Palestine

Fears of starvation in Gaza as Israel continues to blockade humanitarian aid

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/fears-of-starvation-in-gaza-as-israel-continues-to-blockade-humanitarian-aid Members of the Abed family warm up by a fire at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in the Mawasi region, Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, February 24, 2025 FEARS grew today that Palestine’s population may once again be on the verge of starvation following a week-long Israeli blockade. Israel imposed the siege to try to force Hamas to accept a different ceasefire deal to the one agreed in January. It blocked the entry of aid shipments to Gaza on Sunday, hours after the ceasefire deal’s first phase had expired, sparking fears of hunger and more hardships during the holy month of Ramadan, which began over the weekend. Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanou said Israel is pursuing “a policy of starvation and collective punishment” in Gaza by keeping land crossings closed and preventing the entry of crucial aid. The siege is a “flagrant violation of international and humanitarian laws and a war crime that the world must stop and hold its perpetrators accountable,” he said. “We renew our call to the international community, all human rights and humanitarian institutions and all free people of the world to force the zionist occupation to open the crossings, bring in relief and medical aid – and end the suffering of our people.” ... https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/fears-of-starvation-in-gaza-as-israel-continues-to-blockade-humanitarian-aid 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

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Why is an ‘ethical’ investor funding arms companies?

https://www.declassifieduk.org/why-is-an-ethical-investor-funding-arms-companies Is Norway's money being invested responsibly? (Photo: Andrzej Rostek / Alamy) Scandinavian countries are often held up as models for a better society. None more so than Norway, flush with North Sea oil wealth, which it can invest responsibly. The money is put aside in a sovereign wealth fund, owned by the Norwegian government and managed by the country’s central bank, Norges Bank. It is the largest such fund in the world, worth £1.4 trillion. Called the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), or just the Oil Fund, it is supposed to adhere to ethical guidelines by excluding certain companies from its portfolio. That’s if they are involved in serious violations of human rights – especially in conflicts – gross corruption, the production of nuclear weapons and more. However, in outright contradiction to these guidelines, the GPFG invests billions of pounds in many of the world’s largest arms companies. In fact, it owns stakes in exactly half of the world’s top 100 arms companies, accumulating at almost £14 billion.  This includes arms companies here in the UK that supply Israel – despite Norway recognising the state of Palestine as recently as May 2024 and excluding companies from the GPFG involved in activities violating international law. So why is Norwegian money finding its way into Britain’s arms industry, which supplies Israel?  Arming Israel Among these investments is QinetiQ in which the GPFG holds over £46 million in shares.  The British defence tech firm has collaborated with the Israeli military to develop the Watchkeeper drone system, a joint project with Israel’s Elbit Systems, a company dropped from the fund in 2009 for supplying surveillance systems for the separation barrier in the West Bank.  ... Article continues at https://www.declassifieduk.org/why-is-an-ethical-investor-funding-arms-companies

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German ministry dismisses lawyer for supporting Gaza, rejecting genocide

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  Thousands of people carrying Palestinian flags and banners march as they protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Germany’s arms support to Israel in Unter den Linden Street, Berlin, Germany on April 13, 2024 [Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images] The German federal ministry has dismissed a lawyer in Berlin due to her opposition to the Israeli assault on Gaza, the Palestinian Information Centre reported. On Saturday lawyer Melanie Schweizer posted a video on X stating: “Yesterday I got fired as a civil servant working at the Federal Ministry in Germany. Why? In a nutshell because I was speaking out against the genocide in Palestine committed by Israel, against the German support thereof, against the violence and crimes happening there.” Highlighting the German government and police’s efforts to silence pro-Palestine voices, she added: “This is where we’re at in Germany. This is a blatant attack on our constitutional rights to freedom.” She called on supporters of Gaza to make their stance clear and “keep speaking up, keep using your voice, losing your job is not the worst that can happen to you, losing your life is. Losing your freedom right is.” https://twitter.com/i/status/1895904365225058324 Many European and American companies have previously dismissed employees over their stance on the war on Gaza and their opposition to genocide. In October 2024, Microsoft dismissed two employees after they organised a sit-in at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., in solidarity with the victims of the Israeli assault on Gaza. On 22 January, the Washington Post reported that Google had dismissed more than 50 employees last year after they protested against the “Nimbus” contract, citing concerns that the technology could support military and intelligence programmes used by the Israeli occupation army in its war on Palestinians in Gaza. In September 2024, the Noguchi Museum in New York announced the dismissal of three employees for allegedly violating the dress code by wearing keffiyehs, which have become a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian cause. READ: Protesters show their opposition to Germany’s pro-Israel bias This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  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

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As Freed Palestinians Describe Torture, Trump OKs $3 Billion Arms Package for Israel

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). An Israeli soldier carries a U.S.-supplied 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/ AFP via Getty Images) Like the Biden administration, Trump is claiming an "emergency" in order to bypass Congress. As Palestinians released from Israeli imprisonment recount torture and other abuse suffered at the hands of their former captors, the Trump administration on Friday approved a new $3 billion weapons package for Israel. The new package, reported by Zeteo's Prem Thakker, includes nearly $2.716 billion worth of bombs and weapons guidance kits, as well as $295 million in bulldozers. The Trump administration said that "an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale," allowing it to bypass Congress, as the Biden administration did on multiple occasions. However, the weapons won't be delivered until 2026 or 2027. https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:pwsjq3xnal6auzgeqho4ecw7/post/3ljbfkyztf22p?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.commondreams.org%252Fnews%252Ftrump-arms-to-israel From October 2023 to October 2024, Israel received a record $17.9 billion worth of U.S. arms as it waged a war of annihilation against the Gaza Strip that left more than 170,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and millions more displaced, starved, or sickened. Israel is facing genocide allegations in an International Court of Justice case brought by South Africa. The International Criminal Court has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Reporting on the new package came after U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday announced an effort to block four other arms sales totaling $8.56 billion in offensive American weaponry to Israel. Meanwhile, some of the approximately 1,000 Palestinians released by Israel as part of a prisoner swap described grim stories of abuse by Israeli forces. The former detainees, who were arrested but never charged with any crimes, "have returned visibly malnourished and scarred by the physical and psychological torture they say they faced in Israeli prisons," according to The Washington Post. Some returned to what were once their homes to find them destroyed and their relatives killed or wounded by Israeli forces. Eyas al-Bursh, a doctor volunteering at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City when he was captured by Israeli troops, was held in Sde Teiman and the Ofer military prison in the illegally occupied West Bank for 11 months. "The places where we were held were harsh, sleep was impossible, and we remained handcuffed and blindfolded," al-Bursh told the Post. "We endured psychological and physical torture without a single day of respite—whether through beatings, abuse, punches, or even verbal insults and humiliation," he added. The Israel Defense Forces told the Post that it "acts in accordance with Israeli and international law in order to protect the rights of the detainees held in the detention and questioning facilities." However, farmer Ashraf al-Radhi, who was held for 14 months—including at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in Israel's Negev Desert—told the Post that "we witnessed all kinds of humiliation." According to the newspaper: Radhi said he "wished for death" during his detention, which included long periods…

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