Middle East crisis

Israel-Palestine conflict
Palestinian representatives barred from UN summit

The US will not grant visas to representatives of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during the UN General Assembly in New York in September, the US State Department announced according to news agencies.

This means that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will not be able to address the General Assembly, as he usually does.

During the meeting, the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state will be discussed, among other things, under the leadership of France.

The decision follows the sanctions imposed by the US on members of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority in July. 

Gaza war
Internal appeal within the UN: Call Gaza a genocide

A quarter of the 2,000 employees at the UN human rights agency OHCHR have signed an internal petition urging management to call Israel's offensive in Gaza a genocide, The Guardian reports.

Employees express frustration with OHCHR chief Volker Türk and what they see as his unwillingness to go beyond simply condemning Israel.

– The message has been the same for almost two years. It is no longer enough to simply criticize Israel, says one of them.

The letter states, among other things, that the collected evidence and assessments by UN experts and international human rights experts show that the legal definition of genocide has been achieved.

Reactions
Turkey cuts ties with Israel – bans flights

Turkey is cutting all economic ties with Israel and closing its airspace to Israeli planes, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced according to Haaretz. Israeli ships are also banned from docking in Turkish ports.

– Israel has committed genocide in Gaza for the past two years, in front of the world, says Fidan.

He also accuses other countries of not taking tough enough action against Israel, and says the Turkish move is the most meaningful one so far.