Others
Shamima Begum loses appeal over removal of her UK citizenship
A woman who traveled to Syria as a teenager to join the Islamic State group lost her appeal Friday against the British government's decision to revoke her U.K. citizenship, with judges saying that it wasn't for them to rule on whether it was “harsh” to do so.
Shamima Begum, who is now 24, was 15 when she and two other girls fled from London in February 2015 to marry IS fighters in Syria at a time when the group’s online recruitment program lured many impressionable young people to its self-proclaimed caliphate. Begum married a Dutch man fighting for IS and had three children, who all died.
Authorities withdrew her British citizenship soon after she surfaced in a Syrian refugee camp in 2019, where she has been ever since. Last year, Begum lost her appeal against the decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove British citizenship on national security grounds.
Shamima Begum and Mueen Uddin: Academics, international affairs experts in Bangladesh decry UK’s double standards
Her lawyers brought a further bid to overturn that decision at the Court of Appeal, with Britain's Home Office opposing the challenge.
All three judges dismissed her case and argued she had made a “calculated” decision to join IS even though she may have been “influenced and manipulated by others.”
In relaying the ruling, Chief Justice Sue Carr said it wasn't the court's job to decide whether the decision to strip Begum of her British citizenship was “harsh" or whether she was the “author of her own misfortune.”
She said the court's sole task was to assess whether the decision to strip Begum of her citizenship was unlawful.
“Since it was not, Ms Begum’s appeal is dismissed,” the judge added.
Shamima's statelessness: Rushanara against revoking someone's UK citizenship
Carr said any arguments over the consequences of the unanimous judgment, which could include a bid to appeal at Britain's Supreme Court, will be adjourned for seven days.
Begum's lawyer indicated that a further challenge was on the cards.
“I think the only thing we can really say for certainty is that we are going to keep fighting," Daniel Furner said outside the Royal Courts of Justice.
“I want to say that I’m sorry to Shamima and to her family that after five years of fighting she still hasn’t received justice in a British court and to promise her and promise the government that we are not going to stop fighting until she does get justice and until she is safely back home," he added.
Begum's legal team argued that the decision by Britain's then interior minister Sajid Javid, left her stateless and that she should have been treated as a child trafficking victim, not a security risk.
Javid said he welcomed the ruling which “upheld” his decision.
“This is a complex case but home secretaries should have the power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it,” he said.
ISIS bride Shamima Begum wins right to return to UK
Britain's Conservative government claimed she could seek a Bangladeshi passport based on family ties. But Begum’s family argued that she was from the U.K. and never held a Bangladeshi passport.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government will "always take the strongest possible action to protect our national security and we never take decisions around deprivation (of citizenship) lightly.”
A number of campaigners voiced their disappointment after the ruling and said the solution rests with the government shouldering its responsibility.
“ It is now a political problem, and the government holds the key to solving it,” said Maya Foa, director of the Reprieve humans right campaign group. "If the government thinks that Shamima Begum has committed a crime, she should be prosecuted in a British court. Citizenship stripping is not the answer.”
World Insights: Arab states condemn U.S. for vetoing UNSC resolution on Gaza ceasefire
Arab states have condemned the United States for vetoing another UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as looming Israeli attacks on the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah raise concerns that the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave may deepen.
During an emergency session of the UN Security Council held in New York on Tuesday, the draft resolution put forward on behalf of Arab states by Algeria won 13 votes in favor among the 15 members of the Security Council. The United States voted against it while Britain abstained.
MASSIVE OUTCRY
"The U.S. veto, which defies the will of the international community, will give an additional green light to Israel to continue its aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip, and to carry out its bloody attack on Rafah," the Palestinian presidency said in a statement carried by Palestine's official news agency WAFA on Wednesday.
Secretary-General of the Arab League (AL) Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday voiced his "deep regret" over the U.S. move, the third time since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October last year that the United States interfered to fail a draft resolution aimed to reach a ceasefire.
The U.S. positions undermined the credibility of the international system and contributed to the paralysis witnessed by the United Nations, Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying in an AL statement.
Egypt and Qatar, having been actively brokering deals between Israel and Hamas since their conflict began, have expressed their regret.
Egypt strongly denounced the "selectivity and double standards in dealing with wars and armed conflicts in various regions of the world," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry slammed the U.S. veto as "arbitrary and disgraceful," accusing the U.S. of being hypocritical, as it claimed to support human rights while allowing the Israeli "killing machine" to continue its attacks on Palestinian civilians.
Jordan, which borders Israel and has normalized ties with Israel, expressed on Tuesday its regret and disappointment at the failure of the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
"All those impeding such calls should review their policies and calculations because wrong decisions today will have a cost on our region and our world tomorrow. This cost will be violence and instability, " Algeria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Amar Bendjama was quoted by the UN news as saying on Tuesday.
DEEP CONCERN
The resolution was put forward at a time when Israel has signaled its intention to conduct a ground operation in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city that shelters about 1.4 million Palestinians, to "eliminate" Hamas and rescue Israeli hostages who were taken by Hamas militants in October last year.
While visiting the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops on Tuesday in southern Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed that his country will continue the fighting until all goals are achieved. "There is no pressure, none, that can change this," he said.
Israel's reported plan for an assault on Rafah has sounded alarm bells globally, with many countries urging restraint or cancellation of the operation.
Regional countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, voiced deep concern over the potential offensive on Monday.
Twenty-six EU member states called for an "immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable ceasefire" in the besieged Gaza Strip, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in Brussels on Monday.
U.S. ADDING TO CRISIS
Despite the mounting calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Biden administration is preparing to send a new package of weapons to Israel, which is estimated to be worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing anonymous U.S. officials.
"The Americans are not doing anything practical to stop the (Israel-Hamas) war," said Youssef Diab, a political analyst from the Lebanese University.
The repeated trips to Israel by U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as the U.S. financial and military support for Israel, have given Israel the green light to continue the war on Gaza and kill more children, he said. ■
New attempts at Gaza cease-fire are underway, Israel's Gantz says
New attempts are underway to reach a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that could pause the war in Gaza, a member of Israel’s War Cabinet said late Wednesday.
“Initial signs indicate a possibility of moving forward,” said Benny Gantz, a former military chief and defense minister. It's the first Israeli indication of renewed cease-fire talks since negotiations stalled a week ago.
However, Gantz repeated his pledge that unless Hamas agrees to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, Israel will launch a ground offensive into the crowded southern city of Rafah during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
A UN agency says it can’t deliver aid to northern Gaza because of chaos, and famine fears are rising
Israel's war in Gaza has driven some 80% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Most heeded Israeli orders to flee south and around 1.5 million are packed into Rafah near the border with Egypt.
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 67 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, including in areas where civilians have been told to seek refuge.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. About a fourth of some 130 captives still being held are believed to be dead. Israel has laid waste to much of the Palestinian territory in response. Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed.
US vetoes Arab-backed UN resolution demanding immediate cease-fire in Gaza
Iran accuses Israel of sabotage attack that saw explosions strike a natural gas pipeline
An Israeli sabotage attack on an Iranian natural gas pipeline last week caused multiple explosions on the line, Iran's oil minister alleged Wednesday, further raising tensions between the regional archenemies against the backdrop of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The accusations by Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji come as Israel has been blamed for a series of attacks targeting Tehran's nuclear program.
The “explosion of the gas pipeline was an Israeli plot,” Owji said, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency. “The enemy intended to disturb gas service in the provinces and put people’s gas distribution at risk.”
Blasts hit a natural gas pipeline in Iran that an official says was an act of sabotage
“The evil action and plot by the enemy was properly managed,” Owji added, without providing any evidence to support his claims.
Israel has not acknowledged carrying out the attack, though it rarely claims its espionage missions abroad. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime foe of Iran, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Feb. 14 blastshit a natural gas pipeline running from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270-kilometer (790-mile) -long pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field.
Yemen's Houthi rebels fire missiles at ship bound for Iran, their main supporter
Owji earlier compared the attack to a series of mysterious and unclaimed assaults on gas pipelines in 2011 — including around the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Tehran marked the 45th anniversary of the revolution just days before the pipeline blasts.
Israel has carried out attacks in Iran that have predominantly targeted its nuclear program. Last week, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned that Iran is “not entirely transparent” regarding its atomic program, particularly after an official who once led Tehran’s program announced the Islamic Republic has all the pieces for a weapon “in our hands.”
Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program comes as groups that Tehran is arming in the region — Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — have launched attacks targeting Israel over the war in Gaza. The Houthis continue to attack commercial shipping in the region, sparking repeated airstrikes from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Despite a month of U.S.-led airstrikes, the Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks. This week, they seriously damaged a ship in a crucial strait and downed an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars.
On Wednesday, ships in the Red Sea off the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida in Yemen reported seeing an explosion, though all vessels in the area were said to be safe, according to the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centers. The UKMTO earlier reported heavy drone activity in the area.
The U.S. State Department criticized “the reckless and indiscriminate attacks on civilian cargo ships by the Houthis” that have delayed humanitarian aid including food and medicine bound for Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen. That includes the Sea Champion, a ship carrying corn and other aid to both Aden and Hodeida.
“Contrary to what the Houthis may attempt to claim, their attacks do nothing to help the Palestinians,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. “Their actions are not bringing a single morsel of assistance or food to the Palestinian people.”
Meanwhile, a suspected Israeli strike killed two people a neighborhood in Syria's capital, Damascus, on Wednesday, an area where other likely Israeli strikes have targeted members of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Alexei Navalny’s mother files lawsuit with a Russian court demanding release of her son’s body
The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has filed a lawsuit at a court in the Arctic city of Salekhard contesting officials’ refusal to release her son’s body, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported Wednesday.
A closed-door hearing has been scheduled for March 4, the report said, quoting court officials.
Lyudmila Navalnaya has been trying to retrieve her son’s body since Saturday, following his death in a penal colony in Russia’s far north a day earlier. She has been unable to find out where his body is being held, Navalny’s team reported.
The Russian opposition just lost its brightest star. What does it do now?
Navalnaya appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday to release her son’s remains so that she could bury him with dignity.
“For the fifth day, I have been unable to see him. They wouldn’t release his body to me. And they’re not even telling me where he is,” a black-clad Navalnaya, 69, said in the video, with the barbed wire of Penal Colony No. 3 in Kharp, about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.
“I’m reaching out to you, Vladimir Putin. The resolution of this matter depends solely on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body is released immediately, so that I can bury him like a human being,” she said in the video, which was posted to social media by Navalny’s team.
Death of Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny provokes Western outrage but few concrete actions to stop Putin
Russian authorities have said the cause of Navalny’s death is still unknown and refused to release his body for the next two weeks as the preliminary inquest continues, members of Navalny’s team said.
They accused the government of stalling to try to hide evidence. On Monday, Navalny’s widow, Yulia, released a video accusing Putin of killing her husband and alleged the refusal to release his body was part of a cover-up.
“They are cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably,” she said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations of a cover-up, telling reporters that “these are absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state.”
Nerve agents, poison and window falls. Kremlin foes have been attacked or killed over the years
Navalny’s death has deprived the Russian opposition of its best-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is all but certain to give Putin another six years in power. Many Russians had seen Navalny as a rare hope for political change amid Putin’s unrelenting crackdown on the opposition.
Since Navalny’s death, about 400 people have been detained across in Russia as they tried to pay tribute to him with flowers and candles, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests. Authorities cordoned off some of the memorials to victims of Soviet repression across the country that were being used as sites to leave makeshift tributes to Navalny. Police removed the flowers at night, but more keep appearing.
Peskov said police were acting “in accordance with the law” by detaining people paying tribute to Navalny.
Over 60,000 people have submitted requests to the government asking for Navalny’s remains to be handed over to his relatives, OVD-Info said.
The UN Security Council is voting on a Gaza cease-fire on Tuesday, with the US certain to veto
Arab nations are putting to a vote a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, knowing it will be vetoed by the United States but hoping to show broad global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war.
The Security Council scheduled the vote on the resolution at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) Tuesday. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield says the Biden administration will veto the Arab-backed resolution because it may interfere with ongoing U.S. efforts to arrange a deal between the warring parties that would bring at least a six-week halt to hostilities and release all hostages taken during Hamas' surprise Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel.
In a surprise move ahead of the vote, the United States circulated a rival U.N. Security Council resolution that would support a temporary cease-fire in Gaza linked to the release of all hostages, and call for the lifting of all restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid. Both of these actions “would help to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” the draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press says.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told several reporters Monday that the Arab-backed resolution is not “an effective mechanism for trying to do the three things that we want to see happen — which is get hostages out, more aid in, and a lengthy pause to this conflict.”
Over 29,000 Palestinians killed in Israel-Hamas war: Gaza Health Ministry
With the U.S. draft, “what we’re looking at is another possible option, and we’ll be discussing this with friends going forward,” Wood said. “I don’t think you can expect anything to happen tomorrow.”
A senior U.S. official said later Monday that “We don’t believe in a rush to a vote.” The official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of council discussions on the U.S. draft, said, “We intend to engage in the coming days in intensive negotiation around it. … That’s why we’re not putting a timeline on a vote, but we do recognize the urgency of the situation.”
Arab nations, supported by many of the 193 U.N. member countries, have been demanding a cease-fire for months as Israel’s military offensive has intensified in response to the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage. The number of Palestinians killed has surpassed 29,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority are women and children.
Tunisia’s U.N. Ambassador Tarek Ladeb, this month’s chair of the 22-nation Arab Group, told U.N. reporters last Wednesday that a cease-fire is urgently needed.
He pointed to some 1.5 million Palestinians who sought safety in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah and face a “catastrophic scenario” if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes ahead with his announced plan to evacuate civilians from the city and move Israel’s military offensive to the area bordering Egypt where Israel says Hamas fighters are hiding.
In addition to a cease-fire now, the Arab-backed draft resolution demands the immediate release of all hostages, rejects the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians, calls for unhindered humanitarian access throughout Gaza, and reiterates council demands that Israel and Hamas “scrupulously comply” with international law, especially the protection of civilians. Without naming either party, it condemns “all acts of terrorism”
In a tough message to Israel, the U.S. draft resolution says Israel’s planned major ground offensive in Rafah “should not proceed under current circumstances.” And it warns that further displacement of civilians, “including potentially into neighboring countries,” a reference to Egypt, would have serious implications for regional peace and security.
Thomas-Greenfield, in a statement Sunday, explained that the United States has been working on a hostage deal for months. She said U.S. President Joe Biden has had multiple calls over the last week with Netanyahu and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to push the deal forward.
Do everything to prevent further military offensives, forge permanent ceasefire in Gaza: Joint Statement
“Though gaps remain, the key elements are on the table,” she said, and the deal remains the best opportunity to free the hostages and have a sustained pause that would enable lifesaving aid to get to needy Palestinians.
The 15 Security Council members have been negotiating on the Arab-backed resolution for three weeks. Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, delayed a vote at U.S. request while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was recently in the region, hoping to get a hostage deal. But Qatar said Saturday the talks “have not been progressing as expected.” And the Arab Group decided over the weekend that they had given the U.S. enough time and put their resolution in final form for a vote.
What will happen after the U.S. casts its veto remains to be seen. The Arab Group could take their resolution to the U.N. General Assembly, which includes all 193 U.N. member nations, where it is virtually certain to be approved. But unlike Security Council resolutions, assembly resolutions are not legally binding.
The Security Council will then likely start discussing the much-lengthier U.S. draft resolution, which would for the first time not only condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack but its hostage taking and killing, “murder, and sexual violence including rape.” Some council members blocked the condemnation of Hamas in two previous council resolutions on Gaza.
The U.S. draft doesn't name Israel, but in a clear reference the draft “condemns calls by government ministers for the resettlement of Gaza and rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in Gaza that would violate international law.”
Tragic Smile: Did a cosmetic surgery mishap kill a groom-to-be?
In a tragic incident in Hyderabad’s upscale Jubilee Hills, a man’s quest for a perfect smile ahead of his wedding ended in tragedy. Laxmi Narayana Vinjam, 28, lost his life during a “smile designing” procedure at a local dental clinic on February 16, police disclosed.
The bereaved father, Ramulu Vinjam, has pointed fingers at the clinic, alleging a fatal anesthesia overdose during the surgery. According to an NDTV report, the devastating turn of events unfolded when the clinic’s staff frantically contacted him after his son succumbed during the operation.
Read more: Chevron and partners provide free reconstructive surgery to 69 patients in Sylhet’s Jalalabad
“We rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival,” Ramulu recounted. The sudden loss was compounded by the fact that the family was unaware of Laxmi Narayana’s decision to undergo the procedure. “He had no health issues. The doctors are responsible for his death,” the grieving father asserted.
Following the family’s complaint, authorities have launched a negligence investigation against the clinic, with a meticulous review of hospital records and security footage underway. “We are checking the hospital records and security camera footage,” officials confirmed, signaling a thorough probe into the circumstances leading to the tragic incident.
Read more: No one kept scissors inside Monira's stomach during surgery
Capital One to buy Discover for $35 billion in deal that combines major US credit card companies
Capital One Financial said it will buy Discover Financial Services for $35 billion, in a deal that would bring together two of the nation's credit card companies as well as potentially shake up the payments industry, which is largely dominated by Visa and Mastercard.
Under the terms of the all-stock transaction, Discover Financial shareholders will receive Capital One shares valued at nearly $140. That's a significant premium to the $110.49 that Discover shares closed at Friday.
The deal marries two of the largest credit card companies that aren't banks first, like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, with the notable exception of American Express. It also brings together two companies whose customers are largely similar: often Americans who are looking for cash back or modest travel rewards, compared to the premium credit cards dominated by AmEx, Citi and Chase.
“This marketplace that’s dominated by the big players is going to shrink a little bit more now,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit card analyst at LendingTree.
It also will give Discover's payment network a major credit card partner in a way that could make the payment network a major competitor once again. The U.S. credit card industry is dominated by the Visa-Mastercard duopoly with AmEx being a distance third place and Discover an even more distant fourth place.
Read: FDIC: First Citizens Bank to acquire Silicon Valley Bank
With its purchase of Discover, Capital One is betting that Americans’ will continue to increasingly use their credit cards and keep balances on those accounts to collect interest. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Americans held $1.13 trillion on their credit cards, and aggregate household debt balances increased by $212 billion, up 1.2%, according to the latest data from the New York Federal Reserve.
As they run up their card balances, consumers are also paying higher interest rates. The average interest rate on a bank credit card is roughly 21.5%, the highest it’s been since the Federal Reserve started tracking the data in 1994.
At the same time, the two lenders have had to boost their reserves against the possibility of rising borrower defaults. After battling inflation for more than two years, many lower- and middle-income Americans have run through their savings and are increasingly running up their credit card balances and taking on personal loans.
The additional reserves have weighed on both banks’ profits. Last year, Capital One’s net income available to common shareholders slumped 35% versus 2022, as its provisions for loan losses soared 78% to $10.4 billion. Discover’s full-year profit sank 33.6% versus its 2022 results as its provisions for credit losses more than doubled to $6.02 billion.
Discover’s customers are carrying $102 billion in balances on their credit cards, up 13% from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the charge-off rates and 30-day delinquency rates have climbed.
Beyond boosting bank deposits and loan accounts, the acquisition would give Capital One access to the Discover payment processing network. While smaller than industry giants Visa and Mastercard, the Discover network will enable Capital One to get revenue from fees charged for every merchant transaction that runs on the network.
Read: Silicon Valley Bank collapse concerns founders of color
Discover has been operating under heightened scrutiny from regulators. Last summer, the company disclosed that beginning around mid-2007, it incorrectly classified certain card accounts into its highest merchant pricing tiers. The company also received an unrelated consent order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation over its customer compliance management.
Analysts at Citigroup say the regulatory issues may have prompted the sale.
“We are surprised that DFS would sell, but suppose that its regulatory challenges such as its recent October FDIC consent order and the card product misclassification issue may have opened the door for the board to consider strategic alternatives that it may not have in the past,” wrote analysts Arren Cyganovich and Kaili Wang in a note to clients.
It's unclear whether the deal will pass regulatory scrutiny. Nearly every bank issues a credit card to customers but few companies are credit card companies first, and banks second. Both Discover — which was long ago the Sears Card — and Capital One started off as credit card companies that expanded into other financial offerings like checking and savings accounts.
Consumer groups are expected to put heavy pressure on the Biden Administration to make sure the deal is good for consumers as well as shareholders.
Read more: Washington reacts on the fly to Silicon Valley Bank failure
“The proposed transaction is rather out of sync with the times. But big banks don’t worry too much about consumers and they are always out to reduce competition," said Carter Dougherty with Americans for Financial Reform.
Top UN court to open hearings into Israel’s occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state
Historic hearings are opening on Monday at the United Nations’ top court into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state.
Palestinian representatives will speak first as the International Court of Justice begins hearing legal arguments following a request submitted by the U.N. General Assembly for a non-binding advisory opinion into Israel's policies in the occupied territories.
Though the case opens at the court's Great Hall of Justice against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, it focuses instead on Israel’s open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem.
The Palestinian legal team will tell the panel of international judges that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land and the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and has imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid.
Read: Munich Security Conference concludes with anxiety to seek "silver lining"
“We want to hear new words from the court,” said Omar Awadallah, the head of the U.N. organizations department in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.
After the Palestinians address the court on Monday, an unprecedented 51 countries and three international organizations will speak. The court will likely take months to issue its opinion.
Israel is not scheduled to speak during the hearings, but could submit a written statement.
Yuval Shany, a law professor at Hebrew University and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, said Israel will likely justify the ongoing occupation on security grounds, especially in the absence of a peace deal.
It is likely to point to the Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas-led militants from Gaza killed 1,200 people across southern Israel and dragged 250 hostages back to the territory.
However, Palestinians and leading rights groups argue that the occupation goes far beyond defensive measures. They say it has morphed into an apartheid system, bolstered by settlement building on occupied lands, that gives Palestinians second-class status and is designed to maintain Jewish hegemony from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel rejects any accusation of apartheid.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state. Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory, whose future should be decided in negotiations.
It has built 146 settlements across the West Bank, according to watchdog group Peace Now, many of which resemble fully developed suburbs and small towns. The settlements are home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers, while around 3 million Palestinians live in the territory.
Read: US envoy says Israel has not presented evidence that Hamas diverted U.N. aid deliveries in Gaza
Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital. An additional 200,000 Israelis live in settlements built in east Jerusalem that Israel considers to be neighborhoods of its capital. Palestinian residents of the city face systematic discrimination, making it difficult for them to build new homes or expand existing ones.
Israel withdrew all of its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but continued to control the territory's airspace, coastline and population registry. Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza when the Palestinian militant Hamas group seized power there in 2007.
The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements to be illegal. Israel’s annexation of east Jerusalem, home to the city’s most sensitive holy sites, is not internationally recognized.
It’s not the first time the court has been asked to give an advisory opinion on Israeli policies.
In 2004, it said a separation barrier Israel built through east Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank was “contrary to international law.” It also called on Israel to immediately halt construction. Israel has ignored the ruling.
Also, late last month, the court ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in its campaign in Gaza. The order came at a preliminary stage of a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, a charge that Israel denied.
South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to the apartheid regime of white minority rule in South Africa, which restricted most Black people to “homelands” before ending in 1994.
WikiLeaks founder Assange may be near the end of his long fight to stay out of the US
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's fight to avoid facing spying charges in the United States may be nearing an end following a protracted legal saga in the U.K. that included seven years of self-exile inside a foreign embassy and five years in prison.
Assange faces what could be his final court hearing in London next week as he tries to stop his extradition to the U.S. The High Court has scheduled two days of arguments over whether Assange can ask an appeals court to block his transfer. If the court doesn't allow the appeal to go forward, he could be sent across the Atlantic.
His wife says the decision is a matter of life and death for Assange, whose health has deteriorated during his time in custody.
“His life is at risk every single day he stays in prison,” Stella Assange said Thursday. “If he’s extradited, he will die.”
WHAT IS ASSANGE CHARGED WITH?Assange, 52, an Australian computer expert, has been indicted in the U.S. on 18 charges over Wikileaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 2010.
Prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer and release secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He faces 17 counts of espionage and one charge of computer misuse. If convicted, his lawyers say he could receive a prison term of up to 175 years, though American authorities have said any sentence is likely to be much lower.
Assange and his supporters argue he acted as a journalist to expose U.S. military wrongdoing and is protected under press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
US, Philippines to host 6th Indo-Pacific Business Forum on May 2
Among the files published by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
“Julian has been indicted for receiving, possessing and communicating information to the public of evidence of war crimes committed by the U.S. government,” Stella Assange said. “Reporting a crime is never a crime.”
U.S. lawyers say Assange is guilty of trying to hack the Pentagon computer and that WikiLeaks’ publications created a “grave and imminent risk” to U.S. intelligence sources in Afghanistan and Iraq.
WHY HAS THE CASE DRAGGED ON SO LONG?While the U.S. criminal case against Assange was only unsealed in 2019, his freedom has been restricted for more than a dozen years.
Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 and was granted political asylum after courts in England ruled he should be extradited to Sweden as part of a rape investigation in the Scandinavian country.
He was arrested by British police after Ecuador’s government withdrew his asylum status in 2019 and then jailed for skipping bail when he first took shelter inside the embassy.
Although Sweden dropped its sex crimes investigation, Assange has remained in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison while the extradition battle with the U.S. continues.
A judge in London initially blocked Assange’s transfer to the U.S. on the grounds he was likely to kill himself if held in harsh American prison conditions.
But subsequent courts cleared the way for the move after U.S. authorities provided assurances he wouldn’t experience the severe treatment that his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk.
US rolls out visa restriction policy on people who misuse spyware to target journalists, activists
Stella Assange and her husband's supporters have criticized those assurances as being meaningless because they are conditional.
WHAT ARE POSSIBLE OUTCOMES FROM THE HEARING?If the London court rejects Assange's plea for a full appeal, he could be extradited to the U.S. once British officials approve his removal.
His legal team plans to appeal an adverse ruling to the European Court of Human Rights, but they fear he could possibly be transferred before the court in Strasbourg, France, could halt his removal.
If he prevails at next week's hearing, it would set the stage for an appeal process that is likely to further drag out the case.
“This procedure has been marked by prolonged and creeping time frames,” Wikileaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said. “We call it punishment through process. It is obviously a deliberate attempt to wear him down to punish him by taking this long.”
While the U.K. Supreme Court rejected Assange's petition, saying he didn't raise an “arguable point of law," his wife said his new bid will raise several points that are grounds for appeal.
Lawyers for Assange plan to argue he can't get a fair trial in the U.S., that a U.S.-U.K. treaty prohibits extradition for political offenses and that the crime of espionage was not meant to apply to publishers.
“The drafters of the Espionage Act did not intend for publishers to fall within its ambit,” Stella Assange wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Unchallenged expert evidence showed that receipt and publication of state secrets is routine, and that there was an ‘unbroken practice of non-prosecution’ of publishers. The prosecution ‘crosses a new legal frontier’ and ‘breaks all legal precedents.’”
WHAT IS ASSANGE'S CURRENT STATE?Stella Assange said her husband's mental and physical health has declined dramatically and he's aged prematurely in prison. He experienced a mini-stroke in October 2021 and was so ill in December that he broke a rib coughing.
“I worry about him every time he gets sick,” Stella Assange said. “The mental toll is extreme.”
The couple, who got married at Belmarsh Prison almost two years ago, have two young sons, Gabriel and Max, who were conceived during Assange's stay in the embassy.
The boys visit their father in prison every week, undergoing security checks that include being patted down by guards and sniffed by dogs, Stella Assange said. The couple is protective of the children, who haven’t been told why their father is behind bars, according to their mother.
“I don’t think it’s fair on them to know what’s really going on,” she said as she choked up. “They know exactly what a prison is. They know that the guards are stopping Julian from leaving the prison even though he wants to come home.”