Israeli far-right minister Ben Gvir leads incursion of Al-Aqsa compound | Al Jazeera - 27 July 2023 |
The visit comes as some hardline Israeli Jewish settlers promote the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar en-Gvir has led a group of more than one thousand ultranationalist settlers to the Al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem, his third such entrance to the site this year.
The provocative minister's entrance to the holy site took place as Jews observed Tisha B'Av<, a fast day mourning the destruction of two ancient Jewish temples.
"This place is important to us and we have to return to it and prove our sovereignty," Ben-Gvir said as he led the group, adding that the "unity of the nation of Israel is important".
Ben-Gvir consistently makes anti-Palestinian remarks and was a former youth leader of a now-banned group that Israel has declared a "terrorist" organisation.
The visit comes as some hardline Israeli Jewish groups promote the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound - one of the holiest sites in Islam and a Palestinian national symbol - and the construction of a third Jewish temple in its place.
From the diaries ...
Kahane: JDL Thugs As His Legacy | by Oui on Mar 5th, 2020 |
PR Presentation Rutte Visit to Netanyahu-Abbas
Israel's Pegasus: The Secret Arm of Dutch Intelligence | 2 June 2022 |
The reality as 13 years PM Mark Rutte has proven his pro-Israel bias on occasion after occasion. No empathy or concern for Palestinian rights, only in the most ultimate danger that would damage his image.
We strongly condemn the Dutch government's blow to Palestinian civil society | Mondoweiss - 16 Jan. 2022 |
The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) and The Rights Forum strongly condemn the decision of the Dutch government to end its funding to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC). This decision was made despite an external investigation that affirmed UAWC's institutional independence and cleared the organisation of the main charges levied against it by the Israeli government and its extremist allies.
Decision made by caretaker cabinet of Rutte III, in last days before new ministers in cabinet Rutte IV would be sworn in. Cowards.
Israel/OPT: Silencing of Palestinian Civil Society Organisations Must End | Geneva Int'l Center for Justice |
In October 2021, Israel banned the seven NGOs accusing them to have ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and labelled them as "terrorist" organisations. A decision that was widely condemned and criticised by the international community.
Background
Six Palestinian human rights and humanitarian organisations were designated as terrorist groups by the Israeli government on 18th August 2022. Palestinian civil society is already struggling under occupation and counter-terrorism laws, which are chipping away at the space left for civic engagement. Palestinian humanitarian organisations continue to face threats as the humanitarian crisis in Palestine worsens. The restrictive policies imposed on Palestinian humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) by Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and western donors over the past decade have caused these organisations to suffer. The status quo ensures these organisations stay vulnerable and set up to fail.
European Funding for Palestinian NGOs as Political Subcontracting
Stop Lying On Behalf of the Apartheid State
Just plain vile slander of European Institutions ... and it worked inside rightwing populist government of The Netherlands. Christians and the second coming of Christ, Mark Rutte the lying opportunist in Dutch politics.
Who's sending death threats to Palestinian advocates in The Hague? | +972Mag - Aug. 17, 2016 |
In an interview with +972, the Hague representative of Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group, talks about the slew of threats she and her organization have received for months, and why she believes the Israeli government is behind them.
In a small ceremony in The Hague on April 1, 2015, the Palestinian Authority officially signed the Rome Statute, the legal covenant enabling the prosecution of individuals at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Saeb Erekat, the PA's chief negotiator, called it "a historic day in the struggle for justice, freedom and peace for our people and all those seeking justice worldwide."
A few months later, four Palestinian human rights organizations - Al-Haq, Al Mezan, Aldameer, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights - submitted communiqués to the ICC detailing numerous counts of suspected war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza War, codenamed "Operation Protective Edge" by the Israeli military. Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, stated that "Israel is unwilling and Palestine is unable to domestically hold to account Israeli perpetrators of international crimes. We need the ICC to break the cycle of impunity."
ICC Failure In Palestine, New Massacre In Gaza
By banning six Palestinian NGOs, Israel has entered a new era of impunity | The Guardian Opinion - 21 Oct. 2021 |
I founded al-Haq in 1979. Israeli now considers it to be a terrorist group, along with other vital humans rights organisations
* Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian writer and lawyer
I was one of the founders of the human rights organisation Al-Haq in 1979 and remain proud of its work over the past four decades in defending human rights in the Israeli occupied territories. I was horrified when it was declared to be a terrorist organisation by the Israeli defence minister on 19 October, along with five other Palestinian NGOs.
During the many years of direct Israeli occupation, from 1967 to 1995, there was a long and expanding list of proscribed groups issued by the Israeli military commander under "emergency" regulations first put in place by the British in 1945. Al-Haq was never on this list.
In 1980, an Israeli army patrol passing by Al-Haq's small office in Ramallah late at night became suspicious of the cars parked nearby and stormed the meeting, roughing up some of the staff. At the time a representative of Amnesty International was attending the meeting. When we lodged a complaint the army began an interminable investigation of the incident, which after many years was still not concluded. Yet the storming of the organisation's office was never repeated - not even during the reinvasion of the West Bank in 2002, when offices of a large number of organisations in Ramallah were trashed.
US set to remove Kahane's `Kach' group from foreign terrorism blacklist | TOI - 15 May 2022 |
A US official speaking to The Times of Israelclarified the move as it related to Kahane Chai, saying the revocation "was required by US law since there was insufficient evidence from the last five years that [the] organization, directed or engaged in terrorist activity."
However, the US official said that Kahane Chai "will remain a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity," even if it is dropped from the FTO list. "The US government remains concerned by the legacy of Kahane Chai and the continued use of its rhetoric among violent right wing extremists."
The SDGT designations will remain for a number of reasons, "including to support law enforcement actions or ensure frozen assets aren't released to still active terrorists," the US official said.
[Update-1]
After caretaker PM Mark Rutte on his “peace” mission, Israel answered with the deadliest night on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip murdering over 400 people.
Rutte heads for Israel for talks with Netanyahu and Abbas | Dutch News |
Prime minister Mark Rutte is in Tel Aviv on Monday for a lighting visit to meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Later in the day he will also hold talks with Palestine’s president Mahmoud Abbas, the state information service confirmed.
Rutte said earlier on social media he had spoken to Netanyahu about the Dutch woman who was killed in Gaza after becoming stranded there with her four sons.
In that message he also repeated his earlier statement that Israel has the right to defend itself but that “Israel must do all it can to prevent ordinary people becoming victims of the battle against Hamas.”
“The tragic situation in Gaza calls for humanitarian pauses to allow much-needed aid to get through for Gaza’s innocent civilians,” Rutte said. “Gaza needs a sustainable humanitarian corridor for aid and essential goods such as food, water and fuel.”
Rutte said everything must be done to prevent the conflict from spreading to other regions and reiterated the need for a two-state solution. [blah, blah, blah that option has long gone to the dustbin of history … and Rutte knows it!]
French president Emmanuel Macron will visit Israel on Tuesday. Rutte said on Sunday evening he had spoken to both Macron and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the situation on Sunday evening.
After millions died in the Middle East to give a false security to the apartheid state of Israel during so many years of a failed effort to find peace … President Sadat gave his life for peace with Israel, Yitzak Rabin gave his life in search of peace, and now war criminal Netanyahu, who tore up the Oslo Accords, gives a speech about the Holocaust and 9/11 … SHAME ON YOU ... How many Palestinians have you butchered?
The Dutch Prime Minister Marc Rutte has called for humanitarian pauses to allow the flow of aid into Gaza. He made the call during a visit to Israel and Palestine.
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid is in Ramallah, in the Occupied West Bank for the latest updates.
Dutch PM meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu & Palestinian Authority President Abbas
Transcript of Al Jazeera interview:
Asked about proportionality, this is what he had to say.
Mark Rutte: First of all, I cannot judge, but of course I’m worried, but I cannot judge whether at the moment … ehh … yes or no Israel is completely … ehh … working within the lines of proportionality and international human law, ehh humanitarian law … I cannot judge that because I do not know all the facts on the table … this of course is up to Israel at this moment to navigate. But I very much stressed the point and the practicality of that is the humanitarian access, the practicality of that is preventing regional escalation, the practicality of that is taking out the hostages and the foreigners … and the practicality is to do everything, and that is the main issue, of preventing innocent civilians to be … ehh … to be … ehh … to ... ehh .. killed if not necessary.
Dutch right wing media De Telegraaf and BNR, even a former progressive newspaper De Volkskrant backs the mission by Mark Rutte and supporting the false rhetoric Rutte is even-handed and an experienced European leader to make a difference. Not even Biden has a say in how Israel will “defend itself” as it has done for over 75 years. Complete bull to keep the home front “together”.
Kerry’s Speech: America Lost in Two-State Ether, Israel Spied on Nations Supporting UN Vote | Tikun Olam – 29 Dec. 2016 |
Under president Trump and continued under Biden/Blinken the so-called Abraham Accords was a capitalist trap to tap into the Middle East Arab wealth while discarding International treaties, UNSC Resolutions and the Rights of Palestinians to their own rightful land: the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
This war didn’t start on that dreadful Saturday morning. The 7th of October.
War criminal leadership in Jerusalem, with Bibi Netanyahu still PM under criminal investigation, called the Palestinian cause after 9/11 attacks, a terrorist state equated to Al Qaeda.
Today the same idiot called Hamas a terrorist group equal in cruelty to ISIS … jihadists sprung from the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, funded and supported in part by Arab States and later moved into Raqqa and Syria with support from Türkiye and most NATO countries. Israel gave support to the al Nusra terror group. Or were these crimes attributed to “freedom fighters” for a Free Syria?
