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CRY FREEDOM.net
formerly known as
Women's Liberation Front
MORE INSIGHT MORE LIFE
Welcome to cryfreedom.net,
formerly known as Womens
Liberation Front.
A website
that hopes to draw and keeps your attention for both the global 21th. century 3rd. feminist revolution as well
as especially for the Zan, Zendegi, Azadi uprising in Iran and the
struggles of our sisters in other parts of the Middle East. This online magazine
that started December 2019 will
be published every week. Thank you for your time and interest.
Gino d'Artali
indept investigative
journalist
radical feminist and women's rights activist
'WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM'
You are now at the section on what is happening in the rest of the Middle
east
(Updates
Sept. 1, 2024)
Click here for the
Iran 'Woman, Life, Freedom' section Updated August
30, 2024
For the 'Women's Arab Spring 1.2' Revolt
news
click here
Updated August 28, 2024
CLICK HERE ON HOW TO READ
ALL ON THIS PAGE
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SPECIAL
REPORTS PALESTINE
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA - FREE PALESTINE
Sept wk1 --
August wk4 P3 -- August
wk4 P2 -- August
wk 4 -- August
wk3 P3 -- August
wk3 bis2 -- August
wk3bis -- Click here for an overview by week in 2024
When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi
figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da
qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so
called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.
BBC - August 31, 2024
<<Israeli West Bank raid leaves destruction and determination in its
wake
Majdi was in his house at the entrance of Nur Shams refugee camp when
the Israeli armoured bulldozers came. He told his three children not to
be scared as the bulldozer pushed up against their front wall, smashing
through the staircase and balcony. "The bulldozer kept coming closer to
the house," he said. "It lifted the rubble near those two windows above.
It was trying to hit them." Residents living near the entrances to Nur
Shams often leave when they hear the Israeli army is coming. I asked
Majdi why he stayed.
"Why would I leave?" he said.
"We won't leave. We are staying here. We either go back to our lands [in
what is now Israel] or stay here and die. There are no other options."
At least four men were killed in the Tulkarm area, which includes Nur
Shams, during Israel’s two-day military operation here, including at
least two who were fighting Israeli forces. "Every time one of us is
killed, 10 more are born. We are crushing them, and hopefully, our
children will also crush them," Majdi said. The Israeli army says it has
killed members of armed groups, made arrests and seized weapons during
the major operation
Israel's army pulled out of Nur Shams camp on Friday morning, but its
wider operation across the north of the occupied West Bank continues -
with the aim, Israel says, of dismantling the armed groups there. One of
the men killed during the operation was 69-year-old Ayed Abu Hajja, who
was disabled and a long-term resident of Nur Shams. He was shot by a
sniper, neighbours said, when he opened a window in his house. On
Friday, his body was carried through the narrow streets to his mother's
home, before burial. A large crowd of young men gathered to escort his
body to the cemetery - but others were there to honour someone else.
Groups of young men filed silently past the crowd with their weapons -
to a separate, symbolic burial for their leader, Mohammed Jaber - also
killed during the Israeli operation in this city The fighter and the
civilian, living for years side by side in Nur Shams, remembered side by
side in death. One with prayers; the other with bursts of automatic
gunfire - a show of force from Tulkarm's armed fighters, less than a day
after Israel’s army withdrew.
Inside Nur Shams, Israel's operation has left war-like destruction in
parts of the camp: houses burned out, walls sheared off. Whole buildings
collapsed into rubble have opened up new, sloping and precarious routes
between the camp's main streets. A child of six or seven, dwarfed by a
mountain of concrete boulders, reaches gently in to pick out a bright
yellow toy walkie-talkie from the remains of his grandmother's house.
Standing nearby is his grandmother's next-door neighbour, Fadwa Abu Ayad,
her path to the street cut off by the rubble mountain. The army also
came to her house, she said.
"They told us that we have tunnels like in Gaza, and smuggle the armed
groups to this house," Fadwa said.
I asked her if that was true.
"It's impossible," she replied. "He brought a drill and dug into the
floor. All he found was a sewer hole."
Fadwa takes us through another entrance to her house, and shows us the
broken floor - beneath it is a small pipe and what appears to be a sewer
drain. It's too small for a person to fit through. "What is happening in
the [West Bank] camps now is like a small version of Gaza," Fadwa said.
"Ever since 7 October," she added, referring to the day of Hamas's
deadly attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. "It feels like
we’re in Gaza," said Umm Yazan. Down another shattered street, paved
with broken glass and burned pieces of rubble, I hear a voice at the
window above me. It turns out to be Umm Yazan. She says the army laid
wires from her home to blow up two of the houses opposite - families she
has known for decades. "I have 10-year-old triplets, and they trapped us
in a room," she told me. "Then they started the explosions - five
explosions in total. Imagine the walls shaking and your young children
clinging to you. It feels like we’re in Gaza." Israel says this is a
counter-terrorist operation, to dismantle Palestinian armed groups it
says are funded and armed by Iran. Nur Shams is home to more than 13,000
registered Palestinian refugees
But Umm Yazan replies that it is the army's responsibility to target
fighters, and not involve families like hers. "Are there fighters in my
house? I have young children, my husband has an Israeli work permit. My
house is a safe house." You hear comparisons with Gaza a lot here now.
The grinding conflict between Israel and armed Palestinian groups in the
West Bank is still very different to the Gaza war, but that war has
changed attitudes and tactics here - on both sides.
It has changed how Israel views the threat from armed groups here - and,
some say, it is also changing its response on the ground.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgj36n8e6ro
Al Jazeera - August 31, 2024 - By Lyndal Rowlands
<<Israel's war on Gaza live: Israel bombards Gaza, besieges West Bank's
Jenin
This video may contain light patterns or images that could trigger
seizures or cause discomfort for people with visual sensitivities.
At least 12 Palestinians have been killed in recent Israeli attacks
across Gaza, including in Jabalia in the north and Khan Younis in the
south, Gaza's civil defence reports.
Siege of Jenin city by Israeli forces leaves Palestinian residents
without food, water, electricity or internet access, as the most intense
military raid on the occupied West Bank in decades continues.>>
View video and read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/31/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-bombards-gaza-besieges-west-banks-jenin
Le Monde - August 30, 2024
<<Israel agrees to 'humanitarian pauses' in Gaza for polio vaccinations
The series of three-day pauses will allow UN health officials to
administer vaccinations in the territory. The first case of the
infectious disease in 25 years was confirmed this month in an
unvaccinated 10-month-old baby.
Israel has agreed to a series of three-day <humanitarian pauses> in Gaza
to allow UN health officials to administer polio vaccinations in the
territory, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, August 29.
"The way we discussed and agreed, the campaign will start on the first
of September, in central Gaza, for three days, and there will be a
humanitarian pause during the vaccination," said Rik Peeperkorn, the
agency's representative for Palestinian territories. The vaccination
rollout will also cover southern and northern Gaza, which will each get
their own three-day pauses, Peeperkorn told reporters, adding that
Israel had agreed to allow an additional day if required.
Providing vaccines to more than 640,000 children
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to Agence France-Presse's
request for comment. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on
Wednesday night the new measures were <not a ceasefire.> Hamas said it
supports the <UN humanitarian truce.>
The United States and European Union have both voiced concern over polio
in Gaza, after the first case there in 25 years was confirmed this month
in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby. UN agencies have said they plan to
provide oral vaccines against type-2 poliovirus (cVDPV2) to more than
640,000 children in the territory.
Poliovirus is highly infectious and most often spread through sewage and
contaminated water - an increasingly common problem in Gaza with much of
the territory's infrastructure destroyed by Israel in its war against
Hamas. The disease mainly affects children under the age of 5. It can
cause deformities and paralysis and is potentially fatal.
Le Monde with AFP>>
Source:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/08/29/israel-agrees-to-humanitarian-pauses-in-gaza-for-polio-vaccinations_6723510_4.html
Only 17 out of 36 hospitals partially functional
Jinha - Womens News Agency - August 30 , 2024
<<Only 17 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza partially functional
Only 17 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are currently operating partially
amid the ongoing Israeli aggression, Michael Ryan, Director of Global
Emergency Response at the World Health Organization (WHO), said on
Friday.
News Center- Only 17 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are currently operating
partially amid the ongoing Israeli aggression, Michael Ryan, Director of
Global Emergency Response at the World Health Organization (WHO), said
on Friday. These hospitals are struggling due to physical damage, fuel
shortages, limited medical supplies, and a shortage of staff, he
highlighted, adding: "WHO documented 1,098 attacks on healthcare
facilities in the occupied Palestinian territory between October 7,
2023, and August 22, 2024. Of these, 492 occurred in Gaza, resulting in
747 deaths and 969 injuries." >>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/only-17-out-of-36-hospitals-in-gaza-partially-functional-35606
Al Jazeera - August 29, 2024
<<EU’s top diplomat seeks sanctions against Israeli ministers
Josep Borrell urges 27 member states to back measures against those
accused of fomenting 'hatred' towards Palestinians. The European Union's
foreign policy chief has urged the bloc's 27 member states to impose
sanctions against some Israeli ministers for their "hate messages"
against Palestinians. Josep Borrell, speaking before the EU's foreign
ministers' meeting in Brussels on Thursday, said Israeli ministers had
made statements that go "clearly against international law and is an
incitation to commit war crimes". He did not name the ministers.
However, in recent weeks Borrell has publicly criticised far-right
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich for statements he described as "sinister". "I initiated the
procedures in order to ask the member states ... if they consider
appropriate, including in our list of sanctions some Israeli ministers
[who have] been launching unacceptable hate messages against the
Palestinians," Borrell told reporters. "I think that the European Union
has not to have taboos in order to use our toolbox - in order to make
humane law respected," he said. The Israeli ministers have created
international outrage after Smotrich suggested starving Gaza's
population to release the Israeli captives held in the enclave. Ben-Gvir
has made several inflammatory comments about Palestinians. He most
recently said he would build a Jewish synagogue at the Al-Aqsa Mosque
compound - Islam's third-holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian
identity - in occupied East Jerusalem, if he could. Diplomats said it is
unlikely that Borrell's call for sanctions on the ministers will gain
the required unanimous agreement of all 27 members to pass. They said,
however, that it indicates the level of anger that some European
officials have about comments by Israeli ministers.
The EU has been divided since the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel
on October 7 that triggered Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more
than 40,000 Palestinians.
Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic staunchly defend Israel's right
to self-defence, blocking any attempt at tough measures targeting the
Israeli government.
Ireland - among one of the EU's most pro-Palestinian members and who
joined Spain and Norway in recognising Palestinian statehood in May -
said on Thursday that it backed Borrell's proposal for sanctions against
ministers and Israeli groups that are "facilitating" the expansion of
settlements on Palestinian territory. "It cannot be business as usual,"
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin told reporters, citing an advisory
opinion by the International Court of Justice last month, which called
on organisations such as the EU to examine its relationship with Israel
in light of the occupation of the West Bank.
Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter said this week she would
fully back sanctions on Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.
Other ministers have been less than supportive.
Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters on Thursday
that Borrell's proposal was <dangerous>.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said sanctions would not be the
"right path" to keep Israel at the negotiating table for a ceasefire in
Gaza.
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock signalled reluctance over
the proposal and said that EU sanctions were already in place on violent
Jewish settlers.
European sanctions involve a ban on travelling to the bloc, and the
seizure of assets held within the EU. Earlier on Thursday, Israeli
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said his country was working <tirelessly>
with its European allies to prevent <anti-Israel decisions> at the
foreign ministers' meeting.
<Our message is clear: In a reality where Israel faces threats from Iran
and its proxy terror organisations, the free world must stand with
Israel, not against it,> he wrote on X.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/29/eus-top-diplomat-seeks-sanctions-against-israeli-ministers
40,602 Palestinians killed
Jinha - Womens News Agency - August 29 , 2024
<<At least 40,602 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks
At least 40,602 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the
Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, the Gaza’s health ministry said in a
statement on Thursday.
News Center- At least 40,602 Palestinians have been killed and 93,855
others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7,
2023, the Gaza's health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
At least 68 Palestinians were killed and 77 others injured in Israeli
attacks on the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, the ministry added,
stressing that there are many bodies under rubble and the civil defense
crews cannot reach them due to ongoing Israeli attacks.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/at-least-40-602-palestinians-killed-in-israeli-attacks-35600
Al Jazeera - August 29, 2024
<<Deadly Israeli raids in occupied West Bank as Gaza war rages
Israel has launched its largest military assault in the territory in
more than two decades, simultaneously attacking four areas. The largest
Israeli military raid on the occupied West Bank in decades continues
with at least 12 Palestinians killed and dozens wounded after the first
day of the incursion on Wednesday. The Israeli military is pressing on
with its deadly offensive in the occupied West Bank despite widespread
international condemnation from countries and rights groups. At least 18
people have been killed since the start of the operations across the
territory, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Thursday. The
Israeli military said its forces killed five Palestinian fighters on the
second day of its so-called <counterterrorism> operations. On Wednesday,
Israel launched coordinated raids across four northern areas - Jenin,
Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem - where the military has focused much of its
recent operations. Armoured columns entered refugee camps in Tulkarem,
Tubas and Jenin.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres, said the Israeli operations took place <in close
proximity to four hospitals" and at least some "have been surrounded",
affecting the movement of medical teams. Guterres "calls for an
immediate cessation of these operations," a later statement from his
office said. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq and Al
Mezan Center for Human Rights have warned of escalating violence in the
West Bank and the use of tactics by Israeli forces that the world has
witnessed in its war on Gaza.
In a joint statement, the rights groups called on the international
community to "immediately intervene and implement countermeasures
against Israel as required by international law".
"Our organisations warn of even more escalated violence in the West
Bank, with the employment of tactics that mirror those used in Israel's
genocidal campaign in Gaza, particularly attacks on hospitals and
healthcare facilities, and the use of excessive and indiscriminate
force," they said.>>
Source and view photos here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/8/29/deadly-israeli-raids-in-occupied-west-bank-as-gaza-war-rages
Al Jazeera - August 29, 2024 - By Alma Milisic
<<Israel's West Bank assault updates: Attacks 'fuelling explosive
situation'
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls for "an immediate cessation"
of Israel's attacks on the occupied West Bank, including Jenin, Tulkarem
and Tubas governorates, according to a statement. At least 18 people
have been killed since Israel intensified its assault on the occupied
West Bank on Wednesday. Israeli forces kill the commander of the
Tulkarem Battalion, Mohamed Jaber, also known as Abu Shuja'a, and four
other Palestinian fighters in a firefight in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq, and Al Mezan Center for
Human Rights warn of violence escalation in the West Bank and the use of
Israeli military tactics that the world has witnessed in Gaza.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/29/israels-west-bank-assault-live-israel-enters-raids-territory-for-2nd-day
Le Monde - August 29, 2024 - By Samuel Forey (West Bank, special
correspondent)
<<Israel accelerates settlement in UNESCO-listed area of West Bank
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's finance minister and a figure of the
far-right supremacist movement, has announced his intention to 'initiate
procedures for the establishment' of a new settlement on the outskirts
of the ancient village of Battir. The hills of Battir are lost for
Palestine. Streaked with terraces tended by dozens of generations of
farmers – man has inhabited these parts since ancient times - they are
still covered with pine and olive trees. Here and there, the white of a
few storage buildings and trailers contrasts with the watercolor green
of the trees. They are first recent signs of Israeli colonization in the
West Bank, which has been occupied since 1967. Battir, which has a
population of 5,000, lies below. A spring at the heart of the village
irrigates market gardens, where the inhabitants grow eggplants, peppers,
pomegranates and cucumbers. Not far from Jerusalem, this village was
once one of the Holy City's orchards and, thanks to the railroad built
by the Ottomans at the end of the 19th century, exported its produce as
far as Jaffa. In recent years, it has also become an attraction for many
Palestinians, who come here to forget the daily grind of occupation, for
a hike or to have lunch in the shade of the arbors. This "land of olives
and vines" was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014: "The
dry-stone architecture represents outstanding example of a landscape
that illustrates the development of human settlements near water sources
and the adaptation of the land for agriculture." However, this landscape
is now in danger. Bezalel Smotrich, an Israeli far-right supremacist
figure, minister of finance and head of settlement administration in the
West Bank, announced on the social media network X on August 7 that he
was <initiating procedures for the establishment of the Nahal Haletz
settlement.> Nahal Haletz is part of a project to build five new
settlements, decided at the end of June by the government headed by
Benjamin Netanyahu, in retaliation for the unilateral recognition of the
State of Palestine by Spain, Ireland, Norway and Slovenia, said the
minister in his statement published in Hebrew on X. Even though war
rages in Gaza and the Israeli economy is increasingly being downgraded
by rating agencies, Smotrich is launching costly settlement projects,
increasing the number of faits accomplis while world attention is
focused on the cessation of hostilities in the Palestinian enclave.
Making the existence of a Palestinian state even more impossible
By building an Israeli settlement there, the government hopes to
establish Jewish territorial continuity from Jerusalem to Gush Etzion, a
massive settlement block of some 100,000 inhabitants, and make the
existence of a possible Palestinian state even more impossible. The
territory of Nahal Haletz covers almost half of the <core zone> of the
UNESCO-listed site.>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/08/29/in-the-occupied-west-bank-israel-accelerates-settlement-in-a-unesco-listed-area_6723182_4.html
Al Jazeera - August 29, 2024 - By Joseph Stepansky
<<Aid delivery in Gaza is nearly impossible. Why hasn’t the US
intervened?
The UN says Israel is hampering efforts to deliver vaccines and other
aid, but the US has offered little public pressure.
Washington, DC - The United Nations is warning that the threats to aid
delivery in Gaza are reaching crisis levels, as Israel continues to wage
war in the Palestinian enclave. But advocates say the United States - a
critical ally of Israel and the largest donor to the UN - has been
conspicuously silent. On Monday, a UN official said the organisation was
forced to pause almost all aid operations in Gaza after Israel issued
another raft of wide-ranging evacuation orders. And on Wednesday, the
UN's World Food Programme announced it would temporarily halt employee
travel in Gaza after one of its vehicles came under attack as it neared
an Israeli checkpoint. Advocates say the US has a duty to speak up,
particularly as childhood malnutrition surges in Gaza and cases of polio
- a preventable but highly contagious disease - spread. "The United
States government has run out of words and hasn't even issued its usual
performative statements to comment on the UN suspension of its aid
operations in Gaza," said Raed Jarrar, the advocacy director at
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a human rights nonprofit based
in Washington, DC. Legal experts say blocking humanitarian aid to
civilians and attacking aid workers could amount to war crimes under the
Geneva Convention. The UN is also warning of a dire toll on Gaza’s
civilians. Its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
documented a spike in acute malnutrition among Gaza's children from May
to July - including a 300 percent increase in the enclave's north. In
the south, the rate more than doubled. As the UN gears up to launch a
massive polio vaccination drive, Hassan el-Tayyab - the legislative
director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National
Legislation, a nonprofit - said the inability to deliver basic
necessities could compound the health crisis. "A 10-month-old baby in
Gaza is now paralysed in one leg: This is the first polio case in Gaza
in 25 years. This is a massive threat," el-Tayyab told Al Jazeera. "At
the same time, malnutrition is running rampant. Patients that are
suffering from malnutrition have a lot lower effectiveness when taking
this vaccine, so obviously we need the food to make sure that the
vaccines actually even work."
'Use the bully pulpit'
On Wednesday, the World Food Programme revealed that one of its vehicles
was hit 10 times by Israeli gunfire in Gaza - despite being clearly
identifiable and on a "fully coordinated" humanitarian mission. The two
staff members inside were unharmed, saved by the vehicle's bullet-proof
glass. The agency nevertheless said it was pausing the movement of its
employees until further notice. Just one day prior, Gilles Michaud, the
UN's under-secretary-general for safety and security, warned that, while
humanitarian operations were able to resume in Gaza, aid workers were
"operating at the upper-most peripheries of tolerable risk". Michaud
also accused Israel of giving inadequate warning to aid workers in case
of attack.
He explained that, over the weekend, Israel's military "gave just a few
hours’ notice to move more than 200 UN personnel out of their offices
and living places in Deir Al Balah, a crucial humanitarian hub". "Mass
evacuation orders are the latest in a long list of unbearable threats to
UN and humanitarian personnel," Michaud said. Given the recent
reemergence of polio in Gaza, the UN issued an appeal last week for a
seven-day "humanitarian pause" in the war, to allow both aid and
humanitarian workers to circulate within the enclave safely. Advocates
like el-Tayyab believe the administration of US President Joe Biden can
be a critical force in making that pause a reality. "Diplomatic pressure
is absolutely huge," el-Tayyab said. "Biden should use the bully pulpit
to call for the seven-day polio pause right now." On Tuesday, US Senator
Chris Van Hollen also joined the UN's appeal for a seven-day pause in
the fighting, so that inoculants could be administered to the
approximately 640,000 children in Gaza.
The UN has called for an "immediate pause", Van Hollen wrote on the
social media platform X. "[Biden] should do the same. As we work towards
a permanent ceasefire [and] return of hostages, we must stop the spread
of polio now."
Emphasis on ceasefire talks
The Biden administration has signalled it is willing to back efforts to
combat polio in the enclave. Earlier this month, US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken told reporters in Israel that he was working with the
Israeli government on the vaccine distribution effort. On Wednesday,
Israeli media reported the government had approved temporary pauses in
the fighting to allow for vaccines to be distributed, although no formal
plan has been announced. Gaza's Ministry of Health said it has also not
been notified of any such plan. Jarrar said there is reason to be
sceptical that any such plans would meet the needs of Palestinians. He
also criticised the Biden administration for failing to hold Israel
accountable for disrupting the flow of aid. "The Biden administration is
so deep in the zone of aiding and abetting Israel's crimes that it
doesn't even bother to maintain the pretense," he said. "Arming Israel
while it continues to starve Palestinians and obstruct humanitarian aid
is not only unethical, it is a violation of US law."
The Biden administration has instead focused its diplomacy in large part
on reaching an elusive ceasefire agreement. US officials have repeatedly
said a ceasefire would allow for increases in aid to Gaza. Speaking at
the Democratic National Convention on August 19, Biden said the
administration was working <around the clock> to <prevent a wider war>
in the region. Part of the goal, he explained, was to <surge
humanitarian health and food assistance into Gaza now> and <to end the
civilian suffering of the Palestinian people>.
Two days later, Biden held a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. A White House read-out of their conversation mentioned
<ongoing US efforts to support Israel's defense> as well as <the urgency
of bringing the ceasefire>. The summary did not mention the immediate
need for humanitarian aid access in Gaza.
'Worse to not even say anything'
Advocates have expressed little hope that the Biden administration will
leverage the billions in military aid it provides to Israel annually to
assure the free flow of aid into Gaza. But Annelle Sheline, an analyst
at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said it was
particularly worrying that the Biden administration avoided publicly
scrutinising the way Israel restricts aid distribution. Sheline recently
resigned from the US State Department in protest of the administration's
policies towards the Gaza war. "Obviously, the Biden administration has,
in the past, made statements that it refuses to back up with any
action," she said. "That's clearly problematic, but arguably, it is even
worse to not even say anything or acknowledge or at least call out the
ways that Israel is blocking aid." She posited the silence could be a
reflection of the US "not wanting to show any daylight" with Israel - a
phrase used to symbolise the two countries' historically close
relationship. In the silence, Sheline saw evidence of a "doubling down"
on the US support for Israel, regardless of the violations committed
against aid workers.
The US has continued to provide weapons to Israel, including the
approval of a $20bn arms package to Israel earlier this month, as it
anticipates a retaliatory strike from Iran.
Sheline also pointed to the recent appointment of Mira Resnick -
reportedly a staunch advocate for continued weapons transfers to Israel
- as the new deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs
in the State Department's Middle East office. The appointment was first
reported by the Huffington Post. "I do think that that clearly signals
the extent to which the administration is comfortable with the Israeli
genocide," Sheline said.
"On the one hand, I interpret this as the administration once again
demonstrating that they do not care what happens to civilians like
Gaza."
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/29/aid-delivery-in-gaza-is-nearly-impossible-why-hasnt-the-us-intervened
Women's
Liberation Front 2019/cryfreedom.net 2024
