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John Fetterman Slams ‘Anti-Israel’ UN Experts for Censuring Western Support of Jewish State
US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) gives an interview in his office in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 18, 2024. Photo: Rod Lamkey / CNP/Sipa USA for NY Post via Reuters Connect
US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) lambasted “anti-Israel” UN human rights experts for censuring Western countries on Monday over their continued support for Israel despite what they described as a genocide in Gaza.
“These so-called ‘experts’ have consistently revealed their anti-Israel bias and a censure from one of them is a badge of honor,” Fetterman posted on X/Twitter. ” No apologies and zero conditions for any essential support for Israel.”
Fetterman also posted a picture from a news story reporting on the warnings from the UN experts.
These so-called ‘experts’ have consistently revealed their anti-Israel bias and a censure from one of them is a badge of honor.
No apologies and zero conditions for any essential support for Israel. pic.twitter.com/YMZUOYmw1J
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) September 16, 2024
The most outspoken of the UN experts on Monday was Francesca Albanese, the UN’s notoriously controversial special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories.
“Shockingly, in the face of the abyss reached in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] … most member states remained inactive at best, or actively aiding and assisting Israel’s criminal conduct,” Albanese told a press conference in Geneva. “I think it’s unavoidable for Israel to become a pariah in the face of its continuous, relentless, vilifying assault of the United Nations, on top of millions of Palestinians.”
Israel has denied such allegations, noting the extensive lengths to which its military has gone to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, where Hamas often places its military targets within or underneath civilian targets such as schools and hospitals.
Though Fetterman campaigned as a progressive, he has surprisingly emerged as a staunch ally of Israel in the months following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. Fetterman has repeatedly condemned anti-Israel voices within his own party in the US Congress, as well as elite universities for tolerating what he has characterized as antisemitic and anti-Israel hate speech on their campuses.
Fetterman’s criticism came as Brown University in Rhode Island received backlash over its decision to host Albanese for a discussion on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The Ivy League university hosted Albanese, an Italina lawyer, for a talk on Monday titled “Anatomy of a Genocide: A Failure of the International System?” The roughly hour-and-a-half discussion centered on the international community’s response to Israel’s ongoing defensive military operations in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Toward the beginning of the discussion, Albanese decried Israel’s military campaign as the “monstrosity of this century.”
“To justify the protection of their security, Israel continues to take land from the Palestinians, subjugate the Palestinians, and impose conditions of life that result in humiliation and indignities,” Albanese said during the livestream.
Though Albanese insisted that she has repeatedly condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 others in southern Israel, she said she believes the Jewish state’s response has been disproportionate. As Albanese has done many times before, she accused Israel of targeting schools, hospitals, designated safe zones, and using starvation as a weapon against the population.
Israel has denied such accusations, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israeli military.
Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
Nonetheless, Albanese condemned Israel’s allies, saying they “should have changed course of action,” citing concerns over the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
“Instead they have continued to give Israel financial, economic, and political support and courage, and this is the failure of the system,” Albanese said.
She expressed gratitude toward students and university faculty members who have participated in anti-Israel demonstrations against Israel’s so-called “genocidal” war in Gaza.
Albanese’s participation in an official Brown University event drew widespread backlash from members of the school’s academic community. Over 2,400 members of the Brown community signed a letter urging the school to disinvite the controversial UN expert.
Albanese has been widely criticized for exhibiting an apparent bias against Israel. Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’s attacks on the Jewish state. In the months following Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 assault on the Jewish state, Albanese has accused Israel of enacting a “genocide”against the Palestinian people in revenge for the Oct. 7 attacks.
The United Nations has recently launched a probe against Albanese over allegedly accepting a trip to Australia funded by pro-Hamas organizations. She has called on the UN to expel Israel, comparing the Jewish state to apartheid-era South Africa.
The post John Fetterman Slams ‘Anti-Israel’ UN Experts for Censuring Western Support of Jewish State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
The post Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
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Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
The post Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
The post Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival first appeared on Algemeiner.com.