Swinney considers U turn on new oil and gas licences
I’ve been expecting the SNP to abandon their green commitments and here it is … SNP’s Swinney describing fossil fuels as sustainable and calling for abandoning the transition to help the transition from fossil fuels. That pretty impressive twisted thinking Swinney.
URI removed
7/9/24 This content removed following DMCA takedown notices initiated from the Scotsman claiming copyright infringement. I disagree with them – i.e. I don’t accept that I’m infringing the Scotsman’s copyright – and they look to be produced by a simple automated routine without human supervision or intervention i.e. a stupid bot. I’m disappointed that my website host accepts these notices without question, has redirected some articles as a result and threatened further restrictions.
I have successfully defended one article that the Scotsman was claiming copyright to. That copyright is clearly owned by the letter’s authors. That’s the standard of competence I’m up against.
Israeli Minister Threatens to Turn Occupied West Bank Into Ruins ‘Like in the Gaza Strip’
Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
(Photo: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images)
One advocate responded: “Take this seriously. If extremists like Smotrich get their way they will do to the West Bank exactly what they have done to Gaza.”
Israel’s forces have killed at least 36,224 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in less than eight months, and far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday threatened to similarly attack the illegally occupied West Bank.
Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party, shared on social media a video he recorded in Bat Hefer, following similar posts a day earlier. The Times of Israel reported that the minister’s comments came after Palestinians’ gunfire from Tulkarem in the West Bank toward the Israeli settlement.
“Our message to the neighbors beyond the fence in Tulkarem, Nur Shams, Shuweika, and Qalqilya: We will turn you into ruined cities like in the Gaza Strip if the terror you are exerting on the settlements continues,” Smotrich said in Hebrew, according to a translation from Al Jazeera.
NPR international correspondent Aya Batrawy pointed out that not only is Smotrich an advocate of illegal Israeli settlements—he has a home near Kedumim—but also “his role as finance minister means he oversees budgets, like police and army.”
Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns of the U.K.-based Medical Aid for Palestinians, said of Smotrich’s remarks: “Take this seriously. If extremists like Smotrich get their way they will do to the West Bank exactly what they have done to Gaza. Starting with the refugee camps and Area C communities (to a certain extent it has already begun).”
Since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli forces and settlers have killed over 500 Palestinians in the West Bank.
Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights group in the United States, issued a statement about multiple recent events, including the minister’s comments.
“Every day, we see Israel’s far-right government targeting civilian infrastructure vital to the lives of ordinary Palestinians, whether in Gaza or the West Bank,” Hooper said. “This ongoing destruction has one goal—to make life unbearable for the Palestinian people and to force their removal from the land of Palestine.”
CAIR also “condemned the far-right Israeli government’s destruction of a vegetable market in the West Bank city of Ramallah,” explaining: “During a raid, Israeli stun grenades and tear gas canisters ignited the blaze that consumed a large portion of the market. Some 200 shops and stalls were impacted.”
The group further pointed out that the devastation in Ramallah followed Israeli forces bombing a pair of encampments in and near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, attacks that killed dozens of Palestinians displaced by the war—which over 30 countries have argued to the International Court of Justice amounts to genocide.
Smotrich has come under fire for other statements since Israel launched its retaliation for the October 7 attack. Just last month, in what critics called blatantly genocidal language, he advocated for “total annihilation” of Gaza.
In January, Smotrich said that the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza would be a “humanitarian solution” and “a small country like ours cannot afford a reality where, four minutes away from our settlements, there is a hotbed of hatred and terror, where there are 2 million people who wake up every morning with the desire to destroy the state of Israel.”
Smotrich made similar remarks before the current escalation, declaring in March 2023 that an entire Palestinian town should be “wiped out” by Israel and that “there’s no such thing as Palestinians because there’s no such thing as a Palestinian people.”
Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
- Far-Right Israeli Minister Who Said Palestinian Town Should Be ‘Wiped Out’ Gets US Visa ›
- US Jews Say Israeli Finance Minister Should Be Barred From Country Over ‘Repugnant’ Comments ›
- After US Rebuke, Top Israeli Ministers Double Down On Ethnic Cleansing Push ›
- Israeli Finance Minister Denounced For Calling For ‘Total Annihilation’ Of Gaza ›
Children die of malnutrition as Rafah operation shifts threat of famine in Gaza
Arrival of Israeli troops in the southern border town has choked aid supplies, as hunger deepens in southern Gaza
Fayiz Abu Ataya was born into war and knew nothing else. Over his first and only spring, in a town stalked by hunger, he wasted away to a shadow of a child, skin stretched painfully over jutting bones.
In seven months of life, he had little time to make a mark beyond the family who loved him. But when his death from malnutrition was reported last week, it sounded a warning around the world about a rapidly deepening crisis in central and southern Gaza, triggered by the Israeli military operation in the southern town of Rafah.
At least 30 child victims of malnutrition have been recorded in Gaza, but almost all died in the north, until recently the area with the most extreme shortages of food and medical care, where a top US aid official said famine had taken hold in some areas.
The arrival of Israeli troops in Rafah in May shifted the grim calculus of threat in the strip.
“The ongoing situation in Rafah is a disaster for children,” said Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for Unicef in Palestine. “If nutrition supplies, especially ready-to-use therapeutic food, used to address malnutrition among children, cannot be distributed, the treatment of more than 3,000 children with acute malnutrition will be interrupted.”
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Thousands across Britain demand an end to Israel’s merciless onslaught of Gaza
THOUSANDS of people took to the streets in towns and cities across Britain at the weekend to demand a halt to Israel’s merciless onslaught and continuing slaughter in Gaza.
The actions marked almost eight months of weekly protest as Israel’s attack on the southern Gazan city of Rafah continued with the death toll passing 36,000 — over half of them women and children.
Protests in London were marred by the arrest of seven young people calling for a ceasefire and for a halt to Britain’s supply of arms to Israel.
The arrests happened as about 250 supporters of direct action group Youth Demand marched past Waterloo Underground station carrying placards and chanting “All eyes on Rafah!” and “Stop arming Israel!”
Youth Demand had warned earlier on social media that they intended to block roads and bridges in London.
Protester Olivia Burnett, from Leeds, said: “The time for non-disruptive marches is over.
“When you connect to what is happening to the people in Rafah, you realise we have to do whatever is necessary to end the hell they are living through.
“What are we willing to do to stop babies being burned alive? The answer must be: whatever it takes.”
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