BOYCOTTS WORK!
Facebook, Twitter shares drop as European consumer giant pulls ads

The company behind brands such as Ben and Jerry's, Dove and Marmite said it would halt US advertising on social media platforms. Ad boycotts have led Facebook to institute a ban on hateful conduct and false claims.


Shares of Facebook and Twitter plummeted 7% on Friday following a decision from European consumer giant Unilever to pull US advertisements until the end of the year.

The Anglo-Dutch company, which is behind brands such as Ben and Jerry's ice cream, Dove soap, Lipton tea and Marmite spread, said Friday it was halting ads on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the United States due to the country's "polarized election period."

Twitter's vice president of global client solutions, Sarah Personette, said the company is "respectful of our partners' decisions and will continue to work and communicate closely with them during this time."

Unilever has joined a growing number of advertisers that have pulled back from online platforms after the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called for the boycott as part of the "Stop the Hate for Profit" campaign.

On Thursday, American telecoms company Verizon joined a boycott on Facebook advertising. Last week, North Face, an outdoor clothing brand, became the first major marketer to participate in the boycott.

According to Axios, Unilever spent $2 million (€1.8 million) on Facebook advertising in June. The American news website said Proctor and Gamble, Unilever's main competitor, spent 10 times that amount this month and has yet to announce a similar boycott.

Later on Friday, Coca-Cola said it would suspend ads on social media for at least 30 days due to concerns about racist content on the platforms.

Facebook bans 'hateful conduct' in ads

Later Friday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his platform will flag all "newsworthy" posts from politicians that break its rules, including those from US President Donald Trump.

The new policy on hateful content will "prohibit claims that people from a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status are a threat to the physical safety, health or survival of others," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.

"We're also expanding our policies to better protect immigrants, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from ads suggesting these groups are inferior or expressing contempt, dismissal or disgust directed at them."

Facebook is also banning false claims intended to discourage voting in the 2020 US elections. Zuckerberg had previously refused to take action against Trump posts suggesting that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud.

Social media companies have come under increasing pressure to monitor inflammatory posts and misinformation. Last month, Twitter put labels on Trump tweets for the first time, which drew ire from the US president.

'Slight' radioactivity rise in Nordic countries

Slightly raised radioactivity levels across northern Europe have put the spotlight on western Russia. But its nuclear power operator says plants near St. Petersburg and Murmansk have been operating "within the norm."

RUSSIA HAS RAMPED UP ITS LEAKY RADIATION PROGRAM OF NUCLEAR POWER OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS INCLUDING A FLOATING PLANT IN THE ARCTIC

Russia's power operator Rosenergoatom has downplayed observations by Nordic nuclear safety agencies of slightly increased levels of radioactive isotopes across parts of Finland, southern Scandinavia and the Arctic in recent days.

The Netherland's public health agency said Friday it analysis of Nordic data showed that radionuclides had come "from the direction of Western Russia," indicating "damage to a fuel element in a nuclear power plant."

Aside from Russia, Finland and Sweden operate nuclear power generation plants but have not reported safety incidents.

On Saturday, the Russian news agency Tass quoted a Rosenergoatom spokesman as saying radiation levels at the Leningrad plant near St. Petersburg and Kola near Russia's northern city of Murmansk "have remained unchanged in June."

On Friday, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) tweeted that its sensors had detected "harmless" isotopes, identified as Caesium 137, Caesium 134, and Ruthenium 103, "very much probably of civilian origin."

According to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency based in Vienna, Western Europe has 108 reactors and Central and Eastern Europe 73 reactors.

Chernobyl remembered

Memories remain of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster when the fourth reactor at the-then Soviet nuclear plant, north of Ukraine's capital Kyiv, exploded.

It polluted swathes of Europe and prompted control attempts by thousands of Soviet emergency personnel, often fatal long-term.

A giant protective dome, financed internationally, was put in place in 2016.

Chernobyl's three other reactors generated power until they closed in 2000.

Read more: Moscow residents fight back against 'second Chernobyl'


The site of the Chernobyl reactor was covered by a protective dome in 2015

France closing Fessenheim

On Friday, France ruled out any further full closures of nuclear sites after next Monday's planned shutdown of its second, remaining reactor at Fessenheim, near the German border

France plans to reduce its share of atomic power in its electricity mix to 50% by 2035 from the more than 71% currently, sourced from 18 nuclear plants.

Shutting down Fessenheim became a key goal of anti-nuclear campaigners after the catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima in Japan in 2011.

Read more: Fukushima: How the ocean became a dumping ground for radioactive waste

12% in Germany

Nuclear power makes up only 12% of Germany's electricity generation, with its six last nuclear stations to go offline by late 2022.

Renewables, mainly wind power, deliver roughly half of Germany's electricity, with 19% from lignite (brown coal) and 9% from hard coal. Still uncomplete are controversial high-capacity electricity cables foreseen to conduct electricity from Germany's windy north to industry in its south.

ipj/dr (AP, AFP)

China sent martial artists to India border before deadly clash: state media

NOT JET LEE MORE LIKE JACKIE CHAN


Issued on: 28/06/2020

An Indian fighter jet flies over Leh, the joint capital of the union territory of Ladakh, on June 25, 2020, part of a show of strength after a border showdown between Delhi and Beijing Tauseef MUSTAFA AFP

Beijing (AFP)

China reinforced its troops near the Indian border with mountain climbers and martial arts fighters shortly before a deadly clash this month, state media reported.

Tensions are common between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in the mountainous border terrain, but this month's fighting was their deadliest encounter in over 50 years.

Five new militia divisions including former members of a Mount Everest Olympic torch relay team and fighters from a mixed martial arts club presented themselves for inspection at Lhasa on June 15, official military newspaper China National Defense News reported.

State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of hundreds of new troops lining up in the Tibetan capital.

Tibet commander Wang Haijiang said the Enbo Fight Club recruits would "greatly raise the organization and mobilization strength" of troops and their "rapid response and support ability," China National Defense News reported, although he did not explicitly confirm their deployment was linked to ongoing border tensions.

Chinese and Indian troops clashed later that day in the most violent confrontation between the two powers in decades, in the Ladakh region 1,300 kilometres away.

India says 20 of its own soldiers were killed in brutal hand-to-hand combat that day, while China suffered an unknown number of casualties.

Both sides have blamed each other for the battle, which was fought with rocks and batons without any shots fired.

India said Thursday that it had reinforced troops in the contested Himalayan border region, saying it was matching a similar buildup by China.

Chinese state media have in recent weeks highlighted military activity including high-altitude anti-aircraft drills in the Tibet region bordering India.

The new troops were recruited with the aim of "strengthening the border and stabilizing Tibet," China National Defense News said.

India claims Chinese troops ambushed Indian soldiers and forced them down a ridge where they had gone to remove a Chinese "encroachment".

A bilateral accord prevents the use of guns, but the fighting was still fierce, with rudimentary weapons.

China has in turn accused Indian soldiers of twice crossing the Line of Actual Control, the unofficial boundary, provoking its troops.

The two countries fought a war over the border in 1962. There is an understanding between the nuclear-armed neighbours that their troops in the disputed and inhospitable region will not use firearms.

© 2020 AFP

A couple stands in front of Prague's "Lennon Wall" where a face mask has been attached to John Lennon, 

in April 2020 Michal Cizek AFP/Fi

US athletes, Carlos call on IOC to end protest ban
Issued on: 27/06/2020

John Carlos has joined calls from US Olympians to end rules banning athletes from protesting at the Olympics RONALDO SCHEMIDT AFP

Los Angeles (AFP)

United States athletes and 1968 Mexico Games  icon John Carlos on Saturday called for the International Olympic Committee to scrap rules barring athletes from protesting at the Olympics.

In a letter sent to the IOC, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee's athlete council requested that Olympic chiefs abolish its anti-protest regulation.

The letter was sent in partnership with former US sprinter Carlos, who was famously kicked out of the Mexico City games in 1968 for raising his fist on the medal podium in a black power salute along with compatriot Tommie Smith.


"Athletes will no longer be silenced," the US athlete council wrote in the letter.

"The IOC and International Paralympic Committee cannot continue on the path of punishing or removing athletes who speak up for what they believe in, especially when those beliefs exemplify the goals of Olympism," the letter reads.

"Instead, sports administrators must begin the responsible task of transparent collaboration with athletes and athlete groups to reshape the future of athlete expression at the Olympic and Paralympic Games."

The issue of athlete protests at the Olympics came under renewed scrutiny following the wave of protests which erupted across the United States and around the world following the death of unarmed black man George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.

The USOPC had been criticised after issuing reprimands to US hammer thrower Gwen Berry and fencer Race Imboden, who both protested on the podium during last year's Pan-American Games in Lima to draw attention to social injustice.

Berry, who raised a clenched fist on the podium, and Imboden, who knelt down, were given a year's probation by the USOPC and warned they could face severe sanctions if they carried out similar protests again.

International Olympic Committee rules bar any "demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda" at the Games.

In the weeks since the protests over George Floyd's death erupted, the USOPC has said it will review rules regarding athlete protests, saying officials had "failed to listen and tolerated racism and inequality."

The IOC, which in January issued an updated set of guidelines regarding athlete activism, outlawing any kind of demonstration on the medal podium or field of play, has hinted it may be willing to soften its stance.

The IOC is backing discussions led by the Olympic Athletes Commission to consider ways of allowing "dignified" shows of support for anti-racism initiatives.

- 'fundamental human right' -

The USOPC athlete council and Carlos had requested abolishing the rule against protests during a conference call with the IOC's Athletes Commission on Thursday.

In its letter to the IOC released Saturday, the US Olympians said freedom of expression was a "fundamental human right."

"The Olympic and Paralympic movement simultaneously honors athletes like John Carlos and Tommie Smith, displaying them in museums and praising their Olympic values, while prohibiting current athletes from following in their footsteps," the letter read.

"Carlos and Smith risked everything to stand for human rights and what they believed in, and they continue to inspire generation after generation to do the same. It is time for the Olympic and Paralympic movement to honor their bravery rather than denounce their actions."

© 2020 AFP

Olympic civil rights icon John Carlos turns 75

Posted by Athletics Weekly | Jun 5, 2020 |

USA’s 1968 Olympic 200m bronze medallist, who made history alongside Tommie Smith in Mexico City, continues to campaign for equality

As the United States witnesses continuing mass Black Lives Matter protests across the nation, one of the most iconic figures in the struggle for equality in America today turns 75, writes Malcolm McCausland.

John Wesley Carlos (pictured above, right) was born in Harlem, New York, to Cuban parents, on June 5, 1945. He shone as a high school athlete and was awarded an athletics scholarship to East Texas State University (now Texas A&M), but after an outstanding first year on the track he transferred to the more prestigious San Jose State University in California where he was trained by famed coach Lloyd (Bud) Winter.

Carlos won the 200m in the 1968 US Olympic Trials at Lake Tahoe, clocking 19.92, beating Tommie Smith and surpassing Smith’s world record by 0.3 seconds. The mark was never ratified because Carlos was wearing brush spikes (with multiple needles) but the performance still marked his arrival as a world-class sprinter.

Political from an early age, Carlos became a founding member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). He advocated a boycott of the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games unless four conditions were met: withdrawal of South Africa and Rhodesia from the Games, restoration of Muhammad Ali’s world heavyweight boxing title, Avery Brundage to step down as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the hiring of more African-American assistant coaches.

The IOC withdrew invitations from South Africa and Rhodesia, diminishing the support for a boycott, but the other three conditions were not met. Nevertheless, he and Smith decided to compete but stage a protest if either, or both, won a medal.

As it happened, Carlos took third behind Smith and Australian Peter Norman in the 200m and they took to the presentation podium wearing black socks and no shoes, depicting the poverty suffered by many African-Americans in the US. They then made history by raising black-gloved fists in protest during the American national anthem.

After the Olympics, Carlos played American football in Canada, (THERE IS NO AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN CANADA CANADA HAS IT'S OWN LEAGUE) worked for Puma and the US Olympic Committee before becoming a track and field coach. He has remained a champion for human rights and in 2006 was a pallbearer and gave an oration at the funeral of Norman in Australia.

In 2008 he and Smith, who by coincidence celebrates his 76th birthday tomorrow, accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for their salute. Three years later, Carlos spoke and raised his fist at the Occupy Wall Street protest to highlight social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government.

“Today I am here for you. Why? Because I am you,” he said. “We’re here forty-three years later because there’s a fight still to be won. This day is not for us but for our children to come.”

Initially the back-gloved salute was not taken well. Both athletes were ordered to leave the Olympic village and Mexico within 48 hours for violating the spirit of the Olympic movement. However, in the fullness of time, the image has become one of the most stunning, meaningful and revealing in history.

Andrzej Duda: Polish president loyal to ruling right-wing

THAT FELLA THAT VISITED TRUMP THIS WEEK

FIGURED YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT HIM

Issued on: 28/06/2020 -

Andrzej Duda on the campaign trail JANEK SKARZYNSKI AFP/File

ANTI-LGBTQ RIGHTS , ANTI-ABORTION,

ANTI-FEMINIST ANTI-HUMANIST ANTI-SEMITE

ANTI JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE 

Warsaw (AFP)

Polish President Andrzej Duda, the frontrunner in an election Sunday that was delayed several weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic, is a loyal ally of the EU member's ruling conservatives.

Though Polish presidents wield limited power, a second five-year term for the 48-year-old lawyer would likely cement the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party's chances of moving ahead with its agenda.

Duda, who is predicted to be forced into a second-round run-off, has rarely said no to powerful PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and is known for waving through government policies like generous social benefits and controversial judicial changes.


"He's a party man, carrying out its orders," Warsaw-based political analyst Stanislaw Mocek said.

The one time Duda broke from the party came in 2017, when he vetoed two judicial reforms he believed gave too much power to the attorney general, who is also the justice minister, and curtailed his own.

The surprise veto left the PiS stunned and earned Duda applause from the liberal opposition and the European Union.

- Spiritual heir -

Born in 1972 to a family of professors in the southern city of Krakow, Duda was a choir boy and Boy Scout before earning a law degree from the Jagiellonian University in 1996.

When PiS first came to power in 2005, Duda was named deputy justice minister, a job he gave up in 2008 to become an aide to then president Lech Kaczynski, Jaroslaw's twin.

A devout Catholic, Duda was close to Lech Kaczynski -- who in 2010 died when his presidential jet crashed in Smolensk, Russia -- and often calls himself his "spiritual heir".

Duda also has the backing of the present-day incarnation of the Solidarity trade union that brought a peaceful end to communism at home in 1989.

He was elected to the Polish parliament in 2011, then to the European Parliament in 2014. But he only became well-known after Jaroslaw Kaczynski crowned him presidential candidate.

Duda went on to win the presidential election in May 2015, after promising voters social benefits galore in fiery campaign speeches always featuring his ready smile.

- Judicial changes -

Like Poland's powerful Catholic Church, Duda opposes in-vitro fertilisation and the 2011 Istanbul Convention, the world's first binding legal instrument to prevent and combat violence against women, which Poland ratified in 2015.

He is also in favour of tightening tPoland's anti-abortion law -- already among Europe's most restrictive -- and recently likened "LGBT ideology" to communism, drawing criticism at home and abroad.

On Duda's watch the retirement age for men was lowered from 67 to 65. The PiS also began giving parents a monthly allowance of 500 zloty (110 euro, $130) for every child.

In terms of foreign policy, Duda has worked on strengthening ties with NATO. Since he became head of state, the Western defence alliance and the United States have deployed their troops in the region in response to Russia's activity in neighbouring Ukraine.

Just four days before the election, Duda visited US President Donald Trump, who was lavish with his praise of his Polish "friend' -- the first foreign leader invited to the White House since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Without going so far as to call himself a eurosceptic, Duda has in the past described the European Union as an "imaginary community from which we don't gain much."

Duda's critics fault him for his role in bringing to heel the Constitutional Court and other judicial institutions.

In 2017, the EU launched unprecedented proceedings against Poland over "systemic threats" posed by the reforms to the rule of law that could see its EU voting rights suspended.

An avid skier, Duda is married to German language teacher Agata. They have an adult daughter.

© 2020 AFP

Poles choose president in election delayed by pandemic
Issued on: 28/06/2020 -

Polish President Andrzej Duda is a key ally for the government Wojtek RADWANSKI AFP/File

Warsaw (AFP)

Concerns over democratic standards and bread and butter issues top the agenda as Poles vote on Sunday in round one of a tight presidential race that had to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Incumbent Andrzej Duda, 48, is campaigning for re-election in a vote that could determine the future of the right-wing government that supports him.

Ten candidates are vying to replace him, but opinion polls show that Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, a liberal from the main Civic Platform (PO) opposition party, will enter a neck-and-neck run-off on July 12.

Victory for Trzaskowski, also 48, would deal a heavy blow to the Law and Justice (PiS) government, which has relied on its ally Duda to endorse polarising legislation, especially judicial reforms.

While the PiS insists the changes are needed to weed out judicial corruption, critics and the European Union insist they erode judicial independence and democracy just three decades after Poland shed communism.

US President Donald Trump, who regards the populist PiS administration as a key European ally, gave Duda his blessing this week.

Trump invited him to the White House on Wednesday as the first foreign leader to visit since the coronavirus pandemic began, just four days ahead of election day.

Originally scheduled for May, the ballot was postponed due to the pandemic and a new hybrid system of postal and conventional voting will be in place on Sunday in a bid to stem infections.

While official figures show over 33,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,400 deaths, the health minister has admitted that there are likely up to 1.6 million undetected cases in Poland, an EU country of 38 million people.

- Anti-gay rhetoric -

Duda has promised to defend the governing party's raft of popular social benefits, including a child allowance and extra pension payments -- a key factor behind the populists winning a second term in October's parliamentary election.

Bread and butter issues are weighing heavily on voters' minds as the economic fallout of the pandemic is set to send Poland into its first recession since communism's demise.

"I'm happy. I can't complain; I get an extra pension payment and children are getting 500 zloty," Irena, a 63-year-old pensioner, told AFP in the central Polish town of Minsk Mazowiecki.

"I'd like this to continue," she added, declining to provide her surname.

Duda has also echoed PiS attacks on LGBT+ rights and Western values, something analysts see as a bid to attract voters backing a far-right candidate.

Campaigning with the slogan "Enough is Enough", Trzaskowski promises to use the experience and contacts he gathered as a former European affairs minister to "fight hard" for a fair slice of the EU's 2021-27 budget, and to repair tattered ties with Brussels.

He has however vowed to keep the PiS's popular welfare payments.

While many see his PO party as a weak and ineffectual opposition, Trzaskowski supporters regard him as a bulwark against the PiS's drive to reform the courts, something they insist risks destroying any notion of an independent judiciary.

"I'm a lawyer and this (PiS justice reforms) affect me directly," Marek, 60, told AFP in Minsk Mazowiecki, also declining to provide his surname.

"It's as if a blacksmith would go to a watchmaker's shop and try to put things in order. People might support it, but in the long run these reforms will have to be reversed."

- 'Budapest model'? -

Since winning power in 2015, both Duda and the PiS have in many ways upended Polish politics by stoking tensions with the EU and wielding influence through state-owned companies and public broadcasters.

Some analysts view the election as a crucial juncture: a second five-year term for Duda would allow the PiS to make even more controversial changes while defeat could unravel the party's power.

FASCISM BY ANY OTHER NAME 

A win for Duda would pave the way to "bolstering 'Eastern' tendencies, like the rise of oligarchs... and a drift to the Budapest model (of Hungary's Viktor Orban) – that's the danger," Warsaw University political scientist Anna Materska-Sosowska told AFP.

Polling stations will be open between 7:00 am and 9:00 pm (0500-1900 GMT) with an exit poll expected as soon as voting ends.

© 2020 AFP

Israeli settlers back annexation, oppose Palestinian state

ILLEGAL ZIONIST COLONIAL OCCUPATION FORCE

Issued on: 28/06/2020 -

Above the West Bank settlement of Itamar, the wildcat outpost Givat Arnon is home to 27 Israeli families, both secular and observant Jews MENAHEM KAHANA AFP

Givat Arnon outpost (Palestinian Territories) (AFP)

The 450,000 Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are a diverse group, ranging from ultra-Orthodox to secular moderates, who hold varying views on Israel's impending decision on annexation.

From July 1, the Israeli government aims to take its first steps toward implementing part of a US-proposed Middle East peace plan that paves the way for annexing key parts of the West Bank, including settlements long considered illegal by the majority of the international community.

The controversial plan also envisions the creation of a Palestinian state, but on reduced territory and the Palestinians have rejected it outright.


From Yitzhar to Efrat, AFP asked Israeli settlers how annexation would change their lives.

- Yakov Sela, settlements 'fulfil destiny' -

Above the West Bank settlement of Itamar, the wildcat outpost Givat Arnon is home to 27 Israeli families, both secular and observant Jews.

The peace plan put forward by the United States could see it annexed by Israel, but surrounded by an independent Palestine.

Yakov Sela, a 33-year-old father of three, said living in an outpost fulfils a "destiny to build the land and settle it".

Part of the outpost site is owned by the Israeli state and part is private Palestinian land, Sela said.

"As far as we're concerned, it's all ours."

Sela described his "elation" in January when US President Donald Trump unveiled his controversial plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, which opened the door to Israel annexing West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley.

"We were thrilled," he said.

But Sela is concerned that Israel will be compelled to approve the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would turn the outpost into an Israeli enclave.

"We can't really accept the recognition" of Palestinian statehood, he said.

- Tzvi Succot, opposes Palestinian statehood -

To Tzvi Succot, an Israeli presence in the biblical Jewish homeland, including his settlement Yitzhar, goes beyond temporal politics.

"We're here because of the bible, because of the belief that God gave us this territory," he said from his backyard, where his four young daughters played on swings and a trampoline.

The 29-year-old son of an ultra-Orthodox family in a West Bank settlement near Jerusalem, Succot wears a knitted skullcap, curly sidelocks and a short beard.

Yitzhar, on a hill just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus, is notorious for residents' clashes with the neighbouring Palestinians and also occasional confrontations with Israeli security forces.

"We want this place to be owned by Jews," he said of what brought him to Yitzhar some 15 years ago.

Relations with the Palestinians in the towns below are tense and often violent.

"They don't want us to be here, we don't want them to be here, but meanwhile we're both here," Succot said with a chuckle.

As for annexation, "we're obviously in favour", he said, while remaining opposed to Palestinian statehood.

"I don't think there's one person in the world who thinks there will be a Palestinian state here, in two days or two years."

- Shmil Atlas, favours dialogue -

Shmil Atlas, 51, works for the Efrat local council.

A government-recognised settlement in the southern West Bank, Efrat is adjacent to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and about 15 kilometres (9 miles) south of Jerusalem.

Efrat is home to about 11,000 Israelis. Like the residents of Givat Arnon, they are a mix of secular and observant Jews.

Atlas has lived in Efrat since leaving Jerusalem in 2015, lured by the settlement's lower property prices.

The father of three said he bought a four-bedroom house in Efrat for the price of a studio apartment in the city.

"My wife and I work in Jerusalem, we were looking for a place close to the city," he said.

Atlas favours annexation but also dialogue with the Palestinians.

"I firmly believe that if we can sit down and negotiate on a common future, life will be better for them and for us," he said.

- Carine Suissa, fears further bloodshed -

French-born Carine Suissa, 53, immigrated to Israel in 1992 and moved the following year to the West Bank settlement of Kfar Adumim.

"I came... with the aim of being able to raise my children in a place with nature, with a quality of life, living in a small village, nothing ideological," she said.

Kfar Adumim lies on the edge of the Judean desert between Jerusalem and the ancient Palestinian city of Jericho.

The location, she said, has few reminders that it is in occupied territory.

"Here it's a bit like living on the moon with empty spaces like landscape paintings... I would never have gone to live in a locality with barriers or surrounded by Arab villages."

But she remains ambivalent about the potential fallout from annexation.

"This plan is not going to lower tensions and I do not see how it could advance peace," she said.

"I fear that we are on the verge of years of fresh conflict and that the blood will continue to flow on both sides."

© 2020 AFP

Tough choices for Hamas over Israeli annexation plans

Issued on: 28/06/2020 -

In recent weeks the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has seen almost daily protests against US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan which foresees Israeli annexation of its settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley SAID KHATIB AFP/File

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP)

Hamas has warned that Israeli annexation in the occupied West Bank would be a "declaration of war", but the Islamist group must weigh the cost of a new fight, analysts said.

In recent weeks, there have been almost daily protests in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip against US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan.

The proposals envisage Israeli annexation of its West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley, Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and located around 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the enclave of Gaza.


The Israeli government is expected to decide from July 1 on the implementation of the Trump plan and as the clock ticks Hamas, which has fought three wars against Israel since 2007, is seeking to define its strategy in the face of the latest challenge.

"There is no doubt that Hamas' options are complex because any response to the annexation will have consequences for the Gaza Strip," said Palestinian analyst Adnan Abu Amer.

Despite a 2018 truce, Hamas and Israel still trade fire from time to time, with rockets or incendiary balloons launched from Gaza and reprisal strikes by Israel.

"Tensions at the border fence may resume, with the launch of incendiary and explosive devices," said Mukhaimar Abu Saada, professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.

But he ruled out "the option of military activities" against Israel by Hamas, which rules over a territory already impoverished and under a crippling Israeli blockade.

The movement "does not want Gaza to pay the price, and wants to wait to see what is going on, organise popular protests and not have to engage in confrontation with Israel," he added.

On Friday Israeli air force jets struck Hamas positions in Gaza after rockets were fired from the territory towards Israel for the first time since early May.

The previous day, Hamas's military wing had warned that annexation would prompt a war.

"The resistance considers the decision to annex the West Bank and the Jordan Valley to be a declaration of war on our people," said spokesman Abu Ubaida.

And an Islamist official told AFP that Hamas was in talks with other factions in the coastal enclave to "coordinate the resistance and resume the 'return marches'".

- 'More pragmatic' attitude? -

In March 2018, the Palestinians launched weekly protests along Gaza's border with Israel calling for "the right of return" of Palestinians chased from their lands or who fled when Israel was created in 1948.

They also demanded the lifting of the strict Israeli blockade imposed by Israel over a decade ago on Gaza to purportedly contain Hamas.

Attendance at the rallies waned late last year, then restrictions related to the new coronavirus pandemic added further complications.

If Israel goes ahead with its annexation plan, Hamas may take a "more pragmatic" attitude and perhaps allow other factions to fire rockets at Israel or engage in clashes along the border, said analyst Abu Amer.

But it would do everything to prevent a major response from Israel, he added.

Abu Amer said that Hamas wants armed attacks against Israel in the West Bank instead, in order to spare the Gaza Strip.

But for that, there would need to be a dialogue between Hamas and the rival Fatah party of West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmud Abbas.

The two parties have been at loggerheads since the Islamist movement wrested control of the Gaza Strip from the PA in 2007 after a near-civil war, a year after winning parliamentary elections.

Since then, all efforts at inter-Palestinian reconciliation have failed.

In mid-June, a senior Hamas official, Salah al-Bardawil, called for Palestinian political unity.

"We call on our people to turn this ordeal into an opportunity to get the Palestinian project back on track," he said.

Abu Amer, however, said an agreement between the PA and Hamas is very slim, even "impossible because of the lack of confidence" on both sides.

"The Palestinian Authority continues to hunt down and arrest Hamas activists in the West Bank on a daily basis," fearing Hamas will resume operations in the West Bank and oust it, as it did in Gaza, he said.

© 2020 AFP

Millions of children in Yemen face starvation amid aid shortfall, UN says
Issued on: 27/06/2020

Yemeni men unload medical aid at a hospital warehouse in the war-torn country's second city of Aden in early May, 2020. © Saleh Al-Obeidi, AFP

Text by:NEWS WIRES|

Video by:Luke SHRAGO

Millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across war-torn Yemen amid a "huge" drop in humanitarian aid funding, the U.N. children’s agency warned Friday.

The stark prediction comes in a new UNICEF report, “Yemen five years on: Children, conflict and COVID-19.” It said the number of malnourished Yemeni children could reach 2.4 million by the end of the year, a 20% increase in the current figure.

“As Yemen’s devastated health system and infrastructure struggle to cope with coronavirus, the already dire situation for children is likely to deteriorate considerably,” warned UNICEF.

Yemen's poor health care infrastructure is unprepared to battle the coronavirus pandemic after five years of war between a Saudi-led military coalition and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The war, which has mostly stalemated, has also triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The conflict erupted in 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition stepped in on behalf of the internationally recognized government, which the Houthis had forced into exile when they overran the capital, Sanaa, and much of the north the previous year.

The situation in Yemen is only expected to get worse as donor countries recently cut back on aid. Yemen has officially recorded more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, including 275 deaths. However, the actual tally is believed to be much higher as testing capabilities are severely limited.

“If we do not receive urgent funding, children will be pushed to the brink of starvation and many will die,” said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UNICEF's representative to Yemen. “The international community will be sending a message that the lives of children ... simply do not matter.”

Pledging conference raises $1.35 billion

UNICEF also warned that unless $54.5 million are disbursed for health and nutrition aid by the end of August, more than 23,000 children will be at increased risk of dying because of acute malnutrition. It also said that 5 million others under the age of 5 will not have access to vaccines against deadly diseases.

International relief agencies are alarmed by the significant decline in humanitarian funding promised earlier by donor countries. A virtual pledging conference for Yemen hosted by the U.N. and Saudi Arabia on June 2 saw 31 donors pledge $1.35 billion for humanitarian aid — a billion dollars short of what aid agencies needed and half of what countries had pledged in 2019.

UNICEF could only secure 40% of the $461 million it appealed for to cover its humanitarian response to the crisis in Yemen, and less than 10% of the $53 million it needs to handle the impact of COVID-19 on children, said the report.

“UNICEF is working around the clock in incredibly difficult situations to get aid to children in desperate need, but we only have a fraction of the funding required to do this,” said Nyanti.

The UNICEF report came on the heels of a warning by U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock who told a closed U.N. Security Council meeting that Yemen could “fall off the cliff” without massive financial support.

Lowcock added that COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across the Arab world's poorest country, killing about 25% of confirmed cases — five times the global average.

Half of Yemen’s health facilities are dysfunctional and 18% of the country’s 333 districts have no doctors. Water and sanitation systems have collapsed resulting in recurrent cholera outbreaks. Around 9.6 million children do not have sufficient access to safe water, sanitation, or hygiene and two-thirds of the country’s roughly 30 million people rely on food assistance.

(AP)

'Ayouni', the documentary film that puts a face to Syria's forcibly disappeared

Issued on: 26/06/2020 -

The bus of the NGO 'Families for freedom', which calls for the release of prisoners forcibly disappeared in Syria at the hands of the regime or various armed groups. © Ayouni, Yasmin Fedda 2020

Text by:Sarah LEDUC

Award-winning Palestinian director Yasmin Fedda's latest documentary, "Ayouni", sheds light on Syria's forced disappearances through the intimate stories of Noura, widow of cyber-activist Bassel Safadi, and Machi, sister of Italian priest Paolo Dall'Oglio, who was abducted in Raqqa in 2013 and whose whereabouts are unknown.

"I don't know if he's alive. I can't be sure he's dead. Until I see his body, I can't mourn him," said Noura Ghazi, who learned in August 2017 that her husband, Bassel Khartabil Safadi, had been executed, five years after he was detained in Damascus and two years after he disappeared. But she knows nothing else. Not where, nor when, nor how: "With a gun? Day or night?” she demanded. For years, the 38-year-old Syrian lawyer and human rights activist has been travelling around the world in search of answers and the "most basic right to say goodbye to my husband".

Ghazi shares the questions that haunt her in "Ayouni", Fedda's latest documentary, which will be available for streaming on July 1. The Palestinian filmmaker, nominated for a Bafta and the maker of several films about Syria, where she spent her childhood, filmed Ghazi in her quest to find answers about her absent husband. Fedda also followed Immacolata – known as "Machi", the sister of Father Paolo Dall'Oglio. The latter is the Italian priest who in the 1980s founded the Syrian Catholic monastery of Mar Mûsa, north of Damascus, and was later kidnapped in Raqqa by the Islamic State group on July 27, 2013. He has not been heard from since.

Like Safadi and Dall’Oglio, approximately 100,000 people have been forcibly disappeared after being arrested by Bashar al-Assad's regime or abducted by various armed militias, including the Islamic State group, since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in 2011, according to Amnesty International.

""Machi" Dall'Oglio holds a photo of his brother, Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, kidnapped in Syria in 2013 by the Islamic State group and missing ever since. © Ayouni, Yasmin Fedda 2020

An auteur's film about the complexity of emotions

For six years, Fedda filmed these two women, who did not know each other but were brought together by a common tragedy. "I had started a project on Father Dall'Oglio, a friend of mine, when we learned of his kidnapping. My film then took a different turn," the director told FRANCE 24. From Iraq to Italy through Lebanon and the United Kingdom, she recorded their secrets, their tears and their questions, and filmed their struggle for truth and justice.

"I tried to capture the complexity of their emotions. In six years, there have been different stages, ranging from anger to hope, but the search for truth has always kept them going," Fedda said. As Machi told her brother's kidnappers in a video posted in 2014, "we hope to hug Paolo, but we are ready to mourn his death."

Neither a journalistic investigation – although the facts are verified – nor a human rights campaign film - though the film’s release partners include Amnesty International and pro-democracy NGO The Syria Campaign, “Ayouni” is the film of an auteur. It is a thought-provoking documentary about war crimes seen through the lens of intimate stories.

"It's not just a film about Syria and forced disappearances, it's a film that touches on universal themes," said Fedda.

The "bride and groom of the revolution"

"'Ayouni' means eyes in Arabic," Fedda explained. "But it's also a term of affection for the people you love. It can therefore be read in two ways: either what people see or as a testimony of love.”

It’s this second meaning that unites Noura and Bassel, "the bride and groom of the revolution". The couple met in 2011 during an anti-Assad demonstration in Douma. Through video archives, Fedda introduces us to Bassel, a Palestinian-Syrian activist and open-source developer who played a leading role in the free Internet movement, notably by creating Arabic versions of Wikipedia and the Firefox web browser. "I wanted to make him a presence before filming his absence," she said.

The couple got engaged in 2011, before the revolution turned into war. Although Assad has already ordered his armies to fire on demonstrators, Noura and Bassel still believed in change. "We have come such a long way..." they said in archive footage. But in March 2012, Bassel was arrested by the regime. Nevertheless, the couple got married in Adra prison on January 7, 2013, hiding from the guards. Then Bassel disappeared from the radar in 2015, the year in which he was allegedly executed. Allegedly. Noura has learned to learn to live with the uncertainty but has been relentless in her attempts to find out what happened.

A plea against violations in Syria

Ghazi, a lawyer and founder of the NGO Nophotozone, which provides legal assistance to the families of the disappeared, has become the voice of tens of thousands of Syrian families who have seen their loved ones vanish into the jails of the Damascus regime. Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in 2011, an estimated 100,000 people have been forcibly disappeared. On June 16, Ghazi pleaded their case again before the UN Security Council, at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.

"I'm here to tell you about the suffering of the families of the forcibly disappeared, mostly men, leaving us women to raise children without fathers," she said in a video conference. "I am here to talk to you about the violations of Bashar al-Assad who flouts our laws and our Constitution. (...) I am here to talk to you about the lack of political will to put an end to it. I demand justice and I am ready to pay the high price for it."

Fedda relayed the plea in her generous and empathetic documentary. "I would be happy if my film could make a modest contribution to making their struggle known," the director concluded.

This has been translated from the original article in French.