SPECIAL REPORTS PALESTINE

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA - FREE PALESTINE
 July wk4 P3 --  July wk4 P2 -- July wk 4 -- July wk 4to3 -- July wk3 P3 -- July wk3 P2 --  July wk3 -- July wk2 P3 -- July wk2 P2 -- July wk2 -- July wk1 P3 --   Click here for an overview by week in 2024
 

Special reports: TRIBUTES TO MOTHERS AND CHILDREN July 22, 2024 Ms. Maram Humaid: "A letter to my son: As you turn one today in Gaza, I feel joy and sorrow" July 12, 2024 Noor Alyacoubi - "I'm fighting to keep my baby alive" and other stories Mothers and children: Boom-And again Boom

Special report: July 12, 2024: Scorched Hospitals - Schools -  Housing - Bodies -- fake or fact?

July 26 - 25, 2024 "What I know is that living means fighting under a clear sky for the love of children." Read the latest news below.

July 26 - 23, 2024 Note by Gino d'Artali: Normally I quote some latest news headlines here but... I, and with many I'm sure, simply say "Not in my name." Read the latest news below.

July 23 - 22, 2024 Editorial note: we all know that the genocide continues but... please do read all about the actual news and facts and especially do read to the end that really calls out to end it NOW! Click here to go throughout July and earler, 2024

June 14, 2024 Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Hiba Abu Taha sentenced to one year in prison

Related news: July 11, 2024: Media organizations demand access to Gaza July 2 2024: Arrests of Palestinian journalists since start of Israel-Gaza war   Click here for earlier stories/news

May 23, 2024 In commemoration of Roshdi Sarraj and tribute to Shrouq Al Aila

 
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.




France 25 - July 26, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Over 180,000 Gazans displaced by intense fighting in Khan Yunis, UN says
Over 180,000 Palestinians have left the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis due to intense warfare in just four days, the United Nations reported on Friday, following an Israeli operation to recover hostages' bodies from the area. The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, stated that the recent escalation in hostilities triggered new waves of internal displacement across Gaza, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. More than 180,000 Palestinians have fled fierce fighting around the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis in four days, the United Nations said Friday, after an Israeli operation to extract captives' bodies from the area. Recent <intensified hostilities> in the Khan Yunis area, more than nine months into the Israel-Hamas war, have fuelled <new waves of internal displacement across Gaza>, said the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA. It said <about 182,000 people> have been displaced from central and eastern Khan Yunis between Monday and Thursday, and hundreds are <stranded in eastern Khan Yunis>. The Israeli military on Monday ordered the evacuation of parts of the southern city, announcing its forces would <forcefully operate> there, including in an area previously declared a safe humanitarian zone. On Wednesday, Israel said five bodies of captives seized during Hamas's October 7 attack that triggered the war had been recovered from the area. Israel's military said on Friday that its forces had <eliminated approximately 100 terrorists> in the city this week. Israel's military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said the captives' bodies were pulled from underground tunnels and walls in <a hidden place>. Troops <were near those fallen bodies in the past, we did not know how to reach them> until this week, Halevi said in a statement. Witnesses and rescuers said heavy battles continued around eastern Khan Yunis on Friday. The Nasser Hospital said 26 bodies were brought to the medical site. The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 111 are still held in the Gaza Strip, including 39 the military says are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. According to UN figures, the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the fighting.
(AFP)>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240727-over-180-000-gazans-displaced-by-intense-fighting-in-khan-yunis-un-says

Le Monde - July 26, 2024
<<'I will not be silent': Harris toughens Democratic Gaza policy
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met separately with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday. Harris has sparked speculation that she might take a tougher stance toward Israel. Kamala Harris signaled a major shift in US Gaza policy Thursday, July 25, with the presidential hopeful telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seal a peace deal and insisting she would not be "silent" on the suffering in the Palestinian enclave. Ripping up outgoing President Joe Biden's playbook of mostly behind-the-scenes pressure on Israel, the vice president said after meeting Netanyahu that it was time to end the "devastating" war.
"What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time," Harris told reporters. "We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.". The 59-year-old - now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after Biden said over the weekend he would not stand in November's election - said she pressed Netanyahu on the dire situation in the "frank" meeting. She said she "expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering and Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians. And I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there." Biden, for his part, held Oval Office talks with Netanyahu and called on him to swiftly <finalize> a deal on a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages, and <reach a durable end to the war in Gaza,> according to a White House readout of the meeting.
'Time to get this deal done'
Harris also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state and, similar to Biden, urged both Netanyahu and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and hostage release deal to end the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel. "As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done," she said. Harris's outspoken comments were a stark contrast to the largely amiable greetings between Biden and Netanyahu earlier in the day, even if it masked months of tensions between the two men as well as questions over the US president's relevance. <From a proud Zionist Jew to a proud Zionist Irish American, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the State of Israel,> Netanyahu said in tribute to Biden at the start of the Oval Office meeting. <And I look forward to discussing with you today and working with you in the months ahead.> The White House meetings come a day after the Israeli premier gave a fiery speech to the US Congress in which he vowed <total victory> against Hamas.
Harris has been more outspoken on Gaza in the past than Biden and there had been speculation that she could adopt a tougher approach on Israel. Officials earlier denied there is any <daylight> between her and the president.
'More optimistic'
Biden and Netanyahu later met the families of US hostages held in Gaza, who said they hoped for a possible new ceasefire proposal in the coming days. <We feel probably more optimistic than we have since the first round of releases in late November,> Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, told reporters after the meeting.
Protesters chanted slogans outside a ring of metal barriers erected around the White House, following rowdy protests during Netanyahu's speech to lawmakers. While Biden has kept military aid flowing to Israel since Hamas's October 7 attacks, relations with Netanyahu have been deeply strained by Israel's conduct during the war and suspicions that he may be stalling on a deal.
Le Monde with AFP>>
Source:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/26/it-is-time-to-get-this-deal-done-harris-toughens-democratic-stance-on-israel-palestine-conflict_6699021_4.html

Al Jazeera - July 26, 2024 - Opinion by Selcuk Bayraktar, Chairman of the Board and CTO, Baykar Technologies
<<For a fair world, stand with Palestine
We all have a duty, through organised events or individual efforts, to contribute to the broader struggle for justice. Addressing a joint meeting of the United States Congress on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against international criticism that Israel has been committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, where approximately 40,000 people - men, women, children and babies - have been killed to date. He also doubled down on his government's policy of genocide and extermination, refusing to signal that the bloodshed will stop soon. He received a standing ovation from some of America's leading politicians.
Had Satan and his minions descended on Earth and performed a ritual, even they would have been less audacious.
Scientific evidence suggests that the Almighty created the world four billion years ago. Since then, it has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over. Over the last 200,000 years, humankind has established institutions, organisations and agreements to maintain peace and promote order by learning from past mistakes. Indeed, this is what distinguishes us from all other creatures: We are uniquely capable of accumulating knowledge and passing it down to future generations - unlike the beaver, for example, which has been building the exact same dam for millions of years. Therefore, it is unsettling that Antonio Gramsci's words from 1932, preceding World War II, remain remarkably pertinent today: <The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.> A century later, humanity has come full circle. Despite the establishment of institutions like the United Nations and acceptance of documents like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights aimed at promoting peace and justice, we bear witness to the first livestreamed genocide in history. The kind of suffering currently unfolding in Palestine is unprecedented. The Palestinian people, who have been resisting injustice for 75 years, are now daring to survive in front of a global audience. The Palestinian people's resistance is emblematic of a broader human struggle for justice, as captured in one of my favourite poems, "Soon the Sun will rise", by Erdem Bayazit:
"You are the heroes of humanity resisting amid steel gears."
It is an undeniable fact that the struggle for justice and the fight for a better world are perennial themes that resonate deeply in our collective consciousness. As one particularly poignant line from another favourite poem, Ismet Ozel's "Life My Darling", relates:
"What I know is that
living
means fighting under a clear sky
for the love of children."
This imperative is not just a theoretical ideal but a practical necessity that humanity must embrace to avert the recurrence of historical atrocities and to ensure a just and peaceful world. Some 20 years ago, when I was a research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a group of students came together to raise awareness about the Palestinian struggle. We would put up posters, screen informative films, and distribute brochures. Apathy, which stops the international community from taking meaningful action today, manifested itself then in the form of the following questions: What is this going to change? Will this help stop the bleeding after decades? This scepticism was understandable but ultimately misplaced. The impact of seemingly insignificant actions is not always immediate or visible, but they contribute to a broader movement of awareness and change. Indeed, thank Allah, protests have swept through the United States and Europe, including the world's most prestigious schools like Harvard, MIT, Columbia and others. Our actions, whether through organised events or individual efforts, contribute to the broader struggle for justice. We are not merely passive observers but active participants in shaping the moral fabric of our society. The changes we seek must begin within ourselves. As I told my friends two decades ago, the resistance and struggle are not just for the heroes on the front lines, but for the rest of us, to transform our own indifference into action. The ultimate goal is to foster a world where our children can grow up in safety and dignity. This requires a collective effort to uphold justice, challenge oppression, and promote peace. The poem continues:
"For if we do not fight,
the loaf we split at mealtimes,
the warm bits of my childhood,
would, like most wounds,
spread across the soil,
our flesh would rot
and make the entire sky stink."
Unless we act now, this will be the result. So, what will it take for humanity to abandon laying the groundwork for such an apocalypse? Let us keep reciting the poem:
"The world
is turning with incorruptible stubbornness,
as stars are being spread beneath us
and my face rushes to the water
And the Revelation"
The Palestinians are fulfilling their duty by resisting. It is the rest of us that need to change. All of us – not just the handful of people already standing up for justice in Palestine. The world cannot be saved unless and until the rest changes. Let us today take the tiniest step towards doing the smallest amount of good so that, in two decades’ time, we can tell our children that we stood up for what was right for a fair world.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.>>
Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/7/26/for-a-fair-world-stand-with-palestine

Le Monde - July 26, 2024
<<UK drops challenge to ICC's Netanyahu arrest warrant
The UK government announced on Friday it was not submitting a challenge to the ICC chief prosecutor's decision to seek arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The UK's new government will drop its challenge to arrest warrants sought by an international court's prosecutor for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Downing Street confirmed on Friday, July 26. Former prime minister Rishi Sunak's government had told the International Criminal Court (ICC) it intended to submit a challenge to prosecutor Karim Khan's request in May for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza. The UK had until Friday to submit its questions to the court in The Hague, but the recently elected Labour government has confirmed it will not follow through with Sunak's plan.<This was a proposal by the previous government which was not submitted before the election, and which I can confirm the government will not be pursuing in line with our long-standing position that this is a matter for the court to decide on>, a Downing Street spokeswoman said. <I think you would note that the courts have already received a number of submissions on either side, so they are well seized of the arguments to make their independent determinations,> she added. Labour under former human rights lawyer Keir Starmer swept to power on July 4, defeating the Tories in a landslide general election win. It has since announced the resumption of funding for the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees that had been paused under Sunak after Israeli claims that UNRWA members took part in the October 7 attacks against Israel. Labour wants an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas militants in Gaza and the release of hostages. Israel's top ally the United States is still set to challenge the court's authority to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu. As well as Netanyahu and Gallant, Khan is also seeking warrants against top Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif, on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity. If granted by ICC judges, any of the 124 ICC member states would technically be obliged to arrest Netanyahu and others if they travelled there. However, the court has no mechanism to enforce its orders.
Le Monde with AFP>>
Source:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/26/uk-drops-icc-challenge-over-netanyahu-arrest-warrant_6699906_4.html

France 25 - July 26, 2024 - by Leela JACINTO
<<From Gaza to China: Where Kamala Harris stands on foreign policy issues
US Vice President Kamala Harris has supported President Joe Biden, a seasoned politician with decades of foreign policy experience, on key international issues. With the former California attorney general and senator set to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, it's time for Harris to set her agenda on vital issues concerning the international community. When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, the US vice president - who also serves as president of the Senate - will not be in her customary seat on the rostrum, behind the visiting Israeli leader. Kamala Harris will instead be at another event in Indianapolis, addressing a national convention of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, one of the nation's oldest university organisations for African American female students. Senator Benjamin Cardin, a staunchly pro-Israel senator from Maryland, will instead take the US vice president’s seat next to House Speaker Mike Johnson as Netanyahu becomes the first foreign leader to address a joint US Congressional session four times - pulling ahead of Britain's Winston Churchill, at three. Harris's team informed the US Senate she would not preside over Netanyahu's speech before the dramatic developments of the weekend, when President Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 White House race, endorsing his 59 year-old vice president as Democratic nominee. Briefing reporters on Monday about the scheduling clash, Harris's aides played down the import of her absence, noting that the vice president will meet Netanyahu separately during his first foreign visit since the October 7 Hamas attack. But with Harris set to clinch the Democratic nomination, her decision to skip Netanyahu’s address has come under intense scrutiny, highlighting the divisions among US voters on the Gaza war in the lead-up to the November presidential election.
Foreign policy is not the strong suit of the woman aiming to be the 47th president of the USA. It's also a particularly fraught issue for Washington's allies as they warily eye US security commitments after Trump picked Senator JD Vance - who has openly touted isolationist foreign policies - as his running mate.
On 'terra incognita'
A law school graduate and former California attorney general, Harris has spent much of her political career focused on domestic issues. As vice president, she bucked a longstanding trend in US politics, which has seen the country's second-most powerful official provide foreign policy expertise to newly elected presidents. In the 2000 race for instance, when George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney - who had served as his father's defence secretary during the Gulf War - as a running mate, it was viewed as a counterweight to the younger Bush's lack of foreign policy experience. Biden's appointment as Barack Obama's running mate was perhaps the best example of a newcomer president seeking a counsel-in-chief on international issues. Vice President Harris, in contrast, had little foreign policy advice to offer a president who spent 36 years in the US Senate and eight in the White House. <We're in terra incognita here, since we don't know very much about her foreign policy orientation,> said Steven Ekovich, a US politics and foreign policy expert and professor emeritus at the American University of Paris. After nearly four years in the White House, Harris should be <up to date> on foreign policy issues, Ekovich noted, since vice presidents attend US National Security Council meetings and briefings. <I would assume that at least for the immediate future, she would keep the same direction and the same team. I can't imagine her changing things right away. I think she'll probably be running on a campaign of continuity.>
'Far greater empathy' for Palestinians
On the Israeli-Palestinian issue, support for a two-state solution and Israel’s right to self-defence are continuity positions Harris has held since she was elected to the US Senate from California in 2017. As vice president, Harris has been careful not to contradict Biden's positions on the Israeli assault on Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks. But she has pushed the envelope with her starkly forthright condemnations of Palestinian casualties and the <humanitarian catastrophe> in Gaza. At a March 5 event commemorating the 1965 crackdown on civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, Harris blasted the inhumane conditions in Gaza, directing the bulk of her comments at the Israeli government. <People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act,> said Harris. <The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses,> she added. A month later, the US vice president once again called on Israel to <do more to protect aid workers> after an Israeli strike on a humanitarian convoy killed seven World Central Kitchen staffers, including a US national. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, said he had a phone conversation with Harris in October and that she had demonstrated <far greater empathy> for Palestinians than Biden and other White House aides.
An eye on young voters in swing states
Democrats are deeply divided over the Gaza war and dozens of left-wing lawmakers within the party are expected to boycott Netanyahu's speech on Wednesday. These include members of <the squad>, the informal group of young, progressive lawmakers, many of whom - such as New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - have endorsed Harris's White House bid. With opinion polls over the past few months consistently showing younger Americans to be more pro-Palestinian than their elders, Harris's absence at Netanyahu's address is for <electoral purposes>, according to Ekovich. <This is particularly true for a couple of swing states like Michigan, where there's Detroit,> he said, referring to the city's large Arab and African American communities. <In Pennsylvania, we have Philadelphia, which has a large Black population. There is a kind of allergy to Biden's very strong pro-Israeli position in these places.> But while the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate has chosen to skip Netanyahu’s address, Ekovich says Harris is unlikely to radically change US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Attending summits Biden skipped
Continuity is also likely to mark Harris's positions on the Ukraine war and US commitments to NATO, says Ekovich. The US vice president has met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at several international summits, including this year’s Munich Security Conference, where she has stood in for Biden for three consecutive years. At her last meeting with Zelensky at the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland in June, Harris pledged $1.5 billion in aid for Ukraine's energy sector as well as $379 million in humanitarian assistance. On China, experts say Harris shares Biden's positions on security in the Asia-Pacific region and Taiwan. She has also vociferously denounced Beijing's human rights record in Hong Kong as well as the Uighur-dominated Xinjiang province. Senior Democrats note that Harris has stepped in as a surrogate for Biden at several international gatherings, including ASEAN and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, giving her valuable foreign policy experience. <Frankly, she has been stress-tested,> said Representative Adam Smith in an interview with the Politico news site. <She has been the lead spokesperson for the administration at the Munich Security Conference making the case for our role in Ukraine and NATO and in the world, and she's been really strong.>
Mixed record on Latin America
On Latin America though, her record has been mixed.
Early in his presidency, Biden asked Harris to try to address the root problems of migration at the southern border by focusing on countries in Central and South America. Sticking to the White House brief, Harris repeated the <don't come> message to migrants illegally trying to cross the southern border with Mexico, much to the chagrin of left-leaning Democrats. But most experts concede it was an impossible mission and not just for the new vice president. <She was given the immigration file and of course, she didn't solve it because nobody has. Nobody can,> said Ekovich. But Harris managed to weather the migrant storm by backing a bill providing more funding for US border guards and agencies. The bill was however blocked by the Republicans earlier this year. Trump has made <illegal immigrants> a central plank of his campaign and is likely to try to corner Harris on the issue. But Ekovich says Trump's tactics could backfire. <If the Republicans, if Trump and Vance, go after her on this, she can just respond that there was a bill on it and the Republicans blocked it,> he explained.>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240723-from-gaza-to-china-where-kamala-harris-stands-on-foreign-policy-issues

France 25 - July 26, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Wave of protests break out in Washington DC ahead of Netanyahu speech
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week has kicked off a wave of protests in the nation's capital. Police on Tuesday cracked down on Jewish Voice for Peace demonstrators who staged a sit-in at a congressional office building ahead of Netanyahu's address to Congress on Wednesday, and in protest at President Joe Biden's continued military support of Israel. Protesters against the Gaza war staged a sit-in at a congressional office building Tuesday ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress, with Capitol Police making multiple arrests. Netanyahu arrived in Washington Monday for a visit that includes meetings with President Joe Biden and a Wednesday speech before a joint session of Congress. Dozens of protesters rallied outside his hotel Monday evening, and on Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators staged a flashmob-style protest in the Cannon Building, which houses offices of House of Representatives members. Organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, protesters wearing red T-shirts that read <Not In Our Name> took over the building's rotunda, sitting on the floor, unfurling signs and chanting <Let Gaza Live!> After about a half-hour of clapping and chanting, officers from the US Capitol Police issued several warnings, then began arresting protesters - binding their hands with zip ties and leading them away one-by-one. <I am the daughter of Holocaust survivors and I know what a Holocaust looks like,> said Jane Hirschmann, a native of Saugerties, New York, who drove down for the protest along with her two daughters - both of whom were arrested. <When we say 'Never Again,' we mean never for anybody.> The demonstrators focused much of their ire on the Biden administration, demanding that the president immediately cease all arms shipments to Israel. <We're not focusing on Netanyahu. He's just a symptom,> Hirschmann said. <But how can (Biden) be calling for a cease-fire when he's sending them bombs and planes?> As of 8 p.m. Tuesday night, the Capitol Police said they did not have a final tally of the number of people arrested. But JVP claimed in a statement that 400 people, <including over a dozen rabbis,> had been arrested. Mitchell Rivard, chief of staff for Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., said in a statement that his office called for Capitol Police intervention after the demonstrators <became disruptive, violently beating on the office doors, shouting loudly, and attempting to force entry into the office.> Kildee later told The Associated Press that he was confused why his office was targeted, saying he had voted against a massive supplemental military aid package to Israel earlier this year. Netanyahu's American visit has touched off a wave of protest activity, with some demonstrations condemning Israel and others expressing support but pressuring Netanyahu to strike a cease-fire deal and bring home the hostages still being held by Hamas. Families of some of the remaining hostages held a protest vigil Tuesday evening on the National Mall, demanding that Netanyahu come to terms with Hamas and bring home the approximately 120 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza. About 150 people wearing yellow shirts that read <Seal the Deal NOW!> chanted <Bring Them Home> and listened to testimonials from relatives and former hostages. The demonstrators applauded when Biden's name was mentioned, but several criticized Netanyahu - known by his nickname <Bibi> - on the belief that he was dragging his feet or playing hardball on a proposed cease-fire deal that would return all of the hostages. <I'm begging Bibi. There's a deal on the table and you have to take it,> said Aviva Siegel, 63, who spent 51 days in captivity and whose husband, Keith, remains a hostage. <I want Bibi to look in my eyes and tell me one thing: that Keith is coming home.> Multiple protests are planned for Wednesday, when Netanyahu is slated to address Congress. In anticipation, police have significantly boosted security around the Capitol building and closed multiple roads for most of the week. Biden and Netanyahu are expected to meet Thursday, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the White House announcement. Vice President Kamala Harris will also meet with Netanyahu separately that day. Harris, as Senate president, would normally sit behind foreign leaders addressing Congress, but she’ll be away Wednesday, on an Indianapolis trip scheduled before Biden withdrew his reelection bid and she became the likely Democratic presidential candidate over the weekend. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he would meet with Netanyahu on Friday.
(AP)>>
Source incl.video:
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240724-multiple-arrests-at-mass-protest-against-us-military-aid-to-israel-and-netanyahu-visit

Le Monde - July 25, 2024 - Editorial
<<Israel-Palestine: Sanctions to save the two-state solution
American political leaders who wonder about their country's deteriorating image in the world don't need long introspection to find an answer. By offering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the privilege of addressing both houses of Congress in Washington on July 24, its members demonstrated a triple blindness. First and foremost, with regard to the Israelis, whose fate they constantly place at the top of their priorities in the Middle East. Severely criticized by his fellow citizens for the flaws that enabled Hamas to massacre Israeli civilians on October 7, the leader of the most right-wing coalition in Israel's history has yet to be held accountable. Netanyahu is instead concentrating on political survival, for which his visit to Washington is an instrument. Above all, it reveals an unspeakable indifference to the ongoing tragedy in the Gaza Strip, which has been transformed for years into a field of ruins by the Israeli army, at the cost of massacring Palestinians on an unprecedented scale. As a result, the prime minister has been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson's insistence that Netanyahu be given the honor of speaking before the US Congress also reflects the drift of the Grand Old Party. It is more interested in undermining its Democratic opponents, divided over the ongoing war in Gaza, than in defending the true interests of the US.
Extremist policies
Granted, Johnson is the perfect example of evangelical Zionism, which dictates unreserved alignment with Israeli positions, but Netanyahu's record should give pause for thought. The Israeli leader had already used the podium of Congress in 2015 to oppose the Iran nuclear deal hard-fought by Barack Obama. This agreement was subsequently torn up by Donald Trump, with the result that the Islamic Republic is now closer than ever to the ultimate weapon. Similarly, Netanyahu has actively worked in Washington to keep the Palestine question off the table, with a result that is well-known. The extremist policies of the Israeli coalition have become totally incompatible with Washington's official position of preserving the viability of the two-state solution to prevent the conflict from sinking into further violence. The last representative of a generation of Democrats swift to present themselves as Zionists, Biden has a historic opportunity to bring his words and deeds into sync since he gave up his bid for a second term.
In the months between now and his political retirement, he has the necessary leeway to finally actively fight against the Israeli colonization of the occupied West Bank, which is inexorably leading Israel to its downfall as a democratic state, with almost total international impunity. Initial sanctions have been adopted against the most violent perpetrators of this policy. These must be stepped up, whatever the resulting uproar, to reverse a course that leads only to the abyss.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.>>
Source:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/25/israel-palestine-sanctions-to-save-the-two-state-solution_6698261_4.html

 Women's Liberation Front 2019/cryfreedom.net 2024