Norway’s government apologizes to Sami reindeer herders

By JAN M. OLSEN

an hour ago

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Shareholders open up for Sami Parliament President, Silje Karine Muotka, who will meet with Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland at the Ministry of Oil and Energy in Oslo, Thursday, March 2, 2023.

(Javad Parsa/NTB Scanpix via AP)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Norwegian government apologized Thursday to reindeer herders after activists spent a week protesting a wind farm that they say hinders the rights of the Indigenous Sami people in central and Arctic Norway.

“I have apologized to the reindeer owners on behalf of the government,” Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland said after meeting with the speaker of the 39-seat Sami Parliament, Silje Karine Mutoka.

“They have been in a difficult and unclear situation for a long time. I’m sorry about that,” he said.

Mutoka said that receiving an apology had been “a wish from my side.”

“It is crucial for us to move forward. It is important that we now have a common perception that we are dealing with a human rights violation,” she said after the meeting, which was scheduled to last for an hour but took 90 minutes.

Although the talks did not yield an agreement to resolve the wind farm dispute, Aasland said “that we are not ruling out any solutions at this time.”

Mutoka is set to meet next week with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who plans to travel to northern Norway for a previously planned visit.

The activists, mainly teenagers, began their protest a week ago and have blocked the entrance to several ministries in Oslo, Norway’s capital, since Monday. On Thursday, police carried activists away from the finance and culture ministries, while others sang a Sami chant.

Police told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that the activists who were taken away will be fined. No details on the size of the fines were given.

At the center of the dispute are 151 turbines at Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, located in the Fosen district, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of Oslo. The activists say that a transition to green energy should not come at the expense of the rights of Indigenous people.

They say the wind farm is still operating despite an October 2021 ruling by Norway’s Supreme Court that said the construction of wind turbines violated the rights of the Sami, who have used the land for reindeer for centuries.

After the Supreme Court ruling, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy asked the owners of the two wind farms to establish whether measures could be taken to ensure reindeer herding near the turbines. But the Sami have refused to take part in such a process.

Several of the activists protesting in Oslo donned the traditional bright-colored clothing of the Sami, whom international organizations recognize as Europe’s only Indigenous people because of their unique cultural roots that predate the creation of nation states.

Formerly known as the Lapps, the Sami are believed to have originated in Central Asia and settled with their reindeer herds in Arctic Europe around 9,000 years ago. They traditionally lived in Lapland, which stretches from northern parts of Norway through Sweden and Finland to Russia.

Across the Arctic region, the majority live on the Norwegian side of the border. Between 40,000 and 60,000 Sami live in central and northern Norway.

They once faced oppression of their culture, including bans on the use of their native tongue. Now they have their own parliaments, schools, newspapers and broadcasts in their own language on national radio and television. The nomadic people live mostly modern lifestyles, but still tend reindeer.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/02/greta-thunberg-joins-protest-over-wind.html

Why Elly Schlein is freaking out Italy’s ‘soft’ socialists

The newly elected leader of Italy’s social democrats is stirring up opposition — in her own party and beyond.

Elly Schlein has been elected as the youngest and first female leader of Italy’s Democratic party 

BY GREGORIO SORGI
MARCH 2, 2023 

Right-wing hardliners could not dream of an easier target than Elly Schlein, the new leader of Italy’s center-left Democratic Party (PD).

A global citizen with a female partner and an upper-middle-class upbringing, the youngest and first female leader of Italy’s most-established progressive party has sparked the ire of the country’s conservatives.

“CommunistElly,” the right-wing newspaper Il Tempo dubbed her after the leadership contest was decided on Sunday. Schlein defeated the favorite Stefano Bonaccini with 53.8 percent to 46.2 percent of the vote.

Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s allies have been relishing the polarization around Schlein — the two political leaders, though both female, stand for very different values.

“She promised to prioritize the poor, public education and workers,” right-wing commentator Italo Bocchino said in attacking Schlein. “But unlike Meloni, she has never known the poor in her life,” he continued, pointing out how she attended a private school “for rich people” in Switzerland. Nor can Schlein know workers “as she’s never worked in her life,” he ranted.

Schlein’s surprise win has not only fired up her opponents, but also unsettled many in her own party. Fellow social democrats are spooked that Schlein could transform the PD from the broad progressive church it’s historically been into a much more radical sect.

There’s also concern about whether she’ll stand by the party’s support for sending lethal weapons to Ukraine given her self-described pacifist views.

Most skeptics are clinging on — for now — although a few have already jumped ship.

“The PD is over,” declared David Allegranti, a journalist for the Florence daily La Nazione. The expert on the Italian center-left argues that Schlein and many of her allies hail from leftist splinter groups and were not members of the PD until barely a few months ago — discrediting them in their critics’ eyes.

Ex-Cabinet minister Giuseppe Fioroni, among the founding members of the PD, told POLITICO: “Her project has nothing to do with my history and my political culture.” Having foreseen the outcome, Fioroni left the party one day before Schlein’s victory was announced. “My PD is no longer there, this is another party — it no longer belongs to the center left, but to the hard left,” he said.

As a youth leader in 2013, Schlein became the figurehead of Occupy PD, a protest movement set up by disaffected progressives angered over 101 center-left parliamentarians who voted against their own social democrat grandee Romano Prodi’s bid to become the president of Italy.

“With Elly Schlein, the PD has occupied itself,” quipped Allegranti.

Ex-Cabinet minister and PD founding member Giuseppe Fioroni left the party one day before Schlein’s victory, saying that the party “no longer belongs to the center left, but to the hard left” | Claudio Peri/EPA

The young radical

The daughter of a Swiss-based political scientist couple (one Italian and one American), Schlein was raised in Lugano, the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, and spent her teens writing film reviews — her dream at the time was to become a film director — as well as playing the board game “Trivial Pursuit” and the cult 90s video game “The Secret of Monkey Island.”

Her first stint in politics came in 2008, when she cut her teeth working as a volunteer for Barack Obama’s two U.S. presidential election campaigns — heading to Chicago to do so.

“Here, I understood that you don’t need to ask for votes, but mobilize people with ideas,” she recalled to La Repubblica. A decade on, the lesson proved useful for her own leadership campaign.

In a first for the PD’s leadership contests, Schlein won the open ballot after losing by a wide margin in the caucus with party members the week before, demonstrating her capacity to win over voters.

The newly elected leader gained the upper hand over Bonaccini in big cities such as Milan, Turin and Naples, as well as performing well almost everywhere north of Rome — but lost in most southern regions, according to pollster YouTrend.

“There was a wave of support that brought along different kinds of voters, who were united by a strong desire for change,” said Lorenzo Pregliasco, the founder of YouTrend.

However, Pregliasco played down reports of a “youthquake,” and described the leadership campaign as “boring, dull and largely ignored by public opinion.”

End of the party, or a new beginning?

While there are no exact figures on voter turnout available, Italian media reports that around 1.2 million people cast their ballots — which would mark the lowest figures since PD party primaries were first held in 2007.

After becoming a member of the European Parliament with the Socialists & Democrats group in 2014 at the age of 28, Schlein took the unexpected decision to abandon the PD a year later, accusing then-prime minister and PD party leader Matteo Renzi of lurching to the right.

The decision turned out to be prophetic, as Renzi suffered a number of electoral defeats that snowballed into his resignation as prime minister in 2016, and as party leader in 2018.

Pippo Civati, a former parliamentarian and longtime ally of Schlein who is now out of politics, recalled of Schlein in 2015: “We left at the same time because he [Renzi] was making one mess after another.”

Speaking to POLITICO, Civati warned that the newly elected leader could end up having her hands tied by party bigwigs who backed the popular politician without necessarily having any genuine commitment to her radical ideas.

Pundits point out that the conflict in Ukraine could be the trickiest issue for Schlein, whose distant ancestors hail from a village close to modern-day Lviv. There are question marks over whether she will carry forward her predecessor Enrico Letta’s all-out support for the delivery of lethal weapons to Ukraine.

A U-turn by Schlein on support for Ukraine would leave Meloni as the only national party leader in favor of sending arms to the besieged country, fueling concerns among Western allies who see Italy as a weak link.

“A change of line over Ukraine could be the trigger for many centrists to leave the PD,” Allegranti said.

But Civati played down rumors of an about-face, arguing that Schlein is unlikely to oppose the sending of arms to Ukraine.

“We support Ukraine’s right to defend itself, through every form of assistance,” said Schlein in a recent interview with broadcaster La7. “But as a pacifist, I don’t think that weapons alone will end the war.”

POLITICO EU

Three lessons on the regulation of autonomous weapons systems to ensure accountability for violations of IHL

March 2, 2023

States have agreed on the principle that machines cannot be held accountable for violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), but how would accountability be ensured in practice?

In this post, Vincent Boulanin and Marta Bo from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) argue that looking at how responsibility for IHL violations is currently ascribed under international law provides useful lessons for the regulation of AWS.

What if the use of an autonomous weapon system (AWS) during an armed conflict resulted in the death or injury of civilians or damage to civilian objects? Whereas not all harm to civilians is illegal under international humanitarian law (IHL), launching an attack against civilians or civilian objects amounts to a violation. But how could accountability for such a violation be ensured?

We argue that looking at how responsibility for IHL violations is currently ascribed under international law is critical not only to ensuring accountability but also to identifying clearer limits and requirements for the development and use of AWS.
Human responsibility and accountability in the GGE debate

The risks posed by autonomous weapon systems have been the focus of intergovernmental discussions at the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (UN CCW) since 2013. States still disagree on whether and how the development and use of AWS should be (further) regulated, but they have recognized, among other principles, that human responsibility for decisions on the use of weapon systems must be retained, since accountability cannot be transferred to machines.

The question of what this principle entails is critical for the continuation of the policy process on AWS. To date, the expert debate has mainly elaborated on how human responsibility should be exercised – preventively – to ensure compliance with IHL. Less attention has been cast on how accountability would be ensured, in practice, in case of IHL violations involving AWS. The Group of Governmental Experts (the GGE) recognized that the rules governing State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts and individual criminal responsibility for war crimes were the relevant legal framework, but discussed their application in the context of AWS only superficially.

In our view, this represents a major gap in policy conversation, first and foremost because preventing and suppressing IHL violations is part of States’ obligations under Additional Protocol 1 (AP I) to the Geneva Conventions and customary law. We also found that reviewing how these rules apply to IHL violations involving AWS could provide important lessons for the intergovernmental debate on the regulation of AWS.

Here are three lessons we identified in our most recent report on Retaining Human Responsibility in the Development and Use of Autonomous Weapons Systems: on Accountability for Violation of International Humanitarian Law involving AWS.
Three lessons for the regulation of AWS

Lesson 1. Discerning IHL violations in the development and use of AWS will remain challenging without further clarification on what IHL permits, requires, and prohibits

The first lesson is that legal clarification will be needed to ensure that the legal framework governing accountability can be effectively triggered.

The rules governing State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts and individual criminal responsibility for war crimes are linked to IHL. Both the establishment of State responsibility for IHL violations and individual criminal responsibility for war crimes depend on normative standards established by IHL rules. The fact that the debate on IHL compliance in the development and use of AWS is still unsettled presents, in that context, a fundamental challenge. Many questions remain about what IHL requires, permits, and prohibits, for instance in terms of human-machine interaction. This means that the basis for establishing that a State or an individual violates IHL is still, in some cases, unclear, or at least subject to different interpretations.

AWS bring also into new light old and unresolved legal disputes around the standards of conduct that would trigger State responsibility or individual criminal responsibility for war crimes (or both). For instance, it has been debated to what extent a violation of the principle of distinction has to be ‘deliberate’ for State responsibility to arise. And it is an open question whether recklessness or omission satisfy the mental and material elements of perpetrating or participating in the commission of a war crime. The fact that AWS are pre-programmed weapons, which are ultimately triggered by the interaction with the environment rather than direct user input, gives these debates new resonance but also new scenarios to deal with. For instance, would a failure to suspend an attack involving an AWS that is expected to harm civilians be considered a deliberate attack on civilians and amount to a war crime?

These questions and controversies underline the need for the policy process on AWS to achieve more precision and a common understanding of IHL compliance. In particular, they invite the GGE to elaborate on standards of intent, knowledge and behaviour that are demanded on the part of the user(s) of AWS. Clarifying what the user(s) of an AWS should be able to reasonably foresee and do to ensure that the AWS attack is directed at a specific military objective and the effects of the weapon are limited as required by IHL would make it easier to determine whether a violation has been committed intentionally or that the user engaged in risk-taking behaviour that could give rise to State responsibility, and individual criminal responsibility or both.

Lesson 2. Elaboration on what constitutes a ‘responsible human chain of command’ could help with the attribution of responsibility

The second lesson is that the policy process needs to unpack the notion of ‘responsible human chain of command’. Elaboration on how such a chain may look could dramatically facilitate the attribution of responsibility, be it to the State or individual.

Some States and experts have expressed the concern that, in the case of a harmful incident involving an AWS for instance, it could be difficult to identify whose conduct is blameworthy given that the operation, performance and effect of an AWS were determined in part by decisions and actions of multiple individuals involved in the development and use of the systems; as well as the interaction of the system with the environment.

We argue in this context that it would be extremely useful if States could elaborate on what a scheme of responsibility for the development and use of AWS could look like. Such a scheme would provide more clarity on how the roles and responsibilities for IHL compliance may or may not be distributed in practice: who should do what, when and where the roles and responsibilities of the different individuals start and end and how might these interact with one another. Such an effort would be doubly beneficial. On the one hand it would strengthen IHL compliance by providing clearer expectations for the users of AWS. On the other, it could make it easier to detect who engaged in unlawful conduct that could give rise to State responsibility, individual criminal responsibility (or both).

Lesson 3. Traceability is a critical component for the regulation of AWS

The third lesson is that traceability – understood here as the ability to trace the operation, performance and effect of an AWS back to people involved in its development and use – should be regarded as a critical component of further regulation of AWS. It should inform the identification of new limits and requirements on the design and use of AWS ­– for two reasons.

First and foremost, traceability is a practical requirement for complying with States’ obligations under international law. Under AP I, States are obliged to repress war crimes, including searching for individuals responsible, and suppressing any other violations of IHL. To be able to perform these obligations, States need to be able to determine whether illegal conduct took place and, if so, identify blameworthy individuals. Second, it is also a practical requirement to assess and impose State responsibility, individual criminal responsibility or both.

If an attack involving an AWS results in the deaths of civilians – both the States with jurisdiction over the incident[1] and other States and institutions that are entitled to investigate the incident, such as the ICC or fact-finding commissions, would need to determine whether the deaths were caused by a technical failure or unlawful conduct on the part of the user(s) and/or developers of the AWS. This demands a practical ability to scrutinize the operation, performance and effect of AWS and trace back whether and how these result from decisions and actions made by people involved in the development and use of AWS.

Certain emerging technologies in the area of AWS, such as certain approaches to artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML), could make the task of investigating the cause of an incident difficult. Machine learning methods, such as deep learning, could offer military benefits but they are also opaque in their functioning. As they stand, current ML techniques used in target recognition software are not explainable which means that a programmer or a user cannot fully understand how they learn to recognize a target type. This opacity could make it difficult to determine after the fact what caused a system to strike civilians or civilian objects. Even in situations where a technical problem can be excluded, attribution problems could also emerge as the operation, performance and effect of the AWS is determined by decisions made by multiple people at different points in time and, in part, depends on the interaction of the AWS with the environment. Tracing back whose conduct is blameworthy could be difficult.

The takeaway here for the regulation of AWS is two-fold. Should States decide to explicitly prohibit AWS that are incompatible with IHL or otherwise posing unacceptable risks to civilians and other protected persons, such a prohibition should make explicit that technical characteristics and forms of human-machine interaction that preclude the ability to trace back the cause of a harmful incident are off-limits. That could include unexplainable machine learning algorithms. Efforts to codify lawful uses of AWS could, on the other hand, make traceability a critical requirement for the design and use of an AWS. On the technical side, that could entail that algorithms on which the targeting functions are based should be transparent, explainable, and interrogable enough to identify legal/illegal conduct and blameworthy individuals. On the organisational side, that could entail, as suggested, developing and using, a scheme of responsibility, but also mechanisms to record and trace back decisions in the development and use of AWS.

Exploring how accountability for IHL violations involving AWS would be ensured may seem to some actors premature if not irrelevant, as the use of AWS, is – depending on one’s understanding of an AWS – not yet an operational reality. With this post we hope to have demonstrated that it is a useful and much-needed exercise for the policy process on AWS, as it provides a lens to explore what is, or should be, demanded, permitted, and prohibited in the development and use of AWS.

[1] On the basis of the territoriality, active personality, and universal jurisdiction principles.

See also

Laura Bruun, Autonomous weapon systems: what the law says – and does not say – about the human role in the use of force, November 11, 2021

Frank Sauer, Autonomy in weapons systems: playing catch up with technology, September 29, 2021

Neil C. Renic, Autonomous Weapons Systems: When is the right time to regulate?, September 26, 2019

ICRC, Neil Davison, Autonomous weapon systems: An ethical basis for human control? April 3, 2018

Vincent Boulanin Senior Researcher, SIPRI  

Marta Bo Associate Senior Researcher, SIPRI

Israeli parliament approves capital punishment only for Palestinians

Ibrahim Husseini
Jerusalem
02 March, 2023

The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Adalah, called the legislation "immoral" and indicative of the "Knesset's effort to establish two separate legal systems based on race."


The legislation comes against the backdrop of heightened tensions between Palestinians and Israelis

In a preliminary reading, the Israeli parliament approved a bill instituting the death penalty only on Palestinians.

The unusual legislation allows Israeli courts to impose capital punishment against Palestinians who have perpetrated a nationalistically motivated murder of a citizen of Israel. The legislation, however, does not apply to an Israeli who kills a Palestinian.

MK Limor Sonn Har Melech from the extremist Jewish power party sponsored the bill. Yisrael Beitnu, a party outside the ruling coalition, advanced similar legislation. The two pieces of legislation will likely be merged for future readings in the parliament.

Earlier, the Israeli cabinet supported the bill.

55 MKs supported the bill, while 9 opposed it.

The proposed piece of legislation comes against the backdrop of heightened tensions between Palestinians and Israelis. On Sunday, hundreds of Jewish radicals stormed the town of Huwara and surrounding villages in the occupied West Bank, killing one Palestinian and setting fire to homes, cars and trees.

The bill will now go to the House Committee before returning to the Knesset for the first reading.

The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Adalah, called the legislation "immoral" and indicative of the "Knesset's effort to establish two separate legal systems based on race."

Itamar ben Gvir said this proposal aims to "sever terror and create substantial deterrence."


Ynet news reported that Baharav-Miara, Israel's attorney general, was against the proposed legislation because it wouldn't serve as a deterrent since the perpetrators are ideologically motivated and willing to accept being killed anyway.

Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi opposed the legislation.

"We have always been against the death penalty,​ for any offense, but not only us; [a vast majority of Members of Knesset] objected to it, and there are Jewish and religious Members of Knesset who have ​opposed it on moral religious grounds. There is a ruling of the Chief Rabbi against capital punishment. Rabbi Herzog and Rabbi Ovadia opposed it.

Israeli Official Warns of Ben Gvir’s Law on Executing Palestinian Prisoners

M.S | DOP - 2 March, 2023

The former Israeli Shin Bet chief, Avi Arieli, warned Thursday, March 2, of the death penalty law against Palestinian prisoners enacted by extremist Itamar Ben Gvir a few days ago.

“We are playing with fire,” said Avi Arieli. “One of the most dangerous things we face is the number of operations.”

He added, “The death penalty law for the perpetrators of Palestinian operations is very dangerous because it will double the motivation to carry out more operations.”

Yesterday, Israeli occupation’s ministerial committee for legislation voted to advance a bill proposed by extreme far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to execute Palestinian prisoners.

Calls grow to press on Israel to prevent controversial death penalty

Groups call for respecting global human rights treaties, Hamas urges 'effective international action'

Muhammed Majid |02.03.2023
GAZA CITY, Palestine

A European human rights organization as well as Palestinian factions and institutions have called for international pressure to prevent Israel from passing a death penalty bill against Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis.

Israel's parliament, Knesset, approved Wednesday the first reading of the controversial bill presented by the far-right Jewish Power party, headed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The proposed bill must be approved and enacted in three voting sessions to be held in the Knesset after being accepted by the government.

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Wednesday called on all relevant parties to "pressure Israel to prevent death penalty legislation against Palestinian detainees" and stressed the need for it to respect international human rights treaties.

"What is more concerning is that Palestinians in the occupied territories are tried by kangaroo military courts, with a conviction rate above 99%, which means a total lack of fair trial," Lara Hamidi, Euro-Med Monitor's partnerships and communications coordinator, told the UN Human Rights Council.

She stressed that the Israeli actions on the ground "reflect a pattern of systematic extrajudicial executions" carried out by the Israeli army.

Israeli oppression

For its part, Mohjat al-Quds Foundation for the Martyrs, a Palestinian nongovernmental organization, said that "the (draft) law of executing prisoners is an attempt to kill and uproot everything that is Palestinian."

In a statement, the foundation called on international and human rights institutions and the UN to "break the state of silence and put pressure on the Zionist occupation to stop passing the law and stop repressive measures against prisoners and detainees."

Also, the Waed Association for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners, a Palestinian NGO, said in a statement that the bill "violates and contradicts all international laws" and it "clearly reflects the extent of the decadence and confusion of the Zionist entity."

The director of the foundation, Abdullah Qandil, called on the Arab countries and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to "exercise their efforts towards dropping this law, which will change the nature of the entire (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict and will drag the region into an open confrontation."

Legalization of murder

On the other hand, the Palestinian Hamas group said "the law of executing Palestinian prisoners is an open attempt to legitimize the systematic killings carried out by the occupation forces against our people, and disrespect for the international system and laws and covenants."

In a statement, the group called for "an effective international action to deter and punish this Zionist government that has never stopped killing and inciting (against Palestinians)."

On Dec. 29, the Knesset gave confidence to the current government headed by Netanyahu, which is described as "the most right-wing in the history of Israel," especially in terms of policies hostile to the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine described the draft law as "a racist fascist par excellence, and (it) expresses the depth of the fascist state that controls the overwhelming majority of Knesset members."

The front warned in a statement that "approving it in its final form will further ignite the flames of popular anger."

Death sentence

According to the Knesset, the bill stipulates that a person who, intentionally or recklessly causes the death of an Israeli citizen, and when the act is carried out with racist or hateful motives and to harm Israel, must face the death penalty.

Despite the arrest of the perpetrators of the attacks, according to the Knesset, "in practice, all the killers receive comfortable conditions in prison and salaries from the Palestinian Authority, and at the appropriate time most of them are released in various deals."

About 4,500 prisoners are held in 23 Israeli prisons and detention and investigation centers, including children, women and hundreds of administrative detainees who are being held without trial, according to the concerned Palestinian bodies.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara

Palestinian prisoners ramp up disobedience campaign following Israeli raid on cells

Currently, Israel holds 4,780 Palestinian in its jails, including 29 women, 160 children and 915 detainees without charges under the "administrative detention" system, according to human rights groups.

Palestinian prisoners announced a mass hunger strike to start on 22 March 2023. [Qassam Muaddi /TNA]

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails ramped up their protests on Thursday by refusing to leave their cells.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club described the protest action as "a new act of defiance to the Israeli prison services", ahead of an announced mass hunger strike scheduled to start on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, set for 22 March 20233.

The move came following a raid by Israeli prison guard forces on Palestinian prisoners in the Negev prison, south of the country on Wednesday.

"The occupation prison guards cut electricity for all the Palestinian prisoners' sections in the Negev late on Wednesday, then began to search the rooms and confiscate electric devices," Ayah Shreiteh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, told The New Arab.

"Earlier last week, the occupation prison services informed prisoners in the Negev that if their families send them new clothes, they would have to give back the old ones, which adds to the recent repressive measures introduced by the occupation government against Palestinian prisoners," she pointed out.

Earlier in February, the Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered restrictions on shower time and quantity of water for Palestinian prisoners. Ben-Gvir has been introducing more and more repressive measures against Palestinian prisoners, which began with the transfer of tens of Palestinian prisoners between several Israeli jails to break any attempts to organise.

Palestinian prisoners escalated their civil disobedience campaign in early February to demand the end of the new repressive measures, pledging to conduct a mass hunger strike in which Palestinian prisoners from all political affiliations would participate in late March.

On Wednesday, the Israeli Knesset approved in a preliminary phase a bill put forward by Ben-Gvir to enable the death penalty sentence for Palestinian prisoners. The bill has been pushed for by the Israeli far-right for more than a year.

"The preliminary approval means that the death penalty bill has entered in the legislation process, which includes a first reading and second reading approvals, before a final vote," Milena Ansari, spokesperson for Addameer Prisoner Support Association, explained to TNA.

"It remains unclear if the bill will eventually pass because Israeli has signed international conventions against the death penalty, which means that the Knesset is breaching Israel's international obligations," she said.

"This move increases the already-high tensions between Israeli authorities and Palestinian prisoners, which indicates that the hunger strike is probably going to happen," she added.

On Monday, The 'Higher Emergency Committee' of the Palestinian prisoners' unified leadership body said in a statement made public by the Prisoners' Club, "We, who have come out to resist the occupation, ready for martyrdom, are not scared by a death penalty bill, but it only makes us more resilient to confront the occupiers, inside and outside of prison."

"We will continue or protest leading to the mass hunger strike on the first day of Ramadan," the prisoners' statement added.

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Israeli authorities have been intensifying repressive measures against Palestinian prisoners since the Gilboa prison break in September 2021, which triggered this latest wave of civil disobedience campaigns by the prisoners.

In January, Itamar Ben Gvir pledged to resume all suspended repressive measures and introduce further restrictions as soon as he assumed Israel's security ministry. Israeli far-right ministers also championed the death penalty bill as part of their electoral program.

Currently, Israel holds 4,780 Palestinian in its jails, including 29 women, 160 children and 915 detainees without charges under the "administrative detention" system, according to human rights groups.

Since 1967, around 1 million Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces.

Turbulent Israel Sinks Deeper Into Strife

Demonstrators ahead of the protest in Jerusalem, Feb. 20.Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg

By Sylvia Westall
March 2, 2023 
Israelis block city highways as police fire stun grenades. Soldiers clash with Jewish settlers in the West Bank. An arch enemy in the Middle East seeks new arms.

Multiple crises are rocking Israel roughly two months into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest term. And things only seem to be getting worse.

Tens of thousands of Israelis are protesting a government plan to overhaul the judiciary that’s deepened the divide between traditional, more religious Jews who mainly back the change and the secular professionals who see it as a threat to the Middle East’s most developed economy and democracy.

The effects are being felt in markets. This week the cost of insuring Israeli debt against default rose to the highest since 2019 for five-year credit-default swaps, and the shekel is among the worst-performing emerging market currencies.

“Israel is on the brink of internal disintegration and severe social rift,” Yuval Diskin, the former head of the domestic security agency, said at a demonstration this week, warning of the threat of civil war.

Also stirring concern is Israel’s top foe Iran — itself battling unprecedented domestic protests. Israeli officials believe Tehran wants new air-defense systems from Russia that will narrow the window for any potential strike on its nuclear sites. Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium has already reached a record.

While no one is talking about an imminent attack, the rhetoric has escalated under Netanyahu. And any strike could trigger a regional conflagration affecting global oil supplies.

Closer to home, there are skirmishes between soldiers and settlers who have rampaged through Palestinian villages. There are also protests over the proposed judicial changes and escalating violence with Palestinians that threatens to increase with the coming holidays of Ramadan later this month and Passover in early April.

Sixty-two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops since the beginning of the year, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, alongside 14 Israelis.

Opposition lawmaker Efrat Rayten Marom summed up the feelings of many with her comment this week: “The country is in a dark age.”

 

Demonstrators outside Israel’s parliament, Feb. 20.
Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg

Controversial Israeli legal reforms spark fears for economy
Agence France-Presse
March 02, 2023

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

Controversial legal reforms being debated in Israel's parliament have sparked fears in the high-tech and financial sectors that foreign investors will be scared off in a blow to growth prospects.

The new legislation has been spearheaded by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which took office in December and is regarded as the most right-wing in Israeli history.

It aims to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court and give politicians greater powers over the selection of judges.

The proposals could deal a "severe blow to the economy", former Bank of Israel governors have warned in the country that dubs itself the "start-up nation".

Writing recently in the top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper, former governors Karnit Flug and Jacob Frenkel acknowledged the situation "is still far from that of countries like Hungary and Poland, and its situation is immeasurably better than that of Turkey".

"But it is important to understand that there is a connection between seemingly unrelated processes, such as the ability of the judiciary to criticise the government, and confidence in the economy, which affects economic performance."

Key figures in Israel's high-tech sector -- which accounts for some 15 percent of GDP and more than half of exports -- have played a key role in the protest movement, which has seen mass rallies in Tel Aviv and other cities.

The judicial reform program includes a clause which permits parliament to annul decisions by the Supreme Court, which Netanyahu and his far-right allies view as politicized.
'Corruption and uncertainty'

Some analysts say uncertainties related to the reforms have already triggered a decline in the economy, with the value of the Israeli shekel falling seven percent against the US dollar since the end of January.

The shekel slumped further after parliament voted in favor of two clauses at first reading on February 21.

This week it was trading at 3.67 shekels to the dollar, a four-year low.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) was down 5.7 percent over the past month.

High-tech workers have taken part in the protests, saying the industry will suffer if foreign firms lose confidence in the legal system and democratic principles.

Dror Salee, a leading high-tech entrepreneur for the past 25 years, says the impact is already being felt.

"There are no figures yet on the decline in foreign investment, which represents 85 percent to 90 percent of investment in high-tech -- but I don't know of a start-up that is managing to raise funds in this moment," Salee said.

"Everything we have built over the past 20 to 30 years is collapsing," added Salee, who has taken part in the protests as one of the leaders of the high-tech sector.

"There is a close link... between economic growth and investment on the one hand and the democratic system on the other", said Omar Moav, economics professor at Britain's University of Warwick and Reichman University near Tel Aviv.

"When the judiciary is weakened and the executive can set the rules of the game at its discretion, it opens the door to corruption and uncertainty, two things that will put off investors and markets."

'Snowball effect'

Salee warned of a "snowball effect", should lawmakers adopt the reforms -- currently being debated in parliament with several legislative stages still to go.

"Israelis, who often go to work abroad in high-tech for a few years, will be more likely to leave and fewer to return," he said.

"The sector will lose its comparative advantage in terms of human capital, which will feed the loss of investments."

Israel's tech sector expanded substantially during Netanyahu's previous 12-year stint in office until 2021. That year the sector accounted for 54 percent of Israeli exports, or $67 billion, according to the most recent figures from the Israel Innovation Authority.

Some critics tie the reform proposals to Netanyahu's trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He denies the allegations and any link between the reforms and his own court case.

But Moav notes that before the corruption cases in 2019, Netanyahu opposed the judicial reforms.

"Netanyahu, who knows full well the economic cost of judicial reform, is ready to pay the price to escape his run-ins with the law," he charged.

© 2023 AFP

‘I've already lived under Stalin!’ Anti-government protests spread across Israel

As Wednesday marked a huge day for protests all over the country decrying the judicial reform, Holon is the latest city to join the list of local municipalities where people, waving flags and chanting aloud, are taking to the streets by the thousands

Up until now, Israelis, who wanted to make their disapproval of the government's judicial reform known, traveled to major cities like Tel Aviv, Haifa, Be'er Sheva or Jerusalem, but as the massive nationwide protests enter their third month, smaller municipalities are also having their say.

One such locale is the city of Holon, 190,000 strong, which lies just south of Tel Aviv and where thousands of flag-wielding adults, teenagers and toddlers all turned out Wednesday night, honking their horns, shouting slogans through their loudspeakers, playing their drums, singing songs, dancing or just standing in solidarity with the spirit of the demonstration.

People showed up equipped with some interesting signs. An elderly woman carried a sign that said "I've already lived under Stalin", evoking the Soviet despot in concern the reform might be a step toward absolving the government of all accountability.
A group of young women carried a sign bearing the inscription "They can take our lives, but they will never take our freedom!", an iconic quote from Mel Gibson's 1995 epic historical drama Braveheart.

Another sign addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly: "Bibi, you'll go down in history as the one who ruined Israel!"

The chants, much like the signs, were varied. Some simply shouted "Democracy" over and over while others chanted "havurat mushchatim lo tivhar et hashoftim", meaning they won't allow a group of corrupt politicians to pick their judges, eluding to one of the more polarizing provisions in the reform which would give the government greater control over the judge selection process.

One of the reform opponents' gravest concerns is that Netanyahu would use it to reshape the judiciary in a way that would allow him to avoid his corruption trial.
Shelly David is a 62-year-old Holon native who shares that concern.
"I actually made a sign that urges calm between both sides but my husband didn't think it's a good idea for me to bring it," she said.


Shelly David speaks to Ynetnews about judicial reform

(Photo: Gilad Meiri)
"I'm also a bit worried about the idea that Netanyahu is using it to get out of his legal trouble. I don't have all the proof for this, but it is a concern."
Shelly Atzmon, a 37-year-old mother of two, was more adamant. "We can't allow this reform to happen. We just can't."

What provision from the overall reform package bothers you the most?
"The fact that 61 Knesset members that have a political agenda are going to overrule Supreme Court justices? How can this be? We're no longer a democracy if we just stand by and let this go on. This isn't Syria."

How do you respond to those who want accountability for the Judiciary?

"Don't make me laugh. Their version of accountability is that they'll use the status in the Knesset to make their interests the law of the land. That's not accountability. I don't trust any of them."


Protesters waving flags in Holon
(Photo: Gilad Meiri)

Regardless of how you feel about it, do you think the reform will pass?

"I don't know. The only thing I can say is that we'll keep fighting to the end, and with some help from above, we'll win in the end."

And the protest seemed to also erode boundaries between left and right. Mordechai Kirilinsky, 67, is a proud Likud voter. "I've always liked Netanyahu."


A sign saying Netanyahu will be remembered as the one who ruined the State of Israel
(Photo: Gilad Meiri)

How many times did you vote for him?

"Pretty much every time he ran, including when he beat (former prime minister Shimon) Peres after Rabin was assassinated."

So this really goes back a long time for you.

"Not just for me. My grandfather was in the Haganah (a pre-state Zionist paramilitary that served as a precursor to the IDF) and was a big fan of Menachem Begin. He wouldn't have stood for this."

Elderly woman holding sign saying she's had enough of dictatorships back in Stalin's time
(Photo: Gilad Meiri)

Weren't there signs before the elections that Netanyahu might be inclined toward supporting such a reform?

"You know what he once said? That the existence of a strong and independent judiciary is the key to all other institutions in a democracy. How could I have known he'd suddenly change his tune like that?"


A sign quoting Braveheart
(Photo: Gilad Meiri)

A politician is a politician, right?

"Sure, but there has to be a limit. This is too big of an issue to flip-flop on."

Does that mean that in the next elections, you might vote for someone like Lapid?
"I'm disappointed," he smiled. "Not insane."

 

Basim Naim, “This New Statement Confirms That ‘Israel’ Is Run by a Fascist Government”

M.S | DOP - 2 March, 2023

Basem Naim, Head of the Department of Politics and Foreign Relations in Gaza, commented on the statement of the extremist Israeli Finance Minister, Smotrich, on the Palestinian town of Hawara, that it’s clear evidence of the fascism and extremism inherent in the current Israeli government.

“Next to many statements and actions by officials in the Israeli occupation government, this new statement comes to confirm that “Israel” is run by a fascist government, which poses a real threat to security and stability, not only in Palestine but also in the region and at the international level,” said Naim.

He added, “Today, the international community stands plain in front of the insolence of the truth here on the Palestinian land. We, as victims of this new fascism, are waiting for actions, not just words.”

Naim continued, “We hope that this will not take too long because time means that new lives, from all sides, will be lost until this is achieved.”

During his speech at an economic conference held by The Marker newspaper, the extremist Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Wednesday, March 1, “The Palestinian village of Huwwara should be wiped out. The state needs to do it and not private citizens – referring to the Israeli settlers who attacked Hawara last Sunday.”

On Sunday, February 26, Israeli colonizers stormed Hawara town, under the protection of the occupation forces, threw stones at Palestinian homes, set fire to garbage containers and Palestinian vehicles, and tried to burn olive trees. They also set fire to a Palestinian house with its residents inside.

The settlers’ attack on the town resulted in the killing of a Palestinian and the injury of 390 others, as the Israeli occupation forces participated in the attack on the Palestinian citizens instead of controlling the security situation in the area.

February| IOF Detains 175 Palestinian Citizens, 31 Boys in Jerusalem 

M.S | DOP - 2 March, 2023

The far-right Israeli occupation government has been escalating its attacks against the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem during February, especially with the announcement by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of the “Defensive Wall 2” military operation on the city.

In February only, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained 175 Palestinian citizens, including 6 women and 31 minors, in occupied Jerusalem.

The Israeli occupation courts issued 14 administrative detention orders against Palestinian detainees from the city.

In its war against the Palestinian detainees, the Israeli occupation launched a punitive campaign against the freed detainees and their families, including seizing their bank accounts, raiding dozens of homes, and confiscating their gold jewelry, cars, and other valuables.

This step came in the implementation of the decision of the Minister of the Israeli occupation army, Yoav Gallant, to impose financial penalties on 87 Jerusalemite detainees and their families under the pretext of receiving financial aid from the Palestinian Authority.

The escalation of Israeli violations against the Palestinians was not limited to their arrest only, but also affected the detainees inside the occupation prisons.

The Israeli occupation prisons administration began on February 16, 2023, imposing collective punishments on Palestinian detainees against the collective disobedience steps they took during the past two days in response to the measures of the extremist Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.

The number of Palestinian detainees in the occupation prisons is currently about 4,780, including 160 children, 29 women, and 914 administrative detainees.

Home confinement and deportation

The Israeli occupation issued 29 house arrest orders against Jerusalemites, including 5 children, in February.

The occupation courts issued more than 15 deportation orders against Palestinians in Jerusalem, 7 of which were deportation orders from the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. IOF

Administrative detention

The Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies confirmed that the number of administrative detainees in the occupation prisons has recently increased to more than 1,000 detainees, which is the highest rate in 20 years.

The Palestine Center said that the Israeli occupation has greatly escalated the issuance of administrative orders against Palestinian prisoners, as they issued more than 400 decisions since the beginning of this year.

It indicated that more than 85% of the administrative prisoners are ex-detainees, who were previously detained and spent years in the occupation prisons, and the occupation re-arrested them again under false pretexts.

Among the administrative detainees are one female, Raghad Al-Fanni from Tulkarm, five children, two deputies from the Legislative Council, two detainees with cancer, and a number of elderly detainees over 60 years old.

235 Palestinian detainees killed by medical negligence

The number of Palestinian detainees who died inside the Israeli occupation prisons rose to 235, after the death of the Palestinian detainee Ahmed Abu Ali, 48, from the city of Yatta, near Hebron, as a result of the crime of medical negligence by the Israeli prisons administration.

The Prisoners Club said in a statement that the prisoner Abu Ali, who has been detained since 2012, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Abu Ali is a father of nine children, and there are about two years left until his release date. Over these years, he has suffered from several diseases, chronic heart health problems, diabetes, and others.

However, the Israeli occupation is still holding the bodies of 11  detainees who were killed inside its prisons.

The occupation uses the policy of medical negligence policy a weapon against the Palestinians by which they are killed slowly.

As a result, the number of sick Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons has reached about 600 detainees, including 24 detainees with tumors.

Human Rights Advocates Call on US Congress to Stop Funding Israeli Occupation 

Af.M | DOP - 2 March, 2023

Palestinian human rights activists in the United States on Thursday, 2 March 2023 called on members of the Us Congress to stop supplying unrestricted funding to the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian activists vocally opposed the US administration’s unlimited support of Israeli occupation and its racist government in favor of Israeli settlers’ brutal activities.

The advocates affirmed that it is time to end the US support for the Israeli apartheid regime based on the US law that prohibits support for human rights violators.

Israeli violence against Palestinian people and their properties sharply increased in recent months amid intensified Israeli deadly military raids in occupied Palestinian territories.

Earlier this week, Israeli settlers set dozens of Palestinian homes and cars on fire in Huwara, a town in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, in what appeared to be the worst outburst of settler violence in decades.

Local Palestinian sources reported that Israeli settlers torched some 30 Palestinian-owned homes and cars during the late-night rampage, which came a day after two settlers were killed.

Earlier this month, Israeli occupation claimed the lives of 11 Palestinians and injured more than 100 others in a deadly military raid into the old city of Nablus.

Palestinian officials said this was the deadliest start to a year there since 2000. 64 Palestinians have been killed over the last two months across the occupied Palestinian lands.