South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said Palestinians’ right to self-determination is something very close to their hearts and they can never turn back their support, Anadolu news agency reported.

Addressing an event in the Western Cape Province on the weekend, Ramaphosa said the country’s first democratically elected President Nelson Mandela taught them to support the Palestinian cause for freedom and they will continue to do so.

“We will fly the flag of the Palestinians high and that is South Africa’s stand and South African people particularly, the African National Congress party,’’ he said.

Ramaphosa also said: “We are never going to turn back from supporting the cause of the Palestinians be sure about that,’’ he said as he sought support for his ruling party ahead of the May 29 elections.

He also said his country supports the Freedom Flotilla which will carry humanitarian aid to Gaza, as it continues its preparations.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since the 7 October Hamas incursion, which killed around 1,200 people.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Tel Aviv, in comparison, has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians and wounded 77,700 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in the Palestinian Territory.

More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85 per cent of the enclave’s population into internal displacement besides a crippling blockade on food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

(Source: MEMO)

Ed Pilkington

The conduct of at least one student at the University of Mississippi is under official investigation after white counter-protesters at a pro-Palestinian demonstration made what the school called “offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable” statements with “racist overtones”.

The university’s chancellor, Glenn Boyce, said that a conduct investigation had been launched into one student and more might follow in the wake of Thursday’s volatile scenes on campus. The clash occurred after a diverse group of about 30 students protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza were outnumbered by almost entirely white counter-protesters at a ratio of 10 to one, according to the Mississippi Free Press.

A video that has since gone viral showed one of the white male counter-protesters jumping up and down and making monkey noises in front of a Black woman with the pro-Palestinian protest group. Other white men then echoed the racist noises, and began chanting: “Lock her up!”

Some of the protesters were dressed in Stars and Stripes dungarees, others held aloft US and Donald Trump flags. They threw water bottles and cups at the pro-Palestinian protesters and yelled: “Who’s your daddy?”, “Take a shower”, and “Shave your legs”, among other offensive chants.

Announcing the investigation, Boyce acknowledged the bitter history of racism and segregation at the 25,000-strong university, which only accepted its first Black student under legal duress in 1962. “It is important to acknowledge our challenging history, and incidents like this set us back. It is one reason we do not take this lightly,” the chancellor said.

The fraternity Phi Delta Theta has said that it has expelled a member it called “the responsible individual” behind “racist actions” that it said were “antithetical to the values of Phi Delta Theta and the Mississippi Alpha chapter”. The identity of the individual, as well as that of the person under university investigation, have not been released.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, struck a different response. Invoking an acronym for his “Make American great again” slogan, the former president published a video on Instagram showing white counter-protesters waving a Trump flag and wrote: “Thank you Ole Miss – MAGA!”

The overtly racist tone adopted by some of the counter-protesters on such an august campus called to mind some of the most regrettable events of segregation in the deep south of the US. When James Meredith became the first Black student at the university 62 years ago, his arrival was met with rioting by 2,000 white people, culminating with President John F Kennedy sending in the national guard.

In 1983, Black students had to go into hiding on campus after 1,000 white students descended on their house singing “Dixie”. A year earlier, the Ku Klux Klan marched brazenly through the university grounds.

Today the university remains disproportionately white. About 11% of the student body is African American and 76% white, compared with an overall Mississippi population that is 38% Black and 58% white.

(Source: The Guardian)

As US students of the late 1960s and early ‘70s protested racism and the Vietnam War, university students now are “emulating” them by protesting US support for the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza, which kills Palestinians for Israel’s “political outlook,” according to a former student protester and current anti-war activist.

“The US wants them (Israel) to play a certain role in terms of what’s going on in the Middle East. And that means, unfortunately, that the Palestinians end up being killed for that political outlook,” said Beth Massey, 77, a graduate of New York’s Columbia University, which saw some of the first protests of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which has so far killed some 35,000 people.

Decrying the US support for Israel’s war, she told Anadolu: “All he (US President Joe Biden) wants to do is to put some kind of a facade on what’s happening. He doesn’t want it to stop. He wants us to be stupid enough to believe that he wants it to stop. If he wanted it to stop, they wouldn’t have sent (Israel) the money. I’m not stupid, and I think this generation that is out there emulating what my generation did is not stupid.”

The demonstrations, starting at Columbia University on April 16 and spreading to various universities across the country in support of Palestine, bear a striking resemblance to the 1968 protests against racism, injustice, and US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Massey told Anadolu about her involvement in the 1968 Columbia University protests and their parallels to the current student protests.

The historic 1968 protests at Columbia lasted for days and were suppressed with police intervention.

‘No regrets’ over her political involvement

Massey said she’s originally from Pennsylvania but grew up in the southern state of Tennessee, when he father relocated there for his job as a coal miner, to a region where racism was more prevalent.

“I had grown up in the middle of the civil rights movement, and I would say that was the most important thing that shaped me in terms of the way I looked at the world,” she said.

In the late ‘60s, Massey enrolled in Barnard College, a New York women’s college affiliated with Columbia University.

Before taking part in the 1968 protests, Massey faced personal hardships, including losing both parents to illness, and endured financial and spiritual challenges.

“So there was a lot of insecurity, but in terms of what I was doing politically, I have no regrets, none whatsoever. In a lot of ways, it gave me a direction,” she noted.

‘They don’t answer why they continue to kill people in Gaza’

Massey stressed that in the 1968 student protests, they were dedicated to combating racism and opposing war, issues that persist to this day.

Martin Luther King “said that the US was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world,” she said, referring to the US civil rights leader and anti-war activist, who was assassinated in 1968. “I believe that to this day. I’ve seen so much evidence of it. Being an activist against war for 56 years, I’ve seen it in Central America. I’ve seen it in Vietnam. I’ve seen it right now.”

Massey also criticized Biden, as though US soldiers are not fighting in Gaza at the moment US weapons are certainly being used.

“I mean, they can hear (what) the media says, they should be peaceful. They shouldn’t go into buildings and destroy property. But they don’t answer why they continue to kill people in Gaza. That is the core question,” she said.

Recalling students’ occupation of university buildings as part of civil disobedience in 1968, Massey noted a similarity to recent events, including students occupying a building and police coming in and arresting many of them just last week, though she said the students were not doing anything illegal.

“I’ve been in the movement and been struggling around Palestine for many years. There have always been a large number of Jewish participants in the movement. Our media refuses to even acknowledge that,” she said, pushing back at claims that protests in support of Palestine are antisemitic.

US ‘is complicit’ in what Israel is doing

Pointing to the US’ long-standing support for Israel since its founding in 1948, Massey charged that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“(The US) is complicit. I think they might even be the ‘brains,’ if we can use that term, behind Israel,” she said.

Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived peacefully in the region before 1948, she said.

“But the US wants them (Israel) to play a certain role in terms of what’s going on in the Middle East. And that means, unfortunately, that the Palestinians end up being killed for that political outlook and a need to be in control. The US has a tremendous desire, in my opinion, to be in control,” she said.

To today’s student protesters, Massey urged them to “stay strong, be united and open,” to engage with the broader “community,” and to explain their motivations to the world.

Despite the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza since last October, when the Israeli offensive in Gaza began, she said she is “hopeful” for the future.

“We have to keep struggling. It isn’t like it’s easy. They’re so much more powerful than we are. But we make up for it in numbers. So, I am hopeful. I know what’s right.”

(Source: AA)

Mared Gwyn Jones

European leaders and ministers have urged Israel to refrain from launching its long-anticipated military operation in Rafah, an attack which is believed to be imminent.

The outcry comes following months of anticipation that Israel’s war cabinet could order its troops to invade the city, which borders Egypt on the south edge of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Since February, the bloc has been warning that the move would worsen an “already catastrophic situation” given that around 1.4 million Palestinians – over half of Gaza’s population – are sheltering from war in Rafah.

On Monday, Israel’s military ordered residents and displaced Palestinians to evacuate Rafah’s eastern neighbourhoods to safe zones in other parts of Gaza, indicating that the invasion could be imminent.

It comes after ceasefire talks in the Egyptian capital of Cairo collapsed over the weekend, and after Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said his forces would move into Rafah if parties failed to broker a ceasefire deal.

In a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated his “firmest opposition” to a potential Israeli ground assault on Rafah.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, whose government has led criticism of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, also told Belgian media on Monday that invading Rafah would have “dramatic consequences for the population.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on social media platform X that an attack on Rafah would “increase the suffering already endured” by the Palestinian people.

The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, joined pleas on Israel to “renounce” its plans, and said the EU “can and must act to prevent such a scenario.”

An EU official speaking on condition of anonymity told Euronews that the bloc was looking to convene member states to discuss a potential response to Israel’s defiance. But the source also said that there were no concrete plans on the table yet in terms of the EU response.

Diplomatic efforts are ongoing in a last-ditch attempt to dissuade Benjamin Netanyahu from proceeding into Rafah, with US President Joe Biden expected to speak to the Israeli premier by phone later on Monday.

An assault on Rafah would put the West’s failure to wield its diplomatic weight to pressure Israel into restraint into sharp focus. EU leaders unanimously called on Israel not to proceed with its planned invasion of Rafah in late March.

The bloc has consistently struggled to reach consensus in its response to the Israel-Hamas war, with capitals’ positions on the conflict seemingly drifting apart in recent months.

A cohort of member states, notably led by Spain and Ireland, have consistently called for a tougher EU stance on Israel and are in favour of recognising the State of Palestine.

Others, notably Germany, Austria and Hungary, are hesitant to undermine the bloc’s stance of solidarity with Israel.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – who is bidding for a second term at the EU executive’s helm – said last Monday during an electoral debate in Maastricht that the bloc would take action should Israel invade Rafah.

“I think it would be completely unacceptable if Netanyahu would invade Rafah,” von der Leyen said, adding that if he did, her executive would “sit down with our member states and act on that.”

Belgium pushes for trade curbs

Belgium, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, has been pushing Brussels to ban the import of products from territories occupied by Israel for “several weeks,” De Croo also said on Monday.

Under the Belgian proposal, products from Israeli-occupied territories such as dates and olive oil would be banned from entering the bloc.

Under EU legislation, Israeli products made by settlers should be clearly labelled as such and subject to less preferential customs arrangements, but the rules are not strictly enforced.

Belgian deputy prime minister Petra de Sutter announced on Monday that the Belgian government was also planning further sanctions against Israel.

Madrid and Dublin have called on the EU executive to conduct an urgent review of the EU-Israel ‘Association Agreement’, which defines both parties’ trading relationship. The agreement includes a clause which allows either party to suspend trade in case of human rights violations.

But the proposal has failed to earn leaders’ required unanimous backing.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris agreed over a phone call on Monday that they would “make progress” on the recognition of a Palestinian state “very shortly,” and that their governments are in close contact on the issue.

Spain’s Sánchez has previously set a deadline of July for his country to formally recognise a Palestinian state, which would encompass Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

(Source: Euronews)