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Large-scale protests against the ongoing blockade and bombardment of the Gaza Strip are expected to continue and grow across the occupied West Bank on Friday, a day after at least two Palestinians were killed during an enormous demonstration outside Jerusalem on Thursday night.
At least two people were killed and many injured last evening as tens of thousands of Palestinians marched from the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to a security checkpoint outside Jerusulem in what many interpret as the signaling point that a possible Third Intifada--or uprising--has now officially begun.
Political leaders and members of Palestinian civil society have called for nonviolent marches against the Israeli government's continued policies of subjugation in both the West Bank and Gaza.
Thursday's march--a show of opposition and protest against the ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip which has claimed more than 800 Palestinian lives since July 8--was meant with heavy resistance from Israeli security forces who fired on the ground as they massed in the area outside the checkpoint.
"In the West Bank, we need to take our resistance efforts to a higher level," Na'el Halabi, a student at Birzeit University who participated in the march, told Al Jazeera in Ramallah. "Gaza is not alone: we are part of the same struggle."
Doctors in area hospitals reported receiving dozens of injured Palestinians suffering from "live-fire" wounds, but IDF officials refused to say whether live munitions--and not just rubber and tear gas--were used.
As The Middle East Eye reports:
While people across Palestine gathered in celebration of Layla Al Qadder, or night of destiny, the enormous turnouts were fueled by the quickly rising death tolls in Gaza. Depending on the source, anywhere between 30,000 to 50,000 people joined in Ramallah's march. Most media sources agree the protests were the biggest since the second intifada in 2005, although some say they could even be as big as the protests during the first intifada in 1987.
Alaa Jadaa, a Ramallah resident of who attended the Thursday demonstration, said he was sure that we are now seeing the start of the third intifada.
"The protest began at al-Manara [Ramallah's city center] and we marched to Qalandiya Checkpoint, I am sure people will look back and say the third intifada was started in Gaza first and then look at us in Qalandiya," Jadaa told Middle East Eye.
"I think this is going to be a massive intifada actually. It was really crazy last night, there was a guy from Barcelona who asked me if I had ever seen a demonstration like this and I said not for years. But still, this one is bigger than I have ever seen."
As the crowds began to gather, they chanted anti-Israel and pro-Gaza slogans. Quickly all the protesters were packed together and there was little room to move. A relatively small group of some 200 Palestinians toward the front of the protests began throwing rocks, molotov cocktails and fireworks. It wasn't long before things turned bloody and the Israeli military at the Qalandiya checkpoint responded by firing live ammunition and tear gas.
While it was easy to spot the 200 or so rock-throwers, people in the bulk of the otherwise peaceful crowd claim they were also hit in the exchange.
Speaking with Chris Hayes on MSNBC Thursday night, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, one of the founders of the Palestinian National Initiative party, said people should not mistake the word 'intifada' or what they see in the West Bank with military action.
"The whole West Bank is boiling," said Barghouti, but added he was hopeful that the protests on the Palestinian side would remain guided by a "popular nonviolent approach".
Asked by Hayes if he was worried about escalating confrontations, Barghouti responded: "Of course I worry. But the main reason for this escalation is the fact that we are talking about 800 people massacred in Gaza--mostly children and women --and 5,300 injured of whom 90% are women, children and civilians."
"You know I've advocated nonviolence all my," he continued, "and each time I meet someone from the West they will tell me, 'We would like to see you march with thousands of people. Your demonstrations are not that big.' Today, that dream happened. It was like a Martin Luther King march or a Gandhi march. And we had more than twenty-five thousand people marching--women, men, elderly people, even some children--and it was so peaceful. And then were encountered with violence by the Israeli Army. I think the Israeli government is losing its mind completely, because tomorrow--on Friday--you will see the whole West Bank demonstrating. It is like a full uprising now. And that can be stopped only if this madness in Gaza is stopped."
Employing the arabic word intifada, translated as uprising, Hayes asked Barghouti directly if "what we are seeing is the beginning of a Third Intifada?"
Barghouti replied, "Of course, it has started."
On the diplomatic front, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry remains in the region and has said he has now presented both Palestinian representatives and the Israeli government with his proposal for a cease-fire agreement.
Hamas has said that lifting the economic and travel blockade that keeps Palestinians prisoners inside the Gaza Strip must be a condition of any cease fire agreement and last week made clear a five-point plan for a lasting truce with Israel. Later on Friday, the Israeli's security cabinet will be meeting to consider and possibly vote on Kerry's proposal.
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Large-scale protests against the ongoing blockade and bombardment of the Gaza Strip are expected to continue and grow across the occupied West Bank on Friday, a day after at least two Palestinians were killed during an enormous demonstration outside Jerusalem on Thursday night.
At least two people were killed and many injured last evening as tens of thousands of Palestinians marched from the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to a security checkpoint outside Jerusulem in what many interpret as the signaling point that a possible Third Intifada--or uprising--has now officially begun.
Political leaders and members of Palestinian civil society have called for nonviolent marches against the Israeli government's continued policies of subjugation in both the West Bank and Gaza.
Thursday's march--a show of opposition and protest against the ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip which has claimed more than 800 Palestinian lives since July 8--was meant with heavy resistance from Israeli security forces who fired on the ground as they massed in the area outside the checkpoint.
"In the West Bank, we need to take our resistance efforts to a higher level," Na'el Halabi, a student at Birzeit University who participated in the march, told Al Jazeera in Ramallah. "Gaza is not alone: we are part of the same struggle."
Doctors in area hospitals reported receiving dozens of injured Palestinians suffering from "live-fire" wounds, but IDF officials refused to say whether live munitions--and not just rubber and tear gas--were used.
As The Middle East Eye reports:
While people across Palestine gathered in celebration of Layla Al Qadder, or night of destiny, the enormous turnouts were fueled by the quickly rising death tolls in Gaza. Depending on the source, anywhere between 30,000 to 50,000 people joined in Ramallah's march. Most media sources agree the protests were the biggest since the second intifada in 2005, although some say they could even be as big as the protests during the first intifada in 1987.
Alaa Jadaa, a Ramallah resident of who attended the Thursday demonstration, said he was sure that we are now seeing the start of the third intifada.
"The protest began at al-Manara [Ramallah's city center] and we marched to Qalandiya Checkpoint, I am sure people will look back and say the third intifada was started in Gaza first and then look at us in Qalandiya," Jadaa told Middle East Eye.
"I think this is going to be a massive intifada actually. It was really crazy last night, there was a guy from Barcelona who asked me if I had ever seen a demonstration like this and I said not for years. But still, this one is bigger than I have ever seen."
As the crowds began to gather, they chanted anti-Israel and pro-Gaza slogans. Quickly all the protesters were packed together and there was little room to move. A relatively small group of some 200 Palestinians toward the front of the protests began throwing rocks, molotov cocktails and fireworks. It wasn't long before things turned bloody and the Israeli military at the Qalandiya checkpoint responded by firing live ammunition and tear gas.
While it was easy to spot the 200 or so rock-throwers, people in the bulk of the otherwise peaceful crowd claim they were also hit in the exchange.
Speaking with Chris Hayes on MSNBC Thursday night, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, one of the founders of the Palestinian National Initiative party, said people should not mistake the word 'intifada' or what they see in the West Bank with military action.
"The whole West Bank is boiling," said Barghouti, but added he was hopeful that the protests on the Palestinian side would remain guided by a "popular nonviolent approach".
Asked by Hayes if he was worried about escalating confrontations, Barghouti responded: "Of course I worry. But the main reason for this escalation is the fact that we are talking about 800 people massacred in Gaza--mostly children and women --and 5,300 injured of whom 90% are women, children and civilians."
"You know I've advocated nonviolence all my," he continued, "and each time I meet someone from the West they will tell me, 'We would like to see you march with thousands of people. Your demonstrations are not that big.' Today, that dream happened. It was like a Martin Luther King march or a Gandhi march. And we had more than twenty-five thousand people marching--women, men, elderly people, even some children--and it was so peaceful. And then were encountered with violence by the Israeli Army. I think the Israeli government is losing its mind completely, because tomorrow--on Friday--you will see the whole West Bank demonstrating. It is like a full uprising now. And that can be stopped only if this madness in Gaza is stopped."
Employing the arabic word intifada, translated as uprising, Hayes asked Barghouti directly if "what we are seeing is the beginning of a Third Intifada?"
Barghouti replied, "Of course, it has started."
On the diplomatic front, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry remains in the region and has said he has now presented both Palestinian representatives and the Israeli government with his proposal for a cease-fire agreement.
Hamas has said that lifting the economic and travel blockade that keeps Palestinians prisoners inside the Gaza Strip must be a condition of any cease fire agreement and last week made clear a five-point plan for a lasting truce with Israel. Later on Friday, the Israeli's security cabinet will be meeting to consider and possibly vote on Kerry's proposal.
Large-scale protests against the ongoing blockade and bombardment of the Gaza Strip are expected to continue and grow across the occupied West Bank on Friday, a day after at least two Palestinians were killed during an enormous demonstration outside Jerusalem on Thursday night.
At least two people were killed and many injured last evening as tens of thousands of Palestinians marched from the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to a security checkpoint outside Jerusulem in what many interpret as the signaling point that a possible Third Intifada--or uprising--has now officially begun.
Political leaders and members of Palestinian civil society have called for nonviolent marches against the Israeli government's continued policies of subjugation in both the West Bank and Gaza.
Thursday's march--a show of opposition and protest against the ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip which has claimed more than 800 Palestinian lives since July 8--was meant with heavy resistance from Israeli security forces who fired on the ground as they massed in the area outside the checkpoint.
"In the West Bank, we need to take our resistance efforts to a higher level," Na'el Halabi, a student at Birzeit University who participated in the march, told Al Jazeera in Ramallah. "Gaza is not alone: we are part of the same struggle."
Doctors in area hospitals reported receiving dozens of injured Palestinians suffering from "live-fire" wounds, but IDF officials refused to say whether live munitions--and not just rubber and tear gas--were used.
As The Middle East Eye reports:
While people across Palestine gathered in celebration of Layla Al Qadder, or night of destiny, the enormous turnouts were fueled by the quickly rising death tolls in Gaza. Depending on the source, anywhere between 30,000 to 50,000 people joined in Ramallah's march. Most media sources agree the protests were the biggest since the second intifada in 2005, although some say they could even be as big as the protests during the first intifada in 1987.
Alaa Jadaa, a Ramallah resident of who attended the Thursday demonstration, said he was sure that we are now seeing the start of the third intifada.
"The protest began at al-Manara [Ramallah's city center] and we marched to Qalandiya Checkpoint, I am sure people will look back and say the third intifada was started in Gaza first and then look at us in Qalandiya," Jadaa told Middle East Eye.
"I think this is going to be a massive intifada actually. It was really crazy last night, there was a guy from Barcelona who asked me if I had ever seen a demonstration like this and I said not for years. But still, this one is bigger than I have ever seen."
As the crowds began to gather, they chanted anti-Israel and pro-Gaza slogans. Quickly all the protesters were packed together and there was little room to move. A relatively small group of some 200 Palestinians toward the front of the protests began throwing rocks, molotov cocktails and fireworks. It wasn't long before things turned bloody and the Israeli military at the Qalandiya checkpoint responded by firing live ammunition and tear gas.
While it was easy to spot the 200 or so rock-throwers, people in the bulk of the otherwise peaceful crowd claim they were also hit in the exchange.
Speaking with Chris Hayes on MSNBC Thursday night, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, one of the founders of the Palestinian National Initiative party, said people should not mistake the word 'intifada' or what they see in the West Bank with military action.
"The whole West Bank is boiling," said Barghouti, but added he was hopeful that the protests on the Palestinian side would remain guided by a "popular nonviolent approach".
Asked by Hayes if he was worried about escalating confrontations, Barghouti responded: "Of course I worry. But the main reason for this escalation is the fact that we are talking about 800 people massacred in Gaza--mostly children and women --and 5,300 injured of whom 90% are women, children and civilians."
"You know I've advocated nonviolence all my," he continued, "and each time I meet someone from the West they will tell me, 'We would like to see you march with thousands of people. Your demonstrations are not that big.' Today, that dream happened. It was like a Martin Luther King march or a Gandhi march. And we had more than twenty-five thousand people marching--women, men, elderly people, even some children--and it was so peaceful. And then were encountered with violence by the Israeli Army. I think the Israeli government is losing its mind completely, because tomorrow--on Friday--you will see the whole West Bank demonstrating. It is like a full uprising now. And that can be stopped only if this madness in Gaza is stopped."
Employing the arabic word intifada, translated as uprising, Hayes asked Barghouti directly if "what we are seeing is the beginning of a Third Intifada?"
Barghouti replied, "Of course, it has started."
On the diplomatic front, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry remains in the region and has said he has now presented both Palestinian representatives and the Israeli government with his proposal for a cease-fire agreement.
Hamas has said that lifting the economic and travel blockade that keeps Palestinians prisoners inside the Gaza Strip must be a condition of any cease fire agreement and last week made clear a five-point plan for a lasting truce with Israel. Later on Friday, the Israeli's security cabinet will be meeting to consider and possibly vote on Kerry's proposal.
"I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away," said the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde.
The inaugural interfaith service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday proceeded with the usual prayers and music, but after delivering her sermon, the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde appeared to go off-script and made a direct appeal to President Donald Trump.
Recalling the Republican president's assertion on Monday that he was "saved by God" after a bullet hit his ear in an assassination attempt in July, Budde asked Trump, who was seated in the church, "in the name of our God... to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now."
"There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families," said Budde, "some who fear for their lives. And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals."
"I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here," said Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C.
Budde's appeal followed Trump's signing of 26 executive orders in his first day in office, with dozens more expected in the first days of his second term. The president signed orders ending birthright citizenship—provoking legal challenges from immigrant rights groups and state attorneys general—and pausing refugee admissions, leading to devastation among people who had been waiting for asylum appointments at ports of entry. Official proclamations declared a national emergency at the southern border and asserted that the entry of migrants there is an "invasion."
Trump also took executive action to declare that the federal government recognizes only two sexes, male and female.
"May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people in this nation and the world," said Budde in her address to Trump.
The president kept his eyes on Budde for much of her speech, at one point looking annoyed and casting his eyes downward. Vice President JD Vance leaned over and spoke to his wife, Usha Vance, as Budde talked about undocumented immigrants, and raised his eyebrows when she said the majority of immigrants are not criminals.
Trump later told reporters that the service was "not too exciting."
"I didn't think it was a good service," he said. "They can do much better."
Democratic strategist Keith Edwards applauded Budde's decision to speak directly to the president, calling her "incredibly brave."
Budde "confronted Trump's fascism to his face," he said on the social media platform Bluesky.
The study was published as President Donald Trump was blasted for an executive order that one critic said shows he wants to turn the Alaskan Arctic into the "the world's largest gas station."
For thousands of years, the land areas of the Arctic have served as a "carbon sink," storing potential carbon emissions in the permafrost. But according to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change Tuesday, more than 34% of the Arctic is now a source of carbon to the atmosphere, as permafrost melts and the Arctic becomes greener.
"When emissions from fire were added, the percentage grew to 40%," according to the Woodwell Climate Research Center, which led the international team that conducted the research.
The study, which was first reported on by The Guardian, was released the day after President Donald Trump issued multiple presidential actions influencing the United States' ability to confront the climate crisis, which is primarily caused by fossil fuel emissions, including one directly impacting resource extraction in Alaska, a section of which is within the Arctic Circle.
Sue Natali, one of the researchers who worked on the study published in Nature Climate Change, told NPR in December (in reference to similar research) that the Arctic's warming "is not an issue of what party you support."
"This is something that impacts everyone," she said.
As the permafrost—ground that remains frozen for two or more years—holds less carbon, it releases CO2 into the atmosphere that could "considerably exacerbate climate change," according to the study.
"There is a load of carbon in the Arctic soils. It's close to half of the Earth's soil carbon pool. That's much more than there is in the atmosphere. There's a huge potential reservoir that should ideally stay in the ground," said Anna Virkkala, the lead author of the study, in an interview with The Guardian.
The dire warning was released on the heels of Trump's executive order titled "Unleashing the Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential" that calls for expedited "permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects in Alaska," as well as for the prioritization of "development of Alaska's liquefied natural gas (LNG) potential, including the sale and transportation of Alaskan LNG to other regions of the United States and allied nations within the Pacific region."
The order also rolls back a number of Biden-era restrictions on drilling and extraction in Alaska, which included protecting areas within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas leasing.
"Alaska is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, a trend that is wreaking havoc on communities, ecosystems, fish, wildlife, and ways of life that depend on healthy lands and waters," said Carole Holley, managing attorney for the Alaska Office of the environmental group Earthjustice, in a statement Monday.
"Earthjustice and its clients will not stand idly by while Trump once again forces a harmful industry-driven agenda on our state for political gain and the benefit of a wealthy few," she added.
Trump wants to turn the Alaskan Arctic into the "the world's largest gas station," said Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program, in a statement Monday. "Make no mistake, Trump's rushed and sloppy actions today are an existential threat to these lands and waters, and the communities and wildlife that depend on them."
The U.N. ambassador nominee also shrugged off the Nazi salutes made by Elon Musk on Inauguration Day.
As U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik faced questioning by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday regarding her nomination for a top diplomatic position, the rights group Jewish Voice for Peace Action called on lawmakers to consider her "record of antisemitic, anti-Palestinian, anti-immigrant, and anti-democracy rhetoric and policy" and block her confirmation.
Stefanik's (R-N.Y.) record was reinforced at the hearing as she was asked about her views on Palestine, expressions of antisemitism in the United States, and far-right Israeli leaders' political agenda, with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) recalling a meeting he had with the congresswoman after President Donald Trump nominated her to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
At the meeting, Van Hollen said, Stefanik had expressed support for the idea that Israel has a Biblical right to control the entire West Bank—a position that is held by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, but runs counter to the two-state solution that the U.S. government has long supported.
"Is that your view today?" asked Van Hollen, to which Stefanik replied, "Yes."
Van Hollen noted that Stefanik's viewpoint also flies in the face of numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions and international consensus about the Middle East conflict.
"If the president is going to succeed at bringing peace and stability to the Middle East, we're going to have to look at the U.N. Security Council resolutions," said the senator. "And it's going to be very difficult to achieve that if you continue to hold the view that you just expressed, which is a view that was not held by the founders of the state of Israel."
Stefanik also refused to answer a direct question from Van Hollen regarding whether Palestinian people have the right to self-determination, saying only that she supports "human rights for all" and pivoting to a call for Israeli hostages to be released by Hamas.
Jenin Younes, litigation counsel with the New Civil Liberties Alliance, said Stefanik expressed "religious fanaticism, pure and simple" at the confirmation hearing—which was held as Israeli settlers and soldiers ramped up attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
"That [Stefanik] will now play a major role with respect to our foreign policy in the region is terrifying," said Younes.
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action noted that in addition to supporting "the Israeli government's brutal genocide of Palestinians," Stefanik has also "amplified the antisemitic Great Replacement theory"—which claims the influence and power of white Christian Americans is being deliberately diminished by Jewish Americans and immigration policy.
Despite her support for the debunked conspiracy theory, Stefanik made headlines last year for her accusations against college students, faculty, and administrators over the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that exploded across campuses as Americans spoke out against Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza. The congresswoman said the protests were expressions of antisemitism and pushed for the resignation of university leaders who declined to discipline students who spoke out against Israel.
The hearings where Stefanik lambasted college leaders "were part of a broader campaign to silence anti-war activism and dissent on college campuses while forwarding the MAGA culture war campaign against [diversity, equity, and inclusion], critical race theory, and LGBTQ+ rights," said JVP Action.
An exchange between Stefanik and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday also raised questions over Stefanik's views on antisemitism. Murphy asked the nominee about the Nazi salute twice displayed by billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk—whom the president has named to lead his proposed Department of Government Efficiency—at an event Monday night.
" Elon Musk did not do those salutes," Stefanik asserted.
Murphy countered by reading several comments from right-wing commentators who applauded Musk's "Heil Hitler" salute.
"Over and over again last night, white supremacist groups and neo-Nazi groups in this country rallied around that visual," said Murphy.
JVP Action said Stefanik has "deeply embraced Trump's anti-democratic agenda."
"Her nomination must be blocked," said the group.