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Israeli Rights Activist Condemns Europe's Silence over Netanyahu's Policy

People stage a protest against Israeli PM Netanyahu in Paris on Saturday. (AP)
People stage a protest against Israeli PM Netanyahu in Paris on Saturday. (AP)
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Israeli Rights Activist Condemns Europe's Silence over Netanyahu's Policy

People stage a protest against Israeli PM Netanyahu in Paris on Saturday. (AP)
People stage a protest against Israeli PM Netanyahu in Paris on Saturday. (AP)

Israeli human rights defender Yehuda Shaul denounced Tuesday Europe's "silence" regarding the policy of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which he said is seeking to annex the occupied West Bank and transform Israel into an "illiberal democracy."

During a press meeting in Paris, Shaul said Europe's silence regarding the Israeli government's policy "is being strongly heard in Israel and Palestine."

Shaul is the co-founder of the Breaking the Silence organization, which includes former Israeli soldiers who denounce the practices of the army that has occupied the West Bank since 1967. He is the founder of the Ofek Center for the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Shaul told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that his country is witnessing a "double revolution," an internal one that could transform Israel into a "completely illiberal democracy" - a reference to the amendments to the judicial system that Netanyahu proposed.

The second revolution was linked to Israel's policy in the occupied Palestinian territories, "which ultimately aims at one thing: annexation."

He emphasized that tens of thousands of Israelis are protesting against Netanyahu's attempts, especially in Tel Aviv, but everyone is silent regarding the government's policies in the West Bank.

Shaul said Netanyahu believes in the "law of the strongest" and does not believe in "human rights or liberal democracy."

He condemned international silence, noting in particular France's abstention from voting in late December on a UN resolution calling on the International Court of Justice to give opinion on the issue of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Shaul stressed the need for more monitoring by the international community, stressing that he is an "extreme" supporter of the two-state solution and sees no other way for the two peoples to live in dignity and equality.

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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File

Just 12 trucks distributed food and water in northern Gaza in two-and-a-half months, aid group Oxfam said on Sunday, raising the alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
"Of the meager 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians," Oxfam said in a statement, in a count that included deliveries through Saturday.
"For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours," Oxfam added.
Israel, which has tightly controlled aid entering the Hamas-ruled territory since the outbreak of the war, often blames what it says is the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid, AFP said.
In a report focused on water, New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday detailed what it called deliberate efforts by Israeli authorities "of a systematic nature" to deprive Gazans of water, which had "likely caused thousands of deaths... and will likely continue to cause deaths."
They were the latest in a series of accusations leveled against Israel -- and denied by the country -- during its 14-month war against Palestinian Hamas group.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that claimed the lives of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
'Access blocked'
Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Oxfam said that it and other international aid groups have been "continually prevented from delivering life-saving aid" in northern Gaza since October 6 this year, when Israel intensified its bombardment of the territory.
"Thousands of people are estimated to still be cut off, but with humanitarian access blocked it's impossible to know exact numbers," Oxfam said.
"At the beginning of December, humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza were receiving calls from vulnerable people trapped in homes and shelters that had completely run out of food and water."
Oxfam highlighted one instance of an aid delivery in November being disrupted by Israeli authorities.
"A convoy of 11 trucks last month was initially held up at the holding point by the Israeli military at Jabalia, where some food was taken by starving civilians," it said.
"After the green light to proceed to the destination was received, the trucks were then stopped further on at a military checkpoint. Soldiers forced the drivers to offload the aid in a militarized zone, which desperate civilians had no access to."
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to assess Israel's obligations to assist Palestinians.