Latest news with #BenjaminNetanyahu
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Starving Palestinians say they were fired on by Israeli tanks while waiting for food distribution
©UK Independent Today at 21:30 Starving Palestinians say Israeli helicopter gunships and tanks fired around crowds gathered at a new food distribution site in Gaza, as Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial 'aid' plan descended into chaos. Gaza's health ministry said at least one person was killed and 48 wounded in violence on Tuesday when desperate crowds overran the site in Rafah. It was set up by a US-backed foundation, military contractors and the Israeli military, whose soldiers reportedly opened fire.
Scoop
an hour ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Mister Netanyahu, Have You No Sense Of Decency?
The word antisemitism has become so debased that depending on who is using it I might well take it as a sign that the accused is worth listening to. When the World Criminal Court issued a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest, he responded by saying the court was being antisemitic. One of the court's legal advisers was Theodor Meron a former Israeli ambassador and legal adviser who spent a chunk of his childhood in a Nazi concentration camp. Last week, Netanyahu declared the leaders of France, the UK and Canada of fuelling antisemitism. Their crime? Threatening 'concrete action' against Israel if it continues its 'egregious' blockade of aid entering Gaza. Egregious not genocidal. And the concrete action referred to wasn't sanctions or a full arms embargo but stalling free trade talks. The bitter irony is that with none of those countries having yet imposed a complete ban on arms exports to Israel; they are all in a sense fuelling a genocide. The Army-McCarthy hearings We're coming up to the 71st anniversary of the Army-McCarthy hearings where an army lawyer, Joseph Welch, rebuked senator Joseph McCarthy with the famous line: 'Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?' We'll be waiting a long time for the wanted war criminal Netanyahu to show any decency, but could we be approaching a tipping point where the establishment finally calls off a witch hunt after realising no one is safe from false accusations? The McCarthyite red scare, which began in the late 1940s, saw more than 2000 federal workers sacked, thousands of academics, teachers, and union members pressured or forced to resign due to anti-communist policies, and up to 500 Hollywood directors and actors blacklisted for being leftwing or refusing to name names. Welch's rebuke was triggered by none of that. It was McCarthy turning his metaphorical guns onto the military implying he would expose high ranking army personnel that saw the army lawyer return fire. The conflating of criticism of Israel with antisemitism has been spectacularly successful in making any criticism of Israel a potentially career ending move. Three Ivy League presidents have been pushed out of their jobs for failing to crack down hard enough on students protesting the brutality of Israel's ongoing genocide. UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose popularity had seen the party become the biggest political movement in Europe, was toppled in 2016 after bogus accusations of antisemitism. In the purge of the Labour Party that followed Jews were five times more likely to be investigated for antisemitism than goys. It's the same story in Germany where Jews feature prominently among those cancelled for alleged antisemitism. Renowned professor of Jewish studies Peter Schäfe was forced to resign as the director of Berlin's Jewish Museum after he retweeted a post critical of Germany's anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions. Greece's former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis – not a Jew – has been banned from Germany or even appearing via Zoom for this response, on the 8th of October 2023, to being asked if he condemned Hamas: 'I condemn every single atrocity, whomever is the perpetrator or the victim. What I do not condemn is armed resistance to an apartheid system designed as part of a slow-burning, but inexorable, ethnic cleansing programme. As a European, it is important to refrain from condemning either the Israelis or the Palestinians when it is us, Europeans, who have caused this never-ending tragedy: after practising rabid anti-Semitism for centuries, leading up to the uniquely vile Holocaust, we have been complicit for decades with the slow genocide of Palestinians, as if two wrongs make one right.' That nuanced response, with its acknowledgement of the dreadful legacy of real antisemitism, has not only seen him banned from speaking - in person or virtually – but dropped by his German publisher. Antisemitism is often referred to as the oldest hatred – with good reason – but the word itself is relatively recent. A 'scientific' word for an old hatred 19th Century German journalist Wilhelm Marr popularised the term in a pamphlet the title of which translates as: The way to victory of Germanism over Judaism. What distinguished antisemitism from the commonly used Judenhass – or Jewish hate – was the idea that it was a Jew's race not their religion that was deserving of hate. Antisemitism was a prejudice proud to speak its name. It was respectable in a way that religious intolerance wasn't. Prominent professors and politicians happily declared themselves antisemites and adherents of 'scientific racism.' It was an old idea dressed up in new clothing. 15th Century Spain passed Limpieza de Sangre (cleanliness of blood) statutes to allow discrimination against Jewish and Muslim converts to Christianity. The Judeo-Christian civilisational conflict with Islam, often referred to by right-wing supporters of Israel, is a relatively new construct. When the Jews were expelled from Spain the Ottomans sent ships to take them to new homes in Istanbul, Thessaloniki and Izmer. Times change and while it was once possible – even common – to be a respectable antisemite and scientific racist but frowned upon to discriminate based on religious belief, now the reverse is true. So-called new atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins declare all religions bad but Islam worse. 'Listening to the lovely bells of Winchester, one of our great mediaeval cathedrals. So much nicer than the aggressive sounding 'Allahu Akhbar.' Or is that just my cultural upbringing?' Dawkins once tweeted. The cultures of Europe have indeed cultivated racist ideas for centuries. And just as half a millennia ago conversion offered you no protection from the racism of the Spanish court, embracing Buddhism didn't protect Columbia university student Moshen Mahdawi from being snatched from a naturalisation interview by balaclava-clad ICE agents. His crime? Being Palestinian and telling his story. It's a topsy-turvy world where life-long anti-fascists like Jeremy Corbyn and Yanis Varoufakis are sanctioned on bogus claims of antisemitism while the likes of Elon Musk and Hungarian PM Victor Orban – both peddlers of old-style antisemitic conspiracies – are welcomed to Israel as friends and allies in a contrived battle of civilisations. One thing that differentiates antisemitism from the Judeophobia, which has been a European disease since the early days of Christianity, is that it places Jews among the victims of the continent's white supremacist legacy. It's perhaps no coincidence the Christopher Columbus set sail for the Americas in the same year, 1492, that Spain expelled its Jews and Muslims. The settler colonisation of the Americas has been estimated by historian David Stannard to have resulted in the death of 100 million indigenous people – many from introduced diseases but tens of millions also died in genocides only recently making their way into history books. Last week when Netanyahu declared Israel's attacks on Gaza 'a war against human beasts' he was echoing the words of settler colonialists from Alaska to Aotearoa and the dehumanising language of the Nazis against the Jews. So, back to that question about whether we've reached a tipping point where unfair accusations of antisemitism will be seen in a similar light to McCarthy's red scare. With Netanyahu accusing the leader of the Democrats party, Yair Golan, an IDF reserve major general, of promoting a blood libel for speaking out against the starving of babies in Gaza, it's hard not to draw parallels with the Army-McCarthy hearings. It's worth quoting the words that saw Israel's PM accuse Golan of a blood libel – a reference to the lie that Jews used the blood of non-Jewish children in the baking of matzos, and a trigger for centuries of pogroms. "A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population." The idea that an IDF general speaking out against the killing of babies is propagating racist hatred of Jews is surely a leap too far even for many fervent Zionists. Another sign that the tide might be turning is Kenneth Stern, the lead drafter of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, saying the US administration's weaponisation of the IHRA definition is making academics and students (including Jews) less safe. The self-described Zionist said the definition was being distorted and used to silence anti-Israel critics. The IHRA working definition has been widely adopted internationally – including by institutions in New Zealand and Australia. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both criticised the definition claiming it has seen those documenting Israel's human rights abuses being falsely accused of antisemitism. It's a tragedy that weaponised accusations of antisemitism aimed at protecting Israel from criticism are obscuring a rise in Judeophobic conspiracy theories and attacks on Jewish community centres and synagogues around the world. And even more tragically that those accusations are blunting criticisms of Israel that could help bring the ongoing genocide in Gaza to an end.
Axios
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Axios
Israel blocks Saudi-led delegation from visiting Palestinian Authority
Israel decided to block a visit planned for Sunday by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Turkey to the Palestinian Authority, a senior Israeli official said in a briefing with reporters. Why it matters: The highly unusual decision will further exacerbate the tensions tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and Israel's Arab neighbors. President Trump made bringing Saudi Arabia and other countries into the Abraham Accords with Israel a top foreign policy goal. Israel's move shows how far off that is. The diplomatic dispute underscores how isolated Israel has become internationally after 19 months of war in Gaza. Driving the news: Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan organized the visit of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers to Ramallah as part of a Saudi diplomatic initiative to push for international recognition of a Palestinian state. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally supported the trip, which was also intended to show support for the embattled Palestinian Authority. The delegation was to arrive on Sunday in two helicopters from Jordan and meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Palestinian officials said. In order to enter the occupied West Bank, the delegation needed approval from the Israeli government. The Israeli government debated the issue and decided on Friday to block it. What they're saying: A senior Israeli official told reporters that the Palestinian Authority intended to host "a defiant meeting" of Arab foreign ministers for a discussion aimed at promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state. "Such a state would certainly become a terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel. Israel will not cooperate with moves designed to harm it and its security. The Palestinian Authority must stop violating its agreements with Israel on all levels," the Israeli official said. Between the lines: In mid-June, Saudi Arabia and France will hold an international conference at UN headquarters in New York in support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. France and Saudi Arabia have been pushing countries to recognize a Palestinian state in conjunction with the conference. Blocking the Arab delegation is a signal of opposition from the Israeli government toward this initiative. State of play: Israel's relations with many Arab countries have been deteriorating since the current right-wing government assumed office in Dec. 2022, and in particular as the death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza have grown. Earlier this week, the UAE summoned Israel's ambassador to its foreign ministry for an unusual dressing down. An Emirati official told Axios the meeting was "extremely tough" and the ambassador was given angry messages to send back to Netanyahu. "You know you have a problem when the UAE calls you into the principal's office. It's not because you were tardy to class," the Emirati official said. The big picture: The Netanyahu government is vehemently opposed to an independent Palestinian state and has taken numerous step over the last two years to deepen its occupation of the West Bank. The government has approved thousands of new housing units in the West Bank settlements in recent weeks, and recently approved the establishment of 22 new settlements. Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank has been ongoing, with the Israeli government taking very little action to prevent it. Some members of the Israeli government give political backing to settlers involved in such attacks.
Roya News
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Roya News
Barcelona ends 'friendship agreement' with Tel Aviv over Gaza aggression
Barcelona City Council voted Friday to sever institutional ties with the 'Israeli' government and suspend its friendship agreement with Tel Aviv, citing violations of international law and the need to uphold the basic rights of the Palestinian people. The motion, which includes nearly 20 provisions, was backed by the ruling Socialist party in the city as well as various leftist and pro-independence parties. It calls for ending institutional relations with 'the current Israeli government' and suspending the friendship pact signed on Sept. 24, 1998, between the Catalan capital and Tel Aviv. Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni said the "level of suffering and death witnessed in Gaza over the past year and a half, along with the repeated attacks carried out by the Israeli government in recent weeks... make any relationship between the two cities unsustainable." Among other measures in the resolution — some of which fall outside the council's direct authority — the City Council urged the board of the Barcelona Trade Fair not to host 'Israeli' government pavilions or 'arms companies or any other sector that profits from genocide, occupation, apartheid, and colonialism against the Palestinian people.' A similar recommendation is also under consideration for the Port of Barcelona, which could involve denying entry to ships linked to weapons transfers to 'Israel'. This is not the first time Barcelona has cut ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. In February 2023, then-Mayor Ada Colau announced the suspension of relations with 'Israel' and paused the city's twinning agreements with Tel Aviv. That decision was later reversed after Jaume Collboni won the municipal elections. Spain's Socialist-led government, under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, officially recognized the State of Palestine on May 28, 2024, along with Ireland and Norway.
Express Tribune
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
US proposes 60-day Gaza ceasefire, hostage swap plan
The 60-day ceasefire, according to the plan, may be extended if negotiations for a permanent ceasefire are not concluded within the set period. PHOTO: PIXABAY Listen to article The US plan for Gaza, seen by Reuters on Friday, proposes a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 28 Israeli hostages - alive and dead - in the first week, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians. The document, which says the plan is guaranteed by US President Donald Trump and mediators Egypt and Qatar, includes sending humanitarian aid to Gaza as soon as Hamas signs off on the ceasefire agreement. The aid will be delivered by the United Nations, the Red Crescent and other agreed channels. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the US ceasefire proposal. Israeli media said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted the deal presented by Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The prime minister's office declined to comment. Hamas said it had received the Israeli response to the proposal, which it said "fails to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people" including an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Hamas official Basem Naim said the Israeli response "fundamentally seeks to entrench the occupation and perpetuate policies of killing and starvation, even during what is supposed to be a period of temporary de-escalation". However, he said Hamas' leadership was carrying out a "thorough and responsible review of the new proposal". The US plan provides for Hamas to release the last 30 of the 58 remaining Israeli hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place. Israel will also cease all military operations in Gaza as soon as the truce takes effect, it shows. The Israeli army will also redeploy its troops in stages. Deep differences between Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March. Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely, be dismantled as a military and governing force and return all 58 hostages still held in Gaza before it will agree to end the war. Hamas has rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must pull its troops out of Gaza and commit to ending the war. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack in its south on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 Israelis taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The subsequent Israeli military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, Gaza health officials say, and has left the enclave in ruins. Mounting pressure Israel has come under increasing international pressure, with many European countries that are usually reluctant to criticise it openly demanding an end to the war and a major relief effort. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as "the hungriest place on earth". Witkoff told reporters on Wednesday that Washington was close to "sending out a new term sheet" about a ceasefire by the two sides in the conflict. "I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution, of that conflict," Witkoff said then. The 60-day ceasefire, according to the plan, may be extended if negotiations for a permanent ceasefire are not concluded within the set period. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Thursday the terms of the proposal echoed Israel's position and did not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops or admit aid as Hamas has demanded. Aid distribution The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group backed by the United States and endorsed by Israel, said it had distributed a total of more than 1.8 million meals this week and it expanded its aid distribution to a third site in Gaza on Thursday. GHF plans to open more sites in coming weeks. The group, heavily criticised by the United Nations and other aid groups as inadequate and flawed, began its operation this week in Gaza, where the U.N. has said 2 million people are at risk of famine after an 11-week blockade by Israel on aid entering the enclave. There were tumultuous scenes on Tuesday as thousands of Palestinians rushed to distribution points and forced private security contractors to retreat. The chaotic start to the operation has raised international pressure on Israel to get more food in and halt the fighting in Gaza.
