US Congress cheers Netanyahu address, protesters gather to denounce it – Newstrends
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US Congress cheers Netanyahu address, protesters gather to denounce it

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5 months ago

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Activists gather near the US Capitol to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 24 [Ali Harb/Al Jazeera]

US Congress cheers Netanyahu address, protesters gather to denounce it

Washington, DC – Hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the United States Capitol to deliver a speech to Congress, a woman with a blue scarf concealing her face sat alone on a park bench and waved a Palestinian flag near Union Station in Washington, DC.

“We will fight for freedom wherever it’s being denied all over the world. We connect with the Palestinians because we are freedom fighters here in America,” the lone protester, who asked to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

She was one of the thousands of protesters who would ultimately gather across the capital city to demonstrate against the Israeli prime minister’s speech.

As US legislators clapped for Netanyahu inside the domed edifice, activists outside called for him to be tried for abuses linked to Israel’s war in Gaza. Many argued that Netanyahu is a war criminal who belongs in jail, not in the halls of Congress.

The demonstrators held effigies of a blood-stained Netanyahu, waved Palestinian flags and chanted “free Palestine” as the Israeli prime minister spoke.

Top Republican and Democratic legislators in both the Senate and House of Representatives invited Netanyahu to speak before the joint session of Congress.

But despite the bipartisan show of support, dozens of lawmakers boycotted the address on Wednesday, echoing concerns voiced by the demonstrators.

Irene Ippolito, a protester draped in a red keffiyeh, described the congressional leadership as a “bunch of sycophants” for bringing Netanyahu to Congress.

“We need to be out here. We need to say, ‘Not in our name’,” Ippolito told Al Jazeera. “As American citizens, we have to realise that this could not be taking place without our taxpayer dollars sending tonnes of weapons to Israel as it slaughters men, women and children in Gaza.”

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She added that the atrocities in Gaza are the “most documented genocide in human history”.

Security measures

Protesters like Ippolito braved searing summer heat, blocked roads and a heavy police presence as they descended on the site of the demonstration, just west of the Capitol. Some even arrived from across the country.

As the protest continued, organisers led a march east through the Capitol Hill neighbourhood.

Law enforcement agents had cordoned off the Capitol with a metal fence earlier this week.

But on Wednesday morning, they enlarged the security perimeter, turning away vehicles and pedestrians that approached the building. Clusters of heavily armed officers and security agents in riot gear could be seen all around the area.

Capitol Police said they deployed pepper spray towards activists who had “become violent” without providing further details.

Al Jazeera did witness exchanges of harsh words between officers and demonstrators, but no clashes or physical violence.

Adam Abusalah, an Arab American activist from Dearborn, Michigan, said it is a “shame” that Netanyahu was invited to speak to Congress.

“It’s a disgrace that members from both parties have invited him to speak here. It’s a disgrace that Kamala Harris, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, will meet with him,” Abusalah told Al Jazeera at an anti-Netanyahu protest near the Capitol.

“We are here to say enough is enough. As Americans, we will not stand for that.”

Harris — who, as vice president, has the ceremonial role of presiding over the Senate — was at an event in Indianapolis and did not attend Netanyahu’s address at the Capitol.

But she is set to meet with him later this week.

The vice president is now the likely nominee of the Democratic Party after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

The Biden administration has authorised more than $14bn in military aid to Israel to help fund the war effort while offering the US ally diplomatic cover at international forums.

‘He has no right to be here’

Some of the protesters’ anger on Wednesday was directed at the US president. “Biden, Biden you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” they chanted.

Karim, a Palestinian American protester who wished to be identified by his first name only, said he would not support Harris for the presidency after she had served as Biden’s vice president.

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Instead, he said he would vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who spoke at the demonstration.

Karim arrived in Washington, DC, on a bus with dozens of demonstrators on Wednesday, and he expressed bewilderment that Netanyahu was invited to speak at the Capitol.

“He has no right to be here,” he told Al Jazeera. “We don’t support criminals of war. We don’t support genocidal maniacs.”

In his remarks to US lawmakers, Netanyahu defended the Israeli war, which has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, displaced more than 80 percent of Gaza’s population and brought the territory to the verge of famine.

He also pledged to fight until “total victory” despite US-led efforts to secure a ceasefire deal.

The Israeli prime minister hit out at antiwar protesters in the US, accusing them of siding with Hamas.

“These protesters that stand with them, they should be ashamed of themselves,” Netanyahu said.

He also called the protesters outside the Capitol “Iran’s useful idiots”, earning a standing ovation from US legislators.

‘Hitler number two’

On the streets of Washington, DC, the demonstrators had nothing but contempt for the Israeli leader. Several posters compared him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Protester Sarah Bowls said the top legislators who invited Netanyahu to the US Capitol should be “ashamed” of themselves.

“We should be boycotting him. He should be arrested. He should be at The Hague,” she said, referring to the Dutch city where the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based.

ICC prosecutors are seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Bowls added that she is “sick” of her government continuing to fund and enable “genocide” against Palestinians.

Jenny Bennett, who travelled from Dayton, Ohio, to join the demonstration, also admonished Netanyahu.

“He is Hitler number two,” Bennett told Al Jazeera. “This is not OK. We are all equal. This is a genocide, and it needs to end — now.”

 

US Congress cheers Netanyahu address, protesters gather to denounce it

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
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Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

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3 days ago

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December 19, 2024

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Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbours or to the West.

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, he called for sanctions on Syria to be lifted.

“Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way,” he said.

Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance, and was previously known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

He said HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the UN, US, EU and UK, among many others, as it started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, which it broke away from in 2016.

Sharaa said HTS was not a terrorist group.

They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he said. In fact, they considered themselves to be victim of the crimes of the Assad regime.

He denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.

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Sharaa said the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he said, there was a different mindset.

He said he believed in education for women.

“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa said, referring to Syria’s north-western province that has been held by rebels since 2011.

“I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”

And when asked whether the consumption of alcohol would be allowed, Sharaa said: “There are many things I just don’t have the right to talk about because they are legal issues.”

He added that there would be a “Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law”.

Sharaa was relaxed throughout the interview, wearing civilian clothes, and tried to offer reassurance to all those who believe his group has not broken with its extremist past.

Many Syrians do not believe him.

The actions of Syria’s new rulers in the next few months will indicate the kind of country they want Syria to be – and the way they want to rule it.

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

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Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

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3 days ago

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December 19, 2024

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Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

JERUSALEM: Israel said Thursday it struck ports and energy infrastructure it alleges are used by Houthi militants, after intercepting a missile fired by the group.

Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen — including ports and energy infrastructure in Sanaa, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions.”

The announcement came shortly after Israel said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

Al-Masira, a media channel belonging to the Houthis, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.

It reported raids that “targeted two central power plants” in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, while in Hodeidah it said “the enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port… and two raids targeting” an oil facility.

The strikes were the second time this week that Israel’s military has intercepted a missile from Yemen.

On Monday, the Houthis claimed a missile launch they said was aimed at “a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa” — a reference to Israel’s Tel Aviv area.

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Also Monday, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi militants have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and pledged Monday to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by United States and sometimes British forces.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the group had become a “global threat,” pointing to Iran’s support for the militants.

“We will continue to act against anyone, anyone in the Middle East, that threatens the state of Israel,” he said.

 

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

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Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

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3 days ago

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December 19, 2024

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A Palestinian boy looks as others inspect the damage at a tent camp sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. (Reuters)

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

CAIRO: The United States, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.

On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, said an agreement could be signed in coming days on a ceasefire and a release of hostages held in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, Nuseirat camp in central areas, and Rafah near the border with Egypt.

In Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike on a house. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military spokesman.

Israeli forces have operated in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as the nearby Jabalia camp since October, in a campaign the military said aimed to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out acts of “ethnic cleansing” to depopulate the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it.

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Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish in its daily death toll between combatants and non-combatants.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck a number of Hamas militants planning an imminent attack against Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.

Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said Israeli shelling in the vicinity damaged the facility, wounding seven medics and one patient inside the hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the Central Gaza camp of Bureij, Palestinian families began leaving some districts after the army posted new evacuation orders on X and in written and audio messages to mobile phones of some of the population there, citing new firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from the area.

CEASEFIRE GAINS MOMENTUM

The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.

In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Adam Boehler, US President-elect Donald Trump’s designated envoy for hostage affairs. Trump has threatened that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release its hostages by Jan. 20, the day Trump returns to the White House.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, other knowledgeable sources said. The CIA declined to comment.

Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday looking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas on a deal Biden outlined in May.

There have been repeated rounds of talks over the past year, all of which have failed, with Israel insisting on retaining a military presence in Gaza and Hamas refusing to release hostages until the troops pulled out.

The war in Gaza, triggered by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw more than 250 abducted as hostages, has sent shockwaves across the Middle East and left Israel isolated internationally.

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

 

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

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