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Anti-Israel Activists Protest Outside US, Israeli Pavilions at Venice Biennale, Accuse Jewish State of Genocide
Pro-Palestinian protesters outside the Israeli pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale on April 17, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
Anti-Israel protesters who gathered in front of the American and Israeli pavilions at the 60th Venice Biennale on Wednesday condemned US support for Israel and accused the Jewish state of committing genocide during its ongoing war against Hamas terrorists controlling the Gaza Strip.
At least 100 protesters held Palestinian flags and chanted, in both English and Italian, “shame on you” as well as “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide; we charge you with genocide” because of America’s military aid to Israel. The demonstrators also distributed red leaflets that read “No Death in Venice. No to the Genocide Pavilion” and further chanted “shut it down,” calling for the permanent closure of the Israeli pavilion at this year’s international art fair.
The protest in front of the American and Israeli pavilions, which are located next to each other in the Giardini Della Biennale, took place on the second day of previews for the Venice Biennale, which opens to the general public on Saturday. The group also protested outside the French, British, and German pavilions, denouncing each country’s relations with Israel. They chanted “Viva, viva Palestina!” “Palestine will live forever,” and “One solution: intifada revolution. Zionism is a crime, get your hands off Palestine. Yala yala, intifada.”
The protests were organized by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), the international group of artists and activists who also penned an open letter in February that called on the Venice Biennale to ban Israel from this year’s event.
“We said NO to the presence of a genocidal apartheid state on the world cultural stage of the Biennale. We said NO to genocide complicit states USA, UK, Germany, and France,” ANGA said about the protest that took place on Wednesday. “We call for a total boycott of the Genocide Pavilion and demand to SHUT IT DOWN in its entirety. We said NO window display when Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza. ANGA demands an end to the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and an end to the apartheid and occupation of Palestine.”
Israel launched its military campaign targeting Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel, during which about 1,200 people were murdered and hundreds of others were taken as hostages. More than 100 hostages remain in Gaza.
The artist and curators responsible for the Israel pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale announced this week their decision to keep the Israeli exhibit closed until a ceasefire and hostage deal is agreed upon.
The post Anti-Israel Activists Protest Outside US, Israeli Pavilions at Venice Biennale, Accuse Jewish State of Genocide first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ After Israeli Minister’s Criticism
Pope Francis waves after delivering his traditional Christmas Day Urbi et Orbi speech to the city and the world from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, December 25, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican’s various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza.
“Yesterday, children were bombed,” said the pope. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”
The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope’s remarks amounted to a “trivialization” of the term genocide.
Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.
The patriarch’s office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope’s remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.
Israeli officials were not immediately reachable for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The post Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ After Israeli Minister’s Criticism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Pledges to Implement Lessons from Failure to Intercept Houthi Missile
Iranian-backed Yemeni terrorist leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – The Israeli military said on Saturday that while the investigation into the failure to intercept the missile that hit Tel Aviv early in the morning was still ongoing, some lessons were already being implemented. The ballistic missile, fired by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, landed at a playground in a residential area, leading to 16 people sustaining injuries from glass shards.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said that “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, in regards of both interception and early warning.”
The spokesperson added that “no further details regarding aerial defense activities and the alert system can be disclosed due to operational security considerations.”
The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as “acts of solidarity” with Palestinians in Gaza.
The post IDF Pledges to Implement Lessons from Failure to Intercept Houthi Missile first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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