https://www.middleeastmonitor.com Latest news from the Middle East and North Africa Tue, 08 Aug 2023 09:33:31 +0000 en-GB Middle East Monitor 30 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/favicon.png?fit=32%2C32&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com 32 32 116394717 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230803-beirut-port-blast-three-years-on-victims-still-await-accountability/ Thu, 03 Aug 2023 14:07:25 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=657885 Lebanon, on Friday, marks the third anniversary of the Beirut port explosion which killed at least 220 people, wounded thousands and damaged swathes of the city. Despite the devastation, an investigation has brought no senior official to account. Here is a summary of what happened and how the investigation has been stymied: The explosion  The blast is thought to have been set off by a fire at a warehouse just after 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on 4 August, 2020, detonating hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate. Originally bound for Mozambique aboard a Russian-leased ship, the chemicals had been at the port since 2013, when they were unloaded during an unscheduled stop. No one claimed the shipment, tangled in a legal […]]]> 657885 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230803-israel-is-an-apartheid-state-so-why-did-an-eu-diplomat-refuse-to-say-so/ Thu, 03 Aug 2023 12:12:26 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=657865 Outgoing EU Envoy to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Sven Kuhn Von Burgsdorff attracted the wrong sort of attention when he paraglided off Gaza's coast last month, purportedly promoting a promise of freedom even as the EU persists in the moribund two-state narrative. Israel described the stunt as provocative, while for Palestinians, the distinction between diplomats' freedom and the annihilation of their own freedom of movement was made all too apparent. Palestinians can do the same, said the EU envoy, when they are free. He knows full well that the Palestinian people's freedom is not on the international political agenda. His stunt simply served to demonstrate the EU's diplomatic conceit. In an interview with the Times of Israel, Von […]]]> 657865 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230801-the-pa-is-an-obstruction-to-palestinian-unity/ Tue, 01 Aug 2023 12:58:32 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=657082 The entire world recognises the Palestine Liberation Organisation as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, but this does not mean that the Palestinians are tethered to the same stagnant politics. The latest rhetoric from Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas about Palestinian unity was yet another exercise in authoritarianism, completely neglecting the fact that the PLO's acquiescence to international diplomacy spelled the end of the unified Palestinian anti-colonial resistance. An equally disturbing and important consideration is Fatah's monopoly over the PLO and the PA, which renders it a support base for Abbas's illegitimate rule. Abbas, of course, is the head of all three organisations. Speaking in Egypt at a meeting for leaders of Palestinian factions, Abbas stated that, "It is […]]]> 657082 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230727-just-one-example-of-a-diplomat-unworthy-of-the-role/ Thu, 27 Jul 2023 17:44:09 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=655636 The EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, Sven Koopmans, is just one blatant example of why Israel fears nothing — and has nothing to fear — from international diplomats. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Koopman's rhetoric of hope, imagination and positivity stands in stark contrast to the reality of Israel's colonial expansion across occupied Palestine. While many diplomats hold Israel's narrative supreme, Koopmans chose an alternative tactic that allows Israel's narrative to thrive within his ambiguity. Dissociating from his diplomatic role, Koopmans described himself as coming from a privileged background and having no understanding of or expertise on colonialism: "I am this guy from Amsterdam. I was very lucky I grew up in a very […]]]> 655636 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230725-israel-enemies-see-opportunity-in-its-crisis/ Tue, 25 Jul 2023 19:28:27 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=655103 The crisis sweeping Israel has become a focal point for its enemies across the Middle East, who have convened top-level meetings to weigh the turmoil and how they might capitalise on it, sources familiar with the discussions say, Reuters reports. Foes, including Lebanon's Iran-backed, Hezbollah, have been crowing at the sight of Israel fractured by the crisis ignited by government moves to overhaul the judiciary, especially threats by reservists to stop showing up for military service. Away from the propaganda being broadcast by groups eager to see Israel's demise, these factions have also been devoting special attention to the crisis at closed-door meetings, perceiving this as a potential  turning point for Israel. The subject was discussed at a three-hour meeting last week […]]]> 655103 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230725-brics-endorses-the-defunct-two-state-compromise/ Tue, 25 Jul 2023 15:09:43 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=655015 The BRICS Summit in South Africa has given further unwarranted validation to the two-state compromise for Palestine-Israel. The Palestinian Authority's official news agency Wafa promoted the reaffirmation by international diplomacy as calling for "the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital." While BRICS is seen as an economic alternative – 22 countries have formally applied to join the bloc, while another 20 have expressed interest – its diplomacy for Palestine only promises more of the same defunct premises which have accelerated Israel's settler-colonial expansion on Palestinian territory. Economic inequalities may be addressed through BRICS, although the number of countries applying or expressing interest will inevitably veer the group away from the alternative economic policies which […]]]> 655015 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230724-when-justice-is-neither-done-nor-seen-to-be-done/ Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:00:24 +0000 , Middle East Monitor , Middle East Monitor , Middle East Monitor , Middle East Monitor , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=654688 On 9 March 2021 we were arrested by the Police before we could reach Elbit's Shenstone factory where some of us intended to occupy the roof and decorate the factory with paint in the blood red colour of the victims of its drones. Elbit is an Israeli arms company. On 15 May 2023, after a seven-week trial, we were found guilty of intent to cause criminal damage without lawful excuse. Judge Michael Chambers refused to admit all lawful excuse defences under s.3 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 or let us explain why it was that we had targeted Elbit. The jury was therefore left with the impression that our only purpose was to commit criminal damage. At no point was the […]]]> 654688 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230722-an-exercise-in-omitting-israels-colonial-foundations/ Sat, 22 Jul 2023 10:17:57 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=654452 Israeli President Isaac Herzog's address to the US Congress on Wednesday was a mix of melodrama and colonial nostalgia. Attempting to conceal the politics of settler-colonialism and collaboration, Herzog made vague references to hope, unity and democracy, even as Israel's military-industrial complex remains a major exporter of colonial surveillance and violence to the rest of the world. "Israel's first seventy-five years were rooted in an ancient dream. Let us base our next seventy-five years on hope. Our shared hope, that we can heal our fractured world, as the closest of allies and friends," Herzog told US lawmakers. Yet, Israel recently not only fractured Jenin refugee camp, but destroyed it, rendering a forcibly displaced population refugees once again. The US, as […]]]> 654452 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230720-us-behaving-like-thought-police-with-pro-israel-resolution-denying-apartheid/ Thu, 20 Jul 2023 14:24:29 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=654149 The two major political parties in the US have waded into the debate about whether or not Israel is a racist state by passing a non-binding resolution pledging loyalty and support to it. Democrats and Republicans employed the symbolic power of Congress in a move intended to counter the near unanimous consensus among major human rights groups about Israel's practice of apartheid. The US, said one critic, is behaving like "thought police" on the issue. Tuesday's vote in Congress comes as an international debate over how to define the situation in the territories from the west of River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea heats up. For many millennia, the territory was part of historic Palestine. Human rights groups, including Israel's […]]]> 654149 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230718-the-pas-fear-of-palestinian-journalists/ Tue, 18 Jul 2023 20:00:27 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=653369 The Palestinian Authority's abhorrence for journalists was, once again, highlighted with the security services' arrest of Akil Awawdeh last week. Awawdeh had spoken out against the PA's security services' spokesman's claim that no political arrests are made in the Occupied West Bank. "You should respect our minds more than that," Awawdeh was reported to have written on Facebook. Awawdeh is no stranger to the PA's security services' violence. In 2021, while attending the demonstrations against the PA following the murder of Palestinian activist, Nizar Banat, who was beaten to death by the security services. Awawdeh was detained and beaten. Identifying himself as a member of the press, Awawdeh was attacked by the PA's security services, along with other Palestinians attending […]]]> 653369 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230713-jenins-marginalisation-in-international-rhetoric/ Thu, 13 Jul 2023 18:00:13 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=652129 Reiterating the obvious is one prerequisite for being a diplomat. With the Jenin refugee camp becoming the latest attraction for the international community's humanitarian agenda, the grotesque statements are paying more attention to Israel's security narrative than the ongoing Nakba (Catastrophe) of the Palestinian people. An international delegation led by the EU's representative to the occupied Palestinian territories, Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, put forth the following generalisation. "We are concerned about the deployment of weaponry and weapons systems which question the proportionality of the military during the operation," said von Burgsdorff, while calling the military incursion "a violation of international law." Why is the EU representative concerned about the deployment of weapons and not about Israel's qualitative military edge, though? […]]]> 652129 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230711-privilege-and-power-for-the-pa-to-the-detriment-of-palestinians/ Tue, 11 Jul 2023 13:23:43 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=651401 More proof of the Palestinian Authority's precarious position was made public earlier this week, when it was announced that Israeli ministers, with the exception of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, voted in favour of measures that would bolster the PA. "In the absence of a change in the national assessment, Israel will act to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, while demanding that it cease its anti-Israel activity in the international legal-diplomatic arena, the incitement in its media and education system, the payments to the families of terrorists and murderers, and the illegal construction in Area C," the Israeli Diplomatic Security Cabinet's statement partly read. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan is to […]]]> 651401 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230706-israels-jenin-incursion-may-further-unite-palestinian-resistance/ Thu, 06 Jul 2023 15:00:30 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=650158 The Israeli military incursion in Jenin is by no means over, marking both a victory for Palestinian resistance as well as the further promise of colonial violence from Israel's occupation forces against Palestinians. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant claimed victory, yet his words indicate otherwise, including an assertion that further rounds will be required to annihilate the Palestinian resistance. Downplaying the tenacity of the new resistance, Gallant stated, "At the moment of truth, the terrorists [sic] in Jenin chose to hide or flee… These are gunmen fighting for money or to show their friends that they're heroes. Most left, and those who stayed hid within the civilian population, including in hospitals and places with children. I think this testifies most […]]]> 650158 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230704-israels-security-narrative-reigns-supreme-as-it-acts-with-impunity/ Tue, 04 Jul 2023 13:11:23 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=649618 "We support Israel's security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups," said the White House National Security Council as it weighed in on the occupation state's attacks on Jenin's refugee camp. The densely-populated camp has been hit with drone strikes in one of the biggest military incursions of the impoverished area in two decades. Residents were forced to flee, possibly creating yet another wave of refugees and displaced persons. According to Israeli media, the far-right occupation government informed the US of its plan to attack Jenin a week before the offensive began. The US, of course, feigns oblivion at the increase in Israeli state and settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied […]]]> 649618 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230629-israel-officials-promote-impunity-for-all-forms-of-settler-colonial-violence/ Thu, 29 Jun 2023 15:15:59 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=648000 If Israel's National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, can find excuses for the hilltop youth's colonial violence, how much more is the concept of settler-colonial presence as a form of violence normalised? During a meeting called by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir described the hilltop youth as "sweet boys" forced into adulthood through administrative detention. In February this year, the Shin Bet's Chief, Ronen Bar, blamed setter violence in the Occupied West Bank on the hilltop youth. "The settler community in Judea and Samaria are super normative and law-abiding," Bar had stated, while acknowledging that "a very small percentage of hilltop youth that are harming the whole settler enterprise." Ben-Gvir and Bar may be at odds, but not in terms […]]]> 648000 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230627-the-palestinian-resistance-is-making-inroads/ Tue, 27 Jun 2023 17:30:52 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=647676 Israel needs the Palestinian Authority. That much has been established clearly by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a private meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee. At a time when the PA is clearly losing its control over Palestinians, Netanyahu is speaking truths which Ramallah, in its desire to cling to power, will not heed. That is, nothing other than Israel's concern for the PA's survival will strike a chord with leader Mahmoud Abbas. "We need the Palestinian Authority. We cannot allow it to collapse. We also do not want it to collapse. We are ready to help it financially," said Netanyahu, according to Israeli media. "Where it succeeds in operating, it does the job for us." Such […]]]> 647676 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230626-explainer-turkiye-keeps-sweden-waiting-on-nato-membership-as-key-summit-nears/ Mon, 26 Jun 2023 16:19:54 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=647340 Sweden's path to NATO membership remains blocked by Turkiye and Hungary ahead of a July summit in Vilnius, where it hopes to join Nordic neighbour, Finland, as a full member of the alliance. Finland, which applied together with Sweden, joined NATO in April, but Turkiye continues to block Swedish membership, citing security concerns. Ankara has said Sweden must crack down on anti-Turkiye protests before getting a green light to join NATO. Sweden has set its sights on joining at the alliance's 11-12 July summit and, while it has strong support from other members including the United States and more talks with Turkiye are expected, there have been few clear signs of a breakthrough. Background  Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year convinced Sweden […]]]> 647340 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230626-eid-al-adha-what-is-the-feast-of-sacrifice/ Mon, 26 Jun 2023 12:40:14 +0000 Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=647293 Eid Al-Adha, or the "Feast of Sacrifice", is right around the corner and Muslims around the globe are preparing for one of Islam's most significant festivals, Anadolu Agency reports. It is the second major festival for Muslims after Eid Al-Fitr, which is celebrated at the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. It takes place between the 10th and 13th day of the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, as Hajj – the sacred pilgrimage that is the fifth and final pillar of Islam – finishes in Saudi Arabia. Dhul Hijjah, the 12th and last month of the Muslim lunar calendar, is itself considered one of the holiest in the Islamic year and Muslims often fast on its first nine […]]]> 647293 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230622-while-pointing-out-international-responsibility-the-fatah-dominated-pa-conceals-its-own/ Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:57:31 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=646631 As if further proof was necessary that the Palestinians have been abandoned by Ramallah, Fatah called upon the people yesterday "to stay alert and confront the systematic settler attacks that are carried out with the connivance of the occupation army." No security coordination to protect Palestinians from Israeli state and settler terrorism was suggested or even contemplated, of course. That is reserved for collaboration with the occupation state. "The Palestinian people will not stand idle in the face of attacks and terrorism of the settlers," the Palestinian Authority's official news agency Wafa stated, paraphrasing an official statement. Yet despite the escalation in Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians, all the PA has done so far is to request international protection from […]]]> 646631 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230620-twisted-narratives-promote-the-targeted-assassinations-of-palestinians/ Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:35:50 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=645976 A recent poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research detailed how Palestinians are largely in favour of armed resistance against Israel's settler-colonialism. More importantly, Palestinians have again asserted that they no longer need to take their cues from the main Palestinian political factions, indicating a sharp detachment from the politics of the previous years that monopolised resistance depending on factions and geographical territory. In the poll, 71 per cent of Palestinians favoured the forming of armed resistance groups such as the Lions' Den and the Jenin Battalion. The Palestinian Authority continued to lose favour among the people of occupied Palestine, with 80 per cent of survey participants against the surrender of members from resistance groups to the […]]]> 645976 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230615-protecting-an-obsolete-framework-is-not-a-legitimate-political-option/ Thu, 15 Jun 2023 14:30:55 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=644888 The lauding of diplomatic meetings between Palestinian Authority officials and other political entities needs to cease, especially when the item under discussion is the obsolete two-state compromise. "There is an urgent need to move immediately to protect the two-state solution at a time the Israeli government is pushing the Palestinian Authority to the brink of collapse and destroying the possibility of a Palestinian state," PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has told the EU Representative to the State of Palestine, Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, during a meeting in Ramallah. Since when is protecting an obsolete framework a legitimate political option? All the meetings between the PA and the EU have been futile; those in the future will be no different. Not […]]]> 644888 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230613-the-pa-foreign-minister-promotes-israeli-impunity/ Tue, 13 Jun 2023 13:36:23 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=644421 Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki keeps generating contradictions in his diplomatic endeavours. The concept of "waiting" is one of Al-Maliki's favourite terms to resort to, reminding diplomats of how Palestinians have been forced to wait by the international community but failing to address how the PA endorses waiting in its own politics through the two-state compromise. During a recent meeting in Riyadh with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Bin Abdulla, Al-Maliki mentioned "the need to put an immediate end to the intolerable impunity of Israel, as an occupying power." There should be no doubt that the international community applauds him for learning his lines so well in terms of actually protecting Israel's impunity. Israel's military occupation […]]]> 644421 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230613-brazil-strengthens-ties-with-israel-signs-new-agreements/ Tue, 13 Jun 2023 09:57:19 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=644372 Brazil and Israel signed a letter of intent for the exchange of technologies and innovations at national ports and airports. This came on the first day of the International Mission Porto & Mar Brazil-Israel 2023, led by the Brazilian Minister of Ports and Airports Marcio Franca. The Brazilian delegation met with Israeli officials and businessmen in Tel Aviv this month. "Israel is a small country in terms of territory, but it has advanced technology. In our sector, we really want this technology for security purposes. We are having many problems with drugs, people who try to put drugs on ships and also at airports. We can provide them with what we know best, which is the issue of physical space, […]]]> 644372 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230608-the-pa-has-abandoned-palestine-in-order-to-stick-to-the-international-narrative/ Thu, 08 Jun 2023 19:00:45 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=643438 If the UN excels at anything besides creating the conditions for human rights abuses, it is keeping track of human rights violations and disseminating the statistical data. There can thus be no doubt that diplomats have access to the details of what is happening in Palestine; spreading awareness without taking political action has, after all, been the chosen avenue for decades. The Israeli-Palestinian "conflict" narrative couldn't have opted for a better strategy. Despite this, the Palestinian Authority still relies on the UN tactics when meeting with diplomats, regurgitating the most obvious statements and rhetorical questions that lead to further impunity for Israel. "How long will the international silence continue towards what is happening here in Palestine in terms of violations […]]]> 643438 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230606-humanitarian-aid-for-palestinians-favours-the-israeli-colonial-enterprise/ Tue, 06 Jun 2023 20:30:02 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=642870 The Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine at the UN, Riyad Mansour, pointed out the unsustainability of donor funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) at the Pledging Conference in New York last Saturday. Nevertheless, the silence on the politicisation of humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees persisted from the Palestinian Authority's senior diplomat at the international organisation. The conference spelled another disaster in terms of donor funding for UNRWA, with only $107 million pledged out of the $300m the agency needs to provide basic services in education and healthcare from September to December this year. "When UNRWA's future hangs in the balance, so do the lives of millions of Palestine refugees relying on essential […]]]> 642870 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230601-the-idfs-legacy-75-years-on/ Thu, 01 Jun 2023 18:00:37 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=641933 While Israel prefers to obliterate the 1948 Nakba from its historical memory despite being the perpetrator of Palestine's ethnic cleansing and colonisation, the same cannot be said for the origins of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Last month, Israel celebrated the 75th anniversary since the military's  establishment. The order was signed by David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, on 26 May, 1948, legitimising the violence of the Zionist paramilitaries by incorporating them into the colonial state's military institution. Israeli media glorified the IDF's establishment and the concept of the "people's army", which was coined to illustrate conscription and the links between the military and society. Ynet news carried brief testimonies of the IDF's former soldiers from 1948, glossing over […]]]> 641933 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230531-13-years-since-israels-attack-on-the-gaza-bound-aid-ship-the-mavi-marmara/ Wed, 31 May 2023 08:21:52 +0000 Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=641119 Today marks the 13th anniversary of the massacre carried out by the Israeli occupation's naval forces against the Freedom Flotilla as it was on its way to break the siege on Gaza in 2010. The Freedom Flotilla included several ships, including the Turkish Mavi Marmara, which was carrying more than 500 activists, most of them Turkish, and three other ships belonging to the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG). Among the people who participated in the first Freedom Flotilla were Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic movement in the Palestinian interior, Haneen Zoabi, a member of the Israeli Knesset at the time, parliamentarians from Germany, Ireland, Egypt and Yemen, artists and writers from Sweden, and media […]]]> 641119 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230530-meaningless-rhetoric-from-the-pa-and-the-international-community-over-ein-samiyah/ Tue, 30 May 2023 14:25:51 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=641044 As Israeli colonial violence resulted in the forced displacement of the 200 residents of Ein Samiyah in Area C of the Occupied West Bank, the range of reactions, from silence to pathetic commentary, only increased impunity for the settler-colonial enterprise. A day after Al Jazeera reported on the recent Palestinian displacement, EU diplomats issued yet another futile reproach urging Israel to stop settlement expansion, warning that "settlement expansion has resulted in increased settler violence". Do Palestinians really need EU diplomats to point out what they have been experiencing daily for decades? Ein Samiyah's displaced residents have now moved to Al-Mughayyir and Al-Nuwaimah, still within reach of settler violence, and illustrating how Israel's ongoing Nakba has been perfected by the state […]]]> 641044 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230525-nationalism-is-not-on-the-rise-in-turkiye/ Thu, 25 May 2023 15:30:52 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=639869 Turkiye's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) scored a clear victory in both the presidential and parliamentary elections held on 14 May. It won a majority of the seats (323 out of 600) in the Parliament combining with its alliance partners, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the New Welfare Party (YRP). The main opposition, Republican People's Party (CHP), in combination with its alliance partners, including the IYI Party, got 212 of the seats in the Parliament. The rest of the 65 seats went to the Labour and Freedom Alliance which is composed of the Green Left Party (YSP) and Turkiye Workers Party (TIP). There were four candidates competing for the presidential office. The incumbent President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, […]]]> 639869 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230525-the-humanitarian-paradigm-is-an-act-of-political-violence-against-palestinians/ Thu, 25 May 2023 12:00:01 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=639386 The Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, recently made another appeal for funding, this time to the Arab League. "Support to Palestine refugees is a collective obligation, including from Arab countries," said Lazzarini, while warning that a decline in funding could risk the agency's collapse. A collective obligation would have bound countries to funding and UNRWA would not be making any pleas to donor countries. Such a misleading depiction will not help Palestinians, but it will work in Israel's favour. The same goes for the UN's Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, when he addressed the UN Security Council yesterday, warning of the funding crisis faced by […]]]> 639386 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230523-beneath-the-rhetorical-veneer-of-abu-dis/ Tue, 23 May 2023 15:45:58 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=638976 In 2019, when the Trump administration revealed the so-called "Deal of the Century", a hypothetical capital of Palestine in the town of Abu Dis was revealed as the alternative to the Palestinian people's claim on Jerusalem. Israel had laid the groundwork for the announcement with its earlier unilateral declaration that Jerusalem remains its "undivided" capital. The commotion regarding Jerusalem had more to do with global ridicule of former US President Donald Trump, than the political rights of the Palestinian people. With annexation on the table, what were the odds that Palestinians would or will ever retain any land in any case, let alone rights? Abu Dis was always just a rhetorical veneer covering the real issues at stake, including the […]]]> 638976 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230519-the-pas-glorification-of-israels-colonial-accomplices/ Fri, 19 May 2023 09:54:22 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=637914 Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas never fails to blunder in his speeches. Speaking at the UN in New York on the 75th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba, Abbas requested that the US and the UK address their historic responsibilities. One would think this means taking a political stance in favour of decolonisation. However, Abbas merely urged recognition of Palestinian self-determination on the basis of the two-state compromise. On the Nakba anniversary, Abbas failed to oppose Israeli colonisation and the colonial accomplices, urging instead for a continuation of the ongoing Nakba Palestinians have experienced for 75 years. To accentuate his position of betrayal, Abbas also "voiced his confidence that the UN would not spare any effort in order to redress the […]]]> 637914 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230516-what-could-happen-ahead-of-turkiyes-election-runoff/ Tue, 16 May 2023 20:30:20 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=637327 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has failed to secure victory in the first round of the Turkish presidential elections, after receiving 49.5 per cent of the votes. A second round of the election is now due to be held and he will face the Nation's Alliance candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who gained the second highest percentage of votes, at 44.89 per cent. There are several scenarios that could influence voters' decisions in the next ballot. Kemal Kilicdaroglu's alliance with Sinan Ogan The Ancestral Alliance candidate, Sinan Ogan, who garnered 5.17 per cent of the votes (over 2.8 million votes), alluded to the possibility of supporting Kilicdaroglu in the rerun. However, he stipulated that no concessions should be made to the Kurdish […]]]> 637327 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230516-the-symbolic-nakba-commemoration-at-the-un-exposed-israels-hatred-of-the-truth/ Tue, 16 May 2023 13:10:19 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=637321 "The thought that an international organisation could mark the establishment of one of its member states as a catastrophe or disaster is both appalling and repulsive," wrote Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan when asking UN diplomats to refrain from attending the unprecedented UN General Assembly's commemoration of the 1948 Nakba. Truth be told, the most repulsive action was the UN's acceptance of the Israeli settler-colonial enterprise as a member state in 1948, at the expense of the ethnically-cleansed Palestinian population whose land was (and continues to be) usurped, and whose legitimate return to their land was a still unfulfilled condition of Israel's UN membership. The Nakba commemoration, while significant, pales in comparison with the UN's complicity in allowing Israel to […]]]> 637321 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230511-the-eu-really-values-israels-colonial-enterprise/ Thu, 11 May 2023 19:00:40 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=635737 The EU Delegation in Israel only has a problem with Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's Minister of National Security, and not with the existence and continuation of Israel as a colonial enterprise. The far-right minister was to represent the Israeli government during a diplomatic reception on 9 May marking Europe Day, but the event was cancelled over concerns that a diplomatic spat could arise between Israel and the EU over his presence. "It's a shame that the EU, which pretends to represent democratic values and multiculturalism, behaves with undiplomatic gagging," was Ben-Gvir's reaction. The EU's protest pretence should have attracted more scrutiny. Undeniably, Ben-Gvir's rhetoric of open incitement to violence against Palestinians may prove a diplomatic liability for the EU and its […]]]> 635737 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230511-north-africa-backslides-toward-swirling-debt-troubles/ Thu, 11 May 2023 18:22:36 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=635889 Tunisia and Egypt are edging closer to major debt crises that could suck in a volatile North Africa region, and pose tough choices to wealthy Gulf Arab neighbours, investors and analysts warn. The countries are already being challenged by shortages of essential goods and financial market dysfunction and, in Tunisia's case, a political crisis caused by President Kais Saied's consolidation of power and crackdown on opponents. Egypt, as North Africa's largest economy and most populous nation, has long been assumed to be too big to be allowed to fail, but Tunisia too carries outsized significance as the birthplace, and supposed sole success story, of the Arab Spring. Tunisian hopes for a long-awaited International Monetary Fund (IMF) support package are still flickering, although concerns remain whether it would stick to a programme given […]]]> 635889 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230509-behind-the-facade-of-humanitarian-aid-and-the-uns-sustainable-development-goals/ Tue, 09 May 2023 16:00:16 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=634740 The humanitarian paradigm for Palestinians is not working, the UN should be informed. On the assumption that the Institution holds a shard of respect towards human rights. For several years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), has been warning of a funding deficit that affects its provision of services. Recently, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced it will be suspending food aid to more than 200,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank due to funding issues. The decision will affect 60 per cent of Palestinians whose basic food needs are met by the WFP. If the funding is not met, the service will be entirely suspended by August. On its website, the WFP […]]]> 634740 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230504-the-pa-protects-israel-colonial-expansion-by-promoting-the-two-state-compromise/ Thu, 04 May 2023 12:31:03 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=633704 The Palestinian Authority is decades behind in its political approach. Israel is not "continuing" to destroy the two-state paradigm – it has already destroyed it. Ramallah has learnt its lines so well, however, that the international community can depend upon it to ensure nothing poses a threat to Israel's colonial expansion. Speaking at the Dutch Representative Office in Ramallah on the occasion of King's Day, the PA's Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, told Dutch diplomats and representatives in attendance that "The biggest challenge is how to preserve the two-state solution in light of the systematic destruction carried out by Israel," noting that the settler demography is posing "a real threat" to the paradigm. The threat, however, has existed since the 1947 […]]]> 633704 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230502-khader-adnans-legacy-will-alter-palestinian-politics-among-the-people/ Tue, 02 May 2023 15:00:45 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=632812 Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli jails have suffered unprecedented levels of exploitation. At best, a hunger strike ends when Israel decides it can make a few concessions, and a victory is then celebrated. There is no real "win", however, other than temporary respite for the individual hunger striker. Administrative detention orders with neither charge nor trial continue to prevail, hunger strikes go ahead, prisoners on the brink of death have become the norm, and then Khader Adnan dies. He was effectively killed by Israel's colonial violence which permeates every aspect of Palestinian life. Adnan was publicly affiliated to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He started his last hunger strike on 5 February this year. Despite the organisation Physicians for Human Rights […]]]> 632812 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230430-an-open-letter-to-madame-ursula-von-der-leyen-president-of-the-european-commission/ Sun, 30 Apr 2023 10:33:23 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=632266 On 29 April 2023 Your Excellency, You made a speech this week praising the establishment of Israel on its 75th anniversary. For someone in your position, it is surprising that it had so many errors of fact, misguided judgment, violation of international law, and deviation from basic norms of justice. You congratulated Israel on 75 years of existence on a land area of 20,500 km2, which is 78% of Palestine. Not one square kilometer of this area is obtained by any legal or just means.  Six percent was obtained through the treacherous British collusion and 72% by military conquest.  How could you congratulate a regime which obtained this land by spilling the blood of the innocent? Israel has no boundaries, […]]]> 632266 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230427-covering-up-israels-settler-colonial-foundations/ Thu, 27 Apr 2023 15:05:08 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=631788 With no reference to the political turbulence that Israel is currently experiencing within its settler-colonial society, let alone the horrors perpetrated by Zionist terror groups during the 1948 Nakba to establish the colonial enterprise on Palestinian land, US President Joe Biden has extended greetings to Israelis on the 75th anniversary of their ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Only he didn't mention ethnic cleansing either. "When David Ben-Gurion declared Israel's independence in 1948, he announced the birth of a state 'based on freedom, justice and peace'. Just 11 minutes later, President Truman announced that the United States would be the first nation to recognise the government of Israel," said a White House press statement. The rest of the statement glosses over Israel's […]]]> 631788 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230425-memory-and-oblivion-in-israel/ Tue, 25 Apr 2023 14:56:56 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=631025 To commemorate the 75th anniversary since the establishment of Israel's colonial enterprise, the National Library of Israel has embarked upon a new project themed "Operation Diary: the Founding Generation for Israel's 75th". The project, which is being carried out in collaboration with Israel Hayom, seeks personal diaries of 1948 written by "the men and women of the nation's founding generation with the aim of creating a unique historical collection". Meanwhile, as Haaretz reported in 2019, Israel's Defence Ministry is keen to keep many details from 1948 away from public scrutiny, including documents that had already been previously declassified. According to the former director of Malmab, the Israeli Defence Ministry's secretive security department, removing documentation had one objective: "to undermine the […]]]> 631025 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230422-explainer-sudan-conflict-and-what-worries-neighbours-the-us-and-others/ Sat, 22 Apr 2023 07:09:17 +0000 Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=630558 A conflict raging in Sudan is rattling neighbouring countries and worrying the United States and others for reasons ranging from concern about shared Nile waters and oil pipelines, to the shape of a new government and a new humanitarian crisis in the making. Sudan, which relies heavily on foreign aid, is no stranger to conflict. But, this time, fighting is tearing apart the capital, instead of a remote corner of a nation, which lies in an unstable region bordering the Red Sea, Sahel and Horn of Africa. Five of Sudan's seven neighbours – Ethiopia, Chad, Central African Republic, Libya and South Sudan – have faced political upheaval or conflict themselves in recent years. The fighting that erupted between the Army and paramilitary Rapid Support […]]]> 630558 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230420-thousands-of-sudanese-cross-borders-to-flee-warring-generals/ Thu, 20 Apr 2023 17:18:19 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=630493 Thousands of Sudanese have crossed into Chad to flee fighting in the western region of Darfur and thousands more streamed out of the capital, Khartoum, where renewed heavy gunfire erupted on Thursday as the latest of several ceasefires broke down. Forces commanded by two previously allied leaders of Sudan's ruling Council began a violent power struggle last weekend that has, so far, killed more than 330 people, tipping a nation reliant on food aid into what the United Nations calls a humanitarian catastrophe. The fiercest battles between the Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been around Khartoum, one of Africa's largest urban areas, and in Darfur, still scarred by a brutal conflict that ended three years ago. Around 10,000 to […]]]> 630493 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230420-on-palestine-prisoners-day-the-pa-is-silent-about-its-own-detainees/ Thu, 20 Apr 2023 12:51:24 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=630405 On Palestinian Prisoners' Day, the Palestinian Authority (PA) stayed silent about its detention and torture of Palestinians in its prisons. The PA makes some prisoners more worthy of mention than others, further exploiting the Palestinian political prisoners and attempting to create rifts within Palestinian society. "The Israeli judicial system is part of the colonial regime that legitimises discrimination, torture and persecution of the Palestinian people", the PA's Foreign Affairs Ministry's statement partly read. Currently there are 4,900 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, 1,016 of whom are held in administrative detention. The PA is holding more than 30 Palestinian political prisoners in its jails. The statistical discrepancy is no justification for the PA glossing over its role – after all, the […]]]> 630405 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230418-the-pa-differentiates-between-colonial-and-collaborative-oppression/ Tue, 18 Apr 2023 12:33:09 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=629881 When Israel targeted Palestinian non-governmental rights organisations in 2021 and 2022, the Palestinian Authority embarked on its own exploitation campaign. "In a show of solidarity, President Abbas meets with Palestinian civil society organisations targeted by Israel," one of Wafa news agency's headlines read in 2021. Israel's targeting of Palestinian NGOs in 2021 and 2022, including former Israeli Defence Minister, Benny Gantz, designating six organisations as "terrorist" without providing evidence, allowed the PA, very briefly, to pretend to champion a cause that works against its authoritarianism. But illusory state-building needs its own gimmicks, until it is time to dissolve the brief façade and take a stance against human rights, as is the PA's penchant. Back in 2021, PA leader, Mahmoud Abbas, […]]]> 629881 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230413-timeline-sudan-years-of-political-strife/ Thu, 13 Apr 2023 19:00:36 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=628903 Below is a timeline of Sudan's political upheavals in recent years: 19 December, 2018 – Hundreds protest in the northern city of Atbara against soaring bread prices. Demonstrations spurred by a broader economic crisis quickly spread to Khartoum and other cities. Security services respond with tear gas and gunfire. 6 April, 2019 – Hundreds of thousands of protesters begin a sit-in outside army headquarters in Khartoum. Five days later, the Army overthrows and detains autocratic leader, Omar Al-Bashir, ending his three decades in power. Protesters continue the sit-in, demanding the handover of power to civilians. 3 June, 2019 – Security forces raid the sit-in at the army headquarters. Opposition-linked medics say more than 100 people are killed in the assault. […]]]> 628903 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230413-the-international-humanitarian-paradigm-keeps-failing-palestinians/ Thu, 13 Apr 2023 14:10:13 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=628859 The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has been operating since 1 May 1950 under repeatedly renewed mandates in the absence of a political solution. In recent years, UNRWA has reiterated that lack of funding is rendering it incapable of meeting the demands of Palestinian refugees in basic needs such as healthcare and education. UNRWA's dependence on donor funding, and given that the biggest donors to UNRWA are also Israel's closest allies, makes humanitarian aid compromised. Given that the international community invented the humanitarian paradigm to prevent Palestinian refugees from claiming their political rights, the current crisis should illuminate the disaster created by the UN's tenacity in protecting Israel's colonial presence and expansion in Palestine. UNRWA employees […]]]> 628859 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230412-revelations-galore-as-pentagon-document-leak-shakes-us-allies/ Wed, 12 Apr 2023 14:02:32 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=628709 A major leak of top secret Pentagon documents shook the US and its allies on Monday, with the files providing a rare private peek into Washington's global policies. One of the key factors making the documents so controversial is that they show the US has been spying on major allies such as South Korea, which is crucial for American interests amid the presence of a nuclear-armed North Korea run by an unpredictable dictator; Israel, which is central to US policies in the Middle East and Ukraine, which is in dire need of US military support amid the ongoing Russian war. How it all started Not in the depths of the dark web or on an obscure website, instead it all […]]]> 628709 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230412-calls-for-brazil-to-look-for-paths-to-peace-in-jerusalem-the-middle-east/ Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:58:30 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=628606 The Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brazil condemned the Israeli occupation's attacks against Palestinians praying at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the continuous storming of the site by Israeli settlers and the targeting of many young people in different cities of the occupied West Bank. The Arab ambassadors, who met on Saturday in Brasilia, urged the Brazilian government to play a more active role with the international community and search for paths to peace in the Middle East after Israeli occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa last Wednesday, fired stun grenades at Palestinians, injured dozens and arrested more than 400 worshippers. In a statement, they said: "The disproportionate use of violence by the Israeli forces is a desperate attempt by the Israeli government […]]]> 628606