Hezbollah chief calls for strategy to confront Israel

AL JAZEERA
December 12, 2017

Dec 12: The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah has said his group and its allies in the region would renew their focus on the Palestinian cause after what he called their victories elsewhere in the region.

Hassan Nasrallah called on Hezbollah's allies on Monday to put in place a united strategy "in the field" to confront Israel.

His speech came as thousands of Hezbollah supporters demonstrated in Beirut, chanting "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" in protest against President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese Shia political bloc with a powerful military wing, has been fighting in Syria alongside regional allies to defeat both anti-government rebels and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Protesters marched through Hezbollah's south Beirut bastion, carrying banners reading "Jerusalem, Eternal Capital of Palestine" and "Jerusalem is Ours".

Nasrallah said he hoped the "foolish [US] decision" would mark the "beginning of the end" of Israel.

Days of protest

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut on Monday, said Nasrallah asked Hezbollah supporters to continue protesting against the US move.

"Nasrallah described Trump's decision as yet another aggression against the Palestinian cause whose aim was to strip Palestinians of their rights," she said.

Nasrallah had called for the demonstration last week after Trump made his announcement in a televised speech on December 6.

The move has been heavily denounced and has prompted days of protest across the Middle East and elsewhere.

Monday's rally came a day after a violent protest outside the US embassy in Beirut, where security forces fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters who pelted them with stones.

The demonstrators were barely hundreds of metres from the embassy.

Lebanon is home to over 450,000 Palestinian refugees, who make up nearly 10 percent of the country's population.

Many are the descendants of those who fled after the creation of Israel in 1948.

Our correspondent said Trump's decision has been a gift to Hezbollah, which had been drawing flak from its opponents for its intervention in Syria's conflict.

The battle-hardened Hezbollah fighters played a key role in turning the tide of Syria's war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad, a key Iran ally.

"From the beginning, since Hezbollah was born three decades ago, Palestine has been central to their cause," Al Jazeera's Khodr said.

"Up until a few years ago, Hezbollah was portrayed as a resistance movement.

"But it lost a lot of popularity and legitimacy when it intervened in Syria, with its opponents accusing it of being a sectarian militia that is serving Iran's interests.

"Now Hezbollah is saying they have won against ISIL, that the war in Syria is winding down and they have to concentrate on their main cause, the Palestinian issue."

Hezbollah is believed to have a massive arsenal of rockets capable of hitting much of Israel's territory.

Israel fought a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 that killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 120 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

Israel withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending a 22-year occupation, but the two countries remain technically at war and there have been occasional skirmishes on the border.

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News Network
April 30,2024

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Itamar Ben Gvir, a notorious far-right Israeli minister, has suggested that some Palestinians could be “killed” instead of being kidnapped during the savage war in Gaza.
 
The minister made remarks during an Israeli war cabinet meeting where he questioned the necessity of the detention of a large number of Palestinians.

“Why are there so many arrests? “Can’t you kill some? Do you want to tell me they all surrender? What are we to do with so many arrested? It’s dangerous for the soldiers.” Ben-Gvir was quoted as asking the Israeli military's chief of staff Herzi Halevi.

The minister also reportedly demanded that the army shoot Palestinian women and children in the besieged Palestinian territory to “protect” the Israeli forces.

Halevi briefed ministers who attended the cabinet meeting on the military campaign in Gaza and highlighted that hundreds of Palestinians had surrendered to the occupying forces.

Ben Gvir recently also called for the execution of Palestinian prisoners to ease overcrowding in the jails. The minister said that applying the death penalty to Palestinian detainees was the “right” solution to tackle the problem of prison overcrowding.

Israel soldiers have abducted more than 5,000 of Palestinians during their ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

The Gaza media office has said that Palestinian prisoners were undergoing "the worst kinds of torture" in Israeli jails.

Palestinian rights group Addameer earlier this month said Israel was holding 9,500 Palestinian political prisoners, not including those taken from the Gaza Strip.

Israel has arrested thousands of Palestinians since 7 October. Those detained, often without charge, describe regular beatings and a solitary daily meal designed simply to keep them alive.

Palestinians taken prisoner or hostage from both the West Bank and Gaza have given testimonies detailing horrific and sadistic abuse and torture by their Israeli jailers including beatings, verbal abuse, sexual abuse and rape, breaking of limbs, burns, being stripped naked, and forced drug taking.

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News Network
April 27,2024

UScop.jpg

"I always wanted to be in a bar fight," said a US police official after pinning a Black man down on the ground and kneeling on his neck. The man later died at a hospital.

Ohio Police have come under intense scrutiny following the release of body camera footage showing officers pinning a Black man to the ground in a bar, reminiscent of the events that led to George Floyd's death in 2020.

The video, released by the Canton Police Department, captured the moments leading up to the death of Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old man suspected of leaving the scene of a single-car accident on April 18.

In the footage, officers are seen confronting Tyson inside a bar, where an altercation quickly ensues. Despite Tyson's pleas for help and his repeated cries of "I can't breathe," officers wrestle him to the ground and handcuff him, with one officer applying pressure to his back near his neck while saying, "You're fine." 

Tyson continues to plead for relief while lying on the floor. After several minutes, officers notice his lack of responsiveness and proceed to administer CPR. Paramedics arrive on the scene and transport Tyson to a local hospital, where he later dies.

In the body cam footage, one police officer can be heard bragging about how he always wanted to be in a "bar fight" with one of the patrons of the establishment. 

The circumstances surrounding Tyson's death draw chilling parallels to George Floyd's fatal encounter with Minneapolis Police in 2020 which sparked global outrage. 

The officers involved in Tyson's case, identified as Beau Schoenegge and Camden Burch, have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. 

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News Network
April 28,2024

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Bengaluru: JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday said he would like to wait for the facts to come out of the investigation into an alleged sex scandal involving his nephew and Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, but asserted that there is no question of forgiving anyone who has committed a crime as per law.

The former chief minister said he has nothing to do with Prajwal Revanna reportedly leaving the country, and it is the responsibility of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to get him back if required.

The 33-year-old Prajwal Revanna is the son of former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda's elder son H D Revanna, who is an MLA and former minister.

Some explicit video clips allegedly involving Prajwal Revanna had started making the rounds in Hassan in recent days.

Prajwal Revanna is the BJP-JD(S) alliance's candidate from Hassan, which went to polls on Friday.

Kumaraswamy said, "I have noticed that the chief minister has ordered an SIT probe. Whether it is me or Deve Gowda (his father), we have always conducted ourselves respectfully towards women and have responded positively when anyone came with any sufferings. We have tried to address them."

Speaking to reporters here, he said, "The Hassan related issue that started during elections, let the facts come out through a probe. Whoever it is, who has committed the mistake as per the law of the land...there is no question of forgiving anyone who has committed the mistake. So let the facts come out from the probe, after that I will react."

To a question on Prajwal Revanna going to a foreign country, Kumaraswamy said, "It is not related to me. SIT probe has been ordered, officials have been put to work. If he has gone to a foreign country, getting him back is their responsibility. What should I say, if I'm asked. They (SIT) will get him, don't worry."

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced the decision to constitute a SIT to probe the alleged sex scandal involving the MP.

Meanwhile, the police have information that Prajwal has left the country, according to a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s office.

"Prajwal Revanna’s explicit video clips are being circulated in Hassan and it appears prime facie that women were sexually assaulted,' the statement said, adding that the government decided to form an SIT based on a petition by the chief of the Karnataka State Commission for Women.

The Commission's chairperson Dr Nagalakshmi Chaudhary on Thursday wrote to Siddaramaiah and state police chief Alok Mohan, seeking a probe into the videos that are in circulation in Hassan.

Prajwal has through his election agent lodged a complaint with the authorities that the videos are "doctored" and being circulated to tarnish his image ahead of elections.

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