Muslim Boy Slap Case: UP Teacher Likely to Be Tried for Hurting Religious Feelings After Nudge By SC

New Age Islam News Bureau

31 October 2023

 

The students took turns slapping their fellow student even as the teacher watched on. (Screengrab)

-----

India

·         Kerala: Blast At Christian Community Centre Sparks Communal Tensions

·         HC Adjourns Hearing till Nov 8 In Gyanvapi Mosque Case

·         A Lesson for Israel: Manmohan Singh’s ‘Remarkable Act of Restraint’ Following 26/11 Mumbai Attacks

·         UP man working in Kashmir brick kiln shot dead in terror attack in Pulwama district

---------

Mideast

·         Israel Genocide Not Last Even A Day Without US-Europe Support

·         Israel Pushes Deeper into Gaza and Frees Hamas Captive; Netanyahu Rejects Calls for Cease-Fire

·         Israel Achieved Nothing in Attempted Ground Invasion of Gaza, Only Struck Open Areas: Islamic Jihad

·         Israel-Hamas war: UN warns current aid system for Gaza 'geared to fail'

·         Israel strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon as fighting intensifies

·         Jordanian king, queen meet UN officials to discuss Gaza humanitarian crisis

·         Buckling Gaza health service turns to volunteers

·         On its 24th day... Expansion of Zionist-American aggression against Gaza

·         Israel will be annihilated if war on Gaza expands: Iran's deputy foreign minister

·         Israel has dropped more than 18,000 tons of explosives on Gaza: Government media office

·         Iran FM to discuss ways to end Israeli war on Gaza on second visit to Qatar

·         Gaza: Death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks rises to 8,306

·         Child deaths in Gaza exceed global rate: NGO

---------

Southeast Asia

·         ‘Pray for our safety’: Indonesian hospital in Gaza struggles to treat surging casualties

·         PM Anwar Confirms Nazri Called Up by Washington Over Putrajaya's Palestine Stance, Notice Sent by US Embassy to Wisma Putra

·         Call On Countries That Voted Against UN’s Gaza Ceasefire Resolution, Putrajaya Told

·         Thai FM travels to Qatar, Egypt for Hamas hostage talks

·         Palestinian Christians are victims of the conflict too, Anwar points out

·         No easy decision to deploy troops to conflict zones like Palestine, Dewan Rakyat told

·         Palestine-Israel: blood on our hands as well – Vinod Sekhar

---------

North America

·         Israel-Hamas War: Canada Must Act to Prevent Hate Crimes Against Muslim and Jewish Communities

·         Canadian govt, civil society at odds over Gaza invasion

·         Imam of US mosque with ties to 9/11 attackers denies October 7 Hamas atrocities

·         Trump should be disqualified from 2024 ballot over Jan. 6 riot, advocates say at trial

·         US House Republicans unveil bill to fund Israel by cutting IRS budget

·         School for Refusing to Answer Questions About Participation in Walk Out for Palestine

·         CAIR-NY Welcomes Hate Crime Probe into Alleged Attack on Pro-Palestine Protesters

---------

Europe:

·         Conservative MP fired after breaking ranks with UK government to call for Gaza ceasefire

·         Anas Sarwar says Keir Starmer 'hurt' Muslim communities over comments about Gaza and Israel

·         Muslim Texas Doctor Stabbed To Death In Broad Daylight

·         Minister: France wants to deport 39 Russians over radical Islamist views

·         Germany asks Israel to ‘protect’ Palestinians from settler attacks

·         Suella Braverman slammed after comments about pro-Palestinian protests

·         West Making 'Blood Money' From Conflicts – Putin Accuses US Of Sabotaging Peace Between Israel, Palestine

---------

Pakistan

·         Senate Condemns Israeli Atrocities Against Innocent Palestinians

·         Caretaker Interior Minister Rebuffs Claims Over ‘Death Squad’ In Balochistan

·         Illegal Nikah Case: Imran’s Plea For Early Hearing Put Off On His Lawyers’ Request

·         Cabinet decides to keep sponsorship Hajj Policy intact

·         Pakistan, Canada agree to further strengthen bilateral ties

·         Elahi sent on 14-day judicial remand

·         Court seeks reply from jail official over Imran’s phone call to sons

·         Repatriation of undocumented Afghans: Main facilitation centre set up in Peshawar as deadline ends today

---------

South Asia

·         Bangladesh PM Urges Islamic Scholars to Work for Peace at Grassroots

·         Afghans Return to Taliban Rule as Pakistan Moves to Expel 1.7 Million

·         No Islamic Country Would Be Invaded If Muslims Were United: Afghan Minister

·         Canada Welcomes Nearly 4,000 Afghans, Ready to Accept More

·         Afghan refugees protest forced deportations in Pakistan

·         Human Rights Are Constantly Being Violated in Palestine, Bangladesh PM Tells Parliament

·         Muttaqi Urges Afghan Businessmen to Invest in Afghanistan

·         Exhibition of Afghan Products to Be held in Tashkent

·         IEA Thanks Tajikistan for Humanitarian Aid to Herat Earthquake Victims

·         Muttaqi Emphasizes Closer Relations Between Afghanistan and Turkey

·         Deputy Prime Minister Meets Uzbekistan Delegation, Discussed on Various Issues

·         Imam of Prophet’s Mosque pledges support for Bangladesh to spread message of Islam

--------

Africa

·         South Africa Calls for UN Force to Protect Gaza Civilians

·         Terrorists kill Chief Imam, abduct hunters in Borno community

·         UN says record 6.9 million people internally displaced in the DR Congo

·         ECOWAS chief, German chancellor meet in Abuja

·         Ghana: floods displace 26,000 people in the east of the country

·         UNICEF: Nearly 3 million children displaced in Sudan

-------

Arab World

·         Riyadh To Host Film Criticism Conference

·         In Washington, Saudi defence minister stresses need for ‘immediate’ ceasefire in Gaza

·         Vision 2030 positions Riyadh as one of most attractive cities in world: French envoy

·         Saudi Arabia attends Gulf Cooperation Council anti-corruption meeting

·         Saudi FM discusses Gaza situation in phone call with EU high representative

Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau

URL:   https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/muslim-slap-religious-feelings/d/131020

------

Muslim Boy Slap Case: UP Teacher Likely to Be Tried for Hurting Religious Feelings After Nudge By SC

 

The students took turns slapping their fellow student even as the teacher watched on. (Screengrab)

-----

Oct 31, 2023

The Uttar Pradesh private school teacher, who has been accused of encouraging students to slap a classmate and making communal remarks in August, is likely to be tried for offences of outraging religious feelings and causing cruelty to a child following a nudge by the Supreme Court, which pulled up the state government for its investigation on Monday.

A bench of justices AS Oka and Pankaj Mithal, which had issued a slew of directions last month after the incident was brought to light in a PIL filed by Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, directed the state government to immediately decide on adding the new offence contained in section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with outraging the religious feeling of any class of citizens.

This was informed to the Court in a report submitted by Inspector General, Meerut Range, who was entrusted with the monitoring of the case pursuant to the Court’s last order. The report further indicated that the offence of causing cruelty to a child, punishable with maximum sentence of five years under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Child) Act has also been slapped against the teacher, Tripta Tyagi.

Going through the report, the bench said, “Perusal of the report by IG, Meerut Range shows that the second proviso to Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act has been applied along with Section 295A of IPC. The investigation is complete and government sanction under Section 295A is awaited. We direct the government to immediately take a decision on grant of sanction,” The matter has been posted for further hearing on November 6.

The FIR against Tyagi came to be lodged on August 25 after the alleged video of the incident involving a private school in Muzaffarnagar went viral on social media. The Muslim student was hit by his classmates even as the teacher made communal remarks. The PIL filed by Gandhi sought guidelines to prevent such incidents in future and even highlighted the sloppy investigation in the case as the teacher was sought to be prosecuted for minor offences of causing hurt.

During Monday’s hearing, Gandhi’s lawyer Shadan Farasat told the Court that the victim’s father had recently approached him and filed an affidavit that showed the child was “severely traumatized” and was badly in need of counselling as he feels threatened to face anybody while refusing to join school.

The UP-government’s education department informed the Court that a committee of three doctors was formed to counsel the child but he has refused to come to their counselling centre. “Is this the approach of the state government to ask the child to approach the counseling centre,” the bench said, while adding, “When it comes to the future and welfare of the child, the state cannot treat it as an adversorial matter.”

The Court directed the state government to file a response to the affidavit by the victim’s father and asked additional solicitor general (ASG) KM Nataraj appearing for the UP government to take instructions whether any expert body such as NIMHANS or Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) would be willing to help in this regard.

In the order, the bench said, “We have put the state to notice that we are considering expert agency for counselling of not just the victim but other children involved in the said incident.”

Last month, the Court had come down heavily on the state by observing that if the allegations in the incident are correct, it must “shock the conscience of the state government” as this amounted to state’s failure in ensuring the child’s fundamental right to get compulsory and quality education under the right to education (RTE) Act.

The Court sought a report from the state’s education department on the implementation of RTE Act and sought alternate arrangements to be made for continuing the affected child’s education. The education department informed Court that its response is ready and will be filed before the next date.

Source: hindustantimes.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/up-slap-case-teacher-likely-to-be-tried-for-hurting-religious-feelings-after-nudge-by-sc-101698694149240.html

---------

Israel Envoy Wears Nazi Era Yellow Star At UN, Pledging to Wear the Badge Until Members of The Body Condemn Hamas "Atrocities"

 

Photo: NDTV World

------

Oct 31, 2023

UNITED NATIONS: Israel's United Nations ambassador displayed a yellow star on his chest Monday as he addressed the Security Council, provocatively pledging to wear the badge until members of the body condemn Hamas "atrocities."

"Some of you have learned nothing in the past 80 years. Some of you have forgotten why this body was established," envoy Gilad Erdan said, as he denounced the Security Council for "staying silent" over the unprecedented deadly attacks by Hamas Palestinian militants against Israel on October 7.

The deeply divided 15-member council has not adopted a single resolution on the three-week-long war between Israel and Hamas.

"So, I will remind you. From this day on, each time you look at me you will remember what staying silent in the face of evil means," the ambassador said.

"Just like my grandparents, and the grandparents of millions of Jews, from now on my team and I will wear yellow stars," he said, standing up to affix one on the breast of his suit inscribed with the words "Never Again," in reference to the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis.

But Erdan will wear it "as a symbol of pride," he said.

"We will wear this star until you wake up and condemn the atrocities of Hamas."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the October 7 attacks the worst against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

For weeks the Security Council has been riven by divisions over the war and its impact, rejecting four draft resolutions about the conflict.

Some texts were blocked by the United States, a close Israel ally, because they did not mention Israel's right to defend itself.

Another presented by the Americans was stymied by Russia and China in particular because it did not clearly call for a ceasefire.

In light of the impasse, the UN General Assembly last Friday adopted by a large majority a nonbinding resolution requesting an "immediate humanitarian truce," but not mentioning Hamas.

Israel, through Erdan, blasted the text, saying it will "go down as infamy."

During Monday's Security Council meeting, several speakers, while denouncing the Hamas attacks, highlighted the price paid by inhabitants of Gaza, where health officials say more than 8,300 people have been killed in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, said the siege of Gaza amounts to collective punishment of its residents.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-envoy-wears-yellow-star-at-un/articleshow/104841689.cms

--------

Parliamentary Caucus on Palestine Wants Ambassadors of Countries Opposing UNGA Resolution Summoned

 

The UN General Assembly votes for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza, as the Israel-Hamas conflict raged for a 21st day, at the UN in New York on October 27, 2023. - AFP PIC

-----

By Nor Ain Mohamed Radhi

 October 31, 2023

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Parliament Caucus for Palestine today said Malaysia must summon the ambassadors of nations that voted against the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution during its recent 10th Emergency Special Session.

The head of the caucus, Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said, it would be a firm move by Malaysia on the matter.

He said the caucus also urged Malaysia to support the United Arab Emirates' request for a resolution by the UN Security Council (UNSC) emergency meeting in relation to Israel's aggression on civilians and land incursion into Gaza.

"Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly on agenda items are considered to be recommendations and are not legally binding on the Member States.

"The only resolutions that have the potential to be legally binding are those that are adopted by the Security Council," he told a press conference held in Parliament today.

The caucus also recommended UN prepare for peacekeeping forces to halt Israel's genocide and attacks.

"We also encourage all parliamentarians globally to call for their governments to abide by UN's resolution and support the urges by this caucus."

The caucus also called on all Malaysians including political parties who love peace and humanity to focus on the issue of the worst humanitarian disaster and the crime of genocide by the Israeli regime.

"This is by demanding an end to Israel's extreme attacks on hospitals, children and women; demanding safe passage of humanitarian aid and avoiding escalation of war.

"Put aside the trivia and propaganda. Show the unity and solidarity of a cohesive Malaysia."

During the press conference, the caucus also cautioned everyone against using language and narratives that could be interpreted as an attempt to normalise Israel's atrocities.

Source: nst.com.my

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2023/10/973349/parliamentary-caucus-palestine-wants-ambassadors-countries-opposing-unga

--------

Muslim, Arab Voters At A Breaking Point With Biden: ‘They’ve Taken Us For Granted’

 

Photo: Reddit

----

October 31, 2023

Hassan Abdel Salam, a human rights professor based in Minneapolis, was concerned about the White House’s messaging — or lack thereof — this month.

After Israeli forces began a bombing campaign in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants, President Joe Biden was swift to send condolences for the Israeli lives lost. But as the death toll continued to rise in Gaza, Abdel Salam waited for any public mention of those Gazans killed, news about evacuating Americans trapped in the region, or a push for a cease-fire.

Eventually, Abdel Salam had enough. If he didn’t see a prompt pivot in the White House’s messaging, he decided that not only would he not vote for Biden, but he’d encourage people in his community to do the same.

“What’s happening is betrayal,” Abdel Salam told HuffPost. “Betrayal of what we assumed was a promise and commitment to listen to us, at the very least.”

Abdel Salam is one of a growing number of Muslim and Arab voters who say they are frustrated with the Democratic Party, and are vowing not to cast their votes for Biden in 2024. Muslim and Arab organizers said they cannot in good faith encourage their communities to support Biden’s reelection, and some say they won’t vote for any down-ballot Democrats either. Muslim organizers and advocacy groups have signed petitions, written letters and taken to social media to announce their disapproval of the president’s Israel strategy.

Some Muslim voters are considering whether to vote Republican, or for a third party. Others say they may not vote at all.

On Friday, a coalition of Muslims in Minnesota held a press conference delivering an ultimatum to the president: Call for a cease-fire, or lose the Muslim vote in the state. Biden is preparing to visit Minnesota, a state with some 50,000 Muslim voters, on Wednesday. Muslim Americans make up roughly 1% of the U.S. population, but their numbers are rapidly growing and both parties are increasingly vying for their support.

“The Democratic Party has not actually felt the brunt of the Muslim vote,” said Jaylani Hussein, a community organizer based in Minnesota. “They’ve taken us for granted.”

“As President Biden said in his Oval Office address to the nation, he’s heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life. He called on Americans to mourn every innocent life lost and to recognize the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have an opportunity,” said White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson, who also highlighted that the president has opened lines of communication with Muslim and Arab Americans.

“We’ll continue to engage in conversations with these important communities and to be unequivocal in condemning hate and discrimination against them and, as the President has said, we must continue to work towards a two-state solution,” Patterson said.

Many Muslim and Arab staffers in the federal government have expressed their own disappointment in the administration. Some told HuffPost that they and their colleagues feel silenced, unable to voice their policy concerns.

The White House has stepped up its outreach to Muslim and Arab leaders and groups over the past week. On Thursday, Biden quietly hosted a meeting for a handful of Muslim leaders, where attendees brought up their concerns about the president’s lack of outreach to Muslim and Arab Americans at home and public sympathy for Palestinians in Gaza.

But many groups say the White House’s attempt to rekindle trust with Arabs and Muslims is too late, and that securing their votes, especially in key swing states, will be an uphill battle.

“We know the population of Muslims and voters in those precise states can make the difference,” Abdel Salam said. “If he loses even potentially just one of them, he could lose the election in 2024. So this is not a group that he can play with, and [he] has to listen to us.”

There are approximately 200,000 registered Muslim voters in Michigan, a crucial battleground state in next year’s election. In 2020, Biden narrowly won Michigan, where Muslims turned out in droves to vote for him. Muslims also hold sizable populations in swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia.

In Minnesota, Abdel Salam and Hussein say they have been on calls with residents, imams, university students, mosque leaders and community centers who feel betrayed. Abdel Salam started his own petition online, calling for fellow Muslims to pledge not to vote for Biden. As of Monday, more than 3,700 people had signed it.

“Muslims have never been united in America, until now,” Hussein said. “We feel the bombs dropping on our homes as is dropping on Gaza, and then we feel the weight of our nation who is behind it and we feel helpless that we can’t do anything about it.”

“Those forces are uniting us in ways we have never thought,” he added. “Beyond prayer, we’re going to exercise every right and every power we have. The ballot box is perhaps one of our most significant ways that we can make a change, not for us as Muslims, and not just for Palestinians, but for the nation that we love and live in.”

Yasmine Taeb, a progressive strategist and legislative and political director for MPower Change Action, a Muslim advocacy group, told HuffPost that her organization has decided against endorsing candidates in the general election next month in Virginia, and said it will not engage in any Muslim voter outreach efforts. Instead, the group will focus on building support for the Ceasefire Now Resolution, legislation introduced by several congressional Democrats earlier this month that calls for a cease-fire and for humanitarian aid in Gaza.

“It’s very clear the White House and the Democratic Party of Virginia don’t care about our community,” Taeb said. “Why should we even care to make calls and send texts to get Muslims and Arab Americans out to vote for their candidates?”

Last week, Biden cast doubt on the casualty figures reported from Gaza as Israel continues its U.S.-backed military operation there. However, officials have themselves internally cited the death toll and other data provided by authorities inside Gaza.

When the White House sent Dilawar Syed ― deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, and the highest-ranking Muslim American official in the Biden administration ― to speak at a memorial for Wadea Al-Fayoume, the Palestinian Muslim child who was killed in an alleged hate crime in Illinois, the crowd booed. (When Syed closed his speech with a pledge that Biden would fight Islamophobia, he did receive polite applause.)

“Biden should have gone to the funeral,” said Nadia Ahmad, a member of the Democratic National Committee and a law professor based in Orlando, Florida.

Ahmad was among the more than two dozen progressive Democratic Party leaders who signed their own statement echoing calls for a cease-fire and for the White House to do more to de-escalate violence. She said the White House’s inaction is moving Muslim and Arab voters to sit out the election entirely.

Biden’s comments “have been nothing less than heartbreaking, shocking, shameful, and totally inaccurate,” said Democratic activist Aliyah Khan, who has also signed on to a letter addressed to the Democratic Party calling for a cease-fire.

Khan said that if she doesn’t see a pivot in Biden’s plan, she’ll sit out next year’s election. She has heard the same from others in Virginia, where she lived for over 35 years and where roughly 200,000 Muslims live.

“If you want to lose, then your leadership can keep doing what you’re doing,” she said.

Source: yahoo.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.yahoo.com/news/muslim-arab-voters-breaking-point-194321215.html

--------

Oxford Muslims And Mosques Speak Out On Rise In Hate Crime

 

Photo: Oxfordmail.com

-----

 Noor Qurashi

31 October 2023

Two alleged anti-Muslim attacks in the space of a week have led a city mosque to ramp up safety precautions amid rising tensions.

A petrol can scrawled with the letters ‘IDF’ – the initials of the Israeli Defence Forces – was thrown over a wall at the Central Oxford Mosque in Manzil Way.

While the petrol can was empty and no one was hurt, police described the incident, at 10.30am on Saturday, as a hate crime and appealed for witnesses. The force said the writing on the can “may be related to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza.”

A spokesperson said the offender threw the red petrol can over the wall into the car park before cycling towards Cowley Road.

It came a week after a man was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated attack in East Oxford involving an axe.

The incidents come amid tension in Palestine and Israel as bloody attacks on Israeli civilians have been followed by bombardment of Gaza and a military blockade.

DI James Holden-White said: “We are working with the mosque and local community to reassure them of their safety following this unacceptable incident, as well as conducting further patrols in the area. We take all reports of hate crime seriously as we know that they have a devastating impact on individual victims and targeted communities.

“Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and all other racial and faith-based discrimination will not be tolerated in any form.”

A statement from the mosque said: “We believe this attack was due to us showing our unwavering support for the innocent people of Palestine by displaying Palestine flags around our mosque. This attempt to scare us will not work.

“We will continue to exercise our democratic right and show solidarity with the innocent Palestinians being massacred indiscriminately and illegally.”

Mosque trustee, Faisal Aziz, said: “Whenever there has been an attack on groups who aren’t Muslim, the spotlight is always on us to apologise. Now that innocent people are being slaughtered in Gaza we are automatically in the firing line of Islamophobia.

“We opened during Covid for the whole community as a vaccine centre, we allow NHS staff at the local centre to park for free, and we run a weekly food bank. So it saddens us that we try to give back to the community with open hearts and this has happened.”

He said mosques should be able to openly support Palestinians.

In a joint statement, Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds and Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, said they were “shocked and saddened” by the incident.

“We stand with the Muslim community in Oxford in condemning this cowardly attack and urging people to be vigilant,” they said.

MP for Oxford West and Abingdon Layla Moran said: “I strongly condemn this attack.

"Islamophobia or any hate crime has no place in our society. I am pleased that TVP has taken this seriously and I hope the full force of the law is applied to the perpetrators when they are hopefully caught.”

Oxford University Islamic Society president Riaz Rahman said: “We have received an unsettling number of reports from students of Islamophobic attacks in and around Oxford. These include derogatory insults with discriminatory language, spitting, shoving and more.”

He added: “We condemn the perpetrators of all hate crimes in Oxford and beyond, and appreciate those who have shown support and solidarity as well as disapproval of those seeking to sow discord in our community.”

Chairman of Oxford’s oldest Mosque on Bath Street, Moznu Mia called for calm. He said: “As a community we don’t have an issue with any other community and we just like to live in peace and harmony. What happened is quite a one-off.

“We live in peace fully together with no problem at all.”

A 23-year-old Muslim student at the University of Oxford, who did not wish to be named, said she had been abused on a bus by a woman who was supported by other passengers.

She said: “I feel unsafe and a lot of other Muslims have said they feel the same.”

Police said anyone with information should call 101, make a report on its website, quoting reference number 43230484992 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via its website.

Source: thisisoxfordshire.co.uk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/23889499.oxford-muslims-mosques-speak-rise-hate-crime/

---------

India

 Kerala: Blast At Christian Community Centre Sparks Communal Tensions

October 31, 2023

Two days after the blasts targeting a Christian sect’s convention near Kochi, a war of words has erupted between Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrashekhar. The exchange of accusations and fiery statements has brought attention to the alleged attempts to sow discord within the state.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar of attempting to “tarnish the secular fabric of the state” with what he termed “deadly poison.” The disagreement stems from a social media post by Chandrasekhar that appeared to place blame on a specific community for the blasts that took place on Sunday near Kochi, resulting in the death of three individuals and injuring over 50 more.

Chandrasekhar’s post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) read: “Dirty shameless appeasement politics by a discredited CM (and HM) @pinarayivijayan besieged by corruption charges. Sitting in Delhi and protesting against Israel, when in Kerala open calls by Terrorist Hamas for Jihad is causing attacks and bomb blasts on innocent Christians.”

In response, Chief Minister Vijayan strongly criticized Chandrasekhar, branding his statements as reflective of an “absolute communal outlook.” During a press conference in Kochi, he accused Chandrasekhar and his party colleagues of deliberately targeting a specific community to incite communal polarization in the state.

Vijayan remarked that Chandrasekhar’s statement did not befit the responsible position he held. The Chief Minister further expressed his disapproval, stating that such divisive rhetoric could lead to an unhealthy atmosphere in the state.

In retaliation, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar called Chief Minister Vijayan a “liar” and accused him of using terms like “communal” and “communalism” to “hide his ineptness as home minister of the state” and “cover up his own and his government’s corruption and appeasement politics that he has copied from the Congress.”

Speaking to reporters in Kochi on Monday afternoon, Chandrasekhar alleged that under Vijayan’s leadership, Kerala had shown tolerance towards radical elements and radicalization. He clarified that he did not mention any specific community in his social media post on X and suggested that the Chief Minister was unfairly equating Hamas with the broader Muslim population of the state and the country.

Source: muslimmirror.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://muslimmirror.com/eng/kerala/

-------

 HC adjourns hearing till Nov 8 in Gyanvapi mosque case

Oct 30, 2023

JItendra Sarin

PRAYAGRAJ The Allahabad High Court on Monday fixed November 8, 2023, for hearing a series of petitions challenging the legitimacy of a lawsuit seeking to restore a temple at the location of the Gyanvapi mosque. The Anjuman Intezamia and other parties have filed these petitions, contesting the validity of the suit.

In addition, these petitioners have raised objections to a directive from a Varanasi court. This directive ordered the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct an exhaustive survey of the mosque premises situated adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi.

During the court proceedings on Monday, it was brought to the court’s attention that the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee (AIMC) has submitted a Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court challenging this court’s order. The Chief Justice, who had taken back the hearing of the cases from the single judge who had previously presided over them and reserved judgment, has scheduled a hearing for this SLP on November 6, 2023.

In light of this development, Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker has set November 8, 2023, as the date for the next hearing regarding the matters related to the Gyanvapi. It is important to note that AIMC, responsible for the administration of the Gyanvapi mosque, has contested the suit filed before a Varanasi court. This suit sought the restoration of a temple at the site currently occupied by the Gyanvapi mosque.

The petitions have also challenged a Varanasi court directive dated April 8, 2021, which instructed the ASI to undertake a comprehensive survey of the Gyanvapi mosque.

Source: hindustantimes.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/others/hc-adjourns-hearing-till-nov-8-in-gyanvapi-mosque-case-101698681668092.html

---------

 A Lesson for Israel: Manmohan Singh’s ‘Remarkable Act of Restraint’ Following 26/11 Mumbai Attacks

31.10.23

Thomas Friedman

I am watching the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip today and thinking about one of the world leaders I’ve most admired: Manmohan Singh. He was India’s Prime Minister in late November 2008, when 10 Pakistani jihadi militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, widely believed to be linked to Pakistan’s military intelligence, infiltrated India and killed more than 160 people in Mumbai, including 61 people at two luxury hotels. What was Singh’s military response to India’s September 11?

He did nothing.

Singh never retaliated militarily against the nation of Pakistan or Lashkar camps in Pakistan. It was a remarkable act of restraint. What was the logic? In his book Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy, India’s national security adviser at the time, Shivshankar Menon, explained why, making these key points:

“I myself pressed at that time for immediate visible retaliation” against the jihadi bases or against Pakistani military intelligence, “which was clearly complicit”, Menon wrote. “To have done so would have been emotionally satisfying and gone some way toward erasing the shame of the incompetence that India’s police and security agencies displayed.”

He continued: “But on sober reflection and in hindsight, I now believe that the decision not to retaliate militarily and to concentrate on diplomatic, covert and other means was the right one for that time and place.”

Chief among the reasons, Menon explained, was that any military response would have quickly obscured just how outrageous and terrible the raid on Indian civilians and tourists was; “the fact of a terrorist attack from Pakistan on India with official involvement on the Pakistan side” would have been lost. Once India retaliated, the world would immediately have had what Menon called a “ho-hum reaction”. Just another Pakistani-Indian dust-up — nothing unusual here.

Moreover, Menon wrote, “an Indian attack on Pakistan would have united Pakistan behind the Pakistan Army, which was in increasing domestic disrepute”, and “an attack on Pakistan would also have weakened the civilian government in Pakistan, which had just been elected to power and which sought a much better relationship with India than the Pakistan Army was willing to consider”. He continued: “A war scare, and maybe even a war itself, was exactly what the Pakistan Army wanted to buttress its internal position.”

In addition, he wrote, “a war, even a successful war, would have imposed costs and set back the progress of the Indian economy just when the world economy in November 2008 was in an unprecedented financial crisis”.

In conclusion, said Menon, “by not attacking Pakistan, India was free to pursue all legal and covert means to achieve its goals of bringing the perpetrators to justice, uniting the international community to force consequences on Pakistan for its behaviour and to strengthen the likelihood that such an attack would not take place again”.

I understand that Israel is not India — a country of 1.4 billion people, covering a massive territory. The loss of more than 160 people in Mumbai, some of them tourists, was not felt in every home and hamlet, as the deaths, maiming and kidnapping of roughly 1,400 Israelis by Hamas were. Pakistan also has nuclear weapons to deter retaliation.

Nevertheless, it is instructive to reflect on the contrast between India’s response to the Mumbai terrorist attack and Israel’s response to the Hamas slaughter.

After the initial horror at the sheer barbarism of the Hamas onslaught on Israeli children, older adults and a dance party, what happened? The narrative quickly shifted to the brutality of the Israeli counterattack on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, among whom Hamas has embedded itself. The massive Israeli counterstrike overshadowed Hamas’s terror and instead made them heroes to some. It has also forced Israel’s new Arab allies in the Abraham Accords to distance themselves from the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, with some 360,000 reservists called up, Israel’s economy will almost certainly be depressed if Israel’s ouster of Hamas from Gaza requires months, as predicted. It’s already expected to shrink more than 10 per cent on an annualised basis for the last three months of the year. This after being ranked by The Economist as the fourth-best-performing economy among OECD countries in 2022.

On a personal level, I am appalled by the reaction of those students and progressives who sided with Hamas against Israel — in some cases, even before it retaliated — as if the Jewish people were not entitled to either self-determination or self-defence in any part of their ancestral homeland. This backlash also fails to take into account that Israel, for all its faults, is a multicultural society where almost half of graduating doctors today are Arabs or Druze. Or that Hamas is a militant organisation that does not tolerate dissent or LGBTQ+ individuals and has been dedicated to wiping the Jewish state off the face of the earth.

I have sympathy for the terrible choices that Israel’s government faced after the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. But it was precisely because I closely followed Singh’s unique reaction to the Mumbai terrorist attacks that I immediately advocated for a much more targeted, fully thought-through response by Israel. It should have called this Operation Save Our Hostages and focused on capturing and killing the kidnappers of children and grandparents. Every parent could understand that.

Instead, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government immediately raced into a plan to, as defence minister Yoav Gallant put it, “wipe out” Hamas “from the face of the earth”. And in three weeks Israel has inflicted easily more than triple the number of civilian casualties and destruction in Gaza that Israel suffered, while committing itself to taking military control of Gaza — an operation, on a relative population basis, that is roughly equivalent to the United States deciding almost overnight to occupy half of Mexico. The Israeli plan, according to Netanyahu, will be a “long and difficult” battle to “destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and bring the hostages home.”

As I said, Israel is not India, and there is no way that it could be expected to turn the other cheek — not in that neighbourhood. But what is Netanyahu’s plan? The Israeli officials I speak with tell me they know two things for sure: Hamas will never again govern Gaza, and Israel will not govern a post-Hamas Gaza. They suggest that they will set up an arrangement similarly seen in parts of the West Bank today, with Palestinians in Gaza administering day-to-day life and Israeli military and Shin Bet security teams providing the muscle behind the scenes.

This is a half-baked plan. Who are these Palestinians who will be enlisted to govern Gaza on Israel’s behalf? What happens the morning after a Palestinian working for Israel in Gaza is found murdered in an alley with a note pinned to his chest: “Traitor’’, signed “the Hamas underground”.

Moreover, who is going to pay for Israel’s control of, health care for, and education of Gaza’s 2.2 million people? Please raise your hand if you think the European Union, the Gulf Arab states or the substantial progressive caucus in the Democratic Party in the US House of Representatives will fund an indefinite Israeli oversight of Gaza — while Netanyahu and his band of Jewish supremacists are pledged to annex the West Bank without equal rights for the Palestinians there.

The cost of occupying Gaza could overstretch the Israeli military and economy for years to come.

On top of it all, how is Israel going to manage such a complex operation when there is — for good reason — scant trust in Netanyahu? Just last Saturday he pointed to the heads of Israeli military intelligence and Shin Bet as responsible for missing the Hamas surprise attack while excusing himself of any blame. A day later, an outraged Israeli public forced the Prime Minister to retract his wartime recriminations against his colleagues. But the damage was done.

Netanyahu does not have a team of rivals supporting him. He has a team of people being asked to make excruciating long-term choices while knowing their Prime Minister is a person of such low character that he will blame them for everything that goes wrong and hog all credit for anything that goes right.

In sum, dear reader, I understand why Israel believes it needs to destroy Hamas and thereby deter others in the neighbourhood from ever contemplating such a thing. But the view from Washington is that Israel’s leadership does not have a viable plan to win or a leader who can navigate the stresses and complexity of this crisis. Israel needs to know the tolerance of its American ally for massive civilian casualties in Gaza in an open-ended military operation is not unlimited. In fact, we may soon be approaching the limit.

Israel should keep the door open for a humanitarian cease-fire and prisoner exchange that will also allow Israel to pause and reflect on exactly where it is going with its rushed Gaza military operation — and the price it could pay over the long haul.

That is why I raise the Indian example. Because targeted use of force with limited, achievable goals may serve Israel’s long-term security and prosperity more than an open-ended war to eradicate Hamas. At least Israel should be asking that question.

Such a pause could also allow the people of Gaza to take stock of what Hamas’ attack on Israel — and Israel’s totally predictable response — has done to their lives, families, homes and businesses. What exactly did Hamas think it was going to accomplish by this war for the people of Gaza, thousands of whom were going to work in Israel every day or exporting agricultural products and other goods across the Gaza-Israel border just a few weeks ago? Hamas has gotten way too much understanding and not enough hard questions.

I want to see Hamas’s leaders come out from their tunnels under hospitals and look their people, and the world’s media, in the eye and tell us all why they thought it was such a great idea to mutilate and kidnap Israeli children and grandmothers and trigger this terrible blowback on the children and grandmothers of their Gaza neighbours — not to mention their own.

I have always believed that you can reduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the early 1900s to one line: conflict, timeout, conflict, timeout, conflict, timeout, conflict, timeout, conflict and timeout.

The most important difference between the parties is what they each did during the timeouts.

Israel built an impressive society and economy, even if flawed, and Hamas took nearly all of its resources and built attack tunnels.

Please, Israel, don’t get lost in those tunnels.

Source: telegraphindia.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.telegraphindia.com/world/a-lesson-for-israel-manmohan-singhs-remarkable-act-of-restraint-following-26-11-mumbai-attacks/cid/1976490

-------

 

UP man working in Kashmir brick kiln shot dead in terror attack in Pulwama district

30th October 2023

SRINAGAR: A day after targeting a police officer, terrorists on Monday shot dead a labourer from Uttar Pradesh in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

"Terrorists fired upon one labourer identified as Mukesh of UP in TumchiNowpora area of Pulwama, who later succumbed to injuries," a police spokesman said in a post on X.

He said the area has been cordoned off and a hunt has been launched for the militants involved in the killing of the labourer.

This was the second terror attack in the Kashmir Valley in less than 24 hours as militants shot at and critically injured police inspector Masroor Ahmad Wani at Eidgah ground in the city when he was playing cricket with local boys.

Security has been beefed up across Kashmir Valley, especially in Srinagar and south Kashmir areas, following the two terror attacks, the officials said.

The security forces have intensified the checking of vehicles and pedestrians in several parts of Srinagar city and other towns, especially in the south Kashmir district of Pulwama, following the attack on inspector Wani, the officials said.

Mobile vehicle checkpoints have been established at all major intersections in Srinagar as well as at the city's exit points, they added.

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said threats are still around and cops have to be cautious about incidents like the attack on a police officer.

"We have to be cautious. The threats are still around; we cannot take these so lightly. We have to be careful, and I pray that he would come out of it," Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function.

The attacks on migrant workers have seen an uptick after the abrogation of Article 370, the attacks were very few this year. Monday's attack was only third such attack this year. While a circus employee was killed by the ultras in May this year at Anantnag district, three labourers from Bihar were injured in firing by militants in Shopian district in July.

Meanwhile, several political leaders have condemned the attack on the police officer and the labourer.

Source: newindianexpress.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2023/oct/30/up-man-working-in-kashmir-brick-kiln-shot-dead-in-terror-attack-inpulwama-district-2628435.html

---------

 

Mideast

 

Israel genocide not last even a day without US-Europe support

Oct 30, 2023

TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (MNA) – A senior advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Israel's genocide in Gaza will not last even a single day without the support of the United States and European countries.

Ali Akbar Velayati, who is also the secretary general of the World Assembly of Islamic Awakening, made the remarks in an address to a conference -- dubbed Gaza, the symbol of resistance and awakening -- in Tehran on Monday.

He described the United States as the "main accomplice" to the crimes committed by the Zionists in Gaza and said Washington offers considerable encouragement to the Israeli regime.

"An entity called the Zionist regime will not be able to survive for more than a few weeks without the US support," the senior Iranian official emphasized.

He added that the unwavering political, diplomatic, media, and financial support as well as military, security, and defense backing provided by the US to Israel are the "main factors" behind the regime's survival.

Washington’s full support for Israel encourages the regime's killing machine as well as heinous crimes of the occupiers in the Gaza Strip and the entire occupied territories, he said.

Velayati warned that Muslims and Islamic resistance groups are running out of patience and said the Israeli regime needs to stop its genocide, violence, and killing of the Palestinian people in Gaza immediately.

He also stressed the importance of lifting the Gaza siege completely, opening the Rafah border crossing for delivery of humanitarian aid, especially medicine, water, and food, and putting an immediate end to the bombardment and killing of innocent people, including children, women, and the elderly.

Israel waged a bloody war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement launched the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity.

Since the start of the war, the Israeli regime has been committing war crimes in Gaza, killing at least 8,306 Palestinians, including 3,457 children, and injuring over 22,000 others.

It has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living in the coastal sliver.

Velayati defended the Palestinians' right to self-defense and said the Islamic resistance front in the region also makes decisions and acts based on the ongoing circumstances.

He added that the Israeli regime and the US are responsible for any possible spread of tensions and conflicts in the region.

The Leader's aide warned the international system that its failure to recognize the Islamic resistance front and its deterrent activities in the face of the occupiers would worsen the situation, the adverse consequences of which would affect the entire region and world.

He said the ongoing war waged by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas against Israel, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, has inflicted irreparable damage on the terrorist Zionist regime.

The military operation is the manifestation of dignity, strength, and resistance against a criminal regime that has carried out every possible act of crime and massacre against the Palestinians over the past 75 years, he added.

The senior Iranian official noted that the Palestinians' right to self-defense is based on the recognized principles of international law but the Israeli regime's measures in Gaza "are completely in violation of human rights regulations and a clear example of genocide."

"What the Zionist regime is committing in Gaza is beyond war crime and crime against humanity," Velayati pointed out.

He said the US, Europe, the Security Council, and other international and human rights organizations are complicit in the Zionists' crimes and genocide in Gaza and must be held accountable for their performance in this regard.

Source: mehrnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/207773/Israel-genocide-not-last-even-a-day-without-US-Europe-support

---------

 

Israel pushes deeper into Gaza and frees Hamas captive; Netanyahu rejects calls for cease-fire

31st October 2023

KHAN YOUNIS:  Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into Gaza on Monday, advancing in tanks and other armored vehicles on the territory’s main city and freeing a soldier held captive by Hamas militants. The Israeli prime minister rejected calls for a cease-fire as airstrikes landed near hospitals where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering beside the wounded.

The military said a soldier captured during Hamas' brutal Oct. 7 incursion was rescued in Gaza — the first rescue since the weekslong war began. Military officials provided few details but said in a statement that Pvt. Ori Megidish, 19, was “doing well” and had met with her family.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed her home, saying the “achievement” by Israel’s security forces “illustrates our commitment to free all the hostages.”

He also rejected calls for a cease-fire to facilitate the release of captives or end the war, which he has said will be long and difficult. “Calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas,” he told a news conference. "That will not happen.”

Netanyahu, who faces mounting anger over Israel's failure to prevent the worst surprise attack on the country in a half-century, also said he had no plans to resign.

Hamas and other militant groups are believed to be holding some 240 captives, including men, women and children. Netanyahu has faced mounting pressure to secure their release even as Israel acts to crush Hamas and end its 16-year rule over the territory.

Hamas, which has released four hostages, has said it would let the others go in return for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, including many implicated in deadly attacks on Israelis. Israel has dismissed the offer, and Netanyahu said the ground invasion “creates the possibility” of getting the hostages out, adding that Hamas will “only do it under pressure."

Hamas released a short video Monday purporting to show three other female captives. One of the women delivers a brief statement — likely under duress — criticizing Israel’s response to the hostage crisis.

It was not clear when the Hamas video was made. The Associated Press usually refrains from reporting details of hostage videos because they show individuals speaking under duress and are often used for propaganda purposes.

Amos Aloni, whose daughter Danielle appeared in the video, told reporters that he and his wife were shocked when she appeared on TV but also felt “relief from her being alive and seeing her.”

The military has been vague about its operations inside Gaza, including the location and number of troops. Israel has declared a new “phase” in the war but stopped short of declaring an all-out ground invasion.

Larger ground operations have been launched both north and east of Gaza City. Israel says many of Hamas' forces and much of its militant infrastructure, including hundreds of miles (kilometers) of tunnels, are in Gaza City, which before the war was home to over 650,000 people, a population comparable to that of Washington, D.C.

Though Israel ordered Palestinians to flee the north, where Gaza City is located, and move south, hundreds of thousands remain, in part because Israel has also bombarded targets in so-called safe zones. Around 117,000 displaced people hoping to stay safe from strikes are staying in hospitals in northern Gaza, alongside thousands of patients and staff, according to U.N. figures.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, says nearly 672,000 Palestinians are sheltering in its schools and other facilities across Gaza, which have reached four times their capacity.

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini accused Israel of “collective punishment” of the Palestinians, and of forcing their displacement from northern Gaza to the south, where they are still not safe.

The death toll among Palestinians passed 8,300, mostly women and children, the Gaza Health Ministry said Monday. The figure is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence. More than 1.4 million people in Gaza have fled their homes.

Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas' initial attack, also an unprecedented figure.

Lazzarini said 64 of the agency's staff were killed in the past three weeks — the latest just two hours before he addressed an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, when an agency security official was killed with his wife and eight children.

Most Gazans “feel trapped in a war they have nothing to do with" and "feel the world is equating all of them to Hamas,” he told the Security Council.

Video circulating on social media showed an Israeli tank and bulldozer in central Gaza blocking the territory’s main north-south highway.

The video, taken by a local journalist, shows a car approaching an earth barrier across the road. The car stops and turns around. As it heads away, a tank appears to open fire, and an explosion engulfs the car. The journalist, in another car, races away in terror, screaming, “Go back! Go back!” at an approaching ambulance and other vehicles.

The Gaza Health Ministry later said three people were killed in the car that was hit.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, declined to comment on where Israeli forces are deployed. He said additional infantry and armored, engineering and artillery units had entered Gaza and the operations would continue to “expand and intensify.”

The military said troops have killed dozens of militants who attacked from inside buildings and tunnels. It said that in the last few days, it had struck more than 600 militant targets, including weapons depots and anti-tank missile launching positions. Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets into Israel, including toward its commercial hub, Tel Aviv.

Hamas said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops who entered the northwest. It was not possible to independently confirm battlefield claims made by either side.

Meanwhile, crowded hospitals in northern Gaza came under growing threat.

Gaza's Health Ministry shared video footage that appeared to show an explosion and a column of smoke near the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital for cancer patients. The hospital director, Dr. Sobhi Skaik, said it had sustained damage in a strike that endangered patients.

All 10 hospitals operating in northern Gaza have received evacuation orders, the U.N.’s Office for the coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Staff have refused to leave, saying evacuation would mean death for patients on ventilators.

Strikes hit within 50 meters (yards) of Al Quds Hospital after it received two calls from Israeli authorities on Sunday ordering it to evacuate, the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said. Some windows were blown out, and rooms were covered in debris. It said 14,000 people are sheltering there.

Israel says it targets Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate among civilians, putting them in danger.

Beyond the fighting, conditions for civilians in Gaza are continually deteriorating.

With no central power for weeks and little fuel, hospitals are struggling to keep emergency generators running to operate incubators and other life-saving equipment. UNRWA has been trying to keep water pumps and bakeries running.

On Sunday, the largest convoy of humanitarian aid yet — 33 trucks — entered the territory from Egypt, and another 26 entered on Monday. Relief workers say the amount is still far less than what is needed for the population of 2.3 million people.

The fighting has raised concerns that the violence could spread across the region. Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have engaged in daily skirmishes along Israel’s northern border.

In the occupied West Bank, Israel carried out airstrikes Monday against militants clashing with its forces in the Jenin refugee camp. Hamas said four of its fighters were killed there. As of Sunday, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 123 Palestinians, including 33 minors, in the West Bank, half of them during search-and-arrest operations, the U.N. said.

Source: newindianexpress.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2023/oct/31/israel-pushes-deeper-into-gaza-and-frees-hamas-captive-netanyahu-rejects-calls-for-cease-fire-2628681.html

---------

 

Israel achieved nothing in attempted ground invasion of Gaza, only struck open areas: Islamic Jihad

30 October 2023

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement says Israel’s recent attempt to invade the besieged Gaza Strip was futile and failed to achieve any of the occupying regime’s goals.

The Gaza-based resistance movement said in a statement on Monday that the Israeli regime’s attempted ground offensive against the coastal sliver had failed to yield any results and the occupation troops had only targeted “open areas” in the besieged strip.

“The Zionist invasion of Gaza began a few days ago, and the enemy was not able to achieve anything other than targeting open areas,” the statement said, adding, “The enemy infiltrated into open areas in Gaza with air cover, which led to crimes against civilians.”

The Islamic Jihad also stressed that the Palestinian resistance would press ahead with its efforts to thwart Israel’s plots and confront its aggression.

“The resistance has been steadfast in this field and continues its struggle and can neutralize the plans and goals of the enemy,” the statement said, adding, “During this infiltration, the enemy received blows from the resistance.”

The regime in Tel Aviv announced the start of a ground incursion into the besieged Gaza Strip late on Friday.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.

The regime has further ordered 1.1 million people in the north of Gaza to evacuate and move south of the coastal sliver. However, it has continued to rain down bombs on the south.

According to the health ministry in Gaza, 8,306 Palestinians have been killed, including 3,457 children, in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7.

Israel steps up its fierce air and artillery strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip, despite international calls for a ceasefire.

‘There is absolutely no ground advance’

The Monday statement by the Islamic Jihad came after the occupying regime earlier in the day stepped up its brutal air and artillery strikes on the densely-populated besieged area, with witnesses saying Israeli tanks reached the outskirts of Gaza City and were seen in Zaytun district.

Local media said the regime’s tanks made an incursion towards Salah al-Din Street, in the middle of the Gaza City, and also cut a key road from the north to the south of the coastal silver, touching off heavy clashes between the Israeli occupation forces and Palestinians resistance groups.

Reports added that the clashes took more than one hour and “plumes of smoke” could be seen rising over the area where the tanks had been stranded.

Salama Maarouf, the head of the Media Office in Gaza, dismissed any reports of Israeli advance on the besieged area and said the Israeli tanks had retreated from the outskirts of Gaza City.

“There’s absolutely no ground advance inside the residential neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. What happened on Salah al-Din Street was the incursion of a few occupation army tanks and a bulldozer,” Maarouf said in a statement.

“These vehicles targeted two civilian cars on Salah al-Din Street and bulldozed the street before the resistance forced them to retreat. There is currently no presence of occupation army vehicles on Salah al-Din Road, and citizen movement has returned to normal on the road,” he said.

Media reports underlined that the tanks stayed for just over an hour and cars soon returned to the highway, driving onto the verge in the parts where craters had made the road unusable.

Source: presstv.ir

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/30/713716/Palestinian-Islamic-Jihad-resistance-movement-besieged-Gaza-Strip-open-areas

--------

 

Israel-Hamas war: UN warns current aid system for Gaza 'geared to fail'

 31st October 2023

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) warned Monday that the limited number of aid trucks entering Gaza were insufficient to meet the "unprecedented humanitarian needs" in the territory.

"The handful of convoys being allowed through Rafah is nothing compared to the needs of over two million people trapped in Gaza," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told the UN Security Council, referring to the sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Israel has unleashed a massive bombing campaign on Hamas-run Gaza after gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials. The strikes have flattened thousands of buildings and, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, killed over 8,000 people, also mostly civilians.

According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medical supplies entered Gaza through Rafah on Sunday.

Prior to the war, some 500 trucks carrying aid and other goods entered Gaza every day.

"The system in place to allow aid into Gaza is geared to fail unless there is political will to make the flow of supplies meaningful, matching the unprecedented humanitarian needs," Lazzarini said, calling for the Security Council to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

He said that 64 of his UNRWA colleagues had been killed in just over three weeks, "the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in such a short time."

He added that a UN worker named Samir, as well as Samir's wife and eight children, had been killed just hours before the meeting.

"My UNRWA colleagues are the only glimmer of hope for the entire Gaza Strip... but they are running out of fuel, water, food and medicine and will soon be unable to operate," said the Swiss-Italian official.

"An entire population is being dehumanized," he warned.

UNICEF chief Catherine Russell told the council that her agency believes "the true cost of this latest escalation will be measured in children's lives -- those lost to the violence and those forever changed by it."

The UN General Assembly adopted a nonbinding resolution last week calling for an immediate humanitarian truce, but the Security Council has thus far been unable to reach an agreement on any text related to the war.

With permanent members Russia, China and the United States applying their vetoes to previous resolutions, the Security Council's 10 elected members have begun working on a new draft they hope will garner consensus.

"We have the means to get something done and yet we repeatedly and shamefully fail," said Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, whose country currently holds the Security Council's rotating chair.

"The eyes of the world are staring at us and will not move away from our distressing inability to act," he added.

Source: newindianexpress.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2023/oct/31/israel-hamas-war-un-warns-current-aid-system-for-gaza-geared-to-fail-2628691.html

--------

 

Israel strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon as fighting intensifies

October 31, 2023

Israeli fighter jets attacked Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said in a post on social media platform X.

A video published Tuesday showed a series of missiles hitting Hezbollah infrastructure, which Israel said were weapons, posts and sites in Lebanon.

The strikes come after Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against Israel’s military on Monday.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Monday he was doing everything possible to prevent his country from sliding into war, although the Lebanese government has little leverage over Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400471/middle-east

---------

 

Jordanian king, queen meet UN officials to discuss Gaza humanitarian crisis

October 31, 2023

LONDON: Jordan’s King Abdullah on Monday met Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the Jordan News Agency reported.

King Abdullah spoke of the challenges faced by UNRWA in delivering its services in the besieged Gaza Strip. He called on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities and provide the necessary support for the agency.

Highlighting the ongoing violence in Gaza, the king stressed the critical need for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

He also spoke of allowing international humanitarian organizations to carry out their operations without impediment, underscoring the severity of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, and Director of the Office of His Majesty Jafar Hassan also attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, Queen Rania met senior UNICEF representatives to explore the devastating impact of the violence on Palestinian children.

Queen Rania, who is UNICEF’s first eminent advocate for children, was briefed about the violence and violations of children’s rights in the Palestinian enclave.

UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director of Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations Ted Chaiban discussed the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire and for all crossings into Gaza to be opened to enable a sustained flow of humanitarian aid.

Chaiban made an appeal for the safeguarding of civilian infrastructure, upholding the principles of international humanitarian law. He further emphasized the urgent need for patients in life-threatening conditions in Gaza to access vital healthcare services.

UNICEF has been providing water to 1 million people in Gaza over the last three weeks. However, it can supply less than three liters per person daily, a significant shortfall from the standard minimum of 15 liters.

Chaiban explained that the lack of water and food, coupled with overcrowding, presented a potential threat of water-borne disease outbreaks.

UNICEF has only been able to deliver 20 trucks through the Rafah Crossing since the start of the violence, carrying emergency medical supplies, water, and sanitary and hygiene supplies.

Chaiban told Queen Rania that UNICEF was trying to boost the number of aid trucks in Gaza, highlighting that “the UN has said that 100 trucks are needed to go in daily to sustain humanitarian efforts and operations.”

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400416/middle-east

-------

 

Buckling Gaza health service turns to volunteers

October 30, 2023

GAZA CITY: Gaza medical chiefs are turning to volunteers to help run an emergency service buckling under Israel’s offensive as ambulances struggle to reach bomb sites past rubble-strewn roads and with ever-depleting supplies of fuel.

Medical and emergency staff have worked with little rest and are deployed in the most dangerous areas, witnessing the horror of violent death, terrible injuries, and grief.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has called on all trained paramedics to help staff hospitals and call-out teams, but though dozens have responded, the system is still in dire need of more workers, it said.

“I have not gone home since the first day of the war. I shower here, sleep here, and eat here,” said Loay Al-Astal, a volunteer emergency worker in Khan Younis, south of the enclave.

Health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave say Israeli air and artillery strikes have killed more than 8,000 people since Oct. 7.

After Israel began ground operations on Friday, many Gaza residents fear the destruction will intensify.

Israel has ordered civilians to leave the northern half of the Gaza Strip for the south but has continued an intense bombardment across the enclave, and many people are refusing to leave.

Shelling on Gaza’s main north-south road on Monday meant the enclave was all but cut in two, with any attempts to flee south risking bombardment.

The Health Ministry said 116 medical staff had been killed in the bombardment since Oct. 7, along with 18 civil emergency department rescuers.

Astal, the volunteer who had trained at university to be a paramedic but was unemployed when the war began, described an incident in which some of his colleagues had nearly been killed by an air strike that blew out the windows of their ambulance.

“The glass was smashed and some of our volunteers were wounded,” he said.

He is haunted by the memory of trying to save a woman who was buried up to her neck in rubble from an air strike. “There was a cut on her head and I rushed to treat the wound,” Astal, 33, said.

She asked him to free her from the rubble so she could find her son, but she died minutes later, still trapped, he said. “I felt bad I couldn’t save her,” he said.

‘Where should we go?’

The head of the Khan Younis ambulance service, Naseem Hassan, said the department was overwhelmed and needed trained medics. “We opened the door for volunteers and many young people answered that call and have been on duty since the war began,” he said.

Along with the bombardment, Israel has imposed a blockade on the enclave, home to 2.3 million people, cutting supplies of electricity and fuel. Limited food and medical aid deliveries have entered Gaza since last week after international pressure on Israel.

“Ambulances are about to go out of operation because we have minimal fuel left. We have problems with communications. We lose touch with the ambulances that leave here,” said volunteer driver Sari Al-Najjar.

Without reliable power supplies, many residents could not charge phones, adding to the difficulties for ambulance crews trying to locate and coordinate rescues.

Thousands of people have gathered at hospitals in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, many sheltering in makeshift tents hoping for some safety from the bombardment.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400376/middle-east

-------

 

On its 24th day... Expansion of Zionist-American aggression against Gaza

[31/October/2023]

GAZA October 31.2023 (Saba)- The American Zionist aggression against the Gaza Strip has entered its 24th day since it began on October 7, as the Zionist enemy army and its supporters continue to bomb the Strip by air, land, and sea, targeting citizens’ homes and hospitals which exacerbates humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip.

The Zionist war machine continued to launch raids, using warplanes, artillery, and gunboats, in various parts of Gaza, focusing on the northern Gaza Strip.

Palestinian media reported that enemy warplanes bombed several areas in Beit Lahia, Jabalia, and Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, coinciding with the complete disconnection of communications and the Internet.

She added: The American Zionist warplanes, with artillery support, launched a series of violent raids east of Beit Lahia and east of Jabalia, in light of the slow movement of military vehicles in the northeastern area of the Gaza Strip.

The American Zionist aggression warplanes launched several raids in the Al-Nasr neighborhood and Al-Jalaa Street, northwest of Gaza.

Meanwhile, enemy artillery bombed the area east of Al-Maghazi in the middle of the Gaza Strip, and east of Khan Yunis.

The aggression aircraft also launched several raids on the home of the Abu Sido family in central Khan Yunis, and two homes east of Rafah and west of Rafah, which led to the death of a number of citizens and the injury of dozens.

The enemy forces, with the intense daily bombardment of Gaza from the air, land and sea, targeted a large number of citizens’ homes. They also focused their bombing on the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood, south of Gaza City.

According to eyewitnesses, the Zionist enemy army used bombs and smoke shells, including internationally banned white phosphorus bombs, in its bombing of the vicinity of the hospital, which houses at least four thousand patients and wounded, and more than 14 thousand displaced people.

The director of Al-Quds Hospital confirmed that the Zionist enemy army had targeted the hospital’s vicinity several times.

Palestinian media reported that Al-Quds Hospital was damaged as a result of enemy aircraft bombing one of the Tal Al-Hawa towers south of Gaza City.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society in the Gaza Strip stated that it had taken a decision not to evacuate Al-Quds Hospital in central Gaza, after the Zionist enemy army’s threats to bomb it and the ongoing raids near the hospital.

The association said in a statement: “We decided not to evacuate Al-Quds Hospital in the Gaza Strip.”

The director of Al-Quds Hospital said: About 16,000 displaced people are inside Al-Quds Hospital, which is threatened by bombing.

In another crime, the government media office in Gaza said: “In a new crime, the enemy entity threatens to bomb the Orthodox Cultural Center and the Roman School, which contains more than 500 displaced people.”

According to Palestinian media, the Zionist enemy army and its supporters continue to launch intense air strikes on Khan Yunis Governorate.

Zionist warplanes launched massive raids on a number of citizens' homes throughout the Gaza Strip.

According to medical sources in Gaza, “a number of martyrs and wounded arrived at hospitals as a result of the ongoing Zionist raids on the Strip.”

Palestinian sources reported that a number of martyrs and injuries were reported as a result of the Zionist enemy aircraft’s bombing of citizens’ homes in the Beach Camp, west of Gaza City.

Source: saba.ye

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3276623.htm

--------

 

Israel will be annihilated if war on Gaza expands: Iran's deputy foreign minister

30 October 2023

Iran's deputy foreign minister for political affairs has warned that if Israel’s ongoing war against the Palestinian resistance in the besieged Gaza Strip expands any further it will lead to total annihilation of the regime.

Ali Bagheri-Kani made the remark in a televised interview on Monday, commenting on the war that the Israeli regime has been waging against the blockaded coastal territory since October 7.

The regime launched the war after Gaza's resistance groups conducted Operation al-Aqsa Storm, their biggest operation against the occupying entity in years, killing at least 1,500 Israeli forces and settlers, and taking hundreds of others captive. Israel's aggression against Gaza has so far killed more than 8,300 civilians, most of them women and children.

Bagheri-Kani described the Palestinian resistance's operation against Israel as "an irreparable earthquake in the Zionist regime's military and security system."

"If the war expands [any further] we cannot say that Israel would lose, because nothing will remain of Israel to be described as loser or winner," Iran's deputy foreign minister said.

His remarks came after earlier on Monday, the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas said Israeli tanks that had advanced near the territory were forced to retreat after heavy clashes.

Hamas says Israel’s nonstop airstrikes on the frontlines are proof the Palestinian fighters have the upper hand in the battle.

The movement said the regime’s limited ground incursion followed its failure to perform a broad operation in Gaza.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian official said Operation al-Aqsa Storm also caused "an earthquake in the intellectual and strategic system of the United States-led Western world and in US unilateralism."

"The Americans are [now] plagued by a strategic confusion and cannot guess the resistance's next move to make a decision accordingly," he noted.

The deputy foreign minister also touched on the messages that American officials have been relaying to Iran, adding that Americans allege through the messages that they seek to prevent further expansion of the conflict.

"However, [Americans] themselves are the main party responsible for continuation and expansion of the conflict through their unbridled support for the Zionists," he stated.

Iran’s foreign minister warns new war fronts would open if US continues its all-out support for Israel

"Therefore, the main party responsible for the Zionists' crimes, after Zionists themselves, is Americans. They have said time and again that they stand by Israel without any limitations," Iran's deputy foreign minister noted.

Since the onset of the Israeli war of aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, the US has provided the regime with thousands of weapons consignments.

Washington has been also supplying the Tel Aviv regime with ample political support by vetoing the United Nations Security Council resolutions that either hold the regime responsible for its atrocities or call for immediate cessation of its aggression.

Source: presstv.ir

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/30/713729/Iran-warning-Israel-annihilation-war-Gaza

---------

 

Israel has dropped more than 18,000 tons of explosives on Gaza: Government media office

31 October 2023

Palestinian officials in the besieged Gaza Strip say the Israeli regime has dropped nearly 20,000 tons of explosives on the territory in its ongoing war of aggression.

“The Israeli occupation army has dropped more than 18,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip since its aggression started 24 days ago,” the Government Media Office in Gaza said in a Monday statement.

It added that 10,000 people have been either killed or are still missing as a result of the intensive bombardment by the regime, which has caused large-scale devastation as well.

The office said 50 tons of explosives have been dropped on every kilometer in Gaza Strip so far.

The statement came after the media office of the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas said last week that Israel has bombed Gaza with more than 12,000 tons of explosives. It added that it was equivalent to the power of the nuclear bomb that was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Earlier on Monday, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hissein Brahim Taha said in a statement that Israel’s relentless bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip constituted a war crime and a flagrant violation of international law.

He added that the Israeli airstrikes have also resulted in “wounding innocent civilians, including women, children, medical personnel and journalists.”

The OIC chief said Israel's attacks on hospitals in Gaza and the total blockade of the territory constitute “collective punishment, war crimes, and flagrant violation of international law.”

Israeli forces have “deliberately carried out attacks on hospitals, schools, places of worship, and United Nations facilities,” Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha said.

Israel waged its bloody war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after Palestinian resistance movements based there launched a surprise attack, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

Since the start of the war, the Israeli regime has been committing war crimes in Gaza, killing more than 8,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

It has also imposed a complete siege on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to more than two million Palestinians living there.

Source: presstv.ir

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/31/713733/Israeli-drop-18,000-tons-explosives-Gaza

-------

 

Iran FM to discuss ways to end Israeli war on Gaza on second visit to Qatar

31 October 2023

Iran’s foreign minister has traveled to Doha to discuss with Qatari officials new initiatives aimed at ending Israeli atrocities against the people of Gaza.

Heading a political delegation, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian left Tehran for Doha on Tuesday morning.

He is expected to meet with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

It is the second trip by the top Iranian diplomat to Doha since October 7, when the Palestinian Hamas resistance group conducted a surprise raid against the occupying entity.

Two weeks ago, Amir-Abdollahian visited Qatar as part of a regional tour that also took him to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

After his trip to Qatar, the Iranian foreign minister will travel to Ankara to hold talks with Turkish officials.

Palestinian officials say the Israeli regime has dropped more than 18,000 tons of explosives on Gaza.

Israel waged the bloody war on the blockaded Gaza Strip after Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.

Since the start of the aggression, the Tel Aviv regime has been committing war crimes in Gaza, killing at least 8,306 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring some 21,048 others.

It has also imposed a “complete siege” on the coastal enclave, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

Source: presstv.ir

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/31/713737/Iran-FM-2nd-visit-Qatar-since-Gaza-war-eruption

---------

 

Gaza: Death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks rises to 8,306

October 31, 2023

The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 8,306.

In a statement, the Hamas-run Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qedra said among the victims, 3,457 were children and 2,136 women.

He said 21,048 Palestinians were wounded by ongoing Israeli airstrikes.

He stated that 25 hospitals have been forced to suspend service due to Israel's bombardment on the Gaza Strip while 25 ambulances have been targeted.

Al-Qedra said there is not enough blood to save injured Palestinians and called on Gazans to go to hospitals to donate blood.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet today to discuss Israel's massive operation in Gaza.

The council will discuss the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Source: radio.gov.pk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.radio.gov.pk/31-10-2023/gaza-death-toll-of-palestinians-from-israeli-attacks-rises-to-8306

---------

 

Child deaths in Gaza exceed global rate: NGO

October 31, 2023

THE number of children who have lost their lives during the recent Israeli military campaign over the past three weeks in Gaza has exceeded the annual child mortality rate in armed conflicts worldwide for each of the past four years, Save The Children said.

Gaza’s health authorities have reported that over 3,000 children have been killed since October 7.

“Decades of conflict and the ongoing military occupation and blockade of Gaza hinder the right to self-determination and consequently, has adverse impacts on the development of Palestinian communities, greatly increasing the vulnerability of children, particularly children most impacted by inequality and discrimination,” the report by Save The Children said.

“Palestinian children and their families continue to live in an environment characterised by violence, poverty and insecurity,” it added.

The report also underscores that children with disabilities encounter extra hurdles because of physical barriers and discrimination in society. The impact of war on them means their traumas will require a significant amount of time to heal.

The United Nations secretary general’s annual report on children and armed conflict, cited by Save the Children, reveals that in 2022, a total of 2,985 children were killed in 24 countries, with 2,515 in 2021 and 2,674 in 2020. In 2019, the UN reported 4,019 children killed in global conflicts.

Source: dawn.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.dawn.com/news/1785121/child-deaths-in-gaza-exceed-global-rate-ngo

---------

 

Southeast Asia

 

‘Pray for our safety’: Indonesian hospital in Gaza struggles to treat surging casualties

October 30, 2023

SHEANY YASUKO LAI

JAKARTA: The Indonesian hospital in Gaza is struggling to help an increasing number of people wounded by Israeli airstrikes amid intensified bombardment, the nongovernmental organization that funds the facility’s infrastructure said on Monday. 

The Indonesia Hospital in northern Gaza, which was built from donations organized by the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, was among the first targets hit by Israeli air raids. Over 8,000 Palestinians, including more than 3,100 children, have been killed since Tel Aviv escalated bombardments following an Oct. 7 attack by the Gaza-based militant group Hamas. 

The facility in Beit Lahiya has been inundated with patients after over three weeks of bombing by Israeli forces and is facing a dwindling stock of medicines and limited electricity as fuel supply runs out in the densely populated enclave. 

“The medical staff has been working 24 hours to treat all the patients sent to the Indonesia Hospital,” Fikri Rofiul Haq, a MER-C volunteer at the hospital, said in a voice message shared with Arab News. 

“The Indonesia Hospital has been overwhelmed by the number of bodies delivered to the morgue so some of them have been placed outside … The number of injured is surging to the point that some of them are treated outside of the treatment rooms, in the corridors.”

More than 1,000 people, over 60 percent of whom are children and women, have died at the Indonesia Hospital alone, Haq said, adding that the facility has also treated around 3,000 wounded patients. 

The hospital was forced to shut down some critical services last week after the generators failed, as Tel Aviv’s forces prohibited fuel from entering Gaza. People on the strip were also under a near-total communications blackout for almost 36 hours following Israeli air attacks on Friday. 

“Last Friday at 11:00 (a.m.), we were cut off from internet connection and phone services for about two days. As a result, we lost contact with the MER-C headquarters team and also media outlets,” Haq said. 

Israeli troops have reportedly started ground operations in recent days, as Tel Aviv subjected the besieged territory to the heaviest bombardment since the escalation began. 

“The last three nights have been fulminating because of the bombs from the Israeli military hitting residential homes,” Haq said. “From day to night, we can hear hundreds of explosions … Aside from the airstrikes, we can also hear ground attacks happening on the border.” 

Some ceilings of the Indonesia Hospital, located less than 5 km away from the northern Gaza border, have collapsed due to the constant air raids, Haq added. 

“We’re asking you to pray for our safety and for the safety of Gaza residents from the attacks of Israeli Zionists,” he said.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400136/world

--------

 

PM Anwar confirms Nazri called up by Washington over Putrajaya's Palestine stance, notice sent by US Embassy to Wisma Putra

Muhammad Yusry

 31 Oct 2023

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Pressed over alleged intimidation over Malaysia's stance on Palestine, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today confirmed that the United States Department of State called up its ambassador in Washington over the matter.

His office also confirmed with the press that Putrajaya had received a démarche notice from the United States on the Palestine-Israel conflict on October 13, while the US Deputy Chief of Mission to Malaysia, Chargé d'Affaires Manu Bhalla, had called on a deputy secretary-general of Malaysia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday.

“Despite the possibility of being faced with reprimands or warnings from any party, Malaysia will not succumb to any form of intimidation. The elements can come in various forms and ways, either written or implied.

“For example, our ambassador in Washington was called by the US State Department and pressed about the country's position on the Palestinian issue," he told the Dewan Rakyat during the Prime Minister Question Time session, referring to Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz.

“In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also received a 'demarche' from the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur for Malaysia to use diplomatic channels to ask one country not to take advantage of the conflict situation by using proxies to get involved in the fighting in Gaza,” he said, referring to Iran.

The US State Department defined a démarche as a "formal diplomatic representation of its official position, views, or wishes on a given subject" which seeks to "persuade, inform, or gather information from a foreign government", or to "protest or object to actions by a foreign government".

Anwar insisted that Malaysians do not need to feel worried and afraid of any form of external pressure, as its firm stance was also shared with 119 member countries of the United Nations (UN) during the Emergency Meeting of the UN Security Council on October 27.

He also expressed support for the Education Ministry’s Palestine Solidarity Week initiative, despite recent concerns brought up over some events glorifying violence and extremism after teachers and students were pictured with replica firearms.

“So I hope we take this opportunity to disclose information to the people. That is why I support the education minister's call to encourage students, not force them, but encourage students to follow the developments that are happening.

“Of course, we have guidelines so that we don't seem to encourage acts of violence or hatred towards their friends, but enlightenment, understanding of what is happening, what is the meaning of cruelty, what is the meaning of oppression, what is the meaning of dispossession," he said.

He stressed that Malaysia is championing the issue from the viewpoint of defending human rights.

“Yes, Malaysia advocates the principle of neutrality, but not neutrality in tyranny, when thousands of children are killed and bombed, not neutral when it comes to human justice.

“Therefore, I urge Malaysians, do not allow this issue to be divisive or boxed. Yes, this issue is rightly close to Muslims, but this issue is close to humanity too. That's why we see countries like Ireland, Brazil apart from Russia and China taking a stand on humanitarian principles,” he said.

Earlier this month, Nazri said Malaysia’s commiseration is only for Palestine and any sane government would never ever sympathise with the oppressive Israeli authorities, after the United States Department of State informed him of its displeasure with Malaysia's stance.

Last week, Islamist party PAS labelled claims made by Anwar that he had been threatened by certain European parliamentarians after speaking up for Palestinian rights in the Middle East as “strange” and “laughable”.

Its secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan said Malaysia’s firm stance supporting the Palestinian cause and criticising Israel is well known and is not new as former prime ministers were also very vocal on this issue.

Source: malaymail.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2023/10/31/pm-anwar-confirms-nazri-called-up-by-washington-over-palestine-stance-notices-sent-by-us-embassy-to-wisma-putra/99380

--------

 

Call on countries that voted against UN’s Gaza ceasefire resolution, Putrajaya told

31 Oct 2023

Soo Wern Jun

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — The Parliament Caucus for Palestine has today urged the government to call on all the countries that voted against the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) resolution made on October 27.

In a press conference, the group said this will reflect Malaysia’s strong and firm stand on its support towards the UNGA resolution on the Gaza crisis.

"We also urge the government to support the UAE’s request for a resolution by the UN Security Council (UNSC), to hold a special meeting in relation to Israel’s aggression on civilians and land incursion into Gaza.

"This is because resolutions adopted by the General Assembly on agenda items are considered to be recommendations and are not legally binding to member states unless it is also accepted by the Security Council.

"Yes, maybe previously some have said this Security Council was vetoed four times regarding the same motion, but it has to continue and the UAE is trying to ensure that the special meeting will be conducted,” the caucus head, PKR’s Ledang MP Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said at the Parliament building here.

Among other calls, the Parliament Caucus also voiced its recommendation for the UN to prepare to deploy peacekeeper troops to stop attacks and genocide by the Zionist regime of Israel, and encourages Members of Parliament around the world to urge their respective governments to comply with the UN resolution and support the call for this Caucus.

The Parliament Caucus for Palestine said it was moved to make these calls following the UNGA’s resolution adopted at its 10th Emergency Special Session held on October 27, whereby Malaysia voted in favour and co-sponsored the resolution.

The resolution had called for an "immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities”. The resolution received 121 affirmative votes, 14 against and 44 abstentions.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that Malaysia is committed to upholding international law and is dedicated to working diplomatically with other countries to prevent the rising death toll in Gaza.

He said that the issue at hand caused by Israeli retaliation for the attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas has both everything and nothing to do with international laws.

Source: malaymail.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2023/10/31/call-on-countries-that-voted-against-uns-gaza-ceasefire-resolution-putrajaya-told/99413

---------

 

Thai FM travels to Qatar, Egypt for Hamas hostage talks

31 Oct 2023

BANGKOK, Oct 31 — Thailand’s foreign minister begins an urgent visit to Qatar and Egypt today for talks on the fate of 22 Thais taken hostage by Hamas in its attack on Israel.

Israeli authorities say more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in an attack on Israel launched by Hamas on October 7 from the Gaza Strip.

In response, the Israeli military has pounded Gaza, where the Hamas-controlled health ministry says more than 8,300 have been killed — over 3,000 of them children.

More than 230 hostages are being held by Hamas in Gaza, according to the latest Israeli figures — 22 of them Thai nationals, the foreign ministry in Bangkok has said.

Prime Minister SretthaThavisin said Monday his government was working hard to get Thai citizens home.

He has dispatched Foreign Minister ParnpreeBahiddha-Nukara to meet the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister on Tuesday, before talks with the Egyptian foreign minister on Wednesday.

Parnpree will “discuss the situation of Thai nationals being held hostage as a result of the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza”, the ministry said in a statement.

About 30,000 Thais were working in Israel, many in the agricultural sector, when the conflict erupted.

At least 32 Thais have been killed in the conflict and 19 wounded, according to the ministry.

“We are more like victims of the war,” Srettha told reporters before a trip to neighbouring Laos on Monday.

“We have been more affected because there are more workers from Thailand in Israel than from other countries.” — AFP

Source: malaymail.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2023/10/31/thai-fm-travels-to-qatar-egypt-for-hamas-hostage-talks/99422

--------

 

Palestinian Christians are victims of the conflict too, Anwar points out

31 Oct 2023

By RAGANANTHINI VETHASALAM, MARTIN CARVALHO, JUNAID IBRAHIM and BENJAMIN LEE

KUALA LUMPUR: Palestinian Christians have been victimised just as much as their Muslim brothers and sisters, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim while condemning Israel’s violence in Palestine.

“For those who continue to think or suggest that the atrocities committed against the Palestinians affect Muslims alone, let (me remind you) that the world’s most ancient Christian community resides in Palestine, totalling 47,000 based on a census conducted in 2017,” he said during Prime Minister's Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Oct 31).

"Palestinian Christians too have been driven out from their historic cities in large numbers and the underlying cause is the illegal Israeli occupation and apartheid policies.

"In this sordid history and the ongoing saga of cruelty, oppression and genocide, Palestine’s Muslim and Christian communities alike are helpless victims,” he added.

He said the Western media rarely presented the faces of Palestinian Christians, or if they are mentioned, they are usually portrayed as mere bystanders.

“This is utterly wrong because Palestinian Christians have (also been victimised.

"The point I want to make here is that there are strong socio-cultural and spiritual connections between the Muslim and Christian communities which confer on Palestinians their unique collective identity,” he added.

He said the conflict cannot be taken as a war but a massacre of helpless people in Gaza, who for the last six decades have been incarcerated in the largest open-air prison in the world.

Anwar said this was a deliberate, calculated and cold-blooded attempt to decimate the Palestinian people.

“Unless we are made of wood or our hearts are cast in stone, it is impossible not to be moved, shocked and repulsed by the spectacle of killing and mayhem being perpetrated, even as we are gathered here in this august House,” he said.

"The chilling statistics bear testimony to a tragedy of epic proportions: As of the latest report from the authorities in Gaza, 8,805 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 20,000 injured.

"Of the number killed, 3,600 are children. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses destroyed.

"This is nothing if not a grim and shocking testament to the relentless, indiscriminate onslaught of Israeli aggression, cruelty and inhumanity,” he added.

He said Malaysia condemned terrorism in all its forms, and categorically condemned the killing of innocents; taking women and children as hostages; bombing civilians, homes and hospitals; and the consequential massacre being carried out day and night by the Israeli forces.

“These criminal acts are in clear violation of the norms of international law. The actions taken by Israel, the cutting off of food, water, humanitarian aid and electricity, are violations of international law.

"As I stated at the UN General Assembly, the credibility of the international system itself is at stake and we must voice our opinion and encourage others to do so in order to preserve that system which seeks to uphold peace in the world.

"It is a fool’s errand to think that Malaysia is unaffected by what is happening in the world. We are a trading nation actively engaged in regional and international commercial and economic activities, proactively reaching out for foreign direct investments to drive our economic advancement.

"We have embarked on the difficult task, long ignored. Let me be clear, we will remain a fiercely independent nation and continue to express our position on the issue, for justice and freedom without fear or favour,” he added.

On Oct 7, during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza, which saw a barrage of rockets being fired towards Israel and armed individuals breaching security barriers. In response, Israel retaliated with air strikes and military operations.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also rejected calls for a ceasefire, adding that it would constitute “surrender to terrorism”.

Source: thestar.com.my

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/10/31/palestinian-christians-are-victims-of-the-conflict-too-anwar-points-out

----------

 

No easy decision to deploy troops to conflict zones like Palestine, Dewan Rakyat told

By Nor Ain Mohamed Radhi -

 October 31, 2023

KUALA LUMPUR: The decision to deploy military troops to conflict areas is not a simple one, said Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

This, he said, requires input from various parties including the Foreign Ministry, the views of crisis-affected neighbouring countries, and most importantly, a clear mandate from the United Nations (UN).

"Regarding the conflict in Palestine, as of now, the UN has not made any decision to send peacekeepers to Palestine.

"Nevertheless, the Defence Ministry, through the Malaysian Battalion (Malbatt) serving under the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), remains on high alert.

"The ministry is closely monitoring the developments in Palestine and is ready to provide full cooperation to the Foreign Ministry if needed, both for the evacuation of Malaysian citizens in the affected areas and to ensure the safety of Malbatt members in Southern Lebanon," he said during the committee stage winding up session in Dewan Rakyat.

Mohamad said, to this day, Malaysia remains committed to supporting global peace efforts under the banner of the UN.

"This commitment has been evident since 1960, as the armed forces have been involved in 37 missions, whether as observing forces or peacekeeping forces.

"These missions have included peacekeeping efforts in Congo, Somalia, Namibia, Cambodia, Bosnia Herzegovina, East Timor (now Timor Leste), and most recently, Lebanon."

At present, said Mohamad, the armed forces are still actively engaged in five international missions under the UN, including one peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, since 2007.

"We are also engaged in the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monusco) since 2000; UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (Unisfa) on the border of Sudan and South Sudan since 2006; UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso) in Western Sahara since 1991 and UN Mission to support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) in Yemen since 2021."

Source: nst.com.my

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2023/10/973428/no-easy-decision-deploy-troops-conflict-zones-palestine-dewan-rakyat-told

---------

 

Palestine-Israel: blood on our hands as well – Vinod Sekhar

30 Oct 2023

WHAT is happening in Palestine is not a religious matter: both Muslim and Christian Palestinians suffer.

And it’s not a war, regardless how much Israel would like to call it one.

What war takes the lives of more than 3,000 innocent children in a week? What war calls a toddler a terrorist?

When will the West stand up and take responsibility for allowing these crimes against humanity?

Are they not white enough? Do they not speak with an acceptable accent?

Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet are criminals; they are now blatantly committing acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

But let’s be clear here: the blood is on our hands as well.

The world’s governments must act and must take responsibility. And the longer we take to act, the more blood we will all be responsible for.

What is the point in fighting against climate change, or for cleaner oceans, if we are not even more aggressively fighting for the lives of children – the same children we hope will live in a cleaner environment and swim in cleaner oceans?

It’s time to get global priorities right. All countries must live by international law and by the United Nations’ resolutions.

We cannot have one country continuing to believe they are so special that they can skip the laws they find inconvenient.

All civilisations are judged by how they treat their children.

The children represent the future.

What does this say about our future? – The Vibes, October 30, 2023

Source: thevibes.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.thevibes.com/articles/opinion/99717/palestine-israel-blood-on-our-hands-as-well-vinod-sekhar

--------

 

North America

 

Israel-Hamas war: Canada must act to prevent hate crimes against Muslim and Jewish communities

October 30, 2023

The violence in Israel and Palestine has reached brutal and devastating levels in recent weeks. Thousands have been killed and injured. Witnessing the extreme violence against civilians has been polarizing for many around the world.

In such a climate, potential hate crimes and the spillover effects of the ongoing conflict need to be addressed and governments need to take action to prevent grave consequences. Dehumanizing rhetoric is further inflaming the situation and risks leading to even more extreme violence.

Already, we have witnessed tragic consequences of the violence unfold in different communities. A Chicago-area man was recently arrested and charged with murder and hate crimes after police alleged he stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy to death.

Police in Toronto and Montreal have reported an increase in hate crime calls since the beginning of the conflict on Oct. 7.

Hate on the rise

Recent statistics indicate that religiously motivated hate crimes are on the rise in Canada. There has been a 67 per cent increase in police-reported hate crimes from 2020 to 2021, with a specific rise in hate crimes against Muslim (71 per cent) and Jewish (47 per cent) Canadians.

Canada has the fourth-largest Jewish community in the world, with a population of over 390,000, and a Muslim population of around two million people. In recent years, there have been violent attacks against Muslim Canadians such as the killing of the Afzaal family in London, Ont., the mosque attack that killed six Muslims during prayers in Québec, and violent attacks against hijab-wearing Muslim women in Alberta.

Read more: How Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are manufactured through disinformation

Jewish Canadians have been attacked through a variety of hate crimes including vandalism and graffiti, online and offline racist propaganda and bomb threats to Jewish schools and community centres.

Conflicts trigger hate crimes

A 2021 study from the United States explored whether the Israeli-Palestinian conflict leads to acts of hatred towards Jews and Muslims. The study discovered that instances of conflict trigger hate crimes, displaying a retaliatory trend: occurrences of hate crimes against Jews escalate following Israeli assaults, whereas incidents of hate crimes against Muslims increase after Palestinian attacks.

The threat against Muslim and Jewish communities has become more concerning given the rising violence in the region and its potential spillover.

These effects on diaspora groups have been observed across different countries. Turkish and Kurdish diasporas in Europe have been affected by the decades-long conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

Occasional tensions and violence break out between diaspora communities, especially when the political situation back home becomes fraught or violent. Similar tensions have been seen between Turkish and Armenian diasporas and Hindu and Muslim diasporas.

Rising hate crimes can negatively affect the psychological and physical well-being of diaspora communities. Even if they are not directly targeted, people can experience fear and insecurity in their daily lives.

In a recent research study on the impacts of hate crimes, colleagues and I found that victims significantly changed their lifestyles to avoid conflict; as a result, they became alienated from their own community and society. These changes might include moving to another neighbourhood or city, changing daily routines and avoiding being in certain places and attending group activities.

Canada’s role

To prevent the spillover effects of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Canadian government should take a proactive role. This includes fostering a sincere dialogue and understanding among diverse communities through genuine campaigns and listening to the concerns of each affected community. Community leaders must also be involved in these efforts.

Establishing hate crime investigation units within Canadian police forces is a more professional approach to preventing and investigating hate crimes. Communities should be informed about the existence of these units, and invited to come forward when they feel intimidated or witness any hate crimes. Police officers should also be trained about the unique aspects of international conflicts and how best to intervene in conflicts among diaspora groups.

In a broader sense, the Canadian government should actively engage in diplomatic efforts through international organizations and bilateral relationships to reduce the violence we are now seeing.

Canada has committed to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza and called for “humanitarian pauses on hostilities,” but much more must be done to ensure a fair and peaceful resolution. Much of the world has called for an immediate ceasefire, however, Canada remains among a minority of countries to not do so.

Canada must join calls for an urgent ceasefire to end the violence in Israel and Palestine, and avoid violence at home.

Source: theconversation.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-canada-must-act-to-prevent-hate-crimes-against-muslim-and-jewish-communities-216416

----------

 

Canadian govt, civil society at odds over Gaza invasion

October 31, 2023

TORONTO: With a tragedy of immense proportions unfolding before the world’s eyes in Gaza, the heat from the conflict is being felt around the world, in all realms; Canada being no exception.

Despite being a G7 member and ‘the closest ally’ of the US, Ottawa, is finding it hard to balance its response.

On the streets, protests are breaking out throughout the country, virtually every day, urging the government to act. Although both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel are holding demonstrations, the pro-Palestine faction is obviously more dominant now, and cars waving Palestinian flags are also becoming a common sight in many parts of the country.

In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 raid on Israel by Hamas, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to be solidly standing by Tel Aviv.

The stance generated a calibrated and strong reaction from within Canadian civil society, which so proudly speaks of its diversity.

Although cars waving Palestinian flags are becoming a common sight on the streets, Canadian varsities and legislatures are still trying to balance their pro-Israel tilt with pro-Palestinian public sentiment

To temper his stance, Trudeau visited a mosque in Toronto the very next Friday, where he received a somewhat hostile reception. He was booed, with many congregants underlining that people in Gaza are also humans.

“Shame on you. How many more Palestinian children need to be slaughtered?” a woman in the crowd was heard asking the prime minister outside the mosque, as he was leaving. “How many more before you call for a ceasefire?”

Muslims have historically been supporters of Trudeau and his Liberals, and many here think that this episode would carry a political backlash for him. With his popularity already sliding, he cannot afford to offend the Muslim vote bank much, observers say.

The conflagration in the Middle East has already resulted in a political casualty; the incumbent New Democrat Party (NDP) lawmaker from Hamilton, Toronto, 29-year-old Sarah Jama, was ejected from the party caucus over her statement on Gaza.

The rookie parliamentarian —who reportedly has family in the Palestinian territories — had focused on the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation in her statement. Later, she also accused Israel of being an “apartheid” state.

Student unions in the limelight

While the political fallout continues, another battle is raging in educational institutions, generating a debate on the issue of promoting the battle of ideas within the campuses and limits on it.

On October 12, three York University unions — the York Federation of Students, York University of Graduate Student Association and the Glendon College Student Union — issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people “and their ongoing fight against settler-colonialism, apartheid, and genocide.”

The next morning, on Friday, the university issued a statement, saying it “unequivocally condemns the inflammatory statement(s)” by its student unions. Later Jill Dunlop, Ontario’s minister of colleges and universities urged student groups to apologise and rescind their stance.

The next week, on October 20, York University further demanded the executive board of the three student unions to step down, warning that noncompliance could result in sanctions, including the university no longer recognising the unions.

Around the same time, 74 students at Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) Lincoln Alexander School of Law (LASL) delivered an online letter to the school, expressing their “unequivocal support” for Palesti­nians. The letter listed several demands, which included a call for the law school to “name and confront Israel’s colonial violence.”

It also urged the administration to recognise the Palestinian “resistance as fundamentally just.”

But as expected, this letter also sparked a backlash among certain sections of society, with online threats emerging to report the students to the Law Society of Ontario and to future law firm employers.

The university is now undertaking a formal independent review to see if the letter has breached policies on non-academic conduct and freedom of speech.

Then, last week, the Ontario-based Western University fired chaplain AarijAnwer, who also served as a volunteer counsellor for Muslims, after he made online comments about the Gaza crisis that the school’s president called “divisive”.

Anwer’s post was in response to comments by former Canadian Senator Linda Frum, who criticized a Toronto rally supporting Palestinians.

In a statement on X, Anwer said: “No one is celebrating the murder of Israeli babies. Palestinians are mourning the death of their babies. It’s incredible how Israel sympathisers simultaneously are the oppressor and the victim.”

Source: dawn.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.dawn.com/news/1785124/canadian-govt-civil-society-at-odds-over-gaza-invasion

---------

 

Imam of US mosque with ties to 9/11 attackers denies October 7 Hamas atrocities

30 October 2023

An imam from an influential US mosque close to Washington, DC, with ties to 9/11 perpetrators, has been filmed denying the atrocities carried out by Hamas against Israel on October 7.

In a video published by the DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Sunday, Imam Farhan Siddiqi tells the congregation of Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque that he will not condemn Hamas’s actions because he has not been presented with any proof of what occurred.

On October 7, some 2,500 Hamas terrorists destroyed the Israel-Gaza border and poured into Israel, murdering 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking at least 243 hostages.

The events drew global horror, and Israel’s right to defend itself in the face of the attack was reaffirmed by US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and the European Union, among others.

Despite this, the numerous eyewitness testimonies and the extensive footage from the rampage, including graphic evidence that was shared with foreign media outlets by the IDF in an attempt to combat a “Holocaust-denial-like phenomenon,” Siddiqi insisted in the video that he has yet to see proof of any Hamas atrocities.

“I don’t know what Hamas is doing,” he told his congregation. “I’m shown video clips, and then I’m also told that they’re beheading babies. I’m also told that they’re raping women. I’m also told that I’m also told that I’m also told, and when I go and I investigate these specific reports, I find out that they are lies.”

Last Monday, Israeli security agencies published footage from the apparent interrogations of seven Hamas terrorists, in which they admitted to the atrocities they had been ordered to carry out inside Israel.

In one video, a person whose face is blurred said that gunmen were given instructions to kill everyone they saw, including beheading victims and cutting off their legs. He also said they were given permission to rape the corpse of a girl.

Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque came under significant scrutiny in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, when it was discovered that two of the perpetrators of the attack, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour, had been attending the mosque for several months early in 2001.

In addition, one of the mosque’s Islamic Studies teachers at the time, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was later convicted of providing support to al-Qaeda and for his involvement in a plan to assassinate then-US president George W. Bush.

Drawing a link between his dismissal of Hamas’s attack against Israel and the aftermath of 9/11, Sidiqqi continued his sermon, saying that the reason the mosque was investigated during that time and the reason why its members were arrested was not because of their ties to the attack but because “we didn’t just agree with the narrative.”

“I swear by Allah that that is what I’m feeling now,” he said. “That we’re being pushed and being cornered. All that means is that Allah’s victory is near.

“We ask him to aid our brothers and sisters in Gaza. We ask Allah to preserve their wealth, to preserve their lives and to preserve their honor. We ask Allah to push away and to deflect this oppressive Israeli government.”

Source: timesofisrael.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.timesofisrael.com/imam-of-us-mosque-with-ties-to-9-11-attackers-denies-october-7-hamas-atrocities/

--------

 

Trump should be disqualified from 2024 ballot over Jan. 6 riot, advocates say at trial

October 31, 2023

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump should be disqualified from Colorado’s ballot in next year’s election because he “incited a violent mob” in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, an advocacy group lawyer argued at the opening of a trial on Monday.

A lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is a test case for whether a rarely-used, Civil War-era provision of the US Constitution that bars people who have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office, can prevent Republican Trump from being president again.

“Trump incited a violent mob to attack our Capitol, to stop the peaceful transition of power,” Eric Olson, an attorney representing voters and the advocacy group said in an opening statement of the one-week trial before a Colorado District Court judge.

Then-president Trump spent weeks before the Jan. 6 riot spreading false claims of widespread voter fraud in his November 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden and encouraging his supporters to rally in Washington. He then encouraged them to march on the US Capitol where Congress was certifying Biden’s win. Only after hours of violence did he appeal to the rioters to go home.

A lawyer for Trump, Scott Gesler, denied that Trump incited supporters to violence and said it would set a dangerous precedent to disqualify him based on “legal theories that have never been embraced by a state or federal court.”

“People should be able to run for office and shouldn’t be punished for their speech,” Gesler told the court during his opening statement.

Colorado is regarded as safely Democratic by nonpartisan election forecasters, so regardless of whether Trump is on the ballot, President Biden is expected to win the state.

Trump’s opponents are testing whether they have a viable path to keep him off ballots in individual states. Trump faces similar lawsuits brought by advocacy groups in Michigan and Minnesota. The Colorado case is the first to go to trial.

US Representative Eric Swalwel, Democrat of Colorado, testified on Monday that Trump’s attempts to decrease tensions hours after the violence began did little to assuage the fears of lawmakers as they emerged from lockdown to certify the election results.

“I feared that if Republicans were going to continue to challenge the outcome, the mob would return and the scene on the floor could become combustible,” Swalwel said.

Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, according to opinion polls, in what is expected to be a rematch next year with Biden. Trump’s campaign has said the “absurd” lawsuit and others like it are “stretching the law beyond recognition.”

LONG-SHOT LEGAL STRATEGY

Trump’s opponents hope to deny him a path to victory by disqualifying him in enough hotly-contested states, but many legal experts call the strategy a long shot.

The cases raise largely untested legal questions, and even if the plaintiffs prevail, the final say would likely rest with a US Supreme Court dominated by a 6-3 conservative majority that includes three Trump appointees.

The Colorado lawsuit seeks to bar the state’s top election official from putting Trump on the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which was established in the aftermath of the Civil War to prevent former Confederate rebels from taking federal office.

Colorado District Court Judge Sarah Wallace has denied five separate bids by Trump and his allies to dismiss the case, most recently on Oct. 25, when she rejected Trump’s arguments that courts do not have the power to determine eligibility for office.

Trump faces several legal cases as he campaigns for the presidency, including a New York state civil fraud lawsuit against his family company. That trial began on Oct. 2. He has pleaded not guilty to four criminal indictments, including federal cases tied to attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and the removal and mishandling of classified government documents when he left office in January 2021.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400396/world

---------

 

US House Republicans unveil bill to fund Israel by cutting IRS budget

 31 Oct 2023

WASHINGTON, Oct 31 — US House of Representatives Republicans yesterday introduced a plan to provide US$14.3 billion (RM68.1 billion) in aid to Israel by cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service, setting up a showdown with Democrats who control the Senate.

In one of the first major policy actions under new House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Republicans unveiled a standalone supplemental spending bill only for Israel, despite Democratic President Joe Biden’s request for a US$106 billion package that would include aid for Israel, Ukraine and border security.

Johnson, who voted against aid for Ukraine before he was elected House speaker last week, had said he wanted aid to Israel and Ukraine to be handled separately. He has said he wants more accountability for money that has been sent to the Kyiv government as it fights Russian invaders.

“Israel is a separate matter,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News last week, describing his desire to “bifurcate” the Ukraine and Israel funding issues.

Johnson has said bolstering support for Israel should top the US national security agenda in the aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas militants that killed more than 1,400 people and saw more than 200 others taken hostage.

Democrats accused Republicans of stalling Congress’ ability to help Israel by introducing a partisan bill.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement accusing Republicans of “politicising national security” and calling their bill a non-starter. To become law, the measure would need to pass the House and the Senate and be signed by President Biden.

“House Republicans are setting a dangerous precedent by suggesting that protecting national security or responding to natural disasters is contingent upon cuts to other programmes,” Representative Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.

The House Rules Committee is expected to consider the Republican Israel bill on Wednesday. — Reuters

Source: malaymail.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2023/10/31/us-house-republicans-unveil-bill-to-fund-israel-by-cutting-irs-budget/99404

---------

 

CAIR-MI to Hold Press Conference with Family of Student Removed from Bloomfield Hills High School for Refusing to Answer Questions About Participation in Walk Out for Palestine

Ibrahim Hooper

October 30, 2023

(CANTON, MI, 10/30/2023) – On Tuesday, Oct. 31, the Michigan Chapter of Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), a local chapter of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, plans to hold a press conference with the family of a Muslim student who is reportedly not allowed to return to Bloomfield Hills High School after refusing to answer questions about her participation in a peaceful protest that occurred at the school last week.

The day after the scheduled walk out for Palestine occurred, all students who participated were called to the office and questioned about their participation and what their “intentions” were in attending the walk out. Students who refused to answer questions about their political beliefs and the exercise of their First Amendment Rights were removed from school pending an investigation. 

CAIR-MI will be holding a press conference with the family of a student who has not been allowed to return to class since Friday, October 27, when she refused to answer questions without her parents present.

WHAT: Press Conference to Address Bloomfield Hills High School’s Removal of Students Related to their Participation in a Planned Walk Out

WHEN: Tuesday, October 31, at 11 am

WHERE: First Jamiah Masjid of Troy, 3635 Rochester Road, Troy, MI 48083

WHO: CAIR-MI STAFF, Bloomfield Hills High School Family, Community Leaders

CONTACT: CAIR-MI Executive Director, Dawud Walid (248) 842-1418, dwalid@cair.com; CAIR-MI Staff Attorney, Amy V. Doukoure, (586) 943-8823, adoukoure@cair.com

“High School students should be able to exercise their First Amendment rights without fear that they will be interrogated and investigated for their beliefs,” said CAIR-MI Executive Director, Dawud Walid. “Bloomfield Hills High School officials, through their actions in interrogating students about their participation in a peaceful protest for Palestine, have made Muslim and Arab students, along with their friends and allies, feel unsafe and unwelcome within the school. We call on the school and the district to take action to return these students to class immediately and investigate to determine who instituted a policy of penalizing students who stood up for their rights.”

CAIR has issued guidance including ‘Know Your Rights While Speaking Up for Palestine’ and offered templates that can be modified to respond to biased statements from employers. 

‘Know Your Rights While Speaking Up for Palestine’

Take Action: Download Templates to Respond to Your Employer or School/University About Biased Statements on Palestine & Israel

[NOTE: More than 80,000 participants in a CAIR congressional action alert have sent messages to Congress urging support for a ceasefire in response to war crimes, including genocide, in Gaza by Israel.]

CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.             

La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertadesciviles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a losmusulmanesenlosEstados Unidos.

Source: cair.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original           

https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-mi-to-hold-press-conference-with-family-of-student-removed-from-bloomfield-hills-high-school-for-refusing-to-answer-questions-about-participation-in-walk-out-for-palestine/

-------

 

CAIR-NY Welcomes Hate Crime Probe into Alleged Attack on Pro-Palestine Protesters

Ibrahim Hooper

October 30, 2023

(NEW YORK, NY, 10/30/2023) – The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed the NYPD’s hate crime investigation into alleged attacks on pro-Palestine protesters.

This past Saturday, thousands gathered in Brooklyn and Manhattan for a pro-Palestine protest on the Brooklyn Bridge. A woman allegedly slapped a man’s face while making “anti-ethnic statements.” A video posted to X, previously known as Twitter, shows the woman allegedly shoving and yelling at a crowd of people. 

In a statement, CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher said:       

“Attacks based on bigotry are unacceptable and must be met with a full and robust investigation leading to prosecution of the offender. This alleged attack is one of many we have recently seen targeting Muslims and others expressing their support for the Palestinian cause. 

“CAIR-NY wants to see our communities’ complaints heard and acted upon with the same vigor that other communities receive for similar incidents.”

She added CAIR-NY and the American Muslim community stand in solidarity with all those challenging anti-Jewish hatred, anti-Black racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, white supremacy, and all other forms of bigotry.

[NOTE: More than 80,000 participants in a CAIR congressional action alert have sent messages to Congress urging support for a ceasefire in response to war crimes, including genocide, in Gaza by Israel.]

CAIR-NY’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims. 

La misión de CAIR-NY es proteger las libertadesciviles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a losmusulmanesenlosEstados Unidos. 

Source: cair.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-ny-welcomes-hate-crime-probe-into-alleged-attack-on-pro-palestine-protesters/

-------

 

Europe:

 

Conservative MP fired after breaking ranks with UK government to call for Gaza ceasefire

October 30, 2023

LONDON: Conservative MP Paul Bristow has been fired from his government position after he called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Bristow, who was a parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, had written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urging support for a “permanent” halt to the war between Israel and Hamas, The Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday.

While Sunak has publicly supported “humanitarian pauses” to allow the delivery of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, he stopped short of supporting a ceasefire, on the grounds that Israel is entitled to defend itself.

In his letter to the prime minister, Bristow said: “A permanent ceasefire would save lives and allow for a continued column of humanitarian aid (to) reach the people who need it the most.”

The MP expanded on his concerns on his Facebook page, writing: “Ordinary Palestinians are not Hamas. I struggle to see how Israel is any safer following thousands of deaths of innocent Palestinians. They should not suffer collective punishment for the crimes of Hamas.”

On Monday, a spokesperson for Downing Street confirmed that Bristow had been asked to step down from his government role for making “comments that were not consistent with the principles of collective responsibility.”

Bristow is the Conservative MP for Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, a constituency in which the Muslim population is almost double the national average. He co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, which was established in 2017 to highlight the “aspirations and challenges” confronting Muslim communities and acknowledge their contributions to society.

According to The Telegraph, Bristow remains steadfast in his views on the conflict in Gaza and believes in representing the concerns of the Muslim communities in his constituency.

Earlier in October, Downing Street reprimanded Conservative MP Crispin Blunt after he suggested the UK could be complicit in war crimes being committed in Gaza.

However, the wider membership of the Conservative Party has largely rallied behind the Government’s stance on the conflict, in contrast with internal disputes within the opposition Labour party, where more than a dozen shadow ministers have publicly advocated for a ceasefire.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400326/world

--------

 

Anas Sarwar says Keir Starmer 'hurt' Muslim communities over comments about Gaza and Israel

 31 OCT 2023

Paul Hutcheon

Anas Sarwar has admitted Keir Starmer "hurt" Muslim communities by suggesting Israel could withhold water and energy from the people of Gaza.

The Scottish Labour leader said Starmer should have clarified his "mistake" sooner because it did not reflect his view.

Sarwar, who has had sleepless nights over the conflict, said of the wider impact on society: "We've got repair work to do".

Sarwar and Starmer are close politically, but their relationship has been strained over Israel’s response to the Hamas terror attacks.

The Glasgow MSP has called for a ceasefire while Starmer has resisted using this word.

Their main clash centred on an LBC interview in which the UK Labour leader appeared to suggest Israel had a “right” to withhold lifeline supplies from Gaza.

Sarwar said this would be a breach of international law and was frustrated it took Starmer’s team days to reject this interpretation of his comments.

Source: dailyrecord.co.uk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/anas-sarwar-says-keir-starmer-31318263

--------

 

Muslim Texas Doctor Stabbed To Death In Broad Daylight

October 30, 2023

SHAKHZOD YULDOSHBOEV

Pediatrician Talat Jehan Khan, 52, was fatally stabbed multiple times Saturday while sitting at a picnic table outside her Conroe, Texas, apartment, NBC News reported.

A suspect, 24-year-old Miles Fridrich, was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder after a brief foot chase after the 12:30 p.m. incident, per the outlet. Witnesses promptly rushed to aid Khan and provided descriptions of the assailant to police, according to NBC News.

Officers investigating the incident have not found evidence indicating the murder was a hate crime — Khan was a practicing Muslim of Pakistani descent — but are scrutinizing Fridrich’s social media and computers, NBC reported. Khan and Fridrich seemingly had no prior connection, per the outlet.

“So far, it’s appearing that this is completely random,” Police Sgt. David Dickinson said, the outlet noted. (RELATED: Landlord In Chicago Allegedly Stabbed 6-Year-Old To Death For Being Muslim)

Khan worked at Texas Children’s Pediatrics Conroe and leaves behind a 14-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son, per NBC News.

“Her kids and her kids she looked after as a pediatrician were her entire life. Everything in her life revolved around those two things,” Wajahat Nyaz, the victim’s brother, told KPRC.

“We are unsure at this moment if this was a hate crime; however given the tragic circumstances, we are paying very close attention to the investigation,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Texas said, according to the report.

Fridrich is currently held in Montgomery County Jail, with bond set at $500,000. He has a criminal record involving traffic violations, drugs, and unlawful firearm possession, NBC News reported.

Tensions between Jews and Muslims have been high since Hamas Oct. 7 attack killed some 1,400 Israelis, prompting a response that Hamas authorities claim has killed thousands of Gazans.

Antisemitic threats have spiked, including an incident in which Cooper Union students at a pro-Palestine demonstration tried to breach a library while Jewish students huddled inside. On Oct. 14, 71-year-old Illinois landlord Joseph Czuba was arrested for stabbing a six-year-old Muslim boy to death. Czuba pleaded not guilty Monday to murder and hate crime charges.

Source: dailycaller.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/30/talat-jehan-khan-doctor-texas-stabbed-muslim/

--------

 

Minister: France wants to deport 39 Russians over radical Islamist views

October 30, 2023

France is seeking the deportation of 39 Russian nationals who are suspected of holding radical Islamist views, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in an interview with the RMC radio on Oct. 30.

The French side is in contact with Russian authorities and has provided them with a list of those who are to be deported, the minister said. He clarified that Paris cannot expel Russian nationals without Moscow's consent.

The minister said this in reaction to a question about the government's response to a fatal stabbing in the northeastern French town of Arras on Oct. 13.

French authorities charged Mohammed Mogouchkov, a 20-year-old native of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, with the attack that killed a school teacher and injured three other people.

Mogouchkov was known to security forces for his involvement with Islamist extremism, and President Emmanuel Macron called the incident an act of "Islamist terror."

According to Darmanin, 60 Russian nationals are on France's national security watch list in connection to radicalization.

Source: kyivindependent.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://kyivindependent.com/minister-france-wants-to-deport-39-russians-over-radical-islamist-views/

---------

Germany asks Israel to ‘protect’ Palestinians from settler attacks

October 30, 2023

BERLIN: Germany on Monday called on Israel to “protect” Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, amid a surge in violence in the territory since the start of the war in Gaza.

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, mostly during raids by Israeli forces or attacks by settlers, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

Germany condemned “attacks and violence from settlers against Palestinian communities in the area, which have led to the death of many civilians,” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said.

“We call on Israel to protect Palestinians from the activities of extremist settlers and to hold those responsible accountable,” Fischer said.

“Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank, is responsible for ensuring the safety and integrity of the Palestinian population in the West Bank.”

The situation in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, was already tense before the war, with regular raids by Israeli forces and an upsurge in attacks by Israeli settlers against the Palestinian population.

On Sunday, France condemned “unacceptable” Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“France strongly condemns the settler attacks that have led to the deaths of several Palestinian civilians over the past few days in Qusra and Sawiya, as well as the forced departure of several communities,” said a Foreign Ministry statement.

“The violence perpetrated by settlers against the Palestinian population is multiplying. It is unacceptable and must stop,” it added.

Israel should “take immediate measures to protect the Palestinian population,” said the statement.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400386/world

-------

 

Suella Braverman slammed after comments about pro-Palestinian protests

October 30, 2023

LONDON: The UK’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been heavily criticized after branding recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Britain “hate marches.”

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of London and other British cities for a third successive weekend demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, after which police confirmed five people had been charged on Saturday.

Braverman said: “To my mind there is only one way to describe those marches; they are hate marches.

“What we’ve seen over the last few weekends, we’ve seen now tens of thousands of people take to the streets following the massacre of Jewish people, the single largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, chanting for the erasure of Israel from the map.”

She added that police were concerned there were a “large number of bad actors who are deliberately operating beneath the criminal threshold in a way which you or I or the vast majority of the British people would consider to be utterly odious.”

A statement from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign accused Braverman of dehumanizing Palestinians with her comments.

A spokesperson said: “Braverman has previously sought to link the Palestinian flag, the symbol of Palestinian nationhood and struggle for liberation from military occupation and apartheid, with support for terrorism — urging police to treat those displaying it as ‘suspects.’

“She has falsely asserted the chant ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is a call for the eradication of Jewish Israelis, when it is actually a call for the dismantling of the system of apartheid that affects all Palestinians, whether in Gaza, the West Bank or Israel.

“By so doing she is contributing to a climate of intolerance, a dehumanizing of Palestinians, including British Palestinians, and is further threatening the right to protest in this country. Her remarks will be condemned by anyone who respects democratic freedoms, the implementation of international law, and the humanity of Palestinians.”

The PSC said it would continue to organize large-scale protests and that it remained confident hundreds of thousands of British citizens would join the demonstrations.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400346/world

---------

 

West Making 'Blood Money' From Conflicts – Putin Accuses US Of Sabotaging Peace Between Israel, Palestine

October 31, 2023

Russian President, Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of sabotaging the prospects of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Putin, who spoke during a meeting with members of Russia’s Security Council and other top government officials on Monday, slammed the Western powers of enabling the crisis in the middle east and globally, RT reports.

The US and its allies are the “main beneficiaries of the global instability,” the Russian president said, arguing that the West was making “blood money” from various conflicts.

“The American-run world, with its single hegemon, is falling to pieces. It is gradually but irreversibly becoming a thing of the past,” Putin said.

According to the Russian President, Washington seeks "constant chaos" in the Middle East to maintain its falling hegemon.

“They don’t want a lasting peace in the Holy Land. They want constant chaos in the Middle East. That’s why they are slandering the countries that are insisting on an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”

According to RT reports, President Putin discussed a wide range of topics, including the war in the Middle East and a recent anti-Semitic riot in Russia’s Muslim-majority region of Dagestan.

On Sunday night, an angry pro-Palestinian crowd ran onto the tarmac of the international airport in Makhachkala, Dagestan’s largest city, after false rumors circulated online that a plane was bringing in “refugees” from Israel. Some rioters clashed with police.

More than 80 people were arrested, officials said. Russian Muslim leaders and regional authorities have condemned the rioters, many of whom were chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’.

While condemning the rioters, the Russian President maintained that killing of civilians in Gaza is ‘unjustifiable’.

Israel’s indiscriminate airstrikes on Gaza “cannot be justified,” Putin said.

He noted that the recent flare-up in the Middle East was triggered by the attack by Hamas militants against Israeli civilians. However, “instead of going after criminals and terrorists,” Israel has since resorted to “exact revenge [on the Palestinians] in the form of collective punishment.”

He however, noted that anti-Jewish riot was incited from abroad.

“Yesterday’s events in Makhachkala were inspired through social media, including from the territory of Ukraine, by the agents of Western services,” Putin said. He stressed that legitimate concerns for the Palestinians must not lead to outbreaks of violence.

The riot was coordinated from the now-deleted ‘Utro Dagestan’ (Dagestan Morning) Telegram channel linked to former Russian politician Ilya Ponomarev, who now lives in Ukraine and openly backs Kiev during its conflict with Russia. Ponomarev has admitted to using social media to stir up tensions in Dagestan in the past, but is now claiming that he had stopped backing the channel last year.

Moscow is calling for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. The UN Security Council has met several times since the fighting broke out on October 7, but failed to agree on a resolution. The US and Israel insist that a ceasefire right now would only benefit Hamas.

Source: saharareporters.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://saharareporters.com/2023/10/31/west-making-blood-money-conflicts-putin-accuses-us-sabotaging-peace-between-israel

--------

 

Pakistan

Senate condemns Israeli atrocities against innocent Palestinians

October 30, 2023

The House has commenced discussion on the Israeli atrocities and aggressive actions against the innocent Palestinians.

Opening the debate, Leader of the House Ishaq Dar said the massacre and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is a matter of concern not only for the Muslim Ummah but the whole world. 

Strongly denouncing the Israeli atrocities in Gaza, he said Pakistan should strongly raise voice for the plight of Palestinian people at different forums including the OIC.

Ishaq Dar said the international community should play its role for the establishment of an independent state of Palestine.  He said the Palestinians deserve peace and security as anybody else in the world.

Shahzad Waseem said Israel has proven itself as an oppressor and terrorist state which has no respect for international laws and humanity. Regretting the silence of human rights organizations, he said the world should resist Israeli aggression in Gaza.

The Interior Minister said there should be objective debate on the issue of missing persons. He however said that this issue should not be made part of political slogans.

Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani said Israeli bombardment on Gaza including facilities such as a hospital is a violation of international laws. He said the western countries should shun double standards for the protection of lives of Palestinian people. He said the world community should ensure provision of essential items to the oppressed Palestinian people.

Ali Zafar pointed out that about eight thousand Palestinian civilians including children and women have been martyred by the merciless bombardment on Gaza by Israel. He said essential supplies to Palestinians have been cut off.  He said the Palestinians are fighting for a just cause to get freedom from illegal occupation.  Demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Ali Zafar said the UN should come forward for the resolution of both Palestine and Kashmir issues.

Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said the OIC countries should play their role for the protection of lives and properties of Palestinian people.  He paid glowing tributes to the sacrifices of Palestinian people for their legitimate cause.

Mushtaq Ahmed said a delegation of the Senate should visit the Palestinian embassy to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. He said Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza. He said illegal occupation of Palestinian territory is not acceptable.

Manzoor Ahmad said the Muslim countries should stand in complete solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Tahir Bizenjo said a two state solution is the way forward for peaceful settlement of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The house has now been adjourned to meet again tomorrow at two thirty pm.

Source: radio.gov.pk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.radio.gov.pk/30-10-2023/senate-denounces-israeli-atrocities-against-innocent-palestinians

-------

 

Caretaker Interior MinisterRebuffs Claims Over ‘Death Squad’ In Balochistan

October 31, 2023

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti has advocated for a parliamentary debate on the issue of missing persons, discussing how it started and whether it preceded the conflict against the state.

He was responding to Senator Raza Rabbani’s bashing of the caretaker government viz-a-viz missing person’s issue and appointments in government entities, including that of serving army officers, during a Senate session on Monday.

The minister also addressed the term “death squad” as a political slogan often used near elections and said that banned terrorist organisations like BLA, BLF, UBA, BRA, and Lashkar-i-Balochistan were operating as death squads in the province, responsible for killing over 5,000 civilians.

He said that everyone knew who supported these organisations and emphasised the need to equip security forces to effectively deal with this challenge.

The minister clarified that if Senator Raza Rabbani was referring to a squad supported by the state, it was not appropriate. He said that the Constitution prohibits the maintenance of private armies. He acknowledged the right to peaceful protests and sit-ins and assured that negotiations with the protesters would be conducted peacefully.

Earlier, the caretaker government faced criticism in the Senate for making appointments in government bodies and incorporating military officers into civilian departments, which was deemed illegal and beyond their authority.

As the house resumed after a two-day break, former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani immediately addressed the interior minister, Sarfraz Bugti, who was present in the house, about a sit-in staged outside the Parliament by senior politician Akhtar Mengal, his party (BNP), and civil society. They were protesting the issue of missing persons after they were not allowed by the police to do so outside the Press Club, and their microphones were removed.

Rabbani emphasised that the missing persons issue was a persistent problem that had now spread across the country, whereas it was once confined to Balochistan. He also mentioned what he referred to as death squads operating in the largest province.

The PPP legislator urged the minister that in democratic societies, such an issue of missing persons should not exist, except in countries like Israel. Therefore, he pressed for immediate action to address this problem.

He also suggested that legislation by the parliament (once it is established after the elections) should be considered to regulate the sensitive agencies.

In response, Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani quipped that the interior minister, who hails from Balochistan, was at their disposal. Rabbani agreed with the chair, noting that he was the only cabinet member present in the house at that time.

Rabbani then raised concerns about the caretaker government’s recent appointments in the NAB and the induction of a serving military officer as the head of Nadra. He also mentioned reports in newspapers that two more serving military officers were being inducted into PIMS and Poly Clinic. He emphasised that according to the law and Section 230 of the Elections Act, 2017, a caretaker government could not make such appointments but should only handle day-to-day business.

Senator Shahadat Awan of the PPP pointed out on a point of public importance that the rules do not permit the appointment of a leader of the house when there is no elected government in place. He urged the secretary of the Senate to revisit seat arrangements in the house in the absence of an elected government.

Awan recalled the stance taken by Senator Farooq H. Naek in 2013 when he was notified as Leader of the house, saying that he would not represent the premier but facilitate the house. The chair clarified that all ministers of state had been de-notified, and the prime minister had consented to the continuation of Muhammad Ishaq Dar as the Leader of the House.

Later, Senator Dar condemned the ongoing Israeli actions in Gaza, urging the Pakistani government to support an unconditional ceasefire and provide humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine. He called for discussing these issues with the Foreign Office and the caretaker government and passing a unanimous resolution to support the Palestinians.

Leader of the Opposition PTI’s Dr. Shahzad Waseem called for Pakistan to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to blockades in Gaza, particularly while the UNSC was addressing the matter. He stressed the need for safe corridors to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Former prime minister and PPP lawmaker Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani advocated for the establishment of a Palestinian state according to the UN resolution and urged influential western powers to play a proactive role in mediating a just resolution.

Senator Ali Zafar of the PTI called for a political settlement and complete condemnation of the Israeli actions. He suggested writing to world parliaments on this issue and recounting the history of Israel’s actions.

BNP-Mengal Senator Naseema Eshan highlighted their sit-in to raise awareness about missing persons in Balochistan and called for informing the families of the missing persons about their whereabouts and alleged crimes. She questioned why the house could not also address the issue of their missing children while discussing Israeli actions against Palestinians. Interior Minister Bugti responded that it was not appropriate to compare the issue of Palestine with the problem of Balochistan. He mentioned that many so-called missing persons had disappeared voluntarily to join conflicts with security forces. He challenged Senator Raza Rabbani to debate the issue of missing persons and discouraged its use for political propaganda. He assured that the caretaker government was willing to negotiate with the members of BNP-Mengal, who were staging a sit-in in front of the Parliament House. The session was adjourned early after Senator Rabbani protested the absence of ministers during the discussion on the issue of Palestine.

The chairman directed the secretary of the Senate to ensure that ministers, including the foreign minister, be present in the house for the next session scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, and then he adjourned the session.

Source: thenews.com.pk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1124530-bugti-rebuffs-claims-over-death-squad-in-balochistan

---------

 

 

Illegal Nikah case: Imran’s plea for early hearing put off on his lawyers’ request

October 31, 2023

 Khalid Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Civil Judge Qudratullah Monday adjourned till Nov 4 Imran Khan’s plea for early hearing of his illegal marriage case on the request of his own lawyers.

He issued a written order on the application, filed for early hearing of the case. The PTI chairman had filed the application through his lawyers and requested for early hearing of the case.

The judge, in his written order, said applicant’s lawyer Raja Rizwan Abbasi and some other PTI lawyers requested for adjourning the hearing. They told the court that counsel Sher Afzal Marwat was abroad and he could not appear in the court. The court accepted the request and adjourned the hearing till Nov 4, 2023.

Source: thenews.com.pk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1124502-illegal-nikah-case-imran-s-plea-for-early-hearing-put-off-on-his-lawyers-request

--------

 

Cabinet decides to keep sponsorship Hajj Policy intact

October 30, 2023

The Federal Cabinet has refuted the impression that only Afghans residing illegally are being repatriated from the country.

Briefing media about the decisions taken by the Federal Cabinet, which met in Islamabad today with Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar in the chair, Caretaker Interior Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti said that about two hundred thousand Afghans have been repatriated till now.

He said the repatriated people can reenter in Pakistan after the proper documentation.

Speaking on the occasion, Caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi said data is being prepared for the repatriation of illegal residents in the country.

He said under our repatriation policy, illegal Afghan residents will be kept in holding centers, nearest to their home stations, for two to three days from where they will leave to their own country.

He said all kind of facilities, including medical, are being ensured to these holding centers. He said to monitor the whole process, a special system is being introduced. He said in this regard, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has already accorded approval to a work plan.

Murtaza Solangi said the interim government has no political agenda and it is doing the work under constitutional domain.

He categorically rejected the news regarding a political meeting with Shafqat Mehmood.

Caretaker Health Minister Dr. Nadeem Jan said Primary Health Care Revamp Project has been started with the major focus of revamping Basic Health Units deteriorated due to militancy and floods.

Responding to a question, he said all recruitments in hospitals will be made on merit. Highlighting the steps taken to upgrade the Health sector of country, he said insulators have been installed in the hospitals coupled with the MRI machines.

To a question, Additional Secretary Religious Affairs Ministry Syed Ata-ur-Rehman informed that the pending amount of 5.5 billion rupees will be disbursed to PIA today. He said under the proposed Hajj policy, the sponsorship hajj will remain intact. He said under this scheme around 25000 people will perform hajj through government scheme while 44000 people will be accommodated from the private hajj scheme.

Source: radio.gov.pk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.radio.gov.pk/30-10-2023/cabinet-decides-to-keep-sponsorship-hajj-policy-intact

----------

 

Pakistan, Canada agree to further strengthen bilateral ties

October 30, 2023

Pakistan and Canada have agreed to further strengthen their bilateral ties.

The understanding to this effect was reached during telephonic conversation between Canada's Immigration and Refugees Minister, Mark Miller with Interior Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti today.                

The Canadian Minister thanked Pakistan for allowing and facilitating the repatriation of Afghan refugees to Canada from Pakistan which continues through various flights. He also invited the Interior Minister to visit Canada.               

Speaking on the occasion, the Interior Minister said Pakistan has been hosting Afghan refugees for decades and no action is being taken against legally staying Afghan nationals.

Source: radio.gov.pk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.radio.gov.pk/30-10-2023/pakistan-canada-agree-to-further-strengthen-bilateral-ties

-------

 

Elahi sent on 14-day judicial remand

October 31, 2023

LAHORE:A local court in Lahore on Monday sent incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Central President Parvez Elahi on a 14-day judicial remand in a case regarding illegal appointments in the Punjab Assembly.

After completion of his two-day physical remand, Elahi, who remained imprisoned in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, was produced before the court of Judicial Magistrate Aamir Raza by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) officials.

The ACE, however, pleaded the court to extend his physical remand for 10 more days to complete the investigation.

Elahi was initially arrested on June 1 from outside his residence in a Rs70 million graft case regarding embezzlement of development funds allocated for the Gujrat district. Since then, the former Punjab chief minister has been released several times only to be rearrested immediately in different cases.

Read ACE's claim of recovering bribe money baffles Elahi

During Monday’s proceedings, the ACE lawyer apprised the court that they had to recover the suspect’s mobile phone.

The lawyer maintained that Rs4.1 million was recovered from Elahi’s house, adding that the ACE had to probe into the matter.

During the hearing, Elahi came to the rostrum. “I am 77 years old and have three heart stents. I have difficulty in walking and also came to know about the recovery [made at his house by the ACE] in the courtroom.”

Elahi’s counsel argued that the interim government was lodging fake and baseless cases against his client. “The government is subjecting [Elahi] to political victimisation by arresting him [repeatedly] in fake and baseless cases,” he said.

After hearing the arguments from both the sides, the magistrate rejected ACE’s request and sent him to jail on a 14-day judicial remand.

Source: tribune.com.pk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2443943/elahi-sent-on-14-day-judicial-remand-1

---------

 

Court seeks reply from jail official over Imran’s phone call to sons

October 31, 2023

ISLAMABAD: The Special Court, hearing the cipher case, on Monday sought a reply from the Superintendent of Adiala Jail for not arranging the telephonic contact of PTI chairman with his sons.

Special Court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain heard the plea of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman for having a telephone call with his sons every week.

During the hearing, PTI chief's lawyer Shiraz Ahmed Ranjha contended that the court had issued an order on October 21, instructing the prison authorities to facilitate a weekly phone call between the PTI chairman and his sons.

However, the Superintendent of Adiala jail had so far not arranged any phone call of the PTI chief in that regard, he added.

Ranjha urged the court to issue a directive to the prison officials to arrange a WhatsApp contact of the PTI chairman with his sons Salman and Qasim, which was his legitimate right. Subsequently, Judge Abual Hasnat directed the jail superintendent to submit a reply in that regard till November 8 and adjourned the hearing.

Source: thenews.com.pk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1124519-court-seeks-reply-from-jail-official-over-imran-s-phone-call-to-sons

-------

 

Repatriation of undocumented Afghans: Main facilitation centre set up in Peshawar as deadline ends today

October 31, 2023

PESHAWAR: A major holding point with a capacity of 2000 people has been set up in Juma Khan village on Nasir Bagh Road here as the deadline for the undocumented foreigners to leave the country ends today (October 31).

The facilitation centre has been set up in an area out of the city to make it easy for the vehicles on the way to Torkham. “All the arrangements have been made and adequate security has been provided to the facility. Those foreigners returning to Afghanistan will be facilitated to Torkham from here by the teams of district administration, police and other departments right from November 1,” Arshad Khan, the superintendent of police, Warsak division told The News.

There were a number of videos on social media of children meeting teachers and class fellows for the last time before leaving for their homeland. Other videos also showed Afghans seen off by local friends amid moving scenes before their departure.

Tens of thousands of Afghans are born here while others have been living in Pakistan for decades. A large number of them never obtained the Proof of Registration (PoR ) card or any other document that is now a must for their stay in Pakistan.

Three facilitation centers have been set up in KP, one each in Peshawar, Landikotal and Haripur for those families who are returning to Afghanistan. Doctors and food will be arranged at the facility while there is no place to spend night here. The holding point in Peshawar has a capacity for 2000 people while the two others can host 400 each.

The government had announced a crackdown on all illegal foreigners after November 1. It was, however, made clear that there would be no action against those possessing the PoR cards by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees or the Afghan Citizens Cards.

An official said that if any action is taken against a documented Afghan he can approach the authorities on a toll free number of 1700. The same helpline is also to identify the undocumented foreigners.

A control room has also been set up at the Home Department where grade 17 or above officers represent different departments including police, district administration, intelligence agencies, Nadra, Passport and Immigration and Provincial Disaster Management Authority.

Source: thenews.com.pk

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1124506-repatriation-of-undocumented-afghans-main-facilitation-centre-set-up-in-peshawar-as-deadline-ends-today

---------

 

South Asia

 

Bangladesh PM Urges Islamic Scholars to Work for Peace at Grassroots

30 Oct 2023

RUPGANJ, Narayanganj, Oct 30, 2023 (BSS) - Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today called upon the Imams (Islamic scholars) to work for maintaining peace at the grassroots so everyone can perform their own religions freely, describing Islam as religion of peace, amity and humanity.

"We want cooperation from you (Alem, Olama and Imams). You have to work for maintaining peace at the grassroots so we can develop the country further," she said.

The prime minister was addressing the National Imam Council and prize giving-2023 ceremony as she opened the newly constructed 50 more model mosques and Islamic cultural centres in sixth phase across the country.

The Religious Affairs Ministry organised the function at the Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Centre at Rupganj of Narayanganj.

The prime minister handed over prizes among the winners in various overseas competitions.

Sheikh Hasina said, "We want the people of our country to live in peace and the development of the country to continue," adding that peace is prerequisite to the development.

She said there were people of other faiths in Bangladesh alongside the Muslim community and her government wants to ensure such environment where every people can exercise their own religions freely.

"We will perform our religious rituals while the people of other faiths will exercise their religions accordingly," she said.

The prime minister called upon all concerned particularly the Imams to make sure that no children of the country can involve them in militancy, terrorism and drug addiction.

"Make sure that none of our children get involved in militancy, terrorism and drug addiction as the Islam which is a religion of peace, cannot be questionable due to some people," she said.

Imam of the Holy Masjid-e Nabawi in Medina of Saudi Arabia Sheikh Dr Abdullah bin Abdur Rahman Al-Bua'Yjan spoke at the function.

While speaking, the Imam expressed his satisfaction over establishing 564 model mosques across the country and thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

"I am very happy to join such a mahfil (Islamic council) --- the Allah will give the Prime Minister ability to do well further," he said.

State Minister for Religious Affairs Md Faridul Haque Khan chaired the event, addressed, among others, by President of Bangladesh Tarikat Federation Syed Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari, Maulana Dr. Mohammad Kafiluddin Sarkar Salehi and Maulana Ehsanul Haq Al Mojaddedi, also spoke.

Secretary for Religious Affairs Ministry Md A Hamid Zamadder delivered the address of welcome

An audio-visual documentary on the model mosques and Islamic cultural centres was screened at the function.

Sheikh Hasina thanked Imams gathered in the venue and sought blessings from them as she can continue serving the country.

"Pray for me as I can serve the people of Bangladesh. The ongoing development of the country will be continued and we can transform our country into a smart one," she said.

Condemning the Israeli attack on Palestinians, the prime minister said her government has been working to put an end to the wars.

"We do not want war, we want peace and we want the development of the people, because I know the terribility of the war. We are working to stop the war," she said.

In this regard, she referred to her repeated calls to stop the war and arms race at different international forum that included the recently held Global Gateway Forum in Brussels, the capital of Belgium on October 25-26

"The world is witnessing the Ukraine War and the attack on Palestinians by Israelis when children and women are being killed and we never want these," she said.

The premier said they want immediate measures to stop the war and attack on Palestinian.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh has already sent medicines and dry food for the women, children and people of Palestinian.

The premier said all the Muslims across the globe including Bangladesh, want to perform their religion properly.

"We want that all will live peacefully," she said.

The prime minister said following the footprints of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the government has been building 564 model mosques and Islamic cultural centres at cost of Taka 9,435 crore across the country, aimed at reaching the true message of Islam.

With opening of 50 more model mosques today, as many as 300 model mosques and Islamic culture centres out of 564 have so far been inaugurated across the country.

Earlier, she opened 50 mosques each in the first phase on 10 June, 2021, in the second phase on 16 January this year, in the third phase on 16 March, in the fourth phase on 17 April and in the fifth phase on July 30.

The construction of the remaining mosques and Islamic cultural centres is scheduled to be completed by June, 2024.

The model mosques and Islamic cultural centres include separate places for ablution and namaj along with air-conditioned system.

There will also be registration and training arrangements for Hajj pilgrims, Imam training centre, research centre and Islamic library, autism corner, ritual system before burial, car parking facility, hifzakhana, pre-primary education and Quran learning arrangement, conference room for Islamic cultural activities and Islamic dawat, Islamic books sale centre and boarding facility for local and foreign guests.

In 2017, the government has taken a project with Taka 9,435 crore for constructing Islamic Cultural Center and Model Mosque in every district and upazila as well as municipality of the country.

The prime minister later exchanged views with the cross-sections of people of the society.

Sathia Upazila of Pabna and Roumari of Kurigram were virtually connected to the event.

Source: bssnews.net

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.bssnews.net/news-flash/155588

---------

 

Afghans return to Taliban rule as Pakistan moves to expel 1.7 million

 Oct 31, 2023

As the clock ticked down to the Nov. 1 deadline Pakistan set for undocumented migrants to leave the country, Muhammad Rahim boarded a bus from Karachi to the Afghan border.

"We'd live here our whole life if they didn't send us back," said the 35-year-old Afghan national, who was born in Pakistan, married a Pakistani woman and raised his Pakistan-born children in the port city - but has no Pakistani identity documents.

The Taliban government in Afghanistan said some 60,000 Afghans returned between Sept 23 to Oct 22 from Pakistan, which announced on Oct 4 it will expel undocumented migrants that do not leave.

And recent daily returnee figures are three times higher than normal, Taliban refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutaleb Haqqani told Reuters on Oct 26.

Near Karachi's Sohrab Goth area - home to one of Pakistan's largest Afghan settlements - a bus service operator named Azizullah said he had laid on extra services to cope with the exodus. Nearby, lines formed before competitor bus services headed to Afghanistan.

"Before I used to run one bus a week, now we have four to five a week," said Azizullah, who - like all the Afghan migrants Reuters interviewed - spoke on condition that he be identified by only one name due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Reuters interviewed seven refugee families in Sohrab Goth, as well as four Taliban and Pakistani officials, community leaders, aid workers and advocates, who said Islamabad's threat - and a subsequent rise in state-backed harassment - has torn families apart and pushed even Afghans with valid papers to leave.

The Pakistani Interior Ministry did not immediately return a request for comment. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement that the expulsion plan was compliant with international norms and principles: "Our record of the last forty years in hosting millions of our Afghan brothers and sisters speaks for itself."

Pakistan is home to over 4 million Afghan migrants and refugees, about 1.7 million of whom are undocumented, according to Islamabad. Afghans make up the largest portion of migrants - many came after the Taliban retook Afghanistan in 2021, but a large number have been present since the 1979 Soviet invasion.

The expulsion threat came after suicide bombings this year which the government - without providing evidence - said involved Afghans. Islamabad has also blamed them for smuggling and other militant attacks.

Cash-strapped Pakistan, navigating record inflation and a tough International Monetary Fund bailout program, also said undocumented migrants have drained its resources for decades.

Despite the challenges facing migrants, Pakistan is the only home many of them know and a sanctuary from the economic deprivation and extreme social conservatism that Afghanistan is grappling with, said Samar Abbas of the Sindh Human Rights Defenders Network, which is helping 200 Afghans seeking to remain.

RISE IN RETURNS

In early September, an average of 300 people crossed the border into Afghanistan daily, according to international organizations working on migration issues, who provided data on condition that they not be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. After Islamabad announced the November deadline, crossings jumped to roughly 4,000, the organizations said.

These figures are small compared to the number of people to be affected in coming days. The information minister for Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan, told Reuters it is opening three more border crossings.

For weeks, state-run television has run a countdown to Nov. 1 on the top of its screens.

Federal Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti warned that law enforcement agencies will start removing "illegal immigrants who have ... no justification" being in Pakistan after Tuesday.

They will be processed at "holding centers" and then deported, he told reporters, adding that women, children and the elderly would be treated "respectfully." Reuters could not determine how long they might be detained in the centers.

Pakistani citizens who help undocumented migrants obtain false identities or employment will face legal action, Bugti warned.

"Post-November will be very chaotic and there will be chaos in the Afghan refugee camps," said Abbas, the advocate.

FEAR AND DESPERATION

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Pakistan's plans create "serious protection risks" for women and girls forced to leave. Restrictions in Afghanistan, especially on female NGO workers, have led to shrinking employment opportunities for women there.

While Pakistan says it will not target Afghans with legal status, many with proper documents also find themselves being targeted, according to migrant advocates.

UNHCR data shows that 14,700 documented Afghans left Pakistan as of Oct. 18 2023, more than double the 6,039 in all of last year.

The agency said in a statement that 78 percent of recent returning Afghans it spoke to cited fear of arrest in Pakistan as reason for their departure.

There are more than 2.2 million Afghan migrants in Pakistan with some form of documentation recognized by the government that conveys temporary residence rights.

Roughly 1.4 million of them hold Proof of Registration (PoR) cards that expired on June 30, leaving them vulnerable. Islamabad says it will not take action against people with invalid cards, but Abbas told Reuters that police harassment has ramped up since the expulsion threat.

More than a dozen migrants that Reuters spoke to corroborated the claim, which was also repeated by Taliban diplomats in Pakistan.

Karachi East Police Superintendent Uzair Ahmed told Reuters that while there might be "one or two" instances of harassment, it was non-systemic and offenders would be investigated.

Many Afghans with legal status told Reuters they feel compelled to leave out of fear of being separated from family members without documentation.

Hajira, a 42-year-old widow in Sohrab Goth, told Reuters she has the right to remain in Pakistan, as do two of her four sons. The other two don't.

Fearing separation from her children, she plans on leaving with her sons and their families before the deadline expires.

Majida, a 31-year-old who was born in Pakistan, lives with her husband and their six children in an apartment complex in Sohrab Goth, a squalid suburb whose narrow streets are filled with heaps of garbage.

She said her family has PoR cards but has still been subject to harassment: a brother-in-law and nephew were detained by local authorities for several hours before being released. Reuters could not independently verify her account.

When Majida fell ill earlier in October, her husband refused to help her pick up medication at a nearby pharmacy out of fear of detention.

"We don't have a home or work (in Afghanistan)," she said. "Obviously, we think of Pakistan as our home, we've been living here for so long."

PRESSURE IN AFGHANISTAN

Back in Afghanistan, the influx of returning migrants and refugees has exerted pressure on already limited resources that are stretched by international sanctions on the banking sector and cuts in foreign aid after the Taliban takeover.

The Afghan Ministry of Refugees says it intends to register returnees and then house them in temporary camps. The Taliban administration said it will try to find returnees jobs.

The unemployment rate more than doubled from the period immediately before the Taliban takeover to June 2023, according to the World Bank. U.N. agencies say around two-thirds of the population is in need of humanitarian aid.

"We had our own barbecue shop and meat shop here. We had ... everything. We were guests here," said 18-year-old Muhammad just before he boarded Azizullah's bus back to Afghanistan.

"You should think of it this way: that the country is kicking out its guests."

Source: thedailystar.net

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.thedailystar.net/news/world/news/afghans-return-taliban-rule-pakistan-moves-expel-17-million-3457751

--------

 

No Islamic Country Would Be Invaded If Muslims Were United: Afghan Minister

October 31, 2023

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanakzai, political deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that if Muslims were a united force, Palestine or other Islamic countries would never have been invaded.

According to a statement released by the foreign ministry on Tuesday, Stankzai made the remarks in a meeting with a delegation of Turkish aid organization IDDEF which recently built a mosque resembling the Dome of the Rock in Kabul.

He emphasized that all Muslims are brothers and division is not in their interest.

Stanikzai said that Afghanistan has just come out of half-century conflict, during which the economic infrastructure and all kinds of national assets were destroyed.

However, he pointed out that with the establishment of the Islamic system and security, business and industry are going well and charity organizations can deliver aid with confidence.

Source: ariananews.af

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.ariananews.af/no-islamic-country-would-be-invaded-if-muslims-were-united-stanikzai/

----------

 

Canada welcomes nearly 4,000 Afghans, ready to accept more

Fidel Rahmati

October 31, 2023

Canada is nearly meeting its pledge to welcome 40,000 Afghan refugees by year-end. The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship for Canada announced on Monday that the government of this country has fulfilled its promise to relocate a minimum of 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada.

Marc Miller stated that they are accepting more requests from Afghan citizens for immigration to Canada.

Miller said, “We are currently processing and advancing immigration requests we have previously received, and we will accept more Afghan migrants through regular immigration programs, including refugee resettlement and family sponsorship.”

The Minister of Immigration for Canada mentioned that the program to relocate 40,000 Afghan refugees after the fall of Kabul is “one of the largest resettlement programs for Afghans in the world, and our work continues.”

Mr. Miller referred to the “Taliban’s terror in Afghanistan” and said that its effects on the rights and freedoms of the people of Afghanistan, especially women and girls, know no bounds.

The Minister of Immigration stated that the Taliban’s rule over Afghanistan in August 2021 led to a “political, economic, and humanitarian crisis” in the country, affecting millions.

The Canadian government remains committed to prioritizing the evaluation of eligible applications and has pledged to offer healthcare, education, skills training, and social services to Afghan refugees living in Canada.

Canada ranks second to the United States in Afghan resettlement and was among the pioneers in launching a particular program for vulnerable Afghans, including women activists, human rights defenders, persecuted minorities, LGBTQ individuals, and journalists.

Source: khaama.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.khaama.com/canada-welcomes-nearly-4000-afghans-ready-to-accept-more/

--------

 

Afghan refugees protest forced deportations in Pakistan

Fidel Rahmati

October 30, 2023

On Monday, a group of Afghan migrants protested outside the office of the United Nations Human Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Islamabad. These protests coincided with the Pakistani government’s impending deadline to expel undocumented migrants from the country.

The protesters, which include defence lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, and individuals vulnerable to the Taliban, argue that the UNHCR hasn’t properly examined their cases over the last two years.

They assert that the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul does not extend visas for Afghan migrants, and the UNHCR is unwilling to provide migrants with official documentation to protect them from harassment by the Pakistani police.

Protesters fear that expulsion from Pakistan would expose them to the Taliban’s human rights abuses. Afghan women’s defence lawyers criticized the UNHCR’s lack of response to the protests. At the same time, some asylum seekers alleged mistreatment by staff at the UNHCR’s partner agency, the Sharpe Office.

Just under a month ago, the interim government of Pakistan gave more than 1.7 million undocumented migrants in the country until November 1st to leave. Pakistan warned that if migrants do not leave the country, they will be imprisoned and deported.

Reports indicate that as November 1st approaches, fear and anxiety are spreading among the migrant population in Pakistan.

However, the spokesperson for the UNHCR, Qaisar Afridi in Pakistan, urged registered refugees to turn to the organization’s defence lawyers if they faced police harassment.

Mr. Afridi recognized recent reports of Pakistani police harassment towards asylum seekers with UNHCR documents and registrations. He explained that UNHCR-appointed defence lawyers could potentially secure the release of detained asylum seekers.

Source: khaama.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.khaama.com/afghan-refugees-protest-forced-deportations-in-pakistan/

-------

 

Human Rights Are Constantly Being Violated in Palestine, Bangladesh PMTells Parliament

30 Oct 2023

SANGSAD BHABAN, Oct 30, 2023 (BSS) - Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today in the Parliament strongly condemned Israel's brutal attack on Palestine people, demanding access and open the service sector there to reduce the miseries of people.

"Human rights are talked about, but here (Palestine) human rights are constantly being violated. It must be stopped. We don't want this killing and war," she said.

The Premier was speaking in a general discussion on a proposal on Israeli attack on innocent Palestine people.

Ruling Awami League lawmaker and former Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali placed the proposal that says the opinion of the Parliament is that Bangladesh National Parliament strongly condemns the brutal genocide carried out by Israel on the Palestinian people and strongly demands that this killing be stopped.

"Israel's brutal killings in Palestine have caused an extreme disaster of human rights. This Parliament calls on all the conscientious people, states and institutions of the world to come forward to protect human rights in Palestine and calls upon the Muslim Ummah of the world to come forward effectively to protect the Palestinian people and establish their just, independent and sovereign state," reads the proposal.

Supporting the independent state of Palestine, Sheikh Hasina, also Leader of the House, urged to accept the justified demands of Palestine.

"We want the Palestinians to get back their state," she said.

The Premier said that human rights are being violated continuously in Palestine, and women and children are the most affected.

She mentioned that very often the western countries gave sermons about human rights, but Palestine people are living in very inhuman condition.

"The mother took shelter in hospitals with their children considering that hospitals are safe. But, the Israeli forces carried out air attack there killing women and children. A terrible thing happened. We have no words to condemn it. How could they attack a place like a hospital?"

The Prime Minister said that this kind of brutality cannot be accepted. "We can never accept such incidents. It is our responsibility as a human being to protest against such incidents."

She said that Bangladesh is always on the side of the Palestinians.

Fifteen lawmakers from treasury and opposition bench participated in the hour-long discussion.

After the discussion, the proposal was adopted unanimously in parliament.

Source: bssnews.net

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.bssnews.net/news/155696

--------

 

Muttaqi Urges Afghan Businessmen To Invest In Afghanistan

October 30, 2023

The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Amir Khan Muttaqi during his trip to Turkey asked Afghan traders to invest in Afghanistan.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi quoted Muttaqi as saying that with the coming of the Islamic Emirate into power again, full security is ensured in the country and work on various development projects is underway.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman wrote on X that Amir Khan Muttaqi discussed various issues during his visit to Turkey in a meeting with religious scholars and businessmen, influential figures, officials of institutions, students and Afghan migrants.

The spokesman of the ministry said that Amir Khan Muttaqi added that full security is ensured all over the country and he encouraged Afghan traders to invest in Afghanistan instead of other countries.

"During his visit, Amir Khan Muttaqi will meet with some Turkish officials, businessmen, charities and other figures and visit the consulate of the Islamic Emirate and diplomats in Istanbul," Zabihullah Mujahid said.

According to Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the acting minister of foreign affairs said with the coming of the Islamic Emirate into power, corruption in the country is gone and the Kabul-

Kandahar Road, Water Dams and Other Projects work is underway.

Balkhi added that Amir Khan Muttaqi assured Afghans living in Turkey that the consulate of the Islamic Emirate in Istanbul would address their problems.

"The current government has to provide good investment opportunities to investors inside the country and  reduce tariffs under current conditions and support the private sectors,” said Abdul ZohorMudaber, an economic analyst.

"If Mr. Muttaqi has gone to Turkey with a good plan and given the Turkish authorities contentment, Turkey can help Afghanistan and lobby for Afghanistan internationally," said Aziz Maarej, Political analyst.

Earlier, the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs with the UN coordinator in Turkey discussed the security of Afghanistan, combat with narcotics, the economy and other issues.

Source: tolonews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://tolonews.com/business-185803

-------

 

Exhibition of Afghan Products To Be held in Tashkent

Bibi Amina Hakim

October 30, 2023

In the near future, exhibitions will be held in Uzbekistan to promote the exports and marketing of Afghan goods.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, in an interview with the Uzbek delegation, an agreement was reached on establishing facilities for the country's businessmen.

The exhibition of the Uzbekistani products held in Kabul will continue up to 10 days and more than 100 types of Uzbekistani products will be shown.

A number of exhibitors say that holding such exhibitions will play an important role in increasing trade between Kabul and Tashkent.

“Our main intention is to showcase Uzbekistan's products, with 14 manufacturing companies producing more than 100 products," said IbeekRoozi, a participant.

"The aim of the exhibition is friendship and relations with Afghans, as well as products produced in Uzbekistan to be sold in Afghanistan," said a participant.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce said efforts are also being made to hold exhibitions of Afghan products in regional countries, especially Uzbekistan.

The acting minister says that for the purpose of business growth between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, they will also hold an exhibition in Uzbekistan in near future.

"Same programs and bigger than this that will be held in near future in March which is the spring season for both countries,

"We agreed that in the coming months the same plan and greater plans will take place in Tashkent in future months," said Nooruddin Azizi, acting Minister of Industry and Commerce.

"Afghanistan strives to continue its business relations with all the world and wishes others to continue their business in Afghanistan as well, and to do joint investments,” said

Mohammad Younus Momand, first deputy of ACCI.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan says that they are also helping to increase exports from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan.

"There is a team of businessmen here, you can suggest that in the various sectors, they are ready for negotiations and we cooperate in different sectors such as agriculture, mines and energy, not only importing Uzbekistan's products but also exporting Afghan products to Uzbekistan," said Jamshid Kuchkarov, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan.

Earlier, the acting minister of industry and commerce said that efforts would be made to bring trade between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan to $3 billion a year.

Source: tolonews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://tolonews.com/business-185801

--------

 

IEA Thanks Tajikistan for Humanitarian Aid to Herat Earthquake Victims

2023-10-30

KABUL (BNA): The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has expressed its appreciation for the humanitarian aid provided by the Republic of Tajikistan to the survivors of the earthquake in Herat. The ministry lauded this gesture as a commendable step.

Hafiz Zia Ahmad, the deputy spokesperson of the ministry, expressed his gratitude for Tajikistan’s humanitarian aid in a post on his X account. He noted that the first round of aid, which arrived in Herat last week, included food, clothing, medicine, construction materials, and other emergency supplies.

Ahmad further added that Sahib Jan, the envoy of the President of Tajikistan, along with diplomats from the Tajik embassy in Kabul, handed over the aid to the Herat Earthquake Relief Commission.

Source: bakhtarnews.af

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://bakhtarnews.af/en/iea-thanks-tajikistan-for-humanitarian-aid-to-herat-earthquake-victims/

-------

 

Muttaqi Emphasizes Closer Relations Between Afghanistan and Turkey

2023-10-30

KABUL (BNA): Mawlavi Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, has visited the İsmailağa Jamia in Istanbul, Turkey.

During his visit, Muttaqi interacted with the professors and delivered a speech to the students specializing in Hadith studies, an important aspect of Islamic knowledge.

Muttaqi emphasized the deep religious and historical ties between Afghans and Turks, expressing his hope for these relationships to be further strengthened and sustained.

In addition to his visit to İsmailağa Jamia, Muttaqi’s itinerary in Turkey includes meetings with Afghan businessmen and government officials.

Source: bakhtarnews.af

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://bakhtarnews.af/en/muttaqi-emphasizes-closer-relations-between-afghanistan-and-turkey/

-------

 

Deputy Prime Minister Meets Uzbekistan Delegation, Discussed on Various Issues

2023-10-30

KABUL (BNA): Senior government officials led by Afghanistan’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, today convened with a delegation from Uzbekistan, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev.

According to a statement released by deputy prime minister’s office, this significant meeting took place at the Arg Palace.

Representatives from key sectors, including agriculture, water and energy, mining, and transportation, were present at the gathering.

The discussions during this visit encompassed various aspects, such as trade, transit, economic ties, railways, transportation, technical mining operations in Afghanistan, water management, agricultural development, and the prospect of higher education opportunities in Uzbekistan for Afghan youth.

Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund highlighted the historical cooperation between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, emphasizing their longstanding collaboration in security, politics, and economics.

He noted that the exchange of high-level delegations demonstrates the evolving bilateral relationship, with a focus on advancing trade and transit.

Honorable Mullah Baradar Akhund underlined Afghanistan’s commitment to serving as a pivotal transit point in the region. In line with this vision, they have invested in road reconstruction to enhance connectivity between South and Central Asian nations.

He also raised the issue of high transit fees on Afghan cargo traveling through Uzbekistan and called for a reduction.

Honorable Mullah Baradar Akhund praised the balanced trade relations between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan and anticipated a significant increase in Afghan exports to Uzbekistan.

In light of this, he encouraged Uzbekistan to consider special preferential tariffs and friendly trade interactions.

Honorable Jamshid Khodjaev, leading the Uzbek delegation, expressed Uzbekistan’s readiness to collaborate with Afghanistan in various sectors, including agriculture, transportation, railways, trade, transit, water management, and mining.

Technical committees from both sides will work together on these initiatives.

Mr. Khodjaev unveiled a trade route map designed to boost Afghanistan’s exports to Uzbekistan, with the goal of increasing the trade volume between the two countries to approximately three billion dollars.

Uzbekistan has also simplified the visa acquisition process for Afghan businessmen and drivers, with plans to host an exhibition of Afghan products in Tashkent and offer a large business center in Termiz for Afghan businessmen.

Concluding the meeting, Honorable Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund expressed gratitude for Uzbekistan’s humanitarian assistance to the Herat earthquake victims and emphasized the significance of bilateral cooperation between the two nations.

Source: bakhtarnews.af

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://bakhtarnews.af/en/deputy-prime-minister-meets-uzbekistan-delegation-discussed-on-various-issues/

---------

Imam of Prophet’s Mosque pledges support for Bangladesh to spread message of Islam

October 30, 2023

DHAKA: The imam of the Prophet’s Mosque on Monday pledged support for Bangladesh’s efforts to spread the message of Islam as he addressed a national imam conference in Dhaka.

Under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Bangladeshi government has been working to spread the message of Islam, including by building mosques and Islamic cultural centers across the country, where more than 91 percent of its population are Muslims. 

The premier inaugurated 50 new mosques on Monday during the 2023 National Imam Conference in the Bangladeshi capital. The event was also attended by the imam of Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi, Shaykh Dr. Abdullah ibn Abdur Rahman Al-Bu’ayjan, who was visiting from Madinah. 

“I believe Bangladesh has also joined the efforts of spreading the spirit and knowledge of Islam, which is currently underway under the leadership of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” Al-Bu’ayjan said during the conference. 

“I hope she (Hasina) will take more initiatives for spreading the message of Islam, Qur’an, and the Arabic language. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will assist in this endeavor.”

Bangladesh will build a total of 564 mosques in different parts of the country, Hasina said, adding that 300 have so far been built. 

“Today, in the sixth phase, 50 more mosques are going to be inaugurated. These model mosques will also have the facilities for imams’ training, religious education, Islamic research, et cetera,” Hasina said, addressing the conference. “I thank the king of Saudi Arabia, the custodian of the two holy mosques, and the crown prince, as they always helped us and stood beside us.” 

She also urged all the country’s imams to “uphold the true spirit of Islam.”

Hasina said: “Islam is a religion of peace. It’s the best religion in the world. We want people to live here peacefully. We want to build a developed and prosperous nation.” 

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400171/world

-------

 

Africa

 

South Africa calls for UN force to protect Gaza civilians

30 Oct 2023

South Africa on Monday called on the United Nations to send a rapid protection force to Gaza to protect civilians from further Israeli bombardments.

"The numbers of non-combatants killed, especially the numbers of children killed, requires that the world to show that it is serious about global accountability," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

This as Israel continues to pound the Palestinian enclave with fierce air and artillery strikes, as troops backed by tanks expand its ground incursion.

Israel declared war on the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, after its deadly 7 October cross-border attack from the Gaza Strip in which some 1,400 civilians and soldiers died.

But the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry says over eight thousand people, many of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza since then.

The UN humanitarian office (OCHR) said rescuers were struggling to reach people.

There are increasing international calls for Palestinian civilians, caught between the warring sides, to be protected.

South Africa has long been an advocate for peace in the region and has compared the plight of Palestinians to its own under apartheid.

However, in calling for a protection force, it has gone further in its support than most nations, some of which have called for a ceasefire or the opening of a humanitarian corridors.

Source: africanews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.africanews.com/2023/10/30/south-africa-calls-for-un-force-to-protect-gaza-civilians/

--------

 

Terrorists kill Chief Imam, abduct hunters in Borno community

October 31, 2023

Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists, yesterday, invaded Beneshiekh town, the headquarters of Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State, and killed the Chief Imam, Sheihk Baba Goni Muktar Malumti.

They also set ablaze some Islamic books belonging to the deceased.

The deceased was a renowned Islamic scholar and Chief Imam of Juma’at Mosque, Beneshiekh.

This came as another group of terrorists invaded MakintaKururi village of Beneshiekh and abducted two hunters in separate renewed attacks.

Recall that last month, the younger brother of the Chief Imam was also killed by insurgents.

Beneshiekh located along the major Kano-Damaturu-Maiduguri highway, is about 70 kilometres drive to Maiduguri.

Confirming the incident, the Caretaker Chairman of Kaga council area, Mustapha Baima, expressed shock over the renewed attacks by terrorists, saying “Yes we received a distress call that Boko Haram terrorists gun down our Chief Imam of BeneshiekhJummat Mosque in his house at about 1:15am on Monday.

“The terrorists first invaded the house of one Islamic Scholar (names withheld), but when they realized the picture they were carrying for execution did not resemble that of the Chief Imam as target, they asked him to go back to the house and remain quite.

“Thereafter, they went to another house where the Chief Imam was praying. The terrorists then opened fire on getting their target. The terrorists also set ablaze some Islamic Books after killing the Chief Imam.

Source: vanguardngr.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/10/terrorists-kill-chief-imam-abduct-hunters-in-borno-community/

---------

 

UN says record 6.9 million people internally displaced in the DR Congo

October 31, 2023

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that the number of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reached a record high of 6.9 million.

This latest increase comes following renewed conflict between Tutsi-led M23 rebels and militias loyal to the government in the eastern province of North Kivu in October.

It said it was intensifying its efforts to address the “complex and persistent crisis” across the country with most of those who fled their homes desperately needing help to meet their basic needs.

As the security situation continues to deteriorate, movements become more frequent and humanitarian needs soar. 

Nearly 200,000 people have fled their homes since the resumption of the fighting in the Rutshuru and Masisi regions, north of Goma, according to the UN humanitarian agency Ocha.

The IOM said it urgently needs to deliver help to those most in need, describing the situation in the DRC as one of the largest internal displacement and humanitarian crises in the world.

"For decades, the Congolese people have been weathering successive storms of crisis", said Fabien Sambussy, head of the IOM mission in the country.

More than two-thirds of the displaced people in the DRC live with host families.

The organisation said that on top of the large-scale humanitarian crisis in the east, other regions have experienced conflict, insecurity, and disasters such as floods and landslides.

It is helping to manage 78 camps housing some 280,000 displaced people and is strengthening mental health services for people in psychological distress.

The IOM is calling for additional financial resources for its operations in the DRC, saying it has received less than half of the $100 million requested.

The eastern part of the DRC has been plagued by violence from local and foreign armed groups for nearly 30 years.

Present in the country since 1999, the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, is one of the largest and most expensive of its kind in the world, with an annual budget of one billion dollars.

But it is highly unpopular, with the DRC government calling for it to leave by December, saying it has failed to put an end to the violence perpetrated by armed groups.

Source: africanews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.africanews.com/2023/10/30/un-says-record-69-million-people-internally-displaced-in-the-dr-congo/

--------

 

ECOWAS chief, German chancellor meet in Abuja

30 Oct 2023

German chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Omar Touray, the head of West Africa's regional bloc ECOWAS in Abuja on Sunday.

Germany's leader who is on a state visit to Nigeria expressed concerns about a spate of army takeovers in West Africa.

The two leaders also discussed strengthening economic ties between Berlin and ECOWAS.

"Regarding exports of Africa to Germany we've discussed about the need to boost production in the continent, so that we will be able to trade among ourselves firstly but also with our partners," said Omar Alieu Touray, the ECOWAS President.

"We have helped the development of the electricity grid in all ECOWAS countries and try our best. This is especially the case here in Nigeria but also in other countries and this is our willingness to use the capacity, the technological strength of our business sector to help the development of these countries," Scholz told journalists.

Olaf Scholz also met with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Sunday to discuss trade and investment opportunities.

Source:

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.africanews.com/2023/10/30/ecowas-chief-german-chancellor-meet-in-abuja/

---------

 

Ghana: floods displace 26,000 people in the east of the country

30 Oct 2023

The Lower Volta Basin in Ghana is grappling with a dire situation following the release of excess water from the Akosombo and Kpong dams, leading to severe flooding.

The resilient residents are fighting against both the fury of nature and the deluge caused by man-made actions, with their very existence hanging in the balance.

46-year-old Kojo Atsu is one of over 25,000 people who are now homeless.

He and his family were saved just before his three-bedroom apartment collapsed.

Many others have lost their businesses to the floodwaters.

Residents watch helplessly while their homes and farms continue to be submerged across six districts:

" The water situation in this community is very-very bad for us, more than one week, we couldn’t do anything about this water."

Critical installations, including hospitals, morgues, schools, banks, and marketplaces are all underwater.

The national disaster management organization, NADMO, with support from the Ghana navy and other security agencies are frantically working to relocate the affected people.

Samuel OkudjetouAblawa is MP for north Tongu: I will demand a probe into this affair, people must not get away so the most importantly, there will be reforms and this will not recourse. And then we must be thinking about an engineering solution as a country.

The Akosombo and Kpong dams play a crucial role in providing hydroelectric power producing about 1,072 megawatts of Ghana's total energy mix.

Source: africanews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.africanews.com/2023/10/30/ghana-floods-displace-26000-people-in-the-east-of-the-country/

------

 

UNICEF: Nearly 3 million children displaced in Sudan

Oct 30, 2023

TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (MNA) – The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has announced that approximately 3 million children are displaced in Sudan, news media reported.

In the statement made on the X social media platform of UNICEF Sudan Office, it was stated that approximately 3 million children were displaced due to the ongoing civil war in Sudan, and this is the highest number in the world.

The statement noted that the further escalation of the war caused more children to leave their homes, facing the risk of violence, abuse and exploitation, and added: "The war must be stopped so that children can be safe and healthy, learn and play." The expression was used.

Clashes broke out between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (HDK) in the East African country Sudan on April 15.

According to the Sudanese Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), in the conflicts that started on April 15 and continued with all their violence, approximately 10 thousand people lost their lives, 25 million Sudanese became in need of humanitarian aid and 5.4 million people had to leave their homes.

Regional and international ceasefire and negotiation attempts have so far failed due to mutual accusations of violations by the warring sides and agreement on the terms put forward.

Source: mehrnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/207768/UNICEF-Nearly-3-million-children-displaced-in-Sudan

---------

 

Arab World

 

Riyadh to host Film Criticism Conference

October 30, 2023

RIYADH: The Film Commission is hosting the Film Criticism Conference in Riyadh from Nov. 7 to 14, bringing together experts and enthusiasts in the field.

Film Commission CEO Abdullah Al-Eyaf said that the conference aims to stimulate critical discourse in alignment with developments in Saudi, Arab and international film production within the Kingdom.

He added that the expansion of the Saudi film industry plays a crucial role in realizing the objectives of the National Culture Strategy, reinforcing the Kingdom’s cultural influence and establishing a global presence on international platforms.

The conference will foster cultural exchange among critics, writers and film enthusiasts.

It includes live discussions with notable figures including Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho.

Experts will hold sessions on various topics, with director Yousry Nasrallah discussing the connection between filmmaking and film criticism.

English literature professor Saad Al-Bazei will explore the relationship between cinema and novels, focusing on transcending illusion in both arts.

Professional courses, including one led by Indian critic Shubhra Gupta, will cover the profession of film criticism.

The conference will offer artistic activities, discussions and hands-on workshops, providing a holistic view of the interplay between arts, literature and cinema’s larger narrative.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400321/saudi-arabia

--------

 

 

In Washington, Saudi defense minister stresses need for ‘immediate’ ceasefire in Gaza

October 30, 2023

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during a meeting with a senior US official on Monday.

The call comes as the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave deteriorates as Israel conducts a large military campaign against Hamas.

Meeting Jake Sullivan, the US national security advisor, Prince Khalid reaffirmed the Kingdom’s call to bring the fighting to a halt.

“I stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, protection of civilians, allowing humanitarian aid, and resuming the peace process,” Prince Khalid wrote on X after the meeting.

The pair affirmed “the urgent need to increase humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza,” according to a readout issued by the White House, adding they emphasized the need to find a sustainable peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, building on Saudi-US efforts over recent months.

The Israeli military began moving ground troops into Gaza over the weekend, supported by air cover, amid calls to stop the fighting to allow humanitarian access and to prevent further bloodshed.

Israeli leaders have vowed to destroy Hamas after the group waged a multipronged attack inside Israel killing over 1,400, mostly civilians. Israel has spent weeks bombarding the heavily populated Gaza Strip leaving over 8,000 people, mostly civilians, dead.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected ceasefire calls on Monday, and announced the expansion of ground operations. He promised that Israel will “fight until this battle is won”.

The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, told the Security Council that “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire has become a matter of life and death for millions,” and accused Israel of collectively punishing Gazans.

Last week, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US President Joe Biden shared a call on the situation in Gaza. The crown prince called on the US to work immediately to discuss ways to stop the Israeli military operations that have claimed innocent lives.

Prince Khalid and Sullivan also “affirmed the importance of deterring any state or non-state actor from seeking to expand the conflict.”

Biden’s advisor welcomed Prince Khalid, who arrived in the US capital on Monday, and his accompanying delegation and discussed “ongoing efforts to strengthen the defensepartnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which for decades has served as a cornerstone for regional stability and deterrence”.

On Yemen, Prince Khalid wrote: “We also discussed the Kingdom’s efforts in Yemen to end the crisis and achieve peace.” The White House said: “Mr. Sullivan welcomed the significant de-escalation of the conflict over the past year and a half and endorsed Saudi-led efforts to bring the war to a close altogether.”

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400286/saudi-arabia

--------

 

Vision 2030 positions Riyadh as one of most attractive cities in world: French envoy

October 30, 2023

RIYADH: A delegation of architects representing 30 French firms on Monday gathered in Riyadh for a symposium to explore the potential for strategic partnerships in the sector in line with Vision 2030.

The event, organized by AFEX and Business France, was part of the third French-Saudi Strategic Partnership under the theme, “Shaping Cities for Tomorrow.”

Saudi Arabia’s investment in megaprojects, infrastructure, urban planning, and landscape design aims to fuel its growth potential and increase its attractiveness in terms of foreign direct investment, tourism, hospitality, and recreational and sports activities.

In his opening speech, Ludovic Pouille, the French ambassador to the Kingdom, said: “The doors of opportunities in Saudi Arabia are wide open. The world is here (in Saudi Arabia), and the competition is high, but you have great assets in your hands, to contribute to the Kingdom’s development. The opportunities for French and Saudi collaborations are limitless.

“Vision 2030 positions Riyadh as one of the most attractive cities on the world map. Today we proudly support KSA’s bid to host Expo 2030 — for megaprojects, no one does it better than Saudi companies,” he added.

The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing (MOMRA) has become an active player in creating vibrant communities that reconcile tradition and modernity, growth and sustainability.

Ihab Hashani, MOMRA deputy minister, said: “Our objective is to create space that encourages community living and smart mobility under MOMRA 2.0.”

He noted that it would follow a set of guidelines that represented the history of the country’s cities and preserve their identity, while working closely with municipalities to ensure implementation.

Reda Amalou, AFEX’s president, said: “The implementation and the concretization of Vision 2030 is striking — Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman opened the economy to the world while preserving the country’s tradition.”

Amalou highlighted AlUla as a successful model for French-Saudi cooperation, and the necessity for AFEX to maintain the momentum of sharing expertise and contributing to the architecture scene in Saudi Arabia.

In March, a memorandum of understanding was signed between AFEX and the Architecture and Design Commission, actively participating in youth development under Vision 2030 and providing vocational training opportunities for young Saudi professionals at French firms in France.

French architecture resonates with, but is not limited to, heritage preservation and luxury. Education, health, and ecotourism are some of the fields showcasing French expertise leaving room for potential future collaborations.

Mohammed Darwish, strategic partnership and international relations manager at the Diriyah Gate Development Authority, pointed out that Diriyah was an important example of how to build the “city of the future” while preserving heritage.

He said: “Inaugurated in 2019, the Diriyah project is in harmony with the area. Diriyah is directly linked to Riyadh city, KAFD (King Abdullah Financial District), and the new Murabba project, connecting tradition to modernity and the development of the city.”

Saudi Arabia is raising the sustainability bar, placing it at the center of decision making. Jayne McGivern, CEO of the Sports Boulevard Foundation, said in joining Wadi Hanifa to Wadi Al-Sulai, the Sports Boulevard was the first megaproject to be sustainable and environmentally conscious at a 360-degree level.

“A linear park with real estate across it, we’re transforming a former utility corridor, reinstating the red sands desert that Riyadh is famous for and aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040,” she added.

Creating green neighborhoods with the key enablers being water and trees was considered the future of the city.

Donald Sharp, design director of the Green Riyadh Program, said: “It’s about the city, it’s about creating connections, encouraging people to use public transport, and increasing the percentage of green space to improve air quality.”

Green Riyadh aims to increase green coverage from 1.5 percent to 9.1 percent, enhancing quality of life by creating open areas to improve public health, reduce energy consumption and ultimately, making Riyadh one of the 100 best livable cities in the world.

Tarek Qaddumi, NEOM’s executive director, said there was an urgency to redesign cities with “minimal footprint, hyper-connectivity and proximity, and invisible infrastructure, enabling access to more people and offering services to more people.

“NEOM is an economy with various sectors welcoming nine to 10 million people. A proud Saudi project, NEOM focuses on bringing the best talent from around the world,” he added.

During the symposium, members of AFEX, representing French architecture firms, met executives at the cutting edge of Saudi megaprojects including those representing the Diriyah Gate Development Authority, the Royal Commission for AlUla, Red Sea Global, NEOM, and Soudah Development.

The event will be followed by a series of thematic workshops diving into the cities of the future, Riyadh as the new hub of architecture, and how the private sector can meet the expectations of Vision 2030 and its iconic megaprojects.

The bid to host Expo 2030 in Saudi Arabia is another example of the architectural grandeur with Riyadh competing with Rome and Busan, with a decision expected on Nov. 28.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400246/saudi-arabia

--------

 

Saudi Arabia attends Gulf Cooperation Council anti-corruption meeting

October 30, 2023

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia participated in the ninth meeting of the Anti-Corruption Ministerial Committee of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which took place in Oman on Monday.

The Saudi delegation was led by Mazin Al-Kahmous, president of the Kingdom’s Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority.

The meeting focused on efforts to bolster integrity and the collective fight against corruption in the region, the Saudi Press Agency reported, and the discussions included the potential inclusion of the GCC in the UN Convention against Corruption.

The committee examined a proposed draft resolution by Saudi Arabia on the global corruption measurement index. It is set to be presented during the 10th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption, which will take place in the US in December.

The pivotal role of the 2020 Riyadh Initiative, also known as the Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities, was also highlighted during the meeting.

In addition, committee members assessed a number of programs, projects and guidelines developed as a result of previous meetings with the aim of preserving integrity and eradicating corruption. They also honored distinguished employees of agencies that helped combat corruption in GCC countries during 2022.

Source: arabnews.com

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2400221/saudi-arabia

--------

 

Saudi FM discusses Gaza situation in phone call with EU high representative

October 30, 2023

RIYADH — Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan received a phone call on Monday from the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

During the conversation, both parties discussed the developments in Gaza and its surrounding areas, amid the ongoing military escalation and the impact on innocent civilians.

The discussion also touched upon the importance of the international community taking responsibility for halting all military actions and returning to the path of a just and comprehensive peace for the Palestinian issue.

Source: saudigazette.com.sa

Please click the following URL to read the full text of the original

https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/637224/SAUDI-ARABIA/Saudi-FM-discusses-Gaza-situation-in-phone-call-with-EU-high-representative

--------

URL:   https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/muslim-slap-religious-feelings/d/131020

New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism