As Donors Suspend Critical Funding to UNRWA, Allegations Against Staff Remain Murky

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, severed the contracts of staffers accused by Israel of taking part in the Hamas killing spree of Oct. 7. Yet the Israelis refuse to share evidence to the UN agency or to the larger UN organization about the allegations. Meanwhile, major donors to UNRWA have frozen funding just as Gazans face life or death situations. BBC SCREEN GRAB […]

February 6, 2024 5

World

Guyana, Leading the UN Security Council, Is Not Giving Up on a Ceasefire in Gaza

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, permanent representative of Guyana, photographed at the country’s mission to the UN, Jan 22, 2023. “We would very much like to see a ceasefire for the people to receive the necessary humanitarian aid,” she said about Gaza in an interview. “We are not at that point yet, and that is really regrettable.” JOHN PENNEY/PASSBLUE By Damilola Banjo via PassBlue The United Nations Security Council’s continuing failure to agree […]

February 1, 2024 5

World

Gaza: high numbers of journalists are being killed but it’s hard to prove they’re being targeted

By Colleen Murrell, Dublin City University Wael Dahdouh, one of the most well-known faces of Palestinian journalism in the Gaza conflict, has this week started medical treatment in Qatar. Dahdouh was wounded in December in an Israeli drone strike that killed his camera operator. Al-Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief has also lost his wife, two children and a grandchild in an Israeli raid that hit his home. This was […]

January 31, 2024 4

World

Iran has so far resisted direct involvement in the Gaza war, but is that changing?

By James Devine, Mount Allison University Iran has tried to keep the war in Gaza at arm’s length by providing support for Hamas through armed groups it backs in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. The Islamic Republic has indicated it wants neither to get directly involved in the fighting nor see the conflict escalate across the region. But as illustrated by the recent drone attack by pro-Iranian militias in Jordan […]

January 31, 2024 7

South Africa

An SA political analyst says the ANC is using the Israel/Gaza issue as an electioneering opportunity

The ANC is now unashamedly and brazenly using the Israel/Gaza issue as an electioneering opportunity, without any subtlety which points to opportunism. This is the view of South African political analyst Daniel Silke. Last week, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop killing and harming people in Gaza. This comes after South Africa lodged an application accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Silke says the ANC is desperately […]

January 29, 2024 5

South Africa

The World Court rescues international law from the Gaza rubble

At the International Court of Justice, Nadeli Pandor, left, South Africa’s foreign minister, and Vusimuzi Madonsela, who led South Africa’s delegation to the reading of the court’s order concerning their country’s case accusing Israel of genocide, Jan. 26, 2024. The court found the allegations of such acts “plausible.” UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek. Courtesy of the ICJ In a speech on Dec. 4, 1997, commemorating the International Day of […]

January 29, 2024 8

Opinion Pieces

UN genocide ruling won’t change Israel’s behaviour: three reasons why

By Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, University of South Africa South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the latter’s military operation in Gaza, which South Africa calls acts of genocide. The excessive bombing campaign and wilful destruction of property, life and limb is hardly in dispute. Israel calls it legitimate acts of self-defense, following Hamas’s murderous incursion from Gaza on Israeli terrain on 7 October […]

January 29, 2024 8

World

UN launches full scale investigation into UNRWA staff participation in Oct 7th attacks on Israel

The United Nations Secretary General has expressed alarm at allegations that several UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7th attacks on Israel. The UN's aid agency in Gaza is launching an urgent and comprehensive independent review of all staff. Meanwhile, the United States has for now ended all funding to the agency that's tasked with supporting Palestinian refugees. Jody Jacobs reports from the United Nations in New York.

January 29, 2024 14

World

Biden wobbles under weight of multiple open fronts around the world

Long gone is the Joe Biden of February 2023, strolling confidently through the streets of Kyiv, basking in the role as champion of the Ukrainian cause in the fight against Vladimir Putin's Russia. Nearly one year after that triumphant appearance, the US president is instead facing the harsh realities of running for re-election while bogged down in one stagnant war and navigating the volatility of another, as the conflict in […]

January 25, 2024 7

Gaza