Some 380 writers from UK, Ireland denounce Israel's ‘genocide' in Gaza
Nearly 380 writers from the UK and Ireland, including Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan, penned an open letter Wednesday denouncing Israel's 'genocide' in Gaza and urging a ceasefire.
The letter called on 'our nations and the peoples of the world to join us in ending our collective silence and inaction in the face of horror,' they wrote in a letter published on the Medium website.
'The use of the words 'genocide' or 'acts of genocide' to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organizations,' the letter continued.
Israel has repeatedly denied all accusations of genocide in its war on Gaza.
The letter comes a day after 300 French-language writers, including Nobel Literature prize winners Annie Ernaux and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, signed a similar statement condemning 'genocide.'
'Palestinians are not the abstract victims of an abstract war. Too often, words have been used to justify the unjustifiable, deny the undeniable, defend the indefensible,' the British and Irish writers said.
The writers, including novelist Elif Shafak and playwright Hanif Kureishi as well as the Scottish and Welsh writers PEN clubs, called for a ceasefire, the 'immediate distribution of food and medical aid' in Gaza and sanctions on Israel.
International condemnation has grown over Israel's humanitarian aid blockade and relentless strikes after it ended a ceasefire in March and intensified military operations this month.
The health ministry in Gaza said 53,977, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's offensive since October 2023.
'This is not only about our common humanity and all human rights; this is about our moral fitness as the writers of our time,' the writers said.
On Monday over 800 UK-based legal experts, including former Supreme Court justices, wrote to Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying: 'Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide occurring.
'Serious violations of international law are being committed and are further threatened by Israel,' the lawyers said, adding the UK is 'legally obliged to take all reasonable steps within their power to prevent and punish genocide.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Germany has three years to overhaul military: Official
Germany's armed forces have three years to acquire the equipment to tackle a possible Russian attack on NATO territory, the head of military procurement said Saturday. Defense spending has risen up the political agenda since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and more recently with the United States pushing NATO members to increase their commitments. 'Everything necessary to be fully prepared to defend the country must be acquired by 2028,' Annette Lehnigk-Emden, head of the Federal Office for Military Procurement, told Tagesspiegel newspaper. Chief of defense General Carsten Breuer recently warned that Russia could be in a position to 'launch a large-scale attack against NATO territory' as early as 2029. He said there was a Russian build-up of ammunition and tanks for a possible attack on NATO's Baltic members. Lehnigk-Emden stressed that Chancellor Friedrich Merz's new government was enabling the upgrade by allocating hundreds of billions of euros for defense. She said the priority would be for heavy equipment such as Skyranger anti-aircraft tanks. Merz has made rearmament a priority of his coalition government to make it 'the most powerful conventional army in Europe.' Rearmament had already begun under the previous government of Olaf Scholz after Russia launched its war in Ukraine. And US President Donald Trump has raised the temperature further this year by pushing NATO members to increase their defense spending to five percent of GDP from the current level of two percent. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday that 50,000 to 60,000 new soldiers would be needed in the coming years to meet the increased defense needs of NATO. Last year, the army had more than 180,000 soldiers and set a goal of exceeding 203,000 by 2031.
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli Military Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza, Defense Minister Says
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday. Nattapong Pinta's body was held by a Palestinian armed group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified. Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza. Israel's military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week. There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, which has previously denied killing its captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive. The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase. Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered. The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza's 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling. US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday. On Wednesday, the GHF suspended operations and asked the Israeli military to review security protocols after Palestinian hospital officials said more than 80 people had been shot dead and hundreds wounded near distribution points between June 1-3. The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far. Israel is facing growing international pressure over its offensive against Hamas, which has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis and displaced most of its population. Hamas-led gunmen took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7 attack, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, and left much of the densely populated coastal enclave in ruins. Families of remaining hostages fear that those alive are in danger from the continued Israeli offensive and those dead will be lost forever. Israel says the campaign is aimed at bringing them all back. More than 40 hostages have been killed in captivity, some in the course of Israeli strikes and others killed by their captors.
Asharq Al-Awsat
4 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Johnny Moore… What Do We Know About Chairman of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
As the world condemned the killings this week of dozens of hungry Palestinians near US-backed aid sites in Gaza, the group responsible for distributing that aid quietly appointed a new leader: an evangelical Christian with ties to the Trump administration. The group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was founded last year, announced on Tuesday that Johnnie Moore, an American public relations professional, would be its new executive chairman after the previous chief quit. Moore's appointment comes as the foundation, which began handing out food boxes last week, temporarily halted operations on Wednesday to work on 'organization and efficiency.' It had been racked by a resignation in its ranks, chaos at its distribution sites and violence nearby, including two shooting episodes in which dozens of Palestinians were killed, according to local health workers. Here is what to know about Moore and his ties to the Trump administration. A presence in the Oval Office Moore was a spokesman for Liberty University, the Christian institution founded in Lynchburg, Virginia., in 1971 by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, for a dozen years before moving into the media industry and starting his own faith-based public relations firm. He represented early evangelical supporters of President Trump, including Jerry Falwell Jr, who succeeded his father at Liberty University, and Paula White, who now leads the White House faith office. Moore was co-chairman of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign's evangelical advisory board and an influential figure during Trump's first administration. He was part of a coalition of Christian leaders who paid regular visits to the White House, attending policy briefings, as well as prayer meetings in the Oval Office. His public relations company, Kairos, was acquired in 2022 by JDA Worldwide, and Moore now serves as president of that larger firm. When he announced the acquisition on social media, Moore referred to his work in public relations as his 'day job' as he has had many other roles and projects linked to his faith and interest in foreign policy, including writing books on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa. In 2017, Moore told The New York Times that he and other evangelicals had pressed Trump to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and to move the US Embassy there. 'It has been an issue of priority for a long time,' he said. Moore describes himself as 'a bridge builder and peacemaker especially known for consequential work at the intersection of faith and foreign policy, especially in the Middle East.' The embassy move drew condemnation from Palestinian and Arab leaders, the heads of many Christian churches in Jerusalem and much of the international community, which has long viewed the status of Jerusalem as a matter to be resolved through negotiations over a future Palestinian state. A cheerleader for Mike Huckabee Moore, like many evangelicals, including Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, is committed to a Jewish state based on his interpretation of the Bible. Some evangelicals view their support for Israel as an important element of their belief in biblical prophecy. Speaking to The Washington Post in 2018, Moore said he had advised White House officials that 'those who bless Israel will be blessed.' Moore cheered Huckabee's nomination, saying on social media in November that 'selecting a lifelong non-Jewish Zionist as the US ambassador to Israel sends a powerful message to friend and foe of America.' Huckabee, 69, and Moore, 41, have walked similar paths as public figures and Christian media creators, and they have been described as friends in Israeli news media. The embassy did not respond to a request for comment on their relationship. The new face of a troubled Gaza organization Israel imposed a blockade on supplies entering the Gaza Strip in March, accusing Hamas of looting humanitarian aid. That embargo was lifted to a limited degree last month, after the international community raised alarms about widespread hunger in the enclave. Israelis conceived of the new system to establish aid distribution sites run by American security contractors in the enclave. It was meant, officials said, to circumvent Hamas, which Israel accused of stealing assistance meant for civilians. But the rollout of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's operation has been chaotic. Its previous head resigned hours before the initiative was set to begin late last month, citing a lack of autonomy. On Tuesday, Boston Consulting Group, a US advisory firm, said that it had stepped back from its involvement with the organization, that it had placed a partner who had worked on the project on leave and that it would conduct an internal review of its work. Humanitarian organizations have criticized the foundation's approach to aid distribution for a lack of independence from Israel, whose soldiers are positioned near the sites and have fired what the Israeli military has called 'warning' shots on multiple occasions. And the United Nations has refused to have anything to do with the effort because it says Israel is militarizing and politicizing humanitarian assistance and putting Palestinians in danger. As reports of disarray at aid distribution sites emerged during the project's first week, Moore said the effort was 'working' and should be 'celebrated.' When the Gazan health authorities reported shooting deaths near one of the foundation's sites, Moore reposted a statement from Huckabee accusing the news media and Hamas of spreading misinformation. Moore lists 18 years of service with World Help, a Christian humanitarian organization, among his volunteer experiences, along with his new appointment at the Gaza foundation and his roles on various advisory boards, including that of the nonpartisan advocacy group Muslim Coalition for America and Haifa University in Israel. In a statement about his appointment, Moore said he would help 'ensure the humanitarian aid community and the broader international community understand what's taking place on the ground.' The foundation declined a request for an interview. *Ephrat Livni is a reporter for The New York Times' DealBook newsletter, based in Washington.
