Yeni Safak – August 3, 2024
Israeli army says it detected 10 rockets fired from Gaza, triggering activation of sirens
Anadolu Agency
The Israeli army said Friday it detected the firing of 10 rockets from Gaza toward southern Israeli settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip.
It said in a statement that the rockets were fired from southern Gaza, setting off sirens in the settlements near Gaza.
Nine rockets landed in open areas and one was intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system, it claimed.
No injuries or damage were reported.
Palestinian resistance groups have yet to comment on the announcement.
Israel raised its alert state on Thursday following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, chief of Hamas political bureau, in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Wednesday.
Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.
Nearly 39,500 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 91,000 injured, according to local health authorities.
Almost 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
Anadou Agency – August 3, 2024
Israel arrests Al Aqsa Mosque Imam for mourning Ismail Haniyeh
Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher Sheikh Ekrima Sabri was released by Israeli authorities on Friday after being detained for several hours and ordered to be deported from the mosque. 
His lawyer Khaled Zabarka told Anadolu that the Israeli authorities released Sheikh Ekrima and ordered his deportation from the mosque until Aug. 8, with a possibility to extend his deportation for six months.
Earlier on Friday, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri was arrested early Israeli police for mourning and eulogizing slain Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Haniyeh was assassinated on Wednesday in Tehran, Iran’s capital. While Hamas and Iran blamed Israel for the killing, Tel Aviv has not confirmed or denied its responsibility.
One of Sabri's relatives told Anadolu that Israeli police stormed into his house in occupied East Jerusalem and arrested him.
Following the Friday prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sabri led a funeral prayer in absentia for Haniyeh.
"The people of Jerusalem and the environs of Jerusalem from the pulpit of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque mourn the martyr Ismail Haniyeh," he said while giving a sermon.
The 85-year-old preacher had previously been detained by Israeli forces and was barred from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem for months.
Sabri is a staunch critic of the decades-long Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. He had previously held the position of mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories from 1994 to 2006.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-releases-iman-sheikh-ekrima-sabri-deports-him-from-al-aqsa-mosque/3293728
Türkiye restricts Instagram for censoring Palestine content
Communications Director Altun also slammed the social media platform, saying it was "actively preventing people from posting condolences on the death of Hamas leader [Ismail] Haniyeh without citing any policy violations".
The Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority (TKM) has said it blocked access to Instagram.
Sources familiar with the matter told TRT World that Instagram access was halted due to removing Haniyeh-related content on a national day of mourning, citing "catalogue crimes" behind the decision.
Head of Türkiye's Communications Directorate Fahrettin Altun harshly criticised the social media platform, saying it "is actively preventing people from posting messages of condolences for the passing of Hamas leader [Ismail] Haniyeh without citing any policy violations."
"This is censorship, pure and simple," Altun said in a post on X on Wednesday after Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran.
"We will defend freedom of speech against these platforms that have showed many times that they are primarily in the service of global exploitative system of injustice," he added.
Türkiye declared a day of national mourning over the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced.
"To show our support for the Palestinian cause and our solidarity with our Palestinian brothers, a one-day national mourning has been declared tomorrow (Friday, August 2) due to the martyrdom of Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh," Erdogan said in a statement on Thursday.
"I remember Ismail Haniyeh and all Palestinian martyrs with mercy and extend my condolences to the Palestinian people on behalf of myself and my nation," Erdogan added.
Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel on Wednesday in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Tel Aviv has not confirmed or denied its responsibility.
Israel’s assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders will backfire
It seems Israel is refusing to learn from its past mistakes.
In recent weeks, Israel has been on an assassination spree, killing several high-profile Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in quick succession. Yet there is reason to believe these killings, widely celebrated as a show of power now, will serve to embolden these groups and prove harmful to Israel’s security and the region’s stability in the long term.
The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Wednesday, for example, silenced a moderating voice in the Hamas leadership and likely pushed the group to assume an even harder, less compromising stance against Israel. The head of the group’s political wing, Haniyeh was widely seen as a pragmatic political operator. He had negotiated ceasefires in the past and was attempting to achieve another one before he was killed.
We have seen in the past how a high-level assassination can have a hardening effect on the group.
Twenty years ago, in March 2004, Israel assassinated Hamas’s ageing, wheelchair-bound founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, as he was leaving a mosque in Gaza City after dawn prayers. Under Yassin’s tutelage, Hamas was aligned with Saudi Arabia and had limited access to high-grade weaponry.
After Yassin’s killing, Khalid Meshal, a more hawkish figure, took control of Hamas and moved the group closer to Iran. Unlike the Saudis, Iran was willing to provide Hamas with rocket designs and other military technology. By the time Haniyeh took over the political leadership role from Meshal in 2017, Hamas was fully under Iranian influence and had built a formidable arsenal of high-grade weaponry.
The same thing happened when Israel targeted the leader of Hezbollah.
In 1992, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Abbas al-Musawi, along with his wife and six-year-old son in southern Lebanon. The killings only hardened the group’s resolve. Al-Musawi’s successor, Hassan Nasrallah, proved to be much more charismatic, eloquent and effective. He increased the group’s power and regional influence significantly. Nasrallah was also responsible for the rise of Fuad Shukr, the Hezbollah commander who is believed to be responsible for obtaining the bulk of the group’s more advanced weapons, from precision-guided missiles to long-range rockets.
A day before Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran, Israel assassinated Shukr in Beirut. And on Thursday, it claimed to have killed Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif in an air raid on southern Gaza on July 13.
Looking at the unintended consequences of past assassinations, there is little reason to believe the killing of either military commander, or Haniyeh for that matter, would make these groups less formidable foes to Israel.
History shows every single Israeli assassination of a high-profile political or military operator, even after initially being hailed as a game-changing victory, eventually led to the killed leader being replaced by someone more determined, adept and hawkish.
Indeed, Israel’s counterterrorism strategy over the past 40 years, which has been highly dependent on assassinations, has proved to be a colossal strategic failure.
The 1992 assassination of al-Musawi, for example, was considered a strategic mistake on the part of Israel by many even before it happened. In his book Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations, Ronen Bergman documents how even some Israeli military figures had opposed the assassination, believing “Hezbollah was not a one-man show, and Musawi was not the most extreme man in its leadership” and warning he “would be replaced, perhaps by someone more radical”.
Of course, they were right.
Under al-Musawi, Hezbollah was a small militia. Its most powerful weapon was suicide bombings, and it could not effectively repel the Israeli military from Lebanese territory. Once Nasrallah took over, he put Shukr in charge of stepping up the groups efforts, and staging sophisticated guerilla attacks, including rocket attacks, on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. Shukr’s attacks compelled the Israelis to withdraw in 2000, marking their first loss against an Arab military force.
However, Israel did not learn its lesson about assassinations after the killing of al-Musawi led to Nasrallah’s rise to power. In 2003, it tried to assassinate Yassin and his then-assistant, Haniyeh. They narrowly escaped a building in Gaza City before it was destroyed by an Israeli air strike. A year later, Israel managed to kill Yassin, leading to the rise of Meshal, who pushed Hamas into an alliance with Iran, which proved disastrous for Israel.
It is not surprising – in fact, almost expected – that when Israel kills a political or military leader of Hezbollah or Hamas, he is replaced by a more hardline leader, seeking revenge, not compromise.
The history will likely repeat itself. Meshal is now expected to return to power as Haniyeh’s replacement. He is likely to be much less accommodating in his negotiations with the Israelis.
Israel’s assassinations often have adverse consequences beyond paving the way for more hardline leaders, and these most recent ones are no different.
By killing Haniyeh in Tehran, for example, Israel has prompted Iran to strike back.
In April, when Israel assassinated two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps generals in Iran’s diplomatic facility in Damascus, Tehran retaliated by firing a salvo of 300 Iranian drones and ballistic and cruise missiles, the first state to strike Israel in the 21st century. Despite all the help it received from its powerful Western allies and Arab neighbours, at least five ballistic missiles breached Israel’s defences.
Israel has now struck a high profile target in Tehran in an open insult to Iran’s sovereignty. With this act, it also communicated its ability to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran is compelled to restore deterrence.
Furthermore, Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, was touted as a leader who could pivot Iran towards the West. The assassination gave the hardliners in Iran sceptical of rapprochement a reason to undermine the new president’s vision a day after he was inaugurated.
Ultimately, with its high-profile assassinations, Israel has scored a symbolic victory but also encouraged its adversaries to assume more hawkish positions and set the region up for a wider war.
Over the past 40 years, Israel insisted on trying to debilitate nonstate actors staging attacks against its forces and people by assassinating their leaders rather than addressing the root causes of political violence, such as the occupation, apartheid, failure of governance, loss of hope, despair and anger among Palestinians. The aftermath of October 7 was another opportunity that Israel missed to change direction. Assassinations have served only to embolden, anger and make more determined Israel’s foes in the past, and they will continue to do so in the present.
Ibrahim Al-Marashi is Associate Professor of Middle East History at California State University San Marcos, and an advisory board member of the International Security and Conflict Resolution (ISCOR) program at San Diego State University. He is the co-author of Iraq’s Armed Forces: An Analytical History (2008), The Modern History of Iraq (2016), and A Concise History of the Middle East (2025).
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/8/1/israels-assassinations-of-hamas-and-hezbollah-leaders-will-backfire
Israel's Gaza offensive as a case of military failure
Yeni Safak Opinion
While Israel is reducing the Palestinian population with its strikes, it is losing a greater number of its very own population due to a widespread sense of insecurity and resulting emigration
Hamas carried out an attack against Israel on Oct. 7 of last year as a response to Israel's continued occupation, years-long blockade, settlement expansion, and killing of Palestinians. Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks were unprecedented in its scale. Hundreds of Hamas forces infiltrated into Israel through land, sea, and air. Israeli security forces lost 379 personnel in the attack in addition to 796 civilian losses, some of them killed by Israel itself. According to the reports from many sources including Haaretz, in order to repulse the Hamas attack, Israeli forces shelled their own facilities, Israeli houses, and vehicles with Israeli citizens in them. Yet Hamas could kidnap 252 Israelis that day, most of whom are still in Gaza and some highly likely died in Israel's 10-month-long brutal bombardment. Israeli intelligence agencies and the entire security apparatus took a heavy blow on Oct 7. Nevertheless, it was not a one-day failure on the Israeli side. Ten months after the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel is continuing to take heavy blows on diplomatic, legal, and military grounds.
- Israel's image destroyed
Israel has killed over 39,000 Palestinians in its indiscriminate bombing of the urban areas in Gaza, yet has achieved little to increase its own security. According to the figures presented by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 32% of the fatalities in the Israeli strikes are children. Another 20% of the fatalities are women. Israel has already killed 2% of the entire Gazan population and seems to be trying hard to kill more, yet it has gained millions of new enemies not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank as sympathy for Hamas skyrocketed in the occupied territories. Unprecedented protests are taking place in the world including the Western capitals. Many countries are recognizing the state of Palestine and an increasing number of cases have been initiated in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israel. The image of Israel is quite dim in the entire world, the country is suffering from diplomatic isolation despite unconditional support from the US.
While the overall balance sheet of Israel's war on Gaza is self-defeating, Israel is also far from fulfilling its goals from a purely military perspective. For one thing, Israel is running out of ammunition as it takes quite a lot to turn Gaza into hell. Yet, this problem is a minor one since it has a simple solution as the US President Joe Biden administration is dedicated to supplying Israel with the bombs it needs to hit Gaza. The US has recently agreed to send another package of more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition. However, it is harder to replace the lost troops. Israel has lost 260 soldiers in Gaza since it started the land invasion. This is not a bright figure for the most mighty and rogue military of the region. After 10 straight months of continuous bombing and ongoing blockade, Israel is still suffering heavy blows in Gaza. In late June, Israel lost 21 soldiers in a single incident in a building in Gaza due to an RPG attack. This shows that Hamas could still inflict serious damage after 10 months of Israel's indiscriminate bombing and strict blockade. While these losses can be seen as tactical losses that are sad but inevitable for the Israeli military, Israel is also far from achieving its strategic objectives, which is to create a new Gaza free of Hamas. Quite contrarily, probably every single child in Gaza, or the ones who could survive until now, are potential Hamas fighters of the future. Every single Gazan child has lost their family members, their homes, their body parts, or their lives. With its genocidal attack on Gaza, Israel is in fact building its own enemy army for the upcoming decade.
- Israel is no longer safe
While the Gaza theater has few good news for the security planners of Israel, the broader picture is even more gloomy for Israel. It took first-time direct hits from Iran and Yemen on top of more ordinary rockets launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Whether it is drones or missiles, Israeli skies are no longer safe from aerial attacks. While such attacks on Israeli soil might help Israel to secure further military aid from Washington, Israel is also suffering from an emigration spike due to the heightened insecurity it feels. Around 50,000 Israelis permanently left Israel from Oct. 2023 to March 2024, much higher compared to the previous years. While Israel is reducing the Palestinian population with its strikes, it is losing a greater number of its very own population due to a widespread sense of insecurity and resulting emigration. This might lead Israel to lose its demographic war with Palestinians.
In the final analysis, Israel's invasion of Gaza has achieved little other than destroying the lives of millions in Gaza. Israel has not achieved its strategic objectives, which were already blurry from the beginning, as Hamas could still effectively attack the Israeli military in Gaza after months of fighting. Israel, in addition to losing a great deal of prestige due to its loss of troops and equipment on the ground, has proved itself to be a criminal state in the eyes of billions. Nobody knows when the Israeli attacks will end as it has pretty much unlimited support from the US to continue its offensive even after crossing Biden's so-called red lines. But the Israeli offensive has brought more bad than good to Israel and it is still unclear what it has achieved other than isolating Israel in the international arena.
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/opinion-israels-gaza-offensive-as-a-case-of-military-failure-3688539
Maduro slams US for interfering in Venezuela's domestic affairs
President Nicolas Maduro condemned the United States for recognizing the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of the recent elections, as Argentina, Peru and Uruguay joined Washington in their recognition.
"The United States should not stick its nose into our affairs, because in Venezuela the sovereign people decide," Maduro said Friday. "Is the USA perhaps the electoral office? The fascist demon is the electoral office?"
Venezuela's electoral authority declared Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, the winner of Sunday's election. However, it has not yet published the detailed results from individual constituencies.
The opposition accuses the government of fraud and claims victory for González. The U.S., the European Union, the Organization of American States and a number of Latin American countries are also questioning the official election results.
Maduro told supporters at the Miraflores presidential palace that González "is a murderer and an agent of the CIA."
Argentina's Foreign Minister Diana Mondino recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the president-elect of Venezuela on Friday.
Through her X account, Mondino supported Gonzalez Urrutia and denied the results presented by the Electoral Council of Venezuela, which gave Maduro the victory with more than 51% of the votes.
Argentina's announcement comes one day after the U.S. government recognized Gonzalez as Venezuela's legitimate president.
The government of Uruguay also recognized the opposition as the rightful winner of Venezuela's elections, rejecting the victory of incumbent Nicolas Maduro.
"Based on the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to Uruguay that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia obtained the majority of votes in Venezuela's presidential elections. We hope that the will of the Venezuelan people is respected," Foreign Minister Omar Paganini wrote on the social network X.
Terror attacks kill hundreds across Pakistan in past seven months
According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, at least 582 people, including security personnel and civilians, were killed and 610 injured in 557 suspected terrorist attacks since January.
Anadolu Agency
Over 580 people including security personnel and civilians were killed in over 550 suspected terrorist attacks across Pakistan during the last seven months, according to new data.
According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, July saw a surge in anti-state violence with 108 killed and 71 others injured.
The data showed that at least 582 people, including security personnel and civilians, were killed and 610 injured in 557 suspected terrorist attacks since January.
Suspected terror attacks rose in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan in July as the province witnessed 36 attacks, resulting in 60 deaths and 27 injuries.
The southwestern Balochistan province witnessed 12 terror attacks, causing 12 deaths and 24 injuries, while the Sindh province faced five attacks, resulting in six deaths and two injuries.
No attacks were reported in Punjab, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, or Gilgit-Baltistan.
Intensified operations
The country’s security forces also killed six key commanders of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), including Najeeb alias Abdur Rehman, Ishfaq alias Muavia, Irfan Ullah alias Adnan, Shah Faisal, Noor Rahman and TTP's shadow governor of Peshawar Abdur Raheem, according to the think tank.
The Pakistan military also intensified intelligence-based operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan after recent attacks on forces in the Waziristan, Khyber, and Kurram districts.
At least 29 suspected terrorists were killed while 17 soldiers including an officer also lost their lives in 10 intelligence-based operations carried out by the military in KP and Balochistan in July.
Terror attacks increased in the border areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved and announced a "reinvigorated" national counter-terrorism campaign in June to "eradicate extremism and terrorism from the country.”
However, the announcement triggered opposition and criticism from political parties and locals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Islamabad accuses "Afghan-based" TTP terrorists of carrying out terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, while Kabul denies the allegation.
https://www.trtworld.com/asia/terror-attacks-kill-hundreds-across-pakistan-in-past-seven-months-18191295
20 Years of Struggle: Renewing our commitment to liberation for the Holy Land 5
July 27 marks 20 years since charges were filed against the Holy Land Foundation and the organization's five founders' homes were raided. The case against the HLF5 is an attack on all who care about Palestine, we must not stop until they are free.
By Salma Al Nour
Today, July 27, marks 20 years since the charges against the Holy Land Foundation were initially filed, all five men had their homes raided by police. Join Samidoun Network as they call for all friends and supporters to join the campaign to free the Holy Land 5!
In May of 2024 Samidoun launched a Week of Action to free the Holy Land 5 to commemorate 15 years since their sentencing and conviction. The Week of Action signified a renewed commitment and a critical piece of an ongoing campaign, including teach-ins and other events to educate communities in the U.S. and internationally about the horrific injustice of the case of the Holy Land 5. Samidoun Network, along with friends and supporters in the U.S. and internationally, will not stop until they see the release of Shukri Abu Baker and Ghassan Elashi, two founders of the Holy Land Foundation, who are both serving 65 year sentences, the longest of the five Holy Land Foundation founders who were imprisoned in 2008.
35 years ago, in the year 1989, Shukri Abu Baker and Ghassan Elashi came up with a plan to serve Palestinians in need – orphans, widows, and the homeless – in their shared occupied homeland. They quit their jobs and made that dream come alive, all while building hope, prosperity, and community among their own Palestinian American community. By 1990, in Richardson, Texas, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development had been officially founded. The Holy Land Foundation was staggeringly successful. It provided Palestinians in the U.S. with an easy and trustworthy means of providing financial support to their community in Palestine. Its founders found a way to support their own families through working for the foundation, while also supporting the needy in Palestine, and created an extended Holy Land Foundation family. In the words of Nida Abu Baker, daughter of Shukri Abu Baker,
“There was something everywhere for you to look at, just like always in awe. Always daydreaming, pretending that you’re in Palestine – because my dad made it look like you’re in a Palestinian Village. It was truly amazing. We had summer camps there, youth camps, there would be kids there all the time on field trips, they would learn about humanitarian aid, and they’d learn about the work the Holy Land Foundation would do, and they would volunteer. It was just a wonderful place to be.”
The HLF’s unrelenting work for the Palestinian people continued successfully for many years until it was shut down in 2001, under an executive order issued by President George Bush.
The “Holy Land 5” or “HLF 5” refers to the 5 men who were imprisoned following U.S. government attacks on the Holy Land Foundation: Mufid Abdulqader, Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker, Abdulrahman Odeh, and Mohammed El-Mezain. They were all involved with the work of the Holy Land Foundation to varying degrees and they, along with the foundation itself, were targeted by the Bush administration as part of the racist and Islamophobic “War on Terror” following 9/11. The organization was shut down in 2001 by the United States government, immediately after George Bush was visited by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who arrived in the United States carrying a file filled with illegitimate “evidence” against the foundation – including news headlines and mistranslations of Arabic and English documents. Following the visit – the organization was falsely accused of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Before the shutdown, U.S. and Zionist politicians and lobbying groups had tried unsuccessfully, for years, to shut down the Holy Land Foundation and accuse it of various illegal activities.
The real nightmare for the Holy Land 5 began in the early hours of the morning on July 27th, 2004, when all five men had their homes raided by FBI agents. At Shukri Abubaker’s house, agents hid in the bushes before knocking on the front door and forcing themselves into the home. If it wasn’t enough that they were there to brutally kidnap the husband and father of the home, they also manhandled and screamed at his wife and children, treating them like criminals. Nida Abubaker was only ten years old during the raid, but she still recounts it like it was yesterday.
“Some went to the left, some went to the right, some went all the way down. It was a movie scene. Everything we had ever seen in the movies happening in our home. In fact, it looked just like what we would see on the news growing up of IOF soldiers raiding a Palestinian home. It was that. Everything that my father had taught us about. Everything we had learned about Palestine, we were living it at that moment. I remember them rounding us up into the living room. My little sister was hardly three at the time. One of the agents had picked her up from her crib. I can’t even imagine being a baby, a toddler at the time and being picked up by a stranger who had a gun in their hand. And they threw her at us.”
From the initial attacks on the Holy Land Foundation, to the raids of the homes and offices, to the eventual convictions – these actions were all in an attempt to stop the Holy Land Foundation’s continued support of the Palestinian people. They were providing Palestinians with essential and life-saving resources and care that they needed in order to continue to remain steadfastly in their homes in the face of occupation and displacement by the Israeli government.
Aside from the fact that the HLF was providing legal and necessary aid to the Palestinian people, the work of the Holy Land Foundation was entirely misaligned with the Israeli and U.S. goal of maintaining the image of a pitiful and weak Palestinian, unable to stand firmly against a powerful oppressor. The Holy Land Foundation worked to give the Palestinian people the resources that could sustain them as they stand firmly against decades of continued forced displacement, violent colonization, and genocide. The idea that Palestinians in the United States could provide their community in Palestine with these critical resources directly contradicts the U.S.’s running narrative of who a Palestinian is – at best, a pitiful victim, at worst, a terrorist. This is why, sixteen years ago, in November of 2008, after years of court proceedings, an unsuccessful attempt at conviction by the U.S. government, with a mountain of flimsy evidence against them, and an Israeli intelligence agent standing as an anonymous expert witness, Mufid Abulqader, Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker, Mohammed El-Mezain, and Abdulrahman Odeh were ultimately found guilty of various crimes related to the false accusation of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Today, Shukri Abu Baker, Ghassan Elashi, and Mufid Abdulqader remain behind bars. Abdulqader is set to be released in January of 2025, but Baker and Elashi are on track to serve out the remainder of their 65 year sentences. Baker and Elashi are 65 and 70 years old, respectively, and the fear of them dying in prison mounting – but that fear is no match for strength of will of the family members, community members, and solidarity organizations that will refuse to let that happen.
The story of the Holy Land Five and its destruction at the hands of the United States and Israeli governments is unique in the nature of these specific events, but not its essence. Distilled, it is a simple story of Palestinian survival, self-determination, and joy – three things that Palestinian are not allowed to have, at least not today, in the United States or in Occupied Palestine. However, through their steadfastness, struggle, and refusal to give up on life and freedom – the Holy Land 5 have dared to take these things anyway.
Unjust history of Native Americans must be acknowledged: China
Beijing was reacting to a report that found at least 973 Native American children had died during abusive boarding school system
In a broadside at Washington, China on Friday called for acknowledging “unjust history of Native Americans.”
Beijing was reacting to a report by the US Department of the Interior which revealed that at least 973 Native American children had died in the US government's abusive boarding school system.
“The unjust history of Native Americans must be acknowledged,” said Lin Jian, spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry.
Washington's global human rights “abuses must be addressed,” Lin added.
The probe by the US Department of the Interior found marked and unmarked graves at 65 of more than 400 US boarding schools.
Those schools were aimed at forcibly assimilating Native American children into white society.
Among the causes of death, the children suffered sickness and abuse during a 150-year period that ended in 1969.
“The US should learn from history, reflect on its actions, and resolve its own human rights violations and interference in other countries' internal affairs,” said Lin.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
