Tag: Israel

Syria

Multiple forced population transfers in Syria

Reports have been mounting for months that Assad is replacing those displaced from his reconquered territories with Iranians and Iraqi Shi’ites, in a form of “sectarian cleansing.” Now come reports that Turkey is replacing the Kurds displaced from its conquered “buffer zone” in Syria’s north with those displaced by Assad—specifically, the Kurdish residents who fled the town of Afrin are being replaced by Sunni Arabs that fled Eastern Ghouta. Since the fall of Eastern Ghouta, the regime has turned its campaign of aerial bombardment on Yarmouk refugee camp outside Damascus, causing thousands of the camp’s already once-displaced Palestinians to flee. (Photo of Yarmouk via UNWRA)

Palestine

Gaza protest camp moves closer to border fence

Local activists in Gaza announced that they have moved tents set up along the border with Israel as part of the "Great March of Return," relocating them 50 meters closer to the border fence. The committee in charge of the Great March said they had moved the "tents of return" closer to the border "as a message of persistence from our people to the world that we are moving forward towards our rightful goals." The announcement came on the 20th day of protests since the Great March of Return began in the besieged Gaza Strip, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians demanded their collective right of return to their homelands in present-day Israel. Since the demonstrations began, at least 36 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Among the dead are two minors and a journalist. (Photo: Ma'an)

Palestine

ICC prosecutor calls for end to Gaza Strip violence

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda called for an end to the violence along the border of the Gaza Strip, and raised the possibility of ICC prosecutions against Israel and Hamas. In her statement, Bensouda cautioned about the "deteriorating situation" that has engulfed the region. Bensouda reminded both parties that her office is in the midst of a preliminary investigation into allegations of war crimes, which has been ongoing since 2015 when Palestine was admitted as a member of the court. While Israel is not a member of the court, Israeli citizens who commit war-crimes or crimes against humanity on the territory of a member could fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC. (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Syria

UN ‘alarmed’ by chemwar claim; Russia denies it

UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres issued a statement saying he is “deeply concerned” about ongoing air-strikes on Douma in Syria’s besieged Eastern Ghouta enclave, noting the “killing of civilians” and “destruction of civilian infrastructure,” including hospitals and health facilities. The statement said he is “particularly alarmed by allegations that chemical weapons have been used against civilian populations in Douma.”  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded that no evidence has been found of a chemical weapons attack in Douma. But the Syrian-American Medical Society, which has aid workers on the ground, said more than 500 people were brought to medical centers in Douma with symptoms “indicative of exposure to a chemical agent,” including breathing difficulties, bluish skin, mouth foaming, corneal burns and “emission of chlorine-like odor.” (Image: Syria Solidarity Campaign)

New York City

Standing for Gaza and Ghouta in Union Square

Protesters for both the besieged Gaza Strip and the besieged Syrian enclave of Ghouta gathered in New York's Union Square on Friday night. Those standing for Gaza and Ghouta should be natural allies, but there was little interaction between the two protests. And some (by no means all) among the Gaza protesters were followers of Stalinist factions that support the dictatorship of Bashar Assad—who is raining death down on Ghouta just as Israel has serially rained death down on Gaza. What will it take to provoke the conversation that needs to be had on the American left, and build the unified but multi-issue movement so desperately needed at this dangerous moment, with fascist forces on the advance worldwide? (Photo: Syria Solidarity NYC via Facebook)

Palestine

Rights groups slam Israeli ‘crimes’ in Gaza

Human rights organizations have come out in full condemnation of Israel's violent response to massive unarmed civilian protests in Gaza, which left 16 Palestinians—one farmer and 15 protesters —dead along the Strip's border. Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, released a statement condemning Israel's use of military snipers against the civilian protesters. "The Israeli military's use of 100 snipers against unarmed Palestinian civilian protesters in the Gaza Strip is illegal," the statement said, adding that "live gunfire on unarmed civilians constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants." (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Palestine

Rights experts demand release of Palestinian girl

Two UN rights experts expressed serious concern regarding the arrest and detention of Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl who became famous for slapping an Israeli soldier during a physical confrontation. The statements came as Tamimi appeared before an Israeli military court for the first time. An Israel military judge, who prohibited the media from entering the courtroom and began the trial behind closed doors, ruled that Tamimi should remain in detention until the end of her trial and adjourned the hearing until early March. (Photo: Wikimedia)

Syria

Afrin and Idlib offensives signal Syrian endgame?

As Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies continue their advance on Kurdish-held Afrin, Russia and its Syrian regime allies continue their advance on rebel-held Iblib. Both offensives are taking a horrific toll in civilian casualties, but the parallels don’t end there. Even as they ostensibly oppose each other, both Turkey and Assad are accused of conniving with ISIS forces to weaken the defenders of the respective enclaves. And the twin aggressions in Afrin and Idlib come amid a sudden and rapid internationalization of the Syrian war. (Photo: Kurdish militia figher at Afrin, via ANF)

Palestine

Egypt: Copts protest Trump’s Jerusalem move

Pope Tawadros II, leader Egypt's Coptic Church, has cancelled a meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to Cairo later this month, in protest of the Trump administration's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump's decision "did not take into account the feelings of millions of Arab people," the church said in a statement, adding that it "declines to receive" Pence.

Planet Watch

Oil prices surge: vindication is tedious

We've been told for the past several years now that the depressed oil prices were permanent, thanks to fracking and the surge in US domestic production. Now prices are rising again, due to a convergence of crises in major producers: escalating tensions among the Gulf states, labor unrest in Nigeria, deepening instability in Venezuela. The US was able to contain the price spike after the ISIS irruption in 2014 by boosting its own production. This trick isn't going to work forever.

Palestine

Trump, Jerusalem, escalation and eschatology

If Trump is seeking to appease the Christian fundamentalist element of his base with his pledge to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, this should hardly be comforting to Jews. The evangelical fundis see Jewish control of Jerusalem only as fulfillment of Bible prophecies portending the End Times. What makes this wackiness dangerous is that with nuclear weapons, the human race now has the capacity to bring about the foreseen rain of fire and brimstone.

Syria

Further internationalization of Syrian war

Turkey sends more troops into Syria to fight jihadist factions in Idlib province, while Russia delivers more missiles to its military base at Tartus, and the US steps up bombardment of Raqqa in support of Kurdish forces in their drive to take the city from ISIS. Can these multiple foreign forces avoid attacking each other, even if accidentally, and sparking a wider war beyond Syria’s borders?