Reuters
Wed, November 8, 2023
PARIS (Reuters) - A French court has approved the deportation of Palestinian activist Mariam Abudaqa, who came to France for a speaking tour in September and was put under house arrest after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants.
The ruling, which overturns a court decision last month that the interior minister appealed, said 72-year-old Abudaqa, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was "likely to seriously disturb public order."
The French government has cracked down on expressions of solidarity with Palestine in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 attack which killed 1,400 people, banning protests, cancelling events and accusing some pro-Palestine groups of condoning terrorism.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel's retaliatory assault on the enclave. Abudaqa said she had lost 30 members of her family since the beginning of the war.
"We are supposed to die without even saying ouch, without expressing pain," said Abudaqa of her arrest and speaking ban on Tuesday before the court decision came.
The anti-occupation and women's rights activist had been invited to speak at the French national assembly at an event on Thursday, but her participation was blocked in October by the Assembly president.
The Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative court, based its ruling on Abudaqa's membership of the PFLP, stating that she occupies a "leadership" position.
The PFLP is the second largest faction in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which is recognised by the UN and Israel, but is blacklisted by the EU and has carried out attacks on Israelis.
Pierre Stambul, activist with the Union of French Jews for Peace which supported Abudaqa's challenge in court, said she hadn't held a senior position in the group for more than twenty years.
The decision is a "continuation of the criminalisation of the Palestinian population", he said.
The interior minister's office did not respond for comment.
The court ruling does not specify by what date Abudaqa must leave and where she must go. Abudaqa said she plans to fly to Egypt on Saturday and hopes the border crossing will open so that she can return to Gaza.
She said she had trouble sleeping as Israeli strikes on Gaza continue and has become scared of checking her phone, for fear of more bad news.
"Death is much easier than staying here, while my heart aches for them. Or having to receive news everyday of one of them dying," she said.
(Reporting by Layli Foroudi, Antonia Cimini, Noemie Olive; Editing by Christina Fincher)
Gazans raise white flags to flee Israeli onslaught on foot
AFP
Tue, November 7, 2023
Palestinian refugees have been ordered by Israel to flee south for their own safety, although nowhere in Gaza is free of bombing. (MAHMUD HAMS)
Clutching makeshift white flags, Gazans made their way in between dead bodies and Israeli troops on Tuesday as they followed Israel's orders to flee across the Palestinian territory.
"It was so scary," said Ola al-Ghul, one of the masses of Gazan civilians displaced in the month-old war between Israel and Hamas.
"We held our hands up and we kept walking. There were so many of us, we were holding white flags," she told AFP.
The majority of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million residents have been displaced by the fighting, with around 1.5 million fleeing within the territory according to the United Nations.
Clutching one of her toddlers, Amira al-Sakani recalled Israel's repeated air drops of flyers, seen by AFP, telling civilians to flee to the south.
"We came by foot from the centre of Gaza to the south," she said. "I was not expecting the distance to be that long."
On the way, Sakani saw "bodies of martyrs, some in pieces".
"We want peace, enough is enough, we are tired, we want a happy future," she said.
More than 10,300 people have been killed across the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, mostly civilians, including more than 4,200 children.
The bombardment came in response to the unprecedented October 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed around 1,400 people in Israel, also mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas.
Sakani said her children have by now learnt what bombs are: "They tell me: 'That's dangerous mum, I don't want any strikes'."
Those seen fleeing by AFP journalists had few belongings with them, while some carried children or were using wheelchairs.
- 'It was really horrible' -
Haitham Noureddine said he walked four kilometres (2.5 miles) with his mother and other relatives until they reached the southern Bureij refugee camp.
He told AFP the family left their Gaza City home near Al-Shifa hospital, due to the heavy bombardment in the area, and saw decomposing bodies en route.
The Israeli military says its troops have encircled Gaza City but will allow civilians to leave the north.
But casualty figures show no area in the territory is safe, with nearly 3,600 people killed in southern and central Gaza, according to health ministry data.
Holding a walking stick, Hatim Abu Riash recounted his fear of walking past Israeli forces.
"Next to the soldiers, next to the guns, next to the tanks, the aeroplane... it was really horrible," he said, after fleeing the northern Jabalia refugee camp, which has been repeatedly bombed since the start of the assault.
"We are not terrorists -- we are civilians -- we want to live in peace," he added.
The Gazans' plight does not end once they flee to central or southern areas, where more than 550,000 people are sheltering in 92 establishments run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Facilities are limited and disease is rife.
In one, UNRWA reported that more than 600 people were sharing one toilet.
There are also thousands of cases of acute respiratory illness, skin infections, diarrhoea and chicken pox, the UN says, while accessing basic supplies such as bread has become tough.
Standing on a dual carriageway as fellow Gazans walked past, resident Motaz El-Ajala described the conditions as "inhumane".
"The situation is catastrophic," he told AFP, as an elderly woman was pushed past in a baby's buggy.
Belgium wants sanctions against Israel for Gaza bombings - deputy PM
Wed, November 8, 2023
Deputy PM Swearing-in ceremony of new Belgian government at the Royal Palace in Brussels
By Marine Strauss
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium's deputy prime minister called on the Belgian government on Wednesday to adopt sanctions against Israel and investigate the bombings of hospitals and refugee camps in Gaza.
“It is time for sanctions against Israel. The rain of bombs is inhumane," deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter told Nieuwsblad newspaper. “It is clear that Israel does not care about the international demands for a ceasefire,” she said.
Israel struck at Gaza in response to a Hamas raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The war has descended into the bloodiest episode in the generations-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.
De Sutter said the European Union should immediately suspend its association agreement with Israel, which aims at better economic and political cooperation.
She also said an import ban on products from occupied Palestinian territories should be implemented and violent settlers, politicians, soldiers responsible for war crimes should be banned from entering the EU.
At the same time, she said, Belgium should increase funding for the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate the bombings while cutting money flows to Hamas.
“This is a terrorist organization. Terror costs money and there must be sanctions on the companies and people who provide Hamas with money," De Sutter said.With the war now entering its second month, UN officials and G7 nations stepped up appeals for a humanitarian pause in the hostilities to help alleviate the suffering in Gaza, where buildings have been flattened and basic supplies are running out. Palestinian officials say more than 10,000 people have been killed, 40% of them children.
(Reporting by Marine Strauss; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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