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Straits Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Palestinians mark Nakba day as fears of displacement grow
Police officers stand guard in front of Pro-Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against Israel to mark the 77th anniversary of the \"Nakba\" or catastrophe, in Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2025. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt People march to commemorate Nakba day, the \"catastrophe\" of the mass dispossession of the Palestinian territory in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, in Madrid, Spain, May 15, 2025. REUTERS/Ana Beltran A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator speaks to a Police officer during a protest against Israel to mark the 77th anniversary of the \"Nakba\" or catastrophe, in Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2025. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a mock body bag at a protest against Israel to mark the 77th anniversary of the \"Nakba\" or catastrophe, in Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2025. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest against Israel to mark the 77th anniversary of the \"Nakba\" or catastrophe, in Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2025. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt GAZA/JERUSALEM - Palestinians marked Nakba day on Thursday, commemorating the loss of their land after the 1948 war at the birth of the state of Israel, as Israeli military operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank have again displaced hundreds of thousands. The Nakba, or "catastrophe", has been one of the defining experiences for Palestinians for more than 75 years, helping to shape their national identity and casting its shadow on their conflicted relationship with Israel ever since. The resonance has been amplified by the war in Gaza and the Israeli army's months-long campaign in West Bank refugee camps, where hundreds of thousands of descendants of Palestinians who lost their homes in 1948 have lived for decades. The war has destroyed large swathes of Gaza and forced most of the more than 2 million people who live there to move multiple times, clinging on in tents or bombed-out houses and other makeshift shelters. "During all the wars that there have been, there has been nothing like what happened during this war," said Badryeh Mohareb, who lived through the Nakba as a child, when her family fled their home in the seaside city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv to come to Gaza. The May 15 Nakba day commemoration marks the start of the 1948 war, when neighbouring Arab states attacked Israel a day after the new state declared its independence following the withdrawal of British forces from what was then called Palestine. The fighting lasted for months and cost thousands of lives, with more than 700,000 Palestinians fleeing their homes or driven away from villages in what is now Israel, most into makeshift camps like the ones now occupied by the displaced of Gaza. Sitting in front of the ruins of her house in the southern city of Khan Younis, where she moved after she was married, she said two of her grandchildren had been killed and everything she had was lost. "People are destroyed," she said. Israel's campaign in Gaza, launched in retaliation for the devastating Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 has been one of the longest, and certainly the most bloody in its history, leaving much of the Gaza Strip barely habitable. Hardliners in the government, encouraged by U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for a Gaza emptied of its Palestinian population and converted into a beachside resort, have spoken openly about seizing the entire enclave. After a two-month truce, Israel resumed its operation in Gaza in March, squeezing the population into an ever-narrowing area against the coast and in the area around Khan Younis as its forces have pressed in from the border zones. According to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, 70% of Gaza is now within the no-go areas set up along the edges of the enclave or in areas under displacement orders by the military and more than 436,000 people have been displaced since March. WEST BANK In the West Bank too, Palestinians have been facing growing pressure as Israeli settler violence and the military operations in northern cities like Jenin and Tulkarm have forced tens of thousands from their homes. "I only took two outfits with me, hoping that it would last for two, three or four days," said Mustafa Abu Awwad, an 88-year-old Palestinian, as he described his hurried departure from the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm in January. "I move from one area to another... every week or 10 days we move from place to another." The military moved into the area in January, in a large-scale operation it said was aimed at rooting out militant groups that had become entrenched in refugee camps that have developed into crowded urban townships. The military has remained ever since, in the longest operation the West Bank has seen since the second Intifada uprising two decades ago, systematically destroying houses, roads and infrastructure. According to United Nations figures more than 40,000 people in the West Bank have been displaced since the start of the operation, a situation OCHA says could amount to forcible transfer, defined as a crime against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Stripped of their inhabitants, the camps in Jenin and Tulkarm have been reduced to ghost towns with no functioning power, water or other infrastructure, making it increasingly difficult for anyone to return. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
07-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Push to allow Norway's wealth fund to invest in defence companies falters
FILE PHOTO: A Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet performs during the International Aerospace Exhibition ILA on the opening day at Schoenefeld Airport in Berlin, Germany June 5, 2024. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo OSLO - Opposition efforts to allow Norway's $1.8 trillion wealth fund, the world's largest, to invest in large defence companies appear to be faltering, according to lawmakers involved in the process. The fund follows ethical rules decided by parliament that prevent it from buying stakes in the likes of Airbus, Boeing, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin on the grounds they make components for nuclear weapons. Two opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Progress Party, have in recent months called on lawmakers to change the fund's guidelines on that point, coming at a time when European countries are ramping up military investment. Support for change also came from the head of the central bank, which operates the fund, who said in February Norway "must be open to the possibility that what is considered to be ethically acceptable may change as the world again becomes marked by military rearmament and growing tensions between countries". The Conservatives say it is no longer reasonable to exclude companies that make equipment critical to Norway and its allies' battle power. The fund can invest in defence companies if they are not involved in the production of nuclear weapons and is therefore invested in the likes of Rheinmetall or Leonardo. But the guidelines prevent the fund from investing in several major defence companies. Progress, meanwhile, is presenting a private member's bill, which argues it is hypocritical of Oslo to ban its fund from buying shares in Lockheed Martin while buying 52 F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. defence contractor at the same time. "This is to make capital available to the defence industry, which is especially necessary now," one of the co-authors of the bill, Hans Andreas Limi, told Reuters. They would require support from other parties to overturn the will of the minority Labour government and allow one of the world's largest investors to allot billions of dollars to defence companies. This could in turn encourage other investors sceptical of the defence industry to reconsider their views, given the fund has long been a leading voice on matters of ethical investing. LACK OF SUPPORT But supporters of the change appear to be facing an uphill battle. Among those opposing the change, is the finance ministry, led by no other than former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of the Labour Party. "We believe it is too early for another full review of the guidelines now," Deputy Finance Minister Ellen Reitan told Reuters. She said there had to be a broad consensus in parliament and reviews of the fund's ethical criteria should not be made on an ad hoc basis. "Over time, it may be appropriate to change the criteria in the guidelines. Such changes should be made on the basis of comprehensive and thorough assessments where the criteria are seen in context," she said. In a sign of its opposition, the finance ministry did not mention a possible change in its white paper on the fund in April. The paper would be the natural place to flag the issue if it were to be debated and voted on in parliament in the coming weeks. A key vote could come from the Centre Party, but it also appears to be against the proposed change. "To have calm around the fund is important, and a guarantee of its perennity, so I think it is wise to proceed very carefully," Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, the leader of the Centre Party, who until January was finance minister, told Reuters. Other parties, such as the Greens, concur. "It is true that we are in a phase of massive military armament, which we need to support," Rasmus Hansson, parliamentary leader for the Greens, told Reuters. "But we see no reason for it to be necessary for the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund to profit from this rearmament." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
