German TV “regrets” airing this interview about Gaza
Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, May 13 2021
Deutsche Welle has apologized for airing an interview with me on Tuesday about German complicity in Israel’s ongoing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. The state broadcaster’s action reflects the prevailing cowardice and repression among Germany’s elites when it comes to criticism of Israel. I said in the interview:
I think it is time for the people of Germany and German elites to stop making Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip pay for the crimes of the German people against European Jews. Palestinians are sick of paying the price for guilty German consciences.
An item in German outlet Die Nachrichten confirms that a DW spox said:
An activist made anti-Semitic remarks in a news program on Tuesday, and he wanted to justify acts of terrorism. Even if it is not always possible to completely prevent statements from interview guests in a live situation, this mistake should not have happened. We regret that.
Although Die Nachrichten does not name me, it does appear to be a slanderous reference to my interview since it refers to the same program that interviewed me on Tuesday, The Day. An article in Bild also makes reference to my interview and smears me as an “anti-Semite.” In recent years, German political elites have stepped up their defamation campaigns and repression against supporters of Palestinian rights, slandering them as anti-Jewish bigots. This all stems from a mistaken belief that virtually unconditional support for Israel’s regime of occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism somehow redeems Germany for its extermination of millions of European Jews. German government-controlled media’s apology for allowing a deviation from official pro-Israel narratives underscores that in Europe “free speech” is a myth, especially when it comes to the rights and humanity of the Palestinian people.
France bans rally, arrests Palestine solidarity leader
Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, May 13 2021
https://twitter.com/AFPSOfficiel/status/1392547793798144002
Paris police arrested the head of a Palestine advocacy organization after banning a rally in solidarity with Palestinians who are under intensifying attack by Israel. Bertrand Heilbronn was arrested Wednesday evening as he left the foreign ministry in Paris, according to Association France-Palestine Solidarité, AFPS, the group of which he is president. The 71-year-old had been at a meeting with officials as part of a civil society delegation. Elsa Faucillon, a member of parliament, posted a video of Heilbronn surrounded by police as he left the foreign ministry. She and several other lawmakers had attended the meeting:
AFPS had earlier joined a call for a rally in support of the Palestinian people. AFPS said in a statement:
The Paris Police Prefecture, in an unprecedented move, had prohibited the rally, although there had never been the slightest problem with the demonstrations that we had always organized in cooperation with the authorities.
The group said it cooperated with the decision to ban the rally, with Heilbronn and the leaders of other participating groups on hand “to inform those who arrived at the rally site that it had been prohibited, and to guarantee that the events proceeded as well as possible.” Nonetheless, according to AFPS, Heilbronn was arrested as he left the foreign ministry and was taken to a police station where he was handcuffed to a bench. Late Wednesday night, AFPS tweeted that Heilbronn had “finally been released.”
https://twitter.com/AFPSOfficiel/status/1392615118794629120
AFPS said:
The prohibition of this demonstration leads us to conclude, as we already were aware, that freedom of expression and public liberties are in danger in our country. But this arrest forces us to state that a threshold has been crossed.
AFPS affirmed that its chapters across France would be joining with other solidarity groups for rallies across the country planned in coming days. The group added:
Dictatorial methods will not prevent us from doing this.
On Thursday, AFPS said said that the interior ministry “will have to explain itself” over Heilbronn’s arrest. It added that the French government must “put an end to these repeated and scandalous attacks on liberty of expression and demonstration.” France, despite its pretensions of being a bastion of free speech, is one of the most repressive countries in the world against supporters of Palestinian rights. Its goverment is also in the midst of a racist and Islamophobic campaign of incitement and repression against French Muslims. Authorities even threaten to continue criminally prosecuting citizens who call for a boycott of Israel’s apartheid regime. Such prosecutions are in flagrant violation of basic human rights, according to a ruling last year by the European Court of Human Rights.
Israel vows that “Gaza will burn”
Tamara Nassar, Electronic Intifada, May 13 2021
Al-Shurouk tower after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike, May 12. Photo: Ashraf Amra/APA
“This is just the beginning,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday as Israel’s bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip intensified on its third day. Israel’s war cabinet approved plans to broaden the bombing campaign, which has killed dozens of Palestinians so far, including children. Israeli ministers were reportedly unanimous in their refusal to accept any ceasefire yet. Netanyahu said as he announced the assassination of senior Hamas commanders earlier on Wednesday:
We will hit them with strikes they have never dreamed of.
In a recorded address to Palestinians in Gaza, Gantz threatened more destruction than he ordered in Gaza in 2014. At that time, he was Israel’s chief of staff commanding the 51-day assault that killed more than 2.2k Palestinians, including 551 children. In a direct threat to civilians that likely constitutes evidence of premeditated intent to commit war crimes, Gantz said in the video over footage of destruction:
Gaza will burn. Gaza residents, the last time that we met on Eid al-Fitr, I was chief of staff during Operation Protective Edge. Ever since, Gaza is still trying to rehabilitate itself. If Hamas does not stop its violence, the strike of 2021 will be harder and more painful than that of 2014.
Gantz accused Hamas of operating out of civilian neighborhoods in order to justify what he said would be “more extensive and intense” damage in Gaza. Netanyahu’s Arabic spox Ofir Gendelman used a fake video on Tuesday to accuse Hamas of using “human shields” by “firing rockets at Israel from populated areas.” MK Bezalel Smotrich called on the military to “flatten the Strip,” in a tweet on Tuesday:
Smotrich is the author of a plan to expel Palestinians, which Daniel Blatman, a prominent Israeli scholar of the Holocaust, has called potentially genocidal. Gaza’s health ministry reported 53 Palestinians killed in Gaza since Monday, including 14 children, and more than 300 injuries. However, the number of dead and injured has been mounting by the hour. Six people have been killed in Israel, including a 5-year-old child fatally injured when shrapnel from a rocket hit their family’s bomb shelter in Sderot, as well as an occupation soldier killed by an anti-tank missile fired by Hamas. Those killed in Israel include two Palestinian citizens, Khalil Awaad and his daughter Nadine. They reportedly had no access to a bomb shelter in the village of Dhamas where they lived.
Israeli warplanes have dropped dozens of missiles and opened artillery fire onto the Gaza Strip, targeting civilians and their property, large residential towers, government buildings, roads, public facilities, agricultural lands, two schools and a mosque. An Israeli missile also struck a COVID-19 quarantine facility. A mother and baby clinic was also damaged and went out of commission. Al Mezan, a human rights group in Gaza, stated on Wednesday:
The IOF has returned to the strategy of destroying homes over the heads of their inhabitants. They are committing what amount to war crimes.
Several high-rise towers destroyed by Israel housed dozens of homes, businesses and media offices.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at a five-story apartment building in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, killing at least five Palestinians. Reem Saad Kamel Saad, 31, a pregnant mother was killed alongside her 5-year-old son Zaid Muhammad al-Talbani. Her toddler Mariam Muhammad al-Talbani’s remains were never found, Al Mezan said.
https://twitter.com/TweetsFromGaza/status/1392294836544458757
Also killed in the same strike were Wael Abd al-Karim Issi, 41, Hasan Muhammad al-Qahwaji, 43, and Hala Hussein al-Rifi, 13. The strike caused massive damage to nearby homes. Israeli warplanes fired a missile at farmland in the southwestern area of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, killing Munther Abd’al-Karim Baraka, 21, and his 18-year-old sister Manar Abd al-Karim Baraka on Tuesday. The pair were attending to a poultry farm owned by their family. Israel fired approximately 20 missiles at a park belonging to the Khan Younis municipality as well as a security location on Wednesday, killing 28-year-old Mahmoud Jamil Kaluseh, who Al Mezan said happened to be there coincidentally. Israeli warplanes fired a missile at a civilian vehicle on Wednesday morning, killing most people in it. Talaat Jamil Agha, 36, Atef Abd’al-Rahman al-Barawi, 48, Nael Khalid al-Barawi, 22 and Wael Faris al-Ghul, 55, were killed. One other passenger was injured. Israeli soldiers stationed at the boundary fence in southern Gaza opened fire on a group of farmers east of Khan Younis on Wednesday, killing 17-year-old Bashar Ahmad Samour, who was harvesting parsley with two relatives 500 meters from the boundary fence when Israeli forces shot him in the chest with live ammunition, killing him.
Israeli warplanes struck a car in Gaza City with two missiles on Wednesday, killing Mustafa Mazen Kardeh, 31, Said Hashim al-Hatu, 67, along with his wife Maysun Zaki al-Hatu, 55.
Al-Hatus’ adult son and daughter were injured in the blast. Two merchants from nearby stores were also killed, Nader Muhammad al-Ghazali, 46, and Abd al-Salam Mahmoud al-Ghazali, 28. Israeli missile strikes killed 15-year-old Lina Iyad Shrir on Tuesday evening along with both her parents, Iyad Fathi Shrir, 44, and his wife Layali Taha Shrir, 40. The bombing of their house caused major damage to nearby homes, Al Mezan said.
Despite ample warning to Israel by the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, not to bomb residential buildings in Gaza, Israel targeted 17 homes and residential towers, amounting to more than 100 housing units. Israel completely destroyed the 13-story al-Hanadi apartment building near the Gaza port. It housed 80 families, as well as offices. The Qassam brigades retaliated by firing barrages of rockets towards Tel Aviv and surrounding suburbs. Israeli warplanes also fired six so-called warning missiles at al-Jawhara building in central Gaza City on Tuesday, before firing five missiles early Wednesday destroying it almost completely. The 10-story building housed businesses, medical clinics and media organizations. Also on Tuesday, Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at a group of Palestinians in al-Shujaiyeh neighborhood in Gaza City, killing 34-year-old Muhammad Abd’al-Rauf Halas. An Israeli missile attack on a security location near the Islamic University of Gaza caused severe damage to nearby schools run by UNRWA. Israeli missiles also struck another location in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood near the ICRC headquarters. The blast also caused damage to nearby UNRWA schools and a high school.
A rocket fired by Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza fell short and killed eight Palestinians on Monday, according to Defense for Children International Palestine. The rocket landed in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, according to evidence collected by DCIP. Two children were killed in the blast. Mustafa Muhammad Obaid, 16, and 5-year-old Baraa Wisam al-Gharabli, who succumbed to his injuries later that day. Palestinian security forces and explosive experts indicated to DCIP that the cause of the blast was a rocket originating from the enclave falling short. As night fell on Wednesday, Israeli bombing of Gaza continued. Palestinian resistance factions retaliated with volleys of rockets, some reaching as far as the Tel Aviv area. Meanwhile, across cities in Israel, violence broke out between Jewish and Arab residents, with hundreds of settlers reportedly coming in from the occupied West Bank to participate in mob attacks on Palestinian citizens.
Niqnaq 