Islamophobia – Free Palestine Melbourne

Tag: Islamophobia

Why are anti-Semitic screeds, ethnic hatreds being tolerated in Australia?

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

05 January 2024, The Australian, by Francis Galbally

Last week, at a mosque in Sydney’s southwest, imam Sheik Youssef Nabha appeared to encourage people of Lebanese descent to stay in Lebanon, implying it was all right to be allied with Hezbollah, while stirring animosity against Israel and promoting anti-Semitism.

On Tuesday, The Australian reported that another Sydney-based cleric, Abu Ousayd, known for his anti-Semitic rants, delivered another anti-Semitic tirade on New Year’s Eve, saying “Jews were descendants of pigs and monkeys”.

These events among our Muslim community should give cause for serious concern.

According to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Body website: “Racial vilification is against the law. It is a public act that could incite hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule towards people of a particular race … Public acts include: communications that can be seen or heard by the public (this includes print, radio, video or online).”

Given this, we should rightly ask: Why aren’t these Muslim leaders being called out by our leaders and charged by the appropriate authorities?

If what has been published about the rants of the Muslim cleric on New Year’s Eve are not a public act that could incite hatred, serious contempt or ridicule against Jews, then, short of mob violence, what else would?

Last year there were similar rants against Jews coming from Sydney-based mosques. The AFP investigated and nothing was done about it. If that meant our laws were not strong enough to warrant a prosecution then they need urgent strengthening. If this remains unchecked, we are witnessing something akin to the anti-Semitic rage that Germany saw in the early 1930s. We cannot let this fester.

Our country is one of migrants. Almost 26 per cent of Australians, according to the 2022 census, were born overseas; 3.2 per cent of Australian identify as Indigenous and the remainder (more than 70 per cent) come from migrants, either forced or voluntary, who settled here since the First Fleet.

And these migrants come from many diverse cultures and countries. But having come here, we all assume a responsibility to abide by our laws and leave behind the difficulties that drove us and our forebears to come to this great country. Australia is one of the great success stories of the world, welcoming millions of migrants, who over centuries have suffered discrimination and hardship whether because of ethnicity, race, colour, gender or faith.

My own ancestors hailing from Ireland came to this great country in the 1840s and 1860s, escaping famine and prejudice. They were welcomed, and toiled to create a comfortable environment to raise children and eventually prosper. But they left their troubles behind. They were forward-looking and contributed to what makes our country great.

Respect and tolerance are two important foundational principles of our nation. They are what has made our country welcoming to migrants. They have contributed to the stability, growth and progress of our society. We have evolved and thrown off the dark cloak of the White Australia policy. We have turned instead to fostering harmonious relationships, promoted social justice, encouraged personal growth and fostered innovation. We have achieved this amid a framework of a very broad and diverse population with many differences in religion, race, ethnicity and personal backgrounds.

As we approach Australia Day, I am prompted to write about these characteristics because I can see troubling factors that, if not addressed now, will lead to undermining our respect and tolerance of our fellow Australians and possible violent conflict. The rants of the Muslim clerics I have referred to are of a grave concern. And equally concerning if, it is shown to be the case, two Australians and their wives left the country to be with an outlaw terrorist group. It may be that their travel was innocent and they have been hijacked by the Hezbollah movement as their own. Whatever the case, we must be proactive and show zero tolerance to citizens who wish to either bring their fights into this country or wish to go back and continue their fights in the country they or their forebears were born in.

There is no place in our society to bring the hatred and intolerance that have stewed (over centuries in many cases) in countries migrants have left for these shores. Many of my forebears died in the potato famine in Ireland in the 19th century. Some fought for independence. But those who migrated to Australia left their troubles in Ireland and never deigned to imbue into their descendants a continuing hatred of the English or a continuation of the struggle for Irish independence.

Their focus was building a life here and contributing to the society here and its good governance and development.

Religious leaders must be careful what they say and must not stir animosity against other groups. The tragedy unfolding in the Middle East is horrific. But we need to be vigilant that it is not imported here. And there are troubling signs it is. For example, the continuing demonstrations for a peaceful resolution of the conflict risk turning into not only an anti- Semitic rave but a violent one at that.

Our leaders need to call out this behaviour and ensure any extremist or threatening conduct is strongly condemned, and those who breach our discrimination laws or incite violence are jumped on immediately and charged with the appropriate offences.

We have seen this before in our community. In the 1970s and 1980s we had problems emanating between the Serbian and Croat communities in Australia. Both groups migrated from what was then Yugoslavia and as tensions rose at that time in the Balkans between the two groups there, these tensions were reflected in Australia. This escalated to several instances of violence and conflict. We cannot allow this to happen again.

Sheik Ahmed Zoud’s hate rants must stop, says Tony Burke

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

04 January 2024, The Australian, by Alexi Demetriadi

One of Labor’s most pro-Palestine ministers, Tony Burke, has called on hate preachers in his electorate to face the full force of the law over their radical sermons and said he hoped his own government would soon legislate stronger protections against anti-Semitic hate speech.

Local tensions over the Israel-Hamas war have heightened after two southwest Sydney clerics called Jewish people “monsters” and “descendants of pigs and monkeys” – one within Mr Burke’s Watson electorate – but police have been unable to charge either over the diatribes.

Mr Burke, the Arts and Employment Minister, said he wanted “legal protections” to be used against the clerics and signalled his support for a ban on religious-based hate speech in the Attorney-General’s upcoming draft of a religious discrimination bill, due before July.

“There are legal protections against racist hate speech and I hope they are used,” said Mr Burke, whose electorate encompasses As-Sunnah mosque, where sheik Ahmed Zoud gave a sermon calling Jews “monsters”.

“We don’t yet have legal protections under commonwealth law against hate speech directed against people for their faith. I hope we see that change soon.

“I consistently condemn hate speech in all its forms – (the sheik’s) comments should be rejected without reservation.”

Mr Burke’s condemnation comes after he supported a council in his electorate flying the Palestinian flag – which “represented grief in that community” – and Labor’s backing of a ceasefire at the UN General Assembly. The minister has condemned Hamas and previously urged “everyone to keep the situation in Australia as calm as possible”.

NSW Police confirmed on Thursday that it reviewed the sermon but was unable to proceed further given the parameters of relevant legislation, “and it was ascertained that it did not meet the threshold of any criminal offence”.

NSW criminal provisions outlaw “incitement of violence” on the basis of race and religion, and has civil provisions that outlaw “incitement of contempt or hatred” on the same grounds, although this requires complainants to put forward a case to Anti-Discrimination NSW.

The federal Racial Discrimination Act outlaws similar acts on the basis of race or ethnicity, but not religion.

The Australian revealed on New Year’s Day how Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus could include hate speech provisions in Labor’s new religious discrimination bill, which would make it illegal to ridicule someone for their faith, although leaders held concerns about its usage in practice.

The Australian understands for state police to charge under the criminal act it would require a specific call for violence against a specific person or group, such is the legislation’s narrow scope.

Mr Burke said it was “important to note” that As-Sunnah was not one of Watson’s more widely attended mosques, adding: “Our community has a strong record of rejecting hate speech.”

He said although everyone had a right to views on the war, he wanted to ensure those didn’t stoke societal tensions.

“It’s important that people’s views on the horrors they are seeing overseas don’t affect how we treat each other,” he said.

Mr Burke’s move to call out the clerics and urge for stronger criminal provisions was welcomed by the country’s peak Jewish body.

“The minister’s comments condemning Ahmed Zoud’s racist sermon are welcome,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim said.

“There are multiple ethnic and faith communities in Australia, and there’s no room for hatemongering by any community against any other.”

He said it was on governments to take “decisive action” to stop anyone seeking to “set Australian against Australian”.

“It shouldn’t be left to vulnerable individuals to have to fend for themselves,” he said.

A well-placed legal source said that, “in simple terms”, NSW did not have “anywhere near strong enough provisions” against hatred-incitement, pointing to WA’s criminal code that outlawed “racial-hatred incitement”, as opposed to just “violence”.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson asked what it would take for the government to act.

“I wonder what it will take, how overt the incitement has to be before our governments use the extensive anti-vilification, anti-incitement, anti-harassment laws that have been passed, which were put in place with exactly these scenarios in mind,” he said.

The Australian revealed similar sermons at the Al Madina Dawah Centre, which were condemned by Education Minister Jason Clare – the centre sits in his electorate – who said “there’s no place for hate in Australia”.

In those sermons, clerics Mr Ousayd – also known as Wissam Haddad – and “Brother Ismail” called for jihad, recited parables about killing Jews, and encouraged people to spit on Israel so “Jews would drown”.

Police made inquiries but found the comments didn’t reach the criminality threshold.

Another cleric at the centre, “Brother Muhammed”, called for the establishment of an Islamic army to fight the West, calling it the “final solution”.

In NSW, section 93z of the crimes act outlaws public incitement of violence on the basis of race or religion, although the threshold is high and scope narrow.

A spokesman for the NSW Labor government said that it was “always prepared” to improve laws, and that the state’s anti-discrimination legislation was subject to a review by the Law Reform Commission.

GREENS’ DIVISIVE RHETORIC IS FUELLING TERROR RISK, SAYS PM

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

Anthony Albanese has accused the Greens of fuelling the community divisions that have prompted the government to raise the terrorism threat level from “possible” to “probable”, saying the party’s support for long-running protests outside MPs’ offices is undermining social cohesion.
The Prime Minister attacked the hard-left party after the nation’s domestic spy chief warned on Monday that surging levels of personal grievance and intolerance were driving disaffected Australians to violence.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess said the war in Gaza was contributing to the growing terrorist threat, which would escalate if the conflict spread to Southern Lebanon.
But the rising tensions in the Middle East were not the only factor, he said, blaming social media for amplifying a raft of extremist ideologies and conspiracy theories.
Mr Burgess put the threat of an attack over the next 12 months at higher than 50 per cent, warning young lone-wolf actors with guns and knives posed the biggest risk.
The heightened threat level follows eight terrorist attacks or disruptions of terror plots since April, including the Wakeley church stabbing by a 16-year-old boy, which triggered more than two dozen further arrests.
Mr Albanese on Monday cautioned that “probable does not mean inevitable”, and called on political leaders to “lower the temperature of debate”.
He blasted the Greens party, which has accused Labor of “complicity in genocide”, saying its encouragement of protesters who have blockaded and vandalised Labor MPs’ offices is designed to trigger a partisan response.
“It’s not appropriate for people to encourage some of the actions outside electorate offices and to dismiss them as being just part of the normal political process,” the Prime Minister said. “It is not normal to have people in occupations for months outside electorate offices, where the work of those electorate offices is to assist people in social security and health and other areas. They’re not participants in the Middle East conflict.”
Greens home affairs spokesman David Shoebridge hit back, accusing Mr Albanese of “politicising terror” and attacking those who were “pushing for peace”.
“It was deeply irresponsible for Prime Minister Albanese to use this moment as a platform to air his political grievances and conflate good people concerned with specific actions of his government with far-right conspiracy theorists,” Senator Shoebridge said.
Peter Dutton said Mr Albanese should share the blame for the escalating community tensions, accusing the government of failing to act decisively to tackle surging anti-Ssemitism since the October 7 attack on Israel.
The Opposition Leader said the protests on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in the days after the Hamas attack were “a disgrace” that should have been met with a tougher government response, while anti-Israel rallies at university campuses had been allowed to go on for far too long.
“I think the proper response required from the leader of our country is to show strength, not weakness, and the amount of anti-Semitism that is now occurring on a common basis in our country (is) unprecedented,” Mr Dutton said.
“Whether it’s lunatics who are on the far right as neo-Nazis, or people who are talking about the chants of ‘from the river to the sea’, of exterminating a race of people, it has no place in our country, no place whatsoever, and it should be condemned,” Mr Dutton said.
As Iran threatens to attack Israel over the Jewish state’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the opposition demanded the government take action against Iran’s ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, who called on Monday for the destruction of Israel.
In a post on X, Mr Sadeghi said the “Zionist plague” should be wiped out, and he was “looking forward to such a heavenly and divine promise”.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the government needed to say whether the ambassador had breached Australia’s hate speech laws, and reveal its response.
“At a time when Australia faces an increasing terrorist threat, the last thing we need is Iran spreading its campaign of disruption and terror in our own country,” Senator Birmingham said.
Mr Albanese said he had not seen the ambassador’s comments, but lashed Iran’s promotion of “division and hatred”.
The terrorism threat level was last raised to “probable” in 2014, when Islamic State’s radical ideology was considered the predominant threat.
Mr Burgess said politically motivated violence – which included terrorism, rioting or attacks on politicians or democratic institutions – was now on a par with espionage and foreign interference as ASIO’s principal security concern.
He said radical ideologies were being fanned online, with some combining to create dangerous new hybrid forms of extremism.
“Unfortunately, here and overseas, we are seeing spikes in political polarisation and intolerance, uncivil debate and unpeaceful protests. Anti-authority beliefs are growing; trust in institutions is eroding,” Mr Burgess said.
“Provocative inflammatory behaviours are being normalised. This trend increased during Covid and gained momentum after the terrorist attacks on Israel and accelerated during Israel’s military response. The dynamics are raising the temperature of the security environment.”
He said terrorists were being radicalised at a younger age, with social media “the primary platform for radicalisation”.
“In the recent cases, the oldest perpetrator was 21 and the youngest was 14,” Mr Burgess said. “Extremist ideologies, conspiracies and misinformation are flourishing in the online ecosystem, and young Australians are particularly vulnerable.”
Mr Albanese said despite a “considerable increase” in the threats against MPs, which had driven up the number of politicians who require security details, he hoped security concerns would not limit the contact between voters and those who served them.
“In some countries, it is just not possible for citizens to go and talk to their political leaders one-on-one. We should cherish that and value it,” he said
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who took control of ASIO in Mr Albanese’s recent ministerial reshuffle, said the increased threat level reflected the agency’s advice, but was “not insurmountable”.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the changed ministerial arrangements – under which ASIO was removed from home affairs and moved to the attorney-general – were “unnecessary and harmful” to national security.

Israel accuses Wong over deaths report

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

Tensions between Israel and the federal government have intensified following the release of a highprofile report into the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, with Israeli officials accusing Foreign Minister Penny Wong of misrepresenting the findings.
Israeli officials were angered by Wong’s response to former Australian Defence Force chief Mark Binskin’s report on Friday, believing she overemphasised its negative conclusions and downplayed more positive aspects.
Israeli officials were especially incensed that Wong on Friday described the April killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers as an ‘‘intentional strike’’ when Binskin’s report affirmed the Israel Defence Forces’ initial finding that workers were not deliberately targeted and their deaths were a result of procedural failures.
In its first statement since the report’s release, the Israeli embassy in Canberra said the IDF had taken ‘‘full responsibility for the grave mistakes that led to the tragic incident’’, but stopped short of delivering an official apology recommended by Binskin and backed by the Albanese government.
‘‘The Australian government’s statement about the report regrettably included some misrepresentations about omitted crucial details with respect to the manner in which the report was conducted, the degree of co-operation and openness exhibited by the IDF, and even with respect to certain aspects of the tragic incident itself,’’ the embassy said.
‘‘The report explicitly reaffirms that the IDF is a professional and disciplined army, with similar legal views, standards and controls in place to mitigate the risks of war, like the ADF [Australian Defence Force].’’
Relations between Israel and the federal government have deteriorated as the war in Gaza has continued, with Israel opposing Australia’s decision to back resolutions supporting a ceasefire and greater representation for Palestine at the United Nations.
The embassy said while Binskin ‘‘had no investigative authority or mandate’’, the IDF ‘‘fully engaged with him and provided him with access to all areas requested, including evidence, high-level officials and operational processes, in order to contribute to the Australian people’s understanding of how this incident occurred and how it has been investigated’’.
The embassy noted Binskin’s report found it was likely the security contractors employed in Gaza by World Central Kitchen gave the appearance of a Hamas presence and it could not be ruled out the security personnel had links to Hamas.
Wong said on Friday the government believed Israel should apologise to Frankcom’s family and it would continue to press for any appropriate criminal charges.
Wong’s office was contacted for comment yesterday.
The Frankcom family said while Binskin’s role had some limitations, they regarded his report as an important first step.
‘‘We hope it will be followed by further investigations in Israel regarding those responsible for this tragic event, followed by appropriate action,’’ the family said.

It is anti-Semitism that is soaring, not Islamophobia

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

The prevalence of moral equivalence in the debate over the Israel-Hamas war was evident on the ABC Radio National Breakfast program on Wednesday. Presenter Patricia Karvelas interviewed opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham on a range of issues.

Karvelas put this proposition to Birmingham: “Anti-Semitism is on the rise, Islamophobia is on the rise, in the community … clearly it demonstrates that there are lots of divisions in our community.” From this, Karvelas wondered whether it is the right time to be having a debate on religious freedom.

In the middle of her point, Karvelas mentioned the footage she had referred to the previous day, which showed Anne Aly “in a conflict over the Gaza war”. The inference given was that Aly, an Egyptian-born Muslim who is Youth and Early Childhood Education Minister in Anthony Albanese’s Labor government, was in dispute with an Australian Jew who is a supporter of Israel.

Not so. As The Australian reported that very morning, Aly was verbally attacked by pro-Palestinian activists while on a “meet your member” event in a suburban Perth park last weekend. They were of the view Aly was not sufficiently critical of Israel. The video shows Aly handled the verbal aggression calmly and professionally. But the exchange had nothing to do with Islamophobia. Karvelas clarified the issue when interviewing Aly on Friday.

Try as Karvelas might wish to draw a comparison between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in contemporary Australia, there is no such equivalence. Since European settlement in 1788, there have been periods of sectarianism, directed initially at Jews and Catholics and later at Muslims. This reflected changes in the immigration levels.

However, Australia was and remains a tolerant and accepting nation judged with reference to other countries. An empirical test demonstrates the point. In Australia, there is a relatively high level of marriage (or partnerships) between ethnic groups, and a relatively low level of racially motivated crime.

This is what former Hawke government minister Graham Richardson (born 1949) was on about when he said on Sky News recently that anti-Semitism is “just coming out everywhere” in Australia. This is a new phenomenon.

In Britain in the 1930s, the British Union of Fascists led by Sir Oswald Mosley was a violent group that launched physical and verbal attacks on Jews in Britain – especially in London’s (then poor) East End. Mosley had been a Conservative MP who switched sides and was briefly a minister in Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour government in the late 1920s.

In Australia, Eric Butler’s right-wing League of Rights was avowedly anti-Semitic from the 1940s to the early 1970s. But it was not a violent movement and had scant political influence. There was some anti-Semitism in the mainstream political parties, but Jews lived safely here. Not anymore.

Look at it this way. In Australia, no considered Christian cleric, Jewish rabbi or Hindu priest has been heard preaching violence with respect to Islam or other religions. Yet there have been quite a few imams who have been filmed or recorded mouthing hatred towards Israel in general and Jews in particular.

The Jewish population in Australia is around 100,000. The Muslim population is around 800,000. Not long after Hamas’s barbarous attack on southern Israel on October 7, pro-Palestinian activists travelled from Sydney’s western suburbs and Melbourne’s northern suburbs and paraded Palestinian flags in suburbs in two cities where there is a relatively high Jewish population. No Australian Jewish groups have taken counteraction into areas with a relatively high Australian Muslim population.

I know of Australian Jews who now spend as much time as possible at home, afraid of going outdoors – especially if they look Jewish or exhibit Jewish symbols.

On the other hand, pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Muslim or non-Muslim, parade their flags and symbols in public places, sometimes in open support of Hamas’s atrocities of October 7, which involved such war crimes as murder, rape and hostage-taking (even of children and babies).

Viewers of the ABC TV Q+A program on November 13 were led to believe the fire-bombing of the Burgertory restaurant in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield (which has a relatively large Jewish population) was an attack on a Muslim business. The property was destroyed early in the morning without death or injury.

Towards the end of the program, presenter Karvelas called for a question from Hash Tayeh. He identified as a “proud Australian-Palestinian, an entrepreneur and owner of the Burgertory, which burned down”. He implied that the (alleged) arson was due to the fact he practised his right to protest against what was happening in Gaza.

The day after the fire, a group of angry protesters demonstrated outside a Caulfield synagogue. At the time, Victoria Police did not believe the fire was in any way related to the Israel-Hamas war.

But was Tayeh so sure? He was recorded, before the fire, on the FairDinkum podcast on November 7, urging his fellow believers to “unify”, declaring: “Look at all the people burning each other’s shops down. They’re all Arabs. They’re Arabs burning Arabs’ shops down. Why? Why aren’t we supporting one another? And that’s my problem.” It would seem Tayeh changed his mind between his podcast and his Q+A appearance. In the event, Victoria Police has charged two men over the fire, one of whom is being held in remand. VicPol has confirmed it was not a hate crime. But Tayeh’s false claim remains uncorrected on the ABC’s website and on iview.

Victoria Police claims to have solved this alleged crime. However, the state police in Victoria and NSW have failed to address acts of anti-Semitism on the streets and in mosques. Nor have university authorities done enough to protect Jewish students on campuses. Nor have large sections of the media, particularly the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster, adequately reported anti-Semitism in deed and word. Nor has the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Karvelas and other journalists may see a commonality in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in contemporary Australia. But they provide no evidence in support of their attempts at moral equivalence.

Israel-Hamas war: Gaza truce plan fails at UN, Israel detains 500 terrorists at hospital

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

Washington has failed to pass a UN resolution on an “immediate” ceasefire as Israeli forces detained “hundreds” of Hamas fighters during a raid into Gaza’s main hospital.

Israel plans to send troops into Gaza’s Rafah even without US support, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday local time, as Washington failed to pass a UN resolution on an “immediate” ceasefire.

Mr Blinken said the Rafah offensive risks “further isolating Israel, jeopardising its long-term security”.

He said that the US shares Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas and ensuring its long-term security, but that a Rafah operation “is not the way to do it.”

“It risks killing more civilians. It risks wreaking greater havoc with the delivery of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardising its long-term security and standing,” Mr Blinken told reporters.

Almost six months of Israeli bombardment since Hamas’s October 7 attack has brought Gaza to its knees with many thousands killed, infrastructure shattered and widespread warnings that its 2.4 million people are on the verge of famine.

Washington has repeatedly blocked ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council but tried to pass a text mentioning an “immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal”.

World leaders including staunch allies of Israel backed the renewed diplomatic push, but China and Russia vetoed the US text after Moscow complained that the language was too weak and put no pressure on Israel.

Mr Blinken has been on a whistlestop tour of the region to support truce talks in Qatar that involve indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas officials.

The violence meanwhile continued, with Israeli forces raiding Gaza’s largest hospital complex for a fifth day, claiming to have killed more than 150 “terrorists” in the ongoing operation Hamas has labelled “criminal”.

Israel also continued to pound the southern city of Rafah and its surroundings, where most of Gaza’s population has taken shelter.

Standing in the ruins of a partly destroyed house in Rafah, resident Nabil Abu Thabet said “innocent civilians” had been pulled out “in pieces”.

“People were targeted at 1:00 am, when they were asleep,” he told media.

Mr Netanyahu said he had told Mr Blinken on Friday that there was “no way to defeat Hamas” without invading Rafah, a plan that has provoked international concern for civilians trapped there.

According to Mr Netanyahu, in a statement after meeting Mr Blinken, “I told him I hope to do that with the support of the United States, but if we need to, we will do it alone.”

ISRAEL DETAINS 500 TERRORISTS AT GAZA HOSPITAL

Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters including a number of security officials and military commanders during its extended raid into Gaza’s main hospital, the military’s main spokesperson said.

Israeli troops entered the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the early hours of Monday morning and have been combing through the sprawling complex, which the military says is connected to a tunnel network used as a base for Palestinian fighters.

Among the detainees were three senior Islamic Jihad military commanders and two Hamas officials responsible for operations in the occupied West Bank as well as other Hamas internal security officials, the New York Post reported.

“Those who did not surrender to our forces fought against our forces and were eliminated,” Hagari told a briefing late on Thursday, during which he displayed a composite picture of what were described as detainees.

On Friday, the military said some of the photographs were of militants who had not been detained but whose pictures were included through human error.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, said the misidentification and the inclusion of pictures of medical staff and people outside the country showed the Israeli military was spreading false narratives to justify its assault on the hospital.

Al Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital before the war, is now one of the few healthcare facilities even partially operational in the north of the territory, and had also been housing displaced civilians.

Israel faced heavy criticism last November when troops first raided the hospital. The troops uncovered tunnels there, which they said had been used as command and control centres by Hamas. Hamas and medical staff deny that the hospital is used for military purposes or to shelter fighters.

In recent days, Hamas spokespeople have said that the dead announced in previous Israeli statements were not fighters but patients and displaced people and have accused Israel of war crimes.

US resolution on Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal vetoed by Russia and China
The Guardian/ Julian Borger in Washington and Jason Burke in Jerusalem/23.3.2024
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/22/gaza-ceasefire-vetoed-un

Five-month impasse in UN security council extends as Netanyahu insists Israel will press ahead with new offensive against Rafah.

A US resolution urging a ceasefire in Gaza linked to a hostage deal has been vetoed by Russia and China in the UN security council, extending a five-month impasse in the international body over the Israel-Hamas war which has killed more than 32,000 people.

Eleven council members voted for the resolution on Friday morning; Russia, China and Algeria voted against it and Guyana abstained. As permanent security council members the Russian and Chinese votes counted as vetoes.

It was unclear on Friday morning whether there would be a further vote on an alternative resolution demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire drafted by other council members. The US has warned it would veto such a resolution, suggesting the deadlock in the body, tasked with safeguarding international peace and security, would continue.

At the same time, in Israel, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, shrugged off US objections and insisted Israeli forces would press ahead with a new offensive against the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah, which has been the last refuge for more than a million displaced Palestinians. Netanyahu said Israel “will do it alone” if necessary.

Before the vote, the Russian envoy to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, pointed out that the US had used its veto four times on Gaza (against three ceasefire resolutions and one Russian amendment) since the war started on 7 October, and noted that the US resolution did not directly demand a ceasefire but rather “determines the imperative” of a ceasefire.

“To save the lives of the peaceful Palestinian civilians, this is not enough,” Nebenzya said. He added that any council member voting for the resolution “will cover yourselves in disgrace”.

After the vote, the US envoy, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Russia and China had opposed the resolution because they could not bring themselves to support the clauses in it condemning Hamas.

“The second reason behind this veto is not just cynical, it’s also petty,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “Russia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States because they would rather see us fail than to see this council succeed.”

Another resolution has been drafted by elected members of the council with a direct demand for a ceasefire, but Thomas-Greenfield warned that the US would veto that text if it was presented for a vote, on the grounds that it did not support negotiations under way in Doha on a deal which would establish a ceasefire in return for Hamas freeing its hostages.

“Worse is that it could actually give Hamas an excuse to walk away from the deal on the table,” she said. “All of us want to see this council speak out, but we should not move forward with any resolution that jeopardises the ongoing negotiations.”

The alternative resolution was reported to be on hold on Friday morning, while council members held consultations.

Sherine Tadros, the head of the New York office of Amnesty International described the US resolution as “an attempt by the US to absolve themselves of the abysmal record Biden has had so far on Gaza, and submit a resolution that is not going to end the war”.

“This moment requires unequivocal action by the security council, whose mandate is to maintain international peace and security, calling for an immediate ceasefire,” Tadros. “It shouldn’t really be so hard for them to do that.”

The US gave the same reason for its veto of an Algerian ceasefire resolution over a month ago, but the hostage talks in Doha remain deadlocked. The CIA and Mossad directors, William Burns and David Barnea, were in Qatar on Friday for weekend negotiations with the head of Egyptian intelligence, Abbas Kamel, and Mohammed bin Hamad al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar.

Explaining his country’s vote against the US resolution, the Algerian ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama, pointed to the absence of a direct demand for an immediate ceasefire.

“The text presented today does not convey a clear message of peace,” Bendjama told the council. “It is a laissez passer to continue killing the Palestinian civilians.”

On a particularly bad day for US diplomacy, Netanyahu issued a video statement to reporters during a visit by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, defying repeated US appeals not to go ahead with plans for an offensive on Rafah, on the grounds it would cause further mass civilian casualties.

The Israeli prime minister said he recognised the need to evacuate the civilian population from combat zones and “see to the humanitarian needs”.

But he added: “We have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah and eliminating the remnant of the battalions there. I told him that I hope we would do this with US support but if necessary – we will do it alone.”

On leaving Israel after his one-day visit, Blinken said he had “candid conversations” with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, and restated US objections to a Rafah offensive.

“It risks wreaking greater havoc with the humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardising its long-term security and standing,” the top US diplomat told reporters.

Analysts in Israel say it is unclear if Netanyahu is genuinely committed to launching a military assault into Rafah despite US opposition, using the threat to add pressure on Hamas in the hostage talks, or is playing to his political base in Israel with the intention of blaming Washington if the Rafah assault is called off, and Netanyahu fails to achieve the declared war aim of “crushing” Hamas.

As a non-Zionist Jew, I’ve had enough

Posted on December 7, 2023December 12, 2023 by admin

6 December 2023, The Age, by Jenna Price: Hello. My name is Jenna Price and I’m Jewish. It’s a line I use when I find myself facing raging antisemitism.