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AMMAN: Jordan will defend the Palestinian people and their presence in Jerusalem “no matter the cost or sacrifice,” the Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs chief said on Thursday, Jordan News Agency reported.
Secretary-General Abdullah Kanaan highlighted the need to end the Israeli occupation and restore Palestinians’ legitimate rights to their land and sanctuaries during Ramadan.
Citing recent violence in Jerusalem, Kanaan said that Israel’s activities in the city were “making headlines,” despite attempts by the country’s media to “conceal facts” and “divert attention away from the innocent victims.”
He added that Palestinians and Jerusalemites demonstrated to the rest of the world that Ramadan is a “month of patience, perseverance, and defense of Islamic and Christian sites” against the Israeli occupation led by the country’s right-wing government.
Israel has maintained policies of apartheid, settlement legislation and limitations on Jerusalemites for decades, in violation of international legitimacy and law, Kanaan added.
The RCJA urged pan-Arab unity and the renunciation of division, praising the Palestinian people for their “perseverance and resolve.”
BEIRUT: Lebanon has deported dozens of Syrians back to the war-torn country they fled from as anti-Syrian sentiment grows amid a dire economic crisis, security officials and a humanitarian source said Friday.
One of the Syrians deported was an army defector, a relative said, warning that “his life is in danger.”
“The army has deported more than 50 Syrians from Lebanon in the past two weeks,” an army official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the press.
Another security official said dozens of Syrians had been expelled.
They said Lebanon’s army intelligence unit had been cracking down on undocumented Syrians, arresting them and handing them to border guards, who then expelled them from Lebanon.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled to neighboring Lebanon after the country’s civil war began in 2011 with the brutal suppression of anti-regime protests.
Authorities say Lebanon hosts around two million Syrian refugees, while nearly 830,000 are registered with the United Nations.
Lebanese authorities have long pushed for Syrian refugees to return, and have made several repatriation efforts they describe as voluntary, but which rights groups say are forced.
Rights groups say some refugees have faced persecution, and reject the idea that refugee returns to Syria are safe.
“The army’s detention centers are full,” and other security agencies have refused to take in the arrested refugees, the army official said, commenting on the move.
“So the army had to take this measure and place them outside Lebanese borders,” he added.
The security and army officials said that Lebanese authorities did not coordinate the effort with Damascus, adding that some of the expelled refugees had returned to Lebanon with the help of smugglers who charged them $100 per person.
A humanitarian source told AFP they had noticed increased army intelligence raids on Syrian communities in Beirut and the Mount Lebanon area since the beginning of April.
Approximately 450 Syrians had been arrested and at least 66 confirmed deported, they said.
“So far in 2023, at least five raids have taken place,” said the source, requesting anonymity as they were not allowed to speak to the media.
Since the Damascus regime regained control of most of Syria, some host countries have sought to expel refugees, citing a relative end to hostilities.
Lebanon has been mired since 2019 in an economic crisis that the World Bank said was one of the worst in modern history.
KHARTOUM: Sudan’s warring forces clashed again in the nation’s capital early Friday, with bombing and shelling reported in several areas of Khartoum, as they ignored appeals by world powers for an end-of-Ramadan cease-fire.
Both UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called separately for a cease-fire of “at least” three days to mark Eid Al-Fitr in the mostly Muslim country, as explosions and gunfire resounded in the capital Khartoum for the sixth straight night.
“On the night of Eid Al-Fitr, several areas of Khartoum were bombed and are still exposed to shelling and clashes between the armed forces and the RSF,” the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said in a statement.
“We call on all citizens to exercise caution, stay home, close doors and windows and lie down. We also call on these forces to be responsible and immediately stop fighting to protect innocent lives.”
The capital has borne the brunt of some of the fiercest fighting, with most of its five million people sheltering at home without electricity, food or water.
Residents have struggled to sleep for nearly a week and been jolted awake by “the roaring sound of fighter jets and air strikes,” said Nazek Abdalla, a 38-year-old in southern Khartoum.
“We locked our doors and windows, hoping no stray bullets would hit our building, Abdalla added. “We wish the fighting would stop during Eid festivities. We know it will not happen though.”
Blinken “condemned the indiscriminate fighting” in separate conversations with both Burhan and Daglo, his spokesperson said in a Friday statement.
“He urged both military leaders to implement and uphold a nationwide cease-fire and sustain it through at least the end of Eid Al-Fitr, Sunday, April 23,” the statement said.
As battles raged Friday, Burhan appeared on television for the first time since hostilities began, to deliver an Eid address as in previous years.
Sitting behind a desk, dressed in military uniform and backgrounded by two Sudanese flags, he made no mention of a truce.
“For Eid this year, our country is bleeding: destruction, desolation and the sound of bullets have taken precedence over joy,” he said.
“We hope that we will come out of this ordeal more united… a single army, a single people… toward a civilian power.”
After two cease-fires failed to take hold in two days, gunfire continued Thursday night, with columns of black smoke rising from buildings around Khartoum International Airport and the army headquarters.
While many sheltered at home, others were venturing out despite the risks “to protect themselves and their families,” said architect Tagreed Abdin.
Beyond Khartoum, witnesses reported loud explosions in the city of Obeid, in the central state of North Kordofan.
“It reeks of death in some parts of town,” said one witness in Obeid.
The World Health Organization said Friday that 413 people have died and almost 3,551 more had been wounded in the fighting.
The fighting has taken a heavy toll on civilians, with the UN children’s agency UNICEF saying “at least nine children have reportedly been killed.”The World Food Programme (WFP) warned that the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people — one-third of the population — already face food insecurity.
It has suspended its Sudan operations after the killing of three WFP workers on Saturday.
Burhan and Daglo’s bitter dispute centered on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army, a key condition for a final deal aimed at restoring Sudan’s democratic transition.
Around Khartoum and elsewhere, RSF fighters in armored vehicles and pickups mounted with machine guns have taken over the streets.
Many have mounted checkpoints to search cars carrying civilians trying to escape the worst battle zones to safer areas in Khartoum and beyond.
Civilians are becoming increasingly desperate — by Tuesday, thousands had fled the capital, with many reporting streets strewn with corpses.
Medics have warned of a catastrophe, especially in Khartoum, where many hospitals were reportedly caught in the crossfire.
Up to 70 percent of the hospitals in Khartoum and neighboring states have been rendered “out of service” by the fighting, the doctors’ union said.
It has warned the death toll is likely to be far higher than stated, with many wounded unable to reach hospitals.
Several countries’ evacuation plans have been put on hold, with the US Defense Department announcing Thursday that it was deploying forces “nearby in the region” with hopes of “securing and potentially facilitating the departure of US Embassy personnel from Sudan.”
The Sudanese army said 177 Egyptian soldiers were evacuated from the northern city of Meroe to Egypt, which confirmed their arrival. The RSF said later that it handed over another 27 Egyptian soldiers to the Sudanese Red Cross, and Cairo confirmed their arrival at Egypt’s Khartoum embassy.
The United Arab Emirates said it had “led” the mediation for the Egyptians held by the RSF.
Burhan and Daglo toppled autocratic president Omar Al-Bashir together in April 2019 following massive protests against three decades of iron-fisted rule.
In October 2021, they again worked together to oust the civilian government installed after Bashir’s downfall, derailing an internationally backed transition to democracy.
CHICAGO: Former Congressman Marie Newman, one of the most pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian members of Congress, lost re-election last year in part because of her criticism of Israel’s government but also because she fought to protect health care needs and opposed the growing influence of corporate PAC on elections.
Newman was elected to Congress in November 2020, but served only one term representing the 3rd Illinois Congressional District, which a New York Times analysis listed as having one of the largest concentrations of Palestinian and Arab voters.
In an interview with Arab News, Newman said that “some leaders” of the Democratic Party establishment targeted her in redistricting, forcing her to face-off with a more senior congressional incumbent, Sean Casten, in the newly drawn 6th District, which diluted Palestinian, Arab and Muslim voter support.
“The district changed dramatically. Over 60 percent of the district was taken away from me, meaning that we were left with 40 percent . . . there was the typical Illinois politics shenanigans that always go on but you can’t cry in your beer about it. You have to live with that. And I think it was that I was outspoken on a few topics, and these are topics the party establishment does not like in general, in the nation,” Newman said, noting that 20 to 25 percent of the former 3rd District was Arab, Muslim and South Asian.
“I was very, very outspoken on no corporate PAC money, and no corporate money and no corporate influence, and that made the party establishment very angry. I was also very outspoken on Medicare for all. The reason we don’t have Medicare for all is that our politicians accept money from health care and pharma, and all things attached to those topics. Another area I was very outspoken on was humanitarian rights, among those in my district. There was a preponderance of folks who felt very strongly. And I might add it wasn’t just Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans and South Asian Americans who felt strongly on that topic.”
During her single two-year term in office, Newman introduced many bills supporting the Palestinian and Arab American community and co-sponsored several that were critical of Israel’s government.
Newman co-led the fight with Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan to put a spotlight on Israel’s home demolitions and evictions of Palestinians from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in May 2021, which was signed by nearly 30 members of Congress.
Newman also supported blocking additional US funding for the “Iron Dome,” criticized Israel’s targeting of Palestinian children during raids and military operations, and endorsed the recognition of the word “Nakba,” which commemorates the UN decision to separate Palestine into a two-state checkerboard rather than as one democratic state for Christians, Muslims and Jews.
As a consequence, Newman was often attacked by pro-Israel activists, rightwing members of Congress and even members of the Democratic Party as being “antisemitic” because she challenged Israel’s government policies.
“It was never that I was antisemitic or that I was putting down Jewish folks or Israeli citizens. I was critical of the Israeli government and I was very clear on that,” Newman told Arab News.
“But the problem is that there were folks that didn’t like me because I was not fond of corporatized politicians and corporatized elections. I was very strong on Medicare for all and other matters of economic equity. There are many issues in that basket, student debt relief and the like.”
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Newman said that she is proud of her stand on Palestinian, Arab and Muslim rights, and her criticism of Israel’s government. “And then on humanitarian rights, I was very strong in speaking out. Let’s be clear about what is really happening on the ground, what the Israeli government is doing. The problem they had with me, they being the established and the corporatized Democrats, I have a Jewish husband. I have Jewish kids. They couldn’t call me antisemitic. That was a problem for them.”
Newman said that when she was accused, falsely, of being antisemitic, “They would walk away with their tails between their legs. I just wasn’t having that and it was not going to happen. That has stopped many people and they don’t do that as much as they did.”
She said that her position in support of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim rights was critical in the opposition she faced that caused her to lose re-election in the June 28, 2022 Democratic Primary to two-term Democrat incumbent Sean Casten.
“I do think a strong piece of it was that I was speaking out for Arabs, Muslims and South Asian Americans in a very strong way,” Newman said.
“They (her critics) did not enjoy a lot of my positions on that front and I do think that made them angry and there were a lot of issues they did not like.”
Newman added, “The first time I started to speak out on corporate money and the conditions in Palestine and Israel, I remember I got several phone calls not just from donors, from other electeds . . . It was warnings, threats.”
Palestinian-American Shadin Maali, who served as Newman’s former chief of district affairs for the 3rd Congressional District, said that Newman was an “active voice” in speaking out on humanitarian rights for all people, including Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, in America.
“Congresswoman Newman reached out in a way to our community that no other elected leader had in the past to understand our issues and to fairly represent the district on all issues, especially human rights within our borders and abroad while she was in Congress,” said Shadin, who is now senior director for growth and operations for EmgageUSA, a coalition of organizations representing Muslim issues.
“The 3rd Congressional District has the largest Palestinian constituency in the country before it was divided. She was the first to reach out in a very positive way to the community and attend all of the events.”
Being a woman made her vulnerable in American politics, she said, adding, “I am just going to say it very clearly, that white men over 50 with a lot of money always win. They always do.”
But Newman emphasized that she could not stand by and watch the “meanness and hatefulness coming out of the Israeli government,” adding, “I don’t believe the Israeli people are that way at all. I don’t believe the Jewish people are that way at all. For me, I think we would all be wise to understand that our reputation is at risk when we don’t pay attention to humanitarian rights.”
Under redistricting, the former 3rd Congressional District was divided among five congressional districts, diluting the political cohesiveness of the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim community.
Parts of the former 3rd Congressional District are now represented by Congressman Bill Foster, Casten, Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood and Congressman Danny Davis.
In April, 2023 Newman was appointed chief executive officer of Little City Foundation, a social services organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Little City serves more than 900 people through its residential facilities, day programs and at-home assistance in northern Illinois.
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a Cabinet minister known for inflammatory comments and for leading a grassroots campaign against African migrants to the post of consul general in New York, a high-profile job that deals with outreach to American Jews.
May Golan, currently a minister without portfolio in Netanyahu’s government, built her political career on staunch opposition to African migrants in Israel. She calls them “infiltrators” and has portrayed the estimated 40,000 migrants, mostly concentrated in poor neighborhoods of the southern part of the city of Tel Aviv, as threats to security.
After a failed bid to enter parliament with the ultranationalist Jewish Power party in 2013, she joined Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party and was first elected to parliament in 2019.
Netanyahu recently promised Golan the role of the as yet uncreated Ministry for the Status of Women. His office confirmed media reports on Wednesday that he has offered her the consul general post, citing “her excellent explanatory abilities in English.”
In a post on Twitter, Golan said she was honored to be considered for the post and that she is “completely committed to the unity of the Jewish people.”
“If appointed, I will work with the leaders of all the Jewish organizations — as part of the effort to strengthen the great partnership between Israel and the American Jewish communities,” she said.
Israel’s previous consul general, Assaf Zamir, resigned last month in protest over the Netanyahu government’s controversial judicial overhaul plan.
The United States is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, with the single largest community living in the greater New York metropolitan area.
Netanyahu’s government is the most ultranationalist and religious in Israel’s 75-year history. Golan is part of the ultranationalist wing of Netanyahu ‘s Likud and her political positions, including comments disparaging the liberal Reform Jewish movement, are likely to cause friction with American Jews, who are overwhelmingly liberal.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish movement in the US, criticized the appointment, saying Golan’s views are “antithetical” to most of the community.
“She will harm not help Israel’s cause,” he wrote on Twitter.
In addition to being a proponent of the judicial overhaul plan that has divided the country, Golan has also advocated annexation of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and has long campaigned for the deportation of African migrants.
The Africans, nearly all from long-reclusive Eritrea and war-torn Sudan, say they fled for their lives and face renewed danger if they return. Israel considers the vast majority of the Africans to be job seekers.
In 2014, Golan told the Haaretz newspaper that she avoided restaurants that employed African asylum seekers out of fear of catching diseases.
“If I am racist for wanting to defend my country and for wanting to protect my basic rights and security, then I’m a proud racist,” she said at a rally in south Tel Aviv in 2013.