Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Biden staffers urge president to ‘hold Israel accountable’ and protect Palestinians – live

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With the Tokyo Olympics just weeks away, the US State Department has issued a “Level 4” warning against traveling to Japan, that’s now struggling through another surge in Covid cases.

A new wrinkle two months before Olympics. US State Department advises travelers not to visit Japan. https://t.co/Hrnfkwzayz

A Tokyo medical organization has joined calls to cancel Japan’s Olympic games this summer, citing a surge in #COVID19 cases in the country.

“Japan will bear the maximum responsibility” for deaths caused by the games, it said.

Just 3.5% of people in Japan have been vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/TGZBVRZXmy

The Trump Administration, which forced families to separate at the border, also made migrant parents leave without their children according to a new Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report.

The agency watchdog found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) knowingly deported parents who had asked to be allowed to take their children back, the Associated Press reports.

That contradicted assertions by senior DHS officials that parents were choosing to leave their children in the U.S. to stay with family or for other reasons while they were deported in 2017 and 2018 as the administration sought to enforce a hard-line approach to immigration enforcement.

The findings, issued by Trump-appointed Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, provide new insight into a policy that became a significant political crisis for the previous administration and a continuing challenge for the current one, which is working to reunite children who remain separated even now.

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Israeli police shoot dead Palestinian knife attacker in Jerusalem

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Incident comes with city still on edge after 11 days of war, and as Israeli opposition parties restart efforts to oust Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli police have shot dead an attacker who stabbed an Israeli soldier and civilian in Jerusalem. The attack on Monday came with the city still on edge after 11 days of war, and as opposition parties restarted efforts to oust the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with a unity coalition.

It was the latest reminder of how volatile the situation is, barely two weeks after protests and clashes with police escalated into an exchange of rockets and missiles that killed more than 250 people, the vast majority of them Palestinians living in Gaza.

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Revealed: Syrians pay tax to rebuild after war but see little benefit

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Analysis by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Syrian partner SIRAJ and Finance Uncovered looks at how ‘reconstruction tax’ has been spent

Um Ahmed left everything when she and her four children fled their home south of Damascus at the beginning of a decade-long civil war – toys scattered around all corners of the house, the certificates she earned when she qualified as a pharmacist.

After moving repeatedly, they now live in the Rukn al-Din neighbourhood of the capital in a gloomy rental flat. It is a far cry from their previous home, which was filled with light from dawn until dusk.

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Blast at Iranian complex housing drone factory injures nine

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Iran has provided no information about cause of explosion in Isfahan that injured at least nine workers

A complex that houses a factory that makes Iranian drones has suffered a major explosion days after Israel had claimed that Iran was providing drones to Hamas in Gaza.

The blast at the weekend injured at least nine workers at the petrochemical factory in Isfahan. The Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (Hesa), which produces a variety of aircraft and drones for Iranian and pro-Iranian forces, is located in the complex owned by Sepahan Nargostar Chemical Industries.

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Blinken pledges US will deal with ‘grave humanitarian situation in Gaza’

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US secretary of state also reaffirms Biden administration supports a two-state solution

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has pledged the Biden administration will deal with “the grave humanitarian situation in Gaza” and will seek “equal measures of security” for Israelis and Palestinians as a ceasefire after 11 days of conflict held throughout the weekend.

More than 240 people in Gaza, including at least 66 children, and a dozen in Israel were killed during the violence, marking the first major diplomatic crisis for the Biden administration.

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From the river to the sea, Jews and Arabs must forge a shared future | Kenan Malik

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Each side in this bitter conflict needs to recognise the other’s fears and aspirations

‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” runs a Palestinian slogan. Originally a call for a secular state in historic Palestine between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean, it soon became a sectarian slogan, deeply inflected by antisemitism. In the hands of Hamas, it is a call for the driving out of all Jews from the region; at best, a demand for ethnic cleansing, at worst for genocide.

The founding charter of Likud, Israel’s leading centre-right party, and the party of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, echoes the same words but from the opposite perspective: “Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty”. It has continually blocked any workable two-state solution.

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Civil war, ruin, raging poverty… but Assad is guaranteed to win Syria’s fake election

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The sham election this week is designed to give the president a veneer of legitimacy at home and abroad

The last time Syria held presidential elections, in 2014, there was no question over whether President Bashar al-Assad would win – but with opposition forces in control of the country’s cities, as well as the suburbs of Damascus, his future was still far from certain.

Seven years later, after the regime’s Russian and Iranian allies intervened and turned the tide of the war, most of Syria is now back under Assad’s grip. On Wednesday, his citizens will return to the polling booths for a sham democratic display designed to give the president a veneer of legitimacy both at home and abroad.

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Iran says it will end UN watchdog’s access to nuclear sites

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A deal allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect images of nuclear facilities won’t be renewed

Iran’s parliament speaker has said that a three-month monitoring deal between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog has expired, escalating tensions amid diplomatic efforts in Vienna to save Tehran’s atomic accord with world powers.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf’s comments, aired by state TV, further underscored the narrowing window for the US and others to reach terms with Iran.

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Boycotts and sanctions helped rid South Africa of apartheid – is Israel next in line?

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The comparison rankles supporters of Israel but the growing Palestinian Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement draws on the struggle to isolate racist South Africa

Ask an older generation of white South Africans when they first felt the bite of anti-apartheid sanctions, and some point to the moment in 1968 when their prime minister, BJ Vorster, banned a tour by the England cricket team because it included a mixed-race player, Basil D’Oliveira.

After that, South Africa was excluded from international cricket until Nelson Mandela walked free from prison 22 years later. The D’Oliveira affair, as it became known, proved a watershed in drumming up popular support for the sporting boycott that eventually saw the country excluded from most international competition including rugby, the great passion of the white Afrikaners who were the base of the ruling Nationalist party and who bitterly resented being cast out.

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Ever Given owner says Suez canal authority at fault ship’s grounding

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Lawyers for Shoei Kisen tell court container ship was wrongly allowed to enter waterway amid bad weather

The owner of a container ship that blocked the Suez canal in March says the canal authority was at fault over its grounding as it disputes the vessel’s detention and a compensation claim, a lawyer representing the owner said on Saturday.

The Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, became jammed across the canal in high winds on 23 March, and remained grounded for six days, blocking traffic in both directions and disrupting global trade.

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We don’t recognise our own city: Israeli barrage redraws the map of Gaza

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A ceasefire is finally in force, but traumatised families have little hope as they recall collapsing buildings and deaths of loved ones

As they emerge from hiding, people living in Gaza City have had to adapt their memories. So deformed is this small place on the coast that a mental map of its roads and landmarks from two weeks ago is largely useless today. Shortcuts to avoid traffic may no longer work, as craters dot back streets and rubble blocks roads. Locally famous high-rises no longer exist.

Eleven days of bombardment have buckled the city. Air attacks shook the ground so violently that some bomb sites appear as if buildings have been pulled into the earth rather than hit from above.

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Gaza damage and Glasgow raids: human rights this fortnight in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Peru

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‘Parents risk children’s lives – the alternative is worse’: on board a migrant rescue ship

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More than 700 people have died in the Mediterranean this year. But Sea-Eye, a German charity, is fighting hard to save lives

Amani clutches her son, Mohammed, as she is pulled from an unstable wooden boat in the Mediterranean. “Please help. My baby is soaked in water and freezing,” says the 23-year-old Syrian refugee.

It’s shortly before 2am, last Monday and about 80 miles (130km) from the Libyan coast a group of maritime emergency responders from the Sea-Eye 4 are on patrol.

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Palestinians return to devastated homes as UN calls for Gaza dialogue

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World leaders welcome ceasefire but Hamas and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu remain belligerent

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza have begun returning to their homes to inspect the devastation from 11 days of Israeli airstrikes in its war with Hamas.

Gaza City, on the Mediterranean coast, had been warped by the intense attacks, with gaping holes in the skyline from where high-rise buildings had collapsed, their remains sprawling into the street. Cars mounted pavements to avoid craters.

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Palestinians and Israeli police clash at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque hours after Gaza truce – video

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Israeli police fired stun grenades towards Palestinians who threw rocks and petrol bombs at officers outside Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque on Friday, hours after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire in Gaza. Police raids at the mosque and clashes with Palestinians during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan had led in part to the war between Israel and Hamas

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Iran stunned by case of couple who drugged and dismembered son

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Parents admit murdering film-maker Babak Khorramdin and to killing daughter and son-in-law years before

An Iranian couple have been arrested for drugging, murdering and dismembering their film-maker son, Babak Khorramdin, 47, and also confessed to killing their daughter and son-in-law in the same way years earlier.

The case has stunned Iran, where it has been splashed across the front pages of newspapers with headlines including “Society in shock” and “Occupants of terror house”.

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The two-state solution has no chance. But an Israeli-Palestinian confederation does | Meron Rapoport

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Although they are two peoples with distinct national identities, Jews and Palestinians are inextricably geographically intertwined

“Peace for peace.” That’s how Benjamin Netanyahu described the Abraham Accords, the peace deals that Israel signed with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in September. No more “land for peace”, the paradigm that once governed diplomacy with the Palestinians.

From Netanyahu’s perspective, these deals were proof that he was right the whole time in claiming that the way to regional peace isn’t through the Palestinians. The US and Europe lost interest in the “Palestinian question” some time ago, and so did the Arab world, much of which decided it would rather align with Israel than support the Palestinians, who seemed more isolated and fragmented than ever. It’s no wonder so many people believed that Israel had won, and the Palestinian national struggle was over.

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Palestinians greet ceasefire with celebrations on the streets of Gaza – video

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Palestinians poured on to the streets after Israel and Palestinian militants agreed to a ceasefire. The truce comes after an 11-day conflict that killed more than 230 people in Gaza and 12 in Israel. Cars packed the streets of Gaza, with flags waving from the windows while mosque loudspeakers hailed a 'victory'

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Israel-Gaza conflict: world leaders hail ceasefire after 11 days of attacks

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Joe Biden hails ‘genuine opportunity to make progress’ as Palestinians in Gaza celebrate in the streets

World leaders have hailed a ceasefire that took hold in the early hours of Friday morning, and vowed to help rebuild Gaza after an Israeli bombing campaign that killed more than 230 people and Palestinian rocket attacks that killed 12 in Israel.

The United Nations secretary general urged Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers to observe the ceasefire and called on global leaders to develop a reconstruction package “that supports the Palestinian people and strengthens their institutions”.

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‘We must unite the country’: Biden signs anti-Asian hate crimes bill – live

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In his remarks before signing the anti-Asian American hate crimes bill, Joe Biden denounced racism as an “ugly poison” that has tarnished the country.

“I believe with every fiber of my being that there are simple core values and beliefs that should bring us together as Americans,” the president said of the bill.

President Biden: "I believe with every fiber of my being that there are simple core values and beliefs that should bring us together as Americans. One of them is standing together against hate, against racism — the ugly poison that has long haunted and plagued our nation." pic.twitter.com/DB1gsTNoen

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell applauded Joe Biden for signing the anti-Asian American hate crimes bill into law moments ago.

“Recent increases in anti-Asian hate crimes are alarming,” the Republican leader said on Twitter. “I’m proud the Senate took bipartisan action — and, as the proud husband of a remarkable Asian-American woman, I am especially glad this effort is now law.”

I applaud @POTUS for signing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law. Recent increases in anti-Asian hate crimes are alarming. I’m proud the Senate took bipartisan action — and, as the proud husband of a remarkable Asian-American woman, I am especially glad this effort is now law.

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