Tag: gaza gencoide

  • The Weeknd donates $2.5 million to Gaza for aid

    The Weeknd donates $2.5 million to Gaza for aid

    Singer The Weeknd has made international headlines after his XO Humanitarian Fund is sending $2.5 million to Gaza to provide four million meals for civilians. Israel is again bombing the vulnerable population where already more than 15,000 civilians have died. Currently, the death toll after the ending of truce is 160 Palestinians.

    The artist, whose real name is Abel Tesfaya, stepped into the role of the Goodwill Ambassador in 2021 in October 2021, and set up the XO Humanitarian Fund with the United Nations World Food Program.

    “WFP is working round the clock to provide aid in Gaza but a major scale up is needed to address the desperate level of hunger we are seeing,” said UN WFP’s director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern European Region,  Corinne Fleischer. “Our teams need safe and sustained humanitarian access, and continued support from donors to reach as many people as we can. We thank Abel for this valuable contribution towards the people of Palestine. We hope others will follow Abel’s example and support our efforts.”

    On November 23, Tunasian Egyptian actress Hend Sabri announced on her Instagram account that she was resigning from her role as Goodwill Ambassador from the UN World Food Program because of the organisation’s inability to condemn the ongoing genocide of Gaza.

    “Over the past weeks, I have witnessed and shared the experiences of my dedicated WFP colleagues. Their frustration at being unable to do what they do best towards children, mothers, fathers and grandparents in Gaza. They could only do so much in the face of a grinding war machine that would not stop and would not spare civilians the agony and anguish as war encircles them.”

    “I had faith,” the actress wrote to her 3.3 million followers, “that WFP – which was named Nobel Peace Prize Laureate only three years ago after championing UN resolution 2417, against using hunger and starvation as a weapon of war – would use its voice forcefully as it had done in multiple emergencies and human crises. However, hunger and starvation have been used as weapons of war for over the past 46 days against more than 2 million civilians in Gaza.”

  • Pro-Palestinian students, protest groups suppressed in American schools, universities

    Three separate cases of suppression of pro-Palestinian students and groups have been reported in America in just one day as voices are raised higher against the genocide of Gaza. Israeli tanks have forced citizens of Northern Gaza to walk countless miles towards the South with their hands in the air, a scene that has been described as “The Second Nakba”.

    Columbia University announced that they are suspending pro-Palestine groups ‘Jewish Voice For Peace’ and ‘Students For Justice In Palestine’- both comprised majorly of Jewish students- who called for a ceasefire.

    Columnist and writer Fatima Bhutto, a Columbia alum, slammed the decision.

    Columbia University is the institute where famous academic Edward Said taught, who dedicated his life to bringing the occupation of Palestine to light.

    The current president of Columbia University, Egyptian-American economist Nemat Talaat Shafik, is drawing outrage from social media users.

    At Harvard University, a black student was evicted from campus housing for acting as a student safety marshal during the protests.

    Previously, pro-Palestinian supporters at Harvard were doxxed after an open letter by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee condemned the genocide of Gaza.

    In California, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was suspended for three days by Corona Del Mar School for responding ‘Free Palestine’ to racists who were bullying him. The school notice was shared on social media by journalist Amina Waheed, who said that the school admin told the boy’s aunt saying ‘Free Palestine’ was akin to calling for the death of all Jews.

    The action against students takes place while several documented cases of Islamophobia, racism towards Palestinians have come to light. On October 17, a Palestinian-American boy was stabbed to death by his neighbour. On October 30, Pakistani-American doctor Talat Jehan Khan was stabbed out side her apartment complex in Texas.

    Social media users showed outrage at Corona del Mar High School and the racism shown towards Palestinian children.