Human Rights

09 November 2023; MEMO: Israeli officials have refused to attend today’s “humanitarian conference” for Gaza in Paris, organised by French President Emmanuel Macron. Despite its absence, Macron’s office insists that Israel shares “an interest in the humanitarian situation improving in Gaza.”

Macron and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a conversation on Tuesday, and they are scheduled to engage in further discussions following the end of the aid conference, explained the Elysee Palace.

01 November 2023; MEMO: Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Organisation for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said 70 per cent of the Palestinian martyrs who have been killed by the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip since 7 October are children and women, warning that there is no safe place in Gaza.

31 October 2023; MEMO: President Joe Biden’s support among Arab-Americans, who are crucial voters in battleground election states, has plunged from a comfortable majority in 2020 to just 17 per cent, a new poll shows, amid growing anger over the Democratic President’s support for Israel’s attacks on Gaza, Reuters reports.

31 October 2023; MEMO: The Director of the New York Office of UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, Craig Mokhiber, has resigned in protest over the organisation’s inability to stop the genocide in Gaza.

“Once again, we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the Organisation that we serve appears powerless to stop it,” he said in a statement.

31 October 2023; MEMO: Anadolu, on Tuesday, captured the images of the Orthodox Cultural Centre in Gaza, which was destroyed by the Israeli bombardment in the south of the blockaded enclave, Anadolu Agency reports.

Abdulmunim Al-Abesi, one of the displaced Palestinians who took shelter in the Centre in the Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood, told Anadolu that some 500 people took shelter there.

31 October 2023; MEMO: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last week in a pro-Palestinian rally that they would declare Israel a “war criminal” to the world. Authorities are now exploring ways to bring crimes committed by Israel against Palestinian civilians before the International Criminal Court (ICC), Daily Sabah reports.

31 October 2023; MEMO: Bolivia’s government is breaking diplomatic ties with Israel, the Bolivian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, accusing Israel of committing crimes against humanity in its attacks on the Gaza Strip, Reuters reports.

Bolivia, in 2009, cut diplomatic ties with Israel in protest of its attacks on the Gaza Strip.

In 2020, the government of President Jeanine Anez re-established ties.

31 October 2023; MEMO: Belgian transport workers’ unions, on Tuesday, called on their members to refuse to handle military equipment being sent to Israel to battle Hamas gunmen, Reuters reports.

The ACV Puls, BTB, BBTK and ACV-Transcom unions said in a joint statement that airport workers have seen arms shipments.

31 October 2023; MEMO: Australia has expressed concerns over increasing attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by Jewish settlers, amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong stated that “Australia is deeply concerned by reports of ongoing settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, Such violence threatens to only inflame tensions and those responsible must be held accountable”.

01 November 2023; MEMO: The head of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement abroad, Khaled Meshaal, has said that the Israeli occupation authorities have not yet absorbed the shock of 7 October and are confused, afraid of more resistance surprises. Meshaal made his comment to TRT Arabi on Tuesday.