أعلن نادي الأسير الفلسطيني، اليوم الثلاثاء، أن قوات الاحتلال “الإسرائيلي” اعتقلت منذ السابع من أكتوبر/ تشرين أول الماضي، 8430 أسيرًا من الضفة الغربية.
وقال نادي الأسير في بيان صحافي، إن مؤسسات الأسرى تمكّنت في إطار متابعتها توثيق ما لا يقل 8430 حالة اعتقال في الضّفة -بما فيها القدس- بعد السابع من أكتوبر.
وأشار إلى أن حملات الاعتقال التي يشنها الاحتلال “الإسرائيلي” شملت كافة فئات المجتمع الفلسطينيّ، من بينهم 280 سيدة وفتاة، ويشمل ذلك النساء اللواتي اعتقلن من الأراضي المحتلة عام 1948، والنساء اللواتي اعتقلنّ من الضّفة ويحملن هويات تشير إلى أنهن سكان غزة.
وبناءً على تقارير نادي الأسير، فقد بلغ عدد حالات الاعتقال بين صفوف الأطفال ما لا يقل عن 540 طفلًا، موضحًا أن تلك الإحصائية تشمل المُعتقلين داخل السجون “الإسرائيلية” ومن تم الإفراج عنهم.
وأكد النادي أن الاحتلال اتبع سياسة “الاعتقال الإداري” مع غالبية المعتقلين الذين اعتقلهم بعد السابع من أكتوبر.
ووفقًا لأخر إحصائيات النادي، فقد بلغ عدد الأسرى في سجون الاحتلال حتى بداية أبريل/نيسان الحالي، أكثر من 9500 أسيرًا، فيما يبلغ عدد المعتقلين الإداريين في سجون الاحتلال أكثر من 3660 أسيرًا، وبلغ عدد من صنفهم الاحتلال “مقاتلين غير شرعيين” 849 أسيرًا.
ونوه نادي الأسير إلى أن الاحتلال يُواصل تنفيذ جريمة الإخفاء القسري بحقّ معتقلي غزة بعد مرور 200 يومًا على العدوان والإبادة الجماعية.
وأوضح أن الاحتلال يرفض تزويد المؤسسات الحقوقية بما فيها الدّولية والفلسطينية المختصة أي معطى بشأن مصيرهم وأماكن احتجازهم حتّى اليوم، بما فيهم الشهداء من معتقلي غزة.
يسود مدينة القدس المحتلة والمسجد الأقصى، مخاطر غير مسبوقة في ظل توتر متصاعد، مع تزايد دعوات الجمعيات الاستيطانية المدعومة من حكومة الاحتلال لاقتحام المسجد وإدخال قرابين حيوانية وذبحها في ساحاته خلال الأيام القادمة بمناسبة ما يسمى بعيد الفصح اليهودي.
وكان مستوطناً قد قاد ماعزا سيرا على الأقدام الأحد الماضي، متوجها نحو أسوار البلدة القديمة للمدينة المقدسة، استجابة لدعوة جماعات الهيكل المتطرفة لجلب القرابين الحيوانية إلى القدس استعدادا لذبحها في ساحات المسجد الأقصى أو محيطه.
وتأتي هذه الدعوات بينما يشن جيش الاحتلال الإسرائيلي حرب إبادة شعواء ضد الفلسطينيين في قطاع غزة منذ السابع من أكتوبر الماضي، تسببت حتى الآن باستشهاد أكثر من 34 ألف فلسطيني ودمار هائل في البنى التحتية في القطاع.
اقتحام ممنهج
وأكد المنسق الإعلامي بمركز شؤون القدس والأٌقصى “كيوبرس” محمود أبو العطا، أن محاولات إدخال القرابين للمسجد الأقصى، يهدف إلى زعزعة الاستقرار وجر المدينة إلى حرب دينية تقود إلى تقسيم المسجد الأقصى زمانياً ومكانياً بين المسلمين واليهود.
وقال أبو العطا لـ”فلسطين أون لاين”: “حكومة الاحتلال تسير بوتيرة متسارعة لتنفيذ مخططها القاضي بتقسيم المسجد الأقصى تحت سمع وبصر العالم كله”، مشيراً إلى أن اقتحامات المستوطنين للمسجد الأقصى ومحاولات ذبح القرابين داخله، “يؤكد منهجية هذه الاقتحامات التي لا تبدو أنها أعمال عشوائية من جماعات استيطانية متفرقة”.
وأضاف أن هذه الأعمال والاقتحامات ممنهجة بشكل كبير، وهي عملية منظمة ترعاها حكومة الاحتلال ويحميها الجيش والشرطة وينفذها الجماعات الاستيطانية الصهيونية الهادفة لهدم الأقصى لإقامة ما يسمى بهيكل سليمان.
وأوضح أبو العطا أن الجماعات اليهودية المتطرفة تطالب حكومة الاحتلال بإغلاق المسجد الأقصى المبارك أمام المسلمين، منوهاً إلى أن أطماع المستوطنين لم تتوقف عند هذا الحد بل باتوا يطالبون بِـ”حرية الدخول إلى الأقصى المسقوف ومسجد قبة الصخرة المشرفة والمصلى المرواني وغيرها من المصليات المسقوفة”.
ولفت إلى أن (إسرائيل) تعتبر الأقصى حقًا من حقوقها، وأنها تسعى إلى ضمه في قائمة التراث اليهودي.
من ناحية أخرى، أكد المنسق الإعلامي بمركز شؤون القدس والأٌقصى “كيوبرس” أن المرابطون في باحات المسجد الأقصى يتعرضون لمخطط صهيوني لاقتلاع صمودهم ووجودهم في القدس، لتفكيك قواعد الرباط والتصدي لاقتحامات المستوطنين المستمرة في الحرم المقدسي.
وأشار إلى أن سلطات الاحتلال تحاول عرقلة فلسطينيي الداخل المحتل من التواجد في الأقصى بسن قوانين جديدة، محذرا من خطر قادم وحقيقي ضد الأقصى في حال استمرت مخططات الاحتلال ضد المقدسيين والرموز الإسلامية والمقدسات الإسلامية.
ورأى أبو العطا أن الخطر الذي يتعرض له المسجد الأقصى “يتطلب ثورةً شعبيةً وانتفاضةً تضع حدا لغطرسة الاحتلال الإسرائيلي”، مشيراً إلى أن المقدسيون ومعهم بعض من الداخل المحتل وحدهم يتصدون لكافة إجراءات ومخططات الاحتلال في القدس المحتلة.
واعتبر أن الاستمرار في تصدير المواقف الباهتة رسميا وشعبيا، “لن يجدي نفعاً للأقصى، ولن يقدم أي شيء للمقدسيين”، مطالباً بتقديم الدعم المعنوي والمادي لتعزيز صمود المقدسيين.
تكثيف الرباط
من ناحيته، دان المفتي العام للقدس والديار الفلسطينية وخطيب المسجد الأقصى المبارك، د. محمد حسين، اعتداءات المستوطنين المتكررة بحق المقدسات الإسلامية والمسيحية، ومحاولات إدخال القرابين إلى ساحات الأقصى لأجل ذبحها.
واعتبر حسين في حديث مع “فلسطين أون لاين” هذه الجرائم بمثابة “محاولات حثيثة لإشعال حرب دينية”.
وقال: “إن سلطات الاحتلال برعايتها اقتحامات المستوطنين للأقصى، تدعم الحملات التي من شأنها أن تقود المنطقة إلى المزيد من التطرف، وتساهم في خلق صراع ديني في القدس المحتلة”.
ولفت حسين النظر إلى أن كافة هذه الإجراءات التي تقوم بها التنظيمات اليهودية في القدس، تهدف إلى سلب القدس من المقدسيين وتحويلها إلى مدينة يهودية عاصمة للشعب اليهودي، تكون خالية من المسلمين والمقدسيين.
ونبه إلى أن الغرض من تكثيف هذه الاقتحامات، هو ترسيخ فكرة تقسيم الأقصى زمانياً ومكانياً بين اليهود والمسلمين، وهذا يعد إصراراً إسرائيلياً على تزوير المقدسات الإسلامية وتحويلها إلى معالم يهودية استناداً إلى أوهام وخرافات قديمة.
وأضاف: “هذه الاعتداءات المستمرة على المقدسات، هي جريمة لا يجب السكوت عليها وهي تدلل على مدى الحقد الدفين في نفوس أولئك المستوطنين ضد العرب والمسلمين”، مؤكداً أن كافة هذه الاعتداءات تتم برعاية وتنسيق وحماية من الجهات الرسمية الإسرائيلية وخاصة جيش الاحتلال.
وحذر حسين المقدسيين من الهجمة اليهودية التي تحضر لها منظمات يهودية في القدس لاقتحام المسجد الأقصى وذبح القرابين، داعياً كافة الفلسطينيين بتكثيف تواجدهم في باحاته على غرار أيام رمضان والعيد، والتصدي لهذه المحاولات.
وبيّن أن الفلسطينيين وحدهم يقفون أمام مخططات الاحتلال ضد المسجد الأقصى، دون وجود أي ظهير عربي قوي يساندهم ويعزز صمودهم في التصدي لاقتحامات المستوطنين.
واستهجن خطيب المسجد الأقصى، ضعف الموقف العربي والإسلامي الذي يهبط إلى مستوى التخاذل، داعياً إلى اتخاذ مواقف جادة وحاسمة، والعمل من أجل وقف اقتحامات الأقصى، وإعادة هيبته التي فقدت بسبب الصمت الطويل.
إسرائيل فشلت في تحقيق أهدافها في غزة، رغم مواصلة عملياتها الواسعة في القطاع لليوم الـ200 على التوالي.
هذا ما أكدته صحيفة نيويورك تايمز الأمريكية، في تقرير مساء أمس الإثنين، أكدت فيه أن العمليات العسكرية الإسرائيلية في غزة أدت إلى إضعاف حماس، فقد تدهورت معظم كتائبها وتشتت، وقُتل الآلاف من أعضائها، وتمت تصفية قائد عسكري كبير واحد منها على الأقل.
لكن الصحيفة تقول إنه مع ذلك لم تحقق إسرائيل أهدافها الأساسية من الحرب، التي تتمثل في تحرير المحتجزين لدى الفصائل الفلسطينية، وكذلك تدمير حماس بالكامل، الأهداف التي أعلن عنها رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو بداية الحرب في 7 أكتوبر/تشرين الأول الماضي.
تكلفة باهظة
وتقول الصحيفة إن الحرب وتكتيكات الجيش الإسرائيلي أتت بتكلفة باهظة، إذ قُتلت أعداد كبيرة من المدنيين الفلسطينيين في الحملة الإسرائيلية، والجوع منتشر على نطاق واسع في غزة، وأثارت الوفيات الناجمة عن جهود الإغاثة الإدانة.
وبعد أكثر من 6 أشهر من الصراع، فإن السؤال عما حققته إسرائيل لا يزال قائما، ومتى وكيف يمكن أن ينتهي القتال؟ وهي أسئلة تخلق توترات عالمية متزايدة الشدة حول حرب كلفت تل أبيب الدعم حتى من حلفائها المقربين.
وبدأت الخسائر العسكرية الإسرائيلية في الارتفاع، حيث قُتل نحو 260 جنديا وأصيب أكثر من 1500 آخرين، منذ أن بدأ هجومها البري الساحق في الأسابيع التي تلت هجمات حماس.
ويقول مسؤولون إسرائيليون إن حوالي 133 من المحتجزين لا يزالون في غزة، لكن المحادثات الرامية لتأمين عودة بعضهم على الأقل مقابل وقف القتال والإفراج عن سجناء فلسطينيين تواجه عقبات، حسب نيويورك تايمز.
نمط مميت
واستقرت الحرب في نمط مميت من المناوشات والغارات الجوية مع استمرار القوات الإسرائيلية في العمل في غزة، مستهدفة مقاتلي حركتي حماس والجهاد.
وفي الأسبوع الماضي، مع تزايد التوترات بين إسرائيل وإيران، أعلن الجيش الإسرائيلي أنه ضرب أكثر من 100 هدف، وقتل عشرات من المقاتلين في وسط غزة، بما في ذلك ضابط أمن من حماس خدم في جناح المخابرات التابع للحركة.
ويقول الجيش الإسرائيلي إن خسائر حماس مستمرة في التزايد، كما أنه لم يُقتل أي جندي إسرائيلي في القتال بغزة منذ 6 أبريل/نيسان، ويشير ذلك، وفق نيويورك تايمز، إلى أن وتيرة القتال وقدرات حماس قد تضاءلت في الوقت الراهن.
شكوك بشأن قدرات إسرائيل
لكن الجانبين يستعدان لعملية أكبر في مدينة رفح الجنوبية، آخر معاقل حماس التي لم تتعرض للغزو من إسرائيل، وهناك قدر أكبر من عدم اليقين بشأن ما قد يأتي بعد رفح، مع تساؤلات حول من سيحكم غزة ويتولى توفير الأمن فيها إذا كان للقتال أن ينتهي.
وعلى الرغم من الخسائر الفادحة التي منيت بها حماس، إلا أن قسما كبيرا من قيادتها العليا في غزة لا يزال في مكانه، متخفيا في شبكة واسعة من الأنفاق ومراكز العمليات تحت الأرض، وهو صاحب القرار في مفاوضات المحتجزين.
ويقول مسؤولون أمريكيون حاليون وسابقون إن هذه الأنفاق ستسمح لحماس بالبقاء وإعادة تشكيل نفسها بمجرد توقف القتال.
وتشير الصحيفة إلى أنه في تقييم استخباراتي سنوي صدر في شهر مارس/آذار، أعربت وكالات التجسس الأمريكية عن شكوكها بشأن قدرة إسرائيل على تدمير حماس فعليا، مشيرا إلى أنه من المحتمل أن تواجه تل أبيب مقاومة مسلحة مستمرة من حماس لسنوات قادمة.
في اليوم الـ200 من الحرب الإسرائيلية على غزة، وصفت الأمم المتحدة التقارير عن اكتشاف مقبرة جماعية في القطاع بأنها “مثيرة للقلق للغاية”.
ودعت الأمم المتحدة إلى إجراء تحقيق “موثوق”، في أعقاب انتشال الدفاع المدني في غزة 73 جثة جديدة من مقابر جماعية في مجمع ناصر بخان يونس، وبذلك يرتفع إجمالي الجثث لـ283.
من جهتها، قالت حركة المقاومة الإسلامية (حماس) إنها تدين تصريحات وزير الخارجية الأميركي أنتوني بلينكن “ومحاولة تحميل الحركة مسؤولية تعطيل الوصول إلى اتفاق”.
وأكدت حماس أن مطالبها كانت واضحة منذ اليوم الأول وهي “وقف دائم لإطلاق النار وانسحاب الاحتلال وعودة النازحين وإعادة الإعمار”.
The League of Parliamentarians for Al-Quds has completed preparations to launch its fifth international conference, entitled “Freedom and Independence for Palestine,” in Istanbul.
The conference activities will begin on Friday, April 26, 2024, in the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and under the patronage of the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament, Numan Kurtulmuş, with the participation of more than 500 parliamentarians from 70 countries, in addition to official, international and Turkish figures.
The conference will continue for three days, and will include activities, seminars and dialogue sessions on the Palestinian issue and the genocidal war waged by the Israeli occupation against the Gaza Strip.
The opening session of the conference is scheduled to include a speech by the Turkish President, the Speaker of Parliament, and the President of the Association, Sheikh Hamid bin Abdullah Al-Ahmar, in addition to the Vice-President of the Association, Nour al-Din Nakhti.
The conference will also include political and legal seminars and a parliamentary dialogue session on the role of the Palestine Parliamentary Committees in supporting the Palestinian cause, and the parliamentary platform will include speeches by the heads of parliaments and representatives of participating delegations, in addition to a humanitarian symposium containing relief projects for the Gaza Strip.
On the sidelines of the conference, there will be exhibitions related to the Palestinian issue and heritage, in addition to an exhibition on the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.
أنهت رابطة برلمانيون لأجل القدس، استعداداتها لإطلاق مؤتمرها الدولي الخامس تحت عنوان “الحرية والاستقلال لفلسطين”، في مدينة إسطنبول.
وتنطلق فعاليات المؤتمر يوم الجمعة الموافق 26/04/2024، بحضور الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان وبرعاية رئيس البرلمان التركي نعمان كورتولموش، وبمشاركة أكثر من 500 برلماني من 70 دولة، بالإضافة لشخصيات رسمية ودولية وتركية.
وتستمر أعمال المؤتمر على مدار ثلاثة أيام، ويتخلله فعاليات وندوات وجلسات حوارية حول القضية الفلسطينية وحرب الإبادة الذي يشنها الاحتلال الإسرائيلي على قطاع غزة.
ومن المقرر أن يتخلل الجلسة الافتتاحية للمؤتمر كلمة للرئيس التركي، ورئيس البرلمان، ورئيس الرابطة الشيخ حميد بن عبد الله الأحمر، بالإضافة لنائب رئيس الرابطة نور الدين نباتي.
وسيتضمن المؤتمر، ندوات سياسية وقانونية وجلسة حوارية برلمانية عن دور لجان فلسطين البرلمانية في دعم القضية الفلسطينية، والمنبر البرلماني يتخلله كلمات لرؤساء البرلمانات وممثلي الوفود المشاركة، بالإضافة لندوة إنسانية تحتوي على مشاريع إغاثية لقطاع غزة.
وسيقام على هامش المؤتمر معارض متعلقة بالقضية والتراث الفلسطيني، بالإضافة إلى معرض حول حرب الإبادة الجماعية التي قطاع غزة.
Over 100 students at Columbia were arrested last week after refusing to leave a pro-Palestinian protest encampment set up on the university’s main campus. The arrests have since set off a chain of events, including the re-establishment of the encampment and solidarity protests on other US college campuses.
On Monday, Columbia announced it will hold classes virtually to try to “reset” the situation on campus. Here’s what we know so far about what’s happening at Columbia.
An encampment for divestment
Students started setting up a protest encampment in the center of Columbia’s campus at about 4am on Wednesday last week, building tents on the campus lawn in upper Manhattan. The student protesters said they would occupy the lawn until the university divests from companies with ties to Israel.
The encampment was timed with the upcoming congressional testimony of Columbia president Minouche Shafik that was taking place that day on the university’s response to antisemitism.
On Wednesday night, the university began warning protesters that those still occupying the lawn would be subject to arrest. In the early afternoon on Thursday, the NYPD arrested 108 students who were in the encampments.
Many of the students who were arrested have been temporarily suspended by the university, including Isra Hirsi, a student at Barnard, which is affiliated with Columbia. Hirsi is the daughter of the US congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
During a news conference later that day, the NYPD commissioner, Edward Caban, said: “The students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say.”
In a campus-wide email, Shafik said she requested NYPD clear the encampment as it “severely disrupts campus life, and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students”.
The crackdown was condemned by a group of professors who said they were “shocked at [Shafik’s] failure to mount any defense of the free inquiry central to the educational mission of a university in a democratic society and at her willingness to appease legislators seeking to interfere with university affairs”.
Columbia president’s congressional hearing
The day before the arrests, Shafik testified in front of the House on Columbia’s response to antisemitism on Wednesday, a highly charged hearing that was fraught with clashes among Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
Rightwing lawmakers and activists have long painted college campuses, especially at elite universities, as hotbeds for troublesome liberal activists. Though the hearings are purportedly centered around antisemitism, much of the scrutiny from Republicans have been focused on the colleges’ reaction to pro-Palestinian student protesters. The former presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania ultimately resigned after they participated in similar hearings on antisemitism last fall.
During her hearing, Shafik said that Columbia had been under “an extreme pressure test” over the last six months.
“Our systems clearly have not been equipped to manage the unfolding situation,” she said. Shafik said the university, at that point, had suspended 15 students associated with protests and had asked the NYPD, for the first time in 50 years, to assist.
Solidarity protests begin, while White House rebukes antisemitism
Though police had cleared out the protest encampment after the students were arrested, a new encampment on a different lawn was constructed. The encampment remained active through the weekend and on Monday, though the university closed the campus’s gates to the public.
Starting on Friday, students at campuses across the country held walkouts in solidarity with the Columbia students who were arrested. Students at Brown, Princeton and Northwestern held protests on Friday and over the weekend. Meanwhile, students at Yale and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill started their own encampments.
Meanwhile, protests outside Columbia’s campus began over the weekend, which included clashes among pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian activists. By this point, the university had closed its campus gates to the public, making it unclear whether the protesters were affiliated with the university.
At one point, reports of people shouting antisemitic statements like “go back to Poland” were posted on social media. Columbia Chabad, a chapter of the international Orthodox Jewish movement, wrote a statement saying that Jewish students were shouted at on their way to the dorms.
“We are horrified and worried about physical safety,” the group wrote.
In a statement on social media, Columbia’s Apartheid Divest, one of the group’s coordinating the encampment, said that the incidents were not associated with the student protests and that their “priority is the safety of all”, including “not antagonizing counter-protesters or escalating situations unnecessarily”.
In a statement celebrating Passover, Joe Biden released a White House statement addressing the reports, though he did not name Columbia specifically.
“Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country,” the statement read.
Columbia holds classes virtually on Monday, while Yale protesters are arrested
On Monday, as the encampment continued and the university’s gates remained closed to the public, Shafik announced the university would be holding classes virtually.
“The decibel of our disagreements has only increased in recent days. Those tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas,” Shafik said. “We need a reset.”
In New Haven, Connecticut, at least 47 people were arrested at Yale on Monday morning after setting up an encampment on campus Friday night.
“The university made the decision to arrest those individuals who would not leave the plaza with the safety and security of the entire Yale community in mind and to allow access to university facilities by all members of our community,” said a statement from the university.
A sensitive time on college campuses
The protests at Columbia and other colleges take place at a sensitive time on campuses, which have seen widespread protests, largely calling for ceasefire and divestment, over the last few months.
Recently, university leaders have used harsher measures to clamp down on student protests. In December, Brown arrested 41 students who held a sit-in in a school building. The students were ultimately charged with trespassing.
Earlier this month, Vanderbilt expelled three students out of a group of 27, all who were suspended, who participated in a sit-in protest on campus. A group of 20 students at Pomona College in California were suspended after staging a protest at the office of the university president.
Last week, the University of Southern California faced intense backlash after it canceled the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student because of the “alarming tenor” of reactions to her selection and the “substantial risks relating to security”.
Even before 7 October, Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, a Lebanese cultural worker residing in the UK, had been used to awkward questioning from arts venues when she pitched work about Palestine.
“I’ve had very reductive questions from some venues when pitching Palestinian artists’ work, which hasn’t happened when I’ve pitched other artists,” she said.
“Before even giving me a chance to talk about the work, I’ve had questions about whether there was any balance by including an Israeli point of view, or if we foresaw any protests happening.”
Choucair-Vizoso once had a project pulled for featuring the word “Palestine” in its title.
Before October, these conversations tended to happen behind closed doors. However, since Israel’s war on Gaza began, a slew of venues, including the Arnolfini arts centre, the Barbican, and Chickenshed theatre have publicly pulled events featuring Palestinian or pro-Palestinian artists.
In each case the venues issued statements citing security concerns or the “complexity” of the situation in Gaza.
For Choucair-Vizoso, the speed and the scale of the censorship has intensified since October.
“I haven’t seen this happening before at this scale,” she told Middle East Eye. “It’s never been this public, and now during a genocide.
“It’s very hard, because my village in the south of Lebanon has been destroyed and I have to deal with this,” she said.
“I think there are so many [events] we don’t know about. Imagine all the work that didn’t even get to the programming stage.”
A pattern of intimidation
In March, HOME, a Manchester-based arts centre, announced the cancellation of a Palestinian literature event, Voices of Resilience, after the venue received a letter from the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region claiming that a featured writer, Atef Abu Saif, was antisemitic and a Holocaust denier.
“The venue was really supportive about it initially,” the event co-producer and director, Dani Abulhawa, told MEE. “We have a couple of high-profile actors involved in the show, so it drew more attention than a smaller production might have done… it sold out almost immediately.”
The venue then told the organisers they began receiving “hundreds” of complaints.
“We were told initially that they were getting a lot of complaints about the use of the word ‘genocide’, which was in the copy for the show,” Abulhawa said.
The organisers reluctantly agreed to remove the word from the copy.
However, the venue then raised concerns about the title of a book by Abu Saif, Don’t Look Left: A Diary of Genocide, which they were planning to sell at the event to fundraise for charity.
Abulhawa and her colleagues agreed not to sell the book at the event.
Finally, the venue confirmed it was dropping the event, when it received a draft of a newspaper article which accused its management of antisemitism, over fears that protests would disrupt the show.
“Obviously, we were also concerned about safety… but we were extremely upset by these accusations because they’re completely baseless,” Abulhawa said.
In a statement on its website, the venue cited security concerns and declared itself a “politically neutral space”.
Artists remove work from HOME’s exhibitions to protest at its cancellation of the Voices of Resilience event
This was the same reasoning cited by Bristol’s Arnolfini gallery when it cancelled two Palestine Film Festival events in November, saying that, as an arts charity, it could not engage in anything that could be “construed as political activity”.
For Abulhawa, her experience with HOME was not an isolated incident, but “part of a pattern of intimidation”.
“Palestinian voices are being silenced in the process of venues responding with [often] kneejerk reactions to any accusations, without investigating them first,” she said.
A familiar script
For Saeed Taji Farouky, a Palestinian-British filmmaker who has been campaigning against the silencing of Palestinian work by UK arts institutions, this pattern predates 7 October.
“We hear the same bullshit over and over again, it follows a very familiar script,” Farouky said.
“The event is planned, it’s marketed, you would start selling tickets in some cases. And then [the venue] receives a letter often [from] groups claiming to represent Jewish communities,” Farouky told MEE.
“These letters will make really spurious claims of antisemitism, and in most cases, that’s enough to terrify the venue. And they cancel the show,” he said.
According to Farouky, the venues often cite security reasons for the cancellation.
“These are venues that have hosted events for Ukraine… about trans visibility,” Farouky said.
“If you are willing to stand up for these other issues, why is Palestine an exception?”
For Farouky, who has been campaigning on the issue for 30 years, the rate of event cancellations has intensified, echoing Choucair-Vizoso’s feeling.
“It’s so much more blatant now,” he said.
“Any of the groups that are working hard to suppress Palestinian voices have realised how effective their strategy is… the minute they see the word Palestine, they know that all they have to do is write a poorly worded email [and] they’ll pull the plug.”
But according to Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour, the rates of censorship are hard to quantify, as many artists could be dropped before a programme is made public.
“It’s impossible to know about the cases where an artist was shortlisted for an event, but conveniently removed from the list to reduce the likelihood of political controversy,” Sansour told MEE.
“How does one even start to assess the frequency of institutions deciding not to take a chance on a Palestinian artist?”
A chilling effect
In January, Arts Council England released new guidelines warning organisations that “overtly political or activist statements” could incur “reputational risk” and breach funding agreements.
Following a fierce backlash, the funding body was forced to revise the guidelines, clarifying that organisations would not be penalised for working with artists who make political statements.
Despite the retraction, artists who spoke to MEE felt that the guidelines would have a chilling effect on venues, deterring them from featuring Palestinian work.
‘Where are the leaders of cultural institutions that are willing to stand up for themselves and our communities, and what’s morally right?’
-Saeed Taji Farouky, filmmaker
“If you read it carefully, [organisations] still have to manage risk around artistic work that deals with ‘controversial’ issues or topics. What is deemed controversial and by whom?” Choucair-Vizoso told MEE.
“Organisations could be disincentivised from putting on Palestinian work [because] it could be a lengthy, exhausting and traumatising process to go through,” she said.
According to Farouky, the venues he had negotiated with frequently cited fears over being reported to the Charity Commission or having their Arts Council funding revoked.
“The argument we always hear is: if we were to stand up for this case, we might risk our funding,” Farouky told MEE.
“Where are the leaders of cultural institutions that are willing to stand up for themselves and our communities, and what’s morally right, and what’s legally defensible?” he said.
“This is not just a venue cancelling an event. I think the decisions we make now are going to reverberate for at least a generation [and influence] the cultural makeup of Britain.”
Marking 200 days since Operation al-Aqsa Storm that saw the Israeli army attack Gaza with unprecedented ferocity, major questions remain as to what Tel Aviv has achieved.
By the admission of Israeli officials, former and present military chiefs and political leaders, as well as media analysts, the regime’s army has been bogged down in Gaza.
With the exception of death, destruction, and brutality committed in the Gaza Strip, the occupation regime has failed to achieve any of its officially and unofficially stated goals.
The officially stated goals are the elimination of Hamas, wiping out its military capabilities, returning the Israeli captives, and preventing any part of Gaza from becoming a security risk to the occupation regime in the future.
The unofficial goals, which have been stated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers, are displacing Gaza’s population to Egypt, re-occupying Gaza, and rebuilding settlements in Gaza.
Both the officially and unofficially stated goals have been abject failures by the admission of Israelis themselves.
The Israeli minister of war or military leaders try to speak of tactical victories when announcing the discovery of a tunnel shaft and some light arms here and there or even the killing of resistance fighters.
Yet, experts say this is natural as the Israeli army possesses one of the most powerful and sophisticated weaponry and technology in the world.
If it can’t achieve these simple tactical achievements, then the end of the Israeli military is spelled. This is not something Tel Aviv should be boasting about.
The slogans of the war, 200 days ago, were not the discovery of some arms here or tunnel shafts there.
In its first days of the ground offensive, the Israeli army invaded and occupied northern Gaza and then withdrew its forces after a few months, declaring mission accomplished.
200 days later, Israeli army units are back in northern Gaza, fighting against the Palestinian resistance forces in the same areas that it had invaded on day one.
Half of the Israeli captives have not been released. The other half were released through negotiations with Hamas.
The Palestinian resistance forces have used guerilla warfare to ambush and defeat Israeli army units, (videos surface every day detailing in evidence attacks on Israeli troops and military vehicles) forcing entire brigades to withdraw from the enclave.
When the Israeli army was forced to withdraw from the Palestinian territory, the regime’s political leadership resorted to propaganda by turning an embassaring defeat into attempts at alluding it to a victory.
This strongly indicates that the Gaza resistance is still alive, active, and very far from being eliminated.
100,000 displaced Israeli settlers have yet to return to their settlements in the Gaza envelope.
200 days and Israeli society is deeply fractured and polarized. News surfaces frequently of infighting and divisions among the members of the war cabinet set up after October 7.
The Israeli public who are demanding the resignation of the prime minister are back on the streets of Tel Aviv in their masses, calling for early elections and an immediate ceasefire. Surveys by the Israeli Maariv news site show that the majority of the Israeli public is not satisfied with the war on Gaza.
Netanyahu and the ministers he relies on to stay in office speak of victory or one step away from an absolute victory, while the international community, including the regime’s staunchest ally, the United States, are telling Tel Aviv in private and sometimes politicians speak openly in public that the occupation regime has lost.
The Israeli regime has not only lost in Gaza it has also lost its image around the world. Long years are needed for its international reputation to recover, if it ever does.
There are other major losses, which include its economy, ongoing security issues as well as “the day after” the war.
After speaking about a number of scenarios, the Israeli political leadership still has absolutely no idea what it plans to do when the war is over. This strategic failure to plan for the “day after” reflects the lack of any Israeli military strategy in Gaza over the past 200 days.
The head of the regime’s military intelligence has resigned over failures around the 7 October Hamas attack.
Aharon Haliva is the first senior figure to step down. More are set to follow suit for the security and intelligence lapses, including Netanyahu who faces prison but is adamant to carry on with this murder campaign against women and children for as long as possible to avoid that inevitable fate.
What the Israeli army has successfully achieved is the killing of civilians.
So far, more than 10,000 women and more than 12,000 children have been massacred. More than 17,000 children are now orphans. Thousands of elderly have been murdered. At least 8,000 civilians remain missing. Some estimates put that figure in the tens of thousands.
70,000 others are injured, and again, the majority of them are women and children.
The Israeli occupation has also brought starvation, famine, and disease across Gaza. Nearly all Palestinians rely on food aid to survive. Many are malnourished.
This is anything but a military victory. Especially not a victory by an army that recently called on 360,000 reservists to join all its other battalions against an area roughly 365 square kilometers.
These are all the signs of Israeli barbarity, collective punishment and genocide.
Despite everything the Palestinians in Gaza have gone through for 200 days, they refuse to leave their homeland. They refuse to surrender. Hamas refuses to bend to pressure in negotiations. The group continues to insist that those displaced from northern Gaza must be allowed to return.
The resistance movement has not backed down on its conditions over a ceasefire deal, which entails the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the enclave and a prisoner exchange.
Reports suggest Netanyahu is desperate for a ceasefire deal. The Palestinians maintain that their terms must be met.
In essence, the occupation regime has lost on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.
This reflects the unique resilience of the Palestinians despite all the pain and hardship that no population on the planet has endured in the 21st century.
