Palestinian supporters protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Times Square during the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 26, 2024, in New York
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU was accused today of trying to drag Britain and the wider world into Israel’s murderous wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
Large numbers of diplomats from multiple nations walked out as Israel’s prime minister headed to the podium for his speech at the United Nations general assembly meeting in New York.
Mr Netanyahu opened his speech by saying he wanted to “set the record straight” against the “lies” that other nations were telling the meeting of the bloc.
He said that Israel has the right to defend itself from “savage murderers” and claimed that supporting Israel was in the “interest of all of us.”
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A Stop the War spokesperson said: “Netanyahu is trying to drag the wider world, including Britain, into the murderous wars he is waging in Lebanon and Gaza.
“The British government must use all possible pressure to force Israel to stop the killing and agree a ceasefire in both wars.”
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In response to Mr Netanyahu’s speech, Green Party co-leader and Bristol Central MP Carla Denyer said: “No-one is winning while Israel turns down ceasefire proposals, more die in Gaza and Lebanon, and hostages are not released.
“The UK government must revoke all arms licences and use all diplomatic power to bring an end to the killing.”
Protesters demand arrest of Netanyahu ahead of UN visit (Photo: Wyatt Souers)
Hounded across the world for war crimes, Netanyahu attempts to defend Israel’s genocidal campaign across the region
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained on the defensive throughout his speech to the United Nations today. Taking the stage amid jeers from the assembled delegates, who stormed out in protest, Netanyahu claimed that he had originally decided to skip the General Assembly but after hearing “lies and slander” against Israel, decided to “set the record straight.”
Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has resulted in a death toll of over 41,000 people. Israel’s expansion of this genocidal onslaught into Lebanon has resulted in a major escalation, with the Zionist state’s bombs killing more than 700 in Lebanon since Monday. On the same day as Netanyahu’s speech, Israel launched a series of airstrikes in Beirut, and bombed a compound of Al Aqsa Hospital in Gaza, killing at least one person.
“The UN is watching with great alarm,” the airstrikes in Beirut, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“Israel seeks peace, Israel yearns for peace,” Netanyahu proclaimed to the UNGA.
“We face savage enemies who seek our annihilation, and we must defend ourselves against these savage murderers, [who] seek not only to destroy us but also destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror,” Netanyahu stated in the familiar war-mongering tone that Israeli officials have become known for since October 7.
Netanyahu is a wanted war criminal. In August, International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan urged ICC judges to rule on his request for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Khan had applied for arrest warrants back in May for the two top Israeli leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity. But these warrants, if issued, would not apply in Israel’s biggest ally, the United States, which is not a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC.
As Israel’s aggression continues to isolate it on the world stage, people of conscience in the United States, Israel’s largest military and financial backer, attempt to isolate it in the belly of the beast.
Thousands of people also marched to the United Nations on September 26 to protest Netanyahu’s visit to the UNGA. The protest was organized by the Shut It Down for Palestine Coalition which includes organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement, the People’s Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, and Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition. “When a war criminal comes to our city, we don’t stay home, we don’t stay silent. We go out to the streets, every single day that he is in this city, and we make it known, Netanyahu, the people are coming for you,” said Miriam Osman of the Palestinian Youth Movement to an assembled crowd of thousands in Midtown Manhattan.
Later that day, a crowd of thousands protested outside the Loews Regency New York Hotel where Netanyahu was staying ahead of his UN speech. Demonstrators were met with brutality and arrests from New York police.
During a demonstration at Citibank’s headquarters in Manhattan on Wednesday, 33 protesters were taken into custody, including Rachel Rivera (center), a board member with New York Communities for Change. Credit: Keerti Gopal/Inside Climate News
Campaigners pressuring Citibank say they see the bank as potentially movable on its funding of fossil fuels, citing the company’s commitments to sustainability.
NEW YORK—Climate demonstrators blocked entrances to Citibank’s headquarters in Manhattan at the start of the workday on Wednesday and Thursday, part of a series of Earth Week actions pressuring the bank to end its financing of fossil fuels. On both mornings, it took the New York Police Department less than 10 minutes to start making arrests.
Climate activists, citing Citibank as the second largest financier of fossil fuels in the world, are engaged in a multi-year campaign to pressure the bank to stop financing oil, gas and coal projects. The week’s protests follow a mock environmental justice hearing at a New York church on Monday, where advocates spoke about the health harms and human rights violations of Citibank-financed fossil fuel projects in Peru, Canada and domestically. The New York demonstration was timed alongside actions in Seoul, South Korea, Melbourne, Australia, Jakarta, Indonesia, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Dallas that also targeted Citibank’s financing of coal, oil, natural gas and military projects.
At about 8:15 Wednesday morning, activists holding four large white banners that together read “Stop Funding Fossil Fuels” blocked the main entrance to Citibank’s headquarters while smaller groups of demonstrators stood outside other entrances to the building. Police began taking protesters into custody at 8:30 and arrested approximately 33 activists for disorderly conduct at Wednesday’s protest, according to activists and the office of NYPD’s deputy commissioner of public information.
Protesters barricaded the main entrance to Citibank’s headquarters in Manhattan on Wednesday morning. Credit: Keerti Gopal/Inside Climate News
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Campaigners have said that, since 2016, Citibank has provided $332 billion in fossil fuel financing, and calculate that the bank has given $1.85 billion in financing to oil and gas operations in the Amazon since 2009 and $1.78 billion in financing to ConocoPhillips, the company behind the contentious Willow Project.
Google workers stage sit-in to end Project Nimbus (Photo: No Tech for Apartheid)
Tech workers are joining the Palestine solidarity movement in leading coast-to-coast sit ins at Google offices across the country
On April 16, Google workers led sit-ins at the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in Sunnyvale, California, and Google’s New York City headquarters in protest against Google’s complicity in the Israeli genocide of the Gaza Strip, through Project Nimbus, the tech giant’s contract with the Israeli government and military.
BREAKING—DOZENS OF @GOOGLE WORKERS LEAD HISTORIC COAST TO COAST-INS AT @GOOGLECLOUD CEO THOMAS KURIAN’S OFFICE IN SUNNYVALE & @GOOGLE’s NYC 10TH FLOOR COMMONS. They refuse to leave until @google stops powering the genocide in Gaza
— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 16, 2024
Tech workers at both Amazon and Google have been organizing for years to end Project Nimbus, which is Google and Amazon’s USD 1.2 million contract with the Israeli government and military. Despite retaliation from Google including the firing of workers, the movement against Project Nimbus has only grown.
“Google is enabling and profiting from Israel’s AI-powered genocide through Project Nimbus, their USD 1 billion cloud contract with Israel. The Israeli military is also using Google Photos as part of a facial recognition dragnet across Gaza, which has led to the arrest, imprisonment, and torture of thousands of Palestinians with little to no evidence. It’s clear that the Israeli military will use any technology available to them for genocidal means,” say the Amazon and Google workers, organized in the group No Tech for Apartheid, in a recent statement. “Google workers do not want their labor to power Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”
This action comes days after Time Magazine reporting confirmed that Google is providing direct cloud computing services to the Israeli occupation forces, despite the company stating the contrary.
“We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial platform by Israeli government ministries such as finance, healthcare, transportation, and education,” a Google spokesperson previously toldTime Magazine. “Our work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.” Time reporting revealed that the Israeli Ministry of Defense has its own secure entry point into the Google Cloud.
Tech workers staging the sit-ins in California and New York are demanding that the company end Project Nimbus, stop “the harassment, intimidation, bullying, silencing, and censorship of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Googlers,” and address health and safety issues in the workplace, which arise from the “mental health consequences of working at a company that is using their labor to enable a genocide,” workers say.
An Israeli woman holds a sign opposing Israel’s looming invasion of Rafah, Gaza during a February 13, 2024 protest outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. (Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Demonstrators turned out from Cardiff to Tel Aviv as Palestinians in the Gaza city endured heavy Israeli bombing while bracing for an all-out ground invasion.
Global emergency protests against Israel’s expected invasion of Rafah continued Tuesday, a day after demonstrators took to the streets of cities around the world to say “hands off” the southern Gaza city whose population has swelled more than fivefold due to the influx of Palestinian war refugees.
Hundreds of protesters turned out in the cold and rain of Cardiff, Wales Tuesday afternoon, with demonstrations planned for later in the day in cities including Manchester, England and Houston, Texas.
“We do not care if it is raining—it’s raining bombs in Rafah over a million Palestinians, squeezed into an area barely the size of an airport,” protest co-organizer Black Lives Matter Cardiff & Vale said on social media.
HAPPENING NOW!
🇵🇸At short notice, hundreds have braved the rain in central Cardiff against the Israeli bombing of Rafah and the unfolding genocide in Gaza.
Over 26,000 Palestinians Inc over 11,000 children have been killed in the past four months. pic.twitter.com/Wq9Q5VhSEd
In Tel Aviv, a crowd of left-wing Israelis protested outside the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense, holding signs with messages including “Stop Bombing Gaza” and “Stop Funding Genocide.”
Now in Tel Aviv: Israeli left wing activists protest in front of the Ministry of Defense agagainst the planed ground operation in Rafah #gazapic.twitter.com/08Zp6COjCl
Tuesday’s demonstrations followed Monday protests around the world including outside both the White House in Washington, D.C. and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s residence on Downing Street in London. Rallies and marches also took place in cities including Rome, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, and at U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, where 21 Sunrise Movement climate activists were arrested.
Airstrikes on Rafah are intensifying as the Israel Defense Forces appear poised to launch a major ground invasion of the besieged city on the Egyptian border. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and wounded in Rafah since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Friday order to the IDF to create an evacuation plan for the 1.5 million people in the city, most of them refugees from other parts of Gaza.
South African officials said Tuesday that Israel’s bombing of Rafah and stated intent to invade the city are violations of the International Court of Justice’s order for Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts of genocide. The court found in a preliminary ruling that Israeli forces were “plausibly” committing genocide, as alleged in the South Africa-led case.
The looming invasion of Rafah comes amid a wider war on Gaza in which more than 100,000 Palestinians have been killed, maimed, or left missing by Israeli bombs and bullets since October 7, when Hamas led deadly attacks on southern Israel and kidnapped over 240 Israelis and others. Around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and a majority of the besieged strip’s homes have been damaged or destroyed by Israel’s relentless onslaught.
Senior officials from Israel, the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar met in Cairo on Tuesday to resume negotiations for an extended cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of the approximately 130 hostages held by Hamas.
