World’s worst HIV epidemic stymies SA's Covid-19 fight as country risks becoming 'mutation factory'

Rene Vollgraaff, Antony Sguazzin and Amogelang Mbatha

Many of SA's 8.2 million HIV-infected people are immuno-compromised and scientists say they can harbor the coronavirus for longer.

Getty Images

• Many of SA's 8.2 million HIV-infected people are immuno-compromised and scientists say they can harbour the coronavirus for longer.
• A study of an HIV positive 36-year-old woman showed that Covid-19 stayed in her body for 216 days and mutated rapidly.
• Most of South Africa’s HIV-infected people are poor and marginalized. Many live in remote areas and have been largely left out of vaccination driv

The world’s biggest number of HIV cases is complicating South Africa’s efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, raising the risk of more mutated versions emerging and spreading across the globe. 

Many of the country’s 8.2 million HIV-infected people are immuno-compromised and scientists say they can harbour the coronavirus for longer, allowing it to mutate as it reproduces. A study of an HIV positive 36-year-old woman showed that Covid-19 stayed in her body for 216 days and mutated rapidly.

"There is good evidence that prolonged infection in immune-compromised individuals is one of the mechanisms for the emergence of SARS Covid-2 variants," Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatics professor who runs gene-sequencing institutions at two South African universities, said at an August 30 immunology conference. "You have this massive virus evolution, really the virus accumulating over 30 mutations." 

As the world struggles to stay ahead of rapidly emerging variants, getting South Africa’s HIV-infected people vaccinated has become critical. The recent discovery of another mutation in the country after the virulent beta variant late last year shows the risk to everyone of not urgently pushing vaccinations through. 

The trouble is most of South Africa’s HIV-infected people are poor and marginalised. Many live in remote areas and have been largely left out of vaccination drives. Awash in vaccines - with more than enough doses to inoculate the country’s 40 million adults - South Africa’s problem now is getting them into the arms of people who desperately need them.

• READ: More people live off grants than salaries - with millions of applicants still waiting

"Speed and coverage is important to make sure that people who are HIV positive are getting vaccinated," said Glenda Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council and co-lead of the South African arm of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine trial. 

The country’s vaccination drive has been patchy, at best. In affluent northern Johannesburg, vaccine stations can be found at every mile or two, and pop stars and talk-show hosts extol the virtue of getting shots on radio stations targeted at the rich and the urban. In the rural and impoverished Northern Cape, it’s a very different story. 

A 400km drive over two days from the provincial capital of Kimberley across an arid semi-desert to the town of Upington found vaccines available only at one location. That’s because clinics in most towns can only administer shots on certain days and for limited hours. It’s little different in the impoverished townships that sit on the periphery of the biggest cities.

The health system is up against not just the difficulty of getting vaccines to remote areas, but also a lack of information and awareness. 

"The young people are scared; they hear rumours that people die after getting the vaccine," said Lee-Ann Montse, an HIV counselor, as she sat outside the refurbished shipping containers that serve as a clinic in Schmidtsdrift, a village 80km west of Kimberley. It doesn’t help that some people live as far as nine miles from the clinic, and in an area with rampant unemployment, transport is a challenge, the 33-year-old said. Some days, only two or three people arrive to register for shots, she said. 

The extent of the disinformation and its impact are demonstrated by the experience of Schalk van der Merwe, who grows raisins and nuts and rears livestock near the town of Groblershoop in the Northern Cape.

When he encouraged his workers to register for vaccination, only three were willing. After bringing a nurse from the town clinic to his farm to answer questions, ranging from whether people can get vaccinated if they are HIV positive to if it will affect fertility, 93 people came forward. 

"We’ve had a strategy of taking the people to the vaccine, but given the demographic breakup of our country, with 25 to 26 million people who are largely sitting in townships or remote areas of the country," vaccines need to be taken to them, said Stavros Nicolaou, head of the health-work unit at Business for South Africa, an industry group that’s working with the government. "They don’t have all the information or digital access."

South Africa has been hit the hardest in Africa by the coronavirus, with about 2.9 million confirmed cases. Excess death numbers show that more than 250 000 people who wouldn’t normally have died have perished during the pandemic - or one in 240 South Africans. 

Even in the face of such numbers, people like Themba Maseko say their main preoccupation is unemployment - at 34.4%, South Africa has the highest rate of joblessness among the 82 countries tracked by Bloomberg.

"I don’t see how getting vaccinated will help me solve some of the immediate problems facing me and my family," said the 43-year-old father of two in Mabopane, a township about 24km northwest of South Africa’s capital, Pretoria. Like other impoverished townships, Mabopane counts a sizeable number of people who are HIV positive, making it a high-risk area.

South Africa has struggled with HIV and the disease it causes, AIDS, for more than three decades. Last year, 13.7% of South Africans were estimated to be infected with HIV, according to the National Statistics Agency. While deaths have been capped thanks to the world’s biggest antiretroviral treatment program, Covid-19 has added a new wrinkle to their plight. 

• READ: Pandemic at risk of worsening with proliferation of variants in Africa, scientists say

The beta variant, which cut the efficacy of the AstraZeneca shot and led to dozens of countries banning travel from South Africa, emerged after a surge of cases in Nelson Mandela Bay. That region has the lowest uptake of antiretrovirals used to treat HIV, meaning that many people there may be immuno-compromised, according to de Oliveira. 

And while the newer South African mutation is being studied by the World Health Organization to determine if it’s a variant of interest, its emergence shows the risks of large swaths of unvaccinated people. Only about 7.4 million people, or about 18.5% of the adult population in the country, are fully vaccinated. 

"South Africa really risks becoming one of the mutation factories of the world," de Oliveira said.

-With assistance from Janice Kew and Gem Atkinson.

The White House, FDA, and CDC are evidently not on the same page on COVID-19 booster shots

PETER WEBER

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

The Biden administration has been preparing to roll out COVID-19 booster shots on Sept. 20 for most fully immunized adults, assuming the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agree. The FDA will weigh the evidence for a Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot at a public meeting on Friday, but internal tensions between the FDA, White House, and CDC are already spilling into the open. 

Everyone agrees the level of antibodies from the vaccines wanes over time, but there is disagreement over whether approving a third shot is necessary right now, given the other layers of protection from the vaccines and the mildness of most breakthrough infections. Several countries have already approved booster shots for the general population, and Israel is preparing to offer some people a fourth shot.

But in the U.S., the White House COVID-19 task force and FDA "have repeatedly accused CDC of withholding critical data needed to develop the booster shot plan," Politico reports. Some CDC officials view the White House timeline on booster approval as unrealistic.

The "FDA's frustrations with CDC are longstanding and predate the pandemic," Politico notes, but the two agencies are "trying to align" better, especially after the departure of two top FDA vaccine regulators, Marion Gruber and Philip Krause. "The pair announced their retirements this month, in a move that one former official attributed to frustrations with CDC's role in the booster plan."

But Krause and Gruber were among a group of international scientists who argued in British journal The Lancet on Monday that it is premature to offer everyone booster shots.

Universal booster shots may be needed eventually, the Lancet group wrote, but right now other parts of the immune system revved up by the vaccines, like T-cells and memory B cells, are providing really robust protection even as antibody levels decline. They also suggested there could be adverse reactions from repeated vaccinations, and argued that vaccines would be better used to immunize people around the world with no access.

Georgetown University's Larry Gostin said the Lancet paper "throws gasoline on the fire" in the booster shot debate, but the FDA shrugged it off. "We are in the middle of a deliberative process of reviewing Pfizer's booster shot supplemental approval submission," the FDA said, and "as noted in the article, the views of the authors do not represent the views of the agency."

COVID-19 booster debate rages days before target rollout date

Internal FDA feuding spills into public view as many experts take issue with the evidence supporting a third vaccine dose

A nurse prepares to administer a Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot at UCI Medical Center in Orange, Calif., on Aug. 19.

 (Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images file photo)

By Emily Kopp 

ROLL CALL

Posted September 15, 2021 

The debate over COVID-19 booster shots for all Americans remains intense with less than a week to go before the target rollout date desired by the White House and days before government advisers plan to vote on the issue.

Experts are eagerly parsing the data on booster shots after internal feuding at the Food and Drug Administration spilled into the public this week, with two top vaccine regulators arguing in a review of global data in The Lancet that there is not enough evidence to recommend them.

The drama comes days before a meeting Friday at which the agency's vaccine advisers, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, plan to decide whether to recommend that the FDA approve boosters for people who received the Pfizer vaccine.

“The timing [of the study] couldn’t be any more exquisite in terms of making a statement,” said Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco who added that the review provides an unequivocal case that boosters are premature. “I doubt that it will go unnoticed.”

Meanwhile, preliminary data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet indicated a decline in effectiveness when it comes to severe disease and hospitalization, leading to anonymous accusations by White House officials in the press that the agency is withholding data.

Experts are eager to see results of the FDA’s independent analysis of data submitted by Pfizer in support of third shots. That analysis is expected to be released Wednesday, before the FDA’s vaccine advisers convene.

A separate study analyzing data on Israel’s booster rollout is also expected to be published this week in the peer-reviewed New England Journal of Medicine.

A U.S. booster policy would consume millions of vaccines while all but the wealthiest countries do not have enough first shots. It would violate the World Health Organization’s call for a moratorium on extra doses for vaccinated people.
Logistical challenges

A booster campaign also would require complex planning and resources from public health departments.

The mass clinics that marked the early vaccination campaign have been ratcheted down, and because of the delta surge, testing hubs can’t be transformed into vaccination clinics in the way they were last winter, said Adriane Casalotti, an advocate for the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

That will be a challenge if the demand for boosters approaches the demand for first shots.

If all 6,000 people who were vaccinated at a stadium clinic tried to get a booster exactly eight months later, it would overwhelm public health departments, she said.

Casalotti added that many public health departments’ first priority is the more grueling work of distributing first shots through home visits.

“In some county clinics, there is a really finite number of vaccinators. If the staff needed to administer third doses subtracts from the staff available to do outreach, it keeps some people from getting their first vaccinations,” said John Grabenstein, a vaccinologist who works with the Immunization Action Coalition.

While a million or more people have received a booster shot already, even before the government authorized them, a national booster campaign would require far more significant resources, according to former CDC official Glen Nowak, an expert in public health communication at the University of Georgia.

“Over 100 million people have received a dose. You could not at scale have that many people get a third dose,” Nowak said. “The fact that a handful of people have gotten some visibility for their efforts to get a third dose is not an indication that if large numbers of people wanted to get a third dose, that the system could handle that.”

Figuring out how to make sure booster shots are free and ensuring access for people without transportation or without health coverage are potential bottlenecks.

Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was central to the early vaccination campaign, has been stretched thin for months amid hurricane season.

At the moment, many experts argue that the evidence for boosters is shaky.

The Lancet review of 93 studies co-authored by two top FDA vaccine regulators — Marion Gruber, director of the FDA's Office of Vaccines Research and Review, and Phil Krause, the office’s deputy director — pointed to enduring vaccine efficacy and highlighted some randomness in the data from Israel that has been released so far.

“Reported effectiveness against severe disease in Israel was lower among people vaccinated either in January or April than in those vaccinated in February or March, exemplifying the difficulty of interpreting such data,” they wrote in the article, which was co-authored with top global health officials at the WHO.

Gruber and Krause recently announced they would leave the agency later this year, reportedly in response to the president’s push on boosters.

“To date, none of these studies has provided credible evidence of substantially declining protection against severe disease, even when there appear to be declines over time in vaccine efficacy against symptomatic disease,” they wrote.

They argue shots could make a bigger impact abroad.

“Even if boosting were eventually shown to decrease the medium-term risk of serious disease, current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations than if used as boosters in vaccinated populations,” the authors wrote.

It’s not clear whether the FDA’s vaccine advisers will consider the questions raised by the WHO and these FDA officials. Gruber and Krause have typically been on hand to answer questions and offer input during prior advisory group meetings on COVID-19 vaccines.
Advisory meeting outlook

Archana Chatterjee, a member of the VRBPAC and dean of Chicago Medical School, said in a brief email that she was not sure about the scope of the committee’s discussions and whether they would include The Lancet article or the issue of global supply.

“I would like to review the briefing documents and hear the presentations and discussions before making up my mind,” she said.

Two members of the VRBPAC declined to comment, and six did not respond to requests for comment. VRBPAC member Michael Kurilla, director of the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, said he was prevented from commenting by the NIH press office.

“It’s not really the role of the VRBPAC to consider the global health implications, though of course that is a critical factor in any booster policy,” global health expert Aaron Richterman, an infectious disease fellow at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said in an email. “The FDA needs to address the safety and efficacy piece, and my major concern is that efficacy has not at all been convincingly demonstrated.”

The CDC is still collecting data on vaccine efficacy through cohort studies of front-line essential workers and health care providers.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky acknowledged at an industry conference Tuesday that those studies have not shown a decline in efficacy against severe disease or hospitalization yet.

“People weren't getting that particularly sick yet, but ... that may foreshadow that we may be seeing this soon with regard to hospitalizations and severe disease,” Walensky said Tuesday at a conference hosted by the Research!America advocacy group.

While prior CDC presentations had indicated the results of its vaccine effectiveness studies would not publish until the fall, Walensky said she pressured researchers to publish readouts every couple of weeks.

And yet the pace of data collection by CDC has reportedly frustrated Biden administration officials eager to begin boosting. Some White House officials retaliated by allegedly casting the agency as the weakest link of the COVID-19 response in anonymous interviews with Politico on Monday.

Walensky said at the conference she was optimistic about the White House’s timeline for boosters.

Still, the debate indicates U.S. booster policy is going to be contentious.

“It’s quite dramatic to have this degree of public dissent,” said Gandhi.

Biden move on Egypt aid slammed by human rights groups

The Biden administration is reportedly releasing some of the military aid that Congress had conditioned on Egypt making human rights improvements.

A picture taken on July 26, 2018, shows Egyptian policemen driving on a road leading to the North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish. - 

KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images

Elizabeth Hagedorn
September 14, 2021


The Biden administration is expected to send a portion of the military aid to Egypt that lawmakers had conditioned on Cairo taking steps to improve its human rights record, in a compromise that has failed to appease activists and some Democrats who wanted Washington to take a tougher approach.

Politico first reported the administration will release $170 million in foreign military financing to Egypt on the condition that the funds be used only for certain purposes such as counterterrorism, nonproliferation and border security. The rest of the conditioned military aid, $130 million, will remain frozen unless Cairo meets certain human rights requirements, the outlet reported.

According to The Washington Post, those conditions include Egypt ending a decade-old investigation of human rights defenders and civil society groups, as well as dropping charges against or releasing 16 people whose cases the Biden administration has previously raised with Cairo.

Egypt has received $1.3 billion in foreign military financing annually from the United States since 1987, making it the second-largest recipient of US military aid after Israel. Since 2014, Congress has conditioned a fraction of that annual assistance, roughly $300 million, on Cairo implementing human rights reforms.

Human rights in Egypt have sharply deteriorated under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former military general who seized power in 2013. The country has detained tens of thousands of journalists, activists and other perceived critics, including several US citizens and residents, on vague terrorism charges. Last week, a report from Human Rights Watch documented the extrajudicial executions of dozens of alleged “terrorists” at the hands of Egyptian security forces.

To bypass Congress’ conditions on human rights, previous administrations have routinely used a national security waiver that allowed them to release the withheld funds if the military assistance is determined to be in the US national interest.

After promising during the campaign “no more blank checks” for Sisi, Biden took office with a pledge to make human rights a focus of his foreign policy. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also promised human rights would be “central” to the US-Egypt relationship.

The Biden administration did not end up using the waiver. But its reported decision to immediately release some of the conditioned aid undermines its stated commitments on human rights, a group of 19 NGOs said Tuesday.

“If the administration’s dedication to human rights were sincere, this decision would have been simple: withhold the $300 million in military aid as conditioned by Congress to incentivize al-Sisi to change course,” said the joint statement from groups including the Project on Middle East Democracy, Amnesty International and Freedom Initiative.

“By paving the way to provide the full $300 million, the administration gives license to the Egyptian government to continue perpetrating egregious human rights violations without fear of repercussions,” the statement said.

Biden officials say they’ve repeatedly raised human rights concerns with Egypt and point to the country’s role as an important strategic partner in the Middle East. In May, Cairo won praise from Washington for facilitating the truce that ended the 11-day conflict between Israel and Gaza-based militant group Hamas.

Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a vocal critic of the Sisi government, called the Biden administration’s decision “a big missed opportunity.”

“This was a chance to send a strong message about America’s commitment to human rights and democracy, with little cost to our security, and we fell short,” he said in a statement.

Australian fires boosted C02 – but also carbon-capturing algae: studies

The Australian wildfires were some of the worst on record 

SAEED KHAN AFP/File

Issued on: 15/09/2021 - 

Paris (AFP)

Devastating Australian wildfires released twice as much climate-warming C02 than previously thought -- but also triggered vast algae blooms thousands of miles away that may have soaked up significant extra carbon, according to studies published Wednesday.

Severe summer heat and drought helped spark the fires from late 2019 to early 2020 that killed 33 people and tens of millions of wild animals, while destroying vast swathes of eucalyptus forest.

These "Black Summer" fires, which enveloped Sydney and other cities in smoke and ash for months, were known to have released huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but the exact amount was difficult to quantify.

To find out, researchers in the Netherlands used new satellite technology that can monitor the gases released during a fire on a daily basis.

They produced estimates of overall emissions as well as carbon dioxide released, concluding that the amount was more than twice previously estimated from five different fire inventories.

"We found that the CO2 emissions from this single event were significantly higher than what all Australians normally emit with the combustion of fossil fuels in an entire year," said Ivar van der Velde of the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, lead author of the paper published in the journal Nature.

2019 - 2020 Australian fires AFP

While it was still uncertain, he said "given current trends in global warming, we believe it is quite possible that we will see more of these types of large wildfires in Australia, and possibly elsewhere.

"This will likely contribute to even more CO2 in the atmosphere than expected."

Wildfires are consistent with a warmer world, as climate change makes droughts and heatwaves more frequent and intense.

Depending on the amount of C02 that is drawn back into plants as they regrow, the emissions could help drive further warming.

- 'Fertilise the ocean' -

The fires also released aerosols transporting nitrogen and iron particles that can spur ocean "blooms" of microscopic algae, called phytoplankton.

In a separate study in Nature, researchers found that high levels of iron pumped into the air by the fires were blown huge distances, eventually causing a significant increase in phytoplankton in the Pacific Ocean thousands of kilometres from Australia.

Previous studies have suggested wildfires could seed algae blooms, said co-author Joan Llort, of the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.

But he said the "most surprising thing was the magnitude" revealed in the research, with blooms covering an area larger than Australia itself.

Phytoplankton perform a crucial role in the global climate, taking in C02 as they photosynthesise in a process similar to plants.

Part of that carbon eventually sinks into the deep ocean and is stored.

"Our results provide evidence that iron from wildfires can fertilise the ocean, potentially leading to a significant increase in carbon uptake by phytoplankton," said co-author Nicolas Cassar, of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.

But he said finding out whether the amount to which the fire emissions could be offset by C02 absorbed by micro algae blooms seeded by the fires is the "Holy Grail" of the research and still uncertain.

© 2021 AFP

Australia issued fresh emissions warning in new OECD report

The federal government has responded to the report by repeating its commitment to a technology-driven approach to reaching net zero as soon as possible, preferably by 2050.

Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Mathias Cormann.

 Source: EPA POOL

Australia has been told its economic future will be more secure if it decarbonises the economy, and given a fresh warning emissions must be reduced at a "significantly faster pace" in order to reach net zero by 2050.

The notes came in a review of the Australian economy released on Wednesday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is now overseen by former coalition minister Mathias Cormann.

The report - the first of its kind since December 2018 - considered Australia’s approach to reducing carbon emissions as part of a broader analysis of the nation's economic conditions.

It said the adoption of a stronger nationally integrated approach is required to secure Australia’s pathway to net zero, and mounts a case the country's biggest emitting sectors - energy, transport and agriculture - should be targeted with more ambitious emissions reduction policies.


Joe Biden to talk climate change with Scott Morrison at upcoming White House meeting

The report also identifies Australia as being “uniquely vulnerable” to climate change and “uniquely placed” to benefit economically from global decarbonisation.

World leaders are currently preparing to meet in Glasgow for a United Nations climate summit in November, where Australia's emissions targets are expected to come under renewed scrutiny.

The federal government has responded to the findings of the OECD report by repeating its commitment to a technology-driven approach to reaching net zero as soon as possible, preferably by 2050.

READ MORE

Backlash after Australia watered down climate change pledge in UK trade deal

“The survey acknowledges that 'strong institutions are already in place to support these aims',” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said the report showed the government is not taking action on climate change seriously.

“There are real consequences of this. Australia needs to do more on climate change,” he told reporters.

Scott Morrison says Australia won't sign 'blank cheque' to reduce emissions after dire climate change warning

The OECD noted Australia continues to have a high reliance on fossil fuels, with oil, coal and natural gas accounting for about 93 per cent of primary energy supply. It added there is “significant scope” for further increases in renewable energy in Australia, given the share remains low compared with other OECD countries.

In other observations, the OECD said Australia had largely weathered the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic better than most developed countries, but recent outbreaks of the virus mean the country is not out of the woods yet.

It largely praised Australia’s fiscal response to the crisis, but flagged post-pandemic reforms are still needed to address long-standing challenges such as stagnating productivity growth and growth in living standards.

One reform put forward is further raising Australia's unemployment benefit rate - which is one of the lowest in the OECD and below estimates of the relative poverty line.

ICC backs crime against humanity probe into Philippines' 'war on drugs'

Seminarians and nuns carry slogans and a mock coffin during a rally in Manila, Philippines, against drug-related killings and martial law on August 29, 2018. © Aaron Favila, AP

Issued on: 15/09/2021 - 
Text by: NEWS WIRES

Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday gave the green light for a full investigation into crimes against humanity during the Philippines' so-called "war on drugs".

The Hague-based court approved the probe despite the fact that Manila left the court in 2019 following a preliminary probe into President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdown.

Former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had asked judges in June to authorise the full-blown probe into allegations that police unlawfully killed as many as tens of thousands of civilians.

The judges "found there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, noting the specific element of the crime against humanity of murder," the court said in a statement.

The court said it appeared that "the so-called 'war on drugs' campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation".


"The available material indicates, to the required standard, that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy," it added

The probe will cover the period from 2011 to 2019.

Firebrand Duterte drew international censure when he pulled the Philippines from the court after it launched its preliminary investigation into his drugs crackdown.

'Court retains jurisdiction'

But the judges said that even though the Philippines had withdrawn as a state party to the court, the alleged crimes took place while Manila was still a signature to the court's Rome Statute, so it could still probe them.

"The court retains jurisdiction with respect to alleged crimes that occurred on the territory of the Philippines while it was a state party," the judges said.

Set up in 2002, the ICC is a so-called court of last resort and only becomes involved in probing the world's worst crimes if its member states are unable or unwilling to do so.


The crackdown is Duterte's signature policy initiative and he defends it fiercely, especially from critics like Western leaders and institutions which he says do not care about his country.

He was elected in 2016 on a campaign promise to get rid of the Philippines' drug problem, openly ordering police to kill drug suspects if their lives are in danger.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in over 200,000 anti-drug operations conducted since July 2016, according to official data. Human rights groups estimate the number of dead could be several times higher.

The tough-talking Duterte has repeatedly claimed the ICC has no jurisdiction over him and that he will not cooperate with what he has called an "illegal" probe, even threatening to arrest Bensouda.

(AFP)

Explainer-How China Evergrande's debt troubles pose a systemic risk

China Evergrande Centre building sign is seen in Hong Kong

Clare Jim
Tue, September 14, 2021

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Evergrande Group has raised fresh warnings of default risks amid late payments to wealth management and trust products.

The real estate giant has been scrambling to raise funds it needs to pay lenders and suppliers, with regulators and financial markets worried that any crisis could ripple through China's banking system and potentially trigger wider social unrest.


WHO IS EVERGRANDE?

Founded in 1996 by Chairman Hui Ka Yan in the southern city of Guangzhou, Evergrande accelerated its growth in the past decade to become China's second-largest property developer with $110 billion in sales last year.

The company listed in Hong Kong in 2009, giving it more access to the capital and debt markets to grow its asset size to $355 billion today. It has more than 1,300 developments across the nation, many in lower-tier cities.

With national sales growth slowing in recent years, Evergrande has also been branching into businesses unrelated to real estate, such as electric cars, football, insurance and bottled water.

HOW DID CONCERNS ARISE OVER DEBT PILE?

Investors became worried after a leaked letter in September showed Evergrande had pleaded for government support to approve a now-dropped backdoor listing plan, warning it faced a cash crunch.

Concerns intensified after Evergrande admitted in June it did not pay some commercial paper on time, and news in July a Chinese court froze a $20 million bank deposit held by the firm on the request of Guangfa Bank.

Evergrande's fast expansion over the years has been fuelled by debt. It has been aggressively raising loans to support its land buying spree, and selling apartments quickly despite low margins so as to start the cycle again.

The firm's interim report said its interest-bearing debt totalled 571.8 billion yuan ($89 billion) at the end of June, compared with 716.5 billion at the end of 2020, as it stepped up deleveraging efforts.

Total liability, which include payables, however, increased slightly to 1.97 trillion yuan, accounting for around 2% of the country's GDP.

Other than the usual bank and bond channels, the developer has been criticised for tapping the less regulated shadow banking market, including trusts, wealth management products and commercial paper.

WHAT EVERGRANDE HAS DONE TO DELEVERAGE?

Evergrande accelerated its efforts to reduce its debts last year after regulators introduced caps on three debt ratios dubbed "the three red lines" policy. It has said it aims to meet all the requirements by the end of next year.

Evergrande has given buyers steep discounts for its residential developments and sold the bulk of its commercial properties to increase cashflow. Since the second half of 2020, it has had a $555 million secondary share sale, raising $1.8 billion by listing its property management unit in Hong Kong, while its EV unit sold a $3.4 billion stake to new investors.

It unveiled plans earlier this year to spin off three unlisted units -- online real estate and automobile marketplace Fangchebao, and theme parks and spring water businesses -- to further release capital. Fangchebao has already raised $2.1 billion in a pre-IPO in March.

On Tuesday, it said its asset and equity disposal plans to ease liquidity issues have failed to make material progress.

DOES EVERGRANDE POSE A RISK?

China's central bank highlighted in its financial stability report in 2018 that companies including Evergrande might pose systemic risks to the nation's financial system.

Evergrande's liabilities involve more than 128 banks and over 121 non-banking institutions, according to the letter Evergrande sent to the government late last year. JPMorgan estimated last week China Minsheng Bank has the highest exposure to Evergrande.

Late payments could trigger cross-defaults as many financial institutions have exposure to Evergrande via direct loans and indirect holdings through different financial instruments.

In the dollar bond market, Evergrande accounts for 4% of Chinese real estate high-yields, according to DBS. Any defaults will also trigger sell-offs in the high-yield credit market.

A collapse of Evergrande will have a large impact on the job market. It has 200,000 staff and hires 3.8 million people every year for project developments.

WHAT HAVE REGULATORS SAID?

The People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission summoned Evergrande's executives in August and warned that it needed to reduce its debt risks and prioritise stability.

Evergrande must "actively diffuse debt risk and maintain real estate and financial markets stability," they said in a joint statement, and "earnestly implement strategic arrangements made by the central government to ensure the stable and healthy development of the real estate market, and strive to keep operations stable".

Media reports said regulators have approved an Evergrande proposal to renegotiate payment deadlines with banks and other creditors. The Guangzhou government is also seeking opinions from Evergrande's major lenders about setting up a creditor committee.

($1 = 6.4427 Chinese yuan)

(Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Jacqueline Wong)

Evergrande: Why the Chinese property giant is close to collapse

China Evergrande, once the country's second-largest real estate developer, is drowning in debt. Some 1.5 million people have put deposits on new homes that have yet to be built. A collapse could be catastrophic.


Shares of China Evergrande Group have slumped to their lowest in seven years

Property giant China Evergrande Group admitted Tuesday it is under "tremendous pressure" and may not be able to meet its crippling debt obligations.

Over the past two days, angry protesters have gathered outside the real estate firm's headquarters, demanding to know about its future.

Investors are growing increasingly nervous that if Evergrande were to collapse, this could could spread to other property developers and create systemic risks for the banking system of the world's second-largest economy.

What is China Evergrande?

Previously known as Hengda, China Evergrande was until recently the country's second-largest property group by sales.

Located in the southern city of Shenzhen close to Hong Kong, Evergrande sells apartments to upper- and middle-income property buyers. It has a presence in more than 280 cities.

The firm was started in 1997 by Hui Ka Yan (Xu Jiayin in Mandarin), who has since become a billionaire through the opening up of China's economy.

Last year, Forbes listed Hui as the third-richest man in China — but his wealth has since plummeted.

Evergrande has vastly grown due to a spectacular real estate boom caused by China's unprecedented growth.

The firm has completed nearly 900 commercial, residential, and infrastructure projects, and says it employs 200,000 people.

Evergrande has expanded into other areas of the economy, including food and leisure. It also operates the Guangzhou FC football club, formerly Guangzhou Evergrande.

However, its electric car unit, founded in 2019, is not currently marketing any vehicles.

Why is Evergrande in trouble?

The Hong Kong-based developer is sinking under a mountain of liabilities totaling more than $300 billion (€254 billion) after years of borrowing to fund rapid growth.

Evergrande has stepped up acquisitions in recent years, taking advantage of a real estate frenzy.

But the property giant began to falter after Beijing introduced new measures in August 2020 to closely monitor and control the total debt level of major property developers.

Evergrande relied on presales to finance itself and keep its activities afloat, and the crackdown forced the group to offload properties at increasingly steep discounts.

Investors have made down payments on around 1.5 million properties, Bloomberg reported, citing data from December.

Many buyers have expressed concern on social media about whether they will get their money back after housing projects were suspended.

Evergrande was downgraded by two credit rating agencies last week and its Hong Kong-listed shares have collapsed by more than 80% this year.

On Monday, the Shanghai Stock Exchange paused trading in Evergrande's May 2023 bond after it fell more than 30%.

Dozens of anxious investors protested outside the headquarters of troubled Chinese property giant Evergrande on Tuesday

What is the company doing to save itself?

On Tuesday, Evergrande issued another statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, saying it had hired financial advisers to explore "all feasible solutions" to ease its cash crunch.

The statement warned that there was no guarantee the property firm would meet its financial obligations.

The firm blamed "ongoing negative media reports" for damaging sales in the pivotal September period, "resulting in the continuous deterioration of cash collection by the group which would in turn place tremendous pressure on [...] cashflow and liquidity."

Even property discounts of up to a quarter off and selling stakes in some of its wide-ranging assets hasn't stopped a 29% slide in profit for the first half of the year.

Hui Ka Yan (or Xu Jiayin in Mandarin), is chairman of China Evergrande Group

Why are Evergrande's woes so important?

Real estate is one of the major engines of China's growth, responsible for 29% of economic output, and any bankruptcy of such a major company would have huge repercussions.

"Evergrande's collapse would be the biggest test that China's financial system has faced in years," said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics.

Yet "markets don't seem concerned about the potential for financial contagion at the moment," he said, adding "that would change in the event of large-scale default."

Some analysts believe there is a slim chance Beijing would allow such a behemoth to go under.

Beijing "will not let Evergrande go bankrupt" as it would undermine the regime's stability, analysts at US-based SinoInsider said.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that China's Guandong province had hired a team of accountants and legal experts to advise it on Evergrande's restructuring needs, although the regional government had turned down a request for a bailout.

GEN NIHILIST

Young German activists stage hunger strike for climate

'The climate crisis kills. We are on hunger strike for an unlimited period of time,' say protesters in Berlin

 Odd ANDERSEN AFP

Issued on: 15/09/2021 

Berlin (AFP)

In late August, six young climate activists set up tents on a stretch of grass between the Reichstag and the chancellery in central Berlin, refusing to eat.

More than two weeks later, some look pale and emaciated. One collapsed on Tuesday. Another broke down in tears as medics performed a daily check of their weight and blood pressure.

Neither have they achieved their chief objective -- a meeting with the three main candidates vying to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor when Germany goes to the polls on September 26.

"The climate crisis kills. We are on hunger strike for an unlimited period of time," a banner strewn across one of the tents proclaims in large red letters.

The activists want to meet conservative Armin Laschet, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz and the Greens' Annalena Baerbock.

All three parties have made climate policy a key issue in their campaigning, and the Greens have even pledged to make climate neutrality the top priority of the next government.

But the activists say it's not enough. For Jacob Heinze, none of the major parties is prepared "to take the necessary measures to protect us, the younger generation, from the catastrophe" that is unfolding.

- 'Time bomb' -

They also want the next German government to set up a committee of citizens representing the whole spectrum of society to develop measures to protect the environment.

The hunger strike is a "last resort... in the face of the extreme seriousness of our situation", the 27-year-old told AFP, long hair tied back from his gaunt face.

The climate activists want to meet chancellor candidates, conservative Armin Laschet, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz and the Greens' Annalena Baerbock 

Odd ANDERSEN AFP

Just hours later, he was taken to hospital after collapsing.

"We are sitting on a time bomb," said Hannah Luebbert, a 20-year-old activist who is part of the support team. "If we don't change things quickly, in a few years it will be too late."

For evidence of this, according to the activists, you only have to look at the deadly floods that swept through western Germany in July, which experts have directly linked to climate change.

Global warming will also bring famine, they say, hence the idea of voluntary starvation.

"Food security is not something we can take for granted. We are heading for wars over the distribution of food, water and land," said Heinze.

The school and university students aged between 18 and 27 from all over Germany believe they belong to "the last generation" that can still take action.

- 'Grim and hard' -

After that, they say, scientific research has shown that the dramatic consequences of global warming will become irreversible.

For them, civil disobedience movements like Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future do not go far enough. Some have already carried out drastic stunts such as scaling political buildings or chaining themselves to the streets to block traffic.

For the activists, civil disobedience movements like Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future do not go far enough

 John MACDOUGALL AFP

"But we have seen that these different forms of action have not led to any change" at the political level, Luebbert said.

Gathered in a circle on the lawn, some of the activists chose to remain inside the tents that have become their makeshift homes. On the 15th day of their strike, they decided to up the ante by giving up the vitamin drinks they had been taking.

"I think we're noticing the aftermath and next week is going to be really grim and hard," says Henning Jeschke, an activist who has posted several videos of the action on Twitter.

The only response they have had so far is a phone call from Baerbock. "But even with the Greens we will not meet the climate targets we have to meet," said Luebbert.

© 2021 AFP

'Last resort': The young Germans on hunger strike for the climate
Issued on: 15/09/2021 - 

Climate activists staging a hunger strike outside the Reichstag in Berlin on September 13, 2021. © AFP / FRANCE 24

Video by :Sam BALL
Camped outside the Reichstag in Berlin, a group of young German climate activists have not eaten for more than two weeks. Although the lack of food is beginning to take a toll on their health, they say the hunger strike is the last resort in convincing governments to take necessary action on climate change.

APARTHEID COLONIALIST STATE #BDS
Israeli premier says no to independent Palestinian state

Naftali Bennett also says he will not meet with Palestinian president
Mustafa Deveci |15.09.2021



JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday that he is against the creation of an independent Palestinian state and is not going to hold talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

In an interview with state-owned KAN News, Bennett spoke about developments on Israel’s agenda, saying the establishment of an independent Palestinian state would be “a terrible mistake.”

He also said that he would not meet with Abbas, who he said is “suing IDF soldiers and commanders at the International Criminal Court in The Hague” as well as providing monthly stipends to “terrorists,” referring to Palestinian detainees and relatives of deceased Palestinians.

In an interview with the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, he argued that the whole of Jerusalem was the "capital" of Israel.

Palestinians demand the foundation of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. However, the Israeli administration rejects this, saying the entire city is its capital.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas

Bennett, Lapid shift stance on Gaza

Despite his past support for attacking Hamas, the meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's plan to rehabilitate Gaza signal a very different policy.

(L to R) Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attend a Knesset session on Sept. 2, 2021. - AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

September 14, 2021

As the clock ticks down to the next clash between Israel and Hamas, Egypt has been tapped for what Israel describes as “a last-ditch mediation attempt” to reach a long-term cease-fire arrangement between Israel and Gaza for the umpteenth time since Israel’s 2005 disengagement from the enclave.

The mediation effort officially launched at a Sept. 13 summit in the Red Sea town of Sharm el-Sheikh between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. At the same time, one or two rockets were being fired nightly at Israeli communities along the Gaza border.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid weighed in with a plan for an arrangement with Gaza. In a Sept. 12 speech, Lapid sought to revive a vision that has been presented in the past for the rehabilitation of Gaza in return for demilitarization. The plan places the welfare of Gaza’s 2 million residents as a top Israeli priority with a non-military alternative. Lapid was immediately accused, perhaps rightly, of being naive. Hamas will never give up its weapons, the political right argued, and what about the promises made by Bennett, Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz to “bring order” to Gaza once and for all?

“Eventually, we will have to bring order,” a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem conceded in a conversation with Al-Monitor last week, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The next clash, which is apparently inevitable, will be completely different from the ones we know. We are preparing a few surprises there and Hamas will emerge from this clash in a completely different state than it went in,” he promised.

What Bennett can least afford, an aggressive, high-casualty clash with Hamas and other Gaza factions that could bring down his government, which relies on the support of its Arab Islamist partner Ra’am, or some sort of cease-fire arrangement that would violate his campaign promises and entail continued rocket drizzle from Gaza? The Bennett-Sisi meeting was described by associates on both sides as excellent and even exceeding all expectations. The Egyptians are being given a credit and opportunity.

As a minister in the governments of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and even more so as a member of the Knesset opposition, Bennett held a particularly militant posture on Gaza. He was the one who loudly and consistently pressed the government to undertake an operation against the Hamas tunnel network during the 2014 war, even as Netanyahu sought to pull back and end the fighting. Bennett came up with a plan to “crush” Gaza by deploying massive firepower at the enclave without sending ground forces into a death trap there.

All these plans are now being shelved, proving yet again that “what you see from here, you do not see from there.” In the hot seat, Bennett is learning firsthand the endless complexity of the standoff with Gaza. Lapid, who has not been considered a strong supporter of attacking Gaza, is currently offering him support.

The Bennett-Sisi meeting surprised the Israelis. Sisi’s meetings with Bennett’s predecessor Netanyahu were usually held out of the public eye. This time, the prime minister’s entourage was greeted with a large Israeli flag flying alongside the Egyptian one. Although they only reported it once the meeting got underway, the Egyptians did not conceal the visit and posed willingly for photos.

Israel is key to Egypt’s efforts to curry favor with the new administration in Washington despite its troubling human rights record. Sisi had a close strategic alliance with Netanyahu but clearly did not trust him, especially after Netanyahu’s stunning last-minute reversal on his proposal to Labor leader Isaac Herzog to promote a regional peace initiative with Egypt. After he backtracked, Netanyahu brought Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman into his government and dumped Herzog.

The Bennett-Sisi meeting lasted nearly four hours, most of it one-on-one. Israel is providing Egypt with vital help against the Islamic State faction operating in the Sinai Peninsula. Shortly following the meeting, Israeli Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli announced a lifting of limitations on Israeli tourism to Sinai, a popular destination for Israelis. Bennett is now expected to help Sisi in Washington by presenting him as a key peace negotiator between Israel and Gaza or at least a voice of calm.

At home, Bennett has faced criticism for his alleged restraint with Gaza. He refuses to allow Qatar’s aid to Gaza, some 6-10 million shekels ($1.87-$3.12 million) monthly, to be delivered in cash, as was the case in the past. The alternative payment mechanism through the United Nations promoted by Gantz has so far failed to resolve the issue of paying Hamas employees in Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who first reluctantly agreed to a mechanism for delivering the money directly to needy Gaza residents, has backtracked. Bennett is caught between his intense antipathy toward cash transfers that could be accessed by Hamas and his desire to ensure calm until after the Knesset approves the state budget in November.

Knowledgable observers foresee a next round between Israel and Hamas as waiting for after the budget vote. For Bennett, passage of the budget will be like a booster shot, making his government more resilient to opposition efforts to bring it down. Another consideration to keep in mind is that winter weather impairs the decisive advantage of the Israel air force over Gaza, though the previous significant offensive against Hamas (Operation Cast Lead) took place in December and January 2008-2009.

Nearly 1,500 Palestinian prisoners intend to go on hunger strike in Israel

The hunger strike is due to the terrible situation in prisons

Source : 112 Ukraine
15 September 2021

Open source

Palestinian Authorities have stated that nearly 1,400 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons will go on hunger strike to protest the conditions of their detention. This was reported by the Times of Israel.

“The situation is very bad in the prisons, that’s why they’re going on hunger strike,” said Abu Bakr, head of the Palestinian Authority’s commission for prisoners.

He also said that talks between the Israeli prison administration and representatives of the prisoners had not yet progressed.

According to Qadri Abu Bakr, 1,380 prisoners - out of more than 4,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails - were due to go on strike on Friday and be joined by other prisoners next week.

Related: Israeli military planes bomb Hamas plants on missile, concrete production

The allegations are said to have been made after Palestinian prisoners staged riots in several Israeli prisons and set fire to nine cells in Ketziot and Ramon prisons in southern Israel.

As it was reported earlier, Israeli security forces caught four of the six Palestinian militants who escaped from a high-security prison. It is noted that through the hole in the floor of the prison cell escaped six people who were either convicted or suspected of planning or committing deadly attacks on Israelis.

Israeli officials have vowed to conduct a thorough investigation into security breaches that allowed the detainees to escape.

Two thirds of the Palestinian detainees at the Israeli Etzion facility are minors - commission

Israeli soldiers detaining a Palestinian minor.

RAMALLAH, Wednesday, September 15, 2021 (WAFA) – Two thirds of the Palestinian detainees in an Israeli detention facility at the illegal Etzion settlement bloc, south of the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, are minors, today said the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission.

It said in a press release that there were 24 Palestinian minors in the detention facility of Etzion, accounting for two thirds of the total number of detainees there, pointing that most of the minors recently imprisoned in the notorious facility were subjected to various forms of torture, physical and psychological, during their detention and interrogation.

It added that they were beaten in a brutal way, thrown to the ground and trampled on, as they were hit with the gun butts all over their body, sworn at and kept for long hours at an army facility with their hands cuffed and without any food before they are taken to prison.

There are currently 39 Palestinian detainees held at the Etzion facility, said the commission.

K.F./M.K.

Captured prison escapee Zubeidi was severely beaten after his arrest, suffers broken ribs, says commission

Zakaria Zubeidi after his capture with a swollen face from beating.

RAMALLAH, Wednesday, September 15, 2021 (WAFA) - The Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners Affairs said today that Zakaria Zubeidi, one of four Palestinians who were caught over the weekend after his escape from prison in Israel along with five others last week, was beaten and ill-treated during and after his capture resulting in him suffering from broken jaw and ribs.

It said that one of its lawyers was able to visit Zubeidi in his prison cell this morning after an Israeli court lifted the ban on their visits and was able to check on his situation four days after his capture.

Zubeidi, said the Commission in a statement, was transferred to an Israeli hospital after the arrest due to the beating and was given sedatives. He suffers from bruises and cuts all over his body as a result of beatings and torture.

Zubeidi told his lawyer that he did not take part in digging the escape tunnel in their cell and that he was moved to the cell of the other escapees one day before they broke out from the prison.

He said that during the four days he was out of prison, they did not ask for help from anyone out of concern for the Palestinian people who may suffer from the Israeli reprisal measures and that they did not drink water throughout their short freedom while they ate only fruits they found in the fields, such as cactus, figs, and others.

Two of the prison escapees remain at large.

M.K.

After visiting re-captured prisoner Mohammad Arda, lawyer says he was severely beaten, denied food and water

The re-captured prisoners Mahmoud and Mohammad Arda.

RAMALLAH, Wednesday, September 15, 2021 (WAFA) – Attorney Khaled Mahajna, a lawyer with the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission, revealed after meeting with Mohammad Arda, one of four re-captured Palestinian prisoners, that since his re-arrest on Friday, Arda, has been subjected to physical abuse, deprivation of sleep, denial of food and water, and humiliation, that caused him injuries to his head and face.

Mahajna recounted the details of his visit to Arda at dawn today after an Israeli court lifted the ban imposed by the Israeli Security Services on visits by the lawyers to the four prisoners. The Security Services nevertheless allowed only one lawyer’s visit to a single prisoner at one time.

Mahajna said in an interview with Palestine TV after this visit with Mohammad Arda at his detention center that the Israeli occupation forces brutally assaulted him at the moment of his capture, noting that he was hit on the head and above the right eye, and he has not received treatment until now, and that he suffers from many wounds sustained during his pursuit and arrest.

Arda was also stripped of his clothes during interrogation at Nazareth prison after which he was transferred to another interrogation center.

He pointed out that since last Saturday, Arda has been undergoing interrogation around the clock and that he has not slept since his arrest five days ago except for about 10 hours.

He said the interrogators tried to bargain with him on false charges and that one of the interrogators threatened to shoot him.

Mahajna said that Arda is kept in a narrow two meters by one mete cell and monitored around the clock by cameras and guards. He did not eat food from the moment of his arrest until yesterday. He was also denied sleep and rest, and he was moved between the cell and the interrogation room and was never allowed out so he does not know what time it is and he prays without knowing the times for the prayers.

Arda is being interrogated every day while he is handcuffed and his feet shackled, said attorney Mahajna, explaining that he was handcuffed and surrounded by six guards during his visit to him.

“I walked around the streets of my occupied country for five days, and I was hoping to meet my mother,” Arda told his lawyer. “This was enough to make up for me for all the years of my imprisonment."

He pointed out that members of the Israeli military units that re-captured him and the other prisoner, Zakaria Zubeidi, assaulted Zubeidi before they were separated when they arrived at the interrogation center after which he did not know anything about Zubeidi.

Regarding the moment of Arda’s arrest, Mahajna said that the occupation forces arrested him when he was sleeping in the trunk of a truck. One of the soldiers searched inside the trunk and at the last moment was able to grab the prisoner, who tried to escape but he could not.

Another Commission attorney, Raslan Mahajna, met with a Mahmoud Arda, another recapture prisoner and said that Mahmoud told him they did not attempt to enter the Arab towns in Israel to spare their Palestinian residents retaliation by the Israeli authorities.

He said the six of them who broke out of Gilboa prison in northern Israel last week walked together after their escape until they reached al-Naoura village and then went in separate ways in groups of two.

He said they tried to reach the West Bank but could not because of the military checkpoints.

He said that their re-capture was by chance after a police patrol saw them and stopped them, explaining that they started to dig the tunnel in their prison cell in December of last year until their time of escape.

The attorneys are expected to also visit the remaining two captured prisoners, Zubeidi and Yacoub al-Qaderi.

M.K.

Capture of escaped Palestinian prisoners divides Arab-Israelis

Minister of Public Security Omer Bar-Lev thanked Arab-Israelis for assisting in the capture of escaped Palestinian prisoners, but not all of them are comfortable with the situation.

A Palestinian child stands next to a poster expressing solidarity with the six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from Israel's Gilboa prison hanging outside a shop at the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees in the north of the occupied West Bank on Sept. 12, 2021. - 

JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images

Afif Abu Much
@AfifAbuMuch
September 15, 2021

Arab-Israeli society was split over the escape of six Palestinian inmates from prison, and the divide has only grown deeper with the capture of four of them.

The affair started on Sept. 6, when six Palestinian prisoners managed to escape from Gilboa Prison, apparently through a tunnel. Gilboa Prison's reputation as Israel’s most secure penitentiary heightened the drama, as did the identity of the prisoners: Zakaria Zubeidi, a former senior commander in Fatah’s armed wing Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, along with five members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

On Sept. 11, after days of manhunt, four of the prisoners were captured in two separate incidents in different locations. The first two, Yaqoub Qadri and Mahmoud Ardah, were caught on Mount Precipice in Nazareth, after a local resident called the police to report suspicious individuals who he suspected of being in Israel illegally. The other two, Zakaria Zubeidi and Mohammed Ardah, were caught at a truck stop in the northern town of Umm al-Ghanam. Their arrest took place after a local tractor driver saw them and reported them to the police. The hunt for the remaining two fugitives continues.

The mixed reactions in Arab-Israeli society and the arrest of the four men with the help of Arab-Israeli citizens form another chapter of the complex story of Arab society in Israel in the twenty-first century. Once again, Israelis learned that Arab citizens are no longer a homogeneous bloc with the same views. Rather, they represent a rich variety of opinions and positions. Minister of Public Security Omer Bar-Lev expressed gratitude for the role played by Arab citizens in capturing the escaped prisoners. However, there was also a demonstration in support of the prisoners by political activists from several Arab parties, during which a reporter for Channel 13 News covering the hearing and the demonstration was injured.

These contradicting reactions are an example of the multiplicity of opinions in contemporary Arab society on a number of topics. For instance, we witnessed contradicting reactions within Arab-Israeli society to the signing of the normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. We saw contradicting reactions to the Joint List’s split into two separate parties on the eve of last March's election, to the decision by Muslim Ra'am Party to join the coalition and various other issues. Clearly, Arab society is far more diverse than conventional wisdom once held.

One could argue that there is no comparison between the escaped prisoners and the other issues. Nevertheless, it showed how Arab society in Israel cannot be expected to speak in one voice. This misperception was clear a few months ago, when demonstrations erupted in the country’s mixed towns. It was also evident when the IDF refused to let Arab truck drivers to enter military bases as contractors during Operation “Guardian of the Walls” last May.

Samer Atamni, a political activist who founded the Rayetna Movement for coexistence, discussed the situation with Al-Monitor. “Arab society is a society in transition. Like any other society in the world, it has a diverse array of ideas, which are best expressed in attitudes about self-identification and citizenship. We are currently witnessing a clearly existential process, the proof being the rise and success of [Ra’am leader] Mansour Abbas with his moderate platform, focusing more on civil than on national rights. Arab society is split and conflicted over how it defines its future and its participation in Israeli society. It is concerned to some degree or other about the loss of identity, but this [topic] creates confusion among Jews and Arabs alike.’’

Atamni said that this confusion clouded the escape. “There were those who identified fully with their escape and all that this represents in terms of their struggle for freedom and an end to the occupation. But there were also those — and I think they are a minority — who opposed providing them with aid and reported them to the police. The debate between these two groups is blowing up on social media.”

It must be remembered that Arab society in Israel was originally part of a larger Palestinian people. They did not emerge out of nowhere in 1948 with the founding of the State of Israel. They were part of the country’s indigenous Arab population who happened to receive Israeli citizenship when the state was founded. The hunt after the escapees spotlit the paradox lived and experienced by a significant part of Israel’s Arab population and the complex circumstances that they deal with on a daily basis.

On one hand, Arab-Israelis want to be law-abiding citizens and an integral part of Israeli society. On the other hand, they struggle to come to terms with the long and ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands. This paradox evoked debate on social networks over the capture of four of the fugitives in Nazareth and Umm al-Ghanam and questions about the common destiny of Arabs on the Israeli side of the Green Line and the Palestinian people living in the West Bank and Gaza.

Sami Ali, a strategist and former spokesperson for the Joint List, told Al-Monitor that there is consensus among Arab-Israelis on the escape. "There was no debate and no opposition to their escape from any part of the Palestinian people: not in the West Bank, not in Gaza, and not among the Arab citizens of Israel. There is consensus that the prisoners have a right to freedom and liberty, but expressions of identification among Palestinian citizens of Israeli were limited to social networks. The reason for this is that when it comes to political-security issues, Israel treats its Arab citizens as potential suspects. Even the prisoners themselves showed personal responsibility by maintaining a distance and not coming into direct contact with Arab citizens of Israel, because they are aware of the dangerous implications this could have for them.”

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/09/capture-escaped-palestinian-prisoners-divides-arab-israelis#ixzz76YtBKAfu