Hamas says Zionist ‘madness’ against civilians shows total failure of occupation army
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement said on Tuesday that the “Zionist madness” directed against civilians in the Gaza Strip “signals the failure of the Israeli army in the face of the resistance.” Senior Hamas official Izzat Al-Rishq added on Telegram that this reflects Zionist “fears” of bigger developments.
“The Zionist deterrence equation based on intimidation, bullying and creating chaos in our region without accountability or control has ended, and we are faced with a completely new equation,” he claimed. “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was a turning point, and the Zionist terrorism imposed on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip will be written in a new chapter. Everything will be different from now on.”
Al-Rishq described as “Nazism” the behaviour of the occupation army at Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City. “That’s where the worst health sector massacre in the world was committed. It confirms what we have said before: the Zionist Nazis have learnt from Hitler’s Nazis.”
The Hamas official accused the US and Western supporters of the “Zionist madness” of being complicit in the expansion of the conflict across the region. “Forcing the Zionist entity to end its crimes and stop the war with all its consequences against Gaza was and still is the shortest way to avoid chaos and expanding the circle of fire. The occupation state will reap what it has sown,” he added.
On Monday, the government media office in Gaza announced the discovery of a mass grave of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Medical Complex. At least 10 Palestinians were apparently bound and executed by Israeli soldiers during their two-week orgy of destruction at the hospital last month, and buried in the grave. An estimated 400 Palestinians altogether were killed by Israel at the hospital before its near total destruction.
Cruelty of language: Leaked NY Times memo reveals moral depravity of US media
The New York Times (NYT) coverage of the Israeli carnage in Gaza, like that of other mainstream US media, is a disgrace to journalism.
This assertion should not surprise anyone. US media is driven neither by facts nor morality, but by agendas, calculating and power-hungry. The humanity of 120 thousand dead and wounded Palestinians because of the Israeli genocide in Gaza is simply not part of that agenda.
In a report – based on a leaked memo from the New York Times – the Intercept found out that the so-called US newspaper of record has been feeding its journalists with frequently updated ‘guidelines’ on what words to use, or not use, when describing the horrific Israeli mass slaughter in the Gaza Strip, starting on 7 October.
In fact, most of the words used in the paragraph above would not be fit to print in the NYT, according to its ‘guidelines’.
162Shares
The New York Times (NYT) coverage of the Israeli carnage in Gaza, like that of other mainstream US media, is a disgrace to journalism.
This assertion should not surprise anyone. US media is driven neither by facts nor morality, but by agendas, calculating and power-hungry. The humanity of 120 thousand dead and wounded Palestinians because of the Israeli genocide in Gaza is simply not part of that agenda.
In a report – based on a leaked memo from the New York Times – the Intercept found out that the so-called US newspaper of record has been feeding its journalists with frequently updated ‘guidelines’ on what words to use, or not use, when describing the horrific Israeli mass slaughter in the Gaza Strip, starting on 7 October.
In fact, most of the words used in the paragraph above would not be fit to print in the NYT, according to its ‘guidelines’.
OPINION: UK rhetoric shows that retaliation is of greater concern than genocide
Shockingly, internationally recognised terms and phrases such as ‘genocide’, ‘occupied territory’, ‘ethnic cleansing’ and even ‘refugee camps’, were on the newspaper’s rejection list.
It gets even more cruel. “Words like ‘slaughter’, ‘massacre’ and ‘carnage’ often convey more emotion than information. Think hard before using them in our own voice,” according to the memo, leaked and verified by the Intercept and other independent media.
Though such language control is, according to the NYT, aimed at fairness for ‘all sides’, their application was almost entirely one-sided. For example, a previous Intercept report showed that the American newspaper had, between 7 October and 14 November, mentioned the word ‘massacre’ 53 times when it referred to Israelis being killed by Palestinians and only once in reference to Palestinians being killed by Israel.
By that date, thousands of Palestinians had perished, the vast majority of whom were women and children, and most of them were killed inside their own homes, in hospitals, schools or United Nations shelters. Though the Palestinian death toll was often questioned by US government and media, it was later generally accepted as accurate, but with a caveat: attributing the source of the Palestinian number to the “Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza”. That phrasing is, of course, enough to undermine the accuracy of the statistics compiled by healthcare professionals, who had the misfortune of producing such tallies many times in the past.
The Israeli numbers were rarely questioned, if ever, although Israel’s own media later revealed that many Israelis who were supposedly killed by Hamas died in ‘friendly fire’, as in at the hands of the Israeli army.
And even though a large percentage of Israelis killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on 7 October were active, off-duty or military reserve, terms such as ‘massacre’ and ‘slaughter’ were still used in abundance. Little mention was made of the fact that those ‘slaughtered’ by Hamas were, in fact, directly involved in the Israeli siege and previous massacres in Gaza.
Speaking of ‘slaughter’, the term, according to the Intercept, was used to describe those allegedly killed by Palestinian fighters vs. those killed by Israel at a ratio of 22 to 1.
I write ‘allegedly’, as the Israeli military and government, unlike the Palestinian Ministry of Health, are yet to allow for independent verification of the numbers they produced, altered and reproduced, once again.
The Palestinian figures are now accepted even by the US government. When asked, on 29 February, about how many women and children had been killed in Gaza, US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, said: “It’s over 25,000”, going even beyond the number provided by the Palestinian Health Ministry at the time.
However, even if the Israeli numbers are to be examined and fully substantiated by truly independent sources, the coverage of the New York Times of the Gaza war continues to point to the non-existing credibility of mainstream American media, regardless of its agendas and ideologies. This generalisation can be justified on the basis that NYT is, oddly enough, still relatively fairer than others.
According to this double standard, occupied, oppressed and routinely slaughtered Palestinians are depicted with the language fit for Israel; while a racist, apartheid and murderous entity like Israel is treated as a victim and, despite the Gaza genocide, is, somehow, still in a state of ‘self-defence’.
The New York Times shamelessly and constantly blows its own horn of being an oasis of credibility, balance, accuracy, objectivity and professionalism. Yet, for them, occupied Palestinians are still the villain: the party doing the vast majority of the slaughtering and the massacring.
The same slanted logic applies to the US government, whose daily political discourse on democracy, human rights, fairness and peace continues to intersect with its brazen support of the murder of Palestinians, through dumb bombs, bunker busters and billions of dollars’ worth of other weapons and munitions.
The Intercept reporting on this issue matters greatly. Aside from the leaked memos, the dishonesty of language used by the New York Times – compassionate towards Israel and indifferent to Palestinian suffering – leaves no doubts that the NYT, like other US mainstream media, continues to stand firmly on Tel Aviv’s side.
As Gaza continues to resist the injustice of the Israeli military occupation and war, the rest of us, concerned about truth, accuracy in reporting and justice for all, should also challenge this model of poor, biased journalism.
We do so when we create our own professional, alternative sources of information, where we use proper language, which expresses the painful reality in war-torn Gaza.
Indeed, what is taking place in Gaza is genocide, a horrific slaughter and daily massacres against innocent peoples, whose only crime is that they are resisting a violent military occupation and a vile apartheid regime.
And, if it happens that these indisputable facts generate an ’emotional’ response, then it is a good thing; maybe real action to end the Israeli carnage of Palestinians would follow. The question remains: why would the New York Times editors find this objectionable?
Visit by Athar Foundatiion
MOU with Yayasan Ez Prihatin
Israeli academics slammed for signing letter accusing Israel of ‘plausible genocide’
A lecturer at an Israeli university is going on unpaid leave after students demanded he be fired for signing a petition that claims Israel “appears to” be guilty of genocide.
Regev Nathansohn, who teaches communications at Sapir College, is one of two dozen Israeli academics who have signed a petition calling for the United States to stop arming Israel in its war with Hamas. The petition, which more than 1,000 academics from around the world have signed, characterizes Israel’s conduct as a “plausible genocide.”
“President Biden, do not let the United States go down in history as the enabler of genocide,” said the petition, which has more than 1,000 signatories, from a group called Academics4Peace. “Respect the US’s obligation under international law and basic morality. The only way to stop the starvation of two million people, including 100+ Israeli hostages, is to end this war.”
Sapir is located on the Gaza border near the town of Sderot, which was one of the sites attacked in Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel that saw 1,200 people butchered and 253 abducted to the Gaza Strip, roughly 130 of whom are still in Hamas hands.
Many of the school’s students and staff hail from the area, and hundreds of its students signed a letter asking the college administration to fire Nathansohn for signing the petition. Israel rejects accusations of genocide and says it takes measures to avoid civilian casualties.
“We will not tolerate educators who incite and call for a boycott against our country, as well as those who slander our soldiers,” said the students’ letter.
Nathansohn has not been fired. But the school released a statement to the press condemning the petition, distancing Sapir from its content and saying it had instructed him not to use his academic affiliation while making political statements. Since then, Nathansohn and the administration have fought over what the college owes one of its faculty members, whether and how he should be protected and, more broadly, how far academic freedom should extend.
Nathansohn, who earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan, is one of at least five Israeli signatories who have faced intense backlash from students, according to the petition’s organizer, Shira Klein, an Israeli American history professor at Chapman University in California. She said the others are Eran Fisher of the Open University of Israel, and three scholars at Beersheba’s Ben Gurion University: Michal Givoni, Maor Zeev-Wolf and Uri Mor. Klein pointed to posts from students denouncing them on social media and in an online petition, as well as, in one case, a campus protest.
n total, more than 20 Israeli academics have signed the letter, among more than 1,000 overall. Outside of Israel, signatories include two Nobel laureates and numerous scholars of the Holocaust and Jewish history. Klein is an expert on the Holocaust and has studied contemporary antisemitism.
The campus conflicts are especially notable in Israel, where institutions of higher education — including Sapir — are one of the few spaces in which Jewish and Arab Israelis interact. Other campus conflicts have erupted in the country since October 7.Illustrative: The main building at Sapir Academic College draped with an Israeli flag. (courtesy)
“We forcefully condemn the rhetoric against IDF soldiers and take very seriously the offense felt by the students,” Sapir’s statement said. “We must clarify beyond any doubt: The petition, and its signatories, do not represent Sapir in any way.”
It continued, “While upholding basic principles of academic freedom and free speech, which the college has respected since its founding, the college unequivocally directed the lecturer not to use the name of the college in personal and/or political contexts and that he doesn’t represent the college in these contexts.”
Nathansohn said the college should have done more to defend his right to free expression. Following coverage of the students’ letter in the Israeli press, he said he received anonymous phone calls as well as messages from fellow faculty members condemning him.
In a letter to Sapir’s administrators on March 28, Nathansohn wrote that they did not “prevent the creation of a hostile work atmosphere in the college.” He said he could not teach in the spring semester, which was due to begin April 1, and requested a leave of absence.
Administrators understood his email as a request for unpaid leave, said granting a paid leave would not be possible according to the school’s regulations, and offered an unpaid leave of six months, according to correspondence reviewed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Administrators also rejected his accusations, saying that they had vigorously defended his continued employment on the grounds of academic freedom.
“In recent days, we have unequivocally defended your right to express your opinion as a private citizen, in the face of a range of fronts that we are contending with — from the students’ association to government agencies,” read a letter dated April 1 from Sapir CEO Orna Gigi and its rector, Omri Herzog. The college did not reply to a request for comment from JTA.
Nathansohn eventually agreed to take an unpaid leave, but he did not consider the choice voluntary. He said that the restrictions on using his academic affiliation on petitions were unjust and, if applied only to him, could constitute an illegal double standard.
“They presented me with a mafioso-like choice: either go back to teaching without protections and with more limited freedom of speech, or remain on unpaid leave that dramatically affects my livelihood,” Nathansohn said.
A reporter with Israel’s Channel 14 tweeted the names of the recent petition’s signatories who work at Israeli colleges and universities. The post garnered outrage from many users, some of whom accused the academics of treason.
The petition is the fourth organized by Academics4Peace. The first, which went online in August, prior to the Israel-Hamas war, sought to direct attention to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians amid mass protests against the government’s efforts to weaken the judiciary. The next three have focused on October 7 and its aftermath.
Along with the letters calling for him to face consequences, Nathansohn has received support from a number of academic associations and professors. One fellow academic wrote in an email to Sapir’s leadership that Nathansohn “has been subjected to political persecution and unjust treatment by actors within the Sapir Academic College community and specifically by its management.”
Herzog responded that Sapir has tried to uphold its values in an increasingly challenging environment.
“We’re serv[ing] as a gatekeeper, with all the complexities that you may or may not be aware of,” he wrote. “I’m proud of the work we do in the classrooms and on campus.”
Backlash as USC cancels valedictorian’s speech over support for Palestine
The University of Southern California is facing intense backlash for the decision to cancel the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student at the commencement ceremony in May, a decision which the student has criticized as being silenced by anti-Palestinian hatred for her views on human rights.
In a missive to the USC community, the university’s provost, Andrew Guzman, wrote that the Los Angeles university took the unprecedented step of canceling Asna Tabassum’s planned speech because the “alarming tenor” of reactions to her selection as valedictorian – along with “the intensity of feelings” surrounding Israel’s ongoing military strikes in Gaza – had created “substantial risks relating to security”.
Guzman’s statement did not refer to Tabassum by name, or specify what about her speech, background or political views had raised concerns. Nor did it detail any particular threats.
The decision has been met with outrage from online commenters and the Council of American Islamic Relations (Cair) the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, who, in a statement said Tabassum described herself as “shocked … and profoundly disappointed” after being informed on Monday that she would be barred from addressing her fellow graduates at their 10 May commencement.
“The university is succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice,” Tabassum said in the statement.
Cair dismissed USC’s decision as “cowardly” and called on the university to reverse course – but Guzman maintained that “there was no free-speech entitlement to speak at a commencement”.
“While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety,” Guzman continued. “The issue here is how best to maintain campus security and safety, period.”
Since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel killed more than 1,100 mostly civilians as well as captured hostages, and the resulting assault on Gaza has killed more than 30,000 civilians – mostly women and children – while pushing the territory toward famine, US campuses have been roiled with debate over growing support for Palestine as well as dueling accusations of rising Islamophobia and antisemitism.
It was amid that climate that a USC committee selected Tabassum out of about 100 students with perfect, or nearly perfect, grade-point averages who applied to be valedictorian for a spring graduation ceremony honoring more than 19,000 graduates before an anticipated 65,000 spectators, according to Guzman.
NBC News described Tabassum as a first-generation south Asian American Muslim from Chino Hills – a city east of Los Angeles – in her fourth year as a biomedical engineering student. She has also been pursuing a minor in resistance to genocide.
At the top of Tabassum’s Instagram account, a link directs users to a slideshow encouraging readers “to learn about what’s happening in Palestine and how to help”. The presentation also advocates for “one Palestinian state”, saying that “would mean Palestinian liberation and the complete abolishment of the state of Israel”.
Although Tabassum told NBC’s Los Angeles affiliate that she posted the link five years earlier and did not author the slideshow, pro-Israel and Jewish groups objected to USC’s selection of her as valedictorian based on her social media activity.
In the Monday statement, USC said that their commencement ceremonies draw a crowd of more that 65,000 people which is a challenge for the public safety department on campus to handle. The university also cited heated demonstrations that have taken place at other schools as a part of their reasoning.
“The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has grown to include many voices outside of USC and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement,” the statement read. “We cannot ignore the fact that similar risks have led to harassment and even violence at other campuses.”
A February protest against an event organized by Jewish students at the University of California, Berkeley, resulted in police evacuating the speaker – who was from Israel – as well as the attendees at the gathering after demonstrators broke through the doors.
USC’s public safety reasoning did not sit well with Jody David Armour, a law professor at the university who specializes in race issues and legal decision-making.
“So at USC cops decide what speech is allowed?” Armour posted on X.
Tabassum said she also was told USC possessed the ability “to take appropriate safety measures for my valedictory speech” but opted not to because a tougher security posture was “not what the university wants to present as an image.’”
Instead, Tabassum said USC was “caving to fear and rewarding hatred”, which she said was being directed by “anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian voices” targeting her “because of my uncompromising belief in human rights for all”.
Among those who claimed to have taken offense to Tabassum’s selection as valedictorian was the group Trojans for Israel, which said it “strongly supports the right to free expression – including informed criticism of the Israeli government”.
“However,” a statement from the group said, “rhetoric that denies the right of the Jewish people to self-determination or calls for the destruction of the only Jewish state in the world must be denounced as antisemitic bigotry.”
The group added: “All … eligible valedictory candidates have valuable work ethic and accomplishments, but the university chose a candidate who publicly propagates antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric as the most esteemed representative of the class of 2024.”
Guzman’s message to the USC community said “social media presence” was not part of the criteria that the university used to evaluate its valedictorian candidates.
The leader of Cair’s Los Angeles chapter, Hussam Ayloush, on Monday said criticism of Tabassum had been “dishonest and defamatory … [and] nothing more than thinly veiled manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism which have been weaponized against college students across the country who speak up for human rights – and for Palestinian humanity”.
Ayloush also said: “USC cannot hide its cowardly decision behind a disingenuous concern for security.”
In her statement, Tabassum said her undergraduate minor studies in genocide resistance had shown her the danger of allowing “cries for equality and human dignity” to be deliberately conflated with “expressions of hatred”.
“Due to widespread fear, I was hoping to use my commencement speech to inspire my classmates with a message of hope,” she wrote.
Source:
Eid Fitri Programme
Visit by Cuba Ambassador
Bakul Raya 4.0
World Quran Hour 2024
