Latest news with #Genocide
Scoop
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Writing In The Time Of Genocide
Opinion – Eugene Doyle 'I dont want to live in a country that turns a blind or a sleep-laden eye to one of the great crimes against humanity. I have come to the hurtful realisation that I have a very different worldview from most people I know and from most people I … I want to share a writer's journey – of living and writing through the Genocide. Where I live and how I live could not be further from the horror playing out in Gaza and, increasingly, on the West Bank. Yet, because my country provides military, intelligence and diplomatic support to Israel and the US, I feel compelled to answer the call to support Palestine by doing the one thing I know best: writing. I live in a paradise that supports genocide I am one of the blessed of the earth. I'm surrounded by similarly fortunate people. I live in a heart-stoppingly beautiful bay. Even in winter I swim in the marine reserve across the road from our house. Seals, Orca, all sorts of fish, octopus, penguins and countless other marine life so often draw me from my desk towards the rocky shore. My home is on the Wild South Coast of Wellington. Every few days our local Whatsapp group fires a message, for example: 'Big pod of dolphins heading into the bay!' I live in New Zealand, a country that, in the main, is yawning its way through a genocide and this causes me daily frustration and pain. It drives me back to the keyboard. I am surrounded by good friends and suffer no fears for my security. I am materially comfortable and well-fed. I love being a writer. Who could ask for more? I write, on average, a 1200-word article per week. It's a seven days a week task and most of my writing time is spent reading, scouring news sites from around the world, note-taking, fact-checking, fretting, talking to people and thinking about the story that will emerge, always so different from my starting concept. I'm in regular contact with historians, ex-diplomats, geopolitical analysts, writers and activists from around the world and count myself fortunate to know these exceptional people. This article is different, simpler; it is personal – one person's experience of writing from the far periphery of the conflict. I don't want to live in a country that turns a blind or a sleep-laden eye to one of the great crimes against humanity. I have come to the hurtful realisation that I have a very different worldview from most people I know and from most people I thought I knew. Fortunately, I have old friends who share in this struggle and I have made many new friends here in New Zealand and across the world who follow their own burning hearts and work every day to challenge the role our governments play in supporting Israel to destroy the lives of millions of innocent people. To me, these people – and above all the Palestinian people in their steadfast resistance – are the heroes who fuel my life. Writing is fighting Most of us have multiple demands on our time; three of my good writer friends are grappling with cancer, another lost his job for challenging the official line and now must work long hours in a menial day job to keep the family afloat. Despite these challenges they all head to the keyboard to continue the struggle. Writing is fighting. There's so little we can all do but, as Māori people say: 'ahakoa he iti, he pounamu' – it may only be a little but every bit counts, every bit is as precious as jade. That sentiment is how movements for change have been built – anti-Vietnam war, anti-nuclear, anti-Apartheid – all of them pro-humanity, all of them about standing with the victims not with the oppressors, nor on the sideline muttering platitudes and excuses. As another writer said: 'Washing one's hands of the struggle between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.' (Paolo Friere.) Back to the keyboard. My life until October 7th was more focussed on environmental issues, community organisation and water politics. I had ceased being 'a writer' years ago. One day in October 2023 I was in the kitchen, ranting about what was being done to the Palestinians and what was obviously about to be done to the Palestinians: genocide. My emotions were high because I had had a deeply unpleasant exchange with a good friend of mine on the golf course (yes, I play golf). He told me that the people of Gaza deserved to be collectively punished for the Hamas attack of October 7th. I had angrily shot back at him, correctly but not diplomatically, that this put him shoulder-to-shoulder with the Nazis and all those who imposed collective punishment on civilian populations. My wife, to her credit, had heard enough: 'Get upstairs and write an article! You have to start writing!' It changed my life. She was right, of course. Impotent rage and parlour-room speeches achieve nothing. Writing is fighting. '40 Beheaded Babies Survived the Hamas Attack' My first article '40 Beheaded Babies Survived the Hamas Attack' was a warning drawn from history about narratives and what the Americans and Israelis were really softening the ground for. Since then I have had about 70 articles published, all in Australia and New Zealand, some in China, the USA, throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and on all sorts of email databases, including those sent out by the exemplary Ambassador Chas Freeman in the US and another by my good friend and human rights lawyer J V Whitbeck in Paris. All my articles are on my own site As with historians, part of a writer's job is to spot patterns and recurrent themes in stories, to detect lies and expose deeper agendas in the official narratives. The mainstream media is surprisingly bad at this. Or chooses to be. Just like the Incubator Babies story in Iraq, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in Vietnam, reaching right back to the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana in 1898, propaganda is often used as a prelude to atrocities. The blizzard of lies after October 7th were designed to be-monster the Palestinians and prepare the ground for what would obviously follow. The narrative of beheaded babies promoted by world leaders including President Biden was powerfully amplified by our mainstream media; journalists at the highest level of the trade spread the lies. I have to tell you, it was frightening in October 2023 to challenge these narratives. Every day I pored through the Israeli news site Haaretz for updates. Eventually the narrative fell apart – but by then the damage was done. Thousands of real babies had been murdered by the Israelis. Never before have so many of my fellow writers been killed Following events in Palestine closely, it still comes as a shock when a journalist I have read, seen, heard is suddenly killed by the Israelis. This has happened several times. When it does I take a coffee and walk up the ridiculously steep track behind my house and sit high above the bay on a bench seat I built (badly). That bench is my 'top office' where I like to chew thoughts in my mind as I see the cold waves break on the brown rocks below. High up there I feel detached and better able to ask and answer the questions I need to process in my writing. Why does our media pay little attention to the killing of so many fellow writers? Why don't they call out the Israelis for having killed more journalists than any military machine in history? Why the silence around Israel's 'Where's Daddy?' killing programme that has silenced so many Palestinian journalists and doctors by tracking their mobile phones and striking with a missile just when they arrive back home to their families? Why does 'the world's most moral army' commit such ugly crimes? Where's the solidarity with our fellow journalists? Is it because their skin is mainly dark? Is that why, according to Radio New Zealand's own report on its Gaza coverage, New Zealanders have more in common with Israelis than we do with Palestinians? RNZ refers to this as our 'proximity' to Israelis. They're right, of course: by failing to shoulder our positive duty to act decisively against Israel and the U.S. we show that we share values with people committing genocide. Is this why stories about our own region – Kanaky/New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands and so on, get so little coverage? I have heard many times the immense frustration of journalists I know who work on Pacific issues. The answer is simple: we have greater 'proximity' to Benjamin Netanyahu than we do to the Polynesians or Melanesians in our own backyard. Really? Such questions need answers. Back to the keyboard. Solidarity I try not to permit myself despair. It's a privilege we shouldn't allow ourselves while our government supports the genocide. Sometimes that's hard. There's a photo I've seen of a Palestinian mother holding her daughter that haunts me. In traditional thobe, her head covered by her simple robe, she could easily be Mary, mother of Jesus. She stares straight at the camera. Her expression is hard to read. Shock? Disbelief? Wounded humanity? Blood flows from below her eyes and stains her cheek and chin. Her forehead is blackened, probably from an explosive blast. She holds her child, a girl of perhaps 10, also damaged and blackened from the Israeli attack. The child is asleep or unconscious; I can't tell which. The mother holds her as lovingly, as poignantly, as Mary did to Jesus when he came down from the cross. La Pietà in Gaza. Why do some of us care less about this pair? Where is our humanity that we can let this happen day after day until the last syllable of our sickening rhetoric that somehow we in the West are morally superior has been vomited out. I'll give the last word to another writer: 'Verily I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' Eugene Doyle
Scoop
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Writing In The Time Of Genocide
I want to share a writer's journey – of living and writing through the Genocide. Where I live and how I live could not be further from the horror playing out in Gaza and, increasingly, on the West Bank. Yet, because my country provides military, intelligence and diplomatic support to Israel and the US, I feel compelled to answer the call to support Palestine by doing the one thing I know best: writing. I live in a paradise that supports genocide I am one of the blessed of the earth. I'm surrounded by similarly fortunate people. I live in a heart-stoppingly beautiful bay. Even in winter I swim in the marine reserve across the road from our house. Seals, Orca, all sorts of fish, octopus, penguins and countless other marine life so often draw me from my desk towards the rocky shore. My home is on the Wild South Coast of Wellington. Every few days our local Whatsapp group fires a message, for example: 'Big pod of dolphins heading into the bay!' I live in New Zealand, a country that, in the main, is yawning its way through a genocide and this causes me daily frustration and pain. It drives me back to the keyboard. I am surrounded by good friends and suffer no fears for my security. I am materially comfortable and well-fed. I love being a writer. Who could ask for more? I write, on average, a 1200-word article per week. It's a seven days a week task and most of my writing time is spent reading, scouring news sites from around the world, note-taking, fact-checking, fretting, talking to people and thinking about the story that will emerge, always so different from my starting concept. I'm in regular contact with historians, ex-diplomats, geopolitical analysts, writers and activists from around the world and count myself fortunate to know these exceptional people. This article is different, simpler; it is personal – one person's experience of writing from the far periphery of the conflict. I don't want to live in a country that turns a blind or a sleep-laden eye to one of the great crimes against humanity. I have come to the hurtful realisation that I have a very different worldview from most people I know and from most people I thought I knew. Fortunately, I have old friends who share in this struggle and I have made many new friends here in New Zealand and across the world who follow their own burning hearts and work every day to challenge the role our governments play in supporting Israel to destroy the lives of millions of innocent people. To me, these people – and above all the Palestinian people in their steadfast resistance – are the heroes who fuel my life. Writing is fighting Most of us have multiple demands on our time; three of my good writer friends are grappling with cancer, another lost his job for challenging the official line and now must work long hours in a menial day job to keep the family afloat. Despite these challenges they all head to the keyboard to continue the struggle. Writing is fighting. There's so little we can all do but, as Māori people say: 'ahakoa he iti, he pounamu' – it may only be a little but every bit counts, every bit is as precious as jade. That sentiment is how movements for change have been built - anti-Vietnam war, anti-nuclear, anti-Apartheid – all of them pro-humanity, all of them about standing with the victims not with the oppressors, nor on the sideline muttering platitudes and excuses. As another writer said: 'Washing one's hands of the struggle between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.' (Paolo Friere.) Back to the keyboard. My life until October 7th was more focussed on environmental issues, community organisation and water politics. I had ceased being 'a writer' years ago. One day in October 2023 I was in the kitchen, ranting about what was being done to the Palestinians and what was obviously about to be done to the Palestinians: genocide. My emotions were high because I had had a deeply unpleasant exchange with a good friend of mine on the golf course (yes, I play golf). He told me that the people of Gaza deserved to be collectively punished for the Hamas attack of October 7th. I had angrily shot back at him, correctly but not diplomatically, that this put him shoulder-to-shoulder with the Nazis and all those who imposed collective punishment on civilian populations. My wife, to her credit, had heard enough: 'Get upstairs and write an article! You have to start writing!' It changed my life. She was right, of course. Impotent rage and parlour-room speeches achieve nothing. Writing is fighting. '40 Beheaded Babies Survived the Hamas Attack' My first article '40 Beheaded Babies Survived the Hamas Attack' was a warning drawn from history about narratives and what the Americans and Israelis were really softening the ground for. Since then I have had about 70 articles published, all in Australia and New Zealand, some in China, the USA, throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and on all sorts of email databases, including those sent out by the exemplary Ambassador Chas Freeman in the US and another by my good friend and human rights lawyer J V Whitbeck in Paris. All my articles are on my own site As with historians, part of a writer's job is to spot patterns and recurrent themes in stories, to detect lies and expose deeper agendas in the official narratives. The mainstream media is surprisingly bad at this. Or chooses to be. Just like the Incubator Babies story in Iraq, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in Vietnam, reaching right back to the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana in 1898, propaganda is often used as a prelude to atrocities. The blizzard of lies after October 7th were designed to be-monster the Palestinians and prepare the ground for what would obviously follow. The narrative of beheaded babies promoted by world leaders including President Biden was powerfully amplified by our mainstream media; journalists at the highest level of the trade spread the lies. I have to tell you, it was frightening in October 2023 to challenge these narratives. Every day I pored through the Israeli news site Haaretz for updates. Eventually the narrative fell apart – but by then the damage was done. Thousands of real babies had been murdered by the Israelis. Never before have so many of my fellow writers been killed Following events in Palestine closely, it still comes as a shock when a journalist I have read, seen, heard is suddenly killed by the Israelis. This has happened several times. When it does I take a coffee and walk up the ridiculously steep track behind my house and sit high above the bay on a bench seat I built (badly). That bench is my 'top office' where I like to chew thoughts in my mind as I see the cold waves break on the brown rocks below. High up there I feel detached and better able to ask and answer the questions I need to process in my writing. Why does our media pay little attention to the killing of so many fellow writers? Why don't they call out the Israelis for having killed more journalists than any military machine in history? Why the silence around Israel's 'Where's Daddy?' killing programme that has silenced so many Palestinian journalists and doctors by tracking their mobile phones and striking with a missile just when they arrive back home to their families? Why does 'the world's most moral army' commit such ugly crimes? Where's the solidarity with our fellow journalists? Is it because their skin is mainly dark? Is that why, according to Radio New Zealand's own report on its Gaza coverage, New Zealanders have more in common with Israelis than we do with Palestinians? RNZ refers to this as our 'proximity' to Israelis. They're right, of course: by failing to shoulder our positive duty to act decisively against Israel and the U.S. we show that we share values with people committing genocide. Is this why stories about our own region – Kanaky/New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands and so on, get so little coverage? I have heard many times the immense frustration of journalists I know who work on Pacific issues. The answer is simple: we have greater 'proximity' to Benjamin Netanyahu than we do to the Polynesians or Melanesians in our own backyard. Really? Such questions need answers. Back to the keyboard. Solidarity I try not to permit myself despair. It's a privilege we shouldn't allow ourselves while our government supports the genocide. Sometimes that's hard. There's a photo I've seen of a Palestinian mother holding her daughter that haunts me. In traditional thobe, her head covered by her simple robe, she could easily be Mary, mother of Jesus. She stares straight at the camera. Her expression is hard to read. Shock? Disbelief? Wounded humanity? Blood flows from below her eyes and stains her cheek and chin. Her forehead is blackened, probably from an explosive blast. She holds her child, a girl of perhaps 10, also damaged and blackened from the Israeli attack. The child is asleep or unconscious; I can't tell which. The mother holds her as lovingly, as poignantly, as Mary did to Jesus when he came down from the cross. La Pietà in Gaza. Why do some of us care less about this pair? Where is our humanity that we can let this happen day after day until the last syllable of our sickening rhetoric that somehow we in the West are morally superior has been vomited out. I'll give the last word to another writer: 'Verily I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' Eugene Doyle
Extra.ie
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Galway musician enters sixth day of hunger strike for Gaza
A Galway-based musician is on the sixth day of her hunger strike as she demands the Government pass the Occupied Territories Bill. Sophie Ní Choimín, 27, has said she is experiencing coughing, dizziness, body pain and hunger pains but 'will not eat again' until the people of Palestine do. The Kildare native is the lead singer of Galway band Kettle Boilers, who have been fundraising for Palestine for the last year. A Galway-based musician is on the sixth day of her hunger strike as she demands the Government pass the Occupied Territories Bill. Pic: Sophie Ní Choimín/ Instagram She says the fundraising efforts are no longer effective due to aid being blocked from Gaza as a result of the blockage imposed by Israel. Speaking earlier in the week to the Irish Independent, Sophie said the hunger strike wasn't a decision she made lightly but she 'had to go for the most radical option without harming anyone.' The United Nations has revealed that the people of Gaza are at 'critical risk of famine' with the latest update estimating that one in five people in Gaza face starvation. She says the fundraising efforts are no longer effective due to aid being blocked from Gaza as a result of the blockage imposed by Israel. Pic: Sophie Ní Choimín Sophie began her hunger strike on Wednesday, May 21, and on Monday detailed how she had been suffering headaches and hunger pains and had also developed a chesty cough. Speaking on Galway Bay FM, she said: 'Right now, my position is that I've to carry on for as long as I can because, whatever suffering I'm experiencing, it's only a fraction of what literal children are going through today.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by D (@dswp24) Sophie added that she is of the belief that the Government will 'gut' the bill and remove some services. Getting emotional, she said: 'As an Irish woman, and as someone who loves this country. 'I just think it would be a great shame if one of the first European countries to experience Genocide didn't have the guts to speak up and speak first,' she added through tears. 'I'm actually a bit ashamed that Spain has acted before us.'
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
"You can't get rid of us...": How Microsoft employee bypassed 'Palestine block' to send email to thousands of employees in protest
FILE - Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella speaks during a presentation of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, and 50th Anniversary celebration at Microsoft headquarters, in Redmond, Wash., April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond, File) A Microsoft employee successfully circumvented the company's controversial email restrictions to send a mass protest message to thousands of colleagues, escalating tensions over the tech giant's contracts with the Israeli government. Nisreen Jaradat , a senior tech support engineer at Microsoft, sent the email on May 23rd with the subject line "You can't get rid of us," according to a copy obtained by The Verge. The message came just one day after Microsoft implemented blocks on emails containing words like " Palestine ," "Gaza," and "Genocide" in subject lines or message bodies. It remains unclear exactly how Jaradat circumvented the technical restrictions, though her email specifically noted that Microsoft leadership was "aware that this 'short term solution' is easily bypassable." "As a Palestinian worker, I am fed up with the way our people have been treated by this company," Jaradat wrote in her email to staff. "I am sending this email as a message to Microsoft leaders: the cost of trying to silence all voices that dare to humanize Palestinians is far higher than simply listening to the concerns of your employees." Protests escalate during Microsoft Build conference by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Nagelpilz-Innovation: Dieses Lasergerät ist ein Wunder Heilratgeber Weiterlesen Undo The email block was instituted during Microsoft's Build developer conference, which became the focal point for multiple protest actions. Employee Joe Lopez disrupted the opening keynote on May 19th before being fired the same day. A Palestinian tech worker then interrupted Microsoft's CoreAI head during his presentation, followed by additional disruptions from former employees. Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw defended the email restrictions, stating that mass emailing colleagues "about any topic not related to work is not appropriate." The company claims it has "taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in." Hossam Nasr , an organizer with the No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) group, called Microsoft's word blocking "particularly egregious," arguing that employees speaking through "appropriate channels" are consistently "silenced or ignored." The protests follow Microsoft's acknowledgment of its cloud and AI contracts with Israel, though the company maintains an internal review found "no evidence" its tools were used to harm Gaza civilians. Read the full email from the Palestinian employee Yesterday, Microsoft chose to utterly and completely discriminate against an entire nation, an entire people, and an entire community by blocking all employees from sending any outbound email containing the words "Palestine", "Gaza", "genocide", or "apartheid". Microsoft leaders justified this blatant censorship by saying it was to prevent you from receiving emails like the email that you are reading right now. Even though Microsoft SLT are aware that this "short term solution" is easily bypassable, as this email clearly proves, Microsoft still doubled down, insisted on not rolling back the policy, and decided to continue targeting and repressing their Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and allied workers. They refused to revoke this censorship tactic, despite its potential illegality, dozens of employees expressing how racist of a decision it was, and even leaders admitting they see how it can be perceived as discriminatory and targeted. This further proves how little Microsoft values Palestinian lives and Palestinian suffering. As a Palestinian worker, I am fed up with the way our people have been treated by this company. I am sending this email as a message to Microsoft leaders: the cost of trying to silence all voices that dare to humanize Palestinians is far higher than simply listening to the concerns of your employees. Had this useless and discriminatory policy been revoked, as I tried to request numerous times through so-called "proper channels"[1][2], I would not be sending you all this email. Despite claiming to have "heard concerns from our employees and the public regarding Microsoft technologies used by the Israeli military to target civilians or cause harm in the conflict in Gaza" in a statement riddled with lies, admissions, and absurd justifications, Microsoft has shown that they are utterly uninterested in hearing what we have to say. Microsoft claims that they "provide many avenues for all voices to be heard". However, whenever we try to discuss anything substantial about divesting from genocide in the "approved channels", workers are retaliated against, doxxed, or silenced. Microsoft has deleted relevant employee questions in AMAs with executives and shut down Viva Engage posts in dedicated channels for asking SLT questions. Managers have warned outspoken directs to stay quiet and have even openly retaliated against them. When my community tries to flag issues and concerns to HR/GER/WIT, we have been met with racist outcomes with double standards. Throughout all this, Microsoft has sent a clear message to their employees: There are no proper channels at Microsoft to express your concerns, disagreements, or even questions about how Microsoft is using your labor to kill Palestinian babies. Over this past week, Microsoft has shown their true face, brutalizing, detaining, firing, pepper spraying, threatening and insulting workers and former workers protesting at Microsoft Build. This email censorship is simply the latest example in a long list of recent extreme and outrageous escalations by Microsoft against my community. Enough is enough. It has become clear that Microsoft will not listen to us out of the goodness of their hearts. Microsoft will not change their stance just because it is the moral or even legal thing to do. Microsoft will only divest from genocide once it becomes more expensive for them to kill Palestinians than not. Right now, Microsoft makes a lot of money from genocide-profiteering, so we must make support for genocide even more expensive. The situation in Palestine is more urgent by the minute. More and more Palestinians are being killed of starvation under the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)'s bombing campaign, invasion, and siege that has martyred an estimated 400,000 Palestinians. The IOF have kidnapped over 16,000 Palestinians and placed them in torture and rape camps. 1.93 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, and over 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank. While a hostile work environment is difficult, it cannot compare to the horrors taking place in Palestine - horrors that we as Microsoft employees are complicit in. These futile attempts to silence our community, while painful at times, are evidence that the pressure we are applying is working. This is not the time for baby steps or gradual progress. Starving infants cannot wait any longer. We, as a company of over 200,000 employees, are providing the technological backbone for Israel's genocidal war machine in Palestinian. We, as employees of this company, have a responsibility to end our employer's complicity in this AI-assisted genocide! Now is the time to escalate against Microsoft and end this Microsoft-powered genocide! I am calling on every employee of conscience to: Sign No Azure for Apartheid's petition calling for a termination of all Microsoft contracts with the Israeli military and government: Strongly consider whether you want to stay in the company and fight for change from within, or if you want to leave and stop contributing labor to genocide. If you choose to leave Microsoft to no longer be complicit in genocide, do not go quietly. The No Azure for Apartheid campaign is ready to help you make an impact on your way out for Palestine, and we will also do our best to provide you support before leaving. Reach out to us expressing your interest to leave here. If you choose to stay, continue to fight from the inside to end Microsoft's, and your own, complicity in war crimes, join the No Azure for Apartheid campaign. If you are worried about being public with your affiliation, rest assured that as a worker-led grassroots movement, we have members with all levels of anonymity and risk level. Some of our members are publicly visible and will even publicly confront our war-criminal executives, such as Satya Nadella , Mustafa Suleyman , and Jay Parikh at major Microsoft events like the 50th Anniversary celebration and Microsoft Build. Other members choose to stay completely anonymous and still contribute to the critical work of the campaign. There is room for everyone: While I do understand that as Microsoft employees, we cannot fully boycott Microsoft, most of us can focus on the priority targets set by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, which recently set Microsoft as a priority target. The main target of the boycott is Microsoft Gaming , especially X-Box. We can also encourage our friends and family to boycott Microsoft where possible. To Microsoft Senior Leadership team specifically:You cannot silence cannot silence cannot hide your involvement in genocide and apartheid. Fre e Palestine Nisreen Jaradat AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Arab News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
EU review of Israel ties ‘devastatingly late': Amnesty
LONDON: The EU's decision to review trade and cooperation with Israel in light of concerns over the Gaza war is 'devastatingly late,' Amnesty International has said. On Tuesday, the European Commission agreed to conduct a review into Israel's potential violation of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The article mandates respect for human rights and democratic principles from both parties. Seventeen EU member states raised objections to Israel's conduct in Gaza and demanded the review. Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty's European Institutions Office, said: 'While this is a welcome first step, it also comes devastatingly late. The extent of human suffering in Gaza for the past 19 months has been unimaginable. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza with chilling impunity.' The NGO has long called for a review of the EU's association agreement with Israel. It has cited Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory as a key violation of the agreement. Israel's conduct in Gaza has only strengthened calls for a review into European trade with the country. 'Emboldened by EU inaction — and even backed by some EU states — Israeli leaders have flaunted their genocidal aims,' Geddie said. 'The EU's unofficial policy of appeasement towards Israel is contrary to its member states' obligations and will forever be judged in the annals of history.' Geddie warned that any delay in European action would 'cost human lives in Gaza.' She called for the EU to immediately suspend all trade linked to Israel's settlement industry, which has expanded significantly amid the war in Gaza. 'The stakes are too high. If the EU fails to live up to these obligations as a bloc, and seeks to shield itself from its clear legal obligations, its member states must unilaterally suspend all forms of cooperation that may contribute to violations of international law,' Geddie said. After the EU agreed to probe ties with Israel, Amnesty said it would now focus on pushing for a 'meaningful review which takes evidence and international standards into account.'
