Day: 21 May 2021

RAMALLAH, Friday, May 21, 2021 (WAFA) – Australian anthropologists and their global allies today called on Israel to immediately end its violent occupation of the Palestinian territories and dismantle its apartheid legislative regime.
As the anthropologists and their allies expressed their ‘deep concern’ over violence in Palestine/Israel, they condemned Australia’s direct support to the colonization of Palestine.
“We, the undersigned, mindful of the strong personal and professional relations that some of our colleagues have with the Middle East region, also mindful of our presence in a society historically built on the appropriation of Indigenous land, wish to register our deep concern over the violent events unfolding in Israel/Palestine and we mourn the many lives that have been cut short. We are also mindful that the Australian settler colonial state has long directly supported the colonisation of Palestine,” they said.
While noting that the recent wave of violence was the outcome of the forced expulsions of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, they identified Israel’s colonialist policies abetted by US and European support as the root cause.
“The current escalation is a result of the new wave of evictions of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah in Occupied East Jerusalem. These evictions have to be understood as a continuation of the appropriation of Palestinian land and the expulsion of Palestinians from what became Israel and that began with the Zionist colonisation of Palestine, supported by the United States and the European colonial powers, early in the last century.”
“As the sole effective governmental power throughout Israel and the occupied territory, the Israeli state bears the greatest responsibility for the unfolding tragedy. It is this state that is directly engaging, or licencing Jewish supremacist mobs to engage in, the eviction of Palestinians from their homes.”
While condemning violence, they noted the ‘massive asymmetry in the capacity for violence’.
“We condemn all those who direct their violence against civilians. Nonetheless, we cannot but note the massive asymmetry in the capacity for violence that makes the Israeli state responsible for the much greater violence and devastation that the Palestinians are being subjected to.”
“We maintain our unequivocal commitment to a future in which Jews and non-Jews have found ways of existing together in a society where the rights, the sense of security and the dignity of all is respected. We stand in solidarity with all those working for such a future.”
They voiced concern and slammed using the term ‘conflict’ to refer to the situation in Palestine as misleading, not that it is a state of Israeli settler-colonialism.
“We are also concerned at the simplistic, ahistorical representation of these issues by many journalists, intellectuals, and political leaders, as a traditional “conflict” between two opposing parties or polities (implying the need to condemn either one or both “sides”), rather than an entrenched, ongoing system of settler-colonialism prosecuted or endorsed by numerous states, which produces intractable forms of economic, social, and political inequality that culminate in violence of many kinds, the most immediate victims of which are typically civilians, Arabs and Jews alike.”
They also denounced attempts to equate support for Palestinian redress with anti-Semitism as ‘deeply flawed’ and intended to ‘obscure the reality’.
“This completely unjust situation is perpetuated by the repeated equation of support for Palestinian redress with `anti-semitism’. That equation is deeply flawed and deliberately obscures the reality of European colonial occupation and domination of Palestinian lands and people. The issue is one of justice for a dispossessed, brutalised and immiserated Indigenous population.”
“We call on the settler state of Israel to immediately end its violent occupation of Palestinian lands and to dismantle the apartheid legislative regime which it has implemented in order to secure its hegemony,” they said.
They deplored the incursion of Israeli police into al-Aqsa mosque as well as Israel’s current military attack on Gaza in the form of remote warfare as criminal as they expressed their fear that “the aim is the total erasure of Palestinians from the occupied territories.”
They call for “an end to U.S. military funding to Israel and Australian collusion in that murderous trade” as well as for “further open debate of the attacks in the United Nations Security Council blocked twice by the U.S. government.”
They also condemned “Australia’s and the UK’s support of Israel’s illegal government policies of apartheid and territorial expansion.”
Among the signatories of the statement are Tony Redmond, an honorary senior fellow at the University of Queensland’s School of Social Science, Julie Finlayson, a research fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for Native Title Anthropology, David Boarder Giles, a lecturer in anthropology at Deakin University, Ghassan Joseph Hage, a professor of anthropology and social theory at the University of Melbourne, David F. Martin of the Anthropos Consulting, Neil Maclean, an honorary associate at the University of Sydney’s Department of Anthropology, School of Social and Political Sciences, Francesca Merlan, a professor of anthropology at Australian National University, Alan Rumsey, an emeritus professor of anthropology at the Australian National University, besides to Gretchen Stolte, a fellow of the Australian Anthropological Society.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

BRUSSLES, Friday, May 21, 2021 (WAFA) – The European Union today stressed the need for a political solution that ends the ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict’ as the optimal means to address Gaza’s unsustainable situation.
The European Union welcomes the announced ceasefire bringing to an end the violence in and around Gaza. We commend Egypt, Qatar, United Nations, United States and others who have played a facilitating role in this.
The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, welcomed in a press statement “the announced ceasefire bringing to an end the violence in and around Gaza” as he commended “Egypt, Qatar, United Nations, United States and others who have played a facilitating role in this.”
He expressed his ‘appalled’ reaction and ‘regret’ over the casualties of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza as he underscored the importance of ‘restoring a political horizon’ in the Mideast.
“We are appalled and regret the loss of life over these past 11 days. As the EU has consistently reiterated, the situation in the Gaza Strip has long been unsustainable. Only a political solution will bring sustainable peace and end once for all the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Restoring a political horizon towards a two-state solution now remains of utmost importance.”
He reiterated the EU readiness to “fully support Israeli and Palestinian authorities in these efforts.”
“The EU is renewing its engagement with key international partners, including the United States, and other partners in the region, as well as with the revitalised Middle East Quartet, to this end.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

HEBRON, Friday, May 21, 2021 (WAFA) – Dozens of Palestinians suffocated as Israeli forces Friday afternoon quelled peaceful rallies in the southern West Bank cities of Hebron and Bethlehem, according to WAFA correspondent.
He said that Israeli troops violently dispersed a rally that saw the participation of thousands of Palestinians who took to the street waiving the flags of Palestine and erupting into cheers voicing solidarity with the steadfastness of Palestinians in the face of the Israeli aggression on Gaza and forced expulsions in Jerusalem.
The soldiers opened fire towards the protestors as the latter approached the northern entrance of the city, causing dozens to suffocate from tear gas inhalation.
In Bethlehem district, Israeli troops cracked down on a similar rally that saw dozens of protestors gathering in Aid refugee camp following the Friday noon prayer before making their way to the northern entrance of the city.
The soldiers showered protestors with concussion and tear gas bombs, causing dozens to suffocate.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

JERUSALEM, Friday, May 21, 2021 (WAFA) – At least 15 Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon when a contingent of the Israeli occupation police raided the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem, according to WAFA correspondent.
Witnesses inside the compound said that after Friday prayers many worshipers stayed at the premises to celebrate the ceasefire between Palestinian factions in Gaza and the Israeli occupation’s government, before an Israeli police force raided the courtyards and started firing rubber-coated rounds and teargas at the worshipers.
At least 15 worshipers were injured by rubber-coated rounds, while many others sustained suffocation from teargas or beaten by the police.
Several worshipers, including women and children, were physically assaulted by the attacking police officers. Other worshipers were also beaten.
All of the wounded were evacuated to hospitals for medical treatment.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

NABLUS, Friday, May 21, 2021 (WAFA) – Several Palestinian protesters were injured by Israeli occupation forces, some of them by live gunshots, during a protest against colonial Israeli settlements in the village of Beita, to the south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to the medical sources.
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated at Jabal Subeih area near the village of Beita, in protest of Israel’s plan to build a new settlement outpost in the area. The protesters were attacked by Israeli soldiers, and some injuries were reported.
In the meantime, Israeli occupation forces assaulted Palestinian protesters at Huwwara checkpoint, on the entrance to the city of Nablus. Several cases of suffocation from gas inhalation were reported.
Israeli settlement activities across the occupied Palestinian Territories are considered illegal in international law, mainly the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits the relocation of the occupying state’s population to the land of the occupied.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

RAMALLAH, Friday, May 21, 2021 (WAFA) – Palestinian presidency today welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and called for practical steps to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The presidency commended in a press statement the efforts of Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, the US administration, the European Union and the United Nations for reaching the ceasefire, and praised the Palestinian people for their sacrifices in Gaza, defiance of the forced expulsions in Sheikh Jarrah among other Israeli actions in Jerusalem, as well as for their peaceful protests in the West Bank.
It added that the Palestinian people remained steadfast in the face of all Israeli occupation measures as around-the-clock Palestinian, Egyptian, Arab and US efforts were underway to ensure a ceasefire is reached, including actions taken at the UN Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.
It pointed that President Mahmoud Abbas initiated contacts from the very outset of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza and the West Bank, including contacts with US President Joe Biden, in order to being the onslaught to an immediate end, including the forced expulsions in Jerusalem, which ignited the escalation.
It stressed that “it is the time for the US administration and the international community to take practical and serious steps to stop these ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people that gave rise to this grave escalation,” which resulted in the killing of at least 243, including 66 children, and wounding 1,910 others, including 90 severe injuries and 560 children, and which displaced over 75,000 people and caused extensive devastation to property, including to some 20 health facilities and 230 buildings.
It also urged the US administration besides to other international actors to halt unbridled Israeli settler mob violence against Palestinians and encroachments upon the holy sites, particularly in Jerusalem.
It reiterated President Abbas’ call for finding a political horizon towards ending the Israeli occupation of the territories of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, under the umbrella of the Quartet in line with the United Nations resolutions and international law to achieve security and stability in the region and the entire world.
“The current events have proven once again that the Palestinian question is the key to peace and security, and that the only clear path to this is Jerusalem, which lies at the center of the conflict and constitutes the path to peace and war,” it concluded.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)