Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel allows UN to bring 93 aid trucks into Gaza as international pressure mounts

2025-05-21

[IsraelTimes] UN says aid distributed through ‘existing systems’ though new US-Israeli mechanism set to begin in coming weeks; UN official claims 14,000 babies on verge of death in ’48 hours’

The United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
received permission from Israel for 93 more aid trucks to enter the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip on Tuesday, a spokesperson for its humanitarian office and Israeli authorities said, as international pressure mounted on the government to take immediate steps to alleviate the effects of an 11-week blockade that ended Monday.

Israel had blocked all aid from entering Gaza since March 2, arguing that sufficient humanitarian assistance had entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas
Hamas

..always the voice of sweet reason...
was stealing aid, with the blockade necessary to pressure the terror group to release the dozens of hostages it is holding. In recent weeks, however, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the politicianship that the enclave was on the brink of starvation.

Five trucks of humanitarian aid

, including baby food, entered the Gaza Strip Monday via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, Israel said, marking the first such delivery since the blockade began.

"We have requested and received approval for more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office told a Geneva press briefing on Tuesday.

Later Tuesday, the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced that 93 UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza.

COGAT said the aid delivery came "following the recommendation of professional IDF officials and in accordance with the directive of the political echelon."

The trucks included "flour for bakeries, food for babies, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs," COGAT said. The aid underwent an inspection first by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cleared nine aid trucks on Monday to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, although just five of those actually entered the territory.

"The next step is to collect them, and then they will be distributed through the existing system, the one that has proven itself," said Laerke.

The "existing system" for aid distribution that Laerke referred to is based on several international organizations, including the UN World Food Programme and the World Central Kitchen, which have taken on the task of distribution for much of the 19-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza.

This system is in contrast to a new US- and Israel-backed mechanism, known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is set to begin operating later this month.

Through the GHF, aid will only be distributed from a small number of sites in southern Gaza that are secured by American contractors.

Aid organizations currently operating in Gaza have come out strongly against the GHF plan, arguing that it violates humanitarian principles, forces mass displacement of Paleostinians who aren’t currently living near the humanitarian zone, ignores vulnerable populations, and doesn’t adequately address the humanitarian crisis.

Members of the American company that will distribute aid in the Gaza Strip were photographed during media briefings in Israel armed and wearing bullet-proof vests.

According to a Tuesday report by the Ynet news outlet, the American GHF contractors, which it referred to as "elite combat veterans," have arrived in Israel and are undergoing training for their expected deployment in the Strip.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir slammed the large-scale resumption of aid trucks to the Strip on Tuesday, complaining that the aid is entering Gaza "while our hostages continue to be dragged through the tunnels" and that "there is no way to guarantee [that the supplies] will not end up in the hands of Hamas murderers."

"This is a serious mistake, which is delaying our victory. I call once again on the prime minister to explain to our friends in the White House the implications of this ’aid,’ which only prolongs the war and delays our victory and the return of all our hostages," he said.

Ben Gvir also condemned the decision to allow even five aid trucks to enter Gaza on Monday, asserting that "the prime minister is making a grave mistake with this move, which doesn’t even have a majority."

"We must crush Hamas and not simultaneously give it oxygen," Ben Gvir said in a statement, as other hawkish politicians and groups joined in pillorying the step.

HIGH COURT DEMANDS GOVERNMENT RESPOND TO AID PETITION
Also on Tuesday, the High Court of Justice told the government to respond by May 27 to a petition demanding the immediate facilitation of large supplies of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
group Gisha and others argued in a petition filed this week that the blockade of Gaza since March 2 constitutes a violation of the government’s obligations under Israeli and international law to enable the provision of humanitarian supplies to Gaza’s civilian population.

In response to the petition, Justice Yosef Elron asked the government to update it within a week whether "a change in factual circumstances justifies rejecting the petition."

In the petition filed on Sunday, the human rights groups asserted that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is the worst it has been since the beginning of the war, and pointed to a sharp increase in the cases of child malnutrition as recorded by humanitarian organizations working in Gaza between March and April.

It also pointed out that in the state’s response to a 2024 petition by Gisha on the same issue — which was ultimately dismissed by the court — the government did not deny it had an obligation to provide for the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s civilian population and the court affirmed this obligation in its decision, despite ruling against the motion.

Gisha asserted in its petition that the government’s decision to prohibit the entry of all aid into Gaza violated the orders of the International Court of Justice in the genocide case brought by South Africa.

The organization also pointed out that the Israeli ad hoc judge on the ICJ panel, Aharon Barak, voted in favor of that specific order, despite voting against most of the other court orders against Israel.

"The government’s decision [to block aid] is using a protected civilian population to exert pressure on Hamas and therefore amounts to prohibited collective punishment and even using starvation as a tool of war," alleged Gisha in its petition.

’14,000 BABIES COULD DIE IN NEXT 48 HOURS’ IF NO AID
A top UN official said Tuesday that some 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid does not reach them in time.

"I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours," Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told BBC Radio.

He said that "we need to flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid."

When the program’s host, Anna Foster, said that 14,000 is "an extraordinary figure," Fletcher replied that it is an "utterly chilling" figure.

Asked how the UN arrived at these figures, Fletcher did not specify how the figure was calculated or what it was based on.

"We have strong teams on the ground, and of course many of them have been killed," he said.

He went on, "We still have lots of people on the ground — they’re at the medical centers, they’re at the schools... trying to assess needs."

"But this is what we do, we keep going. It will be frustrating, we will be impeded and run huge risks. But I don’t see a better idea than getting that baby food in," he said.

There was no immediate comment on his claims from the Israeli government or military.

The war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, in which Lions of Islam killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251, who were taken as hostages to Gaza. Since then, more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. That toll includes hundreds of Gazooks killed in strikes since Israel initiated a fresh intensive operation on Friday.

The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 Lions of Islam inside the country during the October 7 onslaught.

Related: UAE says Israel has agreed to allow it to send aid that will feed 15K Gazans
Update from the Jerusalem Post, courtesy of Skidmark at 1:30 p.m. ET: UN retracts aid chief Tom Fletcher’s claim that 14,000 Gazan babies will die in 48 hours without aid: The UN later cited a report that said there could be 14,100 cases of malnutrition in children in Gaza between April 2025 and March 2026, a timeframe of one year not two days.

Link

Europe

Huge protest in The Hague demands Dutch government draw ‘red line’ on Gaza war

2025-05-19

Literal Red Shirts demonstrating their heartfelt impotence and Jew hate.

[IsraelTimes] Organizers say 100,000 attend demonstration, calling it the Netherlands’ biggest protest in two decades, as new Israeli military offensive begins in war against Hamas terror group

Tens of thousands of red-clad protesters marched through the Dutch capital on Sunday to demand that their government do more to halt Israel’s campaign in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, in what organizers called the country’s biggest demonstration in two decades.

Human rights groups and aid agencies — including Amnesty International, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders — estimated the crowd at more than 100,000 people.

The protest came as Israel launched the first stage of a new offensive in the Strip, dubbed "Gideon’s Chariots," aiming to "seize strategic areas" of the enclave. Hamas
Hamas

..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
-linked officials, who don’t distinguish between civilians and fighters, have reported over 100 people killed over the last 24 hours.

"We hope this is a wake-up call for the government," said teacher Roos Lingbeek, attending the march with her husband and their 12-week-old daughter, Dido, who slept in a carrier as her parents brandished a sign simply reading: "STOP."

David Prins, whose yarmulke was printed with the image of a watermelon — which shares the colors of the Paleostinian flag — told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named he was attending the protest "to speak out against the atrocities." The 64-year-old was standing across the street from the synagogue he attended growing up, which overlooks the field where the demonstration began.

Protesters walked a 3-mile (5-kilometer) loop around the city center of The Hague, to symbolically create the red line they said the government has failed to set.

Videos of the protest captured crowds chanting "From the river to the sea, Paleostine will be free!" — a phrase often interpreted as calling for the elimination of Israel altogether — as well as "Free, free Paleostine." Crowds also chanted, "Starving people is a crime."

The Hague is the site of both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, both of which have seen cases in which Israel and its leaders are accused of violating international law, including by intentionally starving the Gazook population, during the campaign against Hamas.

Israel denies the allegations, pointing to its efforts to avoid civilian casualties, and, for much of the war, to facilitate the flow of aid into the enclave. Israel also points to Hamas’s practice of embedding itself among civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and mosques.

Marjon Rozema, of Amnesty International, told the AP on Sunday, "We are calling on the government to stop political, economic and military support to Israel," while the country continues to block humanitarian aid

to Gaza.

Aid hasn’t entered Gaza since March 1, with Israel arguing that sufficient humanitarian assistance entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas had been stealing much of that aid.

In recent weeks, though, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the political echelon that the enclave is on the brink of starvation. Israel has been involved in creating a new body — the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — to distribute aid in the Strip. The GHF said it would begin to operate in the Strip by the end of the month, though Israel has yet to confirm this.

Dutch policy toward Israel is just one of many issues causing splits in the Netherlands’ fragile coalition government. Hard-right leader Geert Wilders is staunchly pro-Israel and his anti-immigrant Party for Freedom holds the largest number of seats in the country’s parliament.

Last week, however, foreign affairs minister Caspar Veldkamp of the minority center-right VVD party urged the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
to review a trade agreement with Israel, arguing that its blockade of humanitarian aid violated international law. Wilders hit back, denouncing the call as an "affront to cabinet policy."

The war in Gaza began October 7, 2023, when some 5,000 Hamas-led bully boyz invaded southern Israel from the Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Fifty-eight captives remain — including 20 who are believed to be alive, and three about whom the government has grave concerns —and 35 who have been confirmed dead by the military.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

At World Court hearing, US backs Israel’s right to ban UNRWA from Gaza

2025-05-01

[IsraelTimes] Legal adviser to administration argues international law gives Israel the right to decide which organizations run relief operations in Strip

Israel cannot be forced to allow the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
Paleostinian refugee agency, UNRWA, to operate in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, the United States argued Wednesday at an International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing in The Hague.

Israel last year passed a law that banned UNRWA from operating in the country, as it said the organization had employed members of Hamas
Hamas

..always the voice of sweet reason...
who took part in the October 7, 2023, onslaught, among a series of other accusations including that the organization runs schools that incite to terrorism and perpetuates Paleostinians’ refugee status by passing it by generation unlike the rest of the world’s refugees.

The ban officially came into effect in late January, prohibiting the agency from operating on Israeli soil and forbidding contact between it and Israeli officials.

Despite the ban, The Times of Israel reported in early April that, according to Paleostinian sources and UNRWA itself, the agency was still operating in East Jerusalem almost entirely uninterrupted. Additionally, the legislation was seen as having had little effect on UNRWA operations in other areas where Israeli cooperation was required.

The UN said in August 2024 that nine UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the devastating Hamas assault and had been fired. Another Hamas commander, confirmed by UNRWA as one of its employees, was killed in Gaza last October, according to Israel.

The UN General Assembly in December 2024 asked the agency’s top court to give an advisory opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid to Paleostinians that is delivered by states and international groups, including the UN.

The ICJ, also known as the World Court, on Monday opened a week of hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations toward the Paleostinians, more than 50 days into its blockade on aid entering war-ravaged Gaza, which is aimed at pressuring Hamas to release the 59 hostages it is holding, 24 of whom are believed alive.

On the third day of hearings on the matter, the US said Israel had the right to determine which organizations could provide basic needs to the population of Gaza and the West Bank.

"An occupational power retains a margin of appreciation concerning which relief schemes to permit," US State Department legal adviser Joshua Simmons said.

"Even if an organization offering relief is an impartial humanitarian organization, and even if it is a major actor, occupation law does not compel an occupational power to allow and facilitate that specific actor’s relief operations."

Simmons also stressed the "serious concerns" Israel has about UNRWA’s impartiality.

UN and Paleostinian representatives at the opening of hearings on Monday had accused Israel of breaking international law by refusing to let aid into Gaza.

Since March 2, Israel has completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip, and food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in Jerusalem on Monday that Israel had submitted its position in writing to the hearings, which he described as a "circus."

Israel was absent from the hearing, which included scheduled participation from 40 countries and four international organizations.

The court will likely take months to rule. Experts say the decision, though not legally binding, could profoundly impact international jurisprudence and public opinion.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

As ICJ holds hearings on aid for Palestinians, Sa’ar says Israel-UNRWA cooperation ‘won’t happen’

2025-04-29

[IsraelTimes] Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar lays out accusations against the United Nations and the organization’s Relief and Work Agency, at a press conference taking place as the UN’s International Court of Justice opens a week of hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations toward Palestinians.

“At this very moment, the ICJ is beginning the deliberations in another shameful proceeding against Israel,” says the foreign minister, adding that Israel chose not to attend the oral proceedings so as “not to take part in this circus.”

“It is not Israel that should be on trial,” says Sa’ar, but rather the UN and UNRWA, the latter of which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza.

Sa’ar calls UNRWA “an organization infiltrated beyond repair by terrorism.”

The foreign minister criticizes past rulings of the ICJ, noting that “this is the fourth proceeding relating to Israel in the court since the October 7 massacre.”

“Now, they are abusing the courts, once again, to try and force Israel to cooperate with an organization that is infested with Hamas terrorists, and it won’t happen,” says the foreign minister.

“UNRWA employed over 1,400 known terrorists, many of whom took an active part in the October 7 atrocities,” continues Sa’ar, citing UNRWA employee Mohammed Abu Itiwi, a Hamas Nukhba Force commander, as one example.

“[Abu Itiwi] was caught on video participating in the murder and kidnapping of Israelis near Kibbutz Re’im [on October 7, 2023], including Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” who was taken hostage and then murdered in captivity, says Sa’ar.

“I accuse,” says Sa’ar, “I accuse UNRWA. I accuse the UN. I accuse the Secretary General, I accuse all those that weaponize international law and its institutions in order to deprive the most attacked country in the world, Israel, of its most basic right to defend itself.”

Behind Sa’ar, a large screen displays the faces of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, alongside the bold headline “J’Accuse” (“I Accuse” in French), referencing an 1898 open letter written by French author Émile Zola during the Dreyfus Affair.

The UN has asked judges to clarify in this week’s proceedings Israel’s legal obligations toward the UN and its agencies, international organizations or third-party states to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.”

Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2 after the collapse of a ceasefire and hostage release deal. The war in Gaza was sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

WATCH: International Court of Justice opens hearings on Israel’s aid obligations to Palestinians

[IsraelTimes] The UN’s top court opens a week of hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations toward Palestinians, more than 50 days into its blockade on aid entering war-ravaged Gaza.

The hearings can be watched here:

The UN’s General Assembly approved a resolution in December asking the ICJ for an advisory opinion on the matter “on a priority basis and with the utmost urgency.”

The resolution, spearheaded by Norway, was adopted by a large majority.

The UN has asked judges to clarify Israel’s legal obligations toward the UN and its agencies, international organizations or third-party states to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.”

Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2 amid the collapse of a ceasefire and hostage release deal. The war in Gaza was sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacre in southern Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and seized 251 as hostages.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we’ve got to be good to Gaza” as he pushed the Israeli premier to get more food and medicine into the Strip.

The revelation of the discussion between Netanyahu and Trump came shortly after the World Food Programme said it had run out of food stocks in Gaza due to the sustained closure of crossings into the enclave.

More from the Israel Times:

The UN’s top court will open a week of hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations toward Gazans, more than 50 days into its blockade on aid entering war-ravaged Gaza.

United Nations representatives will start the five days of sittings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, followed by a Palestinian submission.

Another 38 countries will then address the 15-judge panel, including the United States, China, France, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The League of Arab States, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union will also make submissions.

Link

-Great Cultural Revolution

Irish band Kneecap projects ‘F*ck Israel’ on Coachella music festival stage, Nova Festival responds

2025-04-22

[IsraelTimes] Group accuses US government of enabling Israel to commit ‘genocide’ in Gaza Strip, makes good on promise to repeat remarks that were cut from livestream a week earlier

Irish band Kneecap projected anti-Israel messages above the stage on Saturday as it performed at the Coachella music festival in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, including accusations of genocide.

The band had delivered similar remarks in a performance last week that were apparently cut from the festival’s livestream of the event.

When Kneecap took to the stage at one of the world’s best-known music festivals, a large screen displayed "Israel is committing genocide against the Paleostinian people."

"It is being enabled by the US who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes," the message continued. "Fuck Israel Free Paleostine."

"The Paleostinians have nowhere to go," band member Mo Chara told the crowd. "It’s their fucking home. And they’re bombing them from the skies. If you’re not calling it a genocide what the fuck are you calling it?"

He went on to lead the crowd in chants of "Free Paleostine."

Leftist social media influencer Hasan Piker joined the performers onstage as they delivered the messages, live-streaming the moment on his own Twitch channel, where he has some 2.7 million followers in addition to over a million more on other social media platforms.

The onstage display was broadcast live on various internet feeds, Channel 12 reported, though it was not clear if the festival’s official broadcast carried it.

Last weekend Kneecap delivered its initial performance at the festival, using its time onstage to heap scorn on the late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and leading the crowd in chanting "Maggie’s in a box."

At the time, the band also made remarks about a "genocide" in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
the livestream of the remarks on both topics was cut, the NME reported.

"Not the only thing that was cut — our messaging on the US-backed genocide in Gaza somehow never appeared on screens either," the band later posted to X. Israel strongly refutes all accusations of genocide.

"Back next Friday Coachella and it’ll be sorted," they added along with a Paleostinian flag.

The following day, US rock band Green Day used its performance at the California festival to apparently criticize Israel, changing the lyrics of one of its songs to make a reference about children in the Gaza Strip.

In the song "Jesus of Suburbia," lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong sang "Running away from pain like the kids from Paleostine," instead of the original "Runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimized," drawing cheers from the crowd.

The band has a history of politically charged messaging. Last month at a concert in Melbourne, Armstrong changed a lyric in the same song to sing ""Am I retarded or am I just JD Vance?" the UK’s Jewish News reported.

Tensions are high between Ireland and Israel. Israel closed its embassy in Ireland in December, citing "extreme anti-Israel policy of the Irish government." Dublin joined South Africa at the International Court of Justice in its genocide case against Israel.

The war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
terror group’s October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Many on social media made the connection between the performance at Coachella, and the massacre at the Nova festival.

During the October 7, 2023, shock attack, more than 100 Hamas Death Eaters stumbled upon the Nova music festival, an outdoor overnight rave taking place near the Gaza border community of Re’im, where they brutally massacred and kidnapped partygoers.

In all, 344 civilians who attended the Nova party and 34 security personnel were killed during the attack, which included sexual crimes and other brutal acts. The Death Eaters kidnapped another 44 to the Gaza Strip.

A day later, Bono, the frontman of Irish band U2, paid a moving tribute to those murdered at the desert rave. At a show at the Las Vegas Sphere, Bono dedicated the song "Pride" to "those beautiful kids at that music festival."

Twitchy has more:

Yesterday, we told you about a truly repugnant display at the Coachella Music Festival this past weekend from Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap. We hate to repeat their utterly depraved words, but the giant electronic sign they displayed only contained four words: 'F--- Israel, Free Palestine.'

If they had just included the 'Free Palestine' portion of that slogan, we probably wouldn't even have paid it any mind. Musical artists, like actors, are generally removed from reality, and they love to shout slogans of 'the current thing.' But the fact that they included the first half of the message -- at a MUSIC festival, no less -- was beyond the pale.

This is who Kneecap is, though. In the past, the band has embraced IRA terrorists and paraded the severed head of a statue of King George V in Australia.

As much as this band makes us want to weep for humanity, this morning, a group called The Tribe of Nova Foundation -- which honors all of the young people who were murdered, raped, and kidnapped by Hamas tarrorists on Oct. 7 -- showed everyone a better way.

They didn't respond in kind with hate, threats, or insults as they could have -- and many would have -- justifiably done. They simply invited Kneecap to come and visit them to find out what actually happened to young festivalgoers on Oct. 7.

Here is the full statement:

The Tribe of Nova just responded to Kneecap’s hate with an open invitation:
Come visit the Nova exhibit. Come hear the truth about what happened to us on October 7.

Nova survivors just showed the world how you respond to hate, by standing tall and speaking truth. pic.twitter.com/npjl44iLjr
— Jews Fight Back 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@JewsFightBack) April 21, 2025

It is a beautiful statement and a gracious invitation based on love and understanding, not hate.

And almost certainly one that will go ignored by the members of Kneecap.

At Coachella, Kneecap showed the world who and what they are.

As did Coachella.

This morning, the Tribe of Nova did the same.

We know which side we choose.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

High Court says petitioners ‘not even close’ to showing Israel starving Gazan civilians

2025-03-31

[IsraelTimes] In ruling written before latest halt on aid, court says Israel has not violated legal prohibitions on collective punishment; human rights group slams ‘green light to continue war crimes’

The High Court of Justice ruled unanimously on Thursday that Israel has taken a variety of steps to provide for the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s civilian population during the current war with Hamas, and that there was no cause for the court to order the government and the army to take any additional action.

Critically, the court stated that the human rights groups which petitioned the court over the humanitarian situation in Gaza had “not even come close” to showing that Israel had violated legal prohibitions on starving a civilian population as a tool of war or as a form of collective punishment.

The court also ruled against the petitioners’ claim that Gaza is now under what is known as a “belligerent occupation” by Israel, which would apply heightened responsibilities for Israel to Gazan civilians.

The court found that at least two out of the three conditions for establishing a belligerent occupation have not been met by Israel, in particular that the IDF still does not have effective control of the territory and is unable to exercise governing authority.

Additionally, the court asserted that Hamas and other terror groups have deliberately hidden among the civilian population during the war; carried out terror activity from the Israel-designated humanitarian zone including from inside civilian facilities such as hospitals and schools; and seized humanitarian aid destined for civilians for its own use, to the detriment of the civilian population.

It also stated that the Palestinian terror groups in Gaza were responsible for civilian suffering in the war-torn territory, although the court added that Israel was not permitted to ignore that suffering.

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, a liberal, wrote the primary opinion for the court, while conservatives Noam Sohlberg and David Mintz backed his decision.

Amit noted that the ruling was written before the government’s decision on March 2, 2025, to halt the transfer of all aid to Gaza, and said that the ruling could not address the new circumstances. It relates only to the petitions filed back in 2024 and the hearings that had been held for them.

The ruling is significant coming against the background of the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity for using starvation as a means of warfare against the Gazan civilian population.

The International Court of Justice is also considering a suit filed by South Africa against Israel on charges of genocide, relating in large part to accusations that Israel’s policies regarding the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza have been deliberately designed to create conditions to bring about civilian deaths in the territory.

The Gisha human rights group, the primary petitioner in the case, denounced the decision, saying it gave Israel “a green light to continue committing war crimes” in Gaza.

In March 2024, Gisha, together with HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Adalah, petitioned the court to order the government to allow unimpeded access of all necessary humanitarian aid to Gaza and to “significantly increase the volume of aid to Gaza,” including by opening land crossings and to provide for all the needs of the civilian population.

The court held five hearings on the petitions, the last of which was in November last year, requesting several updates and additional information from the state and its relevant agencies.

In his written opinion, Amit asserted that the IDF had taken steps during the war to reduce the harm done to Gaza’s civilian population, but acknowledged that the “fierce and protracted fighting” had exacted a heavy price from the civilian population in the strip.

“There is no dispute, and there can be no dispute, that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is not easy, to put it mildly,” wrote Amit.

He added, however, that “the suffering of the civilian population does not in itself indicate a breach of [its] obligation by the State of Israel,” he added.

Amit said that the transfer of humanitarian aid in all its forms had been allowed into Gaza for the majority of the war, and that Israel and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit of the Defense Ministry, had conducted numerous activities to facilitate the entry of aid into Gaza and to help coordinate its distribution.

This included opening new goods crossings into Gaza, upgrading the roads leading to the crossings and inside Gaza itself, as well as coordinating collection and distribution operations of the aid inside Gaza by humanitarian organizations operating in the territory to the civilian population.

Amit wrote that during the course of the war and the courts’ hearings on the petitions, COGAT was in constant contact with the humanitarian organizations on the ground to understand the needs of the population and to improve its response to those needs.

“Throughout the hearing of the petition, we were presented with a variety of steps that the respondents were taking to help humanitarian aid reach the uninvolved civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” wrote Amit.

These steps were taken “while balancing the State of Israel’s humanitarian obligations with operational security considerations,” including the fear that aid would be diverted by terror groups.

“In doing so, the respondents showed attentiveness to the changing reality and the needs anticipated by the aid organizations, and a willingness to become more efficient in the manner of their activities,” he added.

As a result, Amit wrote, he did not see a need for court intervention.

“Taking into account the totality of the actions taken by the respondents with the aim of improving the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip throughout the period of time examined in the petition, as detailed above, I do not believe that the petitioners were able to establish – not even close – a violation of the prohibitions on starvation of a population as a method of warfare and on collective punishment,” he added.

“It is the terrorist organizations that bear responsibility for the suffering of the uninvolved population,” concluded Amit, adding, however, that “this human suffering is not something that the State of Israel is entitled to ignore.”

Regarding the claims of Gisha and the other petitioners that Gaza is under belligerent occupation, Amit wrote that three conditions must be fulfilled for such a finding, including a physical presence of the foreign force in the territory in question; the ability of that force to function as a governing authority there; and the loss of the previous rulers of their ability to exercise government authority.

Amit ruled that neither the second nor the third conditions have been met, and that therefore Israel cannot be said to be in a belligerent occupation of Gaza, with the accompanying legal obligations to its civilian population.

Gisha and the other human rights organizations which petitioned the court said the ruling “reads like a hymn of praise to the State of Israel and its army during the darkest period in their history,” and “conveniently” determined the time period for the petition to stop at the beginning of this March when Israel halted the transfer of aid to Gaza.

“The ruling thus gives the State of Israel a green light to continue committing war crimes and harming civilians in Gaza,” Gisha stated.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

South Africa's Highest Court Decides 'Kill the Boer' is Not Hate Speech

2025-03-28

[Breitbart] South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, has refused to allow an appeal of a lower court’s decision that the phrase “Kill the Boer,” referring to Afrikaners and farmers, was not hate speech or incitement under the law.

The decision Thursday ended a years-long battle waged by AfriForum, which represents a broad array of Afrikaner organizations, against a song used by Julius Malema and his party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

Malema has argued that the song is not meant to be taken literally — at least, not yet — as it was a song used by the liberation movements during the decades of the struggle against apartheid, which included armed conflict.

However, in the context of shocking farm murders, the song is seen by many people — especially Afrikaners and farmers — as a form of incitement to genocide.

South Africans, particularly the government, pride themselves on their 1996 Constitution and their judiciary — but as AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said, “We are seeing an increasing radical implementation of the Constitution.”

Kriel and AfriForum recently visited the United States to raise awareness of the plight of Afrikaners. After President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending aid to South Africa and offering asylum to Afrikaners, critics claimed that there was no threat whatsoever.

Wednesday’s “Kill the Boer” ruling might seem to suggest otherwise.

Malema performed the “Kill the Boer, the farmer” song, mimicking a machine gun, on Human Rights Day, March 21.

Ironically, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a lawyer representing Malema, also appeared at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year to argue that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reference to the Bible to inspire soldiers was incitement to genocide after the October 7, 2023, terror attack.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Trump to stop all federal funding for South Africa, announces 'pathway to citizenship' for farmers fleeing nation for safety

2025-03-08

[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
on Friday morning announced that the US would cease sending federal funding to South Africa.

"South Africa is being terrible, plus, to long time Farmers in the country. They are confiscating their LAND and FARMS, and MUCH WORSE THAN THAT. A bad place to be right now, and we are stopping all Federal Funding," Trump wrote.

Demographics matter. Ask any Jew.

"To go a step further, any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship. This process will begin immediately!"
A "rapid pathway" that has been anything but "rapid" previously.
An executive order signed by Trump stated that the African country recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, which enables the government to "seize ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural property without compensation."

"This Act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners."

"In addition, South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements."

The order continued, "The United States cannot support the government of South Africa's commission of rights violations in its country or its 'undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests."

The order states that "it is the policy of the United States that, as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices that harm our Nation," the US "shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa" and "shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation."

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Israel files testimony to World Court regarding hostage held in UNRWA facility

2025-03-04

[IsraelTimes] In submission to International Court of Justice, Israel details ‘connection of UNRWA employees’ to October 7 atrocities, terror activity, in defense of legislation banning agency

Israel has filed a written submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which it has detailed what it says are the connections of employees of the UNRWA Paleostinian aid agency to Hamas
Hamas

..always the voice of sweet reason...
and terror activity, including testimony from a freed Israeli hostage that she was held by the terror organization in an UNRWA facility in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip.

In December last year, the ICJ took up a request by the UN General Assembly to issue an advisory opinion on Israeli legislation banning the operations of UNRWA in Israel, and prohibiting state agencies from having any contact with the controversial agency, making its operations in Gaza and the West Bank more difficult.

Israel’s law was challenged in the UN General Assembly by Norway, which claims that it violates international law and what it said were Israel’s obligations to facilitate humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Gaza, in which UNRWA had played an important role.

On Friday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry (MFA) filed a document to the court opposing what it said was a "distorted process" whose outcome was "predetermined," and which the MFA said disregarded the involvement of UNRWA staff in the events of Hamas’s October 7 invasion and massacre.

"The process ignores the atrocities of October 7 and the shameful involvement of UNRWA employees in the October 7 massacre and terrorist activities," said the MFA.

"This is a fundamentally flawed process in which, through the automatic political majority against Israel at the UN, the institutions of international law are used for making political decisions," the ministry added.

The MFA said that the submission filed to the ICJ "exposes the deliberate bias" in the request for an advisory opinion, as well as "the links of UNRWA employees to Hamas activities, the deep involvement of UNRWA employees in terrorist activities, the use of UNRWA facilities for terrorist activities, and the numerous violations of the neutrality to which UN institutions are committed."

The Kan public broadcaster reported that the document, which has not been made public, also included testimony from one of the freed Israeli hostages about being held in an UNRWA facility.

In January, Emily Damari, who was held hostage by Hamas for 15 months and has British citizenship, told British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that she was held at UNRWA facilities in Gaza during her time in captivity.

Damari also told Starmer that while she was held at an UNRWA facility, she was only given an out-of-date bottle of iodine to treat the gunshot wounds she sustained to her leg and her left hand during her abduction on October 7, 2023.

In response, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini described the allegations as "deeply disturbing and shocking." He said that UNRWA had been forced to vacate its installations in the north of Gaza Strip on October 13, 2023, and had not had control over them since that date, adding that the same had happened in other UNRWA facilities in different locations in the territory.

Israel passed its legislation after a series of revelations and Israeli allegations about the connection of some of UNRWA staff to the events of October 7 and to terrorist activity more broadly.

Israel has alleged that dozens of UNRWA officials and staffers directly participated in, and assisted, the October 7 atrocities, and has provided evidence against several of these employees.

UNRWA itself confirmed that Muhammad Abu Attawi, a commander in Hamas’s Nukhba force killed by the IDF in Gaza, who is documented as having murdered civilians in the notorious bomb shelter attack near Re’im on October 7, was a staffer.

Israel has alleged that some 12 percent percent of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza have ties to terrorist factions.

In February, IDF troops found a subterranean data center — complete with an electrical room, industrial battery power banks and living quarters for Hamas gunnies operating the computer servers — underneath UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza City. The data center was hooked up to the electricity supply in the UNRWA facility above.

Israel has also long-accused UNRWA of fomenting hatred of Israel and Jews, and of inciting violence against them, alleging that 10 percent of senior educators belong to Hamas and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
. Numerous reports have been issued regarding the extremism and incitement found in UNRWA’s educational curriculum.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

South African leader seeks deal with Trump to address US anger over ICJ case against Israel

2025-02-28

”We’ll placate the big, dumb oaf with a superficial trade thing so he doesn’t notice our continued war against the Jewish entity.”

[IsraelTimes] South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says that he wants to “do a deal” with US President Donald Trump to resolve a dispute over his country’s land policy and genocide case against Israel at the World Court.

Trump cut US financial assistance to South Africa in an executive order this month, citing disapproval of its approach to land reform and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Washington’s close ally.

Ramaphosa tells a conference organized by US bank Goldman Sachs in Johannesburg that he wanted the “dust to settle” after the executive order, but that the longer-term goal was to go to Washington to mend relations.

“We don’t want to go and explain ourselves. We want to go and do a meaningful deal with the United States on a whole range of issues,” Ramaphosa says. “I’m very positively inclined to promote a good relationship with President Trump.”

Ramaphosa does not say what the deal could involve, only that it could touch on trade, diplomatic, and political matters.
"Give us money"
South Africa is not hugely dependent on US aid, but some fear that its preferential trade status under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) could be under threat with Trump in the White House.

The country tries to project itself as non-aligned in geopolitical conflicts, not tying its interests too closely to those of rival powers the United States, China, and Russia.

But Trump has cited the ICJ case as an example of South Africa taking positions against Washington and its allies.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

New study: There was no famine in Gaza… according to famine review groups’ own data

2025-02-24

[IsraelTimes] UK Lawyers for Israel says use of inaccurate data, inconsistent methodology, potential bias led to false assertions that were utilized by ICC when charging Netanyahu with war crimes

A review conducted by the UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) organization into allegations by international famine review bodies that famine and severe malnutrition were widespread and prevalent in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
during the war between Israel and Hamas
Hamas

..always the voice of sweet reason...
has found that famine did not break out in the territory according to the figures of the very organizations making the claims.

The report noted severe problems with the reports these organizations issued, due to what it said was their use of "incomplete or inaccurate data," the inconsistent application of methodological standards, failure to take into account new data, and "potential bias" in how it interpreted and presented the information it had.

These groups data were used as evidence by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court prosecutor in legal proceedings they initiated against Israel, and have created severe legal problems for the State of Israel.

From almost the very beginning of the war, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), connected to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) established by USAID, began issuing periodic reports on the food security situation in Gaza, asserting in early and late 2024 that famine was either imminent or had already taken hold in parts of the territory.

Israeli academics and public health officials began questioning the accuracy and reliability of these reports from May 2024, highlighting how the estimates made by these organizations appeared to ignore key information about aid supply and use data from questionable sources.

UKLFI’s review of the issue, published last week and which highlighted these criticisms, found that there was no famine in Gaza during the war, as defined by IPC standards, and that even levels of acute malnutrition were only marginally higher than pre-war figures.

These errors resulted from overlooking significant sources of food supply, IPC misclassifying its own data, and using an incorrect baseline figure for pre-war acute malnutrition which made it appear that there had been a sharp increase in the phenomenon during the war, UKLFI’s study stated.

Other problems leading to false IPC and FEWS NET determinations about famine and malnutrition in Gaza included comparing different metrics for those phenomena and overestimating the population of northern Gaza, where predictions of famine were especially grave due to an erroneous understanding of the amount of food aid available per person there.

The allegations of famine formed a central part of the legal processes against Israel’s conduct of the war against Hamas in both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The ICC has charged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant with war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly using starvation as a method of war against the Paleostinians, and issued warrants for their arrest.

UKLFI said in its report that future assessments of food security "should strive for greater accuracy and objectivity to ensure that international responses are proportionate and based on factual realities."

In the wake of Hamas’s October 7 invasion and massacres, Israel embarked on a massive military campaign against Gaza and initially limited the amount of aid that went into the territory. But two weeks after the beginning of the war, aid began entering the strip.

A SERIES OF PROBLEMATIC REPORTS
Two of the most problematic reports regarding alleged famine were issued in March 2024 and November 2024 by the IPC’s Famine Review Committee (FRC).

The FRC’s March report asserted that famine was "was projected and imminent," in particular in northern Gaza, and that 677,000 people in the Gaza Strip were already in the Phase 5 Catastrophe level of its food insecurity scale.

If this were correct, it would have meant that at least 135 people were dying of starvation every day in March 2024.

An IPC Special Brief projected that 1.1 million people would be in the Phase 5 Catastrophe level in the period from March 16 to July 15, 2024, which would have meant at least 221 people dying of starvation every day in that period.

The FRC’s November report stated that there was "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring," while in December 2024, FEWS NET published an "Alert" asserting that "A Famine (IPC Phase 5) scenario continues to unfold in North Gaza Governorate."

UKLFI identified numerous, substantive problems with these reports, however.

In June 2024, the FRC itself published an updated report stating that "the available evidence does not indicate that Famine is currently occurring," despite its dire predictions from March.

The March report also did not provide any statistics on the mortality rate from the malnutrition and starvation it asserted was happening and predicted would strengthen from March to July.

That report noted that the corpse count related to malnutrition was 25 in total, whereas the claimed Phase 5 catastrophe level in northern Gaza should have meant that some 60 people were dying from malnutrition every day, according to the population in the region at the time, UKLFI said.

The June report did provide a mortality rate from all causes, meaning as a result of military action and malnutrition together. The stated level would, however, only have qualified as Phase 3 level of food insecurity at the most, if it was based on non-trauma deaths, which it was not.

UKLFI noted in its study that FRC, and the World Food Program organization, were in possession of the non-trauma mortality figures but chose not to share them.

Another key problem with the March report — as pointed out in an Israeli study by public health officials published by Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in May and noted in the UKLFI’s study — was that it failed to take into account food supplied to northern Gaza by the private sector, alongside the humanitarian aid

brought into the territory.

The March report was cited directly by the International Court of Justice in the genocide suit brought by South Africa against Israel, and also referenced by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Khan when he announced he was seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, warrants which were ultimately issued by the court.

Indeed Khan specifically cited the FRC claim that 1.1 million were facing "catastrophic hunger," which he said was the highest number "ever recorded, anywhere, anytime," when filing his application for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

In November, the FRC issued an "Alert" saying there was a "substantial likelihood of famine, particularly in northern Gaza, and stating, "It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing in these areas." Famine thresholds "may have already been crossed," it added.

But this report, too, did not include mortality data to back up its assertions. It stated that a malnutrition parameter known as MUAC indicated Phase 3 malnutrition throughout Gaza, but did not provide precise details.

In a "Special Brief" also issued in November, FRC said that acute malnutrition was "ten times higher" than before the war.

But the FRC reports, and a FEWS NET report, mistakenly asserted that the MUAC rate in Gaza before October 7, 2023 was 1%, when in reality it was 4%, UKLFI pointed out.

Data sources cited by the FRC November report showed that MUAC in northern Gaza in August and September was 2%, indicative of IPC Phase 1 and for all of Gaza was 5%, indicative of IPC Phase 2, meaning only slightly above the pre-war rate, UKLFI noted.

"There has been no Famine, as defined by the IPC, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. Acute malnutrition levels are only marginally higher than pre-war figures," the UKLFI study asserted in its conclusions.

The UKLFI report said that the IPC and FEWS NET reports had demonstrated "a pattern of overestimation and misrepresentation" due to "Reliance on incomplete or inaccurate data," "inconsistent application of methodological standards," "Failure to adequately revise projections in light of new data," and "Potential bias in interpretation and presentation of findings."

Added the authors: "These errors have led to an exaggerated portrayal of the food security situation in Gaza, which has been used to influence international opinion and policy."

IPC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

BRICS, Boers, & Beginning Battle With China In South Africa: Examining The US Pressure Campaign

2025-02-20

[ZeroHedge] Trump’s February 7 executive order “Addressing Egregious Actions Of The Republic Of South Africa” cuts off aid or assistance to the country and “promote[s] the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees.” The stated reasons for the administration’s actions are a new law that, according to White House, will “enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation. There are also “aggressive positions” towards the US and its allies, namely Israel, which the administration refers to with regards to South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

More broadly, the executive order states that South Africa is “undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests.”

While the charge of anti-white racism fits neatly with the empire’s new brand of identity politics, and the retribution for the ICC case against Israel is to be expected from any US administration,

…except the Biden-[Harris] administration, which quietly approved…

what of the other “undermining” of US foreign policy and “threats” to the US and its interests?

As the recent news surrounding the Panama Canal, Greenland, and other areas show, the US is doubling its efforts to control global shipping lanes — likely in preparation for a conflict with China — but this has gone unmentioned in connection to the pressure campaign against South Africa. I’ll explore that here after quickly looking at the plight of the Afrikaners.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More