FREE PAUL WATSON

Japan asks Denmark to extradite anti-whaling activist Paul Watson

Denmark announced Thursday that it has received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was arrested in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant. Watson, the 73-year-old founder of Sea Shepherd, is facing charges related to a 2010 confrontation with Japanese whaling ships, raising concerns over his potential extradition and the motivations behind Japan's request.


Issued on: 01/08/2024 - 

File photo of NGO Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder, Paul Watson of Canada, posing on board of the "Brigitte Bardot", a Sea Shepherd multihull moored in Paris, on January 15, 2015. 

© Loic Venance, AFP

By:NEWS WIRES

Denmark's justice ministry said Thursday that it had received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was detained in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant.

Watson, the 73-year-old American-Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd activist group, was arrested on July 21 in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, over a 2010 altercation with Japanese whaling ships.

Watson, who featured in the reality TV series "Whale Wars", founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), and is known for direct action tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.

"The Ministry of Justice received a formal extradition request regarding Paul Watson from the Japanese authorities yesterday," the ministry told AFP in an email.

It said it would forward the case to Greenland police, "unless the ministry on the present basis finds grounds to reject the extradition request beforehand".

If the case is forwarded to Greenland police, they will investigate "whether there is basis for extradition", including whether it is in accordance with the extradition act applicable to Greenland, the ministry said.

But the ultimate decision on Watson's extradition will be made by Denmark's justice ministry, it added.

A custody hearing will be held in Greenland on August 15, pending a Danish decision on the extradition request.

Read more  Greenland arrests anti-whaling activist and Greenpeace co-founder Paul Watson

'Personal vendetta'

Watson was arrested after arriving in Nuuk, Greenland's capital, when the ship John Paul DeJoria docked to refuel.

The vessel was on its way to "intercept" a new Japanese whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, according to the CPWF.

One of the activist's lawyers, Francois Zimeray, said he was "not surprised" by the extradition request.

"Japan has a personal vendetta against Paul Watson, and this so-called offence is the pretext for revenge against a man who defied and therefore humiliated them," Zimeray told AFP.

He said an extradition to Japan would be a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, since "the country does not respect international standards on fair trials and prisons."

Watson was arrested on the basis of an Interpol "Red Notice" issued in 2012, when Japan accused him of causing damage and injury to one of its whaling ships in the Antarctic two years earlier.

He faces a charge of causing injury, which can carry up to 15 years in prison or a fine of up to 500,000 yen ($3,300).

He also faces a charge of forcible obstruction of business, which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison or a fine up to 500,000 yen.

Japan is one of only three countries in the world to permit commercial whaling, along with Iceland and Norway.

'No regrets'

Watson's wife on Thursday appealed to Denmark's King Frederik X and Queen Mary to secure his release.

"Please, Denmark, release Paul!" Yana Watson posted on Facebook, posting pictures of him with their two young sons.

"He has diabetes Type 1. Japanese prison will be lethal for him," she said.

Earlier this week, the head of the French branch of Sea Shepherd said Watson did not regret his actions despite the risk of extradition.

"Paul is doing well, he is in good spirits. He has no regrets," Lamya Essemlali said in a statement after visiting Watson in custody on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron's office has asked Danish authorities not to extradite Watson, who has lived in France for the past year.

Read moreFrance urges against anti-whaling activist Watson's extradition to Japan

A French online petition urging Macron to demand Watson's liberation has garnered more than 675,000 signatures, while another Sea Shepherd France petition urging Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen not to extradite Watson had almost 27,000 signatures as of Thursday.

Famed environmentalist and primatologist Jane Goodall has also called for his release, saying he was "simply taking action to try to prevent the inhumane practice of killing whales, which most countries have banned decades ago".

(AFP)

Paul Watson Nabbed in Greenland

by Don Kimball

 August 1, 2024
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Photo taken by Don Kimball outside the German Consulate in NYC in 2011 demanding Captain Watson’s release.

Captain Paul Watson, a co-founder of Greenpeace and the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS), has been in jail in Nuuk, Greenland for over a week, after federal police from Copenhagen, Denmark boarded his vessel, the John Paul Dejoria, while it attempted to dock and refuel enroute to the Northwest Passage. Its mission was to intercept the new long-range Japanese whaler Kanjei Maru. Sailing under the flag of St. Kitts, Watson, an American-Canadian Citizen, and his crew of 25 volunteers were swarmed by 14 Danish SWAT team officers as they took the captain away in handcuffs on an arrest warrant from the Japanese government.

Watson, an environmental and animal rights icon and star of the Animal Planet TV series “Whale Wars”, speaking on Monday, July 29 from his cellblock in Nuuk where he is being held without bail, said there are no problems in the cellblock that he shares with 9 other prisoners. Watson noted that eight, of them were Inuit, the indigenous peoples who are the majority of the population of Greenland, and have been inhabiting the island since 2000 BCE. When questioned why Japan would go to such lengths to have him arrested and detained he called the charges, “politically motivated”, and that, “he embarrassed Japan, and this is their revenge.”

For years, under Watson’s iron hand and steel will, the SSCS fleet of converted cargo ships and trawlers, equipped with a helicopter, harassed illegal Japanese whaleling operations in the Antarctic Ocean. Watson said the whalers harpooned as many as 6,500 whales for what the Japanese call “scientific experiments”. Watson has lawyers working his case from all over the world, including one from France where he lives (in a boat of course) on the Seine River with his wife and child. Watson lamented that he would have had a first class seat for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, if it hadn’t been for Danish cooperation is apprehending him on trumped-up charges of conspiracy to trespass on a Japanese whaler, or something akin to elevated-aggravated teasing. He also said that additional frivolous charges may be forthcoming from the scary samurai’s of the sea.

Watson believes that Japan wants to “shut him up”, and not just about their illegal whaling operations, but for his outspoken criticism about the continued failures by the Japanese government and the corporation TEPCO after the nuclear disaster there in 2011. Clean-up costs have already surpassed $200 billion according to the National Institute of Health’s, National Library of Medicine and National Center for Biotechnology Information. TEPCO is now intentionally dumping water used for cooling the reactors and laced with Tritium into the Pacific, some 13 after the meltdown of the three reactors at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant. Paul said, similar to fears Julian Assange had of being extradited from England to the US, for his courageous but sometimes controversial actions, that if he is taken to Japan, “he may never see home again.”

Numerous calls to the Danish consulate in Washington, DC, Chicago, Il, NYC and Los Angeles, CA inquiring as to when Denmark would release Captain Watson on bail, went unanswered. Watson, because of his non-compromising position against whale hunting, has been in this precarious position before. Held in Germany in 2011, on similar charges of little merit, he escaped German custody and spent six months in exile avoiding apprehension.

Watson has France’s President Emmanuel Macron, movie star Bridget Bardot and world renowned Ethologist Jane Goodall calling for his release. It was France’s Secret Service that sank Greenpeace’s anti-nuclear sailboat, the, Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, NZ in 1985 when they placed a bomb on board, killing one of the crew.

Watson was “forced out” of the SSCS in 2022, but still has ties with the French and Brazil chapters. Now operated by property mangers from Florida, Watson said the substantial donation to the SSCS from life-long animal activist, philanthrope and beloved TV personality, the late Bob Barker, is a big point of contention. He called what happened, “a hostile takeover”, of the SSCS. He now has his own foundation, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, calling themselves, “Neptune’s Pirates”.

Paul said there will be a hearing by the High Court of Greenland on August 15th to determine if the case would proceed, and says that if it does he could still appeal the ruling in Denmark itself. He asks his supporters to put pressure on the Danish government to release him immediately as his actions to defend whales from being hunted down by Japanese whalers is wholly justified as it has been illegal to hunt whales since the International Whaling Commission ruling banned it in 1986.

French taxi drivers demand compensation for Olympic revenue losses

French taxi drivers are calling on the government for compensation after experiencing significant revenue losses during the Olympic Games due to traffic disruptions. In a letter to the transport ministry, taxi unions described the Games as "hugely disappointing," citing traffic restrictions and venue closures that have hindered their ability to work, and requested a compension fund to cover the seven-month period of the event.


Issued on: 01/08/2024 -

The Games are a 'disappointment' to taxi drivers

 © Ludovic MARIN / AFP

By:NEWS WIRES

French taxi drivers on Thursday demanded government compensation for lost revenue during the Olympic Games as traffic disruptions and fewer regular clients weigh on demand.

In a letter to the transport ministry, taxi unions said that the Games had been "hugely disappointing" for the drivers of licensed taxis of which there are 20,000 in Paris alone.

"Demand is slowing and the entire profession is being prevented from simply doing their job because of these Games," said the letter, seen by AFP.

The number of additional visitors drawn by the Olympics had failed to make up for "the impact of traffic restrictions, the closure of venues and the impact of usual customers staying away", it said.

Access to many Paris sites has been restricted. © Martin Bernetti, AFP

The unions demanded the creation of a "compensation fund" that they said should cover income lost for the seven-month period during which public spaces were being taken over for the Games.

Several venues in and around Paris, but also in Marseille were blocked off for several weeks before the Games started on July 26.

In response to the letter, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said in a social media post that taxis and ride-hailing services would now be allowed to enter the so-called "red zones" around Olympics venues, which were previously off-limits for motor vehicles.


Now that the high-security opening ceremony was in the past, several safety measures had been lifted and traffic was becoming more fluid, the minister said.

The government has encouraged French residents to go on holiday or work remotely during the Games, further dampening demand and contributing to a sharp fall in business compared to the same period in 2023, the unions said.

Read moreA survival guide to Paris transport closures for the 2024 Olympics

Some drivers had seen their income fall by 40 or 50 percent, they said.

Last month, trade groups said that Paris shops, restaurants, bars and clubs were facing an "unprecedented slump in business and footfall", blaming in part the "heavy security measures" during the Games.

(AFP)

‘Tourists, go home!’: Mass tourism exasperates locals in Europe and beyond

An increasing number of visitors has sparked numerous anti-tourism movements in Spain and elsewhere in Europe. Locals blame tourists for driving up housing costs, inflation, and causing environmental degradation. Some affected regions are beginning to take small steps to ease their residents' concerns.


Issued on: 29/07/2024

A demonstrator uses a megaphone as people protest against mass tourism, Alicante, Spain, July 13, 2024.

 © Eva Manez, Reuters

By:Pauline ROUQUETTE

A collective of several hundred associations in Spain known as Ecologistas marched through the town of El Puerto de Santa Maria on July 20 to denounce "uncontrolled mass tourism", chanting: “Our city is not for sale!”

Thousands of protesters marched on July 6 in Barcelona to denounce an excess of visitors, preceding another large demonstration against mass tourism on July 22 in Mallorca, an island reputed for its beaches, protected creeks, limestone mountains and archeological sites.

Spain recorded an additional 24 million tourists in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period the previous year, representing an annual increase of 14.5 percent. The country had already registered an all-time high in international visitors in 2023.

The tourism boom is driving up prices in shops as well as housing costs, a surge which locals say is complicating their access to housing.

Popular destinations in Spain like Barcelona and Seville, but also Venice in Italy, Étretat in France, and Athens and Paros in Greece all suffered a slump in tourism during the Covid-19 years. Tourism in Europe and elsewhere is now picking up again, with people encouraged by low-cost flights or the promotion of certain sites on social networks.

The sector represents an undeniable source of income for the countries concerned. The increase in visitors and prices in Spain, for example, led to tourist spending to surge by 22.6 percent in the first quarter of 2024, surpassing €31.5 billion, according to the National Institute of Statistics. Yet uncontrolled mass tourism also increasingly represents a scourge for local populations.

‘An unbearable place to live’

Spain’s most-visited city, Barcelona, welcomes some 12 million people a year, many of whom arrive by cruise ship. The increasing number of tourists each year is putting pressure on health services, waste management, water supply and housing – to the detriment of inhabitants.

Around 3,000 people marched through the city of Gaudi in early July chanting, "Tourists, go home!" and squirting people they identified as tourists with water pistols.

A protester uses a megaphone as people protest against mass tourism, Alicante, Spain, July 13, 2024. 

© Josep Lago, AFP

The authorities reacted by announcing they will bar apartment rentals to tourists by 2028; a total of 10,000 apartments will lose their licenses for short-term rentals on platforms like Airbnb. The city’s leftist Mayor Jaume Collboni also announced plans to raise the tourist tax for cruise passengers who visit the city for fewer than 12 hours.


Locals in Andalusia, another Spanish destination popular with international tourists, have also voiced their exasperation with mass tourism. "I dream of retiring, renting out my apartment and leaving Seville," Francisco Martinez, the president of Ancha la Feria neighbourhood association, told Spanish daily El País about the invasion on terraces in the historic city centre.

"The city centre might be good for drinking a beer, but it has become an aggressive and unbearable place to live."

Seville's conservative Mayor Jose Luis Sanz announced in February that a plan was under way to charge an entry fee to the Plaza de Espana, a major attraction particularly popular with tourists visiting the Andalusian capital.

“We are planning to close the Plaza de España and charge tourists to finance its conservation and ensure its safety,” he wrote on X. He accompanied the news with a video showing broken tiles and balustrades, and street vendors niched in its alcoves and sitting on the staircases.

Authorities in Venice, Italy, have launched a pilot programme to charge day-trippers a €5 entry fee to be able to stroll along its famous canals on busy days. The measure was deemed insufficient by most residents, who would have preferred to limit the number of visitors per day to successfully protect the city. Peru, for example, adopted a measure to limit access to Machu Picchu to 2,500 visitors per day.

01:47

Venice on April 25, 2024 became the first city in the world to introduce an access payment system for some tourists. 

© Marco Bertorello, AFP



Other European cities, such as Amsterdam in the Netherlands, have opted to increase the tourist tax. The Dutch capital confirmed it was hiking its tourist tax on hotel rooms to 12.5 percent of the price for all visitors. The city, which is actively working to prevent the kind of tourism that compromises quality of life for its residents, has also tightened its regulations to curb tourism linked to cannabis consumption, and now prohibits the construction of new hotels.
‘They take our homes while they live in the Maldives’

In the Athenian district of Metaxourgeio in Greece, locals are increasingly frustrated with the presence of tourists. "They take our homes while they live in the Maldives. And we give them tzatziki and togas," said a resident.

Companies in this bohemian district are transforming buildings into coworking spaces to accommodate digital nomads – a growing sub-category of people who travel and work remotely. The total number of short-term rentals in Athens has soared by almost 500 percent in less than a decade.

05:31FOCUS © FRANCE 24

To slow down the phenomenon of mass tourism, Greece has started raising taxes and doubling the minimum required investment for the "golden visa", a system that allows citizenship to be bought for a price. Yet the government is hesitating to adopt more stringent measures.

"We have to take into account the needs of the entire population, both renters and owners," said Harry Theoharis, Greece's former deputy minister of national economy and finance. He added that while he was convinced further measures were necessary, further research was also needed to avoid taking measures that would destroy the market.

The "beach towel revolt" in Paros, in the Cyclades region of Greece, emerged as a movement against the privatisation of the island's beaches. "We are concerned about the dispossession of the beaches of Paros by companies that exploit part of the coastline," wrote the collective, which was born on Facebook a year ago.

As a key stop for Greek cruises, the island of Santorini sees hordes of tourists flood its hotels, beaches and restaurants every year. Out of the 32.7 million people who visited Greece last year, about 3.4 million, or one in 10, visited the island, which has just 15,500 inhabitants.

In the narrow streets of the town of Oia, locals put up signs urging visitors to respect their homes: "RESPECT ... It’s your holiday ... but it’s our home."

According to the Hellenic Ports Association, 800 cruise ships brought 1.3 million passengers in 2023. With parts of the island on the verge of being saturated, authorities are considering imposing restrictions.

Read moreOn Santorini, anger over cruelty towards ‘tourist donkeys’
‘Not against tourists’

France is also grappling with the problem of mass tourism. Its authorities are especially worried about how to handle the millions of visitors concentrated in a few sites like Paris, Mont-Saint-Michel and the Calanques National Park, near Marseille.

Some 1.5 million tourists come to Étretat on the northern coast of France every year to visit the famous cliffs, sometimes putting their lives in danger to take pictures for social networks.

"The nature of tourism has changed over the last ten years. It's Instagram tourism that's not at all interested in the surrounding area," said Brigitte Cottet, president of the Association of Residents of the old town of Annecy, in an interview with the radio station France Bleu last May.

Japan recently reacted against this type of tourism when the authorities of the small town of Fujikawaguchiko near Mount Fuji built panels of mesh netting to cover a particularly sought-after view of the stratovolcano. The initiative aimed to hide the panoramic view from tourists deemed uncivil by the locals.

Beyond the tensions between tourists and residents, mass tourism often leads to environmental degradation. In Étretat, the trampling of the coasts causes erosion and the destruction of biodiversity. Cruise ships landing in Venice's shallow lagoons cause enormous damage. And on Mount Everest, overcrowding causes monstrous pollution – with the Nepalese army evacuating 11 tons of waste and four corpses from the "roof of the world" and two other Himalayan peaks just this year.

Workers segregate waste materials retrieved from Mount Everest to recycle in Kathmandu in this photograph taken on June 12, 2024. 

© Prakash Mathema, AFP

While there is no universal solution, authorities know that they must act with caution. Tourism remains a force for good in most areas, a fact many discontented people, particularly in Spain, are aware of: "We are not against tourists, but against the type of tourism that pushes us out."

This article has been translated from the original in French.

A new report outlines how the Tanzanian government is cutting essential services to force the relocation of Maasai living in a conservation area.

The Maasai people in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Arusha, Tanzania face eviction

Huax Hongli/Xinhua/IMAGO

Shristi Mangal Pal

July 31, 2024

A new report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) reveals some of the consequences of a plan from the Tanzanian government to force the Maasai to relocate from their ancestral lands in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania.

With over 82,000 Maasai being evicted, the rights watchdog has said that the government had violated the Maasai's rights to land, education, and health without providing fair consent.

"The Maasai are being forcibly evicted under the guise of voluntary relocation," said Juliana Nnoko, HRW senior researcher on women and land.

The HRW report said that "government-employed rangers assaulted and beat residents with impunity," with community members reporting 13 alleged incidents of beatings between September 2022 and July 2023.

The government has said that relocating the Maasai aims to protect the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage site, from human encroachment.
What does the report say?

HRW argued that the Tanzanian government wants to "use the Maasai lands for conservation and tourism purposes."

To pressure the community into relocating, Tanzanian authorities have cut funding for schools and health centers, which restricts access to essential care and increases travel distances.

HRW reported that the service cuts have had severe consequences, with one woman giving birth to premature twins in a car, both babies dying from delayed care.

Additionally, three women died from pregnancy-related complications between April and May last year due to a lack of timely medical help.

Controversy over the relocation scheme has led to the World Bank in April suspending $150 million worth of conservation funding, and the EU also removing Tanzania's eligibility for around $19 million in similar funding.

Maasai protest eviction from conservation area  02:06

Government denying Maasai voting rights - expert tells DW

"In the past three years, the government of Tanzania has been inflicting social and economic restrictions on the Maasai in Ngorongoro," Denis Oleshangay, a lawyer and activist from Ngorongoro told DW.

He has been advocating for the Maasai in several cases, both in Tanzanian courts, and in the East African Court of Justice.

"The community is denied rights to access important social services, like education, health and essential places for pasture, water and salt links," Oleshangay added.

He said that the government, through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), has denied building permits for the renovation of collapsed structures, including classrooms, health facilities, and residential homes.

"Recently, the community has been complaining that the government is now stripping them of their voting rights and disenfranchising them, to facilitate their removal from Ngorongoro," he added.

Oleshangay pointed out that, while the government listed polling stations nationwide, the villages in Ngorongoro were notably absent from the list.

Written using material from AFP and EFE news agencies

Edited by: Wesley Rahn

Shristi Mangal Pal Multimedia journalist and presenter

Tanzania evicting tens of thousands of Maasai: HRW

Nairobi (AFP) – Tanzania is forcibly evicting tens of thousands of Maasai from their ancestral lands, 

Human Rights Watch said in a report on Wednesday, claiming that government rangers beat some members of the community with impunity.

Issued on: 31/07/2024

There have been years of tensions between authorities and the Maasai community, sometimes resulting in deadly clashes

 © TONY KARUMBA / AFP/File

Long-standing tensions between the authorities and the nomadic community have sometimes resulted in deadly clashes, after the government launched a programme beginning in 2022 to relocate some 82,000 people from the world-renowned Ngorongoro Conservation Area to Handeni district, roughly 600 kilometres (370 miles) away, by 2027, HRW said.

But the scheme, which the government says is to conserve the UNESCO World Heritage site from human encroachment, but which HRW says will "use their land for conservation and tourism purposes", has come under growing international criticism with the World Bank and the European Union pulling funding.

HRW said it interviewed nearly 100 people between August 2022 and December 2023, including community members who had already moved to Msomera village in Handeni and others facing relocation.

The report noted "government-employed rangers assaulting and beating residents with impunity", with community members describing how they were targeted, and listing 13 alleged beatings between September 2022 and July 2023.

"He was just walking, and they just punished him," one man told HRW, describing how rangers stopped his 35-year-old friend en route to a funeral and made the man kneel before clobbering him with a stick, leaving him wounded.

There was no hope of legal redress, he told HRW, as you "go to the same police who have beaten the guy, so you can't get any aid."

"Rangers are like people who are above the law."

The report also alleged that the Tanzanian government failed to provide free and fair consent to the relocation, describing violations of rights to land, education, and health.

"The Maasai are being forcibly evicted under the guise of voluntary relocation," said Juliana Nnoko, HRW senior researcher on women and land.

"Human rights violations should not be happening because we want to conserve biodiversity, or for tourism reasons, and this is the case that we've seen in this context in northern Tanzania," Nnoko said Wednesday during a press conference.

While the nomadic community has historically been allowed to live within some national parks, the authorities say growing populations encroach on wildlife habitats.

The government has consistently maintained its relocation scheme observes Tanzania's rights laws.

'Both babies died'

To encourage people to relocate, the authorities also reduced infrastructure funding for schools and health centres, HRW said, limiting the community's access to vital care and forcing them to travel further.#photo1

One woman gave birth to premature twins in a car en route to a hospital, according to her cousin, who said "both babies died because we could not get them the right services as soon as possible."

Three women died between April and May last year after they were unable to access medical care for "pregnancy-related complications", the report said, citing one woman.

International criticism of the relocation programme has grown, with the World Bank suspending payment in April towards a $150 million conservation funding and the European Union also revoking Tanzania's eligibility for some $19 million in similar funding.

But HRW found that "the government has systematically silenced critics... contributing to a climate of fear".

"You're not allowed to say anything," said one person quoted by HRW who has already relocated to Msomera.

People have "fear in their hearts".

© 2024 AFP

Hamas faces difficult choices in replacing political leader Haniyeh

The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran has deprived Hamas of one of its most astute political strategists, but analysts have identifed three main contenders for his replacement. The decision will likely impact Hamas's future identity and evolution, between becoming a guerilla group or accepting difficult political compromises.


Issued on: 31/07/2024 - 

Hamas members stand next to a poster of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh during a protest to condemn his killing at al-Bass Palestinian refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. © Mohammed Zaatari, AP

The militant Palestinian group Hamas has a history of swift and smooth replacement of fallen leaders killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in the Iranian capital early Wednesday comes at a time when Hamas is under extreme pressure since the war in Gaza started nearly 10 months ago following the group's attack on southern Israel.

“We are not discussing this matter now,” a Hamas official told The Associated Press, on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, when asked about the process to replace Haniyeh.

Haniyeh headed the group's political bureau until his death. His deputy was Saleh Arouri, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut in January and would have been the automatic replacement. Arouri's post remained empty since his death.

The group's Shura council, the main consultative body, is now expected to meet soon, likely after Haniyeh's funeral in Qatar, to name a new successor. The council’s membership is kept secret but represents regional chapters of the group, in Gaza, the West Bank and diaspora and those imprisoned.

One of Haniyeh’s deputies was Zaher Jabarin, who has been described as the group’s chief executive officer because of the important role he plays in managing the group’s finances, and with that, his good offices with Iran.

Hani al-Masri, an expert on Palestinian organizations, said the choice is now likely between Khaled Mashaal, a veteran Hamas official and former leader, and Khalil al-Hayya, a powerful figure within Hamas who was close to Haniyeh.

“It will not be easy,” said al-Masri, who also heads the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research and Strategic Studies.

Hamas’ new political leader will have to decide on whether to continue the military option, and become essentially a guerrilla and underground group, or choose a leader that can offer political compromises — an unlikely option at this stage.

Mashaal has political and diplomatic experience, but his relations with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah have soured over his support for Arab protests in 2011. When he was in Lebanon in 2021, Hezbollah leaders reportedly refused to meet with him. But Mashaal has good relations with Turkey and Qatar and is considered a more moderate figure who headed the group until 2017. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called him on Saturday to offer his condolences for the killing of Haniyeh.

Yahya Sinwar, the powerful Hamas figure leading the war in Gaza, is at the opposite end of that spectrum and is unlikely to support Mashaal’s leadership.

Al-Hayya is considered close to Haniyeh, a prominent leader living in exile and originally from Gaza, with important international connections and good relations with the military wing as well as with Iran and Turkey.

After years of cold relations with the Iran-led “axis of resistance” over Hamas’s backing the opposition against Syrian President Bashar Assad during Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011, Hamas began mending its relations with Iran and reconciled with Assad.

Al-Hayya headed a delegation that went to Syria in 2022 and met Assad. Al-Hayya also has good relations with Iran, Turkey and Hezbollah.

“He is like Haniyeh, who was balanced and flexible and both sides didn’t see his leadership as problematic,” al-Masri said.

Read moreWho’s who: Top Hamas leaders on Israel’s radar

The role of the group’s leader is important in maintaining relations with Hamas’ allies outside the Palestinian territories and the choice is likely to be influenced by the group’s choices in the coming days.

Al-Masri said any choice will have to be temporary until elections in the political bureau which were supposed to take place this year but have been derailed by the war.


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The Hamas leadership meeting may also be complicated by efforts to reach Sinwar, who remains influential and will be consulted on the choice.

With cease-fire talks faltering, Israel's strategy so far appeared to have left the group with a few options now: surrender or continue war.

A third possible contender, said al-Masri, is Nizar Abu Ramadan, who had challenged Sinwar for the role of Gaza chief, and is considered close to Mashaal.

The war in Gaza started on Oct.7 after the Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 people. The group also took 250 others hostage. Israel’s retaliatory operation has obliterated entire neighborhoods in Gaza and forced some 80% of the population to flee their homes. Over 39,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

(AP)

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas political leader and ex-Palestinian PM

Tehran (AFP) – Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran, was the head of Hamas's political wing and a former Palestinian prime minister whose membership of the Islamist militant group dated back to its inception.


Issued on: 31/07/2024 -

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, seen here with Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was a frequent visit to Tehran, where he was killed in a Israeli strike 

Hamas announced his death on Wednesday, saying in a statement: "Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his residence in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president."

Considered a pragmatist within Hamas and known for his calm demeanour, Haniyeh was born in 1963 in Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp to a family that had to flee Ashkelon, several kilometres (miles) north of the territory, during the creation of Israel 15 years earlier.

In his youth he was a member of the student branch of the Muslim Brotherhood at the Islamic University of Gaza, and joined Hamas in 1987 when the group was founded after the outbreak of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation, which lasted until 1993.

During that time Haniyeh was imprisoned by Israel several times and then expelled to south Lebanon for six months.

In 2003, Haniyeh and Hamas’s founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin survived an assassination attempt together, emerging alive from a house on which an Israeli aircraft had dropped a bomb. Yassin was killed a year later.

Former Palestinian PM

Haniyeh was elected head of the Hamas political bureau in 2017 to succeed Khaled Meshaal, but was already a well-known figure after becoming Palestinian prime minister in 2006 following an upset victory by Hamas in that year's parliamentary election.

After Hamas's sweeping victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, Haniyeh became prime minister in an uncomfortable power-sharing administration with its defeated rival Fatah

However, the fragile power-sharing arrangement with the Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas soon ruptured, and Hamas took full control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after violently ousting the president's loyalists.

Haniyeh was said to have maintained good relations with the heads of the various Palestinian factions, including rivals to Hamas.

Following his death, president Abbas condemned the killing as a "cowardly act and a serious escalation", and urged Palestinians to remain united against Israel.

More recently, Haniyeh had lived in exile and split his time between Turkey and Qatar.

In footage broadcast by Hamas-linked media after the group's October 7 attack on Israel, Haniyeh was seen watching images on television of the unfolding assault before joining other Hamas leaders in a prayer to "thank Allah for this victory".

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,400 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.

An Israeli strike on the Haniyeh family home in Al-Shati killed 10 people in June, including his sister, civil defence officials said, while three of his sons and four of his grandchildren were also killed in an Israeli strike in April.

Haniyeh at the time said that about 60 members of his family had been killed since the war broke out.

The war has left vast swathes of Gaza in ruins and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

Haniyeh had travelled on multiple diplomatic missions since the fighting broke out.

At the time of his death, he was in Tehran to attend Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony for President Masoud Pezeshkian. While there, he met with Pezeshkian as well as supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Following a strike in Lebanon in January that killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri, Haniyeh gave a televised address in which he said: "A movement whose leaders and founders fall as martyrs for the dignity of our people and our nation will never be defeated."

© 2024 AFP

'It's a thunderbolt,' say Palestinians of Hamas chief's killing

Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an air strike in Tehran Wednesday came as a "thunderbolt" to war-weary Gazans, with some expressing disappointment Iran was unable to "protect him".

Issued on: 31/07/2024 -

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh flashes a victory sign during the swearing-in of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian hours before his death in an air strike in Tehran 

AFP

"This news is like a thunderbolt, something unbelievable," said Wael Qudayh, 35, a resident of the central city of Deir al-Balah.

On Wednesday, Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced that Haniyeh had been killed in Tehran in an Israeli air strike.

He was in the Iranian capital to attend the swearing-in on Tuesday of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

"Qatar was able to protect Haniyeh for 10 months, but Iran was unable to protect him even for a few hours," said Youssef Saeed, 40, also a resident of Deir el-Balah.

Hossam Abdel Razek, 45, an employee in a private institution in Ramallah, said Haniyeh's killing showed that the "blood of Palestinians is cheap".

"The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran proves that we, the Palestinian people, have no protector, that our blood is cheap, and that the Arab and Islamic nation sold us out to America and Israel,” he said.
'Martyrdom'

Palestinian factions meanwhile called for a general strike and marches across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to protest the killing of Haniyeh.

AFP journalists in Ramallah witnessed employees leaving government buildings in response to the strike call.

AFP photographers saw closed shops and employees leaving work in several West Bank cities.

Several Palestinians in the Gaza Strip said Haniyeh had achieved "martyrdom" because of the way he was killed.

"This is what every Palestinian hopes for... to obtain martyrdom while defending his land, his people and its sanctities," said Muhammad Farwana, 38, from the southern city of Khan Yunis, where Israeli troops ended a major ground assault this week that displaced tens of thousands of people.

"Haniyeh was someone who gave away his children and grandchildren on the same path."

In June, 10 family members of Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli air strike in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

In April, Haniyeh lost three sons and four grandchildren in an Israeli strike in central Gaza, with the Israeli military accusing them of "terrorist activities".

Haniyeh at the time said that about 60 members of his family had been killed since the war broke out on October 7.

The war began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,400 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.

bur-he-ha-crb-jd/kir

© 2024 AFP

Haniyeh assassination in Tehran sends ‘huge message to Iranians’

Issued on: 31/07/2024 -

04:19© FRANCE 24
Video by: Kethevane GORJESTANI

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ supreme leader in exile who landed on Israel’s hit list after the militant group staged its surprise Oct. 7 attacks, was killed in an airstrike in the Iranian capital early Wednesday. Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran came as a “huge blow” and sent a “huge message to the Iranians”, FRANCE 24’s Kethevane Gorjestani said in an analysis.

Israel pulled a trigger with Haniyeh assassination, Turkey says

Issued on: 31/07/2024 - 

01:10

2024-07-31 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday condemned the "perfidious assassination" in Tehran of his close ally and "brother" Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas. Meanwhile the spokesman for Erdogan's party Omer Celik said that Israel has pulled a trigger as he warned of wider conflict in the region. FRANCE 24's David O'Bryne reports.

Mohammed Deif, Hamas military leader who eluded Israel for decades, is claimed to be dead

JACK JEFFERY and MELANIE LIDMAN
Thu, August 1, 2024 


FILE - Palestinians evacuate a body from a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on July 13, 2024. Israel said it targeted Hamas' military commander Mohammed Deif in a massive strike Saturday. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Mohammed Deif, Hamas' longtime shadowy military leader and one of the alleged masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, is said to be dead following an Israeli airstrike last month.

The Israeli military said it killed Deif in a massive strike in southern Gaza on July 13, citing “an intelligence assessment.” There was no immediate comment from Hamas officials on Israel's claim.

One of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, in the 1990s, Deif led the unit for decades. Under his command, it carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis on buses and at cafes and built up a formidable arsenal of rockets that could strike deep into Israel and often did.

He gained mythical status among Palestinians, surviving a string of Israeli assassination attempts and not showing his face in public for decades. For years, he topped Israel's most-wanted list.

Israel says Deif and Hamas’ political leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, were the chief architects of the Oct. 7 attack. Together they succeeded in foiling Israel’s vaunted border defenses, surprising the region’s most powerful military and unleashing an unprecedented attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 others hostage into Gaza. The attack triggered the Israel-Hamas war that has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.

On the morning of the attack, Hamas issued a rare voice recording of Deif announcing the “Al Aqsa Flood” operation. In the message, he railed against military raids in the occupied West Bank and violence in east Jerusalem and called on all Palestinians to rise up and take part.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “Kill, burn, destroy and block the roads. Make them understand that the Al Aqsa Flood is more powerful than they think and believe."

The military's claim that he was dead came a day after Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an alleged Israeli strike on Tehran.

Those developments could help set the tone for the remainder of the war. They could imperil cease-fire talks and raise fears of a regional escalation.

But the alleged demise of Deif, a long-wanted figure said to be behind the deadliest attack in Israel's history, would also be a major win for Israel. It could present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a political off-ramp to end the war, allowing him to retreat from his lofty promises of “total victory” while showing Israelis that Hamas' military capabilities suffered a debilitating blow.

At the same time, his killing would be a significant setback for Hamas, both symbolically and strategically, since it may have lost a unique player in the Palestinian armed struggle against Israel, even if that struggle likely won't end with Deif's alleged death. He was believed to be 58 or 59.

Born Mohammed al-Masri, his nom de guerre, Deif, means “guest” in Arabic — a moniker that reflected his tendency to change locations frequently to hide from Israel.

Deif, like Sinwar, grew up in a refugee camp of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis in the mid-1960s. Gaza is home to several such camps whose inhabitants fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel during the war surrounding the country’s establishment in 1948.

He is believed to have joined Hamas shortly after the formation of the Islamist Palestinian group in the late 1980s, at the onset of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising. The group's ideology calls for armed resistance and the violent destruction of Israel.

In 1989, during the height of the uprising, Deif was arrested by Israel but later released.

Michael Koubi, a former director of the investigations department at Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency, is one of the few Israelis to have met Deif personally when he was a quiet, bookish 16-year-old imprisoned in a detention facility in Khan Younis for throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers. “He was very, very patriotic, very involved in the intifada,” Koubi said.

He would go on to found Hamas' network in the West Bank in 1993, the year that Israel reached an interim peace agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Israeli military said. That same year, he was also promoted to the head of Hamas’ armed wing, it said.

Israel holds Deif responsible for plotting many attacks that killed scores of Israeli civilians, including the kidnapping and killing of Israeli soldier Nahshon Wachsman in the West Bank in October 1994, and suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Ashkelon in 1996.

The attacks in the mid-90s are widely believed to have tipped the 1996 Israeli election in favor of Benjamin Netanyahu, who eked out a surprise victory over the more moderate front-runner Shimon Peres. Under Netanyahu's lengthy leadership and his successive nationalist governments, the prospects of an independent Palestinian state have grown dimmer, chances that have further diminished because of Hamas' attack and the war.

Under Deif's watch, Hamas developed its rocket program, beginning with rudimentary weapons capable of traveling just a few kilometers (miles) and evolving into an arsenal that struck deep inside Israel, reaching its seaside metropolis Tel Aviv and the foothills of Jerusalem. He was also in command when soldier Gilad Schalit was kidnapped into Gaza in 2006. Schalit would be released five years later in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, a trade that set Sinwar free.

Deif is also thought to have helped expand Hamas’ labyrinth of underground tunnels in Gaza — where he is believed to have hidden during the ongoing war.

Koubi said Deif’s fingerprints were all over the Oct. 7 attack, from its sweeping scope to the more surprising aspects like the paragliders who flew over the fence and landed in the border communities at the start of the attack.

“He was very creative,” he said.

There are few photos of Deif, and he is thought to be unrecognizable to most Palestinians.

Deif has been so elusive that even his appearance was a point of speculation. Some media reports say he was paralyzed and used a wheelchair for years following injuries he sustained during past assassination attempts, while others reported he was able to walk unassisted.

In 2014, Palestinian media said his wife and two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike, one of the many failed attempts to kill him.

Moshe Fuzaylov, a long-time investigator and former senior official for the Shin Bet, said that if Deif was killed, it could open a window of opportunity where Hamas will be in disarray, including over Haniyeh's death. It could push the group toward a cease-fire with Israel while they are in a weakened state.

“It’s a morale hit and a very strong operational hit, and it changes this organization from something that has two legs to lean on to one that is limping,” he said.

But it wouldn't necessarily be a death blow for Hamas.

“Israel has targeted Hamas political and military leaders in the past,” said Khaled el-Gindy, an analyst specializing in Palestinian affairs with the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

“But leaders are always replaceable.”

Hamas military wing chief Deif killed in Gaza air strike, Israeli army says

Issued on: 01/08/2024 - 

Video by:FRANCE 24

The Israeli military said Thursday that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July. The announcement came a day after an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital killed Hamas’ top political leader.

Profile

Mohammed Deif, the elusive architect of Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel

Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas's Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, organised the deadly October 7 assaults on Israel that triggered the war raging in Gaza. The brazen attacks brought to the forefront a little-known character who managed to elude Israel's intelligence services for over 30 years.

 01/08/2024 - 

Screengrab from a video posted on Hamas’s website in October 2005 in which a man identified as Mohammed Deif called for the intensification of armed conflict with Israel. © Hamas via AP

By:Sébastian SEIBT


Editor's note: This article was first published on October 10, 2023, in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel. On August 1, the Israeli military announced that Deif had been "eliminated" in an air strike on Gaza in July. Hamas has not confirmed the reported killing of its military commander.

Mohammed Deif has been on Israel's 'most wanted' list for nearly three decades. The leader of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, is unlikely to lose the designation anytime soon.

Deif is behind the military operation launched from the Gaza Strip that caught Israel off guard on Saturday, October 7. After intense fighting that caused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to declare war on Hamas, Deif, perhaps more than ever, is in Tel Aviv's crosshairs.

As Deif’s bounty rises, his star in Gaza is expected to rise too. His “prestige” was already strong, says Omri Brinner, an Israel and Middle East analyst at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona (ITSS). “But with this operation – the most successful in the history of Palestinian resistance – his legacy will live forever. He can fail now, Israel can assassinate him now: his legacy will outlast him.”
‘Nine lives’

As someone who has escaped multiple assassination attempts, Deif is the “ultimate survivor of Palestinian resistance”, says Brinner. His ability to evade Israeli intelligence services has earned him the nickname "the man with nine lives".

Considered an international terrorist by the United States since 2015, Deif has represented a direct and constant threat to the internal security of Israel for over 30 years. "Militancy against Israel is a field with low life expectancy. It’s quite remarkable that he has been able to survive so long. He is a long-lasting stain on Israel's reputation of taking down designated targets," says Jacob Eriksson, a specialist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the University of York.

The trick to survival lies in remaining hidden. The only official photo of Deif in circulation is over twenty years old. However, he is far from unscathed. Deif is said to have lost his sight, one arm, and one leg after an Israeli attack in 2006.

A photo of Mohammed Deif, taken sometime around the year 2000 in an unknown location. Handout file photo, AFP

His real name is also unknown, although several media outlets suggest it is Mohammed al-Masri. "Deif" is, in fact, an Arabic moniker that translates literally to "guest". "It’s a reference to the fact he doesn’t stay more than one night in the same place to avoid being caught by Israel," explains Eriksson.

Other details about Deif’s life are scarce. Deif was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza in the 1960s, according to an Israeli intelligence official who spoke with the Financial Times.

In 2014, the Washington Post reported that Deif studied at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he frequented members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas would later become an offshoot.

Attack from both above and below

The future architect of Hamas's military operations joined the Islamist organisation in the late 1980s with the help of Yahya Ayyash – known as "the Engineer" – one of Hamas’s main explosives experts with whom "Deif was very close", according to Eriksson.

After orchestrating suicide bombing attacks in the 1990s, Deif became increasingly important within Hamas after Ayyash’s assassination by Israeli intelligence services in 1996. He was appointed head of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades in 2002.

One of his early achievements as a leader was to apply lessons from the second intifada in the early 2000s. He masterminded the construction of underground tunnels allowing Hamas fighters to launch incursions into Israeli territory from Gaza. He also emphasised the use of rockets as extensively as possible.

“In response to Israel's fortifying the border with walls, he developed Hamas’s ‘below and above strategy’, meaning digging tunnels for Hamas militants to go into Israel and sending rockets," explains Brinner.

His modus operandi has "always been to directly hit Israeli territory by any means possible to make it pay the highest price for its treatment of the population in Gaza", notes Eriksson.

Deif’s ideology is about making any purely political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible, says Brinner. “His philosophy is about a military solution to the conflict.” It's no coincidence, Brinner adds, that Deif organised a major campaign of suicide bombings in the mid-1990s, shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords.

A matter of prestige

This reputation for using purely military means also partly explains "why he enjoys unparalleled popularity among the Gaza population", says Brinner. In 2014, in a poll conducted by a Palestinian news site, “Deif was voted more popular than Khaled Meshal, the overall leader of Hamas, and Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s top political leader in Gaza – both highly visible personalities and known to every Palestinian," reported the Washington Post.

"He is a military leader, so he is immune to critiques of how Hamas has handled the humanitarian and social aspects of Gaza's administration," says Eriksson.

"He is also the only one who lives in Gaza and has educated his children there," adds Brinner. This is significant from the perspective of Gaza residents, who accuse Haniyeh of leading Hamas from a "luxury hotel in Qatar".

Deif's personality and the respect he inspires in Gaza can also partly explain how the ambitious attack succeeded despite the Israeli intelligence services' widely recognised effectiveness. "The fact that Hamas planned this operation for a year – according to the latest estimations – without any information leaking speaks to the loyalty the select few who were involved in the planning of the operation have to Deif," says Brinner.

This loyalty has already resulted in the deaths of more than 1000 Israelis and 830 Palestinians since the start of the attack on Saturday.

This article has been translated from the original in French.