American politicians credibility for honesty is in total tatters. It's got to the stage I don't believe a word coming out from America. No different from Chinese or Russian propaganda, the same pile of lies.
Gaza ceasefire talks end with no deal as Israel ramps up Rafah attacks UNRWA official accuses Israel of subjecting Gaza to ‘medieval siege’ as 110,000 Palestinians flee Rafah and aid runs out. Published On 10 May 2024 The Israeli military has ramped up its attacks in Rafah, southern Gaza, and hit Gaza City while crippling humanitarian aid operations across the Palestinian territory as ceasefire talks ended without a deal. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on Friday that 110,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah. Israeli troops were advancing in the east of the city in close combat operations and conducting air raids. “People are petrified. People have been fearing this for a long, long time and it is now upon us. There is constant bombardment. There is smoke on the horizon. There are people on the move,” Sam Rose, director of planning for the UNRWA, told Al Jazeera from Rafah. He said Israel was subjecting Gaza to a “medieval siege” in a “scorched earth” war. Israeli forces seized control of the Rafah border crossing, sealing the crucial entry point for humanitarian aid. https://www.aljazeera.com/
Possibly the only thing on this entire thread you got correct. Hamas does not want a ceasefire and is not negotiating in good faith. Hamas was simply using "ceasefire negotiations" as a delaying tactic to forestall the Rafah incursion. Hamas does not care about the residents of Gaza. Hamas simply views the starving Gaza population as props to be used in their propaganda. It is long overdue for the Rafah attack to move forward. The quicker Hamas is eliminated as a militant and governing entity in Gaza, the faster the world can get to organizing aid and reconstruction.
It's time to completely defund UNRWA and replace it with a proper aid organization. UNRWA is rotten to its core https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/2998578/unrwa-is-rotten-to-its-core/ The United Nations Relief and Works Agency is as guilty of perpetuating the Palestinian refugee crisis as just about anyone else. The latest report from UN Watch is that UNRWA employees are alleging that other UNRWA staff are stealing and reselling the aid that the organization is supposed to be delivering to civilians in Gaza. It is a big accusation, and one that will certainly never get the scrutiny it deserves from U.S. or U.N. officials, but this is the same organization that admitted in 2004 that Hamas terrorists were probably on its payroll and concluded that there were no concerns to be had there. Thieves reselling aid for profit would be just another drop in the ocean. This would fit exactly with UNRWA’s focus on keeping the crisis going. The agency acknowledged back in 1951 that the goal should be for it to shut itself down, as the goal of any refugee crisis is to end the crisis. But UNRWA has perpetuated it, doing so using a definition of refugees that the U.N. does not apply to any other country or region in the world. It would also be in keeping with UNRWA’s tradition of sketchy employment decisions. The aforementioned lack of concern in 2004 over the probability that the agency was employing terrorists came to a head when it was revealed that several UNRWA employees actually took part in the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians led by Hamas. These aren’t accusations that can just be dismissed as a pack of lone wolves, either, as UNRWA’s institutional rot led to it harboring a Hamas military compound of which the agency expects the world to believe it somehow had no knowledge. Through all of this, UNRWA’s attitude has been indignance and entitlement. There has been no introspection over employing terrorists for decades, Hamas terrorists picking off aid before it reaches civilians, UNRWA schools in Gaza promoting antisemitism, or UNRWA being used as yet another shield with which Hamas protects itself. There won’t be any serious introspection or investigation here, either, because UNRWA only cares about raking in money from the gullible countries that keep giving away taxpayer dollars to an agency that has a vested interest in keeping a refugee crisis going.
Hey, Joe. You need to make up your mind. Either you support Israel or you support Hamas. You cannot straddle the fence in an absurd political balancing act. The Biden administration has concluded it is “reasonable to assess” that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has violated international law. The State Department also told Congress in a written report that it has not found specific instances that would justify the withholding of military aid. Friday, May 10, 2024 5:25 PM ET https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/10/world/israel-gaza-war-hamas-rafah
Patrick Gallagher / CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/10/...-detention-whistleblowers-intl-cmd/index.html Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center By CNN's International Investigations and Visuals teams Fri May 10, 2024 At a military base that now doubles as a detention center in Israel’s Negev desert, an Israeli working at the facility snapped two photographs of a scene that he says continues to haunt him. Rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights. A putrid stench filled the air and the room hummed with the men’s murmurs, the Israeli who was at the facility told CNN. Forbidden from speaking to each other, the detainees mumbled to themselves. “We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold.” Guards were instructed “to scream uskot” –shut up in Arabic –and told to “pick people out that were problematic and punish them,” the source added. A leaked photograph of the detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head. Obtained by CNN CNN spoke to three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the Sde Teiman desert camp, which holds Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. All spoke out at risk of legal repercussions and reprisals from groups supportive of Israel’s hardline policies in Gaza. They paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics earning it a reputation for being “a paradise for interns”; and where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot. We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold. An Israeli whistleblower recounting his experience at Sde Teiman According to the accounts,the facility some 18 miles from the Gaza frontier is split into two parts: enclosures where around 70 Palestinian detainees from Gazaare placed under extreme physical restraint, and a field hospital where wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapersand fed through straws. “They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower, who worked as a medic at the facility’s field hospital. “(The beatings) were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge,” said another whistleblower. “It was punishment for what they (the Palestinians) did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.” Responding to CNN’s request for comment on all the allegations made in this report, the Israeli military, known as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said in a statement: “The IDF ensures proper conduct towards the detainees in custody. Any allegation of misconduct by IDF soldiers is examined and dealt with accordingly. In appropriate cases, MPCID (Military Police Criminal Investigation’s Division) investigations are opened when there is suspicion of misconduct justifying such action.” “Detainees are handcuffed based on their risk level and health status. Incidents of unlawful handcuffing are not known to the authorities.” The IDF did not directly deny accounts of people being stripped of their clothing or held in diapers. Instead, the Israeli military said that the detainees are given back their clothing once the IDF has determined that they pose no security risk. Reports of abuse at Sde Teiman have already surfaced in Israeli and Arab media after an outcry from Israeli and Palestinian rights groups over conditions there. But this rare testimony from Israelis working at the facility sheds further light on Israel’s conduct as it wages war in Gaza, with fresh allegations of mistreatment. It also casts more doubt on the Israeli government’s repeated assertions that it acts in accordance with accepted international practices and law. CNN has requested permission from the Israeli military to access the Sde Teiman base. Last month, a CNN team covered a small protest outside its main gate staged by Israeli activists demanding the closure of the facility. Israeli security forces questioned the team for around 30 minutes there, demanding to see the footage taken by CNN’s photojournalist. Israel often subjects reporters, even foreign journalists, to military censorship on security issues. Detained in the desert The Israeli military has acknowledged partially convertingthree different military facilities into detention camps for Palestinian detainees from Gazasince the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, in which Israeli authorities say about 1,200 were killed and over 250 were abducted, and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza, killing nearly 35,000 people according to the strip’s health ministry. These facilities are Sde Teiman in the Negev desert,as well as Anatot and Ofer military bases in the occupied West Bank. The camps are part of the infrastructure of Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, an amended legislation passed by the Knesset last December that expanded the military’s authority to detain suspected militants. Patrick Gallagher/CNN The law permits the military to detain people for 45 days without an arrest warrant, after which they must be transferred to Israel’s formal prison system (IPS), where over 9,000 Palestinians are being held in conditions that rights groups say have drastically deteriorated since October 7. Two Palestinian prisoners associations said last week that 18 Palestinians – including leading Gaza surgeon Dr. Adnan al-Bursh – had died in Israeli custody over the course of the war. The military detention camps – where the number of inmates is unknown – serve as a filtration point during the arrest period mandated by the Unlawful Combatants Law. After their detention in the camps, those with suspected Hamas links are transferred to the IPS, while those whose militant ties have been ruled out are released back to Gaza. CNN interviewed over a dozen former Gazan detainees who appeared to have been released from those camps. They said they could not determine where they were held because they were blindfolded through most of their detention and cut off from the outside world. But the details of their accountstally with those of the whistleblowers. CNN obtained footage from inside an Israeli detention center showing how detainees were held. “We looked forward to the night so we could sleep. Then we looked forward to the morning in hopes that our situation might change,” said Dr. Mohammed al-Ran, recalling his detainment at a military facility where he said he endured desert temperatures, swinging from the heat of the day to the chill of night.CNN interviewed him outside Gaza last month. Al-Ran, a Palestinian who holds Bosnian citizenship, headed the surgical unit at northern Gaza’s Indonesian hospital, one of the first to be shut down and raided as Israel carried out its aerial, ground and naval offensive. He was arrested on December 18, he said, outside Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, where he had been working for three days after fleeing his hospital in the heavily bombarded north. He was stripped down to his underwear, blindfolded and his wrists tied, then dumped in the back of a truck where, he said, the near-naked detainees were piled on top of one another as they were shuttled to a detention camp in the middle of the desert. The details in his account are consistent with those of dozens of others collected by CNN recounting the conditions of arrest in Gaza. His account is also supported by numerous images depicting mass arrests published on social media profiles belonging to Israeli soldiers. Many of those images show captive Gazans, their wrists or ankles tied by cables, in their underwear and blindfolded. Al-Ran was held in a military detention center for 44 days, he told CNN. “Our days were filled with prayer, tears, and supplication. This eased our agony,” said al-Ran. “We cried and cried and cried. We cried for ourselves, cried for our nation, cried for our community, cried for our loved ones. We cried about everything that crossed our minds.” Dr. Mohammed Al-Ran headed the surgical unit at Gaza’s Indonesian hospital, one of the first to be raided and shut down by Israel. From Social Media Al-Ran is pictured on the day of his release from a detention camp, in a visibly worse physical condition. From Social Media A week into his imprisonment, the detention camp’s authorities ordered him to act as an intermediary between the guards and the prisoners, a role known as Shawish, “supervisor,” in vernacular Arabic. According to the Israeli whistleblowers, a Shawish is normally a prisoner who has been cleared of suspected links to Hamas after interrogation. The Israeli military denied holding detainees unnecessarily, or using them for translation purposes. “If there is no reason for continued detention, the detainees are released back to Gaza,” they said in a statement. Our days were filled with prayer, tears, and supplication. This eased our agony. Former detainee Dr. Mohammed al-Ran However, whistleblower and detainee accounts – particularly pertaining to Shawish – cast doubt on the IDF’s depiction of its clearing process. Al-Ran says that he served as Shawish for several weeks after he was cleared of Hamas links. Whistleblowers also said that the absolved Shawish served as intermediaries for some time. They are typically proficient in Hebrew, according to the eyewitnesses, enabling them to communicate the guards’ orders to the rest of the prisoners in Arabic. For that, al-Ran said he was given a special privilege: his blindfold was removed. He said this was another kind of hell. “Part of my torture was being able to see how people were being tortured,” he said. “At first you couldn’t see. You couldn’t see the torture, the vengeance, the oppression. “When they removed my blindfold, I could see the extent of the humiliation and abasement … I could see the extent to which they saw us not as human beings but as animals.” A leaked photograph of an enclosure where detainees in gray tracksuits are seen blindfolded and sitting on paper-thin mattresses. CNN was able to geolocate the hangar in the Sde Teiman facility. A portion of this image has been blurred by CNN to protect the identity of the source. Obtained by CNN Al-Ran’s account of the forms of punishment he saw were corroborated by the whistleblowers who spoke with CNN. A prisoner who committed an offense such as speaking to another would be ordered to raise his arms above his head for up to an hour. The prisoner’s hands would sometimes be zip-tied to a fence to ensure that he did not come out of the stress position. For those who repeatedly breached the prohibition on speaking and moving, the punishment became more severe. Israeli guards would sometimes take a prisoner to an area outside the enclosure and beat him aggressively, according to two whistleblowers and al-Ran. A whistleblower who worked as a guard said he saw a man emerge from a beating with his teeth, and some bones, apparently broken. When they removed my blindfold, I could see the extent of the humiliation and abasement … I could see the extent to which they saw us not as human beings but as animals. Former detainee Dr. Mohammed Al-Ran That whistleblower and al-Ran also described a routine search when the guards would unleash large dogs on sleeping detainees, lobbing a sound grenade at the enclosure as troops barged in. Al-Ran called this “the nightly torture.” “While we were cabled, they unleashed the dogs that would move between us, and trample over us,” said al-Ran. “You’d be lying on your belly, your face pressed against the ground. You can’t move, and they’re moving above you.” The same whistleblower recounted the search in the same harrowing detail. “It was a special unit of the military police that did the so-called search,” said the source. “But really it was an excuse to hit them. It was a terrifying situation.” “There was a lot of screaming and dogs barking.” Strapped to beds in a field hospital Whistleblower accounts portrayed a different kind of horror at the Sde Teiman field hospital. “What I felt when I was dealing with those patients is an idea of total vulnerability,” said one medic who worked at Sde Teiman. “If you imagine yourself being unable to move, being unable to see what’s going on, and being completely naked, that leaves you completely exposed,” the source said. “I think that’s something that borders on, if not crosses to, psychological torture.” Another whistleblower said he was ordered to perform medical procedures on the Palestinian detainees for which he was not qualified. “I was asked to learn how to do things on the patients, performing minor medical procedures that are totally outside my expertise,” he said, adding that this was frequently done without anesthesia. “If they complained about pain, they would be given paracetamol,” he said, using another name for acetaminophen. “Just being there felt like being complicit in abuse.” A CNN model illustrates conditions inside Sde Teiman. A CNN model illustrates conditions inside Sde Teiman. The same whistleblower also said he witnessed an amputation performed on a man who had sustained injuries caused by the constant zip-tying of his wrists. The account tallied with details of a letter authored by a doctor working at Sde Teiman published by Ha’aretz in April. “From the first days of the medical facility’s operation until today, I have faced serious ethical dilemmas,” said the letter addressed to Israel’s attorney general, and its health and defense ministries, according to Ha’aretz. “More than that, I am writing (this letter) to warn you that the facilities’ operations do not comply with a single section among those dealing with health in the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law.” An IDF spokesperson denied the allegations reported by Ha’aretz in a written statement to CNN at the time, saying that medical procedures were conducted with “extreme care” and in accordance with Israeli and international law. The spokesperson added that the handcuffing of the detainees was done in “accordance with procedures, their health condition and the level of danger posed by them,” and that any allegation of violence would be examined. They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings. An Israeli whistleblower recalling his experience at Sde Teiman Whistleblowers also said that medical team were told to refrain from signing medical documents, corroborating previous reporting by rights group Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI). The PHRI report released in April warned of “a serious concern that anonymity is employed to prevent the possibility of investigations or complaints regarding breaches of medical ethics and professionalism.” “You don’t sign anything, and there is no verification of authority,” said the same whistleblower who said he lacked the appropriate training for the treatment he was asked to administer. “It is a paradise for interns because it’s like you do whatever you want.” CNN also requested comment from the Israeli health ministry on the allegations in this report. The ministry referred CNN back to the IDF. Concealed from the outside world Sde Teiman and other military detention camps have been shrouded in secrecy since their inception.Israel has repeatedly refused requests to disclose the number of detainees held at the facilities, or to reveal the whereabouts of Gazan prisoners. Last Wednesday, the Israeli Supreme Court held a hearing in response to a petition brought forward by Israeli rights group, HaMoked, to reveal the location of a Palestinian X-Ray technician detained from Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in February. It was the first court session of its kind since October 7. Israel’s highest court had previously rejected writs of habeas corpus filed on behalf of dozens of Palestinians from Gaza held in unknown locations. The disappearances “allows for the atrocities that we’ve been hearing about to happen,” said Tal Steiner, an Israeli human rights lawyer and executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. “People completely disconnected from the outside world are the most vulnerable to torture and mistreatment,” Steiner said in an interview with CNN. Since October 7, more than 100 structures, including large tents and hangars, appeared within these areas of the Sde Teiman desert camp. Planet Labs PBC Satellite images provide further insight into activities at Sde Teiman, revealing that in the months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, more than 100 new structures, including large tents and hangars, have been built at the desert camp. A comparison of aerial photographs from September 10, 2023 and March 1 this year also showed a significant increase in the number of vehicles at the facility, indicating an uptick in activity. Satellite imagery from two dates in early December showed construction work in progress. CNN also geolocated the two leaked photographs showing the enclosure holding the group of blindfolded men in gray tracksuits. The pattern of panels seen on the roof matched those of a large hangar visible in satellite imagery. The structure, which resembles an animal pen, is located in the central area of the Sde Teiman compound. It is an older structure seen among new buildings which have appeared since the war began. CNN reviewed satellite images from two other military detention camps – Ofer and Anatot bases in the occupied West Bank – and did not detect expansion in the grounds since October 7. Several rights groups and legal experts say they believe that Sde Teiman, which is the nearest to Gaza, likely hosts the largest number of detainees of the three military detention camps. “I was there for 23 days. Twenty-three days that felt like 100 years,” said 27-year-old Ibrahim Yassine on the day of his release from a military detention camp. He was lying in a crowded room with over a dozen newly freed men – they were still in the grey tracksuit prison uniforms. Some had deep flesh wounds from where the handcuffs had been removed. “We were handcuffed and blindfolded,” said another man, 43-year-old Sufyan Abu Salah. “Today is the first day I can see.” Several had a glassy look in their eyes and were seemingly emaciated. One elderly man breathed through an oxygen machine as he lay on a stretcher. Outside the hospital, two freed men from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society embraced their colleagues. For Dr. Al-Ran, his reunion with his friends was anything but joyful. The experience, he said, rendered him mute for a month as he battled an “emotional deadness.” “It was very painful. When I was released, people expected me to miss them, to embrace them. But there was a gap,” said al-Ran. “The people who were with me at the detention facility became my family. Those friendships were the only things that belonged to us.” Just before his release, a fellow prisoner had called out to him, his voice barely rising above a whisper, al-Ran said. He asked the doctor to find his wife and kids in Gaza. “He asked me to tell them that it is better for them to be martyrs,” said al-Ran. “It is better for them to die than to be captured and held here.”
Biden the psychopath sees no wrong in what the sadistic Israelis are up to, because both are cut from the same cloth.
On second anniversary of Abu Akleh death, press advocates push for justice Advocates say the lack of accountability in Abu Akleh’s killing reflects a pattern of impunity in Israel’s attacks on press. Shireen Abu Akleh was photographed reporting for Al Jazeera in Jerusalem on July 22, 2017 [Handout/AFP] By Ali Harb 11 May 2024 Washington, DC – In 214 days, Israel has killed 142 journalists in Gaza, approximately one every 36 hours. The staggering death toll makes the war the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history. But activists say the case of renowned Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a United States citizen, underscores the fact that Israel has been killing journalists with impunity long before the current war. Saturday marks the second anniversary of her death after she was shot by Israeli forces while reporting in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022. The lack of accountability in her killing helped pave the way for the rampant Israeli abuses taking place in Gaza, said Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center Washington DC. “What we have seen Israel do in terms of killing a record number of journalists in Gaza is directly connected to the lack of accountability for Shireen,” Munayyer told Al Jazeera. “If you can kill an American citizen, who was among the highest profile journalists in the Arab world, on camera and get away with it, that sends a very clear message about what’s permissible.” Dressed in a blue vest marked with the word “press”, Abu Akleh was killed while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin, a city in the northern part of the West Bank. Initially, then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett falsely accused Palestinian fighters of shooting her – an allegation that was quickly disproven by independent reports. How the US re-defined accountability Immediately after Abu Akleh’s shooting, the administration of US President Joe Biden called for accountability, saying that “those responsible for Shireen’s killing should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”. But Washington shifted its position after Israel admitted that its soldiers killed Abu Akleh and dismissed the incident as an accident, refusing to open a criminal investigation. By September 2022, the US dropped its demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted. Accountability, officials said, could instead be accomplished by Israel changing its rules of engagement — a demand that was openly rejected by Israeli leaders. Washington has also rejected calls for an independent probe into the incident, arguing that Israel has functioning institutions capable of investigating the case. But Palestinian rights advocates have long said that Israel rarely prosecutes its own soldiers for abuses and should not be trusted to investigate itself. To Munayyer, the Biden administration paved the way for Israel to allow the killing to fade into the background. “It really sent a very dangerous message and, I think, contributed to an open season on Palestinian journalists in Gaza,” Munayyer said. Even when Al Jazeera referred the Abu Akleh case to the International Criminal Court for investigation, the US publicly opposed the court’s involvement, reiterating its stance that Israel should take up the matter itself. The Biden administration also failed to condemn the Israeli assault on Abu Akleh’s funeral in Jerusalem, wherein armed officers beat her pallbearers with batons. Israel’s attacks on Al Jazeera With no meaningful accountability for the killing of Abu Akleh, Israeli attacks on press freedom — and Al Jazeera specifically — have worsened with the outbreak of its war in Gaza. In January, for instance, an Israeli drone targeted an Al Jazeera crew in Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forces then prevented medics from reaching cameraman Samer Abudaqa, who was wounded in the strike. Abudaqa, who was described by his colleagues as fearless, hard-working and joyful, eventually bled to death. The network’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh was injured in the same attack. Israel also has killed several members of Dahdouh’s family, including his son Hamza, a journalist who contributed to Al Jazeera. Earlier this month, Israel — which has blocked foreign journalists from entering Gaza — banned Al Jazeera from operating and broadcasting within its borders. That decision prompted an outcry from some US politicians, for whom Abu Akleh’s death signalled a trend of attacks against press freedom. “Two years ago, Israeli forces assassinated American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and then brutally attacked her funeral,” US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib told Al Jazeera in an email this week. “Since then, the Biden Administration failed to hold the Israeli government accountable and let them operate with complete impunity. Now, the Israeli apartheid regime has shut down Al Jazeera’s coverage to stop the world from seeing their war crimes. “I will continue to defend the freedom of the press and demand justice for Shireen and every journalist killed by the Israeli government.” On Friday, Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, called the killing of Abu Akleh a “chapter in the story of Israel’s relentless attack on the Al Jazeera channel”. It also decried the persistent “impunity” for killing journalists, including in the ongoing Gaza war. “This pattern endangers the lives of journalists throughout the world and the public’s right to free, independent and pluralistic information,” Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF’s Middle East desk, said in a statement. The Biden administration, meanwhile, expressed “concern” earlier this month over the Al Jazeera ban. But Munayyer said toothless criticism is often ignored by Israeli leaders. “The Israelis do not care that the United States is concerned. They don’t take those words seriously,” he said. “And the only time that we’ve seen any shifts in Israeli behaviour — particularly over the last seven months — was when serious consequences were threatened.” Israel receives at least $3.8bn in US military aid annually, and Biden approved $14bn in additional aid to the country last month despite a growing outcry about the war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians. ‘We still don’t have justice’ Abu Akleh’s family has pushed the US to pursue accountability in her death, by meeting with legislators and officials and speaking out about the issue. “The past two years feel like it went by very fast, but unfortunately two years later and we still don’t have justice, we still don’t have accountability,” Lina Abu Akleh, the slain journalist’s niece, said at an event in Washington, DC, this week. “The US administration has failed our family, has failed Shireen, an American citizen and journalist, a female journalist.” Late in 2022, several news reports indicated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had opened its own probe into the incident. But the Justice Department, which oversees the bureau, declined to confirm that such an investigation exists. “The last thing we know is that the FBI opened an investigation just a few months after Shireen was killed, but we still don’t know where that investigation is heading towards. We haven’t received any updates,” the younger Abu Akleh said. On Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged transparency from the FBI about the supposed probe. “It is time to break Israel’s longstanding impunity in journalist killings, which have only multiplied in the Israel-Gaza war,” CPJ programme director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said in a statement. “The FBI needs to disclose a timeline for the conclusion of its investigation, and Israel must cooperate with the FBI probe and any future ICC probe.” Last year, on the first anniversary of Abu Akleh’s killing, the CPJ released a report detailing how Israeli forces killed 20 journalists in the two decades prior, in what it called a “pattern”. “No one has ever been charged or held accountable for these deaths,” it said. That pattern of impunity appears to have intensified with the war on Gaza. But advocates say they will continue to push for justice for Abu Akleh, particularly as the number of Israel violations against press freedom grows. “We’re not going to forget. And an important reason we’re not going to forget is because the consequences of these failures to achieve accountability for the killing of Shireen are on display in Gaza every day,” Munayyer said. Source: Al Jazeera
The US and Israel are playing a dangerous game US reluctance to pressure Israel into accepting the ceasefire deal will have grave consequences, and not just for the Palestinians. Daoud Kuttab Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist. 8 May 2024 Israeli military vehicles are seen on the Palestinian side of the Rafah Crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on May 7, 2024 [Handout by the Israeli army via Reuters] On May 5, the breaking news that Hamas had accepted a ceasefire deal spread like wildfire across Gaza, sending people to the streets celebrating. Their joy was short-lived, however, as Israel pressed forward with a deadly ground assault on Rafah. After weeks of facing accusations from Israel and the US that its stance was impeding progress in ceasefire negotiations, Hamas made a strategic decision with which it effectively outmanoeuvred its enemy. The ball is now in Israel’s court and by extension, the court of its main backer, the United States. If a deal for a lasting ceasefire is not concluded, Israel will be exposed as the true spoiler of peace, and US as a dishonest broker. There are already indications that the two are playing a game, trying to sell to the global public unconvincing narratives that Israel was not aware of the deal that was proposed to Hamas and that the US opposes an Israeli operation of Rafah. Despite the appearance of public surprise and puzzlement by both, it may well be that they knew and expected what would happen next. Israel has claimed that it is rejecting the deal because it was not aware of new provisions included in it, and yet there are reports that CIA chief Bill Burns who is involved in the negotiations has been briefing the Israeli side. And given President Joe Biden’s “ironclad” support for Israel, it seems highly unlikely his administration would negotiate a deal that does not favour its ally’s interests. The US, for its part, has claimed that it staunchly opposes an Israeli ground offensive on Gaza. And yet, the operation has started and the response from the Biden administration has been to play it down, not to denounce it. US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that supposedly this was not the full invasion everyone expected, but a “limited” operation, thus indirectly indicating that the US was aware of Israeli plans. In this context, it is important to remember another “limited” operation that the US reportedly opposed, and which turned out to be not so “limited”. At the start of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, then-Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin claimed the Israeli army would enter only 40km (25 miles) into Lebanese territory, to “eliminate” positions of Palestinian armed groups that had bombarded northern Israel. Unsurprisingly, the Israeli troops did not stop at 40km and advanced all 110km (68 miles) to the capital Beirut and captured it. Trying to cover up its deceit, the Israeli government claimed the full-scale invasion was necessary due to the “situation on the ground” – a weak justification that even then-Secretary of State Alexander Haig repeated. The Israelis did not withdraw from Lebanon until 2000. Throughout this Israeli war on Gaza, there hasn’t been a warning publicly made by the US that Israel has heeded. It is indeed unclear to what extent such warnings are just optics of putting pressure on the Israeli government while continuing to support its every move. In this sense, one should take with a grain of salt reports that the Biden administration is holding off one shipment of weapons to Israel to pressure it into halting the full-scale invasion of Rafah. Within the context of this supposedly “limited” operation, it is worrying the US is giving tacit approval for Israeli forces occupying the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt. The Israeli takeover of the Palestinian crossing point not only caused panic in Gaza, where people are terrified of badly needed aid being completely blocked, but also deeply worried Cairo, which condemned the attack. Egypt has repeatedly warned in the past that any presence of Israeli military troops on the Palestinian side of the Philadelphi Corridor is a violation of the Camp David Accords and Philadelphi protocol, according to which this area has to be demilitarised. The Camp David Peace treaty between Israel and Egypt was brokered and guaranteed by the US in 1979. It was later amended with the Philadelphi protocol in 2005 after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip. Egypt has abided by the provisions of the deal, but now Israel appears not to be. The Biden administration may be thinking it is successfully deflecting criticism by presenting the Israeli invasion of Rafah as “limited”, but the occupation of the crossing in violation of a US-backed treaty sends a clear message that the US and Israel have no qualms about walking all over agreements they have signed. This comes on top of Washington going out of its way to shield Israel from legal consequences for the atrocities it is committing in Gaza, thus undermining international law. US officials have called UN Security Council resolutions “not binding”, condemned the International Court of Justice for recognising the situation in Gaza as a “plausible” genocide, and threatened the International Criminal Court with sanctions if it issues arrest warrants for Israeli officials. As things stand now, Biden is headed towards losing the November election and leaving a dreadful legacy behind: overseeing a genocide in Gaza and undermining the international legal order to pave the way for more atrocities and more impunity. It is still not too late to change course. Biden must apply real, decisive pressure on Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire deal with Hamas, fully withdraw from Gaza, lift the siege and allow for full humanitarian access and reconstruction to begin.