Socialist Worker UK – Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi was sentenced to eight months in prison last week for standing up to an Israeli soldier.

Ahed was arrested after slapping a soldier who had entered the yard in front of her house in the occupied West Bank.

Footage of the confrontation spread on the internet, gathering widespread support.

It was an inspiring act of defiance against a heavily armed enforcer of a military occupation that has lasted more than 50 years.

The same day that Ahed was convicted, Israeli soldier Elor Azaria had his sentence cut by a third.

Azaria was convicted of manslaughter after video showed him calmly shoot a man in the head as he lay on the floor.

Azaria will spend less time in prison than many Palestinian children do for throwing stones.

London, (Newswire Now) – As many of the worlds top decision-makers and influencers prepare to convene in Qatars capital for the 2018 Doha Forum, the gatherings organizers announced this years Forum will launch a remarkable new era of Forum partnerships with several of the worlds most prestigious international policy institutions.

The theme for the solutions-focused 2018 Doha Forum is “Shaping Policy in an Interconnected World.”

Among the world leaders, policymakers, business leaders and advocates participating in the Doha Forum will be 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad, the inspiring young Iraqi human rights activist.

For the first time, the Doha Forum is teaming up with many of the worlds most acclaimed international institutions as partners, ensuring the 2018 gathering will showcase an unprecedented diversity of views and be extraordinarily compelling and impactful.

The Forum also released a refreshed visual identity and slogan Diplomacy, Dialogue, Diversity. Channeling the Forums renewed ambition, Doha Forums new logo and brand have been crafted to enhance and unify the Forums identity while strengthening its global presence and reputation for policy innovation. The slogan speaks to the forums efforts to position itself at the forefront of global policy-making, promote critical dialogue, and engage leaders from diverse policy backgrounds and expertise.
His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry stated: “Today, Qatar is a different place, therefore its only natural that the Doha Forum, like our country, is given new life. The rebranding of the Forum in 2018 is a result of organic progression. It has evolved, much like our country.”

His Excellency Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Qatar, commented, “Today we are launching a new visual identify for the Doha Forum because we recognize the importance of keeping up with the fast-paced changes our world is witnessing today, while ensuring that the principles that the Forum was built on remain steadfast. These principles are embodied in our belief in activating diplomacy to resolve disputes; employing genuine and honest dialogue in policy-making, and preserving diversity of thought and representation.”

Her Excellency Lolwah Al Khater, Spokesperson for Ministry of Foreign Affairs Qatar stated: “The Doha Forum was established 18 years ago as the regions only large-scale international forum designed to address global challenges and advance pragmatic solutions. Since its inception, the Forum has evolved into an ideal vantage point to explore the issues that affect us all.”

“This year, the Doha Forum is returning to build on its track record of advancing agendas for leaders and citizens alike, and we look forward to working with our strategic partners to enhance Doha Forums impact and network,” she added.

Director of Brookings Doha Center, Tarik Yousef, stated: “The events taking place in Doha this week alone demonstrate that Qatar is a place where we can engage freely and openly on the most difficult subjects we face in the Arab world. Qatar is well positioned to claim its title of capital of ideas, free thought and honest debate. The Brookings Doha Center is incredibly privileged to be part of this edition of the Doha Forum.”

Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown, Co-executive Director of Nadias Initiative, stated: “Nadia has been working on peace-building and mediation for over three years in Iraq, and she is looking forward to sharing her experience at the Doha Forum”.

Since the 30th March, thousands of Palestinians have been congregating in Gaza each week to take part in a series of protests called “The Great Return March”. The Israeli government have reacted to unarmed demonstrators with violence, issuing orders for live ammunition to be used. As of the 15th April, 35 Palestinians have been killed and 2,800 injured. Organised as a peaceful demonstration, and supported across Palestinian society, the weekly protests are to:

– Reaffirm the right of return
International law declares Palestinian refugees have the right to return to the
homes from which they were forcibly expelled in 1948 and in 1967. 70% of
Gazas population are recognised by the UN as refugees.

– Bring an end to the decade long Israeli imposed siege of Gaza (PSC Gaza Factsheet)
Ten years of illegal blockade have isolated Gaza from the world and triggered
major socio-economic and health crises. 80% of the population are
dependent on humanitarian aid to survive, and 42% of essential medicines are
currently at zero stock. The UN warns Gaza will be uninhabitable by 2020
unless urgent action is taken. As it stands, 97% of the water is not safe for
consumption and there are electrical blackouts for around 16 hours each day.

Israel responds with violence

Israel deployed hundreds of snipers along the border of Gaza, who continue to open fire using live ammunition on unarmed Palestinian civilians. As of the 15th April – 35 Palestinians have been killed, 1,297 shot, and a further 1,554 suffering from other injuries.

The Israeli government have ignored calls for an independent investigation and have indicated they will continue to order the use of lethal force against demonstrators.

With “The Great Return March” continuing up until May 15th (to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the 1948 “Nakba”), the only thing that can prevent more Palestinians being gunned down is the force and weight of international public opinion. We need you to take action!

“Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations. The result was foreseeable deaths and injuries of demonstrators on the other side of a border who posed no imminent threat to life.”

– Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

By: PSC

It was once the go-to fashion house for every aspiring actress on the red carpet.

However the 2018 Golden Globes may have sounded the death knell for Georgina Chapman’s fashion label Marchesa, after not a single actress wore a stitch of the brand founded by Harvey Weinstein’s estranged wife to this year’s ceremony.

In the course of several months of damaging revelations it has emerged that not only did Weinstein finance his wife’s brand he also pressured actresses to wear the clothes on the red carpet.

And apart from one statement in which she confirmed she was leaving her husband, and expressed sympathy for his victims, Chapman has said nothing publicly about the scandal.

This silence may, of course, be based on strict legal advice and a noble desire to protect her two children with Weinstein, but her incredibly low profile has done nothing to put clear blue water between her brand and her husband’s behavior.

Indeed, it has increasingly appeared from many accounts that Marchesa was just one more vector used by Weinstein to assert control over the careers (and bodies) of women. It’s hard to believe that Chapman had no idea her husband had anything to do with the stars such as Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez and Renee Zellweger who showed up at her studio for fittings to wear her dresses on the red carpet.

“He was the mastermind behind Marchesa—orchestrating deals and using his influence in terms of the celebrity connections for her on behalf of the brand,” an L.A. fashion publicist told the Hollywood Reporter of Weinstein. “They both benefited from the relationship, but she certainly knew about his bad behavior.”

The Hollywood Reporter claimed Weinstein pressured Felicity Huffman to wear his wife’s label when publicizing her 2005 movie, Transamerica. Huffman later confirmed that Weinstein threatened to pull financial support for the film if she didn’t wear the brand to the 2005 ceremony. She showed up in a flowing white Marchesa gown that year.

The Daily Mail reported that Sienna Miller was similarly pressured to wear Marchesa in 2007, the year she made another Weinstein movie, Factory Girl. Weinstein himself admitted to “maybe” helping Renee Zellweger pick a Marchesa dress for the premiere of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

The future of Chapman’s once red carpet-friendly label, named after the Marchesa Luisa Casati, an eccentric 20th-century Italian heiress, and famed for its focus on intricate featherwork and fantastical detailing, now seems bleak.

Palestine Chronicle – The Ministry of Heath in Gaza said 52 Palestinians were killed on Monday in Gaza and more than 2410 others wounded as the Israeli army fired live ammunition, tear gas and firebombs at protesters assembled along several points near the fence with Israel.

Gaza-based photojournalist Abdallah Aljamal contributed these photos to the Palestine Chronicle from todays, Monday, May 14, protests.

For Further Details and Photos Click here.

Syria remains a deadly and hostile country while its civil war is underway. This means civilians continue to require protection and refugees will need assistance in terms of resettlement and safe passage to third countries.

From its pre-conflict population of 20.5 million, 6.15 million people are internally displaced and 13.5 million people need humanitarian assistance.

By the end of October 2017 there were 5.31 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries.

Conditions for refugees remain precarious and there are a number of risks for those who reside in camp settings, including:

Lack of access to psychological support.
Protection concerns for unaccompanied minors.
Sexual and gender-based violence.
Poor health and bad hygiene.
Lack of protection to harsh weather conditions.
Limited financial resources.
While funding from donors to help humanitarian organisations is still vital and allows for much needed protection and assistance mechanisms to be put in place, there can be no alternative to asylum and resettlement to allow refugees to continue their lives and enjoy their full entitlement to rights in as safe an environment as possible.

In 2015, the EU asked 27 countries to take 160,000 refugees but by September 2017 only 29,162 had been taken in. The UK, who was not part of this scheme eventually agreed to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020 through its own national Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement Programme (VPRP).

However, many refugees are still making dangerous journeys from their country of origin, which exacerbates their suffering.

That’s why more safe and legal pathways are needed to ensure protection of Syrian refugees.

The UK position
The UK government settled on accepting 20,000 Syrian refugees. There has been opinion that the UK should accept more. The UK government has made clear though that it prefers to provide humanitarian funding to support those within the country believing that offering resettlement would encourage people to make the dangerous journey to the UK.

While aid can help attend to urgent needs there are many hard to reach areas in Syria, including those that are besieged. That means that humanitarian convoys can be denied entry. And so-called safe zones cannot truly protect the civilian population who have suffered disproportionately from the conflict. In addition Syrians are at risk of sexual violence, enforced disappearances and forced conscription as well as the recruitment of child soldiers. Evidence of torture and extra-judicial executions have also been uncovered.

I, Sameh Habeeb, was a co-founder and former co-editor of the Palestine Telegraph website, an open source platform; as with all open source platforms, this unfortunately includes people who may submit anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and racist comments and views. But allegations of anti-Semitism have to be proved, rather than asserted.

I totally reject that criticism of Israeli policy is anti-Semitic. The accusations against me fall within the wider context of the anti-Labour campaign against Jeremy Corbyn. The Sunday Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/anti-semitic-activist-select…/“) article is yet another attempt to silence any effective voices in the #Labour Party that are critical of Israel and its supporting organisations in the UK.

The #Palestine Telegraph was founded by a group of Palestinians living in Gaza, in response to the ongoing Israeli siege and the 2008-2009 Israeli war against Palestinians living in in Gaza. During the war, Israel committed war crimes. The website was volunteer-run and an open public platform, such as WordPress.com, Blogspot.com and Medium.com, open to citizen journalists and the public to publish their views. Whenever I was notified or came to know about any content that was racist, including anything anti-Semitic, I took immediate action, removing the articles and banning the publication of any submissions by writers who publish such hate and conspiracy stories. In other words, I was on the forefront in the fight against anti-Semitism.

This is in contrast to the #Telegraph newspaper, which continues to publish anti-Semitic and Islamophobic content online.

Regarding questions about anti-Semitism, I will not let proponents of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racism determine what is deemed acceptable and what is not. I am open to any fair investigation by the Labour Party or any other side to scrutinise the accusations against me. I am committed to the Labour Party and its ideas and principles that stand for justice for all oppressed peoples. And I am confident that my name will be cleared. There must be due process; this trial by media and trial by hysteria is not conducive to democracy and British values.

-End-

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Israel is holding over 6,000 Palestinians as political prisoners.

• 356 of the political prisoners are children under the age of 18.
• 427 of the political prisoners are being held in administrative detention, without being charged or standing trial.
• Human rights defenders, including journalists, lawyers, and NGO workers, are targeted with arrest and detention.

Israels detention policies and practices violate international law.

• Israeli authorities routinely transfer political prisoners from occupied territory into Israel, a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
• Ill-treatment and torture are systematic and widespread in Israeli detention and interrogation centres, a violation of the universally binding prohibition on torture.
• The UK government has an obligation under international law to ensure that the Fourth Geneva Convention is respected by other signatories, including Israel. The UK also has third state responsibility to take action when a state breaches the universally binding principles of international law.

The UK government must press Israel to end its illegal detention policies.

International Centre for Relations & Diplomacy (ICRD) launched in London & Brussels

A think-tank organisation has been launched in London and Brussels. The organisation known as “International Centre for Relations & Diplomacy” (ICRD) is an independent, non-profit and non-partisan think-tank organisation based in Brussels and London with an international operation.

According to ICRD “Statement of Establishment” the centre seeks to promote progressive strategic dialogues that encourage interaction between international political entities and citizen-based agendas.

The Centre works with different world Parliaments with a prime focus on the European Parliament and local Western European Parliaments in addition to United Nations agencies. Our projects aim to promote conflict resolution through research, dialogue, integration with decision makers, publishing and media outreach.

ICRD’s statement added that, “it strives to achieve our objectives by working interactively with international decision makers at

– United Nations level,

– European Parliament,

– UK and German Parliaments.

– Other Local European & International Parliaments

Additionally, ICRD will be focusing on key international topics such as Brexit, Middle East, and anti-Terrorism, Russia and China and Europe and the US