Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 26, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/26/headlines
Israel Continues Deadly Assault on Lebanon as Cabinet Votes on Ceasefire Deal
Nov 26, 2024
Israel’s military is continuing to bomb southern Lebanon and the capital Beirut, even as Israel’s security cabinet meets to discuss a ceasefire proposal with Hezbollah. On Monday, a massive explosion rocked residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, following an Israeli warning on the social media site X for people to evacuate or face death. Similar Israeli attacks killed at least 31 people across Lebanon in just 24 hours. The continuing assault came as Lebanon’s foreign minister said he hoped Israeli leaders would agree to a ceasefire proposal later today. Under the deal, the Israeli military would withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, while Lebanon’s army would deploy to border areas from which Hezbollah has launched rocket attacks on Israel.
In Italy, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for more pressure on extremist members of the Israeli government who are unwilling to forge a ceasefire.
Josep Borrell: “On Lebanon, there is no excuses for a ceasefire. On the proposal agreement brokered by the U.S. and France, Israel has all security concerns. There is not an excuse for not implementing a ceasefire. Otherwise, Lebanon will fall apart.”
Josep Borrell also called on EU member states to honor the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Gaza. Borrell cited widespread support for an ICC arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Josep Borrell: “You cannot applaud when the court goes against Putin and remain silent when the court goes against Netanyahu.”
Syria’s government says Israeli airstrikes on Monday injured at least two people and damaged several bridges in Homs province near the Lebanese border. The Israeli military said it had targeted Iranian weapons smuggling routes through Syria to Hezbollah.
Israeli Attacks Kill 14 in Gaza; Bezalel Smotrich Calls for Palestinian Population to Be Halved
Nov 26, 2024
In Gaza, health officials report Israeli strikes killed at least 14 Palestinians and wounded 108 others over the latest 24-hour period. One strike hit a family home in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya. Another tore through a crowd of people gathered near a bakery in Gaza City.
The latest killings came as Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a conference of Israeli settlers that Gaza’s population of more than 2.1 million should be drastically reduced. In remarks translated by Haaretz, Smotrich said, “It is possible to create a situation where Gaza’s population in two years will be less than half its current size.” Smotrich has called for Israel to effectively annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip and has called for the establishment of large new Israeli settlements.
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War Crimes in Lebanon: Human Rights Watch Says Israel Used U.S. Arms to Kill 3 Journalists
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 25, 2024
Since October 2023, Israel has killed over 3,700 people in Lebanon, with most of the deaths occurring over the past 10 weeks. The attacks have forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes in Lebanon, where Israel has also repeatedly targeted journalists. In a new report, Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing an apparent war crime by killing three journalists and injuring four others last month, when it bombed the Hasbaya Village Resort in southern Lebanon, where more than a dozen journalists had been staying. The attack killed Ghassan Najjar and Mohammad Reda, both from Al Mayadeen TV, and Wissam Kassem, a cameraman from Al-Manar TV. Human Rights Watch has revealed Israel used an airdropped bomb equipped with a U.S.-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kit. “Journalists are civilians, and deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime,” says Human Rights Watch researcher Ramzi Kaiss.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Lebanon, where Israel has killed at least 31 people over the past 24 hours, ahead of a possible ceasefire. Israel’s security cabinet is expected to vote today on a ceasefire proposal. One Saudi news outlet has reported President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron will announce a 60-day ceasefire in Lebanon later today. Under the deal, the Israeli military would withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, while Lebanon’s army would deploy to border areas from which Hezbollah has launched rocket attacks on Israel. According to Israeli officials, the proposed deal would allow Israel to continue to operate inside Lebanon to remove what it views as threats by Hezbollah. Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib spoke earlier today in Rome.
ABDALLAH BOU HABIB: The country as a whole is paralyzed. And we wanted to finish this and to have a ceasefire. Hopefully tonight, by tonight, we will have this ceasefire.
AMY GOODMAN: Since October last year, Israel has killed over 3,750 people in Lebanon, with most of the deaths occurring over the past 10 weeks. The Israeli attacks have forced more than a million people to flee their homes in Lebanon. About 60,000 people in northern Israel have also been displaced.
Israel has also targeted journalists in Lebanon. In a new report, Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing an “apparent war crime” by killing three journalists and injuring four others last month. On October 25th, Israel bombed the Hasbaya Village Resort in southern Lebanon, where more than a dozen journalists had been staying. The attack killed Ghassan Najjar, a journalist and cameraman; Mohammad Reda, a satellite broadcast engineer — both from Al Mayadeen TV; and Wissam Kassem, a cameraman from Al-Manar TV. Human Rights Watch has revealed Israel used an airdropped bomb equipped with a U.S.-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kit.
To talk more about this new report and the latest in Lebanon, we’re joined in Beirut by Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Ramzi, thank you so much for being with us. Go back to that day of the killing of the three journalists and tell us what you have reconstructed, what you understand took place.
RAMZI KAISS: Hi, Amy. I couldn’t hear the question very clearly, just parts of it.
But I’m currently in Beirut. I came back yesterday evening. And just landing into Beirut, you could see plumes of smoke rising from Beirut’s southern suburbs. And just a few minutes ago, before showing up into this studio, there had been strikes on central Beirut about a kilometer to two kilometers away. And just a few minutes ago, as well, there had been 20 evacuation warnings that had been given to various buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs or Dahiyeh.
You might know that we’re — currently ceasefire negotiations are ongoing, the results of which are still not clear. There’s a sense of cautious optimism from U.S. officials and Lebanese officials. But as things stand now, and especially in the past few days, there has been dozens of strikes across Beirut, across the south, across the entire country. And so we’ll have to wait and see what happens or unfolds.
But the situation is very much one of war still, and we’re currently looking at, you know, over 3,700 people killed in Lebanon. This includes over 240 children. It includes over 222 health workers, over 700 women, and more than 40 hospitals damaged. And what the World Health Organization says is over 10% of Lebanese hospitals have been either ceased to operate or are partially functioning, and where more than 47% of attacks on healthcare workers have been fatal.
AMY GOODMAN: Ramzi, and if you could go back in time and tell us — reconstruct for us the day that the three journalists were killed?
RAMZI KAISS: Yeah, so, our investigation looked into the attack that took place on October 25, 2024. And what we found, that there was an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Hasbaya on a resort where at least — or, more than a dozen journalists had been staying, in the early hours of the day. It killed at least three journalists and injured at least four others. We found that this attack was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime.
We also found that the attack was conducted using an airdropped bomb with a U.S.-produced guidance kit, a Joint Direct Attack Munition, or a JDAM. Human Rights Watch researchers had visited the site of the attack. They had identified the remnants that were used as part of the attack. This included a remnant that was made by the U.S. company Boeing, in addition to another remnant that bore a numerical code that identified it as being produced by the U.S. company Woodard.
As part of our investigation, we spoke to at least eight people, including three journalists who were injured in the attack, including the owner of the resort where the journalists had stayed. We found that there was no military activity that was happening in the immediate area of the attack. There were no military forces or fighting. The journalists had been staying at the site since at least October 1, so at least 25 days before the strike happened. And they had made routine and repeated trips daily in the town of Hasbaya to a nearby hilltop where they were doing live reports. The hotel owner had told Human Rights Watch that the journalists had left and come back approximately the same time every day. Most of the cars that were present at the site were marked by “press” or “TV.”
All of this together leads us to the conclusion that the Israeli military knew or should have known that the site, the targeted building that was being struck, was one that contained journalists. Journalists are civilians, and deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime. The Israeli military initially, after the strike, said that they struck a building where terrorists were operating. But a few hours later, they said that the incident is under review.
And this is not the first time that we have documented the unlawful killing of journalists. We had previously documented an apparently deliberate attack on October 13th that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. It is also not the first time that we are documenting the use of U.S. weapons unlawfully in Lebanon. We had previously documented the unlawful use of U.S. weapons to kill aid workers — that killed aid workers earlier this year. And once again, we’re seeing them being used unlawfully, and this time journalists were the ones that paid the price.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Ramzi, about the use of U.S. weapons, what are you calling for specifically of the U.S. government?
RAMZI KAISS: Yes. We’re calling on the U.S. government to suspend arms sales and military assistance to Israel, given that these weapons are being used unlawfully. We’re also calling on U.S. companies to end arms sales, recall already-sold weapons wherever possible, and stop all support services for already-sold weapons. In this case, the U.S. weapons were — in this case, U.S. weapons were used unlawfully in a deliberate attack on civilians, for which U.S. officials may be complicit — may be complicit in. And so, there’s a responsibility that the U.S. has under its own laws, but also under international law, to suspend arms sales where there’s a real threat, a real risk that these weapons will be used unlawfully.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We’ve also seen in recent days the International Criminal Court issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes in Gaza. Does the court have jurisdiction over crimes committed in Lebanon?
RAMZI KAISS: The court does not. And, in fact, one of the main calls that Human Rights Watch has been making is on the Lebanese government to provide the International Criminal Court with the jurisdiction to investigate crimes within its jurisdiction on Lebanese territory, regardless of who the perpetrator of these violations are. Lebanon is not a signatory to the Rome Statute but may provide the court with jurisdiction to investigate such crimes within its jurisdiction. We have previously made this call in relation to other investigations that Human Rights Watch has conducted. In April of this year, the government took this decision, instructing the Foreign Ministry to provide the court with jurisdiction under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, but the Foreign Ministry never acted on the decision, and the government eventually reversed that decision, unfortunately.
So, currently, there needs to be a pathway for accountability in Lebanon. This is where the Lebanese government has a really significant role to play, that it has not yet. We’re also calling on the Lebanese government to convene or call for the convening of a special session at the U.N. Human Rights Council in order to establish an international fact-finding mechanism that can investigate, document, collect evidence and report on its findings in relation to violations of the laws of war in connection to the hostilities between — in Lebanon and northern Israel.
AMY GOODMAN: Ramzi Kaiss, if you can talk about this possibility of a ceasefire and what exactly it would mean — you yourself live in Beirut — and how people would be affected? Does it mean there will be a mass flow of people back to their homes? What does all of this present? And how hopeful are the people of Lebanon right now?
RAMZI KAISS: Yeah, as I mentioned, there is some cautious optimism by U.S. officials, by Lebanese officials about the possibility of a ceasefire. But as we speak, strikes are currently ongoing in Lebanon. They are ongoing in the southern suburbs of Beirut, but, as well, in central Beirut, where about, you know, a few minutes ago, there had been a strike between one to two kilometers away. There have been ongoing, repeated evacuation warnings for buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and strikes are continuing to be reported in south Lebanon and across the country.
Whether a ceasefire or not takes place, the fact remains that in Lebanon more than 3,700 people have been killed, more than 240 children, more than 220 health and rescue workers, more than 700 women. Entire border villages have been detonated, have been destroyed and reduced to rubble. And there has been significant damages to the country’s health sector, with the large number of medical workers killed, the hospitals that have been damaged.
It’s not clear that many people in the south can return to their homes, given the vast damage that has happened, particularly in the border villages, where we have seen controlled demolitions, in some cases, of entire villages, in some cases, of large areas of those villages. We were speaking today with the mayor of one of the border villages, and he was expressing to us the anxiety that is had with returning to those villages because of what is not known, what is not known in terms of what is left of the villages, whether they’re going to be able to recognize it, but also in terms of what weapon remnants remain. These are villages that have also been struck by white phosphorus. They’ve been struck by high-explosive weapons.
And so, we have yet to see what will unfold with the ongoing ceasefire negotiations. But as things stand and given the high toll of people killed, of civilians killed, there also needs to be accountability for violations of the laws of war that have taken, that we have documented and that others have documented. This includes a deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, widespread use of white phosphorus, the unlawful attacks on civilian institutions, the use of booby-trapped devices. We’ll have to wait and see what comes about with regards to the ceasefire negotiations, but as things stand, strikes are ongoing on the country.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Ramzi, what do you make of this decision of the Israeli government, even as they are entertaining the possibility of a ceasefire, ramping up these attacks in the past few days? What’s your sense of what their goal is here?
RAMZI KAISS: Yeah, it’s not clear, right? I mean, there has been a serious escalation in the scale of attacks, particularly with regards to strikes on the southern suburbs. We’ve seen dozens of strikes on the southern suburbs. There’s also been — you know, especially today with the evacuation warnings being issued to various buildings in the country — in some cases, strikes happening without evacuation warnings. To me, it’s not clear what all this message is. Hezbollah has also increased the number of rockets it’s fired into Israel, with yesterday firing over 300 rockets into various areas of north and central Israel. It’s not clear what this all means and whether the ceasefire will in fact take place. We’ll have to wait and see. But, you know, regardless, civilians are, unfortunately, paying the price, as more homes are being destroyed, as more buildings are being leveled, as more strikes are ongoing across the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Ramzi Kaiss, we want to thank you for being with us, Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch, speaking to us from Beirut, the latest report from Beirut headlined “US Arms Used in Israeli Strike on Journalists: Three Killed, Four Injured in an Apparent War Crime.”We’ll link to it.
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Amnesty: Before Trump’s Term, Biden Must Change Policies on Asylum, Gitmo, Death Penalty, Gaza & More
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 26, 2024
We continue our conversation with Amnesty International USA executive director Paul O’Brien, who has written to President Joe Biden urging him for a number of policy changes before he leaves office in January. O’Brien’s letter calls for Biden to stop arms transfers to Israel and use U.S. leverage to end the war in Gaza; transfer detainees out of the Guantánamo Bay military prison and close the facility; commute the death sentences of people on federal and military death row; and restore asylum rights, which the administration severely curtailed this year. “He could do so much more,” O’Brien says of Biden’s last weeks in office.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Paul, I wanted to ask you about other things you mentioned in your letter, the issue of those folks on death row for federal crimes. Under President Trump’s first term, he oversaw the execution of 13 death row inmates, executing the most federal death row inmates of any president in more than a century. Talk about who is awaiting a death sentence now.
PAUL O’BRIEN: Thanks, yes, and those 13 executions happened in President Trump’s last six months. That’s what may be coming if we don’t see President Biden taking action now.
So, right now there are 44 men still on federal and military death row. One of those cases, Billie Allen, he was 19 when he [was sentenced for] a crime in 1998. There were deep flaws in his case, no DNA evidence, clear racism in his case. And yet, at the age of 47, more than half his life, he’s still there.
So, what we are asking President Biden to do is something he said he was going to work on in 2020. He said he was going to abolish the death penalty. All he’s done is put a moratorium during his administration. But that won’t mean anything once his administration ends. President Trump can simply end that moratorium and return to what he was doing at the end of his administration. So we need President Biden to commute those 44 sentences now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Also, President-elect Trump has vowed to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy. In what ways could President Biden help restore asylum at the border before his term ends?
PAUL O’BRIEN: Well, this is probably the greatest human rights crisis that is coming at us now, because President Trump has made clear he is going to immediately start engaging in mass deportations. President Biden, again, promised a human rights approach to immigration, and he has singularly failed to do so. In June, he passed an executive order which effectively shut down the U.S.-Mexico border and created this numerical cap on the number of people who can seek asylum.
There are many very specific things that he can do. During his administration, he set up the CBP One app. This is an app that people on the border can use to apply. I went down there and met with women, often mothers of young children, living in tents, waiting for this app to tell them when they could legally apply to enter the United States. And they were waiting month after month with no news. What he could do immediately is speed up the CBP One app process to get more people to legally apply for asylum, particularly for vulnerable populations.
But he could do so much more, as well, in these last couple of months. He could immediately stop expanding detention centers. He could shut down problematic detention centers and end the contracts of the companies that are running them. He could order the release of vulnerable populations who are in detention. He still has time to surge resources to address some of the backlogs that are now being experienced. And everything that he doesn’t do is going to make it easier for President Trump to fulfill his promises to initiate the biggest deportation in history.
AMY GOODMAN: Paul O’Brien, you’ve also called for the closing of Guantánamo. Explain.
PAUL O’BRIEN: It’s time, Amy. There are still 30 men there. President Biden has a window of opportunity right now. He can transfer all the detainees that are still there, already cleared for release, not charged with crimes, to countries where their human rights will be respected. He can halt unfair military commissions and help to resolve the pending cases that are there. All this can be done if he commits to closing Guantánamo once and for all during his last days in office. It can be done.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Gaza. Paul O’Brien, you’re executive director of Amnesty International USA. You’ve said, “Change course on Gaza: Stop arms transfers to the government of Israel in order to protect civilians and ensure U.S. weapons are not being used in violation of international law.” Senator Bernie Sanders, in the largest collection of U.S. senators, several dozen U.S. senators, they voted to stop arming Israel, but that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t the majority of the Senate, Paul.
PAUL O’BRIEN: That’s right. And this is what the United States must do now, and President Biden must show more leadership on this. It’s been weak rhetoric and weaker action since October 7 of 2023. He needs to send a clear message that the United States is no longer going to arm the killing of civilians in indiscriminate attacks, that we have documented time and again over the last more than a year now. He needs to use his remaining leverage to get a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. He needs to open up humanitarian access. And these will be the basis, we believe, and he needs to call for, the safe return of those remaining hostages. What is happening now to the Palestinian people has happened on President Biden’s watch, and he needs to take action to protect innocent lives in Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA. We’ll link to your letter urging President Biden to “change course on critical human rights before end of term.” We’ll link to it at democracynow.org.
When we come back, we look at a new short documentary about the execution of a Texas death row prisoner. It’s called I Am Ready, Warden. Stay with us.
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