UN’s Gaza polio vaccination campaign reaches 189,000 children in first phase

The Guardian reports:

The United Nations children’s agency has said that a polio vaccination campaign to inoculate more than 640,000 children in Gaza is surpassing expectations at the end of the first phase of the program.

Describing the campaign as a “rare bright spot” in almost 11 months of war, Unicef said that 189,000 children had been reached so far as more than 500 teams were deployed across central Gaza this week.

It said Israel and Hamas observed limited pauses in the fighting to facilitate the campaign, with UN agencies involved now hoping to expand the campaign to the harder-hit north and south of the territory for the next two phases.

The campaign was launched after Gaza had its first reported polio case in 25 years – a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg.

Stranded Gaza aid dumped in Egypt’s Al-Arish due to Israel’s Rafah occupation

The New Arab reports:

Food and medical aid intended for Gaza has been dumped in the Egyptian city of Al-Arish after it expired whilst waiting to be let into the besieged enclave, where Israel’s military campaign had stopped the flow of aid despite the dire humanitarian conditions.

Large quantities of humanitarian aid are being discarded in the city’s open areas as the Israeli military maintains control over the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, with no indication of a possible reopening anytime soon.

Hundreds of trucks loaded with food and medicine were stranded on the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza, some for months, awaiting permission to deliver the much-needed humanitarian supplies into the enclave.

NOTE: According to the UN human rights office, 96 percent of the population of Gaza is projected to face crisis or worse levels of food insecurity (IPC level 3 or above), including 745,000 facing emergency levels of food insecurity and 495,000 facing catastrophic levels.

Over 96 percent of women and children under 2 are not meeting their nutrition requirements.

West Bank update: “catastrophic” conditions

Various news outlets report:

Last week, the occupation forces launched their largest offensive on the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada, attacking three cities – Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas – from land and air and killing at least 33 Palestinians and injuring 140 others.

JENIN: The Israeli occupation forces continued their onslaught against the city of Jenin and its camp for the eighth consecutive day.

The onslaught resulted so far in the killing of 19 people, the injury and arrest of dozens, in addition to the widespread destruction of citizens’ properties and infrastructure, including water and electricity networks.

“Around 700 to 1,000 families, 4,000 to 5,000 residents, from the eastern neighborhood and the Jenin refugee camp were forced to leave their homes at gunpoint [by the Israeli army],” said Kamal Abu al-Rub, governor of Jenin.

The Israeli occupation army has refused to allow a UN assessment team to reach the city of Jenin, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Dujarric affirmed that the loss of Palestinian lives has increased as a result of the Israeli army’s use of “lethal warfare methods.”

He added that the barriers preventing access to the West Bank have affected humanitarian aid, and that the entry of ambulances and medical teams has been delayed for a week.

A 16-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Jenin this week was shot dead by an Israeli sniper as she looked out of the window of her home, her father said on Wednesday.

Osama Musleh said troops had surrounded the house next door to his when his daughter, Lujain Osama Musleh, was shot through the forehead after opening the curtain to look outside.

The Israeli military has said it is looking into reports of the death.

(More on Jenin below.)

TULKARM: Israel’s military assault on the city and refugee camp of Tulkarm in the northern occupied West Bank today entered its third day, systematically sabotaging and destroying the vast majority of the city and camp’s infrastructure, according to WAFA correspondent.

She said that Israeli massive armored bulldozers tore up streets and alleyways in the camp and ravaged through public and private properties, uprooted trees, and tore down houses and stores.

Occupation forces blew up several houses in the camp, setting them on fire, destroying them and displacing the occupants.

Elsewhere, conditions in Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank are described as “catastrophic”, sources in the besieged camp have told Middle East Eye.

“The infrastructure is destroyed, electricity and water are cut off, there is no milk for children, no medicines, and no food supplies,” Faisal Salama, head of the camp’s Popular Committee, told MEE’s reporter, Fayha Shalash.

The Popular Committee is trying to coordinate with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to deliver the necessary food supplies to residents, but the Israeli army has only allowed the entry of milk and diapers, Salama added.

(TRIGGER WARNING:)

 

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The brutality of Israel’s siege of Jenin

+972 Magazine reports:

While the Israeli army claims to be fighting the Jenin Brigades and other Palestinian resistance movements, the current operation has devastated large swathes of civilian infrastructure in the refugee camp as a clear form of collective punishment.

“They blew up our home, they blew it up!” 72-year-old Khayriyeh Khrayneh told +972, just moments after she was forced to flee her home near the eastern quarter of Jenin refugee camp.

Four days into the operation, the city had largely become a ghost town while the camp became a battlefield. Palestinians were forced to remain inside their homes as Israeli soldiers turned buildings into military bases and dispatched snipers across various rooftops. Civilians, including children, elderly, and chronically ill, have been denied access to water, food, and medicine as part of the total siege on the camp.

“We were not even allowed a glass of water,” Khrayneh cried, as they remained trapped between bombs, bulldozers, and live bullets. Khrayneh and her young daughter barely escaped their home at gunpoint, carrying nothing but a small black purse with her ID cards and passports.

Although members of the press were denied access to the camp, the sounds of explosions and machine gunfire echoed throughout Jenin. Large numbers of Israeli D-9 bulldozers, armored personnel carriers, and armored jeeps moved through the city’s streets. The skies of Jenin were buzzing with drones; it was unclear whether these were surveillance drones or the lethal quadcopters, which Israel has commonly deployed both in Gaza and the West Bank.

Those who fled described the ferocity of Israel’s military tactics over the past week: anti-tank rifle grenades that destroy civilian infrastructure; attack dogs unleashed against families; Palestinian detainees used as human shields; and live ammunition fired sporadically and recklessly.

(Read the full article here.)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that the government must “remain focused” on the “resurgence of [Palestinian] terrorism in the West Bank,” adding that “the time will come” to “pull out the roots.”

 

 

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Int’l Criminal Court prosecutor raises alarm over ‘threats,’ US pressure on Israel probe

Andalou Agency reports:

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has expressed concern over pressure the court is facing from the US regarding its investigations into Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

In an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun published on Monday, Karim Khan disclosed that ICC officials were receiving personal “threats” from supporters of Russia and Israel.

“If we allow these types of attacks … threats … to dismantle or erode the legal institutions that have been built since the Second World War, does anybody believe it will end with the International Criminal Court?” warned Khan.

Noting that Japan is the biggest funder of the ICC, Khan urged Japan’s cooperation in influencing the US.

“You cannot allow an attack on the court … then you have no rules-based system,” said Khan, adding: “It’s better for the country and better for the world, almost invariably, to have the courage to stand on principle rather than standing on expediency.”

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NGOs to President Biden: End Arms Transfers to Israel Amid Continued Violations of US Law & Policy

Center for Civilians in Conflict reports:

On Tuesday, 25 groups wrote to US President Biden expressing deep dismay at continued US military assistance to the Israeli government and reiterating their demands for an immediate suspension of lethal US arms transfers to Israel in light of repeated apparent violations of international and US law and policy.

“Your administration’s arming of the Israeli government has been and continues to be shockingly out of step with the realities of civilian harm and suffering in Gaza,” the groups wrote. “We urgently call upon your administration to change its approach and suspend weapons transfers to Israel, which continue to cause devastating harm and risk making the United States complicit in war crimes.”

In particular, the groups cited numerous apparent violations of Israeli assurances under National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) since the Biden administration’s May 10 report to Congress, including repeated Israeli government restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza and numerous cases of civilian harm and apparent violations of international humanitarian law using US arms.

The groups urged an immediate, public review of Israel’s compliance with NSM-20.

(View a PDF of the letter, which is fully annotated, here.)

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The war on Palestine within U.S. education isn’t just happening in colleges, but in K-12 schools as well

Mondoweiss reports: 

In a May 2024 congressional hearing, the Committee on Education and the Workforce questioned leaders of three public school districts: New York City; the Washington, DC suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland; and Berkeley, California. Similar to earlier hearings that cross-examined the presidents of Harvard, Penn, MIT, and Columbia, the event was premised on “pervasive antisemitism” in U.S. education and a demand for accountability from its leaders.

As NPR reported, the K-12 hearing did not net the “headline moments” that lawmakers enjoyed with the university presidents, which saw the leaders struggle to answer questions and which helped bring about the resignation of three of them. Yet despite the lower profile of K-12 education in the current controversy over pro-Palestine speech in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, teachers are being punished for expressing what the lawmakers maintain is antisemitic rhetoric that makes Jewish students and fellow teachers “unsafe.”

But are the teachers actually antisemitic, as the lawmakers would have us believe? And whose safety is in fact in question? A deeper look into the allegations demonstrates a problematic definition of antisemitism and a tendency to punish immediately, without due process, analysis, or care.

Aaron Bean (R-FL) kicked off the hearing’s questioning by asking the school officials a series of “yes or no” questions, including “Does Israel have the right to exist as a Jewish state?” and “Does the phrase, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ – is that antisemitic?” The officials replied in the affirmative.

As such, the event immediately took as a given the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism, which claims that it is antisemitic to “deny the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

(Read the full article here.)

NOTE: The IHRA “definition” of antisemitism has been used to label criticism of Israel, the Israeli government, and Zionist ideology, as antisemitic – thus delegitimizing the many Jewish and non-Jewish people who advocate for Palestinian human rights or have other legitimate critical opinions of Israel.

The characterization contributes to the false notion that Jewish identity is inextricably linked to Israel and its actions. “Far from combating antisemitism,” said a group of 700 Jewish college faculty, “this dynamic promises to amplify the real threats Jewish Americans already face.”

Actual antisemitism is not as prevalent as Israel partisans would like us to think. A large portion of what they call antisemitism is simply criticism of Israel, the self-proclaimed “Jewish State.” Most of the animosity Israel experiences is opposition to Zionism. Zionism is not a benign philosophy, but a racist ideology – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed750,000 Palestinian people and exiled them to Gaza and other locations.

The so-called “demonization” of Israel is in most cases a legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies of occupation, apartheid, and genocide, and other illegal practices – which the IHRA “definition” of antisemitism could effectively silence.

RECOMMENDED READING: Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war

Wave of resignations in Israel’s military, security forces

The Cradle reports:

The chief of Israel’s police intelligence division plans to resign, Israeli media reported on 4 September.

This comes amidst a recent wave of resignations in the Israeli military and security establishment.

The Jerusalem Post announced that Deputy Chief Dror Assaraf, head of the police intelligence division is stepping down.

According to Hebrew newspaper Maariv, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir – who is in charge of the prison system and police – has been blocking the promotion of several officers, including Assaraf. Israeli media reported earlier this year that Israel’s High Court has shown great concern over a law passed in December 2022 which granted Ben Gvir broader power over the police system.

Assaraf is the fourth to resign from his post in recent days.

Major General Tamir Yadai, the commander of the Israeli army’s ground forces, decided to resign for “personal reasons,” Hebrew news site Walla reported on 3 September.

Walla also recently reported that the commander of Israel’s Unit 8200, Brigadier General Yossi Shariel, plans to resign soon.

Ynet reported that the intelligence chief of the army’s Gaza Division also plans to leave his post.

The Danish police arrested Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and five others at a protest against the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza in Copenhagen, authorities said on Wednesday.

Thunberg posted a video on Instagram showing her wearing handcuffs and a black-and-white keffiyeh shawl during the arrest.

“Police have been called, violently entered the building with a ram wearing assault rifles. They are evicting everyone as we speak,” Thunberg said on Instagram.

“We are here because dialog, encampment, and demonstrations among other methods after a 3-year campaign did not lead the university to meet the demands including an institutional academic boycott,” she said.

Student organizers said in a press release, “While the situation in Palestine only gets worse, the University of Copenhagen continues cooperation with academic institutions in Israel.”

They added that they will not leave the site until the University of Copenhagen terminates cooperation with Israeli universities, demanding that the university cancel its “research collaboration and exchange agreements” with Israeli academic institutions.

Popular Israeli podcasters would love to eliminate all Palestinians: “It’s just the way Israelis feel”

Common Dreams reports:

A clip from an English-language Israeli podcast showing hosts Naor Meningher and Eytan Weinstein discussing the idea of eradicating all Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza has gone viral online.

In an episode of Two Nice Jewish Boys, which aired three weeks ago, host Weinstein said: “If you gave me a button to just erase Gaza, every single living being in Gaza would no longer be living tomorrow. I would press it in a second.”

He claimed that “most Israelis” would do the same.

“Because that’s the reality we live in, it’s us or them, and it has to be them,” Weinstein said.

He added that Israelis want “full-scale war.”

“Full-scale war wouldn’t mean that we’re just in Gaza,” he added. “And it also wouldn’t mean what we’re doing in Gaza, because in Gaza, maybe there’s mass destruction but there’s not massive death.”

“Forgive us if we don’t give a shit if everybody there dies. It’s just the way we feel. It’s just the way Israelis feel,” Weinstein said.

“This is not a fringe show or fringe people… the show is as mainstream as it gets,” Canadian Broadcasting journalist Evan Dyer wrote, citing a review of the podcast by Times of Israel that billed it as a “platform for free and open conversations.”

Israel Rules Washington

Philip Giraldi reports:

If there is anyone out there who seriously doubts that it is Israel that is in the driver’s seat when it comes to its relationship with the United States, last week’s filing of criminal charges directed against Hamas’s leadership should be a wake-up call.

The seven-count criminal complaint was filed in a federal court in New York City on September 2^nd. It includes charges such as conspiracy to bomb a public space, conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in deaths, use of weapons of mass destruction, conspiring to and also murdering US nationals and conspiracy to finance terrorism.

The document also claims that Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have been providing financial support, weapons, to include rockets, as well as military supplies to Hamas for use in their attacks on Israel.

The document’s legitimacy, though one hesitates to use the word, is based on the assumption that the US has a mandate to go after terrorists and their supporters, even to kill them, anywhere in the world when and if it considers it appropriate to do so.

To spread the good news of the new development, the malignant dwarf United States Attorney General Merrick Garland even emerged from his closet where he has been hiding since he traveled to Ukraine to threaten Russia in September 2023. He produced a video statement that revealed his thinking re the latest attempt to regulate the behavior of the rest of the world using American courts.

Garland said, without presenting any evidence, that Hamas had been guilty of “financing and directing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the security of the United States… [while also seeking] to destroy the state of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim.”

Garland also described the October 7^th attack on Israel by Hamas, in which 43 American-Israelis allegedly died, in graphic terms that have since been exposed as nearly all Israeli propaganda lies.

(Read the full article here.)

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served nineteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was the CIA Chief of Base for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and was one of the first Americans to enter Afghanistan in December 2001. He is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, which seeks to promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values and interests.

Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board said, on Wednesday, the Facebook parent should not automatically remove a phrase seen by some as displaying solidarity with Palestinians and by others as an endorsement of violence against Jews.

The Board, which operates independently but is funded by the US social media firm, said the phrase “From the river to the sea” has several meanings, and as such its use cannot in itself be deemed to be harmful, violent or discriminatory.

The phrase refers to the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, between which lie Israel and the Palestinian Territories. It is often chanted at pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Critics of the phrase say it is antisemitic and a call for Israel’s eradication. Other groups dispute that interpretation.

“Context is crucial,” said Oversight Board co-chair, Pamela San Martin. “Simply removing political speech is not a solution. There needs to be room for debate, especially during times of crisis and conflict.”

The Oversight Board said it came to the conclusion after it had reviewed three cases involving content posted on Facebook by different users containing the phrase.

Alex Abdo, Litigation Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University that promotes free speech, called the decision by the Board “thoughtful (and in my opinion, correct).”

The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, said the decision was “short-sighted”: “Usage of this phrase has the effect of making members of the Jewish and pro-Israel community feel unsafe and ostracized,” it said.

RECOMMENDED READING: The Anti-Defamation League: Israel’s Attack Dog in the US

US woman indicted for attempt to drown 3-year-old Palestinian-American girl

Al Jazeera reports:

A woman in Texas, United States has been formally indicted by a grand jury in the attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian American girl earlier this year that police said was motivated by racial hatred.

The suspect, identified as Elizabeth Wolf, aged 42, was charged by a grand jury in Tarrant County in an indictment filed last month that included a hate crime enhancement, according to court records that came to light on Tuesday.

Wolf, whose representative could not immediately be reached for comment, was charged with attempted capital murder of a person under 10 years of age and intentionally causing bodily injury to a child. The hate crime element of the indictment may raise the severity of Wolf’s sentence if she is found guilty.

[Editor’s note: A key factor in cases like these is the one-sided coverage of the Palestine-Israel issue by mainstream media outlets. In addition, news sites, social media, and even Zionist politicians in the US have spread unsubstantiated reportsof atrocities allegedly committed by Hamas – specifically, mass rape and beheading of babies – that evoke strong emotions in readers. The accusations turned out to be unconfirmed, and many news outlets retracted them – but the retractions fail to make headlines like the original accusations had. More info here.]

(Read the full article here.)