Money, power and the peril of courting Chinese nationalism
In January, a Chinese ultranationalist vlogger – video blogger – came across red circular stickers on the glass doors of a shopping mall in Nanjing featuring the words: “Happy 2024.” The vlogger claimed that what appeared to be innocent New Year decorations were, in fact, nationalistic Japanese motifs since the red circles resembled the rising red sun in Japan’s national flag. “This is Nanjing, not Tokyo! Why are you putting up junk like this?” he snarled at a manager at the mall. Local police subsequently got involved and ordered staff at the mall to take down the decorations and gave the mall’s management an official warning. “It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” 33-year-old noodle shop owner Alice Lu from Shanghai told Al Jazeera. “If red circles are not allowed then there is no end to the things that must be removed,” Lu said. Red souvenir plates with images of China’s Mao Zedong (right) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) in Beijing, China in 2017 [Tyrone Siu/Reuters] Following the standard set by the local police in Nanjing, users on Chinese social media were quick to highlight the absurdity of all the red circular objects that would need to be banned, including the logo of China’s telecommunications giant Huawei, posters of China’s first Communist leader, Mao Zedong, featuring a rising sun in the background, and even traffic lights. The fiasco drew in China’s state-run CCTV which chastised the vlogger in an article on its Weibo account, calling his actions “detrimental to individuals, companies and society as a whole”. Shaoyu Yuan, a scholar of Chinese studies at Rutger’s University in the United States, said CCTV’s comments demonstrated an attempt by the Chinese government to maintain state control over the narrative surrounding nationalism. “They want to ensure that nationalism serves as a unifying force rather than being misused,” Yuan told Al Jazeera. The logo of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies is pictured next to a statue on top of a building in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2021 [Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters] Steering patriotism Under the rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping, fervent patriotic sentiment has been encouraged among the public for years. Xi said in June that “love of our country, the feeling of devotion and sense of attachment to our motherland is a duty and responsibility of every Chinese”, and that “the essence of patriotism is loving the country, the Party and socialism all at the same time”. The importance of state-defined patriotism was highlighted at the beginning of January when a new “patriotic education law” came into effect in China with the stated aim of instilling “love of the country and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)”. During Xi’s presidency, that patriotic fervour has been projected outward from China by its “wolf warrior” diplomats, including former foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian who infamously floated the idea that the US military was responsible for the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. Zhao also posted a fabricated image depicting an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife to the throat of an Afghan child in 2020, at a time when relations between Australia and China were in free fall. While the CCP promotes its own version of patriotism, it also moderates nationalistic output at times, too. Incessant bashing of the US online is a common pastime among active Chinese nationalists. But leading up to a highly anticipated summit between President Xi and US President Joe Biden in November, China’s media and nationalist commentators suddenly dialled down their anti-US rhetoric. Beijing adjusts the volume on nationalistic rhetoric to serve its interests, according to Yuan, engaging in a balancing act of patriotic sentiment when necessary. “While nationalism is encouraged as a means of fostering a strong national identity and loyalty, its excesses can lead to extremism and undermine international diplomacy, social harmony and public order,” Yuan said. Nationalism turns violent Lu from Shanghai said the Nanjing incident was an example of how the promotion of intense patriotic feelings in China has led to a toxic environment – particularly when it comes to Japan-related topics. “It is a bit scary actually how anti-Japanese feelings can make some people react in China,” she said. Chinese modern nationalism directed at Japan is deeply influenced by historical conflicts, most notably the events of the Second Sino-Japanese War during World War II, Yuan said. “These have left a lasting imprint on the Chinese collective memory, fuelling sentiments of resentment and vigilance towards Japan,” he said. Anti-Japanese sentiment was on display in 2022 when a known cosplayer was approached by police in Suzhou, a city not far from Shanghai, as she was taking pictures of herself on the street wearing a Japanese kimono. Before being taken away, a police officer was recorded shouting at the woman: “If you came here wearing hanfu (traditional Chinese clothing), I wouldn’t say this, but you are wearing a kimono as a Chinese. You are Chinese!” A few days after the arrest, CCTV launched a social media topic promoting the wearing of hanfu-style clothing. A protester holding a banner shouts slogans during an anti-Japan protest over disputed islands called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, outside the Japanese Ito Yokado shopping mall at Chunxi Road business area in Chengdu in 2010 [Jason Lee/Reuters] The Suzhou incident pales in comparison, however, to August 2012 when a dispute in the East China Sea over control of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, which are administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing, led to large anti-Japanese protests across urban China. While protests are often swiftly broken up by the Chinese authorities, the anti-Japanese demonstrations in several cities saw no interference, and from there they turned increasingly violent. In the central Chinese city of Xi’an, a Chinese man in a Japanese car was pulled out of his vehicle and severely beaten, sustaining life-changing injuries. The government-controlled People’s Daily subsequently said in an editorial that it did not condone the violence, but attempted to explain it as a sign of Chinese people’s patriotism.
UN official warns of possible war crimes, rape as a weapon in Sudan
The United Nations human rights chief has said that the apparent deliberate denial of safe access for humanitarian agencies within war-torn Sudan could amount to a war crime. “Sudan has become a living nightmare. Almost half of the population – 25 million people – are in urgent need of food and medical aid. Some 80 percent of hospitals have been put out of service,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said on Friday. The Sudan crisis “continues to be marked by an insidious disregard for human life”, he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, saying that many of the violations of international humanitarian law committed by the warring parties “may amount to war crimes, or other atrocity crimes”. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been fighting Sudan’s army for control of the country since April last year in a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions inside and outside the country, and sparked warnings of famine. Both sides “have killed thousands, seemingly without remorse”, Turk said, noting the use of heavy artillery, even in densely populated urban areas. He said in 11 months, at least 14,600 people had been killed and 26,000 others injured. “Actual figures are undoubtedly much higher.” Noting the implications of the apparent denial of aid, he called on the warring parties to “meet their legal obligations by opening humanitarian corridors without delay, before more lives are lost”. Aid supplies have been looted and humanitarian workers attacked, while international agencies and NGOs have complained about bureaucratic obstacles to get into the army-controlled hub of Port Sudan to get humanitarian assistance into the country. Last month, the UN urged countries not to forget about civilians, appealing for $4.1bn to meet their humanitarian needs and support the more than 1.5 million people who have fled to neighbouring countries. “With more than eight million forced to flee within Sudan and to neighbouring countries, this crisis is upending the country and profoundly threatening peace, security and humanitarian conditions throughout the entire region,” Turk said. Rape as a weapon of war The rights chief also highlighted another weapon in Sudan’s continuing war. “Sexual violence as a weapon of war, including rape, has been a defining – and despicable – characteristic of this crisis since the beginning,” he said. Since last April, his team has documented 60 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, involving at least 120 victims across the country, the vast majority women and girls, he said but added that “these figures are sadly a vast underrepresentation of the reality.” “Men in RSF uniform and armed men affiliated with the RSF, were reported to be responsible for 81 percent of the documented incidents,” Turk said. According to a report to the UN Security Council, obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, sexual violence by the RSF and its allied militia was widespread. The panel of experts said that, according to reliable sources from Geneina, a city in west Darfur, women and girls as young as 14 were raped by RSF elements in a UN World Food Programme storage facility that the paramilitary force controlled, in their homes, or when returning home to collect belongings after being displaced by the violence. Additionally, 16 girls were reportedly kidnapped by RSF soldiers and raped in an RSF house. “Racial slurs toward the Masalit and non-Arab community formed part of the attacks,” the panel said. “Neighbourhoods and homes were continuously attacked, looted, burned and destroyed,” especially those where Masalit and other African communities lived, and their people were harassed, assaulted, sexually abused, and at times, executed. The panel stressed that disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians – including torture, rape and killing, as well as destruction of critical civilian infrastructure – constitute war crimes under the 1949 Geneva Conventions. “Perpetrators of the horrific human rights violations and abuses must be held to account, without delay,” Turk said on Friday. “And without delay, the international community must refocus its attention on this deplorable crisis before it descends even further into chaos. The future of the people of Sudan depends on it.” Adblock test (Why?)
Hamas says seven captives killed in Israeli army bombing of Gaza
The group’s military wing confirms the news after an investigation although it does not state when the captives died. The military wing of the Palestinian group Hamas says seven more captives held in the Gaza Strip have died as a result of Israel’s bombardment of the besieged enclave. Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, made the statement on the Telegram app on Friday. The group said it confirmed the news following investigations conducted over the past few weeks after it had lost contact with the fighters who had been holding the captives. Hamas seized about 250 Israelis and foreigners during its October 7 attacks on southern Israel, of whom about 130 are believed to still be held captive. The Qassam Brigades said three of the captives mentioned in Friday’s statement had been identified, but it did not clarify when the seven had died. The group said the total number of captives killed as a result of Israeli military operations “may have exceeded” 70. ‘Second priority’ for Israel The deaths of the captives show that Israel’s government considers them a “secondary priority”, Omar Ashour, a professor of security and military studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera. “The [Israeli military’s] first priority is to destroy the armed wing of Hamas and the other Palestinian factions, to undermine them in any way, even if it costs the lives of some of the hostages,” Ashour said. Friday’s reported deaths also indicate that Israel’s war strategy is not achieving its objectives, he said, adding: “We are in the 147th day of the war, and there are more and more hostages dying, the majority of them by Israeli fire.” During a Qatari-mediated weeklong truce in November, 105 captives were released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons. “The only way to release the hostages safely is the way it was done before – through some sort of negotiations. The Israeli government knows that/ … They just don’t want to admit it,” Ashour said. A Palestinian prisoner hugs his mother after being released during a captive-prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on December 1, 2023 [Ammar Awad/Reuters] Truce talks ongoing Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 30,228 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 attacks stands at 1,139. Egyptian, Qatari and United States mediators are currently scrambling to lock down a new truce. In telephone talks on Thursday, the three countries’ leaders set out what a ceasefire deal could look like, the White House said. “The leaders underscored that the release of hostages would result in an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks,” the White House said. However, Israel’s Walla news site, citing a senior Israeli official, reported that Israel has told Egypt and Qatar that it will not proceed with ceasefire negotiations until Hamas sends it a list of Israeli captives who remain alive in the Gaza Strip. The official said Israel is also seeking a “serious answer” from Hamas on the number of Palestinian prisoners it is requesting be released as part of a potential deal, Walla reported. Adblock test (Why?)
Will Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community serve in its military?
There is renewed push to force ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the Israeli military. Israel has called on its reserves to wage its ground war on Gaza. But its ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has an exemption to military service going back decades. Now, the defence minister says they need to join the fight. But can a national consensus be reached on such a divisive issue? And can Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government survive the fallout from such a policy change? Presenter: Hashem Ahelbarra Guests: Efraim Inbar – President of The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security Akiva Eldar – Political analyst and former columnist for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper Yehoshua Pfeffer – Community rabbi and executive member of Netzah Yehuda Adblock test (Why?)
In New York, Israeli conscientious objectors find community after ostracism
New York, United States – He feared being called a “mishtamet”. A draft dodger. Someone who shrinks from their responsibility. But at age 17, Jewish social worker Asaf Calderon made a fateful decision: not to participate in the mandatory military service required of nearly all Israeli citizens. Instead, he pursued and was granted a medical exemption for mental health reasons. Still, his choice came with a cost. A soft-spoken man with round glasses and a tender smile, Calderon, 34, noticed that, afterwards, his friends started to seem distant. Members of his family fell out of contact. He realised his decision had left him a pariah in Israel, even among his loved ones. He eventually moved away to New York City. “It doesn’t matter why you do it,” Calderon said of becoming a conscientious objector, someone who refuses to participate in military service on ethical or moral grounds. “You are going to get ostracised in a way.” But the war in Gaza has amplified the pressures he and other conscientious objectors face. Since October 7, Israel has led a military campaign in the Palestinian enclave, with ground forces and aerial bombardment levelling entire neighbourhoods. The offensive follows an attack on southern Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people. The subsequent war, however, has left more than 30,000 Palestinians dead, many of them children. United Nations experts have warned of a “risk of genocide”. “The main thing that I’ve been told ever since the war started, by Israeli people who oppose me, is that I have lost my Israeli-ness. That I’m no longer Israeli,” Calderon told Al Jazeera. Then came Shoresh. Founded in the United States at the end of November, partly in reaction to the war, the group aims to promote anti-Zionism from the viewpoint of Israelis themselves. Members of Shoresh join a Hanukkah march in New York City to call for a Gaza ceasefire [Claudia Gohn and Carolyn Gevinski/Al Jazeera] There, Calderon met others who avoided Israeli military service through roundabout means — or applied for official status as conscientious objectors. It gave him a sense of community that he struggled to find elsewhere. Guy Erez, who has attended Shoresh events, described joining the group as an antidote to the isolation. “Oh my God,” he remembers thinking. “Somebody gets it. Thank God I’m not crazy.” A tradition of mandatory military service There are no official statistics about the number of conscientious objectors in Israel — in part because there is no single profile of what a conscientious objector is. Some, like the members of Shoresh, are anti-Zionists, critical of Israel’s founding as a Jewish nation-state. Others, particularly in Orthodox Jewish communities, object to military service for religious reasons. Still more oppose certain military activities they might be called upon to perform, like assignments that take them into the occupied Palestinian territories. The history of mandatory military service — and refusing to comply — goes back as far as Israel itself. In May 1948, shortly after Israel declared independence, its government founded a conscription-based military, drawing largely from existing militias and paramilitary forces. By the following year, though, mandatory service had become cemented in Israeli law. Today, once Israeli men turn 18, most are expected to serve 32 months in the military. Women, meanwhile, serve 24 months. Broad exceptions are carved out for certain Palestinian citizens of Israel, religious groups, married people and “those deemed unfit medically or mentally”. And conscientious objectors can also apply for an exemption before a special military committee. But critics argue relatively few applications are granted, outside of religious grounds or proven track records of pacifism. Without such an exemption, the consequences of rejecting military service can be severe. Israel’s Defence Service Law stipulates that a citizen’s failure to fulfil their military duty can result in up to two years’ prison time. If they intentionally “injure or maim” themselves in the process, that prison sentence can jump up to five years. Since the war in Gaza began, an 18-year-old named Tal Mitnick has become the highest-profile instance of military refusal. He surrendered to the Tel Hashomer military base in December for a 30-day sentence. “I believe that slaughter cannot solve slaughter,” he said in a video recording, before walking inside. Mandatory service in the Israeli military is a long-running tradition, stretching back to the 1940s [Amir Cohen/Reuters] Refusing in solidarity with Palestinians The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long been a motive for “refusers” — or “seruvnikim” — like Mitnick to reject military service, even before the current war began. In 2014, for instance, reserve soldiers with Unit 8200, a secretive intelligence group, penned an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, refusing to take part in Israeli military actions involving Palestinians. “There’s no distinction between Palestinians who are, and are not, involved in violence,” the reservists said of the military’s actions. The military’s “intrusive supervision”, they added, “does not allow for people to lead normal lives and fuels more violence, further distancing us from the end of the conflict”. Their public refusal was believed to be the first of its kind for Israel’s intelligence community. But Netanyahu has long pledged to take a firm stance against so-called “refuseniks”. Last year, when military reservists threatened to shirk their duties in protest of his government’s far-right reforms, Netanyahu threatened a crackdown: “The government will not accept refusal to serve.” Like many Israeli children, Roni Zahavi-Brunner — another member of Shoresh — grew up never questioning the requirement to serve, even though her family was relatively progressive. It wasn’t until she went to a boarding school in Italy that her perspective changed. Some of her classmates were Palestinians. Zahavi-Brunner came to know their struggles intimately, as they lived day in and day out together. “We were all 16, and yet they all had so many scary interactions with the [Israeli] military at such a young age,” said Zahavi-Brunner. “And I realised that that’s not something that I’m really willing to take part in.” One classmate became a close friend.
Iran Revolutionary Guard member and two others killed in attack in Syria
Iranian media reports say IRGC member Reza Zarei was killed in a suspected Israeli attack in the port city of Baniyas. A member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and two other people have been killed in a suspected Israeli attack, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported. IRNA said Reza Zarei, a member of the IRGC, had been “killed at dawn today by the usurping Zionist regime” in the port city of Baniyas. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor corroborated Friday’s attack. It said three explosions shook the centre of Baniyas, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, during the dawn strike on a villa that sheltered “a group affiliated with Iran”. A building was destroyed, killing an Iranian and two other non-Syrians who were with him, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria. There were separate reports that several others were also injured in the attack. There was no comment from Israel after the strike, but its air force has repeatedly bombed targets in Syria. On Thursday, Israel killed a Hezbollah member in a strike on Syria, close to the Lebanese border, the Observatory said, hours after similar attacks. “Yet another targeted assassination in Syria, yet another member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed in Syria,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut in Lebanon on Friday. “Iranian media is blaming Israel. Israel usually does not comment on individual strikes but it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes against Iranian targets and Iranian-linked targets in recent years. “But in recent weeks, what we have seen is more frequent attacks, similar attacks. Back in December, for example, one of the top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria was assassinated in Damascus.” Israel has been carrying out raids for years as it does not want Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria, according to Khodr. But since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, its strategy has changed. “It is now going after high-value targets,” our correspondent said. “Reza Zarei, the man who was killed in Baniyas, was in charge of Iranian oil shipments to Syria. According to analysts, Israel is targeting these high-value targets to cut the link between the command in Tehran and local actors in Syria affiliated to Iran,” she added. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli attacks and were relying more on allied militias to preserve their sway there, the Reuters news agency reported in February. Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli MP denounces ‘tsunami of fanatic nationalism’ in Israel
‘We are on the brink of a fascist dictatorship,’ Knesset member Ofer Cassif tells Marc Lamont Hill. Over the past five months, Israel’s war on Gaza has caused mass devastation and led to more than 30,000 deaths. In January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague found that there was a plausible risk that Israel may be committing genocide. While the ICJ case has been met with opposition from Israel’s political class, there have been those who have voiced support. Israeli parliament member Ofer Cassif has been an outspoken supporter of the ICJ procedures – a position that resulted in a failed attempt to expel him from Israel’s legislature, the Knesset, last week. So what is the cost of dissent in Israel in the current climate? This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks to Cassif about the current political climate in Israel and unpacks the push within Israel to silence dissent. Adblock test (Why?)
Global condemnation grows over Israel’s killing of Gaza aid seekers
French authorities have called for an independent inquiry into the killing of more than 100 Palestinians who were collecting food aid in northern Gaza as global outrage against Israel’s attack grows. At least 112 people were killed and more than 750 wounded in the attack, which occurred at the Nabulsi roundabout in Gaza City on Thursday. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers opened fire as people gathered for flour while Israeli officials said their soldiers fired because they felt threatened when people stormed the aid trucks. Speaking to national broadcaster France Inter, Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said France would not apply “double standards” to the Israel-Palestine conflict. “We will ask for explanations, and there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened,” Sejourne said. “France calls things by their name. This applies when we designate Hamas as a terrorist group, but we must also call things by their name when there are atrocities in Gaza.” Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Palestinian aid seekers were “targeted by Israeli soldiers” and expressed his “strongest condemnation of these shootings.” Global outrage mounts Reacting to the incident in a post on the social media platform X, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a “disregard for the Nabulsi roundabout massacre” and said he was the “political face” of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates// Netanyahu’s disregard for the #Nabulsi roundabout massacre, proves that he is the political face of the fascist Ben Gvir. The Ministry calls for imposing deterrent #sanctions on the Israeli government to compel it to ensure the… pic.twitter.com/ZxymkFlxXB — State of Palestine – MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) March 1, 2024 The ministry said it “calls for imposing deterrent sanctions on the Israeli government to compel it to ensure the protection of civilians and secure their humanitarian needs”. United States President Joe Biden did not condemn the shootings but said Washington was checking “two competing versions” of the killings and the incident would complicate efforts to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas. The United Nations Security Council, meanwhile, held a closed-door emergency meeting late on Thursday but failed to issue a statement condemning the killings after the US objected to placing blame on Israel, diplomatic sources told reporters. US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood condemned the deaths before entering the chamber, but upon leaving, he said the US “does not have all the facts on the ground”. Meanwhile, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said on Friday that Beijing was shocked by the incident and strongly condemned the killings. “China urges the relevant parties, especially Israel, to cease fire and end the fighting immediately, earnestly protect civilians’ safety, ensure that humanitarian aid can enter and avoid an even more serious humanitarian disaster,” Mao said. ‘Oblige Israel to respect international law’ Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it condemned “in the strongest terms the heinous massacre committed by the Israeli occupation” and called for “urgent international action” to halt the fighting in Gaza. Doha warned that Israel’s “disregard for Palestinian lives … will ultimately undermine international efforts aimed at implementing the two-state solution and thus pave the way for the expansion of the cycle of violence in the region”. Likewise, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the deaths and reiterated “the need to reach an immediate ceasefire”. Jeddah renewed its “demands to the international community to take a firm position to oblige Israel to respect international humanitarian law, immediately open safe humanitarian corridors, allow the evacuation of the injured and enable the delivery of relief aid. Turkey accused Israel of committing “another crime against humanity” and condemning Palestinians in Gaza to “famine” as civilians struggle to get the most basic of food supplies. “The fact that Israel … this time targets innocent civilians in a queue for humanitarian aid is evidence that [Israel] aims consciously and collectively to destroy the Palestinian people,” the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. (Al Jazeera) In Iran, authorities described the incident as a “barbaric attack by the Zionist regime” while Lebanon’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants said the incident fell “within the framework of the policy of mass starvation and extermination of the Palestinian people, which drives them to despair and adds fuel to the fire”. Jordan and the Arab League have also denounced the killings. EU, Germany join calls for investigation Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said on Friday that she was “deeply disturbed by images from Gaza” and that “every effort must be made to investigate what happened and ensure transparency.” Earlier, the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, posting on X, denounced the incident as “carnage”. The foreign ministers of Spain, Italy, Belgium and Portugal have similarly spoken out against the deaths of aid seekers. Germany, a staunch backer of Israel, joined the calls to demand an “explanation” from Israel. “People wanted relief supplies for themselves and their families and found themselves dead,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on X. “The reports from Gaza shock me. The Israeli army must fully explain how the mass panic and shooting could have happened.” Es braucht jetzt endlich die humanitäre #Feuerpause, damit die Geiseln endlich aus den Händen der Hamas freikommen und nicht noch mehr Menschen in Gaza sterben. Und Hilfe sicher verteilt werden kann. 3/3 — Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock (@ABaerbock) March 1, 2024 In South America, Colombian President Gustavo Petro moved to suspend purchases of weapons from Israel, a key supplier of his country’s security forces, saying Israel’s actions amount to a “genocide” of the Palestinian people. “Asking for food, more than 100 Palestinians were killed by Netanyahu. This is called genocide and recalls the Holocaust. The world must block Netanyahu,” Petro said. Brazil also condemned the killings, saying Israel’s military operation has no “ethical or legal limits”. Gaza’s Ministry of Health said 30,228 Palestinians have died in the war since October 7. UN agencies have warned there’s a
Israeli settlers build symbolic house on Gaza border
NewsFeed A group of Israeli settlers have built a symbolic house on the border with Gaza, as part of a campaign calling for new settlements on Palestinian land and the ethnic cleansing of the territory. Published On 1 Mar 20241 Mar 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Photos: Crowds attend Navalny funeral as Kremlin warns against protests
Under a heavy police presence, hundreds of people bade farewell to Alexey Navalny in Moscow after his still unexplained death two weeks ago in an Arctic penal colony. The funeral on Friday of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic followed a battle with authorities over the release of his body. Navalny’s supporters said several churches in Moscow refused to hold a service for the man who crusaded against official corruption. Many Western leaders blamed his death on the Russian president, an accusation the Kremlin rejects. Navalny’s team eventually got permission from the Church of the Icon of Our Lady Quench My Sorrows, which was encircled by crowd-control barriers on Friday. Hours before the funeral started, hundreds of people waited to enter under the watch of police. Western diplomats were spotted in the long line along with presidential hopefuls Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Duntsova. Both wanted to run against Putin in this month’s presidential election and oppose his war in Ukraine. Neither was allowed on the ballot. After the hearse arrived at the church, the coffin was taken out of the vehicle as the crowd applauded and chanted: “Navalny! Navalny!” Some also shouted: “You weren’t afraid. Neither are we!” A photo from inside the church showed an open coffin with Navalny’s body covered with red and white flowers and his mother sitting beside it holding a candle. Navalny’s father was also present, but it wasn’t clear who else in his family attended. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, is outside Russia and did not attend the funeral. Their daughter is a student at Stanford University in California, and the whereabouts of their son are unknown. The politician’s closest associates have all left Russia under pressure and watched the funeral, footage of which was streamed live on his YouTube channel, from abroad. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov urged those gathering in Moscow and other places not to break the law, saying any “unauthorised gatherings” are violations. A burial followed at the nearby Borisovskoye Cemetery, where police also showed up in force. Crowds from the church marched there after the funeral ended, chanting: “No to war” and “Love is more powerful than fear.” Adblock test (Why?)