PRO-PALESTINIAN protesters have disrupted president Joe Biden’s campaign speech in North Carolina by chanting slogans and protesting against his support for the crimes of the Zionist regime.
While speaking in Raleigh on Tuesday about the Affordable Care Act, Biden was met with protesters as they began shouting him down roughly five minutes into his speech.
Biden was speaking at a healthcare-focused campaign event where he began pledging his commitment to the Obama-era law that provides health care for Americans, which led to the eruption of demonstrations.
‘What about health care in Gaza?’ protesters shouted.
‘Hospitals are being bombed,’ another demonstrator shouted.
Another accused Biden of being ‘complicit in genocide’ while others shouted now-familiar refrains demanding a ceasefire in the coastal enclave.
The protests come amidst an escalating diplomatic dispute between Washington and Tel Aviv following the US’s decision to abstain from a UN Security Council resolution vote on Monday, demanding an immediate cease-fire for the month of Ramadan.
Biden has increasingly faced pressure from many of his colleagues to respond more forcefully to the humanitarian needs in Gaza and political pressure on the Israeli government to allow more aid to enter the Gaza Strip has increased, but has still not requested to stop the sale of American weapons to this regime.
In January, Biden’s speech on abortion was disrupted nearly 12 times by pro-Palestinian protesters, and in the wake of the incident, his team tried to prevent this by downsizing events and keeping the exact locations of his speeches hidden.
Biden has earned a new nickname among Americans – ‘Genocide Joe’s’ approval rating is now at its lowest ever.
The International Court of Justice has accused Israel of committing genocide and has recently issued an interim ruling.
This ruling mandates Tel Aviv to cease all genocidal acts and ensure the provision of humanitarian aid to the civilians residing in Gaza.
Since the October 7 operation ‘Al-Aqsa Storm’ by Hamas fighters against the Zionist regime and the subsequent intensification of the blockade along with operations from the air, sea and land by this regime against Gaza, Joe Biden has repeatedly faced the protesters because of his support of the apartheid regime.
According to the UN, the ongoing Israeli genocide has resulted in the internal displacement of 85% of Gaza’s population, who are now facing severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Additionally, the UN reports that 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been either damaged or completely destroyed.
Over 32,400 Palestinians have lost their lives in the Palestinian territory, with an additional 74,800 individuals sustaining injuries amidst widespread devastation and scarcity of essential resources.
- Dozens of diplomats have thrown their weight behind the UN Special Rapporteur, who said there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday that countries should impose an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel.
Expanding in person on her report released a day earlier, Albanese said Israel was characterising the entire Gazan population as ‘targetable, killable and destroyable’, and had ostentatiously laid bare its ‘genocidal intent’ to ‘rid Palestine of Palestinians’.
‘Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings,’ she said.
‘There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide … been met.’
Egypt, speaking for Arab group countries, affirmed their support for Albanese’s mandate and said they were gravely concerned about Israel’s ‘structured and systematic attack to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable’.
Qatar, on behalf of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, also thanked Albanese for her report and demanded the international community ‘put an end to genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli war machinery’.
Pakistan, speaking for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the United Nations on Tuesday, backed Albanese’s call for sanctions and an arms embargo on the usurping Tel Aviv regime.
‘We commend your courage in documenting … acts amounting to genocide in Gaza,’ Islamabad’s representative said.
‘The occupation force’s dangerous and ruthless push for a final solution to the Palestinian question is plain for all to see, as its forces encircle Rafah like vultures and its ravenous land grab continues unabated in the West Bank.’
The UN rights expert says there are reasonable grounds to determine that Israel has committed acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing in its onslaught on Gaza.
Albanese told the top UN rights body in her speech that Israel had ‘destroyed Gaza’.
‘When genocidal intent is so conspicuous, so ostentatious, as it is in Gaza, we cannot avert our eyes: We must confront genocide, we must prevent it and we must punish it.
‘The genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler-colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians,’ she said.
In the meantime, Russia said it was ‘horrified’ by the Israeli military onslaught against Gaza that had seen ‘civilian infrastructure targeted’, while China said it was ready to facilitate peace talks.
The European Union also called for ‘proper and independent investigations on all allegations’.
Israel waged its brutal US-backed war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
However, almost six months into the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its objectives of ‘destroying Hamas’ and finding Israeli captives despite killing at least 32,414 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 74,787 others.
- Belgian farmers have clashed with the police amid protest against the European Union’s policies in this area, on the eve of the meeting of the bloc’s agriculture ministers.
The farmers sprayed manure towards police officers on Tuesday, prompting the authorities to retaliate with water cannons and tear gas during a demonstration prior to a meeting of 27 EU agriculture ministers, set to address the crisis in the industry.
The farmers expressed their discontent with what they perceive as an abundance of bureaucratic regulations, heightened environmental requirements, inexpensive imported goods, and unjust trading policies.
They blocked the streets of the Belgian capital near the EU headquarters to protest what they called extreme stoning, tough environmental measures and a flood of duty-free Ukrainian imports into Europe.
‘Let us make money from our profession,’ read a placard mounted on a tractor that blocked the main road covered with potatoes, eggs, manure and straw.
On Tuesday, Belgian farmers drove tractors into the capital Brussels, near the EU Commission building, to protest the bloc’s agricultural policy and low income, local media reported.
According to the Brussels Times, two officers were injured during the farmers’ clash with the police.
Farmers across Europe have been protesting for months in response to the EU’s strict environmental policies, including cutting subsidies.
The protesters also demanded a stop to the import of cheap agricultural products from Ukraine.
