Three bills in the Knesset aim to ban the UNRWA as an accomplice of Hamas
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) may be declared a terrorist organization, its staff stripped of immunity and its activities inside Israel outlawed, under a series of bills that have been proposed in the Knesset.
The UNRWA was established in 1949 to deal with Palestinian refugees and has a mandate to operate in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has accused it of aiding and abetting Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups.
“We are on the UN’s blacklist in any case. All the excessive morality ended on October 7,” MK Yulia Malinovsky of Yisrael Beitenu, who proposed to designate the UNRWA as a terrorist organization, said on Monday. She called the agency “a fifth column” within Israel.
The Knesset voted 50-10 in favor of her bill, in the first reading. Israeli lawmakers also advanced the bills that would ban the UNRWA from any activity on the territory of Israel, and strip the agency personnel of legal immunity and privileges normally due to UN staff.
The three bills were sent to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for further deliberation. They will have to pass two more votes to go into effect.
Israel failed to prove UN agency was complicit in terrorism – reportREAD MORE Israel failed to prove UN agency was complicit in terrorism – report
UNRWA employs more than 30,000 people and has provided food aid, healthcare, education, and social services to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as those seeking asylum in neighboring countries. According to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, over two million people depend on it for their survival....more here
https://www.rt.com/news/601561-israel-knesset-unrwa-terrorist/
Volker Turk has warned that efforts to advance reparatory justice are facing resistance in “certain quarters,” and urged countries to back Africa’s push.
Reparatory justice for historical crimes, including colonialism, enslavement, and the trade in enslaved Africans, is crucial to dismantling systemic racism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
Speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Tuesday, Turk linked present-day discrimination against people from the continent to the enduring legacy of colonialism and enslavement.
”Racism and dehumanizing rhetoric continue to permeate public institutions, communities, and online platforms,” he said, according to the UN Press Service. Turk noted that “digital technologies, including AI, are reproducing and amplifying existing biases against people of African descent.”
The remarks come weeks after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest...
The US VP had to defend President Trump’s Gaza policy at a rally on a Georgia college campus.
US Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to defend Washington’s policy in Gaza after he was booed and heckled at a key MAGA event on Wednesday.
Co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative student group that has long been seen as a strong support base of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement but is now showing apparent cracks.
Less than 15 minutes into a TPUSA event at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Vance was interrupted by hecklers over US policy in Gaza, with one audience member shouting, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” As he attempted to respond, others shouted, “You’re killing children!” and “You’re bombing children!”
Vance replied by referring to Trump’s achievements as president, including securing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, something he said the previous administration of Joe Biden failed to do.
“I ...
Sergey Shoigu has cautioned Finland and the Baltic states against allowing Kiev to use their airspace for attacks on Russia.
Russia would have the right to retaliate if Finland and the Baltic states are deliberately allowing Ukrainian drones to pass through their airspace, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said on Thursday.
“Recently, there has been an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia via Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia,” Shoigu told journalists. “As a result, civilians are suffering and significant damage is being caused to civilian infrastructure.”
Either Western air defenses are proving ineffective, or these four countries “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia,” he added. In the latter case, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the security chief stressed.
In recent weeks, Kiev has intensified drone strikes on ...
