An almost three-hour delay for the start of the temporary ceasefire — due to “technical difficulties”, said the resistance movement Hamas — hardly daunted thousands of euphoric Palestinians who took to the streets of Gaza on Sunday to celebrate and try to move back to bombed-out homes in spite of the dangers.
This in turn will trigger freedom for 95 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom had been jailed without charges or being tried in Israeli lawcourts, at the start of the 42-day first stage of the three-phase ceasefire deal.
Israel currently detains 10,400 Palestinian prisoners in jails, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
This figure does not include those detained from Gaza during the last 15 months of conflict. Hamas and allied resistance groups are reported to be holding 94 hostages captured on 7 October 2023, with 34 of those believed to be dead.
At least 19 people were killed on Sunday and 36 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza during the truce delay according to Gazan Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal
One person was killed in Rafah, six people were killed in Khan Younis, nine were killed in Gaza City and three in the north, he said in a statement.
Ceasefire start announced
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced the ceasefire with Hamas would start at 11:15am local time (09:15 GMT) after the delay by Hamas in naming the three Israeli women captives to be freed as Romi Gonen, 24, Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Emily Damari, 28.
One was reported to be of dual Romanian nationality and another of British nationality.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it had 4000 truckloads of humanitarian aid ready to enter the Gaza Strip — “half of them carry food and water”, announced UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini in an X post.
UNRWA has 4,000 truckloads of aid ready to enter #Gaza — half of them carry food and flour.
Attacks on aid convoys in the Gaza Strip could decline as humanitarian relief comes in following a #ceasefire, says @UNLazzarini.https://t.co/yRt1NxWuXS
Two of the Palestinian reporters covering the truce from inside Gaza for Al Jazeera spoke of the joy and celebrations in spite of the uncertainty over the delayed truce start.
“Palestinians are taking a deep breath from all the atrocities they have been going through for the past 470 days. And today is a day of celebration,” said Hind Khoudary, reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
“Thousands of Palestinians are getting ready to go to the areas that they were not supposed to go, like the eastern parts, Jabalia, the areas that have been witnessing an Israeli ground invasion — and also Rafah.
A bouquet for the Gaza ceasefire in Auckland’s Te Komititanga square on Saturday previewing the ceasefire. . . on the reverse of the Palestine flag is the West Papuan Morning Star flag of independence, another decolonisation issue. Image: APR
‘Their houses are not even there’
“We also saw a lot of people putting their luggage to start going back, but many know that their houses are not even there.
“Most of their houses are not standing any more, but most of the people said that they’re going to put their tents on top of the rubble in their neighbourhoods.
Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, Gaza, said that despite the ceasefire delay, people had been celebrating.
“People here, as soon as the clock hit 8:30am, burst out into celebration and festivities. We heard shotguns a few times as well as people using fireworks.
“They are hoping that the coming hours are going to show them more promises and that the list of captives has been resolved and they can go on to start piecing their lives together in a more stable and safer environment.”
In Auckland on Saturday, about 200 demonstrators gathered in the heart of New Zealand’s biggest city to welcome the Gaza ceasefire, but warned they would continue to protest until justice is served with an independent and free Palestinan state.
Jubilant scenes of dancing and Palestinian folk music rang out across Te Komititanga square amid calls for the Israeli ambassador to be expelled from New Zealand and for the government to halt holiday worker visas for “Zionist terrorist” soldiers or reservists.
Protesters at the Gaza ceasefire rally in Auckland on Saturday. Image: APR
If anybody represents the very British values of democracy, respect for human rights, justice and due process, it is the Egyptian activist, says Peter Greste in the Guardian of 15 January 2025. The piece is so rich in detail that I give here in full:
I first encountered Alaa Abd el-Fattah 11 years ago, as a disembodied whisper of reassurance from outside the bars of my grubby prison cell in Cairo. I had just been tossed in the box by Egypt’s El Mukhabarat– the malevolent general intelligence service responsible for internal security – and I was facing an indeterminate run in solitary confinement after being arrested on bogus terrorism charges for my work as a journalist.
Alaa knew the drill. Then just 32, he’d been imprisoned by each of the four previous regimes, and he understood both the institutional meat grinder we were confronting and the psychological stresses I’d have to grapple with.
“Welcome to Ward A, Political, in Tora prison,” he told me in a hushed voice through the door. “Here, you are surrounded by people who have been fighting for justice and democracy. We are a collection of activists, trade unionists, judges, writers and now you – a journalist. This is a very prestigious place, and you are with friends.”
A significant part of the prestige came from Alaa himself. He was – and remains – Egypt’s most prominent political prisoner. That also makes him the one the government fears the most. I owe him my life, which is why I am helping step up the campaign to free him.
When the country erupted in its chapter of the Arab spring revolution in January 2011, it was driven by a loose collection of young, middle-class, secular activists – including Alaa – who understood the power of social media.
He was already well known in Egypt as a software developer, online publisher and prolific writer from a long line of campaigners. His late father was a human rights lawyer, and his mother is a mathematics professor and pro-democracy activist. His aunt is a novelist and political activist. One sister helped set up a group fighting against military trials for civilians, and another is a film editor who co-founded a newspaper. Before the 2011 revolution, Alaa learned coding and built his own award-winning blog publishing site where he wrote about national politics and social justice.
In short, activism is in his DNA.
At the time we met, Egypt was still convulsing with revolutionary turmoil. The military had installed an interim administration after ousting the elected Muslim Brotherhood government. The streets were filled with police rounding up protesters who were fighting to stop the country sliding back into autocracy, and Alaa found himself in prison on charges of rallying, inciting violence, resisting authorities and violating an anti-protest law.
After my period in solitary ended, we would use the precious hours of exercise to stride up and down a dusty walled yard discussing Egyptian history and society, political theory, and his ideas of resistance and reform. I found him to be an extraordinarily intelligent political thinker and humanitarian dedicated to turning his country into a functioning, pluralist democracy, and whose powerful writing from prison inspired millions. But more than that, I found a good friend.
In our conversations, he helped me understand the politics of my own imprisonment. I and two Al Jazeera colleagues had been charged with broadcasting terrorist ideology, conspiring with a terrorist organisation, and broadcasting false news to undermine national security. I struggled to reconcile those very serious allegations with the relatively straight reporting we had actually been doing. But as we talked, I came to see that our arrest had nothing to do with what we had done, and everything to do with what we represented – a press freely reporting on the unfolding political crisis. Inspired by his writing, I wrote two letters of my own that we smuggled out and that helped frame the campaign that ultimately got me free.
In March 2019, Alaa was released from prison but ordered to spend 12 hours each night in a police cell, “not free … even in the sense of imperfect freedom common in our country,” he wrote at the time.
Six months later, he was once again arrested, this time for spreading “false news to undermine security”, and sentenced to five years.
By rights, his prison ordeal should have ended on 29 September last year, including the time he spent in pre-trial detention. But in an act of extraordinary cynicism and callousness, the authorities decreed that they’d count his stretch from the day he was sentenced, violating their own laws and adding another two years to his time behind bars.
In protest, his 68-year-old mother, Laila Soueif, began a hunger strike on the day he was supposed to walk free. She has vowed not to eat until he is once again out of prison, and she is now 108 days into the fast. That is an extraordinarily risky undertaking for anybody, let alone someone her age, and although she is showing remarkable resilience she is in serious danger.
Laila is a British national now living in London, and through her, Alaa also has British citizenship. That gives the British government consular responsibility, and powerful diplomatic leverage to get him released.
If anybody represents the very British values of democracy, respect for human rights, justice, rule of law and due process, it is Alaa Abd el-Fattah.
That is why I feel compelled to join Laila, in London and in solidarity, also on a hunger strike for the next 21 days. It may not work – at least in the short term – and Alaa might not walk free. But I don’t think that matters.
While we were in prison together, Alaa’s father passed away. At a later memorial service, here is what he told the audience: “All that’s asked of us is that we fight for what’s right. We don’t have to be winning while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be strong while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be prepared while we fight for what’s right, or to have a good plan, or be well organised. All that’s asked of us is that we don’t stop fighting for what’s right.”
This injustice has gone on far too long. Alaa Abd el-Fattah is one of the most remarkable people I know, and he deserves to be free. I am determined to do whatever I can to help.
Peter Greste is a professor of journalism at Macquarie University and the executive director for the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom. In December 2013, he was arrested on terrorism charges while working for Al Jazeera and he was eventually convicted and sentenced to seven years. Under intense international pressure, the Egyptian president ordered his release after 400 days. He is undertaking this protest in his personal capacity
The European Parliament’s Sakharov Fellowship is offering up to 14 human rights defenders selected from non-EU countries the opportunity to follow an intensive two-week training in Brussels and at the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice.
The empowering programme for human rights defenders has been organised annually since 2016, further to an initiative taken by the Sakharov Prize Community at the 25th Anniversary Conference of the Sakharov Prize.
The Brussels programme focuses on EU policies and tools in support of human rights defenders, accessing funding, developing communications skills, and raising awareness of specific security challenges facing human rights defenders. It further includes meetings with Members of Parliament, officials of the EU institutions and Brussels-based NGOs. The Fellows will also have space for individual advocacy and networking activities.
Training at the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice combines academic teaching on international human rights law, instruments and mechanisms, with case studies, and provides practical tools for improving the work of human rights defenders to effect change on the ground. Lecturers include prominent academics, representatives of leading human rights NGOs, Sakharov Prize laureates and other outstanding human rights practitioners.
The programme will be organised in person in Brussels and Venice.
Candidates should have a proven record in campaigning for human rights in an NGO or other organisation or in an individual capacity. They must have a high level of English, sufficient to follow and contribute to discussion groups and workshops in Brussels and Venice.
The Fellowship covers return travel from the country of origin, accommodation in Brussels and Venice and a daily living allowance.
I have wrestled with what to say in this urgent moment, long yearned for and that often appeared beyond reach during these last 15 hideous months.
One of the questions that I grappled with was this: What could I possibly share with readers that would even remotely capture the meaning and profundity of an apparent agreement to stop the wholesale massacre of Palestinians?
I had not suffered. My home is intact. My family and I are alive and well. We are warm, together and safe.
So, the other pressing dilemma I confronted was: Is it my place to write at all? This space should be reserved, I thought, for Palestinians to reflect on the horrors they have endured and what is to come.
Their voices will, of course, be heard here and elsewhere in the days and weeks ahead. My voice, in this context, is insignificant and, under these grievous circumstances, borders on being irrelevant.
Still, if you and, in particular, Palestinians will oblige me, this is what I have to say:
I think that there are four words that each, in their own way, bear some significance to Wednesday’s happy news that the guns are poised to go silent.
The first and perhaps most fitting word is “relief”.
There will be ample time and opportunity for the “experts” to draw up their predictable scorecards of the “winners” and “losers” and the broader short- and long-term strategic implications of Wednesday’s deal.
There will, as well, be ample time and opportunity for more “experts” to consider the political consequences of Wednesday’s deal in the Middle East, Europe and Washington, DC.
My preoccupation, and I suspect the preoccupation of most Palestinians and their loved ones in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, is that peace has arrived finally.
How long it will last is a question best posed tomorrow. Today, let us all revel in the relief that is a dividend of peace.
Palestinian boys and girls are dancing with relief. After months of grief, loss and sadness, joy has returned. Smiles have returned. Hope has returned.
Let us enjoy a satisfying measure of relief, if not pleasure, in that.
There is relief in Israel, too.
The families of the surviving captives will soon be reunited with the brothers and sisters, daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, they have longed to embrace again.
They will, no doubt, require care and attention to heal the wounds to their minds, souls and bodies.
That will be another, most welcomed, dividend of peace.
The next word is “gratitude”.
Those of us who, day after dreadful day, have watched — bereft and helpless as a ruthless apartheid state has gone methodically about reducing Gaza to dust and memory — owe our deepest gratitude to the brave, determined helpers who have done their best to ease the pain and suffering of besieged Palestinians.
We owe our everlasting gratitude to the countless anonymous people, in countless places throughout Gaza and the West Bank, who, at grave risk and at the expense of so many young, promising lives, put the welfare of their Palestinian brothers and sisters ahead of their own.
We must be grateful for their selflessness and courage. They did their duty. They walked into the danger. They did not retreat. They stood firm. They held their ground. They rebuffed the purveyors of death and destruction who tried to erase their pride and dignity.
They reminded the world that humanity will prevail despite the occupier’s efforts to crush it.
The third word is “acknowledge”.
The world must acknowledge the steadfast resistance of Palestinians.
The occupier’s aim was to break the will and spirit of Palestinians. That has been the occupier’s intent for the past 75 years.
Once again, the occupier has failed.
Palestinians are indefatigable. They are, like their brethren in Ireland and South Africa, immovable.
They refuse to be routed from their land because they are wedded to it by faith and history. Their roots are too deep and indestructible.
Palestinians will decide their fate — not the marauding armies headed by racists and war criminals who cling to the antiquated notion that might is right.
It will take a little more time and patience, but the sovereignty and salvation that Palestinians have earned in blood and heartache is, I am convinced, approaching not far over the horizon.
The final word is “shame”.
There are politicians and governments who will forever wear the shame of permitting Israel to commit genocide against the people of Palestine.
These politicians and governments will deny it. The evidence of their crimes is plain. We can see it in the images of the apocalyptic landscape of Gaza. We will record every name of the more than 46,000 Palestinian victims of their complicity.
That will be their decrepit legacy.
Rather than stop the mass murder of innocents, they enabled it. Rather than prevent starvation and disease from claiming the lives of babies and children, they encouraged it. Rather than turn off the spigot of arms, they delivered them. Rather than shout “enough”, they spurred the killing to go on and on.
We will remember. We will not let them forget.
That is our responsibility: to make sure that they never escape the shame that will follow each and every one of them like a long, disfiguring shadow in the late-day sun.
Shame on them. Shame on them all.
Andrew Mitrovica is an award-winning writer and journalism educator at the University of Toronto. He has been an investigative reporter for a variety of news organisations and publications, including the CBC, CTV, Saturday Night Magazine, Reader’s Digest, the Walrus magazine and the Globe and Mail, where he was a member of the newspaper’s investigative unit. He is also a columnist for Al Jazeera.
With the temporary ceasefire agreement, we should take our hats off to the Palestinian people of Gaza who have withstood a total military onslaught from Israel but without surrendering or shifting from their land.
Over 15 months Israel has dropped well over 70,000 tonnes of bombs on this tiny 360 sq km strip of land, home to 2.3 million people.
This is more than the combined total of bombs dropped on London, Hamburg and Dresden during the six years of the Second World War.
PSNA national chair John Minto’s “human spirit” letter in solidarity with Palestinians. Image: The Press
Just as we saw in Vietnam and Afghanistan the determination to resist has proven itself more decisive than the overwhelming military firepower of Israel and the US.
Palestinian courage, tenacity and sumud (steadfastness) represent a triumph of the human spirit against overwhelming odds.
For New Zealand, the great tragedy has been our government [Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s National-led three-party coalition] response which has been to condemn every act of Palestinian resistance but refuse to condemn even the most blatant of Israeli war crimes.
Mr Luxon has put us on the wrong side of yet another human struggle for justice.
John Minto National Chair Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA)
Letter published in the The Press, Christchurch, on 18 January 2025.
Home Office official says data protection laws caused the cost of its forced removal programme to increase
The Conservative government spent more than £130m on IT and data systems for the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, which will never be used, the Observer can reveal.
Report cites low pay and overwork, and employees complain of receiving no warning before working on disturbing scenes
“Illegal or barely legal” working practices are rife in the UK’s TV industry, new research has revealed.
Workers in post-production roles, including editors, designers and special effects artists, are regularly being paid below the minimum wage and experiencing “unacceptable” conditions, such as hours spent in dark, unventilated rooms and exposure to traumatic content with no warning.
About 200 demonstrators gathered in the heart of New Zealand’s biggest city Auckland today to welcome the Gaza ceasefire due to come into force tomorrow, but warned they would continue to protest until justice is served with an independent and free Palestinan state.
Jubilant scenes of dancing and Palestinian folk music rang out across Te Komititanga square amid calls for the Israeli ambassador to be expelled from New Zealand and for the government to halt holiday worker visas for “Zionist terrorist” soldiers or reservists.
While optimistic that the temporary truce in the three-phase agreement agreed to between the Hamas resistance fighter force and Israel in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday would be turned into a permanent ceasefire, many speakers acknowledged the fragility of the peace with at least 116 Palestinians killed since the deal — mostly women and children.
New Zealand Palestinian Dr Abdallah Gouda speaking at today’s Gaza ceasefire rally . . . “We want to rebuild Gaza, we will rebuild hospitals . . . we will mend Gaza.” Image: David Robie/APR
“We have won . . . won. We are there, we are here. We are everywhere,” declared defiant Gaza survivor Dr Abdallah Gouda, whose family and other Palestinian community members in Aotearoa have played a strong solidarity role alongside activist groups during the 15-month genocidal war waged on the besieged 365 sq km enclave.
He said the struggle would go on until Palestine was finally free and independent; Palestinians would not leave their land.
“They’re [Israelis] killing us. But Palestinians decided to fight [back] . . . No Palestinians want to leave Gaza. They want to stay . . .”
‘We want to rebuild Gaza’
Dr Gouda said in both Arabic and English to loud cheers, “We promise God, we promise the people that we will never leave.
“We can be starved, we can be killed , but we will never leave.
Dr Abdallah Gouda speaking at today’s rally. Video: APR
“We want to rebuild Gaza, we will rebuild hospitals, we will rebuild schools, we will rebuild churches . . .
“We will mend Gaza. It’s not too difficult because Gaza was beautiful, we will rebuild Gaza as the best!”
His son Ali, who has been the most popular cheerleader during the weekly protests, treated the crowd to resounding chants including “Free, free Palestine” and “Netanyahu, you can’t hide”.
PSNA’s Neil Scott speaking. Video: APR
Commenting on the ceasefire due to start tomorrow, Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) national secretary Neil Scott said: “This is just the end of the beginning — and now we will fight for justice.”
Scott said the continued struggle included the BDS — boycott, divest, sanctions — campaign. He appealed to the crowd to check their BDS apps and then monitor their “cupboards at home” to remove and boycott Israeli-sourced products.
He also said the PSNA would continue to keep pressing the NZ government to ban Israelis with military service visiting New Zealand on working holiday visas.
“Even now, stop allowing young Zionist terrorists — because that’s what they are — to come to Aotearoa to live among the decent people of New Zealand and wash the blood off their hands and feel innocent again,” Scott said.
“Not a chance, we are pushing this government to end that working holiday visa.”
Speakers also called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from New Zealand.
Ali Gouda’s flagwaving challenge to the crowd. Video: APR
New Palestine documentary
In his final chant, Ali appealed to the crowd: “Raise and wave your Palestinian flags and keffiyeh.”
Future rallies will include protest marches in solidarity with Palestine.
RNZ reports that New Zealand’s Justice for Palestine co-convenor Samira Zaiton said she would only begin to breathe easy when the ceasefire began on Sunday.
“It feels as though I’m holding my breath and there’s a sigh of relief that’s stuck in my throat that I can’t quite let out until we see it play out.”
In Sydney, Australian Jewish author Antony Loewenstein, who visited New Zealand in 2023 to speak about his award-winning book, The Palestine Laboratory, has been a consistent and strong critic of Israel throughout the war.
“I often think about what Israel has unleashed in Gaza — the aim is complete devastation, and Palestinians there have a long history of suffering under this arrogant and criminal war-making,” he said today in a post on X.
“My first visit to Gaza was in July 2009, six months after Israel’s Operation Cast Lead war, and I made a short film about what I saw and heard:”
Gaza Reflections. Video: Antony Loewenstein
His new documentary based on his book, The Palestine Laboratory, will be broadcast by Al Jazeera later this month.
Protesters at today’s Gaza ceasefire rally in Auckland today. Image: David Robie/APR
Espacio Público, Carlos Correa’s NGO, informed on 16 January 2025 that Carlos Correa had been indeed arrested and has now been released from detention.
Carlos Correa is a renowned human rights defender. On 7 January 2025, he was disappeared by hooded people. On 15 January, a prosecutor informed Carlos’ family that he was indeed detained by State security forces but could not confirm the charges and his whereabouts. On 16 January, Carlos was finally released from detention and able to reunite with his family.
Other human rights defenders such as Javier Tarazona, Rocio San Miguel, Carlos Julio Rojas, and Kennedy Tejeda remain in arbitrary detention.
As explained in a public statement signed by ISHR and more than 80 organisations, the Venezuelan State is increasingly harassing and persecuting human rights defenders in an attempt to silence their work and their demands for respect for civil and political human rights in the aftermath of the elections of 28 July 2024.
ISHR will continue to support Venezuelan human rights defenders and partners, and call for the release of all human rights defenders arbitrarily detained.
The United Nations tasked with providing humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza — and the only one that can do it on a large scale — says it is ready to provide assistance in the wake of the ceasefire tomorrow but is worried about the impact of being “outlawed” by Israel.
A spokesperson, Tamara Alrifai, for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said: “We’re extremely eager to see the humanitarian part of the ceasefire, actioned as of tomorrow morning.”
However, Alrifai also told Al Jazeera that UNRWA was “extremely worried” that if UNRWA was prevented from being able to work “then the glue that brings together the entire complex humanitarian operation might not be able to function”.
In October, Israel passed a law banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory and areas under Israel’s control. The ban is set to take effect next month.
Alrifai said UNRWA was continuing to work in Gaza, with UNRWA staff managing shelters and distributing food.
“Not only is UNRWA the backbone of the humanitarian response with our shelters, our people, our personnel, our trucks and our warehouses . . . but the minute the ceasefire kicks in, it is of utmost priority to bring over 600,000 children back to some form of learning,” she added.
Another aid agency, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said that while the ceasefire deal was a “relief”, it was coming too late and political leaders had “failed” the people of Gaza.
“Searching for bodies’
“For more than 15 months, hospital rooms have been filled with patients with severed limbs and other life-altering trauma, caused by strikes, and distressed people searching for the bodies of their family members,” MSF said in a statement.
Lazzarini: Can UNRWA survive Israel’s attacks? Video: Al Jazeera
The agency, which said eight of its workers had been killed since the start of the war, described humanitarian needs in the besieged and bombarded territory as having reached “catastrophic levels”.
“The Israeli government, Hamas, and world leaders have tragically failed the people of Gaza, by not agreeing and imposing a sustained ceasefire sooner,” it said.
“The relief that this ceasefire brings is far from enough for people to rebuild their lives, reclaim their dignity and to mourn for those killed and all that’s been lost.”
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry in Gaza has released its latest daily casualties update from Israeli attacks, indicating that the number of people killed since the start of the war had risen by 23 to 46,899 in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
Another 83 people were wounded over the same period, bringing the total to 110,725.
Israel plays a cynical game. It makes phased agreements with the Palestinians that ensure it immediately gets what it wants. It then violates every subsequent phase and reignites its military assault.
ANALYSIS:By Chris Hedges
Israel, going back decades, has played a duplicitous game.
It signs a deal with the Palestinians that is to be implemented in phases. The first phase gives Israel what it wants — in this case the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza — but Israel habitually fails to implement subsequent phases that would lead to a just and equitable peace.
It eventually provokes the Palestinians with indiscriminate armed assaults to retaliate, defines a Palestinian response as a provocation and abrogates the ceasefire deal to reignite the slaughter.
If this latest three-phase ceasefire deal is ratified — and there is no certainty that it will be by Israel — it will, I expect, be little more than a presidential inauguration bombing pause. Israel has no intention of halting its merry-go-round of death.
The Israeli Cabinet delayed a vote on the ceasefire proposal while it continues to pound Gaza — but finally agreed to the deal. At least 81 Palestinians have been killed in the first 24 hours after the ceasefire was declared.
The morning after a ceasefire agreement was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of reneging on part of the deal “in an effort to extort last minute concessions.”
He warned that his cabinet would not meet “until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”
Hamas dismissed Netanyahu’s claims and repeated their commitment to the ceasefire as agreed with the mediators.
The deal includes three phases.
The first phase, lasting 42 days, will see a cessation of hostilities. Hamas will release some Israeli hostages — 33 Israelis who were captured on October 7, 2023, including all of the remaining five women, those aged above 50, and those with illnesses — in exchange for up to 1000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The Israeli army will pull back from the populated areas of the Gaza Strip on the first day of the ceasefire. On the seventh day, displaced Palestinians will be permitted to return to northern Gaza. Israel will allow 600 aid trucks with food and medical supplies to enter Gaza daily.
The second phase, which begins on the 16th day of the ceasefire, will see the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. Israel will complete its withdrawal from Gaza during the second phase, maintaining a presence in some parts of the Philadelphi corridor, which stretches along the eight-mile border between Gaza and Egypt.
It will surrender its control of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
The third phase will see negotiations for a permanent end of the war.
But it is Netanyahu’s office that appeared to have already reneged on the agreement. It released a statement rejecting Israeli troop withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor during the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire.
“In practical terms, Israel will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor until further notice,” while claiming the Palestinians are attempting to violate the agreement. Palestinians throughout the numerous ceasefire negotiations have demanded Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza.
Egypt has condemned the seizure of its border crossings by Israel.
Israeli military ground operations in the Gaza Strip in November 2023. Image: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
The deep fissures between Israel and Hamas, even with the Israelis finally accepting the agreement, threaten to implode it.
Hamas is seeking a permanent ceasefire. But Israeli policy is unequivocal about its “right” to re-engage militarily.
There is no consensus about who will govern Gaza. Israel has made it clear the continuance of Hamas in power is unacceptable.
There is no mention of the status of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the UN agency that Israel has outlawed and that provides the bulk of the humanitarian aid given to the Palestinians, 95 percent of whom have been displaced.
There is no agreement on the reconstruction of Gaza, which lies in rubble. And, of course, there is no route in the agreement to an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.
Israeli mendacity and manipulation is pitifully predictable.
Camp David
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (left), the late US President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after the Camp David Peace Accords signing ceremony at the White House on September 17, 1978. Image: US National Archives and Records Administration, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
The Camp David Accords, signed in 1978 by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, without the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), normalised diplomatic relations between Israel and Egypt.
But the subsequent phases, which included a promise by Israel to resolve the Palestinian question along with Jordan and Egypt, permit Palestinian self-governance in the West Bank and Gaza within five years, and end the building of Israeli colonies in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, were never honored.
Oslo Or take the 1993 Oslo Accords. The agreement, signed in 1993, which saw the PLO recognise Israel’s right to exist and Israel recognize the PLO as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people; and Oslo II, signed in 1995, which detailed the process towards peace and a Palestinian state, was stillborn.
It stipulated that any discussion of illegal Jewish “settlements” was to be delayed until “final’ status talks, by which time Israeli military withdrawals from the occupied West Bank were to have been completed.
Governing authority was to be transferred from Israel to the supposedly temporary Palestinian Authority. The West Bank was carved up into Areas A, B and C.
The Palestinian Authority has limited authority in Areas A and B. Israel controls all of Area C, over 60 percent of the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, US President Bill Clinton and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat at the Oslo Accords signing ceremony, September 13, 1993. Image: Vince Musi, White House, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
The right of Palestinian refugees to return to the historic lands seized from them in 1948 when Israel was created — a right enshrined in international law– was given up by the PLO leader Yasser Arafat, instantly alienating many Palestinians, especially those in Gaza where 75 percent are refugees or the descendants of refugees.
Edward Said called the Oslo agreement “an instrument of Palestinian surrender, a Palestinian Versailles” and lambasted Arafat as “the Pétain of the Palestinians”.
The scheduled Israeli military withdrawals under Oslo never took place. There was no provision in the interim agreement to end Jewish colonization, only a prohibition of “unilateral steps”.
There were around 250,000 Jewish colonists in the West Bank at the time of the Oslo agreement. They have increased to at least 700,000. No final treaty was ever concluded.
The journalist Robert Fisk called Oslo …
“a sham, a lie, a trick to entangle Arafat and the PLO into abandonment of all that they had sought and struggled for over a quarter of a century, a method of creating false hope in order to emasculate the aspiration of statehood.”
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the Oslo agreement, was assassinated on November 4, 1995, following a rally in support of the agreement, by Yigal Amir, a far-right Jewish law student.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, now Israel’s national security minister, was one of many rightwing politicians who issued threats against Rabin. Rabin’s widow, Leah, blamed Netanyahu and his supporters — who distributed leaflets at political rallies depicting Rabin in a Nazi uniform — for her husband’s murder.
Then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on the day he was assassinated, giving a speech in favour of the Oslo Peace agreement in Tel Aviv. Image: Israel Press and Photo Agency, Dan Hadani collection, National Library of Israel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Israel has carried out a series of murderous assaults on Gaza ever since, cynically calling the bombardment “mowing the lawn”.
These attacks, which leave scores of dead and wounded and further degrade Gaza’s fragile infrastructure, have names such as Operation Rainbow (2004), Operation Days of Penitence (2004), Operation Summer Rains (2006), Operation Autumn Clouds (2006) and Operation Hot Winter (2008).
Israel violated the June 2008 ceasefire agreement with Hamas, brokered by Egypt, by launching a border raid that killed six Hamas members. The raid provoked, as Israel intended, a retaliatory strike by Hamas, which fired crude rockets and mortar shells into Israel.
The Hamas barrage provided the pretext for a massive Israeli attack. Israel, as it always does, justified its military strike on the “right to defend itself”.
Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009), which saw Israel carry out a ground and aerial assault over 22 days, with the Israeli air force dropping over 1000 tons of explosives on Gaza, killed 1,385 — according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem — of whom at least 762 were civilians, including 300 children.
Four Israelis were killed over the same period by Hamas rockets and nine Israeli soldiers died in Gaza, four of whom were victims of “friendly fire.” The Israeli newspaper Haaretz would later report that “Operation Cast Lead” had been prepared over the previous six months.
Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, who served in the Israeli military, wrote that:
“the brutality of Israel’s soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesman…their propaganda is a pack of lies…It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It did so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men.
“Israel’s objective is not just the defense of its population, but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers.”
A child in Gaza City during the ceasefire after the 2008–2009 conflict. Image: andlun1, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0
These series of attacks on Gaza were followed by Israeli assaults in November 2012, known as Operation Pillar of Defence and in July and August 2014 in Operation Protective Edge, a seven week campaign that left 2251 Palestinians dead, along with 73 Israelis, including 67 soldiers.
These assaults by the Israeli military were followed in 2018 by largely peaceful protests by Palestinians, known as The Great March of Return, along Gaza’s fenced-in barrier. Over 266 Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli soldiers and 30,000 more were wounded.
In May 2021, Israel killed more than 256 Palestinians in Gaza following attacks by Israeli police on Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Further attacks on worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque took place in April 2023.
And then the breaching of the security barriers on October 7, 2023 that enclose Gaza, where Palestinians had languished under a blockade for over 16 years in an open air prison.
The attacks by Palestinian gunmen [Al-Aqsa Deluge] left some 1200 Israeli dead — including hundreds killed by Israel itself — and gave Israel the excuse it had long sought to lay waste to Gaza, in its Swords of Iron War.
This horrific saga is not over. Israel’s goals remain unchanged — the erasure of Palestinians from their land. This ceasefire is one more cynical chapter. There are many ways it can and, I suspect, will fall apart.
But let us pray, at least for the moment, that the mass slaughter will stop.
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He is the host of show “The Chris Hedges Report”. This article is republished from his X account.
Israel plays a cynical game. It makes phased agreements with the Palestinians that ensure it immediately gets what it wants. It then violates every subsequent phase and reignites its military assault.
ANALYSIS:By Chris Hedges
Israel, going back decades, has played a duplicitous game.
It signs a deal with the Palestinians that is to be implemented in phases. The first phase gives Israel what it wants — in this case the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza — but Israel habitually fails to implement subsequent phases that would lead to a just and equitable peace.
It eventually provokes the Palestinians with indiscriminate armed assaults to retaliate, defines a Palestinian response as a provocation and abrogates the ceasefire deal to reignite the slaughter.
If this latest three-phase ceasefire deal is ratified — and there is no certainty that it will be by Israel — it will, I expect, be little more than a presidential inauguration bombing pause. Israel has no intention of halting its merry-go-round of death.
The Israeli Cabinet delayed a vote on the ceasefire proposal while it continues to pound Gaza — but finally agreed to the deal. At least 81 Palestinians have been killed in the first 24 hours after the ceasefire was declared.
The morning after a ceasefire agreement was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of reneging on part of the deal “in an effort to extort last minute concessions.”
He warned that his cabinet would not meet “until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”
Hamas dismissed Netanyahu’s claims and repeated their commitment to the ceasefire as agreed with the mediators.
The deal includes three phases.
The first phase, lasting 42 days, will see a cessation of hostilities. Hamas will release some Israeli hostages — 33 Israelis who were captured on October 7, 2023, including all of the remaining five women, those aged above 50, and those with illnesses — in exchange for up to 1000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The Israeli army will pull back from the populated areas of the Gaza Strip on the first day of the ceasefire. On the seventh day, displaced Palestinians will be permitted to return to northern Gaza. Israel will allow 600 aid trucks with food and medical supplies to enter Gaza daily.
The second phase, which begins on the 16th day of the ceasefire, will see the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. Israel will complete its withdrawal from Gaza during the second phase, maintaining a presence in some parts of the Philadelphi corridor, which stretches along the eight-mile border between Gaza and Egypt.
It will surrender its control of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
The third phase will see negotiations for a permanent end of the war.
But it is Netanyahu’s office that appeared to have already reneged on the agreement. It released a statement rejecting Israeli troop withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor during the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire.
“In practical terms, Israel will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor until further notice,” while claiming the Palestinians are attempting to violate the agreement. Palestinians throughout the numerous ceasefire negotiations have demanded Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza.
Egypt has condemned the seizure of its border crossings by Israel.
Israeli military ground operations in the Gaza Strip in November 2023. Image: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
The deep fissures between Israel and Hamas, even with the Israelis finally accepting the agreement, threaten to implode it.
Hamas is seeking a permanent ceasefire. But Israeli policy is unequivocal about its “right” to re-engage militarily.
There is no consensus about who will govern Gaza. Israel has made it clear the continuance of Hamas in power is unacceptable.
There is no mention of the status of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the UN agency that Israel has outlawed and that provides the bulk of the humanitarian aid given to the Palestinians, 95 percent of whom have been displaced.
There is no agreement on the reconstruction of Gaza, which lies in rubble. And, of course, there is no route in the agreement to an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.
Israeli mendacity and manipulation is pitifully predictable.
Camp David
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (left), the late US President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after the Camp David Peace Accords signing ceremony at the White House on September 17, 1978. Image: US National Archives and Records Administration, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
The Camp David Accords, signed in 1978 by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, without the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), normalised diplomatic relations between Israel and Egypt.
But the subsequent phases, which included a promise by Israel to resolve the Palestinian question along with Jordan and Egypt, permit Palestinian self-governance in the West Bank and Gaza within five years, and end the building of Israeli colonies in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, were never honored.
Oslo Or take the 1993 Oslo Accords. The agreement, signed in 1993, which saw the PLO recognise Israel’s right to exist and Israel recognize the PLO as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people; and Oslo II, signed in 1995, which detailed the process towards peace and a Palestinian state, was stillborn.
It stipulated that any discussion of illegal Jewish “settlements” was to be delayed until “final’ status talks, by which time Israeli military withdrawals from the occupied West Bank were to have been completed.
Governing authority was to be transferred from Israel to the supposedly temporary Palestinian Authority. The West Bank was carved up into Areas A, B and C.
The Palestinian Authority has limited authority in Areas A and B. Israel controls all of Area C, over 60 percent of the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, US President Bill Clinton and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat at the Oslo Accords signing ceremony, September 13, 1993. Image: Vince Musi, White House, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
The right of Palestinian refugees to return to the historic lands seized from them in 1948 when Israel was created — a right enshrined in international law– was given up by the PLO leader Yasser Arafat, instantly alienating many Palestinians, especially those in Gaza where 75 percent are refugees or the descendants of refugees.
Edward Said called the Oslo agreement “an instrument of Palestinian surrender, a Palestinian Versailles” and lambasted Arafat as “the Pétain of the Palestinians”.
The scheduled Israeli military withdrawals under Oslo never took place. There was no provision in the interim agreement to end Jewish colonization, only a prohibition of “unilateral steps”.
There were around 250,000 Jewish colonists in the West Bank at the time of the Oslo agreement. They have increased to at least 700,000. No final treaty was ever concluded.
The journalist Robert Fisk called Oslo …
“a sham, a lie, a trick to entangle Arafat and the PLO into abandonment of all that they had sought and struggled for over a quarter of a century, a method of creating false hope in order to emasculate the aspiration of statehood.”
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the Oslo agreement, was assassinated on November 4, 1995, following a rally in support of the agreement, by Yigal Amir, a far-right Jewish law student.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, now Israel’s national security minister, was one of many rightwing politicians who issued threats against Rabin. Rabin’s widow, Leah, blamed Netanyahu and his supporters — who distributed leaflets at political rallies depicting Rabin in a Nazi uniform — for her husband’s murder.
Then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on the day he was assassinated, giving a speech in favour of the Oslo Peace agreement in Tel Aviv. Image: Israel Press and Photo Agency, Dan Hadani collection, National Library of Israel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Israel has carried out a series of murderous assaults on Gaza ever since, cynically calling the bombardment “mowing the lawn”.
These attacks, which leave scores of dead and wounded and further degrade Gaza’s fragile infrastructure, have names such as Operation Rainbow (2004), Operation Days of Penitence (2004), Operation Summer Rains (2006), Operation Autumn Clouds (2006) and Operation Hot Winter (2008).
Israel violated the June 2008 ceasefire agreement with Hamas, brokered by Egypt, by launching a border raid that killed six Hamas members. The raid provoked, as Israel intended, a retaliatory strike by Hamas, which fired crude rockets and mortar shells into Israel.
The Hamas barrage provided the pretext for a massive Israeli attack. Israel, as it always does, justified its military strike on the “right to defend itself”.
Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009), which saw Israel carry out a ground and aerial assault over 22 days, with the Israeli air force dropping over 1000 tons of explosives on Gaza, killed 1,385 — according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem — of whom at least 762 were civilians, including 300 children.
Four Israelis were killed over the same period by Hamas rockets and nine Israeli soldiers died in Gaza, four of whom were victims of “friendly fire.” The Israeli newspaper Haaretz would later report that “Operation Cast Lead” had been prepared over the previous six months.
Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, who served in the Israeli military, wrote that:
“the brutality of Israel’s soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesman…their propaganda is a pack of lies…It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It did so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men.
“Israel’s objective is not just the defense of its population, but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers.”
A child in Gaza City during the ceasefire after the 2008–2009 conflict. Image: andlun1, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0
These series of attacks on Gaza were followed by Israeli assaults in November 2012, known as Operation Pillar of Defence and in July and August 2014 in Operation Protective Edge, a seven week campaign that left 2251 Palestinians dead, along with 73 Israelis, including 67 soldiers.
These assaults by the Israeli military were followed in 2018 by largely peaceful protests by Palestinians, known as The Great March of Return, along Gaza’s fenced-in barrier. Over 266 Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli soldiers and 30,000 more were wounded.
In May 2021, Israel killed more than 256 Palestinians in Gaza following attacks by Israeli police on Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Further attacks on worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque took place in April 2023.
And then the breaching of the security barriers on October 7, 2023 that enclose Gaza, where Palestinians had languished under a blockade for over 16 years in an open air prison.
The attacks by Palestinian gunmen [Al-Aqsa Deluge] left some 1200 Israeli dead — including hundreds killed by Israel itself — and gave Israel the excuse it had long sought to lay waste to Gaza, in its Swords of Iron War.
This horrific saga is not over. Israel’s goals remain unchanged — the erasure of Palestinians from their land. This ceasefire is one more cynical chapter. There are many ways it can and, I suspect, will fall apart.
But let us pray, at least for the moment, that the mass slaughter will stop.
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He is the host of show “The Chris Hedges Report”. This article is republished from his X account.
COMMENTARY:By Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson and Junior S. Ami
With just over a year left in her tenure as Prime Minister of Samoa, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa faces a political upheaval threatening a peaceful end to her term.
Ironically, the rule of law — the very principle that elevated her to power — has now become the source of significant challenges within her party.
Fiame left the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) in 2020, opposing constitutional amendments she believed undermined judicial independence. Her decision reflected a commitment to democratic principles and a rejection of increasing authoritarianism within the HRPP.
She joined the newly formed Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party, created by former HRPP members seeking an alternative to decades of one-party dominance.
As FAST’s leader, Fiame led the party to a historic victory in the 2021 election, becoming Samoa’s first female Prime Minister and ending the HRPP’s nearly 40-year rule.
Her leadership is now under threat from within her own party.
FAST Founder, chairman and former Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries La’auli Leuatea Polataivao Schmidt, faces criminal charges, including conspiracy and harassment. These developments have escalated into calls for Fiame’s removal from her party.
Deputy charged with offences
On 3 January 2025, La’auli publicly revealed he had been charged with offences including conspiracy to obstruct justice, fabricating evidence, and harassment. These charges prompted widespread speculation, fueled by misinformation spread primarily via Facebook, that the charges were related to allegations of his involvement in an ongoing investigation into the death of a 19-year-old victim of a hit-and-run.
Following La’auli’s refusal to resign from his role as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Fiame removed his portfolio on January 10, citing the need to uphold the integrity of her Cabinet.
“As Prime Minister, I had hoped that the former minister would choose to resign. This is a common stance often considered by esteemed public office custodians if allegations or charges are laid against them,” she explained.
In response to his dismissal, La’auli stated publicly: “I accept the decision with a humble heart.” He maintained his innocence, saying, “I am clean from all of this,” and expressed confidence that the truth will prevail.
La’auli urged his supporters to remain calm and emphasised his commitment to clearing his name while continuing to serve as a Member of Parliament for Gagaifomauga 3.
Following his removal, the Samoan media reported that members of the FAST party wrote a letter to Fiame requesting her removal as Prime Minister.
Three ministers dismissed
In response, Fiame dismissed three Cabinet Ministers, Mulipola Anarosa Ale-Molio’o (Women, Community, and Social Development), Toelupe Poumulinuku Onesemo (Communication and Information Technology), and Leota Laki Sio (Commerce, Industry, and Labor) — allegedly involved in the effort to unseat her.
Fiame emphasised the need for a cohesive and trustworthy Cabinet, stating the importance of maintaining confidence in her leadership.
Amid rumors of calls for her removal within the FAST party, Fiame acknowledged the party’s authority to replace her as its leader but clarified that only Parliament could determine her status as Prime Minister.
She expressed her determination to fulfill her duties despite internal challenges, though she did not specify the level of support she retains within the party.
Samoa’s Parliament is set to convene next Tuesday, where these tensions may reach a critical point. La’auli, facing multiple criminal charges, remains a focal point of the ongoing political turmoil.
A day after the announcement, on January 15, four new Ministers were sworn into office by Head of State Tuimaleali’ifano Va’aleto’a Sualauvi II at a ceremony attended by family, friends, and some FAST members.
The new Ministers are Faleomavaega Titimaea Tafua (Commerce, Industry, and Labour), Laga’aia Ti’aitu’au Tufuga (Women, Community, and Social Development), Mau’u Siaosi Pu’epu’emai (Communications and Information Technology), and Niu’ava Eti Malolo (Agriculture and Fisheries).
FAST caucus voted against Fiame
Later that evening, FAST chairman La’auli announced that 20 members of the FAST caucus had decided to remove Fiame from the leadership of FAST and expel her from the party along with five other Cabinet Ministers — Tuala Tevaga Ponifasio (Deputy Prime Minister), Leatinuu Wayne Fong, Olo Fiti Vaai, Faualo Harry Schuster, and Toesulusulu Cedric Schuster.
In Samoa, if an MP ceases to maintain affiliation with the political party under which they were elected — whether through resignation or expulsion, their seat is declared vacant if they choose to move to another party or form a new party.
These provisions aim to preserve political stability, prevent party-hopping, and maintain the integrity of parliamentary representation, with byelections held as needed to fill vacancies.
Under Section 142 of Samoa’s Electoral Act 2019, if the Speaker believes an MP’s seat has become vacant as per Section 141, they are required to formally charge the MP with that vacation.
If the Legislative Assembly is in session, this charge must be made orally during the Assembly. Fiame and the four FAST members can choose to maintain their seats in Parliament as Independents.
Former Prime Minister and now opposition leader Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi remarked that what should have been internal FAST issues had spilled into the public sphere.
“We have been watching and we continue to watch what they do and how they deal with their problems,” he stated.
Freedom of expression
When asked whether he would consider a coalition or support one side of FAST, Tuilaepa declined to reveal the opposition’s strategy, citing potential reactions from the other side. He emphasised the importance of adhering to democratic processes and protecting constitutional rights, including freedom of expression.
As Parliament prepares to reconvene on January 21, Facebook has become a battlefield for misinformation and defamatory discourse, particularly among FAST supporters in diaspora communities in the US, Australia, and New Zealand.
Divisions have emerged between supporters of Fiame and La’auli, leading to vitriol directed at politicians and journalists covering the crisis. La’auli, leveraging his social media following, has conducted Facebook Live sessions to assert his innocence and rally support.
Currently, FAST holds 35 seats in Parliament, while the opposition HRPP controls 18. If the removal of five MPs is factored in, FAST would retain 30 MPs, though La’auli claims that 20 members support Fiame’s removal. This leaves 10 MPs who may either support Fiame or remain neutral.
If FAST fails to expel Fiame, La’auli’s faction may push for a motion of no confidence against her.
Such a motion requires 27 votes to pass, potentially making the opposition pivotal in determining the outcome. This could lead to either Fiame’s removal or the dissolution of Parliament for a snap election.
As Samoa faces this political crisis, its democratic institutions undergo a significant test.
Fiame remains committed to the rule of law, while La’auli advocates for her removal.
Reflecting on the stakes, Fiame warned: “Disregarding the rule of law will undoubtedly have far-reaching negative impacts, including undermining our judiciary system and the abilities of our law enforcement agencies to fulfill their duties.”
For now, Samoa watches and waits as its political future hangs in the balance.
Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson is a Samoan journalist with over 20 years of experience reporting on the Pacific Islands. She is founding editor-in-chief of The New Atoll, a digital commentary magazine focusing on Pacific island geopolitics. Junior S. Ami is a photojournalist based in Samoa. He has covered national events for the Samoa Observer newspaper and runs a private photography business. Republished from the Devpolicy Blog with permission.
An independent human rights expert expressed on 15 January 2025 concern about the continued application of anti-terrorism legislation in Egypt to imprison human rights defenders.
“Although there has been some progress with the release of some detainees and the development of a national human rights strategy, Egypt persists in routinely misusing counter-terrorism legislation and recycling criminal charges against human rights defenders,” said Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
“What is particularly striking is the continued detention of human rights defenders past their release date by repeatedly charging them with similar, if not identical, terrorism-related accusations, in a practice commonly known as “rotation” or “recycling”,” Lawlor said.
The Special Rapporteur previously raised concerns in this regard in 22 communications sent to the Government of Egypt since May 2020. The practice of “rotation” was also highlighted by the UN Human Rights Committee in its concluding observations on Egypt’s last review in March 2023.
In particular, the Special Rapporteur expressed concern over the use of this practice to detain three human rights defenders for lengthy periods of time.
“It is shocking that instead of being released at the end of her five-year sentence on 1 November 2023, human rights lawyer Ms. Hoda Abdel Moneim was detained again under new charges. And one year later, a third set of charges was brought against her. She is now facing two new trials, with one of the new charges – ‘joining an unnamed terrorist organisation’ – being identical to that for which she had completed her sentence in 2023, in violation of the principle of double jeopardy”, Lawlor said.
In November 2024, the same terrorism-related charge was brought against another woman human rights defender, Aisha al-Shater, who was tried in the same case with Abdel Moneim. This charge is also identical to that for which she is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence.
In a third case, human rights defender and lawyer Ibrahim Metwally has been arbitrarily detained without trial for over four years. He was arrested in 2017 at Cairo Airport, while he was on his way to Geneva to meet with the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Although the Cairo Criminal Court has ordered his conditional release twice, he was repeatedly charged with new terrorism-related offences, one of which he supposedly committed in prison. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention previously found Metwally’s detention to be arbitrary and noted that it amounts to an act of retaliation for cooperation with the UN.
“It is outrageous that Mr Metwally is facing trial in three cases, including that of ‘conspiring with foreign entities’, which appear to be in relation to his cooperation with the UN and his peaceful human rights work in Egypt prior to his detention,” Lawlor said.
The Special Rapporteur noted that the poor prison conditions in which the three human rights defenders are held were equally alarming. The human rights defenders have had health problems from the start of their arrest and have reportedly been denied adequate medical treatment despite the severity of their conditions, which may amount to physical and psychological ill-treatment.
“It is unacceptable for prison authorities to deny recommended surgery, bar the transfer of a detainee to a hospital, or withhold medical records from the detainee’s family and lawyer,” Lawlor said.
The Special Rapporteur is in contact with the authorities of Egypt on this issue and has urged them to meet their international human rights obligations, by which they must abide.
A provision to increase the aid entering Gaza under the ceasefire is welcome but insufficient, and shows Israel could have allowed more food, medicine and other supplies into the strip during the war, humanitarian and legal experts have said.
The deal agreed this week allows for 600 trucks a day of aid to enter Gaza, where nine out of 10 Palestinians are going hungry and experts warn that famine is imminent in areas. Israel faces accusations it is using starvation as a weapon of war.
Right Livelihood is looking for a full-time Head of Research. The role will be based at one of our offices in Stockholm or Geneva and will lead the selection and research of new Laureates for the Right Livelihood Award.
About Right Livelihood
For over 40 years, Right Livelihood has honoured courageous people solving global problems, creating a community of change-makers committed to peace, justice, and sustainability. By recognising the actions of brave visionaries and building a continuous relationship with these change-makers, Right Livelihood boosts urgent and transformational societal change. With offices in Stockholm and Geneva, Right Livelihood has 20 staff and an annual budget of EUR 4 million. Every year, an international jury chooses the new Laureates: to date, 198 Laureates from 77 countries have been awarded for their impactful contributions. Read more about our approach.
Purpose of the role
You will oversee all aspects of the research and selection of new Laureates for the Right Livelihood Award, taking a leading role in implementing our strategic outlook, as well as developing and managing the research team. In this position, you will be collaborating with colleagues in the entire Right Livelihood team and communicating with nominees for the Award as well as external experts and other contacts. It is expected that you stay on top of global developments related to the work. It is your responsibility to ensure high quality in the research and present accurate, comprehensive, and timely research findings about the candidates.
The Head of Research will report to the Deputy Director and lead the work of the research team, which currently has two staff members.
Main responsibilities
Lead and develop the annual selection process of Laureates towards the goals defined in the organisational strategy and operational plan.
Provide leadership to the research team, manage and guide the research work, and be responsible for the research budget.
Coordinate and conduct investigative research about nominees for the Award, both remote and on-site, and lead the writing of the report presented to the jury, including all relevant research findings.
Ensure high-quality research to allow the jury to assess nominations from multiple perspectives.
In coordination with colleagues, make sure that our work is informed by current trends in global affairs and civil society movements.
Required experience and qualifications
Professional experience in leadership roles
Professional experience in conducting investigative research in fields such as activism and social transformation
Experience with conducting interviews with a wide range of people, e.g. victims of environmental or human rights violations, both on-site or online
Full professional proficiency in English, including experience with research report writing
Terms of employment
This position will be located preferably at our head office in Stockholm or at our Geneva office. Regular international travel is expected in this role. This is a permanent full-time position with a probationary period.
Right Livelihood is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We therefore strongly encourage applications from all backgrounds, identities and abilities to help us create a diverse, balanced and inclusive working environment.
Starting date
By agreement, preferably April 2025.
How to apply
We use a competency-based process for this recruitment. Therefore, you will not be asked to attach a letter of motivation to your application. Instead, we will ask you to complete the online application form accessed through the link below, attach your CV and submit a work sample. Instructions for the work sample are outlined here and in the application form.
A United Nations special rapporteur on Thursday 16 January 2025 condemned Turkey’s continued use of counterterrorism laws to imprison human rights lawyers and activists, calling it a violation of international human rights obligations.
Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, expressed alarm over the long-term detention of nine Turkish human rights lawyers and activists who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on what she described as “spurious terrorism-related charges.”
The group includes eight members of the Progressive Lawyers’ Association (ÇHD) who were arrested between 2018 and 2019 and convicted under Turkey’s Anti-Terror Law: Barkın Timtik, Aytaç Ünsal, Özgür Yılmaz, Behiç Aşçı, Engin Gökoğlu, Süleyman Gökten, Selçuk Kozağaçlı and Oya Aslan. They were sentenced to up to 13 years in prison in what has been widely criticized as an unfair trial, known as the ÇHD II trial.
Another arrestee, lawyer Turan Canpolat of the Malatya Bar Association, was imprisoned in 2016 based on the testimony of a client who later admitted he had been coerced. Canpolat was convicted of alleged links to the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, which Ankara accuses of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Gülen movement denies involvement in the coup.
Canpolat was detained in 2016 after responding to a police search at a client’s residence, only to find himself accused based on doctored evidence and coerced testimony. Despite the dismissal of related charges against others implicated in his case and the recanting of key testimony, he remains in prison. His conviction was based on his legal representation of companies later closed by emergency decrees after the coup, a move critics argue criminalizes standard legal work. International legal groups have denounced his imprisonment as a miscarriage of justice, calling for his release.
All nine lawyers are currently held in high-security prisons, and Canpolat has reportedly been kept in solitary confinement for nearly three years without a disciplinary order, a practice the UN expert found “extremely disturbing.”
Lawlor has raised concerns about their cases since the beginning of her mandate in 2020, but Turkey has continued to criminalize their work. “I remain dismayed that the criminalization of their human rights work has not stopped,” she said.
She urged Turkish authorities to comply with international human rights law and guarantee fair appeal hearings for the detained lawyers. “I am ready to discuss this further with Turkish authorities,” she added.
The Turkish government has repeatedly been criticized for using broad anti-terror laws to silence political dissent and imprison journalists, lawyers and activists. Since the 2016 coup attempt, Turkey has arrested thousands on terrorism-related charges, often based on tenuous evidence such as social media posts or association with banned groups.
International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned Turkey for what they describe as politically motivated prosecutions and the erosion of due process. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against Turkey in multiple cases, finding that it has violated the right to a fair trial and engaged in arbitrary detention.
Star Wharf, the international port, is still out of action and parts of the city and some of the villages surrounding it still have not had their water supply reconnected.
“They are still afraid. Even last night when we had that one that happened, we all ran outside,” she said.
“It’s hard for us to remain in the house.”
Ongoing trauma
The only mental health specialist at Vila Central Hospital, Dr Jimmy Obed, said the ongoing seismic activity is re-traumatising many.
Obed said as things slowly returned to something resembling normalcy, more people were reaching out for mental health support.
“What we try and tell them is that it’s a normal thing for you to be having this anxiety,” he said.
“And then we give them some skills. How to calm themselves down . . . when they are panicking, or are under stress, or have difficulty sleeping.
“Simple skills that they can use — even how children can calm and regulate their emotions.”
Post-earthquake scenes from Port Vila in Vanuatu. Image: Michael Thompson/FB/RNZ Pacific
Meanwhile, following yesterday’s snap election, preliminary counting and the transportation of ballot boxes back to the capital for the official tally continues.
Trenold Tari, an aviation worker who spoke to RNZ Pacific after he had cast his vote, said he hopes they are able to elect leaders with good ideas for Vanuatu’s future.
“And not just the vision to run the government and the nation but also who has leadership qualities and is transparent. People who can work with communities and who don’t just think about themselves,” he said.
Wanting quick rebuild
Many voters in the capital said they wanted leaders who would act quickly to rebuild the quake-stricken city.
Others said they were sick of political instability.
This week’s snap election was triggered by a premature dissolution of parliament last year; the second consecutive time President Nike Vurobaravu has acted on a council of ministers’ request to dissolve the house in the face of a leadership challenge.
Counting this week’s election, Vanuatu will have had five prime ministers in the last four years.
The chairperson of the Seaside Tongoa community, Paul Fred Tariliu, said they have discussed this as a group and made their feelings clear to their election candidate.
“We told our candidate to tell the presidents of all the political parties they are affiliated with — that if they end up in government and they find at some point they don’t have the number and a motion is brought against you, please be honest and set a good example — tell one group to step down and let another government come in,” Tariliu said.
The head of the Vanuatu Red Cross Society is looking to start distributing financial relief assistance to families affected by last month’s earthquake.
The embassy building for NZ, the US, the UK and France in Vanuatu was severely damaged in the earthquake. Image: Dan McGarry
The society’s secretary-general, Dickinson Tevi, said some villages were still without water and a lot of people were out of work.
“We have realised that there are still a few requests coming from the communities. People who haven’t been assessed during the emergency,” Tevi said.
“So, we have made plans to do a more detailed assessment after this to make sure we don’t leave anyone out.”
Tevi said with schools due to restart soon, parents and families who had lost their main source of income were under a lot of stress.
In a release, Save the Children Vanuatu country director Polly Bank, said disasters often had the power to suddenly turn children’s lives upside down, especially if they had lost loved ones, had their education interrupted, or had been forced to flee their homes.
Critical for children’s recovery
“In the aftermath of any disaster, it is critical for children recovering that they are able to return to their normal routines as soon as possible,” she said.
“And for most kids, this would include returning to school, where they can reconnect with friends and share their experiences.”
She said at least 12,500 children in the country may be forced to start the new school year in temporary learning centres with at least 100 classrooms across the country damaged or destroyed.
It is back to business for Vanuatu today after the public holiday that was declared yesterday to allow people to go and vote.
Unofficial election results continue to trickle in with local media reporting an even distribution of seats across the country for the Leaders Party, Vanua’aku Party, Reunification Movement for Change and the Iauko Group.
But it is still early days, with official results a while away.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
‘Teacher Li’ is among the most prolific sources of unfiltered information from behind China’s Great Firewall. But an attempt to monetise it has proven controversial
On Monday, two parallel visions of Chinese activism appeared on X. One was a video showing a small protest outside a school in western Sichuan province. The other, from a related account, was a post promoting a memecoin and something it called the “$Li vision”, adding that “some of the greatest coins had a rocky start”.
The man behind both accounts is Li Ying, a Chinese art student turned activist based in Milan. His original X account, “Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher”, is one of the most prominent news feeds in the Chinese diaspora. To his nearly 2m followers, Li shares pictures and videos of happenings in China which would be censored inside the country.
Alleged attack in Dover Heights ‘disgusting and dangerous’, NSW premier says
The NSW premier Chris Minns has labelled the alleged attack at Dover Heights overnight as a “disgusting and dangerous act of violence”. In a statement issued this morning, he said:
This is a disgusting and dangerous act of violence that is the latest example of a rising level of antisemitic attacks in our community.
Civil society stands united in condemning this flagrant racism. I’ll be getting an update from police this morning.
It is important that the community and police continue to work together to make NSW a safer place for everyone.
A ceasefire in Gaza is not the end of Palestine’s nightmare, but the start of Israel’s. Legal moves will only gather momentum as the truth of what happened in Gaza is uncovered and documented after the war has ended.
ANALYSIS:By David Hearst
When push came to shove, it was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who blinked first.
For months, Netanyahu had become the main obstacle to a Gaza ceasefire, to the considerable frustration of his own negotiators.
That much was made explicit more than two months ago by the departure of his Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant. The chief architect of the 15-month war, Gallant said plainly that there was nothing left for the army to do in Gaza.
Still Netanyahu persisted. Last May, he rejected a deal signed by Hamas in the presence of CIA director William Burns, in favour of an offensive on Rafah.
In October, Netanyahu turned for salvation to the Generals’ Plan, aiming to empty northern Gaza in preparation for resettlement by Israelis. The plan was to starve and bomb the population out of northern Gaza by declaring that anyone who did not leave voluntarily would be treated as a “terrorist”.
It was so extreme, and so contrary to the international rules of war, that it was condemned by former Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon as a war crime and ethnic cleansing.
Key to this plan was a corridor forged by a military road and a string of outposts cutting through the centre of the Gaza Strip, from the Israeli border to the sea.
The Netzarim Corridor would have effectively reduced the territory’s land mass by almost one third and become its new northern border. No Palestinian pushed out of northern Gaza would have been allowed to return.
Red lines erased No-one from the Biden administration forced Netanyahu to rethink this plan. Not US President Joe Biden himself, an instinctive Zionist who, for all his speeches, kept on supplying Israel with the means to commit genocide in Gaza; nor Antony Blinken, his Secretary of State, who earned the dubious distinction of being the least-trusted diplomat in the region.
Even as the final touches were being put on the ceasefire agreement, Blinken gave a departing news conference in which he blamed Hamas for rejecting previous offers. As is par for the course, the opposite is the truth.
Every Israeli journalist who covered the negotiations has reported that Netanyahu rejected all previous deals and was responsible for the delay in coming to this one.
It fell to one short meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to call time on Netanyahu’s 15-month war.
In a war of liberation, the weak and vastly outgunned can succeed against overwhelming military odds. These wars are battles of will
After one meeting, the red lines that Netanyahu had so vigorously painted and repainted in the course of 15 months were erased.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in military gear – now a wanted man by the ICC . . . “After one meeting, the red lines that he had so vigorously painted and repainted in the course of 15 months were erased.” Image: AJ screenshot APR
As Israeli pundit Erel Segal said: “We’re the first to pay a price for Trump’s election. [The deal] is being forced upon us . . . We thought we’d take control of northern Gaza, that they’d let us impede humanitarian aid.”
This is emerging as a consensus. The mood in Israel is sceptical of claims of victory.
“There’s no need to sugarcoat the reality: the emerging ceasefire and hostage release deal is bad for Israel, but it has no choice but to accept it,” columnist Yossi Yehoshua wrote in Ynet.
The circulating draft of the ceasefire agreement is clear in stating that Israel will pull back from both the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor by the end of the process, stipulations Netanyahu had previously rejected.
Even without this, the draft agreement clearly notes that Palestinians can return to their homes, including in northern Gaza. The attempt to clear it of its inhabitants has failed.
This is the biggest single failure of Israel’s ground invasion.
Fighting back There is a long list of others. But before we list them, the Witkoff debacle underscores how dependent Israel has been on Washington for every day of the horrendous slaughter in Gaza.
A senior Israeli Air Force official has admitted that planes would have run out of bombs within a few months had they not been resupplied by the US.
It is sinking into Israeli public opinion that the war is ending without any of Israel’s major aims being achieved.
Netanyahu and the Israeli army set out to “collapse” Hamas after the humiliation and shock of its surprise attack on southern Israel in October 2023. They demonstrably haven’t achieved this goal.
“But after wave upon wave of military operations, each of which was supposed to have ‘cleansed’ the city of Hamas fighters, Beit Hanoun turned out to have inflicted one of the heaviest concentrations of Israeli military casualties.” Image: AJ screenshot APR
Take Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza as a microcosm of the battle Hamas waged against invading forces. Fifteen months ago, it was the first city in Gaza to be occupied by Israeli forces, who judged it to have the weakest Hamas battalion.
But after wave upon wave of military operations, each of which was supposed to have “cleansed” the city of Hamas fighters, Beit Hanoun turned out to have inflicted one of the heaviest concentrations of Israeli military casualties.
Hamas kept on emerging from the rubble to fight back, turning Beit Hanoun into a minefield for Israeli soldiers. Since the launch of the most recent military operation in northern Gaza, 55 Israeli officers and soldiers have perished in this sector, 15 of them in Beit Hanoun in the past week alone.
If any army is bleeding and exhausted today, it is Israel’s. The plain military fact of life in Gaza is that, 15 months on, Hamas can recruit and regenerate faster than Israel can kill its leaders or its fighters.
“We are in a situation where the pace at which Hamas is rebuilding itself is higher than the pace that the [Israeli army] is eradicating them,” Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli brigadier general, told the Wall Street Journal. He added that Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, “is managing everything”.
If anything demonstrates the futility of measuring military success solely by the number of leaders killed, or missiles destroyed, it is this.
Against the odds In a war of liberation, the weak and vastly outgunned can succeed against overwhelming military odds. These wars are battles of will. It is not the battle that matters, but the ability to keep on fighting.
In Algeria and Vietnam, the French and US armies had overwhelming military advantage.
Both forces withdrew in ignominy and failure many years later. In Vietnam, it was more than six years after the Tet Offensive, which like the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 was perceived at the time to be a military failure. But the symbol of a fightback after so many years of siege proved decisive in the war.
In France, the scars of Algeria last to this day. In each war of liberation, the determination of the weak to resist has proved more decisive than the firepower of the strong.
In Gaza, it was the determination of the Palestinian people to stay on their land — even as it was being reduced to rubble — that proved to be the decisive factor in this war. And this is an astonishing feat, considering that the 360 sq km territory was entirely cut off from the world, with no allies to break the siege and no natural terrain for cover.
Hezbollah fought in the north, but little of this was any succour to Palestinians in Gaza on the ground, subjected to nightly bombing raids and drone attacks shredding their tents.
Neither enforced starvation, nor hypothermia, nor disease, nor brutalisation and mass rape at the hands of their invaders, could break their will to stay on their land.
Never before have Palestinian fighters and civilians shown this level of resistance in the history of the conflict — and it could prove to be transformative.
Because what Israel has lost in its campaign to crush Gaza is incalculable. It has squandered decades of sustained economic, military and diplomatic efforts to establish the country as a liberal democratic Western nation in the eyes of global opinion.
Generational memory Israel has not only lost the Global South, in which it invested such efforts in Africa and South America. It has also lost the support of a generation in the West, whose memories do not go back as far as Biden’s.
The point is not mine. It is well made by Jack Lew, the man Biden nominated as his ambassador to Israel a month before the Hamas attack.
In his departing interview, Lew, an Orthodox Jew, told the Times of Israel that public opinion in the US was still largely pro-Israel, but that was changing.
With the enormous cost in lives, every family has been touched by loss. But what Gaza has achieved in the last 15 months could well transform the conflict
“What I’ve told people here that they have to worry about when this war is over is that the generational memory doesn’t go back to the founding of the state, or the Six Day War, or the Yom Kippur War, or to the intifada even.
“It starts with this war, and you can’t ignore the impact of this war on future policymakers — not the people making the decisions today, but the people who are 25, 35, 45 today and who will be the leaders for the next 30 years, 40 years.”
Biden, Lew said, was the last president of his generation whose memories and knowledge go back to Israel’s “founding story”.
Lew’s parting shot at Netanyahu is amply documented in recent polls. More than one-third of American Jewish teenagers sympathise with Hamas, 42 percent believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and 66 percent sympathise with the Palestinian people as a whole.
This is not a new phenomenon. Polling two years before the war showed that a quarter of American Jews agreed that “Israel is an apartheid state”, and a plurality of respondents did not find that statement to be antisemitic.
“The antiwar protests, condemned by Western governments first as antisemitism and then legislated against as terrorism, have created a global front for the liberation of Palestine. The movement to boycott Israel is stronger than ever before.” Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Deep damage The war in Gaza has become the prism through which a new generation of future world leaders sees the Israel-Palestine conflict. This is a major strategic loss for a country that on 6 October 2023 thought that it had closed down the issue of Palestine, and that world opinion was in its pocket.
But the damage goes further and deeper than this.
The antiwar protests, condemned by Western governments first as antisemitism and then legislated against as terrorism, have created a global front for the liberation of Palestine. The movement to boycott Israel is stronger than ever before.
Israel is in the dock of international justice as never before. Not only are there arrest warrants out for Netanyahu and Gallant on war crimes, and a continuing genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but a myriad of other cases are about to flood the courts in every major western democracy.
A court action has been launched in the UK against BP for supplying crude oil to Israel, which is then allegedly used by the Israeli army, from its pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkiye.
In addition, the Israeli army recently decided to conceal the identities of all troops who have participated in the campaign in Gaza, for fear that they could be pursued when travelling abroad.
This major move was sparked by a tiny activist group named after Hind Rajab, a six-year-old killed by Israeli troops in Gaza in January 2024. The Belgium-based group has filed evidence of war crimes with the UCJ against 1000 Israelis, including video, audio, forensic reports and other documents.
A ceasefire in Gaza is thus not the end of Palestine’s nightmare, but the start of Israel’s. These legal moves will only gather momentum as the truth of what happened in Gaza is uncovered and documented after the war has ended.
Internal divisions At home, Netanyahu will return from war to a country more divided internally than ever before. There is a battle between the army and the Haredim who refuse to serve.
There is a battle between secular and national religious Zionists. With Netanyahu’s retreat on Gaza, the settler far right are sensing that the opportunity to establish Greater Israel has been snatched from the jaws of military victory.
All the while, there has been an unprecedented exodus of Jews from Israel.
Regionally, Israel is left with troops still in Lebanon and Syria. It would be foolish to think of these ongoing operations as restoring the deterrence Israel lost when Hamas struck on 7 October 2023.
Iran’s axis of resistance might have received some sustained blows after the leadership of Hezbollah was wiped out, and after finding itself vastly overextended in Syria. But like Hamas, Hezbollah has not been knocked out as a fighting force.
And the Sunni Arab world has been riled by the Gaza genoicide and the ongoing crackdown in the occupied West Bank as rarely before.
Israel’s undisguised bid to divide Syria into cantons is as provocative to Syrians of all denominations and ethnicities, as its plans to annex Areas B and C of the West Bank are an existential threat to Jordan.
Annexation would be treated in Amman as an act of war.
Deconfliction will be the patient work of decades of reconstruction, and Trump is not a patient man.
Hamas and Gaza will now take a backseat. With the enormous cost in lives, every family has been touched by loss. But what Gaza has achieved in the last 15 months could well transform the conflict.
Gaza has shown all Palestinians — and the world — that it can withstand total war, and not budge from the ground upon which it stands. It tells the world, with justifiable pride, that the occupiers threw everything they had at it, and there was not another Nakba.
Gaza tells Israel that Palestinians exist, and that they will not be pacified until and unless Israelis talk to them on equal terms about equal rights.
It may take many more years for that realisation to sink in, but for some it already has: “Even if we conquer the entire Middle East, and even if everyone surrenders to us, we won’t win this war,” columnist Yair Assulin wrote in Haaretz.
But what everyone in Gaza who stayed put has achieved is of historic significance.
David Hearst is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He is a commentator and speaker on the region and analyst on Saudi Arabia. This article has been republished from the Middle East Eye under Creative Commons.
Australia’s “diabolical” treatment of asylum seekers and youth crime has worsened, a global human rights advocacy body has warned, urging voters to push back on leaders politicising the issue for gain.
Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) latest world report has lashed Australia for going backwards on children in the criminal justice system in 2024, referencing the Northern Territory’s decision to reintroduce spit hoods for youth detainees and the continued use of watch houses to detain children in Queensland.
Leading democracies have stood by while allies have committed atrocities or supported perpetrators, Human Rights Watch chief says ahead of annual World Report
The past year has marked the “absolute failure” of western democracies as champions of human rights around the world, the head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.
Tirana Hassan lambasted western capitals for their double standards over the course of 2024 and what she said was the abdication of their claim to leadership on global human rights.
British director of Human Rights Watch attacks ‘dangerous hypocrisy’ of government
Britain’s crackdown on climate protest is setting “a dangerous precedent” around the world and undermining democratic rights, the UK director of Human Rights Watch has said.
Yasmine Ahmed accused the Labour government of hypocrisy over its claims to be committed to human rights and international law.
Māori politicians across the political spectrum in Aotearoa New Zealand have called for immediate aid to enter Gaza following a temporary ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.
The ceasefire, agreed yesterday, comes into effect on Sunday, January 19.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand welcomed the deal and called for humanitarian aid for the strip.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer … “This ceasefire must be accompanied by a global effort to rebuild Gaza.” Image: Te Pāti Māori
“There now needs to be a massive, rapid, unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.“
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer echoed similar sentiments on behalf of her party, saying, “the destruction of vital infrastructure — homes, schools, hospitals — has decimated communities”.
“This ceasefire must be accompanied by a global effort to rebuild Gaza,” she said.
Teanau Tuiono, Green Party spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, specifically called on Aotearoa to increase its aid to Palestine.
‘Brutal, illegal Israeli occupation’
“[We must] support the reconstruction of Gaza as determined by Palestinians. We owe it to Palestinians who for many years have lived under brutal and illegal occupation by Israeli forces, and are now entrenched in a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions,” he said.
“The genocide in Gaza, and the complicity of many governments in Israel’s campaign of merciless violence against the Palestinian people on their own land, has exposed serious flaws in the international community’s ability to uphold international law.
“This means our country and others have work to do to rebuild trust in the international system that is meant to uphold human rights and prioritise peace,” said the Green MP.
With tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in the 15 month war, negotiators reached a ceasefire deal yesterday in Gaza for six-weeks, after Hamas agreed to release hostages from the 7 October 2023 attacks in exchange for Palestinian prisoners — many held without charge — held in Israel.
“The terms of the deal must now be implemented fully. Protection of civilians and the release of hostages must be at the forefront of effort.
“To achieve a durable and lasting peace, we call on the parties to take meaningful steps towards a two-state solution. Political will is the key to ensuring history does not repeat itself,” Peters said in a statement.
Tuiono called it a victory for Palestinians and those within the solidarity movement.
“However, it must be followed by efforts to establish justice and self-determination for Palestinians, and bring an end to Israeli apartheid and the illegal occupation of Palestine.
“We must divest public funds from illegal settlements, recognise the State of Palestine, and join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, just as we joined Ukraine’s case against Russia.”
Ngawera-Packer added that the ceasefire deal did not equal a free Palestine anytime soon.
“We must not forget the larger reality of the ongoing conflict, which is rooted in decades of displacement, violence, and oppression.
“Although the annihilation may be over for now, the apartheid continues. We will continue to call out our government who have done nothing to end the violence, and to end the apartheid.
“We must also be vigilant over these next three days to ensure that Israel will not exploit this window to create more carnage,” Ngarewa-Packer said.
Saudi Arabia has made notable progress in establishing a legal framework for the rights of persons with disabilities, driven by a combination of domestic legislation and international commitments. Key milestones include the 1987 Legislation of Disability, the 2000 Disability Code, and the 2023 Saudi Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (SLRPD). These laws align with international conventions, particularly the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Saudi Arabia ratified in 2008. However, while these measures signify an increasing recognition of disability rights, significant challenges persist. Societal misconceptions, limited accessibility, inadequate vocational training opportunities, and the pervasive influence of the medical model of disability hinder meaningful inclusion. These issues perpetuate the exclusion and marginalization of disabled individuals, particularly in education, employment, and social participation. Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s ambitious reform plan, provides a promising framework for addressing these issues, but achieving its goals will require systemic changes in both cultural attitudes and infrastructural development.
Introduction
Over the past several decades, Saudi Arabia has demonstrated a growing commitment to advancing disability rights, grounded in Islamic Sharia principles and international obligations such as the CRPD. The Kingdom’s legal framework, including the recently enacted 2023 SLRPD, emphasizes core principles of accessibility, non-discrimination, and inclusive education and employment. These laws aim to create an equitable society where individuals with disabilities can fully participate. Despite this legislative progress, the lived experiences of people with disabilities in Saudi Arabia often fail to reflect the promises enshrined in these policies. Societal attitudes, infrastructural inadequacies, and limited vocational opportunities create significant barriers to inclusion. To address these challenges, the Kingdom must move beyond formal legislation to focus on practical implementation and systemic reforms, particularly through the opportunities presented by Vision 2030, which emphasizes equality and empowerment for all.
Persistent Challenges
Cultural attitudes and misconceptions about disability remain some of the most significant obstacles to achieving meaningful inclusion in Saudi Arabia. Disabilities are often viewed through a lens of pity or charity rather than empowerment, perpetuating a medical model that focuses on physical impairments rather than societal barriers. This outdated perspective fosters stereotypes that paint individuals with disabilities as incapable or burdensome, leading to widespread discrimination and exclusion. For instance, many people erroneously attribute disabilities to hereditary factors or moral failings, further marginalizing affected individuals and their families. These societal misconceptions not only harm self-esteem and social integration but also severely limit economic and educational opportunities.
Accessibility is another major challenge, despite legal mandates requiring accommodations in public and private spaces. Many public areas, including sidewalks, transportation systems, and government buildings, fail to meet accessibility standards, making it difficult for individuals with disabilities to navigate daily life independently. These shortcomings extend to workplaces, where the lack of reasonable accommodations creates additional barriers to employment. While laws such as the SLRPD explicitly require accessible infrastructure, enforcement is inconsistent, leaving many environments ill-equipped to support disabled individuals.
Employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities are further constrained by structural and societal barriers. Employers often view accommodations as burdensome or costly, reinforcing stereotypes about the productivity of disabled employees. These perceptions are compounded by a lack of accessible transportation and workplace modifications, making it physically challenging for individuals with disabilities to secure and retain employment. Vocational training programs, which are critical for equipping disabled individuals with marketable skills, remain scarce and poorly aligned with labor market demands. Consequently, unemployment rates among individuals with disabilities remain disproportionately high, limiting their economic independence and exacerbating their social marginalization.
A lack of comprehensive data on disability prevalence and types also undermines efforts to address these issues effectively. Without reliable statistics, policymakers, and advocates struggle to design targeted interventions or prioritize resources appropriately. This data gap hampers the development of evidence-based policies and prevents a clear understanding of the diverse needs within the disability community.
Legal Framework for Disability Rights
Saudi Arabia’s legal framework for disability rights has evolved significantly over the years, with landmark legislation aimed at improving the lives of individuals with disabilities. The 1987 Legislation of Disability, marked an early effort to ensure equal rights and privileges for disabled individuals. Building on this foundation, the 2000 Disability Code mandated access to medical care, education, vocational training, and employment. More recently, the 2023 SLRPD introduced stricter protections, criminalizing neglect and requiring accessibility in public spaces as well as inclusive practices in education and employment.
While these laws align with international standards, including the CRPD, their impact is often undermined by poor enforcement and societal resistance. For example, Article 8 of the SLRPD promotes inclusive education, yet many schools and universities lack the necessary infrastructure and training to accommodate students with disabilities. Similarly, Article 28 of the Labour Law, which sets a 4% employment quota for individuals with disabilities, is rarely enforced, with many employers either unaware of or unwilling to meet this requirement. These gaps between legislative intent and practical outcomes highlight the need for robust implementation mechanisms and cultural shifts to support the goals of the legal framework.
Education Rights: Progress and Gaps
Education is a critical area where Saudi Arabia has sought to improve access and inclusion for individuals with disabilities. Article 8 of the SLRPD mandates accessibility across all levels of education, emphasizing early intervention and specialized programs. Institutions such as King Saud University and Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University have introduced initiatives to enhance access, including the Universal Access Program and tailored services for students with disabilities.
However, significant challenges remain. Many schools and universities lack assistive technologies, trained educators, and awareness about inclusive teaching methods. These deficiencies hinder the ability of educational institutions to meet the needs of disabled students effectively. Furthermore, societal attitudes often discourage families from enrolling children with disabilities in mainstream education, limiting their opportunities from an early age. Addressing these issues requires greater investment in resources, teacher training, and public awareness campaigns to promote the value of inclusive education.
Employment Rights: Structural Barriers
Despite the presence of legal protections, individuals with disabilities face significant obstacles in the workplace. Article 28 of the Labour Law and Cabinet Resolution No. 110 emphasize the importance of non-discrimination and reasonable accommodations, but these provisions are rarely enforced. However, despite these legal protections, individuals with disabilities face numerous barriers in their pursuit of employment and financial stability in Saudi Arabia. The primary challenge they encounter is rooted in prevailing negative attitudes within society. Misconceptions about disabilities and limited public awareness marginalize people with disabilities, reducing their access to meaningful employment opportunities and contributing to ongoing social and economic exclusion. Additionally, the costs associated with employing individuals with disabilities are often viewed by employers as prohibitively high. Accommodations and modifications for disabled employees may be perceived as financially burdensome, further discouraging employers from hiring them. This reluctance is compounded by employers’ limited experience in working with disabled employees, which can impact hiring rates and productivity.
Accessibility limitations also present major obstacles. In Saudi Arabia, people with disabilities face difficulties accessing transportation, buildings, and other public facilities, which significantly restricts their ability to physically reach and navigate work environments. Furthermore, a lack of comprehensive vocational training programs designed for people with disabilities exacerbates the problem, leaving many disabled individuals without the skills needed to meet the demands of the job market. This skills gap significantly hinders their employability, preventing them from accessing meaningful work.
A related issue is the limited availability of accurate data on the prevalence, types, and distribution of disabilities within the country. Without robust statistical information, it is challenging to develop targeted policies that address the unique employment needs of individuals with disabilities.
The cultural landscape in Saudi Arabia also shapes employment prospects for disabled individuals. Influenced by Islamic Sharia principles, which emphasize respect and equality for all individuals, the country’s cultural attitudes toward disability remain largely informed by the medical model of disability rather than the social model. This perspective often perpetuates stereotypes, unintentionally reinforcing the marginalization of people with disabilities in the workplace.
In alignment with its broader Vision 2030 objectives, Saudi Arabia is implementing new policies and initiatives focused on inclusive training and education programs to provide fair and decent employment opportunities for all citizens, including those with disabilities. These efforts reflect a strong governmental commitment to fostering an inclusive and accessible employment landscape for individuals with disabilities.
Vision 2030: A Path Forward
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 represents a transformative opportunity to address the systemic challenges faced by individuals with disabilities. This ambitious reform plan emphasizes social inclusion, economic participation, and public awareness, providing a comprehensive framework for fostering meaningful change. To achieve these goals, several key priorities must be addressed.
Public awareness campaigns are essential for combating societal misconceptions and promoting the social model of disability, which emphasizes removing societal barriers rather than focusing solely on physical impairments. These campaigns should highlight the capabilities and contributions of individuals with disabilities, fostering a culture of empowerment rather than pity.
Improved accessibility must also be a priority. Existing laws requiring accessible public spaces, transportation systems, and workplaces need to be enforced rigorously. This includes investing in infrastructure upgrades and developing clear accountability mechanisms to ensure compliance.
Comprehensive data collection is another critical area for reform. A robust system for gathering and analyzing disability statistics is necessary to inform policy decisions and design targeted interventions. This data will provide a clearer picture of the disability landscape and help policymakers address specific needs effectively.
Finally, expanding vocational training programs is essential for equipping individuals with disabilities with the skills required to succeed in the job market. These programs should be designed in collaboration with industry stakeholders to ensure alignment with labor market demands and provide participants with practical, marketable skills.
Conclusion
Saudi Arabia’s legal framework and Vision 2030 objectives represent significant steps toward disability inclusion. However, translating these policies into meaningful progress requires a shift from formal legislation to practical implementation. Addressing societal misconceptions, improving infrastructure, expanding vocational training, and collecting robust data are critical to overcoming persistent barriers. By focusing on these areas, the Kingdom can transform its vision into reality, creating an inclusive society where individuals with disabilities can thrive and contribute fully to national development.
The lack of women representation in parliaments across the world remains a vexed and contentious issue.
In Fiji, this problem has again surfaced for debate in response to Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica’s call for a quota system to increase women’s representation in Parliament.
USP postgraduate student in sociology, Lovelyn Laurelle Giva-Tuke . . . she advocates a holistic approach encompassing financial assistance and specific legislation to address violence against women in politics. Image: Wansolwara
The workshop was organised by Suva-based civil society organisation, Dialogue Fiji, in collaboration with Emily’s List Australia and funded by Misereor.
Kamikamica noted that women’s representation in Fiji’s Parliament peaked at 20 percent in 2018, only to drop to 14 percent after the 2022 elections.
He highlighted what he saw as an anomaly — 238,389 women voted in the 2022 election, surpassing men’s turnout.
However, women candidates garnered only 37,252 votes, accounting for just 8 percent of the total votes cast. This saw only six out of 54 female candidates elected to Parliament.
Reducing financial barriers
He said implementing supportive policies and initiatives, such as reducing financial barriers to running for office and providing childcare support could address some of the structural challenges faced by aspiring female leaders.
While agreeing with Kamikamica’s supportive remarks, Suva-based lawyer and former journalist Sainiana Radrodro called for urgent and concrete actions to empower aspiring women candidates besides just discussions.
She identified finance, societal norms and more recently, bullying on social media, as major obstacles for women aspiring for political careers. She said measures to address these problems were either insufficient, or non-existent.
Radrodro, who participated in the 2024 Women’s “Mock Parliament”, supports a quota system, but only as a temporary special measure (TSM). TSM is designed to advance gender equality by addressing structural, social, and cultural barriers, correcting past and present discrimination, and compensating for harm and inequalities.
The lawyer said that TSM could be a useful tool if applied in a measured way, noting that countries that rushed into implementing it faced a backlash due to poor advocacy and public understanding.
She recommends TSM based on prior and proper dialogue and awareness to ensure that women elected through such measures are not marginalised or stereotyped as having “ridden on the back of government policies”.
She said with women comprising half of the national population, it was sensible to have proportional representation in Parliament.
Social media attacks
While she agreed with Kamikamica that finance remained a significant obstacle for Fijian women seeking public office, she stated that non-financial barriers, such as attacks on social media, should not be overlooked.
To level the playing field, Radrodro’s suggestions include government subsidies for women candidates, similar to the support provided to farmers and small businesses.
“This would signal a genuine commitment by the government to foster women’s participation in the legislature,” she said.
Radrodro’s views were echoed by the University of the South Pacific postgraduate student in sociology, Lovelyn Laurelle Giva-Tuke.
She advocates a holistic approach encompassing financial assistance, specific legislation to address violence against women in political contexts; capacity-building programs to equip women with leadership, campaigning, and public speaking skills; and measures to ensure fair and equitable media coverage, rather than stereotyped and discriminatory coverage.
Giva-Tuke emphasised that society as a whole stand to benefit from a gender balanced political establishment. This was also highlighted by Kamikamica in his address. He cited research showing that women leaders tended to prioritise healthcare, education, and social welfare.
While there is no disagreement about the problem, and the needs to address it, Giva-Tuke, like Radrodro, believes that discussions and ideas must translate into action.
“As a nation, we can and must do more to create an inclusive political landscape that values women’s contributions at every level,” she said.
Protection another hurdle For Radrodro, one of the most urgent and unaddressed problems is the targeting of women with harmful social media content, which is rampant and unchecked in Fiji.
“There is a very high level of attacks against women on social media even from women against other women. These raises reservations in potential women candidates who now have another hurdle to cross.”
Radrodro said a lot of women were simply terrified of being abused online and having their lives splashed across social media, which was also harmful for their children and families.
She said it was disheartening to see the lack of consistent support from leaders when women politicians faced personal attacks.
She called for stronger policies and enforcement to curb online harassment, urging national leaders to take a stand against such behavior.
Another female rights campaigner, the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement executive director Nalini Singh, called for stronger and more effective collaboration between stakeholders — communal groups, women’s groups, local government departments, political parties and the Fijian Elections Office.
Singh highlighted the need for a major educational campaign to change the mindsets with gender sensitisation programs targeting communities. She also recommended increased civic education and awareness of government structures and electoral systems.
Temporary law changes
While she supported reserved parliamentary seats for women, Singh said temporary changes in laws or regulations to eliminate systemic barriers and promote gender equality were also needed.
Singh also highlighted the importance of bridging the generational gaps between older women who have worked in local government, and young women with an interest in joining the political space by establishment of mentoring programmes.
She said mandating specific changes or participation levels within a defined timeframe and advocacy and awareness campaigns targeted at changing societal attitudes and promoting the inclusion of underrepresented groups were other options.
“These are just some ways or strategies to help increase representation of women in leadership spaces, especially their participation in politics,” said Singh.
The views of women such as Sainiana Radrodro, Lovelyn Laurelle Giva-Tuke and Nalini Singh indicate not just what needs to be done to address this problem, but also how little has actually been done.
On his part, Kamikamica has said all the right things, demonstrating a good understanding of the weaknesses in the system. What is lacking is the application of these ideas and sentiments in a real and practical sense.
Unless this is done, the ideas will remain just that — ideas.
Monika Singh is a teaching assistant with The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme and the supervising editor of the student newspaper Wansolwara. This article is first published by The Fiji Times and is republished here as part of a collaboration between USP Journalism and Asia Pacific Report.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Egyptian, Palestinian and Israeli authorities to allow foreign journalists into Gaza in the wake of the three-phase ceasefire agreement set to to begin on Sunday.
The New York-based global media watchdog urged the international community “to independently investigate the deliberate targeting of journalists that has been widely documented” since the 15-month genocidal war began in October 2023.
“Journalists have been paying the highest price — with their lives — to provide the world some insight into the horrors that have been taking place in Gaza during this prolonged war, which has decimated a generation of Palestinian reporters and newsrooms,” the group’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement.
According to a CPJ tally, at least 165 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began. However, according to the Gaza Media Office, the death toll is much higher — 210.
CPJ welcomes the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in #Gaza and calls on authorities to grant unconditional access to journalists and independent human rights experts to investigate crimes committed against the media during the 15-month long war.https://t.co/9zloRVYhSf
Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal with Israel after more than 460 days of a war that has devastated Gaza, Qatar and the United States announced.
After the ceasefire comes into effect on Sunday, Palestinians in Gaza will be left with tens of thousands of people dead and missing and many more with no homes to return to.
The war has killed at least 46,707 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Among the “horrifying numbers” released by the Gaza Government Media Office last week:
1600 families wiped off of the civil registry
17,841 children killed
44 people killed by malnutrition
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said that the ceasefire deal would come into effect on Sunday, but added that work on implementation steps with Israel and Hamas was continuing.
How the Gaza ceasefire deal was reported by the Middle East-based Al Jazeera news channel on its website. Image: AJ screenshot APR
Israel said that some final details remained, and an Israeli government vote is expected today.
Gazans celebrate but braced for attacks
However, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza that while Gazans celebrated the ceasefire news, they were braced for more Israeli attacks until the Sunday deadline.
“This courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which has seen many funerals and bodies laid on the ground, turned into a stage of celebration and happiness and excitement,” he said.
“But it’s relatively quiet in the courtyard of the hospital now.
“At this time, people are back to their tents, where they are sheltering because the ceasefire agreement does not take effect until Sunday.”
That left time for the Israeli military to continue with the attacks, Mahmoud said.
“As people were celebrating here from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, we could clearly hear the sound of heavy artillery and bombardment on the Bureij refugee camp and Nuseirat.
“So these coming days until Sunday are very critical times, and people here expect a surge in Israeli attacks.”
Gaza ceasefire a ‘start’
Sheikh Mohammed said the Gaza deal came after extensive diplomatic efforts, but the ceasefire was a “start”, and now mediators and the international community should work to achieve lasting peace.
“I want to tell our brothers in the Gaza Strip that the State of Qatar will always continue to support our Palestinian brothers,” the Qatari prime minister said.
Welcoming the ceasefire deal, a Hamas official said Palestinians would not forget the Israeli atrocities.
The resistance movement’s Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said Palestinians would remember who carried out mass killings against them, who justified the atrocities in the media and who provided the bombs that were dropped on their homes.
“The barbaric war of extermination . . . that the Israeli occupation and its backers have carried out over 467 days will forever be engraved in the memory of our people and the world as the worst genocide in modern history,” al-Hayya said.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was “imperative” that the ceasefire removed obstacles to aid deliveries as he welcomed the deal that includes a prisoner and captive exchange.
“It is imperative that this ceasefire removes the significant security and political obstacles to delivering aid across Gaza so that we can support a major increase in urgent life-saving humanitarian support,” Guterres said.
I first encountered Alaa Abd el-Fattah 11 years ago, as a disembodied whisper of reassurance from outside the bars of my grubby prison cell in Cairo. I had just been tossed in the box by Egypt’s El Mukhabarat– the malevolent General Intelligence Service responsible for internal security – and I was facing an indeterminate run in solitary confinement after being arrested on bogus terrorism charges for my work as a journalist.
Alaa knew the drill. Then just 32, he’d been imprisoned by each of the four previous regimes, and he understood both the institutional meat grinder we were confronting and the psychological stresses I’d have to grapple with.
Peter Greste is a professor of journalism at Macquarie University and the executive director for the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom. In December 2013, he was arrested on terrorism charges while working for Al Jazeera and he was eventually convicted and sentenced to seven years. Under intense international pressure, the Egyptian president ordered his release after 400 days. He is undertaking this protest in his personal capacity
‘In Gaza, only UNRWA has the infrastructure to distribute aid to scale, such as vehicles, warehouses, distribution centres and staff. However, Israeli authorities are making this extremely difficult,’ writes Chris Gunness.
In the last week of January, two Knesset bills ending Israel’s “cooperation” with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) are scheduled to come into force.
If they do, UNRWA’s activities in the territory of the state of Israel would be illegal under Israeli law and any Israeli official or institution engaging with the agency would be breaking the law.
In a letter to the president of the General Assembly in October, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, revealed he had written to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging his government to take the necessary steps to avoid the legislation being implemented.
He also expressed concern that these laws would harm UNRWA’s ability to deliver life-saving services in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
This provoked a detailed response from Israel’s UN Ambassador in New York, Danny Dannon, who responded laying out Israel’s strategic planning pursuant to the Knesset bills.
UNRWA to be expelled from Jerusalem Much about Israel’s strategy was already known, for example its plan to eliminate UNRWA in Gaza and deliver services through a combination of other UN agencies, such as the World Food Programme (WFP) along with the Israeli military and private sector companies.
Dannon made clear that the occupying authorities plan to take over UNRWA facilities in Jerusalem.
According to UNRWA’s website, these include 10 schools, three primary health clinics and a training centre. Students would likely be sent to Israeli schools for the Palestinian population of occupied East Jerusalem, whose curricula have been subject to “Judaisistation” in contravention of Israel’s international humanitarian law obligations to the occupied population.
There is also a major question mark over UNRWA’s massive headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah.
The UNRWA compound, which contains several huge warehouses for humanitarian goods, has been subjected to arson attacks in recent months, which forced it to shut down.
Nonetheless, it seems UNRWA’s Jerusalem HQ may be shut down in the face of Israeli threats, violence and pressure. Staff are being told to relocate to offices in Amman as a result of a performance review and UNRWA says its Jerusalem HQ was only ever temporary.
But a recent communication from UNRWA to its donors makes clear that the agency is ceding to Israeli intimidation: “While the review of HQ functions has been underway for a number of years, the review and decision has been fast-tracked as a result of the administrative and operational challenges experienced by the agency throughout 2024, including visa issuance, visa duration and lack of issuing diplomatic ID cards.
“These challenges have inhibited our effectiveness to work as a Headquarters in Jerusalem.”
De facto annexation If UNRWA is expelled from East Jerusalem, this would have potentially devastating impact on over 63,000 Palestinian refugees who depend on its services.
Moreover, it would have profound political significance, particularly for the global Islamic community because it would set the seal on Israel’s illegal annexation of Jerusalem, home to Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam.
It would also be a violation of the ruling last July by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) demanding that the occupation ends.
The annexation of Jerusalem as the “eternal and undivided capital of the Jewish state” which began with the occupation in 1967, would become another illegal fact on the ground.
Crucially, Jerusalem will have been unilaterally removed from whatever is left of the Middle East Peace Process.
Arab governments, particularly Saudi Arabia and Jordan, must therefore act now, and decisively, to save their holy city. The loss of Jerusalem will undoubtedly provoke a violent reaction among Palestinians and likely lead to calls for jihad more widely. In the context of an explosive Middle East this can only engender further destabilising tensions for governments in the region.
I therefore call on Saudi Arabia to make the scrapping of the Knesset legislation a precondition in the normalisation negotiations with Israel. The Saudi administration must make this clear to Netanyahu and insist that for Muslims, Jerusalem is sacrosanct, and that the expulsion of UNRWA is a step too far.
The Trump transition team has already been warned of the looming catastrophe if Israel is allowed to destroy UNRWA’s operations, and I urge Arab leaders to insist with their Saudi interlocutors that the regional fallout from this feature prominently in the normalisation talks.
Lack of contingency planning Meanwhile, the senior UN leadership has adopted the position that the responsibility to deliver aid is Israel’s as the occupying power. To the consternation of UNRWA staffers, substantive inter-agency discussions across the humanitarian system about a UN-led day-after plan have effectively been banned.
For Palestinians against whom a genocide is being committed, this feels like abandonment and betrayal — a sense compounded by suspicions that UNRWA international staff may be forced to leave Gaza at a time of mass starvation.
Similar conclusions were reached by Dr Lex Takkenberg, senior advisor with Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), and other researchers who have just completed an as yet unpublished assessment of the implications of Israel’s ban on UNRWA, based on interviews with a large number of UNRWA staff and other experts.
Their study confirms that with the lack of contingency planning, the suffering of the Palestinian population, particularly in Gaza, will increase dramatically, as the backbone of the humanitarian operation crumbles without an alternative structure in place.
Contrary to UNRWA, Israel has been doing a great deal of contingency planning with non-UNRWA agencies such as WFP, which are under strong US pressure to take over aid imports from UNRWA. As a result, the amount of aid taken into Gaza by UNRWA has reduced significantly.
In Gaza, only UNRWA has the infrastructure to distribute aid to scale, such as vehicles, warehouses, distribution centres and staff.
However, Israeli authorities are making this extremely difficult. They claim to be “deconflicting” aid deliveries, but according to UN sources there is clear evidence that Israeli soldiers are firing on vehicles and allowing criminal gangs to plunder convoys with impunity.
Thus Israeli officials are able to say to journalists whom they have barred from seeing the truth in Gaza, that they are allowing in all the aid Gaza needs, but that UNRWA is unfit for purpose. This lie has gone unchallenged in the international media.
Further implications According to Takkenberg, “Mr Guterres’s strategy of calling on Israel as the occupying power to deliver aid has backfired and is inflicting untold suffering on the Palestinians.
“The strategy also feels misplaced, given that Israel is accused of genocide in the UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, and is facing expulsion from the UN General Assembly”.
He adds that Israel “has exploited the UN’s strategy as part of its campaign of starvation and genocide.”
In the face of this, I call on the Secretary-General to mobilise the UN system. He has said repeatedly that UNRWA is the backbone of the UN’s humanitarian strategy, that the agency is indispensable and key to regional stability.
It is time for the UNSG to walk the walk.
He must use his powers under Article 99 of the UN charter, granted precisely for these circumstances, to call the Security Council into emergency session and make his demand that the Knesset legislation must not be implemented the top agenda item. The General Assembly which gives UNRWA its mandate must also be called into session.
Though Guterres faces huge pressure from Israel’s powerful allies, he must stand up on behalf of a people the UN is mandated to protect and double down on those who are complicit in genocide.
The UN’s policy in Gaza along with acceptance of Jerusalem’s annexation with impunity for Israel, has major implications for its credibility and I confidently predict it will lead to further attacks by Israel on other UN agencies, such as the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which has long been an irritant to the Tel Aviv administration.
The de facto annexation of Jerusalem will also see an erosion of the international rule of law.
In its advisory opinion in July last year, the ICJ concluded that Israel is not entitled to exercise sovereign powers in any part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory on account of its occupation. In addition, the expulsion of UNRWA would be in violation of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, which obliges Israel as a signatory, to cooperate with UN Agencies such as UNRWA.
The UN’s historic responsibility to the Palestinians Already, through its attack on UNRWA Israel is attempting unilaterally to remove the Palestinian refugees, their history, their identity and their inalienable right of return from the peace process.
As I have argued many times, this will fail. So must Israel’s unilateral attempt to take Jerusalem off the negotiating table by expelling UNRWA and completing its illegal annexation of the city.
That would see the international community and the UN abandoning its historic responsibilities to the Palestinian people and can only lead to further suffering and instability in a chronically unstable Middle East. The Muslim world must act decisively and swiftly. The clock is ticking.
Chris Gunness served as UNRWA’s Director of Communications and Advocacy from 2007 until 2020. This article was first published in The New Arab.
