Reporters Without Borders condemns Israel's attempted media blackout

10 journalists, including 8 in Gaza, killed while reporting under Israeli airstrikes

Melike Pala |21.10.2023 -

ANKARA

Reporters Without Borders (RSP) on Friday condemned Israel’s pressure on the media in the Gaza Strip for the past two weeks.

The group cited reasons including the killing or injuries of journalists, destruction of media buildings, restrictions on the internet and the decision to shut down Al Jazeera television.

RSF said the Israeli government is close to imposing a complete media blackout in Gaza in addition to the long-standing and recently intensified blockade, which is already affecting local journalists and their families.

Ten journalists, including eight in Gaza, have been killed while reporting under Israeli airstrikes, highlighting various risks faced by media personnel, it said in a statement.

Journalists have been killed in their homes from Israeli bombings and airstrikes, with the latest victim being Mohammad Baalouche, the manager of the Palestine Today television channel, who died Oct. 17 in a home attack, it said.

‘We condemn Israel’s media blackout’

The statement referenced the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and said approximately 50 media outlets in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli airstrikes since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7.

The blockade has obstructed most of the 24 radio stations in the region, which hampers operations due to airstrikes, bombings and fuel shortages, it said.

It raised concerns about the potential closure of Al Jazeera offices and equipment confiscation, labeling the decision “censorship” following the approval of a regulation allowing the shutdown of television channels seen as a threat to state security by the Israeli government.

RSF’s Secretary-General Christophe Deloire noted the importance of journalists being able to work for “free and reliable” news reporting.

He condemned Israel’s attempts to impose a media blackout, noting that journalism serves as a “vital antidote” to combat misinformation, especially in the context of the region.

RSF reported the arrest of one journalist in the occupied West Bank for covering the Gaza conflict, threats to a reporter during a live broadcast in Jerusalem and the “forcible” detention of three BBC correspondents by Israeli police in Tel Aviv.

Israel-Palestine conflict

Since Oct. 7, Israeli forces have killed 84 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and 1,400 others are injured.

The conflict in Gaza, under Israeli bombardment and blockade since Oct. 7, began when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. The multi-pronged attack included a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel by land, sea and air.

Hamas said the incursion was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and growing violence by Israeli settlers.

The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza is experiencing a dire humanitarian crisis, with no electricity and water, food, fuel and medical supplies are running out.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 4,137 Palestinians. Hamas attacks resulted in more than 1,400 Israeli deaths.

'It's not Judaism': Protesters in US capital seek end to Israeli onslaught on Gaza

Thousands gather near US Capitol to demand ceasefire and end to Israel's brutal siege on 2.3 million inhabitants of bombarded Gaza.

NOURELDEIN GHANEM



Pro-Palestine demonstrators gather during a rally outside Capitol Hill. / Photo: TRT World


Washington, DC — As thousands of Muslims held a rare Friday prayer and absentia prayer for the Palestinians in besieged Gaza near US Congress building, they were surrounded by hundreds of non-Muslim protesters, demanding end to Israeli bombardment on Gaza.

But a few metres away, a Jewish rabbi was encircled by the news reporters.

"Every minute we are standing here the Palestinians in Gaza are being bombed and killed," Yisroel Dovid Weiss told the media including this TRT World reporter.

An American Jew known for his staunch opposition to Zionism, he was one of many non-Muslims who were present at the pro-Palestine rally to express solidarity with the Gaza's victims.

He said the world is silent on the bloodshed of Palestinians and whenever someone calls Israel out, "they [Israel] accuse everyone of being antisemitic," adding the creation of Palestinian resistance groups is the result of the Israeli occupation.

"How dare they [Israel and its allies] try to ignore the root issue and punish the people who are trying to stand up for human rights?"

Rabbi Weiss said that Jews lived with Muslims for hundreds of years in peace and harmony without a problem despite the difference in religion, blaming Israel for the current divisions.

"We lived together for hundreds of years in peace. That's a fact. We lived in every Arab and Muslim country, and we flourished," he said.

During the crusades [religious wars initiated by Christians on Muslims], "it was the Arab and Muslim countries that embraced us," he said, adding Zionism destroyed "the beautiful fabric of the holy land."

"It’s [Israel] not a Jewish state, mind you. This is nationalism," he said.

"It's not Godly. It's not Judaism. It's against the Torah to kill or steal. It's against the Torah to even have a state since the destruction of the temple, and we haven't attempted to do that. They are using our name."

Yisroel Dovid Weiss, an American Jew, is known for his staunch opposition to Zionism.


Rallies in US

Rallies have been held across the United States, urging President Joe Biden to press Israel against bombarding Gaza's population and property. Biden has so far remained silent on truce and has instead sought billions of dollars from Congress to boost Israeli military's capabilities.

During Friday's protest, demonstrators chanted "Free Palestine" and "End Genocide" slogans. Two US congresswomen also addressed the crowd.

Congresswoman Cori Bush told the crowd that "We stand together, and you are not alone."

She also highlighted her "Ceasefire Now Resolution" to Congress, emphasising the call for an end to violence in the Middle East.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was also present.

Tlaib asserted that war crimes are occurring in Gaza and "genocide is happening right now as people are staying silent."

She called on Biden to take sufficient steps to reach a ceasefire.

'We shouldn't fund oppressors'

Alisa Greenwood, 32, said as long as there is an oppression in any part of the world, everyone is vulnerable.

"It’s important to stand up when you see it," she told TRT World.

Greenwood, a white American who had her two children with her — one of them a toddler — said she brought her kids because she wants them to stand against oppression too.

She also blamed President Biden for backing Israel, which she said has further fuelled the massacres against Palestinians.

"It absolutely should be Biden and the Congress' job to say that we won’t support this, we won't fund Israel dropping bombs on Gaza," Greenwood said.

"We can't sit here and say we're the land of the free, and we hate oppression but support oppressors."


Demonstrators performed the prayers led by prominent imam, Omar Suleiman.

Reaction of wronged people

"When you see such carnage in Palestine, there is no way for you to take it. You have to come out and speak against it," said Hassan Edjlali, 85, a protester.

Edjlali said while Hamas' surprise operation against Israel on October 7 may not have been the best thing to do, Israel was responsible for wanton killings and destruction that unfolded.

The blitzkrieg killed 1,400 Israelis and Hamas managed to detain some 200 people as well. Since then Israel has incessantly bombed Gaza with air and land strikes, killing at least 4,137 Palestinians, including more than 1,000 children.

"For a long time, these people [Palestinians] have been mistreated, pushed to the corner, pushed to the edge," Edjlali told TRT World. "They have been even called animals."

"If they are pushed to the corner, what do you expect them to do?"

Thousands join pro-Palestinian rallies in Australia amid Israel-Hamas war

Organisers say 15,000 people attended Sydney rally amid warnings of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

Thousands of people in Sydney, Australia have marched in support of Palestinians [File: Roni Bintang/Getty Images)

21 Oct 2023

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Australia’s biggest city to express solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

About 15,000 attended the rally in Sydney on Saturday, organiser the Palestine Action Group said, with protesters chanting “free, free Palestine” and “down, down Israel”.

Thousands more Australians attended rallies in Perth, Brisbane and Hobart, with more pro-Palestinian events scheduled to take place on Sunday in Melbourne and Adelaide.

“It’s difficult, what has been broadcasted in the Western media is definitely not reflecting what is on the ground,” Abdullah Ali, who attended the Sydney rally, was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“What I see is different … I see parts of children being put in plastic bags, it’s extremely hard for anyone to see.”

At least 4,137 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its bombardment of the enclave in response to attacks by Hamas on October 7, according to Palestinian officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to continue the offensive on Gaza until the Palestinian armed group is eliminated amid expectations that Israeli troops will soon launch a ground invasion of the enclave.

Oxfam and United Nations agencies have warned that the enclave is facing a humanitarian catastrophe as residents risk contracting cholera and other deadly infectious diseases due to the collapse of water and sanitation services.

Saturday’s rally went ahead peacefully after receiving last-minute approval from police, following controversy over a previous event that featured anti-Jewish slogans.

Organisers had warned that anti-Jewish chants, flag burning and flares would not be tolerated during the event.

There were no reports of arrests.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns had earlier promised “zero tolerance” for violence or hate speech.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Pro-Palestine demonstrations rock Muslim world after Friday prayers

Thousands of people hold protest rallies in Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Tunisia, Somalia and other countries calling for an end to the suffering of Palestinians.


Egyptians protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, at Azhar mosque in Cairo.

Amid Israeli heavy bombardment of Gaza, mass demonstrations in solidarity with suffering Palestinians have begun in many Arab nations following congregational Friday prayers.

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied across Egypt in support of war-torn Gaza on Friday, with large crowds flooding into Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square.

The protesters raised slogans in solidarity with Gaza and against the displacement of Palestinians from the besieged city.

Thousands of Jordanian people participated in two solidarity demonstrations with one near the Israeli Embassy in the capital Amman.

A solidarity vigil was held in the Rabieh area in Amman where the Israeli Embassy is located.

Donning Palestinian flags, people took out a solidarity march in the downtown area in front of the Husseini Mosque towards Palm Square.

The demonstrators denounced the attacks and demanded the opening of borders with Palestine.

"With our soul and blood, we will sacrifice for you, O Al Aqsa," was among the slogans raised by the demonstrators in Jordon, who also demanded that the Israeli Embassy be closed in Amman.

However, Jordanian security forces prevented people from reaching the border with Palestine.

Hundreds of people in Jordon also held funeral "prayers in absentia" for slain Palestinians, following congregational Friday prayers.

'Stop the war crime'

In Tunisia, judges observed a "national day of rage" against Israeli attacks on Palestinians across all courts.

They also carried out demonstrations in judicial uniforms in front of the Palace of Justice in Tunis and the rest of the headquarters of the Courts of Appeal.

In Mauritania, simultaneous demonstrations were held in front of the embassies of the US, Germany, and France, rejecting the "Israeli aggression" on Gaza.

People in the Somali capital of Mogadishu also took to the streets to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza and to show solidarity with Palestinians.

Protesters, including religious figures, youth, and women, chanted anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans.

Some of them were also seen carrying Palestinian flags and placards with slogans such as "Stop the war crime," "Free Palestine," and "We demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, Palestine."

Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Qudra said on Friday that at least 16 Palestinian Christians were among those killed in direct Israeli attacks on a Greek Orthodox church on Thursday evening in Gaza City.

Qudra added the death toll in Gaza due to Israel's ongoing bombardment has climbed to 4,137, including 1,524 children and 1,000 women. The number of injured has risen to 13,300, he told a news conference, adding that over 1,000 others are missing.

Supporters of Sadr, Iraqi Armed Factions Protest Near Jordan Border over Gaza

Iraqis gather during a demonstration at Tahrir square in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in central Baghdad, Iraq, 13 October 2023. (EPA)

Baghdad: Hamza Mustafa

21 October 2023 

AD ـ 06 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1445 AH

Hundreds of supporters of the Sadrist movement and some armed factions in Iraq held protests near the Iraqi-Jordanian border over the Israeli escalation in Gaza.

Head of the Sadrist movement, influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had called for supporters to rally in locations as close to Israel as possible.

Iraq does not share a border with Israel, but that did not stop the loyalists and backers of pro-Iran factions from heading to the Iraqi-Jordanian border, hoping that the Traibeel crossing would be opened so that they can be allowed passage to the kingdom’s border with Israel.

Jordan is unlikely to open the crossing. The Iraqi government has also not issued a statement regarding the movement of the Sadrists and supporters of the factions.

The protesters did set up tents near the border. It remains to be seen if that will impact relations between Baghdad and Amman.

The protesters said they would remain there until the Israeli siege is lifted off Gaza.

On Thursday, Sadr had called on “Islamic and Arab peoples and all lovers of peace to rally peacefully”. He called for protests to be held along the borders with Israel in neighboring countries Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.

He urged them to remain there until the siege is lifted and humanitarian aid is delivered to the Palestinians.

The call attracted the Sadrists, as well as the pro-Iran factions that are Sadr’s political rivals.

Uncertainty still surrounds Gaza hospital strike


Israelis and Palestinians have traded blame for the deadly strike on the Christian-run hospital this week. — AFP pic

Saturday, 21 Oct 2023 

PARIS, Oct 21 — Was Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza hit by Israeli fire? Or did it become the victim of a misfired Palestinian rocket? How many civilians were killed?

Israelis and Palestinians have traded blame for the deadly strike on the Christian-run hospital this week.

AFP analysed verified images and interviewed analysts and weapons experts who did not definitively rule out any scenario.

What do available images show?

A video from Gaza produced by the Al Jazeera news channel, which AFP was able to verify, shows the exact moment of an explosion at Ahli Arab hospital at 6:59 pm (1559 GMT) Tuesday. Videos from surveillance cameras on the Israeli side also captured the same scene.

The video, which has gone viral, shows a projectile flying into the sky before suddenly disappearing in mid-flight into a flash.

Less than 10 seconds later, two explosions occurred on the ground, including one on the premises of the hospital located in the north of Gaza, as AFP was able to verify using geolocation tools.

Other videos, broadcast online after the explosion and verified by AFP, show several cars burning in a parking lot in the centre of the hospital, a pile of debris as well as a number of bodies lying on the ground, including those of several children.

Videos shot by AFP at the hospital the next day show charred cars in the parking lot.

Next to the parking lot, a lawn could be seen strewn with clothes and personal belongings and stained with blood, an apparent sign that people were there.

Many windows in the surrounding buildings are broken.

On the ground, apparent impact marks could be seen, including at least one small crater.

According to Gaza authorities, the site housed hundreds of wounded and sick people, and civilians who had sought refuge.

“We were operating, there was a strong explosion and the ceiling collapsed in the operating room. It’s a massacre,” said Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah of Medecins Sans Frontieres.

“People were scattered outside in the gardens and under the trees. Suddenly everything went black, with bodies and blood everywhere,” Gaza resident Mohammed Qriq told AFP.

“For fear of bombing we came here,” Waleed, another resident, said, referring to the hospital.

“We felt like a rocket hit it, the whole place was bombed. We headed to other places nearby. The bodies were in pieces, old people, children, women.”

Possible causes

On social networks, commentators have clashed over the possible cause of the explosion. Some back Israeli authorities, who have pinned the blame on a misfired rocket aimed at Israeli territory by the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad from near the hospital. Others wonder if a strike by the Israeli air force was possible.

Analysts interviewed by AFP remained cautious, preferring not to rule out any scenario.

However, analysts say that a regular Israeli strike might be unlikely, pointing to the limited damage to the buildings surrounding the parking lot and the absence of a large crater that some Israeli weapons can leave.

“It is difficult to make a link between the strong explosion on the ground (seen in the Al-Jazeera video) and the minor damage observed at the hospital,” said Heloise Fayet, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations.

“It seems that the hospital itself has not been affected”, said Fayet. She pointed out that the blast mostly affected the parking lot, the nearby lawns and the facades of the buildings.

Few images show the interior of the buildings.

The researcher said that a rocket hitting gas tanks of several cars at the hospital was “the most likely hypothesis.”

The visible damage “is consistent with the hypothesis of engine pieces, for example, of a rocket, which fall in a ballistic alignment, projecting debris, flaming materials, and creating a blast effect”, said Joseph Henrotin, editor-in-chief of the journal Defence and International Security (DSI).

“There is damage to the buildings,” he said, pointing to torn tiles, broken windows and impact marks on the walls.

However, “no building has been hit directly,” he said.

“If you target a building with the ammunition and targeting capabilities available to the Israelis, normally you hit this building”, he added.

Henrotin pointed to “very small craters.”

“What blew up there is not huge,” he said, adding that the damage was not consistent with the weapons used by Israel.

France’s DRM military intelligence agency said yesterday that there was no evidence that an Israeli strike had caused the explosion.

“The most probable hypothesis is that a Palestinian rocket exploded with a charge of about five kilos,” on Tuesday, the Directorate of Military Intelligence said, adding there was “nothing to indicate... an Israeli strike”.

The DRM decided to make its analysis public at the request of the French presidency in the interests of transparency, it said.

A senior European intelligence official, speaking to AFP on Wednesday evening, said “quite a few rockets” have firing incidents.

“Israel probably did not do this,”, said the official, citing “serious intelligence leads.”

Xavier Tytelman, an aerodefence consultant who also works for magazine Air&Cosmos, struck a similar note.

“Military-grade equipment would have done infinitely more damage,” he said. “We see it when Israel bombs, they destroy buildings in a single strike.”

Could the hospital’s parking lot have been the target of an unintentional strike by the Israeli army?

“Even if it was a mistake and they had targeted that place by mistake, there is no Israeli bomb that does that,” said Tytelman.

He said that the effect of laser-equipped JDAM bombs was “incomparable with what we saw there.”

Could a smaller ammunition have been used? A micro-munition dropped by drone, a cannon shot from an aircraft or a missile shot from a helicopter?

Analysts interviewed by AFP did not completely rule out such scenarios, but said they were incompatible with available images and therefore unlikely.

Mutual accusations

Palestinians and Israelis have blamed each other.

“There was no IDF (Israeli army) fire by land, sea or air that hit the hospital,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters.

He released maps and an audio recording that he claimed was a conversation between two Hamas members putting the blame on Islamic Jihad.

On X (formerly Twitter), an Israeli influencer said to be close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote shortly after the incident: “Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas terrorist base inside a hospital in Gaza” before later deleting the message and saying it had been based on incorrect media reports.

An Israeli army spokesman, Jonathan Conricus, also said that footage from the site showed too little damage to nearby buildings and too small an impact crater for an Israeli strike.

Islamic Jihad called accusations against them “false and baseless”, saying it was a bomb dropped by an Israeli military plane.

Hamas said Israel “is directly responsible for this horrific massacre which was carried out... with American weapons only the occupation possesses”.

Uncertain number of victims

AFP photos and videos show dozens of bodies in sheets, blankets or body bags at the scene.

According to Hamas, the explosion killed at least 471 people displaced by the conflict who were sheltering within the hospital grounds.

A senior European intelligence official told AFP that their estimate put the death toll at 50 at most.

An American intelligence note, extracts of which were seen by AFP on Thursday, put the toll at the “low end of the 100-to-300 spectrum.” — AFP

Ghassan Kanafani: The Palestinian Writer Whose Words Live On Amid Wars With Israel

Kanafani is remembered through his extensive literary work that continues to inspire many Arabic writers and literary people across the world. His legacy lives on and continues to pulse for the Palestinian cause half a century after his death.

Ghassan Kanafani

Written By
Sharmita Kar

UPDATED: 21 OCT 2023

“You and me and all the kids our age didn’t understand what was going on. But that night we started to gather the threads of the story.”

– Ghassan Kanafani, The Land Of Sad Oranges

A political leader, activist, journalist, essayist, literary innovator – these are some words used to describe Ghassan Kanafani, a preeminent Palestinian novelist who mastered the telling of the lived memories of thousands of Palestinians fighting the generations-old war to claim their land.

Born as Ghassan Fayiz Kanafani in Acre (Akka) in 1936 during the British rule of Palestine, he was the third of eight children of Muhammad Fayiz Abd al Razzag, a lawyer who was active in the movement opposing the British occupation and its encouragement of Jewish immigration. As a young boy, he went to one of the most prominent French schools, College des Freres, in Yafa (now Jaffa). However, when the hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israel War hit Acre, Ghaffan, 12, and his family were forced into exile like 700,000 other Palestinians who became part of the exodus.

Kanafani and his family first took refuge in neighbouring Lebanon, from where they moved and settled in Damascus, Syria. Kanafani’s family survived with his father’s small lawyer practice supplemented by the boys’ part-time work, while Kanafani completed his secondary education there. While in Damascus, Kanafani also joined the printing press to support his family, which perhaps acted as an inspiration for his career as a writer.

Years later, he shared memories of his childhood trauma in his short essay ‘The Land of Sad Oranges’. He wrote about the fear and anxiety when his family was forced to flee his homeland. Here are a few lines:

“The sky was cloudy, a touch of cold air chilled my body. Riad sat calmly with his legs propped on top of the box, his back resting against the furniture, staring at the sky. I was sitting in silence, holding my knees by my arms and putting my chin between my legs…All along the way there were orange groves. A sense of fear and anxiety spread over everyone. The car moved with difficulty over the wet soil, and from a distance, we heard the sound of gunshots as if bidding us farewell.”

Kanafani's words resonate even 52 years after his death, with the current harrowing visuals of civilians in Gaza fleeing their homes after “evacuation” orders by Israel.

Among his other celebrated works are Men in the Sun (1962), All That's Left to You (1966), Umm Sa’ad (1969), and Return to Haifa (1970). He pioneered the ‘resistance’ literature of Palestinians and painted a picture of how their hopes for a future remain locked in the war with Israel.

His books have been translated into many languages and published in over 20 countries. The Conference of Afro-Asian Writers posthumously awarded him the Lotus Prize for Literature.

Kanafani’s Political Journey

In 1952, Kanafani took admission at the University of Damascus to study Arabic Literature. There, he met Palestinian revolutionary George Habash, who introduced him to politics. Habash and Kanafani had similar childhoods; the former had to flee his homeland, Lydd (Lod). Habash had a significant impact on Kanafani’s thoughts and convinced him to start writing for Al-Rai (The Opinion) newspaper.

During that time, Kanafani also received a teaching certificate from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). He was employed as an art teacher for 1,200 displaced Palestinian children in a refugee camp. There, he also began writing short stories.

In 1967, Habash founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a revolutionary organisation which usually took a hard line on Palestinian rights and liberation. Kanafani served as the spokesman of PFLP and the editor of its weekly, Al-Hadaf.

Meanwhile, Kanafani moved to Beirut in 1960, where he met his wife and Danish activist Anni Hover. She was in the Middle East to learn about Palestinian struggle. The couple married in 1961 and had two children - a son named Fayez and a daughter named Laila.
Assassination

By late 60s, Kanafani became a well-known intellectual and activist and a leader of the PFLP. Meanwhile, PFLP’s military wing was known to target Israeli interests with bombing attempts and guerilla operations.

On May 30, 1972, there was a terrorist attack on Lod airport (near present-day Tel Aviv) that killed 26 people and injured 80 others. Three members of the Japanese Red Army had collaborated with the external operations wing of PFLP to open fire at the airport. Though Kanafani’s involvement in the attack is unknown, he was a vocal advocate for the Palestinian liberation war against Israel. In an interview in Beirut in 1970, Ghassan Kanafani voiced his opposition to peace talks with Israel, comparing it to “a conversation between the sword and the neck”.

“It is not a civil war but people defending themselves against a Fascist government…it is not a conflict, it is a liberation war fighting for justice,” he said in the interview, correcting the reporter.

However, Kanafani became a target for the Israeli government for his alleged involvement in the Lod attack.

On July 8, 1972, 36-year-old Kanafani sat in his Austin 1100 with his 17-year-old niece Lamees Najim. As he turned on the ignition, he triggered a grenade, which in turn detonated three kilos of plastic bombs planted in the car, killing both of them. Later, Mossad - the Israeli foreign intelligence service - claimed responsibility, citing it was in response to the Lod airport massacre.

Kanafani is remembered through his extensive literary work that continues to inspire many Arabic writers and literary people across the world. His legacy lives on and continues to pulse for the Palestinian cause half a century after h

Gaza’s next big threat: Cholera, infectious diseases amid total blockade

Humanitarian organisations warn deadly water-born diseases will spread in the besieged strip if aid is not allowed in.

Water sold by private vendors who run small solar-powered desalination facilities has doubled in price in Gaza since October 7

 [Mohammed Abed/ AFP]
By Federica Marsi
Published On 21 Oct 2023

Waseem Mushtaha’s four children have been out of school for almost two weeks. Instead of learning mathematics or geography, they are being taught how to ration water.

“Every day I fill a bottle of water for each one and I tell them: Try to manage this,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. “At the beginning, they struggled, but now they are coping.”

KEEP READING

‘This is genocide, not war’: Gaza destruction sparks protests across world

A love story born in Gaza’s bombed Ahli Hospital

‘Free world, where are you?’ Gaza hospital chief pleads after babies killed

After Israel issued an evacuation order for 1.1 million Palestinians in the northern part of Gaza, Mushtaha drove his wife and children aged eight to 15 to his aunt’s home in Khan Younis, where residents opened their doors to extended family and friends amid Israel’s relentless aerial bombardment.

As a water and sanitation officer for global non-profit Oxfam, Mushtaha sees the markers of an impending public health catastrophe all around him. “People sleep on the streets, in shops, in mosques, in their cars or on the streets,” he said. His family lives alongside around 100 people crammed in a 200-square-metre apartment and count themselves among the lucky ones.

Meanwhile, hygiene products have disappeared from the few supermarkets that are open and water sold by private vendors who run small solar-powered desalination facilities has doubled in price since October 7 – when Israel began bombing Gaza in retaliation for the surprise attack carried out by Hamas. It used to cost 30 shekels ($7.40), but is now priced at 60 shekels ($15).

On Wednesday, Mushtaha estimated that his family would run out of water in 24 hours. After that, he didn’t know what would happen. “We will go to the market and purchase whatever is available,” he explained. “We are looking to the future with bleak eyes.”

Palestinians try to buy essential goods in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip [Fatima Shbair/AP]

Collapse of water and sanitation services

Oxfam and United Nations agencies have warned that the collapse of water and sanitation services will spark bouts of cholera and other deadly infectious diseases if urgent humanitarian aid is not delivered.

Israel cut off its water pipeline to Gaza, along with the fuel and electricity provisions that power water and sewage plants, after announcing a total blockade of the Palestinian enclave following the Hamas attack.

Most of Gaza’s 65 sewage pumping stations and all five of its wastewater treatment facilities have been forced to stop operations. According to Oxfam, untreated sewage is now being released into the sea while solid waste is also ending up on some streets alongside bodies waiting to be buried.

Desalination plants have stopped working and municipalities are unable to pump water to residential areas because of the power shortage. Some people in Gaza are relying on salty tap water from the enclave’s only aquifer, which is contaminated with sewage and seawater, or have resorted to drinking seawater. Others are being forced to drink from farm wells

.

Palestinian children search for a place to refill water in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip [Mohammed Abed/AFP]
‘On the streets with no protection’

The UN says that currently in Gaza only three litres of water a day is available per person to cover all their needs including drinking, washing, cooking and flushing the toilet. Between 50-100 litres of water each day is the recommended amount for a person to meet their basic health requirements, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

An employee of the charity Islamic Relief who also found shelter in Khan Younis described a similar situation. “At my parents’ house, there are around 20 children and seven adults sheltering. Even with so many people we only flush the toilet twice a day – once in the morning, once at night – to save water,” she said, requesting anonymity.

“We cook food that uses the least water. We wash for prayers just once or twice,” she added. “We have a neighbour with a well, but he doesn’t have any electricity to pump the water. They’ve got a generator but no fuel.”

For those who have no shelter, conditions are most dire. “There are families with children and newborn babies living without a roof over their heads,” she said. “They just sit on the streets without protection, water, food or anything. They don’t have any security.”

‘We are ready to go’

Fears are growing that dehydration and waterborne diseases will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe amid Israeli air strikes that have killed 4,137 Palestinians.


Humanitarian organisations have repeatedly issued calls for the aid stocked at the Rafah crossing, the sole route for aid to enter the Gaza Strip on the only border that it shares with Egypt, to be let through.

Following a visit to Israel on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said an agreement had been reached with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow deliveries of assistance in the coming days. Israel has insisted that all trucks must be checked and that no aid must reach Hamas fighters. Biden also said Egypt had agreed to allow an initial convoy of 20 trucks with aid through the Rafah border crossing into Gaza.



Twice last week rumours of an agreement circulated, suggesting an imminent opening of the crossing that didn’t happen.

Mathew Truscott, Head of Humanitarian Policy at Oxfam, said he felt frustration at the idea that diseases could be spreading while water and medicines piled up a few kilometres across the border.

“Cholera is just one of many waterborne diseases that can be spreading – if we can get aid in, a lot of this can be prevented,” he said. “But you can’t provide humanitarian operations where there are still bombs falling.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres called on Wednesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza to ease the “epic human suffering”. On the same day, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution, supported by most other members, demanding a humanitarian pause in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.



While the war continues, there are fears that there will be more incidents like the al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion on Tuesday. “We are very concerned for the attacks on healthcare,” Richard Brennan, regional emergency director at the WHO, told Al Jazeera.

Four out of 34 hospitals are no longer operational, according to the UN health agency, as others overflow with injured patients and families in need of shelter. “The conditions are ripe for the spread of a number of diarrhoeal and skin diseases,” Brennan said, with ripple effects to be felt in the region.

In 2022, cholera spread across Syria and Lebanon, killing at least 97 people. While an epidemic has not been registered in Palestinian territories in decades, “it’s conceivable that the bacterium has been brought in and the conditions are now ripe for its spread,” Brennan said.


For any efforts to turn the tide, “getting aid in is vital”, the WHO representative added. “The ball is in the court of the political leaders who have to elevate humanitarian needs as a priority. We are ready to go, but we have to be given unhindered, secure, protected passage to help people in need.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

PESTILENCE 

PALESTINE

Political analyst Hamada Jaber: ‘Support for the PNA and Abbas has hit a low point’

 Interview. ‘If a call to insurrection comes from this or that political formation, no one can rule out that it might reverberate among the ranks of the security apparatuses.’

• written by Michele Giorgio
• 
  

• TopicMiddle East and North Africa

• Location

  RAMALLAH, Palestine

• Published on

  October 21, 2023

Burned tires and dumpsters, barricades along the streets of Ramallah, bottles blackened by flames and stones scattered everywhere on the asphalt. Everything is closed for the general strike and the three days of national mourning. This scene, typical of the days of the Intifada against Israel, is more than just the result of the anger and dismay of thousands of Palestinians about the 500 dead at the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City.

This is the outcome of a protest such as we’ve seen before in the West Bank, against the Palestinian National Authority and its president Mahmoud Abbas. The protests are continuing; on Wednesday, in Ramallah, two Palestinian teenagers were killed at the hands of the Israeli army (adding up to 64 killed in the West Bank and Jerusalem since Saturday, October 7). But the most serious incident occurred in Jenin: during a crackdown on the protests, PNA police allegedly killed a 12-year-old girl, Razan Otba Hamdi Turkman. We spoke about these events with political analyst Hamada Jaber in Ramallah.

How should we read Tuesday night’s mass protests against the PNA? As a reaction to the Gaza tragedy or a sign of an uprising in the making against Mahmoud Abbas?

As a confirmation of what we’ve been observing for some time. The level of support for the PNA and its president has hit a low point. On Tuesday night, I saw scenes and heard words from ordinary people that showed the great distance that exists between the PNA leadership and the people. Protesters everywhere chanted slogans against Mahmoud Abbas and called for his immediate removal. In one video, a member of the PNA security forces announced that they’re leaving their post to join the resistance.

I’m not surprised; it was inevitable. Mahmoud Abbas has been silent for days in the face of the Israeli offensive against Gaza. In the past, in other politically sensitive situations, he would at least announce the interruption of security coordination with Israel. No Palestinian ever believed that such words would be followed by concrete actions; but they were a signal to the population. This time, there’s not even that, despite the killing of thousands of civilians in Gaza in air raids. And a few days ago, in a statement, Mahmoud Abbas put the blame on Hamas, defying the views of the majority of Palestinians on the Islamist movement, which is now at the height of its popularity. His words were first reported by the official Wafa news agency, but now they’ve been scrubbed.

Are we close to an open revolt against the PNA? Mahmoud Abbas seems to have feared such an eventuality on Tuesday when he was in Amman. He canceled his participation in the summit with Joe Biden organized by King Abdullah, returning immediately to Ramallah.

This is not easy to say. No organized party or movement has called for an uprising against the PNA so far. Neither has Hamas, which, as I said, has a large part of the Palestinians on its side right now. It could do so, but it risks facing a response from the PNA security forces, and perhaps Israel as well. In recent days, some 500 people believed to be close to the Islamic movement and other opposition forces have been arrested. At the moment, the people of the West Bank don’t have a unified organization to support an actual revolution. But the situation is very fluid.

Many different parties are convinced that the security forces remain the foundation of the PNA’s strength. Do you see fractures among those apparatuses?

On Wednesday night, the police and riot units took to the streets to contain and then suppress the protests, showing a unified front. However, if a call to insurrection comes from this or that political formation, no one can rule out that it might reverberate among the ranks of the security apparatuses. Especially if new massacres take place in Gaza, and the Israeli military occupies that territory. I think the PNA is faltering, but not about to fall.

IL MANIFESTO

The rise of post-political violence

 Commentary. Violence eventually detaches itself from its own causes and motivations, nourished by a sum of individual experiences and lived events that accumulate in a critical mass of people, which is then always ready to become manipulated and directed.

 

• written by Marco Bascetta

  October 21, 2023

• 
  

It is no longer a risk, but a certainty: the twists and turns in the Middle East crisis are completely out of control – and so are their consequences throughout the world. Summits are being canceled, political alliances are breaking down, protests are boiling over across the Middle East, Islamist lone wolves are coming back to strike in the West, diplomacy is cowed by bombs. Everything is ruled by the unexpected.

Just as unforeseen, in the appalling course it took, was the aggression that marked the beginning of the war, both for the attacked and even for the attackers. So many questions are piling up, and there’s no plausible answer for any of them. Not about the future of the Gaza Strip, about what it would mean to annihilate Hamas with its vast fundamentalist roots – cutting across states, movements and communities – that support and fuel it, and wouldn’t fail to replicate it in other forms once it’s dismantled by the force of Israeli arms. Nor about Israel’s international image, which is increasingly being compromised as civilian casualties in Gaza are mounting; or on the Jewish state’s position in the Middle Eastern region, which, after what promises to be a ruthless war with exorbitant human costs and irresponsible actions, is on the verge of a general conflagration. Not even about Israel’s security, understood as something that should be a stable condition and not a perpetual show of force, alternating between besieging and being besieged. Not to mention what awaits the Palestinian population as a whole, once again a hostage to everything that’s unfolding.

There are no answers, because the events are overwhelming for the actors themselves. They certainly arise from a history that can be reconstructed, but that history (with all the wrongs and justifications that the warring sides each take away from it) is not enough to explain them; nor are material interests or cultural factors. Violence eventually detaches itself from its own causes and motivations, nourished by a sum of individual experiences and lived events that accumulate in a critical mass of people, which is then always ready to become manipulated and directed. This is how a post-political form of violence arises, all the more ruthless as it lacks a plan, a compass, a destination, propelled only by a rhetoric of revenge.

What was Hamas’s follow-up plan, after the horror of a massacre conducted under the banner of inhumanity and leaving even its perpetrators lost for words? The very predictable consequence could only be the thousands of Palestinian dead, victims of the Israeli reaction. In turn, its outcome and consequences remain hidden in the “fog of war,” since no such reaction can ever follow a thought-out plan. It’s all at the mercy of events, passions, the narcissism of force; at most with some fleeting calculations of greater expediency. It is a duty to condemn those who started it, but it is also trivial, with little effect on the course of events; and a matter of indifference for the victims – all of them. Above all, it doesn’t point to any solutions.

The parameters, the indicators, the criteria with which the Middle East quagmire has been analyzed up to now are being put to pasture. Geopolitics? An obsolete piece of junk we’ve been trying to superimpose on an elusive reality, far removed from the now-ancient division into spheres of influence in 1967 or 1973 and the echo of national liberation movements, currently rooted in the successive failures of the postcolonial era and the lives that have been torn apart by them. International law? No one in the field hasn’t trampled on this pale simulacrum at various times, each according to the power it had at its disposal, in spite of resolutions, appeals, declarations of principle. Major economic interests? They do matter, of course, but they cut across, circumvent and manipulate ideologies and alignments, states and anti-states. There is no tyrant in the world bloodthirsty enough, or terrorist group heinous enough, that they can’t do business with; that they can’t use, according to the needs of the moment, against their enemies and competitors.

In this chaotic uncertainty, an absolute polarization is growing, which is irredeemably engulfing every thought of prudence, every balance and distinction. In more than one major European country, it is forbidden to show solidarity with the Palestinians or to be horrified by the humanitarian catastrophe produced by the Israeli siege in Gaza. Such a restriction on the right to protest is unprecedented in a democratic context. Of course, we all know that what lurks in the pro-Palestinian camp is not only the legacy of Arab anti-Semitism, but also, in Europe and especially in Germany, the anti-Semitism that has always been a part of the Red-Brown tools of the trade, and which has never ceased to pose a threat. Just as, among the ranks of the most passionate advocates of the Israeli war response at whatever cost, it’s not uncommon to find Western supremacism and anti-Arab racism. The ruthless forms that the current clash has taken only fuel these grim inclinations.

In this precipitation of events, going beyond any predictive capacity and political rationality, there are those on both sides who are floating their own version of the “final solution”: whether that means wiping out Hamas together with the aspirations of the Palestinian people as a whole or, conversely, wiping the state of Israel off the map. Until these pointless hallucinations are banished forever from the minds and words of all contending parties, war will continue to fuel itself as the only and indispensable condition of existence.

IL MANIFESTO

Swiss elect their parliament on Sunday with worries about environment and migration high in minds

Swiss voters cast ballots to elect a parliament this weekend at a time when key concerns include rising healthcare costs, concerns about inflows of migrants and global warming, which has battered the country's Alpine glaciers

ByJAMEY KEATEN 

Associated Press
October 20, 2023

Swiss Defense Minister Viola Amherd delivers a speech during a meeting with Austrian Defense Minister Mario Kunasek and German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen in Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 18, 2019.

The Associated Press

GENEVA -- Swiss voters this weekend elect a parliament that could reshape Switzerland’s executive branch at a time when key concerns include migration, rising healthcare costs and climate change, which has shrunk the country's Alpine glaciers.

Final ballots will be collected Sunday morning after the vast majority of Swiss made their choices by mail-in voting. Up for grabs are both houses of parliament.

The main stakes, if pollsters turn out to be right, are whether two Green parties fare worse than they did in the last election in 2019, and whether the country's centrist party might land more seats in parliament's lower house than the free-market party — boosting their position in the executive branch.

Polls suggest that the Swiss have three main preoccupations in mind: Rising fees for the obligatory, free market-based health insurance system; climate change, which has eroded Switzerland’s numerous glaciers; and worries about migrants and immigration.

The vote could be a bellwether about how another set of Europeans is thinking about right-wing populist politics and the need to spend money and resources to fight global warming at a time of rising inflation that has pinched many pocketbooks — even in well-to-do Switzerland.

The vote for the legislature, which happens every four years, will ultimately shape the future composition of the Alpine country’s executive branch: The Federal Council — which includes President Alain Berset, who has decided to leave government at year-end.

The Swiss president is essentially “first among equals” in the seven-member council, who each hold portfolios as government ministers and take turns each year holding the top job – which is essentially a ceremonial one to represent Switzerland abroad.

Berset, a Socialist, will be succeeded next year by centrist Viola Amherd. The four biggest parties are represented on the council, and they are the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, the Socialists, the free-market Liberals — each with two seats — and the Center party, with one.

Once chosen by parliament, council members — known colloquially as “department chiefs” — can stay in office for life, or as long as they want.

So the council's composition rarely changes a lot: Berset's departure means his seat will be up for grabs among his Socialist siblings.

And if the Center party outscores the free-market Liberals, they could swipe one of the Liberals' two seats on the council.

The two-two-two-one balance of seats in the Federal Council is known as Switzerland's “magic formula” — which is aimed to dilute the prospects that individual personalities get too much power, and to ensure balance in the way government is run.

Add to that Switzerland's direct democracy, by which voters go to the polls — usually four times a year — to vote on any number of policy decisions. Those referendum results require parliament to respond.

More broadly, Switzerland has found itself straddling two core elements to its psyche: Western democratic principles like those in the European Union – which Switzerland has refused to join — and its much vaunted “neutrality” in world affairs.

A long-running and intractable standoff over more than 100 bilateral Swiss-EU agreements on issues like police cooperation, trade, tax and farm policy, has soured relations between Brussels and Bern - key trading partners.
Recent Stories from ABC News

The Swiss did line up with the EU in slapping sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. The Federal Council is considering whether to join the EU and the United States in labeling Hamas a terror organization. Switzerland has joined the United Nations in labeling Al-Qaida and ISIS as terrorists.

Switzerland, with only about 8.5 million people, ranks 20th in world economic output, according to the IMF, and it’s the global hub of wealth management: where the world’s rich park much of their money, to benefit from low taxes and a discreet environment.

Women sci-fi writer numbers rocketing in China


By AFP
October 20, 2023

The World Science Fiction Convention, Worldcon, is taking place in China for the first time

 Rebecca BAILEY

Women writers are taking the Chinese science fiction scene by storm, with their increasing prominence one of the genre’s most noticeable trends, according to participants at a major convention in Chengdu this week.

Worldcon — the world’s oldest and most influential sci-fi gathering — is taking place in China for the first time, drawing hordes of eager local fans of all genders.

China can still be a relatively socially conservative country, and under President Xi Jinping the space for the expression of feminism has shrunk even further over the last decade.

But in science fiction, the number of women authors has rocketed in recent years, said Regina Kanyu Wang, a writer and editor nominated for two prestigious Hugo Awards at Worldcon this year.

More women are now realising “it’s not only this nerdy, geeky style of science fiction that can be published, or that can be regarded as science fiction”, she said.

“Liu Cixin (the author of the world-famous Three-Body series) is great, we all love him. But there’s so much more outside of the Liu Cixin style.”

The good news is that once women do get their start as writers, they do not tend to feel they are treated unequally, according to Wang.

The market and readers are demanding new perspectives, she said.

“Nowadays, a lot of Chinese female sci-fi writers pay attention to the problems women face that men might not feel,” Zhou Danxue, a literature scholar at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, told AFP.

“The writers can use their own methods to reflect uniquely female feelings.”

– ‘New sense of community’ –

In the past two years, there have been four anthologies published that were made up of only women or non-binary authors, Wang said, a major breakthrough.

Previously, there was not even one all-women collection, and before the 1990s, there were very few prominent women authors at all.

“The Way Spring Arrives,” one of the anthologies that Wang co-edited, includes an essay pinpointing the internet as a nurturing ground for women and queer talent.

Its widespread use “not only brought people a new sense of community, but … removed a lot of trade-based and societal barriers to authorship, especially for non-male writers”, author Ni Xueting explained.

Chen Qiufan, one of China’s most prominent sci-fi authors, told AFP that traditionally the genre was not taken particularly seriously, and was seen as “written by and read by boys”.

Now, you have “a much broader audience and a more diverse one”, he said, estimating his own readers’ gender split was around 50/50.

Monet, a 21-year-old visiting the convention on Friday, said she had sometimes felt isolated in her fandom.

“It’s hard to share my interests with people who don’t understand. They would ask why a girl liked sci-fi?” she said.

She was optimistic those attitudes could change, pointing out the schoolchildren roaming excitedly around the convention centre.

“I think (interest in) Chinese science fiction must be cultivated from childhood,” she said.

“I don’t think we had this kind of opportunity when we were young… I really envy them, to be honest.”

Brazil’s Lula vetoes core part of legislation threatening Indigenous rights

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vetoed the core aspects of a bill passed by Congress that threatened to undo protections of Indigenous peoples’ land rights

ByELÉONORE HUGHES Associated Press
October 20, 2023, 

Indigenous Xikrin warriors return from a failed attempt to expel land squatters from the Trincheira Bacaja Indigenous Indigenous territory, in Brazilian Amazon, Para state, Brazil, Aug. 24, 2019. Brazil's government on Mo...Show more
The Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday vetoed the core aspects of a bill passed by Congress that threatened to undo protections of Indigenous peoples’ land rights.

The bill proposed to enshrine a legal theory that argues the date Brazil’s Constitution was promulgated — Oct. 5, 1988 — should be the deadline for when Indigenous peoples already had to be physically occupying land or be legally fighting to reoccupy territory.

That legal theory was rejected by Brazil's Supreme Court in September. A week later, the Senate — dominated by conservative lawmakers backed by Brazil’s powerful agribusiness — approved the bill on a vote of 43 in favor and 21 against.

Friday was the deadline for Lula to act if he wanted to block all or parts of the legislation.

“Today I vetoed several articles (of the legislation) … in accordance with the Supreme Court’s decision on the subject. Let’s talk and keep working so that we continue to have, as we do today, legal security and also respect for the rights of the original people,” Lula said on social media.

Backers of the legislation said it was needed to provide legal security to landowners, saying there is discomfort in rural areas due to a perceived lack of limits to the expansion of Indigenous territories.

Indigenous rights groups argue the concept of the deadline is unfair because it does not account for expulsions and forced displacements of Indigenous populations, particularly during Brazil’s two-decade military dictatorship.

Lula vetoed all references to the deadline theory and other provisions deemed harmful to Indigenous rights, such as allowing mining and the cultivation of genetically modified organisms.

“We can consider the vetoes presented here by the president a great victory, (…) guaranteeing the government’s coherence with the Indigenous, environmental and international agenda,” the minister for Indigenous peoples, Sonia Guajajara, said at a news conference after meeting with Lula in the capital, Brasilia.

The president stopped short of vetoing the entire bill, as requested by some Indigenous rights groups. The articles that were maintained are consistent with the tradition of Brazilian Indigenous policy since the 1988 Constitution, Institutional Relations Minister Alexandre Padilha said in a statement.

Célia Xakriabá, a federal lawmaker from the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, celebrated Lula’s action but said that “the project still deals with other very serious issues for indigenous peoples.”

“We continue to mobilize to guarantee our rights!” she added on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Since taking office in January, the left-leaning Lula has given significantly more attention to the demands of Indigenous peoples than his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, including demarcating eight new Indigenous territories.

But without a majority in Congress, he has faced intense pressure from conservative legislators who have stalled his environmental agenda.

“The partial veto is strategic because it is estimated that a total veto would be easier to overturn in Congress,” Thiago Amparo, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation think tank and university, said on X.

The lobby group for agribusiness, known by its Portuguese acronym FPA, said in a statement that it would seek to have Lula’s veto overturned when the bill is returned to Congress.