‘Operation Peace Spring’ continues despite international objections

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The Turkish invasion is widely condemned around the world. (File/AFP)
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Smoke billows from targets inside Syria during bombardment by Turkish forces Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. (AP)
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A picture taken in Akcakale at the Turkish border with Syria on October 10, 2019 shows smokes rising from the Syrian town of Tal Abyad after a mortar fired from Syria landed in the garden of a Turkish government building in Akcakale. (AFP)
Updated 12 October 2019
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‘Operation Peace Spring’ continues despite international objections

  • Europe tells Turkey to ‘show restraint and halt its military operations in northeastern Syria’
  • Civilians of the region began escaping the unfolding chaos

ANKARA: With the Turkish military beginning a ground incursion into northeastern Syria on Wednesday, several villages in Tal Abyad and Ras Al-Ain, two Arab-majority towns in the region, changed hands.

The Turkish Army, accompanied by the Syrian National Army, reportedly reached a depth of 8 km by midnight, with some 109 YPG/SDF militants killed during the opening movements of Operation Peace Spring.

The operation was not harshly criticized by NATO, whose secretary-general said that Turkey has legitimate security concerns.

However, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday called Ankara to show restraint and halt its military operations in Syria. 

“If the plan involves the creation of a so-called safe zone, do not expect the EU to pay for any of it,” he said.

In a press conference on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted the EU’s stance: “If you call this operation an invasion, then we could just open the gates and send 3.6 million Syrian refugees back to Europe.”

Erdogan guaranteed that neither the Turkish nor Syrian forces would harm civilians or their property in northern Syria. 

“Anyone who wants to leave the YPG, we welcome them whether they are Kurds or Arabs,” he said.

Civilians of the region began escaping the unfolding chaos.

Simon Waldman, associate fellow at the British think tank the Henry Jackson Society and visiting fellow at King’s College London, said the ongoing operation is nothing less than an attempt to kill two birds with one stone: Solving the question of the future of Syrian refugees in Turkey while also dealing with the presence of the YPG, which Ankara claims is directly affiliated with the PKK.

“They are using Turkish troops and Syrian proxy militias to invade, set up a security zone of at least 30 km and resettle Arab Syrian refugees in the captured land. This is despite knowing that it will cause untold civilian casualties and displace up to hundreds of thousands,” he told Arab News.

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham announced he planned to produce a comprehensive sanctions package against Turkey, hitting Ankara’s defense and energy sectors as well as top Turkish officials, including Erdogan.

In a tweet on Oct. 8, Graham warned Turkey of “sanctions from hell” if it carries an operation into northeast Syria, suggesting “wide, deep, and devastating sanctions.”

According to Waldman, the US sanctions package itself is strong, but ineffectual considering the mixed messages coming from Congress and the White House: “They are only effective when they together send a clear message along with international partners in Europe.”

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani asked Turkey to consider dialogue rather than operations, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on Ankara to respect the territorial integrity of Syria. Ali Larijani, the Parliament speaker of Iran, cancelled his scheduled visit to Turkey.

“Despite the Astana Framework, Turkey and Iran’s wider geopolitical interests are not aligned,” Michael Tanchum, senior fellow at AIES, an Austrian research institute, told Arab News.

“Because of US support for the PKK-affiliated YPG in northern Syria, Ankara and Tehran had a mutual interest in removing the American presence from Syria. That mutual interest seems to have been eliminated by US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to allow a Turkish invasion of northern Syria,” he added.

According to Tanchum, Turkey’s strategic interests run against the unbridled expansion of Iranian influence from Iran’s western borders through Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean.

“The rise of Iranian hegemony in this region is a long-term strategic problem for Turkey. Likewise, Ankara wants to continue expanding its influence in the South Caucasus and Caspian Basin. The eastward expansion of Turkish influence is jointly opposed by Iran and Russia,” he said.

Tanchum added: “While not outright enemies, Turkey and Iran have not yet transformed the Astana Framework into a long-term strategic partnership. Syria will now become a weathervane indicating the future direction of their relations.”

In a press briefing given on Thursday, former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who is about to launch a new political party, said Ankara should be in contact with many different segments in Syria for the success of the operation.

“No single resident of the operational region should be otherized and harmed in this process. Turkey should try to win hearts of the Kurdish, Arab and Turkish communities for reaching the civil target alongside the military goals,” he said.

Turkey’s invasion of northeastern Syria began on Wednesday after US troops pulled back from the area, paving the way for Turkey’s assault on Syrian Kurdish forces, long been allied with the US. 
The ministry said Turkish jets and artillery struck 181 targets east of the Euphrates River since the incursion started.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said that Turkish air strikes and shelling had killed nine civilians in northeast Syria since the start of Ankara's offensive.

Five people, including a nine-month-old baby, were killed and dozens injured in shelling on Turkish border towns on Thursday, local authorities said, following Turkey's offensive on Kurdish forces in northern Syria.

Kurdish leaders on Thursday called on European countries to withdraw their ambassadors from Turkey in protest at Ankara's military operation against their forces in northern Syria.
A delegation from the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) - the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - travelled to Brussels to urge the EU to take concrete measures to punish Turkey.
The EU has urged Turkey to halt the assault but has not taken any action, though the bloc's foreign ministers will discuss the crisis at a regular meeting on Monday.
"We want an urgent intervention on this crisis, and these attacks should be stopped quickly. Air space should be closed for Turkish flights so that air attacks can be stopped," senior SDC figure Ilham Ahmed told reporters in Brussels.
"All European states should freeze their relations by withdrawing their ambassadors from Turkey immediately."

The offensive has displaced more than 60,000 people in less than a day, a war monitor said Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said large number of residents from the border areas of Ras al-Ain, Tal Abyad and Derbasiyeh had fled their homes, mostly east towards the city of Hasakeh.
Turkey says it intends to create a “safe zone” that would push Kurdish militia away from its border and eventually allow the repatriation of up to 2 million Syrian refugees.

Turkey's foreign minister said Turkish troops intend to move some 30 kilometers (19 miles) deep into northern Syria and that its operation will last until all "terrorists are neutralized," a reference to Syrian Kurdish fighters.
Briefing a small group of journalists on Thursday, Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkish troops and Syrian opposition fighters would be strengthened with more security force officers, including police, if needed. He did not comment on how many troops had crossed the border or how many jets were involved in the offensive.
The minister reiterated that Turkey aimed to create a safe zone that would allow the "voluntary" and "safe" return of Syrian refugees or displaced people.
Britain called for restraint on Thursday after Turkey's military incursion into Syria, warning that the move risked humanitarian suffering and underming the fight against militants.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he had spoken to Turkey "to express the UK’s disappointment and concern about the military incursion into NE Syria, and call for restraint."
"The intervention risks greater humanitarian suffering and undermines the focus on countering Daesh (ISIS)," he added.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was talking to "both sides" as Turkey pressed its offensive against US-allied Kurds in Syria, and warned Ankara that it would be hit hard financially if it did not "play by the rules."
"I am trying to end the ENDLESS WARS. Talking to both sides," he said on Twitter. "I say hit Turkey very hard financially & with sanctions if they don’t play by the rules! I am watching closely." 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for a de-escalation of the conflict in Syria.

"I want to express my deepest concerns about the escalation of conflict in eastern Syria. It is absolutely essential to de-escalate," he told reporters in Copenhagen.

"Military operations must always respect the United Nation's chapter and international humanitarian law, and I am worried with the humanitarian concerns that exist in relation to not only casualties but also the displacement that is taking place," Guterres said.

A divided UN Security Council failed to agree on a statement following a closed meeting on Turkey's incursion into northeast Syria on Thursday evening.

The five European council members who called Thursday's meeting — there are 15 member countries — urged Turkey in a joint statement afterward "to cease the unilateral military action." They say it threatens progress against Daesh by a global coalition.

The Europeans warned that "renewed armed hostilities in the northeast will further undermine the stability of the whole region, exacerbate civilian suffering and provoke further displacements."

Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, whose country is a key Syrian ally, told reporters that any council statement on Syria must address broader issues, including the presence of foreign forces in the country.

US Ambassador Kelly Craft told reporters that President Donald Trump "has made abundantly clear" that the United States "has not in any way" endorsed Turkey's decision to mount a military incursion in northeast Syria.

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French President Emmanuel Macron urged Turkey to immediately end its offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria, saying it risked boosting Daesh extremists.

"I condemn vehemently the unilateral offensive in Syria and I urge Turkey to put an end to it as quickly as possible," Macron said.

"This risks helping Daesh (IS) to rebuild its caliphate. This is the responsibility that Turkey is taking," he told reporters in the French city of Lyon.

NATO expects Turkey to show restraint in its military operations in northern Syria, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

"I count on Turkey to show restraint and to ensure that their actions in northern Syria are measured and proportionate and avoid even more human suffering," Stoltenberg told journalists after meeting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens.

"We have to rememeber that we need to continue to stand together in our common fight against the common enemy, which is ISIS," Stoltenberg said, referring to Daesh.

He said a global coalition had made 'enormous progress' in the fight against the extremist group with swathes of territory the size of the United Kingdom being liberated from it.

Meanwhile, France's foreign ministry on Thursday summoned the Turkish ambassador to Paris over Ankara's air and ground offensive into Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria, a diplomatic source said.
"The ambassador in France was summoned in the early afternoon," the source said on the second day of the Turkish operation against Syrian Kurdish forces.
Turkey's ambassador to France Ismail Hakki Musa confirmed the reprimand. "I am (summoned), I'm going later on," he told AFP.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Thursday criticised Turkey's military offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria, the presidency said.

In a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II, El-Sisi "affirmed Egypt's rejection of the Turkish aggression on Syria's territory and sovereignty," a statement from his office said.

El-Sisi warned the operation would have "adverse effects" on the "stability and security of the entire region".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the Turkish military operation in Syria's northeast with Iraq's president by phone on Thursday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow and Baghdad agreed on the need for stability on the eastern bank of the Euphrates and for Syria's territorial integrity to be respected, the ministry said in a readout of the phone call. 

Iraq expressed its “deep concern” about the military operation in Syria's northeast and warned that a large number of civilians will be displaced as a result.

India called upon Turkey to “exercise restraint” and respect Syria’s sovereignty, its ministry of external affairs said Thursday. It also warned that Turkey’s actions could “undermine stability in the region and the fight against terrorism.”

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Thursday summoned the Turkish ambassador over Ankara's ongoing offensive in northern Syria, a statement said.
The ministry called for an end to unilateral actions and recalled that the only lasting solution to the crisis in war-wracked Syria was through the United Nations.

Norway, a NATO ally of Turkey, announced Thursday it was suspending all new arms exports to the country after Ankara launched a military offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
"Given that the situation is complex and changing quickly, the foreign ministry as a precautionary measure will not handle any new demands for exports of defence material or material for multiple uses... to Turkey," Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said in an email sent to AFP.

On Wednesday, the Arab League warned that Turkey's attack could help Daesh “regain some of its force".

Regional foreign ministers will gather in Cairo on October 12 to discuss Turkey's intervention, the Arab League's assistant secretary-general Hossam Zaki said.

The Turkish invasion is widely condemned around the world.

(With AFP, AP and Reuters)


Israeli strike on Lebanese army center kills soldier, wounds 18 others

Updated 24 November 2024
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Israeli strike on Lebanese army center kills soldier, wounds 18 others

  • It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops
  • Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel’s ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s north.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.

Lebanon’s army reflects the religious diversity of the country and is respected as a national institution, but it does not have the military capability to impose its will on Hezbollah or resist Israel’s invasion.


EU’s Borrell urges pressure on Israel, Hezbollah to accept US ceasefire proposal

Updated 46 min 50 sec ago
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EU’s Borrell urges pressure on Israel, Hezbollah to accept US ceasefire proposal

  • The EU’s foreign policy chief warned that Lebanon was “on the brink of collapse”

BEIRUT: The European Union’s foreign policy chief called on Sunday during a visit to Beirut for pressure to be exerted on both the Israeli government and on Lebanon’s Hezbollah to accept a US ceasefire proposal.
Speaking at a news conference in Beirut, Josep Borell also urged Lebanese leaders to pick a president to end a two-year power vacuum in the country, and he pledged 200 million euros in support for Lebanon’s armed forces. 

Lebanon on 'brink of collapse'

The EU’s foreign policy chief warned that Lebanon was “on the brink of collapse” after Israel launched an intense air campaign two months ago following nearly a year of clashes with Hezbollah.
“Back in September I came and was still hoping we could prevent a full-fledged war of Israel attacking Lebanon. Two months later Lebanon is on the brink of collapse,” Josep Borrell told reporters in Beirut.


Israeli army orders Gaza City suburb evacuated, spurring new displacement wave

Updated 24 November 2024
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Israeli army orders Gaza City suburb evacuated, spurring new displacement wave

  • Israeli military blames Hamas rocket fire for renewed evacuation directive
  • Palestinians say hospitals in north Gaza barely functioning

CAIRO: The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of an eastern Gaza City suburb, setting off a new wave of displacement on Sunday, and a Gaza hospital director was injured in an Israeli drone attack, Palestinian medics said.
The new orders for the Shejaia suburb posted by the Israeli army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Palestinian militants firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip.
“For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south,” the military’s post said. The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas’ armed wing, which said it had targeted an Israeli army base over the border.
Footage circulated on social and Palestinian media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed residents leaving Shejaia on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.
Families living in the targeted areas began fleeing their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday’s early hours, residents and Palestinian media said — the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the war began 13 months ago.
In central Gaza, health officials said at least 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the urban camps of Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij since Saturday night.
Hospital director wounded by gunfire
In north Gaza, where Israeli forces have been operating against regrouping Hamas militants since early last month, health officials said an Israeli drone dropped bombs on Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring its director Hussam Abu Safiya.
“This will not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost,” Abu Safiya said in a video statement circulated by the health ministry on Sunday.
“We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us...,” he said from his hospital bed.
Israeli forces say armed militants use civilian buildings including housing blocks, hospitals and schools for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminately targeting populated areas.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in north Gaza that are barely operational as the health ministry said the Israeli forces have detained and expelled medical staff and prevented emergency medical, food and fuel supplies from reaching them.
In the past few weeks, Israel said it had facilitated the delivery of medical and fuel supplies and the transfer of patients from north Gaza hospitals in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organization.
Residents in three embattled north Gaza towns — Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun — said Israeli forces had blown up hundreds of houses since renewing operations in an area that Israel said months ago had been cleared of militants.
Palestinians say Israel appears determined to depopulate the area permanently to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of Gaza, an accusation Israel denies.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people, uprooted nearly all the enclave’s 2.3 million population at least once, according to Gaza officials, while reducing wide swathes of the narrow coastal territory to rubble.
The war erupted in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023 in which gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.


Iran to hold nuclear talks with three European powers in Geneva on Friday, Kyodo reports

Updated 24 November 2024
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Iran to hold nuclear talks with three European powers in Geneva on Friday, Kyodo reports

  • A senior Iranian official confirmed that the meeting would go ahead next Friday

DUBAI: Iran plans to hold talks about its disputed nuclear program with three European powers on Nov. 29 in Geneva, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday, days after the UN atomic watchdog passed a resolution against Tehran.
Iran reacted to the resolution, which was proposed by Britain, France, Germany and the United States, with what government officials called various measures such as activating numerous new and advanced centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium.
Kyodo said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government was seeking a solution to the nuclear impasse ahead of the inauguration in January of US President-elect Donald Trump.
A senior Iranian official confirmed that the meeting would go ahead next Friday, adding that “Tehran has always believed that the nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomacy. Iran has never left the talks.”
In 2018, the then-Trump administration exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six major powers and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to violate the pact’s nuclear limits, with moves such as rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.
Indirect talks between President Joe Biden’s administration and Tehran to try to revive the pact have failed, but Trump said in his election campaign in September that “We have to make a deal, because the consequences are impossible. We have to make a deal.”


Israel cracks down on Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza

Updated 24 November 2024
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Israel cracks down on Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza

  • Israeli authorities have opened more incitement cases against Palestinian citizens during the war in Gaza than in the previous five years combined

UMM AL-FAHM, Israel: Israel’s yearlong crackdown against Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza is prompting many to self-censor out of fear of being jailed and further marginalized in society, while some still find ways to dissent — carefully.
Ahmed Khalefa’s life turned upside down after he was charged with inciting terrorism for chanting in solidarity with Gaza at an anti-war protest in October 2023.
The lawyer and city counselor from central Israel says he spent three difficult months in jail followed by six months detained in an apartment. It’s unclear when he’ll get a final verdict on his guilt or innocence. Until then, he’s forbidden from leaving his home from dusk to dawn.
Khalefa is one of more than 400 Palestinian citizens of Israel who, since the start of the war in Gaza, have been investigated by police for “incitement to terrorism” or “incitement to violence,” according to Adalah, a legal rights group for minorities. More than half of those investigated were also criminally charged or detained, Adalah said.
“Israel made it clear they see us more as enemies than as citizens,” Khalefa said in an interview at a cafe in his hometown of Umm Al-Fahm, Israel’s second-largest Palestinian city.
Israel has roughly 2 million Palestinian citizens, whose families remained within the borders of what became Israel in 1948. Among them are Muslims and Christians, and they maintain family and cultural ties to Gaza and the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967.
Israel says its Palestinian citizens enjoy equal rights, including the right to vote, and they are well-represented in many professions. However, Palestinians are widely discriminated against in areas like housing and the job market.
Israeli authorities have opened more incitement cases against Palestinian citizens during the war in Gaza than in the previous five years combined, Adalah’s records show. Israeli authorities have not said how many cases ended in convictions and imprisonment. The Justice Ministry said it did not have statistics on those convictions.
Just being charged with incitement to terrorism or identifying with a terrorist group can land a suspect in detention until they’re sentenced, under the terms of a 2016 law.
In addition to being charged as criminals, Palestinians citizens of Israel — who make up around 20 percent of the country’s population — have lost jobs, been suspended from schools and faced police interrogations posting online or demonstrating, activists and rights watchdogs say.
It’s had a chilling effect.
“Anyone who tries to speak out about the war will be imprisoned and harassed in his work and education,” said Oumaya Jabareen, whose son was jailed for eight months after an anti-war protest. “People here are all afraid, afraid to say no to this war.”
Jabareen was among hundreds of Palestinians who filled the streets of Umm Al-Fahm earlier this month carrying signs and chanting political slogans. It appeared to be the largest anti-war demonstration in Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. But turnout was low, and Palestinian flags and other national symbols were conspicuously absent. In the years before the war, some protests could draw tens of thousands of Palestinians in Israel.
Authorities tolerated the recent protest march, keeping it under heavily armed supervision. Helicopters flew overhead as police with rifles and tear gas jogged alongside the crowd, which dispersed without incident after two hours. Khalefa said he chose not to attend.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, Israel’s far-right government moved quickly to invigorate a task force that has charged Palestinian citizens of Israel with “supporting terrorism” for posts online or protesting against the war. At around the same time, lawmakers amended a security bill to increase surveillance of online activity by Palestinians in Israel, said Nadim Nashif, director of the digital rights group 7amleh. These moves gave authorities more power to restrict freedom of expression and intensify their arrest campaigns, Nashif said.
The task force is led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hard-line national security minister who oversees the police. His office said the task force has monitored thousands of posts allegedly expressing support for terror organizations and that police arrested “hundreds of terror supporters,” including public opinion leaders, social media influencers, religious figures, teachers and others.
“Freedom of speech is not the freedom to incite ... which harms public safety and our security,” his office said in a statement.
But activists and rights groups say the government has expanded its definition of incitement much too far, targeting legitimate opinions that are at the core of freedom of expression.
Myssana Morany, a human rights attorney at Adalah, said Palestinian citizens have been charged for seemingly innocuous things like sending a meme of a captured Israeli tank in Gaza in a private WhatsApp group chat. Another person was charged for posting a collage of children’s photos, captioned in Arabic and English: “Where were the people calling for humanity when we were killed?” The feminist activist group Kayan said over 600 women called its hotline because of blowback in the workplace for speaking out against the war or just mentioning it unfavorably.
Over the summer, around two dozen anti-war protesters in the port city of Haifa were only allowed to finish three chants before police forcefully scattered the gathering into the night. Yet Jewish Israelis demanding a hostage release deal protest regularly — and the largest drew hundreds of thousands to the streets of Tel Aviv.
Khalefa, the city counselor, is not convinced the crackdown on speech will end, even if the war eventually does. He said Israeli prosecutors took issue with slogans that broadly praised resistance and urged Gaza to be strong, but which didn’t mention violence or any militant groups. For that, he said, the government is trying to disbar him, and he faces up to eight years in prison.
“They wanted to show us the price of speaking out,” Khalefa said.