Soap box: Refugee camp raid, African democracies, tanks for Ukraine

The Soapbox is a weekly WSN newsroom column that analyzes major events in the world news and summarizes the stories we think are worth reading this week. Global consciousness for a global university.

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Susan Behrends Valenzuela

The Soapbox is a weekly news column that brings together stories worth reading for a global university. (Staff illustration by Susan Behrends Valenzuela)

Israeli forces raid refugee camp in occupied Palestine

Israeli military raid on occupied West Bank refugee camp kills at least nine Palestinians and wounding 20 people before Israeli forces retreated from Jenin in the region’s far north. Officials said they were investigating the death of Magda Obeid, a 60-year-old woman who was shot during the incident.

Neighboring Middle Eastern states including Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait, condemned the attackwhich became the deadliest military operation on the territory in two decades, according to the Associated Press.

Two days before the raid, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein in Amman, the country’s capital, to discuss problems about the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. Israel occupied East Jerusalem – its capital – along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians continue to lay claim to the land, and the Israeli annexation has not received international recognition.

Netanyahu, re-elected prime minister in November Fifth Israeli election in almost four yearsfaced protests in Tel Aviv against the new far-right government, and demonstrators called it the most extreme in Israeli history.

Earlier this month Israeli police blocked Ghassan Majali, Ambassador of Jordan, from the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is considered the third shrine of Muslims. The mosque is located on the territory, which is shared by other sacred places for Christians and Jews. This complex is commonly referred to by Muslims as the Al-Aqsa complex, and by Jews as the Temple Mount, who regard it as their most sacred site.

Israeli police said Majali did not coordinate with officials before arriving in East Jerusalem. Majali’s visit to the mosque was linked to a previous incident in which Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, visited the mosque and called it the Temple Mount. The Israeli far right has called for more Jewish access to the site, rhetoric that some Palestinian Muslims and Christians fear will lead to Israeli domination of the complex.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned Ben Gvir’s visit as “Egregious Assault” in a holy place. Representative of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza. called it “the continuation of the aggression of the Zionist occupation against our holy places and the war against their Arab identity.”

In response to King Abdullah II’s announcement, Netanyahu reportedly promised to “maintain the status quo” of the mosque. Jordanian monarch also called for an end to potentially provocative measures that could worsen the prospects for peace between Israel and its neighbors.

Democracy in Africa is in danger

Africa is less “safe, secure and democratic” than it is. was in 2012according to January 25 report from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an organization founded by Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim in 2007 that aims to evaluate and improve governance and leadership in Africa. Analysis of the report, which used data up to the end of 2021, showed eight successful coups since 2019. Only in Mali and Burkina Faso during this time there were two people each.

More than 70% of Africans have experienced a dramatic decline in their security and rule of law, with more than 30 countries experiencing this, according to the report. It has provoked protests in Nigeria against police brutality and regime change in Sudan. Ibrahim’s report points to the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine as contributory factors, as both contributed to increasing resource scarcity, which dramatically affected food and fuel prices.

Government violence against civilians and political unrest across Africa increased during the pandemic, according to the report. Despite clear socio-economic changes over the past 10 years, COVID-19 has also slowed the improvement of infrastructure and internet connectivity, which could have long-term implications for the region.

“Although this trend preceded the pandemic, existing anti-democratic tendencies were reinforced by the imposition of restrictive measures and emergency provisions that remained in place for a long period of time,” the report says.

Tanks of German and American production will soon arrive in Ukraine

The United States will provide 31 most modern Abram tanks to Ukraine, according to January 25 statement President Joe Biden. The decision was made the day after it was approved by Berlin. delivery of 14 Leopard 2 tanks to help Ukrainian forces break the stalemate amid Russia’s invasion of Kyiv. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz encouraged other allied Western powers bring in weapons.

The two announcements came after weeks of domestic and international pressure that began after UK announced that earlier this month it will supply Ukraine with 14 Challenger 2 tanks and other military aid.

Both Biden and Scholz have made it clear that their decisions to send tanks are not offensive threat to Russia. Scholz said that Germany will also send additional military aidincluding air defense and rocket launchers. Two other Western countries, France and Italy, may soon we will reach an agreement supply air defense systems to Ukraine.

The Russian embassy in Berlin said the nation’s decision and similar actions by other NATO members would only exacerbate the 11-month war. Russian Ambassador Sergei Nechaev said in a statement that Berlin’s supply of battle tanks was “extremely dangerous” and that it “takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation”. Nechaev argued that Germany’s actions showed Lack of interest in the diplomatic settlement of the conflict and that she renounced her “historical responsibility to Russia” after the Second World War.

“It destroys the remnants of mutual trust, causes irreparable damage to the already deplorable state of Russian-German relations, casts doubt on the possibility of their normalization in the foreseeable future,” Nechaev said. said.

Contact Jezen Saada by phone [email protected]

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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