US lawmakers want to deploy ‘anti-Semitism monitors’ at colleges
RT | April 27, 2024
Two US congressmen have introduced a bill that would appoint independent “anti-Semitism monitors” to federally funded college campuses across the country. The draft law comes amid a police crackdown on anti-Israel protests at dozens of US universities.
Introduced on Friday by New York Representatives Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, and Mike Lawler, a Republican, the COLUMBIA Act would task the Department of Education with sending a “third-party anti-Semitism monitor” to any college or university receiving federal money.
The inspector would release a quarterly report on “the progress that a college or university has made toward combating antisemitism.” Schools that fail to sufficiently crack down on alleged hatred against Jews would then have their funding stripped.
“Rising antisemitism on our college campuses is a major concern and we must act to ensure the safety of students,” Lawler said in a statement. “Jewish students have told my office that they feel completely abandoned by their university administrators and they view Congress as the only avenue for accountability and safety,” Torres added.
The bill’s title – an acronym for the College Oversight and Legal Updates Mandating Bias Investigations and Accountability Act – refers to Columbia University, where pro-Palestinian rallies and protests have been taking place for nearly two weeks. Similar rallies have broken out at around 40 universities and colleges in the US and Canada, including Harvard, Yale and UC Berkeley.
Protesters are demanding that their universities “divest” from companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Lockheed Martin that have contracts with the Israeli government. They also want the US to stop giving money to Israel, citing its “genocide” of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Jewish organizations claim that some of the demonstrators have openly praised Hamas, and that the protests have stoked a climate of fear among Jewish students. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed in on Wednesday, claiming that “anti-Semitic mobs have taken over leading universities” in scenes “reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s.”
Police arrested hundreds of protesters on Wednesday in a crackdown targeting 21 universities across the country. In a raid at the University of Texas at Austin, Governor Greg Abbott ordered the deployment of heavily armed officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), who detained more than 30 people. Abbott – a Republican and professed free speech advocate – declared on social media that “these protesters belong in jail.” Hundreds more were arrested on Thursday and Friday.
While mainstream Democrats and Republicans have joined forces in condemning the protests and promising stiff penalties for those involved, members of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing have visited campuses to encourage the demonstrators. “Contrary to right-wing attacks, these students are joyfully protesting for peace and an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza,” Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar said after meeting protesters at Columbia on Thursday. “I’m in awe of their bravery and courage.”
Supporters of the racist ideology of Zionism operating inside the UK civil service
By David Miller | Al Mayadeen | April 27, 2024
The witch hunt against Muslims in the UK civil service is well underway, with the suspension of the Civil Service Muslim Network, in the aftermath of the UK government’s new supposed definition of ‘extremism’. But there are some ‘extremists’ and supporters of genocide in the civil service who are not being targeted by the government: Zionists.
Zionists appear to run, or at least to be very well represented, in the leadership of the Jewish equivalent of the Civil Service Muslim Network.
The Civil Service Jewish Network (JNet) is “a cross-government network of over 300 Jewish civil servants and other civil servants interested in Jewish culture.” According to official data, this amounts to around a quarter of all Jews in the civil service. Their Facebook group has 329 members, though on their X account they claim “over” 400 members, which would be around one third of Jewish civil servants as revealed in government statistics.
It may be the case that there are non-Zionists or anti-Zionists involved in the leadership of the network, but if so there is precious little public sign of this, as we shall see. One view expressed by Matthew Gould the first Jewish British Ambassador to “Israel” was that “I have never come across any anti-Zionism” in the Foreign Office.
Mathew Gould has been a senior sponsor of the Civil Service Jewish Network. Until 2015 Gould was the British Ambassador to “Israel”, where he set up the UK-“Israel” Tech Hub, a unit inside the British embassy which promotes Israeli tech start-ups invariably stuffed with former Israeli intelligence officers. He had previously served in Tehran and in Washington as the UK representative of the Joint Intelligence Committee. He thus has intelligence connections himself. He says he is a “passionate Zionist”.
Another former senior sponsor was Melinda Simmons, the British Ambassador to Ukraine between 2019 and 2023. She previously worked at the National Security Secretariat, part of the British intelligence apparatus. She had been recruited to the Foreign Office prior to this in 2013, so she likely joined MI6 then. Simmons is a member of the Finchley Reform Synagogue, part of the Movement for Reform Judaism, which says it is “unequivocally Zionist”. It is also, unsurprisingly affiliated to the World Zionist Organisation.
The current senior sponsor is Tamara Finkelstein, who became Permanent Secretary at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in April 2019. She has been referred to as the most senior “Jewish British civil servant”. Finkelstein hails from a Zionist family with connections to B’nai B’rith and to Reform Judaism which is formally Zionist, attended Haberdashers Girls’ school, something of a hothouse for young Zionists, and then studied Engineering at Balliol College Oxford. After studying economics at LSE, she became a civil servant when she joined the Treasury and later “was a private secretary and speechwriter to Gordon Brown in the early days of his time as Chancellor”.
She also “set up and lead a programme in building safety in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire”. Finkelstein is a member and former Chair of New North London Synagogue, part of the Zionist Masorti Judaism movement. She is also a trustee of Norwood, the Jewish children and families charity, which is affiliated to the pro-“Israel” Jewish Leadership Council. On her appointment as Permanent Secretary the Environment Secretary and hardline Zionist Michael Gove said: “She is an outstanding public servant I have very much enjoyed working with.” Tamara Finkelstein’s brother is militant Zionist Daniel Finkelstein, former chair of the Islamophobic think tank Policy Exchange from 2011-2014.
In addition to one or two senior sponsors, the network has a number of more junior civil servants who run the network. The leaders of the network include (or have included):
Joel Salmon
Joel Salmon at the Department for Levelling Up, where he states he “leads” on “international race and equalities policy.” He is one of two admins for the J-Net Facebook group. He is also a fully radicalised Zionist. His radicalisation appears to have started young, having attended a Zionist secondary School, JFS (2005-12) where he was Head Boy. Having been a member, he then became a “Youth Leader” with the Zionist youth group RSY-Netzer, in 2011, a role he still holds. He belongs to Finchley Reform Synagogue, part of the Movement for Reform Judaism, which is affiliated to the World Zionist Organisation. He states he “went on trips with Aish and lived on a religious kibbutz for three months”.
Aish Hatorah is a Zionist organisation that has been implicated in working in illegal settlements especially south of Nablus. It is not clear if the Kibbutz that Salmon lived on was in the illegally occupied West Bank. Salmon interned at BICOM, the pro-“Israel” PR group in London in January 2013, and also at the hardline Neocon Hudson Institute in Washington DC in July and August 2013 while still at university.
While attending St Andrews University Salmon was the president of St Andrews Jewish Society, a Zionist affiliated group. In 2015, he was a candidate for the presidency of the Union of Jewish Students, the umbrella group for all university Jewish Societies, which is also formally Zionist. After university, he went straight into a job as a lobbyist at the Board of Deputies of British Jews (2016-2019). After that, Salmon was a lobbyist for ADS, an arms industry trade association. Amongst its members are the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems. From there he joined the civil service. It beggars belief that someone with such a long history with racist Zionist organisations can be put in charge of any element of “race and equalities” policy in the Department for Levelling Up.
Joshua Nagli
Joshua Nagli who works at the Department for Transport, and has been a civil servant since 2017. He was previously an Intern at the Portland Trust (Jun 2016) run by the Zionist financier Sir Ronald Cohen. Later he worked for the Union of Jewish Students, rising to the position of Campaigns Director (2015-16). In that capacity he was part of the witch hunt against the Labour left adding his voice to the campaign against Oxford University Labour Club an entirely confected row. He was quoted in the JC as saying, “The events in Oxford, despite them being extremely bad, made people within the Labour Students group realise we need to deal with this issue.” Nagli is also a trustee and director of the London Jewish forum (since 2020) a group that is a member of the pro-Israel Jewish Leadership Council and which is funded by Zionist extremists such as via the family foundations of convicted fraudster Gerald Ronson and the Lewis family who control the clothing chain River Island. It’s not clear how this Zionist activity is compatible with his status as a civil servant.
In addition to this preponderance of Zionists as leaders and sponsors of the network, there has been a pattern of Zionist involvement in the events of the Network. In 2015 and after (such as in 2018) the network was involved with Mitzvah Day, a Zionist-led campaign to infiltrate and subvert Muslim communities, as I have shown elsewhere. Also, from 2015, the Board of Deputies of British Jews has been involved in the network’s Chanukah celebrations inside Whitehall. These have been repeated in 2017 and 2018. The Board has also sponsored Sukkah in the Treasury and Foreign Office, for example in 2018 and 2019, and a networking event in DEFRA in 2019. The Board is a strong supporter of the genocide in Gaza, and has been signed up to the racist ideology of Zionism since the 1940s. It is notable that no Jewish organisation critical of Zionism appears to have had any presence in the network.
If the government is serious about tackling extremism, then it should suspend the Jewish Network and take urgent steps to de-radicalize and de-zionise it.
David Miller is an investigative researcher, broadcaster, and academic. He is the founder and co-director of the lobbying watchdog Spinwatch and editor of Powerbase.info.
US campus crackdown: 500 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested
Press TV – April 26, 2024
US police have arrested more than 500 protesters during a crackdown against pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses across the country on Thursday.
Anti-riot police used chemical irritants and tasers against protesters, who set up camps in defiance of police warnings from Massachusetts to California, to protest against Israel’s savage war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Protesters were arrested at schools including the Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota, Indiana University and Princeton University.
At Emory University in Atlanta, police clashed with protesters, including students from other Atlanta universities and area activists and arrested dozens of protesters, including faculty members.
Videos are shared on social media, showing officers using tear gas, tasers and handcuffs to detain protesters.
Emory’s vice president for public safety Cheryl Elliott said in a statement that law enforcement “released chemical irritants into the ground” to disperse the crowd after protesters ignored multiple warnings.
She said 28 protesters had been arrested, including 20 members of the Emory community, “some of whom have been released.”
“We are working with responding agencies to expedite the release of any Emory community members who remain in custody.”
At Emerson College in Boston, police also tore down an encampment there and arrested more than 100 demonstrators early Thursday morning.
Police detained 93 people at the University of Southern California.
And at The University of Texas at Austin, 60 protesters were arrested.
In the event, faculty members gathered at a rally and called for the school’s president, Jay Hartzell, to resign after he praised law enforcement for exercising restraint against the protestors.
The latest arrests which followed others at Columbia, Yale, Brown and New York University, came as a growing number of students joined the protests after President Joe Biden approved $26 billion in war aid to Israel on Wednesday.
Across the United States, groups of students and activists are now demanding the leadership of their universities to cut financial ties with Israel, whose brutal war on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 34,300 people since early October.
US & UK Reduced Naval Presence in Red Sea – Houthi Leader
Sputnik – 26.04.2024
The United States and the United Kingdom have scaled down their naval presence in the Red Sea despite lack of abatement in the intensity of attacks carried out by Yemen’s Houthis rebels on Israeli-linked ships, the rebel movement’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said on Thursday.
“Our operations have not decreased, as the Americans claim, presenting this as their achievement, but rather the movement of their warships has decreased. There has been an 80% reduction in the movement of US Navy ships, not our operations,” al-Houthi was quoted by Iranian broadcaster Almasirah as saying on the occasion of 200 days of hostilities in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, al-Houthi said that since the beginning of hostilities in Gaza, they have attacked 102 Israeli-affiliated ships, an equivalent of one ship every two days.
“The American and British enemies have failed to ensure the movement of Israel-bound ships despite constant and intensive monitoring. As long as the blockade and aggression against the Gaza Strip continues, operations in the southern Red Sea will continue,” al-Houthi said.
Moreover, the leader of the movement also known as Ansar Allah said that there was an ongoing effort to expand and strengthen operations in the Indian Ocean in ways that “the Americans, the British, the Israelis, and perhaps the rest of the world cannot envision.”
His statements came a day after the movement announced attacks on a US ship and a destroyer in the Gulf of Aden and an Israeli ship MSC Veracruz in the Indian Ocean after a week-long standoff.
Houthis have been launching attacks on commercial and military vessels in the region for months, in response to Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. The attacks prompted the US to form a multinational coalition to protect shipping in the area, as well as to strike Houthi targets on the ground.
Daughter of martyr Al-Areer martyred along with husband, newborn baby in Israeli airstrike
Palestinian Information Center – April 26, 2024
GAZA – The daughter of martyr Refaat Al-Areer, Shaima, was martyred on Friday along with her husband, engineer Muhammad Siam, and their newborn baby in an Israeli airstrike that targeted their apartment near Al-Rimal Clinic in Gaza City.
Media sources said Israeli aircraft launched several attacks this morning targeting the headquarters of the International Red Cross, which houses displaced people, and a residential apartment near Al-Rimal Clinic, resulting in a number of martyrs and wounded.
The sources revealed that among the martyrs was Shaima, the eldest daughter of martyr Dr. Refaat Al-Areer, who was previously assassinated last December in a deliberate Israeli airstrike targeting his sister’s home in Gaza City.
Dr. Refaat Al-Areer was one of the pillars of the English Section at the PIC, and the supervisor of its Social Media Department. He was martyred along with his brother, sister, and her four children.
The martyr Al-Areer also worked as Professor of English Language at the Islamic University which was destroyed in the Israeli aggression. A number of its staff along with its President were martyred as well.
Al-Areer was one of the courageous voices who spoke and wrote in English about the Palestinian cause and refuted the Israeli narrative. He is the author of the book “Gaza Writes Back”.
He was also hosted in distinguished interviews with various Western media outlets.
UK APPROVED ARMS FOR ISRAEL DAYS AFTER IT KILLED BRITISH AID WORKERS
BY JOHN MCEVOY | DECLASSIFIED UK | APRIL 23, 2024
On 1 April, Israeli forces launched a series of airstrikes on a convoy of aid workers in Gaza, killing three Britons, a Polish national, a Palestinian, an American-Canadian dual citizen, and an Australian.
The Israeli Air Force carried out the bombing with a Hermes 450 drone. According to Campaign Against the Arms Trade, this drone may be powered by a R902(W) Wankel engine produced in Britain by UAV Engines Limited (UEL).
New court documents show that the UK government decided to continue arms exports to Israel on 8 April, one week after the strike on the aid workers who were employed by the charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).
The revelation will put additional pressure on the Foreign Office to justify its decision not to suspend arms sales to Israel.
‘Killed with British weapons’
Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq challenged the UK government today in court over arms sales to Israel.
Documents provided to the court show that the UK government has conducted five legal assessments of the situation in Gaza since 18 December.
One of those assessments, which covered the period 18 December to 29 February, was delivered to UK foreign secretary David Cameron on 28 March.
On 3 April, two days after the Israeli airstrike on the aid workers, Cameron used this assessment to recommend that the UK continue arms sales to Israel.
Five days later, UK trade secretary Kemi Badenoch authorised the continuation of extant licences and new licences to Israel, according to GLAN’s press statement.
The court documents further show that the UK government is capable of making “out of cycle assessments… where circumstances require” on Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.
However, such an assessment was apparently not conducted following Israel’s attack on the WCK staff.
Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, a lawyer at GLAN, said: “The world has watched as 34,000 people have been killed, and more are being killed every day… Has the Government no regard for the immense loss of human life thus far, some of whom will have been killed with British weapons?”
Hermes 450 drone
The UK government is also refusing to rule out whether British machinery was used in the killing of the aid workers.
On 12 April, Kenny MacAskill MP asked in parliament whether the government had made an assessment of whether UEL engines or engine parts had been used in the strike. Trade minister Alan Mak said his department could not comment “on specific licences”.
On 17 April, Andy McDonald MP also asked whether the three British aid workers “were killed by weapons manufactured in Britain”. Foreign Office minister David Rutley responded simply that “we have strong export controls”.
UEL designs and manufactures engines for drones, specialising in Wankel technology which delivers an “outstanding power-to-size and weight ratio… ideal for tactical unmanned aircrafts”.
The company was established in Staffordshire in 1992, before being acquired by Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems.
Over recent decades, concerns have been raised that UEL produces engines and engine parts for Israel’s drone fleet, which is frequently used to support bombing campaigns over Gaza.
Made in Britain
In 2009, it was reported that the engines for Israel’s Hermes 450 drone had been manufactured by UEL. These claims were supported by information on Elbit’s own website.
British arms control officials subsequently admitted that they had licensed engines to Israel for onward export, but could not confirm that the engines had not instead been fitted to the Hermes 450 drone.
Since then, the UK government has continued to issue licences to UEL for exports to Israel. The most recent licence was seemingly granted in 2021, allowing UEL to export parts for military engines to Israel.
Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s Sam Perlo Freeman told Middle East Eye: “The evidence seems to stack up that it is a UK engine and, if it’s not, then Elbit need to clarify that… Definitely it seems to be based on a UK design at the very least”.
An Elbit Systems spokesperson told Declassified: “Elbit Systems UK, its subsidiaries and joint ventures, including UAV Engines Limited and U-Tacs, are not involved in the Hermes 450 programme”.
The company’s spokesperson, however, would not respond to a further question on whether Israel’s Hermes 450 drones use engines or engine parts produced by UEL in the UK. They said: “We have nothing further to add to the [previous] statement”.
A UK-based subsidiary of Elbit Systems and Thales also produces the Watchkeeper drone, which is modelled on Elbit’s Hermes 450 and used by the British army.
“The British government is, in effect, buying technology that has been ‘field tested’ on Palestinians”, noted campaign group War on Want.
‘A full, transparent explanation’
The day after the Israeli airstrikes on the aid convoy, UK foreign secretary David Cameron announced that he had “called on Israel to immediately investigate and provide a full, transparent explanation of what happened”.
On 5 April, the IDF published the conclusions of its investigation, claiming that Israeli forces had identified gunmen near the trucks and “mistakenly assumed that the gunmen were located inside the accompanying vehicles and that these were Hamas terrorists”.
The report continued: “Those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees”. The IDF chief of the general staff subsequently dismissed the Israeli brigade’s commander and chief of staff.
Israel’s self-exonerating investigation was led by Yoav Har-Even, the former head of the IDF operations directorate, and now the president and CEO of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
Rafael is one of Israel’s biggest arms firms. It is owned and controlled by the Israeli state, and its largest client is the IDF. The investigation into the killing of the aid workers was therefore led by the CEO of a company which supplies many of the bombs that Israel is using to destroy Gaza.
The UK government has not commented on whether this satisfies its demand for a “full, transparent explanation”, and the extent to which the Foreign Office is pressing Israel on the matter remains unclear.
Mak recently told parliament: “We are carefully reviewing initial findings of Israel’s investigations into the killing”. He continued: “The findings of the inquiry must be published in full and followed up with a wholly independent review to ensure the utmost transparency and accountability”.
Prior to the attack on the WCK staff, at least 357 humanitarian-run sites in Gaza had reportedly been attacked.
John McEvoy is an independent journalist who has written for International History Review, The Canary, Tribune Magazine, Jacobin and Brasil Wire.
UN expert calls for arms, oil embargo against Israel
Press TV – April 25, 2024
UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese has called on the international community to immediately impose oil sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel.
“At this point, Israel has reneged on its international obligations to a degree that warrants an imperative implementation of immediate and unconditional sanctions which should entail first and foremost an arms and oil embargo,” Francesca Albanese said during a press conference on Thursday.
Albanese accused the United States and certain other Western states of being accomplice to Israel’s crimes by sending military aid and weapons.
“Complicity with genocide is a crime on its own under the Genocide Convention, so definitely interested in investigating to what extent, the aid – political and military aid that has been granted to Israel by a number of countries primarily the United States, might amount to complicity. What I can tell you for sure is that this support is in clear violation, is in clear breach with the International Court of Justice interim order that ordered the suspension, among others, of the cessation of acts that might amount to genocide and unhindered access for the Palestinians to humanitarian aid.”
In January, the United Nations’ top court ordered the Israeli regime to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Gaza.
Albanese further said the European Union should impose sanctions on Israel, not merely on extremist settlers. “Settlers operate as part of Israel’s expansionism over what remains of historic Palestine,” Albanese said. “So it is Israel, not settlers per se, [that has] to be targeted by sanctions.”
Elsewhere in her remarks, the UN expert further said countries must do everything in their power to prevent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
“Israeli policies expanding the occupied Palestinian territory are unquestionably endangering Palestinian existence on their land, or what remains of their land. The focus of the international community must zero in on the most likely implication of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and states must do everything in their power to prevent it.”
Last month, Albanese told the UN rights body in Geneva that she believed that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since October 7 amounts to genocide.
Palestinians on Thursday mourned people killed in the Israeli bombardment of Rafah, the crowded city in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israel says it is advancing plans for a ground invasion.
At the city’s Najjar Hospital, among the mourners were two men crouching, grief-stricken, in front of a white body bag.
Those killed in an Israeli strike on Rafah included Abdallah Nabhan, 33, who worked for Belgium’s Enabel development agency.
Brussels said it would summon Israel’s ambassador to explain the death.
Palestinian journalist Mohammad Bassam al-Jamal was killed along with his family members in an attack on their house in the city of Rafah. His death brings to 139 the number of journalists killed in the Gaza war.
Palestinians ‘buried alive’ by Israeli army in Nasser Hospital mass graves
The Cradle | April 25, 2024
Officials from Gaza’s Civil Defense Department announced on 25 April that 392 bodies have been unearthed from three mass graves discovered at the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Yunis, with some showing signs of having been buried alive.
“We need forensic examination for approximately 20 bodies for people who we think were buried alive in the Nasser Medical Complex,” Palestinian Civil Defence member Mohammed Mughier told reporters on Thursday, adding that some were the bodies of children.
“Why do we have children in mass graves?” he added, stressing that the evidence shows the Israeli army committed “crimes against humanity.”
Ten of the bodies unearthed had their hands bound, while others still had medical tubes attached to them.
“There are indications of carrying out field executions against some of the victims, while the bodies of other victims carried signs of torture and others were buried alive,” officials from Gaza’s Civil Defense Department said during a press conference.
“Several victims were buried in plastic bags and placed at a depth of three meters, which accelerated their decomposition,” the officials added.
The mass graves were discovered after the Israeli army withdrew from Khan Yunis on 7 April following a four-month raid of the city that decimated most infrastructure and left thousands dead.
Gaza officials have previously stressed that the Israeli army uses forced disappearance as a systematic policy against the people of the strip, highlighting that thousands of Palestinians are still missing.
“Some of the bodies found have evaporated and turned to ash. International institutions must identify the type of weapons used [by Israel],” the Civil Defense Department said earlier this week. “We found in the Nasser Complex corpses without heads and bodies without skins, and some of them had their organs stolen,” Gaza’s Government Media Office office also revealed.
Hundreds of bodies were recently recovered in the northern Gaza Strip, particularly in and around Al-Shifa Hospital, where Israeli troops launched a bloody and destructive military operation lasting from 18 March until 1 April.
On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric called on a “clear, transparent and credible investigation” into the mass graves found in the Gaza Strip.
US Pays Lip Service to Palestinians’ Plight While Arming Israel
Sputnik – 25.04.2024
US President Joe Biden authorized providing some $15 billion worth of military supplies to Israel this week.
While the United States has repeatedly voiced concerns about the massive civilian casualties caused by the ongoing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, it does not deter Washington from sending military supplies to Tel Aviv, essentially helping Israel wage this campaign.
The latest multibillion-dollar package for Israel comes as the Israeli military leadership appears intent to attack Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip that is currently densely packed with refugees who fled from other parts of the Palestinian enclave ravaged by the Israeli invasion.
Although Biden reportedly warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month that an assault on Rafah would be a mistake, the White House does not seem keen to actually prevent Tel Aviv from carrying out this attack – which is likely to result in a large number of civilian casualties.
Earlier this month, CNN reported that the Biden administration authorized the transfer of some 1,000 MK82 bombs and an equal number of small-diameter bombs, apparently undaunted by the fact that the Israeli military seems rather keen to flatten buildings across the Gaza Strip via airstrikes.
The US leadership also seems unperturbed – or at least unperturbed enough to halt the military supplies to Israel or, heaven forbid, impose sanctions on Tel Aviv – by occurrences such as the Israeli airstrike on a humanitarian convoy in the Gaza Strip, which killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen food relief NGO.
Booed at Columbia University, Johnson warns to bring National Guard to quell pro-Palestine protests
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson at Columbia University, in New York City on April 24, 2024. (Photo by Reuters)
Press TV – April 25, 2024
House Speaker Mike Johnson has threatened to use National Guard against students’ pro-Palestinian protests at US universities as he got booed and heckled at Columbia University.
Following a meeting with Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives along with a group of Republican House members urged Shafik to step down if she fails to control Gaza war demonstrations on campus during a press briefing at Low Library on Wednesday.
Johnson was joined by GOP Reps. Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis and Anthony D’Esposito, all from New York, and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina.
“We just can’t allow this kind of hatred and anti-Semitism to flourish on our campuses. And it must be stopped in its tracks. Those who are perpetrating this violence should be arrested,” he said, accusing protesters of chasing down Jewish students and harassing them.
Students chanted “Free Palestine” and heckled and loudly booed Johnson and demanded his return to Washington DC, with the noise of protesters almost overpowering his speech.
Johnson, who also met with Jewish students before his remarks, said that he plans to urge US President Joe Biden to take executive action against the protests if necessary, adding, “If this is not contained quickly, and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard.”
Protesters shouted “stop the genocide” as other Republican leaders spoke. The Republicans accused protesters of being part of the problem and supporting the resistance movements of Hamas and Hezbollah.
New York Democrats criticize Johnson for “politicizing” the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests in Columbia, with Gov. Kathy Hochul stating that the presence of an entourage is exacerbating the division.
Johnson said in an interview after his speech that he respects the right to protest, but that he thought the students on campus had crossed into harassment.
Pro-Palestinian academic activism has grown significantly across the US since the onset of the Israeli regime’s US-backed war of genocide against the Gaza Strip.
Starting from the Colombia University in New York, protest encampments with a unified demand that their schools cut financial ties to Israel have been spread across the country. Demonstrations have been held in many universities such as Harvard, MIT, UT and other universities in Michigan, Minnesota and Colombia.
They are calling for universities to distance themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel’s savage military campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Johnson’s speech came hours after Biden officially signed into law a long-awaited foreign aid bill for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan that had faced considerable delays in the House due to political gridlock.
The new package will provide $26 billion for the Israeli regime, which has been engaged in a genocidal war against the Gaza Strip since last October.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the billions of dollars in US assistance, writing on X that it “demonstrates strong bipartisan support for Israel.”
Hamas holds dozens of high-ranking Israeli officers in Gaza: Report
The Cradle | April 24, 2024
A source within Palestinian resistance movement Hamas told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on 24 April that the group holds around 30 Israeli army generals and officers from the Shin Bet security service as prisoners in the Gaza Strip.
“The movement alone has about 30 generals and Shin Bet officers, who were captured on October 7, from military units and some highly sensitive military sites,” the source said.
The source added that “these people in particular are in highly secured places, far from the hands of the occupation, and it is impossible to reach them under any circumstances,” and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have been hiding information from their people regarding “the identities of some of the prisoners.”
This concealment comes as part of efforts “to avoid provoking anger among the ranks of the combat forces.” He added that the military representative on Israel’s prisoner negotiation team, Nitzan Alon, is frustrated with Netanyahu’s “laxity” toward the issue.
The Israeli government has said that 129 Israeli prisoners remain captive in Gaza.
According to the source, Israel does not really know the exact number of prisoners left in Gaza after the prisoner exchanges in late November. He adds that Tel Aviv has not specified the number of imprisoned military officials, as part of a strategy “to classify some of the soldiers or officers … as civilians, in order to reduce the price of negotiating for them during the talks.”
The source also denied Hebrew media reports that only 20 prisoners are alive and that Hamas only proposed releasing 20, as opposed to 40, during the latest rounds of truce talks in Cairo.
Truce negotiations remain stalemated by Israel’s repeated rejection of Hamas’ main terms, which the resistance group continues to hold fast. These terms include an end to the war and a permanent ceasefire, a withdrawal of all troops from Gaza, a return of the displaced to their homes, and reconstruction of the strip.
“The only way [for Israel] to liberate the occupation prisoners is through serious negotiations followed by a full commitment to a ceasefire and reconstruction,” he said.
He also confirmed that the resistance remains in fighting form, and has not been defeated.
“The resistance is still fine, and is still in control in a disciplined manner within integrated structures in the field of operations.” Israel has repeatedly claimed that the southernmost city of Rafah is Hamas’ final stronghold, and is planning an operation against the desperately overcrowded city, posing the threat of a severe humanitarian catastrophe.
The source also confirmed that top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is “not isolated from reality” or hiding within the tunnels of Gaza, as some have claimed. According to the source, Sinwar has met with some of the fighters of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has “inspected” some of the areas where clashes took place, and “is carrying out his work as a leader of the movement in the field.”
UK suspends legal assessments on Israel’s compliance with international law
MEMO | April 24, 2024
In a shocking revelation during a hearing at the High Court, it has come to light that the UK government has suspended legal assessments over whether Israel is breaching International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The hearing was part of legal proceedings initiated in December by Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and UK-based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) against the UK after repeated written requests to suspend arms sales to Israel due to grave breaches of international law and UK rules.
According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), Trade Government lawyer James Eadie admitted to a “hiatus” in legal assessments of Israel’s compliance with IHL for reasons he “couldn’t go into,” stating that “decisions of some importance have been delayed for some time.” Eadie also mentioned that these delayed decisions were due “imminently” – likely in mid to late May.
The hearing also disclosed that the Secretary of State for Business and Trade last reviewed and approved arms sales to Israel on 8 April, three months after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) opened an instigation into possible genocide carried out by the apartheid state. However, according to information provided in court, this review only covered IHL violations committed up to 28 January, as the judge stated that the legal case into this review would only cover violations up to this date.
Notably, a determination that Israel is in violation of International Humanitarian Law would require the UK to suspend any arms sales to Israel. Details revealed during the hearing indicate that the UK government has sold weapons to Israel without a thorough review of the many breaches of international law documented by rights groups.
CAAT has strongly criticised the government’s actions. “This government likes to claim we have a robust arms export licensing system. This claim is now in tatters,” CAAT’s Media Coordinator, Emily Apple, said. “Israel is committing horrific war crimes with the aid of UK weapons and yet our government has suspended legal assessments of its compliance with international law, and delayed vital decisions.”
“It is outrageous that it has taken a court case for these revelations to come to light. David Cameron and other foreign office ministers have repeatedly avoided scrutiny on this issue. They are making a mockery of international law and a mockery of parliamentary scrutiny.”
While the case brought by GLAN and Al-Haq has been given permission to proceed, with a full hearing scheduled for October, CAAT emphasises the urgency of the situation. “We cannot wait until October for an arms embargo. Our government and the UK arms trade is complicit in genocide and they know it. We all need to keep up the pressure and demand that they stop prioritising the profits of arms dealers over Palestinian lives,” stated Apple.
The revelations from the High Court hearing have raised serious questions about the UK government’s commitment to upholding international law and its role in enabling the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine through the continued sale of arms to Israel.
British Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, has repeatedly dodged questions about the legality of UK arms sales to Israel. Leaked reports show that the British government has received advice from its own lawyers stating that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in Gaza but has failed to make it public.
The comments, made by the Conservative Chair of the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, Alicia Kearns, at a Tory fundraising event on 13 March are at odds with repeated ministerial denials and evasion on the issue.
“I remain convinced the government has completed its updated assessment on whether Israel is demonstrating a commitment to international humanitarian law, and that it has concluded that Israel is not demonstrating this commitment, which is the legal determination it has to make,” Kearns said in March. “Transparency at this point is paramount, not least to uphold the international rules-based order.”
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