human rights violations

Ben-Gvir orders demolitions in Palestinian towns, villages within Israel

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250110-ben-gvir-orders-demolitions-in-palestinian-towns-villages-within-israel

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on 10 September, 2023 [OHAD ZWIGENBERG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has instructed Israeli forces to prioritise demolishing homes in Palestinian towns and villages within Israel, based on claims that they were built without permits.

According to Haaretz, Ben-Gvir lacks the legal authority to determine demolition policies, a responsibility held by Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in coordination with enforcement agencies.

Nevertheless, during private meetings with Israeli forces, he pushed for the destruction of Palestinian family buildings.

Sources reveal that Ben-Gvir justified these orders as a way to “demonstrate governance and increase deterrence,” even stating: “The best deterrent is evicting a family from its home.”

One source noted: “It was completely clear he meant demolitions in the Arab community. Ben-Gvir is seeking provocation and chaos; that’s what interests him.”

Israel opens underground prison for Hamas, Hezbollah detainees: Report

Senior Israeli occupation officers confirmed that Ben-Gvir insisted on prioritising demolitions of occupied homes, even when such structures are not high-priority cases.

The Israeli government justifies these demolitions by claiming the structures were built without permits, although obtaining such permits is nearly impossible for Palestinians under what Amnesty and other human rights groups have described as Israel’s two-tier apartheid system.

Ben-Gvir’s push to add occupancy as a criterion for demolition drew objections from senior Justice Ministry officials, who urged the Israeli forces to assert their independence. “Ben-Gvir is acting like a ‘super-commissioner’,” said one official.

Despite resistance, Israeli forces operations increasingly align with Ben-Gvir’s focus on demolishing Arab community homes, reported Haaretz.

State Prosecutor Amit Aisman and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara are aware of Ben-Gvir’s interference but have yet to confront him directly. Meanwhile, Ben-Gvir continues to issue demolition orders against Palestinian homes.

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Amnesty suspends Israel branch due to ‘anti-Palestinian racism’

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250109-amnesty-suspends-israel-branch-due-to-anti-palestinian-racism

The logo of Human Rights NGO Amnesty International is pictured in Paris on May 28, 2024 [STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images]

Amnesty International has suspended its Israel branch for failing to align with the organisation’s stance that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and accused the branch of “anti-Palestinian racism,” according to the New York Post.

The report, published on Tuesday, references a 6 January letter in which Tiumalu Lauvale Peter Fa’afiu, Amnesty’s interim international chairman, stated that the Israel branch had acted in ways that undermined the group’s mission.

The suspension is set to last two years, during which a review panel will evaluate whether to reinstate Amnesty International Israel or impose a permanent ban. The branch retains the option to appeal the decision.

“We take this action in response to evidence of endemic anti-Palestinian racism within AI Israel, which violates core human rights principles and Amnesty values, and evidence of AI Israel’s misalignment with and hostility to Amnesty positions,” read a Monday email from Fa’afiu.

The interim international chairman also stated that Amnesty Israel had actively opposed the organisation’s research and reports, particularly the 2022 publication “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity” and the 2024 report, “’You Feel Like You Are Subhuman:’ Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza.”

“AI Israel has sought to publicly discredit Amnesty’s human rights research and positions,” wrote Fa’afiu.

“Its efforts to publicly undermine the findings and recommendations of Amnesty’s 2022 report on Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians and, more recently, Amnesty’s 2024 report on Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, have been deeply prejudicial to Amnesty’s human rights mission, threatening our credibility, integrity and operational coherence.”

In response, members of Amnesty International’s Israeli branch have pushed back against their suspension, accusing the global organisation of overlooking anti-Semitism within its ranks.

Former Amnesty Israel Director, Yonatan Gher, criticised the move, describing the Israeli branch as “the guardian of the Israeli government against the human rights movement.”

In a leaked email, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard announced that the suspension would be formally addressed on 21 January. Fa’afiu reportedly added that a committee would “determine whether Amnesty International Israel has a future within the Amnesty movement.”

Amnesty did not reply to MEMO’s request for comment at the time of going to press.

Read: Quaker group pulls New York Times ad over paper’s refusal to call Gaza bombing ‘genocide’

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Doctors Without Borders Warns Newborn Babies at Dire Risk as Israel Assails Gaza Hospitals

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Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Newborn, baby and child patients are deprived of necessary treatment due to power crisis and lack of medicines as Israeli forces cutting off electricity, preventing the entry of fuel and various supplies disrupted the functioning of all hospitals in the region, at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza on July 04, 2024. (Photo: Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“It’s an impossible situation, because even if we prioritize the little fuel that is left to the most urgent departments, we know that they won’t last more than 36 to 48 hours,” said Julie Faucon, MSF medical team leader in Gaza.

The international humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières, also kno wn as Doctors Without Borders or MSF, warned in a Wednesday statement that newborn babies and other patients are at dire risk as southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital runs out of fuel.

The group warned that electricity for the MSF-supported Nasser Hospital, where MSF members are providing emergency, maternity, pediatric, burn, and trauma care, may be cut off for some hospital departments leaving patients without “lifesaving care.” The hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit is currently treating children and newborns who are reliant on mechanical ventilation and incubators. All of these young patients are dependent on electricity from fuel generators, MSF wrote.

Nasser Hospital, as well as two other facilities in the Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Hospital and European Gaza Hospital, are nearing the need to close due to lack of fuel, the group reported Wednesday.

“It’s an impossible situation, because even if we prioritize the little fuel that is left to the most urgent departments, we know that they won’t last more than 36 to 48 hours,” said Julie Faucon, MSF medical team leader in Gaza, according to the statement. “While some patients are hanging on by a thread, the lack of sustained electricity is impacting the level of care we can provide to those with burns and trauma.”

Pascale Coissard, MSF emergency coordinator, said that the situation is “a consequence of Israel’s ongoing blockade and continuous criminal looting of lifesaving supplies.”

In mid-July, the United Nations reported that “Israeli authorities continue to tightly control allocations of incoming fuel, thereby limiting humanitarian operations, especially by local partners,” and just last week the body noted that only 16 of the region’s 36 hospitals remained partially in operation.

Pointing to lack of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel, Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization representative for the West Bank and Gaza, told a recent U.N. Security Council meeting that “the health sector is being systematically dismantled.”

Attacks by the Israeli military have left northern Gaza’s three hospitals—the Kamal Adwan Hospital, al-Awda Hospital, and the Indonesian Hospital—either entirely out of service or barely functioning.

Hussam Abu Safia, the head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained by Israeli forces during their raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in late December.

Human rights defenders and the medical community have called for his release, it’s believed that he is being held in an Israeli detention center, though the Israeli officials had given news media and human rights groups conflicting messages about his whereabouts.

Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingDoctors Without Borders Warns Newborn Babies at Dire Risk as Israel Assails Gaza Hospitals

The UK military’s secret visits to Israel

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dizzy: I am only able to quote a few small parts of this copyrighted article. What it shows is that Keir Starmer’s UK Labour Party government is actively participating in Israel’s genocides far more than people are aware of or that is generally accepted. I recommend reading this article and DECLASSIFIED UK as a source on UK’s active military involvement in Israel’s genocides.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/the-uk-militarys-secret-visits-to-israel/

Israel’s military chief Herzi Halevi meets Admiral Radakin in Tel Aviv on 2 August 2024. (Photo: IDF)

The most senior figures in the UK military made at least five unpublicised visits to Israel in the months after it began striking Gaza in October 2023, Declassified has found.

British government data shows that Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff and the UK’s top soldier, visited Israel on 21 January 2024. 

On the trip he met the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, “to discuss future operations in the region”.

…

Radakin is also known to have visited Halevi again in Israel in August last year, while in November the Israeli soldier was invited by Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) to attend a meeting in London. 

Halevi was given special immunity by the UK authorities to avoid the possibility of being arrested for war crimes while in Britain. 

Another senior UK figure who has visited Israel is the head of the Royal Air Force (RAF), Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, who undertook a trip on 9 January 2024, for purposes which are undeclared in the government data.

The RAF has since flown hundreds of spy missions over Gaza, in aid of Israeli intelligence. The UK says that only information related to Hamas hostage-taking is passed to Israel from these flights, which take off from the UK’s sprawling military and intelligence base on Cyprus.

…

https://www.declassifieduk.org/the-uk-militarys-secret-visits-to-israel/

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
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Smotrich pushes for full control of Gaza, aid cuts once Trump takes office

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250109-smotrich-pushes-for-full-control-of-gaza-aid-cuts-once-trump-takes-office

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gives a speech, regarding the ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hamas, in front of the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on June 3, 2024 [Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency]

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, yesterday urged Israel to impose “ entire civil management of the Gaza Strip,” and announced plans to reduce humanitarian aid to the bare minimum mandated by international law once US President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month.

According to the Times of Israel, during a Facebook live session, Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party, also emphasised the term “occupation”, stating: “Yes, occupation, we don’t need to be afraid of this word.”

Throughout the broadcast, he repeatedly issued warnings that Israel was prepared “to unleash the gates of hell on Hamas,” expressing confidence that Trump’s administration would provide both military and diplomatic support for the attacks.

“We’re readying for a new approach to conquering the Gaza Strip, of holding onto it, of dividing it into regional brigades,” he said, calling for Israel to occupy the territory “for a very long time.”

Moreover, Smotrich criticised ongoing negotiations with Hamas aimed at securing a hostage-ceasefire deal. He argued that Israel would have greater leverage in talks once Donald Trump returns to the White House.

“The military pressure will be stronger — not entering and exiting but capturing territory,” he explained.

Smotrich also slammed Israel’s judicial system, claiming it had “completely lost its judgment.” He noted the ongoing case involving the theft and leak of classified Israeli army intelligence linked to the Prime Minister’s Office as a prime example of systemic failure.

“I am not prepared to abandon this important task of investigating October 7 to a system I have no faith in,” he added. “I am in favour of an independent investigative committee that will turn over every stone.”

READ: Pope calls situation in Gaza ‘shameful’

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Continue ReadingSmotrich pushes for full control of Gaza, aid cuts once Trump takes office