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Tony Blair denies report linking him role in resettling Gazans

"The Channel 12 report in Israel linking Tony Blair to a discussion about a ‘role’ in the ‘voluntary resettlement of Gazans’ in Arab and other countries is a lie," Blair said.

By JN REPORTERJanuary 2, 2024, 

Former prime minister Tony Blair (Photo credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair denied a recent report by Israeli TV alleging he would help “examine” the possibility of Western nations accepting Palestinian refugees. 

According to Channel 12, Blair was in Israel last week where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz to discuss him possibly taking on the role as a mediator in efforts to bring Palestinians out of Gaza.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was quick to welcome the report, saying: “This is a morally just step to take, first and foremost for Gaza border residents, and for all of Israel.”

Blair is now denying the report, calling it a lie: “The Channel 12 report in Israel linking Tony Blair to a discussion about a ‘role’ in the ‘voluntary resettlement of Gazans’ in Arab and other countries is a lie.”

“The story was published without any contact with Tony Blair or his team. No such discussion has taken place. Nor would Tony Blair have such a discussion, the idea is wrong in principle. Gazans should be able to stay and live in Gaza.”

Far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government are advocating for the transfer of millions of Palestinians from Gaza as well as rebuilding Israeli settlements.

“We will be in security control, and we will need there to be civil [control]. I’m for completely changing the reality in Gaza, having a conversation about settlements in the Gaza Strip… We’ll need to rule there for a long time… If we want to be there militarily, we need to be there in a civilian fashion,” Finance Minister Smotrich said on Sunday.

“We want to encourage wilful emigration, and we need to find countries willing to take them in. We need to encourage immigration from there. If there were 100,000-200,000 Arabs in the Strip and not two million, the whole conversation about the day after [the war] would be completely different. They want to leave. They have been living in a ghetto for 75 years and are in need,” Smotrich told Army Radio.

UK's Blair denies link to role in

'resettlement' of Gazans

London (AFP) – Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair has strongly denied an Israeli media report linking him to talks last week about the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza in other countries.


Issued on: 02/01/2024 - 

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change organisation called the Israeli report 'a lie' 

© Tolga AKMEN / AFP

Channel 12 claimed on Sunday that Blair, who left office in 2007 and served as a Middle East envoy charged with building up Palestinian institutions, was in Israel last week.

The news channel said he held meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and war cabinet member Benny Gantz about a mediation role after the war with Hamas.

He could also act as a go-between with moderate Arab states about the "voluntary resettlement" of Gazans, it added.

Expelling civilians during a conflict or creating unlivable conditions which force them to leave is a war crime.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a non-profit organisation he set up in 2016, said the report was "a lie".

"The story was published without any contact with Tony Blair or his team. No such discussion has taken place," it said in a statement on Monday night.

"Nor would Tony Blair have such a discussion. The idea is wrong in principle. Gazans should be able to stay and live in Gaza."
'Unwelcome person'

The Palestinian presidency in Ramallah lashed out at the report.

The presidency said it would demand that the British government "not allow this meddling with the fate and future of the Palestinian people".

"We also consider Tony Blair to be an unwelcome person in the Palestinian territories," it said, according to official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The Channel 12 report came after two far-right Israeli government ministers called for Jewish settlers to return to the Gaza Strip after the war with Hamas, and said Palestinians should be encouraged to emigrate.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party, told Israeli army radio: "To control the territory militarily for a long time, we need a civilian presence."

He said Israel should "encourage" Palestinians to leave.

And on Monday, Israel's firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said: "We must promote a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents."

UN chief Antonio Guterres and the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, are among those who have spoken out against the possible forced transfer of Gazans.

The Israeli ministers' comments drew condemnation from Hamas, the militant group whose October 7 attack from Gaza killed some 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's relentless military response has killed more than 22,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

UN agencies have voiced alarm over a spiralling humanitarian crisis facing Gaza's 2.4 million people, who remain under siege and bombardment, most of them displaced and huddling in shelters and tents, amid dire food shortages.

© 2024 AFP

As death toll in Gaza rises, Israeli officials fear possible genocide charges at ICJ

Julia Conley, Common Dreams
January 2, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

 (AFP Photo/Dan Balilty)

Top officials in the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli government have reportedly been warned by a top legal expert that the International Court of Justice could issue an injunction requiring the country to halt its bombardment of Gaza, following a motion filed by South Africa last week.

Haaretz reported that the Israeli "security establishment and the state attorney's office are concerned" that the court could soon take action to force a cease-fire to protect civilian lives.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi is among those who have been warned that South Africa's petition could be successful, the outlet reported, and a hearing on how the government should deal with the matter was held Monday at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

As Common Dreamsreported last week, South Africa said in its complaint to the ICJ that it is "gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants," and called on the ICJ to take action to force Israel to "immediately cease" its attacks on Gaza's 2.3 million residents.

At least 21,978 Palestinians have been killed and 57,697 have been injured in Israeli air and ground attacks on Gaza since the IDF began its bombardment in retaliation for Hamas' assault on southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,139 people.

Top officials in Israel have made numerous statements suggesting their overarching goal is to clear Gaza and the West Bank of all Palestinian residents, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir saying Monday that the fighting presents an "opportunity" for Gaza residents to leave and for Israel to expand its settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Previously, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the so-called "voluntary migration" of Palestinians is the goal, while President Isaac Herzog said all civilians in Gaza are "responsible" for Hamas' attack and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the military would collectively punish Palestinians in Gaza, whom he called "human animals," for the October 7 attack.

Professor Eliav Lieblich, an expert on international law at Tel Aviv University, told Haaretz that such statements could be viewed by the ICJ as evidence of intent to harm civilians in Gaza.

"Genocide is a violation, the proof of which in court requires two elements," Lieblich told the outlet. "First, you have to show intention of annihilation, and second—certain actions in the field that promote this intention. According to South Africa, the intention is proven by statements of senior Israeli figures and a public atmosphere of erasing or flattening Gaza, and the widespread harm to civilians and the hunger in Gaza show the factual element of the deed."

"In general, it's hard to prove an intention of genocide because no public statements to that effect are made during the fighting," Lieblich added. "But these irresponsible statements about erasing Gaza will require Israel to explain why they don't reflect such an intention."

Author and activist Naomi Klein pointed out that while Israel does not recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which investigates accusations of war crimes and prosecutes individuals, it is a party to the Genocide Convention, which allows the ICJ to deal with judicial disputes between countries, including when they are accused of genocide.

A determination by the ICJ that Israel has failed to stop a genocide by its military forces or has committed genocidal acts against Palestinian civilians wouldn't necessarily mean that an injunction "would be immediately enforced," Lieblich told Haaretz. "But if it determines in a ruling or even a temporary injunction that a suspicion exists that Israel is committing genocide, you have to think about what this would say for the historical narrative. For this reason, too, the proceeding must be taken seriously."

The ICJ is also considering a complaint made by Ukraine regarding Russia's invasion and a complaint against Myanmar about its persecution of the Rohingya minority group.

"South Africa's complaint is intended to add Israel to this very disreputable group, and thereby also embarrass the U.S. as its ally," Lieblich told Haaretz.

Despite the fact that a majority of Americans support the call for a cease-fire in Gaza, the U.S. government has continued providing Israel with military support and defending its actions.

Independent journalist Sam Husseini wrote Monday that a volunteer has compiled a list of international officials who cease-fire advocates can get in touch with directly to pressure other governments to back South Africa's petition.

World Beyond War and RootsAction have also launched actions to pressure other countries to support South Africa at the ICJ.

"If a majority of the world's nations call for a cease-fire, yet fail to press for prosecution of Israel—what is to stop Israel from ethnically cleansing all Palestinians?" reads World Beyond War's letter, which it urged supporters to send to governments that have been critical of Israel. "For that matter, what is to stop other nations from repeating a horror of this magnitude?"

From ‘Israel’s right to defend' against Hamas to sinking ships in Red Sea: US amps up presence in West Asian conflict

The conflict in Israel and Hamas has shifted global stance from 'right to defend' to 'need for aid', but no immediate ceasefire has been sought. . The US, Israel's biggest ally, supported Israel's right to defend itself and vetoed a UN resolution for a ceasefire.

Demonstrators shout slogans as they march through the streets of Yemen's Huthi-controlled capital Sanaa, to express solidarity with the people of Gaza on December 29, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Hamas movement. Yemen's Huthi rebel group, has recently launched repeated drone and missile attacks at Israel, which have been intercepted. It has also targeted ships in the Red Sea, disrupting international trade

 (Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP)

 02 Jan 2024, 

Sayantani Biswas

 (AFP)

The conflict in the West Asian nations of Israel and Hamas saw the world change stance from ‘right of one nation to defend itself’ to ‘need for aids to enter the attacked nation’, but none holding the power to has sought an ‘immediate ceasefire’.

The war inflated on 7 October, when Hamas fighters from Gaza launched a multi-pronged attack on Israel, killing at least 1,200 people. Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu retaliated by launching an airstrike campaign, most of which were ‘dumb bombs’. Netanyahu vowed to ‘eliminate’ Hamas fighters, but have killed over 20,000 people in the densely populated Gaza strip.

While Netanyahu showed no signs of stopping, its biggest ally, United States' Joe Biden-led government said that ‘Israel had the right to defend itself’, all the while refusing to condemn the war, despite Israel's intensified ground and aerial attack on Gaza.

While Palestinians in Gaza were displaced repeatedly on instructions of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), US continued supporting Israel, so much to to veto a UN resolution demanding ceasefire. US deputy ambassador Robert Wood called the resolution “imbalanced".

“Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace, to see a two-state solution," Wood said before the vote. “For that reason, while the United States strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate cease-fire."

While US President Joe Biden maintained his customary deterrent to Israel's Netanyahu ad asked the latter to be careful about Palestinian civilians in Gaza, last week the Biden administration surpassed the US Congress, and approve the transfer of nearly $150 million in military equipment to Israel amid the country’s war against Hamas.


This comes even as US expressed doubts into sending further aids to Ukraine, that went into war after Vladimir Putin launched an attack on its east European neighbour in 24 February 2022, citing need to "protect the people" of the Russian-controlled breakaway republics

Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed Congress that he has made an emergency determination to immediately approve the transfer of “155mm ancillary items including fuzes, charges, and primers that make 155mm shells functional," a State Department spokesperson said Friday.

“Given the urgency of Israel’s defensive needs, the secretary notified Congress that he had exercised his delegated authority to determine an emergency existed necessitating the immediate approval of the transfer," the spokesperson said.

The latest to incidence to portray US' increasing presence in the West Asian conflict, is the war at Red Sea. US military on Sunday said they shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired toward a container ship by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.


Hours later, four boats tried to attack the same ship, but US forces opened fire, killing several of the armed crews, the US Central Command said. No one was injured on the ship.

“This is the 23rd illegal attack by the Houthis on international shipping since November 19," CENTCOM said.

The US also released declassified intelligence that suggests Iran has been “deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea," National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told CNN.

Tensions in the Red Sea Setting the Stage for WWIII

by Joziah Thayer

 Posted onJanuary 02, 2024

ANTIWAR.COM

Yemen, a Pawn or a Bishop?

In recent weeks, there have been 15 attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea as the Houthis of northern Yemen threatened to attack any vessel heading to the Israeli port city of Eilat.

These attacks caused imports to the port to drop 85% and prompted the formation of a 10-nation coalition led by the US to secure maritime trade. News reports surfaced that Spain and France pulled out of the naval task force, stating they would protect their ships and only accept orders from NATO, not CENTCOM.

On December 23, an Indian-flagged cargo ship was struck in the Arabian Sea 200 nautical miles from the Indian port city of Veraval, and less than an hour later, the Israeli and US governments were claiming they had intelligence the drone was fired from Iran.

The US, EU, and Israel have all accused Iran of having a command ship disguised as a cargo vessel anchored in the Red Sea off Yemen’s northwest coast named the MV Saviz that is identifying ships linked to Israel and handing that information off to the Houthis. In 2021, it was reported that Israeli commandos bombed the Saviz using limpet mines. Iran claims the Saviz is a logistical ship to help protect the region from piracy.

The USS Laboon, a guided missile Destroyer, patrolled the waters around Yemen as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian over the weekend. Meanwhile, the country exploded in a planned protest to show support for Gaza, where an estimated 2.2 million Yemenis marched through Sanaa.

Many people waved Palestinian flags and banners that read, “Your coalition does not intimidate us!” The Supreme Leader of the Sanaa government, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, addressed the crowd via a large screen and loudspeakers, stating that if the US or the UK interrupted their operations on Israeli-linked ships, they would directly target “American and British ships in the region.”

Hours later, CENTCOM announced that the USS Laboon shot down four drones fired from Houthi-controlled northern Yemen that were “inbound to the USS Laboon.” The USS Laboon reported no damage or injuries and continued its mission, guiding a US cargo ship through the Bel el Mandeb Strait to the Suez Canal. Reports then began to surface about a secret plan between the US and the UK to attack Houthi missile sites in northern Yemen with Reaper drones from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.

Red Sea Chess Games

It is common knowledge that the Red Sea is a vital waterway where 10% of all maritime global trade travels daily, including 10% of the world’s oil, 8% of the world’s liquid natural gas, and 20% of the global container traffic.

What is less known is the essential role East Africa plays in the region as global powers offer developmental and military aid in exchange for geostrategic positioning. Currently East African countries, excluding South Sudan, are part of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a seven-country trade bloc with Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya, and Uganda.

The United States Agency for International Development and EuropeAid have been major funders and partners of the IGAD since 2012, which would explain why countries in East Africa have a vested interest in appeasing Western powers. The leverage the US and UK held over East Africa is dwindling, according to the Atlantic Council.

In recent years, the EU and US have focused more on counterterrorism efforts in the region. At the same time, China built a railway in Africa known as the Addis Ababa that opened in 2018, connecting South Africa to East Africa. The railway has 56,000 passengers daily, creating an economic boom in the region.

China, Germany, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and Japan have a military presence in Djibouti. The US and the UK have a joint Reaper Drone squadron at Camp Lemonnier that they have used to launch drone attacks across Africa and the Middle East since 2001.

The US rents Camp Lemonnier from the government of Djibouti for 63 million dollars a year, which goes to a government led by a dictator. There are 29 US military bases across Africa, eleven in the Horn of Africa that hug the Red Sea and Bel el Mandeb Strait.

In April, Russia signed an agreement with Sudan to construct a naval base in an undisclosed Red Sea port city. The deal has not been ratified, and it is unclear whether any progress has been made because the quickest way to stop development in a country is to start a civil war.

Sudan is embroiled in a fierce battle for power that broke out in 2021 between General Abdel-Fattah, who commands the Sudan’s Armed forces, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands a militant group known as the Rapid Support Forces.

China opened its first foreign military base in Djibouti in 2017, a mile from US Camp Lemonnier. The UAE accused Djibouti of illegally seizing their port earlier the same year as they sought legal action over the port in London. The US alleged the port was stolen from the UAE and given to China. Forty-six African nations have joined China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, and one million Chinese citizens live in Africa.

The US has maintained one steadfast talking point when it comes to Asia and the Middle East investing in Africa, claiming these countries are exploiting Africa and increasing their debt. On the contrary, every deal signed between Africa and nations from the East consists of a language that allows African states to relinquish 20 billion dollars in debts owed to the United States.

West vs. East in Africa and Why it Matters

Trade between the US and Africa is around 80 billion, trade between India is over 100 billion, and with Saudi Arabia, it is over 70 billion. Africa-China bilateral trade is over 250 billion, and trade between Russia picked up after the 2019 African Summit in Sochi, Russia, rising to 18 billion.

Africa imports 30% of its grain from Russia, which incentivizes African nations to make other deals with Russia; between 2016 and 2020, Africa accounted for 18% of Russia’s total arms exports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Geopolitical talking heads claim that Africa is open to making economic and military deals with these nations over the US or EU because countries from the Middle East and Asia don’t care about human rights.

African leaders contend they prefer dealing with these countries because they don’t mingle in their internal affairs or make economic and developmental agreements based on political contingencies.

The US and UK pulled back developmental projects in Eastern Africa, focusing instead on building military bases, and mining natural resources. They prioritized counterterrorism and the pillaging of rare earth minerals over infrastructure projects that would improve the lives of all East Africans.

World War posturing in the Red Sea and exploiting East African countries is not new, as East Africa has been used as a launch pad for Western powers in World War I, World War II, throughout the Cold War, and the War on Terror.

In October of this year, India announced it would operate a massive military and naval base with Japan in Djibouti, meaning that every global superpower will soon have a military presence in the Red Sea.

Joziah Thayer is a researcher with the Pursuance Project. He founded WEDA in 2014 to combat mainstream media narratives. He is also an antiwar activist and the online organizer behind #OpYemen.Facebook

Israel's Supreme Court Overturns A Key Component Of Netanyahu's Polarising Judicial Overhaul

Monday's court decision could reignite those tensions, which sparked months of mass protests against the government and had rattled the cohesion of the powerful military.

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Israel's Supreme Court struck down a key component of Benjamin Netanyahu's contentious judicial overhaul AP

RAGHAD ABU SHAMMALAH
AP
 02 JAN 2024 

Israel's Supreme Court on Monday struck down a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's contentious judicial overhaul, a decision that threatens to reopen the fissures in Israeli society that preceded the country's ongoing war against Hamas.

Those divisions were largely been put aside while the country focuses on the war, which was triggered by a bloody cross-border attack by Hamas. Monday's court decision could reignite those tensions, which sparked months of mass protests against the government and had rattled the cohesion of the powerful military.

There was no immediate reaction from Netanyahu. In Monday's 8-7 majority decision, the court narrowly voted to overturn a law passed in July that prevents judges from overturning government decisions they deem “unreasonable”.

Opponents had argued that Netanyahu's efforts to remove the standard of reasonability opens the door to corruption and improper appointments of unqualified cronies to important positions. The law was the first in the planned overhaul of the justice system.

The overhaul was put on hold after Hamas militants carried out their October 7 attack, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others. Israel immediately declared war, and is pressing forward with an offensive that Palestinian health officials say has killed nearly 22,000 people in Gaza.

Survivors of Israel’s siege of Beirut see history repeating itself in Gaza

Residents of Beirut see parallels with Israel’s tactics 42 years ago and today’s campaign on the Palestinian enclave.
I

sraeli armoured personnel carriers near a mosque on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, June 16, 1982 

[Rina CastelnuovoAP Photo]

By Justin Salhani
Published On 2 Jan 2024

West Beirut, Lebanon – As poets and writers flit in and out of Sleiman Bakhti’s bookshop and publishing house in Beirut’s Hamra neighbourhood, he greets each one as an old friend, often handing them the latest book release.

He has been a “Hamrawi” for decades – living through Hamra’s peaks and troughs, including the dark days of the civil war, which, despite their harshness, brought people together.

“There was resilience and solidarity and hope for freedom against the enemy that wanted to destroy Beirut,” Bakhti, now in his 60s, tells Al Jazeera in his shop.

That atmosphere of “light and hope”, Bakhti says, stands in stark contrast to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza today, where each day new horrors are relayed to the world by the few remaining journalists on the ground.

Israeli tanks in Gaza City in the Gaza Strip, November 22, 2023 

[Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

Hamra’s heyday

Long seen as a Middle East cultural and intellectual hub, Hamra had everything from movie theatres to publishers, to cafes full of political dissidents or exiles from around the region in the years leading up to the Lebanese Civil War.

Among the exiles were many Palestinians, including Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and famous Palestinian writer and revolutionary Ghassan Kanafani. They had come to Lebanon along with the rest of the Palestinian political leadership after being expelled from Jordan after its 1970 civil war.

After the 1967 war in which Israel occupied more of Palestine, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were violently displaced from their homes in a second wave of expulsions after the Nakba of 1948.

Many ended up in neighbouring countries, including Jordan, from where resistance fighters launched attacks on Israel, drawing retaliations that eventually led to Jordan expelling them.

Arafat and the Palestinian Armed Struggle Command had by then already signed the Cairo Accord with Lebanon, essentially approving the presence of Palestinian fighters and granting Palestinian control over Lebanon’s 16 Palestinian refugee camps.

Israel used the presence of Palestinian resistance as justification for invading southern Lebanon and besieging West Beirut in 1982.

The siege and aggression by Israel and their domestic allies the Lebanese Forces live on for West Beirutis who find it hard to forget what then-US President Ronald Reagan reportedly called a “holocaust” in a phone call with then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Parallels

Many West Beirutis see parallels between the violence of 42 years ago and what is widely acknowledged as an ongoing genocide in Gaza.

PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, left, with Lebanese  Druze leftist leader Walid Jumblatt, centre, join hands to show a press conference that they would stick together, in Beirut, August 30, 1982 

[Langevin/AP Photo]

“The only difference now is how many people are dying,” Ziad Kaj, a novelist and former member of the city’s Civil Defense Unit, said.

More than 21,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, about half of them children. In the siege of West Beirut, some 5,500 people in Beirut and surrounding suburbs are estimated to have died, with staff at one hospital saying up to 80 percent of casualties were civilians.

“I’m not surprised [by the Israeli tactics],” Kaj said.

In 1982, the Israelis and the Lebanese Forces set up checkpoints around West Beirut and cut off electricity. Communication with the outside was rare as phone lines were down.

Israeli officials called on civilians to leave West Beirut and charged Arafat and the PLO with “hiding behind a civilian screen”.

Medical supplies, food and other necessities were severely restricted and scarce, despite occasional attempts to smuggle essentials in.

“West Beirut was surrounded,” Kaj said. “There was no bread, water, or gas, and near-daily bombardment came from land, air and sea.”

“In the morning we would look for bread and often we wouldn’t find it,” Abou Tareq, a resident of Hamra in his 70s, told Al Jazeera. “Vegetables and meat weren’t available at all.”

An elderly Palestinian refugee wanders through West Beirut on August 2, 1982, amid extensive destruction caused by 14 hours of land, sea and artillery bombardment by Israeli forces the day before

 [Dear/AP Photo]

History is being repeated today in Gaza, where Israeli officials frequently accuse Hamas of using “human shields” and 40 percent of the population is at risk of famine.

In Beirut, the water shortage meant residents had to resort to sweet carbonated drinks or unclean well water that caused stomach ailments. In Gaza too, people have been forced to drink non-potable salt water.

And much like in Gaza, there were so many casualties in Beirut that doctors did not always have time to administer anaesthesia.

Typhoid and cholera spread like wildfire among Beirut’s children after the lack of garbage collection led to an increase in rat bites. Stress was pervasive, with accounts saying the bombing caused “extreme psychosomatic effects”.

People in Gaza have seen an increase in meningitis, chickenpox, jaundice and upper respiratory tract infections as their healthcare system has collapsed.

Shouting at a Beirut sky

“Sometimes the bombing went on for 24 hours straight,” Bakhti said of 1982.

The famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish lived in the Dabbouch building back then, Bakhti told Al Jazeera, pointing down the street.

“One day, he came out onto his balcony and started shouting at the Israeli warplanes.”

US academic Cheryl A Rubenberg described, in Palestine Studies, bombing that started at 4:30am and carried on into the evening. After a week of this, she wrote in 1982, she was suffering “anorexia, nausea, diarrhoea, insomnia, the inability to read or write a coherent paragraph, persistent uterine bleeding and a constant feeling of nervousness and tension”

.

Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, December 29, 2023 [Ariel Schalit/AP Photo]

Israel’s bombing in Gaza has been non-stop for nearly three months, with only a week-long humanitarian pause in late November.

Many residents of West Beirut fled the city to houses in the mountains or East Beirut, though some stayed behind to work or to try to keep squatters away from their property.

Bakhti stayed in West Beirut to keep an eye on his relatives’ homes. “I had many keys and I would go check on their houses,” he said.

“I went to check on my parents’ house and there was white phosphorous residue on the walls.”

Beirut’s hospitals struggled to deal with burn victims after Israel used phosphorus on West Beirut, where 500,000 people lived, including many who were internally displaced from south Lebanon.

International human rights organisations have documented Israel’s unlawful use of US-supplied white phosphorus in Gaza and south Lebanon since October 7.

“We lived the [1982] siege but this [Gaza] is genocide,” Bakhti said.

“This is worse than death.”


SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Mervyn Benon, an activist from the South African Jews for a Free Palestine movement, says criticising Israel and Zionism is not anti-Semitic. He denounces Zionism as inherently racist, drawing parallels to apartheid, and calls on fellow Jews to resist racism and apartheid. ‘We are opposed to Zionism because Zionism is racist. Zionism is apartheid,’ he says.

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Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli jail, seventh since October 2023

Abdul Rahman Bassem Al-Bahsh from Nablus had been detained since May 2022 and sentenced to two years and eleven months at Megiddo prison.


Israel is holding thousands of Palestinians in its jails and abuse and violence against them has increased since 7 October [Getty]

A Palestinian prisoner has died in jail in Israel, becoming the seventh Palestinian detainee to die in the 12 weeks since the Israel-Gaza war amid accusations of torture by Israeli prison authorities.

According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), Israeli authorities killed 23-year-old Abdul Rahman Bassem Al-Bahsh who was detained at Megiddo prison in Israel.

Al-Bahsh, from Nablus in the occupied West Bank, had been detained since May 2022 and sentenced to two years and eleven months at Megiddo prison.

He is the seventh Palestinian prisoner to die in an Israeli jail since Israel's war on Gaza began on October 7.

PPS and the Commission said that Megiddo prison has been a hotbed of abuse and violence against prisoners by Israeli authorities, including torture. The prison holds Palestinians which Israel says are a risk to its "national security".

Since October 2023, three prisoners have been killed at Megiddo, including Abdul Rahman Mirie who died in November. Israel has since opened an investigation into Mirie’s death after his body showed signs of severe torture.

Israel holds around 8,600 Palestinians in prison, including 3,291 in "administrative detention", without trial or charge, according to the latest figures.

Qaddoura Fares, head of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, said that there are “other slain prisoners from the Gaza Strip that no one knows about yet,” according to the official Palestinian WAFA news agency.

As part of its brutal air, ground and sea siege on Gaza, Israel has been arbitrarily detaining hundreds of Palestinians and taking them to unknown locations.

Distressing footage released by the Israeli army in December depicted scores of men lined up, stripped down to underwear, blindfolded and under the command of Israeli soldiers, who claimed they were suspected Hamas fighters.

The footage triggered global condemnation and was followed by testimonies from Palestinians in Gaza who said that they recognized some of the men as doctors and journalists.

Among them is the head of TNA Arabic's Gaza bureau, Diaa al Kahlout who was reportedly seen in Beersheba prison in southern Israel recently.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based human rights group which documents Israeli violations, has called on Israel to reveal the whereabouts of nearly 3,000 Palestinians who have been taken from homes or shelters in Gaza by Israeli forces.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Israeli army said it has opened an investigation into the fatal shooting of a Palestinian man who had been captured by its soldiers in Gaza, AFP reported.

The man was "handed over to the supervision of a soldier, who, under suspicion, allegedly shot him, resulting in his death," the army said.

The announcement follows a report from the United Nations human rights office in December which said it had received "disturbing" reports that Israeli troops had "summarily killed" at least 11 unarmed Palestinians in front of their families in the Al Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City.

"The Israeli authorities must immediately institute an independent, thorough and effective investigation into these allegations," the office said.

Dominican women fight child marriage, teen pregancy amid total abortion ban

Activists hope education can help prevent girls from getting pregnant in a country that criminalizes abortion and where close to 30% of teens don't have contraception access.

Girls participate in a session on sex education at a school on the weekend in Azua, Dominican Republic on Dec. 9, 2023.

Maria Hernandez / AP

Jan. 2, 2024 / Source: The Associated Press


AZUA, Dominican Republic — It was a busy Saturday morning at Marcia González’s church. A bishop was visiting, and normally she would have been there helping with logistics, but on this day she was teaching sex education at a local school.

“I coordinate activities at the church and my husband is a deacon,” González said. “The bishop comes once a year and children are being confirmed, but I am here because this is important for my community.”

For 40 years, González and her husband have pushed for broader sex education in the Dominican Republican, one of four Latin American nations that criminalizes abortion without exceptions. Women face up to 2 years in prison for having an abortion; penalties for doctors or midwives range from 5 to 20 years.

With a Bible on its flag, the Caribbean country has a powerful lobby of Catholics and evangelicals who are united against decriminalizing abortion.

President Luis Abinader committed to the decriminalization of abortion as a candidate in 2020, but his government hasn’t acted on that pledge. For now, it depends on whether he is re-elected in May.

To help girls prevent unplanned pregnancies in this context, González and other activists have developed “teenage clubs,” where adolescents learn about sexual and reproductive rights, self-esteem, gender violence, finances and other topics. The goal is to empower future generations of Dominican women.

Outside the clubs, sex education is often insufficient, according to activists. Close to 30% of adolescents don’t have access to contraception. High poverty levels increase the risks of facing an unwanted pregnancy.

For the teenagers she mentors, González’s concerns also go beyond the impossibility of terminating a pregnancy.

According to activists, poverty forces some Dominican mothers to marry their 14 or 15-year-old daughters to men up to 50 years older. Nearly 7 out of 10 women suffer from gender violence such as incest, and families often remain silent regarding sexual abuse.

For every 1,000 adolescents between 15 and 19, 42 became mothers in 2023, according to the United Nations Population Fund. And until 2019, when UNICEF published its latest report on child marriage, more than a third of Dominican women married or entered a free union before turning 18.

Dominican laws have prohibited child marriage since 2021, but community leaders say that such unions are still common because the practice has been normalized and few people are aware of the statute.

“In my 14-year-old granddaughter’s class, two of her younger friends are already married,” González said. “Many mothers give the responsibility of their younger children to their older daughters so, instead of taking care of little boys, they run away with a husband.”

Activists hope education can help prevent girls from facing this situation.

“There are myths that people tell you when you have your period,” said Gabriela Díaz, 16, during a recent encounter organized by the Women’s Equality Center. “They say that we are dirty or we have dirty blood, but that is false. We are helping our body to clean itself and improve its functions.”

Díaz calls González “godmother,” a term applied by Plan International to community leaders who implement the programs of this UK-based organization, which promotes children’s rights.

According to its own data, San Cristóbal and Azua, where González lives, are the Dominican cities with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and child marriage.

To address this, its clubs accept girls between 13 and 17. Each group meets 2 hours per week, welcomes up to 25 participants and is led by volunteers like González.

In San Cristobal, also in southern Dominican Republic, the National Confederation of Rural Women (CONAMUCA) sponsors teenage clubs of its own.

“CONAMUCA was born to fight for land ownership, but the landscape has changed, and we have integrated new issues, such as food sovereignty, agrarian reform, and sexual and reproductive rights,” said Lidia Ferrer, one of its leaders.

Its clubs gather 1,600 girls in 60 communities, Ferrer said. The topics they study vary from region to region, but among the recurring ones are adolescent pregnancy, early unions and feminicide.

“The starting point is our own reality,” said Kathy Cabrera, who joined CONAMUCA clubs at age 9 and two decades later takes new generations under her wing. “It’s how we live and suffer.”

Migration is increasingly noticeable in rural areas, Cabrera said. Women are forced to walk for miles to attend school or find water, and health services fail in guaranteeing their sexual and reproductive rights.

“We have a government that tells you ’Don’t have an abortion’ but does not provide the necessary contraception to avoid it.”

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Rosa Hernández shows a photo of her late daughter Rosaura Almonte who was denied a life-saving abortion.

Ricardo Hernandez / AP file

She has witnessed how 13-year-old girls bear the children of 65-year-old men while neither families nor authorities seem to be concerned. On other occasions, she said, parents “give away” their daughters because they cannot support them or because they discover that they are no longer virgins.

“It’s not regarded as sexual abuse because, if my grandmother got pregnant and married at an early age, and my great-grandmother too and my mother too, then it means I should too,” Cabrera said.

In southern Dominican communities, most girls can relate to this, or know someone who does.

“My sister got pregnant at 16 and that was very disturbing,” said 14-year-old Laura Pérez. “She got together with a person much older than her, and they have a baby. I don’t think that was right.”

The clubs’ dynamics change as needed to create safe and loving environments for girls to share what they feel. Some sessions kick off with relaxation exercises and others with games.

Some girls speak proudly of what they have learned. One of them mentioned she confronted her father when he said she shouldn’t cut any lemons from a tree while menstruating. Another said that her friends always go to the bathroom in groups, to avoid safety risks. They all regard their godmothers as mentors who have their backs.

“They call me to confide everything,” González said. “I am happy because, in my group, no girl has become pregnant.”

Many girls from teenage clubs have dreams they want to follow. Francesca Montero, 16, would like to become a pediatrician. Perla Infante, 15, a psychologist. Lomelí Arias, 18, a nurse.

“I want to be a soldier!” shouted Laura Pérez, the 14-year-old who wants to be careful not to following her sister’s footsteps.

“I was undecided, but when I entered CONAMUCA I knew I wanted to become a soldier. In here we see all these women who give you strength, who are like you, but as a guide,” Pérez said. “It’s like a child seeing an older person and thinking: ’When I grow up, I want to be like that.’”

Associated Press

Why have authoritarianism and libertarianism merged? A political psychologist on ‘the vulnerability of the modern self’

The so-called Qanon shaman, Jacob Chansley, at the Capitol riot. Shutterstock/Johnny Silvercloud

THE CONVERSATION
Published: January 2, 2024 

Logically, authoritarianism and libertarianism are contradictory. Supporters of authoritarian leaders share a state of mind in which they take direction from an idealised figurehead and closely identify with the group which that leader represents. To be libertarian is to see the freedom of the individual as the supreme principle of politics. It is core to the economics and politics of neo-liberalism, as well as to some bohemian counter-cultures.

As a state of mind, libertarianism is superficially the opposite of authoritarianism. Identification with the leader or group is anathema and all forms of authority are regarded with suspicion. Instead the ideal is to experience oneself as a self-contained, free agent.

Yet there is a history of these two outlooks being intertwined. Consider Donald Trump, whose re-election in 2024 would be seen by many as adding to the international rise of authoritarianism.

Others might see him as insufficiently focused to be an effective authoritarian leader, but it’s not difficult to imagine him governing by executive order, and he has successfully sought an authoritarian relationship with his followers. He is an object of idealisation and a source of “truth” for the community of followers he purports to represent.

Yet at the same time, in his rhetoric and his persona of predatory freewheeler, in his wealth and indifference to others, Trump offers a hyper-realisation of a certain kind of individualistic freedom.

Trumpism’s fusion of the authoritarian and the libertarian was embodied in the January 6 attack in Washington DC. The insurgents who stormed the Capitol that day passionately wanted to install Trump as an autocratic leader. He had not, after all, won a democratic election.

But these people were also conducting a carnivalesque assertion of their individual rights, as they defined them, to attack the American state. Among them were followers of the bizarre conspiracy theory QAnon, who lionised Trump as the heroic authority figure secretly leading the fightback against a child-torturing cabal of elites.

Alongside them were the Proud Boys, whose misty libertarianism is paired with a proto-authoritarian commitment to politics as violence.

The Capitol rioters were a prime example of how authoritarianism can combine with libertarianism. EPA

New age meets anti-vax

Conspiracy theories are also involved in other recent examples of authoritarian-libertarian hybridity. Beliefs that COVID-19 vaccines (or lockdowns, or the virus itself) were attempts by a malevolent power to attack or control us were fuelled by a growing army of conspiracists. But they were also facilitated by libertarian ideologies which rationalise suspicion of and antipathy towards authority of all sorts – and support refusals to comply with public health measures.

In the UK, some small towns and rural areas have seen an influx of people involved in a variety of pursuits – arts and crafts, alternative medicine and other “wellness” practices, spirituality and mysticism. Research is lacking but a recent BBC investigation in the English town of Totnes showed how this can create a strong “alternative” ethos in which soft, hippie-ish forms of libertarianism are prominent – and very hospitable to conspiracism.

One might have thought that Totnes and some other towns like it would be the last places we’d find sympathy for authoritarian politics. However, the BBC investigation showed that although there may be no single dominant leader at work, new age anti-authority sentiments can morph into intolerance and hard-edged demands for retribution against the people seen as orchestrating vaccinations and lockdowns.

This is reflected in some COVID conspiracists calling for those who led the public health response to be tried at “Nuremberg 2.0”, a special court where they should face the death penalty.

When we remember that a virulent sense of grievance against an enemy or oppressor who must be punished is a regular feature of authoritarian culture, we start to see how the dividing lines between the libertarian mindset and the authoritarian perspective have blurred around COVID.

Read more: Conspiracy theories about the pandemic are spreading offline as well as through social media

A disturbing survey conducted earlier this year for King’s College London even found that 23% of the sample would be prepared to take to the streets in support of a “deep state” conspiracy theory. And of that group, 60% believed the use of violence in the name of such a movement would be justified.

Some anti-vaxxers want to see trials for the people involved in public vaccination programmes during the pandemic. 

Alamy/NurPhoto SRL

Two responses to the same anxiety

A psychological approach can help us to understand the dynamics of this puzzling fusion. As Erich Fromm and others have shown, our ideological affinities are linked to unconscious structures of feeling.

At this level, authoritarianism and libertarianism are the interchangeable products of the same underlying psychological difficulty: the vulnerability of the modern self.

Authoritarian political movements offer a sense of belonging to a collective, and of being protected by its strong leader. This may be completely illusory, but it nonetheless provides a sense of safety in a world of threatening change and risk. As individuals, we are vulnerable to feeling powerless and abandoned. As a group, we are safe.

Libertarianism, in contrast, proceeds from the illusion that as individuals we are fundamentally self-sufficient. We are independent of others and don’t need protection from authorities. This fantasy of freedom, like the authoritarian fantasy of the ideal leader, also generates a sense of invulnerability for those who believe in it.

Both outlooks serve to protect against the potentially overwhelming sense of being in a society on which we depend but which we feel we cannot trust. While politically divergent, they are psychologically equivalent. Both are ways for the vulnerable self to ward off existential anxieties. There is therefore a kind of belt-and-braces logic in toggling between them or even occupying both positions simultaneously.

In any specific context, authoritarianism is more likely to have the necessary focus and organisation to prevail. But its hybrid fusion with libertarianism will have broadened its support base by seducing people with anti-authority impulses.

And as things currently stand, we’re at risk of seeing increasing polarisation between, on one hand, this anxiety-driven, defensive form of combined politics, and on the other, efforts to preserve reality-based, non-defensive modes of political discourse.

Author

Barry Richards
Emeritus Professor of Political Psychology, Bournemouth University

UK

Bickleigh Castle's thousand-year-old stone tower tumbles down after massive storm


Bickleigh Castle – which dates back to the 11th Century – has had part of its structure partially collapse following Storm Gerrit which swept across the UK last week

Bickleigh Castle has come crumbling down
(Image: DeonLive/ WS)

By Bradley Jolly
News Reporter
1 Jan 2024

Part of a castle which has stood for 1,000 years seeing off plagues and wars has tumbled down following Storm Gerrit.

Bickleigh Castle, which dates back to the 11th Century, fell victim to the British weather as Storm Gerrit swept across the UK last week. Owners of the castle, Robbie and Sarah Hay, who have lived with their three dogs in the Grade I listed building for 22 years, have talked of their shock of seeing a pile of rubble, including a door, flagpole and bricks, in the front garden, following the slippage.

The structure, which is near Tiverton, Devon, dates from the early 12th century and is a Grade I-listed building. Now the company which insures it is currently assessing things before it starts the process of clearing and repairing the damage. Bickleigh Castle is a three-storey single-depth plan stone structure with a pure slate roof surmounted by turrets. A central carriage archway leads into a courtyard.

The building was substantially altered in the 15th century by the Courtenay family and restored in the 1920s and 1930s during the ownerships of Mr Francis Harper and Lt Col Jasper Henson. Robbie explained the moment they found out the left-hand turret, known as the south tower, had partially collapsed.


The 11th century building was damaged in the stormy weather
(Image: DeonLive/ WS)

“We heard a slight rumble,” he told Devon Live. “But we were not made aware of the collapse until one of our staff members told us at around 5pm. We’ve had some rather peculiar weather, to say the least, strong winds and rain, and over the weekend it was particularly noticeable."

When the collapse took place, there was a yellow warning for wind, gusts up to 70mph. In nearby Tipton-St-John, Devon, villagers were subjected to a mini-tornado, which split a 150-year-old tree in half.

“We suspect there was a sudden strong gust and variations in wind which has led to this,” Robbie added. To a lesser extent, the rain has not helped. The climate has been mild, which has expanded the lime mortar, which the building is not used to. Unlike cement, the stones breathe, expand and contract and the joint they’re sitting on is flexible, hence the reason the old buildings can last so long, but in this instance, we have a situation where the weather is playing truant with us, and has caused a slippage on the front of the castle in storm conditions.



Storm Gerrit is responsible for reducing the tower to rubble
(Image: DeonLive/ WS)

Sarah added: “It’s been there 1,000 years, it’s quite shocking to see what’s happened. Fortunately, nobody was in the garden when it happened.”

She added that business will continue to thrive, and the collapse will not affect weddings, tours, staycations, and events. She continued: “We’re not going to stop taking bookings, we’re planning a busy summer and looking forward to welcoming budding brides and grooms, conferences, and house parties from all over the world.

“We’re still open for vacations, viewings and bookings and looking forward to opening to the public from April for tours and high tea. We have found that house parties and weddings have taken off since Covid and continue to be popular. We will move on from this, and get the rubble removed as quickly as we can, but in the meantime, we are operating as normal.”


The owners reminded anyone wanting to make an enquiry or booking, they are welcome to do so, with details at https://bickleighcastle.com