[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[4MikeEcho]

This is what one would call either inflated ego on place in the world or complete lack of understanding of the situation. Here are the few countries that can potentially influence the situation:
1. Those threatening to provide troops right up to Israel's border
2. Those with natural resources thinking to reduce the export of those resources to Israel or its supporters
3. Or just outright sabre rattling by Arab countries that together can present a problem for Israel.

Yemen is proving that it can at least influence the trajectory of events. Everybody else, OIC and others are all just placating to their local population to seem legitimate.

 

[Saif]

Galloway, Gaza and global conscience

ON FEBRUARY 29, 2024, voters of England’s Rochdale constituency handed a landslide by-election victory to the veteran British...

www.newagebd.net

Galloway, Gaza and global conscience
Md Mahmudul Hasan | Published: 00:00, Mar 12,2024

George Galloway

ON FEBRUARY 29, 2024, voters of England’s Rochdale constituency handed a landslide by-election victory to the veteran British politician George Galloway. In his campaign for the parliamentary seat, Galloway focussed on Israel’s mass murderous atrocities in Gaza and took a swipe at the British political establishment for its continuous complicity with the apartheid state. His opponents used this as a political weapon against him and complained that he gave precedence to a foreign issue.

In this essay, I might be susceptible to a comparable charge as I intend to talk about a UK election event in a Bangladeshi newspaper. However, there are good reasons that will justify the selection of my topic and will remove any whiff of exoticness from my essay.

I have been familiar with political debates surrounding George Galloway for quite some time. When I went to the UK for higher education in the early 2000s, I heard his name buzzing around British politics. Various global events — such as the 2001 Western invasion of Afghanistan, the 2003 US-led war on Iraq and decades-long Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine — accelerated his rise as a political star and a political survivor.

Galloway was one of the organisers of and speakers at Britain’s February 15, 2003 anti-war rally at Hyde Park in London, which was attended by arguably two million people. I attended this and many other public gatherings in London where he was among the main speakers. I also attended a talk by Galloway at the University of Portsmouth where I was a doctoral student. Some of my friends, especially the late John Molyneux, organised the event for him to speak.

A landmark feat in the career of this political maverick happened in May 2005 when he was invited to give testimony before a US Senate committee hearing. It was about the allegation that he had benefited from the sale of Iraqi oil in the 1990s when Iraq was under controversial (and cruel) international economic sanctions. The way Galloway rebutted the accusations against him and defended himself at the US Senate was an instant hit that earned him praise. I clearly remember that the British media of all kinds beamed with pride in the stunning performance of a British politician at the US Senate.

Recently there has been an increased media spotlight on Galloway since he won the Rochdale by-election. This enabled his re-entry in the House of Commons. He bagged 12,335 votes while his nearest contender David Tully — an independent candidate who was previously little known beyond Rochdale — received 6,638 votes. The vote shares of the ruling Tory party and the opposition Labour party were significantly lower — 3,731 and 2,402, respectively. By the way, this is the seventh time that Galloway has been elected as a British MP.

Unfortunately, the humiliating defeat of Britain’s big political parties in Rochdale does not seem to have kindled any sense of humility in their leaders; their reactions to election defeat have exhibited signs of denial and arrogance. Instead of respecting people’s verdict, the British political establishment as well as the hostile media have made unflattering remarks about Galloway and his victory. The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak regarded the democratic choice of the people of Rochdale as ‘beyond alarming’. Such remarks are an insult to democracy and to the intelligence of those who voted for Galloway. By making such statements, power-wielding people both in the government and the opposition in Britain seem to have disregarded and disrespected people’s freedom to vote for who they chose to represent their constituency.

Many commentators have exaggerated the role of the Muslim vote in Rochdale in the victory of Galloway. However, statistics, common sense and the reality of facts on the ground may not support the assumption that the Muslim vote was the only reason for Galloway’s victory, or that Muslims are the only religious group who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Muslims constitute 28 per cent of the population of the Rochdale constituency, whereas Galloway obtained 39.7 per cent of the casted votes. Moreover, it would be inconceivable to think that all Muslim votes went to Galloway. Other candidates, including the Muslim Azhar Ali, must have bagged their own shares of Muslim votes too. So, it will be a total betrayal of reality to claim that all Muslim voters (or only Muslim voters) in Rochdale cast their votes for Galloway.

It is equally untenable to deny the comprehensiveness of support for justice for Palestine. It is also preposterous to believe that only Muslims champion the continuous Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation and aggression. It is not only Muslims who sympathise with the Palestinian cause. Israel’s oppression of Palestinians is a human issue, not a religious one. The prolonged Israeli genocide in Gaza is a concern not only for Muslims, it is for all who believe in human dignity and human rights. The Palestinian issue has perhaps divided people of the globe into two camps: those who have unstinted and unreserved compassion for other human beings and those who put their vested interests ahead of concern for others.

Importantly, the dormant global conscience seems to be evolving; it is gradually waking up to the realisation that Palestinians are victims of Israeli occupation and that there is a need for concerted efforts to end Israeli apartheid. The people of Rochdale are no different from billions in the rest of the world who have been horrified by the extent of Israeli cruelty and depravity.

Galloway’s election victory in Rochdale corresponds to the renewed awakening of the global conscience in regards to the question of Palestine. Perhaps, people of Rochdale have realised that politicians who facilitate injustice in other shores are likely to be unjust to those in their own country. They are smart enough to understand that political leaders who support oppression in Gaza have lost their moral compass and should not be entrusted with public office.

There are other political leaders who pay only lip service to the Palestinian cause and ostensibly condemn Israel, but oppress their own people and maintain clandestine links with the apartheid regime. These are hypocrites and can be found in many countries.

Rochdale by-election results have proved that, in a democratic system, voters have the power to punish unjust politicians and that people cannot be deceived at the time. I hope such a democratic system will be restored in our country and we will be re-empowered to choose leaders who will run our country.




Dr Md Mahmudul Hasan is professor in the department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia.​

 

[Saif]

You don’t have to be a Muslim to feel for the Palestinians

It is heartening to note that many large demonstrations held in Western capitals and major cities were participated in by people of all religions.

www.thedailystar.net

You don’t have to be a Muslim to feel for the Palestinians​

Demonstrators protest in solidarity with Palestinians in London, Britain, October 14, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS

In the continuing act of Israeli barbarity, the newest phase of which commenced on October 7, 2023, the Israeli Defense Forces gunned down a bunch of hungry unarmed Palestinians seeking food and water from relief trucks—killing 112 and injuring more than 700 people. So far, nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza massacre, nearly 70 percent of Gaza's buildings have been destroyed, and more than 80 percent of its population has been displaced. Even Palestinian hospitals were not spared. The latest United Nations Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution for a ceasefire has been blocked by the US, the only council member to do so, and the UK, some refer to it as the 51st US State, since the Second Gulf War, abstained.

In an unpardonably cynical act, the US started airdropping relief on Gaza. What a mockery—a classic illustration of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. Biden is air-dropping food pallets to the victims of the war machine he is arming with billions of US taxpayers' dollars!
​

What is going on in Gaza now is a pure and simple act of genocide, meeting all the criteria of the UN definition of the word. Not only has a people been decimated, but civilians have also been particularly singled out. To stem the flow of information, journalists have been targeted, and so far, reportedly more than hundreds of them have been killed, some of them deliberately.​

The world conscience seems to be unmoved by the genocide that Israel has been conducting since October 7. At the official level, the remonstration from the Arab and Muslim countries has at best been muted. But does one have to be a Muslim to feel for the Muslims?

No.

It is heartening to note that many large demonstrations held in Western capitals and major cities were participated in by people of all religions and, in some instances, the protest marches have been led by Jewish organisations. It was not a Muslim country that brought the case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

A few weeks ago, Aaron Bushnell, a serving US Air Force member, was driven by the pangs of his conscience so much so that the only way open to him—to express his aversion to the ongoing genocide of a helpless nation, conducted by his country's proxy in the Middle East and actively aided and abetted by his country and supported by its Western minions—was to sacrifice the most precious thing he owned: his life. For Bushnell, living would have meant complicity in the act of planned elimination of a nation. He chose to end it, in the most painful way, perhaps sharing vicariously the pain and distress the Palestinians have been enduring—not for the last five months but for the last 76 years.

I have not bothered to delve into Bushnell's ethnicity or his religion. Why should I? He rose above the petty thoughts that confine us to a narrowly defined meaning and space of religion, race, or colour, and chose to be human. Through his extreme act of self-immolation, Bushnell has demonstrated that the Palestinian issue is no longer rooted in the narrow religious narrative but encompasses the larger issue of humanity. That is more than we can say of many of the leaders—religious or political, who continue to think still in binary terms. Just glance through the statement of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is only seized with the thoughts and concern for the Christian Palestinians.

What is going on in Gaza now is a pure and simple act of genocide, meeting all the criteria of the UN definition of the word. Not only has a people been decimated, but civilians have also been particularly singled out. To stem the flow of information, journalists have been targeted, and so far, reportedly more than hundreds of them have been killed, some of them deliberately. Humanitarian and aid workers are being barred from entering the occupied territories.

With every ongoing day of Israel's persecution of the Gaza war, the masks of the hypocrites, the peddlers of so-called human rights and children's rights and women's rights, and the rule of law and a world order based on equity and justice is peeling off. The Western media, some of the European countries, and some Arab nations too by their loud silence, have exposed their duplicity in a barefaced manner, unwilling to acknowledge the reality, even hesitant as we saw one prominent US newspaper lacking the moral courage to give out the actual figure of the victims of the Israeli massacre of a group of Palestinians gathered around a relief truck on February 29, choosing instead to say "many" killed. These countries and their leaders have lost all credentials and moral standing to talk about issues of human rights. It should not be lost upon those who are aiding and abetting the Israeli regime to perpetuate its barbarity, arming it to indulge in the wanton killing of civilians, something that is prohibited by the Geneva Convention, to lend themselves as good candidates for trial in the International Criminal Tribunal. Remember Milosevich!

However, the question is, what is the outcome of the problem? Will the saner section of world opinion allow the eviction and decimation of a nation to go unchallenged? Is there none to stop a pariah nation that has ridden rough-shod over international public opinion, UN sanctions, and ruling over the last 76 years, from continuing with its illegal persecution of war against civilians?

Unfortunately, it is not governments with the power to act who we can expect to side with the rule of law. They have their strategic interest motivated by the military-industrial complex to safeguard. The only force, I feel that can sway the respective government's position, is public opinion. And this has been demonstrated in some measure through the recent US primaries, which has made the administration modulate its position from the past. Critical comments, unheard of heretofore, of Israeli persecution of Gaza offensive, have come from the White House lately, both from the US President and Vice-President.

Only the people can change the situation. Not only individual acts of self-sacrifice like that of Bushnell's but also collective expression of reprehension and disgust at the current situation. And that must cut across religious and ethnic lines.

The other prospect, if change does not come soon, is hard to ponder. But it will no doubt be calamitous.​

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Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan, ndc, psc (retd) is a former associate editor of The Daily Star.

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[Saif]

Israeli strike in south Lebanon kills Hamas member

An Israeli drone strike on a car outside the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Wednesday killed a member of Hamas from the nearby Palestinian camp of Rashidieh, a source from the faction told Reuters. The source identified the member as Hadi Mustafa but said he was not a senior figure. Two securit

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Bangladesh demands immediate ceasefire in Gaza​

FE ONLINE DESK

Published :​

Mar 13, 2024 22:03

Updated :​

Mar 13, 2024 22:03

Bangladesh has condemned Israeli efforts to deport people out of Gaza and demanded immediate ceasefire and full and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance.

"Full implementation of the three Rs -Relief, Review and Recovery can only be possible with an end of genocidal attack on innocent civilians and infrastructures," said Mohammad Tofazzel Hossain Miah, Principal Secretary, Prime Minister's Office in ILO Governing Body meeting on Wednesday, reports UNB.

In his statement, Tofazzel Hossain said Bangladesh would like to urge the international community to intensify pressure on the occupying power, Israel and its apartheid government, to stop this violent attack on civilians, to allow Palestinians to rebuild their economy with international support, and to allow the Palestinian workforce to resume employment in Israel.

He said Bangladesh aligns with the statement delivered on behalf of the majority of ASPAG countries and the statement of OIC.

Bangladesh expressed its profound concerns over 66 per cent loss of jobs with 85 per cent reduction of employment in Gaza strip as well as 40 per cet loss of employment in West Bank.

"The illegal war against the civilian and non-combatant population of Palestine has caused shrinking of the Palestinian economy by one third in the fourth quarter of 2023. Labour market governance institutions, labour administration, social protection, social dialogue got irreparably affected," said Tofazzel Hossain.

Bangladesh thanked the donors and partner countries who have contributed to the ILO's Development Cooperation Programme.

"My delegation also expresses its sincere appreciation to the Office for conducting a three-phase programme with priorities in Relief, Review and Recovery with an internal budget of 1.4 million initially," said Tofazzel Hossain.

"We would like to join our voices to enhance donor support for successful implementation of the programme," he added.

He highlighted the overwhelming necessity of employment-intensive infrastructure building and arranging suitable jobs for the family members of the murdered Palestinians, disabled persons.

"Bangladesh, like most other States, continues to recognise Palestine as a State in the fullest meaning of the term and identifies Isarel as the illegal occupying power of Palestine," said Tofazzel Hossain.

Bangladesh expressed its grave concerns in the genocidal attacks on unarmed civilians, including women and children, of Palestine by the occupant Israeli Armed forces as well as the targeting of civilian infrastructures and indiscriminate use of force.

"We condemn Israel for its blatant violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws," Tofazzel Hossain said.​

 

[Saif]

Israel says it will ‘flood’ Gaza with aid as pressure mounts to do more

Breaking News, International News & Multimedia

thedailynewnation.com

Israel says it will ‘flood’ Gaza with aid as pressure mounts to do more​

15 Mar 2024, 12:00 am

Reuters :

Israel will try to “flood” the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid from a variety of entry points, the main military spokesman said on Wednesday as international pressure mounted to address the growing problem of hunger in the besieged enclave.

After more than five months of war in Gaza, aid agencies have warned that the area’s 2.3 million population face a growing risk of famine unless food supplies are stepped up sharply and they have accused Israel of not doing enough to ensure sufficient aid gets through.

Israel says it has placed no limits on the amount of aid that it will allow in to Gaza, and blames failures by the aid agencies for delays but it has faced mounting demands even from its closest allies to do more.

“We are trying to flood the area, to flood it with humanitarian aid,” military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a group of foreign reporters.

Earlier on Wednesday, the military announced that six aid trucks with supplies from the World Food Organization had entered the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where the hunger crisis has been especially acute, through a crossing in the security fence known as the 96th gate.

More such convoys would follow as well as deliveries from other entry points, complemented by air drops and seaborne aid cargoes, Hagari said.

“We are learning and improving and doing different changes so as not to create a routine but to create a diversity of ways that we can enter,” he said.

Hagari acknowledged, however, that getting supplies into the enclave was only one part of the problem and more needed to be done to solve the problem of how to distribute it fairly and efficiently to desperately needy people.
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[Bilal9]

Schumer calls Netanyahu "obstacle to peace".

MSN

 

[Deleted due to Error (Muji Iqbal)]

Sure Bangladesh can be a mediator.

But what makes you think Israel and Israel's friend USA would take Bangladesh seriously?

 

[Saif]

Sure Bangladesh can be a mediator.

But what makes you think Israel and Israel's friend USA would take Bangladesh seriously?

1. Bangladesh is one of the largest Muslim majority countries in the world with whom Israel wants to establish diplomatic relation. Israel's eagerness to establish diplomatic ties with Bangladesh has been displayed by top Israeli leaders in the recent time.

2. Israel would prefer a non-Arab Muslim country to mediate in the conflict between Israel and Hamas as they don't trust the Arabs.

3. Bangladesh is the largest troops contributor to the UN peacekeeping mission.

4. Bangladesh is one of the partners of the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. So, there is no trust deficit between the USA and Bangladesh.

 

[Saif]

Schumer calls Netanyahu "obstacle to peace".

He is not far from the truth.

 

[Saif]

Palestine is the world

THE Israeli invasion of Palestine is an act of aggression of such gravity that it is almost impossible for me to speak of anything else...

www.newagebd.net

Palestine is the world
Silvia Federici | Published: 00:00, Mar 14,2024

Palestinian children receive cooked food rations as part of a volunteer youth initiative in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 5, amidst widespread hunger in the besieged Palestinian territory. — Agence France-Presse/Mohammed Abed

THE Israeli invasion of Palestine is an act of aggression of such gravity that it is almost impossible for me to speak of anything else. When the population of six cities and many villages is tortured daily in front of the whole world, and when those perpetrating these crimes are granted total immunity, then we have to stop and speak up because new standards are being established as to what is permissible internationally, which put us all in danger.

My first point, then, is that we have to oppose this aggression, these Israeli war crimes, in any way we can and there is a lot we can do since it is our money that pays for them. Without the United States Israel could not even function as an economy, much less have tanks to occupy every street in Palestine.

At the same time, we should not make the mistake of thinking that the situation in Palestine is unique. Palestine today is the image of what, in different ways, is occurring across the world.

The Israeli invasion of Palestine is a classic example of colonial conquest. In fact, the very creation of the state of Israel was part of the British colonisation of the Middle East. This was acknowledged by Sharon when he told the president of France, Chirac, three weeks ago that: Palestine is our Algeria, with the difference (he added) that we are going to stay.

Over the last two decades the same colonial relations have been re-imposed by Europe and the US on every part of the former colonial world, this time in the name of the debt crisis, globalization or the war on drugs and, more recently, the war on terrorism. The slogans change but the objectives and the consequences are the same: uprooting the local populations, turning them into refugees, into cheap labour for the global market, appropriating their resources, their lands, their assets, their oil, their waters, their labour, either by the use of tanks and bombings or through trade agreements, structural adjustment programmes, currency devaluations, all means of waging war on the people and the lands.

Not surprisingly, the same destructive policies that Israel is implementing in Palestine, with the use of deadly force through land expropriation, the expansion of settlements, the theft of water, and now the systematic destruction of every infrastructure (like water pipes, roads, power plants, sewers, schools, houses) are also being implemented, with the same results, in Africa, Asia, Latin America.

What in Israel is destroyed by the IDF, in many African countries is destroyed by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. In Palestine it is the Israeli tanks that bulldoze schools and houses. In Africa, it is structural adjustment, the defunding of the public sector, currency devaluation, but the effects are the same. In Palestine the sick, the wounded, the women giving birth cannot go to the hospitals because the Israelis shoot them. In Africa people cannot go to the hospitals, even without the Israeli bullets — although Israel has played havoc in Africa too, propping every dictator, from Mobuto to the white South African apartheid regime. In both cases, the results are populations of refugees, the transfer of lands from the local people to the new colonial powers, forwarding and protecting the interests of international capital.

Comparing the role of the Israeli government and the Israeli army with that of the World Bank, the IMF and WTO is not to underestimate what is taking place in Palestine or minimise its gravity, but it is to show the continuity between war and economic policy and between the aggression of Israel against Palestine and the many wars that are now bloodying the world.

President Bush has announced that 50 countries are on the US government list as candidates for bombings. But as a matter of fact an equal number has already experienced America’s warfare over the last two decades, to such an extent that it will take them decades to regain some degree of normalcy. Think of Chile, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Angola, Panama, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan. Many of these countries have been so devastated that they are now economically dis-functional or have been placed under the UN trusteeship.

Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that we are witnessing a new, extensive process of recolonisation, with Palestine being the experimental field.

In the US as well, warfare is the rule with mass incarceration of black and Latino youth, the use of capital punishment mostly against black people, and the attack on healthcare, housing, welfare provisions, immigrant men, and women.

Capitalism is waging a war on the people of the world, a war that deprives us of all means necessary to reproduce our lives, a war that keeps seeking new names and justifications but at the core has one purpose: stripping us from our entitlement to the wealth of the world; turning us into refugees of one sort of another, homeless people who have no claim to this earth, allows us only to work and work when it suits our employers.

This is our destiny and the destiny of our children if we do not resist and if we refuse to become settlers, guards, policemen. Today the people of Palestine are being martyred, but we delude ourselves if we think that the destruction of their communities and their expulsion from their lands will have no consequences for our lives. Palestine is the world, and the blood it sheds — caused by the weapons and financial aid provided by the United States — will fall on us as well.

CounterPunch.org, March 12. Silvia Federici is a scholar, teacher and feminist activist based in New York. She is a professor emerita and teaching fellow at Hofstra University in New York State, where she was a social science professor. Her most recent book is Patriarchy of The Wage: Notes on Marx, Gender, and Feminism.​

 

[Bilal9]

1. Bangladesh is one of the largest Muslim majority countries in the world with whom Israel wants to establish diplomatic relation. Israel's eagerness to establish diplomatic ties with Bangladesh has been displayed by top Israeli leaders in the recent time.

2. Israel would prefer a non-Arab Muslim country to mediate in the conflict between Israel and Hamas as they don't trust the Arabs.

3. Bangladesh is the largest troops contributor to the UN peacekeeping mission.

4. Bangladesh is one of the partners of the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. So, there is no trust deficit between the USA and Bangladesh.

In this respect - Bangladesh is equivalent to Indonesia and Malaysia, the other two moderate Muslim countries in East Asia.

 

[Bilal9]

He is not far from the truth.

When the highest elected Jewish person in the USA calls Netanyahu an obstacle to peace in the Middle East, this is a sign of things to come - the writing is on the wall. Netanyahu's days are numbered. I am positing that elections in Israel will be called soon and the extremists there will lose.

 

[Saif]

Sea aid unloaded in Gaza as truce efforts revived

Efforts towards a truce in the Israel-Hamas war appeared to rekindle on Saturday after a new proposal from the Palestinian militant group which also called...

www.newagebd.net

Sea aid unloaded in Gaza as truce efforts revived
Agence France-Presse . Palestine | Published: 00:36, Mar 17,2024

Efforts towards a truce in the Israel-Hamas war appeared to rekindle on Saturday after a new proposal from the Palestinian militant group which also called for more aid into Gaza, where the first food shipment by sea reached shore.

Israel said it would send a delegation to Qatar for another round of talks on a possible deal. It also advanced plans for a military operation in Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge from more than five months of war and deprivation.

The US charity World Central Kitchen on Saturday said its team had finished unloading almost 200 tonnes of food, the first shipment to arrive on a new maritime aid corridor from Cyprus.

‘All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza,’ WCK said in a statement. WCK’s partner, the Open Arms vessel which towed the aid on a barge, had sailed from Larnaca port on Tuesday.

The United Nations has reported particular difficulty in accessing the besieged Gaza Strip’s north for deliveries of food and other aid.

Residents say they have resorted to eating wild plants and animal fodder, and some have stormed the few aid trucks that have made it through.

‘Doctors are reporting that they no longer see normal-sized babies,’ Dominic Allen, of the United Nations Population Fund, said after visiting Gaza’s north.

With the situation increasingly dire, donors have turned to the air and sea.

Multiple nations have begun daily aid airdrops over Gaza. Germany’s air force said on Saturday it successfully made its first delivery over north Gaza. The new maritime corridor is to be complemented by a temporary pier which United States troops are on their way to build.

But air and sea missions are no alternative to land deliveries, UN officials and aid groups say. Humanitarians have cited Israeli restrictions as among the obstacles they face.

The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said at least 63 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours.

Earlier Saturday, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra reported 36 deaths from a strike on a house sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat, central Gaza.

AFPTV images showed a building blown apart. Yussef Tabatibi, lifting concrete blocks among the rubble, said residents were trying to recover the dead with only their bare hands.

‘What should we do? God help us,’ he said.

Witnesses reported air strikes and fighting in the southern Gaza Strip’s main city Khan Yunis as well as areas of the north.

In negotiations aimed at securing a truce and hostage deal, Hamas has put forward a new proposal for a six-week ceasefire and the exchange of about 42 Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, an official from the Islamist group told AFP.

Israel has carried out relentless bombardment and a ground invasion that has killed at least 31,553 people in Gaza, most of them women and children.

Until Friday Hamas had insisted no further hostages would be exchanged without a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Now the militants are saying that, during a six-week truce, Israeli forces would need to pull out of ‘all cities and populated areas’ in Gaza, according to the Hamas official.

The Hamas proposal also calls for ramped up humanitarian aid, the official added.

Israel has so far rejected withdrawing troops from Gaza, saying such a move would amount to victory for Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel would send a delegation to Qatar for another round of talks on securing the hostages’ release.

Israel did not attend earlier negotiations in Cairo which failed to secure a truce for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan which began last Monday.

Washington’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday acknowledged ‘a counter-proposal’ from Hamas and said, ‘we’re working intensively with Israel, with Qatar, with Egypt, to bridge the remaining gaps and to try to reach an agreement.’

The United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance, has grown increasingly critical of Netanyahu over his handling of the war but has not supported an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar, who favours such a measure, said after meeting US President Joe Biden in Washington that ‘none of us like to see American weapons being used in the way they are’ which, he said, ‘is not self-defence.’

Biden praised unusually critical comments by US Senate leader Chuck Schumer, who had described Netanyahu as one of several ‘major obstacles’ to peace.

‘I think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans,’ Biden said.

Netanyahu’s office said on Friday he had approved the military’s plan for an operation against Hamas in Rafah, where around 1.5 million people are sheltered, many in rough tents near the Egyptian border.

There were no details or a timeline for the long-threatened operation which Washington says it could not support without a ‘credible, achievable, executable plan’ to shelter the civilians there.


World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres said the first seaborne aid to reach Gaza is the equivalent of 12 trucks but ‘we could bring thousands of tons a week.’

Prior to the war a daily average of around 500 trucks entered Gaza, the UN has said, but the current number is far below that.​

 

[Saif]

When the highest elected Jewish person in the USA calls Netanyahu an obstacle to peace in the Middle East, this is a sign of things to come - the writing is on the wall. Netanyahu's days are numbered. I am positing that elections in Israel will be called soon and the extremists there will lose.

In the long term, Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah need to find a way to evict the Israelis from the Middle East. This is the only way to stop Israel from devouring the entire Middle East. Do you agree?

 

[Saif]

In this respect - Bangladesh is equivalent to Indonesia and Malaysia, the other two moderate Muslim countries in East Asia.

You are correct

 

[Saif]

Israel must be stopped from invading Rafah

World must end Palestine genocide without further delay

www.thedailystar.net

Israel must be stopped from invading Rafah​

World must end Palestine genocide without further delay

VISUAL: STAR

We are most disturbed by the Israeli prime minister's recent vow to send ground forces into Gaza's southern Rafah city. This comes after more than five months of merciless attacks on Palestinians that have forced most of Gaza's population to seek refuge in Rafah. With more than 31,500 Palestinians already killed, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu now seems dead set on inflicting more horrors on the more than one million displaced people who have sought shelter there.

For once, Israel's allies have urged it to not attack Rafah, especially without a plan to protect civilians. Given the huge number of civilians Israel has a record of killing even when it supposedly looks to "protect" them during its security operations, one can only imagine the extent of destruction that might be headed towards the defenceless people of Rafah. Despite sustained international pressure, and the urging of its allies, Netanyahu has vowed to ignore it all, insisting on Israel's "right to defend itself". But as we have seen repeatedly, when Israel talks about its right to defend itself, what it basically means is gaining a free reign to attack and destroy the Palestinians.

The World Health Organization chief has urged Israel not to launch a Rafah invasion, warning that "this humanitarian catastrophe must not be allowed to worsen." As many human rights organisations have alleged, Israel is deliberately starving Gazans, having unleashed what can easily be called a genocidal campaign. And because of the unconditional backing extended by the West, it has been able to get away with it so far.

But the world cannot continue to remain silent and watch the complete annihilation of the Palestinian people. Israel has been able to create the narrative that criticising Israel should be considered ipso facto antisemitic and, therefore, frowned upon. Given that the West has always been its main supporter, it's time for the Western countries in particular, and the international community in general, to take meaningful action to end Israel's aggression against Palestine and arrange for a peace agreement.​

 

[Saif]

A supplication for Gaza, and humanity

‘ALL we can do for Gaza is just offer our Du’a.’ This is an oft-repeated statement by enraged Arabs and Muslims who feel helpless...

www.newagebd.net

A supplication for Gaza, and humanity
Ramzy Baroud | Published: 00:00, Mar 18,2024

Palestinian children look at the rubble of a building after it was destroyed in an Israeli strike the night before, in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City on March 16, amidst the ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. — Agence France-Presse

‘ALL we can do for Gaza is just offer our Du’a.’ This is an oft-repeated statement by enraged Arabs and Muslims who feel helpless before the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

But is it true that only invocations and supplications are possible, as tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being killed and wounded by the Israeli war machine?

No. There is much that can be done and, in fact, many people around the world are already doing it.

In the traditions of Hadith, sayings attributed to Prophet Mohammed, the most cited reference to the need for action, collectively or individually, is this one: ‘Whoever among you sees evil, let him change it with his hand. If he cannot do so, then with his tongue. If he cannot do so, then with his heart, which is the weakest level of faith.’

Du’a is an invocation, communicated by the heart; it is a Muslim’s conversation with God. It can be verbalsed, or not. In group prayers, especially during Friday sermons or throughout the holy month of Ramadan, among other occasions, Du’as can be performed collectively.

The nature of the collective Du’a highlights the priorities of any given Muslim group, community or even nation. Gaza, Palestine, Al-Aqsa Mosque are among the some of the main themes, or causes, for which Muslims beseech God’s help.

‘Oh Allah, please free the Al-Aqsa Mosque’, ‘Oh, Merciful One, stand by the children of Gaza’ or ‘Oh All Powerful, deliver Palestinians from injustice’ are only a few of an almost endless stream of Du’a that are uttered from Mecca to Medina to Jerusalem to Kuala Lumpur, to every mosque and every Muslim home throughout the world.

Du’a is the affirmation in a relationship between man and God, delineating that nothing would occur without God’s permission, and that a person, no matter how poor, beleaguered and weakened, can transcend all earthly relations to speak directly to the highest of all authorities.

‘Your Lord has proclaimed, ‘Call upon Me, I will respond to you’,’ Allah says in Surah Ghafir, verse 60.

That does not necessarily mean that Du’a is a last resort. Rather, it goes hand in hand with action. It does not supplant action, but reinforces it. Collective Du’a is a communal declaration that all Muslims are driven by similar priorities, those of peace, justice, equality, mercy, kindness and all the rest.

The dichotomy, however, arises from the fact that many Muslims feel unable to affect change regarding the horrific fate of Gaza, whether on a small or a large scale, thus the widespread notion that ‘all we can do is offer Du’a’.

I have visited South Africa several times in the past. Each time, I learned more than I could have possibly imparted. I learned that people’s power is far more effective, in the long run, than the opposing powers of state violence. I also learned that no worldly law, especially those that aim at imposing racist apartheid, can possibly stand against our innate rejection of social inequality and other evils. Finally, I also learned that when people rise, nothing can stand in their way.

The latter maxim is as true in the case of South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle, as it is now in Palestine, particularly in Gaza. Of that, famed Tunisian poet, Abu Al-Qasim al-Shabi wrote a hundred years ago.

‘Should the people one day truly aspire to life / then fate must needs respond / the night must needs shine forth / and the shackles must needs break,’ he wrote, just before he died at the very young age of 25.

His powerful words also included a caveat, an ominous warning of terrible things to come: ‘Those who are not embraced by life’s yearning / shall evaporate in her air and vanish.’

South Africa did not make the latter choice, nor did Gaza. And every attempt at crushing these great peoples continued to fail. They remained, persisted, healed their wounds and fought back.

I always believed that South Africa will play a central role in international solidarity with Palestine. But, frankly, I had not expected that the African nation would become so intrinsic, even unparalleled, to holding Israel accountable for its crimes in Palestine to this extent.

Pretoria’s push to hold Israel and its war criminals to account at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court continues unabated.

It was not the sheer military, economic or political power or prowess that made South Africa a factor in the Palestinian fight for justice. It was the sheer will of a nation and, subsequently, a government to translate its desire to achieve a more equitable, just and law-governed international system into meaningful action.

South Africa could have simply resorted to self-pity, highlighting its supposed insignificance in the face of more powerful US-western governments that continue to support Israel, feeding it with all the necessary weapons to sustain its genocide.

It, too, could have resorted to prayers, invocations and supplications as the ‘only thing that can be done’. It did not. To the contrary, it used its diplomatic leverage and moral authority to articulate one of the most powerful cases in favour of Palestinian freedom and against Israeli brutality ever argued before an international legal institution.

It is understandable that many may feel helpless, especially when one attempts to fathom the enormity of the crime underway in Gaza. Israel might have not used weapons of mass destruction in the Strip, but it has certainly applied all of its western-supplied weapons to inflict mass destruction, nonetheless.

But if Gaza has not given up, why should we? Even giving up is a privilege. Gaza does not have that privilege nor should we grant it to ourselves. Gaza is fighting for its very survival and we, too, must fight for the same end.

Make a Du’a for Gaza. Let it be your first act as you undertake your quest for a just world. And make another Du’a for Gaza, to beseech God to reward your selfless and well-intentioned deeds. And, if you are besieged by desperation, still make a Du’a, so that you may discover the power to make a difference, which has always been within your grasp.

CounterPunch.org, March 15. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is ‘These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons’ (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr Baroud is a non-resident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs, Istanbul Zaim University.
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[Saif]

Ten biggest Zionist lies

THE core ethos of humanity is kindness and truth but this is grossly violated by genocidally racist and pathologically mendacious...

www.newagebd.net

Ten biggest Zionist lies​

Gideon Polya | Published: 00:00, Mar 19,2024

A boy sits among the rubble and scattered belongings after their home was destroyed in an Israeli strike in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on March 13. — Agence France-Presse

THE core ethos of humanity is kindness and truth but this is grossly violated by genocidally racist and pathologically mendacious apartheid Israel. Huge Zionist perversion and subversion of the west has enabled massive and false Jewish Israeli propaganda to become the dominant narrative in the west. Google Searches reveal the shocking extent of the adoption of 10 major Zionist lies about the Gaza genocide in the Zionist-perverted US and US alliance countries.

(1) ‘Israeli’ is falsely used when ‘Jewish Israeli’ would be correct. About 99 per cent of the Israeli perpetrators of the killing in this latest Gaza massacre are actually ‘Jewish Israelis’ because 99 per cent of the Israel Defence Force is Jewish and 21 per cent of Israelis are Palestinians.

(2) In the current Gaza massacre, ‘terrorist’ is vastly more applicable to Jewish Israeli and US killers than to Hamas. Terrorism is as terrorism does and the killers of about 40,000 Palestinians including about 15,000 children to date in the Gaza genocide are vastly more deserving of the descriptive ‘terrorist’ than Hamas that allegedly killed 1,200 Israelis on October 7 (with possibly most actually killed by overwhelming IDF shelling and missile fire-power).

(3) Google Searches reveal massive English-speaking world lying by omission in ignoring Palestinian exclusion from human rights. The fundamental problem in Apartheid Israel-ruled Palestine has been egregious exclusion of indigenous Palestinian from human rights. Seven million exiled Palestinians are excluded from the basic right to live in their own country. About 5.6 million occupied Palestinians are excluded from all the human rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. About 2.1 million Palestinian Israelis can vote for the government ruling them, albeit as third class citizens under 65 Nazi-style, race-based discriminatory laws. About 7.1 million indigenous Palestinians are 50 per cent of the subjects of apartheid Israel.

(4) The Gaza massacre has increased anti-Jewish sentiment globally but has also led to massive false Zionist claims of ‘anti-Semitism’ in response to condemnation of the Gaza genocide and other apartheid Israeli crimes. The all-European and fervently pro-apartheid Israel International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance has a definition of anti-Semitism that has been used to falsely defame critics of Jewish Israeli crimes. The alliance is anti-Jewish anti-Semitic and anti-Arab anti-Semitic (by falsely defaming anti-racist Jewish, Palestinian, Arab and Muslim critics of apartheid Israel as anti-Semites) and holocaust-denying (by ignoring all WW2 holocausts other than the WW2 Jewish holocaust).

(5) Massive western concern over 250 Israeli hostages while ignoring 5.6 million occupied Palestinian hostages under highly abusive military rule with 10,000 in military prisons (egregious Zionist lying by omission). A glaring example of current western anti-Arab anti-Semitism is massive western coverage of the 250 Israeli hostages that routinely ‘balances’ or indeed displaces reportage of the destruction and mass murder in Gaza (about 40,000 killed so far).

(6) The west falsely accuses Hamas of ‘hostage taking’ war crimes and also ‘human shield’ war crimes because it operates in one of the world’s most densely populated urban areas. Hamas’ 250 Israeli hostages are numerically negligible in relation to 5.6 million Occupied Palestinian hostages under violent and deadly military rule (now for 56 years), 10,000 of whom are highly abusively imprisoned in Israeli military prisons. As for ‘human shields’, if Hamas would gather above or below ground in uninhabited areas they would be immediately totally destroyed by Israeli bombing.

(7) The west overwhelmingly ignores the Occupied/Occupier Reprisals Death Ratio — yet in the Gaza genocide it is 65 versus the 10 ordered by Hitler. Conservatively assuming that the IDF caused 50 per cent of the 1,200 Israeli deaths on October 7, the Occupied/Occupier Reprisals Death Ratio is presently 39,178/ 600 = 65.3, 6.5 times greater than the 10 ordered by Nazi mass murderer Hitler and subsequently effected in the 1944 Ardeatine Massacre. Nazi is as Nazi does.

(8) Mainstream western journalists are too cowardly to report that Jewish Israelis in the Gaza Massacre lead the world in annual per capita killing of journalists. In May 2022 the ‘average number of journalists killed per 10 million of population per year’ was Occupied Palestine, 2.77; Mexico, 0.75; Colombia, 0.37; the World, 0.084. Since October 7 Israelis have killed 132 journalists over 5 months in Gaza, a territory with a population of 2.3 million. The ‘average number of journalists killed per 10 million of population per year’ in Gaza over the last 5 months has been 1,377, or 3,722 times more than for cartel-dominated Colombia and 16,393 times more than for the world.

(9) The Zionists and pro-Zionists falsely assert that ‘Israel has the right to defend itself in Gaza’ and that brutally subjugated Occupied Palestinians do not. Eminent international law expert and UN Rapporteur for Palestinians, Francesca Albanese, says: ‘Israel cannot claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from the territory it occupies, from a territory that is kept under belligerent occupation.’ Conversely, the occupied Palestinians have the right, like any other occupied and subjugated people, to take up arms against tyranny as set out in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by Article 51 of the UN Charter.

(10) Jewish Israelis in Gaza lead the world by far for annual per capita killing of children — 17 times greater than for Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Europe. At least 14,622 Gaza children were killed by Jewish Israelis in the 151-day period of October 7, 2023 — March 5, 2024, meaning 15,378 children killed per year per million of total territory population, this being 203 times bigger than the previous world’s worst, Honduras (75.7). The figure is 17 times higher than children killed per year per million of total territory population in Nazi-occupied Europe.

This ongoing Jewish Israeli atrocity in Gaza and the attendant tsunami of western-propagated Zionist falsehood is a horrible violation not just of kindness, truth and humanity but also of the wonderful humanitarian Jewish tradition from the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ ‘love thy neighbour’, through Baruch Spinoza and the Enlightenment to the great Jewish humanitarian scholars of the present era from Hannah Arendt to Howard Zinn.

Decent people around the world must (a) inform everyone they can, and (b) urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against genocidally racist apartheid Israel and all people, politicians, parties, collectives, corporations and countries supporting this genocidal neo-Nazi state and its horrendous and unforgivable atrocities. The world must forcibly demand immediate cessation of the killing, and an immediate end to the occupation so that the now starving and horribly deprived Gazans can be immediately given water, food, shelter, sanitation, medicine, medical care, commencement of gigantic reconstruction — and then forensically-informed international war crimes trials of genocidal Jewish Israelis for one of the world’s worst atrocities.

DissidentVoice.org, March 16. Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia over 4 decades. He has published the following books Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History, US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide, and Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide and Solutions.​

 

[Saif]

Column by Mahfuz Anam: From largest open-air prison to 'greatest open-air graveyard'

Israel is using starvation as a weapon against the people of Gaza.

www.thedailystar.net

Column by Mahfuz Anam: From largest open-air prison to 'greatest open-air graveyard'​

Israel is using starvation as a weapon

Palestinians gather to receive free food as Gaza residents face crisis levels of hunger, during the holy month of Ramadan, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on March 19, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS

The heading is a reference to the comments of EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell at the opening of an EU conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels on March 17. "In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine but in a state of famine affecting thousands of people." The EU has accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon. The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which formally declares famine, said two of its three criteria have already been met. It believes that the third, the number of deaths by starvation, may already be in effect. After the killing of 32,000 Palestinians, of which 13,500 were children, the rest are being starved to death. Their health stands already damaged enough that they may never return to a normal, healthy life.

However unjust the world has been with its discrimination, exploitation, repression, and killings, we have never before seen anything close to the barbarity that Israel is now inflicting upon unarmed Palestinians. The only imagery that comes to mind is what the Nazis did to the Jews during the Holocaust. Where is the difference in what Israelis are doing to Gazans now?

Make a mental picture of what's going on. The Gaza Strip is 41 km long and 6-12 km wide, with a total area of 365 sq-km which is comparable to Dhaka's area of 306.4 sq-km. (But of course, hosting a vastly lower population). Now, imagine that all the population of north Dhaka was forced, under threat of being killed, to gather in the southern half and then is indiscriminately bombed day and night. Imagine that almost all the buildings of north Dhaka stand destroyed and nearly half of those in the south are razed to the ground. Those that remain are unsafe. All the roads are unusable. There is no electricity and no water. And the whole place is filled with the stench of the dead buried under the rubbles. Those who survived the initial bombing and remained trapped died, one day at a time; shouting, then crying, then whispering to loved ones above who could not remove the rubble and save them due to lack of equipment. Can anyone live a normal life after seeing their loved ones die within reach of themselves, pleading for water and help while they could do nothing? This is the reality—now far worse and getting worse still—that every Palestinian in Gaza is having to live with.

Imagine also that all the hospitals in Dhaka were bombed. Doctors were killed, assaulted, and picked up as pro-Hamas suspects. Consider that in the whole of Dhaka, there is no hospital to go to, there is no supply of medicine or medical aid. There is nothing to treat the injured who inevitably have to die literally in their loved one's arms. Imagine also that there is a total ban on the supply of everything, including food, water, and other essentials.

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Will the world just watch and utter some appropriate platitudes from time to time? Are we to remain silent as we see all the values, morals, and ideals that our civilisation represents being torn to bits by the blood-thirsty regime of Netanyahu? South Africa has set a laudable example by taking Israel to the International Court of Justice. We see massive outpouring of protest in faraway countries in South America, we see heartwarming gatherings of hundreds and thousands in many capitals of Europe. But we do not see similar protests in Africa and Asia, including South Asia. What is most disappointing is the role of the Arab countries.​

After weeks of total ban, a trickle of food and essentials were allowed. When starving Palestinians gathered in line to collect some food, they were gunned down. This was an event that we did not cover much in Bangladeshi media—the slaughter of 115 starving Palestinians who had lined up for flour and water on February 29 in the southeast of Gaza city and were machine-gunned by Israeli soldiers. Popular US commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano said to Nobel Prize-winning economist Jeffrey Sachs in a recent interview: "This has got to be one of the most reprehensible and public slaughtering that they've [Israeli soldiers] engaged in."

Consider the brutality, the utter inhumanity in shooting down people waiting in line for food. The Israeli narrative, that much of the West swallowed, is that Palestinians started rioting and Israeli troops started firing when they felt threatened. Is it possible that emaciated food seekers suddenly become so strong and organised as to become a threat to those who are heavily armed, well-protected, and stationed in heavily guarded bunkers? The well-established Western media, instead of tearing this untenable and fact-defying narrative to bits, gave it currency.

Last Sunday, Unicef reported that 13,000 children have been killed till date, which its Executive Director Catherine Russell told CBS News was "astronomical" and "horrifying," adding that many children affected by malnutrition "don't even have the energy to cry." She said how "thousands [of children] have been injured. They may be stuck under rubble. Thousands have lost one or both parents… they are just by themselves managing their younger siblings."

Dr Jeffrey Sachs said, "Israel has deliberately starved the people of Gaza. Starved. I'm not using an exaggeration. I am talking literally starving a population. Israel is a criminal, is in non stop war crime status now. I believe, in genocidal status…"

Take the latest situation in Rafah, a small Gazan border town with Egypt where more than a million and half of the two million Gazans have gathered as a result of Israeli bombing. The Israeli military, on March 15, approved plans to invade Rafah and the Israeli prime minister announced on March 17 that no amount of international pressure will stop him from doing so.

What does ground invasion of Rafah mean? Again, using the example of Dhaka, imagine that in some corner of the city about 15 lakh people—helpless, homeless, starving—have gathered under the open sky. They are waiting to be invaded within days by what can be termed as one of the most brutal armies in the world. Not to mention lethal bombs will rain on them from planes and drones.

Scenes from the bombing of Tokyo, London, and Dresden during World War II, and even the bombing of Vietnamese and Cambodian villages during the Viet Nam war, surface in our minds. But they were wars, and the fighting was between sovereign countries or well-established guerilla outfits. Not a country, armed to the teeth, against a civilian population.

First, the indiscriminate bombing and invasion of Gaza, and now planned ground assault on Rafah against 1.5 million defenceless refugees. It will be nothing short of mass slaughter turning Gaza into the biggest graveyard in the world. This attack will be carried out by soldiers who have been totally desensitised against Palestinians, who have been taught to think of them as non- humans and belonging to some lower species who do not deserve the minimum dignity that a human being does.

Will the world just watch and utter some appropriate platitudes from time to time? Are we to remain silent as we see all the values, morals, and ideals that our civilisation represents being torn to bits by the blood-thirsty regime of Netanyahu? South Africa has set a laudable example by taking Israel to the International Court of Justice. We see massive outpouring of protest in faraway countries in South America, we see heartwarming gatherings of hundreds and thousands in many capitals of Europe. But we do not see similar protests in Africa and Asia, including South Asia. What is most disappointing is the role of the Arab countries.

It is the same people. It is happening in their own backyard and has been happening for so long. The history is clear. Over the years, Arab countries have lost more clout and the reverse is true for Israel, whose power and influence has become unchallengeable. The only solution is through negotiations and not war. But the Arab countries are losing their negotiating power with each passing day. If Israel is able to inflict such barbaric actions on Palestinians, what respect will be left for the Arab countries?

A similar question comes upon us. Why have we not had massive public demonstrations condemning what Israel is doing? Why have we been so restrained in expressing our solidarity with the people of Gaza? As a political leader and head of government, our PM has made some very bold statements. But why haven't we, as a people, done as much? Why haven't our intellectuals, the academia, writers, and artists spoken out more? Only in the social media space have we seen vocal protests, for which I praise our young. We, the media, have covered the events but haven't done enough either. We should have done much more.

With each Palestinian who is killed, Israel loses its legitimacy, the West its moral standing, and the rest of us, remaining silent, our humanity.​

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Mahfuz Anam is the editor and publisher of The Daily Star.​

 

[Saif]

Russia, China veto US Security Council bid on Gaza 'ceasefire'

Russia and China on Friday vetoed a US-led draft resolution at the Security Council on a ceasefire in Gaza, with Moscow accusing Washington of a "hypocritical spectacle" that does not pressure Israel

www.thedailystar.net

Russia, China veto US Security Council bid on Gaza 'ceasefire'​

Photo: AFP/File

Russia and China on Friday vetoed a US-led draft resolution at the Security Council on a ceasefire in Gaza, with Moscow accusing Washington of a "hypocritical spectacle" that does not pressure Israel.

The United States, Israel's main ally which has vetoed previous ceasefire calls, put forward the resolution which for the first time would have supported "the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire" and condemned the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Russia and China exercised their vetoes, Algeria also voted against and Guyana abstained. The other 11 Security Council members voted in favor, including permanent members France and Britain.

Russia's ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia, said that the United States was doing nothing to rein in Israel, mocking Washington for speaking of a ceasefire after "Gaza has been virtually wiped off the face of the Earth."

"We have observed a typical hypocritical spectacle," he said.

"The American product is exceedingly politicized, with the sole purpose being to play to voters and throw them a bone in the form of some kind of a mention of a ceasefire in Gaza," he said.

The resolution will "ensure the impunity of Israel, whose crimes are not even assessed in the draft."

The draft links a ceasefire to ongoing talks, led by Qatar with support from the United States and Egypt, to halt the war in return for Hamas releasing hostages.

The US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, called the Russian and Chinese vetoes "not just cynical" but also "petty."

"Russia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States," she said.

"Let's be honest -- for all the fiery rhetoric, we all know that Russia and China are not doing anything diplomatically to advance a lasting peace or to meaningfully contribute to the humanitarian response effort," she said.​