Israeli continues closure of Al-Aqsa mosque and Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Israeli occupation forces have shut Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the 12th consecutive day, barring worshippers from entry.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that only guards and Islamic Waqf Department staff are allowed inside Al-Aqsa, while the Church of the Holy Sepulchre remains closed to Christians. Entry to Jerusalem's Old City is restricted to residents only.
Restrictions have stopped hundreds of thousands from praying at Al-Aqsa, with shops closed as access to the Old City is tightly controlled through military checkpoints.
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Middle East Eye
27 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
Israeli army detains Palestinian family members after settlers attack village
The Israeli army on Monday detained several members of the same Palestinian family in Masafer Yatta, in the occupied West Bank, after they attempted to remove a group of settlers encroaching on their land. Armed Israeli settlers brought their livestock to graze on land in Khirbet al-Markaz, a village in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron, prompting clashes with the Palestinian landowners. The settlers opened fire, causing no injuries, before the Israeli army intervened to protect the settlers. The Palestinians, all members of the Makhamreh family, remained in detention on Tuesday. Osama Makhamreh told Middle East Eye that armed Israeli settlers had raided Khirbet al-Markaz, a village in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron, bringing livestock to graze among olive trees - a pastoral settler policy increasingly used to seize Palestinian land. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters In response, local residents headed to the area in an attempt to drive the settlers away, only to find them armed. The settlers opened fire, though no injuries were reported. 'The settlers started shooting to scare the residents, but when they felt they weren't moving away, they called in the Israeli army, which arrested them' - Osama Makhamreh, Khirbet al-Markaz, West Bank Residents said they were shocked when the Israeli army arrived and began attacking and arresting them, without confronting or even speaking to the settlers. "The settlers started shooting to scare the residents, but when they felt they weren't moving away, they called in the Israeli army, which arrested 14 members of the family, including women and children," he added. The soldiers detained several children, the oldest of whom was only 12 years old, for several hours before releasing them. The youngest family member to be still detained is 16-year-old Tahreer Makhamreh. "The detainees were transferred to the Israeli army's Susya camp and then taken by military bus to an unknown location," said Osama Makhamreh. Seizing land through grazing For years, Khirbet al-Markaz has been subjected to regular settler attacks, which have only intensified since the current far-right Israeli government took power in 2022. Israel's pastoral settlement policy has been implemented in this area for more than two years. The policy uses settler livestock grazing to seize Palestinian land in the West Bank, often with army protection, making the areas off-limits to Palestinians. The tactic aims at expanding control without formal annexation, displacing rural Palestinian communities. Masafer Yatta: A Palestinian community under pressure Read More » The Israeli army routinely harasses villagers in Khirbet al-Markaz, denying their access to their own land and launching periodic attacks, particularly following the establishment of a military camp and the construction of the separation wall on village lands. 'The Israeli court issued a decision to displace residents on the grounds that their village lies within an Israeli military training zone, making them frequent targets of army assaults,' Makhamreh explained. Key tactics used against the villagers include detentions and physical assaults, harassment of shepherds, allowing settlers to graze livestock on agricultural land, and blocking Palestinians from reaching their farmland. These practices mirror those in other Masafer Yatta villages, where residents face repeated displacement efforts. At the core of Israel's policy in Masafer Yatta is a drive to seize full control of the land and expand illegal settlements in the area. Masafer Yatta lies in a strategic part of the southern West Bank, situated on elevated terrain with access to major roads and expansive open land. Israel's broader aim is to reduce the Palestinian presence in the region to make way for settlement expansion as part of a long-term effort to assert control over Area C, which makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank.
Middle East Eye
27 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
Why I wrote an expert report supporting the case to deproscribe Hamas in the UK
All violence is political, as is all healing. The two are intimately related. An understanding of violence is integral to mental health. As a scholar of state violence, a psychologist and an anti-racist community activist, I will chart why I supported the legal bid to deproscribe Hamas through an expert report, and why I vehemently oppose the proscription of Palestine Action not least on free speech grounds. When I was an adolescent, a man attacked me on the streets of Berlin. 'You're dirt,' he shouted. 'Get out of Germany.' This act, violent and racist, was undeniably political. I begin with this anecdote because we've always lived in violent times. The ongoing Gaza genocide is a stark reminder of this. But as racist attacks reveal, not all political violence is equal. Scholars have tried to carve out a distinction between everyday, white racist attacks and 'terrorism'. But any distinction - of intentions, targets or organisational ties - falters under scrutiny; the racist underbelly of counterterrorism is on full display. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Some scholars note that the distinction between terrorism and racist hate crimes is ultimately a matter of direction. The violence of the majority against a minority is a hate crime; the violence of a minority against the majority is terrorism. Racism is encoded in the logic of counterterrorism. In the Global North, this privileges some bodies over others. Hate versus terrorism: the legal, social and political consequences are enormous. Racist framework The racism of terrorism frameworks is certainly true for Gaza as well. Terrorism has always been a matter of Palestinian resistance, not Israeli violence. The Carter Centre charts how attacks from Gaza are directly correlated to Israel's illegal land, air and naval blockade. The more Israel suffocated Gaza's provisions, the more Hamas retaliated. Terrorism does the heavy lifting to render makeshift missiles more violent than the ethnic cleansing of a barricaded population. The 'war on terror' has always been a racist project that privileges whiteness - including Israelis - and renders some lives more grievable than others. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war This matters for us in the Global North. As I explain in my own research, the language of terrorism plays a profound moral role in differentiating between good and evil in a secular-liberal society. Indeed, as I suspect will soon be quite relevant, one argument to maintain the proscription of Hamas is to uphold existing security logics. The UK needs to proscribe Palestinian resistance, not to discourage the public from showing support, but to maintain an ability to point elsewhere in the world and say: 'That's true evil.' This then justifies the relentless expansion of the military-industrial complex. I have lost count of the parents I've had to console, whose children have been punished for speaking about Palestine in school Some hear this critique as a call: if counterterrorism dehumanises some and privileges others, can we even the playing field? Should we not include Israel, Zionist attackers and more white people under the terrorist label? The hyper-securitised liberal impulse in society, to maintain the image of a 'post-racial' order, is to make everything about terrorism, including violence towards women. But this does not counteract the essential issue with terrorism legislation: its tendency to render some people's violence more blameworthy than others. The legal application to deproscribe Hamas does not make a case to abolish the category of terrorism. But its racist and moral implications are important for the purposes of this article - and they matter for mental health settings. Years ago, I wrote about how expanding terrorism legislation would cause widespread anxiety. This is truer today than ever before. The genocide in Gaza is increasingly revealing the lengths to which the UK is shaping its security policies to police dissent. Since the genocide began, anti-racist organisations have been dealing with the fallout of censorship. Epidemic of repression I have lost count of the parents I've had to console, whose children have been punished for speaking about Palestine in school; or the mental health professionals who have been referred to the Health and Care Professions Council for sharing posts about Palestine on social media; or the students who are going through hearings after mobilising for Palestine on campus. We are facing an epidemic of repression, and the mental health implications are devastating. It is a climate of suffocation, anxiety and paranoia. Among the many people outraged by the Gaza genocide - a significant portion of the British population, if polls are any indication - few are spared the anxiety associated with sharing that feeling in their place of work or education. A British Islamic Medical Association survey of 651 healthcare professionals and students, conducted in late 2023, found that the overwhelming majority (93 percent) felt silenced or restricted in discussing Palestine at work. At best, we're seeing denial of the Palestinian cause - and at worst, explicit support for Israel during its most vicious, genocidal phase. I have supported mental health professionals whose management inserted 'Hamas' into a conversation to shun all mention of the ongoing genocide. Just as there is a growing political impulse to make everything about terrorism, there is a similar impulse to make everything about mental health 'Hamas supporter' is not simply an accusation levied against those who proclaim solidarity with Palestine, often racialised Muslims. It is an actual, material threat because of the group's proscription. The proscription-turned-weapon of 'Hamas supporter' is violence upon violence, for which we have yet to account. As one might imagine, none of this is conducive to healing in mental health settings. Attending to the distress of those who are vilified for their Palestine solidarity is insufficient. Just as there is a growing political impulse to make everything about terrorism, there is a similar impulse to make everything about mental health. But the widespread anxiety around speaking up for Palestine cannot be treated on its own. It belongs to material conditions whereby people may indeed lose their jobs, education or freedom for 'recklessly' supporting Palestinian resistance. This is the violence of proscription, and it is the key element that ties the politics of violence to the politics of distress. There is no way around this violence outside of deproscription. Honest conversation The purpose of my submission was to summarise a simple idea, repeated by the great scholars of the dispossessed: if the colonial relationship to an indigenous population is necessarily marked by domination, its methodology always implies a psychological regime of humiliation. From the Zionist founders to the Israeli soldiers 'breaking the silence', we can see that humiliation and dehumanisation are essential psychological tactics of the Zionist project. Western psychology plays a significant role in legitimising colonial projects. In the case of Palestine, it does so by depoliticising violence, making it a matter of 'conflict' that arises from clashing identities: Israeli and Palestinian. As such, as I explain in my submission, there is little in the discipline that deals with contention to Zionist occupation. Muslim scholar Omar ibn Abdulaziz once advised that the best way to fight sedition was with justice. Justice will always be the most supreme form of therapy. As it stands, because of proscription, we're barely allowed to talk about the injustices of the settler-colonial occupation - let alone imagine a future without it. This must change. For us to imagine a world where healing is possible, we must begin with an honest conversation about violence. The security state, the 'war on terror' and proscription are not the answers. If we want to heal, we must move differently. Like any good therapy session, this must all begin with an honest conversation. This can never happen with proscription in place. The politics of violence and healing go together; if we truly want a better world, we need to understand them both. Nothing in this article should be understood as inviting or otherwise encouraging readers to support, or express support for, Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Hamas). The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Over 130 NGOs call for end to 'deadly' US-Israeli aid distribution scheme
More than 130 NGOs have called for immediate action to end the 'deadly' US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid scheme, and revert back to United Nations-led aid coordination mechanisms. The GHF began operating in late May, following a three-month total blockade on the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces. Since then, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed and around 4,000 wounded by Israeli troops while attempting to access food and aid supplies. 'Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,' the NGOs said in a joint statement on Tuesday. The signatories include Oxfam, Save the Children, Amnesty, Doctors Without Borders and Action Aid. Previously, during the two-month ceasefire between mid-January and mid-March, 400 aid distribution points were in operation in the enclave. That has now been replaced by four militarised distribution sites, forcing over two million people into crowded zones where they face Israeli gunfire. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'The humanitarian system is being deliberately and systematically dismantled by the Government of Israel's blockade and restrictions,' the groups wrote. 'A blockade now being used to justify shutting down nearly all other aid operations in favour of a deadly, military-controlled alternative that neither protects civilians nor meets basic needs.' They said that under the GHF scheme, 'starved and weakened' civilians are trekking for hours through 'dangerous terrain and active conflict zones'. 'Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food' - NGOs statement Last week, Yousef al-Ajouri, a 40-year-old Palestinian in Gaza City, recounted to Middle East Eye his deadly journey attempting to receive food from the GHF. He likened the experience to dystopian TV show Squid Game, describing how he feared for his life amid Israeli snipers, saw multiple dead bodies, and had to push and shove other starved Palestinians to try to obtain food parcels. Israeli military officials admitted they fired at Palestinian civilians lining up for aid in Gaza even though they posed no threat, according to a report by Haaretz newspaper on Monday. The admission follows a report by the newspaper on Friday in which Israeli soldiers admitted they were directed to fire at starving civilians at the GHF distribution points in Gaza. Officials in the Southern Command unit said they were 'ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present' and added 'that civilians had been killed due to 'inaccurate and uncalculated' artillery fire'. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Haaretz's reporting, labelling it "malicious falsehoods". They said that in the most serious incident, between 30 and 40 people were targeted. 'Amidst severe hunger and famine-like conditions, many families tell us they are now too weak to compete for food rations,' the NGOs said. 'Those who do manage to obtain food often return with only a few basic items - nearly impossible to prepare without clean water or fuel to cook with.' 'My journey to get aid in Gaza was like Squid Game' Read More » They added that the Sphere Association, which sets minimum standards for humanitarian aid, warned that the GHF did not adhere to core humanitarian standards and principles. The groups called for donors not to fund militarised aid schemes that violate international law and 'risk complicity in atrocities', and to take concrete steps to end the suffocating siege on Gaza. They urged third states to restore a unified UN-led coordination mechanism 'grounded in international humanitarian law and inclusive of Unrwa, Palestinian civil society, and the wider humanitarian community'. Last week, 15 human rights and legal organisations said the GHF may be complicit in international crimes.
