June, 16 2009, 04:13pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Carter: Netanyahu ADDING Demands
WASHINGTON
The British newspaper the Guardian reports today that Jimmy Carter, who has been in Israel and just met with top Hamas officials in Gaza, said of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's recent speech: "My opinion is he raised many new obstacles to peace that had not existed under previous prime ministers. ... He still apparently insists on expansion of existing settlements, he demands that the Palestinians and the Arabs recognize Israel as a Jewish state, although 20 percent of its citizens here are not Jews. This is a new demand."
Cater also stated: "To me, the most grievous circumstance is the maltreatment of the people in Gaza, who are literally starving and have no hope at this time. ... They're being treated like savages. The alleviation of their plight to some means I think would be the most important [thing] the Israeli PM could do."
FRANCIS BOYLE
Boyle, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, served as legal advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace negotiations from 1991 to 1993.
He said today: "Netanyahu has now shifted the goal-posts on the Palestinians by demanding that they recognize Israel as a 'Jewish State.' It would be as if the United States demanded that Iran recognize it as a 'White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant State' as part of any peace settlement. Of course this demand is racist. It would likely lead to the denationalization of the 1.5 million Palestinians who are already second-class citizens of Israel and set the stage for their mass deportation to the Palestinian Bantustan envisioned by Netanyahu in this speech.
"Basically, Netanyahu [is trying] to stall and delay while Israel continues to develop and expand its illegal settlements in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, funded in substantial part by United States taxpayers." Boyle's books include Palestine, Palestinians and International Law and most recently Tackling America's Toughest Questions.
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday reiterated her description of the Israeli military's actions in Gaza as a "forced famine" and pushed back on the Netanyahu government's claim that it is targeting militants who carried out the October 7 attack.
"There is no targeting of Hamas in precipitating a mass famine of a million people, half of whom are children," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told CNN's Jake Tapper just two days after she delivered a floor speech characterizing conditions on the ground in Gaza as "an unfolding genocide."
The New York Democrat said Sunday that she believes the Israeli government's conduct in Gaza—from obstructing aid shipments to bombing densely populated areas—"have crossed the threshold of intent," a necessary condition of genocide.
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Asked to respond to the Israeli government's claim that the war would end within a day if Hamas released all the remaining hostages and dropped its arms, Ocasio-Cortez said, "The actions of Hamas should not be tied to whether a three-year-old can eat."
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CNN with all the resources can't determine if Israel is intentionally causing this famine, which UN and EU top diplomat & others said it's a ‘Man-made famine’ that led AOC to believe that's a genocide "I think with a forced famine is beyond our ability to deny or explain away" https://t.co/NwIMvnkB3l pic.twitter.com/48W73D3bsT
— HalalFlow (@halalflow) March 24, 2024
In a social media post following her CNN appearance, Ocasio-Cortez wrote that "starving a million innocent people to death by halting and slowing U.S. humanitarian assistance is a massive, deliberate choice."
The post came in response to criticism from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which has been described as "Israel's Attack Dog in the U.S." The group declared that the Israeli military is working to "cripple Hamas terrorists" and said those warning of genocide "merely perpetuate false claims and foster hate."
Ocasio-Cortez replied that the starvation Israel is inflicting on Gaza civilians with its suffocating blockade is both "irrelevant" to the government's stated objective of targeting Hamas and brings it "further out of reach and endangers hostages."
"There is no defense for forced famine," Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
The New York Democrat's assessment of the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza mirrors that of United Nations experts, aid agencies, and humanitarian organizations.
On Sunday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—the primary humanitarian aid organization operating in Gaza—said the Israeli government has informed the U.N. that it "will no longer approve any UNRWA food convoys" to the northern part of the enclave, which is facing famine.
In recent weeks, dozens of people have died of starvation and dehydration—most of them in northern Gaza.
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Protests broke out in the capital New Delhi and other Indian cities after police on Thursday arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, an opposition leader from the Aam Aadmi Party, over corruption allegations AAP members say are politically motivated. Two other AAP leaders were previously arrested in connection with the same case, which involves the alleged favoring of certain alcohol vendors and illegal campaign financing.
Authorities also froze the bank accounts of another leading opposition party, the Indian National Congress, over a tax dispute that dates back to 2018. Party leader Sonia Gandhi accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party of perpetrating "a systematic effort to cripple the party financially."
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AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal was arrested just today on charges of corruption.
The India Report: https://t.co/rxPr6zKnWx pic.twitter.com/P3eSbxVTVm
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Gandhi, Kejriwal and others have repeatedly accused of Modi's government of misusing federal agencies and resources to repress opposition figures as elections loom. The BJP denies the allegations.
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"The growing crackdown clearly shows the authorities' blatant disregard for human rights and rule of law," Patel added. "Authorities must respect, protect, promote, and fulfill the human rights of everyone in the country including human rights defenders, activists, and opposition candidates before, during, and after the general elections which are due to begin in April 2024. Authorities must also ensure access to justice and effective remedies for victims of human rights violations."
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