Palestinians accuse Israeli government of complicity as Hawara arson suspects are freed

Palestinians accuse Israeli government of complicity as Hawara arson suspects are freed
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An Israeli police officer scuffles with a protester as Palestinian and Israeli peace activists demonstrate at the entrance of Hawara in the occupied West bank. (AFP)
Palestinians accuse Israeli government of complicity as Hawara arson suspects are freed
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Israeli border police officers block Israeli left-wing activists from staging a solidarity rally on March 3, 2023, in the Palestinian town that was set ablaze by radical Jewish settlers earlier this week. (AP Photo)
Palestinians accuse Israeli government of complicity as Hawara arson suspects are freed
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A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel survey the aftermath of a rampage by settlers in Hawara, near the West Bank city of Nablus, on Mar. 1, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians accuse Israeli government of complicity as Hawara arson suspects are freed
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Journalists scamper away from tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers toward Palestinians in the West Bank town of Hawara on March 3, 2023. (AP Photo)
Palestinians accuse Israeli government of complicity as Hawara arson suspects are freed
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Palestinian cars burned by rampaging Israeli settlers are dumped onto a scrapyard in Hawara, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Feb. 27, 2023. (AP)
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Updated 04 March 2023

Palestinians accuse Israeli government of complicity as Hawara arson suspects are freed

Palestinians accuse Israeli government of complicity as Hawara arson suspects are freed
  • Police said they could not find any evidence linking the settlers to the attacks on Feb. 26, some of which were caught on video
  • Israeli troops reportedly used stun grenades and tear gas to prevent busloads of Israeli peace activists from staging a solidarity rally in the town on Friday

RAMALLAH: Israeli police on Friday released all of the settlers arrested in connection with the burning of homes and vehicles in the occupied West Bank town of Hawara on Feb. 26.
The Ynet news website, affiliated with Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, reported that law enforcement officials said they could not find any evidence linking the settlers to the attacks, some of which were caught on video. About 100 cars and 35 houses were destroyed, and more than 40 houses were partly burned.
Israeli sources also said that two settlers placed in administrative detention on the orders of the Defense Ministry could be released at any moment.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said the release of settlers was evidence of the “complicity of the Israeli judiciary in covering up the crime.”
Also on Friday, Israeli troops used stun grenades and tear gas to prevent busloads of Israeli peace activists from staging a solidarity rally in Hawara, protesters said. Soldiers pressed their knees into the necks and backs of demonstrators they had pushed to the ground, according to protesters.
According to Sally Abed, from the group Standing Together, at least two people were briefly detained after the army threw them to the ground, kicked and handcuffed them. In another incident, a group of soldiers reportedly violently pushed Avraham Burg, a former speaker of the Israeli parliament speaker, until he stumbled and fell.

 

The Israeli army said it had declared Hawara a closed military zone and so when Israeli and Palestinian activists ignored the military order, security forces used tear gas and other tactics to disperse the crowds and maintain order.
Kayed Odeh, a 42-year-old shop owner, told Arab News that about 1,500 shops in Hawara had suffered losses amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of the siege imposed on the town by the Israeli army since Sunday.
“Life is paralyzed in Hawara: No one goes to work, no student goes to school and the situation here has become like a battlefield in Ukraine,” he said.
“Did we expect the government to imprison a government?” he added, explaining that the settlers are like a law unto themselves. “Dozens of security cameras are installed along the main streets in Hawara to obtain evidence of the settlers’ involvement in terrorism against the townspeople.”
He said it would take at least four months for the town to return to normal following the attacks.
Palestinians and human rights activists condemned the release of the arson suspects.
Shawan Jabarin, director of human rights organization Al-Haq, told Arab News: “An accomplice cannot hold a criminal accountable. The Israeli police, army and intelligence are all part of the crime, whether through their failure to prevent it or their leniency with those involved in the Israeli terrorism carried out by settlers.”

 

He warned that growing right-wing Israeli extremism could lead to large-scale massacres of Palestinians.
“Those released settlers will become heroes in the eyes of the Israeli right and they may be rewarded, and we, as a human rights institution, are warning that what is to come will be worse and more dangerous,” Jabarin added.
Ibrahim Melhem, a spokesperson for the Palestinian government, told Arab News: “Have you heard of a criminal who arrested himself? The Israeli army and police are accomplices in the crime, so we are not surprised by their move.”
Referring to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s recent statement in which he called on the government to wipe out the town of Hawara, Melhem said the settlers had taken that as a green light to attack the town with impunity.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Smotrich’s comments “were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting.” He added: “And just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence.”
A delegation led by Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, the EU’s representative in Palestine, visited Hawara on Friday and said his organization “will continue to demand directly the trial and accountability of those who carried out the settler attacks on the town.” Settler violence “must stop,” he added.

 

While the EU representatives were in Hawara, extremist Israeli parliamentarian Tzvi Sukkot arrived in the town and tried to disrupt their conversations using a loudspeaker.
Burgsdorff said: “We made extensive contacts to stop what is happening on the ground, and unfortunately, this intervention was late.” He added that his team will continue its efforts to prevent such attacks against the Palestinian people.
He also demanded compensation for the arson victims, and said his delegation’s visit “constitutes a message of solidarity from the international community with the people of Hawara and neighboring villages.”
Hagai Elad, director general of Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, said the Israeli government was sponsoring the attacks by settlers by providing them with immunity from any repercussions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Muin Dumaidi, Hawara’s mayor, said the attacks have dealt a psychological blow to residents. He also expressed hope that protection might be provided for Hawara and neighboring villages.
Meanwhile, residents of the town have installed early-warning systems and provided whistles to alert the population in case of any further attacks by settlers. This is similar to the system used by Israelis to warn people of Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza.
Early-warning sirens were used for the first time in Hawara on Thursday evening as dozens of settlers approached the town to attack houses on its outskirts. Odeh, the local shop owner, said alarms have been fitted to loudspeakers at six mosques.


El-Sisi starts Africa tour in Angola

El-Sisi starts Africa tour in Angola
Updated 16 sec ago

El-Sisi starts Africa tour in Angola

El-Sisi starts Africa tour in Angola
  • Lourenco said that the relations between the two countries were important
  • During the tour, El-Sisi will hold a series of talks with the leaders on cooperation and address concerns on the continent

CAIRO: Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arrived on Wednesday in Angola at the start of a tour that also includes Zambia and Mozambique.
El-Sisi, the first Egyptian president to visit Angola, met his counterpart Joao Lourenco in Luanda and witnessed the signing of a number of agreements between the two countries.
Lourenco said that the relations between the two countries were important.
Ahmad Fahmy, a spokesman for the Egyptian presidency, said that El-Sisi’s tour in southern Africa shows the country is “keen to intensify communication and coordination with its African brothers and to cultivate closer cooperation at the economic, trade, and investment levels.”
During the tour, El-Sisi will hold a series of talks with the leaders on cooperation and address concerns on the continent.
El-Sisi will attend the 22nd summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa during his visit to the Zambian capital, Lusaka. Zambia is taking the rotating chairmanship from Egypt.
In April, Ahmed Samir, Egypt’s minister of trade and industry, announced that the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and the African markets amounted to $2.117 billion during the first quarter of this year.
The value of Egypt’s exports to Angola increased in 2022 by 14.4 percent compared to the year 2012, according to a statement from the central agency for public mobilization and statistics.
Egypt’s exports to Angola in 2022 amounted to $22.9 million, compared to $20 million in 2021.


Lawyer and diplomat Abda Sharif named as UK’s new ambassador to Yemen

Lawyer and diplomat Abda Sharif named as UK’s new ambassador to Yemen
Updated 21 min 43 sec ago

Lawyer and diplomat Abda Sharif named as UK’s new ambassador to Yemen

Lawyer and diplomat Abda Sharif named as UK’s new ambassador to Yemen
  • Her previous diplomatic posts include spells as Britain’s deputy ambassador to Lebanon and as head of the UK’s mission in Benghazi, Libya
  • Following the start of the war in Yemen in late 2014, the UK closed its embassy in Sanaa and transferred its ambassador and staff to Riyadh

AL-MUKALLA: British authorities have appointed lawyer and diplomat Abda Sharif as the UK’s new ambassador to Yemen.
She will take up her post in September and succeeds Richard Oppenheim, who will move to another diplomatic role, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said.
Sharif’s most recent position was head of the Iraq and Arabian Peninsula Department in the Middle East and North Africa Directorate at the FCDO. Between 2012 and 2016, she served as deputy ambassador to Lebanon. Before that, in 2011, she led the UK Office in Benghazi, Libya.
“Delighted to be the next UK Ambassador to #Yemen. Look forward to returning to the Middle East, and to working with the excellent @UKinYemen,” Sharif said in a message posted on Twitter, referring to the UK’s embassy in the country.
Following the start of the war in Yemen in late 2014, the UK closed its embassy in Sanaa and transferred its ambassador and staff to Riyadh.
Sharif’s appointment comes at a time when the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, and the international community, including the UK, are stepping up pressure on the Yemeni government and the Houthis to reach an agreement that can end the long-running civil war.
Extensive international efforts have so far failed to persuade the Houthis to formally renew a long-term UN-brokered cease-fire, after a temporary truce expired in October of last year, or to end their drone and missile attacks on oil facilities in government-controlled provinces, which have halted exports that provide the country’s main source of income.
The Houthis have said they will only cease their attacks on the facilities if the Yemeni government shares oil revenues with them and pays public employees in areas they control.
Meanwhile, the militia have launched drone and ground attacks in government-controlled territories across the country over the past 48 hours.
Residents in besieged Taiz said on Tuesday that a Houthi sniper killed a man as he walked through a small village in the city’s Saber district. Saeed Ahmed Abdullah, 43, reportedly died on the way to the hospital.
Sporadic fighting between the Houthis and government forces has been reported in a number of contested areas outside of Taiz. Residents of the city have long complained that a UN-brokered truce has neither halted arbitrary bombardments and ground attacks by the Houthis, nor eased the militia’s siege of the city.


US vice president Kamala Harris: Israel needs ‘independent judiciary’

US vice president Kamala Harris: Israel needs ‘independent judiciary’
Updated 07 June 2023

US vice president Kamala Harris: Israel needs ‘independent judiciary’

US vice president Kamala Harris: Israel needs ‘independent judiciary’
  • Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen: Harris was perhaps not fully informed about the details of the judicial changes his government was seeking

WASHINGTON: US vice president Kamala Harris said on Tuesday that Israel’s democracy requires “an independent judiciary,” wading into the controversy over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial overhaul that has drawn mass protests in Israel.
“America will continue to stand for the values that have been the bedrock of the US-Israel relationship, which includes continuing to strengthen our democracies, which as the (Israeli) ambassador has said, are both built on strong institutions, checks and balances, and I’ll add: an independent judiciary,” Harris said.
The vice president spoke at a reception celebrating the 75th anniversary of Israel’s founding hosted by the country’s embassy in Washington. Her remarks on the judiciary drew applause.
Harris also reiterated the Biden administration’s “ironclad commitment to the security of Israel.”
Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen said Harris was perhaps not fully informed about the details of the judicial changes his government was seeking, which were intended, he said, to ensure a strong and independent judiciary which was more balanced.
“If you ask her what troubles her about the reform, she may not be able to cite even one clause that bothers her,” Cohen told Israel’s public broadcaster Kansas “I don’t know whether she read the bill, my estimation is that she has not.”
Weeks of unprecedented street demonstrations followed Netanyahu’s proposed package of reforms of the Supreme Court, which members of his religious-nationalist coalition accuse of overreach and elitism.
Under pressure at home and abroad, including from US President Joe Biden’s administration, Netanyahu has suspended the overhaul to try to negotiate a consensus with the political opposition.
Critics see a threat to independence of the courts by the prime minister, who is on trial on graft charges that he denies.
Top economists and national security veterans have warned of fallout, saying an independent court system is crucial to Israel’s democratic norms and economic strength.
Before Harris spoke, Israeli president Isaac Herzog said in a video address to the crowd that he planned to visit the White House and address a joint session of the US Congress “in the near future.” The trip is expected in July.
Biden has yet to extend a White House invitation to Netanyahu, despite Israel’s status as a key Middle East ally.
The two leaders have had chilly relations since Biden took office. Biden had pressed Netanyahu in recent months to drop the judicial overhaul plan.
Netanyahu, who was prime minister for three years in the 1990s and then from 2009 to 2021, took office again in December to start his sixth term.


Turkiye jails teen who added moustache to Erdogan poster

Turkiye jails teen who added moustache to Erdogan poster
Updated 07 June 2023

Turkiye jails teen who added moustache to Erdogan poster

Turkiye jails teen who added moustache to Erdogan poster
  • He was arrested after being identified by CCTV cameras

ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities on Tuesday seized and jailed a 16-year-old youth for drawing a moustache on an election campaign poster showing re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, media reports said.
Several media close to the opposition, including daily newspapers BirGun, Cumhuriyet and private TV station Halk TV, said the youth from the southeastern town of Mersin was accused of defacing the poster near his home with a pen, scribbling “a Hitler moustache and writing insulting comments.”
He was arrested after being identified by CCTV cameras, media reports said. Authorities interviewed him at his home where he reportedly “admitted drawing the moustache” while denying writing the accompanying comments.
Taken before the public prosecutor he was found to have “insulted the president” and was jailed at a nearby youth facility, according to Halk TV.
Erdogan extended his 20-year rule over Turkiye after winning the May 28 second round of the presidential election to embark on a new five-year term.
According to the justice ministry, “insulting the president” is one of the most common crimes in Turkiye, resulting in 16,753 convictions last year.


Short of animals, Gaza Zoo fights to survive

Short of animals, Gaza Zoo fights to survive
Updated 06 June 2023

Short of animals, Gaza Zoo fights to survive

Short of animals, Gaza Zoo fights to survive
  • Two of Gaza’s zoos have closed

GAZA: Large paintings of a bear, an elephant and a giraffe decorate the outer walls of NAMA Zoo in Gaza City, but none of these wild creatures is represented live among those caged inside.

Six years ago, the lone tiger died, and despite visitors’ frequent demands for a replacement, the owners have not been able to afford to buy or feed a new one.

There were once six zoos in Gaza, a narrow coastal enclave which has been closed off behind security walls since 2007.

But with the economy crippled by a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt, two of the zoos have closed.

“Because of the lack of resources and capabilities and the high prices of animals it is difficult to replace an animal you lose,” said Mahmoud Al-Sultan, the medical supervisor of the NAMA zoo.

The original animals at the zoo were smuggled through tunnels from Egypt over a decade ago. 

As well as four pairs of lions, each of which goes through 60 kg of meat a week, the zoo has crocodiles, hyenas, foxes, deer and monkeys, as well as a lone ibex and a solitary wolf.

At the lions’ cages, children stand to take pictures from a distance and giggle as they touch the bars on the cages of deer and birds. 

A ticket costs less than $1 because people can’t afford more, Sultan said.

“I come here to have some fun, but I see the same animals every time,” said nine-year-old Fouad Saleh. “I wish I could see an elephant, a giraffe or a tiger.”

For the moment, that appears unlikely. Gaza lacks the medical facilities to treat animals like lions and tigers.

In the past, the Four Paws international animal welfare group has had to rescue animals and find them new homes in Israel, Jordan or as far away as South Africa.

“We struggle to afford the food,” said Sultan. “Sometimes we provide frozen food, chicken, turkeys, and sometimes if a donkey is injured we have it slaughtered and shared out between the lions.”