Showing posts with label UNRWA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UNRWA. Show all posts

28 January 2024

Hugely Successful Holocaust Memorial Day Meeting Last Night - Israel and Zionism Represents the Perpetrators not the Victims of the Holocaust

The Israeli State, instead of being Recompense for the Extermination of Europe’s Jews, is the Embodiment of the Nazi Policies of Lebensraum and Racial Resettlement 


Holocaust Memorial Day Meeting 27.1.24.

Above is the recording of our hugely successful Holocaust Memorial Day meeting last night. 333 people attended from 25 countries and every continent including 218 from the UK, 38 from South Africa, 27 from the United States and 12 from Germany.

Instead of this being a typical Zionist Holocaust Memorial Day meeting, using the memory of the Holocaust to reinforce the racist, genocidal Israeli state, there were a series of speakers who spoke of the liberation of humanity from the imperialist order which led to the Holocaust.

The meeting was chaired by Esther Giles from the Socialist Labour Network. Speakers included the foremost Israeli historian of the Nakba, Ilan Pappe; Ronnie Kasrils,  the former leader of the ANC’s military wing, Umkonte we Sizwe and former Police Minister under Mandela. 

Ghada Kharmi, a Palestinian doctor who was expelled with her family from Jerusalem in 1948 and a prolific author and academic, the latest book being One State, Suzanne Weiss, who as a child was hidden by the Jewish resistance from the Nazis in Auvergne, France; Stephen Kapos, who was hidden by the Holy Cross church group from the Nazis and the fascist Iron Cross in Budapest and Tony Greenstein from the SLN and Jewish Network for Palestine, the first Jewish member of the Labour Party to be expelled and author of Zionism During the Holocaust.

We intend to repeat this meeting next year. Never Again must the Zionists be allowed to lay claim to the memory of the Jewish dead of the Holocaust. They represent the perpetrators not the victims of the Holocaust.

When Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defence Minister, called Palestinians ‘Human Animals’ he was repeating word for word Himmler’s October 1943 Speeches in Poznan, Poland calling Jews ‘Human Animals’.

It is important that we do not allow the Zionists to colonise HMD and thus trash the memory of the Jews and others who died at the hands of the fascist barbarians. There is no one and nothing that is closer to these fascists than the regime in Tel Aviv whose closest friends today are those very same fascists – from our own Tommy Robinson to people like Geert Wilders, Germany’s Afd and Norway’s Anders Breivik, to say nothing of Trump and Bannon.

The United States and its British Poodle Cut Food Aid to those Already Starving

Channel 4 Interview with Chris Gunnis, former spokesperson for UNRWA

It was no surprise that the war criminals who govern us – Biden, Sunak, Scholtz and the rest immediately cut of all aid to UNWRA, the UN agency responsible for feeding the Palestinian refugees. Israel has long desired to eliminate UNWRA altogether. It is as Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UNWRA said, collective punishment.

But even if the allegations are true, even if some UNWRA staff did participate in October 7, so what? Resistance against an occupier is allowed under international law and is the right of any occupied people.

Most people will understand what the real motive is behind this decision. The leaders of western imperialism don’t even bother to hide their anger at the decision of the International Court of Justice at the Hague, weak as it was, that the case that the United States said was ‘meritless’ was upheld by the ICJ who considered genocide ‘plausible’.

The decision to attack UNWRA is clearly in retaliation for against the decision to go to the ICJ. Such is the nature of the ‘rules based order’. See below two articles from Mondoweiss. Naturally Israel’s response was to accuse the ICJ of anti-Semitism!  The go to explanation for all criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Never before has it been so obvious that Western support has nothing to do with Jews or anti-Semitism and everything to do with Western interests.

However in their desire to support the West’s attack dog in the Middle East the west’s war mongers are risking setting the whole of the region on fire.

If the Arab regimes, the Houthis apart, weren’t so cowardly and subservient to the West, the genocide in Gaza could have been stopped in its tracks long ago. An oil embargo, as in 1973, would have forced the United States to reign in their racist Rottweiler.

Tony Greenstein

UNRWA once again in the crosshairs

On the very day that the ICJ ordered for Israel to ensure the unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, Washington saw fit to cut off all funding to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

The decision came after Israel claimed that 12 UNRWA workers had been involved in the October 7 attack. UNRWA has said that it has terminated the contracts of these workers as it commissions an independent investigation into the allegations — but the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, and Canada have followed the U.S.’s lead and pulled their funding of the organization.

In an election year during which he is trying to convince the American public that he is the only alternative to the return of Donald Trump to the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden is following his predecessor’s lead, as Trump had partially suspended funding to UNRWA in 2018.

“We call on the countries that announced the cessation of their support for UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision, which entails great political and humanitarian relief risks, as at this particular time and in light of the continuing aggression against the Palestinian people, we need the maximum support for this international organization and not stopping support and assistance to it,”

Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh wrote on X.

Hamas, meanwhile, called on the United Nations “not to yield to the threats and blackmails.”

“We stress the importance of the role of these agencies in providing relief to our people and documenting the crimes of the occupation, which exceed the most horrific crimes known to humanity in our modern era,”

the movement said in a statement.

Even as the U.S. appears steadfast in siding with Israel, Biden is facing legal trouble at home over his administration’s failure to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Palestinians testified on Friday in front of a federal court, in a case brought forth by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) against Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, arguing that the three high-ranking officials are liable under U.S. law for complicity in Israel’s violations of the Genocide Convention. 

Biden cuts off life-saving aid to Palestinians based on Israeli allegations against UNRWA

The State Department has paused funding for UNRWA after the Israeli government accused 12 employees of being involved in the October 7 attack.

The State Department paused additional funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after the Israeli government accused 12 UNRWA workers of being involved in the October 7 Hamas attack.

A press statement from State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the Biden administration was “extremely troubled by the allegations.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “to emphasize the necessity of a thorough and swift investigation of this matter.”

UNRWA has already terminated the staffers and opened an investigation into the allegations. “The Israeli authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7,” said UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini.

“To protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay.”


Many have noted that UNRWA provides life-saving aid to more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.

“Based on unproven allegations alone, the U.S. has cut off funding to UNRWA, one of few groups which provides crucial on the ground aid to Palestinians,” said the antiwar group CODEPINK. “Yet, as Israel commits war crime after war crime, the U.S. continues sending weapons.”

“The US is collectively punishing Palestinians, who rely on UNRWA to survive, based on Israeli allegations against 0.0004% of UNRWA’s staff. Outrageous,” said the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU).

The Biden administration’s announcement comes on the same day that the UN’s top court ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts Gaza and a U.S. court began hearing a lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide.


Commentators questioned the State Department’s timing across social media.

“So, the US State Dept drops a rather significant statement on (unsubstantiated) allegations against UNRWA workers and pulling funding on the day of the ICJ ruling which finds sufficient evidence for plausible genocidal acts—- and decides there’s no need for a press briefing,”

wrote AJ+’s Sana Saeed. “Honestly, this would be masterful manufacturing of the news if it wasn’t so transparent.”

“The US chose to stop funds to UNRWA only an hour after the ICJ decision,” tweeted USCPR Organizing & Advocacy Director Iman Abid. “Israel kills over 33,000 Palestinians and the US still continues to negotiate an increase in funding to Israel. I don’t know what more you need to know about this administration.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praised the move on Twitter. “Major changes need to take place so that international efforts, funds and humanitarian initiatives don’t fuel Hamas terrorism and the murder of Israelis,” he wrote. “Terrorism under the guise of humanitarian work is a disgrace to the UN and the principles it claims to represent.”

In December, UNRWA announced that Israel’s onslaught against Gaza had killed 142 employees of the organization.

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7 April 2015

If only there was oil under Yarmouk

The Tragedy of  Yarmouk
The videos (below) are heart breaking.  The Palestinians in Yarmouk are besieged on all sides - by the butchers of ISIS and Al Nusra, ably supported by Israel, and bombed from the air by Assad.

Tony Greenstein



 

As Palestinians are being murdered and starving to death in the refugee camp near Damascus, the Arab world is busy intervening in Yemen, the Palestinian Authority is silent, and Israeli television is talking about where to eat during the Passover holiday.

By Samah Salaime Egbariya


Yarmouk residents gathered to await a food distribution from UNRWA in January 2014. (Photo by UNRWA)
Monday morning, on the morning show on Israel’s Channel 10, which was co-hosted by the station’s military correspondent because the regular hosts are on vacation, they were supposedly discussing recommendations for the Israeli holiday traveler. After describing Israelis on vacation as ugly and litterers and more, the hosts recommended places to see and good places to eat.


As one might expect, most of the restaurants their guest culinary experts recommended represented the Arab kitchen. They went from Acre to the Galilee to Tiberias, and then Or Heller, the military correspondent, asked the two guest chefs for recommendations of places to eat in the Golan Heights. One of chefs, Haim Cohen, thought for a second and then answered, “Syria. But’s a little difficult [to get there],” adding that “the Syrian kitchen is excellent!”

The host, Or Heller, kept the jokes coming. “Yes, in the Yarmouk Camp … well ISIS are the only ones eating there.” Making fun at the expense my people in the camp that has been under siege for three years really got to me. I got up and went to the kitchen without changing the channel and listened to the rest of the program from afar. And then, another half-joke comes out of the television set, this time as part of their map of holiday traffic jams, about what icon Waze should have to indicate where ISIS is in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp. I couldn’t get over the anger and the pain, and wasn’t able to continue by daily routine.

People don’t understand just how bad the situation is in the Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. Tens of thousands of Palestinians, famished and under attack, are sitting prey for a group of fighters/rebels/terrorists/Assad supporters. We, the Palestinians, and the entire world, don’t really know who’s against who or what they are guilty of. There have been more and more reports of bodies, horrifying murders and wounded in recent days.

‘Yarmouk is devastated throughout, with street storefronts and houses suffering the brunt of the physical damage,’ January 2014. (Photo by UNRWA)
When the war in Syria began three years ago, we, the Palestinians here in Israel, were angry at them, with utmost self-righteousness, that they didn’t join the revolution against Assad. Later we understood their immense fear of getting mixed up in it. The reports we’ve gotten in the past three years about what the Assad government has done to Palestinian youngsters in the refugee camp are simply horrible. Later we got mad at al-Nusra Front, which entered the camp as an opposition force to the regime and were angry that the organization was terrifyingly executing people on the streets. Its fighters raped young women and committed other crimes against humanity that are documented and available for anyone to see on the Internet.

And now, news that ISIS united with al-Nusra Front against the poor Palestinians in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — aside from al-Nusra’s fear that it was losing control of the camp, and joined ISIS to defeat a group of Palestinian youngsters who organized themselves in an attempt to defend the camp. They call themselves “Aknef Beit al-Maqdis” (The Environs of Jerusalem, in Arabic).
Gathered on Yarmouk Street, residents begin hurrying to reach the distribution point, January 2014. (Photo by UNRWA)
Refugees who fled for their lives to every corner of the world from Yarmouk have described the terror and the smell of death that permeates the camp. “People are eating each other out of starvation,” somebody wrote. There has been no running water since September, and the world is silent.

Palestinians the world over search for snippets of information about their relatives in the camp and, over and over again, see photos of funerals, and that video, in which a boy who hasn’t seen a slice of bread for months tears your heart open with his tears. The descriptions and the photographs that make it out are reminiscent of the eternal photos of concentration camps, or of ethnically cleansed villages in Bosnia.

For we Palestinians who are outside the walls of the Yarmouk refugee camp, our utter and complete helplessness is unbearable. Even organizing a small demonstration in Haifa over the weekend was emotionally trying for the activists, who came with overwhelming despondency, anger and sadness — about the entire world that is simply ignoring what’s happening, about the Arab world that managed to organize a special military force in Yemen overnight, about the silence of the Palestinian Authority, and about the impotence of the international community.

I know that my anger toward the Israeli television presenter who tried to make jokes about my kin in Yarmouk is actually anger about the entire situation. It is anger at the irrationality of it all, the injustice, and the war that is crushing thousands of people — and that nobody cares. It’s a shame. It’s a shame that there isn’t any oil or natural gas under that refugee camp. If there were, I’m sure that an alliance of freedom-seeking nations would quickly come together — with the backing of the UN, of course — to save all those innocent people.


Samah Salaime Egbariya is a social worker, a director of AWC (Arab Women in the Center) in Lod/Lyd and a graduate of the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem. She is a blogger for our Hebrew-language sister-site, Local Call, where this article was first published. Read it in Hebrew here.
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