Tag: Violence

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Politics

Afghanistan evacuations pace up amid reviews of Taliban violence, crackdown on ladies

Afghanistan evacuations speed up amid reports of Taliban violence, crackdown on women

People wait to be evacuated from Afghanistan at the airport in Kabul on August 18, 2021 following the Taliban stunning takeover of the country. (Photo by – / AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

– | AFP | Getty Images

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Evacuations from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport picked up pace Wednesday after a frenzied and deadly start to the week as foreigners and Afghans scramble to get out of the country now under control of the Taliban.

Thousands of diplomats and aid workers have been evacuated, according to Western governments, along with at least several hundred Afghans, though the exact numbers remain unclear.

More than 2,200 diplomats and other civilian workers have been evacuated on military flights, according to Reuters, citing an anonymous security official, though the nationalities of the evacuees have not been confirmed and it is not known whether that figure includes the more than 600 Afghans crammed onto a U.S. C-17 aircraft that took them to Qatar.

Evacuees crowd the interior of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, carrying some 640 Afghans to Qatar from Kabul, Afghanistan August 15, 2021.

Courtesy of Defense One | Handout via Reuters

The British government says it is taking approximately 1,000 people per day out of Afghanistan. “We’re still bringing out British nationals … and those Afghan nationals who are part of our locally employed scheme,” U.K. Interior Minister Priti Patel told the BBC on Wednesday.

The Pentagon’s goal is to get 5,000 to 9,000 people out of Kabul daily, said Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff for regional operations, said at a news conference Tuesday.

Taylor expects a departure tempo of one U.S. military cargo aircraft per hour. He said about 4,000 U.S. troops are stationed in the capital to aid in the evacuation efforts and provide security.

Taliban promise rights, amnesty

The missions are being carried out as the Taliban lay out for the world what they claim their leadership will look like — and as reports surface of fresh brutality by the militants.

In a somewhat surreal press conference Tuesday night, a spokesman for the militant Islamic group, infamous for its brutal executions and oppression of dissenters, women, and anyone who fell afoul of its ultraconservative rules, promised rights for women and the press and amnesty for government officials.

“I would like to assure the international community, including the United States, that nobody will be harmed,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters. “We don’t want any internal or external enemies.”

He said the Taliban would ensure safety for anyone who laid down their weapons, regardless of their past affiliations, and would allow women to work and go to school, but “within the framework of Islam” — a vague parameter given the extreme interpretation of the religion that the group is known for.

Reports of human rights violations by Taliban fighters have surfaced in other parts of the country in recent weeks, and many Afghans remain desperate to flee the country for fear of reprisal for their role in helping U.S. and allied forces. Whether the group will stay true to its word is yet to be seen.

NBC News’ Richard Engel said local media reported that Taliban fighters killed two demonstrators at a protest in Jalalabad.

Reports of violence, blocked routes to airport

In contrast to the conciliatory image Taliban representatives attempted to convey during their press conference Tuesday, reports are surfacing from Kabul and around the country of beatings, shootings of civilians and women being barred from educational institutions by Taliban members.

Despite promises of “safe passage” to Kabul airport for those who want to leave the country, the State Department has received reports of people being turned away, pushed back and beaten when trying to access the airport, national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday.

Photos published by NBC on Wednesday and taken by a Los Angeles Times reporter show bloodied adults and children in Kabul after being beaten by Taliban militants. The group’s officials deny their fighters took part in any such violence, insisting it was carried out by men impersonating the Taliban.

Women are also describing being blocked from their places of work and education by Taliban members, in contradiction of the group’s pledge to continue to allow women to participate in the workforce and go to school.

“Taliban didn’t allow my ex-colleague here in @TOLOnews and famous anchor of the State-owned @rtapashto Shabnam Dawran to start her work today,” Miraqa Popal, head of news at Afghan broadcaster Tolo News, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, along with a video of his colleague recounting the event.

“Despite wearing a hijab & carrying correct ID, I was told by Taliban: The regime has changed. Go home,” Dawran, the female anchor, says in the video, according to Popal.

Read more on the developments in Afghanistan:

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World News

South African Army Is Referred to as In to Quell Violence

South African Military Is Called In to Quell Violence

JOHANNESBURG – Government officials in South Africa on Monday deployed the military to quell the increasingly destructive unrest that has gripped parts of the country in recent days, causing multiple deaths and tens of millions of dollars in damage to businesses and highways and closings Transport services.

The volatility began last week with demonstrations in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province over the imprisonment of Jacob Zuma, the former South African president, and has turned into looting, arson and gunfire, with chaos spreading to Johannesburg, the nation’s financial hub.

The looming unrest represents a deepening crisis for the country’s leadership as President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ruling African National Congress face deep divisions within their ranks and social upheaval in a nation marked by high unemployment and a devastating wave is rocked by coronavirus infections.

Mr Ramaphosa has been criticized for his silence in the early days of the riot. “We will not tolerate any criminal activity,” he said during a national address on Sunday evening that was mainly intended to focus on the restrictions of Covid-19.

“Although at this moment there are those who can be hurt and angry,” he said, “there can never be any justification for such violent, destructive and disruptive acts.”

On Monday, much of the destruction appeared to have little to do with anger over Mr. Zuma’s detention, government officials said, but instead appeared to be opportunistic lawlessness. Some analysts and activists said it was an uprising that arose out of deeper problems of poverty and the lack of opportunities in the country.

Pictures on local news channels showed shopping malls burning, hundreds of people leaving stores selling items such as clothing and household appliances, and police followed and arrested anyone they could.

“While these actions are described by some as a form of political protest, they are now clearly criminal acts,” said Jessie Duarte, assistant secretary general of the African National Congress, during a press conference Monday.

The riots would hurt the poor and the marginalized the most, Ms. Duarte said, by destroying businesses that employ people and disrupting public services and transportation that workers rely on to get to their jobs.

Parts of important highways were closed after vandals burned trucks in the middle of them. As of Monday morning, there were 219 arrests and six dead nationwide, according to police, although the details of these deaths are still under investigation.

Mr Zuma, 79, was sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest judicial authority, for refusing to appear before a commission investigating widespread corruption allegations during his tenure as President from 2009 to 2018. He and his supporters sharply criticized the decision on the grounds that it had been treated unfairly and that a prison sentence without trial was unconstitutional.

Mr Zuma initially refused to go to prison as ordered by the court, but after lengthy negotiations with the police he finally gave in at the last moment and filed a complaint last Wednesday. His supporters, who vowed never to allow his arrest, then demanded the closure of his home province of KwaZulu-Natal. One of Mr. Zuma’s daughters, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, posted pictures of the destruction on Twitter with messages of praise.

Amid the first flare-ups of the unrest in the streets, Mr. Zuma’s eponymous foundation said on Twitter that it had “noticed the reactive, sincere anger of the people”. The Post also indicated that people were provoked by Mr. Zuma’s detention.

Mzwanele Manyi, a spokesman for the foundation, said in an interview that she could not be blamed for the upheavals spreading across South Africa.

“We are not in a position to tell people how to react to the given situation,” he said, adding that Mr. Zuma was fighting the decision in court.

The Constitutional Court heard arguments on Monday in a motion from Mr Zuma for the waiver of his arrest warrant.

The imprisonment of Mr Zuma, a populist who has drawn a passionate following, heightened tensions between a loyal faction within the African National Congress and one loyal to Mr Ramaphosa, the current party leader. Zuma allies have tried to portray the current unrest as a failure of Mr. Ramaphosa’s leadership.

Ms. Duarte said the riots were orchestrated by people within the ANC to delegitimize and sabotage the current leadership. The party gave the police the names of people to investigate, she said.

“We can’t deny that this has been brewing,” she said. “It is unfortunate because anger and frustration can never induce you to do so much damage that has already been done.”

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Entertainment

A Movie Tries to Make a Distinction for Home Violence Survivors

A Film Tries to Make a Difference for Domestic Violence Survivors

In 2013, Tanisha Davis, a 26-year-old woman from Rochester, NY, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for killing her boyfriend and a beating the night he died. The judge agreed that she was a victim of domestic violence, but said that her response deserves no indulgence. “You handled the situation completely wrong,” he told her. “You could have left.”

In 2021, the same judge dismissed Davis on a new law that allowed domestic violence survivors to have more nuanced consideration in the courts, thanks in part to a documentary that helped shape their case.

It is not uncommon for documentary projects to have an impact on legal proceedings once they have found an audience and built public attention. But the film that Davis helped, “And So I Stayed,” wasn’t out yet – it wasn’t even finished – when filmmakers Natalie Pattillo and Daniel A. Nelson put together a short video for the court of them described their lives.

“You could see how strong the bonds she had with her family and the strength of the support she would have” if she were released, said Angela N. Ellis, one of her lawyers. The prosecutor and the judge both mentioned that they were watching the footage when they agreed to release her in March.

During her eight years in prison, Davis, 34, spoke to her son, who is now 15, every day. Now that she is at home, “I can just call him in the next room,” she said. “I can’t even explain this joy. I cry tears of joy all the time. “

For the filmmakers, it was an unexpectedly bright ending to an often heartbreaking and unsettling film. And So I Stayed, which premieres Saturday at the Brooklyn Film Festival (online until June 13), is personal for Pattillo, who is a survivor herself and whose sister was killed by a friend in 2010. The documentary grew out of her graduation project at Columbia Journalism School, where she met Nelson, her co-director.

“I didn’t realize how common it is that women are imprisoned for defending themselves or their children,” said Pattillo. “When I found out, I couldn’t stop reporting” to show how misunderstood and punitive these cases are within the judicial system.

The film’s first focus was on Kim Dadou Brown, who spent 17 years in prison for killing her violent boyfriend. She became a lawyer and traveled to Albany to brief New York lawmakers on the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, the long-smoldering piece of legislation that eventually helped free Davis. Introduced in 2011, it was finally passed in 2019 after the Democrats flipped the state senate.

The law is one of the few laws in the country that gives judges more leniency in convicting victims of domestic violence who commit crimes against their perpetrators. It follows a growing, research-based understanding of the patterns of abusive relationships and the unique impact they have on the people in them.

“Leaving is the hardest part,” and the most dangerous, said Dadou Brown. “I thought all men were hitting and I stuck with mine so I knew which way the hitting would be coming.”

After Dadou Brown, a Rochester native and former healthcare worker, was paroled in 2008, she volunteered with survivors and crossed the state for rallies – even when money was tight because her felony status made it difficult to find jobs, she said. With 17 earrings (one for each year of imprisonment) and her signature false eyelashes, “she’s just a force,” said Pattillo. “It’s sheer tenacity. This is Kim. “

When the bill was passed, there was high spirits among its supporters and filmmakers. But they left their cameras on.

One case considered a surefire test of the crime was that of Nicole Addimando, a young mother of two in Poughkeepsie, NY, who fatally shot and killed Christopher Grover, her living friend and father of the children, in 2017. The film contains footage from police cameras the night she was found disoriented and driving around in the early hours of the morning with her 4 and 2 year olds in the backseat.

Her case made national headlines for the severity of the abuse she allegedly suffered: bites and blue eyes; Bruises and burns on her body, including during pregnancy, that have been documented by doctors; Rapes that Grover videotaped and uploaded to a porn site. In the film, a social worker calls it not just assault, but “sexual torture”. In 2020, Addimando was sentenced to 19 years of life imprisonment for second degree manslaughter; the judge contested the applicability of the Survivor Justice Act.

“I felt like we let them down,” said Dadou Brown, who was at the conviction.

In the film, Addimando can mainly be heard as the voice on the phone from prison; with a phone call, her mother tries to comfort her that she is at least still alive, that she has escaped being mistreated. “I’m still not free,” she replies, crying.

While there are no statewide statistics on the number of women incarcerated who have defended themselves against abusers, federal research suggests that around half of women in jail have experienced physical abuse or sexual violence, most from romantic partners. Black women are disproportionately harassed by both intimate partner violence and the judicial system: they are most often killed by a romantic partner and more likely to end up in prison, according to Bernadine Waller, a researcher at Adelphi University.

According to Nelson, the filmmaker, bringing stories like this to the screen is not about questioning the triggers, but rather about contextualizing the convicts. “The legal system forces you to create the perfect victim,” he said, “and a prosecutor will do everything in his power to characterize a survivor so that he does not fit in that box.” (In Addimando’s case, the judge said she “reluctantly consented” to the sexual abuse.)

Garrard Beeney, an Addimando attorney pending a decision on her appeal, said the investigation into the documentary into the judiciary’s handling of survivors was “a necessary but, in my opinion, not sufficient step” to change the process . Police, prosecutors and judges need training to think about domestic violence, he said. “We need this type of retraining more urgently than a gradual process of understanding.”

For Pattillo, who had two of her three children while filming, a few moments felt overwhelmingly raw. “There is always survivor’s fault when dealing with trauma,” she said, adding, referring to Addimando, “Why was I fine and not Nikki? Why don’t you take care of your children every night? “

But it is also “very healing,” she added, “to have helped survivors feel seen, heard and believed through this film.”

It originally ended on a dark note, at a vigil for Addimando. Then came the Davis case. The filmmakers were there on the day she was released from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Getting used to the outdoors again – during a pandemic – is still a challenge, Davis said last week. But she wanted her story to be told as a warning to the victims and as a beacon. The filmmakers plan to make the documentary available to the legal system – “a toolkit,” Nelson said on how to apply the new law.

Dadou Brown was also in Bedford Hills; she drove Davis’ family there. Her advocacy, said Dadou Brown, has become her life’s work. “I’m so happy to have so many dream moments,” she said. “Even when I come home from prison. My next dream will come true, to bring Nikki home. “

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Business

2 Airways Will Postpone Serving Alcohol Amid Surge of In-Flight Violence

2 Airlines Will Postpone Serving Alcohol Amid Surge of In-Flight Violence

Two major airlines, American and Southwest, have postponed plans to resume serving alcohol on flights in an effort to stop a surge of unruly and sometimes violent behavior by passengers who have shoved, struck and yelled at flight attendants.

Both airlines announced the policies this week after the latest assault was captured on a widely watched video that showed a woman punching a flight attendant in the face on a Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento to San Diego on Sunday.

The flight attendant lost two teeth in the assault, according to her union, and the passenger, who was identified by the police as Vyvianna Quinonez, 28, has been charged with battery causing serious bodily injury. She has also been barred for life from flying Southwest, the airline said.

It was not immediately clear if Ms. Quinonez had a lawyer, and she did not respond on Saturday to messages left at a number listed under her name.

Since Jan. 1, the Federal Aviation Administration has received about 2,500 reports of unruly behavior by passengers, including about 1,900 reports of passengers refusing to comply with a federal mandate that they wear masks on planes.

The agency said that in the past it did not track reports of unruly passengers because the numbers had been fairly consistent over the years, but that it began receiving reports of a “significant increase” in disruptive behavior starting in late 2020.

“We have just never seen anything like this,” Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said during an online meeting with federal aviation officials on Wednesday. “We’ve never seen it so bad.”

Southwest Airlines issued a statement on Friday citing the “recent uptick industrywide of incidents in-flight involving disruptive passengers” as it announced that it had paused plans to resume serving alcohol on flights.

“We realize this decision will be disappointing for some customers, but we feel it to be the right decision now in the interest of safety and comfort of all onboard,” the statement said.

American Airlines announced a similar policy on Saturday.

It said that alcohol sales, which had been suspended in the main cabin since late March 2020, would remain suspended through Sept. 13, when a federal mandate requiring passengers to wear masks on airplanes, buses and trains is set to expire.

In a memo, American said it recognized that “alcohol can contribute to atypical behavior from customers onboard and we owe it to our crew not to potentially exacerbate what can already be a new and stressful situation for our customers.”

Today in Business

Updated 

May 28, 2021, 12:54 p.m. ET

“Over the past week we’ve seen some of these stressors create deeply disturbing situations on board aircraft,” said the memo, which was issued to American’s flight attendants on Saturday. “Let me be clear: American Airlines will not tolerate assault or mistreatment of our crews.”

American said that alcohol would continue to be served in first class and business class, but only during the flight and not before departure.

The changes came after Lyn Montgomery, the president of Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents flight attendants on Southwest Airlines, urged the airline’s chief executive, Gary Kelly, to stop the “abuse” employees have been facing.

“We ask that you take a strong stance to ensure that unruly passengers are not welcome to travel with us, period, full stop,” she wrote in a letter to Mr. Kelly on Monday. “Flight crews must feel safe and supported when reporting to work.”

The changes also came after the F.A.A. said on Monday that it had proposed fines of $9,000 to $15,000 for five passengers who had exhibited disruptive behavior on flights.

One of those passengers was in the main cabin of a JetBlue flight in February. She yelled obscenities and pushed a flight attendant who took away champagne and food that had been brought to her by a passenger in first class, the F.A.A. said.

Another passenger on a JetBlue flight in January ignored instructions to stop drinking alcohol and yelled at crew members after they told him to stop talking on his cellphone, the agency said.

In January, a passenger on Alaska Airlines shoved a flight attendant who was walking down the aisle and documenting which passengers were wearing masks, the F.A.A. said.

Steve Dickson, the F.A.A. administrator, said in a videotaped statement that the agency has a “zero-tolerance policy” for passengers who cause disturbances on flights or fail to obey instructions from the flight crew.

Passengers, regardless of their vaccination status, must wear masks on planes and in airports, he said.

“But this isn’t just about face masks,” Mr. Dickson said. “We’ve seen incidents related to alcohol, violence toward flight attendants and abusive behavior in general.”

Those who violate the rules, he said, may be subject to fines and jail time. As a former commercial airline captain, Mr. Dickson said, he knows that disruptive passengers can pose a safety risk.

“Flying is the safest mode of transportation,” he said, “and we intend to keep it that way.”

Categories
Politics

Blinken to go to Center East following Israeli-Palestinian violence

Blinken to go to Middle East following Israeli-Palestinian violence

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a news conference following meetings at the Danish Foreign Ministry, Eigtved’s Warehouse, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 17, 2021.

Saul Loeb | Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to the Middle East this week on the heels of nearly two weeks of fighting between Israel and Palestinians, the White House said Monday.

“Following up on our quiet, intensive diplomacy to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, I have asked my Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, to travel to the Middle East this week,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, emphasizing that part of the trip will involve Blinken meeting with Israeli leaders “about our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”

Blinken will also focus on the U.S.-Palestinian relationship, which the Biden statement described as “our Administration’s efforts to rebuild ties to, and support for, the Palestinian people and leaders, after years of neglect.”

Israel’s security Cabinet voted Thursday to approve a tentative cease-fire after 11 days of fighting with Hamas in Israel and the Gaza Strip, the worst violence the area has seen since 2014. Negotiations leading to the cease-fire were led by Egypt, the only country with open communication lines with Israel and Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that governs the Gaza Strip.

Israeli airstrikes and internecine fighting killed more than 220 Palestinians in Gaza over 11 days, including more than 100 women and children. During that time Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, killing 12 people, including two children.

Biden came under fire from human rights groups and progressive Democrats for perceived inaction as the conflict escalated and for his administration’s continued financial and military support for Israel. His administration has revived some support for Palestinians, restoring $235 million in U.S. aid — most of which will go to the UN’s refugee program for Palestinians — which was completely cut under the Trump administration.

The U.S. provides Israel with $3.8 billion annually in military aid. In early May before the fighting began, the Biden administration approved selling $735 million in precision-guided munitions to Israel — a sale that several progressive Democrats are now trying to halt.

A Palestinian woman carries her child amid the rubble of their houses which were destroyed by Israeli air strikes during the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza May 23, 2021.

Mohammed Salem | Reuters

The violence in the blockaded Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and several places in Israel was triggered by protests surrounding the threat of evictions of some Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem by the Israeli government.

The demonstrations, largely peaceful but including rock throwing, brought on a harsh Israeli response, such as firing stun grenades into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex during prayers in the holy month of Ramadan. In response, Hamas fired rocket barrages from Gaza into Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel.

Israel then launched airstrikes that the military said was targeted at Hamas, but in the process bombed multiple civilian homes as well as a building housing foreign media outlets including The Associated Press.

Israel has occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the 1967 war, building Jewish settlements that the majority of the international community considers illegal under international law. Israel rejects this.

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Business

Mob Violence In opposition to Palestinians in Israel Is Fueled by Teams on WhatsApp

Mob Violence Against Palestinians in Israel Is Fueled by Groups on WhatsApp

Last Wednesday a message appeared on a new WhatsApp channel called “Death to the Arabs”. The embassy urged the Israelis to join a mass brawl against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Within hours, dozens of other new WhatsApp groups appeared with variations of the same name and message. The groups soon organized a start time at 6 p.m. for a clash in Bat Yam, a town on the Israeli coast.

“Together we organize and together we act,” says one of the WhatsApp groups. “Tell your friends to join the group because this is where we know how to defend Jewish honor.”

That evening, live scenes were broadcast of Israelis dressed in black breaking car windows and roaming the streets of Bat Yam. The mob pulled a man they suspected was an Arab out of his car and knocked him unconscious. He was hospitalized in serious condition.

The episode was one of dozens across Israel that authorities have linked to a surge in activity by Jewish extremists on WhatsApp, Facebook’s encrypted messaging service. According to analysis by the New York Times and by FakeReporter, an Israeli surveillance group that investigates misinformation, at least 100 new WhatsApp groups have been formed to commit violence against Palestinians since the violence between Israelis and Palestinians escalated last week.

WhatsApp groups with names like “The Jewish Guard” and “The Revenge Troops” added hundreds of new members daily over the past week, according to the Times analysis. The Hebrew groups have also been featured on email lists and online forums used by right-wing extremists in Israel.

While social media and messaging apps have been used in the past to spread hate speech and incite violence, these WhatsApp groups go even further, according to researchers. This is because the groups explicitly plan and carry out acts of violence against Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up around 20 percent of the population and lead a largely integrated life with Jewish neighbors.

This is far more specific than previous WhatsApp mob attacks in India, which calls for violence were vague and generally not directed at individuals or companies, the researchers said. Even the Stop the Steal groups in the US that organized the January 6 protests in Washington did not openly target attacks through social media or messaging apps.

The proliferation of these WhatsApp groups has alarmed Israeli security officials and disinformation researchers. Attacks have been carefully documented in the groups, and members are often happy to be involved in the violence, according to The Times. Some said they would take revenge for rockets being fired at Israel by militants in Gaza, while others cited various grievances. Many asked for names of Arab-owned companies that they could target next.

“It’s a perfect storm of people empowered to use their own names and phone numbers to openly call for violence and have a tool like WhatsApp to organize themselves into mobs,” said Achiya Schatz, director of FakeReporter .

He said his organization had reported many of the new WhatsApp groups to the Israeli police, which initially took no action “but are now starting to act and try to prevent the violence”.

Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment, but Israeli security officials said law enforcement began monitoring the WhatsApp groups after being alerted by FakeReporter. The police, Schatz said, believed attacks by the Jewish extremists were inflamed and organized by the WhatsApp groups.

An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that police had not seen any similar WhatsApp groups among Palestinians. Islamist movements, including Hamas, the militant Palestinian organization that controls the Gaza Strip, have long organized and recruited followers on social media but are not planning any attacks on the services for fear of being discovered.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Updated

May 19, 2021, 6:37 p.m. ET

A WhatsApp spokeswoman said the intelligence service was concerned about the activities of Israeli extremists. She said the company removed some accounts from people who participated in the groups. WhatsApp cannot read the encrypted messages on its service, she added, but it acted when accounts were reported to it for violating its Terms of Service.

“We are taking steps to ban accounts that we believe could cause imminent harm,” she said.

In Israel, WhatsApp has long been used to form groups so that people can communicate and share interests or plan school activities. When violence between Israel’s military and Palestinian militants in Gaza increased last week, WhatsApp was also one of the platforms on which false information about the conflict was spread.

Tensions in the region were so high that new groups seeking revenge on Palestinians appeared on WhatsApp and other news outlets like Telegram. The first WhatsApp groups appeared last Tuesday, Schatz said. By last Wednesday, his organization had found dozens of groups.

People can join the groups through a link, many of which are shared in existing WhatsApp groups. As soon as they join a group, other groups will be announced to them.

The groups have grown steadily since then, Schatz said. Some have grown so large that they have branched into local chapters dedicated to specific cities. To avoid detection by WhatsApp, the group’s organizers are asking people to screen new members, he said.

According to FakeReporter, Israelis have formed around 20 channels in the Telegram to commit and plan violence against Palestinians. Much of the content and messages in these groups mimics the content of the WhatsApp channels.

In a new WhatsApp group that reviewed The Times, “The Revenge Troops,” people recently shared instructions on building Molotov cocktails and makeshift explosives. The group asked its 400 members to also provide addresses of Arab-owned companies that could be targeted.

In another group of just under 100 members, people exchanged photos of guns, knives, and other weapons while discussing street fighting in mixed Jewish-Arab cities. Another new WhatsApp group was dubbed “The Non-Apologetic Right-Wing Group”.

After participating in attacks, members of the groups posted photos of their exploits and encouraged others to emulate them.

“We destroyed them, we left them in pieces,” said a person in the WhatsApp group “The Revenge Troops” next to a photo showing the broken car window. Another group uploaded a video of Jewish youths dressed in black stopping cars on an unnamed street and asking drivers if they were Jewish or Arab.

We have “defeated the enemy car for car,” said a comment below the video with an expletive.

Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Lod, a mixed Jewish-Arab city in central Israel that was the site of the recent clashes.

“There is currently no greater threat than this unrest and it is important to restore law and order,” said Netanyahu.

In some WhatsApp groups, Mr. Netanyahu’s calls for peace have been ridiculed.

“Our government is too weak to do what is necessary, so we take it into our own hands,” wrote one person on a WhatsApp group dedicated to the city of Ramle, central Israel. “Now that we are organized, they can no longer stop us.”

Ben Decker contributed to the research.

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Politics

U.S. army continues Afghanistan withdrawal as Israel-Gaza violence ensues

U.S. military continues Afghanistan withdrawal as Israel-Gaza violence ensues

Lance Cpl. Patrick Reeder, with Combined Anti-Armor Team 2, patrols Nawa district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Oct. 28, 2009.

Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. James Purschwitz

WASHINGTON – Since President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, the US has completed up to 20% of the withdrawal process from the country, the US Central Command said on Tuesday.

Command monitored the removal of approximately 115 loads of equipment in C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft. More than 5,000 pieces of equipment that will not be handed over to the Afghan military have also been handed over to the Defense Logistics Agency for destruction.

The US has also officially handed over five facilities to the Afghan military. Central Command estimates the US has completed between 13% and 20% of the withdrawal process so far.

In April, Biden announced a full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, ending America’s longest war.

The removal of approximately 3,000 US soldiers coincides with the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks that spurred America’s entry into protracted wars in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Biden’s withdrawal schedule breaks with a proposed deadline agreed by the Trump administration and the Taliban last year. All foreign armed forces should have left Afghanistan by May 1 under this agreement.

Last month, the White House confirmed that US troops had begun withdrawing from Afghanistan. The Pentagon was proactively deploying additional troops and military equipment to protect the armed forces in the area, the government said.

The central command has not disclosed the number of troops currently stationed there due to operational security measures.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas will not curb the Biden government’s ambitions to complete a full withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In a phone call Monday afternoon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden raised concerns about the rising civilian death toll and called for a ceasefire.

Violence between militants from Israel and Hamas has increased for more than a week. Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have resulted in at least 212 Palestinian deaths, according to the authorities there.

Meanwhile, Israel has said that more than 3,400 rockets have bombed its cities. At least 12 people have died in Israel.

The violence marked the largest escalation of the conflict in years. On Tuesday, the European Union became the youngest organization to call for a ceasefire.

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Politics

U.N. Secretary Normal calls Israel-Palestinian violence appalling, calls for finish

U.N. Secretary General calls Israel-Palestinian violence appalling, demands end

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony for fallen soldiers of the Israeli wars at Yad Lebanim House on the eve of Memorial Day in Jerusalem on April 13, 2021.

Debbie Hill | Reuters

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the violent conflict between militants from Israel and the Gaza Strip on Sunday as “extremely appalling” and called for an immediate ceasefire as the worst outbreak of fighting in years lasts seven days and weighs heavily on civilians.

“This latest round of violence only continues the cycles of death, destruction and despair and pushes all hopes for coexistence and peace further into the horizon,” Guterres said during a meeting of the UN Security Council.

“The fight has to stop. It has to stop immediately. Missiles and mortars on one side and air and artillery bombardments on the other have to stop,” he said. “I appeal to all parties to heed this call.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that there would be no immediate end to the Israeli campaign against militant groups.

Israeli air strikes early Sunday killed at least 42 Palestinians, including 10 children, according to Gaza health officials, bringing the death toll in Gaza to at least 188 since the fighting began on Monday. In Israel, 10 people were killed in rocket attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

“We will do everything we can to restore order. It will take time,” Netanyahu said during an interview on CBS ‘Face the Nation. “I hope it won’t be long. It’s not right now.”

A Palestinian mourns the bodies of a member of the Kawlak family who were killed in an overnight Israeli air strike in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City as they prepared for their funeral in front of Al-Shifa Hospital on May 16, 2021.

Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

Israel and Hamas, which govern the Gaza Strip, have both vowed to continue the cross-border fire after Israel targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed some media offices. Hamas fired 120 rockets overnight to destroy the al-Jalaa building, although many were intercepted.

“Our campaign against the terrorist organizations continues with full force,” said Netanyahu in a televised address. “We are now acting as long as necessary to restore peace and quiet to you, the citizens of Israel.”

Netanyahu argued that the Israelis had received information that Hamas military offices were located in the Gaza Strip but had not produced any evidence. “It’s a perfectly legitimate target,” he said of the building, adding that the military had warned civilians against the evacuation.

The AP condemned the attack and demanded evidence from Israel that the building had Hamas offices. “We had no evidence that Hamas was in the building or was active in the building,” the AP said in a statement.

People rescue a wounded child from rubble as search and rescue work continues on rubble of a building after Israeli army air strikes struck buildings in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on May 16, 2021.

Ashraf Amra | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Guterres said the UN was actively working for an immediate ceasefire on all sides. “The fighting could drag Israelis and Palestinians into a spiral of violence with devastating consequences for both communities and for the entire region,” said Guterres.

“It has the potential to spark an unstoppable security and humanitarian crisis and further fuel extremism not just in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel but throughout the region, potentially creating a new place of dangerous instability,” he said.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield did not call for a ceasefire on Sunday but said the US would offer support if the parties seek a ceasefire.

“The United States has made it clear that we are ready to do our support and good offices if the parties seek a ceasefire because we believe that Israelis and Palestinians alike have the right to live in safety,” Greenfield told im UN Security Council meeting.

President Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday to address the worsening conflict. Biden’s envoy Hady Amr also came to Israel on Friday to de-escalate the fighting.

An air bomb hits Jala Tower during an Israeli air strike in Gaza City controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement on May 15, 2021.

Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

The president has reiterated its support for Israel’s right to self-defense against missile strikes, but Abbas shared concerns that “innocent civilians, including children, have tragically lost their lives in the ongoing violence,” according to an ad from das White House.

Biden also reiterated on Saturday a “strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best way to achieve a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” according to Abbas’ appeal.

Despite diplomatic efforts to end the conflict and avoid more civilian casualties, the fighting continues.

Rep. Adam Schiff, DC.A., chairman of the U.S. Intelligence Committee, called for a ceasefire during an interview on CBS Sunday morning.

“I think the government needs to put more pressure on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to stop the violence,” said Schiff.

– Reuters contributed to the coverage

Categories
Politics

Biden speaks to Israeli, Palestinian leaders as violence escalates

Biden speaks to Israeli, Palestinian leaders as violence escalates

A member of the Palestinian Civil Protection walks amid the rubble of a building in Gaza City that houses the Intaj Bank, affiliated with the Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip, on May 15, 2021.

Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday amid mounting violence.

During a telephone conversation with Netanyahu, the president reiterated his support for Israel’s right to self-defense against rocket attacks by the Hamas militant group in Gaza and condemned attacks in cities in Israel, according to an advertisement published by the White House.

“The president noted that this current period of conflict has tragically claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children,” the ad said. “He raised concerns about the safety of journalists and reiterated the need to ensure their protection.”

Netanyahu told Biden that Israel “is doing everything it can to avoid injuring those who are not involved in Hamas” and that “those who are not involved” have been evacuated from the 12-story building in the Gaza Strip, which housed the offices of The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Three Israeli heavy missiles collapsed the building on Saturday.

“Netanyahu thanked the President for the United States’ full support for our right to defend us,” read an ad in the appeal published by Netanyahu’s office.

The President spoke with Abbas about the tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank and their shared interest in making Jerusalem a “place of peaceful coexistence for people of all faiths and backgrounds”.

“The President also underlined his strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best way to achieve a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” read a reading from this call.

The extraordinary fire in Israel and Gaza has become an urgent early test of Biden’s foreign policy. The President worked in the Oval Office for some time on Saturday. He usually works on weekends at Camp David or his home state of Delaware.

The news that media offices had been destroyed sparked international outrage and shock and prompted the White House to act before the Biden ads were published.

United States President Joe Biden speaks on Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Response and Vaccination Program from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington May 13, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

The Biden government has “directly advised Israelis that ensuring the safety of journalists and independent media outlets is paramount,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki wrote in a tweet on Saturday.

The Associated Press president in a statement on Saturday said a dozen AP journalists and freelancers had evacuated the building prior to the strike, but “a terrible loss of life” was narrowly despite Israel’s warnings that the building would be hit been avoided.

“We are shocked and appalled that the Israeli military would attack and destroy the building that houses the AP office and other news organizations in Gaza,” said Gary Pruitt, AP President and CEO. “They have known the location of our office for a long time and know that journalists are there. We have received a warning that the building will be hit.”

“This is an incredibly worrying development,” said Pruitt of the airstrike.

Al Jazeera’s general manager accused Israel of trying to silence the media and condemned the air strike as a war crime and called on the international community to hold Israel accountable.

“The destruction of the offices of Al Jazeera and other media organizations in the Al Jalaa Tower in Gaza is an obvious violation of human rights and is internationally viewed as a war crime,” said Dr. Mostefa Souag, Acting General Manager of the Al Jazeera Media Network, in an article on the news agency’s website.

“We call on the international community to condemn such barbaric acts and the targeting of journalists, and we call for immediate international action to hold Israel accountable for targeting journalists and media institutions,” Souag said.

“The aim of this heinous crime is to silence the media and hide the immeasurable slaughter and suffering of the people of Gaza,” said Souag.

At least 139 people, including 39 children, were killed in Gaza. And eight people were killed in Israel when the conflict escalated.

Senator Bob Menendez, DN.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called in a statement on Saturday for “full accounting for actions that have resulted in the death of civilians and the destruction of media companies.”

“All political and military leaders have a responsibility to uphold the rules and laws of war, and it is of the utmost importance that all actors find ways to de-escalate and reduce tension,” he said. “This violence must stop.”

– Reuters and Associated Press contributed to the coverage

Categories
Politics

Violence Shakes Trump’s Boast of ‘New Center East’

Violence Shakes Trump’s Boast of ‘New Middle East’

WASHINGTON – President Donald J. Trump declared in September: “The beginning of a new Middle East.”

In the White House, Trump announced new diplomatic agreements between Israel and two of its Gulf Arab neighbors, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

“After decades of division and conflict,” said Trump, flanked by leaders from the region in a scene that was later repeated in his campaign ads, the Abraham Accords “laid the foundations for a comprehensive peace across the region.”

Eight months later, such peace remains a distant hope, especially for the most famous intractable conflict in the Middle East, that between Israel and the Palestinians. In fiery scenes all too reminiscent of the ancient Middle East, this conflict has entered its bloodiest phase in seven years and again criticizes Trump’s approach as it raises questions about the future of the accords as President Biden grapples with the role of United States facing looks now play in the region.

Mr Trump’s approach has essentially been to circumvent the challenge of easing tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in order to foster closer ties between Israel and some of the Sunni Arab states, largely based on their shared concerns about Iran.

The agreements he was involved in negotiating generally showed that some of Israel’s Arab neighbors showed less interest in helping the Palestinians, giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more leeway to pursue strategies that further exacerbated Israeli-Palestinian tensions .

“It was very difficult for anyone who knows the region to believe that the signing of the Abrahamic Accords would be a breakthrough for peace,” said Zaha Hassan, a visiting scholar for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which focuses on Palestinian issues specialized.

Vali Nasr, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said the agreements were “based on the idea that the Palestinian question is dead,” and rewarded Netanyahu’s tenacious approach to Israeli settlement activities in support of other expansive territorial claims.

“This was proof of his theory that you can have land and peace,” said Nasr.

Former Trump officials said the hyperbolic former president billed the Abraham Accords, which were later extended to Morocco and Sudan, but they were never seen as a means of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On the contrary, the deal, which expanded trade and normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and the four Arab states in whole or in part, instead acted as a reprimand for the Palestinians by showing that their cause no longer defined relations in the region.

Sunni Arab rulers, angry with the Palestinian leadership and tacitly allied with Israel against Shiite Iran for years, moved on.

Jason Greenblatt, who served as Trump’s Middle East Envoy through October 2019, argued that the current spasm of violence in and around Israel “underscores why the Abraham Accords are so important to the region”.

After Palestinian leaders finally rejected a January 2020 Trump peace plan that proposed the creation of a Palestinian state under conditions heavily geared towards Israeli demands, the accords deliberately severed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from Israel’s relations with the Arabs World, said Greenblatt.

They “have taken the Palestinians’ veto power to move the region forward,” he added.

Others noted that before agreeing to the agreements, the United Arab Emirates had given Mr. Netanyahu a pledge to halt a possible annexation of parts of the West Bank, which had the potential to spark a major Palestinian uprising. (Trump officials also opposed such annexation, and Mr Netanyahu may still not have enforced it.)

Dennis Ross, a former Middle East peace negotiator who served under three presidents, described the deals as an important step for the region but said the violence in Israel’s cities and Gaza Strip shows how “the Palestinian issue still holds a cloud over the people Israel’s relations can throw “its Arab neighbors.

“The idea that this was ‘Peace in Our Time’ obviously ignored the one existential conflict in the region. It wasn’t between Israel and the Arab states, ”said Ross.

Most analysts say the deals – which Biden government officials say they want to support and even expand to more nations – can survive the current violence. After all, officials involved in drafting the agreement said no one had the illusion that such clashes were a thing of the past.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Updated

May 15, 2021 at 10:43 a.m. ET

But images of Israeli police raids against Arabs in Jerusalem and air strikes that topple skyscrapers in Gaza are clearly causing nuisance.

In a statement last week, the UAE Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” Israel’s proposed evictions in East Jerusalem and a police attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, where Israeli officials said Palestinians had been storing stones throwing them at the Israeli police.

Last month, the UAE also denounced “acts of violence by right-wing extremist groups in occupied East Jerusalem” and warned that the region “could slide into new levels of instability in ways that threaten peace”.

Bahrain and other Gulf states have condemned Israel in similar tones. In a statement by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, on Friday “all parties”, not just Israel, were urged to exercise restraint and pursue a ceasefire.

A former Trump official argued that public pressure from countries like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on Israel after the agreements carried more weight than was the case from newly official diplomatic partners. However, none of the governments involved in the agreements play a major role in efforts to achieve a ceasefire – a responsibility that has historically been assumed by Egypt and Qatar.

“It is the non-Abraham Convention Arabs who will really play a central role in ending this fire,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Israeli-Arab adviser among six state secretaries.

At an event held by the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC last month, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the Biden administration “welcomes and supports” the Abraham Accords and that “Israel’s group of friends will grow even larger” next year. “

But with dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries since then, most of them Palestinians, analysts say the prospect of other Arab nations joining the accords is poor.

“I would say it is very, very unlikely that anyone else will join the deal,” said Nasr. “It will lose a lot of dynamism and energy.”

A nation seen as a potential candidate, Saudi Arabia, has imposed some of the strongest condemnations against Israel in the past few days. A statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry called on the international community to “hold the Israeli occupation responsible for this escalation and immediately stop its escalation measures, which violate all international norms and laws”.

Some Biden analysts and government officials say the deals were the culmination of a four-year Trump policy that included and empowered Mr. Netanyahu and isolated the Palestinians. Mr Trump’s approach, they said, nearly stifled hopes for the two-state solution pursued by several previous American presidents and tipped the balance of power between official Palestinian leaders and Hamas extremists in Gaza.

Ilan Goldenberg, a former Obama administration official, admitted that Israel had clashed with the Palestinians even under democratic governments, which had chosen a more balanced approach to the conflict than Trump’s nakedly pro-Israel stance.

And he said opportunistic rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel after the outbreak of Jewish-Arab violence in Jerusalem were not Trump’s fault.

But Mr Goldenberg argued that the current violence against Internecine in Israel “is at least partially driven by the fact that the Trump administration supports extremist elements in Israel every step of the way,” including the Israeli settlement movement.

In November 2019, for example, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo changed longstanding US policy by stating that the US did not view Israeli settlements in the West Bank as a violation of international law. (The Biden government intends to reverse this position once a government attorney review is completed.)

“They had David Friedman” – Mr. Trump’s ambassador in Jerusalem – “literally tear down walls of holy places with a sledgehammer and say it was Israeli,” Goldenberg said.

Mr Trump also moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and officially recognized the city as Israel’s capital. This enraged the Palestinians, who had long expected East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state they are building.

“Trump opened the door to Israel to accelerate house demolition and settlement activities,” Ms Hassan said. “And when that happens and you see Israel affecting it, you see the Palestinian resistance.”

Former Trump officials note that expert predictions of a Palestinian outbreak never materialized during Mr Trump’s tenure, particularly after the embassy moved, and suggest that Biden’s friendliness toward the Palestinians – including restoring that of Mr Trump canceled humanitarian aid – Trump – has encouraged them to challenge Israel.

Even some Trump administration officials said Mr Trump and others’ suggestions that the agreements represented peace in the Middle East were exaggerated.

“During my time in the White House, I always urged people not to use that term,” Greenblatt said.