UK
What is the Government’s anti-strike bill and who will it affect?

PHOTO ESSAY

Seren Morris and Nuray Bulbul
Tue, 21 February 2023 

The bill comes amid ongoing strike action across several industries, including health (Ben Birchall / PA)

Feminist campaign groups have raised concerns about the Government’s anti-strike bill, saying women’s rights would be disproportionately affected by the restrictions.

Four feminist organisations and the (Trades Union Congress) TUC have written to the equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, saying that public sectors with majority female workforces, including health and education, would have their rights impacted by the bill.

The bill, which is expected in the House of Lords on Tuesday, would give the Government the power to enforce minimum levels of service during industrial action. Employers would also consult unions on what that means in practice.

Bosses would be legally able to fire employees who ignore a “work notice” ordering them to work on strike days, a change unions have said breaches fundamental rights.

“This draconian legislation will mean that when workers democratically and lawfully vote to strike across a range of sectors — including health and education which have a predominantly female workforce — they can be forced to work and sacked if they don’t comply,” the letter said.

It was signed by the Fawcett Society, Pregnant Then Screwed, the Equality Trust, the Women’s Budget Group and the TUC.

“In an already-challenging labour market rife with discrimination, the last thing working women need is to be threatened with the sack for exercising their democratic right to strike and for trying to defend their pay and working conditions — especially in a cost of living crisis,” the groups added.
What is the anti-strike bill?

The draft Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill was in January introduced to Parliament by the Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps.

It comes amid ongoing strikes across several industries, including transport, health, and education. Firefighters and postal workers have also walked out.

The thresholds for launching industrial action are expected to be raised and companies may be able to sue unions if minimum service levels are not met.

Ambulance Strike | January 2023

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What powers will employers have if the bill passes?

Employers would be able to restrict the protection of trade unions from legal action, such as unfair dismissal.

They would also be able to require that “minimum service levels” are delivered during strike action.

The bill would restrict workers' rights’ to withhold labour legally, making it difficult to strike.
Who would the anti-strike bill affect?

The bill would require employees in the following industries to provide “minimum service levels”:

Health services


Fire and rescue services


Education services


Transport services


Decommissioning of nuclear installations and management of radioactive waste and spent fuel


Border security

Nurses strike | December 2022

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What has Grant Shapps said about the bill?

When introducing the bill in Parliament, Mr Shapps said: “The Government has a duty to protect the public’s access to essential public services. Because whilst we absolutely believe in the right to strike, we’re duty-bound to protect the lives and the livelihoods of the British people.”

He continued: “So I’m introducing a bill that would give the Government the power to ensure that vital public services will have to maintain a basic function by delivering minimum safety levels, ensuring that lives and livelihoods are not lost.”
How have unions responded to the bill?

The Public and Commercial Services union said it was “working with fellow trade unions and the TUC in fighting against this legislation”.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) general secretary Mick Lynch said the bill was “an attack on human rights and civil liberties”.

UK: Train Strike | December 2022

Passengers view departure boards at Kings Cross station in London (PA)

Mick Lynch (centre) general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) joins members on the picket line outside London Euston train station during a strike in a long-running dispute over jobs and pensions (PA)

Passengers view departure boards at Kings Cross station in London (PA)

A man with suitcases at an empty Paddington station (PA )

A man looks at the departures board at Euston train station in London (PA)

Passengers view departure boards at Kings Cross station in London (PA)

Waterloo Station (Jeremy Selwyn)

Mich Lynch (Jeremy Selwyn)

A man with suitcases at an empty Paddington station (PA)

Euston Station (Jeremy Selwyn)

Euston Station (Jeremy Selwyn)

In a statement, he said: “The only reason this draconian legislation is being introduced is because the Government has lost the argument and wants to punish workers for having the temerity to demand decent pay and working conditions.

“The Government’s own impact assessment of minimum service levels shows it wouldn’t work. They would be better off coming to a negotiated settlement with unions through dialogue.”

Mick Whelan, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef’s) general secretary, said: “Rishi Sunak, rather than doing the decent thing — the right thing — and negotiating with us, is trying to prevent thousands of workers from being able to withdraw their labour.

Royal Mail Strike: Parliament Square London

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“That is what authoritarian governments in authoritarian states do. This is — or should be — a free country. In which it is possible — and perfectly legal — to take industrial action. Which is, after all, a fundamental human right.”

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Ministers should be putting all their energies into solving the NHS dispute, not worsening relations with health workers.

“Unions want to work with the Government to secure a pay deal, but attacking workers makes that much harder.”

IMPERIALISM THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALI$M

UK Government officials fly to China to win support for British Steel bailout

CAP IN HAND

Tue, 21 February 2023

Government officials will this week fly to China in an effort to convince the owner of British Steel to finalise plans for a state funding package amid hundreds of job cuts at the company.

Sky News has learnt that civil servants from the Department for Business and Trade are travelling to meet executives from Jingye Group amid protracted talks about a £300m grant to the Scunthorpe-based company.

Sources said the talks were expected to focus on the value of an energy subsidy package, which could take the overall value of government support for British Steel to approximately £1bn.

It comes just days after Kemi Badenoch, the new business and trade secretary, told Sky News' economics and data editor, Ed Conway, that "nothing is ever a given" when asked whether Britain needed a steel industry.

A government spokesperson said: "The government recognises the vital role that steel plays within the UK economy, supporting local jobs and economic growth and is committed to securing a decarbonised, sustainable and competitive future for the UK steel sector.

"Government officials are engaging with Jingye regularly as part of the ongoing discussions with the company and our routine work with businesses across the steel sector.

"The Business and Trade Secretary considers the success of the steel sector a priority and continues to work closely with industry to achieve this."

Sky News revealed last month that Jingye was drawing up plans to cut around 800 jobs at British Steel, with the BBC reporting on Tuesday night that 300 redundancies would be announced this week arising from the closure of coking ovens at the Scunthorpe plant.

Mrs Badenoch's predecessor, Grant Shapps, told Jingye last month that proposals to make hundreds of workers redundant were "unhelpful" amid negotiations over a £300m taxpayer support package.

British Steel confirmed recently that it was "reluctantly having to consider cost-cutting" but did not specify the number of jobs that were at risk.

Nusrat Ghani, the business minister, had told MPs that talks between the government and British Steel were ongoing, even though the conditions attached to the taxpayer aid include a six-month moratorium on redundancies and a guarantee to preserve an unspecified proportion of the company's workforce for the next decade.

Jingye said in January that steelmaking in Britain was "uncompetitive" in an international context.

"Unfortunately, like many other businesses we are reluctantly having to consider cost cutting in light of the global recession and increased costs," the company said.

Sky News revealed last month that British Steel and larger rival Tata Steel would be required to guarantee thousands of jobs until 2033 in return for £600m of government support to help decarbonise the industry.

Any taxpayer funding is to be linked to the replacement of blast furnaces at the company's sites with greener electric arc furnaces, while Jingye would be obliged to invest at least £1bn in the business by 2030.

A decision to grant the state aid would not be without controversy, given British Steel's Chinese ownership and doubts about its adherence to financial commitments made when it bought the business out of insolvency proceedings in 2020.

In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, in December, Mr Shapps and Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, warned that British Steel's demise could cost the government up to £1bn in decommissioning and other liabilities.

They cautioned Mr Hunt that British Steel "does not have a viable business without government support".

"Closing one blast furnace would be a stepping-stone to closure of the second blast furnace, resulting in a highly unstable business model dependent on Chinese steel imports," Mr Shapps and Mr Gove wrote.

"Given the magnitude of the liabilities due to fall on HMG in the event of blast furnace closure, and following the PM's steer, we would like officials to test whether net Government support in the region of £300m for British Steel could prevent closure, protect jobs and create a cleaner viable long-term future for steel production in the United Kingdom."

British Steel employs about 4,000 people, with thousands more jobs in its supply chain dependent upon the company.

Tata Steel employs substantially more people in the UK, including more than 4,000 at its Port Talbot steelworks in Wales.

According to the ministers' letter, British Steel had already informed the government that it could close one of the Scunthorpe blast furnaces as soon as next month, with the loss of 1,700 jobs.

This would be "followed by the second blast furnace closing later in 2023, creating cumulative direct job losses of around 3,000", Mr Shapps and Mr Gove wrote.

In May 2019, the Official Receiver was appointed to take control of the company after negotiations over an emergency £30m government loan fell apart.

British Steel had been formed in 2016 when India's Tata Steel sold the business for £1 to Greybull Capital, an investment firm.

As part of the deal that secured ownership of British Steel for Jingye, the Chinese group said it would invest £1.2bn in modernising the business during the following decade.

Jingye's purchase of the company, which completed in the spring of 2020, was hailed by Boris Johnson, the then prime minister, as assuring the future of steel production in Britain's industrial heartlands.

Do not bring nuclear energy plants to Scotland, SNP tells new minister

Craig Paton, PA Scotland Deputy Political Editor
Tue, 21 February 2023


The SNP has warned new energy minister Andrew Bowie to keep new nuclear power out of Scotland.

Energy policy has long been one of the most contentious issues between the UK and Scottish governments, with disagreements around the future of oil and gas and potential new nuclear stations raging in recent years.

Now, the SNP has urged the UK Government to focus on renewables as opposed to the creation of new nuclear power, which they say would not immediately solve the country’s current energy security issues.

According to a report from Politico, Mr Bowie is set to become the UK’s first ever nuclear energy minister, putting the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP at odds with the Government in Edinburgh.

The SNP’s Westminster energy spokesman Alan Brown said: “Andrew Bowie must be taking up one of the most pointless ministerial positions in the UK government.

“If the Tories think they will bring down energy bills by building nuclear power stations that won’t be ready for years to come then they are more delusional than we thought.

“Scotland is awash with renewable energy potential and Andrew Bowie should be focusing his efforts there, as it will create jobs for his constituents for decades to come and will ensure we are using Scotland’s energy potential to the fullest.”

He added: “Households across Scotland are desperate for solutions to sky-high energy bills now and nuclear power will not provide that answer – indeed, the Government has confirmed it will increase our energy bills.

“Scotland is rich with renewable energy potential and we cannot have our resources squandered once again by successive Westminster governments, that is why the only way we can harness the potential of Scotland’s energy is by becoming an independent country.”

The SNP’s energy spokesman added that nuclear projects were “one of the most expensive forms of energy”, with costs for building Hinkley Point C in Somerset rising to £33 billion according to reports this week, and the cost for the Sizewell C site potentially rising above £30 billion.

A UK Government spokesperson said: “Putin’s weaponisation of energy has shown how vital UK energy security is, and nuclear sits at the heart of achieving our energy independence.

“Nuclear provides reliable and clean energy, thousands of new well-paid jobs across the country and will help us delivery the cheapest electricity in Europe by 2035.

“Anyone dismissing these obvious benefits of nuclear energy is doing a disservice to the British, and Scottish, people. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change, the International Energy Agency and UN Economic Commission for Europe have all highlighted the important role for new nuclear electricity, in partnership with renewables, in helping the UK reach net zero.”

UK

Darlington student guilty of blocking fuel terminal shown sympathy from judge

Gavin Havery
Tue, 21 February 2023 

Jon Deery, inset, was convicted of aggravated trespass after the demo at the Esso site (Image: Aja Dodd and PA)

A judge who convicted environmental campaigners of blockading a fuel terminal has appeared to sympathise with their cause by telling them they should ‘feel guilty for nothing’.

Darlington student Jon Deery was among seven Just Stop Oil supporters found guilty of aggravated trespass following a trial at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court last week.

The 22-year-old was one of 13 people who blockaded the Esso Fuel Terminal in Birmingham in April and he was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and made to pay £250 costs.

Jon Deery (Image: Northern Echo)

The court heard Just Stop Oil peacefully blockaded the entrance to the Esso Fuel Depot, owned and operated by Exxon Mobil, and stopped distribution for nearly 12 hours.

Sentencing District Judge Graham Wilkinson reportedly said: “It's abundantly clear that you are all good people.

“It's unarguable that man-made global warming is real and we are facing a climate emergency.

“Your aims are ably and genuinely articulated and are supported by the science. “When the United Nations Secretary General gives a speech saying that the activity of fossil fuel companies are incompatible with human survival, we should all be very aware of the need for change.”

The Northern Echo: Campaigners stopped distribution for nearly 12 hours
(Image: PA)

The judge said he found the evidence of defendants ‘deeply moving’.

He said: “No-one can criticise your motivations.

“The tragedy is that good people have felt so much without hope, that you feel you have to come into conflict with the criminal justice system.”

“Thank you for opening my eyes to certain things”

“I say this, and I mean this sadly, I have to convict you.

“You should feel guilty for nothing. You should feel proud that you care, have concern for the future. I urge you not to break the law again. Good luck to all of you.”

Since the Just Stop Oil campaign launched on the February 14 last year and the group said there have been over 2,000 arrests with 138 people having spent time in prison.

A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil said: “The law is failing us. The wrong people are being criminalised.

“We know that we’re on course for catastrophic climate breakdown because of our continued burning of fossil fuels.

“The fossil fuel companies and the governments supporting their deadly interests are the real criminals – not those who are doing everything they non-violently can to prevent disaster.

“In the face of this reality, disruptive civil resistance is now inevitable and justified, and it will continue until the government changes course.

“Our families, communities, our country and civilisation are on the cliff edge of destruction, and we refuse to stand by.”

Environmental activists on trial barred from citing climate crisis in their defence

Graeme Hayes, Reader in Political Sociology, Aston University

Steven Cammiss, Associate Professor, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham

The Conversation
Tue, 21 February 2023 

Four Insulate Britain activists recently stood trial at Inner London crown court on a public nuisance charge for blocking a busy London junction in October 2021. Like Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain is waging a civil disobedience campaign to force the government to implement policies to tackle climate change and fuel poverty – namely, suspending new licenses for fossil fuel drilling and renovating homes to help people use less energy.

But this trial was unusual. One of the defendants, David Nixon, ignored the judge’s instruction not to explain the reasons for his actions to the jury. The trial judge sentenced him to eight weeks in prison for contempt of court.

Courts in England and Wales are taking a more active role in determining the extent of the right to protest, and some recent verdicts appeared to vindicate this right in law.

These included the case of the Colston 4, acquitted by a jury of causing criminal damage to a statue of slave-trader Edward Colston in Bristol and the Stansted 15, whose conviction on terrorism-related charges for blocking a Home Office deportation flight was overturned on appeal.

The overall trend is rather different, however, and much more worrying.

Higher courts are restricting the defences available to protesters on trial and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is deciding which charges to bring in order to exploit this restriction. Judges, meanwhile, are more forcefully managing trials. The outcome is that defendants are increasingly unable to explain to juries not just what they did, but why they did it.

Necessity and lawful excuse

The court of appeal overturned the Stansted 15’s conviction but ruled that “necessity” defences be removed from future protest cases. These allow defendants to argue that they acted to stop a greater crime, or to save someone from harm, enabling them to explain their motives to juries.

In the Stansted case, the trial judge had ruled that the jury should not consider this defence. The court of appeal agreed and confirmed the principle, in what we described as “a hollow victory” for protest rights.

In another case (R v Ziegler), the supreme court upheld a magistrates’ court ruling that convicting defendants for blocking the road outside an arms fair in east London would be an unjustified restriction of their article 10 and 11 rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly under the European Convention of Human Rights.

Unlike the Stansted 15, the defendants in this case had been prosecuted under the Highways Act 1980, which lets them make a “lawful excuse” argument. Lawful excuse, much like necessity, allows defendants to claim that they acted reasonably in the circumstances, placing their actions in a wider context.

The supreme court’s decision initially led to a number of other verdicts where protesters were acquitted for obstructing a highway. Defence teams assumed that Ziegler could be applied to other offences with explicit lawful or reasonable excuse defences, such as criminal damage.

In the Colston 4 trial, one of the legal arguments made in court was that even had the jury found the defendants guilty of causing criminal damage to Colston’s statue, it would have been disproportionate to convict them of the offence given the importance of freedom of expression.

Shutting down Ziegler

The higher courts have since acted swiftly to shut down this argument. The court of appeal ruled in 2022 that the trial judge was wrong to accept Ziegler might apply in the Colston case.

The high court ruled similarly for aggravated trespass by HS2 protesters in the March case of R v Cuciurean. And the supreme court followed suit when confirming the legality of no-protest buffer zones around abortion clinics in Northern Ireland in December.

As a result, whether defendants in protest cases can explain their actions to a jury depends upon the offence they are charged with. Wider motives can only be raised where lawful excuse is explicitly provided for in the law and, even then, for only a narrow range of offences due to the limited interpretation of Ziegler.

It’s perhaps no surprise then that the CPS has brought a raft of public nuisance rather than highway obstruction charges against Insulate Britain protesters. Unlike obstructing a highway, public nuisance does not require a court to balance the impact of the protest against the defendant’s article 10 and 11 rights.

But if this explains the limited range of defences available to protesters, it does not explain why Nixon was imprisoned. That requires an understanding of the changing role of judges in England and Wales.

Recent legal reforms mean judges are increasingly concerned with narrowing the range of issues open to legal dispute in order to expedite cases. If a judge rules that no defence exists in law to a given charge, they can also direct that no related evidence can be called by the defence.

The trial judge no longer stands above the case, but manages it. Nixon’s contempt conviction is a flexing of this judicial muscle.

What are trials for?

In Nixon’s case, conviction for contempt of court seems particularly disproportionate – penalties for breaches of case management orders are not regularly enforced.

But beyond the question of what penalty should be applied for ignoring trial directions, there lie more fundamental ones about the operation of the criminal justice process.

Trials determine guilt or innocence, but they also signal to the public about matters of collective importance and moral value.

The legal philosopher Antony Duff suggests that criminal cases are a means of holding fellow citizens to account for their behaviour. A trial fails in this regard if it doesn’t let defendants account for their behaviour in ways that are meaningful to them.

Juries continue to acquit defendants in similar protest cases despite the framing of the law and the attempts of judges to manage trials. There is a long tradition in the UK and US of juries acting as a check on state abuse, allowing an acquittal in the face of the law if a conviction would be morally inappropriate.

But if jurors cannot hear the claims of defendants, we may ask how they are supposed to assess whether a given prosecution is appropriate, or if the actions of the defendants have significant moral or community value. Cases such as Nixon’s should invite us to consider what juries are for, and what upholding freedom of expression means.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Steven Cammiss is a member of the Labour Party.

Graeme Hayes is a member of the Labour Party

FASCIST TUNISIA TOO

Tunisia's ex-speaker in court on new terror charges

Tue, 21 February 2023


Tunisia's former parliamentary speaker Rached Ghannouchi appeared in court Tuesday on new terror-related charges after being accused of calling police officers "tyrants", his party said.

Ghannouchi, who leads President Kais Saied's arch-foes the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha, had already faced court in late November over allegations his party helped jihadists travel to Iraq and Syria.

The latest hearing comes amid a series of arrests of high profile figures that have prompted criticism from rights groups in the North African country and abroad.

The judge ordered Ghannouchi's release following Tuesday's hearing session, his lawyer Sami Triki said, adding that the charges relate to remarks made by his client in early 2022 that had been interpreted as "inciting" Tunisians to kill each other.

The former speaker is also due to be questioned on Thursday after another complaint from a policeman claiming to be in possession of a compromising telephone recording of Ghannouchi, Ennahdha said.

"These charges have been fabricated out of nothing... (and) target the opposition" without evidence, Ghannouchi said Tuesday upon arriving at the anti-terrorism court.

He accused the authorities of "instrumentalising justice" and seeking to "cover up Tunisia's real problems".

The leader of Tunisia's main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, meanwhile denounced the "judicial relentlessness" targeting Ghannouchi.

"It is a short-sighted policy in the face of economic and social failures and the international isolation" of the authorities, Ahmed Nejib Chebbi told AFP outside the court.

"Repression has never stemmed the flow of freedom," he added.

In addition to his previous hearing in November, Ghannouchi also appeared in court that month as part of a case involving alleged money-laundering and "incitement to violence".

He is still awaiting sentencing in those cases.

Ghannouchi was the speaker of Tunisia's parliament before Saied dissolved it in July 2021, and went on to seize wide-reaching powers through a series of moves dubbed by opponents as a "coup".

At least 10 public figures have been arrested since the start of February in the country -- the birthplace of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

ak-kl/jsa/pjm

FASCIST TUNISIA

Tunisian President Accused Of Racism Over Threat To Ban Sub-Saharan Migrants

By Enyichukwu Enemanna
February 22, 2023

Tunisian rights groups have accused President Kais Saied of spreading hate speech and committing racism against African migrants after the Tunisian leader vowed to ban undocumented sub-Saharan African immigration to his country.

Speaking in a meeting with the National Security Council on Tuesday, President Saied said the influx of sub-Sahara African migrants is targeted at changing Tunisia’s demographic make-up and must be ended.

“The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations,” he said.

Saied also accused opposition parties, whom he did not name of settling African migrants in Tunisia in return for money.

Right groups dismissed the comment as racist against African migrants as seen in Europe and other Western countries.

“It is a racist approach just like the campaigns in Europe… the presidential campaign aims to create an imaginary enemy for Tunisians to distract them from their basic problems,” said Ramadan Ben Amor, spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.

Tunisia is a major transit point for migrants and refugees seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, including growing numbers of both Tunisians and people from other African countries.

Recent social media campaigns in Tunisia have urged authorities to stop African migrants travelling through Tunisia on their way to Europe or settling in the country, as thousands have done.

Tunisian authorities have this month cracked down on migrants, detaining dozens of them.

The president is engaged in an escalating confrontation with critics who accuse him of a coup for shutting down parliament and seizing most powers in 2021, and police have this month detained many leading opposition figures.

Saied has said his actions were legal and necessary to save Tunisia from chaos.

Tunisia president warns of sub-Saharan immigration in 'racist' outburst

Analyst say Kai Saied aims to diverge attention away from arrest campaign against political opponents

President Kais Saied with his supporters in the capital, Tunis, on 26 July 2022 

Rayhan Uddin
Published date: 22 February 2023

Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday linked people from sub-Saharan Africa in the country to criminality, in comments that have been widely denounced as racist.

In a statement released on Facebook, following a National Security Council meeting, the president said: "There has been a criminal plan since the beginning of the century to change the demographic structure of Tunisia and there are parties that received large sums of money after 2011 for the settlement of illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

"The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations."

'Saied's interest is to give the people something that they can feed off while he’s arresting his political opponents'

- Amine Snoussi, analyst

Saied added that there was a need to "put an end to this phenomenon quickly, especially as the uncontrolled immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa continue with violence [and] unacceptable crimes".

In recent years, Tunisia has been a key transit hub for people from other African countries crossing the Mediterranean to enter Europe.

Activists and campaigners have long criticised hate speech directed towards African migrants and refugees in the country, including recent social media campaigns urging authorities to stop those attempting to reach Europe.

"There are two different motivations [behind the outburst]. First is to shift the responsibility of the economic crisis on the shoulder of immigrants," Amine Snoussi, a journalist and analyst who has written three books on Tunisian politics, told Middle East Eye.

"The second interest for Saied is to give the people something that they can feed off while he’s arresting his political opponents."

In recent days, authorities have detained several government critics as part of a crackdown decried as another part of Saied’s ongoing power grab.

"These ideas and policies are perfectly consistent with Saied's scapegoating strategies," tweeted academic and Tunisia analyst Mohamed Dhia Hammami.

"After putting all the blame on his domestic opponents and depicting them as traitors and conspirators, he's now attacking immigrants using the old tropes associating black people with violence and criminality."

Last week, the Association of African Students and Interns in Tunisia released a statement denouncing a "systemic campaign of control and arrests" by security forces targeting black immigrants.

In recent months, the little-known Tunisian Nationalist Party has used social media to spread a baseless conspiracy theory that outside forces were colluding to alter the demographics of Tunisia.

'Great replacement'

Several social media users likened Saied’s comment to the notion of "the great replacement", a conspiracy theory that white people in Europe are being usurped by foreigners, mainly from Africa and the Middle East.

"Kais Saied repeating racist grand replacement-type theories that so many Tunisians have been saying as passing comments for very long," said Shreya Parikh, a researcher on black and Arab identity.

Tunisia arrests two prominent president criticsRead More »

Eric Zemmour, a far-right French political figure who ran for president last year, endorsed Saied’s comments.

"The Maghreb countries themselves are beginning to sound the alarm in the face of the surge in migration… Tunisia wants to take urgent measures to protect its people," Zemmour tweeted. "What are we waiting for to fight against the Great Replacement?"

Zemmour, who received seven percent of votes in the first round of the election, built his political offering around the conspiracy theory and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

"It's really something. Zemmour, who spent two years talking about conspiracies of Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian immigrants, now supporting Kais Saied's theories," Snoussi told MEE.

"It just goes to show that 'post-fascism' is similar whatever the country."

He added that such rhetoric had already resulted in harassment of some immigrants in the south of the country, and would continue to do so.

Black Tunisians make up between 10 and 15 percent of the population.

Tunisia's parliament adopted a law criminalising racist speech, incitement to hatred and discrimination in October 2018.

A survey by Arab Barometer last year found Tunisia to be the most conscious in the Middle East and North Africa of racial discrimination and anti-Blackness, with 80 percent agreeing that the former was a problem in the country, and 63 percent agreeing with the latter.

"[Saied] is trying to reshape people's views on racial issues by playing on the rhetoric of security, crime and Arab identity," Hammami told MEE.

"But...the backlash and radical rejection we're seeing now is in line with what the Arab barometer was showing. "

He added that widespread denunciation of the comments online showed that there was a clear awareness about the harms of anti-Black racism in Tunisia.

Tunisia has been engulfed in political and economic crises since July 2021, when Saied unilaterally suspended parliament and dissolved the government in what many have called a "constitutional coup".

He subsequently ruled by decree, before pushing through a new constitution that enshrined his one-man rule.

"We are quickly destroying everything we've built in the last 10 years, from democracy to anti-racism," Snoussi said.

"If I was Black in Tunisia, I'd probably leave and search for a safer country. A country where the president doesn't point at me over economic issues."

Saied echoes social media calls to end illegal Sub-Saharan migration

Tunisia is a major transit point for illegal migrants and refugees seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Wednesday 22/02/2023

Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa gather in an olive grove near Sfax in central Tunisia, before attempting to clandestinely depart for Italy in makeshift boats. (AFP)

TUNIS-

Tunisia's President Kais Saied has denounced undocumented sub-Saharan African immigration to his country, saying in comments on Tuesday criticised by rights groups, that it was aimed at changing Tunisia's demographic make-up.

Speaking in a meeting with the National Security Council in comments the presidency later published online, Saied said the influx of irregular migrants to Tunisia “is not normal” and must quickly be ended.

He said “there is a criminal arrangement” involving huge sums of money after 2011 to “change the demographic make-up of Tunisia”

"The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations," he said.

Saied added ”Tunisia is proud of its African affiliation” but needs “to quickly put an end to this phenomenon, especially since the large groups of irregular immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa are still continuing with the violence, crimes and unacceptable practices this phenomenon entails, in addition to its being illegal”.

Tunisian rights groups, which had this week already condemned what they called “hate speech” directed at African migrants, rejected Saied's comments.

"The presidential campaign aims to create an imaginary enemy for Tunisians to distract them from their basic problems," said Ramadan Ben Amor, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.

Tunisia is a major transit point for migrants and refugees seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, including growing numbers of both Tunisians and people from other African countries.

Recent social media campaigns in Tunisia have urged authorities to stop African migrants travelling through Tunisia on their way to Europe or settling in the country, as thousands have done.

Some suspect European countries of working to settle Sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia.

The president is engaged in a growing confrontation with critics who accuse him of authoritarian practices after shutting down parliament and seizing most powers in July 2021. Police have this month detained a number of political activists accused of involvement in a “state security” threats including an attempt at the life of the president.

Tunisia’s Saied says migration aimed at changing demography

Rights activists criticise the president’s comments, say they are intended to ‘create an imaginary enemy’.

Kais Saied won SIEZED Tunisia's presidency in 2019

 [File; Muhammad Hamed/Reuters]

Published On 22 Feb 2023

President Kais Saied has alleged that undocumented immigration from sub-Saharan African countries is aimed at changing Tunisia’s demographic composition, drawing criticism from human rights activists.

His comments during a meeting of the National Security Council on Tuesday followed the arrests of dozens of migrants this month in a crackdown.

“The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations,” Saied said, adding that the influx of irregular migrants must quickly be ended.

He added that unnamed parties had over the past decade settled African migrants in Tunisia in return for money, according to comments published by the presidency online.

Activists, who had this week already condemned what they call hate speech directed at African migrants, said the president’s comments were racist.

“It is a racist approach just like the campaigns in Europe,” Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

“The presidential campaign aims to create an imaginary enemy for Tunisians to distract them from their basic problems.”

Heavily indebted Tunisia is in the grip of a long-running economic crisis, with thousands of trade unionists last week protesting across the country over worsening economic woes and the arrest of a top union official.

The president is also engaged in an escalating confrontation with critics who accuse him of a coup for shutting down parliament and seizing most powers in 2021, and police have this month detained many leading opposition figures.

Saied has said his actions were legal and necessary to save Tunisia from chaos.

Tunisia is a major transit point for migrants and refugees seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, including growing numbers of both Tunisians and people from other African countries.

Black Tunisians have a long history in the country, making up 10 percent to 15 percent of the population, and rights groups have said the country has not done enough to address racism.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Zimbabwe caught 36 armed poachers in 2022

Tue, 21 February 2023 

(Dylan Mullins)
The figures come from arrests made within national parks, with poachers targeting high value products like ivory and rhino horn

By Nokuthaba Dlamini for The Standard in Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) arrested 36 armed poachers inside the country’s national parks last year as the number of endangered rhinos killed for their horns rose sharply.

The southern African nation records a high number of poaching cases every year with animals such as elephants and rhinos targeted for their horns, which are coveted mostly in Asian countries.

Some of the poachers are said to be from neighbouring countries such as Zambia.

Zimparks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo said the arrested poachers targeted endangered species such as rhinos and elephants for their horns and lions for their skin and teeth.

“Year 2022 saw 36 armed poachers being arrested as they were targeting some endangered species inside our protected areas for commercial purposes,” Farawo told The Standard in an interview.

“As a result 36 of our elephants were either shot or poisoned.

“We also recorded a total of 11 rhinos being poached where six of them were white rhinos and five being the black ones.”

Farawo said four rhinos were poached inside the Matobo National Park in Matabeleland South Province, while the other four were poached at Save Valley Conservancy in the south west lowveld.

The Save Conservancy is one of the largest private game reserves in Africa, covering 750,000 acres of diverse wildlife habitat.

Rhinos are poached for the keratin in their horns — a protective protein that makes up hair, nails and skin.

In Asia where the horns are mainly exported due to high demand, the protein is believed to have medicinal properties although there is no scientific evidence for this.

Dambari Wildlife Trust (DWT), a non-profit organisation that has been assisting Zimbabwe on its rhino conservation efforts in two western intensive protection zones covering the Matobo and Hwange game reserves, said the number of rhinos poached last year was higher than those poached in the past eight years combined.

A 2019 study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) showed that elephant ivory and rhino horns carry cultural significance and are used for traditional purposes, mainly in Asian countries.

“Ivory is a status symbol,” the WWF study revealed.

“It’s a luxury product that people use to flaunt their wealth.”

Nicky Pegg, a DWT researcher, attributed the spike in rhino poaching cases to the easing of Covid-19 lockdowns in Zimbabwe and the reopening of the country’s borders.

Farawo said seven of the elephants killed last year were from the Ngamo Safari area, seven in Kadombora, two in the Sinamatela area, Hwange Safari and Matetsi, all in the northwest corner of Zimbabwe and Save Valley Conservancy.

”In the year under review our rangers encountered eight armed contacts and after the battles they managed to recover 25 rifles, 174 ammunition and they also recovered 123 elephant tusks and three for rhinos,” Farawo said.

“Further, 5,530 shovels were recovered and we also destroyed 167 illegally pitched tents belonging to the poachers.”

Farawo said the poaching cases had, however, declined compared to 2021 and this was due to intensified patrolling and surveillance inside the parks.

“We invest significantly in our law enforcement in a key drive to protect our wildlife, most of which are key species vulnerable to poachers such as the elephants, lions and rhinos across all our protected areas,” he said.

“We have seen a decrease in poaching compared to the previous year where we lost 42 key species and in 2022, that number was reduced by six.

“This became a success following our increased intensive patrols inside the national parks where we have 90% of our rangers camped there.”

Farawo said collaboration with law enforcement agencies and the judiciary had also helped to bring the culprits to book.

“We also worked closely with law enforcement officials and the courts and they managed to arrest and try at least 915 cases of both commercial and subsistence poachers throughout the country,” he said.

“But the message remains clear that if you are found armed inside the park you will be killed.

“Our rangers will not hesitate to shoot on sight and we are alert and even those that encroach inside the park for purposes of subsistence poaching will be arrested and taken to court.”

Farawo appealed for partnerships with non-profit organisations to fight poaching inside the national parks.

Trevor Lane, a co-founder of Bhejane Trust, a non-profit organisation that seeks to protect elephants, rhinos and other large mammals in Zimbabwe’s parks, praised Zimparks for bringing down poaching cases.

“The figures are impressive to us because they show that they have been doing a good job considering the past years where we have come from,” Lane said.

“I wouldn’t know what pushes commercial poaching because our organisation does not investigate such things, but for subsistence poaching, obviously the reason for that is the issue of poverty in the communities.”

According to ZimParks, 322 elephants were killed by poachers between 2016 and 2019, largely for their tusks. In two separate incidents at the expansive Hwange National Park, 90 elephants were killed in 2013 and 40 in 2015, after poachers laced cyanide on oranges at watering holes, in what some conservationists described as industrial-scale poaching.

This article is reproduced here as part of the African Conservation Journalism Programme, funded in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe by USAID’s VukaNow: Activity. Implemented by the international conservation organization Space for Giants, it aims to expand the reach of conservation and environmental journalism in Africa, and bring more African voices into the international conservation debate. Written articles from the Mozambican and Angolan cohorts are translated from Portuguese. Broadcast stories remain in the original language.

CLIMATE CRISIS

Frantic search for dozens missing in Brazil floods

Lujan Scarpinelli with Marcelo Silva de Sousa in Brasilia
Tue, February 21, 2023 


Rescuers in southeastern Brazil scrambled Tuesday to find survivors among dozens of people still missing after record rainfalls caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 46 people over the weekend.

Some 680 millimeters (26 inches) of rain -- more than double the expected monthly amount -- fell in 24 hours around the popular beach city of Sao Sebastiao, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Sao Paulo.

The downpour was a record for the area, according to the state government, and the Inmet weather service said rains would continue falling in the region this week.

With emergency crews pulling more bodies from the disaster zone Tuesday, authorities issued an alert through Wednesday for the risk of more landslides in the area.


"Search and rescue work continues uninterrupted" after raging rivers of mud, stones and trees razed precarious houses built on slopes, according to the office of Sao Paulo's governor.

But the wet weather complicated the work of some 1,000 search and rescue personnel, backed by 50 vehicles, 14 helicopters and 53 engineering teams.

Late Tuesday, the governor's office raised the death toll from 44 to 46 -- all in Sao Sebastiao except for one in the seaside resort of Ubatuba.

"We don't know where the death toll will end," Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas told AFP after arriving by helicopter to visit the area.

Officially, 38 people are reported as missing, a figure that will likely push the final number of deaths closer to 70, he added.

Authorities said more than 1,730 people had been temporarily evacuated from their homes while at least 760 were left homeless.

Twenty-five people, including six children, were taken to hospital and seven were in a serious condition.

Sao Sebastiao officials set up a tent for a collective wake for victims.

- $6,000 helicopter rides -

Residents with shovels and hoes cleaned mud out of their homes as heavy vehicles passed by outside to collect debris.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew over the holiday zone-turned-disaster area Monday and warned about the dangers of improvised urban construction.

An estimated 9.5 million of Brazil's 215 million people live in areas at high risk of flooding or landslides -- often in impoverished favelas.

With many roads still blocked by boulders and mud, some vacationers were evacuated by boat as intense helicopter traffic continued to and from the most affected areas.

The authorities urged tourists to leave the coastal areas, and Brazilian media reported that some tourists paid as much as 30,000 reais (almost $6,000) for a helicopter ride out.

"There was no way to go anywhere," said Gabriel Bonavides, who was spending his holiday in a rented house with friends when disaster struck.

"We left the car there and had to return by boat," the 19-year-old law student told AFP.

Residents of nearby Juquehy, still shaken by the weekend storm, spent another night in anguish when rains caused fresh landslides early Tuesday. No casualties were reported.

Dozens dead as flooding and landslides hit carnival revellers in Brazil

Shweta Sharma
Tue, 21 February 2023 


Heavy rain triggered floods and landslides in Brazil, killing at least 36 people and casting a pall over the country’s annual carnival festivities.

The hardest-hit regions – Sao Sebastiao, Ubatuba, Ilhabela and Bertioga – had to abruptly cancel public parades in order to rescue survivors.

Pictures from some of the worst-hit areas showed entire neighbourhoods inundated in water with only roofs visible of some houses, while highways and roads remained cut off with fallen trees.

A road that connects Rio de Janeiro to the city of Santos was cut off after landslides and floodwaters.

Residents and rescue workers are bracing for heavy rains that will continue to lash Sao Paulo’s coastal area, leading to challenging evacuations and rescue and relief work.

Sao Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, has declared a 180-day state of emergency for its six cities after what experts described as an “unprecedented, extreme weather event”.

Authorities said 600mm (23.6 inches) of rain fell in one day.

Felipe Augusto, the mayor of San Sebastiao, which is 200km (120 miles) north of Sao Paulo, confirmed 23 deaths as of Monday.

“We have not yet gauged the scale of the damage. We are trying to rescue the victims,” said Mr Augusto, describing the situation as “extremely critical”.

“We are working at nearly 50 residences that collapsed under the force of the water and there are still people buried,” he told Globo news.

Sao Paulo governor Tarcisio de Freitas said he has requested military support and is scheduled to meet federal officials to coordinate the response.

In the port city of Santos, rescue attempts were interrupted by wind gusts exceeding 55kpm and waves of more than one metre high.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was on holiday, spending the carnival in Bahia state in Brazil’s northeast, was expected to visit the main affected areas.

“We are going to bring together all levels of government and, with the solidarity of society, treat the wounded, look for the missing, restore highways, power connections and telecommunications in the region. My condolences to the families who lost loved ones in this tragedy,” he said.

He added that the federal government has mobilised the army to join the search and rescue efforts.

Rio de Janeiro’s famously colorful carnival celebration returned in full force this month after Covid and is expected to generate nearly $1bn in business.

The streets of Brazil’s second-largest city play host to the free and wildly hedonistic parties, known as blocos, while the traditional samba schools parade through the city’s Marques de Sapucai Sambadrome.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/02/brazil-mudslide-death-toll-is-at-117.html

ZIONIST ETHNIC CLEANSING

10 PALESTINIANS KILLED 
What's behind the Israeli army's deadly Nablus arrest raid?





Palestinians carry the bodies of 10 men killed in clashes with Israel troops in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. Palestinian officials say that at least 10 Palestinians have been killed and 102 were wounded during a rare daytime Israeli army arrest raid in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry says a 72-year-old man was among the dead. 

(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

ISABEL DEBRE
Wed, February 22, 2023 

JERUSALEM (AP) — The northern West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian commercial center, resembled a war zone on Wednesday, after a daytime Israeli military raid triggered a firefight that killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded more than 100 others.

It was the latest bloody escalation in a monthslong surge of Israeli raids into the the occupied territory that has led to the deaths of some 200 Palestinians and the arrest of at least 2,600 others. Last month, a similarly deadly raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin triggered a Palestinian attack outside a synagogue in Jerusalem and a burst of rocket fire from Gaza.

This period of heightened violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem has prompted comparisons with aspects of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s and stoked fears of further bloodshed under the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new ultranationalist coalition has vowed to take a hard-line stance against the Palestinians and to entrench Israeli rule over lands they seek for a future state.

WHY DID THE ISRAELI ARMY ENTER NABLUS?

Much of the violence between Israelis and Palestinians for the past year has focused on Nablus, along with the nearby city of Jenin. The Israeli military said Wednesday's daytime raid targeted a Nablus-based armed group of young men known as the Lions’ Den, which emerged last year. The group has surged in popularity among Palestinians who see them as heroes for fighting Israel’s open-ended occupation of the West Bank, now in its 56th year. Although the Lion’s Den portrays itself as independent of established Palestinian factions, experts say the group is funded by Islamist militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israel has blamed the Lion’s Den for a string of shootings aimed at troops and Israeli settlements in the past months, including one that killed a soldier last October.

WHY DID THE RAID TAKE PLACE DURING THE DAY?

The Israeli army usually raids cities in the West Bank late at night in what it says is a tactic meant to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. But on Wednesday, as Israeli military vehicles rumbled into Nablus' Old City, its warren of homes and shops teeming with vendors and residents going about their routines under the bright sky. Fighting between Israeli security forces and Palestinian gunmen erupted in the stone alleys and the Israeli army even fired missiles at a house after the militants holed up there refused to surrender. The Israeli military said intelligence services had tracked down three wanted members of the Lion’s Den, including one involved in the killing of the Israeli soldier last fall, and determined they were all in the same house — offering a rare window of opportunity to target them. The army claimed the militants posed an immediate threat to Israeli lives, without providing evidence.

WHO WAS KILLED IN THE RAID?

At least 10 Palestinians were killed, including a 16-year-old boy and older men 72 and 61. The Lion’s Den claimed six of the dead as its members. A 66-year-old later died from tear gas inhalation, officials said. Other men were killed in unclear circumstances that the Israeli army said it was investigating. CCTV footage widely shared online showed two young men, apparently unarmed, shot after sprinting down the street, away from echoing gunfire. Another video circulating on social media, confirmed by witnesses, shows the body of 72-year-old Adnan Baara inert on the ground of the Old City market, his clothes covered in dust, beside a cart of bread. “We’re looking into everything,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an army spokesman. So far this year, at least 59 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a tally by The Associated Press. While many of those killed in recent army raids are militants, stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

WHY WAS THE DEATH TOLL SO HIGH?

The Israeli military said that its troops came under heavy fire as they stormed into the city. Young Palestinian men are increasingly taking up guns and organizing into small militant groups. The Israeli army’s escalating efforts to pursue them last year led to bloodshed in the West Bank at levels not seen since 2004. Fed up with the Israeli occupation that constrains their lives and disillusioned by the long-stalemated peace process and the unpopular Palestinian Authority that exercises limited control in parts of the West Bank, many young Palestinians have gotten their hands on M-16s, often smuggled from Israeli army bases or neighboring Jordan. Instead of slinging stones at troops entering their towns, they open fire. Israeli forces fire back. During a raid into the Jenin refugee camp last month, 10 Palestinians were killed, including a 61-year-old woman peering out at the chaos from her apartment window.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The Islamist militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, Hamas, issued a veiled threat after the deadly raid, saying its “patience is running out.” Senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh said that the Palestinian Authority is “considering taking steps at all levels in response,” without elaborating. Its options are limited. After last month’s raid in Jenin, the PA suspended security coordination with Israel, a move it has announced before with little impact. Although Israel says that its stepped-up arrest raids in the West Bank are intended to prevent future attacks, Palestinian residents and critics say the operations only inflame a ceaseless cycle of hatred and bloodshed. The Lion's Den on Wednesday promised revenge. “The size of the pain that befell Nablus today," it warned, “Israel will swallow twice as much.”

USING THE WEAPON OF DAVID AGAINST THE ZIONIST GOLIATH

Israeli troops kill 10 Palestinians, hurt 100 in West Bank clash -medics



Wed, February 22, 2023 
By Ali Sawafta

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed 10 Palestinians, including at least three gunmen and three civilians, and wounded over 100 others during a raid on a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, witnesses and medical officials said.

The Israeli military confirmed the operation in Nablus, saying troops shot back after coming under fire while trying to detain militants suspected of planning imminent attacks. There were no Israeli casualties, an army statement said.

Palestinian militant faction Islamic Jihad said two of its Nablus commanders had been encircled in a house by Israeli troops, triggering a clash that drew in other gunmen. Explosions sounded and local youths pelted armoured troop transports with rocks.

Palestinian sources said the two Islamic Jihad commanders were killed along with another gunman. The fatalities also included at least three civilians, among them a 72-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy. Medical officials said 102 Palestinians were wounded, six of them critically.

In a briefing with reporters, a senior Israeli military official said the raid lasted around four hours, with troops coming under heavy fire from rooftops and armoured gunmen on motorcycles.

Nablus and nearby Jenin have been a focus of raids that Israel has intensified over the last year following a spate of lethal Palestinian street attacks in its cities.

Sixty-one Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, have been killed in 2023, the Palestinian health ministry said. Ten Israelis and a Ukrainian tourist died in Palestinian attacks in the same period, according to Israel's foreign ministry.

"We condemn the occupation's raid into Nablus and we call for an end to the continued attacks against our people," said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas, another Palestinian militant group that sometimes fights alongside Islamic Jihad, said there were four gunmen, one from its own ranks, and hinted at possible reprisals from the Gaza Strip, a territory that it controls.

"The resistance in Gaza is monitoring the escalating crimes conducted by the enemy against our people in the occupied West Bank and is running out of patience," Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Hamas armed wing, said on Telegram.

In a statement Saudi Arabia condemned the raid. The foreign ministry of Egypt, which often acts as a broker between Israel and Hamas, in a statement "expressed extreme concern" over the escalation and its potential to "undermine the efforts to achieve calm between the Palestinian and Israeli sides."

Hamas and Islamic Jihad are sworn to Israel's destruction but have in the past observed Egyptian-mediated truces with it.

U.S.-sponsored Palestinian statehood talks have been stalled for almost a decade.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Mark Heinrich and Bernadete Baum)

10 Palestinians killed, scores hurt in Israel West Bank raid

PHOTO ESSAY


2 / 15
A Palestinian gestures to Israeli military vehicles during clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. Israeli troops moved into the city, setting off fighting that killed several Palestinians, including a 72-year-old man, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli military gave few details about its operation in the northern city, which is known as a militant stronghold, and the army frequently operates there. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

AREF TUFAHA and JOSEF FEDERMAN
Wed, February 22, 2023 

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops on Wednesday entered a major Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank in a rare, daytime arrest operation, triggering fighting that killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded scores of others.

The raid, which reduced a building to rubble and left a series of shops riddled with bullets, was one of the bloodiest battles in nearly a year of fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Two men, ages 72 and 61, were among the dead, and 102 people were wounded, Palestinian officials said.

The Israeli operation, coupled with the high death toll, raised the prospect of further bloodshed. A similar raid last month was followed by a deadly Palestinian attack outside a Jerusalem synagogue, and the Hamas militant group warned that “its patience is running out.”

In a move that could further raise tensions, Israel's West Bank settler organization said that Israeli officials had approved construction of nearly 2,000 new homes in West Bank settlements. The Israeli government did not immediately confirm the decision, which came just two days after the U.N. Security Council approved a watered-down statement opposing settlement construction.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday that the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory “is at its most combustible in years,” calling Israel’s operation in Nablus that left 10 Palestinians dead and over 80 injured “deeply concerning.” He urged stepped-up efforts to prevent the further escalation of violence, reduce tensions and restore calm.

The Israeli military said it entered Nablus on Wednesday to arrest three wanted militants suspected in previous shooting attacks in the West Bank, including the killing of an Israeli soldier last fall.

The military usually conducts raids at night in what it says is a tactic meant to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. It said it took advantage of a rare window of opportunity after intelligence services tracked down the men in a hideout and warned they posed an imminent threat.

The army said it surrounded the building and asked the men to surrender, but instead they opened fire. When one of the militants tried to flee the building, he was shot and killed, said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a military spokesman. The military then fired missiles at the house, he added, leaving it in ruins and killing the other two men.

A recently formed armed group based in the Old City of Nablus called the Lion's Den, which has surged in prominence over the past months, confirmed the militants were its members.

During the raid, the military said armed men in the city “shot heavily toward the forces,” which responded with live fire. It said others hurled rocks and explosives at the troops. The military released a video taken from inside an armored vehicle as crowds of Palestinian youths pelt it with stones. There were no Israeli casualties.

Time-stamped security footage widely shared online appeared to show two unarmed young men running down a street. Gunshots are heard, and both fall to the ground, with one’s hat flying off his head. Both bodies remained still.

Hecht called the video “problematic," and said the military was looking into it.

In the Old City of Nablus, people stared at the rubble that had been the large home in the centuries-old marketplace. From one end to the other, shops were riddled with bullets. Parked cars were crushed. Blood stained the cement ruins. Furniture from the destroyed home was scattered among mounds of debris.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 102 people were wounded, and six of them were in critical condition. Various Palestinian militant groups claimed six of the dead — including the three from Lion's Den targeted in the raid — as members. But two men, ages 72 and 61, were also killed. There was no immediate word on whether the others belonged to armed groups.

Last month, Israeli troops killed 10 people in a similar raid in the northern West Bank. The following day, a lone Palestinian gunman opened fire near a synagogue in an east Jerusalem settlement, killing seven people.

Days later, five Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli arrest raid elsewhere in the West Bank. That was followed by a Palestinian car ramming that killed three Israelis, including two young brothers, in Jerusalem.

The fighting comes at a sensitive time, less than two months after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new hard-line government took office. The government is dominated by ultranationalists who have pushed for tougher action against Palestinian militants. Israeli media have quoted top security officials as expressing concern that this could lead to even more violence.

Israeli police announced they were beefing up forces and going on heightened alert in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The Cabinet includes a number of West Bank settler leaders, one of whom has been promised authority over settlement construction.

Yesha, the settlement council, announced that Israeli planning officials had granted approval to nearly 2,000 new homes in settlements across the West Bank. The defense body that grants the approvals, the Civil Administration, said the meeting was still underway Wednesday and that an announcement would only be issued on Thursday, after the two-day session is over.

The Palestinians and most of the international community say settlements built on occupied lands are illegal and obstacles to peace. Over 700,000 settlers now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state.

The Israeli decision comes in the wake of the U.N. presidential statement that strongly criticized settlements. The U.S. blocked what would have been a legally binding council resolution.

American diplomats claimed to have extracted an Israeli pledge to halt unilateral action in order to block the resolution. The approval of new settlements by Israel would appear to defy that claim.

In the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the ruling Hamas militant group issued a veiled threat following the Nablus raid.

“The resistance in Gaza is observing the enemy’s escalating crimes against our people in the occupied West Bank, and its patience is running out,” said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the group.

Late Wednesday, Palestinian activists burned tires along Gaza's frontier with Israel in protest.

Hamas has battled Israel in four wars since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, and Israeli officials have expressed concerns about rising tensions ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in the second half of March.

At least 55 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, a pace that could exceed last year's death toll. Last year, nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Israel says that most of those killed have been militants but others — including youths protesting the incursions and other people not involved in confrontations — have also been killed. An AP tally has found that just under half of those killed belonged to militant groups.

Israel says the military raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks while the Palestinians view them as further entrenchment of Israel’s open-ended, 55-year occupation.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians seek for their hoped-for independent state.

___

Federman reported from Jerusalem.