US candidate Jill Stein considering vocal Palestine advocates for VP spot
United States Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is considering three Palestinian rights advocates, including two Arab Americans, to be her running mate in the elections, her campaign has confirmed. The vice president announcement will be made during a livestream rally on Thursday, the Stein campaign told Al Jazeera. The candidates are Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC); Amer Zahr, a Palestinian American activist; and Jacqueline Luqman, a journalist and activist. All three have been vocal critics of Israel and the US’s unflinching support for the war on Gaza. Stein, a physician and activist, herself is a longtime supporter of Palestinian rights. Having one of the three on the ballot could boost Stein’s chances of tapping into the mass of disaffected voters who have grown angry with the mainstream Democratic Party’s stance on Israel. While Stein’s campaign is a long-shot bid, with US politics dominated by the Republican and Democrat parties, if she wins a significant share of the votes, her campaign may affect the result of the election. Moreover, Stein’s supporters say they hope that her candidacy could broaden the conversation around Gaza and amplify voters’ concerns with US policy. With a Palestine advocate on the ticket, Stein’s candidacy could also force Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, to further contend with the growing frustration with President Joe Biden’s unconditional backing of Israel. Even with a small percentage of the votes, Stein’s campaign could make a major impression on the election in places like the swing state of Michigan – home to large Arab- and Muslim-American communities. Both Ayoub and Zahr are from Michigan. ‘Honoured’ Luqman, Zahr and Ayoub all confirmed to Al Jazeera that they were approached by the campaign and said they were “honoured” to be considered for the position. Ayoub said it is “important” that Stein is considering Palestinian rights advocates to be her running mate. “This is a critical time. This is a time where the genocide is in front of everybody’s eyes. There’s no hiding from it. And it’s a time where most of the world and many Americans see how complicit and active both parties are in the genocide.” Zahr also said selecting a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights as Stein’s running mate was a “smart choice” by the campaign. “It’s clear that the genocide in Gaza has dominated the entire presidential campaign,” Zahr told Al Jazeera. While Biden dropped out after growing concerns over his age following a disastrous debate performance in May, Zahr said the Democratic president’s coalition “was falling apart” because of the war on Gaza. Luqman said opposing the war on Gaza should not be a campaign issue, but a human issue. “There’s no such thing as lesser evil. Evil is evil, and genocide is evil,” she told Al Jazeera. The US-backed Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,550 people, levelled large parts of the territory and brought its more than two million inhabitants to the verge of starvation. Gaza and the elections While foreign policy is not usually a major factor in US elections, the war on Gaza has increasingly become a decisive issue in the presidential race. Arabs, Muslims, young people and progressives have expressed anger at Biden’s support for the war. And while it remains unclear how the issue will play out following the US president’s withdrawal from the race and endorsement of Harris, some communities have shown willingness to break with Democrats over Gaza. Predominantly Arab neighbourhoods in places like the Detroit suburb of Dearborn voted overwhelmingly for Biden against former President Donald Trump in 2020, helping him win Michigan. But with the war in Gaza, support for Biden dropped sharply in Arab-American communities, according to public opinion polls. The US administration has signed off on at least $14bn in additional military aid to Israel and vetoed three United Nations Security Council proposals that would have called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The White House has said that Harris has been a “full partner” in shaping Gaza policy. Still, the vice president has expressed greater empathy for Palestinian suffering while still pledging “unwavering commitment” to Israel. Harris, who is set to become the Democratic candidate to take on Trump in November after securing enough delegates to win the nomination, has not selected a running mate. But Palestinian rights advocates are pushing against a rumoured frontrunner for the position – Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who earlier this year compared Gaza solidarity protesters on college campuses to the Ku Klux Klan. In 2021, Shapiro – as Pennsylvania’s attorney general – also backed sanctions against Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream company decided to stop doing business in the Israeli-occupied West Bank over ethical concerns. Opposition to Shapiro grew this week after The Philadelphia Inquirer unearthed a 1993 college newspaper op-ed, in which Shapiro played down the prospect of solving the conflict after White House talks between then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. “Palestinians will not coexist peacefully,” Shapiro wrote in the article. “They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own.” Why run? As Democrats rally around Harris, they have portrayed Trump as an existential threat to US democracy. Democratic officials have also accused Stein of helping the former president by taking progressive votes despite not having a realistic chance of winning. Stein ran for president in 2012, 2016 and 2020 but never mounted a competitive campaign. Luqman, Ayoub and Zahr all said Stein’s bid was about giving the voters a choice and challenging the monopoly of the two major parties on US politics. “We don’t engage in the franchise of voting … only to vote for candidates who are guaranteed to win,” Luqman told Al Jazeera. “We are supposed to exercise that right however we choose. And if the two major parties offered nothing
Students renew Bangladesh protests, call for nationwide civil disobedience
Crowds hit the streets in large numbers as student leaders press the government for more concessions. Protesters in Bangladesh have taken to the streets to demand justice for the more than 200 people killed in last month’s student-led demonstrations over quotas in government jobs. The large protests on Saturday came as student leaders called for a nationwide civil disobedience campaign, heaping further pressure on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government. “She must resign and she must face trial,” Nahid Islam, the group’s leader, told a crowd of thousands at a monument to national heroes in the capital Dhaka to roars of approval. Reporting from Dhaka, Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury said that the student movement had turned “into a public movement“, noting that people from all walks of life had joined Saturday’s protests calling for the government to resign. He added that clashes also took place between protesters and police in the Gazipur and Comilla districts in the capital’s outskirts. Hasina on Saturday called upon protest leaders to meet her at her official residence Ganabhaban, saying the “door is open”. “I want to sit with the agitating students of the movement and listen to them. I want no conflict,” she said, according to local media. The prime minister has also appointed three senior officials to negotiate with the protesters, Chowdhury reported. However, Students Against Discrimination, the group that organised the initial demonstrations in early July, has called for an all-out non-cooperation movement from Sunday. “This includes non-payment of taxes and utility bills, strikes by government workers and a halt to overseas remittance payments through banks,” the group’s Asif Mahmud told AFP. The demonstrations began over the reintroduction of a quota scheme – since scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court – that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups. With some 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move upset graduates facing an acute unemployment crisis. The protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups. Hasina’s government eventually imposed a nationwide curfew, deployed troops and shut down the nation’s mobile internet network for 11 days to restore order. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters that security forces had operated with restraint but were “forced to open fire” to defend government buildings. The government has been weathering a worsening backlash over the deadly police crackdown that resulted in deaths of at least 200 people including 32 children, as well as hundreds of pellet gun injuries. UN experts have called for an immediate end to the violent crackdown against protesters as well as accountability for human rights violations. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk today called on the government to disclose full details about its crackdown on protests and to provide the details of those killed, injured or detained for the benefit of their families. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also called for an international probe into the “excessive and lethal force against protesters”. Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine says it targeted Russian airfield, fuel depots in three regions
Russia says air defence systems ‘intercepted and destroyed’ 75 drones over a number of regions. Ukraine says it has carried out attacks on a number of military targets in Russia, including an airfield and oil depots, as Russian authorities reported intercepting dozens of drones over several regions. In a post on Facebook, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Saturday its forces overnight had struck an airfield in Morozovsk, hitting ammunition depots with guided air bombs, as well as fuel storage facilities in the Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions. In Russia, local officials reported that tanks at a fuel storage depot in the Kamensky district of the Rostov region caught fire as a result of a drone attack. The regional governor of Belgorod also said Ukraine-launched drones caused a fire at an oil storage depot there, adding that the fire was extinguished and no one was injured. Russian officials did not address claims regarding the airfield, but Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev said authorities introduced a state of emergency in the district of Morozovsk. Golubev said the region was attacked by 55 drones, without specifying how many of these were intercepted and how many hit targets. “At the moment we have recorded damage to the windows in several social facilities, including schools and kindergartens, as well as in residential houses and industrial premises,” Golubev said on Telegram. For its part, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement that 36 drones were destroyed over the Rostov region. Overall, the ministry added its air defence systems “intercepted and destroyed” 75 drones over a number of regions that lie on the border with Ukraine or not far from it, including Belgorod, Krasnodar, Kursk, Oryol, Rostov, Voronezh, and the Ryazan region deeper inside Russia. One of those drones was also shot down over the Azov sea, the statement said. A ‘security decision’ Ukraine has stepped up aerial attacks in recent months on Russian territory, saying it carries out the strikes on sites fuelling Russia’s forces and economy in retaliation to the bombardments it has faced since President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into the neighbouring country in February 2022. Ukrainian officials have also repeatedly called on Western allies for permission to use their weapons for long-range attacks on Russia, in addition to striking military targets close to the border. “Russian combat aviation must be destroyed wherever it is, by all effective means. It is also quite fair to strike at Russian airfields. We need this joint decision with our partners – a security decision,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media on Saturday. “This is the only way to ensure the protection of our people,” he said, adding that Russian forces had used more than 600 guided aerial bombs to attack Ukraine in the past week. Amid a blistering Russian air campaign in recent months, Zelenskyy has placed Ukraine’s need for improved air defences at the top of his agenda at meetings with allies. Several NATO countries have pledged to supply F-16 fighter jets and have been training Ukrainian pilots and crews for months. Adblock test (Why?)
‘I’m scared, but I’ll carry on’: Venezuelans caught between hope and fear
Caracas, Venezuela – As dark clouds hung above an unusually empty street in the neighbourhood of Petare, Eglle Camacho started to hear a dull, rhythmic clanging. The noise soon crescendoed. From their windows and doorways, people stood armed with kitchen utensils, banging spoons against pans. They started to spill onto the street. Camacho decided to join them. Their impromptu march cascaded towards the centre of Venezuela’s capital of Caracas on Monday, scooping up thousands of people on foot and motorbikes. What brought them all together was outrage over what they saw as fraudulent election results announced in favour of President Nicolas Maduro. Camacho took lots of photos that day – the smiles, the flags and even the violence – but she told Al Jazeera she has since deleted all of them. She fears what Maduro’s government may do to the protesters who support the opposition’s claims to victory. “There is so much persecution,” Camacho said from her home in Petare. “They’re coming into neighbourhoods to look for people.” That fear has been widespread in the days following July 28’s presidential election. Protesters spray-paint graffiti on a Caracas wall that says, ‘We want freedom’ [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera] For weeks, opinion polls ahead of the vote had suggested Maduro would lose to retired diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez, provided that elections were free and fair. Maduro’s rival had a sizeable lead – about 30 points. Exit polls reflected a similar trend. But when Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced the outcome of the vote early on Monday morning, it told a different story. The government agency claimed Maduro had won with more than 51 percent of the vote, a comfortable seven points ahead of Gonzalez. Demonstrations began, and clashes between opposition supporters and security forces ensued. Some have led to detentions, injuries and even death. After days of turbulence, many opposition supporters are in no man’s land, navigating a narrow path between hope and fear over what comes next. Jorge Fermin, 86, has been protesting for years against the socialist regime in Venezuela, first under the late Hugo Chavez and then under his hand-picked successor, Maduro. At a gathering in central Caracas, the former Ministry of Education worker waves a homemade poster in the air. The poster offers an optical illusion: Seen from one side, it shows Gonzalez’s face. Look at it from another angle, though, and it shows Maria Corina Machado, the candidate who was meant to run against Maduro, only to be banned from public office. “This is the biggest lie in the world,” Fermin said of the CNE’s results. “The government knows the true result but they don’t want to show it.” Protester Jorge Fermin shows off a handmade poster that displays the faces of two opposition leaders: Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera] Maduro’s government has so far failed to publish the voting tallies from individual polling stations, as has been the tradition in the past. All the CNE has offered is the overall percentage. However, tallies collected by poll monitors – and handed to the opposition – appear to show Gonzalez won with a landslide, securing 67 percent of the vote. Despite calls from the opposition, as well as the international community, the government has not yet shown any proof that Maduro officially won. Maduro has pledged to reveal the voting tallies, but a timeline has not yet been set. “This government has caused so much pain, misery, and now they have tried to rob us of our last remaining hope,” Fermin told Al Jazeera. As a retiree in Venezuela, his pension is equivalent to just $3.50 a month. “It doesn’t even allow me to top up my phone,” he explained. The pro-Maduro posters that once decorated almost every lamp post in Caracas have now vanished, torn down and thrown onto rubbish heaps or fires. A number of statues representing the late Chavez, seen as the father of Venezuela’s socialist project, have also been toppled. Margarita Lopez, a Venezuelan historian who has studied the country’s protest movement and Chavez’s socialist government, told Al Jazeera that today’s demonstrations share the hallmarks of past mobilisations: the ripping down of statues, the banging of pots and pans in a style of protest called “cacerolazo”. But this time, she said, there is one key difference. “The polarisation has gone,” she explained. Previous protests, Lopez pointed out, were largely made up of middle- and upper-class voters. But with Venezuela’s economy in continued decline, a more diverse cross-section of society has poured out on the streets to demonstrate. “Everyone is struggling with work,” Lopez said. “They’ve gotten poorer. They don’t have full access to public services. The political discourse of polarisation isn’t valid any more for Venezuelans.” A crumpled-up poster of Nicolas Maduro lies in a rubbish heap in Caracas, Venezuela [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera] Traditionally, many residents in working-class areas of Venezuela were followers of Chavismo – the ideology named after Chavez, which promotes income redistribution and resistance against “imperial” forces, represented by countries like the United States. But for many, Chavismo has not lived up to its expectations. After Chavez’s death in 2013, Maduro took over the government, and the country tumbled into an economic abyss. Part of the problem was the global fall in oil prices in 2014, but the crisis was also due to poor economic mismanagement, embezzlement of state funds and international sanctions. “I’ve come from Petare. I’m here for the freedom of my county, for the future of my daughter, for my sister, for my niece,” a shirtless man cried at one recent protest, as he raised one hand in the air. He used the other to point towards the tattoo on his chest: a colourful map of Venezuela. According to Lopez, low-income areas like Petare were once bastions of Chavismo. But for residents there today, the socialist rhetoric feels no longer relevant. “Maduro can say imperialism and the ‘fascist’ right-wing opposition haven’t yet been stopped, but in reality, people aren’t interested any more,” Lopez explained. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has contracted by 80
Uganda’s Cheptegei wins men’s 10,000m gold at Paris Olympics 2024
Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei withstood surging Ethiopian team tactics to claim gold in the men’s Olympic 10,000-metre at the Stade de France. The three-time world champion timed an Olympic record of 26 minutes and 43.14 seconds for victory on Friday. Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi edged American Grant Fisher by two-hundredths of a second to take silver in 26:43.44. The world record holder added the Olympic 10,000 metres title to his remarkable haul to take the Games’ first track gold. The Ugandan, who took silver in Tokyo and gold over 5,000 metres, produced a devastating last 600 metres and his finishing time took 18 seconds off Kenenisa Bekele’s 2008 Olympic record. Aregawi, who had been part of a three-pronged Ethiopian front-running group almost from the start, finished strongly. A pack of 13 athletes ran the last two-thirds of the race together and, remarkably, all of them finished in under 27 minutes. The first surge came after just two laps of the 25-lap race, defending champion Selemon Barega and Ethiopian teammate Yomif Kejelcha accelerating away to split the field. The 25-strong field dissipated but all runners held on. Aregawi had his turn after Kejelcha as the Ethiopian trio dictated the pace in front of a noisy near-capacity 69,000 crowd at the Stade de France in perfect warm conditions. Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo saw their team tactics take a dent when Martin Magengo Kiprotich fell off the pace early on. Aregawi and Kejelcha again increased the rhythm through the halfway stage, the main pack now cut to 15. Barega was back at the helm with 10 laps to run, Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed and Kenya’s Benard Kibet muscling their way through to sit on Kejelcha’s shoulder. As Cheptegei and Fisher made their way up through a bunching pack, Kejelcha was again on hand to offer a spurt of acceleration. Into the last kilometre, Aregawi took up the running, but the race promised a pulsating finish as the pack of 12 all clung on. Just before the bell rang for the final 400 metres, Cheptegei surged to the front and the race to the line was on. Ahmed followed and Fisher fell off the pace, but made a remarkable recovery to medal. There was no coup de grace for Barega, however, as Cheptegei held on for victory in the first medal event at France’s national stadium. Barega eventually finished seventh in 26:44.48, one spot behind Kejelcha, with Ahmed taking fourth and Kibet fifth. Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda celebrates after winning the men’s 10,000-metre final [David J Phillip/AP] USA set new world record in 4×400 mixed relay Earlier on the purple track, the USA broke their own world record in the 4×400 mixed relay in the opening heats, crossing the line in three minutes 7.41 seconds amid a party atmosphere. They set the previous mark of 3:08.80 at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. Team USA led midway through the second lap in a textbook performance, overcoming a fast field in the opening heat in which four national records were broken as well as the world mark. “I always knew we were going to run fast, and we talked about how it was going to take a record to win a medal,” said American Shamier Little. “It took a record to win our prelim.” The French team were willed across the finish by a partisan home crowd, as they held off Belgium (3:10.74) and Jamaica (3:11.06) to finish second in 3:10.60 in the rarely contested event. The crowd had to be shushed as they chanted for the French team on the first day of the athletics programme at the Stade de France and they broke into a loud roar as France took a slender lead. Little pulled ahead for the US, however, and Bryce Deadmon extended the lead. The Americans were eager to avoid the drama of three years ago, when they were disqualified from the Olympic final – and later reinstated due to an official’s error – before eventually claiming bronze. Kaylyn Brown, Bryce Deadmon, Shamier Little and Vernon Norwood of the USA pose with a time board as they celebrate after setting a new world record [Phil Noble/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)
Marvelous Marchand wins fourth Olympic swimming gold, McKeown does double
Leon Marchand fulfilled what French fans may regard as destiny as he swept to a fourth gold medal at his home Paris games by winning the men’s 200-metre individual medley in an Olympic record time. Roared on by a delirious crowd at La Defense Arena on Friday, Marchand took control from the second backstroke leg, stretched his lead through the breaststroke, then powered home with a time of 1 minute, 54.06 seconds, only 0.06 seconds short of Ryan Lochte’s 13-year record. Britain’s Duncan Scott won the silver, more than a second behind Marchand, while China’s defending champion Wang Shun took the bronze. The win made Marchand the first French athlete to take four individual golds, as opposed to team ones, at a single Summer Games and only the third male swimmer to do so after Americans Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz. The 22-year-old won the 400-metre individual medley last Sunday and then both the 200-metre butterfly and 200-metre breaststroke within the space of two incredible hours on Wednesday. The great expectations might have been too much for other swimmers at their home games, but Marchand only drew energy from them and lived up to his nickname, the French Michael Phelps. Leon Marchand celebrates on the podium after winning gold [Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] ‘He runs France now’ A delighted French President Emmanuel Macron punched his fist in the air in celebration from the terraces packed with the country’s flags. “It was my last individual final so I said to myself, I really have to enjoy it,” Marchand told reporters. “I had a lot more energy than yesterday so I felt better, more relaxed. “And I really wanted to have fun in my last final and it happened, so it was huge.” Just as he had done three times before, the 22-year-old from Toulouse mounted the podium and belted out the Marseillaise with the entire stadium accompanying him. “Leon’s name’s now in the national anthem it seems, which is pretty cool,” said Scott, who extended his British record haul to eight Olympic medals. “As much as what Phelps did was pretty sensational, he never did it in his home country and so he’s becoming a sort of global superstar now. He kind of runs France now.” Marchand Mania! 🥇 Leon Marchand finishes just shy of the world record while winning #gold for France in the men’s 200m individual medley. 🇫🇷 The 22-year-old captured his 4th gold of #Paris2024.@FranceOlympique | @WorldAquatics | #Swimming #Samsung | #TogetherforTomorrow pic.twitter.com/I39kwQqL9l — The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 2, 2024 Kaylee McKeown completes backstroke double – again A few minutes before Marchand took to the pool, Australia’s Kaylee McKeown retained her 200-metre title in an Olympic record of 2 minutes 03.73 seconds ahead of American Regan Smith (2:04.26) and Canada’s Kylie Masse (2:05.57). McKeown admitted that “not in a million years” could she have dreamed of completing the Olympic backstroke double – twice. The 23-year-old achieved the rare feat after winning the 100-metre gold to match her exploits from Tokyo, with the unassuming swimmer flawless over two Olympics with four golds from four individual events. No Australian swimmer, man or woman, had ever completed the 100-200-metre backstroke double at consecutive Olympics. “Not in a million years,” she said in Paris after being asked if she had ever envisaged such an accomplishment. “Growing up, I’ve always just idolised my sister [Taylor] and Emily Seebohm and seeing what they do in the sport,” she said. Kaylee McKeown won her second gold of the Paris Olympics [Natacha Pisarenko/AP] McEvoy pips Proud to 50-metre freestyle gold McKewon’s compatriot Cameron McEvoy pipped Britain’s Ben Proud to win gold in the men’s 50-metre freestyle. McEvoy won with a time of 21.25 seconds, with Proud 0.05 seconds behind to take silver and France’s Florent Manaudou collecting bronze. For Manaudou, it was the fourth straight games in which he has earned a medal in the shortest of the freestyle events. The 30-year-old McEvoy won his first Olympic gold after picking up two bronze medals in relays in Rio and a third in Tokyo. The Queenslander opted to switch his focus purely to the 50-metre freestyle after Tokyo, radically changing his training routine to best suit the explosive race. Gold medallist Cameron McEvoy of Australia celebrates on the podium with silver medallist Benjamin Proud of Britain and bronze medallist Florent Manaudou of France [Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)
US to deploy additional military resources to the Middle East
Pentagon announces deployment as tensions build between Iran and Israel after the high-profile Haniyeh assassination. The United States military has announced the deployment of additional resources to the Middle East, including an aircraft carrier, amid growing concerns about the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. On Friday, the Pentagon revealed it would send an additional fighter jet squadron, Navy cruisers and destroyer ships to the Middle East. “We’ve demonstrated since October and again in April [that] the United States’s global defense is dynamic, and the department retains the capability to deploy on short notice to meet evolving national security threats,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Friday. “As a result, the secretary will be directing multiple, forthcoming force-posture moves to bolster force protection for U.S. forces region-wide, to provide elevated support to the defense of Israel and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to this evolving crisis.” The announcement comes after the recent, high-profile killings of officials of Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups linked to Iran. Israeli forces are believed to be behind the assassinations, and media reports indicate that Iran appears likely to retaliate, particularly after one of the killings took place on its soil. That, in turn, has heightened fears of a widening conflict that could unleash destruction across the region. Singh told reporters on Friday that the decision to increase the US’s military capabilities in the Middle East came after high-level calls with Israeli officials. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held a call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant earlier that morning, she explained. An earlier call had occurred between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. Austin “committed to Minister Gallant — and the president committed to Netanyahu — that we will be bolstering our force protection in the region,” Singh said on Friday. “We will stand with Israel in their self-defence, and that is something that the secretary reiterated to Minister Gallant on his call this morning.” The increased military presence is the latest effort from the US to discourage attacks on Israel and avoid a regional war. But it comes at a tense time. Israel’s controversial war in Gaza will soon enter its 11th month, amid continued fears of genocide and famine in the Palestinian territory. The Biden administration has already signalled full support for Israel in the event of a wider war. While it has criticised civilian suffering in Gaza, US officials have thus far refused to openly pressure Israel to bring the war in Gaza to a close. Biden, however, did address the consequences of the assassinations on Friday, describing them as a setback to the ongoing ceasefire talks. “It doesn’t help,” he said in a short statement to reporters. The Pentagon’s announcement comes less than three days after Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran. He had been one of the chief negotiators in the effort to secure a ceasefire, and his death is viewed as a serious setback for negotiations. Haniyeh had been in Iran to attend the swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president. Reports indicate an explosive device had been planted in the residence where he was staying. A day before Haniyeh’s death, on July 30, Fuad Shukr — a commander with the powerful Lebanon-based group Hezbollah — was also killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut. The Israeli Air Force claimed responsibility for that attack. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group, has exchanged fire with Israel across Lebanon’s border since the war in Gaza began in October. However, the Biden administration has expressed hope that tensions can still be lowered. “I don’t think war is inevitable. I maintain that. I think there’s always room and opportunities for diplomacy,” Austin said earlier this week. Adblock test (Why?)
A comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution is still achievable
The landmark ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on July 19 calls for the immediate end of Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid rule. This ruling reinforces a clear pathway to peace – based on a sovereign State of Palestine in the context of the two-state solution. According to the ICJ, Israel must withdraw from all of the occupied Palestinian territory, cease all settlement activities, evacuate all settlers and pay damages. Ending the illegal occupation is not conditional upon a bilateral peace process between Israel and Palestine. In his declaration, ICJ President Nawaf Salam stated: “[Israeli] withdrawal cannot be conditional on the success of negotiations whose outcome will depend on Israel’s approval. In particular, Israel cannot invoke the need for a prior agreement on its security claims for such a condition may lead to perpetuating its unlawful occupation.” The ICJ ruling is a vindication of the rights of the Palestinian people, who have endured decades of oppression. It is also a rejection of the position of the United States, which insists on Israel’s agreement on a political settlement as a condition for ending the occupation. The sovereignty of Palestine, based on the two-state solution and the borders of June 4, 1967, cannot be held hostage to Israel’s apartheid policies. The two-state solution is a matter of international law, not of Israel’s domestic politics, much less its extremism. Diplomatic negotiations, under the auspices of the United Nations, can and should focus on the implementation of Israel’s withdrawal from occupied territory and mutual security arrangements of the two states living side by side. The US has been a decades-long proponent of a cynical “peace process” between Israel and Palestine that is designed to fail. The obvious truth is that the occupying power, Israel, and the people under occupation, Palestine, will never be on a fair footing in negotiations. Palestinians have been forced to negotiate under extreme duress while Israel has continued its blatant violations of international law. Yet the inequality of bargaining power has been far worse than the gross inequality of power between the occupier and the occupied. The US has held the cards for decades and has consistently been a dishonest broker. The US political elite is pro-Zionist to the hilt as it is notoriously financed by the Israel lobby (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and others) and deeply entwined with Israel’s military and security apparatus, especially CIA-Mossad links. The US blames Palestine for every failure in negotiations, even when Israel’s intransigence and opposition to the two-state solution are the obvious, indeed blatant, obstacles to peace. Most recently, the Israeli Knesset voted to reject the two-state solution. The latest display of the US politics was the reception given to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the US Congress. Despite – or more accurately because of – the call by the ICC prosecutor for Netanyahu’s arrest for war crimes, Congress received Netanyahu’s lies with repeated ovations. The obeisance of Congress to the Israel lobby was especially vile given that the UN, the ICJ and the International Criminal Court have all recently concluded that the Israeli military is systematically targeting civilians, starving them, inflicting collective punishment and deliberately destroying the infrastructure of Gaza. A devastating regional war is just around the corner unless the international community acts quickly and decisively to secure the two-state solution. In Lebanon, cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel have intensified. The conflict also grows with attacks between Israel and Yemen’s Houthis. The US could end the war now if it chose. Without American financial and military support, Israel does not have the means to fight a war on multiple fronts. After rejecting multiple ceasefire proposals, even US-backed ones, it is clear that the Israeli government is not interested in ending the war. Israel’s extremist government wants a wider conflict that lures the US into an open war with Iran. The latest outrage is Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. This is a dangerous escalation, on foreign soil, that deliberately and flagrantly undermines negotiation efforts and a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the conflict. While Congress cheered Netanyahu’s lies, the more important story of US politics was occurring outside Congress on the streets of Washington (and the campuses across the nation). The American people, especially America’s young people, are tired of the US government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. By March, a majority of Americans had turned against Israel’s actions in Gaza. They want the war to stop, not to expand. The world’s governments are rallying on the side of justice as in the UN General Assembly’s overwhelming support for Palestine to become the 194th UN member state. Palestinian political factions have also joined together, supported by Chinese diplomacy, to form a national unity government. The world community has broadly welcomed the ICJ’s decision to end Israel’s illegal occupation. A comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution is achievable and within reach. According to the recent decision of the ICJ and the votes of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council (but for the US veto), the path to peace is clear: Palestine should immediately be welcomed as a UN member state with the borders of June 4, 1967, and with its capital in East Jerusalem. Peace, in short, is much closer than it may seem, built on the unity of the people of Palestine; the strong and repeated backing of the Arab and Islamic states for the two-state solution; the goodwill of almost all of the world community, including the American people; and the support of international law and the United Nations. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
Mourners attend Hamas leader’s funeral in Qatar
NewsFeed Thousands of mourners including official representatives of several nations gathered in Doha to pay their respects to Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated in Iran this week. Published On 2 Aug 20242 Aug 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Gaza and the death of Western journalism
On Wednesday, the Israeli army killed two more Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi were working when they were struck by Israeli forces in Gaza city. Al-Ghoul, whose Al Jazeera reports were popular among Arab audiences, was wearing a press vest at the time he was killed. The latest killings bring Israel’s world-record journalist kill total to at least 113 during the current genocide in Gaza, according to the more conservative estimate. No other world conflict has killed as many journalists in recent memory. Israel has a long history of violently targeting journalists, so their Gaza kill total is not necessarily surprising. In fact, a 2023 Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report documented a “decades-long pattern” of Israel targeting and killing Palestinian journalists. For example, a Human Rights Watch investigation found that Israel targeted “journalists and media facilities” on four separate occasions in 2012. During the attacks, two journalists were killed, and many others were injured. In 2019, a United Nations commission found that Israel “intentionally shot” a pair of Palestinian journalists in 2018, killing both. More recently, in 2022, Israel shot and killed Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank. Israel attempted to deny responsibility, as it almost always does after it carries out an atrocity, but video evidence was overwhelming, and Israel was forced to admit guilt. There have been no consequences for the soldier who fired at Abu Akleh, who had been wearing a press vest and a press helmet, or for the Israelis involved in the other incidents targeting journalists. CPJ has suggested that Israeli security forces enjoy “almost blanket immunity” in incidents of attacks on journalists. Given this broader context, Israel’s targeting of journalists during the current genocide is genuinely not surprising, or out of the ordinary. However, what is truly surprising, and even shocking, is the relative silence of Western journalists. While there has certainly been some reportage and sympathy in North America and Europe, particularly from watchdog organisations like the CPJ, there is little sense of journalistic solidarity, and certainly nothing approaching widespread outrage and uproar about the threat Israel’s actions pose to press freedoms. Can we imagine for a moment what the Western journalistic reaction might be if Russian forces killed more than 100 journalists in Ukraine in under a year? Even when Western news outlets have reported on Palestinian journalists killed since the start of the current war, coverage has tended to give Israel the benefit of the doubt, often framing the killings as unintentional casualties of modern warfare. Also, Western journalism’s overwhelming reliance on pro-Israel sources has ensured the avoidance of colourful adjectives and condemnations. Moreover, overreliance on pro-Israel sources has sometimes made it difficult to determine which party to the conflict was responsible for specific killings. A unique case? One might assume here that Western news outlets have simply been maintaining their devotion to stated Western reporting principles of detachment and neutrality. But, in other situations, Western journalists have shown that they are indeed capable of making quite a fuss, and also of demonstrating solidarity. The 2015 killing of 12 Charlie Hebdo journalists provides a useful case in point. Following that attack, a genuine media spectacle ensued, with seemingly the entire institution of Western journalism united to focus on the event. Thousands of reports were generated within weeks, a solidarity hashtag (“Je suis Charlie,” or “I am Charlie”) went viral, and statements and sentiments of solidarity poured in from Western journalists, news outlets and organisations dedicated to principles of free speech. For example, America’s Society of Professional Journalists called the attack on Charlie Hebdo “barbaric” and an “attempt to stifle press freedom”. Freedom House issued a similarly harsh commendation, calling the attack “horrific,” and noting that it constituted a “direct threat to the right of freedom of expression”. PEN America and the British National Secular Society presented awards to Charlie Hebdo and the Guardian Media Group donated a massive sum to the publication. The relative silence and calm of Western journalists over the killing of at least 100 Palestinian journalists in Gaza is especially shocking when one considers the larger context of Israel’s war on journalism, which threatens all journalists. In October, around the time the current war began, Israel told Western news agencies that it would not guarantee the safety of journalists entering Gaza. Ever since, Israel has maintained a ban on international journalists, even working to prevent them from entering Gaza during a brief November 2023 pause in fighting. More importantly, perhaps, Israel has used its sway in the West to direct and control Western news narratives about the war. Western news outlets have often obediently complied with Israeli manipulation tactics. For example, as global outrage was mounting against Israel in December 2023, Israel put out false reports of mass, systematic rape against Israeli women by Palestinian fighters on October 7. Western news outlets, including the New York Times, were suckered in. They downplayed the growing outrage against Israel and began prominently highlighting the “systematic rape” story. Later, in January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued provisional measures against Israel. Israel responded almost immediately by issuing absurd terrorism accusations against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Western news outlets downplayed the provisional measures story, which was highly critical of Israel, and spotlighted the allegations against UNRWA, which painted Palestinians in a negative light. These and other examples of Israeli manipulation of Western news narratives are part of a broader pattern of influence that predates the current war. One empirical study found that Israel routinely times attacks, especially those likely to kill Palestinian civilians, in ways that ensure they will be ignored or downplayed by US news media. During the current genocide, Western news organisations have also tended to ignore the broad pattern of censorship of pro-Palestine content on social media, a fact which should concern anyone interested in freedom of expression. It’s easy to point to a handful of Western news reports and