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AsiaPolitics

New Israeli massacre in Deir al-Balah on 171st day of genocide ©

by Narges Mohammadi

The Israeli occupation continues its relentless and genocidal campaign against Gaza for the 171st consecutive day, targeting different regions of the strip and enforcing a complete blockade. This has further worsened the already dire humanitarian situation, exacerbating the suffering of the people in Gaza.

The Israeli bombardment of the Salman family’s residence in Deir al-Balah resulted in the killing of 22 people. Additionally, IOF conducted an airstrike on the al-Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Three people were killed, and several injuries were reported, with casualties transferred to al-Kuwait Hospital, after Israeli warplanes bombed the Barhom family’s residence near Salah al-Din Mosque in the densely populated al-Zaytoun neighborhood, where many forcibly displaced Palestinians reside.

Meanwhile,  the Civil Defense in Gaza confirmed its inability to respond to distress calls received from Palestinians subjected to Israeli shelling in the al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City.

The Civil Defense urged the United Nations Secretary-General to “urgently intervene to provide the needs of civil defense to protect civilians.”

War on hospitals is ongoing

IOF continues to target the vicinity of al-Shifa Medical Complex with artillery and aerial bombardment, amid intense gunfire from military vehicles. Similarly, IOF targeted the vicinity of al-Amal Hospital and the eastern areas of Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), on Sunday, reported it lost communication with its personnel stationed at al-Amal Hospital in the Gaza city of Khan Younis, attributing the matter to ongoing aggression by the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF).

The various means of communication, including landlines, cellular networks, and internet services, have remained severed in Khan Younis governorate for 72 consecutive days, as per PRCS.

In the latest updates regarding al-Amal Hospital, the association reported that all displaced individuals and patients capable of movement were evacuated towards the al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis City. However, the association’s teams, along with nine patients and their ten accompanying individuals, as well as a forcibly displaced family with children requiring special care, remained at the hospital.

The PRCS pleaded for the evacuation of the patients and wounded, as well as the bodies of two martyrs: Amir Abu Aisha, an emergency-room staff member at the Palestinian Red Crescent, who was shot and killed by Israeli troops at al-Amal Hospital, and a wounded individual being treated at the hospital, who tragically passed away today due to a head injury.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has repeatedly expressed grave concern about reports of ongoing military operations inside hospital premises and its surroundings.

Iran condemns Zionist regime’s crimes in Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital

“For a week, Shifa Hospital and its grounds, along with patients, medical staff and Palestinian refugees, especially women and children who have taken refuge there, have been under severe and inhuman siege by the terrorist army of the Zionist regime, and the said regime has committed horrific crimes in this hospital,” Kanaani (Iran’s Secretary of Foreign Ministry) said.

He pointed out that another shameful leaf has been added to the history of his tragic life and the black list of his crimes.

“Unfortunately, in the past few days, as a result of the barbaric crimes of the occupation regime, 180 patients, medical staff and Palestinian refugees who were besieged in al-Shifa hospital due to blind attacks and preventing the entry of essential food and medical items, have lost their lives, and the remaining people are also subject to gradual death,” he added.

Kanaani further said that meanwhile, shocking and horrifying reports about the torture, desecration and killing of Palestinian women imprisoned in this hospital are also heard, which requires immediate and decisive action by the international community, including the formation of an international research group in order to reveal the extent of the Zionist war crimes in the hospital.

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EuropeGovernment and Parliament

MoD faces fresh claims of ‘toxic’ culture as 99 cases investigated

by Narges Mohammadi

The Ministry of Defence is facing fresh claims of harboring a toxic culture as figures reveal that nearly 100 allegations by civil servants of bullying and harassment are being investigated. Eleven claims were made in the first month of 2024 alone.

According to official government figures, 99 open cases of “bullying, harassment, discrimination and victimization” are currently being examined by ministry officials led by the defence secretary, Grant Shapps.

One case has been under investigation since 2021, while six were instigated in 2021 and 81 in 2023, in apparent breach of the government’s target for resolving such complaints within 120 days.

The figures, provided by the defence minister, Andrew Murrison, show that 11 allegations of bullying, discrimination and victimization were recorded on the MoD’s “defence business services case management system” in January this year.

The high number of cases at the start of the year was said by the department to be typical and related to people returning from a period off work.

In recent months, the department has been rocked by allegations of harboring a “toxic” culture. In a letter to the department’s permanent secretary in October last year by 60 female civil servants, allegations were made of women being “propositioned”, “groped” and “touched repeatedly” by male colleagues in a workplace culture they said was “hostile to women as equal and respected partners”.

The women said their “day-to-day professional lives are made difficult thanks to behaviors that would be considered toxic and inappropriate in public life, but that are tolerated at the MoD”.

The incidents were alleged to have occurred at the MoD’s headquarters in London and at overseas bases. As of last year, there were 60,640 civilian personnel in the MoD.

Maria Eagle MP, the shadow procurement minister, said there had been a lack of “grip” by the political leadership at the MoD, which was led by Ben Wallace until his resignation in August last year.

She said: “These new figures are more evidence of utterly unacceptable behaviour in the MoD and ministers’ failure to get to grips with deep challenges in defence. The defence secretary must take the lead and root this out.

“In government, Labour will legislate for an armed forces commissioner to act as a strong independent voice to improve the lives of serving personnel and their families.”

Ministers previously disclosed that the number and size of compensation payouts for bullying and harassment had doubled in two years. There were fewer than five in 2020-21, increasing to six in 2021-22 and to 12 in 2022-23. The average compensation sum rose from £100,500 in 2020-21 to £228,700 the following year and £235,600 in 2022-23.

The MoD has recently renewed its bullying hotline for staff, which is understood to have received hundreds of calls.

An MoD spokesperson said: “We do not tolerate abuse, bullying or discrimination of any kind, and all allegations are thoroughly investigated. We encourage anyone who believes they have experienced or witnessed unacceptable behaviour to report it, and while some cases can be complicated and take time, swift action is taken where possible.

“A range of measures have been introduced to improve the experience for everyone across the department, including improvements to reporting mechanisms, increased access to support, and a 24/7 anti-bullying helpline.”

Source: Guardian

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AsiaPolitics

American Newspaper reports on the statistics of  Iranian women’s participation in their recent elections©

by Narges Mohammadi

The American publication Newsweek wrote in an analytical report that the number of women who were nominated in the elections of the Islamic Council of Iran is more than in all other elections.

This publication wrote that there are about 1,713 women’s names in the list of people who have been approved by the Iranian Guardian Council to run in the elections, which is twice the number of women who appeared as candidates in the 2021 elections.

Newsweek has written that, nevertheless, women who hope to enter the parliament constitute a small part of the 15,200 candidates who compete with each other to enter the parliament.

Afifeh Abedi, one of the female candidates for the 12th term of the Islamic Council of Iran, said in an interview with this publication: “The fact is that Iran is considered one of the most democratic countries in the region. There are very good indicators in Iran in the field of internship, political and social participation, education and even the use of women in managerial positions.”

She added: “However, some people believe that women’s participation in high levels of power is not enough compared to their expertise and social participation. My plan in the parliament is to take on a more specialized role in the field of women’s issues and foreign policy issues.”

Abedi considered the rare presence of women among the candidates of the 12th term of the parliament as a sign of the formation of the idea that the presence of more women in governance levels can help Iran, which is struggling with internal problems.

Considering the protests that happened in Iran in Autumn 2023, this huge number of women that have been approved by the Iranian authorities shows that women in Iran have a position within the society.

Unlike what the western media claims, the status of Iranian women living under the flag of the Islamic Republic is experiencing more improvement every day.

Source: Tasnim News Agency

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AsiaPolitics

Status of Women & Children in the Gaza Strip ©

by Narges Mohammadi

POLITICS/In an article referring to Israel’s crimes against women in the Gaza Strip, Nasreen Malik, a Sudanese writer and columnist for the Guardian, wrote: Sometimes a tragedy is so dire that its details remain hidden from view.

Behind the scenes of casualties and displaced persons in the Gaza Strip, there are women and girls for whom this conflict has become strangely intense and has completely changed their life situation. As the head of women’s affairs in the United Nations said in a conversation with the Associated Press, women and children bear the brunt of this war.

Palestinian mothers and children struggle to survive in such excruciating conditions every day; If they survive these problems, they face hunger and displacement, and on top of all this, they cannot access enough food and drinking water to nurse their children. When powdered milk is found in the camps, finding water to boil and prepare it is a challenge.

At the same time as the situation of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip is revealed, the activity in feminist discourses has become somewhat problematic. Some Western politicians, such as Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State of the United States, and some feminist activists, expressed disappointment at the failure of the movie “Barbie” to be nominated for the Oscars and were angry that such a movie was not considered despite its feminist approaches. Now they oppose the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and ignore the situation of Palestinian women.

According to the “Haaretz” report, one child in Gaza is killed every 15 minutes. The names of the thousands of children that the Israeli army killed in Gaza in the last four months are published like the end credits of a long film with a piece of sad background music, while 260 of these children did not reach the age of one year and no one knows. What were the dreams of these children?

 

ISNA News Agency

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AsiaPolitics

Bangladesh; The adoption crisis

by Narges Mohammadi

Women living in camps for refugees of Bangladesh’s war of independence were told a local care home would look after their children. Decades on, many are still searching for them.

More than four decades have passed, but Sayrun Nisa still cries for her son as if she lost him yesterday. In 1977, she had been taking care of her child and sick husband at home when there was a knock at the door. She opened it to find two people who claimed they were from Terres Des Hommes Netherlands (TDHn), an organisation that operated in the Dattapara camp for people displaced in the Bangladesh war of independence, where she lived.

“They started telling me about a children’s home they were running,” says Sayrun, now 80. “They said they could take care of my son for me and give him a good education. I had no reason to doubt them as they were from what I thought was a respectable organisation.”

Sayrun recalls feeling unsure as she watched her six-year-old playing in the corner. But when she discussed it with her husband, they felt it might not be a bad idea. “My husband had been sick for a while and was unemployed. If we put our son in the home, it would mean that I could find work,” she says.

The couple were poor and lived in a hut with a roof that often leaked when it rained. “There were days where we struggled to eat,” recalls Sayrun. A week later, she took her son to a children’s home she believed to be run by TDHn. Sayrun thought the staff might show her around. But instead a woman at the gate asked her to hand over her child and leave. “I gave him over with only the clothes on his back,” says Sayrun, holding back tears.

The following weekend, Sayrun returned to the school but was told her son was no longer there. “I demanded to speak to someone and told them I wouldn’t leave until I knew where my son was,” she says. “I waited for over an hour until an officer came to the gate and told me to go home.” When Sayrun refused, she says the guard pointed a gun in her face.

Sayrun told her husband what had happened and the next day they filed a complaint at the police station. “Days turned into weeks and nothing was done,” she says. “I kept going back to the children’s home and then one day, they offered me a job. I took it thinking it might be a way to find my son.”

Sayrun began working for the children’s home but couldn’t find any answers to her questions. One day, she learned from a colleague that a group of children had been sent abroad. “I asked if my son was among them and she told me yes. I fainted on the spot.”

Sayrun often dreamed that her son would return. “I’d hear a knock at the door and my heart would jump with joy,” she says. “One day, I was on a bus in Dhaka and thought I saw a young man that looked just like him. I jumped off and chased the man down the street but it wasn’t him. People thought I had lost my mind.”

The fate of Sayrun’s son was not an isolated incident. In the town of Tongi, on the outskirts of Dhaka, a number of women claim that their children disappeared in similar circumstances.

All the women interviewed for the Guardian say they left their children in what they believed would be the temporary care of the children’s home run by TDHn, in Tongi, only to later discover the children had been adopted abroad.

TDHn says it did not run a children’s home in Tongi at that time and that, although the perception that the organisation performed adoptions was then persistent in Bangladesh, it was entirely incorrect. “The allegation that local [TDHn] staff were involved in misleading parents to give up their children for adoption is not new. Investigations conducted at the time concluded that the claims were not substantiated,” a spokesperson says.

A number of investigations into the allegations took place in the 1970s, including by TDHn, which concluded that they were “false and baseless”. None of the mothers whose children went missing were interviewed for the investigation.

Rezia Begum says she was approached in 1977 by men claiming to work for TDHn offering to take her child, but she politely declined. A week later, she laid her three-month-old down to sleep and went to the bathroom but when she returned, her daughter was missing.

“I was only gone for a moment” says Rezia, now 72. She ran out of her house screaming, telling the neighbours what had just happened. “Everyone started to search the area. We went from door to door until nightfall but we couldn’t find her anywhere.”

For weeks, Rezia sat in the same spot she last held her daughter; the sound of her baby’s cries still ringing in her ears. “I just wanted her back,” says Rezia, tears streaming down her face. “She was the most beautiful little girl – with these big brown eyes and a small button nose. I couldn’t believe she was just gone.” It would be more than 40 years before Rezia was finally reunited with her daughter thanks to the pioneering help of a campaigning group of Bangladeshi adoptees. Others who have lost their children are still waiting.

Aasia Begum, now in her 80s, was a single mother living in the Dattapara camp with her two young daughters. The elder one, Falani, was six years old – a chatty, joyful girl who liked to play with the other children on her street.

“I would sing them lullabies and longed for them to grow up and become educated and successful,” says Aasia. So when she heard about the children’s centre around the corner from her house, she happily enrolled her elder child.

“I was told I could see her every weekend and that in a few years, she could return home,” she says. But Aasia would soon learn that would not be the case. One day, she went to drop off some bananas at the school but found the gates locked. “I could see Falani playing in the courtyard and called out to her. But a guard quickly came and told me I had to go.”

Her daughter had also seen her and ran up to speak to her but the two were separated by force. “She went missing after that,” says Aasia.

Jahanara Begum’s son Montu was two years old when he went missing in 1977. “He learned to walk quickly and would bump into everything in his way,” she recalls. “Even the chickens in the courtyard would run from him.”

These are memories from decades ago that Jahanara clings to: they are the only proof she really has that her child even existed. He too disappeared after Jahanara left him in what she thought would be temporary care at a children’s home she believed was run by TDHn. “For a long time, I was worried I might forget the little things. So I would talk about him to anyone that would listen.”

For years, Jahanara wondered if it might have been better if her son had died. “Then I could mourn and find some sort of peace,” she says. “But when you don’t know where your child is, you desperately hold on to the idea that they could still be out there somewhere – and may perhaps return.”

Nur Jahan, 78, has no idea what her son Bilal looks like. The last time she saw him was in 1976, when he was just six months old; a small baby with big eyes and a dimpled cheek. “I would carry him around everywhere with me … but now he lives inside this photograph,” says Nur, holding up a photo of a group of Bangladeshi children arriving at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam in 1976; an air steward holds up a baby in a basket, and though the photo is not clear, Nur is convinced the baby is hers.

Like the other mothers, Nur too claims she was visited by people claiming to work for TDHn. After handing her baby over for care, Nur was able to visit him the week after. “Everything seemed normal at first, I even saw other parents and children I recognised.” But a week later, she was not allowed in. “I started shouting. There was a broom nearby and I picked it up and threatened them with it,” recalls Nur. Two guards came out and aggressively pushed her away. She fell to the ground crying.

Nur would never see her baby again. Later, she filed a police report and approached local media for help but nothing came of it. “I still pray he comes back to me,” she says, tucking the photo away into a small cabinet. It’s one of the few possessions she owns, but certainly her most cherished.

A spokesperson for TDHn described the women’s stories as “heartbreaking”, but that “the underlying allegation of wrongdoing by Terre des Hommes Netherlands is therefore wholly incorrect. Terre des Hommes Netherlands did not run any school with boarding facilities. The suggestion that the children stayed at a Terre des Hommes-school or home therefore is wrong.”

Source: Guardian

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EuropePolitics

Carol Vorderman hits out at Shaun Bailey’s ‘sexist’ comments about her

by Narges Mohammadi

Carol Vorderman has hit out at the former Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey over his “sexist” comments about her Instagram posts.

Bailey said on GB News last week that Vorderman could not be a “serious political commentator” as well as post photos of herself at the gym.

“Look, on one hand she’s got all that stuff, you know, she’s a serious political commentator, and then if you look at her Instagram it’s all pictures of her bum and her boobs. So what is it here? She can’t be both,” said Bailey.

Vorderman on Wednesday called Bailey a misogynist and pointed to his attendance at the 2020 “Jingle and Mingle” Christmas party, which she said made him a rule maker who had broken the Covid rules. “‘Can’t have it both [ways],’ he says,” Vorderman posted on X.

“So Shaun thinks that women who wear Lycra in the gym shouldn’t be allowed a political opinion … or I assume a vote!” Vorderman said. “Failed mayoral candidate #SexistShaun was made a lord last year. Yet another Tory honour for dishonour.”

Bailey, who received his peerage from Boris Johnson, was on GB News to defend Johnny Mercer, the minister of veterans’ affairs, who had lashed out at Vorderman and his Labour election rival, Fred Thomas, for sharing figures revealing a rise in homelessness among armed forces veterans.

After her response to Bailey’s comments, Vorderman received widespread support on social media. Among her supporters was the journalist Ava Evans.

Last year, GB News suspended Laurence Fox after his on-air comments about Evans.

Evans said: “It’s so easy to use your interview time to go for someone’s arguments, yet he can’t help himself but go for her body.”

Bailey lost his bid for mayor against Sadiq Khan in 2021.

He responded on Thursday to Vorderman’s posts by calling his comments “clumsy” but not apologising.

“In a recent panel discussion, I used a clumsy form of words to describe Carol Vorderman’s Instagram posts,” Bailey said. “The point I was trying to make is Carol lives in a world of glitz and celebrity, as her Instagram portrays, but simultaneously demonises and bullies those who hold different political views to her own. I strongly support free speech. I don’t support bullying.”

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EuropePolitics

Civil servant at MoD alleges sexual assaults by three male colleagues

by Narges Mohammadi

A Ministry of Defence civil servant has told of being subjected to three separate incidents of sexual assault by male colleagues, after allegations emerged of a “hostile” and “toxic” culture at the department.

The woman came forward to Prospect, the trade union, after feeling that her allegations were not sufficiently investigated and dealt with by the Ministry of Defence.

About 60 senior women at the Ministry of Defence wrote to the permanent secretary, David Williams, in October with a joint letter that alleged sexual assault, harassment and abuse by male colleagues.

The letter, first reported by the Guardian, included claims that women had been “propositioned”, “groped” and “touched repeatedly” by male colleagues at the MoD in a workplace culture the civil servants said was “hostile to women as equal and respected partners”.

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AsiaPolitics

INTERVIEW: 5,500 women in Gaza set to give birth ‘in race against death’

by Narges Mohammadi

As the conflict between Israel and Gaza militants enters a second month, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and sister agencies continue to appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire and an increase in convoys bringing food, fuel, water and other desperately needed aid into the enclave.

Laila Baker, Regional Director for the Arab States at the sexual and reproductive health agency, said she fears for the fate of new mothers and their children amid the “loss of complete humanity” in Gaza.

Supporting mums-to-be

Staff from UNFPA have been providing emergency health and safe delivery kits to mothers-to-be “when we can reach them”, she said.

She told UN News that pregnant Palestinian women fleeing bombardment are riddled with anxiety, but also hope and happiness, as they struggle to find qualified health professionals who can support them with a safe delivery.

“Put yourself in the shoes of that woman when the surgeon says to her ‘I have no anaesthesia, I don’t even have water or soap to wash my hands, but I’m going to try and save your life,’” she said.

Speaking from Cairo, Ms. Baker outlined why a humanitarian ceasefire and stronger international response are needed now in Gaza.

The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Laila Baker: If I’m truthful, I’m at a loss for words about the catastrophic situation on the ground and the loss of complete humanity in what we see in Gaza. It is an unprecedented and unparalleled brutality in the history of humanity in recent times: 2.2 million people, amongst them 50,000 pregnant women, besieged for one month. 5,500 women are going to give birth within the next few weeks. And for the 160 women who I should have said are lucky today to try and bring joy and life into this world, I fear for their lives and the lives of their children.

Over 135 health facilities have been targeted. The remaining health facilities that stay standing have very little medication, no fuel to run electricity. We’ve had caesarean sections for emergency deliveries that have been done with little or no anaesthesia and on occasion only with the light from a mobile phone.

So, when you ask me about what the situation is on the ground, where we have already lost 89 UN staff members – never in the history of the United Nations in such a short duration and one single event have we lost that many staff members.

And yet, the world leaders seem paralyzed to be able to intervene on what is one of the most flagrant breaches of human rights and international humanitarian law – by besieging and constantly bombarding the Gaza Strip.

UN News: Several UN agencies have reiterated in a joint statement urgent appeals for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to allow more lifesaving aid into Gaza. UNFPA is among the signatories. Can you tell us more about that joint call and its significance now?

Laila Baker: It is a significant appeal. Right now, we are putting a humanitarian bandage on what is primarily a crisis of humanity. The ceasefire is necessary and a necessary condition for two things.

One, for us to be able to enter into Gaza with the goods, unhindered and unconditionally, to be able to provide for those who have been forcibly displaced to the south, for those who are injured and overwhelming the hospital facilities, and to bring in the goods and people where we can start to at least address some of those critical humanitarian needs.

See link: https://youtu.be/R1bPo_839NU

Protect life in Gaza

Secondly, it’s critically important that the protection of all humanitarian staff – and the sanctity of life in general – is protected.

There’s no such thing as a humanitarian pause. A pause implies that you can come in, bring your things, but then we’re going to bombard and then we’re going to commit and continue to put that pressure on the people of Gaza. That cannot continue. It must stop immediately.

UN News: You mentioned the important point about targeting health facilities and also targeting health workers. How can that complicate the situation which is already complicated on the ground in Gaza?

Laila Baker: It’s fairly apparent, I would assume, even from a human perspective. But let me give you the situation of a pregnant woman. You’re anticipating bringing a child into this world. If it’s your first child, there’s a mixed anxiety about what might happen during that delivery, but there’s also hope and happiness.

When you have no one who can help that woman while she’s fleeing from continuous bombardment, when she doesn’t have enough water to drink that will allow her to carry to term and healthily, when she cannot protect herself or her family as she moves to try and find a qualified health professional…

Put yourself in the shoes of that woman when the surgeon says to her, ‘I have no anaesthesia, I don’t even have water or soap to wash my hands, but I’m going to try and save your life.’

What kind of torturous pain goes through her mind, or through the doctor’s mind, or through her husband’s mind, on what might be the outcome for her and that baby? Even if she survives, there will be no one to help her.

There was a woman who we spoke to who said, ‘Every step when I was trying to find some place to deliver my baby felt like a race against death.’ I can’t imagine the choices for her and for her family. As a woman myself – as a person, a human being who’s also enjoyed having new members of the family and seeing the joy of a birth – I can’t imagine what torture it is to be put through those conditions and those choices. All of it is reversible if the international community can come together and say ‘stop’.

UN News: UN agencies are working around the clock to provide lifesaving supplies. Can you tell us more about what UNFPA has provided since aid convoys started to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing?

Laila Baker: We are continually trying to do the best that we can. We have provided clean drinking water to our staff. We’ve provided emergency reproductive health kits and safe delivery. It’s anything from a bag that has a clean plastic sheet, a clamp to help clamp off the umbilical cord and a pair of scissors to cut them, a bar of soap and some wipes to ensure that at least some level of hygiene and sterile environment is protected. Those we distribute to the pregnant women when we can reach them.

We also are moving in goods that are to help the hospital facilities that are currently overwhelmed with simple equipment for delivery and a lot of the disposable supplies, like gauze, saline, some of the other kinds of products and goods like oxytocin that can help with the delivery, which right now are completely depleted.

We are very concerned, however, that those are a drop in the bucket. They are insufficient.

We try our best also to protect young girls who are in overcrowded centres and where hygiene is at best very minimal. In one centre where we work, there is one bathroom facility for a thousand people. Can you imagine the situation for a young girl – your sister, your daughter, a person who you care about, a good friend – where she needs the privacy, to feel the respect and dignity as a young woman and grow into a healthy adult?

UN News: Can UNFPA staff reach northern Gaza? We know there are many challenges facing humanitarian workers there. Also, how challenging is it to provide aid to 5,500 women who are expected to give birth in the coming weeks?

Laila Baker: It is an impossible equation at the moment. I wish that I had better news. I wish that we could provide for them. That would take an enormous amount. And I think that there’s one thing that I would like to stress is that no amount of humanitarian aid responsibly would be delivered at the scale that we need, nor is it our responsibility, nor is it responsible to replace the public and private sector that provide for that civilian population.

It’s important to insist – and this is why we were saying – that it is the protection of the civilian infrastructure that provides for any community: the hospitals, the schools, the houses. With half of the residential buildings in the north of Gaza demolished, what will there be to go back to?

That lack of respect for civilian infrastructure, including the targeting of hospitals, is such a blatant breach of human rights. The real emphasis needs to be on the protection of civilian infrastructure and protection of the dignity and the principle of allowing the Palestinian people in Gaza to live in their home safely.

Source: United Nations News Agency
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Australia and OceaniaPolitics

Australian Female Senator Speaks for Palestine

by Narges Mohammadi

Lidia Thorpe has compared the Australian government to Israel as the ‘illegal occupier of these lands’ in an impassioned speech pledging support to Palestine.

The firebrand Greens-turned-Independent senator arrived in the chamber for the first day of sitting in a month wearing a Palastinian keffiyeh scarf.

In response to the tragic war between Israel and terrorist group Hamas which is taking place, Ms Thorpe said she sympathised with victims on both sides of the conflict.

She said Palestinians ‘live with generational trauma of dispossession, they continue to fight for sovereignty, liberation, and land back, as do First peoples of this country.

‘You have the responsibility to support Palestinians standing against it, just as you have the responsibility to support First Nations people here standing against it.’

Ms Thorpe said she ‘is not surprised’ that the Australian government has offered resounding support to Israel after Hamas launched a missile attack at a music festival last Saturday morning.

The conflict prompted swift retaliation from Israel, and some 2,600 Palestinians in Gaza have been reported dead since October 7.

‘I’m not surprised the Australian government, which is itself the illegal occupier of these lands, condones illegal occupation of other lands, and sides with an oppresive regime,’ she said.

‘Governments across the world, in an attempt to address anti-Semitism and somehow address the horrors of the Holocaust, are allowing Israel to get away with apartheid, ethnic cleansing.

Ms Thorpe condemned Hamas’ attacks on Israel, but said she was also condemning ‘the violence Israel is and has been inflicting on the Palestinian people’.

She criticised the government’s decision to light up the Sydney Opera House in the colours of blue and white in solidarity with Israel, and said the debate on the international stage had been ‘extremely one sided’.

‘Israel’s indiscriminate bombings on Gaza are killing thousands of innocent people, people who already had to suffer for so many decades in what is often called the world’s biggest prison.

‘These people didn’t attack Israel, and yet they are the human collateral of Israel fighting back against Hamas with unprecedented force.

‘They will be the ones suffering the long term consequences which will more than likely be the continued and possibly reinforced oppression of the Palestinan people through Israel.

‘How can the world let this happen? All the talk of government supporting a two-state solution seem all but forgotten – worth nothing but a side note.

‘The current war has set the solution back decades. Most Palestinians want nothing but to live peacefully in a free Palestine. For 75 years now Palestine has been under brutal occupation.

‘The state of Israel was founded on Palestinian land in 1948, when tens of thousands of Palestinans sought refuge in Gaza as their towns and villages were ethnically cleansed.

‘Palestinian voices have all but been silenced over what happened.’

Senator Thorpe’s criticism of the government comes after the Coalition complained the government had not gone far enough in condemning the attacks against Israel.

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AsiaCommunity

Chinese county offers ‘cash reward’ for couples if bride is aged 25 or younger

by Narges Mohammadi

CHINA/A county in eastern China is offering couples a “reward” of 1,000 yuan ($210) if the bride is aged 25 or younger, the latest measure to incentivise young people to get married amid rising concern over a declining birth rate.

The notice, which was published on Changshan county’s official WeChat account last week, said the reward was to promote “age-appropriate marriage and child-bearing” for first marriages.

It also included a series of childcare, fertility and education subsidies for couples who have children.

Concerned about China’s first population drop in six decades and its rapidly ageing population, authorities are urgently trying an array of measures to lift the birth rate including financial incentives and improved childcare facilities.

China’s legal age limit for marriage is 22 for males and 20 for females, but the number of couples getting married has been falling.

That has driven down birth rates due to official policies which make it harder for single women to have children.

Marriage rates hit a record low in 2022 at 6.8 million, the lowest since 1986, according to government data released in June.

There were 800,000 fewer marriages last year than in 2021.

China’s fertility rate, already one of the world’s lowest, is estimated to have dropped to a record low of 1.09 in 2022, state media reported.

High childcare costs and having to stop their careers have put many women off having more children or any at all.

Gender discrimination and traditional stereotypes of women caring for their children are still widespread throughout the country.

Low consumer confidence and growing concerns over the health of China’s economy are also key factors cited by young Chinese for not wanting to get married and have children.

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