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Category: human rights violations

  • Netanyahu Moves to Expand Illegal Israeli Settlements in Syrian Golan Heights

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

    Israeli troops and military vehicles cross in and out of Syria through a gate in the boundary fence near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on December 15, 2024. (Photo: Mati Milstein/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

    Turkey’s foreign ministry condemned the plan as “a new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation.”

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would move to expand settlements in the occupied and illegally annexed Golan Heights, exploiting the collapse of the Assad government to further entrench its control of Syrian land.

    Netanyahu said in a statement Sunday that “strengthening” the Golan Heights is synonymous with “strengthening the state of Israel” and declared that “we will continue to hold onto it, make it flourish, and settle in it.”

    According to Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli government “unanimously approved” the prime minister’s push to double the settler population in the Golan Heights.

    There are currently dozens of Israeli settlements housing roughly 20,000 people in the territory, the bulk of which Israel unlawfully annexed in 1981 after occupying it during the 1967 war.

    Israel’s settlement expansion plan sparked outrage from countries in the region, with Turkey’s foreign ministry condemning the decision Sunday as “a new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation.”

    The foreign ministry of Saudi Arabia accused Israel of “sabotaging” Syria’s “prospects for restoring its security and stability.”

    “The kingdom reaffirms that the occupied Golan is Syrian, Arab land,” the ministry added.

    Israel’s military has wasted no time advancing on Syrian territory in the wake of Assad’s fall. As Drop Site noted over the weekend, “Israeli tanks have advanced into villages and towns in Syria’s Quneitra governorate, across from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, damaging streets, cutting down trees, and destroying electricity poles.”

    “Israel ordered residents to evacuate their homes. When many refused, Israeli forces destroyed water supply networks and power lines in an attempt to force them out,” the outlet added.

    On Saturday, as The Guardian reported, “Israel struck dozens of sites in Syria overnight with airstrikes” after the Israeli defense minister announced the country’s forces “would remain for the winter on Mount Hermon—known to Syrians as Jabel Sheikh—in positions they occupied last week.”

    Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of the rebel group that helped drive Assad from power, denounced Israel’s “uncalculated military adventures” but said that “the priority at this stage is reconstruction and stability, not being drawn into disputes that could lead to further destruction.”

    “Syria’s war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations,” he said.

    Israel’s push for settlement expansion in the Golan Heights comes amid the country’s large-scale, catastrophic assault on the Gaza Strip, which Israeli forces are preparing to occupy indefinitely.

    President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power in the United States is expected to embolden the far-right forces in Netanyahu’s government that are seeking to return settlements to Gaza and annex the West Bank.

    Netanyahu said in a video statement that he had “a very friendly, warm, and important discussion” with Trump late Saturday about the future of the Middle East.

    “I said we would change the Middle East and we are doing so,” the prime minister said. “I discussed with President-elect Trump the need to complete the victory.”

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

  • Time to listen, Labour – stop arming Israel

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/time-to-listen-labour-stop-arming-israel

    MPs show support for an immediate arms embargo outside parliament Photo: Jess Hurd

    CROSS-PARTY MPs demanded action from the government today to put a halt to Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

    MPs debated petitions signed by over 100,000 people, calling for the immediate revocation of all arms export licences to Israel and 283,000 calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state, which were delivered before the general election

    Since last October, at least 45,000 in Gaza have been murdered by Israel, in which Britain has been complicit through supplying arms.

    In September, the Labour government eventually banned 30 out of 361 licences in a move labelled “tokenistic” by campaigners.

    During the debate, Labour MP John McDonnell said: “I think history will judge us all for not doing enough to stop this.”

    The former shadow chancellor said that while he was pleased that the petition is taking place “there’s a level of frustration now I don’t think we can contain any more.”

    He asked: “Why isn’t democracy being exercised here to stop this?”

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/time-to-listen-labour-stop-arming-israel

    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
    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

  • 77 House Dems Call for ‘Full Assessment’ of Israeli Compliance With US Law

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

    Palestinians carrying empty pots line up to receive meals distributed by charity organizations in Khan Younis, Gaza on December 13, 2024.
     (Photo: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

    Lawmakers told the Biden administration they are “deeply troubled by the continued level of civilian casualties and humanitarian suffering in Gaza.”

    As Israel continues to decimate the Gaza Strip with American weapons, 77 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives this week demanded that the Biden administration “provide a full assessment of the status of Israel’s compliance with all relevant U.S. policies and laws, including National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) and Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act.”

    Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) spearheaded the Thursday letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, with less than six weeks left in President Joe Biden’s term.

    Since Biden issued NSM-20 in February, his administration has repeatedly accepted the Israel government’s assurances about the use of U.S. weapons, despite reports from journalists and human rights groups about how they have helped Israeli forces slaughter at least 44,875 Palestinians and injure another 106,454 people in the besieged enclave over the past 14 months.

    “Our concerns remain urgent and largely unresolved, including arbitrary restrictions on humanitarian aid and insufficient delivery routes.”

    House Democrats’ letter begins by declaring support for “Israel’s right to self-defense,” denouncing the Hamas-led October 2023 attack, and endorsing the Biden administration’s efforts “to broker a bilateral cease-fire that includes the release of hostages,” noting the deal recently negotiated for the Israeli government and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

    “Further, we condemn the unprecedented Iranian attacks against Israel launched on April 13, 2024, and October 1, 2024,” the letter states, declining to mention the Israeli actions that led to those responses. “We must continue to avoid a major regional conflict—and we welcome the concerted diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and our allies to prevent further escalation.”

    “We are also deeply troubled by the continued level of civilian casualties and humanitarian suffering in Gaza,” the lawmakers wrote, citing the administration’s October 13 letter imposing a 30-day deadline for Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Palestinian territory. “That deadline has expired, and while some progress has been made, we believe the Israeli government has not yet fulfilled the requirements outlined in your letter.”

    https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1867603895582961836?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1867603895582961836%7Ctwgr%5E636ffcb0a37573b0c5a392d9d3bd57251c46e461%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fus-send-weapons-to-israel

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    Asked during a November 12 press conference if the Israeli government has met the administration’s demands, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that “we have not made an assessment that they are in violation of U.S. law.”

    Shortly after that, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) forced votes on resolutions to block the sale of 120mm tank rounds, 120mm high-explosive mortar rounds, and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) to Israel, but they didn’t pass.

    Progressives and Democrats in Congress have been sounding the alarm about U.S. government complicity in Israel’s armed assault and starvation campaign—which have led to an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice—to varying degrees since October 2023, including with a May letter led by Crow and Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) and signed by 85 others.

    Citing that letter on Thursday, the 77 House Democrats wrote that “our concerns remain urgent and largely unresolved, including arbitrary restrictions on humanitarian aid and insufficient delivery routes, among others. As a result, Gaza’s civilian population is facing dire famine.”

    “We believe further administrative action must be taken to ensure Israel upholds the assurances it provided in March 2024 to facilitate, and not directly or indirectly obstruct, U.S. humanitarian assistance,” the letter concludes. “We remain committed to a negotiated solution that can bring an end to the fighting, free the remaining hostages, surge humanitarian aid, and lay the groundwork to rebuild Gaza with a legitimate Palestinian governing body. We thank you and the administration for its ongoing work to achieve those shared goals.”

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

  • Israeli army deliberately bombed site to kill hostages inside: Al-Qassam Brigades

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    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241215-israeli-army-deliberately-bombed-site-to-kill-hostages-inside-al-qassam-brigades

    Hundreds of demonstrators, holding Israeli flags and photos of prisoners, gather at the streets and march from Jaffa Street in Jerusalem towards Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence, to demand a ceasefire and prisoner swap deal in Gaza in Jerusalem on December 14, 2024. [Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency]

    The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, said Saturday that the Israeli army bombed a location in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli hostages were held, confirming that the bombing was repeated to ensure their death, Anadolu reports.

    Abu Obaida, the spokesperson for the group, said on Telegram: “The occupation army recently bombed a location where some enemy prisoners were present and repeated the bombing to ensure their death.”

    “We have intelligence confirming that the enemy deliberately bombed the location with the aim of killing the prisoners and their guards,” Obaida noted.

    He added: “Our fighters attempted to rescue the enemy prisoners and succeeded in retrieving one of them, whose fate remains unknown.”

    Obaida held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his government, and the Israeli army “fully responsible for this event and the lives of their prisoners.”

    A video released by al-Qassam Brigades showed the bombed location and a person without clarifying whether they were killed or injured, with no facial features shown.

    The video included a statement: “Netanyahu and [Chief of General Staff Herzi] Halevi seek to get rid of their prisoners in Gaza by all means.”

    Israel estimates that there are currently 101 Israeli prisoners held in Gaza.

    Read: Hamas reiterates efforts to end Israeli aggression in Gaza

    Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to reach a cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas have failed due to Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the ongoing conflict.

    Israel has launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 44,800 victims, mostly women and children, since an attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, on 7 October 2023.

    The second year of genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with officials and institutions labeling the attacks and the blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.

    The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last month for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

    Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on Gaza.

    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

  • Study Finds 96% of Gaza Children Fear Imminent Death—And Half Want to Die

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

    A Palestinian girl is in shock after surviving an Israeli bombing of an UNRWA school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, Palestine on July 14, 2024.  (Photo: Salama Nabeel Eaid Younes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

    “The world’s failure to protect Gaza’s children is a moral failing on a monumental scale,” said one advocate.

    Amid a relentless Israeli onslaught that has wrought monumental physical and psychological destruction in Gaza, a report published this week revealed that nearly all children in the embattled Palestinian enclave believe their death is imminent—and nearly half of them want to die.

    The Gaza-based Community Training Center for Crisis Management, supported by War Child Alliance, surveyed more than 500 Palestinian children in Gaza last June and found that 96% of them fear imminent death, 92% are not accepting of reality, 79% suffer from nightmares, 77% avoid discussing traumatic events, 73% display signs of aggression, 49% wish to die because of the war, and many more “show signs of withdrawal and severe anxiety, alongside a pervasive sense of hopelessness.”

    “This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,” War Child U.K. CEO Helen Pattinson said in a statement. “Alongside the leveling of hospitals, schools, and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war.”

    In a first of its kind report, our Gaza based partner Community Training Centre for Crisis Management asked injured, separated and disabled children and their caregivers about the toll of the ongoing war on their lives. Their answers are devastating but sadly not a surprise.1/5

    — War Child UK (@warchilduk.bsky.social) 2024-12-12T11:31:17.537Z

    Israel’s 434-day assault on Gaza—which is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case—has left tens of thousands of children dead, maimed, missing, or orphaned and hundreds of thousands more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened. Doctors and others including volunteers from the United States have documented many cases in which they’ve concluded Israeli snipers and other troops have deliberately shot children in the head and chest.

    “The harm caused to Gaza’s children goes beyond statistics. Behind every number is a name, a life, and a future that is being extinguished before it can even begin,” Iain Overton, executive director of the U.K.-based group Action on Armed Violence, said in response to the new report.

    “The world’s failure to protect Gaza’s children is a moral failing on a monumental scale,” he added. “We must act decisively and compassionately to ensure that these children’s voices are heard and their futures protected.”

    In October, the U.K.-based charity Oxfam International said that Israel’s yearlong assault on Gaza has been the deadliest year of conflict for women and children anywhere in the world over the past two decades. A year ago, the United Nations Children’s Fund called Gaza “the world’s most dangerous place to be a child.” Earlier this year, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for the first time added Israel to his so-called “List of Shame” of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts.

    “The international community must act now before the child mental health catastrophe we are witnessing embeds itself into multi-generational trauma, the consequences of which the region will be dealing with for decades to come,” Pattinson stressed. “A cease-fire must be the immediate first step to allow War Child and other agencies to effectively respond to the intense psychological damage children are experiencing.”

    https://twitter.com/Hamza_a96/status/1867609923687002278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1867609923687002278%7Ctwgr%5Ea36bb4fb878537598f50ff348c576b299898fba0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fgaza-children-trauma

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    Addressing the complicity of allies like the United States, Germany, and Britain, who provide weapons and diplomatic cover for Israel, progressive U.K. parliamentarian Jeremy Corbyn wrote on social media in response to the new report, “Every single supplier of arms to Israel has blood on its hands—and the world will never forgive them.”

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