When “prophets” become memes: Rise and fall of Benjamin Netanyahu
August 2nd, 20240 Great orators in history would not have been recognized as such if their words carried no value. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is neither a great orator, nor did his speech before a joint Congressional session on July 24 have actual worth. It was an expression of his desperation, if not defeat, on all fronts. This is not...
White House grants deportation reprieve to Lebanese, citing Israel-Hezbollah tensions
August 2nd, 20240 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House will offer deportation relief and work permits to an estimated 11,500 Lebanese nationals already in the U.S., due to conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, President Biden said in a memo on Friday. The measure, under an authority known as Deferred Enforced Departure, will allow...
Biden’s administration tells Americans in Lebanon: “Be prepared to shelter in place”
August 2nd, 20240 WASHINGTON – D.C. – On Wednesday, the Biden administration urged Americans in Lebanon to “shelter in place” amid rising tensions in the Middle East over a series of attacks and retaliation among Hezbollah, Israel and Iran. The State Department updated its travel advisory for the entire country of Lebanon to Level 4: Do Not...
Nasrallah: War with Israel has entered “new phase” after killings of top resistance leaders
August 2nd, 20241 On Thursday, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned that the conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase,” as he addressed mourners at the funeral of a commander from the group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week in Beirut. Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei prayed over the...State Department issues DO NOT TRAVEL advisory for Lebanon
July 31st, 20240 FROM U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib's Office With the Israeli government escalating the risk of regional war, we want to make sure you are aware of recent travel advisories. The State Department has issued a Level 4 Do Not Travel Advisory for Lebanon, and has encouraged Americans who are already in the country to leave at the earliest and...
Gaza death toll: how many Palestinians has Israel’s campaign killed?
July 26th, 20241 Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians, and driven most of the enclave's 2.3 million people from their homes. The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into Israeli communities. Israel says the militants killed more...
Harris urges Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and bring the hostages home
July 26th, 20240 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris said she urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal soon with Hamas so that dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza since Oct. 7 can return home. Harris said she had a “frank and constructive” conversation with Netanyahu in which...
When supporting Israel is becoming a liability: Is Gaza changing the West?
July 19th, 20241 Much has been written about the political earthquakes in Britain and France, the first resulting in the crushing defeat of the Conservative Party and the latter in the overpowering of the far right, by a largely leftist coalition. But these were not the only important outcomes of the July 4 and July 7 general elections in two of...
“We have nothing”: Palestinians return to utter destruction in Gaza City after Israeli withdrawal
July 13th, 20240 Palestinians returned to breathtaking scenes of destruction in the Gaza City district of Shijaiyah after Israeli troops withdrew, ending a two-week offensive there. Civil defense workers said Thursday that so far, they had found the bodies of 60 people in the rubble. Families who fled the assault ventured back into Shijaiyah to...
Severely sick children medically evacuated from Gaza to seek treatment
July 5th, 20240 A medical evacuation occurred in the Gaza strip for the first time since the area of Rafah and its crossing was seized by Israel, as a group of sick children and their companions were evacuated from the region through the Keres Shalom cargo crossing, reports state. The war that has raged on since October 2023 has decimated parts of Gaza,...
Israel sends delegation to negotiate hostage release deal with Hamas
July 5th, 20240 On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Biden he has decided to send a delegation to resume stalled negotiations on a hostage release deal with Hamas, their administrations said. A source in the Israeli negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a real chance of achieving...
Israel storms Gaza City neighborhood, surprises Palestinians and orders them to go south
June 28th, 20240 On Thursday, the Israeli army stormed a neighborhood in Gaza City, ordering Palestinians to move south as the tanks rolled in and bombing the southern city of Rafah in what it says are the final stages of an operation against Hamas fighters there. Residents of the Shejaia neighborhood in Gaza City said they were taken by surprise by...
Gazans struggle to feed their children under Israeli continuous bombardments
June 27th, 20240 Famine approaches slowly for Gazans, who spend hours in queues for a few ladles of cooked food and the chance to fill plastic containers with drinkable water after nearly nine months of Israel's military campaign in the enclave. Sometimes there is nothing to queue for in the shattered streets and crowded schools that have been turned...
“Wishful thinking” – Does Israel have all the cards in Gaza?
June 21st, 20240 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is often criticized for failing to produce a vision for the "next day", meaning the day following the end of the Gaza war. Some of these criticisms emanate from Israel’s traditional Western allies, who are wary of Netanyahu’s personal and political agendas, which are fixated on delaying his...
Hezbollah’s leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah warns Israel against wider war
June 21st, 20240 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Hezbollah has new weapons and intelligence capabilities that would allow it to target and destroy more critical Israeli military and infrastructure positions deeper inside Israel in case of an all-out war, the powerful group’s leader warned on Wednesday. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah’s comments came as the......
Rifts growing between Israel’s political and military leadership over conduct of the war on Gaza
June 21st, 20240 On Wednesday the Israeli army’s chief spokesman appeared to question the stated goal of destroying the Hamas group in Gaza in a rare public rift between the country’s political and military leadership. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted Israel will pursue the fight against Hamas, the group running the besieged...
UNICEF finds 9 out 10 children in Gaza lack necessary food for growth
June 15th, 20240 UNICEF has found that nine out of 10 children in Gaza do not have enough food necessary for growth and development. "In the Gaza Strip, months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed the food and health systems, resulting in catastrophic consequences for children and their families," UNICEF said in a......
Israeli forces advance deeper into Rafah, Hamas fighters re-emerge in central Gaza as diplomacy falters
June 14th, 20240 Israeli tanks advanced deeper into the western area of Rafah, amid one of the worst nights of bombardment from air, ground and sea, forcing many families to flee their homes and tents under darkness, residents said on Thursday. Residents said the Israeli forces thrust towards the Al-Mawasi area of Rafah near the beach, which is...
“Immense” scale of Gaza killings amount to crimes against humanity, U.N. inquiry says
June 14th, 20240 GENEVA — Both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, a U.N. inquiry found on Wednesday, saying that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses. The findings were from two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and another...
End of an era: Pro-Palestine language exposes Israel, Zionism
June 7th, 20240 If one were to argue that a top Spanish government official would someday declare that “from the river to the sea, Palestine would be free”, the suggestion itself would have seemed ludicrous. But this is precisely how Yolanda Diaz, Spain's deputy prime minister, concluded a statement on May 23, a few days before Spain officially...
Spain applies to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at top U.N. court
June 7th, 20240 On Thursday, Spain became the first European country to ask a United Nations court for permission to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice late last year. It alleged that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault......
Reuters: NAACP asks Biden to halt weapons to Israel as he seeks to shore up Black voter support
June 7th, 20240 On Thursday, the NAACP urged President Biden to "indefinitely" halt all weapons deliveries to Israel and pressure the U.S. ally to end its war in the Gaza Strip, sending a reminder that his support for Israel could hurt him among Black voters in November's election. The NAACP's call was a rare instance of the influential civil rights...
Protesters demand Wayne State University divest from companies supporting Israel and refrain from prosecuting students
June 7th, 20240 DETROIT – Dozens of professors, employees, alumni and students at Wayne State University protested on Tuesday evening against the forced removal of a student encampments and the dispersal of the pro-Palestinian protest on Thursday, May 30. An open letter sent to the university’s administration and Board of Governors asked them to......
Muslim nurse in New York fired after calling Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide”
May 31st, 20240 A New York City hospital fired a Palestinian American Muslim nurse after she called Israel's war in Gaza a "genocide" during an acceptance speech for an award for her work with bereaved mothers who lost their children during pregnancy and childbirth. A spokesperson for the hospital, NYU Langone Health, said on Thursday that labor and...
The untold ICC story: How the Global South helped Palestine challenge Western Institutions
May 31st, 20240 Even the most optimistic of political analysts did not expect that the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor would be uttering these words: “I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu... and Yoav Gallant... bear criminal responsibility for... war crimes and crimes against humanity...” Aside from......
