flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
And was my house next door to a declared safe zone that was then bombed, in that hypothetical?
Thirteen out of 21 people killed in the latest Israeli military attack on tent cities in southern Rafah’s so-called “safe area” of al-Mawasi were women and girls as deadly strikes on civilians continue.
flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
I agree with you that it is in no way a genocide by Israel and am not convinced that Israel is even acting with excessive disregard for civilian casualties. I disagree that there is a reasonable path for the Palestinian people to effectively rise up against Hamas.
flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
a: the united states IS involved in this. the us has historically used its veto at the un to shield israel from any international punishment or criminal accountability. the united states has constantly meddled in the middle east. we prop up israel because we need a place to launch our air attacks from besides saudi arabia. the united states has for decades sent billions in military aid to israel. even when they did not ask for it.
b: how can the palestinians "turn on hamas" when there have been no elections held for like 17 years since hamas took over? how can they turn against hamas with the israeli embargos in place? they cannot even get concrete into gaza, how can they get weapons if they want to fight hamas? the leadership of hamas does not even live in the area. how can people with no food, no weapons, and no electoral power do anything against hamas?
c: you act as if this all started on october 7, which leads me to believe that you are ignoring everything that has happened since the founding of israel. this conflict did not begin on 10/7. the killing of palestinian civilians did not begin on 10/8. it has been going on for decades.
d: genocide is not a term thrown around willy nilly. what israel is doing is systematic and deliberate. they are displacing native people and seizing their land and building illegal settlements on it.
the only reason israel has not been held accountable internationally is because we support them and defend them at the un, and they have nukes.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
Iraq and Afghanistan still stand.
Neither one attacked us!
true but the ruling power at the time actually did harbor those who did in Afghanistan
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
Iraq and Afghanistan still stand.
Neither one attacked us!
true but the ruling power at the time actually did harbor those who did in Afghanistan
As soon as I hit Post Comment I was like ah Christ I don't have the energy to start a 9/11 diversion
flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
Iraq and Afghanistan still stand.
Neither one attacked us!
true but the ruling power at the time actually did harbor those who did in Afghanistan
As soon as I hit Post Comment I was like ah Christ I don't have the energy to start a 9/11 diversion
But that is the obvious parallel. No out of the blue attack on civilians and the response shouldn't be more different.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Tue 28 May 2024 02.30 EDTLast modified on Tue 28 May 2024 21.31 EDT
The former head of theMossad,
Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief
prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret
meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes
investigation, the Guardian can reveal.
Yossi
Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda,
took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.
That investigation, launched in 2021, culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor,
Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for the
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct
in its war in Gaza.
The prosecutor’s decision to apply to the ICC’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants
for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, alongside three
Hamas leaders, is an outcome Israel’s military and political
establishment has long feared.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Tue 28 May 2024 02.30 EDTLast modified on Tue 28 May 2024 21.31 EDT
The former head of theMossad,
Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief
prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret
meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes
investigation, the Guardian can reveal.
Yossi
Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda,
took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.
That investigation, launched in 2021, culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor,
Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for the
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct
in its war in Gaza.
The prosecutor’s decision to apply to the ICC’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants
for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, alongside three
Hamas leaders, is an outcome Israel’s military and political
establishment has long feared.
Netanyahu frequently makes claims of antisemitism. Critics say he's deflecting from his own problems
By TIA GOLDENBERG
Today
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — After the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and top Hamas officials, the Israeli leader accused him of being one of “the great antisemites in modern times.”
As protests roiled college campuses across the United States over the Gaza war, Netanyahu said they were awash with “antisemitic mobs.”
These are just two of the many instances during the war in which Netanyahu has accused critics of Israel or his policies of antisemitism, using fiery rhetoric to compare them to the Jewish people's worst persecutors. But his detractors say he is overusing the label to further his political agenda and try to stifle even legitimate criticism, and that doing so risks diluting the term's meaning at a time when antisemitism is surging worldwide.
“Not every criticism against Israel is antisemitic,” said Tom Segev, an Israeli historian. “The moment you say it is antisemitic hate ... you take away all legitimacy from the criticism and try to crush the debate.”
There has been a spike in antisemitic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to researchers. And many Jews in North America and Europe have said they feel unsafe, citing threats to Jewish schools and synagogues and the pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations in the U.S., although organizers deny that antisemitism drives the protests.
The war has reignited the long debate about the definition of antisemitism and whether any criticism of Israel — from its military's killing of thousands of Palestinian children to questions over Israel's very right to exist — amounts to anti-Jewish hate speech.
Netanyahu, the son of a scholar of medieval Jewish persecution, has long used the travails of the Jewish people to color his political rhetoric. And he certainly isn't the first world leader accused of using national trauma to advance political goals.
Netanyahu’s supporters say he is honestly worried for the safety of Jews around the world.
But his accusations of antisemitism come as he has repeatedly sidestepped accountability for not preventing Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, which many in Israel’s defense establishment acknowledge they shoulder the blame for.
Netanyahu has continued to face criticism at home and abroad throughout the war, which has killed 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between fighters and noncombatants. The fighting has sparked a humanitarian catastrophe, and ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has accused Netanyahu and his defense minister of using starvation as a “method of warfare,” among other crimes.
Segev, the historian, acknowledged there is a rise in “violent hate” toward Israel and, speaking from Vienna, said he wasn’t sure if speaking Hebrew in public was safe. But he said Netanyahu has long used Jewish crises to his political benefit, including invoking the Jewish people's deepest trauma, the Holocaust, to further his goals.
At the height of the campus protests, Netanyahu released a video statement condemning their “unconscionable” antisemitism and comparing the mushrooming encampments on college greens to Nazi Germany of the 1930s.
“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific,” he said.
In response to Khan seeking the arrest warrants, he said the ICC prosecutor was “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world,” comparing him to German judges who approved of the Nazis' race laws against Jews.
Those comments drew a rebuke from the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. “The prosecutor of the court has been strongly intimidated and accused of antisemitism — as always when anybody, anyone does something that Netanyahu’s government does not like,” Borrell said. “The word antisemitic, it’s too heavy. It’s too important.”
Netanyahu has compared accusations that Israel’s war is causing starvation in Gaza or that the war is genocidal to blood libels — unfounded centuries-old accusations that Jews sacrificed Christian children and used their blood to make unleavened bread for Passover.
“These false accusations are not levelled against us because of the things we do, but because of the simple fact that we exist,” he said at a ceremony marking Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day earlier this month.
Israeli leaders and the country's media also made such comparisons about Oct. 7, describing the Hamas attackers as Nazis, comparing their rampage to the historic violence inflicted on Eastern European Jews, and referring to the images of Jewish victims' burned bodies as a Shoah — the Hebrew word for Holocaust.
Israelis have been jarred by the global rise in antisemitism, and many view the swell of criticism against Israel as part of the rise. They see hypocrisy in the world's intense focus on Israel's war with Hamas while other conflicts get much less attention.
Moshe Klughaft, a former advisor to Netanyahu, said he believes the Israeli leader is genuinely concerned over rising antisemitism.
“It is his duty to condemn antisemitism as prime minister of Israel and as head of a country that sees itself as responsible for world Jewry,” he said.
Many Israelis view the war in Gaza as a just act of self-defense and are befuddled by what many think should be criticism directed at Hamas — blaming the group for starting the war, using Palestinian civilians as human shields and refusing to free the hostages. The ICC warrant requests have likely bolstered such feelings.
When Netanyahu leans on accusations of antisemitism, he is doing so with the Israeli public in mind, said Reuven Hazan, a political scientist at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
Hazan said Netanyahu has leveraged the campus protests, for example, to get Israelis to rally around him at a time when his public support has plummeted and Israelis are growing impatient with the war. He said Netanyahu has also used the protests as a scapegoat for his failure so far to achieve the war’s two goals: destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.
“He deflects blame from himself, attributing any shortcomings not to his foreign policies or policies in the (Palestinian) territories, but rather to antisemitism. This narrative benefits him greatly, absolving him of responsibility,” Hazan said.
Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think thank, rejects the notion that Netanyahu stifles criticism by calling it antisemitic, pointing to just how much criticism the country receives. But he said using the antisemitic label to achieve political ends could cheapen it.
"I’d be more selective than the government of Israel in choosing the people and bodies they tag ‘antisemitic,’” he said.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Netanyahu frequently makes claims of antisemitism. Critics say he's deflecting from his own problems
By TIA GOLDENBERG
Today
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — After the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and top Hamas officials, the Israeli leader accused him of being one of “the great antisemites in modern times.”
As protests roiled college campuses across the United States over the Gaza war, Netanyahu said they were awash with “antisemitic mobs.”
These are just two of the many instances during the war in which Netanyahu has accused critics of Israel or his policies of antisemitism, using fiery rhetoric to compare them to the Jewish people's worst persecutors. But his detractors say he is overusing the label to further his political agenda and try to stifle even legitimate criticism, and that doing so risks diluting the term's meaning at a time when antisemitism is surging worldwide.
“Not every criticism against Israel is antisemitic,” said Tom Segev, an Israeli historian. “The moment you say it is antisemitic hate ... you take away all legitimacy from the criticism and try to crush the debate.”
There has been a spike in antisemitic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to researchers. And many Jews in North America and Europe have said they feel unsafe, citing threats to Jewish schools and synagogues and the pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations in the U.S., although organizers deny that antisemitism drives the protests.
The war has reignited the long debate about the definition of antisemitism and whether any criticism of Israel — from its military's killing of thousands of Palestinian children to questions over Israel's very right to exist — amounts to anti-Jewish hate speech.
Netanyahu, the son of a scholar of medieval Jewish persecution, has long used the travails of the Jewish people to color his political rhetoric. And he certainly isn't the first world leader accused of using national trauma to advance political goals.
Netanyahu’s supporters say he is honestly worried for the safety of Jews around the world.
But his accusations of antisemitism come as he has repeatedly sidestepped accountability for not preventing Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, which many in Israel’s defense establishment acknowledge they shoulder the blame for.
Netanyahu has continued to face criticism at home and abroad throughout the war, which has killed 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between fighters and noncombatants. The fighting has sparked a humanitarian catastrophe, and ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has accused Netanyahu and his defense minister of using starvation as a “method of warfare,” among other crimes.
Segev, the historian, acknowledged there is a rise in “violent hate” toward Israel and, speaking from Vienna, said he wasn’t sure if speaking Hebrew in public was safe. But he said Netanyahu has long used Jewish crises to his political benefit, including invoking the Jewish people's deepest trauma, the Holocaust, to further his goals.
At the height of the campus protests, Netanyahu released a video statement condemning their “unconscionable” antisemitism and comparing the mushrooming encampments on college greens to Nazi Germany of the 1930s.
“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific,” he said.
In response to Khan seeking the arrest warrants, he said the ICC prosecutor was “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world,” comparing him to German judges who approved of the Nazis' race laws against Jews.
Those comments drew a rebuke from the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. “The prosecutor of the court has been strongly intimidated and accused of antisemitism — as always when anybody, anyone does something that Netanyahu’s government does not like,” Borrell said. “The word antisemitic, it’s too heavy. It’s too important.”
Netanyahu has compared accusations that Israel’s war is causing starvation in Gaza or that the war is genocidal to blood libels — unfounded centuries-old accusations that Jews sacrificed Christian children and used their blood to make unleavened bread for Passover.
“These false accusations are not levelled against us because of the things we do, but because of the simple fact that we exist,” he said at a ceremony marking Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day earlier this month.
Israeli leaders and the country's media also made such comparisons about Oct. 7, describing the Hamas attackers as Nazis, comparing their rampage to the historic violence inflicted on Eastern European Jews, and referring to the images of Jewish victims' burned bodies as a Shoah — the Hebrew word for Holocaust.
Israelis have been jarred by the global rise in antisemitism, and many view the swell of criticism against Israel as part of the rise. They see hypocrisy in the world's intense focus on Israel's war with Hamas while other conflicts get much less attention.
Moshe Klughaft, a former advisor to Netanyahu, said he believes the Israeli leader is genuinely concerned over rising antisemitism.
“It is his duty to condemn antisemitism as prime minister of Israel and as head of a country that sees itself as responsible for world Jewry,” he said.
Many Israelis view the war in Gaza as a just act of self-defense and are befuddled by what many think should be criticism directed at Hamas — blaming the group for starting the war, using Palestinian civilians as human shields and refusing to free the hostages. The ICC warrant requests have likely bolstered such feelings.
When Netanyahu leans on accusations of antisemitism, he is doing so with the Israeli public in mind, said Reuven Hazan, a political scientist at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
Hazan said Netanyahu has leveraged the campus protests, for example, to get Israelis to rally around him at a time when his public support has plummeted and Israelis are growing impatient with the war. He said Netanyahu has also used the protests as a scapegoat for his failure so far to achieve the war’s two goals: destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.
“He deflects blame from himself, attributing any shortcomings not to his foreign policies or policies in the (Palestinian) territories, but rather to antisemitism. This narrative benefits him greatly, absolving him of responsibility,” Hazan said.
Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think thank, rejects the notion that Netanyahu stifles criticism by calling it antisemitic, pointing to just how much criticism the country receives. But he said using the antisemitic label to achieve political ends could cheapen it.
"I’d be more selective than the government of Israel in choosing the people and bodies they tag ‘antisemitic,’” he said.
A nurse honored for compassion is fired after referring to Gaza 'genocide' in speech
By KAREN MATTHEWS
Today
NEW YORK (AP) — A nurse was fired by a New York City hospital after she referred to Israel's war in Gaza as a “genocide” during a speech accepting an award.
Labor and delivery nurse Hesen Jabr, who is Palestinian American, was being honored by NYU Langone Health for her compassion in caring for mothers who had lost babies when she drew a link between her work and the suffering of mothers in Gaza.
“It pains me to see the women from my country going through unimaginable losses themselves during the current genocide in Gaza,” Jabr said, according to a video of the May 7 speech that she posted on social media. “This award is deeply personal to me for those reasons.”
Jabr wrote on Instagram that she arrived at work on May 22 for her first shift back after receiving the award when she was summoned to a meeting with the hospital's president and vice president of nursing “to discuss how I ‘put others at risk’ and ‘ruined the ceremony’ and ‘offended people’ because a small part of my speech was a tribute towards the grieving mothers in my country.”
She wrote that after working most of her shift she was “dragged once again to an office” where she was read her termination letter and then escorted out of the building.
A spokesperson for NYU Langone, Steve Ritea, confirmed that Jabr was fired following her speech and said there had been “a previous incident as well.”
“Hesen Jabr was warned in December, following a previous incident, not to bring her views on this divisive and charged issue into the workplace,” Mr. Ritea said in a statement. “She instead chose not to heed that at a recent employee recognition event that was widely attended by her colleagues, some of whom were upset after her comments. As a result, Jabr is no longer an NYU Langone employee."
Ritea did not provide any details of the previous incident.
Jabr defended her speech in an interview with The New York Times and said talking about the war “was so relevant” given the nature of the award she had won.
“It was an award for bereavement; it was for grieving mothers,” she said.
Critics say Israel's military campaign amounts to genocide, and the government of South Africa formally accused the country of genocide in January when it asked the United Nations’ top court to order a halt to Israeli military operations in Gaza.
Israel has denied the genocide charge and told the International Court of Justice it is doing everything it can to protect Gaza's civilian population.
Jabr is not the first employee at the hospital, which was renamed from NYU Medical Center after a major donation from Republican Party donor and billionaire Kenneth Langone, to be fired over comments about the Mideast conflict.
A prominent researcher who directed the hospital's cancer center was fired after he posted anti-Hamas political cartoons including caricatures of Arab people. That researcher, biologist Benjamin Neel, has since filed suit against the hospital.
Jabr's firing also was not her first time in the spotlight. When she was an 11-year-old in Louisiana, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on her behalf after she was forced to accept a Bible from the principal of her public school.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Opinion | The latest mass killing of civilians brings Israel to an inflection point Opinion by Jennifer Rubin Columnist May 30, 2024 at 7:45 ET The latest mass casualty event in Gaza, the accidental killing of at least 45 civilians in a horrific fire set off by shelling, echoes the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers last month. After that tragedy, fierce condemnation forced Israel to increase humanitarian aid and intensify efforts to “deconflict” (i.e., take measures to prevent accidental killings). Now, in the wake of the killing of 45 innocents, pressure on Israel mounts again. As a result, two starkly different possibilities emerge: another cycle of recrimination and Israeli defiance, fueled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal desperation to remain in power, or domestic and international pressure galvanizing to bring about a negotiated end to the ordeal. As unlikely as the latter may seem, there are precedents for it. “When a single Israeli action has resulted in a civilian death toll that the world cannot tolerate, it’s often become a tipping point in the course of conflict,” writes Dan Perry for the Forward. “Perhaps the most well-remembered such case was Israel’s 2006 shelling of Qana in Lebanon, which killed more than 100 displaced people. Outrage over the Qana massacre was so extreme that the strike ended up being one of the final actions in Israel’s (quite justifiable) ‘Grapes of Wrath’ operation against Hezbollah terrorists.” With the investigation ongoing, the precise sequence of events is as yet unknown. “The Israeli military is investigating the possibility that munitions stored near a compound in Gaza hit by an air strike on Sunday may have caught fire, killing more than 40 civilians, a spokesperson said on Tuesday,” Reuters reported. “Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said it was still unclear what set off the deadly blaze in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but added that the 17 kilogram munitions used in the strike were believed to be too small to have set off such a big fire.” Whatever the specifics of this incident, the deaths would not have occurred but for Israel’s incursion. Accordingly, the Israeli government finds itself the target of international condemnation. The government’s response did not help matters. As Israeli press reported, Netanyahu was silent for nearly 24 hours and then merely expressed regret over a “a tragic mishap” and promised the Knesset he would investigate.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
Why is your benchmark “well it’s not as bad as what the US would do”?. That’s a pretty terrible benchmark, and not the standard we should be employing. As the “wars” in the mid east since 9/11 have shown us.
"Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk" -EV 8/14/93
If your own hypothetical is using human shields as a given, it's giving up the game
So the actions of the terrorist excuse the murder of innocents. Seems to me the “terrorist” label could be applied to several players here.
Which is my entire point.
As I stated before, 9/11 doesn’t happen without years of US government sanctioned murder on foreign soil. Oct 7 doesn’t happen without decades of Israeli government policy. Am I excusing those events? Of course not. You can analyze cause and effect without it being an excuse.
Israel’s actions now are just going to have dire consequences in the future. Likely more innocent people. Because those are the real casualties of war. The collateral damage that both sides are so quick to dismiss as “necessary”. It won’t end until someone stops it. And I personally don’t believe Israel has any interest in stopping it. It gave them the green light.
"Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk" -EV 8/14/93
If your own hypothetical is using human shields as a given, it's giving up the game
So the actions of the terrorist excuse the murder of innocents. Seems to me the “terrorist” label could be applied to several players here.
Which is my entire point.
As I stated before, 9/11 doesn’t happen without years of US government sanctioned murder on foreign soil. Oct 7 doesn’t happen without decades of Israeli government policy. Am I excusing those events? Of course not. You can analyze cause and effect without it being an excuse.
Israel’s actions now are just going to have dire consequences in the future. Likely more innocent people. Because those are the real casualties of war. The collateral damage that both sides are so quick to dismiss as “necessary”. It won’t end until someone stops it. And I personally don’t believe Israel has any interest in stopping it. It gave them the green light.
I often suspect that this completely western-centric view of the situation that also ignores the explicitly stated goals of Hamas (amongst others) drives a decent amount of anti-Israel furor. That being the most generous interpretation anyway.
If your own hypothetical is using human shields as a given, it's giving up the game
So the actions of the terrorist excuse the murder of innocents. Seems to me the “terrorist” label could be applied to several players here.
Which is my entire point.
As I stated before, 9/11 doesn’t happen without years of US government sanctioned murder on foreign soil. Oct 7 doesn’t happen without decades of Israeli government policy. Am I excusing those events? Of course not. You can analyze cause and effect without it being an excuse.
Israel’s actions now are just going to have dire consequences in the future. Likely more innocent people. Because those are the real casualties of war. The collateral damage that both sides are so quick to dismiss as “necessary”. It won’t end until someone stops it. And I personally don’t believe Israel has any interest in stopping it. It gave them the green light.
I often suspect that this completely western-centric view of the situation that also ignores the explicitly stated goals of Hamas (amongst others) drives a decent amount of anti-Israel furor. That being the most generous interpretation anyway.
Maybe it’s the Likud Party’s original party platform? From 1977. That “wasteland” contains millions of Palestinians and it wouldn’t appear that Israel took care “not to dispossess anyone.” Seems pretty “west-centric” to think all the fault lies with Hamas.
The Right of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel(Eretz Israel)
a. The right of the Jewish peopleto the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable and is linked with the right to security and peace; therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.
b. A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel, undermines our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the establishment of a "Palestinian State," jeopardizes the security of the Jewish population, endangers the existence of the State of Israel. and frustrates any prospect of peace.
Settlement
Settlement. both urban and rural. in all parts of the Land of Israel is the focal point of the Zionist effort to redeem the country, to maintain vital security areas and serves as a reservoir of strength and inspiration for the renewal of the pioneering spirit. The Likud government will call on the younger generation in Israel and the dispersions to settle and help every group and individual in the task of inhabiting and cultivating the wasteland, while taking care not to dispossess anyone.
flaw in the premise about harboring. as if the general population has any power over those with the guns.
second unmentioned thing is since a plurality voted them in, there has been no other election to vote them out.
For the record, I don't like the "voted them in" argument because it's typically used as a way to imply or outright accuse the Palestinian people of being complicit. Don't like it for the exact reason you stated and several others.
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
Why is your benchmark “well it’s not as bad as what the US would do”?. That’s a pretty terrible benchmark, and not the standard we should be employing. As the “wars” in the mid east since 9/11 have shown us.
My point was when you take military action against a force far superior to yours, and murder their women and children,, you should plan for and expect a horrible war that you will lose.
When you proclaim to understand how "decades of policy" lead to a 10/7 massacre but tut-tut what a 10/7 massacre leads to....again, giving up the game
I’m not tut-tutting anything. It was horrific. Hamas is evil. They need to be defeated. But not giving a fuck about thousands of innocent people isn’t just a slight problem.
Again, I fully believe that Netanyahu was thrilled with 10/7, just as many of the American war hawks were about 9/11. A means to an end. A green light for unmitigated slaughter.
"Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk" -EV 8/14/93
Biden details a 3-phase hostage deal aimed at winding down the Israel-Hamas war
By AAMER MADHANI, CHRIS MEGERIAN and DARLENE SUPERVILLE
14 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday detailed a three-phase deal proposed by Israel to Hamas militants that he says would lead to the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza and could end the grinding, nearly 8-month-old Mideast war.
Biden added that Hamas is “no longer capable” of carrying out another large-scale attack on Israel as he urged Israelis and Hamas to come to a deal to release the remaining hostages for an extended cease-fire.
The Democratic president in remarks from the White House called the proposal “a road map to an enduring cease-fire and the release of all hostages.”
Biden said the first phase of the proposed deal would would last for six weeks and would include a “full and complete cease-fire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
American hostages would be released at this stage, and remains of hostages who have been killed would be returned to their families. Humanitarian assistance would surge during the first phase, with 600 trucks being allowed into Gaza each day.
The second phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza.
“And as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, the temporary cease-fire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, ‘the cessation of hostilities permanently,’” Biden said.
The third phase calls for the start of a major reconstruction of Gaza, which faces decades of rebuilding from devastation caused by the war. The 4-1/2 page Israeli proposal was transmitted to Hamas on Thursday.
But Biden acknowledged that keeping the deal on track would be difficult, saying there are a number of "details to negotiate” to move from the first phase to the second.
One roadblock to overcome during the first phase would involve the two sides agreeing on the ratio of hostages to prisoners to be released during the next phase, according to a senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.
Biden's remarks came as the Israeli military confirmed that its forces are now operating in central parts of Rafah in its expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city. Biden called it “a truly a decisive moment." He added that Hamas said it wants a cease-fire and that an Israeli-phased deal is an opportunity to prove “whether they really mean it.”
But even as Biden pressed for the "war to end and for the day after to begin,” Israeli officials have made clear they remain committed to a military defeat of Hamas. The Democrat is in the midst of a tough reelection battle and has faced backlash from some on the political left who want to see him put greater pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to end the war.
Netanyahu's office in a statement said that he authorized the Israel's hostage negotiating team to find a way to release the remaining hostages. But the Israelis maintain “the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved, including the return of all our abductees and the elimination of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities.”
Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said earlier this week he was “expecting another seven months of fighting” to destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group.
Hamas political bureau member Bassim Naim described the proposal outlined by Biden as “positive progress,” but did not elaborate.
Biden also addressed some in Israel who resist ending the war. Some members of Netanyahu's far-right coalition have opposed any deal that falls short of eradicating Hamas and they have called for an enduring occupation of Gaza.
“I ask you to take a step back and think about what will happen if this moment is lost," Biden said. "You can’t lose this moment. Indefinite war in pursuit of an unidentified notion of total victory will only bog down Israel in Gaza, draining the economic, military and human resources, and furthering Israel’s isolation in the world.”
Biden in his remarks made no mention of establishing Palestinian statehood, something that he has repeatedly said is key to achieving long-term peace in the region. The U.S. administration has also been working to forge normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the region's two biggest powers. But the Saudis are opposed to any agreement that does not include concrete steps toward creation of a Palestinian state.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.
Ceasefire talks ground to a halt at the beginning of the month after a major push by the U.S. and other mediators to secure a deal, in hopes of averting a planned Israeli invasion of the southern city of Rafah.
The talks were stymied by a central sticking point: Hamas demands guarantees that the war will end and Israeli troops will withdraw from Gaza completely in return for a release of all the hostages, a demand Israel rejects.
The outline of the new Israeli proposal is "nearly identical to Hamas’s own proposals of only a few weeks ago," according to the Biden administration official.
___
Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Israel confirms its forces are in central Rafah in expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city
JULIA FRANKEL
Today
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military confirmed Friday that its forces are operating in central parts of Rafah in its expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city.
Israel launched its ground assault into the city on May 6, triggering an exodus of around 1 million Palestinians out of the city and throwing U.N. humanitarian operations based in the area into turmoil. Still, it has yet to amount to a “major operation” in the eyes of U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, according to the State Department.
Biden said Friday that Hamas is “no longer capable” of carrying out another large-scale attack on Israel and urged the Israelis and Hamas to come to a deal to release remaining hostages for an extended cease-fire. He said Israeli officials have offered a three-phase deal to Hamas, adding, “Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says it wants a cease-fire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it.”
Cease-fire talks ground to a halt at the beginning of the month after a major push by the U.S. and other mediators to secure a deal, in hopes of averting a full Israeli invasion of Rafah.
Friday's statement by the Israeli military suggested its forces have been operating in most parts of the city. For its first weeks, the Israeli assault focused on Rafah's eastern districts and in areas close to the border with Egypt. Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing into Egypt on the first day of the offensive and have since claimed control over the Philadelphi Corridor, a road running the length of the Gaza-Egypt border on the Gazan side.
Earlier this week, Israeli troops also moved into Rafah's western district of Tel al-Sultan, where heavy clashes with Hamas fighters have been reported by witnesses.
In its statement Friday, the military said its troops in central Rafah had uncovered Hamas rocket launchers and tunnels and dismantled a weapons storage facility of the group. It did not specify where in central Rafah the operations were taking place, but previous statements and witness reports have pointed to raids in the Shaboura refugee camp and other sites near the city center.
The White House declined to comment Friday on the Israeli operations in central Rafah.
Israel has said an offensive in Rafah is vital to uprooting Hamas fighters in its military's campaign to destroy the group after its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. The military has said it found dozens of tunnels in eastern Rafah, including at least 20 along the Philadelphi Corridor.
Up to around 300,000 people are believed to remain in the Rafah area, with an unknown number still in the city itself. Most have flocked to rural areas on the Mediterranean coastline west of the city, said Shaina Low, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian group that operates in the area. That area has seen deadly Israeli strikes the past week.
Palestinians who fled the city have scattered around southern and central Gaza, most of them living in squalid tent camps.
More than 36,170 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israel's campaign of bombardment and offensives over the past eight months, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas to ensure it cannot repeat its Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting around 250 others. Around 100 hostages are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza along with the bodies of some 30 others.
——
Associated Press correspondent Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Israel maintains a shadowy hospital in the desert for Gaza detainees. Critics allege mistreatment
By JULIA FRANKEL
Today
JERUSALEM (AP) — Patients lying shackled and blindfolded on more than a dozen beds inside a white tent in the desert. Surgeries performed without adequate painkillers. Doctors who remain anonymous.
These are some of the conditions at Israel's only hospital dedicated to treating Palestinians detained by the military in the Gaza Strip, three people who have worked there told The Associated Press, confirming similar accounts from human rights groups.
While Israel says it detains only suspected militants, many patients have turned out to be non-combatants taken during raids, held without trial and eventually returned to war-torn Gaza.
Eight months into the Israel-Hamas war, accusations of inhumane treatment at the Sde Teiman military field hospital are on the rise, and the Israeli government is under growing pressure to shut it down. Rights groups and other critics say what began as a temporary place to hold and treat militants after Oct. 7 has morphed into a harsh detention center with too little accountability.
The military denies the allegations of inhumane treatment and says all detainees needing medical attention receive it.
The hospital is near the city of Beersheba in southern Israel. It opened beside a detention center on a military base after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel because some civilian hospitals refused to treat wounded militants. Of the three workers interviewed by AP, two spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution and public rebuke.
“We are condemned by the left because we are not fulfilling ethical issues,” said Dr. Yoel Donchin, an anesthesiologist who has worked at Sde Teiman hospital since its earliest days and still works there. “We are condemned from the right because they think we are criminals for treating terrorists.”
The military this week said it formed a committee to investigate detention center conditions, but it was unclear if that included the hospital. Next week Israel's highest court is set to hear arguments from human rights groups seeking to shut it down.
Israel has not granted journalists or the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the Sde Teiman facilities.
Israel has detained some 4,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, according to official figures, though roughly 1,500 were released after the military determined they were not affiliated with Hamas. Israeli human rights groups say the majority of detainees have at some point passed through Sde Teiman, the country's largest detention center.
Doctors there say they have treated many who appeared to be non-combatants.
“Now we have patients that are not so young, sick patients with diabetes and high blood pressure,” said Donchin, the anesthesiologist.
A soldier who worked at the hospital recounted an elderly man who underwent surgery on his leg without pain medication. “He was screaming and shaking,” said the soldier.
Between medical treatments, the soldier said patients were housed in the detention center, where they were exposed to squalid conditions and their wounds often developed infections. There was a separate area where older people slept on thin mattresses under floodlights, and a putrid smell hung in the air, he said.
The military said in a statement that all detainees are “reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity.” It said they receive check-ups upon arrival and are transferred to the hospital when they require more serious treatment.
A medical worker who saw patients at the facility in the winter recounted teaching hospital workers how to wash wounds.
Donchin, who largely defended the facility against allegations of mistreatment but was critical of some of its practices, said most patients are diapered and not allowed to use the bathroom, shackled around their arms and legs and blindfolded.
“Their eyes are covered all the time. I don't know what the security reason for this is,” he said.
The military disputed the accounts provided to AP, saying patients were handcuffed “in cases where the security risk requires it” and removed when they caused injury. Patients are rarely diapered, it said.
Dr. Michael Barilan, a professor at the Tel Aviv University Medical School who said he has spoken with over 15 hospital staff, disputed accounts of medical negligence. He said doctors are doing their best under difficult circumstances, and that the blindfolds originated out of a “fear (patients) would retaliate against those taking care of them."
Days after Oct. 7, roughly 100 Israelis clashed with police outside one of the country's main hospitals in response to false rumors it was treating a militant.
In the aftermath, some hospitals refused to treat detainees, fearful that doing so could endanger staff and disrupt operations. They were already overwhelmed by people wounded during the Hamas attack and expecting casualties to rise from an impending ground invasion.
As Israel pulled in scores of wounded Palestinians to Sde Teiman, it became clear the facility's infirmary was not large enough, according to Barilan. An adjacent field hospital was built from scratch.
Israel's Health Ministry laid out plans for the hospital in a December memo obtained by AP.
It said patients would be treated while handcuffed and blindfolded. Doctors, drafted into service by the military, would be kept anonymous to protect their "safety, lives and well-being." The ministry referred all questions to the military when reached for comment.
Still, an April report from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, drawing on interviews with hospital workers, said doctors at the facility faced “ethical, professional and even emotional distress.” Barilan said turnover has been high.
Patients with more complicated injuries have been transferred from the field hospital to civilian hospitals, but it has been done covertly to avoid arousing the public's attention, Barilan said. And the process is fraught: The medical worker who spoke with AP said one detainee with a gunshot wound was discharged prematurely from a civilian hospital to Sde Teiman within hours of being treated, endangering his life.
The field hospital is overseen by military and health officials, but Donchin said parts of its operations are managed by KLP, a private logistics and security company whose website says it specializes in “high-risk environments.” The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Because it’s not under the same command as the military’s medical corps, the field hospital is not subject to Israel’s Patients Rights Act, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
A group from the Israeli Medical Association visited the hospital earlier this year but kept its findings private. The association did not respond to requests for comment.
The military told AP that 36 people from Gaza have died in Israel’s detention centers since Oct. 7, some of them because of illnesses or wounds sustained in the war. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has alleged that some died from medical negligence.
Khaled Hammouda, a surgeon from Gaza, spent 22 days at one of Israel's detention centers. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded while he was transported. But he said he recognized a picture of Sde Teiman and said he saw at least one detainee, a prominent Gaza doctor who is believed to have been there.
Hammouda recalled asking a soldier if a pale 18-year-old who appeared to be suffering from internal bleeding could be taken to a doctor. The soldier took the teenager away, gave him intravenous fluids for a few hours, and then returned him.
“I told them, ‘He could die,'" Hammouda said. “‘They told me this is the limit.'”
___
AP writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
My point was if this involved the United States any country initiating the original battle would have been leveled and destroyed by now. Not in any way comparable to what israel is now doing
If the palestinian people wanted to turn on hamas, we would have seen some evidence of that
if any country tried anything close to this, to what hamas did to Israel on October 7th, the United States of America military would completely level and decimate any country that tried to do this to them.
But in this case the Palestinians have come up with the nonsensical genocide argument (to get the woke support) which people have to realize that's an insulting thing to say to an Israeli
If you want to discuss genocide let's read Geddy Lee's book together and we can discuss genocide. That was genocide.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
b: how can the palestinians "turn on hamas" when there have been no elections held for like 17 years since hamas took over? how can they turn against hamas with the israeli embargos in place? they cannot even get concrete into gaza, how can they get weapons if they want to fight hamas? the leadership of hamas does not even live in the area. how can people with no food, no weapons, and no electoral power do anything against hamas?
c: you act as if this all started on october 7, which leads me to believe that you are ignoring everything that has happened since the founding of israel. this conflict did not begin on 10/7. the killing of palestinian civilians did not begin on 10/8. it has been going on for decades.
d: genocide is not a term thrown around willy nilly. what israel is doing is systematic and deliberate. they are displacing native people and seizing their land and building illegal settlements on it.
the only reason israel has not been held accountable internationally is because we support them and defend them at the un, and they have nukes.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Iraq and Afghanistan still stand.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
true but the ruling power at the time actually did harbor those who did in Afghanistan
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
But that is the obvious parallel. No out of the blue attack on civilians and the response shouldn't be more different.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Revealed: Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry
Mossad director Yossi Cohen personally involved in secret plot to pressure Fatou Bensouda to drop Palestine investigation, sources say
The former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian can reveal.
Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.
That investigation, launched in 2021, culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct in its war in Gaza.
The prosecutor’s decision to apply to the ICC’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, alongside three Hamas leaders, is an outcome Israel’s military and political establishment has long feared.
continues.....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — After the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and top Hamas officials, the Israeli leader accused him of being one of “the great antisemites in modern times.”
As protests roiled college campuses across the United States over the Gaza war, Netanyahu said they were awash with “antisemitic mobs.”
These are just two of the many instances during the war in which Netanyahu has accused critics of Israel or his policies of antisemitism, using fiery rhetoric to compare them to the Jewish people's worst persecutors. But his detractors say he is overusing the label to further his political agenda and try to stifle even legitimate criticism, and that doing so risks diluting the term's meaning at a time when antisemitism is surging worldwide.
“Not every criticism against Israel is antisemitic,” said Tom Segev, an Israeli historian. “The moment you say it is antisemitic hate ... you take away all legitimacy from the criticism and try to crush the debate.”
There has been a spike in antisemitic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to researchers. And many Jews in North America and Europe have said they feel unsafe, citing threats to Jewish schools and synagogues and the pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations in the U.S., although organizers deny that antisemitism drives the protests.
The war has reignited the long debate about the definition of antisemitism and whether any criticism of Israel — from its military's killing of thousands of Palestinian children to questions over Israel's very right to exist — amounts to anti-Jewish hate speech.
Netanyahu, the son of a scholar of medieval Jewish persecution, has long used the travails of the Jewish people to color his political rhetoric. And he certainly isn't the first world leader accused of using national trauma to advance political goals.
Netanyahu’s supporters say he is honestly worried for the safety of Jews around the world.
But his accusations of antisemitism come as he has repeatedly sidestepped accountability for not preventing Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, which many in Israel’s defense establishment acknowledge they shoulder the blame for.
Netanyahu has continued to face criticism at home and abroad throughout the war, which has killed 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between fighters and noncombatants. The fighting has sparked a humanitarian catastrophe, and ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has accused Netanyahu and his defense minister of using starvation as a “method of warfare,” among other crimes.
Segev, the historian, acknowledged there is a rise in “violent hate” toward Israel and, speaking from Vienna, said he wasn’t sure if speaking Hebrew in public was safe. But he said Netanyahu has long used Jewish crises to his political benefit, including invoking the Jewish people's deepest trauma, the Holocaust, to further his goals.
At the height of the campus protests, Netanyahu released a video statement condemning their “unconscionable” antisemitism and comparing the mushrooming encampments on college greens to Nazi Germany of the 1930s.
“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific,” he said.
In response to Khan seeking the arrest warrants, he said the ICC prosecutor was “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world,” comparing him to German judges who approved of the Nazis' race laws against Jews.
Those comments drew a rebuke from the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. “The prosecutor of the court has been strongly intimidated and accused of antisemitism — as always when anybody, anyone does something that Netanyahu’s government does not like,” Borrell said. “The word antisemitic, it’s too heavy. It’s too important.”
Netanyahu has compared accusations that Israel’s war is causing starvation in Gaza or that the war is genocidal to blood libels — unfounded centuries-old accusations that Jews sacrificed Christian children and used their blood to make unleavened bread for Passover.
“These false accusations are not levelled against us because of the things we do, but because of the simple fact that we exist,” he said at a ceremony marking Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day earlier this month.
Netanyahu previously made repeated allusions to the Holocaust while trying to galvanize the world against Iran’s nuclear program.
Israeli leaders and the country's media also made such comparisons about Oct. 7, describing the Hamas attackers as Nazis, comparing their rampage to the historic violence inflicted on Eastern European Jews, and referring to the images of Jewish victims' burned bodies as a Shoah — the Hebrew word for Holocaust.
Israelis have been jarred by the global rise in antisemitism, and many view the swell of criticism against Israel as part of the rise. They see hypocrisy in the world's intense focus on Israel's war with Hamas while other conflicts get much less attention.
Moshe Klughaft, a former advisor to Netanyahu, said he believes the Israeli leader is genuinely concerned over rising antisemitism.
“It is his duty to condemn antisemitism as prime minister of Israel and as head of a country that sees itself as responsible for world Jewry,” he said.
Many Israelis view the war in Gaza as a just act of self-defense and are befuddled by what many think should be criticism directed at Hamas — blaming the group for starting the war, using Palestinian civilians as human shields and refusing to free the hostages. The ICC warrant requests have likely bolstered such feelings.
When Netanyahu leans on accusations of antisemitism, he is doing so with the Israeli public in mind, said Reuven Hazan, a political scientist at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
Hazan said Netanyahu has leveraged the campus protests, for example, to get Israelis to rally around him at a time when his public support has plummeted and Israelis are growing impatient with the war. He said Netanyahu has also used the protests as a scapegoat for his failure so far to achieve the war’s two goals: destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.
“He deflects blame from himself, attributing any shortcomings not to his foreign policies or policies in the (Palestinian) territories, but rather to antisemitism. This narrative benefits him greatly, absolving him of responsibility,” Hazan said.
Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think thank, rejects the notion that Netanyahu stifles criticism by calling it antisemitic, pointing to just how much criticism the country receives. But he said using the antisemitic label to achieve political ends could cheapen it.
"I’d be more selective than the government of Israel in choosing the people and bodies they tag ‘antisemitic,’” he said.
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NEW YORK (AP) — A nurse was fired by a New York City hospital after she referred to Israel's war in Gaza as a “genocide” during a speech accepting an award.
Labor and delivery nurse Hesen Jabr, who is Palestinian American, was being honored by NYU Langone Health for her compassion in caring for mothers who had lost babies when she drew a link between her work and the suffering of mothers in Gaza.
“It pains me to see the women from my country going through unimaginable losses themselves during the current genocide in Gaza,” Jabr said, according to a video of the May 7 speech that she posted on social media. “This award is deeply personal to me for those reasons.”
Jabr wrote on Instagram that she arrived at work on May 22 for her first shift back after receiving the award when she was summoned to a meeting with the hospital's president and vice president of nursing “to discuss how I ‘put others at risk’ and ‘ruined the ceremony’ and ‘offended people’ because a small part of my speech was a tribute towards the grieving mothers in my country.”
She wrote that after working most of her shift she was “dragged once again to an office” where she was read her termination letter and then escorted out of the building.
A spokesperson for NYU Langone, Steve Ritea, confirmed that Jabr was fired following her speech and said there had been “a previous incident as well.”
“Hesen Jabr was warned in December, following a previous incident, not to bring her views on this divisive and charged issue into the workplace,” Mr. Ritea said in a statement. “She instead chose not to heed that at a recent employee recognition event that was widely attended by her colleagues, some of whom were upset after her comments. As a result, Jabr is no longer an NYU Langone employee."
Ritea did not provide any details of the previous incident.
Jabr defended her speech in an interview with The New York Times and said talking about the war “was so relevant” given the nature of the award she had won.
“It was an award for bereavement; it was for grieving mothers,” she said.
Gaza's Ministry of Health says that more than 36,000 people have been killed in the territory during the war that started with the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced and U.N. officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.
Critics say Israel's military campaign amounts to genocide, and the government of South Africa formally accused the country of genocide in January when it asked the United Nations’ top court to order a halt to Israeli military operations in Gaza.
Israel has denied the genocide charge and told the International Court of Justice it is doing everything it can to protect Gaza's civilian population.
Jabr is not the first employee at the hospital, which was renamed from NYU Medical Center after a major donation from Republican Party donor and billionaire Kenneth Langone, to be fired over comments about the Mideast conflict.
A prominent researcher who directed the hospital's cancer center was fired after he posted anti-Hamas political cartoons including caricatures of Arab people. That researcher, biologist Benjamin Neel, has since filed suit against the hospital.
Jabr's firing also was not her first time in the spotlight. When she was an 11-year-old in Louisiana, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on her behalf after she was forced to accept a Bible from the principal of her public school.
“This is not my first rodeo,” she told the Times.
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Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
Columnist
May 30, 2024 at 7:45 ET
The latest mass casualty event in Gaza, the accidental killing of at least 45 civilians in a horrific fire set off by shelling, echoes the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers last month. After that tragedy, fierce condemnation forced Israel to increase humanitarian aid and intensify efforts to “deconflict” (i.e., take measures to prevent accidental killings). Now, in the wake of the killing of 45 innocents, pressure on Israel mounts again. As a result, two starkly different possibilities emerge: another cycle of recrimination and Israeli defiance, fueled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal desperation to remain in power, or domestic and international pressure galvanizing to bring about a negotiated end to the ordeal.
As unlikely as the latter may seem, there are precedents for it. “When a single Israeli action has resulted in a civilian death toll that the world cannot tolerate, it’s often become a tipping point in the course of conflict,” writes Dan Perry for the Forward. “Perhaps the most well-remembered such case was Israel’s 2006 shelling of Qana in Lebanon, which killed more than 100 displaced people. Outrage over the Qana massacre was so extreme that the strike ended up being one of the final actions in Israel’s (quite justifiable) ‘Grapes of Wrath’ operation against Hezbollah terrorists.”
With the investigation ongoing, the precise sequence of events is as yet unknown. “The Israeli military is investigating the possibility that munitions stored near a compound in Gaza hit by an air strike on Sunday may have caught fire, killing more than 40 civilians, a spokesperson said on Tuesday,” Reuters reported. “Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said it was still unclear what set off the deadly blaze in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but added that the 17 kilogram munitions used in the strike were believed to be too small to have set off such a big fire.”
Whatever the specifics of this incident, the deaths would not have occurred but for Israel’s incursion. Accordingly, the Israeli government finds itself the target of international condemnation. The government’s response did not help matters. As Israeli press reported, Netanyahu was silent for nearly 24 hours and then merely expressed regret over a “a tragic mishap” and promised the Knesset he would investigate.
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-EV 8/14/93
-EV 8/14/93
The Right of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel(Eretz Israel)
a. The right of the Jewish peopleto the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable and is linked with the right to security and peace; therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.
b. A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel, undermines our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the establishment of a "Palestinian State," jeopardizes the security of the Jewish population, endangers the existence of the State of Israel. and frustrates any prospect of peace.
Settlement
Settlement. both urban and rural. in all parts of the Land of Israel is the focal point of the Zionist effort to redeem the country, to maintain vital security areas and serves as a reservoir of strength and inspiration for the renewal of the pioneering spirit. The Likud government will call on the younger generation in Israel and the dispersions to settle and help every group and individual in the task of inhabiting and cultivating the wasteland, while taking care not to dispossess anyone.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/original-party-platform-of-the-likud-party
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-EV 8/14/93
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday detailed a three-phase deal proposed by Israel to Hamas militants that he says would lead to the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza and could end the grinding, nearly 8-month-old Mideast war.
Biden added that Hamas is “no longer capable” of carrying out another large-scale attack on Israel as he urged Israelis and Hamas to come to a deal to release the remaining hostages for an extended cease-fire.
The Democratic president in remarks from the White House called the proposal “a road map to an enduring cease-fire and the release of all hostages.”
Biden said the first phase of the proposed deal would would last for six weeks and would include a “full and complete cease-fire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
JOE BIDEN
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American hostages would be released at this stage, and remains of hostages who have been killed would be returned to their families. Humanitarian assistance would surge during the first phase, with 600 trucks being allowed into Gaza each day.
The second phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza.
“And as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, the temporary cease-fire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, ‘the cessation of hostilities permanently,’” Biden said.
The third phase calls for the start of a major reconstruction of Gaza, which faces decades of rebuilding from devastation caused by the war. The 4-1/2 page Israeli proposal was transmitted to Hamas on Thursday.
But Biden acknowledged that keeping the deal on track would be difficult, saying there are a number of "details to negotiate” to move from the first phase to the second.
One roadblock to overcome during the first phase would involve the two sides agreeing on the ratio of hostages to prisoners to be released during the next phase, according to a senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.
Biden's remarks came as the Israeli military confirmed that its forces are now operating in central parts of Rafah in its expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city. Biden called it “a truly a decisive moment." He added that Hamas said it wants a cease-fire and that an Israeli-phased deal is an opportunity to prove “whether they really mean it.”
But even as Biden pressed for the "war to end and for the day after to begin,” Israeli officials have made clear they remain committed to a military defeat of Hamas. The Democrat is in the midst of a tough reelection battle and has faced backlash from some on the political left who want to see him put greater pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to end the war.
Netanyahu's office in a statement said that he authorized the Israel's hostage negotiating team to find a way to release the remaining hostages. But the Israelis maintain “the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved, including the return of all our abductees and the elimination of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities.”
Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said earlier this week he was “expecting another seven months of fighting” to destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group.
Hamas political bureau member Bassim Naim described the proposal outlined by Biden as “positive progress,” but did not elaborate.
Israel has faced growing international criticism for its strategy of systematic destruction in Gaza, at a huge cost in civilian lives. Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in the besieged territory have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Biden also addressed some in Israel who resist ending the war. Some members of Netanyahu's far-right coalition have opposed any deal that falls short of eradicating Hamas and they have called for an enduring occupation of Gaza.
“I ask you to take a step back and think about what will happen if this moment is lost," Biden said. "You can’t lose this moment. Indefinite war in pursuit of an unidentified notion of total victory will only bog down Israel in Gaza, draining the economic, military and human resources, and furthering Israel’s isolation in the world.”
Biden in his remarks made no mention of establishing Palestinian statehood, something that he has repeatedly said is key to achieving long-term peace in the region. The U.S. administration has also been working to forge normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the region's two biggest powers. But the Saudis are opposed to any agreement that does not include concrete steps toward creation of a Palestinian state.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.
Ceasefire talks ground to a halt at the beginning of the month after a major push by the U.S. and other mediators to secure a deal, in hopes of averting a planned Israeli invasion of the southern city of Rafah.
The talks were stymied by a central sticking point: Hamas demands guarantees that the war will end and Israeli troops will withdraw from Gaza completely in return for a release of all the hostages, a demand Israel rejects.
The outline of the new Israeli proposal is "nearly identical to Hamas’s own proposals of only a few weeks ago," according to the Biden administration official.
___
Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
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JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military confirmed Friday that its forces are operating in central parts of Rafah in its expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city.
Israel launched its ground assault into the city on May 6, triggering an exodus of around 1 million Palestinians out of the city and throwing U.N. humanitarian operations based in the area into turmoil. Still, it has yet to amount to a “major operation” in the eyes of U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, according to the State Department.
Biden said Friday that Hamas is “no longer capable” of carrying out another large-scale attack on Israel and urged the Israelis and Hamas to come to a deal to release remaining hostages for an extended cease-fire. He said Israeli officials have offered a three-phase deal to Hamas, adding, “Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says it wants a cease-fire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it.”
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Cease-fire talks ground to a halt at the beginning of the month after a major push by the U.S. and other mediators to secure a deal, in hopes of averting a full Israeli invasion of Rafah.
Friday's statement by the Israeli military suggested its forces have been operating in most parts of the city. For its first weeks, the Israeli assault focused on Rafah's eastern districts and in areas close to the border with Egypt. Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing into Egypt on the first day of the offensive and have since claimed control over the Philadelphi Corridor, a road running the length of the Gaza-Egypt border on the Gazan side.
Earlier this week, Israeli troops also moved into Rafah's western district of Tel al-Sultan, where heavy clashes with Hamas fighters have been reported by witnesses.
In its statement Friday, the military said its troops in central Rafah had uncovered Hamas rocket launchers and tunnels and dismantled a weapons storage facility of the group. It did not specify where in central Rafah the operations were taking place, but previous statements and witness reports have pointed to raids in the Shaboura refugee camp and other sites near the city center.
The White House declined to comment Friday on the Israeli operations in central Rafah.
Israel has said an offensive in Rafah is vital to uprooting Hamas fighters in its military's campaign to destroy the group after its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. The military has said it found dozens of tunnels in eastern Rafah, including at least 20 along the Philadelphi Corridor.
Up to around 300,000 people are believed to remain in the Rafah area, with an unknown number still in the city itself. Most have flocked to rural areas on the Mediterranean coastline west of the city, said Shaina Low, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian group that operates in the area. That area has seen deadly Israeli strikes the past week.
Palestinians who fled the city have scattered around southern and central Gaza, most of them living in squalid tent camps.
More than 36,170 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israel's campaign of bombardment and offensives over the past eight months, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas to ensure it cannot repeat its Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting around 250 others. Around 100 hostages are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza along with the bodies of some 30 others.
——
Associated Press correspondent Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Patients lying shackled and blindfolded on more than a dozen beds inside a white tent in the desert. Surgeries performed without adequate painkillers. Doctors who remain anonymous.
These are some of the conditions at Israel's only hospital dedicated to treating Palestinians detained by the military in the Gaza Strip, three people who have worked there told The Associated Press, confirming similar accounts from human rights groups.
While Israel says it detains only suspected militants, many patients have turned out to be non-combatants taken during raids, held without trial and eventually returned to war-torn Gaza.
Eight months into the Israel-Hamas war, accusations of inhumane treatment at the Sde Teiman military field hospital are on the rise, and the Israeli government is under growing pressure to shut it down. Rights groups and other critics say what began as a temporary place to hold and treat militants after Oct. 7 has morphed into a harsh detention center with too little accountability.
The military denies the allegations of inhumane treatment and says all detainees needing medical attention receive it.
The hospital is near the city of Beersheba in southern Israel. It opened beside a detention center on a military base after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel because some civilian hospitals refused to treat wounded militants. Of the three workers interviewed by AP, two spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution and public rebuke.
“We are condemned by the left because we are not fulfilling ethical issues,” said Dr. Yoel Donchin, an anesthesiologist who has worked at Sde Teiman hospital since its earliest days and still works there. “We are condemned from the right because they think we are criminals for treating terrorists.”
The military this week said it formed a committee to investigate detention center conditions, but it was unclear if that included the hospital. Next week Israel's highest court is set to hear arguments from human rights groups seeking to shut it down.
Israel has not granted journalists or the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the Sde Teiman facilities.
Israel has detained some 4,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, according to official figures, though roughly 1,500 were released after the military determined they were not affiliated with Hamas. Israeli human rights groups say the majority of detainees have at some point passed through Sde Teiman, the country's largest detention center.
Doctors there say they have treated many who appeared to be non-combatants.
“Now we have patients that are not so young, sick patients with diabetes and high blood pressure,” said Donchin, the anesthesiologist.
A soldier who worked at the hospital recounted an elderly man who underwent surgery on his leg without pain medication. “He was screaming and shaking,” said the soldier.
Between medical treatments, the soldier said patients were housed in the detention center, where they were exposed to squalid conditions and their wounds often developed infections. There was a separate area where older people slept on thin mattresses under floodlights, and a putrid smell hung in the air, he said.
The military said in a statement that all detainees are “reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity.” It said they receive check-ups upon arrival and are transferred to the hospital when they require more serious treatment.
A medical worker who saw patients at the facility in the winter recounted teaching hospital workers how to wash wounds.
Donchin, who largely defended the facility against allegations of mistreatment but was critical of some of its practices, said most patients are diapered and not allowed to use the bathroom, shackled around their arms and legs and blindfolded.
“Their eyes are covered all the time. I don't know what the security reason for this is,” he said.
The military disputed the accounts provided to AP, saying patients were handcuffed “in cases where the security risk requires it” and removed when they caused injury. Patients are rarely diapered, it said.
Dr. Michael Barilan, a professor at the Tel Aviv University Medical School who said he has spoken with over 15 hospital staff, disputed accounts of medical negligence. He said doctors are doing their best under difficult circumstances, and that the blindfolds originated out of a “fear (patients) would retaliate against those taking care of them."
Days after Oct. 7, roughly 100 Israelis clashed with police outside one of the country's main hospitals in response to false rumors it was treating a militant.
In the aftermath, some hospitals refused to treat detainees, fearful that doing so could endanger staff and disrupt operations. They were already overwhelmed by people wounded during the Hamas attack and expecting casualties to rise from an impending ground invasion.
As Israel pulled in scores of wounded Palestinians to Sde Teiman, it became clear the facility's infirmary was not large enough, according to Barilan. An adjacent field hospital was built from scratch.
Israel's Health Ministry laid out plans for the hospital in a December memo obtained by AP.
It said patients would be treated while handcuffed and blindfolded. Doctors, drafted into service by the military, would be kept anonymous to protect their "safety, lives and well-being." The ministry referred all questions to the military when reached for comment.
Still, an April report from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, drawing on interviews with hospital workers, said doctors at the facility faced “ethical, professional and even emotional distress.” Barilan said turnover has been high.
Patients with more complicated injuries have been transferred from the field hospital to civilian hospitals, but it has been done covertly to avoid arousing the public's attention, Barilan said. And the process is fraught: The medical worker who spoke with AP said one detainee with a gunshot wound was discharged prematurely from a civilian hospital to Sde Teiman within hours of being treated, endangering his life.
The field hospital is overseen by military and health officials, but Donchin said parts of its operations are managed by KLP, a private logistics and security company whose website says it specializes in “high-risk environments.” The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Because it’s not under the same command as the military’s medical corps, the field hospital is not subject to Israel’s Patients Rights Act, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
A group from the Israeli Medical Association visited the hospital earlier this year but kept its findings private. The association did not respond to requests for comment.
The military told AP that 36 people from Gaza have died in Israel’s detention centers since Oct. 7, some of them because of illnesses or wounds sustained in the war. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has alleged that some died from medical negligence.
Khaled Hammouda, a surgeon from Gaza, spent 22 days at one of Israel's detention centers. He does not know where he was taken because he was blindfolded while he was transported. But he said he recognized a picture of Sde Teiman and said he saw at least one detainee, a prominent Gaza doctor who is believed to have been there.
Hammouda recalled asking a soldier if a pale 18-year-old who appeared to be suffering from internal bleeding could be taken to a doctor. The soldier took the teenager away, gave him intravenous fluids for a few hours, and then returned him.
“I told them, ‘He could die,'" Hammouda said. “‘They told me this is the limit.'”
___
AP writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14