African activists target Intel executive for allegedly pushing for the “Kill the Gays” law

The activists are calling for Intel to fire the executive, who they say is putting their lives in danger.

By Greg Owen 

Friday, July 7, 2023

Photo: Shutterstock

African activists from more than a dozen human rights organizations are fighting back against one of the primary sources of new anti-LGBTQ+ legislation sweeping the continent.

The groups from countries including Uganda, where President Yoweri Museveni signed the East African nation’s notorious “Kill the Gays” law in May, are calling on multinational computer chip corporation Intel to bring a high-ranking executive to account for his participation in formulating and promoting anti-LGBTQ+ policies in Africa through the Arizona-based group Family Watch International.

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Arizona-based Family Watch International is a key player stoking anti-LGBTQ+ hate across the continent.

In a change.org petition, the human rights organizations accuse Greg Slater, Intel’s vice-president of global regulatory affairs, of being “actively responsible for exporting, financing, and spreading hate, homophobia” across the continent through the group, which he co-founded with his wife, Sharon Slater.

The petition asks for Intel to terminate Slater’s employment.

“Family Watch International has sponsored trips for politicians and diplomats from Kenya, Uganda, and other African countries,” Jedidah Maina of the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health told The Guardian. They “train them on their extremist agenda against homosexuality, sexuality education, and reproductive rights.”

“Many of these politicians go on to sponsor or support legislation that seeks to persecute innocent Africans,” said Maina.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Family Watch International is committed to spreading anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion ideology around the world. The group was instrumental in crafting the original “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda in 2009.

After the Uganda Supreme Court overturned that law on a technicality in 2013, Family Watch returned to help write revised legislation that would withstand judicial scrutiny, with willing partners publicly denouncing liberal Western influences, despite accepting close to a billion dollars annually in development aid from the U.S alone.

Last spring, following the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act through Uganda’s unicameral Parliament, Family Watch sponsored a conference in the country that drew lawmakers from more than a dozen African nations, all committed to passing or introducing copycat legislation to combat “the sin of homosexuality.”

“I recently had the honor of meeting with Ms. Sharon Slater, President of Family Watch International, & her team,” Uganda’s First Lady Janet Museveni tweeted after the conference. “They attended the first African Regional Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Uganda, focusing on global challenges that threaten African families & values.”

According to Museveni, she and Sharon Slater discussed “concern about the imposition of harmful practices like homosexuality.”

As well as projecting their agenda overseas, Family Watch sponsors annual training sessions in Arizona, where the Slaters host receptions for visiting dignitaries between coaching exercises on how to undermine LGBTQ+ rights at home.

Following the Uganda conference in March, attendee Peter Kaluma, a member of parliament in Kenya, introduced a Kill the Gays copycat bill in the former British colony that would criminalize homosexuality in the country, ban Kenyans from identifying as LGBTQ+, and grant citizens the power to arrest anyone they suspect of being gay.

“Same-sex sexual acts and unions are sterile by nature,” said Kaluma, introducing the legislation. “If tolerated or supported and propagated, it would lead to the extinction of the human race.”

“These people are perverts and I promise I will legislate to take every right they think they have,” the MP told The New York Times.

“There is nothing organic about the wave of anti-homosexuality bills we are seeing,” said Muthoni Ngugi, the head of the East Africa Legal Service Network, one of the organizations supporting the petition.

Intel, based in Silicon Valley, maintains a pro-LGBTQ+ profile, but has so far refused to publicly rebuke one of its highest-ranking executives for his blatantly homophobic sideline.

A spokesperson for the company said: “Intel is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion. We also understand that our employees have diverse opinions and viewpoints. We respect the rights of our employees to disagree with Intel’s policies or undertake outside activities as long as they treat their fellow employees with respect and act in accordance with Intel’s code of conduct.”

On its website, Family Watch International denied involvement in the Uganda bill: “Despite media reports to the contrary, Family Watch has never advocated for or lobbied in favor of Uganda’s anti-homosexual bill, nor were we ever involved in promoting Uganda’s previous anti-homosexual bill – in fact, we opposed them both. Family Watch has never supported any efforts in Africa to promote anti-homosexual bills.

LGBTQ Nation reached out to Intel for comment on this story and will update if they respond.

Dutch government led by Mark Rutte collapses over immigration disagreements

Prime Minister announces resignation, triggering new elections later this year

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte speaks to the press after the collapse of his government. EPA

Marwa Hassan
Jul 07, 2023

The Dutch government led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte has collapsed following disagreements over immigration.

A deadlock in the ruling coalition over the contentious issue has led to the immediate resignation of Mr Rutte – the longest-serving prime minister in the nation's history – and the calling of a general election later this year.

Mr Rutte and his government will continue in a caretaker capacity until a new ruling coalition is elected.

“It is no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on migration policy,” Mr Rutte said, announcing his resignation. “And today, unfortunately, we have to draw the conclusion that those differences are irreconcilable.

READ MORE
Migration: European countries under pressure to increase solidarity or pay up

The crisis emerged from Mr Rutte's conservative VVD party's push to limit the flow of asylum seekers to the Netherlands, which was opposed by two of the four-party government coalition.

Despite lengthy meetings in an attempt to reconcile the differing views within the coalition, no agreement was reached on the policy.

This latest disagreement was triggered by Mr Rutte's proposal to limit the entrance of war refugees' children who are already in the Netherlands and to delay family reunions by at least two years.

The proposal was deemed unacceptable by the Christian Union and liberal D66, leading to the coalition's collapse.

Opposition politicians across the spectrum, from Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Party for Freedom, to Green Left leader Jesse Klaver, have called for fresh elections.

The coming election is expected to take place in a highly polarised and fragmented political landscape, with 20 parties in the 150-seat lower house.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced the government would resign as disagreements among coalition parties about asylum policy were 'irreconcilable'. EPA

The migration issue has been a significant point of tension in the Netherlands and across Europe.

In the Netherlands, Mr Rutte's coalition had been attempting to hash out a deal to reduce the flow of new migrants into the country of nearly 18 million people.

In 2022, a little more than 21,500 people from outside Europe sought asylum in the Netherlands, and tens of thousands more migrated for work or study, putting a strain on already scarce housing resources.

Mr Rutte had sought to promote EU efforts to slow migration to the 27-nation bloc, and visited Tunisia last month with his Italian counterpart and the president of the EU's executive commission to offer more than €1 billion in financial aid to help stabilise the country's economy and curb migration from its shores to Europe.

Following the collapse of the government, the caretaker administration will remain in place until a new government is formed after the elections, a process that may take months due to the complexity of the Dutch political landscape.

The national elections committee, cited by the news agency ANP, stated that elections would not be held before mid-November.

Dutch Government Collapses Over Immigration Policy

July 07, 2023 
Reuters

 Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte speaks during a press conference at the Serbia Palace, in Belgrade, Serbia, July 3, 2023. His government fell July 7 when two coalition members refused to support his immigration policy.

AMSTERDAM - The Dutch government collapsed Friday after failing to reach a deal on restricting immigration, which will trigger new elections in the fall.

The crisis was triggered by a push by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's conservative VVD party to limit the flow of asylum-seekers to the Netherlands, which two of his four-party government coalition refused to support.

"It's no secret that the coalition partners have differing opinions about immigration policy. Today we unfortunately have to conclude that those differences have become insurmountable. Therefore, I will tender the resignation of the entire Cabinet to the king," Rutte said in a televised news conference.

Tensions came to a head this week when Rutte demanded support for a proposal to limit entrance of children of war refugees who are already in the Netherlands and to make families wait at least two years before they can be united.

This latest proposal went too far for the small Christian Union and liberal D66, causing a stalemate.

Rutte's coalition will stay on as a caretaker government until a new administration is formed after new elections, a process which in the fractured Dutch political landscape usually takes months.

News agency ANP, citing the national elections committee, said elections would not be held before mid-November.

A caretaker government cannot decide on new policies, but Rutte said it would not affect the country's support for Ukraine.

The Netherlands already has one of Europe's toughest immigration policies, but under the pressure of right-wing parties, Rutte had for months been trying to seek ways to further reduce the inflow of asylum-seekers.

Asylum applications in the Netherlands jumped by a third last year to over 46,000, and the government has projected they could increase to more than 70,000 this year — topping the previous high in 2015.

This will again put a strain on the country's asylum facilities, where for months last year hundreds of refugees at a time were forced to sleep in the rough with little or no access to drinking water, sanitary facilities or health care.

Rutte last year said he felt "ashamed" of the problems, after humanitarian group Medecins sans Frontieres sent in a team to the Netherlands for the first time ever, to assist with migrants' medical needs at the center for processing asylum requests.

He promised to improve conditions at the facilities, mainly by reducing the number of refugees that reach the Netherlands. But he failed to win the backing of coalition partners who felt his policies went too far.

Rutte, 56, is the longest-serving government leader in Dutch history and the most senior in the EU after Hungary's Viktor Orban. He is expected to lead his VVD party again at the next elections.

Rutte's current coalition, which came to power in January 2022, was his fourth consecutive administration since he became prime minister in October 2010.

US: New Hampshire introduces anti-BDS executive order

New Hampshire joins more than 30 other states that have enacted similar measures combatting the Palestinian-led boycott movement

New Hampshire's Governor Chris Sununu signed an executive order on Thursday enacting the law (AFP/File photo)

By MEE staff
Published date: 7 July 2023 

The US state of New Hampshire has introduced a new order that bars the state from investing in companies that boycott Israel, joining more than 30 other states that have put in place some form of anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) legislation or executive order.

Chris Sununu, New Hampshire's Republican governor, signed the executive order on Thursday in a ceremony that was attended by Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan.

"Your crucial step is creating an economic Iron Dome that ensures our shared progress and prosperity," Erdan said during the ceremony. "We must boycott our boycotters and delegitimise our delegitimisers."

Erdan also referred to the UN's Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, set up in the wake of the 11-day Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip in May 2021, saying: "New Hampshire's support for Israel today is the perfect response to this antisemitic UN commission."

The executive order is similar to that of New York state in that it does not carry the force of law, given that it was not passed by the state's legislature.

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The BDS movement is a Palestinian-led nonviolent initiative that seeks to challenge Israel's occupation and abuses of Palestinian human rights through economic, cultural and academic boycotts similar to the successful boycott campaigns of apartheid South Africa.

Anti-BDS laws or executive orders have been passed by 35 other states across the country, according to the legal advocacy group Palestine Legal.

Free speech advocates have decried anti-BDS legislation as being antithetical to the US constitution's first amendment - which guarantees the right to freedom of speech - and have accused the legislation of stifling the voices of Palestinians and their advocates.

'A reckoning': Largest association of American anthropologists to vote on Israel boycott   Read More »

Multiple lawsuits have been filed in the US against such laws to varying degrees of success. One lawsuit is now headed to the US Supreme Court after an appellate court in Arkansas upheld its law on the anti-BDS legislation.

Meanwhile, similar anti-boycott laws in Arizona, Kansas and Texas that had been blocked were later allowed to be enforced after lawmakers narrowed requirements to apply only to larger contracts. The Arkansas law applies to contracts worth $1,000 or more.

There have also been several attempts to pass a federal anti-BDS measure by some members of Congress.

Most recently, Republican Senator Marco Rubio reintroduced the Combating BDS Act, a bill designed to support state and local governments against BDS.

If passed, it would give congressional support to state and local governments that divest funds from or prohibit contracting with entities that engage in the BDS movement.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, new deadly raid in occupied West Bank

A group of settlers, protected by the Israeli forces, threw rocks at Palestinian cars near the village of Ein al Beida and another group opened live fire on Palestinians and their properties near Nablus and Salfit city.


The Palestinian Health Ministry said an injured infant survived a settlers attack when the ambulance that was transporting him to hospital came under settlers' assault.

 / Photo: AA Archive

Israeli settlers have carried out a series of assaults against Palestinians and their properties across the occupied West Bank.


According to the state news agency WAFA, a group of settlers, protected by the Israeli forces, threw rocks at Palestinian cars near the village of Ein al Beida in the occupied West Bank late on Thursday.


A similar incident was also reported in western Tulkarem city, north of the West Bank, causing damage to many Palestinian cars.


Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry said an injured infant survived an attack by settlers when the ambulance that was transporting him to hospital came under assault.

Other attacks by settlers were also reported in areas near Nablus city and Salfit city, north of the occupied West Bank, where settlers opened live fire on Palestinians and their properties but no injuries were reported.

Last June, in a series of revenge attacks over the killing of four Israeli settlers, hundreds of settlers have also attacked Palestinian areas, killing at least one Palestinian and injuring many others and setting fire to dozens of Palestinian homes, cars and olive trees.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians on Friday in the occupied West Bank, a day after the United Nations urged "meaningful political process" to stem renewed violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Repeated deadly raids

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank in recent months amid repeated Israeli raids into Palestinian towns.

A firefight erupted on Friday during the Israeli military raid on the city of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

The Palestinian health ministry announced "two martyrs and three injured as a result of the occupation (Israeli) aggression on Nablus". The Israeli army reported "no injuries" among its forces.


On Monday, Israeli forces launched their largest raid in Jenin in more than 20 years, including on its refugee camp, killing 12 Palestinians including five children, according to a statement by the Palestinian Health Ministry.


Over 192 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of this year, according to the Health Ministry.


At least 26 Israelis have also been killed in separate attacks during the same period.​​​​​​​

Israeli security chiefs helpless as government ignores settler violence

Heads of the security agencies fear that without a clear backing of the government to fight Jewish nationalist attacks, settler violence against Palestinian villages would only increase.

Israeli settlers march toward the outpost of Eviatar, near the Palestinian village of Beita, south of Nablus, West Bank, April 10, 2023. 

- Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images

Ben Caspit
July 7, 2023

TEL AVIV — Israeli security chiefs are increasingly concerned over the uptick in Jewish attacks and violence against West Bank Palestinians being ignored and even tacitly accepted by Israel’s political leadership.

The phenomenon has expanded to the point that leading progressive Jewish groups in the United States issued on Monday a joint statement, expressing “growing anguish and horror” over the recent wave of violent attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop “excusing” and “protecting” the perpetrators.

In fact, heads of Israel’s three leading defense and law enforcement agencies — the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Shin Bet and the police — had issued an unprecedented public stand to that effect some two weeks ago, designating these attacks on Palestinian villages as "nationalist terrorism" that merits stepped-up countermeasures.

"The reason they came out publicly against this phenomenon is simple," a senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, referring to the joint statement by Israel’s top soldier Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai. “The political echelon is paralyzed. The moderates, including [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, are afraid of the extremist settlers and their henchmen in the government. … Herzi Halevi, Ronen Bar and Yaakov Shabtai are the only ones left to stand in the breach."

The increased attacks on Palestinians and their property have prompted increasing criticism from outside of Israel of the government’s lax response. "More and more colleagues are asking them tough questions," a source close to Israel's security leadership told Al-Monitor. "Foreign leaders, heads of security services from Europe, the United States and elsewhere, journalists — they all find it hard to believe that the powerful and all-powerful Israeli security establishment cannot cope with a few dozen Jewish rioters."

"The entire world is watching these scenes, which began on the night of the great fires in [the Palestinian village of] Huwara [in February] and continued in many other similar cases, and cannot answer the question of where is the IDF, where is the Shin Bet, where is the police. Where are all these bodies, which successfully fight Palestinian and Arab terrorism of various types and scopes and teach the whole world how to do it, when it comes to Jewish-made terrorism?" the source said.

This question also reverberates behind the closed doors of Israel's security agencies as it becomes increasingly clear that one of the most skilled countries in the world in fighting terrorism does not have the tools to deal with home-grown attackers.

"Soldiers cannot deal with this," a senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. "These are young people ages 18-20 — they do not have police training, they do not have precise instructions, they know exactly what to do when they encounter an Arab terrorist, but they cannot deal with terror from their side.”

The soldiers, weighed down by heavy bulletproof vests, weapons and helmets cannot outrun the fleet-footed young masked settlers familiar with the area’s rocky terrain, he noted.

Not only are the troops ineffective, the source said, the police are scarcely present on the ground and lack motivation. The Shin Bet security agency does its best, providing precise intelligence information and issuing warnings of impending Palestinian attacks against Israelis, but is not authorized to make arrests and to physically stop the Jewish rioters.

Based on Shin Bet's recommendation, several particularly violent settlers have been detained without trial (administrative detention). This controversial weapon is almost always reserved for Palestinian suspects and its use against Jewish settlers has generated fury among the hard-line members of Netanyahu’s government who represent the settler constituency.

As they grapple with the response to Jewish attacks, Israeli security forces are also responding to intelligence assessments regarding Iran’s growing influence on Hamas and other militant Islamist groups gaining ground in the West Bank.

"Hamas is now deep within Iranian influence and is intimately connected to Iranian money, which floods the territory with weapons that come from Jordan,” a senior Israeli intelligence source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The accelerating disintegration of the Palestinian Authority [PA] and its security forces has paved the way for the rise in Hamas power and influence. “The PA is on the verge of real collapse this time,” the source said. “This time we are not just crying 'wolf.'"

This state of affairs will force Netanyahu to make some fateful decisions soon, while impeded by a coalition that is highly unlikely to approve them.

"Netanyahu understands the situation, he has a lot of experience and he knows that the collapse of the PA would be a colossal disaster by any standard," the senior Israeli intelligence source told Al-Monitor. "He also knows the extent to which the Jewish terrorists inflame the atmosphere in the West Bank, he will have to decide whether he lets the PA collapse or saves it, and whether he gives the right instructions to the defense establishment to solve the problem of Jewish terror. If he were leading an ordinary government, this would not have to be a problem, but he heads a government with extremists who see the collapse of the PA as an ideological imperative."

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionism party and has also been granted authority to approve settlement construction, is Netanyahu’s toughest obstacle in this regard. He has control over PA funds frozen by Israel in response to the PA’s support for militants and their families and will have a key role in deciding whether to save the PA, or let it collapse.

"Smotrich is a wise person, he sees intelligence material, and he knows that if the PA falls and Hamas takes over the territory, rivers of blood will flow through the West Bank. Much of that blood will be the blood of Smotrich's supporters — the settlers. He is in a difficult position," said the senior intelligence source.

Israel’s challenge in dealing with the complexities of developments in the West Bank is further compounded by international condemnation of Netanyahu's extremist government. Its shaky international standing was one of the reasons that the military operation against militant strongholds in Jenin this week lasted just two days.

Israel is now trying to explain to the world the changes it has instituted in the approval of new construction in the settlements, which has been significantly shortened in order to facilitate accelerated planning and building, as well as the transfer of authority over civilian life in the West Bank from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to Smotrich. Israel's explanations are not always convincing, to put it mildly. If, indeed, the assessments are correct and an all-out conflagration breaks out soon, Israel’s hands will be tied as never before.

 

UK Government Votes To Become A Stooge For Israel

Saturday, 8 July 2023, 
Opinion: Stuart Littlewood

MPs rob the public of more freedoms in order to shield the apartheid state from criticism and boycott.

The UK’s House of Commons has just passed the second reading of the government’s Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill, which aims to ban Britain’s public bodies from boycotting or divesting from foreign countries and territories, especially Israel.

It did so as Israel’s troops rampaged and slaughtered their way through the Palestinian town of Jenin, which is home to thousands of refugees and their descendants who were dispossessed and put to flight by murderous Jewish militias rampaging through their homeland and stealing their lands and resources in 1947-48.

The government says it wants to stop public bodies, such as local authorities, pursuing their own foreign policy and boycotting Israel when usually they simply wish to act ethically and make sure they deal only with overseas states and companies that uphold human rights.

Several campaigns had urged MPs to reject the bill. Amnesty International, in a briefing document, explained how it undermined human rights. For example:

• It would become almost impossible for public bodies to use their procurement and investment policies to encourage ethical business conduct that is human rights compliant.
• Businesses making an effort to adhere to global standards, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
• It undermines the freedom of expression of public sector decision makers who may find that statements of principle are illegal and punishable even if not actually reflected in their decisions.
• It uniquely privileges one state, Israel, at a time when Israeli authorities continue to flagrantly breach international law and impose a system of apartheid on Palestinians.
• It conflicts with the UK’s long-standing policy to differentiate between Israel’s internationally recognised borders and the occupied Palestinian territories (which are not recognised as part of Israel).
• It runs contrary to the UK’s endorsement of UN Resolution 2334, which requires states to differentiate between their dealings with Israel within its own recognised borders and within the occupied Palestinian territories.
• It undermines attempts by the UK’s devolved governments to integrate human rights into their procurement policies.

Amnesty International urged all MPs to speak and vote against the bill in its entirety, as it wasn’t amenable to amendment.

“Boycott has long been understood as a legitimate form of expression, protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

Labour Hubthen reported that a legal opinion written by Stephen Cragg KC, a specialist in international human rights law, suggests the proposed legislation does indeed breach the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Here’s why:

Firstly, the bill appears to breach Article 10 of the European Convention, which states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression”. None of the conditions limiting the expression of this right – “national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary” – apply in the case of this bill. Thus, “there is a strong case to say that it is incompatible with the ECHR.”

Secondly, the opinion notes that the bill gives the enforcement authority the power to issue a notice to a public authority requesting information – including personal information – that will enable them to assess whether the public authority has (or is likely to) contravene the legislation. Such a measure could also fall foul of the European Convention on Human Rights. “This could pose severe intrusions on individuals’ right to respect for private life under Article 8 ECHR while also impacting even further on freedom-of-expression rights”.

The bill is certainly against the spirit of freedom of speech. As the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression said in relation to BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] restrictions in the USA in 2019, the legislation “appears clearly aimed at combating political expression advocating boycott, divestment or sanctions against Israel. Boycott, however, has long been understood as a legitimate form of expression, protected under Article 19 (2) of the ICCPR [the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights].”

There are further concerns that the government is reserving to itself the power to use secondary legislation to remove countries and territories from the ban as it sees fit. “There must be concerns about the power of the government to alter important and controversial legislation by way of secondary legislation without proper parliamentary scrutiny.”

Despite the damage this bill would do to our hard-earned freedoms and the exercise of common sense, fewer than 70 MPs (out of 650) voted against it, which surely indicates how bamboozled and subservient to Israeli propaganda Parliament has allowed itself to become. There are supposedly safeguards against this sort of thing – for example, MPs are bound by the Seven Principles of Public Life, which forbid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work, and acting or taking decisions for personal gain; and they must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

A majority of Conservatives have blatantly signed up to Friends of Israel, as have many Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs, yet the Committee on Standards in Public Life is never brought into play on these matters. There is also a Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. The gentleman appointed is Jewish. No, you couldn’t make it up.

BDS = non-violent pressure by civil society on Israel to comply with international and human rights law

So this bill, launched by notorious Israel pimp Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, appears to be aimed at protecting a criminal foreign power. Gove has long supported rewarding apartheid Israel for its decades of crimes against humanity. This from Wiki:

Gove has described himself as “a proud Zionist”… In 2019, he reiterated “One thing I have always been since I was a boy is a Zionist” and spoke of his desire to “celebrate everything that Israel and the Jewish people have brought to the life of this world and hold it dear to our hearts” and that “For as long as I have breath in my body and a platform on which to argue I shall be on your side, by your side and delighted and honoured to argue, powerfully I hope, on behalf of people who have contributed so powerfully to the life of this nation”.

Like the ballyhoo promoting the IHRA’s [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of anti-Semitism, this anti-BDS bill runs smack into established human rights law. That it passed its second reading shows how carelessly deluded our MPs are.

For the record, in 2005 170 Palestinian civil society organisations, inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, formed their own BDS movement calling for boycotts, divestment and sanctions to exert non-violent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law by meeting just three demands:

• ending its occupation and colonisation of all Arab lands and dismantling the illegal separation Wall;
• recognising the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;
• respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties in accordance with UN Resolution 194.

Not too much to ask in a civilised world, one would have thought. Today the BDS movement has a worldwide following and continues to grow. So why is the UK Parliament so hostile to Palestinians securing their right to self-determination within the recognised borders of their own homeland, and so desperate to protect the Israeli regime from the consequences of its brutal military interference and war crimes against those defenceless people?

 

ENDS

Israeli Border Police officer acquitted of charges in the fatal shooting of autistic Palestinian man

By Kareem Khadder and Ingrid Formanek, CNN
 Fri July 7, 2023

Eyad al-HallaqFamily photo
JerusalemCNN —

A Jerusalem court acquitted an Israeli border police officer of “involuntary reckless manslaughter” in the fatal shooting of Eyad al-Hallaq, an unarmed Palestinian man.

The unnamed police officer was charged in the fatal shooting of al-Hallaq that took place on May 30, 2020 in Jerusalem’s old city, according to Jerusalem District Court documents viewed by CNN.

The defendant was granted anonymity by the court following a request from the Israeli Border Police, according to Khaled Zabarqa, one of the lawyers for the al-Hallaq family.

On Thursday the court determined the officer had acted in what he believed was “self-defense” and accepted his defense that he made an “honest mistake” as a result of a “misunderstanding” of the situation at that time, court documents say.

Al-Hallaq had autism, and the mental age of a six-year old, al-Hallaq’s family told CNN the day he died, and that he was on the way to his special educational needs school when the fatal incident took place.

The Jenin incursion was meant to weaken militant groups. It has ended up deepening the defiance of Palestinian fighters

Zabarqa said al-Hallaq had a “special needs” document issued by Israeli National Insurance, a government entity.

An Israeli police statement on the day of al-Hallaq’s death said “police units on patrol spotted a suspect with a suspicious object that looked like a pistol. They called upon him to stop and began to chase after him on foot, during the chase officers also opened fire at the suspect, who was neutralized.”

According to court documents, the police officer told investigators that after he shot al-Hallaq once, he shouted at him in Hebrew not to move. The victim’s mother, Rana al-Hallaq, told CNN her son didn’t understand or speak Hebrew.

A police spokesman later confirmed to CNN that officers who checked the man’s body found no weapon on him.

The ruling judge, Chana Miriam Lomp, said she believed the police officer who said he thought he was facing an “armed terrorist”, and did not realize al-Hallaq was “an innocent man with special needs”, according to the court transcript of the ruling.
‘Unjust and unfair’

The verdict was read in the presence of al-Hallaq’s parents, family, and their lawyers.

“Unjust and unfair” is how Rana al-Hallaq, 60, labeled the verdict in a phone conversation with CNN, adding that she was “outraged and dismayed” by the decision.
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close dialog

“We were shocked by the ruling, we had a slight hope the court would find the officer guilty, so we could get justice for the killing of our son,” al-Hallaq said.

Eyad was 32 years old at the time of his death.

“I welcome the acquittal,” Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far right Minister of National Security, was quoted as saying in a statement released by his Jewish Power party.

“Our heroic fighters who go out to defend us and the entire State of Israel, will receive a hug and full support from me and the Israeli government”, the statement continued.

The acquitted officer will return to active duty, and participate in a “commander’s course,” according to a Border Police statement released Thursday. The course allows for a future promotion.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs “strongly” condemned the acquittal in a Thursday statement, calling it “evidence of the Israeli judicial system’s complicity in the occupation.”

“The ruling is political,” family lawyer Zabarqa told CNN, alleging it showed the current Israeli government’s influence in the court’s ruling.

It’s a “second killing of Eyad al-Hallaq and disregard for Palestinian blood,” Zabarqa said.

“This ruling gives legitimacy to the killing of Palestinians by Israel,” he added.

The al-Hallaq family and their legal representatives intend to appeal the ruling, all the way to Israel’s supreme court, if needed, the mother and Zabarqa said.

“He was my life,” al-Hallaq’s mother told CNN, saying she is determined to find justice for her “beloved son.”

“I will fight even in my grave for the justice of my son,” adding, “Whatever it takes to get justice, I will fight for it.”

Israeli troops kill 3 Palestinians in West Bank

Maureen Clare Murphy

7 July 2023

MONDOWEISS

Palestinians carry the bodies of two Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in Nablus, 7 July.

Alaa BadarnehEFE

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Friday, one day after a soldier was shot and killed in a settlement.

Abd al-Jawad Hamdan Saleh, 24, died after he was shot in the chest by troops in Um Safa village near the central West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday afternoon.

Israeli forces deployed to Um Safa at the time of Friday prayers performed in the town square ahead of a march protesting a nearby settlement outpost.

A member of the village council told WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, that soldiers closed all the entrances to Um Safa and were stationed on the roofs of tall buildings.

Meanwhile, settlers attacked villagers under the guard of the military.

Um Safa has been under increasing harassment by Israeli settlers, who destroyed olive tree saplings in the village last month.

Settlers, some armed with rifles, set fire to homes and vehicles in the village under the guard of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police in late June after four Israelis were killed in a settlement shooting attack. The rampaging settlers “fired indiscriminately at everything they came across, including homes and vehicles,” according to WAFA.

Earlier in the day, two men were killed by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Nablus in what may amount to an extrajudicial execution.

Troops stormed a neighborhood in the Old City of Nablus and surrounded a building amid heavy gunfire, demanding that the two men surrender.

Israeli authorities claimed that the two men – Khairi Shahin, 34, and Hamza Maqbul, 32 – were “killed during an exchange of fire with our forces.”

However, Palestinian eyewitnesses told journalists that the men were killed after they had laid down their arms and asked the troops not to shoot.

One eyewitness told media that he heard a soldier speaking to one of the men who was inside a house, telling him to surrender. The man said he was unarmed but afraid to come out because the soldiers might shoot him.

After about 10 minutes of negotiations, the man agreed to come out – and did so with his hands raised while following all the soldier’s directions. Despite clear verbal promises from the soldier that he would not be shot if he surrendered, the man was gunned down by the Israelis seconds after he emerged from the house, according to the eyewitness.

Israel says that the men killed in Nablus on Friday had shot at a police car in a settlement near Nablus on Wednesday. There was damage but no injuries resulting from that attack.

On Thursday, an Israeli soldier in the Givati Brigade was killed near Kedumim settlement in the northern West Bank.

The soldier was “shot dead by a Palestinian assailant who was sitting in a car that was stopped for inspection by the security patrol near the settlement,” the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz reported.

The alleged Palestinian gunman, Ahmad Yassin Ghaidhan, a 19-year-old from Qibya village, was shot dead by troops.

Troops raided Qibya village early Friday and measured a home belonging to Ghaithan’s family in preparation for its demolition. Israel routinely demolishes the homes of Palestinians it accuses of attacks in an act of collective punishment prohibited under international law.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack in Kedumim.

The resistance group warned Bezalel Smotrich – Israel’s finance minister who lives in Kedumim and seeks to impose Jewish theocratic rule in all of historic Palestine – that its fighters “almost knocked on your door.”

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, said on Thursday that it was also responsible for the 20 June shooting attack in Eli settlement during which four Israelis were killed. The Qassam Brigades said that it was in response to a raid in Jenin two days prior that left six Palestinians dead.

Hamas said it was also responsible for a car-ramming and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday in which seven Israelis were injured, some of them seriously. The alleged Palestinian assailant was shot and killed at the scene.

Abu Obaida said that the attacks in Tel Aviv and Kedumim were “in response to the enemy’s crimes in Jenin.”

Israeli soldiers search vehicles at a checkpoint near Kedumim settlement in the northern West Bank, 6 July. Mohammed NasserAPA images

At least 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in a two-day military offensive in the northern West Bank city of Jenin earlier this week – the largest operation in the West Bank in around two decades.

Israel launched airstrikes and a ground assault, leaving widespread destruction in Jenin’s refugee camp.

Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said on Friday that he was “deeply disturbed” by the events in Jenin, saying that “obviously in this situation there was an excessive force used by Israeli forces.”

A group of independent UN human rights experts said on Wednesday that Israel’s airstrikes and invasion may constitute a war crime.

More than 190 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli police, troops and settlers since the beginning of the year, or died from injuries sustained previously, according to The Electronic Intifada’s tracking. Among them were 33 boys and girls.

The number of Palestinian fatalities in 2023 has already eclipsed that of the previous year. Thirty people in Israel and Israelis in the West Bank, including five children, were killed by Palestinians in the context of the occupation, or died from injuries sustained previously, during the same period.

For two days Israel targeted militants in Jenin. What did it achieve?

Majdi Mohammed/APView caption

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
By Taylor Luck Special correspondent
Neri Zilber Special contributor
Fatima AbdulKarim Special contributor
July 7, 2023

|TEL AVIV, ISRAEL; AND RAMALLAH, WEST BANK

Israel’s 48-hour incursion of hundreds of troops this week into the northern West Bank city of Jenin, which has emerged as a potent stronghold for Palestinian militant groups, left behind some telling images.

What they promised for the future was not security for anyone, but escalation and a deadly cycle of violence that in recent years had been alien to the once-stable West Bank and that evoked comparisons among some observers to Gaza.

They also highlighted the increasing irrelevance and ineffectiveness of a Palestinian Authority caught between growing support for armed groups at home and an intransigent far-right government in Israel.

WHY WE WROTE THIS

A story focused on  SAFETY

In the name of security, Israel has fought Hamas again and again in Gaza. Now, the largest Israeli incursion in the West Bank in two decades, targeting popular young militants in Jenin, seems to be paving the way only for more clashes.

Families are now returning to smashed homes and rubble-strewn streets left by receding Israeli forces after the largest Israeli military incursion into the West Bank in two decades. The raid displaced thousands of residents from the targeted refugee camp, with more than 140 injured.

At a funeral Tuesday for some of the dozen young militants killed in the battle, which involved Israeli drone strikes and ground forces, angry mourners chased away two senior Fatah and Palestinian Authority (PA) representatives who arrived to express their condolences.

Palestinian protests also erupted against the PA and its aging autocratic ruler Mahmoud Abbas over its inability to protect citizens from increased settler attacks and its alleged facilitating of Israeli military operations.


Ammar Awad/ReutersView 

“We are talking about devastated families and households who are in need of more than just diapers and canned foods. We need to feel safe,” says Saja Bawaqneh, a 30-something lawyer whose family home in Jenin was damaged by Israeli forces for the second time in less than a year. “Over the past few years, we haven’t felt safe in our homes at all.”

And Israeli military officials admitted that despite its devastating scope, the large-scale operation had fundamentally changed little on the ground and was likely just a prelude for future military action.

Israel launched the long-anticipated raid after months of deadly militant attacks – many emanating from the Jenin region – and escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence that has claimed the lives of more than 160 Palestinians and 20 Israelis this year alone.

Declaring that Jenin was “no longer a safe haven” for militant activity, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted Wednesday at further West Bank military operations.

“This is just a first step. It’s not, by any means, the last action that we will take,” Mr. Netanyahu said at the conclusion of the operation.

A retaliatory car-ramming and stabbing attack on Tuesday by a Palestinian in Tel Aviv that injured seven, and the killing of an Israeli soldier by a Hamas gunman in the West Bank on Thursday, hit home for many that this week’s destruction in Jenin was a prelude to more confrontation and bloodshed, not less.

To fight another day

The focus of the Israeli operation was the Jenin Brigades, a militant network formed in 2021. Like the Lions’ Den in Nablus, it is a grouping of young men from a cross section of Palestinian factions and backgrounds united by their desire to raise arms against Israel.

According to one senior Israeli military officer, the intent of the operation was to dismantle the “terrorist activities and infrastructure” inside the 0.16-square-mile camp of 23,000 people, as attested by the myriad explosive devices and weapons caches Israel seized.

Jacob Turcotte/Staff

Another major aim was to “increase our freedom of operations into the camp,” the Israeli military official said. Heavily armored bulldozers tore up streets looking for buried improvised explosive devices lying in wait.

Yet Israeli officials admitted that most of the hundreds of armed militants estimated to be inside the Jenin camp simply dispersed at the launch of the operation.

Israel estimates that 13 armed combatants were killed in the two-day operation along with one Israeli soldier whom sources say was possibly killed by friendly fire. Palestinian health officials say Israeli forces killed 12 people, including four teenagers.

“In the short term [the operation] may change things a little – degrade the local capabilities of the militants … allow the [army] greater freedom of movement, so not every raid into Jenin will turn into ‘Black Hawk Down,’” says Amos Harel, defense analyst for Haaretz newspaper.

“But even the most optimistic officials and analysts admit [that the operation] doesn’t change things fundamentally and could trigger more revenge attacks in the West Bank, from Hamas in Gaza, or Hezbollah in Lebanon,” he adds.

Majdi Mohammed/APView caption

The ability of the Jenin Brigades to disperse, regroup, and live to fight another day undermined Israel’s second and perhaps greater goal: “to dismantle the heroic image of Jenin camp” – as the Israeli officer said – in the minds of the Palestinian public as a bastion of resistance.


Instead, the operation has cemented support for Jenin and its armed groups among Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza.

With PA forces unable to stop armed far-right Israeli settlers from marauding in Palestinian villages, residents are increasingly turning to these militant groups as the only actors defending Palestinian lands and homes – even as they remain wary of the prospect of a wider conflict and the proliferation of armed groups.
Political aims

Israeli analysts say the operation did more to further the political goals of the Israeli government: It allowed Prime Minister Netanyahu to appear tougher on security than the previous government, and it advanced the agenda of his far-right settler coalition partners, who wish to expand and secure their presence in the West Bank.

“The settlers ... want to exert their new influence on this government, and their ultimate aim is to destroy the Palestinian Authority,” says Mr. Harel. “An Israeli incursion like this, they know, will weaken it even further.”

Ammar Awad/ReutersView caption

Indeed, the ability of Jenin’s militants to withstand a major ground operation and drone strikes two weeks after they bogged down Israeli armored vehicles in the mazelike camp for several hours has cemented a Palestinian narrative of a David versus Goliath struggle. That narrative is winning support and plaudits for the armed groups even among Fatah officials and Ramallah politicians who advocate nonviolent means to statehood and the end of Israel’s occupation.

“This is a chance for us to raise our heads up high, even when we cannot openly support them with arms,” says Mohammed, a senior Fatah member in Ramallah.

Some of the estimated 4,000 civilians pushed from their homes by fighting are returning to destruction and deteriorating services in Jenin.

Torn-up roads have hindered the access of ambulances, and electricity and water services have been disrupted throughout the refugee camp.

The closure of United Nations Relief and Works Agency health facilities and schools, ATMs, banks, and shops that honor U.N. food assistance vouchers has exacerbated the situation for thousands of residents who were already vulnerable and skirting the poverty line before the incursion.

The U.N. relief agency said it was working to support Palestinian authorities to restore basic services, reopen schools, and provide cash assistance.

Majdi Mohammed/APView  “Spirits are high”

Yet morale, even among families that lost homes, remains high.

Alaa Salah, a 20-something camp resident who was reached by phone and whose house was entirely destroyed, says that “the most important thing was the camp fought back.”

“My home is damaged, my brother and cousin are injured, and my mother is now living with our relatives, but our spirits are high. What matters is that the shabab [militants] survived and are safe,” he says from Jenin. “These men are real men; they protected us when no one could, not the PA or any other faction. [Palestinian factions] are all useless and it is now all in the hands of the resistance.”

Ms. Bawaqneh, the lawyer, whose father was killed by Israeli forces in a Jenin raid last year, said the operation has deepened a sense of insecurity across the West Bank.

Yet she says Jenin residents have taken heart in the fact the operation has “united” diverse Palestinian factions who offered moral support for the Jenin Brigades.

“United on the battleground, they are giving us a sense of hope that we are protected,” she says.

The PA this week said it broke off communication and security cooperation with Israel in protest over the raid, yet it has not lessened the view among Palestinians that it has facilitated such operations.

Despite Mr. Abbas’ insistence on negotiations as the only viable path out of the conflict, there is neither political will in Israel nor in the United States and the international community to restart talks, Palestinian analysts say. And that too is fueling support for resistance.
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Why Israel's offensive on Jenin was a failure

Events on the ground proved that the Palestinian resistance anticipated Israel's invasion and how to confront it amid a battle between two unequal parties

A banner bearing a slogan of solidarity with the Jenin refugee camp and pictures of fighters hangs around a fountain in Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem during Friday prayers on 7 July 2023 (AFP)

Ameer Makhoul
7 July 2023

Israel's Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant boasted that the offensive in Jenin has "fully achieved" its goals, claiming that when Palestinian fighters return to the refugee camp, they would "not recognise it" due to the severity of the attack.

"Most of them left their place of residence, and those who remained hid in places where they were protected by the civilian population, such as hospitals. This is something that indicates more than anything the cowardice and lack of courage that they tried to demonstrate on the outside," Gallant said.

The Israeli military's reaction, on the other hand, was more serious. It expressed real concern that the Palestinian resistance and tactics - including the use of explosive devices - would expand to various areas in the occupied West Bank.

Gallant appears to be speaking to the Israeli public to promote himself and increase his political clout by concealing the failure of his offensive rather than presenting an honest picture of its outcome.

'Palestinian triumph'

Seeking to raise Israeli morale, Gallant bragged that the Palestinian fighters fled during the attack. Yet it can also be said that Israel's army - considered one of the most advanced in the world and equipped with its airforce, satellites, elite forces and cutting-edge military technology - failed to advance into the centre of the Jenin refugee camp.

Israel's army - considered one of the most advanced in the world - failed to advance into the centre of the Jenin refugee camp

Instead of marching, the soldiers crawled on the ground to avoid being sniped. During their withdrawal from the camp, the scene was more of a retreat in armoured vehicles and personnel carriers.

A more thrilling scene was the victory celebrations from the camp's residents along with the fighters following the Israeli army's withdrawal. These are the refugees whose families and grandparents were expelled from Haifa and its surroundings during the Nakba in 1948, and who were recently displaced from their homes which the army seized to use as shields and military barracks after destroying them.

While the displacement affected one-third of the camp's population, this popular spontaneous scene of celebration depicts the Palestinian triumph.

But why did the Israeli Minister of War use the term "fled" to describe the resistance fighters, whose number does not exceed a few dozen and who do not possess any lethal weapons, while the Israeli military and civilian media portray them as a regular army with a military arsenal and a command staff?

The answer to this question lies in the objectives of the attack on Jenin, which - as mentioned by the Israeli media beforehand - was to turn the Jenin camp into a "cemetery for terrorists". Ron Ben-Yishai, an Israeli military analyst for Ynet, pointed out the "disappointment in the army as a result of the small number of dead" among the Palestinian fighters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gallant consider the Jenin camp the "capital of terrorism", while Israel's security agency, Shin Bet, said the objective was to eliminate the "terrorist infrastructure" and the "advanced combat capabilities, including the development of rudimentary rocket capabilities".

However, the managing director of the Institute for National Security Studies and the former head of the Military Intelligence Division, General Tamir Hayman, estimated that the resistance "lives in the hearts of the Palestinians" and has no capital, and therefore cannot be eliminated by storming the Jenin camp.

Hayman added that Israel has "only the military option without any political horizon".

A new 'Nakba'

If we consider this to be the central objective of the Israeli government, then it has ultimately failed to achieve it. The resistance has not been eliminated, nor have its capabilities or accumulated knowledge in the art of combat and confrontation.

On the contrary, events on the ground have proven that the resistance anticipated the occupation army's invasion, monitored its movements, and determined how, where and when to confront it amid a battle between two unequal parties. The Palestinians stood firm in the face of the Israeli war arsenal.

Another Israeli objective was to target the Palestinian popular base, which is the Palestinian people as a whole and the residents of the camp in particular, considering them part of the "terrorist infrastructure".

This was the main motive for the targeting of civilians, the complete destruction of infrastructure, the cutting off of water, electricity and communication services, as well as the forced displacement of 5,000 people from their homes, which reminded Palestinians of the Nakba.

The destruction of property, on the other hand, reminded them of the attacks carried out by settler gangs, which include burning villages and destroying property in Huwwara, Turmus Ayya, Um Safa and Masafer Yatta.

The objectives of these various operations are integrated and interrelated. They are aligned with the prevailing Religious Zionist ideology that prioritises a "project of resolution" for the Palestinians - in other words, ethnic cleansing - and annexation instead of occupation.

The ideology seeks to create a situation where it is in the Palestinians' interest to leave their homeland. This project was formulated by the minister of security, Betzalel Smotrich, who is also the leader of the Religious Zionism party and the official responsible for managing affairs and settlement in the occupied West Bank.

The occupation has sought to suppress the consciousness of Palestinians, terrorise the population with mass destruction and expulsion, and make them pay the price for being the popular incubator of the resistance.

As a prelude to another broad offensive on the northern region of the West Bank, including Nablus, the central political objective of the offensive in Jenin is the re-settlement of the northern West Bank. This comes after the Israeli parliament annulled in March 2023 the Disengagement Law of 2005, which mandated Israel's disengagement from Gaza and the northern parts of the West Bank, and following the re-establishment of the illegal settlement of Homesh.

The goal is to build dozens of settlement outposts in the area, and to Judaise and annex it in accordance with the coalition agreements.

Annexation policy

For the occupation, achieving this objective requires eliminating the resistance in this area and marginalising the role of the Palestinian Authority, especially since the resistance targets the Israeli army and settlers. Israeli settlers will not relocate to live in this area unless the state provides them with security and tranquillity, which will be achieved at the expense of the Palestinians.

Why the Palestinian Authority is out of time

Read More »

This would mean the failure of the Judaisation and settlement project of the northern West Bank, and a temporary failure, at least, of the annexation project, which Palestinians will resist.

This project was initially marginal in Israeli politics but gained significance after former US President Donald Trump endorsed it, and following the rise of Religious Zionism to power, which has a significant influence over Israeli politics and a strong ideological conviction.

This could lend the annexation project political weight while certain aspects of it were implemented on the ground in the Palestinian territories, under what is known as the de facto annexation, without announcing it officially.

The results of the attack on Jenin were disappointing for those who held on to the annexation project.

Through a political decision, the Israeli army sought to carry out a mass expulsion of Palestinian refugees from the camp, which indicates that the mentality of displacement and the Nakba still runs deep within Israeli rule. There are people who support it and advocate for its implementation.

However, Palestinians responded by returning to their homes immediately after the withdrawal of the occupation forces, while a significant portion of the population refused to leave their homes despite threats by Israeli soldiers.

The mentality of the Nakba and displacement has not changed, but the mentality of Palestinians has. They do not want to leave their homes, towns or lands. They insist on staying in their homes no matter the severity of the occupation or the aggression.

To the Israeli forces, particularly during military operations, Palestinians are enemies wherever they may be and should be targeted as such.

On a political level, Netanyahu succeeded on two important matters. Domestically, he gained the support of the heads of the parliamentary opposition regarding the attack and the government's decision. He also enjoyed unanimous support from the national Zionist consensus, including from the popular opposition, which did not take a stance against the aggression, while the large-scale protests sweeping the country "for democracy" ignored the attack.

Internationally, Netanyahu received unequivocal support from the Biden administration, as well as from Britain and Germany, who backed "Israel's right to protect its citizens" and condemned "Palestinian terrorism".

According to estimates, Netanyahu's popularity has increased, especially as Israeli society and media do not care about the number of Palestinian casualties or the extensive destruction. They primarily and solely focus on Israeli losses.

The Palestinian situation is subject to ongoing Israeli aggression whose methods may change, but its essence will always persist.

The resistance will emerge from the recent offensive more determined, experienced and with broader popular support

The ruling political class does not have any prospect for a just solution or even effective management of the occupation and the conflict. It relies mainly on military force to address or postpone crises. However, what actually happens is that each aggression sparks the opposite of its intended goals.

The resistance will emerge from the recent offensive more determined, experienced and with broader popular support.

Israel will seek to provoke internal Palestinian discord, particularly between the two main political factions, Fatah and Hamas, in order to achieve its military objectives through Palestinian hands. This is currently the most dangerous scenario.

Israel's aggression did not change the rules of the game but rather reinforces persisting Israeli policy. The occupation army may have withdrawn from the Jenin camp, but its next offensive is only a matter of time, and the countdown has already begun.

Providing protection for Palestinians is, therefore, an urgent need and must become a top priority.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

RED LETTER DAY

U.S. destroys last of its declared chemical weapons, closing a deadly chapter dating to World War I

Control room supervisor Lance Pappas consults a video monitor inside the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, outside Hermiston, Ore.

 (AP Photo/Jeff Barnard, File)
Print
By Andrew DeMillo, Thomas Peipert and Dylan Lovan - Associated Press - Friday, July 7, 2023


RICHMOND, Ky. — At a sprawling military installation in the middle of the rolling green hills of eastern Kentucky, a milestone was reached Friday in the history of warfare dating back to World War I.

Workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot destroyed rockets filled with GB nerve agent that are the last of the United States’ declared chemical weapons, and completing a decadeslong campaign to eliminate a stockpile that by the end of the Cold War totaled more than 30,000 tons, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced.

The weapons’ destruction is a major watershed for Richmond, Kentucky and Pueblo, Colorado, where an Army depot destroyed the last of its chemical agents last month. It’s also a defining moment for arms control efforts worldwide.

The U.S. faced a Sept. 30 deadline to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and was joined by 193 countries. The munitions being destroyed in Kentucky are the last of 51,000 M55 rockets with GB nerve agent - a deadly toxin also known as sarin - that have been stored at the depot since the 1940s.

By destroying the munitions, the U.S. is officially underscoring that these types of weapons are no longer acceptable in the battlefield and sending a message to the handful of countries that haven’t joined the agreement, military experts say.

OPCW confirms: All declared chemical weapons stockpiles verified as irreversibly destroyed

The United States of America, the last possessor State, completed the destruction of its declared chemical weapons stockpile

7 JULY 2023

THE HAGUE, Netherlands—7 July 2023—The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirms that the last chemical weapon from the stockpiles declared by all States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was verified as destroyed. The last chemical munition of the United States of America’s declared chemical weapons stockpile was irreversibly destroyed in accordance with the CWC on Friday, 7 July 2023 at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Kentucky.

“I congratulate all States Parties, and the United States of America in this instance, on this major achievement for the international community. The end of destruction of all declared chemical weapons stockpiles is an important milestone for the Organisation. It is a critical step towards achieving its mission to permanently eliminate all chemical weapons,” said OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Fernando Arias.

“This represents a historic success of multilateralism in the field of disarmament, and the work of a generation of diplomats and experts over the past 26 years. Yet, more challenges lie ahead of us, which require the international community’s continued attention. Four countries have yet to join the Convention. Abandoned and old chemical weapons still need to be recovered and destroyed,” the Director-General highlighted. “Recent uses and threats of use of toxic chemicals as weapons illustrate that preventing re-emergence will remain a priority for the Organisation. Rapid developments in science and technology, new dangerous toxic chemicals, more sophisticated equipment and production methods, better means of delivery, and the interaction between chemistry, biology, and artificial intelligence, present additional factors that will put the relevance of the Chemical Weapons Convention to the test. These provide the Organisation with new and challenging tasks, and an agenda for our common work that will remain an open one.”

“The OPCW Centre for Chemistry and Technology, which started operation in May 2023, is an essential tool to enhance the Organisation’s capabilities to address these threats. The international community can count on the Secretariat’s independence, expertise and readiness to play its part,” the Director-General concluded.

Since the CWC entered into force in 1997, the OPCW has verified the destruction of 72,304.34 metric tonnes of stockpiled chemical weapons, declared by countries around the world. The OPCW will continue to monitor the closure of the last two destruction facilities at Pueblo and Blue Grass in the U.S., including the disposal of waste resulting from the destruction process.
Background

As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW, with its 193 Member States, oversees the global endeavour to permanently eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention’s entry into force in 1997, it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.

For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

More Information

Eliminating Chemical Weapons | OPCW
Chemical Weapons Convention | OPCW
United States of America | OPCW
OPCW Basics – YouTube