Al Mayadeen - May 16, 2024
223 days of Israeli aggression:
35,272 killed, 79,205 injured in Gaza
On the 223rd day of the Israeli genocide, more martyrs and wounded have been reported as a result of continuous airstrikes targeting the Gaza Strip.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced in its daily report today that the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza due to the Israeli genocidal war ongoing since October 7 has now reached 35,272, in addition to 79,205 injured.
Additionally, it confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces committed four massacres in 24 hours only, killing 39 and injuring 64.
The ministry stressed that thousands of victims are still under the rubble on the streets, as the occupation forces continue to deliberately prevent ambulances and civil defense crews from reaching them.
The genocide is ongoing
Israeli occupation forces continue their aggression on various areas of the Gaza Strip for 223 days, resulting in more civilian casualties.
In Gaza City, medical sources reported that over 30 civilians, including 10 children, were killed as Israeli warplanes targeted al-Ghafri, Jahjouh, and al-Dalu families in Abu Iskandar, al-Sidra, and al-Sahaba Street areas, WAFA news agency reported.
In Rafah, at least four individuals were killed and others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a residence south of the city. Furthermore, one civilian was killed and others were injured in a bombing targeting the al-Awda Roundabout in the city center, while Israeli artillery continued to target the Khirbet al-Adas and al-Geneina neighborhoods to the East.
Meanwhile, journalist Mohammad Jahjouh and several members of his family were killed in an Israeli bombing that struck their home in northern Gaza.
Israeli warplanes also conducted intense airstrikes on the al-Hoja Street area in the Jabalia refugee camp, destroying a residential neighborhood.
Additionally, at least five people sustained injuries in an Israeli drone strike targeting the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Kindergarten in al-Faluga.
Director of Kuwaiti Hospital warns of health disaster in Rafah
Suhayb al-Hams, director of the Kuwaiti Specialized Hospital in Rafah, has appealed to the World Health Organization (WHO) to fulfill its responsibilities and supply the hospital, which is currently the only operational hospital in Rafah, with medications and fuel.
Al-Hams also urged the WHO and the Red Cross to protect the medical staff at the hospital to ensure the continued delivery of healthcare to the wounded and sick.
Moreover, al-Hams warned of a looming health disaster in Rafah due to the ongoing aggression by the Israeli occupation forces and the expansion of the military operation into the city, demanding that international institutions immediately open a safe passage to ensure that there are no obstacles to the entry of health and humanitarian supplies to Rafah.
Al-Qassam Brigades announce killing of 12 Israeli soldiers in ‘complex operation'
Hamas' armed wing says it targeted an Israeli D9 military bulldozer with a Yassin 105 shell and Israeli forces holed up inside a house with two anti-personnel shells
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas's armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced Wednesday that they killed 12 Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
“In a complex operation in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Al-Qassam fighters targeted an Israeli D9 military bulldozer with a Yassin 105 shell and targeted a Zionist (Israeli) force holed up inside a house with two anti-personnel shells and engaged with it,” it said in a statement.
“As soon as a rescue force advanced to the location, an explosive device was detonated on a Merkava tank, and after attempting to retrieve the equipment of the targeted force thrown on the ground, the Israeli Air Force bombed the area ruthlessly, and our fighters confirmed the killing of at least 12 Israeli soldiers in the operation,” it added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli army announced that it launched a widescale military operation in the heart of the Jabalia camp, coinciding with another operation continuing east of the city of Rafah in the southern Strip.
It said the operation in Jabalia witnessed "fierce battles," indicating that its forces "confronted dozens of armed cells,” referring to Palestinian factions.
Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack last year by the Palestinian group Hamas which killed around 1,200 people.
More than 35,230 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and over 79,140 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel is accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered Tel Aviv to ensure that its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in the enclave.
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/al-qassam-brigades-announce-killing-of-12-israeli-soldiers-in-complex-operation-3683593
The Battle For Gaza Begins in Jabalia
by Dr Marwan Asmar
The war is intensifying with the Palestinian resistance groups joining together to defeat the Israeli army
The battle for Jabalia is raging. This is the fifth day. Despite its onslaught from the air and tanks from the ground, Israeli troops have not been able to enter the camp.
They are being met with stiff resistance from different Palestinian groups lead by Hamas and Islamic Jihad with nationalist and leftist forces like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Israeli troops are being killed by the day as reported by Hamas officials on the ground but the Jewish army is only admitting those as wounded and critically injured. They are not reporting the tanks that was destroyed by a shell from a Hamas drone.
In one instance, fighting was so bad that an Israeli helicopter was called up to pick up the Israeli injured but was fired upon by the Palestinian resistance.
The fight for the Jabalia camp in north Gaza seems to be a stretching out, one of a series of battles Palestinian armed groups are fighting also in Al Zaitoun neighborhood in east Gaza City and in Rafah.
Fighting has been so intense in Zaitoun the Israeli army had to withdraw on the fourth day because of the number of Israelis being killed. In the last six days, the Israeli army admitted 95 of its soldiers went down as well as numerous tanks and military hardware with a $1 million bulldozer knocked out in east Jabalia.
This is while intense battles are being reported in east Rafah where soldiers and tanks are also being killed and destroyed through launchers and resistance snipers.
Just while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was saying Rafah holds the last “quarter” of Hamas operatives and must be destroyed by the Israeli army, he is now eating his words because of the Jabalia battles that are mushrooming to Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahia and the like.
His army is at breaking point. There are grumblings the war is not going their way with plenty of Israeli dead which is likely to increase higher if the Israeli army manages to launch a full-scale attack on Rafah.
But it appears nobody, at least besides Netanyahu and his extremist allies want to do that because of the high material and human cost.
What follows is a brief highlight of the feelings of the people of Jabalia as seen through the social media.
The Old Lady
https://t.me/s/warfareanalysis/40899
Reporter: We are meters away from the Israeli tanks and with the increase in the bombing of the Jabalia camp, the people are refusing to leave, and so is the case with this elderly lady. Why aren’t you leaving, the tanks are around the corner?
The old lady: I am not afraid. I am 80 years old. If our houses are destroyed, so be it, and if they destroy our houses, we will sleep under the trees. By the grace of God, we are not afraid. This bottle of water and piece of bread I hold can last me up to five days. And with this I want to protect the land and our youth and die before they do.
The reporter: (surrounded by youth cheering on) When we talk about the community, we see it here. The battles in this camp are always different with atmospheres you see around. This is why it is difficult for the Israeli occupation to penetrate, it because everyone here is united in one voice and one power. Everyone here, refuses to leave from the camp, even till the last minute.
Young blogger
Abod is a young blogger in Gaza who has been covering this Israeli onslaught on the enclave since 7 October. He starts by a smirk, saying:
‘…This is me with the latest from the Jabalia and we will talk about the Israeli attempted incursions into the camp. On the first day, the Israeli army lost 10 tanks and 50 soldiers injured according to them. On the second day, they lost 13 tanks and on the third day they lost 12 tanks. The Israelis are being clobbered on a daily basis.
This is a camp, not a town or city. And there is more to go….This is better than a movie, all you need is just popcorn and you watch what is going to happen next….[Its an Israeli scandal, tanks destroyed, bulldozers put out of action, every machine gone!
May our fighters win, let’s pray for them…’
Death of the word
One more journalist has been killed in Jabalia. Gaza has become the graveyard for journalists and media workers with over a 140 killed so far thanks to the Israeli big guns.
Journalist Hayel Al Najjar was killed with several members of his family after an Israeli strike targeting his home in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Al Najjar was part of a group of Palestinian journalists who were targeted in the field in Jabalia by an Israeli quadcopter that fired upon them point-blank whilst journalist Mahmoud Abu Salama was reporting and carried the attack live.
Also, Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al Sharif was also reported to be in the background. Israelis has deliberately been targeting journalist in this war in an attempt to hide the slaughter they are carrying out.
Al Sharif’s father was killed in the early days of this war and his house was recently targeted by an Israeli drone. Luckily he escaped.
Dr Asmar, an Amman-based writer, covers Middle East Affairs
https://countercurrents.org/2024/05/the-battle-for-gaza-begins-in-jabalia/
The Conversation – May 16, 2024
Israel’s Assault on Rafah risks making Victory against Hamas more Elusive
By Ben Soodavar, and Rhiannon Emm, King’s College London
The prospect of a ceasefire agreement, which Hamas claimed it had been offered earlier this month, was a source of optimism for Gazans seeking respite from the war. That sense of jubilation was short-lived. According to mediators in Qatar, the talks have lost steam.
And with Israel pressing ahead with its new military offensive in the southern border city of Rafah and parts of northern Gaza where Hamas has regrouped, there is no indication that this conflict has an expiry date.
Israel’s offensive in Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are seeking refuge, is growing more intense. Israeli tanks have advanced further into the eastern part of the city, reaching some residential districts. An estimated 500,000 civilians have now fled this area of fighting, and the Palestinian death toll has topped 35,000 – a number that includes both civilians and fighters according to the Gaza health authority.
On May 14, as Israel celebrated its day of independence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the country and warned that the war would not stop “until the Hamas monsters are eradicated”. His remarks are being met with frustration by even Israel’s staunchest of allies. The US, for example, has warned that the new offensive could lead it to suspend the transfer of some weapons to Israel.
Increased diplomatic pressure, rising military casualties and the continued problem of Israeli hostages in Gaza have not been enough to deter Netanyahu from ordering the new offensive. But there is a lot to lose by continuing with this strategy.
It not only risks perpetuating the conflict, but could also make an Israeli victory over Hamas more elusive. External pressure from the US and EU will continue, and may come to limit the extent to which Israel can pursue its military objectives.
This leads us to question the psychological conditions that govern Netanyahu’s war policy. We argue that Israel is locked in a “loss dilemma”. This concept describes a process where actions taken to overcome state anxiety by choosing to avoid one kind of loss (military failure in eradicating Hamas) creates a new anxiety about suffering another one (losing domestic political standing).
The result of this has probably influenced Netanyahu’s war cabinet to pursue its current policy, and perhaps explains the disregard for civilian casualties and Israel’s waning international reputation.
Internal pressures
The trauma of potentially losing the Israelis that are still held captive by Hamas is a reason to commit to a ceasefire, especially when Netanyahu has been pressured by the Israeli public to bring them home. Israel says 128 hostages remain unaccounted for in Gaza, at least 34 of whom are presumed dead. But the internal politics of Israel’s war coalition has prevented this.
Netanyahu has positioned himself as a leader that will “deliver security and retribution for Israel”. His grand claim of a military victory in Gaza places his political standing directly at risk of being undermined. Any sense of a U-turn on his pledge to secure Israel’s borders will make it difficult for him to remain in power.
This dilemma is further compounded by the pressures that are being put on him by the ultra-nationalist contingent of his political coalition, which he currently relies on for political power. Over the course of the war, national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir’s hardline position has drawn support from some on the right of Netanyahu’s Likud party.
At a recent rally, Ben-Gvir argued that Israel needs to “encourage the voluntary departure of Gaza’s residents” so that Israelis can resettle in the “holy land” of Gaza.
One of the fundamental dynamics at play here is the question of who may be at home in the “homeland”. Gazans, in being at home in the Gaza strip, are seen by Israel as constituting a fundamental security threat. This logic suggests that Palestinians inhabiting Gaza will always produce Hamas fighters, and therefore any Gazan represents a potential threat to the very existence of Israel.
Clearly, this is about loss, not least the historical loss of the Israeli settlements in Gaza in 2005. However, as tensions continue to rise within Israel about the conduct of the war, it is becoming harder and harder for Israel to maintain a singular image of who may be at home within that state. As plurality becomes politically poisonous, more primitive identities are used as the foundation for who is legitimately allowed to call Israel and the land it occupies home.
This loss dilemma, which underscores the internal dynamics of Israeli politics at present, has influenced Netanyahu to commit his army to not only rid Gaza of Hamas fighters but to pursue a policy that sees an expansion of Israel’s borders.
Time will tell whether Netanyahu ultimately acquiesces to such calls by the ultra-nationalist members of his coalition. But one thing that is certain is that the current strategy won’t lead to total victory for Israel and will instead ensure the conflict continues for years to come.
Palestinians will be firm on maintaining control of the Gaza Strip and will want to avoid their homeland being taken over by Israeli settlers.
Ben Soodavar, Researcher, Department of War Studies, Kingﾒs College London and Rhiannon Emm, PhD Candidate in the Department of War Studies, Kingﾒs College London
https://theconversation.com/israels-assault-on-rafah-risks-making-victory-against-hamas-more-elusive-230059
Gaza 2035:
Netanyahu Hatches Plan to Raze and Rebuild Enclave
Israeli businessmen close to the prime minister wish to turn a destroyed Gaza into a regional trade and industrial hub under Israeli control and exploiting Palestinian natural gas and cheap labor
Documents published online lay out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s post-war vision for the Gaza Strip, known as “Gaza 2035,” the Jerusalem Post reported on May 3.
The plan involves keeping Gaza under long-term Israeli security control, making major investments to rebuild the devastated enclave “from nothing” with Gulf assistance, turning Gaza into a regional trade and energy hub, and exploiting cheap Palestinian labor and natural gas for the benefit of Israeli business interests.
The document refers to Gaza as an “Iranian outpost” that “sabotages emerging supply chains” while euphemistically claiming it “thwarts any future hope for the Palestinian people.”
According to the document, the plan involves three steps.
The first step is planned to last 12 months and will see Israel create “safe areas free of Hamas control” in Gaza, starting first in the north and moving to the south.
Gazan Palestinians will run the safe zones under the supervision of a coalition of Arab states, which would be responsible for providing humanitarian aid.
Step two would last five to ten years. The Israeli military will retain control of the strip, while the Arab states will be responsible for reconstruction under a newly established Gaza Rehabilitation Authority (GRA), and Palestinians will manage the safe areas.
Reconstruction efforts will involve “rebuilding from nothing” and designing new cities from scratch, featuring modern designs and planning. This implies that the Israeli military will continue to destroy much, if not all, of Gaza through bombing and controlled demolition.
Stage three would see Palestinians “self-govern” a demilitarized Gaza while Israel retains the right to act against “security threats.”
The final step, the Jerusalem Post notes, would be for the Palestinians to “fully manage Gaza independently” and join the Abraham Accords, an agreement binding several existing Arab states in an alliance with Israel.
The Jerusalem Post claims that the plan would benefit Palestinians in Gaza by offering them employment opportunities and eventual “self-governance” – under continued Israeli security control.
Many Israeli politicians have called for all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people to be forcibly expelled to Egypt or Europe. But the plan apparently calls for some to remain in Gaza as a source of cheap labor.
The Jerusalem Post says the plan would benefit the Gulf states by offering them “defensive pacts with the US and unfettered access to Gaza’s Mediterranean ports through railways and pipelines.”
The plan aims to turn Gaza into a significant industrial port on the Mediterranean, facilitating the export of Gazan goods, Saudi oil, and other raw materials from the Gulf.
The plan also calls for creating a massive free trade zone stretching from the Israeli city of Sderot through Gaza to Al-Arish on the Egyptian coast, which would benefit business interests in all three.
Israel would tap the natural gas fields off the coast of Gaza to provide the energy needed for industrial manufacturing. Israel has blocked the development of the fields, which legally belong to Palestinians, for decades.
The Jerusalem Post adds that the plan included a proposal to manufacture electric cars in the free trade zone and complete with “cheap Chinese manufacturing,” further suggesting cheap Palestinian labor from Gaza would be critical to the proposal.
Israeli business interests would likely benefit most. The New York Times (NYT) reported on 3 May that the plan for Gaza was drawn up in November by a “group of businessmen, most of them Israeli, some of whom are close to Mr Netanyahu.”
NYT added that the officials said the plan was “under consideration at the highest levels of Israel’s government.”
Any Israeli plan for post-war Gaza would also need to accommodate the demands of Israel’s far-right religious settler community, which demands colonizing Gaza and constructing Jewish settlements there after the war.
Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, released a video message on 14 May endorsing a protest march that demanded renewed Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip.
“It is very important to identify with this march and afterwards to take part in the mass gathering in Sderot,” he says.
According to organizers, buses will bring participants from all over the country to the demonstration, which has also been endorsed by far-right Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech.
Journalist Vanessa Beeley concluded that the “Gaza 2035” plan would indeed include the forcible expulsion of Palestinians and the building of Jewish settlements and that the plan was likely drawn up much earlier than acknowledged by NYT. She wrote,
“What is certain is that this plan has been in the Zionist/US pipeline for perhaps decades and is only now being put into effect with the exploitation of events of 7 October by Israel to secure the Nakba II in Gaza and to increase the Zionist footprint in what remains of Palestine in the occupied territories.”
https://thecradle.co/articles/gaza-2035-netanyahu-hatches-plan-to-raze-and-rebuild-enclave
United Nations General Assembly Votes Overwhelmingly
to Upgrade the Status of the State of Palestine
Measure must go before the Security Council where it will surely meet opposition from the imperialist states
By Abayomi Azikiwe
On May 10, the United Nations General Assembly in New York City convened a special meeting to consider a resolution from the State of Palestine and other regional governments.
The resolution provides for the granting of enhanced privileges for the Palestinian representatives at the United Nations including the ability to participate more fully in various committees, yet there is still no right to vote or to stand for various official positions within the organization.
This effort will not replace the settler-colonial state now occupying Palestine within the United Nations. Nonetheless, it does represent the broad support enjoyed by the Palestinian people after decades of forced removals and the denial of fundamental political rights.
143 states within the UNGA voted in favor of the resolution. 9 voted against the resolution while 25 others abstained.
The United States, the largest financial, diplomatic and military backer of Tel Aviv, voted against the resolution right alongside Israel and a handful of other right-wing governments. Argentina, which has a new neo-fascist government, fashions itself as operating in the same manner as the former U.S. President Donald Trump. The Argentine government was the only state in South America which voted against the Palestinians.
Developments since October 7 has once again brought to the fore the centrality of the Palestinian question in the modern era. Even though the propaganda and psychological warfare aimed at defending the Zionist government reached new levels of depravity in the aftermath of the Al-Aqsa Flood, Palestine solidarity has grown by leaps and bounds.
All major corporate and government-controlled media outlets in North America, Britain and the Western Europe immediately declared that the offensive launched by Hamas and other resistance movements based in Gaza on October 7 were acts of terrorism. There has been a conscious effort to make it appear as if the source of the problems in the country are the Palestinian resistance organizations. These media agencies work closely with the governments in the U.S and Western Europe to make the false claims that the right-wing Israeli administration is justified in utilizing harsh military actions against the Palestinians.
Despite the demonization of the Palestinians by the imperialists and their news agencies, the May 10 UNGA resolution illustrated the overwhelming support for the creation of an independent sovereign Palestinian state. Since 1948, the State of Israel has been recognized by the UN as the “legitimate” governmental entity operating in the territory.
However, in 1948 the majority of governments operating within the UN framework were colonial regimes which excluded the indigenous peoples from voting and making decisions about the affairs of their countries. Although the UN, formed in 1945, ostensibly was in favor of the self-determination of peoples nationally oppressed by colonialism, the reality which prevailed globally was quite different.
During the first 50 years of its existence, the UN witnessed a profound transformation of its membership. Over 100 colonized nations gained their independence between the late 1940s and the 1990s. Countries in Africa and Asia made up the bulk of the newly emerged post-colonial states. Many of these formerly colonized nations in the course of the struggle for independence appealed to the UN for recognition of their right to form their own governments.
Impact on the Status of the Palestinians Within the UN and Beyond
Since 2012, Palestinians from the Authority which operates in the West Bank are designated as a Non-member Observer State. This status provides the ability for President Mahmoud Abbas to address the General Assembly at their annual gatherings held in September.
According to the UN News Agency which reported on the May 10 vote saying:
“Granting Palestinian membership requires a recommendation from the Security Council. At the same time, the Assembly determines that the State of Palestine is qualified for such status and recommends that the Security Council ‘reconsider the matter favorably’. None of the upgrades in status will take effect until the new session of the Assembly opens on 10 September.”
This upgrading of the status of the State of Palestine poses a challenge to the U.S. and other imperialist states. The U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood after voting against the resolution claimed that the recognition of an independent Palestinian state should only come as a result of negotiations between Palestinians and the State of Israel.
Woods was quoted by the UN News Agency as emphasizing:
“We have been very clear that we support it and seek to advance it meaningfully. Instead, it is an acknowledgement that statehood will come from a process that involves direct negotiations between the parties. There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish State. There is no other path that guarantees Palestinians can live in peace and dignity in a State of their own.”
Such a rationale by the administration of President Joe Biden for the continuation of the status-quo stems from the historic alliance between the U.S. and the Zionist government. Many proposals to end the current phase of the war in Gaza have been rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-right “unified war cabinet” which sees its continuing existence only through war and the genocidal onslaught against the Palestinians. Therefore, it is absurd for the Biden administration to suggest that the Israeli regime will negotiate an end to its settler-colonial status in Palestine.
The Israeli representative at the UN, Gilad Erdan, accused the General Assembly of shredding the charter of the organization. He went on to denounce the resolution accusing the General Assembly of enabling terrorism within its ranks.
The People’s Republic of China UN representative also spoke during the discussions on the resolution. Beijing has made a series of statements in defense of the Palestinians while calling for an immediate ceasefire and a sustainable solution to the crisis.
UN Ambassador for China Fu Cong said of the resolution that:
“It is the common responsibility of the international community to support and advance the process of Palestinian independent Statehood and provide strong support for the implementation of the two-State solution and a lasting peace in the Middle East. China welcomes this historic resolution, which reflects the will of the international community. We believe that the special modalities adopted within the limits permitted by the UN Charter will enable the international community to listen more adequately to the voice of Palestine and help it to talk and negotiate with Israel on a more equal footing.”
Ambassador Riyad Mansour representing the State of Palestine at the UN welcomed the passage of the resolution. He noted that the more than 35,000 lives lost cannot be replaced although there is the urgency for the preservation of Palestinian life.
Diplomatic Efforts Are Bolstered by Direct Action
Over the last several weeks, college and university campuses in the U.S., Britain and the European Union (EU) have been the scene of encampments and building occupations by students and progressive faculty members in solidarity with Palestine. In the U.S. more than 2,800 people have been arrested in these campus demonstrations.
Obviously, the repression being leveled against the Palestine solidarity movement in the U.S. is being coordinated by the White House and the Department of Justice. The stakes for the U.S. and its closest allies are quite high in the efforts to maintain Occupied Palestine as an outpost for imperialist domination and intrigue.
Historically, many other national liberation movements have utilized the UN as a forum for debate, discussion and the passage of resolutions which contribute to the independence from colonial regimes. In South Africa and Namibia, agencies were established to foster the independence struggle including the UN Center Against Apartheid and the UN Council for Namibia.
Nevertheless, the mass, and oftentimes armed struggles, were the critical factors in winning independence against colonialism and imperialism. This pattern is holding true for the Palestinians as well which can be seen through the ongoing resistance operations by Hamas and the other political organizations operating within the Gaza Strip.
The combined efforts of the Palestinian resistance, the solidarity movements operating internationally and the diplomatic initiatives taking place within the UNGA, the Security Council and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), will lead to the eventual realization of the victory of the oppressed against their colonizers. These methods have proven to be effective in light of the defensive posture of imperialism and its allies in the present period.*
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Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/unga-votes-upgrade-status-palestine/5857256
USCMO Visits South Africa, Extends Gratitude for Support of Palestinian Cause
(Washington, D.C., May 15, 2024) - A delegation from the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) recently concluded an impactful visit to South Africa. They attended conferences commemorating the 30th anniversary of the end of apartheid and expressed heartfelt gratitude to the people of South Africa for their steadfast support of the Palestinian people's pursuit of justice, freedom, and self-determination.
During their visit, the USCMO delegation met President Ramaphosa and members of his cabinet and conveyed heartfelt gratitude of many Americans for South Africa's pivotal role in championing the cause of justice for Palestinians by bringing the issue of the Israeli government's genocidal war crimes before the International Court of Justice. This courageous step has provided a global platform for understanding the longstanding plight of the Palestinian people, marking a significant milestone after 75 years of occupation and oppression.
In their meetings, the USCMO emphasized that the global awareness of human rights violations against the Palestinian people increased with the steadfast efforts, determination, and hard work of South Africa's legal team and the Ministry of International Relations. Presenting an impactful, historic case before the ICJ reflects the lessons learned from South Africa's own struggle for freedom from apartheid and highlights the South African people's commitment to justice and human rights for all.
USCMO Secretary General Oussama Jammal, stated, "Our visit to South Africa was an opportunity to express our profound gratitude to South Africa for its unwavering support of the Palestinian cause. South Africa's historic role in bringing Israeli war crimes to the International Court of Justice is a testament to their commitment to justice for all."
The USCMO delegation's visit underscores the importance of international solidarity in advancing causes of peace, justice, and self-determination.
The US Council of Muslim Organizations, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is an umbrella of several leading national, regional, and local Muslim organizations and institutions harnessing the collective strength of American Muslims for the greater good of all.
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