International
US Congress cheers Netanyahu address, protesters gather to denounce it
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Activists-gather-near-the-US-Capitol-to-protest-against-Israeli-Prime-Minister-Benjamin-Netanyahu-on-July-24-Ali-Harb-Al-Jazeera.jpg)
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
International
UN investigator accuses Israel of starvation campaign in Gaza
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Displaced-Palestinian-children-gather-to-receive-food-at-a-government-school-in-Rafah-in-the-southern-Gaza-Strip-on-February-.jpg)
UN investigator accuses Israel of starvation campaign in Gaza
UNITED NATIONS: The UN independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, an allegation that Israel vehemently denies.
In a report this week, investigator Michael Fakhri claimed it began two days after Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, when Israel’s military offensive in response blocked all food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said accusations of Israel limiting humanitarian aid were “outrageously false.”
“A deliberate starvation policy? You can say anything — it doesn’t make it true,” he said in a press conference Wednesday.
Following intense international pressure — especially from close ally the United States — Netanyahu’s government gradually has opened several border crossings for tightly controlled deliveries. Fakhri said limited aid initially went mostly to southern and central Gaza, not to the north where Israel had ordered Palestinians to go.
A professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, Fakhri was appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council as the investigator, or special rapporteur, on the right to food and assumed the role in 2020.
“By December, Palestinians in Gaza made up 80 percent of the people in the world experiencing famine or catastrophic hunger,” Fakhri said. “Never in post-war history had a population been made to go hungry so quickly and so completely as was the case for the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza.”
Fakhri, who teaches law courses on human rights, food law and development, made the allegations in a report to the UN General Assembly circulated Thursday.
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He claims it goes back 76 years to Israeli’s independence and its continuous dislocation of Palestinians. Since then, he accused Israel of deploying “the full range of techniques of hunger and starvation against the Palestinians, perfecting the degree of control, suffering and death that it can cause through food systems.”
Since the war in Gaza began, Fakhri said he has received direct reports of the destruction of the territory’s food system, including farmland and fishing, which also has been documented and recognized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and others.
“Israel then used humanitarian aid as a political and military weapon to harm and kill the Palestinian people in Gaza,” he claimed.
Israel insists it no longer places restrictions on the number of aid trucks entering Gaza, including food.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Netanyahu cited figures from COGAT, Israel’s military body overseeing aid entry into Gaza, that 700,000 tons of food items had been allowed into Gaza since the war began 11 months ago.
Nearly half of that food aid in recent months has been brought in by the private sector for sale in Gaza’s markets, according to COGAT figures. However, many Palestinians in Gaza say they struggle to afford enough food for their families.
Israel allows trucks of aid through two small crossings in the north and one main crossing in the south, Kerem Shalom. However, since Israel’s invasion of the southern city of Rafah in May, the UN and other aid agencies say they struggle to reach the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom to retrieve the aid for free distribution because Israel’s military operations make it too dangerous.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “beyond catastrophic,” with more than 1 million Palestinians not receiving any food rations in August and a 35 percent drop in people getting daily cooked meals.
The UN humanitarian office attributed the sharp reduction in cooked meals partly to multiple evacuation orders from Israeli security forces that forced at least 70 of 130 kitchens to either suspend or relocate their operations, he said Thursday. The UN’s humanitarian partners also lacked sufficient food supplies to meet requirements for the second straight month in central and southern Gaza, Dujarric added.
He said critical shortages of supplies in Gaza are stem from hostilities, insecurity, damaged roads, and Israeli obstacles and access limitations.
UN investigator accuses Israel of starvation campaign in Gaza
ARAB NEWS
International
Protesters rally in France against new PM appointment
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Protesters-rally-in-France-against-new-PM-appointment.jpg)
Protesters rally in France against new PM appointment
Protests are taking place across France over the nomination of right-wing Michel Barnier as the new prime minister, after an inconclusive election in which the left won the largest number of seats.
More than 100 protests are expected to take place on Saturday, with people already on the streets in cities including Bordeaux, Nice and Le Mans.
The demonstrations were called by trade unions and left-wing political parties, whose own candidate for prime minister was rejected by President Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, said he is open to forming a government with politicians across the political spectrum, including the left.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a veteran firebrand from the radical France Unbowed party, called for the “most powerful mobilisation possible” in national marches.
Around 130 protests are being held, with the biggest setting out from central Paris this afternoon. Other cities staging protests include Marseille and Lyon.
The demonstrators are using slogans such as “denial of democracy” and “stolen election”.
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Parties on the left are angry that their own candidate for prime minister, Lucie Castets, was rejected by Mr Macron, who said she had no chance of surviving a vote of confidence in the National Assembly.
Mr Barnier may be able to survive a confidence vote because the far right, which also won a large number of seats, has said it won’t automatically vote against him.
However, that has led to criticism that his government will be dependent on the far right.
Ms Castets said she – like millions of French voters – felt betrayed and that the president had in effect ended up governing with the far right.
“We have a prime minister completely dependent on National Rally,” she added.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the protests, Mr Barnier is focussed on forming a new government.
After talks with the leaders of the right-wing Republicans and the president’s centrist Ensemble group, he said discussions were going very well and were “full of energy”.
Some on the left have blamed themselves for ending up with Mr Barnier as prime minister.
Socialist Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo pointed out that the president had considered former Socialist prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, for the job but that he had been turned down by his own party.
Another Socialist Mayor, Karim Bouamrane, blamed intransigence from other parts of the left alliance: “The path they chose was 100% or nothing – and here we are with nothing.”
Protesters rally in France against new PM appointment
BBC
International
Man who attacked judge in court pleads ‘guilty but mentally ill’
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Deobra-Redden.jpg)
Man who attacked judge in court pleads ‘guilty but mentally ill’
Deobra Redden, the man caught on video attacking a judge during an attempted battery conviction, has pled guilty with a significant caveat—he has been declared “guilty but mentally ill.”
In a statement released on Friday, September 6, by Redden’s lawyers at CEGA Law Group, they emphasized that their client acknowledges the severity of his actions and is seeking mental health treatment as part of his sentencing. The legal team is pushing for mental health reform and hopes Redden’s case will help spotlight the need for improvements in the system.
The attorneys expressed sympathy for Judge Mary Kay Holthus, the judge who was attacked, and thanked the Clark County District Attorney’s Office for working towards a resolution.
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The shocking courtroom incident, which was caught on video, shows Redden leaping over the judge’s bench as Judge Holthus was delivering his sentence for an earlier conviction. Holthus had made a comment about Redden “getting a taste of something else” before he ran towards her. Despite the chaos, the judge only sustained minor injuries after hitting her head.
Redden was quickly restrained and appeared in court days later, wearing a facemask and hand covers, where he was sentenced to 19-48 months behind bars for the attempted battery conviction.
Redden’s sentencing for the judge attack is set for November 7. His legal team is advocating for mental health treatment to be central to his punishment.
Man who attacked judge in court pleads ‘guilty but mentally ill’
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