'Hanuman Chalisa during Azaan' Row: 2 Youths, Hindu & Muslim, Arrested Over Fight in Karnataka

New Age Islam News Bureau

20 March 2024

 

BJP supporters gherao a police van at Nagarthpet on Tuesday.

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·         'Hanuman Chalisa during Azaan' Row: 2 Youths, Hindu & Muslim, Arrested Over Fight in Karnataka

·         Same Sex Marriage Against Humanity, Says Chief Missioner, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society Of Nigeria

·         Rishi Sunak's London Central Mosque Visit, On the First Day of Ramadan, Sparked Anger Among British Muslims

·         American Muslim Groups Outraged By Biden's Support of Israel Plan To Boycott White House Ramadan And Eid Celebrations

·         UN Mission Probing ISIS Crimes In Iraq Forced To Shut Down Early, Following A Souring Of Its Relationship With The Iraqi Government

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India

·         CAA: One More Tool in BJP’s Arsenal Against the Muslim Community

·         Muslim Man Collecting Donations For Mosque Assaulted In Noida

·         Mathura Mosque Panel Plea Against HC Decision To Consolidate 15 Suits Related To The Krishna Janmabhoomi versus Shahi Idgah Masjid dispute Nixed

·         Row Over 'Sidelining' BJP's Lone Muslim Candidate, Abdul Salam, At Modi's Roadshow In Kerala

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Africa

·         South Africa: Israel Sets Precedent For Countries To Defy Top UN Court

·         South Africa Pledges Reforms to Disrupt Fundraising for Islamic State

·         Muslim group appeals to Nigerians over hardship, seeks support for Tinubu’sgovt

·         Violence will cease in Southeast after my release, says NnamdiKanu

·         Buhari’s ex-aide taunts Peter Obi over breaking of Ramadan fast

·         Abia: Governor Otti takes $125 million loan from Islamic Development Bank

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Europe

·         Germany Detains Two Suspected ISIS Supporters For Plot On Swedish Parliament

·         In Ireland, Israel-Palestinian conflict serves as stand-in for fight against British

·         EU provides €5 million aid to Afghanistan

·         Brazilian FM in Beirut demands end to Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon

·         Finland retains top spot in global happiness list; Israel drops to 5th place

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North America

·         FBI Puts Muslims In US Under Scrutiny After Israeli Attacks On Gaza

·         Canada’s Parliament Urges 2-State Solution, But Not Recognition Of Palestinian State

·         US To Pitch Israel On Securing Egypt-Gaza Border As Alternative To ‘Smashing Into Rafah’

·         Blinken heads to Middle East a sixth time in Gaza diplomacy push

·         CAIR-Ohio Joined Gaza Ceasefire Faith Leaders for an Interfaith Prayer and Iftar at Cleveland City Hall

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Mideast

·         Muslim Support Slipping For Australia's Labour Over Support For Israel: Survey

·         Palestinian clans and factions step in to protect Gaza aid, sources say

·         In Gaza, Starving Children Fill Hospital Wards as Famine Looms

·         Iraqi Resistance targets Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport twice in one week

·         President Raeisi Calls For Action To Stop US-Israeli Gaza Genocide In New Year Message

·         Hezbollah commander, four other jihadists killed in Syria airstrike - report

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Pakistan

·         Pakistan Calls UNSC Reforms Essential To Address Challenges Of Peace, Security

·         PM for greater engagement of provinces in national decision-making

·         May 9 violence: ATC issues non-bailable warrants for KP CM, others

·         Irked by ban on meetings, KP govt asks Punjab to hand over incarcerated Imran Khan

·         COAS Munir, Saudi crown prince discuss defence, security cooperation

·         Notices issued to AG in response to pleas of IK, Bushra, Qureshi

·         Cipher probe began before complaint, says Imran’s lawyer

·         Pakistan denounces fresh round of curbs on political parties of India-occupied Kashmir: FO

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South Asia

·         Increase of Child Workers Observed in Kabul During Ramadan

·         WHO hosts crisis escalation conference centred on Afghanistan

·         Afghan refugee found guilty of killing Pakistani immigrant in New Mexico

·         Pakistan’s airstrikes on Afghan soil violate international laws: Faiq

·         Have no idea about Shakib joining 'king's party': Quader

·         BNP leader Major Hafiz denies involvement in forming ‘king's party’ BNM

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Southeast Asia

·         Cops Record Statements From Eight Individuals Over ‘Allah’ Socks Issue

·         Malaysia using all available diplomatic avenues on the issue of Palestine - FM Mohamad

·         Hatta Sanuri fails in bid to reinstate lawsuit over ICJ’s BatuPuteh decision

·         Singapore charity makes donation appeal for affected families in Gaza during Ramadan

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Arab World

·         Pilgrims Urged To Avoid Crowding And Preoccupying With Photography During Tawaf

·         Foreign Minister: Sana'a is firm in its position with Palestine until Zionist massacres in Gaza stop

·         Saudi Arabia: Al Mas’aa capacity at Grand mosque increased to 118,000 pilgrims per hour

·         Makkah Royal Commission: Great reward for prayer at any mosques within the Haram boundary 

Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau

URL:     https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/hanuman-chalisa-azaan-hindu-muslim-karnataka/d/131963

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'Hanuman Chalisa during Azaan' Row: 2 Youths, Hindu &Muslim, Arrested Over Fight in Karnataka

 

BJP supporters gherao a police van at Nagarthpet on Tuesday.

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 Mar 20, 2024

BENGALURU: Two days after a mobile shop owner in central Bengaluru was allegedly assaulted over playing loud music during Azaan, two youths were arrested just after Monday midnight, taking the total number of arrests to five. Police rejected attempts by three BJP MPs and hundreds of workers to stage a protest in that area as they hadn't sought prior permission and the issue was sensitive

The incident took place in Nagarthpet, a packed trade hub. The two detained youths have been identified as Tarun and Jahid. On Monday, three persons - Suleman, Shenavaz and Rohit - were arrested. A sixth suspect is on the run.

Hundreds of policemen stood guard outside a mosque and a temple in the area. Fearing trouble, most shop owners, including eateries, downed the shutters on Tuesday.

Acting on shop owner Mukesh G Singh's complaint, police had registered an FIR under attempt-to-murder charge. Bengaluru City police commissioner B Dayananda on Tuesday said they have arrested five suspects till now in the case that relates to "a fight over playing loud music and we are probing it".

On Tuesday morning, chaos gripped Jumma Masjid road in Siddanna Galli, Nagarthpet, when Union minister Shobha Karandlaje, BJP MPs PC Mohan (Bengaluru Central) and Tejasvi Surya (Bengaluru South), along with Rajajinagar MLA Suresh Kumar, staged a flash protest over the attack.

A senior police officer said BJP leaders spoke to Mukesh at his shop. The situation turned tense when the leaders demanded permission for a march from Jumma Masjid Road to nearby areas. "We detained most of them and released them later. Since there was no prior permission and the issue sensitive, we turned down their request. At one point, MLA Suresh and others blocked our vehicle and we had to push them aside."

According to Mukesh, trouble began around 6.30pm Sunday when the accused objected to playing what he claimed 'Hanuman Chalisa' during azaan. Following arguments, the accused dragged Mukesh out of the shop beaten him up. Mukesh filed a police complaint in the night.

Neither Mukesh's complaint nor FIR mentioned Hanuman Chalisa. Mukesh later told media the accused had raised objections that playing of bhajans was disturbing azaan.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/2-youths-hindu-muslim-arrested-over-chalisa-fight/articleshow/108634689.cms

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Same Sex Marriage Against Humanity, Says Chief Missioner, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society Of Nigeria

  

Tajudeen Adebanjo

March 20, 2024

The Chief Missioner of Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Ahmad, yesterday warned humanity to desist from promoting same sex marriage.

He described same sex union as vice against humanity, charging the faithful to resist it with venom.

The Chief Missioner spoke at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Lagos Council Maiden Ramadan lecture held at Lagos Television (LTV) Combo Hall, Agidingbi, Ikeja. Sheikh Ahmed noted that the adoption of gender change and other immoral dealings on same sex union as championed by the West were anti Islam.

He said God had warned humans to ensure they save people from hell fire by engaging them with righteous teachings and proper mentoring.

He urged the media to champion societal rebirth in their reportage.

Ahmad said that the law of Islam has five principles that include preservation of lives, preservation or intellect, preservation of wealth.

He commended NUJ for organising such a programme and prayed for its sustenance, to chart people-oriented policies for state actors to adopt.

Chairman of the event, Prof. OlanrewajuFagbohun, described economic challenges as global issues that required assistance of one to another, to survive.

Fagbohun, former Vice Chancellor of the Lagos State University, asked people to share food items to one another.

He said that givers would always be rewarded by God.

According to him, bad mouthing the nation and its leaders will do no good to everyone.

“We should pray for the nation and our leaders for the uncommon strength to steer the country to the desired end,” he said.

LASU mathematics lecturer, Dr AminantIge-Ariyibi, who lectured on marital discord induced by hardship, preached financial prudence in the management of the home.

The university don, asked women to cultivate the act of home management to help mitigate the times.

She said that financial crisis was inevitable, but could be mitigated by reducing one’s spending, especially on wants as against needs.

She urged spouses to be kind and supportive to one another and always pray to God for sustainability.

“Be kind to your spouse, don’t allow the burden overwhelm your partner, both should shoulder the cause of the family,” she said.

Source: thenationonlineng.net

Please click the following URL to read the text of the original Story

https://thenationonlineng.net/same-sex-marriage-against-humanity-says-sheikh-ahmed/

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 Rishi Sunak's London Central Mosque Visit, On the First Day of Ramadan, Sparked Anger Among British Muslims

 

Rishi Sunak talks with Ahmad Al Dubayan, Director General of the London Central Mosque, as he leaves after a visit to the mosque, in north London on March 11, 2024. / Photo: Reuters

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MARCH 19, 2024

British Muslims are urging a boycott of London Central Mosque following its hosting of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has consistently expressed support for Israel and its actions amid the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

On the first day of Ramadan, Sunak visited the mosque, where he was hosted by its director general. He shared a video from there on his social media account extending warm wishes for a "blessed Ramadan" to Muslims across the UK.

Footage from this visit did not go down well with British Muslims, who described the event as "a betrayal of the local Muslim community" facilitated by the mosque administration.

Some individuals asserted that the mosque, also referred to as the Regent’s Park Mosque, “deserves to be boycotted just like Starbucks,” and have urged others to hold mosque administration accountable by contacting them via phone and email.

Following a surge in calls, the mosque has since closed its phone lines.

Consistent support for Israel

Weeks following Hamas's attack on October 7th, Rishi Sunak paid a two-day visit to Israel and the region to showcase British support for the Israeli government.

During his visit, Sunak expressed the UK's solidarity with Israel "during its most challenging times," as he addressed the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, "We want you to win."

As the war in Gaza escalated, leaving millions of residents deprived of essentials such as water, food, electricity, medicine, and shelter over the course of months, the UK leader began to voice his concerns and call for a ceasefire.

Expressing deep concern about Israel’s recent military operation in Rafah, he called for a pause in hostilities to "build the conditions for a sustainable ceasefire." He also urged Israel to open crossings to Gaza to facilitate the delivery of international aid.

However, it is the United Kingdom that delivered authorised military exports to Israel totaling at least £474 million ($594 million) since 2015, according to a report by Human Rights Watch in December 2023. Additionally, the UK industry contributes 15 percent of the components in the F35 fighter jets currently being utilised in the bombardment of Gaza, another report says.

Some MPs in Parliament have voiced concerns about the arms exports to Israel and called for a suspension of the sales.

Anti-Muslim hatred

While the January 2025 elections are on the horizon, Britain’s unelected Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has also been facing accusations of complicity in a recent "shocking wave" of Islamophobic racism across the country.

For many, Sunak’s complicity is evident in his silence regarding the recent instances of Islamophobia within his Conservative Party, which have been exacerbated by discussions surrounding the ongoing pro-Palestine marches in London since October.

Following former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson's comments stating that London Mayor Sadiq Khan was under the control of “Islamists”, Khan has expressed that the "deafening silence" from Rishi Sunak and the Cabinet condones racism and confirms to many people across the country that there is a hierarchy when it comes to racism in the country.

“I am unclear why Rishi Sunak, why members of his cabinet aren’t calling this out and aren’t condemning this,” Khan said. “It’s like they are complicit in this sort of racism. The message it sends is Muslims are fair game when it comes to racism and anti-Muslim hatred."

Not only has Sunak failed to denounce hateful comments in UK politics, but he has also aligned himself with them by referring to those who chant the iconic slogan "from the river to the sea" as "useful idiots."

Later he was accused of employing an "Islamophobic trope" against Zarah Sultana, a Muslim Labour Party MP, by urging her to call on Hamas and the Houthis to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East rather than directing her concerns to the UK government.

Definition of extremism

Amidst these unfolding developments in UK politics, which often place British Muslims at the centre of political disputes, last week's decision to revise the definition of "extremism" has once again ignited controversy, fueling anger among Muslims towards the Sunak government.

Activists are concerned that the expanded definition may restrict their access to government funding and impede their ability to engage with UK lawmakers.

While the government asserts that this definition is “not statutory" and will not impact "existing criminal law," applying solely to governmental operations, many argue that anti-Muslim sentiment is driving this attempt.

Reportedly, anti-Muslim hate incidents in the UK have surged by over threefold since October 7, marking a rise of 335 percent.

Many Muslim organisations are aware of what lies ahead as they anticipate the release of a comprehensive list of the new "extremist" groups in the coming weeks.

Source: trtworld.com

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https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/why-rishi-sunaks-mosque-visit-sparked-anger-among-british-muslims-17424108

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American Muslim Groups Outraged By Biden's Support of Israel Plan To Boycott White House Ramadan And Eid Celebrations

 

FILE - President Joe Biden, left, listens as Talib M. Shareef, President and Imam of Masjid Muhammad in Washington, speaks during a reception to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, May 2, 2022.

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March 19, 2024

WASHINGTON — American Muslims outraged by President Joe Biden's support of Israel say they will not take part in White House Ramadan and Eid celebrations this year as they continue to demand that the administration push for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

Should an invitation come, it's "widely understood" that American Muslim community leaders and organizations will decline, said Robert McCaw, director of the Government Affairs Department at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR.

"This decision is due to the administration's failure to address Muslim community demands for an immediate and permanent cease-fire," McCaw told VOA. "And its refusal to stop supplying manufactured weapons to Israel, which are being used in a genocide against our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza."

Amid media reports that the administration is considering scaling back Ramadan events at the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said no celebration related to the holy month has been announced.

"We understand that it is a painful time for a number of communities," she told VOA during her press briefing Monday. Senior White House officials have met with members of the Arab, Muslim and Palestinian communities "to talk about their views, to voice their concerns, and we welcome that," she added.

The suffering of the Palestinian people "will be front of mind for many" Muslims this Ramadan, President Joe Biden said in a statement marking the beginning of the month. "It is front of mind for me."

Since taking office, Biden has continued the decades long White House tradition of hosting Muslim community leaders that began with President Bill Clinton in 1996. Both Republican and Democratic presidents have hosted Iftar dinner during Ramadan or an Eid al Fitr reception to mark the end of fasting after the month.

But this year, in addition to potentially facing the embarrassment of a massive boycott, the White House would likely want to avoid scenes where Biden is shouted at and heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters. Several of them have disrupted his campaign events around the country.

Outrage over Gaza is also affecting Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrated by diaspora groups of varying ethnicity and religious affiliation from countries beyond Iran, including Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Nowruz this year overlaps with Ramadan. And instead of inviting hundreds of people to a reception as the administration has done in the past, this weekend the White House will be hosting a "Nowruz Open House tour."

"I'm not sure if the president himself would participate," said JawaidKotwal, board member of the Afghan American Foundation. "So it's way different. A watered-down, downgraded version of the typical Nowruz celebrations that we had in the White House."

Kotwal told VOA that he personally declined the invitation but his organization will "look for any avenue to continue to have engagement with any occupant of the White House."

The White House has not responded to requests for further details on its Nowruz or Ramadan plans.

In his statement marking Nowruz, Biden said the war has "inflicted terrible suffering on the Palestinian people," and vowed to "continue to lead international efforts to get more humanitarian assistance to them."

Clouded by controversy

This year is not the first time Ramadan at the White House is clouded with controversy. In his first year in office, President Donald Trump, who campaigned on banning Muslims from entering the United States and signed multiple executive orders restricting immigration from Muslim-majority countries, did not host a Ramadan event.

In 2018 and 2019, Trump welcomed diplomats from Muslim-majority nations to the White House for iftar, but American Muslim organizations and lawmakers were not on the guest list. At the time, American Muslim groups said they would have declined had they been invited.

Some American Muslims boycotted Biden's virtual Eid celebrations in May 2021 as hostilities escalated between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. More than 260 Palestinians were killed in that round of violence, according to the United Nations.

That death toll is a fraction of the more than 31,000 Palestinians killed since Israel launched its military campaign in response to the Hamas October 7 attacks that took at least 1,200 lives in Israel and more than 240 people hostage. The level of anger felt now by American Muslims, Arabs and wide swaths of Biden's Democratic base is also exponentially higher.

The community, including those who work in the administration, would feel "gaslit" by a White House Ramadan event this year, said Tariq Habash, a Palestinian American and former policy adviser at the Department of Education who resigned in protest in January.

"You can't in one hand try and show solidarity and understanding and then in the other hand supply an unrestricted amount of weapons and military funding to an extremist government that is intent on the indiscriminate bombing and killing of civilians," Habash told VOA.

The White House said it has actively engaged with Arab and Muslim Americans since the October 7 Hamas attack. Some in the community have refused to meet with administration officials.

Source: voanews.com

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https://www.voanews.com/a/american-muslim-groups-plan-to-boycott-white-house-ramadan/7534922.html

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UN Mission Probing ISIS Crimes In Iraq Forced To Shut Down Early, Following A Souring Of Its Relationship With The Iraqi Government

 

Head of the United Nations Investigative Team to promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL (UNITAD) Christian Ritscher, speaks during an interview at his offices in the green zone of Iraq's capital Baghdad on November 14, 2022. (Sabah ARAR / AFP)

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Timour Azhari

20.03.2024

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) – A United Nations mission set up to help Iraq investigate alleged Islamic State genocide and war crimes is being forced to shut down prematurely before it can finish its probes, following a souring of its relationship with the Iraqi government.

The removal of the UN mission set up in 2017 comes nearly a decade after the extremist group rampaged across Syria and Iraq and at a time when many of the Islamic State’s victims still live displaced in camps and long for justice.

“Is the work done? Not yet, this is pretty clear,” Christian Ritscher, head of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD), told Reuters in an interview.

“We need more time… If you look at an end-date of September 2024, we will not achieve completion of all investigative lines,” nor other projects such as creating a central archive for millions of pieces of evidence, he said.

Ritscher was speaking at length about the closure for the first time since the UN Security Council renewed the agency’s mandate for only one final year in September at Iraq’s request.

UNITAD’s international backers and donors had expected its work would continue for several more years.

Critics of Iraq’s decision to end the mission say it will hamper efforts to hold more members of IS accountable after UNITAD contributed to at least three convictions on charges of genocide and other international crimes in Germany and Portugal.

They also say it casts doubt on Iraq’s commitment to holding IS members accountable for such crimes at home, at a time when the vast majority of convictions in Iraq are made for simple membership of a terrorist organization, rather than specific crimes such as sexual abuse or slavery.

From Iraq’s perspective, UNITAD was no longer needed and had not successfully cooperated with Iraqi authorities, Farhad Alaaldin, foreign affairs adviser to the prime minister, told Reuters.

“In our view, the mission has ended and we appreciate the work that has been done and it’s time to move on,” he said, noting the mission “didn’t respond to repeated requests for sharing evidence” and must now do so before it ends.

‘Highly political’

But that transfer of information appears uncertain.

UNITAD was set up to help Iraq hold IS members accountable for international crimes – genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – but Iraq has not passed legislation for that to happen in-country, leaving UNITAD “in a waiting position,” Ritscher said.

Additionally, UNITAD was reluctant to share evidence it gathered with Iraqi authorities because of Iraq’s use of the death penalty, which goes against UN policy, according to six people familiar with the mission’s work.

These factors put UNITAD in the awkward position of gathering evidence, including hundreds of witness testimonies, in Iraq but mainly using that evidence in legal processes abroad, in a mismatch that festered for years.

Reuters spoke to nine diplomats and international officials and four Iraqi sources to piece together this account of how UNITAD’s mission came to be curbed and the consequences it may have for accountability efforts.

Apart from the baked-in mismatch between the mission’s goals and Iraq’s expectations, six people said that under Ritscher, a seasoned German prosecutor, UNITAD had not properly invested in the politics of dealing with Iraqi authorities, harming the relationship.

“Death penalty was always a main issue with UNITAD. Its mandate was far-fetched but many hoped it could work,” a senior international diplomat said, referring to the incompatibility between goals and expectations.

“Added to that, the current leadership did not have the political skills to reach out. That doesn’t work here in Iraq. Everything is highly political here.”

In response to that comment, a UNITAD spokesperson said the mission had absolute clarity from the beginning that it existed under the request of Iraq, and was always convinced the Iraqi judiciary was its main partner.

The spokesperson noted UNITAD’s production of joint case files with the Iraqi judiciary for trials abroad, as well as capacity-building for judges and cooperation on the exhumation of 70 mass graves and dignified burials for IS victims.

Lost hope

For many IS victims who distrust Iraq’s government and saw UNITAD’s presence as a reassuring sign of the international community’s support, the end of the mission has come as a blow.

These include members of Iraq’s Yazidi community, a religious minority Islamic State sees as devil worshippers and subjected to mass killings, sexual violence, and enslavement.

“It’s very hard to see them leave us like this in the middle of the road,” said Zina, a Yazidi enslaved by IS at the age of 16 and held in captivity for three years.

She spoke via phone from a displacement camp near her native Sinjar in northwestern Iraq to which she cannot return amid concerns over security and lack of government compensation.

She asked Reuters to withhold her full name due to the sensitivity of what was discussed.

Zina said she was physically and sexually abused in captivity and true justice would require the family that enslaved her to be tried for those crimes, rather than convicted of simple membership of a terrorist group.

“We wanted UNITAD to give us the chance to achieve even a little bit of justice in Iraq but, as I see it, the world failed us,” she said, referring to UNITAD’s impending closure.

Alaaldin said the government respected the critical views of citizens and was more supportive of Iraq’s minority communities than previous administrations.

Ritscher said he understood victims’ concerns but “I do not share the very negative assumptions about Iraq’s judiciary.”

With the mission set to end by mid-September, a burning question currently under negotiation between Iraq and the world body is what happens to the mass of evidence UNITAD gathered.

On the one hand, some diplomats, activists, and victims are concerned it could be misused by Iraq, including in trials with little due process that might result in death sentences. On the other, much of the evidence could be critical to holding IS members accountable for specific international crimes.

“What we aimed to achieve is a proper completion. We want to ensure that this work is not lost or will simply go into a dead archive somewhere in the basement of a UN building,” Ritscher said, though there is not yet clarity on the matter.

Razaw Salihy, Iraq researcher at Amnesty International, noted flaws in the Iraqi justice system “that have landed thousands of men and boys on death row via confessions extracted under torture, duress and other kinds of ill-treatment.”

Iraq denies obtaining confessions through coercion.

Salihy said Iraq should reform its judiciary and pass a law on international crimes but noted political will might be lacking among a ruling coalition that includes armed groups.

“It could be a Pandora’s box. A working mechanism to hold members of IS accountable could also very easily be used to hold members of Iraqi security forces and armed groups accountable,” she said.

Source: timesofisrael.com

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https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-mission-probing-isis-crimes-in-iraq-forced-to-shut-down-early/

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India

CAA: One More Tool in BJP’s Arsenal Against the Muslim Community

Ram Puniyani

 Mar 19, 2024

As the massive scam related to electoral bonds was unfolding, Union home minister Amit Shah declared the rules and procedures for implementation of Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) which was passed nearly four years ago. The timing of its implementation, with the electoral bond scam coming to the surface and general elections right around the corner, is very obvious given the pattern of politics pursued by the BJP.

One recalls that CAA was brought to the fore in the aftermath of the National Register of Citizenship (NRC), which was undertaken in Assam. The people were asked to provide the papers related to their citizenship. The understanding was that Assam has been infiltrated by Bangladeshi Muslims to the tune of 15 million and this step will help the government to expel them. They were called termites, detention centres came up and many more were planned at different places. The results of the NRC were surprising. Out of the around 19 lakh people who did not have proper papers, only 7 lakh were Muslims. To bypass the issue, CAA was brought forward. The propaganda of 15 million Bangladeshi Muslims fell flat.

As per CAA, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, who came from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh before December 2014, were to be given citizenship. Interestingly, Muslims were kept out of this list. This led to strong protests all over the country and the protests in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamia Milia Islamia in particular were brutally crushed. This in turn led to one of the biggest mass movements of independent India starting at New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. Remarkably, these protests were led by Muslim women all over the country. They protested with the constitution in hand and Gandhi in their hearts.

BJP’s Parvesh Sahib Singh Varma at the time, had said these protests were a threat to Hindus as the protestors may rape and kill them. Another BJP leader, Kapil Sharma, had threatened that if protestors weren’t cleared by the police then they would do it themselves. To cap it all, the then minister of state, Aunrag Thakur, gave the slogan of ‘GoliMaro’. Riots in the capital followed soon after – 51 people lost their lives out of which 38 were Muslims.

The matter, that was in cold storage since then, has been rekindled.

What are the norms for giving refuge to the persecuted people from neighbouring countries? Indira Jaisingh points out “The constitution confers citizenship by birth, descent and migration, regardless of religion…The Citizenship Act (1955) was enacted by Parliament to regularise the grant and termination of citizenship. The 1955 act also does not make religion a criterion for granting citizenship. With the amendment of rules, citizenship will be granted by naturalisation based on religion alone.”

As such, this amendment violates Article 14 which ensures equality before law and equal protection, irrespective of religion. Article 14 applies to all persons, not just citizens. The CAA denies fast-track citizenship to Muslims. It also excludes people from countries other than Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. That the Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan are one of the most persecuted minorities is well known, but the CAA is silent on them because of the religious criteria.

The Union government has argued that the CAA was enacted to provide fast-track citizenship to persecuted minorities in neighbouring countries. Yet, the statute or rules of the Act do not mention persecution and proof of persecution is not required before citizenship is granted. Under the CAA rules, immigrants from the three countries need only prove their religion, date of entry to Indian and country of origin and knowledge of an Indian language. The rules regarding proof of country of origin have been considerably relaxed. The earlier requirement of a valid residential permit from India and a valid passport issued by Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh has been eliminated. The proof of persecution has been waived and the process has been fast-tracked, cutting it down to five years.

The Union government has asserted that Hindus in these countries can only turn to India while Muslims can go to any country that follows Islam. This logic is flawed. It is well known that in Pakistan, apart from minority communities like Hindus and Christians, the Ahmadiays and Kadiyanis have to face persecution. When we talk of giving refuge to the persecuted communities, our humane values have to come to the fore. Furthermore, the largest persecuted groups in recent times have been Hindus (Tamils) in Sri Lanka and Rohingyas in Myanmar. Why have they been left out from the list of those who will be given citizenship in India?

Many organisations and individuals have challenged CAA on different grounds since its introduction. These pleas are pending in the Supreme Court; an early resolution of this vexed issue is more than overdue and hopefully will come up for hearing soon. It is very clear that BJP is raking it up in pursuance of its divisive politics. The totality of the problem will have different solutions and different laws to deal with the persecution of religious minorities in neighbouring countries.

This is yet another tool which is going to be used against the Muslim community in India, which is already facing problems like hate speech and violence against them. The BJP has constantly thrown up emotive and divisive issues to strengthen its electoral power and CAA’s electoral impact in that context is not difficult to gauge.

It is good that many chief ministers like West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee and Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan have declared that they will not let it be implemented in their states. The hope is that the party, with its primary goal of promoting divisive issues, has to be combated at a social and political level. However, any real relief on this front will only come if the Supreme Court intervenes.

Source: thewire.in

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https://thewire.in/communalism/caa-one-more-tool-in-bjps-arsenal-against-the-muslim-community

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Muslim Man Collecting Donations For Mosque Assaulted In Noida

 Mar 19, 2024

Noida : A man collecting donations for a mosque was allegedly beaten up by a drunk man in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida on Tuesday, police said.

While a crowd gathered at the incident spot in Salarpur village, under Sector 39 police station limits, around 12.20 pm, the local police and senior officials of Noida also reached the spot to defuse the tension, they said.

Abdul Aziz from Bihar’s Kishanganj was beaten up by a local resident named Neeraj Bhatti at his village in Noida, police said.

DCP (Noida) Vidya Sagar Mishra said, “A 35-year-old man, who had come to Salarpur from Bihar to collect donations, was assaulted by a 45-year-old local resident in the afternoon. The accused also made objectionable remarks towards the victim.”

“On the basis of a complaint from the victim, the accused has been taken into custody and an FIR being lodged in the case. Further inquiry into the case is underway,” Mishra added.

According to officials, the accused, who was inebriated at the time of the incident, held the complainant by his beard and seeing this, several locals gathered at the spot and intervened, while some alerted the police.

DCP Mishra, Additional DCP Manish Mishra, ACP-1 Praveen Singh, among other officers, reached the spot to bring the matter under control and disperse the crowd, even as some video clips of the incident made their way to social media.

Further legal proceedings in the case are underway, police said. ( With PTI Inputs )

Source: muslimmirror.com

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https://muslimmirror.com/eng/muslim-man-collecting-donations-for-mosque-assaulted-in-noida/

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Mathura Mosque Panel Plea Against HC Decision To Consolidate 15 Suits Related To The Krishna Janmabhoomi versus Shahi Idgah Masjid dispute Nixed

20 Mar 2024

Suchitra Kalyan Mohanty

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by the mosque committee contesting the Allahabad High Court’s decision to consolidate 15 suits related to the Krishna Janmabhoomi versus Shahi Idgah Masjid dispute.

In May 2023, the Allahabad High Court had assumed jurisdiction over all suits concerning the dispute, prompting the mosque committee to challenge this decision in the apex court.

The two-judge bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Dutta on Tuesday upheld that the jurisdiction over this matter exclusively rests with the high court.

“The mosque trust is granted the liberty to reopen the current appeal if dissatisfied with the prior ruling,” said the bench said in its order.

Source: newindianexpress.com

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https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2024/Mar/20/mathura-mosque-panel-plea-against-hc-decision-nixed

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Row Over 'Sidelining' BJP's Lone Muslim Candidate, Abdul Salam, At Modi's Roadshow In Kerala

20 Mar 2024

Arjun Raghunath

Thiruvananthapuram: The absence of the BJP's lone Muslim candidate for the Lok Sabha polls in Kerala at a roadshow of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the state on Tuesday has triggered a row.

During the roadshow conducted in Palakkad on Tuesday, candidates of Palakkad and adjacent Ponnani constituency (Malappuram district), accompanied Modi in an open vehicle. However, BJP's Malappuram candidate Abdul Salam did not find a place in the vehicle.

The CPM triggered a row over this, with party senior leader A K Balan stating that Abdul Salam was deliberately sidelined in Modi's roadshow, reflecting the BJP's attitude towards religious minorities.

However, Salam told a section of the media that there was no plan to accommodate him in the roadshow as his constituency did not have any connection with Palakkad district. He mentioned that the Ponnani candidate, Niveditha Subramanian, could take part in the roadshow as the Ponnani Lok Sabha constituency also includes the Thrithala assembly segment of Palakkad district.

Salam also said that he met Modi at Palakkad and invited him to Malappuram.

Salam, a former vice-chancellor of Calicut University, had contested as a BJP candidate in the 2021 Assembly polls from Tirur in Malappuram. However, he could secure only five per cent of the votes in the Muslim-dominated constituency.

Source: deccanherald.com

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https://www.deccanherald.com/elections/india/row-over-sidelining-bjps-lone-muslim-candidate-at-modis-roadshow-in-kerala-2943961

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Africa

 

South Africa: Israel sets precedent for countries to defy top UN court

 20 March 2024

South Africa's foreign minister has said that Israel is setting a precedent for leaders to defy the top UN court.

Speaking on Tuesday, NalediPandor also said that Israel is carrying out a campaign of starvation in Gaza.

South Africa has hauled Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its genocide in Gaza, infuriating Israel and drawing US censure.

Pandor said that Israel had defied a January interim ruling by the ICJ that it should take action to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

"The provisional measures have been entirely ignored by Israel," Pandor said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace during a visit to Washington.

"We're seeing mass starvation now and famine before our very eyes," she said.

 "I think we, as humanity, need to look at ourselves in horror and dismay and to be really worried that we have set an example," she added.

Pandor said that Israel's actions may mean other nations believe that "there's license -- I can do what I want and I will not be stopped."

She said that South Africa's post-apartheid democracy was "merely practicing what is preached to us every day" by the West.

"The ICJ has not been respected. And the day an African disrespects (it) I hope we don't go to that leader and say 'Listen, you're out of bounds -- because you're an African, we expect you to obey,'" she said.

South Africa has called on the UN court in The Hague to order measures for Israel to stop "widespread starvation" triggered by its war in Gaza.

The United Nations has warned that Israel could be using starvation as a weapon in its genocidal war against Gaza by blocking the desperately needed aid into the war-battered strip.

The UN said Tuesday that Israel's severe restrictions on aid into war-ravaged Gaza coupled with its military offensive could amount to using starvation as a "weapon of war," which would be a "war crime."

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk condemned the rampant hunger and looming famine in Gaza.

He lamented the world’s inaction in the face of what he described as a man-made catastrophe despite the UN’s repeated alerts in the past months.

Source: presstv.ir

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https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/03/20/722189/South-Africa--Israel-war-undermining-top-UN-court

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South Africa Pledges Reforms to Disrupt Fundraising for Islamic State

Mar 19, 2024

As the Islamic State group (IS) has shifted its focus to Africa, South Africa has emerged as a locus of funding for the group’s operations on the continent — a situation that the country’s leaders say they are working to resolve.

IS reportedly has cells in Durban and Cape Town that funnel money into its operations elsewhere on the continent. Those cells raise money through illicit activities such as ransom kidnappings, money laundering and extortion.

The group’s African financial operations have become more important in recent years as its core Middle East operations have shrunk due to military operations that have stripped it of territory in Iraq and Syria.

IS built its financial power in those countries between 2014 and 2017 by selling oil, extorting local economies and looting banks. Since 2019, it has relied on African groups to provide funds for its activities on the continent.

Since February 2023, South Africa has been on the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force, an international anti-money laundering organization based in Paris. The task force says South Africa has had trouble reining in activities used to finance the operations of IS affiliates such as al-Shabaab in Somalia and Islamic State Central Africa Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The task force identified 60 points where South Africa’s financial system fell short in controlling the kind of money laundering activity that support IS affiliates on the continent.

South Africa has passed legislation such as the Prevention of Organized Crime Act, aimed at stopping money laundering. However, observers say, South Africa’s lax enforcement of its anti-money laundering measures allows IS and other groups to move money without raising alarms.

“A number of incidents have unfortunately given the impression that South Africa is a hub for the financing of terrorism,” Martin Ewi, regional coordinator for Southern Africa at the Institute for Security Studies’ ENACT organized crime project, told AFP.

In many cases, financial transactions are in amounts too small to draw attention. Other times, they advance through the informal hawala system that moves money through a system of brokers without using wire transfers or other traceable systems.

Ewi told ISS Today that he thought South Africa was doing all it could to get off the grey list. Doing so could require some successful prosecutions under terrorist legislation, he added.

One benefit of the grey listing, according to Ewi, has been greater collaboration between the government, corporate sector, and civil society in South Africa to fight terrorism and terrorist financing.

South Africa’s neighbors have had their own experiences on the grey list. Botswana was added to the grey list in 2018 and removed in 2022. Zimbabwe joined in 2019 and left in 2022. Namibia was added this year along with Kenya.

South Africa’s Treasury has said it expects the country to remain on the grey list through 2024. However, Treasury officials say they will address some of the deficiencies in its anti-money laundering enforcement by the end of October, with the goal of being removed from the list by 2025.

“Addressing all the remaining actions and demonstrating that improvements are sustainable by February 2025 will require a significant effort from all the relevant South African authorities,” Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana wrote in his most recent budget document.

Source: magazine.com

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https://adf-magazine.com/2024/03/south-africa-pledges-reforms-to-disrupt-fundraising-for-islamic-state/

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Muslim group appeals to Nigerians over hardship, seeks support for Tinubu’sgovt

 MARCH 19, 2024

The Muslim Ummah of South-West Nigeria has urged Nigerians to support ongoing reforms of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying they are meant to steer the country to economic prosperity.

MUSWEN President, RasakiOladejo, made the appeal in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

Mr Oladejo said it was necessary for Nigerians to show understanding and be patient, as the government was providing lasting solutions to the current biting economic hardships.

He said the current hardship was a result of long years of policy failures of previous administrations, which Mr Tinubu had been making efforts to correct in the last 10 months.

He, therefore, urged Nigerians to be more patient to allow the reforms to bear fruits for the good of all.

Mr Oladejo said it was a divine injunction that wherever there was hardship, the Almighty would provide relief to those who were patient.

He said that MUSWEN recognised that some of the pains “are the collateral consequences of some of the remedial actions taken by the Tinubu administration.’’

He added that the actions were necessary to correct the mistakes of the past.

“We believe that the actions are categorical necessities as the country could no longer run on the pretentious policies of the past,” he said.

According to him, Mr Tinubu took the bold economic and political decisions to save Nigeria’s economy from total collapse.

Mr Oladejo listed some of the policies taken by the government to include the removal of petrol subsidy, dismantling of the forex cabal, and planned implementation of the Oronsaye report on civil service reforms.

He added that the various bilateral agreements entered with several countries by the government would attract Direct Foreign Investment to shore up the economy and make things better for Nigerians.

“What the situation demands now is a little more patience from Nigerians, as there is surely light at the end of the tunnel,” Mr Oladejo said.

The MUSWEN president appealed to affluent Nigerians to support the less privileged, especially during Ramadan.

He also enjoined Nigerians to pray to God to guide the country’s leaders to take the country out of its current harsh economic situation.

Source: gazettengr.com

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https://gazettengr.com/muslim-group-appeals-to-nigerians-over-hardship-seeks-support-for-tinubus-govt/

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Violence will cease in Southeast after my release, says NnamdiKanu

Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

March 20, 2024

Detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra  (IPOB) NnamdiKanu yesterday said that violence in the Southeast would end if he regains freedom.

Kanu spoke shortly after Justice BintaNyako of the  Federal High Court in Abuja denied him bail. An accelerated hearing of his case was, however, okayed by Nyako.

The IPOB claimed that persons he suspected to be in government and those hiding under the name of IPOB  to cause the mayhem in the zone were doing so because of his detention.

His words: “Anybody committing crime cannot go free. I swear it. Anybody committing crime in the Southeast cannot go free.

“They are doing it because I am in the DSS (Department of State Services)  custody. If I were to be outside, nobody could try this. I suspect that some people in government are complicit. They are making money with the insecurity.

“They know if NnamdiKanu is outside, in two minutes this nonsense will stop. Who is the bagger or idiot that will speak when I am talking?

“That, I will give an order in the Southeast, who is the idiot that will counter it? Nobody can. I am NnamdiKanu. Rubbish!

“Anybody involved in any form of violence in the East in the name of IPOB is a goner and they know it. Let me come out of this mess, only two minutes, there will be peace in the Southeast.”

Kanu is being tried on a seven-count bordering on treasonable felony and terrorism-related offences.

Kanu   told the court  that he was not free to consult  freely with his   lawyers any time they visited

In a dramatic mode, he pulled off his  Liverpool sports wears, to show the judge parts of his armpit to prove that he had a health challenge.

His trial resumed following the December 15, 2023 judgment of the Supreme Court, which voided an earlier judgment by the Court of Appeal, freeing Kanu.

During the proceedings yesterday, Justice  Nyako dismissed a fresh bail application by Kanu’s lawyer Alloy Ejimakor, saying she had rejected an earlier one.

Binta said she was of the view that the only option opened to Kanu was for him to appeal the earlier decision on his bail.

The judge equally rejected Kanu’s request to be allowed unfettered access to anybody who wishes to visit him in custody.

Source: thenationonlineng.net

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https://thenationonlineng.net/violence-will-cease-in-southeast-after-my-release-says-nnamdi-kanu/

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Buhari’s ex-aide taunts Peter Obi over breaking of Ramadan fast

March 19, 2024

Bashir Ahmad, a former aide to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, has mocked Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, following his breaking of Ramadan fast with the Muslim faithful in Nasarawa State on Monday.

A video appeared on social media where Obi was seen sitting in a mosque to have Iftar.

DAILY POST reports that Iftar is the meal eaten by Muslims to break their fast after sunset every day during Ramadan.

While describing the action, the former Anambra governor, wrote on his X account in a series of tweets that it was an opportunity for him “to perform a sacred duty in line with the Ramadan season.”

“I had the honour of travelling to Lafia in Nasarawa state, where I had the privilege of meeting with the Emir of Lafia, Honorable Justice SidiBage Muhammad JSC Rtd, a very revered, leader and also extended my courtesy to Governor AbdullahiSule.”

“This visit was more than a mere formality, it was a genuine expression of my deep respect and unwavering solidarity with the community,” Obi wrote.

Reacting to the gesture on X, Ahmad said Obi was engaging in acting many scripts, questioning why he did not join Muslims to break Ramadan fast when he was governor for eight years in Anambra.

According to Ahmad, the former governor travelled to Lafia, the Nasarawa capital, to break fast when he could have done it in his home state, criticizing him that he has started paying politics because of the 2027 general elections.

The former presidential aide wrote, “Peter Obi loves dramas; he would have to act in many scripts from now to 2027 and still end up producing an unsellable movie in the ballot boxes. I just watched his latest hit, his visit to a mosque in Nyaya where he joined Muslims during their breaking of the Ramadan fast.”

“For eight years as a governor, Obi didn’t deem it fit to break fast with Muslims in Anambra even years after leaving office. 2027 politics is in the offing,” he added.

Meanwhile, Obi’s action has continued to generate mixed reactions among Nigerians as some people commended him for displaying love and tolerance, while some labelled the action as an eye service.

Source: dailypost.ng

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https://dailypost.ng/2024/03/19/buharis-ex-aide-taunts-peter-obi-over-breaking-of-ramadan-fast/

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Abia: Governor Otti takes $125 million loan from Islamic Development Bank

MARCH 19, 2024

Governor Alex Otti says the Islamic Development Bank has approved a $125 million loan to finance some of Abia’s capital projects.

The governor announced this on Monday during the monthly media parley in Umuahia.

He also disclosed that the African Development Bank approved another loan for Abia.

According to him, the loans have not been drawn yet, but approvals are in place.

The governor explained that the next steps were to perfect the documentation, sign the loan agreement, and meet the conditions.

He said that the government had received offers of loans from commercial banks in the country but had yet to draw from any of them.

“Of course, we are also financially enlightened as a government that we do not need to draw loans until we need them. Any time we have liquidity, we will repay so that we don’t continue to accumulate interest,” Mr Otti, a former bank chief, said.

Mr Otti, a Labour Party member, denied recent allegations by a major opposition party, accusing the government of securing N1.5 billion loan, saying “they were lies.”

The governor disclosed that the state government had just approved bursary awards for all students of Abia origin in different Law schools in the country.

He said the bursary awards were prior to requests by the students.

Mr Otti also said the government had started setting up a new scholarship board to help hardworking but indigent students access quality education.

He said his administration was also considering giving wage awards to state civil servants to help cushion the effect of the country’s prevailing hardships.

Reacting to the complaint by some workers who had yet to receive their salary for some months now, he boasted about the prompt payment for the majority.

Mr Otti, who expressed worry about the bloated civil service, said that there were close to 66,000 people on the payroll at the state and local government levels.

He said the number was initially more than that but was reduced after the verification exercise that was done in Abia.

“So, we keep improving, we keep trying to sanitise the system and we keep working hard to ensure that the welfare of our workers are prioritised,” Mr Otti said.
Source: gazettengr.com

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Europe

 

Germany detains two suspected ISIS supporters for plot on Swedish parliament

DANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD

MARCH 19, 2024

Germany has detained two suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members for allegedly planning an attack on the Swedish parliament, the federal prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

Two Afghan nationals identified as Ibrahim MG and Ramin N were detained in the eastern German city of Gera on suspicion of plotting an attack in retaliation for Quran burnings in Sweden, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Germany’s Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser said in a statement on Tuesday that one of the detained individuals is believed to be a member of ISIS, while the other is believed to be a supporter of the group.

According to the prosecutors, the suspects joined Islamic State Khorasan Province, a branch of the terrorist Islamist group, in 2023 and had collected donations of around 2,000 euros ($2,170.00) for the organization.

The pair are anticipated to appear before a Federal Court of Justice on Wednesday, CNN reported.

A recent investigation by the Wall Street Journal found that Europe had increasingly become a target for attacks orchestrated by Iran and proxy groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Quran burnings in Sweden

Salwan Momika, a refugee from Iraq who has been publicly critical of Islam, has repeatedly filmed himself burning the Islamic religious text as an act of protest.

Momika claimed on X last month that Sweden had withdrawn his political asylum status and that he would be returned to Iraq, where he faced torture and execution. He stated that his protests were carried out within Swedish law and with the consent and knowledge of Swedish authorities.

In August, Sweden raised its terrorism alert to the second-highest level and warned of an increase in threats against Swedes at home and abroad after Quran burnings outraged Muslims and triggered threats from jihadists.

The police denied several applications earlier this year for protests that were set to include burning the Quran, citing security concerns, but courts have since overturned the police's decisions, saying such acts are protected by Sweden's far-reaching freedom of speech laws.

Source: jpost.com

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https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-792728

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In Ireland, Israel-Palestinian conflict serves as stand-in for fight against British

RON KAMPEAS

19 March 2024

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When the leader of Ireland appeared alongside US President Joe Biden on St. Patrick’s Day, he spent about half of his speech advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza. But before he made his case, he explained why the issue hit so close to home.

“When I travel the world, leaders often ask me why the Irish have such empathy for the Palestinian people,” Leo Varadkar, the Irish taoiseach, or prime minister, said Sunday at the White House. “And the answer is simple: We see our history in their eyes — a story of displacement, of dispossession and national identity questioned and denied, forced emigration, discrimination and now hunger.”

If Biden, an Irish-American who loves to celebrate his ancestral homeland, was hoping for some Irish cheer at the event, Varadkar was not the one to deliver.

The Taoiseach said he “supports” the president’s push for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, and called for the release of Israeli hostages. But Varadkar went further in criticizing Israel than Biden has, calling on its “bombs to stop.” He added that “Israel must reverse its precipitous decision to authorize a land incursion into Rafah,” the city in southern Gaza that Israel says it must enter in order to defeat Hamas, but which now contains more than 1 million civilians.

And before the meeting with Biden, he directed criticism directly at the president, who has largely supported Israel’s war effort despite some criticism. When a reporter asked Varadkar about American weapons shipments to Israel, Varadkar said, “That’s something we don’t agree with, but the American government is a sovereign government that makes its own decisions.”

The criticism isn’t surprising. As Varadkar explained, Ireland has historically favored the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel, a sympathy that has manifested over the years in its diplomacy and culture.

Ireland was the last European Union country to allow an Israeli embassy to open, in 1993, and was the first to call for a Palestinian state, in 1980. It has spearheaded criticism of Israel at the United Nations.

Its mission to the United Nations said a Security Council Resolution calling for faster delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza did not go far enough, and instead called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, in line with the overwhelming view of the international community.”

Some of Ireland’s most prominent artists have joined pro-Palestinian initiatives. Virtually every Irish band scheduled to perform at the South By Southwest festival in Austin this month boycotted the event because of ties between some of the festival sponsors and Israel. Sally Rooney, the best-selling Irish novelist regarded as a voice of millennials, in 2021 refused to allow her work to be published in Israel.

In a recent op-ed for the Irish Times, Rooney chided Varadkar for not going far enough in his criticism of Biden. She criticized him for joining Biden’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration, saying it enabled the president’s support of Israel.

“Strong straightforward criticism is reserved for the relatively small (and increasingly globally isolated) state of Israel,” she wrote. “This way, our Government can bask in the moral glow of condemning the bombers, while preserving a cozy relationship with those supplying the bombs.”

Irish people who back the Palestinians often ground their sympathies in the perception that both peoples were, or are, colonized — the Irish by the United Kingdom, and the Palestinians by Israel.

“The apparatus of occupation – armed military patrols on city streets, military checkpoints, segregated cities and separation walls – that shape daily life today in occupied Palestine is almost identical to the one once utilized by the British in Northern Ireland,” Aislin Walsh, an Irish scholar who specializes in colonialism, wrote this month in an op-ed for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera.

Irish advocates for the Palestinians stress what they see as a commonality of two peoples connected to their land and uprooted by violent invaders. In 2018, an Irish lawmaker brought Palestinian farmers to Ireland to make his case for boycotting goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Sinn Fein, the opposition party that has roots in the Irish Liberation Army, identifies with the Palestinians to the extent that its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, features a Palestinian flag as her background on her profile on X, formerly Twitter.

During the Troubles, the decades-long violence in Northern Ireland, the IRA trained and coordinated with radical Palestinian groups; murals in Belfast’s nationalist redoubts feature themes of Irish-Palestinian solidarity. Northern Irish unionist politicians have made the same comparison, but in the other direction — expressing solidarity with Israel.

The Ireland-Israel analogy has spread beyond the shores of the two nations. The heyday of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the 1990s, when the Oslo Accords were signed, coincided with the peace process in Northern Ireland, which culminated in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The American former senator who helped broker that agreement, George Mitchell, later served as the US envoy for Middle East peace.

On Sunday, Varadkar said the Northern Ireland peace in the 1990s could serve as a model for the Israelis and Palestinians.

“I also believe there are lessons that can be drawn from our own peace process in Northern Ireland, particularly the concept of parity of esteem and the totality of relationships,” he said at the White House.

More broadly, Irish diplomacy is informed by how the country perceives itself as a peacekeeper and an advocate for equity after years of conflict and the overthrow of colonial rule. Ireland first deployed peacekeeping troops in Lebanon in 1958, when the country was still impoverished and struggling. Irish diplomats tout what they say was Ireland’s leading role in the West in combating South African apartheid.

Ireland has for decades sent troops to UNIFIL, the UN force policing the Israel-Lebanon border. Repeated skirmishes between Irish troops and the now defunct South Lebanon Army, an ally and sometimes proxy for Israel, in the 1970s and 1980s exacerbated Israeli-Irish tensions.

The Irish are often at pains to say that their advocacy for the Palestinians does not mean they are anti-Israel. In 2011, when the Israeli daily YediothAhronoth quoted top Israeli diplomats as saying that Ireland was the “most hostile country in Europe,” Irish officials told The Irish Times that was a misconception.

“The notion that this government is or would be trying to stoke up anti-Israeli feeling is untrue,” a foreign ministry spokesman told the paper. “We are not hostile to Israel. We are critical of policies, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territories. These are not the same things.”

Varadkar also recently drew criticism from Israel over a social media post celebrating the release of Emily Hand, a child with dual Israeli-Irish citizenship who was taken hostage by Hamas and freed during a November ceasefire. He wrote, “An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned.”

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy responded, “Emily Hand wasn’t ‘lost.’ She was brutally abducted by the death squads that massacred her neighbors. She wasn’t ‘found.’ Hamas knew where she was all along and cynically held her as a hostage.”

On Sunday, Varadkar stressed his sense of identification with the Palestinians. But despite his criticism, he added that he also recognizes a shared history between Ireland and Israel.

“Mr. President, we also see Israel’s history reflected in our eyes,” he said. “A diaspora whose heart never left home, no matter how many generations passed; a nation-state that was reborn; and a language revived.”

Source: timesofisrael.com

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https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-ireland-israel-palestinian-conflict-serves-as-stand-in-for-fight-against-british/

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EU provides €5 million aid to Afghanistan

 Fidel Rahmati

March 20, 2024

The European Union has recently announced a contribution of 5 million euros to enhance food security and other sectors in Afghanistan.

The European Union, on Tuesday, March 19th, stated that this amount of money is allocated to strengthen food security and livelihoods in the provinces of Badakhshan, Daikundi, and Ghor.

According to reports, 26,000 individuals will be supported simultaneously with this assistance for the coming year.

The European Union has provided this money to the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Following multiple initiatives in various sectors, the European Union has added funds to the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund.

The European Union’s statement mentions that this amount of money significantly changes the lives of individuals suffering from malnutrition, food insecurity, and lack of resources for agricultural activities.

This comes as the World Food Programme previously stated that one-third of Afghanistan’s 43 million population is facing hunger. According to the organization, more than half of Afghanistan’s population is forced to eat less so their children can eat.

Source: khaama.com

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https://www.khaama.com/eu-provides-e5-million-aid-to-afghanistan/

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Brazilian FM in Beirut demands end to Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon

March 19, 2024

BEIRUT: Brazil’s foreign minister during a visit to Beirut called on Israel to end its attacks on southern Lebanon.

Mauro Vieira, who is on a wider diplomatic tour of region, was welcomed to the Lebanese capital by Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

The foreign minister condemned Israel for violating international resolutions during its war on Hamas and skirmishes with Hezbollah on Lebanon’s southern border.

Brazil contributes a peacekeeping military unit to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL.

Vieira briefed Mikati on the outcome of his visits to Saudi Arabia and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

He said that Brazil, through a broader coalition of states, is aiming to solidify Palestine’s membership in the UN.

His remarks came as Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lazaro, UNIFIL’s head of mission and force commander, called on all parties involved in skirmishes across southern Lebanon to abide by UN resolutions.

Israeli shelling and raids in Lebanon prevented UNIFIL from commemorating the 46th anniversary of its establishment.

The mission holds its yearly ceremony at its headquarters in Naqoura, with diplomats, Lebanese army officials and local mayors usually in attendance.

The UN Security Council set up UNIFIL under Resolutions 425 and 426 on March 19, 1978, to oversee Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and help the Lebanese government regain control of its territory.

UN Resolution 1701 — which ended a destructive war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 — strengthened the presence of UNIFIL and entrusted the mission with monitoring a ceasefire.

Under the resolution, the Lebanese army was deployed for the first time in decades on the border in a bid to prevent any illegal military presence.

On Tuesday, Lazaro paid tribute to civilian and military peacekeepers “who have served the mission over the years, including over 330 members who have died serving for peace.”

In a speech, he said: “Current events have challenged Resolution 1701, but it remains as relevant and necessary as ever.

“Our more than 10,000 peacekeepers from 49 countries continue their critical monitoring, de-escalation and liaison work, and we stand ready to support a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.

Lazaro added: “The sacrifice of those who lost their lives here is not in vain.

“Our efforts today, in these challenging circumstances, are a tribute to their memories. Their sacrifice motivates us to continue our work toward de-escalation in the short term and peace in the long term.

“The peacekeepers, alongside their civilian colleagues, and despite relentless and daily exchanges of fire, have stayed their course in monitoring the fast-evolving situation in south Lebanon, maintaining high operational tempo and visible presence, and assisting local communities.”

Lazaro’s comments follow mounting concern over Israeli attacks on the border region. In some cases, artillery shells have hit targets close to UNIFIL positions, resulting in minor injuries to several peacekeepers.

Israel also struck a joint patrol between UNIFIL and the Lebanese army earlier this month.

UNIFIL has repeatedly expressed concerns over the escalating conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

Periodic tripartite meetings in Naqoura between representatives of the Israeli and Lebanese armies, overseen by UNIFIL, had been suspended since the outbreak of hostilities in October last year.

But the two sides have agreed to resume the talks as part of a French plan to quell tensions on the border.

Meanwhile, Lebanon on Tuesday filed a complaint to the UN over Israel’s jamming of GPS systems at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport.

Caretaker Public Works Minister Ali Hamieh said Israel had taken the measure in some airports across the region following the outbreak of violence last October.

The jamming has allowed Israeli drones to carry out assassinations deep into Lebanese territory.

Authorities at the airport and seaports across Lebanon have adopted backup systems to continue operations.

Source: arabnews.com

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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2479386/middle-east

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Finland retains top spot in global happiness list; Israel drops to 5th place

March 20, 2024

HELSINKI, Finland — Israel dropped down one spot to fifth place in the World Happiness rankings for 2024 revealed on Wednesday, though the findings predated the Hamas massacre of October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Israel’s 2024 fifth-place ranking was one spot down from the 2023 list, when it placed fourth, its highest position since the UN-sponsored index began publication in 2012. Israel ranked ninth in 2022.

Finland remained the world’s happiest country for a seventh straight year in the annual UN sponsored World Happiness Report, published on Wednesday.

And Nordic countries kept their places among the 10 most cheerful, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland.

The annual World Happiness Report, launched in 2012 to support the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, is based on data from US market research company Gallup, analysed by a global team now led by the University of Oxford.

People in 143 countries and territories are asked to evaluate their life on a scale from zero to 10, with 10 representing their best possible life. Results from the past three years (2021-2023) are averaged to create a ranking.

In addition to self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction, the happiness ranking is also based on GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption.

Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, stayed at the bottom of the 143 countries surveyed in the report.

For the first time since the report was published more than a decade ago, the United States and Germany were not among the 20 happiest nations, coming in 23rd (down from 15th last year) and 24th respectively.

In turn, Costa Rica and Kuwait entered the top 20 at 12 and 13.

The report noted the happiest countries no longer included any of the world’s largest countries.

“In the top 10 countries only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million. In the whole of the top 20, only Canada and the UK have populations over 30 million.”

Canada came in 15th in the ranking and the UK placed in the 20th position (down from 19th last year).

The sharpest decline in happiness since 2006-10 was noted in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Jordan, while the Eastern European countries Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia reported the biggest increases.

Growing inequality

Jennifer De Paola, a happiness researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland, told AFP that Finns’ close connection to nature and healthy work-life balance were key contributors to their life satisfaction.

In addition, Finns may have a “more attainable understanding of what a successful life is”, compared to for example the United States where success is often equated with financial gain, she said.

Finns’ strong welfare society, trust in state authorities, low levels of corruption and free healthcare and education were also key.

“Finnish society is permeated by a sense of trust, freedom, and high level of autonomy,” De Paola said.

This year’s report also found that younger generations were happier than their older peers in most of the world’s regions — but not all.

While a global ranking of the happiness of those aged 60 and over would place the United States 10th, under 30s’ life evaluations alone put the United States in 62nd place.

The findings are at odds with much previous research into wellbeing, which found happiness highest in childhood and early teens, before falling to its lowest in middle age, then rising around retirement.

“Youth, especially in North America, are experiencing a mid-life crisis today,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, a University of Oxford economics professor and one of the report’s editors.

In North America, Australia and New Zealand, happiness among groups under 30 has dropped dramatically since 2006-10, with older generations now happier than the young.

Millennials and younger age groups in North America were significantly more likely than older age groups to report loneliness.

But De Neve said a range of factors was likely to be lowering young peoples’ happiness, including increased polarization over social issues, negative aspects of social media, and economic inequality that made it harder for young people to afford their own homes than in the past.

While the phenomenon is starkest in the United States, the age gap in wellbeing is also wide in Canada and Japan, and to a decreasing extent in France, Germany and Britain, which all lost ground in this year’s rankings.

By contrast, in central and Eastern Europe, happiness increased substantially at all ages during the same period, while in Western Europe people of all ages reported similar levels of happiness.

Happiness inequality increased in every region except Europe, which authors described as a “worrying trend.”

The rise was especially distinct among the old and in Sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting inequalities in “income, education, health care, social acceptance, trust, and the presence of supportive social environments at the family, community and national levels,” the authors said.

Source: timesofisrael.com

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https://www.timesofisrael.com/finland-retains-top-spot-in-global-happiness-list-israel-drops-to-5th-place/

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North America

 

FBI puts Muslims in US under scrutiny after Israeli attacks on Gaza

MAR 19, 2024

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been subjecting Muslims in the United States to intense scrutiny following Israel's attacks on Gaza, according to a lawyer who works for the largest Muslim civil liberties organization in the U.S. said Tuesday.

Muslims in the U.S. have been followed by the FBI for many years, but complaints have increased after Israeli attacks on Gaza on Oct. 7, Dina Chehata, civil rights managing attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Los Angeles office, told Anadolu Agency (AA).

"CAIR's Los Angeles office has received numerous complaints from members of the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities in Southern California,” Chehata said.

"After the Israeli war, we recently received complaints that FBI agents contacted our community members directly, either by phone or by going to their homes, to question them. We consider this to be FBI surveillance and interrogation of our community,” she said.

"There have been complaints that federal and local law enforcement have asked community members whether they support Hamas, whether they support the use of violence in the war region, and their views on Israel and Hamas,” Chehata noted.

"We believe that many people in our community are being watched and surveilled by the FBI. We also know that the FBI is tracking many people who are not reported directly to us. Therefore, we know that the numbers in the reports we received do not represent the number of people the FBI agents were actually tracking; many more people were investigated,” according to Chehata.

Muslim community warned to be vigilant

"We have issued a warning to our community to be vigilant as we have noticed several consecutive reports of agents interrogating Palestinians over the past week or two,” she added.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people.

More than 31,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in the enclave, and over 73,700 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water and medicine, while 60%of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide, and guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Source: dailysabah.com

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https://www.dailysabah.com/world/americas/fbi-puts-muslims-in-us-under-scrutiny-after-israeli-attacks-on-gaza

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Canada’s parliament urges 2-state solution, but not recognition of Palestinian state

19 March 2024

Canada’s parliament passed a non-binding motion late Monday calling on the international community to work toward a two-state solution to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, in line with government policy.

The vote had been delayed by last-minute wrangling over wording supporting Palestinian statehood, an idea that looked set to deepen splits inside the ruling Liberal Party.

The original motion was drawn up by the minority left-leaning New Democrats (NDP), who are helping to keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party in power and are unhappy with what they see as his failure to do enough to protect Palestinian civilians amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The amended motion, which also adopted stronger language against the Palestinian terror group, passed by 204 votes to 117 after most of the Liberal caucus and cabinet — including Ya’ara Saks, who is Jewish and an Israeli citizen — voted in favor of the measure.

It was opposed by some Liberal members of parliament — Anthony Housefather, Ben Carr, and Marco Mendicino, a former federal minister.

The initial version called on Canada to “officially recognize the State of Palestine” — a step that no member of the Group of Seven industrialized nations has taken.

After backroom negotiations between the NDP and the Liberals, that wording was dropped in favor of language calling on the international community to work toward the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution.

Liberal and opposition legislators in the House of Commons complained that they had no notice of the new wording and demanded the chance to debate it, so proceedings were briefly suspended.

Last week, Canada said it had paused nonlethal military exports to Israel since January. Trudeau, while asserting Israel’s right to defend itself, has taken an increasingly critical stance over the Israeli military campaign in Hamas-run Gaza after the terror group’s devastating October 7 attack.

The initial motion had demanded a suspension of all trade in military goods and technology with Israel. It also urged an immediate ceasefire, an end to illegal arms transfers to Hamas, and called on the group to release all the hostages it took during the October 7 attack.

There had been clear signs of division inside the Liberal caucus over policy toward the Gaza conflict, with prominent backbench legislators variously backing and opposing the motion.

Israeli Ambassador IddoMoed had earlier condemned the original idea of a vote on Palestinian statehood, saying it would “only evoke more bloodshed and jeopardize any peaceful resolution to the conflict.”

Source: timesofisrael.com

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https://www.timesofisrael.com/canadas-parliament-urges-2-state-solution-but-not-recognition-of-palestinian-state/

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US to pitch Israel on securing Egypt-Gaza border as alternative to ‘smashing into Rafah’

 JACOB MAGID

[20/March/2024]

The US will present alternative plans for how Israel can continue pursuing Hamas without launching a major ground operation in Rafah during an upcoming meeting with a visiting Israeli delegation in Washington, two senior US officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

“This isn’t just us saying, ‘No you can’t do it.’ We’re saying that we’re willing to work with you on viable alternatives that still help you achieve your objectives,” one of the senior US officials said, speaking to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan touched on this idea on Monday when he announced that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted a request from US President Joe Biden during their phone call earlier that day to send an inter-agency team to Washington “to hear US concerns about Israel’s current Rafah planning and to lay out an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border, without a major ground invasion.”

Elaborating on the alternative approach the Biden administration has in mind, a second senior US official said Washington envisions Israel focusing instead on preventing the smuggling of weapons from Egypt into Gaza through the Philadelphi Corridor.

The official avoided blaming the Egyptian government for the smuggling that was partially responsible for Hamas’s re-armament after successive wars with Israel over the past 15 years. However, they said reaching a new arrangement with Cairo and building the necessary infrastructure to cut off the smuggling route would be more critical to the dismantlement of Hamas than a major ground offensive in Rafah.

“If Israel smashes into Rafah with all the civilian casualties that doing so would entail, cooperation from Egypt on locking down the [Philadelphi] Corridor will be much more difficult,” the second senior official said.

The first official clarified that US opposition to a major Rafah ground invasion doesn’t mean it opposes more targeted operations against Hamas’s leadership in Rafah or elsewhere and they said the alternative plans that the Biden administration intends to present to the visiting Israeli delegation will focus on this goal as well.

The US also envisions Israel using the coming period to implement a massive humanitarian surge, the US official said, speaking two days after the publication of a UN-backed report warning that famine is imminent in northern Gaza.

The senior US official said this will require Israel to open additional ground routes within Gaza to deliver aid to the north where some 300,000 Palestinians have been practically cut off from aid after feigning IDF directives to evacuate at the beginning of the war. Israel and Hamas are almost six months into a war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, when thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 253 hostages during a murderous rampage across southern Israel.

Any sort of operation in Rafah — let alone the massive invasion that Washington opposes — will require a far more stable humanitarian situation in Gaza, the US official explained.

They noted that the southern Gaza city has become a humanitarian hub in recent months and that new storage and distribution mechanisms will have to be established in other areas.

The number of aid trucks coming into Gaza from the yet-to-be-established maritime corridor from Cyprus along with other routes into the Strip will need to be significantly scaled up to figures not seen since before the war when 500 trucks entered each day, the senior official said. “That’s not happening any time soon, especially not when we’re in the middle of an imminent famine.”

The US, only last week, dispatched a ship with supplies for the temporary pier it plans to build off the Gaza City coast in a project that could take up to two months.

The alternative plans the US wants to discuss with the visiting Israeli delegation will also include efforts to begin the reconstruction of Gaza and to build up a viable alternative to Hamas, the first senior US official said.

Both of these aspects are points of contention, given that the outline of a post-war Gaza plan Netanyahu presented to his cabinet last month doesn’t envision Israel allowing reconstruction to begin until the enclave has been de-militarized and “de-radicalized.” Netanyahu has also sought to empower local clan leaders with no ties to the Palestinian Authority to replace Hamas in governing Gaza, though, the idea has received a chilly reception from the US and international community, which wants a reformed PA to return to the Strip.

Both US officials clarified that the Biden administration is not ignoring the four remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah but argued that their strength and importance to the mission of defeating Hamas was being overblown by Netanyahu.

“We don’t want Hamas to have a safe haven there, but the current situation is not feasible,” the first US official said.

The officials credited Israel for taking steps over the past couple of weeks to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, but one of them said that the situation could deteriorate again if Jerusalem does not begin implementing a “non-scorched earth strategy for pursuing Hamas.”

Earlier Tuesday, Netanyahu’s office announced that the premier has tapped two of his most trusted aides, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser TzachiHanegbi, to lead the Israeli delegation to Washington. A representative from COGAT, the IDF unit responsible for coordinating aid in the Gaza Strip, will also be making the trip.

“The prime minister stressed that he is determined to operate in Rafah in order to eliminate for good the remaining Hamas battalions while offering humanitarian solutions to the civilian population,” the statement said.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the meeting will likely take place early next week.

Separately, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will host Defense Minister Yoav Gallant next week for a bilateral meeting at the US Defense Department, an American defense official said.

Also on Tuesday, Netanyahu told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the IDF will enter Rafah and that he told Biden as much in their call on Monday.

“We have a disagreement with the Americans about the need to enter Rafah,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office. “Not about the need to eliminate Hamas — the need to enter Rafah. We do not see a way to eliminate Hamas militarily without destroying these remaining battalions. We are determined to do it. ”

Biden effectively ruled out any potential support for a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah during his call with Netanyahu, Jake Sullivan revealed on Monday, hardening his position after the administration had indicated for months it could support an operation there under certain conditions.

“A major ground operation there would be a mistake. It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally,” Sullivan said.

For months, the US indicated that it could potentially support an offensive if — and only if — Israel presented a credible plan beforehand for how to protect the over one million civilians sheltering in the southern Gaza city.

The first senior US official speaking to The Times of Israel on Tuesday revealed that Washington for weeks had made clear privately to Jerusalem that it didn’t believe such a plan existed.

Netanyahu has said the IDF will evacuate the civilians to areas north of Rafah before beginning the operation and declared Friday that he had approved the military’s plans for the offensive.

“The key goals Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be done by other means,” Sullivan asserted.

Sullivan clarified that Biden again rejected during the call “the straw-man (argument) that raising questions about Rafah is the same as raising questions about defeating Hamas. That’s just nonsense. Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else.”

A potential Israeli operation in Rafah has been a point of contention in ties with the US for months. The southern Gaza city is just about the last part of the Strip where Israeli ground forces have not entered en masse, after starting in northern Gaza and making their way down the enclave.

Jerusalem says an offensive in Rafah is necessary to dismantle Hamas’s four battalions there, but it is also looking to gain control of the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza to prevent the smuggling of weapons into the Strip after the war.

Regardless, no operation is seen to be imminent, given that Israel has withdrawn most of its reservists from Gaza, and thousands would likely need to be called up again before any major offensive in Rafah could begin. Netanyahu reportedly told security cabinet ministers on Friday that he never said the operation would take place during Ramadan, which ends on April 9.

Talk by Israeli leaders of a coming operation in Rafah appears to be part of an effort to put pressure on Hamas to agree to the hostage deal currently being negotiated, or risk having its last stronghold dismantled by the IDF.

Sullivan laid out the three reasons why Biden is “deeply concerned” about a massive Israeli offensive in Rafah akin to the ones carried out thus far in other major Gaza cities.

He noted that over one million people are sheltering in Rafah after fleeing repeatedly from elsewhere in Gaza.

“They have nowhere else to go. Gaza’s other major cities have largely been destroyed, and Israel has not presented us or the world with a plan for how or where they would safely move those civilians, let alone feed and house them and ensure access to basic things like sanitation,” Sullivan said.

Rafah is also the primary entry point for humanitarian assistance to Gaza from Egypt and Israel, Sullivan noted, lamenting that it would be shut down or severely hampered “at the moment when it is most sorely needed” if an IDF offensive moved forward.

“Third, Rafah is on the border with Egypt, which has voiced its deep alarm over a major military operation there and has even raised questions about its future relationship with Israel as a result of any impending military operation,” the US national security adviser said.

Sullivan went on to argue that Israel’s latest military operation against Hamas in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital highlights Washington’s concern that Jerusalem lacks a sustainable strategy for targeting the terror group.

“Israel cleared Shifa once. Hamas came back into Shifa, which raises questions about how to ensure a sustainable campaign against Hamas so that it cannot regenerate, cannot retake territory,” Sullivan said.

Washington has long accused Israel of failing to advance a viable alternative to Hamas rule, by rejecting efforts to promote local Palestinians linked to the Palestinian Authority with support from Arab allies to fill the vacuum created by the terror group’s initial dismantlement by Israel.

Various locations in northern Gaza have seen a resurgence of Hamas activity in recent weeks, with the IDF reportedly pleading with the political leadership to make more clear-cut, realistic decisions regarding the post-war management of Gaza or risk wasting the military’s gains.

“From our perspective, it is connecting Israel’s objective to a sustainable strategy. That is the final thing we need to focus on right now, rather than have Israel go smash into Rafah. That is what the president talked to the prime minister about today,” Sullivan said.

Source: timesofisrael.com

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Blinken heads to Middle East a sixth time in Gaza diplomacy push

[20/March/2024]

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returns to the Middle East on Wednesday for his sixth visit since the start of Israel's war with Hamas to push for a deal to secure a temporary pause in fighting and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Blinken will meet Saudi leaders in Jeddah and Egyptian leaders in Cairo to discuss talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar on an agreement as well as efforts to get more aid into Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Talks on a ceasefire are resuming this week in Qatar, but weeks of tough negotiations have yet to forge an agreement between Israel and Hamas that Washington hopes will help alleviate the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza.

Blinken said he would also pursue conversations on arrangements for governance, security and redevelopment of post-conflict Gaza.

"We’ve been doing a lot of work since January, particularly with our Arab partners, and we’ll be pursuing those conversations, as well as discussing what is the right architecture for lasting regional peace," Blinken said at a news conference during at a previous stop in Manila.

The war was triggered when Hamas fighters crossed into Israel on a rampage on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Nearly 32,000 people have been confirmed killed in Israel's retaliatory onslaught, according to Palestinian health officials in Hamas-run Gaza, with thousands more feared lost under the rubble.

Blinken is not scheduled to visit Israel on this trip, despite multiple visits to the U.S. ally on his previous regional swings since Oct. 7.

Tensions have heightened between U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Tuesday rebuffed Biden's plea to call off a planned ground assault in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

Source: gulftoday.ae

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https://www.gulftoday.ae/news/2024/03/20/blinken-heads-to-middle-east-a-sixth-time-in-gaza-diplomacy-push

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CAIR-Ohio Joined Gaza Ceasefire Faith Leaders for an Interfaith Prayer and Iftar at Cleveland City Hall

Ibrahim Hooper

March 19, 2024

(CLEVELAND, OH, 3/19/24) – The Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) joined leaders of the Christian and Jewish faiths at Cleveland City Hall for an interfaith prayer and iftar, breaking of the fast.

Last night began at the steps of City Hall with an interfaith prayer led by FatenOdeh, Rabbi Meriam, and Dr. ShereenNaser.

Ceasefire advocates have been attending Monday night City Council for the past 16 consecutive meetings and have been met with countless restrictions and alleged civil rights violations.

On March 4th, the ceasefire advocates led their own passing of a ceasefire resolution under what they had formed as the People’s Council, a coalition of interfaith partners and community organizers. Under the People’s Council, the ceasefire resolution passed unanimously, however, they were quickly removed from the rotunda of Cleveland City Hall by law enforcement and threatened with citations.

CAIR-Ohio Staff Attorney, Chance Zurub stated, “For the past 16 weeks, we have built a community dedicated to coming out to Cleveland City Council who remains steadfast despite the restrictions the city has placed on us, whether that be limiting seating, closing down entire hallways, or removing us from publicly gathering. Just as our brothers and sisters in Gaza resist and remain steadfast despite the sheer amount of violence upon them, we will continue to come to Cleveland City Council demanding accountability and a resolution. We would not have been able to do this without the community’s support in sacrificing their Mondays to allow us to pass the People’s Resolution or by allowing us to share iftar together. The people of Cleveland are truly committed to Palestinian liberation and each Monday is a testament to this movement.”

CAIR-Ohio hand delivered letters to Mayor Bibb and Council President Griffin as well as emailed them to give notice of a religious accommodation that needed to be fulfilled, as many ceasefire advocates, attending Monday night City Council meetings would need to break their fast during the meetings.

CAIR-Ohio Executive Director FatenOdeh stated:

“I had hoped that Cleveland City Council would’ve given us a space to break our fast other than on the stairs of the foyer, but regardless of the area we were in, it was a beautiful sight to see with all the different communities and faiths coming together. As soon as the Muslims came out of their chambers they were met with members of the Christian, Jewish and other community members serving the fasting population of Muslims their iftar. Five different people made the main dish of mujadera and CAIR brought the salad to go with.”

Law enforcement at City Hall joined the ceasefire advocates for the iftar.

CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. CAIR-Ohio’s mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims. CAIR-Ohio has offices in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.

La misión de CAIR esproteger las libertadesciviles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a losmusulmanesenlosEstadosUnidos.

Become a Fan of the Cleveland chapter of CAIR-Ohio on Facebook

Source: cair.com

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https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-ohio-joined-gaza-ceasefire-faith-leaders-for-an-interfaith-prayer-and-iftar-at-cleveland-city-hall/

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Mideast

 

Muslim support slipping for Australia's Labour over support for Israel: Survey

Nuri Aydin 

19.03.2024

A recent survey suggests that Australia's ruling Labour Party is fast losing support among Muslim voters over Canberra's support for Israel amid its offensive on the Gaza Strip, according to local media on Tuesday.

In two 18-person focus groups, pollster Redbridge Group reported that people from the Arabic and Turkish communities of the Calwell area in Melbourne, where the Labour party has historically enjoyed strong support, were "were ready to swing hard against the government," public broadcaster ABC reported.

ABC noted that Muslims number over 810,000 in Australia's 25 million population as of 2021, forming important voter constituencies in some areas, including Calwell, where they make up 13% of residents.

According to Redbridge's director Kos Samaras, who once managed election campaigns for the Labor Party, participants in the focus groups expressed outrage at Labour's stance on Israel's war on Gaza, with many planning to vote instead for independent candidates.

"For both female and male participants, the Labor government's response to the conflict in Gaza is a reminder of why they, as a community, have decided to stop voting Labor.

"Both groups share a sense of betrayal by Labor, over several years, economically and now via the conflict in Gaza," Samaras was quoted as saying by ABC.

Maria Vamvakinou, who won the House of Representatives seat in Calwell with a lead of nearly 9% in the 2022 election, told ABC that voters in areas like hers have sent "all politicians a clear message" that they should not be taken for granted.

"I have a long history in working for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and will continue to do so. I'm heartened that parts of my community are aware of this work," Vamvakinou said.

"However, it's clear that voters in electorates like mine from diverse communities are far more politically alert as to who represents them than ever before."

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 which killed nearly 1,200 people.

More than 31,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in the enclave, and nearly 73,700 others injured, besides mass destruction, displacement and shortages of necessities.

Source: aa.com.tr

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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/muslim-support-slipping-for-australias-labour-over-support-for-israel-survey/3168914

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Palestinian clans and factions step in to protect Gaza aid, sources say

March 20, 2024

CAIRO: Armed and masked men from an array of clans and factions have started providing security for aid convoys in Gaza as Hamas tries to keep its clout in the enclave, Palestinian officials and sources in the militant group say.

Video footage obtained by Reuters showed a convoy of trucks entering Gaza City with foreign aid overnight, watched by several men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and others wielding sticks.

With Israeli forces sworn to eliminate Hamas since its deadly Oct. 7 raid on Israel, it has become highly risky for anyone linked to the Islamist group to emerge into the open to provide security for aid deliveries to desperate civilians.

So numerous clans, civil society groups and factions — including Hamas’s secular political rival Fatah — have stepped in to help provide security for the aid convoys, according to the Palestinian officials and Hamas sources.

They did not identify the clans and factions but said Hamas’ ability to rally such groups behind it over security showed it retains influence, and that efforts by Israel to build its own administrative system to keep order in Gaza were being resisted.

“Israel’s plan to find some clans to collaborate with its pilot projects of finding an alternative to Hamas didn’t succeed but it also showed that Palestinian resistance factions are the only ones who can run the show, in one way or another,” said a Palestinian official who asked not to be named.

An Israeli military spokesperson declined comment, saying specific rules of engagement in an active war zone could not be publicly discussed.

CIVIL ORDER STRAINED

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble. The campaign was launched in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, in which Israel said 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007, has built its popularity on social services, education programs and charities it offers impoverished Gazans.

With public order strained and civil police having concerns about providing security for fear of being targeted by the Israeli military, the safe distribution of supplies has become increasingly hard to guarantee.

Dozens of Palestinians were killed last month after crowds surrounded a convoy of aid trucks entering northern Gaza and Israeli troops opened fire. Israel said many victims had been trampled or run over, and that it opened fire only after its troops felt threatened by the advancing crowd.

A senior Israeli official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Israel was open in principle to Palestinians securing areas of the Gaza Strip cleared of Hamas, and could even approve the formation of an armed police.

“But this is more of a day-after (the war) enterprise than something that could be implemented as a policy right now. We would need to be assured that the individuals have no Hamas ties — and certainly that they are not directly or indirectly serving Hamas interests,” the Israeli official said.

Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency UNRWA, had no information about masked men securing convoys.

Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said the United Nations was not working with clans.

“We’ve been trying to get the Blue Police (Palestinian civil police) back on track again. There have been a number of incidents where the blue police have been targeted by Israel, because they regard them as part of the Hamas infrastructure,” he said.

“And so we are trying to find the best way suitable to have delivery of assistance into the north and other parts of Gaza Strip. That is a combination of using community groups, etc. And where we can use the police in a discreet manner as well.”

Shimon Freedman, spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Ministry liaison agency for Palestinian civilian affairs, said the distribution of aid in Gaza was the responsibility of international organizations.

“While we assist in that distribution and we help coordinate those convoys and allow them to go through our humanitarian corridor, the aspects of that are up to them,” he said.

SENIOR POLICE CHIEF KILLED

Israel said on Monday it had killed Brig. Gen. FaiqAbdulraouf Al-Mabhouh, a senior police chief in central Gaza, during a raid on Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Hamas said Mabhouh was responsible for protecting and securing aid trucks in Gaza, and had been coordinating with the UN over the protection of the distribution of aid.

On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike on a home in northern Gaza Strip killed another officer tasked with aid delivery security, that also killed his wife and children, health officials said.

Late on Tuesday, 30 people from groups formed by local clans to secure the entry of aid trucks into Gaza City were killed by an Israeli strike while waiting for aid at a major roundabout, Hamas media said. Israel had no immediate comment.

Hamas accused Israel of carrying out the attacks “to influence the protection of aid and increase chaos as sought by the occupation (Israel).” Israel has denied accusations of using starvation as a weapon of war.

Separate statements issued in the name of the National Assembly of Palestinian Tribes, and Palestinian factions, condemned Israel’s killing of police officers and members of the popular protection committees in the past two days.

“We affirm that we stand with all our tribes, clans and families in the Gaza Strip behind our national Palestinian police and the supporting protection committees,” said the statement of the clans.

As part of plans for running Gaza after the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has considered empowering local representatives not affiliated to Hamas or other militant groups, but it is unclear who those people might be.

Gaza has large traditional family clans, affiliated with political factions including Hamas and Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Some of the larger clans are widely believed to be heavily armed. Some clan leaders have publicly rejected Israel’s plan and said they cannot take the place of UN relief agencies helping Palestinian refugees, or be a substitute for local authorities.

Source: arabnews.com

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In Gaza, Starving Children Fill Hospital Wards as Famine Looms

March 20, 2024

(Reuters) - Six-year-old Fadi al-Zant is acutely malnourished, his ribs protruding under leathery skin, his eyes sunken as he lays in bed at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where famine is bearing down.

Fadi's spindly legs can no longer support him enough to walk.

Photographs of Fadi from before the war show a smiling, healthy-looking child, standing in blue denims next to his taller twin with his hair brushed. A short video clip shows him dancing at a wedding with a little girl.

Fadi suffers from cystic fibrosis. Before the conflict, he was taking medicine that his family can no longer find and eating a carefully balanced variety of food no longer available in the Palestinian enclave, according to his mother Shimaa al-Zant.

"His condition is getting worse. He is getting weaker. He keeps losing his ability to do things," she said in a video obtained by Reuters from a freelancer. "He can no longer stand. When I help him stand up, he falls straight away."

More than five months into Israel's ground and air campaign, launched in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, there are widespread shortages of food, medicines and clean water in Gaza, doctors and aid agencies say.

The Kamal Adwan hospital, caring for Fadi, had also treated most of the 27 children the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says have died of malnutrition and dehydration in recent weeks.

Others died in Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital, also in the north, the ministry said, and in the southernmost city of Rafah, where the U.N. relief agency says over 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge from Israel's offensive.

Reuters saw 10 badly malnourished children during a visit last week to the al-Awda health centre in Rafah, arranged with nursing staff who gave the news agency unimpeded access to the ward. Reuters was not able to independently verify the deaths reported by the ministry.

Without urgent action, famine will hit between now and May in northern Gaza, where 300,000 people are trapped by fighting, the world's hunger watchdog, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said in a review, opens new tab on Monday.

The review's most likely scenario said "extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition and mortality" were imminent for more than two thirds of the people in the north. The IPC is made up of U.N. agencies and global aid groups.

Israel's COGAT, the military body that handles aid transfers to Gaza, did not specifically respond to Reuters questions about the deaths of children from hunger and dehydration. It said Israel put no limits on the amount of aid that can enter.

Following the IPC review, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy posted on X that the number of food trucks had increased in March and that Israel was taking measures to bolster "delivery efforts" to the north.

"It's a bad assessment, based on an out of date picture," he said of the review.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power said in a public statement that the IPC assessment marked "a horrific milestone." She called on Israel to open more land routes and operate crossings at full capacity.

In response to a question from Reuters about the IPC report, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netenyahu was "defying the world and pursuing the killing of the Palestinian people in Gaza by bombs and starvation."

U.S. authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.N. aid agencies have said "overwhelming obstacles" to moving aid to the north of Gaza will only be overcome with a ceasefire and the opening of border crossings closed by Israel after Oct. 7.

DISPLACED

In better times, Fadi's favourite food was chicken shawarma, a Levantine grill dish, his mother said, and he ate a lot of fruit and drank a lot of milk.

When the war began, she said, the family fled their home in al-Nasr district of Gaza City, which suffered widespread damage from bombardment. They were displaced four times before arriving in Beit Lahia, she added.

Fadi's condition began to deteriorate about two months ago and he was admitted to Kamal Adwan hospital, Zant said. Creon - the medicine that people with cystic fibrosis need to supplement pancreatic enzymes that help digest food - was not available. Sometimes, Fadi had diarrhoea 10 times in one night.

Before the war, the child weighed 30kg (66 lb). Now he weighs just 12kg (26 lb), his mother said.

"He used to eat well. His treatment was available. His face was full. He was a child that did not seem ill. He went to kindergarten with his brother," she said.

COGAT did not respond to a question about the availability of Creon, but said Israel had "not refused a single shipment of medical supplies."

Reuters was not able to independently establish if any such shipments had been blocked, or verify with hospital officials the extent to which Creon supplies were disrupted.

The Gaza health ministry says lack of medication contributed to the deterioration of the conditions of the children who died.

As well as for children like Fadi who have pre-exisiting medical conditions, risks are rapidly rising for many others in Gaza, U.N. agencies say.

The U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Friday that nearly 1 in 3 children under two years old in northern Gaza suffer from acute malnutrition, twice as many as in January.

In shelters and health centres visited by UNICEF and its partners, 4.5% of children had severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, it said.

"Unless fighting stops and aid agencies have full access throughout Gaza then hundreds if not thousands more children could die of hunger," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said on Tuesday in a joint statement with the World Food Programme.

If Israel goes ahead with a promised offensive in Rafah, 1.1 million people in Gaza, half the population, are expected to face an extreme lack of food, in which starvation and death are present in households, the IPC report said.

Last Thursday, COGAT's Col. Elad Goren told reporters access to food was stable in the south and centre of the enclave.

Human Rights Watch said in late February, opens new tab that Israel was obstructing the provision of basic services as well as the entry and distribution of fuel and lifesaving aid in Gaza. It said this was "collective punishment," considered a war crime under international humanitarian law.

COGAT told Reuters that Israel was making "extensive efforts to increase the amount of aid that enters Gaza," above and beyond its obligations.

"Any claims otherwise, including claims regarding collective punishment, are baseless in both fact and law," it said.

RAFAH

At al-Awda health centre in Rafah, more than a dozen women sat or stood tending their malnourished children.

Most of the children in the ward already had medical problems before the war, their relatives said, though pictures that the parents of two of them showed Reuters showed them looking notably healthier than now.

On March 4, 12-year-old Yazan al-Kafarna, who had cerebral palsy, died in southern Gaza, days after Reuters took photographs that showed his severe emaciation.

The ward nurse, Amira Abu Juwaiyad, said the hospital was unable to get enough milk for babies and that 10-15 cases were coming in daily under "catastrophic" conditions. Abu Juwaiyad did not say how much milk was available prior to the war.

Umm MesbahHeji sat cradling her five-year-old daughter Israa, who is quadriplegic and epileptic.

Israa's medications are no longer available and she has lost a lot of weight. Before the war, Heji used to feed her eggs and milk for breakfast, liver for lunch and rice for dinner, she said. Sometimes, she gave her yoghurt and fruit.

"I know she's hungry. The food she eats isn't available," she said, adding that every day "I die one hundred times" feeling sad for her daughter.

DIARRHOEA

Disease is aggravating the dire lack of food. Dehydration from diarrhoea, which the World Health Organisation says is rampant in the mass tent cities where displaced people cram together without proper sewage or clean water, hastens malnutrition.

One effect of acute hunger is to reduce immunity against such gastric diseases.

The WHO said last month that 90% of children under 5 in Gaza were affected by one or more infectious diseases with 70% having had diarrhoea in the previous two weeks - a 23-fold increase over cases before the war.

Kerstin Hanson, a U.S. doctor working on nutrition with international charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, described the physical onset of malnutrition and dehydration.

Children grow lethargic and less responsive. Their skin loses its puffiness so that if pushed out of shape it may stay in that position. The eyes get sunken. The body emaciates.

Even for children who were healthy before the conflict, sustained malnutrition can stunt physical and brain development.

As acute malnutrition takes hold, a child's body stops growing, Hanson said. Then it shuts down everything except vital functions. "Your heart and lungs will keep functioning, but ... maybe there isn't enough energy to keep your immune system functioning," she said.

After that, the body would "kind of start eating itself", using muscle, fat and anywhere else it could find energy to keep breathing and pumping blood. Eventually, it would just shut down.

Even when malnutrition does not reach that dangerous stage, its effects on development might be impossible to reverse if it is sustained, Hanson said. Children may never recover lost centimetres of growth.

Source: tolonews.com

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Iraqi Resistance targets Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport twice in one week

 20 March 2024

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has said its fighters attacked Ben Gurion Airport twice in one week using drones.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Iraqi Resistance confirmed the attack against Israel which waged a genocidal war against the people of Gaza.

“The fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, at dawn today, Tuesday, 20-3-2024, targeted Ben-Gurion airport in the Zionist depth using drones,” the resistance statement said. 

The resistance also affirmed its commitment to strike the enemies' strongholds, as part of the second phase of operations in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

In response to the Israeli massacres against innocent Palestinian civilians, the second phase of the Resistance's operations has started which include the enforcement of a blockade on Israeli maritime navigation in the Mediterranean and putting Israeli ports out of service.

The Resistance also attacked the same airport on March 12 using drones.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq says it will continue its attacks on Israeli targets until the regime stops its genocide in Gaza.

 It has also struck major American military bases in Syria and Iraq amid anger over the US support for Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq says American occupation forces are familiar only with the language of force, slamming the assassination of a top anti-terror commander in eastern Baghdad.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq also claimed responsibility for the attack in late January on Jordan’s border with Syria that left three US soldiers dead.

In the past weeks, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq intensified its operations against Israeli targets inside occupied Palestinian territory.

The Iraqi Resistance targeted Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) airbase in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights using drones.

Akram al-Kaabi, the Secretary-General of the al-Nujaba Movement, said on February 25 that will not stop attacking Israeli targets in occupied Palestine.

"We will not abandon" the goal of "liberating Iraq" from US presence and supporting Palestine by striking the Israeli occupation, al-Kaabi underlined.

Israel launched the war against Gaza on October 7. Since the beginning of the war, the regime has killed more than 31,600 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents.

In response, resistance movements from Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen have been carrying out military operations against the Tel Aviv regime and its interests in the region.

Source: presstv.ir

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President Raeisi calls for action to stop US-Israeli Gaza genocide in New Year message

20 March 2024

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi has called for serious practical steps to stop the Israeli regime’s attacks on war-torn Gaza in his New Year message to Asian countries celebrating Nowruz.

The Iranian president said Nowruz is a message of peace and peaceful coexistence and also a symbol of reconciliation.

“This year, we, the countries of the Nowruz civilization zone, are celebrating this auspicious occasion while the oppressed and powerful people of Gaza are facing the brutal attacks of the usurper Zionist regime, and are also under complete siege, being deprived of having access to basic health and livelihood facilities and are in danger of starvation and famine,” Raeisi said.

“It is our human duty to use our capabilities to take serious practical steps to stop the attacks of the Zionist regime and send humanitarian aid to the oppressed people of Gaza,” he said in a message addressed to the leaders and people of the countries of the Nowruz civilization zone.

Israel waged its war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the US-Israeli genocide, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 31,819 Palestinians and injured 73,792 others.

The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed an all-out blockade on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

The United Nations says children in Gaza are of hunger, and severe famine is looming large.

In a separate New Year message addressed to the Iranian people, President Raisi hailed Gaza’s resolute resistance against the brutal Israeli onslaught.

"The global powers used all their might to annihilate the two million free people of Gaza,” he said.

“They provided the Zionists with everything from the newest and most modern bunker-busting bombs to billions of dollars, but they could not succeed."

In his remarks, President Raisi also addressed his administration’s economic policy, touting achievements including an increase in the economic growth rate to around six percent in the previous Iranian year and attracting 11 billion dollars in foreign direct investment.

He noted that his administration has enhanced cooperation with neighboring countries, as well as with Latin America and Africa, and has joined influential international groupings, including BRICS.

President Raisi asserted that the Iranian economy is expected to continue to grow in the new Iranian year.

“I assure you that with the participation of you dear and noble people, the year 1403 will be the year of greater boom in production and economy, further reduction of the inflation rate, and extensive service to the dear people.”

Source: presstv.ir

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Hezbollah commander, four other jihadists killed in Syria airstrike - report

MARCH 20, 2024

Five commanders of Iranian-backed militias in Syria were killed in an airstrike on Tuesday, according to Saudi television station al-Hadath, cited by Israeli media that night.

A further report claimed that one of those killed was a Hezbollah commander.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, had reported three explosions and the presence of unidentified aircraft that day in the eastern city of Dier-ez-Zor.

Syria hosts several militias financed by Iran, which have attacked not only Israeli forces but American troops as well since war broke out between Israel and Hamas in October.

Those include Hezbollah, which controls much of Southern Lebanon and has been firing rockets and missiles into the north of Israel since October 7, leading to regular exchanges of fire and the evacuation of about 100,000 people away from their homes near the Israel-Lebanon border.

Iran scaled back IRGC presence in Syria due to strikes

A few weeks ago, it was reported that a suspected Israeli strike had killed Colonel Reza Zarei, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officer, as well as two Hezbollah fighters. A Damascus-area strike in January was reported to have killed three IRGC officers.

In February, it was reported that Iran had scaled back its deployment of IRGC officers in Syria in light of Israeli strikes.

Source: jpost.com

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Pakistan

 

Pakistan calls UNSC reforms essential to address challenges of peace, security

March 20, 2024

Pakistan has called upon the United Nations Security Council to make accountability, transparency, inclusivity and democracy the building blocs of its working methods.

Making his statement at Intergovernmental Negotiations Framework meeting, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN Munir Akram called UN Security Council reforms essential to address the increasingly complex global challenges of peace and security.

He shared Pakistan's suggestions to bring about key improvements in the working methods of the UNSC.

Source: radio.gov.pk

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PM for greater engagement of provinces in national decision-making

March 20, 2024

Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has assigned his team of experts to devise a strategy in line with the constitutional provisions for greater engagement of provinces in national decision-making on issues concerning economy, investment, price-hike, etc.

Official sources said the prime minister, following a briefing on the subject a few days back, has directed the concerned authorities that a detailed strategy be evolved on how to ensure greater engagement and coordination with the provinces on issues of national importance.

Such a coordination and engagement of provinces at the federal level decision-making will be derived from the constitutional provisions. It is believed it will help better address the issues that concern both the country and the people from all the provinces and regions.

Within the existing legal and constitutional framework, it is said, there are solutions to improve the working relationship between the Centre and the provinces on issues of national concern.

It was discussed regular meetings of National Economic Council (NEC) and Council of Common Interests (CCI) should be held to monitor the supply of essential commodities, curb inflation, stabilise prices and facilitate investments. Such frequent interaction between the provinces and the Centre will benefit the people of all the provinces.

The high-level meeting also discussed the scope of Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) be extended for review of economic, financial and commercial situations as per constitutional mandate. It is suggested that Ecnec should meet at least once a month, thereby promoting active engagement with the provinces.

According to a source, if the Centre involves and encourages the provinces in national decision-making, its results will be beneficial for the entire country and people as well as governments of all provinces and the Centre.

Pakistan can better progress economically with shared decision-making and shared benefits. Greater engagement between the Centre and the provinces will also ensure better progress and development activities in all the provinces, said a source. The country cannot meet the economic challenges with the Centre’s usual aloofness, he added.

During the last PDM government, setting up of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) was also meant to promote investment and business-friendly environment in Pakistan with close coordination of all the stakeholders, including the Centre and the provinces.

The SIFC operates as an inclusive organisation, representing federal and provincial stakeholders across all tiers with facilitation support from the military. The structure includes three key committees: Apex Committee, Executive Committee, Implementation Committee and Sectoral Working Groups.

The Apex Committee is headed by the prime minister and its members include army chief, all chief ministers and others.

Source: thenews.com.pk

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May 9 violence: ATC issues non-bailable warrants for KP CM, others

March 20, 2024

Khalid Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), Rawalpindi Judge Malik Ijaz Asif issued arrest warrants for the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Ali Amin Gandapur in connection with May 9 violence when rioters attacked military installations.

The court issued the warrants, which are non-bailable, for the chief minister, ordering the police to produce him before the court by April 2. ATC Judge Malik Ijaz Asif also issued the warrants for Murad Saeed, Shireen Mazari, Shehbaz Gill, and Shibli Faraz in the case, which is registered against them at City Police Station, Rawalpindi. The judge ordered the authorities to produce the KP chief minister before the court on April 2 at any cost. PTI leaders, including former prime minister Imran Khan and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, were booked in May last year after party workers attacked military installations during protests erupted after Khan was arrested in a corruption case.

Earlier, the Peshawar High Court directed the federal government to furnish details of cases against Ali Amin Gandapur. A bench of the high court, consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Shakeel Ahmed, heard a petition filed by KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur seeking information about the cases against him. “Has this issue not been resolved yet?” Justice Shakeel Ahmed queried. “The problems persist; we are unaware of the cases registered in Punjab,” stated counsel Arshad Ahmed. “If he is involved in any case in Punjab, he should seek bail,” remarked Justice Shakeel.

“We will approach the courts once we have the details. They have not provided us with any written information regarding the cases,” Gandapur’s lawyer explained. “There are two inquiries against him in D.I.Khan,” mentioned FIA’s Director Legal Abdul Rehman. “He holds the position of chief minister, and the people of the province have placed their trust in him,” asserted Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim. “He has been elected by the people and is currently governing the province,” Justice Ibrahim added. “It’s hard to believe that you cannot provide him with details. Provide the petitioner with information about the cases filed against him,” the bench ordered.

In another development, former prime minister Imran Khan has been acquitted of charges in two cases related to the May 25 long march and vandalism during the event in Islamabad.

Judicial Magistrate, Islamabad Shaista Kundi pronounced a reserved verdict on the plea for acquittal. The cases, registered against the former prime minister in Sihala and LohiBher police stations, stemmed from allegations of involvement in long march vandalism.

During the court proceedings, PTI founder’s lawyer Naeem Panjotha requested the court that Imran Khan should be presented before it. The judge asked who would be responsible if anything happened to him while he was brought to court. Panjotha said the provision of security was the government’s job, adding that he wanted to present his arguments in the presence of the PTI founder. The judge said attendance was necessary in case of a bail application, not for acquittal. She then rejected Imran Khan’s production request.

Furthermore, Panjotha argued that his client had been accused in all the cases in the context that it all happened on his behalf. There were many cases filed on the same day, he added. He further claimed that the implementation of Section 144 was neither notified nor anybody was informed about it.

“The plaintiff is an SHO who has no authority to register the case,” the counsel argued. He further said that there were no witness statements in any of the cases registered against Imran Khan, adding that his client had been acquitted in several other cases also.

On May 27, 2022, the Islamabad police filed separate cases against 150 people, including then PTI chairman Imran Khan, and other party leaders including Asad Umar, and Asad Qaiser over allegations of arson and vandalism in the federal capital.

Source: thenews.com.pk

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Irked by ban on meetings, KP govt asks Punjab to hand over incarcerated Imran Khan

March 19, 2024

As the Punjab government imposed a 14-day ban on all public visits and meetings with the former premier in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail last week citing "security threats," the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government Tuesday urged the former to hand over incarcerated party founder Imran Khan to it.

In a statement, Adviser to KP Chief Minister on Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif asked the Punjab government to hand over Khan to the KP government if it was unable to provide security to the incarcerated former prime minister.

Last week, Khan was barred from holdings meetings inside Rawalpindi's Adiala jail for two weeks. According to a notification issued by Punjab's Home Department, all kinds of visits, meetings, and interviews have been restricted in Adiala Jail due to security alert.

The Punjab government had clarified that the restrictions imposed in the Jail were not aimed at hindering meetings of the PTI leaders with the party’s founder.

“This move wasn’t made to take away any facility from him [Khan]. There is a serious threat alert, which is under investigation,” Punjab’s Information Minister Azma Bukhari had told Geo News’ Shahzeb Khanzada.

She said the fresh restrictions were imposed, as a few days back, the law enforcers had arrested terrorists who possessed a map of the jail in which Khan is currently imprisoned.

On the other hand, the PTI leadership believed that it was a deliberate plan to stop them from meeting party the party’s founder.

Reacting to the ban on meetings in the jail, Barrister Saif said that all the prisoners were facing difficulties due to the restrictions imposed in the name of “security concerns”.

Slamming the Maryam Nawaz-led provincial government, the KP CM’s aide urged the rulers in Punjab to hand over the prisoners to them instead of causing "pain and suffering" to them due to their “incompetence and fear of Khan”.

“Maryam Nawaz is busy in photo shoots instead of doing any work in Punjab,” he said.

“In Punjab, a drama is being played to hide incompetence,” Saif added.

Responding to his criticism today, Punjab Information Minister Bukhari clarified that Khan and her wife Bushra Bibi among all the inmates in the provincial jails are “safe”.

Taking a dig at Khan, she said: “A person who robbed billions of rupees is getting the best security and food facilities in jail.”

Source: thenews.com.pk

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COAS Munir, Saudi crown prince discuss defence, security cooperation

March 20, 2024

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud discussed regional peace and security, bilateral defence and security cooperation.

COAS Munir visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on an official visit, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement today.

It said that COAS called on Defence Minister of KSA HRH Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, His Excellency General Fayyadh Bin Hamed Al-Ruwaili, Chief of General Staff (CGS) Saudi Armed Forces and Engineer Talal Abdullah Al Otaibi, Assistant Minister of Defence of KSA and other senior military leadership.

“Prince Mohammad Bin Salman highlighted that KSA and Pakistan have historic brotherly and strong relations, and both countries have always stood up for each other,” the ISPR said.

Crown prince also expressed the desire to further strengthen bilateral ties and said KSA will always stand by with Pakistan in future as well, the statement added.

“COAS thanked the Saudi leadership for the warm sentiments and support for Pakistan,” ISPR concluded.

Source: brecorder.com

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Notices issued to AG in response to pleas of IK, Bushra, Qureshi

 2024-03-20

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), Tuesday, issued notices to the advocate general (AG) Islamabad in appeals of former prime minister Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi against their convictions in the cypher and Toshakhana cases.

A special bench of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, on Tuesday, heard the appeals and adjourned the case until Wednesday (Mar 20) seeking a response from the AG Islamabad in the instant matter.

During the hearing, Salman Safdar, Sikandar Zulqarnain, representing Khan and Qureshi, argued by scrutinizing the procedural aspects of the case and presented their arguments.

Safdar mentioned the alleged discrepancies in the filing process of the FIR and pointed out the irregularities in dates and the absence of crucial documentation linking the defendants to the case.

Drawing the attention of the bench to the role of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the initiation of the inquiry, the counsel emphasized the necessity of adhering to legal protocols. He claimed that the inquiry allegedly commenced prior to the formal filing of the complaint, casting doubts on the integrity of the investigation process.

In reply to questions from the bench regarding the conduct of the trial, Safdar mentioned the importance of upholding the principles of fair trial as enshrined in Article 10-A. He raised concerns over the timing and conduct of the trial, suggesting potential infringements on the defendants’ rights.

Accepting the complexity of the case, the bench stressed the need to ensure a transparent and equitable legal process. The IHC chief justice emphasized the importance of cross-examination and expressed a commitment to uphold the defendants’ rights throughout the proceedings.

Safdar contended that the trial court judge wrote in paragraph two of his judgment that the trial was concluded due to the direction of the high court while the Supreme Court had annulled the direction of the high court to complete the trial within a month. He added that the trial was conducted in haste without any direction from the higher judiciary.

At this, Justice Aurangzeb remarked that if the judge conducted the trial in haste, they would ask about from the prosecution.

Justice Farooq said there is no restriction that a trial cannot be done on a daily basis, but a trial should be done logically on a daily basis as well.

Khan’s counsel argued that it would not be wrong to say that the cypher case trial was the most controversial trial in the history of Islamabad and that the trial court judge made this trial controversial.

He informed the bench that Khan’s lawyer Sikandar Zulqarnain could not appear in the jail hearing one day due to toothache and the next day the trial judge appointed government lawyers. The defense reiterated concerns over the timing of the trial and highlighted challenges faced during the proceedings.

Later, the bench issued notices to the AG Islamabad seeking his response regarding the government-appointed lawyers in this case and deferred the hearing of the case till Wednesday (today) for further proceedings.

Source: brecorder.com

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Cipher probe began before complaint, says Imran’s lawyer

March 20, 2024

ISLAMABAD: As the Islamabad High Court took up the PTI founder’s appeal against the conviction in the cipher case, the counsel representing former prime minister Imran Khan said the inquiry in the case was started bef­ore the complaint regarding the offence was registered.

Barrister Salman Saf­dar argued before the division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Far­ooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb on Tuesday.

He said the Ministry of Interior filed the complaint before the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under Section 33 of the Official Secrets Act on October 12, 2022. The investigation officer during the cross-examination, however, stated that he was entrusted the inquiry in the case on Oct 5, almost a week before the registration of the complaint, said the lawyer.

CJ Farooq inquired about the mechanism and procedure adopted by the FIA and sought documentary evidence from the counsel. Justice Auran­gzeb asked about the reason for the initiation of the probe under the secrets law. Barrister Safdar responded that the federal cabinet referred the inquiry to the FIA but the foundation of the inquiry was flawed.

The defence counsel argued that the trial in the cipher case continued till late hours and the judge, without giving ample opportunity for defence, concluded the trial in haste.

He argued that the trial court judge appointed two state counsels as prosecutors despite the fact that the defence counsels were fully cooperating with the court.

The court perused the orders of the trial court, with Justice Aurangzeb saying that the court would compare the assertions made by the counsel with the conduct of the defence team.

The judge also inquired about the process adopted for the appointment of the state counsels.

The court was told by Imran’s lawyer that the trial court judge had sent an email to the Islamabad advocate general and the latter forwarded a list of proposed prosecutors.

The bench summoned the advocate general and adjourned further hearing till Wednesday (today).

Imran acquitted in two FIRs

Judicial Magistrate Shaista Kundi on Tuesday acquitted former prime minister Imran Khan in two cases registered against him in connection with violence during the May 2022 long march.

These FIRs were registered in the Sihala and LohiBher police stations of the federal capital.

The counsel said Mr Khan was booked in a number of cases in connection with the long march and for the violation of Section 144 but there was no notification in the field banning public gatherings at that time.

The counsel informed the judge that Mr Khan had already been acquitted in similar cases as well. After hearing the arguments, the court reserved the order for a while and later acquitted Imran Khan.

Source: dawn.com

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https://www.dawn.com/news/1822669/cipher-probe-began-before-complaint-says-imrans-lawyer

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Pakistan denounces fresh round of curbs on political parties of India-occupied Kashmir: FO

March 19, 2024

Abdullah Momand

Pakistan on Tuesday denounced Indian authorities’ decision to declare several political parties of India-occupied Kashmir as “unlawful associations”.

In a statement, the Foreign Office said: “Pakistan denounces the Indian authorities’ decision to declare the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Freedom League (JKPFL) and four factions of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League (JKPL) as ‘unlawful associations’.”

It also denounced the decision to “extend the ban on Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) (Mohd. Yasin Malik faction) for five more years”.

Last week, the India home ministry declared the Yasin Malik faction of the JKLF as an “unlawful association” and designated the JKPFL as a banned group for five years “for abetting secession”, according to Times of India.

The report added that the ministry also declared four factions of the JKPL — of Mukhtar Ahmed Waza, Bashir Ahmad Tota, Ghulam Mohammad Khan and Aziz Sheikh led by Yaqoob Sheikh — as “unlawful associations” for alleged involvement in inciting terror in the region.

According to The Hindu, the decision came hours before the dates for elections to the Lok Sabha, the Indian parliament’s lower house, were announced. The move was made under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

In its statement today, the FO noted that with the fresh notifications, a total of 14 political parties “have become outlawed in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK)”. “The affiliates of these parties are also facing persecution,” it added.

The statement recalled that a death penalty had been sought for Malik, the JKLF chief who was given a life sentence in 2022.

“However, such oppressive tactics cannot suppress the Kashmiri people’s aspirations for [the] realisation of their inalienable right to self-determination, as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” the FO asserted.

“India’s ongoing campaign to crush dissent in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) contravenes the international human rights and humanitarian law as well as democratic norms,” it added.

The FO urged the Indian government to lift the curbs on the banned parties; release all political prisoners, including Malik; and implement the UNSC resolutions on India-occupied Kashmir.

Earlier this year, the FO had condemned India’s decision to declare the Tehreek-i-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir (TeH) as an “unlawful association” for five years.

Days before that, India had also banned the Muslim League Jammu Kashmir (Masarat Alam faction), or MLJK-MA, declaring it an “unlawful association” as well.

Source: dawn.com

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South Asia

 

Increase of Child Workers Observed in Kabul During Ramadan

Shabnam Amini

March 19, 2024

Although child labor in the capital is not new, with the beginning of Ramadan, the number of these children on the roads of Kabul has increased.

These children say that they are forced to work hard due to economic challenges.

10-year-old Yahya, who is working in a vehicle workshop, said: "If our country was developed, life would be better and we would study; because of economic challenges we work here to find halal food.”

I work in a mechanic shop. My father is a cart attendant and he is working in Sara-e- Shamali. I came here to learn something,” Mustafa, another child laborer, told TOLOnews.

Meanwhile, several residents of Kabul urged the Islamic Emirate to provide education opportunities to these children.

“There are about 40 shops in this area. In each of them two or three children work as a student, they should learn, we want the government to provide educational opportunities to these children,” said Nisar Ahmad, a resident of Kabul.

"In order to prevent and reduce the activities of child labor, apart from financial aid, educational and cultural infrastructure should be considered,” said Asifa Stanikzai, a children rights activist.

Samiullah Ebrahimi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, said that this ministry has gathered more than 25,000 child workers and beggars from the city in the past two years, and that their efforts continue in this regard.

“Almost 25,000 children were engaged in child labor and begging-- that is why the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs identified these children and has helped them through the Red Crescent Society,” he said.

Previously, Save the Children reported that child labor in Afghanistan has increased by 38% compared to last year.

Source: tolonews.com

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https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-187894

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WHO hosts crisis escalation conference centered on Afghanistan

Fidel Rahmati

March 19, 2024

The World Health Organization announced holding a session on the escalation of the crisis, mental health, and substance use disorders in Afghanistan on the sidelines of the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Austria.

Recently, the organization added in a newsletter that this session is scheduled for March 21 on the margins of the Vienna Commission on Narcotic Drugs session.

The World Health Organization stated that the objective of this session is to present the latest details on mental health and substance use, as well as to devise policies to prevent the worsening of the crisis in Afghanistan.

According to the organization’s newsletter, “This roundtable provides a vital opportunity for dialogue with global and national experts, policymakers, and stakeholders to address fundamental gaps in access and provision of mental health services and substance use disorders in Afghanistan.”

This comes amid a dire humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, which has worsened with the onset of harsh winter conditions. Millions of Afghans are facing severe food shortages, lack of access to healthcare, and inadequate shelter, exacerbating the already precarious situation in the country.

Displacement caused by conflict and economic collapse has left many families vulnerable and struggling to survive amidst freezing temperatures and limited resources.

Source: khaama.com

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https://www.khaama.com/who-hosts-crisis-escalation-conference-centered-on-afghanistan/

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Afghan refugee found guilty of killing Pakistani immigrant in New Mexico

Fidel Rahmati

March 19, 2024

In New Mexico, a jury found an Afghan asylum seeker guilty of murdering a Pakistani immigrant. This occurred during a series of shootings that targeted Muslim men and caused fear among the Islamic community in the state’s largest city during the summer of 2022.

Muhammad Syed, aged 53, has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 41-year-old Aftab Hussein. Hussein was discovered deceased in southeast Albuquerque on July 26, 2022, beside a vehicle that had been fired upon, according to police.

Syed is accused of two other killings in 2022. While some national Muslim groups and media connected these killings to sectarian violence, the police and the Islamic community in Albuquerque attributed them to personal disputes, Reuters reported.

“As best we can tell, the motive in this may truly be a random serial killer type of mentality that we will never understand,” prosecuting attorney David Waymire stated after the verdict, as Reuters reported.

The shell casings found at the crime scenes match a gun found in Syed’s home.

All three slain men were originally from Pakistan or Afghanistan and prayed with Syed at Albuquerque’s largest mosque.

Syed has prior criminal offences, including domestic violence. He is set to stand trial for the murder of Aftab Hussein as well.

According to archived data on gun violence, from the beginning of this year until now, more than 3,400 people have been killed and over 6,000 others injured in various armed incidents in the United States, including gun suicides.

Source: khaama.com

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https://www.khaama.com/afghan-refugee-found-guilty-of-killing-pakistani-immigrant-in-new-mexico/

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Pakistan’s airstrikes on Afghan soil violate international laws: Faiq

Fidel Rahmati

March 19, 2024

Naseer Ahmad Faiq, the acting head of Afghanistan’s permanent mission to the United Nations, in response to recent Pakistani attacks on Afghan soil, says that these attacks violate international laws and Afghanistan’s territorial integrity.

The acting head of Afghanistan’s permanent mission to the United Nations expressed his reaction on Monday, March 18th, in a post on its social media platform X regarding Pakistan’s airstrikes on specific points in Afghan territory.

Faiq said: “The Pakistani army’s airstrikes on Afghan soil are a clear violation of international laws, territorial integrity, and the sovereignty of the country.”

The acting head of Afghanistan’s permanent mission to the United Nations strongly condemned Pakistan’s actions and added: “The killing of Afghan women and children is unacceptable and does not justify any security threat.”

“#Pakistani military airstrikes on Afghan soil, under any pretext, are flagrant violations of international law and Afghanistan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. We strongly condemn these actions. Killing Afghan women and children is unacceptable and cannot justify any security threats,” Faiq said.

Pakistan’s airstrikes on areas in the provinces of Khost and Paktika have sparked a wave of domestic and international reactions. The Taliban government, while condemning this attack, claimed to have targeted objectives along the Durand Line in Pakistani territory in response to it.

Amid the tensions, Pakistani officials claim that Afghan counterparts support the presence of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in Afghanistan.

However, Taliban authorities vehemently deny these allegations, emphasizing their efforts to combat terrorism within their borders and accusing Pakistan of neglecting its own responsibilities in addressing cross-border terrorism.

This denial frustrates efforts to address the root causes of instability and terrorism in the region, contributing to ongoing tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Source: khaama.com

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https://www.khaama.com/pakistans-airstrikes-on-afghan-soil-violate-international-laws-faiq/

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Have no idea about Shakib joining 'king's party': Quader

Mar 19, 2024

Awami League General Secretary ObaidulQuader today said he has no idea about Shakib Al Hasan joining "king's party".

"I noticed the issue in the media. I have no idea about the matter. But Shakib participated in the election with the AL ticket and won. He got the primary membership of the party before seeking a nomination," he said.

Replying to a query, the AL general secretary said the ruling party does not need to create any "king's party". Many people wanted to form a political party before the national election to get gratuitous benefits.

Quader, the road transport and bridges minister, was talking to reporters after a views-exchange meeting with leaders of Sramik League and Krishak League of Dhaka south and north units at AL central office in the capital's Bangabandhu Avenue.

He said BNP leaders were talking nonsense as they are tired, and their activists are frustrated.

"The party [BNP] leaders are now criticising the government blindly in the name of iftar party. In fact, I don't know whether it is 'iftar party' or 'criticise party'. They are organising those ifatr parties only to criticise the Awami League, not to praise Almighty Allah," he said.

"They [BNP) should stop lying."

About an allegation of creating conflict and splitting the BNP, he said, "Why will we create a split in the BNP? We have no weaknesses. AL has many leaders and activists. The countrymen witnessed a massive crowd during the collection of AL nomination forms ahead of the last parliamentary polls. The AL has no crisis."

About a report on democracy of an observer team from the US, Quader said, "We have our own criteria of democracy. No one is perfect in the world. We also know it. A former president of the US has claimed that if he didn't get elected, there would be bloodbaths in the country. What type of democracy is it? Even the former president didn't accept the elected president of the US till now. So, it is difficult to understand the criteria of democracy."

About the prices of essentials, the AL general secretary said the prices of some commodities have already been reduced. The government is also trying to reduce the prices of other essential commodities.

Source: thedailystar.net

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https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/politics/news/bnp-leader-major-hafiz-denies-involvement-forming-kings-party-bnm-3570486

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BNP leader Major Hafiz denies involvement in forming ‘king's party’ BNM

Mar 19, 2024

Former minister and BNP Vice-Chairman Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed today trashed rumours that he was one of the key founders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Movement (BNM), also known as "king's party".

He rejected the accusation in a press briefing held at his Banani residence.

Hafiz said that amid dull political activities due to holy Ramadan, a photograph of him with cricketer-turned MP Shakib Al Hasan has created some ripples, Hafiz said.

He said cashing in on the picture, a few newspapers have been writing imaginary reports that have tarnished his image as a politician who served six times as a member of parliament and two times as a minister.

He said during his 37 years of political life, "I had good relation with both electronic and print media journalists and have respect for them".

"Nevertheless a few journalists who are not known to me and vice-versa are publishing news which are puzzling for me as well as my party and supporters," he added.

"I got a proposal to form a political party before the January 7 election. They brought Shakib Al Hasan to me, but I did not influence him to join the party," claimed Hafiz.

He asserted that he did nothing wrong.

"Did I join the BNM? Did I break the BNP?" he asked.

"It is clear that I got a proposal to join the party. But I rejected that. Now they are spreading rumours confusing my party and supporters," he said.

Hafiz said before January 7 election some important politicians from the ruling party started to make contact with him. "They noted I have differing views on BNP's policy-making. They assumed that I am eager to leave the BNP."

He said that he told them, after 32 years it is impossible to leave the party.

"I told them I am not physically well. Soon, I will retire from politics."

Major Hafiz said he also made it clear at a press briefing that he would remain with BNP.

Source: thedailystar.net

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https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/politics/news/deep-fake-videos-bnp-leaders-being-circulated-rizvi-3569166

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Southeast Asia

 

Cops record statements from eight individuals over ‘Allah’ socks issue

20 Mar 2024

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — The police have taken statements from eight individuals, including the owner and founder of KK Supermart and Superstore SdnBhd, over the recent issue involving the sale of socks bearing the word ‘Allah’.

Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department (JSJ) Secretariat when contacted by Bernama today, confirmed that all statements were recorded at the Bukit Aman Police Headquarters at 12.30pm yesterday.

According to JSJ, 80 police reports have been filed nationwide and the investigation conducted by the Classified Crime Investigation Unit (USJT) is still in its early stages.

“The USJT will conduct a thorough investigation into the sale of socks bearing the word Allah at the KK Mart Sunway convenience store.

This will involve identifying the procurement process and other relevant parties to determine those responsible,” said a spokesperson.

“Preliminary investigations by JSJ have indicated that the supplier involved is operating in BatuPahat, Johor. — Bernama

Source: malaymail.com

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Malaysia using all available diplomatic avenues on the issue of Palestine - FM Mohamad

19-03- 2024

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia through Wisma Putra is using all available diplomatic avenues, to pressure the global community, to act in the name of humanity on the issue of Palestine, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

He said Malaysia is currently collaborating closely with like-minded countries at the United Nations (UN) to pursue three key priorities.

“First, to institute an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Second, to establish safe and unhindered access, for the delivery of aid. And third, to ensure accountability, for violations of international law,” he said in his keynote address for Open Forum On The Issues of Palestine: Campaigning for Human Rights and International Law - What is Malaysia Role? at Universiti Malaya here today.

Mohamad said Malaysians must muster their strength and resilience, in championing the cause of the Palestinians.

He emphasised that while the road ahead may be long and challenging, Malaysia will never give up. Through discourse and advocacy programmes, we aim to garner more support from governments to stand on the side of humanity, he added.

He further stated that moving forward, Malaysia’s diplomatic and legal efforts will be guided by three broad pillars: addressing root causes, upholding international law, and ending impunity.

Elaborating on these three pillars, Mohamad emphasised that Palestinians have endured years of suffocating occupation, and such oppression must cease.

He stressed the importance of compelling the global community to acknowledge that Israel’s policies and practices blatantly violate international law. Malaysia must collaborate with like-minded countries to use all relevant platforms, including the Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court, to address Israel’s flagrant breaches of the rules.

Mohamad highlighted that ending impunity in international affairs includes reviewing the veto privilege, in the United Nations Security Council.

The veto has hindered the adoption of resolutions for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Malaysia consistently advocates for the elimination of the veto to uphold the UN Charter’s principle of equal sovereignty among all states, he said.

Mohamad expressed Malaysia’s belief that a sustained campaign can increase the reputational cost of using the veto in such circumstances.

He said Malaysia will not relent until Palestinians are able, to exercise their inalienable rights, without fear or intimidation, enjoy fundamental freedom, and live peacefully with dignity.

“We (Malaysia) will not stop, until Palestine assumes her rightful seat, as a full-fledged Member State of the United Nations. And I believe, that future generations of Malaysians, can one day look back with pride, that we were on the right side of history,” he said.

Source: thesun.my

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https://thesun.my/local_news/malaysia-using-all-available-diplomatic-avenues-on-the-issue-of-palestine-fm-mohamad-NC12235181

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HattaSanuri fails in bid to reinstate lawsuit over ICJ’s BatuPuteh decision

 20 Mar 2024

PUTRAJAYA, March 20 — The Federal Court here today dismissed MohdHattaSanuri’s application for leave to appeal, seeking to reinstate his lawsuit in connection with the government’s withdrawal of a review application on the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision on the sovereignty of BatuPuteh.

A three-judge panel led by Justice Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal unanimously found that his application lacked merit and failed to meet the requirements of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.

“The legal issues regarding locus standi and justiciable issues brought before the Federal Court have been decided.

“The issues regarding negligence and tort of misfeasance in public office have also been properly adjudicated. Therefore, the applicant’s application (for leave to appeal) is dismissed. There is no order as to costs,” said Justice Harmindar, who presided alongside Justice Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil.

On November 15, 2023, the Court of Appeal dismissed MohdHatta’s appeal after finding that he did not have the locus standi to initiate legal action against the Prime Minister and the government.

MohdHatta appealed against the July 1, 2023 decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court, which allowed the Prime Minister and the government, as defendants, to strike out the lawsuit.

In 2018, the PakatanHarapan government under the then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad withdrew the review application against the May 23, 2023 decision by the ICJ, which granted legislative authority over BatuPuteh (known as PedraBranca by Singapore) to Singapore, despite the trial date set for June 11, 2018.

On May 28, 2021, MohdHatta filed the lawsuit representing himself and over 32 million Malaysian citizens whom he alleged were affected by the withdrawal of the ICJ review by both defendants without prior discussion or presentation in Parliament.

In his statement of claim, MohdHatta sought an order for the defendants to provide a written explanation as to why they withdrew from the ICJ review application on June 1, 2018, when it had been initiated and filed with substantial evidence on February 3, 2017.

He also sought a declaration for both defendants to compensate each Malaysian citizen based on the value of land on BatuPuteh and the economic losses suffered by all, amounting to at least RM10 million each.

Furthermore, he sought an order for both defendants to provide a detailed account of all costs incurred in preparation for the ICJ review application by the second defendant (the government) from Feb 3, 2017, until the abrupt withdrawal on June 1, 2018.

In today’s proceedings, MohdHatta was represented by lawyer MohajiSelamat, while Senior Federal Counsel Shamsul Bolhassan acted on behalf of the Prime Minister and the government. — Bernama

Source: malaymail.com

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https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/03/20/hatta-sanuri-fails-in-bid-to-reinstate-lawsuit-over-icjs-batu-puteh-decision/124513

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Singapore charity makes donation appeal for affected families in Gaza during Ramadan

MAR 19, 2024

Fatimah Mujibah

SINGAPORE – A local charity is partnering with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) to organise a fund-raising appeal during the holy month of Ramadan to provide aid, relief and shelter for families and children affected by the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

“An estimated 1.7 million people, more than half of Gaza’s entire population, have been displaced – half of them being children – resulting in acute shortages of safe areas and shelters. Significant casualties were also documented in Gaza, with tens of thousands of children reported injured,” the charity, Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation (RLAF), said in a statement on March 19.

Donations can be made through various online platforms from March 20 to 26.

These can be made to RLAF at OCBC current account number 601313315001.

3. Cheque

Cheques should be made payable to RLAF and carry a donor’s name and contact number, and the name “GAZA2024”.

They should be posted to RLAF at YusofIshak Mosque, 10 Woodlands Drive 17, Singapore 737740; or to the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore at 273 Braddell Road, Singapore 579702.

4. Giving.sg’s online campaign

5. Mosques

Those who prefer to donate physically can do so at all mosques across the island, where there will be donation boxes labelled “Ramadan Appeal for Gaza”, only on March 22.

With no access to food, clean water and sanitation, children in Gaza are facing severe effects of disease and malnutrition, RLAF said. A household receives less than 1 litre of safe water per person each day, it added.

“Since mid-October 2023, more than 152,000 cases of diarrhoea have been reported, with over half of these affecting children. The scarcity of food remains a critical issue, with over 90 per cent of children aged six to 23 months experiencing severe food poverty, having access to only two or fewer food groups per day,” the organisation said.

All donations will be channelled through Unicef, which is actively operating on the ground to provide humanitarian aid to victims and families.

As per regulations by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, the donations are not tax-deductible as they are for foreign charitable purposes, RLAF said.

This is the second round of fund raising organised by RLAF for affected communities in Gaza.

The first, held from Oct 19 to Nov 17 in partnership with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, raised a total of $8,114,422 – the highest raised by RLAF.

Source: straitstimes.com

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https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-charity-makes-donation-appeal-for-affected-families-in-gaza-during-ramadan

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Arab World

 

Pilgrims urged to avoid crowding and preoccupying with photography during tawaf

March 20, 2024

MAKKAH — The General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque urged Umrah pilgrims to devote fully to worship while performing tawaf (circumambulation around the Holy Kaaba) at the Grand Mosque.

“Pilgrims have to devote fully to supplication to God in silence without raising their voice, respect the sanctity and status of the Holy Kaaba, and adhere to the etiquette of the Grand Mosque while performing tawaf. There should not be any inappropriate behavior on their part such as crowding or jostling or preoccupation with photography,” the authority instructed while urging the pilgrims to maintain peace and calm while performing tawaf.

The authority stated that the Umrah pilgrims can kiss the Black Stone (Al-Hajar Al-Aswad) only at times when there is no overcrowding if possible, and they can also perform the two rak’ats of voluntary prayer after tawaf at anywhere in the Grand Mosque.

It urged pilgrims and worshipers to avoid actions that may expose others to danger, such as chances of stampeding and overcrowding. “The Umrah performers should be keen to perform the rituals in the correct manner and they can go to the fatwa offices located throughout the Grand Mosque to get clarification for their doubts with regard to any religious matters. The pilgrims shall also to cooperate with the workers who were designated to serve them as well as to ensure their safety at the mataf,” the authority said while stressing that compliance with their directives contributes to the safety and comfort of the pilgrims and worshipers at the Grand Mosque.
Source: saudigazette.com.sa

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https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/641384/SAUDI-ARABIA/Pilgrims-urged-to-avoid-crowding-and-preoccupying-with-photography-during-tawaf

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Foreign Minister: Sana'a is firm in its position with Palestine until Zionist massacres in Gaza stop

[20/March/2024]

SANA'A March 20. 2024 (Saba) - The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the caretaker government, Eng. Hisham Sharaf, sent a letter to the President of the Security Council for the month of March 2024, Yamazaki Kazuyuki, in which he expressed the indignation and condemnation of the Republic of Yemen for the Council's statement issued on March 18, 2024.

"Unfortunately, the statement appeared to be issued by the capitals of the countries that support the Zionist enemy in the continuation of war crimes and genocide against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, in light of the shameful silence of the Security Council, which has so far been unable to carry out its responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security and protecting the lives of civilians in Palestine who suffer from hunger and genocide committed by the Zionist enemy," the foreign minister said in the letter.

He pointed out that the Zionist entity, by committing genocide in Gaza, has flouted all noble human values, international law and the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, because of its full confidence in the inability of the Security Council to take any measures against it as a result of the hijacking of the Council's resolution by the countries supporting the Israeli enemy.

The letter pointed out that the press release did not directly address the root causes of the escalation in the Red Sea region and Bab al-Mandab, and ignored all the calls made by most member states of the United Nations General Assembly, including Sana'a's repeated calls since the beginning of the Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip for the need to end the military aggression, lift the siege and the entry of humanitarian, food, pharmaceutical and fuel aid into the Gaza Strip without any obstacles.

It pointed out that the Yemeni national leadership, in response to the Yemeni popular demands for the importance of supporting Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, announced the imposition of a naval blockade on ships owned by the Israeli enemy or those heading to Palestinian ports, and instead of addressing the root causes, the Security Council succumbed to the pressure of a number of Council members and the adoption of Resolution No. 2722 of 2024, which is a precedent that establishes legal chaos on the international arena and the emergence of conflicts around the world, and represents a blatant example of political bullying and disregard for international law. The international conventions practiced by those capitals in the international arena are designed to cover up crimes and violations of international law, international humanitarian law and international conventions related to human rights and to prevent war crimes and genocide practiced by the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian people for 79 years.

The Foreign Minister's letter stressed that it is regrettable that the Security Council should move away from its functions and responsibilities set out in the Charter of the United Nations and be a partner in the legal chaos in the international arena.

The letter added, "Following the adoption of Resolution No. 2722 of 2024, America and Britain launched a military aggression against the Republic of Yemen on January 12, 2024, which constituted a flagrant violation of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, especially paragraph (4) of Article (2), which prevents member states in their international relations from threatening or using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state or in any other way inconsistent with the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, and the US-British aggression on Yemen continues without any legitimate or legal justification."

Minister Sharaf pointed out that the American-British disregard for the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations appeared in an attempt to impose its wrong interpretation of the principle of the right to self-defense in accordance with Article (51) of the Charter of the United Nations, since there is no Yemeni threat to America and Britain, but it is aggression within the framework of the unlimited support provided by countries supporting Israel, which practices war crimes and genocide against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

The letter stressed that the position of the Republic of Yemen, represented by the Supreme Political Council and the government, is clear and unambiguous and is consistent with the position of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and most member states of the United Nations General Assembly demanding an immediate cessation of the US-Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip.

He stated that despite the serious repercussions that caused the worst man-made humanitarian disaster as a result of being subjected to military aggression and a comprehensive blockade since March 26, 2015, it declared its full commitment to the Charter of the United Nations and all international and regional treaties and conventions, including its keenness on the safety of maritime trade and the security and stability of the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and did not resort to the maritime threat, only after the international community, and in particular the Security Council, was unable to stop the war crimes and genocide to which the Palestinian people are being subjected in the Gaza Strip.

The Foreign Minister's letter stressed that addressing the situation in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab and the Arabian Sea, to stop Sana'a's targeting of ships owned by the Zionist enemy and the American-British aggression or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine, is closely linked to addressing the root causes, represented in stopping Israeli aggression and the unhindered entry of humanitarian, food, therapeutic and pharmaceutical aid into the Gaza Strip.

The caretaker Foreign Minister reiterated that the Sana'a government holds the Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip as well as the practices of the US-British aggression responsible for the safety of maritime navigation and international trade in the Red Sea region, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Arabian Sea.

The letter stated that the presence of US-British forces is illegal, and is a form of occupation that must be condemned by all countries of the world so as not to escalate, which will lead all countries bordering the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea to fight it.

Source: saba.ye

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https://www.saba.ye/en/news3314506.htm

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Saudi Arabia: Al Mas’aa capacity at Grand mosque increased to 118,000 pilgrims per hour

March 19, 2024

Cairo: The capacity of Al Mas’aa, where the ritual Sa’i is performed at the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest place, in the Saudi city of Mecca has reached 118,000 pilgrims per hour due to expansion works.

Sa’i, a rite undertaken by pilgrims in annual Hajj and Umrah or minor pilgrimage, is walking seven times back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwa located in the eastern part of the Grand Mosque.

The space between the two hills is called Al Mas’aa.

Al Mas’aa is 394 metres long and 40 metres wide, with the total distance covered by the pilgrim during the seven trips back and forth amounting to around 2.7km.

The S’ai rite is a tribute to Hajar, the wife of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), for her struggle in search of water to quench thirst of their infant child Ismail (Ishmael).

The latest expansion introduced into the site has increased the width of Al Mas’aa to reach 40 metres instead of 20 while the overall area of its building structure and associated services totals 125,000 square metres, the Saudi news agency SPA reported.

The capacity increase remarkably eases pilgrim congestion and ensures their safety particularly at peak seasons. The

Umrah, which can be undertaken round the year at the Grand Mosque, comprises two key rituals: Tawaf or the circumambulation of the Holy Kaaba; and Sa’i.

Ramadan usually marks the peak season of Umrah when worshippers from inside and outside Saudi Arabia flock to the Grand Mosque.

The numbers of Umrah pilgrims reached record 13.5 million last year, Saudi Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq Al Rabiah said in January.

Saudi Arabia, Islam’s birthplace, has in recent months introduced a host of facilities for Muslims wishing to come to the country for Umrah.

Saudi authorities have extended the Umrah visa from 30 days to 90 and allowed holders to enter the kingdom via all land, air and sea outlets and leave from any airport.

Furthermore, Saudi Arabia has allowed its citizens to apply for inviting their friends abroad to visit the kingdom and undertake Umrah.

Women pilgrims are no longer required to be escorted by male guardians. The kingdom has also said that expatriates residing in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are eligible to apply for a tourist visa, regardless of their profession, and be able to perform Umrah.

Early preparations are already underway in Saudi Arabia for Hajj due this year in June in and around Mecca.

Source: gulfnews.com

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https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-arabia-al-masaa-capacity-at-grand-mosque-increased-to-118000-pilgrims-per-hour-1.101724789

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Makkah Royal Commission: Great reward for prayer at any mosques within the Haram boundary 

March 20, 2024

MAKKAH — The Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites urged the people and residents of Makkah to ease the burden on the guests of God by opting to perform prayers in any mosques within the boundaries of the Haram. “The great reward for performing prayer can be obtained in all mosques in the entire area within the boundaries of the Haram,” the commission said on the occasion of launching its awareness campaign titled “All of Makkah is Haram.”

The commission stressed that the residents of Makkah, as well as visitors and pilgrims shall understand the greatness of the Haram by praying in any of the mosques within the boundaries of the Haram especially since all of its mosques represent a gateway to exploring the Holy Capital.

The commission confirmed that there is great reward for performing prayer at all mosques in the city of Makkah located within the boundaries of the Haram. “The spirituality that the guests of God find in Makkah is not limited to the Grand Mosque only, but extends outside it and expands to include all other mosques, such as the Ayesha Al-Rajhi Mosque, Al-Balad Al-Amin Complex Mosque, Abdul Qadir Al-Nusair Mosque, Al-Muhajireen Mosque, King Abdulaziz Mosque, Princess Fahda Al-Sudairi Mosque and Sheikh Ibn Baz Mosque,” it said.

The campaign aims to make aware of visitors and Umrah pilgrims about the spiritual characteristics of Makkah, the great reward for performance of rituals therein, focus on the religious attractions within the Haram boundary, and make aware of the sanctity of these spots, which make it imperative for those who visit them to sense the spiritual meanings in every spot within the boundaries of the Haram.

It is noteworthy that the borders of the Makkah Haram extend to the north of Makkah up to five kilometers to Al-Tanim, to the west towards Jeddah governorate up to a distance of 18 km, to the south towards the holy site of Arafat from the Grand Mosque up to 20 km, and to 14.5 kilometers east of Makkah at Jaarana. The total area of the Haram’s boundaries is estimated at 560 square kilometers.

The commission stated that the campaign comes from its belief in the role of the individual and society in glorifying the signs of God, and making aware of visitors and pilgrims about the sanctity of these spots. The campaign also aims to make aware of the spiritual implications of every spot within the boundaries of the Haram.

Source: saudigazette.com.sa

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https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/641386/SAUDI-ARABIA/Makkah-Royal-Commission-Great-reward-for-prayer-at-any-mosques-within-the-Haram-boundary-nbsp

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