Palestinian resistance fighters led by Hamas launched an unprecedented military offensive out of the Gaza…
The BBC has been accused by more than 100 of its staff of giving Israel favourable coverage in its reporting of the war on Gaza and criticised for its lack of “accurate evidence-based journalism”.
A letter sent to the broadcaster’s director general, Tim Davie, and CEO Deborah Turness said: “Basic journalistic tenets have been lacking when it comes to holding Israel to account for its actions.”
The signatories included more than 100 anonymous BBC staff and more than 200 from the media industry, as well as historians, actors, academics and politicians.
“The consequences of inadequate coverage are significant. Every television report, article and radio interview that has failed to robustly challenge Israeli claims has systematically dehumanised Palestinians,” the letter said.
( Al Jazeera, 02.11.2024 ) .. aljazeera.com
An Israeli child completely incinerated at Kibbutz Be’eri was killed by two tank shells shot by Israeli forces at the end of an hours-long gun battle, a survivor of the same carnage told the Israeli state broadcaster Kan.
Yasmin Porat, taken captive with at least a dozen other Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, told Kan radio that a fellow captive, 12-year-old Liel Hatsroni, survived to the end of the battle and only died when Israeli forces fired two tank shells at the house where they were held hostage by Hamas fighters.
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Multiple Allegations Of Sexual Abuse In U.S. Jewish Schools And Institutions.
For decades, students and their parents at a prominent Jewish high school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side have been seeking accountability from Yeshiva University, which runs the school, for allegations of sexual abuse by a former school administrator and other staff.
On April 2, 2024, New York Supreme Court Judge Alexander M. Tisch rejected Yeshiva University’s motion to dismiss two lawsuits related to the allegations, opening the way for trial.
More than 50 former students of the Yeshiva University High School for Boys allege they were sexually abused by the former principal, Rabbi George Finkelstein, and other staff at the prestigious high school from 1971 through 1992.
They allege that more than 20 students and parents alerted the school to the abuse but that no action was taken to safeguard the students studying there.
The child sexual abuse case is one of several brought by Jews against Jewish leaders and institutions during the past couple of decades.
In 2000, an investigation by the New York Jewish Week alleged that Baruch Lanner, an Orthodox rabbi and educator, had physically, sexually and emotionally abused young people when he worked as the principal of Hillel Yeshiva High School in New Jersey, a Jewish school, and later as a regional director of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth.
Two years later, Lanner was sentenced to seven years in prison.
An analysis by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency found that at least 150 child sex abuse lawsuits were filed against Jewish institutions in New York from 2019 to 2021, due to the state temporarily abolishing the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims.
It was in this window that the Yeshiva lawsuits were revived, having been previously dismissed on statute of limitations grounds.
A 2018 study found that childhood sexual abuse in the Jewish community occurs “across the spectrum of Jewish religious affiliation and greater prevalence among formerly Orthodox individuals. Furthermore, history of childhood sexual abuse was associated with greater risk for psychiatric distress and less religious involvement, however spiritual/religious engagement and belief appeared to facilitate resilience in the context of abuse.”
( Michele Chabin, 04.04.2024 ) .. relionnews.com
U.S. President Joe Biden Publicly Took Credit For The ‘Rebel’ Takeover Of Syria.
After Syrian opposition forces led an offensive that rapidly swept through Syria’s major cities in a matter of weeks and ultimately led to the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, U.S. President Joe Biden publicly took credit for the rebel takeover.
“Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East,” Biden said.
“Through this combination of support for our partners, sanctions, and diplomacy and targeted military force when necessary, we now see new opportunities opening up for the people of Syria and for the entire region.”
Biden’s comments, as well as a deluge of commentary claiming that Washington – and Israel – were secretly behind the offensive, have caused questions to resurface about the U.S’s role in Syria over the past decade and a half.
Under the Barack Obama administration, the United States first entered the Syrian civil war in 2013 through CIA operations, and later in 2014, when U.S. troops were deployed to fight the Islamic State (IS) group that had taken over large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory.
But by the time President Donald Trump’s first administration came into play, the U.S. role in Syria had trickled down to 900 troops in the northeast of the country, where Kurdish-led groups were in control.
And just before the recent ‘rebel’ takeover, the United Arab Emirates was reportedly brokering talks between the Assad government and the U.S.
( Middle East Eye, 11.12.2024 ) .. middleeasteye.net
Israeli Airstrike Kills Palestinian Journalist And Ten Family Members.
An Israeli air raid killed a journalist working for the Palestinian Authority’s television channel, as well as 10 family members.
Palestine TV accused Israel of carrying out a “deliberate assassination” of Mohammed Abu Hatab as it bombed his family home in Gaza’s Khan Younis, in the south of the territory.
Sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said at least 11 people were killed in the strike.
The statement said an air strike hit Abu Hatab’s apartment shortly after his arrival.
It asserted that the attack “is a bloody message to terrorise Palestinian journalists,” intended to stop them from “conveying the suffering of the Palestinian people and exposing the crimes of the occupation”.
( Al Jazeera, 03.11.2023 ) .. aljazeera.com
There Is A Media Blackout And Palestinian Journalists Are Being Wiped Out.
I obviously have no idea how many people have been killed in Gaza.
Partly that’s because – and I don’t understand why every single journalist in the west is not appalled by this – the foreign press is not freely allowed in.
Meanwhile – and, again, I don’t understand why every single journalist in the west is not enraged by this – Palestinian journalists are being wiped out.
There is essentially a media blackout.
So it’s hard to assess the death toll.
But what I do know is this: citing that official 43,000 figure without providing a long list of caveats feels like journalistic malpractice at this point.
First, anyone citing the death toll should include the fact that UN estimates from May 2024 found there are likely 10,000 people buried at the bottom of the rubble in Gaza who can’t be counted.
Not to mention the fact that there are people dying of preventable diseases every day because adequate medication is not being allowed into the strip and the healthcare system is barely functioning.
Apologists for what is happening will shrug their shoulders and say: this is what happens in war. It’s tragic, but it’s war; innocent people die all the time.
But, here’s the thing, wars have rules. They have limits.
The scale of destruction in Gaza strongly suggests that this is no longer war by any normal standards.
Indeed, numerous experts are raising the alarm that this is now a genocide.
Still, much of the mainstream media seems to be blithely ignoring these warning bells, continuing the pretence that what is happening is a normal war rather than a systematic extermination.
( Arwa Mahdawi, 06.11.2024 ) .. theguardian.com
F-35 Fighter Jet Parts Have Been Secretly Transported To Israel From A British Airforce Base.
At least seven arms shipments have been sent from RAF Marham to Israel’s F-35 airbase at Nevatim since the Gaza bombing began.
Two of the deliveries took place shortly after Keir Starmer became UK prime minister.
Documents show that the UK government has not only been approving F-35 export licences to Israel, but actively facilitating their transportation through British military sites.
F-35 supplies have become particularly controversial after it emerged that Israel used one of the planes to bomb a designated safe zone in Gaza, Al-Mawasi, killing 90 people.
Campaign Against Arms Trade’s Sam Perlo-Freeman said: “The F-35 plays a major part in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and brutal bombardment and invasion of Lebanon. The UK is not only licensing the supply of spare parts, but actively using UK military assets to facilitate their delivery. This makes UK ministers and potentially even military personnel complicit in war crimes”.
( John McEvoy, 31.10.2024 ) .. declassifieduk.org
The Murder Of A Famous Gaza Surgeon In An Israeli Prison.
A new report has revealed chilling new details of the circumstances surrounding the killing of the famous Gaza surgeon Adnan Al-Bursh in an Israeli prison in May 2024.
A captive at Israel’s Ofer Prison in the illegally-occupied West Bank told Sky News how Israeli forces left Dr Al-Bursh, who had been severely tortured, to die alone in agonising pain and naked from the waist down in the prison’s yard.
The captive, who previously knew Dr Al-Bursh in Gaza, provided details in a deposition to lawyers from the Israeli human rights organisation HaMoked.
“In mid-April 2024, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh arrived at Section 23 in Ofer Prison. The prison guards brought Dr Adnan Al-Bursh into the section in a deplorable state. He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body. The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up. One of the prisoners helped him and accompanied him to one of the rooms. A few minutes later, prisoners were heard screaming from the room they went into, declaring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was dead.”
( The New Arab, 15.11.2024 ) .. newarab.com
Western Politicians And Media Are Destroying International Law To Protect Israel.
For more than a year, those calling for an end to Israel’s slaughter of civilians in Gaza have been relentlessly vilified as apologists for Hamas, as anti-semites, even as supporters of a genocide against Israel and the wider Jewish people.
These smears have been buttressed by western politicians and the media insisting that Israel is conducting a legitimate, “defensive” war with limited aims, supposedly to eradicate Hamas and free a few dozen remaining Israeli hostages.
The bigger picture has had to be swept from view.
That Israel has levelled the infrastructure in Gaza needed to sustain life, bombarded Palestinians wherever they have sought refuge, butchered many tens of thousands of civilians – or more likely hundreds of thousands, and actively starved most of the population by withholding aid.
And, overlooked in all of this, Israel has failed to make any significant impact on Hamas’ fighting ability and has almost certainly endangered the lives of the hostages with its indiscriminate bombing campaigns.
Finally, 14 months on, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has struck a major blow against Israel’s tissue of lies and deceptions – as well as the complicity of western elites.
Judges at the war crimes court approved the issuing of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
After six months of delays, the ICC has agreed, against a background of unprecedented intimidation, to put the pair on trial at The Hague for crimes against humanity, including the targeting of civilians and the use of starvation as a method of war.
Should either step on the soil of any of the 124 member states – including Britain and all of Europe – that state will be obligated to arrest them and transfer them to The Hague.
The charges laid against Netanyahu and Gallant are likely also to bolster the case being made at the ICC’s sister court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.
What is clear is that the walls are closing in on Israel, as they are for those who have aided and abetted its crimes.
Which includes western political and media establishments.
( Jonathan Cook, 04.12.2024 ) .. middleeasteye.net
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