Palestinian Govt Sparks Deep Dispute between Fatah and Hamas

This handout picture provided by the Palestinian Authority's Press Office (PPO) shows Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (L) posing with the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, in Ramallah on March 14, 2024. 

(Photo by PPO / AFP / Handout)

Ramallah: Kifah Zboun
17 March 2024

AD ـ 07 Ramadan 1445 AH

The Palestinian government, which has yet to be even formed, sparked a deep dispute between the Fatah and Hamas movements, levelling the harshest criticism against Hamas since the eruption of the war on Gaza.

The dispute first started when Hamas said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was “out of touch with reality” for appointing Dr. Mohammad Mustafa on Thursday to form a new government.

Fatah responded by saying: “Those who caused Gaza to return under Israeli occupation and caused a nakba (catastrophe) to befall the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, have no right to make dictates related to national priorities.”

“The real side that is out of touch with reality and the Palestinian people is the Hamas leadership that has until this moment failed to realize the extent of the catastrophe endured by our oppressed people in Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territories,” it stressed in a statement.

It wondered how Hamas could speak of unilateral action and division when “it did not consult the Palestinian leadership or any other national Palestinian party” when it took the decision “to embark on an adventure on October 7 that has led to a nakba that is more severe than the 1948 Nakba.”

“Has Hamas consulted the Palestinian leadership as it now negotiates with Israel and offers one concession after the other to it?” it wondered, while accusing the movement of only seeking the personal safety of its leaders.

It also accused it of seeking an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would keep the movement in Gaza so that it could continue to sow division between the Palestinian people.

Moreover, Fatah said the “life of luxury the Hamas leadership is living in seven-star hotels has blinded it to reason,” calling on it to end its policy of foreign agendas and return to the national fold.

Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian National Initiative movement slammed Abbas’ appointment of Mustafa as prime minister.

In a statement, they accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of continuing its unilateral approach and dismissing all efforts to restore Palestinian unity.

“We reject such an approach that has harmed and continues to harm our people and national cause,” they declared.

“The top national priority lies in confronting the barbaric systematic Zionist aggression and its genocide and war of starvation, not forming a new government,” they added.

They accused Abbas of deciding to form a new government without seeking national agreement first, “which consolidates his unilateral approach and deepens the division during such a pivotal historic moment.”

“The president’s move reflects the extent of the crisis within the Palestinian leadership, how out of touch with reality it is and the huge gap between it and our people, its concerns and aspirations,” said the statement.

Mustafa is a well-known businessman and economic expert. He succeeds Mohammed Shtayyeh, who resigned to meet American and international demands for reform in the PA.

Hamas was expecting Abbas to consult it in naming a new PM and was taken by surprise when he completely ignored it.

A source from the PA told Asharq Al-Awsat that ties between Fatah and Hamas have not improved even after the eruption of the war on Gaza.

Abbas took his decision out of his belief that there was no need to wait for anyone and that the priorities that Hamas listed demand the formation of a capable government.

Hamas has been demanding providing relief to the people and the rebuilding of Gaza.

The source stressed that Mustafa’s appointment was taken in line with understandings reached with Arab and western countries that are involved in the post-war arrangements in Gaza.

Hamas, which can no longer rule Gaza, should not impede those who can save and aid the people there, it went on to say.

Mustafa is seeking to form a government of independent non-partisan experts. He has a three-week deadline to announce a lineup.

Controversy in France over Statue Commemorating Soldier Famous for Torturing Algerians

Statue of the paratrooper Colonel Marcel Bigeard

Asharq Al Awsat
07:16-17 March 2024

 AD ـ 07 Ramadan 1445 AH

French historians on Saturday strongly protested the decision of Toul municipality, in east France, to erect a statue of the paratrooper Colonel Marcel Bigeard, who was known for using torture in Algeria and Indochina in the 1950s.

The move come as Algeria and France seek to overcome the pain of the colonial past and build a normal relationship,

“How can we plan to erect a statue of paratrooper Marcel Bigeard, as is the case in Toul, and thus, glorify the practice of colonial torture?, questioned historians Fabrice Riceputi and Alain Ruscio in an article published on Saturday by the French website histoirecoloniale.net.

Bigeard, who fought in World War II, was parachuted into the besieged French base of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, and condoned torture in the unsuccessful battle to defeat Algerian nationalist fighters.

In 2010, he died in Toul, the northeastern town where he was born.

On Saturday, Riceputi and Ruscio announced that the French organization “Histoire et Mémoire dans le Respect des Droits Humains” has asked the municipality of Toul to abandon the project of installing a statue of General Bigeard in the city’s square.

They said the Toul event comes at “a time when Marseille and Paris had finally removed from public spaces the plaques honoring the memory of Marcel Bigeard, executioner of the Algerian people during the colonial conquest.”

To back their request, Riceputi and Ruscio then listed the acts of torture attributed to Bigeard during the “Battle of Algiers,” which happened in 1957, when French forces made wide use of torture in their attempt to defeat the National Liberation Front (FLN).

One of the most famous Algerian leaders tortured by Bigeard is Larbi Ben M’hidi, who was hanged for refusing to sell his fellowship in the army.

In 2021, Drifa Ben M'hidi, veteran of the Algerian War and sister of Larbi Ben M'hidi, affirmed to France 24 that French general Marcel Bigeard, who had arrested her brother in Algiers, admitted to her that “France had killed Larbi Ben M'hidi.”

He told her during a meeting in the 1980s that her brother had not committed suicide, contrary to the official French version.

During their meeting, Bigeard told Drifa, “I didn't kill him, but I sent him to General Paul Aussaresses.”

Drifa called on President Emmanuel Macron to recognize not only this assassination, but the crime committed against “the entire Algerian people.”

On March 4, on the occasion of the 67th anniversary of Ben M’hidi’s killing, 20 organizations in France wrote to the Elysée, demanding that “the French state acknowledge its responsibility for the practice of torture” during the Algerian revolution.

UK

‘Great that Black and brown faces are in high places but really about addressing systemic racism’ – Lord Woolley

Ayshah TullNews CorrespondentCHANNEL 4 16 Mar 2024

We are joined by Lord Simon Woolley, Principal of Homerton College Cambridge, and the founder of Operation Black Vote, which works to increase representation of Black people.

Witch hunts: Why were so few 'witches' killed in Wales?

By Nicola Bryan,BBC News
Share

sBehind cinematic portrayals of witches such as The Wizard of Oz (pictured) lies a much darker, macabre history

Britain has a long and bloody history of burning people accused of witchcraft at the stake.

About 4,000 were sent to their death in Scotland and 1,000 in England, but curiously just five were killed in Wales.

In his new book, author and historian Phil Carradice tries to unpack this anomaly and finds several explanations.

He believes it is at least in part down to the Welsh language.

"Very few examiners or judges spoke Welsh," said Phil, from Eglwys-Brewis, Vale of Glamorgan.


He also believes it could be explained by many of Wales' small, rural communities being so reliant on their local wise women.

"They made potions and charms and were an accepted part of the community," he said.

Misty the Wonderful Witch from Disney's Jake and the Never Land Pirates

"There were no doctors, no hospitals... if you wanted help for yourself or your animals they would turn to their wise women."

Probably the most famous were the Physicians of Myddfai, a succession of herbalists who lived and worked in and around the Carmarthenshire village of Myddfai from the 13th Century.


Across the rest of the world killing "witches" was big business - from 1450 to 1700 in Europe alone about 35,000 people, mainly women, were hanged or burned at the stake after being accused of witchcraft.

Phil said the modern-day portrayals of witches in books and films - from the Wicked Witch of the West to Harry Potter's Hermione Granger - sometimes means this much darker, macabre history is forgotten.

"Disney has a lot to answer for... Harry Potter doesn't help... but kids need to know the other bits as well," said Phil.

"Women in the Middle Ages were abused, there's no other word for it."

Phil has written over 20 books but said researching his latest - Witches and Witch Hunts Through the Ages - left him feeling particularly uneasy.


"It frightened the living daylights out of me," he said.

"Consider burning people at the stake, it's horrendous."

So what motivated people to persecute these women?

"It's misogyny and it's also greed," he said.

He said accusing unmarried women or widows of being a witch was a sure-fire way of getting her locked up, making it easy to steal her assets.


"We had men - and it was men - who thought 'I want that house, I want that land, I want that property', and so how do they do it? [By saying] 'you're a witch', and straight away you're arrested on that one person's say, you're put into jail to await trial and while you're awaiting trial somebody steals your land."

'I'm proud to be a real-life witch'

Catalonia pardons women executed for witchcraft

Witch apology would 'send powerful signal'

The witch trials that are perhaps best known are the infamous Salem witch trials that took place in Massachusetts, USA, between February 1692 and May 1693.

More than 200 people were accused, 30 found guilty, 19 of whom were executed by hanging. Of those killed fourteen were women and five men.

The infamous Salem witch trials were a series of prosecutions for witchcraft starting in 1692

Back in the UK it was Henry VIII who first defined witchcraft as a crime punishable by death in 1542.

But the most notorious royal witch-hunter of all time was James VI of Scotland, who went on to become James I of England.

"He was a rampant witch hunter," said Phil.

He and is Danish bride Anne encountered a dangerous storm during a voyage across the North Sea and became convinced they had been personally targeted by witches who conjured to try to kill them.

He published a book on the subject, Daemonologie, and in 1604 passed a second witchcraft act.

Decades later, with public anxiety about witchcraft still growing, lawyer Matthew Hopkins emerged.

Calling himself Witch-Finder General, Hopkins claimed to be officially commissioned by Parliament to uncover and prosecute witches.

He and his associates are believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 300 women accused of witchcraft in England between 1644 and 1646.

Matthew Hopkins travelled the villages and towns of eastern England, trying and examining women for witchcraft

The last person in Britain to be tried and executed for witchcraft was Janet Horne, who was burned at the stake in Dornoch, Scotland in 1727.

The facts are scant, even her name is one often given to witches in Scottish folklore, but it is thought she had a daughter who was born with a deformed hand.

Almost a decade later in 1736, Parliament passed an act repealing the laws against witchcraft but imposed fines or imprisonment on people who claimed to be able to use magical powers.

That act was repealed in 1951 by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, which in turn was repealed in 2008.

(FRAUDULENT PRACTICE OF WITHCRAFT WAS THE CANADIAN VERSION OF THIS LAW)

Common methods of execution for convicted witches were hanging or burning

Witch hunting may be history in the UK but continues to this day in some other parts of the world.

From 2010 to 2021, more than 1,500 people were killed in India after accusations of witchcraft, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

In northern Ghana hundreds of women accused of witchcraft by relatives or members of their community are living in so-called witch camps after fleeing or being banished from their homes.

"The reality is there are people out there being persecuted, being condemned, being horribly killed," said Phil.

"We need to do something about what's going on but we're frightened."

 LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WITCH 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WITCHCRAFT

 

‘How Keir Starmer can avoid the sudden rise and fall of Australian Labor Party’

Will Prescott

 17th March, 2024

Photo: Juergen Nowak/Shutterstock

Despite having assumed power without any great popular enthusiasm at the May 2022 federal election, the Australian Labor Government under newly-minted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese quickly established dominance in the opinion polls. Two years later, however, and with an election due in 2025, that poll lead has all but evaporated.

Although Labor’s 2022 victory was hardly emphatic — its share of the primary vote, just 32.6%, was the lowest for a winning party since the 1930s — the new Government’s popularity quickly soared. It even captured a previously Opposition-held seat at an April 2023 by-election, a feat that no other Australian government had managed since 1920.

Despite having inspired little enthusiasm as Opposition Leader, Albanese’s own personal approval ratings climbed, and by September 2022 he established a 39 percentage point lead as preferred Prime Minister over the new Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton. Unfortunately for Albanese and his government, however, the honeymoon has well and truly come to an end. Two main factors are to blame.

Defeat in the Voice referendum dealt blow to government

First, the Government was badly damaged by the failure of the Voice referendum in October 2023. During the 2022 election, Albanese pledged to hold a referendum on whether to create a constitutionally-entrenched indigenous advisory body, which would have been known as the Voice. In Australia, the constitution can only be changed by a popular vote.

Albanese invested substantial political capital into the referendum campaign. Unfortunately for him and the ‘yes’ campaign, the conservative Opposition under Peter Dutton fiercely campaigned against it. Sensing an opportunity to land a blow against his Labor opponent, Dutton came out strongly against the Voice. Deprived of bipartisan support and plagued by voter confusion about how it would actually work, the Voice suffered a crushing defeat, with over 60% of the electorate voting ‘no’.

In addition to the political embarrassment, the Voice debacle created the perception that the Government was ignoring the bread-and-butter issues of concern to most voters.

Ongoing cost of living crisis has dented Labor support

This ties into the Government’s second problem — the failure to resolve the ongoing cost-of-living crisis has further dented popular enthusiasm for the Albanese Government. Much like the UK, Australian voters have been battered by a combination of higher inflation, rapid interest rate rises and soaring housing costs. Despite inflation having since fallen from 7.8% to 4.1% and interest rates having now stabilised, the damage to the Government’s standing has been done.

The combined effect of both these problems is reflected in the opinion polls. According to Newspoll, generally acknowledged as Australia’s leading pollster, the ALP’s two-party preferred vote lead —  the most relevant polling indicator under Australia’s preferential voting system — slumped from 57-43% in September 2022 to 52-48% in November 2023. Another poll released in late February 2024 even had the Coalition ahead of Labor, albeit by a narrow margin of 51-49%.

‘Voter goodwill is finite’

Although its parliamentary majority is at serious risk, it is still unlikely that Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party will lose power at the next election. Australia’s last one-term Government fell in 1931, and Albanese’s is hardly the first Australian Government to suffer mid-term blues.

More problematically for Dutton, it remains difficult to see how the Coalition will come close to picking up the 21 seats necessary to secure a majority in the 151-member House of Representatives. Labor’s victory at last Saturday’s Dunkley by-election in outer Melbourne, albeit with a reduced majority, suggests that the Coalition has not made sufficient inroads into the suburban seats it needs to win back.

Making matters worse, the so-called ‘Teal’ independents, who occupy eight formerly safe Coalition seats, appear to be entrenching themselves, potentially shielding the Labor Government should its majority fall.

There are several key lessons that Sir Keir Starmer’s UK Labour Party can draw from the Albanese Labor Government. Although voters may rapidly warm to a newly elected Prime Minister, especially after the turmoil of recent years, voter goodwill is finite.

The public may take issue if a Starmer Government is seen as spending too much time on cultural and constitutional issues. Above all, unless the new administration is seen to prioritise and address the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, its honeymoon could well prove short-lived. 

Will Prescott

Will Prescott is a researcher at Bright Blue.

View all articles by Will Prescott

How the miner’s strikes revolutionised the role of women in Britain

Noora Mykkanen

METRO UK

Published Mar 17, 2024
Miners’ strikes opened new doors for working-class women

Forty years ago, the miners’ strikes helped revolutionise the role of women in the UK by forcing them ‘out of their comfort zone’ and into the frontlines of a battle to save their communities.

Over 142,000 miners went on strike across England, Scotland and Wales from 1984 to 1985 to oppose looming pit closures which put livelihoods and entire communities at risk.

They stood up against the National Coal Board and the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with 20,000 jobs on the line.

Miners’ strikes became one of the biggest industrial disputes in British history (Credits: Doncaster Free Press / SWNS)

Some protests saw violent clashes between campaigners and the police (Credits: Doncaster Free Press/SWNS)

The board had its eyes set on mines it deemed unprofitable, and in early March 1984 the government said 20 collieries would shut.

This prompted the National Union of Miners (NUM) to declare a national strike, and picket lines began to appear in mining villages and towns throughout the country.

One such village was Sacriston, a mining community in County Durham, where Anna Lawson lived with her family.

Now 66 and living in County Durham, Lawson spoke to Metro about the impact of the strikes and how it opened new doors for working class women like her.
‘No going back for women after the strike’

One of UK’s biggest industrial disputes was about ‘fighting for survival’, Lawson said.

If the nearest pit was shut, the village would be classed as category D, which meant it was up for demolition.

Women collected food parcels and ran soup kitchens for struggling miners in Doncaster (Credits: Doncaster Free Press/SWNS)

She said: ‘The women’s song says when you’re fighting for survival you have nothing to lose, because if you don’t save the pit, it will be a hell of a struggle to save the community’.

However, pits began to close fast after the industrial action ended, with only 15 pits out of 174 remaining open in 1994.

The eventual closures hit coal towns hard, leaving many families to struggle amid mass unemployment.

Downfall of the coal industry is still felt in many former mining towns, many of which have never recovered.

As the villages fought for survival and started to crumble, women played a vital role in keeping their communites together.

Women have ‘always had a role in emergency situations when men have gone to war’, Lawson explained, and this was no different.

Trade union leader Arthur Scargill and his wife Anne at national women’s demonstration against pit closures (Credits: PA)

Miners at a protest in Doncaster (Credits: Doncaster Free Press / SWNS)

But the strikes also opened up a world of opportunities women didn’t think were possible until then.

Summarizing her role, Lawson said: ‘We fed the children and the striking miners.’

But just those eight words highlighted the questions of ‘where did the food come from, where did the knowledge to cook it come from’, she added.

‘To do that women had to make links in the wider community.

‘We were fundraising, educating, being educated and we learned as we went along. And as we went along, we became more politicised. We wrote speeches, we empowered each other.’

‘It took everybody out of their comfort zone, but they hadn’t realised they were in one. That was really important.

A road in Doncaster after a clash during a protest

 (Credits: Doncaster Free Press/SWNS)

‘I don’t mean to be rude, but a lot of people were in their own bubble and believed what was in the papers’.

At the time, Lawson had three children, including a toddler who was ‘very much part of the strikes’ and she was also in the process of separating from her husband.

She was brought up in an educated family with teacher parents and three brothers with ‘very advanced’ political views. Both sides of her family had worked in the mines all their lives, although her father managed to ‘escape it’.

However, she was still ‘expected to do the ironing’ when she lived at home.

Speaking of her grandparents, she said: ‘Their parents were born in the 1800s.

‘I think the gender stereotypes were still in our existence, in our memory and background.’

Taking action in the face of social injustice was ‘just natural’ for Lawson who was nicknamed ‘Anna with the banner’ already before the strikes.

A protest to ask for a 24-hours strike to support miners outside a TUC conference on September 4, 1984. (Credits: B. Gomer/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

She said: ‘There was a need and I was there and I just dived in.

‘We were different to the coastal pits – they could see the closures coming, but we had absolutely no idea’.


Lawson also joined the Women Against Pit Closures campaign, a national movement that grew out of local groups.

The Sacriston women started to learn ‘how to do things properly’ as the strikes went on.

They opened a welfare hub in an empty cobblers shop. It sold things not found elsewhere in the village and it had books at the back.

It was run by ‘only women’ which the men ‘didn’t like very much’, she noted.

If someone’s power was going to be cut off, the campaigners ‘put a line around it’.
Protesters outside the TUC (Trades Union Congress) conference hall in Brighton (Credits: Popperfoto via Getty Images)

She said: ‘That’s when I got really interested in welfare law.

‘There is a moratorium even now where people with a disability, with kids under a certain age and elderly can’t have their electricity cut off. That came off the strikes’.

After the strikes, many women she knew took ’employment opportunities they would not have taken before’, she said.

‘Many went into university and professions they would not have considered. We set an example to our children and that continues in our children and now in our grandchildren’.

Lawson herself took the plunge into welfare law, practicing and teaching it for a decade.

The strikes had showed women across the country that their role in protest was ‘not just feeding the children, but about solidarity, education and communication’, Lawson said.

There was ‘absolutely no going back’ to the ‘convenient stereotypes’ and women returning to being wives like many had done when the World Wars ended, she stressed.

Many Sacriston women ‘didn’t want it to be over’ when the strike was declared over, she said laughing.

‘The men went back to work, but we found ways forward because we were already on a roll’, she said.

‘The women’s role in the strike created a legacy of protest art and protest music that has a universality for women who are in conflict or struggle wherever they may be’, she concluded.

Mercedes rolls out humanlike robots for ‘dull and repetitive’ factory tasks

Matt Oliver
Fri, 15 March 2024 

Each one can lift weights of up to 55 pounds and is designed to operate alongside human colleagues - Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes has installed humanlike robots in one of its factories as part of a trial to offload more physically demanding and repetitive tasks to indefatigable machines.

The “Apollo” robots, made by Texas-based start-up Apptronik, are roughly the size of a typical factory worker at 5ft 8 inches and weigh 160lbs. Each one can lift weights of up to 55 pounds and is designed to operate alongside human colleagues.

So far, the machines are being used to bring parts to the production line for workers, who then take care of assembly. In future they could also be used to inspect components as well.

The trial, first reported by the Financial Times, is part of efforts to automate “some physically demanding, repetitive and dull tasks for which it is increasingly hard to find reliable workers”, Mercedes said.


Jörg Burzer, a board member at Mercedes-Benz Group, said: “To build the most desirable cars, we continually evolve automotive production: Advancements in robotics and AI open up new opportunities also for us.

“We are exploring new ways robotics can support our skilled workforce in manufacturing.

“This is a new frontier and we want to understand the potential both for robotics and automotive production.”

Jeff Cardenas, co-founder and chief executive of Apptronik, said the trial setup was “a dream scenario”.

He added: “Mercedes plans to use robotics and Apollo for automating some low-skill, physically challenging, manual labour – a model use case which we’ll see other organisations replicate in the months and years to come.”

Tesla has been demonstrating its own robots that can pick up eggs without breaking them - Tesla

Fellow German carmaker BMW said it was also poised to deploy similar machines in January, after joining forces with California-based Figure.

Figure’s machines are similarly designed and take breaks every five hours to walk themselves to charging stations.

Rival carmaker Tesla, which is run by billionaire Elon Musk, has been demonstrating its own “Optimus” robots that can squat without falling over and pick up an egg without breaking it.

In a video released in December, Tesla showed off a machine that it said could walk 30pc faster than previous iterations. The robot also weighed 10 kilograms less, and boasted improved balance and hand movements.

Human-shaped robots are seen as useful for factory spaces because they are the right size to navigate spaces designed for humans.

So far, none are as quick and dexterous as human beings, however, meaning that the time when they can fully replace their fleshy overlords remains some time away.

US tech giant Amazon is testing robots that can grab and move items with their hands - JASON REDMOND/AFP

In the meantime, companies including Amazon and Ocado have already begun to revolutionise industrial work with other types of robots that work in separate spaces to humans.

These are often deployed in fenced-off areas of warehouses – where human workers do not typically venture – to quickly and efficiently sort goods.

For example, Amazon’s “Sequoia” robots – which look similar to large robot vacuum cleaners – can scoot around warehouse floors carrying large shelves of goods on top of them, picking out items needed by human staff who then package them up for delivery.

More recently, the US tech giant has also been testing more humanoid robots, made by the company Agility Robotics.
These can grab and move items with their hands and are being used for collecting plastic boxes left behind after human employees have emptied them of items.

 UK

LABOUR LOOKOUT

Remembering Tony Benn: hero of our movement, lasting voice for peace & socialism

14th March 2024Leave a Commenton Remembering Tony Benn: hero of our movement, lasting voice for peace & socialism

“Do not Arab & Iraqi women weep when their children die? Does not bombing strengthen their determination? What fools we are to live as if war is a computer game for our children or just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.”

We are proud to republish a below one of many important speeches Tony Benn made in Parliament against imperialist wars in the Middle East, to mark 10 years since he passed. His legacy and ideas are as important as ever today – the ‘Labour Outlook’ Team.

Tony Benn’s speech to the House of Commons on 17 February 1998, during a debate on the bombing of Iraq

I have very little time. I want to develop my argument. There are many others who want to speak. I hope that the House will listen to me. I know that my view is not the majority view in the House, although it may be outside this place.

I regret that I shall vote against the Government motion. The first victims of the bombing that I believe will be launched within a fortnight will be innocent people, many, if not most, of whom would like Saddam to be removed. The former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Huntingdon, talked about collateral damage. The military men are clever. They talk not about hydrogen bombs but about deterrence. They talk not about people but about collateral damage. They talk not about power stations and sewerage plants but about assets. The reality is that innocent people will be killed if the House votes tonight—as it manifestly will—to give the Government the authority for military action.

The bombing would also breach the United Nations charter. I do not want to argue on legal terms. If the hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife (Mr. Campbell) has read articles 41 and 42, he will know that the charter says that military action can only be decided on by the Security Council and conducted under the military staffs committee. That procedure has not been followed and cannot be followed because the five permanent members have to agree. Even for the Korean war, the United States had to go to the General Assembly to get authority because Russia was absent. That was held to be a breach, but at least an overwhelming majority was obtained.

Has there been any negotiation or diplomatic effort? Why has the Foreign Secretary not been in Baghdad, like the French Foreign Minister, the Turkish Foreign Minister and the Russian Foreign Minister? The time that the Government said that they wanted for negotiation has been used to prepare public opinion for war and to build up their military position in the Gulf.

Saddam will be strengthened again. Or he may be killed. I read today that the security forces—who are described as terrorists in other countries—have tried to kill Saddam. I should not be surprised if they succeeded.

This second action does not enjoy support from elsewhere. There is no support from Iraq’s neighbours. If what the Foreign Secretary says about the threat to the neighbours is true, why is Iran against, why is Jordan against, why is Saudi Arabia against, why is Turkey against? Where is that great support? There is no support from the opposition groups inside Iraq. The Kurds, the Shi’ites and the communists hate Saddam, but they do not want the bombing. The Pope is against it, along with 10 bishops, two cardinals, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Perez de Cuellar. The Foreign Secretary clothes himself with the garment of the world community, but he does not have that support. We are talking about an Anglo-American preventive war. It has been planned and we are asked to authorise it in advance.

The House is clear about its view of history, but it does not say much about the history of the areas with which we are dealing. The borders of Kuwait and Iraq, which then became sacrosanct, were drawn by the British after the end of the Ottoman empire. We used chemical weapons against the Iraqis in the 1930s. Air Chief Marshal Harris, who later flattened Dresden, was instructed to drop chemical weapons.

When Saddam came to power, he was a hero of the West. The Americans used him against Iran because they hated Khomeini, who was then the figure to be removed. 927 They armed Saddam, used him and sent him anthrax. I am not anxious to make a party political point, because there is not much difference between the two sides on this, but, as the Scott report revealed, the previous Government allowed him to be armed. I had three hours with Saddam in 1990. I got the hostages out, which made it worth going. He felt betrayed by the United States, because the American ambassador in Baghdad had said to him, “If you go into Kuwait, we will treat it as an Arab matter.” That is part of the history that they know, even if we do not know it here.

In 1958, 40 years ago, Selwyn Lloyd, the Foreign Secretary and later the Speaker, told Foster Dulles that Britain would make Kuwait a Crown colony. Foster Dulles said, “What a very good idea.” We may not know that history, but in the middle east it is known.

The Conservatives have tabled an amendment asking about the objectives. That is an important issue. There is no UN resolution saying that Saddam must be toppled. It is not clear that the Government know what their objectives are. They will probably be told from Washington. Do they imagine that if we bomb Saddam for two weeks, he will say, “Oh, by the way, do come in and inspect”? The plan is misconceived.

Some hon. Members—even Opposition Members—have pointed out the double standard. I am not trying to equate Israel with Iraq, but on 8 June 1981, Israel bombed a nuclear reactor near Baghdad. What action did either party take on that? Israel is in breach of UN resolutions and has instruments of mass destruction. Mordecai Vanunu would not boast about Israeli freedom. Turkey breached UN resolutions by going into northern Cyprus. It has also recently invaded northern Iraq and has instruments of mass destruction. Lawyers should know better than anyone else that it does not matter whether we are dealing with a criminal thug or an ordinary lawbreaker—if the law is to apply, it must apply to all. Governments of both major parties have failed in that.

Prediction is difficult and dangerous, but I fear that the situation could end in a tragedy for the American and British Governments. Suez and Vietnam are not far from the minds of anyone with a sense of history. I recall what happened to Sir Anthony Eden. I heard him announce the ceasefire and saw him go on holiday to Goldeneye in Jamaica. He came back to be replaced. I am not saying that that will happen in this case, but does anyone think that the House is in a position to piggy-back on American power in the middle east? What happens if Iraq breaks up? If the Kurds are free, they will demand Kurdistan and destabilise Turkey. Anything could happen. We are sitting here as if we still had an empire—only, fortunately, we have a bigger brother with more weapons than us.

The British Government have everything at their disposal. They are permanent members of the Security Council and have the European Union presidency for six months. Where is that leadership in Europe which we were promised? It just disappeared. We are also, of course, members of the Commonwealth, in which there are great anxieties. We have thrown away our influence, which could have been used for moderation.

The amendment that I and others have tabled argues that the United Nations Security Council should decide the nature of what Kofi Annan brings back from Baghdad and whether force is to be used. Inspections and sanctions go side by side. As I said, sanctions are brutal for innocent 928 people. Then there is the real question: when will the world come to terms with the fact that chemical weapons are available to anybody? If there is an answer to that, it must involve the most meticulous observation of international law, which I feel we are abandoning.

War is easy to talk about; there are not many people left of the generation which remembers it. The right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup served with distinction in the last war. I never killed anyone but I wore uniform. I was in London during the blitz in 1940, living where the Millbank tower now stands, where I was born. Some different ideas have come in there since. Every night, I went to the shelter in Thames house. Every morning, I saw docklands burning. Five hundred people were killed in Westminster one night by a land mine. It was terrifying. Are not Arabs and Iraqis terrified? Do not Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Does not bombing strengthen their determination? What fools we are to live as if war is a computer game for our children or just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.

Every Member of Parliament who votes for the Government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepting responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins, as I fear it will. That decision is for every hon. Member to take. In my parliamentary experience, this a unique debate. We are being asked to share responsibility for a decision that we will not really be taking but which will have consequences for people who have no part to play in the brutality of the regime with which we are dealing.

On 24 October 1945—the right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup will remember—the United Nations charter was passed. The words of that charter are etched on my mind and move me even as I think of them. It says: We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our life-time has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. That was that generation’s pledge to this generation, and it would be the greatest betrayal of all if we voted to abandon the charter, take unilateral action and pretend that we were doing so in the name of the international community. I shall vote against the motion for the reasons that I have given.

Fatah 'surprised' by Palestinian groups' concerns over President Abbas decision to form new government


'The leadership of Hamas is disconnected from reality and the Palestinian people,' says Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

Ikrame Imane Kouachi |16.03.2024 -

RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday expressed "surprise" at Palestinian groups voicing concerns about the formation of a new government led by Mohammad Mustafa without national consensus.

The Fatah said in a statement that “the leadership of Hamas is disconnected from reality and the Palestinian people.”

“It has not yet sensed the extent of the catastrophe that our oppressed people are experiencing,” the statement added.

The party expressed "surprise and disapproval at Hamas' talk of exclusivity and division."

“President Mahmoud Abbas has the right, under the Basic Law, to do everything that is in the interest of the Palestinian people,” the party said, adding that “assigning Mohammad Mustafa to form the government falls within the core of the president's political and legal responsibilities."

“The priority of all Palestinians today is to stop the war immediately, prevent displacement, provide relief to our afflicted people, rebuild the Gaza Strip, end the division, and reunify the Palestinian homeland,” it said.

Earlier on Friday, several Palestinian groups condemned President Abbas' announcement of a new government, fearing it would further divide the nation.

The Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and National Initiative groups issued a joint statement in which they questioned the feasibility of replacing one prime minister with another "from the same political environment."

"Taking individual decisions and engaging in superficial and empty steps such as forming a new government without national consensus only reinforces the policy of unilateralism and deepens division," the statement said.

On Thursday, Abbas appointed Mustafa as prime minister and asked him to form a new government.

Even though the prime minister-designate is not a member of the Fatah movement, he is a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee.

Israel has waged a retaliatory offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. The offensive has killed over 31,500 victims and injured more than 73,500 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Palestinian enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi

Fatah hits back at criticism of new PM by Hamas, other Palestinian groups

By

 AFP

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party hit back at criticism on Friday by Hamas and other factions over his appointment of a new prime minister they said could deepen divisions as the war with Israel in Gaza rages.

Abbas appointed Mohammed Mustafa, a long-trusted adviser on economic affairs, as prime minister on Thursday and tasked him with forming a new government. 

But the factions said in a statement Friday that “making individual decisions, and engaging in formal steps that are devoid of substance, like forming a new government without national consensus, is a reinforcement of a policy of exclusion and the deepening of division”. 

Such steps point to a “huge gap between the (Palestinian) Authority and the people, their concerns and their aspirations,” they said. 

The other signatories were Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza, the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party which seeks a third way between Fatah and Hamas. 

Mustafa replaces Mohammed Shtayyeh, who resigned less than three weeks ago citing the need for change after the Hamas attack of October 7 triggered war with Israel in Gaza. 

He accepted the appointment and said in a letter to Abbas published on Friday he was “well aware of the severity of the… dire circumstances that the Palestinian people are going through”. 

Fatah hit back at Hamas late Friday, accusing the Islamist movement in a statement of “having caused the return of the Israeli occupation of Gaza” by “undertaking the October 7 adventure”. 

This led to a “catastrophe even more horrible and cruel than that of 1948”, a reference to the displacement and expulsion of some 760,000 Palestinians from their lands at the creation of Israel, they said.

“The real disconnection from reality and the Palestinian people is that of the Hamas leadership,” said Fatah, accusing Hamas of not having itself “consulted” the other Palestinian leaders before launching its attack on Israel.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures. 

The retaliatory Israeli military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 31,490 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. 

Mustafa, 69, now faces the task of forming a new government for the Palestinian Authority, which has limited powers in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Control of the Palestinian territories has been divided between Abbas’s Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip since 2007.

Analysts have said Mustafa’s closeness to Abbas would limit chances for major reform of the Palestinian Authority. 

The United States and other powers have called for a reformed Palestinian Authority to take charge of all Palestinian territories after the war ends. 

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has rejected post-war plans for Palestinian sovereignty.