Yedioth Ahronoth Hebrew newspaper: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is considering closing the #Israeli#embassy in #Ireland due to its blatant anti-Israel stance, which came to light yesterday (Wednesday) when it announced, along with #Spain and #Norway, recognition of the #Palestinian state.
#Palestine / Norway, along with Ireland and Spain, to recognize Palestinian state (to be followed by Slovenia and Malta); Israel recalls ambassadors to Ireland, Norway
With over 140 UN member states now recognizing Palestine, the wave of European support signals growing impatience with the stalled peace process and a willingness to challenge U.S.-backed insistence on direct negotiations favoring Israel's position.
[...] "In the middle of a war, with tens of thousands of dead and injured, we must keep alive the only thing that can provide a safe home for both Israelis and Palestinians: two states that can live in peace with each other," --- Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere (#Norway)
Israel swiftly condemned the move, recalling its ambassadors from Norway and Ireland, and warning of "dire consequences" if Spain follows through. The Israeli Foreign Minister accused the countries of "undercutting Israel's sovereignty and endangering its security."
[cont’d] Norwegian Foreign Minister: We Decided to Recognize a Palestinian State Now Due to Netanyahu's Government's Policies
In an interview with Haaretz, Anniken Huitfeldt said that the government's position against negotiations with the Palestinians, its support for the establishment of settlements and its policies in the West Bank pushed her country and its partners to initiate the move now.
[…] "There is a feeling that with the current government, it is impossible to continue sitting and waiting for an agreement, […] This encourages countries to take action."
[…] "Our commitment to a two-state solution has existed for decades, but we always believed that it would come as a result of an agreement and mutual recognition,"
[…] "The current Israeli government is very clear in its position against negotiating (with the Palestinians), and this certainly influenced us, […] Some said we should have done this long ago."
Huitfeldt accused Netanyahu's current government of
[…] "supporting the establishment of new and illegal settlements, and an overall policy that distances an agreement in the West Bank."
In response to #Haaretz's question about the Israeli criticism that the three countries' decision is an achievement for Hamas, Huitfeldt said that in her view the opposite is true:
[…] "We want to strengthen the moderate forces in the Palestinian Authority and in Israel that support the two-state solution and are enemies of Hamas. We want to strengthen the anti-Hamas, and I hear reactions from Palestinians today telling me – 'This is an important step for those who oppose terror, oppose violence, and support a political solution.' That is our goal, to convey a message of support for the two-state solution, which Hamas does not support."
#Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Espen Barth Eide, stated that Norway is now obligated to arrest #Netanyahu if he visits the country after the International Criminal Court issues a decision for his arrest for war crimes in Gaza.
This marks the first country to announce its intention to arrest Netanyahu amid global reluctance following #US threats.
This is what the former Soviet nuclear submarine «Komsomolets» looks like – 30 years after it sank in the Norwegian Sea. The submarine lies on a depth of nearly 1700 metres, and it was filmed by the ROV «Ægir 6000» on July 7th 2019.
Read about the findings: hi.no/en/hi/news/2019/july/researchers-discovered-leak-from-komsomolets
Othering, peaking, populism and moral panics: The reactionary strategies of organised transphobia
Fran Amery and Aurelien Mondon
This article shows that organised transphobia is promoted using similar strategies and politics as the wider reactionary movement which has become increasingly mainstream. In particular, we outline the transphobic process of ‘othering’ based on moral panics, which seeks to construct, homogenise and exaggerate a threat and to naturalise it in the bodies and existence of the ‘Other’. Reactionary politics rely on authoritarian tendencies and strategies which aim to remove the rights of certain communities, and as such threaten wider demands for equal rights. They claim to speak on behalf of ‘the people’, in this case often (certain) women, against an elite which seeks to grant unfair rights and privileges to a mostly silent and silenced minority, even though said rights are precarious and limited, and power is rarely on their side. Rather than a bottom-up movement in defence of women, what we refer to as ‘organised transphobia’ is a top-down movement that relies on prominent platforms and privileged access to shaping public discourse to divert attention away from the real struggle most women and LGBTQ+ people are facing conjointly.