Showing posts with label construction of settlements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label construction of settlements. Show all posts

Tuesday 26 September 2023

Iran terms Netanyahu speech at UNGA a comedy show

Iran has termed speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly a “comedy show” and utterings against its peaceful nuclear program and its regional actions “unfounded”.

In a statement released, the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran noted that Netanyahu had rambled on during his talks to the United Nations about the “curse of a nuclear Iran” and claimed that Tehran had spent “billions to arm its terror proxies.”

In addition, Netanyahu bragged that the scandalous Abraham Accords would herald a “New Middle East” that would bring “Arabs and Jews closer together” and bring about significant changes in the region.

“The baseless allegations made by Israeli officials no longer fool anyone. Iranophobic campaigns and widespread systematic dissemination of disinformation and unfounded allegations against Iran have always been one of the main elements of statements—or better to say, comedy shows—made by the Israeli authorities in this august body,” the Iranian delegation said.

It added, “The regime attempts to portray Iran’s conventional weapon capabilities or its exclusively peaceful nuclear program, one that is under the most robust verification of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as a challenge to regional stability; this is but a hypocritical move to distract from the real danger this regime poses to regional peace and security, particularly its nuclear-weapon arsenals, clandestine and unsafeguarded nuclear installations and activities.”

It also emphasized the Israeli regime’s checkered history of housing, funding, inciting, and arming the most deadly terrorist networks.

“The repulsive Israeli occupation has brought many crises and instability throughout the region. As such, it is ironic that the prime minister of the Israeli regime spoke about developing a regional peace initiative while his bloodthirsty regime plans to annex even more of the already occupied Palestinian territories,” the statement noted.

Netanyahu’s claim that Iranian drones were used in the conflict in Ukraine was also rejected by the delegation, which stated that “such baseless allegations, which are solely based on false flags and fabricated assumptions, are nothing more than a propaganda apparatus launched by certain States to further their political agenda.”

The statement emphasized how Israel continues to threaten regional and international peace and security by possessing all known forms of WMDs.

The delegation responded to Israel’s threats to use force against Iran by saying, “The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its inherent right to self-defense, under international law and the United Nations Charter, to decisively respond to any threat or wrongdoing committed by the Israeli regime.”

Israel’s disruptive policies and practices were also condemned by the Iranian delegation, which said that the regime has been committing atrocities against Palestinians for more than 70 years “in flagrant violation of the basic principles of morality, humanity, and the rules of international law.”

 


Monday 8 May 2023

Arab League marks 75th anniversary of Nakba

As the 75th anniversary of Nakba (the catastrophe) is marked, it remains paramount that the world should not forget the Zionist regime’s crimes against the Palestinian people, said the Arab League on Monday.

Marking the occasion during an event, a statement by Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Aboul-Gheit — delivered on his part by Assistant Secretary for Palestinian sector affairs Ambassador Saeed Abu-Ali — said that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has an imperative to conduct a swift investigation into the ongoing crimes committed by Israel since its so-called inception.

International organizations, including the UNSC, must take a stance to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land to pave the way for the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and centered on the capital of east Jerusalem.

According to Aboul-Gheit’s statement, the international community must also take action against the outrageous extreme right- wing policies of the Israeli government, which was antagonizing the people of Palestine.

The current Israeli occupation government refuses the two-state solution and blesses all actions aimed at boost illegal settlements throughout Palestinian lands.

Aboul-Gheit stressed that the Palestinian people have had enough of aggression and injustice that lasted for over seven decades starting 1948 when over 800,000 Palestinians were kicked off their lands and homes.

The Zionist forces had destroyed 531 towns and villages during Al-Nakba. Some 70 acts of genocide were carried out with 15,000 Palestinians killed in cold-blood, the statement noted, saying that since Al-Nakba some 100,000 Palestinians have lost their lives.

The impact of the day also affected over 5,000 Palestinians who dwelled in Israeli jails without justification or reason, the statement affirmed.

Also marking the occasion was member of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Dr. Ahmad Abu-Houli who stressed the importance of lifting the injustices befalling on the Palestinian people.

He called for a specialized committee of Arab experts to look into ways to free Palestinian prisoners in cooperation with the international community, saying that their cause must be highlighted worldwide.

An international conference should be held to protect Palestinian prisoners organized by the Arab League and similar to the one held in Iraq back in 2012, he added.

Wednesday 15 February 2023

Israel: Zionist regime faces highest resistance in West Bank

In Israel, the extremist ruling regime, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, faces its biggest resistance in the occupied West Bank in two decades. It simply can't put an end to the resistance of newly formed factions by Palestinian youth despite the almost daily military raids on cities, towns, villages, and refugee camps.

The record number of Palestinians Israel murdered last year looks like it will rise sharply this year with the death toll approaching almost 50 already in 2023. 

On Monday, the newly formed Palestinian Lions' Den resistance group said that its forces set up an elaborate ambush for Israeli troops who had entered Nablus to detain militants.

The group said that its forces used explosive devices as well as gunfire against the Israeli soldiers, who were eliminated. 

In a brief media statement, it then forecast that the cowardly Israeli occupation army would deny that soldiers had been killed. Instead, it will say that the deaths occurred in traffic accidents, on the mountains or as a result of illness.

"There were no Israeli casualties," reported Reuters, "but Israeli troops killed a 21-year-old Palestinian during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank that triggered clashes with gunmen on Monday."

This is while reports have emerged that the Jenin Battalion have used, for the first time, drones in pursuing the occupation soldiers, in what would be a major development.

The use of drones is said to have taken place as violent clashes broke out once again between the resistance factions and the Israeli military, after special Israeli forces stormed the Jenin refugee camp, where they were confronted by the Palestinian resistance.

In a statement, the Jenin Battalion confirmed that the occupation forces targeted it with heavy ammunition and explosive devices, resulting in direct hits.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that two civilians have sustained serious injuries as an outcome of the latest aggression.

The major Israeli raids and long-term military operations in the West Bank have failed to stop the Palestinian resistance. 

At the end of January 2023, the al-Quds Brigades published footage of the Jenin Brigade detonating an explosive device as a truck drove by carrying Special Forces of the occupation army.

Other scenes were shown of the battalion's fighters shooting down a drone that was being used for surveillance by the occupation army.

As the regime kills more civilians, retaliatory operations are also leaving the Israeli Special Forces as well as its settlers dying in rising numbers.

The daily Israeli raids and sieges of Palestinian refugee camps, towns and villages are not bringing the desired results that the regime wants.

It has, therefore, resorted to the other more common option that it has used over the decades of ethnic cleansing with the construction of settlements. 

The new Israeli cabinet has granted authorization to legitimize nine settler outposts in the occupied West Bank while also announcing the mass-construction of new settler units within established settlements as revenge for the Palestinian resistance's lethal operations against the Zionist troops and settlers. 

Over the years, Zionist settlers have constructed and expanded scores of settler outposts themselves. Many are later authorized as legal by the Israeli cabinet. The nine that have been authorized are the first by Netanyahu’s new far-right cabinet.

Illegal settlements to be legalized:

1. Avigil

2. Bet Hogla

3. Givat Harel / Haroeh

4. Givat Arnon

5. Mitzpe Yehuda

6. Malachei Hashalom

7. Ashael

8. Sde Boaz

9. Shaharit

 

A statement from Netanyahu's office also said a planning committee would convene in the coming days to approve new settler units. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said these would number 10,000.

The international community considers the settlements illegal for stealing the native land of Palestinians. According to the Peace Now watchdog group, since capturing the West Bank in 1967, Israel has established at least 132 settlements.

While statements by extremist ministers in Netanyahu's cabinet deemed the settlement push as a response to recent Palestinian retaliatory operation, they had actually agreed on such plans before their coalition was sworn in on December 29, 2022.

While welcoming the Netanyahu cabinet’s announcement, West Bank settler leader Yossi Dagan urged a total removal of curbs on construction, to enable construction in full swing.

The number of settlers squatting in the occupied West Bank has hit half a million for the first time.  

Israel demolishes Palestinian homes to make way for the expansion of its settlements or the construction of new ones, which effectively means the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their indigenous land.

The latest announcement by Netanyahu’s office has been met with demands by the United Nations for Israel for be held accountable for “domicide”.

In late 2022, the Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, called for domicide - defined as the massive, arbitrary destruction of civilian housing in violent conflict - to be recognized as a crime under international law.

The UN Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says the international community must take action to stop systematic and deliberate housing demolition and sealing, arbitrary displacement, and forced evictions of Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, UN experts said.

In January 2023 alone, Israel reportedly demolished 132 Palestinian structures across 38 communities in the West Bank, including 34 residential and 15 donor-funded structures. This figure represents a 135% increase, compared to the same period in 2022, and includes five punitive demolitions.

The United Nations Human Rights Office says, “The systematic demolition of Palestinian homes, erection of illegal Israeli settlements and systematic denial of building permits for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank amounts to domicide.”

"Direct attacks on the Palestinian people's homes, schools, livelihoods and water sources are nothing but Israel's attempts to curtail the Palestinians' right to self-determination and to threaten their very existence," the United Nations experts said in a statement.

They reiterated concern over the situation in Masafer Yatta, where over 1,100 Palestinian residents are at imminent risk of forced eviction, arbitrary displacement and demolitions of their homes, livelihood, water and sanitation structures.

In November 2022, Israeli authorities demolished a donor-funded school in Isfey al Fauqa. Four other schools in the area are under demolition orders.

“Direct attacks on the Palestinians’ homes, schools, livelihoods and water sources are nothing but Israel’s attempts to curtail the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and to threaten their very existence,” the experts said.

“Israel’s tactics of forcibly displacing and evicting the Palestinian population appear to have no limits. In occupied East Jerusalem, tens of Palestinian families also face imminent risks of forced evictions and displacement, due to discriminatory zoning and planning regimes that favor Israeli settlement expansion – the act that is illegal under international law and amounts to a war crime.”

The experts also expressed alarm at the regime’s endorsement and escalated practice of punitive evictions and demolitions, and other punitive measures applied to alleged perpetrators of attacks and their family members, such as revoking identity documents, citizenship and residency rights and social security benefits.

On January 29, Israeli authorities announced measures to immediately seal off family homes of those suspected of carrying out the attacks on 27 and 28 January in occupied [al-Quds] Jerusalem, including the attack in the Neve Yacoub settlement on 27 January which killed at least seven Israelis. Two families of the alleged attackers were forcibly evicted from their homes, and more than 40 people, including family members, were reportedly arrested in relation to the retaliatory operations.

"The sealing of family homes of suspected offenders and the subsequent demolition of their homes is in fundamental disrespect of international human rights norms and the rule of law. Such acts amount to collective punishment which is strictly prohibited under international law,” the experts said.

They statement added, “We regret that impunity prevails, in particular for human rights violations and potential war crimes committed by the occupying power. It is high time for international adjudication bodies to determine the nature of the Israeli occupation and seek justice and accountability for all crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

Washington has voiced its regular strong opposition to the expansion of Israeli statements. But as usual, the statements are lame attempts to try and show that the US upholds international law.

The US has never taken any punitive action against Israel, which is its number one proxy in West Asia. The White House has defended the occupation regime even when its war crimes are condemned by UN agencies. 

 

Wednesday 29 June 2022

Is Israel a free state?

Freedom in the World publishes a global report evaluating political rights and civil liberties in different countries and selected territories. The 2019 edition of the report includes development in 195 countries and 14 territories between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018.

According to the report, with a score of 80 out of 100, there is only one free country in the Middle East, Israel. Among all Mideast nations, this compares favorably with non-free nations such as Iraq (27), Iran (17), Saudi Arabia (10) and Syria (-1).

Rather than evaluating governments or government performance, Freedom in the World measures the rights and freedoms of individuals in the real world. Political rights and civil liberties can be affected by both state and non-state actors, including insurgents and other armed groups.

The US-based Freedom House said in its latest annual report that Israel is the only "free" state in the Middle East, contrary to claims by the country's critics who say its democratic values are being eroded. "Israel remains the region's only free country," read the report, Freedom in the World 2013, released days before Israel's election.

Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercises self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory.

But it also means what Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt said. ”With freedom comes responsibility”

A Country is independent of other countries, but it relies on its people for leadership, productivity, development, healthy society, and keeping democracy and freedom alive.

For that to happen we must follow what Jonathan Lockwood Huie said, “Independence of a nation begins with independence of self. “

Israel and the United States of America (US) both claim they are independent countries, but don’t they need each other? Certainly Yes, Israel needs the support of the US with weapons, shared research and development of new weapons, new technologies, new medical research, and mutual ideas for their free countries, and keeping democracy and freedom alive.

The US as well needs Israel, which is the only free and modern Democratic country in the Middle East, as a gateway to Asia and the Middle East, as well as its scientific teams that cooperate with the American researchers, technology developers, etc.

Therefore, it has to be remembered that the independence of the nations starts within themselves, the independence of the people, their hearts, and their speech.