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Category: War

Israel rebukes U.S. calls for investigation into mass graves in Gaza

Israel rebukes U.S. calls for investigation into mass graves in Gaza

Politico reports: Israel’s military says it already looked into reports of mass graves and found no wrongdoing by its forces, even as the Biden administration calls for an investigation into the matter. Over the past few days, U.S. officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, have called for Israel to “thoroughly and transparently” investigate reports of mass graves at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which Israeli forces last raided in February. The State Department came under fire from advocates for…

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Gaza’s 37 million tonnes of bomb-filled debris could take 14 years to clear, says expert

Gaza’s 37 million tonnes of bomb-filled debris could take 14 years to clear, says expert

The Guardian reports: Israel’s war in Gaza has created 37m tonnes of debris, much of it laced with unexploded bombs, which could take more than a decade to remove, a top UN demining official said. Nearly seven months into the war, there is an average 300kg of rubble a square metre of land in Gaza, Pehr Lodhammar, the former United Nationals Mine Action Service chief for Iraq, told a news conference. “Based on the current [amount] of debris in Gaza,…

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Naomi Klein: Jews must raise voices for Palestine and oppose the ‘false idol of Zionism’

Naomi Klein: Jews must raise voices for Palestine and oppose the ‘false idol of Zionism’

  Hundreds of protesters were arrested in Brooklyn on Tuesday when Jewish New Yorkers and allies gathered for what they called a “Seder in the Streets to Stop Arming Israel” on the second night of Passover. The demonstration, held one block away from the home of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, came just hours before the Senate overwhelmingly approved a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes about $17 billion in arms and security funding to Israel. “Too many of…

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‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel marks new civil liberties threat

‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel marks new civil liberties threat

The Guardian reports: The arrest and interrogation of a leading Palestinian legal scholar based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem marks a new threat to civil liberties in Israel, her legal team and employer have said. Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 18 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as “terrible” and designed to humiliate. “This case is unique,” said Hassan…

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Some U.S. officials say in internal memo Israel may be violating international law in Gaza

Some U.S. officials say in internal memo Israel may be violating international law in Gaza

Reuters reports: Some senior U.S. officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters. Other officials upheld support for Israel’s representation. Under a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by May 8 whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that…

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‘Kill all Arabs’: The feds are investigating UMass Amherst for anti-Palestinian bias

‘Kill all Arabs’: The feds are investigating UMass Amherst for anti-Palestinian bias

The Intercept reports: The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into the University of Massachusetts Amherst in response to a complaint that alleges that the school took months to address the harassment of Palestinian and Arab students. In the previously unreported civil rights complaint, 18 students said that they have “been the target of extreme anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab harassment and discrimination by fellow UMass students, including receiving racial slurs, death threats and in one instance,…

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With eyes on U.S. college campuses, students stress: ‘Gaza is why we’re here’

With eyes on U.S. college campuses, students stress: ‘Gaza is why we’re here’

Al Jazeera reports: Global attention has turned to universities across the United States, where students have erected encampments to demand action to end Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip. The growing protests have taken root on the campuses of some of the country’s top academic institutions, including Columbia and Harvard. And over the past weeks, they have spurred heated debates around freedom of speech, Palestinian solidarity activism in the US, and the use of force to disperse student protesters, among…

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Israel intensifies strikes on Rafah ahead of threatened invasion

Israel intensifies strikes on Rafah ahead of threatened invasion

Reuters reports: Israel stepped up airstrikes on Rafah overnight after saying it would evacuate civilians from the southern Gazan city and launch an all-out assault despite allies’ warnings this could cause mass casualties. Medics in the besieged Palestinian enclave reported five Israeli airstrikes on Rafah early on Thursday that hit at least three houses, killing at least six people including a local journalist. “We are afraid of what will happen in Rafah. The level of alert is very high,” Ibrahim…

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Blinken hasn’t decided whether to sanction Israel for committing gross human rights abuses

Blinken hasn’t decided whether to sanction Israel for committing gross human rights abuses

JTA reports: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has yet to make a determination on whether the United States will withhold some defense assistance from Israel because of human rights abuses by one of its army’s most notorious units. A source familiar with the State Department review of alleged abuses by units of the Israel Defense Forces on Friday pushed back against reports earlier this week that Blinken had made a determination to withhold funding from the Netzach Yehuda battalion,…

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Two British men charged with helping Russian intelligence

Two British men charged with helping Russian intelligence

BBC News reports: Two British men have been charged with helping Russian intelligence services after a suspected arson attack on a Ukraine-linked business in London. Dylan Earl, 20, from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire, and Jake Reeves, 22, from Croydon, were investigated following a fire at a warehouse in east London in March. Three other suspects linked to the fire have been held on other charges. The investigation is being led by Met Police counter-terror officers. Mr Earl is accused of planning…

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The protesters Netanyahu is afraid of are mostly young women defending human rights

The protesters Netanyahu is afraid of are mostly young women defending human rights

Anti-Semitism on campuses in the United States is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. The world cannot stand idly by. pic.twitter.com/oHlwig1vCl — Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 24, 2024 Mr. Netanyahu, antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to millions. Do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government….

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Hamas would lay down its arms if an independent Palestinian state is established, official says

Hamas would lay down its arms if an independent Palestinian state is established, official says

The Associated Press reports: A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders. The comments by Khalil al-Hayya in an interview Wednesday came amid a stalemate in months of talks for a cease-fire in Gaza. The suggestion that…

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Global breakdown of international law amid flagrant war crimes in Gaza & beyond, says Amnesty chief

Global breakdown of international law amid flagrant war crimes in Gaza & beyond, says Amnesty chief

  Amnesty International has released its annual report assessing human rights in 155 countries. The report highlights Israel’s assault on Gaza with evidence of war crimes continuing to mount, as well as U.S. failures to denounce rights violations committed by Israel. It also points to Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, and the rise of authoritarianism and massive rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar. We speak to Agnès Callamard, the organization’s secretary general, who warns “the international system is on…

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Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office

Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office

UN News reports: Disturbing reports continue to emerge about mass graves in Gaza in which Palestinian victims were reportedly found stripped naked with their hands tied, prompting renewed concerns about possible war crimes amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday. The development follows the recovery of hundreds of bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste” over the weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in…

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Gaza is Biden’s war

Gaza is Biden’s war

Nicholas Kristof writes: Gaza has become the albatross around Biden’s neck. It is his war, not just Benjamin Netanyahu’s. It will be part of his legacy, an element of his obituary, a blot on his campaign — and it could get worse if Gaza cascades into a full-blown famine or violent anarchy, or if a wider war breaks out involving Iran or Lebanon. An Israeli strike on a military base in central Iran early Friday underscored the danger of a…

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‘Israelism’: How deep do indoctrination and Israeli army glorification go?

‘Israelism’: How deep do indoctrination and Israeli army glorification go?

  The documentary Israelism examines the rift among Jews regarding Palestine, highlighting young people’s increasing criticism of Israel and Zionism. This divide is driven by firsthand accounts of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. As the film faces opposition from groups trying to cancel its screenings, its main protagonist, Simone Zimmerman, and its co-director and producer, Erin Axelman, talk to Al Jazeera.