#UNRWA Headline

[girlactionfigure]

Knesset passes preliminary bill designating UNRWA terrorist organization

The same bill, which comes in light of evidence suggesting UNRWA employees' links to Hamas, will abolish the immunities and privileges gifted to UNRWA employees.

MK Yulia Malinovsky's bill to designate UNRWA a terrorist organization passed a preliminary reading with a 42-6 majority in the Knesset on Wednesday. The bill will abolish UNRWA employees' immunities and privileges.

If the bill passes a final reading, it will mean that the Anti-Terrorism Law will also apply to UNRWA. Israel will subsequently cease all ties with the agency, and the organization's assets in Israeli territory will be closed.

The abolition of privilege bill is formally called the "Bill to Abolish the Immunity and Privileges of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)." UNRWA is a branch of the UN responsible for Palestinian refugees, including 2 million in the Gaza Strip, the organization claims.

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[fuck-hamas-go-israel]

Ethnic cleansing? Genocide? Apartheid?

Throwing around these buzzwords to describe the Israel-Hamas war because you’ve seen them on social media doesn’t make you right, and it doesn’t make you an activist.

It makes you ignorant, intellectually dishonest, and lazy for parroting biased talking points with no concept about what these terms actually mean.

What is apartheid?

Well, it was first used to describe the political system in South Africa and today’s Namibia whereby racism was institutionalised. This manner of governance meant that clear racial segregation would occur, in a manner that benefited the white race and would actively oppress those who had darker skin.

This meant that there were white-only spaces, white people would get prioritised when it came to education and jobs, and relationships/marriages between white peoples and coloured people were illegal.

Is Israel objectively an apartheid state? There are no laws that actively favour one group over the other. There is a sizeable population of Israeli Arabs that can thrive in the same way as the Israeli Jews can. There are laws against discrimination on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Palestinians from Gaza are allowed to work in Israel through a work permit system. There are about 150,000 Palestinians working in Israel, most of which live in Israel and some come from Gaza/the West Bank. They aren’t denied rights institutionally.

Is it harder to get a job or education in Israel if you’re a Palestinian from Gaza? Sure, because of different governments. It’s like how it’s a lot easier for you to find a job in your own country (in terms of paperwork and bureaucracy) than overseas. But you’re not denied the right to apply.

Of course, if you have a history of violence, a criminal record, or your family has ties to terrorists, then it’ll be a lot harder to get an approved work permit. But that’s not apartheid. That’s common sense, and a regulation practiced by all countries that minimally desire to protect their own population from danger.

Ethnic cleansing and genocide

These two concepts can go hand-in-hand. Ethnic cleansing refers to the mass expulsion or killing of a group of people based on their ethnicity. Similarly, genocide is the purposeful killing of a group of people solely with the intention of annihilating them.

Famous examples? The Holocaust, of course, where the Nazi regime believed in the superiority of the Aryan race and decided to declare genocide on the Jews, Romanis, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, people with “Asian features”, and many many other groups. Anyone who they didn’t think was “pure”.

Their aim was to ensure that the Aryan race propagated without having “impure” blood affecting the bloodlines. They even started a eugenics programme called Lebensborn to ensure that more pure Aryan babies were born.

More recent examples? The Rwandan genocide where the Hutus attempted to wipe out the Tutsis on the basis of ethnicity. They mandated that Tutsis mention their ethnicity on state-issued ID cards in order for the Hutus in power to be able to identify them and then kill them.

Or the Yazidi genocide which happened so recently, in which ISIL killed, raped, and sent thousands of Yazidis into conversion camps on the basis of their ethnicity. They also took Yazidi women as sex slaves and raped and tortured them.

Or the Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State in Myanmar, and how there was a mass killing and expulsion of them from the country, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh to take refuge, crating the world’s largest refugee camp.

Or how ISIS killed thousands of people from Christian groups in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Libya because of their faith, leading the US, EU, and UK to label this as religious genocide and condemned their actions.

Has Israel been practicing ethnic cleansing and genocide on Palestinians all these years?

Well, the birth rate of the Palestinian population in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israel has been steadily increasing all these years.

So, no. No ethnic cleansing, no genocide. They are free to have as many children as they desire.

The UN Genocide Convention

The United Nations has 5 actions that constitute genocide.

1. Killing members of a target group

Israel is targeting Hamas officials with the aim of wiping out the terrorist group and ensuring that such a deadly attack on Israeli soil doesn’t happen again. I suppose you could call it genocide against Hamas, but they’re killing Hamas because they’re terrorists, not because they’re Palestinian. Shouldn’t everyone believe in genocide against terrorists?

But look at Black Saturday. Look at Hamas’ rhetoric. They repeatedly call for the annihilation of Israel and genocide of Jews. When will the media start believing what they say, word for word, instead of trying to spin it into “hmm maybe they want to kill all the Jews because they’re freedom fighters!”

War has collateral damage. Of course the innocent civilians don’t deserve to suffer just because of the actions of their government, but there have been warnings given to the Palestinian civilians prior to Israel striking the areas. There are consequences of attacking a country first, and then having that country attack you back.

2. Causing people of the group serious bodily or mental harm

The UN refers to sexual violence as the prime example of non-fatal harm.

Sexual violence has occurred. Hamas have kidnapped and raped women and even paraded the bodies of half-naked women around. But I f Israel had done the same, it’ll be the first thing appearing on everyone’s BBC push notifications (without even being confirmed as true).

3. Imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group

Many people refer to the blockade that Israel imposed around the Gaza Strip as an example of this.

This blockade was imposed by both Israel and Egypt in 2005. Its aim was to prevent smuggling of weapons into Gaza, and isolate the reign of Hamas to the region. This was to ensure the safety of Israel and Egypt.

Did this blockade pose serious challenges to the Gazan civilians? Of course. But that’s a consequence of having a terrorist government. If you have a terrorist group running your country, don’t be surprised if neighbouring countries are extra careful about who or what they allow in or out of the borders.

Many authorities from other Arab nations have also expressed approval of Egypt’s border restrictions, and even encouraged Egypt to flood the terror tunnels that Hamas has dug under the city. As a side note, other Arab nations have not historically been very kind or welcoming to Palestinians. Syria has killed over 4000 Palestinians, and many Arab countries are now refusing any refuge for Palestinians. But no one cares about that because it doesn’t make Israel look bad. All they do now is use the images of dead Palestinians under the hands of Syria and reuse them to propagate fake news.

The blockade has been labelled as a human rights violation because of collective punishment. Many humanitarian organisations believe that the blockade has caused the Palestinian civilians disproportionate harm.

Contrary to popular belief, Israel isn’t disallowing humanitarian aid from coming through the borders. Fuel, food, hygiene products, clothes, and shoes have been coming through the borders regularly for years. The Gaza Strip also has electricity and internet access and water.

Do all these items reach the Palestinian civilians? Well, there has been evidence that Hamas has been intercepting a lot of the supplies sent by humanitarian groups. This is not surprising since the UNRWA tweeted that Hamas has stole fuel from hospitals in Gaza in order to launch more rockets at Israel (but quickly deleted it after realising that it goes against their agenda to paint Hamas in a bad light.) In addition, the returned hostages have mentioned that there are many aid supplies hidden in the terror tunnels by Hamas. Instead of giving them to the civilians, they are hoarding it for themselves.

There has also been video evidence that some people are reselling these aid items in stores at exorbitant prices in order to turn profits. This has been well-documented for the last 10 years.

Is blockading the region to mitigate terrorism a disproportionate response? Well, it’s like asking if heightened security and stricter border control at airports is a disproportionate response after 9/11. Is being cautious and worrying about the security of your country an irrational reaction to the constant threat of terrorism?

4. Preventing births

Gaza’s population growth rate per annum is about 1.99%, which is the 39th highest in the world! Their population is allowed to propagate freely.

Israel isn’t preventing births of Palestinian babies.

5. Forcibly transferring children out of the group

No, Israel hasn’t been taking Palestinian children and forcing them to convert/keeping young Palestinian girls as sex slaves. Like I said, if this was truly happening, all the news outlets would be so quick to publish the story before verifying it.

Can we trust the UN Genocide standards?

The UN is known for corruption and have been exploiting the Palestinian people by selling them the humanitarian supplies instead of distributing them for free, which they should because these supplies literally are donations.

The UN also has differing standards of what they would label as genocide. For example, they refuse to call what China is doing to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide, even though the situation does fit many of their own criteria.

Hence, to all of you out there overusing these terms without knowing what they mean, make up your own mind about things. No one can force you to believe anything and no one can force you to change your mind.

But at the very least, do your due diligence and educate yourself before spouting tired buzzwords. Repeating misinformation doesn’t help anyone and can be very harmful.

[arrahmahcom]

Cinderella dari Gaza, Sebuah Cerita yang Tidak Memiliki Akhir Bahagia

GAZA (Arrahmah.id) – Kisah Cinderalla dan sepatunya yang terkenal merupakan salah satu dongeng anak-anak yang paling terkenal dan banyak tersebar, namun kali ini Cinderella di Gaza menceritakan kisah yang berbeda. Peristiwa dalam cerita Cinderella biasanya berkisar pada seorang gadis yang hidup dalam keadaan sulit. Hidupnya tiba-tiba berubah menjadi kehidupan yang nyaman karena sepatunya yang…

[i-am-aprl]

After the ICJs ruling on provisional measures, the headline you would have expected is that western countries ceased funding and arming Israel.

Instead, they are pausing funding for a UN agency for Palestinian refugees, when there are almost 2 million of them in Gaza who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance as acknowledged by the ICJ itself!!!

All because of Israel allegations that 12 out of 13,000 of the agencies employees MAY have been involved in Oct 7th.

Even IF this were true, this amounts to #collectivepunishment of Palestinians in Gaza and failure to abide by state’s obligations to prevent acts of genocide.

Please consider donating directly to unrwa so they can continue their life-saving work. You can find the donation link in their instagram account or webpage.

Please also make your voice heard; demand your government resumes\continues funding unrwa and don’t stop speaking up for Palestine.

In our thousands, in our millions we are all Palestinians!! 🇵🇸❤️🍉

[centrally-unplanned]

The trick on the whole "Israel banning UNRWA" thing is that most militaries - like say the US in Afghanistan for example - directly provision aid. American soldiers would often be handing out food packages themselves, and even if they weren't the aid organizations would be directly contracting with the US government and the Department of Defense. You have a group in the military and the government that is like, okay, how do we feed people, let's hit those targets.

So if Congress decided to ban the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in 2006 from operating in the country or whatever, that bill would say like "we hand over its mission to USAID, which has been allocated $2.1 billion dollars in FY-2005 to do X Y Z". It would probably be a dumb move that would create unnecessary friction and cost lives for political bullshit, but that is also life, people dying for political bullshit is a universal constant. It would probably be pretty small bore in the scale of things, like switching over contractors.

That isn't how Israel does things. I might be wrong about this, Israel is deliberately opaque about these things and I just gave this the ol' half hour of googling, I am open to being contradicted here. But my current understanding of net spending by the government of Israel itself on aid to Gaza is...$0. They do not provide aid. They permit aid from other organizations, funded by other countries, to be provided! But they don't take responsibility for the provision; meeting targets, outcomes, etc, none of that is their job. (I am sure it isn't literally zero btw, but I think you get my point)

It is really telling that when you look up pro-Israel statements by say AIPAC on aid, their headlines are:

Israel Facilitates Humanitarian Aid to Gaza as Hamas Continues to Attack

And they criticize the UN because the UN trucks aren't being delivered:

The United Nations and other international agencies are largely responsible for the existing delays in aid deliveries into Gaza. The U.N. has not been able to distribute aid at the rate that Israel is processing it, causing back-ups at the border crossings after Israeli inspections are completed. On March 3, the U.N. received 234 trucks in Gaza but only distributed 131 trucks of aid to civilians in the enclave.

If this was the US military, and the UN was getting aid trucks and failing to send them, we would send more of our own trucks? That we have? Because aid is part of the military operation. But Israel doesn't do that - because it doesn't have any trucks. Because aid isn't part of the military operation.

Which is why the bill banning UNRWA that is being passed does not mention aid provision to Gaza:

The international community has raised alarm over the legislation, which was passed without a plan in place for a humanitarian agency to replace UNRWA.

Again going off news sources here, link for the actual bill is currently down, if I am wrong will correct here, but I think it all tracks. So in the article above, you get statements from the government when people ask about aid, they reply, oh yeah these other aid organizations will fill the gap.

Then you ask the aid organizations themselves and they go, no, we won't fill the gap! We don't have the resources to do that! Which is logical when you realize Israel isn't funding those orgs. They don't know or care about their funding status. Hopefully someone else will figure that out - aid is someone else's problem. Those government remarks are just off the cuff, they aren't a plan.

Which I want to loop back around to the casus belli for the ban - UNRWA having ties to Hamas. That, to me, is one of those "uh duh, and?" things - Hamas is the government of Gaza. UNRWA runs schools there? And medical clinics? You think they do that...without contact with the government? This is just silly, the UN Mission in Afghanistan obviously had connections to the US Government! Government officials, working in both, par for the course.

But, and this is far more important, it is irrelevant. I completely agree that UNRWA has many people who are sympathetic to Hamas in it, because obviously they do. You want to ban it, dumb but okay. You propose a bill outlining the $2 billion dollars and the 5 partnered aid organizations and the 400 IDF trucks that will deliver aid to replace their work, sure. Whatever man, do your small bore politics bullshit.

That is not what they are doing.

Now, Israel has in fact allowed a bunch of aid in Gaza, I don't doubt that like USAID and the non-profit community and the governments of the UK and Japan and so on are gonna pivot funding to a bunch of organizations that will do herculean work stepping up operations and interfacing with the IDF checkpoint system and get aid in. Maybe they will do such a bang-up job that the cost in suffering won't be that high. Israel did give 3 months after all, they aren't the literal worst they could be.

But I do think at a certain point, the line between indifference and malice just ceases to matter. The UNRWA bill isn't some breaking point or big policy shift - it is just a highly revealing moment in the Israeli approach, why the war there has gone the way that it has. And it is, as the kids say, not a good look.

(h/t @loving-n0t-heyting as this was initially a reblog of their post, but they mentioned getting drama in the notes so I split it off; sorry to deny you the precious +1 internet point)

[antisemitism-us]

Victims sue UNRWA for aiding Hamas. You wouldn't know it from New York Times headline

But the New York Times insists on seeing reality differently:

[obsessivevoidkitten]

More talk about situation in Gaza. Keeping it under a keep reading because I know it isn't my usual content.

As seekers of aid are outright slaughtered bu Biden's tank shells it is important to remember that most worldwide famine is occurring in Gaza.

Right after the ICJ trial Israel immediately made accusations against the UN organization called UNRWA to shift the day's headlines from Israel being found guilry of plausible genocide to the UNRWA accusations.

The accussation is that 12 out of 13,000 UNRWA employees were involved in October 7th. With this accussation most western countries immediately and without evidence dropped 100 percent of funding for UNRWA. The employees had already veen fired and an investigation ordered to follow up.

Now it has been dropped to 6 out of 13,000 employees that are being accused but with other claims and allegations that there is no evidence for.

https://news.sky.com/story/israeli-intelligence-report-claims-four-unrwa-staff-in-gaza-involved-in-hamas-kidnappings-13059967

At the same time that starvation is increasing and funding for aid is cut we have a new atrocity. The Israeli government is allowing and even making visits to a protest of aid being delivered to Gaza.

Aid to be delivered has been blocked for days, protesters won't allow it in and Israel is doing nothing to stop the protests.

Between UNRWA allegations and protests Palestinians are getting less aid than ever when they need it most. The death toll will rise exponentially if something isn't done.

And while it happens we have western media outlets making claims to discredit UNRWA.

These images show that Carrie Keller-Lynn was an IDF member. She uncritically parrots Israel's lies.

And this isn't the only time the WSJ has written pro-Israel propaganda. A vote for a ceasefire was given the headline "Chicago votes for Hamas". They have started hiding the authors under the editorial board.

Meanwhile American protestors continue to protest our politicians. Muslim women were uninvited to a Harris event because they were wearing hijabs.

Pelosi said calls for a ceasefire needed to have financing investigated by the FBI because it's "Putin's message." She also screamed at protesters to "go back to China."

The current administration continues to escalate conflict in the Middle East while insisting that all these bombing campaigns and troops on the ground aren't technically a war.

Biden officials continue to say that the ICJ found Israel innocent of genocide despite that not being what the interim hearing was for.

This is a pro-Israel lie. The interim hearing was to find if it was plausible that Israel was committing a genocide, make provisional rulings. And see if the case has standing.

It WAS found that Israel was committing a plausible genocide, provisions WERE made, and the case WAS found to have standing to continue.

And while the court case for Biden being complicit in genocide was thrown out, it is historic that he was the first president sued for genocide and that the judge argued that he needed to re-examine his unflagging support for Israel. It was thrown out on technicalities and the justice department arguing the court didn't have jurisdiction. But they didn't argue the merits.

The judge said, “It is every individual’s obligation to confront the current siege in Gaza, but it is also this Court’s obligation to remain within the metes and bounds of its jurisdictional scope. There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the Court. This is one of those cases.”

https://theintercept.com/2024/02/01/gaza-biden-genocide-lawsuit-ruling/

Please keep the pressure up. Don't forget Palestinians. Flock to protests. Call your reps. Leverage your vote. Call out propaganda. Take every action in your power no matter how small.

[phoenixyfriend]

Pro-Israel counter-protestors have also been attacking the protests at UCLA.

Police are deploying pepper spray against student protestors in Richmond.

A SWAT team raided an encampment in Louisiana.

A history professor filming a protest in Missouri was hospitalized.

Meanwhile, an encampment in Rhode Island was disbanded because admin agreed to hold a vote about divesting from Israel.

This information came from the "today's headlines" opening portion of the May 1st, 2024, episode of Democracy Now!, though multiple sources are reporting on the Columbia arrests and UCLA attack.

Continue to press the US government about cutting funding Israel. Do not lose sight of the goal to help Palestinians by the ever-present police brutality of the US. It is something we all must be aware of, but we cannot lose sight of supporting Palestine.

While I'm sure there are bail funds set up, may I direct you to one of these:

Palestinian Children's Relief Fund

UNRWA

UNICEF

MSF

Anera

World Food Program

World Central Kitchen

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Another one that I start with news of a terrorist attack. -_- This morning, a terrorist started shooting at several vehicles driving down the Jordan Valley, one of which was a school bus. The driver of this bus confirmed that the terrorist was wearing what looked like an IDF uniform. According to Magen David Adom (Red Star of David) there are at least 3 people injured, one is a 13 years old kid, another is in serious condition. The terrorist has not yet been neutralized.

After Amit Soussana's testimony about being raped by Hamas, we also have a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist admitting during an interrogation that he had raped a woman in her home in an Israeli kibbutz. It's not the first such testimony, but these are important enough that when they're published, they ALL must be heard.

The prosecution against the terrorists responsible for the massacre of October 7 has been expanded to include clauses which could end with the death penalty (I found a link to a journalistic source online, then I accidentally closed that tab, and can't find it again, but it's been reported on TV. The following tweet recounts the indictments, though the headline is misleading. A death sentence has not been approved, it's just now approved that it's a possible outcome of the trials, once they take place).

For those unfamiliar with the Eurovision Song Contest, it's an event that has been run since 1956, with the intent to help heal a post-war Europe, by allowing countries to have a friendly competition (instead of a bloody conflict), and also have a chance to get to know each other better through music. It's meant to be a unifying, and therefore also a-political fun music fest. This contest has since been expanded to include all countries that are members of the European Broadcasting Union, which means Israel also gets to compete since 1973, and has even won 4 times. I wrote this post about our entry this year, if anyone's curious. In recent years, the ESC has been used for annual anti-Israel propaganda, way before the war in Gaza. This year, a senior official in Israel's National Security Office had to issue a warning for any Israelis going to the competition in Sweden, to be careful and hide their identity as much as possible. I am passing along the warning, because wherever Israelis are in danger, so are Jews in general.

After Canada, Sweden, Australia and Finland, now France is also declaring that it will fund UNRWA again, proving that no amount of complicity in anti-Jewish terrorism will stop some European countries from passing along money to those who have raped, maimed, tortured and murdered us. But no worries! France promises it will ensure that their money won't go to terrorism. I will just remind everyone that France brokered a "deal" to pass along medications to Israeli hostages with chronic illnesses in Gaza, in exchange for an additional 1,000 packages of meds for Gazans. It then said they got reassurance that the meds got to those hostages (meaning, France quoted Qatar, which quoted Hamas, so this is the international diplomacy version of, "Trust me, bro. I'm a highly reliable antisemitic terrorist"). When Israeli soldiers got to a hospital in Gaza, they found some of the med packages for the Israeli hostages in its pharmacy, unopened and clearly not delivered to the rightful address. So... IDK about you, but I'm pretty sure even the French know their assurances about the UNRWA funding are just empty words.

This is 40 years old Mohammad Alatrash.

He's an Israeli Bedouin Muslim Arab, and father of 13, including a one month old baby. He was kidnapped on Oct 7, and has been held captive in Gaza since. Mohammad's uncle said the whole family's life has not been normal since he was taken hostage. Despite that, today several families of hostages had a tour of the attacked communities in the south, with Israel's and Belgium's Foreign Ministers, his brother Salem said that they're okay with Mohammad being released later, as long as Hamas frees the female hostages. "It's hell what they're made to go through there." Just a reminder that Mohammad is one of the Israeli Muslim hostages that Hamas could have and chose not to release even during the month holy to all muslims, Ramadan.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[kelluinox]

I saw the video of people chanting at Sydney. I saw Shani Louk. I saw Naama Levy. I saw Noa Argamani. I saw an Israeli boy being pushed around and taunted "Say Ima! Say Ima!". I saw the Bibas family. I saw photos of burned bodies and shot up cars. I saw people fleeing from the Nova festival and I saw the bodies of the 260 people that were shot there. I saw the interview with a girl whose grandmother was murdered and her murder recorded and published on social media by Hamas. I saw a kindergarten floor smeared in red. I saw terrorists throwing grenades into a bomb shelter where people were hiding. I saw a group of friends hiding in a public toilet on the beach, one video recorded from one of their phones, the other - from the soldier who found their bodies. I saw Twitter explode with celebrations. I saw people call it resistance. I saw victims being called hipsters. I saw student groups blame the victims instead of the people responsible. There is never, ever a justification for such atrocities and I never, ever tried to justify the bombings the way you people bent over backwards trying to justify Hamas.

So you can throw scary article headlines at me from newspapers that had shown bias before all you want. You can tell me how it's all AI, how "those darn jews are lying again". You can cite the UN, who still haven't kicked Russia out and who had Iran chair human rights, whose organization UNRWA has been keeping Palestinians as refugees, employing terrorists in their schools, programming children to become future sacrifices and weapons, and whose teacher had held a hostage captive. You can tell me that reports of rape come from "unreliable sources" even as UN hears testimonies about October 7th and after we had already seen videos, taken by Hamas themselves, on the day that it had happened. You can try to tell me how the slogans I say are antisemitic and that other jews say are antisemitic are not antisemitic (because jews apparently can't define antisemitism according to you). You can try to tell me that we're the problem when support of Hamas' actions exceeds 50% in Gaza and 70% in the West Bank (in no small part thanks to the decades of radicalization facilitated by UNRWA and Iran proxies). You can tell me all of that — truth is, I don't much care for your opinion if you say all these things because all of it is verifiably a load of nonsense. I'm not going to engage with you. I'm not going to believe you aren't acting in bad faith. I'm not going to give you a platform. I'm not going to gather up all the evidence that we all saw and that is still in public access, because I know you've most likely seen all of it already and decided not to believe it, to lie about it, to obfuscate. And I'm not heartless to broadcast suffering again and again just to debunk your lies.

I saw what happened the day it happened and I saw your immediate reaction to it. And that was more than enough.

[a-very-tired-jew]

So Israel is starting its Rafah operation and in doing so is evacuating the area.

The UNRWA states it will not be evacuating and will stay in the soon to be active military zone.

This sentiment is echoed by the UNRWA communications director states that they will not evacuate people from the region

If any of their personnel or civilians die in the ensuing operation they will quickly blame Israel, even though they state outright that they will not evacuate or help evacuate civilians. The most vocal voices will then run with the story and demonize Israel further, which will then be repeated ad nauseum until the next big headline. It’s predictable at this point what the media outcome will be.

[ceofcatgirls]

Most people don't know, but Israel has recently been exposed to have tortured UNRWA workers into falsely testifying that UNRWA has connections to Hamas.

Western media is burying this story. The ones covering it are as usual, using passive language to normalise and whitewash these crimes

Take Reuters as an example;

Headlines are important because most people do not read past them.

Here Reuters calls what Israel did as "coercion", though that term does NOT fully encapsulate what Israel did.

After scrolling the article for a bit, you'll see Reuters finally mention what methods these "coercion" had

They used torture methods.

Waterboarding is banned by the Geneva Convention.

This is what western media considers to be just "coercion".

This is something that goes beyond coercion. And the right language must be used to identify this. This is torture.

Israel tortured UNRWA workers into confessing things that aren't true. Do not forget this. Do not forget how western media would not stop talking about this for weeks if it was Hamas doing it, but decide to passively cover this when it's Israel doing it.

[solacedeer]

Palestine update as of 6/6/24

Reports out of Sde Teiman Desert torture camp, Abducted Palestinian ‘Prisoners’ are being Raped by Israeli Officers with Hot Electric metal rods and forced to Sit in Electric Chairs.

Leaked UNRWA documents and Interviews show this pattern. As well as how Israeli Officers assault and accuse Palestinian Civilians of being militant.

ALL THIS and the New York Times Headline is “Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans”. The “40 beheaded babies” which has since been debunked was worth Making headlines. Yet these verified and corroborated reports of Torture and Abuse are buried under heaps of Zionist Propaganda.

(link to the article)

[arrahmahcom]

UNRWA: ‘Israel' Serang Lima Sekolah PBB Dalam Sepuluh Hari

GAZA (Arrahmah.id) – Lima sekolah PBB yang menampung ribuan warga Palestina terlantar dari seluruh Jalur Gaza telah diserang dalam sepuluh hari terakhir saja saat serangan genosida ‘Israel’ di daerah kantong itu terus berlanjut, kata Badan PBB untuk Pengungsi Palestina (UNRWA). “Kemarin di Kota Gaza, sebuah sekolah UNRWA yang menampung keluarga-keluarga terkena serangan. Sehari sebelumnya, salah…

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 199 days into the Israeli occupation's genocide of Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip and the attacks on residential structures, including homes and apartment buildings, continues unabated; such as the above airstrike which targeted a residential apartment complex in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

CARNAGE IN THE GAZA STRIP AS ISRAELI OCCUPATION INTENSIFIES AIRSTRIKES AND SHELLING ON DAY 199 OF GENOCIDE

On the 199th day of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) intensified its airstrikes, committing a total of 6 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 54 citizens, mostly women and children, while another 104 others have been wounded over the previous 24-hours.

In the Hebrew media today, headlines state the Israeli occupation authorities were unable to produce evidence of any connection or ties between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, also known as UNRWA, and Hamas or any other "terrorist group".

In a headline article in the Times of Israel, the Israeli regime was unable to provide evidence of UNRWA's complicity with so-called terrorist groups, citing a report by an independent panel called the "Colonna Review," named for the former French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, which has conducted a study of the evidence provided by the occupation.

Following the Israeli occupation's leveling of the accusations against UNRWA, 15 countries withheld funding for the Humanitarian organization for Palestinian refugees, severely crippling the organizations capacity to distribute aid.

“Israel made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations,” the report quotes the Colonna review as stating. “However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this.”

Further, the report finds UNRWA is "irreplaceable and indispensable" to Palestinians in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the occupied West Bank, and that, while the organization could do more to ensure its neutrality, the UN body already has significant screening process in place in order to "ensure compliance with the humanitarian principles."

In further news, the Civil Defense of the Gaza Strip has announced that the number of decomposing corpses recovered from two mass graves discovered in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, has risen to 210.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces intensified its slaughter of Palestinian families, with combined drone, missile, dumb bomb, and artillery shelling attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing, maiming and wounding many dozens of Palestinian civilians.

In just one example, Zionist warplanes bombed a residential home belonging to the Al-Nuwayrī family in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, killing 7 civilians and wounding a number of others.

Similarly, occupation air forces conducted an airstrike targeting a residential structure in the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp, also in the central Gaza Strip, with early reports stating that the strike killed at least 3 civilians, with several others wounded in the attack.

Updates later published by Palestinian news outlet, WAFA News, says that a fourth victim later died as a result of their wounds.

Israeli occupation fighter jets also bombed a residential apartment complex in the vicinity of the Grand Nuseirat Mosque, also in the Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, wounding "scores of civilians" in the strike.

The occupation's attacks on religious institutions continued with an airstrike on the Al-Taqwa Mosque, located in the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp, killing a number of civilians and wounding several others, while the entrance the Bureij Camp was also targeted in occupation shelling.

Also in central Gaza, IOF warplanes fired a missile into the roof of the Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat Camp, destroying the building's solar panels, while simultaneously, IOF fighter jets bombed the Al-Taqwa Mosque in the Al-Bureij Camp nearby.

Several civilians were further wounded by an Israeli occupation bombing in the vicinity of the Al-Sawarha cemetery in the Nuseirat Camp.

The carnage from the Israeli occupation's war crimes continued with an airstrike targeting the residential home of the Al-Nuwairi family west of the Nuseirat Camp, killing two civilians, while a large number of children were wounded in a strike targeting a civilian residence in the central Nuseirat Camp area.

Yet another Zionist air raid targeted the Al-Zawayda area, while further airstrikes hit a civilian residence in the Al-Brook neighborhood of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

Israeli occupation artillery shelling additionally bombarded the eastern neighborhoods of the Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp, also in the central Gaza Strip, while in Gaza's south, an Israeli air raid targeted residential neighborhoods in the southeast of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

In the south of Gaza, the Zionist army greatly intensified airstrikes, most of which focused on the southern Gazan city of Rafah, killing at least 26 civilians over the weekend, with the number of dead as a result of a strike on the Abdel-Al family home being revised upwards today to 20.

The war crimes of the occupation army continued with an airstrike on a civilian residence behind the Tal al-Sultan Police Station near the Egyptian border, in addition to a strike which targeted a house in the al-Musabah area.

In yet another tragedy, 44-year-old citizen Ayman Al-Dabbari was killed when he was struck by live bullets fired by Zionist soldiers in the village of Al-Shoka, east of Rafah City, while another citizen named Akram Abu Taylakh was martyred as a result of an injury sustained in the Israeli bombing of the Al-Bahasba family home, in the Al-Tanour neighborhood of Rafah several days ago. Another woman belonging to the Riyati family was also killed in the strike.

Moving to the north, the Israeli occupation army bombed a residence in the Al-Musalba area of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, while at the same time, occupation warplanes bombarded the Al-Sabra neighborhood, as well as the eastern and northern neighborhoods of Gaza City.

IOF aircraft additionally bombarded residential buildings in the Al-Sahaba and Al-Daraj neighborhoods of Gaza City.

Israeli occupation air forces further launched several raids, at least one of which targeted the southern neighborhoods of Gaza City, including the Al-Tuffah neighborhood.

As a result of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll among the civilian population of Gaza has risen yet again to exceed 34'151 Palestinians killed, including more than 14'685 children and 9'670 women, while another 77'084 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

April 22nd, 2024

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[eretzyisrael]

HARIF urges sending letters on Jewish refugees to parliamentarians

Jewish refugees from Arab countries are an issue at the heart of any understanding of  conflict in the Middle East.  Yet they are so often ‘erased’ from the narrative or their story distorted.  Alarmed at the lies, misinformation and omissions about Jews and Israel – contributing to skyrocketing antisemitism – HARIF, the UK Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, has launched a letter-writing campaign to raise awareness of Jewish refugees in the new Labour government and among the new crop of politicians taking their places at Westminster.  Harif has composed a sample letter (below)  for its supporters to send to their MPs (Full list at the We work for you website). If you do not live in the UK, you can adapt the letter  to be sent to US Congressmen, Senators or other political representatives.

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear

I am writing as a constituent of yours to draw your attention to a neglected aspect of the Israel/Palestine conflict – namely the human rights issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. I  ask for your support in ensuring that this issue be given equal prominence with the far more familiar issue of Arab/Palestinian refugees from 1948.

In fact,  a larger number of Jewish refugees  –  850,000 – were driven out from Arab countries at the same time,  for no reason other than they shared the ethnicity and religion of  Israelis.  The majority of the Jewish refugees found a new home in Israel without the aid of UNRWA, and today constitute, with their descendants, 53 percent of the Jews of Israel.  However, some tens of thousands were resettled in the UK.

The 7 October Hamas massacre has stirred painful memories among these Middle Eastern and North African Jews. Many suffered similar violent episodes  before the creation of Israel.

In addition, there is no question that in 1947-48  Arab countries deliberately targeted their Jewish populations with discriminatory laws. 

On Sunday 16th May 1948 the New York Times carried a headline: ‘JEWS IN GRAVE DANGER IN ALL MOSLEM LANDS’, with the sub-heading ‘Nine Hundred Thousand in Africa and Asia Face Wrath of their Foes’. 

In Egypt, as early as 1926 a nationality law stated that a person born in Egypt was entitled to Egyptian nationality only if their father “belonged racially to the majority of the population of a country whose language is Arabic or whose religion is Islam”.

In Iraq, a 1950 law to entitled “Supplement to Ordinance Cancelling Iraqi Nationality,” was used to deprive Jews of their Iraqi nationality.

In all Arab countries, riots, expropriations and expulsions ensured that Jewish communities were forcibly deprived of their rights and property. It Is estimated that Jews lost privately-owned land equivalent to Jordan and Lebanon combined. 

   Indigenous Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities, which predated colonisation by the Arab conquest and Islam by 1,000 years or more, have ceased to exist.

At the time the injustice done to Jewish refugees was recognised by international actors: the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) recognised on a number of occasions that the plight of the Jewish refugees fell within its remit. This is also why UNSC Resolution 242 refers to “a just settlement of the refugee problem” without specifying the “Arab” or “Palestinian” refugee problem.

Some countries have recognised this Jewish refugee issue as the injustice it is. In 2008 the US House of Representatives  passed Resolution 185 which stated that “any explicit reference to the rights of Palestinian refugees must be matched by a similar reference to the rights of Jewish refugees”. In March 2014, the Government of Canada officially recognised “the experience of Jewish refugees who were displaced from states in the Middle East and North Africa after 1948”.

My request to you is that you use your influence to persuade the British government  to recognise the injustice that was suffered by more than 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries, and to ensure that it recognises this tragedy in its policy towards the Middle East.

Yours sincerely

The post HARIF urges sending letters on Jewish refugees to parliamentarians first appeared on Point of No Return.