Why South Africa feels a deep connection to the Palestinian cause amid Gaza war

Members of General Industrial Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), civil associations and political parties hold anti-Israel banners during a pro-Palestine demonstration in front of the Israeli Trade and Economic Office in Sandton, Johannesburg, on January 27, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 23 January 2024
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Why South Africa feels a deep connection to the Palestinian cause amid Gaza war

  • South Africa has lodged a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza
  • The ruling ANC has long acknowledged parallels between the Palestinian struggle and its own fight against apartheid

DUBAI: On Jan. 11 South Africa asked the International Court of Justice at The Hague to rule on whether Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza amounted to genocide. Israel responded by accusing the country of “functioning as the legal arm” of Hamas. 

But South African support for the Palestinians is not a new phenomenon. For years its government and civil society have shown unwavering support for the Palestinian cause, despite considerable geographical and cultural differences.




People raise flags and placards as they gather around a statue of late South African president Nelson Mandela to celebrate a landmark genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice, in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on January 10, 2024.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which until 1994 forced Blacks to live in specially designated “homelands.” 

“Today we join the world in expressing horror at the war crimes being committed in Palestine through the targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure, UN premises and other vulnerable targets,” Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation, said in a statement on Nov. 7.

“These actions remind us of our experiences as Black South Africans living under apartheid. This is one of the key reasons South Africans, like people in cities all over the world, have taken to the streets to express their anger and concern at what is taking place in Gaza and the West Bank.”




South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule. (AFP)

Israel launched its military campaign in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which saw Palestinian militants kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and take 240 hostage, including many non-Israeli foreign nationals.

Since then, the Israel Defense Forces have waged a ferocious air and ground campaign against Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, killing more than 25,000 Palestinans, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Since the war began, symbols of solidarity have sprung up across South Africa. Street artists have painted murals of the Palestinian flag, billboards have been erected accusing Israel of genocide, and stickers featuring slogans like “Genocide IsREAL” and “#FreeGaza” have been distributed.

“As a South African, one knows oppression, resistance and apartheid,” Leila Samira Khan, a South African lawyer and activist, told Arab News.

“Palestine is intertwined with South Africa’s fight for freedom. I was born in the Netherlands to South African parents in the ’70s and was named after Leila Khaled,” she said, referring to the famed Palestinian activist.




Palestinian children look for salvageable items amid the destruction on the southern outskirts of Khan Yunis in the war-battered Gaza Strip on January 16, 2024. (AFP)

South Africa recalled its diplomats from Tel Aviv in early November. Later that month, its parliament voted to suspend all diplomatic ties with Israel and to close the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria. Israel has since recalled its ambassador.

Then, in December, in a move which thrust South Africa into the international spotlight, it filed its suit against Israel at the ICJ, accusing it of breaching the Genocide Convention. 

“The scale of destruction in Gaza, the targeting of family homes and civilians, the war being a war on children, all make clear that genocidal intent is both understood and has been put into practice,” Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a member of the South African legal team, said in the ICJ.

“The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life in all its manifestations.”




A group of lawyers and advocates hold placards as they take part in an interfaith protest in solidarity with Palestinian people outside the High Court in Cape Town on January 11, 2024. (AFP)

While the case has irked many Western governments, it has won South Africa praise from nations like Turkiye and Malaysia and groupings like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which have joined the case. 

This championing of the Palestinian cause in South Africa has deep roots that date back to the days when the ANC was waging its own decades-long campaign against apartheid, a system that prevailed from 1948 until the early 1990s. 

Under apartheid, the white minority dominated politics, business, land ownership, and all facets of civic life, while enforcing a system of harsh racial segregation and discrimination that deemed the races “separate but equal.” 

In reality, Black South Africans who lived through that period recall feeling marginalized and like second-class citizens in their own land — feelings not dissimilar to those felt by the Palestinians in the occupied territories.




Black South Africans who lived through apartheid recall feeling marginalized and like second-class citizens in their own land — feelings not dissimilar to those felt by the Palestinians in the occupied territories. (AFP)

“As South Africans we feel deeply connected to the Palestinian struggle,” Thania Petersen, a South African artist based in Cape Town, told Arab News. 

“We understand and recognize apartheid as well as the devastation which comes with dealing and living in a post-apartheid society.”

Meanwhile, even as much of the international community introduced sanctions against apartheid South Africa for its increasingly unpopular policies, Israel continued to supply the white-minority government with weapons and technology.

The ANC’s solidarity with Palestine dates back to the 1950s and ’60s when several African nations were gaining independence after centuries under European colonial rule.

During its struggle against apartheid, and later once in power, the ANC fostered close ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization. 




A Palestinian man holds a portrait of late Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat and South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela as the national flags of both nations flutter outside the municipality building in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on January 12, 2024. (AFP)

Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first post-apartheid president, who spent 27 years in jail for his fight against white minority rule, was even on friendly terms with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

On Feb. 15, 1995, a year after South Africa’s first non-racial elections, which propelled Mandela to power, the newly-minted “rainbow nation” established formal diplomatic ties with the State of Palestine. 

For years, the ANC and the PLO supported each other’s anti-colonial campaigns, trading weapons and consulting on strategies to do away with colonization.

A significant moment that solidified South Africa’s ties and commitment to Palestine was when Arafat met Mandela in Zambia in 1990, barely two weeks after the latter had been released from prison. 

Mandela subsequently visited both Israel and Palestine and called for peace between both nations.




Yasser Arafat, right, greeted Nelson Mandela when the latter arrived at Gaza airport in 1999 for an official visit to Palestine. (AFP/File)

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” Mandela said in 1997 during a speech marking International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.

“The temptation in our situation is to speak in muffled tones about an issue such as the right of the people of Palestine to a state of their own. We can easily be enticed to read reconciliation and fairness as meaning parity between justice and injustice. 

“Having achieved our own freedom, we can fall into the trap of washing our hands of difficulties that others face. Yet we would be less than human if we did so.”




Pro-Palestinian groups and other civil society organizations demonstrate, in Durban on June 2, 2018 to protest against the killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces in Gaza. (AFP/File)

South Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause continues fervently to this day. In the ANC’s latest policy document, published in late 2022, the ruling party emphasized South Africa’s historical ties to Palestine. 

“South Africa and Palestine share a common history of struggle,” the document said, describing Israel as an “apartheid state” and declaring its intention to loosen South Africa’s diplomatic ties with Israel.

“As individuals we feel deeply for Palestinians because we know apartheid, we know what it looks like and we live with the ongoing violence of its legacy,” Petersen told Arab News. 

“We have an obligation to humanity to fight what we know is wrong. As South Africans we will always fight against apartheid and colonialism. Our leaders have always uttered the words that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestine.”

In a recent piece for The Economist, Suraya Dadoo, a South African writer and activist, said: “South Africa’s voice has been the loudest, mainly due to the fact that our liberation history and struggle is most recent, and that the system of apartheid that Israel practices against the Palestinians is eerily similar.

“Settler colonial societies can only exist with the absolute annihilation of the indigenous people or by the complete subjugation of the people and their land. There is no other way they can sustain their existence but through violence.”

While South Africa’s championing of the Palestinian cause is understandable given its own struggle against apartheid, it has been harder to reconcile its support for Hamas. 

After the Oct. 7 attacks, many Arab countries that were sympathetic to the Palestinian cause sought to distance themselves from the militant group. Although it condemned the atrocities, South Africa was slower to do so than other nations.

By contrast, it rushed to condemn the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza after Israel launched its retaliatory campaign.

South Africa is one of just a handful of countries that has formal diplomatic relations with Hamas — a group that many nations consider a terrorist organization.

Its openness to relations with Hamas is partly informed by its own history. Indeed, the ANC was itself often considered a terrorist organization before the country made its largely peaceful transition to multi-racial democracy.




A man holds a Palestinian flag as they take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the High Court in Cape Town on January 11, 2024. (AFP)

South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing acts of genocide against the Palestinians has also exposed it to accusations of double standards, particularly as its government appears to take a softer stance on the misdeeds of other armed actors.

Just a week before making its case at The Hague, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa hosted Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, a Sudanese warlord known as Hemedti, whose Janjaweed militia and its successor, the Rapid Support Forces, is accused of committing acts of genocide in Darfur. 

The RSF paramilitary group has been locked in battle with the Sudanese Armed Forces since April last year, sparking one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, which many fear could destabilize the wider region.

However, Petersen says public opposition to Israel in particular runs far deeper for South Africans, mindful of its past support for apartheid. 

“Palestinians and South Africans are fighting the same fight,” she said. “It is not (a) separate (issue that) Israel was involved with the apartheid government in South Africa and it is not surprising that the Zionist lobby in South Africa benefited from apartheid.”

 


Iran foreign minister says uranium enrichment ‘non-negotiable’

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Iran foreign minister says uranium enrichment ‘non-negotiable’

  • Remarks came after US envoy said Iran must stop its enrichment of uranium as part of any nuclear deal

TEHRAN: Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that Iran’s enrichment of uranium as part of its nuclear program was “non-negotiable” after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff called for a halt.

“Iran’s enrichment is a real, accepted matter. We are ready to build confidence in response to possible concerns, but the issue of enrichment is non-negotiable,” Araghchi told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The remarks came as Araghchi and Witkoff are due to meet again in Oman on Saturday, a week after they held the highest-level talks between the longtime foes since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear deal in 2018.

Trump reimposed sweeping sanctions in a policy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran that he has reinstated since returning to office in January.

In March, he sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging talks but warning of possible military action if they fail to produce a deal.

Both sides described Saturday’s meeting as “constructive.”

But on Tuesday, Witkoff said Iran must “stop and eliminate” its enrichment of uranium as part of any nuclear deal.

He had previously demanded only that Iran return to the 3.67 percent enrichment ceiling set by the 2015 accord between Iran and major powers that Trump withdrew from.

Araghchi condemned what he called the “contradictory and conflicting positions” coming out of the Trump administration ahead of Saturday’s talks.

“We will find out the true opinions of the Americans during the negotiation session,” he said.

Iran’s top diplomat said he hoped to start negotiations on the framework of a possible agreement but said that required “constructive positions” from the US.

“If we continue to (hear) contradictory and conflicting positions, we are going to have problems,” he warned.

Araghchi is set to head to Iranian ally Russia on Thursday, Iran’s ambassador in Moscow Kazem Jalili said.

Iran has said the visit was “pre-planned” but will include discussions on the Iran-US talks.

“The objective of (my) trip to Russia is to convey a written message from the supreme leader” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Araghchi said.

In readiness for the US talks, Iran has engaged with Russia and China, which were both parties to the 2015 deal.

Ahead of Saturday’s second round of talks in Muscat, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he hoped a deal could be reached with the US, the official IRNA news agency reported.

On Tuesday, Khamenei cautioned that while the talks have proceeded well in their early stages, they could still prove fruitless.

“The negotiations may or may not yield results,” he said, noting that Iran had already outlined its “red lines.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have said the country’s military capabilities are off-limits in the talks.

Late on Sunday, IRNA said Iran’s regional influence and its missile capabilities — both sources of concern for Western governments — were also among its “red lines.”

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi was due in Iran later Wednesday for talks with senior officials.

The UN watchdog was tasked with overseeing Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nulear deal.

In its latest report, the IAEA said Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilograms of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent.

That level far exceeds the the 3.67 percent ceiling set by the 2015 deal but still falls short of the 90 percent threshold required for a nuclear warhead.


Charity says 400,000 children in Syria risk ‘severe malnutrition’ after US cuts

Updated 18 min 59 sec ago
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Charity says 400,000 children in Syria risk ‘severe malnutrition’ after US cuts

  • More than 13 years of conflict in Syria ravaged the country, with the health system shattered and infrastructure hobbled

DAMASCUS: Save the Children said on Wednesday that more than 400,000 children in the Syrian Arab Republic were at risk of “severe malnutrition” after the US suspended aid, forcing the charity to slash operations in the country.

Bujar Hoxha, Save the Children’s Syria director, in a statement called on the international community to urgently fill the funding gap, warning that needs were “higher than ever” after years of war and economic collapse.

“More than 416,000 children in Syria are now at significant risk of severe malnutrition following the sudden suspension of foreign aid,” Save the Children said in a statement, adding separately that the cuts were those of the US.

The global aid situation has grown dire since US President Donald Trump ordered the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development early this year.

His administration scrapped 83 percent of humanitarian programs funded by USAID.

The agency had an annual budget of $42.8 billion, representing 42 percent of total global humanitarian aid.

The suspension has “forced the closure of one third of Save the Children’s life-saving nutrition activities” across Syria, the charity said, halting “vital care for over 40,500 children” aged under five.

Hoxha said the closure of the charity’s nutrition centers “comes at the worst possible time” with “the needs in Syria are higher than ever.”

Its clinics that are still open are “reporting a surge in malnutrition cases while struggling to keep up with the growing demand for care,” the charity added.

More than 13 years of conflict in Syria ravaged the country, with the health system shattered and infrastructure hobbled.

In February, a United Nations Development Programme report estimated that nine out of 10 Syrians now live in poverty and face food insecurity with “malnutrition on the rise, particularly among children.”

Save the Children said more than 650,000 children under five in Syria were now “chronically malnourished,” while more than 7.5 million children nationwide needed humanitarian assistance, which it said was the highest number since the crisis began.

Hoxha urged the international community to “urgently step up” to fill the funding gap.

Syrian children “are paying the price for decisions made thousands of miles away,” Hoxha added in the statement.


How falling cases of tuberculosis in Iraq reflect a wider health system recovery

Updated 28 min 34 sec ago
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How falling cases of tuberculosis in Iraq reflect a wider health system recovery

  • Iraq has halved its tuberculosis rate over the past decade through tech-driven diagnosis and expanded mobile health services
  • AI-supported X-rays and GeneXpert machines now detect TB faster, even in remote areas and among high-risk populations

DUBAI: Sameer Abbas Mohamed, a Syrian refugee from Qamishli who fled to Iraq in 2013, was terrified when his one-year-old son, Yusuf, was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He knew the disease was life-threatening — and highly contagious.

“I have two older boys, and I was scared they would catch the disease,” said Mohamed, who lives in Qushtapa refugee camp for Syrians in Irbil, home to most of the 300,000 Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

“Yusuf was also very young and I worried about losing him.”

An IOM medic checks a little girl at the family's rented house in Kirkuk. (Photo: Anjam Rasool/IOM Iraq, 2019)

Mohamed consulted several doctors when Yusuf began coughing. Scans revealed a mass on the right anterior wall of his chest. A diagnosis was finally made when a general surgeon reported the case to Iraq’s National TB Program.

Following surgery to remove the mass, Yusuf returned home, where nurses delivered an all-oral regimen, monitored his treatment, tracked his progress, offered support, and educated the family on isolation measures to prevent the disease’s spread.

Within six months, Yusuf was cured.

His journey reflects the progress made in combating TB in Iraq, especially the drug-resistant variant that has emerged in the conflict-affected country — which until recently had the region’s highest prevalence of TB cases.

Iraq’s NTP, supported by the International Organization for Migration, the Global Fund, and the World Health Organization, is tracking TB among displaced communities using advanced diagnostic technologies and artificial intelligence.

Giorgi Gigauri, IOM Iraq’s chief of mission, told Arab News that TB detection and timely treatment have helped to drive a significant decline in cases in Iraq.

This was achieved, he said, through a tech-driven strategy, including the installation of the advanced 10-color GeneXpert detection machine across Baghdad, Basrah, Najaf and Nineveh, enabling faster diagnoses.

IOM’s mobile medical teams were also equipped with 10 AI-supported chest X-ray devices, known as CAD4-TB, which can detect the disease in seconds — even in high-burden areas such as refugee camps and prisons.

FAST FACTS

• TB is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium that primarily affects the lungs.

• It spreads through airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

• Symptoms include a persistent cough, chest pain, fever, night sweats and weight loss.

• With proper treatment using antibiotics, TB is curable, though drug-resistant strains exist.

Routine screenings by these mobile units helped to increase the detection rate of drug-resistant TB from 2 percent to 19 percent, and drug-sensitive TB from 4 percent to 14 percent between 2019 and 2024, according to IOM data.

After screening, sputum samples are taken to central labs, making testing accessible for those unable to travel or living in areas with limited health care access.

Thanks to these efforts, TB cases in Iraq have fallen dramatically — from 45 to 23 cases per 100,000 people between 2013 and 2023. The current prevalence is 15 per 100,000, with an estimated mortality rate of three per 100,000.

In many ways, these numbers reflect Iraq’s wider public health recovery after decades of instability, including the crippling sanctions of the 1990s, the successive bouts of violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion, and the 2014 rise of Daesh.

“Despite years of instability, progress made in the detection, treatment and prevention of the spread of TB restored trust in health care services by strengthening infrastructure and extending care to vulnerable groups like prisoners and displaced populations,” Gigauri told Arab News.

“It also supports upskilling of health professions and creates sustainable systems that can support responses to other communicable diseases.

“Efforts made by all partners under NTP have contributed to national recovery by addressing urgent health needs and laying a foundation for timely detection of preventable and treatable diseases.”

Despite a period of relative stability, Iraq still faces considerable humanitarian pressures amid a fragile economy and an unpredictable security landscape. According to UNHCR, more than 1 million Iraqis remain internally displaced, with 115,000 living in 21 camps across the Kurdistan Region.

Roughly five million displaced people have returned to their towns and villages since Daesh’s territorial defeat in 2017. But these areas often lack basic infrastructure, increasing the risk of TB outbreaks.

In Mosul — Iraq’s second-largest city, which endured three years under Daesh — those unable to afford housing live in overcrowded settlements, where malnutrition and exposure to the elements weaken immunity.

The mobile medical teams have been a game-changer for these vulnerable communities.

Digital X-rays equipped with CAD4-TB, powered by AI, now enable quick and accurate TB detection — a stark improvement from the three-month wait many patients once faced for CT scans.

This technology also reduces radiation exposure. A single CT scan can expose patients to the equivalent of 300 X-rays, according to Dr. Bashar Hashim Abbas, manager of the Chest and Respiratory Diseases clinic in Mosul.

Abbas said that mobile medical teams and digital X-ray devices have been vital for reaching remote communities and detainees who lack clinic access.

“The mobility of these machines helped us examine prisoners who were difficult to bring into the clinic due to complex security protocols. We discovered many cases, especially multidrug-resistant TB patients, in this way,” Abbas told Arab News.

“We conduct X-rays and take sputum samples for further lab investigations. Therefore, we take the diagnostic tools to them as much as we can, scaling up TB prevention and providing treatment.”

A centralized disease surveillance system, District Health Information Software 2, allows lab results to be registered and coordinated across labs, facilities, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, improving routine TB reporting.

IOM’s TB services reached 6,398 people in 2024, with 120 drug-resistant TB cases treated. These efforts have been bolstered by $11 million in Global Fund support since 2022.

A key breakthrough has been shifting the treatment of multidrug-resistant TB from a burdensome series of injections to a simpler, all-oral regimen, which shortened recovery time from two years to six months and significantly improved outcomes.

“Previously, treatments involved daily injections for at least six to eight months, which were difficult to sustain for patients and treatment outcomes were relatively poor at 50 percent,” Grania Brigden, senior TB adviser at the Global Fund, told Arab News.

“However, the innovation in treatment through the all-oral regimen has reduced treatment to six months with a 75 percent to 80 percent success rate.”

Although no new TB vaccines are currently available, researchers are optimistic about developing more effective ones in the next five years. The existing BCG vaccine offers only partial protection and is less effective for adults and adolescents, who are more prone to transmission.

New vaccines are vital for achieving the WHO’s End TB Strategy goals — reducing TB mortality by 95 percent and incidence by 90 percent by 2035. Brigden said ongoing investment is key to meeting these targets.

Meanwhile, the Global Fund is focused on halting TB’s spread in Iraq. “We have invested significantly in commodity security to ensure that everyone who tests positive or is notified of TB is put on treatment,” said Brigden.

Thanks to these steps, many — like young Yusuf — are alive today who might otherwise have succumbed without proper care.

“The discussions of tuberculosis we had with the nurse who gave the medication had a positive impact on us,” said Yusuf’s father, Mohamed.

“The nurse gave us information on how to isolate him after the first two to three weeks. He reassured us that if we gave him the medication regularly and made sure there were no gaps, everything would be getting well.

“This made us less scared.”
 

 


Anxiety clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Updated 16 April 2025
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Anxiety clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

  • ‘There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it’

ZABABDEH: In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town’s main Christian communities — Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican — and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

“The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children,” said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

“There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it,” the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zababdeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

“It led to a lot of people to think: ‘Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?’” said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

“Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?“

Kasabreh said this “existential threat” was compounded by constant “depression” at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel’s response to Hamas’s October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor’s office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

“Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war,” said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. “Nobody knows what will happen.”

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fueling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

“People can’t stay without work and life isn’t easy,” said 60-year-old math teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

“For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It’s a reality, not a call for emigration,” he said.

“But I’m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

“And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad — one in Germany, the other two in the United States.”

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation’s spirituality had never been so vibrant.

“Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that’s when) you see the faith is growing,” Tabban said.


Houthi media says US air strikes hit Sanaa

People inspect the site of a reported US airstrike in Sanaa, a day after the attack. (File/AFP)
Updated 16 April 2025
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Houthi media says US air strikes hit Sanaa

  • Houthi-held areas of Yemen have endured near-daily strikes, blamed on the United States, since Washington launched an air campaign against the militia on March 15

SANAA: Houthi media said more than a dozen air strikes hit the militia-held capital Sanaa on Wednesday, blaming them on the United States.
Houthi-held areas of Yemen have endured near-daily strikes, blamed on the United States, since Washington launched an air campaign against the militia on March 15 in an attempt to end their threats to shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
“Fourteen air strikes carried out by American aggression hit the Al-Hafa area in the Al-Sabeen district in the capital,” the Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV reported.
It also reported strikes blamed on the United States in the Hazm area of Jawf province.
The US campaign followed Houthi threats to resume their attacks on international shipping over Israel’s aid blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Since March 15, the Houthis have also resumed attacks targeting US military ships and Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis began targeting ships transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as Israeli territory, after the Gaza war began in October 2023, later pausing their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire.
Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza at the beginning of March and resumed its offensive in the Palestinian territory on March 18, ending the truce.
The vital Red Sea route, connecting to the Suez Canal, normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, but the Houthi attacks forced many companies to make a long detour around the tip of southern Africa.