Latest news with #PalestineSupport
Arab News
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Miss Indonesia contestant removed from pageant after pro-Israel video
JAKARTA: A Miss Indonesia contestant has been removed from the pageant after a video showing her waving the Israeli flag went viral, sparking backlash in a country that has long stood in solidarity with Palestine. Merince Kogoya, who was set to represent the province of Highland Papua at the Miss Indonesia finals on July 9, was dropped from the competition last week after the video from May 2023 gained traction on social media. The clip, which shows Kogoya dancing with the Israeli flag, sparked outrage among Indonesians and prompted pageant organizers to quietly remove Kogoya from the competition. She was replaced with Karmen Anastasya, a runner-up from the same province. On Monday, Kogoya posted on Instagram — where her bio reads 'I stand with Israel' — that she was replaced due to 'public comments,' referring to the backlash she faced. 'My two-year-old video reel was widely shared with various misinterpretations about my beliefs,' she wrote. 'I am also conveying my apology to the Highland Papua family, I have tried to give my best but the fact is that @missindonesia's decision was taken based on comments that were not in line with my beliefs.' Kogoya did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Arab News. Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, has long been a staunch supporter of Palestine, as its people and government see Palestinian statehood as mandated by their own constitution, which calls for the abolition of colonialism. The Southeast Asian nation has no diplomatic relations with Israel, and the Indonesian government has repeatedly called for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and for a two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders. Hundreds and thousands of Indonesians across the country have rallied in solidarity with Palestine since the beginning of Israel's onslaught on Gaza in October 2023, while they also take part in mass boycotts of products and companies linked to Israel. To date, Israel has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians and wounded over 133,000 others. The true death toll is feared to be much higher, with research published in The Lancet medical journal in January estimated an underreporting of deaths by 41 percent. The study also takes into account the possibility of a higher death toll, as it does not include deaths caused by starvation, injury and lack of access to healthcare, caused by Israeli forces' destruction of most of Gaza's infrastructure and the blocking of medical and food aid.
Al Jazeera
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Court says Australian broadcaster ABC wrongfully dismissed journalist
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) unlawfully dismissed a radio journalist over a social media post related to Israel's war on Gaza, a court has said. The ABC fired radio host Antoinette Lattouf in December 2023 for expressing views supporting Palestine and calling for Israel to end its bombardment of Gaza. The sacking came shortly after she posted on social media a Human Rights Watch report alleging that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Lattouf took legal action after being dismissed three days into a five-day casual contract with the ABC. The broadcaster broke employment law by terminating her 'for reasons including that she held political opinions opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza', Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah said in his ruling on Wednesday. ABC senior management's consternation over the post (by HRW on Instagram) turned into a 'state of panic', the judge said, and a decision was made to take her off the air 'within the hour'. The broadcaster has apologised after being ordered to pay Antoinette Lattouf $70,000 Australian dollars ($45,000) in compensation, with a further financial penalty yet to be decided. 'We regret how the decision to remove Ms Lattouf from air was handled and the distress occasioned her,' ABC managing director Hugh Marks said. 'It's clear the matter was not handled in line with our values and expectations,' he added in a statement. 'We also let down our staff and audiences, and this failure has caused understandable concern among the public and inside the organisation,' he added. Since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, journalists across the globe have been fired for expressing solidarity towards Palestinians. Jackson Frank, a sports reporter in Philadelphia, was fired by because of his tweets supporting the Palestinian cause. Zahraa al-Akhrass was dismissed by her employer, Canada's Global News, due to her social media posts drawing attention to the suffering of the Palestinians. Kasem Raad was fired from his job at Welt TV, a subsidiary of German media company Axel Springer, for questioning internal pro-Israel policies. Big Tech companies including Google and Microsoft have also fired employees who have called on the companies to withdraw their support of Israel. Last April, Google fired 28 employees following a sit-down protest over the tech giant's contract to provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government. Microsoft also fired two employees for organising a pro-Palestine vigil last year.
The National
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
The pro-Palestine students caught up in Trump's war on liberal universities
Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher detained because of his views on Gaza, has been released from custody in Texas after a judge ruled the US government overstepped by arresting him in March. A US district judge made the much-anticipated decision on Wednesday. Mr Suri was released on bond and will be able to return to Virginia. "After months of sorrow, loss, and pain, when I saw my kids, it was like an oasis in the desert, and in their arms I found my life again. It was a surreal experience," he said shortly after his release. Since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, his administration has turned a critical eye on students, scholars and professors expressing sympathy for Palestinians amid the continuing Israel-Gaza war. Non-citizens in the US on visas have been detained and threatened with deportation by federal authorities. Some are student protest organisers, others have simply written in support of Palestine. In Mr Suri's case, his marriage to someone who had expressed support for Palestine was sufficient for the government to arrest him. Pro-Palestinians are also being targeted by groups using artificial intelligence to expose them and report them to authorities. The State Department reportedly hasn't ruled out using AI to help it revoke the visas of international students accused of supporting Hamas, again, often without due process or a nuanced interpretation of what demonstrators may have said or done. The State Department has not provided current figures on how many visas it has revoked. In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at least 300. Here is a look at some of the most prominent cases. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who was a leader in campus pro-Palestine protests last year, is being held in an immigration detention centre in Louisiana. He was arrested in New York on March 8, with video showing agents from the Department of Homeland Security taking him into custody without a warrant, handcuffing him and forcing him into an unmarked car. Shortly after his detention, Mr Trump wrote that Mr Khalil was a 'radical foreign pro-Hamas student'. Despite his legal team's arguments that Mr Khalil's right to free speech was violated and that he was apprehended without due process, Judge Jamee Comans disagreed. She said the government had demonstrated sufficiently Mr Khalil's presence in the US could have 'potentially serious foreign policy consequences', therefore the case met the legal threshold for deportation. Late last month, federal immigration authorities denied Mr Khalil's request for temporary release from detention to attend the birth of his first child. He has filed an appeal to try to prevent his deportation and the case remains under adjudication. Authorities in Vermont apprehended Mohsen Mahdawi on April 14. A student, Mr Mahdawi has been an outspoken critic of Israel's military campaign in Gaza and organised campus protests. He cofounded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia with Mr Khalil. The State Department and Department of Homeland Security deemed Mr Mahdawi 'removable' under the Immigration and Nationality Act. It also said his actions could have 'serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise compelling US foreign policy interest'. He spent 16 days in detention until US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford raised doubts over the State Department's rationale for the arrest and detention. 'The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,' the judge said. Mr Mahdawi could still be deported depending on how things unfold in court, with US authorities appealing the Vermont judge's decision. He plans on starting his master's degree at Columbia beginning in the autumn. On March 25, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to meet friends and break fast during Ramadan when masked agents surrounded her and took her into custody near her home in Massachusetts. The Department of Homeland Security accused Turkish student Ms Ozturk, 30, without providing evidence, of 'engaging in activities in support of Hamas', the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government. Ms Ozturk, who is also a Fulbright Scholar, last year co-wrote an opinion piece in a student newspaper criticising Tufts's response to student calls to divest from companies with Israel ties and to 'acknowledge the Palestinian genocide'. A federal judge on March 28 stopped her deportation after Ms Ozturk's lawyers filed a lawsuit saying her detention infringed her right to free speech and due process. After spending six weeks in a Louisiana detention centre, Ms Ozturk's legal team secured a major victory by convincing a judge to order her release on the grounds US federal authorities had not provided evidence to justify her arrest. It is expected the Trump administration will challenge the ruling. On March 17, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen studying at Georgetown University in Washington DC, was arrested at his Virginia home by the Department of Homeland Security. Department officials claimed Mr Suri 'has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior adviser to Hamas', and that Mr Rubio had determined that the scholar's activities 'rendered him deportable'. His lawyers have so far successfully argued for a lack of due process and charges to justify his deportation. In the weeks since his initial detention, demonstrators have gathered on Georgetown's campus in support of Mr Suri and the university's dean Joel Hellman issued a lengthy statement explaining his concern over the arrest and detention. As noted above, Mr Suri was released on bond on May 14.
The National
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Mahmoud Khalil, Badar Suri, Mohsen Mahdawi, Rumeysa Ozturk: A look at those detained for pro-Palestine views
Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher detained because of his views on Gaza, has been released from custody in Texas after a judge ruled the US government overstepped by arresting him in March. A US district judge made the much-anticipated decision on Wednesday. Mr Suri was released on bond and will be able to return to Virginia. Since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, his administration has turned a critical eye on students, scholars and professors expressing sympathy for Palestinians amid the continuing Israel-Gaza war. Non-citizens in the US on visas have been detained and threatened with deportation by federal authorities. Some are student protest organisers, others have simply written in support of Palestine. In Mr Suri's case, his marriage to someone who had expressed support for Palestine was sufficient for the government to arrest him. Pro-Palestinians are also being targeted by groups using artificial intelligence to expose them and report them to authorities. The State Department reportedly hasn't ruled out using AI to help it revoke the visas of international students accused of supporting Hamas, again, often without due process or a nuanced interpretation of what demonstrators may have said or done. The State Department has not provided current figures on how many visas it has revoked. In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at least 300. Here is a look at some of the most prominent cases. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who was a leader in campus pro-Palestine protests last year, is being held in an immigration detention centre in Louisiana. He was arrested in New York on March 8, with video showing agents from the Department of Homeland Security taking him into custody without a warrant, handcuffing him and forcing him into an unmarked car. Shortly after his detention, Mr Trump wrote that Mr Khalil was a 'radical foreign pro-Hamas student'. Despite his legal team's arguments that Mr Khalil's right to free speech was violated and that he was apprehended without due process, Judge Jamee Comans disagreed. She said the government had demonstrated sufficiently Mr Khalil's presence in the US could have 'potentially serious foreign policy consequences', therefore the case met the legal threshold for deportation. Late last month, federal immigration authorities denied Mr Khalil's request for temporary release from detention to attend the birth of his first child. He has filed an appeal to try to prevent his deportation and the case remains under adjudication. Authorities in Vermont apprehended Mohsen Mahdawi on April 14. A student, Mr Mahdawi has been an outspoken critic of Israel's military campaign in Gaza and organised campus protests. He cofounded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia with Mr Khalil. The State Department and Department of Homeland Security deemed Mr Mahdawi 'removable' under the Immigration and Nationality Act. It also said his actions could have 'serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise compelling US foreign policy interest'. He spent 16 days in detention until US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford raised doubts over the State Department's rationale for the arrest and detention. 'The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,' the judge said. Mr Mahdawi could still be deported depending on how things unfold in court, with US authorities appealing the Vermont judge's decision. He plans on starting his master's degree at Columbia beginning in the autumn. On March 25, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to meet friends and break fast during Ramadan when masked agents surrounded her and took her into custody near her home in Massachusetts. The Department of Homeland Security accused Turkish student Ms Ozturk, 30, without providing evidence, of 'engaging in activities in support of Hamas', the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government. Ms Ozturk, who is also a Fulbright Scholar, last year co-wrote an opinion piece in a student newspaper criticising Tufts's response to student calls to divest from companies with Israel ties and to 'acknowledge the Palestinian genocide'. A federal judge on March 28 stopped her deportation after Ms Ozturk's lawyers filed a lawsuit saying her detention infringed her right to free speech and due process. After spending six weeks in a Louisiana detention centre, Ms Ozturk's legal team secured a major victory by convincing a judge to order her release on the grounds US federal authorities had not provided evidence to justify her arrest. It is expected the Trump administration will challenge the ruling. On March 17, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen studying at Georgetown University in Washington DC, was arrested at his Virginia home by the Department of Homeland Security. Department officials claimed Mr Suri 'has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior adviser to Hamas', and that Mr Rubio had determined that the scholar's activities 'rendered him deportable'. His lawyers have so far successfully argued for a lack of due process and charges to justify his deportation. In the weeks since his initial detention, demonstrators have gathered on Georgetown's campus in support of Mr Suri and the university's dean Joel Hellman issued a lengthy statement explaining his concern over the arrest and detention. As noted above, Mr Suri was released on bond on May 14.
Bloomberg
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Tufts Grad Student Öztürk Released on Bail in Setback for Trump
A federal judge granted a request by a Turkish graduate student to be released on bail while she fights possible deportation, ruling that her continued detainment 'chills the speech' of noncitizens. The ruling Friday in favor of Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk is the latest setback for the Trump administration amid a crackdown on foreign students who voiced support for Palestinians in their conflict with Israel. The judge declined to restrict her travel as the US requested.
