Irish premier’s full speech on recognising the state of Palestine

Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
Wed, 22 May 2024 

Irish premier Simon Harris announced on Wednesday that Ireland is recognising the state of Palestine in a joint move with Norway and Spain.

The move will take effect formally on May 28.

Here is the Taoiseach’s speech given at Government Buildings in Dublin.

Mr Harris said: “Last month, I stood on these same steps with Prime Minister Sanchez of Spain when we agreed that the point of recognising the State of Palestine was coming closer. That point has now arrived.

“Today, Ireland, Norway and Spain are announcing that we are recognising the State of Palestine. Each of us will now undertake whatever national steps are necessary to give effect to that decision.

“In the lead up to today’s announcement, I have spoken to a number of other leaders, and I am confident that further countries will join us in taking this important step in the coming weeks. This is an historic and an important day for Ireland and for Palestine.

“On the 21st of January 1919, Ireland asked the world to recognise our right to be an independent state.

“Our ‘Message to the Free Nations of the World’ was a plea for international recognition of our independence, emphasising our distinct national identity, our historical struggle, and our right to self-determination and justice.

“Today we use the same language to support the recognition of Palestine as a State.

“We do so because we ‘believe in freedom and justice as the fundamental principles of international law’, and because we believe that ‘permanent peace’ can only be secured ‘upon the basis of the free will of a free people’.

“Taking our place on the world stage – and being recognised by others as having the right to be there – was a matter of the highest importance for the founders of our State. From our history, we know what it means.

“Recognition is an act of powerful political and symbolic value. It is an expression of our view that Palestine holds and should be able to vindicate the full rights of a state – including self-determination, self-governance, territorial integrity and security – as well as recognising Palestine’s own obligations under international law.

“It is a message to those in Palestine who advocate and work for a future of peace and democracy, that we fully respect your aspirations to be living freely, in control of your own affairs and under your own leadership.

“On 10 May, 143 out of 193 UN Member States – 80% of those present and voting – voted to determine that the State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations in accordance with the Charter of the UN.

“Our step today, taken with Norway and Spain, is further recognition of the legitimate right to statehood. It is a statement of unequivocal support for a two-State solution – the only credible path to peace and security for Israel, for Palestine and for their peoples. We have previously said that recognition is a step that we would ideally have taken as part of a process towards that goal.

“However, we are three decades after the Oslo process and perhaps further than ever from a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace settlement. Our decision to recognise Palestine should not have to wait indefinitely, especially when it is the right thing to do.

Taoiseach Simon Harris speaking at Government Buildings (Damien Storan/PA)

“It is a decision being taken on its merits. But we cannot ignore the fact that we are taking it as Palestinians in Gaza are enduring the most appalling suffering, hardship and starvation.

“A humanitarian catastrophe, unimaginable to most of us and unconscionable to all, is unfolding in real time. Can anyone justify children going to sleep at night not knowing if they will wake up?

“Today we are taking a significant political step. There will be reaction and interpretations of its implications but let us not lose sight of this fundamental truth: Children are innocent. The children of Israel. The children of Palestine. They deserve peace.

“It is long past time for a ceasefire, for the unconditional release of hostages and for unhindered access for humanitarian aid. There should be no further military incursion into Rafah. There should be no more Hamas or Hezbollah rockets fired at Israel. Civilians, on all sides, must be protected under International Humanitarian Law. Violence and hatred can only ever be a dead end. The only pathway to peace is political.



“The people of Palestine deserve a future filled with hope, a future defined by success instead of suffering. A future at peace. The people of Israel deserve the exact same thing. To the people of Israel, I say today: Ireland is resolute and unequivocal in fully recognising the State of Israel and Israel’s right to exist securely and in peace with its neighbours.

“Let me be clear that Ireland condemns the barbaric massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7th last. Civilians attacked and murdered. Hostages taken in the most brutal and terrifying of circumstances, including a young Israeli-Irish child.

“We call again for all hostages to be immediately returned to the arms of their loved ones.

“Let me also be clear that Hamas is not the Palestinian people.

“Today’s decision to recognise Palestine is taken to help create a peaceful future.

“A two-state solution is the only way out of the generational cycles of violence, retaliation and resentment, where so many wrongs can never make a right.

“Just as Ireland’s recognition as a state eventually led to the establishment of our peaceful Republic, we believe that Palestinian statehood will contribute to peace and to reconciliation in the Middle East.

“A peace that honours the legitimate aspirations of all people in the region to live with respect, justice, security and dignity, free from violence or the threat of violence.

“Today, moving in lockstep with our European colleagues, we seek to be bearers of hope. We want to reaffirm our belief that peace is possible, that justice is achievable, and that the recognition of both States – Palestine and Israel – is the cornerstone upon which that peace must be built.

“So today, we are saying that we recognise the state of Israel and its right to exist in peace and security within internationally agreed borders. We equally recognise the state of Palestine and its right to exist in peace and security within internationally agreed borders.

“Recognising the statehood of Palestine sends a message that there is a viable alternative to the nihilism of Hamas. Hamas has nothing to offer but pain and suffering to Israelis and Palestinians alike. There is also no future in the extremist version of Zionism that fuels settler violence and illegal appropriation of land in the West Bank.

“I would like to thank our international partners, in Norway and Spain and in other like-minded countries, for their close and continued co-operation. I thank the Tanaiste for his continued work on this matter.

“I look forward to continuing to work with them on our shared objective of delivering long overdue peace and prosperity to the people of Israel and Palestine and the wider Middle East.

“Ireland will always stand with all those ready to walk a political pathway to peace and we will do everything in our power to help to bring it about. That is what today’s decision is about.

“We take it to offer hope and encouragement to the people of Palestine in one of their darkest hours.

“We in Ireland see you, we recognise you, we respect you.

“We will continue to work so that you and your children and your children’s children can have the better future you deserve and so that one day, Palestinian children and Israeli children can live side by side in peace and security.”

TRIFECTA

Ireland, Norway and Spain formally recognises Palestine as a state

Ireland and Norway announced on Wednesday that they were formally recognising Palestine as a state. "There cannot be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Spain is also expected to announce the recognition of a Palestinian state on Wednesday. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments in the war on Gaza.

Issued on: 22/05/2024 - 

People attend a demonstration in support of Gaza and Palestinians, organised by the Palestine Committee, near the Royal Palace and the building of the Norwegian parliament, Stortinget, in Oslo, Norway, November 4, 2023. © Heiko Junge/NTB, via REUTERS

European states to move on Palestine recognition as Gaza war rages

Rafah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – At least three European countries were expected to announce steps towards recognising a Palestinian state on Wednesday, after more than seven months of devastating fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Issued on: 22/05/2024 

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator runs with a Palestinian flag during a rally in New York earlier this week 

© John Lamparski / AFP

Irish media reported that the government was expected to announce its formal recognition of a Palestinian state at a press conference by premier Simon Harris, deputy premier Micheal Martin and minister Eamon Ryan at 0700 GMT.

Norway was expected to make a similar announcement around the same time, according to two Norwegian newspapers.

And in Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was scheduled to address parliament about setting a date for recognising a Palestinian state.

Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta, had agreed to take their first steps towards Palestinian recognition, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.

Israel's foreign ministry posted a video addressed to Ireland on X on Tuesday warning that "recognising a Palestinian state risks turning you into a pawn in the hands of Iran and Hamas".

And Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli previously accused Sanchez's government of believing "that the Palestinians should be rewarded for the massacre" perpetrated by Hamas and its allies in southern Israel on October 7.

Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also took 252 hostages, 124 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,647 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

A woman looks out of the window of a bomb-damaged building in Gaza City

 © - / AFP

Fighting has raged around the far southern city of Rafah, the last part of Gaza to face a ground invasion -- but a resumption of fighting has also been reported in the northern Jabalia area, where Hamas forces have regrouped.

An AFP team in Rafah reported air and artillery strikes in and around the city early Wednesday.

'Running out of words'

Israeli troops began their ground assault on parts of Rafah early this month, defying international opposition including from top ally the United States, which voiced fears for the more than one million civilians trapped in the city.

Israel has ordered mass evacuations from the city, where it has vowed to eliminate Hamas's tunnel network and its remaining fighters.

Displaced Palestinian children carry containers with food in the south Gaza city of Rafah, where a long-feared Israeli incursion is under way 

© - / AFP

The UN says more than 800,000 people have fled Rafah, with Edem Wosornu of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs saying most of the displaced had gone to camps in Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah where "they lack adequate latrines, water points, drainage and shelter".

The World Health Organization has said northern Gaza's last two functioning hospitals, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan, were besieged by Israeli forces, with more than 200 patients trapped inside.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Tuesday said aid distribution had been suspended in Rafah "due to lack of supplies and insecurity".
Warrant request

Starvation was among the allegations made against Israel by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan when he announced on Monday that he had applied for arrest warrants for leaders on both sides, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an interview with CNN, the prime minister described Khan as a "rogue prosecutor who has put false charges", adding that "he didn't check the facts".

A Palestinian family flees with their belongings in the northern Gaza Strip 

© - / AFP

The warrant request also targeted Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas's Qatar-based leader Ismail Haniyeh and its Gaza military and political chiefs, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar.

US President Joe Biden has backed Netanyahu in condemning the warrant request as "outrageous".

If granted by the ICC judges, the warrants would mean that any of the 124 ICC member states would be required to arrest Netanyahu and the others if they travelled there.

However, the court has no mechanism to enforce its orders.
Broadcast ban walked back

Israel on Tuesday shut down an Associated Press live video feed from war-torn Gaza and confiscated its equipment, before reversing the move hours later after the White House intervened.

The US news agency said Israel had accused it of violating a ban on Al Jazeera, which was ordered shut two weeks ago based on a new Israeli law governing foreign broadcasters.

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi later announced he had issued an order to cancel the ban and return the equipment.

AP said that while it was "pleased with this development, we remain concerned about the Israeli government's use of the foreign broadcaster law and the ability of independent journalists to operate freely in Israel".

A woman salvages refuse from a fast expanding dump alongside a displaced persons' camp in central Gaza 

© - / AFP

Israeli forces, meanwhile, were also engaged in deadly clashes in the other major Palestinian territory, the occupied West Bank.

At least eight Palestinians were killed in the northern city of Jenin, the Ramallah-based health ministry said, as the army said it was "fighting armed men" in a "counterterrorism operation".

Palestinian official news agency Wafa said a hospital surgeon, a schoolteacher and a student were among those killed in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian militant groups.

burs-gl-smw/kir

Norway, Ireland and Spain say they are recognizing a Palestinian state, deepening Israel’s isolation

Norway, Ireland and Spain said they are recognizing a Palestinian state in a historic move that drew condemnation from Israel and jubilation from the Palestinians. Israel immediately ordered back its ambassadors from Norway and Ireland. It came after several European Union countries recently indicated they plan to make the recognition, arguing a two-state solution is essential for lasting peace in the region.



Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called it an “historic and important day for Ireland and for Palestine,” saying the announcements had been coordinated and that other countries might join “in the weeks ahead.”

The international community has long viewed the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict, and in past weeks several European Union countries have indicated they plan to recognize a Palestinian state to further those efforts.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who announced his country’s decision before parliament, has spent months touring European and Middle Eastern countries to garner support for recognition, as well as for a possible cease-fire in Gaza.

“This recognition is not against anyone, it is not against the Israeli people,” Sánchez said. “It is an act in favor of peace, justice and moral consistency.” He said it was clear that Netanyahu “does not have a project for peace,” while acknowledging that “the fight against the terrorist group Hamas is legitimate.”

Israel’s government harshly condemned the decision taken by the three countries. Foreign Minister Israel Katz recalled Israel’s ambassadors and summoned the three countries’ envoys in Israel. He said they would watch grisly video footage of the Oct. 7 attack.

“History will remember that Spain, Norway, and Ireland decided to award a gold medal to Hamas murderers and rapists,” he said. He also said the announcement would undermine talks aimed at a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza that came to a standstill earlier this month.

President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, welcomed the moves toward recognition, saying they would contribute to efforts to bring about a two-state solution.

Hamas also welcomed the decisions and called on other nations to “recognize our legitimate rights and support the struggle of our people for liberation and independence, and ending the Zionist occupation of our land.”

Hamas, which Western countries and Israel view as a terrorist group, does not recognize Israel’s existence but has indicated it might agree to a state on the 1967 lines, at least on an interim basis.

European countries are recognizing a Palestinian state

While dozens of countries have recognized a Palestinian state, none of the major Western powers has done so. The decisions from Norway, Ireland and Spain may generate momentum.

The recognitions mark a significant accomplishment for the Palestinians, who believe it confers international legitimacy on their struggle, especially amid international outrage over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Here’s more on how and why the new European announcements could be important.

The announcements are unlikely to have any impact on the ground. Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers it part of its capital, and in the occupied West Bank it has build scores of Jewish settlements that are now home to over 500,000 Israelis. The settlers have Israeli citizenship, while the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule.

In Gaza, the war is still raging, and Netanyahu has said Israel will maintain open-ended security control of the territory even after any defeat of Hamas.

Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said “recognition is a tangible step towards a viable political track leading to Palestinian self-determination.”

But in order for it to have an impact, he said, it must come with “tangible steps to counter Israel’s annexation and settlement of Palestinian territory – such as banning settlement products and financial services.”
___

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain, and Krauss from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this story.

Spain, Ireland and Norway will recognize a Palestinian state on May 28. Why does that matter?


- A boy waves a Palestinian flag as demonstrators march during a protest in support of Palestinians and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, in Barcelona, Spain, on Jan. 20, 2024. European Union countries Spain and Ireland as well as Norway on Wednesday announced dates for recognizing Palestine as a state. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

 People gather in support of the Palestinain people, amid the conflict with Israel, in front of the parliament building in Oslo, Norway, on May 19, 2021. European Union countries Spain and Ireland as well as Norway on Wednesday announced dates for recognizing Palestine as a state. (Berit Roald/NTB via AP, File)

The three Irish Government leaders from left, Minister Eamon Ryan, Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tanaiste Micheal Martin speak to the media during a press conference outside the Government Buildings, in Dublin, Ireland, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. European Union countries Spain and Ireland as well as Norway on Wednesday announced dates for recognizing Palestine as a state.(Damien Storan/PA via AP)

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks in the Spanish Parliament in Madrid, May 22, 2024. European Union countries Spain and Ireland as well as Norway announced Wednesday May 22, 2024 their recognition of a Palestinian state. Malta and Slovenia, which also belong to the 27-nation European Union, may follow suit amid international outrage over the civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip following Israel’s offensive. (Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via AP)

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 22, 2024

Spain, Ireland and Norway said Wednesday that they would recognize a Palestinian state on May 28, a step toward a long-held Palestinian aspiration that came amid international outrage over the civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip following Israel’s offensive.

The almost simultaneous decisions by two European Union countries, and Norway, may generate momentum for the recognition of a Palestinian state by other EU countries and could spur further steps at the United Nations, deepening Israel’s isolation. Malta and Slovenia, which also belong to the 27-nation European Union, may follow suit.

Some 140 of 190 represented in the U.N. countries have already recognized a Palestinian state.

Here’s a look at how and why the new European announcements could be important:

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

The 1948 U.N. decision that created Israel envisaged a neighboring Palestinian state, but some 70 years later control of the Palestinian territories remains divided and bids for U.N. membership have been denied.

The United States, Britain and other Western countries have backed the idea of an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel as a solution to the Middle East’s most intractable conflict, but they insist Palestinian statehood should come as part of a negotiated settlement. There have been no substantive negotiations since 2009.



Norway, Ireland and Spain say they are recognizing a Palestinian state in a historic move

Though the EU countries and Norway won’t be recognizing an existing state, just the possibility of one, the symbolism helps enhance the Palestinians’ international standing and heaps more pressure on Israel to open negotiations on ending the war.


Also, the move lends additional prominence to the Middle East issue ahead of June 6-9 elections to the European Parliament, when some 370 million people are eligible to vote and a steep rise of the extreme right is on the cards.
WHY NOW?

Diplomatic pressure on Israel has grown as the battle with Hamas stretches into its eighth month. The U.N. General Assembly voted by a significant margin on May 11 to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine in a sign of growing international support for a vote on full voting membership. The Palestine Authority currently has observer status.

The leaders of Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia said in March they were considering recognizing a Palestinian state as “a positive contribution” toward ending the war.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Wednesday, “This recognition is not against anyone, it is not against the Israeli people,” he said. “It is an act in favor of peace, justice and moral consistency.”

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF RECOGNITION?

While dozens of countries have recognized Palestine, none of the major Western powers has done so, and it is unclear how much of a difference the move by the three countries might make.

Even so, their recognition would mark a significant accomplishment for the Palestinians, who believe it confers international legitimacy on their struggle.

Little would likely change on the ground in the short term. Peace talks are stalled, and Israel’s hardline government has dug its heels in against Palestinian statehood.

WHAT IS ISRAEL’S RESPONSE?

Israel reacted rapidly Wednesday by recalling its ambassadors to Ireland, Norway and Spain.

The Israeli government slams talk of Palestinian independence as a “reward” for the Hamas Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the abduction of over 250 others. It rejects any move to legitimize the Palestinians internationally.

Steps like the ones by the three European countries Wednesday will harden the Palestinian position and undermine the negotiating process, Israel says, insisting that all issues should be solved through negotiations.

Israel often responds to foreign countries’ decisions deemed as going against its interests by summoning those countries’ ambassadors and also punishing the Palestinians through measures such as freezing tax transfers to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.

WHO RECOGNIZES PALESTINE AS A STATE?

Some 140 countries have already recognized Palestine, more than two-thirds of the United Nations’ membership.

Some major powers have indicated their stance may be evolving amid the outcry over the consequences of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between noncombatants and fighters in its count.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said no recognition of Palestine could come while Hamas remains in Gaza, but that it could happen while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were in progress.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in February it’s not “taboo” for France to recognize a Palestinian state.

Which countries recognise Palestine as an independent state?

Jabed Ahmed
Wed, 22 May 2024 

Ireland, Spain and Norway have announced they will officially recognise Palestine as an independent state.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said this coordinated move by the three countries was a “historic and important day for Ireland and for Palestine.”

The move was intended to help move the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to resolution through a two-state solution, he added.

In 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the main representative of the Palestinians, first declared the establishment of the State of Palestine. In practice, the Palestinians have limited self-government through the Palestinian Authority (PA) in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The PA lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas in 2007. The UN considers both territories as occupied by Israel and comprising a single political entity. Palestinians also want East Jerusalem as part of a future state.

The UK does not formally recognise the state of Palestine, though the foreign secretary, David Cameron, has previously suggested Britain is ready to give it official, diplomatic recognition.

Currently, 143 of the 193 member states of the United Nations recognise the state of Palestine. Palestine has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations General Assembly since November 2012. Earlier this month, the United Nations General Assembly granted Palestine additional rights, including being seated with member states, the right to introduce proposals and participate in committees. It still does not have the right to vote.

In the EU, Sweden is the only country so far to have recognized Palestine while being a member. Seven EU countries took the step before joining the Union:

Bulgaria


Cyprus


Czech Republic


Hungary


Romania


Poland


Slovakia

A number of other European Union members, including Slovenia and Malta, have indicated their intention to recognise the state of Palestine.

The EU itself and big countries such as Germany and France have “representative offices” (instead of embassies) in Ramallah and support the Palestinian authority financially. In February, President Emmanuel Macron said recognising a Palestinian state was “not a taboo for France,” adding “we owe it to the Palestinians whose aspirations have been trampled for too long.”

Among the G20, a group of world’s major economies, ten countries recognised the state of Palestine. These are:

Argentina


Brazil


China


India


Indonesia


Mexico


Russia


Saudi Arabia


South Africa


Turkey

Nine countries in the G20, including the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea do not.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz ordered Israel’s ambassadors from Ireland and Norway to immediately return to Israel in response – and said he would also do the same for Spain.

“Ireland and Norway intend to send a message today to the Palestinians and the whole world: terrorism pays,” Mr Katz said.

The recognition could impede efforts to return Israel’s hostages being held in Gaza and makes a cease-fire less likely by “rewarding the jihadists of Hamas and Iran,” he added.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed Norway’s recognition of a Palestinian state and called on other countries to follow their example. In a statement carried by the official Wafa news agency, Mr Abbas said Norway’s decision will enshrine “the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination” and support efforts to bring about a two-state solution with Israel.

More than 100 MPs, lords urge UK to support ICC following arrest warrants request

'It is vital that the Government takes a clear stance against any attempts to intimidate an independent and impartial international court,' says letter to foreign secretary

Burak Bir |22.05.2024 - 



LONDON

More than 100 lawmakers and lords in the UK urged the government to condemn any threats to undermine the independence of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the prosecutor applied for arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders.

"We urge you to condemn any threats and attempts to undermine the independence and impartiality of the International Criminal Court in its investigations into crimes in Gaza," the MPs and lords from 11 parties said in a letter.

The letter written Tuesday to Foreign Secretary David Cameron also urged the government to do all it can to support the ICC in ensuring accountability and justice for the victims.

"We believe that there is mounting evidence that Israel has committed clear and obvious violations of international law in Gaza and strongly believe that those responsible must be held to account," it said.

They are also "deeply alarmed" that earlier this month, the office of the prosecutor felt compelled to issue a statement calling for "all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials cease immediately."

"While the Prosecutor's Office did not explicitly refer to threats made following press reports about the potential issuing of arrest warrants for crimes committed in Gaza, the context was clear," it noted.

"It is vital that the Government takes a clear stance against any attempts to intimidate an independent and impartial international court."

Karim Khan, the ICC's prosecutor, applied for arrest warrants on Monday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three leaders of the Palestinian group, Hamas, for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 35,600 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority being women and children, and nearly 79,900 others injured since October following an attack by Hamas.

More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered it to ensure that its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Takeaways from AP examination of how 2 debunked accounts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 originated

BY TIA GOLDENBERG AND JULIA FRANKEL

AP
 May 22, 2024

LONG READ

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United Nations and other organizations have presented credible evidence that Hamas militants committed sexual assault during their Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel. Though the number of assaults is unclear, photo and video from the attack’s aftermath have shown bodies with legs splayed, clothes torn and blood near their genitals.

Other accounts from that day, however, proved to be untrue. They include two debunked testimonies from volunteers with the Israeli search and rescue organization ZAKA, whose stories helped fuel a global clash over whether sexual violence occurred during the attack and on what scale.

Some allege the accounts of sexual assault were purposely concocted. ZAKA officials and others dispute that. Regardless, AP’s examination of ZAKA’s handling of the now debunked stories shows how information can be clouded and distorted in the chaos of the conflict.

The accounts have encouraged skepticism and set off a highly charged debate about the scope of what occurred on Oct. 7, one still playing out on social media and in college campus protests.

Here are key takeaways from the AP’s look at how these stories originated:



VOLUNTEERS’ INTERPRETATIONS WERE FLAWED

One account that turned out to be unfounded came from Chaim Otmazgin, a ZAKA volunteer who collected bodies after the attack.

After tending to dozens of shot, burned, or mutilated bodies in Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest hit communities, Otmazgin reached the home that would put him at the center of a global clash. He found the body of a teenage girl separated from two of her relatives. Her pants, he said, were pulled down. He assumed that meant she had been sexually assaulted.

Otmazgin says he told journalists and lawmakers details of what he’d seen and asked if they might have some other interpretation. Today, he maintains that he never said outright that the girl whose body he saw had been sexually assaulted. But his telling strongly suggested that was the case.

Nearly three months later, ZAKA found out Otmazgin’s interpretation was mistaken. After cross-checking with military contacts, ZAKA learned that a group of soldiers had dragged the girl’s body across the room to make sure it wasn’t booby-trapped. As they did that, her pants came down.

The other debunked account originated from Otmazgin’s colleague, Yossi Landau, also a longtime volunteer working in Be’eri. In the days and weeks that followed the attack, Landau told global media what he thought he saw: a pregnant woman lying on the floor, her fetus still attached to the umbilical cord wrenched from her body.

But Otmazgin, who was overseeing the other ZAKA workers when he said Landau frantically called him and others into the home, did not see what Landau described. Instead, he saw the body of a heavy-set woman and an unidentifiable hunk attached to an electric cable. Everything was charred.

Otmazgin said he told Landau this wasn’t a pregnant woman. Still, Landau believed his version, going on to tell the story to journalists who circulated the account internationally.

CHAOS AFTER THE ATTACK

Israel was caught off guard by the ferocity of the Oct. 7 assault, the deadliest in the nation’s history. About 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage. It took days for the military to clear the area of militants.

There were hundreds of bodies scattered across southern Israel, bearing various signs of abuse: burns, bullet holes, signs of mutilation, marks indicating bodies were bound. Confusion reigned over who was dead and who was taken captive.

Standard protocols for dealing with attacks, which Israel encountered frequently on a far smaller scale in the early 2000s, collapsed. The military was focused on battling back militants still hiding out in southern Israel. A ZAKA spokesperson said police forensics teams were focused on the southern cities of Sderot and Ofakim. Otmazgin said forensics workers were in the kibbutzim, but spread thin.

The gargantuan task of gathering the dead fell to ZAKA, a private civilian body made up of 3,000 mostly Orthodox Jewish volunteer workers. The organization focuses on giving each victim a proper Jewish burial. It had never witnessed anything like the carnage on Oct. 7. ZAKA’s main experience with victim identification before then was limited to distinguishing militant attackers from their victims, not determining who was a victim of sexual assault.

That means bodies that might have shown signs of sexual assault could have eluded examination. Instead, they were loaded into body bags, sent to a facility to be identified and dispatched for quick burial.

EASY ACCESS TO THE VOLUNTEERS HELPED SPREAD THE STORIES

Almost immediately after Oct. 7, Israel began allowing groups of journalists to visit the ravaged kibbutzim. On the trips, journalists found ZAKA volunteers to be among the most accessible and willing to talk.

The group’s usual media protocols were bypassed, and volunteers who typically would be vetted by ZAKA’s spokesperson before being interviewed spoke to journalists directly, drawing conclusions about what they saw, even though the group acknowledges that its volunteers are not forensics workers.

After untrue accounts of sexual assault spread in the international media, the process of debunking them appeared, at times, to take center stage in the global dispute over the facts of Oct. 7.

Some of Israel’s critics seized on the debunked ZAKA accounts and other untrue ones as proof that the Israeli government distorted the facts to justify the war — one in which more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, many of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials.

ACCOUNTS WERE FALSE BUT EVIDENCE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT MOUNTS

The loud debate belies a growing body of evidence supporting the claim that sexual assault took place that day, even as its scope remains difficult to ascertain.

A U.N. fact-finding team found “reasonable grounds” to believe that some of those who stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7 had committed sexual violence, including rape and gang rape. But the U.N. investigators also said that in the absence of forensic evidence and survivor testimony, it would be impossible to determine the scope of such violence. Hamas has denied its forces committed sexual violence.

The investigators described the accounts that originated with Otmazgin and Landau to be “unfounded.”

The U.N. report shines a light on the issues that have contributed to the skepticism over sexual violence. It said there was “limited crime scene processing” and some evidence of sexual assault may have been lost due to “the interventions of some inadequately trained volunteer first responders.” It also said global scrutiny of the accounts emerging from Oct. 7 may have deterred survivors from coming forward.

How 2 debunked accounts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 fueled a global dispute over Israel-Hamas war

BY TIA GOLDENBERG AND JULIA FRANKEL

AP
May 22, 2024

JERUSALEM (AP) — Chaim Otmazgin had tended to dozens of shot, burned or mutilated bodies before he reached the home that would put him at the center of a global clash.

Working in a kibbutz that was ravaged by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Otmazgin — a volunteer commander with ZAKA, an Israeli search and rescue organization — saw the body of a teenager, shot dead and separated from her family in a different room. Her pants had been pulled down below her waist. He thought that was evidence of sexual violence.

Volunteers from the ZAKA rescue service remove blood stains from a public bomb shelter on a road near the Israeli-Gaza border in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Nov. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

He alerted journalists to what he’d seen. He tearfully recounted the details in a nationally televised appearance in the Israeli Parliament. In the frantic hours, days and weeks that followed the Hamas attack, his testimony ricocheted across the world.

But it turns out that what Otmazgin thought had occurred in the home at the kibbutz hadn’t happened.

Beyond the numerous and well-documented atrocities committed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, some accounts from that day, like Otmazgin’s, proved untrue.

“It’s not that I invented a story,” Otmazgin told The Associated Press in an interview, detailing the origins of his initial explosive claim — one of two by ZAKA volunteers about sexual violence that turned out to be unfounded.

“I couldn’t think of any other option” other than the teen having been sexually assaulted, he said. “At the end, it turned out to be different, so I corrected myself.”

But it was too late.

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

Takeaways from AP examination of how 2 debunked accounts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 originated


Israel’s block of AP transmission shows how ambiguity in law could restrict war coverage


UN halts all food distribution in Rafah after running out of supplies in the southern Gaza city

The United Nations and other organizations have presented credible evidence that Hamas militants committed sexual assault during their rampage. The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said Monday he had reason to believe that three key Hamas leaders bore responsibility for “rape and other acts of sexual violence as crimes against humanity.”

Though the number of assaults is unclear, photo and video from the attack’s aftermath have shown bodies with legs splayed, clothes torn and blood near their genitals.
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However, debunked accounts like Otmazgin’s have encouraged skepticism and fueled a highly charged debate about the scope of what occurred on Oct. 7 — one that is still playing out on social media and in college campus protests.

Some allege the accounts of sexual assault were purposely concocted. ZAKA officials and others dispute that. Regardless, AP’s examination of ZAKA’s handling of the now debunked stories shows how information can be clouded and distorted in the chaos of the conflict.

Israeli soldiers inspect the site of the Nova music festival where at least 260 Israeli festival-goers were killed during the attack by Hamas militants on Oct 7, near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel. Oct. 13, 2023.(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

As some of the first people on the scene, ZAKA volunteers offered testimony of what they saw that day. Those words have helped journalists, Israeli lawmakers and U.N. investigators paint a picture of what occurred during Hamas’ attack. (ZAKA, a volunteer-based group, does not do forensic work. The organization has been a fixture at Israeli disaster sites and scenes of attacks since it was founded in 1995. Its specific job is to collect bodies in keeping with Jewish law.)

Still, it took ZAKA months to acknowledge the accounts were wrong, allowing them to proliferate. And the fallout from the debunked accounts shows how the topic of sexual violence has been used to further political agendas.

Israel points to sexual violence on Oct. 7 to highlight what it says is Hamas’ savagery and to justify its wartime goal of neutralizing any repeated threat coming from Gaza. It has accused the international community of ignoring or playing down evidence of sexual violence claims, alleging anti-Israel bias. It says any untrue stories were an anomaly in the face of the many documented atrocities.

In turn, some of Israel’s critics have seized on the ZAKA accounts, along with others shown to be untrue, to allege that the Israeli government has distorted the facts to prosecute a war — one in which more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, many of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials.

A U.N. fact-finding team found “reasonable grounds” to believe that some of those who stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7 had committed sexual violence, including rape and gang rape. But the U.N. investigators also said that in the absence of forensic evidence and survivor testimony, it would be impossible to determine the scope of such violence. Hamas has denied its forces committed sexual violence.

BODY BAGS AND ROCKET FIRE

Israel was caught off guard by the ferocity of the Oct. 7 assault, the deadliest in the nation’s history. About 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. It took days for the military to clear the area of militants.

There were hundreds of bodies scattered across southern Israel, bearing various signs of abuse: burns, bullet holes, signs of mutilation, marks indicating bodies were bound. ZAKA volunteers weren’t used to dealing with so many bodies.

“You get dizzy at some point,” said Moti Bukjin, ZAKA’s spokesperson. “Some of the bodies are burned. Some are mutilated. Some of the bodies are decapitated. Every house has a story.”

Standard protocols for dealing with attacks, which Israel encountered frequently on a far smaller scale in the early 2000s, collapsed. There was confusion over who was dead and who was taken captive, especially in the hard-hit communal farming villages and in the aftermath of the outdoor Nova music festival.

The site of the Nova music festival where at least 260 Israeli festival-goers were killed during the attack by Hamas militants on Oct 7, near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, Oct. 12, 2023.

 (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

Authorities were concerned that remaining militants might snatch more bodies. ZAKA says it was instructed to gather the dead as swiftly as possible and send them for identification and quick burial, according to Jewish custom. ZAKA said it sent some 800 volunteers to southern Israel, arriving at the music festival late on Oct. 7 and entering the kibbutzim two days later, according to Otmazgin.

For the first three days, many hardly slept at all. Accompanied by military escorts, volunteers went house to house, wrapping the bodies in white plastic bags on which they wrote the person’s gender, the house number where they were found and any other identifying details. Then they’d say the Jewish mourning prayer and load them into a truck, according to Tomer Peretz, who volunteered for the first time with ZAKA in the days following the attack.

As first responders worked, rocket fire from Gaza boomed overhead. Volunteers paused and crouched when air raid sirens blared. They used anything they could find to move bodies — even shopping carts. “We worked a minute and a half per body, from the moment we touch it to the moment it is on the truck,” said Otmazgin, commander of special units with ZAKA.

Peretz, a U.S.-based artist, said the volunteers weren’t there to do forensic work; he thought the soldiers who cleared the houses of explosives beforehand were handling that process. But the Israeli military told the AP that the army did not do any forensic work in the wake of Oct. 7.

Bukjin said police forensics teams were mostly focused on the southern cities of Sderot and Ofakim. Otmazgin said forensics workers were present in the kibbutzim but spread thin and could not follow standard — and painstaking — protocols because of the scale of the attack. He said forensics teams in the area mostly instructed ZAKA on how to help identify the bodies.

That means that bodies which might have shown signs of sexual assault could have eluded examination. Instead, they were loaded into body bags, sent to a facility to be identified and dispatched for quick burial.

“People seem to have expected that the aftermath of the attack would be like a movie, that immediately the police would come, that everything would be very sterile and very clean. People who don’t live in a war zone do not understand the horrific chaos that took place that day,” said Orit Sulitzeanu, the executive director of The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel.

The group has spent months gathering evidence of sexual violence that occurred that day, sifting through many accounts emerging from the chaotic early days just after the attack. “Some of those stories that turned out not to be true were not lies,” she said. They were, she said, “mistakes.”

FIRST ACCOUNT: PANTS PULLED DOWN

Otmazgin said he was the origin of one of two debunked stories by ZAKA volunteers about sexual assault.

He said he entered a home in Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities, where nearly a tenth of the population of roughly 1,000 was killed, and found the body of a teenage girl separated from two of her relatives. Her pants, he said, were pulled down. He assumed that meant she had been sexually assaulted.

“They slaughtered her. They shot her in the head and her pants are pulled down to here. I put that out there. Have someone give me a different interpretation,” he said then, showing an AP reporter a photo he took of the scene, which he had altered by pulling up the teenager’s pants.

Israeli soldiers inspect the site of the Nova music festival where at least 260 Israeli festival-goers were killed during the attack by Hamas militants on Oct 7, near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel. Oct. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

Today, he maintains that he never said outright that the girl whose body he saw had been sexually assaulted. But his telling strongly suggested that was the case. Otmazgin says he told journalists and lawmakers details of what he’d seen and asked if they might have some other interpretation.

Nearly three months later, ZAKA found out his interpretation was wrong. After cross-checking with military contacts, ZAKA found that a group of soldiers had dragged the girl’s body across the room to make sure it wasn’t booby-trapped. During the procedure, her pants had come down.

Otmazgin said it took time to learn the truth because the soldiers who moved the body had been deployed to Gaza for weeks and were not reachable. He said he recognized that such accounts can cause damage, but he believes he rectified it by correcting his account months later.

A military spokesperson said he had no way of knowing what had happened to every body in the assault’s immediate aftermath. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

Another account with details similar to Otmazgin’s but attributed to an anonymous combat medic has also come under scrutiny after emerging in international media, including in a story by the AP. But the medic did not disclose where he saw the scene.

The military would not make the medic available for further interviews, so it was not possible to reconcile the two accounts or verify the medic’s.
SECOND ACCOUNT: EVERYTHING WAS CHARRED

Yossi Landau, a longtime ZAKA volunteer, was also working in Be’eri when he entered a home that would produce the second debunked story. Landau would recount to global media what he thought he saw: a pregnant woman lying on the floor, her fetus still attached to the umbilical cord wrenched from her body.

Otmazgin was overseeing the other ZAKA workers when he said Landau frantically called him and others into the home. But Otmazgin did not see what Landau described. Instead, he saw the body of a heavy-set woman and an unidentifiable hunk attached to an electric cable. Everything was charred.

Otmazgin said he told Landau that his interpretation was wrong — this wasn’t a pregnant woman. Still, Landau believed his version, went on to tell the story to journalists and was cited in outlets around the world. Landau, along with other first responders, also told journalists he had seen beheaded children and babies. No convincing evidence had been publicized to back up that claim, and it was debunked by Haaretz and other major media outlets.

Bukjin said it took some time for ZAKA to understand that the story was not true, then asked Landau to stop telling it. Otmazgin also told Landau to stop telling the story, but that wasn’t until about three months after the attack when ZAKA was wrapping up its work in the field. The United Nations said Landau’s claim was unfounded.

Otmazgin said it has been difficult to rein Landau in, both because he vehemently believes in his version and because there is no way to stop journalists from engaging with him directly. Both Otmazgin and Bukjin attributed Landau’s continued belief in the false account to him having been deeply traumatized by what he saw in the aftermath of Oct. 7.

AP journalists attempted to reach Landau multiple times. While he answered initial inquiries, he was ultimately unreachable.
’WE’RE NOT FORENSICS WORKERS’

Almost immediately after Oct. 7, Israel began allowing groups of journalists to visit the ravaged kibbutzim. On the trips, journalists found ZAKA volunteers onsite to be some of the most accessible sources of information and some shared what they thought they saw, even though, as Bukjin notes, “we are not forensics workers.”

“They pretend to know, sometimes very naively, what happened to the bodies they are dealing with,” said Gideon Aran, a sociologist at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University who wrote a recent book on the organization.

Bukjin said that the group’s usual media protocols faltered and that volunteers, who he said typically were vetted by him before being interviewed, were speaking to journalists directly. “The information is wild, is not controlled right,” said Peretz, the first-time volunteer. He said he took photos and video of what he saw even though he was told not to and was interviewed repeatedly about what he witnessed.

Other first responders also offered accounts — of babies beheaded, or hung from a clothesline, or killed together in a nursery, or placed in an oven – which were later debunked by Israeli reporters.

ZAKA is a private civilian body made up of 3,000 mostly Orthodox Jewish volunteer workers. Beyond its work in Israel, the group has also sent teams to international incidents, including the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the 2002 attacks in Mombasa, Kenya. As part of its role to ensure burial according to Jewish law, its volunteers scour crime scenes for remains in order to bury each body as completely as possible.

Aran, the sociologist, said Oct. 7 was unlike anything the organization had previously witnessed. ZAKA’s main experience with victim identification before Oct. 7 was limited to distinguishing militant attackers from their victims, not determining who was a victim of sexual assault, Aran said.

Israelis killed by Hamas militants lie on the road near Sderot, Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

DEBUNKED ACCOUNTS VS. THE EVIDENCE

After untrue accounts of sexual assault filtered into international media, the process of debunking them appeared, at times, to take center stage in the global dispute over the facts of Oct. 7. On social media, accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers question the very occurrence of sexual violence.

The loud debate belies a growing body of evidence supporting the claim that sexual assault took place that day, even as its scope remains difficult to ascertain.

The U.N. team investigating sexual violence said it saw “credible circumstantial information which may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including genital mutilation, sexualized torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

That included photos and videos showing a minimum of 20 corpses with clothes that had been torn, revealing private body parts, and 10 bodies with indications of bound wrists and or tied legs. No digital materials showed sexual violence in real time, the report said.

The investigators described the accounts that originated with Otmazgin and Landau to be “unfounded.” Regarding Otmazgin’s original account, they said the “crime scene had been altered by a bomb squad and the bodies moved, explaining the separation of the body of the girl from the rest of her family.”

Otmazgin said he publicly corrected himself after discovering what had transpired, including to the U.N. investigators he met. He showed the investigators — and later an AP reporter — photos and video, including one of a deceased woman who had a blood-speckled, flesh-colored bulb in her genital area, as well as several bodies of women with blood near their genitals and another who appeared to have small sharp objects protruding from her upper thigh and above her genitals.

More evidence is emerging as time goes by. A released hostage has described facing sexual violence in captivity in an account to The New York Times, and a man at the music festival said he heard a woman screaming she was being raped.

On Monday, releasing arrest warrants for top Hamas and Israeli officials, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that hostages taken from Israel have been kept in inhumane conditions, and that some have been subject to sexual violence, including rape, while being held in captivity.”

The U.N. report shines a light on the issues that have contributed to the skepticism over sexual violence. It said there was “limited crime scene processing” and that some evidence of sexual assault may have been lost due to “the interventions of some inadequately trained volunteer first responders.” It also said global scrutiny of the accounts emerging from Oct. 7 may have deterred survivors from coming forward.
PULLING FOCUS FROM THE VICTIMS

In the fraught global discourse surrounding Oct. 7 and the war it sparked, sexual violence has been a particular point of tension.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as prominent figures


such as former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and top technology executive Sheryl Sandberg, have called out what they saw as global indifference toward Israeli women who were sexually assaulted in the attack.

Some critics of Israel’s war, meanwhile, have raised questions about the weight of the evidence, using debunked testimonies, including from ZAKA volunteers, to do so. The site oct7factcheck.com, which says its aim is to combat “atrocity propaganda” that could “justify military or political actions,” has repeatedly challenged investigations in mainstream media about sexual violence.

The site, which is run by a loose coalition of tech industry employees supporting Palestinian rights, says it has not yet reached a conclusion on the occurrence of gender-based violence. It has alleged that ZAKA members are “behind many of the Oct. 7 fabrications.” The site has also highlighted other debunked accounts, including about a baby found in an oven and a hostage giving birth in captivity.

Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a U.S. policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank, said a long history of what he calls Israeli disinformation and propaganda has fueled global skepticism over the claims. The debunked ZAKA stories, he said, contributed to the sense that Israel exaggerated accounts of atrocities committed by Hamas to dehumanize Palestinians as its military continues its deadly offensive.

“Skepticism of all claims made by the Israeli military, a military that is being investigated for genocide at The Hague, are not only justified but should be encouraged,” he said. “That’s why Palestinians, and much of the international community, are asking for thorough scrutiny.”

Dahlia Scheindlin, a commentator on Israeli affairs, said those downplaying the atrocities committed by Hamas have seized on the debunked ZAKA accounts as “ammunition” to show that Israel fabricates or that Oct. 7 wasn’t so bad, rather than examining all the available evidence to build a more comprehensive picture of what happened.

At the same time, any false accounts, even if produced without malice, lead to further polarization and pulls the focus away from victims, she argues. “Every bit of misinformation, disinformation — good faith or bad faith, mistakes or lies — is extremely destructive.”

TIA GOLDENBERG
Goldenberg is an Associated Press reporter and producer covering Israel and the Palestinian territories. She previously reported on East and West Africa from Nairobi.

JULIA FRANKEL
Frankel is an Associated Press reporter in Jerusalem.

Israel’s block of AP transmission shows how ambiguity in law could restrict war coverage



A screenshot taken from AP video showing a general view of northern Gaza as seen from Southern Israel, before it was seized by Israeli officials on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Israeli officials seized a camera and broadcasting equipment belonging to The Associated Press in southern Israel on Tuesday, accusing the news organization of violating the country’s new ban on Al Jazeera. Shortly before the equipment was seized, it was broadcasting a general view of northern Gaza. (AP Photo)Read More

AP video equipment is laid on the floor of an apartment block in Sderot, Southern Israel, shortly before it was seized by Israeli officials, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Israeli officials seized the camera and broadcasting equipment belonging to The Associated Press in southern Israel on Tuesday, accusing the news organization of violating the country’s new ban on Al Jazeera. Shortly before the equipment was seized, it was broadcasting a general view of northern Gaza. (AP Photo/Josphat Kasire)


BY DAVID BAUDER
May 21, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Israel’s shutdown and seizure of an Associated Press video camera that provided a live glimpse into Gaza alarmed many journalists, who worried Tuesday about wider implications for coverage of a war largely fought out of the world’s sight to begin with.

After widespread condemnation, including a call by the Biden administration for Israel to back off, authorities returned the AP’s equipment late Tuesday. Israel had justified its move by saying the agency violated a new media law that bans Al Jazeera, since the Qatari satellite channel is one of thousands of customers that receive live AP video.

By early Wednesday, the AP’s live video of Gaza was back up in Israel.

The camera confiscated earlier, located in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, was not the only one the AP operated in Israel or Gaza — the company would not say how many it uses regularly — nor is the AP the only news organization to do so. Agence France-Presse confirmed it has frequently used such cameras in Israel and also sells its images to Al Jazeera.

“Israel’s move to restrict AP’s work today is extremely concerning and a clear attack on press freedom,” said Phil Chetwynd, AFP’s global news director.

News organizations expressed worry about the potential ambiguity in how Israel’s law could be enforced. What, they asked, prevents Israel from shutting down the news cooperative’s operations in the country altogether?

“It also could allow Israel to block media coverage of virtually any news event on vague security grounds,” Israel’s Foreign Press Association said in a statement.

OTHERS ARE LIKELY WATCHING ISRAEL’S ACTIONS

Israel also denies foreign journalists entry into Gaza to cover a war that began following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks inside the Jewish state, and has been criticized for not doing enough to protect Palestinian journalists and civilians.

The country “seems to be grasping at anything that hurts Al Jazeera,” said Thomas Kent, former president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and an international consultant on media ethics. Its latest step damages a reputable news organization at a time the country would seem to want independent news coverage, Kent said.

A democracy acting in this way also sends a disturbing signal to authoritarian countries, he said. “You have to look at the larger picture,” said Kent, also a former standards editor and international correspondent at the AP. “They’re giving fuel to other countries that would love to seize equipment and shut down transmissions.”

The move against the AP set off a debate within Israel. Yair Lapid, opposition leader to the Netanyahu government, called it an “act of madness.” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who accused the AP of violating the country’s law, said it clearly states that any device used to deliver content to Al Jazeera could be seized.

“We will continue to act decisively against anyone who tries to harm our soldiers and the security of the state, even if you don’t like it,” Karhi responded to Lapid on X.

The AP’s camera in Sderot was operated 24 hours a day and was also attended by staff members. A staffer can be used to move or focus the camera to cover news that may be happening, and also to avoid capturing military moves. The AP says it complies with military censorship rules that prohibit the broadcast of troop movements that could endanger soldiers.

STATIONARY CAMERAS ARE COMMON

News organizations frequently place cameras that can operate remotely at various places around the globe, either in an area where news is happening or simply to provide a view of a city skyline.

These shots have many uses — providing a backdrop for a television station reporting on developments, or as a livestream feature on a website. Earlier in the Gaza war, footage from such cameras helped news organizations conduct forensic investigations into who was responsible for a military strike on a Palestinian hospital.

The AP is the biggest supplier of live video news coverage to newsrooms across the world, said AP Vice President Paul Haven, the agency’s head of news gathering.

“Our live video provides a window of what’s happening around the world on any given day, allowing audiences to see events for themselves as they unfold,” Haven said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “deeply disturbed” by Israel’s actions on Tuesday. Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ program director, said the country should allow all international media outlets, including Al Jazeera, to operate freely in the country.

While Israel’s return of the equipment is a positive development, the underlying issue has not disappeared.

“We remain concerned about the Israeli government’s use of the foreign broadcaster law and the ability of independent journalists to operate freely in Israel,” said AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton.
___

David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.

DAVID BAUDER
National media and entertainment writer
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How students can detonate mass action

Student revolts for Palestine have exploded in universities across the world. Campuses can be fertile ground for resistance and militant action.

By Sophie Squire
Wednesday 22 May 2024

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2906

The student encampment bloc at the national demonstration for Palestine

A student revolt has exploded across the world. There are around 130 encampments for Gaza in the United States, around 30 in Britain, and more at universities globally. It marks a qualitative shift in the scale of protests in the Palestine liberation movement. Why are the campuses such fertile ground for resistance?

Whether fighting against university fees, the climate crisis or Palestine, students have repeatedly shown they can be the most militant, creative and energetic sections of any movement. But this has not always been the case. Universities were once training grounds for the children of the ruling class. For hundreds of years, they were elite clubs.

And many ordinary people today are still locked out, with only 35 percent of young people going to university in 2023. But it has changed as capitalism has expanded. The bosses realised they needed a better-trained workforce to operate their new machines and technology, maintain their system and train the next generation of workers. After the Second World War, as capitalism entered an unprecedented boom, those in charge made a big push for much wider sections of society to enter higher education.

And even after the coalition of the Lib Dems and the Tories reintroduced university fees, which raised tuition fees above £9,000, students are still flocking to higher education. In 2021 the number of students in Britain reached record levels, with nearly three million students at university. Attending university can lead to people being more wedded to the current system, believing that university can lead to a higher status, better jobs and better wages. It can be a means of fulfilling the aspirations of a “good” life under capitalism.

But when those aspirations aren’t fulfilled, it can also fuel resentment against the system. The post-war period has seen millions more students, often from different geographical areas and backgrounds, thrust together in institutions that claim to encourage debate and the exchange of knowledge. This means that campuses are contested places ideologically—and so radical ideas can flourish.

Another reason political activity has the potential to explode in universities is that most students aren’t bound by the grind of wage labour like workers. While students are increasingly being forced to work while they study, many still have time to organise and mobilise in a way that those in full-time work struggle to do. And students can fight as a minority. Any section of students can go and set up an encampment on campus.

Whereas in a workplace, you generally have to mobilise the majority of the workplace to strike or walkout. However, these favourable conditions don’t mean university campuses are automatically liberated spaces where ideas can flow freely. As in any arm of the state, universities are places where the ruling class can express and disseminate their ideas.

And increasingly, with the marketisation and privatisation of universities, administrations are looking to sell education for profit and stamp out dissent. The Tories have given the go-ahead for university bosses to attack mainly arts and humanities subjects by slashing funding. In the present day, this has led to university administrations pushing forward with widespread redundancies of workers.

Yet despite victorious ruling class attacks on education, students remain a force to be reckoned with, as the pro-Palestine encampments have shown. Many have already begun to compare student mobilisations today to the wave of protests on campuses in 1968. No year revealed the power of students more than that year.

The spirit of revolt spread across the world, with students rising in their millions from France to Mexico to the US. Protests organised by students against US involvement in the Vietnam War became some of the biggest in the country’s history. The launch of the Tet Offensive by the Vietnamese resistance in January 1968 shook US society. Tension on campus rose, and students organised sit-ins, occupations and marches.

Thousands of students joined the protests at the Democratic National Convention in August of that year. And students globally didn’t just battle against imperialist war. Mexican students rose up, partly to rage against their government’s lavish spending on the Olympics in Mexico City.

They were angry that while the government spent millions, most Mexicans were living in dire poverty. Their protests came to a head on 2 October 1968 when an estimated 15,000 students took to the streets of Mexico City chanting, “No queremos olimpiadas, queremos revolución!—We don’t want Olympics, we want revolution!”

But the Mexican state was ready for them. The army murdered up to 400 people, and the streets ran with blood. It was a show of how ruling classes can fear the power of students and go to terrible lengths to suppress them. Students also offered up some of the strongest opposition to Stalinism.

When Russian tanks crossed the Czechoslovakian border in August 1968 to depose the Communist Party leader, Alexander Dubcek students were some of the first to fight back. They took to the streets, faced down the tanks, and won support from workers. This insurrection made space for discussion about a socialism that looked nothing like the bureaucracy and repression of Stalinism.

All of these struggles fed into each other, inspiring and prompting new groups of students to rise up across the world. The 1968 risings led some to believe that students, not workers, could be a vanguard for revolution. And in the decades following the 1970s, when workers’ struggle faded, it isn’t hard to see why some looked to other subjects to fight for liberation.

But acting alone, students cannot topple governments or shut down society in the way that workers can. It is still only workers that have the power to usher in a revolutionary transformation of society. Of course, this doesn’t mean students should pack up their tents, leave their occupations and let the organised working class get on with it.

When workers and students fight together, they can be a formidable force. And students can act as a detonator for wider movements. In May 1968, students in Paris, France, showed that they were just that. Students were already radicalising against the Vietnam War and the constraints of their curriculum.

Other students were angry about the conditions they were forced to study in and the stultifying conformity that pervaded social life. The family was taken to mean a man working while a woman toiled at home. Men and women were kept in separate university halls. After being under construction for six years, Nanterre university, in the Paris suburbs, still needed to be completed.

Yet it was meant to be home to more than 12,000 students, who were forced to live and study on what was essentially a building site. Anger at the administration boiled over, and they occupied a building and brought the protest to the prestigious Sorbonne University. The police brutally repressed this protest.

All night, students continued to join the protests and fight the cops. Police violence provoked sympathy for the students among workers. People let injured students into their homes and threw water on the ground to neutralise the tear gas.

The students kept going despite the cop attacks, and on 10 May, 50,000 marched and occupied the Sorbonne. The police once again attacked them. The tenacity and courage displayed by the students won them real support from the working class and unions.

It was so great that the CGT and Force Ouvriere, two of France’s biggest union federations, called a one-day strike to support the student demonstrations. As many as ten million people joined the strike that day, giving workers a real glimpse of their power and potential. Socialist Worker wrote that workers at the Sud-Aviation factory—who were some of the first to occupy their workplace—were inspired by seeing students fighting back.

“A whole unknown world was revealed to the startled eyes of the majority of workers —a world of struggling students which had been forgotten… Sud‑Aviation suddenly felt less alone,” it wrote. Workers spread strikes and occupations. By 20 May, most industry sectors had been affected, and nine million workers were on indefinite strike. The general strike showed workers that they could bring society to a standstill and run it.

While eventually union leaders sold out the workers to regain control, this general strike, sparked by students, showed the potential of workers to control society. The lessons of 1968, in France and elsewhere, are that students have real power to galvanise and spark wider revolts against the system.

UK

Morrisons loses appeal bid over staff member death



Mr Gunn died after a fall at a Morrisons in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

 (Andrew Matthews/PA)
By Callum Parke,

PA Law Reporter

Today 


Supermarket chain Morrisons has lost a bid to overturn convictions for health and safety failures after an epileptic employee died following a fall from a staircase during a seizure.

Matthew Gunn died 12 days after suffering catastrophic head injuries at the WM Morrisons store in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, in September 2014.

The company was fined £3.5 million in March last year after it was convicted of three health and safety offences.

It also admitted a fourth charge.

The Bradford-based firm applied to the Court of Appeal for the green light to challenge the convictions, with lawyers telling a hearing on Wednesday that health and safety laws were incorrectly interpreted at trial.

But three judges dismissed the appeal bid, stating that steps “could have been taken” to mitigate the risks posed.

Lord Justice William Davis said: “We accept that the staircase did not present a risk for almost all members of staff at the store.

“In our judgment that is not the point. It created a material risk to the health and safety of Matthew Gunn.”

Mr Gunn, 27, who worked as a shelf replenisher, regularly used the staircase to access his locker on the first floor of the shop, where he stored his belongings in line with company policy.

There was ample evidence that the conduct of the company exposed Matthew Gunn to a real riskLord Justice William Davis

He never regained consciousness after his fall on September 25 2014, and died on October 7 that year.

Gloucester Crown Court heard that Mr Gunn died three-and-a-half months after his mother had warned managers of the risk to her son due to his frequent seizures, with prosecutors telling jurors there was a “highly likely high level of harm occurring”.

Morrisons was convicted in February 2023 of failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees; failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of employees; and failing to review the risks and assessments of employees.


The company also admitted an offence of failing to comply with a request made by an HSE inspector for contact details of a person the inspector wanted to speak to, between May 26 2015 and February 26 2020.

Mr Gunn’s mother Sue Goellner, who attended Wednesday’s hearing via a video link, said at sentencing that her son’s death had “left a massive hole in my heart” and she had lost her job as a result and her marriage had ended.

Passing sentence, Judge Moira Macmillan said the company “fell short of the standards expected” and failed to treat Mr Gunn “as an individual”.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Richard Atkins KC, representing Tewkesbury Borough Council, which brought the prosecution, said Morrisons was aware of the nature of Mr Gunn’s health and had records of him falling on stairs due to his epilepsy.

He also told the court that while Mr Gunn’s locker was initially on the ground floor of the store, it was later moved upstairs without a risk assessment being carried out, stating “there is nothing wrong with the outcome of the case”.

Richard Matthews KC, for Morrisons, described the case as “tragic” but said a “control measure to forbid Matthew from using the stairs” was not an option.

No one can or should suggest that every staircase, fixed staircase, in a workplace, with a lift, has to have a rule that epileptics who may have a severe epileptic seizure are not permitted to use itRichard Matthews KC

He told the court that the stairs were a safe “means of access” and a lift was also available.

He said: “No one can or should suggest that every staircase, fixed staircase, in a workplace, with a lift, has to have a rule that epileptics who may have a severe epileptic seizure are not permitted to use it.”

He added: “If this court finds that as a matter of law, which it would have to do, a fixed permanent staircase used as a means of access amounted to that person a material risk to their health and safety, that has enormous ramifications.”

But refusing the appeal bid, Lord Justice William Davis, sitting with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Judge Dennis Watson KC, said: “There was ample evidence that the conduct of the company exposed Matthew Gunn to a real risk.

“The event that led to Matthew Gunn’s death was one that had been feared by his mother, his colleagues and the company’s occupational health officer.

“All these fears were made known to the company.”

The judges also awarded Tewkesbury Borough Council £20,000 in costs.

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