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Egypt steps up Gaza role after brokering last year’s truce
By FARES AKRAM
yesterday
Laborers work on concrete slab foundations for one of three Egyptian-funded housing complexes in the Gaza Strip, in the town of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. After years of working behind the scenes as a mediator, Egypt is taking on a much larger and more public role in Gaza. In the months since it brokered a Gaza cease-fire last May, Egypt has sent crews to clear rubbled and promised to build vast new apartment complexes, and billboards of its president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, are a common sight. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
After years of behind-the-scenes activity in the Gaza Strip, Egypt is going public.
Since mediating a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group, Egypt has sent crews to clear rubble and is promising to build vast new apartment complexes. Egyptian flags and billboards praising President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi have sprung up across the Palestinian territory.
It is a new look for the Egyptians, who have spent years working quietly to encourage Israel-Hamas truce talks and reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions.
The shift could help prevent — or at least delay — another round of violence. By presenting itself as a Mideast peacemaker, Egypt could also blunt efforts by the Biden administration and some U.S. lawmakers to hold the country accountable for human rights abuses.
The 11-day Gaza war last May “allowed Egypt to once again market itself as an indispensable security partner for Israel in the region — which it is — which in turn makes it an indispensable security partner for the U.S.,” said Hafsa Halawa, an expert on Egypt at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank.
“Gaza is a reminder to everybody, effectively, that you can’t really do anything without Egypt,” she said.
The expanded aid, along with its control over Rafah — the only Gaza border crossing that bypasses Israel — gives Egypt leverage over Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since driving out forces loyal to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in 2007.
Egypt joined Israel in imposing a crippling blockade on the territory after the Hamas takeover, but both countries have recently taken steps to ease the restrictions, tacitly acknowledging that Hamas rule is here to stay.
After negotiating the informal cease-fire that ended the Gaza war, Egypt pledged $500 million to rebuild the territory and sent work crews to remove rubble.
While it remains unclear how much of that money has been delivered, Egypt is now subsidizing the construction of three towns that are to house some 300,000 residents, according to Naji Sarhan, the deputy director of the Hamas-run Housing Ministry. Work is also under way to upgrade Gaza’s main coastal road. Sarhan said the projects will take a year and a half to complete.
“We hope there will be large bundles of projects in the near future, especially the towers that were destroyed in the war,” he said.
Israel leveled four high-rises during the fighting, saying they housed Hamas military infrastructure. It has not publicly released evidence backing up the claims, which Hamas denies. The construction materials will be shipped through Rafah.
Hamas denies everything.
Alaa al-Arraj, of the Palestinian contractors’ union, said nine Palestinian companies will take part in the Egyptian projects, which would generate some 16,000 much-needed jobs in the impoverished territory.
The Egyptian presence is palpable. Nearly every week, Egyptian delegations visit Gaza to inspect the work. They have also opened an office at a Gaza City hotel for permanent technical representatives.
Egyptian flags and banners of Egyptian companies flutter atop bulldozers, trucks and utility poles. Dozens of Egyptian workers have arrived, sleeping at a makeshift hostel in a Gaza City school.
Five days a week, Egyptian trucks filled with construction materials flow into Gaza through the Rafah crossing — a visible contrast to the intermittent shipments arriving through an Israeli-controlled crossing.
Suhail Saqqa, a Gaza contractor involved in the reconstruction, said the steady flow of Egyptian materials is critical.
“The goods are not restricted by Israeli crossings, and this makes them momentous,” Saqqa said.
The projects are part of a broader realignment after years in which Gaza was caught in a tug-of-war among Arab states following the upheaval of the 2011 Arab Spring protests.
A short-lived elected Islamist government in Egypt was closely allied with the Gulf country of Qatar and sympathetic to Hamas. It eased the blockade and brokered the end of a brief Gaza war in 2012. But the following year it was overthrown by the Egyptian military.
The Egyptian leader, el-Sissi, who led the overthrow, initially adopted a hard-line stance against Hamas, ordering the destruction of a vast network of smuggling tunnels that had sustained Gaza’s economy.
Qatar, which supports Islamist groups across the region, meanwhile stepped in to provide humanitarian aid, including cash-filled suitcases shipped to Gaza with Israel’s permission.
The rivalry escalated, with Cairo joining the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in blockading Qatar from 2017 until a year ago. But relations have improved, and Egypt and Qatar are now cooperating to deliver aid that helps the Hamas government pay its civil servants.
The growing Egyptian role gives Cairo a powerful tool to enforce Hamas’ compliance with the truce. It can close Rafah whenever it wants, making it nearly impossible for anyone to travel into or out of Gaza, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians.
Egypt “can suffocate Gaza in a moment” if its demands are not met, said Maged Mandour, an Egyptian political analyst.
That might be enough to prevent another outbreak of hostilities in the near term. But it doesn’t address the underlying conflict that has fueled four wars between Israel and Hamas and countless skirmishes over the last 15 years.
Israel and most Western countries consider Hamas a terrorist organization because of its refusal to accept Israel’s existence and its long history of deadly attacks.
Israel has enforced a policy of separation between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, which flank Israel and under an internationally endorsed proposal would one day be part of a Palestinian state.
Israel’s current government has ruled out any major peace initiatives — even with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank — but it has taken steps to improve living conditions, including issuing some 10,000 permits for Gazans to work inside Israel.
Relations between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah party plunged to a new low last year after he called off the first elections in more than 15 years. Repeated attempts at reconciliation — many brokered by Egypt — have failed.
But for Egypt and Israel, and for a U.S. administration focused on larger crises elsewhere — preserving the status quo in Gaza might be enough.
“Egypt wants understandings or even pressure on Hamas so the situation won’t explode,” said Talal Oukal, a Gaza-based political analyst.
This is a great idea! Egypt is probably getting some financial help from one or more of the Gulf States. Rebuilding the economy might give Gazans something to think about other than killing Jews.
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Akram reported from Hamilton, Canada. Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
NGOs call on US aid group to stop funding use of
Palestinian child soldiers
CAF America provides funds to Palestinian NGOs with ties to the
PFLP terrorist organization.
By TZVI JOFFRE Published: FEBRUARY 10, 2022 11:13
(photo credit: MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS)
The Coalition to Save Palestinian Child Soldiers called on CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) America to stop providing funds to Palestinian NGOs like “Defense for Children International Palestine” (DCI-P) due to its ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has been documented as using child soldiers.
The coalition is asking the public to email CAF with a request to stop funding such organizations as part of Palestinian Child Soldier Week which is observed from February 7-13. The campaign aims to raise awareness about the plight of Palestinian child soldiers and pressure offending organizations to stop their abuses.
"CAF America must stop providing a financial platform to NGOs affiliated with terrorist groups exploiting Palestinian children," wrote the coalition on the campaign's website.
"These organizations that profit from private money funneled through CAF America, exploit children for political purposes. CAF America provides, by association, a financial safe haven for 'retired' PFLP and Hamas terrorists. They are guilty by omission, affiliation and direct action in the incitement to violence, recruitment and training of Palestinian children for military purposes."
The coalition called the funding from CAF an "essential part in the upkeep of the brutal, systemic use of Palestinian children by terrorist organizations in the Levant."
CAF America writes on its website that it enables donors to "make strategic, cost-effective and tax-advantaged gifts while reducing the risk, reputation exposure and administrative burden associated with cross-border giving."
The 2018 Children Affected by Armed Conflict report noted that a number of Palestinian armed factions recruited and used children. Summer camps held by armed factions in the Gaza Strip also regularly include militant training.
A number of minors have joined the PFLP's armed wing in the past, including one 16-year-old who committed a suicide bombing attack in 2004 and another 16-year-old who joined the armed wing and was killed in 2004. A December 2014 PFLP memorial event included individuals who appeared to be children in military garb, according to NGO Monitor.
DCI-P was one of several Palestinian NGOs classified as arms of the PFLP by Israeli authorities last year. The other NGOs are Addameer, Al Haq, Bisan Center, Union Of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.
A Shin Bet investigation by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) found that the organizations raised and laundered money and forged documents to assist the PFLP. They also recruited activists to join the group and several meetings of senior group members were held at the offices of the NGOs.
Many pro-Palestinian activists claimed, however, that the evidence collected by Israel failed to link the NGOs to terrorism.
Independent watchdogs and organizations have warned for more than 10 years that a number of Palestinian NGOs had ties to terrorist organizations such as the PFLP. Since 2007, NGO Monitor has published reports on the ties between the PFLP and the six NGOs designated last year by Israel as arms of the terrorist organization.
Dozens sentenced to death for major terrorist attack
An Indian court has handed down punishments for a series of bombings
in Ahmedabad in 2008
© Kalpit Bhachech/Dipam Bhachech/Getty Images
A special court in India sentenced 38 defendants to death and 11 others to life imprisonment on Friday for their role in a series of deadly bombings in 2008.
Each convict was also fined and ordered to pay compensation to the victims and their families, the court in India’s western Gujarat region ruled.
The court acquitted 28 people due to either insufficient or no evidence against them. One of the 28 was previously released on bail because he was suffering from a mental illness, while the rest have spent nearly 13 years in jail, the Times of India said.
In July 2008, over 20 bombs went off across Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city, in the span of over an hour, killing 56 people and injuring more than 200. The blasts took place at bus stops and outside two major hospitals.
The Indian Mujahideen, an Islamist terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said at the time that the blasts were a “revenge” for the riots and violence between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, according to India Today.
Islam's lack of respect for women, no matter how powerful...
EU Commission president ignored again
Ursula von der Leyen suffered a new awkward moment
reminiscent of the ‘Sofagate’ scandal
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen found herself in an uncomfortable situation during the EU’s Africa summit on Friday, when she was ignored by Uganda’s foreign minister.
The embarrassing incident unfolded during a protocol photo op, that von der Leyen attended alongside European Council President Charles Michel and France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
The official greeted Uganda’s top diplomat Abubakhar Jeje Odongo, who seemingly ignored her and strolled past her to shake hands with the two men, footage shows.
The minister greeted Michel and Macron, engaging in a conversation with the two. Odongo then stood for the protocol photo, still without acknowledging von der Leyen. It took an effort from Macron motioning in her direction to draw Odongo’s attention to the Commission president. He then briefly exchanged words with her and left the photo op.
The incident immediately invoked comparisons with the infamous ‘Sofagate’ scandal that unfolded in April last year. Back then, von der Leyen visited Turkey alongside Michel, meeting the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The official was left sitting alone on a sofa, while Erdogan and Michel were provided gilded chairs to sit next to one another during the talks.
The scandal prompted accusations of sexism and misogyny against Erdogan and landed Michel in hot water for failing to stand up for von der Leyen. While EU and Turkish officials alike tried to brush off the affair as a misunderstanding of protocols, von der Leyen said the incident left her feeling “alone” both “as a woman and as a European.”
Michel’s apparent lack of action during the new incident drew fresh criticism, with some accusing the official of drawing no lessons from ‘Sofagate’. The photo op awkwardness, however, drew significantly less attention than the original scandal, with none of the officials involved offering any comment on the situation.
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