Sunday, October 27, 2024

United Nations: “Either the world ashamedly fails those who so desperately need help, or we stand united & put a stop to this.” Warning that darkest moment of Gaza war is unfolding, @UNHumanRights chief @volker_turk calls for an end to carnage & release of hostages.

GENEVA – UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said today the darkest moment of the Gaza conflict is unfolding in the north of the Strip, where the Israeli military is effectively subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation, as well as being forced to choose between mass displacement and being trapped in an active conflict zone.

He called on the world’s leaders to act, saying States have a duty under the Geneva Conventions to ensure respect for international humanitarian law.

“The bombing in North Gaza is non-stop,” he said. “The Israeli military has ordered hundreds of thousands to move, with no guarantees of return. But there is no safe way to leave: the bombs continue to fall; the Israeli military is separating families and detaining many people; and people fleeing have been reportedly shot at.

“Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day. The Israeli Government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians. We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”... READ MORE https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/turk-says-world-must-act-darkest-moment-gaza-conflict-unfolds

"Forest of Noise": Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha on New Book, Relatives Killed in Gaza & More...

https://youtu.be/K7rlZZ6mz8M?si=Y2OrKeYRizeVrm_O

In an extended interview, Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha discusses the situation in Gaza and his new book of poetry titled _Forest of Noise_. He fled Gaza in December after being detained by the Israeli military, but many of his extended family members were unable to escape. He reads a selection of poems from _Forest of Noise_, while sharing the stories of friends and family still struggling to survive in Gaza, as well as those he has lost, including the late poet Refaat Alareer. He also describes his experiences in Gaza in the first months of the war, including being displaced from his home and abducted by the Israeli military, noting that the neighborhood in Jabaliya refugee camp that his family first evacuated to last year was bombed by the Israeli military just days ago. "Sometimes I want to stop writing because I'm repeating the same words, even though the situation is worse. The language is helpless," Abu Toha says. "Why does the world make us feel helpless?"

The Guardian: ‘Anticipatory obedience’: newspapers’ refusal to endorse shines light on billionaire owners’ motives

Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, now owns the Washington Post. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters

Lois Beckett in Los Angeles, California

Sat 26 Oct 2024 09.14 EDT

The Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post both declined to endorse a candidate – a sign of political media capture

When two American billionaires blocked the newspapers they own from endorsing Kamala Harris this month, they tried to frame the decision as an act of civic responsibility.

“I think my fear is, if we chose either one, that it would just add to the division,” Patrick Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who owns the Los Angeles Times, said. He emphasised that though some might assume his family is “ultra-progressive”, he is a registered “independent”.

At the Washington Post, which reported that its billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, was behind the decision, publisher William Lewis described the retreat from making presidential endorsements as “a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds”.

Veteran journalists and media critics are using a very different phrase to describe Soon-Shiong’s and Bezos’s choice: they’re saying the two billionaires, among the richest men on the entire globe, are performing “anticipatory obedience” to Donald Trump.

Yes, “cowardice” has also been a popular way to describe the choice by the billionaire owners of two of the country’s major newspapers to not to risk angering Trump by allowing their papers to endorse his opponent.

But “anticipatory obedience” is more specific. The term comes from On Tyranny, the bestselling guide to authoritarianism by Timothy Snyder, a historian of eastern and central Europe. The phrase describes, in Snyder’s words, “the major lesson of the Nazi takeover, and what was supposed to be one of the major lessons of the twentieth century: don’t hand over the power you have before you have to. Don’t protect yourself too early.” It’s a way of describing what Europeans did wrong as totalitarians came to power: by “mentally and physically conceding, you’re already giving over your power to the aspiring authoritarian”, Snyder explains... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/26/anticipatory-obedience-newspapers-endorsement-refusal

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Chris Hedges: Israel’s War on Journalism... "Israel spins out its lies and fabrications, from Hamas using Palestinians as human shields, to mass rape and beheaded babies, to a captive press that slavishly amplifies them. By the time the lies are exposed, often weeks or months later, the media cycle has moved on and few notice."

There are some 4,000 foreign reporters accredited in Israel to cover the war. They stay in luxury hotels. They go on dog and pony shows orchestrated by the Israeli military. They can, on rare occasions, be escorted by Israeli soldiers on lightning visits to Gaza, where they are shown alleged weapons caches or tunnels the military says are used by Hamas. They dutifully attend daily press conferences. They are given off-the-record briefings by senior Israeli officials who feed them information that often turns out to be untrue. They are Israel’s unwitting and sometimes witting propagandists, stenographers for the architects of apartheid and genocide, hotel room warriors. Bertolt Brecht acidly called them the spokesmen of the spokesmen.

And how many foreign reporters are there in Gaza? None.

The Palestinian reporters in Gaza who fill the void often pay with their lives. They are targeted, along with their families, for assassination. At least 128 journalists and media workers in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, have been killed and 69 have been imprisoned,

according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, marking the deadliest period for journalists since the organization began collecting data in 1992.

Israel bombed a building on Friday in southern Lebanon housing seven media organizations, killing three journalists ... READ MORE https://x.com/ChrisLynnHedges/status/1850217151925465400

Saturday, October 26, 2024

ELECTIONS: Our tax money should go to the people's needs- not war mongering and weapons manufacturing for foreign countries that use bigotry and injustice to determine who gets security and who gets their home demolished.

Dear America,

I hope that whoever is elected strengthens the rule of fair and just laws here and there... "there" meaning any country that receives American friendship and support.

Our tax money should go to the people's needs- not war mongering and weapons manufacturing for foreign countries that use bigotry and injustice to determine who gets security and who gets their home demolished.

I hope whoever gets elected looks back at the lessons we learned from the Nazi Holocaust, and they do all that they can to help empower The Universal Declaration of Human Rights- and international law as long as the laws are fair and just.

I believe American racism shores up Israel and empowers Zionist crimes against humanity because too many Americans do not want Jewish people living here in America. I can assure you there are many good Jewish people on planet earth, and most of the better ones opt not to live in or support Israel.

Racist hate is wrong- both our own racist hate, and Zionist Israel's racist hate and state sponsored terrorism.

Palestinian men, women and children have been besieged, pummeled, harassed, persecuted, oppressed, and denigrated by racist Israel for over 75 years at this point in time, but Israel spins every story to make Palestinians look bad. Enough is enough. Israel makes US look bad and be bad: Israel IS WAR and is a threat to all- to everyone, including its own chosen citizens.

PLEASE let's shift job creation here away from weapons of destruction- shift job creation into recycling and clean up programs, strengthening infrastructures, and rebuilding homes for those in need.

And let's help Palestine emerge as a fully viable and free nation state, where religion is a personal private choice, and ALL children are cherished and taught kindness and compassion by example.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

https://x.com/AnnieAnnab

https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

Dear America- We are in this collectively- no exceptions... Stop the hate- and the pollution of war.

Dear America- Don't let Israel drive a wedge between you and the truth.

Dear America, Please Help Stop Institutionalized Bigotry & Injustice

Dear America- Israel can not be trusted, and should not be subsidized

Don't give Israel the power to destroy the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, International Law, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights... and America.

Accusing peaceful pro-Palestine protesters of being "antisemitic" pleases Israel but it does not make any Jews any safer anywhere.

Send an honorable message far and wide- we believe in freedom of and from religion... and we believe in real justice, peace, and security for ALL !

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..." https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Sunday, October 13, 2024

UNRWA commissioner: ‘Objective of Israel’s war to get rid of UNRWA’

Middle East Monitor MEMO October 12, 2024 at 10:04 am

A visit to UNRWA Health Center in East Jerusalem old city, part of a diplomatic mission to Israel and the Palestinian territories, in Rammalah, Palestina, Thursday 16 May 2024. [DIRK WAEM/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images]

Commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, announced on Friday that eliminating the agency has almost been an objective of the Israeli war.

According to Reuters, he added that UNRWA will receive clarification regarding its US funding in early 2025.

The agency, its employees and its headquarters have been subjected to repeated Israeli attacks in the West Bank and Gaza. The latest Israeli measure against the agency was the bill passed by the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee in the Knesset on Sunday banning UNRWA’s activities in Israel.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that the committee referred the bill to the Knesset for a vote in the second and third readings. It stipulates the confiscation of all UNRWA funds, properties and real estate in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the transfer of the funds to the compensation fund for those affected by the attacks.

The bill also prohibits the recognition of the diplomatic character, or the special status of UN workers, for anyone who holds a UNRWA worker card.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241012-unrwa-commissioner-objective-of-israels-war-to-get-rid-of-unrwa/

UN says no food has entered northern Gaza since start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of starvation CNN NEWS

By Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman, Eyad Kourdi and Pauline Lockwood, CNN

2 minute read

Published 11:31 AM EDT, Fri October 11, 2024

Palestinians receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in northern Gaza, September 11, 2024.

Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

No food has entered northern Gaza since the start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of going hungry, the World Food Programme told CNN on Friday.

In August, approximately 700 hundred aid trucks entered northern Gaza. In September, only 400 aid trucks entered, after commercial operations ceased at the Allenby Crossing on the border between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, the WFP added. No food trucks have entered northern Gaza in October, the WFP told CNN.

On Wednesday, the WFP said in a report that the aid entering the strip has plummeted to its lowest level in months, forcing the organization to stop the distribution of food parcels in October.

“Hunger remains rampant and the threat of famine persists,” WFP added. “If the flow of assistance does not resume, one million vulnerable people will be deprived on this lifeline.”...READ MORE https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/11/middleeast/food-northern-gaza-starvation-un-intl

The mainstream media has failed us after 7 October- Not only did they mostly ignore Israel’s denial of Palestinian freedom, but also the contradictions in Israel’s military strategy- Peter Beinart

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest inside News Corp headquarters on 17 November 2023. Photograph: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

"... Unfortunately, the American media never gave Abusalim a megaphone. He appeared on network and cable television only once in the six months following 7 October, and even then, it was only to detail his family’s suffering, not to analyze the war. That was typical. According to a study by George Washington University’s William Youmans, America’s four flagship Sunday talkshows – Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week and Fox News Sunday – collectively interviewed 140 outside guests on camera between 8 October 2023 and 14 January 2024. Only one was Palestinian.

Who did the Sunday shows interview instead? For the most part, Washington insiders. In those early months of the war, more than 80% of the Sunday show guests were current and former US government officials. Few knew much about Gaza, and few questioned Israel’s actions...."

Peter Beinart (@PeterBeinart) is a professor at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York, an editor at large of Jewish Currents and writes The Beinart Notebook, a weekly newsletter. His new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, will be published in January.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/07/mainstream-media-israel-denies-palestinian-freedom

They are #NotATarget ...UNITED NATIONS' Golden Rule Thinking & Being

United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

Children. Civilians. Medical personnel. Humanitarian workers. They are #NotATarget.

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

"Many are traumatized due to the ongoing bombardment, uncertainty + fears. For some, it is trauma re-lived given repeated cycles of conflict over the decades." Philippe Lazzarini Commissioner-General of UNWRA

Philippe Lazzarini

@UNLazzarini

Commissioner-General of

@UNRWA

In #Gaza, over 1 million people did not receive food rations in August .

In September, the number climbed to more than 1.4 million.

Meanwhile, over 100,000 metric tons of food supplies, are stranded outside Gaza due to access restrictions, insecurity, damaged roads, + the breakdown of law & order.

Again & again hunger is spreading in Gaza. It is entirely man-made.

Nearly 70 per cent of crop fields have been destroyed.

An entire population is forced to exclusively rely on humanitarian aid.

Restrictions and delays in aid deliveries only worsen an already dire situation for displaced families.

With winter approaching and weather conditions deteriorating, lack of adequate humanitarian supplies will only generate more suffering.

What is needed urgently is a ceasefire to end the suffering of people in Gaza + across the region.

The way forward through political will & leadership is to: - release all hostages, - ⁠open additional crossings - ⁠safe + unrestricted humanitarian access to reach people in need of assistance.

Choosing peace as a way forward is a choice of the courageous, it’s time.

UNRWA: Claims Versus Facts

Sep 28

Israeli Forces airstrikes in #Lebanon have forced thousands of people to flee their homes among them Palestine Refugees.

@UNRWA teams are responding.

We have opened seven shelters for the displaced, currently hosting 1,600 including Lebanese, Palestinian & Syrian.

Many are traumatized due to the ongoing bombardment, uncertainty + fears.

For some, it is trauma re-lived given repeated cycles of conflict over the decades.

A further expansion of the war will only bring more suffering for civilians.

Civilians must be protected.

Civilian infrastructure must not be targeted.

UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, The Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. #DonateToUNRWA

Dear America- Israel wants enemies & religious extremism so it can raise more funds and sympathy from US. Israel wants us duped- and we are.

The Land & Love by Palestinian artist Ismail Shamout who was born in 1930 in Lydda - Palestine. During the Nakba of 1948, he and his family were forced out of their home during the assault of Jewish Zionist militant groups on their town. A long march on foot allowed them to settle in the refugee camps of Khan Younis in Gaza

My most recent letter sent to my elected officials 10/2/2024

Dear America,

ISRAEL INVADES AMERICA again and again with every Zionist spokesperson on TV news spinning pro-Israel propaganda for an Apartheid nation that wants the "Holy" land, but not the native non-Jewish men, women, and children of that land.

Palestine- Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon all bombed aggressively by Israel as it targets homes, apartment blocks, schools, roads and infrastructures, obliterating families and communities with American made lethal weaponry.

Israel wants enemies & religious extremism so it can raise more funds and sympathy from US. Israel wants us duped- and we are.

Homegrown corporate corruption insists that the very foreign man-made Apartheid nation called Israel has "the right to defend itself", while refusing to see or explain the very real plight and suffering of Palestinians as Israel cruelly persecutes, impoverishes, and displaces them.

We don't have a Fourth Estate empowering our democracy, we have Zionism unfairly influencing our elected leaders & voters, leading US astray from American ideals of real democracy with full and equal rights for ALL people, regardless of supposed race or religion.

Taxpayer money should not be funding weapons and excuses for war mongering Israel.

And Israeli groups such as AIPAC should be registered as agents for a foreign country.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

This terrifying tit-for-tat between Israel, Iran and its proxies will only bring more death and disaster - Lina Khatib in The Guardian ..." the scale of the humanitarian crisis is unprecedented "

In The New Yorker listen to his voice as Mosab Abu Toha reads his powerful poem Under the Rubble drawn from his most recent book “Forest of Noise.” #Gaza #Palestine #antiwar

“If we stay in our houses, they bomb us. If we shelter in a school, they bomb us.” Read @MosabAbuToha‘s poem on Zeteo

Jordan FM’s unusual assurance of security:"We're here members of a Muslim Arab committee mandated by 57 Arab and Muslim countries and I can tell you here very unequivocally all of us are willing to right now to guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for the emergence of a Palestinian State independent state "

Nesrine Malik in The Guardian: With Gaza in ruins and Lebanon under siege, what defence remains for Israel’s actions? ‘Existential threat’ is a thin excuse: the out-of-control force that is pushing the Middle East to the brink is Israel itself

Palestine Refugees - Press Conference | United Nations Sep 27, 2024 UNWRA... On the polio vaccination campaign, coordinated with Israel, he said, “if there is a will, we can make it happen.” The campaign, he said, “was a complex operation” involving the Israeli government and various UN agencies, “but the one who administered the vaccine to the children below the age of ten, was primarily UNRWA

WATCH: King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan addresses 2024 UN General Assembly

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan on Israel-Hamas war: ‘The world has failed'

Dear America- American blood Arab blood Christian blood Jewish blood Muslim blood all blood is just blood. Stop arming endlessly escalating war. Just stop.

Dear America- We are in this collectively- no exceptions... Stop the hate- and the pollution of war.

Dear America- Don't let Israel drive a wedge between you and the truth.

Dear America, Please Help Stop Institutionalized Bigotry & Injustice

Dear America- Israel can not be trusted, and should not be subsidized

Don't give Israel the power to destroy the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, International Law, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights... and America.

Accusing peaceful pro-Palestine protesters of being "antisemitic" pleases Israel but it does not make any Jews any safer anywhere.

Send an honorable message far and wide- we believe in freedom of and from religion... and we believe in real justice, peace, and security for ALL !

This terrifying tit-for-tat between Israel, Iran and its proxies will only bring more death and disaster - Lina Khatib in The Guardian ..." the scale of the humanitarian crisis is unprecedented "

"Though ordinary people and civil society are stepping up relief efforts, the scale of the humanitarian crisis is unprecedented, while the bankrupt Lebanese state has been largely unable to offer the displaced even basic services. The longer Israel’s military campaign goes on, the greater the potential for sectarian tension to increase as winter looms, resources are depleted and people’s anger and despair grows."

This terrifying tit-for-tat between Israel, Iran and its proxies will only bring more death and disaster

Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, Iran’s ballistic attack – there will be no end to this turmoil until a diplomatic settlement is reached

Lina Khatib

Lina Khatib is director of the Soas Middle East Institute and associate fellow at the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House

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Sunday, October 27, 2024

Saturday, October 26, 2024

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

This terrifying tit-for-tat between Israel, Iran and its proxies will only bring more death and disaster

Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, Iran’s ballistic attack – there will be no end to this turmoil until a diplomatic settlement is reached