Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
On June 26, the Houthis’s anti-tank units targeted a number of military positions near the southern Saudi province of Najran.
The Yemeni group’s fighters shelled positions of Saudi forces in al-Sawh with Soviet-made B-10 82 mm recoilless rifles. The fighters scored direct hits.
In the al-Hamad military camp, the Houthis targeted and destroyed an ammo depot of Saudi forces. A B-10 recoilless rifle was also used.
A day earlier, the Houthis destroyed a pick-up and a military bulldozer of Saudi forces in two separate attacks near the Kingdom’s southern province of Jizan, west of Najran.
The Houthis are apparently stepping up their attacks along the border with Saudi Arabia. This is likely a response to the continued attacks by the Saudi-led coalition. On June 25, five civilians were killed in an airstrike on the southern Yemeni province of al-Bayda’.
COVI-PASS will determine whether you can go to a restaurant, if you need a medical test, or are due for a talking-to by authorities in a post-COVID world. Consent is voluntary, but enforcement will be compulsory.
Through the magic of Internet meme culture, most Millennials will be familiar with the famous opening scene of the 1942 film, “Casablanca,” where two policemen stop a civilian in the “old Moorish section” of Nazi-occupied French Morocco and ask him for his “papers.” The subject is taken away at once after failing to produce the required documents. The cinematic exchange has been used ever since as a popular reference to the ever-encroaching hand of the state, which is now on the verge of attaining a level of control over people’s movements that puts the crude Nazi methods to shame.
A British cybersecurity company, in partnership with several tech firms, is rolling out the COVI-PASS in 15 countries across the world; a “digital health passport” that will contain your COVID-19 test history and other “relevant health information.” According to the company website, the passport’s objective is “to safely return to work” and resume “social interactions” by providing authorities with “up-to-date and authenticated health information.”
These objectives mirror those that Bill Gates has been promoting since the start of the COVID-19 lockdown. In an essay written by Gates in April, the software geek-cum-philanthropist lays out his support for the draconian measures taken in response to the virus and, like an old-timey mob boss, suggests the solutions to this deliberately imposed problem. Ironically, Gates begins to make his case for the adoption of mass tracking and surveillance technology in the U.S. by saying that “For now, the United States can follow Germany’s example”; He then touts the advantages of the “voluntary adoption of digital tools” so we can “remember where [we] have been” and can “choose to share it with whoever comes to interview you about your contacts.”
Gates goes on to predict that the ability to attend public events in the near future will depend on the discovery of an effective treatment. But he remains pessimistic that any such cure will be good enough in the short term to make people “feel safe to go out again.” These warnings by the multi-billionaire dovetail perfectly with the stated purposes of the aforementioned COVI-PASS, whose development is also being carried out in partnership with Redstrike Group – a sports marketing consultancy firm that is working with England’s Premier League and their Project Restart to parse ticket sales and only make them available to people who have tested negative for the virus.
VST Enterprises goes viral
VST Enterprises Ltd (VSTE) is led by 31-year old entrepreneur, Louis-James Davis, who very recently stepped down from a “science & technology ambassadorship” in the African nation of Zimbabwe to focus on the company’s role in the UN’s SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Collaboratory initiative, comprising a series of “cyber technology projects across all 193 member states of the United Nations.”
These will use the same proprietary VCode and VPlatform technologies underpinning the COVI-PASS that will reportedly tackle issues such as illegal mining and counterfeiting. This “third generation” barcode technology overcomes the limitations of older “second generation” versions like QR-codes, according to Davis. “Data and sensitive information scanned or stored in either a QR code and barcode can be hacked and are inherently insecure,” Davis claims, “leaving data and personal details to be compromised.” These, and other flaws of the prevailing “proximity apps” were exploited by VST Enterprises to position itself to land large government and private sector contracts.
By all measures, the strategy has proven wildly successful and VST now enjoys strong favor in the highest circles of the UK government as evidenced by the ringing endorsement of former Prime Minister Theresa May, prominently displayed on the COVI-PASS website. More practically, VST now has a direct partnership with the UK government and has secured contracts to deploy its technology in 15 countries, including Italy, Portugal, France, India, the US, Canada, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Mexico, United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands.
In May, VST signed a deal with international digital health technology firm and owner of COVI-PASS, Circle Pass Enterprises (CPE) to integrate VST’s VCode into the biometric RFID-enabled “passports” which can be accessed via mobile phone or a key fob will flash colored lights to denote if an individual has tested negative, positive or is to be denied entry to public locations. Awarded the ‘Seal of Excellence’ by the EU, VCode® technology will ensure that all of our most sensitive personal and health information can be accessed by authorities at a distance, dispensing with messy and potentially dangerous face-to-face encounters with police or other enforcement personnel.
Infusing the narrative
So far, the concerns over the digital health passport’s threat to freedom and privacy have been lukewarm at best and it seems as if the world has already accepted that full-fledged population control methods such as these will simply be a fact of life. While the coronavirus pandemic has certainly done much to bring the public over to this way of thinking, the campaign to normalize this sort of Orwellian power-grab has been ongoing for many years and Bill Gates – who many media outlets have whitewashed out of stories related to these measures – has been at the forefront of its promotion.
The Innovation for Uptake, Scale and Equity in Immunisation (INFUSE) project was launched in Davos, Switzerland in 2016. The program was developed by an organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called GAVI (The Vaccine Alliance), which has been calling for a digital health ID for children along with partners in the broader !D2020 initiative like the Rockefeller Foundation and Microsoft.
In a recent interview, the deputy director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hassan Damluji, derided the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic was in any way subsiding and even warned that, far from receding, the pandemic was “deep into wave three.” His remarks were specifically targeted to the very regions he oversees for the foundation, which include the Middle East and parts of Asia, which he stressed would be the focus of the next wave. Damluji was “most recently involved in a five-year fundraising cycle for GAVI,” an effort led by Saudi Arabia, whose investment he praised as a powerful “signal [that] others had an obligation to follow.”
Gates concludes his editorial with a comparison to World War II, stating that said conflict was a “defining moment of our parents’ generation” as the COVID-19 pandemic is to ours, implying that the changes taking place now are akin to the Allied forces’ defeat of the Third Reich. Except, of course, that immunity passports or digital health certificates sound exactly like what Hitler wished for the most. After all, wasn’t the idea of a superior race based on considerations of superior health and vitality over the ostensibly sick and unfit? Hard to argue against the idea that a universal health passport is nothing less than the ultimate fulfillment of that dystopian nightmare.
Israeli forces continued to commit crimes and multifaceted violations against Palestinian civilians and their properties, including invasions into Palestinian cities that are characterized with excessive use of force, assault, abuse and attacks on civilians. This week, the Israeli military’s excessive use of force killed 1 civilian, rendered 22 injuries among Palestinian civilians, including a child during raids and attacks on peaceful protests in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, which have also witnessed wide-scale demolitions and distribution of demolition notices of civilian houses and properties over the past several weeks, as Israeli occupation authorities prepare to commence its annexation plan of large parts of West Bank territories.
This week, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) documented 191 violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law (IHL) by Israeli Forces and settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt).
IOF shooting and violation of right to bodily integrity: IOF shot and wounded 22 Palestinians, including a child, with live and rubber-coated steel bullets in a show of excessive use of force against unarmed civilians in the West Bank.
In Gaza, 6 shootings against agricultural lands in eastern Gaza Strip were reported; and once against fishing boats sailing in northern Gaza sea.
IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians: IOF carried out 105 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids of civilian houses and shootings, enticing fear among civilians, and attacking many of them. During this week’s incursions, 88 Palestinians were arrested, including 7 children and 4 women.
Settlement expansion activities and settlers’ attacks: IOF continued its settlement expansion operations in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, PCHR documented 24 violations, including;
Hebron: confiscation of sheep barn, caravan, oil pump and archaeological pillars, and distributed two cease-construction notices to two houses;
Bethlehem: construction on a settlement-road;
East Jerusalem: 2 civilians forced to self-demolish their homes, demolition notices given to two buildings and a house at al-Madares St.; several demolition notices in al-‘Isawiya; 3 houses demolished; confiscation al-Abbasy family land in Silwan village; confiscation a blacksmith workshop and tools; raid on mechanic shops in al-Sawahra and Abu-Dis;
Nahalin village: car wash and a house demolished; notice to evacuate a land and to cease rehabilitation work at an agricultural land; and confiscation of a construction vehicle;
Salfit: notice to cease-construction on an agricultural room and a rainwater well; 1 house self-demolished and another residential building (3-storey) demolished; other demolitions included: 1 residential facility; 7 small commercial facilities; 1 barracks; under-construction apartment and sports center wall;
Ramallah: demolition of 3 houses, including 1 under-construction;
Northern Jordan Valley: 48 olive trees bulldozed.
PCHR also documented 2 illegal Israeli settler attacks that included assault in Bethlehem and Ramallah that injured 4 civilians.
Israeli closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement: The Gaza Strip still suffers the worst closure in the History of the Israeli occupation of the oPt as it has entered the 14th consecutive year, without any improvement to the movement of persons and goods, humanitarian conditions and bearing catastrophic consequences on all aspects of life.
Furthermore, since the PA ended security coordination with Israeli authorities in May 2020, hundreds of critically ill patients whose condition cannot afford delays in treatment were denied travel.
This week, 2 children died because they were unable to travel for treatment abroad. This was amplified by the restrictions put in place by IOF since March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, that had already had grave implications on the humanitarian and economic situation of the Gaza Strip population.
Meanwhile, IOF continued to divide the West Bank into separate cantons with key roads blocked by the Israeli occupation since the Second Intifada and with temporary and permanent checkpoints, where civilian movement is restricted, and they are subject to arrest.
I. Violation of the Right to Life and to Bodily Integrity/Shooting and other Violations
At approximately 08:10 on Friday, 19 June 2020, Israeli soldiers stationed along the border fence, east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, opened fire at agricultural lands, adjacent to the border area. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 13:00 on Friday, 19 June 2020, IOF stationed at the northern entrance to Kufur Qaddoum village’s lands, north of Qalqilia, suppressed a protest in which dozens of Palestinian civilians participated. IOF the young concussion grenades, and tear-gas canisters at them. As a result, 10 civilians, including a child, were shot and injured with shrapnel and rubber-coated steel rounds. (The names of the wounded civilians area available at PCHR)
At approximately 15:00 on Friday, 19 June 2020, IOF suppressed a peaceful protest at the northern entrance to al-Bireh city called for by national factions in Ramallah and al-Bireh to pretest against the Israeli annexation plan to part of the West Bank lands. Israeli soldiers stationed at al-Mahkamah checkpoint, adjacent to “Beit Eil” settlement, north of the city, fired sound bombs and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, dozens of civilians suffocated due to tear gas inhalation.
At approximately 07:30 on Saturday, 20 June 2020, reinforced with military SUVs stormed al-Maghir village, northeast of Ramallah. They raided and searched several houses. In the meantime, dozens of Palestinian young men gathered and threw atones and Molotov Cocktails at Israeli soldiers stationed in the center of the village. Israeli soldiers opened fire at the civilians. As a result, a 22-year-old young man was shot with a rubber-coated steel round in his head. He was transferred to Palestine Medical Complex for treatment.
At approximately 07:30 on the same Saturday, Israeli soldiers stationed along the border fence in eastern al-Maghazi area in central Gaza Strip, opened fire at agricultural lands. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 10:30 on the same Saturday, Israeli soldiers stationed along the border fence, east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, opened fire at a group of civilians in lands adjacent to the border fence. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 00:10 on Sunday 21 June 2020, Israeli gunboats stationed west of Deir al-Balah shores in central Gaza Strip, chased and heavily opened fire at Palestinian fishermen and their boats. Fishermen, as a result of that, panicked and had to sail back to the shore fearing for their lives. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 10:30 on the same Monday, Israeli soldiers stationed along the border fence, east of al-Maghazi in central Gaza Strip, opened fire at Palestinian shepherds in lands adjacent to the border area. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 14:30 on the same Monday, IOF stationed at al-Hamrah checkpoint, north of the West Bank, fired rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at Palestinian civilians, who gathered near the checkpoint after Israeli soldiers stationed at the above-mentioned checkpoint prevented dozens of Palestinian buses from crossing the checkpoint to participate in a protest in Jericho against the Israeli annexation plan to be implemented in the next month. As a result, many civilians suffocated due to tear gas canisters. They received medical treatment on the field.
At approximately 15:00 on the same Monday, a number of civilians gathered in Bab al-Zawiyah area in the center of Hebron and threw stones at Military Checkpoint (56) established at the entrance to al-Shuhada’a street, which is closed. Israeli soldiers chased stone-throwers and indiscriminately fired sound bombs and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, a number of young men suffocated due to tear gas inhalation.
At approximately 16:00on the same Monday, an Israeli infantry unit stormed al-‘Aroub refugee camp, north of Hebron. Israeli soldiers indiscriminately fired tear gas canisters at the camp’s main street claiming that they were stoned. As a result, a number of civilians suffocated to tear gas inhalation. The infantry unit withdrew later from the camp. Neither casualties nor houses incursions were reported.
At approximately 17:30 on the same Monday, a number of Palestinian young men gathered in “al-Qatou’a” area, west of Deir Abu Mash’al village, adjacent to the settlement street linking between “Halmish” settlement, north west of Ramallah, to confront Israeli settlers protected by IOF, who carried out riots in the area. They young men threw stones and Molotov Cocktails at settlers’ vehicles passing through the above-mentioned street. Israeli soldiers immediately fired rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the protestors. As a result, Mos’ab Abu Ata (15) was shot with a rubber bullet in his foot. He was taken via an Israeli ambulance that handed him over to a PRCS ambulance, which referred him to Palestine Medical Complex for treatment.
At approximately 22:40 on the same Monday, IOF moved into Nablus from the eastern entrance (Beit Furik) and southern entrance (Howarah) and stationed in the eastern area of the city, to secure the entry of dozens of buses carrying settlers to the above-mentioned area in order to perform prayers in “Joseph’s Tomb” in Balatat al-Balad village. A number of Palestinian civilians gathered and set tires on fire, put barricades, and threw stones and empty bottles at Israeli vehicles. IOF immediately fired rubber bullets and sound bombs at civilians to disperse them. As a result, a 24-year-old young man was shot with a rubber bullet in right hand. He was transferred to Rafidia Governmental Hospital for medical treatment. Many also were suffocated due to tear gas inhalation. They received medical treatment on the field.
On Tuesday evening, 23 June 2020, Israeli Forces killed a Palestinian young man after opening fire at his vehicle, which collided into the traffic island in the center of al-container military checkpoint, east of Bethlehem. IOF claimed that the victim attempted to carry out a run-over attack, but according to the information collected by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) the victim was in fact was en route to pick up his mother, in preparation for his sister’s wedding, which was supposed to be held in the evening in Abu Dies village. PCHR stresses that IOF used disproportionate force, especially that the victim posed no real threat to the soldiers’ lives in light of the heavy fortifications at the checkpoint. According to PCHR’s investigations and eyewitness testimonies, at approximately 15:53 on Tuesday, Ahmed Mostafa Mousa Erekat (26), from Abu Dis village in occupied East Jerusalem, was waiting in queue at al-container military checkpoint in eastern Bethlehem, to cross into Bethlehem where he was supposed to pick up his mother and sisters from a beauty salon in the city and return to Abu Dies village to attend his sister, Eman’s wedding. At approximately 15:55, when Erekat vehicle approached the checkpoint, it deviated from its path and collided into the traffic island opposite the glass room where Israeli border guard soldiers stationed. The soldiers immediately opened fire at the vehicle, wounding Erekat with several live bullets in his upper body. They pulled him out of the vehicle, threw him on the ground and prevented Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS)’s medical crew from approaching him or providing first aid; leaving him to bleed to death on the ground at the checkpoint.
At approximately 15:25 on the same Tuesday, IOF stationed along the border fence, east of Wadi al-Douh area, northeast of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip, sporadically opened fire at the border area and fired a number of tear gas canisters. Palestinian shepherds who were adjacent to the border fence, panicked and left the area. Neither casualties nor material damage was reported.
At approximately 08:25 on Wednesday, 24 June 2020, Israeli soldiers stationed along the border fence, east of Deir al-Blah in the central Gaza Strip, opened fire agricultural lands, adjacent to border area. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 18:00 on the same Wednesday, dozens of Palestinian outraged young men at the killing of Ahmed Mustafa Oraiqat (27) gathered in front of Ahmed’s house in Abu Dis village, east of occupied East Jerusalem as the protest took part in all the village streets. The protestors chanted slogans condemning the killing of Qraiqat, headed to the Mount area in the village, and threw stones and Molotov Cocktails at Israeli military vehicles. A large Israeli force immediately stormed the village and fired rubber bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the protestors and clashed with them for 4 hours. At approximately 13:00 on the same day, confrontations between IOF and Palestinian young men took part in Ras Kabsah area, adjacent to al-‘Izariyah village, during which IOF fired a barrage of tear gas canisters. As a result, a house owned by Walid Hatem al-Huseini was completely burned after it was hit with many tear gas canisters. Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that its crews offered medical treatment to 9 persons who were shot with rubber bullets and more than 28 persons suffocated due to tear gas inhalation and they received medical treatment on the field.
II. Incursions and Arrests:
Thursday, 18 June 2020:
At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into Jabal Handaza area, east of Bethlehem. They raided and searched Hatem Yousef al-Refati’s (37) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:00, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Bani Na’eem village, east of Hebron. They raided and searched Yehya Khader Humaidat’s (25) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into Nahaleen, west of Bethlehem. They raided and searched Bara’ Ibrahim Shakarna’s (21) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:00, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Sourif village, west of Hebron. They raided and searched Malek Tayseer Ghunaimat’s (30) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Beit Ammer village, north of Hebron. They raided and searched Ahmed Haitham Slaibi’s (22) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:10, IOF moved into Jayyous village, northeast of Qalqilia. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Suhaib Wael Shamasnah (21).
At approximately 04:20, IOF moved into al-Mazra’a al-Gharbeya village, north of Ramallah. They raided and searched Sa’ed Taha al-Khatib’s (27) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF reinforced with 8 military vehicles, moved into al-Beira and stationed in Um al-Sharayit neighborhood. They raided and searched Majd Ibrahim al-Boushi’s (32) house and arrested him.
At approximately 04:30, IOF moved into Kafr Tholth village, northeast of Qalqilia. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Mahmoud Sameeh Shawahna (22).
At approximately 04:40, an undercover unit from the IOF “Mista’arvim” moved into ‘Aqabat Jabr refugee camp, southwest of Jericho. They sneaked by a Ford mini-bus carrying Palestinian registration plates and stationed in front of Mohammed Abdul Karim Abu Zeina’s (27) house and arrested him. Meanwhile, IOF stormed the village and surrounded their house and covered the unit’s withdrawal and took Zeina to an unknown destination.
At approximately 05:00, IOF moved into al-‘Isawiya, northeast of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Adam Shafiq Obaid’s (20) house and handed Obaid a summons to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Services.
At approximately 05:15, IOF moved into Jinsafut village, east of Qalqilya. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Abdul Rahman Mahmoud Bashir (28), and Sami Abdul Rahman Mahmoud Shubair (33).
At approximately 11:00, IOF arrested Fadi Ali Alian (34), the guard of the Aqsa Mosque’s guard, while working in the mosque’s yard in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. IOF took him to one of the investigation centers in the city.
At approximately 15:00, IOF moved into al-‘Isawiya, northeast of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched several houses and handed (4) civilians summonses to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Services; Anwar Sami Obaid (22), Mohammed Ayman Obaid (20), Mohammed Esmat Obaid (20), and Yousif Ali al-Kaswani (22).
At approximately 17:00, IOF moved into Azoun village, east of Qalqilia. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Qais Zahran Owda (22).
At approximately 20:30, IOF stationed at Za’tara military checkpoint, southeast of Nablus, north of the occupied East Jerusalem, arrested Osaid Mor’eb Jaghoub (22), from Bita village, southeast of the city. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 21:50, IOF stationed in front of Gate (104) established adjacent to the annexation wall, west of Tulkarem, arrested Ibrahim Hussam Mahmoud Darwish (23) and ‘Amer Mahmoud Helal (25), from Tulkarem.
IOF carried out (7) incursions in ‘Atouf, southeast of Tubas, Kafr Qalil and Bita, Southeast of Nablus, al-Nabi Saleh and Betounia in Ramallah, Azoun, east of Qalqilia, and Ezbit Shofa, north of Tulkarem. No arrests were reported.
Friday, 19 June 2020:
At approximately 01:00, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles, moved into Kreesa village, east of Dura, southwest of Hebron. They raided and searched Husain Ali Husain Shawaheen’s (38) house and arrested him.
At approximately 04:55, IOF moved into Qafin village, north of Tulkarem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (4) civilians: Mohammed Nabil Mahmoud To’ma (26), Ahmed Nabil Mohammed Sabbah (28), Ridwan Nasr al-Dein Ajouli (27), and Adeeb Mohammed Sabbah (24).
After Friday prayers, dozens of Susya village’s civilians, south of Hebron, a peaceful protest against the Israeli Authorities’ decision of annexing more areas in the West Bank on July 1. Meanwhile, IOF and group of Susya settlers arrived and tried to ban the protestors from entering the main street and prevented the journalists from documenting the incident. After dispersing the protestors, IOF withdrew, and no arrests were reported.
At approximately 13:50, IOF stationed at the entrance of Salem military court, west of Jenin, arrested Abdul Rahman Taha Abu Sereya (25), from Jenin refugee camp. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 19:20, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles, moved into al-Mghayer village, northeast of Ramallah, and stationed at the main rotary of the village. They raided and searched two houses and arrested a man and a child; Mo’ayad Rayeq al-Na’san (17) and Rajeh Fayeq al-Na’san (20).
IOF carried out (11) incursions in Jenin and Qabatya, southeast of Jenin; Kafr Ra’i, southwest of Jenin; Bita, southeast of Nablus; Jericho, Termas’eya, and Na’leen, in Ramallah; Kafr Tholth, east of Qalqilia; Ra’s ‘Ateya, east of Tulkarem; and al-Zaweya, north of Salfit. No arrests were reported.
Saturday, 20 June 2020:
At approximately 01:00, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Kharas village, west of Hebron. They raided and searched Tha’er Aziz Halahela’s (41) house and confiscated his Laptop, and no arrest was reported. It should be noted that Halahela was detained a month ago.
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into al-‘Isawiya, north of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Hasan Khaled Alian’s (26) house and arrested him.
At approximately 08:30, IOF stationed at Za’tara military checkpoint, southeast of Nablus, arrested Ali Jamal Abu Salah (28), from ‘Arraba village, southwest of the Jenin. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
IOF carried out an incursion in Derastya, north of Salfit. No arrests were reported.
Sunday, 21 June 2020:
At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into al-‘Isawiya village, northeast if the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (9) civilians including (4) children. The arrestees are: Omar Marwan Obaid (18), Mahmoud Marwan al-‘Anati (21), Mahmoud Marwan Owda (16), Hasan Yaser Darweesh (14), Mohammed Murad Dari (17), Mohammed Sameeh Alian (14), Mohammed Nasim Obaid, Mahmoud Abdu Ra’ouf Mahmoud (23), and Ahmed Eyad Awda. IOF also handed Ahmed Khalil Obaid (20) and As’ad Dari (23) summonses to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Services.
Around the same time, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Beit Ammer, north of Hebron. They raided and searched two houses and arrested Hamad Yousef Mohammed Bahr (26) and Mohammed Ibrahim Mustafa Sabarna (24). Meanwhile, IOF stormed al-Manasra furniture store in Safa, the northern neighborhood of the city, they opened the store’s doors with special tools, and started searching until 02:30. IOF withdrew and took the arrestees to an unknown destination.
Around the same time, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles, moved into Yatta, south of Hebron. They raided and searched Eyad Diab Abu Qbaita’s (35) house and arrested him.
At approximately 01:20, IOF moved into Dura al-Qara’, north of Ramallah. They raided and searched Salim Edris Hamdan (32) and arrested him.
At approximately 02:30, IOFD reinforced with two military vehicles moved into al-Mazra’a al-Gharbeyya village, north of Ramallah. They raided and searched Ra’fat Mohammed Saleem Abu Rabea’s (45) house and arrested him.
At approximately 13:00, IOF moved into al-Rahmah Gate praying hall, east of al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They arrested one of the mosque’s guards and (5) civilians including (2) children and took them to al-Qashla police station in Jerusalem’s Old City. After several hours of investigation, IOF released them on condition that banning their entry to the Aqsa Mosque for a week and refer to the police station to extend their banning decision again for several months. The arrestees are: Abdul Karim Qa’oud, Shifa’ Abu Ghalya (18), Aya Abu Nab (21), Aya Ma’touq (18), Mayar al-Natsheh (16), and Maram al-Natsheh (17).
Monday, 22 June 2020:
At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into Tayaseer village, east of Tubas, north of the West Bank. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (3) civilians; Eyad Mithqal Daraghma (35), Duham Fayez Subaih (28), works at the Palestinian National Security, and Zahi Ahmed Abu Muhsen (45).
At approximately 04:00, IOF moved into Beit Fujjar, south of Bethlehem. They raided and searched Mohammed Akram Taqateqa’s (29) house and arrested him.
At approximately 04:20, IOF moved into Jenin, north of the occupied West Bank. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (3) civilians; Waseem Jehad Nazzal (25), Ahmed Ibrahim al-Sheikh (18), and his brother Mohammed (19).
At approximately 05:30, IOF moved into ‘Anabta village, north of Tulkarem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Marwan Salim Hannoun (23).
At approximately 06:25, IOF moved into Zeita village, north of Tulkarm. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Bader Mazen Sayed Ahmed (24).
At approximately 20:00, IOF stationed at Howara’s main street in Howara village, southeast of Nablus, arrested (3) civilians from Bita village while presented near a fast-food restaurant. IOF took Sa’eed Rabah Dwaikat (18), Aseel Naser Dwaikat (19), and Ahmed Yaser Dwaikat (18), to unknown destinations.
IOF carried out (6) incursions in Bita, southeast of Nablus; Yatta, Sa’eer, and Beit Ammer, in Hebron; Beit Sirra and Na’leen in Ramallah. No arrests were reported.
Tuesday, 23 June 2020:
At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into al-‘Isawiya village, northeast of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (9) civilians, and took them to al-Maskoubeya investigation center, then released them after several hours on financial bail of 10,000 NIS and home confinement. The arrestees are: Mhmoud Shafiq Obaid (20), Amjad Ali Obaid (24), Mohammed Waleed Obaid (21), Ali Mohammed Obaid, Majd Nayef Mustafa (19), Tamer Darwish (21), Eyas Hussain Obaid, Nayef Waseem Obaid (18), and Mahmoud Ramadan Obaid (23).
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into Qalandia refugee camp, north of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (3) civilians; Isma’el Ahmed Abu Latifa (28), Abdullah Mohammed Alqam (26), and Anas Mohammed Ya’qoub (24).
At approximately 03:10, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Kobqr village, north of Ramallah. They raided and searched Mujahed Basel al-Barghouthi’s (25) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:30, IOF moved into al-Saf street in Bethlehem. They raided and searched two houses belonging to Ibrahim Maher Khamees (18) and Nidal Ibrahim Abu ‘Ahour (41) and arrested them.
At approximately 06:00, IOF moved into Wadi Hilwa village in Silwan, south of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Ibtisam Sharaf’s (50) house and arrested her.
At approximately 18:40, IOF established a temporary military checkpoint on the main entrance of al-Nabi Saleh village, northwest of Ramallah, arrested Wahbi Ehsan al-Rimawi (29), from Beit Rima village, while passing through the checkpoint. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 20:30, IOF stationed at al-Mahkama checkpoint, near Beit Eil settlement north of the city, arrested Mustafa Mahmoud Ghawanma (17) and Ahmed Ali Safi (17).
IOF carried out an incursion in Qabatya, north of the occupied West Bank. No arrests were reported.
Wednesday, 24 June 2020:
At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into al-Sawahra al-Sharqeya, east of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Noah Fahd Za’atra’s (30) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into Qalqilia. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Wael Ali Abu Qamar (44) and Yousef Mohammed al-Ra’i (39). Meanwhile, a special unit headed to arrest Bara’ (24) and his brother Hussain Ali Abtali, in Jaljoulia street in the city.
At approximately 02:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Halhoul, north of Hebron governorate. They raided and searched two houses and arrested Oday Younis al-Douda (24) and Mohammed Younis al-Bow (20).
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into Qalandiya refugee camp, north of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Mohammed Sameer Zayyat’s (46) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:00, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Hebron and stationed at al-Duhdah neighborhood. They raided and searched Mathna Omar al-Qawasma’s (26) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:30, IOF moved into ‘Azoun village, east of Qalqilya. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Belal Mohammed Miskawi (39), and Ibrahim Shaker Shbaita.
III. Settlement Expansion and Settler Violence in the Occupied West Bank
i. Demolition and Confiscation of Civilian Property for Illegal Settlement Expansion Activities
At approximately 09:00 on Thursday, 18 June 2020, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into al-Tawana village, east of Yatta, south of Hebron. IOF were deployed between Palestinians’ houses while the Israeli Civil Administration officers got Jamal Mohammed ‘Issa Rab’i (44)’s sheep out of the barn and confiscated the shed and steel pipes, under the pretext of establishing the barn without getting a permission from the Israeli Civil Administration Department.
On Thursday, the Israeli Nature Authority staff raided al-‘Abasi family land in Silwan’s Wadi al-Rababah neighborhood to seize and confiscate it. Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli Nature Authority staff moved into the land and started working on it, so the land’s owners confronted them. During which, the Israeli Nature Authority staff pepper-sprayed ‘Abasi family members, including the elderly Mohamed Dawoud (90). As a result, they sustained burns in their faces and suffocated. The Israeli police arrived at the area and informed al-‘Abasi family that the Israeli Nature Authority staff could gardening the land upon the court’s decision and if they have any objection, they could head to the court.
At approximately 11:00, Israeli Municipality staff along with officers from the Israeli Ministry of Interior moved into the eastern lands of al-‘Isawiya village, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, where distributed demolition and eviction notices. Mohammed Abu al-Humus, Head of the Follow-up Committee in al-‘Isawiya village, said that Israeli authorities distributed demolition and eviction notices in al-‘Isawiya village in favor of establishing National Parks on Palestinians’ lands. He added that Israeli authorities prevented the village residents from construction and demolished their houses, in addition to distributing notices every week, under the pretext of non-licensing. He also clarified that Israeli authorities refused to endorse the structural map that enables the residents to build and expand.
On the same day, IOF demolished a car wash in al-Manshiyia village, near Taqou’a village, east of Bethlehem, under the pretext of non-licensing. Mayor of Taqou’a Municipality, Tayseer Abu Mefreh, said that IOF moved into ak-Manshiyia village and demolished ‘Ali al-Khatib’s 70-square-meter car wash, under the pretext of non-licensing.
On the same day, Israeli military construction vehicles bulldozed a house in al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem, under the pretext of non-licensing. Ahmed Salah, Head of al-Khader village, said that IOF moved into Kherbet ‘Alia in Um Rokba area in al-Khader village and demolished Sameer Ahmed Salah’s house comprised of 2 rooms and a kitchen and built of tin plates. Salah clarified that the house sheltered 6 persons. It should be noted that IOF demolished Salah’s 150-square-meter house 6 months ago.
On Saturday, 20 June 2020, Eyad and Feras Nabeel Da’nah implemented the Israeli Municipality order and self-demolished their houses in Hosh al-A’war area in Silwan village, south of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, under the pretext of non-licensing. Feras Da’nah said that he was handed 2 demolition notices months ago and due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the Israeli municipality delayed the demolition. Since then, he went to several lawyers to stop the demolition, but in vain. Da’nah clarified that the municipality staff prevented him from completing the construction and ordered his brother ‘Alaa to vacate the 2 houses and self-demolish them, or they will pay the demolition costs for the municipality. He added that he submitted an application to license the houses and informed the municipality that he will pay all fines, but it refused. Da’nah pointed out that he borrowed NIS 10,000 in order to build the two houses and got a loan to live in the house with his two brothers.
On Sunday, 21 June 2020, Israeli authorities notified a Palestinian civilian to vacate his agricultural land in al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem. Hasan Breijieh, Head of the Bethlehem office of Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission, said that IOF notified Bassam Khalil Jaber Ghunaim to vacate his 6 dunums of agricultural lands in Khelt al-Fahem area in al-Khader village. It should be noted that al-Khader village residents are continuously exposed to IOF and settlers’ attacks, including levelling lands, uprooting trees and preventing farmers’ access to their lands.
At approximately 10:00, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into Kherbet Bereen, west of Bani Na’iem village, west of Hebron. The Israeli Civil Administration officers handed Fayiz Imraziq al-Faqeer and Isma’il Joudi Burqan notices to stop construction works in their 50-square-meter houses built of bricks and tin plates.
At approximately 13:00 on Sunday, 21 June 2020, IOF moved into Khelet Kharoub area in Burqeen village, west of Salfit. They distributed a notice to stop construction works in an agricultural room and a water well, in addition to hanging another notice on an agricultural room’s wall, under the pretext of being in Area C. The room owner, ‘Abed al-Fattah Samarah, said that IOF accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into Khelet Kharoub area, where I built an agricultural room and a water well. They also hanged a notice on the wall of an agricultural room built 8 months ago.
On Sunday, 21 June 2020, IOF stopped reclaiming agricultural lands and confiscated a bulldozer in Nahaleen village, west of Bethlehem. Hani Fanoun, Deputy of Nahaleen Municipality Mayor, said that IOF moved into Thour al-Za’faran area, south of the village, and stopped reclaiming agricultural lands. They then confiscated a bulldozer working in the land and detained its owner. Fanoun added that IOF threatened Nahaleen Municipality and Palestinian civilians not to return to the area and work on it, under the pretext of being under Israeli sovereignty.
On the same day, Israeli bulldozers, under IOF protection, built a new road for Israeli settlers in Nahaleen village. The new road will connect the two settlements “Beitar Illit” and “Gush Etizon”. IOF imposed tight measures on civilians to deny their access to the area. The building of this road will isolate 4 dunums of the village lands from its surrounding in a proactive step to control these lands planted with different types of trees.
At approximately 09:00 on Tuesday, 23 June 2020, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into Wad al-A’war area, south of Hebron. The military construction vehicles demolished Thair Farah ‘Abed al-Motaleb Ghaith’s 30-square-meter agricultural room, under the pretext of non-licensing in Area C.
At approximately 10:00, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into Zaif area, east of Yatta, south of Hebron. The Israeli Civil Administration officers confiscated a 20-square-meter mobile caravan and a diesel fuel dispenser belonging to Ahmed Abu Rajab, who was handed a list of confiscated items to refer to the competent authorities in “Gush Etizon” settlement.
At the same time, IOF seized equipment from a blacksmith workshop and raided an automobile repair shop in al-Sawhrah and Abu Dies villages, southeast of occupied East Jerusalem. Activist Mohammed Hijazi said that a large force of IOF moved into al-Sawhrah village and seized equipment from ‘Urwa Ja’afrah’s blacksmith workshop. He added that IOF moved into Abu Dies village, where they raided and searched Nouh Za’atrah’s automobile repair shop.
On the same day, IOF demolished Mohammed al-Rajbi’s house in al-Bostan neighborhood in Silwan village, south of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, under the pretext of non-licensing.
Mohammed al-Rajbi said that IOF accompanied with Israeli Municipality staff raided his house sheltering him, his wife and their 4 children and demolished it with manual machineries, because their construction vehicles could reach the house location. Al-Rajbi added that he built his house in March 2020 and during that period, he received notices to stop construction works. When he lived in the house in May 2020, the Israeli Municipality issued an administrative demolition order against his house. Al-Rajbi also said that he attempted to freeze the demolition order, but in vain. After that, the court gave him until 15 June to vacate the house. Al-Rajbi clarified that his 130-square-meter house costs NIS 100,000, and that he could not self-demolish his house despite the high demolition costs that would be imposed on him after the municipality crews carried out the demolition.
At approximately 11:00, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into Tawameen area, east of Yatta, south of Hebron. The Israeli Civil Administration officers confiscated hand tools used for excavation from Barakat Mahmoud Barakat Mur’s land.
At approximately 13:00, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into al-Thaghrah area, east of Beit Ummer village, north of Hebron. IOF raided Khaled Yousef Berighith’s house and confiscated stone pillars. IOF handed Berighith a list of confiscated items and withdrew later.
On Tuesday, 23 June 2020, Israeli Municipality staff hanged demolition orders on 2 buildings and a house in Ras al-‘Amoud neighborhood, east of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, under the pretext of non-licensing. Hussain Mohamed al-‘Abasi said that the municipality hanged a demolition order on his building comprising of a shop and 2 apartments; the first sheltering 4 persons and building on (75 sqm), and the second sheltering 7 persons and building on (40 sqm). Also, Israeli Municipality staff hanged a demolition order on Sa’ied ‘Ali al-‘Abasi’s 110-square-meter building comprising of 2 floors; each one includes 2 apartments sheltering 16 persons. It should be noted that al-‘Abasi’s building was built 60 years ago. Al-‘Abasi said that the municipality staff informed all the notified buildings’ owners that their houses will be demolished under the pretext of construction without licensing, noting that all buildings were established 25-60 years ago.
At approximately 07:30 on Wednesday, 24 June 2020, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into Betunia village, west of Ramallah. IOF demolished ‘Abed al-‘Aziz ‘Odah al-Farroukh’s under-construction house (110 sqm), under the pretext of illegal construction in Area C.
At approximately 08:00, Israeli Municipality staff demolished a floor comprised of 2 residential apartments in al-Raba’ia neighborhood in al-Mukaber Mount area, south of occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of non-licensing. Ra’fat Rabai’a, an apartment’s owner, said that he was shocked when the municipality staff raided his house and demolished it, noting that a court session was supposed to be held on afternoon regarding the demolition order. Rabai’a added that the municipality staff used manual machineries to demolish the 3rd He also said that each floor was comprised of 2 apartments and built 25 years ago. He clarified that in April 2020, he repaired the house roof built of bricks, so the municipality issued an order to stop working and appointed a court session. Rabai’a said he his apartment sheltered his family comprising of 5 persons while the 2nd under-construction apartment was for his brother Mohammed.
At approximately 09:00, Israeli municipality bulldozes demolished Sharhabeel ‘Alqam’s house in Beit Haninah neighborhood, north of occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of non-licensing. ‘Alqam said that the municipality staff bulldozed his house, although a court session was supposed to be held at 13:30. He added that his 120-square-meter house, sheltered 9 persons and was built 2 months ago.
At approximately 09:15, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into Beit Sira village, west of Ramallah. IOF were stationed at the entrance to al-Latroun Street, near a military checkpoint established there. The military construction vehicles demolished Ahmed Fayiz Abu Safia’s under-construction house (90 sqm), under the pretext of illegal construction in Area C. Meanwhile, clashes broke out between Palestinian young men and IOF, who indiscriminately fired a barrage of sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the stone-throwers. As a result, olive trees in the area were set ablaze. The Palestinian civil defense vehicles immediately arrived and put out the fire. It should be noted that Israeli authorities did not notify the mentioned house prior to the demolition.
At approximately 09:30, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into Bardalah village, west of Jericho in northern Jordan valley. The military construction vehicles bulldozed 84 olive trees from agricultural lands and workers from private companies cut the trees with saws. The damaged trees belong to al-Rabai’a family, and they were as follows:(58) olive trees planted 9 years ago, property of ‘Izzat Faleh Mahmoud Raba’ia, were damaged. (13) olive trees planted 12 years ago, property of Mohmoud Faleh Mahmoud Raba’ia, were damaged. (7) olive trees planted 12 years ago, property of Hazza’ Faleh Mahmoud Raba’ia, were damaged.
At approximately 16:40, IOF backed by military construction vehicles and accompanied with Israeli Civil Administration officers moved into al-Jabal area in al-Tira neighborhood, southwest of Ramallah. The military construction vehicles demolished Natheer Mohammed’s under-construction house (160 sqm), under the pretext of non-licensing.
ii. Israeli Settler Violence
On Friday, 19 June 2020, Israeli settlers beat and pushed Wadee’ Fadi Salah (15), from al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem. As a result, he sustained bruises throughout his body and received treatment in Beit Jala Governmental Hospital. Activist Ahmed Salah said the Israeli settlers attacked Salah while staying near his house in Abu Sowd area, west of the village. They chased and pushed him from a great height, causing bruises and wounds throughout his body. He was then taken to a hospital in Bethlehem.
At approximately 12:00 on Tuesday, 23 June 2020, Israeli settlers, from ” Nahleel” settlement, which is established on Ras Karkar lands, west of Ramallah, attacked Ratib ‘Othman Abu Fikhidah (62) , his son ‘Othman (28) and his grandson Moheeb (18) while present in their agricultural lands in the village outskirts. As a result, they sustained wounds and bruises throughout their bodies and received treatment at Palestine Medical Complex.
Millions of children in Yemen could be pushed towards starvation by the end of the year as the humanitarian crisis is compounded by a lack of funding as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, UNICEF said on Friday.
A report by the United Nations children’s agency indicated that the number of malnourished children under the age of five in the war-torn country could rise by 20% — to 2.4 million — unless the international community makes up for a massive shortfall in aid.
“If we do not receive urgent funding, children will be pushed to the brink of starvation and many will die,” said UNICEF Yemen representative Sara Beysolow Nyanti. “We cannot overstate the scale of this emergency.”
Yemen has been ravaged by a Saudi, US-led war for over five years. During this period, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced due to the violence.
The UN said that it is unable to keep an inflow of aid as the crisis shows no sign of ending. UNICEF needs nearly $461 million for its humanitarian response, along with $53 million for an effective COVID-19 response. Only 39% and 10% of these, respectively, have been funded.
Yemen’s healthcare system was already on the brink of collapse as it dealt with diseases like cholera, malaria and dengue, but the pandemic has just brought it dangerously close to shutting down. The country has reported over 1,000 infections but experts say that many go unreported because of lacking medical infrastructure.
The UN children’s agency also warned that nearly 7.8 million children were not in school, which puts them at a higher risk of exploitation through child labor and early marriage.
“UNICEF has previously said, and again repeats, that Yemen is the worst place in the world to be a child and it is not getting any better, “Nyanti said.
Beirut – After 9 years of a war which had torn, killed and exiled millions from their homeland, Syria has fought hawkish NATO powers and diabolic militias which devastated the country. However, unlike Libya and Iraq whose land has been destroyed and economically annexed by US, their allies and proxies, Syria approaches the finish line as Gulf and other foreign investors set foot on Syrian land to discuss post-war reconstruction efforts.
With that being said, it would be naive to assume that Syria will be able to reconstruct without a fight. As US foreign policy fails miserably before the entire planet, they’re betting on their last chips – an optimistic venture – that they still have a chance at crushing the Syrian government. The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which does anything but protect civilians, came into effect on June 17. According to the US State Department, the sanction bill is to hold the Syrian government accountable for the ‘widespread death of civilians’ and to seek ‘justice for those suffering under the [Syrian President Bashar] Assad regime’s brutality’ – baseless allegations deflated by renowned journalists around the world, such as Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett, who have visited and explored Syria throughout the war as opposed to “experts” who haven’t read a shred of its history.
As Syria’s UN Representative Bashar al-Jaafari puts it, the Caesar bill isn’t much different than the previous sanctions, but instead serves as a form of psychological warfare to frustrate the Syrian population further. The major difference is that this time, any individual or business who wish to deal with the government are condemned and sanctioned.
Although Pompeo reinforced that the sanctions are to hold the regime accountable on their own terms, this is fraudulent on many counts. The sanctions do not aim to punish President Assad himself, but rather worsen the humanitarian hell in which people have been living under in the past 9 years (and, crushing the Lebanese Resistance on their way). As Pompeo smugly articulates in his press statement, “the United States remains committed to working with the UN and international partners to bring life-saving assistance to the Syrian people.” What would muddle with logic here is that, if the US were so concerned with the welfare of the Syrian people, why have US forces burnt down over 200 dunums of wheat, barley and other crop fields in Hasaka before the sanctions came into effect? If the United Nations is a credible humanitarian organization that assists those in need, why hasn’t it condemned the US burning of crop fields?
Sanctions don’t ‘change political behavior’ of regimes and enforce ‘accountability for human rights abuses;’ this theory has proven nil statistical significance. Sanctions starve people, deprive them of basic necessities like oil and gas and hold essential medication from them under the sunshade of ‘dual use’. Morality, morbidity and trauma rates go higher, and under maximum pressure, their effects last for generations. Given the reality that sanctions have almost never resulted in ‘regime change,’ then they are just a sadistic pursuit by the Global North to punish people for resisting imperialism. It is sufficient to take a good look at Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, whose governance have become nearly immune to international pressure.
Once again, the US is dictating the world who to normalize relations with and who not to. They coerce the world who to be friends with and who not to. On its way, it hacks its way into the scene, tells Lebanon, an economic and military ally to Syria, that they will be punished if they were to trade with their own neighbor. As if Sykes-Picot wasn’t enough to divide West Asia, this is a clear reattempt at destroying any form of unison between the two countries and thus instantiating divide through economic restrictions and punishment.
Syria, an already war-torn country, is flattened by an economic crisis and shortages as a result of 9 years of war trauma. While Lebanon, minus the sanctions, today suffers from the depreciation of the Lira and one of the worst economic crises in its history since the 1975 Civil War. With the rise of the dollar crisis in Lebanon, the IMF, the Lebanese Central Bank and other institutions hold back dollar injections into the country, fueling a high demand and short supply. Knowing that goods are largely imported in Lebanon, the currency of transaction is naturally by the dollar, which has recently started to smother entire households making ends meet on low incomes. Syria, a country which has criminalized the use of dollar on land, enjoys strong economic ties with Lebanon, through which they deal by the Lira. This entails that the function of the sanctions isn’t only to affect Syria alone, but it is also to cut Lebanon’s main trade partner which only exacerbates the dollar crisis in the country. Wishful thinking-ly, America’s proxy, “Israel”, through such a tactic, thinks they could coerce Hezbollah into trading its weapons for food.
From infrastructure and basic necessities comes security, and America’s parasite – “Israel” – cannot allow for a strong, stable Syria to heal, and a Lebanon which continually threatens their existence. As Lebanon has recently transitioned into a new government, with a new prime minister and cabinet, MSM has turned to paint it as ‘Hezbollah-led government’ in attempt to delegitimize and punish it on the short run. Under such premise, “Israel” pushes America into a cost-effective war to crush Hezbollah – not militarily – but through sanctioning the Lebanese government, which has a high possibility given the terms and conditions of the Caesar Act. Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah reassured the Lebanese that the government will not end trade with Syria, and neither will the community starve. Deviating the economic hues of the country to the East seemed like a plausible solution, proposing more ties with China and Iran. The world awaits the repercussions of economic terrorism, which will eventually end up in defeat as it always has.
The open support given by the entire western media and political establishments to the regime now ensconced in Kiev should give cause for concern, but of course it doesn’t. After all it would not do to profess open backing for a staged coup by neo-nazi militants orchestrated and paid for by EU and US through non-government channels. Of course the CIA was involved but only in one of its various front organizations, to wit, the National Endowment for Democracy. This was the prototype ‘colour revolution.’ This process has been exhaustively delineated as follows:
In Ukraine, the demonically violent riots of 2014 were orchestrated by the US; that American agents in both private and public sectors were involved in organizing the “grassroots” campaign designed to destroy what was left of the country are now well known. The same exact script has been played out in Serbia, Georgia, Syria, Iran, Libya, the Gulf states, Turkey (briefly), China, parts of Central Asia and even Armenia. Not all were successful.
In Ukraine, State Department hack Geoffrey Pyatt brought US cash to begin the campaign against the democratically elected President, Yanukovic. Radio Free Europe and the western-controlled Ukrainian media (especially the Kiev Post) began promoting rumours of a “Russian invasion” based upon the obscure issue of Kiev’s desire to join the European Union. George Soros created the “Ukrainian Crisis Media Centre” as both government and private cash went to building a protest movement. The veto of a European Union Association deal was important to the elites in New York, though probably almost totally unknown to Ukrainians, hence, the “spontaneous rebellion” began with that.
The method of public-private manipulation of media, imagery and even language in these cases is well known and several important monographs have been published about it. Yet, over and over again, the organizers of this claim that the “revolutions” are “spontaneous.” over and over again, academics and talking heads – the “instant experts” created by the System – repeat the official line.
In general, the western elite mobilizes urban, privileged elements of the population, uses their own organizers and media personnel, and create riots through the building of local organizations. They are granted cash, equipment, technology, ideology and even leaders with a script to follow. Violence is encouraged and all manner of suitable provocations are provided. A handful in the west point to the fact that a) the trajectory is identical in each case; b) way too many of the protest signs are in English and c) there is no clear ideological mission.
Corporate media then report that this obscure part of the world was run by a “terrorist” that also was a “tyrant.” For the left, the System will say that the government under siege was “conservative” and occasionally “a right-wing military regime.” For the right, they will say that the government in question was “opposed to American interests” or “harbouring terrorists.”
In many cases, hundreds or more are killed. Ostensible and official enemies of the US are financed and armed. A new government takes over that immediately “privatizes” all assets that made that country a target in the first place. Constitutions are rewritten and the penal code revised to ensure no US agent is prosecuted. Afterwards, the government in question is impoverished and without legitimacy. The assets of the state have been liquidated and bought up by western conglomerates based on the “principles of the free market and the rule of law.”
Strange people are seen in cabinet posts having names without much connection with the ethnicity in question. The IMF and World Bank give dire warnings about government policy and yet, give billions that they know will never be paid back or utilized properly. Within a few months, major media begin slowly leaking documents that in fact, the protest were organized by the CIA and that the “revolution” was a failure.
As more time goes by, stories related to this “revolution” nonchalantly speak of the “popular and spontaneous revolution against the tyrant” as if it is obviously true. After several years, almost everyone spouts the original line without criticism, almost with media reports that it was all staged. The American talking head and pseudo-intellectual then carries a conceptual conflict within him that makes any real rebellion against the system psychologically impossible.
This is precisely the nature of the “Colour Revolution” from Tienanmen Square to Kiev.’’ (1)
Thus the situation in Kiev by 2014 was ripe for a colour revolution. But politics in the Ukraine can only be understood by reference to its history and ethnic and cultural make-up – a make-up criss-crossed by lasting and entrenched differences. The country has long been split into the northern and western Ukraine, where Ukrainian is the official and everyday lingua franca, and the more industrialised regions of the east and south where a mixture of Russian speaking Ukrainians and ethnic Russians reside. Additionally, there has long been Hungarian and Romanian settlement in the west of the country, Transcarpathia and Bessarabia, and a particularly important Polish presence in Galicia, whose unofficial capital, Lviv, was once the Polish city of Lwow. The Russian Orthodox Church is the predominant form of Christianity in the East, – but this has recently broken up as a result of the Ukrainian branch which has seen fit to rebrand itself as the Ukrainian wing of the Orthodox church – generally speaking, however, in the west the Christian tradition tends towards Roman Catholicism.
Politically the Eastern and Southern Oblasts (Regions) which includes the cities and centres of heavy industry, Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhe, Nikolayev, Kherson, Simferopol (Crimea) and Odessa, have tended to tilt towards Russia whilst the western regions have had a more western orientation. This has traditionally been reflected in the electoral division of the country. There is no party which can be considered ‘national’ in this respect, except ironically, the old Communist party, which of course is now banned. The major regional parties have been the Fatherland party of Yulia Tymoshenko (since renamed) and the former head of government, Arseniy Yatsenyuk – now departed – as well as the ultra-nationalists predominantly in the west of the country, and the deposed Victor Yanukovic’s Party of the Regions in the East (now defunct) along with its junior partner in the coalition, the Ukrainian Communist Party.
However, what is new since the coup in February 2014 there has been the emergence, or rather the re-emergence, from the shadows of ultra-nationalist (fascist) parties and movements, with both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary (i.e., military) wings. In the main ‘Svoboda’ or Freedom Party, and the paramilitaries of ‘Right Sector’ (Fuhrer: Dimitry Yarosh) who spearheaded the coup in Kiev; these have been joined or changed their names to inter alia the Radical Party, and Patriots of the Ukraine; this in addition to the punitive right-wing militias, such as the Azov Battalion responsible for numerous atrocities in the Don Bass. It should be added that many of these militias have been integrated into the military and armed police, including the Azov Battalion.
Suffice it to say, however, that these political movements and parties did not emerge from nowhere.
This far-right tradition has been historically very strong in the western Ukraine, an area which was one-time part of the Polish empire but incorporated into the Ukraine by Stalin in 1945. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was first established in 1929 and brought together, war veterans, student fraternities, far-right groups and various other disoriented socially and political flotsam and jetsam under its banner. The OUN took its ideological position from the writings of one, Dymtro Dontsov, who, like Mussolini had been a socialist, and who was instrumental in creating an indigenous Ukrainian fascism based upon the usual mish-mash of writings and theories including Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Sorel, and Charles Maurras. Dontsov also translated the works of Hitler and Mussolini into Ukrainian.
The OUN was committed to ethnic purity, and relied on violence, assassination and terrorism, not least against other Ukrainians, to achieve its goal of a totalitarian and homogeneous nation-state. Assorted enemies and impediments to this goal were Communists, Russians, Poles, and of course – Jews. Strongly oriented toward the Axis powers OUN founder Evhen Konovalets (1891-1938) stated that his movement was ‘’waging war against mixed marriages’’, with Poles, Russians and Jews, the latter which he described as ‘’foes of our national rebirth’’. Indeed, rabid anti-Semitism has been a leitmotif in the history of Ukrainian fascism, which we will return to below.
Konovelts himself was assassinated by a KGB hit-man in 1938 after which the movement split into two wings: (OUN-M) under Andrii Melnyk and, more importantly for our purposes (OUN-B) under Stepan Bandera. Both wings committed to a new fascist Europe. Upon the German invasion in June 1941, the OUN-B attempted to establish a Ukrainian satellite state loyal to Nazi Germany. Stepan Lenkavs’kyi the then chief propagandist of the OUN-B ‘government’ advocated the physical destruction of Ukrainian Jewry. OUN-B’s ‘Prime Minister’ Yaroslav Stets’ko, and deputy to Bandera supported, ‘’the destruction of the Jews and the expedience of bringing German methods of exterminating Jewry to Ukraine, barring their assimilation and the like.’’
During the early days of the rapid German advance into the Soviet Union there were some 140 pogroms in the western Ukraine claiming the lives of between 13000-35000 people (Untermensch, in fascist terminology).
Below is what real anti-semitism looks like. The picture was taken in Lviv (Capital of Banderistan) In June 1941 shortly after the German invasion and during the pogrom which killed in excess of 2000 Jews in the city. The terrified half-dressed Jewish woman is running for her life being pursued by a cudgel-wielding mob of Banderist thugs.
In 1943-1944 OUN-B and its armed wing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska povstanska armia – UPA) carried out large scale ethnic cleansing resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands; this was a particularly gruesome affair in Volhynia where some 90000 Poles and thousands of Jews were murdered.
The UPA were part of an ethnic cleansing operation carried out in Nazi German–occupied Poland by the North Command in the regions of Volhynia (Reichskommissariat Ukraine) and their South Command in Eastern Galicia (General Government) beginning in March 1943 and lasting until the end of 1944. The peak of the massacres took place in July and August 1943. Most of the victims were women and children. UPA’s methods were particularly savage and resulted in 35,000–60,000 Polish deaths in Volhynia and 25,000–40,000 in Eastern Galicia, for the total of between 76,000 and 106,000 casualties.
The killings were directly linked with the policies of the Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) and its military arm, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, whose goal as specified at the Second Conference of the OUN-B on 17–23 February 1943 (or March 1943 according to other sources) was to purge all non-Ukrainians from the future Ukrainian state. Not limiting their activities to the purging of Polish civilians, UPA also wanted to erase all traces of the Polish presence in the area. The violence was endorsed by a significant number of the Ukrainian Orthodox clergy who supported UPA’s nationalist cause. The massacres led to a civil conflict between Polish and Ukrainian forces in the German-occupied territories, with the Polish Home Army in Volhynia responding to the Ukrainian attacks.
The campaign of the UPA continued well into the 1950s until it was virtually wiped out by Soviet forces. It should be remembered in this context that also in play was the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) which was a World War II German military formation made up predominantly of military volunteers with a Ukrainian ethnic background from the area of Galicia later also with some Slovaks and Czechs. Formed in 1943, it was largely destroyed in the battle of Brody, reformed, and saw action in Slovakia, Yugoslavia and Austria before being renamed the first division of the Ukrainian National Army and surrendering to the Western Allies by 10 May 1945. The remnants of this force were given entry into both the US and more particularly Canada where they are a significant political force today.
It should be said that during this early period Bandera himself had been incarcerated by the German authorities up until his release in 1944, since unlike Bandera they were not enamoured of an independent Ukrainian state but wanted total control. Bandera was only released at this late date since the German high command was endeavouring to build up a pro-German Ukrainian quisling military force to hold up the remorseless advance of the Red Army. Also pursuant to this it is also worth noting that during this period the 14th Galizian Waffen SS Division, the military Ukrainian collaborationist formation established by none other than, Heinrich Himmler, which was formed to fight the Soviet forces, and yet another being the Nachtingal (Nightingale) brigade; this unit was integrated into the 14th Galizian in due course. It is also interesting to note, that every year, and up to 2014 a commemoration ceremony including veterans of this unit takes place with a march through Lviv. The flag of this unit is not dissimilar to the auto-car Peugeot logo, the standing lion, and can be seen at ultra-nationalist rallies as well as football matches involving Lviv Karparti FC, particularly fixtures in involving Shaktar Donetsk. There is also the annual torchlight demonstration through Kiev every 2 January in commemoration of Bandera’s birthday by some 20000 of his followers. This parade had all the makings of Nazi triumphalism, all very reminiscent of Leni Riefensthal German filmmaker and Nazi sympathiser. There are also numerous statues of Bandera across Ukraine, and since the 2014 coup even street names bearing the same name. Significantly the UPA was to receive political rehabilitation from the Kiev Junta, with Bandera declared a hero of the Ukraine and the UPA rebranded as ‘freedom fighters.’ One particularly splendid statue of Bandera stands proudly in Lviv, lovingly adorned with flowers.
Other novel attractions the capital of Banderestan – Lviv – include ‘Jewish themed restaurants’ one such is Kryivka (Hideout or Lurking Hole) where guests have a choice of dishes and whose dining walls are decorated with larger than life portraits of Bandera, the toilet with Russian and Jewish anecdotes. At another Jewish themed restaurant guests are offered black hats of the sort worn by Hasidim. The menu lists no prices for the dishes; instead, one is required to haggle over highly inflated prices ‘’in the Jewish fashion’’. Yes, it’s all good clean fun in Lviv. Anti-Semitism also sells. Out of 19 book vendors on the streets of central Lviv, 16 were openly selling anti-Semitic literature. About 70% of the anti-Semitic publications in Ukraine are being published by and educational institution called MUAP (The Inter-Regional Academy of Personnel Management). MAUP is a large, well-connected and increasingly powerful organization funded from outside anti-Semite sources, and also connected to White Supremacist groups in the USA and to David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
(It is perhaps one of the ironies of history that if the Zionists in AIPAC and the Washington neo-con think tanks, and the Labour Party Friends of Israel, were so concerned about anti-Semitism, they might try looking for it in Lviv. They wouldn’t have to search very far.)
Present day neo-Nazi groupings in Ukraine – Svoboda (Freedom) party and Right Sector – have been the direct descendants from the prior ideological cesspool. Heading Svoboda is Oleh Tyahnybok. Although these are separate organizations Tyahnybok’s deputy Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn is the main link between Svoboda’s official wing and neo-Nazi militias like Right Sector. The Social-Nationalist party as it was formerly known chose as its logo an amended version of the Wolfsangel, a symbol used by many German Waffen SS divisions on the Eastern front during the war who in 2004 a celebration of the OUN-UPA, stated in 2004, that ‘’they fought against the Muscovite, Germans, Jews and other scum who wanted to take away our Ukrainian state.’’ And further that ‘’Ukraine was ruled by a Muscovite-Jewish mafia.’’ Tyahnybok came under pressure from the then President, Yuschenko, to retract his inflammatory statements, which he did, but he then retracted the retraction!
Given the fact that Svoboda was, apart from its stamping grounds in the west, making little national electoral headway, it was essential to clean up its image and deny its Nazi past. But this was always going to be difficult since the members of such groups cannot help the unscripted outbursts and faux pas which they tend to make and which reveals their true colours. For example, following the conviction and sentencing of John Demjanjuk in 2011 to five years in jail for his role as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp, Tyahnybok travelled to Germany and met up with Demjanjuk’s lawyer, presenting the death camp guard as a hero, a victim of persecution ‘’who is fighting for truth’’.
And so it goes on. We can therefore infer that this organization is inveterate fascist. More disturbing Svoboda has links with the so-called Alliance of National European Movements, which includes: Nationaldemokraterna of Sweden, Front Nationale of France, Fiamma Tricolore in Italy, the Hungarian Jobbik and the Belgian National Front. More importantly Svoboda held several ministerial portfolios in the Kiev administration, and Right Sector swaggers around Kiev streets with impunity, and/or are being drafted into a National Guard to deal with the separatist movements in the east, or to beat down anyone who doesn’t conform to their Ayran racial and political ideals.
One would have thought that this mutating revolution in the Ukraine would have drawn attention of the centre-left to the fact that fascism had gained a vital beachhead in Europe, and that the danger signals should be flashing. But not a bit of it; a perusal of the Guardian newspaper quickly reveals that their chief concern has been with a non-existent ‘Russian threat’. One of their reporters – our old friend, Luke Harding -described Right Sector as an ‘’eccentric group of people with unpleasant right-wing views.’’ Priceless! This must rank as the political understatement of the century. In fact, the Guardian was simply reiterating the US-imposed neo-conservative foreign policy. But naturally, this is par for the course. The bald fact of the matter is that there is a de facto alliance between the genuine anti-semites, not only in Ukraine but in the Baltics also, who are now allied with Zionists in the war against the emerging Eurasian bloc.
The Nachtingal (Nightingale) brigade, took part in a three-day massacre of the Jewish population of Lviv from 30 June 1941. Roman Shukhevych was the commander of the Nachtingal and later, in 1943, became commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the “Banderivtsy”) or UPA armed henchmen of the fascist Stepan Bandera, who after the war pretended that they had fought both Nazis and Communists. Members of the division are also accused of having murdered some 800 residents of the Polish village of Huta Pieniacka and 44 civilians in the village of Chłaniów.
Stepan Bandera statue in Lviv
Ukraine today is in a sorry state; the poorest country in Europe only kept alive by an IMF drip-feed. The economic and social ramifications of the 2014 coup will be observed insofar as the full weight of the neo-liberal economic policies has been foisted on the Ukraine, courtesy of the IMF. This was already apparent in the early 80s but the trend accelerated after the coup. The standard IMF/WTO Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) a package of ‘reforms’ and ‘fiscal consolidation’ (I just love these IMF euphemisms) consisted of cuts in government expenditure, accompanied by extensive liberalisation of product and labour markets, together with abandonment of exchange rate control and capital flows. These policies along with political instability have had, among other things, a disastrous effect on population growth. Ukraine’s population was 52 million in 1992 and the decline started in that year. By 2016, this figure had fallen to 42.5 million, its 1960 figure, and was accelerated since the coup of 2014. The current Fertility rate stands at 1.3. Any figure less than 2 will mean a shrinking population. The death rate has also increased, along with mass migration with some 2 million Ukrainian guest workers decamping to Russia and Poland in search of work. This is a slow-motion demographic calamity.
Moreover, none of the economic indicators carry any hope of a long-term revival. The fact of economic disaster as measured in various statistics is, however, unmistakable: 2018 figures indicate per capita income languishing at US$3113.00 (compared to Angola US$3437.00). Debt as a % of GDP minus-2.15 Angola 2.19. Trade Balance for Angola stands at 25.3% Ukraine’s trade balance stands at -7.41% as a percentage of GDP. Unemployment stands at (officially at least) 10%, and in terms of external trade the current account has not been positive since 2003, those glorious days which gave rise to the ‘Orange revolution’. Finally, there are the rating agencies who provide the following ratings for Ukraine’s sovereign bonds– Moody’s B3, S&P B, Fitch B. B means below investment grade if we are being polite, junk bonds if we are not. (3) The currency – the hryvnia, exchange rate against the British pound is £1 = 34, hyrvinia. When I was last in Ukraine (2012) you would get only between 8 and 12 hyrvnia for a £. Ukraine is now the poorest country in Europe being pushed down to bottom by the next basket case above, Moldova. Welcome to the Sunflower Republic.
All of this in spite of the IMF’s loans and its unilateral debt forgiveness of the Ukraine’s outstanding sovereign debt to Russia which had become due. In doing this the IMF infringed its own constitution. As Michael Hudson explains:
‘’The IMF broke four of its rules by lending to Ukraine: (i) Not to lend to a country that has no visible means to pay back the loan (the “No More Argentinas” rule, adopted after the IMF’s disastrous 2001 loan to that country). (ii) Not to lend to a country that repudiates its debt to official creditors (the rule originally intended to enforce payment to U.S.-based institutions). (iii) Not to lend to a country at war – and indeed, destroying its export capacity and hence its balance-of-payments ability to pay back the loan. Finally (iv), not to lend to a country unlikely to impose the IMF’s austerity “conditionalities.” Ukraine did agree to override democratic opposition and cut back pensions, but its junta proved too unstable to impose the austerity terms on which the IMF insisted.’’
This was obviously a political decision made by an organization which is supposed to be politically neutral.
NOTES
(1) Matthew Raphael Johnson – Euro-Maidan – Liberal Capitalism – and the Ukrainian Fiasco – 08.06.2016
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