596 Days of Genocide: May 25th Newsletter
UNRWA chief says over 300 staff members killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza
“More than 300 staff members of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023, the agency’s chief said on Sunday.
“Today, that death toll has surpassed the gruesome milestone of 300,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X.
“The vast majority of staff were killed by the Israeli Army with their children & loved ones: whole families wiped out.”
Lazzarini said most of the dead UNRWA staff were health workers and teachers.
“Several were killed in the line of duty while serving their communities,” he added.
“Nothing justifies these killings,” Lazzarini said. “Impunity will lead to more killing. Those responsible must be held accountable.””
More from Andalou.
Israel says it will allow very limited quantity of food into Gaza
“Israel announced Sunday that it will allow a very limited quantity of food supplies into the Gaza Strip, claiming the move is meant to prevent a famine in the enclave.
Israel “will permit the entry of a basic quantity of food for the population to prevent the emergence of a hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
It added that a famine “could jeopardize the continuation of Operation Gideon's Chariot,” referring to a new phase of Israel’s ground offensive in northern and southern Gaza.
The decision was based on “a recommendation from the Israeli military and due to operational needs to enable expanded intensive fighting to defeat Hamas.”
Israel’s public broadcaster KAN, citing an unnamed Israeli official, said the measure is temporary and expected to last roughly one week, pending the full establishment of aid distribution centers -- mostly in southern Gaza and reportedly supervised by the Israeli military and run by American contractors.
Israel and the US are promoting two aid distribution plans, amid Israeli acknowledgment that their actual goal is to depopulate northern Gaza by turning the southern city of Rafah into the primary hub for humanitarian relief and drawing aid seekers there.
Earlier Sunday, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily cited unnamed official sources saying that Netanyahu had informed members of the security cabinet of his decision to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The report said several ministers, including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, opposed the move and demanded a vote on the decision -- a request that Netanyahu reportedly rejected.
The forthcoming move contradicts Netanyahu's previous statements, where he claimed that the release of US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander by Hamas last Monday as part of an agreement with the US was unconditional. However, Hamas said the release was part of broader “understandings” that included aid delivery, as they had previously announced.”
More from Andalou.
UN says nearly 100,000 Palestinians displaced in Gaza in past 4 days
“More than 97,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the Gaza Strip over the past four days, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday, warning that displacement is a "constant" in Gaza.
"Humanitarian aid must never be used to influence the movement of people", the IOM wrote on X.
Expressing readiness with partners to assist displaced communities inside Gaza, the UN agency reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire and full, safe, sustained access to operate.
Israel has kept all crossings into Gaza closed since March 2, deepening the enclave’s humanitarian crisis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Sunday that a "basic quantity of food" would be allowed in to prevent a hunger crisis.”
Via Andalou
US: Illinois state lawmakers attempt long-shot repeal of BDS ban
“Progressive members of the Democratic supermajority in the Illinois General Assembly are pushing forward a bill to reverse the decade-old state ban on boycotts of Israel, Capital News Illinois reported on Sunday.
Since 2015, Illinois has forbidden the investment of state pension funds in companies that engage in any form of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
The official BDS Movement was launched 20 years ago as a means of non-violent action in the face of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, modelled on the approach that ended Apartheid in South Africa.
In the US, 38 states now have some measure of an anti-BDS law that prevents a company or an individual from receiving government contracts if they demonstrate an anti-Israel stance. Ten years ago, Illinois was at the forefront of the campaign.
The state set up the Illinois Investment Policy Board for the sole purpose of looking into whether certain companies act against Israeli interests, Capital News pointed out.”
More from Middle East Eye.
Israeli doctor compared killing Palestinians in Gaza to 'eliminating cockroaches'
“An Israeli doctor serving as an army reservist has compared killing people in Gaza to “eliminating cockroaches” in a post on social media.
Writing on X on Sunday, Sabo Amos, who works as a surgeon in Israel’s public healthcare system, said he had volunteered to take part in “eliminations” after his battalion had killed “dozens of terrorists” the previous day.
Amos said he had requested to take part in operations “within the framework of preventative medicine”, but said another doctor had suggested his involvement was a matter of “public health”.
“On second thought, he’s right. After all, we’re talking about eliminating cockroaches and other loathsome insects,” Amos wrote in the now deleted post.
Later on Sunday, he posted an image which he said showed Israeli soldiers participating in an afternoon Jewish prayer service in a mosque in northern Gaza.”
More from Middle East Eye.
73% of Co-op members vote to boycott Israeli goods in landmark motion
“Co-op, one of the UK’s largest supermarket brands, could soon become the first major British retailer to boycott all Israeli goods, after 73 per cent of its members voted in favour of a motion urging the group to end trade with Israel over its genocide in Gaza.
The motion, passed at the Co-op’s Annual General Meeting on Saturday, received overwhelming support, with 73 per cent voting in favour. It calls on the board to show “moral courage and leadership” by ending all trade with Israel in response to what members described as the state’s “complete destruction” of Gaza.
While the motion is non-binding, a Co-op spokesperson confirmed that the retailer is reviewing its sourcing policies, stating: “We are currently reviewing our sourcing policies, which we do from time to time. This is to ensure they reflect both our values and principles and the views of our members, which they have made clear today.”
The review is expected to conclude by the end of the summer, raising the possibility that Israeli goods may be removed from Co-op shelves within months.”
More from Middle East Monitor.
Destroying Gaza 'With Love': Israel's New YogiNazis
“Rivka Lafair is a "facilitator of workshops, meet-ups and group sessions on yoga themes, teacher of feminine yoga and personal development." She lives in the settlement of Shiloh in the southern West Bank and terms herself a "proud Jew" who "thinks outside the box." Lovely. Also, she also wants to annihilate and expel two million human beings in the Gaza Strip.
Lafair belongs to a stream within Israeli Judaism that can be described as "YogiNazis": people whose spiritualism underpins their Nazism. They are a relatively new sub-stratum – albeit with deep roots in the local culture – that has gained popularity since October 7, largely because of its ability to weld together concepts that, on the surface, seem like polar opposites: spirituality and annihilation, empowerment and expulsion, yoga and starvation, retreats and carpet bombing.
Lafair is a person who believes that "music has the power to alter our consciousness," but also that expelling and annihilating two million Gazans begins with "altering one's consciousness." In order to succeed in this important cognitive switch, we have to understand that "we have an enemy here – whom we look in the eyes and eliminate." Yes, look them in the eyes – don't do it behind their backs, because we must be in direct and unmediated contact with those we're annihilating.”
More from Alon Idan for Haaretz.
UK summons Israeli ambassador and suspends free trade agreement with Israel
“The UK has announced it is summoning the Israeli ambassador in London and suspending its free trade agreement with Israel in a landmark move that tears up friendly relations between the two countries.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday afternoon, Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned "this Israeli government's egregious actions and rhetoric", adding that the government is "isolating Israel from its friends and partners around the world".
He criticised Israel for expanding its military operations in Gaza and restricting the entry of humanitarian aid.
Lammy said: "I find this deeply painful as a lifelong friend of Israel and a believer in the values expressed in its declaration of independence."
He argued that Israel's approach is "incompatible with the principles that underpin our bilateral relationship, rejected by members across this house, and frankly it's an affront to the values of the British people".”
Via Middle East Eye.
Hamas demands legal action against Israel minister who pledge to destroy all of Gaza
“Hamas has called for legal action against Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who affirmed his government’s efforts to destroy the Gaza Strip and force its residents to leave.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Palestinian resistance movement said Smotrich’s “unequivocal admission” that Israel commits massacres against the Palestinians in Gaza in order to force them to leave is a “clear and new admission of Israel’s commission of the full-fledged crime of genocide.”
“This public statement must be subject to immediate legal accountability, and we refer it to international justice institutions, foremost among them the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court,” it added.
Hamas called for urgent legal action to document this new evidence of Israel’s commission of war crimes and to hold those responsible for these criminal policies to account to ensure they do not escape punishment.
Earlier, Smotrich said whatever remained in Gaza would be destroyed while only the bare minimum of food and medicine would be allowed into the besieged Strip.
Far-right Minister Smotrich said that Israel is “destroying everything that’s left of the Gaza Strip” and that “the army is leaving no stone unturned.” He declared: “We are conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed.””
Via Middle East Monitor.
Israel ‘isolated’ as international standing hits lowest point, warns Israeli paper
“Israel has reached its lowest level of international standing ever, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper quoted a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official as warning that the country is facing ‘a real tsunami that will only worsen’, describing the situation as ‘the worst we have ever been in’.”
The caution came in a detailed report published by the paper that outlined a series of international measures recently taken against Israel over its ongoing war on Gaza. Among the most significant is the United Kingdom’s decision to suspend negotiations on a future free trade agreement with Israel, a move the paper said “could have serious economic consequences.”
According to the paper, 592 days into the war on Gaza, Israel is now experiencing an unprecedented deterioration in its international status.
On Monday evening, three of Israel’s closest allies — the UK, France, and Canada — threatened to impose sanctions should the war continue.
Less than 24 hours later, the UK government announced the cancellation of the free trade negotiations, summoned Israel’s ambassador in London, Tzipi Hotovely, for a formal reprimand, and imposed sanctions on several Israeli settlers.
The paper also highlighted the shift in the United States’ stance, noting growing frustration within the White House over Israel’s insistence on prolonging the war. “White House officials expressed frustration with the Israeli government, saying it is ‘the only one not working toward a comprehensive deal” Yedioth Ahronoth reported.”
More from Middle East Monitor.
Israeli tanks storm, attack Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza
“Israeli tanks stormed the courtyards of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, north of Gaza, early today, amid intensive gunfire, burning tents used as outpatient clinics and injuring several medical employees and volunteers, the Palestinian Information Centre reported.
“Israeli tanks targeted, for the second time, the hospital’s specialised surgery department at exactly 2:00am on Thursday,” Rafat Al-Majdalawi, director general of the Al-Awda Health and Community Society, said in a statement today.
Al-Majdalawi added that the tanks opened fire at the hospital’s buildings, damaging its infrastructure and its water and fuel tanks.
He appealed to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Red Cross to provide immediate protection for hospital staff, volunteers, and the patients currently receiving medical care.”
Via Middle East Monitor.
Jeremy Corbyn to introduce bill for independent inquiry into UK complicity in Gaza genocide
Israel denies doctors entry into Gaza as Palestinians starve to death
“Israel has denied entry to a group of doctors and humanitarian workers hours before they were set to enter Gaza on Thursday as the Palestinian health minister announced that 29 children and elderly people in the enclave have died from starvation in recent days.
The group of six were prepared to leave Jordan on Thursday morning with a UN convoy, but received notice late on Wednesday that they would not be permitted to enter Gaza, according to two sources in contact with the group.
Cogat, the Israeli military unit overseeing movement logistics between Gaza and Israel, did not immediately respond to Middle East Eye's request for comment.
Aid groups and healthcare workers have complained for months about restrictions imposed by Israel, including repeatedly rejecting and limiting their entries as the humanitarian situation in the enclave worsens.
The latest incident comes amid growing international outrage over the situation in Gaza, where Israel enforced a total blockade on the entry of medical, food and fuel supplies which began on 2 March.”
More from Middle East Eye.
Hamas warns of Israeli ‘detention camps’ in southern Gaza under guise of aid
“Hamas has warned that Israel is planning to establish detention camps in the southern Gaza Strip under the guise of providing aid.
The movement clarified that Israel is using the restriction of aid to Gaza as a political and security tool, in what it called a strategy of “engineered starvation”, paving the way for a new reality that includes the creation of detention camps in the south of the Strip.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the group said, “The occupation continues to engineer starvation in Gaza. The current aid is nothing more than a drop in the ocean compared to the humanitarian needs.”
Hamas stressed that the aid entering Gaza represents less than ten per cent of the actual needs, warning that “famine is expanding day by day”.
The statement rejected what it called “the ghetto aid plan”, describing it as an attempt to whitewash the ongoing genocide. “This plan will not absolve the occupation of responsibility,” it said, warning that “the scheme to set up detention camps in the south under the pretext of humanitarian aid will fail.”
Hamas reiterated its demand for a “permanent humanitarian corridor, a complete lifting of the siege, and an end to the manipulation of hunger and humanitarian blackmail.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that Tel Aviv is just days away from implementing a new aid system for Gaza. He also said he intends to establish a “sterile zone” free of Hamas, where civilians will be relocated and supplied with basic necessities.
Netanyahu also indicated his willingness to end the war if Hamas releases all hostages, relinquishes power, and if US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gaza’s population outside the Strip is carried out.
Under international pressure, Israel has recently allowed dozens of aid trucks into Gaza, after blocking nearly all food, medicine, fuel, and other supplies for almost three months.
However, the United Nations reported on Wednesday that the aid had still not reached Palestinian civilians two days after the convoys were allowed in.””
Via Middle East Monitor.
At least 94% of hospitals in Gaza damaged or destroyed: UN
“The UN reported on Friday that at least 94% of hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, with half no longer operational.
Citing the World Health Organization (WHO), UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said at a news conference that "the intensification of hostilities has brought Gaza’s already weakened health system to a breaking point."
Haq said four major hospitals suspended operations in the past week due to attacks or displacement orders.
"WHO tells us that 4% of nearly 700 attacks on health care in Gaza since October 2023 were recorded over the past week alone," he said, noting that 28 attacks in just seven days is "four times the average number of attacks per day."
On humanitarian aid delivery, Haq confirmed that "yesterday, we moved another batch of around 100 full truckloads to Kareem Shalom and picked up about 35 from the Palestinian side of the crossing to bring them closer to where people need them in Gaza."
Noting that some 15 truckloads of food aid destined for bakeries were looted overnight, Haq stressed that "hunger, deprivation and anxiety over whether food aid is coming in are all contributing to rising insecurity."
He urged Israeli authorities to allow "far greater volumes of assistance – faster, more consistently, and transported along safer routes."
In the occupied West Bank, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that settler violence forced an entire Bedouin community near Ramallah to dismantle their homes.
"Between 13 and 19 May, OCHA recorded at least 28 settler attacks that resulted in casualties, property damage or both," Haq said.”
Via Andalou.
Labor MP Ed Husic criticises Albanese government: ‘Australia has a proud history of standing up against human catastrophe. Gaza should be no exception’
“Now is the time to act. The UN has warned 14,000 babies suffering from severe acute malnutrition are at risk of dying, on top of the tens of thousands of women and children already murdered during this conflict. One can not begin to fathom the fate of the thousands of young Palestinians orphaned as a result of the Netanyahu government’s conduct of its operations in Gaza.
Two million Palestinians teeter on the brink of famine. Humanitarian workers trying to help them – such as our own Zomi Frankcom, killed by the Israel Defense Forces – have been wiped out in record numbers. Journalists trying to inform the rest of the world about this and other depravations have suffered the same tragic end.
Right now, Australia can and should be doing more: for starters, we should be calling in the Israeli ambassador to Australia to express the unequivocal demand we share with other nations that the Israeli government must provide for the immediate freer, rapid flow of humanitarian aid, not the “basic” level currently permitted to trickle in.
We should also prepare to significantly ramp up our contribution to the international humanitarian effort. Just as we have rightly seen fit to provide $1bn supporting Ukraine, we can lift our contribution to Gaza well above the $100m provided to date. This could include support for development for a children’s hospital in Gaza as called for by Dr Mohammed Mustafa.
And from now on we should signal we will unashamedly stand with friends and allies like the UK, France and Canada, not just condemning the Netanyahu government’s attacks on the innocent of Gaza – but preparing right now to extend targeted sanctions against those individuals directing a brutal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, one that has staggeringly and repeatedly defied international humanitarian law.
Australia has a proud tradition of refusing to be silent on the world stage when it comes to defending vulnerable and oppressed people. We can be emboldened by our legacy of doing so. Two million starving people in Gaza need all the help we can muster alongside others.”
Ed Husic for The Guardian.
UN’s bread distribution plan ‘unjust,’ fails to meet basic needs: Gaza Bakery Owners Association
“The Gaza Bakery Owners Association has slammed the UN World Food Program’s (WFP) newly adopted bread distribution mechanism as “unjust”, Anadolu reports.
It said it fails to meet the minimum needs of Palestinians amid flour shortages and the shutdown of most bakeries.
Abdel Nasser Al-Ajrami, chairman of the association, told Anadolu the plan forces “bakeries to operate with limited quantities of flour, sugar, oil, yeast, and fuel to produce bread, and then it is handed over to the WFP for distribution to beneficiaries.”
Al-Ajrami stressed that the plan “doesn’t meet the minimum needs of residents and displaced people facing famine, tightened siege and continuous closures since last March.”
He noted that the association has proposed an alternative, based on directly distributing flour bags to families “as a first phase to ensure basic food security and ease public anger, followed by a second phase to operate bakeries.”
But he said the WFP rejected his proposal, insisting on a bakeries-first approach and distribution mechanism.
Al-Ajrami described the mechanism as “unfair,” noting that producing such small bread quantities does not meet the actual needs amid total market flour shortages and depleting household stocks, “this is unjust.”
Earlier Friday, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), described the aid trickling into Gaza as a “needle in a haystack,” and said only a “meaningful and uninterrupted flow of aid” can prevent further deterioration of the crisis.”
More from Middle East Monitor.
I was fired from Emerson College for speaking out about Palestine, but I refuse to be silent
“I spent years developing the Bright Lights program, and was given freedom to make decisions about which films to screen without input from the academic department I worked under or the Emerson College administration. That changed when I included the film “Israelism” in my fall 2023 lineup. I had previously collaborated with filmmaker Sam Eilertsen on a project and followed this film while it was still in production, so I was eager to screen it as soon as it became available. I invited Sam and co-director Erin Axelman to join me for the post-screening discussion on November 9, the date initially scheduled for the screening.
However, shortly after announcing my program and just before the semester began, I began receiving texts from a member of the board of trustees. He expressed concerns about the film but didn’t appear to have watched it himself. I assured him I had taken great care in planning the screening, as I had with all the films I presented. I emphasized that the post-screening conversation would be led entirely by Jews—myself and both filmmakers. It became clear that the trustee opposed the film screening, marking an unprecedented break from the autonomy Emerson had previously given me in curating Bright Lights.
Before October 7, I had the support of the chair and the college president to proceed with screening my program as planned. However, after October 7, the college administration pressured me to postpone the screening. Despite complying with all the demands regarding the screening, including postponing it, on August 13, 2024, I was informed that the college would be laying me off and closing my program, citing a budgetary shortfall and focus on academic programs as the reason.”
More from Anna Feder for Mondoweiss.
— I can not celebrate my own graduation without a heavy heart, knowing how many students in Palestine have been forced to stop their studies
In her graduation speech speech, Cecilia Culver of George Washington University condemned US universities for their complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza
Via Andalou.
UCLA student hospitalised during hunger strike for Gaza
“A University of California, Los Angeles, student was hospitalised after a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who are on the brink of famine after Israel implemented an 11-week aid blockade of food, water, and humanitarian aid into the enclave.
Palestinian Lebanese film student, Maya Abdullah, 23, ended up in hospital on 18 May after she fainted on the ninth day of her hunger strike, while seeking to pressure her university to divest from Israel.
“On day nine of my hunger strike, I unexpectedly passed out at my school and had to be rushed to the hospital,” she said in a video on Instagram.
“Before I passed out, I was walking in a protest, and I felt light-headed, but I hadn’t felt I was going to pass out. When we got to school, I walked for 10 mins before I hit the ground. I was very lucky to be with friends who called the ambulance immediately. When they found me, I was choking on my vomit. I didn’t have anything in my stomach, so it was just bile. At the hospital, they found my resting heart rate 40 percent higher than a normal person’s. They were scared I had done some damage to my heart.”
Abdullah said that UCLA administration did not respond to notice of her hospitalisation. She said that being hospitalised and not having a conversation with the administration was “disheartening”.”
More from Middle East Eye.
King's College Cambridge to divest millions from 'occupation' and arms industry
“One of the University of Cambridge's largest colleges has decided to divest from the arms industry and companies complicit in "the occupation of Ukraine and Palestinian territories", following months of student protests.
King's College Cambridge, founded by Henry VI in 1441, announced this week that its governing body has agreed to "adopt a responsible investment policy" by the end of the calendar year.
As of March 2023, the institution invested £2.2m ($2.94m) in arms companies including Lockheed Martin, Korea Aerospace, and BAE Systems.
The college told its members on Tuesday that under the new policy, its financial investments will exclude companies that "are involved in activities generally recognised as illegal or contravening global norms, such as occupation".
Its investments will also exclude companies that "produce military and nuclear weapons, weapons restricted by international treaty, or companies that produce key or dedicated components of such weapons".”
More from Middle East Eye.
Trump administration bars Harvard University from enrolling foreign students
“Australia's ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, says the embassy is working with the government after the Trump administration revoked Harvard University's ability to enrol international students.
The decision was made by the US president's administration in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the action on Thursday local time, saying Harvard had created an unsafe campus environment by allowing "anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators" to assault Jewish students on campus.
It also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, saying it hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024.
"This means Harvard can no longer enrol foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status," the agency said in a statement.”
More from ABC News
Trump fails: US judge prevents Trump administration from stopping Harvard University from enrolling foreign students
Mahmoud Khalil challenges arrest in US immigration court
“Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestine protest leader targeted for deportation by the administration of US President Donald Trump, has sought to have the case against him thrown out in a consequential immigration hearing.
Khali’s lawyers presented evidence they said showed “egregious government misconduct” surrounding his March 8 arrest during Thursday’s hearing in Louisiana.
“When there are egregious violations, the case should be thrown out, and that’s what we’ve asked the immigration judge to do,” Mark Van Der Hout, a lawyer representing Khalil, told reporters the night before the proceedings. The violations in question, Van Der Hout said, include the lack of a warrant at the time of the arrest and claims that Khalil proved to be a flight risk.
The hearing could be the most consequential turn yet in a series of cases in which US students have challenged being targeted by the Trump administration for their pro-Palestine advocacy or statements. It comes after three other students – Rumeysa Ozturk, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Badar Khan Suri – successfully challenged their detentions.”
More from Al Jazeera.
French teacher suspended over minute's silence tribute to Palestinians in Gaza
“A high school science teacher in France has been suspended since late March for holding a minute's silence for the victims of Israel's war on Gaza.
Le Parisien reported on Thursday, citing education authorities, that the physics and chemistry teacher at Janot Curie high school in Sens, Yonne, was suspended on 31 March.
Five days earlier, a minute's silence was held just at the end of her class to pay tribute to the victims of the war, just as Israeli forces unilaterally broke a ceasefire in Gaza and killed more than 700 Palestinians.
The Dijon education authority said: “Respecting neutrality is a duty for civil servants, enshrined in their status, and any failure to comply with this obligation triggers disciplinary proceedings.”
It added that the minute's silence had been organised by the teacher. However, the educational branches of three trade unions said it was the students, aged between 15 and 16, who requested the tribute.
“She herself was moved… and the teacher agreed, at the end of her class, to observe this moment of tribute with the students who wished to do so," the unions said in a joint statement.
“We demand that this teacher be reinstated immediately, that all charges be dropped, and that her dignity be officially restored in the eyes of the school, staff and parents.”
According to the unions, who called the measure "insane", the tribute "in no way constitutes a breach of the duty of neutrality".
They cited Education Minister Elisabeth Borne, who in February "recognised" the "role of teachers in addressing the plight of the victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and paying tribute to them", similar to "the actions in support of Ukraine", according to the press release.
The teacher is now the subject of disciplinary proceedings, which could result in a formal warning or reprimand. She does not know how long the suspension will last.”
More from Middle East Eye.
More than 460 Palestinians killed in a week
Israel begins Gaza ground operation, kills 144 in relentless bombardment
136 dead were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours
Israeli forces continue bombarding Gaza, killing at least 38 people since dawn
Israel kills 93 in Gaza, shots fired towards diplomats in West Bank
326 deaths caused by hunger and medicine shortages, along with over 300 miscarriages
Israeli attacks kill 85 in Gaza as ‘starvation-related deaths’ hit 29
At least 50 killed or missing after Israeli attack on residential building
Outrage, horror after Israeli attack kills nine children of Gaza doctor
