As wars rage, Armenian Christians in occupied Jerusalem's Old City feel walls closing in

AP , Wednesday 18 Dec 2024

Ahram Online - 

As the Israeli war on Gaza rages, Syria's government transforms, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank seethes, Armenian residents of the Old City of Jerusalem fight a different battle — one that is quieter, they say, but no less existential.


Armenian Christian clergy and young seminars attend the daily afternoon prayer service at the St. James Cathedral at the Armenian quarter in Jerusalem. AP

One of the oldest communities in Jerusalem, the Armenians have lived in the Old City for decades without significant friction with their neighbors, centered around a convent that acts as a welfare state.

Now, the small Christian community has begun to fracture under pressure from forces they say threaten them and the multifaith character of the Old City.

From radical Jewish settlers who jeer at clergymen on the way to prayer, to an Israeli land deal threatening to turn a quarter of their land into a luxury hotel, residents and the church alike say the future of the community is in flux.

Their struggle, playing out under the cover of many regional crises, reflects the difficulty of maintaining a non-Jewish presence in Jerusalem where life has hardened for religious minorities in the Old City.

Chasms have emerged between the Armenian Patriarchate, the traditional steward of community affairs, and the mainly secular community itself. Its members worry that the church is not equipped to protect their dwindling population and embattled convent from obsolescence and takeover.
A tent in a parking lot

Walk through the narrow passageways of the Armenian Quarter, past a perpetually manned guard post and into an open lot with a towering pile of shrapnel crested with the Armenian flag. You’ve arrived at the headquarters of the “Save the Arq" movement.

It’s where some residents of the Armenian Quarter have decamped, in a structure with reinforced plywood walls hung with ancient maps, to protest what they see as an illegal land grab by a controversial real estate developer.

The land under threat is where the community parks their cars and holds group dinners. It also includes parts of the patriarchate itself. It’s been a receiving point for those fleeing the mass killing of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottomans.

The patriarchate has batted away offer after offer to sell the land. That changed in 2021, when an Armenian priest, Baret Yeretsian, signed a fraudulent deal leasing the lot for up to 98 years to a company called Xana Capital, registered just before the agreement was signed.

Xana then turned over half the shares to an Israeli businessman, George Warwar, who has been involved in various criminal offenses, according to court filings, including a 24-month prison sentence for armed robbery, and has declared bankruptcy in the past.

In court documents seen by the AP, the patriarchate has admitted that Warwar bribed the priest and that the two had sustained “various inappropriate connections" leading up to the signing of the deal.

Community members were outraged when they found out, prompting the priest to flee the country. The patriarchate cancelled the deal in October, but Xana fought back, and the two are now in mediation over the contract.

Xana Capital has since sent armed men to the lot, attacking members of the community, including clergy, with pepper spray and batons.

With the future of the site unclear, the activists say they appealed to the patriarchate to find out what was going on. The activists say that Warwar has the backing of a prominent colonist settlers organization seeking to expand Jewish presence in occupied Jerusalem.

The organization, Ateret Cohanim, is behind several controversial land acquisitions in the Old City, and its leaders were photographed meeting with Warwar and Danny Rothman, the owner of Xana Capital who also uses the last name Rubinstein, in December 2023.

“But as soon as the deal was signed, the patriarchate went into silent mode, bunker mode,” said Setrag Balian, 27, a ceramicist. “We decided that we have to take action and not once again be on the sidelines, watching and hoping that the patriarchy will take the right steps.”

So Balian and fellow resident Hagop Djernazian collected some 300 signatures from the community and filed suit against the patriarchate in February, asking them to declare the deal void and to say, for posterity, that the land belongs to the community.

In response, the patriarchate said it owns the land, not the community. Xana, meanwhile, filed a response calling the activists antisemitic squatters. The patriarchate's response and Xana's words, the activists said, leave open the chance that the land could be leased again in the future.

“It made us feel like we could not trust the institution who brought us to this day to solve this problem, to solve this conflict,” said Hagop Djernazian.

The patriarchate declined to comment on the land deal for this article, saying it could impact mediation efforts underway with Xana.

A single observer

Inside the Armenian convent, the clergy are hushed, pathways empty.

On a recent afternoon, priests in black robes rang the bell for daily prayers at the St. James Cathedral, the storied Armenian church occupying one of the highest points in the Old City. Filing into the darkened space, the men and the young seminary choir were joined only by an Israeli tour group and one Armenian woman who'd come to pray.

Father Parsegh Galamterian, church sacristan, has watched prayers thin out over the years, as the Armenian population in the quarter has shrunk from about 15,000 in 1948, the creation of the state of Israel, to around 2,000.

“The future is difficult,” he says.

Armenians began arriving in the Old City as early as the 4th century, inspired by the religious significance of the city to Christianity. In the early 20th century, they were joined by masses of Armenians who flocked to Jerusalem after being driven out of the Ottoman Empire.

Theirs is the smallest quarter in the Old City, home to Armenians with the same status as Palestinians in Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem — residents but not citizens, effectively stateless.

Today, the newcomers are mainly boys who arrive from Armenia to live and study in the convent. Some stay, but many drop out of studies. Clergy say that's partially because attacks against Christians have ramped up within the walls of the Old City, leaving the Armenians – whose convent is closest to the Jewish Quarter and is tucked along a popular route to the Western Wall – vulnerable.

Father Aghan Gogchyan, the patriarchate’s chancellor, said he’s regularly attacked by groups of Jewish fundamentalists.

He recalled an incident just a month ago, when clergy were headed to prayer. He was intercepted by a group of Jewish settlers, who asked if they were Christians.

“’You know that you don’t have a future here in the Holy Land. You’re not going to continue to live here,” he recalled one man saying. “’This is our country. We are going to eradicate you.”

“This is the word he used,” said Gogchyan. “We are going to eradicate you from our country.”

The Rossing Center, which tracks anti-Christian attacks in the Holy Land, documented about 20 attacks on Armenian observers, Armenian private property, and church properties in 2023, many involving ultranationalist Jewish settlers spitting at Armenian clergy or graffiti reading “Death to Christians” scrawled on the quarter’s walls.

“What is being said behind closed doors is that Jerusalem is becoming a place that is no longer hospitable to Christianity,” said Daniel Seidman, a Jerusalem lawyer and peace activist. “You can see the needle moving. The spike in hate crimes is not part of this plan, but it's part of the impact.”

The incidents send a clear message to the next generation, said Gogchyan: stay away.

“The new generation doesn’t want to be in the center of the conflict,” said Gogchyan. “They’re building their future in different countries.

Despite the fractures, Armenian clergy and activists told the AP they want the same thing: a continued presence in the Old City.

“Some people feel helpless and hopeless and they want to leave,” said Balian. “But I think the majority sees that there is a struggle going on. It gives us a meaning. It gives us a purpose. It gives us a reason to stay here.”

Inside ‘Greater Israel’: myths and truths behind the long-time Zionist fantasy

The expansive territorial ambitions of creating a "Greater Israel" once seemed only to be a right-wing Zionist fantasy. Today, current events in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria show it might be closer than many ever thought possible.

By Qassam Muaddi 

 December 17, 2024 

MONDOWEISS

A photo that has gone viral on social media allegedly shows Israeli forces occupying the peak of Syria’s Mount Hermon on December 8, 2024. (Photo: Social Media)


As Israel pushed its forces deep into sovereign Syrian territory following the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime the term ‘Greater Israel’ has resurfaced in media coverage. The term has been used in recent days to describe Israel’s military expansion beyond its currently recognized borders, an ever-expanding definition of what the Israeli state can come to encompass. The maps used to describe the vision often echo biblical stories that many Zionists consider as history. But what is the ‘Greater Israel’ idea in actuality? Is there really such an Israeli project? And how realistic is it that it will be realized?

While the territorial dreams of the right-wing Zionists once appeared to be nothing more than colonial fantasies, current events in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria show the hopes for the ascendant Israeli far right might be closer to fruition than many ever thought possible.
What is ‘Greater Israel‘?

The term “Greater Israel” refers to the idea of a Jewish state expanding across large parts of the Middle East as a supposed reincarnation of what the Bible describes as the territory of the ancient Israelite tribes, the Israelite kingdom, or the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants. There are at least three versions of ‘Greater Israel’ in the Bible.
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In the book of Genesis, God promises Abraham the land “from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates,” for him and his descendants. In the book of Deuteronomy, God tells Moses to lead the Hebrew people in the taking over of the land that includes all of Palestine, all of Lebanon, and parts of Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. And in the book of Samuel describes the ‘united monarchy’ established by the bible’s King Saul, then expanded by the bible’s King David to include Palestine without the Negev desert, parts of Jordan, all of Lebanon, and parts of Syria.

In the early 20th century, the debate over the limits of the yet-to-be Jewish state was the main reason for the emergence of the revisionist current within the Zionist movement. In the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britain promised to establish “a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.” The name “Palestine” had described essentially the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean for 4,000 years, with varying limits, often as a sub-part of Syria or its own province under different empires. But since borders weren’t defined yet in the then-Ottoman Levant, the eastern bank of the Jordan River was widely seen as an extension of Palestine.

After Britain and France split the Levant into areas of influence, and after the establishment of an Arab emirate in Jordan, which is today’s Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, mainstream Zionists defined their project for a Jewish state within the British mandatory limits of Palestine. The Zionist leader and theoretician Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who founded the revisionist current within Zionism, disagreed and insisted that the Zionist project should include Jordan. He then founded the Irgun paramilitary gang, later responsible for various atrocities during the Nakba of 1948, whose emblem included a map of both Palestine and Jordan and the inscription ‘Land of Israel’. This became the modern political conception of “Greater Israel.”
‘Greater Israel’ in Israeli politics

After the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, theoretical debates gave way to political pragmatism. Israel never included “Greater Israel” in its official discourse, and it never officially claimed the right to make Arab territory beyond its 1948 boundaries part of its own domain, even after its occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai desert, and the Syrian Golan heights in 1967. It maintained that these were ‘administrated territories’ for security reasons until its annexation of the eastern part of Jerusalem and the Golan in the early 1980s.

However, as Israel never defined its borders, the idea of a “Greater Israel” remained in the imagination of religious right Israelis as a foundational myth that some extremists took more seriously. The religious right wing began to grow stronger after 1967, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. One belief that gained traction in this period was the messianic trend that sees the expansion of Israel beyond its borders as part of the fulfillment of the end of times, and the coming of the Jewish Messiah. This movement spearheaded settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, often drawing plans that would later be adopted by the state.

The term “Greater Israel” resurfaced in the media during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, when Israeli forces pushed deep into Lebanon’s territory beyond the Litani river, which in one of the biblical versions, is the northern limit of the “Greater Israel.” It was not coincidental that “Greater Israel” came to the fore during this time. Israel was led at the time by the former Irgun leader, Menachem Begin, known for his extremist rhetoric and views. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah’s leader Hasan Nasrallah declared in his famous speech at Bint Jbeil that “the Greater Israel project is over.”

The term came back into political discourse through the rhetoric of religious right-wing extremists from the settlement movement, many of whom were elected into office in the second half of the 2000s. The most notorious of them is Bezalel Smotrich, who now holds the position of Finance Minister, with unprecedented powers over settlement policy in the West Bank. He said in an old interview featured in a documentary by the French-German channel Arte, that he dreamed of a “Greater Israel that would extend from the Nile and the Euphrates”, with the limits of the Jewish Jerusalem extending all the way to the Syrian capital of Damascus. In March 2023, Smotrich sparked controversy by giving a speech to a group of pro-Israel activists in Paris from a podium decorated with the map of Jabotinsky’s “Greater Israel” from the old Irgun emblem, including Palestine and Jordan.

With religious Zionists’ increasingly outspoken calls to annex the West Bank, the term began to be used as a shorthand for a vision of Israel extending over all of historic Palestine and has become synonymous with the rejection of a Palestinian state. This version of greater Israel was reinforced with Israel’s nation-state law passed in 2018 and with the Knesset’s resolution last February rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state anywhere between the river and the sea.
Territorial ambitions in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria

The Gaza genocide, and events across the region, have given new life to the “Greater Israel” idea as well.

Since the start of the current genocide, calls increased by religious right-wing extremists, mostly from the West Bank settler movement to establish Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. These calls have been backed by ministers and Knesset members.

In January, settler organizations held a conference in Jerusalem to call for settling Gaza. Israel’s security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attended the event and gave a speech at it. In October, hundreds of Israelis rallied near the Gaza fence to call for settlements in Gaza. Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, and other Israeli politicians attended and gave speeches. Since last October 6, Israel has been besieging the north of Gaza, forcing the population to leave, the same area the settler movement hopes to re-establish colonies in Gaza. Israel’s former war minister Mosheh Yaalon admitted earlier this month that Israel was committing ethnic cleansing in the north of Gaza, sparking backlash in Israeli media.

In effect, it seemed that between calls to settle Gaza and efforts to annex the West Bank, preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, the practical implementation of “Greater Israel” was well on its way. But then rapidly evolving events in Lebanon and Syria over recent months resuscitated fantasies of a maximalist version of “Greater Israel” in the Israeli discourse.

Israel’s demands to create a buffer zone inside Lebanon, combined with its invasion of Syrian territory following the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime have expanded the conceptual map. As Israeli forces reached as close as 23 kilometers from Damascus, Israeli religious extremists began bringing back biblical rhetoric to describe their territorial ambitions. In June, the Israeli daily Haaretz published a news article about an Israeli children’s books writer who had written a story about an Israeli child called Alon who wants to go to Lebanon, saying that “Lebanon is ours,” and that he couldn’t yet go to Lebanon because “the enemy is still there.” Last Thursday, a group of religious Orthodox Israelis went to the summit of Mount Al-Sheikh in Syria, recently occupied by the Israeli army, and held a religious ceremony there, under the sight of Israeli soldiers.

Israel insists that its actions in Syria are temporary, aiming at preventing resistance groups from filling the vacuum in the south of Syria, created by the collapse of the Syrian army. The U.S. national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, both repeated the same Israeli argument, affirming that the U.S. will make sure that Israel’s presence in Syria doesn’t become permanent.

However, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights in 1967 was also said to be temporary. Israel administrated all the territories it occupied in 1967 through the Israeli army and its ‘civil administration’ body for years. It engaged in negotiations with Syria, Egypt, and the Palestinian leadership, all based on the premise that it would give these territories back.

Israel only withdrew from Egypt’s Sinai, on the condition stipulated in the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Egypt, that the Sinai remains demilitarized, with no Egyptian army presence, except a minimum force at the border, and that it remains open for Israeli investment. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip’s interior in 2005, only to impose a total blockade on it, and is currently driving Palestinians from its northern part while settlers advocate to establish settlements there. Israel annexed the Golan Heights and the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1981 and is currently preparing to announce the annexation of the West Bank.

With such a record, with the rise of religious nationalism in Israel, and with Israel’s actions in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria unchecked over the past year, and its current push into Syria, can anybody guarantee that the fantasy of a “Greater Israel” is only a fantasy in the minds of Israeli leaders? On the contrary, it appears the expansionist supremacist ideology fueled by religious fanaticism, currently making its way over dead bodies and the rubble of entire cities, is not only a bad memory of the colonial past.

Facebook restricts war-related content in Palestinian territories, BBC investigation claims

A similar investigation by Arab News revealed widespread reports of pro-Palestinian posts and accounts being suspended or banned during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. (AFP/File)

Arab News
December 18, 2024

Local news outlets report 77% drop in audience engagement

‘Any implication that we deliberately suppress a particular voice is unequivocally false,’ Meta says


LONDON: A BBC investigation has claimed that Facebook significantly restricted access to news in Palestinian territories, limiting local news outlets’ ability to reach audiences during the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.

Research conducted by the BBC Arabic team found that 20 newsrooms in Gaza and the West Bank reported a 77 percent decline in audience engagement — a measure of the visibility and impact of social media content — following the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

In contrast, Facebook pages belonging to 20 Israeli news outlets, including Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Channel 13, saw a 37 percent increase in engagement for similar war-related content during the same period.

“Interaction was completely restricted and our posts stopped reaching people,” said Tariq Ziad, a journalist at Palestine TV, which experienced a 60 percent drop in engagement despite having 5.8 million Facebook followers.

With international journalists restricted from accessing Gaza due to Israeli-imposed limitations, local media and social platforms have become critical sources of information around the world. But the disparity in engagement has underscored concerns about a growing “war of narratives” on social media.

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has previously faced allegations of “shadow banning” Palestinian content. Critics, including human rights groups, claim the platform fails to moderate online activity fairly.

According to an independent report commissioned by Meta in 2021, the company said the loss of engagement was never deliberate, attributing it to a “lack of Arabic-speaking expertise among moderators,” which led to some Arabic phrases being inadvertently flagged as harmful or sensitive.

To test these claims, the BBC analyzed 30 prominent Facebook pages from Arabic news outlets and found an almost 100 percent increase in engagement.

Meta admitted to increasing moderation of Palestinian user comments in response to a “spike in hateful content” but rejected allegations of bias.

A spokesperson told the BBC: “Any implication that we deliberately suppress a particular voice is unequivocally false.”

However, internal communications reviewed by the BBC showed that Meta-owned Instagram’s algorithm had been adjusted shortly after the conflict began, with at least one engineer raising concerns about potential new bias against Palestinian users.

“Within a week of the Hamas attack, the code was changed essentially making it more aggressive toward Palestinian people,” the engineer told the BBC.

Although Meta said these policy changes were reversed, it did not specify when.

A similar investigation by Arab News revealed widespread reports of pro-Palestinian posts and accounts being suspended or banned during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 144 media workers have been killed since the start of the conflict, 133 of whom were Palestinians, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history.

'There's no willingness to understand': Exposing the wellbeing industry's silence on Palestine

Since the onset of Israel's war on Gaza, the wellbeing industry's silence on the crisis highlights a failure to uphold empathy, social justice, and support

Yanar Alkayat
04 December, 2024

For over a year, my psychotherapy sessions have been dominated by one central issue – Gaza and Palestine. From the grief of witnessing harrowing scenes daily to navigating friendships that have gone silent, I’ve had space to discuss it all.

This contrasts sharply with Seth* from London, whose therapist quickly changed the subject when he brought up Gaza.

“When I explained the massacres were what I wanted to discuss, they visibly disconnected and looked bored. In my next session, they said, ‘We’re here to talk about you, not other people’. That’s when I knew I had to leave that therapist.”

"The professions of psychiatry, psychology and social work are based on the basic principle of empathy, to put yourself in other people's shoes and feel their pain, their anguish and emotional difficulty, which is completely lacking in this situation. They are not adhering to their basic ethical duties at this point"

It’s not just in the therapy room where politics has been met with bias. In November 2023, during a stay at a yoga ashram in India, I faced a similar dissonance: while figureheads expressed condolences for Israelis, they failed to acknowledge the killing of more than 10,000 Palestinians by then. This omission was glaring and concerning.

I’m not alone in noticing such exclusive compassion. Gabor Mate, a prominent voice in trauma psychology, has openly criticised therapy and spiritual leaders for their silence on the grief, rage and despair felt by those within and beyond Gaza.


The psychological need extends beyond those directly impacted by unimaginable loss, forced displacement, starvation and siege.

Millions worldwide bear the emotional weight of collective grief. This is further compounded by the denial, censorship, ignorance and apathy of governments, workplaces and society.

“There’s a raw exposure to these atrocities… [people are] seeing it on their cell phones …and they’re not able to express themselves because many providers are hesitant to discuss these issues in therapy [because of] so-called neutrality,” says Mansoor Malik, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Pro-Palestine activists took to the streets of London in November for the National Demonstration for Palestine calling for a ceasefire and a stop to arming Israel [Getty]

Mansoor critiques the profession for abandoning its core principle of empathy, stating, “The professions of psychiatry, psychology and social work are based on the basic principle of empathy, to put yourself in other people's shoes and feel their pain, their anguish and emotional difficulty, which is completely lacking in this situation. They are not adhering to their basic ethical duties at this point.”

When such needs are met with silence or inadequate support from professionals and institutions meant to foster mental wellness, the harm is magnified.
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Palestinian trauma ignored

After 7 October 2023, key medical and psychiatric associations in the UK and US released position statements only condemning the Hamas attack and loss of life in Israel.

The World Psychiatric Association (WPA), condemned the “unimaginable slaughter and hostage-taking” while the American Psychiatric Association (APA), explicitly condemned “the brutalities of Hamas”, expressing allegiance with Jewish people.

Both statements raise questions about neutrality.

The WPA has since expressed no concern for the catastrophic suffering in Gaza, while the APA’s follow-up statement in April 2024 spoke of escalating mental health concerns but refrained from naming Israel as the aggressor, highlighting inconsistencies in language and tone. The New Arab questioned the WPA and APA about this but has yet to receive a response.

Speaking to this, Mansoor says, “Either they should not have condemned [the Hamas attacks], and if they did, they cannot now hide behind the facade of neutrality when even worse atrocities have been happening every day for over a year.”


Mansoor adds, “I think there is a lot of pressure from funders of these organisations; they do not want [criticism of] Israel…whatsoever. That is what we are running up against.”


"Western psychology is rooted in white-cis-hetero supremacist delusion, seeking to not only gain dominance over but to eliminate those that do not fit into its narrow, nonsensical supremacist ideals"

In contrast, a few organisations and institutions have publicly recognised the suffering of Palestinians and called for immediate action. These include the American Public Health Association, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, the American Medical Students Association and the World Medical Association.

This disparity highlights the deeper systemic issues at play. Melody Li, licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Inclusive Therapists, in an open letter with Dr Jennifer Mullan, founder of Decolonizing Therapy and Hammam Farah, therapist and activist at Elham Fund, call out the mental health field’s complicity.

“Western psychology is rooted in white-cis-hetero supremacist delusion, seeking to not only gain dominance over but to eliminate those that do not fit into its narrow, nonsensical supremacist ideals,” says Melody.

“The fact that the mental health industrial complex, including academic institutions, refuse to respond to the traumas of Palestinians is on one hand, predicted (this is by colonial design) and on the other, is deeply cruel, hypocritical, and shameful,” she adds.
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No grief should be sidelined

How professional bodies position themselves matters and silence is a stance.

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)’s philosophy states a “desire for social justice determines everything we do”.

At the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war, it released a solidarity statement acknowledging “devastating human tragedy” and that “people will be dealing with indescribable losses”.

A few weeks later, the BACP organised an emergency summit to contribute to “global peace and justice” and continued to share psychological support for practitioners and clients.

Yet, despite the death and destruction being exponentially greater than in Ukraine – The Lancet estimates life lost in the Gaza Strip at around 7-9% of the population – the BACP has remained silent.



"If mental health providers and therapists are not actively, vocally, and continually protesting against the genocide of Palestinians, we are complicit in upholding these structures of violence and are enacting harm"

A BACP spokesperson stated: “We’re committed to an inclusive, anti-racist stance that reflects the ethics and integrity that is at our professions’ heart.” When questioned about their rationale for ignoring Palestine, they declined to respond.

“The lack of recognition of… [Gaza’s] humanitarian perspective is causing anguish among individual providers… and in patient populations from various backgrounds – not only Muslims,” says Mansoor.

“I have Jewish patients who say they feel very torn about the situation when friends or family support it. We should provide avenues to express and process their feelings. We cannot shut down this internal debate around consciousness. This will only increase their internal distress,” Mansoor continues.

“It’s worth noting that many members of the Jewish medical community, as well as Israeli and human rights organisations, have been vocal in speaking up against the Gaza genocide. The inhumane Israeli actions are fuelling both Islamophobia and anti-semitism in the US, adding to psychological distress,” adds Mansoor.

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid a hunger crisis [Getty]

Melody further emphasises the impact, “If mental health providers and therapists are not actively, vocally, and continually protesting against the genocide of Palestinians, we are complicit in upholding these structures of violence and are enacting harm.”

Mustafa Jayyousi, a Palestinian psychotherapist living in Norway, highlights another barrier to effective support: Western psychology’s emphasis on individualism over collective wellbeing, which he argues, often exacerbates the cultural disconnect and systemic ignorance faced by Palestinians.

“Telling people to switch off the news to look after themselves ignores or fails to realise the need or importance for some people to focus on the Palestinian cause,” he says.

Mustafa sees the gap between his Palestinian pain and the lack of care and attention from his peers as a cultural disconnect. “There’s no willingness to understand. It’s systemic ignorance for us Palestinians.”

When I ask Mustafa about the underlying factors, he highlights the influence of a strong Zionist narrative and the media’s role in failing to convey the truth. He adds: “European guilt for the Holocaust makes it harder for people to distinguish between Judaism as a religion and Zionism.”

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This detachment is echoed by Sheena Sood, a founding member of Yogis for Palestine, set up in 2021 to promote advocacy for Palestinian self-determination.

She notes a similar challenge in the yogic communities, “There’s this aspiration towards enlightenment but when it comes to politics or suffering the approach is reduced to neutrality or prayer without any material action. It becomes a kind of political apathy or inaction.”

Melody underscores the need for appropriate emotional support. “In these critical times, we need aligned spaces to grieve together, to process what we hold in our bodies… as the media and institutions continue to bombard us with propaganda and lies. We must allow ourselves to feel, or risk becoming numb, sick or disconnected.”

Alongside this, there is a strong call for accountability. “I’d like to see these professional bodies held accountable for denying and enabling genocide and colonial violence,” says Melody.

Ultimately, it’s about the sanctity of life and human rights, says Mansoor. “Sanctity of life is enshrined in the Hippocratic Oath and medical ethics, AMA medical ethics principle IX demands that physicians and medical organisations should support access to medical care for all people," he explains.

"Yet there is complete silence about the wanton destruction of healthcare infrastructure in Gaza and the intentional killing of thousands of medics. The lack of condemnation of medical war crimes in Gaza is even more astounding in the case of mental health organisations that claim to espouse the highest standards of professional ethics," Mansoor adds.

"By refusing to support the calls for a ceasefire, medical organisations have violated their basic ethical principles. If there is no safety there’s no health. Sanctity of life precludes any kind of health.”

For those seeking support in the UK, the UK Palestine Mental Health Network engages mental health professionals to take a stance against policies exacerbating the oppression of Palestinians; Healing Justice Ldn provides resources for movements that centre empathy and action and Thrive Ldn provides community-led support for Jewish, Israeli, Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities.

After all, no grief should be sidelined.

Yanar Alkayat is a health and fitness content editor for magazines such as Women's Health, Runner's World, and Men's Health. She is also a registered Yoga Therapist

Follow her on Instagram: @yanarfitness

WAR IS ECOCIDE

To confront famine in Gaza, Palestinians are hunting wild birds as a last resort

"I realise that what I am doing is an adventure that carries great risks, but there is no other option to provide food for my children," said Tariq Al-Sheikh.

Rasha Jalal
Gaza
19 December, 2024

A Palestinian man is seen preparing for bird hunting with a net near the Israeli border, in the east of Gaza City, Gaza on 22 August 2022. [Getty]

32-year-old Tariq Al-Sheikh is forced to resort to hunting wild birds to feed his children's hunger amid the famine prevailing in the Gaza Strip.

Every morning, Al-Sheikh leaves his tent in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, to hunt. Since he and his family of six were forcibly displaced from their home in Gaza City to Khan Younis due to Israel's genocidal war, he has been unemployed after an Israeli strike destroyed his home and his small grocery store.

Al-Sheikh places some grain on the ground, then raises a net on top of them with a stick tied to a long rope, making a trap. He moves away from the site holding the end of the string, waiting for the birds to start discovering the grains and then descend to them. At a crucial moment when the birds multiply under the trap, he pulls the rope, closing the net on them.

"I catch about 30 birds each time, then I take them to my wife to prepare food for us from them, as the meat of the birds is special and delicious," he told The New Arab,

Gaza's residents are experiencing the most severe famine since the beginning of the war on 7 October 2023 since Israel restricts humanitarian aid, while it completely prevents the entry of meat such as poultry and beef. Israel claims it is doing this to fight the sources of Hamas's money.


Al-Sheikh learned to hunt birds during his childhood, accompanying his relatives on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip.

The most prominent challenge facing him while hunting birds is the lack of empty spaces west of Khan Younis because of the overcrowding of displaced people, which forces him to move east near the presence of the Israeli army where the agricultural lands are destroyed.

"I fear that the [Israeli] planes deployed in the air will bomb me. I realise that what I am doing is an adventure that carries great risks, but there is no other option to provide food for my children," he remarked.
'Terrible daily struggle'

Ajith Songhai, head of the United Nations Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a press conference in Geneva via video link from Jordan on 29 November 2024, "Large groups of women and children are searching for food amidst piles of garbage in parts of the Gaza Strip."

"Accessing basic necessities has become a terrible daily struggle for survival," he added.

In the northern Gaza Strip, the practice of bird hunting to combat famine is more widespread than in the south due to the Israeli military ground invasion in the area since this past October, followed by a strict siege policy against the people. Those remaining in northern Gaza Strip were previously forced to eat chicken and rabbit feed to avoid starvation.

In order to combat famine, Salah Shahin, a 34-year-old resident of the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, also hunts for wild birds to feed his family.

"There is no food in the northern Gaza Strip except for some types of canned food such as peas preserved with preservatives," Shahin told TNA.

He added that the Israeli army sometimes allows some types of vegetables to enter northern Gaza in order to avoid international pressure, "but they are small quantities and expensive, making it difficult for most of the population to buy them."

He explained that he and his family of five have not eaten meat for several months, "We have lost a lot of weight and our bones have become visible."


Shaheen pointed out that eating sparrow meat "of course does not make us feel full, but it is important in order to obtain the protein needed to fight famine."

Shaheen divides the sparrows he hunts into two parts, one that he feeds his children and the other he sells in local markets.

"I sell what I catch to people for a low price, as a pair of birds costs only seven shekels ($2)," he remarked.

A policy of starvation

Food security and human health expert Zayed Abu Bakr remarked to TNA that the ongoing Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip "has caused a loss of food security and malnutrition among Palestinians, who have become dependent on aid as their main source of food."

Abu Bakr further elaborated that most food aid are canned food containing grains and legumes preserved with preservatives, "which is unhealthy because it contains chemical preservatives, and does not contain essential nutrients such as protein and vitamins."

He explained that Israel imposes a policy of starvation on the residents of the northern Gaza Strip, "as a form of collective punishment because they refused the army's orders to move and evacuate to the southern Gaza Strip."

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that Israeli authorities "facilitated just over 40 per cent of the approximately 320 humanitarian movements through the Gaza Strip during November 2024, with the rest denied, obstructed or cancelled."

In the same time, a UN report confirmed that the entire population of Gaza—some 2.2 million people—"are experiencing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity."

The report said that the threshold for acute food insecurity for famine has been significantly exceeded, and that acute malnutrition among children under five is advancing at a record pace towards the second threshold of famine.

The report stated that half the population, 1.1 million people in Gaza, have completely exhausted their food supplies, coping capacities, and are suffering from catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) and starvation.

Israel’s deprivation of water in Gaza is act of genocide – Human Rights Watch

The Human Rights Watch report said the Israeli government stopped water being piped into Gaza and cut off electricity and restricted fuel which meant Gaza’s own water and sanitation facilities could not be used. (AFP)

Reuters
December 19, 2024

‘What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive’

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins


THE HAGUE: 

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.

“This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to an ‘act of genocide’ under the Genocide Convention of 1948,” Human Rights Watch said in its report.

Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas-led attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that precipitated the war.

Although the report described the deprivation of water as an act of genocide, it noted that proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials would also require establishing their intent. It cited statements by some senior Israeli officials which it said suggested they “wish to destroy Palestinians” which means the deprivation of water “may amount to the crime of genocide.”

“What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch Middle East director told a press conference.

Human Rights Watch is the second major rights group in a month to use the word genocide to describe the actions of Israel in Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report that concluded Israel was committing genocide.

Both reports came just weeks after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. They deny the allegations.

The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines the crime of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

The 184-page Human Rights Watch report said the Israeli government stopped water being piped into Gaza and cut off electricity and restricted fuel which meant Gaza’s own water and sanitation facilities could not be used.

As a result, Palestinians in Gaza had access to only a few liters of water a day in many areas, far below the 15-liter-threshold for survival, the group said. Israel launched its air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

Amnesty honours Gaza journalists with 2024 Human Rights Defenders Award


December 12, 2024 

by MEMO



Amnesty Australia has recognised Palestinian journalists with its 2024 Human Rights Defender Awards.

Naming a number of journalist who have continued to highlight the situation in Gaza during the ongoing genocide, Amnesty International said the award was also for all those who have lost their lives while covering events on the ground.

“To honour the extraordinary resilience, bravery and courage of journalists working in the most perilous conditions,” the rights group explained.

Bisan Owda, Plestia Alaqad, Al Jazeera’s Anas Al-Sharif were named during the ceremony. While journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin was also honoured individually for his work.

The rights watchdog said this year’s award recognise journalists based on the significant impact of their fearless reporting on the genocide in Gaza, their innovative use of social media and citizen journalism to challenge traditional narratives and their ability to inspire action for justice.

Al-Sharif dedicated the award to “every Palestinian journalist who has covered the events and crimes of the Israeli occupation in light of the ongoing war and siege on the Gaza strip” including his colleague, wounded Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi Al-Wahidi.

He noted that he is receiving this award on the commemoration of his father’s death in their home as a result of Israeli army fire a year ago. “I dedicate this award to the soul of my father; may God have mercy on him,” Al-Sharif said.

Shihab-Eldin said: “I am honoured and humbled to be included amongst the bravest journalists I know who are risking it all to keep us informed. They have taught me so much about what it means to bear witness, and what it means to be human.”

While Alaqad dedicated her award to “every Palestinian child… every mother who refuses to give up hope, and every voice that refuses to be silenced.”

Gaza protesters disrupt Blinken's testimony in Congress

December 11, 2024 

by MEMO

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators with their hands painted the colour of blood hold a demonstration to call for a ceasefire in Gaza as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, United States on December 11, 2024

 [Celal Güneş/Anadolu Agency]

A group of pro-Palestinian protestors repeatedly disrupted Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony, Wednesday, before a House of Representatives panel on the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Anadolu Agency reports.

One protester shouted: “Bloody Blinken” and “Butcher of Gaza” as Blinken began his remarks.

A second demonstrator, holding a sign that read: “Stop Bombing Kids”, yelled: “Stop killing kids in Gaza” and “I don’t know how you can sleep at night when you’re killing so many kids in tents.” The protester was arrested and removed from the chamber.

Blinken continued his testimony, despite the disruptions.

The US, Israel’s primary supporter, provides nearly 70 per cent of its weapons, along with significant diplomatic backing. The support has drawn growing criticism amid the escalating civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip from Israel’s ongoing military onslaught.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 44,800 people, mostly women and children, since a 7 October, 2023 attack by the Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last month for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence chief, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on Gaza.

Opinion

Haaretz tells Israelis, ‘It’s time to choose life over death’

December 18, 2024 

by MEMO

Thousands of Israelis gathering with banners and Israel flags to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for not signing the ceasefire agreement with Gaza in Tel Aviv, Israel on September 14, 2024 

[Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency]

The self-declared “liberal and progressive” Israeli newspaper Haaretz is committed to “in-depth reporting and insightful analysis” of Israel’s domestic issues and international affairs. And despite it being founded by “Zionist immigrants” in Jerusalem in 1919, it is true to say that you can read criticism of the Zionist state and its leadership on its pages of a kind that would be self-censored by the so-called free press in the West.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that in what one reader has called a “courageous” editorial yesterday, Haaretz reminded its readers that what is being seen today in Gaza is “terrifying”, under a headline that proclaims: “Israel has reached a pivotal crossroads in Gaza. It’s time to choose life over death.”

It goes on to point out that, “Two million people in Gaza, the overwhelming majority of whom are innocent civilians, are witnessing one of the most dangerous humanitarian disasters in the world today.” This, said Haaretz, is because around “90 per cent of them have been displaced from their homes and are crowded into large tent cities, without sufficient food, clean water, health services, or means to face the winter.” All of this is happening while the Israeli army continues to bomb them killing “dozens” almost daily, “including many women and children.”

Most “Gazans” — the newspaper doesn’t describe them as Palestinians, despite its “liberal and progressive” credentials — “have lost their sense of personal security, honour, privacy, property and hope for the future. They have lost everything that makes human beings human.”

The editorial noted that “Israel created a ‘humanitarian zone’ where Gazans could flee to save their lives.” However, the IDF has recently intensified its bombing, even in the humanitarian zone, killing “dozens of civilians”. Indeed, said Haaretz, “Two days ago, the IDF admitted in response to a question from Haaretz that this isn’t a safe zone, but merely a ‘safer’ place than other parts of Gaza.”

According to the Israeli newspaper, “The bloody Netanyahu government, which dragged Israel into the worst disaster in its history, has also failed in this war — namely, in its ability to provide its citizens with security while complying with Israeli and international law and preserving Israel’s image and standing overseas and Israeli society’s moral backbone.”

Instead, said Haaretz, the government is relying on Israelis to accept “revenge, at the expense of tens of thousands of Gazan civilians as well as 100 Israeli hostages.” It calls out the “abysmal apathy” of “most Israelis” to the “disaster [that] the government is perpetrating in their name.” In a damning critique of Israeli society, it notes that, “On social media, thousands have even voiced joy over the terrible human suffering in Gaza.” The need to fight Hamas, it added, “cannot justify everything the IDF has done” in the coastal enclave.

The “pivotal crossroads” that Israel is now facing, concluded the editorial, is this: “One road would lead to the hostages’ deaths, more war crimes, a cycle of bloodshed and revenge, international isolation and a deep economic crisis. The other would lead to saving the hostages who are still alive, ending the war and starting the reconstruction of both Israel and Gaza. At this moment, the Israeli public must take to the streets and demand, using every nonviolent tactic possible, that the government choose the right road.”

READ: Stray dogs mauling bodies of lifeless Palestinians in northern Gaza amid Israeli assault, video shows

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

Lebanon ceasefire panel meets as Israeli settlers cross border

Three weeks since the ceasefire came into effect, Israel has shown no signs of ending its violations in southern Lebanon as it continues to destroy villages.

The New Arab Staff
19 December, 2024

Naqoura's mayor said the destruction in his town had doubled since the ceasefire came into effect with Israel's ongoing attacks [AFP/Getty]

A committee overseeing the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah met Wednesday, as Israeli forces bulldozed a village and settlers crossed into southern Lebanon in a gross violation of the deal.

The committee monitoring the US-brokered deal, which came into effect on 27 November, met in Ras Naqoura near the Israeli border. The multinational panel includes generals from the US - which is leading the committee - France, Israel, Lebanon, and the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL.

The meeting took place as Israel continued to demolish Lebanese border towns and villages, violating the ceasefire with airstrikes and shelling. Under the deal, Israel has 60 days by the end of January to withdraw its military entities still present in parts of southern Lebanon.

Israeli drones and war planes have also continued to conduct reconnaissance flights over the Lebanese capital.

"The United States, France, UNIFIL, LAF, and IDF met again on December 18 in Naqoura. UNIFIL hosted the meeting, with the United States serving as chair, assisted by France, and joined by the LAF and IDF," a joint statement read.

"The Mechanism will continue to meet in this format regularly and coordinate closely to support implementation of the ceasefire agreement and UNSCR 1701."

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was adopted in 2006 to end the summer war that year between Hezbollah and Israel was but was never implemented.

Hezbollah and Israel began firing at each other on 8 October last year in a fallout over the Gaza war, but the fighting escalated into a full-blown war on 23 September, which saw swathes of southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Baalbek-Hermel region devastated.

Israeli forces then invaded southern Lebanon on 1 October, claiming it was a "limited incursion" to push Hezbollah back from the border.

Thousands were killed in Lebanon and the war triggered the country’s worst displacement crisis with more than a million being forced to leave their homes.

While the Israeli military gradually pulls out of south Lebanon, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) must be deployed in their thousands, especially south of the Litani River, UNIFIL’s area of operations. Hezbollah must move its fighters and heavy weaponry behind the river.

Related

Will Lebanon's army be able to uphold the ceasefire with Israel?

Analysis

Dario Sabaghi

'Naqoura is 70 percent destroyed'

Continuing its scorched earth policy, Israel claims it is clearing southern Lebanon of all installations belonging to Hezbollah, and says its airstrikes are targeting the Shia militant group’s military infrastructure and personnel.

While the LAF and UNIFIL are both obliged to dismantle what remains of Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the region, and the Lebanese army must stop any weapons being smuggled into the country and disarm all militias, observers say Israel is taking advantage of the 60-day deadline to destroy what it can.

Israel had warned that it would continue to target what it deemed "active threats" from Lebanon even if a ceasefire deal was reached. A side deal between Washington and Tel Aviv is believed to have given Israel the right to strike if the LAF and UNIFIL do not act after being informed of an "imminent threat."


In the village of Naqoura, where UNIFIL is based and where the panel met on Wednesday, the situation is bleak like in much of southern Lebanon, where entire towns and villages were flattened in Israel’s relentless offensive.

The mayor of Naqoura, Abbas Awada, revealed that the percentage of destruction in his town increased from 35 percent to 70 percent after the ceasefire came into effect, expressing his surprise at the lack of action by UNIFIL forces to stop the Israeli violations.

"The Israeli enemy is systematically destroying the town located only three kilometres from the border, where the percentage of destruction has risen to 70 percent since the truce took effect," Awada said in a statement, according to Lebanese media.

He said the municipality is unable to inspect the full extent of the damage yet as the Israeli army continues to prevent residents from entering the village.

Since 27 November, the Israeli military has frequently warned people from approaching the no-go border zone as long as Israeli forces remain there. So far, Israeli troops have started pulling out of the town of Khiam, making way for LAF soldiers to move in.

"The videos and photos received from there [Naqoura] confirm that the Israeli enemy army brought its vehicles to bulldoze homes, shops, and civilian facilities in an attempt to take revenge on the town and its people…despite the cessation of hostilities," Awada said.

Awada said he was surprised by the lack of action show by UNIFIL and authorities in charge of monitoring the ceasefire, despite the UN peacekeepers being located there.

Related

For the people of southern Lebanon, the war is far from over

MENA

Alex Martin Astley

Israeli settlers cross into Lebanon

In another serious violation of the ceasefire deal, a group of far-right Israeli settlers from the Uri Tzafon group crossed into southern Lebanon from Israel and put up a tent settlement.

The Times of Israel reported 10 days ago that the group, advocating the annexation and settlement of southern Lebanon as they claim it is part of their "Promised Land", said they had crossed the border and established an outpost.


The Israeli army said it removed the group of settlers on Wednesday, saying the "serious incident" was under investigation.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that the civilians indeed crossed the blue line by a few metres, and after being identified by IDF forces, they were removed from the area," said a statement by the Israeli military.

"Any attempt to approach or cross the border into Lebanese territory without coordination poses a life-threatening risk and interferes with the IDF's ability to operate in the area and carry out its mission," the statement said.

The Times of Israel said the area the group claimed to have entered was in the no-go zone still being occupied by Israeli forces.

Uri Tzafon, or The South Lebanon Settlement Movement, was established after a similar extremist movement was formed among Israeli settlers, seeking to reoccupy and settle the war-torn Gaza Strip. The latter is backed by far-right and hardline parliamentarian settlers in Israel such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 at the height of the Lebanese Civil War and occupied parts of the south until withdrawing in May 2000.

Israel military confirms settlers crossed into Lebanon, established outpost before dispersing them

December 18, 2024 

Middle East Monitor – 


A general view of the southern Lebanese village of Zahire as seen from the northern Israeli village of Aramsha near the Lebanon border on December 04, 2024 [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency]

Israel’s military has confirmed that a group of illegal Jewish settlers crossed over the border into southern Lebanon earlier this month, claiming that soldiers were forced to remove them due to an ongoing ceasefire deal with Beirut.

Earlier this month, Israeli settlers – led by the extremist settler group, Uri Tzafon – claimed to have crossed the northern border into Lebanese territory and established an outpost settlement. The Israeli military, however, said at the time that those claims were false.

Occupation forces have now acknowledged and confirmed that the illegal settlers did enter Lebanon and attempt to establish an encampment, according to Reuters news agency, stating today that the military’s “preliminary investigation indicates that the civilians indeed crossed the blue line by a few metres, and after being identified by IDF forces, they were removed from the area”.

The alleged dispersal of the settlers by Occupation soldiers was reportedly due to the area being a closed military zone, with the Israeli military stressing that “Any attempt to approach or cross the border into Lebanese territory without coordination poses a life-threatening risk and interferes with the IDF’s ability to operate in the area and carry out its mission.”

According to The Times of Israel, a military source has claimed that the army has, in recent weeks, worked to block various entry points into Lebanon along Israel’s border fence.

READ: Israel violates ceasefire in Lebanon 12 times on Tuesday, bringing total violations to 248

UN Security Council denounces illegal Israel settlements in Palestine

December 18, 2024

Middle East Monitor – 

Members of the United Nations Security Council attend a meeting on the situation in the Middle East at the United Nations headquarters on December 17, 2024 in New York City [Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images]

UN Security Council members warned on Wednesday about Israel’s illegal settlements and violent actions in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Anadolu Agency reports.

Some demanded a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Khaled Khiari, UN assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East and Asia and the Pacific, told the Security Council of the “relentless Israel settlement expansion near the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” and said that “in Gaza, the ceasefire is long overdue.”

“The continued collective punishment of the Palestinian people is unjustifiable. The relentless bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, the larger number of civilian casualties, the blanket destruction of Palestinian neighbourhoods and the worsening of the humanitarian situation are horrific,” he said.

Expressing deep concern about the continued illegal expansions by Israeli settlers, Khiari said it fuels tensions and impedes the possibility of an “independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian State”.

“I reiterate that all Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have no legal validity and are in flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions,” he said.

The UK’s deputy, James Kariuki, pointed to the “shocking increase in cases of acute malnutrition in children” in Gaza, and said, “Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world.”

Urging Israel to do more to protect civilians and abide by international obligations, Kariuki said: “The UK calls on Israel to stop settlement expansion on Palestinian land, which is illegal under international law and to hold violent settlers to account.”

“Continued instability and settler violence in the West Bank should not be tolerated by Israel and the culture of impunity must end,” he said.

He rejected attempts at the “forcible transfer of Gazans from or within Gaza”, and said: “There must be no reduction of the territory of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s expansion of military infrastructure and the destruction of civilian buildings and agricultural land across the Strip is unacceptable.”

Switzerland’s envoy, Pascale Baeriswyl, denounced the starvation of Gazans, “the use of which as a method of warfare constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

She demanded an immediate ceasefire and condemned Israeli officials’ statements that announced plans to expand illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Russian envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, noted the US’ repeated vetoes on ceasefire resolutions at the Security Council and claimed that the reason is to “make sure that the Israeli military operation can continue in Gaza, and therefore that the lives of hostages continue being endangered.”

Describing Israel’s actions in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as “illegal”, he said it also violates relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.

“We are particularly concerned by the statements made by the Israeli officials about forcibly changing the demographics of Gaza so as to recolonise the Strip,” he said.

China’s deputy envoy, Geng Shuang, urged the Council to use all options “in its toolbox and taking all necessary actions to end the conflict in Gaza, and urge the relevant country not to block Council actions anymore,” referring to the US.

Geng demanded Israel “immediately cease military operations in Gaza, fulfil its obligation on international humanitarian law, lift the blockade of Gaza and restrictions on humanitarian access.”

US envoy, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, voiced concern that “Israeli actions in the West Bank undercut the Palestinian Authority’s ability to meet the needs of the Palestinian people, and more broadly, dampen the prospects of a two-state solution.”

“We reiterate our position that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to the achievement of a two-state solution,” she said, adding that Israel’s illegal settlements are “inconsistent with international law and only serves to weaken Israeli security”.

She highlighted “alarming” reports of a record number of Palestinians killed in the Occupied West Bank and urged Israel to “intervene and stop them from, better yet, prevent them in the first place.”

“We urge Israel to halt efforts to legalise outposts in the West Bank and to do everything possible to de-escalate tensions and hold all perpetrators of violence accountable, no matter the background of the perpetrator or the victim,” she said.

READ: Israel has killed at least 12,800 Palestinian students since October 2023

Palestinian detainees go on hunger strike in protest at conditions

December 18, 2024 

Palestinian prisoners were brought to Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah in south of Gaza as a result of the torture inflicted upon them during detention by Israeli forces in inhumane conditions [Firas Al-Shaer]

Palestinian prisoners held in Israel’s Menashe detention camp have gone on hunger strike in protest at the harsh conditions in the camp, the Palestinian Information Centre has reported. According to the Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, the detainees told their lawyers of their protest during a video conference call in one of the occupation regime’s courts.

The two organisations said in a joint statement today that 100 detainees are being held in Menashe camp as of yesterday. The pointed out that the camp is one of several established by the occupation regime since the escalation of its arrest campaigns in the occupied West Bank since the onset of the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023. Menashe is in the north of the West Bank near Salem camp and is run by the occupation army. So too are the Etzion and Huwara detention centres, which were established during the second intifada (2000-2005). The conditions in the latter two camps are said to be among the worst of all the Israeli detention centres.

The joint statement highlighted the fact that there are dozens of reports from human rights groups documenting the harsh and degrading detention conditions over the years. These have now, it is reported, got worse since October 2023. Torture and abuse are said to be a feature of life for detainees, especially in the Etzion camp.

One detainee told his lawyer through the court that the camp does not provide warm water, not even during severe cold spells, and it lacks a clinic, with neither a doctor nor a nurse on site. Some detainees suffer from health issues while all suffer from hunger and a shortage of adequate clothing.

Despite numerous calls from specialist institutions to close the Etzion and Huwara camps, the occupation regime insists on using them for the army’s abuse and torture of detainees. Instead of closing such “torture camps”, the Israeli regime is expanding the network of army-run camps built to house Palestinians from Gaza.

The detainees’ organisations stressed that lawyers are making every effort to have the conditions within such camps improved, and for detainees to be allowed visits from relatives, something that is usually denied.