"This is our conception of security: the way we keep us secure is to abuse, to kill." Investigations by CNN, the UN, and Israeli media exposed alleged abuse of Palestinians in Israeli detention centers, which the IDF and the prison service have denied. Now a new report from… pic.twitter.com/wP8JxNLfJ2 — Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) August 14, 2024
The Washington Post reports: When sales of Coca-Cola began to plummet in parts of the Middle East and Asia this summer in response to boycotts of corporations with alleged ties to Israel, the soda company’s franchise in Bangladesh rolled out an expensive advertising campaign featuring a television star known for his roles in South Asian soap operas and reality TV. The actor, Sharaf Ahmed Jibon, played a shopkeeper who assured customers that Coca-Cola was not an Israeli product and underscored…
Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the official death toll, though the true casualty figure is likely far higher with thousands of the dead unaccounted for. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have raided towns and villages across the occupied West Bank, and settlers under military protection have repeatedly stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in recent days. This all comes as the State Department on Tuesday announced the approval of $20 billion in new arms…
Protesters, politicians and TV commentators in Israel are defending the right of soldiers to mistreat and even 'rape' Palestinian prisoners in detention. Here's what you need to know ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/85dnGi8Dh5 — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 13, 2024 “Welcome to Hell” is a report on the abuse and inhuman treatment of Palestinians held in Israeli custody since 7 October 2023. B’Tselem collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians held during that time and released, almost all with no charges. Their testimonies reveal…
DAWN reports: The U.S. State Department has officially notified Congress of its intent to proceed with a new authorization for weapons to Israel, including 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) guidance kits to Israel, despite extensive evidence documenting the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) use of U.S. weapons to carry out war crimes and crimes against humanity, said DAWN today. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also announced his decision not to sanction the IDF’s notorious Netzah Yehuda battalion, despite credible evidence…
Lubna Masarwa and Peter Oborne writes: It’s been just over 20 years since CBS News published the sobering photographs that proved the US army was carrying out unspeakable crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Rape. Degradation. Homicide. Torture, both psychological and physical. Sexual humiliation. The revelations of US barbarity were greeted with horror around the world and played a major role in turning opinion against the Iraq War. In recent days, it has become all too clear that…
When President Biden was the Democratic candidate, he faced intense scrutiny from many Muslim and Arab Americans over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. The city of Dearborn, Michigan, is home to one of the largest populations of Muslim Americans. Mayor Abdullah Hammoud joined Amna Nawaz and discussed if the new Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can quell the concerns. “We want a meeting with Vice President Harris so we can talk to her to…
The Guardian reports: Violence, extreme hunger, humiliation and other abuse of Palestinian prisoners has been normalised across Israel’s jail system, according to Guardian interviews with released prisoners, with mistreatment now so systemic that rights group B’Tselem says it must be considered a policy of “institutionalised abuse”. Former detainees described abuse ranging from severe beatings and sexual violence to starvation rations, refusal of medical care, and deprivation of basic needs including water, daylight, electricity and sanitation, including soap and sanitary pads…
Phys.org reports: The high levels of consumption enjoyed by wealthy countries in the Global North are only possible because of mass appropriation of labor from the population of the Global South. This is evidenced by research from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), which indicates that this appropriation takes place through unequal exchange in international trade and global commodity chains. The new study, published in Nature Communications, measured the flows of labor…
Ibtisam Mahdi writes: Dr. Refaat Alareer was a good friend of mine. A poet, writer, and prominent activist for the Palestinian cause, Refaat taught English literature and poetry for many years at the Islamic University of Gaza. He loved the works of Shakespeare, Thomas White, John Donne, Wilfred Owen, and many others, and he was the editor of two books: “Gaza Unsilenced“ and “Gaza Writes Back.” Refaat is one of at least 105 Palestinian academics killed in Gaza since the start…
Sondos Fayoumi writes: Around 88,000 higher education students in Gaza were supposed to sit for their exams last month. Many looked forward to completing their final assessments and celebrating their hard-earned graduation. Thanks to Israel’s genocidal war, though, nobody wore their caps and gowns. Instead, young people are enduring devastation of unparalleled magnitude. Every university in Gaza has been obliterated. Libraries have been burned to the ground. And the aspirations of Palestinian graduates lie in tatters. In addition to the…
The Guardian reports: Dozens of US doctors and nurses who worked in Gaza have written to Joe Biden claiming that the true death toll from Israel’s months-long assault is much higher than previously reported, demanding the US withdraw diplomatic and military support for Israel until there is a ceasefire. The eight-page letter, delivered on Thursday and addressed to Biden, the first lady, Jill Biden, and the vice-president, Kamala Harris, said the medics saw evidence of widespread violations of laws governing…
Axios reports: Pro-Palestinian Democrats were the only Michigan delegates who voted against endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris this week, but they say they’d be willing to reconsider if Harris shifts the administration’s Gaza policies. State of play: One of the two “no” votes, Abbas Alawieh, told Axios the national uncommitted movement has been trying to schedule a meeting with the vice president to discuss how to win back support of anti-war Democratic voters. If Harris meaningfully engages with demands of a ceasefire that…
Andrea Pitzer writes: The Republican National Convention hit rock bottom on its third day in Milwaukee, Wis., on July 17, with a sea of signs calling for “Mass Deportation Now.” If former president Donald Trump is elected for a second term, he and his advisers promise to remove from the U.S., via forced expulsions and deportation camps, as many as 20 million people—a number larger than the country’s current estimated population of undocumented residents. Put into effect, this scheme would devolve quickly into a vast 21st-century…
BBC News reports: The World Health Organization is “extremely worried” about the possibility of an outbreak of the highly infectious polio virus in Gaza after traces were found in wastewater. Dr Ayadil Saparbekov, head of the WHO’s team in the Palestinian territories, told reporters a risk assessment was being implemented and that in the meantime health workers were providing protection advice to Gaza’s 2.3 million population. But, he added, it would be “very difficult” for people to follow it, given…
Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa write: In the United States we would never dream of operating on anyone without consent, let alone a malnourished and barely conscious 9-year-old girl in septic shock. Nevertheless, when we saw Juri, that’s exactly what we did. We have no idea how Juri ended up in the Gaza European Hospital preoperative area. All we could see was that she had an external fixator — a scaffold of metal pins and rods — on her left…