Latest news with #OccupiedPalestinianTerritory
Zawya
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Global: Urgent action needed as climate crisis leads to devastating new harms to human rights
States must urgently deliver ambitious climate action by mapping out a just transition away from fossil fuels in all sectors to prevent even worse human rights harms around the world, Amnesty International said in a new briefing to mark the start of the Bonn Climate Conference which takes place between 16-26 June. Despite the challenges posed by the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, increases in authoritarian practices globally and the growing environmental devastation of the escalating armed conflicts in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan and Ukraine, among others, it is not too late for states to find common ground and ramp up climate ambition for the planet and the rights of current and future generations. In 2024, for the first time, the world breached the threshold of 1.5°C of global heating above pre-industrial levels. During the hottest year on record, wildfires ripped through Latin America, the Caribbean was hit by the earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record, and parts of Central Europe were deluged with three months' worth of rain in five days as the climate emergency worsened, driven by human activity and the continued burning of fossil fuels. 'The devastating new human rights harms resulting from climate change will escalate dramatically unless global heating is kept in check. More people will be driven deeper into poverty, lose their homes or suffer the effects of drought and food insecurity. Despite the deepening climate crisis, governments' action to limit fossil fuel production and use has been wholly inadequate,' said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International's Climate Justice Advisor. 'Governments are in thrall to fossil fuel companies which have sought to downplay climate harms and discredit climate science. States continue to provide subsidies to these companies, effectively incentivizing the continuation of the fossil fuel industry. Everyone has the right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment – but as the climate crisis intensifies, this right, and others, are under growing threat.' Across the globe, unnatural disasters exacerbated by climate change, such as worsening droughts and severe floods, are damaging harvests and leading to food scarcity and water shortages, contributing to displacement, migration and conflict. Protecting and listening to grassroots voices Marginalized frontline and fence line communities that use fossil fuels the least continue to suffer some of the worst impacts of climate change. They include subsistence farmers, Indigenous Peoples and those living in low lying island states, threatened by rising sea levels and more powerful storms, or those living beside fossil fuel production and transport facilities. For example, Pakistan contributes less than 1% of greenhouse gas emissions annually but is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate disasters. In a report published last month, Amnesty International documented how increasingly frequent floods and heatwaves are leading to preventable deaths, particularly among young children and older adults. Despite the urgency of the climate crisis, those demanding action from the authorities are being harassed, stigmatized, attacked and criminalized. Around the world, environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) are risking their lives and liberty for defending their lands and communities' right to a healthy environment, such as the Warriors for the Amazon in Ecuador. The conference is an opportunity to spotlight the situation in COP29 host Azerbaijan, where environmental human rights defender Anar Mammadli and journalist Nargiz Absalamova who reported on environmental issues remain behind bars. Other journalists who reported on the human rights situation including during COP29 were arrested afterwards in apparent reprisals. Brazil, the host of COP30, is one of the most dangerous countries for EHRDs, who face killings, violence, threats and stigmatization for their work. 'The voices, views, knowledge and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples, frontline and fence line communities and human rights defenders must be incorporated into climate policies, plans and action,' said Ann Harrison. 'Once again, we have heard reports of limited badges and visa problems for those from the majority world wishing to attend the conference in Bonn. Nor are the COP Host Country Agreements – a key tool that must be strengthened to ensure freedom of expression and peaceful assembly for participants – available publicly as a matter of routine.' Climate finance must be addressed Amnesty International is also calling for states to tackle climate finance. Currently, lower-income countries are paying more in debt repayments than they are receiving as climate finance from high-income countries. High income historically high emitting countries are most responsible for climate change, yet continue to shirk their obligations to provide climate finance to lower income countries to cut emissions and to help communities to adapt to climate change, as well as providing reparations for loss and damage, which could ease the burden in countries suffering climate harms. 'Taxing fossil fuel companies, corporate windfall profits and high net worth individuals, as well as ending subsidies and investments in fossil fuels and ending global tax abuses, could raise over USD 3 trillion per year which could go a huge way towards the cost of tackling climate change,' said Ann Harrison. Huge changes need to be made The Bonn Climate Conference is a key preparatory moment for the annual UN Climate Conference, which takes place as COP30 later this year in Brazil – a country that wants to publicly lead a message of global environmental protection. Yet, internally some of its institutions are taking actions contrary to this agenda, including requiring less stringent licensing for environmentally destructive projects and expanding fossil fuel production. 'If climate change is to be taken seriously and to keep global warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, we need to see concrete progress with clear timelines towards massively scaled-up needs-based climate finance, particularly for adaptation and loss and damage, in the form of grants, not loans, with those most responsible for emissions contributing the most,' said Ann Harrison. Amnesty International is calling for states commit to a full, fast, fair and funded fossil fuel phase out through just transitions across all sectors, without relying on risky and unproven technologies or offsets that do not lead to genuine emissions reductions. It is also calling for inclusive discussions around climate change, involving the people most affected by it, and ensuring they can meaningfully access these high-level negotiations without discrimination. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Amnesty International.
Gizmodo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
Airbnb Needs an ‘Illegal Settlement' Filter, Now
Company accused of war profiteering for allowing listings in Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory. Airbnb has listings all over the world, including, according to a group of human rights organizations, ones in Israel's illegal settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The groups say those rentals violate a promise once made by the company to remove listings in the region and may amount to the company profiting from war crimes. As a result, Airbnb now faces a series of legal actions in the US, UK, and Ireland led by human rights groups over its ongoing operations in the West Bank. The legal challenges are being brought by the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), Sadaka Ireland (the Ireland-Palestine Alliance), and Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq. The groups claim that there are currently over 300 properties listed for rent on Airbnb that are part of Israel's settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which have been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice. Included in those more than 300 properties, the groups allege, are Palestinian refugee properties that were taken during the Nakba, which expelled nearly one million Palestinians from their homes. The ongoing operations, the groups allege, may amount to 'money laundering by Airbnb of proceeds of Israeli war crimes.' They argue that the Israeli settlements constitute a war crime as they violate the Geneva Conventions and breach several international declarations. As such, the groups claim that Airbnb is facilitating business and handling money that is derived from war crimes, which is considered money laundering under UK and Irish law. The trio of human rights groups first filed a criminal complaint against Airbnb over its business in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in 2023, targeting the company's subsidiary in Ireland. The action, which is still being reviewed by the High Court, would be the first ever to raise alleged complicity in war crimes in an Irish court, according to the groups. Those continued actions in Ireland are now part of a multi-jurisdictional effort, as GLAN and Al-Haq have lodged a criminal complaint with the UK's National Crime Agency against Airbnb over alleged money laundering charges related to the company's collection of payments for rentals in the Israeli settlements. GLAN has also sent a 'preservation letter' to Airbnb's parent company in the United States, instructing it to preserve documents relevant to Airbnb's involvement in the settlements. The goal of the groups is to set a precedent that would discourage businesses from operating directly or indirectly within Israel's illegal settlements. 'These are the first ever cases to apply anti-money laundering legislation to business activity in the illegal Israeli settlements,' GLAN Senior Lawyer Gerry Liston said. 'They demonstrate that individual senior executives of companies profiting from Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory face a personal risk of prosecution for a very serious criminal offense.' Airbnb previously acknowledged that its operation within the Israeli settlements did not meet its own standards for safety and responsibility. In 2018, the company announced that it would remove listings in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in part of an effort to 'act responsibly.' But it reversed that decision in 2019 and has allowed listings in the region ever since. Airbnb claims that those operations do not violate any laws. 'Airbnb operates in compliance with applicable Irish and US laws,' a spokesperson for Airbnb told Gizmodo. 'Since 2019, Airbnb has donated all profits generated from host activity in the West Bank to an international nonprofit, in line with our global framework on disputed territories.' Ashish Prashar, senior advisor to the Middle East Peace Envoy, took issue with Airbnb's position. 'The International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory, that includes the West Bank, is illegal. They ruled that all States must prevent trade or investment that supports that occupation. Airbnb listing property in the West Bank is in breach of that ruling,' he said. 'Calling these 'disputed territories' undermines Palestinian sovereignty, reinforces the Israeli occupation of the land and actively supports their cruel domination of the Palestinian people, which is in clear breach of international law. In Airbnb's response, I see no difference between them and Ambassador Huckabee, who is actively calling for the ethnic cleansing of Occupied Palestine,' Prashar said.
Al Jazeera
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israel guilty of ‘extermination' in attacks on schools, mosques: UN
Israel has committed the crime against humanity of 'extermination' by attacking Palestinian civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites in Gaza, an independent United Nations commission report says. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, made the accusation in a report released on Tuesday. The report also said Israeli forces have committed war crimes, 'including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities that caused civilian casualties'. 'We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza,' commission chair Navi Pillay, a former UN high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement. The report said Israel has damaged or destroyed more than 90 percent of the school and university buildings in Gaza and destroyed more than half of all religious and cultural sites in the territory. 'While the destruction of cultural property, including educational facilities, was not in itself a genocidal act, evidence of such conduct may nevertheless infer genocidal intent to destroy a protected group,' the report said. 'Israel's targeting of the educational, cultural and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm the present generations and generations to come, hindering their right to self-determination,' Pillay continued. While the report focused on the impact on Gaza, the commission also reported significant consequences for the Palestinian education system in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as a result of ramped-up Israeli military activity, harassment of students and settler attacks. 'Children in Gaza have lost their childhood. With no education available, they are forced to worry about survival amid attacks, uncertainty, starvation and subhuman living conditions,' said Pillay. 'What is particularly disturbing is the widespread nature of the targeting of educational facilities, which has extended well beyond Gaza, impacting all Palestinian children.' The report will be formally presented to the UN Human Rights Council on June 17. Israel withdrew from the council in February after accusing it of bias. The commission's previous report on Gaza, published in March, accused Israel of committing 'genocidal acts' by destroying reproductive healthcare facilities. That prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accuse the council of being 'an anti-Semitic, corrupt, terror-supporting, and irrelevant body'.
Arab News
02-06-2025
- General
- Arab News
‘No safe place': Writer's group PEN International calls for arms embargo on Israel
LONDON: Writer's group PEN International on Monday urged the international community to impose an arms embargo on all parties involved in the war in Gaza, calling specifically for a ban on weapons used by Israel in attacks that have targeted Palestinian civilians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In an open letter, the London-based association expressed outrage at what it described as the global community's failure to hold Israel accountable for the 'ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.' The letter condemned the daily killing of civilians and the prolonged blockade, calling for immediate action to halt the assault. 'PEN International has documented harrowing testimonies of Palestinian writers across the OPT, all of whom have reported and corroborated the growing body of evidence demonstrating concerted and systematic efforts by Israel to erase the Palestinian people and their cultural heritage, particularly in Gaza,' the open letter said. The group said it shared the view of other international organizations that 'genocide is being perpetrated against Palestinians in Gaza through various means,' and reported that at least 23 writers — excluding artists and other cultural workers — have been killed in Israeli bombardments since Oct. 7, 2023. Describing the current period as 'the deadliest for writers since the Second World War,' PEN International said the assault on Palestinian culture — through the destruction of heritage sites, cultural spaces, and the targeting of writers and journalists — was 'a deliberate strategy to silence and erase the Palestinian people.' A post shared by PEN International (@peninternational) The NGO joins a growing number of organizations, experts and legal scholars that have concluded Israel's conduct in Gaza meets the threshold of genocide. The International Court of Justice ruled last year that Palestinians face a 'plausible risk of genocide,' and UN experts, aid agencies, and hundreds of legal specialists and genocide scholars have echoed that assessment. Even former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, writing in Haaretz, recently described the offensive as a 'war of extermination,' though he stopped short of using the term 'genocide.' PEN International's letter also detailed the 'irreversible loss of much of Gaza's tangible and intangible cultural heritage,' including independent cultural institutions, personal libraries and literary work, many of which were created under extreme restrictions and later destroyed in the war. As of the end of May, UNESCO confirmed damage to 110 cultural sites in Gaza since the war began, including religious landmarks, historic buildings, museums and archaeological sites. Testimonies gathered by PEN International also described the conditions faced by Palestinian writers amid the persistent threat to their lives. 'The relentless Israeli military operations, the indiscriminate bombardment of so-called 'safe zones' with high explosives, unexploded ordnance, sniper attacks targeting civilians, and the ongoing arbitrary restrictions and ban on humanitarian aid — are a grim, daily reality,' the letter read. 'All writers who spoke to PEN International have consistently stressed that: 'There is no place safe in Gaza'.' Founded in London in 1921, PEN International has grown into a global cultural institution. It has not remained untouched by the rippling political effects of the Gaza war. In September 2024, the group passed a resolution condemning the rise in targeted killings, arbitrary detentions, and restrictions on access to information in both Palestine and Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks. The resolution placed primary responsibility for these violations on Israeli authorities. In April 2025, PEN America, the group's US branch, was forced to cancel its annual literary awards after several authors boycotted the event over what they viewed as the organization's failure to take a clear stance against Israel's war on Gaza. The decision followed an open letter signed by dozens of authors and translators who withdrew their work from the awards in protest.
Fox News
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Israel turns tables on UN official claiming 'genocide' in Gaza with basic questions
EXCLUSIVE — Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon condemned a United Nations official over remarks that he said "shattered any notion of neutrality." On Tuesday, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher accused Israel of committing genocide in his remarks before the U.N. Security Council. "Israel is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," Fletcher told the Security Council on Tuesday. He went on to say that most of Gaza "is either within Israeli-militarized zones or under displacement orders." Fletcher, who heads the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), also described how Gazans are struggling due to a lack of supplies, as aid trucks have not been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip for 10 weeks. Hospitals are "overwhelmed," and people are facing famine and starvation, according to Fletcher. "So, for those killed and those whose voices are silenced: what more evidence do you need now? Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you say instead that 'we did all we could?'," Fletcher said. READ THE LETTER – APP USERS, CLICK HERE: While much of Fletcher's remarks focused on Gaza, he also condemned the "appalling violence" increasing in the West Bank. The next day, May 14, a pregnant Israeli woman was killed in a shooting attack while on her way to the hospital to give birth. Tzeela Gez lost her life, but doctors were able to save her baby, who, according to The Associated Press, is "in serious but stable condition." In his response, Danon said Fletcher's remarks "shocked and disturbed" him, accusing the U.N. official of making an "utterly inappropriate and deeply irresponsible" statement that "shattered any notion of neutrality." "You had the audacity, in your capacity as a senior U.N. official, to stand before the Security Council and invoke the charge of genocide without evidence, mandate, or restraint," Danon wrote in his response. "As a senior representative of the United Nations, you are obligated to refrain from prejudging complex international matters. Yet, this is precisely what you did before the Council. You did not brief the Council; you delivered a political sermon." In response to a Fox News Digital request for comment, OCHA spokesperson Eri Kaneko said that "As Mr. Fletcher made clear in his Security Council remarks, it is for legal bodies to consider whether a genocide is taking place - Mr. Fletcher's point is that the world must take decisive action to prevent genocide and ensure respect for international humanitarian law." When asked whether Fletcher was accusing Israel of deliberately killing and harming civilians, Kaneko said that the official's words speak for themselves, as "not a single civilian in Gaza - teachers, artists, merchants, aid workers, hostages - has been spared." Danon questioned under whose authority Fletcher issued the accusation and said the U.N. official's use of the word "genocide" was a "desecration and subversion of a term with unique force and weight." He went on to say that what made Fletcher's remarks "far worse" was the fact that Israel had "engaged with you and your office in good faith at the highest levels." The Israeli ambassador concluded his letter by turning the questions around on Fletcher, telling the OCHA chief to ask himself whether he had done enough to prevent Oct. 7, accelerate the release of the hostages and hold Hamas accountable. Kaneko told Fox News Digital that "Mr. Fletcher has repeatedly and publicly spoken out against what he calls the horrendous Hamas-led attacks and called for the release of the hostages. Mr. Fletcher was deeply moved by his visit in February to the kibbutz of Nir Oz, where one in four people were killed or taken hostage."
