'Not a single round': Slovak election could see Kyiv lose staunch ally

Wed, September 20, 2023 


SMER-SSD party election campaign rally, in Banovce nad Bebravou

By Jan Lopatka and Radovan Stoklasa

BANOVCE NAD BEBRAVOU, Slovakia (Reuters) - "We are a peaceful country. We will not send a single round to Ukraine."

That was Robert Fico's blunt message for some 300 supporters at a political rally last week in the western Slovakian town of Banovce nad Bebravou, ahead of a Sept. 30 election that the populist former prime minister is favourite to win.

Were he to follow through on his promise, it would represent a sea-change for Slovakia, until now a staunch ally of its eastern neighbour Ukraine in its war against Russia. Bratislava has supplied weapons and offered strong political support to Kyiv within the European Union and NATO.

"They will have to sit down anyway and find an agreement," Fico said of the combatants. "Russia will never leave Crimea, never leave the territories that it controls."

Fico is not guaranteed to win. No party is tipped to secure a majority and forging a coalition government could prove tough. Western diplomats and officials in Kyiv also say a small country like Slovakia can only go so far in upending EU and NATO policy.

But the 59-year-old has raised eyebrows in Brussels and beyond by criticising sanctions against Russia, calling for a rapprochement with Moscow when the war ends and pledging to veto Ukraine's membership of NATO if ever that possibility arises.

On the campaign trail, Fico has said the war "started in 2014 when Ukrainian Nazis and fascists started murdering Russian citizens in Donbas and Luhansk", echoing Moscow's justification for backing separatists who seized land in eastern Ukraine.

His party is narrowly ahead in polls in a country where voters are weary of economic pain from COVID restrictions, high inflation linked to the Ukraine war and a surge in illegal migrants.

Disinformation on social media has added to polarisation among voters and contributed to public scepticism about supporting Ukraine, according to sociologists.

Fico declined to be interviewed for this article and did not answer emailed questions.

"We should not support them (Ukraine) with weapons because evil only breeds more evil," said pensioner Eleonora Tanacova, 68, as she listened to Fico's speech last Thursday. "This war will never end if we keep supporting them."

WORRIES IN WEST

Fico's campaign rhetoric has Slovakia's allies worried, according to four senior Western diplomats.

With Ukraine's counteroffensive yet to create a major breakthrough - raising questions over how long allies will sustain their financial and military support - EU and NATO leaders are desperate to maintain a united front against Moscow.

Fico could also ally himself with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an outlier in Europe who has maintained close ties to Russia, raising the prospect of more clashes with Brussels over the rule of law, the war in Ukraine and migration.

But Fico's pragmatism during previous tenures, when he took Slovakia into the euro and largely avoided rows with EU and NATO partners, has tempered such concerns.

"Russian troops on your border and a fractured relationship with your allies, is that you want?" said one of the diplomats. "Or does he revert to being the pragmatist he has been?"

A second diplomat believed Fico would hesitate to cut arms supplies to Ukraine beyond those from already depleted army stocks, given the economic importance of ammunition makers and a repair base.

And Brussels has leverage. On matters of the rule of law, it can withhold EU financial support for Slovakia, which badly needs it with the fiscal deficit forecast at 6.85% of GDP this year, the highest in the euro zone.

Ukrainian officials say they are concerned by the prospect of an Orban coalition inside the EU, but note that Hungary does not usually break rank on important decisions and so expect a limited foreign policy impact if Fico wins.

Also, Fico's socially conservative SMER-SSD party is only just ahead in the latest polls with 19.4% support, against 18.2% for the liberal Progressive Slovakia (PS) party. Much depends on how smaller parties fare.

FAKE NEWS?

Fico, forced to resign in 2018 after the murder of an investigative journalist triggered mass protests, has turned more radical in opposition.

Disinformation, meanwhile, has spread, undermining public support for Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion of 2022, said Katarina Klingova of think-tank Globsec.

Slovakia, she added, has long been fertile ground for pro-Russian narratives, thanks to its historical affinity, low trust in public institutions and politicians moving once-fringe narratives into the political mainstream.

"We saw those narratives were at the edge of the information spectrum (in 2015), but now you switch on TV and almost in every debate you have some political representative using disinformation narratives," Klingova said.

"They don't necessarily have to be supportive of the Kremlin ... but definitely they play into the hands of Russia."

In early 2023, more than 40,000 Slovaks signed petitions to avoid being called up in case of mobilisation, after hoax posts on social media said a call-up to fight in Ukraine may be on its way.

The hoax was debunked, but the reaction pointed to the influence that false information surrounding the Ukraine war has among Slovakia's 5.5 million population.

A Globsec survey earlier this year found only 40% of Slovaks thought Russia primarily responsible for invading Ukraine, the lowest count across central and eastern Europe.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Brussels and Thomas Balmforth in Kyiv; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Gareth Jones)

REST IN POWER

Giorgio Napolitano, former Italian president and first ex-Communist in that post, has died at 98

FRANCES D'EMILIO
Fri, September 22, 2023

ROME (AP) — Giorgio Napolitano, the first former Communist to rise to Italy’s presidency and the first person to be elected twice to the mostly ceremonial post, died on Friday, the presidential palace said. He was 98.

A statement issued Friday night by the presidential palace confirmed Italian news reports of the death of Napolitano, who had been ailing in a Rome hospital for weeks.

The current president, Sergio Mattarella, in a message hailed his predecessor as head of state, saying that Napolitano’s life “mirrored a large part of (Italy's) history in the second half of the 20th century, with its dramas, its complexity, its goals, its hopes."

As a prominent member of what had long been the largest Communist party in the West, Napolitano had advocated positions that often veered from party orthodoxy. He sought dialogue with Italian and European socialists to end his party’s isolation, and he was an early backer of European integration.

Turin daily La Stampa once wrote of Napolitano: “He was the least communist Communist that the party ever enlisted.”

In a condolence telegram to Napolitano's widow, Clio, Pope Francis said the late president “showed great gifts of intellect and sincere passion for Italian political life as well as strong interest for the fates of nations.”

The pontiff, who is on a pilgrimage to France, noted he had had personal meetings with Napolitano, “during which I appreciated his humanity and long-range vision in assuming with rectitude important choices, especially in delicate moments for the life of the country.”

During the first Gulf War, Napolitano broke with the position of the leader of the Italian Communist Party to oppose the withdrawal of Italy’s tiny contingent.

That amounted to a radical evolution for a Communist politician, who at the time of the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary had hailed the suppression as necessary. Ultimately, his political reputation was shaped by his reformist views.

A former U.S. ambassador to Italy, Richard Gardner, in comments to The Associated Press in 2006, when Napolitano was first elected to be head of state, called him “a true believer in democracy, a friend to the United States.” As ambassador, Gardner had helped arrange secret meetings with Napolitano at a time when any public meeting would have been seen as embarrassing for Italian Communists as well as U.S. politicians.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Napolitano was among the staunchest supporters of his party’s reform path, which would eventually lead to changing its name and dropping the hammer-and-sickle symbol.

Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right party is at the opposite end of the political spectrum of the late president, expressed condolences in the name of her government.

Like many other future politicians of his generation, Napolitano fought against the Italian Fascists and Nazi occupiers during World War II. When the war ended, he joined the Communist Party, and in 1953, he was elected to Parliament, an office he would hold for 10 straight legislatures.

In 1989, he went to the United States with the party secretary for the first-ever visit by a Italian Communist leader.

While the presidential role is mostly ceremonial, the head of state can send Parliament packing sooner than its normal five-year term if it is hopelessly squabbling, a not-rare occurrence in Italy’s long history of short-lived governments.

The president also taps someone to attempt to form a new government and can reject some of the premier’s Cabinet choices or refuse to sign legislation as a way to encourage Parliament to improve a law.

Supposed to be above the political fray, Italy's president also can serve as a sort of moral compass for the country and a guardian of the values laid out in Italy's post-war Constitution.

During his long career, Napolitano also served as speaker of Parliament’s lower Chamber of Deputies and for five years as a lawmaker in the European Parliament.

In 2005, his predecessor in the Quirinal palace, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, conferred on him one of Italy’s greatest honors, making him a senator-for-life.

A year later, Parliament would make him president of Italy, the first former Communist — and so far the only one — to serve as head of state.

Admirers praised Napolitano’s balanced attitude and gentlemanly ways. He was sometimes dubbed “King Giorgio.” But critics pointed to what they saw as excessive caution.

Still, when at the end of his first, seven-year term as head of state, bickering lawmakers couldn’t reach consensus on his successor, he broke with tradition and agreed to be elected to a second term — with the proviso that he wouldn’t serve a full term due to advancing age. He was then 80.

In April 2013, Napolitano pardoned a U.S. Air Force colonel convicted in an Italian trial based on the U.S. extraordinary rendition practice that had resulted in a Muslim cleric being abducted from a street in Milan in 2003 and hustled off to Egypt where he was tortured, before eventually being released.

Napolitano said he granted the pardon in hopes of keeping U.S.-Italian relations strong, especially on security matters. The United States had considered the trial and convictions unprecedented because a U.S. military officer had been convicted for deeds committed on Italian territory.

Napolitano resigned in January 2015, paving the way for Mattarella, a former Christian Democrat, to be elected. Mattarella would go on to be himself twice elected to the presidency, again after renewed political gridlock in Parliament thwarted the election of a fresh candidate in 2022.

Beside his wife, whom he married in 1959, Napolitano is survived by two sons, Giovanni and Giulio.

___

Former AP writer Alessandra Rizzo contributed to this report.

A  COMMUNIST SAVES CAPITALISM
Napolitano, president who helped save Italy from possible default, dies at 98

Fri, September 22, 2023 

Italian former President and senator Giorgio Napolitano speaks following a talk with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome


By Steve Scherer

ROME (Reuters) - Giorgio Napolitano, who died on Friday aged 98, was one of modern Italy's most important presidents as he steered the country away from the brink of default during Europe's debt crisis and later out of political paralysis.

A career politician who joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1945, the mild-mannered, bespectacled Napolitano was picked by parliament to become Italy's 11th president in 2006 and re-elected for a then-unprecedented second term seven years later.

He stepped down in 2015, midway through his mandate, saying that, at 89, he was too old to carry on.

Napolitano forged a close relationship with the late Pope Benedict XVI and was one of the few people to have been warned in advance of Benedict's shock resignation in February 2013.

Italian presidents had mostly been little more than ceremonial figures, ribbon-cutters and authors of patriotic speeches, but some credit Napolitano, affectionately known as "King George", with saving the country from financial ruin, while critics said he overstepped his bounds.

In November 2011, at the height of the euro zone debt crisis, then-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned after losing parliamentary support, leaving Italy teetering on the verge of defaulting on its debts.

Napolitano quickly named Mario Monti, a former European Commission technocrat, to impose deep spending cuts and lead the country through the turmoil.

Three years later, after former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a book there had been a "scheme" to replace Berlusconi, Napolitano was accused of conniving with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to depose the billionaire media mogul, an accusation the president denied.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, casting itself as the defender of political orthodoxy, accused Napolitano of exceeding his constitutional powers, calling an impeachment vote that parliament rejected.

In 2013, with his mandate expired, Napolitano had cleaned out his office and was looking forward to retirement when party leaders - including Berlusconi - pleaded with him to accept a second term to help overcome parliamentary divisions.

He acquiesced and days later, because no clear winner had emerged from a parliamentary election held a month before, Napolitano installed a right-left grand coalition under centre-left politician Enrico Letta, bringing the tumult to an end.

COMMUNIST

Napolitano, born and raised in the southern city of Naples, was an active anti-fascist as a student, according to his official profile, before joining the PCI.

He spent more than four decades in parliament after first being elected in 1953, initially sticking close to the official Communist Party line, praising the Soviet Union's 1956 invasion of Hungary.

But he was always seen to be on the reformist wing of the movement and in 1978 became the first high-ranking leader of a communist party to visit the United States.

The PCI, once the most influential leftist force in western Europe, was dissolved in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Moderate elements formed the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), with Napolitano striving to position it as a mainstream, pro-Western group.

"We must resist the temptation of once again turning America into the traditional bogeyman of the left," he said in 1991, defending U.S. actions in the first Gulf War and earning a chorus of jeers and hisses from PDS members.

He served as president of the lower house of parliament from 1992 to 1994, and was interior minister under prime minister Romano Prodi from 1996-98.

A tall man with a courteous demeanour, Napolitano frequently showed his physical fragility and emotions in the latter years of his presidency, tearing up nostalgically during speeches.

After his retirement Napolitano continued attending Senate sittings when his health permitted. Last year he skipped the inaugural session of the upper house, which he had the right to chair as the most senior member, due to his frail condition.

He is survived by his wife, Clio, who was often seen by his side during official state visits and events, two sons, Giovanni and Giulio, and grandchildren.

(Editing by Crispian Balmer, Robin Pomeroy and Mark Heinrich)

Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul sparks Palestinian fears of ‘speedy’ West Bank annexation

Nadeen Ebrahim and Abeer Salman, CNN
Fri, September 22, 2023 

Debbie Hill/AP

For nearly nine months, tens of thousands of Israelis have protested every week against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the judiciary, concerned that it risks severely curtailing the powers of the Supreme Court, the only body that provides a check on the executive and legislative branches of government.

Meanwhile, watching and worrying from the sidelines, many Palestinians fear a weakened Supreme Court could lead to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and the eventual annexation of the territory they want for a future state.

Most Israelis have cited the erosion of democracy and human rights in protesting the overhaul, but its potential implications on more than three million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank haven’t played a significant part in the public discourse.

Sawsan Zaher, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and human rights lawyer working with the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, argues the implications could be enormous. She refers to the overhaul as a “judicial coup,” saying it risks facilitating the “de facto annexation of the West Bank without any critique or any review” from the Supreme Court.

Zaher’s concern is rooted in words and actions that Netanyahu government has taken since coming into power at the end of last year. The cabinet includes a number of West Bank settlers in powerful positions, and the agreement that brought together the government calls for extending Israel’s sovereignty in the West Bank, effectively a call for annexation.

Under Netanyahu’s far-right government, Israel has approved a record number of housing units in West Bank settlements, Peace Now said in a July report.

Most countries and the United Nations consider the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied and therefore view Israeli settlements there as illegal under international law. Israel says the territory is disputed and denies its settlements there are illegal.

Many Israelis support their government’s expansion into the occupied territories. A 2020 survey by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute found that more than half of Jewish Israelis supported extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, an ambition that Netanyahu has voiced.

The overhaul includes a number of bills, the first of which passed in July by a 64-0 vote, thanks to the entire opposition walking out in protest before the vote. That law strips the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable.

Supporters of the overhaul say that the judicial system in Israel is flawed, and gives too much power to the court. Some have been calling for judicial reform for years, saying it would balance all three branches of government.

Last week, the Supreme Court heard challenges to the reasonableness law, with the entire panel of 15 judges convening for the first time ever to hear a case.

Justices grilled lawyers from both sides rigorously, giving little indication which way they would rule. It is unclear when the court will announce its decision on the reasonableness law.

The ruling could be historic, since the reasonableness law is an amendment to one of Israel’s 13 Basic Laws. Unlike many democracies, Israel doesn’t have a written constitution. Instead, it relies on Basic Laws, as well as court ruling precedents that could one day become a constitution. The court has never struck down a Basic Law or an amendment to one.

“If you look at the core essence and intentions of the judicial coup, it is basically to stop the Supreme Court from having any kind of judicial review on Basic Laws or government decisions,” Zaher told CNN.
A narrow avenue for legal recourse

Experts say that while the Supreme Court has generally supported Israel’s settlement expansion, it has sometimes provided a narrow avenue for legal recourse by Palestinians.

Eliav Lieblich, a law professor at Tel Aviv University said the court has never hindered the settlement movement. “It never ruled on the overall legality of the settlement projects.”

What it did do, he said, is “provide specific protections for situations in which private property of Palestinians has been infringed, or otherwise used for settlements,” Lieblich told CNN.

But Zaher said that Palestinians have never considered the Supreme Court as sympathetic to their cause, and that Netanyahu’s overhaul risks scrapping any remaining mechanisms, no matter how small, that can override policies viewed by Palestinians as violations of their rights.

“Did the Supreme Court protect Palestinian rights in the West Bank? The answer clearly is that in 95% of cases, no,” Zaher estimated.

Palestinians in the West Bank fall under a different set of laws than Israelis. They are subject to the jurisdiction of multiple, separate authorities, including the Palestinian Authority and Israeli military laws. West Bank Palestinians have the option of petitioning Israeli courts to rule against evictions, demolitions or land seizures, even if there’s a slim chance of success.

According to human rights organizations, the Supreme Court approves the majority of the orders for demolition of the family homes of Palestinians engaged in attacks against Israelis, and rarely grants petitions filed by Palestinians against those measures. The practice has been criticized by rights groups as collective punishment. Israel argues that it deters future attacks.

Palestinians have however had some rare victories. In 2005, the Supreme Court ordered the government to come up with a new route for part of its security barrier in the northern West Bank to minimize hardship for Palestinians. The International Court of Justice in The Hague had said a year earlier that the entire barrier is illegal.

And in 2012, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of Palestinian landowners, ordering the removal of five settler buildings in the West Bank above the Palestinian village of Dura al-Qara.

More recently in 2017, Israeli security forces bulldozed nine homes built on private Palestinian land in the West Bank settlement of Ofra. The decision to destroy the homes came after the High Court of Justice struck down an appeal by the settler residents of Ofra to evacuate the homes but not destroy them. The court had issued the demolition ruling in 2015, seven years after the legal aid group representing the Palestinian landowner filed the case in 2008.

In other cases, however, rulings in favor of Palestinians have been reversed. Last year, in an unprecedented move, the high court ruled that a settlement outpost – Israeli housing in the West Bank built without government authorization – on private Palestinian land can remain place, almost two years after ordering its removal.
Fears of ‘speedy’ annexation

Palestinians say that settlement expansion under the Netanyahu government suggests there will be even less restraint on expansion when the Supreme Court is no longer a bureaucratic hurdle for the government.

There may be “an acceleration of the annexation in a speedy way that we did not see before,” Zaher said.

Ahmed Tibi, a Palestinian-Israeli member of Israel’s parliament and head of the Ta’al party, said that supporters of the reasonableness law include far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, both of whom are settlers. These supporters, Tibi said, “aim to control the judicial system to facilitate the annexation of occupied territories.”

“Many suggestions (in the judicial overhaul) would benefit the settlers,” Tibi told CNN. “Anything that strengthens the settlers tends to weaken the Palestinians.”

Gershon Baskin, director of the Holy Land Bond, a new investment fund aimed at investing in housing projects for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, sees settlement expansions as being at the heart of Netanyahu’s judicial plan.

“The small avenues that Palestinians have found within the Israeli High Court are going to be closed doors in the not-too-distant future if Netanyahu is successful in pushing through the reform,” Baskin said.

While the formal annexation of the West Bank is “an extreme scenario,” Lieblich said, it would be easier to do if the Supreme Court is severely weakened, with no authority to review government decisions. Weakening judicial review would also make it easier to take incremental steps that could amount to annexation for all practical purposes, he said.

“Once you diminish judicial review, you empower the executive, in what is already a zero-sum game (between Israel and the Palestinians),” he added.


Thousands in New York City protest Israel’s judicial overhaul as Netanyahu addresses UN

Noa Yachot in New York

THE GUARDIAN
Fri, September 22, 2023

Photograph: Diane Desobeau/AFP/Getty Images

Thousands of Israelis and American Jews protested outside the United Nations in New York City, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke before the UN general assembly in an address railing against Iran and making a case for Israeli-Saudi peace.

About 3,000 people attended the protest against the Netanyahu government’s efforts to overhaul Israel’s judiciary, a plan that critics say will decimate Israel’s democratic institutions. Organizers say it was the largest anti-government action held outside Israel since the start of the wave of protests that have rocked the country since Netanyahu’s government took office at the start of this year.

Demonstrators chanted amid a sea of Israeli flags and anti-Netanyahu signs, banging on drums and shouting “shame!” in Hebrew when speakers mentioned the prime minister’s name. “It is a coup!” said speaker Daniel Kahneman, an Israeli Nobel prize-winning psychologist, of the government’s plan. “And it will fail!”

Related: What is Israel’s judicial overhaul about and what happens next?

The makeup of the crowd largely mirrored the weekly protests that have taken place around Israel every Saturday for 38 consecutive weeks. Alongside Israelis living in New York, dozens of activists flew in, to represent the most visible groups in the movement – the “Pink Front” of performers clad in fluorescent pink and banging on drums; military veterans calling themselves “brothers and sisters in arms”; and expatriate Israelis organizing under a group called UnXeptable, which has held solidarity protests around the world.

As in Israel itself, conspicuously missing from Friday’s crowd was a Palestinian presence, even though Palestinians make up roughly half the population under the state’s control and are uniquely vulnerable to the ultra-nationalist agenda of a government dominated by extremist settlers.

Many Palestinians view the protests as a campaign for democracy for Jews alone, seeking a return to a status quo that took hold long before the current government.

One group trying to represent their views is the so-called anti-occupation bloc of the protests, which has had a small but vocal presence within the Israeli demonstrations and a growing contingent in New York. Roughly 200 joined the bloc on Friday with a smattering of Palestinian flags, wearing black T-shirts reading, “There is no democracy with occupation.”

Related: ‘We are winning’: Are US Jews who oppose Israeli settlements finally getting somewhere?

“Our goal is to keep reminding ourselves, the protesters, the public, the media, anyone thinking about this judicial coup – that there’s a population under occupation in Israel-Palestine,” said Ben Weinberg, an Israeli activist based in Brooklyn and organizing with the anti-occupation group. “The struggle against the judicial coup doesn’t end by going back to the way things were, where there’s democracy for Jews in Israel and a military regime for Palestinians in the territories.”

Progressive Jewish groups have long been mainstays of anti-government and anti-occupation protests in the US, despite a longstanding taboo in more mainstream circles against criticizing Israel in moments of crisis. But in a sign of how deeply the American Jewish community has broken with the current government, establishment Jewish leaders also took the stage on the side of the protest on Friday.

“My brothers and sisters fighting for democracy in Israel, you are not alone. We stand with you,” Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, who leads the largest Conservative congregation in Manhattan, told the crowd in a speech that did not mention Netanyahu by name.

A June poll of US Jews conducted by the Jewish Electorate Institute found that 61% believe the judicial overhaul will weaken Israeli democracy. The Netanyahu government has so far succeeded in passing one element of that overhaul, a law that strips the country’s supreme court of some of its oversight powers.

In Israel, the anti-occupation bloc’s relationship with the mainstream protest has ranged from uneasy to accommodating, and it has occasionally faced hostility and violence for the Palestinian flags waved by its supporters. “The Palestinian flag undermines the cause,” one American protester could be heard muttering as he passed the bloc. Israel’s national security minister, the far-right settler Itamar Ben Gvir, has banned Palestinian flags from public spaces.

Friday’s protest came two days after Netanyahu met on the sidelines of the general assembly with Joe Biden for a discussion centering on the prospects of Israeli-Saudi normalization, which supporters of Palestinian rights fear would undermine their cause. Biden invited the Israeli premier to visit the White House later this year, in effect ending a months-long cold shoulder from the US president.

“In the US, there’s no such thing as democracy for just some of the people,” said Weinberg.

“Especially while Netanyahu is trying to appease the US government, we want to remind American voters and American Jews that the demand needs to be for a real democracy in Israel – democracy for Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs – a full democracy from the river to the sea.”

UN reports says West Bank settler violence has displaced over 1,100 Palestinians since 2022


 Palestinian shepherd Mustafa Arara, 24, stands in the ruins of the West Bank Bedouin village of al-Baqa where residents fled in July after settlers established an outpost a stone’s throw from the village in June, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. Over 1100 Palestinians have fled their homes in the West Bank since the start of 2022, according to a report from the U.N. U.N. released Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. Officials described the exodus as unprecedented in recent memory. They attribute the displacement to increasing levels of violence from Israeli settlers directed toward Palestinians in the territory. 

(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

BY JULIA FRANKEL
 September 21, 2023

JERUSALEM (AP) — Violence from Israeli settlers has displaced over 1,100 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2022, according to a U.N. report released Thursday, with officials describing the exodus as unparalleled in recent years.

The report documented about three settler-related incidents each day in the West Bank — the highest daily average since the U.N. began documenting the trend in 2006. The violence has completely emptied out five Palestinian communities. Six more have seen half their inhabitants leave, and seven have seen a quarter flee, the report said.

As Israeli settlements expand under the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinians say the violence from radical Israeli settlers has reached a fever pitch.

“The U.N. has recorded unprecedented levels of settler violence against Palestinians this year,” said Lynn Hastings, humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory. “The humanitarian community is responding to their immediate needs, but there would be no need for humanitarian assistance if their fundamental rights were upheld.”

Those who have left their homes say that attacks on their grazing lands and violence from settlement outposts — many of which are recently established on hilltops ringing rural Palestinian villages — prompted them to pull up stakes permanently.

Experts say the trend is transforming the map of the West Bank and further undermining the prospects for an independent Palestinian state. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — for their future state.

The affected villages are mostly reliant on herding and agriculture for their livelihoods. Nearly all of the communities reported having to sell part of their livestock and 70% have had to borrow money to pay for artificial feed after settler incursions cut off access to their grazing lands, the report says.

Over a third of the residents have reported changing their livelihoods, some giving up shepherding altogether.

The Palestinian communities that saw the greatest population loss were in areas with the highest number of settlement outposts, according to the report.

COGAT, the Israeli defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, did not respond to a request for comment.

Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades, but Netanyahu’s far-right government has made it a top priority. Settler firebrand and powerful Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich now oversees settlement policy and has vowed to step up construction and legalize outposts built without authorization.

The international community overwhelmingly views settlements as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. President Joe Biden met with Netanyahu on Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, raising concerns about the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinians.

In the pair’s first meeting since Netanyahu took office late last year, Biden urged Netanyahu to take steps to improve conditions in the West Bank at a time of heightened violence in the occupied territory. A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, confirmed that Biden had raised his concerns about “settler terrorist violence” during the meeting.

Palestinians who have been displaced report that Israeli authorities, charged with administering the territory, rarely respond to instances of settler violence. According to U.N. data, nearly all the communities where displacement occurred said they had filed complaints with authorities, but only 6% said that Israeli authorities had followed up on the complaint.

The rise in settler violence comes at a time of heavy Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the area.

Some 190 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire this year. Nearly half were affiliated with militant groups, but stone throwing youths protesting military incursions and people not involved in the confrontations have also been killed. More than 30 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Palestine calls for full UN membership and a plan to end the occupation


UN Photo/Cia Pak

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-seventh session.

23 September 2022

UN Affairs

President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his appeal for the State of Palestine to become a full-fledged member of the UN, and warned of waning peace prospects with Israel, in his speech to the General Assembly on Friday.

“Palestine, the Observer State in this Organization for 10 years now has proved that it qualifies for full membership. You have all recognized this,” he said, citing contributions that include chairing the G-77 and China developing country coalition.

“We are the exception. We are the only ones in the world on whom double standards are being applied.”

Killings, looting, demolitions

President Abbas began his remarks by outlining how Palestinians have suffered under decades of Israeli occupation.

“Israel is giving total freedom to the army and to the terrorist settlers who are killing the Palestinian people in broad daylight, looting their land and their water, burning and demolishing their homes, compelling them to pay for the demolition, or forcing them to destroy their homes with their own hands, and uproot their trees,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.

He also addressed the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, among other incidents.

The Al Jazeera correspondent was shot in May while on assignment in the West Bank. He said Israel acknowledged that she had been killed by a sniper.

“I dare the United States to prosecute those who have killed this American national. Why? because they are Israelis,” he told world leaders.

Trust ‘unfortunately regressing’

Regarding peace prospects, Mr. Abbas stated that “our trust and the possibility of achieving peace based on justice and international law is unfortunately regressing.”

He said Israel is ignoring international resolutions and undermining agreements and is no longer a partner in the peace process.

“It has and still is, through its current policies, which are premeditated and deliberate, destroying the two-State solution. This proves unequivocally that Israel does not believe in peace. It believes in imposing status quo by force and by aggression.”

He called for the UN Secretary-General to elaborate an international plan to end the occupation in order to achieve peace, security and stability in the region, in line with international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.

‘A positive development’

Mr. Abbas noted that during their speeches to the General Assembly, United States President Joseph Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, along with other world leaders, voiced support for the two-State solution

“This is of course, a positive development,” he said, though adding that the “real test to the seriousness and credibility of this stance” will be for Israel to immediately return to the negotiating table.

“The State of Palestine is looking forward to peace,” he said. “Let us make this peace to live in security, stability and prosperity for the benefit of our generations and all the people of the region.”

Palestinian leader tells UN there can be no Mideast peace without his people enjoying full rights

Associated Press
Thu, September 21, 2023

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that there can be no peace in the Middle East without his people enjoying their “full and legitimate national rights.”

It was the closest he came in a nearly 25-minute address to acknowledging U.S.-led negotiations aimed at getting Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel. The Saudis have said such a deal must include major progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s far-right government has all but ruled out.

“Those who think that peace can prevail in the Middle East without the Palestinian people enjoying their full and legitimate national rights are mistaken,” Abbas said at the start of his address to the U.N.

The 87-year-old Palestinian leader’s speech largely resembled those he has delivered in past sessions. He accused Israel of a litany of violations against Palestinian rights and called for an international conference to revive the peace process.

He said the Israeli occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state “challenges more than a thousand resolutions, violates the principles of international law and international legitimacy, while racing to change the historical, geographical and demographic reality on the ground.”

The Israeli delegation walked out of the hall early in his address, when he spoke about Israel’s practice of holding the remains of alleged Palestinian attackers.

There have been no serious or substantive peace talks in over a decade. Abbas is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, many of whom view his Palestinian Authority as a corrupt pillar of the status quo.

UN General Assembly

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Colors promoting UN goals or LGBTQ rights? Turkey's Erdogan complains

HUMAN RIGHTS YOU MORONIC TYRANT

Reuters
Thu, September 21, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: 78th UNGA General Debate at UN HQ in New York


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan complained on Thursday that he was uncomfortable with the use of what he described as "LGBT colors" at the United Nations, which is decorated this week with bright colors promoting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Erdogan said he would have liked to discuss it with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Turkish media reported on Thursday. Turkey's government - led by Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party - has toughened its stance on LGBTQ freedoms.

"One of the issues that bothers me the most ... is that when entering the United Nations General Assembly, you see the LGBT colors on steps and other places," Erdogan was quoted as saying by broadcaster Haberturk and others.

"How many LGBT are there in the world right now? However much right they have on these steps, those against LGBT have as much right as well," said Erdogan, who has frequently labeled members of the LGBTQ community as "deviants" and particularly toughened his rhetoric during his election campaign this year.

However, some U.N. diplomats suggested Erdogan might have confused the 17 different colors associated with the Sustainable Development Goals - and decorating parts of U.N. headquarters, including steps, for a summit that was held earlier this week - with the rainbow Pride colors associated with LGBTQ rights.

While Guterres has been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights and spoken out about discrimination, there are no rainbow Pride colors at U.N. headquarters promoting LGBTQ rights.

A spokesperson for Guterres did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Erdogan's remarks.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by world leaders in 2015 with a deadline of 2030, are a global "to do" list that includes wiping out hunger, extreme poverty, battling climate change and inequality, and promoting gender equality.

Homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, but hostility to it is widespread, and police crackdowns on Pride parades have become tougher over the years.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)

Turkey’s president unhappy with ‘LGBT colors’ at UN

Nick Robertson
Fri, September 22, 2023 




Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan complained about the bright-colored decorations at the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York City, saying the “LGBT colors” upset him.

The multi-colored lights were installed to promote the U.N.’s sustainable development goals, which the session was intended to feature.

Erdoğan told Turkish media that he wants to bring up the issue with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as Reuters reported. The Turkish leader’s islamist government has recently toughened its stance on LGBTQ rights.

“One of the issues that bothers me the most … is that when entering the United Nations General Assembly, you see the LGBT colors on steps and other places,” he was quoted as saying by broadcaster Haberturk and others, according to Reuters.

“How many LGBT are there in the world right now? However much right they have on these steps, those against LGBT have as much right as well,” he said.

While the United Nations has made statements in support of the LGBTQ community, there are no explicit displays of pride flags or other displays specifically for the LGBTQ community at the U.N. building in New York.

The development goals are a list of 17 aspirational tasks for world leaders, with a deadline of 2030, including improving hunger, extreme poverty and climate change.

President Biden addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, using the opportunity to focus on the war in Ukraine.

“Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence,” Biden said. “But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the U.N. Charter to appease an aggressor, can any member state feel confident that they are protected?”

“If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?” he said. “I respectfully suggest the answer is no. We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also addressed the U.N. this week and called for reform in the body, citing Russia’s deadlock on the Security Council.

“We should recognize that the U.N. finds itself in a deadlock on the matters of aggression. Humankind no longer pins its hopes on the U.N.,” Zelensky said in a speech at the Security Council.

“Ukrainian soldiers now are doing at the expense of their blood what the U.N. Security Council should do by its voting; they’re stopping Russia and upholding the principles of the U.N.”

Jimmy Carter’s Final Chapter: Peanut Butter Ice Cream and His 99th Birthday

Peter Baker
Fri, September 22, 2023 

A portrait of former President Jimmy Carter, painted by Robert Templeton in 1980, at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington on Feb. 20, 2023. (Al Drago/The New York Times)

Maybe it’s the peanut butter ice cream he still enjoys. Or the fact that his first-place Atlanta Braves are cruising toward the playoffs and he wants to see another World Series. Or as many of his loved ones and former advisers suggest, maybe he is just too stubborn to follow anyone else’s timetable.

Whatever the reason, seven months after entering hospice care, Jimmy Carter is still hanging on, thank you very much, and is in fact heading toward his 99th birthday in just over a week. While nearly everyone, including his family, assumed that the end was imminent when he gave up full-scale medical care in the winter, the farmer-turned-president has once again defied expectations.

“We thought at the beginning of this process that it was going to be in five or so days,” Jason Carter, his grandson, said in an interview, recalling the former president’s decision to check out of the hospital and go into hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, in February. “I was down there with him in the hospital and then said goodbye. And then we thought it was going to be in that week that it was coming to the end. And it’s just now been seven months.”

Jimmy Carter was already the longest-living president in American history, but his staying power even in hospice has captured the imagination of many admirers around the world. It has generated an extended farewell, one that was unplanned yet remarkably affectionate for a president who was turned out of power by voters after a single term yet transformed his legacy with decades of service that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the months since he returned to his small-town home to meet his final fate, the outpouring of remembrances has been heartening to his family and friends. Instead of a memorial service he could not attend, Carter has experienced a living eulogy, soaking up tributes from around the globe. Relatives and advisers say he is aware of what has been written and said, and is deeply grateful.

“He’s got so much joy in seeing his presidency and post-presidency revisited,” said Paige Alexander, CEO of the Carter Center, the nonprofit institution that served as the base for his philanthropic work over the past four decades. “In many ways, that keeps him going — along with peanut butter ice cream.”

Carter has withdrawn from the active life he led until not that long ago. The regular calls with Alexander are no longer so regular. What animated him for so long were not the ins and outs of the daily news but the projects he devoted his life to, like eradicating certain diseases from developing countries.

“He wasn’t asking about politics or the economy,” Alexander recalled. “He just wanted to know what the Guinea worm count was.”

While Carter has good days and bad days, he has not lost his perspicacity or his sometimes curmudgeonly sense of humor. Alexander recalled a telephone conversation over the summer when she mentioned his upcoming big day.

“If I don’t talk to you before your birthday, happy birthday,” she recalled telling him.

“I’m going to be 99,” he replied. “I’m not sure what’s so happy about that.”

Nonetheless, the Carter family, both those who are blood relations and those who are part of his longtime circle, are planning various celebrations to mark his century-minus-one milestone Oct. 1.

The Carter Center is asking supporters to send pictures or videos that will be arranged in a digital mosaic. It collected 6,000 in the first three days, from celebrities like Martin Sheen and Jeff Daniels as well as everyday people from Africa and around the world. Peter Gabriel led an audience in a round of “Happy Birthday, Jimmy” at Madison Square Garden in New York on Monday night.

The next night, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation presented its lifetime achievement award to Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, with Alexander collecting on their behalf. The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum will hold a naturalization swearing-in ceremony for new American citizens on his birthday. David Osborne, known as the “pianist to the presidents,” will perform at Jimmy Carter’s Maranatha Baptist Church.

Carter was not suffering any particular ailment that prompted him to enter hospice care in February, according to people close to him, but was tired of being in and out of the hospital and wanted to spend his final days at home with his wife. Hospice is defined as care for terminally ill patients when the priority is not to provide further treatment but to reduce pain and discomfort toward the end of life. It is meant for patients not expected to live more than six months.

Perhaps it should have been no surprise that Carter would ignore that time frame. He has been defying death longer than anyone who ever served in the Oval Office. In 2015, he beat cancer that had spread to his brain. In 2019, he bounced back from several falls, including one that broke a hip. “He’s been faced with what he thought was the end multiple times,” Jason Carter said.

He spends his days now in the house where he and Rosalynn Carter have lived since 1961, a two-bedroom, one-story rambler so plain that The Washington Post once calculated that it was worth less than the Secret Service vehicles parked out front. His children and grandchildren take turns visiting with them, and he has a crew of caregivers but has not seen a doctor in more than six months. President Joe Biden calls from time to time to check in.

“It’s a day-to-day thing,” said Kim Fuller, his niece. The children sometimes read him news articles, and he catches Braves games on television. “They holler at the TV and do everything you do normally when you’re watching baseball,” Fuller said.

Carter can no longer teach Sunday school at Maranatha as he did for so many years — the church’s website says almost optimistically that he will not be teaching “until further notice” — so Fuller has taken over.

Her uncle watches her every Sunday on a live Facebook feed. At first, he would offer critiques. “He would let me know if I had said something that wasn’t quite the way it should be,” she said. “He doesn’t anymore. I kind of miss that. I would like for him to.”

Rosalynn Carter, the genteel former first lady who made promoting mental health a cause while in the White House, announced in May that she had dementia, and the two of them spend days together quietly, recently celebrating their 77th anniversary. “She’s very happy,” Jason Carter said. “She’s reminiscing and remembering some of the great times she’s had.” As Alexander put it, “They continue to offer us lessons in dignity and grace.”

For Rosalynn Carter’s 96th birthday last month, Fuller said she organized a butterfly release at the house. Fuller said her uncle was aware of his own upcoming birthday.

“He wants to reach 99, I know that,” she said. “The last month has been different for him,” she added, but “I am just praying every day that he makes it to 99.”

“It’s a bittersweet one,” she added. “We’ve all been on pins and needles since February. Every day’s a celebration.” But as her uncle has demonstrated time and again for nearly a century, no one will dictate to him. “He’s going to do exactly what he wants to do when he wants to do it.”

For Carter, any birthday celebration will be marked at home, surrounded by family.

“He’s really significantly limited physically, and he is coming to the end; there’s no doubt about that,” Jason Carter said. “He is, I think, frustrated by that. But he is at home. He’s together with his wife. They’re in love. They’re at peace, and you don’t get more from that. You certainly don’t get more than they got from this life. And the end is exactly how you would hope for it to be.”

c.2023 The New York Times Company

Addis Ababa faces growing climate change risks like heat, drought and floods, study warns

Abay Yimere, 

Postdoctoral Scholar in International Environment and Resource Policy, 

The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Thu, September 21, 2023 
THE CONVERSATION

About 70% of people in Addis Ababa live in informal settlements that are vulnerable to climate change. Amanuel Sileshi/AFP/ Getty Images


Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city, will likely face increased heatwaves, droughts and severe flooding over the next 67 years. These changes will pose risks to public health and infrastructure. They’ll also be felt most acutely by the city’s most vulnerable residents: those living in informal settlements.

Addis Ababa is one of the fastest-growing cities in Africa, and its current metropolitan population of about 5.4 million is projected to reach close to 9 million by 2035.

This increase in the city’s population will be absorbed by informal settlements, the prime destination for most migrants. And informal settlements are characterised by poor or non-existent infrastructure, and face the twin challenges of worsening climate change and poor urban environmental policy.

To investigate the city’s vulnerability to climate change, researchers at Tufts University and the Woodwell Climate Research Center analysed flood risk and temperature data for different time periods, projecting from the past to the future.

We predicted that the city’s extreme daily maximum temperatures would increase by about 1.7°C over the period 2040-2060, compared with 2000–2020. An increase of 1.7°C would result in a rise in the frequency, duration, and intensity of heatwaves. In addition, higher temperatures contribute to increased water vapour and transpiration. This will threaten health, ecosystems, infrastructure, livelihoods, and food supplies.

Certain southern neighbourhoods, such as Akaki-Kaliti, Bole and Nifas Silk-Lafto, have experienced notably higher temperatures, especially during the warm season from March to May. And, looking to the future, temperature projections for Nifas Silk-Lafto suggest an average temperature increase to 26.21°C between 2040 and 2060, and further increase to 27.78°C from 2070 to 2090 and 27.78°C from 2070 to 2090.

For the warm-season months of March, April, and May, a temperature increase of 1.8°C is projected. This suggests that the peak temperature for the hottest day of the year will rise by an average of 1.8°C compared to recent data. From 2000 to 2020 the average temperature in the Nifas Silk-Lafto sub-city was 24.70°C.

Increases in temperatures of this magnitude will lead to public health challenges such as increased malaria risks, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups like the elderly, children, and women.

More droughts

Over the past two decades, Addis Ababa has endured an average of three months of extreme drought yearly. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index to assess temperature and precipitation data in a geographical area, our analysis suggests that extreme drought events will become more frequent between 2040 and 2060. The city is expected to experience an additional 1.6 months of extreme drought annually, a 53% increase compared with 2000-2020.

This rising frequency of droughts, along with the city’s growing population, is intensifying water insecurity. Groundwater reserves for drought emergencies are already being depleted.

These droughts will affect health, hydroelectric energy production and urban agriculture.

Flooding

Too much rainfall, particularly if it occurs within a short period of time in an urban area, leads to flooding. Flooding poses a significant environmental risk to Addis Ababa, especially because the city has developed around three primary rivers.

Climate change will increase water-related challenges by affecting the flow of rivers and the replenishment of groundwater.

Currently, 67% of the population in Addis lives in flood prone areas. The parts of the city that are most at risk include central Addis, which has the greatest density of impervious surfaces like tarmac and concrete. These contribute to flood risk because water can’t seep into the ground.

Other parts of the city that are at risk include the southern half – where the slope is relatively flatter, so water doesn’t flow away – and the Nifas Silk-Lafto region, where considerable development has taken place in the floodplain.

Several factors will add to the flooding challenge. The city has inadequate sewerage infrastructure and weak drainage systems which are often obstructed by solid waste.
The impact

The effects on the city’s residents will be substantial.

Health is just one example.

Our data show that average temperatures in the city will make year-round malaria transmission a risk. There will have to be sustained policy measures to deal with the risk.

Older adults and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change. The elderly are more sensitive to heat and pollution due to existing health conditions, limited mobility, and compromised immune systems. Pregnant women face risks from thermal variations and mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria and Zika.

Read more: Climate change will cause more African children to die from hot weather

Many urban residents will be prone to increasing floods. Already 10% of the city’s newly developed areas are within a 100-year floodplain, threatening lives and infrastructures.

People living in informal settlements are particularly at risk – that’s about 70% of Addis Ababa’s residents. These settlements crop up in limited and unused spaces, such as riverbanks. They are at a higher risk of flood impact, and the risk is growing.

Our data shows that currently the percentage difference in vulnerability between formal and informal settlements is 0.6%. The figure illustrates the extent to which buildings within formal and informal settlements would be affected by flooding events. It is expected to rise to 1.3% by 2050 and 1.6% by 2080.

Policy recommendations

There’s an urgent need for policies that can rise to these challenges. We suggest:

the government should establish a climate adaptation and resilience office, to integrate climate resilience into urban planning


an independent body should then assess policies in practice


a water management strategy to ensure equitable access and sustainable use of water


the city should invest in green infrastructure

Read more: Global climate finance leaves out cities: fixing it is critical to battling climate change

upgrading infrastructure and improving waste management


public awareness campaigns and school education on climate change impacts


developing mechanisms for effective collaboration among government departments, non-governmental organisations and international agencies.

---

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Abay Yimere, Tufts University.

Read more:

New tools to map flood risk will help bring disaster planning up to date

Landlocked Ethiopia wants better sea access: a port deal with neighbours could benefit the region

Is eastern Africa’s drought the worst in recent history? And are worse yet to come?

UN investigators warn of risk of 'future atrocities' in Ethiopia

Thu, September 21, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: A general view shows motorists and a biker near the Tigray Martyrs monument in Mekele

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N.-appointed investigators warned on Thursday that more atrocities were likely in Ethiopia and called for continued scrutiny of Addis Ababa's human rights record as their work faces termination amid strong African-led opposition.

Thousands died in a two-year conflict between the government and regional forces from Tigray, which formally came to an end in November last year. Both sides accused each other of atrocities, including massacres, rape and arbitrary detentions, but each denied responsibility for systemic abuses.

The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, composed of three independent experts, said earlier this week in a report that war crimes and crimes against humanity were still being committed in Ethiopia.

Its two-year mandate is up for renewal in the ongoing Human Rights Council session in Geneva although so far no request has been submitted amid what diplomats describe as strong opposition, mostly from African states.

Ethiopia, which denies committing widespread abuses, has strongly opposed the probe and tried to cut its work short.

Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the Commission, told the 47-member council it would be "premature" to end its work and urged it to renew, referring to ongoing violations in the region of Amhara.

"Failure to do so would not only be an abdication of the Council's responsibility, it would send a devastating message to the victims and survivors of this conflict," he said.

He told the Council that "...the situation in Ethiopia exhibits most of the indicators for future atrocities..." and accused Ethiopia of conducting "a deliberate effort to evade regional and international scrutiny".

And he criticised Ethiopia's approach to justice as "deeply flawed", saying there had been no credible evidence of legitimate investigations or trials of its soldiers which it accuses of attacking civilians.

Ethiopia's government and its armed forces have repeatedly denied that their soldiers committed widespread crimes and have promised to investigate complaints of individual abuses.

Ethiopia's ambassador Tsegab Kebebew said the Commission had "grossly mischaracterised the positive and widely acclaimed political developments in Ethiopia". He did not directly address the other criticisms. A spokesperson for Ethiopia's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ivory Coast envoy Konan François Kouame said that it considered the work of the U.N. Commission as now being terminated and urged the council to instead support Ethiopian-led measures.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Alex Richardson)