Exhausted, Muhammad and his 12-year-old sister, Hala, sit outside their tent in Rafah. - UNICEF
“In the past 21 months, while Israel’s genocide has devastated Palestinian lives and landscapes, the Tel Aviv stock exchange soared by 213 per cent (USD), amassing $225.7 billion in market gains—including $67.8 billion in the past month alone. For some, genocide is profitable.”
Only 1.5% of Gaza cropland left for starving Palestinians due to Israel’s war, UN says.
Bowen BBC: Israeli settlers intensify campaign to drive out West Bank Palestinians
Smoke billows above destroyed buildings in Gaza along the southern Israeli border [File: AFP]
B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Centref or Human Rights in the Occupied Territories - has updated its information.
"In response to our findings, the IDF said the details of Layan and Mira's cases had been recorded and will be examined by the competent authorities."
It added: "Intentional harm to civilians, especially children, is strictly prohibited" ??
Layan and Mira are just two of more than 160 cases of children shot in the war in Gaza, for whom we have gathered accounts.
"We found that in 95 of these cases, the child had been shot in the head or chest.
In 59 of those, we obtained testimony from eyewitnesses, either directly or via human rights organisations and medics."
The witnesses allege 57 of these children were shot by the IDF, and two were shot by Palestinians - one in celebratory gunfire and the other in a gang conflict.
For the remaining 36 out of the 95 cases, we have no account of what happened. Israel bans foreign reporters from entering Gaza independently, and the destruction and displacement make gathering details difficult.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has told the BBC the world cannot accept as a "new normal" the type of warfare that allows so many children to be shot.
Israel kills an average 28 Palestinian children daily in Gaza
Israel has killed more than 18,000 children since the start of its genocidal war on Gaza.
Israel bans its own and foreign journalists from giving the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) more latitude to kill.
More than 230 Gaza journalists have been wiped out.
Israel closes down or leaves unresolved 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse – report
The Guardian: Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.
Both Hamas and Israel have killed non-combatants.
There are extremists on both sides.
Geonzides is the result of both sides.
Arthur Balfour was named after his godfather, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.
When Balfour ruled Ireland in 1887-1891, he hated the native Irish. However, an Act to amend the Law relating to the occupation and ownership of Land in Ireland was passed (Ireland) Acts. ( known as the Wyndham Act after its author, George Wyndham, chief secretary of Ireland from 1900 to 1905.)
In July 1902, Balfour succeeded his uncle as prime minister, and he lost power in 1905.
Foreign Office,
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".
That sentiment didn't last long.
Arthur James Balfour
Rothschild, a wealthy Jewish businessman in London, asked Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, to help facilitate the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people, even though.;
In December 1916, Balfour became Foreign Secretary in David Lloyd George's coalition government.
Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (1868-1937) was a wealthy London businessman who had lobbied for a home for Jews.
And then the Jews in Palestine were a tiny minority (merely 6%) in Palestine.
In 1916, Jewish ownership of land in Palestine was approximately 6% of the total area.
In turn, Balfour wanted Rothschild and the influential Jewish community to convince the US to join the war (aka the First World War) in support of Britain and France against Germany.
Second, Balfour saw in this plan the prospect of transferring the “Jewish problem” from Europe to Palestine.
The United States entered into World War I on 6 April 1917, more than two and a half years after the war began in Europe.
Balfour was advised by Chaim Weizmann, who was born in the village of Motal, located in what is now Belarus and at that time was part of the Russian Empire, in 1874. He was Jewish.
In 1919, Balfour argued that Zionist aspirations were “of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”
Weizmann received a combined Jewish and secular education. He pursued scientific studies in Germany and Switzerland and became involved in Zionist activities.
In 1904 he immigrated to Great Britain and began his scientific career as a research chemist at Manchester University.
"During World War I he was acclaimed for his discovery of a method to produce synthetic acetone and came into contact with the 'movers and shakers' of British society, among them Lord Balfour and Winston Churchill."
Believing that only peace and neighbourly relations could guarantee political and economic Weizmann supported the partition of Palestine into two states: Jewish and Arab. Turning to the Arab population in the land, he stated:
“We do not build our national home at the expense of another nation. We wish to build Palestine with you, together.”
Understanding that Jews and Arabs would have to live together, Weizmann strove to create peaceful coexistence between the two peoples.
Thus, he met in Aqaba with Emir Faisal, leader of the Arab national movement. Faisal expressed sympathy for the Zionist cause, which he felt was similar to the Arabs’ national
In 1919, Weizmann and Faisal signed an agreement of cooperation between the two national movements, Jewish and Arab, for the development of the land.
Herbert Asquith was the British prime minister from 1908-1916. Before the First World War, Asquith holidayed in Sicily with a prominent socialite 35 years his junior. A young Jewish MP tagged along and married the socialite for a while. Both the prime minister and the Jewish MP were having sex with the woman.
The Jewish Edwin Montagu MP became a member of the War Cabinet, and he was implacably against Balfour's plan.
“I cannot see any Jews I know tending olive trees or herding sheep,” Montagu wrote to the prime minister.
Edwin Montagu (left). (Wikimedia Commons)
