finds that since the start of the Israeli assault on Gaza, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has risen by 179 percent, adding $157.9bn in market value. Israel's mission in Geneva told Reuters that the report was "legally groundless, defamatory and a flagrant abuse of her office". Albanese calls on UN member states to impose sanctions and full arms embargos on Israel, and suspend all trade agreements and investor relations on any inviduals or entities that endanger Palestinians. She also says the International Criminal Court and national judiciaries should pursue investigations and prosecutions of corporate executives and entities for "their part in the commission of international crimes and laundering of the proceeds from those crimes".
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
'Regime coup': Palestinian-Israeli politician fights expulsion push
A prominent Palestinian-Israeli politician is on the brink of expulsion from parliament over comments on a hostage deal with Hamas, raising new fears about freedom of expression in wartime Israel. An Israeli parliamentary committee voted to advance the impeachment of Ayman Odeh, leader of the majority Israeli-Arab Hadash Ta'al party. He will now face a vote in front of the entire Knesset after its House Committee voted 14 to 2 to expel him on Monday. The case relates to a January social media post in which Mr Odeh wrote: 'Happy about the release of hostages and [Palestinian] prisoners. From here, both peoples need to be freed from the burden of the occupation; we were born free.' Some politicians were outraged that Mr Odeh celebrated the freeing of Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of the deal. The process to impeach Mr Odeh began after a politician from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's Likud party filed a request. Mr Odeh said Israel's opposition 'crossed a red line' by voting against him instead of fighting Mr Netanyahu's far-right coalition. 'Some of [the opposition] hate us more than they love democracy. This is not an opposition – it's the coalition in disguise,' Mr Odeh added. During a hearing on the matter, Likud MP Osher Shekalim said Mr Odeh would 'face a firing squad in any other country'. The vote for impeachment is the latest step taken against Israelis who have advocated for Palestinians since the October 7 attacks by Hamas. This has included legal trouble for academics and journalists, punitive measures taken against left-wing politicians and heavy-handed policing of anti-war demonstrations. Although most Israelis continue to support a hostage agreement, the release of Palestinians in exchanges, many of whom are held on security charges, is deeply controversial, particularly in right-wing circles. Israeli politician Sami Abou Shehadeh slammed the impeachment decision, writing on X that 'there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of freedom of expression' in Israel. 'In the current Knesset, the majority's perception of freedom of expression exists only to praise the criminal Netanyahu or to call for the expansion of the occupation, starvation, war crimes and destruction,' he added. Court chaos Mr Odeh stepped up his criticism of the Israeli political class on Tuesday, as the country was gripped by a chaotic court hearing on the appointment of a new head of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal intelligence agency. The judge overseeing the hearing was forced to halt proceedings following a number of interruptions, including some by ministers from Mr Netanyahu's party. Mr Netanyahu's attempts to appoint a new director of the agency are controversial and critics say they are being carried out improperly. The hearing relates to two petitions challenging the Israeli attorney general's intervention in the case. Mr Odeh said the scenes in the courtroom were part of the 'same fascist and anti-democratic pattern [repeating] itself'. 'Did you think the despicable impeachment process against me was isolated? This is exactly what a regime coup looks like, and this time, it's on steroids. Yesterday it was me. Today it's the court. And tomorrow?'
Middle East Eye
4 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Israeli army detains Palestinian family members after settlers attack village
The Israeli army on Monday detained several members of the same Palestinian family in Masafer Yatta, in the occupied West Bank, after they attempted to remove a group of settlers encroaching on their land. Armed Israeli settlers brought their livestock to graze on land in Khirbet al-Markaz, a village in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron, prompting clashes with the Palestinian landowners. The settlers opened fire, causing no injuries, before the Israeli army intervened to protect the settlers. The Palestinians, all members of the Makhamreh family, remained in detention on Tuesday. Osama Makhamreh told Middle East Eye that armed Israeli settlers had raided Khirbet al-Markaz, a village in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron, bringing livestock to graze among olive trees - a pastoral settler policy increasingly used to seize Palestinian land. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters In response, local residents headed to the area in an attempt to drive the settlers away, only to find them armed. The settlers opened fire, though no injuries were reported. 'The settlers started shooting to scare the residents, but when they felt they weren't moving away, they called in the Israeli army, which arrested them' - Osama Makhamreh, Khirbet al-Markaz, West Bank Residents said they were shocked when the Israeli army arrived and began attacking and arresting them, without confronting or even speaking to the settlers. "The settlers started shooting to scare the residents, but when they felt they weren't moving away, they called in the Israeli army, which arrested 14 members of the family, including women and children," he added. The soldiers detained several children, the oldest of whom was only 12 years old, for several hours before releasing them. The youngest family member to be still detained is 16-year-old Tahreer Makhamreh. "The detainees were transferred to the Israeli army's Susya camp and then taken by military bus to an unknown location," said Osama Makhamreh. Seizing land through grazing For years, Khirbet al-Markaz has been subjected to regular settler attacks, which have only intensified since the current far-right Israeli government took power in 2022. Israel's pastoral settlement policy has been implemented in this area for more than two years. The policy uses settler livestock grazing to seize Palestinian land in the West Bank, often with army protection, making the areas off-limits to Palestinians. The tactic aims at expanding control without formal annexation, displacing rural Palestinian communities. Masafer Yatta: A Palestinian community under pressure Read More » The Israeli army routinely harasses villagers in Khirbet al-Markaz, denying their access to their own land and launching periodic attacks, particularly following the establishment of a military camp and the construction of the separation wall on village lands. 'The Israeli court issued a decision to displace residents on the grounds that their village lies within an Israeli military training zone, making them frequent targets of army assaults,' Makhamreh explained. Key tactics used against the villagers include detentions and physical assaults, harassment of shepherds, allowing settlers to graze livestock on agricultural land, and blocking Palestinians from reaching their farmland. These practices mirror those in other Masafer Yatta villages, where residents face repeated displacement efforts. At the core of Israel's policy in Masafer Yatta is a drive to seize full control of the land and expand illegal settlements in the area. Masafer Yatta lies in a strategic part of the southern West Bank, situated on elevated terrain with access to major roads and expansive open land. Israel's broader aim is to reduce the Palestinian presence in the region to make way for settlement expansion as part of a long-term effort to assert control over Area C, which makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank.
