Conflict between Palestine and Israel escalates
- Thread starter dreng3
- Start date
i shouldn't have to say this, but Matt Lieb is not actually a Zionist. He is in fact making fun of them. It's kind of his whole thing lately.
"Yeah, I'm not just a Nazi now, I was a Nazi before October! I've always been a Nazi! If I had my way, we'd have had death camps the day I took over!"
The treatment of burns in Gaza poses a problem to the long-term strategic objectives of the Israeli state, that being the removal of all of the people from Gaza.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-p...s-07-03-2024-033deab379a16efdf9989de8d6eaf0f8
Who could've predicted
Who could've predicted
Israel turbocharges West Bank settlement expansion with largest land grab in decades
Mourners carry the bodies of four Palestinians, killed by an Israeli airstrike late Tuesday, during their funeral in the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, near Tulkarem, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Palestinian health officials say four Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank late Tuesday. Israel’s military said an aircraft struck a group of militants who were planting explosives in Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Mourners take the last look at the body of Yazeed Shafea, 22, wrapped with an Islamic Jihad flag, who was one of four Palestinians killed by an Israeli airstrike late Tuesday, during their funeral in the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, near Tulkarem, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Palestinian health officials say four Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank late Tuesday. Israel’s military said an aircraft struck a group of militants who were planting explosives in Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Mourners take the last look at the bodies, wrapped with Islamic Jihad flags of four Palestinians, who were killed by an Israeli airstrike late Tuesday, during their funeral in the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, near Tulkarem, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Palestinian health officials say four Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank late Tuesday. Israel’s military said an aircraft struck a group of militants who were planting explosives in Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem. (AP Photo/Nasser
Mourners take a last look at the body of Yazeed Shafea, 22, wrapped with an Islamic Jihad flag, who was one of four Palestinians killed by an Israeli airstrike late Tuesday, during their funeral in the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, near Tulkarem, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Palestinian health officials say four Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank late Tuesday. Israel’s military said an aircraft struck a group of militants who were planting explosives in Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades, a settlement tracking group said Wednesday, a move that is likely to worsen already soaring tensions linked to the war in Gaza.
Israel’s aggressive expansion in the West Bank reflects the settler community’s strong influence in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the most religious and nationalist in the country’s history. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, has turbocharged the policy of expansion, seizing new authorities over settlement development and saying he aims to solidify Israel’s hold on the territory and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
Authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (nearly 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley, according to a copy of the order obtained by The Associated Press. Data from Peace Now, the tracking group, indicate it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process.
Settlement monitors said the land grab connects Israeli settlements along a key corridor bordering Jordan, a move they said undermines the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called it “a step in the wrong direction,” adding that “the direction we want to be heading is to find a negotiated two-state solution.”
The newly seized land is in an area of the West Bank where, even before the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, settler violence was displacing communities of Palestinians. That violence has only surged since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza. Settlers have carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Palestinians since October in the West Bank, causing deaths and damaging property, according to the U.N.
The land seizure, which was approved late last month but only publicized on Wednesday, comes after the seizure of 8 square kilometers (roughly 3 square miles) of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) in February.
That makes 2024 by far the peak year for Israeli land seizure in the West Bank, Peace Now said.
By declaring them state lands, the government opens them up to being leased to Israelis and prohibits private Palestinian ownership. This year’s land seizures are contiguous, linking two already existing settlements to create a solid block near the border with Jordan. The lands were declared to be closed Israeli military zones before they were declared state land.
The Palestinians view the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank as the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement, preventing any possibility of a cohesive state. Most of the international community considers settlements illegal or illegitimate.
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state. Israel’s current government considers the West Bank to be the historical and religious heartland of the Jewish people and opposes Palestinian statehood.
Israel has built well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, some of which resemble fully developed suburbs or small towns. They are home to over 500,000 Jewish settlers who have Israeli citizenship.
The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule. The Palestinian Authority administers enclaves scattered across the territory, but is barred from operating in 60% of the West Bank, which includes the settlements as well as areas with a population of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Yoni Mizrachi, the head of settlement tracking at Peace Now, described the land grab announced Wednesday as part of a strategy to establish a buffer zone between Jordan and Palestinian lands and choke off the practical possibility of a Palestinian state. The aim, he believes, is to push Palestinians into isolated islands surrounded by Israeli land.
“They definitely see this area as a strategic area, as the first and one of the easiest ways to begin annexation,” he said.
Prominent human rights organizations have pointed to Israel’s rule over the West Bank in accusing it of the international crime of apartheid, allegations Israel rejects as an attack on its legitimacy.
Smotrich was granted expanded powers over Israel’s administration of the occupied territory under Netanyahu’s governing coalition. Smotrich laid out his plans for the West Bank at a conference for his ultranationalist Religious Zionism Party last month, a recording of which was obtained by Peace Now. He said he intended to appropriate up to 15 square kilometers (nearly 6 square miles) of land in the West Bank this year.
“We came to settle the land, to build it, and to prevent its division and the establishment of a Palestinian state, God forbid,” he said during the conference. He vowed to “change the map dramatically” by claiming more West Bank land than ever before as state land.
He also promised to expand the establishment of farming outposts, which hard-line settlers have used to extend their control of rural areas, and to crack down on Palestinian construction.
The proliferation of outposts has driven up settler violence in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, rights groups say, leading several Palestinian villages to pick up and leave their land.
Palestinians say the violence is geared toward putting wide swaths of land under Israeli control and pushing the prospect of a Palestinian state further from reach.
The U.S., E.U., UK and Canada have imposed high-level sanctions against violent settlers and settler organizations, but some of those targeted have told The AP that the measures have had little effect.
The declaration published Wednesday was signed under the authority of Hillel Roth, a deputy Smotrich appointed earlier this year to boost settlement expansion and state land declarations in the West Bank, Peace Now said.
The declaration came a day after Peace Now said Israeli authorities were scheduled to approve or advance construction of over 6,000 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank in the coming days.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank, was not immediately available for comment.
Hamas cited the expansion of West Bank settlements as one of its justifications for the Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostage. Israel has launched a massive offensive in response that has killed over 37,900 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were fighters.
The war has caused massive devastation across Gaza and displaced most of its 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Israeli restrictions, the ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order have curtailed humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.
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Fucking hell, this cannot be ignored any further
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hope this is true and not vapid yapping
www.theguardian.com
Labour expected to drop challenge to ICC over Netanyahu arrest warrant
Exclusive: UK government appears unlikely to go ahead with legal bid, while Keir Starmer has spoken with Israeli PM over Gaza ceasefire
www.theguardian.com
‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza
Israeli soldiers describe the near-total absence of firing regulations in the Gaza war, with troops shooting as they please.
www.972mag.com
It would be nice, however reading the article I'm not sure who is "expecting to drop the challenge". It reads like a lot of wishful thinking mixed with vagaries of some of the Labour officials. "We're reviewing", "we're considering", "we're not sure".hope this is true and not vapid yapping
Labour expected to drop challenge to ICC over Netanyahu arrest warrant
Exclusive: UK government appears unlikely to go ahead with legal bid, while Keir Starmer has spoken with Israeli PM over Gaza ceasefire
Doctors working in Gaza hospitals attest to seeing wounds caused by shrapnel/fragmentation ammunition used in civilian areas, and disproportionately affecting children.
www.theguardian.com
Israeli weapons packed with shrapnel causing devastating injuries to children in Gaza, doctors say
Surgeons who worked in European and al-Aqsa hospitals describe extensive wounds caused by ‘fragmentation’ shrapnel experts say is designed to maximize casualties
www.theguardian.com
Not to be outdone on kuntiness, Microsoft gotta twist the boot in too
www.bbc.com
Shitty farcical attempts at "centrist" wording and blatant overall minimisation notwithstanding
Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say
More than 20 Palestinians say they have been kicked off Skype, a popular tool for contacting relatives.
www.bbc.com
Shitty farcical attempts at "centrist" wording and blatant overall minimisation notwithstanding
Palestinians say Microsoft unfairly closing their accounts
By Mohamed Shalaby and Joe Tidy, BBC World Service
Getty Images - The Israeli military campaign has badly affected internet and mobile connectivity in Gaza
Palestinians living abroad have accused Microsoft of closing their email accounts without warning - cutting them off from crucial online services.
They say it has left them unable to access bank accounts and job offers - and stopped them using Skype, which Microsoft owns, to contact relatives in war-torn Gaza.
Microsoft says they violated its terms of service - a claim they dispute.
"They killed my life online," said Eiad Hametto, who lives in Saudi Arabia.
"They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years - It was connected to all my work," he told the BBC.
He also said being cut off from Skype was a huge blow for his family.
The internet is frequently disrupted or switched off there because of the Israeli military campaign - and standard international calls are very expensive.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on 7 October, which killed about 1,200 people. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 38,000 people have been killed in the war.
With a paid Skype subscription, it is possible to call mobiles in Gaza cheaply - and while the internet is down - so it has become a lifeline to many Palestinians.
Some of the people the BBC spoke to said they suspected they were wrongly thought to have ties to Hamas, which Israel is fighting, and is designated a terrorist organisation by many countries.
But Mr Hametto denied he had any such links.
“We are civilians with no political background who just wanted to check on our families," he said.
Microsoft did not respond directly when asked if suspected ties to Hamas were the reason for the accounts being shut.
But a spokesperson said it did not block calls or ban users based on calling region or destination.
"Blocking in Skype can occur in response to suspected fraudulent activity," they said, without elaborating.
Salah Elsadi says he has been locked out of life online
Salah Elsadi, who lives in the US, also told the BBC that in April, he was kicked out of his account - and all services linked to his Microsoft Hotmail account.
"I've had this Hotmail for 15 years," Mr Elsadi told the BBC.
"They banned me for no reason, saying I have violated their terms - what terms? Tell me.
"I've filled out about 50 forms and called them many many times."
Another Palestinian the BBC spoke to, Khalid Obaied, said he now no longer trusted Microsoft.
"I paid for a package to make phone calls - then, after 10 days, they ban me for no reason," he said.
"That means it's only because I’m a Palestinian calling Gaza.”
Yemen attacks Israeli ship, port city in response to Khan Yunis massacre
Sanaa has vowed to continue its operations until Israel's genocidal war on Gaza is brought to an end
thecradle.co
Iranian government actors seeking to 'take advantage' of pro-Palestinian protests in US: DNI
Iranian government actors seeking to "take advantage" of pro-Palestine protests, including funding some: DNI
abcnews.go.com
they're right. undermining confidence in "our democratic institutions" is objectively correct. it is utterly clear that those institutions do not deserve confidence.Iranian government actors seeking to 'take advantage' of pro-Palestinian protests in US: DNI
Iranian government actors seeking to "take advantage" of pro-Palestine protests, including funding some: DNI