Headlines in This News Package:

• Moroccan Activists Arrested for Demanding End to Normalization of Ties With Israel

• “War Is Violence Against Women” Say Feminist Groups in the Philippines

• The Netherlands’ Turn to the Radical Right

• Media Outlets Call for an End to Israel’s Massacre of Palestinian Journalists

[NEWS ITEM TEXT]

Moroccan Activists Arrested for Demanding End to Normalization of Ties With Israel

[206 words]

On November 26, in Salé, Moroccan police assaulted and arrested activists with the Front Against Normalization with Israel who were demanding an end to the normalization of ties between Morocco and the Zionist state.

The activists were participating in a march organized by the front in solidarity with the Palestinian people and Gaza, a part of a crowd of thousands waving Palestinian flags and shouting slogans in support of Palestine.

The march was attacked by the police in front of the Carrefour market in Salé. The police assaulted organizers and arrested some of the activists on the spot.

The Front Against Normalization issued a list of arrested activists and claimed that they were kept in detention in Salé.

Following the footsteps of Bahrain, the UAE, and Sudan, in 2020, Morocco became the fourth Arab country to sign a normalization deal with Israel. The deal, known as the Abraham Accords, was promoted by the US.

By signing the deal, Moroccan King Mohammed VI violated his country’s commitment under the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 of not recognizing Israel until a separate Palestinian state was created. The decision was massively unpopular domestically. Morocco signed the Accords in return for the U.S. recognizing its occupation of Western Sahara.

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“War Is Violence Against Women” Say Feminist Groups in the Philippines

[246 words]

On the first day of an 18-day global campaign to end violence against women, feminist groups in the Philippines highlighted the call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza as a step towards a permanent solution to the question of Palestine. November 25 is commemorated across the globe as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

“War is violence against women,” argued Judy Ann Miranda, secretary general of Partido Manggagawa. “The history of conflicts reveals this ugly truth. Thus, we call for a stop to the war in Palestine and elsewhere. And demand a just peace.”

One hundred women leaders from various organizations that comprise the World March of Women-Pilipinas marched to the grounds of the Commission on Human Rights today to launch the Violence Against Women campaign. Community assemblies in several working-class areas in metro Manila followed later in the day.

The launch of the campaign served as an opportunity for women to raise the urgent call for solidarity with the people of Palestine. In the statement released for the event, the World March of Women-Pilipinas stated that “Israeli forces through persistent bombings on Palestinian communities, kill[ed] more than 14,000 Palestinians. Most hurt were women and children, as hospitals were also bombed. World March of Women members in Palestine were [also among those] attacked.”

“The so-called humanitarian pause should give way to a sustained ceasefire… A permanent ceasefire then enables political negotiations to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” Miranda stated.

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The Netherlands’ Turn to the Radical Right

[239 words]

The Freedom Party (PVV) of xenophobic leader Geert Wilders has won a resounding victory in the November 22 parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, with 37 seats out of a total of 150 in the lower house of the country’s bicameral parliament.

In second place, the coalition of social democrats and left-wing environmentalists, GroenLinks-PvdA, led by former European Commission vice-president and Green Deal promoter Frans Timmermans, won 25 seats. The right-wing liberals of the VVD, Mark Rutte’s outgoing 13-year-long PM party, won 24 seats. In fourth place, the new center-right New Social Contract (NSC) of Pieter Omtzigt (former CDA MP, Christian Democrats) won 20 seats.

The political context surrounding this outcome includes the early fall of the Rutte IV government, which was triggered by the issue of the so-called “asylum crisis”: the disastrous management of refugee centers and the inability to humanely accommodate a growing number of people fleeing war zones.

Secondly, deteriorating conditions for the majority made the cost of living one of the key issues in this election. The working class in the Netherlands is suffering from the effects of an enduring economic and social crisis, the result of 13 years of austerity-driven, liberal-conservative governments. The number of people living in poverty (800,000) has increased, and people face higher housing, health, and energy costs, as well as an increase in the cost of basic commodities in recent years, forcing thousands to resort to free food distribution centers.

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Media Outlets Call for an End to Israel’s Massacre of Palestinian Journalists

[269 words]

The world is waiting in cautious anticipation amid the four-day pause in hostilities in Gaza, giving Palestinians a brief respite from incessant Israeli airstrikes. Israel did not cease its bombing of the enclave from October 7 to the start of the pause on November 24. In these nearly seven weeks, over 15,000 Palestinians were killed and 33,000 have been injured. Some reports estimate that the true death toll could be around 20,000 given how many are still trapped under the rubble.

The Government Media Office in Gaza has reported that 67 journalists have been killed in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. The Committee to Protect Journalists has stated that the last month was the deadliest for attacks on journalists since it started keeping records in 1992. Many press freedom advocates have argued that the killing of journalists and communicators in Gaza appears to be part of Israel’s sinister efforts to prevent the truth about its brutal attacks from reaching the world.

In this context, a group of left media outlets from across the world issued a statement expressing solidarity with Palestinian journalists and demanding a definitive end to what constitutes a grave violation of press freedom. The outlets are ARG Medios, Brasil de Fato, Breakthrough News, Madaar, Pan African TV, Peoples Dispatch, and the Insight Newspaper.

“We are outraged at the murder of over 60 of our Palestinian colleagues at the hands of Israeli Forces since October 7,” reads the statement.

“We stand with our colleagues in Palestine who are risking their lives to tell the truth that the world so desperately needs to hear.”