The brutality in Gaza must stop: We cannot afford to remain silent or complacent in the face of such brutality. Now more than ever, the American people must advocate for the rights and dignity of the Palestinians.

 

The brutality in Gaza must stop | Patriot News- PennLive letters online

The brutality in Gaza must stop | PennLive letters

• Published: Nov. 02, 2024, 10:01 a.m.

• PennLive Letters to the Editor

In the middle of the night on October 13, the Israeli military unleashed flames of destruction on Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza, claiming the lives of countless innocent souls by the worse way possible - burning them alive. Journalists on the ground documented horrific scenes of helpless and trapped people consumed by flames in their sleep, in their hospital beds, bedridden and unable to move.

One of the victims, 19-year-old Shabaan Al-Dali, burnt alive with an IV line still attached to his hand. The world bore witness to the tragedy through the heart-wrenching screams of Saleh Al-Jafarawi: “People are being burnt alive right in front of us!”

His words echoed the profound helplessness that has gripped us all. This latest massacre is not an isolated incident. It is a chilling reminder of the previous “tent massacre” that unfolded in May at Tel Al-Sultan, where images of charred bodies and the beheaded child circulated across social media, igniting outrage and sorrow globally.

The purposefully inflicted humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been escalating at an alarming rate for the past year, in the most documented genocide in our history. The images of burning tents and helpless cries for help echo in our minds, a haunting reminder of the reality the Palestinians have been living for over 76 years. We cannot afford to remain silent or complacent in the face of such brutality. Now more than ever, the American people must advocate for the rights and dignity of the Palestinians.

Ikram Mezghani, Derry Township, Pa.

https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2024/11/the-brutality-in-gaza-must-stop-pennlive-letters.html

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"The United Nations was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." ~Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the United Nations

 

"The United Nations was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." ~Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the  @UN

 

United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

Choose peace over conflict. It's time to turn on for peace and off for war and destruction. Every action counts in building a world where harmony prevails over chaos. 

The world needs to #ChoosePeace for #OurCommonFuture!

NOT A TARGET ...  #EducationCannotWait

CHOOSE PEACE

 

Racism, intolerance & discrimination tear at the fabric of our societies, which is a tragedy for all of us.

United Nations

@UN

Racism, intolerance & discrimination tear at the fabric of our societies, which is a tragedy for all of us. 

 

But everyone, everywhere can take action to spread compassion & acceptance. 

 

Get ideas about how you can #FightRacism. https://un.org/en/fight-racism

 

 

 75 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the urgency of combatting racism and racial discrimination remains.

Every day, each and every one of us can stand up against racial prejudice and disrespectful attitudes. Let’s build a world beyond racism and discrimination, where we all exercise our human rights.

"As the world faces unsustainable levels of inequality, we need education – the great equalizer – more than ever."

– United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres

"These children are like children everywhere – they dream of becoming a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer. The difference is that most of them are forcibly displaced and struggling simply to stay safe and survive. With the right tools and the right kind of support, we can help them realise their dreams."

– United Nations Deputy Secretary-General
Amina J. Mohamed

‘Death is everywhere’: fears grow that Israel plans to seize land in Gaza Increasingly violent siege of north raises suspicions about Netanyahu’s war aims

A devastated street in Gaza City on 2 November [amid Israel's WAR ON PALESTINE] Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

Israel has tightened its siege of northern Gaza in the face of warnings from the UN and other aid agencies that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian lives at are risk, raising questions over whether the Netanyahu government’s ultimate war aims include territorial expansion.

The IDF says it is hunting Hamas militants but suspicions are growing that Israel is putting into practice a blueprint it had officially distanced itself from, known as the “generals’ plan”.

The plan, named after the retired senior officers promoting it, was intended to depopulate northern Gaza by giving the Palestinians trapped there an opportunity to evacuate and then treating those that stayed as combatants, laying total siege.

The government insisted the plan had not been adopted, but some IDF soldiers in Gaza, as well as Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups, say it is being implemented on a daily basis, but with a major difference: the Palestinians in northern Gaza were not given a realistic chance to evacuate. They are trapped.... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/02/fears-grow-israel-plans-seize-land-gaza-siege-netanyahu-war-aims

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Philippe Lazzarini: Children & their education are not featured in any discussions when “experts “ or politicians talk about replacing UNWRA. Why? Because in the absence of a functioning state, there is no alternative.

UNWRA's good works through the years include educating the children of Palestine

 Philippe Lazzarini

@UNLazzarini

Children & their education are not featured in any discussions when “experts “ or politicians talk about replacing UNWRA. 

 

Why? 

 

Because in the absence of a functioning state, there is no alternative. 

 

Until October last year, @UNRWA provided learning to over 300,000 boys & girls in #Gaza, making half of the school children cohort. 

 

They are now losing a second year of education. In the #WestBank, nearly 50,000 children go to our schools. 

 

UNRWA is the only UN agency that directly provides education in UN schools. 

 

Our schools are the only education system in the region that includes a Human Rights programme and that follows United Nations standards and values. 

Dismantling UNRWA in the absence of a viable alternative will deprive Palestinian children of learning in the foreseeable future. 

 

Without learning, children slip into hopelesness, poverty & radicalization. 

 

Without learning, children fall prey into exploitation including joining armed groups. 

 

Without learning, this region will remain unstable & volatile. 

 

Without UNRWA, the fate of millions of people will hang by the thread. 

 

Instead of focusing on banning UNRWA or finding alternatives, the focus should be on reaching an agreement to end this conflict. 

 

This is the only way to prioritize the return to school for hundreds of thousands of children, currently living in the rubble. 

 

It’s time to prioritize children and their future.

Israel kills the journalists. Western media kills the truth of genocide in Gaza: Western publics are being subjected to a campaign of psychological warfare, where genocide is classed as ‘self-defence’ and opposition to it ‘terrorism’

Children who were injured during an Israeli attack in the Jabalia refugee camp await treatment at Al-Ahli Arab hospital on 21 October 2024 (AFP)

 

"Doubtless some Nazi concentration camp guards committed suicide in the 1940s after witnessing the horrors there – because they were responsible for them. Only in some weird parallel news universe would their "psychological burden" be the story. "

"The echoes from history are apparently entirely lost on officials: the UK is once again associating the Mandela family with terrorism. Before it was to protect South Africa’s apartheid regime. Now it is to protect Israel’s even worse apartheid and genocidal regime." 

 Jonathan Cook

25 October 2024 14:31 

 

Israel knew that, if it could stop foreign correspondents from reporting directly from Gaza, those journalists would end up covering events in ways far more to its liking. 

They would hedge every report of a new Israeli atrocity – if they covered them at all – with a "Hamas claims" or "Gaza family members allege". Everything would be presented in terms of conflicting narratives rather than witnessed facts. Audiences would feel uncertain, hesitant, detached.

Israel could shroud its slaughter in a fog of confusion and disputation. The natural revulsion evoked by a genocide would be tempered and attenuated. 

For a year, the global networks’ most experienced war reporters have stayed put in their hotels in Israel, watching Gaza from afar. Their human-interest stories, always at the heart of war reporting, have focused on the far more limited suffering of Israelis than the vast catastrophe unfolding for Palestinians.... READ MORE   https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-israel-kills-journalists-western-media-killing-truth-genocide

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It's been 107 years since the Balfour Declaration and Britain has not yet atoned for its grave historic mistake. It is time to make amends with the Palestinian people.

It's been 107 years since the #BalfourDeclaration and Britain has not yet atoned for its grave historic mistake. It is time to make amends with the Palestinian people.

 

Husam Zomlot

@hzomlot

Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the UK. Former Ambassdor to the United States.

 

Today, 2 November 2024, marks 107 years since the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917. 

 

It has never been more urgent that the injustice of that declaration be addressed and accounted for.

By ignoring the rights of the Palestinian people to their own land, the Balfour Declaration effectively cancelled the Palestinian people.

 

This set in motion a series of events culminating in the ethnic cleansing of two-thirds of the Palestinian people in the 1947-49 Nakba. 

 

By then allowing Israel to ignore, without consequence, the right of return of Palestinian refugees, a long record of Israeli impunity began. 

 

This record of impunity has emboldened Israel not only to seek to take more territory by force over the following decades, but to engage in an ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and across occupied territory.

 

It is time Israeli impunity ends. 

 

It is time the cancellation of the Palestinian people embodied in the Balfour Declaration is addressed.

And it is time the British government accepts its historic responsibility for this state of affairs, and took action to redress the injustice at the heart of the Balfour Declaration. 

 

How can the UK begin to make amends and work toward ending Israeli impunity? 

 

The UK must take steps to end the ongoing genocide. 

 

It can do this by imposing a full arms embargo, instituting sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including occupied East Jerusalem, and demand accountability for Israeli leaders accused of war crimes. 

 

The UK must immediately recognise the State of Palestine as a long overdue inalienable right of the Palestinian people and in compliance with international law and international resolutions.

 

This should come along with an official apology from the British government for the cancellation of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights.

 

 Simultaneously, the UK must also, in compliance with the International Court of Justice and international law and in accordance with the UK’s explanation for its the vote in the UN’s General Assembly on 18 September, ban all trade in goods and services with Israel’s illegal settlements in occupied territory, penalise British companies that operate illegally there, and affirm the UK’s support for the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

 

International law as expressed by the International Court of Justice is clear: third parties must end any support for Israel’s illegal occupation and recognise the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. 

 

Those steps are well understood. It is time to take them.

Palestine in the UK

@PalMissionUK

 

 

1917 Balfour Declaration

BBC: What happened to the young girl captured in a photograph of Gaza detainees

“Most of the children I have met have lost a loved one in often terrible circumstances.” 

In a group of Gazan men, detained by Israeli forces, a little girl can be seen (circled). The BBC has chosen to obscure the faces of those most identifiable

 Fergal Keane- Special correspondent

It's hard to see her in the crowd of men. She is the tiny figure towards the back.

The soldiers have ordered the men to strip to their underwear. Even some of the elderly ones. They gaze up at whoever is taking the photograph. It is almost certainly an Israeli soldier.

The image appears to have first been published on the Telegram account of a journalist with strong sources in the Israel Defence Forces.

The men look abject, fearful and exhausted. The little girl, who was noticed in the picture by a BBC producer, is looking away. Maybe something out of sight of the camera has caught her attention. Or maybe she just doesn’t want to look at the soldiers and their guns.... READ MORE  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2l5e4pe1go

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Israeli assault has caused ‘apocalyptic’ situation in northern Gaza, UN warns: Key officials say entire population of northern Gaza ‘at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence’

Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza on Friday. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The situation in the northern Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic” as Israel pursues a military offensive against Hamas militants in the area, top United Nations officials have warned.

“The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence,” they said in a statement on Friday signed by the heads of UN agencies, including the UN children’s agency Unicef and the World Food Programme, and other aid groups.

Israel began a wide military push in northern Gaza last month. The United States has said it was watching to ensure that its ally’s actions on the ground show it does not have a “policy of starvation” in the north.

But on Friday, the UN officials said humanitarian efforts could not keep up with the scale of the needs in northern Gaza, due to constraints on access for aid workers.

“Basic, life-saving goods are not available. Humanitarians are not safe to do their work and are blocked by Israeli forces and by insecurity from reaching people in need,” they said.

They urged all parties fighting in Gaza to protect civilians and called on Israel to “ceases its assault on Gaza and on the humanitarians trying to help”... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/01/un-northern-gaza-israel

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Author Arundhati Roy lambasts ‘US and Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Lebanon' in her acceptance speech for the PEN Pinter Prize at a ceremony in London earlier this month #Palestine

United Nations Security Council today underscored that UNRWA remains the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza & affirmed that no organization can replace or substitute its capacity and mandate to serve Palestinian refugees and civilians in urgent need of life-saving assistance.

 United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

@UN Security Council today underscored that @UNRWA remains the backbone of all humanitarian response in #Gaza & affirmed that no organization can replace or substitute its capacity and mandate to serve Palestinian refugees and civilians in urgent need of life-saving assistance.

 

“Empathy is the glue that makes us stand united in humanity. If you don’t act for the Palestinians you will become irrelevant to the world. The only way to comply with international law is imposing sanctions against Israel. May this be the last genocide in human history.” Powerful words from @FranceskAlbs  after presenting her latest report on Israel’s genocide at the UN

 

“Either the world ashamedly fails those who so desperately need help, or we stand united and put a stop to this.” Warning that one of the darkest moments of the #Gaza conflict was unfolding,@UNHumanRights chief @volker_turk calls for an end to the carnage and destruction.

‘I couldn’t cry over my children like everyone else’: the tragedy of Palestinian journalist Wael al-Dahdouh. After his wife and two of his children were killed in Gaza, Al Jazeera journalist Wael al-Dahdouh became famous around the world for his decision to keep reporting. But this was just the start of his heartbreaking journey By Nesrine Malik

 Wael al-Dahdouh was live on air when he realised something was wrong. It was 25 October 2023, about 5pm, and Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza was standing on the roof of the channel’s office building, speaking about the day’s airstrikes. “It’s going to be a bloody night,” said Dahdouh, his voice playing over live images of the skyline, as explosions flared on the horizon.

Out of the corner of his eye, Dahdouh noticed his nephew Hamdan, a producer with Al Jazeera, looking agitated. Then Dahdouh’s mobile phone, slotted in his flak jacket, began to ring. Hamdan reached over, pulled the phone out and answered it. It was an odd thing to do while they were on air, Dahdouh thought. Alarmed, he addressed Hamdan. “Who is it?” Dahdouh asked, still audible to viewers. After a few seconds on the phone, Hamdan angrily kicked a wall. “What’s going on?” Dahdouh asked. Hamdan replied: “Your daughter. The girl is in the hospital. They have struck the place where your wife and family are.” Dahdouh took the phone. As viewers continued to see live scenes from Gaza, they could hear Dahdouh’s rising alarm and Hamdan’s flustered interjections in the background. Then the transmission cut to the studio in Doha.

On the phone was Dahdouh’s 21-year-old daughter, Khulood, who was bewildered and unable to give him a clear idea of what was happening. He hung up and rushed to Nuseirat camp seven miles away, where his wife and seven of his eight children had been sheltering in an Israeli-designated safe zone. When he arrived about 40 minutes later, Dahdouh found a chaotic scene. People were digging in the rubble with their hands, using their mobile phone torches to see. Some were in tears, others wailing the names of the dead. In the debris, Dahdouh found his 18-month-old grandson, Adam, covered in dust, unconscious. Cradling the boy in his arms, Dahdouh raced to al-Aqsa martyrs hospital 15 minutes away.

In the melee outside the hospital, Dahdouh found Khulood. When she saw Adam’s body in her father’s arms, she began screaming and stroking her nephew’s face. Then she collapsed, taking Dahdouh down with her, still clutching the toddler. Dahdouh staggered to his feet. Inside the building, he handed Adam to a doctor and began to search for the rest of his family, lurching through the throngs also looking for their loved ones, through corridors full of the wounded. Dahdouh’s reporting had made him famous in Gaza, and as he continued his search, asking if anyone had seen his wife and children, he started to realise that people were avoiding him, as if they knew something he didn’t. Then an ambulance brought in his youngest son, 12-year-old Yahya. His skull was exposed and his head drenched in blood, but he was conscious. Dahdouh rushed him to a doctor who began to sew up his wounds on the spot. There was no anaesthetic. Yahya screamed in pain... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/31/wael-al-dahdouh-gaza-palestinian-journalist-tragedy

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