[bauaw] Bay Area United Against War Newsletter, April 10, 2024
- From: bonnieweinstein <giobon@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: BAUAW <bauaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2024 10:40:28 -0700
No Taxes for War and Genocide!We oppose our taxes being used to kill innocent Gazans!! No business as usual on April 15. Immediate ceasefire; humanitarian aid to Gaza NOW!Monday, April 15, NoonRally at UN Plaza, Market St. and Hyde St., San Francisco
The UN Plaza, so named for the founding of the UN in 1945, is where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights originated. Article 1 of the Declaration: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
Parade 12:30 P.M.Parade to IRS Office at 450 Golden Gate Ave.Family-friendly parade; banners, posters, streamers, drums, kazoos. Activist dogs invited!
Musicians, dancers, actors, artists, poets, clowns: join the parade and the action at the IRS!
At IRS: tax refusal teach-in, street theater, bannering, children’s activities, sidewalk chalking, ceasefire postcards, music, snacks, sit-in.
· Divest from the War Economy!
· Defund the Pentagon!
· Stop paying for wars, occupations and sanctions on Gaza, Cuba, Haiti, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen!
Over 50 percent of our taxes go to fund the Pentagon’s forever wars. Profits are up 60 percent for the “Merchants of Death:” Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon (RTX), Grumman, etc. We pay for 800 U.S. Military Bases Worldwide.
· Invest in a Peace Economy!
We want our taxes to fund healthcare, housing, education, clean energy, child and elder care, transportation, clean air and water, student debt relief, safe bridges and roadways, libraries-- not war, fear, and misery.
We’ll stop the U.S. war machine when we stop funding it! Tens of thousands of innocent Gazans have been killed by the Israeli military with U.S. weapons we paid for. We have spent billions of dollars on weapons for the Israeli military. We supply 60 percent of the weapons Israel is using to kill innocent civilians in Gaza. We demand that Congress and President Biden stop funding weapons to Israel, call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, no additional funding, and halting weapons “already in the pipeline.”
Hosted by CODEPINK Bay Area. Endorsers (list in formation): SF Gray Panthers, Extinction Rebellion Peace, ANSWER Coalition, Veterans for Peace, (more will be added as they come in!)
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Family housing in Rafa.
See Gaza Strip Access Restrictions.pdf since 2007 at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gaza_Strip_Access_Restrictions.pdfPalestinians killed and wounded by Israel:As of April 10, 2024, the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel is now over 33,360,* 75,993 wounded, and more than 456 Palestinians have been killed and 4,600 wounded by Israel in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.*** The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) and the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission released a new tally of Palestinians detained by "Israel", revealing that the number of Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank has risen to more than 6,115.
Israel lowers its estimated October 7 death toll from 1,400 to 1,139—604 Israeli soldiers killed since ground invasion, 3,302 wounded**
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 40,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
*** The death toll in West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to PA’s Ministry of Health on March 17, this is the latest figure.
Source: mondoweiss.net
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!FOR A DEMOCRATIC, SECULAR PALESTINE!*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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Boris Kagarlitsky is in Prison!
On February 13, the court overturned the previous decision on release and sent Boris Kagarlitsky to prison for five years.
Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison.
Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles.
The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested.
On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release.
The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison.
The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences.
There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering.
Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course.
We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally.
We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest.
Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitskyhttps://freeboris.infoThe petition is also available on Change.org
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*Major Announcement*Claudia De la Cruz winsPeace and Freedom Party primary in California!
We have an exciting announcement. The votes are still being counted in California, but the Claudia-Karina “Vote Socialist” campaign has achieved a clear and irreversible lead in the Peace and Freedom Party primary. Based on the current count, Claudia has 46% of the vote compared to 40% for Cornel West. A significant majority of PFP’s newly elected Central Committee, which will formally choose the nominee at its August convention, have also pledged their support to the Claudia-Karina campaign.
We are excited to campaign in California now and expect Claudia De la Cruz to be the candidate on the ballot of the Peace and Freedom Party in November.
We achieved another big accomplishment this week - we’re officially on the ballot in Hawai’i! This comes after also petitioning to successfully gain ballot access in Utah. We are already petitioning in many other states. Each of these achievements is powered by the tremendous effort of our volunteers and grassroots organizers across the country. When we’re organized, people power can move mountains!
We need your help to keep the momentum going. Building a campaign like this takes time, energy, and money. We know that our class enemies — the billionaires, bankers, and CEO’s — put huge sums toward loyal politicians and other henchmen who defend their interests. They will use all the money and power at their disposal to stop movements like ours. As an independent, socialist party, our campaign is relying on contributions from the working class and people like you.
We call on each and every one of our supporters to set up a monthly or one-time donation to support this campaign to help it keep growing and reaching more people. A new socialist movement, independent of the Democrats and Republicans, is being built but it will only happen when we all pitch in.
The Claudia-Karina campaign calls to end all U.S. aid to Israel. End this government’s endless wars. We want jobs for all, with union representation and wages that let us live with dignity. Housing, healthcare, and education for all - without the lifelong debt. End the ruthless attacks on women, Black people, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. These are just some of the demands that are resonating across the country. Help us take the next step:
Volunteer: https://votesocialist2024.com/volunteer
Donate: https://votesocialist2024.com/donate
See you in the streets,
Claudia & Karina
Don't Forget! Join our telegram channel for regular updates: https://t.me/+KtYBAKgX51JhNjMx
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We are all Palestinian
Listen and view this beautiful, powerful, song by Mistahi Corkill on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQwuhbLczgI
Greetings,
Here is my new song and music video, We are all Palestinian, linked below. If you find it inspiring, please feel free to share with others. All the best!
Mistahi
We are all Palestinian
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Labor for Palestine
Thousands of labor representatives marched Saturday, December 16, in Oakland, California. —Photo by Leon Kunstenaar
Video of December 16th Labor rally for Palestine.Bay Area Unions and Workers Rally and March For Palestine In Oaklandhttps://youtu.be/L9k79honqIA
www.labormedia.net
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Just Like The Nazis Did
By David Rovics
After so many decades of patronage
By the world’s greatest empire
So many potential agreements
Were rejected by opening fire
After crushing so many uprisings
Now they’re making their ultimate bid
Pursuing their Final Solution
Just like the Nazis did
They forced refugees into ghettos
Then set the ghettos aflame
Murdering writers and poets
And so no one remember their names
Killing their entire families
The grandparents, women and kids
The uncles and cousins and babies
Just like the Nazis did
They’re bombing all means of sustaining
Human life at all
See the few shelters remaining
Watch as the tower blocks fall
They’re bombing museums and libraries
In order to get rid
Of any memory of the people who lived here
Just like the Nazis did
They’re saying these people are animals
And they should all end up dead
They’re sending soldiers into schools
And shooting children in the head
The rhetoric is identical
And with Gaza off the grid
They’ve already said what happens next
Just like the Nazis did
Words of war for domestic consumption
And lies for all the rest
To try to distract our attention
Among their enablers in the West
Because Israel needs their imports
To keep those pallets on the skids
They need fuel and they need missiles
Just like the Nazis did
They’re using food as a weapon
They’re using water that way, too
They’re trying to kill everyone in Gaza
Or make them flee, it’s true
As the pundits talk of “after the war”
Like with the Fall of Madrid
The victors are preparing for more
Just like the Nazis did
But it’s after the conquest’s complete
If history is any guide
When the occupying army
Is positioned to decide
When disease and famine kills
Whoever may have hid
Behind the ghetto walls
Just like the Nazis did
All around the world
People are trying to tell
There's a genocide unfolding
Ringing alarm bells
But with such a powerful axis
And so many lucrative bids
They know who wants their money
Just like the Nazis did
There's so many decades of patronage
For the world's greatest empire
So many potential agreements
Were rejected by opening fire
They're crushing so many uprisings
Now they're making their ultimate bid
Pursuing their final solution
Just like the Nazis did
Just like the Nazis did
Just like the Nazis did
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Free Julian Assange
Please call your Congressional Representatives, the White House, and the DOJ. Calls are tallied—they do count. We are to believe we are represented in this country. This is a political case, so our efforts can change things politically as well. Please take this action as often as you can:
Find your representatives:
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Leave each of your representatives a message individually to:
· Drop the charges against Julian Assange
· Speak out publicly against the indictment and
· Sign on to Rashida Tlaib's letter to the DOJ to drop the charges:
202-224-3121—Capitol Main Switchboard
Leave a message on the White House comment line to Demand Julian Assange be pardoned:
202-456-1111
Tuesday–Thursday, 11:00 A.M.–3:00 P.M. EST
Call the DOJ and demand they drop the charges against Julian Assange:
202-353-1555—DOJ Comment Line
202-514-2000 Main Switchboard
https://dontextraditeassange.com/petition/
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical Defense Fund, Official 2024Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
Prison Radio is a project of the Redwood Justice Fund (RJF), which is a California 501c3 (Tax ID no. 680334309) not-for-profit foundation dedicated to the defense of the environment and of civil and human rights secured by law. Prison Radio/Redwood Justice Fund PO Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94141*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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Greetings Relatives,
Leonard is in trouble, physically. He is experiencing the onset of blindness. He is losing strength in his limbs. His blood sugar is testing erratically. This, on top of already severe conditions that have become dire. Leonard has not seen a dentist in ten years. His few remaining teeth are infected. He is locked down, in pain.
As always, Leonard’s fortitude remains astonishing. He is not scared of dying. He does not want to die in lockdown.
Our legal team has an emergency transfer underway. They are going to extraordinary lengths. We must get a top ophthalmologist to him. Thanks to your calls, the BOP did see him. They told him a specialist would be 8 - 10 weeks out.
Leonard does not have eight to ten weeks. He needs emergency care immediately.
If you can, please donate to this GoFundMe. Every penny matters. If you cannot, please share. If you are so inclined, go to www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org and contact the officials listed.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-leonard-peltier-get-medical-care-freedom?utm_campaign=p_cp+fundraiser-sidebar&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
As always, thank you for your support.
Dawn Lawson
Personal Assistant Leonard Peltier
Executive Assistant Jenipher Jones, Esq.
Secretary Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee
1-800-901-4413
dawn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
Coleman 1 has gone on permanent lockdown.
The inmates are supposed to be allowed out two hours a day. I have not heard from Leonard since the 18th.
The last time I talked to Leonard, he asked where his supporters were. He asked me if anyone cared about these lockdowns.
Leonard lives in a filthy, cold cell 22 to 24 hours a day. He has not seen a dentist in ten years. I asked him, “On a scale of 1 to 10, is your pain level at 13?” He said, “Something like that.” Leonard is a relentless truth-teller. He does not like it when I say things that do not make sense mathematically.
That is why Leonard remains imprisoned. He will not lie. He will not beg, grovel, or denounce his beliefs.
Please raise your voice. Ask your representatives why they have abdicated their responsibility to oversee the Bureau of Prisons and ensure they adhere to Constitutional law.
Uhuru, The African People’s Socialist Party, has stepped up for Leonard. NOT ONE MORE YEAR.
Fight for Free Speech – YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM8GDeGv90E
Leonard should not have spent a day in prison. Click “LEARN” on our website to find out what really happened on that reservation:
www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
Write to:
Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP Coleman 1
P.O. Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521
Note: Letters, address and return address must be in writing—no stickers—and on plain white paper.
Video at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWdJdODKO6M&feature=youtu.be
Sign our petition urging President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier:
https://www.freeleonardpeltier.com/petition
Email: contact@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Address: 116 W. Osborne Ave. Tampa, Florida 33603
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A Never-ending Constitutional Violation
A summary of the current status of Kevin Cooper’s case by the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
On October 26, 2023, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP wrote a rebuttal in response to the Special Counsel's January 13, 2023 report upholding the conviction of their client Kevin Cooper. A focus of the rebuttal was that all law enforcement files were not turned over to the Special Counsel during their investigation, despite a request for them to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office.
On October 29, 2023, Law Professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever, who run the six member panel that reviews wrongful convictions for the San Francisco County District Attorney's office, published an OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle calling the "Innocence Investigation” done by the Special Counsel in the Cooper case a “Sham Investigation” largely because Cooper has unsuccessfully fought for years to obtain the police and prosecutor files in his case. This is a Brady claim, named for the U.S. Supreme court’s 1963 case establishing the Constitutional rule that defendants are entitled to any information in police and prosecutor's possession that could weaken the state's case or point to innocence. Brady violations are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The Special Counsel's report faults Cooper for not offering up evidence of his own despite the fact that the best evidence to prove or disprove Brady violations or other misconduct claims are in those files that the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office will not turn over to the Special Counsel or to Cooper's attorneys.
On December 14, 2023, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, sent Governor Gavin Newsom a three page letter on behalf of the ABA stating in part that Mr.Cooper's counsel objected to the state's failure to provide Special Counsel all documents in their possession relating to Mr.Cooper's conviction, and that concerns about missing information are not new. For nearly 40 years Mr.Cooper's attorneys have sought this same information from the state.
On December 19, 2023, Bob Egelko, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the ABA letter to the Governor that the prosecutors apparently withheld evidence from the Governor's legal team in the Cooper case.
These are just a few recent examples concerning the ongoing failure of the San Bernardino County District Attorney to turn over to Cooper's attorney's the files that have been requested, even though under the law and especially the U.S. Constitution, the District Attorney of San Bernardino county is required to turn over to the defendant any and all material and or exculpatory evidence that they have in their files. Apparently, they must have something in their files because they refuse to turn them over to anyone.
The last time Cooper's attorney's received files from the state, in 2004, it wasn't from the D.A. but a Deputy Attorney General named Holly Wilkens in Judge Huff's courtroom. Cooper's attorneys discovered a never before revealed police report showing that a shirt was discovered that had blood on it and was connected to the murders for which Cooper was convicted, and that the shirt had disappeared. It had never been tested for blood. It was never turned over to Cooper's trial attorney, and no one knows where it is or what happened to it. Cooper's attorneys located the woman who found that shirt on the side of the road and reported it to the Sheriff's Department. She was called to Judge Huff's court to testify about finding and reporting that shirt to law enforcement. That shirt was the second shirt found that had blood on it that was not the victims’ blood. This was in 2004, 19 years after Cooper's conviction.
It appears that this ongoing constitutional violation that everyone—from the Special Counsel to the Governor's legal team to the Governor himself—seems to know about, but won't do anything about, is acceptable in order to uphold Cooper's conviction.
But this type of thing is supposed to be unacceptable in the United States of America where the Constitution is supposed to stand for something other than a piece of paper with writing on it. How can a Governor, his legal team, people who support and believe in him ignore a United States citizen’s Constitutional Rights being violated for 40 years in order to uphold a conviction?
This silence is betrayal of the Constitution. This permission and complicity by the Governor and his team is against everything that he and they claim to stand for as progressive politicians. They have accepted the Special Counsel's report even though the Special Counsel did not receive the files from the district attorney that may not only prove that Cooper is innocent, but that he was indeed framed by the Sheriff’s Department; and that evidence was purposely destroyed and tampered with, that certain witnesses were tampered with, or ignored if they had information that would have helped Cooper at trial, that evidence that the missing shirt was withheld from Cooper's trial attorney, and so much more.
Is the Governor going to get away with turning a blind eye to this injustice under his watch?
Are progressive people going to stay silent and turn their eyes blind in order to hopefully get him to end the death penalty for some while using Cooper as a sacrificial lamb?
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Mr. Kevin Cooper
C-65304. 4-EB-82
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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The writers' organization PEN America is circulating this petition on behalf of Jason Renard Walker, a Texas prisoner whose life is being threatened because of his exposés of the Texas prison system.
See his book, Reports from within the Belly of the Beast; available on Amazon at:
https://www.amazon.com/Reports-Within-Belly-Beast-Department-ebook/dp/B084656JDZ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-whistleblowers-in-carceral-settings
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Tell Congress to Help #FreeDanielHale
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Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@xxxxxxxxx
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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Articles
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1) Under U.S. pressure, Israel said more aid would go to Gaza. Is that happening?
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg, April 9, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/09/world/israel-gaza-war-news-hamasA Palestinian carries boxes of aid distributed before Eid al-Fitr holiday in Deir al Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Monday. Credit...Ramadan Abed/Reuters
Four days after Israel promised to enable a major increase in aid reaching the Gaza Strip, it was unclear on Monday whether much had changed, or when it might, amid widely divergent claims about the amount of food and other vital supplies entering the territory.
Israeli airstrikes a week ago killed seven aid workers who had been delivering food in Gaza, renewing the international focus on the hunger crisis there. Under pressure from President Biden, the Israeli government, which insists on inspecting all supplies to Gaza, said last Thursday that it would take steps to increase aid deliveries, though it gave no date for the changes.
The Israeli unit that supervises aid deliveries into Gaza, COGAT, said on Monday that 322 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies were inspected and transferred to the territory on Sunday and that more than 70 percent of them carried food. That figure was the highest since the start of the war, it said.
But UNRWA, the primary United Nations agency aiding Palestinians, said that 103 aid trucks crossed into Gaza on Sunday.
The two sources often disagree on the volume of aid reaching the enclave, but the latest discrepancy was especially striking, and the reasons for it were unclear.
Until now, almost all aid for Gaza has entered through two southern border crossings, at Rafah and Kerem Shalom. Israel has recently allowed limited use of a third crossing farther north. Aid groups accuse Israel of restricting deliveries, which Israel denies; COGAT said Sunday on social media, “There is no limit to the amount of aid that can be facilitated for the civilians in Gaza,” repeating a line it has used for month.
Israel said last week that it would use the Erez border crossing into northern Gaza and the Israeli port of Ashdod, around 20 miles northeast of Gaza, to allow supplies to reach the territory. The threat of famine is most acute in the north.
The United States hopes that 350 aid trucks will enter Gaza each day by later this week, the State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said on Monday, adding that the Biden administration expects Israel to ensure “a sustained” increase in aid deliveries to the territory.
Speaking at a daily news briefing, Mr. Miller said that Israel had taken “initial positive steps over the past few days” after President Biden warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that U.S. policy toward Israel could change if more is not done to feed and protect the people of Gaza.
Aid workers caution that any solution to the hunger crisis, which the United Nations says borders on famine, requires a sustained increase in the amount of aid that enters the territory as well as more medical staff trained in how to treat the effects of malnutrition. They also say it is unwise to look at a single day’s figures, given daily fluctuations, and that, above all, a cease-fire is needed so that civilians and humanitarian staff can operate in safety.
Before the conflict, around 500 commercial and aid trucks entered Gaza each day. Since Oct. 7, when Israel announced a siege of the territory, the number of trucks has varied but on average around 106 have entered Gaza each day, according to the U.N. data. For its part, COGAT’s figures show an average of around 115 trucks entering per day.
Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said that Gaza needs 500 trucks of aid each day, for weeks and months, to remedy the crisis.
In the short term, the situation in north Gaza could worsen. The seven aid workers killed last week worked for World Central Kitchen and had been working to deliver hundreds of tons of aid that had arrived by ship to northern Gaza. The organization has since suspended its operations in Gaza, and the World Food Program said it only managed to get 47 trucks of aid to north Gaza, something it called a “drop in the ocean of need.”
The United States Central Command said it had airdropped aid to northern Gaza by parachute on Sunday. Several governments have conducted airdrops over Gaza in recent weeks but aid officials say that they are less efficient than overland deliveries.
Michael Crowley contributed reporting.
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2) Haniyeh said the killing of his children and grandchildren would not soften Hamas’s positions.
By Cassandra Vinograd, April 10, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/10/world/israel-gaza-war-news-hamasIsmail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader, in Beirut in 2021. Credit...Aziz Taher/Reuters
The political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said in an online statement on Wednesday that an Israeli strike had killed three of his sons and some of his grandchildren in Gaza.
The Israeli military said it was looking into reports about the strike, which Hamas-affiliated media said took place in the northern part of the enclave and killed six people in total.
Mr. Haniyeh called his sons martyrs in an statement on the group’s official Telegram account, and said they had remained in the Gaza Strip, while he heads Hamas’s political bureau from exile.
Hamas’s critics have accused the organization’s leadership of living luxurious lifestyles abroad as the people in Gaza suffer under Israeli bombardment and increasingly dire humanitarian conditions. But Mr. Haniyeh, who has long shuttled between Qatar and Turkey, likened his pain to that of all Gazans on Wednesday and cast his loss in the broader context of Palestinian suffering.
“All our people and the families of Gaza residents have paid a heavy price with the blood of their children, and I am one of them,” he said in the statement. He added that “the blood of my sons is not more precious” than the blood of others killed in the enclave. Gazan health authorities say about 32,000 people have been killed in Israeli bombardments and ground operations.
He also expressed defiance, saying that the killings would not change the positions held by Hamas, which has been negotiating with Israel through international mediators seeking to broker a cease-fire and secure the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
“What the enemy failed to extract through killing, destruction and annihilation, he will not take in the negotiations,” the statement said.
Aaron Boxerman and Adam Rasgon contributed reporting.
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3) There are few signs of progress despite Israeli pledges to help boost aid to Gaza.
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Vivian Yee and Lauren Leatherby, April 10, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/10/world/israel-gaza-war-news-hamas
Aid was unloaded at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Saturday. Credit...Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
Nearly a week after Israel pledged to increase aid to Gaza by reopening a border crossing and accepting aid shipments at an Israeli port, neither the crossing nor the port has been put to the promised use, and there is no apparent sign of preparations to use them.
Facing international condemnation after an Israeli airstrike killed seven workers for an international aid group, Israel said it would reopen the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza for aid delivery. But satellite imagery taken on Tuesday shows that the road leading to Erez on the Gaza side remains blocked by rubble from a destroyed building, a crater and other damage.
The damage was also seen in satellite imagery last month and again last Friday. Though there may be other ways for aid trucks to pass at Erez, there is no apparent sign in the latest imagery that repairs are being carried out to make the main road passable. Before Israel closed it at the start of the war, the crossing was used by pedestrians, not supply trucks.
Shimon Freedman, a spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees policy for the Palestinian territories, declined to comment on when the Erez crossing or the port at Ashdod, around 20 miles northeast of Gaza on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, would be opened for aid deliveries.
The United Nations says that a man-made famine is looming in Gaza, and many experts say that conditions in northern Gaza — which has mostly been cut off from aid deliveries since early in the war — already meet the criteria for a famine to be declared there. In that part of the territory, a few hundred thousand people are surviving on an average of 245 calories a day, according to Oxfam, an aid group.
Aid groups, the United Nations and a growing number of governments blame Israel for restricting aid into Gaza. U.N. figures show that an average of about 110 aid trucks have entered each day since Oct. 7. Though the daily average has risen since February, it is still far lower than the 500 trucks of commercial goods and aid that arrived in Gaza each day before the war.
Israel maintains that aid agencies have failed in their responsibility to distribute the aid. The groups say Israel has not created safe conditions that would allow them to distribute aid effectively.
The count of aid trucks Israel has allowed into Gaza recently has also been the subject of contention, raising questions about how to gauge the results of another pledge Israel made after the deadly airstrike against aid workers, which was to boost the number of trucks being screened at two existing crossings into southern Gaza.
Israel says the number has spiked, with COGAT writing in a social media post on Wednesday that an average of 400 trucks had entered per day over three recent days. The agency also posted photographs of street vendors selling cucumbers, potatoes and juice with the caption “market scenes in northern Gaza.”
People in northern Gaza have said in interviews that the little food available in street markets has long been out of reach for most, with many items priced at several times their original cost.
By contrast, U.N. data shows that a total of 533 aid trucks entered Gaza in the three days after Saturday. More broadly, U.N. figures show no increase in the daily average of trucks going into Gaza in the first week of April, compared to the previous week.
The reasons for the discrepancy are not clear, but one is the differing methods Israel and the United Nations use to track trucks, said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian office.
Trucks screened — and counted — by Israel at the two working border crossings usually enter Gaza only half full, after Israeli inspectors prohibit some of their contents, said Mr. Laerke. Once inside Gaza, they are unloaded, repacked as full trucks and sent to warehouses operated by the United Nations, which counts the number of full trucks that arrive, likely leading to a lower tally.
Other complications also mean that trucks often don’t pass through a crossing and arrive at a warehouse in the same day, meaning the daily counts at crossings and the warehouses often do not match, he said.
In a statement on Wednesday, COGAT criticized the U.N.’s “flawed counting method,” which it called “an attempt to conceal their logistical distribution difficulties.”
Previous Israeli promises to scale up aid have not greatly increased deliveries. Under U.S. pressure in mid-December, Israel reopened one crossing to Gaza, Kerem Shalom, for aid trucks, committing to permit 200 trucks a day to enter. But aid agencies say that stringent Israeli inspections have kept the numbers far lower than what is needed.
And Mr. Laerke and other aid officials said enormous challenges remain to distributing the aid inside Gaza, particularly to the north, where Israel has denied access for UNRWA, the main U.N. relief agency working in the territory.
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4) Which countries are the biggest suppliers to Israel’s military?
By Victoria Kim, April 10, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/10/world/israel-gaza-war-news-hamasIsraeli soldiers in Gaza last month. Credit...Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
Mounting international condemnation of the civilian suffering wrought by Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has put a spotlight on countries that are the biggest suppliers of funding and arms to Israel’s armed forces.
In the United States, by far Israel’s biggest military supplier, Democratic lawmakers are putting increasing pressure on President Biden to condition future military aid on Israel doing more to protect Gaza’s civilians. Germany, the second-largest arms supplier to Israel, this week defended itself at the United Nations’ highest court against allegations that its weapons sales made it complicit in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Even governments that account for a far smaller portion of aid or weapons sales to Israel are facing heated domestic debates and legal challenges over those supplies — with parliamentary votes or court orders putting a stop to exports in some countries.
Here is a look at the biggest suppliers to Israel’s military:
United States
The United States has a long history of sending aid to Israel, stretching back to the 1940s. In recent decades, most of the assistance has been in the form of military aid. In 2016, the Obama administration signed a 10-year agreement to supply Israel with $3.8 billion annually, most of that in foreign military financing grants, which allow Israel to buy American weaponry.
From 2019 to 2023, the United States supplied 69 percent of Israel’s arms imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks the global weapons trade. President Biden has also been pushing for $14 billion in additional spending for Israel and for U.S. military operations in the Middle East, though approval for the funding remains stalled in Congress.
While support for Israel once had reliable bipartisan support in Washington, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has prompted a chorus of Democrats in Congress to urge Mr. Biden to leverage American weapons sales to try to change Israel’s decision making in the war.
“My concern is that particularly when those bombs are coming from this country, we have a responsibility as well,” Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday.
The State Department said in March that it had received written assurances from Israel — as the United States requires of all countries that receive American arms — that the supplied weapons would be used in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Germany
In 2023, Germany approved sending military equipment to Israel valued at about $353 million, according to data from the country’s economics ministry, roughly 10 times more than what was approved the previous year. From 2019 to 2023, German exports made up 30 percent of the arms bought by Israel, according to the Stockholm institute.
In the past, Germany’s leaders have considered support for Israel to be a historic duty to atone for the Holocaust. In hearings this week at the International Court of Justice, a U.N. court in The Hague, lawyers for Germany pushed back against arguments that it was abetting genocide in Gaza by arguing that most of Germany’s military exports to Israel since the war began in October were nonlethal, including protective gear and communications equipment.
Other countries
From 2019 to 2023, Italy was the third-largest seller of arms to Israel, according to the Stockholm institute, though it accounted for just 0.9 percent of Israel’s military imports.
Since the war in Gaza began, those sales have been a source of contention.
Italy’s foreign minister in January told reporters that all weapons shipments to Israel had been suspended since Oct. 7. The defense minister, however, told the country’s Parliament that exports had continued, but that only previously agreed-upon orders were being sent, according to news reports.
Britain, whose defense exports to Israel totaled about $53 million in 2022, has said it will not suspend those sales despite growing pressure from opposition lawmakers. Foreign Secretary David Cameron, at a news conference alongside Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in Washington, said on Tuesday that based upon the “most recent advice” about Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, Britain’s position on military exports was “unchanged.”
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