Diplomatic row looms as US lawmakers pressure Biden to secure Binance executive’s release in Nigeria

on June 5, 2024
By Ripples Nigeria



United States lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden and top officials to take immediate action to secure the release of Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive and former federal agent who they believe has been unlawfully detained in Nigeria for over three months.

In a strongly worded letter dated June 4, 2024, these policymakers addressed President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger D. Carstens. Several House members, including Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul of the House Foreign GOP, expressing grave concerns about the Binance executive’s health and treatment in Nigerian custody.

Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and distinguished former IRS agent, has been detained since February 26. At the time, he traveled to Nigeria for high-level meetings on Binance’s compliance issues.

Initially professional, the meetings turned hostile, leading to Gambaryan’s detention by Nigerian authorities. “The Government of Nigeria took Mr. Gambaryan hostage,” the lawmakers wrote.

Moreover, they detailed how Binance’s Gambaryan was forcibly taken to a government-owned house and held without communication for five days.

In addition, despite a court order on March 12 stating that the remand order had not been extended, Gambaryan’s detention continued unlawfully until new charges were filed. The action was taken allegedly in lieu of pursuing legal action against Binance. Hence, the letter emphasizes that Gambaryan “is being tried in lieu of pursuing legal action against his employer.”

READ ALSO: Panic as Binance executive, Gambaryan slumps in court

Additionally, the conditions of Gambaryan’s detention have been severe. He is held in Kuje Prison, notorious for its harsh conditions, and has faced obstacles in meeting with his legal team without government supervision. More alarmingly, his health has deteriorated significantly.

“He tested positive for malaria, and when he requested hospital treatment, the prison officials declined his request,” the letter states.

It would be recalled that Binance’s Gambaryan collapsed in court on May 23, prompting a judge to order his transfer to a private hospital. However, adequate healthcare has not been provided as of June 4.

The lawmakers assert that Gambaryan’s detention meets the criteria for being “wrongfully detained by a foreign government,” as defined in the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act. They urgently request that his case be transferred to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. In addition, they emphasized the need for swift action to ensure the Binance exec’s safety.

“Mr. Gambaryan’s health and well-being are in danger, and we fear for his life. Immediate action is essential to ensure his safety and preserve his life,” the letter urges. However, despite the efforts by the US, Nigeria has refused to comply, which could worsen the situation.

By: Babajide Okeowo

ICYMI

Psychedelic Stocks Tank After FDA Advisors Shoot Down MDMA Therapy For PTSD

Robert Hart

Forbes Staff

Robert Hart is a London-based Forbes senior reporter.

Jun 5, 2024

TOPLINE

Shares for companies focused on psychedelic medicines plummeted during premarket trading on Wednesday after independent experts advised the Food and Drug Administration against approving psychedelic and stimulant drug MDMA, commonly known as ecstacy or molly, for post-traumatic stress disorder, a major setback for those hoping to open a new era of medicine for the often-outlawed substances

KEY FACTS

An advisory panel of the FDA voted to reject the use of MDMA to help treat patients with PTSD on Tuesday amid concerns available evidence does not show the drug is effective or that its benefits outweigh the risks.

While the vote does not dictate the FDA’s ultimate decision on the drug, the agency tends to put great stock in the advice it gets from its expert panels, and it marks a major setback for companies and clinicians in the U.S. hoping to harness the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.

It’s a blow to the drug’s sponsor, Lykos Therapeutics, a private, California-based company registered as a public benefit corporation, but the setback has also hit investor confidence in an array of publicly traded companies working to bring psychedelics to clinics.

This includes top psychedelics firms like New York-based Mind Medicine (also known as MindMed), Berlin-based Atai Life Sciences, Canadian firm Cybin and British biotech Compass Pathways, which are all down between 10% and 15% during premarket trading (Atai, Cybin and Compass are listed on the Nasdaq).

Others hit include Relmada Therapeutics, which targets central nervous system conditions and was down around 5%, and Dublin drug developer GH Research, down around 3.5%.

Seelos Therapeutics, which has been testing whether psychedelics can treat neurological diseases, appears to be a notable exception, with shares up nearly 2% during premarket trading.

Many are relatively small firms, which makes it less abnormal to witness large fluctuations in share price in a short space of time.

KEY BACKGROUND

Psychedelics are a broad class of drugs that can alter mood, thoughts and perception. Many drugs in the category, which includes substances like MDMA, LSD and psilocybin — the active compound in “magic mushrooms” — are deemed illegal in many parts of the world, though they are increasingly viewed by experts as potentially promising treatments for an array of conditions that have largely proven hard or impossible to treat reliably. Especially promising are the potential for the drugs to impact the trajectory of mental health conditions like depression, anxiety and addiction. If approved, Lykos’ MDMA therapy would mark the first such approval in the U.S. and it is the first psychedelic therapy to be considered by the FDA. One clinical trial by Lykos showed MDMA reduced most PTSD patients' symptoms with few severe side-effects, though some experts have warned the drug could carry cardiovascular risks and questioned how the study was designed.

SEE

Magic mushrooms get Canadian export license in psychedelic race

Myanmar’s military government denies allegations by ethnic army foe that it killed 76 villagers



In this photo provided by a displaced Rohingya, the scarlet flames that came out from the burning of the houses in the town of Buthidaung in Rakhine state, Myanmar, are seen from a distance on May.17, 2024. (AP Photo)


In this photo taken from video, provided by a displaced Rohingya, the scarlet flames that came out from the burning of the houses in the town of Buthidaung in Rakhine state, Myanmar, are seen from a distance on May.17, 2024. (AP Photo)

BY GRANT PECK
June 5, 2024

BANGKOK (AP) — A spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government denied accusations that army troops and their local allies killed 76 people when they entered a village last week in the western state of Rakhine, state-controlled media reported Wednesday.

Rakhine has become a focal point for Myanmar’s nationwide civil war, in which pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed forces battle the country’s military rulers, who took power in 2021 after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The fighting there has also raised fears of a revival of organized violence against members of the Muslim Rohingya minority, similar to that which drove at least 740,000 members of their community in 2017 to f lee to neighboring Bangladesh for safety.

The accusations of a massacre in Byine Phyu village in northern Rakhine were made by the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed organization that has been on the offensive against army outposts in Rakhine since November last year. They have gained control of nine of 17 townships in Rakhine and one in the adjacent Chin state.

Byine Phyu village is on the outskirts of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, in a strategic location with easy access to the Bay of Bengal.


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UN human rights office decries beheadings, other violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the political movement of the Buddhist Rakhine minority, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.

However, it has also been accused of major human rights violations, most notably in connection with its capture of the town of Buthidaung on May 18. It was accused of forcing the town’s estimated 200,000 residents, mostly from the Rohinyga ethnic minority, to leave and then setting fire to most of the buildings there.

It denies the charges, blaming the army for burning the town, but residents interviewed by phone since the incident told The Associated Press that the Arakan Army was responsible.

The competing claims could not be verified independently, as tight restrictions on travel in that region make it virtually impossible to verify details of such incidents firsthand.

Details of the incident in Byine Phyu village were similarly disputed.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for the ruling military council, was quoted Wednesday in the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper as saying the army’s troops went to the village on May 29 to look for members of the Arakan Army and detained about 20 people for interrogation.

He said the security forces were forced to shoot three male suspects who were not village residents as they tried to seize a gun from an army officer, but there had not been any mass killing.

An Arakan Army statement released Tuesday said about 170 soldiers from the military regional command headquarters based in Sittwe, accompanied by armed members of a pro-army Rakhine group and local Muslims recruited by the army, arrested everyone in Byine Phyu village and killed 76 people.

It claimed the army raiders treated their captives brutally and raped three women.

Only one of 20 residents from the area contacted by AP was willing to speak about the incident. Several said they would not talk because they were concerned about friends of family members who had been taken into custody.

One woman said her younger brother was among those arrested, but she did not know how many people had been killed or even if her brother was still alive. She spoke on condition on anonymity to safeguard her personal security.

The U.N. human rights office on May 24 warned of “frightening and disturbing reports” about the impact of new violence in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, pointing to new attacks on Rohingya civilians by the military and an ethnic armed group fighting against it.

The fighting in Rakhine has evoked particular concern because it suggests that the Rohingya minority may face new violent persecution.

The Rohingya were the targets of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign incorporating rape and murder that saw an estimated 740,000 flee to neighboring Bangladesh as their villages were burned down by government troops in 2017.

They have lived in Myanmar for generations, but they are widely regarded by many in the country’s Buddhist majority, including especially members of the Rakhine minority, as having illegally migrated from Bangladesh. The Rohingya face a great amount of prejudice and are generally denied citizenship and other basic rights.

After the Arakan Army captured Buthidaung on May 18, Rohingya activists accused it of burning down the houses in the town and forcing its residents to flee. The Arakan Army rejected the allegations as baseless and blamed the destruction on the military government’s troops and local Muslims it said were fighting alongside them.

Maine’s biggest water district sues over so-called forever chemicals

 June 5, 2024

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The biggest water district in Maine is suing manufacturers of so-called forever chemicals in the hopes of recouping costs of monitoring and treating polluted wastewater.

The Portland Water District lawsuit comes as the cost of the disposal of PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge has doubled from $1.6 million to $3.2 million over the last three years, and Portland has agreed to develop a regional biosolids treatment facility proposal with cost estimates ranging from $150 million to $250 million.

The lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in South Carolina, targets 18 companies including DuPont, 3M and others that designed, manufactured, marketed, distributed and sold six toxic forever chemicals.

“Defendants knew or reasonably should have known that their PFAS compounds would pollute wastewater treatment systems and threaten public health and welfare,” the lawsuit said.

In a statement, 3M said it will address PFAS litigation by defending itself in court or through negotiated resolutions. “As the science and technology of PFAS, societal and regulatory expectations, and our expectations of ourselves, have evolved,” the company said Wednesday.

A spokesperson for DuPont said the company that emerged from a corporate split in 2019 has never produced PFOA or firefighting foam. “While we don’t comment on pending litigation matters, we believe this complaint is without merit, and we look forward to vigorously defending our record of safety, health and environmental stewardship,” the company said.

PFAS is short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are chemicals that can accumulate and persist in the human body for long periods. Evidence indicates that exposure to the chemicals may lead to cancer or other health problems,

The Portland Water District lawsuit focuses on wastewater. The district is already in compliance with strict EPA limits on certain PFAS in drinking water that will require utilities to reduce them to the lowest level they can be reliably measured.

 

Mother Nature activists in Cambodia refuse to attend trial

Supporters were barred from attending, so in protest they burned incense and meditated outside the courtroom.

By RFA Khmer
2024.06.05

A group of Cambodian environmental activists pray near barricades blocking a street to Phnom Penh municipal court in Phnom Penh on June 5, 2024.

 (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP)

Five activists from environmental group Mother Nature refused to attend a hearing at Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday after authorities blocked supporters and journalists from attending the proceeding.

The activists are facing charges that they insulted Cambodia’s king and plotted to overthrow the government.

As they had for a previous hearing, they wore white clothes to protest what they call an unfair Cambodian justice system, and also burned incense in front of the court and later meditated under a heavy rain.

They are among 10 activists from Mother Nature charged in a case that covers several instances of activism, including the 2021 filming of sewage draining into the Tonle Sap river in front of Phnom Penh’s Royal Palace. 

One of the defendants, Ly Chandaravuth, told reporters outside the court that members of the public should be able to attend and monitor the trial. 

Court officials announced earlier on Tuesday that journalists would need to pre-register with authorities if they wanted to go inside the courtroom. 

Limiting access to the courtroom is part of Deputy Prosecutor Seng Heang’s effort to rush the case toward a verdict, Ly Chandaravuth said.

A group of Cambodian environmental activists sit near barricades blocking a street to Phnom Penh municipal court in Phnom Penh on June 5, 2024. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP)

Ly Chandaravuth and the other four activists who refused to attend Wednesday’s hearing are out on bail in the case. 

The other five defendants in the case are either in hiding or live outside of the country and are being tried in absentia, including the group’s Khmer-speaking founder, Spanish environmentalist Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who was deported from Cambodia in 2015.

Police officer’s testimony

The five activists outside the court building on Wednesday appeared to be trying to disrupt the proceedings with their absence and their behavior, Seng Heang said.

Inside the courtroom, judicial police officer Chin Vannak testified that Gonzalez-Davidson and the Mother Nature movement have used the issue of protecting Cambodia’s forestland as a pretext for inciting people to overthrow the government.

Defendants’ lawyer Sam Chamroeun said the allegations made by the judicial police officer didn’t contain any specific evidence that Mother Nature wanted to overthrow the government.

Yi Soksan, who monitored the hearing for human rights group Adhoc, said a judicial police report was presented as evidence but also didn’t have a specific basis for indicting Mother Nature activists. 

The judicial police officers also didn’t present any concrete evidence in response to questions from defense lawyers, he said.

Presiding Judge Ouk Reth Kunthea scheduled the next hearing for June 11.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Photos: Ultranationalist Israelis march in Palestinian area of Jerusalem

The marchers also chanted anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim slogans outside of the Damascus Gate.

Israeli right-wing activists gather with Israeli national flags outside the Damascus Gate of the old city of Jerusalem [Menahem Kahana / AFP]

AL JAZEERA
Published On 5 Jun 2024


Thousands of mostly ultranationalist Israelis have taken part in an annual march through a Palestinian neighbourhood in Jerusalem’s Old City, with some marchers chanting “Death to Arabs.”

Jerusalem has been mostly calm throughout Israel’s war on Gaza, but the march could ignite widespread tensions, as it did three years ago, when it helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.

Marchers gathered outside the Damascus Gate, typically a central gathering place for Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, and chanted anti-Arab and anti-Islamic slogans, danced and waved Israeli flags as the procession kicked off.

Just before the march began, crowds scuffled with police and threw plastic bottles at a journalist wearing a vest with the word PRESS emblazoned on it. Some chanted “Muhammad is dead!” referring to the Islamic prophet.

The march was taking place as tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza were high.

The annual march commemorates “Jerusalem Day”, which marks Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital, but its annexation of East Jerusalem is not internationally recognised. The Palestinians, who seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, see the march as a provocation.

In previous years, police have forcibly cleared Palestinians from the parade route, and large crowds of mostly ultranationalist youths have chanted “Death to Arabs,” “May your village burn” and other offensive slogans. The police said they were deploying 3,000 security personnel to ensure calm.

At the insistence of Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the police, the march will follow its traditional route, entering the Muslim Quarter of the Old City through Damascus Gate and ending at the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray.

As buses bringing young Jewish men in for the march thronged around the Old City’s centuries-old walls, Palestinian shopkeepers closed down in the Muslim Quarter in preparation.

The police stressed that the march would not enter the sprawling Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Israeli border police officers look at Israelis during a march marking Jerusalem Day, in Jerusalem's Old City. [Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo]
Advertisement

Israeli right-wing activists assault Palestinian freelance journalist Saif Kwasmi during the march. [Hazem Bader/AFP]

Police typically force the closure of Palestinian businesses near the march route and keep Palestinian residents away. [Marko Djurica/Reuters]
For many Palestinians, the route through predominantly Arab neighbourhoods is seen as a deliberate provocation. The Palestinians want the city's eastern sector as the capital of their future state. [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

A man carries his child while Israelis participate in the annual Jerusalem Day march. [Marko Djurica/Reuters]

Israeli police officers separate Israelis and Palestinians in a street in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. [Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo]

In previous years, thousands of mainly religious nationalists walk through predominantly Arab neighbourhoods of the Old City, waving Israeli national flags, dancing and occasionally shouting inflammatory or racist slogans. [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

Most shops in the Old City were closed before the march started as streets slowly emptied of Palestinians and filled with young Israelis. [Marko Djurica/Reuters]

A clown blows bubbles as Israeli border police gather during the annual Jerusalem Day march in Jerusalem's Old City. [Marko Djurica/Reuters]

Chants of 'death to Arabs' heard as Israeli protesters march through Jerusalem

Lucy Jackson
Wed, 5 June 2024 

Thousands of Israelis, including many ultranationalists, were taking part in the 'Jerusalem Day' march


ISRAELI participants in a nationalist march through a Palestinian area of Jerusalem chanted “Death to Arabs” on Wednesday, stoking already surging tensions as Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues.

Thousands of Israelis, including many ultranationalists, were taking part in the “Jerusalem Day” march.

The annual event marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Middle East war.


READ MORE: BBC 'shamefully' omits SNP from series on party leaders at General Election

The marchers also chanted anti-Islamic slogans outside the Damascus Gate, a central gathering place for Palestinians in east Jerusalem.

The march in the past has helped fuel violence, including helping to set off an 11-day war with Hamas three years ago.

Palestinians view the annual march as provocative.

Just before the march began, crowds scuffled with police and threw plastic bottles at a Palestinian journalist wearing a Press vest.

Reports have also emerged of an Israeli journalist being knocked to the ground and kicked until Border Police intervened.

It comes as the Israeli military said it has started “operational activity” in two areas of central Gaza in a possible broadening of its ground offensive against Hamas.

READ MORE: Anas Sarwar says immigration 'too high' as he 'takes marching orders from London'

The military said its forces are operating “both above and below ground” in eastern parts of Deir al-Balah and Bureij, a built-up Palestinian refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

It said the operation began with air strikes on militant infrastructure, after which troops began a “targeted daylight operation” in both areas.

The most recent death toll stands at more than 36,000 people killed, as Gaza’s Health Ministry said 36 people were killed and 115 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) has warned that if the current escalation of conflict continues unabated, more than one million Palestinians in Gaza could suffer the highest level of starvation by mid-July.

The National:

This would be an increase from 677,000 people who were believed to be experiencing famine-level conditions in March.

International mediators are waiting for Israel and Hamas to respond to a new ceasefire and hostage release proposal, according to Qatar, which has played a key role in negotiations alongside Egypt and the United States.

Announcing the proposal last week, US President Joe Biden said the three-phase plan was Israeli.

However, Israeli leaders have since appeared to distance themselves from the proposal and vowed to keep fighting Hamas until the group is destroyed.

Israeli nationalists march in Jerusalem as a far-right minister boasts of Jewish prayer at key site

JULIA FRANKEL and MOSHE EDRI
Updated Wed, 5 June 2024 

In 2021, violence on the parade day contributed to the outbreak of an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas.Photograph: Ariel Schalit/AP

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of ultranationalist Israelis marched through a sensitive Palestinian area of Jerusalem on Wednesday in an annual procession, chanting racist slogans as the country’s far-right national security minister boasted that Jews had prayed freely at a key holy site in the city in violation of decades-old understandings.

The comments by Itamar Ben-Gvir and the march in Jerusalem, the emotional heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, threatened to stoke already high tensions that have gripped the region since the start of the war in Gaza. The annual march, seen by Palestinians as provocative, helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza three years ago.

Marchers convening outside the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s historic Old City, a central gathering place for Palestinians in east Jerusalem, chanted “Death to Arabs” and other anti-Arab and anti-Islamic slogans. They danced and waved Israeli flags as the procession kicked off.

Ben-Gvir, who was once on the fringes of Israeli politics but now holds a key position in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, had insisted that the march follow its traditional route through the Palestinian area, despite tensions surging because of the war. Marchers entered the Muslim Quarter of the Old City through Damascus Gate and ended at the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray.

The police stressed that the march would not enter the sprawling Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. The hilltop on which it stands is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the Jewish temples in antiquity.

But activists said hundreds of Jews had visited the compound earlier in the day, and Ben-Gvir said they prayed there freely, following what he said was his own policy that permitted prayer there.

Since Israel captured the site in 1967, Jews have been allowed to visit but not pray there. Perceived encroachments on the site have set off widespread violence on a number of occasions going back decades.

“Jews prayed on the Temple Mount. This is the minister’s policy,” Ben-Gvir told the Galey Israel radio station.

Netanyahu said there had been no change to the understandings at the holy site that prevented Jewish prayer there.

Ben-Gvir has long called for greater Jewish access to the holy site and has visited it repeatedly as a minister. Palestinians consider the mosque a national symbol and view such visits as provocative and as a potential precursor to Israel seizing control over the compound. Most rabbis forbid Jews from praying on the site, but there has been a growing movement in recent years of Jews who support worship there.

The annual march commemorates “Jerusalem Day,” which marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital, but its annexation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. The Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, see the march as a provocation.

Just before the march began, crowds scuffled with police and threw plastic bottles at a journalist wearing a vest with the word PRESS emblazoned on it. Police said they arrested 18 marchers “on suspicion of violent crimes, assault and threats and disorderly conduct.”

Police said they deployed 3,000 security personnel to ensure calm and were seen arresting several Palestinian men before the march got underway, leading them away with their hands bound behind their backs.

Ben-Gvir said the march sent a message to Hamas.

“We are delivering a message from here to Hamas: Jerusalem is ours. Damascus Gate is ours,” he told marchers at the start of the rally. “And with God’s help total victory is ours,” Ben-Gvir said, referring to the war in Gaza, which he has demanded that Israel continue until Hamas is defeated.

Commenting on the march, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said “our people will not rest until the occupation is gone and an independent Palestinian state is established, with Jerusalem as its capital.”

The march was taking place as tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza are high. The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel responded with a massive offensive that has killed over 36,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, displaced most of the territory’s population and caused widespread destruction.

The United States has thrown its weight behind a phased cease-fire and hostage release outlined by President Joe Biden last week. But Israel says it won’t end the war without destroying Hamas, while the militant group is demanding a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

___


Clashes in Jerusalem as thousands of Israelis parade through Muslim quarter

Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem

Wed, 5 June 2024 


Israelis participating in the march at the Damascus Gate.Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters


Thousands of Israeli religious nationalists have paraded through Muslim parts of the Old City of Jerusalem in the annual Flag Day march, an event that threatens to trigger further violence in the Israel-Hamas war.

The march, in which Israelis enter the Muslim quarter through the highly symbolic Damascus Gate and walk to the Western Wall waving the national flag, takes place around sunset on what Israel calls Jerusalem Day, marking the capture and occupation of the eastern half of the city and its holy sites in the war of 1967. Control of Jerusalem is at the centre of the decades-old conflict, and the Israeli takeover is not recognised internationally.

The parade is often marred by anti-Arab hate speech and vandalism of Palestinian property, as well as violent clashes between marchers and Palestinian residents of the Old City, who see it as deeply provocative. Violence at the same event three years ago helped spark the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021.

Hamas warned Israel in a statement on Wednesday “against the consequences of continuing these criminal policies against our sanctities, at the heart of which is the blessed al-Aqsa mosque”, urging Palestinians to take part in a “day of anger”.

Related: Netanyahu threatens ‘extremely powerful’ response to Hezbollah attacks

But after teenagers and young men wearing Jewish religious-nationalist clothing, some of them army reservists carrying pistols and rifles, began to arrive at Damascus Gate in the early afternoon on Wednesday, Palestinian residents began to close up their businesses and retreat to the safety of their homes, shuttering doors and windows.

Several clashes between marchers and Palestinians, leftwing Israeli activists and journalists were reported as the afternoon wore on, despite a heavy police presence of 3,000 uniformed and plainclothes officers. Jeers of “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn” rang through the stone walls of the Old City as marchers chanted and danced.

Ori, 18, attending the parade, said: “These guys are Christians and Muslims. They don’t like us and we don’t like them. Today is about celebrating the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after 2,000 years. We are showing them who owns this place.”

Adil, a 71-year-old Palestinian taking the long way home through the maze of narrow streets to avoid the parade route, said: “Every year this is difficult, but this year is even harder … Everyone is scared.”

This year, the Jerusalem Day parade is under the control of Israel’s far-right and anti-Arab national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in his role as head of police. He was expected to join the celebrations towards their culmination at sunset.

He told Army Radio on Tuesday: “We will march … and Jews will go up to the Temple Mount. All the generals in Gaza tell me that every house they enter they see the Temple Mount, so they should be hit in the place that is most important to them.”

The Temple Mount, known as al-Haram al-Sharif or al-Aqsa in Arabic, a raised, walled complex in the heart of the Old City, is the holiest site in Judaism and third holiest in Islam. It has long been a flashpoint for violence, but has remained unusually quiet since the war broke out in October as Israel has allowed only Palestinian men over 55 and women over 50 to access the site. The traditional Jerusalem Day parade route does not pass through it.

Under a longstanding compromise agreement, Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray there. In recent years, however, growing numbers of Jewish visitors, sometimes praying or with police escorts, have inflamed longstanding Palestinian fears that Israel plans to annex the area. Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party advocates for Jewish sovereignty over the site.

Naomi, 22, said: “I wouldn’t come here on a normal day because it isn’t so secure, but I always come on Jerusalem Day. This year it is more meaningful than ever.”

Estimated attendance figures for the march were not immediately available, but the numbers seemed set to exceed the unusually high turnout of 70,000 people in 2022. Police said 1,500 Jews had visited the Temple Mount by 5pm – far more than usual – and that five people had been arrested for attacking journalists.

Some Jewish visitors to Temple Mount were arrested for attempting to bow down in prayer, police said, without giving details. Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in the nearby volatile East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan also broke out during the afternoon.

About 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 taken hostage in Hamas’s 7 October attack, which triggered the latest war between the two sides. More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ensuing retaliatory operation in Gaza.

A new ceasefire and hostage deal presented by Joe Biden has been presented by mediators to Hamas, but it is unclear whether much progress has been made, as the two sides are still far apart on issues such as the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the end of Hamas’ rule in the Gaza Strip. An initial truce in November broke down after a week.


















Israelis wave national flags during a march marking Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, in front of the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. 

‘Irresponsible’: Israel targets the US with secret influence campaign on Gaza war

BySheera Frenkel

NYT
June 6, 2024 — 

Tel Aviv: Israel organised and paid for an influence campaign last year targeting US politicians and the American public with pro-Israel messaging, as it aimed to foster support for its actions in the war in the Gaza Strip, according to officials involved in the effort and documents related to the operation.

The covert campaign was commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, a government body that connects Jews around the world with the state of Israel, four Israeli officials said. The ministry allocated about $US2 million to the operation and hired Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out, according to the officials and the documents.

Targeted by an Israeli influence campaign: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

CREDIT:AP

The campaign began in October and remains active on the social platform X. At its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts that posed as real Americans on X, Facebook and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on US politicians, particularly ones who are black and Democrats, such as Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, and Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, with posts urging them to continue funding Israel’s military.

ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, was used to generate many of the posts. The campaign also created three fake English-language news sites featuring pro-Israel articles.

The Israeli government’s connection to the influence operation, which The New York Times verified with four current and former members of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and documents about the campaign, has not previously been reported. FakeReporter, an Israeli misinformation watchdog, identified the effort in March. Last week, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, said they had also found and disrupted the operation.

Congressman Ritchie Torres, also targeted

.CREDIT:AP

The secretive campaign signals the lengths Israel was willing to go to sway American opinion on the war in Gaza. The United States has long been one of Israel’s staunchest allies, with President Joe Biden recently signing a $US15 billion military aid package for the country. But the conflict has been unpopular with many Americans, who have called for Biden to withdraw support for Israel in the face of mounting civilian deaths in Gaza.

The operation is the first documented case of the Israeli government’s organising a campaign to influence the US government, social media experts said. While coordinated government-backed campaigns are not uncommon, they are typically difficult to prove. Iran, North Korea, China, Russia and the United States are widely believed to back similar efforts around the world, but often mask their involvement by outsourcing the work to private companies or running them through a third country.

“Israel’s role in this is reckless and probably ineffective,” said Achiya Schatz, the executive director of FakeReporter. That Israel “ran an operation that interferes in US politics is extremely irresponsible.”

Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs denied involvement in the campaign and said it had no connection to Stoic. Stoic didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The campaign didn’t have a widespread impact, Meta and OpenAI said last week. The fake accounts accumulated more than 40,000 followers across X, Facebook and Instagram, FakeReporter found. But many of those followers may have been bots and didn’t generate a large audience, Meta said.

The operation began just weeks into the war in October, according to Israeli officials and the documents on the effort. Dozens of Israeli tech startups received emails and WhatsApp messages that month inviting them to join urgent meetings to become “digital soldiers” for Israel during the war, according to messages viewed by the Times. Some of the emails and messages were sent from Israeli government officials, while others came from tech startups and incubators.

The first meeting was held in Tel Aviv in mid-October. It appeared to be an informal gathering where Israelis could volunteer their technical skills to help the country’s war effort, three attendees said. Members of several government ministries also took part, they said

Participants were told that they could be “warriors for Israel” and that “digital campaigns” could be run on behalf of the country, according to recordings of the meetings.

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs commissioned a campaign aimed at the US, the Israeli officials said. A budget of about $US2 million was set, according to one message viewed by the Times.

Stoic was hired to run the campaign. On its website and on LinkedIn, Stoic says it was founded in 2017 by a team of political and business strategists and calls itself a political marketing and business intelligence firm. Other companies may have been hired to run additional campaigns, one Israeli official said.

Many of the campaign’s fake accounts on X, Instagram and Facebook posed as fictional U.S. students, concerned citizens and local constituents. The accounts shared articles and statistics that backed Israel’s position in the war.

The operation focused on more than a dozen members of Congress, many of whom are black and Democrats, according to an analysis by FakeReporter. Representative Ritchie Torres, who is outspoken about his pro-Israel views, was targeted in addition to Jeffries and Warnock.

Some of the fake accounts responded to posts by Torres on X by commenting on antisemitism on college campuses and in major US cities. In response to a December 8 post on X by Torres about fire safety, one fake account replied, “Hamas is perpetrating the conflict,” referring to the Islamic militant group. The post included a hashtag that said Jews were being persecuted.

On Facebook, the fake accounts posted on Jeffries’ public page by asking if he had seen a report about the United Nations’ employing members of Hamas in Gaza.

Torres, Jeffries and Warnock didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The campaign also created three fake news sites with names like Non-Agenda and UnFold Magazine, which stole and rewrote material from outlets including CNN and The Wall Street Journal to promote Israel’s stance during the war, according to FakeReporter’s analysis. Fake accounts on Reddit then linked to the articles on the so-called news sites to help promote them.

The effort was sloppy. Profile pictures used in some accounts sometimes didn’t match the fictional personas they cultivated, and the language used in posts was stilted.

In at least two instances, accounts with profile photos of black men posted about being a “middle-aged Jewish woman.” On 118 posts in which the fake accounts shared pro-Israel articles, the same sentence appeared: “I gotta reevaluate my opinions due to this new information.”

Last week, Meta and OpenAI published reports attributing the influence campaign to Stoic. Meta said it had removed 510 Facebook accounts, 11 Facebook pages, 32 Instagram accounts and one Facebook group tied to the operation. OpenAI said Stoic had created fictional personas and biographies meant to stand in for real people on social media services used in Israel, Canada and the United States to post anti-Islamic messages. Many of the posts remain on X.

X didn’t respond to a request for comment.

On its LinkedIn page, Stoic has promoted its ability to run campaigns backed by AI. “As we look ahead, it’s clear that AI’s role in political campaigns is set for a transformative leap, reshaping the way campaigns are strategized, executed and evaluated,” it wrote.

By Friday, Stoic had removed those posts from LinkedIn.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators arrested after occupying Stanford University president's office

A university statement said 13 people were arrested and that there was extensive damage inside and outside the building.


Photo by: Nic Coury / AP
Students walk by graffiti near university president Richard Saller's office at Stanford University.

By: AP via Scripps News
Posted at 2:07 PM, Jun 05, 2024

Stanford University said 13 people were arrested as law enforcement removed pro-Palestinian demonstrators who occupied a campus building early Wednesday that houses the university president and provost offices, with the school saying there was damage inside and outside the building.

The takeover began near dawn on the last day of classes for the spring quarter. Some protesters barricaded themselves inside while others linked arms outside, The Stanford Daily reported. The group chanted "Palestine will be free, we will free Palestine."

The student newspaper said one of its reporters was among those detained.

Within about two hours, officers had broken into the building and began taking people into custody.

"Law enforcement has arrested 13 individuals, and the building has been cleared," university spokesperson Dee Mostofi said in an email to The Associated Press, saying later that, "A public safety officer was injured after being shoved by protesters who were interfering with a transport vehicle.

"There has been extensive damage to the interior and exterior of the building," Mostofi said. "No other campus operations have been affected at this time."

Professors and students facing disciplinary action over Israel-Hamas protests

Stanford is among colleges and universities around the country where campus protests have occurred to demand their schools separate themselves from companies advancing Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza and in some cases from Israel itself.

Columbia University agreed to take additional steps to make students feel secure on campus under a settlement reached with a Jewish student Tuesday.

The Associated Press has recorded at least 86 incidents since April 18 in which arrests were made at campus protests across the U.S. More than 3,130 people have been arrested on the campuses of 65 colleges and universities. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.

Chants of 'intifada' ring out from pro-Palestinian protests. But what's it mean?

NPR
HEARD ON MORNING EDITION
Adrian Florido
JUNE 4, 2024
Transcript

A pro-Palestinian protester at Columbia University in early May. Chants calling for "intifada" have become central at many demonstrations against the war in Gaza and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Adrian Florido/NPR

NEW YORK — The chants at a recent pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University were loud and defiant.

“Intifada! Intifada! Long live the intifada!”

That term is one of many that have become points of contention among people with opposing views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that have turned language into a battleground.

Many of those protesting Israel’s offensive in Gaza say "intifada" is a peaceful call to resist Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. But many Jews hear chants like "globalize the intifada" as calls for violence against them and against Israel.

“Intifada” is an Arabic word that generally translates as “uprising.” But the word’s role within the tortured history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has loaded it with meaning well beyond that, making it a term that evokes strong emotions on both sides.

A prolonged period of protests and civil unrest against the Israeli occupation in the late 1980s came to be known as the First Intifada. A second, much more violent uprising began in the early 2000s. During the Second Intifada, Palestinian militant groups adopted bloodier tactics, killing about 1,000 Israeli civilians and soldiers, often through suicide bombings at eateries and on buses. Israel responded with ground troops and tanks, killing more than 3,000 Palestinians.

For Eliana Goldin, a Jewish undergraduate and leader of a pro-Israel group at Columbia, the term “intifada” is inextricable from that violence.

Growing up in a Zionist family, she said, “the word intifada was only associated with death and terrorism and destruction. So ‘intifada’ still feels just as charged as if someone were to say Holocaust. Or if someone were to mention any sort of catastrophe that happened against a people that you consider yourself a part of.”

For her, the chants sound like an incitement to repeat violence against Jews.

For many, it’s a call for liberation

For Basil Rodriguez, a Palestinian American graduate student at Columbia, the word is not about violence at all. Rodriguez, who uses they/them pronouns, said that when they chant “intifada” at protests, they're expressing a commitment to their people’s struggle against Israel, and calling for an end to the status quo in the conflict.

“For me, it just speaks to liberation,” Rodriguez said. “To free Palestine from the apartheid regime, and the military occupation. For me it calls for freedom and for change.”

A pro-Palestinian march near Columbia University in early May.

Adrian Florido/NPR

Taoufik Ben-Amor, a linguist and professor of Arabic Studies at Columbia, said there are several reasons people interpret the word differently.

Intifada comes from the Arabic root meaning to shake off, as if dust from a cloth. It’s a term Arabic speakers use to describe any kind of social uprising aimed at shaking off an oppressive system — like against the Iraqi monarchy in the 1950s. But for non-Arabic speakers, Ben-Amor said, it’s easier to disassociate the word from that meaning.

“It’s different when someone who knows Arabic uses the word,” he said, “as opposed to someone who doesn’t and who knows the word only in a context in which it has been politicized.”

But he also said the decision by pro-Palestinian protesters in the U.S. to use the Arabic word rather than to translate it is a deliberate choice — one with implications for both sides.

“If you turned the word ‘intifada’ into uprising,” he said, “then it would belong to the English vocabulary that people are completely familiar with. By not translating into English you can actually define the meaning as you want, and so the word becomes a sort of weapon in both hands — to be used in this political jostling that’s happening.

The word and its reception have evolved over time

Arabic words are often stigmatized, he said, associated with violence and terrorism when they don’t inherently carry those meanings. In the case of "intifada," its meaning has evolved over time alongside the evolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, taking on different associations for different people.

The pain and trauma that Israelis suffered during the Second Intifada influences their perception of the word, explaining why chants calling for an intifada revolution might alarm them. But Ben-Amor notes that the Second Intifada was also very painful for Palestinians, who were killed at three times the rate as Israelis. Yet they tend not to recoil from the word because of its broader association with their aspirations for freedom from the occupation, he said, and not necessarily with violence.

Eliana Goldin, the Jewish undergraduate from Columbia, said she would like to think that her classmates who chant “intifada” at protests are not actually promoting violence against Jews. But she said it's hard to believe because on her campus she also heard chants she says are suggesting Israel’s erasure.

“They chant ‘we don’t want two states, we want all of it,’ ” she said. NPR did hear this chant at Columbia University. “They chant 'death to the Zionist state.' When there’s so much other rhetoric going on in the same chants that obviously points to destruction of Jewish people, why am I to believe that intifada doesn’t mean what I think it means?”

She said she wishes protesters would choose a different word, because of the visceral fear it elicits from many Jews, including people like her who, though Zionist, calls the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories a tragedy.

Basil Rodriguez rejects the idea that they should have to sanitize their language at protests.
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“Arabic is our indigenous language as Palestinians,” they said. “The idea that we have to not say a word because it’s in Arabic I think plays into the racist assumption that Arabs are terrorists. And so I’m not going to ever stop saying the word intifada.”

Taoufik Ben-Amor said when it comes to words like intifada — and other contested terms like genocide, martyr, resistance — the stakes are high. The words used to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have always had the power to shape public sentiment, and likely always will.

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