#EU / Spain, Ireland to recognise Palestinian state on May 21 - EU's Borrell
[...] Asked on local Spanish radio station RNE if May 21 was when Spain, Ireland and other EU countries would recognise a Palestinian state, Borrell said yes, mentioning #Slovenia as well.
"This is a symbolic act of a political nature. More than a state, it recognises the will for that state to exist," he said, adding that #Belgium and other countries would probably follow.
"The ultimate goal, I suggest, was a translatio imperii; the establishment of an imperial monarchy in the west that could rival the Habsburg empire, and which in time, perhaps, might even come to imitate the universal glory of the Roman imperium. Not the American Atlantic seaboard, but rather the continent of Europe, with its arms, its learning, and its treasure, was the goal of Bacon’s early imperial vision."
#Image attribution: Yale Center for British Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anonymous_-_Sir_Francis_Bacon,_1st_Viscount_St_Alban_-_B1977.14.9772_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art.jpg
Not to forget UK and Germany increasing weapons sale and suppression of protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and daily terror attacks by illegal settlers (with IDF backing) against Palestinians all over occupied West Bank.
Why just why is Israel so freaking above all international laws and impune?
Any other country in the world had done even a fraction of the crimes Israel have omitted just in the past 6 months (not to mention any of the crimes before that) would have been treated like a pariah state, sanctioned and boycotted to total collapse.
But something is making Israel untouchable. Is it the Holocaust guilt? Is it blackmail? Is if money?
I have been asking those questions all my adult life, starting from the invasion of Lebanon and the Sabra and Chatila massacre that went unpunished even today.
Le premier procès pénal de Donald Trump s’ouvre ce lundi 15 avril et devrait durer six semaines. « Le Monde » vous propose de suivre le déroulé, mis à jour continuellement, de cette année politique décisive pour les Etats-Unis.
@plink@palestine@israel Having now skimmed through dozens of updates on that link, 1,000s of words, the fact that #Israel conducted an illegal act of war against a civilian building on Iranian soil that killed 16 people recently is never mentioned, with the missile strike on #Damascus is only vaguely mentioned 3 times. It is never labelled an 'unprecedented escalation', despite that being just as true as the latest development.
Also not mentioned by the #NYT is the fact that the 1st April Israeli strike was widely condemned as yet another breach of international law —by the #UN, the #EU, the #ArabLeague, the #OIC, the #GCC and dozens of national governments—but was not condemned by the US government.
Also not mentioned at all the highly pertinent fact that Israel (and its primary backer and weapons supplier the #USA) has spent six months committing atrocities against millions of civilians in #Gaza, with more children, more journalists, more healthcare workers, more humanitarian aid workers, and more UN employees violently killed than in any other conflict since at least the Rwandan genocide (and in some cases going back to WWII). Israel is responsible for the most rapid deterioration of the nutritional status of a civilian population since WWII.
Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion by Agnes Arnold-Forster review – no place like home
"Quoting Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator, she sees the vote to leave Europe as a direct expression of Britain’s “nostalgia for the past”, alerting us to the way that Barnier’s tautologous phrasing suggests a doubling down – Britons really, really want to live in a once-upon-a-time land when foreigners knew their place."
#Gaza / Europe’s Gaza betrayal has broken the trust of millions of people in the global south (Shada Islam)
The breach in trust caused by the #EU's Gaza policy may be irreparable, as it reinforces perceptions of a parallel between official Western attitudes towards Israel's conduct and colonialism. For many in the global south, the EU's failure to represent the view of its own citizens, who may see the events in Gaza as an unfolding genocide, is "unforgivable."
[…] The EU’s inertia makes a mockery of its action plan adopted four years ago, which promises that respect for human dignity and human rights will underpin all aspects of its policies. It also falls short of a commitment given by the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last October. Borrell flatly rejected the idea that the EU should stop poking its nose into cases of human rights violations in other parts of the world. Human rights “everywhere” were Europe’s business because they were universal and everybody’s business he said.
European money for the war in Gaza: how EU research funding supports the Israeli arms industry (Statewatch, 2024-03-22)
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“… the Horizon Europe programme, … In addition to organisations and companies from the member states, Turkey and Israel have been granted privileged access to the associated funds, while companies and institutions from the USA and other regions are largely excluded.”
“… Statewatch published an open letter from 300 academics calling on the #EU to stop funding research projects that could contribute to the violation of international law or human rights. The criticism focuses on the funding of dual-use research in Israel – that is, technologies that can also be used for military purposes. The letter explicitly mentions the two large Israeli arms companies Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which have received funding from the EU for several projects.”
Watched a video by a doctor in UK explaining why so many children in Gaza cry without visible tears.
It made me so sad, these kids are so dehydrated that their body can't produce tears any more. The famine and dehydration is damaging almost every child in Gaza, but it's catastrophic in northern Gaza.
And it all happens while the world stands by and does nothing.
Those old enough to remember this image and the outcry around the world when it was published can see how surreal this is for me witnessing such level of brutality so well documented and witnessed while every freaking hypocrite is either ignoring it, denying it or blaming it on Hamas.
The #climatecrisis will not be addressed until the wars stop, and now Macron is trying to escalate one in Europe while America is distracted in the Middle East. We are inheriting a disaster because of old & tired leaders with no real future vision, grasping to power.
@Miro_Collas@palestine #USA & #EU need to stop 'asking' and start making Israel stop bombing aid workers & consumers. It is pointless spending millions on aid Israel blows up. Get it the the people SAFELY #CeasefireNow
#UNRWA / No evidence from Israel to back UNRWA accusations, says EU humanitarian chief
[…] Janez Lenarcic, the head of humanitarian aid and crisis management at the European Commission, said that neither he nor - according to his knowledge - anybody else at the EU executive, or any other UNRWA donor had been presented with evidence by Israel.
[…] "Even if those allegations, at the end of the day, prove to be true, that doesn't mean that UNRWA is the perpetrator," he told journalists.
[…] In that case, Lenarcic said individual accountability would be in order rather than summary justice - and the "irreplaceable" agency would be asked to clean up and carry on.
Not only does my forthcoming Hurst book PROTECTING DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE have a cover, but you can now also pre-order it from one of my favourite bookshops!
This is what #usa and #eu rulers support. A #genocide on livestream.
'Israeli sergant from the 8717 Battalion of the Givati Brigade.
"Next year we'll burn the school and beat up all the teachers, too. Ah, it's so much fun to watch schools burn in #Gaza. May they die all these trash terrorists.”" @palestine https://t.me/eyeonpal/9676
#Israel has said it has informed the families of 31 people held in the territory since 7 October that their relatives are dead. The news came as the Qatari prime minister said #Hamas had given a “generally positive” response to proposals for a deal trading a break in the fighting and release of #Palestinian prisoners for the return of more #hostages.
A ship carrying aid is nearing #Gaza about 48 hours after it left #Cyprus, with further aid preparations being made aboard a second “much bigger” vessel. It came as the #EU foreign policy chief said starvation was being used as a weapon of war.
After the 240-mile voyage, the ship will dock at a jetty being built by the #WorldCentralKitchen (WCK), the organisation that will distribute the aid. #Israel#OpenArms