TRT Word – November 17. 2023
Gaza death toll surpasses 12,000 amid relentless Israeli assaults
Israel's bombardment and ground invasion of besieged Gaza — now in its 42nd day — kill at least 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 of them children and 3,300 women.
1823 GMT — Israel will hit Hamas all over Gaza, including south: military
Israeli troops will hit Hamas targets wherever they can find them, including in the south of Gaza, Israel’s chief military spokesperson has said, as forces continued their ground offensive in the north of the besieged enclave.
"We are determined to advance our operation. It will happen wherever Hamas exists, including in the south of the strip," Daniel Hagari told a regular briefing.
1617 GMT — 170 Israeli attacks on health facilities in West: WHO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that health care facilities in the occupied West Bank have faced more than 170 Israeli attacks since Oct. 7.
"WHO is concerned about the continued escalation of attacks on health care in the West Bank,” the UN agency said in a statement on X.
"Today, at least six paramedics (were) made to exit Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, after which they were searched and detained," the organisation said, adding that "three ambulances were also searched."
“Health care is not a target,” the WHO stressed, referring to international rules of war barring hospitals, schools, and other civilian facilities from being attacked.
The WHO called for “the active protection of health workers and health facilities.”
1530 GMT — 1 killed, several injured as police in Nigeria’s pro-Palestine rally
Nigerian police have opened fire and used tear gas on pro-Palestine demonstrators in north-central Kaduna city, killing one person and injuring several others, the country’s Islamic organisation said.
A spokesperson for the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) Aliyu Tirmiziy said police fired tear gas canisters and gunshots to disperse hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrators who were staging a demonstration in Kaduna city on Thursday against Israel’s continued assault on Gaza.
1501 GMT — Scores of Palestinians dead, wounded from Israeli bombing of Gaza school
There were scores of deaths and injuries from an Israeli bombing that targeted a Gaza City school sheltering displaced people, Palestine TV reported.
More than 20 people were killed and 100 others injured in the bombing of Al Falah School, which houses displaced people in Gaza City’s southern Zeitoun neighbourhood, said the Palestinian Authority-run channel, based in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
1459 GMT — 24 dead in two days at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital due to power cuts
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has said that 24 patients have died in the past two days at Al Shifa hospital owing to power cuts, as Israeli forces search the facility for Hamas hideouts.
"Twenty-four patients in different departments have died over the last 48 hours as vital medical equipment has stopped functioning because of the power outage," said ministry spokesperson Ashraf al Qudra.
On Monday, the ministry said 27 adult intensive care patients and seven babies had already died as Gaza’s largest hospital ran out of fuel to run its generators.
1320 GMT — Israel bombs school housing displaced people — Palestinian media
Casualties have been reported in a bombing of a school housing displaced people in the Al Zaytoun neighbourhood, south of Gaza City, according to Palestine TV.
1204 GMT — Hezbollah targets Israeli army in three separate attacks at Lebanon border
Hezbollah has said that it had successfully targeted three Israeli military gatherings in different areas opposite the southern Lebanese border.
Lebanon-based Hezbollah said in a statement that its members targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers near the Rameem barracks in the occupied Lebanese village of Houla “with appropriate weapons” and achieved results.
þHezbollah fighters targeted another gathering of Israeli soldiers near the Al Marj site, opposite the Lebanese town of Markaba, the group said in a separate statement, without specifying casualties or damage to the Israeli military.
In another statement, Hezbollah said it “targeted a group of Israeli soldiers near the Tiyahat Triangle opposite the town of Meiss al Jabal.”
1200 GMT — Muslim worshippers blocked from prayers at Al Aqsa for 6th consecutive Friday
For the sixth consecutive week, Israeli authorities imposed tight restrictions on Palestinians, banning them from entering Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem for Friday prayers, leaving the mosque all but empty.
An official with the Waqf Department in Jerusalem told Anadolu that only around 4,000 Palestinians, most of them elderly, had managed to reach the venerated mosque to perform Friday prayers – down sharply from the usual 50,000.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that Israeli forces have been heavily deployed across occupied East Jerusalem, particularly in the Old City and the entrances leading to the mosque.
Israeli forces continue searching northern Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital as a communications blackout brings deadly fears for Palestinian civilians trapped inside facility pic.twitter.com/GEqPzwHFod
1129 GMT — Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced
Palestinian Bureau of Statistics has said 400,000 Palestinians were forced to flee towards southern Gaza due to Israeli bombardments, while 800,000 Palestinians remain in Gaza and northern areas.
1056 GMT — Israeli army kills seven Palestinians in occupied West Bank
The Israeli army has said it killed at least seven Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in two separate incidents.
Occupation forces raided the Jabal Abu Zaheer and Al Jabriyat neighbourhoods, the outskirts of the Jenin camp, the vicinity of the district security headquarters, the ‘cinema roundabout,’ the city centre, and the vicinity of Jenin Governmental Hospital,” the official Palestine news agency WAFA reported.
0633 GMT — Israeli defence minister claims control over western Gaza City
The Israeli army claims control over the western area of Gaza City, the country's defence minister said, announcing the start of the “next phase” of ground invasion.
Speaking to soldiers at the 36th Division's command centre in southern Israel, Yoav Gallant said: "During the past 24 hours, we took operational control of the western area of Gaza City, and the next phase of ground operations has begun."
He added: "The more we continue this operation, the more pressure we will put on Hamas and the more we will succeed in eliminating its infrastructure, including its headquarters and tunnels."
Israel's bombardment of Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack, accompanied by a ground invasion, has killed over 11,000 Palestinians, more than half of them being women and children.
0324 GMT — US statements on Gaza hospitals 'repetition of blatantly false narrative': Hamas
American allegations about the use of hospitals and schools in Gaza as military sites are a "repetition of a blatantly false narrative" provided by the Israeli army, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said, holding the US "politically and legally responsible" for Israel’s crimes in the enclave.
"The Pentagon's claim that Hamas used Al Shifa Hospital for military purposes... and the US State Department's claim that Hamas used hospitals and schools as military sites is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative," Hamas said in a statement published on the group's Telegram account.
It added that this "was exposed by the flimsy and ridiculous theatrics of the spokesperson for the occupying army, after their raid on Al Rantisi and Al Shifa hospitals and threatening the safety of patients and medical staff.”
0220 GMT — Israeli forces raid Jenin refugee camp in occupied West Bank
The Israeli army stormed the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank and besieged the Jenin refugee camp, leading to clashes with Palestinian fighters.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that large numbers of Israeli military vehicles entered the city accompanied by bulldozers.
They said the army approached from several directions and targeted several neighborhoods while imposing a siege on the Jenin camp.
Electricity was cut off in the camp and the Al Jabriyat neighborhood while military helicopters and drones flew over the area.
https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/live-blog-gaza-death-toll-surpasses-12000-amid-relentless-israeli-assaults-15860410
Middle East Monitor – November 17, 2023
The Psychological Consequences of the Trauma of War in Gaza
By Ali Omidi
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a symptom or syndrome that occurs after seeing, directly experiencing or hearing a stressful and traumatic factor (trauma) that can lead to the death of the affected person. One of its factors is a person’s direct experience of the violent death of a family member or close friend. This disorder may also occur as a result of repeated exposure to the horrific details of an incident (trauma); likewise, police officers who are exposed to the details of criminal cases.
The injured person feels fear and helplessness in relation to these experiences, and often shows disturbed and restless behaviour. War and killings also cause trauma to survivors. Trauma is a psychological term that comes from the Greek word meaning wound and is known as a psychological injury. This occurs after being in a very stressful or uncomfortable situation. Being in such a situation makes you think that you have no security and that you are always in danger. As such, you feel helpless and constantly anxious.
The destructive war of the Israeli regime against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continues with heavy bombing by fighters and the targeting of homes, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure. International organisations and experts have said that this is a “text-book case of genocide”. At the time of writing, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 70 per cent of the victims are children and women. Worldwide demonstrations demand a ceasefire.
However, it is now important to consider the trauma inflicted on the people of Gaza; they will suffer from it for the rest of their lives, and most people, especially children, will suffer from PTSD. This could seriously jeopardise the future mental health of the Palestinians in the enclave. In this regard, three painful psychological traumas caused by the attacks of the Israeli regime against the people of this region can be mentioned in particular.
Many cannot be sure if their loved ones are safe or not, or even still alive
For a start, there is the crisis of not knowing the whereabouts and fate of relatives. In a month of war, the Israeli regime has tried to cut off internet access for Gaza, as well as telephone links. Many Palestinians have been unable to discover the whereabouts, fate and health status of their relatives, friends and acquaintances under heavy Israeli bombardment. Many cannot be sure if their loved ones are safe or not, or even still alive. To put it more simply, they are anxious that they may have lost their loved ones and they still don’t know about it. Moreover, a large number of Palestinians have been forced to move from the north to the south of Gaza. This has also caused difficulties in finding out about relatives and friends.
Then there is the exposure of Palestinian children to horrific images in Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli air and artillery attacks, which causes severe shock. This is something that even adults cannot bear, leading to anxiety and serious mental and psychological damage. They see the dead bodies of their family around them, and see themselves as helpless with an uncertain future. They do not imagine any safe place and their psychological security has been lost.
The Guardian: ﾓA safe space for Gazaﾒs children: ﾑThey still have dreams for the futureﾒ
We have probably all seen images of parents clutching their dead child, which have gone viral on social media. The parents feel unable to be separated from their child. It is a shocking image that touches the heart of every decent human being. With more than 4,000 children killed so far, if one or both parents have survived they will face serious mental issues in the shape of deep trauma to their souls.
According to UNICEF, more than half a million children in Syria under the age of five are stunted due to chronic malnutrition. Moreover, 2.4 million children within the country and 750,000 displaced beyond its borders do not go to school as a result of their displacement. The number of children who have suffered mental and psychological injuries due to constant exposure to violence, shock and trauma has doubled. Undoubtedly, this case will apply more strongly to the people of Gaza, especially the surviving children.
The people of Gaza are Palestinians, most of them refugees or descendants of refugees who were forced to move to Gaza from other areas of historic Palestine since 1948. They have been practically held in a concentration camp and separated from their home towns and villages like a severed limb, with no way out of this situation because Israel does not allow them to exercise their legitimate right to return to their homes. As a result of this particular trauma, some people in Gaza will lose their sense of psychological security and feel threatened and helpless.
Psychological trauma can leave a person with distressing feelings, memories and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also cause numbness, disconnection and a lack of trust in others. People have to endure these severe traumas, even after the war ends, and many will definitely suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. This will have long-term negative political, economic, cultural and psychological effects, with the main consequence being a sense of the need for revenge that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
The Conversation – November 16, 2023
The Gaza Conflict Opens up New Opportunities for China in the Middle East, Global South
By Shaun Narine, St. Thomas University (Canada) | –
(The Conversation) – The western world’s support for Israel as it attacks Gaza has provoked fury across the Arab world and much of the Global South.
This situation undermines the West’s international standing and offers opportunities for China to enhance its regional and global diplomatic influence. Whether and how it will seize them remains to be seen.
Led by the United States, the West has presented itself as following a mrules-based liberal international orderl that ostensibly protects human rights and international norms.
On this basis, the West has opposed Russians invasion and occupation of Ukraine. However, it isnnt applying these rules to Israel and Palestinians.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. supports a humanitarian pause but not a ceasefire. The White House says Israel has now agreed to four-hour daily pauses in military operations in Gaza.
Children’s ‘graveyard’
Most western governments have thrown their support behind Israel as it launches a devastating attack on Gaza. In response to Hamasns brutal attack and hostage-takings on Oct. 7, Israel has bombed schools, hospitals, ambulances, refugee camps, bakeries, mosques, churches, flattened neighbourhoods and killed thousands of people, possibly 40 per cent of them children.
UN Secretary General António Guterres has said mGaza is becoming a graveyard for children.” About 1,300 children are believed buried under rubble. Hospitals are collapsing. The perception in the Global South is that Palestinian lives are virtually worthless to the West.
Some western governments’ efforts to censor and criminalize public demonstrations supporting Palestinians adds another perceived dimension of hypocrisy to the West’s actions.
Even mild statements of support for Palestinians can be enough to endanger peoplesn careers, especially in the U.S.
A boon to China?
In this environment, the war in Gaza provides China with diplomatic and political opportunities.
From the Chinese perspective, one political benefit is that the U.S. has lost any credibility in its criticism of Chinans treatment of the Uyghur people.
The U.S. argues that Israel has the right to protect itself from terrorism. China has claimed the same right in its oppression of the Uyghurs of Xinjiang.
Chinans actions against the Uyghurs are certainly disturbing, but they aren’t as devastating as what Israel is doing to Palestinians. And unlike Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, Xinjiang is China’s sovereign territory.
China also has a strong interest in promoting peace in the Middle East given about half of its imported oil comes from the region. China helped Saudi Arabia and Iran normalize their relations.
Four Middle Eastern countries have joined BRICS, the international forum representing the world’s rising powers founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Saudi Arabia is also considering selling China oil in its own currency, the yuan.
Bypassing Palestinians
Ongoing American efforts under President Joe Biden to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel were partly motivated by fear of Chinans diplomatic and economic progress in the Middle East.
Some have argued this American attempt to bypass the Palestinians may have played a role in Hamasns attack on Israel. The U.S. has fomented conflict in the Middle East to keep the Islamic world divided and empower Israel, in contrast to China’s imperative for regional stability.
The U.S. has promoted the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor to enhance its presence in the Middle East, more fully integrate Israel into the regional economy and counteract Chinans growing regional influence.
But Arab states donnt share the American desire to contain China. They prefer a multi-polar world where they can leverage several larger powers against each other and increase their own global geopolitical influence.
The longer Israelns assault on Gaza continues, the higher the civilian death toll climbs and the more politically difficult it will be for the Arab world to co-operate with Israel or the U.S. That will push the Gulf states even closer to China.
In the current Gaza conflict, China has emphasized the need to avoid civilian casualties while rejecting Israelns demand that it specifically condemn Hamas. China’s position reflects the consensus of the Global South, which considers the recent historical context of the conflict and Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Americans distracted
The Israel-Gaza war is also distracting the U.S. from the Indo-Pacific region, further working to China’s advantage.
The U.S. is mired in the Middle East. Bidenns administration supports the two-state solution to the conflict, but that solution may no longer be viable.
The U.S. appears unprepared to use its leverage over Israel to force it to accept a two-state solution. Any Israeli government that tried to move huge numbers of illegal settlers out of their settlements would face massive domestic criticism, even a potential civil war.
China’s diplomatic successes in the Middle East have involved reconciling states that were already inching towards restoring relations. Nonetheless, China could position itself as the superpower that champions the interests of the Arab world and the perspective of the Global South in future negotiations.
China will therefore likely be much more even-handed in its approach to the conflict than the U.S.
Is China willing to play a more active role in the Israel-Palestine dispute? It may be tempted to let the U.S. stew in a problem of its own making, but regional peace and stability benefits China’s economic development.
While some scholars are skeptical of Chinans potential role in any ceasefire or peace negotiations, the Chinese have more credibility in the region than the Americans do.
The U.S. has mismanaged and damaged the Middle East for decades. It would benefit the region if a superpower more inclined towards diplomacy than violence played a balancing role.
Shaun Narine, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, St. Thomas University (Canada)
https://theconversation.com/the-war-in-gaza-opens-up-new-opportunities-for-china-in-the-middle-east-216392
Global Research - November 16, 2023
American Troops “Prepared to Die” for Israel: Lt. General Richard Clark Confirms
A U.S. – Israel “Partnership”, A “Signed” Military Agreement”
Lt. General Clark confirms that: "U.S. troops could be put under Israeli commanders in the battlefield"
By Ben Bartee and Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Author Ben Bartee confirms in the article below, quoting Lt General Richard Clark that:
Americans Troops are “prepared to die for the Jewish State”.
What should be understood by this statement is that the US and Israel have a longstanding Military “Partnership” as well as a “Signed” Military Agreement” (classified) regarding Israel’s attack on Gaza. Our analysis confirms that the U.S. is pulling the strings.
Lt. General Richard Clark is U.S. Third Air Force Commander, among the highest-ranking military officers in the U.S. Armed Forces.
While he refers to Juniper Cobra, “a joint military exercise that has been conducted for almost a decade”, his statement points to a much broader military-intelligence agreement (classified) which no doubt consists on the unconditional endorsement of the Israeli genocidal attack against Gaza by President Joe Biden, leading to the annexation of all Palestine territories to the State of Israel.
While this so-called “signed agreement” remains classified (not in the public domain), it would appear that Biden is obeying the orders of the perpetrators of this diabolical military agenda.
Does President Biden have the authority (under this “Signed agreement”) to save the lives of innocent civilians including the children of Palestine:
Q (Inaudible) Gaza ceasefire, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: Pardon me?
Q What are the chances of a Gaza ceasefire?
THE PRESIDENT: None. No possibility.
White House Press Conference, November 9, 2023
which suggests that the genocide is implemented by Netanyahu on behalf of the United States.
Everything indicates that the US military and intelligence apparatus are behind Israel’s criminal bombing and invasion of Gaza.
It is worth noting that a federal complaint (PDF), was filed on November 13, against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, accusing them of:
ﾓfailure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli governmentﾒs unfolding genocideﾔ.
This case is brought on behalf of Palestinian human rights organizations and individuals to enforce what is perhaps the most basic and important legal, and moral, obligation in the world – the obligation to prevent genocide, the destruction of a people.
This duty is enshrined in the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which the United States, Israel and Palestine have all acceded, and it is judicially enforceable as a peremptory norm of customary international law. Plaintiffs seek an order of this Court requiring that the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense adhere to their duty to prevent, and not further, the unfolding genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza.
Michel Chossudovsky, November 16, 2023
***
The multinational corporate state’s apparent goal here — it can only be inferred, based on the behavior of key, high-level state actors — is to test how in-your-face the governing authorities can get with their Israel First agenda without inflicting serious political damage on themselves.
So far, for reasons that are disconcerting if not inexplicable, the Make America Great Again movement, by and large, with a few notable exceptions like Candace Owens who suggested that Nikki Haley should run for president of Israel, appears to be taking it good and hard. The spineless sycophants ought to swap those MAGA caps with “Cucks For Israel” replacements.
Via Jerusalem Post:
“’As far as decision-making, it is a partnership,’ [Lt. Gen. Richard Clark] continued, stressing nonetheless that ‘at the end of the day it is about the protection of Israel – and if there is a question in regards to how we will operate, the last vote will probably go to Zvika [Haimovitch].’
Washington and Israel have signed an agreement which would see the US come to assist Israel with missile defense in times of war and, according to Haimovitch, “I am sure once the order comes we will find here US troops on the ground to be part of our deployment and team to defend the State of Israel.”
And those US troops who would be deployed to Israel, are prepared to die for the Jewish state, Clark said. ’We are ready to commit to the defense of Israel and anytime we get involved in a kinetic fight there is always the risk that there will be casualties. But we accept that – as every conflict we train for and enter, there is always that possibility,’ he said.”
Notice the glaring — and quite remarkable in its brazenness — lack of any pretext of American troops in the Middle East promoting American national security interests whatsoever (a wild concept, admittedly) in this rhetoric from Lt. Gen. Clark.
It’s straight to the servicing of Israel.
The question is: why bother wearing an American flag on that uniform at all?
Better yet, why not swap the whole thing out wholesale for an IDF uniform like the one that Rep. Brian Mast wore in the American Congress last month, who somehow escaped so much as a word of criticism from his Republican comrades, much less censure and removal from office?
Mondoweiss – November 13, 2023
From the River to the Sea: The undying promise of Palestinian
liberation in the face of genocide
“From the River to the Sea” is not merely a slogan—it is an undying promise and demand for national liberation. Attempts to vilify it are only meant to undermine the movement against Zionism and silence calls for Palestinian freedom.
BY PALESTINIAN YOUTH MOVEMENT
Over the past five weeks, we have seen millions, if not billions, of people around the world mobilizing for Palestine. On November 4, history was made in the heart of the United States empire with the largest Palestine march in U.S. history. On November 11, over a million people took to the streets of London in another record-breaking march. We have also seen protests regularly organized across the globe. These demonstrations are protesting the Zionist entity’s genocide which this month alone has claimed over 11,000 Palestinian lives, over half of them children. Amidst this genocide, and the building of a historic global movement in support of the Palestinian people, Zionist institutions and the Western nations that finance Israel’s savagery have earnestly attacked a central slogan and chant heard at these historic actions: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free.”
Through this attack, the forces of Zionism and imperialism are attempting to delegitimize the movement for Palestinian national liberation and distract from Israel’s genocide. The attempts to vilify and criminalize this chant are part of a broader effort to undermine the movement against Zionism and to silence the calls for Palestinian freedom, which can be heard in every corner of the world. The thousands of people joining the movement each day are living proof that efforts to undermine our calls for freedom are failing and that we, and our supporters, will remain steadfast in our vision for Palestinian liberation from the river to the sea.
This chant for freedom is currently being smeared as hate speech or incitement to violence. U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was censured for saying it. Harvard’s President condemned the use of the phrase by student organizers, announcing the creation of an antisemitism advisory group in response. A Palestinian organizer in Calgary, Canada was charged by police for leading the chant during a protest. In Britain, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman penned a letter to the Metropolitan Police encouraging them to “consider whether chants such as ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ should be understood as an expression of a violent desire” and even insinuated the criminalization of the chant. The mainstream media has painted the slogan in a similar light, either suggesting it calls for the genocide of Jewish people or attempting to both-sides it by painting the history of the call for Palestinian liberation as “complex.” In response, some have defended the phrase by decontextualizing it from its ties to a struggle for national liberation, suggesting that it is “a call for Israel to extend citizenship and legal and political equality to every single human being residing within its current borders.” What this kind of analysis fails to grasp is that Palestinians do not chant this phrase in a plea for citizenship within a nation built on our genocide, but rather as a demand for national liberation and freedom.
Of course, for Zionism, Palestinian freedom is an existential threat to the project of creating a colonial ethno-state on top of Palestine. This is a state that has no official borders and, over the past 75 years, has occupied Egyptian, Syrian, and Lebanese land (and continues to violate Syria and Lebanon’s sovereignty). Netanyahu, two months ago in the United Nations General Assembly, held up a map of “the New Middle East.” This Zionist geographical imaginary eliminated Palestine from the region and absorbed the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, reflecting the Likud party’s charter, which steals our call for freedom and demands that “between the Sea and Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”
The reality is that Zionism’s brutal violence against the Palestinian people extends across all of historic Palestine: from the West Bank’s Jordan River to Gaza’s sea. No Palestinian life is sacred amidst its genocidal blockade, in the presence of its settlements and checkpoints, nor within its prison walls where thousands of Palestinians are held and tortured, and 2.3 million Gazans are held hostage. Palestinian freedom necessitates total liberation: not only from the river to the sea, but beyond the borders of historic Palestine, where millions of Palestinians await return. Palestinian liberation necessitates liberation from Zionism.
But why is there now a heightened attempt to equate Palestinian calls for liberation with genocidal hate speech? There is an actual genocide that the Israeli regime and its Western backers are undertaking between the river and the sea. This smear campaign is a strategy that works to keep the Palestinian movement on the defensive as we attempt to stop a genocide that Western governments are greenlighting and funding. It aims to distract from the genocide unfolding and promote doubt and fear among the increasing numbers of people who are growing conscious of their institutions’ and governments’ complicity in it. It intends to obfuscate the question of violence: simultaneously painting violence as the words of the occupied and detracting from the violence of the occupier’s genocide.
In response to these claims, Palestinians in Western countries and those who stand with them are having to (at best) spend their time explaining the meaning of “From the River to the Sea,” or (at worst) defend themselves against backlash, suspensions, and repression for using the phrase. The fixation on discourse and the scrutinization of our chants aims to sow uncertainty into the hearts and minds of those new to the movement while providing institutions such as universities, the media, and workplaces with new tools to continue justifying their repression.
Such strategies make invisible what is happening in Palestine, that is: over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed by bombs funded by imperialist powers like the U.S., Canada, and Britain; patients in the ICU of Al Shifa hospital have died due to power outages; children are collecting water pooled up in the streets to drink; people are dying from lack of food, medical care, and water; hospitals are collapsing; 10,000 Palestinians are held hostage in Israeli prisons, being tortured to death; hundreds of Palestinians have been murdered in the West Bank; and hundreds of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship have been arrested in the 1948 territories since October 7. Israel’s horrific crimes cannot even be fully documented because they have cut off Gaza’s communications infrastructure and killed more than 40 Palestinian journalists and media workers. Alongside this, there is clear discursive evidence of Israel’s ambitions in Gaza: politicians, officials, and media personalities have repeatedly called for genocide in Gaza and even Israeli doctors, those who have taken the Hippocratic oath of ethics, have greenlighted the bombing of Gazaﾒs hospitals. These are the material facts of genocide happening on the ground.
How is anyone to believe, amidst a genocide that has taken over 11,000 Palestinian lives, that a chant for freedom is what incites violence? How dare anyone fear the call for liberation recited by the masses instead of the bombs raining down on Gaza? This is precisely what this focus on discourse aims to achieve: a vehicle through which to further the projects of Zionism and Western imperialism. It is true, however, that Zionists know very well that Zionism is incompatible with Palestinian life and that its foundation is premised on the expulsion, exploitation, and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. This is precisely why a chant for Palestinian freedom and national liberation is met with such hysteria and repression. This is particularly evident in a moment where this march for Palestinian freedom grows stronger, with millions across the globe joining our struggle. All over North America and Europe, people are waking up to the role of their governments in this genocide. From protests to blocking the transport of weapons to shutting down media outlets and political offices, the masses are calling not only for a ceasefire but for an end to the siege on Gaza and the halting of aid and weapons to the Zionist state.
For over 75 years, the Zionist project has aimed to destroy and eliminate the Palestinian people. And for 75 years, the Palestinian people have continued to maintain their presence and struggle to stay on and return to their lands.
“From the River to the Sea” is not merely a slogan—it is an undying promise. Each day, the Palestinian revolution grows stronger, the calls for freedom are louder, and we are one day closer to total liberation: from the river to the sea.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever.
Mondoweiss – November 13, 2023
Palestinian liberation is the grammar of our freedom –
On the moral bankruptcy of the University
The Inter-University Coalition on Palestine is mobilizing students and workers at hundreds of universities worldwide who refuse to accept the rules of the colonial university. We demand a Free Palestine. This is the horizon of our collective freedom.
BY OPEN LETTER
Editor’s Note: The following open letter was initiated by the recently formed “Inter-University Coalition on Palestine,” which currently has signatories from over 200 universities worldwide. To add your university and join the coalition for future organizing, sign here.
We write as workers and students of the university to reiterate our conviction that the struggle for Palestinian liberation is our collective cause. The occupation of Palestine is a frontline in the endurance of colonialism and its myriad sites: seas, borders, camps, and settlements. The occupation of Palestine has embodied global anticolonial solidarity since at least the early twentieth century. Such solidarity and mobilization further deepened with the outbreak of anticolonial struggles in the mid-twentieth century and continued to strengthen since the 1970s. Today, we continue in their footsteps.
Calls for Palestinian liberation grow louder in the face of air strikes and televised mass murder. But the occupation of Palestine is no punctuated experience; it structures everyday life. It shows us that the Nakba of 1948 is a constantly unfolding event. It is an ongoing system of apartheid that undergirds Israel’s existence as an ethno-national state. This colonial history is not a primordial rivalry between Arabs and Jews, nor is it a conflict between two equal powers. Settler colonialism in Palestine is a century-long process, as well as an instrument of British and later American imperialism.
Israel’s siege of Gaza only reasserts the country’s colonial power over Palestine. The siege is a tightening chokehold on the Palestinian struggle against years of blockade, fragmentation, controlled resources, restricted mobility, and, increasingly, starvation.
We refuse to participate in a discursive war that renders some lives more grieveable than others. Our stratified vocabulary of mourning and victimhood forecloses the critical recognition that lying beyond the border walls and fences, there is a shared humanity. Wrapped in the rhetoric of mainstream media and politicians is the claim that people who risk everything to overthrow the chains of racialized oppression do not deserve to live. The echoes of the decolonizing war in Algeria, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the ongoing struggle for Black liberation ring loudly. The same racialized logic that rendered these movements the work of primitive, violent savages now demands we condemn Palestinians as uncivilized and barbaric. We refuse the status quo that these constructions uphold.
Pro-Palestinian speech is met with McCarthyite backlash on university campuses. Institutions of higher education have abdicated their responsibility to protect the lives and well-being of Arab, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Muslim students. University administrations’ calls for “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” conspicuously disregard the long-suppressed Palestinian claim to life. Our institutions produce vacuous statements while far-right organizations – bankrolled by donors with endowed university centers – harass, threaten, and actively harm marginalized students. Death threats and doxxing against students and faculty who speak out against the occupation of Palestine and systemic violence have become the norm.
Across the Global North, the classroom is compromised by capitalist capture, which constrains the liberatory potential of our thought. Behind the veneer of neutrality lies the dollar. Our university endowments – growing in value thanks to investments in a racialized prison industrial complex that stretches from Israel to the United States – are bloated by the eager affirmation of white supremacy. The university derives dividends from bloodshed via weapons and oil investments that produce the Middle East as a fractured geography of war. Today, the university is one of capitalism’s most productive agents. Our universities are not financially bankrupt; they are morally so.
The apartheid wall, the border fence, the prison bar, and the police cordon are conjoined sites of struggle fragmented in appearance only. Liberalism’s limited vocabulary has thinned our perceptions of the possible, suturing the future to the ruins of procedural democracy. We recognize these systems at work in our own lives, in our poisoned politics, and in the fragmented solidarity that renders us all complicit today.
Neutrality cannot be the condition for participation in the university. Dissent is pedagogy. Knowledge is politics. In the interstices of the university, we insist on different relations of learning and struggleﾠthat remember and reenactﾠthe classroom as a space for protest.
Palestinian liberation is the grammar of our collective freedom. Palestinians offer us a language that can force the locks and break the chains of domination that structure our world. To accept the existence of an ethnostate predicated on dispossession and genocide would be to foreclose the very possibility of justice.
Demands within a system where liberation is neither a category of thought nor action cannot meet our moment. Palestinian liberation is a practice of refusal. We cannot seek justice from a system committed to the permanent deferral of redistribution. We cannot imagine yielding to a status quo wherein condemning genocide is relegated to political positioning. What is needed now goes beyond all previous policy prescriptions. Talks of ceasefire and humanitarian aid, peace processes, and multi-national dialogues have only resulted in the continual theft of Palestinian land.
We take our cues and lead from Palestinian voices within the university, beginning with the echoes of Birzeit Universityﾒs Union of Professors and Employees:
We in occupied Palestine — and all Palestinians — have no illusions in the poetic dreams of the triumph of the pen over the sword because the sword has cut too deeply into our flesh at the hands of an enemy who has been granted by the hypocritical international community and the destiny of imperial history to claim a monopoly on both the sword (that which acts to kill) and the pen (that which narrates the acts of killing). As intellectuals and academics working in occupied Palestine, we have to use our words, however futile they may feel in such critical times. We also have faith in the bold souls of our people, our resistance and the triumph of freedom, and in our inalienable rights. We recognize and proclaim that at this critical and urgent historical juncture, we shall overcome – justice shall overcome. We are not your passive victims; we have been murdered, maimed, and displaced by a setter state driven by an ideology of insane hatred and bloody violence, but we will not be silenced. Our resistance shows us the path forward, and we remain steadfast, and we shall triumph.
We join our colleagues in their resistance. We recognize that decolonization is a material practice. We call for the land back. We are mobilizing a coalition of students and workers at institutions of higher learning who refuse to accept the rules of the colonial university. We demand a Free Palestine. This is the horizon of our collective freedom.
Our call is open to all students and workers in higher institutions across the globe to sign. If you support the letter and would like to add your institution to the above list, please fill out the details here.
Your personal information will not be displayed or shared, and you can sign the letter anonymously.
Mondoweiss – November 14, 2023
‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 39:
Health official says Israel ‘sentencing Al-Shifa hospital to death’
as doctors dig mass grave
Al-Shifa Hospital medical staff forced to dig a mass grave to bury 170 bodies as the hospital can't refrigerate bodies without electricity. Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich says “voluntary migration” is the only solution for Palestinians in Gaza Strip.
BY MUSTAFA ABU SNEINEH
Casualties
- 11,180 killed*, including 4,609 children, and 27,490 wounded in Gaza
- 195 Palestinians killed* in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200
- *This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 12.
Key Developments
- Gaza’s hospitals are lacking sufficient food and water, thousands of displaced people are reported to have sought shelter in them.
- Gaza health official: “[Israel] is sentencing everyone inside Al-Shifa hospital to death.”
- Al-Shifa Hospital medical staff and volunteers dug a mass grave to bury 170 bodies that started to decompose as mortuary refrigeration lost electricity.
- Al-Amal Hospital’s sole power generator stopped working in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza Strip, putting the lives of hundreds of patients and injured at risk of death.
- 3,250 people reportedly still missing or under the rubble, including 1,700 children, according to Gaza Ministry of Health.
- Israeli forces storm hospital in the West Bank and fired tear gas at another. Eight Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours in Tulkarm and Hebron.
- Abdulrahman Ahmed Muhammad Marei, 33, is the fifth prisoner to die inside Israeli jails since October 7.
- Mass grave dug in Al-Shifa Hospital as Israel lays siege
All of the Palestinian hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip have gone out of service in the sixth week of Israel’s war on Gaza, including Al-Shifa, the largest medical complex.
Hundreds of lives are at risk of death, and thousands of civilians remain trapped inside the hospitals’ premises, Gaza’s Deputy Health Minister Yousef Abu el-Rish told AFP.
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“We cannot reach the dozens of women who will give birth. We received reports of cases in which women gave birth in the street or at home without a midwife. Snipers shoot at anyone moving from building to building inside the hospital,” Abu el-Rish explained.
He said that they were forced to evacuate patients and medical staff over the weekend from Al-Rantisi Hospital, after receiving threats from the Israeli forces.
Hospitals are lacking sufficient food and water, and there are unconfirmed numbers of thousands of displaced people who sought shelter in them.
Al-Shifa Hospital, northern Gaza’s largest medical facility, has been under fire and siege from Israeli tanks and forces for the past week.
Abu el-Rish said Israel is “sentencing everyone inside [Al-Shifa] hospital to death.”
On Tuesday morning, Munir al-Bursh, the Health Ministry’s General Director, told Al-Jazeera Arabic in a phone call, that Israeli forces prevented the burial of bodies in a nearby cemetery, which forced the staff to dig a mass grave for 170 bodies inside the Al-Shifa complex.
Al-Bursh said medical staff and volunteers dug the grave with shovels and their hands when bodies started to decompose as the hospital has no electricity to run mortuary refrigeration.
A member of M￩decins Sans Fronti￨res (MSF) inside Al-Shifa Hospital said Monday that they “need a guarantee that there is a safe corridor because we saw some people trying to leave Al-Shifa, [Israeli forces] killed them, they bombed them, the sniper killed them.”
MSF tweeted the testimony of the member, who also said that there were a number of bodies and injured people outside Al-Shifa complex, which ambulances and paramedics could not reach due to Israel snipers’ fire and bombings.
They currently have no food and water, and internet and phone communication are not stable.
“The medical team agreed to leave the hospital only if patients are evacuated first: we don’t want to leave our patients,” MSF’s member said.
Al-Shifa is not the only hospital to be attacked or under siege.
On Tuesday, Al-Jazeera reported that almost 100 patients and medical staff are trapped inside Al-Hilo Hospital in Gaza City after Israeli tanks encircled the area. Since October 7, 25 out of Gaza’s 35 hospitals have completely stopped working, the majority of them are in the northern Gaza Strip.
The only hospital operating in Gaza on Tuesday morning was Al-Ahli in the Al-Zaytoun area, according to Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). In the early days of the war, hundreds were killed when Israeli bombed the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital where thousands of people were sheltering.
However, the PRCS said that Al-Ahli was only handling mild and moderate cases to ease pressure on the emergency department after the PRCS-affiliated Al-Quds Hospital went out of service.
PRCS said Al-Amal Hospital’s sole power generator stopped working in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, putting the lives of hundreds of patients and injured at risk of death.
“Around 9,000 displaced individuals have sought refuge in the PRCS premises and [Al-Amal] Hospital,” the PRCS said.
“The hospital is currently relying on a very small generator to supply electricity to light the maternity ward and emergency department. It’s important to note that the remaining fuel is expected to run out within the next 24 hours,” it added.
For the past few days, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has not been updated by the Ministry of Health due to the disruption of communication services.
But on Monday evening, the latest figure released by the ministry and reported by Wafa news agency, was 11,180 martyrs, 4,609 children, 3,100 women, and 678 elderly people. The figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 12.
There are reports of 3,250 people still missing or under the rubble, including 1,700 children.
On Monday, the United Nations paid tribute to 101 members of staff killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the highest record of casualties in the UN history.
“Today, the UN family observed a moment of silence to mourn & honour our colleagues killed in Gaza,” Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said.
“They will never be forgotten,” he added on X.
West Bank: hospitals attacked as dozens of Palestinians are killed, injured, and arrested
The Israeli assault on Palestinian hospitals has extended to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces are continuing the mass arrest campaign that began on October 7.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Ministry of Health reported that dozens of civilians and medical staff suffered from severe eye and respiratory pain when Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters at Thabet Thabet government-run hospital in the city of Tulkarm.
The ministry released a video on Telegram showing the emergency department at Thabet Thabet Hospital engulfed with a cloud of tear gas smoke.
On Monday night, Israeli forces stormed Hugo Chavez Eye Hospital in the town of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, Wafa reported.
Turmus Ayya’s residents have routinely suffered from Jewish settlers’ attacks. In June, almost 400 settlers attacked the village, killing a Palestinian man and burning 30 vehicles and 30 properties.
Wafa reported that Israeli forces conducted a “field investigation” and questioned workers at Hugo Chavez Hospital.
“The interrogation of medical staff is a blatant violation of medical and health institutions,” said the Ministry of Health.
In the past 24 hours, eight Palestinians were killed in the cities of Tulkarm and Hebron.
On Monday night, three Palestinians were killed and three were injured in a missile attack launched from an Israeli drone in the Al-Ghanem neighborhood in Tulkarm refugee camp.
Thabet Thabet Hospital announced that the three martyrs were identified as Saeed Suleiman Youssef Abu Tahoun, 24, Jihad Khaled Muqbil Ghanem, 27, and Musab Omar Ahmed Al-Ghoul, 21.
The Ministry of Health said that four others were killed in Tulkarm after being shot by Israeli forces who stormed the city.
Mahmoud Ali Hadayda, 25, and Hazem Muhammad Hosri, 28, were were shot by live bullets in the chest. Four people were injured by snipers bullets who were deployed on the houses’ roofs, Wafa reported.
Israeli forces blocked ambulances from entering Tulkarm camp. Medhat Abu Amsha was arrested from inside an ambulance while being transported to the hospital, Wafa said.
The health ministry announced that two people succumbed to their wounds on Tuesday morning. Israeli forces had bulldozed Al-Madares Street at the entrance of Tulkarm camp and part of Al-Quds Open University Street, damaging infrastructure.
At least 32 Palestinians have been killed in Tulkarm since October 7, Wafa reported. In total since October 7, 195 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank and at least 2,700 injured.
In Hebron, Muhammad Abd al-Majid Halayqa, 20, succumbed to his wounds on Tuesday after being shot by Israeli forces near the town of Beit Ainun, northeast of Hebron.
On Tuesday, the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Prisoners’ Club said that Abdulrahman Ahmed Muhammad Marei, 33, is the fifth prisoner to die inside Israeli jails since October 7, accusing Israeli authorities of a “new premeditated assassination.”
Marei is from Qarawat Bani Hassan, northwest of Salfit, and was detained in Megiddo prison since February.
The number of Palestinians arrested since October 7 in occupied West Bank and Jerusalem rose to 2,750. In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces arrested 28 people from Hebron, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Bethlehem, and Qalqilya.
Israeli captive killed in Israeli airstrike, Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv
Abu Obaida, the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesman, said on Monday evening that an Israeli captive held by Hamas was killed during the indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Abu Obaida said also that Israel rejected a Qatari-mediated five-day truce in which Hamas would release a total of 70 captives in return for the freeing of all Palestinian children and women prisoners inside Israeli jails.
Hamas also announced that it destroyed 20 military vehicles in the Gaza Strip since Saturday, and also launched rockets at the Tel Aviv metropolitan area on the 38th day of the war.
Fighting is still ongoing in the Al-Shat refugee camp in Beit Hanoun, and the triangle of Al-Twam, Al-Karameh Towers, and Al-Mukhabarat Towers.
Hamas said on Tuesday morning that it attacked an Israeli force barricaded inside a building in north Gaza, and that it attacked two “Zionist tanks” west of Gaza City with 105mm Al-Yaseen shells and the 114mm Rajum rocket launcher.
Islamic Jihad’s armed wing announced on Tuesday morning that it launched mortar shells at Israeli forces stationed near the kibbutz of Kissufim.
Sirens went off in a number of settlements near the Gaza Strip and the town of Askalan on Tuesday.
The Israeli army said that an air defense missile was fired at an “aerial target” near Eilat.
Sirens went off in the upper Galilee, and Israel said it bombed targets in the Lebanese town of Aita Al-Shaab. The Hezbollah movement also announced that it targeted the Israeli sites of Al-Malkia and Al-Burj.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned on Monday of an Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip.
He said that there is “no military or security solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The root of the crisis is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its denial of Palestinians’ legitimate rights.”
The monarch added that “the solution starts from there, and any other path is doomed to failure and more of a cycle of violence and destruction.”
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, suggested on Tuesday that “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza could be “the only solution.”
“This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region,” Smotrich wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
“The reception of refugees by the countries of the world that really want their best interests, with the support and generous financial assistance of the international community, and within the state of Israel is the only solution that will bring to the end of the suffering and pain of Jews and Arabs alike.”
“The State of Israel will no longer be able to put up with the existence of an independent entity in Gaza,” he added.
Yeni Safak – November 17. 2023
Gaza is the new Srebrenica: Bosnian activist
Bosnian journalist and activist Refik Hodzic draws connections between Israel's actions in Gaza and the convicted Serbian officials involved in similar crimes
Sernur Yassıkaya
For more than 40 days, the ongoing massacre and complete blockade by Israel, targeting 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, have raised concerns globally. United Nations figures reveal that over a million Palestinians have been displaced, and the death toll, predominantly among women and children, is nearing 12 thousand. Hundreds of thousands are struggling to access clean water, food, and fuel due to the blockade. Approximately half of Gaza's buildings are now uninhabitable due to Israeli airstrikes. Described by experts and officials as a "crime against humanity" and "genocide," the situation in Gaza draws chilling parallels to historical events like the Srebrenica Genocide and the siege of Sarajevo. To gain insight into these parallels, Yeni Şafak spoke to Bosnian journalist and activist Refik Hodzic, who, having lost family and friends in the Bosnian genocide, draws connections between Israel's actions in Gaza and the convicted Serbian officials involved in similar crimes. Hodzic emphasizes the differing standards applied to Western countries and others, shedding light on a complex geopolitical landscape.
It’s been more than 40 days since the Israeli attack began on Gaza which is already a besieged enclave. More than 11,000 killed many of them children and women. Israeli warplanes already dropped more than 30 thousand tons of bombs to Gaza where 2,3 million people live and destroyed nearly half of the residential buildings. Israeli government and military leadership have used dehumanizing words against Palestinian people living in Gaza which points to crimes against humanity. You’ve been through and witnessed the Bosnian genocide, and as a journalist and activist, you’ve worked on crimes against humanity. Are there any similarities between Gaza and the Bosnian genocide? If yes, what are they?
The contexts in which crimes have been committed are different, the conflicts have different historical and root causes, but there are several common elements, especially when it comes to elements of war crimes and crimes against humanity that have been committed both in Bosnia and in Gaza. This applies to the widespread, systematic targeting of civilians in urban areas with the aim to terrorize the population which is seen as supportive of the enemy combatants. This has clearly been the case in Gaza, and it has been proven to be the case during the siege of Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serb forces. Also, there is clear evidence that Israel is committing the crime of genocide in Gaza if we compare its conduct and the intent declared by its political and military leaders to the findings of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in cases of genocide committed against Bosnian Muslims in the enclave of Srebrenica in 1995.
When we check the then Serbian leadership’s words against Bosnians and compare them with the Israeli leaders, there’s almost a hundred percent match between them. We know that all the Serbian leaders had been convicted of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Do you think that same criteria could be used against the Israeli leaders and army commanders?
For the crime of genocide to be proven there need to be crimes (which include murder, inflicting bodily harm, unbearable living conditions, and targeting of children) committed with the intent to destroy a certain group in whole or in part in a certain territory. This does not mean that you need to kill every man, woman, and child, but that you are committing the crimes with the clear intent to destroy this group in whole or in part in the targeted area. International courts have judged this to be the case in Srebrenica, and I think there is little doubt about the crimes and the intent of Israel’s leaders in their annihilation of Gaza. Numerous international scholars of genocide, including Raz Segal, an Israeli expert on modern genocide, have asserted that Israel's crimes in Gaza amount to genocide. However, whether Israel's military and political leadership will ever be held accountable in the way Bosnian Serb leadership has is a different question.
· While Palestinian people are being massacred by the Israeli army, many Western countries are supporting the occupying power in her brutal acts. They’re also trying to silence their people’s support of the Palestinian cause. How do you evaluate Western leaders and media's response to the Gaza massacre?
We are all facing a terrifying new era in which the international legal and rights framework built after the horrors of WWII, which enabled crimes in Bosnia to be investigated and prosecuted before international courts, is collapsing. Unless the perpetrators of crimes committed against Palestinian civilians are brought to justice, it will signal that the international community, and here I mean the Western countries primarily, which have been the engine of progress on this front in the past, have abandoned this framework. Tragically, the political and media discourse in countries like the United States, France, Germany, and other powerful Western states indicates that this is indeed the case and that there is one set of rules for Israel and the West and another for the rest.
In one of your X posts you’re saying that what is unfolding in Gaza has been a wake-up call for your son and his friends against Western values. What are their reactions after the Israeli attack on Gaza and the support of Western countries to that brutal attacks?
The West is losing the youth, not only in Bosnia but everywhere. The young generations cannot be convinced to justify the murder of women and children under some false notion of a country’s right to defense or fight against terrorism. They are very skilled in getting information directly, from credible sources, and fact-checking the propaganda often amplified by major news outlets. They are disgusted as they witness the betrayal of values, nominally Western values, of human rights for all, equality, free speech, and accountability, which they have grown up taught to strive for. I think the West has lost entire generations of young people across the world, who cannot accept the double standards, where some lives matter far less than others, that they are witnessing in real-time.
FAR-RIGHT’S EMBRACING ISRAEL TO TARGET EUROPEAN MUSLIMS
· Do you think that far-right political parties are gaining momentum in Europe and the Balkans? What kind of discussions are there in the far-right circles on Gaza? Are they encouraged by the complete support of Israel by Western leaders?
Most right-wing politicians and parties in Europe are embracing Israel’s cause as it allows them to openly advocate the removal of the only visible minority in their midst – Muslims. Islamophobia has become completely normalized and the far right is seeing their own virulent hate speech directed at Muslims become mainstream. This does not mean that they are any less anti-Semitic, but only opportunists. Who in their right mind can believe that Marie le Pen has suddenly abandoned anti-Semitism, which she has openly promoted for years? But now she is the darling of French Islamophobes of various colors for fervently embracing the anti-Palestinian cause. Unfortunately, this is not a lone example, but a rising phenomenon in Europe.
Lastly, can you tell us about your family story and what happened to your family members during the Bosnian genocide?
I come from the town of Prijedor in northwestern Bosnia, notorious for concentration camps Omarska, Keraterm, and Trnopolje, in which thousands of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats were held in 1992. More than 3000 people were killed in these camps or their homes by Bosnian Serb forces in what was judged by international courts to be a campaign of extermination of the non-Serb population from this area. Most of my family members were held and tortured in these camps, a number of them and my close friends were killed. We were all expelled from Prijedor, and it took us almost ten years to return to our homes.
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/gaza-is-the-new-srebrenica-bosnian-activist-3673593
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
