World
Israel financed Hamas to weaken Palestinian Authority, Borrell claims
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, has accused Israel of financing Hamas to “weaken the Palestinian Authority of Fatah.”
The diplomat, who has prepared a 10-point roadmap for a potential peace process, did not provide concrete evidence to support his claim.
In scathing comments made during a speech at the University of Valladolid in Spain, Borrell also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “personally” derailing any attempt to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The bad news is that Israel, in particular its government, is completely refusing – and yesterday Netanyahu said it again as if he was anticipating my words today – to accept a (two-state) solution that he has personally been boycotting for the past 30 years,” Borrell said.
His plain-spoken words came just a day after Netanyahu rebuked calls made by Washington to establish a Palestinian state after the war and scale back Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
“We believe that a two-state solution should be imposed from the outside to bring peace,” Borrell explained.
“But I insist, Israel, by continuing to reject this solution, has gone as far as to create Hamas themselves. Yes, Hamas has been financed by the Israeli government in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah,” he added.
The so-called two-state solution – which would deliver statehood for the Palestinians – is the overarching goal desired by Western allies in post-war Gaza.
Borrell had previously described the objective as Israel’s “best security guarantee.”
During his visit to Lebanon earlier this month, the bloc’s top diplomat said that the creation of a Palestinian state was the “only viable solution that could bring peace and security for Israel and Palestine.”
But during Friday’s speech, Borrell lamented how “everyone except the Israeli government” is calling for the solution.
Since the eruption of conflict in the Middle East last October, Borrell has led EU calls for a de-escalation in hostilities. He has also called for humanitarian pauses in the besieged Gaza Strip to “evolve” to a permanent ceasefire that would allow political peace negotiations to start.
“If we don’t intervene strongly, the spiral of hate and violence will continue from generation to generation, from funeral to funeral, when the seeds of hate that are being sown in Gaza today grow,” Borrell told the audience in Spain.
In his speech, delivered as he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa, Borrell also took aim at extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
“The international community considers them (the settlers) to be illegal, but has done nothing to address this illegality,” Borrell said, adding that the settlers are today more “violent” than before the eruption of conflict on October 7.
The European External Action Service (EEAS), the bloc’s diplomatic arm headed by Borrell, is mulling following the US and the UK’s lead in sanctioning settlers responsible for violence in the West Bank.
However, according to diplomatic sources, it is unlikely that foreign ministers will approve the planned sanctions on settlers when they gather in Brussels on Monday.
World
Five convicted over Amsterdam clashes with Israeli football fans
Men found guilty of crimes including kicking fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv and inciting violence in chat groups.
A Dutch court has convicted five men for their part in last month’s violence involving Israeli football fans in Amsterdam.
The Amsterdam district court on Tuesday found them guilty of a range of crimes from kicking fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the street to inciting violence in chat groups.
The heaviest sentence imposed was six months in prison, for a man identified as Sefa O for public violence against several people.
The violence took place on November 8 during two days of skirmishes in the city, where the Israeli football fans clashed with apparent pro-Palestinian protesters before and after a Europa League football match between their team Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax.
Videos shared on social media at the time showed Israeli fans chanting racist, anti-Arab songs, vandalising a taxi and burning a Palestinian flag.
The fighting broke out after that and was instigated by the Israeli fans, witnesses and a local councilman told Al Jazeera at the time.
Police arrested people who had beaten the Israeli fans, as global leaders made accusations of anti-Semitism.
The prosecutor in the case said the beatings had “little to do with football” but added that “in this case, there was no evidence of … a terrorist intent and the violence was not motivated by anti-Semitic sentiment”.
“The violence was influenced by the situation in Gaza, not by anti-Semitism,” said the prosecutor.
The most serious case under consideration by the court on Tuesday was Sefa, who prosecutors said played a “leading role” in the violence.
The court saw images of a man identified as Sefa kicking a person on the ground, chasing targets, and punching people in the head and the body.
Another man identified as Umutcan A, 24, received a sentence of one month for assaulting fans and ripping a Maccabi scarf from one of them.
A 22-year-old, identified as Abushabab M, faces a charge of attempted murder, but his case has been postponed while he undergoes a psychiatric assessment. He was born in the Gaza Strip and grew up in a war zone, his lawyer told the court, while Abushabab sat sobbing as his case was being heard.
A further six suspects are set to appear at a later stage. Three of these suspects are minors and their cases will be heard behind closed doors.
Police said they were investigating at least 45 people over the violence, including that carried out by fans of the Israeli club.
At an emotionally charged news conference the morning after the riots, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said the city had been “deeply damaged” by “hateful anti-Semitic rioters”.
However, Halsema later said she regretted the parallel she had drawn between the violence and “memories of pogroms”, saying this word had been used as propaganda.
World
Asia shares rise, dollar underpinned by elevated bond yields
World
US military carries out airstrike in Syria, killing 2 ISIS operatives
The U.S. military conducted an airstrike on Monday in Syria, where they killed a pair of ISIS operatives and destroyed a truckload of weapons, according to U.S. Central Command.
A precision airstrike in the Dayr az Zawr Province, which was formerly controlled by the Syrian regime and Russians, killed two ISIS operatives and wounded another, CENTCOM said.
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The operatives were driving a truckload of weapons, which was destroyed, when they were targeted in the strike.
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“This airstrike is part of CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment, along with partners in the region, to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel from the U.S., our allies, and our partners throughout the region and beyond,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
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