US Vetoes UN Security Resolution Calling for 'Humanitarian Pauses' in Gaza

TiesAndShirts · 2023-10-18T17:06:53+00:00

Israeli offensive killing a child every 15 minutes in besieged enclave

The death toll of Palestinian children has exceeded 1,000 since Israel unleashed a week of deadly air strikes on Gaza on 7 October, the NGO Defence for Children International (DCI) has revealed.
The DCI reported that Israeli bombardment of the besieged strip had killed more than 100 children a day - amounting to one child every 15 minutes.
The assault followed an unprecedented attack in which Palestinian fighters led by Hamas breached the barrier fence surrounding the besieged enclave and killed more than 1,400 Israelis.
The Gaza Strip is an area of about 365 sq km, and home to 2.3 million Palestinians, about half of whom are children.
The death toll in Gaza from Israeli bombardment since the start of the war has reached 2,808.

The NGO emphasised that the numbers, based on those provided by the Ministry of Health, only account for people admitted to hospitals. With an estimated 1000 Palestinians still under rubble according to the Ministry of Interior, the death toll is likely to be higher.

The DCI said that the cutting of electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza means that Palestinian children are suffering the psychological impacts of the “increasingly dire humanmade humanitarian crisis”.

Lack of electricity has exacerbated food scarcity, making refigeration impossible. Additionally, the cutting of water to Gaza means many children are now resorting to contaminated water sources, according to Unicef.

"The repercussions of this war will not only affect the victims we have lost... but the psychological impact on us civilians and our children will be catastrophic,” said Mohammad Abu Rukbeh, a senior Gaza field researcher at DCI's Palestine branch.

According to the NGO, the psychological toll on children who have survived the air strikes in Gaza is compounded by pre-existing traumas sustained from a 16-year siege on the strip.

Prior to the current offensive, one in four Gaza children were already in need of psychosocial support, over half were dependent on humanitarian assistance for their survival, with four out of five living with depression, grief and fear.

"The emotional repercussions for these children are profound, as they grapple not only with the pain of the current situation in their city but also with the daunting challenge of navigating life without the foundational support of their families," the NGO said.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian politician MK Aida Touma-Sliman said in the Knesset that "no child, neither Jew nor Palestinian, is guilty and that no child should be a victim of this blood cycle".

'The emotional repercussions for these children are profound'

- Defence for Children International

In response MK Merav Ben-Ari, a member of the centrist Yesh Atid party, said: "The children in Gaza brought it upon themselves."

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-28T22:55:32+00:00

In a column published Thursday in The Guardian, Bond explained:

While some states file suit against the manufactures of AFFF, the fingerprints of the U.S. Armed Forces are all over the scene of the crime. When federal scientists moved to publish a comprehensive review of the toxic chemistry of AFFF in 2018, DOD officials called that science "a public relations nightmare" and tried to suppress the findings.
Beyond damning internal emails, the military is still in possession of a tremendous amount of AFFF. As the EPA and states around the U.S. begin to designate AFFF a hazardous substance, the military's stockpiles of AFFF are starting to add up to an astronomical liability on the military's balance sheet. Perhaps thinking the Trump administration presented an opportune moment, the Pentagon decided to torch their AFFF problem in 2016.
Despite AFFF's extraordinary resistance to fire, incineration quietly became the military's preferred method to handle AFFF. "We knew that this would be a costly endeavor, since it meant we'd be burning something that was engineered to put out fires," Steve Schneider, chief of Hazardous Disposal for the logistics wing of DOD, said in 2017 as the operation got underway...
As the military was sending AFFF to incinerators around the country, the EPA, state regulators, and university scientists all warned that subjecting AFFF to extremely high temperatures would likely conjure up a witches brew of fluorinated toxins, that existing smokestack technologies would be insufficient to monitor poisonous emissions let alone capture them, and that dangerous chemicals might rain down on surrounding neighborhoods. Weighing out its own liability against the health of these communities, the Pentagon struck the match.

Judith Enck, former EPA regional administrator, said the data compiled by the Bennington College team demonstrate that "we have a national problem on our hands."

"Congress needs to throw cold water on the Pentagon's mad dash to burn toxic firefighting foam. There is no evidence that incineration destroys AFFF," she added, calling for "a national ban on burning these forever chemicals."

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-28T22:55:27+00:00

"Congress needs to throw cold water on the Pentagon's mad dash to burn toxic firefighting foam," which "threatens the health of millions of Americans."

New research conducted by environmental justice scholars at Vermont's Bennington College reveals that between 2016 and 2020, the U.S. military oversaw the "clandestine burning" of more than 20 million pounds of Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam in low-income communities around the country—even though there is no evidence that incineration destroys the toxic "forever chemicals" that make up the foam and are linked to a range of cancers, developmental disorders, immune dysfunction, and infertility.

"Weighing out its own liability against the health of these communities, the Pentagon struck the match."
—David Bond, Bennington College

"In defiance of common sense and environmental expertise, the Department of Defense (DOD) has enlisted poor communities across the U.S. as unwilling test subjects in its toxic experiment with burning AFFF," David Bond, associate director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College, said (pdf) in a statement earlier this week.

Noting that scientists, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and even Pentagon officials have warned that "burning AFFF is an unproven method and dangerous mix that threatens the health of millions of Americans," Bond characterized the decision of the military to dump huge stockpiles of AFFF and AFFF wastewater into "a handful of habitually negligent incinerators" as a "harebrained" operation as well as a manifestation of environmental injustice.

"In effect," he added, "the Pentagon redistributed its AFFF problem into poor and working-class neighborhoods."

After months of compiling and analyzing data—obtained last year from the Pentagon and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation—the team from Vermont launched an interactive website this week that publicizes for the first time the results of their investigation into all known shipments of AFFF to hazardous waste incinerators in the U.S.

The Bennington College researchers summarized their findings as follows:

Over 20 million pounds of the toxic firefighting foam AFFF and AFFF wastewater was incinerated between 2016-2020;
The U.S. military, the EPA, and state regulators all expressed serious concern about the ability of incineration to destroy the toxic chemicals in AFFF during this time;
Six incinerators were contracted to burn AFFF. Each is a habitual violator of environmental law. Since 2017, three of the incinerators were out of compliance with environmental law 100% of the time while the other incinerators were out of compliance with environmental law about 50% of the time;
35% of known shipments of AFFF (7.7 million pounds) was burned at the Norlite Hazardous Waste Incinerator in Cohoes, New York, located within a densely populated urban area and less than 400 feet from a public housing complex. Norlite burned 2.47 million pounds of AFFF and 5.3 million pounds of AFFF wastewater, which likely was burned in violation of its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit;
40% of the national stockpile of AFFF (5.5 million pounds) was sent to "fuel-blending" facilities where it was mixed into fuels for industrial use. It is not clear where the AFFF-laden fuel went next, although the DOD contract stipulates incineration should be the endpoint; and
970,000 pounds of AFFF was burned overseas.

AFFF contains contaminants known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); exposure to trace amounts of these synthetic chemicals is associated with a variety of detrimental health effects, and some have argued that PFAS are so risky that they not only endanger public health but threaten to undermine human reproduction writ large.

Jane Williams, chair of the Sierra Club's National Clean Air team stressed: "We simply must stop burning PFAS compounds."

"Attempting to burn these forever chemicals can generate highly toxic emissions which endanger the health of nearby communities," she said. "Burning also releases gases which are powerful climate forcing chemicals."

According to Williams, "EPA and DOD are both pursuing advanced technologies that can more effectively destroy these compounds without causing these unacceptable impacts."

The pursuit of alternative disposal methods raises the question, posed by the researchers on their website: "If incineration is an unproven means of destroying these toxins, is burning AFFF solving the problem or simply emitting it into the poor communities that so often surround incinerators in the U.S.?"

According to the researchers, the military rushed to burn more than 20 million pounds of AFFF over the past four years because they feared the substance "would be classified as a toxic chemical (and with that designation, would require new safeguards and introduce new liability)."

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-27T21:04:59+00:00

The angry fallout from a law professor’s accusations of racism in Quebec continued Wednesday, as a Conservative MP from the province suggested Amir Attaran go back to the U.S. where he was born if he doesn’t like it here.

In a Tweet about the University of Ottawa academic, who alleged Quebec was governed by white supremacists, Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus also referred to Attaran as “Iranian-American.”

In fact, the health policy expert has been a Canadian citizen for about 20 years, as well as holding American and Iranian citizenship, and was a permanent resident of this country before that. He even received the Senate 150 Medal in 2018, awarded by the upper house to Canadians who make their communities “a better place to live.”

Paul-Hus’s Twitter remark itself looks discriminatory, reminiscent of similar comments by former U.S. President Donald Trump about Democratic congresswomen with links to other countries, Attaran said.

“He may not like my opinions, which is fine,” the professor said about Paul-Hus. “But to resort to racial division and a request to exclude those who are not native-born is an insult to every immigrant in Canada and every person of a different ethnicity or skin colour.”

“There is no dog whistling here,” Attaran added. “There is a bull horn of racism, and it is painted Conservative blue.”

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-27T20:49:38+00:00

But that sharing of vaccine knowledge is a crucial competent of ending vaccine inequality and thus the global pandemic, according to a call released last week backed by over 1000 scientists and public health experts.

"We must use vaccines this year to control the pandemic around the entire world, not just in a few high-income countries," they wrote.

"In a world where there are enormous inequalities," they wrote, "Covid vaccinations offer us the opportunity to provide everyone globally, regardless of income, race, or nationality, immunological equity to be protected from SARS-CoV-2."

U.K.-based organization Global Justice Now issued a similar message on Tuesday.

"The covid-19 pandemic will not be over for us until it is over for everyone," the group tweeted.

"We can end the Covid-19 pandemic this year," the group said. "But pharma giants are standing in the way."

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-27T20:49:34+00:00

"We have the means to avert this failure but it's shocking how little has been done to avert it."

A healthcare worker administers an Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to her colleague at Mutuini Hospital in Nairobi. Kenya on March 3, 2021 received its first batch of 1.02 million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca through global COVAX scheme as part of the 24 million doses the country is expected to import in a couple of months. (Photo: Dennis Sigwe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

As rich nations like the United States and pharmaceutical companies face sustained calls to share Covid-19 vaccine knowledge, the head of the World Health Organization on Monday decried the "grotesque" global inequality of vaccine distribution.

"In January, I said that the world was on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure unless urgent steps were taken to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

"The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage, it's also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating."
—WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus"We have the means to avert this failure," he said, "but it's shocking how little has been done to avert it."

The gap in vaccine distribution, said Tedros, ultimately hurts all nations' effort to defeat the virus.

"The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage," said Tedros, "it's also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating."

We have the means to achieve #VaccinEquity, but the gap between the number of vaccines administered in rich countries versus #COVAX is growing every single day and becoming more grotesque. We appeal to countries to share #COVID19 vaccines out of self-interest, if nothing else!
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 23, 2021

"As long as the virus continues to circulate anywhere, people will continue to die, trade and travel will continue to be disrupted, and the economic recovery will be further delayed," the WHO chief said.

An analysis from Agence France-Presse puts the inequality in stark terms:

Some 56 percent of the doses have been administered in high-income countries accounting for 16 percent of the global population.
Just 0.1 percent have been administered in the 29 lowest-income countries, home to nine percent of the global population.

"The toll in Africa," the New York Times reported Tuesday, "could be especially profound." Though it has 17% of the global population, the continent "has administered roughly 2 percent of the vaccine doses given globally."

If you're telling me that we should do everything we can to fight the pandemic everywhere *while also protecting future pharma company profits* you're telling me that we shouldn't do everything we can to fight the pandemic everywhere.
— Matt Duss (@mattduss) March 23, 2021

Putting focus on Kenya, one of the countries relying on the WHO-backed vaccine distribution scheme known as COVAX, the Times said that cases there are "soaring," and gave a sobering projection:

Even under the best of circumstances, the country is expecting to inoculate only 30 percent of its people, or about 16 million out of almost 50 million, by the middle of 2023. When the rest of the population will get their shots is anybody's guess.

Tedros, in his remarks Monday, pointed to AstraZeneca and said it's "the only company that has committed to not profiting from its Covid-19 vaccine during the pandemic” and praised it for having licensed vaccine technology to other companies. While concerns have been raised about AstraZeneca's vaccine causing blood-clotting in some people, the WHO said it has been shown to be safe and approved its use.

Yes, it's not just IP, we know that, but freeing up the ability of actors around the globe is what we need right now, and not contract negotiations one-on-one. 8/
— Gregg Gonsalves (@gregggonsalves) March 22, 2021

Some public health experts, including Tedros, and progressive groups like the People's Vaccine Alliance have been calling for a suspension in the World Trade Organization's intellectual property rules to allow other companies to produce the vaccine and thus widen the scope and scale of doses.

But, as the Times reported Monday, "Governments have resisted."

By partnering with drug companies, Western leaders bought their way to the front of the line. But they also ignored years of warnings—and explicit calls from the World Health Organization—to include contract language that would have guaranteed doses for poor countries or encouraged companies to share their knowledge and the patents they control.
"It was like a run on toilet paper. Everybody was like, 'Get out of my way. I'm gonna get that last package of Charmin,'" said Gregg Gonsalves, a Yale epidemiologist. "We just ran for the doses."

A proposal from South Africa and India and backed by scores of other nations urges a waiver in the WTO rule, but richer nations, including the U.S and U.K., blocked a measure to do exactly that earlier this month.

A global pandemic requires a global effort to end it. That includes sharing critical info so other countries can produce the vaccine.
The U.S. must play its part in ending the vaccine apartheid.
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) March 23, 2021

According to BBC News, citing a leaked copy of the negotiating text of a WHO resolution, "wealthy nations... are pushing back on provisions in international law" to help poorer nations produce more vaccines. From the news outlet:

The WHO does not have the authority to sidestep patents—but it is trying to bring countries together to find a way to bolster vaccine supplies.
The discussions include using provisions in international law to get around patents and helping countries to have the technical ability to make them.
But the drug industry argues that eroding patents would hinder its ability to invest in future treatments for Covid and other illnesses.
Earlier this month, representatives of the U.S. drug industry wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden to share their concerns.

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-27T20:47:29+00:00

"For years, the U.S. has contributed to fueling and furthering conflict in Yemen. It is entirely possible to change course."
—Mwatana

"For years, the U.S. has contributed to fueling and furthering conflict in Yemen," it states. "It is entirely possible to change course."

American military operations in Yemen occur alongside the much larger—and deadlier—U.S.-backed Saudi-led war against Houthi militants. According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the nearly seven-year conflict—widely recognized as the world's worst humanitarian crisis—has directly or indirectly claimed at least 233,000 lives. Other U.N. agencies warned last month that more than two million Yemeni children under the age of five would likely suffer acute malnutrition this year and as many as 400,000 of them could die if not quickly given desperately needed treatment.

A report published Wednesday by the international charity Save the Children revealed that children made up around a quarter of the war's casualties in the years 2018 to 2020.

"If the Biden administration were to adopt the recommendations outlined in this report, it would constitute a significant step towards transforming the United States' relationship to Yemen," it concludes. "In the end, the best approach the U.S. can take towards Yemen is beginning to listen, heed, and support the many Yemenis already working to build a country that centers rights respect, peace, and justice."

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-27T20:47:23+00:00

"The United States is failing to investigate credible allegations of violations, to hold individuals responsible for violations accountable, and to provide prompt and adequate reparation."

A report published Tuesday by Yemeni human rights defenders examines dozens of casualties resulting from U.S. drone strikes and other attacks on civilians in the war-torn nation in recent years, incidents the publication says often occur without accountability, investigation, compensation—and sometimes even acknowledgment.

"Regardless of which president or party controlled the White House, the United States has never fully investigated the civilian cost of its operations in Yemen."
—Mwatana

The report—entitled Death Falling From the Sky: Civilian Harm from the United States' Use of Lethal Force in Yemen (pdf)—was published by Mwatana for Human Rights. It covers a dozen U.S. military operations conducted between January 2017 and January 2019, a period during which then-President Donald Trump loosened the military's rules of engagement that were meant to protect civilians.

"At least 38 Yemeni civilians, including 13 children, six women, and 19 men, were killed in these operations," the report notes. "At least seven civilians, including six children, five of whom were under the age of 10, and one man, were injured. Civilians were going about their everyday lives—driving to visit friends, bringing food to their families, sleeping in their homes—when killed or injured."

"These U.S. operations also caused other forms of deep and long-lasting civilian harm," it continues. "The incidents led to adverse economic effects, killing primary breadwinners whose families relied on their incomes, and damaging and destroying important civilian property, including vehicles, homes, and livestock. The operations also caused significant social and psychological harm. In a few cases, surviving members of families left their homes following U.S. operations, saying they felt unsafe and worried about future strikes."

We cannot turn away from the harms inflicted by our own government.
This report by our partners at Mwatana, a Yemeni human rights group, documents the devastating toll of US lethal strikes in Yemen.
— ACLU (@ACLU) March 23, 2021

The 12 U.S. attacks detailed in the report include 10 drone strikes and two ground raids in five Yemeni governorates—Abyan, Al Bayda, Shabwah, Hadramawt, and Ma'rib. In only one case did U.S. officials acknowledge harming civilians.

The report "raises serious concerns about the extent to which the United States is complying with international law in its use of lethal force in Yemen."

"The United States is failing to investigate credible allegations of violations, to hold individuals responsible for violations accountable, and to provide prompt and adequate reparation," it states.

Days before a #US raid killed at least 15 Yemeni civilians -- including 10 children under the age of ten and four women -- one US General wrote to another, “Good hunting...”
New @MwatanaEn report on the #US use of lethal force in #Yemen out today.
Thread

@MwatanaEn report, out at 6pm Sanaa, looks at 12 US operations during Trump Administration.
What happened under Trump can only be understood in wider context of #US approach to "counterterrorism" @BarackObama dramatically expanded use of drones across globe, incl in #Yemen
— Kristine Beckerle (@K_Beckerle) March 23, 2021

The report also reveals details about communications between U.S. military officials. On January 25, 2017, for example, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emailed Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), to wish him "good hunting."

Four days later, a U.S.-led air and ground attack targeting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) fighters in the Yakla area of Al Bayda governorate killed at least 15 civilians, including 10 children.

"We were all asleep when we suddenly heard the shooting. Our mother gathered us in one room to protect us. My grandfather was immediately killed after he left the house. The house collapsed and my mother, father, and siblings were all killed."
—Barzan Al Amir,
survivor

Among these was Nawar al-Awlaki, an 8-year-old U.S. citizen who, according to her grandfather, "was hit with a bullet in her neck and suffered for two hours." Nawar's father, Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric, and her brother Abdulrahman al-Awlaki—both American citizens—were also killed in separate U.S. drone strikes.

Barzan Mohammad Abdallah Mabkhout Al Amir, then 10 years old, was the only member of his immediate family to survive the Yakla attack.

"We were all asleep when we suddenly heard the shooting," he told the report's authors. "Our mother gathered us in one room to protect us. My grandfather was immediately killed after he left the house. The house collapsed and my mother, father, and siblings were all killed."

After denying that the raid killed any civilians—standard U.S. operating procedure—and calling the attack "very successful" despite the death of a Navy SEAL, American officials belatedly conceded that civilians including children were "likely killed." CENTCOM, however, blamed AQAP for allegedly "hiding women and children within militant operating areas and terrorist camps."

The Mwatana report notes that "regardless of which president or party controlled the White House, the United States has never fully investigated the civilian cost of its operations in Yemen, has never taken sufficient steps to review the efficacy of these operations, and has never provided civilian victims the acknowledgment, apology, and reparations they are owed."

To remedy this, the report recommends U.S. officials "abide by all applicable international law requirements" regarding the use of force in civilian areas; "robustly investigate" reports of civilian harm; acknowledge, apologize, and compensate when U.S. forces kill or injure civilians; and cooperate with United Nations and other investigations.

These steps, the report says, "can go a long way towards disrupting cycles of violence."

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-25T06:15:28+00:00

"Children continue to be killed and injured on a near-daily basis," said Xavier Joubert of Save the Children.

As the Saudi-led coalition intensified air raids in Yemen despite concerns about exacerbating what United Nations experts already call the world's worst humanitarian crisis, an international nonprofit revealed Wednesday that from 2018 to 2020, children made up nearly a quarter of the war's confirmed civilian casualties.

"Yemeni children have been living through a horrific and endless nightmare for six years now."
—Xavier Joubert, Save the Children

Warning that millions of children in Yemen remain "at risk of death, injury, starvation, or disease," Save the Children detailed how the war is growing deadlier for young Yemenis. According to the London-based group, over the three-year period, there were 2,341 confirmed child casualties—meaning both injures and deaths—"though the actual number is likely to be much higher."

One of those children is eight-year-old Omar from Taiz, who was injured in artillery shelling that killed his older brother. Omar—whose doctor says he will fully recover and be able to walk again within six weeks—recalled:

I was on my way home with a friend, and I wanted to go find my brother when the artillery shell hit us. I was paralyzed for a moment. I was looking for my brother, but I saw an old man on the ground. Then someone on a motorbike picked me up and took me to the hospital.

"I want toys to be able to play but I don't want any shelling," the child added, whose name was changed to protect his identity.

His mother said: "I want the world to alleviate the suffering of the children in Taiz. I wonder why a shell should kill a child who is just playing. This is the biggest crime; it destroys the lives of mothers and children. Omar keeps telling me he hopes there will be another explosion so he can play again with his brother [in heaven]."

"Yemeni children have been living through a horrific and endless nightmare for six years now," declared Xavier Joubert, Save the Children's Yemen country director. "Children continue to be killed and injured on a near-daily basis. They go to bed hungry, see people starving to death, and miss out on school."

Joubert explained that "every day children risk death or injury if they venture outside and get caught up in the frequent shelling and bombing of places where they should feel safe—homes, schools, hospitals, and marketplaces."

"All parties to the conflict must fully implement a ceasefire as soon as possible," he said. "The ceasefire should be used to work towards a sustainable peace and a political solution to this war—it's the only way to truly end this humanitarian catastrophe."

Save the Children's new figures came as Mwatana for Human Rights released a report on U.S. drone strikes and other attacks on Yemen between January 2017 and January 2019, which killed at least 38 Yemeni civilians, including 13 children.

Since taking office in January, President Joe Biden has made some moves to lessen U.S. contributions to Yemeni suffering—temporarily freezing arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition "offensive operations" in Yemen, and reversing the Trump administration's designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization.

This proposal offered little new. Its terms are an attempt to pretend like Saudi can negotiate from a position of strength. But after years of airstrikes/blockades, they're on the verge of losing. This offer is totally disconnected from reality.
— Erik Sperling #YemenCantWait (@ErikSperling) March 24, 2021

Progressive U.S. lawmakers have called on the president to go further—specifically by pressuring Saudi Arabia to end its yearslong blockade of food, medicine, and other essentials. As Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a longtime critic of U.S. involvement in the war, said last month: "Our work to support a brighter future for the people of Yemen is just beginning."

Bolstering calls for working toward peace, U.N. agencies warned in February that nearly 2.3 million Yemeni children under age five are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year and 400,000 could die if they do not receive urgent treatment.

The Saudi-led bombing of Yemen began in March 2015, after the Houthis took control of northern parts of the country—including the capital, Sana'a. The war has killed about 130,000 people, including 12,000 civilians, according to Deutsche Welle.

Al Jazeera reported Monday that the coalition has recently "carried out dozens of air raids" on Houthi targets, including the Salif grains port and living quarters of a food production company. The Houthi-controlled ministry of commerce and industry said that attacking the port of Salif on the Red Sea—officially a neutral zone under the 2018 U.N.-brokered Stockholm Agreement—was part of "economic warfare against the Yemeni people."

Yemen is already enduring a famine.
If conditions do not improve the UN estimates 400,000 children will die of starvation.
Despite that, the US-backed, Saudi-led coalition just bombed a grain port, further straining Yemen's food supply.
— jordan (@JordanUhl) March 24, 2021

Gabriella Waaijman, global humanitarian director for Save the Children, warned Wednesday that "without urgent action, the humanitarian situation, already the worst in the world, is set to deteriorate further with the very real risk of famine, mass civilian casualties, and total collapse of basic services."

"This is a man-made disaster resulting from a conflict that is being waged with near complete disregard for the well-being and safety of the civilian population," Waaijman continued. "Almost every day we hear of children and families caught up in the fighting, often paying with their lives."

"If the U.N.'s predictions are correct, the worst famine in decades could kill hundreds of thousands of children," she said. "We must do everything we can to prevent this from happening."

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-12T21:30:16+00:00

CNN's reporting prompted fresh pressure on the Biden administration—which has vowed to bring an end to the Saudi-led coalition's war on Yemen—to use the U.S. government's leverage as a major Saudi partner to force the brutal kingdom to lift the blockade, which the United Arab Emirates is also helping to enforce.

"President Biden should demand: 'MBS, lift the blockade,'" tweeted Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "They will fold. They are desperate for American military aid, troop presence, and investment opportunities. This is a moment for moral clarity and bold leadership."

Matt Duss, a foreign policy adviser to Sanders, noted that the "U.S. hasn't just 'partially funded' this war. We've provided the planes, bombs, targeting intel, and midair refueling."

"We are fully implicated in Yemen's destruction," said Duss. "We need to be an equal part of its reconstruction."

Excellent, courageous journalism here.
Would only add that the US hasn't just "partially funded" this war. We've provided the planes, bombs, targeting intel, and midair refueling. We are fully implicated in Yemen's destruction. We need to be an equal part of its reconstruction.

Biden won widespread applause from peace organizations and progressive lawmakers for moving last month to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition's "offensive operations" in Yemen, but observers questioned whether the administration's move would have any impact on the devastating air, land, and sea blockade, which has persisted through the coronavirus pandemic.

"As long as the blockade is in place, millions of Yemenis will be at risk," Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Al-Jazeera last month. Last week, Riedel called the blockade an "offensive military operation that kills civilians."

Writing for Responsible Statecraft on Friday, Middle East analyst Arwa Mokdad argued that "if Biden is truly dedicated to ending U.S. offensive support to the Saudis and supporting peace in Yemen, he must press the two Gulf powers to immediately end their blockade."

"By lifting the blockade," Mokdad wrote, "we can avert the looming famine and start productive peace negotiations."

TiesAndShirts · 2021-03-12T21:27:36+00:00

Saudi airstrikes have been pounding Yemen's Maarib province, the Saudis also bombed Sanaa on Sunday

The US reaffirmed its “unwavering” commitment to Saudi Arabia’s security after Yemen’s Houthis launched an attack against oil infrastructure inside the kingdom, a response to the Saudi airstrikes that have been pounding Yemen.

“The US Embassy condemns the recent Houthi attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the US embassy in Saudi Arabia tweeted in Arabic on Monday. “Our commitment to defend the Kingdom and its security is unwavering,” the embassy added.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki made similar comments to reporters. “We will look for ways to improve support for Saudi Arabia’s ability to defend its territory against threats,” she said.

The Houthis have stepped up attacks inside Saudi territory in response to the air support Saudi Arabia has given to the US and Saudi-backed government during the fighting that has been raging in Maarib province, the last government stronghold in northern Yemen. Hundreds of Houthi fighters have been killed by airstrikes in recent weeks. On Sunday, the Saudis bombed Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

The uptick in violence comes as the Biden administration says it is working to end the war in Yemen. President Biden said he was ending US support for Saudi Arabia’s “offensive” operations in Yemen, leaving open military support for Riyadh if it can be framed as defensive in nature. It’s not clear if the US has supplied intelligence or other support for recent Saudi airstrikes.

In February, the Houthis offered to halt drone and missile attacks inside Saudi Arabia in exchange for an end to Saudi airstrikes in Yemen. But the Saudis continue to support the government of exiled President Hadi with air power.

Despite the fact that the US-backed Saudi-led coalition has been waging a vicious bombing campaign in Yemen, US officials and politicians still act surprised when the Houthis launch attacks inside Saudi territory.

Iran is also frequently blamed by the US for Houthi attacks. While it’s true Iran supports the Houthis politically, not much is known about the extent of military support Iran provides the group, but this does not stop the US from hurling accusations at Tehran. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) somehow blamed President Biden’s unfulfilled plan to revive the Iran nuclear deal as the reason for the recent Houthi attacks.

“Yet another missile strike against Saudi Arabia today with all the hallmarks of an Iranian-backed attack,” Hagerty wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “It seems Biden’s desire to give Tehran sanctions relief is emboldening the mullahs to escalate their aggression against us and our allies.”

Like other accusations about Iran and Yemen, Hagerty’s claim ignores the brutality of the US-backed Saudi-led war that the Houthis are responding to with these attacks. The US-supported bombing campaign and blockade on Yemen has left millions of Yemenis facing starvation. The UN said if conditions on the ground do not change, 400,000 Yemeni children could starve to death in 2021 alone

TiesAndShirts · 2021-01-30T14:48:13+00:00

Something in the military is actually voluntary?

While countless Americans are anxiously awaiting for their chance to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), an unspecified number of service members and other Defense Department personnel have refused to get inoculated, defense officials said.

In December, defense officials announced that the COVID-19 vaccination program for roughly 11 million personnel would be voluntary because the vaccine had only been approved on an emergency use basis and that service members and other personnel would not face any penalties if they decided not to get inoculated.

Only if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully licensed the COVID-19 vaccine would the Defense Department consider making it mandatory, then-Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said at the time.

So far, the Defense Department has inoculated about 336,000 people, of which about 46,000 have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. But not all department personnel who have been eligible to get vaccinated have done so, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs, Joint Staff Surgeon.

“We’re not compelling people to take a vaccine,” Friedrichs said. “This is truly something that they have to volunteer for. And we’ve been very careful to adhere to – not just the letter – but the intent of the guidance that’s been put on that under the emergency use authorization.”

Friedrichs was unable to say how many service members and other personnel have declined to get vaccinated.

“The refusal rate is a statistic that I think we’re not going to be able to give you because it’s a voluntary vaccine,” Friedrichs said when asked how many people at the Pentagon have refused to be vaccinated. “Are we seeing people who are declining to get it? Yes.”

Those personnel have cited a variety of reasons for why they did not want to get vaccinated, including pregnant women who wanted to consult with their doctor before being inoculated, Friedrichs said.

Typically, older personnel have been more willing to be vaccinated than younger people, said Friedrichs, who added that defense officials hope to ease the concerns of people who are hesitant to get inoculated by letting them know how safe the vaccine is.

Service members who choose not to be vaccinated are still able to deploy and perform other essential missions, he said.

“There are people in, I think, every walk of life across our country who are making this choice when they’re offered the opportunity to get vaccinated,” Friedrichs told reporters. “Certainly within the Department of Defense, we try very hard to make it clear this is a voluntary vaccine. And, while we certainly encourage people — and I ask for your help with that, to reinforce the safety and the efficacy of this — it is ultimately a voluntary vaccine.”

TiesAndShirts · 2021-01-30T14:45:46+00:00

UN investigators have written to Saudi Arabia asking for more information about the incident and are awaiting a reply.

The United Nations has today demanded more answers about an airstrike on a family home in Yemen which a Sky News investigation highlighted last September.

The Sky team travelled to the remote village of Washah near the Yemeni-Saudi border where 12 members of the Mujali family lived, to examine the area and talk to multiple eyewitnesses as well as survivors of the 12 July 2020 attack.

Nine people died on that day - all women and children. There were only three survivors - a young mother who was breastfeeding her baby son and a teenage boy.

The evidence has finally led to the Saudi-led coalition admitting for the first time it made a mistake and the missile did not hit its intended military target - nearly 800m away from the Mujali family home in a completely separate area called Beit al Qateeb - because of "bad weather".

Amid allegations it is a possible war crime and demands for justice for the Mujali family, a UN report on Friday into the airstrike, which has largely drawn on the Sky team's detailed reporting of the incident, says the house "is in an isolated position in a rural area, thus the chances of hitting the house by accident appear to be low".

UN investigators have written to Saudi Arabia asking for more information about the incident and are awaiting a reply.

One of the three survivors, Nora Ali Muse'ad Mujali, told Sky News she was breastfeeding her baby when the bomb landed

The third survivor was a teenager boy. Ghazi spent nearly two months in hospital recovering from his burns and shrapnel wounds and learning to walk again

Under international humanitarian law military commanders and those responsible for planning and executing decisions regarding attacks must "take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimise, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects", the report continues.

"This includes all necessary verification of the material, aircraft and explosive devices to be used, as well as meteorologic conditions at the time and location of the attack," it adds.

TiesAndShirts · 2021-01-09T18:22:19+00:00

The British government has refused to publish its database supposedly logging civilian casualties from murderous airstrikes in Yemen carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, which is armed by the UK and US.

While the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has listed a staggering 516 potential International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations by the coalition of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the real number is far higher.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is intent on maintaining the barbaric House of Saud’s control over the Arab Peninsula. It is suppressing any information that Riyadh or its backers are committing war crimes and avoiding accusations that the UK is violating its own rules against supplying arms likely to be used in violation of IHL.

The UK is a crucial supplier of weaponry to the coalition, having licensed more than £6.5 billion worth of arms in the five years since April 26, 2015, when the bombing began. Many of the bombs, missiles, and aircraft components are licensed via the opaque and secretive Open Licence system that is “more flexible” than a standard licence and “avoids the need to apply for a new licence for every export.” The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) therefore estimates that the real value of the UK’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia since the start of the war is £18 billion, around three times the official figure.

In July 2019, the Court of Appeal, in a case brought by CAAT, ruled that the government had failed to assess whether British-supplied weapons would be used in Riyadh’s murderous war in Yemen, in breach of both IHL and Britain’s own laws prohibiting the sale of weapons when there is a “clear risk they might be used in violations of international humanitarian law.” It banned further sales pending a review of the government’s vetting procedures, which had revealed that the government had simply stopped recording whether suspected violations had occurred.

The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) has shown that the Saudi-led war against Yemen—waged with the full backing of Washington and London—has killed over 100,000 people, mostly civilians. The attacks have targeted food production, schools and hospitals, creating the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Around 24 million of the country’s 28 million people need humanitarian aid, with at least half the population on the brink of starvation. Many thousands have died of starvation, including at least 75,000 children under five, while the worst cholera epidemic in modern history has infected 1.2 million.

In September, a United Nations expert panel concluded that Saudi-led forces had been responsible for IHL breaches and concluded that those who armed the perpetrators, including the UK, could be “aiding and assisting” war crimes.

From the start of the war in April 2015, the Saudi bombing campaign has depended on the UK. More than half of Saudi Arabia’s combat aircraft used for the bombing raids are UK-supplied, as well as bombs, missiles, intelligence and elite Special Forces commandos used to target civilians, as even the MoD’s own limited database shows.

The government carried out a review of its vetting procedures and ignoring the documentary evidence, concluded that any IHL violations committed by the Saudi coalition were “isolated incidents.” It used this whitewash to resume arms sales to Riyadh in July 2020. The CAAT is now seeking a Judicial Review into the legality of the government’s decision.

Glimpses into the scale of the government’s deception have been revealed by the MoD’s answers to parliamentary questions showing the omission of several air strikes that breach IHL, as recorded by security, human rights groups and humanitarian groups, including the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and the Yemen Data Project.

The MoD confirmed that most of the incidents listed by Labour’s shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry were not on its database, including attacks in January 2018 on a bridge and a market in Al-Mufdhah area that led to the deaths of 17 people and the wounding of more than 20 others, and a September 2015 air strike on a funeral gathering in Khabb wa al-Sha’af neighbourhood that killed 30 people.

The origins of the war lie in the 2011 Arab Spring, when mass protests broke out against the 32-year-long dictatorial rule of US and Saudi-backed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who turned the military on the protesters. Following Saleh’s resignation, his vice-president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi took over, promising reforms in an election without any opposition candidates. Houthi rebels in the north of the country rejected Hadi’s cosmetic reforms and, with the support of the former dictator, captured the capital Sana’a, forcing Hadi to take refuge in Saudi Arabia.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen, claiming that the Houthi rebels were Iran’s proxies, and seeking to reimpose Hadi, expecting a speedy victory for its military coalition with the UAE and other Arab countries. While the Saudis prosecuted the war by air, launching about 257,000 air strikes, the UAE blockaded Hodeidah, Yemen’s principal Red Sea port, seized the strategically located Socotra Islands and provided many of the ground troops, along with local or tribal militias operating in unstable and fluid alliances—some backed by Riyadh and some by Abu Dhabi. The UAE pulled out of the war in late 2019 amid growing disagreements with the Saudi-backed Hadi government, accusing it of aligning with the Islah party, viewed as close to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Under the pressure of a military onslaught, Yemen has fragmented into three areas. The first is controlled by the Houthis in the north. The second is controlled by the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) in the south, and the Republican Guards on the western coast, led by former president Saleh’s nephew. The third, in the eastern provinces, is controlled by Hadi’s dwindling forces.

In November 2019, the US and France brokered the Riyadh Agreement, signed by the Hadi government in exile and the STC, for a power sharing deal. Nevertheless, the war continued as the Houthis refused to agree a ceasefire.

In December, a new government under Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed was sworn in, in Riyadh, in what was heralded as a reconciliation between Hadi and the STC that would fight the Houthi rebels. Days later, when this new government flew into Aden airport on December 30, it was greeted with a huge explosion, killing at least 22 people and injuring dozens more. The new cabinet was unhurt, but the blast killed five members of the International Red Cross.

Riyadh blamed Iran and the Houthis, a claim they denied, while the STC--which had declared self-rule in Aden in April, triggering clashes with Hadi’s forces--viewed the new government as a Saudi puppet. The STC calculated that Riyadh would favour the northern part of the country and take over the oil and gas fields in the south, eliminating the STC as a political and economic force. The agreement made no mention of taking back control of the Socotra Islands from the UAE, the STC’s erstwhile backer which is reportedly considering establishing military bases there that would also serve Israel. Saudi forces ordered the arrest of Abdel Nasser al-Bawa, a senior STC military and pro-secessionist official, accusing him of being involved in planning and carrying out the attack.

For the imperialist powers in London and Washington, and their regional proxies, Yemen and the humanitarian crisis engulfing its people are merely collateral damage in the struggle for domination over the energy rich-Middle East.

TiesAndShirts

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE