Al Jazeera – October 21, 2024

640 Palestinians killed in 17 days

At least 33 Palestinians are killed in Israeli attacks throughout the Gaza Strip since dawn, medical sources say, including 18 in Jabalia refugee camp as the forced expulsion by troops in the north continues.

Medical sources tell Al Jazeera that at least 640 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its military operation in northern Gaza 17 days ago.

The UN Human Rights Office says it is concerned Israel “may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governorate through death and displacement”.

In Gaza, at least 42,603 people have been killed and 99,795 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, and more than 200 were taken captive.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/21/live-israel-destroying-north-gaza-through-death-and-displacement-un-says

Al Jazeera – October 21, 2024

Israel destroying north Gaza through ‘death and displacement’ – UN

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) says it is concerned Israel “may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governorate through death and displacement”.

The UN is particularly concerned about the people of Jabalia, Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya, where more than 87 Palestinians were killed or are missing after an Israeli attack that levelled an entire residential block.

At least 12 Israeli missiles have hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after attacks by Israel killed at least 16 people across Lebanon on Saturday, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The UN said an Israeli army bulldozer demolished a peacekeeping observation tower in southern Lebanon, marking the latest attack on the UN’s Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In Gaza, at least 42,603 people have been killed and 99,795 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Hamas’s assault on southern Israel and more than 200 were taken captive.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/10/21/live-israel-destroying-north-gaza-through-death-and-displacement-un-says

Al Mayadeen – October 21, 2024

Gaza people 'will not stay here': Extremist Israeli settlement group head

Daniella Weiss, the leader of the Israeli far-right Nachala organization, claims that the people of Gaza have "lost their right" to be there

Gaza’s population must leave the territory, Daniella Weiss, the leader of the Israeli far-right Nachala organization, stressed on Monday, claiming that Palestinians in the besieged Strip have "lost their right" to reside there following the October 7 events, The Times of Israel reported.

Weiss, who heads the organized that arranged the so-called "Resettle Gaza" conference near the Gaza Strip's border, said that "October 7 changed history" and therefore, the people of Gaza "lost their right to be here, they will not stay here, they will go to different countries, we will convince the world."

At an event calling for the reoccupation of Gaza, attended by Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, she confirmed that the conference's aim is to "settle the entire Gaza Strip, from north to south, not just part of it."

Weiss, a long-time advocate for Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, also confirmed that Nachala has already organized six "settlement groups" made up of 700 families "ready right now" to establish new settlements in the Gaza Strip.

"Soon these families will be able to enjoy the Gaza coast," she added.

Weiss mentioned that Nachala had already secured a deal worth "millions of dollars" to establish temporary housing units near the Gaza border. She said that these units are intended to eventually be moved into the Gaza Strip.

Settlers who moved to Gaza would "witness how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs disappear from Gaza," Weiss indicated.

The conference has also garnered support from the Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit coalition parties, with a sizable delegation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party members, including Minister May Golan, scheduled to attend the event, according to The Times of Israel.

In December last year, Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli did not rule out the possibility of establishing Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, particularly in areas deemed sensible, according to Israeli media. 

Chikli, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, told Ynet that he doesn’t rule out Israeli settlements being established in Gaza "in certain parts where it makes sense."

This comes as the Israeli occupation forces continue to empty the Strip from its civilian population and raze civilian infrastructure, leaving it uninhabitable and lacking the basic necessities of life.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-people--will-not-stay-here---israeli-settlement-group-h

Al Mayadeen – October 21, 2024

18 Palestinians detained in West Bank, raising total to 11,400

Israeli occupation forces continue to cram Palestinians in the West Bank into detention centers and prisons in futile attempts to contain their support for Gaza.

Israeli occupation forces have detained at least 18 Palestinians, including former detainees, across different areas of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported.

A joint statement from the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs indicated that these detentions took place in Deir Abu Mash'al, north of Ramallah, where numerous Palestinian youths were also subjected to field questioning.

These operations involved extensive raids, assaults, intimidation of detainees and their families, field interrogations, and the demolition of homes.

The statement emphasized that since the beginning of the current offensive against the Palestinian people in October 2023, over 11,400 detentions have been recorded in the West Bank, including occupied al-Quds.

The report further mentioned that Israeli authorities are still detaining civilians from the Gaza Strip, particularly in the northern areas, including women, children, and medical personnel, leading to instances of enforced disappearance.

Additionally, the statement noted that the occupation authorities have not fully revealed the identities and locations of these detainees, leaving organizations unable to determine the total number of detentions made from Gaza, which is estimated to be in the thousands.

Ben-Gvir leads settler raid on Al-Aqsa mosque

On Sunday, hundreds of settlers, led by Israeli Minister of Police Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed al-Aqsa Mosque, with heavy protection from Israeli occupation forces.

Islamic Waqf of al-Quds reported that more than 1,066 settlers stormed the al-Aqsa compound in the morning, coinciding with a Jewish holiday, noting that the IOF closed the Mughrabi Gate.

Settlers carried out their raid into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in successive groups from the direction of the Mughrabi Gate, conducting provocative tours in the courtyards.

A settler was spotted blowing a horn on the eastern side of al-Aqsa Mosque, just a few meters from Bab al-Rahmah, while Israeli forces stood by and closely monitored the scene.

During the incursion, Israeli forces obstructed the entry of Palestinian worshippers into the compound, deploying a heavy presence at its gates to facilitate the settlers' activities.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/18-palestinians-detained-in-west-bank--raising-total-to-11-4

AMP Report – October 21, 2024

Fethullah Gulen dies at 83

Fetullah Gülen, founder of Gulen groups died in Pennsylvania, U.S., Monday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who confirmed Gulen’s death, described the cleric as the head of a “dark organisation”, telling a news conference: “Our nation’s determination in the fight against terrorism will continue, and this news of his death will never lead us to complacency.”

Turkey calls his group as Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

He lived in a sprawling estate in Pennsylvania for over two decades, which he used as the headquarters of the group that orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 252 people were killed and over 2,700 were wounded in Türkiye, according to Sabah Daily.Gulen1

 “This organization has been a rare source of threat in our nation’s history. It has added thousands of our youths to its ranks under the pretext of sacred values and turned them into a machine that betrays their own homeland, people and sacred values,” Fidan said. He argued that FETÖ-linked people were used by foreign intelligence services as a weapon against their own homeland.

Separately, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said the fight against “this fundamental national security problem will not be limited to its ringleader and continue against all FETÖ extensions.” He assured trials and international judicial mechanisms against FETÖ suspects would resume “with the same determination without being impacted by the said death.”

According to Sabah Daily, FETÖ is today widely known to have disguised itself as a so-called religious movement under Gülen, who was born on April 27, 1941, in Türkiye’s eastern Erzurum province. Gülen began primary school in 1946, in Erzurum and studied at the Kurşunlu Mosque madrassa in 1954.

In 1966, when he was 25, he was assigned to the western Izmir province as the main imam, it is thought that’s when he founded the Gülen Movement, which would eventually evolve into a terrorist group that mounted a coup attempt, killing at least 252 and injuring thousands in 2016.

Nurettin Veren, the man who built the structure in 1966 together with Gülen and remained close friends until 1996, says about the year that "Gülen came to İzmir from Edirne as a man who had not even finished primary school. His diploma was faked so that he could be an imam as a public servant. He used to take shelter in a small mosque. This is where our paths crossed." Veren parted ways in 1996 due to Gülen's "cult-like leadership" and his supposed "deep ties with U.S. intelligence."

In February 2014, the Foreign Affairs magazine published an article about Gulen with the following title: “The Muslim Martin Luther? Fethullah Gulen Attempts an Islamic Reformation.” The magazine said: In a video posted on his Web site in December 2013, Gulen called on God to curse Erdogan. Gulen declared in a sermon broadcast on Turkish television, “Those who don’t see the thief but go after those trying to catch the thief: may God bring fire to their houses, ruin their homes, break their unities.”

On June 1, 2016, President Erdogan officially designated the Gulen movement a terrorist group and said he would pursue its members whom he accused of trying to topple the government. Earlier, a Turkish court in December 2014 issued an arrest warrant for Gulen. Turkish government has asked for his repatriation.

Gulen has long been accused by leading Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers, President Erdogan and his inner circle of forming and heading a terrorist organization to topple the Turkish government through insiders in the police and other state institutions.

Critics point to a video that emerged in 1999 in which Gulen seemed to suggest that his followers should infiltrate mainstream institutions. "You must move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centres " You must wait until such time as you have got all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institution in Turkey."

According to the Diplomat, in May 2015, Tajikistan had become the latest Central Asian country to close schools linked to the Gulen movement. In fact, Tajikistan's decision to close the schools reflected a wider trend in the region. The Turkish Daily Sabah reported in mid-May 2015 that Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kazakhstan, Somalia, and Japan have all begun procedures to close Gulen-linked schools. In July 2014, Azerbaijan closed Gulen schools on fears of a parallel government. Uzbekistan shut down its Gulen schools in 1999. In Russian Chechnya and Dagestan regions Gulen-backed schools were once banned by President Putin. The Gulen website says that the schools are back in operation.

Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Tellingly, in 2010, Gulen shocked Turkey when he supported brutal Israeli operation on May 31, 2010 against the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of six ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The Turkish led flotilla, organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (degreesHH), was carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials, with the intention of breaking the illegal and inhumane Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip.

During the raid, nine activists were killed including eight Turkish nationals and one Turkish American, and many more were wounded. Volunteers had come from over forty countries, united by the simplicity of their mission: to publicly deliver aid to Gaza in order to challenge Israel's illegal blockade on small, densely populated Gaza strip.

In his 2010 Wall Street Journal interview, Gulen commented on the incident, saying, "It is not easy to say if they [the IHH] are politicized or not". He continued by insisting that the IHH should have sought permission from Israel before transporting aid to Gaza.

During his interview with Cuneyt zdemir in 2010, Gulen refused to refer to the victims of the Mavi Marmara as 'martyrs': "It is out of the question to call these people martyrs. They knew they were going there to get killed and went at their own discretion".

Moreover, his followers tried to portray the involvement of Mavi Marmara in the Flotilla as a form of "jihadism", or radical militant Islamist action. Consequently, the stance of Gulen and his movement vis--vis the flotilla has been and still is a subject of criticism in Turkey.

Not surprisingly, Gulen calls for shredding five percent of Islam to make it acceptable to the West. One of his popular mantras is: "Build schools instead of mosques."

What is the Gulen Movement?Gulen2

Since the 1970s, Gulen and his followers have slowly built up a network of educational institutions, non-governmental organizations and businesses that started in Turkey, spread to Central Asia, and now is entrenched in every continent but Antarctica.  This network is called the Gulen Movement.

According to Turkish Invitation website, by November 2012, there were Gulen group run schools were established in as many as 120 countries.

It is extremely secretive, and many of its members (the “Gulenists”) and organizations will not even openly admit their affiliation.  Publicly, the Gulen Movement advertises itself as a grassroots volunteer civil society movement that is interested only in humanitarian and educational works.  Its members like to  stress that it is loosely organized with no central coordination.

Outside of Turkey, the network of Gulen schools has been rapidly expanding all over the world, and around 1999 the Gulenists began to establish publicly-funded charter schools in the United States, where they already had a small number of private schools.

In September 2010, a respected former police chief named Hanefi Avci wrote a best-selling book about how the Gulen Movement has infiltrated Turkish institutions and stealthily taken over the state. Not long after this book appeared, Avci was arrested. It is widely believed that the charges against him are false, and that the underlying reason for the arrest was retaliation for this book.

Gulen and his schools have been controversial not only in Turkey, but also in Central Asia , Europe, and now the United States as well.

The doctoral dissertation of Mustafa Gokhan Sahin, who has several Gulenist affiliations, contains references to US support for the Gulen Movement’s activities outside of Turkey. Here are two quotes from his dissertation (boldface added):

“For many in Turkey this was exporting ‘Turkish Model’ to a region [Central Asia] which was under Iranian and Wahhabi influence. In policy circles, especially with U.S. support, the Turkish model of a secular state with a moderate pro-western Islam was the most highly regarded alternative. The international support for the Turkish Model also contributed to the expansion of the Gulen community in the region without any impediment until suspicion and resistance replaced the ‘cautious acquiescence of Russia’ and some other Central Asian states.  At times the activities of the movement was [sic] considered too pro–American, and schools run by Gulen community both in Russia and Uzbekistan were closed by the state in late 2000.”

What is Fethullah Gulen?

In an article with the above title Germany-based American writer Frederick William Engdahl provides insight into Fethullah Gülen life:

When Gülen fled to Pennsylvania in 1999, Turkish prosecutors demanded a ten-year sentence against him for having “founded an organization that sought to destroy the secular apparatus of state and establish a theocratic state.”

At that time the US Government’s Department of Homeland Security and the US State Department both opposed Gülen’s application for what was called a “preference visa as an alien of extraordinary ability in the field of education.”

They presented arguments demonstrating that the fifth-grade dropout, Fethullah Gülen, should not be granted a preference visa.

However, over the objections of the FBI, of the US State Department, and of the US Department of Homeland Security, three former CIA operatives intervened and managed to secure a Green Card and permanent US residency for Gülen.

The three CIA people supporting Gülen’s Green Card application in 2007 were former US Ambassador to Turkey, Morton Abramowitz, CIA officials George Fidas and Graham E. Fuller.

In 2008, shortly after he wrote a letter of recommendation to the US Government asking to give Gülen the special US residence visa, Fuller wrote a book titled The New Turkish Republic: Turkey as a Pivotal State in the Muslim World. At the center of the book was praise for Gülen and his “moderate” Islamic Gülen Movement in Turkey:

“Gülen’s charismatic personality makes him the number one Islamic figure of Turkey. The Gülen Movement has the largest and most powerful infrastructure and financial resources of any movement in the country… The movement has also become international, by virtue of its far-flung system of schools…in more than a dozen countries including the Muslim countries of the former Soviet Union, Russia, France and the United States.”

During the 1990s, Gülen’s global political Islam Cemaat spread across the Caucasus and into the heart of Central Asia all the way to Xinjiang Province in western China, doing precisely what Fuller had called for in his 1999 statement: “destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter the Chinese influence in Central Asia.”

By the mid-1990s, more than seventy-five Gülen schools had spread to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and even to Dagestan and Tatarstan in Russia amid the chaos of the post-Soviet Yeltsin era.

Gülen never left the United States after that, curiously enough, even though the Erdoğan courts later cleared him in 2006 of all charges. His refusal to return, even after being cleared by a then-friendly Erdoğan AKP government, heightened the conviction among opponents in Turkey about his close CIA ties, Frederick William Engdahl argues.
 

JOA-F