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Mourners carry the body of one of the nine Palestinians who were killed by Israeli troops on Thursday, during a raid in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
💡 SPOTLIGHT
Nine more dead in the West Bank — and Israel still thinks the Palestinian question doesn't exist
As violence rises in the West Bank, with nine Palestinians killed on Thursday, the blame would seem to fall on the new far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu. But as France Inter’s Pierre Haski points out, the vast majority of Israeli society has spent years ignoring the plight of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
The nine Palestinians killed during an Israeli military operation Thursday in the West Bank town of Jenin brings to 26 the number of deaths since the start of the year. This is a clear deterioration of conditions in the Palestinian territories after the year 2022 had already marked the highest number of victims since 2004 with 150 deaths.
This would appear to mark the return of a routine of low-intensity violence if the political context were not so explosive, where we see a new Israeli government in which key positions have been given to representatives of a virulent extreme right, hostile to any agreement with Palestinians, and keen to intensify any crackdowns.
The army sought to make it clear that the number of deaths in Jenin was not due to a change in military doctrine, but to the severity of the clash with members of the extremist Islamic Jihad group.
Nonetheless, the political context weighs heavily. The Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, severely weakened, speaks of “massacre”, and a call for a general strike has been launched in the West Bank.
[Early Friday, Reuters reports that Israeli jets struck Gaza in retaliation for two rockets fired by Palestinian militants.]
Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government, installed in power for more than a month, has chosen a particularly tough direction vis-à-vis Palestinians. That is the ideology of the parties that make up the coalition, some of which support the annexation of the Palestinian territories, are in favor of unlimited settlement development and are openly racist.
The obvious risk is that it will trigger the radicalization of more Palestinian youth who will not be offered any prospective, individual or collective. We have thus seen new armed groups develop, not necessarily affiliated to the historical organizations, and determined to fight, despite a balance of power disproportionately favorable to Israel.
The Palestinian Authority has denounced the silence of the international community, which clearly doesn't know how to respond to the new political realities in Israel.
There is however an opposition movement growing in the streets of Israel. Every Saturday, since the return of Netanyahu, considerable crowds reunite in Tel Aviv and elsewhere to show disapproval of the current government. The more than 150,000 demonstrators who showed up last week is a notable turnout.
Still, only a small minority of protesters actually include the plight of the Palestinians in their demands. In order to maintain a broad front, the demonstrators focused their energies on the threats to Israeli democracy, proposed reforms to the Supreme Court, the ultimate check on power.
The vast majority of Israelis, whether they be for or against Netanyahu, has all but ignored the situation on the Palestinian side. This has been the case for years, by now. The failure of the 1993 Oslo Accords distracted Israelis from the subject of peace with their neighbors and the occupation. The demise of the political left took care of the rest.
As a result, the government deals with the question of Palestine with force and the perpetuation of the occupation, without any concern for possible reactions of the Israeli population. The debate about erosion of democracy is a political luxury, reserved for Israelis.
— Pierre Haski / France Inter
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Hungary to veto EU sanctions on Russian nuclear energy: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared that his country would veto any European sanctions against Russia affecting nuclear energy, after Ukraine called on the bloc to target Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom. Hungary has a Russian-built nuclear plant on its soil and it plans to expand with Rosatom. Meanwhile, Russia has stepped up attempts to break through Ukraine's defenses in the east of the country.
• Fears of Israel-Palestinian escalation: The Israeli military say they have arrested Islamic Jihad militants planning "major attacks,” a day after nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops during a raid in a West Bank refugee camp. Two rockets were fired from Gaza overnight, but no casualties were reported. Israelis jets struck in Gaza in retaliation.
• Attack on Azerbaijan embassy in Iran kills one: A guard has been killed and two injured by a man with an assault rifle in an attack on Azerbaijan’s embassy in Iran. Police in Tehran said they have arrested a suspect and are investigating the gunman’s motive.
• Haiti police riot after gang killings of officers: Haitian police officers in civilian clothes blocked streets and forced their way into the country's main airport to protest the recent killing of at least 14 officers by armed gangs expanding their grip on the Caribbean nation. Protesters first targeted Prime Minister Ariel Henry's official residence, according to a Reuters witness, and then flooded the airport as Henry was arriving from a trip to Argentina.
• Biden urges calm ahead of release of police beating video: Bodycam video of the encounter with Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man, will be published on Friday, showing him being severely beaten after a traffic stop by five police officers. The officers, who are also black, have been fired and are now facing murder charges following Nichols death three days after the attack. President Joe Biden is urging protests in Tennessee to remain peaceful.
• Adani shares drop 20%: Shares of Indian multinational conglomerate Adani Enterprises sank 20% on Friday as the investment research firm Hindenburg published a report claiming that Adani engaged in stock price manipulation and accounting fraud over the course of decades.
• Asteroid near miss: About the size of a minibus, the 2023 BU asteroid, whipped over the southern tip of South America in the middle of the night. At a distance of 3,600 kilometers (2,200 miles), it’s considered a relatively close shave and was only picked up last weekend by an amateur astronomer in Crimea.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Climate scam,” titles Italian weekly magazine Internazionale, as it features its translated edition of an in-depth investigation from Germany’s Die Zeit on companies funding environmental projects to offset their carbon dioxide emissions that often have “no value.” For example, Ryanair was given a warning by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), which said the low-cost airline’s statements suggesting that offsetting emissions would lead to more sustainable flights was misleading. “Businesses must be honest and clear about the sustainability claims they make,” said the director of ACM’s Consumer Department.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
115
Maria Branyad Morera, a Spanish woman born in San Francisco, has officially become the world's oldest person according to Guinness World Records, at age 115, following French nun Sister Andre’s death last week at 118. Morera, originally born in San Francisco, is still very much in touch with the times, sharing her wisdom with followers on Twitter, where her bio reads: “I am old, very old, but not an idiot.”
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
As COVID explodes, an inside look at China's gray market of generic drugs
COVID infections have skyrocketed since China eased restrictions as public health policy has not been able to keep up. Unable to find medications, many have turned to generic drugs of questionable safety. It's the culmination of a longstanding problem, write Xian Zhu and Feiyu Xiang in Chinese-language digital media The Initium.
💊 In late 2021, Pfizer developed Paxlovid, the world's first potent COVID drug. China imported the first batch of Paxlovid for clinical use in March 2022 and included it in the ninth edition of the treatment protocol. But the first 21,200 boxes of Paxlovid were dispersed to only eight provinces, and no further information is available on where the drug ended up and how much it was used. In mainland China, access to Paxlovid is subject to a selection process, as it is almost impossible to get it in public hospitals.
📈 With genuine drugs hard to come by, many people are turning their attention to Indian generic drugs. As the Chinese New Year came, the price of generic drugs once exceeded 3,000 RMB (about $440). Meanwhile, Pfizer's original drug’s price went over 10,000 RMB (about $1,470).
💰 Jingyun Feng, a political scientist, revealed that the main reason why COVID drugs are not covered by Chinese health insurance is that "they are too expensive and will drag the whole insurance system down by crowding out other everyday or rare disease drugs." He also believes that the distribution of Paxlovid is market-based. "Why are these drugs more widely distributed in Shanghai and Beijing? People are richer there, so the drug is only allocated to developed areas."
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
“We do not want to see any support given to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
— Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reacted to the recent controversy caused by Srdjan Djokovic, father of tennis champion Novak Djokovic, who was photographed earlier this week with a man sporting pro-Russian symbols. Djokovic’s father said that although it was unintentional, he would watch his son’s semi-final match at the Australian Open from home to avoid causing "disruption.” During a news conference on Friday, Albanese reiterated the country's stance on the war in Ukraine and pro-Russian protests: "I will make this point, that Australia stands with the people of Ukraine. That is Australia's position and Australia is unequivocal in our support for the rule of international law.”
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
Mourners carry the body of one of the nine Palestinians who were killed by Israeli troops on Thursday, during a raid in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. — Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/ZUMA
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Western Tanks To Ukraine Trigger Russian Threats — But Also Fears Of Major Counterattack — WORLDCRUNCH
• Why The Ukraine Arms Race Won't Stop — FRANCE INTER
• Parenthood And The Pressure Of Always Having To Be Doing Better — RECALCULATING
✍️ Newsletter by Ginevra Falciani, Inès Mermat, Laure Gautherin and Anne-Sophie Goninet
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Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.
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