Palestine

Aid Group Sounds Alarm Over ‘Disturbing’ Israeli Rampage in West Bank

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

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a house after an Israeli airstrike in the village of Burqin in the West Bank on January 23, 2025.
 (Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“This echoes the tactics Israeli forces have employed in Gaza.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that Israel’s military is applying “lessons” learned during its bombardment of Gaza to recent attacks on the West Bank—and a leading human rights group warned that as in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces’ actions are resulting in “significant humanitarian consequences.”

Operations like “Iron Wall” in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin and a “surge in settler attacks” that have been backed by the IDF “have heightened insecurity, displacement, and severe restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement,” said the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Thursday.

Iron Wall began Tuesday, with the IDF launching airstrikes and ground attacks in the West Bank two days after a cease-fire took effect in Gaza.

At least 12 Palestinians have been killed in the Iron Wall attacks and 40 people have been injured, including medical workers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

After months of warnings from rights organizations that the IDF cut off access to essential services for Gaza residents with a near-total humanitarian aid blockade and the relentless bombardment of the enclave, the NRC said that Israeli forced have “increased checkpoints, roadblocks, and other physical barriers throughout the West Bank.”

“These measures further fragment Palestinian communities, restrict access to essential services, and prevent humanitarian agencies, like NRC, from reaching the communities we serve,” said the group.

The latest violence in the West Bank is part of a broader trend, with Israel having begun launching airstrikes in the territory after October 7, 2023, for the first time since the Second Intifada in 2000-05.

The IDF launched Iron Wall in Jenin two weeks after a shooting attack that Israel blamed on gunmen in the refugee camp, which has long been a hub for Palestinian resistance groups and is also home to more than 24,000 Palestinians who are registered in the camp.

Katz said in a statement Wednesday that with the Jenin raid, the IDF is applying “the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza.”

“We will not allow the arms of the Iranian regime and radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of [Israeli] settlers [in the West Bank] and establish a terrorist front east of the state of Israel,” he said.

In addition to the attacks in Jenin, masked Israeli settlers have been filmed setting fire to homes and vehicles in towns across the Israeli-occupied territory in what the Israel-based human rights group B’Tselem called an effort to “impose a ‘price tag’ for the release of Palestinians” as part of the cease-fire agreement in Gaza.

Residents told Al Jazeera that “constant gunfire and explosions” have been heard in Jenin since Iron Wall began, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported that the IDF has left the camp “nearly uninhabitable.”

An estimated 2,000 families have been displaced from the Jenin area since December, according to the agency.

“We are seeing disturbing patterns of unlawful use of force in the West Bank that is unnecessary, indiscriminate, and disproportionate. This echoes the tactics Israeli forces have employed in Gaza,” said Angelita Caredda, NRC’s Middle East and North Africa regional director. “Under international law, Israel must bring its occupation of Palestinian territory to an end as rapidly as possible. Until then, it must fully comply with its obligations as an occupying power, including the protection of civilians.”

In addition to airstrikes and ground attacks, the governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told Agence France-Presse that Israeli military bulldozers have destroyed all roads leading to the camp and to the nearby hospital. Twenty Palestinians from villlages in the Jenin area have been detained since Iron Wall began on Tuesday, according to the governor.

“What we are seeing in Jenin camp is horrific, said one paramedic trained by Doctors Without Borders. “People are targeted while being evacuated, and the wounded cannot be reached by ambulance.”

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In 2024, Israeli demolitions in the West Bank reached a record high, said the NRC, with 1,768 structures destroyed. IDF soldiers and settlers killed at least 499 Palestinians in the territory last year.

U.S. President Donald Trump has selected at least two nominees for high-level diplomatic positions—Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for U.N. ambassador and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel—who have expressed support for right-wing Israeli officials’ claim that Israel has a “Biblical right” to the West Bank.

Amid the settler violence and Jenin raid, Caredda called on the international community to “take decisive action to stop these violations and end the occupation.”

“Impunity for serious violations of international law has allowed Israel to unlawfully escalate violence in the occupied West Bank,” said Caredda.

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

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
Continue ReadingAid Group Sounds Alarm Over ‘Disturbing’ Israeli Rampage in West Bank

My Community Will Remember the Biden Administration for One Thing: Genocide

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

A pro-Palestinian protester holds a placard accusing U.S. President Joe Biden, former U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes at a demonstration against Israeli attacks on Gaza in central London, U.K. (Photo: Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

In less than a year, more than a dozen U.S. officials publicly resigned in protest of Biden’s policy on Israel-Palestine. I was one of them.

Every so often, countless young hopefuls arrive in Washington, D.C., eager to help implement policies that improve the lives of Americans. But some quickly come to find out that U.S. imperialism bleeds into all areas of policy, it impacts all facets of government directly or indirectly, and sometimes at the expense of Americans in need. That was my rude awakening, at least.

I was one of those young hopefuls, and two years later, I publicly resigned from my post as a political appointee in the Biden-Harris administration because the cost of U.S. imperialism occupied every one of my thoughts. I felt I strayed away from my goal of pursuing justice through policy every time I thought about the cost of funding destruction and death in Palestine at the expense of us Americans, roughly half of whom are struggling to afford food, clothing, and housing.

And I am not the only one who resigned under President Joe Biden. In less than a year, more than a dozen U.S. officials publicly resigned in protest of Biden’s policy on Israel-Palestine, and many others left quietly. This level of dissent within the realm of government is unheard of and it can be characterized as a fight against imperialistic policy.

If, in his final days, Biden strayed away from the norm far enough to pardon his own son, exemplifying the instinct we have to protect our family and keep them safe, he should have known of the hypocrisy in enabling the orphaning and killing of children in Palestine.

The imperialistic features of our government disillusion passionate people, it turns them away from a life of public service. It is difficult to stay motivated while seeing the military spending in our country grow astronomically by the year while education and transportation face steep budget cuts. Americans do not get to see the benefits of high military spending materialized, but they would directly benefit from sufficiently funded schools and public transportation. And imperialism only succeeds abroad in ruining the United States’ reputation, casting it as a force wreaking havoc in the Global South. So, when I think about the United States’ role in supporting Israel’s aggression in Palestine, I wonder what it is all for in the grand scheme of bettering the lives of Americans.

If the administration’s insistence on supporting Israel no matter the cost was about maintaining the status quo, something the Biden-Harris administration had no trouble straying away from in other cases, then it was both a failed and hypocritical policy. Biden did not mind the status quo when he chose a woman as a vice president in a historic first or when he nominated the first Black female Supreme Court Justice. One can argue those steps were superficial, but regardless, they signaled progress to some. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that the same administration that took those steps tarnished their legacy when they, time and time again, failed Palestine on a catastrophic level.

My generation and community will remember this administration for one thing: genocide. It will go down in history as the administration that could not stray away from the status quo on Israel-Palestine policy at the expense of Americans in need, the lives of American activists like Ayşenur Eygi, and the safety of Arab and Muslim Americans. Not to mention, the Biden-Harris administration and Democratic Party leadership at large sacrificed the 2024 presidential election and Democratic voters in the process when they refused to campaign differently on Palestine.

As the Biden-Harris administration departs, their legacy is being immortalized. The hundreds of thousands of Americans who have advocated for a change in policy since October 2023 can argue that the legacy of the administration becoming stained permanently was avoidable.

If, in his final days, Biden strayed away from the norm far enough to pardon his own son, exemplifying the instinct we have to protect our family and keep them safe, he should have known of the hypocrisy in enabling the orphaning and killing of children in Palestine. If he was able to use his authority for good to commute the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, he should have known to uphold the law and ensure Israel is not receiving an endless supply of weapons illegally. What may be worse than ignorant leaders are ones who are aware and indifferent, willingly complicit, and that may very well be the Biden administration’s legacy.

Some updates have been made throughout this piece at the author’s request.

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

Genocide Joe Biden
Genocide Joe Biden
Continue ReadingMy Community Will Remember the Biden Administration for One Thing: Genocide

Report Says Biden’s ‘Empty Threats’ on Gaza Fed Israeli Impunity

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

U.S. President Joe Biden (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meet in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 18, 2023.
 (Photo: GPO/ Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

One Middle East expert said that it’s “hard to avoid the conclusion” that the U.S. administration’s ultimatums to Israel “have all just been a smokescreen.”

New reporting published Wednesday details the impotence and insincerity of President Joe Biden’s “multiple threats, warnings, and admonishments” to Israel as it annihilated the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians while receiving tens of billions of dollars in U.S. arms and unwavering diplomatic support.

Writing for ProPublica, Brett Murphy showed how multiple “red lines” issued by Biden administration officials were ignored by Israel with impunity. Murphy highlighted Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s October 2024 demand that Israel take “urgent and sustained actions” to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza—mainly by allowing far more aid into the embattled strip—within 30 days or face a military aid cutoff.

“Netanyahu’s conclusion was that Biden doesn’t have enough oomph to make him pay a price.”

Thirty days came and went without significant improvement or letup in Israel’s onslaught. Yet the Biden administration insisted it found no indication that Israel was using U.S.-supplied weapons illegally. The arms flow continued.

As Murphy reported:

That choice was immediately called into question. On November 14, a U.N. committee said that Israel’s methods in Gaza, including its use of starvation as a weapon, was “consistent with genocide.” Amnesty International went further and concluded a genocide was underway. The International Criminal Court also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for the war crime of deliberately starving civilians, among other allegations.

“Government officials worry Biden’s record of empty threats have given the Israelis a sense of impunity,” wrote Murphy.

This reporting is so utterly damning.www.propublica.org/article/bide…

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes.bsky.social) 2025-01-15T21:55:16.200Z

Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, told Murphy that “Netanyahu’s conclusion was that Biden doesn’t have enough oomph to make him pay a price, so he was willing to ignore him.”

“Part of it is that Netanyahu learned there is no cost to saying ‘no’ to the current president,” al-Omari added.

Conversely, Murphy noted: “On Wednesday, after months of negotiations, Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire deal. While it will become clear over the next days and months exactly what the contours of the agreement are, why it happened now, and who deserves the most credit, it’s plausible that [U.S. President-elect Donald] Trump’s imminent ascension to the White House was its own form of a red line.”

“Early reports suggest the deal looks similar to what has been on the table for months,” he added, “raising the possibility that if the Biden administration had followed through on its tough words, a deal could have been reached earlier, saving lives.”

As Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, told Murphy, “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that [Biden’s] red lines have all just been a smokescreen.”

“The Biden administration decided to be all-in and merely pretended that it was trying to do something,” Walt added, as Israel kept killing Palestinians with U.S.-supplied weapons and continued a “complete siege” blamed for widespread starvation and sickness in the Gaza Strip.

Murphy wrote that Trump “will inherit a demoralized State Department” in which many officials who haven’t already resigned have “become disenchanted with the lofty ideas they thought they represented.”

As one senior department official told Murphy, Gaza “is the human rights atrocity of our time.”

“I work for the department that’s responsible for this policy. I signed up for this,” the official added. “I don’t deserve sympathy for it.”

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

Genocide Joe Biden
Genocide Joe Biden
Continue ReadingReport Says Biden’s ‘Empty Threats’ on Gaza Fed Israeli Impunity

Morning Star Editorial: We can and must force the government to change course on Israel

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-we-can-and-must-force-the-government-to-change-course-on-israel

Palestinian children play next to buildings destroyed by Israeli army strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, January 7, 2025

PRESSURE continues to mount on the government over its backing for Israel and its failure to take any serious measures to impede its genocide of the Palestinian people.

MPs from all parts of the Commons united at the first opportunity in the new year to demand that ministers act.

Even many Tory backbenchers — although not Kemi Badenoch’s front bench — seem disgusted at Britain’s continuing complicity with Israeli war crimes.

Vocal support for Israel seems to be draining away on the Labour back benches, while Liberal Democrat, SNP, Green and independent MPs are more-or-less united in urging a change of course.

There are several concrete actions they are demanding that the government should take.

First is an end to all arms sales to the Israeli regime. So far the government has only suspended a minority of the licences which permit the export of British military equipment to Israel.

Yet there is now little room for doubt that the Israeli military is engaging in war crimes daily and is in continual breach of international law.

Continuing to supply the Israeli war machine with equipment makes ministers themselves culpable for the consequences.

…

Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-we-can-and-must-force-the-government-to-change-course-on-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
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: We can and must force the government to change course on Israel

World Food Programme condemns Israel attack on its Gaza convoy

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250106-world-food-programme-condemns-israel-attack-on-its-gaza-convoy

Humanitarian aid trucks belonging to the World Food Programme (WFP) arrive in the Gaza via Erez border crossing as the Israeli attacks continue in Gaza City, Gaza on September 26, 2024 [Hasan Zaain – Anadolu Agency]

The UN World Food Programme said, on Monday, that Israeli forces had opened fire on one of its convoys in the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza in what it called a “horrifying incident”, Reuters reports.

The Agency said the convoy of three vehicles carrying eight staff members from central Gaza to Gaza City in the north was struck by 16 bullets near the Wadi Gaza checkpoint on Sunday, causing no injuries but immobilising the convoy.

The vehicles were clearly marked and had received prior security clearances from Israeli authorities, a WFP statement said.

“The World Food Programme (WFP) strongly condemns the horrifying incident on January 5,” it said.

“This unacceptable event is just the latest example of the complex and dangerous working environment that WFP and other agencies are operating in today,” WFP said, calling for improvements in security conditions to allow aid to continue.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

International aid agencies working to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza have frequently accused Israeli forces of hampering or threatening their operations amid Israel’s campaign to wipe out Hamas fighters.

READ: Rights groups condemn Israel’s targeting of Gaza aid distribution centre

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

Continue ReadingWorld Food Programme condemns Israel attack on its Gaza convoy