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As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects growing domestic and international calls to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal, we go to Jerusalem to speak to Gershon Baskin of the human rights advocacy group International Communities Organization. Baskin has spent years as a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in ceasefire deals, including throughout Israel’s current war on Gaza. “It’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war,” says Baskin, who calls for all remaining stakeholders, including Hamas, the United States and Israeli protesters, to increase pressure on the defiant prime minister.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested this weekend to demand a ceasefire following the deaths of six more hostages in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. This comes after nearly 11 months of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in the territory, according to local health authorities. “Our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest,” says Israeli peace activist Yonatan Zeigen, whose mother Vivian Silver was killed in the October 7 Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. Despite the feeling of solidarity on the streets, Zeigen says there is a sense of “hopelessness” in the mass protests in Israel. We also speak with Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, who says the outrage in Israel is still mostly confined to critics of Netanyahu and has not yet penetrated his base of support, and that the United States has a major role in the continued violence and Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire. “If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning … the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn’t do it,” Levy notes.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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We speak with Palestinian human rights lawyer Noura Erakat about Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, in which he defended Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, lied repeatedly about the dire humanitarian conditions on the ground and refused to talk about how to reach a ceasefire to end the bloodshed. Although more than 100 Democrats skipped the speech, Erakat says the jubilant reaction from lawmakers in attendance showed U.S. leaders cheering “for what is essentially a war on children.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Congressional leadership’s invitation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on July 24 was an act of political violence. Since October of last year, the war criminal Netanyahu has ordered the mass murder of at least 39,000 Palestinian people in Gaza, including more than 15,000 children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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The Committee to Protect Journalists and seven other rights groups sent a letter Monday calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on journalist killings and media access in Gaza.
The letter urged Biden to ensure that Netanyahu takes steps to facilitate press freedom and journalist safety in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Read CPJ’s press release about the letter.
Read the full letter here:
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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New York, July 22, 2024 — President Joe Biden should press the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the unprecedented number of journalists killed in the Gaza Strip and the near-total ban on international media entering the Strip, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and seven other human rights and press freedom organizations said in letters to the White House and U.S. Congressional leaders today.
The letters call on the United States, Israel’s chief ally, to “ensure that Israel ceases the killing of journalists, allows immediate and independent media access to the occupied Gaza Strip, and takes urgent steps to enable the press to report freely throughout Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” while outlining a series of grave press freedom violations and a response of utter impunity. Netanyahu is expected to meet with Biden on Tuesday and is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.
The letters were signed by Amnesty International USA, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Knight First Amendment Institute, the National Press Club, PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, and the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.
Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war last October, the letter said, the Netanyahu government’s actions have created what amounts to a “censorship regime.”
“Nine months into the war in Gaza, journalists … continue to pay an astonishing toll,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a video message to the Israeli Prime Minister released last week. “More than 100 journalists have been killed. An unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested, often without charge. They have been mistreated and tortured.”
Israel’s longstanding impunity in attacks on journalists has also cast its shadow on the rights and safety of two American journalists: Shireen Abu Akleh (murdered in 2022) and Dylan Collins, who was injured in an October 13 strike by Israel on journalists in southern Lebanon that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded others who wore clearly visible press insignia. Investigations by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, AFP and Reuters found the attack was likely targeted.
On Sunday, Collins joined his AFP colleague Christina Assi—who lost her right leg in the same attack—as she carried the Olympic flame in Vincennes, France, in honor of journalists killed.
CPJ, which has persistently urged decisive action by the U.S. on journalist safety and media access to Gaza, called on Biden to ensure in his meeting with Netanyahu that the government of Israel takes the following steps:
- Lifts its blockade on international, Israeli, and Palestinian journalists from independently accessing Gaza.
- Revokes legislation permitting the government to shut down foreign outlets, and refrains from any further legal or regulatory curtailment of media operations.
- Releases all Palestinian journalists from administrative detention or who are otherwise held without charge, including those forcibly disappeared.
- Abjures the indiscriminate and deliberate killing of journalists.
- Guarantees the safety of all journalists, including allowing the delivery of newsgathering and safety equipment to reporters in Gaza and the West Bank.
- Allows all journalists seeking to evacuate from Gaza to do so.
- Transparently reforms its procedures to ensure that all investigations into alleged war crimes, criminal conduct, or violations of human rights are swift, thorough, effective, transparent, independent, and in line with internationally accepted practices, such as the Minnesota Protocol. Investigations into abuses against journalists must then be promptly conducted in accordance with these procedures.
- Allows international investigators and human rights organizations, including United Nations (UN) special rapporteurs and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, unrestricted access to Israel and the occupied territories to investigate suspected violations of international law by all parties.
The letter also was sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Read the full letter here.About the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy discusses ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued hostility to compromise and the Biden administration’s ineffectual mediation. Contrary to its claims of brokering peace, the U.S. “will continue to send the weapons” Israel uses to devastate Gaza, unremittingly fueling an increasingly unpopular war, says Levy, who is now president of the U.S./Middle East Project.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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“This is shameful, Sen. Schumer.” That was the reaction of progressive activist Cynthia Nixon on Friday after the Democratic Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate co-signed a formal letter — alongside Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) — inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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A growing number of U.S. congressional Democrats pushed back Friday against pressure to endorse House Speaker Mike Johnson’s invitation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress — even as his government stands accused of genocide in a World Court case and he faces the prospect of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged crimes against…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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For conservatives around the world, Israel’s democratic deficit is a feature, not a bug—an alternative constitutional model that defies liberal universalism.
This post was originally published on Dissent MagazineDissent Magazine.
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Israel and the United States have both strongly condemned the International Criminal Court’s decision to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on war crimes charges, calling it “outrageous” and seeking support from other allies in opposing the court’s moves. On Monday, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan outlined specific charges against Netanyahu and Gallant, including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “extermination.” The ICC also sought arrest warrants for three leaders of Hamas — Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif — for war crimes including extermination and murder, the taking of captives, torture, rape and other acts of sexual violence. The warrants for Israel’s top leaders, which must still be approved by a panel of ICC judges, are “a watershed event in the history of international justice,” says war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody. “This is the first time that a Western or pro-Western leader is [the] subject of an indictment request.”
We also speak with Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, who says Israel’s strident response to the ICC prosecutor is no surprise. “This is the kind of Israel we have in 2024. It doesn’t care about international law. It doesn’t care about international opinion,” says Pappé.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has announced he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three leaders of Hamas: Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif. The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include starvation of civilians, extermination, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, among other crimes. The charges against the Hamas leaders include extermination, murder, taking hostages, rape, among other crimes. “It places Israel’s leaders of this genocidal onslaught on the Gaza Strip in the dock,” says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani, who explains why this will be “very significant” for Israel’s allies and signatories to the ICC. “They now have to make a choice between Israeli impunity and obligations under the Rome Statute.”
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This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.
- Biden Netanyahu discuss deaths of international aid workers and other issues during call.
- Protesters head to Lockheed Martin’s Sunnyvale facility, calling on the company to cut off equipment sales to Israel.
- Civil rights groups sue Alabama over new law restricting assisting voting by mail.
- A federal judge in Florida rejects Trump’s request that documents case be dismissed on Presidential privilege grounds.
- Treasury Secretary Yellin in China for trade and security talks with Chinese officials.
- Oakland A’s to move to Sacramento for three years until Las Vegas stadium built.
The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – April 4, 2024 Biden Netanyahu discuss deaths of international aid workers and other issues during call. appeared first on KPFA.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel says he will “act immediately” to ban Al Jazeera in the country after the Knesset passed a law Monday that allows the government to shut down foreign news networks deemed to be threats to national security. Al Jazeera, one of the few outlets with local reporters in Gaza, denounced the move and said it was part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on the Qatar…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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Washington, D.C., April 1, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists urgently calls on the Israeli government not to close the Jerusalem-based bureau of Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera and allow the media to report freely on news events in Israel and Gaza during the current conflict.
On Monday, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a law allowing the government to halt the broadcasting of Al-Jazeera in Israel. The law grants the communications minister the power, with approval from the prime minister and the security cabinet, to order the cessation of a foreign channel’s broadcasts in Israel if the prime minister is convinced that the content directly threatens the country’s security.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that he would act immediately to stop Al-Jazeera broadcasting from Israel. In the tweet, Netanyahu labeled Al-Jazeera a “terrorist channel” and accused it of harming Israel’s security, actively participating in the October 7 massacre, and incitement against Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.
These accusations were previously rejected by Al-Jazeera, which called them “an attempt to justify the killing and targeting of journalists.”
“CPJ is deeply concerned by new legislation authorizing the Netanyahu government to shutter Al-Jazeera in Israel,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “The law grants the government the power to close any foreign media outlets operating in Israel, posing a significant threat to international media within the country. This contributes to a climate of self-censorship and hostility toward the press, a trend that has escalated since the Israel-Gaza war began.”
Additionally, the law empowers the communications minister to order “content providers” to cease broadcasting, shutter their Israeli offices, confiscate their equipment, take their websites offline if the server is physically located in Israel, or otherwise block access to their websites.
Later today, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre stated that if reports are true and Israel is attempting to shut down the news network Al-Jazeera within the country, it would be “concerning.”
On November 12, Israel’s security cabinet approved an order shutting down the Lebanon-based broadcaster and Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen TV in Israel.
Since the start of the October 7 war, Al-Jazeera journalists in Gaza have been killed, injured, threatened, and assaulted, and their family members were killed after receiving threats from IDF officers.
CPJ’s email requesting comment from the prime minister’s government press office did not receive an immediate response.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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On Sunday, tens of thousands rallied across Israel calling for the return of hostages and the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the largest nationwide protests since the October 7 attacks. From Tel Aviv, we’re joined by Oren Ziv, a reporter and photographer for +972 Magazine who has been covering the Israeli protests. Ziv says the majority of Israelis generally support the war on Gaza but are increasingly turning against Netanyahu’s far-right government, whose refusal to entertain a ceasefire is seen as an obstacle to the return of Israeli hostages.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 35,000 when accounting for those presumed dead. ** The death toll in West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to PA’s Ministry of Health on March 17, this is the latest figure. *** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.